I love this thread.
I used to live near the HQ and I know many people who have attended the brainwashing rallies.
My first experience of a recruitment attempt was meeting a nice woman in the park. She was chatty, friendly and we got on really well. Then she tried to flog me the detox thing they do where you drink lots of aloe Vera and don't eat. I told her I had reactive hypoglycaemia and she told me not to worry, it was all backed up by medical research and I'd be fine. She tried to recruit me a few times then ignored me when I didn't bite.
She has been successful with it though, I can't deny it. They've moved out of their 3 bed, and via a larger house on our normal housing development have just moved into a huge house with tennis courts. Both kids in private school.
Of course she markets herself as a global leader or something and her husband and parents have both been converted. White Range Rover too...
I was glad to move far from the HQ; I lost count of the number of people who stopped me in the street or in the gym to recruit me. I live much further away now and I've been disappointed to see the FL stalls popping up at school fetes.
We worked out that it's all propped up by tax credits. You can still claim if you can demonstrate that you are working a regular amount of hours, and this includes marketing your business. I know loads of unsuccessful FL bots who claim huge amounts of tax credits to allow them to pose with their laptops...