 They are not better than an MLM company because they are an MLM company. Hello friends, it's Madison Harnish back in my blue kitchen for another video. It's MLM time. Today we're going to be discussing MLMs that aren't really talked about much or kind of hidden or under the radar that not a lot of people know about. And some of these are really weird. Yeah, there's companies like Amway and Herbalife that try and hide the fact that they're an MLM company and keep it under wraps. But those companies are still a bit more known and talked about in general. And today I just wanted to discuss a few different companies that have been requested and people have been asking me to touch on that are just really unusual and kind of strange companies. If you're new to my channel and you're new to MLMs, first I want to say that the acronym MLM on my channel does not stand for men loving men. I have gotten a lot of comments of people that are kind of in the LGBTQ community that are very confused by my use of the word MLM. That's not what I'm talking about. What I talk about when I say MLM is multi-level marketing companies. And what multi-level marketing companies are are basically a version of a pyramid scheme. Most people lose copious amounts of time or money getting sucked into an MLM. And my channel is all about exposing unethical businesses and scams like MLM companies. So if you have a story to share about a scam or an unethical business that you've experienced, please click the link to my website down below and click on share your story to help participate in exposing these scammy companies. Also, don't forget to subscribe and like this video if you want to stay in the loop on the latest unethical business videos from yours truly. And well, let's get into the video. This first company I just had to talk about because it reminds me of KM's magic beads that I talked about earlier in another video, except for it's almost even more out there than that. And I know that's saying a lot, but hear me out. A crazy, bizarre MLM company that I haven't seen a lot of people talk about is the company Nikken. I think that's how you say it. I don't know. And honestly, I don't really care because they don't deserve the proper pronunciation of their business. Nikken is an MLM that sells magnets in bracelets and necklaces that are supposed to be used for therapeutic purposes. So it's therapeutic magnets. And that's the first time I've ever heard of magnet therapy before. So it was a little bit bizarre to me. Our feet are killing us. For this reason, shoe insoles are a popular consumer product. But at Nikken, we know that an ordinary insole is not good enough. Introducing Mstrides. KENKO Mstrides are the latest result in a long process of Nikken research and development that began with the company's very first product, MAGSTEPPS, a revolutionary magnetic insole, the first in the world. MAGSTEPPS replicated the magnetic field that human beings have lived in for millennia, a natural force whose influence has been reduced by the artifacts of modern civilization. Nikken proclaims professional athletes, amateur athletes. Of course, you've got to add both professional and amateur athletes in your product description. And thousands of other men and women have discovered magnetic bracelets. I picture people just like discovering magic bracelets like they pick one up and they're like, oh look, it's a magic bracelet. And Nikken's like, 1001 people have discovered magic magnet bracelets instead of them like actually wearing it and enjoying it, you know, just them discovering it. Many sports bracelets or necklaces include magnets, but Nikken combines this with ceramic and tourmaline. Oh great, another MLM company taking advantage of the ideas of crystal healing. Are we really that surprised? For some reason, MLMs love to use these small groups of people that have these beliefs and just take advantage of it. But anyways, Nikken combines this with ceramic and tourmaline to provide a combination of high technology and advanced design. Literally nothing they just said has anything to do with technology or design. They just talked about magnets and crystals and are saying that this is high technology and advanced design, like try again. So what is this magnet therapy that Nikken is abusing, I mean using in their products? Magnet therapy is the pseudoscientific alternative medicine practice, which are we really surprised? It seems like MLMs these days and alternative medicine practices just go hand in hand, you can't have one without the other. And they believe that by subjecting certain parts of the body to these weak magnets, somehow has beneficial health effects. If you know more about the logic behind the benefits of magnets on the body, please let me know in the comments down below because I have no idea logically how that would even begin to make sense, but okay. The American Cancer Society states that available scientific evidence does not support these claims. So in conclusion, I'm positively charged to believe that Nikken is a load of BS. The next MLM that I feel like isn't talked about enough is new skin. Lately, I've had a lot of people in my comments ask me to cover new skin, but I haven't seen a lot about it in the anti MLM community. Funny enough, I had someone give me a new skin facial cleanser once, but they never tried to sell me it or get me to join their team. So I never really thought anything of it or thought of it as an MLM until I was told it was one by someone in my comments. New skin was founded in 1984 in Provo, Utah. The company listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1996 and markets its products in 54 different markets through a network of approximately 1.2 million independent distributors. Now that's a whole lot of people and a whole lot of markets to be under the radar and very unknown in terms of the MLM community. In the 1990s, the FTC investigated new skin over complaints of its multi-level marketing practices. In 1992, new skin reached a settlement with five different states that had accused the company of deceptive advertising and overstating the income earned by distributors. They did what? MLM companies using deceptive advertising and overstating the amount that distributors can make? That never happens. Never ever. What are they talking about? FTC, you're crazy. No, that never happens. But on a real note, if new skin was almost shut down and had to pay millions to the FTC for deceptive advertising and falsely stating income claims, shouldn't that be happening to every MLM company out there? Because literally every single MLM company does that. So I'm a little bit confused on why new skin was targeted, but so many others slip by. If anyone knows, please let me know. Anyways, it seems like the reason why a lot of people don't know about new skin is that the FTC pretty much forced them, at least it seems, to stop the advertising that they were doing and be a little bit more silent. You know, they have a lot more restrictions on what they can and can't say and how they can recruit. So they're kind of unable to be as loud and out there as other MLM companies. China, yes, China itself sued new skin in a Utah federal court in which new skin settled for $47 million paid to China. Yeah, like an entire country sued new skin. So there's that next company on my list today is one that completely confuses me. This company is called send out cards, a greeting card multi level marketing company. Yeah, that's right. Send cards to your grandma while participating in a scam at the same time. Basically send out distributors are encouraged to get people to join the send out membership and encourage them to well send out cards compared to the alternative medicine. This will cure all your ailments type of MLM companies. This isn't as bad, but I just feel like it's a little strange in general. It's like a strange company to make a multi level marketing company. It's like greeting cards themselves are so wholesome and personal and harmless in general that you send to your family, friends and loved ones. And it feels like all that wholesomeness is just completely ruined by turning this into an MLM company. I just think how many people use greeting cards. I really don't think it's enough to be calling up someone or messaging them on Facebook constantly asking if they want to purchase more greeting cards from send out card. It seems like you'd kind of run out of people or options really fast. If I think about people that use greeting cards still today, it's my grandma. And that's it. My one grandma, not even the other one, just one of my grandmas still uses greeting cards. And that's the only person, literally the only person I know that still uses them. So it just feels like you'd run out of people to sell to really, really fast. Next up on this hidden or kind of unknown MLM list is the lovely awaited Market America. Market America to me reads like an amway on steroids. They literally sell absolutely everything from cleaning supplies to jewelry, personal care products, auto care, cosmetics, dietary supplements, custom websites, water purifiers, and weight management products. I mean, the whole business is genius. Haven't you ever gone into a mechanic or auto care shop and thought, you know, it would be so great if I could also pick up some jewelry here. And while I'm at it, if I could pick up some cleaning supplies, like some Clorox or Swiffer. And on top of that, shouldn't this mechanic shop make my website for me? Well, if you thought that then Market America is the company for you. I mean, that's really just my point exactly businesses like auto shops or jewelry stores are made to specialize in one thing so that they can do that one thing really, really well. That's why an auto shop doesn't sell jewelry as well, because they specialize in vehicles and cars and jewelry specializes in jewelry and the right types of jewelry and the great quality and sourcing and all of that stuff, you know, like they're good at what they do. They're knowledgeable. And if you combine all those businesses together, the chances of all of them being as high quality as an auto shop as a jewelry store, in my opinion, is very, very low and not likely. If someone's telling you that you need to buy all your goods in one place, they're probably not going to be the best quality. And it's probably a scam that you're getting into Market America was founded by top and way distributor J. R. Ridinger. I don't know. I don't know how to pronounce that one. The company has resolved charges with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and has been accused of violating the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. So, you know, overall, Market America seems like a very trustworthy company. The last hidden MLM company that I want to talk about is one that I have personal experiences with, Beauty Counter. Someone I was friends with on Facebook once reached out to me trying to sell Beauty Counter and recruit me into her team. And she showed up at one of the yoga classes that I was teaching to try and talk to me about the lovely Beauty Counter. When I went home and looked online to research Beauty Counter, the weird thing is it comes across as a normal non-MLM company. Through their website, they do a lot of website sales and they have a lot of traditional advertising like Facebook ads, billboards, etc. that a lot of MLM companies don't do, or at least it's more rare. You know, most MLM companies, their main source of revenue is through their MLM distribution kind of pyramid. And it seems like Beauty Counter focuses mainly on online sales with a little side thing of MLM. You know, they're dipping their toes into the MLM bucket. This whole MLM underbelly of Beauty Counter is only slightly touched on in their join section at the top of their website in very small lettering. Under join, they only say become a consultant and in no way does that signal become an MLM distributor for Beauty Counter. I mean, you think of makeup consultants in the mall who have you try on different beauty stuff. And that's what I think of when I think of beauty product consultant. I don't think MLM distributor. So the messaging is very vague and seemingly very purposefully vague, but that almost pisses me off too because to me, that's just a company being deceptive on what it's trying to sell you. And because, let's be honest, most companies try and sell you on becoming a distributor with them. I feel like if I wasn't aware of Beauty Counter being an MLM company, I wouldn't be able to read their join section and put two and two together that they are a MLM network marketing company. So what does Beauty Counter have to say about becoming a consultant on that section in their website? Lipstick meets legacy and it has women in these like business looking attire as if they're like, you know, very clean cup professional ladies. This is bigger than a paycheck, although that's nice too. It's about community and momentum and challenging the status quo. It's about building a better future for yourself and those you love. It's about being fearless in the pursuit of your best life. That's what's so interesting to me is it's like MLM lingo, but in a more like professional tone as if it's once again, trying to really hide the fact that this is MLM and it's trying to come across as this like very professional business woman empowerment type of thing. Side hustle or main hustle, you're the boss, you decide. When it comes to building your Beauty Counter business, our platform empowers you to create a career that fits your lifestyle. We provide the framework you need to be as successful as you want to be. It's all up to you. Yeah, because 99% of people fail at MLM companies because it was all up to them and they just decided that it wasn't for them. That's all not that, you know, the entire system is a scam created for people to fail and put a ton of money into a company. I mean, if you even look at Beauty Counter prices, they're so overpriced. I mean, I think that the lady that I was talking to was trying to sell me a like what nine-pan eyeshadow palette that was like $200 or something like that, 150 to 200. I can't remember. I'll post it on the screen here, but that's an insane amount, especially for consultants to continually have to buy this makeup that's so overpriced and then to have this air of like, you can succeed. It's your choice with Beauty Counter. We're professional and you're building a business and like to have these photos as if this is such a legitimate business is almost more upsetting to me than other MLM companies because it's extremely deceptive and they're trying to act as if they're the more professional out of all these options when they're just like everyone else. Our clean promise, there are more than 80,000 chemicals on the market today. Many don't have any safety data. This is particularly true of those used in the skincare and beauty industries. At Beauty Counter, over 1500 questionable ingredients are never used in our formulations. That whole clean beauty fad that I think really a lot of companies are taking to their advantage just to have overpriced products and use it as a marketing tactic to justify their insane prices for their products when, for me personally, like I can use a product that has like silicone and all these things that they see as bad ingredients and it's just fine. But I use a product that has essential oils or sunflower oil or things that they say are good in their product. And first off, it looks disgusting on my face. And second off, I break out like crazy. The CC cream that I use on my face right now, it is a little bit more expensive. It's the Dr. Jart CC cream in like a black container. It's supposed to be good for like acne prone skin. I believe it has some essential oils, but it just happens to work well for my skin and not break me out too much. Although I do get breakouts to believe me. But yeah, it's like it's just finding what works for you. And I feel like a lot of these beauty companies take advantage of that clean beauty movement to sell overpriced products. Take a chance. Walk the walk. We got you. No, you don't. The person that I was talking to was so desperate to make a sale. She was constantly like you could just see it in her face almost that like worry and desperation of wanting to make a sale. She messaged me months later and months and months after that continually messaged me to try and get me to work under her. So it's like, no, you don't got us. No. We have all our reasons to get behind hashtag better beauty. Your story is enough. You'll be your own boss, but you're not in this alone. Whether you need mentorship training online support or a high five virtual or in real life. Beauty counter is here for you always. It just really upsets me because I don't know why, but I just get this air of attitude and snobbiness out of beauty counter that's even more over the top than other MLM companies as if they're like the better, the best of them all, the most professional, the most like accepting. And it's just like that doesn't matter. You're still scamming people, you know? Secondly, I hate how misleading their marketing is. They're not better than an MLM company because they are an MLM company. So that concludes all of the hidden or undiscovered MLM companies out there. A lot of these have some really interesting a lot of these companies have some really interesting parts to them or, you know, facts about them. But since I've been getting so many recommendations for MLM companies to cover, it's really hard for me to do full dedicated videos on each company or topic. So this kind of format of a video is necessary basically so I can give you the richest amount of content in the shortest amount of time, which is a big goal and something that I'm trying to constantly balance and figure out. But if you want to see a part two to this video, definitely give this video a thumbs up and comment down below some other bizarre weird or undiscovered MLM companies that not a lot of people know about. And that'll definitely help me in my research to create more videos like these. If you have any really important stories about things that you've experienced with multi-level marketing companies or just scammy companies in general, unethical businesses, please click the website down below and submit your story using the link submit your story so that we can kind of create a platform to shed light on unethical businesses all together. And thank you guys so much for watching and supporting my channel. Until next time, have a good one.