Woman Diagnosed With Cancer Admits She Used The Disease To Get Sales For Her Business

A woman diagnosed with cancer has admitted that she used the disease to get sales for her business, detailing the immense ‘guilt’ she felt after ‘exploiting’ her story.

Emily Lynn Paulson, a 43-year-old author and public speaker from Oregon, said she joined a multi-level marketing company, which she did not name, in 2013, as a way to “escape the mundane day-to-day as a stay-at-home breast.’

The mother-of-five began promoting skincare products on her social media accounts in exchange for money, and the paychecks soon started rolling in.

But in 2015, just when she felt like she was “on top of the world,” Emily was diagnosed with cervical cancer.

After sharing the heartbreaking news with some of the people at the company, she was stunned when one of her business partners suggested that she “use her diagnosis to her advantage.”

“I couldn’t understand how any of this painful experience could be beneficial,” he explained in a recent essay for the Today show.

That is, until she reminded me that many women in our MLM had monetized pity for their circumstances: the woman whose husband had passed away, another whose son had a life-threatening illness, another whose house was leveled by a hurricane.

“I saw firsthand how these women gained sympathy, which inevitably led to sales.”

While Emily admitted that her “intuition told her it was less than ethical,” that sentiment was soon “drown out by the hope that the sexual situation could lead to something positive.”

While undergoing treatment, the writer said she asked team members below her to host events ‘in the name of cancer research’ while offering them free products in return.

He soon saw his sales skyrocket, and although he donated “a portion” of the money he earned to charity, he kept most of the profits for himself.

‘Not only was it outright bribery, it was coercive, because I was his upline. I was in a position of power and they didn’t want to let me down,” he wrote.

Also, how dare they say no to a cancer woman who is (apparently) trying to do something good?

‘That pressure also extended to customers. What kind of person wouldn’t buy a $50 eye cream, knowing that a few dollars from the sale would amplify something good?

“At the same time, it was a tricky way to increase sales and my customer base.”

At first, she said she “felt good” about her behavior, but as time went on, she noticed a “growing guilt” inside of her.

She said she not only used her illness to “boost” her “sales and rankings,” but she was also “training” others in the company to use the same tactics.

Eventually, after undergoing surgery and completing treatment, Emily was in remission, and she soon began to realize that what she had done was wrong.

He called his actions “predatory and vile,” while also revealing that he ultimately decided to break away from network marketing entirely.

“It took some clarity and distance from my diagnosis to realize that what I had done was not helpful or charitable, it was predatory and vile,” he continued.

I continued to deconstruct the way I conducted myself, change the way I talked to people, and eventually disassociate myself from MLM altogether.

Unfortunately, Emily’s cancer returned in 2017, but this time she said she “refused to use her diagnosis as a way to manipulate the people around her.”

In the end, the author, who is now proudly cancer-free, said the experience helped open her eyes to how common it was in marketing for people to use her “sad story” in an attempt to make money.

‘I became more aware of success stories that started with a sad story. I realized that it was not (totally) a fault of mine, but a fault of the system, ”he concluded.

“Now I see how mixing sales and charity is nothing more than a marketing ploy – donating directly to charity is always the best move.”

He has now written a book about the experience, titled Hey Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing, which will be released on May 30.