Thursday, July 13, 2017

MLM and "Rise of the Entrepreneur" Part 1

***DISCLAIMER*** THIS POST IS LONG ***DISCLAIMER***

Today's blog post is a synopsis of, "Rise of the Entrepreneur", and how it is supposed to be a "documentary style film" for "Network Marketing". The movie was made by "Network Marketing Pro", Eric Worre, and it is his attempt to bring understanding to the "business" of "Network Marketing". The film is a cleverly designed propaganda piece that is designed to deceive and mislead potential future customers for Eric Worre's "Go  Pro" programs, and it is an incredibly spun view of "Network Marketing" as a whole.



 0:00-2:15

The beginning of the film starts with a call to action. The world is going fast and it is harder than ever to make a living. We need an answer, because everyone is suffering and there is nothing we can do about it. Robert Kiyosaki says, "Getting a paycheck is an industrial age idea", which makes no sense. Kiyosaki is notorious for saying weird, misleading, or fabricated statements and trying to pass it off as knowledge. This is a perfect example, because anyone that gets paid legally in MLM, and any other profession, will receive a paycheck. Kiyosaki will make more appearances in the film, and it should be noted that every time he says something, there will be something wrong.


2:16-3:42

This part of the film talks about his thesis. He also does his first list, which is one of Eric's favorite things, and he talks about his "Three Important Questions".

1. What's really going on in our working world today?

2. Is it better to be an entrepreneur or to work for someone else?

3. How can you be an entrepreneur without taking massive risk?

He also says there will be new information that nobody has ever heard before.


5:45-6:34

The interviews begin and there are a lot of random people saying some stuff that means nothing, but then...

Robert Kiyosaki is back, and this time he has brought interactive charts to the conversation. He starts by talking about people in the middle class and how their wages are going down. While this may be accurate, it has no correlation with "Network Marketing", and this is a common straw man tactic. He wants you to look at an unrelated problem. Then he gets back to being bizarre by suggesting that poverty is ending, but the "working poor" is going up. Not only does that not make sense, but his last graph suggested that poverty is rising because the middle class is being wiped out which is another way of saying the rich are getting richer! Robert Kiyosaki, the man, the myth, the wordsmith legend!

7:00-8:00

More random interviews, and then...

Robert Kiyosaki is back with MORE graphs! He starts by talking about how awful student loan debt is in comparison to credit card debt because it can't be forgiven. He even has a big smile when he mentions you can go bankrupt and "all is forgiven" if it is credit debt. Not true! You can lose your assets, such as your house and your car, and you may not be able to get a loan or gainful employment. Then he talks about the average wages of college students going down. Well, we currently have more people attending and graduating from college than ever before, so, the law of supply and demand comes into effect. If there were only 10 college graduates in a field one year, and then 100 college graduates the next year, then the demand for those persons will shrink unless more jobs are available. The issue is not college, but the inability to create new jobs. He missed the point entirely, and it has nothing to do with "Network Marketing".

8:00 - 9:00

A guy comes out talking about debt, and his numbers are...CRAZY! I don't want to harp too much on this because there is more important bad information (never thought I would say that), but this guy is the epitome of bad data. A quick Google search will reveal the true debt figures.

9:00 - 11:45

Worre emphasizes how much sorrow everyone has, and how terrible the world is because we live in a rigged system. He has more weird interviews to hype the sadness, and then he has a guy come on and say, "The economy is great!". This will be a recurring trend where MLMers play both sides of the fence. On the one hand, the world is rigged, life is hard, there is too much debt, not enough jobs, but the economy is wonderful. Does this make sense?

12:00 - 13:00

Worre talks about the stock market wildly, vaguely and incorrectly, and should be ignored as this has nothing to do with his "expertise". It is far more complicated than he made it sound, and your money doesn't just go to some random person when you invest it. This part should have been left on the cutting room floor.

13:00 - 13:50

Worre talks about what classifies as middle and upper class incomes. These numbers are important because they show the percentages of people that fall into these categories across every profession. You are much more likely to fall into one of these classes "working for someone else", than you ever will be working in "Network Marketing" according to the MLM's own published income disclosures.


13:50 - 15:34

Worre talks to a bunch of people that say being an entrepreneur is good and being an employee is bad. All of them speak with hyperbole when talking about employees and none of them acknowledge the fact that employees were directly responsible for their dreams. They act as though they accomplished everything on their own and employees are "modern day slaves". This is completely inaccurate, and their opinion of employees would leave one to believe their workers may need to find new employers.

15:34 - 17:28

Worre talks to more people, and this time they are saying starting a business is expensive, time consuming, and has a high risk of failure. Nothing really special there.

17:28 - 17:50

Guess who is back...KIYOSAKI!

Right on cue, he undermines the whole movie thus far by saying employees with college degrees are extremely vital to running a business. He even says, "A business is a team sport", and yet the whole movie suggests being an employee is bad and getting a college degree is bad. He is quickly becoming my favorite!

17:50 - 19:30

Worre et al. talk more about how expensive, time consuming, and education intensive it is being an entrepreneur. Worre begins to hint at the subject of the movie, because at this point, they haven't revealed it. Up to this point, they have only used the term "entrepreneur", but have yet to talk about "Network Marketing". There aren't many successful films that can go nearly 20 minutes without bringing up the subject.

19:30 - 20:30

Worre finally brings up "Network Marketing". He also uses the term "Direct Selling", partially correctly, suggesting it means products move from "Manufacturer to Consumer". "Direct Selling" can also be purchasing a product on eBay from another user, or the original method, a door-to-door salesperson coming to your house with a product. He also mentions "Multi-level Marketing", but acts as though that term doesn't fully encompass the "business", because his brand uses the term "Network Marketing". This is where he begins his brand enforcement, and starts working the term "Network Marketing" into the viewers vocabulary.

20:30 - 20:47

Once again...the one, the only...Robert Kiyosaki is back with another gem!

First, he mentions his relationship with Trump, then he holds up his book. He actually plugs himself while helping to plug Worre! Then he says people come out of school looking for a paycheck is, "terrible!". Robert, why else would people go to school? Oh, I completely forgot, Robert's logic is otherworldly.

20:47 - 21:30

Random people are suggesting "Network Marketing" is the best. One lady uses the celebrity fallacy suggesting authors and billionaires being associated with "Network Marketing" adds credibility. The two do not have a direct correlation as they did not become billionaires and authors because of "Network Marketing".

21:30 - 21:38

The excitement continues with...you guessed it, Robert Kiyosaki!

Unfortunately, he was too short this time, but he says go to school for a paycheck and do "Network Marketing" to be rich. I suppose nobody informed Robert that he failed at Amway.

21:38 - 22:56

Worre talks about marketing budgets and his numbers are WAY off. The average marketing budget should be around 10% of sales, but he seems to think it is 50%. He also suggests that "Network Marketing" is "completely efficient". This is the boldest lie. "Network Marketing" is the least efficient way to sell a product or service and it is reflected in the price. There has to be steep commissions paid to each tier causing the product price to rise. "Network Marketing" has never been price competitive in the market place.

22:56 - 24:29

This section is critical because there are a lot of problems describing "Network Marketing". One guy suggests big box retailers hire incompetent employees that don't know the products. This may be true, but at least they go through formal training. Whereas many "Network Marketers" do not go through formal training, and are often misrepresenting the products. TINA.org showed 97% of all MLMs in the DSA had false health claims and other misinformation when it came to the products.

Another person suggests "Network Marketing" is better than advertising because advertising has hype. Apparently, according to him, "Network Marketing" doesn't use hype? I don't think this guy is aware of the subject.

The third person is the worst. He actually describes how "Network Marketing" is a pyramid. He gives an example of how he wants to sell a million dollars worth of product. In a "typical sales company", he would hire 100 salespersons and have a quota of $10,000 in sales. Then he says, in "Network Marketing", he would worry about 10,000 "happy raving fans" "selling $100.00 worth of product". This is it folks, the smoking gun. If you want to make a million dollars in "Network Marketing" you better build a downline of 10,000 "fans", because the focus is not on selling products to customers. Those 10,000 "fans" selling $100.00 worth of product aren't going to be making any real income.

We will continue with part 2 soon!

10 comments:

  1. Any pitch that features Kiyosaki should be taken with a grain of salt. This man has never shoed any evidence that he's made a dime using his own techniques. He was just lucky that some Amway diamond decided to promote his rich dad book and sold it to a closed and brainwashed audience. Voila, he's suddenly a successful author!

    But his advice is obviously dangerous and inconsistent. I would avoid anything he is associated with.

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    1. Joe,

      I absolutely agree, and mainly focused on Kiyosaki's parts because people still believe he is a good writer and teacher. Not only is he completely illiterate, which is saying something because I'm not the best at writing English, but he is even dumber on video.

      Hopefully more people will see through him as well as Worre and start to make better financial decisions. We all have to work hard for our money, including these idiots, but at least we should get something of value in return.

      Delete
  2. Great job John! Amway guys here in Czech republic actually use this propaganda movie to hype Amway. I saw it and even wrote article about it. I like Wore comparing MLM to businesses like music or movie industry, because if he picks any retail shops selling food, cosmetics, whatever, the numbers are by far higher. Other important catch is, that while MLM industry as a whole is slowly growing according to Wore, sales per head are actually going down. So the message of the movie should be, welcome in the 21. century growing industry, where you will likely make less and less money. How ridiculous is that...

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    1. Thank you Anonymous!

      That is very interesting that this movie is being used in the Czech Republic. I know that Worre has extensive viewership since he had sponsored many thousands while he was a MLMer, but I wasn't sure how well that translated into his "teachings".

      I didn't notice that Worre actually said that the sales per MLMer is going down. That should further prove that this is a scheme and the only way to sell these snake oil products is to recruit more downline members and make sure they are buying monthly.

      I'm interested to see if MLMs will actually continue to get worse because of the transition from retail to internet sales in the U.S. Amazon seems to be purchasing their way into every major market space, and continues to destroy the retail brick-and-mortar sector. We are going to have an interesting time in front of us as more and more malls begin to shut down. I believe Amazon will start to be a more global influence in the future as well.

      Delete
  3. I watched the entire film clip. What a load of carefully crafted, glib, choreographed horseshit.

    One thing is clear -- the clip shows that MLM promoters have been reading all of the anti-MLM blogs -- including this one, Joe Cool's, and Anna Banana's -- very carefully! Worre and the others went out of their way to try and refute all of the many complaints and criticisms of the MLM ripoff, and they did it by acknowledging that much of the criticism of MLMs is solid and honest. Of course, they then tried to elide over the entire problem by admitting that it's not for everyone, that it takes much hard work, that it's not a get-rich-quick scheme, older abuses have been corrected, etc. etc.

    Naturally, they had to end with the usual "have a dream" speech, and the utterly predictable sentimentality of letting that big red balloon go off into the sky. Pure, mindless, corporate hype!

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    1. Hi Anonymous --

      Thank you for your comment! I will never forget when I went to a WWDB "Freedom Enterprise Days" convention and heard from one of the "Crowns" about the success percentage. He literally told an audience of 8,000 that .1% of people will make it to diamond which is effectively 0, and then tried to suggest that everyone has the opportunity to succeed. The roars from the crowd with excitement left me in a daze and I felt I was the only one that heard the statement correctly. It felt like a weird bait-and-switch technique.

      Brad Duncan might as well have said, "Sure your failure is guaranteed, but so is death, so sign up today!"

      Delete
  4. I see Harry Dent also makes a few appearences in the video (his face is also the thumbnail image of this video on my browser). Maybe my comment will show the quality of the various "expert" opinions they've hired.

    Harry Dent makes a living of making wild economic predictions, and afterwards cherry picks the ones that could be construed to have landed somewhat close to what transpired. He uses this quasi authority to write MLM motivational books and for appearances in marketing videos like these. There he is introduced as a renowned economist, even though a little research quickly reveals he commands no respect in the investment fraternity, and here I'm talking about guys that are hungry for cues on where to make money! I was treated to one of Dent's CD's by a N21 friend who thought that I would find the CD thought provoking. I did, but not the way it was intended. My thoughts were more along the lines of "How could they trap people with THIS??". Dent uses demographics (the baby boomers retiring) from which he claims he can predict the timing of ALL economic booms and downturns. His argument is there's a major crash ahead (thus was two years ago) and many businesses will fail and people will loose their jobs. Better start your own business, and what better than MLM, followed by the "low startup costs" lie. (That's material for another essay - MLM startup costs. If it takes years to make noney, then your registration fee is not the sum startup costs!! ). I tried in vain to talk sense into the friend who has been in for many years, it's like hypnosis, their minds close off when challenged to think critically about their newfound dream even in the face of lack of results. The Dents and the Kiyosaki's (and I suspect a few others in the video) are the ones that reel in the money from selling false hope to people who use their savings and precious time to buy this false hope. In terms of direct effect on victims, a cleanly executed bank robbery may well be a less serious crime than this.

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    1. Hi Kwaaikat --

      Thank you for your information on Dent! That guy had some significant issues throughout the video, but I didn't focus on it because I'm not as familiar with him and his work. He was the one who threw out the ridiculous debt numbers, which by my understanding, would have meant the economy would have already blown up if the numbers were accurate.

      I believe Harry Dent, much like Kiyosaki, Worre, Maxwell, Robbins, and these other "Prosperity messiah's" have found a legal loophole to extract tons of cash from vulnerable dupes. These guys have found ways to make their narcissism pay, and I agree that the "teachings" they do are far worse than any bank robbery. The amount of financial wreckage they have caused is probably staggering, and I hope we can have a change in legislation one day.

      Thanks for the awesome comment!

      Delete
  5. Every time I watch this video, it keeps on producing gems.

    At 28 minutes, the claim is made that MLM pays out 71Bn USD worldwide, annually.

    At 30 minutes the claim is made that MLM involves 112 million people worldwide (16 million in the US, 96 million in the rest of the world).
    Both numbers sound impressive in isolation and I'm sure are intended to provoke gasps of amazement, and perhaps ammunition to mock detractors and to quash any perception that this is not serious business.

    But 71Bn in payouts to 112 million people means each person involved gets the grand total of $633.93 annually. That is $52.83 per month. Before expenses. And that is from figures used in a promotional video, one would assume were picked to make the industry look good.

    This is especially horrific because shortly after, in an attempt to address the allegation that guys at the top cash in disproportionally, it is mentioned that roughly 500 individuals earn over a million, meaning the remaining 70billion USD is distributed amongst most of the rest (112 million). That in reality brings paltry $52.83 down slightly further, but the interpretation that they narrator gives, is that the guys at the top together take very little, and the rest earn "anything between a few hundred to a few thousand per month".

    To claim our facts are different and selectively spin the sources is one thing. But to mention the facts according to your view (which points to $52) and then casually mention to the audience most of whom unfortunately you correctly assume won't do the math, that the figure is between a few hundred and a few thousand!

    The problem is, would you get someone who is enthused by this video to sit down for five minutes to assess this?

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    1. Kwaaikat --

      Thank you for your comment! It is truly bizarre to sit through a video like this with eyes wide open because facts are non-existent, and it is hard to call it spin when it is outright lies.

      I'm glad you are really into numbers and the real business side of this sham. It is the one thing these charlatans can't cover up, no matter how hard they try. My favorite example is the revenue to employee ratio for Walmart versus the revenue to ratio for any MLM. They throw out these numbers in the billions as if they are impressive, but of course the truth reveals a very different story.

      I don't think it is possible for people that watch this video, and think it is good, to objectively sit and listen to the criticism. They have too much denial and cognitive dissonance to be able to hear a differing opinion, even if the differing opinion is logical and calm.

      These people have been hypnotized by the masters of deception and they won't come out of it until they have lost everything.

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