Good Guides USA fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.
If you are approached by a Good Guides USA affiliate and enter the company’s marketing funnel, you wind up on the domain “thegoodlaunch.com”.
Here we find a Good Guides USA marketing video featuring Mike Potillo.
Potillo appeared on BehindMLM’s radar back in 2010 through LiveSmart 360. At the time Potillo was part of LiveSmart 360’s executive team.
LiveSmart 360 eventually collapsed in 2015. Citing a “harsh economic climate”, what was left of the company appears to have been sold off to Shaklee.
Sometime after LiveSmart 360, Potillo migrated over to It Works! as Global Chief Sales Officer.
When exactly Potillo left It Works! is unclear. The last post about the company on Potillo’s Twitter profile is from May 2021.
Promotion for Good Guides USA began in late 2023.
Good Guides USA’s website domain (“goodguidesusa.com”), was privately registered on September 25th, 2023.
As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money.
Good Guides USA’s Products
Good Guides USA markets “home & vehicle protection plans”.
If we can’t find you a policy that perfectly meets your needs, then we don’t recommend one.
Available plans appear to be geared towards car and home protection:
Good Guides USA’s vehicle protection plans appear to cover up to 200K miles:
The home plans are similarly split into three tiers:
While Good Guides doesn’t go into specifics, including pricing (a “free quote” is available), it claims its “administrator” is
accredited by the BBB and partnered with over 86,000 Vehicle Service centers.
Good Guides USA also pitches a 30 day guarantee, no contracts, 0% interest and no inspections.
Good Guides USA’s Compensation Plan
Good Guides USA’s compensation plan pays on home and vehicle protection plans sold to retail customers and recruited affiliates.
Good Guides USA Affiliate Ranks
There are six affiliate ranks within Good Guides USA’s compensation plan.
Along with their qualification criteria, they are as follows:
- Affiliate – sign up as a Good Guides affiliate
- Ambassador – qualify for MLM commissions and generate and maintain 10 active group sales policies (max 6 from any one downline leg)
- Team Leader – qualify for MLM commissions and generate and maintain 30 active group sales policies (max 18 from any one downline leg)
- Vice President – qualify for MLM commissions and generate and maintain 100 active group sales policies (max 40 from any one downline leg)
- Senior VP – qualify for MLM commissions and generate 400 active group sales policies (max 160 from any one downline leg)
- Executive VP – qualify for MLM commissions and generate 1000 active group sales policies (max 400 from any one downline leg)
MLM commission qualifies requires a Good Guides USA affiliate to either make a new retail customer policy sale or have three existing retail customer policy sales each month.
Active group sales policies are the sum total of policies sold by a Good Guides USA affiliate and their downline.
Note that to maintain Vice President to Executive VP ranks, half of the initial qualification criteria (as above) must be maintained.
E.g. to maintain Senior VP, a Good Guides USA affiliate needs to qualify for MLM commissions and maintain 200 active group sales policies (max 80 from any one downline leg).
Personal Policy Commissions
Good Guides USA affiliates earn $100 to $200 per group policy sold to personally referred retail customers or recruited affiliates.
Residual Commissions
Good Guides USA pays referral commissions on policy sales down three levels of recruitment (unilevel):
- Affiliates earn $25 on level 1 (personally recruited affiliates)
- Ambassadors earn $25 on levels 1 and 2
- Team Leaders and higher earn $25 on levels 1 to 3
Generation Bonus
Good Guides USA pays a Generation Bonus on up to four generations per unilevel team leg.
Good Guides USA defines a generation in a unilevel team leg when a Vice President of higher is found in the leg.
If found in a leg, this Vice President or higher ranked affiliate caps off the first generation for that particular leg. The second generation of the leg begins immediately after them.
If a second Vice President or higher ranked affiliate exists deeper in the leg, they cap off the second generation of that leg.
If no such second ranked Vice President or higher exists in the leg, the second generation runs the full depth of the leg.
Using this generational structure, Good Guides USA pays the Generational Bonus per policy sold on up to four generations per unilevel team leg as follows:
- Vice Presidents earn $25 on up to two generations per unilevel team leg
- Senior VPs earn $25 on up to three generations per unilevel team leg
- Executive VPs earn $25 on up to four generations per unilevel team leg
Joining Good Guides USA
Good Guides USA affiliate membership is $15 a month.
Good Guides USA Conclusion
Good Guides USA’s biggest weakness is disclosure relating to its home and vehicle protection plans.
Who are they offered by? What is the average cost (for Good Guides USA to pay flat-rate commissions there must be an assumed minimum cost)? Where can consumers get information on terms and conditions relating to the plans?
None of this information is disclosed, leaving consumers unable to make an informed decision about Good Guides USA’s marketed plans.
Good Guides USA affiliates marketing the plans might be able to provide consumers with this information, but that doesn’t excuse the lack of disclosures on Good Guides USA’s public-facing website.
A lack of ownership or executive information on Good Guides USA’s website is another red flag.
It’s not like Potillo is hiding. If he’s in Good Guides USA’s prelaunch marketing material, why not just disclose him on Good Guides USA’s primary website?
Some of Good Guide USA’s marketing is yet another potential red flag.
Given Good Guides USA pays out $25 a policy, I’d assume the above marketing point I’ve marked requires your “five referrals” to get five referrals to get five referrals etc. etc. And everybody referred must have an active policy.
That’s not immediately clear in the marketing and could be considered deceptive.
Good Guides USA’s disclosure failings matter because they are potential violations of the FTC Act. Easy to fix but we’re now months since Good Guides USA’s website went up without remedy.
On the MLM side of things, Good Guides USA’s compensation requires retail sales to qualify for commissions. This is great to see.
The plan as a whole is simple to understand. With either a new retail policy sale required each month or maintenance of a minimum of three retail policies, this should cover the majority of Good Guides USA affiliates.
Higher ranked Good Guides USA affiliates might have more recruited affiliates over retail customers but as a company there should be a healthy retail/recruitment policy mix.
Not sure how far you’ll get but it’s worth evaluating Good Guides USA’s policies for yourself before you consider marketing them. At the very least this should provide you with the ins and outs of the plans, better enabling you to generate required retail sales.
Pending Good Guides USA’s remedying its disclosure failings, good luck!