As a former employee of a Smart Circle office, I cannot even begin to describe how unethical their business practices are. I am writing this in hopes that I can deter someone from making the same mistake I made.
I am sure you are reading this post because you (along with 70+ other individuals) have recently received a recruiting call informing you that you were selected for an initial interview. Now, the exact position you applied for is questionable as there are numerous misleading job postings on the web. However, please note that everyone is applying for the exact same position. So, to begin, I'm going to explain the three-part interview process. During phase one, you will come into the office and meet with the "President," “Executive,” or “CEO”. He or she will talk at you about contracts they have with top “Fortune 500, big-box retailers”. Due to overwhelming “success” and “growth”, the “company” you are interviewing with is expanding. That’s where you come in. You have applied for a “management in training” position and will be told that in just 6-12 months you will be given a portion of the “clients” to manage on your own. Now, let me be clear, the individual interviewing you does not have a single personal contract. He or she is one of the many incorporated offices working for The Smart Circle (the parent company). Your interviewer makes zero decisions when it comes to the products represented, and he or she has no control over the success of the individuals coming into the company (you).
If you are selected for a second round interview, you will be on-site at one of the big-box retailers receiving a “bird’s eye view” into everything that position entails. During that interview, you will spend about an hour shadowing and speaking to someone in “Event Management,” “Campaign Management,” or another similar “title”. You will be shown an event (and at that moment you should realize that you have simply applied for a sales position). If you decide to stick around for the second half of the interview, your interviewer will attempt to paint a picture of the “success” that you could have, and they will explain how you move up within the company. Everyone begins in “entry level”. Your interviewer will tell you that your promotion is based off of your ability to master and duplicate/train a skillset. But, please don’t be fooled! Your “promotion” within the company is 100% based off of your ability to recruit and maintain a “team”. The “company” you have just applied for is the perfect example of a multi-level marketing (MLM) scheme. Simply put, it is a pyramid scheme without the “initial buy-in”.
What your interviewer won’t tell you is that if you accept this position you will work countless additional hours off of the clock (in addition to the 10+ hour “solo” days, holidays, and weekends you are already clocking). You will be required to attend and/or conduct unpaid one-on-ones, breakfasts, “business dinners”, Saturday morning meetings, and team nights. You will begin distancing yourself from your true friends and family in order to maintain an artificial friendship/relationship with your “owner” (yes, “owner” is what your new boss is called) and team. An “ownership mentality” will be drilled into your head, and, once brainwashed like I was, you will begin thinking “time now for time later”. I know of multiple people (including myself) who have given up on their dreams because of this scheme. Dreams including: finishing undergrad, attending grad school, applying for the ideal job, and attending weddings, funerals, and showers. Please don’t fall down the rabbit hole!
Now, I don’t want to go into too much detail when it comes to pay because the structure varies from office to office. However, you will essentially make minimum wage plus commission; all while dreaming of making upwards of $75,000+ during your first year in executive management. (For the record, my bi-weekly paychecks rarely exceeded $600 after taxes).
If you’re still drinking the Kool-Aid, the third round interview’s purpose is to clear up any questions you may have. And, hopefully at this point you have a lot of questions. If you are offered a position with the “company” and accept, congratulations?
Once employed, you will attend Monday-Friday morning meetings (and Saturday, once you are promoted out of “Entry Level”) where you will take notes on impacts and workshops focused on: how to maintain your attitude, how to avoid negative influences (i.e. – people in your life encouraging you to see reality), and how to sell (you are a salesperson, after all!). Ownership mentality, time now for time later, and going the extra mile will be the anthems of these meetings. Your owner will frequently run “opportunity” meetings where they brag about how much money they make or how much money another owner in the business makes. Researching The Smart Circle a little further will prove that owners are almost always lying about their yearly salary (this is based off of reports from former owners). After the morning meeting, you will head off to your assigned event. You will be responsible for your own gas and car maintenance (while being paid for travel only when you travel from the office to an event, from an event to another event, or from an event back to the office). Sometimes your commute will be upwards of one-hour, one-way. If you ever take a “road trip” or “business trip” trough the company be prepared to share a bed and pay for every meal.
If you decide to stay with the company and begin building a team, say “goodbye” to free time. In addition to constantly being on the phone, your owner will encourage you to “secret shop” (AKA – spy on) other employees. Networking with individuals in your office and around the country, employed by different offices, will be required constantly. You will have to “break down your day” (AKA – pull out negatives and set goals) after each shift. And, once you begin building a “team” of your own, your pyramid will begin calling you daily so that they can break down their day. It’s a good thing I had unlimited minutes...
I know of multiple individuals who are/were in “the business” for 2+ year. Yet, they haven’t been promoted to “ownership” (That’s a really long “6-12 months” in sales, if you ask me!!) Now, if you happen to build a team and make it through the “management in training” program, you will move away to open a “new” Smart Circle office in a city where a previous office likely failed.
I really could go on and on, but I’ll leave you with this. No, it’s not a “scam”. It is possible for you to open up an office of your own. But, you will have to ask yourself, “Is the personal investment and sacrifice really worth it for minimal financial gain?” I encourage you to make your own, educated decision. But, please be cautious! They say, “Time now for time later!” But, just remember, you can’t get lost time and memories with family and loved ones back once it’s gone.
Well, I was a former employee of Amplify Management Inc, that changed its name only a few months to Amp Exposure. I can't begin to describe the bold faced scam this business is and how illegal their business practices are.
The company is run by Greyson Fesperman, a solid "dream seller" who hails from North Carolina and has opened and closed multiple offices including Winston Grey, and she started out of Bear Claw Events (same horrible reviews) up in North Carolina and brought the scam down here.
I'm going to explain the interview process and how nothing adds up. The interview process is a 3 part process, the first of which you come into their "office" and meet with the "CEO" herself. (I use quotations because both words are from what what they are, it is neither an office and she is not a CEO) She will begin to tell you that she personally has a contract with top box retailers and shes looking to grow her company. That this is a management in training position and that after 6-9months (its now changed to 7-12months) you will be given a client list to handle everything she can't. Let me be clear, there is no contract she personally has. She is one of many incorporated offices working for The Smart Cirlce, Innovage, and multiple other parent companies. Her company makes no decisions on what products they represent and she has no control of the growth for individuals coming into the company.
The second round of the interview she will send you out to a Sam's Club where you will spend an hour speaking to someone in the "Event Management" side of the company. (I know this because I was an "event manager" for the company and regularly conducted these interviews.) You will be shown an event, which is just a table set up with no name, and horribly made products and a banner. The interview is conducted by people with no knowledge in any of the legal laws pertaining to interviewing (causing many illegial questions to be asked) and their main goal is to paint a piture of success. They regularly lie saying this is the "ugliest part of the business" because this entire business is ugly and there's no other part to it. Then they will go into how a person moves up in the company. They expalin a 4 part process where the base pay for the first two parts (brand amabssador and event manager) are exactly the same pay structure, they will say its 8.05 and hr plus a commision. This is a lie, it is whatever is higher, and gerenally you will never see a paycheck with any commsion because you are forced to work overtime and once the overtime kicks in you have to sell more than the time an a half to make commsion. Tip, this is the only person who matters as they are selecting indiviuals to build their team so they can move up in the company, just like a pyramid scheme and MLM, minus the "intial buy-in"
The third round interview is mainly to clear up questions you have because the untrained employees who are doing the second round interviews have no actual skill doing it so she will try to lock you into the business by making you feel at ease.
Once you become an employee you will be in "morning atomosphere" where they will tell you that you are above the grain and contantly force the idea of time now for time later. This is to force you to work harder for slave wages in hopes you will eventually make it to that grand 6 figure salary that doesn't exist. You will be told a "good leader" is someone who goes above an beyond. This is so they don't have to make it a job requirement for you to have to set up business dinners, 1on1's, and work for free because if they made it a job requirement for promotion they'd have to pay you for all of this. This has been said by Greyson herself in leaders meetings. The whole idea is to get you brainwashed to being a work mule.
Greyson will brag about her 6 figure salary however, during the interview process they explain each client portfolio she runs will pay her 25k. She runs between 7-15 events yearly so her pay should be well above 100k right? Not the case, she let it slip that she was on track to make 120k this year (still more than likely a lie) which doesn't correlate to 25k a show.
You will be responsible for your own gas and car matienence, being paid for travel ONLY when you travel from the office to an event from 10am to 11am. If you are scheduled anytime that doesn't have an office meeting, or after that 11am from the office you will not recieve compensation for it. Stores range from Tampa, to Cocoa Beach to Daytona to Lady Lake and you are expected to travel there over 60+ miles without correct compensation. Oh, and that hotel room they say you rent you when you travel over 35miles is a lie. They didn't and I've made many "roadtrips" they talked about.
You will contatly have to network with people within the company at differernt offices so that when you discuss anything negative about the job they will turn it around to try to keep you around. They call this "feeding yourself" This is to keep the "mentality" they speak about in check, its to keep you working hard by giving you dreams of grandeur.
No one in this office (which has been around nearly a year) has been promoted to this "ownership" role even though they've been through the program over a year. (Many of these "top leaders" have been in the business over two years because Smart Cirlce has had to come to Orlando to close past offices, or these people have moved from other states that offices have closed at.) The company also changed its name because it keeps recieving too many negative reviews. When you ask why they will always say "there were too many other companies named Amplify it made people confused." or they'll flat out ask you why it matters? It matters because reputatble companies don't just change their names.
Oh and if you ever have the misfortune of starting at this company and they tell you to call them to "break down your day" be aware someone else is listening on mute on the other line to help better assess how to keep you in the business (they call it coaching) which is illegal.
I can go on and on about this company but, I'll leave it at this. This is a scam from start to finish, there is no amazing job at the end of the rainbow, they force you to work hard for little pay and its under the Smart Cirlce parent company. IF you need any more information google The Devil Corp, or The Smart Circle Scam and read the amazing articles written about this. It's truly unsettling how many people come into this business and shame on each and everyone of these people for tricking people into this business.
Amp Exposure Inc. is a scam that systematically lies to their employees at every stage of employment. There is extensive focus on recruitment because cheap labor IS the product. All their employees sell crappy Chinese junk from tables in retailers. It is an extremely low skill job, they only requirement is that you be able to memoize and repeat a script. They advertise it as a professional foot in the door to people who don’t know better.
There’s dozens of different positions posted, but those jobs do not exist. If you interview with them, ask how many many account Managers/Hospitality Reps/Public Relations assistants they have as well as how their duties differ. The answer is they don’t differ because they’re not real. Every job is direct sales for minimum wage, with the end goal being that you will be promoted to owning your own office and then lying to your employees in the same way.
There’s a significant amount of driving on a daily basis, which takes a serious toll on your car. Travel costs are largely paid out of pocket. There’s no compensation for the maintenance needed from the heavy milage. Sometimes they will send you to hotels so you can work at further retailers. You will share a bed with your co-workers. There’s a forced superficial culture of fake positivity. People who quit, underperform, or work regular jobs are ridiculed. They encouraged people to mistreat and look down on others and play down the value of education by discouraging employees from getting degrees. Why? Because a degree will not help you in peddle junk from a table, it only encourages you to leave for a job that requires a degree.
You only earn commission if your sales exceed $250 a week, in which case you will earn the amount you earned on commission, but not your base pay in addition to that. If you do meet commission, you earn $250. This is above minimum wage for a 40 hour week, but they expect you to work more than 40 hours per week. That’s where it either meets or falls below minimum wage depending on how many extra hours you have to put in. Typically this is around at least 10 additional hours per week, but it can easily be higher.
The hook they use to attract new hires is the claim that the job is designed to be entry level, but they are hiring with the intent to promote to the executive level within 6-9 months, and they want to find someone with potential to teach the business and then make them an executive, where they will earn $75k around the administrative level and then 6 figures at the management level. This is a bald faced lie.
Greyson Fesperman has been at this game for years. She has “owned” three different companies for Smart Circle, the parent company, since 2014. Smart Circle is such a terrible company to work for that they are literally nicknamed the Devilcorp for how they lie to and manipulate employees. They don’t advertise this because Smart Circle is easily searchable.
Look up Devilcorp to get a rundown on what to expect at every stage of your employment with Smart Circle. Smart Circle is the same company as DS-MAX, Smart Circle, Cydcor, Innovage, Granton, Cobra Group, Credico, Appco Group, etc. They all run the same scam. There are dozens of class action lawsuits between these companies for their mistreatment of their employees and Fair Labor Standards Act violations. They fail to pay overtime, provide no benefits, misclassify their employees as independent contractors, etc. This is also why everyone who works there is so young- experienced workers would never agree to these conditions because they know it’s far below standard.
The prestigious executive position is when Smart Circle allows you to open your own office where you continually recruit employees because the overwhelming majority quit within a few months. Every employee photo has a different group of employees in it, and it’s rare for the same employee to be photographed twice. It’s a small business of only 20 people or so, it’s just their employees keep quitting and needing to be replenished.
The business is not sustainable. Every employee is competing for the exact same job, and there are only so many big box retailers. Every one already has a Smart Circle office that caters to it. The idea is that as those go under, some people will take over the market and open a new office with a new name to unsuspecting jobseekers.
A good question to ask is why they’re indefinitely hiring. When they say it’s because they’re growing, ask why they’ve been in the same tiny office without work space since 2015, especially since they never stopped hiring. The answer is they’re not growing, and there is no work space because everyone works standing at retail stores. Rebekah Hale is the exception, and her job is largely to string potential hires along and get them in the door by lying to them about the job. She intentionally withholds and distorts information to misrepresent the position to potential hires. If you’re considering interviewing, ask her to confirm that the job is not a sales position. Then go to the stage 2 interview, where you’ll see every job is face-to-face retail sales.
Greyson was the owner of Winston Grey, Amplify Management Inc, and now Amp Exposure Inc. She’s been an owner since 2014 and somehow nobody has completed the 6-9 month training program, despite that there are people who have been there far longer and are model workers who still get the same pay as when they began. The idea is you get a token promotion early on where you get extra responsibilities but no pay raise. When you get the promotion to event management, you begin to recruit new employees. The idea is when you recruit enough, you get your own office.
Contrary to what they say, there are not multiple payment structures. The amount Greyson pays employees isn’t even within her authority to decide, so don’t bother asking for a raise. Greyson manages this branch for Smart Circle. She is the “owner” in title only. Smart Circle makes the major decisions, like what products she sells, where she sells them, etc. They choose young people to be “owners” so that they can con other young people into believing they can become successful fast.
Greyson claims she earns a six figure salary. If you search smart circle ownership, you’ll find dozens of former “owners” complaining that they were encouraged to lie about earning a six figure income to to string people along and exploit them into working a dead end job with the hope that someday they too can be as wealthy as an owner. If Greyson’s been an owner since 2014 and earning six figures since then, she’d have to have earned at minimum $300k and at most just shy of 3 million. Yet she doesn't own property or an expensive car. She doesn’t take long vacations or travel throughout the year. The office tiny and sparsely furnished with cheap furniture from Ikea and Overstock. Former owners have posted they earned around 40k, but told employees they earned far more. Other former owners attest that the position drove them into debt.
The last thing that should be alarming is the OTHER owners. You will meet them, and many of them will quit or be fired. If you ever follow up on how they’re doing, overwhelmingly they move from supposedly making six figures when they work for Smart Circle to working at low skill jobs or shady companies where the salaries for their positions ares significantly below six figures, yet their quality of life doesn’t take a hit. This all suggests the training program and ownership is actually a fairly low paying and low value job. It's not just owners, even former top sellers quit left this job to have entry-level retail positions. What can you really take away from Amp Exposure? It's not money, it's not experience, it's not advancement, it's not time off. This job offers next to nothing and expects the world from their employees.
If a company lied about the title of the opening to get you in the door, lied in the first interview for what the job is, lied in the 2nd interview about what compensation to expect, teaches you to lie to make sales and recruit new people, why would they suddenly start having integrity at higher levels? The answer is simple; they don’t.
AMP Exposure, Inc. Reviews
As a former employee of a Smart Circle office, I cannot even begin to describe how unethical their business practices are. I am writing this in hopes that I can deter someone from making the same mistake I made.
I am sure you are reading this post because you (along with 70+ other individuals) have recently received a recruiting call informing you that you were selected for an initial interview. Now, the exact position you applied for is questionable as there are numerous misleading job postings on the web. However, please note that everyone is applying for the exact same position. So, to begin, I'm going to explain the three-part interview process. During phase one, you will come into the office and meet with the "President," “Executive,” or “CEO”. He or she will talk at you about contracts they have with top “Fortune 500, big-box retailers”. Due to overwhelming “success” and “growth”, the “company” you are interviewing with is expanding. That’s where you come in. You have applied for a “management in training” position and will be told that in just 6-12 months you will be given a portion of the “clients” to manage on your own. Now, let me be clear, the individual interviewing you does not have a single personal contract. He or she is one of the many incorporated offices working for The Smart Circle (the parent company). Your interviewer makes zero decisions when it comes to the products represented, and he or she has no control over the success of the individuals coming into the company (you).
If you are selected for a second round interview, you will be on-site at one of the big-box retailers receiving a “bird’s eye view” into everything that position entails. During that interview, you will spend about an hour shadowing and speaking to someone in “Event Management,” “Campaign Management,” or another similar “title”. You will be shown an event (and at that moment you should realize that you have simply applied for a sales position). If you decide to stick around for the second half of the interview, your interviewer will attempt to paint a picture of the “success” that you could have, and they will explain how you move up within the company. Everyone begins in “entry level”. Your interviewer will tell you that your promotion is based off of your ability to master and duplicate/train a skillset. But, please don’t be fooled! Your “promotion” within the company is 100% based off of your ability to recruit and maintain a “team”. The “company” you have just applied for is the perfect example of a multi-level marketing (MLM) scheme. Simply put, it is a pyramid scheme without the “initial buy-in”.
What your interviewer won’t tell you is that if you accept this position you will work countless additional hours off of the clock (in addition to the 10+ hour “solo” days, holidays, and weekends you are already clocking). You will be required to attend and/or conduct unpaid one-on-ones, breakfasts, “business dinners”, Saturday morning meetings, and team nights. You will begin distancing yourself from your true friends and family in order to maintain an artificial friendship/relationship with your “owner” (yes, “owner” is what your new boss is called) and team. An “ownership mentality” will be drilled into your head, and, once brainwashed like I was, you will begin thinking “time now for time later”. I know of multiple people (including myself) who have given up on their dreams because of this scheme. Dreams including: finishing undergrad, attending grad school, applying for the ideal job, and attending weddings, funerals, and showers. Please don’t fall down the rabbit hole!
Now, I don’t want to go into too much detail when it comes to pay because the structure varies from office to office. However, you will essentially make minimum wage plus commission; all while dreaming of making upwards of $75,000+ during your first year in executive management. (For the record, my bi-weekly paychecks rarely exceeded $600 after taxes).
If you’re still drinking the Kool-Aid, the third round interview’s purpose is to clear up any questions you may have. And, hopefully at this point you have a lot of questions. If you are offered a position with the “company” and accept, congratulations?
Once employed, you will attend Monday-Friday morning meetings (and Saturday, once you are promoted out of “Entry Level”) where you will take notes on impacts and workshops focused on: how to maintain your attitude, how to avoid negative influences (i.e. – people in your life encouraging you to see reality), and how to sell (you are a salesperson, after all!). Ownership mentality, time now for time later, and going the extra mile will be the anthems of these meetings. Your owner will frequently run “opportunity” meetings where they brag about how much money they make or how much money another owner in the business makes. Researching The Smart Circle a little further will prove that owners are almost always lying about their yearly salary (this is based off of reports from former owners). After the morning meeting, you will head off to your assigned event. You will be responsible for your own gas and car maintenance (while being paid for travel only when you travel from the office to an event, from an event to another event, or from an event back to the office). Sometimes your commute will be upwards of one-hour, one-way. If you ever take a “road trip” or “business trip” trough the company be prepared to share a bed and pay for every meal.
If you decide to stay with the company and begin building a team, say “goodbye” to free time. In addition to constantly being on the phone, your owner will encourage you to “secret shop” (AKA – spy on) other employees. Networking with individuals in your office and around the country, employed by different offices, will be required constantly. You will have to “break down your day” (AKA – pull out negatives and set goals) after each shift. And, once you begin building a “team” of your own, your pyramid will begin calling you daily so that they can break down their day. It’s a good thing I had unlimited minutes...
I know of multiple individuals who are/were in “the business” for 2+ year. Yet, they haven’t been promoted to “ownership” (That’s a really long “6-12 months” in sales, if you ask me!!) Now, if you happen to build a team and make it through the “management in training” program, you will move away to open a “new” Smart Circle office in a city where a previous office likely failed.
I really could go on and on, but I’ll leave you with this. No, it’s not a “scam”. It is possible for you to open up an office of your own. But, you will have to ask yourself, “Is the personal investment and sacrifice really worth it for minimal financial gain?” I encourage you to make your own, educated decision. But, please be cautious! They say, “Time now for time later!” But, just remember, you can’t get lost time and memories with family and loved ones back once it’s gone.
Well, I was a former employee of Amplify Management Inc, that changed its name only a few months to Amp Exposure. I can't begin to describe the bold faced scam this business is and how illegal their business practices are.
The company is run by Greyson Fesperman, a solid "dream seller" who hails from North Carolina and has opened and closed multiple offices including Winston Grey, and she started out of Bear Claw Events (same horrible reviews) up in North Carolina and brought the scam down here.
I'm going to explain the interview process and how nothing adds up. The interview process is a 3 part process, the first of which you come into their "office" and meet with the "CEO" herself. (I use quotations because both words are from what what they are, it is neither an office and she is not a CEO) She will begin to tell you that she personally has a contract with top box retailers and shes looking to grow her company. That this is a management in training position and that after 6-9months (its now changed to 7-12months) you will be given a client list to handle everything she can't. Let me be clear, there is no contract she personally has. She is one of many incorporated offices working for The Smart Cirlce, Innovage, and multiple other parent companies. Her company makes no decisions on what products they represent and she has no control of the growth for individuals coming into the company.
The second round of the interview she will send you out to a Sam's Club where you will spend an hour speaking to someone in the "Event Management" side of the company. (I know this because I was an "event manager" for the company and regularly conducted these interviews.) You will be shown an event, which is just a table set up with no name, and horribly made products and a banner. The interview is conducted by people with no knowledge in any of the legal laws pertaining to interviewing (causing many illegial questions to be asked) and their main goal is to paint a piture of success. They regularly lie saying this is the "ugliest part of the business" because this entire business is ugly and there's no other part to it. Then they will go into how a person moves up in the company. They expalin a 4 part process where the base pay for the first two parts (brand amabssador and event manager) are exactly the same pay structure, they will say its 8.05 and hr plus a commision. This is a lie, it is whatever is higher, and gerenally you will never see a paycheck with any commsion because you are forced to work overtime and once the overtime kicks in you have to sell more than the time an a half to make commsion. Tip, this is the only person who matters as they are selecting indiviuals to build their team so they can move up in the company, just like a pyramid scheme and MLM, minus the "intial buy-in"
The third round interview is mainly to clear up questions you have because the untrained employees who are doing the second round interviews have no actual skill doing it so she will try to lock you into the business by making you feel at ease.
Once you become an employee you will be in "morning atomosphere" where they will tell you that you are above the grain and contantly force the idea of time now for time later. This is to force you to work harder for slave wages in hopes you will eventually make it to that grand 6 figure salary that doesn't exist. You will be told a "good leader" is someone who goes above an beyond. This is so they don't have to make it a job requirement for you to have to set up business dinners, 1on1's, and work for free because if they made it a job requirement for promotion they'd have to pay you for all of this. This has been said by Greyson herself in leaders meetings. The whole idea is to get you brainwashed to being a work mule.
Greyson will brag about her 6 figure salary however, during the interview process they explain each client portfolio she runs will pay her 25k. She runs between 7-15 events yearly so her pay should be well above 100k right? Not the case, she let it slip that she was on track to make 120k this year (still more than likely a lie) which doesn't correlate to 25k a show.
You will be responsible for your own gas and car matienence, being paid for travel ONLY when you travel from the office to an event from 10am to 11am. If you are scheduled anytime that doesn't have an office meeting, or after that 11am from the office you will not recieve compensation for it. Stores range from Tampa, to Cocoa Beach to Daytona to Lady Lake and you are expected to travel there over 60+ miles without correct compensation. Oh, and that hotel room they say you rent you when you travel over 35miles is a lie. They didn't and I've made many "roadtrips" they talked about.
You will contatly have to network with people within the company at differernt offices so that when you discuss anything negative about the job they will turn it around to try to keep you around. They call this "feeding yourself" This is to keep the "mentality" they speak about in check, its to keep you working hard by giving you dreams of grandeur.
No one in this office (which has been around nearly a year) has been promoted to this "ownership" role even though they've been through the program over a year. (Many of these "top leaders" have been in the business over two years because Smart Cirlce has had to come to Orlando to close past offices, or these people have moved from other states that offices have closed at.) The company also changed its name because it keeps recieving too many negative reviews. When you ask why they will always say "there were too many other companies named Amplify it made people confused." or they'll flat out ask you why it matters? It matters because reputatble companies don't just change their names.
Oh and if you ever have the misfortune of starting at this company and they tell you to call them to "break down your day" be aware someone else is listening on mute on the other line to help better assess how to keep you in the business (they call it coaching) which is illegal.
I can go on and on about this company but, I'll leave it at this. This is a scam from start to finish, there is no amazing job at the end of the rainbow, they force you to work hard for little pay and its under the Smart Cirlce parent company. IF you need any more information google The Devil Corp, or The Smart Circle Scam and read the amazing articles written about this. It's truly unsettling how many people come into this business and shame on each and everyone of these people for tricking people into this business.
Amp Exposure Inc. is a scam that systematically lies to their employees at every stage of employment. There is extensive focus on recruitment because cheap labor IS the product. All their employees sell crappy Chinese junk from tables in retailers. It is an extremely low skill job, they only requirement is that you be able to memoize and repeat a script. They advertise it as a professional foot in the door to people who don’t know better.
There’s dozens of different positions posted, but those jobs do not exist. If you interview with them, ask how many many account Managers/Hospitality Reps/Public Relations assistants they have as well as how their duties differ. The answer is they don’t differ because they’re not real. Every job is direct sales for minimum wage, with the end goal being that you will be promoted to owning your own office and then lying to your employees in the same way.
There’s a significant amount of driving on a daily basis, which takes a serious toll on your car. Travel costs are largely paid out of pocket. There’s no compensation for the maintenance needed from the heavy milage. Sometimes they will send you to hotels so you can work at further retailers. You will share a bed with your co-workers. There’s a forced superficial culture of fake positivity. People who quit, underperform, or work regular jobs are ridiculed. They encouraged people to mistreat and look down on others and play down the value of education by discouraging employees from getting degrees. Why? Because a degree will not help you in peddle junk from a table, it only encourages you to leave for a job that requires a degree.
You only earn commission if your sales exceed $250 a week, in which case you will earn the amount you earned on commission, but not your base pay in addition to that. If you do meet commission, you earn $250. This is above minimum wage for a 40 hour week, but they expect you to work more than 40 hours per week. That’s where it either meets or falls below minimum wage depending on how many extra hours you have to put in. Typically this is around at least 10 additional hours per week, but it can easily be higher.
The hook they use to attract new hires is the claim that the job is designed to be entry level, but they are hiring with the intent to promote to the executive level within 6-9 months, and they want to find someone with potential to teach the business and then make them an executive, where they will earn $75k around the administrative level and then 6 figures at the management level. This is a bald faced lie.
Greyson Fesperman has been at this game for years. She has “owned” three different companies for Smart Circle, the parent company, since 2014. Smart Circle is such a terrible company to work for that they are literally nicknamed the Devilcorp for how they lie to and manipulate employees. They don’t advertise this because Smart Circle is easily searchable.
Look up Devilcorp to get a rundown on what to expect at every stage of your employment with Smart Circle. Smart Circle is the same company as DS-MAX, Smart Circle, Cydcor, Innovage, Granton, Cobra Group, Credico, Appco Group, etc. They all run the same scam. There are dozens of class action lawsuits between these companies for their mistreatment of their employees and Fair Labor Standards Act violations. They fail to pay overtime, provide no benefits, misclassify their employees as independent contractors, etc. This is also why everyone who works there is so young- experienced workers would never agree to these conditions because they know it’s far below standard.
The prestigious executive position is when Smart Circle allows you to open your own office where you continually recruit employees because the overwhelming majority quit within a few months. Every employee photo has a different group of employees in it, and it’s rare for the same employee to be photographed twice. It’s a small business of only 20 people or so, it’s just their employees keep quitting and needing to be replenished.
The business is not sustainable. Every employee is competing for the exact same job, and there are only so many big box retailers. Every one already has a Smart Circle office that caters to it. The idea is that as those go under, some people will take over the market and open a new office with a new name to unsuspecting jobseekers.
A good question to ask is why they’re indefinitely hiring. When they say it’s because they’re growing, ask why they’ve been in the same tiny office without work space since 2015, especially since they never stopped hiring. The answer is they’re not growing, and there is no work space because everyone works standing at retail stores. Rebekah Hale is the exception, and her job is largely to string potential hires along and get them in the door by lying to them about the job. She intentionally withholds and distorts information to misrepresent the position to potential hires. If you’re considering interviewing, ask her to confirm that the job is not a sales position. Then go to the stage 2 interview, where you’ll see every job is face-to-face retail sales.
Greyson was the owner of Winston Grey, Amplify Management Inc, and now Amp Exposure Inc. She’s been an owner since 2014 and somehow nobody has completed the 6-9 month training program, despite that there are people who have been there far longer and are model workers who still get the same pay as when they began. The idea is you get a token promotion early on where you get extra responsibilities but no pay raise. When you get the promotion to event management, you begin to recruit new employees. The idea is when you recruit enough, you get your own office.
Contrary to what they say, there are not multiple payment structures. The amount Greyson pays employees isn’t even within her authority to decide, so don’t bother asking for a raise. Greyson manages this branch for Smart Circle. She is the “owner” in title only. Smart Circle makes the major decisions, like what products she sells, where she sells them, etc. They choose young people to be “owners” so that they can con other young people into believing they can become successful fast.
Greyson claims she earns a six figure salary. If you search smart circle ownership, you’ll find dozens of former “owners” complaining that they were encouraged to lie about earning a six figure income to to string people along and exploit them into working a dead end job with the hope that someday they too can be as wealthy as an owner. If Greyson’s been an owner since 2014 and earning six figures since then, she’d have to have earned at minimum $300k and at most just shy of 3 million. Yet she doesn't own property or an expensive car. She doesn’t take long vacations or travel throughout the year. The office tiny and sparsely furnished with cheap furniture from Ikea and Overstock. Former owners have posted they earned around 40k, but told employees they earned far more. Other former owners attest that the position drove them into debt.
The last thing that should be alarming is the OTHER owners. You will meet them, and many of them will quit or be fired. If you ever follow up on how they’re doing, overwhelmingly they move from supposedly making six figures when they work for Smart Circle to working at low skill jobs or shady companies where the salaries for their positions ares significantly below six figures, yet their quality of life doesn’t take a hit. This all suggests the training program and ownership is actually a fairly low paying and low value job. It's not just owners, even former top sellers quit left this job to have entry-level retail positions. What can you really take away from Amp Exposure? It's not money, it's not experience, it's not advancement, it's not time off. This job offers next to nothing and expects the world from their employees.
If a company lied about the title of the opening to get you in the door, lied in the first interview for what the job is, lied in the 2nd interview about what compensation to expect, teaches you to lie to make sales and recruit new people, why would they suddenly start having integrity at higher levels? The answer is simple; they don’t.