If you’ve stumbled onto this review looking for information on Beachbody Coaching being a scam, you’re not alone.

There are lots of legit MLMs out there, but if you take a quick glance through any business or marketing forum online and search for Beachbody, you’ll find no shortage of people voicing their concerns about the legitimacy of the business and outright accusing it of being a Ponzi scheme.

However, like with every business venture, there is a good side and a bad side.

So, is Beachbody Coaching a scam or is it legit? I’ve looked at the good and the bad to help you make an informed decision. Here’s what I found:

First – What’s a Pyramid Scheme?

To understand Beachbody and why it’s so controversial, you first need to understand exactly what a pyramid scheme is.

Basically, a pyramid scheme is an organization that rewards those at the top of the chain with money or prizes for recruiting others into the scheme, as opposed to those who actually bring in sales themselves.

So, as long as you don’t focus on recruiting new coaches and instead just focus on selling products to customers, there’s no reason to think that Beachbody is a pyramid scheme.

Now, that’s in theory. Let’s see what Beachbody is really all about.

Beachbody Coaching: Overview

So, what is Beachbody? On one hand, Beachbody is a company that helps people get into shape. They do this by providing fitness programs and nutritionals.

They are the company behind popular fitness programs like, P90X, Insanity, Brazil Butt Lift, PiYo, 21 Day Fix, and more.

On the other, there’s Team Beachbody.

Team Beachbody is basically Beachbody on steroids. Beachbody has workout programs, nutritional supplements, and coaches. Team Beachbody has all of that, but it also has a compensation plan for their independent representatives .

 

How does Team Beachbody MLM work?

Team Beachbody is a part of the multi-level marketing industry.

It’s a bit like Herbalife or Mary Kay, but instead of beauty products, it has a network of over 400,000 coaches selling Beachbody’s original workout programs and nutritional supplements.

When you join Team Beachbody, you become a “Coach” and earn money by selling these products to your customers – either over the phone or in person.

You can also earn an income by recruiting new Coaches into the business. When someone signs up under you as a Coach, they pay you a percentage of their sales until you hit various income milestones.

There are also bonuses for achieving sales targets each week (like car bonuses) or reaching sales milestones (like condo bonuses).And even incentives for getting new people to sign up under your name as Coaches (like trips to Hawaii).

Joining Beachbody – The Process (How to do it & How much is it)

So far so good, but here is where the big catch comes in:

If you are thinking about joining Beachbody Coaching, the first thing you should know is that you’ll need to invest some money.

You can’t get started with Beachbody on a shoestring budget. It isn’t cheap.

You’ll need to pay a fee of $39.95 if you want to sign up. Then, $15.95/month -or buy directly the Challenge Package, which will cost you around $200 in most cases (and it’s usually closer to $300).

You’ll also need to buy some kind of advertising, whether that’s online or offline. And you’ll probably want to attend some of the company’s events; most coaches recommend that their sellers spend $100-$200 each month on this. If you don’t do these things, it will be very hard for you to make your business work.

These expenses are one reason why most Beachbody sellers make less than $500 in their first year—and they’re lucky if they make that much!

It doesn’t help that the company has an unusually high dropout rate: nearly 70% of Beachbody sellers leave the company within 18 months.

How then do some Beachbody sellers break through and start making real money?

The key is to become a Star Diamond seller, which means getting enough customers under you to provide all your own sales and profits.
How? Let me break down the Beachbody compensation plan and show you the process.

Positives and Negatives

Positives

Unfortunately, there’s nothing good about this company. 

Negatives

• Most of Beachbody coaches make around $40/month
• Only 30% of them stay in the company for more than a year. 
• Beachbody has proven over an over to be a get-rich-quick scheme
• You’ll not only need to spend money on their products, but also on advertising and acquiring new skills. 
• There’s not real social proof 

What’s Beachbody’s Compensation Plan?

The Beachbody Compensation Plan is divided into four categories, which are:

1. Challenge Pack Bonuses & Commissions

You can earn commissions by selling non-Challenge Pack products through Team Beachbody (25%), but you get a higher commission for selling Challenge Packs (35%)

Beachbody also has a membership service called Beachbody on Demand, where you can get tons of workout videos for getting results. If you sell a Beachbody on Demand membership, you get 40%

2. Team Cycle Bonus

The first way to earn from the sales of your entire downline organization is by cycle (which is like a team commission) and its point-based ranking system.

You only earn points if you yourself sell at least 300 BV per month, but you can earn up to 12,000 bonus points each week.

3. Matching Bonus

You can earn as much as 10% on the team cycle bonus of your personally sponsored coaches.

4. Star Diamond Bonus

If you earn 2 Star Diamond rank or higher, you’ll be eligible to participate in quarterly promotions that pay out based on your Star Diamond volume.

My Verdict: Is Team Beachbody a Scam?

Look, I’ve read lots of testimonies from Beachbody coaches who say they’ve been able to make a decent income from this business, so I wouldn’t call it a complete scam.

But the reality is, most of the people won’t make it. And even those who can, won’t be able to sustain it for very long. This is a classic example of a get-rich-quick scheme.

If you think about it, it’s easy to see why.

The most common misconception that I see with Beachbody coaches is that they think they can quit their jobs, start selling fitness products online and just sit back and watch the money come in.

The truth is, you’re going to have to work your ass off to build a list of customers and learn how to market to them. You’ll also need to send out newsletters on a regular basis, post updates on social media pages, create videos and build relationships with others in the industry who can help you.

It’s not something you can do part-time while holding down a regular job.

If Team Beachbody were really that great of an opportunity, then why would there be so many complaints? Why would their BBB rating be so low?

Tell me this; if there are people making thousands of dollars every month with Beachbody products, why isn’t it plastered all over the internet?

I mean, if Team Beachbody were really as good as they say it is, wouldn’t you expect people to be talking about it all over social media?

The only way that you could realistically make good money from Beachbody is if you already have a big social media following or if you are prepared to put in a huge amount of time and effort for very little financial reward.

I’m not saying there is anything wrong with this as a business model – as long as you know what you are getting into. But if you are looking for something that sounds like an easy way to make money, then Beachbody is NOT for you.