Did Alex Morton receive a secret Jeunesse backroom deal?
Just shy of a week ago, Alex Morton announced he was leaving Vemma.
Morton’s departure has raised eyebrows, mostly due to previous statements made by Morton on the topic of company loyalty.
As per one such sentiment Morton (right with Vemma CEO, BK Boreyko) made a few months ago;
When times got tough last year and some negative things hit us (Vemma), I close (sic) easily turned my back, taken an enormous fat check & dipped.
Like a lot of the “leaders” who I view as cowards, betrayal, weak ass little children, excuse making degenerates, who leave companies for greener pastures when 99% it’s not even green, they’re just blind.
If there’s a legit reason to leave, I respect it. But most of the time is a blame game cry baby party.
Some people out there need to lookup the word loyalty in the dictionary and understand you don’t bite the hand that’s fed you & your family for years.
A few days after Morton announced he was leaving Vemma, it was then revealed he’d signed on with Jeunesse.
We could explore why Morton might have left Vemma and what that might mean for them, but why bother when Morton himself is not willing to discuss the matter:
Nothing to me is more important than family. Many of you can relate. I was raised in a family with a core set of values & beliefs.
One of those values is called “Always Taking The High Road.”
When relationships end, whether business or personal, emotions are high. There can be hostility, sadness, anger, frustration & mass confusion between people. Eventually the dust settles, everyone’s emotions taper off & everything blows over.
Rather than addressing the issues, Morton instead appears content to ignore them and hope that everything eventually “blows over”.
Fair enough. Doesn’t sound very leadership like to me but each to their own.
Vemma CEO and Founder BK Boreyko’s initial response to Morton’s decision appears to be that of surprise.
I am just stunned that people would not want to spend the rest of their career with me.
If you’re a leader and you want to leave all you have to do is… y’know cuz I never want to wish anybody anything but success.
But if you’re… one of the things you don’t want to do if you’re a leader is you don’t want to have a career with me, earn millions of dollars for your family and… and you don’t call me, you don’t text me, you don’t return my calls, you don’t give me any heads up.
You send your resignation in at five-thirty after office hours. You do an opportunity meeting a couple of hours later for another company…
That is just not the way to do things.
Unfortunately for Boreyko and Vemma what’s done is done. And so this article isn’t so much about Vemma as it is Morton’s signing with Jeunesse, in a deal that was obviously cut while he was still in and actively promoting Vemma.
That deal? That’s what people following Morton’s move to Jeunesse should be focusing on and asking questions about.
Jeunesse have a history of cutting secret backroom deals with high-profile affiliates in other opportunities. The most notorious of which is probably with Matthew Nestler.
I won’t go too much into the legal fallout of Nestler’s failed deal, save to say he was promised $15,000 a month for six months in exchange for generating ‘tens of thousands of points in sales volume during these months.‘
Those points could have been from retail sales or purchases made by Nestler’s downline, Jeunesse didn’t care. They just wanted the sales volume.
Downline placement of another top-affiliate was also part of the deal, ditto a minimum $15,000 a month income guarantee.
With Alex Morton being who he is, or was in Vemma, it naturally goes without saying that something has obviously been worked out here.
But you’d be hard pressed to find anything further about it.
Infact, the only reference I found was in a Facebook post by Morton dated July 28th:
I received $0 up front. I had crazy offers from companies all over the place but chose to “take a deal” for my team… That will allow us to travel, host enormous events, create a company within a company, our own brand, not have to worry if we can make our rent or car payment, & build out of faith not fear.
Nestler’s deal also had a travel component, which saw Jeunesse put a percentage of their cut of Nestler’s projected earnings into a “travel fund” for Nestler’s downline.
That sounds pretty similar to what Morton disclosed above. But what about the rest of it?
Morton claims he didn’t receive any money upfront. That’s fine, neither did Nestler.
But what income guarantees might have been made on the unspoken assumption Morton will have a large amount of his Vemma downline follow him into Jeunesse and make purchases as new affiliates?
And is this an ongoing monthly agreement? If so, for how much and for how long?
Is it enough to cloud Morton’s motivation? Is it in the best interests of those looking to join him Jeunesse?
The answers to these questions become even more pertinent, when on Facebook Morton claims the move to Jeunesse was “for his team”.
I am going to do WHATEVER IT TAKES to help my people win. Literally whatever it takes. Period.
I am jacked out of my mind to be working with several individuals who are true professionals, role models, legitimate mentors, just as competitive as me & who will do what it takes to win.
If you don’t know the name Scott Lewis, I consider him our team leader & he is 100% the future industry titan & anyone who can be confident & completely sold out on the fact that their company will do several billions in the next 5 years & have facts to support the claim, I’m willing to follow him into a burning house.
Jeunesse Global is doing $1,000,000/month in 18 different countries, enrolled 116,000 new distributors last month, & are on pace to crack $1,000,000,000 in sales this year.
That’s not “dumb luck” that’s pure domination. A lot of companies strike gold with ONE product, ONE market, or ONE leader and when ONE of those go south or find something better, the thing crumbles like dominoes.
If Amway, Avon, Mary Kay, or Jeunesse lost a top leader they wouldn’t even break a sweat, much less make it a focal point, & scare the entire sales force around the world. They wouldn’t need to use it as a rallying occurrence to keep their people united.
It’s interesting what happens when you take a step back & realize the truth. It’s hard at first, it’s tough to put the kool aid down, & then all of a sudden it becomes the easiest decision of your entire life.
The truth will always set you free.
Snide criticism of Vemma and adoration of Scott Lewis aside, noticeably there’s no mention of retail sales in Morton’s brief sales pitch.
A bunch of affiliates were recruited into Jeunesse, a bunch of sales were made.
And whether he’s started directly or indirectly pitching Jeunesse to his downline, Morton clearly wants in on that.
For all the talk about “truth” and doing “whatever it takes”, how about instead we just start with the basics?
What are the specifics of the Business Development Agreement Alex Morton signed with Jeunesse.
How much of what he is paid is contingent on his building a downline and getting them to purchase products?
Are we talking tens of thousand of dollars, hundreds of thousands even? Is this a six-month deal like Nestler? And what if Morton fails to meet the set targets?
Publicly disclosing the answers to these questions, alongside Morton’s recent promotion of Jeunesse would be a start.
Ditto what’s going on regarding the inevitable poaching of Morton’s Vemma downline. Directly or indirectly those Morton knows are going to be pitched on Jeunesse, with his involvement naturally being the primary drawcard.
As far as Vemma might be concerned with respect to downline raiding, Boreyko has made his stance pretty clear:
Y’know what if you want to leave then you can leave. But if you do leave you can’t think that you can turn in a resignation and just go after everybody’s organization… because that’s stealing from people.
That’s taking income and hard-earned business away from people for no other reason but for your own profit.
I have great staff (that) are well-versed in this and we’ll take the appropriate action to be able to protect your businesses… and that’s just something we have to do.
If you make a decision to build this business, you’ve got my commitment that I’m going to work hard every day to make this one of the best financial decisions you’ve ever made.
If you decide to leave, you’ve got another commitment from me, and that commitment is:
I’m gunna work hard every day to make this one of the worst financial decisions that you’ve ever made, that’s just the way I roll people.
At the end of the day, the simply truth is that if the answers to the questions raised prior are not forthcoming, nobody who signs up under Morton is doing s knowing the full-picture.
That Morton is vowing to “do whatever it takes to help my people win”, suggests that a lot of the people under him in Vemma didn’t win (ie. they weren’t successful).
Those same people are now (directly or indirectly) going to be pitched on Jeunesse – and they need to know exactly what they’re getting into, who they’re following and why.
What say you Alex, full disclosure and the truth… or will you be yet another Jeunesse backroom deal statistic?
well, that’s one more lawsuit coming up.
right guys, keep stabbing each other in the back and clogging the courts with your dorm room fights.
someone has left a message for alex morton under a you tube video [which gently bashes boreyko]:
that’s the spirit! you want to fight, make it mean and dirty.
dhishoom! dhishoom!
So the strategy over at Junesse is to go all out on distributor recruiting and make sales to them? This is gonna become a HLF clone company in time.
I bet the retails sales are under 10%. The top leaders and a few of their top people are just gonna drain their small fry affiliates for all they can and for as long the can.
Truly sad how they are building this company on the backs of the unsuspecting little guys and gals backs!
All money ain’t good money!
Jeunesse always had been hiring leftover dregs from other companies.
Previously they hired a disgraced doctor from Mannatech who embarrassed Sam Castor to no end that Castor and Mannatech had to sue the doctor for faking a study that supposedly proved Ambrotose really worked.
Look up “Dr. Darryl See” for yourself on the LA Times website. It’s fascinating read how far people would go for money, and how low Jeunesse will sink to.
Sure, Alex.
Should’ve had a little disclaimer added…
“Except when the ca$h fed gra$$ on the other $ide of then fence look$ much greener than what you anticipated.
Then, that’s when loyalty can no longer be found in the dictionary because it has flown right out the nearest window with a quickness.”
stealing in mlm? Shocking I say!
Alex Morton, Facebook 3 hrs ago:
Where did those “leaders” come from? Have they been told the details of the deal Morton cut with Jeunesse?
Are those leaders telling those they’re pitching Jeunesse on about Morton’s deal?
Jeunesse is a member of the Direct Selling Association (DSA).
Filing a code complaint online for the DSA to review might be the way to go.
That’s funny that you mention they are part of the DSA as they apparently monitor deceptive recruiting practices and can end a company’s membership of those unethical strategies are found to be true.
Considering Jeunesse’s track record till now it’s incredible that not a single person has questioned their membership.
Maybe they did and Jeunesse offered the DSA a secret backroom deal of their own… *xfiles theme*
So Funny – Karma is coming back to BK – when he invaded Europe in 2007 HE was the one who did a huge backroom deal with 2x EU guys. (Fred and Simon)
It didn’t work too well – they where selling for 50k licenses to Turkey Nigeria and a lot of other countries from the deal in the EU.
Look who’s talking now! what comes around goes around.
By the Way – The payroll construction of Jeunesse is also NOT good, the leaders go for greed not for the relationship gold.
RIP MLM 2015 is the Sicilian way – no family building.
proselyting or the activity of a distributor for one direct selling company, recruiting a distributor from another direct selling company, is excluded from the DSA’s code of ethics.
they just gently advise MLM companies to avoid such non ethical behavior, but i don’t think they act upon it themselves.
this is because proselyting is Not Illegal in the US unless it contravenes some contract. so unless alex morton had a clause in his agreement with vemma, which specifically stated that upon his leaving he cannot take any downline vemma members with him, morton is safe.
further the question of ‘backroom deals’ with top leaders is not addressed at all, within or outside the DSA code of ethics.
the DSA offers no view or advice on it. so, i don’t think the DSA will take action on a subject it has not addressed at all.
the DSA code of ethics has a section called ‘Deceptive or Unlawful Consumer or Recruiting Practices’ but neither ‘proselyting’ nor ‘financial deals’ are covered specifically.
so i guess, unless you are Barred from doing something, you are Permitted to do it?
the DSA has ‘guidelines’ for proselyting, which it Does Not Enforce:
the DSA advises companies to settle the issue of ‘stealing downlines’ by communication or mediation, for which they offer their help.
the DSA suggests litigation as the final resort to settle this issue between companies.
DSA don’t give a **** for cross-recruiting. If it did, LaCore’s bHIP would have been crushed long time ago by Amway.
(old story, basically two of Amway’s reps jumped ships to bHIP and Amway sued, claiming they took proprietary info including member lists and something.
LaCore supported the two reps, and they managed to find these two reps had joined BEFORE Amway put the provision they’re suing under, and these reps should never be bound by it since they were never informed of it.
Amways dropped the lawsuit few months later, and LaCore was seen as a hero.)
as i have mentioned in post#11, the DSA makes no comment on the presence or ethics of ‘backroom deals’ with top networkers that are headhunted into MLM companies.
according to kevin thompson’s articles on “MLM special deals’ part 1&2, the DSA is now being pressurized to take a stand and provide some guidance on such deals:
according to thompson, this attempt for greater transparency would include ethics guidance on ‘backroom deals’ too, since these deals are rampant, formally undisclosed but an open wink-wink arrangement, which are being widely discussed in the MLM industry.
the FTC however, has clear guidelines for ‘disclosure’ about these special endorsement deals [this includes network marketing] :
according to thompson [and i agree], whenever an MLM rep gets ‘Extra Compensation’ for promoting an MLM, it amounts to a ‘connection’ between the MLM rep and the MLM company, which should be disclosed.
this extra compensation will include:
i agree with the FTC, that such deals are illegal if they are not ‘Disclosed’ since that amounts to ‘Deception’.
i agree with thompson that though these backroom deals are ‘Unethical’ they are difficult to stop and hence ‘Disclosure’ should be made a part of the DSA guidelines and enforced.
if the DSA does not act on self regulation and enforcement on this subject, sooner or later the FTC will, and that wont be good for the industry.
Here is the problem I see as I read all of these comments. As net work marketers we are in the network marketing business, not the health drinks and pills and potions skin care.
The product or service is only the catalyst behind the company.
In corporate america companies all ways are courting and wooing their competitors key people to come to work for them.
Thats point number 1. Point #2 If I am resposible for building a downline that downline is not my properrty or the companies property, but as an upline i do feel a responsibility to do what is right by the people I’m responsible for recruiting either directly or indirectly.
It would appear to me that Mr Morton saw something looming on the horizon and took action to protect his downline partners. Now his downline partners wear big boy pants or big girl dresses or skirts.
These are people who I would think can make their own business decisions. I”ll leave it at that.
(3) What an individuals deal is with another company is no bodys business other than the parties to the contract so Mr Morton isn’t obligated to disclose anything.
Grow-up people. This is the real world…
That is a problem. What you think MLM is, is infact a product-based pyramid scheme (product exists solely to facilitate recruitment).
Your downline belongs to the company you signed up with. Read your affiliate contract sometime.
Not disclosing secret backroom deals is likely to land yourself in hot water with the FTC.
You cannot market your success or that of your downline to pitch your opportunity to the general public, without disclosing that your success was the result of secret deals you cut with the company that a new affiliate will not have.
It’s deception and it needs to stop.
Coming from somebody obviously involved in the whole YPR shtick, that’s rich.
His income started to decline 18 months before he left Vemma, according to his own explanation. And so did the income of his team members. I checked Alexa rankings, and he probably told the truth there. He would most likely have left anyway.
I don’t have any problem with that.
People in downline doesn’t belong to anyone, i.e. neither Vemma nor Alex Morton can legally claim any “ownership” to the people.
But I don’t know anything about the contracts they had.
That’s why I haven’t made any comments about it, but I see it as relevant enough to discuss the practice. People can have valid arguments for or against “backroom deals”. I see it as just as relevant as anything else.