MLM as a Resource for Humanitarian Efforts, Social Services, and Economic Development
SDS contends that MLM can be an excellent resource for providing, or enhancing, humanitarian efforts, social services, and economic development if utilized properly, with those goals in mind. To support this idea, let's take a look at the definition of Economic Development.
According to the Province of British Columbia, in Canada, "Economic Development is programs, policies or activities that seek to improve the economic well-being and quality of life for a community. What “economic development” means to you will depend on the community you live in. Each community has its own opportunities, challenges, and priorities." We agree with this interpretation but would argue that it can also apply to individuals, families, businesses, and other subgroups not always identified with the term "community."
We feel that a little more background on how SDS came to embrace the idea of MLMs as a resource for Economic Development might be helpful before proceeding with this topic. We know the methods and ideas we're about to present are unorthodox, and controversial. Therefore, it is important to share how they evolved, organically, and even Spiritually, not from a place of greed, or deception, which is often the perception of those not familiar with MLM, or those who've maybe had a bad experience with it.
Probably the best place to start this discussion is with Excel Telecommunications, created in 1988 by Kenny Trout and Steve Smith. This was one of the most brilliant companies ever created, and probably the best testament to how powerful Network Marketing/MLM can be. Excel reached a billion dollars in sales nine years faster than Microsoft did, and in the process, it became the youngest company ever to join the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Now THAT'S Economic Development. This is truly one of the most innovative MLM companies that created changes for the better, worldwide, in a very short period of time. The deregulation of the US phone system back in the 1980s, opened the door for Excel to create competition for the Ma Bell system. Many people may not realize this, but Excel is probably the single entity most responsible for lowering long distance rates to the levels we enjoy today.
Excel was the first long distance provider to introduce 10c per minute long distance. It wasn't long before other phone companies saw their market share declining and followed suite. Excel then lowered their long-distance rates to .07c per minute. This started the rate wars which are still ongoing to this day, albeit by cell phone companies with unlimited, flat rate, long distance, now. Think about this for a second, how many other services can you think of which have actually gotten cheaper than they were in 1980? Long distance calling has. Not only has the cost of this service gotten cheaper, but the quality of long-distance telecommunications has improved significantly during this time as well.
Kenny and Steve had built Excel from a passion for Network Marketing. The product was simply seen as the best vehicle from which to launch their dream. They didn't have to build long distance transmission towers and connect miles and miles of wires together in order to start this business. Deregulation had made it to where AT&T was required to lease their lines to third party retail providers. About all Steve and Kenny had to do was to write up contracts to lease those lines and set up the compensation plan and marketing system for Excel, and they were in business. It was a very entrepreneurial undertaking. However, as is often the case, once the company grew into a billion dollar, publicly traded, conglomerate, it fell victim to the challenges of internal, and external politics, and uninspired decision-by-committee stagnation.
After the founders retired, things started going downhill. Ownership changed hands multiple times, even being owned by Bell Canada for a while, and the corporate types eventually, abandoned the MLM model. This was incredibly short sighted, because that single decision immediately had the affect of laying off their sales force and destroying customer loyalty. Subsequently, Excel faded into the history books. What the corporate types failed to recognize was that it was the MLM model that made the company what it was, not the product. Long distance companies were popping up everywhere. The thing that had made Excel special was that for the first time, a phone company was sharing its revenues with anyone who wanted to recommend them to their friends, families, and other acquaintances. Corporate types, who didn't understand the dynamics of Economic Development, saw the money being paid out to Independent Representatives as an expense, that if eliminated, would increase their bottom line. In reality, it was an investment, that once eliminated, ruined the company.
Now that we've established a case for MLM being a credible tool for economic development, lets take a look at how SDS came to embrace this concept.
Our founder, Dennis Gerron, has been around direct sales and side hustles his whole life. His mom was the sweetest, kindest, woman you could ever hope to meet. EVERYONE in his East Dallas neighborhood knew Dennis's mom. She was very outgoing, and active in David Crockett Elementary School's PTA, neighborhood churches, etc. As such, she was the quintessential Avon Lady. She also dabbled in selling Stanley Brushes and Watkins Products, as well as offering baby sitting for other moms in the area, but Avon was her passion, and she was quite good at it. Even during and after her training in Respiratory Therapy, and her 18 plus years working at Presbyterian Hospital, she continued to sell Avon.
Dennis's dad was a little more gruff, but he too had multiple side hustles. He was a welder by trade, but also had a handyman, or as he called it, "Fix it" business on the side. Additionally, with 7- or 8-year-old Dennis's help, he also set up recycling routes for aluminum cans and newspapers, in addition to selling his ornamental ironworks.
Dennis went door to door to solicit customers, for the ironwork while his dad drove down the street following him, in their old Ford Falcon station wagon, in case anyone wanted to buy some address signs or other ornamental ironwork. If a particular resident wasn't interested in the ironwork, or even if they were, Dennis would also offer to set up a schedule to pick up their newspaper and/or aluminum can recyclables on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis, whichever they preferred. If someone had recycling they wanted removed right then, he would gladly accept it and take it the car. This gave them three potential revenue streams from each contact. Some bought ironwork, which was the primary goal, but if not, there was still the possibility of them wanting their recyclables picked up regularly, which resulted in ongoing repeat income. Ideally, they wanted all three, which did frequently happen.
Dennis's dad was smart to send his little boy up to the doors to do the selling. He knew people would respond better to a cute little "go-getter" kid than they would to him. Plus, it taught Dennis invaluable lessons about sales and customer service, and dealing with people in general, while building his self-confidence at an early age.
By age ten, Dennis was throwing a paper route in the mornings, and doing door-to-door soliciting for the newspaper in the evenings, in addition to going to school, and helping his dad, evenings, weekends, and summers.
It was around this time that Dennis's parents divorced. Their divorce was actually a relief, as the home environment was much more peaceful with them apart. Dennis's dad's health was deteriorating, which reduced his income to living off Social Security, as his construction jobs had no retirement benefits. His mom also struggled to make ends meet as a single income earner. This resulted in them living in six different houses/apartments during the five years Dennis was in Junior High, and High School. It also meant if Dennis wanted money to spend, he had to earn it. This also made Dennis a quite experienced mover at a young age. So much so that he was able to get hired by American Mayflower as a movers helper, at age 14. He worked there for most of a summer, until they discovered that he was only 14, and reduced his wages. He protested, as he was still doing the same amount of work as before. They agreed that his work output was fine, which was why they were keeping him on, but legally they weren't supposed to hire anyone under 16. This reasoning wasn't sufficient for him, and school was about to start back anyway, so he quit.
As a teen Dennis had multiple summer, weekend, and evening jobs, such as mowing lawns, selling carnations on the street corner, being a bricklayers helper, American Mayflower, and working on a Railroad warehouse dock. His two longest term jobs while in high school were bussing tables at Pancho's Mexican Buffet, and working in a wholesale auto parts warehouse, where he worked through his Senior year, and for about a year after graduating.
He then went to work for Jerrell Inc., a lady's garment manufacturer. As a young single guy, he loved this job, due to working around fashion models all day, befriending many of them, and dating one. Unfortunately, it didn't pay a lot, so after a year or so, he went back to Auto parts, before eventually settling back into masonry. While working at Jerrell, in 1979 Dennis's dad passed away.
During the record heat of 1980, Dennis was working at Steakley Chevrolet. One evening, his older brother, Glen, a masterful woodworker, carpenter, and cabinet maker, called him up, and asked if wanted to go with him to do a job in San Francisco. Dennis's air conditioning was out at his apartment, and he worked in an unairconditioned warehouse all day, during a record-breaking heat wave. So, he quickly accepted this offer. That was his first time on a plane. He worked with Glen for the rest of that summer, learning quite a bit about woodworking, before returning to masonry.
Dennis worked for years as a Mason-tender (Bricklayers helper). He became frustrated because his vision hindered him in being fast enough of a bricklayer to move up to doing that full time. He was more beneficial to the contractors as a hardworking, knowledgeable, helper than he was as a slow bricklayer. At some point he realized that he could lay bricks fast enough to get paid a bricklayer's salary on his own, but he couldn't lay bricks fast enough for his employer to get paid off his efforts also. That lead him to doing side brick jobs on his own. This was his introduction to the idea that self-employment could be the best route for someone with a visual impairment, or at least a worthy side hustle. Although he had done side hustles his whole life, it was the realization that the same work could pay him more, if he did it on his own, versus for someone else, that was the new epiphany.
Due to not being able to do masonry in subfreezing weather, Dennis often worked with Carpet layers during the winter months. One of his childhood friends, Charlie Hood, and his brother, David Hood, were two of the most knowledgeable carpet layers in all of North Texas. Dennis spent several years working with them, intermittently. He went back and forth between these two trades following the work, in order to stay busy. He worked with some of the best contractors in Dallas, within both fields, learning a lot about these trades from the best in the business. His masonry work included some of Dallas's most iconic structures, such as the Galleria Mall, the Quadrangle renovation in Uptown, and the Lowes Anatole Hotel, where they actually laid pictures in brick, much like tile mosaics. His carpet and flooring jobs included most of the early buildings in Las Colinas, several areas and stores within Valley View Mall, Salvation Army's main Dallas location, Dow Chemicals, and areas of Texas Instruments, etc.
Dennis took about a three-month break from masonry during the summer of 1985, when he went to Austin, TX, to visit Peter Block, a friend from high school, for a planned two-week vacation. While there, he wound accepting a job offer at the radio station where Peter worked, and stayed for several months, until it became obvious that he was not going to be able to afford a place of his own, on the disc jockey income alone. So, back to masonry he went. His plan was to keep working at the radio station, while doing masonry work full-time. However, soon after he started, they finished the job they were working on, and the bricklayer informed him that their next job was going to be just outside St. Louis, MO. Since he could live on the masonry wages, but not the dj wages, he had to give up the dj gig, which he had loved.
During the cold winter of 1986 Dennis decided to seek a new direction, and enrolled in Bartending classes, and took a job at a liquor store, in order to be fully immersed in the industry. This may seem like an odd choice, given his calling to help others, but again, Dennis was struggling to figure out how to do that, and he was still single, and wanting to meet young ladies. His reasoning was that as a bartender, that he would be able to stop patrons from over indulging, and would still be in a familiar envioornment for which to meet young women.
The liquor store is where he ran into his high school friend, Liz, who was actually his date to the senior prom. They hadn't seen much of each other in ten years, since high school.
It wasn't long before feelings blossomed, and they were living together. Dennis had completed his Bartender training, but while he was still in school, the State of Texas passed a law in which establishments and the bartenders could be held accountable for the actions of patrons who wound up having an accident or other mishap due to intoxication. Dennis was not willing to assume responsibility for the actions of others who had too much to drink. There are just way to many variables at play there. So, he quickly looked for other employment opportunities, which resulted in him getting employed at Bromo Distributors, the wholesale warehouse for Sound Wherehouse retail stores. He also started to do security for some parking lots in Deep Ellum on weekends and doing concert security at the newly opened Starplex Amphitheater, and other venues, eventually working his way up to backstage security.
Dennis's first formal venture into entrepreneurship (Registered name and tax ID#, etc...) came toward the end of 1987 when he and his girlfriend, started Alternate Views Stained Glass studio. Dennis came up with the name "Alternate Views" as a "double intendre" play on words, relating to both, the change of view that a stained-glass window creates, as well as the fact that he and Liz rarely agreed on anything. LOL
It was while operating the glass studio that Dennis became aware that in addition to being legally blind, he was also hearing impaired.
Upon their relationship coming to an end, in 1992, Dennis willingly gave up any claim to his part in the studio so that Liz would have a way to support herself and her son from a previous marriage. After leaving the glass studio, Dennis didn't really have a clear vision, of what he was going to do next.
He had been working doing backstage security for concerts, even before starting the studio, and had maintained that employment throughout building the glass business, but it was definitely a side hustle, not a career path. He loved meeting the famous performers, and getting to see many concerts for free, but the pay wasn't great, and he became increasingly disillusioned by much of what he saw going on backstage.
He did not want to compete with his ex-girlfriend, or the business they had created together, so rather than starting another stained-glass studio, he began looking for other income streams, while working with the Texas Commission for the Blind on some Vocational Rehabilitation goals, more directly geared toward helping others.
Dennis didn't consciously set out looking for MLM opportunities as a career choice. He was searching the classifieds for jobs and came across some "Work from home" ads, which piqued his interest. As it so happened many such ads were about various MLM opportunities. Having been around Avon his whole life, he did understand the potential MLM offered, and began considering that as an option.
The first MLM company he was introduced to, was Reliv. The powdered drinks Reliv offers taste great, but more importantly, Dennis noticed that his fingernails became much thicker and stronger after he started drinking them. This may not sound like a big deal, but it was sufficient evidence to Dennis that these drinks were indeed having a noticeably positive impact on his body. That awareness sparked a keen lifelong interest in knowing more about Health, Nutrition, and MLM, in general. Dennis loves the Reliv drinks to this day, but he didn't have a lot of success marketing it to others.
At that point and time, he had never considered MLM as a final career choice, though he met many people who were doing it full time and making good money at it. For Dennis, at that time, it was merely a side hustle, and a bridge to help generate additional income during a transitional period in his life. However, he became increasingly appreciative of the fact that many of the hurdles he had faced in his diverse work history, relating to his vision, were somewhat neutralized in the MLM field. He felt this offered equal opportunity to almost everyone, regardless of race, sex, or physical abilities. He became increasingly intrigued by the possibilities MLM offers.
The next company Dennis became interested in, was Amway, which has such a wide range of products, that a person could practically live on Amway alone. He loved the personal development resources Amway offered, even more than the actual products. The positive, upbeat vibes of the MLM community was quite helpful in getting Dennis through the emotional toll of leaving his ex, her son, and the business he had help create. Having such an upbeat social network, which emphasized personal growth, along with reading the Holy Bible through cover to cover, were essential to getting him through this period of his life.
While Dennis loved the personal development resources, the product options, and the social network Amway offered, the immediate income wasn't sufficient starting out, and Dennis didn't have the discretionary income to buy monthly auto ship while building a team. He loved the potential MLM offered, but he was looking for something that would allow him to earn some extra money right away, not cost him money. So, his search continued.
The next company Dennis looked into was Usana. They have some great nutrition supplements, but again, Dennis wasn't earning enough money with it to cover the monthly autoship. Plus, Amway had great supplements as well, and much more.
The next MLM company he became aware of was Nikken. Dennis was invited to a meeting where the host had volunteers come up and squeeze a device designed to measure the strength of one's grip. After noting the results, the host then had the volunteer take off their shoes, and stand on a couple of their magnetic insoles, then squeeze the device again. In every case, including Dennis, the volunteers registered a significantly stronger grip while standing on the magnetic insoles. Dennis was blown away. Here was a product with demonstrable, immediate results. In addition to the amazing benefits of their magnetic shoe inserts, and other products, Dennis was impressed with the company philosophy and priorities.
Since 1975, Nikken has provided innovative products and what can be a lucrative income opportunity, with time, and effort. Their Eastern influenced focus is to live a life in balance and to share the message that every home should be a "Wellness Home." They have an easy-to-understand compensation plan that allows infinite possibilities of building a better future for many. Dennis was impressed that Nikken is a business with a transforming purpose. This is a global company with an inclusive, equitable, and collaborative culture. The spirit of entrepreneurship at Nikken is inspired by their 5 Pillars of Wellness™.
These 5 pillars promote a balanced lifestyle through:
Healthy Mind,
Healthy Body,
Healthy Family,
Healthy Society and
Healthy Finances.
Each product Nikken develops and produces is designed as a solution to promote wellness and to help benefit the Global Wellness Community. The magnetic insoles are designed to reduce the effects of our detachment from the Earth's natural magnetic pull. Concrete, shoes, floors, cars, etc., have greatly reduced the amount of time humans are in physical contact with the Earth. The dramatic demonstrations of the before and after grip strength was sufficient to prove this point to Dennis. Since this time, there has been an increased awareness of the benefits of "Earthing," a term coined for walking barefoot in the grass, sand, etc... This is more than just a gimmicky sales ploy. There are many benefits to using these magnetic insoles, as well as their ionic air purifiers, and water filtration systems. These products embody their 5 Pillars of Wellness™, which promote Active Wellness and financial wellbeing.
Nikken exposed Dennis to a Bio-Psycho-Social-Financial model even before college or AmeriCorps did. God provided the Spiritual emphasis, but Nikken's inclusion of Healthy Finances blends the Bio-Psycho-Social aspects of SDS's Bio-Psycho-Social-Spiritual and Economic Development models. Dennis credits this exposure to helping him first make many of these connections in his own mind.
AmeriPlan was the next MLM company Dennis researched as it has a great story behind it, and mission. But again, it wasn't quite what he was looking for. Needing an insurance license to sell it in Texas was a big hurdle.
The next MLM Dennis got excited about was Pre-Paid Legal. As a business owner, Dennis recognized the value of pre-paid legal plans right away. By this time, Dennis had launched SDS, and was expanding into more and more business services, including offering the business legal plans. Unfortunately, the State of Texas, among others decided that representatives needed an Insurance license to sell PPLs products, which was both expensive to time consuming to acquire. Dennis had neither the time nor inclination to pursue licensure.
Young Living Essential Oils immediately resonated with Dennis. The story of how this company came about was enough to win him over before he ever tried the products. Dr. Gary Young founded Young Living after years of research for his own personal reasons. Gary had been a logger, and one day while working a tree fell on him, hitting him on the head so hard, that it knocked his feet through the soles of his shoes, into the snow. He was in a comma for quite some time, and when he came out of it, he was paralyzed and told he would never walk again.
As an active outdoorsman, this news was not acceptable. He set out to research everything he could find about effective treatments, from around the world. Essential Oils were the solution he'd been looking for. After lots of experiments with different combinations, he finally found some that helped, and was eventually able to walk again.
This was very exciting news to Dennis, who was already working with people with disabilities daily, by this time. He met Gary and his lovely wife Mary, at a conference in Dallas. Gary even did a treatment on Dennis's ears to treat his hearing impairment. There was a short term, but immediate, and noticeable improvement. Dennis is still an avid proponent of these oils, and this company.
This journey through MLM was like a coexisting parallel universe, alongside Dennis's other educational and professional endeavors. Due to the significance of these health and economic benefits to Community Development, Substance Abuse Counseling, and Vocational Rehabilitation activities, he began to share much of this information and incorporate them into each other. This is how these worlds merged quite organically.
Having become immensely interested in holistic medicine and nutrition at this point, Dennis was next drawn Nature's Sunshine Herbs. He received extensive training through them in Herbal remedies, even getting certified to train others. Just the foundation of the four characteristics of herbs (Hot, Cold, Wet, Dry), and their combinations (Hot/Wet, Hot/Dry, Cold/Wet, Cold/Dry) was extremely interesting to him. This categorization of herbs, and the benefits they offer, makes total sense as the foundation for how herbs with similar qualities can be used to address similar conditions, since the same herbs are not native to various regions of the world.
Keep in mind, that Dennis was learning these things on the side, while still going to school, working Community Development, Substance Abuse Counseling, and Vocational Rehabilitation. The overlap and synchronicity of these seemingly divergent paths is astounding in hindsight.
Dennis then got introduced to the Zig Ziglar Network, a newly created MLM by Zig, which he joined based on Zigs name and reputation alone. Dennis first became exposed to Zig in the early 80s while working at Sigmor Gas stations. They had purchased a training series from The Zig Ziglar Corporation, and held weekly meetings where employees from various stations around the Dallas area would come and ;isten to a tape, or two, and discuss the topics being shared.
One day while working at his station, Dennis encountered to a particularly beligerant customer. Due to having other customers in line, and not wanting to escalate the situation, he just ignored the customers insults and moved on the the next customer, still smiling and in good humor. This strategy worked, as the hostile customer got tired of not getting anywhere, and left.
The second, or third customer in line, commended Dennis on how he handled the situation, and asked how he was able to keep his composure and deal with the hostile customer in a such a positive way. Dennis was very busy, and hardly even thought about his reply, but told the customer something to the effect of "Im not sure. That's not historically my natural response in these situations, but I guess all of our company's Zig Ziglar trainings are paying off." The customer responded, "I'm actually very glad to hear that. My name is Bill Chaffin, and I work for Zig. In fact, I'm the guy who sold your company that training program." With that he handed Dennis his business card, which he still has. Bill contacted the Sigmor corporate offices and relayed this story to them, which resulted in Dennis getting a whopping 25c per hour raise. So, he already had quite a bit of familiarity with the Zig, and was a fan of his entertaining, down to earth, no nonsense, way of explaining things.
Zig's book See You At the Top, as the second personal development book Dennis had read, and he still listened to several of his tapes while commuting to and from college. He was a little disappointed when he discovered that ZZN's products were yet more vitamins. He had hoped that the product was going to be something like a Zig tape of the month club, like Nightingale-Conant had, which Dennis subscribed to. Regardless of the product, this affiliation permitted Dennis to get to know Zig personally, and attend weekly trainings held by him.
Zig literally wrote the book on Network marketing, around this same time.
This was the single best source for education anyone could ever hope to receive in the MLM industry, and Dennis was training with Zig and his team weekly. That combined with his already extensive experience in MLM has served Dennis quite well over the years in researching these opportunities.
Ironically, and unfortunately, even though Zig was the epitome of a corporate motivator, and a recognized expert on Network Marketing, ZZN closed up shop within a year of starting. There was simply too much competition in the vitamin arena. Zig wanted to do right by his members and violated his previously self-imposed rule of not promoting specific outside MLMs, by working out an arrangement with none other than Nikken, for his members to move to, with downlines intact. This helped reduce the need for team builders to start over, building a new team with a new company, by keeping their existing teams in place. Dennis, however, was already a member of Nikken. If nothing else, Zig's endorsement of Nikken was validating of Dennis's own appreciation for the company.
With this history in mind, if we fast forward again to Dennis's evolving ideas for SDS, it's easy to see how he got started looking into MLMs as a way creating new income streams as a way to help people with disabilities, to increase their monthly incomes over the paltry SSDI payments, most depend on. This stuff was second nature to him, by this point.
Reliv, Nikken, Young Living, and Nature's Sunshine were all still very much a part of Dennis's life. As noted above though, its difficult to make enough money to cover the monthly autoships, when just starting out. While the idea of nutritional and other health products, marketed through MLM seemed an ideal direction for helping people with disabilities improve their health and creating a new source of income, the financial logistics were/are often difficult to work out. This led Dennis to keep looking for other resources that would provide more immediate financial benefits to those he was trying to help.
Thanks to the evolution of the Internet, Dennis discovered a whole new realm of income opportunities, which seemed ideal for the purpose of helping people establish incomes from home. Back around year 2000 (Y2K), give or take a few years, Dennis discovered something called High Yield Income Programs (HYIPs), and Surf-to-earn, projects. These programs made it easy to earn passive, to semi-passive income.
While this research has lead to some truly unique ways to help people, it's not been without it's share of setbacks, and disappointments. We've been focused on self sustaining models, where capitalism can reward us for helping others. We read a quote many years ago that stated "If more people got paid well for doing good, more good would get done well!" With that premise in mind, SDSs main focus has been to identify win/win methods to help people in need.
We preface the following comments with some additional background, because most people's minds snap shut, when we share what we're about to state.
In our research, we've determined that one of the most reliable self-sustaining models for helping people, is an MLM type model, where a third party entity pays us for simply bringing people to the table, who want to purchase the their products, use their services, etc....
Please, let us elaborate further before closing your mind to this concept. We understand that there is a fine line between MLM/Network Marketing, and what many perceive to be a "Ponzi scheme." The truth is that MLM/Network Marketing has been proven in courts to be a legitimate and viable business model. Amway spent a considerable amount of resources fighting the U.S. Government all the way to the Supreme Court, but finally won the ruling.
Using this model to help people in need is not even a new idea. When you think about it, the United States Social Security system is probably the biggest Ponzi in the world. The original idea behind Social Security was that the government would invest the money paid into the system during our working years, and then provide us with retirement income from the profits. Of course, our government has a very hard time living within its budget, which has adversely affected the Social Security system, along with everything else it tries to manage.
This has lead to a situation where current workers paying into the Social Security system, are basically covering the payments of those who are retiring. That's why there is so much talk about it becoming insolvent in our lifetimes. There aren't enough Generation Xers working and paying into the system, to cover the payments of the aging Baby Boomers.
Had our government properly invested the money the Baby Boomers paid in during their working careers, like private insurance companies do, then this would not be an issue. It is only a problem because the Social Security system operates as a poorly run Ponzi scheme. We say poorly run, because had the government not spent the money paid in by past generations, and just held in a savings account, it would still not be experiencing the challenges we see today.
SDS believes that if managed properly, an MLM model combined with savvy investments, can provide one of the most sustainable ways to fund social services and humanitarian projects.
Jesus was perhaps the best Network Marketer of all times. He only preached his message for about three years, During that time He established an inner circle of just twelve passionate believers, one of whom dropped out, and had to be replaced, by an even more passionate convert.
When you hear people say that MLMs, or even outright Ponzis are mathematically unsustainable because they will eventually run out of people, ask yourself this; "if that's true, then why isn't everyone a Christian?" Think about it, Jesus offers Salvation to everyone, for free. What could be easier to promote than that? Yet, after 2000+ years, not even most of the people in the world are Christians.
Christianity, which started with One messenger who recruited twelve first line members, who then went out and spread the word, has been going for over two thousand years, yet still hasn't run out of potential converts. The same can be said for Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, etc. These four religions are perhaps the greatest evidence we have that the MLM model not only works, but is absolutely sustainable, when done right.
Another analogy worth considering is how various groups, when bound together for a common cause, have initiated lasting, transformational changes in the world. The Women's Suffrage movement resulted in women getting the right to vote, the Civil Rights movement resulted in a more integrated country, and more equal rights for all.
A more recent example is the networks established by legal, and even more so, illegal, immigrants into the United States. Consider this; many in the U.S. complain about not being able to find work, yet, thousands of illegal immigrants stream across our southern borders daily. In many cases they do not speak English, yet they plug into local networks within various cities in the country, and within no time, have a place to stay, and gainful employment, vehicles to drive, fake, or illegally obtained official IDs, etc., etc...
How is this possible? Through networking. Regardless of where you stand on the immigration issue, you have to admit, these immigrants have mastered the art of networking.
All of this should be sufficient evidence to cause anyone to give pause to the idea that a group of passionate people gathered around a common cause can accomplish unimaginable outcomes, with the potential to change the world for the better, in a lasting and sustainable way.
The good news is, we don't have to recreate the wheel. There are plenty of viable resources available to us. We just need to connect the dots, and find the best matches for individual, institutional, and collective benefits.
Dennis actually presented this concept to Larry James, while working with him at Central Dallas Ministries (Now City Square), among others, over 25 years ago, while he was an AmeriCorps volunteer. Larry was not receptive to the ideas presented, which as disappointing, but he paid Dennis what we perceive to be a huge compliment. He said, to paraphrase, "If anyone else came in here to promote the idea of MLM as a resource, or model, for social services, I'd be showing them the door right now. But, I know you're sincere in your intentions to help others. So, I will hear you out, but don't get your hopes up!"
Establishing SDS while still doing other things, Dennis built up a track record which enabled me to eventually get contracts with the Texas Commission for the Blind, to provide job placement, job coaching, and other services, with the help of David Ondich, and Janet McKannon.
It was during this stage, that his passion for finding ways for people with disabilities to make a living from home, was raised to the next level.
As a vendor, providing job placement services to clients of the then, Texas Commission for the Blind, Dennis' territory went from Corsicana/Fairfield to the south, the Oklahoma border to the North, AR/LA borders to the East, and Dallas/Tarrant County line to the West. This encompasses a lot of rural areas, where there is typically no public transportation. Therefore, people who are blind have a much harder time finding a way to get to a job. Even if they do have family and friends willing to help them in this regard, there is typically a lot of competition for the few jobs available, and employers, are less likely to hire people with severe visual impairments, when they have a large pool of applicants.
What became evident to Dennis was, that many of these people had been clients of TCB for years, and yet their situations had not changed. In many cases, they had been referred to every Job Placement vendor who came along, in hopes that the next vendor would have better luck than previous ones had. That meant that the tax payers money, meant to help them, had paid the salaries of the TCB staff, and multiple vendors had made money attempting to help them, for years, but in the end, they had not benefitted, much, if any, from those tax dollars.
Dennis set out to insure that whether SDS got them a job, or not, that they would benefit from our services. It dawned on him, that once the state paid SDS for our efforts to find them employment, and SDS paid Dennis, that money was his, to do with as he pleased. So, when appropriate, he would use some of it to help set those interested up, into homebased businesses.
The late D. H. Howell, founder, and director of the former Chamber of Commerce for Individuals with Disabilities, was a like minded, supporter of this concept. D.H. had been working on the same concept, but from a different angle. CCID provided refurbished computers, to people with disabilities for $50 each. Dennis used some of his earnings from VR services provided, to buy some of these refurbished computers for clients who were interested.
SDS and. CCIDs work together, prompted Joyce Ann Tepley, a board member at CCID, to include Dennis in her book, "Thriving Through It," which is available through Amazon, among other outlets.
As you've hopefully picked up on, Dennis is a creative, out of the box, thinking, solutions oriented, kind of guy. Unfortunately, those traits are not always seen as a good thing, by bureaucracies, and/or their gate keepers. Another major innovation, Dennis spearheaded in the local VR system, was that of using VR funds as a form of economic development, during the post 911 economy.
For days, then weeks, after the 911 attacks, people were just stunned. The economy was at a standstill. I was trying to find jobs for people who were blind, and the whole economy was shut down. So, I prayed, and God revealed the solution. Written into our Supported Employment contracts which I signed, with the state, for every individual referred for SE services, was a clause, which had been there all along, but had never jumped out at me previously. It stated that as the SE provider, I could subcontract with employers, and pay them to provide the job coaching services. This gave me the leverage to provide direct economic benefits to employers for hiring my clients. We placed more clients who were blind, in jobs, during the post 911 economy, than we had the two previous years combined. David Ondich tied the all-time Regional placement record for TCB, during the worst economy since the Great Depression.
The combination of the Supported Employment based Economic Development, and the homebased employment initiative, added many layers to the traditional VR services. Other services were added as well. Dennis is skilled at building upon connections which, strengthen the efforts and outcomes of all involved.
In addition to SDSs collaboration with CCID, Dennis also built a piggyback relationship with a company who specialized in helping businesses maximize their tax benefits for hiring people with disabilities. This created a reciprocal arrangement where the other company would recommend SDS as a means of acquiring employees who would qualify for the tax incentives. In return, SDS referred our employer contacts to this other company, as a free value added service.
Other partnerships worthy of mentioning was an agreement Dennis negotiated with the late Bill Clark, the Executive Director of Mainstream/Project Link. This was a grant funded nonprofit organization, conveniently located in downtown Dallas, which was ideal for individuals who were visually impaired/blind, from an accessibility standpoint.
SDS offered to hire one of their clients, who volunteered as their receptionist. This young lady was looking for employment which would have left M/PL without a receptionist. Dennis proposed that SDS hire her, and allow her to continue as M/PLs receptionist, but with the added duties of doing intakes for SDS clients, with the understanding that SDS clients also became M/PL clients. Dennis worked out a similar agreement with R.A. Wade, Executive Director of I AM Cares, which was funded in part through the Machinists Union, but also through Federal grants.
These arrangements increased both, M/PL, and I AM Cares "Number of clients served" ratios, which were essential for getting refunded each year. At the same time, it gave SDS clients a centrally located place to go for intakes, as well as, access to the additional resources provided by MPL, such as a designated computer lab for job searches, resume development, etc. Both of these organizations had Business Advisory Committees, which would meet monthly.
At these meetings among other topics of discussion, they would allow some of the respective agencies clients to give a presentation about their current job search. These BAC members would then consider if they had any openings within their companies, or whether they knew of others who did. This gave both SDS and our clients invaluable exposure to multiple human resource professionals at some of the biggest companies in Dallas. This was networking, and marketing, on a grand scale.
In these setttings, we benefitted from SDSs broad stroke company name, and our employees Community Development Specialists, job titles. Dennis marketed SDSs services to businesses as more of a consultant who could offer free services to help increase their bottom line.
This was a much easier, value based, introduction, than coming to them from a purely VR position of wanting them to hire people who were blind. Hiring my clients became a means to a beneficial end, rather than the end goal.
Back on the home based business side of things, since SDS needed the money the state paid us, for our own survival, as well, we sought to find low cost ways to help people, and ideally, ways that would pay us back the money we expended, so that the model would be self-sustaining. This is where trial and error have been the best teachers, and what has lead us to some of our current endeavors, and strategies.
In Vocational Rehabilitation circles, there are some key concepts, and catch phrases, which are seen as essential to best practices. Among them are the ideas of "natural supports." In essence this refers to non-agency support systems, and resources. In a job setting, it typically refers to coworkers, supervisors, or modes of transportation, which help individuals with disabilities to get the support needed, to be successful that will extend beyond the service providers, and funding. The MLM/Network Marketing model is, by default, designed to create natural supports. There are some major hurdles with maximizing this compatibility, though.
Ironically, the government itself, has been one of the main obstacles in perfecting a long term model that works. For some reason, the government has not embraced the idea of MLM/Network Marketing since it's very beginning. They tried to outlaw the model as far back as the 1950/60s. Amway successfully fought them in court, to get a ruling that it is indeed a viable, and legitimate, business model. That hasn't stopped the government from trying to regulate the industry to death. The government literally puts quite a bit of effort, into forcing companies to make it harder for people to earn money. We could write a book on this topic alone, and may, but, we digress.
In addition to government regulation issues, MLM suffers from flawed implementation in many instances. As a result, unfortunately, it has gotten a bad rap. Most network marketers don't maximize, or even recognize, it's humanitarian potential. Instead, the industry norm, seems to promote a mentality of greed, based on a "recruit wide, and let the cream float to the top" mindset. This means that professional promoters recruit as many people as they can, but then gravitate towards those who are successful at doing the same, and often leave those who struggle to succeed, to their own devices.
SDS is not interested in that approach. we want projects that will reward us, and others, for helping those people who would otherwise, struggle, and more often than not, quit due to not making any money. We are very much working to merge multiple, completely different, paradigms, that of ministry, vocational rehab, social work, community development, economic development, and MLM, while needing to facilitate paradigm shifts in them all, to accommodate the others. We have found very few people who recognize, what appears so glaringly obvious to us, and that is the hand-in-glove compatibility, of social services, and the MLM model.
Dennis wrote a comprehensive article covering some of this, for the Dallas Peace Times, which was spread over two monthly issues, back in the 90s. WIn this section we've skipped over much of Dennis' community development work, relating to violence prevention, which lead to a close working relationship with the Dallas Peace Center, at the time. Rita Calvert, Trish Majors, Dwayne Ediger, and Jan Sanders, among others, became great allies in SDSs efforts. That is what prompted that outlet for this article. Sadly, the article got hardly any notice whatsoever. So, here we are, some 25 years later, still doing this research on our own, knowing that it's the right thing to do, and that it bridges so many gaps, in existing services.
This is not a static, cookie cutter, one size fits all, model, so much as it is a system of trying to meet people businesses, nonprofits, and communities, where they are, and helping them to improve their circumstances and/or outcomes. We can share some specific resources that we use to facilitate this work based on specific needs.
Dennis has a friend in England who is working a lady in Kenya, using these ideas to transform the lives of her whole village. Their average income is about $12 per month. That means that if we can help them make $50 every 30 days, that's more than 4x what they are making in their salaries. It's life changing, for them.
Of course, $50 per month isn't nearly as helpful here, as it is in Kenya, but it can be a true Godsend for many. Additional $50 in monthloy earnings, even in the US, can mean food for a week, or gas, or electricity. Or, earnings can be compounded so that earnings can increase monthly, or, the whole thing can be scaled to create higher level earnings starting out, which will increase the monthly earnings. Everything about this is scalable.
Having stated all of that, this is based on an ever evolving list of resources available to accomplish the goals of helping others improve their finances. Many of the methods we use, but not all, utilize Cryptocurrencies, and we know that's going to be a huge learning curve for some people. SDS has created an "Introduction to Cryptocurrencies." to help with this need. It's a free series of messages which breaks it down into bite size segments.
We can start a grass roots effort of self funded philanthropy. It just doesn't get much better than that. However, you may not feel that you have the resources to help others, or know how to find people to help. Well, just by participating, and putting some of your own money to work for you, it can help the cause. The more people who sign up from our links, the faster our own efforts grow, allowing us to help more people.
Additionally, if you have a child away at college, or even at home, whom you provide an allowance for, this is a way to reduce the cost of providing that allowance and/or increase the amount you're able to give them, without spending more. The potential for stretching your budget, and/or assistance to others, is truly only limited by your imagination.
Please let us know if you're interested in more information.