Life After MLM

Ruth, one of our guests from Season 1, comes back to update us on her life and share her cringey MLM journal entries. As Ruth reads her inner most thoughts as a Hun deep in Pure Romance, we comment and reflect on what she was saying and what she really meant in those last years leading up to finally leaving. From deeply empathic thoughts and actions to saying the quiet parts out loud, Ruth's journ...

I am out of town, so here is a spooky Halloween bonus episode with some of the most heartbreaking MLM Horror Stories I found on Reddit, featuring some of our favorite MLMs to hate, Amway, Primerica, Mary Kay and LuLaRoe. If you'd like to dive deeper into these posts and read comments or updates, the source link is provided below, and let me know if you'd like more sourced stories as bonus episodes...

Sophia joined Amway as a vulnerable teenager who was just looking for adult mentorship and stability in her life. Through a series of tragic events, Sophia realized that life was far too short to be stuck in something so controlling and toxic, and despite the extreme guilt she felt to her upline, came to find out that she had one foot out the door already. But what happens when you know you have t...

Happy October!!! Friend of the pod, Elora Dodd found the book How to Make Big Money in Multi-Level Marketing at the thrift store and sent it to me to use in AntiMLM content. For the month of October it will serve as our own culty version of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and give us fodder for bonus episodes and extra content for True Crime month! Today I am reading some selected passages from...

Eva Collins learned the hard way that the coaching and course industry is a less than scrupulous playground full of grifters and decided she needed to do something about it. In our conversation we cover the similarities of our own experiences in schemes, share the red flags to look out for when deciding to hire outside help and wax poetic on why the trolls are so triggered. Show Notes Connect with...

Robyn has had ADHD her whole life, and she's been chasing that "Dopamine Dragon" for as long as she can remember. In the various ways she's learned to control it over the years, it wasn't without the familiar game of MLMs, jumping from company to company, hoping to hit it big. Through joining the old standards, new fads and even a ground floor opportunity, Robyn learned the hard way that the house...

*Content Warning* In this episode we talk about heavy topics including Domestic Violence, Narcissistic Abuse, Ableism and Medical Trauma. Please use discretion when listening. Katie was a young woman looking to take hold of her independence and make it on her own when she first met Christian on a dating app. His prolonged abuse helped lay the foundation for a lot of the relationships Katie found h...

In Part 2 of our story, Sarah and I discuss how the cult evolved after the bombs were successfully prayed away and the bunkers were abandoned in the early 90's. As the toxic diet culture craze came into fashion and being crunchy was the newest fad, Church United and Triumphant clung to their remaining members and adopted a macrobiotic diet. We talk about their obsession with the healing powers of...

Back in the 1980's Sarah was born into a Doomsday Cult who worshiped the "ascended Masters" built underground bunkers in the Montana wilderness to survive the nuclear holocaust of The Cold War. But that's not all... Their exalted leader who was affectionately known as "Mother", also had a hand in helping create the cult, Twin Flame University. In part 1 of our episode, we chat about the fear aroun...

Dana had no idea the day my face came across her FYP, that in 2 years time her life would be totally different. It started off innocently enough, as an email asking questions, followed by light conversation back and forth, until the last email I received that started with "I just wanted to reach out and say - I QUIT!". But Dana's journey out of MLM was littered with the adjacent scams that occupy...

It's about time we had another Herbalife episode, and this one might take the entire loaded tea/shake combo. Meet one of our Discord members Michael, and his mom Ginger who opened up their very own Herbalife Nutrition Shop without having to jump though any of the normal hoops. With shady business practices from their upline, and a less than honest attempt at a retail store, Ginger and Michael lear...

Hey! We're coming to you with a BONUS EPISODE that's a little different that usual, in fact this bonus episode is just an information filled conversation about an event coming up soon that could greatly benefit a lot of our listeners! The Untapped Event put on by the 12M+ Instant Teams Community is an unparalleled 3-day conference designed for the military spouse community. It includes a 2-day vir...

First, I cannot believe we're on the OTHER SIDE of 250 episodes, and secondly it couldn't be with a more fun guest! Meet Don Martin, fraud investigator by day and host of the podcast Head on Fire. When Don made a video on TikTok asking about the potential dangers of Bomb Party, I HAD to make a reply video, and what happened was our worlds colliding and creating two different podcast episodes about...

It's our 250th Episode!!! Michelle is back to help with another Scientology episode! This time with our friend Chris Shelton to talk about his 27 years inside the cult and what the punishments Sea Org members receive are actually like. In this 2 part episode Chris shares about his time growing up inside Scientology, working as a Staff Member at Org Bases like Big Blue in LA, joining the Sea Org, a...

Michelle is back to help with another Scientology episode! This time with our friend Chris Shelton to talk about his 27 years inside the cult and what the punishments Sea Org members receive are actually like. In this 2 part episode Chris shares about his time growing up inside Scientology, working as a Staff Member at Org Bases like Big Blue in LA, joining the Sea Org, and serving time in the Reh...

Have you ever seen someone on social media describing a weird encounter at a Walmart or a Mall where a random person comes up and starts strange conversations and complimenting them, and them wondering what just happened? I get tagged in almost ALL of them, and I always let the creator know that it's an MLM and to run. But it's not just ANY MLM, it's a very specific one we talk about A LOT (though...

Who doesn't love an Amway episode? I feel with each one we get 2 steps closer to figuring it all out, and still find a whole new set of questions to ask next time. In this chat we meet TJ Musumhi, a former member of the LOA LTD for 6 years. In his time with Amway and LTD, he faced faith manipulation and too many empty promises which lead him to discovering the truth of the Tools Scam. TJ dove into...

Irene is one of our Discord member who wanted to share her story of not only being rejected by the Kundalini Yoga Cult, but also growing up with an abusive mother obsessed with the attention associated with medical abuse. From her doctor shopping mother, to being misdiagnosed, Irene shares the story of her childhood and the neglect and chaos she was forced to accept as normal. We chat about our "n...

I met Lori in the most "Roberta" of all places, in the line for the Taco Buffet at a Podcast event and invited her to come sit at our table. Little did I know that that small act of kindness would end up becoming one of the most interesting conversations I had the entire weekend, and in that moment I knew I had to have Lori come share her story and hard won wisdom with us. As a woman pastor in the...

When I put out the call to action a few weeks back for more Cutco/Vector Marketing content, I was pleasantly surprised with the response! When we start digging into trying to figure out an MLM, it seems each chat clears up some things, but opens more questions about others and this conversation with "Stitch" was no different. We chat about how Cutco doesn't "seem" like an MLM (and how they like it...

Apostate Alex returns to update us on the happenings of Scientology in the UK, and Michelle is back too! According to Alex, he's been "a bad, bad, boy" and has a lot to report on the Anti-Scientology protests and the shady government involvement that's been keeping him busy the past 7 months. The jokes alone are worth the trouble. He also shares his thoughts on activating activists, one of Michell...

Mitch Brisker was a 23 year old heroin-addicted film school drop-out when he found Scientology in Downtown Hollywood. Through recovery, he went on to become a successful commercial director and caught the eye of Scientology’s notorious leader, David Miscavige. Mitch ultimately became the chief architect of Scientology’s global propaganda machine, creating the films Scientology still uses for recru...

In Part 2 with Shannon, we get deeper into the reasons why MLMs are prevalent in the lives of military spouses, both as representatives and customers. Shannon also shares with us, some of her side hustle journey to where she is today, and offers lots of job advice for those leaving MLM and transitioning into doing their own thing. From gig work and virtual assistants to starting your own business...

Shannon reached out to me because it's time for her to tell her story, and I was happy to oblige. She's a military spouse and mother and she had some things she needs to get off her chest when it comes to MLMs and the US Military. In Part 1 Shannon and I discuss the times she found herself in Mary Kay, and the gross recruitment tactics that were used on her as a vulnerable wife of a deployed servi...

Not everyone who joins an MLM has a horrible experience, some people join MLMs to have some fun, make some friends and get a decent discount on a product they can't seem to live without. With some questions and concerns about her current MLM, Cristie reached out to me to find answers. She loved the products, her upline was great, and she was seemingly successful, until tax time made her look much...