MLM

WEALTH and HEATH or You So Are Not “Getting It” Pt.3

f/1.4, 1/1600 sec, at 50mm, 100 ISO, on a NIKON D80

f/1.4, 1/1600 sec, at 50mm, 100 ISO, on a NIKON D80MLM’s  convince people to use personal friendships and relationships via “networking”  to work for them and sell. The more they sell the more the person makes umm. Friends and family or prospects and home turf is the marketable area.

On the greeting card site they have a section on personal development  here us one quote right from their site

You’ll also learn about “I am” statements. Invite your organization to do the same. Your “I am” statements are your dreams, goals, and desires, all stated in the present. For example, if you’ve always dreamed of a six-figure income, you would create an “I am” statements that says, “I am earning a six-figure income and loving it!” These are simple but powerful statements that help you reach your goals and stay focused on your dreams.

EST-  uses getting it – got it
XYZ site uses I am

The Moonies chanted lines over and over  while beating tambourines, used  deceptive recruiting practices to  get someone to join and then alienated them from friends and family to help convince them to stay.

The XYZ  MLM recruits with promises of great wealth, their literature, suggested readings, and training materials keep the recruit hooked.

“Continually check the blog and website, watch SOC TV and SOC Lifestyles and sign up for the emails. Be a part of your upline, and go to any Treat ‘em Right or Super Saturday you are able to. Make it your responsibility to stay connected with your sponsor.”  Another quote from their site.

They then  convince peeps that if your not selling, working for the person then you are not worth their time because you will bring them down with negative thoughts. Alienation!

The last communication from him:

But rest assured any grievances you have toward me will be alleviated soon enough

Seems he is coming to CA to handle the car sale, get his package, and kiss our arses goodbye.

I hope he find success, finds all the wealth he believes is his due.  Someday maybe he will realize that a woman that goes to work every day despite her physical limitations and constant pain in order to maintain a household  and takes care of her partner is stronger and more determined than the MLM gurus. That just maybe “Jane” getting up and doing everything “Jane” can do to keep moving despite having  multiple sclerosis means something.

This whole thing has really caused a lot of stress in this household.   I guess if we are not healthy enough to go out and gain all that wealth we are not worthy.

Oh yeah Wealth and Health – I get it – really I do.

Dear Godson I hope that someday you do too.

WEALTH and HEATH or You So Are Not “Getting It” Pt.2

trap

trapThere is a service to send out greeting cards called XYZ (real name withheld to avoid spam).  Up front it really looks like a great idea. In fact if I just wanted a service to send cards  for me and remind me of birthdays etc it might be a good deal.

On closer inspection it is about as near to a pyramid type business as can be without crossing the line of being illegal. An internet search will bring up many sites with folks crying out that it is a pyramid scheme versus a muli-level marketing organization followed with just as many sites claiming how great a  money making deal it is.

An MLM can be a money making deal if you get in on the ground floor. What I have against this one is both personal  and in my opinion applied common sense.

On the later here is short version of how it works.  A person becomes a distributor and then recruits more distributors, you get points and then get  paid a percent from them. They recruit and get points and the first person gets higher points earnings based on what those lower down (those with less time)  the chain earn. Just like an upside down pyramid.

So how does this affect me? Well someone close to us took the lure and got hooked.  He offered to purchase ($389.00) package to get KRP started on her road to riches. She said she would look into it and let him know. Well she thanked him for the offer and said no thank you. He persisted. She explained that she had no time to do it, hated computers, and between her carpal tunnel in both hands and her dead nerve in her leg she could not manage it. It was all she could manage to work full time and hold down the fort here.

He persisted.  Then all of a sudden she could do nothing right when it came to their communications.  Key phrases straight from some of the card companies  literature about successful people versus negative people started cropping up in conversations and emails.

It culminated in an email where the gist of what he said was –  if she chose to be negative and unwilling to work to be successful she was a failure. “If you want life to over whelm you then dont allow me to stand in your way.”

I was unaware of most of this until she left a note on the desk asking me to read her emails to and from him.

The email conversations boiled down to her telling him (as she has over the phone) that we could not afford the postage on a package to be sent overseas (~225.00). Him saying he sent 75 dollars that we have never seen.  Him implying that she was unsuccessful and miserable because she was unwilling to put any effort in and do the greeting card thing.

It went from bad to worse and I felt the anger rising as I read and listened to some of his phone messages to her. He is convinced that her not wanting to do the card thing is a sign of her lazy, miserable existence.  Oh and he kept referring to me as Jane not Jan after all these years.  Any one that is not selling cards is negative and to be avoided. He bought the package hook, line, and sinker.

He reads and regurgitates all sorts of motivational snippets.   It is rather scary really.

A quote off one of his social sites “2 of the top words that mean so much WEALTH AND HEALTH”.

Really?  So if you lose your health and can not make the wealth?

WEALTH and HEATH or You So Are Not “Getting It” Pt.1

swirl

swirlIn the late 70’s I worked for a man who was involved with a Quote personal transformation Unquote program called the Erhard Seminars Training (EST for short).  If you are not familiar with this wiki has a short article about it here .

I am not going to go into all the reason I thought the training was more like brain washing. But it had something to do with the voice inflictions and pace of the speaker, you did not get to go to the bathroom except and set times, and they seated us away from anyone we came in with.  After attending a seminar my boss paid for to get him off my back and keep peace in the work place I came away with that opinion. The other thing I took note of were the key phrases used over and over again by the ESTee’s.

The world of boss manipulation opened to me with these key phrases. Boss not happy? Just tell say ‘I get it” or you “got it”  conversation over with him thinking we had decided something.  Transformation and Getting It saved me job hassles more than once. The other key theme in EST was that they encouraged, no more like pushed,  folks like my boss  to recruit new  participants and continually pay for more training seminars/courses.  I received phone calls from those folks until my phone was disconnected when I lost my job because the boss spent to much money on EST seminars than he put back into the business.

Through the years brain washing cults have come and gone.  I attended a Moonie deal with a friend at Chico State. Yikes! I ran did not walk out of there but unfortunately my pal stayed. Never saw her again.

I was not raised to fall for get rich quick schemes so I avoided the pyramid schemes like the plaque. I did watch several acquaintances   loose their life savings to the swift talking ploys of believers.  Conversations based on fact or common sense are usually futile when someone has bought the get rich sales tactic’s of a good salesman.

Next Part 2 of this post will cover how relationships can be harmed by people exploiting personal friendships and relationships via “networking.” of multi-level marketing organizations (MLM).