LuLaRich - General Discussion

[BitterApple]

51 minutes ago, Almost 3000 said:

OK, you may think I'm part of the problem but I fell into the LLRoe hole while watching this documentary. 

 I have some as well. My husband bought me a few pairs from a business associate's wife. This was before the quality went to shit, and the patterns were pretty tame. I have to admit, they were super soft and comfy, and perfect for knocking around the house. However, it's not something I'd buy repeatedly or want a lot of, so I can see how consultants maxed out their customer bases pretty quickly. You can only hit up family and friends so much before they block you on social media. 

Goshengirl1, I was surprised by the company's obsession with weight as well, especially given that the average American woman isn't rail thin. It almost felt like it was just another one of Deanna's controlling Mean Girl tactics, i.e., if you wanted to stay in her clique, you had to do what she said. She certainly wasn't a skinny Minnie in that interview, so apparently she doesn't stick to her own script. 

[DanielleBowden]

53 minutes ago, Almost 3000 said:

They are buttery soft, fit well and have a fun, goofy horror themed print.

I just dug into my closet for my never worn LLR skirt.  First thing I noticed that it is not buttery soft at all.  Its not really soft at all.  The pattern at the seams is off, but I've seen that same problem in a lot of clothing lines. There are no holes or tears but it is really thin.  I could see sunlight through it when I held it up to the window.  I would have needed some kind of slip. I  must have bough at the beginning of the quality change.

Quote

2 hours ago, BitterApple said:

All of a sudden they were pushing not being a complainer or a drama queen

 

I forgot about this part.  It wasn't a late shipment or a handful of poor quality items.  It was thousands of dollars of completely unsellable merchandise, wet, moldy, stinky, faded, ripped.  I'd be furious if I forked over five grand and was awarded with a box of moldy rags and no immediate way to recoup my investment.  I wish they would have dove deeper on the quality change and the breakdown of the two companies.  The amount LLR owed to that company (blanking on the name) was ridiculous.  Did they say how/if that was resolved?  I wonder about the manufacturing process in general actually?  What did it cost to make a pair of leggings? What was wholesale?  Where were they made?  

[Jeeves]

56 minutes ago, BitterApple said:

Goshengirl1, I was surprised by the company's obsession with weight as well, especially given that the average American woman isn't rail thin. It almost felt like it was just another one of Deanna's controlling Mean Girl tactics, i.e., if you wanted to stay in her clique, you had to do what she said. She certainly wasn't a skinny Minnie in that interview, so apparently she doesn't stick to her own script. 

I browsed through the public LLR-related Facebook page of Roberta Blevins the other day. She's the one in the series who realized it was a cult, expressed shame for how many people she'd brought into it, and has helped many people get out. As you'd expect, the people who comment on the posts tend to have been in LLR at some point. One of the comments said that a few years ago DeAnne was pretty thin and was very hyper.  If you watch this series with an eagle eye, you can see some clips of DeAnne appearing at past events, etc., where she looks definitely more slender than she appears in the interview for this series or her deposition footage. I think she got that WLS in Mexico, dropped a lot of weight, and gained it back over time. 

[chocolatine]

54 minutes ago, Jeeves said:

I browsed through the public LLR-related Facebook page of Roberta Blevins the other day. She's the one in the series who realized it was a cult, expressed shame for how many people she'd brought into it, and has helped many people get out. As you'd expect, the people who comment on the posts tend to have been in LLR at some point. One of the comments said that a few years ago DeAnne was pretty thin and was very hyper.  If you watch this series with an eagle eye, you can see some clips of DeAnne appearing at past events, etc., where she looks definitely more slender than she appears in the interview for this series or her deposition footage. I think she got that WLS in Mexico, dropped a lot of weight, and gained it back over time. 

"Thin and hyper" could also mean she was doing drugs. Because I don't think WLS alone makes a person hyper. 

[Melina22]

9 minutes ago, chocolatine said:

Thin and hyper" could also mean she was doing drugs. Because I don't think WLS alone makes a person hyper. 

To be fair I got the impression from her description of her earlier life that she's always been an extremely energetic overachiever. Just the fact that she had 4 or 5 babies plus adopted 2 plus was still looking for ways to make money astonished me. I swear that after my 4th baby, despite not working outside the home, I was exhausted for 3 years. She's always been a human Energizer Bunny from what I've seen. 

 

[Klaw]

20 hours ago, Goshengir1 said:

And speaking of the husband, didn't he say he knew from childhood having a job wasn't for him? He's too good to slave away at a regular 9 to 5 job, but can marry an entrepreneurial woman and ride on her coattails I guess. 

Good point @Goshengir1 what a scum bag... he's all about being the "man" of the family but not enough to work like one, loser. We never really heard much about what he actually did at LulaRoe other than pontificate and liken himself to John Smith, right?

Interesting discussion @CSunshine76 regarding the vileness of those 2 and the  gullibility of the women themselves. Watching the documentary, there were times that the former consultants would talk about their experiences and I was like, WTH? And you didn't leave then??? 

On 9/21/2021 at 4:53 AM, CSunshine76 said:

’m not going to deny that Deanna and Mark are disgusting human beings, with seemingly no feelings or remorse.  But, I  will never in my life understand people that allow themselves to get sucked into these schemes.  

But then I also can see how, as @Jeeves pointed out, it IS like boiling a live frog and I can see how people would be sucked into it... seeing all this happiness, money, sisterhood and rah rah rah if you're feeling exhausted and beaten down by life ... yea I can see how someone would get sucked in. That's what makes it so insidious and evil because people like the Stidhams are predators and they prey on people's vulnerabilities, insecurities  & stressors (financial, physical, emotional) and make money off of it. Disgusting human beings, as all cult leaders are...

23 hours ago, Jeeves said:

About the people who got sucked into this MLM. IMO it's usually by a process like the old analogy of "how do you boil a live frog?" You don't throw him into a pot of boiling water. You set him down in a pot of water at a comfortable temp and then start slowing raising it.

 

[MicheleinPhilly]

22 hours ago, Goshengir1 said:

And speaking of the husband, didn't he say he knew from childhood having a job wasn't for him? He's too good to slave away at a regular 9 to 5 job, but can marry an entrepreneurial woman and ride on her coattails I guess. 

That whole anecdote about his father immediately set off my BS detector. He claimed that his father wasn't going to spend his life bringing in $412 a week? I don't know how old Mark is but say that conversation happened in 1965-ish. The equivalent in today's dollars is almost $3,500 a week. $412 a week is basically what a family of 4 has to make nowadays to be considered at the poverty line in the United States. It most certainly was not when Mark was a child. 🙄

[BitterApple]

3 hours ago, Klaw said:

t @Goshengir1

But then I also can see how, as @Jeeves I can see how people would be sucked into it... seeing all this happiness, money, sisterhood and rah rah rah if you're feeling exhausted and beaten down by life ...

 

I definitely got that vibe with Stella (the brunette woman in the all-black suit). She struck me as the type who was shy and awkward in high school and had trouble fitting in. She seemed genuinely crushed that the Girl Boss clique turned out to be smoke and mirrors, and she was just being used. 

That's why I couldn't bring myself to like Courtney, Ashleigh and that other blonde woman. Their complaints were largely about slashed bonus checks, repo'd cars and unsold inventory. They made bank off of other women going into debt and they didn't seem to care. At least Roberta had the decency to take accountability for her part.

[Sugarbeetle]

So I just finished this trainwreck. I have many thoughts. 

1. I was flipping out when Mark was poo pooing actual supply chain and CRM software and trying to do things like maintain inventory and A/R and A/P on the free version of Google Sheets. Then they brought in their children to manage an exponentially expanding business? No wonder they had supplies sitting outside in boxes. There was no way to them to calculate and project their inventory needs! 
2. How do you get a bonus check for $300,000 ($150K if you plan for taxes) and save some of it??? That just blows my mind. Even Louis Vuitton doesn't cost that much - at least the showy stuff these women purchase. 
3. The part where Mark thought he was the second coming of John Smith was priceless. 
4. The part where Mark spoke for DeAnne about feminism. 
5. Agreed the documentary didn't touch on the 99 percent of people not making money. I highly recommend the podcast The Dream which covers the other 99 percent. It's not an ongoing one. It tells the story and it's finished.  https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-dream
6. The lack of constructive business advice other than "work hard" was mindboggling. Stop spending money on conventions and bring in actual people that can help these women build their businesses and protect themselves!
7. 100 new patterns a day? Holy shit! 
8. I don't blame Kelly Clarkson. A lot of celebrities do conventions. It's not like the seedy underbelly of LuLaRoe was out for everyone to see and it's not like Kelly is going to know the inner turmoil. She probably got the PR speech on them "empowering women" and that's about it. I'm sure they threw her in some right before she went on stage. 

[sainte-chapelle]

On 9/15/2021 at 12:30 PM, Pj3422 said:

Watching it now… I so want to have a pitcher of margaritas with the print designer. 

She bugged me a bit. Her whole “I create art for a living” No you stole designs and changed them 20%. Not my definition of art.

I loved Star Trek email dude and his vision of having drinks while the offices are raided. Gold.

Edited September 22, 2021 by sainte-chapelle

[Melina22]

1 hour ago, Sugarbeetle said:

100 new patterns a day? Holy shit! 

So with all their millions, they couldn't afford to bring in two or three more designers? The designer admitted she was reduced to creating garbage because it's literally impossible for one person to create 100 or even 50 great new designs A DAY! 

[sainte-chapelle]

1 hour ago, Melina22 said:

So with all their millions, they couldn't afford to bring in two or three more designers? The designer admitted she was reduced to creating garbage because it's literally impossible for one person to create 100 or even 50 great new designs A DAY! 

They did have a team of designers ( I think she mentioned not all of them followed the 20% rule) but the workload was insane.

On 9/21/2021 at 2:16 PM, BitterApple said:

 

Goshengirl1, I was surprised by the company's obsession with weight as well, especially given that the average American woman isn't rail thin. It almost felt like it was just another one of Deanna's controlling Mean Girl tactics, i.e., if you wanted to stay in her clique, you had to do what she said. She certainly wasn't a skinny Minnie in that interview, so apparently she doesn't stick to her own script. 

I hope that nasty hose beast gains it all back and then some. Isn’t Lularoe’s target market mainly fuller figured middle aged women? They aren’t Chanel.

[Kiss my mutt]

That was so awful that that one lady who had PPD ended up with $70,000 worth of inventory because she didn’t feel up to sending it back. I was like, can’t the husband do it? I’m not sure how you come back financially from that. 
 

I was surprised by the weight loss surgery angle since I thought it was targeted towards plus size women. 

[chocolatine]

46 minutes ago, sainte-chapelle said:

Isn’t Lularoe’s target market mainly fuller figured middle aged women? They aren’t Chanel.

I thought the same thing. The convention scenes showed a lot of overweight women, and most of the women who were interviewed were also on the plump side. Nobody was model-thin. That's why I was confused by the story about Deanne pressuring the women to have WLS in Mexico. (I'm not saying it's not true, but it makes no sense.)

[Johnny Dollar]

Is it really that difficult to believe that people fall so easily for this scam when you see how many people believe that the election was “stolen” or get their information about the COVID vaccine for their cousin‘s friend’s husband’s enlarged testicles?

[Jeeves]

2 hours ago, chocolatine said:

I thought the same thing. The convention scenes showed a lot of overweight women, and most of the women who were interviewed were also on the plump side. Nobody was model-thin. That's why I was confused by the story about Deanne pressuring the women to have WLS in Mexico. (I'm not saying it's not true, but it makes no sense.)

If you keep your eyes peeled during those scenes from old LLR conferences and events, you'll see  DeAnne looking much slimmer a few years ago than she does now. I mentioned above that I browsed through the public Facebook page of Roberta Blevins, the one in the show who got out, expressed regret over all the people she brought into LLR, and has helped many many people get out of LLR. Some of the comments talk about how DeAnne used to be much thinner. I think she had the weight loss surgery from her doctor in Mexico, and as we saw in the show, pressured her LLR distributors (or whatever their titles were) to get it too. I think she lost a lot of weight after the WLS and has eventually gained it back. I would hope she's no longer pushing WLS since she's hardly a walking endorsement for it. 

[greekmom]

On 9/17/2021 at 5:11 AM, Armchair Critic said:

Just started watching...I live close to Amway headquarters, I love to see anything that exposes the MLM shenanigans. 

I always figured Mario Lopez was cheezy and insincere from watching him interview people, but being involved with this and "under their budget" really proves it.

DeAnne doesn't know the address of her own business?!

I was shocked Katey Perry was invited to a Mormon business convention and that she accepted.

14 hours ago, sainte-chapelle said:

She bugged me a bit. Her whole “I create art for a living” No you stole designs and changed them 20%. Not my definition of art.

I loved Star Trek email dude and his vision of having drinks while the offices are raided. Gold.

Trekkie here too @sainte-chapelle.  I wonder if we might have bumped into eachother at Fan Expo?!?  But yeah the designer didn't get any of my sympathy but put me down for drinks while that office is being raided. LLR deserves it.

[MicheleinPhilly]

Finally watched the final episode last night.

A $4.5 million settlement seems pretty paltry when you consider how much money they were raking in. I can only guess that their attorneys watched the playbacks of the depositions and told them that a jury would crucify and bankrupt them. Here's hoping the plaintiffs in other suits use this entire documentary as an exhibit in their lawsuits. 

Did their son Justin join a boy band before his depo? 

Derryl's remarks re: Kelly Clarkson literally made me laugh out loud. I doubt Kelly or her team knew anything about LuLaRoe other than that they sell hideous clothing. And Sam mentioned earlier that they paid Katy Perry something like $5 million to perform at an earlier convention. Celebrities get paid huge sums all of the time to perform at corporate events. It doesn't mean they endorse all of their business practices. Assuming they're even aware of them. Dude, enjoy your Jason Aldean duet - you'll feel much better. 

Mark and Deanne are the perfect representation of the old adage "Money can't buy you class."  

[Quickbeam]

I watched all the episodes….my one take away was how hideously ugly the merchandise is. I didn’t see a single Lularoe item I would wear even if it was free. I wondered in my head if this was a Pacific coast thing….warm weather living, loud garish prints. 
 

I had a friend who did make a living selling Mary Kay. She hustled and it well supplemented her retirement income. I have no sales gift …. I guess MLM can work, but it is not by saddling sad women with a garage filled with “product”. 

Edited September 23, 2021 by Quickbeam

[Melina22]

34 minutes ago, Quickbeam said:

I had a friend who did make a living selling Mary Kay. She hustled and it well supplemented her retirement income

Years ago, a lady in our neighbourhood did really well selling Avon cosmetics (do you have Avon in the US?). She's the only woman I ever knew who did, but "hustle" is the perfect word for what she did. (In the sense of work hard, not in the scamming sense.) She went door-to-door on a regular basis, showing the latest products. Every time I decided I wouldn't buy anything, and every time she convinced me to buy something. I was never mad though because I never felt pressured and always liked what I bought. Wow, she was such a great salesperson. One in a thousand really. I haven't met anyone like her since. 

[MicheleinPhilly]

32 minutes ago, Quickbeam said:

I watched all the episodes….my one take away was how hideously ugly the merchandise it. I didn’t see a single Lularoe item I would wear even if it was free. I wondered in my head if this was a Pacific coast thing….warm weather living, loud garish prints. 

I always assumed it was just hideous leggings until I once stumbled across a retailer's social media account and saw her "styling" outfits. I'm certainly no fashion plate but these were just so horrendous my only thought was "why?" 

I feel fortunate that no one in my circle became involved in this because I wear my heart and my thoughts on my face. 🤨

[merylinkid]

The hysteria surrounding it just amazed me.   I mean a retailer would annouce they were going live and sell out in minutes.   for HIDEOUS crap.   

The whole do this so you can be with your family more.   Then Rebecca Blevins hears on a camping trip WITH HER family that she is being onboarded and she BAILS out there to go start her business.   Like wow.   Then when they said "oh hire people to do the things that don't make you money like cleaning your house and caring for your kids so you can concentrate on making money."   Like WHAAAAATTT?    The whole point was to have this side business so you could still be a SAHM.   Not be a Boss Babe who never saw her family.   Can I just say I hate the term Boss Babe.   it is so demeaning.   

Look, if you have to sell your breastmilk or go even deeper into credit card debt to buy in, this is probably not something you should be doing.   Then having to buy a certain amount each month to stay active is another bad sign.    Where did all the "mentors" think the money was coming from in their bonus checks?   I mean seriously.   It was from people who were buying product, even if they weren't selling it.   They knew that because they had to keep buying stuff.   And CLEARLY the stuff wasn't selling because the bonus checks went down when they switched to actual sales instead of purchases.   

I get why this type of thing appeals to a certain demographic (very very very white demographic).   The people who start the scam are scum.   But yeah, think a little folks.  There are HUGE red flags that you ignored because all you saw were the dollar signs.  

[DaWezl]

I think the difference between LLR and other big MLMs (think MK, Pampered Chef, Tastefully Simple, Lia Sophia, etc) is that FB really took off as a marketplace at the same time they were taking off as a company.  It escalated the expansion way beyond what they were able to handle and their greed wouldn’t let them say no or pull back at all.  With in person shows, you could easily see the work involved watching the consultants set up and run their parties, and it was clear that only 1-2 people could host follow up parties before everyone in a circle of friends had bought what they wanted and it became unproductive.  On FB, there wasn’t any sense of how much work it must have been for the retailers so it made it a more attractive prospect.  Besides, there was so much deception, they couldn’t even begin to touch upon these cultural factors that really contributed to the situation!

[merylinkid]

Oh yeah, the lady who isn't involved but just "looks up LulaRoe in her spare time."   She was weird.   I don't think she added anything to the documentary.    Her time could have been spent on someone who lost money and never saw those huge checks.

 

Also the artist lady bugged.   No changing something 20% does not make it okay or avoid copyright infringement.    It's still derivative.  

 

But again, they are ALL scams.   If you are required to buy a certain amount every month, regardless of sales 1) its a scam, and 2) you do not own your own business because someone else is picking your inventory and determining how much of it you have.   

[AZChristian]

I got the feeling that the WLS in Mexico was another of DeAnne's money-making projects.  She got hers, then started having her sister drive women to Mexico for the surgery.

Minimum wages to sister/chauffeur.

Kickback FROM doctor in Mexico.

Profit to DeAnne.

[Quickbeam]

1 hour ago, merylinkid said:

Oh yeah, the lady who isn't involved but just "looks up LulaRoe in her spare time."   She was weird.   I don't think she added anything to the documentary.    Her time could have been spent on someone who lost money and never saw those huge checks.

Yes! I kept waiting to find out what her connection was to the company. I guess it was just a hobby? But it seemed oddly intense for her. 

[ravencroft]

I recognized a few of the ladies from a Vice documentary on LuLaRoe, so their stories were familiar. It was called Why Women are Quitting their side hustle." So I had an idea of what would be featured. 

I ended up binging this all the way through and all I can say is, I really wanted a brick to throw at my tv everytime Mark spoke. He's the definition of smarmy to me

[Lsk02]

4 hours ago, Quickbeam said:

Yes! I kept waiting to find out what her connection was to the company. I guess it was just a hobby? But it seemed oddly intense for her. 

I don’t want to veer too far off topic, but Roberta had her on her podcast and the show really left out her connection to the whole thing. She was a huge part in exposing LLR’s shady practices from early on. She’s a journalist, so was able to access information about lawsuits and research deeper than most others. I didn’t care for her in the documentary either, but have a lot more respect for what she’s done after listening to the podcast. 

[fountain]

I found the show interesting. It would have been nice to see a bit more about how it all went from Maxi skirts out if the truck to what it became as it was a bit “sold maxi shirts out of my trunk yada yada a team of thousands women”. 

I recognize that they must have always wanted it to be an mlm from the early days or else they would have focused more on products that sell to an actual end user. You can probably sell the average woman 10 pairs of nice comfy black leggings, it is pretty much a staple and some pay lululemon prices.  Lots of areas don’t have lulu stores so to get to try on leggings at a party or pop up would have an appeal over ordering off a website. But then they went crazy with stupid patterns. I don’t own anything LLR but I can see that now they are trying for more classic patterns, something you can actually wear to work not just the grocery store. If the company were just direct sales without the bullshit mlm stuff and the huge unrealistic growth it probably could be a decent business for some people seeing how the demand has be run growing for athleisure clothing. If you can sell $20k of stuff a month and your wholesale is an actual wholesale price (at least a 100% markup) it could be a decent income. But of course with all the bullshit bonuses it becomes a “career” of recruitment not sales.

Lots of the same drink the Koolaid stuff happens in the corporate world too and regular employees fall for it all the time so I certainly don’t fault these women for that. In my field (finance) back in the 90s there was always a push by managers to get the newbies in “sales” to get into some kind of debt as it kept them “hungry” and gave them “skin in the game”. This type of thing isn’t just in mlm.

The most interesting to me was the bringing the husbands in and the how to treat your  man stuff as I had no idea about that. I thought it was pushing for women run businesses.

[Mrs. Hanson]

I started watching last night and after twenty minutes had to peace out but will get back into it.  THEIR DAUGHTER MARRIED THEIR SON.  Oh but it's okay, there is no blood, they never lived together.  

And yes, $412 in 1965 equals $3439 in 2021 dollars so yeah, I would work in the mines for that weekly paycheck. 

As someone who had WLS in 2006 and kept the weight off, it will be interesting to hear that storyline.

[Jeeves]

On 9/23/2021 at 5:24 PM, ravencroft said:

I recognized a few of the ladies from a Vice documentary on LuLaRoe, so their stories were familiar. It was called Why Women are Quitting their side hustle." So I had an idea of what would be featured. 

I ended up binging this all the way through and all I can say is, I really wanted a brick to throw at my tv everytime Mark spoke. He's the definition of smarmy to me

Thanks for the tip about that Vice documentary. I found it on YouTube. If anyone wonders how these women get sucked into LLR, there's some good footage in that documentary about that. Roberta Blevins talked about stumbling across LLR when she was a young mom without friends (I wonder if they'd moved for a job so were new in town or the neighborhood), and how LLR not only was a money-making opportunity, it was a whole new bunch of friends in her life. 

Courtney's also in there. She really fell for the push from the Stidhams to spend big to look good and successful. I hope she's learned some lessons from her LLR experience. I mentioned upthread that she strikes me as someone who's extremely vulnerable to the MLM marketing ploys. And probably not very good at managing her money before she joined LLR.

I found another Vice video about LLR on YT, called "I Filed for Bankruptcy after Leaving Lularoe and Now Work 2 Jobs." It's about a young woman's life after leaving LLR, getting out of debt. She has a full time job and is shown doing GrubHub deliveries at night to earn money to pay her bankruptcy lawyer. Okay, seems like she's digging out of a financial hole, and good for her. BUT then she says this will be her second bankruptcy. Her first one was because she had a "shopping addiction" and ran up too much debt. Then in the comments, it's stated that if you look at her instagram, she'd gone on to sign up with TWO MORE MLMs and was hawking their stuff. [ETA: I found her insta and she's shilling MLM jewelry and MLM glue-on fingernails.] Dang. How depressing.  I'm not saying everyone who joins an MLM is a bad money manager, or stupid. But as @fountain pointed out, the corporate powers that be like to have a grip on their workers, and the workers' being in debt is a good one. 

And I agree about Mark Stidham. What a sleazeball. Urgh. It was so hard to watch him. IMO if he's talking, he's lying.

Edited September 25, 2021 by Jeeves
Updated comment

[DanielleBowden]

41 minutes ago, Mrs. Hanson said:

THEIR DAUGHTER MARRIED THEIR SON.

Oh my goodness.  There was so much WTF in this that I completely forgot this!

[Melina22]

1 hour ago, fountain said:

 it all went from Maxi skirts out if the truck to what it became as it was a bit “sold maxi shirts out of my trunk yada yada a team of thousands women”. 

I know! One minute she's married with 7 children, the next she's remarried with 14. Somewhere in here she went from making and selling skirts to a billion dollar company. What happened to husband #1? When did she stopped making the clothes? I have so many questions that I get the distinct impression she doesn't want to answer 

[Jeeves]

20 minutes ago, Melina22 said:

I know! One minute she's married with 7 children, the next she's remarried with 14. Somewhere in here she went from making and selling skirts to a billion dollar company. What happened to husband #1? When did she stopped making the clothes? I have so many questions that I get the distinct impression she doesn't want to answer 

I also have questions. I've heard different versions of her startup story. IMO she's such a liar and scammer that I doubt we'll ever hear the truth about how the company got started.

[Aulty]

34 minutes ago, Jeeves said:

I also have questions. I've heard different versions of her startup story. IMO she's such a liar and scammer that I doubt we'll ever hear the truth about how the company got started.

To be honest it sounded like she was shilling counterfeit, smuggled or stolen stuff. Probably a mix of all three. And that might've gotten them in contact with a factory or producer that then sold them the maxi skirts.

Edited September 24, 2021 by Aulty

[Mrs. Hanson]

1 hour ago, DanielleBowden said:

Oh my goodness.  There was so much WTF in this that I completely forgot this!

I had to back it up and again!  "Oh yeah, it was so funny!!!  You are cordially invited to the marriage of our daughter to OUR SON!  Ha ha ha ha!!  Oh the hilarity!"   Look, I have a cousin who, through my birth uncle (hate that term) passing before I was born, his widow remarrying and having a son, that male cousin and I have no blood but we ARE COUSINS.   We are related, period.

So......you are so poor you are cutting up a hamburger to split seven ways then you are on a flight?  Look, I used to get the number two cheeseburger meal as a treat for me and my then toddler sons but I was cheap, not broke.  And I didn't then hop a flight.

And I do not buy for one minute the "My mom tossed $3000 in five dollar bills off the banister and said keep what you want."  A couple of things:  way to make your kids fist fight each other over cash, way to treat your kids without parity and WHAT A WASTE OF THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS.

I saw a LLR dress in an upscale thrift store and it was beyond ugly.

[MicheleinPhilly]

7 minutes ago, Mrs. Hanson said:

So......you are so poor you are cutting up a hamburger to split seven ways then you are on a flight?  Look, I used to get the number two cheeseburger meal as a treat for me and my then toddler sons but I was cheap, not broke.  And I didn't then hop a flight.

And I do not buy for one minute the "My mom tossed $3000 in five dollar bills off the banister and said keep what you want."  A couple of things:  way to make your kids fist fight each other over cash, way to treat your kids without parity and WHAT A WASTE OF THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS.

From episode 1, I could just tell that these people were full of 💩. DeAnne acted like because she flew "standby" that somehow negated the fact that she just told us she was dirt poor and now she's flying somewhere. You still have to pay to fly standby - it's not a free ticket lottery.

And that story about her mother was just total BS. I don't really know anything about the tenets of Mormonism but I assume it's like other religions where telling outright lies is frowned upon. 🤷‍♀️ 

[Mrs. Hanson]

45 minutes ago, MicheleinPhilly said:

From episode 1, I could just tell that these people were full of 💩. DeAnne acted like because she flew "standby" that somehow negated the fact that she just told us she was dirt poor and now she's flying somewhere. You still have to pay to fly standby - it's not a free ticket lottery.

And that story about her mother was just total BS. I don't really know anything about the tenets of Mormonism but I assume it's like other religions where telling outright lies is frowned upon. 🤷‍♀️ 

Per the bannister story, allow me to get preachy:  What in f**k is that a good thing to teach your kids?  Mom will work her tail off to throw money off a banister?  How about taking them with you to work to see how hard it is to be a working adult?  It was, to me, stinking of teaching your kids money will be thrown at you and to worship money.  The saying is "The love of money is the root of all evil" as some people think it is "Money is the root of all evil."  Nothing wrong with earning a living (legally) but to teach your kids, in a roundabout way, to be greedy?  How about taking that money, shave ten percent off to give to an animal shelter or something, half in the bank as a cushion, then teach your kids about investing?

Hey kids!  Here is your tiny piece of hamburger!  Mom is off on a flight!  TOODLES!

[merylinkid]

5 hours ago, Jeeves said:

Then in the comments, it's stated that if you look at her instagram, she'd gone on to sign up with TWO MORE MLMs and was hawking their stuff. [ETA: I found her insta and she's shilling MLM jewelry and glue-on fingernails.] Dang. How depressing.  I'm not saying everyone who joins an MLM is a bad money manager, or stupid.

No but they are gullible.   There are STILL people saying "yeah but there are good MLMs"   No, no there are not.   BY DEFINITION a Multi Level Marketing business requires you to recruit people under you to make money -- hence the Multi Level.   Eventually you run out of people to recruit.   The ONLY way direct sales works is if the MAJORITY of your earnings comes from your own sales.   Because then it is all up to your hustle to sell product.   Also, it only works IF you are not required to purchase a certain amount to sell each month -- because what happens IF there is bad weather or say -- a fucking pandemic hits and everybody has to stay home?    You know all those MLMs are STILL requiring product purchases each month.    Because the TOP folks ain't going without their bonus checks.    If you can moderate your product inventory to match what you can actually sale given current market conditions then it MIGHT work.   

[jmcd44]

22 hours ago, AZChristian said:

I got the feeling that the WLS in Mexico was another of DeAnne's money-making projects.  She got hers, then started having her sister drive women to Mexico for the surgery.

Minimum wages to sister/chauffeur.

Kickback FROM doctor in Mexico.

Profit to DeAnne.

This is extremely unverified, but in the LLR Facebook group I'm in (never sold/bought LLR, just loved the documentary), the claim is that the doctor/one of the doctors at Obesity 4 Me in Tijuana is related to Deanne and her sister. 

I could've watched four more episodes at least.

[AZChristian]

19 minutes ago, jmcd44 said:

This is extremely unverified, but in the LLR Facebook group I'm in (never sold/bought LLR, just loved the documentary), the claim is that the doctor/one of the doctors at Obesity 4 Me in Tijuana is related to Deanne and her sister. 

I could've watched four more episodes at least.

Quick Google search came up with this information.  Follow the money.  Always.

[chocolatine]

2 hours ago, jmcd44 said:

Obesity 4 Me

According to the article, it's actually "Obesity Not 4 Me," but either way, nobody should let a business with that kind of name perform surgery on them.

[Kiss my mutt]

42 minutes ago, chocolatine said:

According to the article, it's actually "Obesity Not 4 Me," but either way, nobody should let a business with that kind of name perform surgery on them.

It’s like getting breast implants from a place called “Big Boobies ‘R Us”. 

[Jeeves]

1 hour ago, Kiss my mutt said:

It’s like getting breast implants from a place called “Big Boobies ‘R Us”. 

And then you can be featured on an episode of "Botched" to get them fixed! Seriously, as presented in this series, that whole deal with DeAnne and her sister pushing those trips to Mexico for WLS was SO skeevy!! Thanks for that link, @AZChristian - doesn't surprise me that they were up to $henagin$ with that deal. 

[Cinnabon]

On 9/23/2021 at 7:24 PM, ravencroft said:

I recognized a few of the ladies from a Vice documentary on LuLaRoe, so their stories were familiar. It was called Why Women are Quitting their side hustle." So I had an idea of what would be featured. 

I ended up binging this all the way through and all I can say is, I really wanted a brick to throw at my tv everytime Mark spoke. He's the definition of smarmy to me

Can I just say how much I hate the term “side hustle?” Just make it stop! And did all these women know they were part of a Mormon cult?

[Lukeysboat]

At least a couple posters mentioned how smarmy Mark compared himself to “John Smith,” but as I recall he was talking about Joseph Smith, founder of the LDS religion. Am I misremembering?

It does not surprise me one bit that he was quoting the Book of Mormon at a convention  

I’m in complete agreement with those of you who cannot believe that Courtney in particular neglected to pay her bills and put money in savings! Unbelievable. 

[Jeeves]

22 hours ago, merylinkid said:

No but they are gullible.   There are STILL people saying "yeah but there are good MLMs"   No, no there are not.  

Come sit next to me, or at whatever distance you're comfortable. Your whole post is so spot on.

I don't see how anybody can expect to make money selling a product if you are strongly and constantly pressured to turn your customers into competitors. The way a company that sells products stays afloat and prospers, is by selling a lot of those products. Wholesale, retail, or a mix of the two.

While the huns are playing glitz and glamor and mean girl games and going to company pep rallies, the company's C-suite is looking at the bottom line: how much product has been ordered, shipped, and paid for? What were our costs for that? 

I'm not sure how much the MLM C-suites care about how much of the product they've sold, ends up in actual customers' hands vs. sitting unsold in a hun's garage or basement. They HAVE to know there's a sh*t ton of it. I suppose they worry about how much of it they may be stuck accepting as returns.. As we saw in this show, LLR got in deep trouble with returns, because (a) they got criminally careless about the quality of their merch and (b) they were sloppy as hell about pretty much everything they did as a company - especially one that grew so big so fast. 

[Cinnabon]

Ironic that the company put so much emphasis on these women looking good, when their clothes were all so damn ugly! Professional hair and makeup can’t overshadow that.

Edited September 25, 2021 by Cinnabon

[Aulty]

14 minutes ago, Jeeves said:

While the huns are playing glitz and glamor and mean girl games and going to company pep rallies ...

Maybe I have missed this in the documentary, but what is a 'hun's job with regard to the people under them? Do they have to coach and monitor them, make sure they order enough stock, personal visits/inspections? Are they basically their superiors? They have video chats with Deanne where they receive the sermon of the week to pass on to the people directy below them who then pass it on to the next level etc?

[merylinkid]

1 hour ago, Aulty said:

Maybe I have missed this in the documentary, but what is a 'hun's job with regard to the people under them? Do they have to coach and monitor them, make sure they order enough stock, personal visits/inspections? Are they basically their superiors? They have video chats with Deanne where they receive the sermon of the week to pass on to the people directy below them who then pass it on to the next level etc?

They don't do personal visits/inspections.   One person said she had people in her downline she never even met.   But yeah, they are the conduit for messages from the top.   They also pass UP complaints.    Which got that one couple suspended -- guess they found out the hard way they didn't "own" their business.   They were getting complaints from their downline so they passed them along thinking "surely this will be addressed."   Instead they got called complainers and suspended.   Depending on the level, your job is to make sure your immediate downline is ordering the right amount of product each month, or more than the minimum, and recruiting new people.   They might give some hokey rah rah stuff.   But they don't do quality control and they don't do training.   

The whole HYSTERIA around LulaRoe amazes me.   Like people were begging to be signed up as consultants.  Then the whole hysteria around BUYING stuff.   Like if you didn't get one of those 3000 pairs of ugly ass leggings your life was OVER.   Which I will say that was one thing they got right -- scarcity breeds demand.   FOMO is real and they milked it for all its worth.