Hello athletes, welcome and thank you for tuning into the Coach Katie Danger Podcast recorded live from Omaha, Nebraska. I'm your host, Coach Katie Danger, U S army veteran, fitness coach and founder of Red H Nutrition. Here's a fact for you, 99% of us are not elite athletes. We're individuals from all backgrounds, juggling life priorities, including jobs, our families, their needs, and trying to find time to take care of ourselves every single week. When you tune in, I'll be discussing clear, concise and actionable strategies you can use to get the most from your fitness, nutrition, and mindset. So you can optimize your life without compromising your time. So athletes settle in and get comfortable. I'm here to educate, inspire, empower, and entertain you to help you enjoy the unique fitness journey that you are on.
(00:52): Athletes. What is up? How's it going out there wherever you are? I hope that you're kicking and taking names. And if that sounds a little too intense and I just hope you're doing well and you're feeling good because it feels good to feel good. And speaking of feeling good I was not feeling very good a few weeks ago, so I thought for a moment that I had come down with everybody's favorite virus but it turns out that tests were negative. I actually had two tests done just to make sure that everything came back negative. So I guess I just had the flu and let me tell you, it was not fun at all, but I did get some time to finally tackle something on my bucket list. I learned to solve a Rubik's cube. It has been on my bucket list since a bucket list has been something in my brain.
(01:31): And really until recently I thought that only like super smart genius people could solve a Rubik's cube, but turns out even a fitness coach can do it. So now that I've got it down, I'm working. How on how fast I can actually do it. My fastest time I've gotten is a minute and 45 seconds, and I would love to break the one minute Mark. I'm just got to keep practicing, but did you know that the world record for the fastest soul is 3.9 seconds? Somebody can do one of these in 3.9 seconds like that just, it just blows my mind. Anyways, at the very least, I've been able to check something on my bucket list. So getting sick, wasn't a total complete waste of time. And is there anything that you've been working on this year you've always wanted to do? I've still got a few things on my bucket list.
(02:11): I want to play the piano. I'm going to learn sign language, and I really want to have a large audience. I want to speak on stage in front of at least 10,000 people. I think that would be really awesome. That would definitely test my public speaking skills, but I digress. Let's just get right into the meat and potatoes of this week's podcast. It's all about multilevel marketing supplement brands, and I'm just going to be quite honest. They really me off. I think they are. They're just, they're just terrible. And there's so many things that I find distasteful in the fitness world, but multi-level marketing brands, supplement brands. They're really in a league of prep, all of their own. And specifically, I want to say that friends don't let friends Herbalife. They just don't. Now you've probably heard of Herbalife before. And if you've been on social media for more than a hot minute, you've also probably been asked to be a distributor before perhaps the email or instant message came through your DMS. And when something, this Hey Hun, or bro, Hey honey,
(03:02): Did you know that you can make some easy cash working from home? I'm living my dream. I bought my own Island and I make a billion dollars a month. Let me teach you how you can too. And then the message has a bunch of random and emojis in there that you can't really, you just can't tolerate. It's unintelligible. It doesn't matter.
(03:17): Or if it's Herbalife beach, body by Salice or some other multi-level marketing summit brand, they're all pyramid schemes in my book. They're all pyramid schemes. But before I get to the details of Herbalife specifically, I'm going to share my story. I'm going to share how I've been on the inside of one of these multi-level marketing brands and regretfully as a distributor. Once I was approached by a gentlemen,
(03:38): Very swag, very clean cut blonde hair, blue eyes, he's driving a BMW. And he got the BMW for being a top salesman in 2013 for Visalia. So unlike big eyes, you know, like I was working at best buy at the time back then I was making $14 an hour. I mean, who doesn't want to drive a BMW? Right? All flashy.
(03:57): Now, if I sell, this is probably a long forgotten multilevel marketing brand, mainly because they got caught up in some of their own financial shenanigans, but their products were also garbage. Like I, I am embarrassed. Steven admit I was a Visalia distributor at one point, but whatever here we are now, their main product was their plant-based protein, which it was really tasty. Like I made shakes out of this. I thought it was the tastiest protein I'd ever had. So it didn't make it kind of easy to sell it, right? Because taste is a really big barrier of entry. So I was recruited
(04:26): The idea to Visalia so that I could work from home, sell nutrition products and make a boatload of cash and then maybe get a BMW someday. Now, of course I was part of somebody's downline and I was also required to purchase, you know, basically pay like an entry fee to Visalia, which almost I love marketing brands are, you know, you got to pay an entry fee, you gotta pay to play. And then not only being a part of somebody's downline, but I was also required to build
(04:47): My own downline. I even did all those silly tasting parties where I've convinced a bunch of my friends to buy the products. And if you're listening and you're my friend and you participated in these with me, I am sorry. Looking back. I feel very tired, terrible that I ever got involved, but you know, it, it brought me to here Rami to this journey indefinitely inspired me to do better in supplement industry, which we'll get to later. But one of the main reasons that it was so embarrassing, is it because
(05:13): It actually has nothing to do with selling a good product, like product quality and product standards. And multi-level marketing supplement brands like that is so far down in the consideration level. Like it's not even a consideration. Multi-Level marketing brands like buy sells like Herbalife, like beach body. They're all about recruiting more people and then recruit more people to recruit more people. It was quantity over quality in all aspects of the game. And what made it even worse is that the products were actually terrible and quality
(05:39): Too. Like none of these people, none of these brands are putting out products that you really want somebody that you care about to take. The products are produced in mass. They're usually produced overseas. And if they're not produced overseas
(05:52): Of the products are sourced from overseas and then they're shipped to the United States. These products don't go through any standards. And if they do, they're very, very minimal or it's only because something has come up and then reactively, they have to test these products. So they're not required to
(06:05): Be tested for contaminants or other periods, standards, any distributor of any multi-level marketing software product. They have no involvement in the actual product production or the quality of the products they sell. So let me be clear when you have no involvement or investment with the creation of the products you sell, you can't possibly speak to the quality of said product. You just can't. So let's get back to Herbalife. And specifically, because I got a real big problem with them and focusing on them specifically, because here in Omaha, there've been these nutrition shops. And if you're watching, I've got this going on a Facebook live because I'm trying something different. But I put nutrition shops in very, very heavy quotes and you'll see why, but they've been popping up on every single corner. They claim to have healthy teas and shakes. But if you look at what's going on in these health teas and these shakes, it is so far from healthy. And when you walk in, there's not a whole food in sight. There's no fruits,
(06:55): There's no veggies. You've got the Herbalife protein now in their proteins shakes, they've got cookies, they've got crackers and they've got other fun and delicious sugary toppings for the shakes, but no real food and their teas. Well, it's just brewed green tea with a bunch of things,
(07:09): Added grinning, simple syrup to it to make it taste nice and sweet. And I remember when I first heard about these places, I was really excited. I got excited because it's nice to have, I have like a healthy shake option because look, I don't always want to make my own protein shakes. I just don't. I want to do the dishes. I want to put all the ingredients together. So I thought having a healthy shake shop, It would be nice. So I tried it out and then I found out
(07:30): They were just Herbalife distributors, wrapping up their protein with fancy shakes and putting the word healthy in front of it. Just because you used the word healthy, doesn't make it real. Now I've tried to find nutrition facts on their shakes. But funny thing is on some of the posts that I've looked at on some chronological,
(07:46): Facebook posts. I can't find the ingredient listing. Now. I did go to one of the websites for one of these nutrition shops and they have the macros available. So it shows you the proteins, the fats in the carbohydrates, but it doesn't tell you the actual ingredients. Okay, cool. I know how many protein fats and carbs, but like you guys
(08:03): There's so much more to nutrition than the macros, right? I mean, you could probably go and find your favorite processed chips, a away cookie and make it fit in your macros. Doesn't make it healthy though. So I did find this though. I found this and I want to clear up something too. I found a Facebook post where they claim that their sweeteners are low-glycemic. So there's a glycemic index and that's essentially how quickly will a food
(08:25): Affect your blood sugar? How quickly will affect your insulin. They use Stevia and fruit toast is sugar FYI. In case you didn't know. And also glycemic index is such a poor indicator of insulin. So let me tell you why there's glycemic index and there's glycemic load. And it's glycemic load is what you want to know about, which is a whole nother topic, a whole nother podcast I'll probably get into, but let me just make it clear. Okay? So you've got glycaemic index, which tells you how quickly your food will affect you,
(08:52): Your blood sugar, and you've got glycemic load. So you can have a low GI food. Like carrots, carrots are on low GI food, which so is fruit toast. But if you eat a ton of something, a lot of something all at once, it's the glycemic load that matters, which is ultimately going to affect your blood sugar significantly. And in this case, if you ate a ton of carrots, it would affect your blood sugar and insulin levels. Significantly. Now, most people aren't eating as many carrots as you would need to really spike your insulin. But the point goes, even if it's a low GI food, if you eat a lot of it, which a lot of fruit toast adds up in these shakes, there's like 50 grams. You're still going to have an insulin spike. You're still gonna have that blood sugar spike. So do not let them tell you that just because what they use is on the low is a low GI food doesn't mean that there's not a lot, a lot of load added, right? So anyway, it's just skirting around the issue again, right? It's just trying to Polish a turd if you will.
(09:49): Hey, I know. And you know that I talk a lot about using supplements on your fitness journey and reaching your full potential, how I believe they're integral pieces of the puzzle to reaching your best self and best fitness results. But do you know how supplements fit into your plan? Do you know what to take for your goals and how much of a supplement you should take if you ever had any of those questions and you want to know how supplements can work for you and your goals, go to your fitness supplements.com and take the free free, free three point personalized supplement assessment. And with just a few questions, you'll have a complete personalized supplement recommendation in less than 60 seconds. You'll know more about how supplements fit into your fitness goals. What's safe and what's effective and perfect for you. So type in your fitness supplements.com in your internet browser, take the free assessment and get on the fast track to your best fitness results. So let me be clear here. If your protein shakes
(10:50): Has it. Graham crackers and Oreo cookies and pink sprinkled crumbles all over it. It's not a health food. So Herbalife though, why are they so freaking terrible? Why is their business models so freaking terrible? Well, first and foremost, Herbalife is a pyramid scheme. The FTC ruled in 2016 and they find Herbalife that their business model operated like a pyramid scheme. And why are pyramid schemes bad? Well, for one profit is the main motive. It's not about pill. It's not about wellness. It's not about you. It is about profit. It is exploitative. And they use these words like healthy energy lifestyle. And they essentially were taking advantage of uneducated potential customers who like in our attracted to these healthy words, energy lifestyle, you know, they've got the right mode. The people got the right mode as these customers, but they're being duped and their scheme. And I'm going to use the word scheme and scam when it comes to Herbalife in any other multi-level marketing stuff on a brand until the rest of eternity.
(11:50): But I want to give you a clear definition of pyramid scheme in case you didn't know, Oh, and rest in peace is Bernie Madoff. He just passed away a few days ago. One of the biggest pyramid schemers in the entire history of financial industry, but not to digress too much. A pyramid scheme is an illegal investment scam based on a hierarchical setup that pays members higher up in the structure with funds from the lower members. So that's why in these multi-level marketing companies including AdvoCare, which has just had also recently changed their business model is the more people you recruit, the more money you get. So it's not about the sales of the actual products. It's about how many people can you recruit because it's paid to play. So the more people you have in your down line, the more money you make, therefore, the incentive is not to make good products.
(12:34): It's not to sell good products and, and focus on the customer and what they need, but it's to recruit and devalue the entire sales process. I'm very passionate about this. If you can't tell already, if you're watching live, you can probably see a lot of my emotions and reactions. I'm very passionate about this. I've been on the inside of Visalia. I've seen how these multi-level marketing brands work. I see how they operate. And with these nutrition shops opening up, and it's not just an Omaha, but some of my fitness friends, I follow on Instagram. They are all over the place. They're in Tennessee, they're in Alabama. I mean, they are every week. Okay. And it just makes me sick because their schemes or scams, and they're just, they're not out for you. Okay. I created my own brand of supplements and I did this because I wanted to counter so many of these are valid.
(13:17): They are valid beliefs about the supplement industry. Supplements can be snake, oil supplements, don't work. I don't need supplements. Like I get all of it. I know where it comes from. And these brands like Herbalife and other multi-level marketing words, they just don't help. And they make it really hard for me to promote the supplement industry because it's so easy to create cheap products. It's so easy to create products that are filled with sugar, and it just gives the whole entire industry a bad name. I've taken the time taking the energy and I've taken the personal investment to create supplements with purpose. With reddish attrition, there's supplements are clean, but supplements that are not full of junk or fillers or lead for that matter, which we'll get to in a little bit here. Herbalife supplements have a very bad reputation for being high on lead as well, but Herbalife supplements.
(13:59): It also killed people. So let me tell you about this in 2018, a 23 year old woman who they call prima. I'm sure it's just a pseudonym so they can cover her real name, but she was 23 years old and she was from Asia and she died from acute liver damage due to consumption of Herbalife, weight loss shakes, and their supplements per specific goal was weight loss. That's what she wanted to do. And she was sucked in by all the glitz, the glamour and the rainbows that Herbalife promotes. She ended up paying her life for it. So the doctor who was in charge of her care for six months after she developed these liver issues, he took it upon himself to enlist the help of researchers because they dissected her liver. They didn't know they didn't have hepatitis, you know, did, did she have some sort of other liver disease that contributed this for the other factors?
(14:42): At the end of the day, the doctor could only conclude that the only thing that she was doing that would be wrong or contributed to her death were the supplements she was taking. So now this is an independent research study. This wasn't something that was done on a mass scale, but they dissected her liver. And then they also looked at the product. So she took her Herbalife products. They analyze the bacteria in the samples, and here's what they found. They found high levels of heavy metals that were found in the source products. Now they never reveal what the products were. And I assume that's to prevent a lawsuit from Herbalife because just nobody wants to get involved in that, but that doesn't make the information any less relevant. So in 75% of the samples, they found psychotropic agents. They actually found cocaine in some of these Herbalife,
(15:24): Freaking cocaine. You guys, there shouldn't be cocaine and any supplement product whatsoever. He also analyzed bacteria from the samples and found that 63% of the samples were contaminated with above normal levels of bacteria, Streptococcus Prevotella. And then another word I can't really pronounce very well. Escherichia I dunno, It's a contaminated as something that should not me in your supplement products. Now,
(15:50): All the options out there, all the options of supplements you could possibly take. Why would you ever consider Herbalife at this point, knowing what you know, now it's a pyramid scheme. Number one, the FTC find them $200 million for being one. And then they agreed to restructure their model. So instead of being incentivized on how many people you recruit, it's actually based on sales to real human beings. Also distributors were paid part. Some of that $200 million fine was divvied out to distributors who had lost money in the process. Number two, their home base is located in the Cayman islands. And can anyone say
(16:22): Shelter? Why would a company be based in the Cayman islands? I don't know. And number three, they literally kill people. Like I told you, and number four, their products have lead in them. So if you're thinking of joining a supplement multi-level marketing company, like Herbalife, like beach body, like AdvoCare, whatever else is out there. And we'd ask yourself, ask yourself these questions before you get involved. When you get that direct message and they're calling you
(16:47): Hun, Hey, hun made a billion dollars a year. I want you to as well ask yourself, can you realistically see yourself selling to your friends and family? Because that's, you're going to go to first. You're going to go to your friends and your family. You're going to ask them to purchase these products from you. Do you want to do that? Number two, if you're born to sell, if you were born to be a sales man or woman, I want you to ask, Ask yourself, what is it about this product?
(17:07): People I know, buy it once, just as a favor to me, to get me to shut up because they feel sorry for me, or will they buy it repeatedly and consistently, because it is a good product that actually helps them reach their goals for how long are they going to buy from you and for what price will they buy it from? You now, remember you don't have any pricing opportunity. You can't offer discounts. You can't offer bundles. What you see is what you get with the pricing structure, with a multi-level marketing company. And then what went into creating this product? Do you know,
(17:34): Can you speak intelligently to how it was made, where it was made? What's in it. Those are all questions you should ask yourself because athletes, you deserve better. The people that you love and care about deserve better. The supplement industry deserves better. Now I know that this podcast won't create the best change that I want it to, but I believe it is a start. The reason that I do anything is because I want to educate, inspire, and empower. And I hope that this educates you on the shakiness of these multilevel marketing supplement brands. I hope that inspires you to be more diligent about the products you consume. And I hope that empowers you to make better choices. The bottom line is friends. Don't let friends Herbalife stay away from those sleazy nutrition, healthy teas and shake shops, respect your wallet, respect what you put into your body and do the due diligence.
(18:21): If you have to demand ingredient labels, demand to know purity standards, demand to know how these products are made and where, because trust me as a supplement brand owner, as somebody who puts care and energy into the sales process, any sales person worth their salt is going to know the answers to those questions. And they're also going to be really eager to share it with you. There are great brands out there, but sometimes you got to sift and sort through the BS. So I'm going to come off my soap box now, and I'm probably going to go take a cold shower because this topic gets me really fired up like no other. And I'm sure you can tell I'm passionate about doing good for you and showing you that there's a better way to supplement and that there are good brands out there. Athletes. I want to thank you for listening.
(19:01): Thank you for tuning into episode number 68. It's always fun to share some time with you every week. And I hope that you've come out of this podcast, more educated and more inspired than when you came into it. Now is some positive news. I am working on a really, a lot of fun things here over at danger HQ, including a fitness membership community, some in-depth coaching programs, as well as some self guided learning courses. You can take your results in your own hands and get to the next level. So stay tuned for all that's coming up real soon. And in the meantime, here's what I want for you athletes. I want you to believe in yourself. I want you to trust the process. I want you to enjoy the journey and I want you to never, ever, ever quit you guys. This is coach Katie D we'll talk to you again next week, over and out.
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