Wellness Solutions®
Consumer Direct Marketing
is NOT
Multi Level Marketing, contrary to assertions by some well intentioned consumer advocates
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IF YOU'RE STILL INVOLVED WITH MLM -
How's it going for you ?
Might your cards be stacked against you ?
Your answers to the following may help reveal why -
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(1) Does your 'upline' earn more from your
group than you - and is there an endless downline -
thus defining a classic pyramidic multi level marketing racket, er, sorry - scheme ?
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Please analyze, do your due diligence and always seek competent, independent professional advice. |
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We are NOT a multi-level operation ...
MLM masquerades as an financial opportunity .. |
MLM is traditionally defined as buying from upline, selling to downline, stocking inventory etc. Our business is a CONSUMER DIRECT MARKETING company. The idea was invented in 1985. EVERY customer buys directly from the company at the same discounted rate. We don't stock inventory, we don't retail products. We gather customers.
THAT's why WE are not an MLM. |
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(2) How long have you been in “the business” ?
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(3) To 'remain active' and maximize your commissions are you compelled to spend around $225 for 8 bottles -
- every 28 days -
(I.E. an additional $240 per calendar MONTH !)
Note you're always committed to shop for costly everyday kitchen, laundry and personal care items - frequently toxic.
Make sense to share in profits of 300 safer, healthier items you need anyway by diverting under $85 per month from your current purchases or - spend $140 EXTRA - on just one ? |
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(4) Are you truly an Independent Business Owner ? i.e. is it really YOUR Independent Business? Or does your Corporation claim ownership of your downline business in their fine print – not openly disclosed to you ? |
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(5) Can you be summarily dismissed for any ‘non-compliant’ activity ? If so how can (4) above be true ? |
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| (6) How much time have you spent learning how to do it ? |
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(7) Are there real products and how many are there ? More than 300 (e.g. from a single pharmaceutical manufacturer ?) or just one ? i.e. a single category only of say Soap, Telephony, Nutritional Products, or Jungle Juice etc ? How many are 3rd party "business support" or "system" items?
See disclaimer. |
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(8) What was your last bonus cheque ? |
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(9) Can you name one (excluding say your Corporation’s original ‘tenured-establishment’) who today enjoys a true
independent residual income ? Is it willable to your estate ? |
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(10) What was your last NET assessable profit you declared to the Australian Taxation Office or in the case of the US - their IRS? |
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(11) As a business builder, after say 10+ years involvement, has your profit, doubled at least, every 3½-5 years i.e. a 15%-20% Compound Annual Growth Rate through product volume?
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(12) What is your current Pin level ? Are you currently qualified at that level, or do you wear the Pin because you once qualified in the past ? How long’s it been since you actually qualified ? |
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(13) Do you also still work a job after all this time ? Still have a mortgage ? Or still paying rent ? Does your spouse or partner still work a job? |
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| (14) Was the final leg of your Pin quietly ‘bought’ to achieve your perpetually recognized status ? |
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| (15) Who is your real financial benefactor ? I.E. the Corporation who portrays themselves as your financial source ? Or is it some other, collusive third party purporting to be your 'friend' ? |
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(16) What is the actual source of 80-90% of your gross income from “the business”? |
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(17) Have you become aware of any financial ‘inconsistencies’ in relation to ‘your’ particular MLM that:
(i) Some people are getting ‘quietly’ paid more than others
or
(ii) Some people aren’t getting paid quite as much
or
(iii) Some people aren’t getting paid at all
or
(iv) Some people aren’t even aware that anyone’s getting paid. |
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| (18) Do people rush for the exits in a restaurant or theatre when your Corporation’s name is mentioned in public ? |
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(19) Does your head Corporation reward your loyalty with up to 2 new motor cars which must cost more than $25,000 and be replaced at least every 3 years? Does your MLM (or supermarket) ever insist you drive a car worth a minimum of $50,000 with replacement every 3 years?
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| (20) Are ALL your products non toxic and environmentally sensitive and are they all therapeutic and cost effective? |
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(21) Is there any global evidence of any poisoning – especially with children ? Do any of your sanitation products for e.g. require child proof caps ? |
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| (22) In how many countries do you operate ? Have any denied your MLM their sovereign market access? Why? Does 'your' Corporation need to resort to mass media advertising ? |
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| (23) What pre-requisite constraints are there in expanding your MLM business internationally ? |
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(24) Are new (international) enrolments seamless across all jurisdictions in which your Corporation operates, or do qualifying conditions apply ? |
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(25) Has your Corporation the fortitude to take corrective action against corruption or misfeasance and have they ever ?
Conversely, have they any record of scapegoating otherwise innocent participants for their ‘non-compliance’ ? |
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(26) Has your Corporation (or its office holders) ever been indicted or convicted, or settled out of court for any matters unbecoming ?
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| (27) How long has the Corporation been in existence ? Is your MLM accredited as an Inc.500 Company - and for 5 consecutive years? |
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(28) What is your Corporation’s -
(a) Retention rate and, crucially its
(b) Product Reorder Rate ?
Are they anything like 96 - 98%, consistently year after year?
Comment at right attributed to: Robert Fitzpatrick
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"MLM is not about logic and analysis. It’s about belief. Belief belongs in religion, not business. Business involves due diligence and that’s what they divert you from. Doing a due diligence about the business model, about the historical loss rates, about what is really going on here." |
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(There are "religions" where the distinction is decidedly blurred.) |
| (29) Must you always “re-qualify” to receive your monthly bonus cheque? |
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| (30) Has this ever been arbitrarily denied to you ? |
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(31) Is your compensation plan free from a “break-aways” component circumventing your growth just when you were gaining some financial traction ? |
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(32) To how many pages of ‘rules of conduct’ must you conform and how often are they modified (without your knowledge) ?
Would approx. 100 (pages) be excessive do you reckon ? |
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| (33) Are you ‘free’ to ‘cross-line’ till the cows come home, read and listen according to your own preferences, attend seminars at your own convenience and associate where, when and with whom you please without incurring admonishment or control dramas from your ‘up-line’? |
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| (34) Are you told you don’t need customers ? (Big red flag). |
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(35) Are you expected to subscribe to any 3rd party Business Support Materials e.g. Tapes, Books, CD’s, DVD’s Voice Messaging, Seminars, Rallies, Travel and Accommodation for same etc. (“BSM”) and does your up-line decline to work with or associate with you unless you do? (Bigger red flag).
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| (36) What’s your total outlay on BSM’s to date ? |
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| (37) Have you noticed an exodus from MLM back to conventional business or across to Consumer Direct Marketing? |
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(38) Does your upline purport to counsel you with financial advice, even when you’re eminently capable of buying and selling them already ?
What are the likely consequences of continuing to listen to them?
How can you take them seriously in these circumstances ?
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| (39) Do you ever feel like you’ve just swapped a day job for the night shift ? |
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(40) What is the divorce rate amongst your organization? Anything published?
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| (41) (Heaven forbid) any suicides amongst them ? |
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(42) Can you BUY your way to retain or advance your Pin level, or is there a safety ‘cap’ preventing privilege abuse ? |
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| (43) Have you unconditional access to any of your leaders, no matter how luminary, at any time no matter how humble your own Pin stature? |
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(44) What is the compound annual growth rate (revenue) of your MLM since it's incorporation ? Enjoyed incremental growth EVERY year ?
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| (45) Is it anything like 43.6%? If not, what is it? If it’s not published, why isn’t it? |
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| (46) When listening to other counter-type presentations, are you hearing the messenger or the MESSAGE ? |
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(47) Do you ever get the ‘sensation’ you’re being ‘love bombed’ by super positive so-nice-to-be-around people ? i.e. rubber smiles, warm hugs and cheek kisses for the girls ..? Ever sort of feel a warm moist trickle from your trouser pocket down one leg? (Even bigger red flag). |
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(48) Is your MLM up
front with people in the first instance ? |
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| (49) With 30 personally enrolled will your Corporation pay you an average of $A561.60 per month ? Or is it more like $5.60 ? |
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(50) On award trips abroad, is it a holiday or are you expected to stay up till 2.00am and endure narcissistic “wisdom” interspersed with a touch of Bible and pizza, compliments of your triple-super-awesome-diamond-legend-grand-master-dragon-wizard?
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| (51) You are doubtless extremely loyal to your chosen MLM.
How ‘loyal’ do you think your MLM is to YOU? Has it passed the smell test? |
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(52) Can you detect from the above, that without your knowledge, for years, you may NOT have been playing with a full deck ?
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"So – to be successful in a recruiting MLM, one must first be deceived, then maintain a high level of self-deception, and finally go about deceiving others.
They must also remain in denial about the multitude of victims left behind. Some would label this "theft by deception" except that few of those doing the deceiving are aware that they are deceiving and defrauding those they are recruiting.
They may even put on a display of being "successful," by buying expensive cars and homes and inviting others to be like them."
Attributed to Robert Fitzpatrick of PSA
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"One must look outside the world of business
- to religion and
politics -
to find people willing to work so hard, for so long,
for such poor financial reward -
as most MLM people curiously do."
Attributed in essence to Forbes Magazine circa 1992
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"I understand the need to be practical and look at this business from a business perspective. That's the flaw . . . and that's where most of the world has gotten it all wrong. This isn't a business. This isn't a company. This is an ideology, a mindset, a culture, a philosophy and a way of life. Why do you think the "cult" charges are so prevalent ? Those are only a symptom of the larger issue. It's "communism" wrapped up in a blanket of free enterprise. It's a fundamentally flawed way of living painted with Christian symbology. It's the wrong dressed up to look like the right." |
Comments at left regarding the MLM business model attributed to unknown American author. |
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| Please always seek competent independent professional advice. |
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We wish you Sound Judgement, Health and Prosperity
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