Monday, June 21, 2010

Renew is the Best Lotion in the World

Since being diabetic, the slightest tap or brush on the skin of my shins will peel the thinnest layer of skin back that you can imagine (like peeling from a sunburn).

For several hours, there is no sign of blood or redness.

Next day, it's all bloody - not running but just internal surface bleeding. Next thing you know, it develops a very thick scab that stays around (depending on how diabetic I am at the time) 3-6 weeks and leaves a permanent dark spot afterward. So my lower legs are a mass of brown skin and purple skin where it hasn't finished healing. In fact, it pretty much stays purple permanently, come to think of it.

Then comes Renew. Purple gone or going. Lubricates skin so that the peeling is much less likely to occur when scraped or bumped. Purple going away and leaving pure brown spots. But those can fade too, especially if I apply comfrey. Skin was flaky, never flaky any more after Renew, even after I wash it off. I can apply, shower 3 times and apply again.

The flakiness was apparently a condition under which the peeling was very prone to happen. Now the skin is not only lubricated, but actually has more integrity. Don't know that it's thicker, but it is stronger.

Climbed a mulberry tree today and had my fill of berries. Was wearing shorts. Watched as bark and branches scraped my lower legs but did no damage.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Melaleuca is a Tree, not a Pyramid

I have been guilty of using the word 'pyramid' when describing the Melaleuca business model, referring to the tree form of compensation. I thought MLM described the bad kind of pyramid and Direct Consumer Marketing (Melaleuca) the good kind of pyramid.

Well, I don't really know whether there is a universally correct nomenclature, but I am becoming familiar with the concepts.

I know of 2 basic differences between Melaleuca and legitimate MLMs: 1 - In Melaleuca, you enroll to buy products directly from the company, not the person who enrolled you, whereas in a legit MLM, you buy products from the person. So in the MLM, it's about selling products as a distributor and in Melaleuca, it's about referral compensation, giving the independent agent a percentage based on all purchases of the referral for as long as the referral continues their enrollment. 2 - Melaleuca ensures that your downline cannot simply pick up and move out from under you, leaving you to start over, no matter how big your business you built. Other companies lack such rules.

As I understand it, the basic difference between legitimate network marketing and a fraud is, the legit network serves to spread the word of mouth about the company, eliminating advertising costs and allowing competitive prices and value, and encourages help and support of new businesses from older ones. Because of the value in the product, opportunity for new business is as great as the old. Fraudulent "companies" typically have no real product and use a funnel (pyramid) simply to flow money from as many people as possible to one or a few. This scenario is like any funnel - you pour something in and it all goes through, leaving nothing at the big end of the funnel. You could also liken a pyramid to an Egyptian tomb wherein the block at the top enjoys the view at the expense of the blocks underneath. Some of these schemes are more disguised as legit companies than others. The less disguised schemes simply play on peoples' greed and willingness to gamble they will move up in the pyramid before it burns out. They use hype to quickly make their money. But disguised or not, these are illegal.

The National District Attorneys Association calls the fraudulent schemes "pyramids," and the legitimate companies "MLMs." Melaleuca likes to call itself neither, mainly (I think) because its members do not buy or carry inventory or invest significantly. In any case, one mark of a legitimate company is the ease in quitting whenever one desires, whether they can simply drop membership not having made an investment (only purchases with which they are satisfied) or have their inventory bought back by the company.

I have yet to know the details of the Melaleuca business. There is a lot more to it than I describe here. But money doesn't just go to one person in Melaleuca and it doesn't flow all the way to the top. They have it worked out to compensate generously and fairly according to one's role in the marketing success, as in any good and legitimate company.

So I made a mistake. I take it back from everyone to whom I ever said it was a pyramid but different. It is not a pyramid at all. It is more like a tree.

Think of a family tree. There are 2 ways to see a family as a tree. One is the usual genealogical diagram that shows you as the trunk and all your ancestors as the branches. In other words, your ancestors branch out as you go back in time. Another way to look at it is the way your posterity branches out (hopefully, but not in all cases) from you and your spouse, going forward in time. In this scheme, the parents and grandparents support and nurture the new branches as they sprout and grow skyward. The parents and grandparents enjoy the multiplying and residual benefits as the upper branches grow. Yet the new branches have as much opportunity (all else being equal) to become rich grandparents as any of the older generations. In no case does a small branch support a heavier one.

Melaleuca is like a tree.

You may say, trees only grow so big. Okay, so the allegory is not perfect because unlike a tree, there is no foreseeable limit to Melaleuca's growth. Or maybe Melaleuca, the company, will die some day. If it does, no one will be burned. The worst that could happen is my residual income could go away after all that hard work. But I would still have what I had received thus far, including the glad experience of said work and the personal growth there gained.

I am no expert, I am still learning. But I know people first hand who got pretty far into an MLM before finding out it wasn't structured the way they had been led to believe and they lost everything overnight - and that was in a "legit" MLM. As far as I know, that is virtually impossible in Melaleuca.

I think a lot of people are creeped out by direct marketing because it's unconventional or involves sales people who infiltrate into the community. People are conditioned to think of it as some kind of cult thing. But really, it is the mark of a free capitalist society and has been around forever. What a wonderful thing to be able to produce a product and just go out and sell it to anyone any way you can reach them! Our government continues to lay on more red tape to burden us as time goes on, but still basically lets us venture this way. Take Watkins Company or Fuller Brush for example. Just a fine line of high quality products sold by sales people, door to door. Watkins has been around more than 100 years. Awesome. America.

As Melaleuca founder (or whatever his title is) Frank L. Vandersloot says, there is nothing wrong with business.

Store or door to door. Equally legit. Equally prone to unscrupulous sales tactics and schemes. But I see more bad deals in the stores these days than on the street. Sensationalist advertising, high price and low quality abound these days. Our landfills are filling up faster than they should.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

New Customers

Lots of new customers, after a few months, begin to feel like they are buying more than they need. They have the latent mentality that they would be spending less if they didn't have their 35-point commitment - just because it is a hard-wired commitment.

Precious few (no one to whom I ever gave a presentation) can tell me what they do spend without shopping at Melaleuca, so it is difficult to tell whether they are saving money or what. Some sign up without ever trying it out. Some who feel they are spending too much quit, which is easy to do. Others take a hard look at it and say:

I pay way too much to have a shiny car. It costs more than it is worth. I pay dearly to get my face and hair right. I like to treat myself every week by paying an exorbitant price just for some nice atmosphere and someone to cook for me and serve me. So why not pay a REASONABLE price for luxurious products for my personal care? Why not pay a REASONABLE price for superior consumer goods that make my home life as enjoyable as the moment in the restaurant? Why give it all to the automakers and the junk makers?

And those who want to become millionaires by saving every penny physically (if not humanly) possible are encouraged to quit and move on. Do what you want to do - we do not begrudge it. You have a good reason and you do not need to tell us what it is. Free country; let's keep it that way.

But Isn't there Something Wrong With Free Money Forever?

My referrals sign up with Melaleuca, shop there the rest of their lives and I get paid every month for that as long as they do so without lifting a finger - isn't that like gambling or something? Money for nothing?

Hmmm. Isn't the regular grind more ethical? Isn't traditional marketing more ethical? Let's see. I spend a ton of money on a regular basis to shout cute non-sense and my brand name at you every day. With the money I have left over, I make my product you will buy. You will buy it because you heard me shout the name. And maybe you even believed (without paying much attention) the little embellishments I told along with it. You and I pay the marketing people to do this for us.

Compare that to a company that cuts all that out and says, instead of just shouting our name and telling a few embellishments, and then fattening the wallet of the people that help us do it, we will inform and educate by word-of-mouth, and then with all the money we save, we can reward each customer who has the gumption to tell their friend or neighbor about us by forever paying them a percentage of what that friend or neighbor ever spends. That way, we will be helping people, offering them real value and being kind to our environment forever. We are a good company that way, so it will be good for us to stay in business forever.

Moreover, as time goes on and we grow, other companies will notice and try to compete with us by attempting to offer value for a change. Those who succeed will only make our society better. But for now, we do not have any competition but the traditional marketing because we are so far ahead of the other natural product companies in our research and development - decades, in fact.

The Gist of Melaleuca

By direct marketing (cutting out advertising and middlemen), Melaleuca not only pays its customers, it makes superior products affordable.

Tide depends on Walmart shelf space to survive. Walmart demands perceived quality and low price at the same time from its suppliers. The suppliers, who also pay big for advertising, are forced to water-down and cheapen their products to profit. Yet Walmart demands Tide to increase its concentration. That is why Tide recently did so. They made it 2x concentrated compared to Melaleuca's 6x. But it still contains stuff you wouldn't want in your house or ground water, wears out your clothes (causes lint), doesn't clean as well as Mela Power, etc.

People essentially commit to buy Tide or something of lesser value every month and all the advertising that goes with it. They do so without realizing it because it is traditional marketing. It seems like they are free not to buy from the store regularly, but what are they gonna do - wash their clothes with something home-made? Something from the co-op that is less effective and costs more? Something on-line that they have to go searching for, that is less effective and costs more? Not when they can get it all at one place, pay the same or less as the store and get the superior brand in virtually every product.

We have been regular customers for 5 years, unemployed for 2 of them. We pay less than we used to and we never get behind in nor ahead of our Melaleuca 35-point commitment. Depending on their lifestyle, many single people can say the same - especially if they are into superior vitamins and supplements. When 8 of your friends sign up, you get it free anyway.

Direct marketing also enables Melaleuca to stay in the black as they pay cash for all of their state-of-the-art research and facility capital. No other company does that. It spells "staying power."