WHY I QUIT THE MLM INDUSTRY AT THE TOP | ANTI-MLM HORROR STORY

once a year MLM companies love to rent out stadiums and event centers and slap their name all over it they built massive stages and hire an impressive light and camera crew and sometimes have fireworks and entertainers like Andy Cohen Mario Lopez and Kelly Clarkson they paid thousands of dollars to hire self-help speakers who know how to strategically pump you up as they encourage you to go for more they have private parties and bring in high-priced caterers they have their top distributors and beautiful clothes ready to share how you two can have it all if you just believe MLM companies love to make these events larger than life then they hire a production team to cleverly edit every thrill every big moment every firework in twirl and package it together making sure to leave out anything that doesn't make your heart race then they sell you the dream and tell you how you can miss next year's event you have to build financial freedom starting today and they want to help you do it because they care and I fell for all of it I attended every team call every corporate call I stopped going out on weekends with friends so I could work my business I read every self-help book Under the Sun and when my upline said Jeff I asked how high I was a product of the product I used words like sisterhood dream big business opportunity and believes cliche sales phrases like I know has never no it's just a nut right now and you're making short-term sacrifices for a long-term gain and even don't give up on your dream I took selfies bought planners and wrote down my every goal and piece of content I would post over the next month to hustle or the dream I did my miracle mornings and expected a mirror I never put my phone down and was always on I attended exclusive team retreats and earned corporate trips and prizes I got to speak at events and never missed a monthly sales quota for over five years I built a team and had dinners and special retreats and photoshoots and it believed I was the ultimate hashtag girl boss and was going to help other women lead the way and build a bridge to financial freedom I even got to be on those stages and accept Awards so where did it go so wrong when I got to peek behind the curtain of the 1% in three different companies and I realized wait it's not the company the system is designed to fail I didn't speak out for almost two years after quitting multi-level marketing because I was embarrassed and ashamed that what I had promoted for so long turned out to be a lie I also saw how oversaturated the MLM industry was becoming and I honestly thought it would fade away but that didn't happen at all now with the global pandemic and seeing how many MLM companies are preying on innocent and scared people people who will become victims like myself and so many others I knew it was time to speak up this is my story of why I left the multi-level marketing industry after being at the top I have what to create this video several times and the past year and a half and every time I just couldn't do it getting ready to record this video today I got sick at least four time I didn't run to the bathroom I was so nervous to make this there's a reason that people don't speak up when they leave an MLM when they were in the top of the pyramid when they were in the 1% and it's because the shame and the guilt eats them up people will absolutely come for me and say oh the reason she's speaking out the reason she left is because she wasn't as successful as she said she was she didn't make any money she didn't put in the work she didn't help her team or she didn't attend enough to call she did read enough personal development she's negative these are all the things I know that they're going to say about me because I said them myself about people who left I am to that point though where I can no longer stay silent anymore I will not put on a smile and just not talk about what I saw and encountered well in multi-level marketing community based marketing network marketing direct sales they're all the same thing and be guilted into not speaking up I've done being a good girl if it makes me a bad person for speaking up I don't care if it saves one person from going through what I went through over the six years that I was in multi-level marketing then it's worth it an MLM biggest weapon that they can use against you and that they do use against you is shame it's the shame that when you're in the cult book when you're in multi-level marketing it's that you're never doing enough you're never working hard enough you're never being enough you need more and more and more and more and more you need to do more more more more more you need to help more people as always there's always a mission that an MLM is trying to perpetuate as to why they're helping people as to why they're helping save the planet Earth saying you people's health or whatever it is there's always a mission and they use that as a weapon to guilt you into to stayin in to working so hard working yourself to death practically bugging your friends and family because you're you have a bigger purpose now and so it's that shame that like I'm never enough I need to do more I need to not be be negative there's so much toxic positivity in the culture that it's it completely represses you from it tries to repress you from feeling anything other than positivity happiness and joy which completely denies the human experience so when you do start to feel things like guilt or be unhappy or anger at what you're seeing happen or maybe that what you've been told is going to happen isn't happening all of a sudden you're thinking oh wait I'm being negative and so you're completely repressing all your normal human emotions under the guise of toxic positivity and an MLM doesn't just use that shame against you when you're on the inside they use it against you and you're on the outside because you start to wonder once you leave oh my gosh did I make people feel this way did I make people feel like they weren't good enough did I not try hard enough myself am i giving up too soon will I be seen as negative for speaking out and it's all this shame that just compresses you down and and it breeds silence and more shame and so you never really hear or I really heard the top 1% speak up but I have heard others who have left speak up and just their own stories I could see myself in and I if they only knew what happened at the top my deconstruction really started when I remember and I think it was 2016 I was at a retreat with my upline who made over three million a year and there were a few others there who were in a million millionaires club as well and I remember looking around at everybody in their retreat like I was so excited to be there and get to be around like these people that I viewed successful because keep in mind it doesn't matter if you're making $1 or $1,000,000 in multi-level marketing it's never enough it is never enough your best will never be good enough and you always need to do more you always need to reach next tier because it's going to be better up here you're going to be able to experience a better life up here you're gonna be able to do so many more things and it's not true and at this retreat I just looked at everybody I was thinking why would any of these people happy they're making seven figures like this is what we're told brings the financial freedom this is what we're told we are working so hard for it and nobody was happy throughout the several days we were at the retreat we never left the house once it was like a mansion that my upline had rented and we never left it one time not even to go out to a dinner because everybody was so exhausted everybody just wanted to relax when their bandannas because they were so exhausted we were constantly burnt out we were hamsters in a wheel and that was really when things started to break down for me and I was shown behind the curtain because I got scared and I thought what am i working so hard for if they're not happy if nobody's happy if nobody in this company is happy and so I thought it was just a company right I thought it was the company and when I switched to another company I found out oh no it's this one - what's going on my upline in my last company that I was in making 30 to $40,000 a month I saw her statements I saw them she was so stressed out I can't tell you how many leaders in the top 1% that I saw get so sick and have to be hospitalized from illnesses caused by stress like doctors literally couldn't put their fingers on what exactly was happening why they were so sick and they couldn't none of the doctors could say like oh yeah it's this thing you have this disease the idea they all told them I think you're stressed I think this is from stress that's really scary and I started to look around and think wait why are we like preaching this lifestyle that it's going to get better and better once you get up to this ring because obviously it doesn't obviously it's just harder and harder and harder so let me back up let me tell you my story of how I got into network marketing I want to be clear that I don't believe the people in these companies are evil I believe them to be victims and I will make some other videos talking about psychology behind why I believe them to be victims why I look at them as and myself when I was in it as no different than those indoctrinated into a cult and I want to make very clear that the people who I believe are evil are the companies themselves and the CEOs at the top I was a hair stylist from a very small town in Missouri and I had left the church for many reasons after I went through a divorce in my early 20s I had probably been out of the church for about five years or so and having been raised in church and with that church community and you know the community that you see every single Sunday where you give each other hugs and it's all great I missed that I missed that but I was not going to go back and what do you know entered marketing minutes or MLM I found a product that I really liked and it was a weight loss shake or a meal replacement a protein shake which I drink protein shakes since high school so for me it wasn't weird for me to to drink one you know it wasn't something brand new to me and I always thought that those things seemed a little bit scammy but I never really knew much about them I had just heard of pyramid schemes and then while researching the company I came across a video from a woman who I would then join and she would be coming up lying and her video seems so genuine she seemed to share her heart out she had been a bartender she had you know been able to Pam all this debt she had been able to completely and radically change her life and she was sitting with the CEO and they were flower they were showering her with all these flowers and gifts and trophies and plaques and and money and all these beautiful trips and incentives and I thought oh my gosh like this is amazing like this is absolutely crazy and I thought you know what she doesn't seem scammy like she's not blowing at my inbox and she she says she doesn't cold message so I reached out to her and that's how I got started and I was a hairstylist in debt I had medical debt I miss having that community so immediately when I was brought into her groups and the groups of everyone in the company I just loved bombed right like we want to introduce you to our newest member and everyone in the group is saying welcome welcome oh my gosh so good to have you welcome so happy you're here or Yatta Yatta like girl you're gonna do great and I just thought oh my gosh these people are so nice I've never had all this support where's it coming from I want to be clear that it is all conditional yeah there might be some people that I still talk to from that time and I still talked to some people from who we're on my team and you know I have nothing but for those people but I want to be very clear that the majority of the friendships II will make in an MLM are conditional and as long as you are in the inside and you are being a product of the product and you are promoting the company and you are trying to build your team and you're you know helping people you are loved you are supported but the instant you start questioning the instant you think I don't know if this is for me or I don't know about this or if this seems kind of wrong why would why would the CEO put this out why the company put this out this I don't know what's going on here like instantly you are told to not question to what to not to not be negative so I ended up spending almost six years in network marketing and by the end of it I had went through so much financial stress grief oh my gosh I lost so many friendships friendships but including a best friend of mine who had been my best friend for eight years and had signed up under me she blocked me when I left and I spoke out against the company and it's just you know I don't like I said I think that these people are victims and I know that I was so indoctrinated into the companies and I thought that I would be with them forever like my first company I thought that I would be with them forever like never leave I thought it was it was gonna be you my thing forever and then the house of cards fell and they fell hard 16 months after joining my first MLM I was able to quit my job as a hair stylist and you know I thought I was sharing a product I loved I thought I was helping people I was helping people lose weight I was speaking about health and wellness and fitness which I loved and I didn't realize that 99% of the people were losing money I didn't realize that the company most all NLM's all of them they do not have the distributors best interest at heart and so slowly I started seeing and peaking behind the curry but I did all the things I was supposed to right now I constantly talked about the opportunity I posted three times a day I shared the lifestyle I showed the lifestyle right and I remember feeling like I had to show like my car and it just felt icky like I I think I posted maybe two or three pictures of the Mercedes that I bought and it just felt icky and by the second or my last company I was in I say two and a half because my second one I was only in for like 90 days and I was just like this is that for me was a brand new company it was wine and I was like you know this is not for me but the amount of cyberbullying I went through when I would start with the new companies the cyber bullying from my past company was insane and I was being attacked and then you know I think did I attack people when they laugh did I did I talk negatively about them I did I block them because they left like you know when I scare it that something was going to poach my team because that's the you know the rumors I've always go around and you need to block them tell your team to block them they don't need to be looking at what they're promoting or that they can earn so much more money over there it's this vicious cycle of turning everyone against each other when really is the CEOs that we should be turned against by my last company I thought each company would be different that's what you'll hear a lot of people say when they go to a new MLM like oh my company is different my company is not like that they're all the same whether it's a binary or unilevel compensation plan they're all the same and in my last company I remember earning the $500 Oh a month car Bonus meaning that that money wouldn't be coming to my account but if I went out at least a car under my name then they would pay the dealership five-year dollars every month however I would have had to spend about a thousand dollars maybe eleven twelve hundred dollars on product a month to get that five hundred dollar car bonus and it didn't even matter if I sold ten thousand dollars of product from my product website I still had to order a thousand dollars of product myself every single month and yes I was told to I should be selling that product right but I just I was like how does that make any sense look what everything that these companies do is to put is to protect them and the higher you get up in the the pyramid the harder it is to break away and admit that okay this isn't all it was cracked up to be because it's cognitive dissonance right so you think you had these rules in your head about what's moral what's right your values and then you start doing something that you think is all about it about your morals and your values and your belief system and then you get deeper and deeper in and all of a sudden you find out oh my gosh wait a minute this one thing here completely goes against what I believe but your brain cannot stand those two conflicting and contrasting ideas and so in an effort to make things easier for you and your brain and to appease yourself you think well this might be bad but this over here is really really good and these are the good things about this and so you you keep going and you just ignore the bad things that are happening and I finally just I couldn't ignore it anymore I thought there's nothing good better no matter what company you're a part of it's so hard because I need one reason people who'd why people don't speak out when they've been in the top 1% is because like I said the shame but you also have nothing to show for it when you leave unlike if you say go to college after so many years you're going to have a degree you're going to have that diploma that piece of paper that you can have with you forever that says I have degree in X Y & Z but after you leave a company that you have invested your all in look you have nothing to show for it and that can be the hardest thing and that's where that shame creeps in and makes people not want to speak up but I am done silent I'm done I just can't do it anymore and I just tried to keep the peace and I tried not to speak about it and I would get so triggered when somebody shows up in my inbox and they're like hey hon what that join my team I think that you would be great I love your social media presence yet I gotta and you're like if I could just tell you if I could just save you from what's happening and I'm trying I've talked with people I'm like I was in it for a long time I was successful and I'm telling you I walked away for a reason it's very hard and I had those distributors admit to me yeah you're right it's really hard and then I try and share more of my story with them and they're just they're just on to the next person on their list to check off to message to join their team I just got to speak out because if I can help one person wake up before a lot of damage is done then it all been worth it one of the hardest things that I experienced was when I hit a certain tax bracket my first year I made around i think thirty thousand my second year I made over 70,000 by my third year I made over a hundred thousand I mean I think a hundred and six thousand a year and you know I was able to put my little sister in Kenya through University and that felt really good that was one of the good things to come out of it but there were so many hard terrible things that came out of it that it's why I walked away from the industry as a whole and seeing what does to people seeing how it completely crumbles and it roads their self-esteem I just hate that and I hope that I didn't do that to anybody the second year that I made over 70,000 I had saved up a ton of money I think of over 10,000 in my account I had paid up so much debt but I didn't realize that if you're not pain quarterly taxes you get fine penalties and that oho my gosh that threw me for a loop but what's very interesting is that all the information these MLMs throw at you in an effort to keep you indoctrinated into their system all the information that's like oh here is this self-help book Oh make sure you go in our online office and read through all the things that all the forms and all the info that were giving you probably a small fee of fifteen ninety-five a month where we teach you mindset where we teach you you know how to post graphics how to share your story how to tell about the product what to say about the product know where do they offer real financial guidance and support know where do they say make sure you speak with a CPA or a tax representative or a tax attorney because if you start earning a certain amount of money watch out you have different rules coming your way and so I will take partial responsibility absolutely that oh crap I should have saved more for taxes but I didn't know that because I didn't pay Quarterly's that once I started with making a certain amount that I was going to be stopped within eleven thousand five hundred dollar fine by the IRS it threw me for a loop and I remember thinking why didn't anyone tell me why did these people above me who are making weight board say like hey you need to go you need like this is how you need to do this with your business this is that what you I would recommend but there is nothing like that and I really think it's because when you are your own CEO because a lot of people can tighten up anti MLM channels will say like no hun you're not your own boss you're not the CEO well actually I had my own corporation that I had to enact or like some people get an LLC I had to do my own payroll I had that end up hiring a CPA so in fact I was my own business owner in a sense but you're your own business owner in the sense that all the burden falls on me you and that way the MLM it's off scott-free they get off completely free they have no responsibility of carrying any of that burden because they enact you as a 1099 contract worker so yes you're doing your own payroll you're doing your own taxes you're paying all these penalties and fines if you don't know that you have to be quarterly as you're doing all this stuff by you're your own boss you're your own boss it's okay you're your own CEO of your own company now you're not to see you you are to see you of where it hurts where you were count success but with the IRS but they can shut down any second they can completely annihilate your income my camera overheated got a little too worked up for to loan the companies can annihilate your income in a matter of seconds I've seen it happen personally the people I knew when a company got upset because they joined a second MLM thinking that they could make more income and the policies and procedures were changed by the first company so that they could just cancel their account and that family lost all their income like I have seen companies like AdvoCare announced with no warning to distributors hey we're switching to a sales model only so all of that residual income that you've built off your team is gone and these people had no warning and this is their livelihoods gone these are people who thought that they were helping people be better that they thought they were making a better life for their families and they thought that they were with a company who had their best interest at heart and they did it none of them do I guess I was delusional I thought that you know a few years ago I was seeing how saturated the news feed was becoming with everyone and their mom in an MLM and trying to hawk products and I just thought wow this has guns to oversaturate because when I started in 2013 like nobody was doing it nobody was talking about those things online and it just was like everywhere all of a sudden I thought this is gonna die out then a couple of years because it's just too saturated and to my amazement it has not died out if anything it has become more rampant more infested and they're just more victims getting scammed everywhere and I just won't stay silent anymore one thing that the companies like to push on you is that you know when you succeed when you hit a rink or when you get a sale all like oh my gosh you know you will just be bombarded with love but also the reminder that wow this company is amazing for giving you the opportunity to earn this income so anytime you succeed it's because the company is so amazing and that they've allowed this they provided this path for you but any time you messed up anytime you have a question you start to question certain things anytime you don't do well well that's on you completely that's 1,000 percent on you and you need to figure it out you need to do more self development you need to work harder you need to find more people you need to have a positive attitude because that's your fault that you're not succeeding and it's complete BS one thing I've noticed that I feel the anti MLM community which I absolutely love now one thing I I feel that they get wrong sometimes is they'll say that you know all MLM products suck well that's not true there are actually some products that are pretty good and they you know they taste great or they they work well they fit well whatever it is you know and that's just not a valid argument that all the products are bad I mean I remember hearing that when I was pro MLM I remember hearing them say that I'm like throwing crack like I love my product and I did love the products or I wouldn't use them like there wouldn't be so many consumers using these products of these companies if they didn't actually like that they're sure there are probably a good amount of people who use them just so that they can or say they use them to get money but there's some that are good but that's what's important to know is that any MLM product can be found for at least thirty to fifty person it's not more cheaper online on Amazon or somewhere else in a store than what that company sells it for and very quickly when you enjoy an MLM you'll notice that it's not about the product so much anymore of course it is view product at the product make sure that you're doing everything you need to every day to stay a part of the system to show others that you're living the lifestyle that you're working towards your dream but don't forget that if you want to be more money you need to you need to recruit you need to build your team so that you can earn more income because let's face it 1020 percent commission is not going to earn you that lifestyle that they sell that dream that you sell and so all of a sudden you're selling the opportunity more than you're selling the actual product and that's where they get you and that's where it becomes where you can't speak out about anything that's wrong in your life at all I remember like there were certain political aspects or you know things that I wanted to talk about that I was seeing in the world happening and I was like I better not talk about those on my newsfeed or on my social media because I don't want to I don't want to appear negative because then I might appear negative it's going to affect my business and I don't want my business affected because that's my livelihood and they know that that's why they didn't dr. Nate you with so much self-help and guilt you and to always staying positive or else everything bad that happens to you is your fault because you didn't try hard enough you didn't work hard enough and you didn't stay positive enough and it's not just like any other business because there will be there will be if you if you have a team and you slow down like say you need a break for a few days which most of the network marketing teams are ran on social media now and so if you let's say don't get to your messages for a couple days or if you don't post in your teen group for god forbid more than 24-48 hours you're bombarded with messages from people your team or leaders above you who are like hey girl are you okay what's going on do you need me to check in on your team for you because some of your team was wondering what's going on with you and all of a sudden that you feel guilty and you feel like oh no like I don't want my team to things like I'm abandoning them and oh I don't want them to look at me as less of a leader and it becomes this cycle that you can't get out of and it's where all this shame and guilt creep up and why it's so difficult for people to speak out especially those who were in the top 1% who had these big teams because they just feel really guilty and they also feel like did I do pilots that's what how I feel anything tonight do people you know but like I said I really think that they're all victims and we have to we have to look at the CEOs we have to look at the people who who are claiming to be coaches for the industry and they're saying I will help you build an amazing network marketing team if you follow my seven steps here or if you read my book the Audia most of these people have never been successful in their own network marketing company they just got tired of the rat race and the pressure that is network marketing and today that I could probably make more money selling how you have the dream to the people seeking the dream and that's what they did the CEOs those people those are the ones who are the cult leaders the other ones are victims and it's hard because I have been through some hell I have been cyber bullied I have had people who were my mentors people who I thought were my good friends say the meanest things about me or blocked me on social media and and I just remember getting so depressed and thinking that like oh my gosh was everything I had ever known was everything I had ever done was everything I had ever preached a lie and it's it's because they've just been indoctrinated to to shut out anything that is not for the company for the product even if they're neutral about it you shut it out your family your friends you ignore it and so as neat as some of those people were to me I have to remember that they were victims - some of them are still victims and it's just brainwashing it really is I had to get out because I was tired of recruiting to fail if you were somebody in an MLM whether you earned money or you lost money I want you to know that you didn't do anything wrong and you're not a bad person you're not a failure that's the biggest thing I want people to take away is that you're not a failure you're a victim and now you can be a survivor I probably rambled a lot if you want to subscribe you can subscribe if you want to not subscribe if you were subscribing you want to unsubscribe because now you think I'm just being negative that's fine I don't care if you want to learn how to join my team click the box below no i'm kidding i have no team or anybody to join ever again so thanks for watching and and there goes my notebook

Channel: NOT THE GOOD GIRL

Views: 710,358

Rating: 4.9015021 out of 5

Keywords: antimlm, limelife, younique, farmasi, monat, itworks, thrive, beachbody, young living, senegence, wine company, network marketing, mlm hun, huns, multilevel marketing, direct sales, scam, work from home, make money from home, kiki chanel, lularoe, scentsy, the body shop at home, optavia, origami owl, rodan and fields, norwex, color street, mary kay, plexus, lipsense, visalus, bod, beachbody on demand, doterra, isagenix, lia sophia, paparazzi

Id: xzOt_Hmjcbo

Length: 35min 16sec (2116 seconds)

Published: Thu May 21 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/ShelStar]

Not my video but just had to share. It was a very interesting video!