I recently interviewed Eric Martinis, Producer and Director of The Downline movie. The Downline is a real documentary that follows 4 people for 1 year in a start up Network Marketing company. I know there will be a lot of interest in this movie and I want to thank Eric for taking the time to speak with me. If you would like to have more from Eric, please leave a comment. We are thinking about doing an interview for a podcast.
www.thedownlinemovie.com
Here is the movie teaser:
MLM Blog: I can't imagine that you had a lifelong dream of making a movie about Network Marketing, how did this come about?
Eric Martinis: I think you misunderstood what I was saying on the phone. It has been my dream...since college...to premiere a film at Sundance, any film. This doc. about Network Marketing was just a subject that seemed very interesting to us and thought it would be great subject matter. I went to film school at BYU in Provo, UT. Spent all four years going to Sundance and volunteering as an usher my junior and senior years. I still go back every year and enjoy the festival. This is why I submitted "The Downline" to Sundance.
MLM Blog: What other films have you worked on in the past?
Eric: Most recently, I was an Associate Producer on two films from Halestorm Entertainment, "Single's Ward" and "The R.M."
MLM Blog: How did you decide to feature Agel? Will the movie promote Agel over other MLM opportunities and why Agel?
Eric: My Brother in Law introduced me to the CEO of Agel, Glen Jensen before the company had a product or a name. It was just an idea that Glen had in his head. We started talking about the culture and business of network marketing. I had some peripheral knowledge about network marketing, but had no idea how fascinating it really was. At the time, I was on the hunt for a documentary film idea. One thing led to another, and I ended up asking Glen if I could document his company as a start up and a few of his distributors. Glen agreed to my request and gave us full access to himself and his Executives. The idea was never to promote Agel. Agel in no way gave us any funding for the production of the documentary. They only gave us access to interviews and access to events.
MLM Blog: Are any other MLM programs featured positively (besides Agel)?
Eric: We have interviews with a number of other MLM companies. Believe it or not, most of our requests for interviews went un-answered or declined. The four that we really tried to interview were Amway, NuSkin, USANA and Noni, none of them would do it. We have mostly distributor interviews and some Executive interviews with the following companies, whether the interviews made it in the film or not is a different story.
They are...Avon, Xango, Mary Kay, XPI, Burn Lounge, Enrich, Rexall Showcase, Silpada, Arbonne, Modbe, Slumber Parties. I would say that 95% of the interviews are very positive of the MLM industry...probably as expected.
MLM Blog: What is your experience with Network Marketing (if any)?
Eric: There were two directors on "The Downline" Myself, who joined Agel to be immersed into the MLM culture and receive the distributor/marketing kit and Jason Allred who purposefully stayed out of any MLM so that he could remain neutral. I have never been in an MLM before the start of full time production on the documentary and neither has Jason. Jason still is not.
MLM Blog: How did you pick the four people featured in the movie?
Eric: I went to the Agel "pre-launch" meeting when they first started up looking for 4 very different people. I also attended some other conferences in my search. I wanted them to be just average people making a go at a brand new upstart. ...people that other people could relate to. They also needed to be from different backgrounds. From there, I just roamed around looking for an interesting story by meeting and talking to as many people I could. I ended up finding a young, aggressive "Rookie" from West Palm Beach...a "Mother" of four children from Utah, a successful "Businessman" from Austin, Texas...none of them ever involved in a network marketing company AND the fourth distributor, a "Pro" from Philadelphia, PA. She had been in NM for 18 years prior to joining Agel.
MLM Blog: I understand that the music in the film is great, who are the artists?
Eric: The music supervision was done by two of the members from the multi-platinum selling band LiVE, Chad Gracey (drummer) and Patrick Dahlheimer (Bass). They were so excited about doing the music that they ended up recording 7 original songs for the film.
MLM Blog: Did anything surprise you during filming?
Eric: Yes, we were very surprised at how closed a lot of people are to talking about their business on camera. In a world where everyone is promoting themselves, the idea of a documentary film about Network Marketing shut them up pretty quickly. I thought most people would jump at the chance. And, it wasn't limited to NM Professionals...we found that anti-NM people were just as camera shy! We also really tried to interview Orrin Hatch, a Senator from Utah. Surprisingly, he had no comment about an industry that brings in more than $4 Billion in revenues for the State of Utah.
(Sadly, I was not contacted for an interview - MLM Blog)
MLM Blog: Did you have any preconceived ideas about Network Marketing that turned about wrong? Right? What were they?
Eric: I think
more than 90% of the people out there that are not in Network Marketing
have some preconceived ideas about the business. That is just what
makes this documentary interesting. Mine were just as generic as
anyones. The usual, "pyramids", "bother your friends", "product
piles up", etc. etc. Over the course of our 19 month journey, I
found that all of my notions were incorrect for the most part. We
do a really good job of staying very neutral and exploring both sides of
the fence...both positive and negative.
MLM Blog: Do you think that financial freedom is possible through
Network Marketing?
Eric: Absolutely, IF someone treats it like a business. We interviewed a great deal of very successful people. People that have achieved "financial freedom". However, I really don't think that Network Marketing is for everyone. Just like being a Doctor or Lawyer is not for everyone. The truly successful people we met have a passion and love for this business that is quite uncanny.
MLM Blog: How do you plan on distributing the film? When and where can I see it?
Eric: Right now, we have submitted for consideration to the Sundance Film Festival as a "Premiere" for the 2007 Fest. This means that we are unable to have any public showings until we hear back from them by December 1, 2006. In parallel, we have submitted to the Slamdance Film Festival. The second largest festival in Utah...also as a premiere. As you can see, we are really trying to have our premiere in Utah. The odds of getting selected for either of these festivals is VERY slim. If we do not get into either of these festivals, we have plans to immediately submit to about 30 other festivals. You can see "The Downline" at any of these, starting in January of 2007. After that, who knows...probably buy the DVD on-line.
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This film sounds great!!! I can't wait to see it! What festivals will you be submitting to in the So. Cal area? When will this be available for purchase? If you ever do a sequel, I would be happy to be interviewed!
I agree with Eric's take on the documentary's approach — neutral.
The "other" movie… looks to be a biased phony "mockumentary"… unlike… umm… BORAT which is a true-blue mockumentary!!
haha.
MLMs suck and I'll tell you why in 4 quick minutes. Have a look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He6gDrR4K0U
Cheers!
NWM is describing an Australian 2 Up plan, which is basically a differently structured MLM plan.
Sigh….
Dear Webmaster,
Why the "sigh"?
We would very much like to hear your views.
We believe a lot of people think they had been "misled" into joining binary compensation plans… but truly they merely joined the WRONG ONE — Usana.
Usana's plan is very restrictive and in the end, one ends up dealing with all the obstacles of building an org with more than 2 referrals anyway, in order to circumvent the US$1k/week restriction. And because of their unrealistic 1:1 "balancing" ratio, nobody can really excel with the company.
This shows with their producing only very few 7-figure earners in their 10++ year history.
HOWEVER, with all that said, there ARE companies that exist with truly practical & FAIR binary compensations & very rewarding ones, in fact.
FAIR binary plans are designed to suit 90% of the network marketing distributor population — the part-timers / small-time business builders who only have a few hours per week to spend outside of their 9-5 jobs!
Details & Analysis here:
http://networkmarketingtrialsandtribulations.blogspot.com
The sigh was for someone that attempts to say that MLM sucks while they are promoting a form of mlm.
The reality of most binary plans is that they pay a smaller % for volume created.
Well, its just marketing.
MLM does suck in most cases, & as we've previously experienced too.
Indeed binaries might pay a smaller %, but its a matter of "giving & taking"… with binaries, one is given a lot more freedom and TRULY the power to decide to sponsor 2, and spend your efforts helping train & teach the rest to duplicate to their own 2.
This is not possible in most other comp plans.
It is an obvious fact that most (up to 90%) involved in network marketing just do not have the abilities / time to sponsor many people, and that's where non-binary plans penalise them heavily on.
Of course, one just has to do their due diligence into finding the right company which provides all the right features in a binary, and not just hop on the first binary that comes along.
If you do not have the time or ability to sponsor, a binary plan is not going to help you.
hmm… if we're talking about one who doesn't have the time or ability to sponsor, then not one single plan will help this poor soul.
If we're talking about one who doesn't have the ability/luck to sponsor more than 2, then all comp plans will not be able to help him/her — EXCEPT the binary.
There's no use debating that one will gain a little more commissions in a unilevel/breakaway.
It is very evident when one makes a simple calc.
Let us say this "handicapped" distributor sponsors JUST 2 in the univera plan, and also in a binary plan:
- Fill up your 6 generations in univera (based on 2), and this distributor ends up earning 3-fig a month, or just breaks the 4-fig mark.
More often than not (in unilevels/breakaways), NOT qualifying for any of the executive bonuses they've been lured with.
- In a binary, its not a doubt the cycles come later ( Question remains:
Is one in network marketing to TRULY help the small-time networkers, or to penalise them with "empty promises"?
- In a binary, its not a doubt the cycles come later (this is logically explained in our blog), BUT with a little bit of TIME on their side (where the org grows deeep), this "regular" distributor WILL BE able to reap the benefits of an EXTRAordinary heavy-hitting biz builder. — This is NOT possible in any other plan in the industry.
Question remains:
Is one in network marketing to TRULY help the small-time networkers, or to penalise them with "empty promises"?
A person will not cycle in a binary unless they have volume in both legs and if they want to make any real money they would need to find a big business builder in each leg.
If you have a big business builder in two legs in ANY compensation plan, you will make good money.
I have no problem with Binary plans, but they do not help the average Joe make more money in Network Marketing.
Exactly… no volume, no cycle.
no volume = no earnings in ANY comp plan.
In binaries, no volume comes about because of the small numbers sponsored, and thus resulting small volume — ONLY at the beginning though!!
e.g. if one sponsors 2 a month in 2 months & teaches the same thing, there'll be 1,600 distributors in 15 months!
Go do the math, Ty.
You do NOT need to find the big builder.
Just promote products to the minimalist 2, and TIME is the only factor for an AVERAGE JOE to become a Mark Yarnell, or Ty Tribble.
– in the RIGHT company though!
(As stated above, Usana is not a true binary plan company if one wants to earn beyond US$1k/week.
Readers: see our blog, and you'll see why.)
Ty, like we said, fill up your 6 generations in Univera just based on TWO legs (which is 124 downlines), and you don't really see ANYthing BIG with that.
Readers: due diligence & research is the key. Not old-school assumptions.
MLM Industry is a joke. I was involved with a company that is one of the largest natural products company in the States and nearing the world. I was involved with different CEO changes / management changes, and I learned that new people who only care about resume's and how they look really change the look and feel of a business.
The idea of MLM is great … but when you have the wrong people at the helm, it doesn't work.
Phoenix Down
Modbe might have cute stuff, but they don't pay their vendors. They stiffed me $3,000. Beware. Hope you get paid.