Money, Dreams, and Coups

"I'll show you unreasonable. Do you want to step outside? Let's step outside and I'll show you unreasonable." We are Mike Putman and Mike Flory, Putty and Flory as the team called us and to distinguish between us. That quote was the tail end of a conversation-more of a yell fest on one side-between a leader in a multi-level marketing (MLM) organization and Flory. It was a reaction to his statement, when asked to weigh in, that the selection of a new CEO (after just ousting the incumbent) was not a popularity contest. If you've ever bought Advocare products or Ambit Energy services, you've interacted with an MLM company. Amway, Mary Kay®, Herbalife-these are some examples of widely known MLMs. Also known as network marketing, MLMs are a sales strategy that have been around for a long time, but that have exploded with the advent of the internet. While it's hard to count the number of MLMs., it's safe to say that the number of people working within this structure is in the tens of millions.