YEP Tribe stands for “Young Entrepreneurs Project”. The company launched on or around mid 2019.

YEP Tribe doesn’t provide a corporate address on its website. The company’s official Facebook page however is managed from the US and Bangladesh.

Heading up YEP Tribe is CEO and President, Jimmy Ezzell. Ezzell’s LinkedIn profile also credits him as one of YEP Tribe’s co-founders.

According to Ezzell’s YEP Tribe corporate bio, he’s

an inspirational leader who has the master skill of painting a clear picture of his vision while inspiring others to take action on their own dreams and goals.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Ezzell is based out of Kansas in the US. This is presumably where YEP Tribe is operated from.

Ezzell (right) has a long history in the MLM industry. His personal YouTube channel details involvement in multiple companies dating back at least eleven years.

These include

Read on for a full review of YEP Tribe’s MLM opportunity.

YEP Tribe’s Products

YEP Tribe markets annual and monthly memberships.

  • YEP Plus Travel – $147 annually
  • YEP Pro Travel – $347 annually
  • YEP Pro Monthly – $97 a month
  • Yep Pro Annual – $897 annually
  • Brand Valet Basic – $747 and then $247 a month, provides access to basic online marketing services
  • Brand Valet Plus – $2497 and then $447 a month, provides access to upgraded online marketing services with “plus training”
  • Brand Valet Pro – $4997 and then $747 a month, provides access to “pro” online marketing services with a “promo video”, “email marketing design” and business and marketing assessment

What YEP Plus and the YEP Pro memberships provide access to isn’t clarified on YEP Tribe’s website or in their compensation plan.

YEP Tribe’s Compensation Plan

YEP Tribe’s compensation plan revolves around selling subscriptions to non-affiliates and recruited affiliates, as well as affiliate recruitment itself.

Commissions and bonuses in YEP Tribe are calculated off of sales volume (BV).

Corresponding sales volume with each of YEP Tribe’s subscriptions are as follows:

  • YEP Plus Travel – 75 BV
  • YEP Pro Travel – 175 BV
  • YEP Pro Monthly – 50 BV
  • YEP Pro Annual – 450 BV
  • Brand Valet Basic – 375 BV initial subscription and then 125 BV a month
  • Brand Valet Plus – 1250 BV initial subscription and then 250 BV a month
  • Brand Valet Pro – 2500 BV initial subscription and then 375 BV a month
  • Start Affiliate membership – 75 BV
  • Business Affiliate membership – 225 BV
  • Founder Affiliate membership – 750 BV

YEP Tribe Affiliate Ranks

There are ten affiliate ranks within YEP Tribe’s compensation plan.

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

  • Silver – generate 5000 BV in accumulated weaker binary team side volume and then maintain at least 1500 BV in new weaker binary team side volume a month
  • Gold – generate 12,000 BV in accumulated weaker binary team side volume and then maintain at least 3600 BV in new weaker binary team side volume a month
  • Sapphire – generate 30,000 BV in accumulated weaker binary team side volume and then maintain at least 9000 BV in new weaker binary team side volume a month
  • Ruby – generate 70,000 BV in accumulated weaker binary team side volume and then maintain at least 21,100 BV in new weaker binary team side volume a month
  • Emerald – generate 150,000 BV in accumulated weaker binary team side volume and then maintain at least 45,000 BV in new weaker binary team side volume a month
  • Diamond – generate 300,000 BV in accumulated weaker binary team side volume and then maintain at least 90,000 BV in new weaker binary team side volume a month
  • Blue Diamond – generate 1,000,000 BV in accumulated weaker binary team side volume and then maintain at least 300,000 BV in new weaker binary team side volume a month
  • Black Diamond – generate 1,500,000 BV in accumulated weaker binary team side volume and then maintain at least 450,000 BV in new weaker binary team side volume a month
  • Executive – generate 2,500,000 BV in accumulated weaker binary team side volume and then maintain at least 750,000 BV in new weaker binary team side volume a month
  • Global Executive – generate 5,000,000 BV in accumulated weaker binary team side volume and then maintain at least 1,500,000 BV in new weaker binary team side volume a month

Note that once initial qualification is met, if an affiliate can’t maintain the corresponding monthly rank BV, they are ranked lower based on how much BV they generate.

Recruitment Commissions

YEP Tribe pays up to 40% on BV generated by recruiting a new affiliate.

  • recruiting a Start Affiliate generates 75 BV
  • recruiting a Business Affiliate generates 225 BV
  • recruiting a Founder Affiliate generates  750 BV

Specific recruitment commission rates are tied to total BV production by an affiliate:

  • the base recruitment commission rate is 20%
  • generate 750 BV and receive a 30% recruitment commission rate
  • generate 1500 BV and receive a 40% recruitment commission rate

As I understand it qualifying BV can be from both recruitment and retail purchases of available YEP Tribe subscriptions.

What isn’t clear is whether the above BV qualification is one-time or monthly.

The Matching Bonus (see below) is restricted based on “enrollment volume”.

Given the Matching Bonus qualification tiers are the same as residual commissions, this suggests that YEP Tribe only counts affiliate recruitment package volume when determining residual commission rates.

YEP Rising Star

The YEP Rising Star bonus is a recruitment orientated bonus.

YEP Rising Star pays affiliates who sign up at the Founder tier with a $100 bonus for every two Founder tier affiliates they recruit.

Despite the linear $100 bonuses paid out, YEP Tribe caps the YEP Rising Star bonus at $812.50.

Residual Commissions

YEP Tribe pays residual commissions via a binary compensation structure.

A binary compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a binary team, split into two sides (left and right):

The first level of the binary team houses two positions. The second level of the binary team is generated by splitting these first two positions into another two positions each (4 positions).

Subsequent levels of the binary team are generated as required, with each new level housing twice as many positions as the previous level.

Positions in the binary team are filled via direct and indirect recruitment of affiliates. Note there is no limit to how deep a binary team can grow.

At the end of each week YEP Tribe tallies up new BV generated on both sides of the binary team.

Affiliates are paid 15% of BV generated on their weaker binary volume side.

  • Starter package affiliates can earn up to $1500 a week
  • Business package affiliates can earn up to $7500 a week
  • Founder package affiliates can earn up to $32,500 a week

Matching Bonus

YEP Tribe pays a Matching Bonus via a unilevel compensation structure.

A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):

If any level 1 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team.

If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.

YEP Tribe caps the Matching Bonus at five unilevel team levels.

The Matching Bonus is paid as a percentage of residual commissions earned across these five levels based on personal recruitment efforts:

  • sign up as a YEP Tribe affiliate and earn a 30% match on level 1 (personally recruited affiliates)
  • generate 750 BV in personal recruitment package volume and earn a 30% match on level 1 and 20% on levels 2 and 3
  • generate 1500 BV in personal recruitment package volume and earn a 30% match on level 1, 20% on levels 2 and 3 and 15% on levels 4 and 5

Leadership Bonus

The Leadership Bonus is a bonus percentage paid on BV generated across the first five levels of the unilevel team.

For details of the unilevel team see “Matching Bonus” above.

The Leadership Bonus starts at the Sapphire rank as follows:

  • Sapphires earn a 5% Leadership Bonus
  • Rubys earn a 7% Leadership Bonus
  • Emeralds earn a 9% Leadership Bonus
  • Diamonds earn a 10% Leadership Bonus
  • Blue Diamonds earn an 11% Leadership Bonus
  • Black Diamonds earn a 12% Leadership Bonus
  • Executives earn a 13% Leadership Bonus
  • Global Executives earn a 14% Leadership Bonus

Joining YEP Tribe

YEP Tribe affiliate membership starts at $147 and then $47 a month.

  • Starter ($147 and then $147 a month) – bundled with marketing training, access to marketing events and access to a discount travel and shopping portal
  • Business ($447 and then $97 a month) – same as Starter but with “unlimited high end incentives”
  • Founder ($1497 and then $97 a month) – same as Business but with access to an “all inclusive private 10x mastermind” event

There’s also FLUX affiliate membership, which is the same as the options above with includes a month’s supply of three consumable drinks:

  • FLUX Starter ($377 and then $47 a month) – same as Starter but includes a month’s supply of three consumables
  • FLUX Business ($677 and then $97 a month) – same as Business but includes a month’s supply of three consumables
  • FLUX Founder ($1727 and then $97 a month) – same as Founder but includes a month’s supply of three consumables

Conclusion

A visit to YEP Tribe’s website reveals retail sales are clearly not a focus.

The first button a visitor see is “become a member”, which leads to affiliate recruitment.

YEP Tribe’s website does have a “brands” page, which splits off to separate websites.

I clicked through Axiom8 and found a sanitizer being sold for $59.91 for a pack of three 1 oz. bottles (30 ml).

I think everyone is somewhat more aware of sanitizer pricing since COVID-19 surfaced in late 2019.

Axiom 8 is 99% effective against human coronavirus.*

*Human coronavirus is not COVID19 and is a surrogate.

Needless to say $59.91 for 3 oz. of sanitizer is ridiculous.

This prompted me to go check out the other linked brand page, Flux.

Clicking Flux takes you a “shop” section of YEP Tribe’s website, which as far as I can tell is only accessible via the brand page link.

Flux is nutritional supplements plus a water bottle. Three of these water bottles will set you back $89.

The nutritional tablets are $47 extra for a thirty-day supply.

You can marketing buzzword it up all you want, $89 for three water bottles is a hard sell.

In summary, we have products that in my opinion are in no way retail viable – which explains why they’re shoved off to the side.

YEP Tribe is about recruiting affiliates, having them pay for a monthly subscription and earning commissions on those fees.

No information about YEP Tribe’s “retail” subscriptions are provided on the company’s website. I only came across them in the company’s compensation documentation.

There is a section on YEP Tribe’s website for “memberships”, this boots you to another website and assumes you’re ready to sign up.

The pseudo-compliance service is TripValet, a company Jimmy Ezzell founded back in 2017.

TripValet is the usual discount travel services fare, which needless to say nobody has been interested in for the past year and a half.

Even without COVID-19 restrictions, $897 annually just for access to travel discounts is again a hard sell at retail.

Cementing the core focus of YEP Tribe is affiliates having to have a subscription to qualify for commissions:

Your YEP Independent Business Membership Start-Up Fee covers the cost associated with establishing and servicing your business and enables you to conduct business in any country in which YEP operates.

You must maintain an active subscription in order to have access to your YEP back office and to receive commissionable disbursements.

This is pay to play, further emphasized by how much an affiliate spends on membership dictating how much they can earn:

You can only make as much as your package percentages allows you to make.

Irrespective of anything else, pay to play in MLM is the foundation of a pyramid scheme.

You sign up as a YEP Tribe affiliate, take out a subscription (pay more, earn more), and then get paid to recruit others who do the same.

Retail can be ignored, as there are no retail qualifiers anywhere in YEP Tribe’s compensation plan. The business opportunity is front and center, with products pushed off to inactive side websites.

As I write this YEP Tribe’s primary website has an Alexa ranking of 728,750. The standalone Axiom8 website has a ranking of 1.7 million.

This isn’t surprising. Outside of the buried away brand graphic link, Axiom8 isn’t mentioned anywhere on YEP Tribe’s website or in their compensation plan.

As a potential YEP Tribe affiliate, you should be able to verify the lack of retail focus yourself.

Simply ask your prospective upline what their retail subscription/product volume is vs. what they’re earning on unilevel team affiliate subscription volume.

This isn’t a complicated question, so take a non-answer or hesitation as confirmation they aren’t focused on retail.

Which in turn would mean that affiliate is running their YEP Tribe business as a pyramid scheme.

YEP Tribe themselves should be focusing on retail sales over recruitment, but as we’ve discussed above that isn’t the case.