In this week’s episode, one woman illustrates the financial — and emotional — dangers of joining an MLM. To learn more about the negative financial impact MLMs can have on one’s life and finances, check out this video:
A new luxury car a community of people to support you a way to make money on your own schedule while you sleep these are some of the things i was told i could achieve when i joined a multi-level marketing company in the summer of last year an acquaintance of mine approached me about joining her team i would be selling health and wellness products such as vitamins
Drink supplements and protein and promoting a healthy eating program designed to allow people to drop weight quickly at the time i was taking a summer semester of nursing school which my scholarships didn’t cover i was also dealing with some painful things in my personal life which left me extra vulnerable to the community aspect of the mlm i was promised that
No one got any direct financial gain from signing me up needless to say the whole thing sounded too good to be true but i jumped in anyway i spent around $400 on my starter kit plus a bunch of additional products so that my customers could see that i believed in them i spent about another 300 on parties so i invited my friends and family to look at products and
Hear long speeches about why they should either join the team or make purchases i threw about eight parties which were never really profitable most people found the products too expensive i felt guilty for trying to convince people that they were worth the money knowing deep down that if i didn’t get a discount for being a representative i wouldn’t be buying the
Products either my own hypocrisy disgusted me the more team meetings i attended and the more required reading i did the more i realized i would have to be more aggressive if i wanted to make as much money as my up lines the official titles of the person who recruited me the person who recruited her and so on they were reaching out to upwards of 50 people weekly
This meant that i had to have messages written out to copy and paste and send it basically everyone i had on my social media this was wildly uncomfortable for me and rarely fruitful i lost followers and friends and received hateful messages i felt hopeless i would get on social media daily and view the pages of the successful people in the company and wonder how
They managed to have perfect social media feeds make so much money or in that free car have perfect bodies and beautiful families i was constantly comparing myself to them which led me to pour more money into my business i wanted to copy a life that someone else was living as my own did not feel good enough this was a vicious cycle it took a toll on me in ways i
Couldn’t have predicted i quit about a year after i signed up i learned some valuable lessons along the way and i hope what i’m sharing here will help others in similar situations the number one trust your gut remember when i said that the whole thing seemed too good to be true if you get that gut feeling about something don’t ignore it there’s a good chance that
It is in fact too good to be true which leads me into number two number two don’t put your blinders on while doing research when i research the company i can’t lie and say that i didn’t find horrible things about it i saw several articles referring to it as a pyramid scheme a waste of money and so on i addressed this with the girl who had recruited me she seemed to
Have an armory of pre-programmed responses to every question i could have come up with i trusted her so i turned a blind eye to the things i was seeing number three no red flags when you see them once they became involved with the business i picked up on things that made me uneasy my uplines hosted team meetings where they would lay out the list of things you should
Be doing throughout the week to grow your business reach out to dozens of people read self-development books recruit recruit recruit it felt unnatural and fake but i was promised that if i did these things and followed in their footsteps i would make money so i ignored the red flags number four if you’re putting in more than you’re getting back money or otherwise
Run i was investing a lot of money in the hopes of earning it back of course i did earn some money but that wasn’t much in comparison to the time and energy i put in the mental aspect of mlms is often overshadowed by the financial aspect my self-worth took as big of a hit as my wallet did if not bigger number five don’t be afraid to share your story or reach out
To others who’ve been through this when i made the decision to quit as relieved as i was i couldn’t help but feel silly not only for joining an mlm in the first place but also for quitting it took a lot of cleansing on my part to fully get over it so leading former team members on social media throwing away old books and pieces of propaganda but the biggest step i
Took was opening up about it and sharing my story i was not the first nor the last person to fall into the trap of mlms these companies prey on people’s biggest insecurities their physical appearances and financials alyce’s it’s no wonder that people are tricked into pouring money time and energy into these businesses my grand total was almost $1000 which includes
Roughly 500 on products 300 or so on parties and the rest on marketing materials however i can’t put a price on the hit my self-worth took during those months my hope and sharing this is to let those lured into these schemes know that they are not alone either the best we can do is learn from it move forward and empower others to not fall into the same trap
Transcribed from video
I Joined An MLM To Earn Extra Money — Here's What Actually Happened By The Financial Diet
