I don’t know about you but it feels like social media has become a massive pitch platform, with people you know and don’t know “reaching out”, and people messaging “once in a lifetime offers” or “you’d be great as our brand ambassador” offers or “sell 20,000 copies of your _______ with this easy course”, or “get money from your insurance company to blah blah blah” etc. the “opportunities” are endless.
I know since the pandemic altered a lot of work and income perspectives have been irreparably altered, a lot of people have taken the entrepreneurial route, which by its very nature, means putting yourself out there and offering your skills, services, products, or business models to others as a viable opportunity. And sure, maybe there are some legit opportunities out there. But it feels like everybody is doing it and they are all using the same playbook.
I miss the days when people would get in contact to just say hello and see how you and your life is doing after years of no contact, or people could just invite each other over to hang out and have a good time, instead of showing some fantastic new product, business model or idea.
I get it, these approaches were probably awesome back when there was only one company doing it, – like Tupperware, but now there are hundreds, if not thousands, and it seems like nobody just wants to hang out anymore for the sake of spending time with someone else, that there’s always an ulterior motive. Even on Zoom.
Some of them are high pressure and unpleasant, the “host” needs to make goals and numbers to reach their next level or tier. Which, although may generate a few sales from obligated friends/customers, it also usually means the beginning of the end of the friendship.
There are also “online” social media “parties” that go on for 24-hours or so. Again, your message inbox is bombarded with “fantastic products” you “cannot live without.” Except I did, and I have up until this point in my life, so I’m good. Thanks.
It feels like you must tie your identity to a business for the sake of money, and if you want to succeed, that’s all you do. Live it, breath it, talk about it endlessly, convince everyone you know they need it too. (Don’t forget the list of 100 people you know.) Don’t get me wrong, I am almost embarrassed to admit in my excitement that I have done this myself. More than once. The first one I found (with the help of a friend I hadn’t seen for years but reached out to me on Facebook,) was a company I loved and believed in and used their products everywhere in my house. I attended their online training and learned the ins and outs of the products, I could never really get my head around their business tiers, but I overcame crippling anxiety about public speaking and held my own meetings, and sampled and followed up and educated…all for people to go back to their cousin, aunt, neighbor, co-worker, etc., and order the products from them, (although a lot of people didn’t tell me that, I only found out later, after they never “got around” to placing an order and I would chase them because they asked me to call back or touch base in a week or next pay period.)
Or worse, I would order the products people wanted, and then when they came in they didn’t want them anymore and wanted their money back, so then I had to go through the return process or suck it up so I had “stock on hand,” – something we were always told we never had to do in all those trainings.
I used to tell myself that I was happy I was educating people on these life-changing products, but in the end, a solid two years of effort got me diddly squat. And I wasn’t comfortable with people thinking I was just the “so and so lady” as my identity was so tied to the brand.
That part has never sat well with me, I am not comfortable being synonymous with a brand as my main identity. It feels disingenuous, I am not a product or a business, and no matter the spiel, it really was not my business, and I wasn’t sponsored by them, so why should I give up my identity so freely? For the promise of potential money? Was I that desperate?
But I kept using their products for at least another 6 years, albeit quietly because the products were so good, and during that time I would happily recommend product solutions to people who came to me and asked for info or wanted to order, so, I guess I lied back there, I did make a few hundred dollars over 8 years.
Most of these industries I notice are predominantly propelled by women. Which is awesome. I’m all for that. They are fantastic vehicles for smart hard-working women to make a decent living and raise up other women to do the same. But even though the trailblazers in the company may teach their methods, it seems that after the first incredibly successful women make it to the upper ranks of the earning capacity of a company, even if they teach the exact same methods, the efficiency of those same methods is more and more diluted the further away they get from the original success story.
There must be a very strong and determined entrepreneurial woman behind the incredible growth and success, and it doesn’t really seem that it’s a successful copycat plan, as every layer needs to be tweaked, just a little, altered just a tad, in the quest for success.
I know being able to tie yourself to a brand is a fantastic opportunity for those who enjoy the community, and they are great communities. But when it comes down to it, I would rather just be brand me.
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