LuLaRoe is Not Sorry
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Description
Gaslight. Gatekeep. Girlboss. This week, Hoja, Kiki, and Mohanad break down the queen of MLMs: LuLaRoe. They talk about the company’s Mormon roots, their predatory recruitment process, and figure out just how much breast milk you’d need to sell to afford the company’s steep startup costs. Then, an interview with Lauren Covey Carson, a former LuLaRoe consultant who was featured in the LuLaRich documentary. Plus, Mohanad apologizes to Mario Lopez and Hoja reads some 1-star reviews for LuLaRich.
Please note, I’m Sorry contains mature themes and may not be appropriate for all listeners.
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Transcript
SPEAKERS
Lauren Covey Carson, Kiki Monique, Hoja Lopez, Mohanad Elshieky, Cara McNulty
Mohanad Elshieky 00:08
Hey, everyone, this is Mohanad Elshieky. And this is I’M SORRY, a podcast about apologies. And this week I started trying to cook for myself. And let me tell you, I used to hate cooking and I thought it sucked. And now I’ve done it for a week and I was right. It’s bad. I don’t like it. It’s such a waste of time, and I hate it.
Hoja Lopez
My name is Hoja Lopez. And I have been watching people disprove that dogs are vegetarians online, over and over again. This week, there’s been a slew of videos of women pretending that their dogs are vegetarian. And then when tested, guess what, they always go for the ham sandwich.
Kiki Monique
And I’m Kiki Monique. And I officially have a bagel tattoo permanently inked on my body. And I’m okay with it. It’s actually super cute. I really like it actually. It’s very cute.
Mohanad Elshieky
Yeah, I tried to do like I was gonna do like a transition from the bagels to our topic for the day and literally could not. Yeah, speaking of bagels..
Hoja Lopez
You ever been in an MLM, you ever joined?
Kiki Monique
I mean, I might join that one. I mean, I think we’ve all seen LulaRich now. And it follows the story of LuLaRoe, which is probably I mean one of the biggest if not the biggest, multi-level marketing MLM companies that has existed in this country. It started in like 2012. And it became like a billion-dollar company in a short few years. And it was really fueled by them. You know, the, the founders DeAnne and Mark Stenum. You know, married couple, they have like 15 children’s some of that are there some that are not there, as you know, they were both married before they were divorced. You know, they combined it was like, Brady Bunch, right?
Hoja Lopez 02:19
Yeah, I definitely think like DeAnne and her husband, give major sort of like, you know, my beach house is decorated with angers vibe. Like they have a very, like, specific aesthetic. And when I look like even just, you know, as I was learning about the documentary and themselves as people, like, what I think they are radically interesting, like the fact that they have, like, 15 children, that some of them are biological that many of them are adopted, like, what was your impression when you were kind of just hearing about them as people?
Mohanad Elshieky
So you know, they were talking about themselves, they were talking about the kids. And obviously, the one line that caught my attention is when they talked about how two of their kids who were adopted are married now. They followed up with so within our 15 kids, only two are married and I’m like, only two are married. Do you think this is good? Like what is the only part is doing so much of the heavy lifting here? Ah, yeah.
Hoja Lopez
We all know the cause of this, right? We all know that. It’s because of the rise of stepbrother and stepsister pornography. We all know they were out on the town, these Mormon kids. We’re watching a ton of porn in on their little cell phones. Yeah. And they were like, Hey, I got my very own stepbrothers situation here. Yeah. Do you know what you got? I was like, I hope they’re happy. I’m glad they found each other.
Kiki Monique
I mean, okay, that part astonished me. But like what astonished me even more was like, you know, of course, like after the documentary, I want to read more and more about these people. It was more insane to me that so DeAnne, her father was the great grandson of Hyrum Smith, who is the older brother of the Mormon Church’s founder and Prophet Joseph Smith. I mean, that is a major. I mean, I’m not Mormon, but even I know who the Prophet Joseph Smith is because it’s the founder of the Mormon Church. The fact that her father is the great grandson. I mean, that’s wild. So they start this company. And really, they identified a hole I would say they identified a hole in the market of these stay-at-home moms, who really want to be able to look it’s like, feel good about themselves. It’s like this sort of like pop feminism. Like you can be a boss too. If you do this, and you know because these women some of you many of them probably have degrees that they’re not using or you know just want to feel empowered in some way and LuluRoe offered them this opportunity to do that you know so you know DeAnne starts this company really just by having these dress parties you know she had been she really actually found sort of it was like a children’s dresses at like a swap meet and there were these dresses that were being sold in stores for she said hundreds of dollars, but she’s found them for 10 bucks so she bought a bunch of them.
Kiki Monique 05:34
And people were like, wow, she sold, she made all this money from just these children’s dresses. And then you know evolved into her daughter needing you know, can you sell me a skirt, she did that and her friends were like this skirt so cute. So now she starts having, you know, dress parties for older women and like buying these dresses, and it really just really grew organically, which again, that’s the American dream. It’s everything seems kosher. I’m loving this story. So far, nothing is going wrong. But then, as people see how cool this stuff is, and they’re really again, addressing this market, people are like, well, I, I’m staying at home, I want to be a part of this, how can I also sell your clothes. And now they realize, wow, cha ching, there are hundreds 1000s of women who are going to be willing to basically become our soldiers, right? And they’re going to be willing to sell our clothes. And all we got to do is provide it to them for the low price of $10,000.
Mohanad Elshieky 06:36
Also you don’t even get the product immediately you have to wait for it. You have to wait for a while to join the company.
Kiki Monique
I mean, that was the wildest story in the documentary. I mean, in addition to the waitlist of women who were clamoring to be a consultant cuz it’s not like you can just say, I want to be a consultant, you have to be put on a waiting list to pay someone $10,000 like I’ve never been on a waiting list to pay someone that much money. But you have to be on this waiting list. And then the woman who was telling the story about how she was camping, she had no service, she’s all the way up in the mountains. She kept going down to get service because she was tracking her box that she had bought. And the minute it said delivered, she packed her family up and got the fuck up the mountain. It was like we gotta go home right now.
Mohanad Elshieky
That was insane. That was an insane story. But I think also what was insane is like them, like the company founders. They were telling people how they can you know, collect that startup cost, like $10,000. And one of the advisors were like, you know, you can sell your breast milk to buy into the company. And I don’t know like if Nike for example, started saying that everyone be like, that is insane.
Kiki Monique
That’s insane. I meant to look up to and I forgot to do this. Did you any of you look up how much breast milk goes for online? Because I knew there was a market for you know, because obviously there’s women who want to be able to breastfeed their children and you know, it’s not always an easy process as like, TV makes it look like you just pop out a kid and like oh, breast, it’s not that easy. So some women do legitimately go to this. And so I was just wondering how much you can sell breast milk for and how much breast milk would have to be sold in order for you to have a $10,000 buy in?
Mohanad Elshieky 08:34
It’s insane. I wonder if like they’re like some other like ways they’ve mentioned that they didn’t mention in the documentary would like they send them a whole list of like body organs. If you really believe in this company, you don’t need two kidneys. You only need both corneas.
Hoja Lopez
Yeah, it’s really interesting. I was just looking this up, by the way, and it says that the average price for breast milk is I see different things, but anywhere from 2 to 2.50 per ounce on average, but that the number can be higher in certain cases. That also states that if you’re able to produce 25 ounces of milk per day, you can make about $23,000 a year by just selling your milk.
Kiki Monique
Wow. I mean, the fact that this is their you know, their first go to, to make money is amazing. But it also speaks to, they know who their demo is. Yeah, they’re like we have these stay-at-home moms and they want to be in a company and you know what they have available? They got that good old milk.
Hoja Lopez
It almost doesn’t feel like it’s enough though. Do you guys feel like when I saw that I was like, it feels like it should be more money.
Kiki Monique
Oh, I mean, I don’t know that’s $250 for an ounce.
Hoja Lopez
I said $2.50 is what I said yeah.
Kiki Monique
Oh, okay. All right. All right. All right. When you said Okay, so that’s how much I think it’s worth because when you said 250 I was like, okay, cool, cuz yeah, that’s how much it should be. $2.50 Oh, hell no. Like what is it? How long do you have to be pumped out to make $10,000? Can we do some? I know I’m always..
Hoja Lopez 10:21
Why is Kiki forcing me to do math on this frickin podcast?
Mohanad Elshieky
Yeah, it’s insane. You know, like, I feel like they’ve heard the term like, milk you out of your savings or whatever.
Kiki Monique
So they basically offer they set up this MLM structure where you buy into LuLaRoe from anywhere from $4000 to $10,000. You don’t know what pieces you’re getting. Because you know, that’s all a gamble. But you get these pieces you set up shop. And it starts out as kind of throwing dress parties at you know you’re filling these dresses into Tupperware, you’re taking them to people’s houses, you’re setting them up, selling them. And then it eventually evolved into Oh, well, social media is here we can evolve to online so we can do these Facebook Live parties. And that’s where it really started growing. But I think where they all went wrong is like, Have either of you ever seen that movie, it follows it’s like a horror movie. It’s basically this movie where the entity has like cursed this person. And the only way you can get rid of the curse off of you is if you sleep with another person. And then that person is in curse. And so you get away and then that person then in order to get rid of the curse, has to sleep with another person. And so the more people that sleep with people, the further the curse gets away from you. But if it ever catches up to that last person, well then that’s one person in the chain, and it’ll never leave you it just gets further and further away. I feel like that’s how we would describe LuLaRoe because really, if you were one of the first people in, you’re good, but you have to infect all these people underneath you. And they have to keep infecting people below them. And like in a way you were probably started off as the victim but now you’re the predator. And so it’s an interesting dichotomy there.
Mohanad Elshieky 12:28
It’s a cycle, absolutely, yeah, like we said they have to invite their own network in and their network is you know, their friends, their close friends their families and you know, the kind of fucking them up either intentionally or not intentionally, you know, but they know the risk, I feel like part of it is also you know, they think that they’re helping them they’ll think they’re like, actually like, making the money and all of that, but like you said, you have to you have to give the curse to someone in order for you to be free.
Hoja Lopez
I will say I do feel like I’ve had at least have maybe like six or seven messages on my inbox with like the words like hey, hon. I know I haven’t spoken to you since I was 12 years old. And I’m you know, so sad to see that your aunt has passed away. But anyways, would you like to buy some of these like fancy lavender oils? They’re great for stress.
Kiki Monique
I’m really surprised because you know, MLMs I’m realizing how big they are after watching LudaRich but I’ll fully admit that like it was just this thing that I had heard about. Because as a black woman, I just don’t think I’m their targeted demographic. And so you as a woman of color. Hoja, I’m actually surprised you have so many messages because I don’t think anybody has ever messaged me to join an MLM.
Hoja Lopez
I collect white friends because I think they’re exotic looking. Like this is the I know all of them. So I am also surprised you haven’t received them out of the blue because you don’t really have to be friends with a lot of people for MLM to touch you know for somebody to reach out.
Mohanad Elshieky 14:09
I guess like why? So why is it considered legal? Because, you know, like, they are like, multi-level marketing MLM. And then there is a pyramid scheme. And, you know, like, pyramid schemes, as we all know, it’s illegal. It’s not, you know, you can do it by law, but MLMs are, and I’m still kind of kind of confused about, like, what makes what legal and what, you know, makes it illegal.
Kiki Monique
I mean, technically you are providing a product to you know, the people who buy in, and technically, they could sell it to other people and make money on it. So that’s really the only difference because with a pyramid scheme, you might be paying money, but then there’s actually no product At the end of it, but these people are getting product but the realization is there in order to stay within this pyramid they have to keep buying a set number of products you know with the way the Lulu row sort of pyramid or I won’t call it a pyramid, their rankings worked it’s like okay you come in as the sponsor right and then in order to make trainer you have to have 10 people below you. And in order to move up you know above trainer to coach you have to have three trainers underneath you. In order to move up to mentor you have to have coaches and all of these people have to be purchasing, you know X amount. It’s like your whole team has to be purchasing at least 175 pieces when your trainer, your whole team has to be buying 1750 pieces when you’re a coach. And so the only way you can do that is if the people underneath you are buying all this and shoving it in their garage and whether it ever gets actually sold. They don’t care, just we know that you have to hit these goals.
Mohanad Elshieky 16:02
Yeah, so speaking of trainers, we reached out to someone who was involved in LuLaRoe and has appeared on the documentary LuLaRich on Amazon, and that person is Lauren Covey Carson and we’re going to talk to her after the break.
Kiki Monique
Welcome back to I’m sorry, we’re so happy to have Lauren Covey Carson here who was in the Lulu rich documentary. Welcome Lauren.
Lauren Covey Carson
Thank you I’m super excited to be here with you guys.
Kiki Monique
I think that the whole It feels like the whole world to me in the last couple of weeks is absorbed in LuLaRoe and you know for people who haven’t watched it yet you know you were at LuLaRoe you became a trainer Can you talk to us about how you got into it and that sort of thing?
Lauren Covey Carson
Yeah, I have always been in retail or store management like I’ve always been kind of like the business quote unquote and then once I had kids and was like one of the you know, I was like oh I want to be at home with my kids. And this guy was like oh my gosh there’s this company it’s not like one of those kind of companies meaning like you have the product at your house so you kind of have a store within your house and you sell it to you know people that want it which is super sought after and it’s like easy peasy like you’ve got the product you’ve got the kids it’s not like you have to do spend all this time on the computer just you know you’ve got a lot of time like you’re gonna free up time if anything and you’re gonna make money okay so July I had my son This was July of 2015 I really at that point so this was my second child I was like okay, I have and I’m all about like independent woman gonna have my own money my husband’s not going to be taking you know I’m you know what I mean? Like I’m not he’s not going to pay for a pedicure manicure like I’m going to do me. So, in October I got my inventory and I actually in the beginning was like I didn’t think I know it does sound crazy like $10,000 like that’s a ton a shit ton of money.
Kiki Monique 18:35
That’s how much you paid to buy in for your first kit, 10,000?
Lauren Covey Carson
Correct, which is a lot of money it’s a lot of money but when you think about it when it’s like you are getting the inventory you own it, okay, it’s coming to you are now owning a business quote like essentially a storefront or this is okay this is all like I’m selling you guys, this is the pitch.
Hoja Lopez
Lauren I think the most I’ve ever spent is like $1200 on a MacBook Pro and when I ended over that money I was like oh my god I don’t know why I purchase anything. I’m more of a spending very small amount so if you say the amount $10,000 you’re blowing my mind.
Lauren Covey Carson
Okay, but if you think about it, okay, so your let’s just say you’re like okay for $1200 like my Mac Pro, but that is going to now turn into a potentially could turn into like $2400 because you can make a business out of that you can create a band on that you can create, I mean, really, and this is kind of where the manipulation starts, right? Okay, it’s like that slow thing of like, well, this is now on you. You are in charge now of what happens with this investment that you just made. And I just sold you this dream on it. It’s now on you. You can do whatever you want. You can make a million dollars, you could make $5000, you can make, like, whatever that looks like.
Kiki Monique 20:03
Which for someone coming into this business, it feels empowering. You’re like, I can make as little or as much as I want.
Lauren Covey Carson
Exactly and it’s on you and it’s women power and it’s, I mean, if I’m jumping too far ahead, it’s like it literally is like entering a extremely like abusive relationship where you’re just like, oh yeah, he’s taking me out to the finest restaurant or whatever it is. I’m getting wined and dined I’m getting told that like all the things and you believe it because you also really want it.
Mohanad Elshieky
How long were you in the company like look the whole?
Lauren Covey Carson
Three years.
Mohanad Elshieky
And which level did you get to?
Lauren Covey Carson
I just had hit coach when I left.
Kiki Monique
Oh wow.
Hoja Lopez
When did the pieces sort of start making sense for you that it wasn’t kind of like as legitimate or as exciting as you maybe initially thought?
Lauren Covey Carson
I mean, I think from kind of even like a few months in I was like what is this, like what is actually going on? How are they making money? How are we making money okay, I get that I’m making these checks. But also like it is really hard to explain because it’s not just like oh it went like one day went from just being like this normal kind of company that you were in because there are so many companies like that, right? Where all of a sudden I will say that it was just kind of like when they restructured to where your bonus checks were based on sales, not orders from the warehouse. That’s when kind of everything kind of changed where your mindset just kind of went to oh, this is benefiting them not us.
Hoja Lopez
Has there been like a lot of gossip? Did you feel like there was like a moment where everybody was just sort of talking about the negative stuff leading up to the documentary like what have you seen from your friends and whatever they’ve been saying?
Lauren Covey Carson
Well, so what’s so interesting is that I actually like told nobody about it I was really kind of actually ashamed about it. I’ve gotten so many messages from people that were like whoa, like whoa, I mean I was like really ashamed because I mean for so many reasons one it’s like embarrassing like in a way like you feel like you got duped, like what, like no way you know and then, you know there was like a lot of negativity around LuLaRoe but also it took me personally just me to a place where I was like, I did this to myself because no one held a gun to my head.
Kiki Monique 22:42
I mean I know you mentioned earlier how it felt like an abusive relationships and all the words you’re saying or like what people in abusive relationships. It was my fault, wow.
Lauren Covey Carson
Cuz no one held a gun to my head and said you have to buy this inventory; you have to be in this company.
Hoja Lopez
But they did like curate something that really identified with your life it knew everything to say in order to get you to buy into it exactly and it basically like lured you and set a trap for you, you know, and so yeah, there’s something really disingenuous about the way that they approach it and then also the hypocrisy and not admitting that there’s something fishy about the process. Absolutely.
Kiki Monique
Do you still have a bunch of inventory like in your house? Oh, you to look at it every day. I mean, I would be like, oh, it’s like when an ex-boyfriend leaves and you look at his stupid shoes or shirts.
Lauren Covey Carson
Right? You’re like just get rid of that. I have it in the garage and I need to just get rid of it and they donate it.
Kiki Monique
I heard there’s some thrift stores that are just like no LuLaRoe like they’re so overwhelmed.
Lauren Covey Carson
But I had this one lady messaged me and then I but then you know, then I was like, well scared the same time that she messaged me and she’s like, hey, I like want to help people out who have like, lost out on LuLaRoe like I can meet you and like buy inventory and blah, blah. And I was like, I am good having people come into my house and like I you know, I guess the biggest thing was that, you know, they should have just done the buyback. I mean, they should have stuck to their word, which was like buyback inventory, especially since we didn’t have a say in anything. There was no say.
Kiki Monique 24:28
LuLaRoe was charged only in Washington state as operating as an alleged illegal pyramid scheme which they ended up settling. Would you if you were to say like, do you consider LuLaRoe a pyramid scheme?
Cara McNulty
I mean, yeah, I get I mean, I don’t. I guess my question has been to since watching the documentary, like what sets them apart and I keep rewatching the part with the lawyer when it breaks down like what makes them different from all of these other like, because I know so many people do like young living or like, don’t like all these different things from like, it’s the same, it’s the exact same thing. So I guess then to me, I’m like, well, it all is if you’re making $1 off anybody that you’re signing, they’re not signing up because they want to be selling your product. Then it’s a pyramid scheme, in my opinion. If I want to sell Mary Kay, then I should just be able to call Mary Kay, and be like, I want to sell your stuff. Why do I need to call somebody else to sign me up that and then they’re getting paid off me?
Hoja Lopez
Yeah, I think it’s something like for the majority of MLM, or, and pyramid schemes as both is that there’s only a certain amount of people who make money. So it’s only like the first 1% to 3% of people who sign up for the scheme that end up actually making money. Whereas 70 to 80% of people make $0, like, actually $0 and only spend.
Kiki Monique
So Lauren, this show, it’s called I’M SORRY, it’s about apologies. So in your view, does LuLaRoe need to apologize for what they’ve done?
Lauren Covey Carson 26:08
Yes, I think that there needs to be a huge apology. And I would say more so to, I think it’s such a trickle down again factor. But yes, I do think there’s a huge apology because I think that everybody started this just like everybody gets a job for, you know, a reason we want to contribute in some sort of way with us to your family, yourself, your animals, your volunteering, whatever you do, whatever you’re set out to do. I think that everyone does that with intention. And I think that when the intention has been, you’ve been misled, or there’s just not been honesty there, I think that there absolutely needs to be an apology.
Kiki Monique
One more question. Before we go. Do you think seeing the documentary will get LuLaRoe to change their ways?
Lauren Covey Carson
No, I think there’s so I think they are so I don’t even know that word. Like they’re so not stubborn. But no, they believe in their truth that they believe what they and okay then well, but I think that it’s up to other people to really listen to their truth. And when you know that something’s not right, or, and something’s not right, like, do better, when you know better you do better?
Hoja Lopez
Yeah, I for one I’m really grateful that you were on the documentary. And I don’t think that you should be embarrassed or feel bad about it at all. Because I think there’s probably a lot of people that have like, a small seed of doubt inside themselves on whether or not it’s the right thing to do and whether or not they should buy into the, the company. And I think you’ll be really helpful in dissuading them from going around where there’s so much risk that they have to take on, while the company takes on none of the risk. And so I think that it’s, I think that it’s awesome that you were in it, and I agree, yeah, I’m grateful to have seen you there.
Lauren Covey Carson 28:08
Oh, I really actually, I really, really, really do appreciate hearing that. I think if anything, you know, good that’s come out of it. It’s just as is that so I really appreciate hearing that. Thank you.
Hoja Lopez
So that was so interesting. I’m so grateful, she decided to come on the show. I feel like just in dissecting some of the things that she said, and like, how she really does feel like they need to apologize. There does seem to be this sort of feeling with this company in particular, where they’re just really not going to it’s not in their best, like financial interest to, it’s in their best interest to just kind of blindly continue on pretending as if there’s nothing wrong. Yeah. Which states a whole new kind of dilemma which is like how do people heal and recover from situations where you’re just never really gonna get an apology like that is just not coming.
Mohanad Elshieky
Yeah, I mean it’s hard to feel like that you have been fooled you know, like someone that got to your brain and just like you know, played around with you so there’s like this pride where you’re like, you know, you don’t want to talk about it. There’s the shame involved and Lauren talked about that a bit. But I think at the end of the day, it’s like there’s no shame in it. You know, like this can happen to anyone and they really tapped in into this whole like, not just American dream, but like, we just happen to live in a country where for in order for you to feel useful. You have to provide and you have to be part of the economy and if you are a stay-at-home mom, they’re basically telling you like, you’re not bringing any money to the table. Yes, you’re raising the kids and you’re doing so much. But no money is involved here. So to us, you’re useless. And we have a way to make you useful to make you like the person that you want to be. So I mean, that’s how they usually get to them. And it’s fucked up, obviously.
Kiki Monique 30:20
I mean, I hate to sound jaded. But I think I’m so used to being disappointed by this system that like this, again, this one why I’m not their demographic? Because I would have been like, absolutely, I’m not paying you to make money. This doesn’t even make sense from the jump.
Mohanad Elshieky
Yeah, but that’s all of us. Right? You know, like even us we’re not involved in these like MLM or pyramid schemes, we feel like we have to be doing something all the time. Which is why I mean, personally, like sometimes I feel like I can’t even rest on my days off because I’m, I feel like I have to be doing something I have to be productive. I’m just like, told that, like, you know, I have to keep working. And, you know, when you feel that all the time, this is like becomes your whole life, you know, you want to change it and Lula row was that Savior, you know?
Hoja Lopez
They’re definitely like, that’s definitely one of the ways in which they’re manipulative and predatory, which takes me to the fact of like, they took advantage of you. And part of being taken advantage of is feeling at a loss, not just obviously, monetarily like these people were but in the way that you felt disrespected, with no solution to that. And I think healing from something that you’re never going to get vindication from that you don’t get justice from that you don’t have somebody on the other end saying, like I made a mistake is actually a pretty bitter pill that you have to swallow. And something that I admire about you know, her is that she comes on the show, and she’s like, I’m gonna move on. And moving on without an apology can be very difficult. I know I’ve personally been in situations where, you know, after many years of therapy, and many years of somebody telling me like, hey, like, you don’t need this other person to say, Sorry, you don’t need that other person to acknowledge what they have done for you to be able to acknowledge that you felt some kind of way about it. But it’s definitely a harder process, because apologies do offer some closure. And they offer an okay, we both understood what actually happened, but not in this case.
Mohanad Elshieky 32:26
Well, I mean, yeah, no, I agree. And I mean, like, I guess, when it comes to apologies, and forgiveness, and all of that, you know, if it’s not the people around you, if it’s not, you’re not getting an apology from the top, the only person that is left for you to forgive is really yourself at this point, you know, you just can’t keep being upset at yourself. And I know, it’s upsetting and I know it sucks. And I know you like lost money. But at the end of the day, you know, it really happens to the best of us.
Kiki Monique
I think that’s the part that made me the most sad about the doc and you know, even talking to Lauren is that the shame these women felt, you know, whether it’s, you know, the woman I think, Courtney, who, you know, purchased two vehicles and purchased her, you know, $40,000 you know, Louis Vuitton bag, you know, getting surgeries to lose weight because that’s, you know, the one is skinny, you know, chat that was happening that was encouraged, supposedly, by the top and just them feeling so shameful. But it’s like, no, give yourself some grace. Be kind to yourself, because we’ve all fallen for something at some point in our life. Just, that’s why they’re at the top. They’re good at what they do.
Mohanad Elshieky
And if it makes me feel any better, I once paid for a to perform at an open mic, you know? Like $5 and I still think about them to this day. It really hurt. But you know, at the end of the day, I chose to forgive myself and I moved on.
Hoja Lopez
Yeah, I mean, all in all, looking at LuLaRoe specifically, it’s like, I think it’s like 50 lawsuits in. They abruptly like, stopped their buyback policy, because they’re like, claiming that the retailers are abusing it, they’re still waiting for their money back. Like overall, I think it is such a black and white issue that people should not feel ashamed like they were fully taken advantage of. It’s not just you being unable to sell. It’s an actual institution that is like that has defective legging issues that has issues in terms of like the material that can’t sustain their own growth. And they’re just trying to pass on the blame on to the people who are trying really, really hard to make something happen for themselves. And I think that’s the saddest part. You know, when you look at all the things that they’ve done in terms of like the MacDyer lawsuit and the copyright infringement, like it just becomes hopefully in their mind Like clearer and clear that from the very first moment, they were dealing with a disingenuous company, and that it wasn’t necessarily them not being able to sell things.
Mohanad Elshieky 34:39
And one last thing I’ll say there’s also one more person who deserves an apology is Mario Lopez because he invited him in and then in the documentary they were like, Yeah, man, we got a man you know, he was under budget. It was like we literally saved a lot of money just by getting him it. It didn’t cost us much. And if I was Mario Lopez watching that I literally would not leave my home ever again. So hey, Mario Lopez, forgive yourself.
Kiki Monique
And he didn’t just say under budget, they emphasize way under.
Mohanad Elshieky
They were like this man was his tickets. He does not care. Yeah, he will do anything for money.
Hoja Lopez
I also want to invite everyone to go read the reviews on Amazon Prime movies for this documentary, they are riddled with just the most exciting ideas about why this documentary is sucks. You got to go read the one-star reviews. So I went in, because like you can rate any show. So I, of course, looked at the one-star ones because which other ones even really matter? So, first of all, there’s 231 Global ratings. So 231 people actually rated it. And this one is my favorite because it’s the most amount of people found it useful. Being 116 people were like, yeah, this is exactly, this is exactly what I thought about the show too. So she goes is this show being financed from suing parties versus LuLaRoe? So right off the bat, she’s on conspiracy theory watch. who funded this movie? And then it says, how come these women making six figures spent everything on luxury items and then blame the company they work for? And then she goes on to list 5 different things that are incorrect about the specific..
Kiki Monique 37:26
You should reply to that comment and say hi DeAnne because that sounds like it’s coming from DeAnne.
Mohanad Elshieky
Absolutely.
Hoja Lopez
No, no at the very end it says disclaimer, I’m not associated with this company nor anyone. This is ironic it’s her it’s the disclaimer I’m not associated with this company nor anyone from these parties. My two cents comes from over 20 years of experience in marketing and management.
Kiki Monique
At running MLM.
Hoja Lopez
Let’s go look DeAnne and she started exactly 20 years ago.
Kiki Monique 38:05
And now time for sorry, not sorry. This week, California drivers owe me an apology. I’ve driven in a lot of states and a lot of places with a lot of highways. And I will say that Californians are the worst drivers I’ve ever encountered in my life. And for that they owe me an apology because I’m scared. I’m gonna die on these roads.
Mohanad Elshieky
No, I agree. I never drive there. It sucks. And yeah, I don’t like it. I hate it. I thought what I had to say about California drivers was gonna be more interesting. But hey, that’s what came out.
Hoja Lopez
I would like to ask for an apology humbly from unfamiliar allergens. Because I’m a swell bitch. I’m swollen honey. I did something out in the world that has caused me to actively look like a chipmunk. And both of my cheeks are so swollen. Oh, thank you so much. I do I look fully like Cupid like I’m about to shoot you in your face and you’re gonna fall in love. I think that’s okay.
Mohanad Elshieky
And you just came back from Mexico, right? Yeah. Do you think you were allergic to the States? That’s what I think.
Hoja Lopez
Okay, that was your theory. And honestly, I really appreciate that because I don’t currently have insurance. And I think my body was like, fuck it. Let’s stick it to her. Let’s do something crazy. She needs to feel alive right now. Even if it’s through pain. So um, yeah, I would like for the US of America, the known allergen to apologize to me.
Mohanad Elshieky
A person who owes me an apology this week. She’s in the next room. So I’m just gonna say it out loud. My girlfriend owes me an apology. Cuz earlier today I had a tweet that was shared on the Instagram story of Sharon Stone, you know, yeah I know she’s been on TV for a while.
Hoja Lopez 40:05
Big of star. I love heard.
Mohanad Elshieky
You’ve heard of her and I was so excited so I showed her the Instagram story and she said who is Sharon Stone? Not only she wasn’t excited she was like you know she made..
Hoja Lopez
The youngest stone
Mohanad Elshieky
Cold Stone Steve Austin.
Hoja Lopez
The Family Stone. Wow. Okay.
Mohanad Elshieky
Yeah. And I’m like, hey, you’re like, you know 26, you’re not really that younger than me. You have no right. So you know, I love her. She said you’re old.
CREDITS
I’M SORRY is a Lemonada Media Original. The show is produced by Alex McOwen, supervising producer is Kryssy Pease. Our executive producers are Stephanie Wittels Wachs and Jessica Cordova Kramer. Our mix is by Kat and theme music was composed by Xander Singh. If you like this show, please rate and review. And please don’t cancel us. You can find out more about our show at @LemonadaMedia on all social platforms, or follow us on Instagram at @imsorry_podcast. We’ll be back next week and until then be nice, play fair and always say I’m sorry. Thanks for listening!
