MLM - Who Moved My Cheese?

[doster.zach]

Just moved to Arizona and met a couple at the dog park. Great time there and the husband mentioned that he had an Amazon business that would provide them financial freedom. They invited us to church and we went with them and all was normal.

Then we got an invite to Panera at 7pm during a weekeday. Slightly odd, but we talked to them for about a 30 min, and then blindsided by their MLM pitch, mentioning a network, vague about the operations of the business, and what they sold.

Got home and searched up the book that they gave us to read and it was linked to one big MLM!

Couldn't believe they played such a long "con" on us. Let my guard down.

Anyone else have any of these stories?

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Anyone else have any of these stories?

They’ve been happening for 40 years. The long con is necessary for you to join a cult. And here you thought they were just being nice. Sorry you had to deal with this.

 

[OMDA]

I was doing some work on a website in a coffee shop one time and a lady started talking to me. Mentioned her and her husband were looking for some business help.

We ended up meeting at another coffee shop where they tried pitching me something similar and said something like "don't worry it's not MLM" and then handed me a Robert Kiyosaki book that looked to describe a "new" business that was NOT MLM (it was). Cut off contact then.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Back in my time, the technique for recruitment was 3-way phone calls where you blindside your target with someone from the upline who was making money.

Hey Bill, it's Joe!

Hello Joe, it was nice meeting you the other day at the dog park.

Yes Bill, and let me tell you I got this great opportunity I wanted to share with you, and I've got Allen on the line here to talk about it.

And then Allen would sell you for 20 minutes.

So cringe.

 

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[Robdavis]

Back in my time, the technique for recruitment was 3-way phone calls where you blindside your target with someone from the upline who was making money.

Hey Bill, it's Joe!

Hello Joe, it was nice meeting you the other day at the dog park.

Yes Bill, and let me tell you I got this great opportunity I wanted to share with you, and I've got Allen on the line here to talk about it.

And then Allen would sell you for 20 minutes.

So cringe.

About a year or so ago, I went to a jobs fair and met someone who was recruiting for an MLM. They asked for my details so that they could have a zoom call with me a few days later.

I had the zoom call and the seller explained what it was all about, but what I couldn't get out of my head was the financial return for the time invested.

It became obvious as the presentation was ongoing, that you would have to work hard, full time for something like 4 - 7 years, in order to grow your income from zero to around, say, USD1,500 a month. I just kept thinking, if I could get a normal job, I could get that money on "day one" and I wouldn't need to do all work growing a portfolio of MLM clients.

The person that was trying to sell me the MLM admitted that they had started after they had retired, to give themselves something to do and it rapidly became obvious that the money was really "pocket money" to them, although they alluded to the idea that after ten years of hard work, they were now making the equivalent of a modest salary.

I had to read between the lines a bit, but it was fairly obvious that no-one would have any serious prospects in that MLM. I wasn't sure whether you would learn any entrepreneur skills from doing that though. Maybe you would learn good marketing skills.

Interestingly enough though, I thought that the service that was being MLM'ed was pretty good. It was just the lives of "sales team" that sucked.

 

[ZCP]

I used to get the tapes dropped off to me to 'listen to', then they would want to meet up. Then super high pressure if you didn't sign up.... 'i spent all this time and loaned you all these great tapes' ....... bye

 

[BizyDad]

Just moved to Arizona and met a couple at the dog park. Great time there and the husband mentioned that he had an Amazon business that would provide them financial freedom. They invited us to church and we went with them and all was normal.

Then we got an invite to Panera at 7pm during a weekeday. Slightly odd, but we talked to them for about a 30 min, and then blindsided by their MLM pitch, mentioning a network, vague about the operations of the business, and what they sold.

Got home and searched up the book that they gave us to read and it was linked to one big MLM!

Couldn't believe they played such a long "con" on us. Let my guard down.

Anyone else have any of these stories?

If you are in the Scottsdale area tomorrow around noon, you should join a bunch of us for lunch.

I will happily regale you with the long cons I've fallen victim too. Lololol.

 

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[Black_Dragon43]

I will happily regale you with the long cons I've fallen victim too. Lololol.

Yes, that’s correct @BizyDad often falls victim to scams, but just as often rejects valid biz opportunities as he did when I first came on the forum and he accused me of being here to sell rather than add value…

 

[doster.zach]

If you are in the Scottsdale area tomorrow around noon, you should join a bunch of us for lunch.

I will happily regale you with the long cons I've fallen victim too. Lololol.

Just missed you. Long morning.

To pile on to the past 24 hours, my fiance was and our dog was also attacked by a pitbull. Long morning today.

 

[doster.zach]

If you are in the Scottsdale area tomorrow around noon, you should join a bunch of us for lunch.

I will happily regale you with the long cons I've fallen victim too. Lololol.

But if you are ever hosting meetups or anything like that, would love to be on the email list!

 

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[doster.zach]

They’ve been happening for 40 years. The long con is necessary for you to join a cult. And here you thought they were just being nice. Sorry you had to deal with this.

We just moved halfway across the country, we aren't used to make friends from 'cold' interactions so we thought this was how things just happened!

Drove 20 mins both ways to get sold a MLM.

Made my fiancé very sad, she had high hopes for this friendship.

 

[BizyDad]

Yes, that’s correct @BizyDad often falls victim to scams, but just as often rejects valid biz opportunities as he did when I first came on the forum and he accused me of being here to sell rather than add value…

This comment is an EXCELLENT example of the value you are bringing. Thank you.

But if you are ever hosting meetups or anything like that, would love to be on the email list!

Tomorrow is Friday, you haven't missed anything... Yet.

 

[Xavier X]

I've had several people try to sell me on MLM. Around 2006 in college, a classmate offered a "business opportunity," he continued being vague about. I suspected it was MLM, as I was familiar enough with it. Sure enough, when he finally got down to the details, it was GNLD. One of the oldest MLMs out there.

Another guy who was a customer at my job around 2009 also offered a "business opportunity," with "freedom to choose when you work and how much you earn," and yada yada. Suspected the same thing and sure enough, when we met up for coffee... MLM. At least this one showed up to the meeting with 3 "nutritional fruit drinks," which were the products the MLM was built around. I accepted the free products and wished him all the best with his "business."

Then the latest one (2018) was a friend I've known since high school. Very book smart guy back in HS, who is also an Engineer with a Master's degree. He invited me to a meetup event, which from the sound, I knew what it would be. I decided to humor him, just for shits and giggles. I picked him up along with the guy hosting the meetup, and we met up with about 8-10 people they invited to sell their "money making system."

I sat away from the group, during their presentations, just so it's clear I'm neither part of, nor buying into any of that trash. It was a cryptocurrency MLM, and bitcoin and ethereum were making some strong moves at the time. So the novices they were recruiting were easily sold. Anyway, after all of that, I sat him down and advised him how none of this is a business and how he really needed to work on pursuing real business ventures. My advice fell on deaf ears, because till today, I see him peddling different MLM "opportunities" full time, on Facebook. All the while, with the smarmiest of all smarmy smiles plastered on his face.

 

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[biophase]

If you are in the Scottsdale area tomorrow around noon, you should join a bunch of us for lunch.

Don’t do it! It’s an MLM!

 

[Subsonic]

Yk in Germany (idk about you guys overseas) Tupperware was great with doing this in an ethical way.
Step one, make the best lunch boxes out there.
Step two, pay housewives some money so she invites all her friends to a Tupperware party where your sales girl drinks coffee with them and does her thing.
Step three, don't sell it anywhere else. That made these things pretty difficult to get sometimes which raised their perceived value.

Thermomix is doing a similar thing if I understood it correctly.
Incidentally their thing is the Mercedes S class of food mixers. It does cost 1k (maybe more now) but it's a actual way for housewives to gain status because of how powerful it is.

 

[Saad Khan]

Here's my online MLM pitching experience.

I was calling up wholesalers and there was this one brand called Melaleuca. We were interested in reselling their products on Amazon. I contacted their support team about the inquiry and it took them 4 weeks to have a person reach out to me. In those 4 weeks I reminded them 7 times that they had promised to have had a sales rep reach out to me on phone.

4 weeks later I'm greeted by a guy called Frank, who called himself a marketing executive for Melaleuca. Anyway, we schedule a time for meeting (I was expecting to see their wholesale prices and see their wholesale ordering options).

The meeting was a 1 hour long pitch. I had a feeling in the first 10 minutes that it was an MLM pitch but I still hoped that they would be willing to participate in B2B. In that 1 hour long video, that 55 year old man showed me three 10-minute videos about how Melaleuca sells organic products with billions in sales and how many lives they changed. Then he moved onto the utility of the products, how we could use them in our household and then showed us the packages they had. He kept emphasizing that being part of Melaleuca is having a side business outside of your day job.

I was done. My mind was getting tortured and I still sat there listening to that man in hopes that I could maybe get their stock in bulk but when I mentioned that, he said that they don't allow people to sell online.

I told my partner about this and he had a good laugh. I also blocked that guy after the meeting.

Stay away from network marketing.

 

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[mamamargaux]

Fallen prey to 2 MLM companies by so-called friends of friends. Only to realize everyone i knew was there too. I would have to go to far-flung provinces to promote their products. It was a huge lesson learned.

 

[Private Witt]

This is me the second I sense any type of MLM.

View: https://youtu.be/_lPJ9J-6vDw

 

[Raoul Duke]

More like. Who cut the cheese.

 

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[Jeix]

It just happened to me today, a friend I hadn't seen in 3 years and had moved abroad wanted to see me, I was naturally happy and we had lunch. However, there were some red flags about what he was doing and as soon as I got home he shared with me this long a$$ pyramid scheme recruitment video. At first he was even reluctant to share it, as if it was the most important thing I had to see that day. It was some bs about renting air bnb homes you don't even own, way to work full time for air bnb & the landlord all in one, being an invisible an useless middleman. The funniest bit was that this whole financial freedom stuff involved you buying $1200 of cosmetic and skin care products first because "you gotta take care of your body first". Absolute BS, how is that even related?
What a huge disappointment, I feel terrible for him and even worse about him wasting my time like that.
Bleah.

 

[AnNvr]

Just missed you. Long morning.

To pile on to the past 24 hours, my fiance was and our dog was also attacked by a pitbull. Long morning today.

I am random guy unrelated to anyone in the forum but may I tell you go and meet @BizyDad .

For real, GO.

I believe you'll have the chance to listen and share lots of value with him. Just have a look at his threads in the forum; yes sometimes he kicks asses here and there but that's a quality. Have a good one!

 

[doster.zach]

I am random guy unrelated to anyone in the forum but may I tell you go and meet @BizyDad .

For real, GO.

I believe you'll have the chance to listen and share lots of value with him. Just have a look at his threads in the forum; yes sometimes he kicks asses here and there but that's a quality. Have a good one!

Oh we had a great lunch. 10/10 recommend. Might not remember your name afterwards....

 

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[Spenny]

Amway.

An 'entrepreneur' reached out to me and immediately began teaching me how to reach financial freedom. Thought it was just his personality, already knew what he was talking about & did a second meeting, big mistake. But, I stayed around to pick out all of the red flags so I'd avoid grifts in the future:

• No mention on how customers benefit
• Mention of drop shipping, forex or crypto businesses
• Discrediting of having employees
• Selling of half decent expensive products
• Any mention of reach financial freedom
• A "business proposal" out of the blue
• Be your own boss
• Demonising the 9-5 job
• No startup costs required
• "Free" seminar
• Giving you a "secret" to wealth
• "you need a mentor" aka the person giving a talk

 

[ZackerySprague]

The most recent one that happened other than the bookstore approach was online. From a group I joined, a guy called Gary wanted to do a one-on-one. We got to know each other and talked about our businesses. He shared that he was an investor that was looking for businesses for sale that were almost autonomous and that he was apart of a mastermind. He shared a Zoom link after we ended our call, the next meet was in 45 mins. I clicked on it and it lead to an old website with a cheap advertisement stating the group of people was for people who never quit and so you could advertise to all 2000 members, but their was an interview process with the group owner for admission. The meeting ran almost every hour and the website was poorly made. The owner didn’t have any background information either of what businesses he ran.

 

[doster.zach]

Update:

Met up with them today to give them their books back. (Ironic that you need to give back the books since they already make so much money from what they are doing!)

He showed up with a bag of their products and a card, surprise!

It’s AMWAY!

 

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[bray]

Screw Amway same thing happened to me as well. That's several hours of my life that is now gone.

 

[bray]

The same thing happened to me as well. I was at work and met this guy who expressed how he wanted to retire early. He said he had mentors that were helping him out. I was curious, so I agreed to go to a meeting with him. Now, something that made me suspicious was why would he choose me? I am pretty shy and lack any skills. If I wanted to team up with someone, I would want them to have skills and give me something of value. Anyway, he gave me the cheese book and it was a decent book. It was a good book about change. We had another meeting which was similar to the first meeting. He then invited me to go to a larger meeting where his mentor would be there. When I went to the meeting there were hundreds of people dressed in formal wear. It was the most cultish meeting I have ever been to. Everyone was worshiping the mentor like he was a god. I went to one last meeting to return his cheese book. I tried to convince him that Amway was an MLM and that no one made money with it but I failed and I never ever saw him again. I always see these people hanging out at coffee shops and almost always wearing formal clothing.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

It was the most cultish meeting I have ever been to.

Utah is the MLM capital of the world.

 

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[Saint]

Wow can't believe this is popping up now...did MLMs get a bunch of funding recently? I got pitched a few times my early 20s, and was somehow discerning enough to see it didn't make sense. Went 10 years without a pitch, but suddenly my wife and I have gotten tricked into two recently.

First, a girl my wife met a church a while back hit her up out of the blue for coffee. She said her and her husband were looking to build relationships since they were new to our area. We're recently married, and we're looking for married friends, and she seemed cool, so we were excited to get to know them. They met up, wife mentioned I was looking to help other businesses with my data skills. Girl invites us to meet with her husband who has a "business" in "ecommerce". All four of us meet up, he starts talking about how Amazon is such an amazing business, everyone needs commodities, but was super vague about what he was talking about. He started to sort of "interview" me for the business, and I pumped the breaks and asked what exactly his business is all about. He was trying so hard not to say it, but kept mentioning this amazing entrepreneur guy he knows who started this "ecommerce business". It basically comes down to selling toothpaste and stuff.

I kept trying to ask how it works, because they kept saying things like "passive income", "ecommerce", etc., without clarifying how it was any of those things. My favorite part was the wife said there's no selling involved, it's just something you can engage with people on using "heightened intentionality". Amazing. Worst part is, after all the talk about wanting to make friends, they cut us off right at the hour mark because their next appointment was showing up at the coffee shop. We haven't followed up with them, but they've showed up a couple times at the farmers market we go to, which now we're not sure is them being friendly or creepy.

I should've learned my lesson, but at that farmer's market we're selling our actual product at, another couple who seemed really nice engaged us about our products. The husband said some complimentary things to me, we connected, then he started talking about this entrepreneur he knows who helps people get into and grow businesses. I'm actually in the market for real business coaching, so I was open to learning more, even though the MLM signs were there. He also sent me some Kiyosaki resources and some points about what makes a good business that aligned great with Fastlane. I thought maybe 40% chance he's legit. First meeting he was super nice engaging, second meeting with my wife and his there, he drops the "ecommerce" word. My wife is groaning about wasting time with another fake couple pushing their MLM, but now I'm fascinated. What is this MLM? It's started to sound similar to the first, and it's another nice couple from the PacWest.

Third meeting I leave the wife home. They finally come out with it.

It's Amway.

I found this one fascinating. 6 hours of my life gone, but it was interesting observing the different ways he tried to sell me. He was so obviously following a script (multiple times backtracked making it obvious), and said all the things others here have mentioned (financial freedom, 9-5 is evil, passive income). They also sound borderline obsessed with their upline people. They also tried to play to my religion, kept mentioning he'd been a pastor, etc.

What confuses me about it is this time he seems to not have read his own material. It contradicts everything he's doing. And it's also weird that he's pitching my wife and I when we have a business, and from the numbers he showed me (I got that far into it), we're already on track to make more from our business than if we hustled as salespeople for his for a year or more. Why do these people think we're a good target when we already have a business??

Hopefully I can dodge MLM meetings this year!

 

[Saint]

They’ve been happening for 40 years. The long con is necessary for you to join a cult. And here you thought they were just being nice. Sorry you had to deal with this.

So to what extent is Amway a cult? The second pitch I had, the long con, the way they talked about their amazing mentor and the company are (they even actually said it's like "the family you choose", yikes!), the scattered influence levers they kept trying to pull...it did seem like it was in the direction of brainwashing/control on the level of a cult. I did some more research on it and the common experience everyone has with it really makes it seem like it's not far off.