This article is a work in progress. It is unedited and incomplete. So don’t hate. 
The Hughes brothers were born and raised in a middle class family. Growing up, they had food on the table, the basics of life but no luxuries. When Jeff Hughes discovered Pre-Paid Legal, he was a lady’s shoe salesman. Chris had just quit his job at Chili’s to be a customer service rep for Drugstore.com. Michael and David were students at Parker Chiropractic College. And Tony was a Regional Manager for the IAMS pet food company. None of them were earning the money they wanted and all of them were silently discontented with their professional lives.
In August 1999, Jeff Hughes was invited to lunch by his long term shoe customer, Judy Garton.
Judy was a very classy, 60 year old, lovely and unique spirit. The Hughes brothers still refer to her as “their angel.” Judy had been recently in the employ of a wealthy Ft. Worth oil heiress. Judy was her personal assistant. They traveled together, dined together and lived together. The wealthy woman asked Judy to take care of her until she died and that when she dies, she would “take care” of Judy. Judy felt comfortable that she would be set for the rest of her life. But when the rich woman died, she gave Judy $100,000 (to last her the rest of her life) and left the rest of her money to her accountant and her attorney. Judy had champaign taste, but was left with a beer budget.
Over lunch, Judy shared the Pre-Paid Legal membership with Jeff using a brochure. At the time, Jeff and his wife Cindy were in the process of starting their own dot come company, Rooftop Gardens and Gallery. Jeff had some legal questions about how to set his business up and so he was very interested in buying the PPL membership. “I’m cheap and even I would buy this” Jeff said. “Everyone’s going to buy it” Judy said. “I want to talk to you about marketing it.”
Judy invited Jeff to attend a Pre-Paid Legal meeting that night after work in Dallas, Texas. Judy volunteered to pick him up from work and drive him to Dallas. Jeff didn’t think he was interested in the business… at all, but after calling Cindy to discuss whether or not they should go, they both agreed that Judy was a good customer, and even if they weren’t interested, they should go any way to support her. After all, Judy had helped them pay their bills with the commissions Jeff earned from all the shoes Judy had purchased from him over a 10 year span.
After lunch, Jeff came back to a busy shoe store full of customers and a frenzied owner. When Mrs. Eisenmen, the store owner, saw Jeff returning from lunch, with a look of disgust, she said, “Jeff we’re busy. The next time we’re busy like this, you need to eat your lunch in the back room.”
That was the proverbial straw that broke the camels back. Jeff decided in that moment that he was done being a pawn; done building another’s dream and done working for the Eisenmen’s. The countdown had begun. He was going to quit. It was just a matter of time.
While at home, Cindy (Jeff’s wife), was having an epic experience that would alter the entire Hughes families lives for ever. She had agreed to go to the meeting with Jeff and Judy later that night, but she did so somewhat in protest. She didn’t really want to go, but felt she should, so she agreed. However, while thinking about attending the meeting, she was overwhelmed with what she called “a spiritual experience,” where she felt like she and Jeff were supposed to attend that meeting. So, unbeknownst to Jeff, Cindy had an incredible and important change of heart. She was excited about the meeting.
Cindy met Jeff and Judy after work. The three of them got into Judy’s car and made the one hour drive to Dallas.
That night, then Bronze Executive Director, Patrick Shaw was the speaker at the business briefing. His no-hype, straight forward style of presenting was perfect for Jeff and Cindy. Jeff came thinking, “I just want to learn how to make $500 a month” and during the presentation, Patrick showed exactly how easy it was to earn “$500 a month.” Jeff was “in,” but one problem. Cindy was notoriously against the idea of doing “another” mlm business, as they had a short, unsuccessful stint with A.L. Williams (PrimeAmerica) several years previous. Again, he didn’t know about her change of heart.
When the briefing was over, Jeff really wanted to sign up for the membership and the business, but worrying what Cindy might say, he sheepishly suggested that they should support Judy and at least buy the membership from her. Cindy responded by saying, “You do whatever you want to do. I’m gonna do this business!”
Judy was elated! She has been in the business for 4 months. She’s gone to all the events, including conventions, but up to this point, she’d sold zero memberships and recruited zero associates. Jeff and Cindy would represent her first and only tangible success in 4 months!
Jeff and Cindy bought the membership, but passed on joining the business saying to Judy, “I want to talk to my brothers about this first and see what they think.” Judy’s response was perfect and is the very reason why the Hughes family joined Pre-Paid Legal. “Oh no! Don’t tell them anything. Show them this video.” And she handed Jeff a VSH tape.
In the back drop of this story, something very interesting had been happening. About a year previous, Chris Hughes took a job at a personal development company in Dallas, Texas. He’d been introduced to success gurus, Jack Canfield, Stephen R. Covey, Brian Tracy, Mark Victor Hansen, Les Brown, Roger Dawson and others. But most importantly, he’d been led to read the book, Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill, which is arguably the most important book every written in the world of success and personal achievement.
Chris was sharing all that he was learning from the book, including the concept of having what Napoleon Hill called “a master mind.” The master mind is simply a time where 2 or more like minded people come together for a positive purpose. One week before Jeff’s invite to attend the Pre-Paid Legal meeting, the Hughes family (Jeff and Cindy, Michael and Shari, David and Sherry, and Chris. They report, it was a wonderful meeting, the theme of which, was how to make our lives better, financially.
At their first mastermind, they determined that one of the rules of the master mind was that they would never be negative or disrespectful to another about an idea they shared with the group. (You can see how the stars for their success story were being aligned! They had a rule that they could not be negative, which would have been the default response to a message about joining a network marketing or direct sales company!) The ground work had, as Chris says, “divinely laid.” We were ready for our second mastermind, where Pre-Paid Legal would be introduced and embraced by the bulk of the Hughes family.
The second Hughes family mastermind was held at Michael and Shari’s apartment in Irving, Texas. They enjoyed pizza and good conversation. Toward the end of the evening, and during a lul in conversation, Cindy nervously began the transition into sharing Pre-Paid Legal. Reaching for a video on the floor in her bag, she said, “Well guys, there’s something we want to show you. It will only take about 15 minutes, and by the way, you may or may not be interested.”
As she pulled the video out, Chris, silently read the title from across the room: Now is the Time. Chris jokes that what he was thinking at the time was, “Now is the time… to end this master mind!” But remembering the “no negative” rule, and hearing the first sentence in the video, “Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc., the number one performing company on the New York Stock Exchange,” Chris snapped to attention with everyone else in the room.
Chris said, “I don’t remember much about that 12 minute video. But what I do remember is when the narrator said you could make over $100 for sharing the membership with one person! ‘I can do this!’ I thought.” Everyone in the room decided they were in before the video was even over.
When the video ended, someone asked Jeff a question. His response was a classic. “I don’t know. I’m not in yet. But there’s a guy in Dallas, Texas (referring to Patrick Shaw) who can help us all get started. Jeff gave us the details of the next business briefing and they all agreed to go together.
To be continued…
