Press Release

It is in the courtyard of Darren Hardy, Publisher of Success and Success from Home magazines. Darren is interviewing ACN Regional Vice President and Circle of Champions member, Issy McIntyre from Toowoomba Australia. Mrs McIntyre and Darren Hardy were both keynote speakers at the April, 2025 ACN International Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Darren: Welcome to my home Issy and thank you for taking the time for this interview. I was very impressed with your presentation on Mindset on Saturday at the Conference. Tell me a little of your background, prior to ACN.
Issy: Thank you so much Darren. It is an honour to be here, in person in the courtyard I had come to know through Darren Daily. Where to begin. I am off the land. I grew up on Nth West Queensland in Australia, 32 miles from the small town of Richmond, where my parents had an 80,000 acre sheep property. We were educated by governesses with correspondence papers from Brisbane, and in my final year of primary school, we had School of the Air, a 30 minute daily lesson over the radio from Cloncurry. It really was a charmed life. We rode our horses and ran wild, learning to drive at a very young age and just loved helping Dad with the sheep work. We went to Boarding School in Brisbane for the last 6 years of schooling.
After I was married my husband, Peter, and I had a sheep and cattle property South West of Longreach in Central Qld. As we were 100kms from Longreach, I had educated our two girls through Longreach School of Distance Education, an amazing educational system.
We now live in Toowoomba, the Garden City, on the edge of the Toowoomba Range in SE Qld.
Darren: Issy, tell me what led to you looking at Network Marketing.
Darren, back in 1991, Peter and I decided to sell our sheep and cattle property at Longreach in Central Qld, Australia, after a government decision that destabilized the wool industry. We were due to send Emma, our eldest daughter to Toowoomba the following year, to boarding school for high school. With the economic uncertainty, we thought we could sell out and buy a property near Toowoomba and be set for life. We did buy a beautiful historic property which was ideal, but “the set for life” part didn’t eventuate.
After 12 very dry years, and having to buy another property after about 5 years, as Peter was reacting very badly to the chemicals used for weed control on our creek flats. We also had a small business which was bringing in a regular income, but that disappeared overnight, when the franchisor left the country without leaving the infrastructure to continue. Timing was horrendous; we received the letter the day we had told our daughter that she could go to Canada for a month to play basketball with the school, instead of going to schoolies. It was an amazing experience for her. She started University the following year, and we kept them on campus the first year, so we were haemorrhaging financially. We eventually had to sell the farm and move into town. It was very distressing to be wiped out at an age when you were ready for retirement, with plans to do so much travelling and all the things for which we have never had the time. I had been very unwell for a few years and chosen to be drug free, which allowed me to regain my health, but it was very expensive. So we were in desperate need of a Plan B.
Darren: You have certainly changed your fortunes. Was ACN your first choice?
Issy: Laughing I had tried a number of things to recoup our fortune, but none of them really came off – a few dry gullies. They didn’t make my heart sing. I actually stumbled upon ACN by accident.
Darren: Accident, how was that?
Issy: I was working part time in retail with a friend. A friend of hers, whom I had met many years go and for whom I had enormous respect, gave her a DVD and we watched it together. Margaret got excited and decided to join, but I was a bit disillusioned with my previous attempts and decided not to, even though I was fascinated. Going along to support Margaret, who quit very quickly, at her launch, I met an amazing woman, and wanting what she had, joined. I didn’t have the speediest of starts, I had to do a lot of work on myself. The tough years are the best thing that ever happened, as without them, I would never have looked and had the opportunity to fulfil my destiny.
Darren: Tell me more about your destiny?
Issy: Many years ago I was reading a book that talked about self-actualized people. I instantly felt that I would love to be able to fulfil my potential and help others to do the same. It came back to me during the tough times. I felt that, if I could help other people who had been through difficult times, turn their lives around and to enable them to live lives of complete freedom, it would be so fulfilling. My sister had also been through a very rough divorce was left in very dire circumstances with 3 small girls. Single mothers do it tough. To find a way to allow them to blossom, in every sense, was very close to my heart. I had a vision once of these changes, totally transforming families, on every level and rippling down through the generations and around the globe. Network marketing allows that to happen!
Darren: That is such a beautiful picture, you are certainly seeing your dreams come true with the 10s of thousands of people in your organization that have benefitted. You spoke with such passion and authority on Mindset. What avenues did you pursue to get to this point?
Issy: Many and varied. I’ve read many books, listened to tapes, all making inroads, slowly but surely. I love your material. I have to confess, I had “Living Your Best Year Ever” for 2 years, before I really started to use it, a lot of false starts!!!!! It is a vital process.
I really hit gold with a programme called MKMMA, Master Key Master Mind Alliance, put together by Mark Janusewski, the Laziest Networker, and his wife, the Fabulous Davene. It is a 6 month intensive programme, aimed at changing our blueprint. The daily disciplines and aimed at mastering the subconscious, by reprogramming the blueprint the way we choose. We are our habits and mine have been very hit and miss in the past. I didn’t have your absolute focus and dedication from the beginning Darren. The absolute beauty of this is the fact that it is a scholarship programme and you have to maintain your scholarship by completing the assignments. Each class sponsors or pays it forward to the next one. This is where my life really transformed, the work I had started on previously, allowed me to be ready for this. To quote Og Mandino in The Greatest Salesman in the World, it has given me “wisdom and principles which guide me out of the shadows into the sunlight of wealth, position and happiness far beyond my most extravagant dreams”. That is why I have had so much success and such transformation on every level, for which I am deeply grateful. I don’t recognize myself or my life from even 10 years ago. I’m so sorry to be so emotional. (Wiping tears) It gets me every time!
Darren: Tears of gratitude and joy are beautiful. Tell me a little of the life you lead now, for which you are so grateful.
Issy: We have the most amazing lifestyle. I give thanks every day, we truly are very blessed. We have the most beautiful home on the edge of the Toowoomba Range, very spacious and filled with light and flowing energy. The views are amazing overlooking the valley and absolutely sensational in the storm season. I love to watch the sunrise from the verandah, it just sets up my whole day, with the birds singing, the splash of the fountain and the sun glistening on the magnesium pool. It is absolutely perfect for both our needs, even to the great workshop for Peter, with a room for his ‘museum’. We have our own offices, the kitchen is a dream and plenty of space for entertaining, inside and out. I love to garden and the vegie garden, rose garden and wisteria walk especial favourites. I do have a gardener to help with the 2 acres and to keep it under control as we are away so much.
Having my organization spread across all the countries where the company has a presence, is a great excuse to travel and lend support. Being able to travel first class and experience all the different cultures is extraordinary. My sister and brother-in-law live 6 months of the year in La Buge in France, an area I have always loved. The postcard they sent me from The Ritz, in Paris, which has been on my dream board for years has manifested, what an experience! The ultimate luxuary. Sipping Gin Slings in the Courtyard at Raffles Hotel in Singapore, sailing around the Greek Islands, visiting the places I learned about in Ancient History, renting a house in Tuscony for a month. We have even sailed to the Antarctic and the Inside Passage in Canada, complete with train trip through the Rockies. We return to Canada this Christmas with our whole family to stay at Fairmont Chateau, Whistler, a long held dream. The grandchildren are beyond excited with the thought of a white Christmas, with snowmen, snowball fights and skiing. There is so much more but to see my children living their dreams is balm to my soul.
Darren: You have certainly lived through some very dramatic changes. Is there one thing that means more than any other?
Issy: Having complete freedom, in every area of my life, which the multi $m pa income from my business allows. It is not the money, it is what it allows you to do. I have always yearned to contribute to spinal research, among other things. This I can now do. My greatest joy is being free to spend time with the family. My dream has been to leave a legacy for them all that, no matter your age or circumstance, you can choose to create anything to which you set your mind. They all agree that the fact that we have been able to transform our lives, so dramatically, was the catalyst for them to live their dreams also. I believe that this, along with the lives that have changed, as the result of my decision to change mine, my greatest legacy.
Darren: Thank you so much for the inspiration you have become. It has been a pleasure to spend the time with you.
Issy: Darren, you have been a big part of my journey, a mentor from afar. I have always wanted to meet you and spend time with you. Another dream come true. Thank you so much.