There’s been a bit of discussion recently on various Amway-related websites about an energy drink called All in Energy, apparently marketed primarily through poker tourneys. All in Energy, much like XS Energy (marketed by Amway and Quixtar) comes in multiple flavours, is sugar free, and has large doses of B-vitamins and various energy-boosting herbs.
The internet “chatter” came about because it was noted in an article about a poker tournament sponsered by All in Energy that the CEO of All in Energy is a man by the name of Greg Duncan. XS Energy is co-owned by Amway and WWDB Triple Diamond Greg Duncan. An almost identical product, and the owner/management have the same name? Surely not coincidence?
No, it’s not coincidence. WWDB insiders tell me they are in fact one and the same Greg Duncan.
Some folk have queried why this is allowed, or if Quixtar is even aware of it. In the past year there’s been quite a deal of publicity about Quixtar’s “no-compete” rule – that is, that IBOs are not allowed to compete directly with Quixtar or Quixtar products while IBOs or for at least 6 months afterwards. Is Triple Diamond Greg Duncan actively breaking the rules? A quick check of the actual rules quickly clarifies things –
6.5.1. For purposes of this Rule 6.5., “Compete” means to own, manage, operate, consult for, be employed by, or participate as an independent distributor in (a) any other direct sales program using a multilevel or “network” marketing structure, or (b) any other enterprise that markets, through independent distributors, products or services functionally interchangeable with those offered or marketed by the Corporation.
The Quixtar rules clearly define “compete” as only applying to products marketed through network marketing/MLM or independent distributors. By marketing All in Energy drink, Greg Duncan is not breaking Quixtar’s rules.
In fact, or at least in my opinion, the success of All in Energy drink can be a marketing boost for Amway and Quixtar IBOs. How? Well, XS Energy drinks and All in Energy drinks are clearly very similar products. Indeed, I expect they come out of the same factory. But look at the prices –
XS Energy drink is more than a dollar cheaper, even at full retail price. Obviously it’s an even better deal for IBOs! So now, when trying to market XS, there’s a direct competitor on the market, with similar formulations, and IBOs can clearly point out that buying XS through Amway and Quixtar is a better deal.
UPDATE: The IBOAI has posted a response to the XS Energy/All in Energy rumours on the IBOAI Blog
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The people that still question the WWDB (Duncans), selling their homes in Montana or losing them in Montana may not realize that these properties were business investments. At the time these investments were being made, I am sure the bank was on board and all looked GREAT! Then, when the _ _ _ _ hit the fan… (Approx. October, 2007), values started nose diving at record pace. EVERYONE’s Investments in real estate were affected. (NOT JUST WWDB DUNCANS. We know millionaires not tied to WWDB and they are losing their beautiful homes because they cannot borrow other money to renew their nottes, because the banks are not lending! This is how are country has been run… all on credit. I am sure that the Duncan’s are all smart enough to secure their families future with cash paid assets. Those investments purchased on credit that were not at risk will not affect them having a beautiful home over their head in which they have all worked hard for. I undoubtedly think that the Duncan’s have made people think about what their time is really worth! The average salary in the USA is around $45K per year. Whoopi! We would stare on that. That is horrible salary to trade your time for. The real estate investments made by the Duncans really has nothing to do with the oppty. in the Amway Business. The smart business person needs to come out at a time like this and not be emotional but look at the situation from a business perspective. If the investment is a losing battle, it is a losing battle! Let it go! I do not know anyone who feels sorry for the banks. They are and have been the biggest deceptors, greedy mongrul crooks of ALL TIME! Some of these blogs actually indicate sympathy that the bank is left holding the bag. (Unbelievable). Makes me think that these are bankers writing these blogs, making $50-$100K/year. Whoopi again! The banks had interest in the property as well, probably more and they made the business decision to invest. Therefore, let them have it back. Case Closed. Move On! Look to the future! Don’t reflect on the past, or you WILL NOT move forward. Good luck to all of you out there.
I am not a professional on this matter by no meens, but I do have an opinion, and from what I know about opinions they don’t meen much. What I do know is that I am glad I have something to work towards. Several of my friends with good maybe even excellent paying jobs have had their 401k’s taken away from them and their health insurance as well, including myself. All I can really say is that I am glad I have an alternative source of income. Selling products that I can stand behind and be proud of. Am I glad that the Duncans have decided to back a competitor? No. But I, in their position, would probably do the same thing.
To many people gripe about this industry in my opinion, but the fact of the matter is I know a few people who have put forth the effort and are seeing great rewards. I am not sure that this business can ever replace my fulltime income, but isn’t it great to dream? I find it tiring to try and defend myself against they naysayers, but I do understand that it is a good fight and that has all I have ever wanted to be a part of.
I have yet to come across a speaker that is a diamond who says this business does not require great effort. My Grandpa would tell me the same thing about high risk loans 10 years ago. Hell, even Donald Trump would go into this business if given a second chance. That is not from my opinion, but his mouth. To anybody who has ever been involved in this business and hears that as a diamond you have to put in a full weeks work to maintain that diamondship; so what!! You are still living the good life, helping other people pay their bills, or get free, and you don’t have a boss breathing down your neck..
I get a kick out of all these negative postings saying “These guys, gals, or couples have to work 40 hours a week or more to make a dream happen” like thats a bad thing. Most of us work more than that just to pay our bills. Get a grip naysayers, stop squashing dreams or get a work ethic! And thats all I have to say about that.
God bless me if I make 6,000 a month which seems pretty common for the people I am involved with.
These folks(Duncan) Brag about how great of businessmen they are and can not pay their own Bills. Brab Sold his Whitefish home for 8 millon dollars. The man who bought it Sold it the next Day for 12 Millon. No matter how much Money you make You must spend less than you make. Spend more than you are making you Go Broke. That is what happened to the Duncans. All five of the Whitefish home have for sale signs in front of them. A texas lender now holds the titles and the y are all for Sale . I just Drove past them at 1:30 pm Today Aug. 18 2009. The bigger they are t he Harder they fall
If they just sold a home for 8 million it doesn’t sound like their falling too hard at all.
I’m not in WWDB or in Amway/Quixtar, but I do know something of Greg Duncan. Greg has been a mentor for me…from afar, and I could not recommend a better man to take business advice from. I’ve been impressed with his priorities centering on his family and his beliefs, and of his willingness to help those in business with him. Even to those just looking into possibly getting into a business, find somebody who can put you into contact with Greg or be in a place to hear what he has to say, and you’ll hear some things that will convict you and likely motivate you to do good things.
It is sad to see how bitter some people are over there experiences and how much they want to make arguments to convince others why they will fail too. I had my share of bad experiences when i was in the army; didn’t get into jobs/units i wanted to and could have made legitimate excuses that it had a lot to do with bias on the instuctors/evaluators and information being selectively given. However, i accepted that i did not pass for a reason and was not bitter when others did. I always encouraged others who wanted to try similar things stating experiences of the people who SUCCEEDED as people they should talk to. At least be honest enough with people to refer them to someone else if you know that you wont be of help to them. If you can’t be honest with yourself….. well, life’s going to be hard and you’re going to be bitter about many things on your death bed, which is no way to live.
Just a quick follow up… My bigger objection would be the family oriented focus of WWDB/WWG and the image Greg is sending to families and young people. When you stand on stage and publicly address that you are a born-again Christian and talk about family values, then go out and promote an energy drink through the poker world…. Alot of families have been hurt by gambling addictions, not to mentions the bible specifically talks about not gambling and games of chance. I don’t doubt Greg’s savvy or entreprenurial spirit, I just think he’s wandering down a quagmire of a trail that may leave his downline scratching their heads. Noticeably absent from the ownership group are any of his family members, including Brad.
I don’t care one way or the other what Greg does so long as it doesn’t hurt people in the business. I know many highly successfull people outside of “the business” who have made a ton of coin. Most of them, while on the way up or once they’ve had some significant success, diversify. They look for trends to capitalize on and invest some of their bank on larger projects. I’d say starting a beverage company/beverage line would qualify. No one talks much about how over the years many of the large pins have gone into developing real estate… or maybe no one knew…
As far as tapes/CD’s/Functions/etc… I don’t care if they make money on them so long as it benefits the IBO. My longstanding opinion has been if the money is so good in the sale of tools, quit bitching about it and go platinum and beyond and take part in the profits. That’s why people go into business…. to make a profit.
Thanks for all the interesting tidbits, ibofightback, good stuff!
Hey, all you other IBOs here – have you heard what Greg & his team have done with XS now? The secret isn’t out yet, but you can watch this site for XSciting news!
https://app.e2ma.net/app/view:CampaignPublic/id:10421.1272507714/rid:c3ca82a5e7d569008d31c71f9b9a7321
WOW!
We are actually discussing something worthy of our attention – the debate concerning Greg Duncan & AllinEnergy vs. XS!
OK, I just read the Amthrax article. Hmmmm…. let me see if I can make sense of what was stated.
XS & AllinEnergy are competitors? I agree. My customers who purchase XS from me can also purchase Red Bull, Amp, AllinEnergy, or any other “energy” drink they desire. All of the drinks in the “energy” category are competitors. So what? What is the problem?
Now, to make the situation a little more clear, it seems that the “trouble” is that Greg is a Q/A IBO. As I stated above & yesterday, what possible difference can that make? XS is only marketed thru IBOs, while AllinEnergy is marketed OTC. Who cares? It is like complaining about an IBO who sells SA8 owning stock in Proctor & Gamble, which makes Tide laundry detergent. What “IS” the problem?
Now, as far as Greg or any other IBO marketing CDs, functions, products that make them a profit – what is the problem? Have you ever attended a Zig Ziglar, Peter Lowe, John Maxwell, or Brian Tracy seminar? I have. It is hard to compare the price of those seminars & the price of their CDs, books & other materials to the prices that are charged at WWDB – Q/A functions. There simply is no comparison. The outside functions & materials cost more – plenty more. Do they have value? Of course they do. When Zig speaks and I buy one of his CDs or books does he make a profit? Of course! He is a businessman. Do those seminars, books, CDs & other materials help me to improve my life? Yes, when I apply the information presented. I have material from all of these men in my home, and they have all helped me. I also have many CDs from my Q/A biz that have helped me immensely to improve as a person. If Greg or Dean or Rod or Ron or any other diamond makes $ on that, so be it. The value I have received from that material is many times what I have paid for it.
One thing that has always continued to attract me to Q/A is that “ANYONE” can participate & make $ in this biz. Not only that, but whenever I ask for help, I receive it. And guess what? Neither Shane nor Greg has ever charged me for their help. Can you say the same about your place of employment? I cannot. Not only is the playing field not level, but the shape of the organization is definitely many at the bottom, graduating to one at the top – yep, a pyramid! I may live to be 100, but my chance of becoming CEO of this corp. is less than 1%. (Not that I am trying mind you, I’ve got a better deal going on the outside!) So, if Greg has a product in the same genre and markets it independently of Q/A, I say Go for it! He is still helping thousands of people to grow independent Q/A businesses and providing them a way to improve their life if they desire to.
I applaud Greg and others who spend their time & money freely on others, whose contributions to organizations like Goad International and others make a huge difference in relief efforts around the world. I hope that my life will be as positive an example to my family, friends, neighbors, coworkers & others as Greg’s life has.
As I wrote earlier, I think so many of these critcs are still driven by anger, bitterness, and envy. It shows through in their words and actions.
I hope they can see the truth to that.
Says it all really. The “worst” John can come up with is a 10 yr old dispute over what one emerald (now Executive Diamond) meant when he said “retired”?
gee wiz indeed.
John,
It’s 2008.
Rather than talk about stuff from over a decade ago can we talk about right now?
You pick probably the worst time in the guy’s life to spotlight.
Gee wiz.
Wow, do you really have such a limited understanding of the difference between trading hours for dollars and working to build an asset and future income?
Was Kosage working because he had to, for his Emerald income, or was he working out of choice because he wanted to build a bigger business?
Evidence of the former – none.
Evidence of the latter – he’s now an Executive Diamond
Mind you, I’m just assuming you’re even correctly quoting Kosage. Past experience tells me folk often seem to have extremely selective memories of these things.
To All My New Friends,
I left my job working at McDonalds when I was 17. Therefore I am retired. Give me a break. He quit his job to go to work full time (just about every day of the week for the next 20 years) building his A/Q business. Leaving one job to work endless hours for the next 20 years is not retired. It is simply leaving one full time job to take another very full time job. At the time he was claiming he was retired, he was working endless hours. When he was claiming he was retired, he didn’t own a home, leased his cars, and had a total of about $5,000 in retirement savings. If that is your definition of retired, then 95% of Americans are retired and financially free.
Back to the original post: All-In vs. XS Energy. Here is a comment from the IBOAI board and a quote from Greg Duncan. Hopefully this will clarify some things.
http://www.iboaiblog.com/my_weblog/2008/08/rumor-about-gre.html
I disagree TB2IBO. It seems to me John is using a somewhat different definition of retired. He appears to be using the “lying on the sofa waiting to die” definition .. that if you’re still active doing things, then you’re not retired. An “absolute” position – rather than retired from something, which is almost certainly the context Kosage was using it in.
Both are legitimate uses of the word, problems only arise when someone uses it one way, and someone else insists on interpreting it another way.
John,
Your definition of “retired” is absolutely correct!
He was and is retired from his job. He no longer WORKS there. Therefore he is also correct with stating from stage, “I retired from my job”. He did!
Now if he said he retired from his job, but still worked at Red Robin, then you would be correct in saying he was being deceitful.
If anyone is spinning or taking words out of context it is you.
One other thing, you mention you were wronged by the business and others like you have been wronged. I can agree that is how you feel and perhaps others as well (whether it is true or not is a matter of opinion). Have you done any research or sought out people who have a differing opinion than yourself? How has this business changed people’s lives for the better? In what ways did they do the business different than you?
Just know that for every person that has an experience such as yours (whether real or perceived) there are just as many people that have the opposite experience (whether real or perceived).
Truly, I wish you the best, and also appreciate that you post here. Arguing to or fro aside, it is great that IBOFB allows opposing viewpoints and can have relatively rational conversation regarding those viewpoints. Which is why I rarely look at other sites.
John,
Without knowing a person’s entire financial situation (assets, responsibilites, goals, temperments), I find it interesting that you would draw such conclusions to the motives of a person.
As an example, I’ve heard the entire spectrum from Diamonds and Emeralds regarding housing:
-rent
-buy with a small down payment and a large mortgage
-buy with a big down payment and a small mortgage
-buy with cash and no mortgage.
You’ve got dozens of people with dozens of different curcumstances. To take what a few Emeralds/Diamonds say and then apply it ALL Diamonds as “proof” some Diamonds are lying (because they don’t do the same with their money)is really ridiculous.
John,
The point is that Kosage no longer needed to do anything in order to continue to earn an Emerald income.
Being married myself, with two small children, and putting myself in Kosage’s shoes–having marital trouble with a toddler and in the public eye in a people business–and seeing how far he’s come (not just in terms of the income he’s earned, but the person/father/ex-husband he’s become)I’d have to say that there are many things that Kosage can teach “college kids and single moms” and is an asset to WWDB.
So, John, by your reckoning, a 65yr old who has left his job, has a good pension and never has to work again, but volunteers as a coach at his local football club 6 days a week – he’s a liar if he says he is retired?
IBOfightback,
In my response to TWS, I didn’t say he was working to maintain his current lifestyle. Read my post again. I said according to his declaration, he was working virtually every night. But on stage he was proclaiming he was retired. So who was being deceitful? Kosage was. (In public, I tell everyone I am retired. In private legal documents, I admit I am working constantly.
Maybe you shouldn’t change the words of other people’s posts and then accuse them of being deceitful. It might take away your credibility.
Problem is, Kosage wasn’t retired and he wasn’t financially free. He was working virtually every night (according to his own declaration). So the kids were deceived.
No John, it’s you who is being deceitful here. Was Kosage working every night to maintain his lifestyle as an Emerald or was he working every night to achieve new goals?
He is now an Executive Diamond. The evidence clearly indicates he was working to achieve new goals, not maintain what he had.
TWS,
“John has hijacked this entire thread” You don’t have to respond to me. You are under no obligation to read my comments. If you don’t want to read them, then don’t. Show me what I have said that can’t be verified. If the definition of gossip is, “someone who says “personal and sensational facts about others”, then what is it when platinums and IBOs continually talk about the sensational lifestyles lived by the diamonds who “always pay cash”. They show young college kids and single moms pictures of the “profiles of success” showing how the diamonds live in mansions and drive hummers. Here is the problem. Repeated examples show that the diamonds don’t pay cash. The have mortgages and debts that they can’t pay or aren’t willing to pay. Shores was forecloses on. Duncan has properties in foreclosure.
When Kosage was an emerald, he was bragging about being retired and financially free. So the young 20 year olds wanted to be like him (retired at 23 and financially free). So they bought into his WWDB system of functions, CDs and Kate and more functions. Problem is, Kosage wasn’t retired and he wasn’t financially free. He was working virtually every night (according to his own declaration). So the kids were deceived. My point is this. If he would have been honest, they wouldn’t have spent their money on on the supposed proven system of success. The whole WWDB system is built on this kind of dishonesty and exaggeration. I remember Puryear saying that Quixtar was going to be a $100 billion business. His prediction only missed by 99%. It is all smoke and mirrors and way too many people are being hurt. All I am doing is sharing my thoughts. Just like each of you can share yours. I am not interested in having my mind controlled like when no one is aloud to pass negative downline. So know for sure there is nothing personal from my end. I admire you and everyone else who is willing to share. But the truth is that I have not “hijacked” anything. If you don’t want to read my comments, you don’t have to. That is true freedom and you have it. However, I do appreciate the dialogue.