I was hired in Denver, Colorado for one of the subsidiaries of Cydcor called G.G.C. & Meriam Marketing. The ad read, "First time careers! Work with Fortune 500 companies in advertising and marketing." I was interested yet wary as I had seen my fair share of scams.
I was called in to an interview in which I was never told exactly what I would be doing. Unlike other stories I have read this particular office was in a lavish skyscraper in the ritzy part of Denver referred to as Cherry Creek. This was one of the main things that helped draw me in; in a luxurious setting like this it must be a reputable company, right? The initial interview was the beginning of the motivational mumbo jumbo. The bubbly receptionist was thrilled to see me and she let me know that I could expect a call at 6:00pm to find out if I had been called back for the next interview. Surprise, surprise, I made the cut.
I was one of the unfortunate who was never told to wear comfortable shoes, thus I came to my "day of O" wearing high heels. Darma* came to greet me and took me out to lunch where she explained the financial opportunity before even telling me it was D2D. This is also when the 4's, 5's, and 8's are explained as well as some of the acronyms. (I haven't seen anyone mention the 4's, but they are the 4 factors of impulse: sense of urgency, fear of loss, indifference, and the Jones' effect [when you say, "The Jones' next door just signed up" or "Avie Roth has made millions with Cydcor"]). This was when i first became skeptical but I brushed the feelings aside eager for an "opportunity" to get ahead BEFORE my degree was finished.
The first few days they all have compliments for you and the critisism is almost completely left out maybe a couple tips littered amongnst dozens of compliments. They pay extra attention to you during morning and evening atmosphere and rush you out after evening atmosphere. Your leader will usually give you half of the sales and on my third day my leader gave me all the apps taking home nothing for her 10 hour day. Leaders will also buy you lunch and offer to "help" out if you need it. After this you'll notice a slow transition until you get to leader.
After a while critisisms start flowing more freely and regular conversation ceases to exist. Everyone is expected to follow the stringent "rules" and the smallest infractions will get you a guaranteed lecture. For example once I only had an envelope to write on vs. Regular paper and I was pulled aside for not "acting as if" I'm a leader. They practically have their own language for example, you can't "drop posi-negs" which are when you say, "Well the day started out poorly but in the end it was a lovely day!" They would expect you to leave the negatives completely out or discuss them with your "accountablity partner". JUICE is no longer being said at this office perhaps because it has become synonymis with multi-level marketing, i.E. Pyramid scheme.
Then when you're finally getting closer to leader they really do make you beg for it. I didn't realize at the time probably because I was in a haze thinking about this incrediable "opportunity". They encourage you to have one-on-ones with all the top people every day before and/or after work. So now I'm already getting up at 8:00am and coming home at 10:00pm but let me go ahead and get up at 6:00am to catch a leader or "ass man" (LOL) before their earlier meetings so they can psych me up and make me willing to do anything to get leader. We had an "opportunity meeting" probaly 3/4 thursdays a month and those started at 7:30am. Every morning we had a campaign meeting filled with metaphors and motivational personal accounts to keep us in the dark about what the reality of the situation was.
Leadership! Finally they've invited me to their secret meetings. Where the compliments almost stop completely unless you're a top seller then you get to ring the bell/gong/airhorn for doing well and you get the chance to have "days of O" or be campaign manager for the week. You learn how to use all of our sales tactics on new recruits to keep the wool over their eyes and yet somehow you never realize that's what is happening.
I never got to ass man because fortunatly I came out of the fog long enough to do some research. I'm sorry but the evidence is staggering. I personally was shorted on ym checks every check it kept getting worse to this day I still have never recieved an adaquate explanation as to what happened to my money. Here's a clue if there are many things they don't tell you until you find out for yourself and question them maybe it's not the most reputable company in the world. I never knew it was D2D until I was in the field. I never knew about the 20% rollover until I saw it on my check. I was told $25.00 would be taken from each check to pay for the San Fransisco convention, it was really $50.00. I was never told about the 10k you need to save for your own office until I was promoted to leadership. I was never told that we would be implimenting long used brainwashing techniques to keep new recruits. Often times these were the same techniques we used to get people to sign up in the field but they just had different names to keep us in the dark about what was really going on. I was never told that nearly all the people in the office had closed their ties with family, friends, and other previously close people. I wasn't told that many people had left school to follow this magical yellow brick road to nowhere. I am currently a psychology student working full-time with enought time to go to school full-time. I make more money over all at my new job and I don't run the risk of dieing of a heat stroke or lying to myself and others by using all these mind control techniques on a daily basis. Please don't buy into it.
The opportunity is the same as trying to be a famous singer. 1/1000 people can do anything with this "opportunity". I could've been one of them, I was on the bell every day that I worked there, I always had a smile on my face, I encouraged the new people but in the end I saw the light of day. They manipulate your emotions, you'll notice your long-time beliefs slipping by the wayside. Or maybe you won't notice at all it took me almost a year to see the error of my ways. Look for similarities and red flags, don't take my word for it. Ask yourself questions. Why do they need to CONSTANTLY remind you of your "opportunity" if it truly is such a wonderful opportunity? Why are all the rebuttals so similar? Do they have a script that they alter just enough to fool you into thinking it's their original honest testimonial? Or are they themselves so sucked in that they constantly need to remind themselves of their opportunity rather than admit THEY failed? Why are there so many unessecary rules? Is it to keep you in line and focused on menial things instead of thinking about reality?
Why do they have a 20% rollover that isn't given back to you for two weeks? Is it in case of returned apps? Or maybe is it because they're A. Collecting interest on it and B. Making it harder for you to track your own earnings? Why do they keep you occupied for 50-60 hours a week plus travel time? Is it so you're too tired to realize what's going on? Why would they tell you it's not meant to be sales-oriented and then pay you solely on commission? Why would they reprimand you severely for the most minor infraction of the rules for example being one minute late (literally)? Is it because you're encouraging dissent from the cult-like leaders, ass men, and of course the magical manager? And why can't any of these "successful" managers manage to spell even the most simple words correctly? Is it because they still have no education because they gave up everything for Cydcor?
I am mostly mad at myself for not recognizing it for what it truly was right from the beginning. I was familiar with the companies that want you to buy a kit to start up but this one seemed ligit. Why didn't I see through the phony behavior of everyone around me? I was enthralled by this near "guarantee" for success for "someone like me" and the idea of financial independance was captivating. It seemed great but even though I was pulling 6 apps a day at $25.00 each somehow I never had a check for one week of pay that was more than $250.00? Nor was I ever informed of a returned app. I was never able to catch up with all the money I spent on transportation, food, and conventions. Every experience is a learnign opportunity and for all my hard work I was rewarded with the satisfaction of knowing I will never fall for one of these "golden opportunities" again.
The attitudes changed as soon as I quit. "Friends" were no more, I was immediatly the dumb girl who couldn't see her opportunity. Well, opportunities have came rolling my way ever since I left that putrid place filled with the stench of greedy, naive, people who may end up thousands in debt when their office opens. I wish everyone who has the misfortune of getting sucked into the Cydcor cult the best of luck in their futures. I also thank everyone who submitted personal accounts because you helped me see the error of my ways and helped me to realize what was happening to me. Thank goodness I never spent the money on my own office only to have it fail and throw me back into the field to start over as has happened to many of the poor souls on this site and dozens of others. Read on, educate yourself and make an informed decision about your future. Don't spend the next ten years chasing the pipe-dream that is Cydcor.
Sincerely, Sandra DeRosia (not afraid to say my name)
Sandra
Lakewood, Colorado
U.S.A.
0 comments