Kyäni Review: Wild Alaskan blueberry juice

Kyäni launched in 2005 and claim to combine ‘the world’s most powerful Superfoods to create the most compelling nutritional supplements in the industry’.

The word “Kyäni” itself means “strong medicine” in Tlingit, spoken by the Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska and Western Canada.

Based out of Idaho in the US, the Kyäni US website is surprisingly absent of any information about Kyäni’s executive management.

In order to suss this out, I had to run a Google search on “kyani ceo” and found the information published on Kyäni’s Asian website portal.

Kirk Hansen, Carl Taylor and Dick Powell are listed as Kyäni’s Founders, with Michael Breshears (right) named as CEO.

Michael has served in many management and executive roles during the many years he has been in the network marketing industry.

He has served as President or COO for multiple companies, including companies that had sales up to $200 million.

Michael has developed the internal processes and led teams to provide for rapid company growth. He also has been and continues to be active in the industry trade group, the Direct Selling Association (DSA).

Breshears’ Kyäni corporate bio doesn’t specifically mention which companies he has been involved in.

A Google search on Breshears prior to 2000 returns two results, neither of which are accurately date stamped (one is LinkedIn and the other a PDF from 2013).

2000 to 2005 is equally devoid, with Google serving up mostly LinkedIn results.

For someone who claims to have been President or COO of “multiple companies” prior to Kyäni’s launch in 2005, I found this strange.

On the regulatory front Kyäni was pinged late last year in Sweden. An investigation by the Swedish Gaming Board found Kyäni suspected of operating a “chain letter game” (pyramid scheme).

It is the Gaming Board’s overall assessment that the main purpose of Kyäni business is recruiting to generate growing revenues to individuals placed at higher levels within the organization and that the profit potential is related to how many members gradually enters into the concept and not primarily on the sale of products or goods.

The Gaming Board forwarded their findings to local police for further investigation. As at the time of publication the status of the investigation is ongoing.

Read on for a full review of the Kyäni MLM business opportunity.

The Kyäni Product Line

The US Kyäni website is devoid of any specific information about Kyäni’s product line.

The Kyäni Asia website reveals Kyäni’s flagship product is Kyäni Sunrise, a juice made from Wild Alaskan blueberries.

The Wild Alaskan blueberry is one of the most potent sources of anti-oxidants on the planet.

The harsh realities of extreme temperatures, and extended periods of sunlight & darkness have helped create the amazing properties of this remarkable, yet little known berry.

A single delicious ounce a day provides the daily recommended allowance of the vitamins and trace minerals your body needs.

Kyäni claim Wild Alaskan blueberries are ‘48% Stronger than Common Blueberries‘.

Other products marketed by Kyäni include:

• Kyäni NitroFX – “can improve circulatory health by dilating the arteries so more blood, oxygen, and nutrients can travel from the heart to the rest of the body”
• Kyäni NitroXtreme – “we increased the Nitrate content which is recognized as a primary compound responsible for the generation of Nitric Oxide, next we added other key ingredients that magnify the production of NO and increase the ability of the body to use it”

Note that no retail pricing for Kyäni’s products are provided on the Kyäni website.

 

Update 17th April 2016 – Kyani provide retail pricing on the “.net” version of their website domain.

Retail pricing for the Kyani product line is as follows:

• Kyani Sunrise (30 oz bottle) – $43.95
• Kyani Sunrise (box of 30 single-serve sachets) – $49.95
• Kyani Sunset (bottle of 90 softgel capsules) – $43.95
• Kyani Nitro FX (56ml bottle) – $65.95
• Kyani Nitro Xtreme (56ml bottle) – $79.95

Kyani products are also available in packs, which combine Sunrise, Sunset and the Nitro ranges ($149.95 to $156.95).

The Kyäni Compensation Plan

The Kyäni compensation plan pays affiliates on retail sales of the company’s products.

Residual commissions are paid out through a somewhat confusing PayGate unilevel structure, with additional performance-based bonuses also available.

Commission Qualification

In order to qualify for all commissions offered in the Kyäni compensation plan, affiliates must generate 100 PV a month.

25 PV is the minimum required to earn commissions, however this only qualifies an affiliate to earn single-level commissions.

PV stands for “Personal Volume” and is sales volume generated by retail customer orders and a Kyäni affiliate’s own purchase of product.

Kyäni Affiliate Ranks

There are fifteen affiliate ranks within the Kyäni compensation plan.

Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:

• Qualified Distributor – sign up as a Kyäni affiliate and remain commission qualified
• Garnet – generate 300 GV a month (max 200 GV sourced from your strongest unilevel leg)
• Jade – generate 2000 GV a month (max 1200 GV sourced from your strongest unilevel leg)
• Pearl – generate 5000 GV a month (max 3000 GV sourced from your strongest unilevel leg)
• Sapphire – generate 10,000 GV a month (max 6000 GV sourced from your strongest unilevel leg and 500 GV required outside of your two strongest unilevel legs)
• Ruby – generate 125,000 GV a month (max 15,000 GV sourced from your strongest unilevel leg and 1250 GV required outside of your two strongest unilevel legs)
• Emerald – generate 50,000 GV a month (max 30,000 GV sourced from your strongest unilevel leg and 2,500 GV required outside of your two strongest unilevel legs)
• Diamond – generate 100,000 GV a month (max 6000 GV sourced from your strongest unilevel leg and 500 GV required outside of your two strongest unilevel legs)
• Blue Diamond – generate 250,000 GV a month (max 150,000 GV sourced from your strongest unilevel leg and 12,500 GV required outside of your two strongest unilevel legs)
• Green Diamond – generate 500,000 GV a month (max 300,000 GV sourced from your strongest unilevel leg and 25,000 GV required outside of your two strongest unilevel legs)
• Purple Diamond – generate 1,000,000 GV a month (max 600,000 GV sourced from your strongest unilevel leg and 50,000 GV required outside of your two strongest unilevel legs)
• Red Diamond – generate 2,000,000 GV a month (max 1,200,000 GV sourced from your strongest unilevel leg and 100,000 GV required outside of your two strongest unilevel legs)
• Double Red Diamond – generate 4,000,000 GV a month (max 2,400,000 GV sourced from your strongest unilevel leg and 200,000 GV required outside of your two strongest unilevel legs)
• Black Diamond – generate 10,000,000 GV a month (max 6,000,000 GV sourced from your strongest unilevel leg and 500,000 GV required outside of your two strongest unilevel legs)
• Double Black Diamond – generate 25,000,000 GV a month (max 15,000,000 GV sourced from your strongest unilevel leg and 1,250,000 GV required outside of your two strongest unilevel legs)

GV stands for “Group Volume” and is sales volume generated by a Kyäni affiliate’s downline.

Retail Commissions

Retail commissions are paid out on customer orders placed by non-affiliates.

The Kyäni compensation plan defines a retail commission as ‘the difference between your wholesale pricing and what your Preferred Customer or Retail Customer paid‘.

A bonus 60% of the commissionable volume (CV) generated by customer orders is also paid out.

Retail Order Bonuses

Kyäni pay affiliates a retail bonus upon the following monthly retail order milestones are met:

• 500 CV in monthly retail orders = $100 bonus
• 1000 CV in monthly retail orders = $500 bonus

Retail Bonus Pool

The Retail Bonus Pool is made up of 2% of Kyäni’s company-wide retail order volume.

Each month affiliates who generate at least 500 CV in retail orders qualify for a share in the pool.

Shares in the Retail Bonus Pool are paid out pro-rata, determined by how much retail CV each qualifying affiliate contributed to the pool that month.

Recruitment Commissions

When a new affiliate joins Kyäni, they purchase a “Starter Pack”.

The person who enrolls a new member that has a rank of at least a Distributor (minimum of 25QV) will receive a Sponsor Bonus based upon the Starter Pack purchased.

Specific payouts on the Starter Packs are not provided in the Kyäni compensation plan documentation.

Differential Recruitment Commissions

Each Starter Pack purchased generates “Starter Pack Volume”, which is paid out as a differential bonus percentage.

How much of a percentage of the bonus is paid out is determined by a Kyäni affiliate’s rank:

• Garnet – 15%
• Jade – 30%
• Pearl – 45%
• Sapphire – 55%
• Ruby – 65%
• Emerald -75 %
• Diamond – 85%
• Blue Diamond – 90%
• Green Diamond – 94%
• Purple Diamond – 97%
• Red Diamond – 99%
• Double Red Diamond – 100%

Note that 100% of the SV generated from each Starter Pack purchase is paid out using a differential method.

This sees higher ranked affiliates collect a percentage difference on affiliates recruited by those in their downline at a lesser rank.

Eg. If a Sapphire affiliate recruits a new affiliate, they are paid 55% of the generated SV.

The system then searches their immediate upline for higher ranked affiliates to pay the remaining 45% commission out to.

If the immediate upline was a Purple Diamond, the system would pay out 42%, leaving 3% to be paid out to the first found Red or Double Red Diamond.

Note that if a Double Red Diamond is found, whatever total percentage remains is paid out and the system stops searching. This is also true of recruitment commissions paid to Double Red Diamond affiliates, as a 100% commission rate leaves no differential bonus to be paid out.

Residual Commissions

Residual commissions in Kyäni are paid out via a “placement tree structure”.

A placement tree structure has the same overall structure as that of a unilevel team, however an affiliate can decide where to place newly recruited affiliates (either as a new unilevel leg or at the end of an existing unilevel leg).

Commissions are paid out as a percentage of sales volume generated in each unilevel leg, via a similar differential method used to pay recruitment commissions.

The Kyäni PayGate Accumulator calculates residual income monthly by starting at the bottom of the Placement tree and accumulating volume flowing upward until it reaches a Distributor with a qualifying PayGate where it pays out the earned commission.

This process is repeated for all PayGate levels.

There are twelve PayGate levels in total, with qualification criteria and commission rates as follows:

• PayGate 1 (200 CV generated from the strongest unilevel leg and 100 CV accumulated from the rest) – 5%
• PayGate 2 (700 CV generated from the strongest unilevel leg and 500 CV accumulated from the rest) – 7%
• PayGate 3 (2,200 CV generated from the strongest unilevel leg and 1500 CV accumulated from the rest) – 8%
• PayGate 4 (4500 CV generated from the strongest unilevel leg and 3000 CV accumulated from the rest) – 7%
• PayGate 5 (9000 CV generated from the strongest unilevel leg and 6000 CV accumulated from the rest (min 400 CV from the third leg)) – 8%
• PayGate 6 (18,000 CV generated from the strongest unilevel leg and 12,000 CV accumulated from the rest (min 1000 CV from the third leg)) – 5%
• PayGate 7 (40,000 CV generated from the strongest unilevel leg and 27,000 CV accumulated from the rest (min 2000 CV from the third leg)) – 3%
• PayGate 8 (90,000 CV generated from the strongest unilevel leg and 55,000 CV accumulated from the rest (min 6000 CV from the third leg)) – 1%
• PayGate 9 (200,000 CV generated from the strongest unilevel leg and 125,000 CV accumulated from the rest (min 12,000 CV from the third leg)) – 1%
• PayGate 10 (400,000 CV generated from the strongest unilevel leg and 260,000 CV accumulated from the rest (min 18,000 CV from the third leg)) – 0.5%
• PayGate 11 (1,000000 CV generated from the strongest unilevel leg and 450,000 CV accumulated from the rest (min 40,000 CV from the third leg)) – 0.25%
• PayGate 12 (2,000,000 CV generated from the strongest unilevel leg and 900,000 CV accumulated from the rest (min 100,000 CV from the third leg)) – 0.25%

All twelve PayGate levels are paid out in each unilevel leg, with how much of a percentage of the total 44% paid out determined by an affiliate’s PayGate level.

Volume paid out on at the lower PayGate levels is flushed, minus the strongest unilevel leg required at that PayGate level.

Eg. PayGate 4 requires 4500 CV from the strongest unilevel leg, so this volume, including the PayGate 4 affiliate’s own PV for that month, is passed up to the upline until the next highest PayGate ranked affiliate is found.

PayGate Matching Bonus

Kyäni affiliates are able to earn a percentage match on PayGate earnings by their downline.

This bonus is paid out via a Generation Bonus, with a generation defined when a Sapphire ranked affiliate is found in an individual unilevel leg.

This caps off the first generation, with the second beginning and then ending when another Sapphire ranked affiliate is found.

If no other Sapphire ranked affiliates are found, the current generation extends down the full length of the unilevel leg.

How many generations a Kyäni affiliate is paid out on is determined by their rank:

• Sapphire – 15% on the first generation and 10% on the second
• Ruby – 15% on the first generation and 10% on the second and third
• Emerald – 15% on the first generation, 10% on the second and third and 5% on the fourth
• Diamond – 15% on the first generation, 10% on the second and third and 5% on the fourth and fifth
• Blue Diamond – 15% on the first generation, 10% on the second and third, 5% on the fourth and fifth and 4% on the sixth
• Green Diamond – 15% on the first generation, 10% on the second and third, 5% on the fourth and fifth, 4% on the sixth and 3% on the seventh
• Purple Diamond – 15% on the first generation, 10% on the second and third, 5% on the fourth and fifth, 4% on the sixth, 3% on the seventh and 2% on the eighth
• Red Diamond or higher – 15% on the first generation, 10% on the second and third, 5% on the fourth and fifth, 4% on the sixth, 3% on the seventh, 2% on the eighth and 1% on the ninth

Note that the PayGate Matching Bonus uses a traditional unilevel compensation structure, which is different to the placed structure PayGate commissions are calculated on.

Rank Incentive Bonus

Kyäni reward affiliates for qualifying at certain ranks within the following specific timeframes.

For the first payout you must reach the Paid-as Rank of Jade within your first 31 days (Your enrollment day is considered day 0).

In order to earn the second payout, you must reach the Paid-as Rank of Jade in the first full calendar month after earning the first payout.

The third payout is earned by reaching Paid-as Rank of Jade in the next full calendar month after earning the second payout.

You will only receive these payouts if they are done consecutively. You will be paid according to the table below.

Despite the somewhat confusing explanation above, I believe the three payouts are made if a Kyäni affiliate maintains a Jade or higher rank for three consecutive months.

• First 31 days – $100 bonus
• Second month – $200 bonus
• Third month = $300 bonus

Rank Achievement Bonus

The Rank Achievement Bonus sees Kyäni reward affiliates for achieving and maintaining the Emerald and higher ranks:

• Emerald (two months) – $5000
• Blue Diamond (three months) – $25,000
• Purple Diamond (three months) – $100,000
• Double Red Diamond (three months) – $500,000, paid out as $100,000 over five months
• Double Black Diamond (three months) – $1,000,000 paid out as $100,000 over ten months

Diamond Pool

The Diamond Pool is made up of 1.5% of Kyäni’s global sales volume.

The Diamond Pool is paid out monthly, with shares in the pool allocated as follows:

• Diamond rank = 1 share
• Blue Diamond rank = 2 shares
• Green Diamond rank = 4 shares
• Purple Diamond = 8 shares

Note that if a Kyäni affiliate has a downline affiliate who qualifies at the same or higher rank, they receive a 1.5x multiplier on their allocated shares.

Red Diamond Pool

The Red Diamond pool is made up of 0.5% of Kyäni’s global sales volume.

The Red Diamond Pool is paid monthly , with shares in the pool allocated as follows:

• Red Diamond – 1 share
• Double Red Diamond or higher – 2 shares

Again a 1.5x multiplier is applied if an affiliate has an equal or higher ranked affiliate in their downline.

Note that Black Diamond and Double Black Diamond affiliates cease being paid in the Red Diamond Pool once they qualify for the Infinity Bonus.

Infinity Bonus

The Infinity Bonus pays an a 1% bonus on sales volume generated by an affiliate’s PayGate unilevel team.

Each time a Black Diamond or higher ranked affiliate is found in a PayGate unilevel leg, the paid out Infinity Bonus is reduced by a half.

Eg. Initially the Infinity Bonus pays out 1%. Once one Black Diamond ranked affiliate is found in a unilevel leg the bonus is reduced onwards to 0.5%.

If another Black Diamond ranked affiliate is found deeper in the leg, the bonus is again then reduced to 0.25% and so on and so forth.

Car Bonus

Kyäni’s Car Bonus sees Sapphire and higher ranked affiliates qualify for a five-tier monthly payment.

The Car Bonus pays out up to $10,000 a month, however the Kyäni compensation plan documentation fails to provide specific rank payout amounts.

Incentive Trips

Kyäni offer Incentive Trips ‘to reward those who are growing.‘

Once again however, specifics are left out of Kyäni’s compensation plan material.

Joining Kyani

Kyani affiliate membership is tied to the purchase of one of the following Starter Packs:

• Starter Pack – $40
• Product Pack – $299
• Builder Pack – $569
• Builder Pack + ILA ticket – $669
• Premium Business Builder – $999

The primary difference between the above packs are bundled Kyäni products and the recruitment commissions they generate.

Of note is the marketing material for the packs mention they include up to 12 months access to “webtools”.

What these webtools are is not disclosed, but it sounds like it might be some sort of marketing suite.

Whether Kyäni affiliates are required to otherwise subscribe to these webtools and if so, what they cost, is not disclosed.

Further research reveals Kyäni’s webtools described as ‘an optional package which includes a personal Kyani website and their set of management tools they call back office’ and costing $12.50 (a month?).

From the sounds of it, Kyäni affiliates who sign up at the $40 level are slugged with fees if they wish to access their backoffice.

The Product Pack comes with 30 days access to webtools, the Builder Pack 6 months and the Premium Builder 12 months.

Conclusion

The compensation plan overview Kyäni provide on their website is deceptively simple, however closer analysis reveals it won’t make much sense to anyone who hasn’t gone over the detailed compensation document.

This is mostly due to the confusing use of PayGates, a twist on the traditional MLM unilevel compensation structure.

I think I’ve mostly got my head around the PayGate payouts, and have tried my best to breakdown an explanation as to how they work.

The basic concept of the PayGate system sees affiliates lose volume at the lower end of their unilevel legs.

Affiliates generating higher PV amounts at the upper tiers of a unilevel leg will compensate for this, but not enough I think to justify the loss of volume.

Over time each successful unilevel leg will become stacked with high ranked affiliates at the top, which will effectively see an affiliate paid out on volume generated by either the affiliate immediately under them or a few at the top of that leg.

This goes against the nature of MLM, of which a big lure is getting paid on the sales efforts of others.

The matching bonus and Infinity bonus go some way to alleviate the issue, but both fall short of a robust unilevel compensation plan that pays deep with generous percentages.

Theoretically with PayGates, a Kyäni affiliate might only be paid 0.25% on the volume of an affiliate directly under them, despite that particular leg being hundreds of levels deep.

The overall lack of disclosure on the Kyäni US website is also a concern. As it stands you’ve got a few videos, a brief history of the company, a compensation plan summary and social media profiles.

There’s no disclosure of who is running Kyäni and absolutely no product information provided. This is pretty woeful for an MLM company website in 2016.

A lack of retail pricing on their main “.com” website particularly disheartening, suggesting retail isn’t a focus within the company.

With regards to the Swedish Gaming Board’s findings, I believe much of the problem lies with Kyäni’s commissionable affiliate packs.

Retail customers aren’t going to be buying affiliate packs, with the packs themselves thus equatable to recruitment commissions.

You recruit an affiliate, they sign up with a pack and you get paid a fixed dollar amount.

If the only volume that affiliate then generates is via autoship, and enough of the Kyäni affiliate-base are operating their businesses as such, Kyäni could very well be construed as a product-based pyramid scheme.

Retail qualifiers would do much to alleviate this concern, but are conspicuously absent.

A quick spot check for a potential Kyäni affiliate would be to check with a prospective upline whether they qualify for the Retail Order Bonus (500 retail CV a month).

A general rule of thumb might be to rule out signing up under a Kyäni affiliate who fails to qualify for the bonus.

500 in retail CV a month for all affiliates might be a little high, so take that into consideration when evaluating a prospective upline’s entire monthly business volume.

What you can be sure of though is that if the affiliate who’s pitched you is making a decent income, yet fails to consistently qualify for the Retail Order Bonus, that affiliate is probably more focused on recruitment than retail.

And you, signing up under them, will then be subject to the same.

All in all I’m not sure how Kyäni could simplify their compensation plan without ditching the whole PayGate stuff altogether. And I’m hesitant to suggest they do that, without supplementary evidence showing it’s not working for their affiliates.

Whether you’ll get the requested information or not I can’t say, but it might be worth looking at a potential upline’s total placement tree volume and then contrasting that what they earned through their PayGate level.

A close match is what you’re ideally looking for, with a huge difference something to be wary of (not as a reflection of that particular affiliate’s performance, but rather Kyäni’s compensation plan as a whole).

Finally regarding Kyäni’s product line, you’re pretty much looking at blueberry juice mixed with concord grapes, red raspberries, pomegranate, aloe vera, noni, cranberry, wolfberry (goji), bee pollen and regular blueberries.

Kyäni for whatever reason don’t provide retail pricing for their juice on their main “.com” website, so I had to go and look it up elsewhere.

Turns out Kyäni Sunrise is $43.95 for a 30 oz (887 ml) bottle. Alternatively you can buy Kyäni Sunrise in a box of thirty single-serve sachets for $49.95.

Almost fifty dollars for a bottle of juice might be a tough sell, so definitely check out what the going rate is for comparable juices in your area.

And yeah, you might not find a juice with Alaskan Wild Blueberries in it, but are you going to be able to convince people they’re worth paying a pretty hefty premium for?

Good luck!

 

Update 21st September 2022 – As of September 20th, Kyani has been acquired by Amare Global.