Forever Living Review | Scam Or Legit? Get The Truth About FL

If you are looking to get to the bottom of the Forever Living scam allegations, then you’ve come to the right place.

Many of the Forever Living reviews and articles out there don’t really portray this business in a balanced way.

And I get it…

Those articles are all written by humans.

And we all have implicit or explicit biases, whether we realise it or not.

But I am going to try to represent the Forever Living business in a balanced way.

I will point out the good and the bad.

Because trust me…

There is both good and bad.

Now in the interest of full disclosure, I need to reveal my own bias.

I am a fan of the network marketing business model…

But that doesn’t mean that I think all network marketing businesses are good.

So let’s cut to the chase.

Is Forever Living a legit business?

Yes.

The Forever Living pyramid scheme or scam allegations are definitely false.

But there are very good and understandable reasons why people think this business model might be an illegal pyramid scheme.

So today, we are going to get the truth about this business.

But first, let’s talk about how Forever Living got started.

Forever Living History

The owner of Forever Living Products, Rex Maughan, founded the company in 1978 along with his business partner Carl Jensen.

The company was founded in Tempe, Arizona. Today they are based out of Scottsdale, Arizona, where they continue to manufacture aloe-vera based drinks and various bee-derived products.

Forever Living has seen explosive growth over the years and was ranked number 340 on the Forbes 400 list in 2006. In 2021, the company generated $4 billion in revenue with a network of over 9 million distributors.

The company is active in over 165 countries all across the globe.

Forever Living Products

As we mentioned already, Forever Living Products are best known for their use of bee honey and aloe-vera.

They have large aloe-vera plantations in Texas and the Dominican Republic. 

The aloe-vera plant has a long history of use in health and wellness. In fact, humans have been using this plant for thousands of years.

Forever Living has been very effective in capitalising on the credibility and effectiveness of this ancient plant.

We are not going to cover the Forever Living products in much detail. You came here to learn about the business opportunity, right?

If you want more details on the products, there are many other Forever Living products reviews online that cover them in great detail.

Please note: I am not affiliated with Forever Living in any way, so the opinions expressed in the videos below do not necessarily reflect my own. Informational purposes only.

The Forever Living products are basically divided into five categories:

Bee Products

Bee honey and other bee-derived products have also been used by humans for thousands of years. 

Studies have shown that honey may exert some anti-cancer benefits, though Forever Living doesn’t officially make this claim.

You can read the study here.

The Forever Living bee product line consists of honey, creams, and tablets.

Drinks

The drinks sold in this category are all aloe-vera based. Forever Living claims that they can be beneficial to your digestive system and the absorption of vital nutrients.

I’ll be honest…

I’ve never thought of aloe-vera as something to drink.

Personally, I have used it with great success to treat sunburns. 

While I’ve never tried an aloe-vera drink myself, I’m definitely intrigued!

Nutritional

I don’t think it’s controversial to say that your modern diet simply does not deliver the nutrients that your body needs.

I’m a big believer in using supplemental multivitamins…

And I’ve been using them religiously for over ten years.

Though I’ve never tried any Forever Living products, customer reviews left on Amazon are overwhelmingly positive.

Personal Care

The personal care products sold by Forever Living include:

• Body wash
• Toothpaste
• Soap
• Shampoo
• Conditioner

As I mentioned, I have used aloe-vera based products in the past to soothe searing sunburns with great success.

While I haven’t personally used any of the Forever Living products, I have no doubt that incorporating aloe-vera into your hygiene regimen is a good idea.

Skin Care

The skin care products are all infused with…

You guessed it!

Aloe-vera.

There is a wide range of products in this category, including:

• Moisturizing creams
• Exfoliators
• Aloe scrub
• After shave
• Powders
• Lip balms

Are Forever Living Products Any Good?

If you go according to online customer reviews, I would say that these products have been very well received.

As I mentioned, I have been using multivitamins for over a decade now and highly recommend others do the same.

But since I haven’t personally tried Forever Living products yet, I obviously can’t give a personal account.

I use a competitive brand however, and I absolutely love them.

Here’s what I would say:

Since you’re reading this, you’ve probably been introduced to the Forever Living products by somebody that you know…

If this person has been using the products for a long time and really enjoys them, then just take their word for it.

A personal recommendation is always better than some random blogger online!

But you came here to learn about this business…

So let’s get to it!

What Is The Forever Living Business Opportunity?

The most important thing that you need to understand about the Forever Living business is that it’s just that… a business.

Some people seem to think that being a distributor for Forever Living is a job.

It’s not.

Because if you do not make sales, then you will not make any money.

As a FL distributor, you would effectively be an independent sales contractor.

Forever Living Business Presentation

Please note: I am not affiliated with Forever Living. The video below is here for informational purposes only… that’s it.

So there are two main ways to make money with Forever Living:

• Make sales to earn commissions
• Build a sales team

So every time one of your customers logs into the Forever Living online store and buys a product, you will earn a commission.

To be honest, the commissions are not really that big.

You would need to sell a TON of products in order to build a full time income.

The real power of the Forever Living MLM comes in building your own sales organisation.

When you recruit someone into your organisation, you will earn a commission from every sale she makes, as well as your own.

Not only that, but your new team member can build her own sales team as well…

And you would earn commissions from every one of those sales too, down three generations.

This business model is known as network marketing, also commonly referred to as direct sales or MLM (multi level marketing).

All of those terms are used interchangeably.

The Forever Living network marketing model really allows you to use leverage in your business. 

Think about it…

Your time is limited, right?

You only have so much time that you can use to generate sales and income.

But if you can build a team that will make sales and generate income for you, time is no longer a constraint on your income.

As the late Jim Rohn said:

Profits are infinitely better than wages.

Let’s say for example sake that you recruited 50 people over a long period of time; 20 years for example..

And each of those recruited 50, as did each of those, and each of those.

This would mean (obviously) that you would have 50 people in your first generation.

Your second generation would have 2500 people earning commissions for you…

And the third generation would have over 100,000 people.

Look, the numbers will never work out perfectly in that way, but I hope it illustrates the potential of this type of business model.

So let’s talk specifics.

How exactly is the compensation plan structured?

Forever Living Compensation Plan

There are four main types of compensation plans or pay structures commonly used by network marketing companies:

• Unilevel plan
• Breakaway plan
• Forced Matrix Plan
• Binary plan

You can learn about the details of each plan in this full MLM analysis article.

The Forever Living compensation plan is based on a unilevel pay structure.

In a unilevel pay structure, you can recruit as many distributors into your team as you want, and they will all be added directly underneath you in your organisation.

This is the major difference between a Unilevel structure and others.

In a Forced Matrix plan for example, you can only have a predetermined number of people directly beneath you in your organisation. Often the maximum is 3.

So in the Forever living pay plan (Unilevel), you can grow your team as wide as you want.

But there is a maximum number of generations (depth) that you can earn from.

In the case of Forever Living, you can earn from a maximum depth of 3 generations.

This really is the major downside to Unilevel compensation plans.

But in order to make up for the shortcomings of the pay structure that this company chose to use, they added a whole lot of nuance and bonus incentives.

It really is quite complicated to explain, but you can watch the video below which details the complexity of this compensation plan.

I’m sure you can see how complex and nuanced the compensation plan is.

Many companies, including this one, understand that no matter which of the 4 compensation plan types they choose to use, they all have their weaknesses.

This is why most MLM companies have pay plans that seem overly complex and convoluted…

They do it to make up for any shortcomings that the basic plans have so that they can maximise their distributors’ profits, as well as their own corporate profits.

Can You Make Money In Forever Living?

Certainly.

There are many people who have gone on to make 6 and even 7 figure incomes in this business.

But here’s the truth…

It takes a ton of work.

And it is not easy.

How Much Can I Earn In FL?

According to the income disclosure on the Forever Living website, over 88% of distributors did not make any money at all.

This statistic is a bit deceiving however…

Many of these people are signed up as a distributor in order to get a bit of a discount on the products that they want to buy.

But they never make any sales and they don’t intend to.

So there are about 11% of total distributors who are actively working on building a Forever Living business.

So let’s break down the earnings of these 11% of people.

69% of people in this group earn an average of about $105 per month.

That’s not great.

30% earn an average of about $1500 per month.

Still not great, but it’s a decent part time income. 

It would certainly help make the mortgage payment for many people!

Less than 1% of these people earn an average of $28,000 per month.

Now we’re talkin’!

That’s a very good income; you could live a dream lifestyle with that kind of money.

But still, it’s only a very small percentage of people that earn this kind of money in Forever Living and indeed, any network marketing company.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t do it though…

Just because the average person doesn’t succeed in this business does not mean that you can’t do it, right?

Is Forever Living Legit?

One of the things we need to address in this Forever Living review is whether or not this company is actually legitimate.

The idea of earning tens of thousands of dollars working from home is a foreign concept for most of us…

Which makes us extremely sceptical.

And for good reasons!

Scepticism is healthy.

It keeps you safe, and it encourages you to find the facts before just blindly jumping into something that sounds too good to be true.

So let’s talk about this…

Forever Living | Is It A Pyramid Scheme?

There are a few misconceptions about the network marketing industry that need to be addressed.

First of all…

What’s up with the Forever Living pyramid scheme allegations?

I’ll cut right to the chase.

Forever Living is not a pyramid scheme.

There is a fundamental difference between a pyramid scheme and a legitimate network marketing business.

In a pyramid scheme, you would be paying for a spot in a pyramid shaped organisation.

That’s it.

There are no valuable products exchanging hands.

You are then incentivised to bring more people into the pyramid so that you can get paid.

The people at the top get rich, and the people at the bottom lose all their money when the thing inevitably collapses.

But in a legitimate network marketing company, there are products and services being sold into the real economy.

Products that consumers want to buy and use.

That’s how any business sustains itself… by selling stuff that the marketplace demands.

So it stands to reason that if you are running a “business” that doesn’t provide value into the marketplace, then the market will not support it.

This is why all illegal pyramids eventually collapse.

Here’s the problem:

Over the last few decades, there have been a few illegal pyramids operating under the disguise of network marketing.

And when the pyramids collapsed, they received a LOT of negative and noisy press.

And for good reason!

Many unsuspecting and innocent people got screwed.

Unfortunately, the broader public didn’t understand that these pyramids were not in fact legitimate MLM companies.

So they equated all network marketing with pyramid schemes.

In reality, network marketing is not actually that different from any other traditional business.

Products are being sold to people in the marketplace in exchange for money.

No money exchanges hands unless there is a product given in return.

It’s simply a value for value exchange.

Money (value) is traded for products or services (value).

Many people however, might point to the “pyramid” shape that a network marketing organisation takes as it grows larger and larger.

Look, humans always arrange themselves into hierarchies.

We evolved to do that, and it’s necessary for human cooperation.

It’s what led to us climbing to the very top of the food chain, despite our relatively feeble physical attributes.

It’s completely impossible to avoid hierarchies.

And human hierarchies almost always take on the shape of a pyramid.

This includes our friend circles, governmental structures, and even corporate businesses.

Have a look at the corporate structure below:

Looks suspiciously like a pyramid scheme, doesn’t it?

If you were working in the mail room at a corporation, you would never earn more money than the CEO.

Unless you managed to climb your way up the corporate ladder, displacing people along the way, and taking the CEO’s position for yourself.

With network marketing on the other hand, you could certainly out-earn somebody who is higher up in the structure.

If you make more sales and recruit more reps, you will earn more money.

It’s inherently more fair than most other human hierarchies.

Because the incentives are properly aligned.

Another Reason Forever Living Scam Rumours Exist

Another common reason for the poor reputation of Forever Living is due to the way some distributors have represented the business opportunity.

Many of them are simply overly enthusiastic, which can leave a sour taste in many people’s mouths.

Let’s think about what happens…

Most new FL reps are not seasoned professionals.

Imagine you got into the Forever Living business. You did it so that you could finally leave behind that gruelling 9-5 job.

And when you realise that the business is not as easy as you thought it would be, you start to become frustrated.

You can’t understand why your loved ones are not seeing the power of what’s being offered.

So invariably, you start to become desperate and pushy.

Obnoxious.

Annoying even.

And your loved ones start to believe that you’ve joined some type of cult or scam.

I honestly believe that this is how many of the Forever Living MLM scam rumours are born.

Forever Living Products Marketing Plan

Let’s talk about how to succeed with the Forever Living business.

As we talked about already, there are two ways in which you make money with the Forever Living business:

• Make sales
• Recruit reps to sell for you

And as you now know, the real power of the Forever Living business model comes in building your own sales force.

It allows you to leverage the work of others so that you’re no longer constrained by your own time limitations.

As you’re building your team, your objective is to have your members build their own teams…

So that eventually, the size of your organisation will hit critical mass where it will sustain and grow itself.

Think about that for a second.

You could take a year off work and potentially have your income growing month after month.

The key to achieving this is duplication.

As Randy Gage wrote in his latest book:

You don’t just grow your team. You grow your people. And your people will grow your team.

If you understand that statement, you’ve learned the most important and powerful concept of network marketing.

How To Achieve Duplication

KISS.

Keep It Simple, Stupid.

If you were to go out and learn how to do high pressure sales tactics, you might recruit a ton of people.

And those people would look to emulate you.

Because you recruited them, they are looking to you for guidance.

But they will not be able to duplicate your high pressure sales tactics.

Very few can.

So when they get frustrated by their own lack of success, they will quit the business. 

And you will constantly need to replenish your organisation.

You’ve effectively got yourself a recruiting job, and you’re missing out on the most powerful concept of network marketing.

Leverage and passive income.

So when you get started in this business, you will be given a Forever Living business plan.

Your team leaders will teach you a process that many have used before you to make sales, recruit members, and create duplication.

Remember, when you make money, your team leaders will make more money.

So you can trust that they will not steer you wrong.

At least not intentionally.

The Forever Living marketing plan they are going to teach you has been intentionally designed. And as a brand new network marketer, it’s important that you just follow what the plan teaches.

As you start bringing your own people into the business, they will observe you diligently following the plan with success…

And they will do the same.

This is how you create duplication in network marketing.

Forever Living Network Marketing Business Plan

I wrote an in depth guide on how to succeed with network marketing a while back.

It really comes down to a handful of steps, which I would like to summarise for you here.

I. Mindset

You must get your mind right before getting started. This means keeping your expectations in check. 

Most people in your life will not understand what you’re doing and you may get ridiculed from time to time. Don’t let it get you down.

This is YOUR life and YOUR future.

II. Commit

Most people you talk to about your business don’t care. They are not looking for a side income and they don’t wanna hear about it.

But some do. Don’t get discouraged when most people aren’t interested. It’s normal. You need to make a commitment to stick with the business for at least a year, no matter what.

III. Build The Foundation

When you get started, you will receive a starter kit. You should immediately go through and complete all the steps laid out for you.

Don’t put it off. It’s important to build momentum right out of the gate.

IV. Do A Major Blast

This is a concept taught by Randy Gage. When you first get started, you should commit to send out 80-100 invitations to check out your business presentation.

Don’t expect to show that many presentations… but the more folks you can get into the funnel, the more people will come out the other side. It’s just a numbers game.

V. Manage Your Time

As we talked about earlier, this is not a job. BUT you should treat it like a job… at least in the beginning.

Schedule business building time that you must do no matter what. You wouldn’t just randomly not show up for work because you didn’t feel like going, right? Your business needs to be the same.

VI. Focus On Duplication

This is the most important part… we’ve spent a good deal of time on this already. Here’s a few duplication tips:

• Focus on teaching
• Use the marketing tools provided
• Don’t deviate from the system

I would recommend you read the full length guide to succeeding in MLM here.

How To Sell Forever Living Products Online

Let’s say you’ve been in your business for a while.

You’ve got some momentum. 

You’ve built a small team, you’re teaching them to duplicate what you’ve done, and things are moving along quite well.

But you’ve run out of folks to talk to about your business, and you want to keep adding more people.

At this time, it might be appropriate to start using the internet to further grow your business.

After all, we live in a digital world. 

Why not take advantage of the technology available to us?

Here’s a quick outline of how internet marketing works and how you could apply it to your Forever Living online business.

It really comes down to 3 steps, although this is a gross oversimplification.

I. Create Content

This content can be in the form of articles, blog posts, YouTube videos, Twitter threads, Facebook posts etc.

The main objective is to provide a ton of value to your readers.

When your reader asks herself a question about network marketing, you want to be the first person who comes to her mind because of all the valuable content you’ve provided her online.

You’ve become a thought leader.

Oh and by the way, NEVER mention your company name online!

II. Build An Email List

You could offer some type of freebie to your content readers, like a free ebook, free weekly newsletter, free course etc.

If you’ve successfully built trust and become an authority figure in your readers’ mind, they will want your free gift.

The only way they can access it is to sign up to your email list.

III. Email Your List Regularly

After your reader joins your email list, you should continue providing value.

If the first thing you do after they join your list is to spam them with a business opportunity or product, they will immediately unsubscribe and you’ll never hear from them again.

But you have to make money, right?

So it’s OK to send out offers here and there, but do it sparingly.

I would say about 80% value and 20% offers is a healthy ratio.

I must repeat this though:

Don’t bother trying to learn how to build your business online unless you’ve already built a substantial team offline and are experiencing a healthy amount of duplication in your team.

There’s no need to overwhelm yourself more than you already are.

Don’t spread yourself out too thin.

Learn one skill first, get really good at it, and then add on another skill.

The most profitable skills in network marketing are recruiting and teaching…

Creating duplication.

You can read our full in-depth guide on how to do digital network marketing here.

Who Are The Forever Living Top Earners?

It is actually mind blowing the amount of money one can potentially make in this business. 

For example, Rolf Kipp from Germany is the top earner in Forever Living Products. He has been granted the largest check ever handed out in the history of the company.

Brace yourself…

$900,000.

In a month!

I know it sounds ridiculous but it seems to be true. 

The video below shows the story of Gabie and Bheki Mbatha.

And this one is Jayne Leach.

So you can see there are a handful of million dollar earners in this company.

But that doesn’t really tell the full story…

What Is The Forever Living Success Rate?

To be completely honest, the success rate of the Forever Living business is not really that good as you can see from the stats in the Income Disclosure on the FL official website.

Here are a few stats:

• 89% of distributors earned nothing
• 8% earned $105 per month (average)
• 3% earned $1493 per month (average)
• 0.2% earned $28,512 per month (average)

That really doesn’t sound very good, does it?

The truth is, I’m not actually that surprised.

While the earning potential of network marketing is incredible, it is really difficult to do.

It takes so much personal discipline as well as people skills.

And this is a combination of personality traits that many people simply do not have.

And it has to be said…

If this business was easy, everyone would be doing it!

Just keep this in mind when somebody tries to tell you that they have a business opportunity which allows you to get rich easily and quickly.

It does not exist.

Forever Living Pros and Cons

Now that I’ve made my bias towards MLM abundantly clear, let’s talk about some of the drawbacks of the Forever Living business.

FLP Business Cons

Stigma

Because of some bad actors over the last few decades, many people are very sceptical of the multi level marketing business model.

This can make it very difficult to recruit folks into a business.

It can also lead to distributors feeling ridiculed or judged by those that simply don’t understand the business model.

It will take a thick skin to succeed in MLM.

Strained Relationships

A brand new, inexperienced network marketer will tend to start seeing their loved ones as “targets” for their business.

Like a tiger, just waiting to pounce.

This can lead to loved ones starting to feel uncomfortable. Some may start to distance themselves because they just don’t want to have another conversation about network marketing.

If you decide to move forward with Forever Living, this impulse must be resisted.

Remember, some will be interested; most won’t.

You just need to work through the numbers.

If somebody says “no” then just leave it alone.

It’s OK.

Cult-like Attitudes

From my past experience, many network marketing businesses tend to have a bit of a cult-like atmosphere within the organisations.

It’s because people are so excited at the possibility of escaping their gruelling 9-5 jobs.

They just become a bit too exuberant, which many people can find off-putting and annoying.

Pure Results Based Compensation

This can be a good thing or a bad thing…

The problem is, you will start out making no money at all.

You will be way overworked and underpaid. Many people become tired and simply quit too soon.

They were misled into thinking that they were going to easily make a lot of money very quickly.

That’s just not the case. 

It takes hard work.

FLP Business Pros

No Income Cap

There effectively is no limit on how much money you can make, since you are not constrained by the limitations of time.

If you are willing to stretch your comfort zone and take the right actions over time, the sky’s really the limit.

Low Barrier To Entry

If you were to start any other business, you would need to invest thousands or even millions of dollars.

With Forever Living, you can get started for as little as a few hundred bucks.

Can Be Done Part Time

Unlike many other businesses, you can build Forever Living part time.

If you were to open a McDonalds for example, you would need to make a large financial investment as well as quit your job.

If the restaurant fails, you will have lost everything.

With the Forever Living business, you can keep the security of your day job while building your network marketing income on the side.

Digital Marketing

A network marketing business is quite easy to take online.

Theoretically, you could build your business exclusively online from your home office.

FLP Frequently Asked Questions

Let’s cover some of the most common Forever Living questions that haven’t yet been answered in this Forever Living review.

You may also want to have a look at our general MLM FAQ page.

Forever Living Review | Summary

We made it!

My hope is that after reading all this you can now move forward with confidence and conviction.

Starting a home business is a big decision and requires commitment, so you should not jump into it lightly.

Maybe you’re still unsure?

I’ll share one of my own experiences.

The very first network marketing company I ever joined was a health and wellness company.

It was a fantastic company, with quality products, a powerful business opportunity, and wonderful people.

In fact, I still use the products to this day over a decade later.

But I was never able to succeed with the business.

Why?

It’s because I did not have a passion for health and wellness.

I was unable to speak about the products in such a way that people would be convinced to try them.

And when I became discouraged, I just couldn’t stick with the business.

Had it been something that I was truly passionate about, I really believe I would have stayed with that first business and succeeded.

So that’s what you need to ask yourself.

Are you passionate about health and wellness?

Do the Forever Living Products make you feel excited?

If so, then perhaps this business opportunity is a good fit for you.

That’s something only you can decide for yourself.

In terms of the viability of the business, I would feel completely comfortable recommending it to you.

If you want to move forward, just reach out to the person who introduced you to the business to get more information.

Hopefully this Forever Living review was helpful to you.

If there are any questions that you still have which were not answered in the article, feel free to comment down below and I’ll get back to ya, ASAP!