I wanted to make a warning of my experiences to Canadians looking to improve their personal finances. I thought Multi Level Marketing was called out, exposed and headed for an obscure trash bin. Unfortunately, it’s seems to be back, with a surprising frequency this last year or two, and it has some new tricks.
I’m a successful enough man. I have no debt, a house, good job and even without doing anything my net wealth goes up significantly each year from home equity and my DB Pension. However, I’m always looking to expand further and gain new skills, knowledge and connections. So one day a man struck up a conversation with me about company. He had a decent job, as did I, we were both professional, intelligent and articulate. We agreed to continuing to keep in contact as company connections. Great. I join some other clubs where like-minded people can meet and make connections. By the end of it though It was clearly a MLM pitch. The thing that shocked me though was that the table right next to me in the coffee shop was doing the same thing, and after that meeting was done, they went to another table where other people were waiting to meet with them. I was shocked that I was seeing so much of this going on!
That’s not the main thing I wanted to bring up though. What I noticed is that MLM pitches have evolved, they have some new tools and I wanted people to be aware of them before their personal finances get affected.
New tool number 1. You don’t talk about the MLM. That was one thing that surprised me. The early conversations are vague, you might be old something generic like about their success from investing, and their connections. As the hours of conversations progressed I noticed a distinct feeling of “Being Primed”. The concept of MLMs was slowly integrated, the idea of trust (Which will be discussed in tool 2) was a central theme, and talks about how negative experiences are often individual related, not product related. It was then the secrecy clicked with me. Previously an MLM will come out with its open pitch. firm name, product, whatever. People got savvy. They would google things, see what it’s about and rightfully bail. By keeping things secret it starts to rope people in so that they don’t do a quick google search and bail. By the time they unveil what they are about they hope you’ve invested so much time, or have gained enough trust to not walk away.
New tool number 2. Focus on building trust. This ties in with tool number 1. They will talk about buildings trust. They will say that their company connections are big important people who’s time is very valuable. They don’t want to make connections without properly trusting the person. This makes sense. I have some friends I wouldn’t want to introduce to company associates of mine. However, this is to find out whether they can tell you about their pitch and know that you won’t run away immediately, or post on blogs about their firm in a negative way. They know that MLMs have a bad stigma and they’re trying to weed out people that they aren’t very confident will buy into their idea. This also serves to try to hook relationship focused people. Once trust is created some people will want to follow through just to not disappoint people they’ve built a relationship with.
New tool number 3. They will start by treating you as a person of strength, but will gradually try to turn you strengths into underlying weaknesses. The conversation opened up with a respect of skills. As opposed to preying on the weak (Which is what I primarily saw 1-2 decades ago), they will recognize and respect skills and intellect (Or at least fake it). This became my biggest trigger. As conversations went on skills and accomplishments were spun in a way of “But what underlying weakness did you have that made you want to develop that or accomplish that”. This was an interesting way but I had sniffed out a pattern of a gradual decrease in wanting to know about my skills, knowledge, experience, projects I’ve led, that sort of thing and more on what I want to develop in the future because of personal shortcomings. The point is to create a narrative where these people can offer you salvation for what you need. It’s a definite tell though. What legitimate company becomes less focused in what professional skills you bring to the table? I could also read their body language and expressions to see what they liked hearing and didn’t and it wasn’t matching up with a legitimate model of a proper company connection.
There was a lot more of the “Standard” tools that have been used for decades. I want to bring this to the table so that people can be aware. Most people on this reddit will be looking to develop company relationships, new contacts, expand skills relating to personal financial. A lot of people will run across this. I was shocked at how much I was seeing it in the shops and cafes around me when I stopped and listened. This will be an increase in the next few years and I hope everyone here stays informed as it could affect your personal finances.