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Fascinating! All about mlm culture.

I don‘t know that there‘s much in the way of uncharted material as far as the subject matter (MLMs are bad, yes, even if you are making money) but the author took ownership for her own BS & related the insidiousness of MLM cults very thoroughly.

Wow wow wow. None of it surprised me but I was still so captivated the whole time I was reading. I've ordered and joined several MLMs in my adulthood and had the ick feeling of asking people to join me. While I still shop my favorite monthly, it's been years since I felt the push to promote up the various pyramids. I started recommending this book to others before I even finished it.

I wanted more MLM scandal and real info than I got from this. What we actually get here is more of a chatty, autobiographical story about the author‘s experience in a MLM. It‘s a bit unstructured, not critically reflective enough, and didn‘t dish enough real dirt to really engage me. An okay read if you know what you‘re going in for I imagine.

Finally finished this one and I found it very interesting!
Since I did read some during part of December, some of the hours count for readathons!

#20in4 (12/1) - 30 min - 5pts
#LittenListen - 2.5hrs - 25pts
#Rushathon - 2.5hrs - 25pts
#Adventathon - 2.5hrs - 25pts
Word Search - 261 words - 2,610 words
Participation - 1pt

#wintergames #restinggrinchface

Multilevel marketing (MLM) at its most cringey! This addictive audiobook is on hoopla and I finished it in a day. I found the author to be rather phony and problematic. She even pitches her next business venture (Sober Moms or something)in this book! Though to her credit, Paulson was making thousands monthly riding the wave of her “downline” who did all the work and walked away from the beauty products company. Still enjoyed the read!

The author's story of her experience being very successful in an MLM is interesting and it's important for stories like this to be heard in order to expose the toxic, predatory nature of MLMs. I stopped listening close to the end because I wasn't interested in a rehash of the pandemic and politics. I was also disappointed that even after she saw the MLM for what it is, she continued to collect a HUGE paycheck off the backs of her downline.

If you enjoyed Cultish and/or Hey, Hun, the Dream just dropped the beginning of Season 3 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dream/id1435743296?i=1000627640276

#BookBinge #RushAThon

Using this book for today‘s #Disaster prompt because the author‘s life was more than a bit of one, not to mention the many lives ruined by MLM schemes. I‘m oddly fascinated by MLM & enjoyed this book about the author‘s experience at the top of the pyramid. I‘m sure there are better books that link MLM to white supremacy, exploitation, etc., but this book has a lot of personal & very juicy details mixed in so I found it ⬇️

Reading for #Rushathon & #20in4 #readathon

Took today off for a much needed haircut & highlights & treated myself to lunch at the coffeeshop/cafe at Neiman Marcus. Seems like a #bossbabe sort of lunch 😉that fits my current read on a woman‘s experience as a top earner in MLM company. The book also led to an interesting discussion about MLMs & cults with my stylist whose sister has apparently tried many of them. Off to run the rest of my errands…

I appreciate the racism & economic privilege that‘s called out, but I can‘t shake the feeling that this examination is surface level. There‘s no accountability beyond the author. Good as a memoir but light as a study.

My loathing of MLMs already runs deep and man, this just fuelled that fire. It‘s definitely more about spilling the tea than thoughtful analysis, which is what I was in it for, so I loved it.

Oh wow!!!!

“It‘s hard to walk away from a paycheck when you know it‘s hurting people.” Yet, Paulson talks about her period of backing away & collecting a check without fully acknowledging the cost to those at the bottom. Ultimately, this felt like it scraped the surface of both personal experience and larger cultural critique/ exploration of MLMs while still being a valuable primer to those new to the convos. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5588517754

This very detailed account of the author's privilege-fueled rise within an MLM was kind of a rough listen for me! I did appreciate her candor, and I liked the connections to larger social and systemic issues. (Discussion of MLMs during the pandemic was crazy and really interesting.) I would have preferred much more of the commentary/analysis and less of the memoir/plentiful workplace drama & dish that didn‘t work for me on a number of levels.

4/5

Paulson recounts her experience as in an MLM. She talks about how she and other woman in vulnerable places in their lives were preyed on, the drinking culture within the MLM world, and the privilege that allowed her to become one of the rare success stories within the MLM for a time. I thought she brought an interesting perspective to understanding MLMs and how people not only get pulled in but feel like they have to stay in.