Why I Quit Young Living Essential Oils

Why I Quit Young Living Essential Oils – Angie Cruise Blog

Why I Quit Young Living Essential Oils

They’ve been our families favorite for years, so of course everyone wants to know why I quit Young Living. Read on for the whole story.

I’ve been incredibly reluctant to write about my “break up” with Young Living for many reasons. Mostly, because

I still have a lot of friends with the company who I love and respect

. And also, because I know a lot of people trusted my advice and came to me for help. Publicly changing your mind about anything is a hard pill to swallow. I’m sure you all know what I mean.

I want to preface this entire article by saying I still believe Young Living has some amazing quality products

. My family has used them for years with such good results. The oils literally changed my life.

But, I will no longer consider myself a partner with them and will no longer be recommending them on this blog, so I wanted to clear the air on why that is. I owe you that much.

I’m incredibly passionate about essential oils. If you’ve spent even 3 minutes on my blog or social media, you probably already know this, but if you’re coming from an internet search, welcome! I’m Angie, and I

My family turns to essential oils daily. We diffuse them, apply them topically for emotional support and focus, and I love making DIYs with them. (I’ll link to some of my more popular essential oil DIYs at the bottom of this post, so check it out!)

So, why did I quit Young Living if I love essential oils so much? Don’t worry. I’ll do my best to spill all the details below. Just know that this is only one blog post, though, so I may not go into

How I Got Started with Young Living Essential Oils

I’ve been using essential oils for the better part of a decade, but for years, I was just grabbing whatever I could find off the shelves in the stores.

Mostly, I used them in cleaning, but I started seeing people talk about diffusers and carrier oils, and I was intrigued. What was I missing? Could I really use these essential oils for more than just homemade cleaners?

I’d tried several different brands of oils at that time, but the one name that kept popping up over and over was Young Living. (I now know that is because of the business structure that pays distributors to share and sell their kits, but I didn’t at the time).

I held off buying for a long time, because let’s face it. Their oils come with a

higher price tag, especially compared to the $3 lavender I’d been buying from the grocery store.

But one day a friend ordered their starter kit and invited me over to check it out. So, I went over and we chatted oils with her and a couple of other friends. I got to check out her diffuser (something I’d never used), smell all the oils that she had bought, and even put a few directly on my skin.

It was clear that the quality was

better than what I had been using. You could tell just by smelling them! Plus, I really liked how they had their “seed to seal” promise that guaranteed the quality of their oils, and a foundation that did so many good things around the world. It’s worth paying a bit more for those things, right?

By the end of that visit, I’d purchased my own kit and started anxiously awaiting it’s arrival.

I hadn’t planned on buying the whole kit, truthfully, but I added up the cost of what I wanted, and realized that the kit was actually the best deal. Honestly, it was the only way I’d be able to afford the oils long term, because it gave me special pricing (aka “wholesale”).

That was about 6 years ago now, and it’s the day I became a loyal Young Living customer.

Why I Decided to Become a Young Living Distributor

I actually refused to pursue the business end of Young Living after buying my first starter kit. In fact, I distinctly remember telling the girl I bought from that I was only interested in the oils. I’d

I’d been part of another network marketing business back in college and lost a lot of money, so I had no interest in another one. Plus, I already had a business, and didn’t want to dedicate time to something new.

It wasn’t until I started this blog

later and wanted to share some of my favorite DIYs that I started considering the business side of this oily adventure.

I was already an affiliate for a few other companies, and knew that adding links to my posts were a great way to fund my blog and earn a little extra income. So, I contacted my upline (that’s MLM speak for the person above me in the business) and learned how to grab my link.

I quickly learned, though, that being part of the business side of Young Living was a lot more than I’d bargained for.

Why I Quit Young Living

This post contains affiliate links. That means I could earn a small commission based off of your purchases. To learn more, see my full disclosure

I guess I should have taken a closer look at the compensation plan before I started, because when I first joined, I thought all of these distributors were making money based on product sales. That’s something I knew I could easily do through my blog, and so I went for it.

Within a few days of joining, I’d realized this business wasn’t about selling oils.

It was about signing people up for an account. In laymens terms, that means sell them a starter kit and get them ordering regularly. It’s the only

way to make money. And don’t get me wrong. That option truly does get you the best price for Young Living oils.

If all someone wanted was a bottle of Lavender, I was instructed to just offer up my discount and add it to my own orders to enjoy the points I’d get. (Points to use towards more oils and products). That’s what I did for a long time, but when you look at it from a business perspective, it’s not really smart. My only profit from those “sales” was in the form of points to use for more oils.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t pay my bills in oils.

And the little bit of income I

earning from people who had signed up certainly wasn’t passive. No. I was constantly hustling.

In fact, the business groups were always full of people bragging about hustling from the car, or at their kids’ ball games, or on vacation.

On vacation, ya’ll!

How is that “freedom??”

There were “post ratios” to adhere to, “hot words” to avoid using, and scripts written for you to send to your friends to get them signed up and “doing the biz.”

At the end of each month, members are given a list of ideas from those higher up in the company to help them “boost their numbers.”

Only, most of the ideas didn’t actually boost their paycheck. But…they boosted the paycheck of those above them.

This wasn’t what I’d signed up for at all.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big believer in good old fashioned hard work. I do it daily. But

This wasn’t the same thing.

Seriously. I just wanted to be able to sell a bottle of Lavender in a blog post when it was relevant. How did I turn into the girl who everyone thought was just out to make a buck? That wasn’t me!

It broke my heart the day I told a friend about something I’d just bought, and she thought I was trying to sell her something.

It was a huge eye opener for me. That’s how people saw me, despite my best intentions to break that stigma.

But I couldn’t quit, because as I’d been reminded over and over,

success was right around the corner.