Michele Oneil/Legacy Builders

Michele Oneil wants to be your “hope dealer.” In TikTok posts, Oneil claims to have found a “fully automated” way to make significant amounts of money online, locking in 100% of the profits while only working two hours a day.

The mother of six targets families living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to pay monthly expenses like their mortgage or worried that they won’t have enough money saved to retire. She is fond of the phrase “legacy wealth” and uses it frequently to tout her money-making opportunity. Her TikTok bio provides her mission statement: “Helping families build freedom-based digital businesses.” And Oneil wants you to know, at one point, she was just like you.

“I was trying to figure a way to make an income around my family and I was struggling miserably,” she says in an April TikTok post, reflecting on a purported period of financial hardship in 2022. Then, she says, she discovered a “blueprint” that uses an automated sales process that “took the pressure off of needing to learn how to sell,” which she now intends to share with the world – for free.

I want to give you free access to that exact blueprint that I followed that took me from stressed and overwhelmed – Am I ever going to be able to make money online? – to making six figures in six months.

Anyone who has ever been recruited by an MLM has likely heard similar pitches. But Oneil says that’s not what this is. In network marketing (aka multilevel marketing), you might make $12 on a sale, she says. With the blueprint, Oneil claims, you don’t have to share in the profits and can make $1,400 on a single sale.

But TINA.org took a closer look at the advertising for this so-called money-making opportunity and found a number of issues with Oneil’s marketing pitch.

The “free” blueprint

In her TikTok bio, Oneil provides a link to a webpage where consumers can enter their email address to instantly access the “free” blueprint to start learning how to earn up to $1,400 in “daily passive income.”

When the blueprint arrives, Oneil congratulates recipients on taking “a step toward financial freedom,” adding in the email:

That might not seem like a big deal yet… but trust me, it is. Because most people stay stuck – trapped in the 9-5, trading time for money, waiting for “someday” that never comes. But YOU? You’re different. You know there’s a smarter way – one that gives you freedom without sacrificing family or time. And here’s the truth… passive income it’s real.

The “blueprint,” which suggests steps covering social media marketing, email list building and automated sales funneling, concludes by referring consumers back to a link in the initial email.

Clicking on this link (finally) reveals what Oneil means by a “done-for-you” digital business and the actual costs involved (that’s right – it’s not actually free).

Master resell rights

The link in the email directs consumers to a webpage where Oneil sells a Legacy Builders program that comes with master resell rights (MRR) and is not free. The program, which is a collection of online digital marketing courses, costs $1,400 (plus a $69 one-time website fee). But under the MRR model, consumers who purchase the program can then resell it to others, both to try to recoup their initial investment (minus the website fee) and to make money beyond that amount.

This is the basis for Oneil’s claim that consumers can make $1,400 on a single sale. As she states in a video on the webpage pitching the Legacy Builders program:

One customer puts you in profit mode so you don’t have to get a lot of customers to even get your investment back.

But why stop there? Oneil goes on to describe an even more enticing scenario:

What if your marketing got so good that you attracted just one customer a day? That’s $511,000 a year. That, my friends, is how we leave a legacy.

Additionally, Oneil showcases examples of participants who say they’ve made six figures or thousands of dollars in a short amount of time:

But your actual odds of achieving these kinds of results may be a fraction of one percent.

What do participants typically earn?

In a recent TikTok post, Oneil says other digital marketers also claim to create six-figure earners but can’t back it up, which she says really bums her out.

It’s sad to me to see so many coaches out there tell me that they can help you but they have no proof that they created six-figure earners.

But even if some have achieved great results (Oneil claims that her program has created “over 129 six-figure earners”), that doesn’t mean that you will too. In fact, we did the math and it turns out that less than half of one percent of participants in Oneil’s program earn six figures or more, meaning it is quite unlikely to make that amount of money.

As for the odds that you’ll be able to make any money through her program? That’s critical information Oneil never discloses. Instead, she tacks a tiny disclaimer at the very bottom of the long Legacy Builders webpage stating:

Earnings and income representations made by this website, its programs, and any associated products or services are aspirational statements only regarding potential earnings. Success stories and testimonials shared are exceptional, non-typical results and are not intended to guarantee that you or others will achieve the same outcomes. Individual results will vary and depend entirely on your individual capacity, work ethic, business skills, experience, level of motivation, diligence in applying the strategies, the economy, normal and unforeseen risks of doing business, and other factors.

The FTC has warned companies pitching money-making opportunities that “[c]laims of ‘potential’ earnings imply that such earnings are representative of what the typical participant achieves,” adding:

Before making such a claim regarding potential earnings (e.g., via a testimonial of a well-paid member), the advertiser must possess adequate substantiation that the experience described is representative of what participants will generally achieve. If the claim is not representative, the advertisement must avoid giving that impression.

The FTC has also made clear that simply informing consumers that the advertised results aren’t typical, or may vary, isn’t enough, either.

When TINA.org asked Oneil for substantiation that the advertised experience is typical or generally achievable, her answer was silence.

Additional expenses, restrictions

In addition to the $69 website fee, consumers may encounter some added business expenses that prevent them from entering “profit mode,” as Oneil calls it. According to her terms and conditions:

While the foundational tools to create your website are provided, certain essential elements such as custom domain names, email services, and enhanced security features may incur additional costs.

And if you find Legacy Builders or its individual courses hard to resell, you cannot lower the price of the program to potentially make it appealing to more people. Additionally, there is no option to return the digital product for a refund. So if you’re unable to make a single sale, you will have to eat your initial $1,400 investment, along with the website fee and any business expenses.

Oneil’s questionable history

Lastly, Oneil’s rags-to-riches story seems a little suspect.

Oneil claims that she was struggling to make money or time for her family until she discovered this MRR blueprint back in September 2022.

But a little digging into her Instagram account reveals a conflicting story.

Despite her apparent opposition to multilevel marketing, in the spring and summer of 2022, Oneil was a distributor for a supplements MLM called Tranont. And based on her Instagram activity at the time, she seemed to be doing just fine, claiming to have replaced her income and gotten out of medical debt – thanks at least in part, it appears, to her Tranont “side hustle.”

Of note, around the same time, the Direct Selling Self-Regulatory Council opened an inquiry into Tranont for misleading earnings claims, among other things.

Oneil did not respond to a request for comment.

The bottom line

Consumers should be wary of any purported business opportunity that claims you can make a lot of money with minimal effort. Before investing any of your money, find out exactly how the business works (or doesn’t work) and how others have made money (or lost money) in the venture.

Find more of our coverage on master resell rights.