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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
Return to Biography
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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