A woman spent 6 years working for an MLM and made $1 million. She still warns others against joining and being exploited.

• Emily Lynn Paulson said she made $1 million as an MLM consultant — but it wasn't worth the stress.
• She has written a book about the "dark side" of MLMs and claims they exploit women.

When Emily Lynn Paulson received a Kate Spade purse from her boss — a bonus gift for hitting her sales figures — she posted a photo of the $350 handbag on Facebook.

"I can't believe I'm rewarded so much for doing what I love anyway," she gushed in the caption. "It's financial freedom, personal development and friendship with a paycheck."

A notification popped up. It was a comment from a close friend from college. "For fuck's sake, enough with the MLM bullshit!" the woman wrote.

Paulson, a mom of five from Seattle, told Insider that the attack barely registered. She simply blocked the woman.

"When people say, 'This is annoying, don't do it!' you automatically view it as, 'They're jealous' or 'They're just not supportive of women or me as a friend,'" Paulson said of the criticism she received during her stint at a multi-level marketing company.

The mom said that her superiors at the skincare brand had warned that other people might resent her success. "They'd say, 'There are some people who won't understand this. And there's some people who will be haters,'" she said.

Paulson, who claims to have earned $1 million during her four years in MLM, has chronicled her experiences in the new book, "Hey Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multi-level Marketing," which will be published in May.

Paulson joined an MLM when her friend showcased its skincare products at a bar

She writes that far from being a positive outlet for "girl power," the controversial business model is "a way for women to exploit other women." Paulson told Insider that the concept involves "smoke and mirrors" and that "everybody in an MLM is a victim."

She joined the MLM, which she doesn't name in the book, in 2014 after a friend invited her to a beauty event at a bar. "It was that initial, 'Oh, I get to go out and be an adult and shut the door on my chaotic, busy mom life for a minute,'" Paulson said.

Her excitement grew, she said, and she bought skincare products for herself — plus an "initial business kit" that cost $1,000.

But her goal, she said, was less about selling products than getting her "network" to join the MLM. She said that family and friends were considered fair game. That way, she — and the people "upline" — would get a slice of the pie.

"MLMs truly are pyramid schemes with products," Paulson, a former chemist, said.

She added, "I was looking for something else because with five kids and childcare, there was really no feasible way for me to go back to the workforce. I was vulnerable enough to think that it seemed like it could be something."

The consultant said she was warned that her online sales pitches might make her cringe

She started by posting "before and after" photographs on her Facebook page, showing an "amazing transformation." "Of course, your 'before' photos are always the worst-case scenario, and your 'after' photos are these amazing filtered pictures," Paulson said.

She said that her Instagram feed became "exploitative" because she suddenly went from posting pictures of her kids to posting "a daily stream of skincare products." But the 43-year-old said that she overcame her embarrassment.

"We were told that these Facebook posts were going to feel cringey because you're just stepping out of your comfort zone," Paulson added. "Everything was tucked away with these platitudes and buzzwords."

In 2017, she said, her monthly earnings topped $40,000. She'd boast online about freebies, including the Kate Spade purse, a diamond necklace, luggage by Louis Vuitton, and "all-expenses-paid" vacations in Mexico.

She said she'd always include a "call to action" in her posts. "We were taught to say things like, 'Wouldn't you love to be at home with your kids and be showered with gifts? Contact me for more info.'"

According to Paulson, most of her friends on social media appeared to support her. A significant number went on to unfriend her. "I guess they got tired of all those cat-posters quotes like, 'The only way you fail is if you quit' and 'Nothing great happens in your comfort zone,'" she said.

But she took no notice. "The company line was always, 'Don't take criticism from people who don't know,'" Paulson said.

Paulson realized that her 'freebie' car wasn't quite so free after all

Her greatest triumph, the mom said, was snagging the "ultimate reward" of an SUV. She was handed the keys to the "dream car" — a shiny white Lexus — and a party was thrown in her honor.

However, when she crunched the numbers, it wasn't quite the gift she'd imagined. "My husband and I realized that we had to maintain this title every single month, or I wasn't going to get my car-allotment payments," Paulson said. "It became more of a burden than anything else."

The couple overestimated Paulson's salary. In 2017, she said, her accountant told her that she'd received $370,000 in gross earnings. But the "free" trips, products, promotional items, car allotments, and bonus rewards were listed as income. The same applied to out-of-pocket expenses such as self-paid travel, promotional materials, and "gift incentives" for her team.

"I also spent $22,000 on childcare, $8,000 on clothes and shoes, and $36,000 on my personal assistant," Paulson wrote in "Hey, Hun." After taxes, she noted, her income was $85,000. "Now, $85,000 is a great income, " she wrote. "But I was living a $400,000-salary lifestyle on less than $90,000 in take-home pay."

Paulson told Insider, "I felt like the more money came in, the more money went out."

The former salesperson became a poster child for MLM when she shared her personal story

Still, she continued to embrace her new career. She addressed conferences and shared the secrets of her success. Paulson, who had recently become sober, talked about her battle with alcohol, too. "I was this inspirational speaker," she told Insider.

The gloss wore off when Paulson started to become uncomfortable with the MLM business model.

"I knew I was complicit in hurting a lot of people by recruiting a lot of people into a failing system where they lost money," Paulson said. She said concern for her co-workers helped keep her "in golden handcuffs" for a while. "I thought, 'I have to stay with these people and stick it out with them, right? I can't bring them in and then quit.'"

Disillusioned, Paulson stepped back from her hard-sell tactics before leaving in 2020, when her monthly salary was around $8,000. "It was still a lot of money," she told Insider. "But I am very privileged that I was able not to be involved anymore because of our savings and whatnot."

Her decision invoked vicious comments from former colleagues on social media. One of them set up a "burner" account on Instagram to vent her anger.

Nonetheless, she has compassion for her detractors. "I have a lot of grace for the fact that I was that person who thought the same way about people who challenged me," Paulson said, adding, "It can roll off my back pretty well."

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