I Want Soup

Here's the thing, LuLaTics... I get that you're fiercely defending your cult. I do. I understand why- both financially and psychologically. I understand that you think this is a forever thing that will always generate revenue for you. I understand some of you are seeing money and choose to turn a blind eye to the harm being done. Where is your moral compass pointing? I get that you need to provide for your families. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Sell LuLaRoe, but DO NOT LIE about the issues. Yesterday, I saw my blog name mentioned in a comment somewhere, and the young lady was telling people that I'm not giving the whole truth. I was skewed and biased because I'm a jaded ex consultant. Am I? I don't think so. Am I an ex consultant? Yes. Jaded? Lord no. Educated, yes. Attempting to assist in clarifying the real issues within LLR, yes. I don't think LuLaRoe took advantage of me. I knew it was a risk when I signed up. I saw conflicts in the legal documents and I chose to trust them anyway. I take responsibility for my lapse in judgement. BUT, I think they falsely represented what the brand is, what the "opportunity" is. I think they skirt laws to benefit themselves. I think they borrow from both worlds as far as franchise and employment law are concerned. But I'm not a lawyer. It's just my opinion, one that I base on experience- an experience I have documented to the period at the end of every sentence. My story is a mild one. Simple. They told me to do things I didn't think they had the authority to do. I said no. I was pressured to comply. I chose not to.

IT STILL DOES NOT ERASE THAT THE PRESSURE TO COMPLY EXISTS. And where I did not, others did. "Toe the line", as one said. "I made them all toe the line, knowing it was wrong to do. I blame myself for that. There was just so much pressure." Tell me again how this isn't a cult? There is a ton of deceit here- happening in every avenue of this business and it starts with the comments that I saw that one consultant make about my not telling the full truth. I gently reached out to her after I tried to comment on the thread, only to have the original poster shut commenting off. I won't expose the consultant because she was nice, polite, and respectful toward me. She explained that she didn't feel that I did a good enough job talking about the positives. I explained that this wasn't about how great it's making some lives. I don't doubt some lives are enriched greatly. But I can't ignore the harm to others because of the good for some. So I asked her the million dollar question- Would you do it again...? As good as it is for you right now, would you sign up again right now? Her answer was "No."

Why? Because the company is not the same company it was before. And this is what I'm saying all day long. It was a great idea. It hit a target audience that often gets overlooked in fashion. It gets bypassed and shrugged off by clothing made for walking clothes hangers. Women with real bodies need real women clothing. LuLaRoe did that in a fun way that no one else did before them. No one can take that accomplishment from them. But where do they go from here? If you save the world just to let everyone starve anyway, did you really do any good? I didn't share that snippet of conversation to blast her, or show that she's lying. She wants to see the good represented too. I get that. But for me, she said what I wanted to hear- It is not what it once was. And that my friends, is really sad. LuLaRoe ropes you in with what it WAS. When DeAnne was hands in everything and had a personal investment in it. When it wasn't about Jesus-like poses back facing scores of Guatemalan employees in one of their many factories. When it wasn't about Choos, and Jets, and sports cars. Girls weren't getting their contracts pulled because they think DeAnne wears too much makeup or commented that they didn't like her shoes. YOU ARE ALLOWED TO NOT LIKE DEANNE'S SHOES. Maybe this was always the plan. I'm no one to speculate on that. Maybe the plan was to become billionaires and get out what you can and screw whomever along the way. Or maybe it once had the best intentions. I am totally open to either one of those scenarios. This blog isn't about screwing LuLaRoe over and painting it badly. It's about getting the truth out there- ALL of it. What I know is what I see. I see the screenshots. The stories. The tear filled videos and posts about bankruptcy and blackmail. About being lied to and about trying to get your money back from the "business" you were sold. I don't publish a story with no evidence provided to me to back it up. To convince me at least, that I have the whole story. I met a woman yesterday that got locked out of her back office over a customer trying to blackmail her over $7. SEVEN dollars. Where is LLR's investment in those that invested in it? Where is the actual coaching, mentoring, problem solving? Half of these women have less business sense than my left pinky toe- but take $20k from them, pat them on the ass with a bag full of leggings and a heart full of hopes and dreams- and send them blind out to the world to find out that this is not glittery unicorn farts and rainbow cupcakes. This is real life, real LIVES being affected by the loss of REAL money.

Tearful pleas on GoFundMe to fund their dreams of owning their own LuLaRoe business. Please help me pay for my dream. This is your dream? I would rather someone come into this knowing all of it- good, bad, and ugly. And lord knows, you're forbidden from talking about the negative at all while you're a consultant... so you have to find the rest of the story elsewhere. It would be better in my opinion, if LuLaRoe addressed onboarding as "buyer beware". It would disclose real enrollment rates, real turnover rate, and real average length of consultant involvement. And let's figure in that real defective rate, and get some quality control to address those leggings while we're here. No more memes with "fun facts" about why your leggings are cut shorter than others. No more BS about how they should only be worn 3-4 times. These things are disintegrating on people's backsides, and LuLaRoe is buying private jets...

STOP onboarding. Stop selling leggings until the quality issues are resolved. Address the issues that the current consultants have. Stop breaching your own contract, and then once that is all resolved, talk about growth in the future. But for those of us that signed up that were never told about a merchant agreement and a credit check before we signed on... those that felt forced to quit because they could not take another hit to their credit... I think they should get their enrollment back. They (we) were sold this idea under false and extremely shady pretenses. Getting enrolled, being in for just a month, then finding out we have to have a credit check for a merchant agreement with a bank we know nothing about for a term of three years IS STRAIGHT UP, UNBRIDLED BULLSHIT. Credit checks are a real thing. They have real consequences, and no ridiculous letter from a bank excusing the potential credit obligation and exposure to liability will be looked at twice by a mortgage company worth their salt. The, there's no credit check (IN AN EMAIL) to ok, there is one, but it's a soft hit (another email) to oh wow, just kidding, it's totally a hard inquiry- IS NEGLIGENT. Blatant negligence. People don't play games with their credit like that. They have a right to know the facts of what they are signing up for- how it will and could affect them- and all the terms in between. I am still waiting for the terms for the merchant agreement. But that didn't stop me from getting a drop dead date from my upline of 3/31 before I lose my "job". Verbatim. Oh but wait- you have to buy an apple product to use this thing now too. I can't. Had ALL OF THAT that been presented to me/we/us BEFORE taking our money, you'd have never had my money at least to begin with. You don't get to ask me to do a credit check just so I can continue selling crap I already paid for. That's not how this works. I can't help but cringe every single time I see someone talk about "her business". It is not, nor will it ever be your business. If it were your business, you'd be able to discount without hiding, clearance out your old merchandise to make room for more. You'd be able to be in whatever facebook group you want without looking over your shoulder for the next tattle tale looking for someone to report to compliance. You wouldn't have ownership telling you to learn how to upcycle or sew your damages. Someone other than you would take responsibility for the defects- or you would go find yourself another vendor to work with. All the risks and all the reward would be yours to own. That would be your jet. This is not your business. It's DeAnne's. And you're doing it all for her.

I know that as a consultant, I asked home office and uplines repeatedly for updates and clarifications to the p+p. I had received nothing. Not even an acknowledgement of my request. Ever. I have given uplines and mentors the opportunity to clarify... and I know my upline was waiting for her upline to talk to her upline to talk to her upline... you get the point. Nothing ever comes from home office to us directly. There have been no official p+p updates emailed. No- "Hey, please don't participate in xyz online"... nothing. And that is where this all starts going to hell. Too many chefs in the kitchen spoil the soup. And if I'm a betting woman, when the cards all fall down, it's going to be the mentors that LLR points the finger at. "That's not what I said" will be Deanne's response. And all these telephone games will unravel and uplines and mentors will be on the hook for giving misinformation. Misinformation which LuLaRoe knows is out there. They know this blog exists. The enraged message to my friend yesterday about how "Your girl burned so and so." Let me ask you this: If you know it's wrong, is it a burn? If someone sent me a video that shows a mentor telling people to break the law- admitting she had broken the law- and you're defending her by proclaiming I burned her... who is wrong? Me for exposing it, or you for participating still? Can't take the heat, then get out of the kitchen, I guess. That was basically what compliance told me. Amazing how invested they are in their consultants. Too many chefs... too, too many ingredients, and nowhere near enough soup.