When I first introduced everyone to John Frenaye back in October, I mentioned that I cut my teeth debatingreal honest to goodness Anti-MLM Zealots. If you’ve ever spent any time at all with the fine folks on Scam.com it makes some of our Travel Agents look like Saints. (Okay, Saints might be pushing it as you will soon find out, but you get the idea.) There are a couple of key features about Anti-MLM Zealots that I’ve learned over the years, which I need to clarify for everyone before we begin.

They selectively use evidence that supports their case and throw away (or ignore) anything else that doesn’t. They work by categorizing, separating, hiding, judging and condemning, attacking and rejecting. When they’re in trouble like they were with me, they try to distract everyone from all the good news, all the company and personal success of folks like me. They blow the whole situation out of proportion. By making a lot of noise, they think everyone will miss what is really going on.

I was first introduced to John back in August, after being sent an article he wrote about Travel MLM’s. Knowing nothing about John, I simply labeled him another one of the Zealots and wrote him off as “clueless”. I was then re-introduced to John here on my blog when he made the mistake of posting a few comments on my blog. I’m sure by now; most of you realize that I can certainly handle my own with anyone who attempts to promote myths and misconceptions about YTB. However, unlike most, I can also recognize, acknowledge, and admit YTB’s shortcomings, (few as they are) and to John’s credit, he has also recognized some of the benefits of YTB.

I also have the benefit of experience with YTB. My last post regarded my 3 year Anniversary with YTB. I’ve seen, heard, and experienced far more than most in this company. When I joined the company in January of 2005, YTB was just over 8,000 active RTA’s. Because of this history, I happen to know a considerable amount about the company, and I would imagine that certain points I’m about to make concerning our company may not even be known to those in YTB. For this reason, I think I might have a unique perspective as to why John has been so frustrated in not being able to find some of his answer to questions he HAS posted on his blog several times.

I’m also going to call a spade a spade concerning some of the questions John claims he does not have the answers to just yet, and that’s the tricky part even for me about all this. I really like John, he’s extremely intelligent, and we have become good friends, he can still play a very clever devils advocate simply to promote his positioning that Travel and MLM’s don’t mix. To be completely fair and honest however, he does this because of his positioning and underlying belief that the two subjects “Travel” and “MLM” do not mix.

Travel for him and other traditionalist take a high level of expertise and service in order to work in the industry. As a promoter on the other side of the fence I do it too. I point to the $40 Billion in Travel that was booked by average consumers making many reservations right over the internet without any formal training what so ever. His job is to promote all that is bad about the YTB model (this includes ALL travel MLM’s), and my job is to promote all that is good.

To our credit, we have both been willing to recognize and admire what each brings to the table in this debate as individuals. I firmly believe that our friendship has enabled us to focus on the real issues concerning what’s happening in our industry, rather than on the person.

I wanted to set the stage before I got into these questions. You will notice that neither one of us resort to name calling, or belittling each other. He knows that I respect his position and ideals, as he respects mine. That does not mean that we agree with the perspective or position however, and there is a difference. We both have very strong convictions in what we believe, and each of us bring a considerable amount of personal history and experience in our fields to form these beliefs. We are grown men and can handle the criticism. If we didn’t feel we could, we certainly wouldn’t leave this type of debate and conversation as open for everyone to view as we do.

John has a very long list of questions which I have taken to task to answer. From the looks of it, I’ve got my work cut out for me.

Oh, Yee of little faith…that’s what d
ocumentation is for! I’ll also be pointing out when these questions have been answered (and backed with documentation) here just to give you a little taste of how all this works. It’s a neat little trick the other side uses to keep doubt and discontent at the forefront. Trust me, it’s been going on for years, and while I don’t expect anyone to read through 2 ½ years of posts (July of 2005) in a single thread rehashing the same topic over and over without any resolution after 62 pages and 2460 comments. (Well, not entirely accurate. Some do get it and make that 2461.)

I have been able to show a very few what’s what. We do have one Zealot however who was shown the door, but then simply created another screen name and to start posting the same questions again just to save face. What’s so incredibly strange and sad at the same time for this individual is that he has not one lick of experience in either the Travel Industry or Network Marketing, and the subject of YTB controls his life that he is posting on average close to 4 times a day simply to trash our company.
While the thread on Scam.com has gotten boring and old for me, I do find debating the issues fun and while John certainly has a number of traits similar to Anti-MLM Zealots at least he’s intelligent and respectful. (Just like I’m a YTB Yahoo who drinks Kool-aid that’s intelligent and respectful.)

My My My…look at how far we’ve come.

Stay tuned…this should be fun!

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When you play with snakes, you’re bound to get bit. Lately, I’ve been trying to help some of the misinformed, disillusioned folks on Scam.com. Apparently, I’m not allowed to speak for those of us in YTB who are making a living and successful with the company. Those of us who want to reach out and help those who have been introduced to the business or expressing our experience with the company will get you BANNED!

What’s most amusing to me is that it was one of the forum members who called me to tell me that I was banned. I was never informed from the moderators or administrators. I have requested an explanation as to why Scam.com decided to ban me, but have yet to receive any type of explanation. (I doubt I ever will.) When you’re dealing with Anti-MLM Zealots who close their minds to anything that differs from their own views, they don’t need to give explanations.

Oh well, it is their site. They are certainly free to operate any way they choose.

For those of you who don’t know what Scam.com is, here is my experience. It’s a place where people can go to promote all their troubles and slander any company of their choosing. A site like Scam.com promotes myths, misconceptions and ignorance out there about the industry. All MLM’s are Pyramid Schemes, all MLM’s are Scams and if you don’t agree with this mantra, you’re simply banned without any explanation or reason. It’s not limited to our industry, it’s simply a place that promotes all that’s wrong or negative in our world today. It never ceases to amaze me how so many people tend to lay blame on things outside of themselves. It’s always someone else’s fault for anything that goes wrong. And that’s why a board like Scam.com thrives. The vast majority of the people, who post there, are simply bitter, angry, negative people, and gosh daren’t they want to keep it that way! What’s even more amazing is that very few of them, if any, have ever really experienced, or remotely been involved with anything their complaining about.

I had been reading this board from time to time, and a few months ago decided to give some of these folks there “a clue” about how things really are with YTB and the Network Marketing industry in general. Understand YourTravelBiz.com is a Network Marketing Company; YTB Travel Network is a full service Travel Agency. These pour souls simply label all companies “Pyramid Schemes” or a “Scam”. They simply don’t know any better based on what the “heard about” or what they “read about”. With a board like this getting so much activity, and the YTB thread getting so much attention; I decided to throw my hat into the ring and step up to show some of the readers that an average guy, like me, CAN make a viable living with this company and industry. Based on my two years of experience with this company, it’s simply not the doom and gloom everyone wants to make it out to be.

It’s not that I was entirely unsuccessful in doing so. I did in fact help a lot of people. I wish I could access some of the posts and private messages on the board, but they can no longer be accessed or have simply been deleted. I do have a couple of private e-mails in which people have expressed how much they appreciated how I have helped them.

“Hello Doug,

I wanted to thank you for your contribution to the scam.com thread on YTB. I am doing my due diligence on the company to see if it would be a good fit for me personally, and I ran across this thread via a search on Google.
A lot of trash was thrown up, but I was impressed on how you handled the opposition. You helped me check off a lot of the questions I have on my list of what I am evaluating on the company.

I wish you the best,

Steve”

There was another post I read just last week, from a gentleman named Drew in Texas. He took the time to post his sincere gratitude on how I’ve been able to inspire him and help him in his own journey with YTB. He was having some problems, mostly from others just like the ones on Scam.com. After finding my posts however, he found the strength and wisdom to continue moving forward with new insights about what this company and industry really means. I wish I could share that with you as well, but the entire thread had been deleted. In the short time I was allowed to post on these boards, I did touch a number of lives in a positive way, and for that I am grateful.

You need to understand something when it comes to Anti-MLM Zealots. They selectively use evidence that supports their case and throw away (or ban) anything else that doesn’t. They work by categorizing, separating, hiding, judging and condemning, attacking and rejecting. When they’re in trouble like they were with me, they try to distract everyone from all the good news, all the company and personal success of folks like me. They blow the whole situation out of proportion. By making a lot of noise, they think everyone will miss what is really going on. I actually had some great fun playing with a few of the members on the board. The more they attacked, and rejected, the more evidence I brought to the table that dispelled their illusion. It wasn’t all that hard, most never even had any personal experience in YTB, let alone the industry.

That’s all it is, an illusion. They live in a world based in fear and lack, often living in the past, (which doesn’t exist anymore) bringing it into the present, and predicting the future, (which also doesn’t exist) to scare everyone into believing that there is something inherently wrong with the Network Marketing Industry and it should be banned from society. We are liars, cheats, who pray on the poor unsuspecting souls, the “bottom feeders” whose pockets we pick to line all the pockets of “The Man” up at the top. Because they feel this way, everyone else needs to feel the same way, and if you don’t, God help you.

They love linking to Wikipedia, an on-line encyclopedia in an attempt to educate us. Only using information that supports their view on the page, and negating information on the same page that supports Network Marketing. (That was fun!) They love to refer to decade old Pyramid Schemes that the Government has shut down. They also like to refer to some of their heroes who have gotten so much attention elsewhere on the internet offering “proof” that their views are valid. They can’t come up with anything original on their own so they refer to these references over and over. Lengthy articles like “What’s Wrong With Multilevel Marketing?” by Dean Van Druff, “False Profits” and “Pyramid Nation” by Dr. Robert FitzPatrick, “Behind The Smoke & Mirrors” by Ruth Carter, “Product Based Pyramid Schemes” and “Tall Taxing Tails” by Dr. Jon Taylor along with web sites like MLM Survivors. Leonard Clements spend some considerable time a few years ago looking at all these so called heroes and does a very effective job dispelling the myths and illusions of these poor misguided folks. I enjoyed reading his series of articles “Anti-MLM Zealots Me Thinks Dot Protests Too Much”. I found it ironic that I actually found this gem on Scam.com, doubly so, since he had much the same experience I did with Scam.com being ban from MLM Survivors.

By the way…if you’ve ever wanted to know the REAL story behind the term “Pyramid Scheme”, Tim Sales did an excellent article a few months back entitled “Is MLM Really a Pyramid Scheme?”

So, my days on Scam.com are over. I guess all I can do at this point is ride off into the sunset. Hopefully never to be forgotten by some of the fine individuals who come there doing their due diligence on YTB and Network Marketing. There are a lot of smart people who view these threads, and many of them see these poor misguided souls for what they really are. If I ever do get a response from the moderators or administrators, I’ll let you know. (Don’t hold your breath!)

That being sad, it’s time to go get a shower and cleanse myself from all the filth I endured for the last few months. What to do after that? I can still find effective ways of helping thousands of people, and in return I’ll create even more wealth, abundance, and joy!

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Fact: If you are not into free enterprise, you ARE working for someone who is.

I’ve noticed something interesting in the past few months, quite by accident. I wrote an entry about my one year anniversary with YTB Travel and Cruises back in January. In that entry, I mentioned how some people wonder if what I do is a “scam” or “pyramid”. What is interesting about that is more people find me because of that entry than any other entry I have written. They find me because they do a Google, Yahoo, or MSN search looking for “YTB Scam” or “YTB Pyramid” and up pops this entry, often on the first page! It made me begin to think, these are the same people who get up and go to work every day working for someone else, being tied down to someone else’s schedule, trading hours for wages, and I’m considered the scam!

It’s not the Pyramid they are afraid of. It’s one of the strongest structures known to man, look at the Egyptian Pyramids. It’s the form of your family tree, the form of Government, and the form of every business model out there, no matter what type of business it is. But somehow, people find it more comforting, more socially acceptable, to start at the bottom of a pyramid and work their way UP, rather than starting at the top and building something beneath them. Are they not worthy of being a leader?

You do have one guarantee in your current job…you will NEVER make more money that your boss, let alone the President or CEO or your company.

Countless people are running successful businesses, making absolute fortunes working from home, utilizing the internet. This is the age of hybrid businesses with brilliant marketing techniques and most people don’t even know that these opportunities even exist or how to get started. Worse, these opportunities are simply dismissed as scams because we have been brainwashed that you go to school, get an education, and then GET A J.O.B. to climb the corporate ladder. It’s drilled into our heads that anything that we have to pay money into, in order to get paid, is a scam. My momma told me “Never, ever, ever pay someone money, with the promise of making it rich.”

Let’s look at a current business model of what your current employer could have done in order to recruit you into his or her business.

• Franchise or start up fees of $100,000 to $500,000.

• Waiting four-years until your business clears a profit.

• Overhead, hassle, of hiring staff or an expensive office.

• Working 60-80 hours a week or being a slave to their business.

Yet, when you look at this model, you’re not thinking scam or pyramid. (Maybe, how in the world does someone come up with 100 G’s?) But if someone asks you for a one time set up fee for this franchise of $400 and $50 a month, everyone scrambles to the internet to see if it’s a scam. Maybe you’ve been “burned” one too many times, or, maybe it just sounds “too good to be true”.

I didn’t find this business and make a gazillion dollars my first year, but I will tell you this. The money I saved just on our taxes alone last year because of owning my own Home Based Business, more that quadrupled the amount of money I spent to start and maintain this business. This includes all the training I took and the odds and ends expenses of promotional materials, business cards, internet access, and cell phone usage. I made all that money back and then some, my first year. My company and what I do with YTB is approved by the IRS. The amount of money that I did make in my spare time gave me a couple of nice new things and enabled me to spend more time with my family when I wanted. It made me think about what I could do with this if I worked it like a Part Time job. Devoting just 20 hours a week, talking to people to either book their next vacation, or show them how they can have their own business.

Yes, it helps if you open you mouth and actually talk to people. That may terrify you. You’re not talking about some $40 bottle of juice that they need to drink because you have thousands of dollars worth of boxes stocked up in your garage. Take a look at my inventory at BandBVacations.com. Who does not want something like this?

I’ve got a question for you, and I’d like you to answer this honestly. Would you like to take a vacation? I nor anyone I know has ever gotten a “No” to that question! What in the world are you afraid of?

Is YTB a scam? You’ve got to be kidding me. It’s a legitimate business model that has changed lives, including mine. I love the fact that I found a business that doesn’t require a lot of money to start, and is and easy product to talk about. I’ve been telling people for years that “A cruise is the best vacation money can buy.” But now when I tell someone that, I get paid a commission by helping them take that cruise or by simply pointing them to me web site to book it by themselves. If they book it with Barry Dillar, who spent $53 Billion to start Expedia, he sends them a confirmation.

Whether or not you choose to believe anything I say is entirely up to you. I’m not into convincing people that they need this business. I also understand you may have some questions. I’ll give you honest, no hype answers. It not about what’s in it for me, it’s about what’s in it for you. You have my contact information below and I do that for a reason. Even if someone else has introduced you to this awesome business, I don’t care. I want to help you.

That’s the YTB way.

PS - If you're involved with YTB, sign up for our FREE Newsletter. As a Website Owner or Website Seller, we'll keep you up to date with all the latest news, acquisitions, and developments with YTB.

PPS - Subscribe to the Just Picture It Now RSS feed, (including e-mail) for all the latest posts and updates found right here!

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