This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Nothing says family like, will you join my network marketing program? Or can I take 20 minutes of your time to tell you about a wonderful opportunity? Well, if you hear that question, you should run, not walk. But again, what if it's a family member who is making this pitch to you? Today's caller finds herself in this precarious situation.
Should she in fact waste all of her money or never speak to her sister again? Or might there be some third or fourth option? In short, she's hoping to avoid an awkward family discussion about network marketing, multi-level marketing. We talk about this from time to time. I always get lots of interesting emails about it.
We will dive into it in a moment. For now, welcome to "Side Hustle School." My name is Chris Guillebeau, your host. So glad you're here. We are on a shared journey of exploring lots of creative ways to make extra money in the new economy. And spoiler alert, network marketing is not one of them.
But what do you do when you're in this situation? Help, my sister is pressuring me to join her MLM. That's today's listener question. It's coming up along with my answer, my response, at least, in just 30 seconds after this message from our sponsor. Stay tuned.
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Hi, Chris, this is Caroline. And I found your show through the "Happier" podcast. I'm really enjoying the stories, puns, and helpful content. So I need your help. My sister has recently joined a multilevel marketing company, and she won't stop pestering me and the rest of the family to get in while we can.
I made the mistake of agreeing to go to one of her presentations. Now I'm worried I'll end up getting excited too, and wasting my money. How can I back out? And what if I'm missing the opportunity of a lifetime? Just kidding.
I'm pretty much sure it's not that. But how are you sure that all of these programs are so bad? What do I tell her? Thanks for your help, Chris. - Yeah, Caroline, it's a tough one.
Thank you for the question. I do hear this from time to time, or variations of this about how there's a friend or family member that says this is, as Caroline said, the opportunity of a lifetime. And it's probably not. And the person usually knows that it's not the opportunity of a lifetime. They understand it's probably not a good idea at all, but they're not quite sure what to do.
And so here's what I would ask a person who is gung-ho about a particular opportunity like this. I would say, well, how is it going for you so far? Because often the messaging with these programs is very much about lifestyle aspiration. It's the promise of something, but the results are quite different from the promise. So you say, well, is it really working out that way for you so far?
Like you've said a lot of good things about the potential, but how is it working out? Not just for you, but also for the other people you know in the program. And almost always what you hear is, well, I'm just getting started, but somebody else out there is doing really well. And it's a fact that the vast majority, when I say vast majority, there's actually been studies about this. It's more than 98% of people who join network marketing programs end up losing money.
And that's why even though we try to feature lots and lots of different ideas here on the podcast, I don't feature anything to do with network marketing because if 98% of people are losing money, then I don't think it's because they're all just lazy or they're all doing it wrong. It's more that these programs are set up to mostly benefit the people who start them. So assuming you know that, what do you do when you're in a situation like Caroline where your sister or somebody is really excited about it? I think what you do is you try to not make that person feel attacked or defensive. You encourage them to see the truth for themselves.
And you ask questions like that, like, oh, how is it working out for you? How is it working out for everybody else you know who's in the program? And that way hopefully they can kind of educate themselves and inform themselves and hopefully eventually come to the same opinion that you have, but not in a way that kind of puts them in a corner. So in some ways it's a lot like getting vaccinated. We've had this conversation, national conversation about should people be vaccinated?
And I think it's important to get your COVID vaccine. Like for the people who choose not to, it's like if you attack them, they're just gonna become more entrenched in their beliefs and you're not going to accomplish your objective of trying to get more people safe, essentially. So that's my take on that. Caroline, I hope your sister's infatuation with the program is short-lived. And I hope that you and her find a much better opportunity soon.
Perhaps one that you create for yourselves instead of just believing in the potential of something else which doesn't actually have a lot of potential. So that's my take. - Listeners, if you have a question, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. We will continue to feature them throughout the year, along with updates from other listeners as they launch their projects. Thank you for tuning in today.
Come back tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the "Onward Project."
