Henry Marsh: a success story

In 1987, he became the national program director for Franklin International (later Franklin Covey). He developed a principle-based curriculum for the company's time-management and wellness seminars and hit the speaker's circuit. He put those principles in a book called "The Breakthrough Factor," which was written by Deseret News columnist Lee Benson. With equity in the company, Marsh earned a healthy living. His one big splurge: A large two-story luxury home with a tennis court, indoor basketball court, workout room and theater on two acres that overlook the Great Salt Lake and the Bountiful Temple.

From the outset of his business career, Marsh had been dissatisfied with working for others, which is the primary reason he bailed out of his law career. "The only time you make money is while you're working," he said. "The people who make money are those who leverage themselves, who earn money while they're sleeping."

In 2003 he left Franklin and struck up a partnership with Dallin Larsen, who had worked nine years as sales manager for USANA, the giant multilevel nutritional-supplement business. They started Monarch Health Sciences, a comprehensive multilevel weight-loss business that provided products, coaching, fitness programs and staff scientists. About a year later, they abandoned the project and turned to the booming health juice business, a la XanGo and Tahitian-Noni.

"It was hard for people to change their lifestyles," says Marsh of the scrapped weight-loss venture.

Marsh and Larsen already had their multilevel Monarch business in place to sell the juice. The MonaVie concoction became a mix of 19 fruits, but acai was clearly the star attraction in the drink. The deep purple berry grows at the top of palm trees in the Amazon region. It is touted as a health drink with numerous benefits — it is believed that it boosts energy, aids mental clarity, digestion and libido, reduces arthritis pain and the effects of aging on skin, strengthens the immune system, etc., etc. Most often it is touted as easily the richest food source of antioxidants, which are thought to combat cancer-causing free radicals in the body.

The benefits are open to debate, but certainly the MonaVie product has its fans. MonaVie ("the tree of life" in Portuguese) claims that it signs up 10,000 new distributors per week, totaling more than 1 million who have paid the $39 for the right to sell the product and buy it wholesale.

Marsh spends most of his work hours talking to or meeting with distributors and potential distributors. Larsen likes to introduce him as "our resident four-time Olympian." Says Larsen: "Everybody likes to hear from a four-time Olympian. Henry has a way of keeping everything light. Everybody loves Henry. If there's disagreement in a meeting, he can lighten it up. He's competitive but not overly aggressive."