How the LuLaRoe Documentary Highlights a Larger Societal Issue
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This weekend, my girlfriend and I have been binging the new LuLaRich docuseries on Amazon Prime. I’m fascinated by MLMs for the same reason I’m so interested in learning about cults. Whenever I hear about these stories, my main question is, “How do people get sucked in?” Aside from being forever interested in human behavior and psychology, there’s probably a part of people like me that also want to make sure we’re inoculated from getting suckered into one of these schemes.
One of the ways people get lured into MLMs is due to the language that’s used by the leaders as well as the members. This is perfectly highlighted in the awesome 2021 book from sociolinguist Amanda Montell, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism. In the book, as well as in a recent episode of my podcast with Amanda, Montell discusses how MLMs may not perfectly fit the definition of a cult, but they’re definitely “cultish”.
Note: Amanda has an op-ed coming out about this docuseries soon so follow her on Instagram @ amanda_montell
I actually didn’t know this docuseries was coming out until I saw that author, journalist, and previous podcast guest Jill Filipovic was featured in the series. Aside from her incredible journalism and Substack, she’s also written The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness and OK Boomer, Let's Talk: How My Generation Got Left Behind. What I love about Jill’s work is that she’s passionate and does an amazing job writing about feminism, wealth inequality, and other social issues. This is why she was such a perfect fit for this docuseries.
In a recent Substack piece from Jill titled Caught With Their Pants Down, Jill highlights how LuLaRoe targeted women and destroyed many lives. This excerpt from her piece puts it perfectly:
The documentary is an impressive and sprawling look at LuLaRoe’s rise and fall — the false promise of female empowerment it sold, and the lives it destroyed. To me, though, the most interesting part of the LuLaRoe story, and the story of so many MLMs, is the place where American capitalist and consumerist aspiration crashes into our stubborn enforcement of traditional gender roles: how we still fetishize full-time motherhood and consider it the end-all be-all of female ambition, while also living in a nation obsessed with buying, selling, entrepreneurship, and the myth of the self-made (wo)man.
And as my girlfriend and I have watched the series, I couldn’t help but notice how this showcases a broader societal issue that Jill also points out. When you watch the docuseries, you can’t help but notice how LuLaRoe is set up as this mini capitalist society, and if we put it in a broader context, maybe we can open our eyes and realize how badly we need change.
Anyone who watches LuLaRich will have no problem seeing how people are getting taken advantage of at the benefit of the wealthy, but why don’t we see how the American economy is set up in the same way? I’m a huge believer that when when you can see these similarities between seemingly different topics, we can learn some valuable lessons.
So, let’s break this thing down
Wealth Concentration
Throughout the documentary, there are plenty of statistics that pop up as well as experts who are interviewed showing how many people made an insane amount of money. Did people make money being part of LuLaRoe? Absolutely. There’s no doubt about it. There are plenty of women who are interviewed that discuss how they were receiving checks for 10s of thousands of dollars on a monthly basis. Some of these women became millionaires, but the founders Mark and Deanne Stidham (as well as many of their family members) made even more money.
LuLaRoe sold the same idea as the American dream; it doesn’t matter who you are, you can become rich and successful. And if you don’t believe them, just listen to the stories of these wealthy women who took control and became their own boss. There’s even a whole segment of the third episode where former LuLaRoad retailers talk about how Mark and Deanne had these women travel and speak about their rags to riches story. Psychologically, we’re wired for story, and while it can be inspirational to believe “if they can do it, so can I,” that’s not how LuLaRoe or the American economy is set up.
Aside from showing all the people who made money at LuLaRoe, the statistics discussed in the docuseries show how many people didn’t make a damn thing. At its peak, LuLaRoe had over 60,000 consultants, and 80% of them weren’t making money.
Sound familiar?
On average, CEOs are making 320x what the average worker is making at major companies around the United States. Over the years, the wealth concentration has become worse and worse in this country. But as long as the wealthy can sell us on the idea that you too can make it, we’ll hopefully stick our heads down and do the work because it’s a meritocracy, right?
The Myth of Meritocracy
Whenever they interviewed Mark Stidham or showed clips of his live stream rants, I wanted to drop kick my TV. There are so many parts of this documentary where he’s ranting about how if you’re not making money, you’re just not working hard enough. This too sounds eerily familiar when looking at the way our economy is set up.
Numerous women from LuLaRoe are interviewed about how terrible they felt after making their $5,000 to $10,000 plus investments in products and told that they aren’t selling because they aren’t working hard enough. Mark didn’t want these women to ever learn the fact that MLMs are set up as a zero-sum game where for people to get rich, many others have to fail. And this doesn’t even take into consideration how terrible the quality of the product became as the company continued to grow.
The idea of a meritocracy in a capitalist society is simple: the hardest workers succeed.
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of people who made a ton of money at LuLaRoe who worked their asses off. But were they working that much harder than all the people not making any money?
I’m no math whiz, but it’s pretty simple if you have a semblance of rationality. Were those making 10s of thousands of dollars each month working 10s of thousands of times harder than those making little to no money? Come on…
Going back to the wealth concentration issue, are CEOs working 320x harder than average employees? There are plenty of people around the country working 60-80 hours a week at multiple jobs and can still barely afford to survive. Does this sound like a meritocracy to you? Of course not, but when you push the idea of individualism, it’s a great way to keep the people at the bottom exactly where they are.
The Obsession with Individualism
All of this meritocracy nonsense leads back to the idea of individualism. LuLaRoe pushed the idea that results are based on the individual and nothing else. When the product started becoming worse and worse, that’s the seller’s problem and not LuLaRoe’s problem. Mark and Deanne were great at telling these women that they weren’t working hard enough, or they were being too negative, and they just needed to get more creative to sell the product.
Maybe it’s because I grew up here in Las Vegas around a bunch of Mormons, but I think it’s important to point out that Mark and Deanne are Mormon. Not only that, but many of the recruits were either Mormon or of the Christian faith. Now, although I’m not religious and don’t really care if you are, I personally feel that one of the main issues with religion is this completely non-scientific way of thinking.
Science wouldn’t progress if it weren’t for the importance of falsifiability. In order for any hypothesis to be correct, you have to be able to falsify it.
In the context of religion, even if you believe in God or a Higher Power, there’s no way to falsify His/Her motives. Something good happens? God is taking care of you. Something bad happens? God’s plan. Something good happens? You were doing good. Something bad happens? You must have done something wrong. This is terrible logical because it’s impossible to falsify and the goal post is constantly moving.
One of the world’s greatest scientists, Carl Sagan put it perfectly in “The Dragon in My Garage”:
“A fire-breathing dragon lives in my garage”. Suppose I seriously make such an assertion to you. Surely you’d want to check it out, see for yourself. There have been innumerable stories of dragons over the centuries, but no real evidence. What an opportunity! “Show me,” you say. I lead you to my garage. You look inside and see a ladder, empty paint cans, an old tricycle — but no dragon. “Where’s the dragon?” you ask. “Oh, she’s right here,” I reply, waving vaguely. “I neglected to mention that she’s an invisible dragon.” You propose spreading flour on the floor of the garage to capture the dragon’s footprints. “Good idea,” I say, “but this dragon floats in the air.” Then you’ll use an infrared sensor to detect the invisible fire. “Good idea, but the invisible fire is also heatless.” You’ll spray-paint the dragon and make her visible. “Good idea, but she’s an incorporeal dragon and the paint won’t stick.” And so on. I counter every physical test you propose with a special explanation of why it won’t work.
Now let’s think about it in the context of LuLaRoe. Not making sales? You’re not working hard enough. Oh, you’re working super hard? Well, you just don’t have a positive attitude. Wait, you have a positive attitude? Well, it’s not positive enough. And so on.
We see the same thing happening in our current system. In order to avoid fixing our system so there’s more wealth equality and actual equality of opportunity, the ones with wealth and power play this same game with us. We’ve been conditioned to believe in individualism to a point where everything is your fault, and there’s nothing we can do to fix this “perfect” system.
With all the gaslighting going on, it’s a wonder that half of us aren’t in mental institutions for how crazy they make us feel when we’re struggling financially.
I Used to be a Slave to These Same Ideas
One of the reasons I’m so passionate about these topics is because I was the same asshole that I just described above that pushed these same completely false beliefs. When I got sober in 2012 and managed to stay sober, it was 100% because of individualism and meritocracy. I worked my ass off by going to three 12-step meetings a day and putting in the work.
While working at a dual diagnosis rehab, I saw more relapses than you can imagine, but there were a ton of success stories as well. If you succeeded, I could tell you exactly what you did right. If you failed, I could tell you exactly what you did wrong, and I sounded no better than Mark Stedham.
Fortunately, there was some small piece of me that knew this was complete bullshit. I saw plenty of people who were putting in the work who couldn’t stay sober. I also saw a ton of people doing a fraction of the work and managing to stay sober. So, there had to be something else.
Then, I started to see this in the larger context of society, and I personally experienced it. I’m one of the hardest workers that I know, and I live paycheck-to-paycheck. On the first of September, I got laid off even though I was objectively one of the hardest workers who took the least amount of sick/vacation days. I’ve experienced this in my content creation as well. I made over 1,000 YouTube videos in just a couple years, but there are countless people who have a fraction of videos and are millionaires.
This isn’t to whine and complain. This is to share my experience of snapping out of this false narrative we’re sold since childhood.
So, as I continue watching the LuLaRoe docuseries, I can’t help but think about all the other people watching this series and not realizing how we’re facing these same issues on a societal level. People love watching and learning about MLMs and wonder, “How do people get suckered into this system?” Meanwhile, we vote for politicians and policies that are doing the exact same thing.
Want me to really blow your mind?
According to the Pew Research Center, approximately 70% of Mormons are conservative. Many of the people who got suckered into LuLaRoe are Mormons. Therefore, it’s not crazy to infer that many of these women who had their lives ruined are conservative and vote for conservative policies. This is the party that pushes the idea of meritocracy and individualism. So, even though these women were scammed, gaslit, and treated like garbage due to these same ideas, I can’t help but wonder how many of them still look around this country and think our system can work for everyone.
Also, I don’t know about you, but where the hell did they all find $5,000 to $10,000 to join LuLaRoe?! Meanwhile, many Americans can’t even come up with $1,000 in the case of an emergency.
I’ve been working on organizing all the books I’ve read, and I have multiple lists of books on becoming a better thinker. There are lists for education, social issues, critical thinking, self-deception, and biases. For the rest of the categories, click here.
I’m always open for a conversation and to be shown what I might be missing or where I may be wrong, so feel free to email me at TheRewiredSoul@gmail.com