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Photo above: IDLife’s entryway to its current headquarters in Frisco, Texas.
Company Profile
Founded: 2014
Headquarters: Frisco, TX
Founder: CEO Logan Stout
Products: Nutritional and weight management
Logan Stout, Founder & CEO |
Mark Bennett, COO & General Counsel |
Scott Unclebach, Director of Field Leadership |
Joe O’Conner, Chief Financial Officer |
Darryl Smith, President of Field Development |
Logan Stout’s desire is to help people from all ages, backgrounds and educational levels reach true success. His passion for health and wellness is evident in his new business venture. When you combine his experience, passions and drive to improve the lives of others, the result is a very young but booming business.
For over 17 years, a group of doctors, scientists and nutritionists have been developing what is today known as IDNutrition, a customized nutritional supplement program based on an individual’s medical history, health conditions, prescription medications, heredity, disposition, eating and drinking habits, sun exposure and other factors. Based on the information collected, an assessment is made by the company that is then backed by over 7,500 third-party, peer-reviewed clinical studies. The result is a program designed for the specific needs of each client.
At present, with the endorsement of some very notable figures—including Dallas Cowboys Hall of Famer Troy Aikman and celebrity fitness expert Larry North—as well as the help of an executive team under the leadership of a very experienced businessman/former professional baseball player, IDLife launched into the channel of direct sales in May 2014. Despite the fact that the company isn’t officially a year old, it has 58 employees and 10,000 associates have already taken the helm of their own direct selling businesses with IDLife.
“It’s incredible what the IDLife team has created. It is evidence-based. I think that’s the reason the company is doing so well because the program takes the guesswork out of what you need,” says IDLife CEO Logan Stout. “Everyone wants to look and feel better. I’ve never in my life asked a human being, ‘Hey do you want to look and feel better’ and they said no. Everybody wants to, and so they go buy stuff but they don’t know what to buy. IDLife takes the guesswork out of it.”
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Wellness for Everyone
Stout’s interest in nutritional supplements began when he played professional baseball with the Fort Worth Cats. To keep the team in peak health, nutritional supplements were introduced into the players’ diets. One thing Logan noticed: Every single ball player was basically given the same nutritional supplement, with just a few options. He asked himself, how can everyone take the same dietary nutritional supplement if everyone is different? It was his personal history that engaged his thinking about health and wellness.
Through their struggle to have children, Logan and his wife, Haley, began to eat a very organic-based diet. “When you look back to the links, there are all kinds of reasons for infertility and other health-related issues. But I think a big reason is the fake foods, synthetic foods that we’re putting in our bodies every day over an extended period of time,” Stout says. “My wife became very passionate about all-natural, all-organic foods and products. By the grace of God, we had two boys and we became very excited about that whole premise—all-natural, all-organic, gluten-free, casein-free, soy-free, etc.”
While all IDLife products are not all-organic, the company is currently pursuing Certified Organic accreditation for products that qualify.
An Approach to Healthy Living
In March 2013, Stout was approached by a group of formulators, doctors, scientists and nutritionists who were ready to take their product live, but not sure how to launch the product.
These investors knew Stout’s reputation as an accomplished business leader, success coach, speaker, and best-selling author of Stout Advice: The Secrets to Building Yourself, People, and Teams, as well as a leader of one of the largest direct selling companies in the world and founder of one of the largest youth baseball organizations in the world, The Dallas Patriots and Premier Baseball Academies. All this experience made him a key factor to their new business.
Stout agreed to do some research, and after completing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant assessment he was very impressed with what he found. Through the integration of thousands of medical and scientific studies and answers individuals provide to the free HIPAA compliant IDAssessment, the program takes the answers and relates them to the science in the studies to deliver a report with recommendations for each person.
“After you complete your IDLife assessment, it shows you why it is saying you need whatever supplements it suggests, and it has the journal article from the third-party, peer-reviewed medical study,” Stout says. “It was insane what they had created. I’m sitting there asking these guys, what do you want from me?”
They wanted Stout to take the products and form a company. Stout agreed, but under one condition: He would be given control of how to run the company because he felt he knew of one particular way to reach the market they desired.
“I’ll never forget the light bulb that turned on in my head. I thought, This is the perfect network-marketing product because you take the advantages of both service-based and product-based companies. But you also take out the downsides to product-based companies and the downsides of service-based companies,” Stout says. “And that’s what you have with IDNutrition. It’s the best of both worlds!”
With his experience in tow, Stout began what is now IDLife. He owns 60 percent of the company, which manufactures its 50 products in the U.S. At present the products are offered nationwide, but Stout’s plans include taking them into the global market in the future.
Direct Selling Strategy
Stout also has history with network marketing as an associate and independent rep, and has a fondness for the business model. He says this history is why he chose to use network marketing when he bought this asset.
Stout brought on some friends who became his partners and, like him, believed in IDLife 100 percent. Those partners included former Dallas Cowboys and Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman; ACS Founder and billionaire Darwin Deason; Patrick McGee, Co-Founder of Brazos Private Equity Partners; Chris Camillo, one of the world’s top-performing, self-directed investors and author of Laughing at Wall Street; Len Critcher, early innovator in online car buying; Daryl “Razor” Reaugh, commentator of the Dallas Stars; Josh Bell of the Pittsburgh Pirates; and others.
“I put together a good group of strategic investors and partners because I know what I know, but I know there are things I don’t know. I wanted to have a great board of great people,” he says.
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Assessments
It is no secret that the health and wellness market is confusing, and it is Stout’s goal along with his team to make it as easy as possible to navigate.
Once the IDLife assessment is made, the client then chooses flavor combinations. With this information the IDLife team puts together a personalized kit that combines a meal replacement shake, a natural weight-management product that provides a boost to the metabolism and supports the preservation of lean muscle mass, an energy product that can give the client the sustained energy to keep going throughout the day, and the proprietary appetite-control chews that keep hunger pangs under control and increase the body’s thermogenesis.
According to the company, when the IDTransformation Kit is combined with a client’s personal IDNutrition, a complete foundation is laid to help him or her achieve their health and wellness goals.
“When you marry that with convenience, no more bottles, the best quality of ingredients that are safe, it’s a fraction of the cost of what people are typically currently paying. And the fact that this stuff actually works because it’s geared specifically to you, means this company is going to succeed. What it all boils down to are the products,” Stout says.
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Earning Your Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness
IDLife’s corporate headquarters |
The IDLife Compensation Plan pays 15 ways. Direct sellers can start earning immediately and can even earn startup costs back in the first 72 hours. The program is based on retail commissions and programs like the Business Builder Bonus and Preferred Customer Match. A free sample kit is offered for every Preferred Customer enrolled. Other levels include 10-Level residuals with dynamic compression, matching residuals, volume match, global pool, a car bonus and incentive trips.
There is no need to stock any inventory, ship any product or make any deliveries. Each seller has a replicated IDLife website, which makes it easy for customers to place IDLife orders and for the seller to earn commissions automatically. The IDLife Office gives reps the ability to manage their businesses with a suite of automated business tools. The organization provides a paperless and inventory-free business opportunity.
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According to the business plan, the real power of the IDLife opportunity comes from the income an individual can build as they grow their network of customers, members and associates. IDLife’s compensation plan enables a person to earn income based on the sales of the whole team—with an unlimited number of levels.
“I believe that the direct selling business model is the greatest way to move a product offering. I’m saying that as an individual that owns traditional companies. I’m not biased toward network marketing or direct sales. I’ve done both,” Stout says. “But to me, it’s a no-brainer.”
Stout says his working philosophy stems from the Declaration of Independence and its famous phrase of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
“For me, direct sales enables individuals to be business owners. It gives them autonomy,” he says. “When you look at the great companies like Mary Kay, Primerica and others, what they’ve done for individuals all across the globe is to allow them to design the life of their dreams. It’s phenomenal.”
Dallas Cowboys Hall of Famer Troy Aikman endorses IDLife’s products as a partner in the company. |
This is why the company was named IDLife, which stands for individually designed life. Stout is a firm believer that people want to get back to designing each day of their lives.
He also believes millennials are changing the whole way the world works: It’s faster and quicker with instant gratification and the ability to express themselves; it’s the millennials’ desire to be part of something bigger than themselves.
“Do you know why Facebook, Twitter and Instagram exist? It’s because of the millennials. Why do they exist? Because people want to express themselves,” Stout says. “If they like something, they want to hit a button that clicks like. If they disagree, they want to be able to post a comment that says why they disagree. What direct sales is, it’s basically a compensation plan for the freedom mindset. That’s what it is. It’s a compensation plan built for the millennial mindset.”
IDRevolution, a regular conference featuring IDLife, recently had more than 3,000 attendees. The next conference will be held at the Fort Worth, Texas, convention center April 9–11, 2015, featuring John C. Maxwell, Troy Aikman and other distinguished partners. IDLife will continue to host three-day conferences each spring and fall while also providing training and workshops.
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Part of IDLife’s training is what the company calls its Fundamentals to Freedom, and according to Stout, these seven fundamentals are the building blocks of growing a direct selling business with the company. He says all the tools and resources the company provides are there to streamline the process for the individual associate because IDLife strives to take the guesswork out of what associates need to be successful.
“We’re excited about the company. We’re very excited about our customers and clients,” Stout says. “Bottom line: We are building a legacy company to change people’s lives mentally, physically, spiritually, financially and emotionally. I believe every person is unique and designed for greatness, and my goal is to sell people on themselves even more so than on IDLife. We aren’t just a company, we are a movement!”
IDLife’s lobby wall displays current product offerings.