Written by Raisinberry for Pink Truth
This is it. All the women who think I am the enemy can breathe a big sigh of relief.At least till the book comes out!
I only have one more thing to say. What I am about to say causes me the greatest heartache. The life of a current Mary Kay Director is one of desperate denial, and it is the saddest story to tell.
The old timers believe that the Mary Kay life they lived 20 years ago surely must still exist, and their loyalty to all things Mary Kay blinds them to the reality of who they have become, what they have done, and how far off the road they are from being that “woman of excellence” they pretend to be.
This is the single focus I have had, in my sharing with you, all that I have seen in Mary Kay. I am angry that this business, at its heart, is nothing more than a financial cult that preys upon the deepest longings and deepest insecurities of women. I am angry that those within it clutches can not see it, and are discouraged from getting any neutral opinions because from day one, they are urged to identify who in their life is “negative” and summarily dismiss them.
They are taught that any voice of objectivity is a saboteur, and to be avoided, and that anyone that does not believe in the Mary Kay way is a loser... and you wouldn’t want to hang with losers, would you? This is step one in the “cult” book of divide and conquer.
I have been fueled to fight this cult because I am watching people who I counted as friends go further into desperate denial, chasing something that they believed in, too afraid to look at the reality all around them. They are held by the fear of shunning, and the breakdown of a life spent pursuing a predatory business model.
What can they possibly do now? They can not afford to stop for one minute and evaluate the fictional life they lead. They can not afford to tell the real truth. They can not face where they are. They can not risk the repercussions. They can not face the lie. Anyone who tries to put truth in their face is a demon, and destroyer. They can not see that to turn and stand and fight a financial predator like Mary Kay is a step into the light.
Proof after proof has been offered. Story after story has been shared. This is a numbers game and numbers don’t lie. Unless of course they do not agree with your cherished beliefs. The number of women, churned through the doors of Mary Kay, who have been emotionally, spiritually, or financially harmed, is staggering; it is indefensible. To continue to defend this marketing scheme is to live in denial. So who chooses to do so?
Those who still want with all their hearts to believe in the people, the story, the potential and culture of the Mary Kay they thought was real.
Over the last year I have issued many challenges to MK Corporation and Nationals to “fix” Mary Kay. I am nobody so it was more wishful thinking. I have defended Directors because I truly do not believe that they are doing anything more than what they were taught to do, under a system that robs us all of independent thinking. They are guilty of trust, and for that I can not condemn them.
I have met members of MK’s corporate staff over the years and can not for one moment believe they are evil people. I have spent hours at the expo listening to the pride that most MK Employees have for this company. There is a whole network of corporate staff that can not fully fathom the manipulative practices of the Sales Force. Over the years, I have been made aware by some that Corporate is consistently troubled having to deal with the drama and antics of its sales people.
When you look at the whole package, you have loyalists that are utterly distraught that we here at Pink Truth promote our particular perspective which they deem is “negative”, and we who are outside the pink bubble looking back in, who are appalled that we tolerated the manipulation for so long!
It is two sides of the same coin, and we never get to the bottom of it because we are not allowed to look. Since sales to the consumer do happen, and some women do love the product, there is always that morsel of goodness that helps cement the “con.” People can sell. People do buy. So it really is possible!
What my colleagues fail to acknowledge is that all good cons have some morsel of truth. What they fail to look at is the numbers. The reality. The results for hundreds of thousands of consultants. This company is so frail; it can not stand the scrutiny of the facts. It relies instead on platitudes and “founder's sayings” designed to deflect rational thought! “The cream rises to the top but has to float on a lot of milk.” This is supposed to absolve Directors of guilt for frontloading millions of dollars of unsold product on to “milk.”
Do Mary Kay Corporation and the National Sales Directors know that for the most part there are virtually no “skin care classes” being held? Absolutely. President, Thom Whatley mentioned the average was 1 class a month, as little as 4 or 5 years ago. This little secret is at the base of the denial, as contest after contest attempts to coax consultants into holding more appointments.
When the “on the face, on the go “ marketing idea was introduced, it was clear that MK was attempting to change the selling model into more “on the go” selling, fully aware that classes were a thing of the past. But did they change the way that production was “extracted”? Were inventory packages reduced?
On the contrary. Pam Shaw’s total success package at $5,400 wholesale stormed the nation. The "pearl" level was added. We have watched an ever increasing switchover from “selling” appointments to rabid “recruiting” appointments and guest events each year.
Why? Because our Nationals have trained us that our production is in New Recruits. In my opinion, our nationals abandoned the skin care class, (meaning build a selling area - slow and deliberate) long ago, panicked by the meteoric rise of their young NSD competition. Recruiting was always where the fresh meat was, rather than a 15 year veteran red jacket who actually knew something about the business.
Once “the dacias” (apologies to Dacia) glommed onto the concept, the rapid recruiting era and “one month wondering” was born. These mentalities have left hundreds if not thousands of women in the wreckage of their wake, jetting to the top. We, of course, are now sitting back watching the collapse like a rocket spent in space. For what?
Greed. Get rich quick. But this only exacerbated by an already weak and destructive business model. Ask any CPA in the world. “Dual marketing” is a creative figment of some savvy Director’s imagination. It is a phrase whose meaning is not at all an answer to the question, “Is this a multi-level?” Mary Kay is a multi-level who hates the moniker, and would rather not be likened to an AMWAY. There is frankly not much difference between them.
I have committed the cardinal Mary Kay sin. I have attempted to unravel the complex conditions by which a person gets pulled in, succumbs and then perpetrates the continuing fraud of Mary Kay, in happy denial.
I have been characterized as “negative” when nothing could be further from the truth. A negative person would not have spent the last year attempting to expose, rebuke and convict her colleagues to stop the madness.
My goal has always been to hold up the mirror so that my sisters can see the face they once knew. Before they hardened themselves to the fact that these women are people... not “milk”... not a means to an end.
None of us ever wanted to hurt anybody. All of us loved the fun and camaraderie. We believed in the Pink bubble. We just didn’t want to face the fact that it didn’t exist anymore, and what took its place was a system of self preservation that required us to do whatever it took to maintain appearances.
“Sell the dream!” We swallow hard. What dream? That those of you who got in early make up the less than 1% of DIRECTORS who are making money? And what of our meteors? Our shining young stars? Allison’s Area is now down to 15 Directors and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that the chargebacks are chipping away, invisible to anyone’s eyes.
How ironic is it that adherence to “positive mental attitude - never be negative” is really designed to hide the truth. How frail this system must be that it can not have an honest discussion of where the pitfalls and failings have been. A Sales organization that must prop up its sales force continually to maintain production, while failing to address the cause of its decline, afraid that the slightest addressing of a true negative condition would scatter the worker bees, is perched on a slippery slope.
Before the internet, nobody knew any of this. Nobody except the women in Dallas hotel rooms who shared with their roommates how sick they were inside from all the debt... and even then, fearful that it would get back to their NSD, how “negative” they were. Now add all the other cult-like manipulations of spirituality, speaking for God, disallowing rational thought, “sayings and quips” designed to shut down real concerns, “us versus them” mentality, disrespect of husbands, repetitious sayings, chanting affirmations, conformity, absolute loyalty, love bombing, mega communication, peer pressure and unquestioning submission and you see where dependence on the organization takes over… and objective thought is gone.
I urge Directors and Consultants to stay home from Career Conference. Disconnect from one event. Surely if Mary Kay is all it is said to be, your enthusiasm could not possibly wane from such a great opportunity.
Count your inventory. Add and total all your sales from the last 90 days to 6 months. Look at your time spent at meetings. Look at and total all your expenses. Make no excuses. Make no rationalizations. (“ well I only did the other $2,400 because I wanted to qualify for the ---)
Evaluate what kind of pressure you are receiving to either be a star, a Senior, a red Jacket, on the courts, top ten in any category, on target, DIQ, and whatever else. SEE if your business is profitable. DETERMINE IT. And remind yourself your business now directly competes with Mary Kay sales on EBAY, which number in the thousands for a fraction of what you are selling it for. Oh… they didn’t tell you that?
It is clear to me that Mary Kay has no plans to change marketing plans in any meaningful way. In many ways they are trapped by their own business model as well. They can hope to downsize as Units collapse, reevaluate and restructure and come back a leaner operation, without levels of commissionable personnel. They can raise minimum orders to $600, eliminate personal use consultants, hope to build real sales ability, or go totally to an order as needed model that would stop predatorial frontloading.
They won’t. They can’t face the reality of low consumer sales. Why should they? David Holl and the boys are salivating over new markets overseas that are completely oblivious to the predatory nature of pyramids. Who needs customers when you have consultants?
There are a group of women hurt the most by all this. They are very small. They are the ones who have been honest and forthright, and have struggled to hold appointments, struggled to be all things to their units, stopped frontloading and doing bogus contests designed to manipulate production, continued to teach real sales technique in terms of listening well and filling a need, they do not use fanfare and quips and sayings to shut down their consultants concerns and they can not get real help from their upline because no one will admit that something’s wrong. These ladies will blame themselves. For these women I grieve the most.
But… we were supposed to “Sell the DREAM”. It was a DREAM, alright. Something you invent that plays out only in your mind, until the sun comes up, and you open your eyes.
