Michael Hamburger joins 1.5 yo Avant as cofounder?
Avant first announced its prelaunch back in May last year, roughly 18 months ago. I’m unsure of when the company officially launched but it was sometime in the second half of 2010 under the leadership of Brent Payne, founder and CEO of the company.
Since then nothing much seems to have happened over at the Avant camp. Brent Payne launched a lead store last year in August and the company slashed their prices in February earlier this year… but for the most part Avant seems to be lacking momentum as a whole.
Hoping to inject some new life into Avant, in the last 24 hours it’s been announced that Michael Hamburger has joined the company.
Note that Hamburger lists himself as both as Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Co-Founder.
COO… ok, but co-founder? Avant went into pre-launch eighteen months ago… so just how on Earth is Michael Hamburger a co-founder?
Preceeding Hamburger’s announcement of course was the resignation from his previous post, as Vice President of Marketing over at Wealth Masters International.
As to why Hamburger decided to leave WMI, an email exchange between former WMI COO Mary Dee and WMI President Karl Bessey seems to hint that there were problems in paying Hamburger out.
Michael came up to me some time ago and was complaining about how his “hand shake” deal was a 3 year contract at $300k.
He looked me in the eye and said to me “You said these guys are good to their word, so if that’s true than my verbal contract should be for 3 years.”
At that moment in time I could not bring myself to even utter an affirmation. I couldn’t say “yes” because I’ve seen Kip NOT keep his word so many times.
Whether or not Hamburger was paid out on his three-year contract at Wealth Masters I can’t say, but it appears that whatever the outcome, after his three-year initial contract was over Hamburger had had enough of Wealth Masters, decided to cut his losses and move on.
Meanwhile how joining a company 18 months after it went into prelaunch and listing yourself as a co-founder works, I have no idea.
Whether or not Hamburger will have an impact over at Avant of course yet remains to be seen, but the more pressing question for now is what his departure means for an already struggling Wealth Masters.
Mary Dee’s email exchange revealed some eye-opening insight into Wealth Masters finances and from the sounds of it, with unpaid creditors piling up things aren’t looking to well.
WMI hope to host their m2 conference in Maui later this year on December 5th and the company seems to be pressing ahead having just appointed Troy Allen as “Chief Technology Officer”.
I imagine it won’t be long before we see a new Vice President of Marketing appointed too, but it can’t be ignored that WMI has failed to retain several high-profile executive staff in the second half of this year.
The greater effect of these leadership losses to WMI, along with the actual extent of their financial woes I feel is yet to be truly felt within the memberbase. Looking forward unless something drastically changes over the Wealth Masters camp, things currently aren’t looking particularly well.
Amazing how they jump from one scam to another….morals of a alley cat.
I often wonder if these people could succeed in a reputable company which was run on honesty and integrity, I personally know some of these high up scammers and they really do believe that they are helping people to financial independence, beggars belief!
If you study the Avant website – http://www.weareavant.com/en/about/company-overview – you’ll find this statement:
“We are proud to be a pending member of the Direct Selling Association”
It is true that Avant WAS a pending member of DSA, but any network marketing company can apply for a DSA membership and become a pending member.
Now Avant has disappeared the list of pending members, which means that the company was dismissed by DSA.
Anyone else find it interesting that Kim Kardashian’s marriage lasted 72 days? Isn’t that the same number of days as Brent Payne’s Elevate course? Insert your own joke, please.
I used this one on Twitter…
#ThingsLongerThanKimsMarriage – The biography of an aborted fetus.
Yes I’ll be here all week, try the veal!
@B.F.
That’s interesting, I wonder why they were dismissed?
Well, I don’t.
So far Samuel Levitz, James Allmon, Matthew Sunderland, Lehman Hailey, Earl Wallace and Jay McLynn have left WMI and joined Avant together with Michael Hamburger. Earlier, Gene Braxton, Jonathan Burke and at least 25 other WMI members has joined Avant.
Rick and Susann Crawford were in the WMI Executive Committee:
http://www.prlog.org/11033325-rick-and-susann-crawford-named-executive-committee-members-for-wealth-masters-international.html
Now they have joined Ariix:
http://thewellness-blog.com/susann-and-rick-crawford-join-ariix-global-success-leaders-team.php
It’s a sinking ship, and people on board start getting wet on their feet.
Gene Braxton left for Avant too?
I wonder if that means the Lavenias aren’t too far behind…. and then of course that means Tony Rush will jump ship too.
Interesting, it’s almost as if they’re trying to relive the Liberty League days again. This time of course without Shane Kriders scientology spin on things…
It seems that Gene Braxton went in the opposite direction, as he joined WMI in the end of March 2011:
http://onlinewealthmasters.com/top-producers-join-wmi-family/
In January 2011 Braxton still pushed the Avant opportunity:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/01/prweb4993094.htm
What is weird is that Jashin Howell was announced to join WMI together with Braxton, but he did actually join WMI as early as 2006. It seems that he left WMI for Global Resorts Network, and earlier this year came back to WMI and reactivated his membership.
Theo van der Merwe claims he started his WMI business in 2010:
http://wealthmastersinternational.net/members/profile/717
He was also announced to join WMI together with Braxton. It seems that he took over the membership from Monosh Amiri-layeghi who registered as WMI consultant in June 2010.
I recieved this by email regarding Payne and Hamburger;
I wonder what Payne and Hamburger are ‘really up to’?
Having fun by the look of it!
Dave Fidel is the next to jump from WMI to Avant. He has been with WMI since 2006.
Brent Payne announced one of the best perks of the Avant conferences on last night’s Vision Call. Was it the speakers? No. The people? The location? No. So what was it?
The parties.
Nice. Pay $10,000 to party with Brent, smoke some illegal substances and then see which women start looking even better. Beyond Freedom.
Since Hamburger joined Avant 20 of 35 new members are former WMI members.
Or MLM junkies…
OMG this is enough to make one puke.
TWO of the biggest scam bags out working together again – Brent Payne and Michael Hamburger!! and they call it family (vomit)
I have been watching Hamburger since he scammed me of thousands with Liberty League and within 2 years this dude has gone from Liberty League to Lifepath, then to Wealth Masters International and now Avant! Each time taking along team members who pinned there hopes and dreams on the words that come out of the so called guru’s mouth.
I did noticed Brent Payne worm his way out of god knows where after his fast exit from Liberty League after his drunken behaviour on stage in LA and having sex with associates – whilst married!! A great family man – I think not.
I wonder why within one year Payne lost all of his founding master distributors!
All I can say is these dudes are scum bags, rip off artists, pretend guru’s who are interested in one thing only YOUR MONEY. And they know their way through the court system like snakesn – so you can not even get them into court. STAY AWAY! Keep your money and you can get all the Personal Development free online if that is what you are wanting, and there are ways to make money online without ripping people off.
I don’t know really anything about them but the last comment mentioned the words Guru twice and I did go watch a video and he says specifically I am NOT a guru so it makes me discount all of the other rude comments in your post.
Thanks but no thanks for the advice against something you must have been hurt in some way. Perhaps you wanted him and he went for someone else. Please do not answer. I am sure no one else on this list wants your response but thank you.
Cross your t’s before you speak J.S.
Good to see you are doing your research Sam before you part with your bucks. Not sure what video but never believe promo videos. Hurt, what hurt was the personal loan my wife and I had to pay back after being told by Hamburger he would coach us and teach us all about his marketing – he is the income expert guru!
The minute he got $20+K he never returned phone calls and totally ignored all his associates at the events.Well we did have some nice expensive vacations!
Rude – Freedom of speach!
Kind of related – here’s Michael Hamburger participating in something called ‘Guru Lead Calls‘ (now defunct).
One would assume you consider yourself a ‘guru’ to participate in such a thing.
Everyone needs to take personal responsibility for the choices they made. You can’t blame someone else for taking your money since YOU gave it willingly. Just because you didn’t make anything from that opportunity you can only take that and learn never to make that same error again.
Take a look at yourself and ask the questions, why did I feel I NEEDED that business to make the money I dreamed of. This blog is totally all about blaming everyone else for the position certain people have put themselves into.
This just doesn’t make for a productive society and proves that this is why the country is in the state it’s in. Please take your life and make it YOUR OWN, and teach others to do the same.
@ummmm
You can if it was given under false representations or pretext.
By your reasoning ponzi scheme operators are not liable because the money was given to them willingly.
Seeing as I author the blog and don’t blame anybody else for my ‘position’, how can this be the case?
Sounds like you have a soft spot for scammers.
(I’m not neccessarily talking about Hamburger here, but more generally seeing as that’s the tone of your comment).
That’s like saying that if you gave Bernard Madoff you life savings and he happened to use it to pay off the earlier investors in his scam, then it’s tough luck because to YOU gave him the money.
These scammers actually believe their own lies!!!!
Take it from me – if you don’t know anything about them then save your energy typing an ill-informed response. As someone else pointed out – NEVER believe a promo video – especially from someone who makes his money out of telling you what you want to hear. He may SAY he’s not – but he THINKS he is.
Brent’s entire founding membership left… other leaders who followed him into his barely concealed LLI ripoff left. He only cares about people who are giving him money – unless you’re a hot looking chick.
As for this comment – well it’s obvious that you DO have some association with him otherwise why exactly are you defending someone you don’t know with such caustic comments?
My advice – steer clear of this whole set up. It may limp along for a year or even more – who knows? But the rot always comes from the top… and I can tell you the rot was there from day one….
To some degree I can understand where you’re coming from – people do need to take personal responsibility and learn from their mistakes…
However – when you are dealing with a seasoned con-man it is VERY easy to be taken in and to believe whole-heartedly that they are who they say they are and that they do have your best interests at heart… that is why a con-man is successful!
So until you have actually been in that situation, have a little empathy for people who have lost anything up to $20K or more on empty promises…
Hi Guys,
Thank you again for the advice.
I was not taking up for this group although I have met some people with them who seem to have made money and be very happy with their choices. There were go getters and assertive types.
I have invested in other plans that I want to say I was taken advantage of but in truth I did attempt to participate willingly and didn’t find every possible avenue to win and sell or make money( in retrospect). For that, I take responsibility.
I am careful about what I say on the internet against people because there are MANY bloggers etc who can ‘print’ anything in their own blog and it follows you for ever, even if it is not true. Fortunately, this has not happened to me personally but almost based on one picture where a person had their arm leaning on me and it was ‘perceived’ that I knew them.
That was just an example of how something can be placed on the internet and become defamation and not be true. I am sorry if you feel you were taken advantage of and I wish you many successes in the future.
Also, It was not about my belief in the promo video. I said JS should not say they claim to be gurus when in the video it clearly said “I am not a guru”. It was an imperative statement to not misquote anyone.
I have seen much paraphrasing in quotations as if it were their exact words and that is not how journalism works. If they said it, they said it. If they didn’t you can not quote it as such.
Ok, good night. It’s doubtful I will participate anymore. Have fun chatting up about people. I am going to make money. Happy Holidays. Be uplifting in all you do.
someone who makes his money out of telling you what you want to hear. He may SAY he’s not – but he THINKS he is.
We only know he is not a scientologist but you/we do not know what he THINKS he is.
The more research I do regarding Top Tier MLM companies like Avant, Wealth Masters, Family IQ,I see more negative comments than possitive is that because most people believe that you need to pick a MLM company that relies on repeat sales (consumables) to have long lasting business?
What’s everyones opinion.Are there other top tier opportunities to look at or should I just stick to traditional MLM.
Depends how you define a ‘top-tier’ opportunity. If it’s purely on the cost of the product offerings (as many people define it as), then I think you’re kinda kidding yourself.
By implying that a MLM opportunity is ‘top-tier’ we’re placing it a cut above the other MLM opportunities out there. Personally I wouldn’t rate one MLM better than another simply because it has higher priced products, I’d weigh the opportunity as a whole and what my chances are at running a succesful business within the opportunity were.
Higher product prices usually does mean higher upfront commissions, but that means jack if you can’t sell the product (and without repeat business you’re fighting an uphill battle to generate true residual income).
@Neil Browning
All those recruit driven companies seems to collapse after some time, so what people believes in seems to be right?
If they don’t collapse by themselves, they often gets shut down or banned by authorities, so the business is usually not very long lasting. A few may last for 5 to 10 years if they’re lucky.
A business doesn’t need consumables, but it will usually need retail customers – not involved in the business.
The non-consumable item MLMs often have a much larger profit margin built-in, so it can be profitable, but you need to really be able to sell your products and have a HUGE recruitment circle, and would be constantly spending money and time looking for more recruits/clients.
Furthermore, due to their higher cost toward clients (if they’re not a recruit-driven scheme) the market niche is self-limiting. After all, how many people would buy, say, $25 Amway perfume, vs. $250 Family IQ “family lesson”?
If 100 people buys Amway perforum, LESS THAN 10 (2-3 maybe) would buy $250 family lessons. Convincing people to buy cheaper items, and consumable, is much much easier.
Another case of where they talk up all the positive but leave out all the negative.
Avant has changed direction from over-priced Personal Development to Real Estate!
http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=76ed9cb81768f196e7a9271c0&id=900e43c4e5
“Real Estate Worldwide / Avant Education”. It sounds like they have started “How to invest in Real Estate” seminars.
For some reason, that idea sounded very familiar to me, like an old idea being recycled.
Comp plan video I briefly went over has Brent Payne talking about membership commissions.
Whereas Avant is “personal development education”, Real Estate Worldwide appears to be “real estate education”. I’ll get a proper review out soon enough.