Did you get a remark from your aunt about your waistline who told you she knows just the product to help you lose weight? Did you just get a message from a childhood friend back in your hometown about a lucrative business opportunity?

This is a common occurrence with people who just fell under the radar of someone promoting MLM. So it’s a good thing that you are making an effort to research more about it.

That’s the way to avoid scams and find the legitimate way to make money online.

Today, we’ll be talking about a Multi-level Marketing business called Isagenix that belongs in the Health and Wellness industry.

I have spent a good amount of time researching Isagenix, their products, and business model to find out: Can you make money selling Isagenix?

Can You Make Money Selling Isagenix Review Summary

Product Name: Isagenix International, LLC

Founder: John W. Anderson, co-founders, Jim and Kathy Coover

Price: $29-$39 plus Pak to get started (price varies) and 100PV monthly

Rating: 32/100

Best For: those who are highly skilled in sales and has a wide network of people

Recommended: Not Recommended

Isagenix Pros

• Products Are Effective For Weight Loss
• Isagenix Is BBB Accredited With A+ Rating
• Isagenix Is An Established Company That Has Been around Since 2002

Isagenix Cons

• Products Are Quite Expensive
• You Have A Low Opportunity For Income
• They Have A Toxic Business Culture

What is Isagenix About: Health and Wellness Multi-level Marketing Business

Summary:  Isagenix is a legit company that employs the MLM business model. It’s possible for you to make real money with Isagenix especially if you are a highly skilled salesperson with a huge network of people. Still, more than 90% of all the Isagenix Associates earn less than the average annual income of even part-time workers in the U.S.!

What is Isagenix About?

They are in the field of Health and Wellness focusing on weight loss. They have a wide range of products: From diet shakes to performance enhancers, health smoothies for kids, and essential oils to skincare.

Isagenix was founded in 2002 by John Anderson, Jim Coover, and Kathy Coover. Based in Gilbert, Arizona, Isagenix International LLC is a BBB accredited business that has been around for 18 years. 

Isagenix is a company that uses a Multi-level Marketing business model. This means that aside from directly selling their products to people you know, you have an additional income opportunity when you invite other people to get involved with Isagenix. 

Founders

Having focused his life’s passion for creating health and wellness products, John W. Anderson claims that his formulas were sought after by companies all over the world. As the story goes (as told in the Isagenix page), companies who sought Anderson for his formulation wanted to settle for cheaper and low-quality ingredients to mass-produce his formulas. Because of this the Isagenix founder refused them all now wanting to compromise and searched for a partner who would share his “dedication to excellence.”

That’s when Jim and Kathy Coover come in. The husband and wife duo are known personalities in the direct selling industry. According to their website, Jim and Kathy also refused to “cut corners” and declined other companies that did not have their customers’ best interests. Jim and Kathy Coover have more than 5 decades of experience in the direct sales industry combined. 

Isagenix Pyramid Scheme [Is Isagenix a Pyramid Scheme?]

Technically, you can’t label Isagenix a pyramid scheme because of the presence of products. 

Isagenix considers itself a direct selling company with a Multi-level Marketing model. But with most MLMs there is a very thin line that separates their business with pyramiding.

What is a Pyramid Scheme

It is important to note that a Pyramid Scheme is ILLEGAL.

If a business is discovered to be operating as a Pyramid scheme they will be litigated and closed down for good.

The reason it is called a pyramid scheme is how money flows upwards. The result is that only very few people from a group would actually be financially successful let alone even earn anything, The people right at the top of the pointy end of the pyramid are the real cash cows.

Perhaps, the thing that I really hate about a pyramid scheme is how they make glittering exaggerated claims of easy money and financial success.

Investopedia listed down these characteristics of a pyramid scheme:

• funnels profits from those on lower levels of an organization to the top
• often associated with fraudulent operations
• A large majority of pyramid schemes rely on profiting from recruitment fees
• seldom involve the sale of actual goods or services with intrinsic value.
• Multi-Level Marketing businesses (MLMs) are similar in nature to pyramid schemes however, the difference is that MLMs involve the sale of tangible goods.

So before joining a company, diagnose if it is a healthy venture. If you ever find these “symptoms”, run away as far as you can in the opposite direction.

So to be clear, there is no such thing as an Isagenix pyramid scheme, as long as they continue to give the option of selling products and do not only focus on recruitment.

Success is Rare With Isagenix 

If you take a look at Isagenix Earning Statement you will find that only about 780 out of 78,000 of their associates made more than $40,323. That is just 1% of the thousands of people who bought in to join their business venture.

And I’m not really sure if you call that a big success when the average income of a person who works 40 hours a week in the United States is just a little more than $30,000.

I think it is also important to mention that the income declared here does not include the amount of money an associate had to spend to promote the product. To add, the income disclosure also stated that an estimated 80% of Isagenix Members in the United States DID NOT earn any income from Isagenix in 2017.

How Does Isagenix Work?

Now, if you still think you can make yourself rich if you get yourself into the Isagenix circle, then let’s find out how the Isagenix business works.

Isagenix has two membership types:

• Customers
• Associates 

Customers and Preferred Customers can buy Isagenix products at a discount for their own or household use. However, they can’t resell Isagenix products or take part in the Isagenix Team Compensation Plan or other business promotions.

Isagenix Associates can also purchase Isagenix products at reduced prices for their own or household use. But then, they will also have the appended opportunity to earn additional income by selling Isagenix products to Retail Customers as well as from purchases made by Personally Enrolled Members (this means your downline), which include both Customers and Associates.

What are the Isagenix Products?

The Products that Isagenix offers are grouped according to the following:

• Weight Loss
• Performance
• Vitality + Well-Being
• IsaKids
• Essential Oils
• Personal Care + Beauty

Isagenix claims that they are all for a healthy lifestyle. But really, who wants to live drinking shakes for the rest of their life. If we will just be honest here, the main focus of Isagenix is on getting people to lose weight.

Because of this their flagship product is their 9-Day and 30-Day Weight Loss System.

The program consists of shake days and cleanse days. How do you do it?

During shake days, you should replace two meals with Isagenix shakes. For the third, you must eat a healthy meal that contains between 400–600 calories.

While on cleanse days, you will take 4 servings of the Isagenix Cleanse for Life liquid and up to 6 Isagenix snacks. These snacks will take the place of meals.

The weight loss basic pack retails at $378.49. This would include the IsaLean® Shake, Cleanse for Life®, Ionix® Supreme, AMPED™ Hydrate, Upgrade to Snack Bites, Natural Accelerator™, and IsaFlush®.

Wow. The amount of cleansing effort this pack has is already making my gut hide in shame.

Here is a complete list of Isagenix weight loss products:

• Cleanse for Life
• Fiber Snacks™
• Isadelight® Super-chocolate
• Isaflush®
• Isagenix Snacks™
• Isalean Shake
• Isalean® Shake Dairy-free
• Isalean® Shake Kosher
• Isalean™ Bar
• Isalean® Bar Dairy-free
• Isablender® Max
• Nature Oat Bakes (Slim Cakes®)
• Harvest Thins
• Whey Thins™ And Harvest Thins™
• Snack Bites
• Natural Accelerator™

Now, here is a list of other products Isagenix has to offer:

Performance

• Amped™ Tri Release Protein
• Amped™ Nox
• Isalean® Pro Shake
• Amped™ Repair
• Amped™ Power
• Amped™ Protein Bar
• Amped™ Hydrate
• Amped™ Nitro
• Amped™ Bcaa Plus

Vitality and Well-being

• Bēa™ Sparkling Energy Drink
• E+™ Energy Shot
• C-lyte®
• Complete Essentials™ Daily Pack
• Complete Essentials™ With Isagenesis®
• Cytoactives
• Essentials For Men™ & Women™
• Ionix Supreme
• Fiberpro™
• Heart Shake Booster
• Immune Shake Booster
• Isagenesis®
• Isagenix Coffee
• Collagen Bone Broth
• Organic Greens
• Isagenix Fruits™
• Isagenix Greens™
• Isakids® Essentials
• Isaomega Supreme™
• Isapro®
• Isapro Plant-based
• Isabiome

Isa Kids

• Isakids® Super Smoothie
• Isakids® Essentials

Personal care  and Beauty

• Rejuvity Bamboo Polish
• Rejuvity® Body Wash
• Rejuvity® Age-defying Eye Cream
• Moisturizing Day Cream
• Rejuvity® Hydrating Toner
• Rejuvity® Purifying Cleanser
• Essential Youth Serum
• Rejuvity® Purifying Cleanser

Essential oils:

• Essence Singles
• Eucalyptus
• Frankincense
• Lavender
• Lemon
• Peppermint
• Tea Tree
• Isagenix Cbd Peppermint Oil Blend
• Essence Blends
• Airway
• Content
• Defenseshield
• Tumbliss
• Essence Collections
• Experience Pak
• Complete Collection
• Blends Collection
• Singles Collection
• **they also sell accessories:
• Coconut Application Oil
• Cool Mist Diffuser

I contacted Isagenix about the quality and processes they use for their Essential Oils line. This is a relatively new product line for them as they were originally a weight loss/detox company but entered this space in 2018.  Anyway I was disappointed to learn that not all their essential oils are organic.

I have done a LOT of research into the essential oils industry and analysed more than 12 companies in detail. For best Essential Oil, check out Young Living. Why? They own their own farms and their strict “seed to seal” process ensure when you look at the USDA version of “organic”, you’ll find that Young Living’s oils not only fit the criteria, but far exceed it.

To have a wide range of products like this is beneficial to an associate. This gives you a lot of products to sell to different people based on their interests and preference.

Isagenix Products Review

Are Isagenix products worth your money? Even non-MLM products can receive a lot of shades from haters. So for us to know if Isagenix products are worth your hard-earned dough let’s take a look at some other people’s review.

Here are some Isagenix customer reviews.

But what can doctors say about it?

Healthline has given Isagenix weight loss products a score of 2.75 out of 5.

They investigated how fast you lose weight with the product,  if weight loss will be long-term, if the program is easy to follow, and of course if it is truly nutritious..

They found out that the Isagenix diet will indeed cause weight loss if done correctly. Nevertheless, it is almost entirely made up of processed and prepackaged foods that are high in added sugar (oops!). It may be a good enough short-term solution but not a good long-term investment.

Overall, the products from Isagenix in comparison with the thousands of competing companies are not as unique as the company implies. The marketing of their whole product range is around weight loss.  Although they have stiff competition even on their key selling point.  I have reviewed health and wellness companies like this in my other posts.

So why not just eat healthy foods, as healthy as you can, and skip the Isagenix highly processed, high sugar shakes?

Then because it is impossible to get all the nutrition from your food (soil quality, declining nutrients in food supply etc), why not just take the highest quality supplements? 

USANA Health Sciences produces pharmaceutical grade nutritional supplements that are rated the number 1 multivitamin/antioxidant supplement by the independent study “Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements” by Nutrisearch, making it the leading company in the health and wellness industry. 

Can You Really Make Money Selling Isagenix?

So can you, really? Of course, if you are at the upper 1% that is!

In their income distribution disclosure, half of Isagenix associates made less than $337.

So you might want to rethink if it’s really worth scraping the leftovers.

50% (about 39,000) made more than $337, and the other half made less.  (Top 50% median=$985; top 50% average=$6,237.)

10% (about 7,800) made more than $3,094. (Top 10% median=$7,446; top 10% average=$27,163.)

10% (about 7,800) made more than $3,094.  (Top 10% median=$7,446; top 10% average=$27,163.)

1% (about 780) made more than $40,323. (Top 1% median=$84,804; top 1% average=$184,725.)

According to Isagenix, as of Dec. 31, 2017, there were 254 Isagenix Millionaires all over the world where 180 of those millionaires being U.S. Associates.

But before you start trying your luck, you should know that those numbers are associates who exceeded $1 million in cumulative gross earnings SINCE joining Isagenix. In fact, those in the U.S. group averaged about 6 years as an Isagenix Associate BEFORE becoming an Isagenix Millionaire. The longest staying Isagenix Millionaire Associate has taken 15 years before getting to where they are now.

To be fair though, that means these Millionaire Associate must be earning more than $60,000 per year. Not bad — If you have been there first. 

Recently, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their report on the Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers. Using information from the fourth fiscal quarter of 2019, the BLS claims that in that quarter, the median income for a full-time wage or salary worker on a weekly basis was $936. For a 40-hour workweek, this translates to a yearly income of approximately $48,672. This is a 4% increase on the previous year. While a part-time worker has around $14,768 annual income.

I can’t help but imagine how much more lucrative it could have been if these “associates” had spent their time elsewhere, or saved their money for something else. 

Here is another claim that Isagenix make that is a bit hard for me to swallow:

A majority of Isagenix Members join Isagenix primarily to purchase Isagenix products at a discount.  As a result, approximately 80% of Isagenix Members in the U.S. did not receive any earnings from Isagenix in 2017.

Isagenix Income Disclosure

Seriously? Do you believe this nonsense?

Okay, a good number of people out there might really spend around $300 monthly to keep the pounds away. But 80%? I’m going to bet my last dollar that not even half of that percentage joined Isagenix ONLY to get discounted products. There are already a lot of Isagenix shakes on Amazon anyone can buy for a much cheaper price and not to mention reasonable shipping costs.

How to Make Money with Isagenix ?

To make money with Isagenix, you can sell the products to your family and friends and share your good intention to keep them healthy. Right?

But to earn more, you would have to be on the executive level and remain an “active” member. Unfortunately, no amount of running can make you the kind of active that Isagenix wants.

How Much Does It Cost to Join Isagenix?

Of course, an MLM can’t ask for membership fees or else they’ll be labeled as a Pyramid scheme.

What I found weird though is when I went on their website, I couldn’t find a way to sign up online. When you do sort of sign up to order, they tell you to go back to whoever it was who mentioned Isagenix to you.

So basically, you have to buy their products to qualify. It is worth $29-$39 plus Pak to get started (price varies) and 100PV monthly.

So you the “customer” have the option to choose:

• Basic membership
  • Fast, simple, free sign-up
  • Discounted prices on Isagenix products.
• Preferred membership
  • Fast, simple sign-up
  • With additional discounts on Isagenix products for an annual membership fee of $39 ($29 if on an Autoship program).

The Autoship program is an optional program offering convenience and eligibility for Customer Loyalty Rewards (Of course, they’ll want you to sign up for the autoship too).

Customers are not eligible to participate in the Compensation Plan but may update their status from Customer to Associate at any time within the first two years.

This is actually great since it doesn’t really force you to be a distributor right away. So, maybe their claim about 80% of their associates signed up for the discount could be true? Hmm

Now that we got that covered, let’s figure out how we get paid if we join Isagenix.

Isagenix Compensation Plan

Just like any other MLM, it can be quite complicated to understand what Isagenix compensation plan is. Isagenix employ what we call a binary compensation plan.

You can take a look at the Isagenix compensation plan on their page, or take a look at this Isagenix Compensation Plan video. 

Isagenix Compensation Plan video Part 1

Isagenix Compensation Plan video Part 2

Oh sorry, were you expecting a single video? Apparently, you need 2 long videos to properly explain the convoluted way Isagenix pays their members. To be honest, it’s like they’re just looking for ways NOT TO PAY.

Is Isagenix a Scam?

As I mentioned earlier, Isagenix can’t be considered a pyramid scheme. It is a legit business that has real products to sell to customers. But I have also mentioned that MLM and pyramid schemes could have been cousins.

So, is the Isagenix scam real? Let’s consider all the facts.

Two of the founders of Isagenix, Jim Coover & John Anderson, have a shady history with another health-related MLM. The husband and wife duo were actually involved with a dangerous diet MLM called The Cambridge Diet which went bankrupt. I know, it’s a different company, but I just think it is important to note under the circumstances.

However, let us note that Isagenix is not only BBB accredited but also received their A+ rating. They’ve also been around since 2002, so they must be doing something right.

So, is Isagenix a scam or is it a legit business opportunity for you? 

Well, to be completely fair. I am not a Isagenix Preferred customer nor am I one of their distributors. Furthermore, I do not endorse the Isagenix business or Isagenix products in any way.

I have spent a good amount of time researching the website, reading testimonials, and studying information on the Internet to get to the bottom of what Isagenix really does. This is because programs just like this have tricked me in the past, and I want to keep others from going down the same path I did. If you’d like to learn “How to Detect an Online Marketing Scam” then click the highlighted text.

Pros and Cons of Isagenix 

Since we’re all done talking about the different information about Isagenix, let’s now proceed to the verdict.

Isagenix Pros

• Products are effective for weight loss
• Isagenix is BBB accredited with A+ rating
• Isagenix is an established company that has been since 2002

Isagenix  Cons

• Products are quite expensive
• You have a low opportunity for income
• They have a toxic business culture

What I like about Isagenix 

You’ll really get skinny. In all fairness, most people who get into the 30 day shake and cleanse regimen really lose weight (Maybe it’s because they can’t buy food no more ‘coz they spent all the cash on the package, lol).

BBB Accredited. Not only are they accredited by Better Business Bureau, but they were given a rating of A+.

Established company. Hey, I’m going to give them credit for being around until the legal age (18 years). 

What I don’t like about Isagenix 

Expensive Products. The most popular plan that Isagenix is the 30 Day System, which costs $378.50 per month while another of their weight loss package is $844.87 at retail. 

FDA does not support Isagenix’s claims. The health claims made by Isagenix are not supported by the FDA.

Product is not sustainable. The weight-loss product is not recommended to use for the long-term. With it being expensive too, it is a difficult maintenance product.

Lilliputian opportunity for income. As I have repeatedly mentioned above, the opportunity for success is so small and earning a reasonable income with Isagenix can be quite difficult.

Business culture. The business culture among Isagenix associates can be toxic. A cult-like behavior among associates in an MLM is somewhat common and unfortunately it seems to be true with Isagenix. In one Isagenix review I found, the former Isagenix associate was uncomfortable about how other associates are in denial about adverse reactions of the product on a person.

Final Thoughts – Isagenix 

Who doesn’t want to be crazy rich? Who wouldn’t want to own an expensive car you can drive every week out of town on a vacation? The fact that everyone wants to be financially successful is the reason why they succumb to the sparkly promises of MLM.

Should we be wary of the Isagenix scam? Isagenix is an established and legit company built on a legally accepted business model. 

But as a reasonable person, you have to see past the energetic associate, the excessive enthusiasm, and the pictures of cars in the videos they show you and ask yourself if the business venture you are getting into is really a win-win for you.

A Better Way to Start a Home-Based Business

One thing that MLMs promise is that you can do business at home. But I’m afraid that’s not mostly the case. So, can you make money selling Isagenix? I’m afraid that for the majority of people who had gambled with Isagenix, the answer is no.

I’m not a fan of MLM. One of the reasons is because of all the restrictions and the amount of money you would have to bring out.

For me, I highly recommended Affiliate Marketing as my top business model for anyone to make money online.

Here are my reasons:

• You don’t have to strain friendship in recruitment effort just to make money
• You are free to promote any products that you want and not forced to only sell the products from one MLM company. What if you don’t believe in the product?
• It’s Free to get started (the BEST part). Then if you want to do this full-time, going premium is just $49/month.

If you want to find out how I make my lifestyle online and how I can personally help you to also do it – then check out this special video from the link below which explains exactly how. You can also receive your free 7-day bootcamp to get you started.

Joana is a dedicated content writer. She learned how to search for keywords well and write straightforward perky content writing for EFYL. She loves learning a lot of new things as she writes about them.

Above all, she sees herself as a cool wife, mom, and furmom. She used to be an elementary and college teacher but chose to work from home to have more flexibility with her time and be more connected with her family and rescuing stray and abandoned pets.