Business BasicsCulture & Manipulation

Mary Kay’s Million Dollar Message: Dacia Wiegandt’s Lies Are Good

MKhellWritten by The Scribbler

Yesterday I introduced you to a Facebook community called The Million Dollar Message Listeners (M$M ),  run by six top directors who are daughters, sisters, or nieces of National Sales Directors (Kristin Rogers, Jordan Helou Eicher, Krystal Walker, Amber Towne, Kali Brigham, and Tiffany Stout).

The group prohibits members from posting new topics, however, and the administrators have openly stated that anything alone the line of opinions or criticism of Mary Kay Cosmetics will not be allowed. I posed a question to the group: What to do if I was given bad advice from a national sales director. I didn’t name the NSD, nor did I elaborate on the bad advice, but the post was quickly removed and I was chastised privately by NSD Krystal Walker. She told me that if I questioned any tactics or advice, the right thing would be to contact my Mary Kay sales director.

I decided to cite to her a Pink Truth article I’d written where I’d contacted ten Mary Kay NSDs via Facebook for their opinion of NSD Wiegandt’s “lie to customers” speech.  Eight NSDs plus one top director (SSD Jordan Helou-Eischer) had responded by deleting the inquiry (which contained Dacia’s quote) and blocking me.  One NSD, Caterina Harris, said “I am sure Dacia was taken out of context” and – in a splendid display of integrity – dodged responsibility by advising me to go clarify things with another sales director or NSD.  Passing the buck seems to be a common practice in Mary Kay, as ESSD Walker had advised me to do the exact same thinggo discuss this stuff with any director but her.

I disregarded that advice and wrote to Krystal Walker:

…I don’t think I took Dacia’s words out of context, and the Bible does make it clear that lying’s a bad thing…other MK consultants might have questions about things like this and be afraid to mention them because they’ll be told that they’re negative. If our grade-school math teachers had marked all our tests as 100% despite them being wrong, we wouldn’t learn anything, right?

I’d have figured my mentions of Jesus Christ and the Bible would have made ESSD Walker stop and reconsider her stance, especially since her recent M$M calls encouraged listeners to seek God first and to do what pleases Him.  Unfortunately, ESSD Walker’s reply spoke volumes about the failing enterprise that is Mary Kay Cosmetics.  While it’s true that Mary Kay may not be failing financially, they are failing astronomically in the Corporate Social Responsibility Department:

My best advice for you is to take Catarina’s advice and move on…if you don’t agree with someone’s teachings in MK, then you get to choose to not listen and learn…I know Dacia personally and she is a very ethical, God-loving woman. I stand behind her…I feel that the more you repeat all this, it is now becoming gossip. I wouldn’t waste anymore time pondering and staying focused on this.

To quote Chef Ramsay, “SHUT IT DOWN.  DONE.”

I’m not sure how Dacia Wiegandt can be “a very ethical and God-loving woman” if she’s teaching consultants that it’s okay to deceive their own customers.  I’m also not sure how eight NSDs and two top directors – all working for a company whose motto begins with the words “God First” – can be so quick to support an act the Bible clearly condemns as sin in Proverbs 12:22 (“Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord…”).  On Mary Kay’s official website, SSD Jordan Helou-Eischer gushes that Mary Kay Cosmetics is “The best self-improvement course in the world,” but on what planet does lying help anyone become a better person?

I wish I could say that Krystal Walker’s behavior was an isolated case, but unfortunately, Dacia’s deception is enjoying the approval of lower-level consultants as well.  One consultant claimed she saw no wrongdoing in Wiegandt’s teaching and that I was “nit-picking.”  Another accused me of being jealous of Wiegandt’s success.  A third – despite being presented with quotes and video – commented, “I don’t believe this is truly happening.”  What is going on within Mary Kay Cosmetics that makes so many women so quick to call bad “good?”  I’ll tell you what’s going on.  It’s Mary Kay’s “No Negativity!” mindset, an unhealthy devotion towards Mary Kay Ash and her National Sales Directors, and fear.  Lots of fear.

This year Mary Kay Cosmetics celebrates its 50-year anniversary, although its consultants would do well to ask themselves why they should celebrate a culture that praises liars while women who seek to do what is right are told to shut up and color.

Like the restaurant owners on Kitchen Nightmares, the leaders of the morally-bankrupt Chez Mary Kay don’t seem to like what they’re hearing, insisting that everyone loves their offerings and that nothing’s wrong.  However, everything I’m witnessing firsthand tells me that deception in Mary Kay Cosmetics is more consistent than pigeon crap raining down on Trafalgar Square.  If you’re looking to try this establishment for yourself, be warned:  chances are good that one taste will be all it takes to give you a tidy case of ethical botulism, just as it’s done to Dacia Wiegandt and her supporters.

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38 COMMENTS

  1. Oh Dear Hod…

    “I feel that the more you repeat all this, it is now becoming gossip.”

    How can this be “gossip” when Dacia herself has put this on video? She has put this out there, on the internet, where it will stay forever. She has proven she is NOT a God fearing woman and that she encourages lying to customers.

    The fact that everyone within Mary Kay is turning a blind eye to this is just appalling. I also find it hard to believe that this is an isolated incident. If one is doing this, many more are as well. We know that Dacia’s entire unit has been taught this practice.

    Pretty Little Liars.

    To quote a different Chef…. “BAM!”

    • What Dacia said isn’t gossip, but it is going to be viewed as some because a precious NSD is being questioned.

      And no one in the MK upper echelons want to question what Darling Dacia said.

      Sounds like they are afraid. Deeply afraid.

      Which makes all of this even more horrifying.

  2. It is just more proof of the slippery slope that started when we all fell for and then subsequently used the recruitment lies. The little ‘whites” turn into the biggest blacks in a hurry. Slow indoctrination to what some want to call salesmanship.

    “Could you help me with my challenge?”
    “My Director asked me to find a face model.”
    “I need a guest to win this challenge.”
    I make 50% on everything I sell.”
    “You don’t need inventory.”
    “You can’t sell from an empty wagon.”
    “We have 10% of the market, 90% of women are using the wrong stuff.”
    “Of the 4% millionaires in the US, 85% of those are mary Kay affiliated.”
    “Mary Kay is taught at Harvard.”
    “More women make over 50K in Mary Kay than any other corporation.”
    “We make executive income part time from home.”

    Moving up the career path, listening to “sales training” takes you farther and farther away from your ethical roots, under the “find a way or make a way” doctrine of denial.

    You’re LYING ladies.

  3. Whether they’re involved with an MLM such as Mary Kay or not, these women have always – and will always – behave this way. This is their reality and they know no other way. So whether they’re lying about makeup or candles or dishware or financial services, to them, it’s the gospel truth. They just don’t see (or care to see) exactly what “type” of truth that is. 😉 Or to put it more crassly, THEM’S BROADS BE CRAZY LYIN’ UP IN THIS JOINT.

    On the one hand, it’s infuriating that these ladies, who are operating at the top of their Mary Kay game and are therefore quite influential, are spewing out this garbage and then passing the buck when questioned on its (in)validity. But on the other, these are some dyed in the wool, HARDCORE MK-ers and no amount of truthful, rational, well-reasoned arguments are going to puncture that pink candy shell. None. Not even watching their fellow MK elite go through bankruptcy or divorce or termination is enough to stop them; they are just that committed to their truth.

  4. What’s disturbing about this entire scenario is that is shows what consultants are being taught and how their concerns are being handled in MK culture. Walker assumes that I’m in MK and tells me to go ask my director about Wiegandt’s lies, but really, do you think another director would tell me any different? I asked Dacia herself about it and she blocked me. I asked Caterina Harris, and she covered for her sister NSD and implied I was coming down on her “friend.” I asked Krystal Walker and she told me to listen to Harris. Not ONE of them had the ovaries to stand up and call out blatant sin.

    This is SICK, friends. If I were a new consultant, look at all the solid advice I’d be receiving from women that consultants are repeatedly encouraged to hitch their wagons to.

    I realize that it’s bound to be mentioned that “Oh, well these are independent contractors, so Corporate can’t do anything.” Not the case. Mary Kay Corporate has not one, but two departments set up for this unethical garbage. MK Corporate suit Crayton Webb admitted that “We have two departments, one set up just to educate our sales force on how to conduct their business the right way, ethically, responsibly…and we have another whole department that’s just focused on compliance and insuring that our independent beauty consultants follow their agreement and don’t get themselves into trouble by using pressure tactics or other things that are absolutely not okay.”

    Teaching women how to lie is not “conducting business the right way,” and it definitely falls under the “Other things that are absolutely not okay” heading.

    Correct your leaders, Mary Kay Corporate. Correct and deal with them before someone else does.

  5. Dear Tracy, I know your baby is coming soon and you must be swamped,
    but please keep writing as much as you are able. There are thousands of
    women like me who were manipulated and lied to and guilted into buying
    thousands of dollars of MK regardless of the damage it did to our families and our self worth. Dacia W is only one of many who continue to act out this hideous charade. Pink Truth stands between the Dacias and the unsuspecting. We need you and we need Pink Truth. It’s taken me years to get over the lying and the guilt and the bullying that went on in MKC. It’s got to stop. Keep telling the Pink Truth. sent with appreciation for a great article, antique rose

    • Wrong Tracy. 😉 Although every article is posted by Tracy Coenen, not every article is written by her. This one was written by The Spectacular Scribbler…I took the liberty of adding the adjective, hope you don’t mind Scrib.

      Otherwise, I completely agree with you, Antique!

  6. I’ve had numerous posts removed from that site, not because they were “negative”, but because I pointed out things they shouldn’t do. For instance, in the “it’s not the nail” video, I mentioned how great that video is, that if our husband our family is pointing out something in our business that perhaps isn’t going well, they are not being negative, they are pointing out the nail! Then I mentioned some “nails” might be spending more on products than you are taking in with sales, and another might be putting production on various credit cards because we have reached limits on our cards. These are real-life things that occur every day in MK but apparently this was considered not helpful because it was scrubbed too.

    • You know what else they scrubbed over on the Million Dollar Message page? A post I’d written regarding a Joel Olsteen thread they had going. Everyone was fawning over Joel this and Joel that, so I’d written a post telling women to use care and be discerning. That post was deleted, so looking for clarification, I wrote:

      “Okay, I had a post on here that encouraged women to use discernment when reading Olsteen (or anything else for that matter.) I encouraged everyone to check Olsteen’s words against the Word and to reject his teachings if what he said went against the Bible.

      I want to know why the post was removed. Such words are NOT negative advice, because 1 John 4:1 says “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

      As faith-filled, God-fearing women, we need to encourage each other to follow the Word FIRST. Everything else comes second.”

      How MORALLY DISEASED do you have to be to delete a post that encourages women to be discerning and follow the Word over Joel Olsteen? And in a supposedly “God First” company, no less?

      • So did they also delete your post objecting to the deletion? Dollars to donuts they did.

        The commandments they follow must include a twisted version of Luke 4:12/Matthew 4:7/Deuteronomy 6:16, “Thou shalt not put an NSD to the test.” Funny. I though only the idealized version of Mary Kay herself had been elevated to the status of “god.” It seems I was mistaken.

        • Yep. They not only deleted it, but it must’ve really riled them up because they threw me out of the group, too. Who’s have thought that quoting scripture would be found offensive by a bunch of women who name-drop God on a regular basis and who claim He’s their partner in their Mary Kay businesses?

          Honestly, do these women think that God is winking and giggling at Dacia’s fradulent teachings, knowing that the devil is referred to as the “Father of Lies” in the Word? Do you really think God partners with the approval and defense of liars when Jesus referred to Himself as “The TRUTH?”

          Perhaps Mary Kay culture follows a different god. Either way, every last woman of faith in this company needs to severely evaluate the words these NSDs are speaking, judge up some righteous judgement, and choose this day who they will serve, because you can’t have it both ways. You either believe a flaming liar like NSD Wiegandt or you take a stand for truth.

  7. How can you rip a company and their leaders when you are clearly involved in the organization? Gossip and hypocrisy is a sin, too. If you don’t like the tactics, get out. I would have some measure of respect for you at least weren’t a consultant. It seems to me this whole site is women who are in MK, but not succeeding so they have to have this little hater group. Sounds very petty. By the way, all the Million $$ Directors are daughters (not sisters or nieces) of Nationals…..there’s another problem with gossip….facts aren’t correct.

    • Jenifer – Who are you speaking to? Because Scribbler is not a consultant, and neither am I.

      This is not a “little hater group.” It is thousands of women (with millions of past visitors) who are providing useful information to women in and out of MK.

      And maybe YOU need to get your facts straight. This is directly from the description of the group on FB: “We are 6 Top Directors in Mary Kay who are also daughters (and sisters & nieces!) of National Sales Directors in Mary Kay! Call our daily hotline for business tips, ideas, and inspiration! We are passionate about building leaders in the 50th Anniversary year, and carrying on Mary Kay Ash’s legacy.”

      Are you suggesting they’re lying about who they are?

      • What Tracy said. Description came right off their own page. **shrugs**

        Jenifer, you can choose to believe whatever you wish, but I stand behind every last well-researched word that I write. If you can’t come to terms with things like DIRECT QUOTES from people who claim they’re putting God first and yet teaching women it’s okay to lie, then therapy may be a helpful option for you. Shalom.

      • If you have never been involved, how & why would you try to destroy something for which you don’t know?? Maybe I have been sheltered, but my Director has been with the company 30 yrs and is an awesome mentor & lives by the golden rule. I do not know of these women personally, altho I do know 2 other NSD (in my area) and they are Godly mentors. I think in any company you are always going to have those who do NOT do the right thing—not saying anyone you are mentioning doesn’t —but I can assure you, for those that may not do the right, sooner or later they will fall—and the ones that are living by the golden rule & working their business as set out in MK Marketing, they have & will continue to succeed!! I am not where I want to be in my business, but I will not use my energy downing that which I do not know about or have not experienced. Gossip is just as or more hurtful as what you claim these are doing, so you are no “better”. If you have issues, contact Corporate, not online. Fight your battle there! I have known of MK firing Consultants & Directors–So don’t think that never happens. Everyone starts the same with MK….it is what WE make it…not anyone else! If we work, it will work & very profitably. Its no differ than you opening a store in the mall..Advertising, getting customers to come in/buy & get referrals! Totally the same!!! It is an awesome company & I get out of it what I put in! and everyone else does too!

        • Your director and the NSDs are NOT “godly” mentors. They are preying on women who are vulnerable. They maintain their positions in MK by scamming women into buying inventory packages that they KNOW will never be sold. That is the ONLY way to maintain directorship.

          This is not gossip. This site is full of facts and opinions. MK Inc. doesn’t care what we think, so I wouldn’t waste my time. But I WILL publish the truth about this horrible company to help keep women away from it. The number one goal is to inform women who are researching MK.

          Thanks for visiting! I bet you have a lot of questions and concerns if you’re reading Pink Truth! 🙂

        • As a former Cadillac Director with offspring who voluntarily resigned, I have lived it and can say I’ve witnessed Directors & NSDs alike that quote scripture to make people trust them. It has become rampant, and, like your Director, I refused to use my faith in my favor that way, nor did I cheat my way to where I was. One of the reasons I resigned and shocked everyone with it was because I wasn’t struggling. We’d already wrapped up another Unit Club and easily made great production. I simply couldn’t stomach watching all the fakeness, cheating, and stealing that I saw happening every day.

          So, for someone who actually was in it, I can attest that there are HUGE things happening under the covers.

        • Everyone starts the same with MK….it is what WE make it…not anyone else! If we work, it will work & very profitably.

          Do you know what the difference is between Mary Kay and a casino slot machine? You actually have a chance at going home a winner when you play the slot machine.

          Don’t believe me? Check CraigsList and find out how many people near you are selling Mary Kay at deep discounts… because that’s who you’re competing with.

          Its no differ than you opening a store in the mall..Advertising, getting customers to come in/buy & get referrals! Totally the same!!!

          Connie, there are a few differences.
          1. You’re not allowed to get a mall store… or a mall kiosk… or a retail store front anywhere to display your Mary Kay merchandise. The best you can do is put it in your car trunk and hang around the mall entrances until security chases you off the property.
          2. When you open up a mall store you can print and distribute advertising flyers, get a newspaper ad, get airtime on the radio, subscribe to internet ads and more, without asking anyone’s permission. Did your your director forget to mention that you aren’t allowed to advertise your Mary Kay business until you are also a director? Sure, you can email and blog on Facebook, but it’s not the same…

          By the way, you’re not really allowed to be selling MK on CraigsList either, at least not while you’re still an active consultant.

          It sounds like you’re still new to Mary Kay. Please check back in here in about six months and tell us how much money you’re making then. We’ll be waiting for your update. Good luck!

        • Connie we have people who have been in all levels here as well as those that never joined. So you wonder why put so much effort into bringing truth to the masses if you never have been in mk? Various reasons. Mostly in that case it is a friend or family members who got started, tried to recruit them and they started doing research. Or a ibc approached them started what they thought was a genuine friendship but then it turned into a sales pitch. We have all come together because in one way or another mk burned us.
          I was a lazy looser who then found out my recruiter was in serious debt and it opened my eyes. I went from blaming myself for my failure to blaming the system and the curly haired sd I was too lazy to remember her name who scared the poop out of me with her freakish love bombing. I really hope you open up to us and be honest with us and yourself. What is scary is we actually care more about you, your family, and your finances then your upline ever eill. And if you curse us and call us horrible names we are more the happy to welcome you back. If you quit mk you will be blacklisted and no one will talk to you again. And if you are involved in church or school with your mk sisters you name might just make the rounds on the rumor mill.

        • If you have never been involved, how & why would you try to destroy something for which you don’t know?

          We see the carnage in the lives of friends and family. We see the lies of omission, the half-truths and the blatant deception. And we want to stop it.

          Gossip is just as or more hurtful as what you claim these are doing

          This is not “gossip” – this is publicising facts. Most of the information on Pink Truth comes from Mary Kay’s own website and publicaitons, or from training materials passed around by those “Godly mentors” you are praising.

        • “I am not where I want to be in my business, but I will not use my energy downing that which I do not know about or have not experienced.”

          Hey, Connie. You hungry? Want a snack? Here, have some trail mix.

          What? The label? Oh, it says “D-Con Bait Pellets, for Removal of Rats and Mice.” No big whoop. Here, they’re crunchy, have some!

          What do you mean, “I’ll pass?” For crying out loud, Connie, how negative can you get? Stop using your energy downing that which you have not experienced!”

          Moral: I don’t need to ingest rat poison to know it’s going to seriously harm and/or kill me. Likewise, I do not need to join Mary Kay in order to know more about it. In fact, I will learn more about the business by NOT joining, since all the information the MK Cult force-feeds the masses is little more than filler and fluff.

    • You will also note, if you please, Scrib mentioned she never was in MK.

      You don’t HAVE to be in MK to realize the horrors.

    • I see there are 3 people named “Jenifer” spelled with one “n” in the M$M group. Care to share with us which one you are?

    • I didn’t like it, so I did resign. Sent that Cadillac on a parade on top of a tow truck. So, what I’ve read off & on on this site for the past 6 years or so IS actually happening. Eventually, eyes will open…

  8. But the BABY? Where and when and whose is it? You can’t just dangle a baby in front of our noses and not provide any more information…

  9. If a product or opportunity were so good, you’d never have to lie/beg people to it. You’d actually have people coming to ask YOU about it.

    • totally agree. If this were really and truly the best product ever, they wouldn’t be able to keep up with the demand for it.

    • Note that almost all the “training” is about getting leads, booking, and recruiting. Little to nothing about the products, other than a few skincare items.

      • Exactly! When you can’t attract clients with a solid product line or opportunity, the focus is on attraction. If those products were “all that”, you’d hear less training on that and more on leadership skills, time management, etc because there would be actual GROWTH.

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