I met Tracy walking down the street Sunday night. We both stepped into the street to jaywalk and laughed when we both retreated in the face of a car rounding the corner way too quickly. We bonded over our shared roots as native Washingtonians as we traversed the two blocks to the grocery store.
We talked about her children, and my business. As we parted, she said “I think we should talk, we might be able to do some business together. That’s a throw-away line in DC as common as empty pizza wrappers on an Adams Morgan Saturday night. So I was surprised when she called me to ask for a meeting on Wednesday.
Our intended location, a neighborhood coffeeshop, was too crowded so we headed to her living room a block or so away. We talked politics and economics for twenty minutes or so before she launched into the sales pitch. It was boiler plate sales slogans.
- Are you making your paycheck work for you?
- Is your income stream diversified?
- Shouldn’t your money work when you aren’t?
- Aren’t you tired of someone else controlling your destiny?
Being annoyed by platitudes and rhetoric, I finally asked “So how can this help my business?”
Tracy finally got specific. She outlined how I could purchase the things I already buy through an online mall, and my clients could buy through it as well. She talked for several more minutes before I finally said “So how is this different from some sort of Amway pyramid operation?”
“Oh, so you’re already familiar with Amway?”
Posted by restaurant refugee 
