What happened to MLM's?

[coulditbeme2323]

What happened to them?

AIBU to miss them? The boss babe quotes, the photos of the white mercs, the CEO of my own life job titles?

Where have they gone, and have they been replaced by anything?

There was a Mum on one of my WhatsApp groups who was organising a "Mum's meet up to discuss challenges of motherhood like balancing it with work" and when you read the small print it turned out it was all about her travel MLM. Obviously Mum's who are about to go back to work are super vulnerable and susceptible.

I agree. I'm made of strong stuff & like to think I wouldn't fall for this nonsense BUT I remember the 1st day I took my baby to nursery in every detail & the absolute guilt I felt & it was 18 years ago! (For anyone reading in the same position he was absolutely fine at nursery & really benefited from it & was well socialised & ready for school etc). I think this is why it makes me so cross!

Seeking out vulnerability is what it’s all about. Prize target has always been mothers of young children and implying they would be better parents if they signed up to MLM. Yet many of us have seen families torn apart by the debt and divisiveness of MLM.

The top bot at Forever Living is posting along these lines today. This is someone who knows that FL has had to shut down its MLM in the US as of last Thursday to avoid a $40k fine for each of the 5,500 income claim lies identified by Truth in Advertising (a US consumer group), passed to the Federal Trade Commission which ultimately saw two directors in the dock in an Arizona court for this and other lies they have been telling the minions for decades. Followed by the arrest of the Head of Forever Living India for dodgy conduct related to running a pyramid scheme. Some of the income lies are repeated by the UK’s top bot. The company is on shaky ground. It’s proven to be dishonest, but she is happy to trick some parent struggling with guilt or with their finances into joining, when she knows full well they will lose a lot more than the price of a starter kit.

I remember going to a JO party at a friend of a friend's house. The woman basically had a strop that we didn't order enough on the night. There was an awful atmosphere and I found it quite upsetting.

Fast forward about 10 years and I was invited to a book group and THE SAME WOMAN was there showing us very special microfiber cloths and stuff. Can't remember which MLM she had moved on to. I left early to avoid the strop at then end when I inevitably wouldn't order!

She paid £6k for training....

That's like uni fees level. Was it an accredited course with a recognised and regulated trade body that is transferable?

Sounds pretty dodgy to me!

I don't think Tui are charging their staff £6k to work for them?

One of my friends is doing the travel consultant one too. “Earn commission on bookings plus a residual income” which seems to mean conning people into setting up as a travel consultant too and taking a percentage of their earnings. All she talks about is ‘my businesss’ or being ‘her own boss’ or relishing her ‘newly found freedom’. Driving me potty and I’m now sadly avoiding her as a) she keeps trying to recruit me and b) it’s becoming increasingly tricky not to say how I really feel about her MLM, including the free training she raves about or meaningless achievement levels as she reaches them eg you’re at bronze level if you recruit 6 people to your ‘team’ etc. That’s quite a rant, apologies. Hadn’t realised just how cross she’s making me with all the nonsense!!

My travel consultant friend keeps trying to recruit her friends too. I enjoy photography so she tells me i can set up a niche business conducting photography tours.

Every few days she posts reams of guff about living her best life / the world being her playground / spending time being a mum boss It's brainwashing and they all seem to spout the same lines. She also asked a school teacher friend of ours if she would ask her head teacher to switch from their school travel agent to her as she could get them 'good deals' . Teacher friend mumbled vaguely about corporate liability and insurance required for schools to conduct overseas language trips and DofE expeditions and said she wouldn't proceed to make a suggestion to her HT about changing their very experienced specialised travel agents to her.

Really good point, hadn’t thought about them for a while tbh! I knew a very very successful MLM bot about a decade ago. She drove around in a brand new Chelsea wagon, had a lovely expensive house, 3 DC always in designer gear etc. Her DH had a solid job too but he’d have pulled in about 40-45k at best, not enough to sustain her lifestyle. No idea what she sold.

I don’t use Instagram anymore but it used to be filled with people trying to flog weird cheap perfume Avon style, and wax melts.

@WydeStrype I don't get how booking and going on your own family holidays makes you a travel consultant?

I do get asked a lot by family & friends about European travel as I've done a lot of it (even made it to Malta without flying). But I wouldn't dream of charging them.

Yes now you’ve said it I remember my mil hosted a Jamie Oliver party. She’s a really good cook and didn’t need any kit. The organiser did a boring quiz to kick the night off… I thought the whole thing was shit. After she did her demos she proudly announced how much mil had made from hosting. I just thought wtf that’s all our money!

She paid £6,000? There’s one born every minute it seems.

A friend of mine liked to host Tropics parties as she got 'pebbles' from the 'ambassador'. I never went, but then as i knew my friend was struggling at the time thought perhaps she got a kick back of real money from the ambassador so i went to order something to help her out.

First my friend said 'Don't order via me, order via Susie the ambassador'. So i did and was given a tester. i said that items would be nice, then told 'That's £120 please' so i said it was too much for me, could i order something smaller. I was told to return the tester post haste and to leave £40 in an envelope in her mail box for the cheaper thing I ordered. Did that, then was told to pick up said item which she would leave in her porch.

So the whole thing cost me money, and time, and i had to drive around to collect things and I never actually met the person who was the 'ambassador' and then she messaged me about 2 weeks later asking me to launder and return the 'cleansing cloth' I got as part of the tester pack. Which I thought was grim because i had literally used that stupid cloth on my face and clearly they were just being recycled amongst all the other mugs like me.

It's such a weird business model - rinse your friends and family basically

Yuck!

She was probably made to pay something insane for them too.

I remember a Scentsy woman coming to a playgroup I was at with my toddler. She set up tables full of stuff - all ridiculously overpriced like wheat animals for $$$ - and later admitted she had had to pay for all the display stuff.

No one actually bought or ordered anything. A load of mums fresh from the school run, sitting in a musty parish hall from 1952 drinking crap coffee and watching their dc play with toys from the 1989s are just not going to spend 40 quid on a random unplanned item on a Weds morning!

Well, it's not designed to benefit the direct sellers. It's just a pyramid scheme; the only people who get rich are the ones at the top, and if nothing else, they'll get paid by everyone who signs up and has to pay the joining fee/buy the initial start up stock even if they don't sell anything else after that or buy anything themselves to stay "active".

They're so exploitative. Really, everyone below head office is a victim.

Sorry,what is a MLM?

Sorry,what are MLMs?

Multi-level marketing ie a pyramid scheme.

1st person has to recruit 2+ people and takes a % of everything they make. Those people then recruit 2+ people each and take a % of their sales and the 1st person takes also takes a % of that %.

They all claim to make money from whatever they are selling but the money actually comes from recruiting people as above.

The further you get down the pyramid, the less people there are to recruit and the less money you make.

Read. The. Thread.

Travel Counsellors is not an MLM. It is a legitimate and highly regarded travel company with thousands of 5* reviews on trust pilot.

You are thinking of inteletravel which is most definitely an MLM.

Travel Counsellors annual sales exceeded £1 billion last year with just over 2,000 home working consultants, so the average Travel Counsellor sold approx £500,000 of travel eac last year.

Inteletravel annual UK sales was £250 million last year with 37,000 agents, meaning on average they sold less than £7,000 of travel each per year.

Says it all really!

@3isnotacrowd we mentioned upthread that travel counsellors isn’t an MLM and that it’s a pain having to reiterate it isn’t MLM.

I remember one high up UK Inteletravel person quitting and sharing on SM and YouTube that she had finally done the profit and loss and other calculations and realised she was earning 70p an hour. That was right up at the top!

I must have missed that post, sorry. Skim reading 😬

What are you on about?

Types of cheese.

If there was an MLM scheme involving cheese I might buy in!