Complaint Review: Berkeley Marketing Group - Berkeley California

My name is Sean Wycliffe, and I am the president and a co-founder of Berkeley Marketing Group. Today was the first day that I heard about this report - one of my reps notified me about this when one of her new reps saw this. The previous entry was made by a girl named Kerry Parker. Let me clarify many of the statements she made and the issues she raised. After that I will let you know what happened that made her angry.

She said, "Therefore I proceeded to sign up under the Berkeley Marketing Group founded on the UC Berkeley campus by a group of UC Berkeley students."

Reality - Berkeley Marketing Group has nothing to do with UC Berkeley. It is called Berkeley because we operate out of Berkeley.

She said, "As a member of BMG I saw some of the most horrific character flaws you could ever imagine. I'm talking backstabbing, under the table negotiations, manipulation at it's best, and sexual harrassment."

What are you talking about here? I honestly have no idea. Sexual harassment? I haven't heard of anything like this.

She said, "In fact, one rep went after one of my best friends to join without giving me a heads up or anything. My friend leaked and told me, assuming I had already been informed."

Kerry, you need to understand that most all of your friends also have other friends. Some of these friends might be in ACN.  If a rep gets somebody to join their team and get customers, that helps them move up in the company and make money. Why would they give you the heads up first? What does them bringing down someone have to do with you? If you do not talk to your friends, somebody else will. This is a point to everyone - in network marketing, if you don't talk to your friends, someone else will. This has happened to me before. The way I dealt with it was by going out there and talking to everyone. I guess that is why I have become successful. Kerry has decided to write a rip off report about how BMG is not a good group? I am missing the correlation please help me...what is the rational here? The reality is that Kerry didn't invite her down, which means her friend would have joined under someone else, and Kerry didn't like this.

She said, "You will be pushed to get reps. NOT encouraged, but pushed to the point of harassment."

Kerry has a large network and is a great girl. She knows many people. I am sure that her uplines encouraged her to talk to them. That is what a good upline does. That is what I do, and that is why I am successful. If anyone is interested, I can provide a list of reps that you can talk to as to whether or not we push people the "point of harassment." This is definitely a negative comment on her part, but I had to laugh the first time I read it because it just sounds so ridiculous. Again, if you want to talk to some reps personally, just let me know and I can provide you with many that you could speak to.

She said, "You will be silenced and dubbed negative if you dare to challenge the almighty manipulator himself (the founder)"

I am not sure who was silencing or dubbing her negative, but from my experience, Kerry Parker has a tendency to be very negative at times. I am provide you with references of many people (both inside and outside BMG) who know her on a personal basis as well if you are interested. So, in my opinion, her claim that people dubbed her negative is probably true. As far as being dubbed negative because people challenge me, I can again provide anyone a list of many people that have challenged me. They can let you know how I respond when challenged. My response here to Kerry's claim is an example of how I would respond.

She said, "And might be treated as bait for your ethnic community and objectified by BMG's top-producing rep especially if you're a female."

As far as bait for your ethnic community, I am not sure what she is talking about here. When someone gets started with us, we encourage them to make a list of people that they know and talk to them. We also encourage people to network and talk to people that you meet. I am not sure who she is talking about here directly, but I could personally care less about going after any particular ethnic community. My interest is going after people that 1. have desire, 2. are coachable, 3. have work ethnic, and 4. have integrity. I personally do not believe in ethnically classifying groups for the purpose of business. I am 100% Bangladeshi. I have friends that are white, black, east asian, south asian, middle eastern, etc.

Last night at 9:11pm, one of my reps received the following text message from 310-844-8205 (not sure who this is, but I am assuming they are somehow related to Kerry Parker):
   "Can you please refrain from recruiting people in the Black community. We find it offensive. Thank you."
He replied at 12:36pm today: "Who dis"
   They replied at 1:43pm today: "That's not important just please from recruiting in that community. Thank you."

So is this person asking us to discriminate? This is moving backwards in time. I find this offensive as a minority with dark skin. So if someone that is of a certain ethnic group is interested in being a part of my business, should I say, "We cannot allow you to join because you are black?" Please help me out here. The reality is that we don't care who comes down or what ethnicity they are. Anything else would be discrimination.

She said, "It takes years of hardwork and devoting way more than 10 hours a week (which the BMG leaders will try to naively convince you of)."

ACN is like a gym. If you put in a few hours a week consistently for a long period of time, you can achieve great results. These aren't my words, these are the words of ACN leaders around the world. I am able to work this business 10-20 hours a week while I go to school full time, run a non-profit, teach classes, take Sabbath's off, and have fun. I do not see a problem here...

She said, "When a leader who continuously professes his Christianity and makes sure reps include it in edifying him, acknowledges that attending church is good for your image as a rep/leader and that church go-ers are the greatest motivational speakers, there is a problem! Red flag!!! Since when did pimping Christ become ok."

This I find personally offensive. I am disappointed and saddened by Kerry on this one. As a matter of fact, this is the only reason that I became riled up enough to respond to this report. Let me respond to spiritual issues by spiritual arguments.

She said, "Continually professing his Christianity:" Matt. 10:32 - "Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven." - as Christians, we are continually called to profess Christ. If you are a Christian, please pray that I can do this.

She said, "makes sure reps include it in edifying him:" This is not true. Most of our reps are not Christian. Kerry, are you suggesting that I train reps to edify me on this? You must be kidding. If they decide to say things about me that's on them. But you are saying I train this and "make sure" they do this? Ridiculous.

She said, "acknowledges that attending church is good for your image as a rep/leader:" This is true. As a leader, people want to know if you have integrity. As someone who spent an average of 70+ hours a week during 2006 and 2007 doing ministry and studying the Bible (I can provide over 30 references on this), many people equate these activities with integrity. I am trying to think of where this is coming from...probably one day I invited some of my reps to church and threw this in as a reason they should go. As a Christian, we are called to be evangelists (Matt. 28:19, 20). A great method is to explain the practical benefits of Christianity. Take a look at what John says: "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." 3 John 2. So God wants us to do well here on earth. What beautiful news! This is the gospel. So if I have a rep that is interested in building their business, what beautiful news that God cares about this as well! Praise God! Also, by developing integrity through the power of Christ you will become a better person/leader! Amen!

She said, "church go-ers are the greatest motivational speakers:" I never said that. But what I did say and what I do believe is that the best public speakers that I have heard are all preachers! I have many mp3s that I can share with you, if you are interested please email me at [email protected] and I can send them to you or show you where to hear them.

She said, "Since when did pimping Christ become ok." - it never did.

She said, "Better yet when this same leader goes on to create a class claiming they did it because they LOVE to teach but also admit to using it as a way to get more reps for their Undergraduate Student Instructor's who are also ACN Reps BEWARE."

I love teaching. Anyone that knows me knows this. As a matter of fact, I love everything I do. This is the way to live life. I also love building influence and building my network. Influence and a network are social assets. I love assets. Anything that builds these I love. I am involved in many activities, and one of the reasons that I have been able to become extremely successful at many things is because of these two assets. Here are some things I do:
   Berkeley Marketing Group/ACN - obvious :)
   Project Pueblo - founder and co-director - projectpueblo.org - non-profit focused on the Navajo Nation.
   AYA San Diego - co-founder, former director, currently associate director - ayasd.org - ministry in San Diego
   Door-to-Door bookselling social business, real estate, liquid financial assets - passive investor
   How to get 5 A+'s and 5 A's in One Calendar Year at UCB - student facilitator (ie classroom teacher)
   *next semester this will be 6 A+'s and 6 A's - updated for summer 2009
   Wealth Accumulation: Small Business Start-Up and Financial Independence - student facilitator (ie classroom teacher)
   Young Entreprenuers of Berkeley - founder and director - yeberkeley.org
   Berkeley Academic Consulting - founder, director, head trainer - berkeleyac.com
   Full time UCB student majoring in Economics and minoring in Global Poverty
   Adventist Christian Fellowship - member

Everything I do feeds on each other - this is called creating an upward spiral or positive feedback loop. Again, this is why (and part of the reason how) I have been able to become successful. Also, this is how people become successful generally. If you are interested in learning more about this, please contact me at [email protected].

She said, "it makes me question why after 5 years of being in Network Marketing he came back to UC Berkeley. He argues it's because his Mom wanted him to finish school. It might have been partially that but the real incentive was the ability to build his team because he was close to reaching one of the highest paid positions in ACN."

Again, creating an upward spiral or positive feedback loop. I try to do well in school for many reasons. I try to do well in business for many reasons. I try to ... for many reasons. That is why I am successful.

So that finishes my explanations to what she said. i want to apologize for taking your time with this long explanation, but I think it was necessary. If you are reading this, you are probably a fellow UCB student. This means you most likely love research, reading, and things like this lol so I don't feel too bad. I want to explain to you what happened here.

This report by Kerry Parker was written on August 10. On August 7-9 (the weekend right before), BMG had an event with the Empire team in Rancho Mirage. Registration for this event was $150 (it included the ticket, car rental, gas, and hotel). We stayed at the Westin Mission Hills Resort and Spa (hella nice - google it). The leaders subsidized much of the cost to get the price down. Kerry Parker registered for this event on July 10, 2009 (if you want to see paypal evidence of this, I can show you). The week before the trip, she decided that she didn't want to go. She said she had school finals. I told her that I had 2 finals the next week and that I was going (I ended up getting an A+ in accounting and an A in finance. I am super pissed about the A. The professor (great prof) said he gives an A+ or 2 and I thought I got at least in the top 2. I'm going to talk to him when I get a chance. [If you want to learn how to outperform at UCB, go to berkeleyac.com. Write in the notes that you heard about us from this site and I will give you $100 off.]) I think she got mad about this. Also, she wanted a refund. I explained to her that everything had already been paid for and that the hotel and car rental company doesn't give refunds. I told her that we can try to sell her ticket and give her the money that we get. We were able to sell her ticket for $50 (I think I can dig up who we sold it to). We gave her that money back (I have a cancelled check). She even had her dad call me up. He threatened to sue me over the $150. I explained to him the situation and he understood. He was actually pretty reasonable about the whole thing. He was fine with the $50 and thought that it was reasonable.

So the August 10 date makes too much sense. A question - if Kerry felt like this the whole time, why did she register for the event on July 10? Obviously at that point she wanted to go. It seems clear to me that she didn't have any problems with me at that point. In my opinion, the whole thing stemmed from the Rancho Mirage trip. You can draw your own conclusions. Ironically, as I am writing this response, she is living 2 floors below me in the same building! I saw her the other week and she acted like everything was fine!? Kerry - if you are interested, let's meet up and settle anything that you want to settle. As Christians, we can take care of any personal problems in private as they should be dealt with Biblically (Matt. 18:15-17).

What have I learned? If someone is stressed about school, maybe I should be careful about giving them academic advice at that time? Maybe I should be clearer about the nature of some events - why they are non-refundable, etc. To be honest, most people understand this. But we have made it clearer (if you want to see our flyer promoting the next event in Anaheim, I can email it to you. You will see that we are over-clear about this.

If you made it this far, congratulations - this was long. If you have any questions/comments/etc., feel free to contact me directly at [email protected]. To learn more information about any of the organizations I am a part of, please visit the websites above and call/email the appropriate number/email.

Thanks - I am going to study, set up some powerpoints, pray, and go to sleep :)

Blessings,

Sean Wycliffe
President, Co-Founder, Berkeley Marketing Group
[email protected]