Successful IBO's and "Losers Lunch": A Look at the Art of Mixed Messages.

URAssociation uplines used to always talk about "growth" all over the place, and "this team is on fire!" On and on and on and on......my naive ass was thinking "people are making money in this business! Can't wait until I get going!" Now if you ready my very first blog "Come to my Seminar"you'll see some similarities. This post is kind of a spin-off of sorts.

The URA's premise was clear: You can make lots of money, and THIS TEAM is making lots of money. My sponsor Matthew even told me that URA was the #1 AMO for IBO's making money in their first six months. In "Come to my Seminar" I wrote how the year I went to my first summer CONference (before I joined). We rented a couple vans. The only drawback to the conference was that six of us were staying in a two bed hotel room. But other than that, it was ok. We went to a nice restaurant for lunch on the Baltimore harbor. Everyone was self-sufficient. We were good. It definitely accomplished its purpose.

Fast forward a year later. I'm active. A month in, a decent grand opening, and even a good friend of mine was on the brink of joining. Business was good. But all of the sudden, things were taken a turn for the 'holy shit, this isn't making sense.' We got an unpleasant voice mail from our upline platinum about being frugal with our money and not going out to eat. Making sure we chipped in for gas and went on the hotel room.

I was working part time for minimum wage at the time. I had my snacks, gas covered but I didn't have enough to chip in for the hotel room. Matter of fact, none of us did because there was going to be six of us in the room again! Another issue was the encouragement...check that...DEMAND that we pack lunchmeat, peanut butter and jelly, bread, fruit, and OF COURSE your lovely Amway products INSTEAD of eating proper food. However, for lunch we DID eat out....we chipped in for Pizza's and sat outside in 90 degree weather making phone calls to prospective IBO's while we ate.

So picture this scenario: We're at a CONference for a business that is supposedly VERY successful and making big money. Yet we have IBO's who can't afford hotel rooms, almost forbidden to go have a decent meal, and spend a whole weekend eating peanut butter and jelly. To the average cultist, that may seem reasonable. To the rest of the rational world: It's BULLSHIT. Go to any successful business that has weekend conferences (note: no CON in all caps) and ask if THEY pack lunchmeat and eat like peasants.

During the CONference there was a couple that spoke. They were known as "arrows." It's some kind of leadership position. Anyways, during the church service I saw the man closing a bag he was carrying. Inside, it contained a loaf of bread, some mustard, lunch meat and miracle whip. The first thing I thought was "yuck!" Not much on mustard and miracle whip together. Blegh. But then it hit me, even THIS guy who had done well enough to speak on stage was eating JUST LIKE THE REST OF US! It made no sense! It's like "once I work my way up, I'll be able to eat at Applebees next CONference!"

Word of advice to AMO higher ups: If people can't afford to go, don't make them. And if they DO go, it doesn't set the right impression to pack half a dozen people into a hotel room and eat sandwiches all weekend. That's one of the reasons my friend decided not to join. It didn't send a good message.

My other advice to AMO higher ups would be to tell the TRUTH to your downlines about how you make all that money. I know...hilarious!