Beyond Organic: Jordan Rubin’s bible diet + MLM
Thankfully I’ve never been sick enough to warrant a serious examination of my diet. That said, I try to eat a reasonably balanced variety of vegetables, meats and dairy – although here in Taiwan that can often prove to be a challenge.
Back in 1994, Jordan Rubin was diagnosed with ‘Crohn’s Disease. In addition to this, he also had arthritis, diabetes, chronic fatigue, hair loss and anemia.
Being a religious man and after allegedly travelling the world and trying everything to get back to health, Rubin claims he eventually turned to the bible for answers.
After healing himself, an act Rubin attributes solely to his bible diet, he went on to write ‘The Maker’s Diet’. Along with Rubin’s new book and kosher diet so too was a new ambition born;
‘To change the health of the world, one life at a time’.Beyond Organic the company
After authoring his book The Maker’s Diet, Rubin (photo right) then went on found a vitamin and supplement company, ‘Garden of Life’. Conveniently, many of the supplements recommended in The Maker’s Diet were retailed by Rubin’s Garden of Life company.
Not so bad on its own, but coupled with the fact that The Maker’s Diet has never been scientifically peer-reviewed and the fact that Jordan Rubin’s academic qualifications were obtained via non-accredited institutions, there is something to be said about a possible conflict of interest.
Additionally in 2004, the United States Food and Drug Administration
ordered Garden of Life to stop making unsubstantiated claims about eight of its products and supplements.
The claims were made in brochures, on labels, and in Rubin’s book Patient Heal Thyself.
In late 2009, Rubin then sold Garden of Life to Atrium Innovations for $35 million USD. After laying dormant for nearly two years, now Rubin is back to continue ‘transform the health of God’s people‘ with Beyond Organic.
The Beyond Organic Product Line
The Beyond Organic product line, not surprisingly revolves around an offering of organic foodstuffs – primarily dairy and meat.
100% Greenfed Beef
In a nutshell, this is beef that is fed not only grass but a variety of greens that Beyond Organic claim are far more suitable for a cow’s diet then the alternatives. Beyond Organic claim to let their cows free roam organic pastures ‘in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains‘ in the central US.
The idea is that in turn, this is then better for you.
Oh and just FYI, all of Beyond Organic’s greenfed beef is ‘biblically slaughtered to kosher standards‘. Can’t have health without the bible now can we.
Beyond Organic retails their 100% greenfed beef in the form of ground beef (minced), hamburger patties and sausages.
Greenfed ground beef (either as is or in patty form) will retail in a 500g pack for $10 USD and the hotdogs come in a 12 ounce (340g) pack of 6 for $10 USD.
Really Raw Cheese
Beyond Organic’s Really Raw Cheese is sourced from greenfed cows of a ‘unique genetic composition‘ (uh, Beyond Organic have some sort of super cows now?) and they claim it’s organically produced.
As for what kind of cheeses are on offer, Really Raw Cheese will be available in Cheddar, Cheddar Blue and Harvati varieties.
All three cheeses retail in a 500g pack for $18.75 USD.
Amasai
Along the lines of Yakult and such, Amasai is a fermented milk drink that originates from the Maasai tribe of Africa.
Targeting the immune and digestive system, these drinks have been around for a while now and general consensus seems to be you either love them or think they’re useless.
Beyond Organic claim their Amasi drink (spelt differently to the tribe name and seemingly trademarked by Beyond Organic), ‘contains greater nutrition and health benefits’.
Amasai will retail in a 6 pack of 16 ounce (475ml) bottles for $37.50 USD.
SueroViv
There’s also something called SueroViv (terrible fail by the marketing department over that name there), that Beyond Organic seem to be retailing and it seems to be a flavoured probiotic water drink;
SueroViv begins with whey produced from greenfed heritage cattle, cultured with living probiotics, flavored using organic fruit juice, sweetened with honey and made superior by adding essential oils.
The result is a whole food cultured probiotic beverage, or living tonic elixir, if you will.
Personally I prefer the fermented milk flavour but no doubt SueroViv will no doubt attract those that don’t.
SueroViv will retail in a 24 pack of 16 ounce (475ml) bottles for $90 USD.
Reign Supreme Spring Water
Reign is pure spring water sourced from the mountains of North Georgia in the US. Beyond Organic claim (brand) is ‘up to twenty times more pure than other leading brands‘.
Personally I’ve always believed, barring any obvious toxicity, that water is water is water…
Still, I suppose spring water is in line with their other products and no doubt will have a market within Beyond Organic’s customerbase.
There’s also a flavour infused variety of Reign for those of you who don’t like normal water too.
Unflavoured Reign water will retail in a 24 pack of 500ml bottles for $25 USD.
Flavoured Reign water, available in ‘Awaken’, ‘Veggie’ and ‘Fruit’ flavours will retail in a 24 pack of 500ml bottles for $62.50 USD.
Probiotic Chocolate
Healthy chocolate, are you kidding me?
Beyond Organic claim their probiotic chocolate is made by 5th generation Italian chocolatiers and is ‘loaded with fibre, Omega 3’s, probiotics’.
So what’s the catch?
Well, it only comes in a dark chocolate variety… and y’know what that means.
…yeah, bye bye taste!
Beyond Organic’s probiotic chocolate will retail in a 12 pack of 35g bars for $41.25.
The Beyond Organic Compensation Plan
The Beyond Organic Compensation plan revolves around a unilevel organisation (unlimited levels deep and wide) along with an autoship component to remain ‘active’.
Product Point Values
The commissions on offer, along with remaining active as a Mission Marketer (Beyond Organic’s distributor title) revolves around product values. A product value is a percentage amount of the preferred customer price of their products.
The product values for Beyond Organic’s product line is as follows;
- Reign Supreme Spring Water – 10PV
- Reign Supreme Spring Water (Awaken, Veggie and Fruit) – 37.5PV
- Beyond Organic Probiotic Chocolate – 16.5PV
- Amasai – 15PV
- Really Raw Cheese – 7.5PV
- Greenfed Beef (all varieties) – 4PV
- SueroViv – 72PV
Total Team Points (TTP) are the sum total of your own orders, retail and preferred customer orders and all Mission Marketers within your unilevel organisation.
Remaining Active
In order to participate and receive commissions from the Beyond Organic compensation plan you, as a Mission Marketer (Beyond Organics title for their distributors), must maintain either 150 PV’s a month (including your own orders and that of retail or preferred customers), or if done via autoship, 100PV.
The Beyond Organic Membership ranks
Within being what Beyond Organic call a ‘Mission Marketer’, there are also several ranks that distributors can work towards. Each of these ranks carries with it additional bonuses and signifies the growth and success of your Beyond Organic business.
The membership ranks within Beyond Organic and their qualifications are as follows;
- Manager – Must be active and accumulate 1000 TTP.
- Vice President – Must be active, accumulate 4000 TTP and recruit a minimum of two active Mission Marketers within your unilevel organisation. Vice President is subject to the 60% rule*.
- Senior Vice President – Must be active, accumulate 16,000 TTP and recruit at least one Vice President and two Managers in different legs of your unilevel organisation. Senior Vice President is subject to the 60% rule*.
- Executive Vice President – Must be active, accumulate 64,000 TTP and recruit at least 1 Senior Vice President and 2 Vice Presidents within your unilevel organisation. Executive Vice President is subject to the 40% rule*
- Global Vice President – Must be active, accumulate 265,000 TTP and recruit one Executive Vice President and 2 Senior Vice Presidents in different legs of your unilevel organisation. Global Vice President is subject to the 40% rule*.
*The 60% rule states that no more than 60% of your total TTP can come from within any one arm of your unilevel organisation. The 40% rule is the same, except with a 40% cap in place of 60%.
Following the accumulation of TTP and recruitment requirements to receive a promotion in rank. There is also a monthly TTP quota required to maintain your member rank. These are as follows;
- Manager – 750TTP
- Vice President – 3,000 TTP
- Senior Vice President – 12,000 TTP
- Executive Vice President – 48,000 TTP
- Global Vice President – 192,000 TTP
Direct Commissions
Direct Commissions are paid out within the Beyond Organic compensation plan as a percentage of the PV of products retailed to either retail or preferred customers. There is also a direct commission paid out on the orders of directly enrolled Mission Marketers up to two levels deep in your unilevel.
The direct commissions paid out by Beyond Organic are tied into your member rank and are as follows;
- Mission Marketer – a 7% PV commission on the orders of your directly enrolled Mission Marketers up to two level deep within your unilevel organisation, a 7% PV commission on the orders of your preferred customers and 20% PV commission on the orders of your retail customers.
- Manager – A manager enjoys the same benefits as a Mission Marketer in addition to receiving a 3% commission on all level 1 orders across their unilevel organisation.
- Vice President – As above but with an additional 4% commission on all Mission Marketer’s orders within your unilevel organisation who have not reached the member rank of Vice President.
- Senior Vice President – As above but with an additional 3% commission on all Mission Marketer’s orders within your unilevel organisation who have not reached the member rank of Senior Vice President.
- Executive Vice President – As above but with an additional 3% commission on all Mission Marketer’s orders within your unilevel organisation who have not reached the member rank of Executive Vice President.
- Global Vice President – As above but with an additional 1% commission on all Mission Marketer’s orders within your unilevel organisation who have not reached the member rank of Global Vice President.
Generational Commissions
Beyond Organic’s Generational Commissions pays you out up to 4 generations deep within your unilevel organisation. Note that your first generation are members you’ve directly enrolled, the second generation are members they’ve directly enrolled and so on and so forth. You are paid out a commission as a percentage of what these individual members earn for that month.
Generational Commissions stack on top of eachother and are tied into your member rank. They are paid out as follows;
- Vice President – 5% commission on all 1st generation and 1% on all 2nd generation Vice Presidents within your unilevel organisation.
- Senior Vice President – 4% commission on all 1st generation, 2% on all 2nd generation and 1% on all 3rd generation Senior Vice Presidents within your unilevel organisation.
- Executive Vice President – 3% commission on all 1st generation, 2% on all 2nd generation and 1% on all 3rd generation Executive Vice Presidents within your unilevel organisation.
- Global Vice President – 1% on all Global Vice Presidents up to four generations deep within your unilevel organisation.
Note that all generational bonuses are subject to a ‘deep and wide’ rule. This rule stipulates that you can only be paid out as many generations deep as you are wide.
For example, if you qualify for a 2 generation levels deep payout, your unilevel organisation must be a minimum of 2 legs wide.
Healthy Living Account
Offered to Mission Marketers at the Vice President level or above, the Healthy Living account is a monthly payout designed to be used to further increase your health.
Beyond Organics suggest that the Healthy Living Account can be used to ‘go to the gym, start your own home gym by purchasing equipment, visit the Chiropractor, get massages, purchase vitamins, or shop at your local Farmers Market for produce’.
There doesn’t seem to be any strings attached to the Healthy Living Account provided it meets Beyond Organic’s definition of ‘being used for healthy living’. This criteria appears to be at the comapny’s own discretion and I imagine each use of the card will be subject to company approval.
Business Builder Bonus
The Business Builder Bonus is a one time payment that pays out on all Business Builder packs up to three generations deep within your unilevel organisation.
Qualified Mission Marketers receive a $100 bonus when a personally sponsored new Mission Marketer purchases a Business Builder Pack, $30 when a second generation Mission Marketer purchases one and $20 when a third generation does.
To qualify for the Business Builder Bonus, Mission Marketers must be either qualified as a Manager or purchase the Business Builder Pack upon joining the company themselves.
First Order Bonus
The First Order Bonus pays out 10% (up to 1000 PV) of all first orders on all Mission Marketers you directly sponsor to join Beyond Organic.
To qualify for the First Order Bonus, Mission Marketers must either accumulate 2000 PV over time over any period of time or make an initial first order of over 500 PV themselves.
The Beyond Organic Chairmen’s Team
Designed to reward the top 25 Mission Marketers (based on annual income), the Chairmen’s Team offers various rewards to those in it. The Chairmen’s Team rewards are as follows;
- a pro-rata share (based on your own annual earnings vs that of the entire Chairmen’s Team’s earnings) in the Chairmen’s Team Bonus Pool. This pool is made up of 1% of the total company PV for the year
- quarterly official acknowledgement and recognition at all company events
- a complimentary trip to the Beyond Organic Ranch and Springs properties
- priority seating at all company events
Joining Beyond Organic
Those wishing to join Beyond Organic have 2 basic options.
Purchasing a Mission Marketer Starter Kit
The Mission Marketer Starter Kit is a retail subscription for $39.95 a year and provides you with 20% off all Beyond Organic retail prices and personal replicated marketing website.
Purchasing a Business Builder Pack
The Business Builder Pack carries a retail price of $199.95 ($39.95 a year thereafter) and provides you with 20% off all Beyond Organic retail prices, a personal replicated marketing website, ‘additional books, magazines and full access to Beyond Organic University’ and immediate qualification for the Business Builders Bonus.
The main difference here seems to be the inclusion of the training material via Beyond Organic University and immediate access to the Business Builders Bonus (only useful if you’re planning on building a team of marketers before you’ve established a retail base).
As for the Beyond Organic University itself, it’s
a 40 hour online curriculum that will empower you to share the message of natural health with friends and loved ones.
As a Beyond Organic Coach, you can help others take control of their health, and take their health to the next level.
Despite the name, there’s no formal qualification here and it seems to be nothing more than marketing training specifically tailored for marketing Beyond Organic (although one would hope this training extends beyond just your friends and family).
Conclusion
The Beyond Organic compensation plan is recruitment based if you want to advance but is also nicely tied into product volume amounts meaning there has to be a certain amount of product shifted in order for you to advance within the compensation plan.
Although some of those monthly requirements to maintain your member rank do seem a bit high (remembering that if you fail to meet the monthly minimum, your commissions are rolled back till the system finds someone above you who is qualified to pay).
With an autoship component there is a window of opportunity to abuse the compensation plan and simply take on new members without worrying about retail, but due to the nature of the products sold by Beyond Organic, this seems counter-intuitive to building your business.
By no means a grocery replacement, Beyond Organic’s product line is primarly going to attract those interested in healthy products – not those looking to make a quick buck via autoship scamming. Thus in attracting those types of people to the opportunity, you’d be far better served converting them into either retail or preferred customers (or if they’re interested, Mission Marketers themselves).
That said, the biggest challenge Mission Marketers are going to face here is the very real niche market that exists for Beyond Organics products. With organic produce already being a niche market, what we’re looking at here is a niche within a niche.
Given that you’re also capped to a US market, this niche is only so big. Let’s face it, whatever health benefits Beyond Organic’s products might have, at the end of the day they are expensive alternatives to what most people buy.
I don’t think you’re going to be convincing too many people to switch shopping habits and start buying premium priced products ($90 retail for health water? cmon guys…), moreso what with the US economy going down the drain.
There are however over three hundred million people living in the US and if you think you can compete with the already established big organic players in the market (Beyond Organic allow their products to be sold by brick and mortar stores, restaurants and cafes and online stores as well) then Beyond Organic might just be the opportunity for you.
Jordan Rubin has a nice backstory to go with the products and despite the religious side of things appearing to be nothing more than a marketing ploy and Rubin’s academic credentials being questionable, he does have some published book deals behind him which will no doubt add some weight and credibility to the Beyond Organic opportunity itself.
$10 for half dozen hot dogs?! Not even Jesus Christ can make me pay THAT sort of prices, esp. UNCOOKED! (No sacrilege was intended)
Oz, when you wrote “20% of all Beyond Organic retail price”, don’t you mean “20% off”?
Yeah these are definitely some premium price entry points for what I imagine will be a very small niche market.
That I did, and what’s worse – I seem to have done it twice! Thanks for the pickup.
The retail prices of the meats and raw cheese shown here are actually cheaper than getting them from natural supermarkets in the US.
Grassfed hotdogs are almost non existent in the US market, and raw gourmet grass fed cheese are at 25 uSD per pund and up. Grassfed beef is available for about the same but not readily available everywhere. And if this company is raising the cows the way they say they are, no one else is doing this at this moment so the quality will be better than the “grass fed” currently on the market.
The niche may seem small, but the niche has alot of buying power and is setting a trend.
Prices aside (I can’t comment on the US market), yeah it’ll be interesting to see if Beyond Organic can drive growth in the niche. They pretty much have to if they want to stay viable as I imagine the greenfed market now is rather small.
As you point out availability is low so there’s no real accurate way to guage the overall demand of their products.
@james — You didn’t look very hard. Google spat out ApplegateStore in 1 second.
store.applegatefarms.com
Click on “organic hotdogs”, and you’ll see their 12 oz dogs are $5.99.
organic cheese is 5 oz. for $5.99
I am NOT saying that the prices are bogus, but until I see some real benefit between “Beyond Organic” and plain organic, I personally find these prices to be unconscionable.
K.Chang — there is a big difference between Applegate Farm Organic cheese and raw milk cheese from grass fed cows. Not the same product. Got to compare apples to apples.
And the cheese from applegate is about the same price per lb as the one from this company. The applegate hotdogs are great, i eat them all the time. But difference here is how this company claims the cows are treated, slaughtered, fed etc… All this come with a premium in the US.
@james — you’re right, I forgot to do the math on the cheese prices. It comes out Applegate is a few percent HIGHER on the cheese prices.
Still, not too sure all that extra treatment actually makes beef any better. It’s like massaging the cows and play them Beethoven music all day and all that. 😀 It may be different, but will ENOUGH people actually PAY for that to make it a viable business?
Beyond Organic’s product line is set to continually expand after launching in the US.
Potential customers are already inquiring from Canada, UK, India, Germany to receive these products.
Beyond Organic is expanding to Canada next year. UK etc. in the future.
This company is the largest organic project in the USA.
Although still in pre-launch phase, it is amazing the volume of people registering to receive these foods and beverages.
Preferred customers, doctors, chiropractors, TV & Radio show hosts, nutritionists, etc. who are delighted with the quality health and wellness benefits of Beyond Organic products.
These customers are not concerned by the price.
Beyond Organic’s new marketing rules and regulations have been updated as of 8/26/11. Oz post is currently outdated.
Fantastic market, structure, support and potential here!
Will those customers be numerous enough to make the business a viable one? That is the big question.
Currently 50,000+ customers in pre-launch and growing very fast. Beyond Organic Business Builders now presenting with live events nationwide.
Current schedule: http://bit.ly/rifdMg
@D. Brooks — 50000 customers, how much average sales per customer, and how many reps there are? Trying to calculate possible revenue and thus commission per rep. (That’ll tell us whether it’s REALLY viable)
Beyond Organic’s product are food and beverages?
The sales ratio/volume: People eat daily.
@Brooks
Is organic food even viable in India? The majority of people there (Hindu’s) don’t even eat beef!
And as for those other countries, wouldn’t that mean the establishing of farms overseas, or would Beyond Organic be exporting (which brings up some problems regarding US beef exports doesn’t it?)
Before announcing plans to launch overseas, I think Beyond Organic should solely be working to establish itself in the local US market first. Let’s face it, they’re not expanding globally if they flop in the US first.
A bit anecdotal there don’t you think, guess we’ll have to see what happens.
Thanks for the heads up, but those changes are…?
Now I’ve gotta go searching for them…
As far as I can see, the only changes are that Rubin’s image (officially approved ones anyway), the Beyond Organic logo and official videos can now be used on marketing websites promoting Beyond Organic (including Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, etc.).
And this seems to have happened on the 15th of June 2011, not August 26th, unless there’s some additional rules and regulations that weren’t made public somewhere (?)
Given that idependent websites are still banned post launch, that pretty much means we’re solely talking about using these images on social media and their use as marketing material is still pretty restricted.
In any case I’ve updated the marketing article I wrote on Beyond Organic to reflect these changes.
@Brooks
I’m reading that as ‘we haven’t taken any actual orders yet, but we’re including people who’s registered an interest as bonafide customers – despite the fact they haven’t actually bought anything from us yet’.
Would that be accurate?
Beyond Organic’s marketing guidelines were updated August 26, 2011. These updates are coming in quickly now, so you may want to check the website often.
There are numerous independent websites currently marketing/selling Beyond Organic which will be closed on launch, and replaced with individual virtual on-line stores. Our sales reports are now available on-line – quite awesome!
Beyond Organic food and beverages will be available to ship at launch November 2011.
India actually has quite a fast growing interest and businesses operating organic food networks?
Google it and LinKedIn it.
2011, must track and identify your markets LOL!
Are they different to the June updates, and if so how?
Also August 26th was nearly a month ago, why haven’t Beyond Organic put these updates regulations on their website like they did the original regulations and the updated June 16th ones?
Yeah, all that work for nothing! How annoying would it be putting in all that effort only to have the company wipe out your online presence post launch with a replicated website that will be virtually non-existant on the internet (penalised for duplicated content) come launch.
Yes but what about the whole beef issue? I imagine the organic beef market in India, despite the population is even smaller than the US.
You want me to go and lookup the proof to your claims…? And what does LinkedIn have to do with anything, it’s an employment network where people publish their resumes online…
People that don’t like Jordan Rubin, Garden of Life products or his new Beyond Organic company bash him for his supposed “lack of credentials” or “proper training.”
It bugs a lot of individuals that he speaks with authority, knowledge, and motivational savvy.
Listen, because of my wife’s auto-immune disease, I’ve met dozens of doctors and specialists with advanced degrees that are idiots! They know nothing about vitamins, supplements, herbs, and nutrition. All they know is how to prescribe side-effect drugs, mulitple tests (calling Dr. House) and going under the knife.
Give me a self-trained, experienced, well-balanced Christian entrepreneur like Jordan Rubin any time over most “doctors.” He has brought more healing to individuals than most “qualified” physicians. Take your drugs!…I will take my vitamins and eat his organic food.
Ok so my alarm bells went off right about there… I think we can put you squarely in the ‘I’m a crazy loon basket’ and be done with it.
Eating organic beef and cheese isn’t gunna do anything for your wife’s auto-immune disease (neither is Jordan Rubins savviness, authority and bible knowledge), so how bout you stop punishing her and actually seek medical help?
Wow, wow, Oz, that’s a little harsh.
Auto-immune diseases are some of the most stubborn diseases around. I know, because my grandpa suffered from such before he passed a while back. It is NOT unusual for doctors and such to have little practical advice on it, because they are relatively rare, and thus, hard to study and effective treatment and cure found.
You pretty much have to go for big names like Mayo Clinic or such to find a specialist or get referred to one.
ON THE OTHER HAND, I seriously doubt that vitamins and supplements is going to significantly affect one’s immune system beyond placebo effect.
However, if TP felt he got some use out of them, that’s his perogative.
—
TP, are you claiming that eating organic and stuff has somehow made your wife better? Or is that comment merely meant to bash the “traditional medical community”? If so, I’ll have to say you’re way off topic.
By all means eat organic beef and cheese if you think it helps, but don’t tell me Rubin’s Christian self taught knowledge is better than medical research.
This guy is asserting that because some guy read the bible and self taught himself, all of a sudden he’s better than modern medicine?
That’s just a lawsuit waiting to happen.
We lose far too many people to homeopathic nutjobs each year, and carrying on like organic food is some kind of alternative to modern medicine is a bit of a joke. Moreso when you’re basing it on bible teachings.
A little late, but I have to point out that Brooks never answer the question:
“People eat daily” doesn’t answer the question: how much Beyond Organic do they buy? It “implies” they buy a lot, but that’s not really an answer.