Could The New Delaware Bill Spell The End Of MLM As We Know It?

I told you, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. MLMs are not, I repeat, on the rise. They’re actually in their downfall. And the government truly has had enough. Now, of course, my conspiracy mindset always believes that they just don’t want us to have the freedom and flexibility to work from home.

Because if you work from home or in the pockets of time you wish, then you’d have no need for public education, child care, you’d be open to more tax breaks because you’d get paid on a 1099, which the government isn’t a fan of.

Lots of things, right? Look, I get it. I did network marketing for 11 years and there were so many benefits. But the reality is, I was part of the 1%. They’re not lying when they say that the 99% don’t find success in network marketing.

And for that reason, I support the hammer that this new bill coming from the state of Delaware is going to be coming down on the industry. Yes. Are you as shocked as I am that I’m siding with the Democrats on this one? I am definitely, definitely shocked.

But nonetheless, this past week, Delaware introduced the HB162, which is an act to amend Title 6 of the Delaware Code relating to multi level distribution companies.

The bill summary is as follows. Quote

This act defines a multi level distribution company and multi level marketing program for purposes of this subchapter. It sets forth mandatory disclosures that must be made by a multi level distribution company to any potential purchaser that discloses details about the company, sometimes based on certain representations that the company makes. It sets forth that a multi level distribution company may not require a participant in its marketing program to buy a good or service or pay any other consideration to participate in the marketing program unless it agrees to repurchase the goods under certain conditions. It provides cancellation rights and guidelines. It permits a civil penalty to be imposed for violations of the required disclosures. It provides a private right of action for violation of the repurchase requirement, including trouble, damages, attorney fees and costs to be awarded for a prevailing plaintiff.

Okay, so Cliff notes, right? Essentially, this bill amends Delaware law to establish comprehensive regulations for MLMs, which MLMs? What are those?

Those are businesses that sell products through independent agents at different levels and pay compensation based on sales or recruitment. The bill defines key terms and mandates specific disclosure requirements for these companies, including a detailed written document that must be provided to potential participants before any financial commitment.

Now, many network marketing companies, they do this in that they have it hidden. I say hidden because I can’t tell you how many times I would tell like the coaches in my network, hey, it’s in the faq. And they’d be like, what?

What’s the faq? Because I had so many boundaries, I was like, the answer’s right there. Don’t come to me unless like, this is kind of how I am. Like just in life. Don’t come to me unless like, you’re dying because like, lot of the answers that you need in life are already out there.

Like, I am not your Google search.

And network marketing companies, they do have this on their website. Is it easily found? Not necessarily. Is it something that’s presented to you like when you go to sign up? No, because it’s kind of like burst in the bubble of all the excitement that someone, quote unquote, should be feeling when they sign up to become a participant in network marketing.

But Beachbody, for example, they did have a chart and it showed how much the highest income was for each rank, like all the way from your basic Coach to your 15 star diamond coach, which was the highest rank in Beachbody.

And they also would disclose like what was the low. Right, like the low end of it. Now Beachbody, for example, they did have a chart that showed how much the highest income was for each rank.

So everything from your basic coach all the way up to your 15 star diamond coach, which was the highest rank and they would show what was the high end of that rank and then they would also show the low. But they never disclose like what the average person was making or like what the majority was making.

Right. Because the fact of the matter is most were at the low end. And that definitely like would have deterred hopeful, you know, stay at home moms who were looking to retire their spouses.

Right. Like talk about just being a total buzzkill. Being like, oh yeah, well this is really how much you’re really going to make, you know, so this document, they want this stuff mandated and it has to clearly outline the company’s compensation plan.

I can’t tell you how many times people didn’t understand the compensation plan. I mean, I know if you were in my downline, that wasn’t the case for you because that was like the first thing that I figured out when I joined Beachbody right. Time is money.

And I wanted to make sure that I was maximizing the comp plan. And I did so many trainings within the network too to help people this and they were just like mind blown when they heard what I was doing because they’d never been taught it before.

The other thing that they want outlined is training offerings, services, potential earnings. Like I said, this has to be a required disclaimer that earnings are not guaranteed and also whatever critical details they find to be pertinent to the business.

Now, like I said that part, a lot of companies, they already do.

When I was with Beachbody, I was always told to put the income disclaimer on my posts. We were never allowed to explicitly say how much we were earning, which I didn’t really have an issue with because that was kind of weird to talk about money.

Like, no one goes around singing their paychecks except like in the network marketing industry. Like that’s is a flex. You know, think about your teachers of the world. Like they’re not flexing on their retirement or their 401k, right?

Police officers, they don’t go around just like sharing with everyone, you know, on their social media what their pension is. But truth be told, I did find it frustrating at times because I’m very much someone who provides the receipts in life, if you will, but I was never allowed to by law.

And the reason for that is, is because FTC, which in hindsight, yes, I realize, like they, you know why this is, they didn’t want people thinking that these paychecks were the norm because it wasn’t like what I was making was not the norm.

Like multiple six figures a year, I mean, that’s not normal. And then obviously you have the ones that were at the tippy tippy top making millions, you know, they’re making some of them seven figures a year. That’s definitely not the norm.

But forget even like us, like making, like I said, the multiple six figures a year being the 1%, like we were the.01%. And Beachbody, what they would do is like they, I’m sure through AI they would find certain words like if you use any kind of word like finance or financial freedom or flexibility, you know, things like that.

And they would search for these posts and years after you put them up, they would reach out to you and the Beachbody compliance and they would say like, hey, we found this post from seven years ago that you talked about money in Beachbody and you either need to take it down or you need to add the Financial disclaimer to it, like it’s one or the other.

Either edit it or delete it. And half the time I was like, whatever, like I’ll just delete.

I can’t be bothered. Now this is the part where it gets even better. So the bill prohibits MLMs from requiring participants to purchase goods or services without offering a repurchase option and establishes a mandatory cancellation policy allowing participants to exit the program within three months and receive at least 90% of their initial investment back.

Did you hear that? You’re allowed to get your money back now. Why is this huge?

First of all, top leaders, they always would pitch the opportunity as if you would make your money back right away. And in Beachbody, that meant you had to help three people within your first month.

And for some, that wasn’t a challenge, especially if they had great physical results from a program and they had already been sharing about it passively on social media. But for many who have zero experience in sales, because that’s what network marketing is, sales, they struggled.

And the solution that would come from their upline on those like, you know, weekly team calls was always do more personal development, share, don’t sell like all ridiculous options like, sorry, that’s not going to feed the bulldog.

And yes, Beachbody did offer a 30 day money back guarantee on their products. But I think the idea of letting someone really try a product or a program, whatever for three months in the business and then deciding if it is for them or not, it’s fair.

You truly have time to become a product of the product and you should have the ability to try a few products over time. Especially if it’s something that you need to quite frankly, like yield results from, whether it’s hair care, something with your skin, um, you know, a workout program, whatever, you need to be able to show this like before and after situation.

And quite frankly, like, you know, I don’t even think 30 days is going to cut it. Plus the company should be on the hook for the expenses, not the upline. So you know, when you had, whether it was a customer or a coach in your downline return something, you lost the volume, you lost the commission from it.

When really like it was the company’s fault that like their goods didn’t deliver. I mean, yeah, sometimes the, the upline you sign up was sucked, so that was part of it.

But at the end of the day, like the company, they should be the ones that really should be, quote unquote, paying the price for that, not the person who brought you into the business.

Now another reason why I think it’s important is because so many times you’re signing up to work with an upline or a team that you think are your people, and then you get in and you realize, oh, this isn’t what I thought.

This person isn’t exactly who they portray themselves to be online. I can’t tell you how many times people would sign up with a very prominent influencer within my network, my Beachbody network, only to realize that quite frankly, the only time they ever got to talk to them one on one, was when that upline was trying to hit a rank advancement or, you know, they needed something from them.

Essentially, it was a transactional friendship. Now, the reality is this goes back to why I’ve been preaching that the idea of being a real business owner and an entrepreneur is not being part of an MLM.

In real business, you don’t get your money back.

You take the L. Okay? There is real risk. I’m just saying there are also real rewards. And that you keep your profits without having to give back at least 70%, at least of your commissions back to that parent company, that MLM company. Now, this cancellation policy is going to crush MLMs.

Hear my words. What most people don’t realize because they’re in the MLM bubble is that most of the sales within MLM come from its distributors. Okay, what do I mean by this?

What I mean is like, let’s use Beachbody as a perfect example. Most of the people who are buying the programs, the products, et cetera, they were the ones who were actually working the business.

They were part of the MLM structure. It wasn’t coming from outside sales. Which quite frankly, is why you see BODi, Beachbody, they’re. They’re suffering as a public company and they’re cutting products left and right.

I most recently heard that they’re no longer doing the Mint beach bars. The reason for that is because their distributors, which were most of their sales, they’ve left their.

Either they went to another MLM, Make Wellness, Shacklee, you name it, whatever else, okay? Or they’re like me. And I’m like, all right, well, this affiliate program that you created is trash. The platform that they originally put it on impact. Also garbage. Like, I’m not sharing that link. There are other ways to monetize on social media.

And I’m, you know, there’s only 24 hours in a day. I’m going to use it on different avenues like UGC, Amazon, Shoppable. I’m not sharing your stupid link, quite frankly.

And what I’m also going to do is if I am going to share something, I’m going to make sure it’s something that I’m using. I’m replacing certain products. Like I found certain products to be better or they’re the same. Right. Like what’s.

I was talking about on my socials this week where I have been trying out Just Ingredients. I’ll put all my links and codes and all that in the show notes. I tried out what would be their equivalent to Recover, which is Beachbody’s performance line, what you take after you work out that has all kinds of BCAAs in it.

I’ve been trying out Just Ingredients and I did a comparison on my stories this week and quite frankly, like, across the board, they’re pretty equitable. But you know what isn’t equitable? The price. Beachbody’s Recover is like $15 more than Just Ingredients.

So, you know, people are making decisions to swap out products. So all of these things are why the company itself is suffering with sales and, and really having to make their own cuts with certain things.

And you know, you really need to ask yourself, like, if you’re listening to this and you are a former Beachbody coach, or, you know, maybe you aren’t a Beachbody coach, but you’re involved with network marketing, like, how many times have you had to explain to someone, like, for example, like, what Beachbody is or wait, what’s make wellness? What. What’s Arbonne? Wait, what’s. Is it Monat? Is it Monat? Like, right? Like it isn’t.

The people who are involved with network marketing always think that their company, you’re part of this, like, cult like mentality. Everyone seems to think that it’s a common household name, but it’s not. Network marketing companies, like, no, they’re not. People don’t. People don’t know what that is.

But you know, the people know what L’Oreal is. I’m not saying L’ Oreal is like good hair care. Okay? People don’t know what Monat, Monet, whatever is, but they know what L’ Oreal is. You know, people don’t know what Rodan and Fields was or Beauty Counter, but they sure as heck know what Maybelline is. Right?

Okay. I mean, for even as crazy as it sounds like if I said the word Slim Fast, you would know what slim fast was over Shakeology. Right? You get what I’m trying to say?

And, and if someone isn’t an outsider pretty soon though, right? Like, so we know that most of the sales are not coming from outsiders. Now, say per chance, you are that person that a distributor reaches out to or this gal that you know from work happens to be one and you say, hey, I want to try your product.

Okay, great. Now you would be considered, right, an outsider. You’re not part of that plan yet. What is the first thing that the person says to you? Like, it could be right away.

A lot of people do this right away, or at least like a week or two, three weeks into you using a product, hey, you know, you can get a great discount, right?

You just need to become a coach, a vip, a partner, or whatever tag name that their MLM uses, right? And to me, like, I consider that the gateway drug of network marketing.

And that’s why the FTC is coming down so hard on MLMs, because these companies are showing a quote unquote profit. But meanwhile, it’s because the distributors are forced once you get in the door, right? Like, and you, and you, like I said, you go beyond the gateway drug of getting your discount. And now all of a sudden, like, you’re, hey, your story is so inspiring.

You should share it with others. And now you become an active working partner coach. Like I said, whatever these companies call themselves these days, you’re running a business, right?

Distributors, they end up getting forced to purchase product to either maintain a certain rank or keep their business active. And I know in my Beachbody business, which I had several different accounts because I had multiple, multiple business centers, there were times, especially near the end, where I was ordering products, which truthfully, yes, I mean, for the most part, I used all of the products.

I still do use Beachbody products to this day, but there were times where I just had to do it to maintain the rank because especially as you started moving up in rank, you had to have certain amounts of volume, right?

And I had multiple accounts under my name and business centers. My husband had multiple business centers. My mom and dad were coaches and they were part of my downline.

And they use the products too, right? Like, we were all using the products at one point in life, right? Over 11 years, like, we were using it.

But life happens, you know, whether it was a new medication for my dad or, you know, my mom, like, my mom still to this day loves hydrate, but like, you know, she wasn’t a super fan of Shakeology because she just, it, you know, it just wasn’t her jam.

My husband loves Shakeology, but he would get irritated that when they got rid of the packets for, for hydrate, you know, he’s like, well, I’m going to find another. And this was like, probably they got rid of the packets for hydrate probably like three or four years ago.

He’s like, well, I’m not doing that anymore. Like, I need it in my golf bag. I’m not carrying around that big tub. Right? Just different things. Like.

And so life happens and one day of missing a shake turns into two, three. Like, you get the idea. And, you know, especially for my parents who, quite frankly, like, they knew Beachbody and did Beachbody because of me, like, I was educating them on it and they wanted to support me.

But once they saw I had one foot out the door, and this was friends too, not just my family or, you know, coaches in my downline, like, once they heard what I was saying about the company and where I saw the future of network marketing going, like, because I had one foot out the door, they did too.

And they were exploring other options for products as well. And, you know, circling back to, like, why you had to have certain amounts of products in your downline, you know, is going through to maintain your downline, I should say I had to do this because I was hitting such high cycle bonuses in my personal accounts.

But, like, what you find in MLM world is you control what you can control. And the reality is, as a top leader, it’s very rare to find someone that’s going to work as hard as you do. And that’s why so many of your big top leaders.

I was not one of these. I recruited, quite frankly, pretty smart. I attribute that to my experience in recruiting as a D1 head coach for eight years.

A lot of these top leaders were recruiting in masses. You know, you’d go to Summit and you’d hear certain names saying that they signed up a thousand coaches in a year and, and took 40 of them, you know, to Diamond, I mean, diamond, they would always convince you that diamond was like, oh, my gosh, that’s the, that’s where you’re gonna really make money.

No, it’s not. And if you were part of my downline, you knew that, like, you needed to get at least to two star. And that’s what I trained all of my top leaders to do.

What I did is I recruited smarter and I really did try to find people that worked, you know, match my work ethic. And I did, like, quite frankly, I. I did have a lot of those types of leaders, you know, so as a top leader, you have to know that no one’s going to work as hard as you.

That’s just life in general. But I knew that life lesson. And so I built my business centers. Both my husband and I, we had multiple business centers, you know, and like I said, one of the first things I learned was how to max out the compensation plan.

Which is why I always thought it was pretty ironic that I hit the Millionaires club, AKA the Legacy Club, before other more quote unquote, notable coaches in the network did.

And just another reason why the 1% truly is 1%. Like, I have a BBA in finance and I have an MBA in sports management. I truly believe that my education and background in business, plus my experience with recruiting. Remember, I recruited smarter, not harder. I didn’t want any old Tom, Dick and Harry on my downline.

And my team, I. I was very selective with whom I had. I just, you know, I can’t imagine, like, having like, that many people on my downline, you know, because at the end of the day, you’re not gonna be everyone’s cup of tea.

And I also knew that, and I wanted to be me. Like, when you signed up for my team, you knew who you were getting, you knew the environment you were going into.

And I believe all of that experience, you know, my education, my background in business, that’s what led me to be in that spot. Because I was never the Insta Famous Beachbody coach.

And to be part of the 1% and not the 99, you need to either have my skills, right? Like you need to have that tool in your tool belt, or you do need to be Insta Famous, because you either need to recruit very smartly like I did, or you need to be able to recruit in droves, in masses, and if you can, take one of those skills.

So for me, you know, I had the skill of recruiting smartly, and then I started to hone in on how to create my niche and to become a viral sensation. You know, like, my.

My viralness, I think, was stunted because what I chose to go viral with was not what Instagram or Metaverse wanted on their platforms, especially in like, 2020, 2021, um, or you’re on the flip side of it.

And you were one of those women who was Insta famous. You know, they began because they had the financial resources to do so as well. They would outsource whatever they needed the business skill set for.

They would outsource the marketing team to create the funnels for them, to create the graphics for them, et cetera, et cetera. Like, I did those things on my own.

And then eventually, once I hit a certain financial benchmark, then I did start outsourcing it. If you can have one of those two sides of the coin and then hone in on the other, you’re going to be in the top, top threshold.

Okay? Which I was. If you don’t have either of those two skill sets, Godspeed.

Like, I’d suggest another way to make income online because to be at the top in network marketing, you have to, you have to do one of those two things.

And if I’m being for real, for real, one is not easier than the other because it is very challenging to break through the Instagram algorithm, TikTok algorithm with whichever platform you choose to become that insta famous.

And quite frankly, you’re always replaceable. You get put on a pedestal, you say the wrong thing, people you know will immediately forget about you, move on, cancel you, whatever.

And then on the other side of it, like the experience level of mine and the business side of it, that takes a lot of time, right? Like, I had all of those years of it, of recruitment and things like that before I ever got involved with Beachbody.

So yes, I had several top leaders and at the height of my Beachbody career, they were all doing well and making a lot of income.

I was never in the test groups, which I 100% admit leaves me super bitter to this day, considering I actually was a product of the product. And I never flip flopped in weight like many of the other coaches did.

I never faked weight gain to get into a test group. Okay? There, there are even rumors that there are certain coaches in the network, like, purposely got pregnant to boost their business.

I mean, crazy stuff. I mean, the network marketing realm is just one I never want to go back to.

You know, I was never on those infamous Monday national wake up calls. I mean, you get the idea, right? Like all the things that you would associate with quote, unquote success I didn’t have.

My claim to fame was that I was the conspiracy theorist Beachbody coach on Reddit back in 2020. Okay. And I’ll gladly wear that badge of honor though, at the end of the day. Like, I know the lives that I’ve impacted, both customers and coaches on my team.

And I also know that like this roof over my head is, is because of the work I put in. I knew at the time, and, and now to this day that like my bills were being paid.

I wasn’t faking it, I wasn’t getting the car repossessed, I wasn’t having to sell my home because I was living beyond my means. To, to show, you know, a certain life on Instagram.

Like I didn’t have to have the fluff, if you will, because there were so many who did get the fluff, you know, but meanwhile they weren’t paying their bills. Like they’re.

Like I said, the cars were getting repoed. But I was also standing on the legacy stage before many of those Beachbody coaches that, you know, from social media ever did. Like I was, you know, under the radar, so to speak.

And yes, I had several top leaders and at the height of my Beachbody career, they were all doing well and making a lot of income. But life happens. People have life changing events that don’t allow them to focus on the business the same way they used to.

They move, a spouse loses their job, they get divorced, they become a new parent, the list goes on and on.

And because they quote, unquote, had to keep that account active with either sales from people or their own personal purchases, but perhaps couldn’t afford to do so either time wise because they weren’t showing up on social media or financially, they couldn’t afford to, you know, keep that account active with their own purchases, they would end up canceling their account.

And this also affects the upline, right? Because when you’re losing people in your downline and they’re canceling, you’re losing volume, you’re losing a rank. Right?

And many of us, myself included, have experienced this because MLMs are transactional business and when those things happen, it affects friendships.

I’m very grateful that most of the people in my downline, like they’re true friends and they’re people I still talk to to this day. I mean, it says a lot when I only had four bridesmaids and three out of the four were coaches in my downline.

And I still obviously talk to these women to this day. And the fourth one at one point was my VA for two years.

And she also temporarily like had an account, you know, fitness really isn’t her jam.

Okay, so furthermore though, like, let’s get back to this bill. The legislation creates a private right of action for participants who suffer damage from violations, enabling them to recover trouble, damages, court costs and attorney fees.

The bill explicitly excludes certain professional licensees like insurance and real estate agents from these regulations, focusing instead on protecting participants in multi level marketing programs from potential predatory practices.

Notice how they use the word predatory because that’s what the business is. You know, think about how even as someone involved with network marketing, what were you taught? You were always taught to be vulnerable. Hit them with the pain points. Right.

Predatory. And as of recording this podcast, okay. Which as you can probably hear my children running around the background. So I apologize about that.

But you know, that is my work life balance. And I want to get this information out to you as best as I can. My poor podcast team, the amount of pauses and edits they have to do sometimes. But this is real life.

I am raw and I’m real. And I. Keep it 100 with you.

So this bill has passed the House and it’s going to be heard in the Senate committee this week. So when this podcast debuts this week, that’s when it’s going to be heard in the Senate committee.

I will have an update for you following what happens and what transpires. And the goal of this bill is to keep MLMs accountable. Okay? That’s really the whole point.

I know that if it does pass, which I have a very strong feeling it will, then it’s going to have a domino effect to other states. And that’s why the DSA, which is the Direct Selling association, is having a complete and utter meltdown right now.

They’re encouraging Delaware distributors. So anyone who lives in Delaware and is part of a network marketing company to, quote, unquote, help the fight.

And saying things like, quote, Delaware’s direct sellers, they need to stand up and speak out. You know what I can promise you? The ones who are fighting against this the hardest, those are the people who have the most to lose. Those are the ones who are at the tippy, tippy top of the pyramid food chain. Okay?

I would bet the farm on it. And they are gaslighting distributors with saying things like, quote, this legislation directly impacts your freedom to earn, your right to choose, and your ability to build flexible, independent businesses.

Oh, my gosh. Gag me. Like, they’re just out there, like, oh, your voice is so powerful. And this is where the battle turns personal, they say, right? I can’t, I can’t, y’ all. Like, it is so cringe and gross. Like I said, I’ll be sure to keep you updated as this continues to unfold.

I’m sure it will. And as a reminder, okay, I encourage you to take advantage of my You Get Cash Workshop. Yes. This is a shameless plug. Okay? I need you to learn all about user generated content.

All of this is now housed on my website, where you have lifetime access and you can do it at your own pace. I am telling you, you will not regret it.

I did 11 years of network marketing and literally, this has been a game changer for me because I refuse to go back into network marketing no matter how many DMs you try to send me that your company’s different or oh, we’re not technically an MLM.

No, no, no, no. I’m out. UGC is where you can truly earn income upfront and have real residual income, unlike network marketing. Okay. Just this past week I shared about a cordless vacuum that I did a 30 second IG reel for that. The vacuum itself was a $500 value. Okay. For the vacuum.

Got it for free. I got paid $100 to make this 30 second reel and I’ve been monetizing it on Amazon and In the last eight months I’ve made an additional $400 off of that.

So one job, you know, I’m not DMing people to beg them to click my link. All right, I made one 30 second reel and that was the only thing that was posted on Instagram. Nothing on Amazon has had to go on my socials. Right?

And this vacuum is paying off nearly $1,000 in eight months time. The value of it, how much I’m making beyond the value of the vacuum. Okay? So please do yourself a favor, look into this.

I am telling you, it is the future of social selling. This is where it is going. Network marketing, that’s dinosaur. Thought process like that is. That’s out the door.