Rumors?

Another update on the Leaders Club nonsense. It just seems to get more unbelievable. An email went out on June 25th, 2007, to my Leaders Club subscribers. Apparently it went out to the subscribers of all the leaders who were suddenly blocked from their sites and prevented from effectively servicing their subscribers on June 15th without notice.

Now what is interesting about this email is that is with a title like, "There are rumors, rumors, rumors..." you would think there would be an attempt to clarify and give insight into what was going on. Not so. One of my subscribers, who forwarded the email to me, said that if it wasn't for the fact that I had sent an email explaining what I knew about the situation, this other email "from the Desk of Andre Vatke" would have completely confused her and made her wonder what on earth was going on.

The problem is the email really never says much of anything and much of what is does state conflicts with the supposed violations and what actually occurred.

First of all it states,
"There are a number of rumors going around about your upline. It’s my understanding that you may have received an e-mail indicating a number of nasty things about Leaders Club including among other items that one of your upline may have been terminated."

First of all, to my knowledge, no one sent any nasty emails. I certainly didn't, in fact, I had many, many positive reply emails thanking me for my professionalism and letting them know what was going on - that I would not be able to service them, since I did not have access to my site.

Secondly, we were all told if we did not satisfy their office by June 29th they would terminate our relationship. Now perhaps I am not reading this right, but would that not indicate they were planning on terminating people? We never said we were terminated, just that it looked like that would happen.

"As in any situation, there are always two sides to a story and I would like to lay a few of them to rest.

The first is that as of today, there have only been three marketers with Leaders Club terminated in 13 years. As with any termination, Leaders Club would only do so with reasonable cause and after consulting our attorneys.

In the current case, the marketers in question are involved in our Certified Marketing Consultant Training Program and are under a separate contract that includes a non-compete and non-disclosure clause. This goes beyond the normal Leaders Club membership terms. Based on the evidence we have, it appears these folks are in breech of this contract."

Now when Jeff Zalewski, the former National Director of Training in Leaders Club, was terminated May 30th he had never signed a CMC agreement, because he developed the program! Also, one of the people involved with this incident was terminated on the spot without notice and he was never in the CMC, so was not bound by any Certified Marketing Consultant agreement. The only thing he did was promote Ann Sieg's Renegade Marketer ebook and defend her when a couple individuals were making up, or distorting things, and hurling insults in her direction. Yet at the end of this email it states:

"And of course as a regular Leaders Club member, you may promote anything you like to your personally enrolled members!"

In addition, in the letter we received with the supposed violations, it stated that we were in violation of the CMC and the regular members agreement.

Another interesting thing about this email is the statement,
"In the event that someone in your upline is terminated, the organization would roll-up to the next qualified person. At no point would Leaders Club move you to another organization."

Now when our subscribers view their upline they see me, then Glenn Burks, then Curt Johnson and then they used to see Jeff Zalewski, but now Team Leaders Club shows up above Curt Johnson since they terminated Jeff. So when the WorksTeam leaders are gone where do you suppose our subscribers will go?

Also, when our subscribers view their upline the email address they are given is molly@leadersclub.com This email address has shown up as our contact email in emails our subscribers have received. Now most of my subscribers will just email me at the address they have in their address book, but what about new people who may join Leaders Club while I am blocked and don't have access to my downline report?
People could be thinking they are emailing me but really emailing Leaders Club.

So much for this email clarifying!

I think that has been the frustrating part of all this. Statements are being made in the supposed violations that just are not true, yet any attempts to explain that goes on deaf ears and the responses back keep stating the same false alligations.

But one thing I have learned after being in network marketing for over 6 years is to build multiple income streams. Never put "all your eggs in one basket" We have a great group of leaders and everyone will move on to better things. In fact quite a number of us are looking forward to putting this all behind us and will be meeting in Salt Lake City for the SendOutCards convention.

My hope is that the posts regarding Leaders Club have served as a "wake-up call" to other marketers out there. I have seen it before - companies made poor decisions that affect distributors lives.

To be a truly Independent Marketer you need to develop multiple income streams. Develop strong marketing skills, choose companies, affiliate programs, products, services, etc. that fit together well for your purpose and goals. Promote yourself first, and "fire" the companies that don't serve you well.