Jim Chao, Kenny Gregg, and Myself Gather For A Mastermind In Elk Grove, CA…
5am… I wake up after a short night’s sleep with an excited phone call.
“David, oh my gosh… Oh my gosh… Oh my gosh…”
“hello???”, I reply, half in a bewildered daze, and the other half wanting to slip back into my dream, where I was happily fighting Ninjas on the top of the Empire State Building… Dangit. How come all of my coolest dreams get interrupted by MLM opportunities? I guess that’s life when you’re a person like me who’s spent a majority of his adult life hanging out in coffee shops and ‘showing the plan.’
“YOU have GOT to see what I just got involved in… Oh my gosh it’s so awesome… I’m going to be rich!!! You’re going to be rich! WE’RE going to be rich!!!”
“Kristin???” I ask, bewildered. In fact, it had just been the night before when we had been gathered together at a restaurant for a brief reunion with some friends, and she had gone off for 10 minutes about how she would never be involved with MLM again, and how she’s now ‘free at last’ from trying to be someone she’s not.
(As a side note – if any of you know Kristin, she’s one of the most AWESOME people I’ve ever known and is quite a natural at sponsoring people in MLM companies… To be simple – I like her and she is a great friend.)
Anyways, to make a long, fascinating story boring and dull, Kristin then proceeded to tell me about the ‘Efusjon Energy Club’ and all of its fanciful virtues, like:
“You’ve only got to get 3, and they get 3, and they get 3, and you’re rich”
OR:
“It’s not MLM, it’s something new – like a wine club – in fact IT’S A WHOLE NEW INDUSTRY”
AND AGAIN:
“We’ve got our own Efusjon software DESIGNED BY MICROSOFT, it’s exclusive to us!” (Just as a side note, so do most MLM companies that weren’t started out of a basement. That’s what Microsoft does – they design software for companies.)
And I can never forget:
“We’ve designed an exclusive Efusjon Facebook App so now I CAN ANNOY EVERYONE ON FACEBOOK automatically!!!”
Really, I’m blowing our conversation a bit out of proportion – but I was tired, ok!
So of course, in the end, I took a hard look at the Efusjon Energy Club – after all, some of my best friends were involved – I may as well at least take it seriously! In the end, I wasn’t nearly as excited as my friend Kristin or all of the other Efusjon Reps – and there are some reasons for that.
Basically, when you look at Efusjon on the internet and search for reviews, you find one of three things:
1. Efusjon reps raving about the energy drinks, compensation plan, or the exciting opportunity.
2. People selling books, tapes, and seminars to teach you how to build a successful Efusjon business without annoying any of your friends at 5am.
3. People who hate all MLM’s, (Including Efusjon), think they’re scams, and just spew negative garbage out into the universe, because inside they’re just all little children who are still hurt because their parents failed at Amway.
So what I wanted to do for you in this blog entry is to let you know all about The Efusjon Energy Club: What’s great about it, (what stinks about it), and why I decided not to join after giving it a fair amount of research.
What is The Efusjon Energy Club?
The Efusjon Energy Club is a MLM business that started in January of 2009 with the launch of its new ‘healthy’ energy drinks. They took some new, innovative approaches to their business model that are entirely unique in the world of Network Marketing, and they have attracted A LOT of attention, hype, distributors, and media in a short period of time.
In fact, they have grown faster than 99% of all MLM’s that have launched in the past few years. (No, they’re not the fastest, as some claim).
When I first heard about the Efusjon Energy Club from Kristin I was annoyed (irrationally) at first, and I made an out of character video called “The Efusjon Hype Wagon Scam – 9 Reasons Why It Sucks” and I posted it on YouTube.
Within a few hours, I had about 100 complaints from angry Efusjon reps, and I took it down in favor of a more positive approach that I’ve used successfully over the last few years.
Quite frankly, I was shocked at HOW MANY people responded to that video – it boggled my mind.
So Is Efusjon A Scam?
Unfortunately, no, you can’t get out of joining that easily – The Efusjon Energy Club meets all of the standard guidelines issued by the FTC that regulate MLM companies, and it meets strict international guidelines, as well. It is a legit Home Based Business.
What are the super-cool, awesome benefits to The Efusjon Energy Club?
There are a few main ones, but the only thing that really made me look into it was the compensation plan. The Efusjon Energy Club employs a unique compensation plan called ‘The Community Overlap Matrix’ that not only rewards you for your own efforts and those of your personal team – it rewards you for the efforts of people who aren’t a part of your organization at all. This Efusjon compensation plan is what I would call ‘Retardedly Awesome’. Or in the words of Michelangelo (the Ninja Turtle) “Cowabunga Dude”.
To make an incredibly dull explanation short and sweet – you get paid 4.25% on all people in your personal team that were either referred by you or one of your downline, and you get paid 1.25% on all distributors that were referred through ‘The Overlap Matrix’ or one of their personal team members. The comp plan pays even percentages through a forced 3X15 compensation matrix.
(If you’re eyes are glazing over, that’s the end of comp plan jargon for this blog post)…
So Should You Join The Efusjon Energy Club?
Well, that’s entirely up to you, and it’s a question no-one is going to be able to decide on your behalf. You need to look at the facts, evaluate the opportunity, and make a BUSINESS DECISION based off of what is best for your family. (Notice I did not say ‘make a decision based off of the fact that everyone is doing it and you’re super excited’). A BUSINESS DECISION is in order here.
So rather than answering this question for you – I’m just going to tell you the reasons that I decided not to join, and why I think that the Efusjon business opportunity is a house built on sand:
Reason #1: The Nature Of The Efusjon Comp Plan Creates Hyped Out Statements:
One of the most prominent, outright lies that are spread by MLM leaders in all sorts of companies is that ‘you’ll be successful if you just get five, who get five, who get five…’. In the case of Efusjon, I can’t tell you how many distributors I’ve ran into that think that they can get rich by only sponsoring 3 people. Look, the community overlap is cool – but it doesn’t replace recruiting personally and training your team. Those activities are built on LONG TERM SKILL, and require A LOT more than sponsoring only 3. A FEW Efusjon reps might get lucky and earn a bunch of money off of 3 people, but not the majority.
A good example of this is Amway. Did you know that 80% of the ENTIRE AMWAY CORPORATION (More than $7 billion) is under only two distributorships? (Dexter Yager and Ron Puryear).
Those two distributorships are under ONE LUCKY PERSON. (Not many people even know who they are – but they have a team that comprises 80% of Amway.) That’s a story that I don’t call success – it’s pure luck and coincidence. Just like you if you get rich off of 3 people. Let’s just be fair and honest from now on – you can make A LOT of money with Efusjon – but unless you win the lottery every time you play, you’d be better off going to Vegas than you would trying to get rich in Efusjon by sponsoring just 3 reps.
Reason #2 – The Efusjon Product Doesn’t Stand Alone, Is Not Innovative, Is Not New, (And I Personally Dislike The Taste)
Now don’t get me wrong here – lots of people do like the Efusjon Product, and swear by it – I just question their intentions.
Over the last 7 years I’ve been involved in Network Marketing, you would not believe the amount of stories I’ve heard about some new ‘Magical Potion’ that ‘tastes fabulous’, but when you drink it it’s no different than snake oil. Look, Efusjon Energy Drinks are tastier than Red-Bull, but that ain’t saying much. When I was in Agel Enterprises a few years back, Randy Gage used to talk about how great tasting our weight loss product was, too – he was full of crap. That product tasted like poo. Look, if you really like the Efusjon Energy Drinks and think that they taste great – say so. But if you’re hyping it out because you want to make some money off of everyone, stop it. Tell the truth.
The biggest problem I have, though, is that the ‘healthy’ energy drinks from Efusjon aren’t at all a new idea. I’ve ran into AT LEAST 3 companies that started selling healthy energy drinks in the MLM profession. The most well known one, however, is Amway – and they’ve been selling healthy energy drinks since 2003. In other words, the great ‘Efusjon Product Breakthrough’ has been done for AT LEAST six years from the largest MLM company in the world. And I actually enjoy Amway’s energy drinks and buy them quite often (No, I’m not in Amway)…
Reason #3: The Only Real Attraction That I’ve Seen To Joining Efusjon Is The Comp Plan.
My regular readers probably get sick of hearing this, but the single biggest reason for people disliking MLM as a profession is the fact that otherwise normal, upright people will turn into downright liars in the hopes of ‘instant riches’ when they get involved in an MLM company.
The worst part is, they’ll promote a product THAT THEY WOULD NEVER BUY if they weren’t involved with the company as a distributor. The #1 question you should ask yourself before you start sponsoring people in your Efusjon business is:
“If I weren’t getting involved in this company to earn money, WOULD BUY THIS PRODUCT ANYWAYS, AT THE CURRENT PRICE?”
If the answer is ‘No Way’, then don’t promote it, period. Look, you can make A LOT of money selling random things online and to all of your friends – but promoting a product just for the money is a poor use of your energy when you could be doing something you love for a living. This doesn’t just apply to Efusjon – it applies to all MLM companies.
Look, if you truly LOVE the products and would spend $120 on a monthly Auto-Ship without earning a dime, AND YOU’RE BEING HONEST, more power to you. However, if you wouldn’t – who cares about a Community Overlap Bonus?
Final Thoughts on Efusjon:
Look, if you’re an Efusjon rep and this makes you mad – don’t be angry, just prove me wrong. Tell me – how many of the people in your Efusjon downline are customers of the product on a monthly auto-ship for $120 or more who ARE NOT involved in the opportunity?
I’m not saying you shouldn’t join Efusjon or that you should look for a better, more viable product to market – I’m just providing a much needed viewpoint due to popular demand in the marketplace. If you are going to build an Efusjon business, I hope that this review helped you to gain some insight into some of the reasons why not all prospects will join you in your business.
Also, if you’re teetering on the edge and some of what I said here today struck you, and you know you feel the same – why not find an opportunity that is more suited to you than Efusjon? Did you know that there are hundreds of great opportunities in the MLM profession and that there are A LOT of products that you can sell that will probably jive a bit more for you?
The Efusjon Energy Club just isn’t the be all and the end all of Network Marketing. To all of my readers, fans, and visitors – I wish you the best of luck and prosperity in whatever business you choose, and if it’s Efusjon – be blessed in your endeavors and be abundant.
Warmest Regards,
David Wood
Comments
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Richard Dennis, June 17 2012, 13:00
One more thing… If you guys knew anything about REAL nutrition, you would know that ANY juice or drink that is sitting in a bottle…
Lucas Fernández, July 17 2024, 10:00
Great review! It’s good to see an honest perspective on Efusjon. I’ve heard a lot about it and this helps clear things up. Thanks for sharing your insights, David!
Alina Volkov, July 17 2024, 11:00
I appreciate the detailed breakdown of the Efusjon Energy Club. It’s important to know the pros and cons before making a decision. This post has been really helpful.
Marcos Pereira, July 17 2024, 12:00
This is a fantastic review. It’s refreshing to see such a thorough and honest analysis. The comparison with other MLM companies is particularly insightful. Keep up the great work!
Isabella Rossi, July 17 2024, 13:00
Thank you for this review. The points you raised about the compensation plan and the product are very eye-opening. It’s crucial to have a clear understanding before diving into any business opportunity.
