No Just Means “I Need More Information”
This woman was almost friends with a Mary Kay consultant. Except the consultant couldn’t stop from trying to recruit her. Even after she said no… and no… and no… and no….
I came here a couple of years ago after a potential “friend,” the daughter of a neighbor, approached me with a veiled offer of friendship. She worked at the local grocery store as a checker and I would chat with her when I came through her line. I would often go to her line even if they had more customers just to greet her and chat.
This woman eventually treated me to lunch. We talked about our mutual love of pets, etc. and we both ended up complaining about our husbands and wept about the loss of beloved cats and dogs, a woman-to-woman exchange. In the meantime, she was on a Mary Kay roll. She passed out MK business cards to customers in her grocery line I saw her chat up customers and hand them cards, and wore her MK badge over her work tag. I even fell for the “oh, your badge is upside down” trick. Eventually the badge came off as I am sure her supervisors told her to take it off.
Then–WHAM–she hit me with a script. She needed “help” from a woman to “model” some cosmetics. I knew it for what it was: she was trying to snare me as one of her down-line in an MLM. I politely declined.
I saw her Mary Kay car parked in front of her mother’s house, the windows plastered with MK stickers. I guess she was on the road to directorship.
Then came the layering. She’d text me about three times a week, saying if I did not want to buy or sell, maybe I would give her the names of family and friends. I was disgusted. It was this reason or that reason; she was in a contest; she needed more women to buy or sell; whatever. I felt used and insulted. I told her not to text me any more. She’d stop for a while, and then resume the calls and texts, say she had special “offers,” and she did not want me to “miss out.”
Then there was a text at 6:30 in the morning when I was still in bed asleep. The only person who texts me at that hour is my husband, and it’s something important. I leaped out of bed to get the message, only to find it was an MK pitch to make lots of money, blah, blah, blah.
I was insulted. She got me in her confidence only with the plan to make me her cash cow at the expense of my own wallet.
The Mary Kay car is no longer seen in front of her mother’s house, and her ordinary white sedan is no longer plastered with MK stickers. I suspect she blew a blundle of cash to get that car, and eventually lost money in the MLM game.
She also lost me as a potential friend. I see her now and I laugh to myself about the money and time she must have lost buying product, hitting up potential sellers, and attending those meetings.
Visit the
Sorry for the repeat, but there is a simple approach to silence incessant MLMers pushing their “opportunity.” It goes like this:
“I am not a speculative investor. If you want me to get involved in this business, you need to demonstrate that it can work. Once you, personally, have at least two years of net positive business income above $50K from this, as shown on line 31 of your sched C, we can talk. Until then, I don’t want to hear another word about it…understand? Please look elsewhere for speculative investors.”
If she brings it up again, simply reply with, “Not until I see those sched Cs.”
This is beautiful. Perhaps we need a handbook on how to “reject” the MLM? Yesterday’s husband advice would certainly be a welcome addition.
Other features – know & appreciate your self worth (this one is tricky because if you don’t recognize your intrinsic value, anyone or anything can suck you in); the anti-script for their come-on lines; keep your friend without getting involved in their racket; or, the one I feel like I need, how to clean up the mess afterwards, when your tail is between your legs and you’re embarrassed by your actions & choices. Friendship repair post MLM.
What would repair a friendship for me… a sincere apology, and an admission along the lines of how you believed in what you were saying at the time but you see through it now and you’re out of MLMs for good. Then as time went on and I saw you meant it, we’d be good. Bonus points for telling me any juicy and/or embarrassing stories about your upline.
The problem is, no matter how you try to counter their scripts, they’ve got another script. The way I ended up on PT was my cousin and I got targeted by a Kbot. My cousin tried to argue with her, and I just kept repeating “no thank you” over and over, louder and louder, and neither one slowed her down until her husband just about dragged her out. That’s why ghosting and blocking MLMers has become the norm: you can’t reason with the unreasonable.
The anti-script for their come-on lines is “No.” With no explanation or justification, leaving them with no opening to slide a scripot at you.
Keep your friend without getting involved in their racket? Probably not possible because they will be bombarded with “if they aren’t buying product and signing up they aren’t real friends” from the upline.
A Schedule C can be easily faked though. Better they give you their IRS return transcript (blocking out everything else) and highlight what was reported on the Schedule C. Of course, that won’t happen.
I don’t think these lazy MLMers would go to such lengths. They will simply move on to easier prey.
I too am sorry for the repeat, but I disagree with the advice. This is asking a pyramid scammer to prove that they made money.
I do absolutely agree that it will probably silence 99% of MLMers, but what about those who do make money in the MLM scam. What if the person gets one of those? Or, the person’s ego thinks they will beat the odds, or that they are better than their recruiter?
I don’t think the main message we should be sending is if there is profit/loss. Going back to one of my older analogies: Even drug dealers are supposed to fill out a Schedule C. At the very least, they probably keep an in-house profit/loss from their drug selling business. Does making a profit prove that selling illicit drugs is a reputable business that one should get involved in?
We are missing the mark if we are asking pyramid schemers to show us that there is money to be made, or not made!!!, in the MLM scam business.
Line 31 is profit/loss from doing ***what***? Endless-chain recruiting for a product-based pyramid scheme, frontloading people with product that never need be sold in order to make money in the con game.
@lurkers Opportunity selling is a scam. Using products to disguise that is still a scam.
I agree with you Char. This is intended to shed light on the folly of depending on recruiting. Yes, there is a (tiny) risk they could fudge past the first level. My next level is this…
“Please identify a profitable downline, in aggregate, within this organization. This must include an accurate aggregate P&L/ledger for the profitable downline. This must include all current and former participants.
If you can’t produce such an aggregate ledger showing a profitable downline, this is not a serious business…please take your opportunity elsewhere.”
The first level will eliminate 99.6% of the huns. The second level will eliminate the rest.
I’m so sorry this happened to you. Unless you need to contact this person for emergencies, please block her number. It sounds like that is the only way to get some peace and quiet.
Then there was a text at 6:30 in the morning when I was still in bed asleep. The only person who texts me at that hour is my husband, and it’s something important.
Yup, that’s emergency territory phone/text time.