To wish MLM would stop hiding behind fit clubs

[Dreamer14]

In my area there are LOADS of people setting up “mummy fit clubs” and “pram walks” and “fit clubs” and “mental health walks”

it all seems lovely until you dive a bit deeper and realise the people are affiliated with multi level marketing (mlm) companies like Herbalife etc. (others exist too). Is this all a big con? Just to get email address and sell £40 protein powder. Literally a new one pops up each day. Inspirational quotes. The people always boast about how it’s changed their life then comes the hard sell… you too could go on 8 holidays a year by selling capsules and powder. join their gang.

are they insured? Are they even qualified? Surely any reputable “nutrition expert” wouldn't sell you expensive powders and protein supplements and tell you it’s how they lost 80kg in 2weeks!!!

what happens if you were doing their fit club and had an accident or they gave incorrect advice that injured you.

they are not being honest. And hide their true motive (making money) behind “wanting to help others”.

Oh yes, my area has been through all of this. Someone on my street was constantly trying to get me to join all of these different fitness groups and she was a Herbalife rep.

Then she started posting all,of these news stories about women being attacked when running or walking their dogs alone and saying people should only go out in groups.

After the millionth time she tried to sell me her delicious concoctions I cracked and said 'but I'm much thinner than you'.

Oh this made me laugh! Good for you!

Haha brilliant.

I do think these people are dangerous. I like to get my fitness and nutrition advice from qualified professionals. Not someone that wants to replace food with powders and capsules.

I think these individuals are not nice people and are basically only after money. News flash… there isn’t a pretend job that “you can work around your kids” that pays enough for “8 holidays a year, a new car and a tv” even if you do get to gold level or whatever stupid thing the MLM has told you.

Yep and all these people call theirselves wellness coaches or nutritionists or fitness gurus when everything they are doing is opposite to that.

I’m going to start reporting them every time I see a post from them. Most Facebook groups don’t allow MLM.

I once nearly got caught. I'd just had my first child and was already struggling with PND. I joined the peanut app and this lady started talking to me and we met up for a coffee. She told me she often invited a few mums round for coffee mornings and I thought oh great, that'll be nice to meet people as I was the first of my friends to have a baby and nobody understood. Then she started talking about how she was already 'back at work' and loved her job, and had been on an all expenses paid trip to x destination because of it. I went home feeling a bit like a failure until I realised what the 'work' was. I deleted the app, I felt it was really preying on women who'd just had babies etc. Still annoys me to this day.

There was one of these in our local area. A mum set up a mummy social fb group and was arranging meetup walks and park trips. It was all a cover for recruitng people to her MLM. It was quite obvious to me when I asked in a public comment about buggy access to a local park she posted about and she had to send me a PM. Relationship building before trying to drop in 'do you want to be your own boss hun?' Type stuff.

Sadly a lot of women seemed to fall for it. Hate MLMers.

I have fallen for one myself. Same story. Pram walk in park my first baby. I refused to give her my email once I realised what her plan was.

I wonder if the people that run these things know they work for a companies that are hated? Do they feel bad at all?!

I think these individuals are not nice people and are basically only after money

The thing is they probably were nice people. Sadly these are women who were vulnerable and have essentially become victims of coercive control. Behind all the inspirational quotes and the "you've got this, hun!"'s it's all very dark and sinister. MLMs are abusive.

I've also wondered whether they feel bad and I can't say for sure but I think they probably do. They're just so desperate to keep their head above water their integrity gets thrown out the window, which is part of what makes MLMs abusive.

Reporting them is a good idea. It infuriates me how new mums, especially single mums, are targeted.

Oh yes, I’m a single parent and when I was a new (and newly single) mum, joined a lot of new mum groups and came across some of this. It’s like I checked all the boxes marked ‘vulnerable’ and ‘prey’ 😠 I was actually in a very senior City role, and took great pleasure in pointing out that I had no desire to give up my well paid, prestigious role, in order to take a pay cut…