Thank you to MXI Executive Victoria Kaye for this fabulous article and interview with Kerry

As the New Year has begun, I’m reviewing the aspects of previous years that I want to continue to carry over into 2012. Ironically, some people believe that this is the year the world is suppose to come to an end according to the Mayan calendar. Those of us “in the know” realize the Mayan calendar was carved on a round rock that couldn’t hold any more information.

Chocolate was at the core of Mayan civilization, and I can honestly see chocolate fueling the next chapter of my life! I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many successful Xoçai™ representatives this past year and, as chocolate has carved out new chapters in their lives, I am currently chatting with a few to find out how they can help me carry on with chocolate.

It makes total sense to listen to Kerry Dean, a former clinical care nurse and experienced direct sales entrepreneur who has embraced Xoçai™ Healthy Chocolate, not only in her life, but also in her personal income. “It’s not the aspect of making money that attracts people to Xoçai™ Chocolate, as it isn’t necessarily appealing to the diehard network marketer,” she explains, “but it does attract people who are creative, who thrive on the energy and healing qualities that they get from this Chocolate. Xoçai™ appeals to resourceful people who want to make changes in their lives, as well to those genuinely sensitive to helping others.”

Like Doctors?

“Health care practitioners and health conscious individuals who are open to alternatives and willing to trying different things,” Kerry emphasizes. This makes sense, as when naturopaths, acupuncturists, supplements and herbal teas first appeared on the health scene, they were judged and are now accepted in the healing subculture. “Dark Chocolate studies are still relatively new, just five years old, though chocolate itself has been around for thousands!” she says with a glint in her eye similar to that of a young mother watching her baby take its first steps, enthralled in the excitement of new worlds yet to be discovered. This makes sense, as Kerry was part of Xoçai™ during its baby steps and has reaped its rewards. But Xoçai™ is still an infant, with a lot more growing up to be done. Kerry’s excitement lies, not in the journey already taken, but in the journey that lies ahead as the world continues to rediscover healthy dark chocolate.

The healing power of chocolate has many characteristics. It was revered by the Mayans as “Food of the Gods” and embraced for how it made them feel. Anyone who consumed it felt its power, medicinally for treating ailments, or emotionally for a saddened, depressed or broken heart. It helped give energy to the Spanish conquerors, and equally fueled Casanova for his evening conquests. The candy form that modern civilization recognizes as chocolate gives you a moment of bliss, though it wears off fairly quickly. Even if just for a moment, chocolate is something society naturally craves.

We all wish for better health, wealth, and an abundant life, in our own interpretation, and Xoçai™ offers all of that. “It’s an organic type of business. Very fair, no bias; anyone can get involved at any level, gender, education, or location in the world,” Kerry continues. “Any individual can ask, ‘What do I want?’ and MXI Corp., using network/social marketing channels to distribute their Xoçai™ products, allows you to sit back and enjoy the ride, customized into your own corporate structure.”

I get it! As many others who have been squeezed out by corporate downsizing and made redundant, no matter how hard I try, there is not a viable rung for me to occupy on corporate ladders. I have to become my own boss, my own corporation. The biggest frustration is getting people to think outside of the chocolate box. Forrest Gump may have compared life to a box of chocolates, but you can’t carve a new life from a store-bought box of chocolates like you can from a box of Xoçai™ Healthy Chocolate bought through a network marketer. “It’s hard for people to believe that Xoçai™ is a health product that has the delight and pleasure of chocolate, but is not a candy.” This is the aspect of Xoçai™ Healthy Chocolate that society at large doesn’t understand, but over 200,000 Xoçai™ distributors worldwide do. “Education … we need to educate people, and Xoçai™ distributors are the educators,” Kerry says straightforwardly.

Chocolate has over 300 compounds in it and thousands of medical studies are now proving that dark chocolate could contribute to better health. But they keep adding disclaimers of “… consume in moderation as the sugars and fillers counteract the health benefits.” People read these studies, then look at the back of a box of Xoçai™ to see the nutritional facts, claims and certification, yet some are still not open-minded enough. My ex-husband is a case at hand. Despite popping a Power Square at the divorce lawyer’s office to successfully dissipate his annoying headache and subsequently registering during the Black Friday promotion, four weeks after receiving his first two boxes of Xoçai™ chocolate, he still has a box and a half uneaten. Although I’ve told him that, with his health concerns, he should be consuming four or five Power Squares and three Omegas daily, he’s equating it to candy and has already given up.

“People don’t take it long enough,” Kerry explains. The product is packaged as one box for one person for one four-week cycle of average consumption. “Three pieces per day is ideal for the average person who is on Xoçai™ for preventative measures. However, someone with high blood pressure needs to consume closer to nine pieces a day. At first, you may need to ‘body blast’ your system. This is where 3-6-9 comes into play. For maintenance, you need three pieces a day but, for health concerns and issues, you may need six or nine pieces at first. If, after your first month, you still have chocolate in the box, then obviously you are not eating the correct rations, and therefore not giving the antioxidants a fighting chance to make a difference.”

This is why Xoçai™ is not sold at the retail counter, as it needs the word of mouth education that only Xoçai™ distributors and consumers can provide. And it’s their passion for sharing and educating that fuels Xoçai™ distributors, making it different from other network marketing lines. Statistically speaking, if a billion people ate chocolate yesterday and approximately 200,000 were consuming Xoçai™, there is still an immense opportunity out there for consumer education. This is the focal point, as every new product introduced in the Xoçai™ line stems from ongoing research and development.

Studies show that green tea is great for cleansing the system and, every spring and fall, people are encouraged to consume additional tea for its cleansing properties. Xoçai™ introduced a High-Protein Shake in the summer of 2010 from research which proved, during product development, that a single shake had those same cleansing abilities, but was gentle enough on the digestive system to be consumed daily. “Having a Xoçai™ Shake each morning continuously cleanses by sweeping out the stress on your organs,” the nurse in Kerry comes forth. “The majority of toxins modern society is exposed to keep settling in the fat, which then acts like a buffer, trying to keep the toxins away from the organs.”

So, the more toxic your diet, the more fat that will be generated to house the toxins, and eventually there comes a breaking point when the fat can’t contain the toxins and they invade your organs! “Consuming a Xoçai™ Shake daily helps flush out the toxins in your system, preventing them from settling in the fat, allowing the body to produce less fat, thus helping in successful weight loss.”

This simple discovery allowed MXI Corp. to invite 50 overweight and obese people to participate in a 12-week study just before launching the product. That study has now been published as a cover feature in The Bariatrician, the medical journal for Bariatric Medicine.

A paragraph about the Shake in the Abstract on Page 1 of the 12-week study captured my fascination:

“It is interesting to note that a full serving decreased the inflammatory transcription factor Nuclear Factor kappa Beta (NF –kB) by 34% in cell studies and increased SIRT1, the anti-aging marker by 15% conducted by Brunswick Labs.”

I ask Kerry if it was these revelations that spurred the company into developing the next anti-aging product, to debut in spring 2012, and why the Shake plays a major role in successful weight loss. “Yes,” Kerry answers to both queries.

The latest medical buzz word is ‘inflammation’ and healthy chocolate helps to control it. Kerry’s definition on the subject: “We all generate inflammation; it is what helps us heal when we cut ourselves. However, with the increased amount of stress in our lives, some bodies are releasing too much inflammation and the excess rests in joints, clogging veins and arteries, and the extra bulge that settles around the mid section that, for most people, is the hardest to lose.” She continues, explaining how cortisol is released by the adrenal gland in response to stress, and how studies are proving that theobromine, the chemical found in chocolate, helps to deal with excessive inflammation and, as a result, successful weight loss. This is why the Xoçai™ Weight Loss System and study have gained the attention and acclamation of the bariatric society.

I say out loud what I’ve been surmising for some time, ‘Obesity is a man-made disease.’ Kerry doesn’t agree, but concurs that the diet most people choose, a combination of fast food and processed foods, as well as other life-style choices, are probably contributing factors. When she first started consuming Xoçai™ she didn’t understand why she wasn’t losing weight, but everything else was improving. Her blood pressure was down to a healthy and consistent level, as well as her blood sugars. But she had been in a car accident, and surviving both her mother’s and husband’s affected health and eventual deaths sent her into a deep depression, causing additional inflammation from the excessive stress.

“I was in network marketing without telling anyone,” Kerry jokes as she explains her first 8 months as a Xoçai™ distributor were spent sitting at home, shut off from the world. Though she was recruiting new distributors, they were surpassing her in rank and sales volume. But that didn’t bother her, as the healthy chocolate was healing her wounds and making her physically stronger, a necessary recovery before she could start to heal mentally. It was at this junction, when sitting on her front hall steps, that she made the decision to go to the top.

Not turning to friends and family, as they saw her as who she was, not who she wanted to become, Kerry realized she needed to expand her circle of influence. She started to make new contacts beyond her immediate peers, people who “… didn’t see a depressed nurse in her housecoat when I spoke to them on the phone,” when video skype and web-conferencing technology wasn’t as readily available as it is today.

Whether her team members are around the corner, 2 blocks away, 3 provinces east, 15 states west and south of the border, or across the ocean, she truly takes her leadership role seriously. She loves talking to people and, although she could stand up before a large audience, Kerry prefers small groups. This is why she created ‘Chocolate Tasting 101,’ her own chocolate tasting template for anyone to duplicate. “If you can press PLAY, you can do this business!” Kerry makes it sound so simple, but any new distributor will tell you that the average person is skeptical and is quick to denounce the product as ‘expensive’ or ‘just chocolate’. “Even I was skeptic at first – I’m a nurse by profession! This is a natural product with scientific background, scientific studies and an ideal business model that is being touted by Presidents, our Prime Minister and numerous business leaders and teachers as it is now being taught at Universities,” Kerry shares. Network Marketing and Direct Sales have large corporations incorporating these proven techniques into their own corporate culture as part of their marketing mix. That business model, once dominated by stay-at-home moms looking for a social life and to earn a few extra dollars, now has world leaders stating that Tupperware/Xoçai™ parties are a good way to get ourselves out of personal recessionary periods.

Can chocolate be the next food industry revolution? Stripping it of its nutritional properties was what fueled prosperity in the candy industry many years ago. Could a return to chocolate in its natural state lead to personal health and financial revitalization?

I was watching You’ve Got Mail (Warner Bros. 1998) during the holidays. Birdie (Jean Stapleton) says to Kathleen (Meg Ryan) after she decides to close her shop before being financially forced out of business…  “You are daring to imagine that you could have a different life. Oh, I know it doesn’t feel like that. You feel like a big fat failure now. But you’re not. You are marching into the unknown armed with… [pause] …nothing. Have a sandwich.”

Personally, I’ll have healthy chocolate instead of a sandwich! And I have a few ideas about what I want, but still have a little trouble envisioning it. Kerry is the person from whom I heard about the ‘Vision Board’ and, over the holiday weekend, I created my own images of a future reality. Kerry shares, “My vision board is in the form of a vision book,” and it keeps her focused on her personal goals because family and friends, although they celebrate her success, still don’t completely understand what she does. I can relate to that, as it seems I’ve been dancing to the beat of my own drum for my whole life. I believe my ‘Visualization Board’ will help me stay focused, but I tell Kerry that I’m finding it difficult. It seems I need mine to remain flexible, ever changing in both short and long term goals, as I don’t know exactly what it is that I want in life. “That’s what is so wonderful about it, I keep updating mine,” says Kerry, and she assures me that life is an adventure, if you can only believe. “I remember putting a picture of Hawaii in my book. When I did, I had no idea how it was going to happen or when, but I knew I wanted to go to Hawaii. Some time later, Sandy Chambers, a fellow Xoçai™ distributor, mentioned she had a time share in Hawaii but she couldn’t go at that time, and was I interested!” Kerry proudly proclaims the theory of ‘Just believe and it will come to be.’

So ‘throw it into the universe?’ “Just put up pictures of where and what you want, whether it’s personal or financial,” begins Kerry’s vision lesson. “For me, it helped take the pressure away from where I was – depressed and broke – to what could happen, and actually has happened. It kept me from getting caught up in what was, what is or what happened, and instead focus on what could happen. You can’t create without being creative. Why aren’t we bold enough to define what we want and go for it?”

Everyone wants something, whether it’s a successful relationship, security, a child, a family, or a mansion and a yacht. Whatever the desire, fuel the vehicle that will deliver it to you. And for Kerry, Xoçai™ Healthy Chocolate is the vehicle that has made all her dreams come true, and then some.

So, ‘out of the box’ thinking has to be at play? “Definitely out of the box and open to opportunities. I see opportunities everywhere. Inside the box is where I was when I was depressed.” Kerry begins her life lesson. “I am not just spending money on chocolate, but I’m creating income as well as creating health, as well as creating fun and good times.” Chocolate has a natural essence and energy, and it is fueling Kerry’s zest for life in more ways than just lining her pocketbook. “There’s a big difference between ‘cost of doing business’ and ‘investing in opportunity’. For me, it was an opportunity to be on a cruise with like-minded people who achieved what I’ve already achieved, and sharing what they are achieving. I was on a Mediterranean cruise with fellow Xoçai™ distributors when, in Venice, an opera singer in a gondola serenaded us as he floated by. It’s moments like those you HAVE to experience with people who share the same vision!”

This is how your life can be when you believe in the healing power of chocolate. “For me, I cannot think of a better way of cleaning up your own energy from toxic drainers. I don’t need that,” she says as she saddens for a moment, thinking of those who still see her as the depressed nurse in her housecoat.

“The best revenge is massive success.” Kerry quotes Frank Sinatra, but her success wasn’t fueled by providing a lesson to disbelievers. Her success is for herself; the power of being able to help others as she has now helped me, by granting me an audience and helping me get on the right track with my Xoçai™ Chocolate business.