TRADES OF HOPE | The MLM scheme disguised as an advocacy organization - A Deep Dive #ANTIMLM

hello welcome back to my channel and happy New Year this is my first video of 2024 if this is the first video of mine you're coming across welcome I'm so happy you're here my name is Hannah and I make a lot of videos about multi-level marketing companies specifically the problematic practices and reasons that people should not get involved with them so if that's your jam if you like learning about the ins and outs of these scamming companies I would love if you consider subscribing and sticking around I do upload new videos every single week and in preparation for the new year I wanted to make it a New Year's resolution of mine to stay on top of my inbox I have a specific email address dedicated to this YouTube channel and if anybody ever has a topic or a video suggestion or a piece of content they want me to look at for a video everything goes to that email and I was really really good about staying on top of it at the beginning of last year making sure that it was pretty much at zero all the time and that I never had any email sitting in there unlooked at but then I had a baby in April and let's be honest my email was the last priority already on my list at that point I had hundreds and hundreds sometimes even thousands of emails at a certain point that I just didn't get to I never looked at them I'm pretty good about sorting my email into like deep dive topics and horror stories and top fails content and stuff like that it got so out of hand and the reason I'm telling you all of this you're probably like get to the point please is that before we hit 2024 I made it my goal to spend the last couple weeks of the Year sorting through my inbox making sure that I have absolutely nothing in there leaving no email unread with the exception of horror stories that has its own little section in my inbox I sort through those as I'm getting ready for Horror Story videos but in doing this inbox organization I came across a very simple email I think it was literally one line and it just said have you heard of Trades of Hope and I thought to myself no I haven't I have no idea what this company is I've never heard about it before which is shocking to me I've been doing this content for over 2 years at this point and there's still companies I haven't heard of so I took myself to Google I typed in in the name of the company I went to their website and immediately I was like oh no we've got a really big topic on our hands here this is unlike any MLM company I've ever talked about on my channel before and that is the Deep dive we have for you today a short simple email such as that led me down this entire path of discovering an MLM I'd never heard of before that I'm excited to bring to you today so just as a side note if you've heard of a company that you've never heard me talk about on my Channel or you see something that's really unique about it and is problematic about about it shoot me an email it doesn't have to be extravagant you don't have to write me a dissertation on why I should make a video about it just the act of bringing something to my attention that I haven't heard about before is something I'm so grateful for so let's do this here is a deep dive into the multi-level marketing company trades of Hope at the beginning of these Deep dive videos I'd like to give a little bit of background and context on what an MLM even is in case you're new here and in case you just stumbled across this video and you have no idea how you even got to this place what you need to know is that a multi-level marketing company is a bus business model where a company sells its products through a network of Distributors and these Distributors have paid some amount of money to buy into this business opportunity the Distributors do earn some money from selling the products and earning a commission but they can earn even more money if they recruit new Distributors into their downline building a pyramid shaped team below them where they are now able to make a commission off of all of these team member sales as well mlms are problematic because a lot of people join them under the assumption that going to make some income from it yet most people over 99% of people actually lose money in the scheme it's structured in such a way that very very few people make any money at all and when they do it's because they victimize other people by recruiting them into the scheme below them a person's success in an MLM is directly correlated to how many other people they can recruit and that is so problematic because there's a limited population of humans on Earth the key to making money in an MLM is building the biggest team and that's a big problem because not every person who joins an MLM company can find enough other humans out there to join their team with them to get them to the levels of making good money and the company that we're focusing on today is unlike any MLM company I've ever featured on my channel before because of the nature of what they sell and how they Market themselves they focus very heavily on providing job opportunities to marginalize women in developing countries that's their whole angle and it is of my opinion that trades of Hope is an MLM company masquerading as an advocacy organiz ation at surface level they seem to be an ethical company with good intentions and morals but when you dig into it you discover that they're just another unethical MLM scheme kind of using the front of advocacy to draw people in you'll see what I mean pretty quickly it's very fascinating there are a ton of layers to it so let's get into that I should also make the disclaimer upfront that everything I'm showing you in this video came from the trades of Hope website and their own materials like their Compensation Plan and their own promo videos all of the sources I mentioned today are going to be linked in the description box below if you want to check them out for yourselves I highly encourage you to do so and everything in this video is my own opinion and my own interpretation of the information I saw I encourage you to do your own research read the materials for yourself and come to your own conclusions trades of Hope is an MLM company founded in 2010 by mother daughter Duo Gretchen and Elizabeth hykin according to their website they founded the company after learning about the atrocities women face around the world the lack of jobs for women forces mothers to give up their kids to orphanages increases the women's risk of being trafficked and keeps them in a cycle of poverty and oppression we traveled the world to listen to these women and this is the one thing they taught us they don't want charity they want an opportunity the mom Gretchen actually started and ran an orphanage in Haiti for 10 years before founding trades of Hope and the website says that they helped a 100 children get adopted from the orphanage but quote I wanted a better way to help these families and that's where you come in it says that they started Trad of hope so that mothers in developing countries could have an opportunity to make money so that they can keep their babies rather than giving them to orphanages because they can't afford to support them another page on their website says we exist to help mothers keep their children protect them and provide for a better future so all of this messaging on the website so far is implying that the trades of Hope MLM company was created to help women across the globe who are in difficult situations have an opportunity and make some money it's a compelling origin story rooted in compassion and in Good Will it tugs at the heartstrings a little bit I don't think any rational person would be like eh actually people do deserve to be so impoverished that they're forced to give up their babies of course not on a basic human level we can agree that people deserve to live a happy and comfortable life and keep their families intact you can't really argue that mothers should be able to make enough money to keep their babies okay so here's how trades of Hope operates because after all this is a video about a multi-level marketing company but it is not these women in developing countries that are a part of the MLM this is where it gets interesting because up until this point you might have thought to yourself that trades of Hope is providing an MLM business opportunity to these women all across the world and that it's being pitched to them as the opportunity to make money to support their families which is not actually the case there's two different groups of people in trades of Hope first we have The Artisans these are the women in these countries across the world and what they do is they create handmade Goods to sell we're going to get into the exact products in a second but these women are not part of the MLM they have not signed up for the trades of Hope business opportunity they are just The Artisans who are creating and supplying the product to the MLM so some MLM sell supplements some of them sell workout programs or leggings trades of Hope sells handmade goods from these Artisans the second group of people in trades of Hope are called the partners the these are the people mostly women who have signed up for the MLM in the United States they have joined the business opportunity and their job is to sell The Artisan's products make a commission from it and recruit other people in the United States to join the opportunity as well I have got so many thoughts on this business structure most of them unsavory and we'll get into that in detail later believe me but for now let's dive into these Artisans and their products a little bit more the trades of Hope Artisans sell handmade Goods such as jewelry handbags stationary even some select home wees and apparel the prices vary greatly depending on what you're buying most of the jewelry is in that $15 to $40 range handbags can be in like the $50 to $100 range some of them are even several $100 it truly just depends what you're buying and which Artisan you're buying it from usually in my deep dive videos this is the point where I make a point of saying how expensive these products are and how they're marked up and how you can find something similar at your local retail stores and you don't need to be supporting these companies but I don't really feel like that applies to trades of Hope the website states that the Artisans set the price of their pieces and trades of Hope as a company pays them 100% of that asking price before they even list it for sale on their website it's unclear to me if trades of Hope marks them up even further before they go on the website I would imagine that they would have to if they're going to make any money like The Artisan says I want $15 for this bracelet and then trades of hope says cool here's $15 and then we're going to turn around and list it for 30 on the website I don't know I mean I would have to assume that trades of Hope is marking them up at least a little bit because they are a business after all and they do have a profit to make here and they have these Partners in the business opportunity too and they're earning a commission on the sale of these products so they're going to have to factor that into the price as well the wording here makes it seem like they're buying the pieces off The Artisans and then they're selling it for a profit on the site I think that's what's going on something unique about the website is that you can filter to shop by cause or by country here's some examples you can help mothers keep their babies out of orphanages fight human trafficking help women leave abuse and discrimination create jobs for differently abled women send girls to school fight child marriage help provide clean water or you can shop by countries such as Cambodia Guatemala Haiti India Kenya Mexico the Philippines Thailand and many more additionally on every product listing you can read about the Artisan who made it and the impact of your purchase for example there's this beautiful ocean aot bracelet it's selling for $35.95 and you can click on the section that says Meet The Artisan to see that this was made by Nicole from the Dominican Republic who was a rescued victim of human trafficking and she's selling these bracelets through trades of Hope to provide for her son if you click on impact of your purchase it says the Dominican Republic is home to the third fastest growing sex trafficking industry in the world your purchase empowers women escaping domestic abuse and human trafficking with freedom and dignity personally I love the fact that you can be like I want to support this this cause in this country and my purchase is helping support this exact person in this situation there's something so beautiful and human about that it's pretty cool to know exactly who your product is coming from and who your money is going to support what sets trades of Hope apart from other mlms I've looked at is that the products are legit they're not scammy they're not selling magical lotions and potions and oils claiming to cure cancer they're not over promising anything they're not making Health claims it's just handmade goods from Artisans around the world who are in need of an income and I think that's really respectable all of this is good and dandy so far until we remember the fact that trades of Hope is an MLM company unfortunately this is not just a feel-good story about a great company with a happy ending the reason we're talking about trades of hope today is because they've got this darker MLM component to them that in my opinion taints the image of the company and its cause truthfully if the story did end there and trades of Hope was just a retail website where you can buy these handmade goods from artisans around the world that would be great I'd have no issue with that I would support that and this video would not exist but of course they've got to go ahead and ruin it by making it an MLM company so let's dive into that side of it here's a brief promo video for the business opportunity that I found on their website human trafficking is growing and so I want to be a part of something that's growing a Sisterhood that's growing to combat it and the cool part is like the cherry on top is that we get to do it in a way that just infuses the world with beauty and Hope what I love about trades of Hope is that it has given me the opportunity right from my home or right within my community to know that I can make a global impact I just love that I can make a difference from my own home I can um do something that's really fun and uh not too hard it's just beautiful products that I get to market for these Artisans I get to have fun with it and uh work from my home and just be with my girls and at the same time know that I'm making a difference around the world what I love most about Trad of Hope is it gives me a purpose every day I wake up with a heart full of gratitude that I get to help women around the world myself being a mom to both biological and adoptive kids I couldn't imagine having to relinquish my children just because I couldn't provide for their basic needs so I love to share these stories because I know that these women are able to keep their families and that's a beautiful gift we can share with others this purposeful work has changed my life has changed changed things for our family and how I have changed personally I feel like I finally found where I belong and that's why I love trades of hope there is always hope for her there's always hope for her for her for her for her for her there's always hope for her when you are together you can bring a change you can show your power okay so this has a lot of the MLM language we're used to I get to work from home I get to be with my kids I'm making a difference in other people's lives this is a Sisterhood you get the idea remember that the people participating in the MLM business opportunity are not The Artisans The Artisans are just providing the products for the MLM reps to Market and make a commission on and from the looks of this video the MLM reps seem to mostly consist of white ladies in America we cannot gloss over the fact that the imagery featured in this promo video and that's plastered all over the trades of Hope website and all of their marketing materials feels like it is playing into the white savior complex here's a definition that I think sums this up well the white savior complex also known as white saviorism is the ideology that a white person acts upon from a position of superiority to rescue a black indigenous or person or community of color at the root of this ideology is that white people believe whether they realize it or not that they have the knowledge or the skills to solve people of color problems worldwide and that they can just swoop in and fix everything because they're somehow more capable and qualified and equipped this ideology is of course false it's rooted in racism and it's very harmful and it's a tricky and nuanced topic to discuss because at surface level the desire to help other human beings is Noble it's respectable and it's usually coming from a place of wanting to do the right thing and make a positive difference in many cases people perpetuating the white savior complex either don't know they're doing it they don't mean to do it they're not intending to do it they're just trying to help but sometimes the help that's being provided is some kind of quick fix Band-Aid type Solution that's not actually combating the root of the issue the systems in place the policies in place that are keeping these marginalized communities in that position and sometimes the motivation behind swooping in and doing this good deed is to feel good about yourself or to receive some kind of recognition or praise it's like when someone you know goes on a mission trip to a developing country to build houses or something and then later they're posting pictures of themselves posing with the locals and every comment underneath that is like OMG Emily you're so amazing you're so loving you're so charitable you're such a good person it's always just kind of rubbed me the wrong way because I'm like What's the motivation behind all of this why is this picture being taken why are you posting it are you trying to do this for praise are you trying to come across as the savior in this situation flaunting your good deed for recognition kind of negates the good deed I feel like and I bring all of this up because these are the same Vibes I'm getting from the MLM side of Trades of hope not the Artisan side not the fact that these women are creating handmade Goods to support their family but the fact that there's a us-based MLM business opportunity that appears to be catering to mostly white middleclass women to make a commission off of these Artisan's work and in that promo video for the business opportunity did you notice how there is a lot of eye statements all about how being a part of Trades of Hope makes them feel good about themselves I'm making a difference I've found my purpose I'm where I belong I get to be home with my kids I'm making an income for my family it's a whole bunch of promo about how great it is that you can help women in developing countries and how great that makes you feel about yourself and how you can benefit financially from that too too I'm just saying I don't like it it feels a little slimy and in fact this promo video is what sealed the deal for me on the fact that I had to make a video about this CU I went to the trades of Hope website I clicked on the opportunity Tab and I watched the video boom boom boom those are my first three steps and immediately I was like ooh I do not like the way this looks we have to dig into this a little deeper so I'm going to link a few more articles below about the white savior complex if you want more information about it or if you want more specific examples about what this looks like in the the real world and what you can do to combat it it's obviously a very complex and nuanced topic that I'm just scratching the surface on in this video and there's absolutely more qualified more eloquent people out there who can explain the intricacies way better than I can so I highly encourage you to check those out but in the context of Trades of hope it looks like here we have these typically white women who have signed up for an MLM business opportunity in the United States so that they can make some money by selling products and recruiting people in typical MLM boss babe fash but they're framing it like they're being so charitable by helping these poor less fortunate women halfway across the world almost like a bragging right almost like they can justify being in an MLM scheme because they're doing a good deed and it's for a larger cause or something in fact the front page of the trades of Hope business opportunity plan their Compensation Plan says create Fair dignified jobs for women globally and earn extra income for your family again featuring pictures of American women helping black indigenous and people of color I think this kind of marketing is really problematic because they're capitalizing on the idea that if you join our company and if you become a trades of Hope partner you are creating jobs for women around the world the very next page of the business opportunity plan says when you become a partner the more you sell and the more women you bring on as partners aka the more people you recruit directly correlates to more work a woman has to lead her family out of poverty this kind of language is making seem like we the privileged Americans are going to do our duty of recruiting as many people as possible so that we can save the day and rescue these women from a life of poverty like by doing what by joining an MLM you're not going to solve the poverty crisis by joining a pyramid scheme I'm sorry you're just not and it's like okay are you really joining trades of Hope because you want to do good in the world or are you joining so that you can make some money and work from home and have time freedom and feel good about yourself trades of Hope hope is a multi-level marketing company disguised as advocacy work and it prays on people's desires to want to make a positive change in my opinion of course and that is apparent just in the language the company uses the reps are called partners because they're partnering with these Artisans and here's what's really gross if you want to host a trades of Hope home party like the kind where you invite a bunch of friends and serve cold cuts and Pitch the products and expect people to buy from you if you do that you are now called an advocate and the party is called an advocate event the web page for these home parties says want to receive your fair trade faves for free and stand with survivors of human trafficking you can as an advocate you are not an advocate that's insulting you're somebody hosting an MLM home party so that you can earn shopping credits and discounts on the products when your friends buy stuff from you I think that's what bothers me the most it's not that these Artisans are creating handmade goods and selling them that's great love that great cause to support I wish it ended there the issue is that this company has taken on an MLM business model when they really don't have to there's no point in that they could just sell it retail on the website instead but no they're offering this business opportunity where we now have people in the US cosplaying as poverty and human trafficking Advocates when in reality they're just stuck in a pyramid scheme they're after the money they're chasing commissions they're chasing ranks they're trying to recruit as many other people as possible so that they can make more income and they want the praise and the recognition for how great of a person they are for supporting such a noble cause whether they realize it or they're willing to admit it or not those are the reasons people join the MLM it's not out of the goodness of your heart you're not doing something charitable you're doing it for money and here's another important thing to point out is that the earning potential for these upper ranks of the MLM is so much greater than what The Artisans are getting paid for their work remember that if you get into an MLM company early enough and you build a team large enough it's not unheard of for these people in the top ranks to be making thousands to tens of thousands of dollars a month it's certainly not probable that you're going to get to that level right it's a pyramid scheme after all but it would be really interesting to see overall how much money the company is paying out to its us partners in the MLM versus how much they're paying the artisans for their products it just kind of makes you wonder who is benefiting the most from this partnership between Global Artisans and us-based MLM Huns the whole thing feels self- serving there's something in it for the MLM reps and their advocacy feels performative like if you really wanted to help people and be selfless you wouldn't do so by trying to make money off of them you know in fact there's a part of their Compensation Plan that says by building a team you create a wave of community and influence and more consistent sustainable work for our Artisan Partners so they're kind of framing it like the more people you recruit the more you're helping trying to make it seem like recruiting people into an MLM company is such a great selfless Act that is serving these women in developing countries when in reality it's benefiting you the most you're the one building a large team you're the one rising in the ranks and earning more and more money off of your downline not The Artisans you're not doing this for them you're doing this for yourself all of this language feels disingenuous and like it's meant to trick people into recruiting more which after all is what the MLM needs to survive and make money on the basis that it's actually helping people and another thing I'm thinking about is that these MLM reps when they're going out there into the world to sell these products they're able to tap into buzzwords like fair trade ethical fashion shop small in order to push sales to make more commission unlike some other mlms they're not saying buy these magic pills so you can lose weight no they're saying buy a fair trade necklace to support a victim of human trafficking in Nepal that is so compelling and it obviously tugs at the heartstrings of the customer and potentially results in these reps making more money because they can rely on these women's stories and experience expences as a sales strategy in a way that other mlms can't trades of Hope is unique because it has a charitable philanthropic humanitarian image that draws people in to want to support it which is pretty dang convenient for these reps who are looking to make a commission because they can pitch it as buy my product or join my team and you'll be supporting a great cause which I guess isn't completely untrue I suppose I mean The Artisans are benefiting from having their products marketed and sold it does create an income for them they are getting paid for it however remember what I said at the beginning of this video that The Artisans are paid for their work before the products even hit the website the way I'm understanding how this all works based on the frequently asked questions on their site is that they're essentially buying these products wholesale from The Artisans and then they take that stock and then they're selling it on the website so it's not like these MLM reps are directly connected to the Artisans if that makes sense it seems like The Artisans are getting paid whether or not the us-based MLM rep sells their product or not so I'm disappointed that trades of Hope is functioning under an MLM business model because why The Artisans have already been paid they've already been compensated all the company has to do to make some money now is Mark it up a little bit and sell it on the website you don't need these MLM reps involved at all you don't need a Compensation Plan why involve this commission and recruitment based sales structure At All by having that by having salese that you need to pay a commission out to now you're going to have to increase the price of your products on your website cuz the price is accounting for paying the Artisan making a profit as a company and paying out a commission to these salespeople and I think that's what's really deeply disappointing to me is if you just cut out all these MLM reps you'd have a great business model why do you have to be an MLM and they actually kind of address this on their website too and they say that they became an MLM because by having lots of Partners AKA sales people who've signed up for the business opportunity they're able to Market these products on a wider scale therefore creat creating more of a demand and more of an income for The Artisans so rather than having a budget that goes towards traditional marketing and advertising instead they're offering this business opportunity where they're going to pay people when the product sells it's a lot more costeffective for the company if they don't have to spend money on things like Billboards and commercials and web ads and instead they now have people literally paying them to become their advertisers these people pay to get a starter kit and to join the business opportunity and then they go out in the world and they promote these products for free and the company only has to compensate them if they successfully bring the company a sale that is genius actually Evil Genius quite unethical in my opinion I'm not saying you should do this but it's understandable why they do this so that's why trades of Hope Has structured as an MLM and it's really upsetting and really disappointing to see considering how bad of a reputation mlms have these days I do wonder if the fact that they are an MLM hinders their s sales because speaking for myself if I'm on their website and I'm like oh my gosh this company supports fair trade it gives a platform for Global Artisans to sell their handmade Goods love that oh wait it's actually just an MLM company I don't support MLM companies I don't give my money to product based pyment schemes even if those products are coming from women around the world it makes me wonder how many customers they're missing out on because of the fact that they operate as an MLM I would love to support the work of these women there's some beautiful pieces for sale on the website but don't want to support an MLM so I guess I'll just stay out of it it's kind of ironic that they claim to sell Fair Trade jewelry in ethical fashion but they operate as an MLM which is found to be highly unethical because of the pay structure and speaking of the pay structure let's touch on the Compensation Plan quickly something I found funny in their frequently asked questions is that it says you don't need to be good at selling in order to join trades of Hope because quote you're not a salesperson you're a Storyteller okay yeah yeah yeah again relying on these women's experiences and their stories and their tragedies to sell a product so you can make a commission great love that but it's also kind of hinting at come one come all more the marrier no experience required because this is just a money-making scheme so you don't have to have experience we're not prioritizing quality candidates as our salespeople more Warm Bodies the better we just need a consistent flow of recruits to keep this company alive it's 1995 to buy the starter kit and to join the business opportunity and for that 1995 you get three products to keep for yourself this is like their little starter kit one of the ways MLM companies try to stay on the legal side of it and not be deemed a pyramid scheme is they have to offer you something in exchange for your buyin costs this is commonly called a starter kit and so trades of Hope starter kit gives you a mandala dish a bag of coffee and a necklace once you sign up you also have to pay $9.95 per month for your replicated website and back office so that's going to cost you approximately $120 a year additionally there are monthly Pur personal and downline volume requirements and you can achieve this volume by selling the product or by purchasing the product so let's say you're trying to go for the next rank up and in order to hit that you have to sell $300 in the month but you're having trouble selling what can you do you can buy a product for yourself instead to hit those requirements the Compensation Plan allows you to do that so what that might turn into for some people is that they're continually spending their own money month after month after month to hit these requirements and maintain these ranks this is the biggest way lose money in an MLM cuz you're giving so much of your money to the MLM and you're not making as much of that back in commissions Partners who sign up for the business opportunity can earn between 20 and 35% Commission on their own personal sales and they can also earn between 1 and 9% off of their downline sales when they recruit people and build a team how high your percentage of commission is depends on how high your rank is so a higher rank equals higher commission percentage equals more money you can make the compensation plan is textbook MLM you climb the ranks by selling and recruiting and the higher you go the more money you make and the true earning potential lies within recruitment because obviously if you're able to make commission on tons of other people's sales in addition to your own then you're going to make more money if you focus on recruiting than if you just focus on selling and the way the whole thing is designed to work is for very few people to make it to the top of the company meaning very few people make good money at all and most people sit in the bottom ranks of the compensation plan because they're struggling to recruit and therefore they're losing money all of this is completely 100% typical for an MLM this is the way it was designed to work after all it doesn't matter what MLM company you're looking at they're all structured exactly like this what I find hilarious is that they have a section on their opportunity plan that explains all the ways they're different from a pyramid scheme and their website also has a section that says they're not a pyramid scheme because quote pyramid schemes are illegal let me just say this if you have to address somewhere whether that be your website or your Compensation Plan that you're not appearing pyramid scheme then yeah you're probably a pyramid scheme because legitimate companies and businesses do not have to spend their time explaining to people why they're not a scam remember that yes pyramid schemes are illegal and so is stealing running red lights and murder doesn't mean it doesn't happen you just have to get caught if you're going to suffer the consequences and when the time and resources are taken to investigate MLM companies they're often times forced to shut down or restructure because they're found to be pyramid schemes just because something is illegal does not mean it doesn't exist hence product-based pyramid schemes such as mlms the final portion of my deep Die videos usually includes a breakdown of the company's income disclosure statement but trades of Hope doesn't have one an income disclosure statement is a document that the company can choose to release if they want to they are not required to and it shows us how much money the people at the different ranks are making typically on a yearly basis and typically in terms of averages and median incomes income disclosures are such a helpful visual aid when explaining how mlms are pyramid schemes because they show us in concrete numbers that most people make no money at all and those who recruit the most make the most so it's not entirely surprising to see that companies are unwilling to release these statements it doesn't make their opportunity look very appealing so a lot of times it's best to just conceal that information and leave the earning potential up to people's imaginations a trend that I've noticed is that a lot of the bigger more popular mlms will will release an income disclosure statement and I think that that's because the top ranks make so much money like millions of dollars a year sometimes and that looks impressive and flashy and you can use that as an enticing recruitment strategy to show people what the potential is because everybody believes they can make it to the top right so to see that people at the top are making a million dollars a year you're going to want in on that opportunity but in order for the people at the top ranks to be making these insane numbers the company has to be huge you you need so many people that have bulked up the bottom of that pyramid to make those top numbers really impressive but with these smaller lesser known mlms my theory is that even the people at the top ranks are not making that much money it's not that impressive and so they're not going to publish it because we don't want people knowing that most people don't make money and if you do make money it's not even that much probably in their best interest to not have an income disclosure statement and not show us the figures that's understandable my final thought on trades of hope is dang I wish it wasn't an MLM I wish they left the direct selling model out of it because I think it puts a tarnish on the reputation of the entire company many people know that mlms are unethical and many people don't support mlms and so therefore they might be riding off trades of Hope completely because they don't want to support that business model I feel so conflicted because I want to love the company I think they've got some really promising things going for them in the form of their mission of giving women in marginalized communities around the world a platform to create and to earn I just cannot get behind the MLM side of it I can't it feels like it doesn't belong it feels like there's no need for that there's no reason that this should be an MLM other than the company just wants to save some money on traditional advertising so they're offering this business opportunity instead it has all the Hallmarks of an MLM where people in the US are joining in hopes of bettering their lives by way of time Freedom Financial Freedom working from home more time with their families yada yada you know the drill but trades of Hope is unique because they're not selling diet pills or essential oils they're selling the desire to support Women in Need which yes is a great cause in itself but not when it's being achieved through a pyramid scheme I am so interested to read your comments on this one because this is unlike any MLM company I've ever featured on my channel before and there's some really nuanced topics like poverty and race and human trafficking and ethical issues some of the lines are blurred for me because I don't think the entire company is bad I do agree with where they're sourcing their products I do agree with what it stands for and its Mission I just hate that they've chosen to operate as an MLM I think they are doing themselves a great disservice and with that that's everything I have for you for this video today I can't wait to hear your thoughts on this one thank you to the person who sent me that very simple email bringing this company to my attention and let me know what company you'd like to see a deep dive on next thank you so much for watching I really appreciate you and I'll see you in my next one real soon [Music] a

Channel: Hannah Alonzo

Views: 105,876

Keywords: anti-mlm, monat, monat global, monat hair loss, mlm fails, mlm top fails, why you shouldn't join an mlm, don't join an mlm, leaving my mlm, anti mlm community, arbonne, mary kay, lularoe, plexus, beachbody, doterra, young living, pyramid scheme, scam, lularich, awakend, mlm scam, mlm horror stories, finance, investing, mlm experience, mlm products, worst mlm companies, mlm scams explained, network marketing training, network marketing tips, mlm strategies, trades of hope, deep dive

Id: nFoFjSH_cmw

Length: 35min 35sec (2135 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 08 2024