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Living a lifetime of diversity:
Rene Reid Yarnell goes from
religious service to politics to
best-selling author
By Jennifer Greer
Reno Gazette-Journal
Rene Reid Yarnell's resume is, to put it mildly, diverse. Among other things,
she's been a nun, taught aspiring priests at seminary, doled out advice
on a radio call-in show, helped run a college and been elected to office.
But all of that was just a warm-up for her current career as one of the
country's most successful network marketers.
"My whole world merged together in network marketing - my teaching skills,
my communication skills, my background in theology ... and politics, they
all play a huge role in network marketing," she said. "It sounds so divergent
to go from religion to politics to business. But if I hadn't been through
it all, I dont think I would have the skills to build the network marketing
career that I have."
Ann Kemmerle and Beverly Harvey cited her various successes when they nominated
Yarnell for the Women in Business section. "We have known Rene for almost
two decades and watched her build a distinctive career in more than one
field," they wrote.
Yarnell first became involved in network marketing in the 1980s when she
began selling and helping others sell Nu Skin, which markets personal care
and nutrition products. After 10 years of success with that company, Yarnell
and her husband, Mark, decided to start their own company.
"We started thinking about what it would be like to have our own company
and our own value system and call our own shots," she said.
Their current venture is 21st Century Global Network, run out of the Bank
of America building downtown. The network marketing firm, co-owned by the
Yarnells and others, sells environmentally safe and child-safe home care
and personal care products.
"We have things that are good for the environment and good for the human
body if consumed, but they're still very effective," she said. "We are really
trying to promote the products as just good common sense."
Although the company only started in January, the first products were shipped
in June and the network already has nearly 4,000 distributors nationwide.
"We hope to break even by the end of the year," Yarnell said. "With network
marketing things can happen very quickly."
Like many people with traditional business backgrounds, Yarnell was wary
of network marketing at first.
"I came in skeptical," she said. "Most professionals think they cannot be
associated with it. But once they get over the image barrier, they see its
potential."
In the mid 1980s, Yarnell was working for the Nevada School of Law, part
of the now-defunct Reno-based Old College, which closed when it failed to
gain accreditation.
"After Old College folded, I did what any unemployed person does, I put
out a sign as a consultant," Yarnell said.
Two local doctors hired her to research how to best sell some products they
had developed. She came to the conclusion that the best way, given their
available capital for the venture, was network marketing. But she told them:
"I don't recommend it. It's kind of schmaltzy."
They urged her to investigate it anyway, so she read up.
"By the time I finished reading, I got it," she said. "They (the doctors)
didn't go that route, but I did."
She began selling Nu Skin and building a "downline," other direct marketers
whom she recruited and supported in their sales. Although she was only working
part time, she was earning $2,800 a month by the fifth month and $8,000
a month after 18 months.
In 1990, she met Mark, who was also distributing Nu Skin. They entered into
"a marriage and a merger," combining his 30,000 plus distributors and her
4,000.
Her current career wasn't what Yarnell, who had a strict Catholic upbringing,
had envisioned growing up in Dallas. She decided to become a nun immediately
after high school. The order pushed her to pursue a math degree, but she
was more interested in learning about and teaching theology.
She eventually left the order and earned her bachelor's and master's degrees
in theology. She taught for seven years in Bay area Catholic parishes as
a religious education director, then taught at a seminary for a year. Burned
out after struggling to bring new theology into a conservative setting,
she switched careers again, becoming the producer and host for a television
show and later a radio call-in show. She eventually worked in radio in Denver
and Reno as well.
During her first marriage, to ex- priest and poet James Kavanaugh, Yarnell
met Moya Lear, who was then running Lear Fan in Stead. Lear hired Yarnell
as a consultant to help open communications between management and the floor
workers.
"That brought me into the business world, she said. "I had developed tremendous
listening skills working in talk radio. The traditional corporate world
was great for me because I had developed a skill that translated well."
After the company unionized, she went to work for Old College. In that job,
she met several people who were serving or aspiring to public office, including
Gov. Bob Miller. The political bug bit her, too, and she ran for and won
a Washoe County Commission seat in 1988. She said her greatest accomplishment
during her term was helping start Project Restart, which helps homeless
people get back on their feet.
Although she's heavily involved in her new company, Yarnell has turned much
of her attention to writing these days.
She and Mark have published several books about network marketing. The most
recent, "Your First Year in Network Marketing," has sold more than 100,000
copies this year and appears on several current best-seller lists. Just
last month, she signed a contract to write another book, tentatively titled
"Network Marketing: The Rising Profession."
She's looking for publishers for two other books in which she guides readers
through self-discovery as she describes her own personal growth.
"Writing had been the avocation and network marketing the vocation, but
now it's switched," Yarnell said. "It's starting to dawn on me how much
more of an impact I can have through writing."
With her writing, her careers have come full circle. As she did as a young
nun teaching in Utah, she's opening people's eyes, this time through her
books.
"I've had more people tell me that they've opened the book with a lot of
skepticism ... and they've read it and it turned them around completely,"
she said.
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