I've Got A Dirty Little Secret...

I'm into MLM. It's not something I thought I'd ever say. Certainly not out loud and proudly. It always seemed a little seedy - the kind of territory reserved for shady characters who talked too quickly to follow and patted your arm with damp hands. But I LOVE it. I'm blown away by it. I can't get enough.

Now, if you're not familiar with the term MLM, drag your mind out of the gutter. MLM is an acronym for multi-level marketing, sometimes called network marketing and sadly, more commonly, referred to with a sneer and an air of pity by those who aren't in the industry, as a pyramid scheme.

But, while even as recently as three months ago I'd have been one of those quietly suspicious and obnoxiously superior 'real' business owners had I heard anyone was involved, now, not only am I in, I'm here to tell you why you should consider getting into it too...

Or, at the very least, why you should be supporting your friends and family out there that are and quit with the warnings that they're simple fools who are being ripped off.

Network marketing is a form of selling. But it varies from typical selling in a few ways. First of all, the distributors are not about selling large volumes of the product themselves. They are primarily users and lovers of the stuff that are happy to buy their own from the company and tell others about it. Second, they're not employees of the company, '...they're independent volunteers with no quotas and no protected territories. They "work" when they feel like it.' (Brooke, 2013)

At it's core, it's about using and recommending the products - which is clearly beneficial to the company both in terms of sales, and in terms of grass roots advertising. And for the vast majority of reps, consultants or distributors, this is the main way they engage with the role. Their payoff being goods at wholesale prices and a little kickback in cash or products or a combination of the two, if they do sell some to their family and friends.

The third aspect of MLM that differs from traditional selling is where people tend to get suspicious or confused. And it's this often misunderstood aspect that people most struggle to feel comfortable with. Both those who go into the industry; as well as those who do not. This is the wealth-building model of geometric progression and the bit where, if you take this path, you can move from having yourself a bit of additional income to a serious 'job' with huge financial reward. It's the part where, if you're finding if easy enough to buy and use the products yourself and to sell a few, you encourage others to do the same - because if they do what you're doing as well, you can earn additional income from their sales. I'll come back to this and the often charged emotions around it soon. But for now, let's just say, this is MLMs biggest and best idea and also it's most controversial and despised. Its Vegemite icing.

So what is it that I have come to love about MultI Level Marketing?

Well, first of all it's the opportunity itself. Given the relatively low start up cost ($65 in my case vs the tens of thousands it cost me to launch my own swimwear label) anyone can do it. It doesn't require you to have a fortune or to borrow a fortune to set up your own business. Hell, it doesn't even require you to have an idea. I can't tell you how many hours I spent thinking about and tweaking what Mermaids and Astronauts was going to be. How many samples I went through. How many factories before I got what I wanted. Time and money and brain power that I didn't have to invest when I joined an MLM because someone else had done it all before me and was simply allowing me to buy in for less than I could get a new pair of trainers.

Secondly, the support you get from your 'upline'. Whoever roped you in stands to benefit from you if you don't throw in the towel when you realise pretty much NO ONE YOU KNOW shares your excitement about either the opportunity you have found, or the stuff you want them to try/buy. Rejection, pity and the initial strain on the relationships of about half the people you know who will refuse to even engage with you on any level about your new venture aside - it's actually a pretty easy 'job'. One with a ready made business model and an array of people around you more than happy to help you find your feet and get up and running.

In many ways, I'm finding the 'business in box' I've stumbled upon a welcome change from parenting where no one has a clue about anything and my own business where I often feel about as on the ball. The already available social media posts I can just adapt are even helping me with my own business's social media posts by giving me some ideas about 'what to say'. The personal development on offer and the access to courses in all kinds of confidence building tools are a surprising and welcome edition as well, allowing me to branch out and start learning again. And the fact that I feel I should probably make at least a degree of effort to get out there and meet new people, talk to people I haven't connected to in a while and share these products that I do genuinely love as a payback for my nice discount has been something I really needed post lockdown. In short, if nothing else comes from it, I'm grateful that I've been forced to get back out there and do something. To talk to people and attend fun events and generally get back into the world with a ready made conversational reason, if just hanging feels too overwhelming. And sometimes it still does.

My third love about MLM is to do with the people who get involved in it. It allows those priced out of the current job market by high childcare fees (like me) to earn and to learn. Or those who can't work within the rigid norms of office hours or outside of their own home. Or those who didn't/couldn't access formal education and training. Those who are often the ones with little to no Super and few other options in the traditional job market but to stay home and rely on savings/benefits/partners. It is, in its flexibility and simplicity, providing opportunities to those whom the traditional constraints of work and workplaces and their access requirements, do not. I think that is entirely genius and I'm wondering how the hell I managed to now know about this as until my fourth decade of life.

And on that note, while of course the big guys at the top who invented the products and who manufacture them are reaping the rewards of their army of little sellers, so too are we. There are thousands of us in this country all making either a living or an additional income or some hobby money from this. Which means, that as well as serving those big guys, it serves us too. It keeps money both in the country and in the pockets of the little people doing the advertising of the stuff - rather than the mega rich celebrities we see as the usual face of a brand. The likes of whom have probably never encountered the product they're endorsing until their PR mangers land it in their lap with a script and a big fat paycheque that you as a consumer pay for in the retail price.

What network marketing can bring to a family and an economy is immense. Even if it's not the millions that those who work their way up the levels can bring in. Even at the very bottom of the pile, it's creating an additional income for those struggling financially to buy the nicer gym leggings and invest in products other than the very cheapest imported crap out there on offer. It's allowing those who might not otherwise, to shop local, shop small, shop organic. It's putting money back into the pockets of the little guys in a twofold way and allowing more people to make better choices about what they buy and who they buy from. Something which is ultimately better for the environment too.

And yet, we remain suspicious. We look down on those muppets who we believe to have fallen into a scam.

So let's look more closely at the biggest gripes we have with it.

Firstly, as I mentioned, it's the perception that the BIG GUYS, the people at the top of the company are making money from the consultants/reps or whatever the brands chosen moniker is. But, isn't that just business? In every job I've ever had there has been a hierarchy and those further up get more money. In every job I've ever had my bosses have made money from my input & my work. If I tutor, the company that hired me takes a cut. If I sub contract for anything really, the company that hired me takes a cut. And usually, in return for that cut, I get little more than access to the role or client. At least in network marketing those higher up have a more vested interest in my success & in training me up to be better at what I am doing, because our success is intrinsically intertwined. The better the I do, the better they do too - in 'real' business, that's not always the case.

In other jobs I've had my work stolen and been given no credit for it. I've been overlooked for promotion because I'm female and likely to stuff things up by going and getting pregnant. And on (too many an) occasion I've had terrible, terrible bosses who I end up doing lots of extra work for simply because it's easier than dealing with the shit show their incompetence left unchecked would result in. (And in these instances my extra efforts are not reflected in my pay cheque, where as if I do more in my own MLM business, they probably will be).

I'm not saying that MLM is perfect and everyone is great at their job. Just if they're not, they won't progress and that they have a real reason to be good to you and keep you in the game. Thus, the climate of collaboration and mutual benefit I'm seeing in network marketing is refreshing. My 'upline' want me to succeed if for no other reason than my success gets them more income. And they know in order for me to do that, they have to train me, help me and more importantly, build me up as a person so I can go out there and do this job - which I'm finding even a couple of months in, is full of knocks.

Another issue most take with MLMs is they believe that those who get involved are going to change and become almost cult-like in their manner as they try to sell stuff and recruit others to do the same.

Sure, there are some fucking annoying people out there working in MLMs that do. But there were some fucking annoying people in every job/industry I have ever been involved in. And at least within the sphere of network marketing it's those who don't piss you off entirely, build genuine relationships and add valuable content to their sales platforms that we like, trust and buy from.

It might take those who start a while to find that balance, because when you first start you naturally bug those you already know with your excitement. It's easier after all to talk to your friends - in a way you're our practice. We feel safe sharing this new world with you. But give us a few weeks/months and we'll find out feet and work out that, actually, the best people to talk to are semi-strangers, because we're not as invested in their responses and their rejections of the products or venture we're promoting sting a little less.

And as for having you on my team so I can make (more) money? Well, most people get into MLMs as a sideline to their other commitments and are looking to make additional income from their sales rather than with any real intent to build a team they have to take responsibility for, so you're probably 'safe'. Also, were I going to build a team and try to scale up my business in that way, I'd want the most enthusiastic and excited people I could find, not those who have about as much love for what I'm doing as a toddler being strapped into a car seat.

The bad reputation MLMs have, generally comes from the actually illegal pyramid schemes they are often confused with. These are also a real thing, and have duped hundreds of thousands of people. In short, these schemes don't focus on selling products and often require people to sign up for a fee and then sign others up in a snowball of empty promises. Since they're founded on nothing, the sole aim of those involved is to get more involved to bring in money. Ultimately, these tend to be short lived and collapse or are taken down within a few years of starting up. People lose out. They are a scam and a waste of time. They are not the same as MLMs that are actual companies, some of which have been around for 40+ years. Companies with products they invest in, develop and sell.

Another thing that impacts on the reputation of MLMs is a lack of understanding about what they actually involve. It isn't the standard way to sell that we're used to - it's not a small business as we recognise it, where we know who started it and we see them selling online, at markets or in a few shops. It not a big business that employs hundreds or thousands of employees who we seem to have come to regard as faceless and ruthless. It's a weird amalgamation of the two. A big business that becomes a small business by handing over its sales and advertising to the people on the ground you see selling the stuff.

And maybe we just don't know how to feel about that. Are we buying from a small business and supporting local or not? Well, yes in that what you buy makes a direct difference to the people you buy from - much as if you bought lollies from the local newsagent. Sure, it also benefits the 'guys at the top' - the lolly makers - but if those selling the products didn't feel like they were getting a fair cut of that, they wouldn't be doing it. And they certainly wouldn't be asking others to do the same with them.

At the end of the day this might not be for you in the way liver schnitzel is not for me. That's fine, but, I think that it is about time that we as a society embraced other ways of earning a living, and considered that maybe our friends might just have stumbled upon something they think is brilliant, and let's let them enjoy that.

Clearly, I think it is a bit brilliant. Particularly in a climate where job security is scarce and people need the safety net of additional income streams. Where we see more and more people unable to go back to work as they take on roles caring for others or have disabilities themselves.

In an age where we are increasingly realising (as we polish our own shit on socials so we look more 'baking-chill-mum' than the 'gin-sweary-mum' that we actually are) the glimpses we get into the Kim Kardashians and David Beckhams of the world are, at best, an approximation of the truth, I do think we'll start to see network marketing grow and lose it's stigma. After all, if we know they're not real on there, then if follows that their rave reviews of Gillette Razors and Flat Tummy Co shakes might not be real either. And I think, as a smarter audience than ever before, we're over even pretending to buy into that.

Our mates in MLMs on the other hand, however, have at the very least, aligned themselves with a brand that does speak to them and they have incorporated into their lifestyle. They do use these products. They do like them. Hell, sometimes in such great quantities that they might have initially joined up simply for the chance to buy them at wholesale cost...

And yet, now they're not only trying to tell you how amazing the stuff they found is, they're sometimes asking you to get onboard too because they see how easy, fun and ideal it could be for you if you like the products and might be interested in the access to some really valuable personal development, business information & the pretty sweet community that comes as part of the MLM package too.

1 - Richard Bliss-Brooke (2013) The Four Year Career (4th Edition); Bliss Business; p30