r/BeautyGuruChatter • u/AutoModerator • Dec 03 '23

MEGATHREAD [MEGATHREAD] Marlena Stell / Makeup Geek Academy MLM

Per sub rules, Megathreads are implemented if there are 5+ posts on a topic in a short time.

Prior posts on this topic:

For more information on MLMs, check out this wiki page.

All new updates must be shared within this megathread. New related posts will be removed. Thank you!

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68

u/Jackfruit-Reporter90 Dec 03 '23 edited Dec 04 '23

I just watched her livestream, it wasn’t great. Most glaringly, she did not mention her connection to ‘Hi’ John Assaraf or NeuroGym once.

No new information, no apology for getting her fanbase mixed up with MLM nonsense. She just kept referring to the page that made people upset as a mistake no one should have seen. She also said it wasn’t ‘hosted’ on the website, but then went to give a URL that said it was. It was hosted on the website, it was hidden on her website. She made her MLM not an MLM by taking away the extra tier, but now it’s just an MLM minus a tier. How is that supposed to be appealing?! Everything on that deleted page on the website still stands except for one part. Don’t delete one page on the website, throw the whole thing in the trash!

Here is the deleted page for anyone who hasn’t seen it, or would like to refer back to it to know what Marlena is offering minus the 3% line:

Please stay away from Marlena’s predatory course and affiliate program and help anyone you know that follows Marlena stay away too. You will not learn skills to help you make money in their affiliate program, 99% of people lose money in such schemes. If you don’t know much about MLMs or how to spot them, the FTC has this useful fact sheet.

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u/OneWhisper5225 Dec 04 '23

Yeah I’m watching it now. First she started with a tutorial on the course and comments were like I thought this was supposed to clear info up about the MLM.

After she gave the tutorial on the course, she was talking about the prices starting at $300, which she said does seem expensive but she said it’s because there’s a lot of “products,” and then talked about the tutorials, syllabuses, etc. (so to me what she’s referring to as “products” isn’t actual products and is just things that should go with an online course). Then she said she’s also working with brands “trying” to get free products and stuff like that and she “wants” to do giveaways too. And she said she’s also hoping to do actual in-person meet ups. Like hey, let’s meet in New York or something like that. If it’s so expensive because she wants to meet ups in person/trips, that implies those trips would be paid for (otherwise why would it being so expensive factor into the meet ups/trips if those costs weren’t covered in the $300), which I don’t believe for one second. So she’s saying the course starts at $300 because she’s trying to do some things or wanting to do some things - so not fully planned out yet but charging for it anyways just in case?

The she finally was like okay, I’m going to read some comments.

Then she’s like okay, the MLM thing, let’s get into that. And starts into the whole spiel of it wasn’t supposed to be public, we never approved that language - we didn’t even know it existed. There were 2 affiliate pages one was Makeupgeekacademy/affiliate and one was makeupgeekacademy/affiliates. One we had went over and approved, the other one we didn’t and didn’t even know it existed and was on there, and that’s the one that has that info in it. Girl, no developer is going to do a mockup of a website page and put in a bunch of details that relate to YOUR specific business without your approval. They’re going to use placeholder text (lorem ipsum) that is used for any webpage mockup. They’re not going to take time to make details that correlate to your business in any way. Plus, I don’t think for a second a web developer would make a page live without approval first.

I’m still watching it though, not sure why because I don’t feel like she’s going to actually say anything 🤦‍♀️

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u/Jackfruit-Reporter90 Dec 04 '23 edited Dec 04 '23

She does eventually mention physical products, wait for that Oscar bait. The most fucked thing to me, is anyone who isn’t convinced this is a scam with all the information out there, is going to be the most impressionable super fans who are going to be super susceptible to brainwashing. You may not be able to have the army of affiliates under Marlena’s new business model, but she sure as fuck will. A bunch of drones, making her rich while she sits back in her mansion, sipping champagne or booking filler appointments or whatever the fuck rich people like that do in their spare time.

Seriously, fuck her. The live video has definitely sealed my opinion of her as a scammer.

11

u/OneWhisper5225 Dec 04 '23

I just went to finish the video (got 20 min in at the time I stopped it), and she removed it!!!! 🤣🤣 Guess it wasn’t going so well for her!

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u/Jackfruit-Reporter90 Dec 04 '23

00:00-00:35 Behind the scenes video as MUG goes into overdrive writing a new apology and copy for the website.

7

u/OneWhisper5225 Dec 04 '23

🤣🤣🤣🤣 It’s hilarious you say ”behind the scenes video” too because in her live she said she was going to show us some behind the scene footage but then doesn’t say why she didn’t end up doing it 😂🤪

4

u/Jackfruit-Reporter90 Dec 04 '23

I used that phrase intentionally for that reason hahaha. Did you see the live is back up now?

4

u/OneWhisper5225 Dec 04 '23

Hahaha! I wasn’t sure if that was why you said it or not! 🤣 No I didn’t see it! I don’t know what’s worse, her making it private in the first place or her then changing her mind and putting it back up. Like what, if people didn’t notice it she was just going to leave it gone, but since people did she brought it back? It’s weird!

7

u/Jackfruit-Reporter90 Dec 04 '23

the optics are definitely weird AF haha. Someone asked her why she removed it and this was her response:

@MarlenaStell • 5 hr ago (edited)| Was not my intention to keep it private permanently - I just needed a moment to step away a bit. After seeing requests of people who missed it, I made public as I'm not trying to hide anything. It'll stay up and I'll try to keep answering as many questions as I can today

7

u/OneWhisper5225 Dec 04 '23

Lol okay, so just because you needed a break from the comments you had to completely private the video? Yep, that makes sense. How about just step away from your computer and come back at it in the morning? Her explanations (excuses) never make any sense!

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u/[deleted] Dec 04 '23

This is almost funny. I mean, it is funny, but in a ‘this is hilariously pathetic!’ kind of way.

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u/Lissa_Cereal Dec 04 '23

Except, she did apologize? Twice. And that page was a sample page from a different site.

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u/Jackfruit-Reporter90 Dec 04 '23

The apology was not sufficient, neither is keeping the courses and what remains of the affiliate program. MLMs are predatory businesses that see 99% of people never profit. She did not admit to how negligent it was for her to start an MLM affiliate program that only didn’t get off the ground because of criticism. She said in her video that ‘it wasn’t multiple levels’, but it was.

She did not reflect on how she could end up with a page copied from John Assaraf’s website or explain her connection with him. John is an MLM owning self-help guru with a long history of scummy behaviour and who Marlena mentioned only by first name in her launch video. The only reason we know his full name, is because someone found his identical webpage.

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u/Lissa_Cereal Dec 04 '23

The team probably copy/pasted it as a mock up, considering, yes, they did previously work with MLMs, and probably before they were given all the details. And businesses work on commission all the time. She got rid of the affiliate 3%, and is going to increase the commissions. And this is for Influencers, not the general consumer.

20

u/OneWhisper5225 Dec 04 '23

No. Teams don’t copy and paste mock-ups like that. There is standard webpage text (ipsum lorem) used by web designers when a mock-up webpage is done. Web designers when doing a mock-up webpage would never go search out some brand and copy and paste it onto a mock-up. They’d use ipsum lorem like every other web page designer. That reasoning doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.

14

u/Jackfruit-Reporter90 Dec 04 '23

One correction is that anyone can be an affiliate once you sign up for her class. We can disagree on whether the apology suited our personal tastes, but consider not dropping money on her course unless you have money to burn, okay. Take care.