Jeunesse Global Products. Genuine MLM or 1 Big Pyramid Scheme

Hi,

From the outside Jeunesse Global Products looks genuine and promotes itself as a great family oriented mlm business.

Unfortunetly I have Jeunesse in my list of 7 of the worst MLM Companies.

Exposure of back room deals, secret contracts and undisclosed payoffs.

As well, various court cases seem to have done little to tarnish this company’s reputation.

Lets take a look at the colorful history of its owners.

Background of Jeunesse Global

Founders and Co-Owners	Randy Ray and Wendy Lewis
Founded in	2009
Headquarters	701 International Parkway Lake Mary, Florida 32746 USA
Employees	200 + in 20 regional offices covering 88 countries.
Products	Anti- Aging, Health and Wellness

Previous Business’s

Randy Ray is also known as Ogale Erandal Ray.

Previously business’s he was associated with accumulated debts of close to $800,000, before he declared a chapter 7 personal bankruptcy in mid 1986.

Since then he has been involved with various companies, including an MLM company called Fuel Freedom International in partnership with Wendy Lewis.

Fuel Freedom International sold pills trademarked as MPG-CAPS, which were claimed to improve fuel economy, reduce emissions and increase engine power when used as an additive to gasoline.

Part of that company’s spiel at the time was that the pills had “originally been developed by NASA for the 1970s space shuttle program”

Although there was never any proof offered to back this claim.

Results of independent testing of these fuel additives can be seen here.

In February 2009, Ray as CEO and co-owner of Fuel Freedom International signed an Assurance of Voluntary Compliance with Florida’s Office of Attorney General, and $100,000 was paid by the company.

Pursuant to the terms of this agreement, Fuel Freedom and Ray are enjoined from, among other things.

• Violating Florida statutes pertaining to false and misleading advertising
• Prohibition of promoting illegal lotteries, chain letters, and pyramid clubs

Later in 2009 Ray and Lewis established Juenesse.

Jeunesse has mainly concentrated on anti-aging, health and wellness, pushing products they claim will make you look younger and feel younger.

Jeunesse launched a concept called the Youth Enhancement System (YES)

It claims to use stem cell technology to slow down the aging of cells.

There have been claims and counter claims of the effectiveness of these products.

In 2014 Jeunesse reported sales of $400 million with 400,000 “affiliated sales representatives”.

This was up from sales of $180 million in September 2013.

In 2015 sales went past the magic 1billion Dollar mark, according to their website.

Other sources attribute part of this massive increase in 2015, to members of an mlm company called Vemma switching to Jeunesse.

After Vemma had its wings clipped by U.S. authorities in 2015.

Which ever way you look at it, a $600 million jump in sales in one year is massive, for any company not just an MLM company.

Maybe it was the old MLM catch cry of, getting in on the ground floor before it really takes off, and it was like, 6 months of boxing day sale type stampedes?

We can all speculate…

Perhaps it wasn’t really sales of product, but sales of memberships (or should I say partnerships?). Whatever?, we just have to take their word for it.

Lets find out a little more and take a look at the…

Jeunesse Global about us Page.

About us pages can be generally found on any website (even this one).

Most companies/ people put up a little history of themselves or their company on their website to tell people a little about themselves or, what it is they are trying to achieve.

Here is a snippet from their about us page.

“When the Founders, husband and wife Randy Ray and Wendy Lewis, emerged from retirement to create Jeunesse”…

Wait a minute… this is different to the information I have above.

Ok whatever, we all have moments where we use words to convey a different impression.

Or is it just being forgetful?

I won’t add any more here. Lets move on to…

Jeunesse Products.

Jeunesse sells all the usual suspects in the health and wellness domain. I won’t focus too much on the products.

No doubt some are good, others are mediocre and others might be absolutely terrible.

With MLM, it always seems to about the money.

The next “Big thing… Get in on the ground floor” Yada, yada…

Ok, now we or most of us have seen the before and after shots of people with blemishes on their faces on one side, and perfect blemish free faces on the other side, in the sidebar advertisements on our computers, or on Pinterest (where I like to look around ).

The claims made are probably debatable (and maybe a few of the photos are not really of the person).

But many people swear that their use of the product does / has helped improve their appearance.

The products are usually said to be high quality (that’s part of the sales pitch).

Actually, some MLM-marketed products are in fact, very good.

Aloe Vera is one that comes to mind.

It started as an MLM, went bust, but now (years later), you can find the same products in supermarkets.

Back to Jeunesse…

I don’t use any of Jeunesse products, so I am going to remain agnostic on their claims.

Some people are not. I will get to them a little further down the page.

The pricing of Jeunesse products is not exactly top tier, probably about what you would find in a better than average fragrance store.

The Jeunesse Global Business

From the outside it all looks above board and offering you a great opportunity.

Jeunesse seems to have its market well defined.

Combined with slick marketing of its products and pushing the recruitment angle to its distributors.

So much so, that Jeunesse consistently wins business awards product awards, and packaging awards as well as workplace awards.

Not to mention it (apparently), turns over around $1.5 billion a year.

With numerous claims circulating on how this company has been building its client list, including

• Back room deals and…
• Out of court settlements to mlm operatives poached from other mlm companies,

It seems this company has the Teflon touch.

No matter how much mud is thrown none of it stuck. So much so…

In 2021, it won 8 Gold Stevie and 3 Silver Stevie awards in the American Business Awards competition.

This is a bit like the Oscars or Emmys for Business.

A gala, red carpet, black tie event where the nominees get up and thank everyone from their grandparents, divorced spouses, assorted hanger ons, and sometimes even the people who actually bought stuff from them.

Here is what they won…

Gold Stevie Awards

• Company of the Year — Consumer Products
• Founding Team of the Year — Consumer Products Industries
• Achievement in Management — Consumer Products
• Founder and CEO Randy Ray — Lifetime Achievement — Consumer Products
• CVO Scott Lewis — Maverick of the Year — Consumer Products
• Marketing Team of the Year
• Jeunesse EXPO 2020 Vision Global Event — Brand & Experiences — Brand Activation
• Jeunesse EXPO 2020 Vision Global Event — Brand & Experiences — Experiential Event

Silver Stevie Awards

• Company of the Year — Health Products & Services
• Founder and COO Wendy Lewis — Woman of the Year — Consumer Products
• CMO Mark Patterson — Marketing Executive of the Year

All this looks fantastic, and from the outside, you would think everybody who is a Jeunesse distributor is making a stack of money. Lets see how hard it is…

How to Make Money with Jeunesse

I have never been able to work out these mlm compensation plans in the numerous posts I have done on MLM’s.

Which is one of the reasons I never get too in-depth with them.

My eyes glaze over, like some math exam I will never get the answer to.

Elena Vivaldo who writes occasional articles for me, has a similar problem, and normally just posts the link or a video.

Lets see how I go with this one.

According to Jeunesse.

You decide whether you want to create a part-time income through retail sales or build a full-time business with dedicated teams all over the world.

Jeunesse promotional statement.

The Financial Rewards Plan offers you three categories of earning opportunities:-

• Customer sales
• Commissions from team building
• Rewards for your leadership.

Customer Sales :- You can earn money from, Retail sales, Customer Commissions and Retail sales bonus’s

Team Building:- You can earn money with, Team Commissions, Matching Bonus’s and Customer Acquisition Incentive.

Leadership :- I call it the Geology matrix ( or shiny rock ladder),The Diamond Bonus Pool, The Emerald Experience and Diamond Discovery.

Now for the nitty gritty

According to Jeunesse their Financial Rewards Plan is one of the most competitive compensation plans in the industry.

In fact they say it is so generous it terrifies other mlm companies.

If you become a distributor, you are able to generate income in six different ways, earn luxury travel rewards and climb 15 prestigious achievement ranks.

To Become a Member of Jeunesse.

• Simply submit your application and purchase a starter kit at $49.95.
• You can then sell products to your customers and keep the difference as well as earn a bonus for sales to first time customers and distributors.
• Commissions: Recruit and build a team of distributors and teach them to sell to customers and build their own teams.
• To earn commissions from the sales of others in your team. You must:
• Sell or purchase a minimum amount of product (100 CV) in a month within your first year; and
• Sell a minimum amount of product each month (60 CV) or purchase that amount for personal use.
• You cannot earn money simply for recruiting or sponsoring someone.

Looks like the normal way any business operates.

You buy at Wholesale and sell at Retail and the difference is your profit.

Much the same as a normal brick and mortar store, or dropshipping, except with dropshipping you don’t need to pay an upfront amount for inventory.

The other difference is the company (in this case Jeunesse) pays you a bonus for selling a certain dollar amount.

There is more…

Fast Track your Progress.

The above is for the most basic starter points.

There are ways you can fast track your climb up the Jeunesse mlm tree.

All you need to do is purchase one of the product packages (an example below), you will then be “fast-tracked” and qualify for that rank, the moment your credit card provider has approved payment.

This will cost more, but there are some big carrots offered in the bigger picture as to why you should pay more to be involved with this.

Here is a screenshot of the top product package. This gives you instant Sapphire executive ranking, along with other benefits.

The cost is in AUD. At this time (July 2021) it equates to around US$3,388

The Second way to Earn.

Is to create packages. This is how it is explained…Pretty straight forward I think,

The Create-A-Package option is a great alternative to the standard product packages for a
new Distributor or Affiliate who wants to customize their initial order. The Retail Sales Bonus
percentages for this option are based on the total price of the package (before taxes and
shipping):
 100 – 199 CV = 10%
 200 – 299 CV = 12%
 300 CV+ = 15%
For example, if you sell product with 150 CV to your online Customer, you will earn
$15.**
A $250 sale with 200 CV will produce a bonus of $30

You can see how that maybe, some people became disillusioned if they had bought the top tier package ($3,388.00), and couldn’t make enough sales to cover the interest on the credit card payments.

The Third way to Earn.

This is where it starts to get messy, and involves the sales your team members make. I will let the screen shot do the talking.

• Becoming Active and
• Being Qualified ie:-
• Have at least one Active personally enrolled Distributor on your right Team and one on your left Team.
• As an Executive, you start qualifying for additional commissions.

The Fourth way to Earn

Grow your Team.

This is where the big bucks and Geology ( you become known as a shiny rock of some description), starts to kick in.

The 5th Way to Earn

Here is where Geology combined with Trees put you on a shiny rock branch.

To be eligible for payments you must be at the Jade level.

At this rank, you may earn 20% on Team Commissions from the sales in your first level of distributors within your Lines of Sponsorship (your Enroller Tree ).

If you are doing well here, the next branch of the Tree entitles you to have titles like, Emerald and Diamond.

The 6th way of earning income with Jeunesse.

For further clarification of all the steps and a basic look at how their Binary Compension Plan works downloading the video below could help your understanding of legs.

Basically you have a left and right leg, so if you have 1000 GV on one leg and 10,000 group volume on your other leg, you will earn $105 on the 1000 group volume on your weaker leg.

After this residual commission is paid, the one leg with 1000 GV will be zeroed out and the 10,000 GV will be reduced to 8,200 GV due to the 1,800 GV that was taken out of the ratio.

The leftover volume is then carried over to the next week.

You can cycle up to 750 times per week or up to a limit of 750 games a week or earn up to $26,260 per week ! in residual commissions.

So why wouldn’t you spend $3,388.00? hmmm

Like I said earlier, there are some big carrots being dangled in this business.

The Next issue is the Issue of the Jeunesse Contract

The initial contract is only two pages, the second page has all the fine print.

If you are becoming involved in this it would pay to read it an understand fully what you are getting into. Then read…

The Policies and Procedures of the company.

They are very in-depth and they are there for the protection of the company. Not you.

• First the distributor agreement terms and conditions. 10 pages
• The companies Global Policies and Procedures 34 pages.
• The Financial Rewards Plan. 14 pages This will give you cover more about the 6 ways you can earn income building on what I have written above.
• A consent to Electronic Record. 2 pages. These are now common across business distributor/ affiliate relationships.
• Then there is the optional (under the table agreement for poaching top mlm operatives), Business Development Agreement There is more on this, Click Here for the full story.

Legally it seems this company has every i dotted, and every t crossed. But with back room deals (like the last one in the list above), you are getting a glimpse of the behind the scene activity in Multi Level Marketing, which more than likely, is not confined to Jeunesse.

How much you likely to earn being a Jeunesse Distributor

That depends on how experienced you are with MLM.

How big a following you have, how much your willing to pay someone else with a large following to join your team, or if you are just starting out.

MLM companies are under no obligation to disclose earnings.

Jeunesse has a 2019 income disclosure, but it only covers 8,611 distributors.

This seems a very tiny sample for a billion dollar company.

I am thinking this is someone’s “tree”. Maybe the rest are just customers and are into recruiting?

Retailing and Commissions: As a Distributor, you may buy products at wholesale prices and sell them to your friends and contacts at a retail price you chose. You may also sell to your customers at wholesale through your replicated website provided by the company and earn between 12% and 25% in commissions (effective in 2020).
• Total reported earnings of all trackable sales and commissions (we don’t track all in person sales):**
• 65.9% (about 4,804) earned more than $245 — and the rest made less;
• 14.22 % (about 1,037) earned more than $4,350; and
• 2.22% (about 162) earned more than $82,000.
• The top 1% of all earners (those who earned over $82,000), averaged 6 years to get there.

About 83% made something. 80% of those made less than $100 a week.

So not many people with geology titles in there. You can see the full income disclosure Here.

Complaints about Jeunesse Global

Every company gets complaints, regardless, it is a fact of business life.

So while Jeunesse looks all honky dory on the outside, there is this dark underbelly that goes a little beyond not receiving product, or took to long to deliver, or I didn’t like it and it doesn’t work.

I will go back down to street level and focus for a minute on the “team” members near / at the bottom of the tree.

Often it is not the company at fault, but the people doing the recruiting.

And there are some pretty unscrupulous characters who have worked their way up the MLM geology tree in this company.

For Jeunesse this has been a problem with a few Top distributors being named in lawsuits.

One instance of a complaint…

We are a group of more than 30 users of Jeunesse, who have been defrauded by group managers in the Middle East.

Found on Quora.

There are numerous comments on Quora in the period 2015 – 2018.

The most recent I found was one from Nov. 2020 by an Australian who had this to say

“This company is 100% a scam. If a company is especially trying to get you to be a recruiter, it’s a pyramid scheme. The success rate is extremely low. LuLaroe is a pyramid scheme & got busted for it. Australia is trying to get Jeunesse our of their country because of this scam company. You are being very much mislead”.

Found in Quora.

Truth in Advertising has more detail on Jeunesse much of it pre 2018.

Is Jeunesse Global a good Business to become involved in.

My Short Answer. NO.

While the products may be Ok,

• There are still complaints about them as they are not suitable for everyone.
• Complaints about delivery
• Complaints about downlines and fraudulent group managers.
• Not to mention all the shenanigan’s going on at the senior levels of the company.

Thats 5 red flags just there. How many do you need?

This business is run by some of the slickest, hungriest sharks in the game.

You might think that is a good thing, but, If push comes to shove it will be every man for himself.

Any MLM has to overcome two hurdles

Unfortunately Jeunesse has issues with both of the two problems above and more. Lets take a look.

While everything looks legit, and the companies webpage complies with all the various laws covering disclosures, for people signing up ( including refunds as well disclaimers, code of ethics), etc.

The issues keep rolling in…

• Using false and unsubstantiated income claims.
• Deceptive Health Claims
• Investigations by the Federal Trade Commission
• Investigations by the Florida Attorney’s Department
• Claims that it is a Pyramid scheme by one or more of the FTC expert economics advisers
• Shady back room deals with experienced MLM’ers with large followings ( see business development above)
• Overseas media raising questions about the legally of Jeunesse.
• Accusations and Law Suits for engaging in racketeering activities and preying on immigrants to sell to their friends and family.
• Many others including the usual suspects of product not doing what it is claimed to do, slow delivery of product and downline juggling. This is on BBB, of which Jeunesse is not a member.
• As I said earlier much of this this is probably not unique to Jeunesse, but MLM as industry.

I have reviewed other online and offline opportunities on this site and there are way, way better options than MLM.

Thanks for reading.

Michael.