If you’ve spent any time searching for Nashville jobs online, you might have noticed a recent increase in ads for entry-level sales roles with vague descriptions and lofty promises. The ads evoke immediate skepticism for some. For others — especially those desperate for work — the lure of reasonably paying full-time work in a tough job market may be too hard to resist.
At first glance, the ads appear legit. They use familiar corporate jargon, referring to open positions as “community associates,” “brand ambassadors” or “entry-level managers.” They may promise an annual salary of up to $50,000, along with benefits such as health insurance, paid training, fast-track promotions and reimbursement of travel expenses. While many advertised openings like this may be legitimate, an increasing number of former workers have raised concerns about local companies allegedly operating multilevel-marketing-type schemes behind a thin facade of white-collar professionalism.
According to former workers, bait-and-switch job ads turn out to be commission-only gigs with little to no base pay or benefits. Companies with exceptionally high turnover rates dispatch a steady stream of recruits to Nashville-area doorsteps and kiosks in stores like Costco, where they pitch phone plans or solicit donations in high-pressure, face-to-face encounters.
Ex-workers describe 10- to 12-hour shifts, including Saturdays. They say they are often classified as independent contractors, which enables the companies to circumvent minimum wage and overtime pay requirements, even though the nature of the work — often with required meetings and strict schedules — more traditionally aligns with a full-time employment status.
These schemes aren’t unique to Nashville, and many former employees claim they’re usually tied to larger national networks through parent companies. Nashville, however, has proven to be fertile ground for these companies to flourish, thanks to its rapid growth and large population of young transplants. Plus, regulatory oversight is sparse, and media attention is rare. The most consistent warnings often come from grassroots online networks.
The problem extends to the U.K., where in 2019 Ben Jamieson founded the open-source intelligence investigative website Devilcorp.org, which tracks deceptive direct sales agencies. On the Devilcorp Reddit page, roughly 16,000 members raise awareness about schemes in the U.S. and the U.K. One of the primary objectives of Devilcorp is to expose deceitful firms, ensuring their critiques appear at the top of Google results when someone searches for them. Jamieson, who began tracking these companies after an experience with a shady direct sales interview, says these businesses rely on a steady influx of recruits to replace those who burn out or eventually realize they’ve been duped.
The companies post nearly constant job ads and host mass interview days, sometimes cycling through 50 to 100 applicants in a single afternoon. “It’s a numbers game and a little bit like a slaughterhouse,” Jamieson tells the Scene. “The more people you interview, the more you’ll get out on the streets making money.”
When a company’s reputation finally sours, recruitment slows, and offices close. Owners may then regroup and re-emerge under a different name, or even move to a different city. In this relentless churn, workers are little more than disposable parts, used up, replaced and forgotten as quickly as they arrive.
With his wry sense of humor, Nashville-based comedian Ben Palmer has recently begun exposing some of these schemes. Palmer has created a series of YouTube videos about the industry that have garnered hundreds of thousands of views. While the videos are entertaining, they also help raise awareness, especially for younger adults whom deceptive firms often target.
“Comedy works well in this case because of how these companies operate,” says Palmer. “It’s already absurd.”
Palmer claims to have applied to hundreds of direct sales positions, both locally and nationwide. Recently, he was interviewed by Zeal TN Inc., a Nashville-based company that has faced heavy online scrutiny in recent years. The company bills itself as an “unconventional promotions agency raising awareness for nonprofits such as youth-focused groups.” In reality, it’s a professional fundraiser that solicits donations on behalf of nonprofits. According to former employees, it also operates similarly to many of the firms that groups like Devilcorp focus on.
According to the Tennessee Secretary of State’s business entity database, Zeal TN additionally operates under the names Nashville Associates and Tennessee Fundraising Executives. These assumed names each have their own bare-bones websites, but do not mention any connection to Zeal TN. Zeal TN sends employees to solicit donations across Tennessee — often in front of stores and restaurants — for nonprofits such as Law Enforcement Against Drugs & Violence (LEAD), which is based in New Jersey. In one job interview that Palmer recorded with Zeal TN and shared with the Scene, a manager openly admits that the company retains 60 percent of every dollar it receives in donations.
Former Zeal TN employees say the company frequently denies this. Zeal TN has even gone as far as to sue former employee Heaven Porter in 2023 in Davidson County for publicly claiming that the company was “swindling” people by taking a large cut of donations. The case was voluntarily dismissed by Zeal just 30 minutes before a scheduled hearing.
Recent tax records, though, confirm that Zeal TN does retain a significant portion of the donations it solicits, at least during one fiscal year with one client.
Zeal TN raised more than $3.2 million on behalf of LEAD in 2023 but retained almost exactly 60 percent of the donations, according to tax records. Zeal TN collected those funds via phone, mail and in-person solicitations and kept $1,950,915 — leaving just over $1.3 million for the nonprofit’s programs. Charity watchdogs generally advise that no more than 35 percent of donations be allocated to fundraising expenses.
“It is, unfortunately, extremely common for for-profit professional fundraising companies to keep the majority of the donations they raise on behalf of their charity clients,” says Laurie Styron, CEO and executive director of Charity Watch, an independent charity watchdog. “When people donate in response to a telemarketing call or a direct mail letter, they run a high risk of wasting most of their donations on middleman fundraisers.”
Styron says donors should avoid high-pressure tactics that promote impulsive giving. “Donating in response to a telemarketing call or direct mail letter is a no-go if you value your privacy and want your donation actually to accomplish something.”
Charities and their fundraisers often rent, sell, exchange or share their donor lists. Styron therefore advises checking a charity’s privacy policy before donating to avoid receiving an avalanche of fundraising letters and telemarketing calls after making a single donation to one organization.
“Donate directly to a charity versus through a middleman company if you want to avoid a big chunk of your donation going to a for-profit company,” she says.
Beyond the dubious business practices, what Palmer — the comedian and amateur sleuth — has most noticed in his undercover research is an overall creepy vibe. “Almost all of them have pump-up team meetings in the mornings where there’s a lot of chanting and hollering,” he says. “It’s very cult-like.”
Zeal TN did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
