Thursday, August 9, 2018

MLM and The Ace Initiative Pt. 2 / Brandon Odom pt. 5

***Here are links to part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4***

Today's blog post was inspired by a recent e-mail sent to me from a blog reader. "The Ace Initiative" has taken the next giant leap in their charade and decided to host a big meeting in Kelowna, BC. They are calling it, "The First Annual Ace Summit", and it is going to start on August 9th, and it will end August 12th. The "Summit" will be hosted by the three leaders, and according to "Dr." Travis Fox, "It is all about improving your business and your ad specifics. We are bringing top speakers to really show you the next level". Brandon Odom has some prerequisites before attending, "Definitely need to get your ticket as soon as possible. Jump in that group, start going through the content, get that homework done. That way you are ready when you show up to the event to really just implement".

Here is the video:

The event costs $297 - $497, depending on when you paid, and the schedule of events is listed here:

Thursday August 9th "Summer Hill Vineyard ACE Summit Mixer" -Summer Hill Vineyard 6:00pm- 10:00pm

"Friday August 10th "Coast Capri"
-Registration 8:00am-9:00am
Summit Introduction 9:15-am-9:30am Brandon, Travis & Bryan
-9:30am- 11:00am - " Architecting " "TravisFox"
-15 Min Break
-11:15am- 12:30 "Content Creation" "Bryan @Bryan Hodgson
-12:30pm-1:30pm Lunch
-1:30pm-2:45pm "Facebook Training" "Dennis Yu"
-15 Min Break
-3:00pm- 4:30pm "Facebook Training" "Dennis Yu"
-4:30pm-5:00pm "ManyChats Training" "David Wilkinson"
-15 Min Break
-5:15pm- 6:15pm Instagram & Photo Editing "Shauna Clark"
-Closing Day One- "Brandon Odom, Travis Fox & Bryan Hodgson"

Saturday August 11th "Wild Play Park"
-Wild Play Park Kelowna "Bring white shirt and running shoes -9am-10am Registration
-10:00am Team building event starts
-Noon-1:00pm Lunch
-1:00pm-4:00pm Team building
-4:30pm-Close- Colour Festival . "white Shirt"

Sunday August 12th "Coast Capri- Kelowna"
-10:00am-Noon "Facebook Training" Dennis Yu
-Noon-1:30pm Lunch
-1:30pm-2:30pm Brandon Odom
-2:30pm-3:00pm "Stepping into your truth" Ashley Makenzie
-15 Min Break
-3:15pm-4:15pm Balazs Kardos
-4:15pm-5:00pm Awards Q&A
-15 Break
-5:30pm Closing Ceremonies "Special Guest"

The event pricing, as far as I can tell, does not include food outside of the schedule, lodging, or airfare. The event also does not offer discounts for days you do not wish to attend.

The location for this event is strange. "The Ace Initiative" is incorporated in Nevada and all three of the leaders are from the States. It appears they are travelling to Canada because their scam has been more successful across the border. I noticed when Brandon was running "Team Phoenix Marketing" that many of those members were also from Canada, and he probably kept many of them when changing the identity to "The Ace Initiative". Canada appears to have been an untapped market, and these three have been able to take advantage.

The event itself is completely comprised of useless days and activities. There is not one redeeming thing these three leaders are going to offer to their recruits at this "summit", which makes sense since they have nothing to offer anyways. Let's go through each day and expand upon why it is a terrible use of time and money.

The Thursday "Summer Hill Vineyard Ace Summit Mixer" is awful because you will not be able to network with these people, since they are already involved with the group, but you will be paying to not be "marketing" to your potential recruits. You could save a day of food and lodging and skip this stupid event.

Friday's introduction is unnecessary since everyone already knows who they are. That's fifteen extra minutes people can spend in bed. "Dr." Travis Fox's "architecting" is possibly the most honest portion of the entire event. He is going to spend an hour and a half molding recruit's minds by using psychological techniques designed to disarm skepticism. He will use "love-bombing", "story telling", "social influence", "the liking principle", "sensory words", and of course, "authority bias". After all of the manipulation the recruits get to recover with a fifteen minute break. Bryan's "Content Creation" is just a disguised title for him going on stage and using his version of the psychological persuasion techniques. According to the three leaders, "90%" of the content has already been created by them, so why would you need this lesson? After Bryan's boring speech, a lunch break will definitely be needed. The rest of the day is filled with useless "Facebook Training", which the recruits have already completed, and some other nonsense about setting up a robot to chat with people and photo editing. Not only is all of this information regularly available online, but it is free of charge! These recruits will have paid hundreds of dollars to be bored to death.

Saturday is completely useless. Much like Thursday, there will be absolutely nothing related to the business. In fact, Saturday is so useless it's a waste of words to talk about.

Sunday starts late because of the hangovers everyone will have from the night before. The recruits will get to start their day with the ultimate hangover cure, "Facebook Training". It appears their event team ran out of ideas on how to waste time. After the "Facebook Training" nap, the recruits will get to enjoy a well-deserved lunch break. After lunch the recruits will get to hang out with Brandon for an hour doing -- apparently nothing since they didn't bother to label his section. Brandon is going to be the wild card, nobody will know what to expect. After Brandon's turn, there is story time with Ashley. Time to take another nap. This is followed by a 15 minute nap, and then another story time nap with Balazs. Once you are done napping through the stories you will rewarded with an "award ceremony". I'm not sure what could be awarded, but it can't be any worse than the 30+ award shows the States hold every year on major cable networks. You get another break after that excitement followed by a "special guest". I'm going to guess this is Tony Robbins, because who else would fly out and waste their time doing something like this? After the recruits are done with that, they will get to check out of their hotel and take a red eye back to their home so they can make it to work in the morning.

Luckily, I've already experienced one of these events, so I'll be skipping this one. However, if anyone wants to attend and send me some feedback about it, I'll be more than happy to read and publish it for the wonderful viewers of this blog. Please note, I recommend doing anything else with your money before this, including playing the lottery, but it's your money and you can do what you want.

10 comments:

  1. That promotional video for the Ace Initiative Summit was nothing but hype and hoopla. This is exactly the kind of mindless pap that a population of social-media-addicted assholes finds exciting.

    The agenda for the three-day meeting indicates one thing: this conferences is just a social get-together designed to get participants to network and party.

    Let's suppose the average attendee spends $400 to attend. And let's suppose there are 5000 persons in attendance. Isn't that about two million dollars?

    No wonder these "functions" are an inescapable fixture of any MLM.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous --

      You absolutely nailed it! These "rallies", "functions", "summits", "seminars", "conferences", are designed for two main purposes. They want to create a bunch of hype and excitement to keep the recruits loyal and engaged, and they want to bilk the recruits for hundreds of dollars. As long as they can get a decently large group together, this is the best way for the leaders to make the most money.

      The Dateline episode on "Amway"/"Quixtar" showed how powerful these events can be. By bringing thousands of like-minded people into a room, the recruits will no longer have a reason to question what they are being told. This is similar to the argumentum ad populum fallacy, except it is even more real since they are a part of the large group.

      As long as MLMs exist, the "functions" will stick around.

      Delete
  2. The reason why crap like this has done well up here is because of the struggling oil industry in Alberta.
    Brandon has targeted people who worked in the oil fields, and lost their jobs when oil crashed in 2014/2015, that industry has never really recovered either. Many of those people are not educated beyond a high school level, and would have difficulty finding other jobs that pay similarly.

    This makes them huge targets for this kind of stuff, because they are not educated much about it, are promised more income than before, and don’t have to deal with the harsh weather conditions associated with rig work. It’s a perfect storm for that audience. I’ve heard MLM’s in general have spread like a plague in northern Alberta.

    Honestly I find it very sad.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous --

      Thank you for that insight. Unfortunately, as you mentioned, the combination of joblessness and lack of education is a perfect recipe for charlatans to take advantage.

      The lack of education is definitely an issue, but when it comes to these types of scams highly educated people also fall prey to them. Our education systems do not focus on critical thinking or general knowledge about the human condition. There is no opportunity to learn in school about people taking advantage of others in real situations, and there is no opportunity to become skeptical. If kids were taught about Socrates at an early age, I feel much of this heartache could be prevented. People don't need a higher education to be protected from this garbage.

      Delete
  3. There is a strong tendency in American education, from the lowest grades upwards, to inculcate "trust," "hope," "love," "sensitivity," and "optimism." There's always some toothy, smiling bitch in a white pinafore telling the kids to "be nice" and to "follow your dreams" and to "foster happiness and harmony."

    Unfortunately, the real-world consequence is that American kids are raised to be naive, silly, intellectual creampuffs who are perfect targets for cults and MLM schemes.

    What we need in America is a lot more HARD-BOILED CYNICISM and toughness. You don't get that by handing out Smiley-Face buttons to kids.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous --

      Do you think that correlation has to do with grade point averages, or maybe with professors taking advantage of their position by creating an environment that is completely dictatorial? For example, my first experience with a real critical thinking course didn't happen until college. I was able to be programmed through the first 12 grades without question, and nobody cared that this was happening. I was inculcated with values my teachers felt were important, and it was powerful enough for me to feel it was a part of who I was. I would get very emotional if people had an opposing voice. I had an irrational fervor to defend against the other side.

      I agree, and I wish people would stop treating children like fragile angels. Part of what creates a well-rounded individual is dealing with a certain degree of pain and uncomfortability. Let a kid fall down once in a while. Let them try something you know won't work, because they need to see it won't work for themselves. Let them fail if they decide to not put in the effort, and don't reward them for "trying their hardest". Some of that reality is necessary.

      Delete
  4. The experience of individuals will vary, of course. In American public education today, the basic aim is not instruction or skill-building, but socialization and propagandizing. Students are force-fed a soft-left philosophy of liberalism, multiculturalism, victimology, and the "let's all get along and be nice" mentality. Conflict and competition are taboo, even in the area of sports. Most of education in the K-12 sequence is now a joke, and the reason so many foreigners come here for their education is that they realize that it is now just a big babysitting service that provides one with a useful credential. This is in the interest of two groups: first, parents, who want the kids out of the house for at least six hours a day; and second, the teachers union, who are collecting big salaries and benefits for essentially doing little except punching in.

    A K-12 teacher who tries to be a strict pedagogue who wants to inculcate information and develop skills will lose his or her job very quickly. I know -- I have been in the field of education for fifty years. I have seen it happen.

    Unfortunately, in most American colleges today the very same policy is also becoming standard. Left-wing ideology is inculcated into undergraduates without the slightest hesitation, and students who question it are either browbeaten or forced out of the class.

    I wish some stupid liberal would come here and try to argue with me about it. I'd love to wipe the floor with him.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hello! I've been reading your blog for some time now and finally got the courage to go ahead and
    give you a shout out from Lubbock Tx! Just wanted to mention keep
    up the great work!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Do you mind if I quote a few of your articles as long as I
    provide credit and sources back to your blog? My blog site is in the exact same
    area of interest as yours and my visitors would truly benefit from a lot of the information you provide
    here. Please let me know if this alright with you.
    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sure! It's free for everyone to use as they wish!

      Delete