What if the concept behind Tom's Shoes (you buy one pair of shoes, one pair is donated to a child in need) was applied to a healthy food network marketing company? Would that concept intrigue you? It captured my attention, enough to bring my friend Bryon Jaymes on to this edition of The Solopreneur Hour.

There are a number of lessons we solopreneurs can glean from the network marketing field, whether we are in it or not. And Bryon is bringing those lessons to episode 141. He's been a leader in several companies and is here to talk about what the social entrepreneurship concept behind his newest company, what he's learned in the trenches and how that applies to your business, whatever your industry.

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When I first met him, Bryon was involved in his second network marketing and was doing very well for himself. He had figured out that people buy from people, not from companies. So he had created a brand for himself and his team, West Coast Movement.

West Coast Movement had actually been started by Bryon when he was in his first company: Amway. Bryon got involved with Amway the old-fashioned way: someone he knew and respected introduced him. Bryon has always been committed to health and fitness so when his friend told him about the nutritional product options at Amway, Bryon was immediately interested for himself and for his personal training clients.

Bryon spent five years building and growing his West Coast Movement team at Amway; he was making from $5k-$6k a month by that time and also earning yearly bonus checks of $20k or more. Despite his success, Bryon felt it was time to move on to a new company. There were a number of things that weren't in line with his own integrity and commitments, so after careful consideration he decided to find a new home for himself and his West Coast Movement team.

He went through a fairly length selection process, he settled on a new network marketing company in the health and wellness field. He saw a real opportunity to influence where the company was going and he wanted to be a part of that. Again he built his team, bringing with him about 400-500 people from his previous organization.

And for the next three years, that was where he hung his network marketing cap. It was also during that time that we met and became friends.

You'll also discover things like:

* Who was one of the first partners in EM squared?

* What's the greatest thing about being a solopreneur?

* What's the worst thing about being a solopreneur?

* Why did Bryon build West Coast Movement and why does it matter to your business?

* Which group is the most malnourished today and why?

* And lots more!

As fate would have it, that company was then acquired by another company. Bryon saw the writing on the wall and decided to pack up his West Coast Movement people and go elsewhere.

Eventually he settled with his present company, EM Squared. The concept behind the company is like Tom's Shoes but applied to healthy food bars. When someone buys a box of bars from EM Squared, one box is donated to children in need. Right now they are only in Mexico and Central America but they have a vision to expand and help malnourished kids around the globe.

The compensation side works like other network marketing companies: when you enroll someone, you get paid. When they enroll someone, you get paid and so on down the line. But with EM Squared, you can choose to donate what you earn to charities or to cash it out. It's up to you!

And you can also take that box of healthy bars you bought and donate it to a local charity, homeless people you see, etc. Again, the choice is yours.

It's social entrepreneurship at work and it's been working well for EM Squared. In their first 3 weeks, they fed over 10,000 kids! Imagine what they're going to do in their first three months.