Mormonism and MLMs seem to have a lot of similarities. Austin shares his experience with LuLaRoe.

The MLM Playbook in Mormonism: Why High-Control Groups and Multi-Level Marketing Share More Than You'd Think

What do leggings, religious commitment, and financial recruitment have in common? More than most people realize. The structural and psychological similarities between multi-level marketing schemes and high-control religious organizations like The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have drawn increasing scholarly and anecdotal attention in recent years. According to accounts shared on the Mormon Stories Podcast, individuals who have escaped both MLM involvement and strict religious environments report remarkably parallel experiences: the same pressure tactics, the same promise of exclusive insider status, the same financial incentives wrapped in spiritual language.

This comparison might seem inflammatory to some, and flattering to neither Mormonism nor MLMs. Yet understanding the mechanisms that make people vulnerable to both reveals something crucial about how recruitment and retention systems operate in modern American culture. Whether someone falls victim to a leggings-based pyramid scheme or dedicates their life savings to a religious institution, the underlying psychological architecture is often identical.

Background: The Structural Similarities Between MLMs and Religious Groups

Multi-level marketing companies and authoritarian religious organizations operate on fundamentally similar business and psychological models, even if their end products differ dramatically.

In MLMs, recruits are promised financial independence and social prestige by recruiting others into their "downline." The real money flows not from selling products to outside consumers, but from recruitment itself. Meanwhile, new recruits are told they've joined an exclusive community of successful entrepreneurs, a chosen group destined for wealth if they work hard enough and recruit aggressively enough.