What Is Total Life Changes? Scam, Pyramid Scheme Or Legit Life-Changing Opportunity?

6 Comments
What Is Total Life Changes A Scam Pyramid Scheme Or Legit Review

Is someone is doing their best to recruit you and you want to figure out if their products are any good and whether Total Life Changes is a scam, pyramid scheme or a legit business opportunity?

In this 100% honest Total Life Changes review I’m going to give you all the details (the good, the bad and the ugly) about this company and hopefully help you decide whether or not promoting or buying Total Life Changes is right for you.

We've reviewed many MLMs here on the blog like Zija, Nikken, World Ventures and Younique so let's see how this health-based MLM fares.

And just so you know:

I am not a TLC Representative or ‘Life Changer'.

I’m just someone on the outside looking in, doing my best to help people find truthful and unbiased information on the best ways to make money online when they need it.

Total Life Changes Review At A Glance

About: Total Life Changes is a health-based MLM all about helping people live healthier lifestyles and giving people the chance to build their own businesses.

Price: Becoming a TLC representative costs $19.95 and there's a monthly $40 minimum monthly order required to stay on board.

Pros: Products look great and health is definitely a growing market.

Cons: Products cost a bomb, terrible refund policy, they've had trouble with the FTC and TLC have a super high failure rate.

Verdict: Thanks to the crazy high price tags, these products are gonna be a real hard sell and the compensation plan is ridiculously complex.

OVERALL RATING

2 Star Rating NEW

If you don't like the idea of selling and recruiting (which is a constant and tireless hustle) build an online business instead.

It's the smarter, more profitable option.

What Is Total Life Changes About?

Total Life Changes was founded by Jack Fallon 1999 under the name SeAcai but was rebranded and relaunched as TLC in 2012.

Today they operate in 140+ countries including the UK, US, Canada, India and the Philippines.

The ethos behind Total Life Changes is about helping people live healthier lifestyles by offering organic skincare products, natural energy drinks and weight loss supplements.

TLC's bestseller is the Iosa Tea range designed to help flush harmful toxins from the upper and lower intestines and keep you regular.

According to DirectSellingNews.com they made over $154 million in sales in 2016 and Total Life Changes were even ranked #100 in DSN's 7th Global 100 awards for being one of the top revenue-generating direct selling networks.

So let's talk about the products first and then we'll get onto the actual business opportunity.

Total Life Changes Products

For people looking to live healthier lifestyles through a healthier diet and health supplements, Total Life Changes products are a big hit.

is total life changes a scam or legit
Source: Amazon.com

Whether it's the organic fat-busting gourmet coffee and smoothies or wrinkle removing creams made from natural extracts, everything is all about wellness and well-being.

As with all direct selling companies, quality comes at a premium and TLC products are not cheap…

You're talking $49.95 for a week's supply of tea!

That being said, the Total Life Changes range looks absolutely stunning. Their designs team is obviously good at presenting and marketing products and the website is beautiful.

Now let's take a look at Total Life Changes most popular products; this isn't an exhaustive list but it'll at least give you a quick overview to help you decide whether or not to become a Total Life Changes representative.

1. Skincare Range

total life changes skin care

Iaso Oil

Emu oil provides that helps with muscle and join pain and reduces inflammation and stiffness.

Iaso Night Repair

You apply it before you sleep and it helps reduce wrinkles.

total life changes soap

Essential soaps

A soap bar made from a premium blend of oils and shea butter designed to leave the skin feeling moisturised and healthy.

2. Health and Wellness Range

total life changes coffee

Delgada Coffee

An instant coffee mixed with Siberian Chaga mushrooms which suppresses appetite and helps you lose weight.

Iaso Cafe Latin Style

A premium gourmet coffee with a great nutty and caramel taste. Also mixed with Chaga mushrooms.

Iosa Tea

Continuing the weight loss theme, Iosa tea contains oranic extracts known for their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant qualities. It also includes soluble fiber which detoxes your body and helps with weight loss.

nutraburst Total life changes products

Nutra Burst

A citrus-flavored liquid multivitamin enhanced with CoQ10

NRG

A natural alternative to sugary, cafeine-filled energy drinks, apparantely this gives you that boost of energy without the sugar crashes.

You can view Total Life Change's full product range here.

Common Total Life Changes Complaints

While I recognise all companies are bound to have some complaints against them, on sites like the Better Business Bureau and the Total Life Changes Facebook page you can find a lot of people having issues around the same recurring themes.

1. Their Products Are Too Expensive

I've already touched on this first one; though I think the product is good, it is overpriced. Supplement Police call the Iosa tea the most expensive tea you'll ever buy.

Total Life Changes have 8 distributions centers worldwide so this should help keep production and shipping costs down, but every direct-sales company has to allow enough profit to pay their reps 50% commissions which can keep costs high.

2. Late Or Never Deliveries

While it's obvious most people get their orders on time, another very common complaint from some people is waiting too long for products to arrive.

We'll go on to talk about the Total Life Changes opportunity next but as a rep, these are the kinds of customer service issues you're going to be dealing with, especially when you've personally recommended these products to people…

common total life changes complaints delivery times

3. Don't You Dare Ask For A Refund

All Total Life Changes products come with a 30-day refund policy which you can request by sending an email to [email protected], but there's a catch…

This is what it says in their refund policy:

“If a purchase is refunded for any reason, it is understood that the purchaser was not satisfied with the product or service and we may permanently refuse any future sales to that purchaser. If the purchase is refunded due to a duplicate transaction or similar, the refusal of future purchases may be null and void at our discretion.”

I've never seen a company have a refund policy like this before…!

Get a damaged product?

Not exactly what you ordered?

Be careful because if you return it you'll never be able to order from them again! Sound threatening much? I doubt they'll receive any customer service awards anytime soon…

4. Total Life Changes' Warning From The FTC

On April 24th 2020 the FTC sent a letter to the company warning them about making false health claims on social media.

Apparently, some TLC reps had been claiming TLC products help treat or protect from you the Coronavirus (COVID-19) posting things like:

“Stay COVID-19 Free# Nutraburst clicklinkinbio”

“Worried about vulnerability to the Coronavirus? Why not boost your immune
system with a shot of #NutraBurstLiquidVitamins”

You can read the full letter here. (PDF)

Total Life Changes' Business Opportunity

So the product is excellent, though a little bit pricey and often mis-sold.

This means if you become a Total Life changes representative you might struggle to sell in high volumes, but get an initial order, keep people happy and you could always get repeat orders.

So now let's talk about what I really like to talk about – making money! Is it possible to replace your full-time income with Total Life Changes?

Like any multi-level-marketing scheme, there are different levels you can qualify for based on your sales and team numbers. As a TLC rep, your main priorities will be selling product and recruiting team members into your downline.

You can view the Total Life Changes compensation plan here (PDF).

In a nutshell, there are 5 ways you can earn commissions:

is total life changes a pyramid scheme

1. Retail Commissions – 50% for every product you sell directly.

2. Fast Start Bonus – Earn 50% of commissions generated by your new team members (not sure how long this is valid for).

3. Binary Pay – TLC follow the binary leg model so you have power leg and a pay leg. The Binary Pay reward system means you can earn between 10-25% of your pay leg, limited to $20,000 per week.

4. Matching Bonus – This is basically where you can receive 10-50% of commissions someone you directly sponsor in your downline generates.

5. Lifestyle Bonus – When you get to National Marketing Director level or higher, you're eligible for up to $1,500 per month to help cover some of the costs associated with growing your business like transport, team development, home party supplies and so on.

One thing I like about TLC is there's no joining fee to get started and there's a low $40 minimum monthly order required to keep your account active and the 50% commission for personal sales is good.

The compensation plan is complex though, so rather than try and explain it myself here's a step-by-step video walkthrough:

Personally I would never get involved with a company like this because I just don't like the business model, but if I was I'd start with the goal becoming a Director.

Achieving Director status means you'd be earning around $1,000 per month and getting close to quitting your 9-5 job. Here's a video explaining how you do it:

Is Total Life Changes A Pyramid Scheme?

Here's the deal: if someone can't explain the commission structure to you without drawing a pyramid, then it's a pyramid scheme.

But because I know how loyal and protective TLC reps can be, let me just say that Total Life Changes isn't a pyramid scheme but rather a triangular-shaped, branching tree sort of thing with a few people at the top and lots of people at the bottom! 😉

In all seriousness though, Total Life Changes is a product-based pyramid scheme which can also be referred to as a multi-level marketing scheme (MLM), a network marketing or direct sales company.

According to Wikipedia Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) is “a marketing strategy in which the sales force is compensated not only for sales they generate, but also for the sales of the other salespeople that they recruit. This recruited sales force is referred to as the participant's “downline”, and can provide multiple levels of compensation.”

There are tons of legit MLMs out there like Pink Zebra, Wikaniko, Legal Shield and Viridian Energy to name a few.

Total Life Changes is NOT an illegal pyramid scheme because they give commission incentives for selling products as well as recruiting others. But I can assure you, you'll need to (and be strongly encouraged to) sign other reps under you to be able to reach Director status.

Total Life Changes Follows The Binary Leg Model

Most MLMs run on either the unilevel model or the binary model and there are pros and cons to both.

the MLM binary leg model

Just my opinion but the unilevel model is better than binary because from my own experience with binary legs – you're always going to be struggling to keep them balanced.

Let's say for example you earned $50,000 on your power leg but only $50 on your pay leg, you're only going to get $50.

Naturally, you're always going to find that one leg will grow quicker than the other and this is where the binary model – though sounds great at first – actually cuts your potential earnings in half. You'll find yourself spending a lot of time trying to balance your two legs out and playing catch up with yourself.

This doesn't mean you can't make money with this or you can't be successful, but I think this system makes it more difficult.

Is Total Life Changes A Scam?

I must admit, when I first started looking into company I became a little suspicious when I heard they were originally known as SeAcai when they were founded in 1999 but then rebranded themselves as TLC in 2011.

That letter from the FTC didn't help either…

And whilst I don't particularly like pyramid schemes or MLMs, just because Total Life Changes is an MLM doesn't automatically mean it's a scam.

But is this a legit opportunity you can actually make money from?

They have a great product range and it is possible to make a bit of extra money just by selling products alone, but it's not easy.

In fact, the odds are against you with this type of business model – network marketing has a 98% failure rate.

Now this could be down to reps selling the opportunity through hype without setting realistic expectations or due to the fact that this business involves a lot of selling and most people just aren't cut out for that.

Unfortunately, though TLC have been around since 1999, they're unable (or unwilling) to release any figures that show average earnings that real people typically earn at each level so it really is a shot in the dark as to how much you can actually earn with this.

What I Like:

  • The health niche is worth $60 billion and growing
  • The product range looks fantastic
  • I'm all about empowering people to achieve financial freedom

What I Don't Like So Much:

  • You're going to have to sell to your family and friends to make money
  • Very little in the way of training, just hope you get a good upline
  • They present the opportunity without setting realistic expectations about the work involved
  • The binary leg system means you'll lose commissions on the most active side of your business
  • They've been around since 1999 but they can't provide information on how much money their reps make
  • Total Life Changes products haven't been tested by the FDA

Should You Become A TLC Rep?

Personally, I’m not a fan of MLMs, not because I think they’re unprofitable or illegal but because you’re limited to promoting a very narrow range of usually very overpriced products.

Network marketing is definitely not for everyone either; it requires a skill-set most people don't have, like face-to-face selling, team building, coaching and recruiting.

As soon as you become a Total Life Changes rep you automatically become a salesperson. If you're not comfortable with that then you might want to avoid working for TLC.

I don't like direct sales, I'm not a salesman – I tried it in the past and I didn't like it; I hate the idea of having to sell expensive products to my family and friends and I definitely don't want to be ‘that guy‘ people cross over the road to avoid.

But maybe you're a really outgoing people person who loves to meet new people, inspire them and help them develop into business owners? Network marketing could be right down your street.

But what if I told you there was a way to build a business without harassing your family and friends?

I think affiliate marketing is a way better option for building passive income because:

  • There’s no recruiting
  • You can promote as many different products as you like
  • It’s all done online so there’s no face to face selling
  • Your website is generating sales for you any time of day or night
  • It’s 100% free to get started

Thanks to affiliate marketing I kissed my old call centre boss goodbye, booked a one-way ticket to Thailand and earn a six-figure income online.

To find out how you can start making money online check out Wealthy Affiliate.

Love TLC Or Not Your Cup Of Tea?

As always, I invite you to share your thoughts and experiences with Total Life Changes in the comments below. Please, if you have questions at all, do get in touch and I'll be more than happy to help you out.

To your success!

6 thoughts on “What Is Total Life Changes? Scam, Pyramid Scheme Or Legit Life-Changing Opportunity?”

  1. All I see here is how to make money by selling these products. I would like to know if these products actually work or this is just another pyramid scam

    Reply
  2. Thank you VERY MUCH for the candid long list of not-recommended. I found several programs I’ve purchased in the past on that list. Rather than devote my time/effort in trying to get them going, I’m just going to delete them.
    You’ve just saved me hundreds of lost hours.
    Please keep up the good work.
    Tom Markham

    Reply
    • You are very welcome Tom, I know it’s hard in the beginning to discern the good apples from the rotten ones.

      Congrats, you’ve just saved yourself hours of frustration and I wish you every possible success! 🙂

      Reply
  3. Hello,

    Total Life Changes promotions have recently started flooding into the UK Facebook Groups that I run, in much the same way as YouNique.

    As soon as I saw it is a binary, I understood the money was not being paid out due to the imbalance between left and right legs.

    The company is getting very rich whilst the TLC reps are becoming poor.

    Thanks,
    Shawn

    Reply
    • Thanks Shawn, most people don’t realise until they’ve invested a few months of hard work into this that the binary pay structure just cuts your income in half and takes away a lot of your focus are you constantly try and balance the two legs.

      Reply

Leave a comment

WANT TO START A

SUCCESSFUL ONLINE BUSINESS?

Here's how you do it the right way.