We're talking about a pretty interesting topic, which is about the documentary titled Lula Rich. This documentary has been in talks for the past couple of months, and it's been breadcrumbed. And one of the biggest things that I hear from people when I ask them if they've seen it, it's either “Yeah, I've watched it” or “I'm afraid to watch it.” And so both of those feelings towards that are what we're going to talk about today. So the gist of the documentary is about the company Lula Row, which I know has not been a big point of conversation in the online space for a few years. This is a company that exploded in years 2016 to 2018, predominantly, especially if you are on social media, like Instagram, and especially Facebook. Facebook is definitely where I saw it the most. But then when things started going south for them as when at least in my specific bubble, we hadn't heard about them in a long time. And I will say I had been a consumer of Lula row I had bought a couple of pieces, I had bought a couple of pair of leggings. 

Inconsistency 

But the biggest thing that I noticed is the what's the word I want to say? Let's just say one pair of leggings could fit really well. And another pair, I couldn't get up my size, which is very interesting. I wore the size tall and curvy. And for most of the ones that I bought, they fit fine. But then a couple towards the end, I had to return them because I couldn't even get them up. So very interesting that the inconsistency in the clothing is one of the things that was really brought up in the documentary. This documentary is meant to showcase the things where Lula row and the owners’ founders and the corporate faulted. That was essentially the premise of the documentary. And they did a great job of saying bias to that. What was interesting is they did bring in the founders, and you guys know the saying, there’s his side, her side, and then the truth, or however the saying goes. So this is definitely a biased documentary. But I think it does bring to light some of the toxic things that happen in this industry. 

Will the documentary damage how people view our industry? 

The big thing that I wanted to talk to you about it because I've had people in my inbox saying, “Do you think that this documentary will damage how people view our industry?” And my answer to that is I think the actions of many are the ones that are ruining the reputation of this industry. As you know, the title of this podcast is this Stop the Hey girl podcast, and it goes beyond just the act of the Hey girl messages. It really gets down to the root of where this industry has become very predatory over the past well, especially over the course of the past 567 years. But it has been routed to where a lot of people choose to build their businesses preying on the weaknesses of others. And they choose to build their businesses in a way where they care more about their own bottom line than other people. 

Lack of Leadership 

Now, there are things brought up in the documentary that is true. There is a small percentage of people that become millionaires in network marketing, just like in a lot of other industries. And so they brought to light, a lot of things that are very much true. However, the mistakes that I noticed, definitely being made. And again, this is all like my opinion, everyone's allowed to have their own opinion here. The biggest thing that I noticed that I believe can come up in a lot of companies is the fact that a lot of network marketing corporations do not properly train or prepare their distributors to actually build a feel-good, honest, relationship-based business. Corporate trains people on how to get people in the door, and get the dollar bills, they don't train on how to lead, they don't train on how to teach, and they truly don't change or train on how to facilitate transformations. And so that is something that I hold very strong to be true. And I'm hoping that as time goes on the corporate of these network marketing companies realize this. And they actually bring in experts who can actually help prepare their leaders to actually change people's lives. Because right now, that's not being done, people really have to figure it out on their own. 

Evolution

The second piece is that there are a lot of mistakes being made right with how we truly bring people in, right? So it's corporate making their own mistakes. And then there are individuals who don't quite realize that the network marketing industry has greatly changed. And people have changed, and the world has changed, and therefore we have to change along with it. And so the whole Stop the Hey Girl premise was born out of realizing that more, but more often than not, in a lot of companies, these age-old strategies that do not work, and these sleazy tactics are still being taught. And a lot of those tactics are rooted in the “Hey, Girl” messages, but they go a lot deeper, it goes as deep as to get someone in just invite a ton of people from high school, just send a bunch of messages to go for No. And while that sounds great, in theory, consumers are a lot more educated than they have ever been before. And so the biggest thing that we need to realize, too, is are we actually preparing people to lead? Or are we preparing people to try to become clones of each other? 

Diversity 

One of the episodes that were brought up is like, what makes something feel like a cult, right? It's when everyone has to look the same, feel the same, think the same. And if they don't, then they essentially cast them out. And so that was something major that happened in Lula row was everyone was expected to buy the same clothes and wear the same outfits and look the same and talk the same. That is something that has come up a lot in network marketing. You notice a lot of teams. We're literally everyone looks the exact same. There have been so many companies that have done such a great job, especially over the past two years of really creating diversity, and really focusing on more than just bringing in people that look, sound, and talk like them. 

And so another thing that was really brought up, that isn't necessarily the case in a lot of companies was the compensation plan. This was the thing that really stood out to me was that bonuses were being paid out, based on what distributors bought, not what distributors sold. So as a result, these leaders were incentivized to get other people to consistently purchase a stock because that's how they made their money, but they didn't properly train people on how to sell. So that is where, in my opinion, and I'm probably by law as well, there were some lawyers that were interviewed. That's where Lula row definitely started to fall into doing something that's illegal, and they actually ended up. I think this happened in Episode Two of the documentary. They ended up changing the compensation plan to reflect bonuses made based on the sales of the distributors, rather than the personal purchases that downline distributors made. Now, of course, after a few years of people making bank off the sales of their downline, a lot of people's income tanked. And so that's when a lot of the negative feelings of those who were chosen to be interviewed, that's where things started to fall south. 

The biggest thing, too, that was brought to light in the documentary from some of the people that were interviewed, saying that they felt pressured. They felt pressured to buy things or make other people buy things that they didn't actually want. 

What can we learn from the documentary? 

And so with that being said, How can you look at this documentary as an educational opportunity? 

Look at your leadership. Are you actually helping people achieve their goals as a mentor, as a leader? Or are your actions rooted in helping you get what you want with everyone else being in the back seat? 

I think that's the biggest thing that we have to be honest with ourselves about. Because when someone comes to me, and they say, “Kayla, my organization is in complete disarray. We used to be at the top, and now we can't even hold qualifications. I don't know what's happening.” When we dig into their organization, the biggest thing that comes up is that people truly don't know how to lead. They don't know how to lead. And so this was something that I, unfortunately, learned a lot of hard lessons within 2021.

From watching the documentary, people are being taught how to get people signed up. But they're not taught how to lead them. They're not taught how to facilitate a transformation. And so if that is the case for you, if you are recognizing that, that's power, because if you recognize that, then you can shift your focus from “recruit, recruit, recruit” to, “how can I make sure that everyone who is inside my organization right now is properly taken care of so then, I actually have the capacity to then bring new people in.” The analogy that I kind of think of is when you're painting a wall, or even painting your nails, you have to wait for the layer to dry before you paint the next one. And if you don't, it's going to get all kinds of jacked up. It's the exact same thing for your organization. If you don't make sure that your existing organization and your existing leaders are properly lead and cared for and taken care of before you try to keep adding more on top, what's going to happen is the entire infrastructure is going to fall. We have to remember how can we take care of our existing leaders, the existing people that we have, and make sure that their needs are met before we continue to recruit and bring on more. But what's hard about that?

• You're not being taught how to do that. You're taught to bring people in, you're not taught how to serve people and actually change their lives. It's only your fault, right? If you know that to be true, and you choose to ignore it anyway. But a lot of people they did not know. They didn't realize they really thought the business was just bringing people in. But here's the thing.

If this documentary can teach us anything, it's that building a business that's rooted in just bringing people in is borderline what makes other things illegal, right? But it also will never give you a business that will pay you like a business and transform your life like a business. 

So, will this documentary ruin the industry? Are you building your business like how they talk about in that documentary? I think that's why a lot of people are afraid to watch it is because they know in their heart of hearts, they've been doing that. So it's time for a gut check, I think you should watch it, I think you should watch it go in with an open mind and be ready to be triggered, be ready to be uncomfortable because, in a lot of ways, most of us have likely contributed to the negative feelings of this culture in one way or another. But here's something that we can commit to doing, we can commit to doing things differently. Because just because people feel negative about the industry now does not mean that we can't change it for the short term and the long term, not just so that people don't talk smack about it on the internet because there will always be people who are talking smack about it on the internet. But we can show people that there are leaders in the direct sales and the network marketing space, that actually care about changing lives that they're here for service first, and profit second. And I believe it's up to us as individuals to actually do that. 

So, watch the documentary, get uncomfortable. And then sit down and say to yourself, what can I do to change this? Because, and I'm saying this with a whole lot of confidence. If you don't start changing away from the activities that they showcased in that documentary, your business will inevitably crumble. Because although it was biased, although the documentary does not show the whole story, and focuses on subjective feelings about scenarios, there is a lot of truth behind that. Watch it and send me a DM on Instagram and let me know your thoughts. I would love to have an open dialogue about it again, your feelings are just as valid whether you thought the documentary was trash or 100% true. Let's talk about it.