Welcome to Highbrow, I'm your host, Meena Lay, and this episode, it is an extension of a video that I made for YouTube on

MLMs, pyramid schemes, and all that jazz. Some extra bonus things that we're going to be

talking about in this episode are shaky claims from some questionable MLMs, diving into the role

of social media in building an MLM empire, testimonials from listeners,

and of course an interview at the end with someone who knows more about the subject than I do.

Let's define MLMs so that we're all on the same page.

Multi-level marketing is sometimes called network marketing and frequently abbreviated as MLM,

which is confusing because the first

time I learned what an MLM was. It stood for men loving men. But in the business world,

MLM refers to a multi-level marketing, which is a retail business model built on person-to-person

sales. Here's what happens. Individuals join the MLM under a title called

distributor, participant, or contractor, but no matter the title, the person's job is to be a salesperson,

so they're supposed to sell the products that the MLM is marketing. Unlike an employee selling goods at a

store, MLM distributors will sell their products independently.

Kind of like Girl Scouts selling cookies.

Just to be clear, I don't think Girl Scouts are MLM-adjacent unless they are aiming to be cookie

entrepreneurs and actively recruiting people to sell thin mints, which I don't think they're doing last time I checked.

I'm just saying it's like when every member is tasked to sell their own supply of goods

on their own time rather than through like operating a storefront.

Another difference from a traditional sales job is the risk involved.

MLM distributors often have to buy their own supply at a wholesale price from the company.

So they carry the financial risk of unsold goods.

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