I am an ex Forever Living rep. AMA

[ReformedB0t]

I am now anti MLM and have posted candidly for quite some time on the Bot Watch threads.

Hi

I read a blog or something similar about a make up MLM. Someone on here recommended it.

The targets were so high! Had to buy their own testers and samples.

Is it as bad as people think or worse?

Hi reformed how did you initially get sucked in?

did you make an money?

How much did you have to spend on your initial outlay?

Did you ever make a profit which enabled you to buy a car etc? I mean, did you ever manage to save any money at all?

There is subtle encouragement to stock pile to meet the targets of a promotion from up lines. I resisted that but still bought more than I needed. If you are close to a promotion, you and your team have a target and you have to all try to meet that target. As a downline you don't want to let your upline down so you buy more so that youre not the team member who lets them down. As an upline going for a promotion you are told to incentivise your team so you would also buy extra stock for prizes or even ipads, spa days, holidays etc.

Bump

Did you honestly believe that it could cure every ailment that has ever been discovered

Do you have any friends or money left?

Did you replace every product in your house with the Forever version as I've heard some reps are encouraged to do?

What did the training consist of?

How many people did you recruit?

@GoldenKelpie

I had recently had a baby and planned a long maternity leave. I received a Facebook message from a mum I vaguely knew and this was before the tactics were as well known. I figured that £200 was worth the risk, not realising the further costs that would come.

@orangeshoebox

did you make an money?

Official accounts after expenses said £200. I think the reality was more like MINUS £1000+

@SirJamesTalbotAndHisSpeculum

How much did you have to spend on your initial outlay?

£200

Did you ever make a profit which enabled you to buy a car etc? I mean, did you ever manage to save any money at all?

No, I had 'paydays' of £600 but they cost me £450 to achieve

How do you feel looking back on the time when you were part of Forever?

Official accounts after expenses said £200. I think the reality was more like MINUS £1000+ I knew it was bad but that's a huge amount not to have

How did your upline react when you left?
Was there bullying involved?

How long were you in FLP, and what 'rank' had you achieved when you were making the £600 (that cost you £450?)?

What made you so gullible in the first place?

@hairychinsrus

Did you honestly believe that it could cure every ailment that has ever been discovered

No, but I did believe it had health benefits. I did see a family members health condition genuinely improve on the drinking gel!

@Biscusting

Do you have any friends or money left?
Yes to both. My best friend was supportive but didn't get too involved. I didn't push it too much with other friends but drifted apart.

I didn't have much money to lose thankfully. Finances improved when I stopped!

@Bluewavescrashing

Did you replace every product in your house with the Forever version as I've heard some reps are encouraged to do?
As much as I could. Soap was meh, shampoo and conditioner rubbish.

What did the training consist of?

Death by PowerPoint. How to sell, attraction marketing, how to recruit and endless mindset training showcasing other people's success.

How many people did you recruit?

About 35

thank you for being so open

Can you tell us anything about the tactics of those at the ‘top’ in Forever Living; those who seem to have made a lot of money?

A lot of bots spend a lot of time having planning meetings in Costa. What are you actually planning?

@Gotmychocolateimgood

How do you feel looking back on the time when you were part of Forever?

Gutted at the time wasted. I do appreciate the mindfulness it gave me and the refusal to 'settle but regret the time wasted on my phone and feeling stressed at not sending my ten recruitment messages each day then having to catch up and send about 50 in one go.

@Norma27

How did your upline react when you left?
Was there bullying involved?

No bullying. I never officially left, I just dwindled away like so many had done and were doing at the time. There were nasty comments made about me in a chat by two of my uplone that I wasn't supposed to see during my time in FL though.

@Fairenuff

What made you so gullible in the first place?

Ego. I always believed I would be good in business but had no specific talent to turn into a business. This gave me a product. Also, I was sent 'Castle' bots recruitment video and the fact that she was an ex police officer filled me with confidemcw that it was not a scam. At the time, i was convinced by the fact that so many bots had public profiles that tagged family members etc. that I felt it couldnt be actors or fake.

*Bot is the nickname given by the Bot Watch threads and pages for people who become an MLM rep.
Castle is the nickname for a woman who was big in Forever(and still thinks she is). Bots cannot be named due to a legal threat from Forever to Mumsnet so each bot is given a nickname that reflects their character - Castles comes from when she lived in a converted folly and implied she owned it. It was actually rented and some believe this was done by head office to make her stand out more.

@Fairenuff
Also, I was surviving on very little sleep with a newborn and believe this affected my critical thinking.

Twentytwentyhindsight

How long were you in FLP, and what 'rank' had you achieved when you were making the £600 (that cost you £450?)?

I made Assistant Manager and that took about 9 months. I was then stuck at that rank for about a year before my eyes began to open. I could see that promotions were slowing down.

How many of your recruits or down line are still in FL. Did you have one of those dreamboards or whatever they are called with pictures of cars and holidays?
We're you encouraged to fake I until you make it (lie) and did you?

@Spongebobette

thank you for being so open

Can you tell us anything about the tactics of those at the ‘top’ in Forever Living; those who seem to have made a lot of money?

Castle was very influential. Every so often she would pick a high value item and bestow its virtues then challenge people to sell as many as they could. Within the team it became the new 'cult'(in every sense of the word!) product that everyone would love, to curry favour with her. Similar to how everyone now thinks they are like Mrs Hinch if they use Zoflora! People would buy it just to try and have the highest sales of it to receive her praise. Then she brought out the Pro Planner. Rinse and repeat.

Another tactic was to say how they would do 'whatever it takes' to be succesful. It wasn't directly said but you just knew it meant to buy more product.

They would always preach about 'prospecting' (trying to recruit) everyone you meet. Then Castles BFF casually said how she had never prospered at her child's school because she hadn't thought it was appropriate. I knew that was a direct contradiction to everything we were taught and she just hadn't want to ruin her reputation amongst the school Mums.

Are anyone of your uplines mentioned in the Bot Watch threads?

Did you attend success days and if so, how much did it cost you?

@Tupperwarelid

A lot of bots spend a lot of time having planning meetings in Costa. What are you actually planning

We would have an a4 sheet of paper and map out where that months business would come from I.e. how many personal sales we would do, how much personal use we would have, how many parties we would host, how many people we thought we would recruit and who our hottest prospects would be and a prediction of what each of our downline teams would do. We would then fit that into a plan to make manager i.e. month 1 5ccs, month 2 15ccs, month 3 35ccs.