Inspire or Expire?

Last week, TEAM Leader Orrin Woodward tweeted this nugget of wisdom on which I would like to comment:

A leader must inspire or their team will expire. #leadership

In general, I do agree with his statement. I’ve seen many companies wither away due to the lack of a strong CEO, management team, or vision. Let’s analyze his quote through the prism of a multi-level marketing business. What happens if the upline Diamond, Double Diamond, Black Diamond, etc. stops inspiring his or her team?

First, consider this quote from Woodward:

I have pledged my life to building leaders and teaching them how to build communities of leaders for long term results. When I get a no, I convert them into customers of MonaVie. But my number one objective is to teach people the principles of residual income. I do this by teaching them the difference between Barge working and Bridge building. You control your own destiny. Are you Barge working or Bridge Building in your life? The choice you make will make all the difference.

MLM leaders frequently stand up on stage saying things like, “Build it once and you will be paid forever!” or “Create a lifetime, will-able income for you and your family!” When you look at the details and numbers closely, however, you see that this image of residual income is really a mirage.

Orrin has certainly built a bridge with TEAM, one that generates him money on an ongoing basis with each sale of a CD, MonaVie juice purchase, or function ticket. Orrin’s problem, however, is that he has created a cult of personality within TEAM. Call him what you will, the central figurehead, grand poobah or Supreme TEAM Leader; without him, TEAM is nothing. Though he still has some trusty lieutenants by his side, he has also experienced many defections — I guess those people are leading by leaving! In short, he hasn’t created a organization of leaders, he’s created an organization of followers. Because of this, Orrin’s job is to continue pumping out new tools, holding new functions and cutting new CDs in order to keep the “inspiration” flowing through his members. In my opinion, Orrin might have built the bridge, but he’s also the primary repairman too!

From the perspective of an MLM organization, Orrin has it right on. If he fails to inspire his downline to continue buying products and tools, his TEAM will collapse, and the residual income that he talks so highly about will dry up. In a way, he’s creating something akin to a stock market bubble. Instead of publicly traded companies, he’s dealing with people’s financial hopes and dreams. Should the bubble ever burst, watch out!

Whose Dream Are You Celebrating at an R3Global Dream Day?

Saw this very detailed comment about the recent R3Global Dream Days events on the Purple Horror web site this morning:

Just went to a R3Global Monavie Dream Days 2009 conference in Anaheim.

THIS IS MY OPINION NOT YOURS SO PLEASE DONT GET TOO UPSET ITS AN OPINION OF MINE NOT YOURS.

Anyways I have been doing this for 2 months about am on autoship 1 case actively but about to change the active part.

Dream Days felt very weird. Different from parties or local events.

The 13 hours of seminars seemed interesting. The ticket was $175 U.S. and I feel screwed.

The day was uber republican christian messages, hate speech about certain political issues. The speakers were a youth group non denom Christian pastor, a self help author that speaks to teens at school functions about god, a self help religious writer, Brig Hart and various salesman for the company, I felt scared after some of these talks, it was religious with no acceptance of anything else but what if you’re future biggest salesman is an athiest or homosexual or intelectual (cheap shot sorry).

It was also a day of goal planning, recruiting tactics an dream talk which is totally fine. Come on though I’m chrisitian and I felt they were using the lord a bit much it doesnt feel right when you’re talking about $$ and him in the same sentence.

Brig Hart even mentioned one of his buddies in the company how they lied to him about being interested in Monavie and went to a different MLM. I had no clue what he was talking about so it scared me when he started yelling about it. The crowd seriously stood up and roared well at least about 75% of the crowd…yelling for vengeance and bad mouthing a man they didn’t really know.

I checked out mentally and was non responsive after that point.

If he’s a real Christian he should just cast greed and hate and live a life of forgiveness and love. Poor guy, his wife even stated that all the women in the audience need financially stable men….in the U.S. at a Monavie meeting…she c*** blocked the whole place. How can you love someone with that mentality.

I’m all for the Monavie juice bring down the cost to average wine…about 10 a bottle and sure maybe. O.J. is cheaper and yields proven results while giving more realistic jobs to America.

R3 Global is a cult.
Never mix religion and capitalism.

btw I’m new here.

Thanks.

Posted by: Eric | November 2, 2009 9:06 AM

Dream Days is one of Brig Hart’s R3Global International’s major functions. Eric’s description matches up pretty well with what I saw first-hand at INA-sponsored events when I was in the business. It’s pretty clear that some things haven’t changed much in the past decade with regards to MLM-based “training” and motivational organizations. In North American, the lines between religion, politics, sex, and money are very blurred within these groups. The reason why these topics are so entwined here is because the organization’s leaders need something to keep their groups together. The products alone aren’t enough to do this, so they get them with the three taboos.

Dream Days is coming up soon to the San Francisco area; I wonder how Brig’s right-wing, fundamentalist Christian views are going to be received there?

Update November 2, 2009: Here’s an excellent response to Eric’s comment on Purple Horror:

I just read Eric’s post…

I have been a Mona Vie distributor for almost two years. I have some very high level MV Distributors in my upline, including Brig Hart.

My wife and I worked MV VERY hard for the first 18 months. We have signed up over 50 people personally, and NOT ONE of them got off the ground (only ONE even became a Star!!!). We have not gotten past Star 1000. Our power leg has almost 600,000 PV, but we have not gotten ANYTHING going on our inside leg. We recently dropped from 2 cases to 1 case auto-ship, and I stopped drinking it a few months back, to save money. Our credit card that we dedicated soley to the MV business has $14k on it from product, supplies, tools, and of course, several MV and R3 Global conferences. I burned up all of my frequent flier points for these, as well. We made $2k in commissions last year, and will not even make $1.5k this year.

I have a couple of Golds and Silvers on the power side of my downline, and their businesss are stagnating. I have seen Bronzes go dormant, which amazes me, as they should be solidly in the black at that point! The problem is the inside leg collapses, and although you are still called a Star 1000 or Bronze, your income just dried up, and you need to start over…

My wife and I are vacillating about whether to walk away or try again. The problem is, we went through the rolodex already, and I am just not wired up to talk to everybody I meet in a grocery checkout lane or who sits next to me on an airplane. My wife is MUCH better at that, and has done it, but the one or two she signed up that way did nothing (like everybody else we signed up). It’s almost like a gambling problem…so hard to just up and quit when we are down so much.

From the get-go I thought that $30+ for a bottle was outrageous, but I thought maybe this had merit, as I really respect the person who signed me up and promised me help. He definitely put the time (and money) into us, but even those he helped us sign up did nothing. His answer (and I believe it to be true in it’s purest form) is “more”! More contacts, more appointments, more signups, until we hit the “right” ones. He is always there to offer training and support, but still we cannot gain any traction! In watching the downline dwindle, I have come to realize that I am not the only one to have these problems.

I WANT to believe in the MLM concept! There SHOULD be an alternative for the average guy or couple sick and tired of the corporate rat race! Why DOESN’T this work for most of us?

Back to Eric…I am a committed Christian, and I too am concerned about the “God” thing going on in Mona Vie.

First of all, most of the Executive Staff at Mona Vie is Mormon. As a Bible-believer, I have serious questions about whether Mormons are Christians or not. Brig Hart isn’t Mormon, but he is certainly over the top a lot and can make me quite uncomfortable with some of his diatribes.

As an aside, here’s a topic for discussion: If the Mormon thing does not have God’s blessing, then will hooking up with them for a business venture get His blessing?

Second, I agree that mixing Christianity and capitalism is definitely dangerous, but from the perspective of using (abusing?) one’s faith to legitimize a business to others.

Chick-Fil-A is an incredible, Christian-owned, Christian principle-run company, and God is obviously blessing them, but they are NOT exploiting their faith to do it. Wall Street probably laughs at them for giving up all those profits they could be making if they were open on Sundays. That’s why they can never do an IPO. If they did, then Earnings Per Share would become their god. If a company plans for controlled growth, they shouldn’t need the capital infusion from an IPO.

I have heard rumblings of an IPO for Mona Vie. The day that is announced, I will know that the whole thing was a ploy for a few to get rich (I am already quite close to believing that already).

BTW, I am aware of Dallin Larsen’s past experiences with MLM’s, as well.

So many questions…

Posted by: Anonymous | November 2, 2009 7:44 PM

Hawking Tools on Twitter

Saw this a few days ago on Brig Hart’s R3Global’s Twitter Stream
:

# Have you bought your tools today? www.brighart.com
2:54 PM Oct 23rd from Twitterrific

It’s bad enough that the tools kingpins are incessantly hawking tools at Major Functions, at weekly meetings, at monthly seminars, on CDs and in person. Now they are using Twitter to remind people to buy tools?

Profit Per Employee = Profit Per Downline???

Orrin Woodward, leader of TEAM, tweeted this nugget a few hours ago:

Profit per employee is the most important metric in a company today. – Hamel Live #WBF09

Admittedly, Orrin is repeating a quote from someone else at a conference, but he liked it enough to post it to his 60,000+ followers. I’m calling Woodward out on this, however, because he himself said that it’s not that important if you’re not profiting economically from MonaVie when you’re profiting in so many different ways. Orrin, dude, what’s the average and median profit per distributor in TEAM? The MonaVie IDS has pretty sad numbers showing the lack of profit for the vast majority of people selling MonaVie. Is TEAM any different?

Greg Duncan Bankruptcy Auction

Scott Larsen over at Amquix.info has just posted details of the recent bankruptcy auction held on the Duncan estate. Readers will note that Duncan has been in bankruptcy proceedings for nearly two years now. One of the more interesting documents that Larsen has on his site is a proposed loan to the amount of $1,00,000 from Amway Global to Duncan’s various companies, including Sarshela, Inc., XS Energy, LLC, Seife, Inc. and World Wide Trust Company. As some of you will know, Duncan is part-owner of the company that produces the popular (among IBOs) XS Energy drink; he’s also one of the kingpins or Worldwide Dream Builders, one of the more prominent Lines of Sponsorship within Amway.

Upline leaders are supposed to be setting examples for their downline, and this certainly is not a good one to follow. Then again, when I think about it… perhaps they are setting an example for the vast majority of people who join Amway and a Amway Motivational Organization (AMO) like WWDB for the purpose of making big money. Most people eventually quit. Some people lose significant amounts of money. Some even get divorced.

But I Thought We Were In MonaVie TEAM to Make Money?

I thought the slogan for TEAM was to “Have Fun, Make Money, and Make a Difference!” After watching a portion of a recent video Orrin Woodward gave to TEAM, I’m not so certain. In Total Success, Woodward compares how a job, conventional business and a TEAM/MonaVie business contribute (or not) to these five components of human happiness:

1. Spiritual
2. Social
3. Economic
4. Political
5. Mental

He also throws Physical Success as a sixth parameter, since MonaVie proponents claim that it brings better health by daily consumption.

In the video, Orrin goes on to show how a typical job or conventional business do not improves one’s spiritual, social, political and mental lives. It might bring in money (economic), but without those other critical components, “you’re not human.” TEAM MonaVie, on the other hand, he claims, brings benefits to all these components.

… except — in the example he uses — economically. What Woodward does here is very clever. He inverts the argument to make people feel okay about losing money in this venture by saying (I’m paraphrasing here): “Look, it doesn’t matter that you’re not making any money, look at all the other benefits you’ve gotten from being in this business and in association with TEAM!”

In short, Woodward dresses the person down, arguing that he or she is not looking at the whole picture.

In the TEAM MonaVie scenario, one might not be making any money, but they are being rewarded with — in Orrin’s opinion — better spiritual, political, mental, social, and physical lives.

This is the bait and switch which ensnares many people who join an MLM like Amway or MonaVie and are aligned with a “motivational and training” organization like TEAM, INA, WWDB, or BWW.

The reason why people joined in the first place was not because TEAM looked like an interesting social club, it’s because they wanted to make money and have more time. People who are losing money in MonaVie have neither. They spend more time attending meetings, hosting tastings, and propsecting. They spend more money on tools and product. Orrin talks about the 2-5 year plan; this is a mirage for the vast majority (we’re talking 98%) of the people who join.

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Be sure to check out Rocket’s take on Orrin’s post on his web site.

Why Is MonaVie So Expensive?

I found this post on another blog (that is using the same theme as this blog). In The Value of MonaVie, the writer attempts to answer the question of why MonaVie is so expensive.

MonaVie uses only the most quality ingredients within it’s products. We also have to maintain enough staff to help keep quality standards high and at a specific level. When you buy MonaVie, you are only getting the best of the best. Quality is never sacrificed when making our product. It takes time and money to give you the best in health products.

Don’t forget that MonaVie is involved in a lot of charity products. A lot of the money goes to help out other causes.

If you feel that MonaVie is a little expensive, don’t let that stop you from obtaining it’s great benefits. There are discount all over the place. It will continue to get more competitive as more and more distributors and websites get a hold of the product.

The writer neglects to include one important ingredient to the high price of MonaVie. The 50% GV payout from the binary compensation plan is factored into the price of every bottle of MonaVie. If you’re a distributor paying MonaVie for $32/bottle, half of that money is going straight upline. Point blank, that’s why MonaVie is so expensive.

MonaVie Tries To Silence Lazy Man

MonaVie Legal has been busy sending requests to Lazy Man to stop using the MonaVie name in his meta tags. They claim that using the term “MonaVie” in these tags is a violation of their trademark. I wonder if they have sent similar letters to all of the other sites critical of MonaVie that can be easily found on the Internet.

This is just another attempt by MonaVie to game search engines from having critical assessments of the product, business opportunity, and unscrupulous distributors from being easily searchable on the Internet. We’ve seen examples in the past from other MLM corporations and distributors trying to game Google. That didn’t work then, and I doubt it’s going to work for MonaVie to. My take is that this legal cyber-bullying is going to backfire on MonaVie.

Success Never Goes On Sale, But My Tools Are Cheaper

Orrin Woodward recently tweeted this nugget:

Success never goes on sale so determine now to pay the full price.

While success never goes on sale, Orrin’s expensive tools trunks have gotten cheaper. Revised in August, 2009, the Media Warrior 2000 and Media Warrior 1000 Trunks have both seen their prices reduced since my blog post about them several months ago¹. While the two trunks originally sold for $2000 and $1000, they are now selling for $1690.72 and $871.76 respectively.

TEAM has also rearranged the deck chairs in terms of what you get in the trunks. It’s still, however, basically a bunch of paper and CDs, items that can easily be distributed and updated if they were in PDF or MP3 format. Then again, Orrin wants you to pay the full price for success, so I don’t think you’ll be getting many freebies from him in the future. Don’t say he didn’t warn you!

It goes without saying that you still don’t get a physical trunk with either purchase. I bet if I looked hard enough, I could find a box big enough to hold all of your tools for sale on the TEAM web site!

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¹ I read about the trunks originally from Candace on Lazy Man’s extensive blog post on MonaVie.

MonaVie Black Diamond Becomes International Master Distributor and Trainer

Randy Schroeder, most recently a new Black Diamond, previously a high-level distributor at Agel, and childhood friend of Dallin Larsen, has voluntarily left his distributor position and accepted a new role as International Master Distributor and Trainer at MonaVie.

In close cooperation with Black Diamonds and above, I will work quickly to introduce an internationally accepted basic training program, while at the same time encourage distributors from each line of sponsorship to continue looking to their upline for additional in-depth training.

As an independent contractor, Randy will be “compensated based on the success of the international markets (excluding the US and Japan).” Think about this when you start buying MonaVie-branded training CDs and brochures or attend an international MonaVie corporate event. It’s well-known that the System or Tools Business can more lucrative than the actual MLM business. Why else would people like Brig Hart or Orrin Woodward devote so much time to promoting their latest books, brochures, CD, Major Functions and contests?

And so it begins with MonaVie; they want a share of the tools business too!

Oprah on Black Diamond Executives Web Site

Update: All the posts from the web site described below have been removed, with the exception of a single post from June, 2008.

Up until the end of last year, MonaVie distributor Anthony J. Soriano had been blogging about his MonaVie experience on Black Diamond Executives. According to the site, on July 25, 2008, he attained the rank of Bronze Executive, no small feat, considering only 2% of distributors ever reach that level. Since November 18, 2008, however, Mr. Soriano has not posted any further updates. Nor does he appear on the MonaVie Field Leaders web page (for Rubies and above).

What’s clear, however, is that as of November 18, 2008, some MonaVie distributors within Brig Hart’s line of sponsorship, like Mr. Soriano, were continuing to use Oprah Winfrey as an unofficial spokesperson for their products. Check out the screenshot below from this page on Black Diamond Executives:

Note the sections highlighted in red. As I wrote in my previous post, it’s not that big of a step for distributors to go from “Oprah loves acai,” to “Oprah loves MonaVie!” at tasting parties, open meetings and Major Functions.

Mr. Soriano’s last post was about how to stay motivated in the MonaVie business. I wonder what has happened over the past nine months to cause his web site to go silent. After all, it was set up in order to document his journey to Black Diamond:

Have you ever wondered how those Black Diamond Executives in Monavie got there? I absolutely love the Black Diamond Documentaries and I was inspired by them. But I wanted to read about them as they started from the bottom and worked their way up. So I thought, “what if I were to document what I had to do to become a Black Diamond Executive in a journal-type format?”

We all have dreams and goals that we wish to accomplish. Many supporters of Amway and MonaVie who read this site and/or leave comments might think that I’m trying to steal their dreams. Nothing can be further from the truth. There are many opportunities and paths to achieve your goals, some better than others. MonaVie and Amway are certainly two vehicles, but they are by no means (1) the best nor (2) the only ones out there.

I wish Mr. Soriano the best in achieving the goals he’s set out for his life; I do wonder, however, what ever became of his MonaVie business.

How Long Before Reco and Shanee McDaniel Become Diamonds In MonaVie?

9/13/2009 Update: Guess they won’t be Diamonds after all. Looks like Reco and Shanee McDaniel have left MonaVie to run their own MLM called Elite Profit Network. What they are selling is the Elite Body Shaper, which helps you reduce your dress size. I guess they figured that running the product business, along with the tools business is better than just being a distributor.

Saw this on MLM The Whole Truth web site. On May 17, 2009, top distributors Reco and Shanee McDaniel broke with the MLM Lightyear Wireless to join MonaVie. Not only that, they are suing Lightyear Wireless for engaging in a classic pyramid scheme (read the lawsuit here). They claim that the signup fees and tools are used primarily to pay off the top distributors in an endless chain scenario. This is similar to many fly-by-night pyramid schemes and even so-called “legitimate” ones like ACN (a.k.a. the one Donald Trump promotes).

Of course, MonaVie doesn’t do any of that. The company currently doesn’t have enrollment fees (nor renewal fees) as part of the MonaVie Economic Stimulus Plan. They proudly proclaim they return 50% of GV (Gross Volume?) back as bonus to distributors. So, if you’re at the bottom of the pyramid, for every $34 you pay for a bottle, $17 is being used to pay other people up the chain. MonaVie has to make money from every bottle, so tack off another 50% from $17 and you’re left with a bottle of juice that might cost $8.50. Personally, I think it’s a lot less than that. The point is that most people aren’t going to see much of that $17/bottle going back into their wallets.

Now that they are at MonaVie, I want to ask readers to guess how quickly Reco and Shanee will be recognized as new Diamonds in MonaVie’s Media Center web site. Another month? Two weeks? Two months? I’m guessing it’ll be a month and a half before their photo graces the media center site. But who really knows, maybe it will be this weekend at the Vancouver Regional?

Dr. Dean Edell Calls MonaVie Worthless

Yesterday¹, Dr. Dean Edell slammed MonaVie on his radio show, calling it worthless and a fad. Here are some choice quotes the good doctor talking to a caller named Danielle, which comes in at the 54-minute mark.

This is worthless. They are breaking the law.

This in response to Danielle’s would-be sponsor, who tells her that MonaVie is a miracle drink that cures from A to Z.

This is simply acai. $34 a bottle. There is no miracle in a bottle here. This is just a fad.

For all the celebrities, athletes, etc. whom MonaVie pays and carts out to promote the juice, I show you someone who has no financial incentive to slam or praise the product calling it worthless.

Berries are very healthy, don’t get me wrong. I would encourage you all to drink berry juices.

Drink berry juice, but spending $34/bottle is ridiculous.

Have your friend call me…. have her tell me what things that this thing cures. I’ll grind her up in very little pieces….

Anyone have Brig Hart’s number? Or Orrin Woodward? How bout we go to the top and get Dr. Dean Edell on the horn with Dallin Larsen himself?

What’s this you say? Dallin himself just calls it a juice while winking his eye? That he’s not responsible for what his distributors say because it’s impossible to rein them in? Dallin… the word you’re looking for is called RESPONSIBILITY.

Who can afford this in this day and age? Okay if it was positive. If there’s data? That this is helpful or better than the berries you can buy in the grocery store, which are a heck of a lot cheaper and better tasting as far as I’m concerned.

It would be a lot cheaper and healthier in my opinion, to go to the grocery store and make your own fruit smoothies and juice concoctions than to buy MonaVie at $34/bottle.

In terms of making money, Danielle. I got to tell you something. There are no rules or laws to warn you and give you the numbers you want to know, which is how many people actually make money in these multi-level marketing deals. And the government is trying to pass such rules and laws. The truth of the matter is, that almost everybody loses money. The people at the very very top, they make money, because they’ve got everybody else working for them.

How many “new” Diamonds have there been in MonaVie who were previously big pins from other MLMs? Robert Dean (Noni). TV Wilson and Steve Branch (YTB). Randy Schroeder (Agel). Orrin Woodward (Amway/Quixtar). Brig Hart (Amway). Need I go on?

These people are constantly being carted out on stage reaching higher and higher levels. You? Everyone else? Still at the bottom. Read the MonaVie Income Disclosure Statement and do the math. Dr. Dean Edell is right; most people don’t earn any money at all.

Enjoy listening to Dr. Dean Edell. If the link above is broken, do a search for Dr. Dean Edell, August 27, 2009 to find another version of his MP3 podcast.

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¹ It’s possible that the August 27, 2009 broadcast was a re-broadcast of a previous Dr. Dean Edell taping.

More MLM Defectors Turn Up In MonaVie

The next set of Diamonds being carted out on the MonaVie media web site are none other than MLM-veterans, TV Wilson and Steve Branch. Turns out TV and Steve recently left YTB, a travel multi-level marketing firm, in April, 2009. Here’s their resignation letter. Bold emphasis is mine:

To Whom it May Concern,

This Letter of Resignation is very difficult for us. We would have never imagined that we would be at this point after 5 great years with YTB, and the Great mentorship and friendships of Coach, Scott and Kim, that we would be resigning our entire “Circle of Champions” Director Positions and Incomes from ID #s 13610, 13611, and 13612. We personally feel forced to make this very tough and heart retching decision to leave one family to make sure we save our families. Even though, we expect various emotional reactions and accept the fact that most of you, our friends, corporate staff, co-independent contractors and family members, will all not understand why we are separating from a company we love, but rest assured with our genuine 20 plus years of integrity on the line, that this decision was not reached easily without much thought, counsel, research and deliberation.

We realize that we must submit our Letter of Resignation due to reasons that were beyond the companies control and or ours, such as the current economy, the California Attorney General lawsuit, the resent audits, the negative YTB press, the drastic cuts in Director pay, low team morale, the principals of momentum, the reversal of some of the leaders 2008 Stock awards, and a few other issues have all combined together that created a very hostile environment for us to thrive at our peak performance level. Therefore, we must seek other means to provide for our families at this very difficult and unbelievable juncture in our lives.

We request that our YTB team stay intact and that YTB will use our Director’s Pay, Stock rewards and residual to be added to the Director’s Pool, repay any outstanding debts we may have with YTB, and contribute in anyway to the survivability of the company and the independent contractor’s that we helped guide and trained for 5 great years. Finally, we will be praying for YTB , its leaders and our many friends to have all the success possible building your YTB business.

For those of you who would like to keep in touch with us for our National Generic Network Marketing Trainings and Success Coaching ,we can be reached thru our assistants

Dallin Larsen must have made their decision to leave YTB a really gut-wrenching decision, eh? He probably showed them a nice check for transferring their downline over to MonaVie to help make their decision “easier.” Four months to Blue Diamond? I guess most of their YTB-team didn’t exactly stay on the U.S.S. YTB after they left.

The letter, email, or voicemail that I really want to see if the one that TV and Steve sent to their downline information them of their departure? Were they encouraged to quit and join them in MonaVie? How exactly are large groups from MLM defectors actually merged into MonaVie’s binary system? One thing’s for sure, other MLMs like Amway, Agel, Noni and YTB must not like MonaVie for poaching their former distributors.

MonaVie Shares Oprah Winfrey’s Concerns over Health Claims… Unless They Are From A Black Diamond

So, the big news from last week is that Oprah Winfrey is suing several companies — including MonaVie — over the use of her name, likeness, and quotes. Oprah states on her web site that she is not “associated with nor endorses any açai berry product, company or online solicitation of such products, including MonaVie juice products.”

MonaVie’s response? Let’s not forget Dallin Larcency’s quote about trying to rein in distributors making illegal claims was like herding cats. Now, CFO Devin Thorpe is saying the following:

We really feel like we’re the victims of these Internet scammers every bit as much as Oprah is a victim of them,” said Thorpe. “Monavie really created the açai business in the United States … And it’s really [Internet scammers] trading on our good name.

On one hand, MonaVie is tooting its horn about being numero uno in the food and beverage industry; on the other hand they are claiming themselves as victims. Sorry, MonaVie, you can’t have it both ways in this case. Victims? Cry me a river. Internet scammers? Why don’t you look at your very own Crowne Black Diamond Brig Hart?!? Check out the SL 130 MonaVie Information Brochure PDF that I discovered in multiple locations on the Internet:

Click on the photo above to see a larger image (pages 1, 2, and 6 from the 6-page document). Note the following:

1. Oprah’s photo and endorsement of the acai berry is used prominently on page 2.
2. The copyright on page 6 is by Global NetMark LLC, which is owned by none other than MonaVie Crowne Black Diamond Brig Hart.
3. Various medical claims on page 6.
4. Note the disclaimer about the Oprah quotes, “Oprah, NBC and CBS Radio are registered trademarks of their respective holders and are shown as news related media.”

Oh, I guess the last bullet item absolves Brig Hart of any wrongdoing? Maybe I should start putting his photo (or Dallin’s) next to all of my posts and see how he likes it?

Admittedly, the copyright on the SL 130 is from 2005. I would strongly wager, however, that there exists promotional material being printed to this day from the Black Diamond Tools Organizations that has Oprah’s likeness being used to tacitly endorse MonaVie. And, of course, tacit approval of Oprah is transformed into, “Oprah loves MonaVie! Oprah endorses MonaVie!” by the hungry and greedy MonaVie distributors across the country and world.

As for MonaVie Corporate? They didn’t give a rat’s ass… so as long as their fat cats were bringing in the money. I hope Oprah comes down hard on MonaVie and doesn’t get paid off like the other celebrities or athletes who are currently pitching this overpriced purple juice concentrate.