The bee in my bonnet today? The truth behind the hunbot attitude. Well, MY truth.

You will notice when a hunbot invades your personal social media space. There will positive quotes, #bossbabe pictures, constant updates on what amazing things they are doing and more emojis than you can shake a stick at. Let’s be honest, it is bloody annoying.

I wanted to share what it is like to be the one constantly clicking post on that crap. And this is my personal experience (other hunbots and ex hunbots may differ).

Pre-Younique I had quite a low profile on social media. I was on Facebook but very picky about who I was friends with, all my privacy settings as high as they would go.

I had twitter, but had never tweeted, as I honestly never had anything interesting enough to say.

I had a private Instagram account and that is about the end of it.

I mainly shared pictures of me and my children, a few amusing memes and the odd quote that I really liked. Sometimes I wouldn’t post for days, other times I would upload pictures from days out and tag friends in funny videos. I liked an emoji, but one at a time, not posts with more emojis than words. Normal social media behaviour as I liked to see it.

When I was lured into Younique that all had to change. And I mean HAD to, or so my upline informed me. I was told my profile had to be open so people (even strangers) could see my posts about the products. I was told I HAD to add 5 new people every day, and my friends list should be full. I was given a set number of posts I HAD to make every day – product posts, personal posts, positive posts. I have shared the picture below on my Facebook and Twitter previously. It is another example I have taken from the training groups I am still in. This is a part of an actual training guide for new hunbots.

I had to use lots of emojis to be eye-catching. I had to be in a constant state of squealing excitement.

The first thing I want to talk about though is not the posts themselves, but the affect this huge change had on me. I am a very private person. I don’t talk about my personal life, and even my closest friends know that I only share a certain amount with a select few.

Some people live their life very openly, I keep mine to me. That is just who I am.

When I joined Younique my upline told me that I would never build a business like that. I was reluctant to change my privacy settings though, not only because of my preference but because I worked in a job helping people, and it was a possibility that unsavoury people could track me down on Facebook.

It wasn’t safe.

I was pretty much told TOUGH.

I clearly wasn’t very dedicated if I couldn’t even use my social media properly.

My upline would hound me every day asking how many new friends I had added… Why hadn’t I added any? Did I know that one of her other teamies who started at the same time as me, had been adding 10 a day religiously? She told me start off with the easy ones, the suggested friends.

Now, people who are in my suggested friends, are still suggestions and not my friends because I didn’t want to goddamn be friends with them. People I went to school with and no longer speak to, people I used to work with but have no real relationship with. You know the sort, you all have them.

Well I was my own worst enemy and was limiting my selling and recruitment market, and when my business failed I would only have myself to blame.

So, I relented. I started off with a few other Younique presenters in the team pages I had been added to, a few of the suggested friends, and a few reps for other MLM companies. I changed my Instagram profile from private to open, same with my twitter, though that was currently still tweetless.

I struggle to find the words to describe how this made me feel. I was so uncomfortable with it. Having virtual strangers being able to look into my life, into my private bubble.

I felt vulnerable.

I suffer with anxiety and this was a huge trigger for me. More so, because it could potentially compromise my safety.

When this was brought to the attention of my upline, and her upline, it was dismissed. They never actually answered my concerns or reassured me in anyway. They didn’t give any advice on how I could build my business in other ways.

I felt isolated and worried.



My upline once got me tipsy and sat with me watching her just adding person after person and encouraged me to join in. I felt betrayed by this. She said if I was drunk I wouldn’t care who I added, it would give me confidence.

Thankfully I didn’t let my guard down, that experience was sobering enough to counter-act the wine. I never added complete strangers, and I never completely lowered my privacy settings on Facebook.

My compromise was that I had opened my Instagram and every Younique post I made on Facebook I changed the privacy setting of that particular post to public.

I still wasn’t overly popular for my choices.

So then came the actual posts. It will hardly surprise you that I struggled with this too. I was a bit of a trouble maker in the group. Shocking I know.

The recommendation was that 1 in 3 posts should be about Younique or at least related back to it. So if I posted 9 times, 3 should be about Younique.

Let’s remember the fact that I could go days on end without posting a thing, and now I am being told I need to post 6-9 times A DAY with a third of that being Younique related.

It is no surprise that I struggled with this. Sometimes I would just post a selfie in the morning after I had put my makeup on and put in the comments what shade lipstick or eyeshadow I was wearing. It got one out of the way straight away, and I knew if I left it too long into the day without posting my upline would be blowing up my inbox.

Then I would post an inspirational or positive quote, not because it was one I related to, but because it was the thing to do. As someone who is a lover of the written word, I begrudged doing this.

Pre-Hunbot, I loved to share quotes from people I respected and admired. Words that resonated within me and touched me personally. I felt they were all cheapened now due to the insincerity of the posts I was churning out now.

I had to find and share links to funny videos, or recipes, basically anything that would grab people’s attention and make them look at my page. The posts were bait.

Now remember, this was EVERY DAY. And I was working full time and had a family to look after. Try posting 9 new things every day on your Facebook page without being repetitive. It isn’t easy. We were also encouraged to post at certain times of the day. For example, right before lunch time, so when people were on their lunch breaks at work and have a scroll through their newsfeed, there you are near the top. Or about 8/9pm, when parents have got the kids to bed and are sitting down to relax after doing the washing up etc.

I struggled to make all these posts at all the right times. I was BUSY.

I was one of those who were working. I was putting MY kids to bed and then collapsing in a tired heap on the sofa. I ended up having to plan my posts ahead and use a scheduling app to posts them for me. Every post was so false. Stressfully planned down to the smallest of details to be made to look airy and positive to attract people.

To make sure I covered all my bases, I would schedule the same picture to be posted on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Purely to save time and my sanity. And woe betide anyone not using their hashtags correctly. It took 20 minutes just to add them all in.

I can feel my anxiety levels rising just typing about this. It was TOO MUCH. It wasn’t me. It wasn’t genuine, it wasn’t my life. I lost my identity. I was a hunbot.

I was posting about how this opportunity meant I could be earning money (I wasn’t) to benefit my family. In reality, it was the opposite. I had my nose in my phone constantly. Because it wasn’t just all the crap I had to post, I had to comment, like, share and interact constantly with those on my friends list too. The more I interacted with them, supposedly the more they would interact with me.

New hair cut? “OMG I LOVE it hun! Such a gorgeous colour, where do you go?!” Kids did well at school? “Eeeeeks! What little superstars! You must be so proud. I feel a celebration coming on!” Dog died? “Oh my goodness sweetie I am soooo sorry to hear about your loss. PM me if you need anything hun”

Birthday? Oh I was all over birthdays. Not just with the usual “Happy Birthday” on the wall like I would have done before. Oh no. I had a whole STACK of brightly coloured birthday pictures I would be posting all over your personal space.

Oh and then there was the commenting on every other hunbots posts to boost them up in their friends newfeed. If they are showing off makeup “OMG I LOVE that lipstick. What shade is it? Or “Your lashes look AMAZING hun! Need to get me some of that!”

Don’t get me wrong, before I would have liked statuses. But that would be it. Unless I had something genuine to say, I wouldn’t say anything. But hunbots HAVE to comment. Because then the friends of whose ever status it is will see you, and that can draw more people to your page.

It got to the stage where I hated my Facebook profile. I dreaded going on it. It ruled me. I would sit with my phone in my hand, a pit in my stomach and my heart racing. This online persona of someone I didn’t even want to be was taking over my world.

I felt like I didn’t even have my small private online sanctuary anymore. If it was annoying me this much I dread to think how much I must have grated on my friends and family.

Instead of taking pictures of my children while we were out having fun, I would snap a quick staged picture and post about how they are my “why” or my reason for “working my business”. I was living to work, and I wasn’t making anything from it. I already worked full time and the time I had with my family was precious, now it was being eaten up with me trying to be someone I am not while I hated every second of it.

I know I am not the only hunbot who struggled like this. And I want any current hunbots reading this that can relate to how I was feeling to know, IT IS OK NOT TO BE OK WITH IT.

Don’t give in to the pressure from your upline and team members to present this mask to the world. It is ok to have a bad day and post a sarcastic meme.

It is ok not to pay false compliments just to lure people in. It is ok not to feel positive all the time.

And more than it just being ok, it is NORMAL.