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Kevin Guest strives to live a life in crescendo. Success for the small-town boy with rock star aspirations didn’t come overnight. Nor did the CEO of a billion-dollar company find success by straying from his deep-rooted principles.
Each experience in Kevin’s life — in music, business, and now as an author — has built upon another, all contributing to a life lived in harmony.
Kevin is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of USANA Health Sciences, a global health and nutritional supplements company. He is a Direct Selling Association board member and a member of the CEO Council for the World Federation of Direct Selling Associations. Before USANA, Kevin served as a managing partner at FMG, a video and events production company in Salt Lake City. Throughout his life, Kevin’s musical talents have helped him realize his childhood rock-n-roll dreams. Highlights include sharing the stage with greats such as Kenny Loggins, Tommy Shaw, Eddie Money, and Belinda Carlisle, and performing at the Grand Ole Opry. He continues to perform part-time with country music superstar Collin Raye.
Newest Project: All the Right Reasons: 12 Timeless Principles for Living a Life in Harmony
Kevin’s most-recent project is also his most personal. In All the Right Reasons, Kevin shares entertaining anecdotes and inspiring stories, collected from years of meeting fascinating people and learning valuable life lessons. The result is a book featuring 12 foundational principles by which he lives and that he believes will lead others on their own path to success. All proceeds from sales of All the Right Reasons benefit the USANA Foundation to help feed hungry children worldwide.
Kevin earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from Brigham Young University. He and his wife, Lori, have four children and seven grandchildren.
USANA Health Sciences is more than a company for Kevin Guest. It represents lives changed. It’s hundreds of thousands of people worldwide who have benefited from USANA’s renowned nutritional supplements and effective business model. Kevin, now USANA CEO, has contributed to that meaningful change in various roles since Day 1. Founded in 1992, USANA — The Cellular Nutrition Company — creates science-based health products and provides rewarding opportunities for its global network of Independent Associates and Preferred Customers.
Kevin worked closely with USANA in its early days. He helped produce the company’s videos and events as a managing partner with FMG Productions in Salt Lake City. When USANA brought FMG in-house to form USANA Studios in 2004, Kevin became USANA’s Vice President of Media and Events. Kevin guided USANA’s sales and marketing through much of the next decade. In 2014 the company named him president and the following year, USANA CEO. In 2020, Kevin began serving as Chairman of the Board, as well as CEO. As CEO, Kevin’s overseen record company growth as well as new product development, strategic marketing, and USANA’s audio, video, and event productions worldwide. He’s heavily involved in the USANA Foundation, a non-profit that provides food and nutrition to help ensure impoverished children and families reach their fullest potential. All proceeds from Kevin’s book, All the Right Reasons, will benefit the Foundation. Continuing the collision of worlds, working with country music superstar Collin Raye has influenced this global CEO to power through pandemic pressures with lessons for everyone.
"After inviting country music superstar Collin Raye to perform at our company's annual convention, I was invited by Collin himself to perform with his band on tour," said Kevin Guest, author, musician and CEO of USANA Health Sciences. "Collin said he saw my passion for music and wanted me to tour with his band part-time. I was astonished, thrilled and terrified all at once."
From that experience, USANA's full-time chairman and CEO was reminded of three aspects that can help today's workers through the global pandemic: passion, hard work and actual performing.
"I had a passion for music from an early age," said Guest. "My dream as a kid was to become a rock star, to play music for adoring fans, maybe even to be heard on the radio. Creating, composing and performing music was my passion. I day-dreamed for hours, imagining myself on stage in front of tens of thousands of screaming admirers who loved my music. That dream was a driving force in my life, so performing with Collin Raye was a dream come true."
Guest writes in his bestselling book, All the Right Reasons: 12 Timeless Principles for Living a Life in Harmony, that his parents loved music so much his dad bought a piano before buying a car and rode a bike to work with Guest's mom on the back of the bike on trips to the store. The indelible lesson on Guest was 'when you really want something, make it happen,' which Guests dubs 'The Piano Principle' in his book.
"I really wanted to make this happen, so I worked my heart out to be flawless because it was Collin's career and product I was presenting on stage," he said. "I spent hours learning the music and honing my skills. Although I love to play music, that was hard work, and I honestly wondered if I had bitten off more than I could chew. So, instead of relaxing after working a full day at USANA, I learned how to play every one of Collin Raye's songs."
Guest writes, according to psychology professor Angela Duckworth, extraordinary success is a combination of passion, perseverance and grit, which she says is far more important to achievement than natural talent and is a better predictor of success than virtually any other quality or measurement.
"The next step is to perform, to get on stage and take your best shot, whether that be to your boss, your team or to larger audiences," Guest said. "That act alone makes the preparation real and helps a person improve. Working with Collin Raye has allowed me to play with and meet some of the finest musicians on the planet in some of the most famous settings in the music world. I've performed with Collin when we shared the stage with Brooks and Dunn, Keith Urban, Diamond Rio and many others, even playing at Nashville's Grand Ole Opry more than once, something that would've never happened had I not taken these steps."
With the pandemic influencing work and personal lives for months ahead, Guest recommends pursuing your passion, working hard to improve your skills and performing in front of others for accountability.
"When you combine those three steps, you'll find your work not only becomes more enjoyable, but you get better at doing the things you're passionate about," he said. "In these times, that may be the best way to find harmony and balance in a less-than normal daily schedule."
All the Right Reasons: 12 Timeless Principles for Living a Life in Harmony is available on Amazon. All proceeds feed hungry children, with each book purchase providing 40 meals.
For more information, please visit: www.kevinguest.com