Is Jordan Essentials an MLM?
Healthy Skin. Healthy Life
A deep dive into Jordan Essentials. Are they an MLM? Are they a scam? Are they just wholesome beans?
What is an MLM?
The term MLM, Multilevel Marketing, is a term that refers to a strategy used by some direct sales companies to sell products and services. MLMs encourage members to recruit new members to the business and are paid a percentage of their recruits’ sales.
MLMs are legal but the FTC sometimes investigates businesses using Multilevel Marketing to ensure that they are not operating as a pyramid scheme.
Jordan Essentials & Direct Selling Association
Jordan Essentials is a proud member of the DSA, Direct Selling Association and feature the DSA logo on their website. According to the DSA website, “The Direct Selling Association (DSA) is the national trade association for companies that market products and services directly to consumers through an independent, entrepreneurial sales force. DSA serves to promote, protect and police the direct selling industry while helping direct selling companies and their independent salesforce become more successful.
DSA provides educational opportunities for direct selling professionals and works with Congress, government agencies, consumer protection organizations and others on behalf of its nearly 200 member companies.”
Is this a nice way to say lobbying? It sounds like lobbying. Shall we follow this rabbit hole?
They also provide a definition for the term “direct selling.” According to the DSA, Direct selling is a business model that offers “entrepreneurial opportunities” to individuals as independent contractors to market and/or sell products and services. These sales are typically through one-to-one selling, outside of a typical retail establishment. Compensation is based on sales and may be earned based on the sales of others in their “sales organizations.”
The Jordan Essentials Opportunity
Are you ready to become a Jordie? Jordan Essentials Consultants are people that have signed up to be distributors for Jordan Essentials. Their company structure is similar to most other MLMs, with distributors having goals in order to earn their commission and the ability to move up through the ranks as they recruit new Consultants.
From the JE Website: “As an Essential Consultant with Jordan Essentials, you have the opportunity to run your own business alongside whatever else is already a priority in your life. Unlike starting your own company, which typically requires a large investment of time and money, you can get started for a small investment you can make back right away. And you will have all of the tools and training you need to market a product line that is on-trend and in-demand.
As a consultant, you are an entrepreneur who can choose to market your business in a variety of ways; through in-home parties, social media events, fundraisers, vendor events, and personal one-on-one servicing. Since your business is your own, you will get out of it what you put into it. You’ll be recognized and rewarded just for sharing Jordan Essentials’ amazing products and opportunities.”
Jordan Essentials Starter Kits
To become a consultant, you must buy one of the JE New Consultant Kits, which cost a surprisingly reasonable $49 or $99. These kits include products and supplies to get started, like a comprehensive training program. The kit also includes a 3-month enrollment for the personal website subscription which is $8.75 a month for the rest of your time as a consultant.
Consultant Resources
Jordan Essentials boasts a lot of resources to help their consultants grow their businesses. They have a full library of products ingredients, educational videos, and, of course, a community of consultants, your upline, to share their own experience with you.
The Jordan Essentials Products
According to the JE Website, Jordan Essentials products are manufactured in Nixa, Missouri. They lean heavily into having American Made products.
Jordan Essentials has a list of “never-ever” ingredients that you will never find in Jordan Essentials products. This list includes Aluminum, Gluten, Mineral Oil, Parabens, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, and Sodium Laureth Sulfate.
They heavily promote the use of Magnesium in their products. According to their Magnesium resource page, magnesium has been known to relieve muscle cramps, eye twitches, restless leg, sore muscles, nausea, fatigue, and anxiety. One of their products is the Magnesium Plus Sticks. I cannot find on their retail site how one is meant to use these sticks, but I presume they are similar to a roll-on where one applies to to strategic areas of the body.
You can “support your immune system” with a Magnesium Stick containing Tea Tree, Lemon, Eucalyptus, Orange, Rosemary and Frankincense essential oils or “Combat environmental toxins” with a Stick containing Clove, Cinnamon, Lemon, Rosemary, and Eucalyptus.
Jordan Essentials also sells Bath Salts containing Bath Salts “that brings together the therapeutic benefits of Dead Sea Salts and Magnesium.”
Dead Sea Salts as in the stuff people used to accost you with at the mall?
Dead Sea Salts actually play a big part in Jordan Essentials. When Jordan Essentials was founded, Owner Nancy Bogart chose the name Jordan Essentials because of the reference to the Jordan River that flows into the Dead Sea and “the faith it represents for us.”
The Joyful Jordan Box
This is truly a revolution in the MLM game, in my opinion. This box of goodies is shipped directly to customers and they don’t even have to pick what they’re ordering! Zero effort, all commission. Once you sell a customer on one of these boxes, you earn a passive income from their monthly boxes.
If you sign up for a monthly box, shipping is free and for $29 a month, you receive products valuing at least $40. For example the August Joyful Jordan Box costs $29 and comes with the Tone & Firm Body Lotion, Uplift Magnesium Stick, and Raspberry Lemonade Lip Butter.
Jordan Essentials Business Background
Jordan Essentials’ Headquarters and Manufacturing facility is located at 1520 N Commercial Rd. in Nixa, Missouri. Owner Nancy Bogart began making lotion bars under the name Country Bunny Bath & Body. Both Country Bunny Bath & Body and Jordan Essentials are expired Fictitious Names registered in Missouri owned by Barnz B. Inc.
Barnz B. Inc was first incorporated on January 19th, 2000. The next day, Country Bunny Bath & Body was registered as a fictitious name so that Nancy could sell her homemade products at craft shows. Jordan Essentials wouldn’t be registered until 2007 and as of April 13th 2022 has expired.
Barnz B. Inc is owned by Ron and Nancy Bogart. The couple also registered a business in 2004 called HOP, Inc that was dissolved in 2012 for failure to file a registration report. According to some old business listings online, it seems that HOP, Inc was involved in manufacturing and was located in the same building as Jordan Essentials at the time. I assume that HOP, Inc was the manufacturing side of the Jordan Essentials business. The name HOP, Inc makes a lot more sense when you realize that Country Bunny Bath & Body operated for many years as a Direct Selling company before Jordan Essentials began.
Barnz B. Inc is truly a family affair, with the name representing the first initials of the members of Ron and Nancy’s family.
Jordan Essentials University
To be honest, I am so happy that jeuniversity.com, the Jordan Essentials Resource Library, is available for public browsing.
Compensation Plan – September 2021
Does this Sound Familiar?
The amount of pre-written content on jeuniversity is pretty overwhelming. Check out these “booking lines” to use during a Jordan Party to book even more parties. According to their document, bookings are another “product” that they offer. If you don’t “sell” the product, no one will buy it – including bookings. It really shows how formulaic this business strategy is.
You can also read the entire Virtual Jordan Party Guide, a literal step-by-step guide to hosting a Jordan Party online. It suggests that “Emojis are a great way to draw attention and make your posts more fun.”
According to JEUniversity, “parties are the heart of our business!” Below, I’ve attached JE’s Party Training Manual, just in case anyone is curious about how the ByDesign back office software works.
Jordan Essentials University Documents
