THE MLM SPECIALIST TEAM

THE SHEFFIELD GROUP

Michael L. Sheffield, CMC

Founder and MLM Consultant

Mike Sheffield is founder and CEO of The Sheffield Group, an internationally renowned direct sales and MLM consulting firm focusing on both startup operations and existing companies.

His firm has provided consulting services to over 1,000 MLM, party plan and direct selling companies in the U.S. and abroad. He has worked internationally, assisting companies in Norway, Russia, England, Germany, Holland, South Africa, China, Philippines, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Venezuela, India, Thailand and Japan.

 

Background & Early Career

Mike Sheffield began his career as a successful distributor and then later founded two successful network marketing companies with combined sales exceeding $30 million.

As a leading spokesperson for the MLM industry, Mike Sheffield has conducted seminars and lectures worldwide. He has to his credit numerous appearances on television as well as radio, including the Business Radio Network as expert MLM business analyst. He has also appeared as guest lecturer at the Schools of Business at Arizona State University, University of California at Berkeley, University of Cincinnati, California Lutheran University, the University of Texas, and Anderson University.

In addition, Mike Sheffield has been a staff instructor on direct selling compensation plans and marketing strategies at the Graduate School of Business at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has also presented on multi-level marketing at the Harvard Business School Association Symposium. He is one of the few Certified Management Consultants (CMC) with a specific emphasis on the network marketing industry. Certification is granted by the National Bureau of Professional Management Consultants.

Mike Sheffield has organized and sponsored important events on the campus of the University of Texas at El Paso. “Organizing for the Future I and II” were successful academic conferences geared toward an interaction of the university business school faculty and direct selling corporate executive. Their purpose was to stimulate a better understanding and eventual classroom acceptance of MLM as an alternative method of product distribution.

 

Sponsored Conference and Lecture

Mike Sheffield’s lecture called “Compensation Plans of the Future Today” was enthusiastically received by corporate executives at national conferences sponsored by the Direct Sales Association (DSA) as well as the Multi-Level Marketing International Association (MLMIA). For over twenty years, The Sheffield Group has co-sponsored the conference “Starting and Running the Successful MLM Company” which has been attended by thousands of entrepreneurs and corporate executives.

For over 30 years, he has served as chief consultant, compensation plan developer and analyst, new product advisor, and resource agent for many prestigious companies, including Color Street, It Works!, Isagenix, Young Living, Amway, Nikken, NuSkin, AOL, Home Shopping Network, Time Warner and The Service Master Corporation, to name a few.

 

Accredited Publications

His writings have appeared in many national publications including Network Marketing Lifestyles, The Direct Sales Journal, WealthBuilding Magazine, MLM News Magazine, Product Launch Magazine, Powerline Magazine, and Network Marketing Business Journal. For fifteen years, his regular column in Network Marketing Business Journal, called “Product of the Month,” served as an independent review of the product lines of over 100 U.S. and foreign based MLM companies. He has been the subject of feature articles in Success Magazine, Network Marketing Lifestyles, Business Start-Ups and Entrepreneur Magazine. He also served as the direct selling expert for Entrepreneur Magazine’s website, Entrepreneur.com.

Mike Sheffield has received numerous honors including MLMIA’s President’s Award for Industry Support as well as the Association’s prestigious Consultant of the Year award. He is a Co-Founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Multi-Level Marketing International Association. In 2001 he was inducted into the MLMIA Hall of Fame and in 2011 received the MLMIA’s Best of the Best Award.

Dan Lundell

President

Dan Lundell co-founded Asantae, a nutritional product direct selling company, and its publicly traded parent company Avidus Management Group, which developed, acquired, and operated direct sales and network marketing companies in the consumer health and wellness market. From their founding in 2007 until their sale in early 2016, Dan served as COO, CEO, and Chairman.

The 18 years of business experience that Dan brings to Sheffield extends to company launches, turn-around programs, strategic planning, capital formation, finance and accounting, product development, business process development, value proposition design, global market expansion, public company and regulatory compliance, technology integrations, and product fulfillment operations.

Dan’s association with the Sheffield Group began as a client in 2006. After years of collaboration on various projects, he began serving as an Executive Consultant in 2014. Since that time, he has advised over 70 new and established direct selling companies. His work with Sheffield clients has included start-up executive training, brand development, assistance in raising capital, improving production capacity, and establishing whole departments.

Dan is fluent in Spanish, and has led the global expansion of more than a dozen Sheffield clients in South America, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Australia, Africa and China.

Debbie Stenmoe

Vice President of Operations

As a top executive with The Sheffield Group since 1998, Debbie has been devoted to the continuing success of the company. She has earned the respect and admiration of her peers while working her way from Director of Client Services to overseeing the entire company business activities. It is clear to every Sheffield client that she is an invaluable asset. Debbie handles the day-to-day operations of the company and works directly with President, Michael Sheffield on all financial matters. She seamlessly ensures that client deliverables are met on time and with the quality associated with the Sheffield work product.

Prior to relocating to Arizona, Debbie had a distinguished career at the New York City Comptroller’s Office. During her 15 year years there, she had progressively increased responsibilities, including managing a 1,500 LAN user help desk, providing software training and being a solutions-oriented member of the MIS team. She was instrumental in helping to implement a state-of-the-art optical imaging system developed for the Comptroller’s office. Debbie understands time management principles, multitasking and the art of negotiation and follow-up. She manages the Sheffield internal staff to ensure that all client timelines are met and the business is running smoothly and successfully.

Chris Sheffield

Director of Client Services

For over 25 years, Chris Sheffield has served the direct selling industry as a professional in every facet of business. Chris began his career in sales during his college years earning his way through college in door-to-door direct selling. He then became a distributor for an MLM nutritional company, building a sales organization of several thousand independent distributors and becoming one of the top ranked people in the company.

Chris then took on the responsibility as national sales manager for a nationally known security products company, where he eventually bought the company and became its CEO and president. During this time, he built a national sales force of professional direct sales people providing personal protection classes and seminars for clubs, professional organizations, and business groups throughout America. This created over 100,000 customers for his security products and generated millions of dollars in sales.

Later, while this business continued under trusted family management, Chris took on the responsibility of pioneering the US marketing launch of laser correction vision surgery using creative MLM recruiting techniques to assemble a distributor force of referral agents. The company went on to set the trend for this medical procedure in the US and become the largest provider of its kind.

With his security products company still under family management, Chris has joined his brother, Michael Sheffield, as the Director of Client Services and Chief Relationship Consultant. The Sheffield Group has experienced explosive growth since Chris joined the staff. Chris is the first contact for each potential new client because of his extreme skills in discerning their particular needs and determining specific areas where the Sheffield Team might best serve the client’s future success. He is truly The Sheffield Group’s top “Relationship Consultant”.

Garvin Deshazer

Consultant

Garvin DeShazer has nearly 30 years experience as an entrepreneur. With 26 startups or acquisitions of his own, in industries ranging from alternative fuels to fine arts, he has extensive experience in business plan development, capital fund raising, hiring key people, managing teams, creative marketing and driving sales.

As a former client of The Sheffield Group, Garvin knows first-hand the challenges of a direct selling company owner. With Mike’s help in the early 1990s, Garvin’s company became one of the fastest growing home security businesses in America. However, he chose to ignore Mike’s advice about being single sourced and quickly outgrew his manufacturer’s ability to keep up with his distributors’ demands. His company collapsed in 1994.

Promoting the concept that “scar tissue has value,” Garvin joined The Sheffield Group in 1995. Over the next four years, he served as Senior Consultant for more than 60 companies that ultimately represented almost two million distributors. In the process, he played an important role in helping The Sheffield Group become the leading MLM consulting organization in the world.

After receiving a financial windfall in 1998, Garvin took a few years to travel and volunteer with non-profit organizations. He re-joined the Sheffield team, where he supports clients with his unique skills in strategic planning, creative writing and project management.

Doug Ridley

Executive Consultant

Doug Ridley is best known in the direct selling industry as founder and president of Quorum International, which he grew to $20 million per month in sales and 250,000 distributors within two years of launch.  He has also founded three other successful direct selling companies: Neogen, Pharmaden, and Simply Because. He has additionally served as President of Xelr8 and Avidus Management Group, both publicly traded, and as General Manager of Seacret Direct North America.

At the core of Doug’s success lie 16-years’ experience as an independent distributor for Amway, New Vision (top-10 earner) and Monavie. Knowing the industry from both perspectives — the sales frontline and the executive suite — gives him a comprehensive grasp of its challenges and opportunities.

For Sheffield’s clients, Doug brings the wisdom and expertise that can only be gained through decades of responsibility for large organizations. He knows first-hand the many hurdles — both practical and psychological — that must be overcome by direct selling founders and leaders in their pursuit of lasting success.

Davene Peruzzini

Director of Project Management

Clients of The Sheffield Group expect the highest level of professionalism from their consulting team. Davene Peruzzini sees that they get it. As Director of Project Management, Davene establishes priorities, allocates resources, manages workflow and makes certain deadlines are met. She is also the “Keeper of the Calendar”, coordinating the schedules of the Sheffield Team with client needs to assure everyone gets the time and focus they need, when they need it. And, she does it all with grace, wit and wisdom.

This Youngstown State University alumnus has contributed a wealth of experience since joining The Sheffield Group in 2005. Davene has an extensive background in all aspects of Customer Service, Employee Services, and Office Management. In addition to holding each member of the Sheffield team to account for timely production of deliverables, she gently reminds and frequently assists clients in keeping all parts of their projects moving forward. It is no exaggeration to describe her as The Sheffield Group’s standard bearer for effectiveness and achievement.

When Davene isn’t at work helping Sheffield’s clients and staff, she passionately supports the Girl Scouts of America and has received an Outstanding Volunteer Award for her many contributions to today’s youth.

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