I’ve been hesitating to write this review for the last week, because of the controversy and pain of dealing with all of the comments that reviews of this nature create, but because of certain things that I said over the last couple of months, I find that it would be useful to bring out in the open a discussion of ‘The Numis Network‘ from the perspective of someone who not only thought he’d never join, but was an open, public critic of the company.
The Numis Network Is An Interesting Animal:The Numis Network Is A Funny Animal
It’s actually funny to watch the emotional, knee jerk reactions that both myself, and hundreds of other people have had to this company. Numis seems to spark more controversy, critics, and on the flip side – fanatical promoters than any MLM company that has emerged either on or off the internet for the last 20 or 30 years.
In fact, when I first became aware of the company, I thought it was the stupidest thing that I had ever seen. I wrote a review bashing it, told people not to join it, told people I didn’t think it would last, and here’s the funny thing…
…I gave people a million and one reasons why they shouldn’t buy numismatic coins – as if I knew something about the industry and was some kind of coin expert.
Sound familiar?
Sometimes the responsibility of a leader in this industry, and also a leader in life is to be willing to step down and admit that he is wrong. The fact is, as a leader in this industry, I should have never, ever criticized a company that I knew so little about – however, I wanted to take some time to address some of the specific criticism that I brought out, AND that has been raised by others.
“So Why The Heck Does Numis Attract So Much Criticism?”
The first thing that I would like to address is why The Numis Network creates such dramatic criticism in the first place, something that if you’ve found your way to this review, you’ve probably noticed. In fact, never in the last seven years in this industry have I ever seen a company that creates such massive controversy. I recently found out that hundreds of industry leaders privately thought that my last company, iLearningGlobal, wouldn’t last – but for some reason no one criticized it, ever.
In fact, not only did they not criticize it, there was no information on the internet, anywhere, from anyone who wasn’t a distributor. (The reason is, I later found out, I had one of only two teams in the company that was actually growing, so no one really cared about it – they all thought it would just fizzle out, which it did).
The reality is – people criticize what they don’t understand and they are afraid of. Why would someone be afraid of Numis? Because it’s growing so fast that people from all kinds of Network Marketing companies are both joining, and taking their downline with them. When I was in iLearningGlobal, I got 5-10 phone calls a day for a month straight asking my opinion on The Numis Network, and I had someone quitting my business and joining it at least every 3 days. I promise you, that the reason people, ESPECIALLY who know absolutely nothing about the company (which is most of them), are simply afraid that their downline is going to leave, and for good reasons.
I wanted to take a second to publicly apologize for being an ‘ignorant‘ scaredy cat.
“What About The Coins? Aren’t They A Rip-Off?”
One of the funniest things about network marketers who take a look at Numis is the questions that they ask that they never bring up about any other company in the industry.
For example, I was talking to a distributor in a juice company last week who said ‘I would never buy over-priced coins‘, and at the same time they were both selling and buying a couple hundred dollars worth of juice per month – amounting to a grand total of about two gallons of product.
Now, I would never criticize a juice company, and I buy some of those products myself – but does that even make sense as a distributor in this industry? From a consumer perspective, it’s a valid question – but if you’re in network marketing, don’t be crazy. In my last company, I was marketing a personal development service that cost $179 per month where you could get almost all of the information on YouTube for free – and hundreds of new people were subscribing on a monthly basis who felt that it was worth it. When I was in my last company, I was spending $250 per month on an auto-ship for about the same amount of vitamins that I could get at my local health food store for $50. Now, they may have been BETTER vitamins – but let’s stop being hypocrites, ok?
The amount of people on the internet that have never made a dime in network marketing that all of the sudden claim to be ‘coin’ experts is astounding. Did you know that no-one ever made a statue to celebrate the accomplishments of someone who wasted their day criticizing things they don’t understand?
So what about the actual value of the product? The ‘value’ of a product is what someone is willing on a large scale to pay for it – it’s a simple phenomenon of supply and demand. The reality that I didn’t want to admit when I took a look at the company – because I was never a coin collector – is that the Numismatic product niche is a $100 billion worldwide market, and one of our partners, Mike Mezack, PERSONALLY does more than $100 million in sales for this exact product annually – and there are hundreds of thousands of people who are more than happy to pay for it.
There was a guy in my old team (no-mentioning names here, because he’s a cool guy) who went off on me about how it’s ‘unethical‘ to sell numismatic coins and he could never do it because of his fantastic ‘ethics‘. Well, it just so happens that this guy has also never made more than maybe $100 a month in network marketing, and in five months sponsored a grand total of one distributor, and every single other person that he had in his team – I personally put there, for a grand total of about 15 people. Now, I LIKE this guy – he’s cool, and I do believe he can and will succeed in this industry (or I wouldn’t have put people in his team), but don’t give me bull-crap.
If you’re going to claim to have some kind of superior ‘ethics’ – don’t talk to me about it until you have some results to show. My ethical friend there is now selling water for $50 a case. (***As a note – I love the water deal, and will probably buy some – and I’m not talking about my friend John, who is a great leader who I believe will eventually make a million a year in this industry and who HAS sponsored a LOT of people – I’m just pointing out a general inconsistency that is created out of fear of failure). If you’re going to claim ‘ethics’ don’t pretend you’re a leader if you have never made $200 a month in network marketing.
“Is Numis An Investment? David X Seems To Say That Numis Reps Are ‘Claiming’ It’s an investment.”
One of my biggest hang ups when I first looked at The Numis Network was that I just couldn’t figure out why someone would pay $99 for a coin that had around $18 of silver in it. I was looking at it through the eyes of a precious metal investor – and the fact is, that I had never even watched an entire business presentation from the company and I had no idea what the word ‘numismatic’ meant.
Funny enough, when I finally did, I noticed that not just once, but at least three times throughout the course of the presentation, that not only did the rep specifically mention that Numis is NOT an investment, but that there was a whole five minute section of the presentation dedicated to explaining the exact difference between an ‘investment’ and a ‘collectible’.
Because we can legally make a statement ‘historically, the value of these coins has increased’ DOES NOT mean we are even remotely claiming that it is some kind of investment – so stop being an idiot. David X is known now in our inner circle as ‘The Coin Messiah’ or ‘TCM’ because of his desire to ‘save everyone‘ from buying numismatics. (As a side note – I like David, and I don’t think he’s intentionally being ignorant – I think he’s just spoken out and now maybe his pride is in the way).
See, once I actually saw the presentation, I got it right away – because I’ve been collecting things my whole life. When I was about 8 years old, I started collecting comic books, and today that collection is probably worth $20-$30 thousand dollars. If I told you ‘historically, comic books have gone up in value…’ would you think that I was an investment advisor?
No. So stop trying to pretend that Numis reps are proposing investments, when on every page of our websites, and for five minutes in the presentation we explain the exact difference between investments and collectibles. Collectibles DO go up in value, it might not be in 5 years, 10, or even 15, but my dad had a mint condition copy of Spiderman #1 – which I believe is worth over $100,000 because over time, collectibles get more rare.
Do you see how silly the whole ‘investment’ objection is? It doesn’t even remotely make sense unless you’re trying to say that the company does the EXACT OPPOSITE of what is right on the front of their websites.
“Hasn’t This Been Tried Before? I Knew A Guy Who’s Best Friends Dad Lost His Shirt In A Coin Deal”
No. In fact, when I looked into the company – I thought that it had because I’ve seen ‘Gold and Silver’ deals go under before. The critical difference is that those companies were dealing in an entirely different product niche – they were marketing ungraded bullion coins for an unwarranted mark-up in price.
In fact, I’ve sponsored several people into Numis that were in ‘Gold Unlimited’ in the 90′s, and from what I understand, what we do couldn’t be further from what has happened in the past. The Numis Network markets Gold and Silver NUMISMATIC coins graded by the three most respected grading agencies in the world, and we market a LEGITIMATE product that people are already spending money on – at competitive market prices – which is not just different from what you have seen – it is an entirely different kind of industry from anything that has hit the Network Marketing model in the last 120+ years of this industry.
We are a ‘first mover’.
“Isn’t The ‘Executive Kit’ Just An Excuse To Pass Money Around?”
One of the things that I criticized about the Numis Network when I first looked at it was that it seemed that 90% of the income came from something called a ‘coded’ bonus (which was an accurate assumption, it does). Well, the coded bonus is created from the sale of ‘The Executive Kit’ when you’re enrolling a distributor for $495 and they purchase the ‘Fast Track Collectors Kit’. Len Clements, a well known network marketing analyst, said that the value of the actual sign up is questionable, and that it could be viewed as something that just exists for the sake of compensation – which would be valid if there wasn’t actual, tangible value in the enrollment kit.
As a distributor who has purchased the kit – I can tell you nothing could be further from reality. Let me just give you a couple of examples.
In my last company, iLearningGlobal, I had to manually enter all of my distributor’s information into a contact management system just to be able to email my downline and keep them in the loop of what we’re doing as a team – a chore that took at a minimum 2, and usually 5 hours a week and cost me an extra $50 per month – or $600 per year.
Just ONE of the things that is included in that $495 signup is a BBS system that I would have gladly paid $495 for by itself just to save the time, not to mention the actual savings from the system itself as the team expands. I also had to completely design a sales funnel from the ground up in that company, where in Numis, they have a pre-designed custom internet marketing sales funnel that’s included, IN ADDITION to the most professional customer website I’ve ever had, a website that I have ACTUALLY had customers just go to and buy product because that Mike Mezack guy is so good at selling.
In fact – as a distributor, I’d have to say that the $495 distributor enrollment is going to save me $5,000 a year in pointless fees and systems that I would have to pay for elsewhere, but don’t need at all as a Numis rep – PLUS, you get a perfect Mint State 70 Silver American Eagle (retail value of $125) with the $495 distributor kit – so don’t give me crap, especially if you’re selling a $1000 package of vitamins you could buy for $200.
When I was in a vitamin company, I had to pay $1,000 for the vitamins when I joined and order another $500 in sales tools – and I GLADLY paid, because it made me money, I just don’t need any of that ‘extra’ stuff here – because it’s included. If you buy a Subway franchise, it costs over $20,000 PLUS you’ve got to pay overrides every month to the Subway corporation and rent real estate space and pay for employees – now THAT’S passing money around.
The ‘Numis Doesn’t Have Residual Income‘ Myth
When I first saw Numis, I called an industry leader (who shall remain anonymous), and asked him what he thought, and he said something that I thought was fascinating, he said ‘In my opinion, you can’t mark up a fixed priced product enough to pay a downline’.
Well, when I first wrote a review on Numis, I mentioned how the residual income is crappy because they are, in reality, only paying out about 30% of the ACTUAL MONEY SPENT on the flagship product – the MS70 Silver American Eagle. Well, I was right about the 30% part (they pay 50% of BV, and there is 60 BV points from one MS70 Silver Coin that costs $99).
You see, I was comparing the payout of Numis to the payout of juice companies, vitamin companies, and my company, which range from 40%-60%, and I pointed out how, magnified over a team of thousands of people, 30% seemed like a lot less money.
Well, if retention rates were all the same, that would be completely true, and if Numis didn’t have a coded bonus (more on that in a bit), you would need quite a lot of people to make a significant monthly income. What I wasn’t admitting, however, is the whole myth of residual income in most companies isn’t really true, anyways.
For example, in my last company, I was told we had a company wide retention rate of 93%, which if it had been 100% accurate, the residuals from that product would have been absolutely astounding. What I wasn’t aware of, though, that I found out when the company closed down, is that we ACTUALLY had a 93% monthly retention rate (big difference), and that in the Network Marketing industry, 93% monthly retention is actually pretty good. (Now to be fair on myself, I think I had a bit better retention than average, but still…)
I built a team of around 1000 people in a well known vitamin company, years ago, and today I still have that business – THE ONLY people that are still on an autoship are people that had life changing product experiences. All of the ‘I take vitamins, and feel great’ people have canceled their product orders, one by one and now there is a grand total of MAYBE 30-40 people who got ‘cured’ of something for taking them (don’t tell the FDA).
I talked to Ray Higdon, one of the founding distributors here at The Numis Network, and he’s been a distributor for around 8 months at the time of this writing and has had right around a 94% total persistency for 8 months in his business – that’s A LOT better than a 93% MONTHLY retention, and a LOT better than you’ll get in any vitamin company in the world.
Sometimes, LESS is more – as is the case with this. Why aren’t people canceling their autoship? I guess there’s something that’s cool and attractive about getting pure, Mint Condition Gold and Silver coins in the mail every month – people don’t feel like they’re spending money, they feel like they’re purchasing a valuable collection of assets – BIG difference.
Here’s the COOL thing… Residuals are just an ‘EXTRA’ bonus in The Numis Network…
So people are keeping their auto-ship (because getting Gold and Silver in the mail is ‘cool‘ or for whatever reason – it’s still happening, which is getting me pumped just thinking about it) – but here’s the best part about Numis…
…residuals are just ‘extra’ here. You see, in most actual MLM companies, there are no residuals – incomes are formed and maintained by systems that keep people flowing in to the company faster than they leave – that’s not residual income, it’s ‘promotional’ income. REAL residuals in most companies are actually quite small (with a few big exceptions), because people don’t like being on auto-ships – so when they decide not to build a downline, they cancel their product order – which happens about 85% of the time within 12 months.
Well, in The Numis Network – people LIKE their autoship – because they’re building value every month – but aside from that – it’s totally irrelevant in my opinion, because the ‘Coded’ bonus pays so much danged money out if you’re growing at all – the residuals are just a nice, extra bonus. Let’s face it – residuals take forever to build, anyways, I want to make money now, don’t you?
If you’re critical of the coded bonus, I understand. I didn’t understand it either when I looked at it, and I didn’t know my history. The coded bonus was innovated by a company called Excel Telecommunications in the 90′s, which was the fastest growing MLM company in the history of America, hitting $1 billion in sales four times faster than Microsoft. The top earner in Excel earned $1.7 million per month for 18 months straight, 95% of which came from a ‘coded bonus’ written almost ‘exactly’ like the bonus in Numis.
(We’ve made some improvements, and we have residuals, too – which Excel just didn’t have…)
I can’t say exactly how much I made my first week in business – but I’ll tell you this – that ‘coded’ bonus made me more money in my first 14 days than I ever made in a month in my last MLM company after SIX MONTHS of aggressively building.
It’s VERY, VERY cool – and we pay it weekly.
…and if we’re going to talk about ‘ethics’, let’s talk about the ‘ethics’ of telling someone their is residual income when there is not. I’m so sick of people filling my head with crap in this industry – that it’s time for us ALL to set a new standard, don’t you think? How about the ethics of getting someone involved in an ‘opportunity’ that gives them a grand total ‘promotional’ check of $200 after they finally have their 200th person in their downline?
With Numis, people have the ability to generate commissions quickly, now that’s an ETHICAL business to promote – because let’s face it – we’re in this industry to create wealth…
…or are you just here to ‘piddle around‘?
My Final Thoughts
The reality is, even thought people aren’t willing to admit the simple truth – The Numis Network is growing like a wild, uncontrollable fire. In this, or any other profit driven industry – you can either get involved with an idea that is moving on it’s own, or you can do what I tried to do in my last venture – which is to FORCE an idea that nobody gets into the minds of the mass populace.
That’s hard – and it doesn’t work for the average person.
The Numis Network is hot. It’s moving. It’s easy for the average person to explain – COMMISSIONS can be generated quickly if you’re producing, and let’s face it…
…getting Gold and Silver in the mail every month is just cool. It’s almost like we have an extra paycheck once per month… We get paid weekly through all of our ways of earning – and monthly on an autoship of Gold and Silver.
As my good friend, Larry Beacham, a GREAT Network Marketing leader says:
“Everyone sells something – why not sell money?
Everyone collects something – why not collect money?”
Ha ha.
Let me tell you what I told Cedrick Harris and Brian Fanale the other day – I believe that The Numis Network is MY FIRST legitimate chance to build a team of 100,000 distributors in the network marketing industry – it’s the only thing that I’ve ever been a part of that ACTUALLY duplicates, and I’m just flat excited. My PRODUCT is money – and I’m proud of it. Let’s go out – and TRANSFORM the destiny of nations.
If you’re on the fence, get back to the person who invited you to view this article, and find out how you can lock in a spot. Timing in this, and in life, is critical. I’ll look forward to working with you.
-David Wood
P.S. You are welcome to re-post this in whole or in part if you link back to http://workwithdavidwood.com/numis-network-review-mlm-network-marketing/.
P.P.S. PLEASE – leave your comments and re-tweet this post if you’re a Numis rep – let’s set the record straight about what ‘David Wood’ thinks about Numis.
