MLM Bot Watch 19 - chat about Utah based tragicomic cultastic racketeering scamalangadingdongs like Forever Living, Ariix, Herbalife, Younique, Juiceplus etc etc etc

[chuckingstones]

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Confusedbot seems genuine to me. Hi and welcome. There ate other options to work around your children... are they at school or preschool? Could you work a few evenings a week in a pub or set up your own cleaning business? Ex MLM peeps often find it a huge relief to break free from the system and to stop ploughing money in. But I can appreciate it would be a huge change.

chuckingstones while I appreciate you all being suspicious I am afraid to PM timeless Vie as then they will know my identity.

I have two children. One is three and starting pre school in September and the other is 5 and in school.

I think I need to chat to my hubby too and work all our finances out and get something else set up first before I do leave

confused you could use some of the skills you have learnt to set up a business of your own?

Or try public sector jobs like local govt etc, all my team are working flexi time and lots do school
hours etc and I am always happy for them to work from home / catch up on hours in the evening etc

Confused, it may be 'bad practice' to tell real life non-FL people about your reality BUT that is only from FL's perspective. You only need to keep up the 'amazing successful business opportunity' for as long as you want to recruit people. As soon as you don't want to recruit anymore, you can say what you want to anyone you want.

You don't need to do a big flouncy 'I'm leaving FL' post on FB. Just quietly withdraw from that, or continue retailing if you have customers. But you can confide in real friends. It may be hard at first to admit how you've been conned into doing what you've been doing, but just imagine when it's all over. You don't have to worry about uplines or what they think.

It is SO SO WRONG that you are left in this position of uncertainty, embarrassment, and being concerned about uplines. It is what keeps people going for longer than they ought. It makes me angry on your behalf. I hope you find an alternative soon.

I know if you were my friend who joined FL 2 years ago and has withdrawn her friendship from me, and you called me now, I would be round in a shot with support and hugs and maybe even a bottle of wine.

confused chat on here all you like
But I can promise you everyone who PMs Timeless Vie has their anonymity protected and we would never reveal anything without your consent. But no pressure at all, do what ever you feel comfortable with. Maybe talk to a family member or close friend, they might feel relieved that you are opening up.

Don't worry, confused. Just post here of course - and read both here and Timeless Vie. Some day you might have more confidence, whatever you decide to do.

and yes, agree with toobusy there would be no judgement from me, just support, if one of the people who is involved in forever that I know opened up to me

In our day to day jobs we are allowed to moan, to discuss things with our friends, to mull over our careers and our jobs. It says a lot about MLM that you can only ever be positive. It must be exhausting.

But no flounce or exit is necessary, just let it trail off.

Oh and TV protects identities. Seriously. Those not directly involved (like me!) never find out who has been in contact with them.

You can PM on here which will protect your identity as we just see your nickname!

Here's a little post we did timelessvie.wordpress.com/need-help-leaving-an-mlm-feel-like-a-failure/

Am also going to ask a couple of others to take time to pop back onto this thread if they can, as they have been looking more into helping people to leave / offering support to people who leave.

The main thing I reckon is to read around, take some time out maybe and see how that makes you feel?

I haven't recruited anyone for the last 5 months. My CC's have dropped from 80cc PM and it looks like I will struggle to hit 30CC this month - which is really really crappy.

I can't / won't recruit anyone when I feel like this. So for a while after I stopped recruiting I did still have a good customer base but as I'm not getting out with my trial baskets (I just can't face it) my customers have dwindled and I have had to buy more personal use products to reach my 4cc. I do like the products and use them BUT there are now a lot in my house and it's a bit ridiculous really. My down line are mainly retailing too (I have been told that the reason they struggle to recruit is because I'm not doing it - I'm not "leading from the front")

I think that the embarrassment factor is exactly what keeps people going and is likely one of the real reasons behind all of that 'mindset' training. Squeeze out the completely reasonable doubts and focus on that what could be.

I hear that people who are struggling are often told they're simply not working hard enough when you know that these people are putting their heart and soul into it.

The same answers are given every time too - step outside your comfort zone to recruit, try new places, make new contacts, hot the selling pages, hold more product launches etc.

There's only so long someone can normally go before exhausting all available options. The marketing (plan which asks for a list of 100 people to target) is not only outdated but seemingly designed to fail. Not everyone can be successful in this business, it just doesn't work that way, and that is generally not their own fault at all.

I live in a small community, 15 dwellings, not one person here is an employee and we are all very varied in our academic ability, age, sex and nationality. We all either work from home or are self employed tradesmen or teachers. There are all sorts that you can do that are non mlm. I also think that traditional employment has changed drastically. I have a friend who writes scripts for travel agent software. Every company shes worked for over the past ten years, shes worked like this. She goes to the office twice a month, its also really good money. I work mostly on computer too, Most of my clients are abroad, we Skype we use Dropbox. I have worked for myself for years.
I would say very contrary to what you may have been taught in mlm, you will do much better in a non mlm working for yourself type gig. You will have learnt skills such as resilience in an mlm, just take these skills and use them for something for you, rather than your upline and some billionaire in Utah who already has quite enough I am sure. am sure you will do well.

Just thinking, confused, I decided to become a childminder (after leaving an office job/marrying/moving home in quick succession, having my two within a year and moving again) because it meant I could look after my children plus a couple of others.

It brought the money in, kept me busy locally and I made lots of friends within the local childminding community. Good childminders are like gold dust and I never wanted for work. Indeed, I was able to pick and choose who suited my routines best. One day a week I volunteered at a local school in the library and in classrooms as a parent helper. I later stopped childminding and became a Classroom Assistant, which I still do years later. I love it.

Have a look at this site, or this one for more info.

Yes Patzy you have hit the nail on the head really. I am exhausted from the pretence. I suffer with depression anyway so sometimes I would just love to tell someone how I really feel but I rarely do and if I do I end up feeling guilty.
I don't post about the business on my Personal FB page so I wouldn't have to announce I'm leaving. Maybe what I might do is put to bed the recruiting element BUT then I'm back to just trying to retail to make my 4cc to get paid! Argghhhh it's so hard to know what to do. I've never not done my 4cc so the fear of not doing it and not getting paid (even though my pay is rubbish now) is huge!

If I was in the uk I would set up reliable after-school care where they do their homework. I'd make a mint

And theres nothing wrong at all with packing anything in and doing something totally different. Our friends used to run a website for a well known wine company. They have packed their jobs in and now run parties and clubs out in Asia all winter ( whilst freelancing for UK companies back here) then they work in the UK in the summer, teaching.
Just look at it this way, it's time to do something else. You did well at Forever but now its time to do something else. Does it have to be bad?
What did you do before forever, what skills have you learned at Forever, what skilks did you have before? Were they practical, academic or a mix? People can change, another friend of ours just packed an office job in to be a tree surgeon, he loves it.

The thought of teaching appeals to me. I could go do my PGCE. I have a degree and lots from my course went into teaching.
I was put off "traditional" employment as I worked such long hours in a retailing head office and it was cut throat. I hated it especially when I had kids.

My mother was a childminder when we were teens, she was so popular she had to get help in as she'd sometimes have four or five kids to look after.

That is a good plan twunk

confused , like smiinky I think the majority of people I know work flexible hours or have self employed type jobs they do from home around children. The myth that you can only do that in MLM is just that, a myth.

I had a lovely job before leaving the UK - 20 hours a week as a marketing assistant. It was great after I had been in quite high-pressure employment for a few years. I could choose my hours too!

Confused - I think it would be good for you to speak to someone in person such as a close friend or family member. You may even find that those in your team have the exact same thoughts and feelings. It really helps to vent to someone, especially someone with a sympathetic ear or who is in/been in a similar position. Whatever you chose to do you can make work, but if you feel that this is taking its toll on you no one would think less of you for leaving. It is not failing. If anything it is very brave.

I'm sorry it is a really personal question and obviously you don't have to answer but what was your best months income?

Thing is, confusedbot, there are so many different ways to teach. My friend who ran the wine website did TEFL, but because hes middle aged, he gets the best gigs compared to the kids. He teaches all summer in a private school in North London. Young adults £30 an hour. Which is just brilliant money. I teach sometimes, the odd day event, summer schools. It's not my main job.
My next door neighbour teaches music, my friend teaches singing.

Marking my place as been on hols and missed a thread or 2!

I feel like FL is going to become a victim of its own success shortly. They haven't seen growth like this before, social media has allowed it to grow at such a fast rate but the flip side is that the pool of people who would have been interested and haven't already done it is rapidly diminishing. I don't think you will be the only one who is struggling confused, not by far.

You have worked really hard and done really well, but the whole plan is designed to make it nigh on impossible for you to succeed, that is the whole purpose of it. Don't be embarrassed.

Thanks everyone. I feel better already having spoke to you all.
I'm just going to watch a movie with my hubby now and then tomorrow look into a few ideas and read the info you shared.