But I Thought We Were In MonaVie TEAM to Make Money?

I thought the slogan for TEAM was to “Have Fun, Make Money, and Make a Difference!” After watching a portion of a recent video Orrin Woodward gave to TEAM, I’m not so certain. In Total Success, Woodward compares how a job, conventional business and a TEAM/MonaVie business contribute (or not) to these five components of human happiness:

1. Spiritual
2. Social
3. Economic
4. Political
5. Mental

He also throws Physical Success as a sixth parameter, since MonaVie proponents claim that it brings better health by daily consumption.

In the video, Orrin goes on to show how a typical job or conventional business does not improves one’s spiritual, social, political and mental lives. It might bring in money (economic), but without those other critical components, “you’re not human.” TEAM MonaVie, on the other hand, he claims, brings benefits to all these components.

Why Is MonaVie So Expensive?

I found this post on another blog (that is using the same theme as this blog). In The Value of MonaVie, the writer attempts to answer the question of why MonaVie is so expensive.

MonaVie uses only the most quality ingredients within it’s products. We also have to maintain enough staff to help keep quality standards high and at a specific level. When you buy MonaVie, you are only getting the best of the best. Quality is never sacrificed when making our product. It takes time and money to give you the best in health products.

Don’t forget that MonaVie is involved in a lot of charity products. A lot of the money goes to help out other causes.

If you feel that MonaVie is a little expensive, don’t let that stop you from obtaining it’s great benefits. There are discount all over the place. It will continue to get more competitive as more and more distributors and websites get a hold of the product.

The writer neglects to include one important ingredient to the high price of MonaVie. The 50% GV payout from the binary compensation plan is factored into the price of every bottle of MonaVie. If you’re a distributor paying MonaVie for $32/bottle, half of that money is going straight upline. Point blank, that’s why MonaVie is so expensive.

Oprah on Black Diamond Executives Web Site

Update: All the posts from the web site described below have been removed, with the exception of a single post from June, 2008.

Up until the end of last year, MonaVie distributor Anthony J. Soriano had been blogging about his MonaVie experience on Black Diamond Executives. According to the site, on July 25, 2008, he attained the rank of Bronze Executive, no small feat, considering only 2% of distributors ever reach that level. Since November 18, 2008, however, Mr. Soriano has not posted any further updates. Nor does he appear on the MonaVie Field Leaders web page (for Rubies and above).

What’s clear, however, is that as of November 18, 2008, some MonaVie distributors within Brig Hart’s line of sponsorship, like Mr. Soriano, were continuing to use Oprah Winfrey as an unofficial spokesperson for their products. Check out the screenshot below from this page on Black Diamond Executives:

Note the sections highlighted in red. As I wrote in my previous post, it’s not that big of a step for distributors to go from “Oprah loves acai,” to “Oprah loves MonaVie!” at tasting parties, open meetings and Major Functions.

Mr. Soriano’s last post was about how to stay motivated in the MonaVie business. I wonder what has happened over the past nine months to cause his web site to go silent. After all, it was set up in order to document his journey to Black Diamond:

Have you ever wondered how those Black Diamond Executives in Monavie got there? I absolutely love the Black Diamond Documentaries and I was inspired by them. But I wanted to read about them as they started from the bottom and worked their way up. So I thought, “what if I were to document what I had to do to become a Black Diamond Executive in a journal-type format?”

We all have dreams and goals that we wish to accomplish. Many supporters of Amway and MonaVie who read this site and/or leave comments might think that I’m trying to steal their dreams. Nothing can be further from the truth. There are many opportunities and paths to achieve your goals, some better than others. MonaVie and Amway are certainly two vehicles, but they are by no means (1) the best nor (2) the only ones out there.

I wish Mr. Soriano the best in achieving the goals he’s set out for his life; I do wonder, however, what ever became of his MonaVie business.

Dr. Dean Edell Calls MonaVie Worthless

Yesterday¹, Dr. Dean Edell slammed MonaVie on his radio show, calling it worthless and a fad. Here are some choice quotes the good doctor talking to a caller named Danielle, which comes in at the 54-minute mark.

This is worthless. They are breaking the law.

This in response to Danielle’s would-be sponsor, who tells her that MonaVie is a miracle drink that cures from A to Z.

This is simply acai. $34 a bottle. There is no miracle in a bottle here. This is just a fad.

For all the celebrities, athletes, etc. whom MonaVie pays and carts out to promote the juice, I show you someone who has no financial incentive to slam or praise the product calling it worthless.

Berries are very healthy, don’t get me wrong. I would encourage you all to drink berry juices.

Drink berry juice, but spending $34/bottle is ridiculous.

Have your friend call me…. have her tell me what things that this thing cures. I’ll grind her up in very little pieces….

Anyone have Brig Hart’s number? Or Orrin Woodward? How bout we go to the top and get Dr. Dean Edell on the horn with Dallin Larsen himself?

What’s this you say? Dallin himself just calls it a juice while winking his eye? That he’s not responsible for what his distributors say because it’s impossible to rein them in? Dallin… the word you’re looking for is called RESPONSIBILITY.

Who can afford this in this day and age? Okay if it was positive. If there’s data? That this is helpful or better than the berries you can buy in the grocery store, which are a heck of a lot cheaper and better tasting as far as I’m concerned.

It would be a lot cheaper and healthier in my opinion, to go to the grocery store and make your own fruit smoothies and juice concoctions than to buy MonaVie at $34/bottle.

In terms of making money, Danielle. I got to tell you something. There are no rules or laws to warn you and give you the numbers you want to know, which is how many people actually make money in these multi-level marketing deals. And the government is trying to pass such rules and laws. The truth of the matter is, that almost everybody loses money. The people at the very very top, they make money, because they’ve got everybody else working for them.

How many “new” Diamonds have there been in MonaVie who were previously big pins from other MLMs? Robert Dean (Noni). TV Wilson and Steve Branch (YTB). Randy Schroeder (Agel). Orrin Woodward (Amway/Quixtar). Brig Hart (Amway). Need I go on?

These people are constantly being carted out on stage reaching higher and higher levels. You? Everyone else? Still at the bottom. Read the MonaVie Income Disclosure Statement and do the math. Dr. Dean Edell is right; most people don’t earn any money at all.

Enjoy listening to Dr. Dean Edell. If the link above is broken, do a search for Dr. Dean Edell, August 27, 2009 to find another version of his MP3 podcast.

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¹ It’s possible that the August 27, 2009 broadcast was a re-broadcast of a previous Dr. Dean Edell taping.

Jon and Barbara Sims, Black Diamonds, Formerly in Amway

Featured in MonaVie’s newest Black Diamond lifestyle documentary are Jon and Barbara Sims. They didn’t come out of nowhere, however. They are the downline of Randy and Val Haugen, who were originally part of Orrin Woodward’s TEAM-Amway-Quixtar organization before breaking off to form the Legacy Professional Development System.

Here’s what Orrin had to say about Jon and Barbara in happier times:

Congratulations go out to great friends and leaders John and Barbara Sims! The just hit the elite Black Diamond level. The average income for the Black Diamond level is $1,474,502 per year. (Plus a trip to Hawaii, a 10 day cruise in the Mediterranean and a black Mercedes!) John and Barbara are experienced MLM’ers and are making nearly six times more income per month in MonaVie than they ever received in previous MLM’s. More evidence that MonaVie has the best reward for performance ratio in the industry! The right product, the right compensation plan, the right people at the right time! John and Barb are so humble and give all the credit away to their God, their mentors Randy and Val Haugen, and the incredible MonaVie team. But we know that success at this high of a level only comes to people who practice daily habits of success. John and Barb are successful because they focus on helping others become successful. I love spending time with this couple as John is a philosopher of life and a modern day Abraham Lincoln. Barbara is a phenomenal encourager and an incredible servant to others. Together, they are an unstoppable team and are now receiving the fruits of their labor – one more couple who are accomplishing their goals and dreams on the MonaVie Team.

I do wonder how high the percentage is for those MonaVie Diamonds who have never been a part of any MLM versus those who got a head-start in another MLM (like Amway, Quixtar, Agel, etc.).

FTC Video on Fraudulent Business Opportunities

Watch this video from the Federal Trade Commission that educates consumers about potentially fraudulent business opportunities.

Missed it by that much! BWW Summer Conference in San Jose

It seems like only yesterday I was writing about the BWW Spring Leadership in San Jose. I just found out that I completely missed out on the BWW Summer Conference, which was again held at the San Jose Civic Auditorium, July 18-19, 2009. I had a good excuse; I was attending a wedding that weekend!

I’m fortunate that I never had an important date or anniversary conflict with a Major Function when I was in the business. I’ve read stories of people who had to choose between attending a wedding, party, children’s graduations, etc. or going to a Spring Leadership, Summer Conference, or Family Reunion. It’s my opinion that these Major Functions are all the same: heavy on the rah-rah and light on actual substance. With all due respect to those who disagree, if you’ve been to one, you’ve been to them all!

But, if people want to spend $100-200 a ticket to stand in line on a hot San Francisco Bay Area day and listen to people talk all day and night long, fine by me. I’m not stopping you.

Remember When: Amway and Enron

I was going through some old files this weekend, and I came across this letter and brochure from 1997 explaining an energy deal between Amway and Enron. Check it out (click on the image to make it bigger)!

Fortunately, the Amway-Enron deal fell apart mysteriously a few months after we received this letter and brochure. There was no official announcement that I recall being given out as to why the deal was scrubbed¹. I wonder if Amway Legal crunched some numbers and discovered that Enron wasn’t all it was cracked up to be… years before the scandal surrounding the energy company was revealed.

Here’s a PDF brochure from Amway and Enron. Enjoy reading this blast from the past (click on the image below to download the PDF)!

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¹ I spoke with another former IBO, and he said that he was able to sign up for the energy deal with Amway-Enron. The window for signing up closed pretty quickly. I must have waited too long and didn’t sign up on time before they stopped the deal.

P/L Statement from Gina

Over on Joecool’s blog, Gina has posted a detailed Profits/Loss Statement. Gina is a traditional business owner and routinely asks IBOs to produce their own P/L statement. Most (i.e. every) of the time, she’s met with either silence from the IBO or tapespeak like, “If the dream is big enough, the facts don’t matter!”

One thing that I’ve consistently said on this blog is for IBOs to keep detailed records of their income and expenses. After a year and a half, I should have quit the business after seeing no substantial results from my investment in Amway/Quixtar and the System. I stayed in for another year due in part to the excitement that was Quixtar and 9/1/99, only to decide at the end of the year that enough was enough. Quixtar was just Amway on the Internet, and nothing really had changed. Because I kept detailed records of my business, I was easily able to separate truth from hype.

IBOs in Amway and distributers in MonaVie! Are you keeping detailed records of your business? Are your profits (if you have any) being constantly put back into your business in the form of CD, meeting tickets, and product purchases? Take a look again at Gina’s P/L statement to see what you should be tracking in your business!

Dissenting Opinions and Comments

Over on Why You Should Consider A Second Income, Amway IBO Levi has been, to use his own words, “trimming the fat” from his comments thread. While he encourages people to continue to comment, he notes that he will have to remove some comments to make room. Make room for what? Most of the comments he removed were quite relevant to the discussion at hand. I see this happen on a variety of other pro-Amway or pro-MonaVie web sites, including Orrin Woodward’s. He and Levi may talk about having their thoughts and opinions debated in a public forum, but the truth is, they will really only post those comments that confirm their side of the story.

On this site, opinions from all sides are welcome, so as long as they don’t cross the line into blatant personal attacks or are not relevant to the post.

Joecool has posted his opinion on the matter on his web site.

Humor: MonaVie Air

In my previous post, I believed that the next product from Dallin Larceny and MonaVie would be a sugar-free version of MonaVie Emv.

Yet, I have just been handed this top-secret document detailing the real next product to come from Mount MonaVie.

Working closely with the Black Diamond Deities, God… err… Dallin… is ready to release an amazing new supplement that will sustain you throughout the day.

You… absolutely… cannot… live… without…

MONA•VIE AIR

Here is the description of MonaVie Air:

MonaVie Air is a proprietary blend of oxygen and carbon dioxide retrieved from the forests of the Amazon and the United States. Acai berries, waiting to be harvested and turned into MonaVie juice concentrate and MonaVie Emv lovingly emit carbon dioxide and stored in our wonderful plastic MonaVie Air bags. But that’s not all! MonaVie has signed up your favorite Black Diamonds: Orrin and Laurie Woodward, Brig and Lita Hart, Robert Dean, Randy Schroeder, and many more, to provide their breaths into each and every package of MonaVie Air.

“To show their dedication to the MonaVie cause,” Larsen explains, “every distributor, upon reaching the lofty rank of Black Diamond, not only receives the Mercedes, the big check, but also a Black Diamond MonaVie Air Extractor. This machine collects their breaths, processes it, and stores it safely for future injection into MonaVie Air bags.” The photo to the right shows Orrin Woodward modeling the Black Diamond MonaVie Air Extractor.

Additionally, Dallin Larsen himself is providing a drop of his man sweat, taken from MonaVie Regionals and Super Regionals across the globe, in each bag.

MonaVie Air provides that which you need to survive in each $5/bag. The recommended daily usage is to breath one bag in the morning and one bag right before bed. The essence of Larsen, combined with the wonderful breaths of Black Diamonds, coupled with the acai infused carbon dioxide, and, of course, oxygen, will power you through the day and night, allowing you and your family to reach their dreams.

“For many people, breathing MonaVie Air is as close they are ever going to get to being a Black Diamond,” proudly states Orrin Woodward. “In fact, I’ve made a deal with my good friend, Dallin Larsen, to include a coupon for one TEAM CD in every case of MonaVie Air. Distributors will be able to get a free CD of my latest sermon by returning the voucher to my compound in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Tax and shipping charges will apply, of course. After all, I have four kids to feed!”

MonaVie Air: Smell It, Breathe It, Share It.

MonaVie Air will be available April 1, 2010. Cost per bag for distributors is $5/bag. A case of 24 bags will cost $120. Suggested retail price per bag and case is $10 and $240 respectively. You can pre-order your case of MonaVie Air today. Warning, supplies will be limited, but your orders will eventually be fulfilled.

Team Media Tool Trunk – WASTE OF MONEY

Update: Looks like the TEAM Media Tool Trunks have been reduced in price. The Media Warrior 2000 is now selling for $1,684.90 and the Media Warrior 1000 now goes for $859.70.

I came across this great comment from Candace on Lazy Man’s blog post about MonaVie.

She writes about two “incredible” tool trunks available from the TEAM web site, the TL147 – Tool Media Warrior Trunk 2000 and the TL146 – Tool Media Trunk 1000. The prices on these ultimate TEAM Tools are $2000 and $1000 respectively. Seeing that old Amway tools sell for pennies on the dollar on eBay, I was compelled to do a price comparison of these tool chests. The numbers in the spreadsheet below are calculated using the TEAM member prices, not the retail prices. Click the image below to see the spreadsheet full-size¹:

Now, usually, if I were to buy a compilation of tools, I would expect the compilation to be cheaper not more expensive. Orrin Woodward and his TEAM Leaders have once again succeeded at showing greed has no limits. Buy the tools individually² over the trunks, and you will SAVE $109.90 and $23.70 respectively!

But wait, don’t you get to keep the wonderful trunks so prominently displayed on the TEAM shopping site? No, read the fine print:

* Trunk not included

I bet Woodward is using the trunks to hold all the money he’s taking from distributors who don’t take the time to calculate the cost of purchasing the tools individually.

What do you get for purchasing this “powerful” tool set? Purchasers will “receive a free decal for their car and a matching tee shirt to be worn with pride.” Yup, buying this set means all of your fellow MonaVie Teammates will know you were the fool for buying an overpriced tool trunk.

Here are links to screenshots of the tools trunks from TEAM’s web site, as of May 24, 2009:

• Media Warrior 2000 Trunk
• Media 1000 Trunk

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¹ I could not find the price of the Success Magazine (Team Version) product, so estimated the cost as $2.25. Prices are effective according to TEAM’s web site as of May 23, 2009.

² I omitted the fact that a large percentage of these tools are brochures or audio files, items that can be easily converted into lower-cost (or even freely) downloadable MP3s or PDFs.

MonaVie Live Webcast from Dallas… or how Dallin is growing the business

MonaVie hosted a live webcast of the Dallas Regional today. Some of the speakers they had come on stage to “train” the distributors in the crowd were Black Diamonds Randy Schroeder and Robert Dean. Where did these amazing leaders come from? Did they start in MonaVie from ground zero?

I looked them up on the Internet and discovered both Randy (Agel) and Robert (Noni) were both huge leaders in other MLMs before they joined MonaVie within the past one to two years. There are rumors that large cash bonuses were paid to these leaders to leave their respective MLMs or to join MonaVie.

Couple this with Orrin Woodward (Amway/Quixtar), is this how Dallin Larsen is growing the MonaVie business — by dangling big under-the-table bonuses to leaders with big downlines from competing MLM businesses?

If that’s how he’s getting people to drink the juice, no thank you.

Quixtar RIP 1999-2009

It’s May, 2009, which means the final step of phasing out the Quixtar name is nearly complete.

Right now, if you go to Quixtar.com, you’ll see in tiny gray text, “Quixtar North America is now Amway Global.” I would expect the quixtar.com URL to redirect to amway.com sometime in the next few days.

So there you have it. 10-years of Quixtar now gone. I hope that the corporation is earnest in dealing with the excesses and improprieties of certain Systems and their leaders. If they don’t, criticism of the business (in at least the North American market which I am most familiar with) will continue for the next decade.

MonaVie Emv (Energy) to Compete with XS Gold

I had it all backwards when I wrote that XS Gold was going to be a competitor to MonaVie. It turns out MonaVie has been readying its own entry in the energy drink marketplace, MonaVie Energy.

According to the corporation, an independent blind taste¹ taste rated it numero uno against other energy drinks on the market.

And so, here we go again. Let the wild claims about benefits to this new elixir begin, as the drink doesn’t go on sale for another two months. I wonder how much it will cost for one can of MV Energy. The folks at LazyMan will no doubt be breaking down the price difference between MonaVie Energy and other competing energy drinks, including XS Gold. I would expect MonaVie to charge a premium for the drink, as they do today with their purple grape juice concentrate. My bet, however, is that they charge a multiple less (i.e. instead of 10x, how about 2x?), and pass it off as part of the MonaVie Economic Stimulus Plan.

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¹ I bet their blind taste test involved 50 Diamonds and above (and their children). After several years of chugging da juice, their taste buds have now been trained to pick up even the most microscopic presence of the magical acai berry in MonaVie and MonaVie Energy.