Friday Fun: MLM

[wendibird22]

Just discovered the MLM weight loss "coach" thing the man local to me is hocking is the newly rebranded Optavia program called Habits of Health System. A post that he shared of a women's weight loss story had her saying she credits Habits of Health. But he's been a "coach" for over a year now, after his own significant weight loss, and this is the first time I've ever seen the product mentioned. And of course Optavia was previously Medifast (shakes and replacement bars). So this company is on name number 3 at least! And if your product worked so dang well you'd have all your coaches saying your name over and over again.

[klwa]

Yeah, the Herbalife stores really picked up steam here in the last two years or so. I kept seeing all these posts with people showing off their drinks. A store in my tiny town, three or four in the bigger suburb next to us. One in the town where I grew up and still have friends. Several in the other nearby suburbs. I FINALLY realized they got discounts on the drinks in exchange for social media posts. Ugh.

.

I found out that a lot of the Facebook posts were actually from the downline of the person who opened the shop. *sigh*

[khm]

Full confession, I am obsessed with MLM. Listened to The Dream, have stalked several articles about MLMs, of course I saw the LuaRich series (I have criticism of it), and general on the hunt for any MLM info. ItÂ’s like my true crime obsession so many people have.

I think since many people kidÂ’s are getting older on this board we arenÂ’t the prime MLM demographic anymore. I believe it appeals to women at home with younger children in the middle to upper class white demographic, which is certainly this board for the most part. There are also many MLMs that go after women of color or general a lower socio-economic group that we find here, but they are different MLMs. I believe Herbalife, for example, is really concentrated in the recent immigrant community. If you are running a pyramid scheme you got to keep on the move to keep the cash rolling in. I also think the rise of Instagram has played a role in monetizing social networking, which is all MLMs are, and some people can manage to do that without actually getting involved in an MLM. So although online social networks were pivotal to many MLM just a few years ago I wonder if they are slowly moving the dynamic away from them. Either way itÂ’s a pretty fluid situation. They is a move to change the rules about MLM that brings them closer to the rules about more traditional business communities. I am curious if the MLMs will be able to fight off the rule changes for the umpteenth time again. Here is an interesting article about it:

https://www.vox.com/the-goods/227325...portunity-rule


Either way, IÂ’m fairly sure there is still plenty of stalking of MLM stories I will have in my future!

Dogmom, check out Illegal Tender podcast. They did a few episodes on MLM. There were like three episodes starting with "Getting in on the Ground Floor" and then some bonus eps with a few women who were in various MLMs and their stories. Also super interesting was their series about Aubrey McClendon's fracking energy "scam?" and the series about Anna Delvey the socialite scammer.

[AnnieW625]

So I am middle of the road politically and Catholic. My liberal non Catholic friend thought I was nuts for selling Beautycounter. I rarely post anything religious on FB.

My aunt is white, mid 60s, college educated, Armenian Christian and conservative. She has worked part time for the last 20 years or so (so once her kids were in middle and high school). My uncle is in finance for an airline charter company.

My BFF is 45, white, liberal, non religious, college educated, works part time, and her husband is state police officer. He recently switched from patrol to a another patrol position but with way more steady hours. She liked Pampered Chef because it worked with her husband’s old 24-7 rotating schedule. She likes it because it got her out of her house. Not sure what her schedule has been during Covid.

My Avon selling friend, is white, college educated, and Catholic started selling in her early 20s, Catholic, and sold for a really long time until maybe 5 years ago when she just had to stop due to not having enough time (she has a daughter with disabilities and her mom got sick and it was just too much for her).

My Mary Kay friend was in her 50s, lived in Texas, and had sold for years. She has since died of cancer about 4 years ago.

The people we bought our house from sold DoTerra. It took a while to get the smells out of my girls bathrooms. Wife of the house seller was Hispanic, ex military and her husband is a cop.


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[SnuggleBuggles]

I'm not seeing a political or religious connection where I live. I think that ms. pacman sees that connection because that is probably a big portion of her immediate population.

I don't have many friends that sell stuff but there are a few still around. Arbonne (sp?) is the one that hooked a few of my friends. Luckily the one only went along with it halfheartedly so she never got annoying. The other 2? They sound like they joined a cult.