Watched it earlier, today. Good content.
I got caught briefly in a pyramid scheme back in 2007 for a supplemental drink called Bazi. I was 21 almost 22 and a co-worker introduced me to it. As most pyramid schemes go, recruiting was where the real money was because no one really wanted a supplemental drink and even if they did, they could go to GNC or some local store to get what they needed. If by chance someone purchased a bottle EVERYONE in the upline got a little something which, at the time made a little sense, if you look at it from the perspective that the Upline is looked at as a team. For example, if Lebron James hits a game winning shot, Lebron James isn't the winner of the game, the LA Lakers are the winners. So even though he hit the shot, the whole team celebrates that victory. And from that perspective I could understand how everyone benefits from a sale. Quickly however, it started to become more trouble than it was worth because you have to be purchasing a case of Bazi (6 bottles) every month which is expensive for a college kid and as the video mentioned, when you don't have a target for the product, you either have to create one or you realize there isn't one and you're getting played. Needless to say I spent way more money than I made doing that.
In my mid-late 20s I joined an MLM with an actual plan. A rare-bird. It's called The Traveling Vineyard. Still in business I believe. This company brought the wine tasting experience to the comfort of your own home. This was in the early 2010s so this is obviously in a non-pandemic world. I think now things have transferred over to zoom parties now. Anyway, I signed up with a local rep who was very successful with her wine business and I shadowed her to 2 or 3 of her parties. I learned a lot and felt ready to start doing my own. My first party was a hit. I sold about $400 worth of wine. The way the pay works is everyone is responsible for their own sales. No one in your grapevine (that's what they called the upline teams) was making money off your work. You DID however receive bonuses for certain things. For example, the woman who I signed up with, received a bonus for signing a new rep. But that's not really any different than a typical company referral program. Just in case someone is unfamiliar, here's the process: Bob the employee refers their friend Frank. Frank interviews and then gets the job at the company Bob works. Bob gets an employee referral bonus for the company's new hire Frank. An example for Traveling Vineyard: would be If I had recruited someone, then I would have gotten a bonus for bringing in a new rep. The person who recruited me would NOT have earned any bonus because that wasn't her recruit. In a pyramid scheme she would have gotten paid and that pay would have cut into my payout.
I recall bonus payouts if you sold a certain amount worth of wine, I don't remember the number, but I'll say $2000 worth, in a month. Then I get a bonus for hitting a high benchmark. The company's way of saying "hey attaway! Nice job kid!" Also, the person who recruited me would get a bonus from the company as a way of saying to her, "Hey! Nice job bringing this kid on board, they're killing it!" Her bonus wasn't cutting into my bonus. It wasn't like that which is how a pyramid scheme usually operates. It was a payout from the company and whatever the pay-schedule based on your promotion level dictated how much bonus you got. This was similar with promotions, you got promoted based on the wine volume(number of bottles) sold or wine sales you sold and promotions were awarded quarterly, I think. So let's say to go from level 1 to level 2 you had to do either $3000 worth of wine sold(earned from doing parties and from your online wine cellar) or sell 6 cases of wine (each case was 5 bottles at no more than $15 each) primarily earned from parties. Promotions just meant you get more money from the parties you do, the online sales you get and recruits if you recruit anyone. So essentially like many of you, when you get a promotion, that comes with a raise. When you get promoted, you do get a promotion bonus and if you were recruited the person who recruited you gets a bonus also. Again that money isn't being cut into from anyone else, everyone is getting paid their respective amounts by the company. So for example: I made it to level 2 or 3 so I made a nice little extra slice of money. So I got my promotion bonus based on that level's bonus pay out schedule and my recruiter got a bonus based on whatever level she was. And my bonus was nothing different than the company saying "hey congrats and fantastic job" and the recruiter's bonus was nothing different than say "DAMN THIS KID YOU GOT IS A BEAST!!! WAY TO PICK 'EM!!!
In the end, I ended up quitting because parties started to run cold and my day job was becoming more strenuous. I was getting more responsibilities to the point I was too tired to work on my wine business when I got home. My day job burned me out that much. To a lesser degree, my success with my wine business was starting to scare me a little bit, too. I was afraid of failing back then and didn't want to quit a stable job(the day job) by risking it all to make a go of it as a In Home Wine Tasting Guide, but as I type all this I definitely regret not sticking with it. I really would have been a fkn rockstar if I had just stepped out on faith and trusted myself a little more.
www.travelingvineyard.com 
