Wow. I hear this over, and over, and OVER again! Someone wants to get involved with Beachbody Coaching and they have the skeptical spouse. I know what that’s like – my husband was the biggest skeptic going!
First, it’s important to keep in mind that skepticism is a good thing. It prevents us from getting taken advantage of. The problem is when your skepticism clouds the reality of what can be.
As Coaches, we are always faced with the question from others about the legitimacy of the Network Marketing business model, or MLM (Multi Level Marketing). Network marketing businesses have the ability to produce additional income, or become a primary income – it depends upon your focus and drive.
When my husband first heard about Beachbody, I can guess you know what the first words that came out of his mouth were. “Pyramid Scheme”, and to be honest, I had concerns also, which is why it took me almost three months to finally bite the bullet and sign up as a coach.
The question and concern are fair enough, so let’s address them!
He was Concerned I Would Lose Money
We came to an agreement right as I started in the coaching world that we would give it a trial run. If we couldn’t at least break even within 2 months, we would quit. Break even meant my own Shakeology costs, which in retrospect I would keep paying anyway, even if I wasn’t a coach (and as almost all of my challenge group participants do), because I love the product and how it makes me feel.
As it turns out, I actually did very well in the first 2 months, earning income, and helping almost 30 people into health & fitness programs. My husband, less than a week after signing up, was in shock with the potential. (See his face in the picture above).
So, first concern, addressed. I’m not losing money, and we are actually earning pretty good money – as of November 2014, I am at about 60% of what my salary was as a 2nd grade school teacher in Massachusetts.
Understand the Compensation Plan
A lot of guys (or at least my guy) did not want to hear the cheerleading and rah, rah rah. He wanted cold hard numbers with how things work. What does it look like to earn $10,000 a year? $20,000 a year? (I’ll make a post on this in the future).
To figure this out, you need to spend time understanding the compensation plan. It can be pretty complex, and on Day #1 when I signed up, I had no idea how it really worked or how I would get paid. My husband dipped in and did a lot of research though, including on other coaches who had made their earnings public, and tried to figure out how they got there and what their organizations looked like.
The compensation plan is too detailed to go through in this post, but the point is that understanding how it works can remove the ambiguity of how you can earn.
Combating the MLM Stigma
First off, I came into Beachbody with zero MLM experience, so I don’t have anything to compare it to. What I do know, is that Beachbody makes their money by selling real products to real people, and those people rave about it – like my husband and I did after completing P90X in 2009, five years before I became a coach.
And, Beachbody sells a LOT of it – they are close to being a billion dollar revenue company. A couple thoughts:
- You can outearn your upline. There are a myriad of ways to earn income as a Beachbody coach, but suffice it to say that you can earn more than the people above you.
- Your success is not tied to recruiting. OK, let’s be fair, to make the “big money” that you see some people earning, you need to spend time building an organization below you – but it’s not a requirement. As a matter of fact, on the statement of independent coach earnings, the highest retail seller made over $27k doing nothing but retail sales.
- The company is very responsive, as is the upline. Every time I’ve had a question I’ve been on the phone with someone from Beachbody very quickly.
- If you’ve had success with a Beachbody program, then you already know the kind of effort and dedication it takes to reach a fitness goal. It’s really no different as a coach. Like Beachbody’s slogan- decide.commit.succeed.
- The perks are awesome! Since starting I’ve earned three T-shirts, a jumprope, an exercise ball, a free trip to Summit in Nashville in 2015, a free trip to Cancun in 2015, a Camelback, a few books; all on top of the income I’ve actually earned.
- Helping people is amazing – seriously. Nothing is better than getting that email or text from a challenge group participant thanking me for including them and sharing their weight loss results and how encouraged they are.
Have questions? Come ask me, or ask in the comments below!
