One of the things my upline taught us ad nauseum was that we needed to have faith in our business and in our upline. That we needed to believe that we were going to be successful. IBOs are told that they should act successful even if they are still working their way up the ranks in the business. It is why they ask (require) IBOs to wear suits and business attire to all meetings and functions. This is one of the weird quirks about the business in my opinion. I live in Hawaii and I remember a function they held in the middle of July in a high school auditorium and there was no air conditioning. I think my suit needed special cleaning because it was completely saturated with persiration.
Anyway, with this part of the year, soon there will be tens of thousands of IBOs shuffling off to a function called summer conference (AKA family reunion), or whatever it's called now. The tickets are about $250 to $300 and includes hotel and some meals. What IBOs are often unaware of is that many venues will allow you to run these conferences for $200 or less per person. The rest of that ticket prices goes directly into your upline's pockets. Anyway, the function will feature slide shows of mansions, yachts, jet skis, sports cars, fabulous vacations and other trappings of wealth. There may be some inspirational speeches and testimonies, but in the end, it's just a seminar that takes you away from your business.
What many IBOs don't realize is that this display of wealth is just that. There is no bonafide evidence to indicate that these diamonds actually own all of those toys and goodies. The diamonds probably won't verbally confirm it either, because these toys and goodies may not really be owned by them. It could be rented, or maybe some upline crown ambassador may own the mansion, but IBOs will assume that these trappings of wealth are common once you reach diamond. As an IBO, I never actually knew how much a diamond really earned. I just assumed it was a lot because we were shown all of these goodies and just assumed all diamonds had these kinds of lifestyles.
If I posted a picture of a mansion and a jet and said I owe it all to my earnings as a blogger, people would cry foul, that I am lying or making things up. And they would be right. Well, I would guess that many diamonds are doing the very same thing if they appear on stage and implying that they have jets and mansions. As I said, someone may own a mansion and a jet, but to imply that this is a part of the typical diamond lifestyle is a stretch. The evidence is there. Some diamonds have lost their homes to foreclosure. My old LOS diamonds (WWDB) taught us that diamonds pay cash for everything, including homes. Now confirmed as a blatant lie. Who knows what else they may have misrepresented?
I ask IBOs and prospects who may be attending these functions, to watch with a critical eye. What is being implied with the display of wealth? Analyze if those goodies can be purchased with a diamond income ($150,000 gross plus some tool income). Ask yourself if this lifestyle is truly sustainable? Ask yourself if you can live with yourself if deception is a part of earning your diamond lifestyle?
8 comments:
Hi Joe,
Thanks for this wealth of information. My friend is in WWDB and just attended spring convention. I have tried to be supportive of her goals but this business just does not make sense to me. I asked her how much money she is making and she said spends around 1000.00 and month and makes about 600.00 back so (400.00) not to mention the endless events she attends which cost something I am sure. In my area there are the first diamonds in 8 years....(seems like a long time for there to be only one diamond). She just seems to be flushing her money down a drain. I know the time is quickly approaching for me to attend a "board plan". After that I am afraid when I say no the brain washing will kick in and she be urged to get rid of my negativity. Is there any hope she might come to her senses? I asked her why the new diamonds continue to work and are not retired. She said they are retired from their jobs and now just do WWDB. Isn't that still work? If they are making all this residual income why bother? She replied because they want to HELP other succeed. Well I thought the goal was to stop working and enjoy all the money flowing in. If it was me everyone else could pump sand if they expected me to help them. Or is it something else? Could it be that they must forever maintain there pyramid or risk losing it all!
The upline will teach that losing money is success because after all, you are working on your financial future. They'll call it investing in your business when in reality, you are losing money. The IBO if trained properly, will keep going because success might be right around the corner. The sad reality is she will keep losing money because it is rare for anyone to sponsor enough people to move enough volume to make a profit. And even if you do that, then your downine will be taking the losses for you. Diamonds are not retired. Some of them are working harder than ever but they work the night shift because their downline work during the days. Only a few diamonds disclosed their income and out of the ones who did, I was not impressed. WWDB is basically a scam. What they really want is for you to become a WWDB customer, devoted to cds and seminars. They don't care if you succeed as long as you buy tools.
Ask this question. If there really was a way to get residual income and "walk away", why hasn't anyone done it and why aren't diamonds retiring and vacationing the rest of their lives?
I can only imagine how difficult it must be to walk away once you are in. After bringing family and friends into this scam and damaging them and their lives or children. You are so right about the tools scam...watch this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kjGdtcNWks
Right, at some point you are too far invested to quit without really thinking about it. The upline also add pressure saying people who quit are bitter failures and that success might be right around the corner.
I'm sorry if you have covered this previously, [if so, please point me to the previous post] but is the UR Association any different? I've been approached multiple times and the first IBO spent significant time with me and answered many of my questions; albeit with answers that I expected... From everything I've read on this blog so far, it seems very similar.
I don't suspect this URA to be any different although they market themselves vastly different and more ethical than the group they spun off of - interestingly, they also have this strange relationship with Amway where they are not directly connected but obviously affiliated by selling Amway products such as their healthy drinks/snacks.
Thank you,
A healthy skeptic who has been burned by other MLMs...
The motivational groups are all pretty much the same. They are for profit companies that sell training to IBOs. Some hard sell more than others but they all make money whether the IBOs make money or not.
Thank you for the response, much appreciated.
You're welcome and I'm glad you found the information useful!
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