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Testimonials
This section of the blog contains testimonials from current and former AdvoCare distributors from all levels. We'd love to hear your story but first, if you or someone you know has had an adverse reaction to one of AdvoCare's products please report it to the Federal Drug Administration. You can find the form to file the report here: http://www.fda.gov/Food/DietarySupplements/ReportAdverseEvent/
In their own words:
From June 2014
Here is my story and what involving Advocare in my families life has done to us.
Approximately 18 months ago my 12-year marriage was just like most of America’s. Not the best it could be, but we were living a comfortable life that enabled us to do many things together as a family. I could say that my wife was my best friend. Her and my kids were my world.
My wife is involved in the fitness industry. Has been for the whole time I have known her. My wife met a man through her workplace that was involved in Advocare. He of silver tongue fired her up about Advocare and she came to me saying we have to do this! It could vault us to another level! My wife has made attempts at many endeavors. Personal and business. I have been a supportive husband and told her to go after her dreams. I would do my part to help them become a reality.
When she came to me with this proposal we were in the midst of saving money to get some much needed repairs on our house and prepare for a new home. She asked if we could use some of that money to get an Advocare business started. After shipping and everything, total bill, $2700. I was hesitant, but gave her the ok, because she told me that she would be able to pay it back with profit from the products. 18 months later, there has been no repairs on the house and nothing paid back. Just a lot of heartache.
All the money we saved for our house is gone. Some used for her to go to Dallas twice for success school. More Advocare products. A 6-month separation where she asked me to leave that cost us an extra 10k for me to live somewhere else.
I have to be honest about me here, I am not perfect by no means. I worked a lot at my job. To a fault. I missed her pleas of asking me to be more engaged in the family. More engaged with her. I was emotionally unavailable. I missed it. I missed her issues of me putting my own kids, her step-kids, above her. This I admit only to show that our issues were not all her. I have always, always, been faithful to my wife. Given her all the support to allow her to be her. Been a great provider. Great Dad, I believe that my kids would back that up. But I’ve made mistakes.
That being said, over the last 18-months, I have dealt with lies upon lies from my wife. An emotional affair with her Advisor that she was signed up under. That only stopped after I confronted the man, but she still has to deal with the guy because he is her mentor in Advocare. He has since moved away, but comes in to town every once in awhile. My trust and faith in her wavers.
Advocare has become my wife’s highest priority. Above myself, our kids, family, and friends. Our family and friends have seen the change in her. We can’t go anywhere without her bringing up Advocare. Family and friends have avoided her like the plague. Relationships with friends have ended because she constantly is trying to increase her PGV. She has given up a profitable business to pursue Advocare. She has made thousands for Advocare. With her profits in Advocare, she has re-invested in the business and paid her taxes. Only to realize she has been paying Advocare to work for them. But doesn’t matter, she continues to this day. To fight for this dream of becoming the next millionaire in Advocare. I have asked her to stop but there is no stopping her. She gets downright pissed. Its like an alcoholic, I have to wait for her to hit rock bottom and hopefully I will be there to pick up the pieces.
I moved back in our home this past December after we went on a trip where we spent a few days away together. No Advocare. No phones or computers of any kind. We fell in love all over again. Rekindled everything we have been missing. We talked about how things were going to be different. That lasted approximately 2-3 weeks. She had a meeting with her Advocare mentor. Downhill slide ever since. We are back at square one and thousands of dollars invested in a business with no hope of any return.
I wish I could explain this all to my wife. She spends upwards of 16+ hours a day on this business. Has close to 40 distributors and 4 Advisors under her. I cannot talk to her as its an instant attack on her and she comes back at me like I am the enemy. My marriage is failing. I have been told by her in the last few days that Advocare and its success is the most important thing to her. That myself and our marriage is not a priority in her life. Right now all I am is the paycheck earner that keeps everything going at home and allows her to continue on her Advocare path. I am at the end of my rope. All I want is someone to spend my life with….not something. My family is being torn apart. All by my wife and her choices on priorities.
My advice to someone that wants to get into this realm of business. Be aware of the level of commitment. Both financial and emotional. Look out for the people with the silver tongue that paint a dream of fortune. Research and research…..then research some more. Knowledge is power and with it comes a decision that will be best for you. Keep things in order….God, family, and everything else is below that. Its very easy to let things get out of order.
It saddens me to say this…..but the end of my family as it exists today is coming to a close. At the hands of my wife, yes. But also with the help of an MLM called Advocare.
As far as the financials go, I will do my best to estimate. For 2013 we spent approximately $9,000 of our own money to keep the business going. That included initial investment, trips to Dallas for success school, trips to Portland for other Advocare schools, countless other meetings, purchase of products, and so on. But any money my wife made from Advocare went right back into it. In the end, we figured she paid Advocare to work for them. There was no profit, just loss. I wish I could break it down further, but since I was out of the house for awhile, that would be difficult. But what I can tell you is that all of the money we had saved for our home is gone. The time I was out of the house and living on my own was a direct result of Advocare and my wifes priorities. I had to use our savings to live off of it. With our separation involved we spent nearly 20K.
For the first 6 months of 2014 she has made Advocare $23,000. My wife made $3,100. But she has, for example, had to work to help people underneath her to get a leg up to Advisor level. By buying product for them to raise their PGV. She has done this a couple times pushing that outgoing to a little over $1,000. Knocking her profit down to $2,100. Now, in turn, she is trying to get to that illustrious silver level, so she is having to spend some of her own money to buy product, to raise her own PGV. I also have given her money for this purpose, trying to support her, another $800 gone. Yes, she has used the product, but it was money out of our families budget. But if we are trying to figure out profit/loss, I have to add that in there. Down to 1,300…..she has yet to pay taxes on the money earned, which will come at the end of the year. So far for 2014, I would say she is pretty close to breaking even.
In looking at all the numbers…..Advocare and the people above her are making the money and she is doing all the work. At what expense?
To keep Advocare moving forward at a profitable level, which I feel is unlikely, you would have to keep reinvesting your money, other peoples money, and whatever else you can come up with. And there is still no guarantee at success. All of your success is driven by other peoples willingness to be involved, not your hard work. If they did it that way, my wife would be a millionaire.
I hope that helps some…..I feel like I ramble at times. Anything else, let me know.
Thanks for listening……
From August 2014
I was introduced to Advocare in 2013 by a friend as she invited me to an Advocare training/event in a neighboring city. I was very hesitant to attend as I knew nothing about the products; but figured it would be a fun day with a friend who I hadn’t seen in over a year. And she offered to pay for the $30 registration fee to “reserve” me a seat.
I woke up at the crack of dawn to drive the almost two hours to the event. Upon arriving, I knew this was going to be a day of force fed marketing ploys to buy the products and sell the products. I picked up my name tag and the leather “Advocare” logo stamped day planner and saw tables upon tables of drink mixes, supplements, shaker bottles and clothing with the brand logo plastered over every possible surface. And so the day started with loud music, dancing, presentations by top sellers of the product and a few of the scientists who serve on the “board of advisors” for the company.
All of the participants have shaker bottles of the drink mix sitting on the table next to their day planners and everyone pulls out the packages of “supplements” from time to time and pops a few pills. I find this scenario intriguing and almost surreal as the day proceeds. At no time in the presentations does anyone indicate that products have any risk associated with it; nor do they indicate that a person should consult their doctor before taking any of these products.
The day ends around 4:30 p.m. and then the photo opportunities start with everyone flocking around the sponsor of the event (who happens to be the aunt of my friend) and we stand in front of banners splashed with the Advocare logo. I willingly stand with this individual for a photo up on the stage and smile sheepishly as I know this is all part of their “drag you up on stage, make you feel good about yourself and convince you to sell, sell, sell”.
I started my membership shortly after this event and commenced to “do” a 24-day Challenge. It was a completely new world I was entering and felt wonderful about doing something great for my body as I had gained about thirty pounds with stopping smoking and having back surgery in 2011. I paid the $230 for the supplies and received the box of goods in about three days – quicker than what the delivery date that was indicated on the online ordering status. Pills are not my favorite to take; so there were issues each time I had to take the supplements, but I did it. The fiber drink left a great deal to be desired unless you enjoy drinking the scrapings of a wood workers floor – saw dust flavored gooey drink substance was horrible at best. I figured out on day two of the fiber drink to mix it with a great deal of orange juice and drink with a straw quickly.
The stomach issues I encountered with the 24 day Challenge products started on day 14 when you start a Max phase of the 24 day challenge. Gas, bloating and overall pain in my abdomen were present for the rest of the 10 days that I took the products. I associated some of the pain with the exercising that I was doing as I wanted this product to work, so I was exercising four days a week for an hour and a half each day. I noticed that I was losing weight at a quick rate, but it seemed that I was not able to eat anything without my stomach hurting and I just wasn’t hungry. Guess all the supplements were keeping me full and I was receiving all my “nutrition” from the awesome products — this is sarcasm!!!
I finished the 24 day challenge and lost a total of 16 pounds. And I felt horrible, but still attempted to associate it with muscle pain in my stomach area as I was doing sit ups for the first time in 10 years. I had three vertebrae fused in my lower back in 2010, so I have limited range of motion in my lower back.
After finishing the challenge, my friend invited me and my husband to attend a “mixer” in our local area that was sponsored by one of her college friends and their parents. My husband was interested after he saw the results I attained. We went to a 7:30p.m. mixer where there was a water tower sized dispenser of Spark mixed up and the whole neighborhood was in attendance at this mixer. We introduced ourselves and mingled in the crowd while consuming small amounts of the Spark. Two hours later, my husband is still listening to the sales pitch and he asks me if this is something that I want to do on a full-time basis?? I tell him I don’t know, but let’s stay and listen to the rest of the pitch. We finish the night with a one on one presentation by the aunt and uncle of my friend who are selling the idea of us becoming Ruby level in a year. We leave all pumped up on Spark and hope and dreams……
My hubby decides to do a 24 day challenge to see if the supplements are all that they are cracked up to be; take note that my husband is a big guy, 230 pounds and enjoys his beer and food. He and I agree we will do a challenge together so that we can start our Advocare business with our photos as a success story for our future customers to see how wonderful the products are!!! And this is where the real health problems start……I order the two 24 day challenge supplies along with a mixture of other products to keep at my office and my husband’s office (more Spark than we know what to do with, meal replacement shakes and additional Catalyst as suggested by my friend). I have now invested my hard earned money into Advocare for $700.00 and haven’t seen a single dollar of income……
We started our challenge on a Tuesday and both of us struggled with the fiber drink like always. But we keep going with the first 10 days, neither one of us lose a single pound the first 10 days, but we haven’t been exercising much. When we start the Max phase is when I start to have trouble breathing, my hands start to tingle and my neck and face start to get red and swell. I associate it with being outside too long – spring sun in Georgia can be harsh. On day 14 of the challenge, I wake up to such a swollen face that I can barely see out of my eyes and have to sit upright to be able to breathe…..my hubby takes me to the emergency room and they diagnose me with a severe niacin poisoning. I immediately am given Benadryl in high dose to assist with the severe itching and rash (I look like a red circus balloon). And then I am sent home with instructions to discontinue the supplements. My regular doctor sees me the following day and gives me a 14 day dose of steroids along with prescription for antacids. These meds will reduce swelling and take care of the inflammation in my stomach as well as reduce bloating and the stomach pains that were were worsening each day.
I tried to return the products to Advocare, but they indicated that I have to get a form notarized and send it in with the products to get a partial return. This form has a lengthy disclaimer on it indicating that I will not take any legal action against the company. I send everything back to the company and never receive another piece of correspondence or a refund for the unopened products.
The individuals (8 people in all) who connected me and encouraged me to become an advisor/team mate with the products have said nothing to me since I posted my photos of the swelling and rash on Facebook. They wouldn’t answer my emails where I asked if they would be interested in buying my supply of supplements and shakes. It appeared that I was a leper in their organization now that I was having health issues associated with the Advocare line of products.
This all took place in spring of 2014, and now I struggle with a weight gain of 40 pounds and have to take a high dose of prescription antacids twice a day thanks to the niacin causing my digestive system to be screwed up. I wake up at night with horrible acid reflux that is so bad that I sleep in the chair sitting up for half the night to keep the acid from flowing up my esophagus.
My husband finished his 24 day challenge and didn’t lose a single pound, he indicated that his stomach felt like there were rocks being rolled around in his abdomen the whole entire time he was taking the supplements.
It appears to me that there is some serious risks involved with taking supplements of any kind. Advocare fails to educate or inform consumers of the high doses of niacin and sucralose that are main ingredients in most of their products. There is nothing natural or safe about the Advocare supplements marketed to change your life.