Make Wellness Exposed: A Candid Discussion On MLM Practices

Alright. So this is gonna be part 2 of my final thoughts on what is going on within Make Wellness. As I have mentioned, I do not have the bandwidth to be affiliated with the company anymore.

There are way too many red flags I discussed in last week’s episode, as well as continuing on in this one. I do believe it needs to be addressed though, which is why I made this a 2 part series. But after this, we can move on and have all of our normal chats. But I want you to have informed consent. I want you to hear about my personal experience.

Please remember that everything I talk about is for entertainment purposes. It is my own personal thoughts, experiences, and opinions. These are not hard facts. Please do your own research when it comes to all of this. Okay. Let’s continue on with the conversation.

Disassociation from Make Wellness

Going into my red flags about Make Wellness. This was one of the number one red flags for me. Leaders who were previously encouraging people to sign up with Beachbody, despite knowing it was a sinking chip, all of a sudden switching over to Make Wellness.

Now I have seen the compensation plan. And for every 100 people that they can convince, quite frankly, to purchase a $500 Founders box, You know, even though the economy is in a tailspin, we can’t afford gas, we can’t afford our groceries.

Not to mention, like, not for anything, people struggled to purchase a $160 challenge pack. Now you want them to drop $500… Please.

So for every 100 people, these top leaders are gonna receive a $20,000 bonus, on top of all the other commissions. K? This is just a bonus. I want you to do the math.

Now do I think every person that they bring over is going to buy? No. I don’t. It’s just math.

And I hope that the more people that listen to this podcast episode, they’ll think about canceling their box before buying, or not even buy you know, like, they’ll do more research before buying.

But when you’re bringing over 600, 800, a 1000 plus people, I’d like your chances of accruing multiple $20,000 bonuses. Okay? Let’s talk about this one.

Concerns about legality and complexity surrounding the Make Wellness compensation plan

You have people out here, no joke, encouraging folks to circumvent federal law. So the way the supplement industry works is you gotta cross all your t’s and dot your i’s with the three letter agencies. Right? Well, the thing is, America doesn’t have the best standards.

So that’s why even with Beachbody, when I would talk about, say, our supplement Shakeology, I would talk about how, you know, the fact that we were able to have Shakeology in the UK. Because in the UK, first of all, they have more regulations than we do. They don’t just put all this crap on the shelves.

But it wasn’t a luxury tax, it was actually a food item. They considered that, so you weren’t getting double taxed essentially. So if it was just like fake or this or that, there would have been an extra tax on it. But in the UK, they considered it no.

These are actually coming from, you know, plants, yada yada yada. Well, this takes time. This takes years years years. So the Make products are not approved in Canada.

Encouragement to circumvent federal law to sell in Canada

But yet, you have Canadians who are very, very excited about it. And they and I’m not talking about top leaders. Because top leaders who are from Canada, they know they’re not gonna be able to do what I’m about to tell you, what was being shared. They’re smart enough. So what they’ve decided to do is they’re abandoning Make. They’re not going to it.

They’re going to other network marketing companies that the products are already in Canada. Smart move on their part. But the little guy is trusting these top leaders who say, oh, you know, don’t worry about it. There’s a workaround.

There’s a workaround. You know, just create a USA bank account, then you can ship the product to your friend in the United States, and then, like, you can go to x y z website, and get your product shipped over the board. Like, what?

I’m sorry. If you have to avoid that much red tape in order to get a product or starting a business, like, that’s a red flag. It shouldn’t be that difficult. It’s actually just illegal. Right?

Like, this is what we’re encouraging people to do, so that they purchase the box, so that you can get closer to your bonus. Get out of here with that noise. Okay. So, another red flag for me.

My problem With The ‘I Am’ Make Wellness’s Product Naming Strategy

There are 6 products. And, attached to all of these products now, I didn’t know this initially. You gotta remember, so much of this information has come to light in the last 3 weeks. Because they’ve really been amping up the founders box. Right? Let’s give it a month.

It was like 4 weeks because I really started noticing things, when I was back up north. So it’s definitely been almost almost 4 weeks. So they’ve been really amping up this launch, so more and more information has been coming out.

Well, the more information you’re putting out, the more people have to vet said information. If you obviously want informed consent, which I always want, and I always encourage you to have. So with these 6 products, I thought they were just gonna be called like fit, lean, hydrated.

What they’ve done is they have attached I am statements. So I am fit. I am lean. I am hydrated, and so on and so forth. You get the picture.

Now, for me, as a Christian, there is only one I am. And I find it extremely ironic that these ladies that love saying, like, Jesus, put this opportunity in front of me. I, you know, I spoke to the Holy Spirit, you know, whatever. K?

They have no qualms about aligning themselves with a company product whatever that uses the type of language that they’re using within make. Now, I understand the importance of being positive, having self worth, etcetera. But this language was very off putting for me.

It’s as if the product was going to make me these things. It was gonna make me fit, make me lean, not actually my creator.

Misleading claims about “unique” plant-based peptide formula

It felt very gross to me. Another red flag was the ingredients. Now, I’ll be the first to say, I definitely should have researched this harder, but the problem was they didn’t release the full ingredient list until a few weeks ago.

I’m not even kidding you. K? So mind you, keep in the back of your mind, like, people are signing up in droves, 60,000 people, and no one’s even like seeing this. They’re not tasting the product. They’re not seeing even the freaking ingredients until the last couple of weeks.

K? And so they had been touting this as a one of a kind product, never been done before, groundbreaking, new technology. But, spoiler alert, I’ve actually found other supplements out there with the plant based peptide of the fava beans formula in it.

Now, albeit it isn’t the exact formula, and it is in capsule form, But, I digress, like tomato tomato, to be honest with you. The point is it’s not brand new. They’ve just been using fantastic marketing, or lying. However you wanna look at it.

So, that was just a major major red flag.

Complex nature of Make Wellness’s compensation plan compared to Beachbody’s

Now, coinciding with all of this information, a lot of people have been asking me, like because the way that Make is being promoted is, yes, it’s it’s a network marketing company, but they’re really saying like, oh, you can be an affiliate, share your link, be you know, you don’t have to build a team, you don’t have to have binary legs, like all the things that are traditional in network marketing.

Now, listen. I made my success in Beachbody by figuring out the compensation plan, figuring out where to place people, understanding the team cycle bonuses, all of it. K? When I tell you it is the most confusing compensation plan I have ever seen when it comes to Make Wellness.

I can’t even really tell you how people are gonna make this kind of money. There’s there’s circles, and then there’s founders bonus. It’s like, it’s not clear how to do it. And I gotta be real, like, if for me now granted, like, my bandwidth is small right now, so I was kinda like half heartedly looking at it to a certain extent.

But, like, at the end of the day, if it was that difficult for me to understand, and that’s my thing, that’s my jam, how overwhelmed are most people gonna be?

How much money is going to get left on the table? Because that’s what all these big companies really want to happen. They don’t want you to get paid. I’m just being honest.

And I’ve talked about that before and I’ve shared that with my personal journey with Beachbody that while, yes, I’m sure there are a ton of people who fell in rank and were just collecting checks. Well, for me, I may have not had a a big high rank.

Cross-Company Restrictions

I always maintained a smaller rank, but I maxed it out. And so when Beachbody changed their compensation plan, they really hurt me. They literally cut my income in half. And I believe that was intentional, because they knew there were other people like me who had figured out how to maximize the comp plan.

So, that was another big issue for me. So when people are asking me like, how come all of a sudden these coaches are saying like, they weren’t allowed to talk about or share their links while they’re with Beachbody, and now they’re so excited to share. Let me lay that out for you.

So we weren’t allowed to be part of another network marketing company and share another network marketing company’s products. Like, even if there was no competitive edge to it.

So let’s say, Rodan and Fields, rest in peace. Right? PS. Another red flag, Britney Spears’ mom who was with Rodan and Fields is now with Make. Okay? If you know, you know. Back on track. Okay.

Beachbody’s ban on members joining other MLMs to protect intellectual property

So you wouldn’t be able to share that even though it was a skincare company and say in Beachbody or fitness, you weren’t allowed to talk about those products, share those products. Specifically, if you had hit what is the star diamond level within Beachbody, which means, you know, you’re you’re building a team.

You have an organization. And the main reason for that is the intellectual property of leads, you know, the emails that you’re getting from that, all of their contact information. They didn’t want you to have access to that and then promote other things, including yourself. K?

And it it makes sense. And I don’t think that that was the worst thing ever, that they didn’t allow you to do that and, like, cross pollinate with other MLMs. Side note.

Here’s another red flag. I read that currently, Make Wellness, they do allow you to be part of another MLM, but they stated that that is something that they might be looking at changing down the line.

So, they’re already moving the goal post. Alright? Anyway, so if you start making a certain amount of income, and obviously you’re hitting that certain rank, MLMs don’t want you competing with other MLMs.

And you have to remember, my background is in finance. So in the corporate world, they have something called garden leave. So for example, say I was working for Deutsche Bank, and I decided I was gonna take on a new opportunity at Goldman Sachs. Deutsche Bank would put me on what is called garden leave.

What that means is I cannot start working at Goldman right away. Usually, they do about like 6 months at least. And the reason for this is they don’t want you taking all of your contacts. They don’t want you taking the research and development.

You know, they they don’t want you just popping over with your rolodex and, you know, hitting the ground. AKA, they don’t want you doing what the people do in freaking MLMs where you leave the company and you take a whole damn downline with you and shoot to the ranks yada yada.

Like these are all red flags by the way for the FTC. And I truly believe that was one of the major issues with Beachbody was most of their sales were coming from consultants, partners, coaches, whatever you wanna call them.

They weren’t coming from Joe Schmo who, you know, is sitting in their car hearing a Beachbody ad on the radio. It was people who were already vested in the company, and that is against the law.

And I can already feel the writing on the wall that Make might be headed down that path as well.

So anyway, you know, in in MLM world, it seems the rules don’t apply. But in the corporate world, they don’t allow this. They don’t allow you to leave a company and go to a new competitor. So you have to understand to a certain extent why network marketing companies create this rule, so to speak, in their policies and procedures.

Affiliate Marketing and Industry Distrust

It makes sense. Now, where I had an issue was the whole rules for the not me situation. If you’re gonna make a rule, make it the same for everyone. You know, it shouldn’t be because someone is say a top coach, she’s allowed to do x y z, but I’m not.

Because I’m a lonely emerald coach or whatever. Right? That’s crap. Also, they had this other issue pop up and this definitely affected my life, but they didn’t want you involved with any kind of affiliate where you would sign someone up. One person, not like legs and all these bonuses and all that whatever.

It was just, hey, like, I referred this friend to the company, they’re killing it. I introduced them to it, so I earned a percentage of whatever their sales were. There are a few companies that do do this, and it’s an affiliate model.

Bypassing restrictions by top coaches

Well, Beachbody tried saying like, it wasn’t allowed. But once again, there were top coaches that were doing it, and other people were getting gaslit into not doing it. Or hey, you know, someone’s gonna narc on you or it’s awful.

But meanwhile, like, to me, and quite frankly, this is why I reached out to legal and said this. I was like, alright.

So you mean to tell me, like, you’re basically telling me what I can and can’t do as far as opportunities and like putting food into my family’s income, you know, into our household. Like, you’re telling me I can’t be a part of another company, not a network marketing company, just a company where I refer someone who I personally know, am friends with, didn’t meet through Beachbody…

Like, call it your neighbor, call it your sister, whatever. You’re trying to tell me that, like, we can’t partner up together in something that has nothing to do with the company because of some kind of bylaw that you randomly have in your policy and procedures, which is kind of a gray area just to kinda like pick and choose who it applies to and who it doesn’t. Yeah. That doesn’t fly.

And sure enough, when I reached out to legal, no one ever wrote me back. So I just kept doing what I was doing, quite frankly. And I just kept it to myself because I will say this to a humble interface. I don’t trust people within network marketing. I just don’t.

Significant distrust in network marketing industry

If you know, you know. If you haven’t experienced it, at some point you will. I literally don’t trust any of these mofos, I swear.

They’re all out for themselves. Unless you are one of my people. I’m just calling what it is. Like, my people or my people, you know, and this is just the truth. Everyone is out for themselves. And that’s not a body problem that’s everywhere. It’s Arbonne, it’s Monet, it’s now Make, it’s Shaklee.

I don’t care where it is. They’re all out for themselves. Hugh and Grace, you name it. Which is why, you know, you have these coaches all of a sudden saying, oh, now I can share my link. Yes. A lot of them couldn’t or they were afraid to. They were afraid that compliance would go after them.

So there is some truth to what they’re saying. But some of them are just trying to act all excited about new said venture. Right? Like, it’s like a half truth, which to me is also like a full lie. So I get it, like, this whole situation sucks.

You’re losing 1,000 thousands of customers. But to be real, don’t be too sad about it because download your customer list and make sure you save it. And just know that the company is probably not gonna exist in a year.

Beachbody’s Current Struggles

So, you know, it it’s all gonna come out in the wash.

They’re cutting products. They’re just they’re struggle. It’s a struggle bus right now. And and and also, I don’t think a lot of people appreciate this about affiliates. People were shocked.

And I even heard some people say like, I’m waiting for Beachbody to change their mind about, you know, letting us keep our customers. And they’re not gonna do that, homie. First of all, most affiliate programs don’t do that. They don’t give you access to even purchase.

You know, there are a few that do, but very few do that. It it’s a privacy issue. They don’t wanna be sharing they certainly don’t wanna be sharing the physical address, which Beachbody did.

Concerns about sharing detailed customer information

You knew where your person physically lived. Obviously, you had their email, you would even have their phone number. So affiliate programs don’t do that. So I didn’t think that that was a really weird thing that Beachbody did. A lot of people are really butthurt about that.

I’m like, apparently, you’re not really an affiliate. Because that’s just not what goes on. It just goes to show me how so many of these people just put all their eggs in that Beachbody basket.

They shouldn’t have done that. They should have been exploring the options of affiliate marketing.

Anyway, the other piece was the rules for the and not me, is a lot of coaches were allowed to, yes, do affiliate marketing with quite frankly competitive products. A lot of coaches didn’t even bat an eye creating their own offer, creating their own coaching and mentorship programs.

And then meanwhile, if a little guy tried doing it, it would get shut down.

So that’s just the nature of the beast, quite frankly. And so one last thing in regards to some of those Beachbody announcements because I just wanna make sure I say this.

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Transparency, Integrity, and Personal Experience with Beachbody

I get it. But, like, why can’t we be transparent about what we’re doing? Right? Be honest. People would respect you a lot more if you said, listen, I gotta be real. This is all I really know what to do.

I gotta align myself with a company that I think is the best opportunity for my family. I think I’m gonna enjoy the products, because there are other people who are signing folks up to an opportunity it wasn’t even Make, and they hadn’t even tried the damn products about their new company.

You know, tell people you’re gonna learn about them. Be transparent about why you’re moving where you are.

Be transparent about your freaking bridge payments, about the bonuses you’re getting for bringing in x amount of people. Be transparent about it, because what’s happening is you’re losing your audience. They’re not trusting you. And I’m seeing that because people are unfollowing people that they were loyal followers of. The Reddit threads are on just a next level right now. And so people, they get it.

And, you know, I stayed with Beachbody for as long as I did until the wave crashed. And they said it’s over, because I believe in the products. They changed my life. I got into the best shape of my life, not once, not twice, but I’m on my way to a 3rd.

Right? You know, some 2 babies in between. I loved the people I worked with. I didn’t get involved with the drama.

I remember sitting at our annual conference one time, and I think it was, like, in 2017 or something like that. I don’t know. And they announced who the top coach was, and I was like, I don’t even know who the hell that is. Like, to me, it was irrelevant. You’re just a normal person.

You aren’t a celebrity. I just never wanted to be roped up into all that, and I am pretty damn proud of myself that, okay, I did make it onto the Reddit threads, but it was for being the conspiracy theory Beachbody coach. K? I’ll die on that hill, and you know what? I was right. Gotcha.

Leaving Network Marketing: A Personal Decision and Industry Reflection

So with that being said, I am taking all of this experience that I have been through in the last, let’s call it month. And it’s just affirming what I had initially said that when Beachbody dissolves, I will never do network marketing again.

I don’t have the bandwidth to sit here and defend a company that I honestly don’t have any ties to, nor an industry that is quite frankly revealing itself to be quite dark. And for the last decade, I saw certain instance pop up.

For the most part, like, my experience was great. I never got sucked into the garbage. I signed up with Make with a free link, you know, and I was encouraging people. I was like, here, you know, this is where I’m learning. This is a free link, but like, I’m not purchasing the products. Okay? It’s just I’m not doing it.

I don’t wanna be affiliated with it. And you gotta make sure you’re vetting, as I have been, what you’re getting involved with.

You really need to. And the other thing I want you to be aware of is you’re gonna get people who are trying to pull you in to say Make. And with all of this information coming out, because it’s being shared everywhere, you’re also gonna have the opportunists.

And I’ve already seen that happening, where I’ve been sharing about this, and then random former top coaches from Beachbody are all of a sudden following me. Like, I’ve been with the company for almost 10 years, and now you’re following me? Get the hell out of here. Or other network marketing companies.

And I’ll tell you why. There’s a couple of reasons. But the main reason is they wanna see what are you sharing, Maren? Because I wanna be able to use that information to my advantage.

Because they want to share what I’m sharing about Make, to hopefully say, hey, you don’t wanna be involved with Make, but you should come over to where I’m at. Because, you know, we don’t do x y z.

I’m telling you, every single person has a freaking agenda.

Personal Beliefs and Future Focus

Okay? And I know there are people out there right now who are really trying to lift this veil and, like, protect the little guy and go after the big guy and tell people not to get involved with direct sales and network marketing.

And listen, like, if that’s the hill you’re willing to go die on, like, bless. But for me, that’s not my hill. I’ve shared my story with you. Take it for what it’s worth.

But for me, the hill that I’m gonna die on is men shouldn’t be playing in women’s sports. I’m gonna die on the hill that, you know, we need to feel safe in our communities.

So something needs to be done about the border. Okay?

I’m gonna die on the hill that we need to make changes to the ingredients in our baby’s food, in our water.

My hill isn’t, don’t get involved with network marketing because of x, y, z. Like, no. There are more important things out there. So I want to just say my piece. It’s out here.

This is a long episode, so definitely a 2 parter, and I appreciate you being around for it. I just want you to know what’s going on.

Make your own decision. If you wanna try the products, great. Fantastic.

You know, keep your account. Nothing lost, nothing gained. Right? What I will say is I’m seeing that some people who did cancel their box had a good friend of mine tell me that her account was charged $999.

And other people are saying that their credit cards are calling them saying, like, what is this? This is fraud. So take that for what it’s worth.

So I will say this again, I am not purchasing the product. I’m not gonna talk about it. I already deleted all the highlights off of my Instagram page. I just don’t even really care to be associated with it.

I’m gonna continue to water where I’m planted, and where I’m planted is with my family, and with my 1 on 1 clients, and everyone who does my workshops, because I can’t get involved with this BS drama.

Integrity and Professional Life

I can’t. I don’t have time for it. I did it for over 10 years with Beachbody. But at least I knew in my heart and in my soul that when I would defend my position in Beachbody, what I was defending was right and it was true.

Which is why at the end, I stopped recruiting.

Like, I still would promote the products. I still drink them to this day and do the workouts. And if you were a customer and you said, hey, Maren, like, can I have a link for energized? Yeah.

Sure. I would send it to you. I mean, I drink it every freaking day.

But I’m not gonna recruit to my team because I have integrity. And because I have integrity, and because I have to put my hand on the pillow, and because I know that my audience has so much damn trust in me, and I do not take that for granted.

I need you to know that. It’s very important to me.

I cannot do make wellness. I can’t align with it.

That’s because, 1, on a personal level, I value trust more than anything. And if someone breaks it with me, I can cut you off real cold. Like, I can cut people off very, very easily. If you know, you know.

And I want people to trust me. I’ve built my reputation on that. And as a friend, I need you to trust me.

And third of all, I’m really smart. I don’t have a problem saying that. And from a business standpoint, I can’t bring you into something, knowing that there’s potential for you to lose really, really bad. And I’m not just gonna sit here and say, you know, Jesus put this in front of me. Jesus is my homeboy, which is why I get so jacked up when these chicks are using it.

Preserving Trust and Integrity: Why I’m Stepping Away from Network Marketing

That’s a whole another story. If I tried to coax you into this dumpster fire, you would lose all trust in me. My integrity that I’ve built, it would be gone. And you know what else would be gone? All of the hard work that I’ve put into my own personal offers, my UGC workshop. You know, it sells out.

I anticipate my Amazon workshop doing the same. My one on one clients who invest a lot of time and money to work with me, that would be gone. And that’s a 100% profit. For whom? Me. Right?

So from a business standpoint, to align myself with me to lose all of that, no. So between all of the personal stuff and, you know, honoring my audience financially for my family, I’m not gonna throw it all by the wayside for a company that I don’t owe anything to. I’m not. I just wanted everyone to understand where I’m coming from.

I’ve been very open about this whole Make Wellness thing.

My emphasis is focusing on positivity and successful community interactions

I just can’t get consumed by it. So, you know, this is my piece. Hopefully, I don’t get consumed with a ton of DMs about it. I’m tapping out. And when I wake up in the morning, you know what I wanna see?

I wanna see messages like, hey, Maren, I just leveled up to level 2 in your UGC group. I just got another certification. I just got another job locked in. I just got my biggest job. I have 5 jobs waiting in the queue, like, all of those messages.

That’s what I wanna wake up to. That positivity. I don’t wanna wake up to this so and so influencers, you know, sharing this, and did you see this happening, and this one’s burning down this MLM.

Who cares? Like, honestly. We have one of the most, if not the, important elections coming up, and that’s what we should be focused on.

Because that’s gonna determine the future for our families, which is the most important part. Let people make their own decisions. Let’s talk about things that are actually important.

Because even if you get involved with direct sales and the company doesn’t work out, your life’s gonna go on. So, please. I beg of you, like, to move on from all of it. Because these people who are just stirring the pot and not providing a means for you to earn an income for your family, honestly, like, that’s just white noise.

It’s almost as bad as the people who are preying on the little guys to join them in their network marketing business. So if you’re listening to this and you clicked my Make Wellness link, you know where I stand. I hope everyone can appreciate it and know that I’m allowing you to make your own decision. Right?

Like and this is just based upon my experience and I hope you don’t hold anything against me if you do continue to go with Make. Like, I’m being very open about this. And the reason why I am sharing this is because in the almost 11 years of direct sales, like, it’s not as if I haven’t made mistakes. I’m not trying to say I didn’t. Of course, I did.

I was a part of the hustle culture for a while. Yeah. There was a time where I was sending 50 messages a day. Like, I did those things, and it didn’t feel good to me, so I stopped. I couldn’t do it. It didn’t feel right.

And that was, like, for about 2 years. In the beginning, I was just sharing, doing what I do, talking to people, sharing my drinks, sharing my workouts.

It was me, it was authentic. And then it became competitive, and you gotta build a team, and you gotta do this, and you gotta send all these messages. I mean, I’m an introvert. I kinda like talking to anyone.

I mean, I’m talking to you, but I feel like I’m talking to myself because I literally am. It’s who I am now. Like and so yeah. For a few years, I did definitely get sucked into that culture, and I didn’t like it.

And there was a definite burnout factor that was involved with it. And then finally in like 2019, 2020, the gloves came off for me and I just really started being me.

Anyway, I appreciate your time. I will continue to keep you updated on my Instagram about what’s going on. I won’t harp on it on these podcast episodes. 2 episodes about this is enough.

So make sure you follow me on my stories @macrowley. I really value you and I want you to know that and I thank you. This hasn’t been easy to put it all together And there’s a lot going on in my life right now, but I wanted to make sure that I shared this and that I still have your trust and that I continue to walk with integrity because my 2 little babies, that’s who I do everything for.

And I need to teach them that this is the right thing to do. Money’s gonna come and go. Money will always come and go, quite frankly. But it’s about doing and earning an income in the right way.

You gotta be able to put your head on the pillow at night, be a positive influence for your family, that’s what this is about. My 2 little girls, I want them to look at their mommy and know that, yeah, times got hard, but my mommy still did the right thing.