"Who's looking out for you?" is a repeated phrase used by Bill O'Reilly, commentator, on The Factor, with Fox News, as he religiously gives a full blown effort; body, soul and mind to be 'fair and balanced' in delivering truth, as he sees it. Sometimes, such controversial tidbits ends up as bitter bites in the mouths of those who disagree with Mr. O'Reilly, but I believe he gets an A for delivering information that some wished he didn't. I, for one, welcome wake up calls. Society has a tendency to snooze through way too many truths only to wake up during the hand out of deception and lies and then swallow every bite without even making the effort to view the 'other side of the coin.'

As a certified Life Coach, my clients contact me for various reasons. I have a habit of zeroing in on truth and hate the slightest taste of even a mixture or what some like to call 'white lies'. So when my clients hire me to discern, divide and dissect a situation, I may take hours to research, uncover and present all sides, fairly, so that success in personal as well as career is something they can expect to receive.

The first part of 2008, a client came to me very frustrated in that he had put hundreds of dollars, a massive amount of time and extreme effort into a multiple level online marketing business that pretty much guaranteed his success. As it turned out all his efforts were for naught and his concern was more than just the loss of time, money and effort. Of course he was in it for money, but something was going on as I listened to him, that just didn't feel right. So, with his permission, I began to investigate and the following is what I found out.

By the way, I am not advocating that all MLM businesses are run the way I'm about to share. People want into MLM marketing businesses for numerous reasons, but I believe for the most part, it's made up of those people, just like you and me, who desire to pay their bills, make a decent living and have enough time left over to spend time with family and friends. Some will always be involved who not only want their share of the above, but they want your share also. There's really no way of truly stopping those kinds of people from getting involved.

In principle, my clients MLM Company's plan should work and make many participants substantial profits, if all involved were honest. Unfortunately, that's never the case. This particular company, as in most, had a group of network marketers who came in 'at the top' and were advertising that no experience was necessary, because, after all, we'll call her Sally, she had no experience and she stated, "The sales were just rolling in like crazy." Sally was one of the very beginners in this MLM Company.

I asked my client to give me a few details on how the company was run. Two very significant things stood out above all the rest. The first was a team training call held several times a week over the phone. The calls were not only set up for the members of the MLM business, but used to speak to potential prospects considering joining. The second significant thing I noticed was a form of advertising used over and above the usual MLM mailing lists. The advertisement encouraged was a full page print ad in a popular Home Business Magazine.

I asked my client who ran the meetings and was told that Sally was the leader. Sally used the phone time to speak to individuals by answering any questions they may have about marketing and networking. She repeated phrases like "I'm here donating my time to help YOU become successful like me."

Next I considered and even investigated the actual Home Business Magazine where the full page advertisement was placed. Now, you and I know, because we weren't born yesterday, that a full page ad in any magazine is expensive, I may add astronomical. So where did the money come from for the ad, what did the ad say and who was in the ad? These were my next questions. I didn't ask what the purpose of the MLM print ad was, I already knew. Or did I? Stay with me, it gets interesting...

My client shared with me that during these phone meetings, MLM members were encouraged to pool their finances and each put in a minimum of $300.00 towards the expense of the ad. The total price of the full page was around $17,000. The $300.00 would get one member credit for one month's leads of approximately 40-60 names and phone numbers of callers who inquired about the ad.

My client had put in $600.00 for two months leads. Once the magazine came out, the magazine delivered a few leads by email and when they were called, they stated they were not interested. Yet, each week, several times a week Sally was not only bragging about all her sales, she was emailing columns of her bank statements verifying all the money she was raking in.

As I studied the ad I had a flash thought. Have you ever watched a teenage girl who tries to dress just like her movie star idol or wear her hair in the same style? How about a teenage boy who wants to hit the baseball just like his favorite player or use the same stance while he pitches? Why don't these teens just look to one of their peers to emulate? Well, don't we all want to follow people who are successful and impress us? Take this a step further. If we have a choice, do we want to follow after an amateur MLM marketer who's never experienced their first sale OR one who's bragging in a magazine that she's "pulled in 15 sales her first month with the business and grossed over $300,000 in just a few months", not to mention she's "created one of the largest, fastest-growing teams in the business and is 100 percent debt free." Hum? Which mentor or up line, do you venture to guess, would enthuse and prompt the reader more?

Oh, I don't want to forget one thing, the whole article in the magazine wasn't about the 'business' so much as it was about the 'person' who was the achiever in the business. And to top it off, the article just happened to leave HER full online business name, just in case the reader didn't feel motivated to call the toll-free number at the bottom and leave their phone number for my client and/or other Home Business contributors to the ad.

Amazing what a little discernment will do. My client, and many others like him were contributing to what they were told was a mutual endeavor to be split evenly so each had a chance to present the business to their prospect. When I pointed out sentences like "Sally wants to continue to stay focused on other people's success in the business and help many more people to find the kind of freedom that she has found," and "Sally spends approximately 17 hours per week training HER team, the weekly training calls SHE conducts makes it easy to get started. (Her business name listed) She offers support for each member. Why, I asked my client, would anyone seriously call the 800 number below when Sally has made it so easy, simple and clear that SHE is available, so just be trained by her and be UNDER her?

As a teenager looks to one who's already an achiever for their mentor, so Sally knew that having the article predominately about her, not the business, but about HER success, would create an enigma that she hoped no one would figure out. It's called, money in the bank just by knowing human nature. And just to sweeten her pot, she also found a way to add her name, personal audio and a link to her site on every team members assigned business website. All in the name of, "I'm here to help."

Warning, consider all angles prior to investing your money in MLM Companies. Not everyone is 'look'n out for you" as Bill O'Reilly puts it. Oh, and it's not a bad idea to find a good coach or a coaching group where others can join with you and analyze, dissect, investigate, reveal and truly focus on what's really important to you. Some of us truly care.

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