I know a lady who is a "Beach Body Coach". She posts a lot of workout selfies and hosts "accountability groups", but doesn't push the selling anything, and is honest that if you're going to ask for a recommendation for a workout routine, that she's going to suggest a beach body one.
Anyway, it made me curious, so I looked up the price of the shakes. $130 for a 30 day supply. WTF?! Of course, the reasoning is "all those nutrients, you'll never get that many on your own!" That's pretty much half my grocery budget for the month (for two people, minus bulk meat). Why in the world would a shake mix be so expensive?
It's not really that expensive. What's built into the cost is that's how they pay their "coaches".
So, step #1 for a coach making money: Get someone to buy a "challenge pack" - a workout with the shakes on home delivery.
The "coach" gets a 25% commission for that. So if someone gets the shake and likes it, they get $32.50.
But wait, there's more! If the coach convinces the customer to become a coach - then the coach pays a monthly fee to be a coach but gets the 25% discount.
Thus, the "new coach" gets the shakes for $97.50 (25% discount) AND their coach gets $32.50. That brings the actual cost of the shakes down to $65.
Of course there's this whole other "bonus" schedule that I never bothered to figure out, so the actual costs of the shakes has to be much less than that in order to make a profit and pay people for having a bigger "downline".
The only reason I know some of this is because I bought a Beachbody program after kid #2 was born, and it came with the shakes. I actually really liked the program - still do it. The shakes actually tasted pretty good (but only the chocolate), and they were helpful for losing the baby weight. (Nothing magic about them, just that they made meal planning easier.) I was a coach for awhile to get the discount.
All in all, I like their workouts - they actually have a streaming service right now for approx $99 a year. I don't really know how they are going to maintain momentum for their "coaches". You can literally have access to all the workouts on line for $99 a year. No need to buy DVDs, shakes, supplements, or whatever. In the last few years I've known many coaches who have faded away and dropped out - and some were pretty successful at it. But the market got saturated, and streaming took over DVDs (at least you could make a commission on a DVD, not sure if there is any on the streaming service). It's a side gig for most, and the only people I know who still work at it are actual health professionals - certified personal trainers or nutritionists or people who own gyms or karate studios (where they can run free challenge groups).