Team Beachbody

Beachbody was founded in 1998 in Santa Monica, California, by Carl Daikeler and Jon Congdon. Daikeler had worked on infomercials for products such as 8 Minute Abs. The company sold home workout videos through TV ads and its website. Its biggest hit came in 2005, when trainer Tony Horton created P90X.

Around 2007, Beachbody began letting customers sell its workout DVDs. Those sellers became Team Beachbody Coaches, and the network grew quickly alongside the infomercials. Beachbody passed $1 billion in sales in 2014. It added Beachbody On Demand, a streaming library of its workouts, after announcing it in 2015. In February 2021 the company went public through a merger with Forest Road Acquisition Corp and Myx Fitness.

In its annual report for 2021, the company said Team Beachbody was made up of hundreds of thousands of Coaches and Preferred Customers. In March 2023 it renamed itself BODi. Team Beachbody became the Team BODi Partner Network, and Coaches became Partners. The company's 2023 annual report said the number of Partners fell 28% that year.

Coaches sold Beachbody's fitness programs and the nutrition products built around them. The company advertised them heavily on television, so many customers already knew the names.

• Workout programs: P90X, Insanity, Hip Hop Abs, Turbo Jam, TurboFire, Slim in 6, Body Beast, Focus T25, 21 Day Fix and many more, first on DVD and later streamed through Beachbody On Demand.
• Shakeology: a daily nutrition shake that the company promoted as its flagship supplement.
• Supplements and programs: the Beachbody Performance line, the 3-Day Refresh, protein bars and nutrition plans such as the Ultimate Portion Fix with its color-coded containers.
• Challenge Packs: bundles of a workout program and a month of Shakeology, the product Coaches were paid most for.

Customers could also join the Team Beachbody Club or sign up as Preferred Customers for online tools and discounts; the company's 2021 annual report put the Preferred Customer discount at 25%. The company described its programs as proven, but results claims were its own, and its sites noted that results varied with diet and exercise.

Sellers were called Coaches (Partners from 2023). The company pitched the role as helping others get fit while earning an income. Coaches were expected to use the products themselves, share their results and run online challenge groups for customers. They did not hold inventory. Customers ordered through each Coach's Beachbody website, and the company shipped the products.

Coach Business Kit

Joining was cheap. The archived 2015 Coach FAQ said it cost $39.99 to start, which covered the Coach Business Kit and the first month's Business Services Fee. Coaches then paid that monthly fee to keep their website and online office. Many joined through a Challenge Pack, which added a program and Shakeology to the kit.

Pay

In 2015 the company said Coaches earned up to $105 for every Challenge Pack sold and a 25% commission on other retail sales. Commissions were paid weekly. Coaches also got a 25% discount on their own orders. Those who built a team of Coaches could earn bonuses on their team's sales, and the company said top Coaches could win trips and stage recognition at its annual Summit event. For 2023 the company still said Partners typically earned a 25% commission on orders they generated. It changed Partner compensation from January 1, 2024.

On September 30, 2024, The Beachbody Company announced that it would replace its multi-level network with a single-level affiliate program. It said the affiliate program would launch on November 1, 2024, that Partners in the United States and Canada would move to it, and that the multi-level network would be fully wound down by January 1, 2025. The same plan cut about a third of its workforce, roughly 170 employees.

“We recognize that in light of today’s current market dynamics, as well as consumer preferences, the multi-level marketing distribution model is outdated and unsustainable.”

Mark Goldston, Executive Chairman — The Beachbody Company press release, September 30, 2024

Co-founder and CEO Carl Daikeler said in the same release that the affiliate model would let sellers get paid “now without the complexity of managing and recruiting a team of other Partners.” The company's later annual reports confirm that the Partner network was discontinued in December 2024. Its 2025 report says the drop in sellers had not been offset by Partners converting to affiliates or by new affiliates.

Today, the Team Beachbody Coach business is gone, but the company is not. The Beachbody Company is still a public company. It sells BODi workouts, Shakeology and supplements from El Segundo, California, through its own website, Amazon and retail partners. It still runs a free, single-level BODi affiliate program for people with an active social media following, paying a commission on the sales they refer, with no team building. Readers who want a wellness company that still works through independent sellers can compare companies such as Isagenix on Direct Sales Aid.