You Want HOW Much Money?

     Ever wondered what it costs to get started  on the Team these days? Well wonder no more! I've got the complete break down for you.....and it's not pretty!

Option #1
Monavie registration - $39
One case of product (4 bottles of juice)  - $125-$146 (let's say $125)
TL155 "Drink it, Feel it, Share it" (brochure pack)  $20
Team Website subscription (Free 1st month) *
Total = $184 plus tax & shipping

Option # 2
Monavie registration - $39
"Leadership" product bundle (6 bottles of juice and case of energy drinks) - $280

TL155 "Drink it, Feel it, Share it" (brochure pack) - $20

Team Website subscription (Free 1st month) *

Total = $339 plus tax & shipping

* After the first month it's $19.95 per month or $60 every 4 months

Then..... we have the "System" which people are encouraged to "Get Started" with right away! I mean... really, you wouldn't get started in McDonald's and not use their system would you? Let's take a look at what that'll cost you.

Before you see what options await you, understand that CD's are valued at $6 a piece, and books are estimated at $15 each, however this is subject to change depending on the book. 

"Basic" Package

8 CD's per month = $48

1 Book of the month = $15

Team Website per month = $19.95

Total = $82.95 Per Month (plus tax & shipping)**

"Power Player" Package

12 CD's per month = $72

1 Book of the month = $15

Team Website per month = $19.95

Total = $106.95 Per Month (plus tax & shipping)

"Leadership" Package

16 CD's per month = $96

1 Book of the month = $15

Team Website per month = $19.95

Total = $130.95 Per Month (plus tax & shipping)

** Items are shipped every two weeks so they get you on the shipping charge twice!

Now....you can "Add On" some additional items that I'm sure will explode your "Business" further:

- A Standing Order Seminar Ticket - $25 each (add two if your married)

- A DVD of the Month - $10

- A Leadership Book of the Month - $ 15 (Estimated again)

- All Grace Outreach Pack (Christian Faith teachings, One CD & Book a month) - $21

- A Major Leadership Ticket (Every 4 Months, add two if your married) - $90

Did I miss anything? So for those keeping track at home....if you are a "Leader" and "All In" on this thing. You'll get everything you can....like I did for 6 years! Here was the bottom line for me:

"Leadership" Package = $130.95

Two Standing order tickets - $50

DVD of the month - $10

Leadership Book of the Month - $15

All Grace Outreach Pack - $21

Website Per Month - $19.95

Two Cases of Purple Juice - $250 (approx after shipping)

Total - $496.90 (plus tax & shipping)

That's $500 at least....every month! Plus $180 every fourth month for a Major Leadership! This is not including my gas, food, extra CD's for handing out to prospects, the weekly $5 fee for open meetings (add another $5 to that if your married), and last but not least.....what is YOUR TIME worth? I could rant on, and on here....but I'll let the numbers speak for themselves. These numbers are accurate according to the Team website as of April 25th 2011. I would recommend if you know anyone being prospected by Team, and they are not being told the facts.....refer them to this post! The facts are here for all to see.....and it's not pretty! 

Don't Eat The Lotus Flower!

     One of the great things that I get to do now that I'm not "running the roads" every night, is spend time with my children and watch movies. Most recently we watched the movie Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief. Good family movie, however there was one scene that gave me MLM flashbacks!

     It was the scene where the kids all enter a building that looked like a night club or casino. As soon as they arrived, the girls working there started coming by and offering food on a tray. The food was called Lotus Flowers, and they were said to be delicious! The three young heros in the movie ate some of these flowers, and everything changed! They forgot about the situation they were in, and started living for the moment. Time was flying by....minutes turned into days. Then one of the young heros decided to not eat anymore of the flowers. He became aware of his surroundings, saw that this place he was in was not designed for fun and good times....it was a prison! The flowers they ate, clouded their judgement....and kept them from ever leaving. The best part was when he started to become aware of what was happening,  more and more girls started showing up with trays of these Lotus Flowers, trying to convince him to eat them again. Come on....just one more......

     I couldn't help but see the similarities with the Team/Monavie "Business". The entire time you are "in" Team, they push the CD's, books, and meetings on you. Try them.....you'll like them....just listen to one. That's how it starts. Then before you know it, your on "System". Getting CD's and books delivered to you every couple of weeks. You listen more, and more, attending meeting after meeting, never able to get enough. You start to lose track of time. Weeks become months, months become years.... and then one day...you don't listen to as many CD's. You (heaven forbid) miss a meeting. You start to wake up! That's when the Team "Leaders" start to get worried. They start to hover.... CD's in hand! "Your not listening enough" as they hand you another stack of CD's. "The answers are in here"... "we really miss you at the meetings"....but it's too late.....your becoming aware of your surroundings. Your starting to think on your own again...... what am I doing? How long have I been at this? I've waisted how much money? Your starting to see that true freedom begins......when you leave Team!

     I've read a lot of posts on the internet recently from people looking for answers. How can I help my friend, relative, co-worker, spouse, get out of Team/Monavie. The answers are not simple, but there is one thing for certain........they have to stop eating the Lotus Flowers.

The World's Largest Bathroom Wall

     When I was still building Team/Amway/Monavie, one of the things I could count on was prospects "doing their research" on-line before they saw me at the follow through appointment. It's funny because when I first got started, it wasn't as much of a "problem" for me as it was near the end of my involvement. In response to this, Team leaders started helping us come up with ways to deal with "the internet problem" at follow through meetings. Clearly..... ignoring what was happening on-line was not going to help me this time! That's what I was told at first. "Ignore it", "They are just being negative", "The internet is the world's largest bathroom wall", "These critics are hired by other companies to put negative out there because we're growing too fast" (That was my favourite by the way!).

     So here are some of the things that I used to say to prospects at the follow through to combat Internet research. See if you've heard any of these!

     "You don't know who wrote that....or what their motivation was for writing it". True a lot of times. You don't know who the Punisher is....but my motivation is pretty clear! I spent a lot of wasted years building Team, and if I can help one person make the decision to not get involved...it will be time well spent on this blog.

     "Is that person on the internet going to help you like I am? I have a vested interest in you making money". Well if the question is, will the Punisher come to your house, sit at your kitchen table, and try to sign you up first night to hundreds of dollars worth of product and "System"....then the answer is NO. Obviously! What the Punisher will do however, is asking nothing of you other than your time to read this blog, and others just like it before you "invest" years of your life and thousands of dollars, chasing a finish line that never gets closer! By the way....if you join the Team or not....it doesn't affect my life or pocket book one bit....ask the guy who's getting you started if it's the same for him!

     "Anybody can write anything they want on-line, how do you know what they say is true?". Yep...another great point. That's also the greatest thing about the internet and the "Information Age" isn't it? An average guy like me, can get vital information out to the masses, where they can take the sum of all the information gathered and make an informed decision. The Team hates this! They want to "lead" you into the Team and their "System". Want proof? Ok...ask the guy that's trying to get you signed up, what the next step is? I'll bet you it's "come to the next open meeting / seminar". Guess what happens if you DO sign up....."come to the next open meeting / seminar"! Ask this question and then tell me I'm wrong!

     So you see dear reader.....the internet is really the world's largest bathroom wall! We can write whatever we want! Don't tell me you've never read the bathroom wall in real life....that's where the saying came from! I mean....what else are you going to do while sitting there right? The difference is what is being written on the wall? Does it make sense? Does it apply to you? Can you evaluate the information on the wall? I pray you'll do your research.....and not take years to come to the same conclusion that I did.

Pay The Price

     How many times have you heard this phrase? "Pay the price.... to live life nice". If your in an MLM I'd imagine you heard this your first meeting! While I concede the fact that anything worth doing requires effort (see how I threw another cliche in there for you), it does matter what you spend your time doing. I heard Chris Brady of TEAM say many times "What are you busy about?". If you are spending all your time chasing the dream in an MLM like TEAM.....take it from someone who's been there and done that..... your time can be "invested" elsewhere!

     After being hand dipped in the "system" for years, let's examine some of the choices I made to "pay the price". I was told that Tuesday night open meetings and monthly seminars were "can't miss" events. Unless of course you weren't a Leader, and didn't want to qualify for the "Power Player" program. So no matter what.....I was there! The only Tuesday open the TEAM ever cancelled was the one between Christmas and New Years... That's it. 51 weeks of the year, every Tuesday, my butt was in a seat. I missed Christmas concerts for my kids, school plays, parent teacher nights, family gatherings, weddings, nights out with friends who eventually stopped asking, and on and on. Oh I paid the price alright! But I was "fired up"......"doing what it takes"....."leading by example"....."digging depth"! WRONG. What I was doing was messing up my priorities.....ignoring the people who loved me the most....disappointing my kids.....SPENDING my time in all the wrong places. Sound familiar Ex-Teamers?

     So what is the price I paid in the end (remember....begin with the end in mind LOL)? Well post MLM  can be a lonely place. Most of my true friends stopped calling years ago. Tired of hearing no from me and afraid I would throw the "Plan" on them if they got too close....again. I seriously have to remind my extended family to tell me about family gatherings and the like, because they are used to me not coming anyway! My TEAM "Friends", were nothing more than people I saw on a weekly basis... who discarded me when I no longer was willing to chase the dream with them. The truth is I disappointed a lot of people, and have a long hill to climb to regain their trust and respect...if I can. However....I AM willing to pay the price to achieve THAT goal.

The Truth About TEAM

     I've been reading a lot of interesting comments on the Amthrax blog regarding TEAM and Orrin Woodward lately. I was not surprised by most of the comments on this blog, however what I was surprised about was who was making these comments! There are people speaking out on TEAM who used to be in the "inner circle" so to speak. We're talking Round Table members, Turbo 100's, and many others. These are people who like myself spent YEARS of their life chasing a LIE! While I can say I didn't reach the levels that some of these people did, I did see a lot of the same stuff. It comes back ultimately to one of my previous posts "It's Not Your Business". These folks who were running the roads, showing the plan, doing all the "right things", attending every swinging seminar, open meetings, full system.... and on and on.... had their "businesses" taken away by their uplines because they didn't see eye to eye on different points. Oh but don't worry...I'm sure it could never happen to you. I remember my upline trying to explain away a major leader leaving the TEAM, and heard him put the couple down to others! This was for YEARS a good "friend" of his.....supposedly. You see the leaders on the TEAM are only your "friend" as long as you are useful to them. When you stop towing the company line..... they will replace you in a minute. What ever you do.... don't think for yourself!! That is a dangerous concept on TEAM. "Do what the leaders do" you'll hear them say! What you won't hear them say is the rest of the sentence........"Or Else"!!!

A Critic Of A Critic?

So I've had to start moderating the comments on my Blog because of one person....the world "Famous" Tex. What I don't understand is with a business model so broken, and so many things to talk about, why he deems it necessary to attack anybody who doesn't see things 100% his way. He's so blinded by his hate of the tool issue, that he refuses to acknowledge anything else. The tool issue is a problem for sure, but that is only a piece of the puzzle. There are too many problems with this business to just sit down and write about in one post. Proof of this is a quick search of the web and looking at the various blogs about Amway, Monavie, and the like. You'll note Tex..... that they have more than one entry. It's not all about the tools. Instead of gaining allies however, Tex is acting like a wounded animal caught in a leg trap. Anybody who gets within a certain radius of him is going to get bit! Even if your on the same team and trying to help!

I didn't start this Blog to have a personal war with anybody. I started it because I.... like so many others, have had personal experiences in the Amway, Monavie, businesses that I feel could help others make informed decisions about their involvement. As for you Tex....you don't have to follow my "Lame" Blog any further! You can go back to your mom's basement to head up the command centre! No matter how much evidence you compile in your mission to end the tool scam... YOU will never win because I can only imagine the gong show you would be in a court of law! Somebody else may be successful in this.....it just won't be YOU.

Anybody Can Do This?

Every "Open Meeting" I ever attended I heard this statement as a selling point. Anybody can do this. The fact is......No.....they can't. Are you kidding me!? Do you have any idea what it takes to build an Amway business? Well before you go to bed tonight with dreams of financial freedom, and fancy cars dancing through your head, consider these points.

The time commitment. I was always told that it was flexible, and you could build it around your existing schedule. Unless your thinking of missing an open meeting that is! That's right....every Tuesday for LIFE. Open meetings ran at least 2 hours, maybe more if the speaker droned on longer. No big deal you say? It's like having a sports commitment or something similar you say? Alright, did I mention the monthly seminars? That's one Saturday a month and is the better part of the afternoon and evening that day. Oh did I mention that you haven't shown this to one person yet! Now add in 15 showings or "plans" a month at an hour a piece (I've been to plans that were way longer than that). Did I mention you have to get back together with these people for follow through appointments? At least another 15 hours of work there. Plus all the driving time, extra meetings with your "Team", helping your new people get started, contacting sessions with your group, attending house meetings.....should I go on? Do the math. You think your going to rocket yourself to financial freedom with a couple hours a week do ya? Wake up! Truth is most people get involved at the chance to get their time back! Does this sound like getting your time back? Oh, and by the way.....this NEVER ENDS! Sorry...were you told you could just "Walk away" from your "business" when it got big enough? LIE! Can you imagine how fast your group would collapse if you said "you know....I think I've built this big enough...I'm going to live the big life now" and left! Who would they be able to point to as a "Success"? Oh no....your not going anywhere! It's like the Hotel California.... you can check out any time you like....but you can never leave!

The financial commitment. Seriously. If you build it like the "Leaders" tell you. The amount of money you will spend is astounding! Remember those weekly open meetings? $5 per meeting. Monthly Seminar $30-$35 per seminar. Products on hand....the sky is the limit, but you will for sure have something on hand for people to try. In Amway it was XS energy drinks at $2.50 a can and some protein bars! With Monavie it was $35 bottles of Juice! THEN there is all the promotional items. Audio CD's, books, pamphlets, etc. Also known as "Tools". This will be a future post on it own (I know you can hardly wait Tex). Let's just say that this will be your largest financial investment by far! Sound easy so far? Sound like "Anybody Can Do This"? Really? That single mom with two kids? That high school drop out working at McDonald's? That single income family living pay check to pay check? No chance. All the supporters will point to the very few that have made money, and their personal stories of success. Well after 6 years of building.... and people were still pointing to the same folks they were on day one as examples of success....clearly not "Anybody Can Do This"!!