Selling Failure: MLMs and Pyramid Schemes

Multi-level marketing is a business strategy where a company relies on a non-salaried workforce to sell its products to consumers, using a pyramid-shaped commission system. They may be called by other names, like direct selling, direct marketing, network marketing, or home business franchising.
You might be surprised by the people who are invested in MLMs.

[GeorgRockallSchmidt]

Heads up- someone is once again trying to imitate me in the comments, to sell bitcoin. How ironic. If you see a comment that looks like me, but has those two dots over the "i" in Schmidt, it isn't me. I'm removing and reporting them as quickly as I can, but feel free to report them yourself as well. Thanks!

[BarkyLondon]

Had a casual acquaintance brag about how he was an entrepreneur. I told him he was in a pyramid scheme, because he was. He said -- "No, no, the structure is more like... a triangle."

[Bluehawk]

I was almost recruited into a MLM for selling knifes during high school, but I crapped out because I couldn't put together a good enough list of friends, family and neighbours to harass in the opening phase of sales. By being a huge fucking loser, I was spared the stress and humiliation of buying a pile of inventory I could never sell, accruing debt and putting undue strain on my parents.

[NASkeywest]

If you have to try and explain that, “This isn’t a pyramid scheme.” To your friends and family. It’s probably a pyramid scheme.

[NASkeywest]

“99% of the people who invest in a pyramid scheme lose their money.”
So you’re A CHANCE.

[RedMeansRecording]

Dude your content is so godamn good. Thank you for your info and your personality.

[BlazingOwnager]

My ex-girlfriends family dragged me to a Multi-Level Marketing scheme recruitment thing so I could 'better plan for my future.'

My favorite moment came when they did the Q&A and I asked a question about how the percentages trickle down and I got the guy to immediately get defensive, start drawing a bunch of figures on the board with lines and started screaming "THIS IS NOT A PYRAMID" right after he drew a pyramid. I felt very proud torpedoing the entire room.

[tophers]

Wouldn't it be grand if one of our 24/7 news networks would do reporting like this instead of harping about the same handful of headlines all day and night?

[toppersundquist]

My parents were in Amway for like seven years. They went to huge events, bought the motivational merch, had "uplines" over for dinner. It was a wild time. A wild... poor time.

[glg]

My mother fell prey to about 10 MLM schemes during my childhood. She hardly had anything to begin with and had so much hope she could turn her situation around each time she started a new one. Noni, Amway, Primerica, The OG- Tupperware, Pampered Chef- omg I've forgotten so many.
I watched and learned, silently, of what not to do. It seems like their target used to be poor people, single moms, minorities, but now it seems like they are going after young, inexperienced adults who have a ton of financial angst, too.

[marmite]

The Peep Show episode where Toni gets Jez into a pyramid scheme does a great job summarising and stereotyping the whole thing. Perfectly captures the strategies and language used and the types of people who become unfortunate victims of it

[larissabrglum]

I appreciate you going into the political, greed-related reasons MLMs are allowed to exist. I watch a lot of anti-MLM content and creators rarely talk about this.

[bardh]

The part at the end about the people the MLMs target is really important and I'm glad you brought it up. It's very easy to think of MLM people as annoying privileged suburban wine moms with too much time and money on their hands, but the truth is that these MLMs target the most vulnerable people promising financial stability and then they drain them of the few funds they have. I often catch myself thinking of MLM people as annoying and greedy and I need to stop myself every time and understand that in reality they're just victims...

[ravenlord]

The other part of the scam is the constant pressure of buying additional "training" materials. The guys up top make a ton of money by not selling product, but instead books, seminars, pod casts, and subscription fees for "advanced" strategy guides. All of which are non-refundable, of course.

[luigimaster]

I almost fell for an MLM, I was a young teenager trying to get his first job, in retrospect I'm even more disgusted at how hard the guy doing the seminar was trying to sucker me in specifically, if I had to guess it was because I had dressed nicely in preparation for an interview, so I looked more well off than anyone else there, perhaps I looked like I had a notable parental allowance to drain.
I didn't know what an MLM was at the time, but I had fallen for enough viruse popups on the early internet at that point to know the phrases he was using were major red flags. Having felt robbed of my time, I did what any good angsty teenage would do and told the guy to go F himself up the A when he began to hock the starter packs. At the time being able to curse out an adult twice my age with no consequences was pretty therapeutic, it left me in a good mood despite it all.

[MasterOctagon]

As a recent grad in business, you have to watch out for these. They disguise themselves as marketing firms and other businesses. Ways to identify them is if the respond to you applications really quickly and if they’re trying to SELL you on the job.

[TheKid]

Me, naive, a fool: "Oh boy! A fun Georg video poking fun at MLMs? This definitely won't cut deep into the systems that govern us and leave me with a feeling of empty dread!"

[jamesmuthiani]

My ex-wife used to call me "small minded" and "shortsighted" when i refused to join an MLM she was into. She was fuirous when at one of the recruitment meetings I asked the 'boss' so many questions about hoe exactly the business works and he wasnt able give clear concise answers. Well, she held on, ran out of money. Hell she used to ask me for money just to do her deliveries and stay in the business. Of course I called them out, now I was a hater. Later that boss left the company, called it a pyramid scheme!

[MasterSanders]

There’s also the fact that the victims of MLMs are typically poor. There’s not enough incentive to prosecute these guys.

[nickbex]

On a roll with this content Georg, don't get burnt out!