My experiences with Liberty League International

I was just doing some of my usual random internet browsing, and came across a forum thread on Liberty League International, a network marketing company I got involved with three years ago, which constituted a major chapter and turning point in my life. I broke off my involvement with that business two years ago, and this is the first time I’ve written in detail about my experiences with that. In this post, I’ll summarize the details of the extent of my involvement, my results, my opinions and views of the company itself, as well as the associated income opportunity. I’ll conclude with an explanation of the positive things which have come about as a result of this experience.

I want to mention where I’m coming from with this article. My intention is to present the above-described details as clearly and honestly as possible. My intention is not to blame Liberty League for any results I obtained; from the start, I’ve recognized that I’m responsible for my own choices, actions, and results. At the same time, I will point out where I feel the company and the opportunity are lacking.

The facts of my participation:

• I was an active associate for 1 full year
• I dropped my second year of college (a good program in massage therapy) to work this business
• I spent my student loans, borrowed large sums from my parents and friends, and bought all three products (BF, Liberty and Summit Conferences)
• I spent thousands on marketing, and made thousands of prospecting phone calls over that year
• I invested hundreds of hours listening and participating in conference training calls
• I spent thousands in travel to four company events

In the year I was involved with LLI:

• I made one qualifying sale. In short, I never made a dollar
• My total debt from the venture is well over $100k (in addition to pre-existing college debt)

Admittedly, I could have been much more frugal in my spending, but I bought into a prevalent hype of "live like you're wealthy now, the money will follow." So I spent borrowed money recklessly. I was naive, and it was hard lessons learned, after the fact. Based on interactions and conversations with other associates, I was not alone in my experience of this, nor of the statements which follow.

Why did I not succeed?

1. I bought into "get-rich-quick" & "live like you're wealthy now - the money will follow" hype - not conducive to building trust in myself or others. Most people seem to have more common sense.

2. I had poor sales skills in this industry. Though I relate very well to people when I'm authentically being myself, when I'm representing what I believe in, no matter how I struggled, and how many thousands of calls I made, I could not own the script, the pitch, or the prescribed hard-ass salesman attitudes. As for specific results, I had roughly 4-5 dozen people in that year give me a definite "Yes, I'm in!" None of these ever followed through (the one qualifying sale I made didn't fit this category). You may analyze this to my personality however you will.

3. The products are incredibly overpriced. The Beyond Freedom program is not without value - actually, I found it to assist in definite positive change - just not nearly the price assigned to it. Whatever justifications are employed, there are not many who deep down won't feel out of integrity on this. Although I was new to the personal development industry when I began this venture, I think I knew deep down this product was way too expensive. As one example of value-for-money: take the Landmark Forum, a (roughly) $500 course, 3 days in-person, which for 90%+ of participants is one of the most positively profound, life-changing (and lasting) experiences ever (no kidding, that stat is from an independent survey of participants. Landmark Education is real-deal personal transformation). How can a $1500 CD + workbook course compare to that? (it’d have to be pretty damn fantastic). And there are many other diverse options in the marketplace for personal growth.

Those are the main reasons for my failure in this business that I see from a personal point of view. As for the company's character, I discovered LLI and got involved believing that it truly was a wonderful, life-changing opportunity, for myself and others. The life-changing part was accurate for myself (in different ways). The wonderful part was not all wrong - the ideal the company is founded on is admirable as an idea, but unfortunately, was corrupted by excessive hype. The claim that the company’s business model is product-driven is weak at best, and an outright lie at worst. The common exception given to prove this rule is that the BF product is sold straight-up to people with no interest in the income opportunity. This may happen, but if so, it is a rare occurrence. As I mentioned, the BF product is flat-out way overpriced compared to other options in the marketplace for producing positive change and self-improvement. Almost everyone gets involved with LLI to get a slice of the inflated commissions, which produces a business culture where the product is an afterthought with over-hyped benefits.

The other downside of LLI culture is that is promotes excessively narcissistic, elitist, exclusionary attitudes. The prescribed sales attitude involves a sense of "if they don't immediately want to buy in, if they ask the wrong questions, they're losers". This attitude is antagonistic to general goodwill amongst people. The “marketing training” in general also promotes a dogmatic zealousness amongst associates. This doesn't apply necessarily to everyone involved in LLI - but to the greater majority. Emulation of the income-leaders’ actions is highly encouraged, rather than deep personal growth and change from within. It’s an “outside-in” approach to sales, contrary to Liberty League’s own “inside-out” personal development ideology. Where attitudes are prescribed without a corresponding wisdom through direct personal experience, even the highest ideals may be perverted.

SUMMARY:

To summarize my view of LLI, two years after I ceased my involvement: The company is ostensibly founded on worthy ideals, and does offer real value. However, the ideals are corrupted by hype and greed, and the value is heavily inflated. As is the nature of the MLM/Network marketing business model, the top few percent of people make great incomes, another few percent make decent incomes, and the rest make very little or nothing. I invested more and persisted longer than many, and did my damndest best to be trainable and “follow the system”, and ultimately finished up with zero income.

As a sidebar, my own advisor in the business (the fellow I initially called, purchased products from, and relied on for training) was a member of the Executive Marketing Council, and was a speaker at some of the events and conferences. In short, one of the elite. Shortly before he left the company due to his growing sense that the business and leadership were out of integrity (after I’d already quit my involvement), he upgraded my status to Summit Advisor – this means if I made any sales, I’d immediately earn a $1000, $5000, or $8000 commission. I still chose not to market this opportunity any more; in good conscience, I couldn’t. On a personal note, I’ve remained good friends with him – one of the positive things which resulted from my involvement.

A few of the biggest positives I took from the experience:

My first introduction to LLI was very powerful, because it gave me a brand new possibility: that of getting rich, working for myself, doing work I love, ad benefiting others at the same time (this is the LLI ideal I speak of, which unfortunately has fallen victim to hype and greed). Though I left LLI, I keep this possibility, and it empowers me in my current business plans underway which are truly in line with my values and passions (quick examples: snowboarding, nature, and fitness). Though the substantial financial debts I bear are a burden and a stress, I also find them to be a strong motivation to pursue my goals and realize my dreams.

LLI also spurred dramatic change in my life; I did benefit through positive practices from Beyond Freedom (journaling, meditation and visualization, goal-setting, health), but much more significantly, through LLI I was introduced to profound personal growth with Landmark Education. My experiences with Landmark courses have been truly transformative. My understanding of self and others has expanded dramatically, as has my self-expression in many social-and-relationship settings. I’ve had a persistent increase in peace of mind and freedom from fear. One of the most significant benefits has been the courage to pursue my dreams, and the direct knowledge that anything I want to achieve really is possible - this being evidenced in my day-to-day life as I actively pursue, and see being realized, career and business goals which in the past I would not have believed possible. Taking necessary actions also involves much less struggle than it used to.

The failure of my business, coinciding with a devastating breakup of a long-term love relationship and the deep personal growth I was doing with Landmark, resulted in a period of intense soul-searching. This led me to where I am now – living in Whistler, BC (my personal Mecca). I’m now immersed in a lifestyle I truly love, happy, and seeing real-world results of many inspiring ideas coming together into my new career and life path.