Bekah started us out with a great introduction to how everyone truly hates your MLM.
Then, she broke down just exactly how MLMs are NOT small businesses (because she OWNS and OPERATES one and it is in no way similar).
After that, I felt the need to expound on all the different friendships that MLMs have ruined.
Bekah brought us the LulaRoe drama realness.
Nikki reminded everyone that the only acceptable MLM is Pampered Chef and that’s because we use that shit every day.
And Bekah even admitted that she hate-watches those pearl parties on Facebook. (We do too).
And I even went on a bit on an MLM rant in another series I need to reboot: Beth Bitches.
It’s been a ride over here, complaining educating the multi-media marketers about their horrible ways. In fact, we haven’t bothered in several months because we broke it all down so well over the years that there was little point. But then, we discovered the one podcast MADE for sipping tea whilst listening:
The Dream
Jane Marie and Dann Gallucci apparently heard our cries and created the perfect podcast for smart people who can’t stand that hard sell, and who truly feel badly for the countless masses who have ruined their finances, their families and their friendships in pursuit of that perfect dream. Produced by Little Everywhere and Stitcher, The Dream is an in-depth, investigative look at the origins of these “businesses” and how they continue to operate a financially untenable scheme in the world of regulations.
The podcast is wild. It starts out in 1970s Tribeca, with “airplane game” parties that probably also turned into key parties by the sound of them – games that went nowhere except to a young mother literally swimming in the cash on her bed with her small children. Officially stopped by fraud charges, these airplane game schemes turned into the Tupperware and Young Living parties and marketing you know and hate. The podcast explores it all, even having one of their producers join a popular make-up MLM so they could see behind the curtain. And it ends up in some truly terrifying places, like the Oval Office.
The ability to truly succeed in these types of schemes is miniscule, and the desperation of some of the women involved (one woman admits that she is attending a leadership conference for her MLM to figure out why she can’t make enough to afford her father’s gravestone) will break your heart. And for those that do succeed? They have to do so on the backs of (mostly) women who don’t … and even if they are far enough down their team’s “downline” for the successful ones to never know them, these dupes are someone‘s friend. Someone close to them promised them a Lexus, and so far all they have is debt. How can you celebrate this sham?
Well, a good listen to The Dream and you won’t be able to anymore.
