The Unintended Economic Revolution caused by Black Gifting Groups, Fin Tech, Black Content Creators, and the Pandemic

When the Pandemic reached its height in the spring of 2020 American media would have the world believe that everyone’s attention was focused solely on the health crisis. In fact, just under the surface a revolution was brewing in the Black Community because the Pandemic gave the masses of Black Americans an opportunity to do something they never had the chance to do in the 500 years since they had been a part of this American experiment in White supremacy. For the first time ever, Blacks were forced to sit still, consider their health and economic survival, and turn to each other for answers and ideas.

Blacks started joining gifting groups(sou-sous), and crypto clubs. They started watching Black owned podcast like David Shands “Social Proof” and Rashad Bilal and Troy Billings “Earn Your Leisure”, that literally featured hundreds of Black men and women business owners who are making millions in every field of endeavor in the business world. From hairstylists, hair sellers, digital marketing experts, car dealers, stock market experts, crypto currency experts, car rental experts, and trucking experts, all part of a world that came to light during what seemed to be the worst time in America, if you let CNN and FOX tell the story.

Black Americans got so heavy into the gifting groups the Cash app, Apple pay, Google Pay and PayPal moved to shut down accounts to stop Blacks from gifting each other tens of millions of dollars day. Sending messages to their customers that they were using the app in an unintended way and disabling tons of accounts if they even suspected that they were participating in this financial underground railroad. Truthfully most Blacks got so scared by the fin tech apps that they quit on their own groups rather than fight for their right to self-determination. But it was too late because even though people quit the groups, they were already in the practice of working with their brothers and sisters to try and find answers to their financial questions and I believe that energy gave a huge boost to the Black content creators that were talking spicy online about business, marketing, credit, and all manner of opportunities.

One thing for certain and two things for sure Black men and women business owners under 40 are running multimillion dollar businesses of every type, off their cell phones. They are using social media and productivity apps to track their progress and it did not start during the pandemic. The pandemic forced everyone inside and on to YouTube and Instagram and zoom, and that’s how the world would discover these hidden gems.

Not only are many of these Black business gurus massively successful, but they also connect with each other to share resources and audiences to grow each other’s businesses. In addition, they develop courses to teach the skills they have mastered. This is a world the Black masses would hardly know existed without the pandemic. Now, 7 thousand people regularly tune into Market Mondays on the EYL Network to see Ian the Master Investor, Troy and Rashad break down their insights onto the stock market and Crypto markets. Now, 100k people have seen Teri Ijeoma on the Social Proof Podcast (The number 1 master teacher on Teachable, earning over 10 million a year) talk about her Trade and Travel course which helps countless students learn to earn $1000 a day trading so they can travel the world.

The irony of the sou- sous that fell apart is that they helped to spawn a deeper relationship between members of the Black community. It’s not millions in capital being gifted every day but Billions in ideas, expertise and best practices for wealth building that really matters.  Black businesspeople are showing other Blacks how to make millions every day on Tik Tok, Facebook, Zoom, Clubhouse, YouTube, and Instagram, and in Brick-and-mortar businesses all over the world.

We need to tap in deeply with ourselves because the only things our people do not have are the things, we have not given ourselves. I dare anyone to listen to the hundreds of voices on Earn your Leisure or Social Proof and tell me there is an area where we are lacking skills and knowledge. It is the transfer of knowledge that is needed now.  We can not fall back into the same pattern as before the Pandemic where we took each other for granted and simply worshipped at the alter of other’s supremacy. No matter what your ambition there are multiple qualified people from your tribe that can guide you toward your dreams. Hundreds of women and men have already walked the path and the info is available. Continue to make time to sit quietly and think and learn and connect with your people. The gifting group never stopped but it did transform.

List of things people received after the gifting groups:

1. Relationships that led to 6 and 7 figure business opportunities
2. Instructions and assistance to build great personal and business credit profiles
3. Access to government and private capital
4. Step by step instructions to 10x their current businesses
5. Inspiration to see women and men exceeding your wildest dream every single day in your field of endeavor
6. Knowledge of where your tribe meets in person and online everyday
7. Sales and marketing expertise
8. Demystification of the cryptocurrency market and the stock market
9. 10x to 100x return on capital through increasing knowledge and skills

Wishing you Wealth, Health, and Wisdom

Mark

Manager of Wealth

The CEO of your MLM/Direct Sales Company is running the company like a regular business, why aren’t YOU?

There is a disturbing trend growing around the country. It has been growing for the last 30 years but it is positioned to explode over the next decade.  If not put in check, it will destroy or waste millions of man hours and dollars that belong to people who can ill afford to waste either.

The trend I am speaking of is people who are in Direct Marketing/Multilevel marketing sales who do not keep good account of the time or resources invested in their businesses that pay temporary residual income. Now before anyone jumps all over me for speaking negatively about their precious MLM, I want you to go back and read the last sentence about keeping accurate track of the time and money invested for the return. This piece is not about how good or bad any direct sales business is.  It’s about how good a business person you are.

Over the last few years the world has been overrun with people who are trading huge blocks of time at meetings, conventions, promotional events and sales seminars for their direct sales companies. These same people are investing almost as much time in their part time businesses as they are at their full time job but earning less than 10k from their business and investing twice that in travel, hotel cost, merchandise cost, rental cars etc. Their approach to business spits in the face of common business practices and is an abomination to the common sense they show everyday outside of their MLM business.

The facts are that less than 2% of reps who have ever joined a direct sales business ever made any real money and built a profitable and sustainable business. Can it be done, yes. Can you do it without adhering to sound business principles, probably not? http://abt.cm/1BiGvZF

In full disclosure I have operated in several MLM businesses but found them way to limiting for the creative way I love to do business and frankly it was always too much work for too little money. Over the years I’ve been blessed to generate millions of dollars in non MLM businesses that required me to be focused on the top and bottom lines.  I never spent more time for less money that in recruiting and selling in an MLM because the business simply wasn’t designed to make me rich but to make the company rich through the use of labor and financial resources of many people who would never enjoy the spoils of the company.

In the business world important things like expenses, cost of goods sold, profit margins, return on investment and time invested are direct measures of how strong a business you have built. In MLM these things are rarely talked about nor calculated. In fact, the interest where these things are concerned are directly opposite of the interest of the sales rep.

Let me explain. The company that starts the MLM is a regular business like any other in the United States. They start with a certain amount of money and a business plan; they rent office space or warehouse space and hire hourly employees. They calculate the cost of the product they are selling and stock it. They have warehouse employees that handle distributions and they have a limited time to become profitable or they shut the business and declare bankruptcy.

The thing that makes these firms different is that their business model is based on telling people who are employed to make the change to become self-employed and embrace their limitless options. They build a virtually free labor force with no payroll taxes and workman’s comp.  They tell people to stop being a slave to their 9 to 5 and invest their time, energy and money into the pursuit of financial freedom. To do this they can sell their products and earn a fixed commission which is tied to cost of goods sold and profitability, but is never disclosed. Sales Reps attend conventions and meetings in hotels where the company has room rental rate deals, but that’s not disclosed.  They can recruit others to do the same and earn more fixed commission known as overrides, which again is tied to undisclosed profitability and cost of goods sold.

At the end of the year that MLM business is either profitable or not and if not it won’t be around for much longer.  The residual income people speak about will not pay forever because people will switch or cancel services over time. At the end of the year the company files taxes and pays payroll tax on all the corporate office and warehouse employees just like any other business. At the end of the year the principals reward themselves with big fat bonuses for how profitable the company was that year. The only real difference from other companies is their cost of labor because they do not pay for the countless man hours the salespeople put in to make it to certain promotional levels and win prizes. Most fail to ever make a profit, but the profitability for the company is actually higher on the majority that fails than it is on the minority that succeeds.

This is a very profitable business model if you own the MLM/Direct sales business.

Conversely, for the common rep they do not evaluate how many hours they spent on their business per week, how much product they purchased, how many conventions they attended, hotels and rentals cars paid for etc.  They do not subtract that from the amount of capital earned to determine their profitability. If they did they would see that they were upside down and need a plan to get right side up. They do not have an opportunity to lower the cost of goods sold or increase the profitably on the items they are marketing by getting better pricing at the manufacture, in fact they have no idea what COGS actually is.

The MLM/direct sales rep has no idea when the others they recruited will look at what time and money they invested and finally hit the wall and quit as happens with most. It’s a style of business with a 98% failure rate for the marketer and a very high success rate for the company.

They only way to change this paradigm is to run the direct sales/ MLM business like a real business and track all of those metrics that your parent company is tracking. Put together a plan and capital and build a profitable business before you burn through your budget and teach your recruits to do the same. Have monthly meetings that discuss and share hours and dollars invested versus dollars earned.  Don’t be afraid of the hard truth.

Be realistic about the residual aspect of these businesses. People do and will continue to switch phone companies, utilities carriers, makeup providers etc., so the residual is temporary unless you invest your profits into truly residual financial products that pay life time income.

Have fun, do your best and leave a legacy and pathway to success but please run your business like a business.

Wishing you Wealth, Wellness and Wisdom

Manager of Wealth