Warning! Warning! Scam alert! Is multi-level marketing really a scam? Hey friends, Stephen
Michael Miller here today and the question that we're going to tackle is, "Is network
marketing a scam or MLM. Is MLM a scam?" I would say, no. I kno wthere's a lot of you
out there that have had specific experience and I don't want to discount your experience
but I want to shed some light on this whole topic. This is a fun topic for me because
actually for a while I owned a network marketing company. I own, I was a part owner of an MLM.
We are on the MLM and our product was real estate. And I heard all the stories, right?
For a long time we're bringing in people that had a lot of experience in MLM. We had some
people that we're just starting of in MLM and I've seen everything in between. And so
I've a lot of the stories. I've heard of people you know and their complaints about being
scammed. You know, this huge visions of grandeur when they're going to come in and they are
going to make millions of dollars right away. It didn't happen the way they said it's going
to happen. I get it. But network marketing, if you actually understand, the business structure
of network marketing, I'm not talking about pyramids schemes because by the way, pyramids
schemes and network marketing are two separate things. Although sometime you see them mixed,
right? I just want to make sure that we're clarifying. I'm not talking about pyramids
schemes. I'm not talking about where one person's investment is paying for the returns of someone
else's investment or something like that. That's a pyramid scheme. I'm taking about
true network marketing where you got a legitimate product that's being sold and I or anybody
else can make money by selling that product. And building a team of individuals to sell
that product. Network marketing is actually not very different from your typical corporate
structure. Where you got a president on top, let's call you the president of your company.
You got a president on top, who hires people to work for them. He pays them where they
get paid. Based on the structure of the company. They can then after supervisors can hire other
people who also get paid. They can see an override from what they do and the president
can receive an override of what everyone's doing. This is a a very similar structure
to network marketing. It just farmed a little bit differently. So network marketing is definitely
not a scam. Network marketing is actually brilliant and genius business model that when
followed correctly, can afford someone an opportunity that they may otherwise never
be able to create for themselves. Let me talk to you about some other benefits of network
marketing and I'm not here to sell you on any marketing platform at all. I personally
just love the idea of network marketing. I love the business strategy of network marketing
because what network marketing does is it takes marketing down to a personal level.
It's about one on one. It's about you and me and that's it. Network marketing, I don't
have to necessarily go out and pull out amazing commercials and pay millions of dollars to
high profile celebrities to come in and endorse my product that I'm paying them for anyway
that for some reason, a lot of people seem to trust or believe. To get my product out
there. Network marketing says, "No, why don't you have an experience with my product? And
if you had a good experience with my product, share that experience." And because it's a
one to one, if I love this product and I share this with you, you may trust me as a friend
and I might say, "hey, you should try this product. Give it a try. If you do it, I will
earn a little bit of money based on my sharing. Based on me being that marketing engine for
you." That's what MLM is. Multi-level marketing where I now get paid on several different
levels because I'm building this team out. And hoping my team to make sales. And really
it's just a an advance robot sales organization that you don't necessarily have to create
the product, you don't have to build the infrastructure for, you can just tap into it. And get along
with the benefit without a lot of the cons and get all the pro without a lot of cons
in building a business that way. So network marketing is definitely not a scam. Now, I
do want to build up something. I had a individual in my office probably several years ago. I'm
talking with this individual and we are getting into this, this is what I owned, the network
marketing company and we were talking in the shoes, expressing to me how she hated network
marketing. And now I want to bring up this example because I think there's a lot of individuals
that follow on this kind of category, right? She said to me, "I hate network marketing"
And I'm sitting with her and her husband was really enjoying or liking the concept of what
we were doing in network marketing but she was kind of popooing the whole idea. "I hate
network marketing. I don't want to it and I don;t want to do that either." It's kind
of the gist of the kind of energy that she brings on the table. Then finally, we're having
a conversation, I was talking about a what we were doing and our plan and how we did
it. And how we paid out and whatever product was and I could sense that she could see that
she was really coming along with the conversation. And at one point during the conversation,
I pause and I looked at her, and I said, "Hey, can I make an observation here?" She said,
"sure!" It looks like your husband is completely on board and you want nothing to do with this.
Now she was kind of sitting back like this, right? She kind of sitting back and not come
along with the conversation. Not having a good time. So my observation wasn't like you
know it wasn't some new lightning bolt that struck I could see it. She knew it. I said
that to her she said, "No, yeah I hate network network marketing." I said, "Then tell me
about that. Talk to me about your experience" Because obviously if you hate network marketing,
you must have had some horrible experiences. So for the next probably 10 minutes or so,
she went on to describe her horrible experience about network marketing. And she said to me,
" Stephen, I've got this brother and sister in law who get into every single different
network marketing company that comes along." She's exaggerating a little bit, I'm sure,
right? "But you know I bought the juices, I bought all the pills, the lotions, I bought
the you know the different devices, that do all these different things. I bought all of
them and none of them has worked for me. I haven't like any of it. But everytime they
come up with some new company that they want to become a part of, they come to and I want
to support them and I want to help them that's why I buy and I hate that!" And I said, " I
totally get that. I said that makes complete and total sense." I said, " I can transalyte
to you, what I heard you say" She said, "Sure." And so I said, "It's not your brother and
sister in law, it's not network marketing that you hate, you hate your brother and sister
in law." And when I said that you know I kind of broke the ice, she laugh a little bit,
I laugh a little bit. Obviously I don;t really think she hates her brother and sister in
law, But I said, "Let's look at this, what you really don;t like is your experiences
with them and feeling like, you're forced to buy a certain product or feeling like you
have to do certain thing or whatever". I said that's what you don't like. That experience
that is created this exude vision of network marketing.Those type of experiences why a
lot of people think that network marketing is a scam because maybe you've experienced
something like that, something similar of maybe someone lied to you or told you something.
I want to separate between the network marketing industry and structure and the way that the
individual will present network marketing. Or how they will present the product or how
that person will present the opportunity. And when you can separate those things, then
you can to a different conclusion. Is network marketing a scam? No, absolutely not! Network
marketing, the structure of it, it's amazing. To some people network marketing scam you.
Yeah absolutely right. To some people every business is a scam. Of course, that;s what
happen to some people. Not everyone has a full integrity and is completely honest. But
to say that network marketing is a scam, that's in my experience, that's just not true. So
that's my answer. Is network marketing a scam?, no! Can you be scammed in network marketing?Yeah,
of course you can. So just be wise, do your research, ask your questions,. Don't get maybe
get drawn all the excitement but do some you know if you like a product, think it after.
You can sell product because you love it, you had a good experience with it. Please
sell it like crazy! Make a million dollars. I think that's an awesome opportunity but
network marketing itself, no! It's not a scam. Alright, so you may or not agree with me on
this one but please put them in the comments below. It'll not only make my day but it'll
make Kris' day as well. We have some time with it. And maybe we'll even feature one
of your comments on one of our next video. Alright, everybody, have an awesome day and
we'll see you on the next one.