How Not to Win Friends and Influence People

Last week, I pulled up the member requests page for the Catholic Working Mothers Facebook group, and saw the following:

As our group description specifically prohibits joining in order to use the membership as a potential customer base, I declined her request.

I was curious about if she had read the group description before joining, and if she was a distributor for an MLM (typically, the people who want to join the group just to sell stuff are MLMers) so I PMed her. This morning, I received her reply.

She apparently thought my inquiry was about her success and not her request, because she included a long… very long… description of the products she peddled. Including pictures.

It’s “wide and deep”?

Well, no. If she needs to recruit others to join her business in order to make money because selling products alone won’t produce income, it’s a pyramid scheme. And if she is making more than her upline, that isn’t a financially viable business model.

I sent her the same article I send to everyone who tries to rope me into an MLM scheme (and as a newly-unemployed SAHM, I have gotten a LOT of pitches). I also shared what the FTC has to say about MLMs.

She did not take kindly to my information. We went back and forth for a while, and this is how the conversation ended (she blocked me after saying “You have a great day,” unblocked me long enough to post her final comment, and then blocked me again):

Hint: calling someone overweight and miserable is not a great way to sell overpriced snake oil. It’s especially not good behavior for someone who claims to be Catholic.

I e-mailed a screenshot of her comment to the corporate office of her MLM and advised them that one of their distributors was representing their company very poorly indeed.

If she treats potential customers this badly, I really doubt she is as successful as she claims.

So please, if you are in an MLM, don’t do this.