Reality TV and Summer Sales: The Scam

As I was researching the phenomenon of college students selling product door-to-door (prompted by Karoli's son's horrible experiences, documented here and here), Jumper Girl was flipping through the channels, watching Charm School, America's Next Top Model, and another one I  didn't make a note of.

Reality television is big business.  According to RealityTV.com, there are 52 shows in active production (note: The Prodigy isn't listed).

People line up by the thousands to for a chance at a slot.  According to this 2004 article from the New York Times, over 250,000 people wanted a chance to be on the second season of The Apprentice.  One out of every 15,675 applicants made the cut. 

The process of qualifying for a legitimate reality show includes a series of group interviews, each progressively screening out candidates, and in-depth questionnaires.

''A couple of shows got burned and they didn't like the publicity, so they began asking us to look into people's backgrounds,'' said Elaine Carey, national director of investigations for the Control Risks Group, which has done work for ABC and CBS. The company has a 20-page questionnaire that it tailors to particular shows in consultation with the network's lawyers and standards executives. The candidate's answers are then compared with findings from online databases, court records and interviews with friends and former associates.

Contrast this with the  "The Prodigy: Opportunity Knocks, "  which is alleged to be what the TV industry calls a "Reality-Competition Program" and Wikipedia classifies as a "job search" competition. 

This article from the Texas A&M student paper shows how the scam works.

TV show recruits at A&M
Almost 100 Aggies apply to be the next big reality stars

By: Jessica McCann Issue date: 3/6/07 Section: News

A row of brand new Hummers lined the side of Midnight Rodeo on Saturday morning during a casting call for a reality show project called "The Prodigy."

The owners of those vehicles screened between 75 and 100 Texas A&M students hoping to join the cast and compete for a chance to win $1,000,000 in cash and prizes, said Anthony DeFelice, a regional manager for Firstline Security, Inc., which sponsors the show.

"We only wanted to take about 50 people to the next level, but 50 quality candidates," DeFelice said. "We would've taken fewer, if we didn't have that many good students, but we got around 40 or 50 advancing. The overall turnout was not the best in the world, but it wasn't the worst. It was really more about getting our name out there at this point."

One A&M student advancing to the second round of interviews heard about the casting call from on-campus recruiters.

"I was just walking by the (Memorial Student Center) and a guy stopped me and asked if I would be interested in trying out for a job in sales," said Sean Quinn, a senior landscape architecture major. "Since it was already something I was interested in, I decided to check it out. "

"The Prodigy," produced by Actuality Entertainment, is the latest development in the six-year internship program of Firstline, a bundled services and security company based in Utah. While the internship has offered students the opportunity to work in door-to-door sales in the past, this is the first time they will be filmed for television.

"Everything is going to be filmed, and the show will be put together and edited by Actuality," said Jerod Justice, a junior animal science major and district manager with Firstline. "At that point, it will be 'shopped' out to major networks. There are already agreements being made, so it will definitely be televised, at least on a cable series."

The competition will take place in three phases and the winner will receive $200,000 cash, a $60,000 car and $740,000 in venture capital to start a new business.

"We don't just hand someone a million dollars, we give them the resources to turn their vision, goals and ideas into a major business," said 2006 winner Jared Taggart. "The four months I spent doing this did more for me than my entire college experience."

The Prodigy is touring the nation to recruit at other college campuses, DeFelice said. A&M was chosen as a location because of its unique reputation.

"Basically, we're looking for different schools whose campuses have good reputations," DeFelice said. "Good characteristics and good people, like Texas A&M."

The second interviews will take place on Monday, followed by several other rounds of application. The competition begins in May and ends in August.

This press release, put out by BusinessWire EON

The Prodigy, Opportunity Knocks: Reality TV Recruits Film Graduates of Collins College for Camera Crew

TEMPE, Ariz. (BusinessWire EON) May 30, 2007 -- Bryan Ferre, creative director and producer of The Prodigy, Opportunity Knocks collaborated with Collins College to recruit the reality show’s field camera crew. The Prodigy hired 17 Collins College film graduates to follow contestants in 57 cities throughout the country. Ferre is an alumnus of Collins College.

As a graduate of Collins College in the early 1990s, it was great to return and see many of my past instructors. When I told Collins about The Prodigy, they immediately offered to help us find quality graduates who had the skills to work on a fast-paced television show. It has been a great working relationship.

The stage for The Prodigy is a real business with a real company where candidates are paid to work. All contestants have been trained to canvas the market and sell advanced technologies. Contestants are grouped into teams that compete with each other during the work day. Teams also share living arrangements. Film crews will follow individuals for four months, filming them day and night.

OK, they have 17 videographers and 2,000 "contestants".  Hmmn. Doing the math, each videographer would have to film 118 contestants.  Is that possible?

The winner of the reality show will receive $1,000,000, a luxury car, and an executive position in a top U.S. company. Sponsors of the show include General Electric, Actuality Entertainment LLC and Firstline.

To advance on the show, candidates must be able to succeed in business working with real customers. The Prodigy is made up of three challenges that require candidates to demonstrate a number of skills and qualities, including a strong sales performance, exceptional entrepreneurial abilities, and outstanding character traits.

To recruit show contestants, The Prodigy visited college campuses across the country, where over 10,000 students were interviewed. Two thousand students were selected for the show’s initial challenge.

Contestants will be assigned weekly challenges, and those who successfully complete assigned tasks will advance to increasingly difficult activities. The final round, scheduled to air in October 2008, will include just 20 people.

According to Ferre, “As a graduate of Collins College in the early 1990s, it was great to return and see many of my past instructors. When I told Collins about The Prodigy, they immediately offered to help us find quality graduates who had the skills to work on a fast-paced television show. It has been a great working relationship.”

For more information on The Prodigy, Opportunity Knocks reality TV visit: www.iamtheprodigy.com

The promises from http://iamtheprodigy.com/about.html

This summer, one reality show will give you one shot to show the world exactly what you are made of. We will give you a chance to rise above the challenges of a real job, to make your mark, and to earn $1,000,000.00.

The stage for The Prodigy is set in a real business, in a real company, with a real boss and a real paycheck. Our film crew will follow you and your team every day as you canvas the market selling advanced technologies from one of America's fastest-growing bundled services companies. You will be trained, tested, and certified. You will become an expert in the field and then you will take the product to market, day in and day out, for four months.

You will be given every opportunity to succeed and you will face every possibility for failure.

Each week you will meet with your team and be faced with new challenges, goals, and objectives. You will be required to live, work, and succeed in the real business world.

The Prodigy is made up of three challenges. Candidates will be required to face these challenges in the real world with real customers and to do it in front of our cameras for all the world to see.

Phase One

During phase one you will be offered a real job as an entry-level Advertising Director with America's fastest-growing bundled services company. You will study the market you are living in and then take the product to market.

You will work with real customers and prospects, in the privacy of their own living room. You will present the company's value proposition to your customers and close the sale.

Phase one will be tough. You may want to quit. You may want to cry. You will have to dig deeper than you have ever had to dig to make it through this four month challenge. The opportunity The Prodigy provides is like getting a job as a mail clerk in a multi-million dollar company and working your way to Vice President in just four months.

You will be paid for all your work during the four month challenge and you may be one of the many will earn more than $40,000.00.

Phase Two

Finalists on The Prodigy will be eligible for a promotion, and selected by our judges based on two criteria:

1. Performance The top 100 candidates will be selected for a promotion. Candidates will be selected based on performance in the field, with overall performance evaluated by the Executive Board, and if you are in the top 100, you will progress to Phase Two.

2. Objectives Each week we will present a specific objective. We will select 40 finalists during the weekly challenges. If you succeed during that week you will be selected for Phase Two.

The challenges in Phase Two will become more difficult as objectives and requirements are raised. You will work for one month in New York City developing a new market, and you will face the daily challenges that business leaders meet every day in the real world.

Every candidate that makes it to Phase Two will be offered a long-term executive management position in an established and dynamic company with the potential to continue earning a six-figure income.

Phase Three During the final phase of the show you will be asked by our judges to develop a new business concept, business plan and marketing strategy. Your business idea will be evaluated by the Executive Board which consists of a venture capitalist, an investment banker, a marketing expert and the CEO.

The winner will receive $1,000,000.00!

The award will be given as:

$200,000.00 Cash A $60,000.00 New Car $740,000.00 Venture Capital to fund your winning business idea

Season Two

At the beginning of each new season of The Prodigy, we will air a special feature following last year's Prodigy in his/her new business.

We will document the success and failure of the new business. The Prodigy will have the opportunity and the funding to build a multi-million dollar business. But he/she will also face the day-to-day challenges of real life and may end up building a multi-million dollar failure.

No matter what happens, The Prodigy will work out his/her success or failure on a stage for all the world to watch.

Background on Trevor Keys and Wright Thurston.

Sunday, June 3, 2007  DeseretNews.com

Firstline brings security to masses

Trevor Keyes and Wright Thurston found a new way to meet an old need.

The home-security business has been around for more than 100 years, with companies offering various types of security to mainly affluent clients. But until Keyes and Thurston founded Orem-based Firstline Security, few had offered home security that is both effective and affordable to nearly everyone, thanks to a direct-sales method that cuts out the middleman.

Keyes and Thurston, who met when both were up-and-coming young managers at a cell phone company, built a direct-sales force made up mainly of college students who work summers in cities around the country.      

They extensively trained their salespeople and handsomely rewarded their successes: some workers made more than $100,000 in one summer, paying for their entire college educations. And they paid for all of this using credit cards until they could adopt more traditional practices.

I'd like to see some proof of the $100,000 claim.  Let's posit a 10-week selling period; that's $10,000 a week.  The top-of-the line product is a $130 bundle.  Just to gross that amount, a sales rep would have to sell 77 of those a week.  How many sales calls can one rep make in a day?  10? 

One of the company's current sales and recruiting methods involves a reality television series, set to run on national TV in 2008. The show will focus on Firstline's 2,000 sales reps to find "the next entrepreneurial prodigy" and award that winner $1 million.       

From Utahbusiness.com:

Firstline Co-Founders Finalists for Entrepreneur of the Year

Celebrating a Spirit of Success: 2007 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards by Becky Harding

Finalists for the 2007 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards (Utah) TREVOR KEYES, Co-founder & WRIGHT THURSTON, Co-founder Firstline Security

Already partners in another business, Trevor Keyes and Wright Thurston were looking for new business ideas in 2001 just as 9/11 occurred, which brought security issues up close and personal. Subsequent market research proved that the residential alarm industry was antiquated, and new technology was creating an entirely new opportunity. But the duo realized new products would require a unique sales approach as well. Thus, rather than a door-to-door strategy, they train their recruits to go “living-room-to-living-room,” with the intent to build relationships rather than just customers. They’ve definitely been building customers, however, as they experienced 416 percent growth in 2006 and have consistently been ranked as the fastest growing alarm company in the nation every year since 2002.

Wright Thurston may be the son of another entrepreneur, Wright Thurston,  who is now making money marketing his real estate investment advice.

 

Karoli's son's story starts here and continues here.

My previous posts:

A New Scam Targeting College Students

Door to Door Sales and College Students

Reality TV and Summer Sales

More Lies from Actuality Entertainment

Other bloggers

Ivory Power and here and here

Steven and LaNelle Simons:  here and here (they are Firstline employees in Washington State)

West Seattle Blog on Firstline (read the comments)

Mikey Preston's Evolving Impressions: here and here

Natalie's Crazy Life: here

Otterstorm: here  (he was selling in Pittsburg and quit after his Firstline-provided apartment was without power for a week).

MSM reports

ABC-11 from Durham, NC, July 9,  2007: Firstline not licensed in NC, but selling door-to-door

Comments

[Mike Jones]

wow yeah i do think the prodidgy is a recruiting tactic yes but look at the manangers they all startd out as ''advertising directors'' look at the division presidents they all startd out as reps too...they workd hard and made it to the next level.yeah sales sucks but it determines ur self worth and u learn alot in 4 months,yeah its possible to make $30-40 in tht time frame, i made $17 my first year..im living/breathing example..and this security is a great its the 100% whats so horrible about it? whats so horrible about this job? ''ooohh i didnt get paid'' ask urself did u work the hours''? ooh my electricity was off for a week'' did u PAY it? u ppl make me sick w/this shiit about its a skam its a skam...well if u work u will be rewarded if u dont then u wont and this jobs not cut out for quitters. iv been paid iv hit a 100 accounts im getting a manangment possition next summer. my appartments paid for iv hit 25 accounts.how the hell is this a skam?

[APX not Firstline]

I have been involved in the "Summer sales industry" for longer than most of the owners of Firstline. I love selling alarms, but I hate firstline. With a passion. I have yet to meet one person who would actually produce pay stubs or tax returns to back up the numbers that fall out of the hole they call a mouth. It's more like a shitter, because that's what everything that I have ever heard from any person who claimes loyalty to Firstline after working for them. Shit. This industry really is awesome, but Firstline has tarnished the reputation that it once had. There is a reason that they have been using these recruiting tactics. They can't even hold their heads up high in the market they call home- Utah. All the other companies in Utah valley are glad to see Firstline crumble. It's about time.

[Mike G.]

I'd like to comment that the writer's remark

"I'd like to see some proof of the $100,000 claim. Let's posit a 10-week selling period; that's $10,000 a week. The top-of-the line product is a $130 bundle. Just to gross that amount, a sales rep would have to sell 77 of those a week. How many sales calls can one rep make in a day? 10?"

First of all, the selling period is actually 16-20 weeks, and second of all, the "$130 bundle" is actually a $1500+ contract in disguise." Each system that is sold brings the company well over a thousand dollars--when that fact is understood, it's not hard to make the numbers add up to at least $100K. And as far as 10 sales calls in a day goes, I know that at least 40 or 50 people in a day is possible.

[Donald]

The "Prodigy" speaks out about the allegations against Firstline
Press Release

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=29861382

[Donald]

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction
=vids.individual&videoid=29861382

[Donald]

The "Prodigy" speaks out about the allegations against Firstline
Press Release

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=29861382

[An Insider]

Trevor and Wright have been messing with people for a while now. This is not the first time! Their business model is to build a pyrimid and pull out before it crashes. These two are the best salesmen I have ever met. They know how to motivate people and fill them with false hopes. Unless you are in their circle you will be screwed big time. Futurephones, the internet phone, Neoskin, now Firstline. If history repeats itself they already have something else lined up. It is sad they selected to walk down this path. When you keep burning people, things fire back on you! Their names and reputations are ruined, but they have made enough money in the process to not have to work anymore. I will give it to them; they are two smart individuals!

[J Turner]

WTF? Haters that wish they were ever part of something great like firstline. It made me who I am today. Which is a MAN! I know who you people are that are hating. Your the scared and weak that cried during a hard hot summer. Me? I did my job, protected lives, and learned what money can't buy. I got bank for it and I use my lessons in all aspects of life to be always better than average. DYNASTY!!!!!!