What About The Word "Pyramid" As it Relates To The SDI (Self Directed Income) Industry
By Tommy-Usury: Free

This is an explanation of the SDI industry which I email to people whose responses indicate that they have absolutely NO understanding of how the SDI industry functions within its 'pyramid' structures. This response was directed to a family member who works in the orthodox banking industry and knows NOT about the SDI industry. I have omitted his name BUT you can insert any name that the message suits....

Dear _________:

Until now I have not responded to your quote: "We have elected to not participate in pyramid selling ventures of any sort." in an email dated June 13th, 2001. I will now respond to that quote and offer some observations on the whole scenario involving the Excel opportunity and the SDI industry and invite some further typed discussion and/or real-time debate on the issues that I will now address. For background information about the SDI industry you are invited to visit The SDI Cyberclassroom at this URL: www.cyberclass.net/sdilessons.htm

The SDI (Self Directed Income) industry of which Excel is a part happens to be a legitimate and honourable business opportunity in Canada. It is also known as network marketing or multi-level marketing or referral marketing or on the internet as affiliate marketing. Your comment was noticed by me and you will understand why I was upset for three reasons. (1) I know that some of my criticism of the banking industry for its promotion of "usury" has upset you in the past. I apologize for any misunderstandings over the years. (2) I know that you would not make such a comment if you had thoroughly researched this industry. (3) I have been active in the SDI industry since March 29th, 1979 when Mireille and I signed the Amway application form. I want it to be clear to you that for 22 years I have been participating in this industry and in fact it is an honourable marketing industry to be involved with. I am a proud professional in the SDI (Self Directed Income) industry just as you are a proud professional in the banking industry.

My research about "pyramid structured" banking has been intensive indeed and when I talk about exposing "usury" as a design flaw in the banking system I can direct you to the research to back up my claim should you ever be interested.  Also please understand that when I criticize the banking industry for its taking of "usury" which it does not create I am not criticizing you as a TD Bank employee. Instead, I am criticizing the world banking elite who know exactly that their "usurious" banking policies have a direct impact on the 40,000 babies and youth that die every day on planet earth because of "scarcity and lack." This is a whole other area of research and I do not wish to go there right now.

Let me clarify the "pyramid structure" of the banking system as I understand it to be. You have the CEO at the top who earns a pile of money. Then you have the Regional Directors, (please correct me if my titles are incorrect) and managers and clerks and finally customers.  As you come down the pyramid people earn less money and as you go up the pyramid there is diminishing job opportunity. I experienced a similar "pyramid structure" in the educational system for 34 years. There was a director (who was paid a pile of money), then superintendents, then consultants, then principals, vice-principals, teachers and finally students. Likewise, in the traditional educational pyramid people earned less money as you come down the pyramid and there was diminishing job opportunity as you climbed the pyramid. I never witnessed a Director of Education reach out to help a teacher and I daresay that you have never seen the CEO of TD Bank reach out to help a clerk.

One more observation about climbing the educational pyramid. I observed plenty of jealously, and back-stabbing among those who were scrambling to climb the pyramid. I got watch it all for 34 years as I never had any inclination to climb the educational pyramid.

Have you done the research about the SDI industry to support your claim that it is an "unworthy pyramid selling venture?" I proudly admit that the SDI industry of which Excel is a part is based on a pyramid structure. In the pyramid structure of the SDI industry the uniting of efforts multiplies the benefits. Let me explain further:

Traditionally, CEO's, Department Heads, Sales Managers, Directors of Education etc. who are positioned at or near the top of their respective pyramids in the retail industry and/or in traditional institutions earn their profits from the work of dedicated and loyal people who are positioned at various levels below them. Since these people are strategically positioned at or near the top of a particular pyramid with diminishing opportunity they are unlikely to reach out and help those at the lower levels whose dedication and hard work is directly related to their receiving high salaries.

Within the new SDI industry, each one is positioned at the top of their own respective pyramid and each person must reach out and help their new recruits make sales (retail and/or wholesale) before they earn their commissions and expand their pyramidal structure. The action of reaching out to help others demands that one first nourish personal growth from within.

The uniqueness of the SDI industry is the manner in which the "uniting of efforts multiplies the benefits." Unlike traditional pyramidal structures, where there is little or no opportunity for others to move up the pyramid, the SDI industry permits every new recruit the same opportunity to become Manager of his/her own pyramidal structure. While doing so s/he acquires leadership skills by learning how to "unite the efforts of others and thereby multiplying the benefits for all." In the SDI industry, a motivated new recruit can often earn more income that the person who sponsored him/her. No traditional "pyramid structure" permits a new person at the fringe to earn more money that the person at the top of the pyramid. After experiencing the SDI industry for 22 years I can honestly say that those operating within traditional "pyramid structures" could learn a few good strategies from leaders in the SDI industry.

During the month of July 2001,  myself and Neil Anderson  - a  retired government employee from Ottawa who has 30 years (part-time) experience in the SDI industry  - worked on a report about the SDI industry so that we could present some information to teach people the truth about this fastest growing sector of local and global marketing. We finished our report on July 30th and I released it at the conference where I was a guest speaker in Salmon Arm, BC. on August 5th, 2001. The paper is entitled: "Analysis, Projections, Observations & Proposals For The SDI Industry" and it is now posted at this URL: www.cyberclass.net/sdianalysis.htm

In the meantime, Excel is moving along very well for Jonathan who is doing his own thing with it. Michel has a postion in the Excel network but he has not yet done any work with it. I am doing the marketing work for Sarah's position in the Excel network. The cheques come in her name and I keep some earnings for my time and effort and I give the balance to Sarah for her education pursuits. All of our Excel long distance customers are from friends of Jonathan and Sarah as well as my friends and networking associates.

It does intrigue me though as I contemplate why not one of my brothers or brothers-in-law nor my sisters or sisters-in-law agreed to try Excel's long distance service when I invited them to do so thereby supporting Jonathan's initiative in starting his Excel business in May 2001. I had mistakenly thought that an Irish family named Kennedy - of which I am a part - would be as supportive of our next generation of youth becoming entrepreneurial as the Greek, Jewish and Lebanese families are with their youth.

Not so, it seems that white Anglo-Saxon Canadians are somehow conditioned by the system to remain isolated and suspicious and questioning of each one's motives when one member of a family becomes involved in a business. I can remember when Mireille and I were working the Amway business nobody in the family would buy Amway products from us even when we offered them at wholesale prices. That always baffled me too.

Let me elaborate further. I have met many of Jonathan's friends in Montreal who are working with him in Excel. They are in their early 20's. They are from Greek, Jewish and Lebanese families. When these young entrepreneurs approach their aunts and uncles to ask them to try Excel's long distance service and thereby support their educational pursuits (or otherwise) they get 100% support. Not only do the aunts and uncles transfer their residence and business long distance services with Excel BUT they (the aunts and uncles) recommend Excel's long distance service to their friends, neighbours and business associates. Some of these youthful entrepreneurs from Montreal have secured 40 to 50 personal long distance clients from much smaller families than the Kennedy's.

It's clear that the immigrants network together and support the businesses of their respective family members. They live a loyalty and fully support each other in ways that Anglo-Saxon Canadians do not. I'm unclear on why this is so. In thinking back to the email exchanges about Excel, neither myself nor Jonathan ever got a chance to explain just how Excel's long distance service works and you simply stated that you only used nominal long distance service and that you would not support a pyramid selling venture.

When Jonathan decided to work the Excel SDI opportunity, I offered to help him because I have 22 years experience in the industry. Together, he and I thought that his aunts and uncles would choose to purchase their long distance service through Excel - which offers competitive rates - and thereby give him a chance to earn some commissions on usage. I was excited for Jonathan having chosen to work the Excel SDI opportunity completely of his own volition for I know that in the 21st Century it will be much more rewarding to become entrepreneurial and earn "incomes" instead of settling for "jobs" as working as a wage-earner. With Jonathan being one of the older of the next generation of Kennedy's I was hoping that members of the family would support his entrepreneurial choice and thereby open the door for others to follow.

He and I talked about the fact that the Kennedy family have established a tradition of supporting whatever beer company that John works for and we mistakenly assumed that the Kennedy family would support our work with the Excel telecommunications company. Honestly, Jonathan talked with me about asking the Kennedy family about trying the Excel service but he was hesitant for he suspected that they'd all say no. I briefly mentioned Excel to whomever I saw in early May and then I sent out the email and got 100% rejection. Jonathan was so right in his initial assessment of the Kennedy clan.

As an observer it is interesting to note that the SDI industry permits our up and coming youth generation to work with an intermediary company like Excel and earn perfectly legitimate bonuses and commissions within a reasonable marketing structure to fund their education by simply sharing information about competitive and quality long distance services. And yet the Kennedy family still prefers to buy directly from the monopoly corporate entity known as Bell Canada which will never offer any discount (until you transfer your long distance service) and certainly never any commission for promoting their company?

It is likewise, interesting to note that John is on salary as a sales promoter for Heineken as he was formerly on salary with Molson and though various Kennedy family members now buy Heineken they don't buy it directly from John. It seems that Kennedy's have some unidentifiable repulsion about buying a product or service from a family member and I wish I could understand why this is so. If Jonathan was working for Excel as a salaried employee and promoting Excel as a worthy competitive telecommunications company I wonder if the Kennedy's would be more likely to purchase the long distance service? It seems that the Kennedy family sees it differently when you operate your own independent business as Jonathan has set out to do.

Neither Jonathan nor myself ever got a chance to explain that even if you use nominal long distance service it does not matter because Excel pays good commissions for securing accounts and smaller commissions for the ongoing monthly use of the long distance services. So you see, every new account helps an Excel Representative like Jonathan, whether you spend a little or a lot on monthly long distance services.

Here's how it works. I'll use Jonathan as an example. Jonathan paid $325. for his Excel sales kit. When Jonathan secured his first three long distance customers he got paid a $50 starting bonus. When he secured his next seven long distance customers (for a total of ten) he got paid $275. He had to get these first customers in 90 days to qualify for these starting bonuses. When he gets his next five customers (for a total of 15) he gets paid another $50 and when he gets five more customers (for a total of 20) he gets paid $100. He has 180 days to secure 20 customers. That's all of the personal customers he ever has to get to remain qualified for all of his commissions.

The other part of his Excel business is finding other people who want to work with him. When he teaches his personally sponsored recruits how to duplicate his efforts he gets paid good bonuses. For example when the first person he sponsored (Mike Branchaud) secured his three customers Jonathan got paid a bonus of $100. When Mike Branchaud secured his next seven customers (for a total of 10) Jonathan got paid another bonus of $100. Jonathan has a number of  personally sponsored recruits as of this date and as each of them secures their own long distance clients, Jonathan earns the corresponding bonuses.

Jonathan also gets paid a direct training bonus of $40 for every person in his group whom he trains to do the business. And he gets a small monthly residual commission for the total long distance service used by everyone in his group. He now has a growing network of people working the Excel SDI opportunity with him. That's it in a nutshell.

I hope you enjoy your trip to Western Canada as much as I enjoyed mine - and mine too was mixed with business and pleasure. I got to speak about the Excel opportunity (among other topics) during my one and a half hour presentation and I am now getting emails from people explaining that they want to transfer their long distance service from Telus to Excel. (see below)

Any comments or feedback is appreciated. I am carbon-copying this to Michel, Jonathan and Sarah.

Tom :) www.cyberclass.net/excel.htm

-----Original Message-----
From: Jonn & Jamie <xxxx@telusplanet.net>
To: Tom J. Kennedy <tom@cyberclass.net>
Date: Wednesday, August 22, 2001 12:37 PM
Subject: Re: Thank you and Excel

Hi,

Thanks, we enjoyed your presentation.  We definitely want to transfer our long distance phone service over to Excel.  It would be a good feeling to know that paying our bill is helping your mission to share the truth about the various topics that you talked about.  Our current service is TELUS "Your Way Unlimited" for (403) XXX-XXXX.  Look forward to talking to you (or email the form - what ever is easier for you).  Let us know when we should contact Telus to cancel the long distance service; or if it happens automatically when we switch. 

All the best,
Jamie