Botwatch 86!!! the continuing saga of MLM. When 99.6% of people joining MLM are destined to lose money is that an opportunity or a scam?

[Spongebobette]

On this thread we are botwatchers - watching multi level marketing bots and exposing their manipulations and misleading claims

I've no idea how much the photographer charges but whatever it is it's too much. The photos are very hit and miss. In Yawn's case very much miss with awkward and deeply unflattering poses in the first batch. The photos are also "women laughing with salad" cliche. Every subject looks the same with an Insta backdrop.

Every coach on social media has these kind of shots taken - hunspirational. Still top marks to the woman with the camera because she is probably coining it at the moment which is more than can be said for the coaches she snaps.

I think Yawn might have had a free or much discounted first photoshoot but she's had two more since then which must have cost her a big slice on her earnings since September. Unless she gets a big discount for sending her coachees to the photographer so they can all look the same on social media as the coaches that have gone before them.

@Wintersgirl cross posted re the pics all looking the same!

That is a lot of money which she surely does not have to spare.

No worries, great minds think alike!

Absolutely spot on @Mielabel

Rather than finding a gap in the market and filling it (eg round here doing domestic cleaning would get you clients instantly) she’s encouraging women to think they can make a living by turning a hobby into a business

it’s like playing shop, all the branding and photoshoots and social media

I do private domestic cleaning beside my part time job and earn more a hour cleaning than my actual hourly rate at my work. Mind you yawn doesn't do cleaning. This is the woman who told me she doesn't even put a bin bag in a bin as "its not her thing", along with not picking up her dogs poo or anything generally domesticated

It’s a weird closed world isn’t it. I suppose the photographer might be a client of Yawn’s coach and she recommended her

The fact that Yawn's coach seems to accompany her to every shoot would suggest she's got some financial skin in the game.

I just had a look while I avoided starting my j.o.b for a few mins (still got paid…) and the branding photographer did a post saying Yawn purchased the visibility accelerator. This is £3000 or £250 a month for a year and gives you a new photo shoot every quarter. So this explains all the photo shoots she’s tied into.

Cant imagine why out of all the great photographers in Yawns exact area she would choose one in Yorkshire and tie herself into such a contract with her financial issues- and the fact her coach comes along on them- she was definitely set up for this by her new coach.

Shes getting fleeced.

It's quite enjoyable watching Yawn fall prey to the various vultures in the shadow pyramid in the same way she's preyed on countless victims over the years.
You'd think that as briefly slightly successful predator she'd be wise to such scams, but she has no critical thinking skills, all they need to do is appeal to her narcissism and she'll open her wallet to fish out the last few quid (and brag about it).

At least Castle keeps the photoshoots in house, giving Bruv an excuse to tap their parents for the latest pointless camera gear.

A few years ago, when me and DH set up our legal practice I joined one of the many Yawnsville women's business networking groups.

Although it was relatively (though not entirely) MLM-free it was 90% populated with hobbyists and coaches/scammers. Basically all the hobby-businesses were paying the others for photos, social media, business coaching, etc.

It was just an echo chamber of women "playing shop", just like Yawn's. Pretty much all the women with proper job-type businesses saw it for what it was very quickly. I stuck around for a while but the business grew and we no longer had time for branding and networking nonsense. The pics on our website are 10 years old now and taken by ourselves. Logo was cobbled together by me. Business going strong though because we offer a service that people want and we trained hard for it.

@Galadali You mean you didn’t do a guided visualisation to help you find what you were destined to do? A ‘banging’ session with an excited coach?

How on earth did you manage without that?

We took the less kickass traditional method of qualifying in a profession and then associating with equally qualified professionals like accountants and HR folk.

Not a single highlighter pen was sacrificed in our rise to (mediocre) success, and our directors loan was paid off in year 2. All this enables me to fanny about with my own little crafty hobby business which makes barely enough money to keep me in yarn. (Never paid for a photoshoot but had a 3 page spread in a crochet mag once 😂)

Crochet does sound very badass, to be fair.

@Galadali and I bet once you had appeared in the crochet magazine you didn't have to manage lots of people posting on the magazine's social media to point out that you were lying about being able to crochet because they had the screen shots of you tangling your yarn, bursting into tears and chucking it across the room. I am sure that later on you didn't have to announce that even though many craft based publications were battering down your door to write articles you are now refusing them due to nasty haterz claiming you are lying about your crochet ability who are jealous because they failed at french knitting when they were eight?!

As for women's networking groups, it's such a shame that they are so often infected with MLM or, increasingly coaches who have no obvious expertise or have the whiff of MLM about them. I had this discussion recently with a few people I know who have non-MLM businesses /careers who now don't attend any local networking events aimed exclusively at women for this reason. This was not a discussion that was critical of those coach-MLM women attending but rather unhappiness that MLM and coaching scams target women to such a degree that a networking groups seems to always end up with so many, or enough to change the dynamics of the group. It means non MLM women business owners and professionals back out of the networking group because it's not relevant to them and what they can offer as established small business owners such as mentoring doesn't feel like a relevant contribution either.

The Yawnsville women’s networking coven is a bit of a joke. One of the women involved in its inception is the high priestess of all narcissists. When she started ordaining their own “Strictly “event I know a lot of women quietly withdrew from her friendship group. She was an acquaintance of Yawn’s, friend would be too strong a word.
They all play at keeping shop and have all been associated with one MLM or another. And life coaching is a favourite hobby. I don’t think any of them have successfully started a business and thrived. Very much wannabes.

if you claim to be super successful in business and in a position to advise others you need to be prepared to prove it - and not just by saying you have manifested your dream life

Crochet may well be a badass side-hustle, but I think Yawn is more likely to manifest a three-page spread in Crotch Weekly: The Thatch Edit, after her banging session with a photographer and an excited coach. 😉

I know that said high priestess woman. She's never made it big. She works as a receptionist

Mielabel · Yesterday 19:12 - One personal peeve is when ‘business advice’ from these unqualified business coaches consists of basically finding what you like and trying to make money out of it. That alone ruins so many women’s lives. The way to get a successful business is to think of how you can help other people, not how you can have a jolly. Hopefully you enjoy your work but that’s starting the wrong way round. We would have a planet full of yoga teachers and bad artists and no one to do practical things. There’s no shame in having hobbies, not everything has to be profitable to be worthwhile. Sometimes you just need to do a normal job people need and are happy to pay you for as it’s not all about you.

Exactly - I don't personally know anyone who professes a deep desire to clean toilets at the local hospital - but I know several people who do/have done the job and TBH they make more money than the MLM "manifesting huns" and get paid holidays as well.

I'd really l9ve to know who all these clients are that yawn has magically managed to get. You can bet she doesn't have any. No successful business person would be in the debt she's in, waste thousands by her own admission and waste even more on ridiculous photoshoots to try to attempt yet another venture in as many months if they were indeed a success. Top marks for trying though. She's simply taking the forever living coaching package and selling it as something new under the guise of the wealth era. You cannot keep guaranteeing vulnerable women that you will make any half mark bizniz idea will be successful. She's seriously playing with the same fire sticks that Castle and fierce played with and look at how it's gone for them. One kept by the ailing parents wealth and bobajob husband whilst the other twit is on the run. Grow up yawn and get a job. Bunch of bloody muppets the lot of them.

Yes , if someone is claiming to have started two previous successful companies and successfully helped others start non-MLM businesses I expect to see some evidence of this. How about some case studies about those successful businesses or her own or some links to the details, or some evidence of the two successful businesses Yawn says she had. All we see is some faces (usually downlines) in a short burst of enthusiasm and then they disappear. I can't name one person who has been involved with Yawn who can demonstrate with some transparency, a successful business. They all disappear.

On another note, I reckon Yawn owes Botwatchers some thanks for bringing to her attention the chequered history of Divorce Bot who I think Yawn has ghosted. It was a right little love-in right up to the day some kindly botwatcher shared the truth with Yawn. Looking forward to the Her Wealth Mirage lecture about doing your due diligence in business.

Also not being transparent in the fact she's using a pyramid company coaching package. She's not even using anything original and certainly not something that will bring anyone anything remotely earn worthy

Not been on in a while but seen yawn has had a new photo shoot. I have second hand embarrassment for her. Her engagement on her posts is pitiful. As far as I can tell as I haven’t kept up is that she is now selling herself and her business knowledge for 5 quid a week subscription. The only people i can imagine subscribing are desperate people and it is pitiful. I see she is also doing exercise videos. You can go online and get free videos from actual qualified trainers and meal plans from dieticians. For free. Not from someone who is dancing around with a 2 kg weight after her gastric band and pretending it’s all diet and gym. Does she think people are stupid?!

why oh why doesn’t she just get a proper job!

@TwinklyMoose yep, you've summed it up well! It's exactly the same downward spiral as it's been for many years except with the words "forever and living" removed from all posts. I do wonder if she will be allowed back into the fold once a year has elapsed and FLP can tell TiNA (when the most recent TiNA report is reviewed) that the naughtiest bots have gone. Then she can announce that "I am returning to my first love FLP despite being so super successful in my coaching biz". FLP really needs the ruthless bots to keep trying after all.

I guess she doesn't get a proper job because it still feels like NWM/coaching is the best chance of earning lots of money and the make believe life on social media is addictive. Getting a proper job would entail starting at the bottom as most employers would not find her FLP endeavours the least bit credible. I think she'd really struggle with consistency and responsibility as my guess is bots watch a lot of day time TV.