TEAM recently held one of its major functions in St. Louis this past weekend. Do you happen to know if TEAM is shrinking or expanding in the current economic climate in the US? I’ve watched Woodward’s presentation on making people feel okay with not making any money, so as long as they feel like they are “better people” by being in TEAM.

Thank you for your reply. You have confirmed what most of us already knew as per our own experiences or suspected as per what we’ve read and seen.

I wondered what had become of the “Leadership Training” business that Woodward and Brady had tried to sell their TEAM on when they knew they would be leaving Amway/Quixtar. It really stinks that your company bought in and then TEAM decided to pull the plug on the Leadership training, making you look not so great to your company. It is not surprising, though.

I hope you continue to post your experiences here and on http://www.lazymanandmoney.com/monavie-scam-was-my-wife-recruited-sell-snake-oil/#comments
People need to hear what really goes down and how things are not at all what they outwardly appear.

I made profit sharing during the transition from Quixtar to Monavie… the “in between” time when we had to wait 6 months before joining another MLM. Tools was the only business we could do seeing how there was no product to deal with during those months. The TEAM tool system was the same for both MLMs only the product information changed once Monavie was introduced to us. This is an expecially sore subject seeing how I had just “stocked my truck” with “needed” tools for the business just before they bailed on Quixtar. So all the money I paid for tools were down the drain because the information on them were Quixtar related. So then they decided our focus would be on leadership training to the masses and I was told that our “business” would be selling a leadership training system to the masses. After getting the company I work for to buy into it, that got me into profit sharing. Shortly after, Monavie was introduced and that leadership program was dissolved. That made me look real good to my company…NOT! So then I restocked my trunk with “needed” tools that pertained to Monavie. At all the seminars and Leadership conventions I went to, tool were focused more on then any other thing. I was told by my upline diamond to max out the remainder of my credit card on product and tools because it will all pay out in the end. Well… a year later I filed for bankruptcy. Now, my financial troubles was not all of TEAM’s fault but who tells someone that it’s a good idea to max out your credit cards? Out of the 300 some people LEFT on my team after 5 years, no one is at a point were they are making any money… NO ONE! I still check on it and there is absolutly no growth on a leg that is one of the big upline leader’s main leg. NO ONE is making it happen.

Thank you for your comments. Since you were involved with TEAM in Quixtar and MonaVie, did you make profit sharing with TEAM in Quixtar or MonaVie, or both? If both, how did the profit from tools compare from one MLM to the other?

Yes, these “tool systems” can teach great things…but at such a high cost. The same info can be found for much less at one’s local library, bookstore, or online…without being involved in a money grabbing MLM.

BTW, any pro-team explination isn’t from the person’s mind that wrote it. It’s all crap that they feed you with on the CDs and stage. I’ve read no original thoughts so far.

“I would also like to add that I paid more than the cost of the individual items for my first semester at University roughly 8 years ago.”

Then you should have just bought them individually, right?

The point of the article is three-fold:

1) The price of the trunk was less than buying the individual items (so much for a bulk price). (This may have changed since this was published)

2) There is no actual trunk despite the fact that picture is of a trunk. You don’t get any more misleading than that. (This may have changed since this was published)

3) MonaVie distributors often say that you can get in for $39 and that success depends entirely on you. Then when you don’t have success, they tell you to go to more conferences and buy more tools. Suddenly, the $39 that you were sucked into to start turns into hundreds and thousands. People don’t like to admit a bad investment and often throw more money into it in hopes of breaking even (it happens in the stock market all the time). I’m just pointing out here the costs of these “business tools” which knocks down the minimal business opportunity that MonaVie presents.

I found that fascinating so I decided to research your claim. My research proved that you did none yourself.

By doing a simple, albeit somewhat lengthy, plug and chug (that is, I individually selected the products contained within the Media 2000 Tool Trunk) I determined that before tax the total price was just under $2,000.00. After tax, that price was boosted to $2,083.71.

I suppose that’s why they call it the Media Warrior 2000 trunk. “Intersting,” I thought to myself, as I noticed that ordering the trunk negates the tax add-on. That alone is a pretty nice bonus. Then I noticed that the total of the trunk is $1,698.37. After that, I applied my elementary skill of subtraction to use to determine that by purchasing the trunk, you are saving $385.34.

I would also like to add that I paid more than the cost of the individual items for my first semester at University roughly 8 years ago. Prices have gone up in the past decade if I’m not mistaken. Tack on rent for dorms and text book fees, and we’re starting to see an even larger difference in fees.

Here’s some more food for thought. A local business owner from where I’m from told me the story of how his grandfather started the business. Almost 40 years ago he sold his house and came out of retirement, worked over 80 hours a week, and built the business from the ground up.

To get involved with TEAM and MonaVie and purchase their Media Trunk is an investment of less than 3,000 dollars.

In conclusion, the claim that the trunk is more money than the tools seperately is absolutely false. Furthermore, the claim that getting involved with TEAM MonaVie is expensive may be true if you’re not financially able to spend the money (initial start up is less than $500.00), but when comparing to the start up with any other business (including the Network Marketing businesses) the difference is staggering. If you can’t be trusted to do a simple numbers check, why should we be asked to trust anything else?

Critical page from the Arbitration decision:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_MPsmajz_-zk/SuI3R_BGLGI/AAAAAAAAAF0/rRa3y9B7t9U/s1600-h/ArbitrationAward_full%5B1%5D_Page_07.jpg