Miss Popularity?

The Married To An Ambot blog started out as a way for me to get a few things off my chest about my upline and totally took off in a way I never would have imagined. I have a huge readership between 200 to 500 page hits a day. This month alone just over 10,000 readers have visited my blog - and we still have a few hours to go before January is over! Sure a lot of them are repeat visitors. A lot of people find me by doing Google searches and my blog is at the top of many searches. I’ve already blogged that I’m right behind the Amway propaganda when people search for Artistry.

You’d think these statistics would be somewhat alarming to Amway especially since I have regular readers from Alticor in Ada and Buena Park and occasionally from Grand Rapids and Missouri City and even Amway Germany’s head office who just love reading about what I really think about my upline. They can see the numbers on my blog’s stat counter. Pretty good for someone who’s only been blogging for about 5 months.

But oddly enough my popularity doesn’t seem to bother Amway enough to offer me the right amount of money to just go away and stop blogging. People sell websites all the time for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Millions of dollars to sell a website. I’m open to it. Anna Banana can be bought!

I’m used to apathy from Amway head office employees. We reported our Platinum right about the time we were getting out of Amway and the official response and here I’m paraphrasing: “We’re not responsible for what is said at meetings.” To some extent that is true. People can’t be responsible for lies that someone else has uttered. But who is responsible then? Who at Amway head office will take responsibility for complaints about lies told at Amway meetings? No one! Apathy central! Platinums and higher can say whatever lies they want at Amway meetings and head office isn’t going to take any action. Even when we have it recorded. Nope. Apathy city! Not interested. Not going to rock the boat. The upline brings in lots of money. Amway head office doesn’t give a shit about pursuing complaints made about Platinums and higher and that’s probably another reason why IBO’s walk away - no support from head office! That’s why bloggers like me take to the Internet and share our stories to warn other people what lies ahead of them. Others take more extreme measures judging by the lawsuits out there.

My regular readers know we weren’t in Amway very long. We never reached any significant level. Between 100PV and 300PV each month depending on how much Ambot charged to the old credit card. We never signed up any downline other than one person who quit a couple of weeks later after getting scolded by our upline for missing a meeting. We never met anyone of significant levels either. Though the pompous sack of shit Platinum would disagree and point out he’s been [in and out of] Platinum [qualification] for years and how he’s King Shit and we should have been honored to be in his presence. However we hadn’t “earned the privilege” to meet anyone of higher levels in the Amway house of cards.

So a few months involvement, never meeting anyone significant in Amway, and not attaining any level of significance, I only have limited stories. There’s only so many ways I can tell my upline to fuck off! I think I really got a lot of it out of my system with my post Fuck You IBO! It felt so good writing that down and letting go of it!

Have my stories all been told? I wasn’t in Amway long enough to have scads of stories. I wasn’t privy to any secret meetings. I didn’t meet any king pins. Although I went to major functions, monthly rallies and about 50 living room meetings I can look back through my previous posts and see I have covered a lot of our Amway penance.

Don’t worry. I don’t plan to disappoint my readers by stopping blogging, unless of course Amway pays me the big bucks to go away. Although I might be running out of stories to keep up with the momentum of regular blog posts as something jogs my memory about a horror tale during our Amway dark days I’ll keep writing. I’m just saying I don’t know if I can keep up the posting frequency I’ve managed until now. Its one of the reasons I eventually plan to organize and turn this blog into a free ebook. Maybe this year. Maybe next.

I’ve enjoyed meeting many of you through this blog and hearing your stories and and I assure you that I’m still here trying to figure out what to write next. Its just that some weeks I might be more prolific than others.

Thank you to all my readers for your support and sending me over 10,000 views for the month of January! I love having you stop by!

To the courageous women who have shared their stories, thank you and I hope to keep hearing from you. I wish you well and hope you get your lives under control without the Amway black cloud following you everywhere.

THERE IS LIFE AFTER AMWAY!

Driving all over Town and Outlying Areas

During Round 1 of Amway and WWDB our upline Platinum was a nasty bitch. I didn’t like her at all. Back then - 2000 or 2001 - we had to phone in or drop off our orders both for products and tools and then show up once a week at her house - about ten or fifteen minute drive away - to pick them up. She usually had her act together. If nothing else the shrewd bitch was organized. Not organized enough to stop herself from falling out of Platinum qualification but she’s still in Amway after all these years.

In Round 2 of Amway and WWDB orders were placed on the Internet and delivered to our house. Our sack of shit Platinum would rant at us during Amway meetings that we had it lucky. When he started in Amway he had to drive a couple of towns away to pick up the Amway order from his upline and then he spent hours delivering it all over the place. He said when his car broke down he had to take the bus - and undoubtedly a few helpers - to carry all the boxes. So the sack of shit would go on and on and on about the shit he went through in Amway to get him where he was. Uh, lets see. Was he under the false impression that I actually cared?

Every week we had to order tools - CDs and books - the more the better of course. I have no idea how the Platinum sack of shit received them. All I know is the upline Eagle picked them up from Platinum’s house rather late at night when he got off work and then we met him at Dunkin Donuts around 10pm or 10:30 to pick up our order. The donut shop was about halfway between our house and the Platinum’s house, about a 10 minute or so drive. It was a central location for the Eagle’s downline to show up and pick up their tools because most of them lived within a 15 minute drive and the Eagle lived way out in the boonies.

This went on for maybe a month. Then the Platinum heard about it. The fucking asshole went nutso! He screamed and shrieked and carried on as if someone had just committed murder! Holy shit it was amazing!

The Platinum ordered the Eagle to stop meeting downline at Dunkin Donuts. Who knows why? Maybe the fucker had shares in Krispy Kreme? He ordered all tools to be picked up at the Eagle’s house about an hour’s drive each way.

I was really pissed off. But then anytime that meddling sack of shit sticks his ass into anyone’s business it pisses me off. I pointed out to Ambot that this was really dumb. The Platinum sack of shit lives about a twenty minute drive from our house. The fucking Eagle is about an hour away. It would be quicker for us to go to the Platinum’s house and pick up those shitty tools that I didn’t want in the first place. Because I knew Ambot was going to plug one of those damned CD’s into the car’s stereo and crank up the volume so it would be like listening to one of those fire and brimstone sermons from a tent church the whole drive home. Add to the fact that the Eagle didn’t get home - and here its important to point out that he still lived with mommy and daddy even though he’s in his mid 20’s - until at least 10:30 at night. So we’re driving all over the countryside for a couple of hours late at night when I’d rather be getting ready for bed. We’ve got customers to deal with in the morning. What the fuck is Ambot thinking? I told him to cancel any further orders for tools. If we all stuck together and cancelled tool orders and refused to drive to the Eagle’s house to pick them up maybe we’d "get permission" to pick them up at a central location again. Like I had any chance of the other downline doing anything to disobey the Platinum.

Ambot had to be CORE and feed into the tool scam so his upline could get rich. He had to bust ass driving out of town late at night to pick up $10 worth of CD’s every week. It cost about that much in gas for a round trip drive. Not to mention our time. Why the hell didn’t he just wait another day to pick up the damned tools at the next night’s Amway meeting? After a few weeks Ambot had enough of the late night drives and he did pick up his CD’s and books from the Eagle the next time he saw him. They had to be sneaky about it though. You know - hiding them under their shirts!

And the point of this whole exercise? To teach us discipline. What? We’re in the armed forces maybe and that’s why we need discipline? We became responsible adults understanding discipline. Why the fuck do we need to keep learning about discipline because we’re in Amway?

Oh I forgot. The discipline thing is because we're in a cult. Its all about brainwashing the IBO’s and ordering them around to make sure they’re good little cult followers. Loyalty and obedience to the cult leader is the most important thing.

Like I really needed another reason to dislike the Platinum. Once again I send a big old fuck you out to that sack of shit.

Best Friends ForNeverMore!

Amway was like an expensive social club for Ambot. He actually liked most of those people. He must have really liked their promises about always being his friend.

I wasn’t friends with any of these Amway people prior to Ambot wanting to sign up. I knew the sponsor because Ambot has known him for many years. He’s an unreliable, arrogant prick. Those are his finer qualities. It goes downhill from there. I haven’t liked him for many years. He’s always doing one thing or another to piss me off. Usually by borrowing something from Ambot and not returning it. Not showing up when he said he’d be there. Not answering his phone. I can list off specific events over the years but I’m not going to turn this post into something that will takes hours to read. Suffice it to say I think everyone reading this blog has figured out a long time ago that I can’t stand the bastard.

I didn’t know anybody else prior to the Amway dark days. Most of them weren’t people I’d associate with anyway. We’re talking mostly males at least 20 years younger than me.

I don’t want them as friends so no big loss to me when the upline sends a command out to the downline that no one is to have anything more to do with us because we quit Amway. We are horrible people. We are losers. More specifically we are broke losers. Etc, etc.

Ambot has said he wishes he could have come back as a fly on the wall to listen to one of the Platinum’s rants after we left Amway. Oh well no big deal. I heard plenty of that sack of shit’s rants while we were still in.

I think the loss of their friendship did hurt Ambot. He really believed their lies that they would always be his friend. He failed to see that when people are driven by greed and you shut off their money supply by no longer purchasing expensive Amway products and tools, that they turn around and shut off their friendship. Fortunately these friendships were short lived. Damage was done by those upline assholes but we got out before anything was irreparable.

As far as I’m concerned real friends aren’t interested in you only for your money. Real friends don’t turn their back when you stop giving them money. Ambot understands this now. These fake friends may have stroked his ego for a few months but they disappeared real fast when he wasn’t going to fund their dreams any more.

There was a fellow in our LOS that we ran into a few months later totally by chance at a gas station and Ambot went over to chat with him. He was polite and did chat while filling up but he did say “I’m not really supposed to be talking to you.” So that’s how we know the Platinum got the word out about us that we’re poison.

In that regard the Platinum did us a small favor by telling everyone not to associate with us. Except damn it that arrogant prick who sponsored us is still hanging around. Every now and then I complain to Ambot that he is disobeying the Platinum’s orders by speaking to him. Ambot tries to convince me it doesn’t count when none of us are in Amway anymore.

That’s just not fair!

Duplicate Your Upline!

“Duplicate your upline.”

In a nutshell that’s the secret to Amway success according to the upline speakers.

I don’t mean to insult or trash anyone’s job because everyone has to start somewhere, but my upline expects me to duplicate them by shutting down our business and taking a job working for someone else as a salesperson or painter? We worked hard at regular jobs for many years until we made the break and established our own company. I’m supposed to go backwards from a 6 figure self employed income to minimum wage type jobs? Does not appeal to me. I’m sure if we stayed in Amway long enough and lost all our savings, our business, our house, and ended up deep in debt I may have had to reconsider that cashier job at the dollar store.

How about duplicating my upline by driving around in a junker of a car that’s always breaking down? Nah, I don’t think so. In the past 20 years I’ve always saved up my money and then paid cash for either new or newer model vehicles and keep them well maintained. When I was younger I drove older vehicles that seemed to always be getting flat tires or having some sort of engine trouble. Then I got smart and started dating mechanics. Then I got smarter and started saving money so I could buy more reliable cars. I don’t want to go backwards on this one either.

How about wearing business attire for 8pm Amway meetings in someone’s living room? No not my thing. If I invite someone into my house I expect them to wear whatever makes them comfortable. Likewise if I’m meeting someone at the coffee shop. Whatever you want to wear is cool with me. I spent 20 years in corporate wearing business attire. Now that I’m self employed nobody dictates to me what I wear. If I choose to wear shorts, capris, or jeans and slap a hat on my head that’s what I’ll do.

Gee one of the lies we were told was that in Amway we’d own our own business. As a business owner I decide what I wear. In “my” Amway business I have some upline asshole expecting me to wear a business suit. My blazers and skirts were donated to charity a long time ago. Don’t expect me to run out and buy more.

How about duplicating our upline and lying to others about what this “global business opportunity” really is? How about duplicating our upline and insulting people who have J.O.B.s? Nope, can’t do it.

I used to see the diehard ambots at business meetings duplicating their upline. I watched one young lady sitting beside the woman who sponsored her who I think was around 2500 PV/month. The sponsor, not the new IBO. They were both sitting with their legs up on the chairs in front of them in the auditorium. OK some people do that. At the movies. This young IBO always dressed stylishly with impeccable makeup and didn’t seem the type to be tossing her legs all over the place so everyone walking by could see her undies but there the two of them were sitting side by side in a rather unladylike manner. Hmmm. Almost sorry I didn’t think up that one myself! I’d watch the new IBO clapping at the same time her sponsor did. Stand up and cheer when the sponsor did. Basically she stuck to her like glue and copied everything. She had that whole duplicate your upline thing down!

No, that’s not me. I can’t be a copycat to anyone in my upline. That is not my style.

Always the rebel, my inclination was to do the opposite that anyone in my upline was doing. If they stood up and clapped and cheered for the speaker, I stayed in my seat. If they walked around the room greeting people, I stayed in my chair and pulled out the trashy novel I kept in my bag for moments like this. If they drank Perfect Water or XS energy drinks, I’d be sucking back a Coke. If they ate meal replacement bars or protein bars, I made a big show out of eating a package of M&M’s. If they hung around chatting at the end of the meeting, I was the first out the door making a beeline for my car.

Can’t say I ever did anything to duplicate our upline. Can’t say the same thing about that bunch of copycats. Most of them quit Amway after we did.

Follow the leaders.

Amway Neighbor

I caught Ambot on my computer and this is what he was looking at. He said it was really funny. I love the ending!

A Mistress Named Amway

I started writing Married To An Ambot as kind of a healing process for me to curse out my former upline and get the word out about what happens at Amway meetings and the upline abuse. In doing so I was hoping to reach out to other women who are in similar situations or were at one time. Our stories might have some differences but they are the same. I was involved with upline who I feel to this day are truly horrible, evil troublemakers. If I help other women get their husbands/boyfriends out of Amway and away from their destructive upline, then writing this blog is all worth it.

Usually it is our husbands who are approached by a friend who tells them about an amazing business opportunity. A home based business where they work 10 to 15 hours a week and can earn an extra $800 a month or more (!) by selling Amway products and signing up other IBO’s who will also purchase Amway products and sign up others to do the same, and so on and so on. At first the wife might be sceptical. You know the old phrase about how if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. The numbers look good on paper but in actuality it doesn’t seem believable that this can this be pulled off.

When our husbands get excited about something we want to be supportive. It doesn’t take long before we stop being supportive and end up getting more and more pissed off. Husband is sneaking around like he has a mistress on the side. And sure enough he does. A mistress called Amway. He’s out of the house for endless hours attending Amway meetings sneaking back in the house in the early morning hours after we’ve gone to sleep. He’s spending money like crazy on his mistress. Money he doesn’t have so he uses a line of credit, home equity loan, or credit cards. You know when he whips out the plastic he pretends he’s not really paying for it. After all it is a pretend business. That is until the bills roll in and then paying back real money is not so pretend any more.

After awhile the wife has had enough. She never sees her husband and their bank account is diminishing while their debt is going through the roof. “Choose your mistress or choose me.” Fortunately most men come to their senses and realize for all their hard work, time, and effort they are not getting the money back that was dangled in front of them when they were first looking into this exciting business opportunity and they stop going to Amway meetings and throwing away their money.

That’s the short version of every wife’s horror tale about their husband’s Amway mistress.

I was lucky that my Ambot came to his senses. This was because he’d had enough of the upline’s abuse and his realization that the money just was not there. He left his Amway mistress. All the people who promised to be his good friends forever and ever abandoned him. That might have been the hardest thing. He actually liked these people and thought they liked him. Wrong. They only liked his money because he was helping make their dreams come true.

Another Wife's Amway Horror Story

Here’s a post I found on the Internet from a few years ago and the wife refers to the cost of tapes ten years before, so lets say they were in Amway through the mid-90s. Just in case anyone is wondering I didn’t edit the story just copied and pasted. Even though they used a bunch of  **** to avoid saying bastards, I have no problem saying it like it is!

Its so spooky even 15 years apart how so many of us have similar stories:

When I realized my husband would never be able to bring himself to do the things they asked in order to "build the business", I asked, and then begged that he stop spending the money on books and tapes, seminars and major rallies.

He just kept going on with it, and the longer it went the more I realized that the primary reason we could not get any real help from our upline was that they were already making plenty of money from us off of their share of the tapes, books, seminars, and rallies. Just one example; it costs pennies each to mass duplicate a tape of one of these "upline" talking at a rally, and our price for the two tapes of the week ten years ago was over $7.00 each!

Finally I asked our oh-so-caring sponsors to talk to him and get him to drop the business since he was obviously not going to work it. Instead, they encouraged him to continue having contact with them behind my back, he got a credit card that I did not know about and put $6,000 on it while pulling the bills out of the mail so that I never saw them.

This was because I was working a second job to try and pay off the other two credit cards, 80+% of which were charged up with Amway crap. I was giving him $400 a month that he was supposed to be directly applying to charge cards. Instead, he was making the minimum payments and spending the cash on more motivational crap. They told him he was doing the right thing because once he became successful it would all be made up to me, in spades.

$16,000 spent in four years. One marriage nearly ruined. Bankruptcy. And to this day he will not throw out the pictures of himself with those Diamonds and Emeralds. He's not the same person and never will be, thanks to the brainwashing techniques they use, which strongly resemble those used by religious cults.

The only time in my life that I would refuse to urinate on one of those rat-faced Amway ba****** would be if he or she were on fire.

To read the original post and the ensuing comments

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/amwaycom-quixtar-c3441.html

It has the usual typical following with people sharing their Amway horror stories but it doesn’t take long for the first ambot to show up and say there was something wrong with their marriage to begin with. A few brainwashed ambots show up to praise the glories of their hallowed cult with the typical Amway speak. Like we’ve all heard it hundreds of times before.

They’re lucky only $16,000 was spent in four years. These days that would not be an unreasonable amount to spend in only one year. There are more tools related expenses these days, cost of functions has gone up, as well as travel, food, and accommodations for the functions.

Let’s compare this wife’s story against mine using this check list:

1. Wife asks/begs husband to quit. Check.
2. Upline making money off the downline victim. Check.
3. Sponsor doesn’t give a flying fuck about the wife. Check.
4. Husband racking up the credit card bill. Check.
5. Husband sneaking around behind the wife’s back to associate with the Amway cult. Check.
6. Husband only making minimum payment on credit card bills so he still has money to buy more Amway shit and motivational products. Check.
7. Bullshit propaganda from the upline about how one day the husband will be successful. Check.
8. Thousands of dollars spent on Amway. Check.
9. Marriage nearly ruined. Check.
10. Husband has been brainwashed by the cult. Check.
11. Wife calls the upline “rat-faced Amway bastards”. Check.

OK. OK. I know on point # 11 I call those upline bastards a lot worse than she does but close enough so you get the point.

I did not write that story but I could have just as thousands of other Amway widows could have written it. Its my story, their story, our story. The story never changes. Just the players.

A Roomful of Winners

At the Amway meetings I attended everyone was constantly reaffirmed (brainwashed) they were a “winner”. A winner simply by showing up! I was sitting in a roomful of winners! Wow!

Gag!!!!

I was always under the (false?) impression that a winner was a person who wins. Based on my definition I bet I was probably the biggest winner in the room. I was 18 when I won my first prize - a cake in a cakewalk! A cake decorated in jelly beans! And I’ve never looked back. I’ve won countless small prizes in raffles and radio and TV contests like books, concert tickets, and Starbuck’s gift cards. I’ve won $1000 several times on radio contests in the past 10 years. I’ve even won some trips.

How come I never win the lotteries for those million dollar houses???!!!!

I’d say I have a better track record than the rest of the room when it comes to being a winner. I’ve made more money on contests than I ever did in Amway! With no money invested. Just a little time. Not even 10 to 15 hours a week!

Everyone else in the room is a “winner” just because they showed up wearing a business suit.

Oh I get it! The winner is the person who catches the most prospects! The prize is the adoring affection of the Platinum.

No that can’t be right. The winners in this room rarely brought prospects. No adoring affection for any of them. Instead everyone was on the receiving end of the Platinum’s scorn.

The real winners? Those of us who said: “Fuck you. I’m outta here.”

Whatever happened to that roomful of “winners”? Are they winning or are they losing?

I know three of those winners are still hanging in there losing their money and losing their downline. The rest of the winners hopped on the fuck you bandwagon.

Fuck You IBO!

It finally happened! Someone did a Google search for “fuck you IBO” and found my blog! You guessed it. Number 1 on the search engine!

Yes this is definitely the place to be if you want to tell any IBO you’ve ever met: “Fuck you!” Or live vicariously through me saying it.

Depending on your perspective there are different types of IBO’s to say fuck you to:

1. from the point of view of someone who is not associated with Amway and does not want to be associated with Amway and does not want to be hounded by Amway IBO’s

2. from the point of view of someone who has a spouse, family member, or good friend who is an Amway IBO

3. from the point of view of a former IBO who has found out the truth about Amway and the tool scam

So rather than say fuck you over and over in each sentence I’ll just say it once at the top of the list.

FUCK YOU IBO:

1. for saying where else can you start up your own business for only $150 but neglecting to mention all the other costs once you’ve paid your start up fee
2. for saying people who have nothing good to say about Amway are only trying to steal your dream
3. for saying people who don’t support your Amway business don’t want you to succeed
4. for saying “don’t say negative!”
5. for saying buy from your own store
6. for trying to break up marriages
7. for saying the more meetings and functions you attend the more successful you will be
8. for saying “You can’t quit now because you haven’t been in it long enough to succeed” no matter how many years you’ve been in Amway
9. for hounding me to buy your shitty overpriced products
10. for lying about how the upline does not profit from the sale of Amway tools
11. for lying about how you’ll only spend 10 to 15 hours a week in this business
12. for criticizing people who have J.O.B.s
13. for saying you’ll always be broke as long as you’re working for someone else
14. for saying you must be on DITTO
15. for saying you must be CORE
16. for being disrespectful
17. for bringing misery to people’s lives
18. for saying you must always listen to tapes (oops I fucked up by saying TAPES!!! IBOFB will be in to leave a comment that tapes haven’t been sold since he was shitting his diapers and CD’s have been sold for the past few decades)
19. for forcing us to buy tools by saying you won’t work with us if we don’t buy them (even though the Amway literature says buying tools from your LOS is optional and your upline can’t refuse to mentor you and assist you to build a business if you don’t buy them)
20. for wanting your errands done for free
21. for saying attend all functions no matter what else is going on in your life
22. for not getting off my ass about recruiting me as an IBO
23. for getting bitchy if we question anything
24. for brainwashing us
25. for lying about how everyone in the upline is very successful
26. for telling us an Amway business is a great tax shelter and everything is tax deductible
27. for not taking “NO” for an answer
28. for telling us to sign up our dog and cat as downline IBOs
29. for not minding your own fucking business
30. for lying about being debt free
31. for being bullies
32. for telling us to charge Amway products and functions onto our credit cards
33. for lying about Amway owning the Amway Arena in Orlando Florida
34. for lying about the health benefits of Perfect Water
35. for blaming people who don’t succeed in their Amway business as being lazy
36. for blaming people who don’t succeed in their Amway business as not trying hard enough
37. for underestimating the power of the Internet
38. for telling us to wear business attire to all meetings
39. for lying about how Artistry is one of the top 5 best selling cosmetics in the world
40. for telling us not to have any competitor’s products in the house if Amway sells a similar product
41. for telling us to lie to prospects so they don’t know they’re coming to an Amway meeting
42. for telling us to do what our upline tells us to do because they’re the only ones with a sincere interest in us
43. for lying about how you’ll be our best friends forever
44. for saying duplicate your upline
45. for telling us that self consumption is essential to our success in the Amway business
46. for forcing your personal beliefs upon us
47. for saying that people who refuse to be part of the Amway business are losers
48. for saying don’t do anything and don’t buy anything without first counselling with your upline
49. for telling us not to socialize with friends and family who are not in the Amway business
50. for saying “always edify your upline”
51. for being annoying as hell
52. for lying about how you’ll buy back books and tapes (ah shit I meant CDs) if we decide not to build an Amway business
53. for lying about how we’ll collect residual income for the rest of our lives
54. for telling us to cancel our plans if you want to schedule a last minute business meeting
55. for saying “if the dream is big enough then the facts don’t count”
56. for berating us if we didn’t bring any prospects to an Amway meeting
57. for giving us “lines” to use to trick people into attending an Amway meeting
58. for holding late night meetings
59. for causing financial losses
60. for causing emotional distress
61. for scolding us if we miss a meeting
62. for being the biggest bunch of liars I’ve ever met
63. for being the greediest assholes I’ve ever met
64. for being the biggest troublemaking bastards I’ve ever met

OK I think I’ve said enough fuck you’s for now. If I keep thinking about it the list will keep growing and I have to stop this post sometime! Feel free to load up the comments with the many ways you want to say FUCK YOU IBO!

Find People Who Want to Save Money

“We want to show you how to save money buying from your own shop and then you find other people who want to save money and teach them how to set up their own shops so they can save money too.”

I heard that phrase many times - or similar wording - at every Amway meeting I attended.

The statement sounds reasonable enough. Shop from your own store and save money buying products that you would purchase anyway. Yeah, sounds good. Everyone wants to save money and get good deals on products they regularly purchase.

The problem is our upline bullied Ambot into changing his spending habits to buy shit that we never bought before, that I didn’t like, and often we didn’t end up using. He didn’t save money because he spent way more money than if he’d purchased comparably priced products at the grocery and drug store. And we ended up wasting money by throwing out a bunch of useless, shitty Amway products.

How is that saving us money? We’re spending hundreds of dollars a month on Amway products that we’ve never had on our shopping list. Energy drinks, food bars, bottled water, and vitamins to mention a few.

I don’t consider myself an avid shopper but I hit the drug stores and grocery stores enough times that I have a good idea of prices and quality and good value.

Ambot does not. Oh he might spot a good deal and stock up on the item but for the most part he doesn’t know how much things cost at the store.

He blindly accepted the upline’s (bad) advice that Amway’s products would save us money and these items were better quality than what could be purchased at the local retailers and that he should buy, buy, buy! He MUST be his own best customer. Including himself and a few occasional pity purchasers his customer base was five.

Because of the upline’s influence over Ambot being  his own best customer I got stuck using inferior products that did not save us money.

The real damage with the “save money” by shopping at your own store philosophy is IBO’s like Ambot do not do price comparisons with other retailers and overspend by buying stuff that they normally would not have purchased.

I know how to save money when I’m shopping. Its by having a good idea of what the prices are of groceries and sundries that I regularly purchase at the grocery and drug stores and recognizing when something is on sale at a decent enough price to buy it. Then I watch the flyers and when I see something on sale that I regularly purchase I stock up. If I see something in the flyer that’s a good price but its not something I need - I don’t buy it. See? Saving money?

I save a lot of money now that we don’t have to buy overpriced Amway products.

Turn Off Your Cell Phones!

At every Amway board plan meeting I attended, the person who lived there stood up to introduce the pompous sack of shit Platinum. Seeing as how it was pretty much always the same group of about 10 or 12 people and we all knew who he was - why bother? He could have just stepped into the room and started talking. But instead he wants to be introduced like he’s some big rock star.

Meetings started at 8pm (if they started on time that is) and before the Platinum started  the brainwashing session the person introducing him would ask everyone to turn off their cell phones. Pretty much everyone dutifully complied.

Yeah you guessed it. I was the rogue stand out. Most people I know don’t phone that late at night - and here I’m talking after 9 - unless there is an emergency. If there is an emergency I want to be reachable. To hell with the sack of shit Platinum.

Sadly, my phone never rang once at any Amway meetings I attended. Likely due to most people who phone me its usually earlier in the day and most people call me on the house phone not my cell. I rarely give out my cell number.

One night we’re sitting in a living room and there's a fair amount of people there, maybe 30 or 40. Ambot wasn’t sitting with me. He was standing in the back of the room. This particular home had comfy living room furniture. I was in an easy chair or couch, don’t really recall, and I was sinking into it enjoying how soft it was. The Platinum was boring me with the same old same old and I’d closed my eyes and was hoping to fall asleep but unfortunately I didn’t.

Later on Ambot told me that the “sharp businessmen” he was standing with in the back of the living room had noticed and asked him if I was falling asleep to which he agreed it sure looked like it. They were really pissed off that I was being bored to sleep by their amazing Platinum. Ambot tipped them off that my cell phone likely hadn’t been turned off and they thought it might be fun to phone me and that I’d be embarrassed by the phone ringing in the middle of the sack of shit's brainwashing session. I think Ambot convinced them that I wouldn’t be embarrassed if my phone rang. In fact I might not hear it. I mean I’d hear it but I wouldn’t associate it with it with my phone ringing. I would just think someone else had the same ring tone as I have.

What really bugged the shit out of me was that Ambot gave my cell phone number WITHOUT MY PERMISSION to the asshole sponsor and a couple of other people in our upline I don’t recall who. I don’t want any of these bastards knowing my phone number or phoning me. I can only hope they’ve all deleted me out of their contacts. None of them were ever in my contact list.

I just dare that arrogant prick that sponsored us to ever phone me. I'll give him shit supreme like he's never heard before!

Don’t phone me and I won’t phone you.

Amway Warriors

At some of the major functions I attended I often heard the speakers from stage refer to the husband as a warrior. The man would call himself a warrior fighting for his family’s financial future. And the wife, good little Barbie Ambot, would look adoringly at her husband and sigh “My warrior.”

Too sickening even for a paperback romance novel!

Amway warriors. Off to fight a war. Of course the big battle is signing up new IBO’s and convincing other people to buy overpriced Amway products.

Ambot would be so fired up after getting home from the function that he’d often send me text messages signed “love, your warrior”.

I’m a pacifist. My blog isn’t the venue to get into a political discussion on any wars or civil unrest going on in the world but suffice it to say that pacifists oppose fighting and war and therefore the term warrior is not such a popular choice to sway any pacifists.

I couldn’t possibly be the only pacifist in a stadium with 10,000 people or however many the stadium holds.

Warriors! Sounds like a game kids play.

Maybe somebody else has better insight on why Amway Diamonds call themselves warriors. Off to war. Fighting a battle against those who oppose the Amway scam.

I came across a post written by a blogger who calls himself the 8pm Warrior where he discusses if MLM is a good opportunity for 8pm warriors. http://8pmwarrior.com/2011/01/is-multi-level-marketing-mlm-a-good-opportunity-for-8pm-warriors/

First off I want to say I love the name “8pm Warrior”. That is so true of Amway Ambots marching off to their 8pm cult meetings. This blogger is not an Amway IBO but when I first heard of him I thought he might be which is why I took a peek.

This particular post got a few comments including several from a “James” who admits to 10+ year involvement in Quixtar/Amway. He writes rather lengthy responses explaining his point of view as an IBO. A lot of typical Amway speak. To give the guy credit his responses are well written and thought out but for all I know he’s copied and pasted from similar posts that he plasters all over the Internet. Many months ago Joecool had a blog visitor named James leaving similar comments and responses to his posts. I can’t help thinking it might be the same guy because he invites others to contact him to further discuss the Amway opportunity. So did the poster named James who commented on Joecool’s blogs. Doesn’t really matter one way or the other except that Joecool’s “James” has not been heard of in a long time and I wondered if this was him resurfacing.

Lets all wait a couple of days and then go back and look at the 8pm Warriors blog and see if Tex has showed up to educate James on his idiotic comments!

Amway warriors? Go to bed little boys.

Why wives want their husbands to quit Amway

Separate and divide!

That’s the upline’s motto when a husband is more interested in being an Amway IBO than the wife is. When word is out that the wife wants her husband to quit Amway the upline kicks up their campaign to bust up their relationship. Can’t let her get in the way of their income, can they?

In many cases its the husband who has been prospected into the Amway business by a relative or friend. Sometimes the husband and wife are prospected together and shown the business plan. Usually the husband is eager to join Amway because the sponsor or upline has put the screws to him saying stuff like “Don’t you want your wife to be free from her job and be at home for your children?” Or “Don’t you want to provide for your family?” Or “If you don't do the business you’re risking your family's future and don't you love your family and want the best for them?”

The women tend to look at the numbers - dollars and the amount of people needed to make them - and might say it looks good on paper but in reality how likely is it that we can actually find enough people to sponsor as IBO’s and buy Amway products to actually make this business work.

If the wife isn’t all that interested in attending Amway meetings and buying products the cult leader brainwashes the husband to believe his wife is “negative to his business” and then starts the process of separating him from his wife.

Its a tough spot for a wife to be in. She wants to support her husband but she doesn’t want anything to do with those brainwashed cult followers who are hell bent on destroying their marriage.

The wife is likely negative to the business because the husband is spending hundreds of dollars a month on expensive Amway products, CDs, books, meetings and functions, monthly membership into whatever line of sponsorship he’s in, and any other miscellaneous tools that the upline decides he must throw his money at. The husband no longer has time for her, the family, outings, and events that may conflict with “the business” that the upline pressures him into making the number one priority in his life. The wife is not happy with the ugly personality change that is happening to her husband.

For all his efforts and money spent trying to build a business the husband is likely coming up zippo trying to convince people to come to board plan meetings, let alone sign up any new IBO’s. Its also hard to find retail customers. Once people know its Amway they’re usually not interested due to the high prices and Amway’s bad reputation as a scam. The husband becomes more aggressive hounding friends and family to buy those shitty Amway products and it doesn’t take long for people to start avoiding him. The husband undergoes a complete personality change basically turning from a sweet loving man into a nasty snarling ugly Ambot who becomes increasingly angry as he faces reality that his hard work is not bringing results.

The wife just wants her husband back. She wants those Amway cult followers out of their lives. She wants her husband to stop blowing their money on Amway tools and products.

She’s tired of being accused of being non-supportive, non-Christian, a people hater, holding him back, etc.

Enough is enough.

The breaking point is near. If it hasn’t already been reached.

Something has to give.

Will it be Amway? Or will it be the marriage?

Signs that Amway will soon take a back burner

The Internet is full of stories about marriages destroyed by involvement in Amway.

Most of the stories its the husband who’s the Amway keener and the wife who may be supportive at first then wants nothing to do with it, especially after she’s seeing how’s it changing her husband for the worse. Whether that’s because more men than women are involved in Amway or whether its because more wives hit the Internet to complain than husbands I don’t know. Sorry guys. This post is taking the position that the husband is the Ambot.

Its been my personal experience and from other stories I’ve read that the husband will usually leave Amway on his own inside one year due to one of several things happening:

1. He finally comes to senses after not signing up any IBO’s or finding retail customers and realizes that he’s wasting his time in this business. Amway’s bad reputation for overpriced products and abusive IBO’s is a tough obstacle to overcome. Most people he prospects have had bad experiences with Amway or know someone who has and don’t want nothing to do with it. The word is out: RUN don’t walk away from Amway!

2. He runs out of money or hits the limit on his credit cards. There’s no money left to fund his upline’s dreams. Unfortunately if he ran up thousands of dollars on his credit card the Amway nightmare might take years to pays off.

3. He stops going to Amway meetings or goes less often. That’s a good sign he’s become fed up and disenchanted with this business opportunity. Often he stops going because the speaker - usually the Platinum - insults him and mocks him for not being “man enough” to build a business.

4. He finally reads the fine print on his Amway business plan and realizes less than 1% of IBO’s actually make money and recognizes it for the shitty business opportunity it is.

5. He starts looking around on the Internet and gets answers to questions that his upline refuse to answer.

6. He stops buying shitty Amway products or less of them. Now this just might mean he’s low on money and this could only be a temporary setback but hopefully it means he saw similar products at Wal-Mart or Costco for a third to a quarter of the price and realizes Amway products are not such a good deal after all.

Now those are just a few signs to look for that he’s losing interest or has become disenchanted with the business, or had an argument with someone upline, or got tired of being mocked in meetings.

It doesn’t matter which one because he’s had enough and is on the way out. Wait it out. Don’t even mention anything about Amway.

There might be small setbacks when someone upline phones and bullies him into buying products or going to a meeting and his mind isn’t completely clear of the brainwashing and he complies.

A good counterattack is to plan fun outings on nights when Amway meetings are scheduled. If he chooses to go out and have fun with his wife instead of putting on a business suit and meeting up with the other cult followers, that means Amway is on the downslide.

Have a little coffee with your makeup?

Someone in Ambot’s upline decided he had to hold a coffee klatch at our house and then whip out the Artistry cosmetics.

Ambotta, one of the women in our upline - I think she was Eagle or had been at one time - was planning to come over with her makeup kit and assist our coffee klatchers with their makeup applications.

Ambot got busy inviting all women he came across in his daily activities visiting stores, filling up the gas tank, etc. He actually had a fair amount of women - like about 6 or 7 - agree to come over for coffee and makeup.

We picked up some gourmet coffee beans, bought biscotti and cookies and were ready to go. Ambotta said she’d be over at 6:30 to set up, half an hour before our guests were scheduled to arrive.

At 6:30 Ambotta hadn’t arrived. Ambot phoned her. Her cell phone went to voice mail and he left her a message asking where she was and if her car had broken down again and if she needed a ride. She lived in a nearby apartment and Ambot started panicking that she was out in the parking lot and her car wouldn’t start and her husband wasn’t home and unable to drive her. Ambot phoned 3 times all going to voice mail. It looks like Ambot’s blood pressure is about to go through the roof!

A couple of things happened at 7pm. First no one showed up. Now there’s a big surprise. Deja vu. Just like what always happens whenever we host an Amway event. Second Ambotta finally phones back and asks if anyone had shown up. Answer is no. Surprise, surprise. Ambotta is relieved because she didn’t really want to come out to our coffee klatch anyway and so she cancelled.

Ambot is freaking out. All his guests - every single one of them! - is running late. They’ll all be here any minute and he won’t have any makeup for them to try on. I don’t wear Artistry makeup so its not like I had anything in the makeup drawer. Well I had Avon products but that’s probably not what Ambot had in mind.

I tell him not to sweat it. If anyone shows up we’ll enjoy coffee and conversation with our guests. About ten after seven Ambot is starting to accept that no one is going to show up and after another ten minutes passed he started cleaning up the kitchen.

Fortunately our losses were rather minimal this time probably less than $20. The coffee we’d be able to consume ourselves, likewise with the cookies and biscotti.

Getting big hits on Google for Dream Night

I checked my keyword stats for my blog and for some oddball reason my Dream Stealers post is getting a lot of hits by people googling “Brad Duncan Dream Night Vancouver 2011”.

For the past month or so I’ve been getting lots of google hits for my posts on Dream Night - namely Dream Night Dishonesty and Dream Night is a financial orgy.

I put in the above search criteria to see what’s going on with the Dream Stealers post as opposed to one of the other Dream Night posts. Brad Duncan’s name is in the comments. January 2011 is when the post was published likewise with all the comments - over 50 at last count! - so 2011 is a huge hit attracter. Not sure if Dream Night is mentioned in any of those comments, likewise I don’t remember anyone mentioning Vancouver. Even with those last two words missing its still coming up on the Google site as number 5. Amthrax is number 4. Number 2 makes no sense at all - the official site of the Chicago Blackhawks. Number 1 and 3 appear to be personal websites belonging to IBO’s, whether or not they’re current is unknown because I didn’t click on the links and one of them posted in 2007.

I wondered if the search engine results would be any different on Google Canada because you have to figure Canadian IBOs would be checking Vancouver. The difference now is the Chicago Blackhawks page moves into number 1. Some sports page moves into number 2. And the 2007 IBO is still number 3. Dream Stealers moves into number 4 and Amthrax into number 5.

The really bizarre thing is nowhere on the first couple of search pages (because I didn’t keep looking) is no official information from Amway or WWDB websites about their Dream Night.

I have no idea when or if Dream Night 2011 is being held in Vancouver. I have no idea if Brad Duncan is going to be a speaker. It would appear that IBOs are also unable to find this information because they keep clicking the link and ending up at my blog.

This post serves no purpose other than to keep screwing up the Google searches and sending horrified IBOs to a blog they don’t want to read. I have never attended a Dream Night in Vancouver where Brad Duncan was the speaker in 2011 or any other year. No point in actually mentioning other years just in case my blog slips out of one of the top spots! Ha ha!

Whew! Hope this post messes up those Google searches even more! Feel free to load up the comments with any of the above search criteria!

Not Sniping Prospects at the Mall

If you're looking for something pointless to do, try this.

One night the Platinum sack of shit called a “special meeting” for a select small group of IBO’s. Unfortunately we were on the summons list and met up with other ambots at a mall. The Platinum gave instructions. We had to approach people and ask for directions on how to get somewhere. For example if we saw someone drinking coffee we had to ask them where that coffee shop was located. Or we had to approach random people and ask them if they had a cell phone and if there was there a store in the mall that sold cell phones. That type of thing. There was a thirty minute time limit and we had to get back to the meeting place and have our responses either written down enroute or we could write them down once we got back to show to the Platinum as proof we’d approached people.

The exercise was to randomly start a conversation asking directions because most people are open to assisting others to get them where they need to go. It was kind of funny the man we asked about a cell phone pulled his out and showed us all the features and spent some time telling us about it and where he’d bought it. For all that time spent chatting with him about a phone Ambot never got his phone number!

I suppose this little exercise was to teach us how to approach strangers and strike up a conversation. None of the conversations we had asking for directions expanded to an Amway pitch or asking for a phone number. That wasn’t part of the strike up a conversation exercise.

I think the real point of this exercise was to see who’d be the first ass kisser to bring a coffee back to the Platinum.

Just another way to waste an hour on Amway. Got to fill those 10 to 15 hours a week somehow!

Why people are looking for Anna Banana

I checked my stats to see what keywords people are using in Google searches to end up at my blog. Some people end up here whether they want to or not! Here are today's top searches. Click on the link if you're interested on where people end up because sometimes the phrase they're searching for doesn't really have that much to do with that particular post. FYI - I've never given directions on the dish drops pump dispenser!

Anna Banaba? Another Joecool alias?

1. Jim Dornan cancer

2. How many customers do you need to make 4k in Amway

3. Dream Night Amway

4. Artistry Cosmetics top brands

5. Does Artistry makeup do products for black women

6. Recession proof business

7. WWDB Grand Opening

8. WWDB lemming

9. World’s worst selling makeup

10. How to open the Amway dish drops pump dispenser

11. Picture of Amway lipstick testers box

12. marriedtoanambot

13. anna banaba

14. download ambot

15. Social Security won't be there

16. Why social security won’t be around

Dream Stealers

Dream Stealers.

It almost sounds like alien invaders descending from an unknown universe ready to suck out the part of your body where your dreams are kept.

I constantly heard the term “dream stealers” during Amway meetings and then parrotted by Ambot.

In an accusatory tone he condemned our friends and relatives who didn’t support his business as dream stealers. “They’re trying to steal my dream” or “they don’t want my dreams to come true”. Those were terms he threw at me too as counselled by the assholes in his upline.

Its a stupid term used as a lame excuse by IBO’s to justify their failure at not making money in Amway. Everyone else is a dream stealer. Always blame other people.

There’s a Disney song about how a dream is a wish your heart makes. If your dream is in your heart then no one can steal your dream. Not without some surgical tools to slice you open and kill you by removing your heart.

So what was Ambot’s dream? It was whatever the upline told him his dream was. It had something to do with leaving me. That was the upline’s dream more than it was Ambot’s.

But how many of those upline fuckers ever asked me once what my dream was? Not a single one of them. I mean really, why would they? None of them gave a shit about me.

And they all probably could take a good guess at my answer: “To get Ambot the hell away from you bastards and quit Amway!!!”

What about IBOs who leave the cult. They’re also called dream stealers. They’re poison. Stay away from them or they’ll steal your dream too.

A dream is a thought, an idea. Its in your head and in your heart. Its not an actual entity. I’m not sure how you can lose something that is not an object like losing your car keys or your glasses. Or the cat got out of the house and is lost. Or I lost Ambot again at Lowes. Someone can steal the keys, the glasses, the cat, maybe even Ambot as attempted by the cult followers. If someone steals your car you call the police to report the theft. How can someone steal your dream? And how do you explain that one to the cops when you phone to report the theft?

“Aw, gee, my next door neighbor is a dream stealer and he stole my dream of owning a Porsche. I demand you arrest that son of a bitch and charge him with theft!”

“Dream stealers” is just one of many ridiculous things I’ve heard spout from the mouths of brainwashed IBOs. Dream stealers are further defined as losers, failures, and people going nowhere who want to drag you down to their level.

The reality about “dream stealers” is they are usually people who love you and don’t want to see you fail, lose your money in a scam, and suffer from any kind of distress.

Dream stealers have an alternate point of view from the upline and that makes them dangerous people - at least in the eyes of the Platinum because they could be responsible for letting those dollar signs slip away.

Is it a bad thing to listen to the “dream stealers”? Instead of stealing a dream are they really giving good advice? IBOs think the “dream stealers” are being negative and trying to “steal my dream”. Instead all they’re doing is trying to save the IBO from making bad business decisions.

Remember those alien invaders who are sucking the dreams out of your body? They’re not so alien after all. The real dream stealers are the people who actually use that phrase.

Demographic groups that Ambot was taught to target

At almost every meeting I attended that the Platinum sack of shit instructed the IBO’s to prospect people under the age of 35. That’s where the best prospects are he’d claim. Those were the movers and the shakers. These are the people who are going to make it big in Amway. He also said this was the age group who were most unlikely to have heard the name Amway. He pointed out that people older than 35 probably had negative opinions on Amway because they or someone they knew had already tried the business and failed.

Under 35 huh? Did Ambot have his ears on? We were past that moving and shaking demographic. Our time had come and gone. According to the Platinum - and everything he said was unquestioned by Ambot to be the gospel truth - it was too late for us. So what were we doing wasting our time and money is all I could think when I heard the “don’t prospect anyone over 35” speech at the Amway meetings.

The Amway business opportunity is presented in a tantalizing manner by a charismatic cult leader to appeal to kids recently out of school, new immigrants, the unemployed, the disabled, and stay at home parents. Its also appealing to people looking  to expand their circle of friends. Attending Amway meetings is like belonging to an expensive social club.

The problem with most of the people in the above groups is that they usually do not have money to invest in Amway. They might be able to scrape together the $150 join up fee that will give them membership to the social club and let them attend Amway meetings several times a week. Sometimes they can find money or use a credit card to invest hundreds or thousands of dollars in the Amway scam. They spend long hours attending meetings and trying to find prospects and earn a tiny amount of money if they earn anything at all.

We didn’t really know anyone in those groups mentioned above. A neighbor in her 50’s had been injured at work and was off on disability and said money was tight. Ambot was all over her telling her Amway was the answer to her financial problems. Fortunately she didn’t believe him. Ambot would “counsel with upline” about her and get “lines” to use to overcome her objections. Ambot would get so angry that she wasn’t listening to his tirade on starting her own Amway business and he was quoting a bunch of bullshit from his upline that there was nothing else out there for her and she was missing out on a great business opportunity that was going to give her residual income forever and she’d never have to worry about money again.

I was uncomfortable belonging to a business that preys on the disadvantaged. In good conscience I could never badger anyone into attending an Amway meeting or buying overpriced products.

IBO’s are given a demographic list of people to prospect. Bottom line is they prey on everybody, not just the disadvantaged, but that group seems to be the easy mark. The relatively gullible prey are people who are in financial straits and could use money and/or could use friends.

I feel so much relief that Ambot and I did not ferret out these people and bring even more grief to their lives.

666

"666"

Is it any coincidence that World Wide Dream Builders uses those numbers as part of their business plan?

And I’m going out on a limb here because I have no proof one way or the other, but I think it would be logical that WWDB would have to get their business plan concept approved by someone at Amway corporate office before turning it loose on the IBO’s. If I’ve guessed correctly then Amway is in agreement that WWDB’s 666 business plan is reasonable and acceptable to put into action.

“All you have to do is eat one Amway meal bar a day and drink one Amway beverage a day. And then you find 6 people who do what you do and eat one and drink one daily. And then they find 6 people.”

I heard that 666 philosophy several times a week at business plans.

The sign of the beast. Our sponsor. Our Platinum. WWDB. Amway.

They are all beasts. Take your pick.

Coincidence or perfectly planned execution?

Free download of David Bach's "Debt Free for Life" January 5 2011 only

This post has nothing to do with Amway, Ambot, or our troublemaking upline.

If anyone follows David Bach's series of books - The Automatic Millionaire, Finish Rich series - then January 5 is the day to get a free PDF file of his latest book Debt Free for Life that was released last month I think. Just go to his website http://www.finishrich.com/ fill in your name and email and he'll email you a link to download the book for free. Act fast if you want it. After January 5 you'll pay full price! No strings attached. He did this last year too with his recent release offering a one day free download and I got that one last year.

I have not read this book yet and I don't gain any benefit by sending others to his website. Just trying to help out anyone who follows David Bach's advice which is way better financial advice than you'll ever get from anyone in your Amway upline!

Of course the best advice I can give anyone to be debt free for life is to stay the hell away from Amway!

Artistry Cosmetics Google Searches

I get a lot of hits from Google searches looking for “Artistry cosmetics” or “Artistry cosmetics Euromonitor”. Undoubtedly some searchers are IBO’s or their potential customers and they’re looking for product information and they come across my page about Artistry and realize it wasn’t what they were looking for.

I decided to check it out. When I put “Artistry cosmetics” into Google my blog is #12. If I add Euromonitor to the search criteria its #5. The top page hits ahead of my blog are Amway propaganda pages about Artistry and a couple of IBO’s looking for customers. Or that’s my best guess. I didn’t actually click on any of those links. I’ll let IBOFB do that and report back if I guessed wrong in case he thinks I care!

I decided to try Google in a few other countries and chose countries with languages I understand: Canada, United Kingdom, Mexico, and Spain. Similar search results with Euromonitor about #4 or #5, but typing just “Artistry cosmetics” the other countries are #8 showing up on Google’s first page.

OK now I’m sure IBOFB is going to double check those countries Google search engines and come back to announce that my page has slipped to #15 or whatever and say that he checked a couple of random countries like Siberia and Iraq and my post about Artistry isn’t even on the radar.

As I already said I think some hits are IBOs looking for product information and then they leave when they see my blog wasn’t what they were looking for but many visitors stay awhile reading my other posts. That tells me IBOs or their disenchanted spouses are doing what I did and looking for information to find out if the speakers from the stage were lying when they said Artistry is one of the top 5 cosmetics companies in the world.

If you read my previous blog about Artistry and the following comments IBOFB shows up and says that according to Euromonitor Artistry is one of the top 5 prestige cosmetics in the world. Well I’d never heard of Euromonitor until then and thats probably the case for many people on this side of the Atlantic. In fact I thought it was a magazine but it turns out to be a market research firm. Perhaps Amway should have used an American market research firm whose name would be familiar to people on this side of the pond.

I never ever heard a Platinum, Emerald, or Diamond speaker say Artistry is one of the top 5 “prestige” cosmetics. They always said Artistry is the top 5 best selling or top 5 best in the world.

After IBOFB gave us a few good laughs about how Artistry is in the top 5 prestige cosmetics companies the comments turned to what women are looking for when buying cosmetics. No one considers “prestige” when buying makeup. More important considerations are price, selection, and quality. That’s how women select their cosmetics. We like to get good value for our money.

Bottom line is it doesn’t matter to me where I end up on the Google search engine. My blog serves as healing tool for me to vent about our sponsor and upline and the financial and emotional distress that goes hand in hand with being involved in the cult but I wonder how Amway feels about my blog being right behind the top hits about Artistry propaganda. A lot of people seeking information click on my link and see:

a. I prefer Avon

b. Artistry is too high priced

c. the Forbes list of the world’s top 10 selling cosmetics

d. a bunch of funny comments about prestige makeup

If the readers are not too brainwashed that gives them something to think about. Namely they discover the speakers from the stage lied to them.