I used to be a younique bot AMA

[HopelesslyHopeful87]

To my embarrassment, I did a stint as a younique rep in 2018.

Feel free to ask away

I am no longer affiliated with them and stopped being a presenter after about 8 months when I saw the light.

I am now anti MLM.

I just wondered if u ever felt guilty for getting people into it? And would that be a reason for people to not stop? Like they would rather belive the lie than own up to what they are trying to do. I belive mlm r cults and find the psychology fascinating and also incredibly wrong

@Newrunner29

I just wondered if u ever felt guilty for getting people into it? And would that be a reason for people to not stop? Like they would rather belive the lie than own up to what they are trying to do. I belive mlm r cults and find the psychology fascinating and also incredibly wrong

I was hoping someone would ask this question.

Yes I felt incredibly guilty and still do, to be honest. I think the people that are keeping up with it do genuinely believe that the company has changed their lives somewhat and the presenters feel they owe them their lives. Its quite sickening. It really does feel like a brainwashing cult.

When you join, you are encouraged to read a lot of self help books. They call it "personal development" and then of course once you've read these books you might start to feel more confident or worthy or whatever it was you were lacking in before. They poach the weak, encourage them to read and improve their self esteem. And then the company is praised for "life changing confidence boosts" when in actual fact if you'd read these books anyway you might have gained that irrespective of being in younique.

The biggest guilt flex for me was someone coming to me and asking to join my team (I didn't approach her first) because she believed so strongly in the ethos of the younique company particularly the foundation that supports sexually abused women. She joined under me and still actively presents now. She opened up to me a little after she joined my team that she had been sexually abused so it struck a chord with her and she will forever be grateful to me for giving her the opportunity 😬

I have since found out about how corrupt the foundation for the sexually abused women actually is and it eats me up every time I see her do a younique related post on Facebook. I haven't got the heart to tell her she's very fragile but I do feel guilty that she believes in something so strongly and its partly my fault for encouraging it.

I don't think it's a case of them rather believing the lie. They actually DO believe the lie.

Reading your account and how the pressure contributed to your own debt and subsequent IVA I don’t know why anti fraud or whichever government department don’t step in and make these illegal like they should be.

People are out there claiming thousands back in pressure sold packaged bank accounts and unnecessary PPI, but this seems to unfairly affect low income women who are desperate and just want to believe they can better themselves

It sounds like you were lucky in getting out after just 8 months if other unfortunate people are suckered in for longer

I think I'm just such a cynic that I saw the light pretty quickly. It always felt a bit off to me so perhaps I went into it expecting it to be weird which allowed me to have my eyes open throughout and not be blinkered.

Thank u for your reply, after watching different documentaries on this i think the idea that if u r not making money its made to feel like u r not doing enough and not that its a floored business model that is so twisted. My o ly experience of mlm was when about 20 i was tried to get sucked into betterware , a couple kept coming round trying to get me to sign up. I remember them taking me to a conference thing and it honesty felt like a cult so i was really put off. I was quite vulnerable at the time and i really think they attempted to take advantage, by getting me to sign up. The improvement element is where i think its really dangerous and its very cult like. I have fb friends who is every few years just changing mlm company. I find it fascinating that salt lake in US is mlm capital and thats where lot of cults/religions originate. I dont think its a coincidence. Using cult behaviours to suck vulnerable people to make money for the companies. So predatory

Recently i watched the Lula Roe documentary on amazon prime 'Lula rich' very good, there really should be more done to provent them and stop people being sucked in

I had a friend who sold Amway, then gave it up after a year or so. The economic problem with MLM's is that so many people are taking a cut of the sales that in order for it to work the goods have to be made as cheaply as possible but then sold at luxury goods prices. That's not sustainable. High street goods will always be a better value.

Very interesting, thanks for starting the thread OP.

So is it actually possible to get to the end stage?

Yes it is. There are plenty of black status presenters. As long as you recruit new people and they actively sell someone will always make black status. But you're talking years and years of conscience free hard selling

I know this is a bit of an old thread @HopelesslyHopeful87 but with regard to Younique this is a famously good read ellebeaublog.com/
The documentary on MLM which focussed on Younique and NuSkin is still on BBC iplayer and is called The Secrets of the Multilevel Millionaires if anyone wants to see it. Also mlmtruth.org and Talented Ladies Club for articles.