First of all, you don’t have to be a fitness or nutrition expert. Beachbody makes lots of different workout programs that you may be familiar with – a few of them are P90X, Insanity, Turbo Jam, and Hip Hop Abs. You might have seen infomercials about these on TV. Beachbody and their teams of trainers, nutritionists, etc are the experts that develop workouts and the nutrition plans. Beachbody Coaches are (usually) people who have followed these programs, gotten great results, and want to help others get those types of results as well. You can join for the discount, the business, or both. In a nutshell, being a Coach allows you to       - make commissions on referrals you make, whether that be a P90X program or any of the other workouts, or or any of the supplements like Shakeology, protein bars or the P90X Results and Recovery drink.      - Receive a 25% discount on any products you purchase yourself. Some people ignore the business side and join simply for the 25% discount you get on all products. If you are doing something like Shakeology or use the bars and recovery drink every month, it adds up fast. Others like having the opportunity to make referral sales. Many people find that once they get great results from doing a workout and become a ‘walking billboard’ for Beachbody, people ask them about what they are doing. The title of Coach means you’re answering questions about the products you’re familiar with anyway – and if you run into an answer you don’t know, that’s easily solved through the wealth of resources available through Beachbody and your own Coach upline.

Ana got to meet Tony Horton in June 2011, and Todd met Carl Daikeler, CEO of Beachbody, in Sept 2011.

What does it cost?

 • $39.95 one time, which can be waived if you buy a workout program and Shakeology at sign up.
 • $15.95 every 5 weeks after sign up.

If you are active military, you or your spouse can sign up to be a Coach for free. That means both the initial sign-up AND the $15.95 every five weeks are waived.

How do I make money?

You earn a 25% commission when people buy from you. You earn additional bonuses from what the coaches you sponsor buy or sell. It’s really that simple, but if you want to know more about the compensation plan you can watch this video. There's also some other good videos and testimonials at this Beachbody Coach Presentation.

Are there any additional costs?

If you are interested in just the discount on products you use for yourself, no. The same is true if you want to make just an occasional referral to a friend or colleague - no other costs beyond the $15 every 5 weeks are involved. If you want to do this as more than just an occasional referral and build a business, its important to maintain what’s called ’active’ status as a Coach. This can easily be done by selling or buying roughly $50 a month on products. By using the products, you could easily ‘consume’ that business expense yourself and enable your business from it. There’s a lot of products to choose from that are designed to enhance your workouts and stick to the nutrition plan. You can also go on the Home Direct plan where Beachbody mails you a product of your choice every 5 weeks (and many items come with free shipping when you choose Home Direct). I personally use Shakeology, P90X Recovery Drink, and the P90X Protein Bars – Shakeology and the bars are helping me stick to my diet plan.

You just talked about Active status – do I have to maintain active status?

It depends what you want to do. If you just want to enjoy your 25% discount and earn an occasional commission when you recommend the program to your neighbor or Uncle Bob, then no. If you want to actively build a business, you need to remain active or you won’t be able to receive the additional bonuses from what the coaches you sponsor buy or sell.

Am I required to carry inventory?

No. You receive a website that customers can order through (you can see what that looks like in the next question). Beachbody takes cares of the fulfillment, shipping, returns and whatever other customer service items.

What do I get when I sign up?

Your discount is available immediately. On the business side, you get two websites. The first looks like this

http://www.beachbodycoach.com/anastasiam

Basically you tell people what you are doing to get in shape and then send them to that website.

You get another one for Shakeology specifically that looks like this

http://www.shakeology.com/anastasiam

You also get a third site for the Ultimate Reset product that looks like this

http://myultimatereset.com/anastasiam

You also get a business starter pack in the mail, which helps orient you and set goals. You also get an online back office, which has training articles and videos, marketing materials, a contact system, a video library in English and Spanish, etc.

What are some of the other advantages?

• Beachbody advertising. How many times have you seen the P90X, Insanity, or other infomercials on TV? Have you seen any of the Beachbody trainers featured in the news or on TV shows? Beachbody stuff shows up relatively often in major media sources - Tony Horton, creator of P90X, has appeared on The View and Kristie Alley’s Big Life. There’s a recent Wall Street journal article. Shaun T, creator of Insanity and Hip Hop Abs, has been on the Ellen Degeneres show and the Tyra Banks show. I was surprised once I started my business just how many people are already familiar with or have at least heard of the Beachbody products, which is a big advantage.

• Free Customers. If you work it as a business, when you achieve the first ‘rank’ level (called Emerald) Beachbody gives you free customers. For example, if someone sees the P90X, Insanity or another infomercial and orders off the TV, Beachbody rotates all those new customers through their coaches that are Emerald or higher. Beachbody keeps the commission from the original order, but anything else the person orders you earn 25% commission on. Of course there's no guarantee of numbers and it varies from month to month, but for the months of May and June 2011, I received about 12 customers per month. Some of those people order something once, quit, and never come back, and others go on to order other products and supplements, in which case you get the commission. So it's a pretty sweet deal. Again, you have to be an Emerald coach to get this, and in case you’re wondering, to be an Emerald coach you need to have sponsored 2 other active coaches.

• Being a Coach is a commitment to yourself. I’ve found it a great way to keep myself accountable for sticking to my workouts. If I’m going to be a Coach, I better darn well have my own results. $15 a month is really not all that much, but that little bit extra helped me stay focused on fitness – especially in the beginning when the workouts felt really hard. Even if you don’t make any money, if it helps you succeed, I think that commmitment to yourself is worth it – and the worst that happens is you get a discount on products.

• The Team Beachbody free account. There’s a ton of resources, downloads, contests, message boards, find a workout buddy etc. I recommend your getting an account if you don’t already have one, as this is a good site to use for YOUR workouts, even if becoming a Coach isn’t a good fit for you.