You may or may not have heard, Beachbody decided to axe the multi level business model and move to an affiliate marketing model.

They’ve joined the ranks of Advocare, Rodan & Fields, Seint, Beauty Counter, and others who’ve quit the network marketing model in recent times.

This announcement is heartbreaking, soul crushing, interesting and unfortunately, somewhat predictable.

In this post, I’m going to share with you the most interesting part of the the saga, something you may have missed in the spreading beach body news on social media, along with what it all means and what you might do to protect yourself, your income and your family, from stuff like this in the future.

First, the heartbreaking.

This is a post from a beach body leader in my home town.

Anger from the post, sadness and tears in the picture.

All understandable.

Since I’ve been in this exact spot on more than on occasion, I’ll add betrayal and shock to the mix from my own personal experiences.

A business that was supposed to give you long term residual income, lifestyle, freedom and flexibility – not just for you but for those you love most – gone.

One you poured your soul into, your time, your money, your belief, your skills, your leadership, your heart.

This is the human side of the beach body changes story that you’re not gonna get in the “Corporate Announcement.”

In fact, if you read the press release issued by Beach Body to the NASDAQ, one thing you might notice, as I did, something very important missing.

Empathy.

It’s all focused on corporate profitability, reducing expenses, and an exciting new future for the company and shareholders.

Where’s the apology for all the reps who built their lives and their futures on the business model that was just snatched out from under them like a rug?

It’s not there, at all.

And this was the case in each and every company that did something similar to me.

They were focused on themselves, the company, etc. and gave little to no acknowledgement for the trail of broken promises and dreams that their decision(s) had inflicted.

It’s just not right.

If you are one of the reps affected by this change, I want to say that you’ll get through this. As dark as it might feel, there’s a brighter day ahead. You can pick yourself up, you can move forward and you can create even more prosperity than you had before, if – that is, you don’t quit on your dreams and the people you’re here to serve.

Trust me, as someone who’s been in your exact spot.

“In every apparent setback lies the seed of an equal or greater advantage.” -NapoleonHill

Now for, what seems to me, the most interesting part of the story.

Beach body didn’t just leave the network marketing business model, they slapped it down on their way out.

The executive chairman, had this to say, in the press release.

“We recognize that in light of today’s current market dynamics, as well as consumer preferences, the multi-level marketing distribution model is outdated and unsustainable. The evolution to the affiliate model offers a simpler, more modern approach to customer acquisition and will directly reward the seller for their effort. The organizational challenges and complexity of the MLM approach has weighed on the Company’s turnaround and the ability of Partners to optimize their potential. We are confident this shift will be beneficial to stakeholders and to new potential participants. I look forward to sharing more details on our third quarter earnings call.”
~Nasdaq Press Release

Wow.

That’s a stunning statement from an executive of a company doing 100 million or so in annual sales.

Is it true?

Is the network marketing business model “outdated and unsustainable?”

I don’t know.

What I do know is that some of this stuff was somewhat predictible, at least 8 years ago.

After having spent 11 years in the network marketing profession myself, some of those years being somewhat successful having reached #1 earner and recruiter status in one company, I started to see things that made me question whether or not I wanted to spend the rest of my career, trusting the network marketing model (and more specifically MLM company owners) with my family’s future.

Here’s a recent podcast interview that details what I saw, along with some factual trend data on the network marketing profession for the last 10 to 20 years.

What do do about it?

Having seen this type of thing happen too many times to myself and my friends here would be my recommendations for moving forward in the home business profession in a way that gives you the best chances of solidifying a residual income far off into the future.

First, never trust a company that is beholden to shareholders (publicly traded).

Publicly traded companies have bosses, and those bosses are every person who owns shares of stock in the company.

Their #1 responsibility is to increase share value which of course is closely related to profitibility.

If you look into the Beach Body changes news, you’ll see that they were struggling financially and they had to find a way to cut costs.

Guess what, if you’re getting paid as a rep, your income is an expense and will be one of the first things to go in tough times.

Second, never rely on one stream of income.

When I was building in the network marketing model, I quickly realized that my team needed leads, training and tools that would help me and them leverage our time.

Not only that, but OTHER mlm teams needed the same stuff.

Why not sell those things, in a way that allowed me to build a 2nd stream of income alongside my mlm income?

That’s exactly what I did and that secondary income stream has saved me on more than one occasion when my MLM went bust for one reason or another.

On top of that, while you’re building, save your money and learn to invest in ways that will allow the money you make to produce yet another stream of residual income.

Home business has the potential to retire you from your job and investing has the potential to retire you from home business.

Third, build yourself, your skills, your brand and your following

Your MLM company is not your brand. If it is, your brand goes bust with the company, and that’s out of your control.

What’s in your control?

YOU and what YOU do and how YOU treat people.

If you realize that people are following you, not the company, you can continue to serve those people even if “the company” goes away.

If they trust you, they will follow you and continue to buy from you as you re-build something better in the future.

*An email list / newsletter makes this MUCH easier.

Conclusion

I’m not perfect, no one is. This is a terrible conversation to have and my heart goes out to anyone affected by something like this.

What makes it more frustrating to me is that, as I mentioned above, so many of these situations can be predicted and guarded against with the simple steps I’ve mentioned in this post.

Unfortunately, many people have a hard time listening to the lived experience of others and seem hell bent on learning some of these lessons the hard way.

Alas, upward and onward is the best choice we can all make in whatever situation we might find ourselves.

Thanks for reading and whatever you do, always go for your dreams!

Paul