Where are the home grown success stories of WMI?
Six years ago Wealth Masters International was launched and over that period of time WMI has been putting ‘the keys to true personal and financial freedom in (their member’s) hands‘.
Wealth Masters claims to have ‘the most innovative and lucrative compensation plan in the industry’, and that the
Wealth Masters business opportunity empowers you to help others transform their lives, as you build your own foundation of financial freedom.
Members of the Wealth Masters International community are creating lives of greater wealth, health and wisdom by simply applying our proven formula.
Yes, for six long years members of Wealth Masters International have been applying WMI’s proven success formula and as such, you’d think after all this time there’d be some vibrant success stories for the Wealth Masters community to share with us all.
If you look at the latest spate of external promotions WMI has made over the last few weeks though, you’d be forgiven for thinking that nobody within the WMI community was successful.
Over the last few weeks WMI has brought in no less then seven outside marketers to its community whilst completely neglecting those that have been with WMI (and presumably found success) for years.
With some recognition bestowed on marketers from other opportunities, one can’t help but ask – where are all the home grown success stories of Wealth Masters International?
Back in early April five marketers from various other MLM opportunities were recruited to Wealth Masters International. You had Jeremy Miner from LifePath Unlimited, Jashin Howell from Global Resorts Network, Ty Coughlin from the Reverse Funnel System and Global Resorts Network and Tony Rush and Gene Braxton who came from Liberty League International, Polaris Media Group, Numis Network and most recently, Avant.
Jashin Howell was grandfathered into WMI with the title of ‘Director of Marketing’ whilst the other marketers were given a much hyped welcome in WMI’s official press release, stating that
an extraordinary group of seasoned and top-producing entrepreneurs has joined the WMI worldwide marketing team as Master Consultants.
More recently, it was announced yesterday that prominent GiveOpp marketers John and Shannon Lavenia had also decided to join Wealth Masters.
To sweeten the deal, John Lavenia was given the corporate position of ‘Director of Consultant Development’ while his wife Shannon was automatically grandfathered into WMI’s ‘senior leadership team‘.
Seven external marketers in mere weeks and at least two publicly known corporate promotions, and you’re telling me that after six years there was nobody in the existing Wealth Masters pool of consultants successful enough to be promoted?
If I was being headhunted for a corporate position in a MLM opportunity the first thing I’d be looking for is examples of the company’s own internal success. Moreso if that company was promoting independent financial freedom through wealth education.
After six years of training and educating their members I’d be asking Wealth Masters why they don’t have anyone internally qualified enough to fill these positions. If the Wealth Masters program was successful and proven in its own right, shouldn’t I, as a successful MLM marketer be knocking on their door wanting to promote the WMI opportunity?
I can only hope that the lack of showcased internal talent and success stories is something that each of the recently recruited seven marketers has duly noted.
For me personally, when considering the effectiveness of the Wealth Masters education program in creating success and wealth, the fact that after they’ve got nobody internally to promote would be ringing alarm bells.
The “Home Grown” Success of Wealth Masters were all terminated when they decided to start marketing David Bach’s “Automatic Millionaire” product line.
There were a lot of them. Most of them credit Carbon Copy Pro for their success. But 90% of their incomes were derived from Wealth Masters products.
Names like Andrew Cass, Gregg Davison, Aaron Rashkin, Jay Kubassek, Michael Force, Aaron Parkinson, Jeff Learner, etc.
All of those egos got a little too big when they thought they could “automate” their incomes with David Bach’s Automatic Millionaire product line.
But they are examples of “Home Grown” Success in WMI.
Any top earner in Carbon Copy Pro from 2007 though 2010 owes their success to Wealth Masters.
Why did everyone leave if they were having so much success? on the outside it looks as if Wealthmasters only worked with CCP attached to it, am I missing something?
It is correct that CCP consultants earned most of their incomes from WMI. But, if Kubassek and Parkinson had not joined WMI and created Carbon Copy Pro, WMI would not exist today. Actually, without CCP it was a disaster. The first two years, WMI struggled alone without a good marketing plan, and they only managed to recruit about 500 members these two years. When CCP was launched the growth started for WMI. It continued to grow until february 2010. More than 50 % of all WMI members have been recruited through CCP.
Back in 2010 it was announced that WMI would start selling nutrition products from early 2011. What happened to this plan? Was it just a trick to make the Norwegian Gaming Board believe the concept was about to change, expecting them to postpone the investigation and eventually the ban?
Yeah I can’t help but ask the same question.
Why would the WMI success stories abandon ship if it was WMI that made them succesful and not the Carbon Copy Pro marketing engine?
Did Wealth Masters International’s training, advice and education really fail them so much that instead of sticking with what was making them money, they jumped ship?
And I’m not too sure about the other names, but Jay Kubassek is the founder of Carbon Copy Pro. Are you really suggesting he made his success on Wealth Masters rather than Carbon Copy Pro?
According to Ripoff-report.com:
../multi-level-marketing/liberty-league-inter/lli-john-mcdermott-larry-harmo-8c3cj.htm
He left LLI and joined WMI in 2005/2006. He was Senior Vice President in WMI when I checked in September 2009.
Before Liberty League International?
I googled a lot of expressions and statements from CCPro’s material, some of their “basic ideas” in different areas – and also statements from members. I found a lot of matches in EQUINOX (collapsed in 2000)
http://www.rickross.com/groups/equinox.html
Then again, I also found matches in ezine-articles related to leadership and self-development. Equinox is only a possible answer, not FACTS.
Basicly, the only CCP product was the “Business in a box” which was sold for about $400. The monthly membership fee was $149. The commission for selling the BiB was about $150, and $30 a month for sponsored consultants one level deep.
As Kubassek claimed to earn $143.715 a month by using the “system”, it is clear that this couldn’t be commission only from CCP, it mostly came from selling the WMI products.
Does the cart come before or after the horse…? Depends who you ask:)
From what I know based on personal experience and my connections, 95% (not 50%) of WMI sales came from CCP members… And, yes, they all got booted when WMI decided that they didn’t like the idea that CCP was launching their own educational product line under the pro u and AM brands.
They just announced another record month… not sure how WMI is doing. But with their latest announcements, it looks like a hodgepodge of former greats were lured into sugerland to replace JK and Co.
At the end of the day nothing happens unless something gets sold. You can have the best products in the world but if you can’t sell marketing them, you have nothing. Conversely, you can have the best marketers in the world but if they don’t have a good product, you still have nothing.
CCP now seems to offer the horse AND the cart:) Should be interesting to see what happens next!
I dunno about calling Automatic Millionaire ‘the cart’. I had a look at the Automatic Millionaire opportunity and with a $39,980 buy in, wasn’t too impressed.
The WMI top earners over at CCPro all got very very greedy back in November 2010 and decided that they would have their cake and eat it. Bear in mind that Jay Kubassek, Gregg Davison, Michael Force, the Rashkins, Andrew Cass, Aaron Parkinson etc. all made over 80% of their 7 figure yearly incomes from WMI sales. These guys were on the EC over at WMI.
You need to understand that a 6 figure income is not possible on CCpro sales alone, the back end sales of WMI products is what makes the big income possible.
In November 2010 David Bach had been recruited into CCpro with a huge amount of hype and fanfare and these greedy top earners were not only selling WMI products to their new members but also put much pressure on them to now buy David Bach’s Autmatic Millionaire products (equally highly priced and without any of the substance of the WMI products) – quite rightly WMI did not like this and ‘kicked’ them all out overnight – and terminated their accounts immediately.
It is very interesting to see that CCPro co-founder Aaron Parkinson has now very suddenly left CCPro and if the rumours are to be believed it is because of all this mess.
The Automatic Millionaire products that should have been shipped back In February still have not been shipped and no one is being given a refund and no one actually knows what they contain either???
Make up your own minds about this.
@Johnny England, You seem to know what is going on in WMI, what are the company saying about being made illegal in Norway, or is nothing said about it, your thoughts?
May’s Consultant of the Month: Tony & Jessica Rush
HE has only been there 5 minutes and he is May consultant of the month WTF
Considering Tony’s rapid fire movement from one “exciting opportunity” to the next, it will be very interesting to see how long he lasts at WMI. Personally I’ll give him six to nine months.
Uh the press release about Rush joining WMI only came out on April 5th, so not even a month.
How does that work?
Either Rush brought a pretty large downline with him from somewhere or this speaks volumes about the state of affairs WMI is currently in.
Consultant of the month is to recognize new people.
So to become a Wealth Masters consultant of the month, you don’t have to actually do anything other then join the company?
Wow, what a completely pointless award.
Hi everyone,
My name’s Ann McLaren, I’m 55 and from County Durham in England. I rarely visit forums but I discovered this one and thought I’d come out and introduce myself as one of the home grown success stories – if that doesn’t sound too boastful!
I joined WM International on 30 October 2007 – the most important date of my nigh-on 40-year working life. Thanks to the business I made, and invested, sufficient money to enable me to retire in January 2010 but returned to the business as a show of solidarity with the company at the end of 2010 after the split with Pro.
I’m no longer to be found on the leader board because my business now takes second place to enjoying life but I’m still making sales and still helping my team.
But I was consultant of the month back in 2008 and have won several awards with the company. Recognition is nice, I suppose, but I’ve never been one for the spotlight.
I really just wanted to say that this company has given me – a former office clerk turned freelance translator turned internet marketer the kind of life I never imagined I could have and for that I’m eternally grateful.
Regards to all,
Ann McLaren
@Ann
No, not at all. I asked where the home grown success stories of WMI were and I’m glad to finally hear from one.
Joining in 2007, am I to understand then that you reached WMI’s Presidential Consultant level then?
I’ll reserve further commentary until this is clarified.
Sorry, but your commentary on this company shows your lack of understanding and background in the MLM industry. MLM companys do not promote homegrown successful distributors to corporate positions. That would be foolish since it would take a producer out of the field.
Also your comment about having no homegrown success stories in the distributor ranks also shows a total lack of knowledge. Do the names Gregg Davison, Michael Force, or perhaps Andrew Cass or maybe hundreds of others who have earned millions with the program seem to ring a bell?
Wouldn’t a homegrown success have a number of leaders under them ready to step up to the plate? And if not from their own memberbase, where do you think the outside people accepting these new positions come from?
Other companies and opportunities.
So you’re saying it makes more sense to cannabalise other opportunities to promote people instead of looking at your own field? If someone is succesful in an opportunity you don’t think they’d jump at the chance to strengthen the company from the inside and directly contribute to its continued growth and success?
Downlines can always be rolled up, or maintained (as management are often at the head of downlines themselves), so claiming it pulls a producer out of the field is a bit weak.
Nope. Never heard of them or recall seeing them on WMI’s monthly leader list (if they’ve been on the list and they’ve been forgettable enough that I don’t remember them).
Sorry dude, you show a total lack of understanding of the MLM market. I have 24 years of experience in this market and I am afraid you do not have a clue.
No MLM company in existence ever pulled people out of the distributor ranks to step into corporate. That thought is just stupid. Please point out even one MLM company that has ever moved a producer from the distributor ranks to corporate??
As far as you not ever hearing of WMI leaders such as Gregg Davidson shows how clueless you really are.
You really need to do a bit more research before you run off on these self indulged tangents. By the way what are your qualifications to even comment on this. Love to see them.
Here’s a few off the top of my head, Polaris Global pulled Rachel Oliver out of the distributor ranks and made her co-owner of the company. Multiple distributors before here were picked from the fontlines and promoted to the EMC.
I’m sure there are others…. and so much for your 24 years experience trumping all.
… I don’t care if you’ve been network marketing for 2 days or 20 years, the information stands on its own and you’re free to evaluate and do with it as you wish. Time spent network marketing does not alter the accuracy or validity of information.
As for opinions, as above you just proved that 24 years of network marketing counts for dick unless you’re just out to bignote yourself.
Do I need to know who these nobodies are to evaluate the company or report on it? Does knowing them in any way alter the information presented here?
If WMI fail to promote the success stories within the company that’s not my problem. Infact it only strenghtens the core concept presented in this article.
It might hurt your precious feelings to know that you and your nobody friends aren’t the centre of the MLM universe, or that there are people out there who have no idea (nor care) who you are, but that’s not my concern.
If they have anything to do with the articles I’m writing I’ll be sure to research them, otherwise they’re irrelevant.
@Marc Barrett — *sigh* is it your intent to start every comment with “you don’t understand MLM”? Your condescending attitude is uncalled for.
I’ve seen people who claimed decades of experience in MLM fall for a such OBVIOUS pyramid scheme (not talking about WMI here). I find many so-called “experts” to be completely clueless when it comes to what makes a MLM legal or illegal. So please don’t bother flaunting your “experience” in this arena. Compare knowledge is fine. Touting your “experience” and claim it adds authority to your uncorroborated opinion is just lame.
With that said, I *do* agree with you that it is a DUMB idea for a MLM to somehow “promote” top distributors into a corporate position. I certainly don’t recall any such promotions, except in a scam like TVI Express, but then my “experience” in MLM is limited to studying the market peripherally, from the OUTSIDE, for the past two years, and I freely admit that.
This so-called corporate position is essentially that of a “consultant”, and this person was hired from outside, with some name recognition in the MLM circle. So this is essentially a publicity more.
@Oz — Marc is right, but his attitude needs adjustment. Corporate don’t NEED “homegrown” distributors in corporate positions. If they want input from the rank and file, they can easily form a powerless “advisory board” from the senior members. In fact, some MLM companies have such a thing.
General observation — in MLM, the corporate positions are COMPLETELY separate from the distributors. This is done as a LEGAL NECESSITY, because if the distributors are somehow “related” to the company through direct transactions OTHER than simple sale of goods and pay of commission, then the company will no longer be merely MLM, but actually a “business opportunity”, which is governed by more stringent Federal rules!
The entire MLM organization also emphasize this complete split. Corporate handles product developement, manufacturing, commission calculations, distribution, and legal. The IBOs / distributors handle marketing and actual sales. The two simply do NOT mix, and rarely if ever communicate, except one-way communications, from corporate to IBO!
Some companies have “advisory boards” that gives some senior IBOs to have a little voice at the corporate level, but they are NOT corporate officers.
I wholly agree it’s not needed, but in this particular instance, much of a big deal was made about WMI acquiring ‘an extraordinary group of seasoned and top-producing entrepreneurs‘.
Entrepreneurs, or in other words network marketers. WMI didn’t just hire corporate people, they skipped over their own marketers and bought other company’s success stories in. And as far as I know only one or two of them took up a corporate role anyway, so there goes that argument.
That was the only reason I wrote this article, to highlight the fact that WMI were bringing in marketers (not corporate shills) from other opportunities and touting them as the best of the best, rather than showcasing anyone within the company.
And then Marc Bennet wonders why I’ve never heard of his mates… well duh, WMI are too busy promoting acquiring and promting outside marketers and their success stories rather than their own members.
From an outside perspective, this leaves the strong impression that there simply aren’t any success stories within WMI worth knowing about. And that’s not my problem or interpretation, it’s the direct result of WMI’s marketing and publicty efforts, on which I can only observe and offer my opinion.
Looked up Greg Davidson a bit. He’s a serial MLMer, jumping from one MLM to another until he settled down with WMI.
His profile on BetterNetworker and his “activity” sheds some light on his serial MLM status:
http://www.betternetworker.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=9740#p9974
He is honest though. In the disclaimer of one of his websites he wrote “90% of those who use my system or coaching won’t make a single dollar” Wonder if people actually read that though? 🙂
Doesn’t surprise me at all, he sounds like your average MLM opportunity junkie. Not unlike Barret, who’s only really here because I’ve given unfavourable reviews to two opportunities he’s currently promoting. I don’t know how many opportunities he’s involved in total but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was more than two.
I’m always weary of people promoting multiple opportunities, they tend to turn MLM into a numbers game and just try to have multiple opportunities in their stable so that anyone they approach can be pitched to.
Given that Mr. Barrett can’t recognize TVI Express is a pyramid scheme (he gave favorable review on his own website, claimed it is has an interesting compensation model), I believe we can safely conclude that his 24 years of experience in MLM taught him nothing useful except how to recruit people, which completely misses the point about MLM.
And the fact he tried to use “I have 24 years of experience in MLM” to try to discredit BehindMLM, means he’s the one full of ****.
Randomly came across this and thought I would share my 2 cents, considering I was someone who signed up to WMI for the huge fee of $20,000 and worked under Gregg Davisson. Having done so, it completely changed my life.
It changed it because I soon realised that in spite of promising to get people out of debt in 8 years blah blah blah, the cost of the products would probably drive people into debt.
I think back to the conversation I had with the arrogant Gregg Davidson before signing up and I cringe at why I joined in the first place. I was at a bit of a crossroads at the time and just made a really terrible decision.
Davidson and WMI opened my eyes to the ignorance and lack of value some of these online business provide. I love the idea of WMI in terms of financial education but ripping people off with every second product is pretty disgusting.
Davisson is an ass. How anyone could spend more than 5 minutes listening to him is beyond me.
Furthermore, Kip Herriage, leader of WMI used to refer to himself as the Nostradamus of finance…..or at least that was the tagline associated with him on the website. This is an incredible thing to stand by…..Id be embarrassed…the self serving Herriage clearly not.
I complained him to the securities commission in the US when he started tipping penny-stock energy stocks that his friend was running. To me it was a case of pump and dump (in saying that he did recommend Ivanhoe Mines which was hugely successful…..credit where its due).
Overall, CCPro actually did have some good content and indeed some of the lessons I learned were valuable. However, by and large, the business is overrated and overpriced. I wonder are the likes of Peter Schiff, Mike Maloney et all still closely associating themselves with the declining WMI name.
In a world where information is free, charging thousands for courses and conferences is a flawed business model. The information should be free, the advice or how to interpret the information is where the fees come in.
By the way, great website that exposes many of these scumbags is http://www.saltydroid.info
I actually hadn’t realised but apparently the SEC is now investigating WMI for possible securities violations. Id like to think I played some small part in getting this to the fore. There goal of an IPO and a $1 billion company is now all but a pipe dream. Good riddance WMI.
@John
CCPro did have some value, and so did WMI. Most of the value is within the experience and how you are able to use that experience in other areas, maybe for years to come.
CCPro was mostly designed for a “starter level”, I believe? I didn’t join any of them, neither CCPro nor WMI, but I became familiar with most of their ideas when they were active in Norway from 2009 to March 2011. Most of their ideas failed in that market, and created lots of trouble for both of them far beyond that single market.
Why I believe CCPro was designed for a “starter level” is because most people tried to copy each and every idea they were served, even if an idea wasn’t working very well. Even if they themselves weren’t “designed” for a particular idea. More experienced people will usually evaluate ideas before they accept them, and often add their own ideas if needed. More unexperienced people will often try to follow instructions more like they follow a “cooking recipe”, and the outcome of this method is usually not very tasty.
I am partly responsible for some of the trouble they experienced in Norway, by doing some actions that later resulted in WMI being banned as a pyramid scheme in March 2011. I’m also partly responsible for the “divorce” they had in December 2010, but they are far more responsible for that “divorce” themselves.
@John
One of the ideas that can be useful is the idea of creating additional income streams, by adding something related to your primary business (website).
I wasn’t very impressed with CCPro’s marketing methods as they were used in Norway. Most of it were meaningless bullshit. However, I did find something useful in their sales methods from time to time, like the method “Imagine selling only 10 of these each month, and after 10 months you’ll have made xxx in direct sales commission, and yyy in residual income every month”.
Bryan here is only repeating the method someone else used when they sold CCPro to him, and he totally believes in it. At that point I believe he just had started, since most consultants hardly made any sale at all in that period. Using peoples own imagination to trick them may become useful in some areas. 🙂