John Goes To A YTB Meeting

Well, many folks have encouraged me to attend a YTB meeting just so I know what the “real deal” is all about. Most of these folks are YTB people already in the program and insistent that without that experience, my opinions are worthless. So let’s toss that theory right out now. I have been and here are my opinions on the meeting.

The meeting was Thursday evening December 13^th in Columbia, Maryland at the Hilton Garden Inn. The hosts were Marcus & Barbara Board and Greg & Carly (did not catch the last name). The main presentation was done by a Level 3 Director names Donald Bradley who apparently flew in from Atlanta for the presentation.

There were 22 people there which included the 5 presenters 13 RTAs. So, there were only 4 people new to YTB. The room was obviously stacked. This became obvious when the presenter would ask a rhetorical question “Now doesn’t this sound like a good plan?”, and the 13 RTAs and the remaining 4 presenters would all shout out their agreement in unison. Also when Donald Bradley was being introduced, in the middle of the introduction as they were going over his achievements, there were cheers, etc. It was obvious that a great deal of the evening was orchestrated.

The PowerPoint presentation was the same presentation I have seen at many websites. It was actually pretty old since it did include RCI and their brands as suppliers.

Donald was a great speaker and very persuasive. You can check out his website which is very well done at www.the3ceosonline.com.

I was not able to ask any questions. The room was so loaded with obvious YTB RTAs and Reps. For all I know they all were with YTB as they all seemed VERY friendly with one another and my friend and I were the only two guests. There was no charge for us, but RTAs needed to pay $10. I am guessing the idea is to either have the RTA bring people in and allow the Director to “close them”, or expose the RTAs to the MLM side of the business in hopes of signing them up for the other side.

I am composing my notes and some comments on the information presented, and will post it in a future post. I will say that there was very little information that was new to me. What surprised me was some of the anecdotes and comments. And not surprisingly, the meeting was nothing about travel---all about perks, benefits, and recruiting! I think attendance at these meetings ought to be required of all suppliers!