Why Beachbody.

July 6, 2012

Why Beachbody.

So.

Time to blog about this whole career change thing.

If you’re reading this via Facebook, you probably already know that I’ve been involved with Beachbody for a couple of years now. And if I were you, I’d be wondering a few things.

Such as: What would possess a seemingly intelligent, professional person to join a network marketing company? Or as I even jokingly called it myself at the start, a “pyramid scheme“?

And: What’s so great about Beachbody compared to all those other companies out there selling health shakes and supplements and such?

And: How can you make enough money doing fitness support coaching to quit a full-time job?

And: What do you actually DO?

If you’ve read this far, I’ll assume you’re genuinely interested in the answers. So I promise to give it to you straight. No sales pitch. Just my experiences and my “why.”

I’ll skip the first year, during which Tom and I started working out to Beachbody DVDs as customers. By the time we had gone through three different programs, some of them more than once, I was in the best shape I had ever been in. EVER. I was 40 years old and kicking myself for not treating my body like I should have for the past four decades.

At this time, I had been working at The Daily Astorian as the editor of Coast Weekend for about 6 ½ years. It was a job I had yearned for and trained for, and I was winning awards for page design and writing. I enjoyed being around intelligent people, I got to be creative, the hours were flexible, but the pay … well, frankly, it sucked. It was enough to cover the bulk of our mortgage payment (not even close to all of it) and it provided us health insurance and a 401k fund, but that was IT.

And it wasn’t going to improve. There were only two positions higher than mine in the newsroom – managing editor of the daily and deputy managing editor – and I didn’t want the stress of either of them. Sure, I could have gone to work as a cashier at Costco for almost twice what I was making at the paper, but job satisfaction is hard to give up. And the Coast Weekend gig allowed me the freedom to take off when I needed to pick up my kids or work a volunteer shift for a Band Boosters fundraiser, and the paper was more than generous in running stories that publicized my nonprofit groups.

But I had another career field I had begun to pursue on the side: composing and recording music for film and TV production. And the lure of that type of work was calling me like a siren song (a 30-second, digitally sampled siren song in mp3 format). I had the studio equipment and I knew I had the compositions in me … what I didn’t have was the experience to effectively record and polish my pieces so they’d be high enough quality for commercial use. I needed to be able to learn and experiment and work at it until the quality was there.

So I decided it was time to have a goal. My goal was to somehow make enough money by other means that I could give up my job at the paper and devote my time to composing.

There was just one problem. I had set a goal, but I had no idea of how I was going to reach it. I’d never learned the art of goal-setting – I had no plan and really didn’t know what steps to take. I was just stuck in the stage of hoping it would someday happen.

So here’s where my success with my Beachbody fitness programs merged with the rest of my life’s plans.

(This next part is all exposition so you understand how the Beachbody business works.)

Beachbody is the company that makes workout DVD programs such as P90X, Insanity and Turbo Fire, and a line of nutritional products as well. Whenever someone places an order on the Beachbody website or calls the number on an infomercial, they get assigned to a coach. Coaches are independent contractors whose job is to help these customers succeed with the programs they’ve just bought. Through a very smart database system, once a customer has been assigned to a coach, that coach then gets a commission off whatever future purchases that customer makes. So it’s in a coach’s best interest to make sure his or her customers are happy with their results, so they’ll continue to buy the products.

When Tom and I bought our very first program, Power 90, he got assigned to a coach in Texas named Julie Schulte. Julie immediately struck up a relationship with us. She friended us on Facebook, kept tabs on our fitness progress, shared her own experiences and helped us with questions we had. We felt like she really cared about our well-being and our success.

After having bought and finished two or three other programs (including P90X and Insanity), Julie encouraged us to think about becoming coaches ourselves. We were committed to improving our own fitness, and we were telling our friends about the results we were getting and recommending the programs to them. And that’s essentially what coaches do.

She explained a little about the income potential, and I thought it might be a good addition to my other sidelines of piano tuning and music lessons. But I was concerned about the amount of time it would require. I didn’t know if it would be better to wait until I had more time to devote to it … but thankfully Julie advised otherwise. If she hadn’t, I’d still be spinning my wheels, waiting for that magical break when everything would somehow change. (Such a thing doesn’t exist, by the way.)

So I took the plunge. I bought a new workout program (ChaLEAN Extreme) and Shakeology on Julie’s recommendation, and I signed up. It cost me a couple hundred bucks to get started, but the majority of that expense went toward my own health and fitness. And these days, the initial cost can actually be far less than that.

Shakeology arrived, and within three days I was sold for life. I felt like I had woken up out of a fog. Even though we had changed our eating habits for the better when we started Power 90, we still had a long way to go, and Shakeology was the most healthful thing I had ever put into my body. I started drinking it for breakfast, and my energy level shot up and stayed consistent throughout the day. No more midafternoon drowsiness, but also no jitters and no crash later on. I just felt GOOD. Alive, energetic – and thrilled to be looking forward to my workouts.

And wow, did the workouts WORK! ChaLEAN Extreme is a program that I have to say is geared toward women, but appropriate for everyone. It emphasizes weight training for better muscle tone and more efficient metabolism. You lift heavy and you lift slow. I got the sculpted shoulders and arms I’d always wanted. And yes, I got a girl-crush on Chalene Johnson, the trainer. (Well, who wouldn’t?)

Julie helped me set goals for my new business and showed me how to get started sharing Beachbody with people. I won’t lie – this was tough for me to grasp. I hate sales. I don’t like chit-chat. Just having to interact with people face-to-face exhausts me and I dread it.

But fortunately, Julie taught me that anyone can succeed at this business, no matter what their personality type. Beachbody is set up with plenty of tools I could use to engage people over e-mail or Facebook, and once that initial contact was made, I was fine with talking in person or over the phone. I kept my expectations low, and I didn’t have any illusions that I was going to get rich quick. That first order that came in, though – that was quite the thrill!

So I was making some commissions here and there, spreading the word and talking to people about the programs and the shakes. The other aspect of coaching lies in creating a team of your own – sponsoring other coaches and helping them build THEIR businesses. This is where the multi-level thing comes in. I earn small bonuses based on the order activity generated by the coaches I’ve signed, plus other coaches who’ve signed up after me with Julie or the coaches above her.

Like I said, I wasn’t exactly getting rich quick. I kept working at improving my people skills, and slowly, my paychecks started to grow. I began sponsoring other coaches and developing relationships with my customers … and this is where the surprise comes in: I was really enjoying myself. Me, the last person I would ever have dreamed of working in the fitness industry, much less a representative for a network marketing company.

And here’s why: One of the vital behaviors Beachbody stresses for success in this business is personal development. I was impressed early on that the company never insists you become a better salesperson. They just want you to become a better person, period. Improve yourself, and all your relationships improve – not only with your customers and your team of coaches, but also your spouse, family and friends. Who wouldn’t want that?

Julie recommended several books. She even sent me one on her own dime when I was feeling particularly discouraged. She put me in accountability groups with other coaches that developed our leadership skills. So many “lightbulb moments”! I learned keys to goal-setting and consistent action. I found out how to get past the obstacles I had put in my own way. Heck, I even improved our family budget using techniques I learned from these personal development books!

Because of all this, the future looks completely different now than it did three years ago. The switch has been flipped and I’m well on my way to accomplishing everything I ever figured I’d want.

So I think I’ve answered three of the questions I posed at the beginning of this novel. The last, “What makes Beachbody different?” is the crux of all of this.

Beachbody’s company motto is “Helping people achieve their goals and enjoy healthy, fulfilling lives.” In all my experiences with this company, as a customer and as a coach, they’ve been honest, they’ve been above-board, sincere, they’ve acted with integrity, and they’re unafraid to apologize when they make a mistake. They don’t promise you’ll make millions of dollars, and they don’t claim their products will magically make you thin and trim overnight. They DO promise that if you decide to commit to your goals, they can help you succeed.

Other multi-level companies selling health products are famous for incentives such as the “free BMW.” Know what Beachbody offers you if you reach certain benchmarks with your business? MORE PEOPLE TO HELP. I don’t know of any other company who rewards its reps with more customers. Remember how Julie was the coach Tom was assigned to? He was a free customer lead that she received. And now we’ve become part of her team that is helping her earn over six figures annually.

So that’s why I do this. I love being in shape. I love being 43 and still getting carded in bars. I love feeling this good. I love introducing people to this feeling – and I love being their go-to person when they need help or advice. I love seeing my own coaches get excited about their successes. I love being a part of a movement that is actually doing some good in this world by helping people be healthier and happier. I love the fact that it can only be done by HARD WORK and PERSISTENCE. I love the freedom of running my own business and the challenge of making it work – or else! And I love that I’m doing it alongside my husband, my kids are involved, and I have a fantastic tribe of like-minded people I can now call my friends.

Now, after reading this, if you want to write me off as an annoying network marketer, go ahead. Yes, I’ve drunk the Kool-Aid, and it tastes a lot like Shakeology. I’m committed to helping people achieve their goals and lead healthy, fulfilling lives – and that includes my own.

Permalink