From July 2014

 

Hello, my name is Leslie, and Advo-Truth asked me to share my story with you all, so here is my history in AdvoCare and I hope it helps some of you out!

 

A friend, Megan, wanted to meet me and tell me about AdvoCare. I honestly had no interest, but I was in the middle of my Mary Kay business, so I made a deal with her that I would listen to her spiel if she would let me give her a free make-over with Mary Kay. So, it was a double agreement. After meeting with her, I still had no interest in AdvoCare, but she talked me into signing as a distributor for $79. I saw that I would not lose any money because I was already using multi-vitamins, probiotics, and several other vitamins that AdvoCare also provides. So, I signed up for those supplements and to help Megan’s business, basically to be nice.

 

After several emails and phone calls from Megan, I was curious about the other products, so I went ahead and tried the 24 Challenge. Now, I must admit, I was quite against this type of a weight-loss program. I have a B.S. in Heath & Exercise Science and I worked as a Nutritional Educator. I knew everything about being healthy. However, my weight was out of control, no matter what I tried. So, I was desperate to lose the pounds. So, I did the 24 Challenge, which wasn’t hard, because I was already eating super healthy, consuming nothing with sugar, and was exercising. And guess what? I lost ZERO pounds with the 24 Challenge. Soon after that, I went to my doctor and discovered that I have hypothyroidism. No wonder I couldn’t lose a pound!

 

So, after I got on medication, I lost 11 pounds! (WITHOUT AdvoCare!) After that, I decided to try the 24 Challenge again and I only lost 2 pounds. Also, I must add that during both 24 Challenges, I struggled with the worst headaches, causing me to call in sick from work several times. I later discovered that they were caused by the Meal Replacement Shakes. So I didn’t think that the 24 Challenge was worth it. However, I was fine taking the supplements and the drink, Spark.

 

A bit later, I got engaged and with my food adjustments (because of food allergies), I lost the weight I wanted to. And may I say that I was a beautiful bride. I lost the weight withOUT AdvoCare, but people noticed my weight loss and so I used it as a way to market AdvoCare. I didn’t lose the weight with AdvoCare, but I knew other people have, so I didn’t feel I was lying . . . too much. Also, I had to limit my AdvoCare advertisements because of my Nutritional Educator career. I couldn’t mix the two, or I knew I would have the chance of getting fired. And honestly, my heart knew what I was doing was wrong, because I didn’t agree with AdvoCare. My heart truly believed the real way to be healthy and/or lose weight (eating healthy and exercise), and it wasn’t with AdvoCare.

 

Within the same time, Megan’s money-making emails and phone calls made me more interested in the business side. So, I moved up as an AdvoCare Advisor, which was a $3000 investment. Luckily, Megan knew her business very well, and I personally didn’t have to spend the entire $3000 from my pocket. With enough people under me within six weeks, our total investment together added up to $3000. Personally, I spend around $1000 and the rest of people below me made up for the rest through AdvoCare Mixers (parties). Within a month, I started to make money and my debt was paid off. The money seemed much easier than with Mary Kay. People purchased online without even talking to me, and I was still making money through them. It honestly felt too good to be true, but it was really happening. As I said before, my heart didn’t agree with AdvoCare. I often felt mixed feelings, wondering what I was doing with AdvoCare was the right thing to do. Somehow, the idea of money kept me going.

 

Soon after that, Megan invited me to an AdvoCare Business Training Conference. I was excited to be trained better, because the better I’d be trained, the more money I’d make. This training conference was honestly my turning point . . . to start listening to my heart. Megan and the other speakers made me look negative on AdvoCare. Each speaker, including Megan, seemed very self-centered with money, money, and money. They proudly admitted that they sacrificed family events and a close friend’s wedding for AdvoCare. It made me feel very sad for these AdvoCare Advisors. They seemed to value money higher than their own family. They seemed to counter-act the reason to be in the business, which would be to have more time with family. Also, part of the training was basically to tell customers a “lie” of getting healthy in order to make money. Ouch! I felt I was doing something wrong with my weight-loss lie, but their official training actually involved lying in order to make big bucks! That’s horrible! As I left, I had the worst stomachache, because I knew their training was immoral. I realized that the AdvoCare business persuades us to ‘use’ people to succeed to make money. It felt so wrong. And none of the training had anything to do with promoting health.

After that training conference, I knew I had to stop AdvoCare, but I wasn’t sure I could stop every connection with AdvoCare. I didn’t want to stop their supplements or Spark. So I prayed and prayed. A week later, I received a forward email from Megan, which gave me my answer of what to do in my future with AdvoCare. Her email title was, “When You Think About Quitting”. The first part was good motivation to work hard in AdvoCare. However, the second half of her email spoke strongly, telling me to QUIT! She used Jesus out of context in order to encourage people to not quit AdvoCare. It also reminded me other times she used Jesus to advertise AdvoCare. And verses were used to encourage AdvoCare. I knew that God wants us to be His disciples for other people’s salvation through Jesus Christ, not for AdvoCare. Some people may not know Jesus personally and learn more about Jesus through AdvoCare, who is misrepresented. Which testimony will lead others’ to Christ? AdvoCare testimony? Or Jesus Christ testimony? Is her slogan, “We Build Champions”?? Or is her slogan, “We Build Believers of Jesus through AdvoCare”? What really gives us joy? Jesus or money? Then, it hit me. There is nowhere in the Bible that Jesus promotes money and materialism. For God provides our needs and we shouldn’t focus on wants, such as bigger homes, better vehicles, and better everything. But those are encouraged through AdvoCare.

I immediately cut my connection with AdvoCare. After doing so, I read website links beyond links, and a couple books about MLM businesses (based on general information and Christian information), including Advo-truth. And I soon become very against any MLM business. I also wrote a kind letter to each of my Mary Kay customers that I am resigning my MK consultant side job. Thankfully during my AdvoCare phase, I did not lose any close friends or family members (although did cost a bit of friction for awhile). But after expressing kindly to Megan about my reasons for leaving AdvoCare, she deleted me off facebook, but that didn’t bother me. I feel I am at peace for having no more connection with AdvoCare. I must mention: I’m sure that not every AdvoCare Advisor Christian uses Jesus the wrong way. And some AdvoCare Advisors may not even be believers, so they never mention Jesus at all. But Megan’s use of Jesus was my turning point. Before the name, Jesus, was even used, I was rationalizing reasons to stay with AdvoCare, even though my heart disagreed with a lot of the AdvoCare business and AdvoCare products. I just wouldn’t listen to my heart for quite awhile, until reading the email that mentioned Jesus.

Overall, I found AdvoCare mostly negative. It is immoral, cares more about money than people, encourages greed, and promotes that AdvoCare is the only true way to be healthy. I wish I knew that before signing up. I struggled with the feeling of guilt for quite awhile of the way I used people and forced them to spend several hundreds of dollars to get healthy, which as I said, I didn’t even agree with the AdvoCare method to get healthy. I am very thankful for finding great sources online, including Advo-Truth, that helped me leave this business.

 

I’m very thankful that Advo-Truth reaches out to lots of people and I hope it helps them to reach toward the right direction. ~Leslie~