Plenty of people have been hit up by an old middle school friend over Facebook Messenger and have been pitched the multilevel marketing (MLM) dream. Make a living wage working entirely at home, set your own hours acting as your own “boss” and work your way up in the company so you can earn prizes like a tropical cruise or a luxury car. The dream almost seems too good to be true, and that’s because it is.
MLMs target stay-at-home moms, military wives and young women who desperately crave time, freedom and extra cash. It’s no wonder that an entire community of individuals has begun making anti-MLM YouTube videos in an attempt to educate people about the reality of MLMs. Companies like Arbonne, LuLaRoe and It Works aren’t everything they claim to be, and these YouTubers break down why.
CC Suarez
Harsh, blunt and humorous, CC Suarez makes entertaining and educational anti-MLM videos. She provides an insider perspective on the sales model of MLMs because she has previous experience working in sales. Suarez is dedicated to refuting the misinformation spread by members of MLMs, and she has nearly 100 videos in a playlist on her channel titled “Commentary: Anti-MLM, Reactions & DeepDives.”
Suarez has a series on her channel called “Top MLM Fails” where she reacts to social media posts of MLM members. The material Suarez reacts to varies from video to video, and she currently has a total of 19 videos in the series. They’re entertaining to watch, as Suarez always has something funny to say about the video she’s reacting to, but she also analyzes the content and reacts with an extremely critical lens.
In the first episode of the series, Suarez responds to an Instagram TV post. In the post, the MLM member claims that if your business is failing, it’s your fault because you’re the one running the business. In response to that claim, Suarez explains, “These companies are structured in a way for you to fail… 98% of people make little to no money, and most of them are in debt from it. It doesn’t matter which one, that’s just how it is. So you’re going to tell me that most of the people who join MLMs aren’t hard workers?”
Jessica Hickson
Jessica Hickson’s anti-MLM commentary is a little bit different than Suarez’s. Hickson has a more sympathetic and emotional approach when reacting to content produced by members of multilevel marketing companies, and she also includes a lot of anecdotal evidence in her videos, since she was a member of the MLM company It Works.
In her videos, Hickson also provides intimate behind-the-scenes details of the slight manipulation tactics she would use to recruit more members. She admits to everything wrong that she did as a VIP member of It Works.
In her video “The Truth about why I Left It Works at a VIP Rank #antimlm,” Hickson states, “I put more work into this than I put into any job in my entire life.” She explains how you don’t get the promised “work on your own time” lifestyle, and that she only made $200 in a month even though she was working every single day. She says that the only way to make a livable wage within the company is to recruit other members. According to her, it’s impossible to make money by just selling the products.
NOT THE GOOD GIRL
NOT THE GOOD GIRL is the name of Josie Naikoi’s YouTube channel. She makes anti-MLM videos, even though she used to be a high-performing member of an MLM. In her video “I QUIT THE MLM INDUSTRY AT THE TOP,” she exposes the reality behind the dream that MLM companies sell to their low-earning recruits. She explains the way the companies use glitz and glamour to reel in recruits. However, she is also intensely empathetic toward recruits, and even claims, “I don’t believe the people in these companies are evil; I believe them to be victims.”
It’s understandable why she would feel this way because in the video, she explains how she was roped into an MLM as a young hairdresser who had accumulated medical debt. She needed extra money to survive, and she ended up working her way up the ranks and thriving within her company. However, most of her recruits were barely making a livable wage from their earnings. She decided to speak up because she understood that vulnerable people were being targeted and recruited, especially during the pandemic.
“I didn’t speak out for almost two years after quitting multilevel marketing because I was embarrassed and ashamed that what I had promoted for so long turned out to be a lie,” explained Naikoi. “Now with the global pandemic, and seeing how many MLM companies are preying on innocent and scared people, people who will become victims like myself and so many others, I knew I had to speak up.”
There are plenty of other channels that make anti-MLM commentary videos, and this short list is just the beginning. You could spend weeks watching video after video breaking down multilevel marketing companies and their scams, and there would still be more content for you to consume. However, these three YouTubers are some of the most entertaining and informative people on YouTube who are making anti-MLM content right now.
CC Suarez, Jessica Hickson and NOT THE GOOD GIRL are all worth watching, whether you already hate MLMs or if you still don’t really understand why they’re so bad. If you’re thinking about joining one of these companies, do yourself a favor and watch as many of their videos as you can. You’ll be saving yourself a lot of time, money and effort if you do.
