Hey followers! I know that this is a long blog and many of you might not enjoy reading that extensively, so feel free to scroll all the way down for my tips! 🙂

Since the whole COVID-19 pandemic has happened and nationwide has been on lockdown from March 15, 2020, I almost got scammed into quite a few pyramid schemes/multi-level marketing businesses.

You are viewing: Who Moved My Cheese Amway

The way a pyramid scheme or a multi-level marketing works, in how I would dumb it down in my own words is….

You are first introduced into a get rich quick scheme. At first, you don’t know anything much about it, but you are intrigued. This person who is trying to rope you into it, appears to be professional, personable, and presentable. They have a nice rolex, a nice car, or knows somebody who is a multi-millionaire, and they are telling you that you can get there and have the same things too. They promise you financial freedom, help you get out of debt, be debt free, and overall attain the success you dream of, so that you can leave your day job to become an “Independent Business Owner.” The catch is, you have to sell stuff to people you know or recruit them or other people in order to make money.

The first company that tried to induct me seemed sketchy from the start. They first texted me regarding my resume on a career site since I have been actively looking for employment. This was the first time I have ever heard of a company texting a candidate for an interview rather than calling/leaving a voicemail. Do they do that now?

Nevertheless, after checking out the website and seeing that it appears legitimate, I gave it a shot. I called the number, only to have a lady pick up the phone without stating the organization’s name and when I asked for the person who texted me, she said that he was on the other line and asked what my name was. I told her my name and she started interviewing me on the spot. Then, she tells me that she will be texting me the code to a Zoom Interview as well as an email address (that included a notorious organization abbreviation at Gmail rather than their company’s name as their domain) to send my resume to.

In my head I thought, “shouldn’t they have my resume already if they texted me saying they saw my resume?…” Then again, I thought “maybe they just want me to send it again in case I update it” or “maybe it is going to be sent to another person” or “maybe it is easier for them to filter through recent resumes, rather than the ones they already had.”

Therefore, I thought “what harm could it do?” My updated resume was generic and had the same information as LinkedIn that everybody had access to. I decided to send my resume and attend the Zoom session.

Prior to the Zoom call, I did my research on the company and a few reviews claim that the catch is you have to go into a training program for $130 and ONLY get some of your money refunded IF you get promoted. Also, in order to make money, you have to recruit people. All of which prepared me to keep in mind since that is not what I want to do.

As soon as I log on, I see a few hundreds of participants with me in the same session viewing a presentation on what the company is about, all the promises and benefits it held, and basically all the reasons why someone would want to work for them. Then we went to break out sessions after experiencing a few technological challenges.

I had a Zoom session with this nice young lady who had to pause her video in order to stop her dog from barking. After the presentation, I still didn’t quite get what I would be doing on a day to day basis if I were to be hired for the company. What am I interviewing for and what would I be doing for each role? Because all I was told is that they were hiring for customer representatives and leaders to recruit/train people, which was my forte. She was so adamant on wondering if I like working with people, which I am, but I would like more information, to which she gave me a code information to another Zoom session for the next day.

Since I had nothing else better to do, I attended it. The information that was given to me and whoever attended the webinar, was education on financial insurance that I already knew about. After that, they texted me to call for a follow up phone call meeting, to which I denied to do.

Read more : Who Are The Actors In The Leaffilter Commercial

The second pyramid scheme, I stumbled across was when I decided to branch out my network, get out of my comfort zone, and go on this app to network with professionals.

I decided to message this guy whose pitch was asking people if they were open to learning, how to make some extra money from home, and how he runs a marketing team, looking for leaders to have multiple streams of income.

Just like the first company, he gave me a Zoom code to attend a Webinar session with promised riches, and an upfront fee to start my own business just for $199 (though some reviews from prior research say $499)..

Third pyramid scheme was a well crafted networking relationship experience. Again, I thought that it would be something different. On the same networking app, I messaged a girl who is supposedly a business owner asking her for advice on how to become one myself since she is also looking for someone to mentor.

She asked me why I would want to go into it and I answered professionally. Then she decided to set up a Zoom meeting with me to talk more about it. Therefore, I went through with it and we introduced ourselves to each other. She said that even if I don’t agree to do the same thing that she is doing after what she is educating me on and all that comes out of it was friendship, that was perfectly fine with her.

The girl talked a little bit about the e-commerce industry, but not in too much details and a little bit of what she does. She tells me to read this book called “Who Moved My Cheese” by Dr. Spencer Johnson, that actually had great lessons of the short film adapted from the book:

1- The earlier you notice the changes, the faster and better you will react.

2- Nothing can last forever.

It really resonated with me to relate to which character I am currently at in life, who I want to be, and where I want to go.

In the second session, she went over the e-commerce industry a little bit more with me and told me to attend the third Zoom session with her mentor talking about her journey. It was only supposed to be an hour long, but it turned out to be almost 2 hours that I did not prepare for since I had another meeting to go to (that I later found out was another pyramid scheme -_-).

The mentor went way over time, talking about how she used to feel stuck in life, wishing there was a better way to live, and came upon this opportunity. Basically, the first portion was giving you that relatability factor to validate where you are in life and where you want to be. What is weird was some people who are supposedly working with her, really bought into what she was saying. While my head was thinking that there was not much to take notes on really, since a lot of what she said in the beginning portion was just talking about where she was at in life. It wasn’t until towards the end when she started actually talking about the platform she was using, which is Amway and the group: Worldwide Dream Career Builders.

For the 4th Zoom session, this girl had me reading a book called “Why” by Simon Sinek to again validate where I’m at in life that was kind of helpful to help me reflect on why I do the things I’m doing to be more successful. She also sent me 2 audios to listen to that was promoting the “Independent Business Owners” platform and group, where they were talking about their story/journey to encourage people to join.

In Audio 1, the energy everyone gives to this speaker makes him sound like Jesus. He goes on for a long time about how he was in a rut and essentially what I got out of it was that this Amway IBO thing is supposedly so great that why wouldn’t you not spend 2 hours of everyday working for yourself.

As for Audio 2, same energy from the audience. This chick was more personable and felt more relatable, has a husband and 2 kids and for the most part she also saying how she was also skeptical at first this and that but this mentorship and going down this ecommerce entrepreneurship route is “legit.”

Read more : Who Distributes Black Rifle Coffee

What I’m missing from these two audios are their steps. What did they do in order to get to whatever rut they are in? Their final answer was just to “join and find out.”

I expressed my concern to this girl and also regurgitate what her mentor said in the last zoom session about how “people say this is a pyramid scheme, but we are all in a pyramid scheme working for our boss, but having to hit a price ceiling.” However, she took it the wrong way thinking that I was thinking that what she was selling to me was a pyramid scheme (which, I’m not going to lie, I really was thinking that… hahaha). She then immediately tells me that she doesn’t want to waste any of our time, if I didn’t think that what she is doing brings value to me.

Therefore, I reflected on the “education” she has given me so far, in regards to learning a little bit about the e-commerce industry, validating where I’m at in life from the “Who Moved My Cheese” book, figuring out my “why”, as well as seeing that perhaps the audios she sent me was to give me a picture of how I can have what those speakers have in the future. Furthermore, she believes that I bought into it, so she showed me the documents and calendars her organization provides, which looks promising, because it makes you proactive, like having homework, daily goals, and being surrounded by a positive network. However, she was not upfront with the cost and she tells me to attend another meeting with her mentor going over the same thing (that sounded very unappealing to me, because I thought that was a waste of time). She also wanted to schedule another follow up meeting from her mentor’s conference and go over costs.

I was very skeptical about all these costs, because there was 3 apps to install and its membership fees. She also mentioned that I had to “earn my mentorship” and everything that she was doing already that I thought was mentoring, was actually “education.”

The next day, I did a bunch of research that validated my skepticism about the platform and organization that she was selling to me. I was also looking her up on a few social medias and it was very suspicious at how her business name changes every so often. It seemed very shady.

Before my call with her mentor, I decided to text her for answers with hard hitting questions in regards to the cost of everything. She asked to do a phone call with me, to which I agreed to, and she gave me an estimate cost of everything that I understood.

The breaking point was when I asked her for her mentor’s last name, because I forgot what it was, so that I can look her up, and learn from her (as I would research any companies and CEOs before going into any interviews), in order to form questions. I wanted to do so, especially because I already knew what her introduction was about, wanted to see what her credibility was, and also to genuinely learn more about her now that I knew a little bit. I also wanted to see if they had any examples of their business site or anything, because supposedly this girl just launched her business in Australia and her mentor is a multi-millionaire. However, this chick took it offensively, and said that she did not feel comfortable with me asking about that, because it makes her feel that I don’t believe in her, the organization, and such. She also said that her businesses are all “word of mouth,” so they cannot be found anywhere online and I should also take her word for it when she said that her mentor is multi-millionaire. How can I take someone’s word for it when I have only known her for 1.5 weeks?

I told her thanks for your time, but I am no longer interested in this “opportunity.”

What kind of multi-millionaire doesn’t have any information online about themselves and show off their success? What kind of mentor doesn’t provide examples of what she’s done?… Everything was so questionable.

After that phone conversation, I noticed that she removed my message with her from the networking app, and it made me feel like we just broke up just after forming what I thought was a genuine networking relationship. What ever happened to being okay with the outcome of friendship if I was not interested? So weird…

It was a very elaborate way of roping someone into the business by wasting their time and slowly “educating” them on what they don’t really know.

Why do bad people prey on poor people during these hard times? 😥

Anyway…

These are my tips, in order to avoid any pyramid schemes/multi-level marketing:

1. TRUST YOUR GUT– When things does not sound appealing or right to you, listen to it, and don’t just blindly believe in a stranger that might be giving you false promises.
2. DO YOUR RESEARCH– These pyramid schemes/multi-level marketing companies have been around for a long time, and have since adapted their ways to not seem like they’re doing a pyramid scheme, when they actually are. When you get roped into one, chances are, somebody somewhere online has already posted a similar experience already. If you’re insistent on what somebody is telling you, is not the same thing, at least do prior research beforehand, so that you can go into it learning about whatever that is being offered with knowledge beforehand.
3. LOOK FOR CREDIBILITY- Make sure the opportunity that you are presented with is legitimate. Do your research on the company, the people, and verify that they are real people, it is a real company, and question the higher ups’ success. Look for examples and make sure you look for what steps they did or what steps they are giving you. Don’t just sit through how they were at the bottom and how they got to the top with the help of whatever they are presenting. Their inspiring stories are going to paint you a picture that is going to make you relate to them at first and then making you feel drawn to what they have. That’s how they get you.

Overall, these tips are just based on my experience. Stay safe and be smart y’all! 🙂

Source: https://t-tees.com
Category: WHO