False Coaches

Surely you've seen at least one of them. Some friend from school, a cousin or parent or sibling, somebody you know is bound to have joined an MLM at some point or another. If you know somebody who is no longer involved in MLM, ask them about their experience. If you know somebody who still is, proceed with caution.

MLM, or Multi-Level Marketing, seems to have taken over a huge chunk of social media. You can even find their posts being pushed on Indeed and LinkedIn, though they usually don't last long before being reported and removed. Facebook is less strict, however. Posts about becoming some kind of business owner, working from home, lifestyle posts about spending money from their business, before and afters for products, raffles, pitches, emotionally soaked stories, post after post after post about all the amazing things this business is doing!

I'll be perfectly to the point of this post, which is that MLM is the Scientology of the business world. Goodbye, consultants and presenters that have made it this far! This is not the propaganda you're looking for.

I joined Rodan+Fields in April of last year, 2017. I won't go much into that for two reasons. One, this is meant for the Health&Wellness crowd and there are many bigger MLMs that target this crowd. Two, my experience with R+F was short-lived and not as bad as many. However, all MLMs have the same recurring mechanisms and techniques.

It starts with a Facebook message, in my case, or with a call from someone you know, or an invitation to a party, or even being approached in a store by a random stranger. They'll make small talk, you might believe you're simply having a normal conversation with somebody about normal things, your lives, your kids, your jobs. Then it'll take an odd turn. Either they'll direct the conversation to this "amazing opportunity" they've found, or they'll break out the presentation props and begin the motivational speech. This speech is usually centered around how they were once poor and sad and tired and fat, or something of the like, and now they are rich and successful and thin and fit and energized and mom's can stay home with kids while they bring in massive incomes, just working a couple hours a week from their phones! Nurses and teachers quit their full time jobs and make more than they ever have with hardly any work! The pitch goes on and on and on about all the amazing things this opportunity has done for them and can do for you.

People will generally feel one of two ways at this point. They'll either be curious, willing to hear more, interested, or they'll feel strange... This is a strange way for somebody to act. Why would they brag so much about making all of this money? Oh, but they have an answer for every "this is strange" feeling you may get, and somehow their answers never actually answer your question and make you feel even more strange, sometimes even a little bruised, a little tired and confused. These conversations are meant to make you feel confused. For those that have finely-tuned critical thinking skills, it's still confusing, but more in a cheesy-what is wrong with you- sort of way. For those who may be insecure, vulnerable, emotional, poor, unhealthy, ignorant, etc, these conversations are confusing, but those people have been hoping for a miracle answer for so long that whether they understand it fully or not, it's playing on their emotions with fancy buzzwords and grossly exaggerated statistics. It's roping these people in during their most vulnerable times using emotional manipulation.

To learn the specifics of some of their techniques and read about different MLMs in depth, I highly encourage visiting the following sites.

https://www.reddit.com/r/antiMLM/

https://ellebeaublog.com/poonique/

https://timelessvie.wordpress.com/

https://botwatch.blog/

I'm a new mom, I'm a recovering drug addict, and I'm an emotional person. Luckily for me, I'm also a critical thinker. I fell into the MLM trap, which ALWAYS ends in less than 2% making anything notable, and the vast majority losing money, relationships, and respect, which is to say that YES, your friends are almost certainly lying in all of those posts about how amazing this business has made their lives. "Fake it 'til you make it" is a phrase that is hugely misinterpreted to these people. They take it to the point of blatantly lying and calling it "creating FOMO" (Fear Of Missing Out). I got out, but I learned some hard lessons and lost $2k in the process, not to mention how awkward some of my previous friendships are now. Nobody really wins in MLM, except the couple of people at the top of the pyramid. MLM is a glorified Pyramid Scheme.

Business model aside, the danger of some of these products is real. Please thoroughly research what you put into your body and remember, the way to lose weight is calories in and calories out, food and exercise, and your liver and kidneys do ALL the detoxing you need. If they aren't, you need a doctor, not a shake or an oil.

Be careful out there. Your body is your temple. Be mindful of it!