Say What?
I was sitting here, minding my own business, writing up a fantastic independent retailer that offers products that are a great alternative option to LuLaRoe. While I was engrossed in that, a friend messaged me. "LOL, Christina, I just got this message- you need to read this." (Sends screenshot) I read it, and immediately roll my eyes: "Hi, I know you had talked to me about joining LuLaRoe before, and I wanted to let you know that now is the time to join. (Cue eye roll) We just signed a two year deal with Disney, and the company is growing really quickly now..." Say what? I read: "Hi there, the company is already waaaaay oversaturated, and I'm just calling to see if you have $5k to throw out the window- because, you know... we'd sure like to take it from you now. And I'd love that 5% commission on your orders. So I'm going to create a false sense of urgency for you to join and my trigger word? Disney. Because who can say no, right?" So I tell her- "Go back and ask her what she makes every month." She comes back with this: "My sales are between 9-12k a month. I keep about 50% of that and reinvest some too." (She fails to disclose until much later that she's a trainer, btw- so I wonder how much of that income is from the downline.) She says what I want her to ask next: "So what can I expect to make?" The consultant replies: "That's the best part of LuLaRoe, you can decide your own income." (Cue my inner Dr. Evil. I want ONE MEEEEELEEEEON DOLLARS!) I rolled my eyes so hard, my eyelashes hit my forehead and made my brain click. So my friend then says the equivalent of- I want to make $50-100k a month! And Ms. Trainer says: "If you busted your butt every day. My friend **** makes $100k a month!" My friend presses further: "What's the average you can make a month?" Trainer says: "Some girls make 2k their first month, others have made 12k." Not really answering the question there, doll. She didn't ask about month 1. She asked PER month. My friend thanks her for her time, and tells her that she needs to discuss it with her husband. The trainer's response is: Let me know if you need my husband to talk to him. The best part of this whole conversation? When the trainer told my friend that the onboarding package consisted of the "best of the best inventory". In my case, that must have been determined by a Southwest style fanatic- because well over half of my initial stock was way far from creme de la creme...I digress...
OK! Where to begin here... First, representing any wage or income claim is a huge no-no in the world of MLM. Second, implying that if you work really hard, amassing 50-100k a month in sales is attainable, and saying so- so casually... If that's so easy to get to with just a bit of old elbow grease and working every day- how many people within the company are accomplishing this? Please provide me evidence. Also please provide me a scale on which you measure what working hard is. Who determines this science? Third, help me understand why your husband would need to talk to her husband? Why on Earth would he be compelled to listen to a strange person talk about leggings? I understand that men sometimes get involved in their wives endeavors, but I would be inclined to believe my husband might weigh the opinion of one of his drinking or work buddies over that of a stranger who is looking to make a buck off of their downline... let alone her husband.
My husband's input on the topic seems fair. He's about as dry as I am, maybe even a tad more cocky though. He says- "A meteor could hit you too. On a list of things that could happen, sure. But the odds of this are what?" It seems to me that this representation is extreme and also dangerous. Think of that wide-eyed fame driven teen who is just a little prettier than average, with hopes of becoming the next big supermodel. She runs off to California chasing a dream, only to have every door slammed in her face along the way. She ends up waitressing in between catwalking for agency after agency. Sure, you can get lucky. Adriana Lima exists, doesn't she? But how many of her are there? Statistically speaking, only a few make it big. It's the same dream in the music industry, the sports industry, and the business world. Just because you work hard does not a millionaire make. There are so many other factors that determine what the formula for success is. And when everything BUT the hours you work is completely out of your control: from the actual fabric used, to the pattern selection, the quality, the product lineup, the pricing, the market demand, saturation, return policy, and so on and so on... NO, Ms. Trainer- not you, nor your husband are going to convince me that this is a thing that can statistically happen. In FACT, speaking of statistics, Mark himself called the incidence of faulty leggings "statistically insignificant" and non-existent based on the numbers. Well, based on the number of consultants who exist in the company, and how few actually make those numbers, I'm going to call them also statistically insignificant. I'm going to take it a step further and insist that if you remove the bonuses made off of the purchases of their downlines, even fewer are making that magical number. SO statistically insignificant, yet- it does not prevent people like this from waving it in a prospective recruit's face like a carrot in front of a starving, overworked mule. It's cheap, unethical, and illegal. But it doesn't stop them from doing it. Where is LuLaRoe's compliance department here? When the FTC looks for a thing like this, you'd think they'd jump all over reps for saying this stuff. But you know- an actual direction from the home office is also statistically non-existent in a world where mentors advise you that sharing bonus checks is illegal- so just make sure you do it privately instead of in your groups. What else can you expect from a company selling dreams? A real company with a tangible, long term, viable opportunity doesn't sell dreams. Dreams are FREE. Why are you paying thousands to hear about a snowball's chance in hell? If working hard is the formula, why are so many falling short of cashing in on their dreams? Surely it can't all be a lack of hard work. No, instead of investing profits into a legitimate training program, LuLaRoe buys ranches, MacLarens, private jets, Jimmy Choos. Instead of building something with longevity, they bank on dreams. What happens when the alarm clock goes off and it's time to wake up? For the people that have had their cars repossessed, filed bankruptcy, lost their homes and countless hours of their lives in this dream, what does the company say? "It's your fault." It's a while coming now, but I believe DeAnne's coined phrase of "Fake it until you make it" extends well past advice to her loyal followers. I'm willing to bet that if you follow the money, you're going to see that there's a whole lot of faking going on. This isn't a billion dollar business. Why do you think they won't release the income disclosures? This is LuLaRoe selling you a dream, wherein you buy merchandise that brings THEM closer to their dream of being billionaires, but you just sit and wait for your turn to come- but it never does.
Keep buying, she says. Buy more to sell more, they preach. While you're buying more, they are buying everything they've ever wanted, and I'm writing articles about women having to sell single dresses at a discount to try and buy groceries to feed their kids because they quit their jobs to chase this dream- told they'd make back their investments in 3 months if they went all in. So, they gave up careers in the hopes that it would be enough for them. Enough most certainly is enough. Stop lying to people. Stop creating buzz around a fraud. It's a facade. Wake up. 5/23/17 Note: The trainer referenced here contacted my friend very upset. Apparently she reads my blog. Where I understand maybe having some embarrassment about having your conversation referenced in an article, I don't understand why she'd be so upset. If this is the pitch you're giving people, and it's what you believe, why are you mad that it was shared? I think that people know they are baiting others. Telling fibs. Otherwise, this woman might have contacted me and said- "Yes! This is a thing, and let me show you!" I maintain that it's fraudulent to make potential income claims when results of the magnitude that my friend represented wanting to make are well beyond "typical". Please note the updated income disclosure on LuLaRoe's page. If these high number results were typical, this little number would be a LOT higher.
