Beware of MLM’s aka Cult Culture, written by an MLM Victim & a Linkup

Hun bot/Boss Babe:  “Hey girl!  I just wanted to reach out and tell you that you are so gorgeous and so inspiring.  I wanted to see if you’d be interested in this awesome business opportunity…”

Me:

Yikes!  Another Anti MLM Post

We’ve ALL gotten that message, although usually they contain five million emojis!  We may have also been the one sending that message (like myself).  If you couldn’t tell what today’s post was going to be about yet, well, buckle up because it’s going to be a fun ride.  Today I’m going to talk about MLMs.  I wrote about this before (here) and for some reason, these hun’s can’t grasp the concept that I ain’t about that life.  Also, just as a pretext, I used to be one of these annoying people for two separate MLM’s so if anyone has a right to talk about this industry, it’s me.  There are so many things that are wrong with MLM’s.

For those who don’t know what an MLM is, it stands for Multi Level Marketing aka a legal Pyramid Scheme.  That’s honestly the best way that I can explain it.  You may ask, if they are basically a pyramid scheme, how are they legal?  Good question.  It’s because in a pyramid scheme, you are making money off of recruiting people, as opposed to an MLM, there is an actual sale of product, even though we all know that the money you make in an MLM is mostly from recruiting people.  According to the FTC, 99% people who join an MLM will fail.  A lot of people who joined an MLM actually put themselves in debt.  At the end of this post I’ll make a list of links to watch some really good videos about anti MLM’s and personal experiences.

This is going to be an extremely long post, and I should honestly make this two parts, but I made a shortened Youtube video for this which you can find here.  However, if you’re going to read this post, grab a cup of coffee/tea/wine, or beverage of your choice.  If you don’t know me by now, I keep it real, so be prepared.  If you’re new here, let’s just put it this way, I’m going to be extremely honest.  I’ll start off with my background with MLMs first, and then move into anti MLM portion of this post.

My Background with MLM’s

In case you didn’t know, I was part of 2 MLM’s, and my parents were part of one.  I APOLOGIZE TO ALL OF MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY WHO HAD TO UNFRIEND/BLOCK ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA HAHA!  My parents were part of Herbalife (if you want to watch a really good documentary about Herbalife, watch Betting On Zero on Netflix), and I first started my experience with Mary Kay in 2014, and Beachbody in 2016/2017.  With that being said, I know different types of target markets for two completely different types of companies, and different products.  Both of these MLM’s operated very differently, but also very similarly (yoohoo, like a pyramid!).

Mary Kay

With Mary Kay, I was approached by my upline at a Panera while I was with my coworkers and she handed out samples and said to give her a call if we wanted a free facial.  Wow, free facial?!  Well, I hopped on that.  The “free facial” was us meeting at Dunkin Donuts and her having me take off my makeup and then testing out some products.  Then she asked me if I’d be interested in joining her team or if I ever wanted to I could just contact her.  Well, she suckered me into buying some products and needless to say she somehow used her best sales tactics and manipulative skills and got me to join her team.

Not only that, but she somehow got me to purchase the best package that would already start my “business” on a good note (I started off as a Sapphire).  That package was a bit over $2,000.  Oh, and, when I told her I was in debt and couldn’t afford it, “oh that’s no problem!  Why don’t you get the Mary Kay card, it’s interest free for a year if you’re approved.”  Well, my dumbass self, thinking that her saying I’m going to do so great with this company was true.  I spammed my Facebook with beautiful pictures of the products and I rarely used any stock photos (this was when I got my first DSLR so I was obsessed with taking photos).

I never did the whole messaging people thing and spamming them (I mean no means no the last time I checked), because I felt super awkward, but would post things like “hey would you love a free consultation?!  Just DM me for more info!”  Then I’d be able to sucker the people in and get them to sit down with me and somehow get them to buy something.  The only person who contacted me was a girl I’ve known since elementary school who actually did a bunch of MLM’s so I honestly think she felt bad for me.  She was one of the 3 customers I had, and the stuff that she wanted to buy wasn’t even in my inventory so I had to order it for her.  The other two were my mom and myself.  I tried so hard, and attended the meetings and conference, but legit every other person on the face of this planet was a “Mary Kay Lady.”

Several months later, the almost $2000 worth of inventory was still sitting there.  I messaged my upline and told her that I just couldn’t do it anymore.  She responded with (in very polite manner) that I just needed to give it some more time, and that she could see that I’d be so successful.  I gave it another month and still nada.  I messaged her again and said I was done and that this time for real.  She said she would buy my inventory off of me so that I wouldn’t lose money with returning it directly to Mary Kay.

For those who don’t know, if you return your inventory to Mary Kay, there is a giant percentage off of it that stays at Mary Kay for “handling” the inventory.  Well, my upline never got back to me and I was really hurting for the $1000 that I would be getting back if I just went straight through Mary Kay.  I was going on vacation to Poland, and because I spent so much money on Mary Kay, I didn’t have the funds for what I would need to buy while on vacation.  That’s when I decided that I would just send it back to MK because it’d been weeks since I spoke to my upline.  I think I even followed up with her to see if she got my previous messages.  As soon as the transaction was finalized (at this point there was nothing I could do), my upline messaged me saying “Oh I was going to buy all of that from you and was going to split it amongst the other girls.”  I won’t lie to you, this actually pissed me off at the time.

Also, don’t use MK, their products are shit, and all it takes to be a MK Consultant is money to start, there is no training necessary.  Which is what also made me nervous, because what if I did a free facial and someone had an allergic reaction or something?  I had absolutely no training except for how to apply makeup, which, with the rise of Youtube Beauty Gurus, I already knew more than they did.

Beachbody

Moving on to Beachbody.  LiKe OmG, hAvE yOu TrIeD sHaKeOlOgY?!  Ugh, Beachbody.  I know everyone is so sick and tired of hearing about those stupid portion control containers and Shakeology.  However, I will say that unlike Mary Kay, I actually did love the workout programs that Beachbody offers (however, there are soooo many fitness channels for free on Youtube nowadays that are just as good, and I’ve stopped doing BB workouts), and the containers did help me.  I have a portion control problem, so those really did help me lose weight.  Plus, the support group idea was absolutely amazing, until I later found out that you don’t get paid for doing that.  How did I get started with BB?

Well in June of 2016, I had gained so much weight that I was 200lbs.  At 5’9 that’s not obese, but it was pretty unhealthy and overweight.  I had felt my health deteriorating and my doctor was concerned because my blood sugar had been the highest it’s been, and not to mention, my self esteem and confidence was at an all time low.  There was a girl that I knew when I was younger who posted her before and after photos on Facebook and had said that if anyone was interested in joining her group to DM her for more details.  I was desperate to lose weight (by this point I had decreased my weight to 185lbs but very slowly which is why I was desperate) and be healthier.  I messaged her and after talking to her then talking to my fiance and asking if $240 was worth it, I agreed.  I thought that if only spending $240 won’t work, then I’m doomed.

I did awesome!  By August I had gotten down to my goal weight that I wanted to hit before vacation which was 155lbs.  I felt amazing and so full of energy.  I hadn’t felt this good in years.  Once I got back from vacation, I hit my next goal weight which was 145lbs (but I actually hit 144).  It was around this time that I became a coach.  I didn’t know that it was an MLM (I know, I’m not the brightest crayon in the box) and when I found out it was, I was a little skeptical.  However, in my mind, I just wanted to help people who felt just like I did just several months prior.  So many people had reached out to me and asked what was my secret (because I had already been posting about my progress prior to becoming a coach).  I figured, how hard could it be to be a Beachbody coach?

The first red flag should have been that this is a workout/nutritional program where none of the coaches need any sort of certification.  I was young and dumb, and still decided to become a coach.  I was immediately added to several different Beachbody Facebook Groups.  Well, my first group was a success!  I signed up 5 girls and was so excited.  First and foremost I was excited that I would be helping them, but also excited in thinking that this could potentially become more than just a side hustle.  Then it was time for group number 2.  I signed up maybe 2 other people, but no one else wanted to buy the Shakeology because it was too expensive, no hard feelings, I totally agree.  I tried to justify it to not only my “clients” but to myself by saying it works out to be less than what you would pay for a regular dinner.  They really pushed to have us sign up our spouses, significant others, and family members, to be in our downline.  Some women put their husbands under their downline WITHOUT EVEN TELLING THEIR HUSBANDS!

It was bad enough that I got my future sister in law aka my maid of honor who was a college student working part time buy the challenge group starter pack, SORRY MELAINA!  I just couldn’t continue doing that to my family and friends because it was fucking expensive.  You also have to keep a specific PV which is basically having Shakeology on auto ship (I ended up throwing out hundreds of dollars worth of Shakeology in the end).  Then I was doing these challenge groups basically for free because no one wanted to continue with the Shakeology, and I couldn’t recruit anyone.  One of the higher uplines, would tell us that her groups were exclusive to people who only bought Shakeology monthly.  I just couldn’t do that the people in my groups, but it was highly noticeable that I was getting burnt out (I mean I was basically doing this for free) because I wasn’t posting as often in the groups.  Y’all have no idea the personal details I posted in those groups and on my Facebook in general which I had to make public.

We were required to post 3 posts on Facebook a day!  We also had weekly team calls which I just never had the energy to be a part of after working all day, and having my life revolve around BB.  In March/April of 2017, I decided to step away from Beachbody.  The last few months I made NO money, and I tried the “cold calling” aka they “hey girl” messages on Facebook and Instagram (which btw they tell you to just randomly add a shit ton of people to your friend’s list become cyber friends and even friends IRL, and then spam them with your bUsInEsS oPpOrTuNiTy, even though I lost more Facebook friends than I gained) and I felt so gross afterwards.  I literally felt gross enough to take five million showers after I sent those messages, and I only sent a total of maybe 10 in my entire several months of being a BB coach.

Needless to say, as soon as I quit BB, all of those girls who became my besties became instant strangers.  They didn’t delete me or anything, but we never spoke again.  I also hated that the groups I was in they would basically fat shame people or have us target certain people.  Yea, I’m totally going to message a new mom who just popped out a watermelon sized baby out and ask her if she wants to lose weight, BECAUSE THAT’S NOT RUDE!

Who MLM’s prey on

Ok, that sounds really dramatic, but MLM’s really do prey on a specific target group.  It’s really sad, but they prey on moms, military spouses, and people who just lost their jobs or need more money.  I also saw in the Betting on Zero Netflix documentary on Herbalife, they target minorities too.  You see, these are extremely vulnerable people who really either want to work and can’t, or they really do need the extra cash and will do anything for it.

• If you look at moms for example, there are a lot of stay at home moms that would love to make a little extra income to help out, and maybe some of them are stay at home.  It gives them a little sense of freedom and empowerment because they are contributing (even though we all know moms contribute more than they will ever know even if they don’t make an income).
• Military spouses are constantly on the move going city to city.  Most places (even though I’m pretty sure there has to be a law against this, comment below if there is) won’t hire them knowing that they are military because they know they won’t be at that company for long.  Usually getting a job on base can be extremely hard because everyone is trying to get a job, and more times than not, the base is in the middle of nowhere where there isn’t a great job market.  This is also a way for people to make friends with other military spouses on base.
• Moving on to the people who need money.  It’s soooooo easy for these MLM companies to target people who need to pay their bills.  Oh, you’re broke right now?  That’s ok, put this starter pack on a credit card because you’ll totally make it back!  You will have financial freedom!  If you scroll to the bottom of this post, I’m linking some real life stories of how much money some of these women (because they’re almost always women which proves my point) lost.  One woman who did Lularoe had to sell her house.  SHE. HAD. TO. SELL. HER. HOUSE.

The Delusional and Rude Tactics

Tying into my last topic of who MLMs prey on, I wanted to share some of the tactics that these boss babes will use in order to either get someone to sign on with them, or to keep them on even after that person has lost a ton of money.  It’s literally the same for every singe MLM, especially from all of the videos and posts out there.

• But a 9-5 job is a pyramid scheme!  No, actually it’s not.  At a normal “9-5” job yes, you have someone above you all the way up to the CEO/Owner of the company, however you are guaranteed a paycheck.  When you get that job, you are given an hourly wage or an annual salary that gives you a specific amount of money.  If you’re in sales, you make a commission off of your sales, not recruiting someone and making commission off of their sales as well.  A lot of 9-5’s offer medical insurance, 401K’s, and some REALLY good jobs still offer pensions.  You will not get that from an MLM.
• You don’t know what you’re talking about because you failed.  You are just lazy and didn’t work hard enough.  Yup, I know that if any MLM people read this post this is EXACTLY what they will tell me.  However, I failed because the system is against me and just read up on FTC’s website to see the success rate.  I did work hard.  I worked my ass off in these MLM’s.  I felt awkward sending people “hey girl” messages, so yes, that’s where I took a wrong turn.  However, my entire life revolved around my “business.”  Beachbody took more of my time than MK because I only did MK for a short period of time.  With BB, every break I got at work, every chance I had 1 minute to spare, I was checking in with my challengers and I was creating content for those groups.  My blog (which I was making a decent amount of money on at the time, I don’t anymore because blogs are done in my opinion) was put on the backburner.  My social media was spammed with health and fitness stuff and me pouring my heart out about my experience.  I think I spent more time and money on my BB “business” than anything in my entire life.
• You’ll make it back!  No you won’t.  I lost over $1,000 with Mary Kay.  With Beachbody I lost even more because I lost time that I was working for free that I never got back.  Those challenge groups and making sure I post at least 3 times a day on social media took up so much time that I will never get back.  I also ended up throwing out countless Shakeology packets/bags.
• You have to stay at a certain level, so if you are being lazy and aren’t selling, just buy stuff yourself!  Yup, I did this.  You have to do this with Lularoe too.
• Don’t you want to stay at home with your children?  Oh god, I hate this tactic.  It’s so god awful!  Why are you shaming a mom who doesn’t mind working outside of the house and putting her child in daycare or having grandma and grandpa watch the kids?  WTF gives you the right to judge a mom.  You know what, if I was a mom, I most definitely would not want to be stuck inside of my house every single day with screaming children who won’t let me have 1 minute of peace.
• Don’t you want to watch your children grow up instead of being at a job all day?  Stahp!
• Don’t you want financial freedom?!  I can assure you, unless you get into an MLM before anyone even knows about it, you won’t make money.  You won’t have financial freedom.  Those “free cars” are not actually free, they are leases, that if you don’t hit your quota for that month you have to pay the lease payment.  STFU Karen!
• This is a great business opportunity!  It’s really not.  It’s a great opportunity to have your friends and family block you on social media, alienate yourself from your loved ones, and put yourself into a huge financial hole.
• Who wouldn’t want to work from home, or from your phone?  Well, yea, if it wasn’t a 24/7 job!  When you work for an MLM, yea you might be able to work from home or from your phone, but that means your day never ends.  Even if it’s just a “side hustle” you never stop working.  You could make more by working part time at Target for a few hours than you would working every second on an MLM.
• Make sure to get your family and friends to sign up!  Sign your husband up behind his back, he’ll never know!  Eek, I actually saw this in a group one time how they would say just make sure you sign up loved ones and as long as they are buying a certain amount you make money off of that.  Why?  Just why?
• They said no?  That means, just keep hounding them until they cave!  This was something that I couldn’t stand.  I’m sorry, but to the women who are saying they are all about empowering women and bla bla bla, well last time I checked we are sitting here trying to tell rapists that no means no.
• Make sure to add all of those emojis in the message!  Seriously, notice how the stereotype is for these hey girl messages to have a ton of emojis.
• If people unfriend you, that just means they don’t support you.  You’re a boss babe and only need positive vibes and have your boss babe tribe!  If they unfriend/block you on social media, it’s because you’re annoying them.  They told me that I had to request to be friends with people on Facebook, along with making my profile public (which my personal Facebook has NEVER been put on public before, this made me uncomfortable).  I actually ended up losing more friends on Facebook than I was gaining.  After I stopped BB, I went through my friends list and deleted any rando’s that I added during my time with BB.  It’s not necessarily that your friends don’t support you as a person, they don’t support the cult like culture of MLMs, and they don’t support the shitty products that MLMs provide.

Would you “pay in” to work for your current job?

Think about this for a second.  If you are currently working, would you be willing to pay in to start working there with no guarantee of what you would be making?  If you say yes, then an MLM might be for you haha.  Now, Lularoe is one of the most intense buy in amounts.  The lowest buy in for Lularoe is almost $5,000!  Just to buy in to starting your “business” with no promise of actually making it back.  I did not know this until I started researching more.  I would NEVER spend that much money to buy into an MLM, knowing what the success rate actually is.  The clothes are so freaking ugly too.

No Training or Certifications Required

This is something that made me nervous with Beachbody.  Mary Kay I wasn’t as concerned with, but when I asked my upline about what certification I need to give out nutritional and workout advice I was told none.  Just follow the BB Coach guidelines.  When someone asked me questions regarding a medical condition they have and if they can do any of the programs I just told them to consult their doctor before signing up because I didn’t want to possibly harm their health more than help it.  Not to mention, I’d be liable if something were to happen to them.  Which, I read this somewhere (don’t take my word for it because again, I’m not a doctor) that Shakeology isn’t meant for diabetics.  The carbs and sugar count are too high.  So, if you are diabetic, just make sure to talk to your doctor first.

With Mary Kay, I was more concerned with the skin care.  Makeup is a little gray area, because obviously we aren’t trained and certified MUA, but you have people on Youtube who never went through that process either and it’s fine.  It’s a little different though when you start talking about skincare because, what if one face wash is fine for me, but makes someone else breakout?  I would feel so bad if I caused someone to have issues with their skin.  Also, have you seen some of these Younique consultants, eeeeeeek, their makeup is so scary.

Social Media MUSTS in an MLM

First thing that you have to do is make your social media public.  This wasn’t an issue with my Instagram because I’m already a blogger so that I wasn’t too concerned with.  However, I always had a private Facebook.  I don’t want people reading what I write or even see what I share because I do sensor myself slightly on my blog social media platforms (believe it or not haha).  My personal Facebook had photos that I only share with my Facebook friends.  With that being said, it made me really uncomfortable.  However, I did it.  Then, with BB, they told me to join all of these groups on FB and just start adding people who seemed like I could get along with.  After that, you had to start commenting on their stuff (genuine comments) and once you built up their trust that you weren’t some random stranger, BAM send them the “hey girl” message.  I felt so gross after this.

Sample “hey girl,” hun bot, or #bossbabe messages

Some of these MLM “business owners” actually started their hey girl messages with regular messages, instead of the generic hey girl.  However, the more that you try to be “authentic,” the more it looks fake.  Being authentic should not be something you try to do, OBVIOUSLY.  No one just randomly messages you and says “hey girl, have you read any good books this year?”  Especially when there is nothing on my Instagram profile that would even point to me reading books!  Girl, I know that with Beachbody you have to do personal development which is reading motivational books.  I’ve gotten many messages that sit in my message requests and I just don’t respond because I’ve gotten annoyed, but here are some that I actually interacted with to see if they would even respond.  Ok, so my blog format is usually the photo, then the information, but I want to preface these messages before you actually read them haha.  Also, all names and photos of the ladies have been blocked because I didn’t want to make their information available.

Hun bot #1 The weird book lady

Some hun bots have been getting smarter nowadays with “hey girl” being the stereotype for MLM generic messages.  You’ll sometimes receive a nice message from someone or some comments from a person which make it seem like they genuinely want to be your friend.  Then it just starts feeling awkward, and you can feel the MLM’ness coming out of their messages.  Maybe because there have been so many anti mlm posts out there, that it’s so easy to read between the lines now, or it’s just ques of awkwardness radiating off of a message.  This woman seemed really nice, but it was weird that once I said yea thanks I’ll give that a read she just never responded.  Why would you try to befriend someone with asking a random question about reading a book and then just ghosting me.  I WANT ANSWERS WEIRD BOOK LADY hahaha!

Hun bot #2 The oversharer who asked me one question and never responded

Just so everyone knows, when someone says thanks for the follow, I honestly sometimes just follow people back and don’t even realize it.  I don’t pay attention sometimes.  Now, I’m all for people spreading awareness or talking about their stories to inspire people, so don’t get it twisted.  However, if you start off a message with my username and you don’t take the time to click on my profile and see what my name is, it’s kind of strange that you would introduce yourself and give me a quick run down of who you are and include that you’re a cancer survivor.  I’m so happy that this woman survived thyroid cancer, but everything else about this message is just strange.  Not to mention, after I responded, she just left it at that.  AWKWARRRRRD.

Hunbot #3 Let’s connect, and then awkwardly not respond!

Again with the username, jeez, just click on my profile.  It’s not like my name is hard to spell.  It has 6 letters people!  For this one, I’m honestly not sure if they were a hun bot, but it seemed like it.  Plus, who doesn’t at least say thank you when another person tells you that your home country is beautiful, come on people!

Hun bot #4 You’re so gorgeous and here’s some financial freedom with Arbonne!

This is your generic “hey girl” message.  Oh jeez, these make me cringe so hard.  At least try and put some effort into it.  Literally this is the hun bot message that is the full blown stereotype.  Hey girl, you’re gorgeous and have a huge influence (thanks but no I don’t lol), financial freedom, time, no pressure, but you might be able to quite your full time job!

Hun bot #5 I made 3 figures in my first two weeks (lol) and once you say no to my bUsInEsS oPpOrTuNiTy I’m going to unfriend you!

Ok, I’m sorry, but you made 3 figures in your first two weeks busting your ass?!  I know how much work it is to work for an MLM.  You mean to tell me that in two weeks you didn’t even make $1,000?!  Girl, why the hell would I join your team?!  At least she was a little creative with saying that a lot of bloggers and celebrities are getting involved, so she either did this as a selling point to people who would believe her, or she actually looked at my profile and saw that I’m a blogger.

The Final Hun bot #6 I’m going to constantly message you about how great you are for a month and never actually follow you!

I’m not going to lie, I give this girl 10/10 for effort.  She never followed me, but she kept checking up on me, I must’ve been like 20 messages down in her Instagram DM’s, so she was really hustling for this haha!  How the heck did she keep up with me for a month???  I’m highly impressed “hun.”  Plus, she had an advantage that made her relate to me because she had pink hair and was from Jersey too!  OMG CAN YOU IMAGINE THE ODDS?!  That’s obviously sarcasm lol.  But for real, this girl worked her butt off for me.

Ok, there are so many more messages from these ladies, but these are the ones that stood out to me the most.  I really don’t know why, but they did, so congrats to them for keeping me intrigued, even though I knew what they were trying to do.

Making fun of myself

Alright, so just in case anyone says that I’m cyber bullying these MLM #bossbabes, I wanted to take a minute to roast myself.  After I started writing this post, I was going through my own Facebook and stumbled upon several months worth of cringe worthy posts.  I legit made fun of myself, on each and every single one that I clicked on.  I even texted my fiance and asked him how he could let me be so cringe worthy during that time of my life.  Oh god, it all just screams DELUSIONAL HUN!  This is all from my Beachbody days, because I don’t feel like going through my Facebook far enough for Mary Kay posts.  The photos I posted of Mary Kay were already on my blog.  Also, I’m not going to follow my regular blog format for these posts as well because I do want to preface some of these.  Enjoy these because they are so cringey and funny to look at haha!  You can even make fun of me in the comments, I commend you if you do haha!  I also blocked my name and other people’s names because my FB is my personal FB where I don’t like to make information available to the public or some of my blog readers that I don’t really know, however, you can follow my Blog’s Facebook here.

The “Happy” Face

The one thing that you’ll come to find out with MLMs is the stupid faces that they make.  Myself included.  They make you talk about how great your life is, and how much financial freedom you have with this MLM.  Well, I never talked about financial freedom, because I didn’t have that with my “business.”  I was just sO hApPy to talk about the product and how life changing it was.  Below are examples of that.

Inspirational Posts

You have to be someone people actually like and not necessarily look up to but would go to for advice.  With that being said, sharing inspirational pinterest images is the way to go people!  I used to share a lot of images like the one below.

Shakeology Posts

A lot of people told me they didn’t like the taste of Shakeology.  I personally did like the taste, but after doing more research, it’s not that great of a product.  Also, there is a misconception that it’s a weight loss supplement, but that’s not the case.  You can’t just drink Shakeology and expect it to solve all of your problems.  You still have to eat healthy and workout.

This is a LiFeStYlE nOt A dIeT!

Ok, yes, any time that you want to properly take control of your health, you can’t tell yourself it’s a diet because diets sound more like a temporary fix.  You have to talk about lifestyle changes.  However, with that being said, my life became strictly all about being healthy.  I’d have cheat days, but I got a little intense with it at one point.  You’ll see what I mean later on.

The inspirational oversharing

We had to overshare like crazy.  In the beginning I was so uncomfortable with sharing really personal details of my weight loss journey.  It’s hard to publicly say how you lost your confidence and how bad your health got.  It’s hard to overshare the details.  Everyone’s journey is different, and some people are less sensitive to some of the negative comments that come along with the positive.  Once I lost all the weight, people started telling me “girl, just go eat a burger.”  That’s something that really took a toll on me.  I worked so hard and people starting “skinny” shaming me and telling me that there’s no way my fiance is ok with a twig, and how guys like more meat on their women’s bones.

Long ass post

The two screenshots below are two parts because my Facebook post was THAT long.  So it’s not the same picture, I just wanted to get the entire post in there.  I was so rude in this post.  Yes, people gave me these “excuses” but after working so much and with the move here to Florida, I can really see where those excuses came from.  Sometimes there are literally not enough hours in the day.  So, 2016/2017 Monica STFU, you don’t know the situation.

Again with the fucking happy face

Jeez, this one is so cringe worthy.  I look like I’m either hopped up on too much caffeine, or I’m going to kill you with my eyes if you don’t sign up with me.

So Cringey

Because taking a photo of me laying on the floor isn’t weird.  Insert eye roll.  Yes, it’s true what I said about how I would still have the feeling of defeat, but ugh, so cringey.

Personal Development

Something that you have to do with BB (along with the other 5 million things) is you have to do personal development.  This is basically reading or listening to audio books on inspirational things.  I bought #GIRLBOSS because I actually wanted to read it (never finished it btw, I get discouraged when I read because I can’t retain the information and to read one page I have to read it 3-5 times to fully grasp the information).  Rachel Hollis (read this post if you want to read about my feelings on her) is a BIG person in the MLM world.

The Food

Ok, when I look at this picture now I want to know what I was thinking posting this.  It looks awful haha!  It tasted really good, but just looked so unappetizing.  People who see this are probably going to be turned off haha.

Challenge Group Announcements

“I only have 5 spots available.”  This is something that was super common that I’m shocked I didn’t add to this post.  You had to make it seem exclusive.  This was a tactic we were taught so that it would trick people into thinking they were part of some special club.

Super Obsessive

For those of you who have been following me for a while, you know that I’ve been obsessed with my eating habits for a very long time.  When I was eating healthy, I took that obsession to a completely different level.  The below was something I did to show just how crazy I was.  The post its each had dates on them.  Basically, I couldn’t eat any of these until my cheat day which was usually a week apart.  This wasn’t self control, this was obsession.

Before and After

This post is one that I still sometimes share, only because people have talked shit about my constant dieting and trying new diets.  The reason why I did it was because of this picture.  I never want to get back to that size, which wasn’t even my biggest (I was even heavier) and I don’t even know how I got that big.  I remember being so unhappy and feeling so sick.  This is probably one of the only posts that I actually like from this era of my life.  This was the reason why I started BB, because I wanted to help anyone who felt like I did on the left.  Unfortunately, BB/any MLM for that matter, is not the way to go about it.

Trying to take Advantage of Bloggers/Influencers

This will be my last and final topic in today’s post.  Who knows if it’ll be my last anit MLM post, because I need to continously tell people I’m anti MLM (it’s in my Instagram profile now).  The one thing I absolutely hate, is that they are trying to take advantage of bloggers/influencers.  I have gotten messages in the past from women who say that I could be a model for them and that they would offer me a 10% discount to review the product.  Ok, let me make this very clear to these MLM hun bots out there.  NO!  Do you know how much goes into a review?  You have to photograph it, and make sure everything looks tip top, then you have to actually type up the review because I’m not going to just post a picture of something that I got for free and not write my honest opinion about it.  There are bloggers out there that have the same size following as me that actually demand to not just get free product but also get paid for their work.  If I review something that I purchased it’s because I either really loved it, or I really hated it and want my audience to know.  I’m sure you’re fooling the smaller bloggers into thinking that your product is some major brand, when it’s really some shitty MLM product.  What would you do if I asked you the same question?

Want to watch my shortened Youtube video?  Here it is!

Let’s join the linkup now, after this extremely long post haha!

xoxo Monica

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 I do deClaire  // Elegantly Dressed & Stylish // Glass of Glam// Shelbee on the Edge