The recruiter who asked me to 'prove my loyalty' at a coffee shop in Denver
It was back in 2019 when I was checking out this group that called itself a 'self improvement collective.' They had me meet their recruiter at a Starbucks near Union Station. She seemed normal for 20 minutes, then leaned in and asked if I would cut a family member off to prove I was serious about the work. I laughed, thought it was a joke. She didn't blink. She pulled out a printed contract with a $2,500 fee to join their 'inner circle.' I told her I had to go to the bathroom and just left out the back door. Has anyone else had a recruiter drop a red flag that obvious, or did they make it sneakier?
$2,500 to join the inner circle? That's not a self improvement group, that's a gym membership for your wallet with zero workout included. The family member thing is the wildest part, like ma'am, this is a coffee shop, not a mob movie, nobody's cutting off their cousin to earn a spot at your weird table. You dodged a bullet and also saved yourself two grand, which honestly is the best self improvement move you could have made that day. Sounds like the only thing they were improving was their own bank account. Whoever decided "prove your loyalty" was a good sales pitch clearly skipped the chapter on not sounding like a cult.