MLM's - Some Tea

In this episode I’m giving you my opinions and experience on MLM’s, aka multi-level marketing companies. 

We’re covering some behind the scenes information, and I’m giving tips to those who are:

• Part of an MLM now
• Have friends in an MLM
• Used to be in an MLM

Let’s get into the tea.

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hi, you are listening to the Cheetah Print Chats podcast, and I'm your host, Jenny. I'm in my mid-40s, married, a dog mom, and a cat mom. I work for myself as a fitness mentor and lead for my group coaching membership, but I've also got a lot of experience in the corporate world. I've gone through a lot in my life, some good, some not so good, but it's all left me with a lot of life lessons that I want to share with you, as well as my nieces and nephews, which are who I started this podcast for in the first place. These are life lessons that, in my opinion, will never go out of style. Much like Cheetah Print. I hope that you're able to learn something from my life that benefits your life. Let's chat. Hi there, welcome back to the Cheetah Print Chats podcast. I am your host Jenny. Today I am finally giving you my thoughts on MLMs or multi-level marketing companies. Just my own opinions and experiences. I am not going to be quoting facts and data. As you may or may not know, I have been part of MLMs in the past, mainly Beachbody since 2018, but before then I sold CENSI and Avon. Right now I'm not part of any MLM. I do still sell Beachbody, which is now called Body, but it's an affiliate business model now versus MLM. And let me explain this real quick for anyone that doesn't know. MLMs or multi-level marketing companies are also known as social selling, network marketing, pyramid selling, pyramid schemes, whatever you call it, at high level, it means you sell something and get paid commission from the sale, but also you can sign people up under you to sell as well, and then you get a small portion of their sales commission, and then many times different bonuses depending on how many people you sign up or aka how big your team is. And also, well, and also team is called downline, and also how much you sell collectively. So in all the MLMs I know of, the more people that sell underneath you, the more money you make. Unless you're just really, really good at sales and you sell a ton. I will say that MLMs do work for some people, just not most. I mean, you can make money in MLMs, but I'm just saying to get rich, probably not gonna happen. In most cases, you have to be at the top, go viral, or just be really lucky. And yes, some people work their tails off and are successful, but that is extremely real. Rare. So, although I'm no longer in the MLM world, I still follow a lot of people that are or were. I guess that's why I'm seeing a lot about it lately. Maybe if you're not in this world or connected to it, you don't even notice. But if you're not connected to it somehow, you probably wouldn't even be listening to this episode. But I have seen it coming up a lot lately, so I just decided I'd bring it up here and give you my thoughts and my perspective, which has changed a lot over the years, by the way. My perspective, I mean, and I will explain that as we go. So about 10 or 11 years ago, I was very, very anti-MLM. Even though I had done Sensi and Avon and I didn't have an issue with it before. I guess I never thought of those as MLM because I didn't try building a team, nor was I asked to. I only sold the products. And I was not successful with either, by the way, but I do still believe they have great products. But the main company I was part of while it was an MLM, and now when it's not, was Beach Body, which is now called Body. It's mainly an app with workout programs and a couple nutrition programs, and then they sell some supplements and some equipment and clothing as well. It's just it's mainly the app and the supplements. So years ago, when I had first heard of it, maybe six, five, six years before I joined, I thought it was a total scam. I thought it was just a ploy to sell their shakes. I was a gym rat then. I still am a gym rat, I guess, but I was a snotty gym rat back then. I thought if you weren't lifting heavy in the gym and only using supplements the gym or some supplement store sold, you were wasting your time. And we all know that is not true. However, I will always, always advocate for everyone to be lifting weights, no matter your gender, but especially women, and especially as we age. Be that at the gym or at home with some dumbbells, because you can get great benefits with either. By the way, I love the body workouts and the shakes, so insert foot and mouth here, I guess. Anyway, the whole MLM thing that I was against, it was because I was listening to other people versus forming my own opinion. Clearly, I eventually changed my mind and joined body. I will say though that those thoughts crept in a lot over the years, and I think that's part of why I wasn't uh as successful with body as some, because those those subconscious or conscious thoughts will get in your way. But with body, when I was an MLM, you made a ton more money if you had a team. I never was able to make that happen, but now it's no longer a thing. Basically, if you want anything now, I give you a link to buy plus a code to save you money, and that's that. If you want support, you join my uh private fitness group, Club Next Level, which has nothing to do with body. There are Club Next Level clients that do body and some that do not. Totally separate. But back to my thoughts on MLMs. These companies and people that are part of them get a lot of hate. They're called huns or boss babes and a myriad of other things, all meant as insults. But it's not that they're bad companies for the most part, and most of the people that join do so with good intention. The name calling used to offend the crap out of me. But I can now see it from the other side, and I get why people were so mad. That being said though, being mad versus name calling and bullying are very different things. I 100% do not condone bullying on the internet nor anywhere else. Again, knowing what I know now, I can see why the anti-MLM group is so upset and angry. Some were lied to, maybe misled, they were hurt big time, and they're not over it. I hope for their sake they can eventually heal from it, maybe go to therapy, talk it out, versus bullying and carrying the hate and anger. It's heavy, and I hope they can just let it go, at least to a point to feel better and happier. Plus, unfortunately, they're bullying strangers that never did anything to them. They're bullying strangers that used to be in their shoes that just don't know all they need to know yet. They're bullying people that they could actually help. The people who hurt them never get the backlash. And yes, this is a little personal because I have been bullied by anti-MLMers on the internet. I had my picture taken from my page and it was put up on their page with some comment that I don't remember, just so their followers could make fun of me. And then I had like hundreds of them on my page and in my DMs just being mean. They didn't know me. It's completely disgusting. They eventually went away though, because they moved on to harass someone else. So if this is happening to you, block release, they'll go away eventually. And again, I do understand that they were hurt, but I did not hurt them. Maybe they were friends with their upline, or so they thought, and then they stopped doing the business and their upline just dropped them off the face of the planet. That would sting for sure. Or a variety of other things could have happened. Clicks, lies, maybe they were used. There are a lot of not so pretty things involved, but that's also not necessarily an MLM thing, because I saw it in the corporate world too. But again, the hate and anger from being hurt is being taken out on others, and that is not okay. I can at least see now through the anger deep down to heartbreak, but taking it out on strangers makes you just as bad, if not worse, than the person that hurt you. Plus, you don't know the people you're bullying on the internet. You've got to be careful because some of them will find you and sue you. Or worse, there are some feral people out there, and you could be bullying the wrong person, if you know what I mean. Just because you're behind a screen does not mean people can't find you, so be careful. So maybe if you're out there bullying anyone and everyone in an MLM, stop that now, and use your time on the internet to educate, speak out about the things that no one tells them, speak out about what you think is wrong, then let them make their own decisions. But bullying does not help you nor them. Alright. Anyway, being part of Body changed me in many ways, good and bad. And I will venture to say that had I been part of any other MLM company for long enough, it would have changed me too. And I know others change from being part of them because I can clearly see it in others because I went through it. And when I see it in others, it brings up a lot of emotions for me. So being part of the MLM environment in general, I guess it really comes down to specific teams, but all the teams start somewhere at the top. For me, as I mentioned, I feel like I changed in good ways and bad. In a way, I truly lost myself to be like other people in the business. Do what they do, look how they look, speak, how they spoke. And now that I'm a few years out, I can see that, and it makes me so sad. And what breaks my heart more now is I see other women going through it too. I see them turning into their uplines, trying to be successful. I have found myself, again, since those early years, or at least as much as possible for this season of life. If you're a regular listener, you know I'm going through a major life transition right now. Anyway, I was able to finally see what was happening to me, and I changed the way I did business. I started showing up as myself. I stopped messaging people out of the blue to buy stuff. I'm sorry that I did that, and I will talk more about that in a second. I had good intentions, but still, that sucks. I regret it. So, I mean, I guess I don't regret it because everything teaches you something. Anyway, so as I was seeing things more clearly, I knew I still loved body and I wanted to continue selling it because I truly believe it can help so so so many people. As long as you're in the right hands. Let me get off topic for a second. As long as you're in the right hands, meaning body has some really good programs, but some of them are TAD restrictive. And I'm speaking of the nutrition programs. Now the workout programs, some of the things said in you know, the three-week programs, like build your body in three weeks, like that's not true. I see the three-week programs and the four-week programs as like a stepping stone into building habits, not quote unquote building the body of your dreams in three weeks. It's just not true, you know, you can't build the body of your dreams in three weeks. But I do like those three-week programs because they are really good, like I said, to start yourself into building in habits of working out. Anyway, I'm speaking more about the nutrition programs. So I share with my clients how to use the nutrition programs in a way that does not feel restrictive, and I teach them how to use it in real life. Sorry, not sorry, we don't follow the food lists, and we don't follow all the rules because some of the rules are not sustainable, they're too stressful, they're not something clients can easily integrate into their lives forever. So I use, I mean, there's great information and tips in these nutrition programs. So I use those, but I teach my clients a different way to implement them. And if you've got a coach that is a super rule follower because they just don't know better, it can cause a really bad relationship with food. And that is what I mean by the nutrition programs being good, if you've got the right mentor. Okay, back to it. I wanted to continue selling, but not in the way that I had been taught. And now that I'm totally out of MLMs altogether and being on the outside looking in, I see even more that I did not see before. And that's what I want this episode to be about, even though I've been talking for like 20 minutes. Not 20 minutes, but anyway. I wanted to talk about it because it's got me in my feels a little. There's some sadness, embarrassment, empathy, some anger, although that's a tad more personal, so I might leave that alone. But there's also a lot of gratitude and feelings of appreciation. For one, I am extremely grateful for being introduced to personal development, or you may have heard it called personal growth or self-help. I never read those books, nor listened to podcasts or anything prior to joining Body, and they are great. Highly recommend. I still love these books to this day, and I have a very large to-be-read stack. I will say though, take time to read other books too, like just for fun books. Also, don't let anyone tell you what books you need to read. You should choose books that resonate with you and what you feel like you need. And definitely don't let anyone tell you that you're not making sales because you're not doing enough personal development. It's personal. Do it for you and you only. If you're not making sales, maybe you try a different approach to marketing, but it's not because anything is wrong with you. You don't need extra personal development to help you make sales. I will say it helps keep your confidence up when things get hard because they do get hard in all areas of life, but you see what I mean. I'm also grateful for the body programs. I've been doing the workouts now since 2018, and I'm not bored at all yet. Right now I'm actually finishing up a program and I'm torn between four others that I want to do. So you know, these keep me busy. And I'm grateful because I learned a lot about social media and a little bit about entrepreneurship, even though social selling isn't exactly that. And I was pushed out of my comfort zone and I grew a lot. All of that helps me now with Club Next Level and some other areas of life. We also had a lot of trips during our Beach Body body days, again, same company, but we went through a name change. Most of them were really fun. We made a lot of good memories, and I am still connected with a few ladies from our team. We're still friends to this day. I am extremely grateful for these friends and memories. Not all the trips were great. One I remember I really just wish I didn't go. So recently I've been seeing a lot of other multi-level marketing companies going on their annual trips. They're called conferences or called summits, and they are very similar to what we did. It's a lot of people from all over the US and sometimes other countries getting together in one city to connect, shop the products, learn about new products. You get together with your own team and some others. You have dinners, you take pictures, you make team reels. It was fun. I had fun for the most part. Again, on most of the trips, not all. I will never regret all the pictures. I love pictures, but I do not miss the real making very much. It was not my thing. Although some of them were pretty cute. Oh, and we also had matching shirts for many of the trips, which I actually love. Call me a dork, but I think it's fun, and I love when my friends and family do it to this day. I will forever agree to matching shirts or pajamas or whatever else. Back to my point. I have been seeing a lot of other companies going on their trips, seeing their pictures, seeing their matching shirts, and I miss that part of the business. But that's about it. Also, though, I know for many of these ladies there's a lot of drama behind the smiles. Everyone looks like a big happy family in team photos, but for most, they all don't get along. I mentioned there were some sad feelings coming up seeing all the ladies on their trips, and part of it is because of the things I said I missed, but a lot of it is because I see what happened to me happening to them. They are losing themselves. Trying to be someone else to fit in, doing what they're told. This is where empathy comes in too, because I get it. They're excited, they have big dreams, and they see what their coach does, and they try to do the same. And I don't think it's the coach's fault in many situations, as they lost themselves too and did what their coach said to do. It all comes from the top. We see them doing certain things, they're successful, so we do what they do. We looked up to them and we got sucked in. We lost who we were and acted like everyone else. That doesn't work though, because we are not other people. We need to be ourselves. We need to stand out. Being like all the other ladies in whatever company you're with does not help you stand out at all. And I'm not judging anyone here because I did it. And it's embarrassing to me. I actually just had a few photos of me come up on my time hop the other day, and I was like, who the heck is this? I didn't even recognize myself because I was emulating someone else, and I do not remember that picture, and I was like, oh no. But that's how I see it so clearly in others because been there, done that. As I mentioned, in the beginning, you're so excited. It's a new venture, you have high hopes, you have big dreams, you see a new life for yourself, and that gets you out of whatever you felt stuck in at the moment. For me, too. We just get really into all of it, and for me, a huge part of it was that I wanted to be part of a group, a team, which made it even easier for me to be sucked in, trying to be someone else that I'm not, just to fit in. Either way, I had huge hopes and dreams and was so excited I lost myself in all of it. I wanted to be successful so badly, I lost sight of a lot, and I acted like the women that came before me who were acting like the women that came before them. So when you see your friends like changing overnight, maybe this can help you see what they're going through. They're excited, they want this to work, they're coming from a place of belief, and most of them truly do love and use what they're selling, and they want to share it. So give them a break, you know. Support them. On that same note, if somebody from high school that you haven't talked to in 20 years ends up in your inbox about their new business, give them a break too. I know that sucks, and I know I did it again. I apologize for real. Some of you though, I was really just trying to connect, and unfortunately, at the same time a few years ago, I was trying to grow my business page as I was trying to connect with other people, and that they were totally separate things, but because of the timing, people just got the wrong idea. I was really just trying to connect for real though. Anyway, if you got a message from someone, if you're not interested, just tell them thanks for the thought, but no thanks. And if you're the one sending those messages, I'm going against all the sales reps out there, but no means no. In MLMs, we are taught that no means not yet, and to keep following up until we're blocked. And just saying that sounds crazy. Again, if someone tells you no, leave them alone. You can keep in touch, of course. Keep sharing your stuff on your own pages, keep you know, supporting them and whatever they're doing, stay connected, and if they want to buy in the future, they'll know you're there for them, they'll reach out. You don't have to keep getting in their inbox. To all my ladies that are in MLMs right now, step back and make sure that you're being yourself. Make sure you are forming your own brand, meaning you're being authentic, you are being you and not trying to be someone else. Make sure you're taking pictures that feel like you, that you feel cute in, versus trying to take pictures like everyone else. And look at the reels that you're making if you're if you're doing reels. Are you doing a bunch of dancing reels when you're not really a dancer and it's just awkward? Stop doing that. That awkwardness comes through to people seeing it, like it makes me feel awkward seeing people that I know they're uncomfortable and they're just doing it because they think they have to, but they can tell. That you're not being yourself. Do reels if you want to, of course. And if you like dancing, great, do it. But do something that feels right for you. For example, for me, I literally just talk to you in my reels. I may have a photo of something in the corner that I'm talking about, but not much else, and I definitely don't dance. If I'm dancing, it will be because one of my nieces or nephews made me, and I'll do anything for them. Anyway, you get to do what you want. Be yourself, because when you are yourself, you attract clients that are meant for you. You stand out. I'll tell you a story about that. I watched a coach get most of her clients from someone else sharing her pages. A supportive friend, for sure, but a friend that wasn't much like her at all. So her whole team was more like this other person versus like her. She didn't get along with most of her team because she wasn't attracting her people. She was getting someone else's. It's great that her friend was sharing all of her stuff for sure, and it got her a lot of sales, but it also brought in a lot of drama and people she did not click with. So again, be yourself. Take the time to find your people that like you for you. It'll make your life so much easier. And again, no means no. Keep in touch with people and they'll come back to you if they want your product in the future. If you reach out to someone to sell something and they say no and you drop off the face of the planet, that is not cool. I've had that happen to me too many times. And I've actually wanted their products later, but bought from someone else. Someone who talked to me on the regular versus disappearing when I said I didn't want to buy from them at that time. I remember very specifically this girl, this one girl and I talked back and forth for like two weeks. Then she asked me to buy her product. I said no. I never heard from her again. I was just a name on her list and nothing more, which sucked because I thought she was pretty cool and I thought we connected. Hopefully, I have never made anyone feel like that, and if I did, I am so very sorry. And I will say, behind the scenes MLM, we are told to make a list of people that we can reach out to to buy stuff. And a lot of women are taught, you know, connect first, talk to them for this amount of time, and then ask. Like, and and this is what this girl did to me, but then some women are taught like write your list and then just reach out and get to the point and ask them to buy something. On the other side, I'd rather just have you reach out and ask me to buy something. Don't go back and forth with me and act like you care and then ask me to buy. Again, if I did that to you, I'm so sorry. Okay, so let me get back to this. Um, this has been quite the ramble, but I guess in summary, I was part of an MLM, and now I'm not. And being out of it, I see things much more clearly. It's sad, embarrassing, I'm angry a little, but I also have a lot of gratitude for things that I learned and how I grew. And then if you're in an MLM now, be yourself. You do not have to do everything that your upline says. Also, no means no. If you know someone in an MLM, be supportive and try to understand that they're just really excited and really love the products. I don't regret being part of network marketing. But will I ever do it again? Right now I say no. So if I ever do it again, it won't be anytime soon, but I've also learned to never say never. If I ever do it again though, things will look much different. So some of this episode may have triggered you. If that is true for you, don't look at me. Look deep down and figure out why. Because it triggered you for a reason, and I don't have anything to do with it. I'm just sharing my thoughts and my experiences. If you have questions or want clarity on anything, reach out. But no, I will not be naming any names. These are my thoughts, even though there's a couple stories about a couple other people. No names, it's not about them. Hugs all around and tune in next week. For what we're talking about, I'm not sure yet. But it'll be fun. Thank you so much for listening. If you loved this episode, please leave me a review and share with your friends. To connect with me, find me on Instagram at Jenny302. That's J E N I and the numbers 302. Or you can find other ways to connect with me listed in the show notes. I can't wait to chat more with you.