A riveting look at the world of MLMs from an elite inside perspective. This feels like it should be required reading for North Americans, where MLMs are thriving and exceedingly dangerous.

As a staunch anti MLM-er, I couldn’t put this down.

It’s a long read but absolutely fantastic and doesn’t shy away from how these organizations prey on isolated women and uphold white supremacy.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the arc!

This one is a GREAT one to discuss with your friends, especially if you have ever been a part of or pressured by MLM businesses! It is eye opening and very interesting. I loved the writing style!

I am utterly fascinated by the cult-like world of MLMs. I’ve never been involved personally, but I have seen many friends fall prey to these machines. This book was a compelling first-person look at the dark underbelly of MLMs, and it was equal parts salacious and educational. If you’re looking for a great companion read, I recommend Cultish, which has a chapter dedicated to the fanatic language of MLMs, right down to “Hey Hun.”

This was such a fascinating read. I loved it! This book is the perfect mix of personal experience and academic research and theory. We follow our author from her entry into the MLM, her success as part of it and all the perks than came with it through to her disillusionment with and exit from it. It was so interesting to understand what it is like to be riding the high of being at the top whilst within the MLM and how you are told to and are able to brush aside doubts and haters. Every time I read another part of this I wanted to talk about it with my partner as I found it so interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it!

Thank you to netgalley for the ARC of "Hey, Hun" by Emily Paulson. I had heard about this book a number of months before it hit netgalley and was very eager to get my hands on a copy. I was so thrilled to have the opportunity to read it ahead of its publication date on ebook. Ms Paulson takes you right into the heart of what it is like to be recruited, involved and break free from the cult that is MLM. I have had a light experience and exposure to MLM. I had purchased the products and was a salesperson for a well known MLM but due to my previous knowledge of how MLMs work, I did not get sucked into it the way Ms. Paulson did. In fact, to some extent I helped provide less funds to the MLM by placing orders for friends so that they did not have to join. Back to the book, Ms. Paulson's writing style makes you cringe and feel as though you are actually there and experiencing what happened to her. She delves into concepts that I had never considered but likely noticed about the MLM experience - its all white supremacy and male domination. She also exposes the highly exploitative nature of MLMs when it comes to stay at home moms or women in general. I highly recommend her book whether or not you have a connection to an MLM.

#netgalley #heyhun

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. My wife was pretty involved with an MLM when we started dating, and I got a bit sucked in too, so I was definitely interested in the topic. I am very glad we didn't go as far down the rabbit hole as the author, and I appreciated the candor with which she shared about her experience. This took me longer to read than it should have, it felt repetitive at times and pretty heavy handed with the messaging that MLMs are basically cults. But overall an easy & compelling read.

This book follows the author's journey to the top of an MLM company and her eventual exit from the industry. The author details the ways she became emeshed in the cultlike atmosphere of the company, based on the "B.I.T.E" model (behavior, information, thought, and emotional control). MLMs prey on vulnerable women. This happened to the author.. and eventually the prey became the predator. This book is well-written and combines an entertaining account of the daily life on an MLM representative with a good amount of education on the history of the industry as a whole. I highly recommend this book, especially to those women who are involved in an MLM and have a gut feeling that their experience isn't lining up with the promises that they were told when they were first recruited.

At one point in this story Paulson’s Facebook friend tells her “for fuck’s sake, enough with the MLM bullshit!” I felt that the entire time reading, while Paulson was talking about her disenfranchisement with the company, the financial ruin she led many women to, the rise of QAnon in her social group she was still actively profiting off of it all for an entire year. It’s very hard to feel bad for Paulson throughout this book, but I did.

What I loved most about this book is how effortlessly Paulson embedded fantastic research. While simultaneously telling her story of eye masks, girls trips to Vegas, and greed she broke down the influence of MLMs in campaign finance, federal agencies, and even the KKK. This book isn’t just about one leader in an MLM or even one MLM, Paulson is truly just a number in this insidious industry.

Thank-you NetGalley & Row House Publishing for the eARC in exchange for my honest review of the book.

As a recovering 'hun,' I was so excited to get my hands on this book! Emily explores so many facets of MLM while offering humor and compassion.

It reminded me a lot of a podcast I listened too but a little more in-depth. If you are interested in woman, feminism, consumerism and cults this is the book for you.

I will say it drives me nuts that it's "hun" and not "hon". I almost didn't read it.

Fascinating, intriguing, funny, and real. I loved this, but it felt super long winded - it would have been a 5 star for me if it was more concise.

Emily Paulson is a stay at home mother of 5 experiencing what befalls many parents who have left the traditional workforce. She feels lonely, tired, overstimulated, and is yearning for something new in her life. Enter Rejuvinat, a direct sales gig her friend introduces her to during a ̶s̶a̶l̶e̶s̶ ̶p̶i̶t̶c̶h̶ dinner out. Hey, Hun is told by Emily about her experience climbing the ranks in this company and the moral compromises she had to make along the way.

MLMs are one of my special interests. While I've never fallen prey to one, I am a former member of a church, a stay at home mom, and a white woman in a conservative community. They would love nothing more than to eat me for lunch is what I'm saying. I've been at war with direct sales and all that these companies represent for years now, so this book was a perfect fit for me.

I really loved Emily Paulson's writing voice, and that she was vulnerable about her experience without feeling a need to sugarcoat it. She brought anecdotes and she brought data on the predatory practices of not only the company she was involved with (hint: Rejuvinat is not a real company but a simple google will tell you which company is being written about in this book), but of other direct sales "businesses" and the industry as a whole. Paulson is not scared to have the hard conversations surrounding income disparity, colorful wording, and white supremacy infecting communities all across America. Hey, Hun will be a heavy hitter and perhaps divisive, but it leaves no room for misinterpretation.

I recommend this for readers of books like Cultish or for those who enjoyed watching LulaRich or Betting on Zero. I also recommend this for any reader who is currently involved with these companies or curious about the behind the scenes. It was absolutely a hit for me and I can't wait to see how it is received upon release.

Thanks so much to Row House Publishing as well as NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Hey Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and Other Lies Behind Multi-Level Marketing

Author:Emily Lynn Paulson

Publisher: Row House

Release Date: May 30, 2023

*I received my digital copy from Netgalley. I was not compensated in any way.

Emily Lynn Paulson was an upper middle- class stay at home mom when she was recruited into an MLM cosmetics company and rose to the top. She was making tens of thousands per month, traveling extensively, and showered with designer handbags and other perks. It took years for her to realize the truth about the company she worked for. She got involved with the company to make friends, earn a little "me time" and travel. What she got was exhaustion, a drinking problem, and hardly any time for her children or husband. In this, her second book, Emily Paulson comes clean about MLMs, who they prey on, and how they operate.

I chose this book because I have fallen for the MLM recruitment lines more than once. (Much more than once.) It took me learning the hard way that MLMs are a quick path to financial ruin. Why did I get involved? I needed extra money. MLMs look so exciting to women like me What kind of woman is that? Paulson describes in detail who gets targeted, and why.

I literally could not put this book down. I saw so much of myself and my friends who have fallen time and again for the idea of making money from home in our spare time. How do MLMs draw women in and how do they brainwash them into staying? Paulsen explains this as well as how MLMs use control tactics to brainwash their consultants (or whatever term they use for the people who sign up and pay money for a "starter kit"). Paulson explains how MLMs work and why they remain legal.

Thanks to this book, I now understand why MLMs set people like me up for failure. It all makes sense now. Paulson's writing style makes for easy reading and understandability. This is a fascinating book. I highly recommend it.

Read this book if...

... you have ever been involved in an MLM

... someone you care about is involved in an MLM

... you are being pressured into joining an MLM

...you are curious about "pyramid schemes" and MLMs

This book is going to make waves and for good reason. Paulson’s writing is compulsively readable and drew me in right away. Parts of her story seemed almost too absurd to be true yet I’m sure they are. I really enjoyed the reading experience. Two things that stood out: 1) I wanted a deeper exploration of how MLMs perpetuate white supremacy. I think Paulson knows but it’s not made clear to the reader beyond just “people of color don’t join MLMs”. A little deeper analysis is warranted. 2) the ending felt rushed, though maybe I was rushing it. Again, I craved deeper analysis of the MLM-to-QAnon pipeline.

This was a brilliant exploration into a toxic subject matter that hasn’t hit the mainstream publishing industry as of yet.

Lynn Paulson merges personal experience with wider journalistic endeavours by interviewing other ex members of the groups that have harmed so many. She delves deep into the political and racist production of the MLMS groups which many previous articles and content on the topic has shied away from.

The tone is particularly chatty which won’t be for everyone but I imagine it will be well suited to audio production particularly.

Can I interest you in buying this super expensive product? Oh, but actually you can get a super great discount if you start selling it yourself.

No, I'm not actually trying to entice you into an MLM scheme. But Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing by Emily Lynn Paulson goes into how you can get roped into one in much more subtle ways. She discusses how MLM's prey on the vulnerable and how they thrive through her own rise and fall in one.

Emily's story is riveting in the way that you can't look away from a car crash. Of course hindsight is 20/20, but so much of the indoctrination and manipulation just seems unbelievable. It also helps that her writing is conversational and witty. There are some abrupt jumps in topic and some repetitiveness, but the rest of the book is so easy to consume that I didn't mind.

Hey, Hun comes out May 30, 2023. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I’ve long been fascinated by multilevel marketing (MLM), so I was really excited to have the chance to read Emily Lynn Paulson’s behind-the-scenes story from her time near the top of the pyramid. Emily ascended to one of the highest ranks of “Rejuvinat.” The name of the company is changed, but it doesn’t really matter, because all MLMs are really a predatory system of indoctrination and toxic exploitation.

Emily’s account is sharp, witty, and raw. The tone is conversational, sassy, and often funny. She exposes the lies and manipulation lurking underneath the guise of female empowerment that make up the toxic MLM culture. She shines a bright light on how these companies put the “cult” in #bossbabe “culture” and the systematic way they entrap women by using aspirational misinformation and emotional control. She demonstrates how MLM leaders are both victim and perpetrator, and she doesn’t shy away from her role as perpetrator, peddling false promises and toxic positivity to enrich herself to the detriment of the many downline consultants whose purchases fed her fat paychecks.

The narrative is most effective when Emily is relating her own experiences. Her insider perspective is super compelling: the #girlboss life, the way MLMs target stay-at-home moms and vulnerable demographics, how the Rejuvinat environment fueled her descent into alcohol abuse, and how getting sober gave her clarity on how fake and destructive MLMs actually are. Her takes on the sociological issues of MLMs like patriarchy and white supremacy are somewhat less effective. While I totally believe these aspects exist, these sections are weaker and feel unsupported and superficial. Throwing around the term “white supremacy” without anything to back it up isn’t doing things any justice.

If you enjoyed the “LuLaRich” documentary or have ever been preyed upon by a hun sliding into your DMs shilling her overpriced junk, you’ll likely enjoy this MLM expose. Many thanks to NetGalley and Row House Publishing for providing me an advance copy of this book.

This book was unexpectedly good. I found it eye-opening and very interesting regarding the background and the hypocrisy of MLMs. I literally couldn't believe some of the things that the author revealed! A fascinating read that kept my interest throughout.

Thank you NetGalley and Row House Publishing for sending me this advanced copy for review.

Emily Lynn Paulson, Hey Hun, thanks for writing not only your memoir but also for providing an insight into the crazy world that is multi-level marketing (MLM).

I remember my Mum being invited to candle ‘parties’ and Tupperware ‘parties’ when I was younger and at that age I had no idea at all what was happening in the background of the hosts having arranged these parties.

Emily brilliantly weaves her successful and profitable past life as a top-level boss babe (her words) and her current knowledge as to the dangers and cult-like manipulation involved, having walked away from the company she was involved with. Honestly some of the things the company was capable of blew my mind, even going so far as to encourage Emily’s journey to sobriety and her cancer diagnosis as a way to make more money!

I found this one so easy to read because of the great balance between memoir and sociological/psychological theory. The only criticism I have is that at some points it became very repetitive and could have been some 50 pages or so shorter.

If you’re interested in learning about the behind the scenes of MLMs or understanding why random girls you went to school with are ‘so excited to share a new business opportunity with you! XX,’ please give this one a read!

This was such a smart and interesting discussion of the problems with MLMs. Because the author was deep in the trenches for so long, she provides dual perspectives of someone who was easily indoctrinated and someone who came to understand why they are so dangerous.

Emily Lynn Paulson's experience in an MLM was far more profitable and successful than many other participants and she constantly acknowledges that. Early on in her career, she starts seeing the cracks and how detrimental the process is to so many of her friends. The fact that she had these conflicting feelings and justified them to herself makes this book far more useful than if it was written by someone who had immediately left the industry once realizing how awful it was.

Paulson interjects her own experiences with historical and sociological research about the way MLMs ostracize participants and embrace a cult-like environment so participants feel like they cannot leave. These segues are useful for people who may need to see hard data to hate the MLM industry.

Paulson has obviously put in the work to grow and get past her struggles with alcoholism and is aware of how all of the parts of her life intersect to create things to work on. She is very much aware of her privilege throughout the book and makes constant references to how her situation would have been a lot worse without her socioeconomic status already being very strong.

I recommend this book to anyone who has seen their friends fall down the #bossbabe rabbit hole or who has been tempted to join it themselves. Paulson does a marvelous job of making sure to pull back the layers and remind the reader why all the accolades and ego-boosting are not worth it.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for a review.