Why Ignorance Makes the Best Bossbabe
It's easy to sell a dream when you don't know what the hell you're talking about.
Ignorance is not bliss, but it certainly helps sell pseudoscience.
I receive hundreds of messages, screenshots, stories, and complaints about MLM reps and companies DAILY. I can’t respond to all of them, let alone share or distill them into articles, but I try to hit the top talking points in my inbox.
Today, as the news of another MLM shutting down hits the internet, panicked, disenfranchised reps will once again be targeted and recruited into the ones that are still (for now) standing: same shit, different day. And I’ll hear about it in my DM’s, as I always do. I’m pretty used to it by this point.
The messages I get that really bum me out are the ones that echo, “My friend joined the such-and-such company, and now she’s completely brainwashed, and I don’t know how to help her,” and same, honey, same.
It’s easy to “other” people and assume they are stupid or gullible, but the reality is that the overwhelming majority of women in MLM think they are helping others. I certainly did, for a very long time. And that is why the most relatable, down-to-earth girl next door can be even more harmful than the “Kimberlys” I’ve written about. How do I know? They were my buddies.
Case in point1. The woman in the video below was in my upline, a few rungs up the pyramid. We were close friends, at least I believed we were. Our kids hung out, and we vacationed together. We had many conversations about the industry when I was getting up the courage to leave, and I was sure she felt the same way I did. She was one of the few people who still spoke to me (for a while) after I announced my book topic. She congratulated me on my sobriety milestones, etc., but eventually, that went away, too, once my book came out. I didn’t blame anyone who ghosted me because I understood why they had to. I always wished her well, no matter what.
When R+F went south, I assumed she’d wash her hands of MLM. But to my disappointment, no. She joined FAKE Make Wellness. You know, the company created by a known scammer that hasn’t launched to customers yet and relies on Mother Nature, the biochemist? Go back and refresh if you need to.