The Mind of Vatke
Thoughts, Musings and Advice by Andre Vatke

12 years ago a man was heralded as creating a revolution in network marketing. His ads were in major magazines, being mailed via direct mail and even heard on radio around the US.

Hundreds of thousands of people eager to be star network marketers joined the company he promoted and flocked to his “marketing” seminars. There were a lot of testimonials of people who were getting rich and living the life featured in a network marketing company promo videos.

If I stop the story there, as most promo’s do, you wouldn’t have the complete story. In fact, you would be missing the very part that could help you improve your odds of success.

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Not too long after reaching this pinnacle, complaints started to circulate about this marketing guru and the company he promoted. It turned out that people didn’t find what they were promised. In fact, as often happens in these cases, the more people that got involved the less successful it was for everyone except those running it. Soon, the FTC got involved and started to investigate for fraud. The network marketing company blamed the marketer saying he had become a renegade, while the marketer blamed the company saying they didn’t deliver on what he was told to promise.

There was a mass exodus from the company (Nutrition For Life) and it was eventually forced out of business. There were fines by the FTC and there was a lot of finger pointing… but the real victims were the approximately 300,000 people duped into joining a marketing system under false pretenses and placed on autoship before they really knew what they were getting involved with.

Yesterday that notorious marketer, Kevin Trudeau, was sentenced to 30 days in jail for contempt of court after inciting his followers to flood the email inbox of the judge. He’s had a long history with defrauding the public. He’s spent several years in federal prison and had previously a high value home and 2 luxury cars as a judgment against him. This time he looses the $50,000 in bail he posted. But that’s small change considering the $37 MILLION he was fined by the FTC for deceptive practices in advertising his information and health products.

While the big fish sometimes get gutted, there are still many more predators large and small that manipulate the innocent for their own gain. There are guru’s out there (I have talked to them personally) that consciously deceive the public because it’s simply an easy way for them to make a lot of money. They know that telling people what they want to hear is often more profitable than telling them the truth.

But not everyone is a predator… it’s time to stand up for integrity in network marketing.

It’s time for those who are serious about network marketing to become crusaders for our industry. Crusaders reject all tactics related to manipulation, deception, or dishonesty.

We reject the use of hype and unusual earning claims in advertising and we’re ready to protect this industry from the marauders and renegades that seek personal gain above anything else.

We acknowledge that unethical marketing tactics based on deception and dishonesty create a backlash and damage the reputation of the fine companies we represent and our entire industry. If we want our companies to stay in business and our industry to thrive, we need to be crusaders, not marauders.