I will attempt to shed some light on the facts behind the article, and I hope that you find this an interesting read at the least. Before you continue; however, if you don't know why I am pro-capitalism, or why the U.S.A. was founded as a Free Enterprise Republic, then please watch this thirty minute video I found on the web. It does more than an excellent job of explaining why the U.S.A. is great and why Free Enterprise works. I also highly recommend anything by Bob McEwen.
Now let us take a look at the article:
Hope, for most of Woodward's audience, is a fruit juice gussied up in a wine bottle labeled MonaVie and sold for $39. Unload enough of this stuff on friends, recruit them to do the same, and you can be rich.
[Forbes.com]
Of course what they don't tell you is that the MonaVie blend is creating positive results for many people who drink it regularly, and there are years of scientific backing to show what antioxidants do for the human body to fight an abundance of free radicals. They also neglect to tell you that this juice you are "unload[ing] on friends" (in my case friends bug me to get it for them faster) has higher ORAC values and a more balanced blend than anything available in the traditional markets. I won't go into the benefits of the product too much as there are many other places it can be found on the web outside of www.MonaVie.com.
Woodward, by contrast, doesn't have to sell a drop of the concoction to make a killing.
[Forbes.com]
Is that not the point of a relational marketing business? To help those that choose to build a network large enough to have a Robert Kiyosaki defined "B Type" business where a system works for you rather than selling the product yourself? Oh, I get it, you were saying the fact that Orrin and Laurie Woodward (among hundreds of others) have residual income from their MonaVie business, and don't have to sell the juice themselves, shows that the business model works! Awesome!
(Not making income claim, please see the MonaVie Income Disclosure Statement.)
Team, rather, sells things that help people sell things like MonaVie. Team sells "tools"--$258 sets of motivational compact discs, $69 Team shirts and books like Woodward's Launching a Leadership Revolution, all of which filled the Nationwide Arena's hockey rink.
[Forbes.com]
I'm not going to get into a huge discussion about the necessity/value of tools when building a community; however, I found it neat that they simply mentioned the most expensive tool set that Team/Leadership Inc. has to offer (The $258 set of 50 CDs with the best of the best when it comes to leadership and instructional talks over the past 8 years.) and failed to mention the rest of the information. Even though I doubt one would be able to find a new 50CD set of music for as inexpensive as $258, I hardly see the value in comparison. These CDs (to me at least) have been a priceless commodity in building my community. I mean honestly, $5.00 for a CD or $25 a month for an ongoing training system is not an excessive cost. In fact, when we canceled our cable television (by choice) we saved over $70 per month. It becomes a matter of priorities, not a matter of cost, even when the cost is reasonable as it is with Team. On a side note the Launching a Leadership Revolution book is not meant to help sell MonaVie and is meant to help anyone in any industry better themselves and sharpen their leadership skill while all the time rating themselves on Character, Task and Relationships. Just read the comments and reviews of the book on Amazon.com. LLR has sold over 200,000 copies, when most books are luck to sell 30,000 copies in their first year. Lastly, I would strongly urge some of the upper management at Forbes Inc. to pick up the book and give it a shot. If you learn nothing from it then you either know everything, are not open to learning, or just don't understand the timeless principles contained within. But even if you give it a shot and don't implement it, what are you out? A few hours reading that has the possibility to open your eyes to where you may need work?
In the distributional art form known euphemistically as "multilevel marketing" and more crassly as a pyramid, a seller attempts to recruit other sellers, who recruit still others, and so on. Members get a percentage of revenues hauled in at some or all points below them in the pyramid, so those close to the top can do very well for themselves.
[Forbes.com]
Let's put things into perspective. Does not a brand new franchise owner of, lets say a restaurant, hire management who in turn hire employees. Now does not the employee get compensated for hours worked, the management individual get compensated for hours worked and bonused on employee/restaurant performance, and the franchise owner not compensate for hours worked; however, compensated by how well his/her management performs at motivating employees and how much the restaurant takes in? Oh wait, we forgot that the franchisee also makes money off of the franchise owner's restaurant which is one more reason for the franchisee to make sure the rest performs well. Each higher level in the pyramid known as... a typical fast food franchise dun dun duuunnnnn! has a vested interest in how their subordinates perform. In my humble opinion the difference is that in the restaurant example the manager generally does not want to help the employee move up and take his/her position, rather he/she wants to help the employee do the best he/she can in their own position without moving up. Relationship marketing is the only field I have seen where most (it may be idealistic to say all, but certainly Orrin and most others) truly want to see people they have registered not only succeed, but even surpass them in income. WAIT! Someone not at the top can earn more money than someone at the top!?!?!? Then how is it a pyramid if people at the top can earn less than people below them? It isn't, because in MonaVie and in Team individuals are compensated on their individual performance in addition to the performance of others in their community. Lastly, lets take a look at Forbes since it seems they would make a good example. Is not Steve Forbes worth over 400 million dollars? Of course he is! Are all 700 employees below Mr. Forbes worth 400 million? Of course they are not! We don't go around calling Forbes Inc a pyramid even though the top 1%(guess) of the company's employees make the most money.
Team is one step ahead of all these juice selling schemes. It is a pyramid atop a pyramid. It is selling motivational aids to help MonaVie vendors move the juice. But wait. If you can't earn back the $258 you've spent on the motivational lectures by selling $39 juice bottles, you could earn it back in another way--getting people to buy $258 motivational lectures.
[Forbes.com]
So let me get this straight, Orrin sharing the tools income with those that helped create the volume in a fair manner is somehow worse than keeping it to himself? I'm really confused at this theory, because as well know training materials can make or break an individual's success. I know from my experience with Quixtar that I made no money trying to do things my way. When I got onto a training system (which happened to be InterNET by Dexter Yager) and followed it closely I started to make small amounts of money. What I didn't know was that Mr. Yager and his family keep all the tool profit, and one of the recent statistics I saw showed them making $44 million a year in tools income which blew their Amway income of much less out of the water. When I started using Team training materials and following the Team system I saw a very small jump in income, but when my team started buying into the training system themselves as well, most of them saw jumps in income an I went from making just a little to making quite a bit more by my standards. (Like from $30/month to $100/month if memory servers correct. Remember this was Quixtar) So the fact that Orrin does not want to keep $44 million a year from tools income for himself and has opted to have team profit share with those who produce the volume seems to me that the system is not only better for generating loyalty (Isn't that what every business wants, consumer loyalty?) it is a more benevolent way of utilizing profits.
Everybody gets rich. Everybody, that is, except the last round of buyers. That's the theory, anyway. The reality is that a mere 1% of Team members make any money from involvement with the firm.
[Forbes.com]
First I would like to say there will never be a "last round of buyers." There are more people being born each day than dying, and not everyone will want what Team and MonaVie have to offer, but there will always be thousands who do.
Next I would like to say how much I absolutely hate the twist that the 1% statistic has. Lets look at this a few ways. First, I invite you to read Orrin's take on "1%" statistics from his blog. Now that you have read that, here is my take on the "1%" statistic. Not only is it true that just because the other 99% aren't making whatever amount doesn't mean they wont, but when they do it would stand to reason they would each have a group the similar size and so the statistic would remain the same. It is also true that 40% are making average weekly checks of $42 and 38% are making average weekly checks of $37 (IDS). I don't know about what kind of car you drive, but that fills my gas tank each week. (At least for now) I would also like to say that after 4 weeks as a MonaVie distributor, and starting from scratch with zero people in my downline teams, I achieved the rank of Star 500. Only 12% of the distributors in MonaVie in 2007 were Star 500 and average $83 per week. (IDS) Does that mean I am special? or better than the 78% of distributors that haven't made Star 500? Absolutely not! We set a goal, had an amazing training system of books, CDs and live meetings, and we went for it. Our next goal is to go Bronze which only 5% of distributors have achieved each week in 2007. (IDS) Guess what!? There is no way we are smarter or better than 34,000 other distributors, simply further along on our path.
Now lets look at some more sales data, when comparisons are applicable I will use Forbes again. The 2007 MonaVie Income Disclosure Statement shows that a total of 18 distributors averaged over $1 million, 65 distributors averaged over $450k and 143 distributors averaged over $100k and less than $200k. My question then would be to Forbes, or the writers of the article. How many Forbes employees made over $100k last year, how many made over $400k, how many made over $1 million? I honestly don't have this information. I do know however that after 90 years in business Forbes annual sales topped out at $78.8 million (est.) whereas MonaVie with just over 3 years of history is projected to top out over $1 BILLION in sales for 2008 had several hundred million (don't have exact number in front of me) in sales in 2007. Where does all that money go? Well MonaVie guarantees that it will pay 50% back to distributors in the field, that means that if they hit projections in 2008 of $1 Billion field distributors will earn a minimum of $500 million! And that does not count the salaries paid to the employees behind the scenes that help the company evolve and move forward. Another question for Forbes, how much of Forbes' sales are paid back to its employees? Did the 700 employees at Forbes earn a total of $39.4 million last year? I guess the point I am trying to get across is that the network marketing industry, and more specifically MonaVie is helping many people get out of debt, pay for gas, bring their spouses home from work, and is even helping a few (in its first 3 years as a company) become millionaires.
Team hauled in $42 million last year and boasts 60,000 mostly middle-class members. Last winter 15,000 of them braved an ice storm to assemble in St. Louis for speeches on "Overcoming Obstacles." About 90% of Team's sales tool revenues come from people who also sell MonaVie juice.
[Forbes.com]
So we are on our way to affecting one-million lives in a positive way! Wait, we have affected 6% of our first goal! That is much higher than that eirie "1%" success statistic!
But lets take an actual look at these numbers that "Team hauled in." The $42 million that Team brought in was not profit, it was revenue! Also, this means that the $42 million in tools produced a $200 million product business. This means with the > 30% profits Quix/Am makes, they earned > $60 million on a business (Team tools) that didn't even revenue that much. Team(Sell $42m tools) + IBOs(Utilize tools sell > $200m product) = Amway(profits > $60m on Team's sales of $42) This just shows that the real scam is how much Quixtar/Amway keep versus paying out. This was a 20% business producing 80% results and then the 80% business turns around and only pays back 20% of the money.
Woodward's Web site shows the 41-year-old on his 72-foot yacht and grinning with Pastor Robert Dickie Jr.
[Forbes.com]
It is stuff like this I don't understand. Why include it in the article at all? If people want to know what is on Orrin's website they can go to it. Is money evil now? Is owning a yacht a bad thing all of the sudden? This is what makes me wonder if the writers may be slightly anti-capitalism as they seem to portray this in a negative light. Well just so we are clear here, Forbes has a yacht too (actually its fifth):
(Source)
"What I try to give most of all is hope and encouragement," says Woodward. Hope is an expensive commodity.
[Forbes.com]
I want to take the liberty and pseudo-quote Orrin. Are you the type of parent who tells their children they can't amount to much, or that the chances are too small for them to achieve whatever dream they have, or are you the type of parent to encourage them and give them hope so they at least have a shot of overcoming the odds? What is wrong with helping people to believe in themselves? To borrow a page from George Lucas, "Luke: I don't believe it. | Yoda: That is why you fail." Belief may not be absolutely everything, but without it nothing will be accomplished.
Most Team members spend more buying its motivational aids and MonaVie's juice than they ever take in. [Name Removed], a Michigan alarm company employee, says his wife has rung up $20,000 in debt buying Team sales tools and Amway products and is now on to selling MonaVie juice. Their marriage has fallen apart as a result. "She still thinks Team is going to set her free one day," he says."
[Forbes.com]
Now this is not meant as a personal attack on anyone in anyway; however, I find it odd that someone would spend their time giving comments to writers about how debt and Team may have played a factor in their marriage falling apart behind their wife's back RATHER THAN taking responsibility and working out marital differences with their spouse in the privacy of the home or with a trusted counselor. I'm not saying what or who is at fault for a marriage falling apart, but I know that talking about it on open public forum certainly wont help the situation. What is more, Team training materials has helped put more marriages together than I care to count so I'll use a personal example. I'll keep it brief. My partner and I were fighting constantly, we love each other but we were unable to stay happy for more that a half hour it seemed. A monthly book came through our system entitled the "Five Love Languages" by Gary Chapman. She talked me into reading it with her and our perspectives were changed greatly. Since then we fight much less often (from like every 30 mins to maybe once a month if that) and have a new outlook on our relationship. We have since been engaged and will be married before year end. We also are continuing to purchase materials from Team to specifically improve our relationship, soon to be marriage. Every one has helped in some way or another and some of those materials include: "Love & Respect (book)," "Becoming the Woman of his Dreams (booK)," "The Power of a Praying Husband (book)," "Wild at Heart (book)," "What the Bible Teaches about Marriage (book)," "Building Your Mate's Self Esteem (book)," "Dreams of a Woman (book)," "Personality Plus (book)," "Relationship CD Pack (CDs)," "Love, Respect and the M1 Tank (CD)" and many more all of which were well worth the $10-$25 investment!
On a side note if someone went $20k in debt to build a non-traditional business then possibly they needed to consult a mentor about their financial situations before doing so. Twenty-thousand is not a lot of debt in terms of starting a traditional brick and mortar business, but it is a large chunk of change and perhaps that could have been avoided.
As far as her still believing Team will set her free someday, that is a good start, but of course it will take a lot of hard work. Not only that I am sure that having a husband who mocks her and demeans something she believes in rather than being supportive is not helpful in building her business nor her self esteem.
Woodward studied engineering at General Motors (nyse: GM - news - people ) Institute (now Kettering University) and later designed fuel pumps for the automaker. Frustrated with gm, in 1993 he began selling products on the side for Amway, the granddaddy of multilevel marketers (2007 revenues: $7 billion). Five years later Woodward quit gm to become a full-time distributor for Amway (now known as Quixtar in North America).
[Forbes.com]
Don't forget to mention the Nationally Recognized Benchmarking award and four patents in production that came out of it he earned at age 26. How many 26 year olds do you know with benchmarking awards and patents in production? Where were you at in life at age 26? I know I wasn't that gifted. With talents like Orrin's he could have made it big in any field or company, he chose to stay in Relationship Marketing so that he could help others do the same with their own unique talents.
Woodward quickly realized how important sales tools are to multilevel marketers. Tools encourage recruits to reject doubters and, if money fails to materialize, to blame themselves and keep trying. Tools can themselves be a gold mine. That was a lesson Woodward learned from Dexter Yager, a former beer salesman and Amway distributor who set up a highly successful sales tools business."
[Forbes.com]
As I have already said, I don't know anyone who can be successful without sales aids and training materials. There is no way with out them that one person could train thousands of people. The difference here is still that Orrin decided to share the profits fairly to those that built the volume rather than keeping them like the other 99% of network marketing gurus.
His Amway divorce left Woodward with motivational tools but no product to motivate people to sell. Members defected. Sales plummeted. Woodward tried selling his tools to customers like Kettering University, a Michigan pizza franchise and a Phoenix car dealership.
[Forbes.com]
I don't know where all Emily and Klause got their information; I'm sure the correct source, Orrin, was interviewed, but they certainly didn’t care much what he had to say, but rather printed what they want to believe or what perhapse they were coaxed into printing by a certain IBOAI member who had a contact. But I know for a fact that entire banking branches in Texas had enrolled to use Team's training system for all of their management. I also know of several other small businesses in Illinois and Wisconsin who use the Team Leadership Development system to train their employees, and have expressed that they are quite happy with it.
Last spring he contacted Dallin Larsen, MonaVie's founder. Larsen formerly headed sales at Usana Health Sciences, an Amway rival. He founded MonaVie in 2005. The men met at Larsen's 8,900-square-foot home in Largo, Fla. and struck up an alliance.
[Forbes.com]
Again it seems like the size of Dallin's house is mentioned to imply that he is in some way greedy without mentioning the M.O.R.E projects that Dallin and his wife take the lead in. Also I would like to mention that Forbes has one of these:
Chateau de Balleroy
"I don't want to build a business on hype," Woodward says. Hype apparently doesn't include Woodward's blog's claim that the juice has "incredible" word-of-mouth marketing potential. No question, it's a great deal--for Woodward. He figures he'll pocket $6 million this year off MonaVie and Team.
[Forbes.com]
I think this may confuse the readers as to the definition of hype. Hype is generally something that people believe that can't or won't turn out to be true. I would say that Orrin's "blog's claim that the juice has 'incredible' word-of-mouth marketing potential" has already been proven 817 times by the end of 2007, (people making near 30k per year or more), and not only that those statistics were produced BEFORE Orrin joined MonaVie with the aggressive goal of producing 25 new Black Diamonds this year!
As far as Orrin making "6 million this year from MonaVie and Team," they seem to have implied that Team is Orrin's main business rather than MonaVie. Or at least some people such as Chuck Lia on his "Speaking of Amway" blog seem to think that it is all Team income. Just to set the record straight, based on Orrins current ranking in MonaVie he will make over 4 Million from MonaVie which implies that he will make near 2 million or less from Team to total the near 6 million figure. On top of that his legal fees, because Amway has to act like tyrants and just not let him go peacefully, are near 2 million! So the 2 million Orrin would have made from Team this year will go straight to his legal fees! Not to mention, that Orrin and Laurie in their best year in Quixtar/Amway made no more than $750 thousand, compared to over $4 million this year in MonaVie with a smaller organization! This just shows that Quixtar refused to lower prices and refused to put more money into the pay plan simply because of the Jay Factor.
In summation I believe the article had one line that stood out above all others and rang the truest, that line was:
Orrin Woodward's organization is one step ahead of them all.
[Forbes.com]
And the truth, shall set you free!
Well, now that between all my blabbing and all the links and references you have a small book to read I will leave you with this: Sometimes we decide our own truths. But that doesn't make them true. The old adage, "If I tell you the truth and you don't believe it, what does that make it? [...] No that doesn't make it a lie, it makes it the truth you don't believe."
