Business
An Inside Look Into Camden’s Newest Startup: Penji
Published
8 years agoon
Within the developing City of Camden, there are gems popping up in their business district. We sat down with Penji’s co-founder, Johnathan Grzybowski. In this conversation, we learned about the problem with design and what Penji is doing to resolve it.
Penji is a dependable on-demand design service that helps marketing teams receive custom design at an affordable monthly cost.
How did you come up with the idea of Penji?
It’s the culmination of our journey as a design agency and our desire provide jobs for students in Camden. Penji is a product we built from the ground up to give our customers a better experience working with a designer, meanwhile we focus on training and hiring students in Camden.
We believe our platform can give customers high quality design at a set monthly cost while giving internships, jobs, and opportunities to students within our community.
What does Penji mean?
Let’s just say that there are a lot of hints out there in the digital universe and we will leave it up to you to decide what you think Penji means.
What is the problem with design today?
The main problem with design is the “pick two” stigma in business. Typically, clients want affordability, quality, and speed, but never have all three.
For example, if you’re a startup looking to expand your marketing strategies, you’re stuck scouring the internet to find a high quality and affordable designer. So then you hire that designer, but you get your affordable and quality design delivered…late. In this instance, the problem is speed.
If you’re an established company, you’ll likely hire an expensive agency to deliver high quality design on time, however you’ll be paying an arm and a leg for it. The problem here is cost.
We believe that we are in an age where we can build just about anything we put our minds to, but the greatest differentiator we have in business is design. We shatter the pick two stigma by helping marketing teams to obtain cost-effective, quality design, on time – every time.
What is your mission?
We strive to be a community-conscious design platform that delivers an exceptional service while providing learning and job opportunities for students in underprivileged communities.
We’ve been in Camden for almost three years and have seen a complete transformation throughout the city. New businesses are coming into the city and are now opening their headquarters here in Camden. We want to set the precedent as one of the first community-conscious tech startups to relocate to the city and pave the way for others to follow.
We also believe greatly in the entrepreneurship and business community as a whole. We set out to develop a product that entrepreneurs, business professionals, and marketing teams want to use.
Finding a quality designer is hard, but at Penji, we believe there are great designers hidden within our community. That’s why we provide design internships, workshops, and learning opportunities to help students learn about design and further hone their design skills.
We are allocating our resources by focusing on the future of design and it begins here in Camden. By giving resources to educate students and professionals about design, it will allow for a smarter workforce, paid internship opportunities, and help grow the local economy.
Can you describe your team?
One of the hardest things to do in a business is to find a reliable team that sees our vision and believes in our mission.
It starts with our core team:
Jie is the glue that brings everyone together. She’s that fiery outgoing personality that is an absolute joy to be around. She’s the person you first want to meet at a networking event, because she will set the tone of incredible people you’ll meet during the rest of your event.
Then there’s Liam, we call him our “Damn Good Designer.” Well, actually, he calls himself that, but that’s a different story. Liam first started as a young and talented designer, now he’s head of design, and sets the tone for everything that’s delivered to our clients. Liam has thorough process and focus on our quality control to make sure that when we design an item for a client, it’s met with the highest quality.
Our dark horse is Steven. The quietest person in the room and the individual with the biggest brain. He’s our problem solver and is dedicated to providing a memorable experience to our customers. What makes Steven so amazing is his ability to do all of his tasks, with little involvement from the founders.
One of the hardest workers on our team is our sales manager, Andria. If you’ve received a phone call, a cold email, or an ask for a guest post or podcast interview, it more than likely came from the focused mind of Andria. With her efforts, we’ve had the opportunity to grow as quickly as we have.
I would be remissed if I didn’t mention the efforts of our outreach specialists, Thomas. He’s the slider of all sliders of DM’s. He’s handling an exceptional campaign for cold outreach and has the ability to execute the most difficulty of tasks. Our interns are also a major asset to our success. The willingness of our team to take these individuals in as our own, and have the ability to constantly teach, is the foundation to who we are today, and the community conscious platform Penji is.
Lastly, my cofounder is the ying to my yang. We are the perfect balance and level each other out. During the entire process of creating Penji, we stuck to each other’s strengths and maintained focus. I couldn’t have done it without him.
I am grateful and honored to have such an inspiring team.
Who is your ideal customer?
Our ideal customers are marketing teams seeking to improve the overall quality of their marketing materials, having designs done on time – every time, and to lower their overhead.
Our clients consist of Rutgers University here in Camden, Camden County College, Cooper’s Ferry, Hardenbergh Insurance Group, Boomerang Office Furniture, just to name a few. These are organizations with large marketing/sales teams that have integrated Penji into their business with ease to better their digital products.
Then you have startups and other small businesses like Only Good Things that just started their business and need help to brand their digital imprint. Level5Wealth that has been in business for years. They are absolutely killing it, but their previous designer left a lot to be desired. Waterfront Lab that’s doing incredibly awesome things for the city of Camden. They have an event every week that needs a graphic for promotion on their social and email channels. These organizations are using Penji to help get their time back, so they can spend more time on their business.
Finally you have non-profits and other economic development organizations like Cathedral Kitchen, Kingsway Learning Center, and Waterfront Ventures. We are so proud to have these organizations as clients because we are artistically telling their story through our digital design efforts.
What differentiates Penji from your competitors?
We’re a monthly subscription service that starts at $349/m for 15 hours of design. Penji is a project management service that allows you and your entire marketing team to work seamlessly and efficiently with our designers and project managers. Gone are the days of going back and forth with emails and poorly marked revisions.
We wanted to make a product that is so simple and easy for our customers to use. Every piece to our backend was done with purpose. Khai, our internal design team, and our development team did a brilliant job.
As soon as you sign up you are met with a screen that allows us to understand your brand. It takes less than five minutes to complete. As soon as you’re complete with that task, you’re set to begin submitting your projects.
Once projects are submitted, your project manager and design team begins working. In under 24-48 hours you will receive the first draft of your design. If a revision is needed, Penji’s project management service is intuitive enough for you to easily communicate your changes. A simple click of the mouse will unlock an edit section on that design for you to submit your request.
We also transparent to our clients. We bill on recurring monthly basis, which makes using Penji predictable. You’ll never have to wonder if a design is going to go over your budget. Our clients will always know the status of their project, which team member approved what, or who on their team submitted which revisions. Penji provides both transparency and control for marketing teams of all sizes.
What are some challenges that you faced with Penji?
Well, our first challenge was to prove that we have a viable product with a good product/market fit. We introduced the idea to our closest friends, networking groups, and cold called close to 400 local businesses to see if what we were building is a product that marketing teams want. We received a ton of feedback making it difficult at first to understand what each person wanted from the product. We continued this process for about three to four months before designing a single aspect of Penji.
Although this challenge was rather tedious, it did two things for our business:
- It allowed us to get feedback to create a better product.
- It allowed us the opportunity to get initial interest and beta users before the product launched.
Having general interests in our product was a huge lifesaver because we didn’t have to go far to get our first initial customers. We brought our contacts into our sales process. We told them what we were doing, how we were doing it, and what they needed to know about the product itself. We used things like email newsletter, blogging techniques, and even vlogging to document our process and the production of what Penji is today.
How do you plan on scaling?
In the beginning we needed to solve two huge issues within our business; sales and delivering design in a cost efficient and timely manner. To scale design, i’ll leave that up to my cofounder to discuss in more detail. What has made us so successful is sticking to our roles and not straying away or butting into one another’s process.
So then, how were you able to scale sales and get your first 100 customers?
We’re not at 100 yet, but we’re getting there! It started with documenting every single process, number, and interaction that we had with a prospect (Cold lead). We became a numbers and analytics company. Salesforce and other CRM were not cutting it for us, so we developed an internal CRM that allowed our sales team to be more efficient while allowing us to see the data in real time.
Our cold call and cold email strategies are not revolutionary by any means. We did the work that others didn’t want to do and continued to refine the process over time. If you’re curious how we are doing it, we’ve documented every single strategy and step on my personal vlog/blog. All of our scripts, templates, and internal processes are all there for the taking.
Once we had our process down, we then created a workflow and then hired accordingly. We knew who to hire and how to hire based off of our numbers. We knew that if we wanted to grow by 25% we needed to increase our efforts by hiring two additional people doing x. Because of the numbers we knew what they needed to do, how they needed to do it, and were plugged into the process.
Along the same lines of documenting, we also put an emphasis on content marketing. The vlog did an incredible job bringing more people together. It’s funny, sometimes you may not get the comments or the “likes” directly within a social media post, but people are always watching. Get your information and message out to your audience, whatever way that works best for you. Stop thinking, stop waiting, stop believing that you need this huge and expensive set up, because you don’t. I recorded every vlog on my iPhone 7 Plus. I edited on my Macbook Pro using Final Cut and occasionally used my DJI Mavic Pro for b-roll. Other than that, that’s about it. I focused all of my energy on the story.
Where do you see Penji five 5 years from now?
I’ll revert back to our mission, we strive to be a community conscious design platform that delivers while providing learning and job opportunities for students in underprivileged communities.
It starts right here in Camden. In five years, as our organization grows, we will expand our efforts to other cities. For us, success means that we are able to give back to our community, provide learning opportunities for others to succeed, and allow businesses to differentiate themselves through quality design from Penji.
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Business
Failure to Launch: Why Pixar’s Lightyear is a Box Office Dud
Published
3 days agoon
June 12, 2025This summer’s movie season is now in full swing, and turnout is strong. Franchise films are facing a decline in dominance, but still hold a significant portion of the box office. In addition, original hits have proven that fresh storytelling can still break through.
Of course, challenges are there. With streaming habits, changing audience expectations, and the unpredictability of box office trends, studios are being kept on their toes. But one thing has remained constant: Pixar’s tentpole releases reliably soar past the billion-dollar mark.
Or so we thought.
Just before the pandemic, Pixar crossed a billion with Toy Story 4, one year after crushing it with Incredibles 2. Now, after a string of Disney+ releases, they’ve taken another big swing with the Toy Story spinoff Lightyear.
Then, bullish projections had Lightyear nearing a nine-figure opening weekend and cruising to $500m from there. Instead, the family-friendly tentpole opened second, failing to surpass a plummeting Jurassic World Dominion.
Why did Lightyear flop?
You probably seen the headline: Lightyear bombs. Disappointing on its face, but the ramifications go far beyond the potential for a Woody’s Roundup spinoff film.
The past couple Pixar films (Soul, Luca, Turning Red) released exclusively on Disney+. Many maligned the shafting of these exciting animated films. It’s especially upsetting for Turning Red, which could’ve easily been one of 2022’s runaway box office hits.
Lightyear is the test. A new direction for Pixar’s biggest franchise. The most means-tested Pixar film gets the theatrical boost, and if it does well, the other movies follow. For this reason, it is a big deal that Lightyear flopped. So, what happened?
If you frequent Facebook, you’ve no doubt seen the “get woke go broke” narrative. A gay kiss, which was removed from the film and added back after Disney’s March “Don’t Say Gay” controversy, has gotten the film banned in several countries. Domestic concern trolls like Ben Shapiro, enamored by Saudi Arabia’s officially-sanctioned bigotry, ratcheted up scare pieces on the film in the past week.
In today’s new heights of parental hysteria, it wouldn’t surprise me if a few thousand families stayed home due to right-wing fearmongering. Still, history doesn’t really support the notion that this would have a substantial impact on box office. Multiverse of Madness made big bank with equally-major LGBTQ+ characters. If anything, it could be said that these films’ lack of a Chinese release upsets their box office returns, but that doesn’t explain a poor opening weekend.
Still others have pointed to the shafting of Tim Allen, replaced in the role of Buzz by Chris Evans. Allen’s performance in the Toy Story movies is iconic and truly fantastic. Still, I question the notion that $30 million went missing from beleaguered Tim Allen fans.
The other explanation? Marketing. Lightyear got off on the wrong foot with an unclear premise. Evans’ ill-fated explanation tweet only made matters worse. Is this about a real Buzz Lightyear in the Toy Story universe?
One could argue that even today, Disney hasn’t totally gotten their story straight. The movie itself explains that this is the movie that the Buzz Lightyear toy comes from. An ‘80s sci-fi movie that Andy saw. In theaters. In 1995. That’s styled like a 2022 blockbuster. You can see how people got lost.
On the other hand, we might just be asking the wrong question.
Did Lightyear flop?
Of course, it’s too early to say definitively if Lightyear is a flop. That’s not what I’m arguing here.
We’re dealing with a case of Hollywood math, the same system by which Suicide Squad’s $750m profit is considered a dismal failure. Disney had the wrong idea about this movie as soon as they pushed it for a tentpole opening.
Lightyear’s $50m opening puts it in league with Coco and Cars 3, solidly ahead of true Pixar flops like The Good Dinosaur and Onward. It’s the highest opening for an animated film since Frozen II. With a COVID handicap still in play, that’s impressive.
Pixar’s mistake was to angle for a major franchise opening. They applied a post-pandemic framework to the nine-figure openings of Toy Story 4 and Finding Dory. They thought, reasonably enough, that parents would pay big money to turn out for a new, fresh installment in the beloved Toy Story franchise.
Herein lies the real problem. Lightyear is not, in any meaningful sense, a Toy Story movie. It has name recognition, which Hollywood has come to treat as a golden rule over the past two decades. But it follows a completely different character, played by a completely different actor, in a completely different world.
Like I said earlier, Tim Allen’s Buzz Lightyear is truly great. But the character is only a toy with an inflated ego, being constantly hit in the face by reality like Sideshow Bob stepping on infinite rakes. So much as wondering about “the real Buzz Lightyear” misses the point of the character.
Lightyear may marginally be a victim of conservative backlash, or poor promotion, or even COVID woes. But fundamentally, it’s a victim of its own premise.
What happens now?
Pixar’s next film, Elemental, is already slated for a theatrical release next summer. Barring a huge COVID flare-up or other societal collapse, they probably won’t go back on that. Down the line, other Pixar flicks in development may be looking at streaming releases if Disney has their way.
If anything, The Bad Guys’ recent success proves feature animation is doing fine. In a few weeks, the new Minions movie will likely confirm that. November’s Strange World will tell us if Disney’s animation department has any sort of long-term problem.
I can’t really recommend that you see Lightyear—in fairness, I haven’t seen it myself. If you want variety at the movies, the answer isn’t to support whatever Disney puts out. Live a little and see something out of your comfort zone. If Lightyear’s fate is already sealed, at least it won’t be at the expense of film as a whole.
We’ve all seen it before: the tale of the gauzy self-made business entrepreneur swept into fame and wealth, touting a name for themselves, only for it all to come crashing down suddenly. In their joyride, the protagonist figure realizes that beneath the world of dizzy glitters, there’s a saddened space of existence reality awaiting, of gaping shadows where life isn’t as pleasing as it seems to be.
Experiencing poverty is, without a doubt, a challenging feat in itself. Being born into it, experiencing success, fame, then losing it all and falling back into poverty is what must be especially difficult. Where the majority see this cliche in fiction or television, some are unfortunate enough to experience it firsthand.
This is the story of Wally Amos, of the Famous Amos fame.
Who is “Famous” Amos?
When it comes to feelings about Famous Amos, I imagine people typically fall into one of three groups:
The first group—being made up of mostly young people (probably; I’ve no data)— has zero knowledge of the brand at all. If the name doesn’t conjure visions of second-rate vending machine options (D4 at best), then you’re likely in this group.
The second group knows of Famous Amos and is familiar with its underwhelming status as a dollar store checkout counter snack food. Reasonable.
But the third group has a different view of the matter. A much more romantic take on the treat. Because this group remembers Famous Amos as a mouthwatering gourmet delicacy. A top-shelf cookie purveyor with an outspoken, charismatic owner in Wally Amos.
Why such a harsh disparity? How can a company less than 50 years old have such contradicting reputations among different generations?
There was a time, just a few decades ago, when Amos was a household name. A successful brand with big-name celebrity investors, upscale distribution, and a first-year total sales revenue of $300,000.
But by the mid-80s, the brand was hemorrhaging money. Amos would lose his house and eventually sell a majority stake of the company. Many people were left to wonder: How did one of the most successful snack companies of the last decade so quickly decay into financial shambles?
How did Amos find himself on the butt-end of a bad break?
These are interesting questions, and sure to be answered. But first, it’s worth understanding Famous Amos’ rise to popularity, understanding what made this gourmet cookie company so successful, so, well— I’m not gonna say it, I am not going to—famous.
Wally Amos’ Rise to Fame
Wally Amos came from a classically humble upbringing, born in 1936 in Tallahassee, Florida, to poor, illiterate parents. At age 12, he moved to New York to live with his Aunt Della. It was here that he learned of the famous recipe. (More on this in a bit.)
Amos, who dropped out of high school, would receive his G.E.D. after joining the Air Force. Returning to New York as a mature, educated man, he found work in the William Morris Agency, a Hollywood-based talent agency once considered “the best in show business.”
He began in the mailroom, eventually working his way up to becoming the first black talent agent in the entertainment industry.
This was more than just a side-quest for an aspiring baker; Amos now headed the rock’n’roll department at William Morris, where he signed Simon and Garfunkel and worked with Motown legends like Diana Ross, Sam Cooke, and Dionne Warwick.
It was only after growing disillusioned with the industry that Amos sought refuge in his aunt’s baking once more.
Wally’s son, Shawn Amos, said:
“Cookies were a hobby to relieve stress.”
It wasn’t long before the cookies took the main stage.
Amos told The New York Times in 1975:
“I’d go to meetings with the record company or movie people and bring along some cookies, and pretty soon everybody was asking for them.”
Amos’s connection with the entertainment business helped his business aspirations tremendously. He received significant contributions from industry stars Marvin Gaye and Helen Reddy, who gave Amos $25,000 for his new venture.
In 1975, Amos launched his first brick-and-mortar location. 7181 Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles.
And it was a big deal. The grand opening was a star-studded gala attended by 1,500 people.
Success was sudden. After selling $300,000 worth of cookies in its first year, the brand continued to climb in popularity. By 1982, Famous Amos was making $12 million in yearly revenue.
Famous Amos’s success was the result of exploiting a hole in the market. In the mid-70s, the grocery store shelves were loaded with preservative-dependent snack options. Amos carved out a lucrative niche by marketing the product as a gourmet, zero-preservative, craft-made cookie. A risk well rewarded.
From “What’s Going On?” to “What’s Going On???”
With any great market advancement, a plethora of eager competitors emerge. And shortly after arriving on the scene, Famous Amos was met with rival brands like Mrs. Fields, and new, upmarket product lines from Nabisco and Duncan Hines.
Combining these market competitors and Amos’s inability to keep up with his success led to the first cracks in the business. By 1985, Famous Amos reported a $300,000 loss on sales of $10 million.
Later that year, Amos officially gave up the reigns of his company, selling a majority stake to Bass Brothers Enterprises for $1.1 million.
Two years later, the new owners upended the recipe entirely, adding preservatives and shelf-stable ingredients. Famous Amos was rebranding as an affordable brand. It wasn’t entirely unexpected; such mission-statement-defying practices are common for newly bought companies, but the decision prompted original owner Wally Amos to depart.
In 1992, President Baking Company bought Famous Amos for $61 million—more than 55 times what Wally Amos sold his controlling stake for just a few years earlier.
Amos wasn’t through with the cookie business, however. Later in 1992, he launched his new venture…
And was promptly sued.
Turns out: the latest Amos product— Wally Amos Presents Hazelnut Cookies— stood in direct violation of the contract he had signed years prior when selling his first business. The one that expressly prohibited Amos from using his own name and likeness in the selling of any product.
Undeterred, he changed the name of his company, operating instead as Uncle Nonamé. Boldness had treated him well in the past— and I think it’s an undeniably ballsy way to approach being sued over your own identity— but the market operates in mysterious ways. In 1996, Uncle Nonamé filed for bankruptcy.
What Became of Wally Amos?
By 1999, Amos was in talks with Keebler, the new owner of Famous Amos. An agreement had been reached: Wally Amos would become a paid spokesperson for the brand under the condition that they craft the recipe closer to the original.
And it feels like a solid ending to the story. The sweet embrace of a father and son after a long, arduous journey, complete with lawsuits, bankruptcies, and foreclosure. Ending up together would be fitting— if a bit too good to be true.
“It was bittersweet,”
says his son, Shawn Amos.
“He was happy to be back in the center of the brand he started, but he also had a hard time accepting the fact that at the end of the day, he was just a paid spokesperson.”
The feeling of being alienated from one’s own brainchild eventually led to a short-lived reunion between Amos and the brand that bears his name.
After leaving once and for all, Amos pivoted to making muffins with Uncle Wally’s Muffin Co., opening a bake shop in Hawai’i.
Amos wrote multiple books about his experience over the years, including Power In You, Man With No Name: Turn Lemons into Lemonade, and The Famous Amos Story: The Face That Launched 1,000 Chips. He has also been a vigorous advocate for literacy and was granted a National Literacy Honors Award by President George H.W. Bush.
At age 80, Amos appeared on the hit television show, Shark Tank, pitching another new business, “The Cookie Kahuna”. The business ultimately failed.
In 2017, he launched a GoFundMe, announcing he was struggling to pay for food, gas, and rent.
No longer famous, Wally Amos continues on with his baking and entrepreneurial spirit. His life is a statement of hard work and resilience, but also a cautionary tale about success, hubris, and the risks we make along the way.
Business
What’s an MLM? How Does It Work and Why Is It Controversial?
Published
3 weeks agoon
May 22, 2025Browsing Reddit has become a recent pastime because of a few hilarious and scandalous stories about people promoting MLMs. Then, going through YouTube offered me the same thing: the rise of terrible business practices of multi-level marketing companies.
While entertaining, I cannot help but feel a sense of sadness for these people who are swept up in these cult-like networks. I went to find out more and see what an MLM is exactly and why many are sacrificing their livelihoods for it.
The Structure
If you’ve been online within the past decade, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of the term “MLM.” However, you might not know exactly what it means. Well, I’ll put things into perspective for you. If you ever encountered cryptic Facebook or Instagram message asking you to buy some products, host a party, or join some kind of “exclusive” business, then you’ve had a firsthand encounter with an MLM. Congrats… I guess.
These messages, creatively nicknamed “hunbots,” are often sent by friends, family, or other mutuals. And if you got an iffy feeling while reading them, that’s because these users are caught up in a very common marketing scam. As mentioned before, the term “MLM” is an acronym that stands for Multi-level Marketing. You may also know it as network marketing or a pyramid scheme.
Well-known MLM companies include LuLaRoe, Mary Kay, Avon, Amway, and Herbalife. (And there’s more where that came from, unfortunately)
The Pyramid
I really like the use of the term “pyramid scheme” because when you look at the structure of these companies, they follow or format that is shaped like a pyramid. The higher-ups at the top are comprised of a very small number of people. Meanwhile, there’s a sh*tton of struggling workers at the bottom, all with lost Investments and broken promises.
Let’s say there’s one businessman at the very top of this pyramid. As the head of the company, he hires two more employees under him. These employees must pay an entry fee in order to join the company. Afterward, they are given products to sell, and some of the proceeds go to the big boss. These other two employees hire their own employees to work under them. Same deal; the employees on the third level show the products, and most of that money makes its way up to the one at the top. The cycle goes on and on and on to form a pyramid.
The Typical Experience
So, how does this work from the average MLM employee’s perspective? Put yourself in the shoes of someone who just got sucked into an MLM. I know, it’s terribly cringeworthy, but bear with me.
So, you’re a new recruit. You must pay an entry fee to join this exclusive establishment. The cost may vary, but usually, the more you pay, the more benefits you receive.
You’ll then be given products to sell. You may have to pay a fee to get these products into your hands. You might have to sell them at a higher cost than their unit price. But here’s the deal: more emphasis is placed on the action of recruiting more members. You will get paid in commission for every new member that you recruit. And guess what they will do with new members? They’ll be asked to pay entry fees just like you, and go on to try to recruit new members themselves. The way the system works is that it benefits only the higher-ups and early recruits. Hence, they call it an MLM. It’s got multiple levels, and the higher up you go, the more you’ll benefit at others’ expense.
What these companies won’t tell you is that new members are their main source of income. When new recruits run low, that’s when the company starts crumbling down. And once that company crumbles, the early recruits and CEOs collect their money, while regular employees are left broke.
The Manipulation
To most people, spotting these MLM companies is pretty easy. A job offer that charges entry fees, has a vague company set-up, or has no adequate interview process is naturally going to raise some alarm bells. So, you might be wondering: how the hell do people fall for these things?? Aren’t they obvious scams?
In truth, it’s not obvious to many demographics. And if you happen to get swept up in an MLM, it’s really hard to get out. Unfortunately, the only reason these businesses still exist is that people keep falling for them.
Strategies
There are three strategies that MLMs use when recruiting people;
- Targeting certain demographics
- Using charisma and big promises
- Giving people a sense of belonging
Let’s circle back to the “hunbots.” Ever wonder why those MLM messages will often use this upbeat “girl boss” language? Well, that’s because most of these companies are created to appeal to young college girls and middle-aged women. Young adults sometimes don’t have enough life experience to notice when they’re being scammed. Meanwhile, some older people don’t have enough tech-savviness to notice online ploys. Many women enjoy the idea of becoming their own boss and achieving a sense of empowerment.
Of course, many men fall for this as well. Normal jobs can be sucky. Sometimes you just wanna make easy money on your own schedule. Especially when the companies in question promise big returns while working on your own schedule. MLMs will often have spokespeople who can convince you to care about their cheap leggings or mediocre supplements.
Once they get reeled into the business, MLMs will host social events that provide a personal connection to other employees and higher-ups. They’ll start to form a bond with these people, until they become almost like a family. Remember that job you wanted to quit and knew you should quit, but the people were so nice that you just…had a hard time? Well, it’s that time 1000, because by this point, you’ve already invested so much money and time into them.
I’ve read so many horror stories of people losing their cars, their houses, their kids, all in the name of some cheap makeup products.
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