What Chicagoland Job Seekers Should Know About The League Global
I worked for a Devilcorp office in Chicago. It went by North 312 then. It goes by The League Global now. This is what I know about The League Global, North 312, Brindle Consulting, Paletta Consulting, and the Cydcor network operating out of Itasca, Illinois.
Updated 4/23/2026
It’s the winter of 2016–17 in the Chicago suburbs. My alarm rings. It’s 5:00 AM. It’s below zero. I put on the only suit I own and drive into the city for work. I’m in my early twenties and this is my first job out of college. This is bleak, but lots of people wake up early for work and face brutal commutes. This is not entirely unreasonable or abnormal. What is abnormal is the job I’m doing this for. I work a sales job at a company called “North 312”. They currently go by “The League Global.” What follows is an account of my tenure working there and a breakdown of their associated companies and their Cydcor affiliation.
The Job
My daily routine at North 312 is bizarre. I arrive at the office on the western edge of Lincoln Park around 7:00 am. The office is sparsely decorated, but the space is genuinely interesting. It’s both retro and cosmopolitan, but no actual work is done here. The loft-style space in an aspirational neighborhood is all for show. This is a sales job, but my day doesn’t start with checking email or getting back to leads. I’m arriving to work on a rigid pitch and plan my route. I will drive a lot.
Our day technically starts around 8:00 with “atmosphere”, where we will engage in team-building exercises and partake in our rituals. Top performers from the day before may even get to ring a gong and talk about how our “systems” worked for them. We often play a game to improve the energy.
After our morning “atmosphere” or “atmo”, those in “leadership” will interview job seekers to add to their “team.” Advancement within the organization depended primarily on how many new hires you could recruit and retain beneath you. If their team is big enough for long enough they can open up their own office. It’s always nice when you have permission from your boss and corporate to open up your own business. This is how the world works.
I will drive back out, often near the very suburb I just came from, to trek door-to-door selling office supplies to small businesses. I do this in my own car and on my own gas. The round trip will consume a meaningful percentage of whatever I earn that day. We didn’t have business cards. We showed up unannounced at businesses in suits, representing major corporate clients, with no business card to leave behind. Before I move on to new businesses, I must retrace my steps and try to get in front of decision makers I haven’t been able to reach. This job is tedious and strategic-thinking is not valued. If I am lucky I will make two or three sales and clear $60 in commissions by the time I drive home around 5:30.
This probably sounds awful to you, and it was. But I drank the Kool-Aid for a while. I liked my coworkers. Nothing brings people together more than an awful job. Pressure to attend optional “team nights” worked on me and I often had fun. I started to get more skeptical a few weeks into the job when I went on a work trip. It was pitched as a great opportunity. Management booked two hotel rooms at a Days Inn for six men. Employees were required to share beds. There was no per diem. I am not embellishing this.
Our office is simultaneously hemorrhaging personnel and constantly hiring. People I consider friends are there one day and gone the next. Leadership speaks ill of those who leave. New people start every Monday. Most of them are gone the next week. Turnover was, by my observation, nearly 100% within the two plus months on the job. This is not discussed. Questions are discouraged. Skepticism isn’t welcome.
I see people interviewing at the office all the time. One of them pulled me aside as I was leaving for the field and asked what it was like working there. I lie and say it’s great. I know I am lying. I deeply regret this nine years later.
I start to do some reflecting. I work here because I was desperate to find a job. I realize that North 312 only seemed to hire those with similar desperation. I am ashamed. I know people will tell me I am being scammed and that this business model is not kosher. When people ask what I do I tell them I work for the office supply company I represent. Deep down I know the model of building a team to open a new office is fishy. I know I’ll never make it. I know that I don’t want to. The owner/ CEO talks about the freedom of ownership, but he’s in the field selling office supplies. Somehow this is someone I should aspire to be like. We are encouraged to share our sales in a GroupMe thread. I don’t remember the specifics of the commission structure now, but it was transparent how much everyone was making. I wasn’t making anything. I wasn’t alone. I knew it was time to quit.
The Company
The League Global does not want you to know about its past as “North 312”. When I mentioned this previous name in a review on Indeed, the company responded officially that North 312 was “a different entity.” This is demonstrably false. Before going by “North 312,” The League Global went by M4i. This was not discussed during my tenure.
The League Global, North 312, and M4i all have different profiles on Indeed and Glassdoor. The League Global is trying to run from its past and has resorted to lying about it.
The Model and Network
The League Global is an office within the Cydcor network (Cydcor is their client broker), a national direct sales organization. Direct sales organizations like Cydcor, Credico, Appco, and Smart Circle are known as the companies behind “Devilcorp.” The model is consistent across offices: misleading and/or vague job postings, commission-only compensation, high turnover, advancement tied to recruitment, and periodic rebranding when negative reviews accumulate.
This is not speculation. A 2022 episode of the podcast The Slave Circle Extra Takes features a firsthand account from a former team leader at The League Global describing psychological manipulation, a 45-day commission clawback window, and a national conference where attendees were housed sixteen to a vacation villa. Her account is consistent with my own experience and with multiple reviews across multiple platforms spanning nearly a decade.
North 312 was not an isolated operation. It functioned alongside another Cydcor-affiliated organization operating out of the same physical space. This company went by Jaxford, INC. Another rep present during my tenure went on to open their own independently owned Cydcor office (Brindle Consulting), which operates today in the same Itasca, Illinois office park as The League Global and other Cydcor ICLs: Paletta Consulting and Perspective Development Inc.
This is not unusual within the Cydcor network. It is the intended outcome. The model is designed to produce new owners, who produce new offices, who recruit new employees, who are told the same things that were told to the people who came before them. Offices open, offices rename, and offices close.
The League Global is not unique. It is one of hundreds of independently owned offices operating within the Cydcor network under different names in different cities, selling different products, recruiting from the same pool of people who need work and are willing to give an unfamiliar opportunity the benefit of the doubt.
If you have received an interview request from The League Global, Brindle Consulting, Paletta Consulting, and Perspective Development Inc., you should ask: What is the base salary? Are transportation expenses reimbursed? What percentage of people hired in the last six months are still employed? What percent of hires make it to ownership? Is advancement tied to recruiting/retaining new hires? Would I be an employee or an independent contractor? What are the health insurance options? What does the retirement package look like? Would I get my own bed on business trips? What role does Cydcor play in your business? What names has your company operated under?
The answers or non-answers will tell you what you need to know.
The Reviews
The League Global and other Cydcor ICLs really care about their reviews. Lots of businesses do, but unlike most businesses, they seem primarily concerned about how reviews come across to prospective employees than they do to customers. The League Global’s Google page contains five star reviews from individuals whose names correspond to their recruiter and the owner/CEO of an affiliated Itasca office (Paletta).
Many of Brindle’s five star reviews come from its employees and another comes from the Paletta owner/CEO. The employees are not hiding this affiliation and the Paletta owner/CEO mentions working close to Brindle, so no harm no foul. I will say that the timing of these reviews is interesting. Three of the eight five star reviews come from employees left in the same one month period. Another five star review for Brindle was given by the HR Director of The League Global (this HR director is married to The League Global’s Owner/CEO) within a month of the review from the owner/CEO of Paletta. An additional five star review of Brindle comes from the sister of Brindle’s managing director. The Brindle managing director is the owner/CEO’s wife. The Brindle owner/CEO also left a review of Paletta in that same time period.
A Note to the People Running These Organizations
You are adults. I presume many of you have mortgages, spouses, and/or children. You speak daily with authority about mindset, leadership, and the habits of successful people.
And yet you think it is acceptable to book two hotel rooms for six employees at a Days Inn or to house sixteen people in a vacation villa at a company conference. You are not paying for your employees’ gas or providing a company car, and you are telling adults you are ostensibly training for management that this is normal.
Everyone gets their own room, or at least their own bed, when legitimate organizations send their employees on business trips. Tradespeople at legitimate companies don’t drive to jobs in their own cars on gas they’re footing the bill for. Pharmaceutical reps who aren’t using company vehicles are enrolled in comprehensive mileage reimbursement programs. I know you have been in the insular world of Cydcor for a long time, but outside of Devilcorp, none of this is normal. It is not a sign of how hard you are hustling. It is a sign that you’re relying on your employees not knowing any better. It is a sign that you’re skint or cheap. It is a sign that your organizations are small potatoes, unprofessional, and unserious.
Consider the effort that goes into maintaining your patina of legitimacy. Business professional dress code for a job where most employees will lose money. Five-star Google reviews left by family members, recruiters, and managers from affiliated offices. The word “consulting” in the name of a company. The Better Business Bureau accreditation obtained more than a decade into operation and bandied about like it means something. Monitoring reviews and flagging the ones you dislike. Vague blogs containing phrases like “mentorship turns lessons into real growth” and “development is practical, measurable, and intentional.”
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The five-star reviews left by family members make more sense in this context. I worked with multiple people who currently run Cydcor ICLs that are married to someone they work with. This par for the course in Devilcorp and I want anyone reading this to reflect on why this might be. I also want to anyone reading this to think about the potential complexities of being an admin or an HR director at your spouse’s company. Who can employees honestly talk to about management? These are rinky-dink operations without oversight disguised by a corporate veneer.
I have written about these organizations before. Reviews of The League Global on Indeed and Glassdoor, titled “An Unserious Organization,” remain live. The League Global responded to both. If they had simply acknowledged that the organization used to be called North 312, I would not have written this. They don’t get to rebrand, claim to have been in business since 2013, and then lie about not being associated by an old name. I have since added Google reviews of the affiliated Itasca offices, which also remain live.
I want you to reflect about the constant recruiting you must do to remain in operation. In the real world, an employee quitting within their first week is a notable event, something that would prompt reflection about hiring processes. In your world it is par for the course. Your model requires a continuous supply of new people who don’t yet know what the people who just left found out. The pipeline exists to replace the people it just chewed up and spit out. Recruiting is not a function of growth. It is a function of turnover, a toxic environment, and a job someone with options would never choose.
This is a significant amount of work. Is this effort worth it? What are you trying to accomplish with this? Do you know that most businesses don’t have to do most of this? Are you trying to ensure that the next desperate person who Googles your company’s name before accepting an interview finds something reassuring?
I want to acknowledge that running one of these offices is not easy. You can read a room and inspire loyalty. You must deal with rejection, unfathomable staff turnover, and your online reputation. People who research Cydcor and your companies are less likely to accept an interview or an offer. It doesn’t have to be like this.
You have real skills: recruiting, motivating staff, managing people, selling. A person with the demonstrated ability to recruit and manage a sales team, to open and operate an independent business, to maintain client relationships across years could be selling commercial real estate, running a tech sales team, or building something that all their employees could describe honestly and proudly to their families. Something where the business card doesn’t require explanation. Something where the employees have business cards.
Your very real skills are in service of a model that the professional world does not respect. Every day you remain in operation is a choice. A choice to mislead. To overpromise and underdeliver.
You may remember me. You may not. It doesn’t matter. The number of people who could have written this is larger than you are probably assuming. I am simply someone who kept notes. I am not looking for an apology. I am not looking for a conversation or an acknowledgment. I am not asking for anything for myself.
I am asking you, directly, to shut down your organizations. The League Global. The League Partners. Brindle Consulting. Paletta Consulting. Perspective Development Inc. Close them. Walk away. Leverage the skills you have demonstrated into something the people who work for you can be proud of. I do not expect you to do this. But I want it on the record that I asked. This post will remain up and will be updated as new information becomes available, including name changes, for as long as you operate these organizations. I will simply continue to document. I have nothing personally against those I have met. I think you are talented. But I do not respect what you do. You know what you are running. You are running unserious organizations that target the naive and the desperate.
How many people have you hired? How many of them have advanced to ownership? How many of them have had to change their organization’s name? How many of those owners are still in the business? What happened to Chicago 23? What happened to Appreciation Events? What happened to Riverfront Marketing? What happened to Listow Business Development? What happened to LCJ Business Partners? What happened to Stella Connect? What happened to Kirkwood? What happened to KBD Edge? What happened to The Carvonis Group? What happened to Mack Inspired? Do the people pursuing ownership know about these companies? Do they know why the owners closed up shop? Do they know that ICLs can be shut down? Do they know about retrains? Do they know about the separate bank accounts? Do they know the Jones Effect is being used on them? Do they know they are the customers?
A Final Note
I did not write this blog because I am bitter. I got out relatively unscathed. Working for The League Global/North 312 was a tremendous time investment for very little money. But I was lucky. I had a family to support me and not a family to support. I was able to pivot to a real career that pays me a salary, provides good health insurance and retirement benefits, and allows me to work from home. I’ve worked other jobs and some of them weren’t great. But no other job compares to this one. I have zero talent or interest in sales, but I made more than a living wage (still not a lot!) in my next sales job. I wrote this so that current employees of these organizations can learn how the company really operates and a brief history of The League Global. I want the leaders of these companies to know that people are wising up to their ways. My main motivation in writing this is to combat the misinformation and to add some transparency. This blog will be successful if one person skims it before they accept an interview or, god forbid, an offer.
Resources/Links
If you have received an interview request from any of the organizations named in this post, the following resources may be helpful:
- Illinois Secretary of State Business Search: verify business names and registration history yourself
- The Slave Circle (Direct Marketing Devil Corp. Documentary): a documentary made by a former Smart Circle rep. Smart Circle is not Cydcor, but they had a lot in common
- Selling Lies: Desperation, Devilcorp, and Direct Marketing (2025 Documentary — Original Version)- follow up to The Slave Circle. Many former Cydcor reps were interviewed for this project
- The Slave Circle Extra Takes The League Global Episode: a firsthand account from a former team leader
- The League Global Glassdoor Reviews
- The League Global Indeed Reviews
- North 312 Glassdoor Reviews: reviews filed under the previous company name
- North 312 Indeed Reviews: reviews filed under the previous company name
- North 312 Twitter Account
- M4i Glassdoor Reviews — reviews filed under the previous company name
- M4i Indeed Reviews — reviews filed under the previous company name
- Jaxford Glassdoor Reviews — reviews of an affiliated organization that operated out of the same office
- Jaxford Indeed Reviews (unclaimed) — reviews of an affiliated organization that operated out of the same office
- Brindle Glassdoor Reviews
- Brindle Indeed Reviews
- Reddit Thread about Brindle from when they were located in Milwaukee
- Paletta Indeed Reviews
- Perspective Development (unclaimed) Glassdoor Reviews
- Perspective Development Indeed Reviews
- r/Devilcorp — a community documenting the broader Cydcor, Credico, and Smart Circle networks
- Ben Palmer’s humorous account of his Devilcorp experience
The companies referenced throughout this post are The League Global, Brindle Consulting, Paletta Consulting, and Perspective Development Inc., all operating or having operated in the Chicago metropolitan area within the Cydcor direct sales network.
