Argel saw the Nu Skin Opportunity three times before finally deciding to join the business. She started Nu Skin intending to just earn extra income to help fund her last year in De La Salle University, and it did. Even as a simple retailer of the products, she would profit Php 10,000 to 20,000 in one demo alone and this already answered for her school allowance, tuition fee, and out of the country trips.
“I remember there was this one evening, about 11pm on a Friday. I needed one thousand pesos, and I remember saying yes to do a demo in Pampanga. I arrived there at 1AM and we finished at 3AM and arrived back to Manila almost 5AM. I came back with a nine thousand peso profit and even attended a sales training the next day. I would pity myself that I needed to do that because I wanted to help my dad, but I was also enjoying the adventure so I did it over and over,” she recalls. “There was also this instance where a business partner scheduled with me for a 4-day trip to Ilocos. I came there Thursday and after 12 presentations by Sunday, there was no sale. I was bound to already ride a bus home but I said I couldn’t leave without a sale. Suddenly my business partner thought of a person-- we walked in her house and we did a spontaneous demo. She was hesitant to buy it but I prayed to God to spare me any sale--even a deodorant. I did it for my partner. Half way through the demo a friend visited us, and was so happy with the results that we ended up selling two units of Galvanic Spa.” Argel said she can relay many more stories like this, and it was through these experiences that her character was formed. “I saw God’s hand in everything. I didn’t realize it back then, but I could connect the dots right now—how I could do all that when I had no business background, I had no leadership experience. In fact I was the typical student who skipped classes all the time if I knew I could easily pass the subject.” These realizations are proof that Nu Skin definitely changed Argel’s mindset and behavior.
In 2010 her father passed away from liver disease, and shortly after that her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. This was one of her turning points in the business where she decided to do it seriously. “At that time we had a traditional family business that was surmounted by debts, so I decided to take my business to the next level. I knew I had to learn how to develop leaders and start to intentionally duplicate myself.” From merely wanting to earn extra income to having to earn a six figure income, Argel decided to do the business more seriously and professionally. “It took me four years to earn my first million in commissions in Nu Skin (this is outside of my retail profit). And then it took me only the next three years to earn another 6 Million.” With the launch of the LTO strategy in 2012, she saw her income skyrocket and at 25 years old, she received her first five hundred thousand check in a month. “That was also the time I brought my Mom to Hawaii and then to China for Nu Skin’s incentive trip. And we went to the United States too. I was very happy.”
However, the challenges did not end there, for within two years from that she lost the entire group she built. Side by side, their family business doubled its debts and she was also challenged on how to manage her own finances well. “I wasn’t a good steward of my money, my influence and position. I became complacent and content. That was the killer of all the success I gained.” From the group that she built it was only Jen Solco who stayed. “I didn’t really know Jen well, she was my seventh level. At that time I was short-sighted and focused only on my first and second level of leaders. It turned out she was the leader. In fact, she was an even better leader than me.” Jen right now is the Philippines’ first 4-star creator and Blue Diamond.
“I realized the real beauty of the business is in the journey. When you build and lose, and then decide to build again. When you move forward after painful failures, or smile after every rejection, or just simply find the strength and courage to stand up after every storm.” In all these, she credits her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for revealing Himself to her as she walked in her Nu Skin Journey. “I already knew God as a kid, but the relationship was superficial. I found Christ thru Nu Skin, and as I constantly say, it is the most important thing that has ever happened to me.”
