Gullible MLM junkies. SOS

[Simon Ashari]

This reminds me SO much of an MLM pitch

Found this video (below) by following one of the links in this thread. Was laughing my a$$ off the entire time watching it.

Wonder if the check is actually being cashed. Or if they actually bought the car to give away (as opposed to renting it for a night).

Everyone getting excited about the car they 'gave away'.

Have a look at the ring at 3:34... can it get any more cheesy?

 

[Nosferatu]

They always get mad, don't they? It's unbelievable.

When I was managing a T-Mobile store, I was approached by a guy who was trying to recruit me into an insurance sales MLM. I took his card, and told him I would look into it. 5 minutes of due diligence via a Google search (seriously, that's all it took) and I pegged it as an MLM. Tons of complaints. The guy called me about a week later and asked me if I wanted to grab coffee and discuss what he had to offer. I just kept saying "no thanks, I'm not interested." Very neutral in my tone. Obviously agitated, he laughs, says okay, and hangs up.

The general rule is that MLMs make their money from constantly recruiting new employees, not from selling products. Without the recruitment of people, there is no business.

LOL so true! my past 3 encounters with MLM recruitment attempts always ended up as very awkward conversations, and they ALWAYS get mad -- which is followed up by a small tirade about how well they're doing. Well damn, if you're doing so well, you don't need me!

NEXT!

 

[parkerscott]

thanks captain hindsight

 

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[Red]

BWAAA HAAA HAAA @LightHouse

 

[Simon Ashari]

Is this just an American thing? In the UK and probably Australia, people can smell bullshit a mile off. I watched a MLM video out of pure interest and just laughed. How do people fall for this, they don't even tell you what the product is!?

I don't know about that man. A lot of MLM happening in Australia too. Maybe not as much, (I don't know) but enough to go around.

 

[Simon Ashari]

I completely agree, but the problem here is that only the founding people (the big website owners) are making any money. The ones who get in early, e.g: the first 1000 are really the only ones who make big bucks. So you're left with two options, both of which are near completely impossible.

1. You start your own MLM business which will likely start by taking a big chunk out of your 401k and leave you right where you left off, now feeling stupider than before.

ORRR

2. You find a fledgling startup MLM or Pyramid Scheme (whatever they're all the same) and get your feet in the playing field early.
The problem now is actually finding a starting company that WILL do well. This is absolutely impossible. Believe me. You will always be in the back of the cart along with the other 20' something guys as gullible as you. But there is some hope for us still.

In the realm of internet money schemes we can be sure that Empowernetwork.com is right up top among the big companies. Don't get me wrong, I think the company is perfectly legit. In fact I made over 2,000 last year towards some savings, but thats beside the point. There is a company, that has had some previous success in the same realm as empower. It is called Ipas. Now dubbed Ipas 1 as its second release draws near. Here is a golden opportunity that I will sure be apart of. Its free, don't worry, I'm not trying to scam you into paying for some rusty piece of shit that will absolutely never be used. The owner of the company may try and sell you into his "elite" silver membership program. Don't do it. Waste of time and waste of moolah. Instead join as a free members and reap the rewards when the company finally opens later this year. This could be the one big break. Getting into a company early? WOW.

Anyways, heres the link if all you millionaires out there care to listen.

Goodbye my friends.

You didn't seriously think that was going to work did you?

 

[jon.a]

I completely agree, but the problem here is that only the founding people (the big website owners) are making any money. The ones who get in early, e.g: the first 1000 are really the only ones who make big bucks. So you're left with two options, both of which are near completely impossible.

1. You start your own MLM business which will likely start by taking a big chunk out of your 401k and leave you right where you left off, now feeling stupider than before.

ORRR

2. You find a fledgling startup MLM or Pyramid Scheme (whatever they're all the same) and get your feet in the playing field early.
The problem now is actually finding a starting company that WILL do well. This is absolutely impossible. Believe me. You will always be in the back of the cart along with the other 20' something guys as gullible as you. But there is some hope for us still.

In the realm of internet money schemes we can be sure that Empowernetwork.com is right up top among the big companies. Don't get me wrong, I think the company is perfectly legit. In fact I made over 2,000 last year towards some savings, but thats beside the point. There is a company, that has had some previous success in the same realm as empower. It is called Ipas. Now dubbed Ipas 1 as its second release draws near. Here is a golden opportunity that I will sure be apart of. Its free, don't worry, I'm not trying to scam you into paying for some rusty piece of shit that will absolutely never be used. The owner of the company may try and sell you into his "elite" silver membership program. Don't do it. Waste of time and waste of moolah. Instead join as a free members and reap the rewards when the company finally opens later this year. This could be the one big break. Getting into a company early? WOW.

Anyways, heres the link if all you millionaires out there care to listen.

[removed]

Goodbye my friends.

No thank you.

 

[parkerscott]

Oh man what did i miss?

 

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[KLaw]

I love this bit of marketing, Donald Trump, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and several others all said the same EXACT things...crazy, right?

Ok ok, I'm done...

Explain why Gates and others would make this kind of statement?

 

[oddball]

Explain why Gates and others would make this kind of statement?

Irony, they didn't.

 

[Simon Ashari]

Irony, they didn't.

No reason for Bill Gates to. But could see Trump or Kiyosaki saying it to advance their standing in the MLM community.

 

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[Tommy92l]

Genuinely in stitches from reading this. Took me a second for it to sink in.

 

[Simon Ashari]

Genuinely in stitches from reading this. Took me a second for it to sink in.

Please pardon my ignorance. Is it a fake quote? Or did he receive some sort of endorsement? Sucking up to an MLM crowd while speaking to them?

I found another, less realistic one:

 

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[Tommy92l]

Oh, I thought it was saying that if he started over, instead of creating microsoft, he would join something along the lines of Amyway or vemma. Maybe I read it wrong?

 

[parkerscott]

Oh, I thought it was saying that if he started over, instead of creating microsoft, he would join something along the lines of Amyway or vemma. Maybe I read it wrong?

I dont get it either. Maybe network marketing as in computer network? Someone please explain this.

 

[KLaw]

Irony, they didn't.

Im pretty sure I read somewhere where he actually made that statement. Was I duped?

 

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[Tommy92l]

Found another source while looking him up that said 660 Billion in 2007.

Completely unthinkable.

 

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[jon.a]

Because advocating for MLMs is great for book sales. Gates or Buffet don't care about selling books. If selling books over truth was my #1 priority, I would also have said "Network marketing is a great industry to be in." I'd immediately leverage network effects of MLM drones recommending my book. Advocating against MLMs probably cost me several hundred thousand dollars. I'd rather maintain my integrity than sell out.

Trump also sold out to ACN then bailed. Sure pissed me off.

 

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[Tommy92l]

Wait, did I read that right? 32.00

 

[Tommy92l]

Ran into my buddy that brought me to the Vemma meet.

We were talking today and the conversation went like this

Me "Hey man, what ever happened to Vemma?"
Him "Oh, remember those guys that were trying to recruit everybody?"
Me: "Yeah"
Him "I'm still facebook friends with them and I saw them posting about how they're staying in a suite in Las Vegas.... they're loaded".

 

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[oddball]

Ran into my buddy that brought me to the Vemma meet.

We were talking today and the conversation went like this

Me "Hey man, what ever happened to Vemma?"
Him "Oh, remember those guys that were trying to recruit everybody?"
Me: "Yeah"
Him "I'm still facebook friends with them and I saw them posting about how they're staying in a suite in Las Vegas.... they're loaded".

It's all the image. The BMW's and Mercedes they all have are cheap when you finance/lease them. Now sure how Vemma structures it but either way, it doesn't take much money. Getting a suite in vegas isn't hard, lmao. I stopped in Vegas last year and we didn't book a hotel in advance, I went on the hotels app, found the cheapest 4 star room, it was listed for $50 a night at the Rio, when we went they had a suite for $75. It was a 2 story room, crazy suite for only $75....I think I spent more on alcohol.

All the kids I know who did Vemma are out now, they really proved me wrong haha. They said the people below them dropped so they lose their income. Some still don't see it as a pyramid scheme.

 

[Tommy92l]

I agree 100%.

Makes me sad, I really liked listening to this guy.

 

[oddball]

BK also wrote a check for $600k to Dr. Oz's charity, its amazing what money can do.
I believe Verve sponsors the Phoenix Sun's. They nor the NBA have said they support the business model, they make no comment towards the method of business.
The last company that was shut down by the FTC for being a pyramid scheme was around for like 10 years, age means nothing when it comes to being a pyramid scheme. (Got this info directly from the FTC)
Just because you have a product doesn't mean you aren't a pyramid scheme either. Basically, if you are compensated based on recruitment instead of sales, its a scheme. (Got this info directly from the FTC)
You could probably pay Trump to say anything for the right amount of money, he has endorsed MLM's.
Avon and Mary Kay focus on selling the product, recruitment is more of a bonus. Vemme, focuses on recruitment, I've never seen or heard of people selling the product.

The sad part is the company will remain in business for quite some time, the FTC doesn't have the man power or funds to pursue every scheme. Although, when I spoke with the FTC, they said consumer risk is how they figure out who to target and Vemma is getting bigger and bigger so who knows. Herbalife will sent the tone for everything moving forward IMO.

 

[Tommy92l]

I had a friend who was in Herbalife and when he was talking about it I was thinking "Awesome, the guy needed money, so glad to see he's working his a$$ off and doing it!".

I genuinely believe he is making money, but I had no idea at first that it was an MLM thing.

 

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[Erik Heyl]

The trouble is, some MLMs are legit (amway has been around FOREVER and from being on the inside the products are in fact good. I just didn't like the "make a list of everyone you know" bit), but it's the scam ones that get the press.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Please get back to me when you're profiting at least $10k a month and we'll talk.

I am profiting 10k+/month and have been for some time now.

Ha ha, so are you going to talk with him?

 

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[IceCreamKid]

This is probably what bothers me the most about MLM's. All show and no dough...the "I am better than you" attitude.

Remember that random person who messaged me on FB to sell me his Amway "opportunity"? Since he's my age, I wanted to help him out and give him detailed facts as to why his business isn't viable. He's been in Amway for many years so as expected, he had very clever rebuttals for each statement that I had. I could've responded to those rebuttals, but there really is no point in trying to convince somebody who's been in scAmway for many years. He probably wouldn't hear me out and just get offended anyway.

Then he started to position himself as though he holds such enormous value to the world. He said, "Gosh, where do you get your facts? I was actually planning to ask you if you wanted to grab some coffee, but you've lost all credibility to me. SMH"

He lost all credibility to me when he said scAmway has produced the second highest number of Multimillionaires in history- second to ONLY Microsoft, which achieved this through stocks. Ask any drone for verifiable proof of that and they won't have an answer. They just blindly accept what they're told...because obviously the guys at the top would never tell a lie.

 

[Dark Water]

I am a recent college graduate and am getting a number of offers from different companies and would like an outsider's perspective on the general circumstances surrounding these companies.

Generally, they describe themselves as "sales and marketing solutions" for Fortune 500 and 100 companies. The jobs entail door to door sales (the one that actually offered me a job after 2 interviews was selling Verizon Fios door to door).

The problem I have with this is I know even if I make $100 on a Verizon FiOS sale, my manager and their manager are making probably a decent chunk of that as well as all of the residual income from the sale. The job is 100% commission and you only get minimum wage ($8/hr) if you fail to make sales.

The other offer I'm getting is typically from insurance companies. I find it shady that the same type of companies are aggressively reaching out to me to set up interviews and get me working so quickly, when I've only been out of college for a week. These direct marketing and sales solution companies generally have bad employee reviews online, but since its direct, I'm not sure if its because people can't do sales or if it really is a terrible gig.

I appreciate any opinion as to whether it would be worth working for a company like this. I'm trying to gauge whether it will be worth it because I feel like I will be 1) good at sales but 2) I have a lot of student loans to pay back. This may not be for me. Thoughts?

 

[LIkeafox]

I thought I'd share this. Last night at my job a man that could be best described as probably homeless approached me and asked if he could charge his cell phone. I was feeling generous so I said sure and went back to work. He's lingering around where I'm working and his phone is charging and I notice he has an advertisement printed on the back of the coat his wearing. I'm curious because I've never seen a homeless person working as a billboard in this fashion before. It says something like, make $300-500 a day, 18+, interview today, start tomorrow, phone number. At first I thought this was some bizarre attempt at get women to escort, but then he caught me looking and asked if I'd like to make more money than I make where I work and he could get me hooked up.

I told him no and that ended the conversation immediately. I wanted to add--seriously dude, you smell kind of like urine, you have a welfare flip phone and you think that I'm going to believe you're making a few thousand dollars a week with this amazing opportunity?

I guess it's good that he's trying to improve himself or something.

 

[SarahSH]

Here is a pretty good article I just read about why the MLM structure is doomed to fail. This guy goes into detail on the economics behind why MLM is not a viable business model. It might be a good resource to point your MLM inclined friends toward if they are seeking advice from you on their business opportunity. There are a whole bunch of other anti-MLM resources listed at the bottom of the article as well...enough to keep someone busy for awhile. h