Written by Frosty Rose

It’s been awhile since we did a mathematical takedown of any of our dear national areas, and it feels like now is the right time to take another stab at their “executive income” claims for directors.

Helpfully, Somer Fortenberry shared her mid-month August report last week, and one of our Pink Truth Super Sleuths posted it on the discussion board. What’s immediately obvious to the untrained eye is that on August 16^th, Somer and her area are nowhere near halfway through their audacious monthly goals. But just how bad is $36,263 in wholesale production for a national area?

It’s unclear exactly how many directors Somer has in her national area, but our best guess is around 40 at this time. That’s a huge national area, especially when you consider that there are areas that literally have only 10 directors in them!

In 16 days, these 40 units have ordered less than $1,000 wholesale per unit. Ouch! If each unit has an average of 30 consultants, that means just over $30 ordered per consultant. Does anyone need a refill on their moisturizer? Because that’s about the equivalent. To put it another way, Cadillac production is currently $19,000/month. Among 40 directors in Somer’s area, they are unable to make production for two Cadillacs with the entire area’s orders. That’s just sad.

“Well,” our Friday critics will say, “it’s only halfway through the month and everyone knows that consultants all order at the end of the month. And August is always hard after everyone gets home from seminar!” Okay, fine. Let’s look at last year’s averages and break down paychecks for Somer’s top directors.

As Parsons Green recently shared, nine of Somer’s directors made it to a unit club last year. Nine. Out of forty. Wow.

So how much did those women earn? I’ll do the math for each unit club. Keep in mind, these numbers are estimates. Directors get to double dip on their commissions—they earn up to 23% on their total unit production each month, plus up to 13% on their personal team’s orders. In the below examples, I’ve assumed that the director has personally recruited between 40-50% of their unit. That’s a really high bar, and it’s unlikely that their true numbers are that high. This also discounts any double credit months, when directors earn double contest credit but not double commission on orders. And I haven’t factored in any chargebacks, of which there were undoubtedly several for each director.

• $500,000 unit club (1 director): Approximately $70,500
• $450,000 unit club (1 director): Approximately $64,750
• $400,000 unit club (1 director): Approximately $55,750
• $350,000 unit club (3 directors): Approximately $50,000
• $300,000 unit club (3 directors): Approximately $42,300

Wait, what happened to six-figure earning potential??? Even at the “prestigious” $500k level, they’re far short of six figures in commissions.

The average commissions of the top 1/4 of Somer’s directors are $52,000/year. Before expenses. Before chargebacks. Before traveling to Seminar. Before health insurance. Before retirement contributions.

If they were working a regular 40-hour J.O.B., that’s the equivalent of $25/hour, and they’re responsible for paying for their own training, travel, and team motivation. That’s not executive income. Heck, it’s not even middle management income. In my state, fast food supervisors are beating that number. And you best believe that they’re not paying for their own training programs.

The fact that these women continue to pitch this crap as “the best opportunity for women” is absurd. And the fact that they believe it themselves is pathetic. I’d feel sorry for them if their paychecks didn’t come directly out of the pockets of their own downlines.

And an update…