Hellobee Boards

Yep! Sadly, many of the new-mom meet-ups I attended when my son was really little was full of women selling various MLM products. Friendship without a side of forcing me to buy your product is preferable.

One of the worst experiences of my adult life was after I had recently moved to a new city and was expecting LO1. I met this girl and she was also expecting her first and we got on so well! Then a few weeks later she invites me over for a girls night and I was so excited and move all my plans around for.... A jewellery selling party. It was so awkward and awful and I felt like I had to buy something and the whole experience was terrible as it was pretty clear she just needed people to attend the "party" as opposed to any real connection.

Haha. Not bitter at all right?

@ScarletBegonia: this is really interesting. I have a cousin who has been extremely successful with one of those fitness/nutritional shake things. She's a "life coach" or some b.s. (My husband and I are a therapist and a doctor, who worked our asses off to get where we are so it really chaps my ass that she just hands out medical and therapeutic advice with zero training....but that's another story).
But the thing is, I think she really believes what she is schilling. Not just the weight loss part, but this idea about a "happy life," and thinks she is helping people. Which, begrudgingly, I guess I have to admit she may be in some way. I don't think she is sociopathic. She certainlyisn't the most critical thinker in the world. I guess maybe she is an exception.

@fuzzypeaches: I had a similar thing happen - although I found out before instead of after that it was a MLM party, so it wasn't as bad as yours. A FB friend messaged me and asked if I might be free in a few weekends because she was thinking of having a bunch of girlfriends over for a glass of wine, kid-free time, etc. I was all like sweet, maybe I can meet some new mom friends .....invite comes to a lularoe party yeah, no. That's not a girlfriends get-together if you're trying to sell something

Ugh, the worst.

Yup!!! Sooo much MLM these days. I mean, I want to support ladies and their entrepreneurial ventures but I just don't need more stuff!

@ScarletBegonia: that perspective is actually fascinating and makes total sense!

Ugh... I would be totally bummed too. It's so hard to make new friends

I feel like to be really persistent about pushing that stuff on your friends, you either have to be a sociopath like @ScarletBegonia: said, or you have to really believe you have a product that answers a major life problem (despite a potential absence of evidence!), hence the cult-like feeling that some MLMs have. I'm sure a lot of people end up losing money by joining because they feel awkward pushing stuff on people and don't buy into some of the more cult-like aspects. There was a really interesting TAL piece on network marketing: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/543/wake-up-now

YES. I'm in a new city and met a "friend" who was also from my old city here. She suggested coffee and when I got there it turned out to be a rodan and fields pitch. Horribly awkward. I've told approx 20 people I can't join them because I'm still making friends here and don't want to start a friendship with a sales pitch. And I'm busy because of the kids. "But don't you want to make money and get a free Lexus while staying at home!!!???" No. No I do not. Go away!

@charlotte: ugh the "make lots of money while getting to stay home" infuriates me. Because it turns in to the sales pitch "help this mama give my kids a great Christmas by buying the crap I'm selling". NO. It's not my responsibility to buy your MLM shit because you want to have money but not have a real job.

Awww, this is one of those things that makes me really infuriated at the whole process for MLMs. I mean, I don't really care what a person does to earn their livelihood, but what bothers me is that they target a person's vulnerability to get there.

When J turned 1 I was in pretty good shape and had all the Beachbody folks reach out to me. Friends I hadn't talked to since high school. I already work full time and feel like I don't have enough time in the day, I don't want to add anything else to it.

However I've met some great new friends at trunkshow parties, and it's never pushy-salesy. Just hanging out and oh yeah a rack of clothes/jewelry over there.

I have friends who are into MLMs. I unfollow their posts. They were either friends before MLM or I work with them in an outside setting. They just keep rotating from business to business. I actually own one thing from a few MLMs but I hate MLMs in general so I always buy conflicted. I can't help occasionally liking a product even though I have such a disdain for the business structure. Ugh. I feel like a friendsumer.

Thankfully I've never had this happen and don't have any friends that sell these types of products. Most of my friends WOH though.

@periwinklebee: listening to the TAL episode now, so fascinating. Don't people realize that get rich quick schemes never actually work!?

When I was new to my town I got coffee with someone who I ended up confided my fertility problems to. She responded by trying to sell me Juice Plus.

@YogiRunner: Yeah, it's pretty sad...ugh...and that's absolutely horrible about the new "friend"

I don't support MLMs because I don't like going to "parties" where I'm expected to buy things. Luckily I don't have friends that do this stuff.

Agghhh. i'm so sorry. That sucks. I will admit, I laughed when I read that, though. Because, naturally, right?

My favorite is when a neighbor, someone "friends" with your neighbors reaches out to you all buddy buddy, "Hey, how are you doing??" and then at the end, "Your daughter is 3...right? You should check out Usborne books..."

@catomd00: Oh wow, that's borderline abusive! I mean, what could they possibly want to do, convert your thinking?

@regberadaisy: I think it's because LLR's model is a bit different than other MLMs, given the uniqueness and almost intentional non-competition. LLR is the only company of this type I've bought stuff from because I like the product and it does feel less pushy, but a friend had to get me something first for me to even look at it, honestly. Like the others, I'm pretty much anti all things MLM. Whenever someone mentions something to me, I immediately Google it to see if it's an MLM company LOL