Having been involved with a website called compareXtraincome.com for the last couple of years, I decided that it was high time for me to personally try one of the advertised opportunities. I decided to go with the Forever Living opportunity based upon a couple of key reasons.
I have long been a fan of Aloe-Vera products and I have experienced some of the Forever products before; which seemed to be of a high quality. I've also heard a few people say that they've had significant benefit from the juice product that they make.
I somewhat randomly met the distributor at a pub-quiz night, a delightfully bubbly girl named Mia. I thought that this was a good enough time to give the thing a whirl, there isn't that much to lose.
So far, I've spent about £200 for a starter box, which I'm going to pick up this afternoon. I was previously given some samples which I tried out myself to my reasonable satisfaction.
I'm most interested in the juice and to find some significant health benefit from this. I'm looking to generally feel more energetic, especially in the evening. I hope also to be healthier in terms of having far fewer colds. I tend currently to have a cold each season of the year.
If possible, I'd like to improve sleeping, though I've not heard anyone mention aloe-vera for any benefit in this department. Being a keen runner, I am also very motivated in finding a product or supplement that would help maintain or better still, to improve the knee joints, which I've had problems with.
My next appointment, was to see my sponsor's sponsor, which I was a tad late for, but I did warn beforehand. I was a little bit confused as to why the person two levels “up-line” from me would want to invest her time in training me, but it soon became fairly clear that there is an inherent benefit to strengthen the “morale” and knowledge of the team-members in the network.
This was somewhat enlightening as though I've been involved with buying and selling for many years, I haven't seen it quite from this perspective before. Your upline do not sell to you, they only have an interest in you selling the product and preferably to build your own downline team to do the same. It can seem perhaps a little strange, but in some ways it is only just a different mechanism for getting products and product knowledge to the customer.
My (still low) knowledge of MLM businesses has mostly come from conversations with Hailey from compareXtraincome.com who tried to explain to me (despite my poor concentration span) the details of her Kleeneeze agency. The model of earning money seem to be very much the same. I didn't fancy doing the Kleeneeze agency because I thought the products were a bit expensive for what they were.
The Forever Living range of products have been described to me as “higher quality for medium price”, which appeals to me much more. I cant really see the point in being involved with a business where I felt the products weren't "right" for me to recommend.
I have been taking the Aloe based juice for about ten days now and am possibly (though not definitely) thinking that my knees feel a bit better. I run every day, which I know is perhaps not the most sensible thing to do....but I'm addicted to it. I feel as though I have more energy for the rest of the day after having run.
I also hate feeling overweight and running does seem to keep the pounds off. It's difficult to know at this stage, as to whether the possible-felt improvements are just psychological (e.g. willing it to be so) or not; I suppose I will have better information on this in a month or so.
I was encouraged by my sponsor Mia, to go to the regular evening event for Forever living. This takes place weekly, on a Tuesday at the Holiday Inn, Barnwood, Gloucester. I arrived there at 7.30 and found the conference room. I'd admit that I wasn't overly looking forward to this. I thought that the hype might just be a bit too much for my liking.
I was asked beforehand to dress smartly, which I think I just about managed to do. The room was mostly attended by those who are already agents but also with a good smattering of those who had been invited but as yet hadn't been assimilated (poor choice of word, but I can't help putting in the this word (Star-Trek fans know what I'm talking about).
There were projected images from a laptop computer to focus the attention of the audience. Then started the presentation from a series of females between 30 and 50ish years of age, who have been involved with Forever for varying lengths of time, some over 10 years with the company.
It was noticeable that just about everyone who is involved with the company look pretty good for their ages. They tend to be more “vital” than your average person. I've never been a religious person, but I can see (and expected to) sense the sort of atmosphere that evangelical Christians tend to have; the bonhomie seems to radiate from beaming smiles all round. All ok, even for a cynic like me.
The best presenter though, from the entertainment perspective, was a middle-aged chap named Carl, who talked about the best-selling products within the Forever range. Carl (a self-confessed IT buff) made his pitch, which was surprisingly laced with witticims and well practised spiel; all good stuff.
He certainly has an extremely positive view of the products, and made plenty of claims which may or not be plausible, ``e.g. the shampoo preventing hair-loss. I'm open minded about it all. I'm not a gullible sort, so will naturally put up some reasonable scepticism about everything I'm told. You have to have some scepticism in life or you'd be prey to every snake-oil salesman going. I can only be honest, and will only give honest appraisals of the products once I've tested them sufficiently.
Later in the week, I again met up with the lady who is the sponsor of my sponsor (Mia). She seems to be genuinely interested in the ways in which I intend to be selling the product and finding new agents. The normal process is to talk to friends and family about the product so as they would also become agents.
This process evidently suits most people, but it doesn't suit me. I would much rather find people who are already looking for this type of opportunity and talk to them instead. I don't particularly need the money for doing this, so this may explain somewhat.
I am already self-employed and have been so for very nearly 20 years. In this time, I've set up a few businesses and enjoyed the process of it, particularly since the Internet came along, and made everything sooooo much easier.