LDS Freedom Forum

recently I was approached on a new MLM started in Utah(marketing), in a few weeks it has signed 50,000...hmmmm why, the product is Wal-mart voucher cards........what will they think of next? What do you think..everything in the store on MLM?

Is this the MLM you are referring to, sbsion? What a joke. Some people will fall for anything!
Thanks for the reality check!

Best Regards,
Sharon in Mississippi

I believe most MLM's are evil. They are built up for the rich to "get gain" over the poor. It is the poor that give up $5,000 to each MLM to garner an inventory to "sell." It is the poor that are simply told to find their friends and family and sell to them--estranging relations as they do so. There is no effort to help them at marketing the product--hoping that it all happens word of mouth. However, the market saturates in these Utah communities because people are so wary and sick and tired of "direct marketing" that the only people that are listening are the same suckers who bought the last product and are more interested in getting rich quick. It is therefor these folks that keep buying all of this so-called inventory they can't afford. The successful in the MLM's seek these suckers out. It is many of these poor and middle class that get suckered into the promises of great wealth without work. Find the slothful and you have your down-line. Sure, it takes work to ferret these folks out--and I won't deny that there is some work involved in doing THIS, but that's the extent of it.

MLM's parade the "successful," who usually are given a down-line at the start of the new company. It's usually a spinoff of another company--it is usually kept in the family--the top dogs already have money and use their big houses and cars to sucker the rest of us--even though not a drop of money came from this new MLM. A good example of this is the new MLM Ma'akoa, which came on the scene overnight. It's a spinoff of Noni Juice, who has seen its Utah market collapse because all of the suckers have been reached, while the rest of us have learned about the Noni nonsense. So they spinoff to Ma'akoa, who no one has heard of, so there's a chance to create new suckers, reach the old suckers, and play ignorantly off of the rest of us who hate MLM's. Ma'akoa was in the Stadium of Fire and gave away prizes so that everyone thinks their wonderful BEFORE they find out they're an MLM. It's pretty ingenious.

Now I don't want cast all of these kinds of companies under the bus. Some, like Mary Kay and Avon, NuSkin to some extent, are legitimate even if over-saturated. You can make money selling cosmetics from Mary Kay IF you can find a market niche that hasn't been reached, IF you can create a presence for the product in the community, and IF you usually already have the means to do so. The trick is--can a distributer just sell the product to make money--or do they have to get a down-line to do it. If just by selling the product you can make a good business for yourself, then it's legitimate. These snake-oil elixer sellers like Noni, Ma'akoa, Zango, etc. are shiesters of the first class.

I wouldn't be surprised if these Wal-Mart card things are tied back to some of these Utah County MLM families who need a new gig to get more money.

yup

pjbrownie wrote:I believe most MLM's are evil.

Don't get me started on MLMs.

For members of the church they are particularly evil, as usually a members' sphere of friends is heavily "populated" with other members of the church. This leads to members "preying" on other members in an attempt to get gain.

I got myself involved with Xango actually... it just kind of happened as the result of my relationship with a couple of local talk radio guys who do a show on 1480 AM... the co-host had gotten involved with Xango and invited me to his home one morning for breakfast to give me the 'shpill'. I saw it as a win-win opportunity since it was going to be a chance for me to make some money on the side and owing to my previous experience creating and maintaining websites, I volunteered to create and maintain a website for us where we would market the juice and other supplementary products, in addition to emergency/outdoor supplies/equipment and they would handle all of the advertising and marketing on the radio station! Well, as time went by, and after all of my hard work putting together the website, we've only had two people inquire through the site itself about being Xango distrubutors, no one has purchased any of the Xango products and only one person (a friend of the co-host) has bought any of the outdoor/emergency products. Worse, in a period of 6 months, we've only had 25 visitors to the site.

The co-host keeps pressing me to buy other Xango products, which would help him (since I am in his downline - and I have none), but it does me no good and I don't have the discretionary income for it anyway. They're a couple of nice guys who embrace truth, awareness, freedom, liberty and the Constitution on their radio show, but from a business standpoint, they've both been after me to spend money I don't have in order for them to profit from it while trying to convince me that it's in my own best interest to buy a case of the juice each month for my health and commission payouts (even though no one is under me). I've tried getting family/friends interested, but who in their right minds is going to pay $140 for 4 bottles of juice ($120 wholesale)? IMHO, it is nothing but a hyped up, ridiculously expensive juice and some of the higher-ups in the company are individuals I've known in the past who are all about money and nothing else, so it's hard for me to trust what is going on.

I think it is pretty obvious that we are witnessing 'a spirit of speculation' amongst the Saints... big time! The big thing in our ward a few years ago was buying homes, sprucing them up and flipping them for a profit. Many made a lot of money during the insane and silly housing boom when home prices were skyrocketing as interest rates were ridiculously low thanks to the set-up by the 'Fed' and credit/mortgages were available to almost anyone, but just as many got burned and were begging for help from the Bishop, declaring bankruptcy, etc. Greed, luxury and lavishness has a stranglehold on many members of the church, sadly, and I shudder to think how these people would react if asked to live the law of consecration or flee to a place of safety if asked by the prophet, leaving their possessions behind. I really believe that when there is a separation of the wheat from the tares, that it will test members' desires to part with their money/possessions for the benefit of others or equality amongst the righteous in a place of safety from the judgments that will eventually come from the Lord. I know many people who, if asked to sacrifice, work hard or give up their possessions, would balk and complain and probably refuse to comply. Heaven forbid life should be devoid of comforts, ease, luxury and/or shopping.

what isn't MLM...........hmmmmmmmmm, let's see: Ford, Post, SL Tribune, dang, can't think of a company that manufacters and sells direct without a salesman?