Thanks Cathy. You have always been so supportive and interested in my well-being. I appreciate you so much!

Here is what the leading expert of Fibro told me – If it isn’t proven to work, it isn’t going to work.

There is some stupid Acai Berry Juice on the market right now that is disgusting they keep pushing it for Fibro sufferers. Ugh, I just want to say go the frig away!

How fun you are doing a group. Sorry that idiot got in.

Just like the women in my group you are very well informed about Fibromyalgia and therefore you are not easily fooled by a clumsy sales pitch. I appreciate that you are such an advocate for your own health. Too bad you live so far away. I would love to have you and your spunky attitude in my support group! FH

I think it is great and perfectly acceptable to recommend what works for you. That is part of why people join support groups – to share information. Thanks for the info on Daily Strength. I am happy you have found a group you are comfortable with. FH

“Neither you or the group “member” are doing a service to the product by being so aggressive in your attempts to educate people about it.” -you wrote. I would call that responding to allegations. It sounds like you are the defensive one.

Your mistake was making this whole ordeal your post. You should’ve never brought it up and focussed on more positive things for your members. Just let it go. Good luck with your site.

Joe, you read into it what you wanted to see. The fact that you assume I was not good at sales goes to my point. No mistake here. I am rather enjoying that this caused some reaction. The cool thing about having my own blog is that I get to write what I am inspired to write. This post was essentially about how much the women in my group rock, but my blog is not for my group members. It is for me, my outlet. Thanks for reading it. FH

I also changed membership requirements to “approval required.” We actually had our second meeting this evening and everyone was appreciative of how it was handled and grateful for the changes I made to our email and membership settings.

The ironic thing is that we all felt the same way. It wasn’t the product we took issue with, it was the way we were approached – infiltrated really. Lesson learned.

If you do not object I may contact you directly about being a support group leader. Thanks.

Your generalizations astound me. You are clearly not a careful reader because if you were you would see that I was critical of the sales technique, not the product. It is unethical to join a support group just to push your wares.

I take it from your defensiveness that you are a Monavie distributor as well. Neither you or the group “member” are doing a service to the product by being so aggressive in your attempts to educate people about it.

If it is a miracle elixir, maybe you should double your dose and it will improve your attitude and your attention to detail.

Good luck.

My first experience was with a couple who joined, both claiming to have fibro and need support, but as soon as they got through the door, so to speak, they started emailing members through the website and promoting their products. I won’t say which company, because I believe this to be a “people” issue rather than something the companies encourage. When you get a “true believer” in one of these businesses, I think the line between help and self-promotion blurs for them.

We have speaker meetings, and I have even had doctors ask to speak, and found they are self-defined “fibro specialists” who are looking for new patients and believe we are a fertile hunting ground. We listen, take what they have to say that is useful, and move on. If individual members want to see them professionally, they are more than welcome, but I won’t promote one doctor over another because we all have different “standards” for what we are seeking in a medical professional.

Sorry this happened to your group, but you do get used to it, and you handled it perfectly so you and your group are going to be fine. I did move from an “anybody can join” standard to an “approval required” standard because of this. That keeps most of them away, as they have to go through me before they can get to the group. Just last week I had someone who is not local offer to “share their story” (which seems to be a code word for “I’m selling something”) and when I sent a message asking for her to share a bit of her journey with fibromyalgia, I never got an answer. Problem solved.