Whenever I talk about being susceptible to marketing and cults, it should be noted that I basically once joined a lowkey cult for three weeks so I don’t just talk the talk, I walk the walk

I was dropped in Houston, spent $25 a week to share one bedroom (with only one bed) in a stranger’s house with 2 people I had never met, was not allowed in that house from 6am-10pm (we were expected to be walking through neighborhoods selling books), expected to take cold showers

The kicker was if at any point we were having doubts about the program, we were actively told not to contact friends or family because they wouldn’t get it and would try to get us to come back home

So instead i spent 3-4 weeks walking around strange neighborhoods in Houston Texas, a place is never been, trying to sell educational books to strangers by knocking on their doors at like 6:30am in the year of our internet 2013. And then had to lowkey ask about children

You couldn’t straight up ask “are their any other families with children living around here?” Because that’s obviously creepy so we were coached to ask “could any other families here benefit from this product?” Or drive around looking for signs of a family that might have kids

It made me so deeply deeply uncomfortable and instead of trying to sell my books I usually gave up most mornings by like 10am and would go to like a parking lot and cry lmao

I did finally quit a few weeks in. Left one morning at 6am and drive from Houston to Ohio in one go (stopping overnight in Nashville to sleep because it was an 18 hour drive). And then I got that “company” banned from recruiting at my university ever again lol