Interview by: Ty Yurshus “Not So Common” magazine 10 June 2026

I conducted this interview with Pedro J. Ayala on 28 May 2026. Pedro is a US Army veteran who after almost 37 years in the military realized there was a lot more to life than what most everyone he knows was doing.

He and his wife Ramona have a thriving silver and gold network marketing business and are living a truly blissful, remarkable life.

I had been trying to catch up with him for several months, and he was a tough cat to find. I did have a phone conversation with him several months ago, on 17 February 2026, and he informed me he would not do an interview over the phone. I would have to catch up with him during his travels.

I finally caught up with Pedro and his wife Ramona on the Appalachian Trail somewhere in a campground near Shady Valley, Virginia. I was at the campground early that morning hoping to catch Pedro and finally interview him. Late in the afternoon of the 28th, I finally saw Pedro and his wife emerge from a trail and walking towards their camper.

I was waiting by their campsite as they approached. Pedro was wearing a canvas wide brim hat, a t-shirt that read “In Harmony with all of God’s creation”, quick drying olive drab cargo pants, hiking boots, and carrying hiking poles.

His wife Ramona was wearing a very colorful jersey material visor style hat, a long sleeve quick drying shirt that read the same as Pedro’s, and quick drying greyish cargo style pants, hiking boots and carrying hiking poles. They were both smiling and laughing as they approached me.

When they got closer, Pedro smiled, probably the warmest most genuine smile I have ever seen, and said, “Mr. Yurshus, I am very happy we finally get to meet you, please join us!” He continued, “I hope you’re not in a hurry, if we’re going to talk, I will have to insist you join us for a campfire cooked meal” and he smiled that smile again.

Well, I had been waiting there all day, I was pretty hungry, and I still wanted the interview. Pedro worked on the fire, as Ramona gathered things from their camper. They prepped and cooked together like a well-oiled machine, smiling and almost looked as if they were dancing as they prepared a delicious meal. There was venison, asparagus, the best macaroni and cheese I have ever tasted, and fresh tossed salad.

We sat to eat, and Pedro, again with that smile, said, “Ok Mr. Yurshus, we’re sharing a meal by a campfire, what’s on your mind?”

So, I asked, “how does a person achieve the success in network marketing, get to travel, and live the exceptional life you and Ramona have?”

Pedro looked at Ramona, smiled, then looked at me and said: “So you’re looking for the secret sauce?” I said,“I guess so; there must be some secret, right?”

Pedro looked all around, stood up, walked around the campsite, touching the plants, trees, he reached down, grabbed dirt from the ground, smelled it, rubbed it between his hands, then walked back, sat down on his camping chair next to the fire and began to talk.

“Mr. Yurshus, Ramona and I started this journey several years ago when I retired from the military. We had decided that we would start collecting assets. We started buying gold and silver from different places, and one day, a friend approached us and introduced us to a company where we could purchase our precious metals and if we were interested, we could also generate income by sharing the information.”

“Ramona and I were not initially interested in the sharing thing, but we signed up. A year later, we saw the value of this company and what they offered and we decided that maybe we could make a go at the business side of our membership.”

“We started sharing like crazy, but it didn’t seem people were getting the message. What are we doing wrong? Well, I thought I knew exactly how to do the business and surely I could make it work.”

Pedro stood up went to the camper and grabbed several cups. He served himself some coffee which had been brewing over the fire and asked Ramona and I if we wanted some. We both wanted coffee, so he poured two more cups, sat back down and continued.

“Where was I?” Ramona looked at him tenderly and said, “You were about to tell Ty about our first step to greatness.”

Pedro continued. “We were obviously missing something, probably more than just one thing. Then about three years ago we were introduced to a person who is in our company, and is very successful. We will call him C.H.”

Ramona and I looked at each other and said “We need to follow whatever system this guy is using” C.H. was teaching the system and demonstrating the system to anyone who wanted to learn. And let me tell you Ty, that alone was outstanding, but C.H. and his beautiful wife C. took it a step further: they showed us a way to find the rest of the ingredients to the “secret sauce”.

They introduced us to Mark J, Davene, Lori, Jen, and the rest of the team and…… well you will have to research all the details on this yourself…….CH and C brought to us Color Code, Standing Tall, and the Master Key Experience from Mark J and his team and that’s where Ramona and I found the “secret sauce.”

Pedro’s face showed the age and ruggedness of probably hard years of military service and hard work, but yet an unexplainable youth in his eyes and his smile.

He continued, “You see Ty, we all have the right ingredients within us, but we also have a lot of garbage ingredients that we’ve allowed in through our lives and experiences. The “secret sauce” is your heart’s desire, and there is where it all came together for us.”

“I knew I loved the product, I learned the system from C.H. and other successful persons in the business, and I figured out what my heart’s desire is, and that my friend, brought everything together, all the ingredients for the secret sauce.”

“I now have my own team which keeps growing because when they were willing to run, I trained them, I demonstrated the system to them over and over, and now they’re duplicating it, and they’re building teams who build teams without me. I am blissful, I’m bringing in $10,000 a week.”

“We have the freedom to travel at will. We are spending time with my creator’s creation everywhere we travel. I am grateful to my Heavenly father seeing, touching, smelling, feeling all his creation as Ramona and I travel all across our country and around the world.”

At this point Pedro stands up, tugs on his t-shirt and asked me: “Did you notice our shirts, they read “In Harmony with all of God’s creation?” He then took a deep breath, spun around with his arms stretched out looking skyward and Ramona and him laughed and hugged.

Pedro continued, “We are living the dream because we found our heart’s desire, we have access to a superb precious metal company like no other, we took the garbage ingredients out, we put together the good ingredients and now we’re sharing with you so you can share with all your subscribers.”

At that point Ramona went inside the camper and brought out a bottle of Koloa coffee rum, she poured three shot glasses and made a toast: “Here is to a heart’s desire and doing the work to get there.”

Even though that was the end of the interview. I stuck around and asked about this precious metal business that has made them so successful. Pedro and Ramona brought out a sort of tattered printed out presentation of the business, spent about 20 minutes presenting it to me.

I pulled out my credit card, and now I’m looking forward to experiencing my blissful life…….we did end up drinking a couple more shots of that Koloa coffee rum after I had joined, and that story is for whole other article!