The Adventures of the Extreme Freedom Team #8

Greetings all,

I wanted to alert my readers about a few changes that have occurred on the Extreme Freedom Team since the linking started. If you recall, shortly after the Extreme Team Linking occurred, the site went down for a weekend and many of us (myself included) thought that they took it down or it got overloaded, or something. Well, indeed, it was just down for a weekend, but it was up and running. Before it went back up, I created a post called Extreme Freedom Team Link talking a little out the site. In there, I made the comment, “It was a link to some video footage created by Heroic Inspirations, Inc. which is somewhere related to the Quixtar / BWW associated business of Larry & Pam Winters.” Since that has been posted, the Extreme Freedom Team site now has a disclaimer at the bottom which reads, “ANY INDIVIDUALS, MATERIALS, AND ACTIVITIES APPEARING IN ANY VIDEO, AUDIO, PHOTOS, GRAPHICS AND TEXT ON THE EXTREMEFREEDOMTEAM.COM WEBSITE ARE INDEPENDENT OF ANY BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY OR CORPORATE ENTITY”. If this is true, I would like to pose a few questions. The first would be: If these are not to promote any business, why do most of them say such things as “Break Six”, “Come Join Us”, etc? Next, is it a random coincidence that the Extreme Freedom Team just happens to be made up of Larry Winters' complete Diamond downline? Next, if this is just a few shots of fun vacation footage, why the fuss over legalities such as this disclaimer? Next, why is this disclaimer also on there, “WE DISCOURAGE AND DO NOT ENDORSE USING THIS WEBSITE FOR PROSPECTING PURPOSES” and what are we prospecting for? There is a true statement which immediately follows that one which suggests some type of business opportunity…why?

Next, if you check on the site as much as I do, you will notice that some of the videos have gone up and down. The video under the name, ANOTHER VIEW OF THE SHOPPING EXPERIENCE came off and went back up slightly edited. In the original, there was an ending that said, “Diamond, Be Wiser” and it was a take off of the Budweiser logo. That has been removed (which is a needed improvement in my opinion). One of my favorite videos was removed over a week ago and has not been put back up yet, it was the ST. THOMAS, HERE WE COME! video. I really liked the part where Bundy looks into the camera and said, “Come join us! Money…Shopping!” To those at Heroic Inspirations if you are reading this, if you could put that one back up, I enjoy watching it.

And finally, if you have not been over there in the past week, there is a new video. I wanted to do that one today, but I didn’t have the time. It is a good one, it even ends with a bible verse, but sorry, you will have to sit through 15 minutes to see it.

Well, enough talking, on to the post:

Site: www.extremefreedomteam.com

Video: AT THE TOP OF THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE

Video Summary:

The video starts with credits of all the people on the trip. They get off the bus in order strutting into the camera like they are snobby superstars. The rest of the video is simply a bunch of amateurs riding snow mobiles with occasional sentences throwing in like these: “Hey, You got a little backbone, you go Emerald, and you merely climb this hill.” “Hey team, there aint no hills like this in Minnesota.” “Hey guys, wow, this is the Extreme Freedom Team at our jobs, this is our job. We’re at work. Take a look around, look at our office [pointing to the open snow covered mountains].” This video ends with Joe making the ‘live freedom report’ on Communikate ending with the classic phrase, “Come join us.”

Price Comparison Rational

I removed this post in favor of one I did at Quixtar blog:

http://www.webraw.com/quixtar/archives/2006/05/are_quixtar_prices_competitive.php

Thanks,
X

If You Don’t S.T.P., You Don’t E.A.T.

Tape: Heart

Speakers: Ed & Elise Vicinanza

Stock Number: BWW192 (4 Message CD)

Recording Type: ‘Basic Mix’

Motivational Aspects:

These speakers are multiple winners of the Melillo Growth Cup, and they are even current holders of it!

Elise talks about how the people here were going places in life where as the people that she was working with were not going places in life. This caused her to want to learn more about it.

“Our entire upline has been here for twenty, thirty years…thirty five years. They’ve put their who life on the line with integrity and loyalty, obviously, this works.”

“Hard is when Eddie had to work Seven days a week, three months in a row without a day off. That’s hard work.” [And here is the power of employment: CHANGE SOMETHING! If I am being over worked in my job, I find a new one where I do not have to work so hard. If you get into total rock solid work, Amen to that, keep it up, if you want family time, find something else. There are many jobs to suit your needs. Sorry for this rant, but I am sick of the people on stage talking about how they were ‘victims’ of the work force. Eddie worked three jobs sometimes, he chose that. Dave Severn ate pancakes the end of every month because they ‘ran out of money before they ran out of month’, of course, on another tape we learn the reason, “I smoked like I was on fire and drank like I was trying to put it out!” People, in and out of the business, take responsibility for your life. Don’t blame your job or horrible boss for your problems if you have problems that you can solve on your own.]

Cult-like aspects:

Elise talks about the need for child-like faith (Reference to Matthew 19:14) to build the business and then continues, “Things are going to cause you to waiver. Family is going to tell you it’s not going to work, maybe your partner is going to tell you it’s not going to work, those little seeds of doubt, and I want to encourage you that when you get that little seed of doubt, you plug in a tape, when you get that little seed of doubt, you pick up the phone and call your upline, when you get that seed of doubt, you read something to change that negative thought, and you pray that God will help you to get through that issue.” [Elise suggests that when you start to think that this business is not going to work, you need to plug into the system more and/or report those thoughts to the upline. This is very commonly held in cults. It falls under the category of thought stopping. I will also point out the suggestion of praying to God. If you are in this business, I would like you to pray to God about this verse in relation to this business: 1 John 2:15]

“So many times, people talk about the price…How ‘bout you forget the price and just decide to pay the price and just go out there and go after your freedom whatever it takes, it doesn’t make any difference, it doesn’t matter what anybody tells you.”

“There is nothing here to check out…You got to be sold and you got to be bold. The company's on track, BWW’s on track, your upline’s on track,”

Tapespeak

“Unless you S.T.P., you don’t E.A.T.; If you don’t S.T.P., you don’t get rid of your J.O.B.”

Other Notes:

It is interesting how Elise starts out by saying that you need to find out where to fit in this business because you can not make a large income (6 figure) in your part time. This is an honest statement and the only reason that I bring this up is that on various contacting and prospecting tapes (to be analyzed later), you are always contacting on the basis of ‘in your spare time’. I bring this up to make the parallel between this and other cults who use deceptive recruitment tactics; in this case, you are recruited to make money in your spare time, but it really takes a lot more than that.

There is a point where Elise chose her words very cautiously. The exact phrase was, “I am working for somebody else’s dream and they are making the money and I am not. And so that’s where I started to get more fired up because I thought there’s something wrong, I got to work more, and build this more, and have faith more, so that we could have more for Eddie and I; so that we could live the lifestyle like others have…have… suggested we would possibly have.” (emphasis mine, the cautious part.) It seems that she does not want to ‘promise’ anything like in the good old days when they (and even I, in my group) were taught that if you consistently and persistently do the 9 core steps for two years solid, you would be making money. (of course, it took Larry Winters 7 years of doing this…so much for the promise).

Kool-Aid Drinking Critics 2

Another encounter with the proclaimed Platinum ‘blusdrmr’. This is in the middle of some dialog. I responded to some of his material, but felt this one needed a little more. You can read the whole debate here. My comments will be in Red.

blusdrmr said...

X> "I am laughing myself."
B> What? At all of the people you can negatively touch with this crap? Nice to know you have no morals. Funny how this person assumes that any material that is critical of his group (even though this site is based literally on quotes from his own teaching material) is ‘negative garbage’. Also, is it morals to post data exposing a dangerous cult to help other people see what it is and not get sucked in, or to present clear data that might help others escape? I think that is morals.

X> "My boss makes the money he makes because of the position he has earned for his hard work. He guides me in my work better than I could do myself because he has years of experience."
B> Oh! Wait! You mean you FOLLOW another human being? Hypocrite. No, I take professional guidance from a person that can better my career, the difference is that I do not need to report to him all matters (or even any matter outside work). The upline, however, requires a lot more than that. After all, you are teachable and accountable to your upline if you are following the system correctly.

X> "Have fun being a platinum."
B> Oh, I am. The money is good and I get to help people become successful. Unlike you, to where you get to crush dreams and aspirations with your negative garbage. I'll bet you make a great employee. This sounds like a very noble goal. Let us examine it. First, we must define ‘successful’. To be fair, I will define ‘successful’ as a person who has reached the level of Q-12 Platinum. We must be careful even here, because a person can be a poorly structured Platinum and make a lot less than the typical, but we will grant that ALL Platinums are proper. Now, according to the Quixtar affiliate site, ThisBizNow, only 0.244% of people make the Q-12 Platinum level. So, out of 2000 people, 5 will become successful. Note that the average income is $115 per month. So, this person statistically helps 5 out of 2000 people ‘succeed’. Not very good odds for a system that costs about $5,000 (single) to $10,000 (couple) per year to run according to a profit and loss analysis.

I do not crush dreams and aspirations. I post this material so that someone might be helped to not get sucked into this system. People, if you have a dream, this is statistically speaking not a sound way of achieving those dreams unless your dreams consist of fleecing people of their hard earned money.

And yes, I do make a great employee and proud of the work I do. There is nothing wrong with good work, it is, in fact, why we were created (Genesis 2:15)!

X> "Have you taken a total count of each persons inflow and outflow?"
B> You bet. I know everything I can about thier [SIC] income and outgo so they don't get "overanxious" and try to spend more than they can afford. Some people just get too excited about buying all sorts of stuff and then complain they don't make any money.....oh...wait! That sounds like you! When I listen to my upline, I make money, when I don't listen to him, I lose money. Gee....that means he HELPS me! I guess your theory is shot in the head. Really, if that is the case and your people are core according to the BWW system, your group is losing money. This system is statistically a Negative Sum Game. Please post your data on all these peopled incomes and outgo to verify your claim. By the way, how do you determine what they can afford? Is it based on their total income including work (work is supporting system) or from the actual profits in the business (business supporting system)?

B> Do you check with your co-workers and see how much they are making every week in thier [SIC] paychecks? No, I don’t care.

X> "The only way YOU can make any money is because you have 50-75 people MINIMUN [SIC] losing money to feed you."
B> Again...wrong. I love how much of a clue you DON'T have. You can make some money with retail and member sales. Some of my income comes from those sources. You might want to report the FACTS before you try spouting all of the worthless drivel you seem to to [SIC] think you know. Listen to your tapes; they say it takes 50-75 people in your downline to produce a solid Platinum business like this person claims to have. I sold more members and clients than anyone on my team. I was raking in $3.50 profits and have the receipts to prove it. It is not easy to supplement your income on that level. The products are so high priced that it is difficult to sell them at all, let alone retail. Even if you can, there is still not money in sales. The money is in recruitment.

B> OH....and it's spelled "MINIMUM" not "MINIMUN". Looks like your education has paid off well. It got you a job where you get to kiss up to your boss and to spell incorrectly. Yep. I spelled a word incorrectly. You are so kind as to point it out.

B> Hypocrite. As I stated in my previous post, a hypocrite is a person who professes beliefs or virtues one does not possess. Such an example would be a person who corrects me on my one spelling mistake but spells ‘their’ incorrectly two times and places an extra ‘to’ in the same comment. I don’t make a big deal about spelling and grammar errors on blog comments, but since this person is so keen to make a big deal about them, I guess I can correct him.

The Adventures of the Extreme Freedom Team #7

Site: www.extremefreedomteam.com

Video: FREEDOM FIGHTERS 2005

Video Summary:

This video starts with our stars, that’s right! The Extreme Freedom Team!!! They are decked out in their own uniforms (not the black or navy blue suit coat, white shirt, and red tie either), They are in a baseball stadium hitting some balls. I am not sure who all was there. Was this a qualifiers meeting? The stands are full of people to watch a bunch of people who do not play professionally playing a bona fide game in a stadium. Why? For fun! They even have an eagle as a mascot.

My Thoughts:

The purpose of this video was, once again, to flaunt the money and what they can do with it. There is nothing wrong with the field down the street to play baseball in. There is not even anything wrong with using the money you have to rent the field, but the caption on this video tells the purpose of it: “Who do you know rents out a stadium and calls in his best friends from around the country to play baseball? Answer: Somebody who loves being a big kid, has a big dream, and is free!” Good luck with that.

Make a Blankity Blank Decision!

I would like to start with a brief word from my heart. The last few sessions, as you may have noticed, are a little on the ‘weak’ side. This is intentional. Indeed, I have noticed that in my time in BWW, the tapes were at first very full of content, be it, the same content, but still content. The last several tapes I received in the business have been series of short speeches, dry in content, and even more useless than the older tapes. I will finish off this CD and then go back to some better ones that have tapespeak, covetous material, and a whole bunch of other things. Again, if you have been in the business for about 3 or so years and are still on SOT, see if you have noticed this trend as well. I boil it down to the lack of anything else to say.

To be real, I believe that to truly build the Quixtar business, a person might need about 5 good tapes of mechanics, a few books (no more than 5), and a solid product line where the prices actually compete with the market place. If that were the case, I assure you, I would still take issue because those few books would probably contradict the biblical worldview, but I don’t know. Why are the tapes getting dry? There is nothing more to be said. Don’t get me wrong, there are probably some better ones out there, but they are rarer than they used to be. When I was an IBO and fired up, I liked to listen to the classics like “The Bigger the Rose, the Harder the Thorn”, “Pigs don’t Know Pig’s Stink”, and a recent one was “Persistence and Achievement”. These were solid tapes that held my attention. They kept me in one more day; they were a major contributing factor to my going for broke (literally). They are the more dangerous tapes, they have the power to hold a person in, but these more modern tapes are lacking in content I must confess.

Now, on to the tape:

Tape: Discipline

Speakers: John & Bobbi Sestina

Stock Number: BWW192 (4 Message CD)

Recording Type: ‘Basic Mix’

Motivational Aspects:

We have the “ability to choose how we would behave in any set of circumstances”

Cult-like aspects:

“We have the freedom to choose our behavior, and that word is discipline…You are disciplining yourself to do what you know needs to be done because you’ve developed the faith, the knowledge, that the rewards in this business truly are worthy of the work.” [While the talk about discipline is correct (we need discipline to accomplish legitimate goals), the context is the last sentence. Bobbi talks about the faith and the knowledge that the rewards are worth it. Clear evidence shows that the average person will lose a lot more money than they will ever make following the BWW system. The general teaching of the business is that anyone who works the plan will make it, but many people have worked the plan exactly and have lost a lot of money.]

John talks about the foundation of the eagle plan. He addresses the question of ‘what if you show the plan X amount of times and are still not an Eagle? “You increase the number of plans, you increase the counseling, you increase understanding the products, etc, etc.” [With a system that really works, this is a good practice, but in BWW, all that does is increase costs. I can still remember not being where I wanted to be. I counseled upline and of course, I heard the classic how many tapes, books, functions, etc. The counseling sheet contains information about all the 9 core steps, group growth, pin goals, etc. I received a tool receipt that had a bunch of extra tools on it and penned in on the bottom was ‘Tool Flow = Group Growth’]

John makes a generalization that anything that will slow you down from building your business as a negative and that you need to learn how to take that hit and bounce back.

Other Notes:

John walks us through steps required for discipline:

1. Integrity
2. A leader is needed, you are the leader of you
3. State your mission (Requires a date and a step by step plan)
4. Make sure that you choose your option while the choice is still yours
5. Willing stand up and take the hit
6. “Make a blankity blank decision”
7. Put your stamp on things right away

Kool-Aid Drinking Critics 1

blusdrmr wrote on my BWWSOT Introduction the following: (My comments will be in Red)

X> I guess most people have asked"what on EARTH am I to do with all these 'tools'?"

B> I guess, hypocrite, you want to "support" all of the Diamonds that you proclaim to not want to give your money to. (sarcasm implied) Hypocrite seems to be this person’s favorite word, though I am doubtful of his knowledge of the definition. I looked up hypocrite in my handy dictionary and it means, “A person given to hypocrisy”. How wonderful, now I have to look up hypocrisy, “The professing of beliefs or virtues one does not possess.” I would be a hypocrite if I wrote all this material about BWW and was an active participant in the program. I would also be a hypocrite if I did not live by the Christian principles I write about on this site, but I do hold to them.

X> "Here is a creative idea: Listen to them and then post excerpts and comments!"

B> How about this creative idea?: Crawl back in your hole. Wonderful…I will be sure to crawl into the hole so as to not spread my negativity…the problem is that there would be too many people looking for me because they love my attitude and outlook on life.


X> "(Warning, ONLY do this if you are SUFFICIENTLY deprogrammed so you don't catch the dream; you know, similar to a cold, but a lot more dangerous)."

B> Really?!?!?!?!? That is just wonderful! Well, hypocrite, I guess you might want to find it in your re-written version of the Bible that God does NOT want us to have dreams and goals. First of all, let us look at how BWW is a cult and thus deprogramming is needed to overcome it. Look at a cult experts testimony here: http://www.freedomofmind.com/resourcecenter/groups/a/amway/

Next, if you haven't noticed, all my biblical quotes are from the NASB, which is a very good and reliable translation. The bible is very clear: The Gospel is the dream and the goal. It is OK to succeed in life, but it is not OK to make money on other people’s losses, which Quixtar has proven to do when used in conjunction with BWW and other MO’s. Matthew 10:38, Matthew 16:24-26, and 1 Thessalonians 3:1-3 are a few of many verses about self denial, not self-fulfillment. When you walk in the glory of God, you will receive blessing, but when you walk to fulfill your hearts desires, you may fulfill your heart, but you are compromising the Gospel. This is a very difficult concept to grasp, and I apologize that I don’t have the time to fully develop it.

On the other hand, the BWW system has appeared to produce a who lot of people who are driven to gather money, people have been hurt, scandals have been uncovered, and all sorts of other things. Have a read through this verse: 2 Timothy 3:1-5. Sounds a lot like BWW people.

X> "Or, you can just look at mine!"

B> OH! What a great idea! We can all look at you wonderful blog of how much you hate something and how much you hate a certain group of people for succeeding in life. So, do you hate Sam Walton or Bill Gates, too? Might want to read the REAL Bible and see if that applies to your hypocritical views. If I hated these people, I certainly would not spend the time to do all this. There is nothing wrong with Bill Gates or Sam Walton. They provided a service that people bought. They may have hurt some people along the way, I do not know. BWW, however, requires to be fed by hard earned money for nothing more than a motivational business that promises everyone can make it. It uses a mind control system to keep people involved and thus sucks people dry until they have to refinance homes, lose jobs, and a whole host of other problems.

I would like to take this time to point out a small portion of his quote, “at you wonderful blog”. On many of his other comments, this person results to attacking me over a few spelling mistakes. I don’t make a big deal about them, and I think it is wrong to do so, I just wanted to pull this one out since he is so keen to tell me that my spelling is off about 4 times or so…hypocrite? Maybe.


X> "My goal here is to post a tape a week. Why a week? Standing order comes once a week, so this blog will too!"

B> Well, at least you learned ONE thing...to have goals. Too bad those goals are to try to hurt other people and crush their dreams and goals. What a wonderful Christian you are! You make me want to vomit. You are the very type of person who made me LEAVE the church and turn away from God. THANK GOD for him leading me to this team and getting my life back in order and being able to help hold my marriage together and have three wonderful boys to spend time with. What has your negative mind gotten you? Really, hurting people? Hrmm…Crushing their dreams? Well, if your dream is to abandon your God-ordained call to work, promote a Mind Control System that sucks out 50-100 times per year than the average annual income of a Quixtar IBO, than yes, I want to ‘steal your dream’ as it were. I stand true to the call of God, to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, however, when MLM is involved, you lose track of which gospel to share.

This person says that I am the type of Christian that made him leave the church. Why did you leave the church because of people? Do you not know that it is God that you are bound to? When I leave the Mind Control Cult of BWW, I am a negative low self-esteem person, but when he leaves the church, it is the people that were bad. I think this person may need to reconsider. I do not know him, but I have seen this situation many times. It goes like this: a person is living in sin, the church takes it’s responsibility and tells him about his sin (1 Corinthians 5:12), he gets mad and leaves. He wants to follow his own path. Later, this person finds a group of people that are following their own desires and tells him that he can have God and his pleasures, he takes it. This is the heart of the passage 2 Timothy 4:3-4. I CAN NOT SAY THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM. It is also possible that he was simply in an unregenerate church where people talked about what honors God, but they were truly hypocrites. If that is the case, and you are reading this, I am not one such person. I do not live in unrighteous behavior to the best of my ability. I, like every other Christian, will still sin, but when I do, I deal with it appropriately.

Again, it is funny how he assumes that I am a negative person. This person does not even know me. It is curious for him to make such an assertion. As I mentioned earlier, I have a lot of people who enjoy my spirit and outlook. To answer your question (I will alter it to ask, “What have you done since you left Quixtar?), Ministry related, I have:

1. Mentored 2 boys from less-than-ideal backgrounds

2. Taught Children’s Church once a month

3. Taught 3^rd graders every week for a while

4. Have the reputation across several churches as a great children and youth worker

5. Have been asked several times to join committees for children’s organizations because the director of one such organization was baffled about why I have kids following me around like the pied piper

6. Brought people back to God after they have strayed down the dark path of MLM

7. Been asked to take over a youth group in a different church to allow the regular teachers time to study with a group of people instead of constantly outputting

8. Counseled children’s camps and received high praises for my great attitude, fortitude, wisdom, and ability.

9. Have coached a boys club once a week and earned the reputation as a friend to most of the kids there.

Work related:

1. Have the reputation as the most approachable person in the lab

2. Have been given the honor of teaching a student independently

3. Have counseled many people at work through many serious issues

B> You are a hypocrite.

The Adventures of the Extreme Freedom Team #6

Site: www.extremefreedomteam.com

Video: CLASSICAL PARADISE

Video Summary:

This is a high paced video is set to a popular classical song showing clips of Peter Island, the Freedom Team bathing in the sun, etc. They just had to break part way through to have a group of people say, “Come Join Us” into the camera. The featured items are Fancy food, Crow’s Nest service, large jewelry, sun bathing, palms, and all the other island shots. The final shots are some of the men on the Freedom Team holding up 6 fingers (for break 6 platinums) and then Snipes, Baker (I think), and then Larry say, “Break Six” as the Peter Island flag blows in the breeze.

My thoughts:

I can’t really say much more about this one that I haven’t said about the other ones. So as to not be redundant, I am lost for words at this point.

There Are No Factors, Just Fears and Faults

Tape: Age Is Not A Factor

Speakers: Runzie & Jean Valerio

Stock Number: BWW192 (4 Message CD)

Recording Type: ‘Basic Mix’

Motivational Aspects:

Everyone has the same issues building the business, they have just been in longer than other people, that is why they are where they are in the business.

You can make your own decisions, make the right ones.

Cult-like aspects:

“Only how happy you deserve to be, that’s the only thing that makes this business work. How much faith you have in God and how much faith you have in yourself.” [According to this, if you have faith in God, you will make it in the business]

Jean talks for a while about when you were a teenager, thinking ahead about how you didn’t think you were going to have to work after thirty. She talks about how people today don’t want to work, they want to play. The implication is that this business will provide that for you. [First, she is targeting the younger crowd; this is actually taught in the system because the young people are more impressionable and don’t want to work. She tries to pull out those old thoughts to use for building a dream: that is the very thing that keeps people in a costly system so long without making anything.]

Jean says that there are no factors, just fears and faults. She says that we fear the changes, though she prefers the word, ‘improvements’. Her suggestions are that you learn to pray and put your fears away, learn to forget the past, make your peace with God and he will handle it all, you just tell him what you want. [This reduces the failures in the business to those who succumb to those fears or faults. This is a ‘doctrine over person’ argument: the system always works if you work it.]

Wonderful Faulty Theology:

Regarding Jeans talk about people wanting to play these days, that has always been the case, but the biblical model is work, with some down time. This business produces a problem in a lot of people that work is a bad thing. Many people find aspects of work difficult, but the BWW (and other organizations) instill a hate for work, such that people want to do nothing but play. Genesis 2:15, God places man in the garden to maintain and be a steward over it. Part of this was the break on the seventh day (I do not affirm that Sabbath is a New Testament Principle, but I do affirm the importance of rest, [Colossians 2:16]). There are many passages pointing to this, but I will not take the time to list them all.

Jean says at one point that you just tell God what you want and He will take care of it. [This is some of the sick theology that comes with the Word-Faith movement. People, God is not your little ‘Genie in a Bottle’ waiting to fulfill your wishes. He is not all about giving you the things that your wicked little heart craves. Are there blessings? YES, but we must keep in mind that those blessings are in light of the fact that the Gospel is about Self-Denial, not Self-Fulfillment. We are to carry our cross daily, all in the name of honoring God, not getting things for us.]

The Adventures of the Extreme Freedom Team #5

Site: www.extremefreedomteam.com

Video: MOTO HAWAII

Video Summary:

Larry starts with a narrative that most people think that dreams don’t mean anything and then explains that they are real, as seven friends (Larry, Steve, Ricky Winters, Doug, Alan, Mike, and another Mike) got to ride over the finest terrain in Hawaii. Larry says that it was a Monday morning and then asks what YOU did that Monday morning. The song in this video changes back and forth in tone; the chorus repeating over and over is about motivation. Part way through the video, we learn that this is only the first Saturday of the week. This is the first video in the group that did have a ‘come join us’ somewhere in it!

My thoughts:

This is not an accomplished ‘dream’; anyone who wants to take such a vacation can do so with some planning. This video probably has more merit than most of the others, though, you don’t need to take a private charter to bike a special terrain just to flaunt where you have been. I can see if you are a motocross hobbyist and like to go to different terrains, but the purpose of this video was not for such an occasion, but rather, to show the money available to take such a trip with a private jet on a private course on a remote island.

How Can They Be Happy All The Time?

Tape: The Treasure is Within You

Speakers: Rob & Olivia Shannon

Stock Number: BWW192 (4 Message CD)

Recording Type: ‘Basic Mix’

Brief Review:

This is a brief speech at a Nardone - Melillo function. Olivia tells us that there are those people who make things happen, those who watch what happens, and those who wonder what happened and then admonishes the crowd to make things happen through Quixtar. Rob suggests that we should be happy all the time, in deed, the leaders are happy all the time. It is a choice to be happy all the time, and the power is within you.

Motivational Aspects:

“In the whole world of Quixtar, we have the best teachers, mentors and friends.”

“Who is here because they want to be wealthy? Because they want financial freedom? Because they want personal freedom? Everybody, of course.”

Olivia talks about the rewards of the business being the friends that you will make. She comments that the money is there…it is coming. While I assert that it is a good thing to gain friends, this business has simply proven to be very unethical and ungodly in it’s practice. I myself have accumulated a lot of friends, but those that I made in the business, only two have contacted me since they know I left the business and acknowledge that I will not be back.

Cult-like aspects:

Olivia introduces her speech by saying how blessed everyone is to be in the Nardone – Melillo family [The appeal to family seeks to capture those looking for something to belong to.]

“I believe today more, than ever, if you speak it, and claim it, and work it, it will happen. No question about it, because it is happening all over.” [Doctrine over person – if you do not succeed at this, it is your fault, not the system’s fault.]

“Focus on your first goal. Your first goal is core…Q12 core.” [If you just work hard enough, you will make it. While I do not discredit hard work, problems arise when you follow a plan such as Quixtar, particularly when the costs of core are so expensive.]

Rob does a scary edification of Angelo Nardone and Rex Renfrow saying that there is an extra edge about them that you don’t even find among people in wall street or even in the faithful church going people.

Catalog of covetousness for those materialistic people:

I am not sure if this was done for medical reasons or wardrobe reasons (He never detailed), but Rob had a hip replacement surgery to ‘add 5 millimeters to this leg.”

Other Interesting Notes:

“Before the wealth, and before the freedom, you need to decide to make a difference. You need to decide that you are going to have a positive impact in some bodies life. And a life of just plain old existence really doesn’t benefit many people, does it? Through the Quixtar business, we have that opportunity to just reach out and help. But unfortunately, not everyone is going to be receptive to that, as we know. And those guy’s, those people we make clients.” [I pull out that quote because it shows a few problems. The first, is that people are assumed to NEED Quixtar, thus, they need helped. The reality is that more people do NOT make success in Quixtar. There is an average net income of $115 in Quixtar; Next, the ‘us verses them’ syndrome appears, note again, “we have the opportunity to…help…not everyone is going to be receptive”. And finally, you can see that this particular group is not about retailing products, but growing a network, which fits the definition of a Product-Based Pyramid Scheme.]

Rob poses the question “How can they be happy all the time?” [The answer is that they are faking. For an example, I was in the audience during the taping of Dave & Jan Severn’s ‘What Makes You Come Alive?’ (BWW40). His mother had died a few days before. No one in the crowd could tell. Why? He put on a smile. It would have been entirely appropriate to talk about it in such a meeting where they talk about love and family, and heart, but he didn’t. Why? This is a negative, and a standing rule in Britt World Wide is that you never pass negative anywhere. There are many more examples, and even some examples that could contradict those statements, but the bottom line is that they Bible is very clear that there is a time for everything, among the examples of that are laughing and mourning (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8). In deed, the tapes goes on, “Chose to be happy now, regardless of the circumstances.” Let us chose to be happy when our parents die, children move out, it is not consistent with biblical teaching…it is not consistent with reality.]

CORRECTION - I need to correct a statement from above (I will leave the original intact) - I comment above, "you never pass negative anywhere", that is incorrect, you can pass negative to your immediate upline (the person you are counseling with), but you should not pass it anywhere else.

The Adventures of the Extreme Freedom Team #4

Site: www.extremefreedomteam.com

Video: HAWAII, KIDS-STYLE

Video Summary:

This is a high paced video with fast moving clips of Hawaii. Early on, a group of people exclaims, “Come join us”, and then a group of children screams something, but the words are incoherent. This video is mostly capitalizing on kids having fun in a water park with some dirt bike scenes as well. Near the middle is a boat cruise with whales surfacing the ocean. There is a scene with the kids where they all say together, “Diamond Club is being at the pool every day”, as they hold up their arms with 6 pool pass bracelets on each kid. The video ends with the oldest Leninger kid saying into the camera, “Diamond Club. What a week [sign]”, as she turns her head in the sun.

My Thoughts:

This video exploited children to spark a dream of spending life with kids at glorious hotels and traveling around the world. There is nothing wrong with taking a great vacation and having fun, but the whole of the BWW system promotes this as the lifestyle to live absolutely, which denies the lesson of hard, faithful, consistent work.