Innov8tive Nutrition provides no information on its website about who owns or runs the company.
I’ve reviewed enough LaCore Enterprises companies now that I recognized the Melissa, Texas corporate address provided on Innov8tive Nutrition’s website.
A visit to Innov8tive Nutrition’s Facebook page revealed marketing videos featuring Dave Pitcock.
On LinkedIn Dave’s wife, Barb Pitcock, cites herself as Innov8tive Nutrition’s CEO.
The Pitcock’s (right) made a name for themselves first with Youngevity and then Wakaya Perfection.
The Pitcock’s were part of a team of former Youngevity distributors that gutted the company to form Wakaya Perfection.
Innov8tive Nutrition originally launched in September 2016, with different executives.
A 2016 press-release names Heidi and Ken Whitehair (right) as Innov8tive Nutritional’s original solo leadership.
The Pitcock’s seem to have gotten involved in Innov8tive Nutrition in late 2019, around the time LaCore Enterprises acquired Wakaya Perfection.
A March 2020 press-release states Innov8tive Nutrition is ‘headed by couples Heidi and Ken Whitehair and Dave and Barb Pitcock’.
I originally though the Pitcock’s ousted the Whitehairs from their executive roles. Rather it seems Barb Pitcock was appointed co-CEO sometime in 2020. She shares that role with Heidi Whitehair.
Both Dave Pitcock and Ken Whitehair appear to work as background executives.
The Pitcocks coming on board appears to coincide with a change in Innov8tive Nutrition’s product direction in 2020.
The original supplement offering was what you’d expect from a nutritional MLM company:
Innov8tive Nutrition is run through the Texas corporation Innov8tive Nutrition, INC.
LaCore Enterprises owner Terry LaCore is listed as the sole director of the company.
He’s held that position since November 2016, meaning Innov8tive Nutrition has always been a LaCore Enterprises company.
Interestingly there was a brief cross-over with Lifocity from September 2019 to January 2020. Not sure what that was about.
Why executive information isn’t provided on Innov8tive Nutrition’s website is unclear. Unfortunately this is a recurring theme with LaCore Enterprises companies.
Read on for a full review of Innov8tive Nutrition’s MLM opportunity.
Innov8tive Nutrition’s Products
Innov8tive Nutrition’s website details a range of nutritional supplements, delivered in patch form.
- Feel Gr8 – “50mg of pure CBD per patch”, retails at $109.95 for a pouch of thirty patches
- Ignite – “weight Management 2 patch system”, retails at $139.95 for a pouch of thirty patches
- Energy – “loaded with powerful B Vitamins known to assist with giving your body sustained energy throughout the day”, retails at $49.95 for a pouch of thirty patches
- Complete – “your entire handful of minerals and vitamins in a simple patch”, retails at $49.95 for a pouch of thirty patches
- Complete Kidz – child version of Complete, retails at $36.95 for a pouch of thirty patches
- Immune – “support your body’s natural Immune System and give your body the nutrients it needs to help run at its optimum level”, retails at $54.95 for a pouch of thirty patches
- Sleep – “helps your body naturally create what it needs to experience a great night’s sleep”, retails at $49.95 for a pouch of thirty patches
- Infin8 – “collagen Patch Combo also features hyaluronic acid, peptides, keratin, biotin, and much more”, retails at $149.95 for a pouch of thirty patches
Innov8tive Nutrition’s patches are also available in a 54 combo pouch for $119.95.
Although not explicitly clarified, it is assumed Innov8tive Nutrition’s patches are manufactured in Texas by LaCore Enterprises.
One would presume in the latter that rank is retained. Innov8tive Nutrition’s compensation documentation however is poorly worded.
Innov8tive Nutrition’s Compensation Plan
Innov8tive Nutrition’s compensation plan pays on retail commissions. First order commissions are paid both on retail customer and recruited affiliate orders.
Residual commissions are paid via an eight-level deep unilevel team.
Innov8tive Nutrition Affiliate Ranks
There are eleven affiliate ranks within Innov8tive Nutrition’s compensation plan.
Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:
- Promoter – sign up as an Innov8tive Nutrition affiliate
- Promoter 1 – generate and maintain 100 PV a month and accumulate 501 GV
- Promoter 2 – maintain 100 PV a month and generate 1001 in accumulated GV
- Promoter 3 – maintain 100 PV a month and generate 1501 in accumulated GV
- Promoter 4 – maintain 100 PV a month and generate 2001 in accumulated GV
- Silver Promoter – maintain 100 PV a month, generate and maintain two retail customers and generate 4001 in accumulated GV
- Silver Elite Promoter – generate and maintain 150 PV a month, generate and maintain four retail customers and generate 15,000 in accumulated GV
- Gold Promoter – generate and maintain 200 PV a month, generate and maintain six retail customers and generate 25,000 in accumulated GV
- Gold Elite Promoter – generate and maintain 250 PV a month, generate and maintain eight retail customers and generate 50,000 in accumulated GV
- Platinum Promoter – generate and maintain 300 PV a month, generate and maintain ten retail customers and generate 75,000 in accumulated GV
- Platinum Elite Promoter – generate and maintain 400 PV a month, generate and maintain twelve retail customers and generate 100,000 in accumulated GV
PV stands for “Personal Volume” and is sales volume generated by retail orders and an affiliate’s own purchases.
GV stands for “Group Volume” and is PV generated by an affiliate and their downline.
Note that for rank qualification, up to 60% of required GV can come from any one unilevel team leg.
Innv8tive Nutrition’s compensation plan states “achieved ranks (are) locked in for 12 months”.
When a Promoter’s 12-month Personal Profit Clock expires, they revert back to the highest Profit Level they have achieved within the previous 12 months.
This suggests that once qualified for, an Innov8tive Nutrition affiliate doesn’t have to meet rank qualification again for another twelve months.
This would reset for another twelve months if that affiliate ranked higher during that twelve month period.
Retail and Recruitment Commissions
Innov8tive Nutrition pays a commission on sales volume generated by a retail customer and recruited affiliate’s first product order.
- 10% is paid on a retail customer’s first order volume
- 25% is paid on a personally recruited affiliate’s first order volume
Personal Profits
Innv8tive Nutrition pays a commission on an affiliate’s own orders (effectively a discount) and that of their retail customers.
The Personal Profits commission is split into six tiers:
- Promoters don’t qualify for a Personal Profits Bonus – purchase up to $500 of product and receive no Personal Profit Bonus
- Promoter 1 – purchase $501 to $1000 of product and receive a 10% Personal Profit Bonus
- Promoter 2 – purchase $1001 to $1500 of product and receive a 15% Personal Profit Bonus
- Promoter 3 – purchase $1501 to $2000 of product and receive a 20% Personal Profit Bonus
- Promoter 4 – purchase $2001 to $4000 of product and receive a 25% Personal Profit Bonus
- Silver Promoter – purchase $4001 or more of product and receive a 30% Personal Profit Bonus
Once qualified for, Personal Profits Bonus tiers are kept for twelve months.
Note that the Personal Profits Bonus is a coded bonus, meaning the full 30% rebate is paid out on each qualifying order.
If an Innov8tive Nutrition affiliate isn’t Silver Promoter ranked, they receive their corresponding lesser rank bonus percentage.
Whatever is left is paid upline to higher Personal Profits Bonus ranked affiliates, until the full 30% is paid out.
Residual Commissions
Innov8tive Nutrition pays residual commissions via a unilevel compensation structure.
A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):
If any level 1 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team.
If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.
Innov8tive Nutrition caps payable unilevel team levels at eight.
Residual commissions are paid out as a percentage of sales volume generated across these eight levels as follows:
- Silver Promoters earn 5% on levels 1 to 3
- Silver Elite Promoters earn 5% on levels 1 to 3 and 4% on level 4
- Gold Promoters earn 5% on levels 1 to 3 and 4% on levels 4 and 5
- Gold Elite Promoters earn 5% on levels 1 to 3 and 4% on levels 4 to 6
- Platinum Promoters earn 5% on levels 1 to 3, 4% on levels 4 to 6 and 3% on level 7
- Platinum Elite Promoters earn 5% on levels 1 to 3, 4% on levels 4 to 6 and 3% on levels 7 and 8
Bonus Pool
Innov8tive Nutrition’s compensation plan references a “bonus pool” but fails to provide any specifics.
Joining Innov8tive Nutrition
Innov8tive Nutrition affiliate membership is $49.95 annually.
Innov8tive Nutrition Conclusion
Innov8tive Nutrition suffers from faceless corporation syndrome. If you followed the Pitcocks and came in through Wakaya Perfection, this isn’t an issue.
Members of public, i.e. new affiliates however, are completely lost as to who is running the show.
Given it isn’t terribly difficult to ascertain Innov8tive Nutrition’s corporate team, I’m at a loss as to why this information isn’t provided.
Personally the only reason I stumbled across Whitehairs is I was researching when Innov8tive Nutrition launched. Otherwise up until that point I thought the Pitcocks were running the show.
As mentioned in the introduction of this review, faceless corporate syndrome is common with LaCore Enterprises’ companies. It is a long-running issue they need to address.
Moving onto Innov8tive Nutrition’s products; the range seems pretty straight forward but I’m not sold on the delivery method.
I’m going to focus on the CBD patch because that seems to be Innov8tive Nutrition’s flagship.
It seems to be universally accepted that the most effective way to take CBD oil is under the tongue.
Innov8tive Nutrition claim their patches are made from “woven nanotechnology”. They state this allows them to put more active ingredient in their patches, as opposed to traditional “plastic patches”.
Unlike plastic patches out there, our nanotechnology patches are woven with a proprietary system, which creates reservoirs on the patch, which increase the surface area.
As to whether patches are any more or less effective than oral delivery, citing multiple 2018 studies, Healthline writes;
CBD patches are about as effective as CBD that’s taken orally. But they offer several advantages over oral CBD.
CBD that’s taken orally is metabolized first by your body before it starts circulating in your bloodstream.
CBD that’s taken through the skin — like in a patch — doesn’t have to go through this intermediate step, so more of it gets to circulate in your blood.
This seems like a lost marketing opportunity – across all of Innov8tive Nutrition’s products.
Getting back to CBD and being somewhat familiar with CBD oil, simply due to the sheer number of CBD MLM opportunities I’ve reviewed, one area patches don’t address is dosage.
I know CBD oil dosage varies from individual to individual. While this is easily addressed via drops, patch delivery would appear to be at a disadvantage.
Your options are whatever dosage is given via the patch. At best you can double that by wearing two patches (or three, or four etc.).
Not really ideal.
Cost per application might be something to think about too. I did run a quick search on average drops per CBD bottle (typically 1 fl. oz. or 30 ml).
Because it varies based on dropper size, I couldn’t get a definitive average but it seems to be 1 ml doses. So roughly thirty servings per 1 fl. oz. bottle (30 ml).
Whether oil is more or less economical than Innov8tive Nutrition’s patches is thus up in the air.
I will say $109.95 for thirty 50 mg doses does seem pretty expensive.
Innov8tive Nutrition’s compensation plan is pretty straight forward. I thought 10% on the first order plus 30% retail commissions was pretty generous.
Unfortunately being a simple compensation plan, there’s not much in the way of retail incentives.
Retail volume requirements do kick in from the Silver Promoter rank, but if the majority of affiliates don’t make it to that rank, does it matter.
This is where Innov8tive Nutrition’s compensation plan is a little odd. MLM commissions are behind a 4001 accumulated GV wall.
That is you need to generate 4001 in combined personal and downline PV to start earning unilevel commissions.
Granted accumulated GV is far easier to reach than monthly GV, it still might be a high bar to clear.
Typically in an MLM company we see the majority of affiliates bundled together in the lower ranks. In Innov8tive Nutrition, this would mean most aren’t qualifying for MLM commissions.
Despite launching in 2016, an Income Disclosure Statement isn’t provided on Innov8tive Nutrition’s website.
This isn’t a deal-breaker but is a potential red flag.
If the majority of Innov8tive Nutrition affiliates are at the Promoter to Promoter 4 ranks, collecting pass-up Personal Profits from downline purchases, even with some retail thrown in that would constitute a pyramid scheme.
What you’ll want to establish as a potential Innov8tive Nutrition affiliate is whether your potential upline is hitting their monthly PV through their own order or retail.
If there’s no equivalent retail and that affiliate is still earning commissions (first order recruitment and Personal Profits + passups), stay clear.
All in all there’s potential with Innov8tive Nutrition but some issues need to be addressed. Approach with caution.