Stuff and what not...

A few months back I joined the Saskatoon Women’s Network. I met a woman there, let’s call her Maggie, who is from the Philippines and immigrated to Canada a couple of years ago. I didn’t fully understand Maggie’s business when she first pitched it to me at a breakfast meeting, she was a bit nervous, her English was broken, and it was loud there. A few weeks later, Maggie called and asked me if I wanted to meet up to talk about our businesses in general and see if we could pass each other some referrals, she also wanted to talk to me about something specific but didn’t let on as to what it was. I agreed to meet anyway, that’s what networking is all about.

So we met up at Subway around 6 pm tonight, the dinner rush was starting. Maggie brought her brother, Joe, along as well and she began to talk to me about her business.  She brought out a small erasable whiteboard about the size of a piece of paper and marker. She explained through random numbers and pie charts that what most average people want is to become passive income earners (having to do nothing, but still making money). “But how can people do this? How can someone get to the point where their money works for them?” she asked. This was a HUGE red flag, pyramid schemes usually start off with a honeymoon pitch like this. The product? Panty liners… pads.

Joe pulls out some Always pads and sets them on the table. Here I am, in Subway, at 6 pm, people are pouring into the place, and here on our table is a pack of maxi pads. I couldn’t believe my eyes! She starts to tell me about how toxic pads in North America are, and then she brings out her companies pads and adds them to the collection on the table. By now the line up at Subway is nearly out the door and I am surrounded by pads! If I wasn’t embarrassed enough already, now she wants to demonstrate the absorption of each pad. Joe assists by bringing out two small cups of water, and a turkey baster…. I want to throw up at this point. He sprayed each pad. People are coming into the Subway lightening fast, and out of the corner of my eye I can see people turn their heads to look at our table as they walk into the place; I could tell they were like “WTF? ARE THOSE PADS?!?!” 

I am trying to look away. 

Following the absorption demonstration, she starts to hold up each pad (to make sure everyone who hasn’t seen what we have, can now see) and tear them apart, slowly, showing me each and every layer and explaining what each is made of and where it comes from. I am facing the wall now, and my hand is covering my face… I was terrified that a sandwich artist would see what was on our table and kick us out, making the scene even worse. There I’d be, getting kicked out with the pad people.

After what felt like a lifetime, Maggie and Joe finally started to put the pads back in their bag and wrapped up the presentation. She asked for feedback and I told her that next time she should consider meeting in a more secluded place; I got her card and got the hell out of there!