[plunk]
Hello, hello, hello, everybody!
Oh, my goodness. I'm so, so, so excited about today
and thrilled that it is live.
We are not prerecorded, we are live.
Look at this amazing print. This is a Carly.
[Jill D] DeAnne is probably one of the most excitable,
enthusiastic people I've ever met.
It's palpable.
I mean, you can feel it through your computer screen.
Back when I started LuLaRoe, Mark and DeAnne
would go live on these calls.
Don't put up with people who detract from our culture.
If we're going to maintain the culture strong,
the sooner that truth comes out,
the sooner they can either make a decision to align or to leave.
I would tune in every Tuesday when they would go live online,
and I was so locked into whatever DeAnne and Mark were saying.
Every day, you get to choose to wake up
and think about what you're going to do
and how you're going to strive to fulfill your own dreams.
That kind of stuff made you fall in line.
[crowd cheering]
They wanted them to, like, drink the Kool-Aid is what they say.
[Courtney] You were at that point so immersed
and those checks were coming in.
If she told me to go jump off a cliff, I probably would have.
[Roberta] There was a lot of like idol worship and celebrity.
[crowd cheers]
If you were somebody that was in a photo shoot of LuLaRoe,
you were LuLa famous.
If you spoke on webinars, you were LuLa famous.
If you were somebody that had a decent social media following,
you were LuLa famous.
[Jill D] I think they are celebrities in the LuLaRoe world.
That's because Mark and DeAnne make you feel special
when you're with them, the way a celebrity makes you feel.
[Lauren] As time kind of went by, it just felt that the vibe was,
something else was going on.
[Roberta] I remember sitting at the convention,
and Mark starts spouting off,
like, passages from the Book of Mormon.
And I'm looking around going, "I don't think everybody here's Mormon.
Like, I don't understand why we're talking about this.
Like, what does this have anything to do with selling pants?"
[Paul] The most disturbing thing,
it was when he compared himself to being misunderstood
just like Joseph Smith was in the beginning.
[Tiffany] That's who he thinks he is.
That's where his mindset's at.
[Mark] This is a meritocracy.
How do you think we became the-the-the masters of the globe?
We have each other's backs.
And because of that, humanity became what it is.
[Roberta] I started realizing that there was a lot of control.
Controlling what we wear, how we looked, what we weighed.
[Iliana] All the consultants dressed alike.
Most of them were blonde.
Most of them were white.
And all obsessed with the prints.
It was creepy.
I sort of like came to this realization.
I was like, "Oh, my God, I'm in a cult."
[clockwork ticking rapidly]
[ticking stops]
[birds tweeting]
[Becca] My name is Becca Peter,
and I have spent the past four years talking about LuLaRoe.
[quick, mysterious music plays]
I grew up in Seattle.
I have two kids.
I have an online shop where I sell washi tape.
And for fun, I like to research what's going on with LuLaRoe.
2016 is when LuLaRoe, like, really blew up.
I ran a Facebook group,
and a lot of people in my group were buying LuLaRoe.
It seemed like how they were charging sales tax was strange.
But... these women were, like, telling everyone else
that, "We're doing it right,
and everyone else is doing it wrong."
And there was just absolutely no convincing them
that maybe they could be wrong.
It definitely bothered me that someone was wrong on the internet.
My husband always makes fun of me 'cause I'm like that person.
I try not to be, but...
LuLaRoe really marketed themselves
as being an opportunity for women.
There's an appeal for a lot of stay-at-home moms.
You want to be home and be with your kids,
but you want something more.
You want to be an adult human being
who's contributing to your household and to society.
[LaShae] Helping family, that was their big thing.
They're just family-orientated,
so it's like, "Oh, wow. Yes, I worked for this good company.
We're blessing lives."
'Cause that was the thing, blessing lives.
LuLaRoe really takes advantage of these feelings that a lot of women have
by giving them the community that they want and making them feel like
they are being a successful business owner.
[Roberta] There was a lot of times in LuLaRoe
where they touted that they were women empowerment.
[DeAnne] I wanted to give women an opportunity
to help ease the stress, the financial stress,
to be able to give something to their families,
give back to their husband.
And then, if the two of them could come together,
husbands and wives or significant other...
[Becca] It's similar to an empowering message of feminism.
But at the end of the day, it's not empowering.
It's-it's the opposite.
[interviewer] What inspired the empowerment of women for you?
Can-- can I jump in there and then you can talk?
Yeah, yeah, 'cause, yeah.
Yeah, I-I-- no, I have something that, look.
[chuckling] I'm going...
No, I-I watched-- I watched my wife shatter glass ceilings.
I mean, there was no-- she was able to make the money
she was willing to go out and make.
That was the thing I did? I shattered a ceiling?
I was trying to think of when I did that. I love you.
No, she literally went out on the road
and sold 20,000 maxi skirts
and made hundreds of thousands of dollars profit
in a very short period of time.
And so the empowering women
came from me being married to a powerful wife.
[Courtney] I think LuLaRoe hid behind the guise
of uplifting and empowering women.
We were supposed to be empowered at first,
and then the husband was supposed to take over
and the roles were supposed to be changed.
[slow, serious music plays]
[Becca] A woman's place is in the house.
You need to always let your husband be the man.
You should never do anything to make him look bad.
It was very toxic.
[Paul] DeAnne barely recognized that Tiffany existed.
It was frustrating because it's usually "Paul's wife, Tiffany."
It was my business.
Paul got to do the fun part in front of the camera.
No offense.
But you know, I felt like I was doing, you know, 90% of it.
[Jill F] LuLaRoe is not trying to undermine
patriarchal family structures.
In fact, they're reinforcing them.
They're using cheap language of feminism--
girl boss, empowerment--
to latch on to this pop feminist message
that doesn't actually, tangibly change anything.
You always have to make sure that men have some,
not just some level of power, but have more power.
Women can be strong, but there's a time to let him be your hero.
My mom was very strong, and she raised a lot of strong children.
I speak a lot about her because I think she was misunderstood.
In the '60s and '70s, it was a hard time.
People didn't know what the roles were.
You know, you've got women who went
from Leave It To Beaver, and she always had an apron on.
Hurry up, boys, you're gonna be late for school!
[DeAnne] And then it just changed.
And I wish I could remember what happened in the '70s.
I don't know.
[chanting]
My mother fought for equal rights, for women to have women's rights.
[quick music plays]
[Jill F] Maurine Startup, DeAnne's mom, wrote this book
called The Secret Power of Femininity:
The Art of Attracting, Winning, and Keeping the Right Man For You.
"Stand before a mirror in the privacy of your room
and say to yourself,
'I'm just a helpless woman at the mercy of you big, strong men.'
Stamp your feet daintily, saucily,
and shake your curls as much as to say,
'I am furious, but what can a little girl like me
do with a big, strong man like you?'"
[Paul] DeAnne used her mother's book as an example
and taught trainings out of it.
The way she taught it was almost like how to use your special parts
to get your husband to do what you want him to.
I think she actually said that once. I was like, "Oh, gosh."
[Roberta] DeAnne said something to the effect of,
"All you have to do as a woman is just get on your knees
for five minutes a day and please your husband,
and then your husband will let you buy whatever you want."
And I thought, "Well, that's very unprofessional advice."
[laughs]
[DeAnne] It's all about appreciation, accepting, and admiring.
And then he'll do the same to you.
It really is the Golden Rule.
[Ashleigh] My experience was that my husband was
involved in my business, and it brought us very close,
but it doesn't really matter which way you slice it,
when you start bringing in more money,
and when you start diverting the time
or changing the things that you invest your time in,
the dynamic of your family changes.
When things were challenging in my marriage,
the suggestion was to read
The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands.
The book is geared towards, like, being submissive,
not really having contrary feelings.
I guess it just wasn't really in my wheelhouse to do that,
so... it didn't really work for me.
[consultant husband] When mama became the moneymaker,
it was like, "Wait a minute. Wait, wait, wait. Hold on just a minute.
I gave you 5,000 of my dollars. And suddenly,
your hobby is, like, taking over our family or whatever?
You gotta let us in there.
It's your money or whatever, but...
It's our money! We're married, okay?
You gotta let us help."
[Becca] They preach this message about retiring your husband.
The ultimate goal was that your husband did not have to work outside the home,
that he could stay home and help you with your LuLaRoe business.
[consultant] I loved how involved he was.
It is so obvious to me that it makes him feel so invested.
I do my best to keep him involved and give him a connection to it
so it's not all mine.
[attorney] Looking up above the question and answer a bit,
it says, "1:00 to 2:00 p.m.: men's chat."
Do you know what that refers to?
-Yeah. -What is that?
Men's chat. Men get--got together to talk about how they can...
better support their wives.
"What do you do?"
"Oh, I wash the dishes, and I take out the trash,
and I get the kids to bed while my wife is going live."
"Oh, okay, maybe I should do that too."
[Courtney] When I became mentor, which is the highest rank in LuLaRoe,
we were asked to fly out to California
to have what was called a mentor's interview.
We sat down, they talked a little about my team,
and then they turned to my husband,
and they said, "Well, how's your marriage going?
Your marriage would definitely be better
if your husband quit his job."
My husband looked at me, I looked at him,
and he was kind of whispering, "I'm not quitting my job."
We sat there for almost an hour while I cried,
as they were basically telling us
everything that was wrong in our relationship.
And I knew that they were just wanting him to quit his job
so we would have all our eggs in one basket.
We would be indebted to them forever.
We wouldn't be able to walk away.
[suspicious music plays]
[Roberta] My husband was very much opposed to it.
I talked to DeAnne, and she said,
"When the money starts rolling in, he'll be on board."
I said, "It's already rolling in.
Like, I'm-I'm ranking up. My team is growing.
I'm having insane launches.
I don't know what else I could do to convince him any more."
She looked me dead in the eye and she said,
"Well, maybe you should find a new husband."
Here we go, I got a size...
[Paul] LuLaRoe's push to get women to retire their husbands
is really one of the most sinister
and devious parts of LuLaRoe.
They will tell you that it was in order to bring families closer together.
And in my opinion, it was in order to make families
completely dependent on them.
You're kind of trapped at that point.
When somebody says, "Why do people join?" Well, they didn't join.
They were lured in.
But this is luring a family into a losing proposition.
People that make a lot of money in multilevel marketing
are almost always the people who got in early.
You can't make money unless you recruit people.
Over 80% have nobody below them.
They have to lose.
When you're inside a lie,
a lie that has told you that you're in the right place at the right time,
and that the people around you have the right answer
and everybody else out there is wrong.
You belong into this community of winners, enlightened people.
This is what a cult does.
These people at the top are portrayed as near god-like figures.
They are enlightened beings
and the epitome of good people, just trying to help you.
[mysterious music plays]
That's the culture of a cult.
Remember, when you work it, you work it,
and you put your whole heart and soul into it,
and you really, really put it to work for you, okay?
[Lauren] You know, we'd have motivational calls.
that we would tune into to to give us advice or...
mmm... yeah, motivation,
of what to do better.
Don't think, "Well, maybe. What if. I..." And I don't.
Remember, it's what you say to yourself every single day
gets to determine the success of your business.
If you're giving yourself self-doubt, and you're not seeing things--
you're telling yourself all the things that you can't.
"I don't know why. Why isn't it happening?
I wish I could..."
[Lauren] I don't even know.
It just got to the point where I was like,
I, this is, I can't even.
Um...
[crowd cheering]
Welcome to Leadership ATL.
How are we doing this morning?
[Stella] The topics that we discussed at the events
did not talk about the things that the people needed
in order to be successful retailers.
And I gave those leggings my best and in turn...
I saw the rewards.
I didn't see them right away.
Training... our-our component
leans towards the motivational side.
Order fresh inventory every week.
In my opinion, the minute you get done doing a pop-up,
you gotta place another order.
[Stella] How do you build successful business?
Keep buying, keep reinvesting, and hustle hard,
and get people to sign up under you.
[attorney] Any other ways that LuLaRoe puts on trainings?
Um, they have a leadership training
for people that...
would like to improve their businesses.
[attorney] Improve businesses by building their downline?
Coming together, getting inspiration,
learning how-tos from each other.
[attorney] What kind of how-tos?
I don't know.
[Tiffany] We actually needed technical help.
We needed real business training,
instead of, you know, this feel-good book that they wanted you to read that week
that they hired someone to come talk to you about.
[attorney] Did you ever play a role at the LuLaRoe events
where the goal was just to hype people up?
Yeah.
-[attorney] Did you do that a lot? -Yeah.
You don't need to work out more.
You don't need to read more books.
You have every piece of the puzzle already there.
[Robert] Multilevel marketing is the village where everything is possible.
The flip side of that is if everything is possible,
nothing is true.
You have to convince people
that this is going to make it all easier for you.
That's really the message.
And LuLaRoe caught that.
LuLaRoe definitely wanted you to amp up the sob story.
It was a rags-to-riches kind of story,
and I had that story.
We had debt from every which way.
But I scrounged up that money to make it happen
because I saw the potential in LuLaRoe.
Having a full-time job, juggling three children,
and being in debt, I told everyone,
"If I can do it, anyone can do it."
[attorney] So you were asking them to share those sort of stories...
I don't know what they were going to share. I have no idea.
I'm just telling you about their lives.
-So, here in this text... -And what they choose to share is...
was their doing.
[attorney] You were asking them to share success stories.
Mm-hmm. Maybe they had a good day and they got their dishes done
and threw in a laundry and made a job chart, and...
[contemplative music plays]
[Jill D] Mark and DeAnne know my story.
We literally were struggling.
I was on low-income assistance.
There were four people and a dog living in an 825-square-foot house.
And now we have a 2100-plus square-foot house
with an inground pool in the backyard, two-car garage,
in a beautiful neighborhood.
And I was able to do that because of LuLaRoe.
I really want to be in LuLaRoe for the rest of my life,
or as long as LuLaRoe's around, I want to be a part of it.
[Mark] We're celebrating people
who grabbed the bull by the horns and did things.
Hooray for you. Yes, we give out trophies.
[Becca] Consultants were always sold a message
that you could achieve these things
that these other consultants have achieved.
"Look at these mentors, look at your upline.
This could be you."
[contemplative music plays]
We were encouraged to always have our hair done,
always have our makeup done,
do whatever it took to put off an image
that we were successful businesswomen.
That's when it shifted more from
not only just purchasing material goods,
but changing the way you looked.
There became a push for you to be a certain size.
Mark and DeAnne, they'd take us out to dinner one night.
We were looking at the menus,
and DeAnne turns to Jordan, her son, and she says,
"What do you want to split?"
And she goes, "Courtney, the reason we split dinners is
'cause our stomachs are really small.
We've had the gastric sleeve.
You have got to go down there."
I was like, "Well,
I'm just gonna order Brussels sprouts now."
[slow string music plays]
-[Dr. Michel] Hi, DeAnne. -[DeAnne] Hello, Dr. Michel.
[Dr. Michel] Well, we have DeAnne. Had surgery 23 months ago.
And how many pounds did you lose, DeAnne?
-I've lost 72 pounds. -[Dr. Michel] 72 pounds.
And tell me, how was your experience with Obesity Not 4 Me,
and also Dr. Michel after your surgery?
Oh, I was really nervous in the very beginning
because you don't know what to expect
and you're kind of fearful but excited at the same time.
[Courtney] We noticed that there were changes in DeAnne
and how she looked.
It was kind of a "you need to do be doing these things too."
We have lovingly and excitedly referred to you,
I think we brought, brought down, I think, 18.
I counted the other day 18 that have come from the United States.
[Roberta] I remember being on the cruise, and one of my friends was,
like, walking around in this cute little bathing suit.
And I was like, "Oh, my God, girl, you look amazing."
And she's like, "Well, I got the weight loss surgery.
If you're interested, let me know, like, I can hook you up."
[LaShae] They just wanted to be cute. They didn't want to be big.
Bottom line is they didn't want to be big.
They didn't want to around be big girls.
So if you were offered, and you were in good with DeAnne, you got the offer.
[DeAnne] I've been accused of telling people
they had to go down there. No.
They come to me, sobbing and crying, hating themselves.
"How come you're so skinny?"
"I merely do what my girlfriend did.
I went to Tijuana.
If you want to know about it, I'll tell you."
[Courtney] She goes, "My sister Lynnae will drive you down to Tijuana.
Dr. Michel will perform the surgery, and then fly back home.
It's so easy."
A week later, I was added
into a text group called the Tijuana Skinnies.
Lynnae would text me almost weekly asking
when I was going to go down to Tijuana.
I felt so much pressure that
I really did start looking into it.
Someone suggested to me, they said,
"Why don't you try the balloon in the United States?"
So I decided that was the safer route go.
Right before Christmas, I went and had that done.
The day after Christmas,
I walked down the stairs and fell to the ground.
Told my husband, "You have got to take me back to the hospital.
Something is very, very wrong."
I remember thinking, "I'm not going to wake up."
I just about died.
I texted Lynnae and let her know that the balloon was gone.
I got basically, "I told you so"
from both DeAnne and Lynnae.
"The gastric sleeve is the way to go.
When can we get you on the next trip down to Tijuana?"
Finally, I said, "No, I'm not going to go."
From then on, DeAnne acted like a different person to me.
My self-esteem took the biggest hit.
And that was really my turning point
on what have I done to myself?
What have I done to my family?
These people are using me for money...
and they'll walk over anyone
in order to make that money happen.
[slow, sad music plays]
This is my family right here.
Jackson, in the middle, who's eight, and then,
what I call the Destructo-Twins, Townsley-Grace on the...
I had PowerPoint presentations
I put together that had pictures of my family.
I remember putting them up there and being like, "This is so fake."
I was being pulled away more than ever.
Get your, your life assistant, your nanny,
to do the other things that aren't bringing in money for you.
You work on the things that bring you money, and you get out,
and you think of all the ways that you need to make money.
[Courtney] I remember my husband saying, "I cannot believe you're paying someone
to cook dinner for us."
And I said, "Well, who's going to have time to do it?"
It's okay for your kids to have cereal at dinner, for dinner--
I mean not every night, but...
they're going to live.
I've got to work.
It was always all about work.
And then I realized that people under me
were spending more money than they were bringing in.
[quietly manic music playing]
[Robert] The few people who do make a lot of money are relentless.
They are working day and night.
But in multilevel marketing, people at the bottom
can't possibly duplicate the number at the top.
It doesn't add up. It cannot be done.
You're still selling a bogus income opportunity.
The company keeps adding competitive retailers around you.
People that you had sold as customers
have now gone on to become your competitor.
There is a demographic limit
to how many people are going to buy LuLaRoe leggings.
[Stella] All of a sudden, my town had
two, three, four, five, six, seven consultants
within a small radius.
And I talked to my sponsor.
The idea that I was told was,
"Find a way to get more money to pay for more inventory.
Open a credit card if you have to
because that's the only way you're gonna have a profitable shop."
[Ashleigh] We had lots of people joining the company.
There were a lot of people whose expectations were not met financially.
And the reason that was always given is,
"Well, it works if you work it,
and I guess you weren't working hard enough."
This business isn't for everyone.
It is hard work. It is a business that you own.
And the business responds
to the amount of time, effort, and energy,
and discipline that you put into it.
People will come to me with an excuse for why they can't succeed.
And I will tell them,
"I'm sorry, that's an excuse."
Heaven forbid I show up and go, "No, I just screwed up
'cause I'm a screw-up."
No, no, no. It can't possibly be that.
It has to be something else.
Because some people took that box of clothing
and turned it into a million dollars.
And some people took that box of clothing
and put it in the closet because it scared them.
The question is, what did you want out of it?
[Roberta] Back in 2016, I got a big box of inventory.
And I noticed that one of the things
that I pulled out of the box was heavier than normal.
And it looked like there was condensation in the bag.
And I was like, "That's weird."
I literally rung them out.
And, like, a massive ton of water came out of them.
And I thought, "What the...?"
So, I reach out to LuLaRoe.
They say, "It must be UPS."
I say, "But only one pair of leggings in the whole box is wet."
And they're like, "How strange. That's so weird.
Well, why don't you go ahead and set those aside,
and when you have enough refunds, yes, you can process the refunds."
A couple shipments later, I open up the box
and there's this horrid smell.
And I'm just like... [gags] "What is this?"
It was like woosh.
It was so bad!
I remember filing a ticket,
and in the dropdown menu,
there was stinky leggings was one of the reasons
that you would be making a return.
They said, "Well, you can put them in the freezer.
The freezer is a really good trick
to making the stink go away."
And I was told, "Move on."
What is happening?
[mysterious music plays]
[interviewer] So when did you realize that LuLaRoe was sending out moldy leggings?
Oh, when I saw them sitting outside.
[interviewer] You realized that those were...
Oh, yeah, I would walk by them every day.
I'm like, "Why is all this stuff sitting here?"
[Mark] We moved into 127,000 square feet,
and we've now, we're busting at the seams there.
We've got product in the parking lot
and looking to move into a bigger building.
So, it's-- it's been...
I realized that they started putting everything in these cages,
you know, storing it outside.
[Courtney] I did get clothing that smelled absolutely horrible.
Like it had been infiltrated by rats or something.
We, as mentors, brought up our concerns to home office...
they acted like we were out to get them,
and that there's no problem.
[Lauren] The product started to change.
Whether it was zippers, seams
that really started to kind of deteriorate.
[LaShae] I started to notice things. People complaining,
stuff that just wasn't right.
[Derryl] You would be dealing with pin holes in product,
leggings that tore after an hour,
hems being way off base.
[Roberta] You could open up a shirt,
and there would be, like, a slightly lighter square
where it had been folded and exposed to the sun.
And they said, "Just knock it off half price
and sell it to someone else as a nightshirt."
I said, "I'm taking the hit on this?"
They were onboarding something crazy, like 500 people a day.
I actually said, "I will personally take a cut
in my bonus check right now
if you slow down this onboarding
so that current retailers can get their stock."
I was told no.
[Stella] The material was changing.
The buttery soft leggings that I fell in love with
were getting thinner,
and I would get emails and messages: "Stella,
again those leggings have holes in it!"
My name is getting tarnished as a salesperson
for selling damaged goods.
I'm having serious issues right now.
I started getting boxes where the clothing
inside the boxes were two years old.
You know, you've claimed that we sold out of all of this.
And if we did, like you claim,
why is it in my box a year and a half later?
Someone had said that they got the same print in the same week.
That's bound to happen.
We're not shipping old product. No.
[Iliana] We couldn't keep up with the demand.
I mean, our daily quota
was around a hundred prints.
Patrick was just doing whatever it took,
regardless of what that was putting on, you know, their employees.
I was just trying to show the other designers tips
to cheat the system like, "Okay, you made this art.
Take two things out of it. Recolor it differently.
Completely new art piece."
[Paul] It became known to us that LuLaRoe made
what I would call shit product.
In fact, the uglier, the better. It doesn't matter.
They don't see it, and they're going to buy it anyway.
[laughs]
I actually know who made those prints. Funny.
Little did I know this was going to end up looking like a penis, so...
This is a hamburger print.
Don't think he meant to, um,
direct you straight to the vagina
or what the vagina would look like if it was a hamburger.
Yeah, see more... just vaginas.
More vaginas.
All of these, all in the crotch area. They're all in the crotch area.
They all just look like artistic vaginas.
What is that?
I don't even know what that is.
[Lauren] It just kind of was always...
production.
I mean, it was nah-- it was just...
somebody else's fault.
Or it was just, "This is a positive. This is great.
There's a star on that print, actually.
This is awesome." Like, "you are winning."
[Stella] As the issues started to get more and more prevalent,
my posts were removed.
When I commented about being on hold for hours,
those conversations were removed.
That's not part of our culture.
We don't talk negative about LuLaRoe.
They didn't care that I was struggling.
They were coming up with solutions of ways for me to continue to buy.
[Lauren] What's your other option?
You own these pieces.
When they are in your hands, they're yours.
You've paid for them, you own them, and you just needed to sell.
You do start to just, um, blame yourself.
[Mark] You know, I have threatened to lobby Congress to pass a bill
that in every single maternity ward of every hospital,
you have to put a sign over the door
that says "Welcome to life. Your experience may vary."
We have equal opportunity.
We do not promise equal outcome.
What people did with it, how they saw it,
how they participated in it, is up to them.
I am here to tell you, and I will stand behind it because I own my data,
I know the facts around this.
We have the highest quality control in the industry.
We did not have a huge problem with wet leggings.
We didn't have a huge problem with...
with damaged leggings and products.
We had a huge social media problem,
and we had a lot of noise
over a very little actual issue.
We were big and we grew very fast,
but we got our arms around it,
and we kept all the pieces there.
And it was a fun and exciting time.
[Roberta] I was being fed these lies.
You're gaslighting me, telling me that it's not happening,
and I'm physically seeing it with my own eyes!
And you're telling me I'm crazy!
[Jill F] Gaslighting is essentially an attempt, not just to lie,
but to tell someone else that their experience
of the world is objectively, rationally false.
A lot of women who have sold for LuLaRoe
essentially say that when something would go wrong,
what they heard is either,
"What you're saying isn't actually happening,"
or, "To the extent that there is a problem, the problem is you."
[distant applause]
[Katie] I am so beyond excited to be in this room
with all of you phenomenal leaders.
I'm here today to talk to you about escaping the victim mindset.
We have this thing called the Drama Triangle.
Anyone in this room, familiar with it?
Whoo! Um...
There's three roles in the Drama Triangle:
persecutor, rescuer, and victim.
There are many others
experiencing very similar circumstances,
who are managing to achieve success and happiness,
despite those circumstances.
Other people are experiencing your same problem,
and they're not whining about it, what's wrong with you?
[Robert] If you complain or you criticize,
then you are just taking on this mentality
of the victim loser.
It's so profoundly undermining.
And I think it really pokes at
a lot of women's insecurities.
[Katie] When victims are telling their story repeatedly,
they're seeking validation.
They're looking for someone to say,
"Yes, you have a right to feel that way."
And usually it comes with a lot of exaggeration.
[applause]
Do not let negativity fester.
One person having a bad day can sour the enthusiasm
of the other hundreds of people in your group.
Don't let that happen.
Use that delete button.
It's really powerful.
[Stella] It felt devastating when I would get scolded basically like a child.
"Your attitude sucks.
You're not working hard enough."
I've heard some whining lately also
about, "Well, my inventory's stale."
No, you're stale.
"I'm just so upset because my business can't succeed
because I don't have the leggings to take care of all my customers."
Well, guess what?
Then you're obviously in the wrong business, and I'm here to tell you.
I started to see that bullshit in, like, full display.
I felt so betrayed by this company.
[Becca] People want to be part of something.
And they felt with LuLaRoe
like they were getting to be part
of this big, special thing.
But eventually for most of the consultants,
they came out losing.
The things that they thought were real,
when you discover that those things aren't real,
and that these people aren't your friends,
they were just using you.
That's really hard.
[Robert] People discover, well, the money isn't really there.
That's reality beginning to dawn.
[Lauren] It was the opposite of why I signed up.
It was not like part-time work for full-time salary,
or, you know, all like these slogans
that were kind of told.
If you guys are wanting any outfits, let me know.
I've been putting together outfits for people.
I couldn't keep up. This is what I'd say to myself.
Like, well, people work for the airlines.
People work in taxis, Ubers, 7-Eleven.
I mean, I would go on and on in my head
about so many different people that work so many different jobs
that require so many different hours.
Well, people in the military.
I mean, I would go so far into my head, like,
"Okay, well, let's just pretend that I'm in the military
and this is my duty
because this is what I have signed up for.
So I can't complain."
To live in that limbo of
it kind of being up to you, but if you don't do it,
then you're kind of in trouble.
And if you do do it, you're praised.
And if you don't do it, well, I mean, you actually,
there will be consequences.
It didn't feel like a choice.
[Tiffany] People on our team had massive problems.
There was a ton of pressure on us.
We had a really big team.
Our son was in the business.
My two sisters were in the business.
Paul's sister was in the business.
A lot of our friends were in this business.
To see them opening box after box after box,
and to be just heartbroken and scared.
And there was just continually no information.
I kept expressing these concerns.
That's what got me suspended.
They made us fly out to California,
ask for our business back humbly.
You know, that's kind of where that started to go south for us.
[Sam] In 2017, I quit corporate.
And then I remember I was in Germany,
and I got an email from legal,
and it was like a cease and desist.
And like, they told me I can't talk to my aunt anymore.
That I couldn't be a part of LuLaRoe anymore.
[attorney] Who is Sam?
Sam is Sam Schultz.
And he's my nephew.
[attorney] And what's his role at the company?
None.
[attorney] What was Sam Schultz's role?
I can't recall.
[Courtney] It was a huge deal when he was terminated.
Of course rumors were flying.
I don't know personally.
There's a lot of rumors.
From the rumor mill around LuLaRoe,
Sam was terminated, um...
because he was having relationships
with, uh, many of the retailers.
[interviewer] There are rumors that you were fired
for inappropriate behavior with consultants.
Yeah, it's not true.
[Roberta] Everything was just crazy.
I was like, "What the fuck?"
I didn't want to do it anymore.
I got sick and tired of setting up
these crazy huge parties and selling two items.
I made $15 today.
I don't know what's going on.
I paid $28 for a piece of fabric that already has holes in it.
That is cut terribly.
That's bullshit. I'm sorry.
Do you know how many consultants have been incapable
of giving their children Christmas or birthday presents
because they invested thousands of dollars
in a company that doesn't give a crap about them?
[Jill F] Part of how LuLaRoe
kind of starts to come apart at the seams
is that women connect
beyond their own communities and borders.
[newscaster] More than 16,000 women have joined a Facebook group
called LuLaRoe Defective to share their complaints.
Up until that point, there wasn't a place anywhere online
where you could say anything negative about this company.
The Defective group started, and it just very quickly went viral.
[Jill F] Often it starts off relatively innocuous,
you know, talking about, for example,
manufacturing problems.
"Is anybody else getting leggings that
tear apart like tissue paper?"
And then you see, "Oh, the lady in Chicago is,
and the lady in Louisiana is,
and the lady in Nashville is."
I've got so many holes to choose from here, I don't even know where I'm going.
They're, like, literally guiding you into debt.
I'm just trying my best to sell these ugly fucking leggings
or ugly fucking shirts.
Something changed, and it's not a good change.
[Roberta] I remember joining Defective.
I'm ready to leave. I have stories to tell.
I'm done with this company.
I need this group.
I need to know that I'm not crazy.
I'm losing money at this point.
I'm losing friends.
My business is being destroyed.
I started digging around, I was like, "These people get it."
[Roberta] We all as consultants had individual pieces
to a much bigger puzzle,
and if we could share,
then we could find all of the answers.
[Stella] Instead of crying or telling myself that I'm a bad person,
I said, "No! You're not taking advantage of me anymore."
So what'd I do?
What do people do these days
when they're looking for help?
I posted it on my Facebook.
Does anybody know a class-action attorney?
[heavy vault door slides shut]
[quietly manic music playing]