RECEIPTS! SCREENSHOTS! Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Whitney Rose has been accused of operating an MLM company called sōl people after brand partners spent hundreds to thousands of dollars.
In Touch Weekly exclusively chatted with a brand partner, Nichole, who got caught up in sōl people’s marketing scheme and ended up spending a lot of money to no avail.
Sōl people is owned by Whitney Rose, 38, and her business partner, Ashlee Headlee James. According to records online, the business was registered in Utah in July 2024 by Awakend, LLC – the company Whitney’s husband Justin Rose is President of.
Recruiting for the health and wellness brand began earlier this summer and, in fact, is still going on today via the company’s website.
“We’d love for you to join our vibrant, empowering community! If our revolutionary products, transformational digital courses, and ‘come as you are’ sanctuary resonate with you, we invite you to share sōl people with others to help you create a life of abundance,” the website reads.
Nichole, a 34-year-old Southern California resident, joined the company with her friend in mid-June during its pre-launch phase because she heard that “it could be a really great opportunity.”
While there was no initiation fee, you had to purchase a certain amount of product, also known as personal volume, for yourself. So, Nichole had spent around $400-$500, she exclusively tells In Touch. (The Skincare Daily Routine bundle cost $219 and the Daily Glow Moisturizer cost $79.)
“It was a big push to get people on your team, and obviously the bigger your team, the more money you make,” Nichole says about the pre-launch phase.
“But it was more sold as this community. It was a group of Christian women…Getting this whole community of Christian women and moms that are needing this extra income.”
“It was posed as a brand-new company where if you sign up all these people, you’ll get all these bonuses,” she continues. “Then after launch, which was at first supposed to be August 1st, we’ll have these products to sell as well as transformational digital courses.”
The Sōl Rise Launch Event got pushed back to October and it was supposed to be a big three-day launch event taking place in Salt Lake City, October 3rd to the 5th.
Tickets to attend the launch were $265, plus each attendee had to be responsible for booking their own hotel and airfare if they were coming from out of state.
The launch event included “the chance to connect with ownership and sōl leaders, gain valuable leadership training, and participate in an exclusive workshop.”
A screenshot obtained by In Touch read, “You’ll also preview potential future products, be the first to hear about the launch of our incredible new digital course, and experience retreat-like elements, including a rejuvenating sound bath, breathwork session, and more.”
Up until the launch event, Nichole, a stay-at-home mom-of-three, had a feeling that sōl people was more an MLM company and that she was being tricked into spending a lot of her own money before making any income.
“The final straw was when this email went out that the launch event was being canceled. There were red flags leading up to it. We had looked into the previous company that sōl was rebranded into, Awakend. Justin Rose was involved in just other MLMs that essentially ended because of lawsuits,” she claims.
“Another red flag was the top leaders, people that were making $20,000 a month, were walking away because of the dishonesty or things that they didn’t agree with within the company.”
Nichole continues, “Once we saw how they were handling the situation with the launch event, we’re like, ‘Okay, this is too sketchy for us, and we’re out.’”
In an email obtained by In Touch, all Founding Brand Partners were notified six days before the launch event that it had been postponed until January 2025. The reason it was postponed was “due to some unforeseen circumstances,” including the “unfortunate weather occurring in parts of the U.S.”
The ticket was transferable to the January date, but Nichole and some other brand partners were unable to cancel their non-refundable airfare and hotel stay – which she says was about $1,000 total. She and her friends still went to Salt Lake City that weekend and turned it into a girl’s weekend.
Once Nichole emailed sōl for a refund for the event, they informed her that the event tickets are “non-refundable” and can only transfer to the new date in January.
They did, however, offer “a $100 product credit for a future purchase,” as indicated in an email response obtained by In Touch.
“It was very much a slap in the face of like, ‘Well, we’ll give you $100 even though you spent almost $300 on the ticket and planned this whole weekend,” Nichole says.
“I believe the real reason the launch didn’t end up happening was because they didn’t end up selling as much or all the products that they needed to sell. They still have a ton of Wild Rose beauty products that they need to sell before they can turn it into sōl skincare.”
At the time, Nichole believes each team had about 20 to 40 people, but company-wide she believes there were about 2,000 people total.
While Nichole, herself, had no interaction with Whitney, her friend Carly Esquerra had reached out to Whitney since she wanted to meet up with her while they were all in Salt Lake City.
It never worked out since Whitney was “too busy,” according to Nichole.
After Carly, a TikTok influencer, spoke out on social media, about her experience with the company in a since-deleted TikTok, Whitney allegedly ‘blocked’ her.
Carly, 31, was also sent a cease-and-desist letter from sōl, In Touch can exclusively reveal.
