Rodney Ballance and his Financial Leadership Academy

[Mollybosco]

As a Life agent the pitch seemed too good to be true. Pay a monthly membership fee (hundreds of dollars) and the Financial Leadership Academy will hire an "Ambassador' in your area to give free financial work shops in churches, community centers, military bases, and in the workplace for large employers. Then, sit back and collect referrals of work shop attendees who would like to get a free financial review. During the review uncover the need for cash value Life insurance and sell, sell, sell. This seemed like a great business plan because as an agent, I wouldn't have to be concerned with setting up and giving the work shops. A non licensed Ambassador would do this and I'd reap the benefits (the Ambassador would get paid by selling more in depth financial work shops on DVD).

After 5 months and many hundreds in membership fees, there still had not been an Ambassador hired in my area. I kept being told by Rodney Balance (whose brain child this is), that he was certain an Ambassador would be hire "by November", then "by Christmas", and then "at the first of the year". in the mean time I'm paying out hundreds and receiving no benefit other than a weekly agent webinar which I found to be of marginal value.

After 5 months of paying membership dues and being strung along by Mr. Balance, I cancelled my membership and requested a partial refund. There wan no response from Rodney. No "what can we do to retain your business" discussion. I was simply ignored. Apparently Rodney is perfectly happy to take an agents money indefinitely without providing the major service advertised. There was no accountability whatsoever.

I post this as a warning to those who might believe Rodney's sales pitch. My experience is that Rodney over promises and under delivers, big time. Buyer beware..

 

[DHK]

LOL!

So, you paid into a system... waiting for someone else to do the work???

There ain't no such thing as a free lunch!

This video overview of the financial leadership academy was in 2011. Back then, there were no "presentation ambassadors" to do the workshops for you.
Financial Leadership Acadamy Overview with Lew Nason and Rodney Ballance

Have you ever thought of being the ambassador yourself and setting up your own connections and make things happen???

Or trying to recruit your own ambassador? Or make a junior agent your ambassador?

I'm not affiliated with Rodney Ballance or the FLA (or the CFLA designation he promotes), but I do follow him on facebook and connected via LinkedIn. And somehow, I doubt his opportunity is to say "sit back, relax, and wait until someone else does some work".

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And the more I think about it... YOU make it sound like one of those MLM sponsoring scams! You're waiting for someone else to promise to do something for you that you should be doing yourself!

No wonder you're disappointed.

 

[Ron Van D]

If you are so successful with FFG, why are you looking for a new system?

 

[Larry Tew]

IF an offer was made and not honored, THAT'S the issue - not why the OP needed another system or reminding them about free lunches. If the program offers "free lunches" and you pay for free lunches but don't get free lunches, that's the problem.

However I do think that agents need to wake up regarding these self-appointed self-aggrandizing messiahs who pretty much live online at sites like ProducersWeb and others. I've had FIRST-HAND experience with more than one of those producersweb posters (and I mean in the same room and same organization) and when I see the fake persona they've created for themselves online compared to the real person I KNOW, I want to PUKE.

The VAST majority of those guys spend all their time promoting themselves to each other instead of clients and prospects. The "Institute" for this and the "Academy" for that? Dig a little and do your homework and you'll see how paper thin some of that stuff really is.

 

[DHK]

As I've been following Rodney Ballance, I think what he's trying to do is copy the old FINL (Financial Independence Network Limited) model. FINL was a company that started back in the 90's by John Cummuta to promote books, tapes, software, and individual consultation services to help people to get out of debt. (BTW, I don't know why FINL went out of business/restructured... but they did have an MLM recruitment model based on selling books, etc.)

You didn't need any professional licensing in this... just a sound understanding of how finances work. You made your money selling the information as well as an individual debt-freedom consultation that you would charge a fee for. There was no investment or insurance recommendations or anything of the kind.

Careers - International Financial Leadership Association

Now Rodney Ballance is trying to "recruit" these seminar leaders all over the country - as a home business opportunity. Then those who attend these workshops would be referred to their local "provider" (licensed agents/advisors) to work with them on a one-on-one basis. They will also be asked to buy books, tapes, DVDs, etc by the person who is giving the workshop. That person makes their money that way.

It is an ingenious idea.

Here's the problem: How quickly can you recruit and train a new "seminar leader" in all areas of the country? If he's the only one trying to do the recruiting... you may have a long time to wait.

How much better would it be to work with an EXPERIENCED financial consultant who is USED TO giving workshop presentations like this? To help get the new person up and running? Then once they're up and running, you find another one... and another one. You work with your 3 seminar leaders to do a workshop once a week each and you're all set?

They make money, and you've got people pre-sold coming to see you?

I wouldn't blame someone else for my (lack of) success on this. I'd be trying to recruit someone who understands personal finance to help get them going.

In the MLM vernacular: Be a sponsor!