By Kelly Songy Nelson
If you’re a frequent visitor to Coach Jimmy’s Facebook page, you may have seen that we had a big announcement this week! We proudly and excitedly announced that I was officially a full time Beachbody coach!
No more Corporate America for this gal! This has been a long awaited answered prayer for us and as I stopped to give thanks for this amazing blessing, I was taken back to the moment when our lives were changed by Beachbody…
Power 90 Started it All…
Jimmy and I had only been married maybe a year (maybe less) when a friend recommended Power 90 to him. Like most newlyweds, we were strapped for cash – I was working in Corporate America and Jimmy was acting and waiting tables, so spending money on some “as seen on TV” workout was not on my shopping list!! “But Kel,” Jimmy said, “if we don’t like it, we can send it back and get our money back.” “Fine…but set a reminder on your calendar so you don’t forget to send it back!!” was probably my response!
For those of you who know Jimmy, you know he’s what I like to call my “shiny object” guy!!!! If it’s new and flashy, it’s probably on its way to my house. So you can imagine the “kind and loving” glances that I gave him when P90X showed up on our doorstep!!! (And it wasn’t the amazing $120 that it is now – it was I think close to double that!) We’d seen great results from Power 90, but I knew we didn’t have any business shelling out $250 for 12 DVDs when Jimmy had a gym membership and a Mens Health magazine!!! Again, he reminded me that if we didn’t like it, we could return it and get our money back. So off we went into X Land!
We Got the Results We Wanted…
Wow – we saw AMAZING RESULTS! It was an incredible time for us. Still newly married, both forging our paths in this fitness journey and being able to experience it together! We grew closer…not to mention we also grew thinner!!!!
People were noticing our results! This was WAY before any celebs were talking about it or before there was even a P90X infomercial out, but it didn’t keep us sharing with people what we were doing to look and feel so good!
Fast forward a couple of years – we moved to New York, traveled across the country as performers in a large children’s entertainment show (hint: He’s purple and his name rhymes with Carney!!) and then Jimmy went off to Phoenix to star in a musical for a few months.
I clearly remember him calling me from Phoenix saying, “oh my gosh, Kel, I just found out about this amazing opportunity that I want us to do”…immediately the alarms are going off in my head. Oh boy, here we go…lay it on me! “Beachbody has this opportunity that we can get paid for telling people about P90X.” The alarms in my head got a little louder. Jimmy, by this point, was talking a mile a minute – I’m not even sure all of what he said!!! But he was so excited about this and, with his shiny object track record, I had to slightly burst his bubble and ask a few questions (I’m a “fine print” gal…you can see how Jimmy and I balance each other out!!!!!): “How much is it going to cost us? How long are we going to be stuck in this? How much is it to get out? Do we have to become icky salespeople? Is this Beachbody Coach Scam one of those pyramid things?” It should comes as no surprise that Jimmy’s response was that he didn’t know – he just knew that we were already spending money using the workouts and supplements and this would just be a great way for us to get a 25% discount (a big plus!!!) and we could maybe make a little extra money with it so Jimmy didn’t have to go back to waiting tables.
The initial thought BLARING in my head was:
“NOOOO…We are NOT doing this Beachbody Coach Scam!!!”
– but instead, I took a deep breath and said, “Send me the fine print.”
Having a background working in a legal department, I knew that the fine print was where they always get ya! So I was ready to tear this apart with a fine-toothed comb!
My parent’s instilled a strong work ethic in us and taught us that security was very important. I’d heard of other network marketing companies and I knew there were a lot of scams out there. Getting into something like that was NOT what I wanted!
Sure you see the flashy ads of the big wigs for those companies with their big, oversized checks and their cars or homes on the beach – who wouldn’t want to be one of those people? But it was just a pipe dream. I was doing well in Corporate America but I was miserable. I had my two weeks of vacation each year that I would have loved to have gone to the beach and sipped fruity drinks, but my family lived out of state, so any time off usually went to visiting them. And I was pretty sure that no bank would ever be able to cash a check that large…I mean, it wouldn’t even fit in the little teller tubes!!!! The point is – it was a pipe dream. Living that carefree life of freedom was something that seemed so intangible, so I guess my attitude was one of “why try?” – I’ll just stay with my secure, safe job and maybe one day, I’ll be able to save enough money to be able to take that beach vacation.
I digress…I read the fine print and I saw that there was really nothing that seemed fishy or scam-y about it. It was all very straightforward. If you find it’s not right for you, you can get your money back in 30 days –and after that, you can cancel any time. No strings attached. We didn’t have to keep inventory in our house like some other companies and there really wasn’t much to it. You share your experience with the programs, help other people get started on programs and be there to support them through it.
Yet I still wasn’t convinced that it was something that I wanted to hop into headfirst – there were still so many objections running through my head. I told Jimmy that if he wanted to do it, fine, but I didn’t want to. I figured that I’d watch how he did with it. If it turned out to be all that he made it out to be, I’d think about signing up down the road.
First of all, neither of us had a clue what “network marketing” was. We’d heard of other companies, most of which had no-so-great reputations. I didn’t want to end up being the sucker who fell for something like that.
I was not a sales person. I usually avoid going into stores where you can tell that people are desperately working on commission. They just seemed slimy and icky and they never cared about what my needs were, they just wanted the sale. YUCK and no thanks!!!
I wasn’t really sure how I was going to fit this in. I had an hour commute each way to work, had a full time job, then came home to cook and clean and all the other stuff on my to-do list. The weekend was filled with playing catchup for all the things I didn’t get done. I always wanted to be those people who just had a job and then came home with a simple life…God had other plans for me!
I saw how happy Jimmy was when he was sharing his 100 pound weight loss story with others and so I decided to support him and I eventually signed up to be a coach as well. I still had my corporate job, but I was able to fit in time to help other people!
Slowly, Beachbody started showing us how to reach out to the free customers they were giving to us (oh yeah, they give us free customers!!) and they gave us amazing videos that we could send out!
The doubt and fear slowly left as I saw that Beachbody was in this for the long haul. This was not some “get rich quick” scheme, some spooky pyramid scheme, or some phoney-baloney “coach” scam thing they started to make some money. That Beachbody Coach scam thing I was worried about didn’t exist! They truly cared about each person who purchased a product from them. They cared so much that they wanted to be sure they got the proper support from a person – not some email address with auto-responders or a 1-800 number that would transfer you to who- knows-where! They entrusted their coaches to provide support to these customers. WOW…that’s when it became real for me. I had people emailing me asking me questions about their diets and workouts. Real people with real, busy schedules like mine. And I was able to help them change their lives for the better! Woah.
Realize that I am not a fitness expert or a nutritionist. The word “Beachbody coach” still freaked me out a little. But the questions that were coming in didn’t require an expert opinion or PhD responses – they just needed me to listen to what their needs and struggles were, and to see if there was a fit or answer for them with what Beachbody had to offer. And most of the responses came just from my experiences with the programs and supplements!
Jimmy was on fire with this. He was making a name for himself in the Beachbody community after being asked to appear in the Insanity DVDs and people were starting to seek him out thanks to the beauty of social media. I was still working full time and helping people in my spare time, but I noticed that the weekly checks that we’d get from Beachbody were getting bigger! Jimmy had reached a status that qualified us to go on…wait for it…beach vacations!!!!!
While the beach vacations were nice, the reality was that I was still in my corporate job, being WAY underpaid and overworked and that life of freedom, while closer, still seemed so far away.
As I got more and more involved, I made more and more friends who were also doing this on a part time basis. All I knew was corporate thinking – you just keep on working until you’re old and grey and hopefully you’ll be “with-it” enough to enjoy retirement without having someone to wipe the drool off the side of your mouth!! People around us began making the leap into doing this full time. My belief system started to change (not to mention it was pretty hard to ignore the increasing size of the weekly checks from Beachbody!). Watching Jimmy do this full time and then slowly others around us, I wanted to be a part of this more. I began becoming an active part of building our business instead of the support role that I’d played for so many years.
This was when we decided to take that leap of faith. God was placing change on my heart fast and furiously, so we strapped on our seat belts and I made the decision to leave Corporate America. I was seeing Jimmy’s vision and what I initially thought to be a pipe dream become a reality in front of my eyes.
Was it a bit scary? YES! Do I feel like I got suckered into some Beachbody Coach Scam thing? Heck, no! I feel like a new woman. I am able to spend more time with my family – even my out of state family (we’re spending THREE WEEKS with them in November!!!) and be a hands on wife and mother. I work less hours making more money and actually being appreciated for the things that I do.
I’m not sure if you’re looking to make a change in your life or if something like this even piques your interest. All I know is that I took a chance on something, had an open mind, and didn’t give up and it’s led to the dream life that I’ve been on my knees about for so many years! If I had brushed it off as the Beachbody Coach scam I originally thought it was, I might still be hating my life in Corporate America!
If you’re interested in making a change, please send me an email. I’d love to hear from you and see how we can start making positive changes in your life!