CitizenCorps.com: The Scam Behind the Man Behind the Scam
I am Kurt Inagaki, I am currently and for the foreseeable future, a Club Sea Breeze Associate. I have current active and/or inactive associate-ships in LifePath Unlimited, TVI, Diamond Holiday Travel, LGN-Prosperity. I pen the Five Essentials Reviews and every Five Essentials Review has always, clearly stated from the beginning if I have a “dog in the fight”.
The purpose of this article is to:
- Identify the logical flaw in all Citizen Corps Reviews
- Clearly identify the relationship between Allen Nettles/Citizen Corps and Pyxism.
- Identify and elaborate upon the inconsistencies and misrepresentations in the Club Sea Breeze Review
First, the link to read the entire Club Sea Breeze Review on Citizen Corps follows and opens in a new page so you can hop back and forth:
http://citizencorps.com/club-sea-breeze/
It turns out there is a lot of information to cover so here are the highlights, if you want detail, dig in to the article:
Summary
The logical flaw in all Citizen Corps Reviews
- Instead of establishing objective base criteria against which to evaluate and review all opportunities, the Citizen Corp (CC) reviews are relative in nature.
- By design, the reviews serve the primary purpose of making the competing opportunity being promoted the standard against which the opportunity being reviewed is evaluated and inevitably found inferior. Informing, data and objective analysis is secondary and offered only as long as it continues to support the negative review and/or the competing opportunity ultimately being promoted.
- The “star” ratings cease to be significant because they are all relative to an alternative agenda promoting another opportunity. If/when the agenda changes (i.e. a new opportunity) so does the standard and the previous reviews lose relevance.
The relationship between Allen Nettles/Citizen Corps and Pyxism
- Allen Nettles is the principal and is integrally involved into Citizen Corps and for years has used Citizen Corps to market the opportunity he favors at that time, by offering a positive review on an opportunity that he represents and embedding links to his website for that opportunity within the review. Perhaps that seems overly transparent, however many prospective associates doing their own due diligence expecting an objective review as well as current associates driving traffic to Citizen Corps pointing to the review as some kind of independent, 3rd party validation have been duped.
- Invariably, due to the notoriously short attention spans of some prospects, some have clicked the links and been sponsored away from associates who originally sent them there. An injustice and dis-service to prospective and existing associates alike.
- The other tactic/strategy employed, because unfortunately “negative” sells, is to write a negative review of your competition and in that negative review offer up a competing opportunity. This kind of “straw-man” tactic works very well on many prospective associates performing their due diligence.
- Currently, Pyxism is the opportunity of choice for Allen Nettles, ergo the “5 Star and everything else pales in comparison reviews”.
The inconsistencies/misrepresentations in the Citizen Corps Review of Club Sea Breeze
The primary areas of concern are:
- The Principal & Leadership at Club Sea Breeze, Kelly Williams and his family are being painted in the review as a big builder opportunist jumping from one opportunity to the next with inferior experience and leadership in a network marketing company. The color on that paint can? “Whitewash”. Kelly Williams tells his story here: https://www.clubseabreeze.biz/members/winds/ourstory.html And Kelly and Family have surrounded themselves and CSB with a group of Advisory Board Members further augmenting and solidifying the network marketing and leadership experience of Club Sea Breeze. The profiles of the Advisory Board Members can be found here: https://www.clubseabreeze.biz/members/winds/advisory.html
- The Products. From the Citizen Corps Review: “Club Sea Breeze’s sole travel product is offered by a more established competitor (Pyxism) at a lower entry cost and only one of several products the customers receive…” and ”We dropped one star simply due to the higher purchase cost as compared to Pyxism which offers the same product with additional benefits”. First, The pre-launch date of Pyxism is December 2009 versus Club Sea Breeze at April 2010, in the business world they are both “Start-ups”. Secondly, the product has the same provider, HTOA, and the portals have the same look and functionality (almost) however the similarities really end there. Pyxism has 4,000 properties, CSB 5000+, but the biggest difference is that the Pyxism travel membership is a one time use, 1 week and it’s over.
- The Club Sea Breeze travel membership can access 5000+ properties as many weeks out of the year as you can afford to travel AND it’s a LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP, no blackout dates, no restrictions on the number of weeks you can travel in the year, and it can be passed down to children and grandchildren.
- You can become an associate in Pyxism and get your one time use travel membership for $349.00 or you can become an associate in Club Sea Breeze and get your Lifetime travel membership for $366.97 a mere $17.97 more for a lifetime membership, unlimited weeks, willable to children and grandchildren. Which offers more value, which would you rather buy? Especially knowing that Club Sea Breeze is continually adding to the product suite at no additional cost to the associates.
- The Start up Costs. The CC Review says Pyxism is less expensive, but is it really? As an associate, if you buy everything you can at Club Sea Breeze it is accurately stated in the CC Review as $386.94 which is $37.94 more than the $349 entry level at Pyxism, but if we are evenhanded about this and calculate everything you can buy at both opportunities, the CSB start-up cost remains $386.94, but Pyxism climbs to a substantial $849, in any event the cost actually is $849 because if you do not pay up front, when you cycle the first of the Two matrices your $500 commission will go towards qualifying you for the 2nd matrix. So Pyxism at $849 and CSB at $386.94 doesn’t appear Pyxism has the lower start-up cost.
- The Compensation Plan. I could continue to rebut the CC Review comments, but it’s very clear whomever wrote it is uninformed AND has only a rudimentary understanding of the CSB compensation plan, which is very evident in the closing statement: “This compensation plan heavily favors big builders but at the expense of the little guy and everyday average person. Once again in direct comparison with the competition Club Sea Breeze comes up short.”
- The Club Sea Breeze Compensation plan does reward big builders, as it should, those who do the work should reap the benefits and the CSB comp plan does this in concert with helping the “little guy and everyday average person” by allowing sponsors and their up line, to assist their down line with placements and qualifiers. Essentially, people get involved and if they do a little work, they make a little bit of money, if they commit and do a lot of work, they will make a lot of money.
- There is not, as the reviewer contends a lack of leverage in the CSB plan, to the contrary there is extraordinary leverage built into the compensation plan. To read more, continue with the rest of the article.
The Issue, the Player and the History
The principal at Citizen Corps is Alan Nettles and he is a Pyxism Associate, also a Life Path Unlimited Associate, a TVI Associate and probably more, but since he does not disclose that information up front or at all, it’s hard to say if he is a current or former associate in these and other opportunities.
And for the record, I believe it critically important to know that information up front because it is a necessary filter through which to view and assimilate the article, review, blog, etc and to discern the difference between information/data and opinion/editorial license.
And I’ll go one further, I am just tired of the lack of integrity in the Network Marketing industry, the continual hype and focus on “the money” and in general, the say/do anything to sponsor someone, promote your opportunity, mentality that’s running amok these days.
This isn’t about denigrating Allen Nettles and/or Citizen Corps, it’s about identifying Citizen Corps for what it is and what it is not. It is a marketing tool for Allen Nettles and his current opportunity, Pyxism. Citizen Corps is not as it tries to suggest, “…dedicated in researching and providing the most truthful and factual reviews of the legitimate home businesses.”
And the relevance of knowing where someone (or in this case a site-Citizen Corps) sits before it tells you where it stands in its reviews is credibility.
An objective, 3rd party, unbiased source providing reviews would be a highly valuable due diligence tool and resource for prospective associates and a great 3rd party, independent affirmation and marketing tool for existing associates. However, when that site (Citizen Corps) is so clearly linked to and promoting the interests of an associate and opportunity (Allen Nettles/Pyxism) the credibility of the site, the information therein is, in my opinion, severely, if not completely compromised.
Citizen Corps first came to my attention when I was an active LifePath Unlimited associate because my upline and many business associates were pointing to Citizen Corps for it’s great “Review” of LPU as proof of what a fantastic opportunity LPU represented. And then it came to my attention that Allen Nettles owns Citizen Corps and is (or was at the time) also an LPU associate. At that time I also noticed that the banner ads for LPU directed the click straight to Allen Nettles’ LPU site.
To me it’s a significant credibility issue when a site that promotes itself as independent makes a favorable review of an opportunity and then conveniently points people to the replicated site for that particular, favorably reviewed opportunity OR makes an unfavorable review of an opportunity and in that negative review promotes another opportunity that they just happen to be involved into.
To be clear, in this specific instance Citizen Corps/Allen Nettles has posted a favorable review of Pyxism and then points people to his personal Pyxism site, but does not disclose anywhere on Citizen Corps his involvement/connection to Citizen Corps and Pyxism.
And then, Citizen Corps/Allen Nettles posts a negative review of Club Sea Breeze and in that review blatantly promotes Pyxism.
This is absolutely in direct conflict with copy on the Citizen Corps site which states on the “Home” page:
“There are many legitimate home business opportunities available today, but the majority of so-called home based business opportunities that are being advertised are simply schemes devised to take advantage of people’s naivete.
That’s where Citizen Corps comes in. We are dedicated in researching and providing the most truthful and factual reviews of the legitimate home businesses.”
And this isn’t a new tactic for Allen Nettles and Citizen Corps, it’s chronic, pathological misrepresentation and misleading practice. When Allen Nettles was a TVI Associate there were banner ads for his TVI business embedded in the glowing TVI review. There always have been links to his opportunity site within the favorable Citizen Corp Review of that particular opportunity. Citizen Corps is and always has been a marketing tool to promote the opportunity de jour of Allen Nettles. And so it seems in its own words, Citizen Corps is “…simply schemes devised to take advantage of people’s naïveté.”
The Logical Flaw in all Citizen Corps Reviews
Instead of establishing some base criteria against which to evaluate and review all opportunities, the Citizen Corp (CC) reviews differ between and even amongst reviews and represents a relative comparison. For example,
“Club Sea Breeze’s sole travel product is offered by a more established competitor (Pyxism) at a lower entry cost and only one of several products the customers receive. This fact alone earns Club Sea Breeze a 1 star on products”
So give Pyxism 5 stars for a product in the hot and burgeoning 6 trillion+ dollar a year travel industry and turnaround and give Club Sea Breeze (CSB) 1 star because it’s “already been done” And it’ll be covered later, but the products are no where near equal, Pyxism’s entry cost for this product is incalculably higher when a fair analysis is done. Additionally, this product category has been successfully marketed by much older, established competitors Global Resorts Network, Coastal Vacations and most recently LGN-Prosperity which has a price point for the exact same product as Pyxism at about half of what Pyxism is asking, point being the idea is neither new nor unique to Pyxism.
And here’s another example when talking about price point:
“$386.94 (actually $366.97) is definitely low cost to get started in any business that has a multiple six figure annual potential. We dropped one star simply due to the higher purchase cost as compared to Pyxism which offers the same product with additional benefits”
“Dropped 1 Star …. as compared to Pyxism…” Again the relativistic approach, wherein Pyxism is the standard against which everything else is evaluated. This structure is clearly biased towards presenting Pyxism in a better “light” than whichever opportunity is being evaluated and the best the competing opportunity can hope to achieve is a draw. Compared against LGN-Prosperity which actually does have the exact same product, a one time only use travel membership from the same vendor, as Pyxism, the cost can be about half or less than half of what Pyxism is charging. Based on that relative scale, Pyxism can not support it’s five stars.
The relationship between Allen Nettles/Citizen Corps and Pyxism
Allen Nettles is the principal and is integrally involved into Citizen Corps and for years has used Citizen Corps to market the opportunity he favors at that time. Currently, Pyxism is the opportunity of choice for Allen Nettles, ergo the “5 Star and everything else pales in comparison reviews”.
The inconsistencies/Mis-representations in the Citizen Corps Club Sea Breeze Review
On the Citizen Corps site Home Page, Club Sea Breeze is given a 2-Star rating, while in the actual Club Sea Breeze Review, CSB is given a 3-Star rating. Seems Club Sea Breeze loses a star just for being on the same page as Pyxism. A little humor, and no, I’m not laughing either.
Synopsis: The errors of omission are myriad here. Kelly Williams is painted in this review as big business builder who jumps from opportunity to opportunity, which is just plain unfair. If we knew the actual number of opportunities Allen Nettles has involved himself into in the past 3-4 years, just guessing here, probably Kelly has participated in fewer and with much greater success. More importantly Kelly has helped more people become successful themselves. However, Kelly’s record really does speak for itself and the experience with TVI, Diamond Holiday Travel and Global Resorts is at the core of the genesis of Club Sea Breeze. Kelly, Jake and the whole Williams family wanted to right the network marketing ship and steer it towards the core value that makes it so appealing to so many, helping others succeed.
The truth is CSB pre-launched in April 2010, Pyxism in December 2009, making Pyxism the senior opportunity by 4-5 months in business terms, both are “start-ups”. As for leadership experience, the resumes of both Lloyd Wilson (Pyxism) and Kelly Williams (CSB) are impressive and both personally funded the development and have ownership of their respective companies.
One subtlety and nuance worth mentioning is that Kelly’s prior experience includes franchise ownership (Subways) which were operated successfully and sold at profit and a financial services practice which was started from less than zero and when sold was managing assets in excess of 300 million. Both successful businesses, sold and moved on. And then Kelly and Jake built large organizations in network marketing companies and after identifying and recognizing shortcomings in those opportunities decided the best solution was to create and design their own opportunity from the ground up, built for associates by associates around the core value that is the essence of network marketing, people helping people. Realizing that when you build an opportunity with a business structure, product suite and compensation plan focused on making associates hugely successful for the long term, completely compliant with current legalities in the US, the company itself will do exceptionally well. Contrary to fighting an up-hill battle for market share, CSB is quickly establishing itself as an industry leader.
The prior companies of Lloyd Wilson, Platinum One, Platinum One Destinations, Net Trav are consolidations and regenerations of the same company or a related company entity which have not endured for the long term. Meaning they morphed, changed, dissolved in less than 5 years (2005-2010). This latest venture, Pyxism does bring together his industry specific experience, but to conclude that his history and experience is superior is not an accurate, nor reasonable conclusion.
One thing is certain, both men bring their passions, experience, leadership and wallets to their respective companies and opportunities and the market will be the judge and jury.
As for superior product suite and compensation plan of Pyxism over Club Sea Breeze, here again the truth is only partially revealed in the CC Review and in favor of Pyxism, however further analysis warrants a different conclusion, which will become apparent as we progress through this section.
Products: The products are stated correctly, but not accurately. Is it a key and important point that the CSB Travel Membership is a LIFETIME Membership? Minor oversight or did Citizen Corps not clearly state this because the Pyxism Travel Membership is a one time use only. Yes, same provider, HTOA. But similarities really end there, Pyxism is 4,000 properties, one time use for $349. Club Sea Breeze, 5000+ properties, lifetime use for $366.97. So as an associate, for $17.97 more you can have a lifetime of savings as opposed to a one time use.
When you look at a cost/benefit analysis, the CSB travel membership is a fantastic value and the reason why CSB has retail customers, people who want the valuable product and don’t wish to build a business. With Pyxism the retail customer would have to spend $299 for a one time, single use membership in CSB that same person could get a lifetime membership for $397. For just $98 more they can use their membership for years to come, as many times in the year as they want and they can pass it down to their children and grandchildren. The market is already deciding which company has the better deal.
So when Citizen Corps states in their review about the CSB Travel Membership, “The product is most definitely a huge short coming for Club Sea Breeze”, and that Pyxism offers the “…same exact product…” neither of these statements are accurate and both represent gross and intentional misrepresentations.
Marketing Systems: Most network marketing replicated sites are uninformative and non-compelling and at least the CC Review acknowledges the strong presence and expertise the Williams’ bring to Club Sea Breeze. After all they are associates at heart and experts at team building. Now imagine a company focused on team building. It is absolutely refreshing.
There is a live-chat support option on the site that is operational 16 hours in the day. Extensive instructional videos, daily webinars featuring both Kelly and Jake Williams, strong Power Point Presentations, a CSB endorsed resource site for all CSB associates, http://extremeglobalsuccess.com with a Fast Track blueprint for success, a boot-camp for new enrollees, lead sources, extensive training, at no additional cost (leads excepted), daily live opportunity calls and more support is coming.
The current, existing tools and resources available to all associates at no additional cost surpasses the vast majority of tools and resources provided by competing companies.
Start-up Costs: $29.97 Annual Associate Fee; $337 Travel Membership Product Purchase. (To earn money you either make this purchase or make a retail only sale for $397; $19.97 per month Money Manager System. (Not required to earn money from the travel product line)
Total $386.94 and in reality, most associates are joining at $366.97 the $19.97 is optional and monthly. And as previously explained about the lifetime versus one-time travel membership, CSB definitely has the upper hand.
Additionally what is stated in the review is that Pyxism has a lower price point and the formulation of the cost for CSB includes purchasing everything CSB offers. As already described the actual product cost difference is $17.97. So yes, Pyxism has a lower price point by $17.97, but for <$18 more an associate could have a lifetime membership benefit instead of just a one time use.
And if you start with the full cost of Pyxism, it isn’t $349 it’s $849 and at that level is more than double the start up cost as CSB.
And here again, instead of informing with data, facts and information, Citizen Corps is once again attempting to dupe readers.
Compensation Plan: In addition to the numerous mis-representations already identified, perhaps none is more askew than attempting to label the Club Sea Breeze compensation model as a 2 By 2 Forced Filled Splitting Matrix. It’s like calling Falco peregrinus a bird when in reality it’s a Peregrine Falcon, fastest raptor in the sky.
Club Sea Breeze Business Overviews start this part of the presentation by telling what the Panel Revolution is NOT, and for a very good reason, it isn’t like anything out there despite the failed attempts to pigeon hole the Panel Revolution into an existing category, “with a few small additions” as the Citizen Corps Review states.
Perhaps the easiest way to point out the differences and advantages is by comparing it to what Pyxism is, a 2×2 follow me cycling matrix.
CSB Panel Revolution, linear model, 7 positions total with the first 3 positions filled—ALWAYS
- · leaving 4 positions left to fill
- · 6 ways to fill 4 positions
- · System rewards people actually doing the work and acknowledges them with qualifiers
- · Cycle with 1 qualifier earn $250, cycle with 2 qualifiers and earn $500
- · 6 ways to earn 2 qualifiers, must re-qualify on each new Panel
- · When the 7th 4 position fills, panel re-organizes based on 2 qualifiers over 1 over 0, left to right, splits and pays commissions
- · Those who have done the work, earned qualifiers can jump over non-productive positions, BUT when the panel re-orgainizes and splits, creating 2 new panels, EVERYONE moves up. For example, you come in and fill the first available position and it’s position 7, when the panel splits you’ll go into position 3 on a new panel. That is not being a “stepping stone”.
- · The maximum number of positions to be filled in order for an associate to cycle is 11, the minimum is 2 and the average is going to be 4-6 depending upon how a particular associate chooses to structure their business.
- · Additional features: Follow me, Sponsor control over placements, follows and qualifiers
- · Can earn, via retail sales additional Profit Centers (positions)
- · All associates are allowed to earn an unlimited number of additional profit centers and every time one of your down-line associates Profit Centers cycles you earn a sponsor Panel Over ride of $250, creating leverage and passive income.
Pyxism, 2×2 matrix, 7 positions with you at the top, then a row of 2 and then a row of 4, all six are empty, ALWAYS. In order to earn the full commission, associates have 2 matrices to cycle, which is a total of 12 positions and can be as few as 6
- · leaving 6 positions left to fill on the first matrix and another 6 on the second
- · 4 ways to fill 12 positions
- · System rewards person at the top, regardless of what they have or have not done, once there, they get paid
- · System requires associates to sponsor at least 2 and then 2 more to fully qualify for commissions
- · Only 1 way to get qualified, sponsor associates, only have to qualify once
- · To earn maximum commissions, two matrices have to be cycled, 12 positions filled, EVERYTIME
- · Additional features: Follow me, Sponsor control over initial placement
- · Can only have one position, but can earn commissions 3 levels deep, creating leverage and passive income
Clearly, both compensation plans have a lot going on. Personally and yes, I am biased because I am a CSB associate, I prefer to have to cycle once to get paid as opposed to two matrices. Because of the value in the product, I have generated retail sales, earned additional Profit Centers and have structured my business such that on average, every 4 new positions either retail sales/additional PC’s or associates, follows or combinations thereof and I cycle for $500. Which is what we teach, coach, mentor and help our down line associates also achieve. Is that and will that be the experience of everyone? Of course not, some people get in and do nothing. Some people get in, get to work, and achieve.
To be very clear, there is unbelievable leverage in the ability to earn unlimited additional profit centers via retail sales and to have your down line do that and cycle those PC’s for Panel commissions and each time any one of them cycles, you, the sponsor, earns a Panel over ride commission of $250. As the sponsor of a team of associates, by teaching them and helping them make retail sales and earn additional PC’s you can double, triple, quadruple and more your group. That is true leverage and duplication.
One HUGE red flag for the FTC is income claims and it is giant risk, not just for associates, but even more so for companies to engage in and/or promote income claims. If you have actually done it, you can tell it, but you had better be able to back it up with the cold hard numbers. Any MLM attorney helping a company structure itself for the long term would strongly advocate for no income claims and so it is surprising to find the income estimator on the Pyxism site and the hype of how much money you can make. Yes, the money is important, it is the principal reason most of us are in this business, that said in the current regulatory and legal environment a company allowing and facilitating these income claims is taking a big risk with their future.
As for the comparisons to TVI, there really are none. TVI was recently classified as an alleged illegal pyramid in Australia by the ACCC (Aussie version of the the US FTC), the hearings have not been held yet, but the conclusion is nearly certain. Kelly Williams has, from the inception of Club Sea Breeze engaged top MLM attorneys and Travel Industry attorney to help structure CSB to be in compliance with existing legalities and for the long term. CSB is fully compliant.
And oh by the way, how is it that TVI and alleged and soon to be proved illegal pyramid is given 3 stars on Citizen Corps and Club Sea Breeze a wholly legitimate and legal opportunity is given a 2 star or 3 rating depending on where on their site you look?
The TVI compensation plan relies heavily upon breakage (people getting in and doing nothing), the CSB incorporates 0 breakage into their plan.
TVI is two forced fill matrices and the person at the top is always the one to get paid, no matter if they earned it or not. CSB is a single, 7 position linear panel and if you’ve done the work, you are rewarded, just being at the top is not a guarantee.
Ironically there are more similarities in the Pyxism model to TVI than the CSB model. And in fact, Pyxism started out as two 2×3 force filled matrices-just like TVI, a metamorphosis not mentioned in the Citizen Corps Review.
And I could continue to rebut the CC Review comments, but it’s very clear whomever wrote it is uninformed AND has only a rudimentary understanding of the CSB compensation plan, which is very evident in the closing statement:
“This compensation plan heavily favors big builders but at the expense of the little guy and everyday average person. Once again in direct comparison with the competition Club Sea Breeze comes up short.”
The Club Sea Breeze Compensation plan does reward big builders, as it should, those who do the work should reap the benefits and the CSB comp plan does this in concert with helping the “little guy and everyday average person” by allowing sponsors and their up line, to assist their down line with placements and qualifiers. Essentially, people get involved and if they do a little work, they make a little bit of money, if they commit and do a lot of work, they will make a lot of money.
This is really all any ethical entrepreneur asks for and precisely what Club Sea Breeze is committed to delivering with continued enhancements to the product suite at no additional charge, in fact a new announcement is coming out this month about an exciting new addition.
Continued enhancements to the compensation plan, like the fast start incentives just announced this week where you are awarded with cash bonuses for becoming a leader in your own business.
The announcement of the official Launch date, September 17th and 18th, 2010 and $30,000 in cash giveaways and a car giveaway over that weekend and how you can qualify for a chance(s) at the cash and car.
Ongoing and continued support from the EGS team for all CSB associates and the announcement of daily opportunity calls starting the 2nd week in June 2010 and the list keeps growing and going.
Which is exactly what Club Sea Breeze is doing, growing and going, attracting business builders and the next generation of network marketers alike with leadership, a product suite, compensation plan and support that is quickly becoming the envy and standard of the network marketing industry.
Finally, in closing I do want to acknowledge that I have penned this article with a lot less emotional restraint than I normally would because amongst the things I am most passionate over, Club Sea Breeze and best practices in network marketing are two of them. I believe the Citizen Corps Review on Club Sea Breeze and the Citizen Corps site as a sham represent an injustice to both Club Sea Breeze and best practices in network marketing and I believe I have made the significant points I wanted to communicate.
And because I ALWAYS try to offer a solution when pointing out a problem or criticizing, I point you to the Five Essentials Reviews which outline the criteria I use and apply to all opportunities I review and then specifically to the reviews on Club Sea Breeze and soon the Review on Pyxism, which will have a lot of the same material discussed here, albeit with a lot less emotion.