(Names have been changed to protect the guilty)
It’s a Thursday night, and you are getting ready to meet your friends for your weekly coffee night. You can’t wait to unwind and talk about how crazy your week has been all while snacking on those amazing muffins Brenda is always bringing. You pull up to the house, walk inside and get ready to have a quiet girls night in. Halfway through the night, Sarah awkwardly changes the subject to “an amazing opportunity.” She has just started her “own business” and is “so excited” she wants you to join her. Wait. What??
Your sister has started selling makeup on the side to help earn some money to pay off her credit card debt, and she has invited you to her house for a makeover. You think, “what could hurt supporting her in this?” Two hours later you emerge from the kitchen her new “business partner,” and you feel a little dazed. How you are going to explain to your husband that you just dropped hundreds of dollars on products that are an investment in your future??? Well, you aren’t entirely sure about that yet.
The worst thing about these network marketers is that they come out of nowhere! It feels like every few days you are getting direct messages from people you havent talked to since high school wanting to share with you their “business opportunity” or bug you to host a party, class, or whatever. You come to Facebook to stalk the girl in your spin class not to be sold shampoo.
By this point in your life, you have probably sat through one of these scenarios. If you are my friend, you have probably sat through ME trying to sell or recruit you. (I’m sorry btw. You deserve a piece of cake.)
If you are my friend, you have probably sat through ME trying to sell or recruit you. (I’m sorry btw. You deserve a piece of cake.)
Network Marketing is everywhere, and just about everyone you know is selling something.
Workouts, protein shakes, makeup, skincare, essential oils, coaching, bags, jewelry, hair care, leggings, magic elixirs, you name it, and your neighbor probably sells it.
We roll our eyes at it, but we can’t help but feel jealous of the people who seem to crack the code, quit their day job and retire in their 30s with this network marketing stuff.
And most assuredly you have either been told or told someone, “isn’t that just a pyramid scheme?”
And that’s where I am. I have picked up and put down network marketing since I was 16 years old. It always seems so great at the beginning, and then six months down the road I become jaded, throw up my hands and just give in to the fact that it either just doesn’t work, or it might work, just not for me. But I always come back to it thinking maybe just one more time…
But I always come back to it thinking maybe just one more time…
This year (2018) I’m putting my network marketing journey out there for you to see as well as interviewing other people in the biz who are at different points in their careers.
My hope with this blog is to be transparent about the whole business of network marketing, the highs, and the lows.
I might even be brave enough to start a podcast about this topic.
What do you think?
So this year follow along with me as I share how I absolutely have none of the answers and how I’m just trying to convince my husband that I haven’t joined a cult.
And as Drake tells it, “Started from the bottom now we’re here.” except I’m still at the bottom…waiting to find the stairs.
Happy New Year!
The Pyramid Scheme 