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why evangelicals are drawn to MLM (article)


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I have a long time FB friend who's now into DaPinkDrink..It's fun when she posts onto another FB friend's Herbalife timeline...

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The memories this thread bring back!

My parents, aunt and uncle and a school friend parents all went at Amway hard. My parents came to visit me once and literally ALL they talked about was Amway and thier amazing new life. They left in a royal tizzy when I asked if they came all the way from Ohio to sell me Amway or to see me. I got my answer when they left.

A previous boss was all into Mona Vie after he had a heart attack. A college friend was sucked into Cutco. She spent 3 years, lost everything and was forced to move home at 35. Another college friend is pushing 31- I bought a couple items on clearance and they were over priced, even on clearance.

Years ago as a fundie light I had a roomie involved in Malaleuka (sp). I hate to admit I really liked the soap she gave me. Left the church and lost my soap supply. Most of the church was involved in that one. Even the minister.

Before leaving Facebook I was flooded with Jamberry, 31, Pampered  Chef, Trades of Hope, different essential oils, Herba Life and some smelly candle company sales pitches. Between politics and MLM not likely to be on Facebook again. 

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21 minutes ago, Bubble girl said:

A previous boss was all into Mona Vie after he had a heart attack. A college friend was sucked into Cutco. She spent 3 years, lost everything and was forced to move home at 35. Another college friend is pushing 31- I bought a couple items on clearance and they were over priced, even on clearance.

Cutco? Oh, I'm sorry to hear this. A nice young homeschool graduate asked if he could do his demo for us as practice -- even knowing we had no budget to make any kind of purchase. I didn't realize at the time it was an MLM. Poor kid. Probably didn't have the job skills (or diploma) to get any other kind of job.

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18 minutes ago, refugee said:

Cutco? Oh, I'm sorry to hear this. A nice young homeschool graduate asked if he could do his demo for us as practice -- even knowing we had no budget to make any kind of purchase. I didn't realize at the time it was an MLM. Poor kid. Probably didn't have the job skills (or diploma) to get any other kind of job.

Yes, Cutco is actually very cut throat. She was in grad school, had a job and small income before Cutco then sadly drank the kool-aid. She set up an office for training using her credit cards. She was working 70 and 80 hour weeks but barely scraped by. Finally, she burnt out and couldn't hold it together anymore. It was really hard to watch. 

Cutco uses slightly older 20 somethings who appear worldly and professional to suck these young kids into the program. The kids are told about great trips, awesome cars etc. They prey on college kids and kids just out of HS. No one can really meet the sales goals to make an income. It is all about recruiting the new talent.

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Younique and Scentsy are the ones hitting my area. It seems like all the single parents I went to high school with (there were a lot of teen births) are trying to rope me and my other classmates in. Theyre not fundie but a lot of them are struggling with children and very little if any post high school education.

One of my facebook friends recently posted excitedly about being contacted by Banker's Life. Not an MLM, but def the same pyramid style scheme. This girl is so desperate to make a better life for her daughter she believed the line that you can be making a six-figure salary in just a few months. Fortunately some people commented on her post warning her, but there were also one or two people telling her it wasn't a scam :(

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I hate MLMs mainly because I have so many friends that I genuinely love try to guilt me into buying their stuff. They invite me to parties that I have no interest in or extra money to spend. It's really awkward having to say no. I have a aunt that has literally tried every MLM company I can think of. She had a room in of her house full of unused product.I keep thinking she will give up,but she hasn't .These companies feed on women needing extra money and give the appeal of being your own "boss", but the truth is you spend so much time running around advertising and buying product that it's more like being a slave. Most women come up short and make far less than the 'advertised' income they were fed into believing when they signed up. MLM is really popular among military wives, probably more so than evangelicals I think. There was always someone throwing a scentsy or pure romance party on base. 

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3 hours ago, Bubble girl said:

Yes, Cutco is actually very cut throat. She was in grad school, had a job and small income before Cutco then sadly drank the kool-aid. She set up an office for training using her credit cards. She was working 70 and 80 hour weeks but barely scraped by. Finally, she burnt out and couldn't hold it together anymore. It was really hard to watch. 

Cutco uses slightly older 20 somethings who appear worldly and professional to suck these young kids into the program. The kids are told about great trips, awesome cars etc. They prey on college kids and kids just out of HS. No one can really meet the sales goals to make an income. It is all about recruiting the new talent.

I got recruited by CutCo while looking for a summer job during college. It took me about ten minutes to recognize that it was a scam, and TWO DAMN HOURS UNDER FLUORESCENT LIGHTS to have an opportunity to politely extricate myself from the sales pitch. TWO HOURS. And I was the only one who had left; the others in the "training class" were rapt

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My brushes with MLM:

1. I had a woman aggressively attempt to recruit me to shill HerbalLife. My stepfather gently informed me that I was targeted because I was thin, thus an aspirational image for potential clients.

2. Went to a Pampered Chef party, bought a pizza stone and a lemonade pitcher, drank a goodly amount of punch. The hostess forgot to mention that the punch was spiked, which ordinarily would be welcome... but I was about 5 minutes pregnant with my first baby.

3. Some church members tried to aggressively recruit me for AmWay. Showed up at my doorstep while I was tending to an autistic 5-year-old, a potty training 3-year-old, and a newborn who cried 8+ hours per day and projectile vomited every fucking time he cried. They did not catch the hint that I don't have the time or wherewithal to hawk their wares. Assholes.

4. At least 4 FB friends are simultaneously selling Jamberry, Tastefully Simple, some kind of cheap jewelry, and Young Life. I very sweetly (and publicly) asked them to get back to me when they host one of those sex toy sales parties. I'm all in.

5. Some church members were selling $40 bottles of Mona Vie, and of course they made a bee-line for my husband (he's more approachable than I am, I guess) and talked him into buying 2 bottles. I was so mad.

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I got recruited by CutCo while looking for a summer job during college. It took me about ten minutes to recognize that it was a scam, and TWO DAMN HOURS UNDER FLUORESCENT LIGHTS to have an opportunity to politely extricate myself from the sales pitch. TWO HOURS. And I was the only one who had left; the others in the "training class" were rapt

I had a very similar thing happen to me. I started asking questions that they didn't like, and managed to leave with my intake form in hand, so they didn't have more than basic info on me. Shady stuff!

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I had a former coworker who did actually make a decent chunk of additional change selling sex toys. However she was successful because she managed to grow her business. She was an alum of the university we worked near so she put up fliers for sex toy parties and got regular bookings that way. I feel like that is where most people fall down. You have to expand to new markets to be successful. You can't keep pitching the same crap to the same people. 

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MLM doesn't seem to be a big thing in my circle. I can think of one person I know off the top of my head who was into Scentsey and would make some Facebook posts about it occasionally, and there may be a few others in MLM who are low-key about it. That's really about it. It probably helps that there aren't many evangelicals/fundies/SAH parents among my friends, and the people I know who do get into MLM seem to do it more as a supplemental gig to their day jobs.

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Am I the only one who got suckered into 5Linx? Made money for one month and then poof! No money, and a bill for $500 for a phone I bought to make a "sales goal". Fortunately, that was the only rabbit hole I fell into. And fell out of quickly.

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Beach body has taken over my Facebook feed. I started getting annoyed by the private messages and have since just ignored them. I'm also extremely annoyed because half of the ones in deep are using postpartum or pregnancy pictures as their "before." I also am seeing a lot of Lularoe leggings, younique, some book party company, Rhodan & fields, and itWorks. Total number of purchases I've made, 0.

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12 hours ago, JesusCampSongs said:

I got recruited by CutCo while looking for a summer job during college. It took me about ten minutes to recognize that it was a scam, and TWO DAMN HOURS UNDER FLUORESCENT LIGHTS to have an opportunity to politely extricate myself from the sales pitch. TWO HOURS. And I was the only one who had left; the others in the "training class" were rapt

Me, too. Exact same experience. 

A few years later, when a friend deceived a bunch of us into going to an Equinox recruiting meeting, the office was in the exact same building. I'm not kidding. Apparently, that was MLM scam central for the city. 

This friend invited us to join her and some other friends of hers for a Friday night bbq advertising food, alcohol, single men, etc... then picked us up and took us to an Equinox recruiting meeting instead with no food, no alcohol, and only crazy MLM men. To say that we were pissed is a bit of an understatement. It was some time before anyone spoke to her again. 

 

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Pampered Chef is just overpriced.  I like it, and it doesn't seem to hurt anyone.  I also like their move to ONLINE parties, which are kind of fun - and easier to ignore while helping a friend out.  Another friend who really loves the stuff is having an online party to help someone else out, and hopefully there's more people.  I think I was the only one who bought anything at the first one.

But YES to the poster above who said it was popular among military wives.  I see it everywhere, especially the Scentsy stuff.

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2 hours ago, desertvixen said:

Pampered Chef is just overpriced.  I like it, and it doesn't seem to hurt anyone.  I also like their move to ONLINE parties, which are kind of fun - and easier to ignore while helping a friend out.  Another friend who really loves the stuff is having an online party to help someone else out, and hopefully there's more people.  I think I was the only one who bought anything at the first one.

But YES to the poster above who said it was popular among military wives.  I see it everywhere, especially the Scentsy stuff.

I think the only woman who did REALLY well for herself was the woman selling sex stuff. I don't remember the business name, but she sold stuff as vanilla as massage oil and lotion and lube and condoms all the way to like bondage gear and whips and everything in between. She made a KILLING. I think she would ask around to see which boats were deployed and then get all those wives together towards the end of the deployments when all the wives were itching to have their husbands back.

So smart but so diabolical.

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The MLM stuff that isn't health related doesn't bug me too much. I bought a Pampered Chef item that is ok, just overpriced. I do love Lula Roe's clothes. They are overpriced, but their dresses are the only dresses I have ever liked. Its the health ones like YL, Doterra, Itworks, and the shake ones that get me angry. I would never take supplements based on info from someone who has zero training or background in health stuff. Putting essential oils in a capsule? No way. My cousin sells ItWorks and i could not find any information on where there supplements are even made. It bugs me so much that fellow Christians will bug me about this stuff and then act like I'm a heathen for not "supporting their business".

I went to a women's event at a new church we were attending. I was so excited for some of the seminars, especially the organization one. Every single class was an MLM pitch. The organization one ended up being for Tupperware. :( 

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Facebook allows this type of marketing to be even more obnoxious. There are days when my entire news feed consists of Rhodan fields, plexus, shakeology, young living, and the most recent, isagenix. If it's not an out right sales pitch, sale notice, our before and after, it's a silly inspirational meme. Which I guess are directed at the sellers? a couple of my friends are big offenders, and at least 2 of them are serial marketers, falling for each new thing. I'm so suspicious, do people really feel like this product had changed their life? Our are they just hopped up on Inspirational memes and a desire to make money? A couple of these women have become really successful and it has changed their economic status. 

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25 minutes ago, Anonymousguest said:

Facebook allows this type of marketing to be even more obnoxious. There are days when my entire news feed consists of Rhodan fields, plexus, shakeology, young living, and the most recent, isagenix. If it's not an out right sales pitch, sale notice, our before and after, it's a silly inspirational meme. Which I guess are directed at the sellers? a couple of my friends are big offenders, and at least 2 of them are serial marketers, falling for each new thing. I'm so suspicious, do people really feel like this product had changed their life? Our are they just hopped up on Inspirational memes and a desire to make money? A couple of these women have become really successful and it has changed their economic status. 

My Rodan + Fields friend absolutely thinks R+F changed her life, but not because of the product. She's been extremely successful with it and she uses her success to try to get people to join her team. She's constantly posting photos of home renovations, new cars she bought, vacations she took and so on, saying none of it would have been possible without her income from R+F. Of course, a large part of her success is due to the fact that she got in VERY early and has a lot of people under her, something latecomers simply won't be able to duplicate. But they keep getting sucked in.  And I'm tired of having my feed inundated with not only things she posts but every other damned R+F post she liked. Thankfully, R+F is the only MLM I see—the benefit of having only about 20 Facebook friends.

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On 6/11/2016 at 6:59 AM, louisa05 said:

Me, too. Exact same experience. 

A few years later, when a friend deceived a bunch of us into going to an Equinox recruiting meeting, the office was in the exact same building. I'm not kidding. Apparently, that was MLM scam central for the city. 

This friend invited us to join her and some other friends of hers for a Friday night bbq advertising food, alcohol, single men, etc... then picked us up and took us to an Equinox recruiting meeting instead with no food, no alcohol, and only crazy MLM men. To say that we were pissed is a bit of an understatement. It was some time before anyone spoke to her again. 

 

Cutco leaves biz cards and signs and writes about "awesome summer jobs" around university campuses.

I'll throw the cards/signs away and erase whatever's on a dry erase board.

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5 hours ago, sparkles said:

My Rodan + Fields friend absolutely thinks R+F changed her life, but not because of the product. She's been extremely successful with it and she uses her success to try to get people to join her team. She's constantly posting photos of home renovations, new cars she bought, vacations she took and so on, saying none of it would have been possible without her income from R+F. Of course, a large part of her success is due to the fact that she got in VERY early and has a lot of people under her, something latecomers simply won't be able to duplicate. But they keep getting sucked in.  And I'm tired of having my feed inundated with not only things she posts but every other damned R+F post she liked. Thankfully, R+F is the only MLM I see—the benefit of having only about 20 Facebook friends.

That's also the case of the mother of a certain young blogger who is often snarked on here. Her mlm job drastically changed their lifestyle. She's always posting about trips and such, encouraging people to get on board. I think she does believe in her product though. 

 

Another friend is just getting started, and I swear practically every friend we have in common has jumped on board to drink shakes instead of eating. Well, except the ones that already sell a different brand of shake. This gal has the personality to sell stuff. 

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I just saw a FB post by a church lady from my parents' church about YL oils and how they can be used instead of antidepressants :smiley-signs131: and had to come here to FJ so I don't blow my top at her. What the actual fuck does she think those oils do?!?! gahhhhh

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  • 5 months later...

One of my cousins will not stop posting about how she is on cue for Lularoe. I learned Lularoe has beginning costs anywhere from $5,000 to $6500!? I get it the leggings are a hot seller but I just can't believe people would pay that much for a business that is a MLM! 

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  • 1 year later...

This is an old thread, but I’m not sure where to post this query. The latest MLM to be pushed by an acquaintance who has lately pushed (and abandoned) Young Living and then DoTerra is a CBD oil marketer CTFO. I mean, she is all in. Her FB is full of testimonials, and she’s trolling people’s walls and posting “that sounds like a problem for Superman... er... CTFO CBD oil! And look, here’s a handy link to my CTFO page!”

Has anyone heard of CTFO? My experience with MLMs is that they claim high quality but their prices and claims are inflated. I’m not expecting any different from this one, but I’m trying to talk a family member out of investing in this stuff and if really interested in CBD oil, going with a company that’s not an MLM.

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