Sunday, April 30, 2006

Britt Tape

Greetings all,

In a disccusion on the Qblog Forum, I said that I was going to do a Bill Britt tape, it turns out that I lent that tape to someone, so it is no longer in my collection. I truely did want to do that, but I simply don't have it anymore.

If it means anything, he parrots the same exact things in all his tapes, so since I already posted one, I didn't feel the need to post again. The only exception to that is the tape I wanted to talk about had a long rant where Bill was saying that all gods of all religions are THE EXACT SAME GOD. I take objection to this.

Xanadustc

A Wilderness Experience that Became the Promised Land

Tape: The Victories

Speakers: Orrett & Christine Channer

Stock Number: BWW277

Recording Type: ‘Basic Mix’

Motivational Aspects:

“If we can, you can…all we did was pay a price and stayed steady”

“Keep your focus in front of you.”

“At the end of that rainbow is a huge, huge pot of gold. And the gold is just trickling. It’s raining gold. That’s because we were focused.” (I hope that new S230 Mercedes is in the garage away from this rain o’ gold.)

Catalog of covetousness for those materialistic people:

White S320 Mercedes Bends (though he did not know how to open the gas tank)

One payment plan cash Christmas to London

Escalade EXT: White, new sound system (2 12 inch speakers with bullet proof plexiglass to drive bass, 3000 Watt amplifier), 22-23 inch spinners with low jack.

$500 in clothes

And another $500 in clothes

Wonderful Faulty Theology:

This is an iffy point, but when the checks came, Christine wanted to leave the checks on the table to look at for about a week before putting them into the bank. Orrett suggested to keep a photocopy of the checks on the table instead, but they finally compromised and put one in the bank and one on the table to look at for a week. [Is this a violation of Exodus 20:4-5? I am undecided.]

Teaching Points:

“Wilderness is working two jobs and working in the hole, at a sewers in New York City

Orrett starts to go off on Dream’s that people have had and the results of them. He uses these highly emotional examples to probe the audience as to their dream.

Do whatever it takes to realize your dream.

“Britt sent some checks, too. Because when you’re Diamond in the Britt System, they take care of you because they consider you as someone who has value.” [So what are the rest of IBO’s? The rabble that comprises the income stream for those important people?]

The steps to succeed:

1. The birth of a dream – To know why you are building the business.

2. Nurturing of the dream – Relationships of the upline, counseling.

3. Preparation of the dream – Setting goals and plan of action and setting daily habits.

4. Action towards the dream – Showing the plan five days a week.

5. Testing of the dream – Testing the dream when obstacles arise.

6. Refocusing of the dream – Getting back on track after a testing of the dream.

7. Living the dream – Finally arriving at the Promised Land.

8. Passing on the dream – Spread the good news (which one?)

Other Notes:

His boss didn’t know he quit…that is certainly not good ethics. If you quit your job, the ethical thing to do is tell your boss!

Christine tells the people not to let the downline see your sweat, but to always paint the dream to them. [Isn’t it better to present the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? If these people were truly “walking by faith” they would not have to lie and deceive to build their businesses.]

In this business, they talk about all the free time you can get with your family, but Christine is telling about all the trips you get to go on for Diamond Club and the other places with the corporation, and the kids are not allowed to come. To the IBO’s, did you know that if you want to take your kids on those trips, you have to pay their way, and it is pretty pricey even for Diamonds.

They are doing the Dream Weekend here this week, but they are off to the UK again for the next weekend to do a Dream Night there. Is this really the totally freedom that they are talking about?

Orrett had a dream to have John Crowe know his name. [Why? John is a person]

Orrett and Christine lost houses and cars during their time in the business. They had cars repossessed and houses boarded up. They talk about not having any money, yet Orrett always worked multiple jobs. I have to ask why? Were they putting all their money into the BWW system? Where they abusing drugs, alcohol, or tobacco? I will say this: The financial state of the world is not nearly as bad as the BWW team makes it out to be, however, it does take some level of discipline to living properly.

Orrett talks about the “goodie” stage. This is when a person first goes Diamond and since they are making all this money, they splurge and start to buy all sorts of goodies for themselves. This comes in the form of houses, cars, clothes, toys, etc. Orrett proudly states that he is in this stage at the moment.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

You Should All be Fired Up!

Tape: You Have Permission to Dream Big

Speakers: Wayne & Suzanne Callender

Stock Number: BWW277

Recording Type: ‘Basic Mix’

Motivational Aspects:

“At first, the dreams are small”, Suzanne starts with saying that she just wants to get the bills paid on time, but later, the cars and houses came into her dreams.

Suzanne starts her speech saying how much her uplines toilet seat motivated her. (No, I am not joking.)

“Can you imagine the day when you do not need that job any more, when you can have your limousines…with all your Platinums in it.”

Cult-like aspects:

Wayne tells us that his boss at work has never drove him around neighborhoods showing him the kind of house he will help Wayne build, but the upline will do that.

“You are special; you are a child and a kid of the King. It is about you recognizing that God did not create any junk, if you know that you have divine permission to succeed, Our simple question is to ask you, ‘When are you going to recognize it yourself?’” [This is a form of phobia indoctrination because if it is true that you have “divine permission to succeed”, then you will fall out of favor with God if you do not.]

“You can be some ones example, or you can be some ones excuse.”

Catalog of covetousness for those materialistic people:

$200 toilet seat (wow…now, am I the only one who thinks this is MESSED UP?)

New Porsche

Wonderful Faulty Theology:

She says that if you do not have a lot of money, you worry about where you are going to get money for things. [While I agree that you should not worry about where you will get money to pay for necessities, the solution is not the acquisition of money, but the reliance on God. Read Matthew 6:25-34 to learn about where to go to for these things. It says that reliance on God is the source, but the Gentiles seek after the fulfillment of these things. We need to rely on God and be wise with our spending.]

Suzanne says that life is all about having a good time because it is short. [To the contrary, life is not about playing and having fun. While relaxation is good and desirable, a balance must be kept. Remember that work is also a biblical command. I have concerns over the children who grow up with everything already provided for them. If you ask me the meaning of life, it is not to have fun and play all the time because life is short, it is to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ because life is short. I can work to spread the Gospel as well at work as I can anywhere else, but if my life begins to be about playing, I can lose focus. Matthew 24:44 says, “So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. You also need to be ready all the time to defend the faith (2 Timothy 4:2).]

Other Notes:

Suzanne uses the messed up analogy regarding air and money. If you have a lot of air, you don’t think much about it, but when you do not, it is all that you think about. Well, in BWW, several groups teach that money is the same way. If you have a lot of money, you don’t think about it, but if you do not, you think about it all the time. [This is not an accurate analogy. The amount of money that you have does not have bearing on how much you think about it. What has bearing on how much you think about it is if you are hung up with money. If you have desires to buy yourself a whole bunch of goodies to play, you are probably going to be hung up with money, but if you are living a frugal life, you will not be.]

Suzanne criticizes getting an education and working for your wages as “selling your soul” Instead, she says “we should really be building up and nurturing yourself, and taking care of yourself, and relaxing and enjoying you life, and living it.” [Work is a noble thing, and while relaxing is important, if your whole life is devoting to relaxing and playing, it will most likely lead to problems rather than solutions. After all, we were created and placed in the garden to work it before the fall, and even after the fall, it was six days of work and relax the seventh.]

Wayne addresses in his speech that this business is not about getting things to flaunt, but it actually about humility. Shortly after this, however, he talks about a woman whose family thought that she was wasting her life because they did not believe how much money you could make in Quixtar, so Wayne took out the money in his pocket and had her hold it fanned out, he put on the Rolex watch and the Britt Diamond Ring, he took a picture of her and said to take it home to show her family.

Wayne tells us that when they get all the goodies and show the cars and houses, it is not for them, it is for all of the IBO’s in the group, to motivate them.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Ravi and the Witnesses

Greetings all,

I was reading my Spring 2006 issue of Just Thinking from RZIM and there was a section that I thought resembled BWW greatly. This account starts on page 14, or about 2/3 of the way down the page if you are reading the online article.

Ravi had his first exposure to western religion with Jehovah’s Witnesses when he was a child. He said, “So the Smiths came to our home once a week, and for the next year and a half they sat in our living room and taught us for an hour or two at a time. They would eventually bring Ravi and his siblings to assemblies and show movies. One of these movies featured tens of thousands of people attending a Jehovah’s Witnesses rally at Yankee Stadium in New York City. He says that they were awed by the size of the group.

Ravi continues on, “Yet, in retrospect, it shows how easily the human mind and heart can be manipulated…seeing that movie, with all those highly successful-looking people gathered in a magnificent stadium, my siblings’ hearts must have raced as my heart did.

Ravi was highly impressed, motivated, and excited. Until, “we continued to study with the Smiths until the day Mr. Smith came to the chapter on heaven in the book of Revlation. He stopped there and told us that, according to Jehovah’s Witness’ teaching, only 144,000 people were going to make it to paradise.”

Ravi, being concerned that there were probably more than 144,000 people at Yankee Stadium, asked Mr. Smith about this: “Sir, how many people are there in your organization…Do you have more than 144,000? Oh, Yes” replied Mr. Smith.

Ravi’s next statement is great, “I thought of the Smiths’ constant praying, of all their efforts to reach more and more people—and yet even they had no way of knowing where they were going after death. Ravi makes an interesting statement next, “Mr. Smith, before you came, I didn’t know where I was going after I died…but now, after all this study, I still don’t know where I’m going after I die.

After this, the Smith’s stepped out of the picture and their superior came in, but this only led to frustration and Ravi deciding that this whole “Christianity” stuff was useless.

The amazing thing is how similar this is to a close encounter of the Quixtar / BWW kind. In fact, it is spooky how similar it is once you are in the realm of hindsight! Permit me to break it down:

The Smiths came faithfully to serve. If you are in (were in, or are considering) Quixtar, you will be ‘served’ by an upline. They will come over to teach you, help you, etc. This is required by Quixtar. But be warned if they start promoting tapes, seminars, etc. You do not have to attend these and if you do not, the upline is still supposed to come help you. If they don’t, call Quixtar! More to the point, just because someone “serves”, it does not mean they are serving in a Godly, or even ethical way. Examine the situation. Not everyone is going to be serving in a bad way, and not everyone is going to be serving in a good way. Just be cautious, particularly if people are edifying all this “serving” since true and pure servitude comes from the heart.

Be cautious of large gatherings. If they are saying to attend such and such conference because it will help your business succeed, find out the full details. If there are going to be vendors, product demonstrations, a few presentations or even tailored agenda, it should be fine, but if it is a big rally where people gather for long speeches of motivation, they are trying to get you excited. There is something magical about these settings that cause someone to be drawn in based on emotion, not thought process. If they are relying on your emotion to get you in, beware.

Only a few will make it, it rarely depends on you. I know this flies in the face of the BWW teaching, but it is reality. I worked the 9 core steps as much as many other people did, but there is a bazaar combination of unknown things that will elevate certain people up fast. I know people who were very high in the business and did the core steps faithfully. All it awarded them was a few dollars and a 40+ hour work week with no benefits. Just like the JW’s who have to work all their life by a rigid set of man-made rules, the IBO’s trot along paying homage to the Diamonds, doing as they are told, and only a very small number make it. That number in 2004 was 0.0176%. There were a total of 65 people that made the mark out of 370,000 in those statistics.

If you give your sponsor a run for his money, you better believe that they will be back with their sponsor. This was best exemplified as a Reliv distributor was trying to recruit me. Since I know a little bit about MLM, I was asking all the serious questions. I was first referred to his upline, and eventually to his up-upline. The final answers to my questions were deception. [If you would like to see a copy of that report, email me and I will get it out to you.]

If you finally go through all this and realize that these crazy Bible-thumping religious radical BWW Diamonds have turned you off from Christianity, I want you to know that they are FLAT OUT WRONG in many of their points. If Christianity is a turnoff to you because you were involved in Quixtar, please give me an audience to point out their errors to you in private. For a start, read the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for considering.

Xanadustc

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Had an Industry Briefing?

Greetings all, instead of a tape analysis, I decided to talk about a new means of contacting that some groups in BWW are using. This is called ‘Industry Briefing’. Now, I have a theory as to why this came about. When you are calling people to ‘check interest’ in building a Quixtar powered business, the most common question that you are asked by the person on the other side of the phone is, “what is this all about?” Now, we would typically use a blanket statement which more or less side-stepped the question and that would be something like this:

“There’s no way I can explain what we do over the phone. I would need to show you several things. I have a brief CD ROM or 10-minute video which will basically explain what we are doing. Then we’ll see where you could fit into what we’re putting together. I have ________ or _________ night available. Which is best for you?” (From the BWW Basics Manual BBAS 6/02, Pg 20)

The problem with this approach is that you can not give them a means to get that tape or video for at least a day.

What the Industry Briefing (IB) does is that it bypasses the delay by referring people to a phone number they can call to get that information. The number would be a long distance call if you are not local to the New York Area Code 212.

In short, you will be called, probably on a Sunday night (though it could be any time). You will be asked if you are interesting in making extra money. If you say yes, you will be given a phone number to call and asked to listen to the recording and call the person back (or they will call you in 30 minutes).

The phone numbers can be found on the My Coaches Corner website for Joel Griffin’s coaching network. Joel is a Diamond in Angelo Nardone’s business, and he is an EDC in Rex Renfrow’s business, and he is an EDC of Bill Britt. As for the other phone numbers listed, Lord Errol and Aris Pavlides are in Nardone’s business. Dave Taylor is the other EDC leg of Rex Renfrow. One thing that I will not make much argument on for the time being is the video under the link ‘Meet the Coach’, Joel says that he started his ‘consulting business’ to help other people succeed. In reality, he started an Amway business and switched to Quixtar in the 1999 conversion.

An Analysis of the Industry Briefing

Let us start with an interesting quote:

“If they find out that this is the Amway business that you are going to show to them, you got a real problem right there, and that is called deceit because are deceiving people by telling them this is the Amway corporation.” – Ron Puryear, “The How and Why of Contacting and Inviting” [Stock Code EA31]

Ron was actually talking about some people in the good old days who would say they are an employee of Amway, and this might be an issue at Boston University now. But Ron takes his teaching one step further by suggesting that you simply NEVER MENTION AMWAY at all. As such, you begin to use the ‘curiosity’ approach almost universally because you are worried that people have a false concept of Amway (now Quixtar) and thus, you need to keep that information from your prospect. Why is this?

I bring this point up because chances are, if you heard this IB, you have not been told it is Quixtar they are going to show you. I want you to know that they do not leave the name of Quixtar off because they want to deceive you, but because that would be a violation of the rule 9.8 in the Rules Compendium (PDF). Come to think of it, however, how they currently have it, it may STILL be a violation. {If there is a Quixtar Employee reading this, please check into this.}

Now, although each speaker puts their personality into the recording, they all say the same thing. I will use Joel’s call unless otherwise stated.

Analysis

In the introduction to all of these, the speaker is said to be “sought after”, though I can not find any verification about this except in the BWW functions.

Joel says that his income was determined by other people. He asks us three questions:

1. Are you on track to get to where it is you want to go in life?

2. Is your current income enough to take care of you in the future?

3. If some thing were to happen to you today, would your family be provided for?

Joel answered the first of those three questions and found that he needed a better way, so he prayed and then someone called him about the Amway business. He was then able to build a life that he could only dream of. I find this funny from a man who claims to put God first in all areas. If that were true, perhaps to words from the lips of Jesus from Matthew 6:25-34 would have come to his mind. Also, take note of 1 Timothy 6:9-10 and 1 Timothy 6:17. Now, was Amway an answer to his prayer? I highly doubt it because of the track record for more damaged persons than helped. I am not advocating a life of poverty, but rather, the vast time commitment required to build this business is certainly not fitting with God.

At this point, Joel talks about the beginnings of Quixtar. He talks about the two wealthy men (Rich DeVos and Jay VanAndel) fully funding Quixtar. They are indeed as wealthy as they stated to be. Jay was on the Chamber of Commerce. What he says about this is true, but he starts to walk on shaky ground when he talks about the rapid growth…it is the truth, but not the whole truth. In June 2001, Forbes magazine talks about this fast growth:

Indeed, [DeVos] boasts that Quixtar hasn't spent a dime on advertising or employee acquisition. However, it is more likely that most of Quixtar's rapid growth came at the expense of Amway. As its reps move their business to the Web, Amway's worldwide revenues have remained flat at about $5 billion.

He starts to talk about how high Quixtar rankings are. Indeed, in 2004, they were number 14 on the Internet Retailer list, but the article boasts of “Upgrades, but sales remain at status quo. Keep in mind that the listing may or not have anything to do with how good or solid the company is. There are a lot of criteria that goes into that report and since it costs money, I am not going to buy it to find out what their criteria is.

He starts to refer to Harry Dent’s “Roaring 2000’s” and starts to imply that since E-Commerce is ‘pre-knee’, it will take off and all the people involved in Quixtar will get Hog Nasty Rich! I am not holding my breath since last year sales dipped and I do not see a lot of growth for this year either. Perhaps when this years sales report is out, I will be proved wrong.

The next part, Joel talks about the Quixtar IBO’s take the place of the middle man like the big stores such as Wal-Mart do, and thus they get that money. I have two problems with this:

1. He says that they are the middle man to the other companies. For clarity, Quixtar has Exclusives, the Store-for-More (an online department store), and Partner Stores. If you buy from a partner store, it is exactly like going to that online store directly, except you might receive $6 back on a $100 sale IF you are a Platinum. The Store-For-More section, even with your ‘wholesale’ price, many items you will be expecting to pay the same if not more for the identical item at the local department store. For the exclusives, the price of similar items tends to be very high, such as $4.10 for toothpaste, $5.05 for a small bottle of liquid hand soap, $10.50 for 6 bars of soap (smallest available quantity), $8.90 for 1 liter of dish detergent, etc.

2. You are not the ‘middle man’ of this operation, you are a customer of Quixtar, in fact, he even says that “we predominantly are Business Owners, and so they have a vested interest in buying.”

Now, he starts talking about ‘Anyway’ money, that is, money that you have to spend anyway on household goods. He says that if you spend that money at the local store, you are spending it, but if it is at your own business, it is investing. This makes NO SENSE AT ALL!!!!!!!! You are SPENDING, but instead of Wal-Mart, Wegmans, Giant, etc getting your money, Quixtar is. The products are much higher price and you will effectively be LOSING money, not even breaking even, if you convert your whole house to Quixtar products.

He starts talking about how much money he made and basically says that it will happen to everyone. I would like to draw your attention to probabilities and incomes from the Quixtar approved site ThisBizNow:

$345,000,000 in bonuses to 370,000 IBO’s: Averge income of $932.43. That is before the big pins get there chunk, so try to follow this from the link above:

Number of Diamonds: 370,000 * 0.0176% = 65 Diamonds @ $175,116 is $11,382,540

Number of Emeralds: 370,000 * 0.0420% = 155 Emeralds @ $70,954 is $10,997,870

Number of Platinums: 370,000 * 0.2440% = 903 Platinums @ $40,970 is $37,898,910

Number of Rank and File: 370,000 – 1123 = 368,877

Money left for Rank and File: $345,000,000 - $60,279,320 = $284,720,680

Average Rank and File income: $284,720,680 / 368,877 = $674.26 per year or $56 per month. That is what the 2004 – 2005 snapshot of their business looks like. Could you become one of those few people at the top? YES, but according to Jon Talyor, you have a greater chance to succeeding at wealth creation by rolling the roulette in Vegas (PDF)!

When talking about people they are looking for, the Aris Pavlides recording specifically targets people like me as ‘failures’ who want to make other people failures, basically like a crab in the bucket pulling down the crabs that are trying to get out. That is not the case, as you can see on this post, I have documented clearly the major objections with this organization. I recommend that you study it freely from ALL perspectives (not just the perspective the recruiter wants you to) before you make up your mind.

Next he talks about the three things you need to do:

1. Get back to the recruiter to find out the details how it works. They will take you on a tour through the website as well as talk about the training and support system that will help you (WATCH OUT, THE TRAINING SYSTEM IS THE PART TO BE CAUTIOUS OF!!)

2. Get to a meeting. (Note, this is a meeting for the support system, most likely an Open meeting, but they may bring you to others as well. I have compiled a detailed list of descriptions, costs, and what to expect on the Types of BWW Functions post.)

3. Sample the products and learn the ‘value’ of them. In reality, they are nothing special. Some are good, some are bad, most are over priced.

Joel ends with a warning against people like me, but since I am done writing now, I guess I can’t do you any more harm!

Friday, April 14, 2006

Mistaken Identity?

I did a rare thing this morning. I read the latest Qrush post! It actually caught my eye since it was talking about Joe Markiewicz, a former member of BWW, and member of the Extreme Freedom Team. The curious thing is that Qrush again attacked Bo Short for being an anonymous blogger attacking Joe. I got to thinking, is he thinking of me? I analyized one of Joe's tapes on Sunday.

The evidence that I think he is refering to me:
I just made the post about Joe.
There are not a whole lot of bloggers on Quixtar at the moment.
I have not seen any other post about Joe Markiewicz.
He never referenced the URL.
If I am right, sorry Qrush, I am not Bo Short! But have a nice day anyway!

Sunday, April 09, 2006

Get Your Overpriced Lotions Potions and Diet Cookies Here!

Tape: The Solution for Your Future

Speakers: Joe Markiewicz

Stock Number: JM25

Recording Type: This is the tape that was included in the info packs from 2002 to 2004 or 2005. Since Markiewicz is on the Winters team, they are no longer in BWW since they formed their own Motivational Organization, but never-the-less, this is most likely one of the more widely distributed tape following closely being Private Franchising in a Dot Com World (Greg Duncan) and Power Wave (Bill Hawkins).

This is one of my longer posts, but I feel it is worth the read. I will be putting it on the sidebar under ‘site resources’.

Brief Review:

Since this tape was made to be distributed with the information packs given out to BWW prospects, it follows a clear format designed to make Quixtar out to be the best business opportunity out there. The tape is broken down into 10 tracks so that will be the format of this review. Analysis will follow each section.

Reality Check

The industrial revolution changed how commerce operated, and now, the internet is causing yet another change.

Here, we will learn about a business model “designed specifically for the internet.

This is a business that will allow you to achieve your dreams and goals.

This opportunity will allow you to take part in the internet explosion by owning a web based business.

Joe says that he chose to be an engineer “for the rest of my life” just because that is what his dad did.

I didn’t know it back then that I was setting a course for the rest of his life based upon how I was programmed to think about success and my career.

He says that everyone should ask the question, “Where will I be in five…ten…twenty years.

A co-worker asked, “Joe, do you every look for ways to make extra money?

Joe’s co-worker took about 20 minutes that night “mapping out a business strategy of a way that I could own a business based out of my own home.

Joe liked that he did not have to have a large investment, land, employees, etc.

Since it does not take much to get started, it challenged his concept of what it takes to be successful in society.

Not his boss nor college professors knew what Forbes magazine called, “A foundation for a new industrial order.

Analysis

First, I will not argue that the internet is a great new addition to commerce. I love many aspects because one online store that I buy from has a wish list and interest list, when an item goes on sale, I get an email with a link. I have ordered the item in less then two minutes. For many items, by spending a short period of time, I can find things that I would like to buy and have them shipped to my house or work. I imagine that I am not the only one who likes this convenience. One the other hand, I do not believe that internet sales will totally ‘eat up’ retail establishments because it is a lot easy to buy many things at the local store.

Now, let us tackle the statement, “Here, we will learn about a business model ‘designed specifically for the internet.’ Is this model designed specifically for the internet? No, it is the same Amway model which the same IBO’s (formerly distributors) get the product online instead of through a catalog (though the catalog is still available for those desiring it). The statement that Joe makes is an attempt to disconnect Quixtar from the Amway roots and make it sound like a brand new thing. It simply is not.

Will it enable you to achieve your goals? I will paste in a point from a previous post and let you be the judge of that:

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.

Next, do you really own your own business? Once again, NO! You have become a repeat customer of a business. You are regulated by a series of rules (read them here [PDF]), you can be removed from the system (i.e. FIRED), there are limits to where you can sell, and how to promote. You can not use mass media advertisements, and you can not send out blanket messages, etc, etc, etc.

Joe does seem to knock down jobs and employment, as well as education. If you spend a little bit of time around this business, you will find that is very common. Does education pay? Yes. According to some statistics, the greater your education, the greater your pay. Compare the average of a B.S. in 1999 of $52,200 to the average Quixtar IBO pay of $1,380 and ask which is the better course?

Next, Joe says that it does not take a large investment. True reports demonstrate that the majority of people lose a lot of money in Quixtar because of involvement in an MO. Although an exact average system cost (tapes, books, seminars, etc) can not be known, over $3,000 a year for a single person is pretty close. Two high level (not BWW to the best of my knowledge) IBO’s recently reported their system expenses to Scott Larsen. The first did not specific which organization they were in, the second was AllianceNet Solutions.

Unfulfilled Potential

Joe was impressed with the ethics and success of the people he met.

There were people from all backgrounds.

Joe was moving up in his job, but still had the feeling that something just was not right, particularly when he was going to work in the morning and evening, and on Sunday nights.

He says that the feeling is that he was living an average life with so much unfulfilled potential. Something was wasting away.

I started asking myself, ‘what if this did work? What if the effort from this business produces more results than the effort that I put in working for somebody else?

Analysis

The ethics and morals of the people is nothing to write home about. Scott Larsen has a list called the Amway/Quixtar Hall of Shame where he has documented some of the mishaps of these people. Now, we can not expect these people to be perfect, but there appears to be more of a fakery than honest people with slip-ups. I have documented clear examples from at least one person who is downline from Joe. Doug Weir has lied to get people to sign up, produced a video where he lies about being a ‘professional driver on a closed course’ but the camera slips and you see Doug driving down the highway in excess of 135MPH. There are also conflicting stories about getting paid to speak, which I document here. Also, Larry Winters, on the tape “The Ball is In your Court” (not yet analyzed) Larry promotes violating Quixtar’s rules by edifying a 15 year old person who is an IBO (You must be 16 to register and 18 to recruit other IBO’s according to page D-2 in the compendium under ‘Minimum Age Requirements’)

Although there are people from all backgrounds, it is clear from many testimonies that many backgrounds are frowned upon. I personally witnessed one such example in the Sunday morning worship service Bill Britt declared more than once, “Are there any Democrats in here? BURN IN HELL!!”

As far as his last point goes, there is nothing wrong with what he calls an ‘average’ life. A life that is well lived need not be large and flashy. It need not be full of wealth, but it should be full of faith and full of love for all others. After all, God did command us to work for our needs, not to play all day long. It can be argued that the Diamonds have earned their wages, but I would ask at what cost? The facts are quite clear that for one thriving BWW diamond, there are thousands of IBO’s under them going bankrupt to support that Diamond and pushing money from other endeavors into a false dream of success in Quixtar.

The Intangables

Joe says that he will not talk about the many material things the business has supplied, but he will talk about the intangibles.

Time, quality time, with his family.

Time and income to travel to places they could not travel to before.

The ability to give more to worthy causes.

To impart the qualities and principles in their kids.

He says that since the business has provided this for him, you should thank the people who shared the opportunity with you.

I urge you to evaluate this seriously; just like you would any other business decision. Now, forget about any perceived hype here. Simply from a business perspective, this is the best business opportunity in the country today.

Joe says that you can compare ANY factor and you will come to the conclusion that this is simply the best business out there.

Analysis

His intangibles at the beginning of this are noble things, though they seem to lack the teaching of responsibility…or do they? According to some site visitors of Scott Larsen’s page, the ‘time together’ and ‘freedom’ were never a way of life as children of an Amway business. Further, a friend of mine (who is now married) became an ‘Ama-kid’ in her early teens, but the family is still struggling. More recently, a Quixtar critic talks about his own experiences, “I told my upline I owed no one an explanation other then my kids who were neglected during this time in our life. He writes further, “With all of this going on I slip into a depression. I am a wreck, I can’t eat much, I cry when I do the finances, and I can’t even spend time with my kids. On top of all of this my wife is really putting on the pressure to get out and get recruits. It looks that Joe is the anomaly of what might happen if you start a Quixtar business. In the end, the proper and balanced thing to do is to love your children, you are related to them, but now you need to be affectionate, their protector, a builder of their minds, bodies, and souls, and provide their needs and a few wants. Statistics show that a loved child with nothing is far better a person than a wealthy child (under any circumstances).

Joe urges you to examine this business like you would every other. That is good, but please, examine it with ALL the facts, not just the one side that the IBO will give you. I am convinced that point for point, this is among the worst businesses in the world. Here is a partial list of why:

  • Cost of MLM products are generally much more expensive than that of competing products [this appears to be to pay all the people in between].
  • The money is in growth, so more emphasis is generally placed on recruitment over customer sales.
  • The markup on products for sale is generally too small to make a significant [i.e. living wage] profit.
  • The time required to build and maintain a network far exceeds the reward for doing so [especially since the MLM I know of with the highest retention rate is Reliv @ a little over 50%].
  • If you ever do succeed in turning a significant profit, it is always for having a large network of people who are making little if any money at all
  • Statistically, 99.9% of people lose money in MLM

A Unique Digital Destination

The BWW team uses Quixtar to show people how to access the good they would otherwise buy.

Are they solid? Quixtar had reported 40 million hits per day “most of that is because of word of mouth.

Quixtar will be the fastest, easiest, and most affordable way for anyone to tap into this exploding internet market.

By simply sharing what you know of the savings, and the convenience available to hundreds of well know manufacturers and online retailers at Quixtar.com that result in purchases, you can build a substantial online business.

Joe explains that this is more than an online mall, but rather it is about choices: a great shopping experience or a path to reach your financial goals.

Analysis

Quixtar did not grow so fast due to word of mouth, it grew so fast because all the Amway distributors moved over to Quixtar. Are there that many Amway people really? Yes, but to quote Dave Severn on ‘Passion’, “If a million people do a stupid thing, it’s still a stupid thing!

Next, it is interesting that Joe only mentioned savings and convenience in his statement, but to run a proper business, you have to have sales, and frankly, for it to be a good business, your sales should vastly out number your personal use. That is to say, if you own a restaurant, most of your sales should be to customers, not to yourself. Robert Fitzpatrick of Pyramid Scheme Alert did a comprehensive analysis of MLM’s (PDF), including Amway, and found that very few people ever make a sale.

How is the shopping experience? Not bad in my opinion. I never had a problem except for the high prices of the products.

A Better Way

Joe claims that the prices are very competitively priced, particularly at the ‘Hot Buys’ section.

The site is set up as Exclusives, Store for More, Partner Stores, and Hot Buys.

The best place to buy is the Exclusives section which you get the highest PV/BV for. They are also repeat sales.

You will get the benefit of your shopping instead of some big chain.

“What we really do is promote a better way of accessing thousands of products and services.

Analysis

The prices are not very competitively priced at all, unless you live in downtown Manhattan or a tourist trap. Now, the Hot Buys section can be cheap, but usually consists of re-furbished items, and poor quality garbage. The Store-For-More (department store) are the same things you can get at any other retail store, except they are much higher in price, and you have to pay shipping and handling on top. The partner stores are almost exactly like going directly to the store online itself, except a few differences, for example, Barnes & Noble, you can not use your 10% membership discount with the Quixtar promotion.

To look for a moment at the exclusives, however, here are a few items of interest (All prices IBO): 6.75 oz. toothpaste: $4.10; 100 uses mouthwash: $6.75; 10 oz. 2-in1 shampoo/conditioner: $7.80; 75-150 loads laundry: $28.10; 16 oz. hand soap: $17; 6-150 g bars of soap: $10.50; 6-15 oz. boxes of General Mills Cheerios: $21.16; 24 packs microwave popcorn: $16.20. Once you have your products, you need to get them shipped. Calculate your shipping fees at the Quixtar Delivery Options Page.

He says that you will get the benefit of your shopping instead of some big chain, but the realty is that big chain upline will be receiving the benefit of your shopping. If you spend $300 on what might otherwise only cost you $200, you will get $7.50 back on your purchase. That is not quite supporting you.

Redirect your Buying Power

To build a business with Quixtar, you simply need to redirect your buying power.

Joe says that it is a myth that many people have that you can save your way to financial independence, but that is not right. He gives an example. When someone buys a hundred dollar item at a 40% discount, they don’t save $40, they spend $60. When they take $60 from their net worth to buy a consumable, they not only lose the $60, they lose the ability to invest that $60 and to grow more money over time.

He says that shopping clubs (Sam’s Club, Costco, etc.) are very appealing, but they never one time give a rebate for items you purchase.

He says that in BWW, they teach you to become the store, redirect your buying power, and buy products and services right out of your store. By referring other people to your store, you will get financial rewards, i.e. an asset.

Analysis

Here we have the essence of Quixtar. It is not customers that many IBO’s are after (in fact, a Dave Severn tape ‘Width, Depth, Momentum’ taught to CAP your clients and members to 10-20 people MAX), it is IBO’s that give you profit. In effect, it is a whole group of people that are simply buying at ‘wholesale’ and you get money in the form of rebates as the team grows. To actually get that rebate from your Downline Differential (the portion of your rebate coming from your downline), you have to have 50 M/C PV or 10 customers or $100 in sales (See rule 4.22 in the Rules Compendium [PDF]), but many IBO’s have found a loop-hole in this system of either buying samples for themselves by themselves, or simply calling mom. In reality, if you have a ‘business’, you had better have customers. At this point, it might be worth reading the analysis of A Unique Digital Destination again from above.

Now, for Joe’s example, let me expand on it. First, if you NEED that $100 dollar item, buying it at $60 IS saving $40, but buying it from your ‘own business’ for $120+ shipping and then getting $3 back is NOT a smart thing to do, as you have effectively LOST over $17 not counting the sale boosting your loss to $57! For example, I once paid $1.65 for 12 oz. of toothpaste because I knew I would need it. If I instead bought the 6.75 oz. for $4.10, then got back $0.95 (assuming 25%), I paid 3 times more for toothpaste than I needed to.

Every wise and prudent person who has achieved a level of financial success has learned that you need to save more than you spend. That being said, you need to get disciplined about what is a NEED verses what is a WANT and you need to live prudently. That is biblical, but BWW teaches to get more and more to fill your hearts desires which actually detract from the power and devotion to God.

A New Business Model

You make money by collecting the points which are attached to the products.

You get a bonus check based on the volume of products sold through your IBO number in a given month.

Clients are casual shoppers that you get the difference between wholesale and retail as well as the points. Members pay an annual fee to shop at the wholesale price, you get the points, and an IBO gets the points and rebate money back based on his sales (his rebate comes out of your rebate.)

Quixtar tracks all volume on the business management center on the Quixtar website.

He makes the comment, “I am not beating someone up by trying to sell them some overpriced lotion, potion, diet cookie, or some other exotic product line out of my garage.

Analysis

Since I have never covered any detail of the Quixtar plan, I guess I can do a very brief explanation for those of you who have recently been contacted and are looking for information. The complete details can be read for free in the Rules Compendium [see above for download]. First, you need to learn the definitions:

PV – Point Volume: The points associated with a product used to determine your percent rebate.

BV – Bonus Volume: The points that would roughly correspond to the cost of product. For the Exclusive line, it is often over the IBO cost of the product, for Store-For-More is it significantly less.

Performance Bonus – The bonus rebate awarded. It is calculated as 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 23, 25 % of the BV. The percent is determined by the PV at 100, 300, 600, 1000, 1500, 2500, 4000, 6000, and 7500.

Downline Differential – The portion of your performance bonus that is paid from your downline volume.

Now, if you get 4000 PV for example, and have 6 legs at 600, and assuming a 1:2.50 PV:BV ratio, your performance bonus from your personal PV is $210. Your total rebate is $2100. The downline differential is $1890. Now, the downline performance bonus comes from your downline differential. Each downline receives $135, so $810 comes out, so your total performance bonus is $1290. Now, that is not typical. It is more typical to have one large leg, and perhaps, a small leg or two. The usual would be a 4000 PV with a leg at 3000 PV, and a for example, 2 300PV legs. In that your check drops to $660. Now, keep in mind that if that leg goes over 7500 PV and you do not have 2500PV side volume (volume in another leg), you lose all that volume to the next upline who DOES have 2500PV. If you are being prospected, insist to see the structure of your sponsoring IBO AND his upline Platinum, chances are, however, they will not show you.

Now, for Joe’s final statement, here are examples of what he is trying to sell:

Overpriced Lotion3.4 oz. of Tolsom hand lotion - $34.80

Potion90 tablets Carb Blocker 2 - $42.00

Diet Cookie12 Protein Cookies - $23.99

Exotic Product LineNAO (whatever THAT is?)

And we all know that Amway/Quixtar products DO line the garage and basement shelves…need I say more…

Spectator or Player?

The internet is exploding, many people are going to shop online, are you participating in making money through YOUR store?

It is simple, but not necessarily easy.

The infrastructure is already in place and built.

Analysis

Although there is a large market for internet sales, Quixtar does not appear to be the place to get them all. We have already detailed that it is not your own business, you are not in control, and statistically, it does not work except for a very few and those few appear to get rich off of the motivational materials sold by the upper level IBO’s.

A Winning Team

Here, Joe starts to talk about the importance of the educational system.

Britt World Wide (BWW) is there to help the Independent Business Owners to achieve the highest level of success possible.

BWW has a 30 year track record of helping others to achieve success in their own business.

BWW provides tapes, CD’s, literature, conferences, multimedia, business homepages, and a communication system.

Analysis

Under the analysis for ‘Reality Check’, I included in purple a statement of the level of success in the Quixtar business. In light of that, I have to ask on what basis do they make the claim that they have 30+ years of experience in helping others achieve successful businesses. If BWW were a consulting firm to help businesses, their track record would have left them bankrupt many years ago. Remember that in the whole of Quixtar, only 1 in 400 ever make it to a level where they make less than the nation (USA) average for a B.S. degree. That is not a good record.

Now, I have detailed the analysis of this system everywhere on this site, but I would like to draw your attention to the following places for more research:

Types of BWW Functions

Types of BWW Recordings

Types of BWW Tools

The Key Ingredient

Joe asks if you are satisfied with where your life is going to be in five, ten, and twenty years.

His final appeal is to take time to get more information about this business.

Analysis

I agree with Joe’s final appeal to get more information. I would like you to get a whole series of questions together and ask (politely) the people showing you this business. Ask such things like:

How much money do you currently make after all business expenses are cleared?

What is the structure of your business?

Ask to see their profit and loss statements.

Now, listen to any tapes they give you, read the information they give you.

Next, visit the following websites and ask the people showing you this business to sit down with you, after all, if it really is a good business, there will be good and logical explanations for all the clearly stated objections:

Check out the Index for this website.

Quixtar Blog

Amway / Quixtar Business Analysis Page

Quixtar Inside Out

Freedom of Mind Amway Motivational Organization Page

Merchants of Deception

Pyramid Scheme Alert

MLM-The Truth

Quixtar Demons

God of the Bible vs God of MLM

FTC page on MLM businesses

And since Greg Duncan (Private Franchising in a Dot Com World) always likes to tell you not listen to what half cocked negative people on the internet have to say, but listen to respected business journals have to say, here are the articles about Quixtar by Forbes:

Amway.com – Basically tells us that Quixtar is Amway on the internet. The article details that Quixtar did grow fast, but that was due to the shift to Quixtar from Amway. The article warns at the end about getting involved in businesses such as Amway and Quixtar.

One of the ‘Must Read Tech stories points to Quixtar in the Google-bombing stunt that it tried to pull to bury ‘negative’ information in the internet. The article it points to is from Annenburg Online Journalism Review.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Building Quixtar with BWW Part 8

BWW Basics Manual (BBAS 6/02)

Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2.1
Chapter 2.2
Chapter 2.3
Chapter 2.4
Chapter 3

Chapter 4 – Staying on Track: The “Eagle” Program: The Roadmap to Success

Once again, in this post, my analysis is spread throughout the post instead of being at the end.

This chapter begins with an interesting quote (pg 52): “Britt Worldwide has established a proven track record of helping people build their own successful businesses. I wrote on several previous posts:

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.

This is a Quixtar wide statistic, but even if BWW comprises 95% of the total of those Q12 Platinums, I would NOT say that is a good track record.

Further, there is a quote from Bill & Peggy Britt (pg 52): “In thirty years of helping independent business owners build their own successful business, we have seen that anyone who consistently follows these success principles can achieve a significant level of success in their own business. What are these ‘success principles’ they are talking about? The 9 core steps (pg 53):

  1. Show the plan three or more times per week.
  2. Personal circle: 150 PV or 300 PV (couple)
  3. Develop Clients and Members (50 PV minimum)
  4. Listen to tapes daily: Standing Order Tape Program
  5. Read Daily: Book of the Month Program
  6. Attend all business conferences and seminars
  7. Associate and counsel regularly
  8. Build your business with integrity and accountability
  9. Subscribe to Communikate

The last part of this chapter lists the activities and structure for Eagle, Double Eagle, and Ultimate Eagle. I will not expand on these at all because Truth at Quixtar Inside Out did a wonderful job detailing these as well as doing some serious number crunching on the theory behind Eagle. Please see his category called Archive for the 'Math of Eagle Program.'

Recommended Tools:

  • GS4 – Core to Diamond ($7.50)
  • EGB – Eagle brochure ($6.00 / quantity not specified)
  • AN73 – Roadmap to Success ($7.50)
  • RJM19 – Eagle ($7.50)
  • BPB193 – Fly with the Eagles ($7.50)
  • BPB238 – The Philosophy Behind the Eagle Pin ($7.50)
  • CS1 – Counseling Sheet (I hope this is not for sale because it is a free download)

Sunday, April 02, 2006

The CFP Has Spoken…Quixtar is the BEST

Tape: The Right Business at the Right Time

Speakers: John Sestina

Stock Number: BWW25

Recording Type: Teaching – About how thriving E-Commerce is and how Quixtar fits in.

This tape started out by listing all of John’s professional qualifications in the financial planning industry.

Teaching Points:

In the 60’s and 70’s, products were sold door to door, 70’s, the shopping centers, malls, and catalogs obtained favor, 80’s had specialty catalogs and TV sales (QVC, etc.), not it is online sales. [This is absolutely correct.]

John tells us where it is going to be in the future, getting the audience excited, and then asks how they will participate in this opportunity to make money.

He tells us that you need a website, so if you go out and make one, you need people to find it, but the infrastructure is the costly part. Getting people to the site is the hardest and most costly aspect. You need a way to ship, keep track of product, and people to manage everything. In short, John tells us that we need to be a millionaire or borrow all the money to get everything started.

He moves in to tell us that Quixtar is a marketing arm and that thousands of companies are lined up asking Q to move their products. [In reality, many companies allow their store to be used in whatever model of ecommerce is available. Check out the other ‘online malls’ (which Quixtar is often compared) to see how many stores overlap. Here is a partial list (In preparing this, I typed the search term “Internet Malls” in Google and I received an article about internet shopping mall scams involving business opportunities as the first hit!). The last time I checked, Quixtar and Upromise had a large overlap in the online partner store sections. The point is that Quixtar is nothing special, these stores will flock to anyone that opens up a portal to their business. For John to bring this up the way he did is a little bit of twisting the facts around.]

John talks a whole lot about how Quixtar is superior to the traditional business systems in that there is no overhead, no competition with your current job, and a joyful, helping attitude where everyone is looking to help everyone else succeed. [Many people will take much debate on these points. I will not provide details here, but check the stories and you will see all these points to the contrary.]

John then tells us that we have the power to negotiate pricing because we are the market end with no competition.

John then goes on to say that people are basically broke and can not afford to live without a business (this, BTW, is a major point in his own business, though there is quite a list of businesses he does not recommend.

Next, he attacks everyone with their kids in day care with a story from a communist country that requires all kids to be turned over to the state at 2 years old so the mother can work… “In this country, we do it voluntarily” he responds.

John next goes on about if it takes you 15 years to go Platinum, it is like having a portfolio with $600,000. [This is not correct, because the portfolio investments stayt pretty much still, the Platium will wax and wane like the MOON, and if you are not putting new life into it, it will die entirely leaving you with noth!]

He tells us that the best option is for everyone to recognize that this is the best business and to follow all the principles that the leaders teach to build it correctly (i.e. the Motivational Organization programs that are very costly.)

In summary, this is the best business in the world, but what are YOU doing with it? [NOT!]