Friday Fun: MLM

[dogmom]

The volume of MLM posts seems to have fallen in the last few years. I had many FB friends selling Rodan and Fields for years after a few from our larger moms group joined and recruited from that pool. Now I see a past co-worker posting very frequently about a weightloss program that she never names (I'll DM you is always the answer when anyone asks) and a CBD oil mlm that a neighbor sells. I wonder if my age has anything to do with the fall off. I suspect the prime recruiting grounds are mainly women who want to make money while staying home with their kids. They also crave the social belonging the mlms promote after being isolated at home with little kids. I don't get nearly the number of messages about joining an mlm as I did 5 years ago so I'm guessing most people I know have stopped selling.

LulaRich and The Dream podcast were both certainly eye-opening to me.

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. It’s like my true crime obsession so many people have.

I think since many people kid’s are getting older on this board we aren’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 it’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, I’m fairly sure there is still plenty of stalking of MLM stories I will have in my future!

[carolinacool]

Dogmom, it’s interesting that you brought up ethnicity demographics. I’m black, and I never really thought about it, but when I think back to that time I can only recall two black friends who sold MLM. And they were both married men. One sold pampered chef, although he never posted about it. I ran into him one day and he told me. The other sold some sort of wellness shake or supplement. I can’t remember the name, but I think Drew Brees was once affiliated with it.

I do you think there’s something to aging out. I’m on a Facebook group of local women. The vast majority are in their 20s to mid 30s (I’m 46). Most of them stay at home, and a good number of them seem to have husbands who work more blue-collar jobs. You’re not really supposed to talk about MLM products on the board, but what I’ve seen mentioned by far the most right now are weight loss/wellness supplements and nail products. There used to be another name that was really popular that I can’t remember, but maybe that was the old name for Colorstay.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

so add me to the list of someone who is obsessed with anti-MLM. i binged Lularich the day it came out. LOL. Thought it was so well done.

i agree with the posts that we're no longer the demographic as we get older. i think MLMs tend to target younger moms. some (like cutco) prey on college students.
also, i think most people here came to this forum who want to save $. getting into MLMs often preys on those who aren't as financially savvy, or at least are willing to pay hundreds of dollars on a "starter" kit.

i totally agree, i felt like 2011-2018 for me was MLM central. my facebook was flooded with it. i know i've complained many times here about it! i'm glad i'm in the tween age where i dont' have to hear about it as much.

i don't want to get political, but over the years i've found about 90% correlation between the women who peddle MLMs the loudest/longest and those who lean very conservative, and religious (Christian). At least the MLMs i was flooded with, which were: weight/loss, skincare, makeup, or oils. Rodan & Fields, Plexus, Thrive, etc. All these MLMs tend to focus on a very "traditional" image of women, who mostly stay at home and feel like they have to look a certain way, and tend to push the narrative of how moms who work outside the home must be neglecting their children (that's how they lure and recruit other moms to join, by exploiting the mommy guilt nerve). It's so gross. MLMs tend to really prey on church groups at the like. or even entire religious (see: Utah). it is super super predatory. So many people i know have lost a lot of money.

i'm so glad MLMs are getting exposed for what they really are. Lularich really did a great job. I listen to Roberta Blevins podcast too and the stories in there are horrifying.

[mom2binsd]

On my facebook feed most of the girls who do these are in their 30's, they do Famasi, the color nails, the thrive drinks. A coworker has lost a lot of weight, is a "health coach" but never says in her stories online that it's Optavia, which is super expensive. Also the "tea/nutrition drink places that pop up, are all Herbalife places and the girls who sell all the mlm crap also post about the clean tea they are drinking. It's sort of sad to see the same girls do this over and over. I had the misfortune of having to attend a hockey meeting at the same hotel where a "It works" convention was, it was so scary to see so many people who really though it worked!!!

The antimlm subreddit is very interesting.

When we lived in Utah my X tried to get us signed up as Vemma reps, I refused and he then secretly signed up for himself, he was on the hook for monthly boxes of vitamin drinks that continued to come to us, even when we were going through a divorce and broke.

[echoesofspring]

I think I've also aged out of the MLM demographic or just don't log into FB enough to see it. LuLu Roe has fortunately disappeared, that one was particularly maddening to me, b/c I'd see people get sucked into it and the desperately try to unload the inventory. I still know a person here or there selling a wellness shake product or beauty counter. I think there's another skin care line that pops up ever so often. Somehow I was outside of the social circles enough to know plenty of people doing it but not too many in my immediate circle.

i don't want to get political, but over the years i've found about 90% correlation between the women who peddle MLMs the loudest/longest and those who lean very conservative, and religious (Christian). At least the MLMs i was flooded with, which were: weight/loss, skincare, makeup, or oils. Rodan & Fields, Plexus, Thrive, etc. All these MLMs tend to focus on a very "traditional" image of women, who mostly stay at home and feel like they have to look a certain way, and tend to push the narrative of how moms who work outside the home must be neglecting their children (that's how they lure and recruit other moms to join, by exploiting the mommy guilt nerve). It's so gross. MLMs tend to really prey on church groups at the like. or even entire religious (see: Utah). it is super super predatory. So many people i know have lost a lot of money.

I used to get so angry about MLM's, I saw it less as a particular political leaning and more as indicative of how unfamily friendly the general US work culture is - that people (mothers) were falling prey to these schemes b/c they needed something with flexibility and for the most part didn't have a lot of other options. At the time when I was getting hit up hard by the MLM's I was freelancing (software eng), having kids and meeting different families gave me a new perspective on what my skill set gave me in terms of flexibility if I wanted it. I felt very fortunate. I used to day dream about creating some sort of program where I could train mothers and then have a little consultancy shop that would be family friendly etc. I never did pursue it, but I do wonder if maybe with the pandemic and the current worker shortage companies will start getting more creative about how they hire worker and maybe more part time/work from home opportunities will open up.

[wendibird22]

I think it definitely died down during the pandemic. My FB friends (I have a ton from my profession across the US of a wide range of ages) who did LulaRoe and Beach Body have gone silent. Two of my sorority sisters who were Beach Body coaches and posted their daily workout and their shake and little food containers haven’t posted about that in at least a year. The one had even built up quite a huge team under her and earned trips. But now she doesn’t post about it at all. I also stopped seeing posts about the never named teeth whitening product. And the essential oil people def got quiet during Covid because the ones I knew selling it aren’t science deniers and couldn’t support claims the oils would keep you from getting Covid.

I have a local man who posts about his weight loss plan. Never names it’s. Posts some recipes and weight loss pics of random people. And another local mom is still heavy into Norwex. And two who sell R&F.


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[gymnbomb]

They have died down a lot in my circle of friends too. For a while Usborne, nail products, jewelry, and Pampered Chef were big. The ones that really got me were all of the nutrition/weight loss/fitness coach scams my “friends” who don’t know me well enough to know I have a PhD in exercise physiology tried to sell me…


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[klwa]

Hmm. I'm definitely on the older side of things (45), but still know quite a few people who are involved in MLMs. ColorStreet, Scentsy, 31, and Herbalife seem to be the biggest ones I see now. (Although it seems that Herbalife has changed models somewhat and is encouraging people to open actual store fronts. Those "Nutrition on Main" places that keep popping up in various towns are almost all Herbalife.)

[carolinamama]

i don't want to get political, but over the years i've found about 90% correlation between the women who peddle MLMs the loudest/longest and those who lean very conservative, and religious (Christian). At least the MLMs i was flooded with, which were: weight/loss, skincare, makeup, or oils. Rodan & Fields, Plexus, Thrive, etc. All these MLMs tend to focus on a very "traditional" image of women, who mostly stay at home and feel like they have to look a certain way, and tend to push the narrative of how moms who work outside the home must be neglecting their children (that's how they lure and recruit other moms to join, by exploiting the mommy guilt nerve). It's so gross. MLMs tend to really prey on church groups at the like. or even entire religious (see: Utah). it is super super predatory. So many people i know have lost a lot of money.

i'm so glad MLMs are getting exposed for what they really are. Lularich really did a great job. I listen to Roberta Blevins podcast too and the stories in there are horrifying.

I find this concept so interesting and it correlates with my observations here. I mentioned that a bunch of women from a moms group I was in got involved in Rodan and Fields years ago. It was a MOPS group at a local church, where many of the moms were definitely conservative and religious. I've noticed several of those moms have jumped to another MLM since then. There's a reason I was only part of that group short term and, looking back, I was so naive. If you listen to Roberta Blevins, she has a few episodes discussing the connections to religion. The more I learn about MLMs, the more horrifying their practices are.

[khm]

Hmm. I'm definitely on the older side of things (45), but still know quite a few people who are involved in MLMs. ColorStreet, Scentsy, 31, and Herbalife seem to be the biggest ones I see now. (Although it seems that Herbalife has changed models somewhat and is encouraging people to open actual store fronts. Those "Nutrition on Main" places that keep popping up in various towns are almost all Herbalife.)

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.

A friend of my daughter's got a job at the one in our town. They made her do some shake diet for 14 days so they could put her stats on a post, I guess. This girl had not one pound to lose. She was 17 and a dancer/athletic girl! She was at dance talking about how tired she felt and the instructor about freaked out when the stupid diet came to light, the girls all agreed it was crazy she was doing that for her part-time job!

So, so gross. I wanted to post her story every time someone posted their stupid drink photo.

My daughter is off at college and I've warned to about the Cutco people and we've talked a lot about the Herbalife store and their tactics. There's a lot of anti-MLM on TikTok, she sees a lot of that there as well. Hopefully the next generation will be less and less into it.

There was a dark comedy called On Becoming a God in Central Florida that was basically Amway. It was so good. I think the pandemic killed hopes of a season 2, but it was really good if anyone is looking for something to watch. Kirsten Dunst and Alexander Skarsgard are in it.