What I See When MLM Advocates Post Recruitment Opportunities.

If MLM companies were honest…

It’s nearing Christmas and my anxiety is sky high as I try and work out how I’m supposed to pay for all the glitz and glam without breaking the bank. I could look to sell unwanted things in the house, I could make things, I could even start selling pictures of my feet if it things got so bad, but the one thing I’ll never try again… MLM companies.

When I say I wasted my time, that’s a massive understatement.

A few years ago, I’m sat looking for fantastic ideas on how to make a side income, like most of us probably do. When low and behold a family member, lets call her ‘M’ starts posting these amazing pictures on her newsfeed. Things like, how she was able to quit her job because her new business had really taken off, how she was able to spend all of her time with her children because it was easy work. Posting only pictures of how happy she was and how much she was earning.

When I first entered the world of MLM, (that’s multi level marketing for those who may not know), I had a 3 week old in my arms and struggling financially. A family member offering to help me gain a nice little earner whilst on maternity felt like a dream come true.

Now usually, a representative would connect with you. I never had one person ask me to join their marketing teams but as soon as I became a member of M’s team, it was like a giant can of worms had been opened. Everyone wanted to ask me to join their business. Turns out, the day I approached M was probably the highlight of her business career.

The first day on the job, I find that 10% of the business strategy was about selling the products that are associated with the business model, the other 90% was made up of constantly harassing people to join your network.

For a job that was made to be easy, I was lucky if I made $10 a day for 15 hours of work. I didn’t last long.

Now there were many factors that put me off with this company. The products were too expensive for my neighborhood to sell door to door, a lot of products helped heal certain ailments which meant having to get personal, the worst one for me though, had to be that every time there was any form of event to sell these amazing products that we had, it was all about how many people we could recruit. Even if that meant, competing with your next door neighbor.

I think at one point there was about 3 of the same sellers on my street. competition was fierce and the recruitment side was ridiculous.

The whole point of MLM’s recruitment strategy, is that you earn money from things that your downline sell also, meaning that if you had a long list of downlines, you could potently replace your income.

The products we sold were actually amazing and had evidentially helped so many of my customers with there many issues they were facing, be it, psoriasis, eczema, burns, back pain, migraines.. the list goes on. The company's way of encouraging you to improve your downline was… not so amazing.

I remember M’s upline telling me to push myself harder because I was letting the team down. regardless of how many hours I put into the work, the products were not selling. It also seemed that I must have joined at the wrong time as everyone had already joined or had been asked too many times, so a dose of, ‘F*ck off’ was dished out instead.

For all the stress the job caused, I’d have earned more money and been better off working at my local gas station. For the hours I put into “My” business, I could have made hundreds in an hourly paid job — without as much stress.

This is what I see now when I see MLM recruiters (collectively known as Huns because of how they begin their intro) appearing in my DM’s and inbox.

Hi HUN, I’m looking for 5 people who want to ruin their lives with this shady opportunity I have to offer. This unique, once in every 3rd persons FB post offer, will help bring you that little bit of extra money per month that you need. Granted you do have to put in a committed 15 hour day, every single day, until the end of time, but it will be worth it for that extra £100 a week. So what if you earn less than £1 an hour for all your hard work, you’re building a better future?

Now forget what they tell you, it’s not a pyramid scheme – our business model just happens to have a somewhat triangle shape. You will have to pay to start up your business, which may leave you out of pocket for a while and you’ll be competing with about 5 people on your street.

Don’t worry I’ll tell you it’s easy to get you to sign up but You’ll need a masters in marketing and a PhD in psychology to recruit other soulless folk. I’ll guide you through your journey with guilt trips to make you feel like you’ve let me down but I mean what kind of person wouldn’t do that?

You’ll get an amazing 15% for every sale – granted you can buy wholesale products and earn 100% plus in profit if you wanted but why do that when you could make less profit selling these products instead?

What are you waiting for? Run!

Now I’ll say it again, the products that I sold were absolutely amazing and did wonderful things for so many. I for example, had issues with my digestive system and psoriasis that no cream could cure — some gel from our shop along with some aloe Vera gel and my skin was smooth and digestive issues faded. These were products that would be picked up in seconds if the they were sold in stores but that was not the way for this MLM company.

I will say though, that even though I am 100% against recruiting people to a team unless its for an actual business, I do still tell people about these products and advice them to check out the website, which they do on occasion. I have a full time job and a daughter who needs my constant attention so I'm not about wasting my time anymore with any selling but I will say, take a look at the website and see if anything catches your eye, FOREVER LIVING

My take from all this would be to always pay attention to what someone might have to offer as they may have exactly what I’m looking for, but as soon as they look to recruit — run for the hills.

I’m sure there are hundreds, if not thousands of people out there who have made a very nice amount for all of there hard work. perhaps I wasn't doing very well, perhaps I didn't have it in me but I know that my efforts matched that of M’s as I appeared to be the only person she had managed to recruit in the entire time she had been there. Oh and lets not forget about the times she posted how easy and fun her new life was.. all fake in a bid to entice people to enter her world.

AGAIN, I will not look to recruit anyone else into forever living but I will still say that the products are incredible. I still have my business id with them since I was stupid enough to spend over £100 just to join them all those years ago and if I can get anything out of the money I wasted in joining them, at least I can try and make it up for selling a few things on my Forever living shop.