Thinking of dubbing AdvoCare? Let's talk.

Thinking of joining AdvoCare? Consider the way most are introduced to AdvoCare. Usually it begins with an invitation to a mixer wherein, in my opinion, the deception of making money with AdvoCare begins. What are you usually told at these mixers?

I can tell you from experience that the message at these mixers never changes. Here’s a rough outline of what you’ll experience at an AdvoCare mixer.

With AdvoCare’s bestselling products stacked on a table, either behind those that are speaking, or off to the side, they’ll begin.

First, they’ll take a few minutes to make everyone feel at ease and begin to set the tone for the evening. This is where the sell begins. They’ll usually start by talking about the way they used to live, the disorganization their lives were in, and their constant struggle living paycheck to paycheck. They’ll discuss the unhealthy eating habits they had, how out of shape they used to be. Around this point, either your host, or their sponsor, will move the discussion into making lifestyle changes. They’ll tell you that you can have a quality of life that allows you not just to live longer, but to live better, and not just to get okay results, or good results, but how to get optimal results in health, wellness, weight loss, or sports performance.

Are you ready for it? Here it comes! This is where the introduction to AdvoCare comes in.

They’ll tell you AdvoCare is a nutritional company and how AdvoCare products are better, safer and more effective at achieving your long-term goals than any other diet or program that you may have tried in the past. Are you feeling the sell yet?

Next on the agenda is a discussion to try and build some credibility about AdvoCare in your mind. They’ll tell you about all the esteemed members of the Scientific Medical and Advisory Board. They’ll discuss how AdvoCare supposedly has more products tested by Informed Choice than any other company and how over 1/3 of all U.S. Olympic athletes use AdvoCare products.

Then they’ll move into their endorsers. People like Drew Brees and Rich Fronning.

After all that, they may try and fill you full of bull as to why we need supplements in our lives by telling you stories about how the soil our foods are grown in are depleted of the necessary nutrients we need to survive and be at our best. This is possibly where your first introduction to the products comes in.

Last in this portion of the mixer, they’ll have a couple of people come up and tell you about the amazing results they’ve experienced, or they’ll show you a video of the same. Remember: Facts tell, stories sell!

Now on to the “Business Opportunity” and the five ways you can earn by selling AdvoCare products……part time! If a Diamond, Emerald, or Ruby isn’t in attendance at your mixer, then they’ll possibly play a DVD for you showing you what’s possible. You’ll see lavish lifestyles, vacations, and all the trappings of living life large. Yes, you too can have all this!

Near the end of your time is where the pressure begins to build. They’ll urge you to get started right away. There’s no time like the present to make these lifestyle changes! Why not try some of the products you were introduced to? Maybe you’ll want to drop $250 on your first 24 Day Challenge. Remember, for only $79 (a distributor fee), you can receive 20% off all your purchases!

In the next day or so expect to receive a follow-up call or visit by the person who invited you to the mixer, and possibly their sponsor! So maybe you dropped the $79 to become a distributor, and $200 on your first 24 Day Challenge. Now comes the push to move higher in the business.

Hey! Why not go all in and become an Advisor? That’s just $3,000 more! But oh, you get 30% off of that so in reality it’s only costing you $2,100 and then you’ll get 40% off your purchases!

So, what weren’t you told? What wasn’t explained to you? Are you interested in finding out?

Regarding their Scientific Medical and Advisory Board: If you look at the AdvoCare website, you will read the following: "Highly regarded and recognized in their areas of expertise, members of the AdvoCare Scientific & Medical Advisory Board use their knowledge and experience in the fields of medicine, nutrition, and science to ensure that all AdvoCare products are formulated with the highest quality ingredients based on the latest scientific research*. Notice the asterisk? If you look down below their picture, in a smaller font, you’ll see the note that goes with this asterisk and it reads: *Scientific & Medical Advisory Board Members are compensated for their role on the Scientific & Medical Advisory Board.

On AdvoCare’s corporate website, you will read that AdvoCare offers advanced products, but you will not see them stating that they are the best, or even better than any products sold by other supplement companies. So what value then, you have to ask yourself, do these esteemed members bring to the table? In the mixer you attend, you may hear the presenter state: “Our doctors take care of the formulations and ingredients, we trust them. Our job is on the sales and consulting end.”

Ok, so how often does AdvoCare introduce a new product? And if they invested a significant amount of money developing these advanced products, wouldn’t you agree that it would be a wise decision to patent them?

A search of the U.S. Patent and Trademark office database of patents will reveal that none of the current members of their Scientific & Medical Advisory board have a patent on any product that is assigned to AdvoCare. Interesting, isn't it?

Did you ever wonder where the members of this group live?

Dr. Kenneth W. Goldberg, MD – Utah, Texas

Dr. Carl I. Keen, Ph.D. - California

Dr. William J. Kraemer, Ph.D. - Ohio

Dr. Stanley J. Dudrick, M.D. - Connecticut

Dr. Leanne Redman Ph.D MS, FTOS - Louisiana

Dr. Jose Pimiento M.D. - Florida

Dr. Gail Cresci Ph.D. R.D. L.D. - Ohio

Dr. Jeffrey Blumberg Ph.D. - Massachusetts

I won’t dispute that each of the doctors on their advisory board has an impressive biography. But there’s one thing you need to understand. In the medical industry, it appears to be a very common and lucrative practice for doctors to lend their name and serve on advisory boards.

But it can also be a double-edged sword as AdvoCare’s Scientific & Medical Advisory board found out in the Diana Becnel lawsuit. As reported by the Courthouse news service on January 26, 2014, Diana Becnel is a personal trainer and owner of a day spa and salon.

Persuaded by AdvoCare’s "seeming commitment to health, nutrition, wellness and fitness," Becnel said she became interested in becoming a seller.

After trying AdvoCare’s "SLAM" energy drink, however, Becnel allegedly felt its effects before she could throw the bottle into the trash. She passed out and was taken to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with a seizure and a myocardial infarction.

Becnel sued AdvoCare and its Scientific and Medical Advisory Board last year for negligent representation. Her husband and daughter joined the lawsuit, claiming loss of consortium.

Though the St. Charles Parish District Court dismissed all of the claims against Leanne Redman, a member of AdvoCare’s board, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision on December 16.

The ruling emphasizes Becnel's allegation that the defendants should have known that SLAM's ingredients were "similar to the ingredients in 5-Hour Energy," and that they "should have known of the 90 filings with the FDA that mentioned 5-Hour Energy."

These allegations are enough to go to trial, according to the ruling, which Judge Fredericka Homberg Wicker wrote for a three-member panel.

AdvoCare’s medical board must face claims that they should have placed a warning label on the SLAM drink, according to the decision.

Now you have to ask yourself, what about the products? AdvoCare states their products are advanced, but what does that really mean? I looked up the word “advanced” in the dictionary, and I’ve concluded they must be using it as an adjective and its meaning is: having gone beyond others or beyond the average. Isn’t that just a veiled way of inflecting their products are better than others? So, if that’s what they really mean, where’s the proof? AdvoCare doesn’t publicize, and I couldn’t find, any studies showing AdvoCare’s products are any better than any other supplement company product on the market. Without the proof, isn’t it also just marketing hype? In conjunction with their products, they use the slogan, “We Build Champions”. Champions of what? None of their paid endorsers became champions using AdvoCare products. So that’s marketing hype too, right? If you can reason that AdvoCare products really aren’t any better, or worse, than any other supplement or nutritional product out there, why would you want to pay the inflated price they charge for them, even at the 20% discount you get for paying $79 and becoming a distributor? Do you really have the extra money to be throwing out the window? If you do, please e-mail me. I’d like to become your friend!

I’ve pulled back the curtain on their Scientific and Medical Advisory board and their products.

Now let’s look at the business opportunity.

One of the stats I remember from my sophomore year of college business administration class was that in the early 1980’s, the average failure rate of new small businesses was 60%.

I just looked up the current rate of failure for new small businesses in the United States, and according to the January 16, 2015, issue of Forbes magazine, 90% of new small businesses fail.

Pretty staggering isn’t it? So? Maybe you’d do better selling supplements to all your family, friends, and neighbors? And where did you get your Business Administration degree? Do you know what the percentage is of people that lose money trying to make a go of selling AdvoCare products? In his free e-book, “Multi-Level Marketing Unmasked”, Jon M. Taylor, Ph.D. President, Consumer Awareness Institute, analyzed 50 MLM companies, including AdvoCare. According to his analysis of AdvoCare’s program, 99.69% of all participants lose money. This is consistent with the other 49 MLM companies in his report. Mr. Taylor isn’t alone in reporting these percentages. Robert L. FitzPatrick, President, Pyramid Scheme Alert, states essentially the same thing in many of his articles including, “What is This Thing Called Multi-Level Marketing? A Statistical and Business Model Examination of the Economic Legitimacy of Multi-Level Marketing.” Wherein he states, “It has already been statistically demonstrated that 99.6% who join the model don’t earn a net profit, on average each year…”

Still want to join and become a Champion? If you said yes, then do yourself, and the other attendees at the mixer, a favor and ask the presenter a few, if not all of the following questions.

1) You claim that many people are profiting from AdvoCare. What proof can you give to show that most people who put forth effort in AdvoCare actually file a profit on their income taxes?

2) It appears that AdvoCare enriches a few at the top at the expense of a revolving door of recruits like us who buy products to get in on the deal, without any disclosure of the odds of our actually profiting from participation – after all expenses, including purchases from the company. How do you respond?

3) You talk of time freedom. If your top people are making so much money, why are they out recruiting, rather than enjoying the promised life of leisure? What percent of your Platinum or Double Diamond distributors are no longer actively involved with the company – and never attend business opportunity meetings? Can you give me their names?

4) You say that a person can make money doing this part time. Can you furnish the names and telephone numbers, or e-mail addresses, of part-timers who are earning a good profit at this AFTER subtracting purchases and other expenses? And have they reported profits on their income taxes from participation in this program?

5) If I join AdvoCare is it true I could ruin the relationships I have with my family and friends? Has this really happened to others?

Good luck!

Oh one last thing you weren't told. From AdvoCare's 2015 Polices,Procedures, and Compensation plan Once you become an Advisor, you must maintain your Advisor status every calendar year thereafter to enjoy its benefits. The calendar year is defined as the 24 PayPeriods that begin during a traditional calendar year.For example, the 2015 “calendar year” for Advisor maintenance is January 7, 2015 through January 5,2016. To maintain your status as an Advisor, you have two options available:

(1) For the first option, you must achieve $3,000 in Personal/Group Volume (P/GV) in one to three consecutive Pay Periods,with at least $500 of Personal/Group Volume in each period;

(2) For the second option, you must achieve $6,000in P/GV during the calendar year. Of the $6,000in P/GV, $3,000 must be personal purchases.Personal Purchases are the total suggested retail value of product purchases made by you and your retail customers. Retail customers also include any customer who has purchased Products directly from AdvoCare.You may complete either of these maintenance requirements at any time within the calendar year.

If you fail to maintain your status as an Advisor on an annual basis, you will become a former Advisor and lose your Advisor status and your ability to earn Overrides and Leadership Bonuses.

Now..Good luck!