The Cockroach-like Staying Power of MLMs
At world's end it will be cockroaches, Cher, and Herbalife....probably.
The concept of snake oil is one that is generations old. Peddlers would promise the world wrapped up in a little bottle of The Doctor’s Cure-All. You would think that in an age of having all available information at our fingertips, the pull towards peddling snake oil would have waned. You would be wrong.
MLMs are a $200 billion industry and people — mostly white women in the US — are shilling everything from peptide drink mixes to hideous patterned leggings (yes….as of this writing….freakin’ LuLaRoe STILL EXISTS). They are dazzled by the social media posts showing rows of identical-looking ladies “linking arms” and open-mouth laughing at some MLM-of-the-moment summit while they write things about “Pouring into one another” or “Helping women find independence and their ‘why’.” It doesn’t matter what the company is, their approach to recruitment is seemingly identical.
What has always fascinated me is the staying power of these multi-level marketing schemes despite the verifiable evidence that 98% of those involved make no money or even lose money. How women — and it’s typically women — fall for the same tired lines hook, line, and sinker. “Make money from your phone and be with your kids while you make an income!”, “Join a team that will be there for you through thick and thin!”, “Be a part of a revolution!”
The simple fact is, a miniscule amount of people are making money off these schemes. It is typically the CEO and the people who got in RIGHT at the very beginning. The people on the tippy-top of that blasted pyramid who managed to get a bunch of people under them right away, saturating the market with their generic wares and making it impossible for anyone coming in late to the game to make headway.
Let’s look at LuLaRoe, for example. Setting aside their shit product and their koo-koo nuts founders (RIP Whats-his-face)….they blew UP around 2013/2014. Everyone was a freaking LuLaRoe rep. Each little town had like 50 of them. They multiplied like….well…cockroaches. Soon, the reps started to see the problem with this explosive popularity. If everyone you know is selling LuLaRoe, who is buying it?
No one, as it were.
Can’t believe they’re still in business. But yes, they’re still chugging along, with a handful of sad, leftover reps still marking everything #becauseoflularoe.
Somehow, people are finding something intriguing in these opportunities. From years of watching the modern MLM movement unfold online, I’ve observed that people are generally not jumping to a company because the products are so incredible, despite what they may claim. They’re jumping in because they’re lonely. This is why high-ranking reps prey on new moms, young wives, and people who are working what they perceive as “dead end” 9-5 jobs. There was a huge push for teachers to join MLMs, leave teaching behind, and eventually retire their husbands, with Reels and posts framing teaching as a thankless time suck. And it worked!
By using language like “link arms” or “I’m so glad I get to ‘do life’ with these girls!” and showing off the posed images they have taken at every Summit or “earned” trip they go on, they are tapping into the epidemic of loneliness and isolation of a certain subset of women. Who wouldn’t want to sign up for an “opportunity” to have a built in group of friends? All you have to do is bug the shit out of everyone you know in real life? Sure, why not!
The problem comes when it becomes clear that it’s a losing game. When you’ve spent thousands on product and made no money. When those “soul sisters” of yours….your “tribe”, as they like to call it, start bearing down on you to sell more. To bug more people. Because, you are useless to them unless you are padding their commission checks.
The product is never important. The makeup is basic. The supplements don’t do anything. The peptides are pointless. The “fitness coaches” have no business coaching anyone. The leggings remain awful. You’ll often hear people say “Well, I just LOVE the products!” to which I say really? Because that is the most basic shit imaginable. You can get it at Walmart. You can get it at Amazon. You can get it at the Sephora counter inside Kohls. Typically for far cheaper and without having to join a cult.
With MLMs, it’s never about the products. They could be selling just about anything. It’s about the structure. The downline. The PYRAMID.
Now, those indoctrinated DEEP into the MLM scene will tell you that “Pyramid schemes are illegal, we are not a pyramid scheme.” They get this language from their uplines. It’s drilled into their heads on every Saturday morning Zoom meeting. And indeed, they are. Which is why a handful of “MLMs” such as Herbalife, Advocare, NewSkin, Amway, and, yes, LuLaRoe, have all been under investigation at one time or another for running an illegal pyramid scheme.
If it looks like a duck. If it quacks like a duck.
The job market sucks. I know this. We all know this. This is pushing desperate people toward what they believe to be good gambles. Companies that will offer the world, as long as you’re willing to put in the work. Turns out, however, in most cases? No matter HOW hard you work, you’re never getting that boulder up the hill, Sisyphus.
We need better education around spotting losing MLM schemes, starting in high school. Because you can bet the companies are targeting these kids as soon as they’re 18. Cutco, Primerica, and eXp Realty all have job ads out there that LOOK like real jobs. Until you show up for the interview and realize there’s 20 other people there and they want you to pony up money for some sales kit.
The MLMs are not going anywhere, so it’s up to us to keep pressing the issue that, regardless of what those on the top of the pyramid are telling you, these “opportunities” are scams and you’re going to lose money. If not money, then respect.
Because I tell you what, if one more person posts in our town Facebook group about the “amazing opportunity” they have for moms while being SUPER vague about the business name? I’m going to lose it.
Answer those posts with facts. Respone to “Hey Hun!” DM’s with income disclosure statements.
Shut that shit down.
And maybe at the end of time, all we’ll have to deal with is cockroaches and Cher.