Hey Hun is the story of Emily Lynn Paulson’s time in an MLM. She is the narrator of her own audiobook. Emily changes the name of the MLM to protect herself from being sued, but she doesn’t really level anything particularly shocking against the company. The company uses the standard techniques of an MLM in that the people who start the MLM make money by recruiting more people into the company, and the people at the bottom of the pyramid who joined the company last and did not recruit do not make money.
Emily does a good job of acknowledging her privilege and the ways she benefited from having a large stable of recruits in her downline. She made a significant amount of money each month just by having those folks. She was inconvenienced some by having to sell a certain amount of product every month (she sold a luxury beauty product at a markup) but she also made a lot of money. This did two things: it made her drink the kool aid of MLMs more easily, the girl power speeches and the manipulation of participants, and it also made her more reluctant to leave the MLM due to the money she was making. Emily developed a drinking problem as a result of all of the alcohol that was at the MLM conferences and events.
I guess the one criticism I have of this book is that while it is good that Emily acknowledges her privilege, she VERY privileged. She talks about finally putting on some weight as a size 2 and removing her breast implants. Most people are not that size, and so having her lament people giving her a hard time for her weight gain is pretty eye roll inducing. Overall I did like this book and found it valuable. There were interesting points raised about white feminism and white supremacy but they are barely addressed. The book gets a little disjointed at the end when she talks about how MLMs are ripe for plandemic type conspiracies. That section could use more editing. For a more in depth examination of MLMs I recommend the podcast The Dream. This season they go into life coaching which is the career Emily seems to have now and seems like a natural offshoot of MLMs.