MLM Bot Watch 37 - Planes, Trainings and Automobiles

[Whiterangey]

Brand new thread for a brand new month.

In which this years bonus cheques will be revealed, which is my favourite time of year.

@ReformedBot- For sure, reality is always going to be less thrilling than the FL dream you were sold.

The 'wish list' you have is (unfortunately) beyond the reasonable expectations of most people. This does not mean it is unachievable, but it requires a reality check. By leaving FL and the fallacy of it being there if you 'want it enough', you have taken a major step towards making it possible.

You now know where you truly are, as well as the scale of the task of getting to where you would want to be. Had you remained in FL, you'd have carried on running around the hamster wheel, getting no closer to your goals and missing out on life in between.

My OH's dream board contains all the stuff we have missed out on over the last eight years that would have been easily affordable had she taken a minimum-wage job.

I do not mean that that should have been her aspiration, but that 'aiming for the stars' prevented her from learning to fly.

Learn to enjoy what you do have, rather than framing it in terms of where you'd like to be. It doesn't cost anything, neither does it hold you back from achieving more.

@ReformedBot You are grieving for a life you desperately wanted and which you were told repeatedly was available to you. I'm not grieving for that life because i've never believed that kind of wealth and life is available to me.

You believed it, you truly believed it and I imagine focused on it, maybe even had it on a dream board or did the whole secret thing or whatever.

Not to mention you were told repeatedly by those who appeared to have that lifestyle that if you did everything you were told to do, it wasn't just a maybe, it was a certainty that you would have all of that.

It sounds to me that it's not disappointment in not achieving a dream, but grief in having a future that you were definitely 100% going to have. You've had a definite future ripped away and I think you are grieving for that. It was never going to happen, but you truly believed it would and I imagine had made plans accordingly.

It sounds to me that you think the big house and the money is the only thing that will make you happy, because you have been conditioned to think that way.

You know realistically and factually that it isn't true, that you were never going to make all the money, have the house and have the perfect life doing FL, but it was in there for so long that you can't expect it to just disappear overnight.

You have been part of a cult and have been brainwashed. You need to be kind to yourself and maybe seek out some counselling or talk to your GP.

I play the national lottery, it's lottery day today. As usual I spend a few minutes a day absolutely certain i'll win and what i'll spend the money on. Even down to how i'd tell my loved ones. I know that it isn't going to happen, and as such i'm never disappointed when I don't win. Nobody has ever told me that the lottery jackpot is achievable and i've never seriously believed i'll ever win it. It's just a nice dream.

You were given a certainty. You were in a cult and you were brainwashed.

I do think talking to a counsellor may help, realistically it doesn't sound like you are going to get the riches, and it may be helpful to talk to someone who can help you work through all of that.

I'm so sorry you are feeling like this, it really sucks.

Which is part of the tragedy of MLMs. They give people a false dream and call it 'certainty'.

@Reformed: I’m so sorry you are in this position, please know that you will always find empathy and support here.

The cruelty of MLMs lies in the way that the people higher up used YOUR dreams for yourself, your family, to push you to work harder/spend more and to keep you doing that so that they could achieve THEIR dreams.

They were using your precious dreams to trap you and keep you trapped.

You are going through a period of readjustment. You will find new dreams, ones you can achieve. Focus on what you have gained through leaving, the real things - freedom from the pressure, the anxiety, spare time, free weekends, guaranteed income every month etc - not the dreams you have lost.

Reformed, £5k per month after tax is something like the 98th percentile of incomes in the UK. It's just not achievable for the vast majority of people. You've had people telling you it is achievable for so long that you now think you're a failure if you don't. You're not a failure, 98% of the population don't achieve that either and that's perfectly fine! You can still have a lovely life and a rewarding career and be happy. Money has never been what makes people happy, it can take away some stresses and make things a bit easier, but it can't make you happy and I think you know that.

Oh Reformed I feel really awful for you and it makes me even crosser at the MLMs and the long term impact they have on people. You’ve had so many wise words already and I hope they are some comfort to you.

Are you working at the moment?

Sorry to hear that you're feeling like this Reformed.

What you've got to remember is that whilst involved in MLM you were programmed to think and believe that your dreams were an achievable reality and that a bit of hard work would get you there.

The cruel truth is that you could have worked every hour (maybe you already were?) but all you would be doing is lining the pockets of those above you.

What you have now, and what your family have now, is you as a mum/wife/daughter/sister/friend etc. not you as a programmed bot who is constantly looking for their next sales opportunity or potential recruit.

Nobody needs a big house with a big garden. You can be happy without that. There's nothing wrong with dreaming, we all do it, but don't let it cloud over what you have got.

Not to mention a lot of it is smoke and mirrors. Even when someone is making the dream income, it can be taken away in a second.

Look what happened with Tyra Banks and her MLM. One minute you are an entrepreneur with your own business and smashing your goals, the next it's totally gone because the actual business owner shuts it all down. Same with Lia Sophia. Those who sell Avon in Australia are about to lose their 'business' as well.

Most of the people above found out via facebook, which is nice.

Lularoe in the US appears to be on it's last legs, and MLM's in the UK aren't doing as well as they once were. FLP UK has seen their profits drop substantially.

Then the individual bossbabes lying about how well they are doing. Even if they are doing well that changes year to year. FL and the UK bots cheques in April 2016, they were HUGE! They all smashed it!

Then in April 2017 most of the cheques were lower, some were substantially lower. Especially among those who'd had a certain number of managers below them for the 2016 cheque to enable to get them a level 2 cheque, but then lost them for the 2017 cheque.

We know that CC's are well down this year. I believe someone said Uber only had 7500CC's and Castle had 5000CC's, though I may be wrong.

I believe Yawn had level 1 and 5000CC's last year for her cheque, and only reached 2500CC's this year at level 1. So the income that went towards that lovely big house deposit is dropping substantially.

These huge homes mostly have huge mortgages which were got on the strength of the boom year of 2015 for which they received the huge cheques in 2016.

Let's say Yawn's house is worth say £550,000, she paid the deposit using the $150,000 she got in 2016., leaving her with a £400,000 mortgage, actually more than that because the exchange rate in 2016 would have meant you got about £100,000 for that cheque. Let's say it's £400,000, a calculator says that is about £2,800 mortgage payment per month.

Out of the dream £5000 per month that is over half. Then you have all the other expenses.

Obviously those figures are just guesstimates, but those figures are a rough guideline of what the bots that are doing well are having to pay out. Not to mention other things like renovation costs, car costs, business expenses.

Out of the dream £5000 per month that is over half. Then you have all the other expenses.

I'm sure some are saving, but a lot of bots just spend spend spend, it's part of showing off and getting people to join.

Lularoe is a good example. They absolutely exploded a couple of years ago, Mentors were earning millions a year, ridiculous money. A lot of them spent it as soon as they got it, now income has substantially dropped I think we will see a fair few bankruptcies from people who were earning millions per year only 2 years ago.

Lularoe is fascinating, and a good study in watching an MLM go down the pan. I've been watching it since it was booming and it's been fascinating to watch. Also heartbreaking, people have lost homes, declared bankruptcy, become depressed. I've heard rumours of at least one suicide. It's particularly awful due to the thousands you have to pay to join and the additional thousands you were strongly urged to pay on more shitty clothes by your upline.

oh @Reformedbot. I feel for you.

I think it is a form of grief. You have lost something that you thought of as your certain future life.

You are getting a lot of great advice and support on here, well done all.

reformed sorry you are feeling despondent - but if you decide you do want to achieve £5k/month, you have a much better chance now that you are no longer in Flp.
Before, you were just churning money for your uplines and you had no control of prices/market/products/employees, etc
Start your own real business and you will have control of all these critical factors. You will have a real chance of success - instead of almost no chance.
And the choices/decisions are yours.
It is fine to decide that the money is not what you want - it is equally fine to decide it is. Either way - your choice - no need for cultish “success days”, ridiculous repetitive “training”, silly sashes, etc.
And don’t ever share a why that makes you cry with anyone in business again. No one in a serious business would ever ask.
Absolutely best of luck for the future.

Out of interest, how do,people on this thread - or reading it - really feel about people who don't have much actual cash?

(It's of no interest to me. )

Given the distribution of wealth in general, my guess is that most people who comment and read this thread don't have much cash.

MLM's mostly target those with lower or no income, so not a lot of money goes with the territory.

The anonymous nature of these boards also means that you can't tell if someone is a millionaire or is on benefits

I always get the impression that nobody here judges anyone for having money or having no money.

Broke bot gets judged exactly the same as Uber. Those with more money are more likely to get judged more harshly though, because they have usually got that money through scamming those below them.

reformed
I’m not really sure how to react to your post.
I’m delighted that you’ve left FL and I’m so sad that it’s had this affect on you to make you have these thoughts.
You mention what you earn now which means you’re on about £20 k gross.
You say you need 5k a month take home pay which would be an annual salary of 90k gross.
That’s a huuuuuge difference. I’m all for striving for what you desire but is it also important to be realistic too?
Is it FL that’s made you think like this?

I don’t mean to sound harsh but it just concerns me.

reformed - have you ever thought of looking into mindfulness - just thinking that something that encourages you to live in the moment/pay attention to the sensory input around you might be a good antidote from the world of thoughts/fantasies where you berate yourself for not having enough nice expensive things.

I don't have much money - but live in a cheap area of the country so am doing OK, with the odd niggle about my child's future (if he chooses/is able to go)and university fees. And I have made the choice not to mortgage to the hilt, but to go for a more modest home, so that if I or my dp had a period of unemployment, we wouldn't be up the swanney. But there's nothing wrong in aspiring to a bigger house, maybe you could move to an area of the country, possibly more remote/rural where you could afford that if that is what drives you?

I don't feel that it's about money with reformed.

If Reformed had just come out of a religious cult where you were brainwashed to believe that the head of that cult was God and the only way you were going to be saved was to sleep with him and give him all of your money, nobody would think that is what she actually wants.

She is in the process of exiting a cult. The only way to prove your worth in that cult is to have the money, the house, the car etc. You are told repeatedly that if you fail in that goal it is your fault and you are a failure. That goal is in your grasp, you just have to work hard.

She has totally failed at life and it's all her fault. That is what the cult has been telling her for the last however many years she's been in it.

That kind of shit cannot be undone in the short time since she came on here saying she was done. It certainly cannot be undone by us saying that she doesn't need that kind of shit to be a success in life.

She's been in a cult, that is so important to remember.

Reformed, thanks for bringing this up, a very important subject for ex-MLMers and one I can really relate to.

I second the suggestion of mindfulness. A lot of stuff you think you need, you don't really need.

However, there's also something to be said about having ambition and starting your own business, if that's your cup of tea. I work full time but also have my own non MLM business on the side that pays me almost as much per month (I have been doing it a few years). I'm building it up so that when I'm ready I can completely work for myself.

Becoming 'properly' self employed isn't for anyone but if it speaks to you, go for it. It does take a lot of work and passion but is a lot bloody easier and more rewarding than an MLM!

Otherwise have a look at progressing in a career. Think about what you would most like to do. A Masters may work well for you depending on what work you do but not necessarily, I did one and no one gave a monkey's, was a waste of time and money for me career-wise. You might need qualifications or you might just need to rework your CV, gain some extra skills, plan your career route.

There's nothing wrong with wanting more and working for it, but it's important to also love what you have in the present moment :)

Good points, White and Mie. Thanks.

How much of those 'earnings' will they get to spend as they wish, Dora?

One of the people on that Midlands top 10 list has been mentioned here before. She was in £350,000 of debt. So she's definitely not making money!

FYI

Kleeneze administration puts jobs at risk www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43746835

This is really weird, I’m trying to look at Yawn’s profile from where she’s been tagged recently (having never followed her or interacted in any way) and yet her name is coming up in regular text rather than a link as if she’s blocked me.

Thanks, Dora. So £900 (or less) a month now puts you in the Top 20?

Interesting article about Kleeneze going into administration. I can't quite believe they've quoted someone called Annette Bott!