First, just be open minded and read to look at all the information. Second, little side note to be aware of is if you will take notice of every post written about this company you will notice at the end it asks if "this post was helpful?" you will notice that its not a coincidence that if its a negative post about NAA then there is an overwhelming response stating the review was not helpful... If its a positive review then overwhelmingly it shows that the post was helpful. Why the coincidence??? That's because its part of NAA's strategy. As a former top agency manager with the company and one who was with NAA for 5 years I have sat in the meetings where they instructed not only the many positions of corporate staff at home office, but also their 30-40 plus hourly paid college aged recruiters, and nationwide agency managers and their agents to go onto this site and respond positively to all the negativity from this site. Even I at one time myself was "coaching" my entire agency to do the same. All that said, most of the responses to posts being helpful one way or another are bogus, its another way they famously skew the numbers.
The second and really biggest skewing of numbers would be the incomes they tout from stage and on their website of leaders profiles of success. Half of those profiles have not been updated and many of them no longer have the size agencies they once did. I am not here to bash the people that are working at NAA or any current agency managers.in fact there are so many great, great people there and friends that have been made while there and I feel bad knowing they feel stuck and trapped by the contract with NAA they have signed. Sadly I know the mass majority are secretly struggling financially as I was. I was recognized on stage several years in a row as making multi-six figures all the while secretly struggling financially... There may be those that respond to this post as "I didn't know how to run a business, i mismanaged money, didn't reinvest back into business properly, did not work hard enough, quit too early, didn't associate enough. This list could go on, I know because I was "coached by a mentor" on how to go about overcoming these rip off report posts when recruiting agents or new recruits that read this website. Bottom line if you are someone that is looking at this company for the first time then you need to BEWARE if you are asked to "fast tracked", "get put into the NAA system so you get your writing number" or anything along those lines... Why... READ the ENTIRE contract in its entirety. You will be locked in!
If you are looking to "Build a Business or Agency" or "Build a Passive Income" run for the hills! Its a lie... It WILL NOT be YOUR agency, you are building the NAA agency. 99% of the managers have CEO of their business listed on their facebook and linked in pages. If you simply read the contract not a single one owns the agency they built. Not even their top income earner. They can terminate you anytime. Read the sections in there that state anyone you recruit belongs to the NAA. It does not matter if they are your close friend, former co-worker from old company, or a relative. If you leave or are terminated you can not talk to them about leaving, ask them to follow you elsewhere, ect... If you do anything to influence them to leave or quit you are liable to be sued. Of course there are your standard non-competes as an agent like anything else. Now onto the profit centers: if you are being recruited to NAA you need to ask about the "rotational meeting costs" YES, if you are going to attend sales training it will cost you monthly, it starts out at $20/month but as you promote to higher contract commission levels your monthly payment increases... Top contract is between $350-400/month. Also be sure to ask about Presidents Club, this is another profit center for NAA, this club ranges from $50-$300/month. They will spin it as "education" and yes I'm not saying there is not good information there, again I was taught to "sell people on signing up" as I manager I was bonused for it, but agents that were already struggling could barely pay for these. I found it interesting that even top 25 managers were canceling their $300 black card memberships for the lower costs ones... interesting.By the way you MUST be signed up for at least one of the Presidents Club plans to be recognized for their "levels" and to receive higher contract level promotions. (if this does not scream traditional mulit level scam what does)
The dream that is pitched of passive income and bulding your business to financial freedom is the most heartbreaking thing. Now passive income itself is great, and the concept. However the higher commission contract you climb the more your NAA expenses increase. Number one if you recruit people to build an agency to NAA you WILL share in the override lead costs. This is one of the most major expenses. My override monthly lead bill ran anywhere from $3500-$5500 a month and I was a former manager that typically was in the top 25 of the managers in the country. The list of managers and agents with lead debt is outrageous. Also be sure to ask if your lead costs go up as you go up in contract levels, it does. NAA is the only IMO out there that increases your lead costs as you climb in contract levels and the only IMO that charges override lead costs on downline agents... Another NAA profit center. The way this is all structured between the clubs, rotational sales meeting fees, ect... Is why I watched the majority of agents I recruited struggle financially as well as the friends I made within the business. 5 plus years of recruiting and I never had one that truly was "netting" a good income. I mean c'mon, I know there are those that would say to me well you didn't work hard enough, you didn't follow the system to a T... Actually I gave blood, sweat, and tears, gave up time with family, spoke for years at every conference they had, ran my own office, spent the money to fly out every time I turned around to go to The CEO's mansion for some "special intimate meeting/conference" and yet had nothing left over but debt and struggling agents. The debt and financial struggle wasn't due to poor decisions... It was that I believed SO MUCH and for so long that "next year was going to be the year!" I mean, here I am buying into my own GROSS income! I was drinking the kool aide!
In my opinion I believe this is a stumbling block that happens for many of the managers and high premium producing agents. You begin to get recognized, praised on stage for accomplishments, asked to speak at conference, recognized at sales meetings, invited to "inner circle meetings by the CEO, heck he may give you his personal number and call you from time to time, you used to get an income ring you wear around to show off gross income, and the list goes on. Nobody within the NAA culture dare go to their upline or leadership of the company and talk of financial struggles. The response you get is.."your not working hard enough", or the classic "you need to recruit more", "hire more width", "you're not following the system", "get back in the field and run more production" The thing that sucks is all the great people still there, that are struggling. Even amidst financial struggle who is going to leave ANY stream of override income. Even when your not netting great income, who is going to walk away from getting "stage time" and being "edified to peers" That is the CULTure which by the way is just like Amway which is where a several of the top people come from.
Same thing at AMWAY, bunch of people fired up about the culture but making no money. There was an earlier t post by "Wicked Smaht" (which I have an idea based on the arrogance of the name he chose and the spelling who that could be) He asked why no one mentioned in any of these reports gave the names of other good IMO's to go to work for... Well, IT DOES NOT MATTER, fact is there are many, and if you take it upon yourself to get educated and go look and interview and talk with some you will find one that fits you. ESPECIALLY with a higher contract. And get this... With just as equal or better leads. I used to teach while at NAA the reasons of why the NAA entry level contract at 55% was better than going elswhere, I know the tactics! Speaking of leads, everyone there knows even if an agent buys "exclusive" leads of any lead type they still get distributed and passed around or off to other agents within agencies to cut down costs. So yes the leads are way watered down. My hope is that the many good people still at NAA wake up to the fact that there is LIFE outside NAA and they have MANY options to go out and start NETTING actual great income. Yes, on the outside the CULTure of NAA looks awesome and inviting and there is NO OTHER IMO like it with all the flash of NAATV, RAhRah meetings, ect... But what do you really want??? To struggle financially to be in a glorified club, or be somewhere you can truly make NET income for you and/or your family.
Listen, and to Wicked Smaht regarding the www.firenaa.com website, yes there may be some of the exact details that dont line up about that aprticular managers foreclosure, but what can't be denied is that those listed with financial struggles went through financial hardships while they were being praised, and recognized, for outstanding GROSS income and many of them talked about how they were living the dream. I get it, I did the same thing. And for those in particular they were trapped in a position to have to keep up with the story of making money. I dont fault them for that. I spent years there, had "behind the scenes" conversations with people about the state of their TRUE finances. When I would add up their numbers based on the facts I knew of their organizations, money they reinvested "The numbers dont lie" If you happen to be someone that has been there for 2 plus years and you are reading this I guarantee if you were seriously honest with yourself you would agree looking at your financials that it has been a struggle, or at the least your net is nothing close to the gross you have been recognized for... I know the numbers I had people in my organization being recognized for 100k plus income rings, some for $200k, i knew their finances and their true net income that was depressing. Listen I get the whole it takes time to build a business, I get you are not going to profit your first year, and maybe second, but the leadership doesnt want to focus on that part too much. NAA was a great vehicle when I came on board.
Its my personal belief that when the other owners were bought out and a person of great influence came on board to help "give counsel" on growing NAA, things changed (along with a few top level people getting greedy and prideful). It became to mutli level and now too many profit centers. The clubs, the book clubs, managers being sent cases of books by naa and charged for them upfront and then told to sell them to make our money back.By the way the Millionaire Maker Manual that the CEO wrote. That came and went. There was only one new millionaire in the time I was there and he still remains the only one. Now mind you that was his gross.
By no means am I picking on him, hes a great guy with a great family. A more recent question, why are so many managers jumping back into the field to run production? I know, I know... It will be spun as "they are leading from the front" or "they are going out to make easy cash to reinvest in blowing up their business" Does not make sense other than the truth which is times are tough and they need to get in the field and pay bills/debt. Why are so many people that were recognized on stage for sizable income suddenly leaving and quitting NAA? Were talking people that have been there as long and longer than I was. Or many others that were good people that all the sudden are "terminated". Its because NAA knows people are waking to the truth. That people are sick and tired of being sick and tired. The greatest thing NAA has done is convince people there is nothing better out there in the industry and trap you within the contracting you sign. Happy to hear of the many that have woken up!
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