Member-only story
This Feels Very MLM
Is anyone else weirded out by the referral program?
In 2016, a girl from high school posted a pair of leggings on Facebook with the caption, ‘LulaRoe exclusive styles!’
During that day and age, everyone was wearing ridiculously patterned leggings. Like what was up with the taco cats floating through space…were we all on drugs?
I thought, what the hell is LulaRoe? Is this LuluLemon? I decided to look it up, curious to browse their online shop.
On the website, I found no webstore or really any kind of e-commerce model. Instead, I was greeted with a pop-up encouraging me to ‘Join the Team’ and make money on my own terms. Then it hit,
“Oh, this is a pyramid scheme!”
Joining Medium is Like Doing Drugs
I joined Medium in June 2021. I was instantly hooked. I spent day and night wondering about potential blog topics, giddy with excitement when someone clapped or commented on my stories. I was bombarded with Get Rich on Medium articles and became drunk on the notion I could achieve the same results.
At this time, I was also furiously freelance writing for a number of print/digital publications. For most of these stories, I was making a flat rate of anywhere from $350 — $750.
