Why Did Kelly Brock Leave Mary Kay?

Kelly Brock was a top director with Mary Kay Cosmetics and had been with the company for years. Sometime late last year she stopped mentioning Mary Kay on Instagram, and instead spoke exclusively about things related to her “coaching” business.  Her last YouTube video on her Kelly Ingland account was done 5 months ago.

Earlier this year she started showing up on the MK website as a consultant (rather than a director), and she is still there as a consultant. We know, therefore that she hasn’t been terminated from MK, but we do know that she no longer has a unit.

Kelly is now exclusively working in the coaching space, branding her work as the “Anxious Achiever Project.” Her personal Facebook profile still shows a picture of her with a pink Cadillac, but Mary Kay is not longer actively mentioned. You can scroll back in her pictures to see some mentions of Mary Kay, but it’s safe to say that she is all but done with MK. (Oddly, her business page as a Cadillac sales director is still up.)

She went from being on the top director trip in fall (for the first time), to being featured in Applause magazine, to washing her hands of MK in 2020. The question is why?

According to this Facebook post, Kelly got started in Mary Kay (for the second time) in 2010. She’s been in a Cadillac for years and has been listed in Applause consistently for being one of the higher earners. Here’s a look at Kelly Brock’s commissions for the last couple of years in Mary Kay:

Why would a MK sales director making about $100k a year in commissions voluntarily give up her unit? (I’m suggesting it was voluntary, because if MK Inc. took action against her, I believe they would have terminated her all together and she would not still be listed as a consultant.)

The below list of goals she made in August may give us a hint. Yesterday she posted this on Instagram and Facebook. She says she has accomplished 8 of the 10 “dreams I have made happen” (i.e. goals she was setting back in August, but talking about them as if they were already true).

Of the 10 goals, these stand out for me:

  • I have $5,000 in savings
  • I make over $15,000 each month

First, imagine making six figures a year and not having any money saved. That’s sad, especially if they are a dual income household. (I have no idea what, if anything, her husband does for a living.)

Second, she had a goal to make $15,000 per month, which is almost double her Mary Kay income. She had been a top director for some time, and didn’t appear to be moving up. Maybe she got fed up with being stagnant? Maybe she saw an opportunity with the life coaching, as a number of top directors and NSDs seem to have done?

It seems to me that money was the biggest factor driving this change. But if you listen to Kelly talk on Instagram and in podcasts, it seems to me that she was very unhappy in Mary Kay. If that’s true, I can imagine that it wears on you day after day if you have to keep pretending to be positive and can’t tell any of your MK “sisters” how you are feeling.

And then there is the fact that her husband used to hate MK, as she mentions in this September 2019 post that went on Facebook and Instagram:She said that her MK business was the strongest it had ever been, and that her husband didn’t hate it anymore. She says in this Facebook post that she was previously sick with anxiety and depression but had taken control of her finances and was better than ever. So why leave?

I wonder how many other top directors and NSDs will be leaving MK as the numbers keep falling?

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60 COMMENTS

  1. She was in Kathy Helou’s area and her daughter’s offspring, so she had access to high level success, knowledge, and inside scoop. I think, from reading her posts and watching her Stories, she felt what we all felt and couldn’t bring herself to keep sacrificing her own ethics all in the name of MK success. She’s doing podcasts now, and she calls her program “Anxious Achievers”.

    I also wonder if some things came to light on the trip in Hawaii. We all know that Directors split off into chatty groups, and I bet something caused her to come home and resign.

    As someone who did it myself, I commend her!

    • I’m curious – what ethics did you feel you were sacrificing to have your successful MK business?

      • You cannot be successful in MK (successful = make minimum wage or more) without recruiting.
        You cannot recruit without lying or omitting information. (Because if you told the whole truth, no one would ever sign up.)

  2. I’ve come across MK people (other than NSDs) who are also coaches. One is SD Christine DeGrammont, whose website shows her with several coaching certifications. No mention on her site that she is currently a MK sales director, but she is pictured in an old SD suit and perched on a pink Cadillac. She lists Mary Kay as one of her clients.

    • Oh I bet MK would LOVE that she says they are a client. She’ll say she means consultants and directors are her clients, but we all know she intends for people to think that MK Inc. is a client for her coaching services.

  3. Good for her for getting off the hamster wheel!

    From what I can see the TOP trip is where her ” blinders” came off. She probably was either:

    1) in a chatty group talking about how they ” found a way, make a way” “did whatever it took” to get on the trip and her blinders came off
    2) maybe her husband was in with the husbands taking about the same thing
    3) she talked to women who have been trying to make NSD for years and years and decided to get off the hamster wheel. (As mentioned an IG post…she used the exact terminology)

    What’s blows my mind is : she seriously thinks she’s going to get $1200 for her coaching class?
    She offers a one time pay and also payment plans.

    She will be an “afterthought” in the MK world in less than a year just like all the rest of us who have stepped down.

    Also she probably did NOT get terminated just stepped down. She still is a TOP 13% commission earner as of last applause. And also will milk that until she doesn’t have enough sales to support doing a 600 wholesale that costs about 740 in real $$$ out of pocket.

  4. As an afterthought I can’t believe with making $100,000 a year that she made a goal of having $5000 in savings…….and her husband probably works also. Maybe she had charge backs and was putting $ back in to hit goals.

    • Right? That’s what I thought. But MK is very expensive. If most of these women accurately tracked their time and expenses, they would be better off at a $15 an hour job and have less stress and health insurance.

  5. ..or, she simply fell under the conviction of one of her goals; to be a spirit led woman.

    You can not do what must be done in MK sales leadership, and call yourself spirit led.
    Proverbs 12:22 – Lying lips [are] abomination to the LORD

    • I could buy into that idea if she wasn’t still selling to MLM people. I can’t imagine seeing MK for the devil that it is, and then still selling to women in the company and others in the same industry (which are also devils for the same reasons MK is the devil).

      • I agree with Tracy. If her conscience and ethics got to her and she decided to change then why would she be hashtagging all MLMs (other than MK) in her IG posts.

      • Sounds to me like she took a page from the Amway playbook. The Amway kingpins make most of their money off their own down-line from tools and speaking fees. It just may be that she realized getting her down-line to buy more product when they already have an overflowing closet was not going to cut it. But selling them tools/advice in the hope of moving the needle toward positive cash flow? She just opened a new revenue channel from the same folks that are already maxed out on inventory.

  6. I think there is something going on that the NSDs know that we don’t yet. Haven’t a lot of them retired lately? What do they know?

    Mary Kay’s biggest problem is for some reason they thought they could stay stuck in 1960 and be successful in 2020. You have to wear a dress and you can only sell the product by going door to door in your neighborhood — no advertising, no displaying. It’s ridiculous. Once I realized they don’t allow you to do anything to actually build a retail business I got out.

      • …and that’s laughable, because absolutely NO retailer would solicit their customers (from whom they earn nice, normal retail margins) to open up their own competitive shops right next door or down the street.

        “Hey, I currently make 50 % markup on your purchases, but for some reason I’d rather recruit you to buy your products at ‘wholesale’ and instead I’ll make a small percentage on your ‘wholesale orders’!” It makes so much more sense for me to convince you to be my competitor and cut my earnings in at least half! That’s the Go-Give mentality! If I don’t share the dream, I’m selfish…and if I do share the dream, I lose profit and market share!

        • Yes!! That’s what I always thought too. I had a gal that was buying a lot from me and loved the products — I didn’t want to recruit her because she was a good customer.

          • 50% gross profit is more than 23% commission, but you have to have LARGE units to make more per person to be worth it. You’re wise!

    • it’s possible the change that is coming is something along the lines of what MLM Wildtree did – last year they “closed their doors”. All the reps at all levels were suddenly out. Then a few months later the company reopened with a smaller product line and selling directly to the consumer online only. Maybe MK is contemplating something similar?

      • That’s feasible because the only people they’d ow compensation for are the old-rules NSDs and their retirement checks. Everyone else has nothing guaranteed by MK.

        • And think about the stark contrast between what the sales directors, IBCs, and some NSDs get in the event of losing their “positions”, and what the MK Corp employees who (due to the plant closures and other personnel cuts) are losing their actual JOBS get:

          absolutely NOTHING, versus unemployment benefits, COBRA health insurance coverage, etc.

    • You hit it right on the nail Patty. No training, no real help from managers, and better not suggest real business “saturation” of this industry. Try being in a Bridal Show as a vendor!
      Mary Kay is all tapped out!!!!

  7. Dacia Wiegandt’s instagram handle was just changed from @nsddacia to @dacialea.

    Her profile doesn’t mention MK.

    She recently took cash compensation instead of the pink Cadillac and got a Lincoln.

    Something is in the water if Dacia is publicly distancing herself from MK. She said that she is still all in for MK when she didn’t take a pink Cadillac, but I’m having a hard time believing it.

    • That’s very interesting – I’m going to have to take a look. She’s one I follow out of morbid curiosity. I know it seemed she was focusing on the “influencer” route, but with everything else going on at MK, the timing of her IG handle change and removing MK langurage from her bio is very interesting.

    • What????????? Something is definitely up. Dacia is distancing herself. Like it to know it, the Lincoln, very very few mentions of MK. Also look at all these NSDs under 10K month. I think something BIG is coming. Mass Exodus!

      • She’s still making huge money but I think all of these ladies are factoring a few things in:

        1. They’ve found they can make some good money from these sheeple who will buy whatever they are peddling, whether that’s coaching services, day planners, or affiliate links for their clothing and hand bags.
        2. They understand the concept of putting their eggs in one basket, and they realize it’s dumb.
        3. Particularly when the basket is in an industry that is under attack and with a company that is contracting significantly in the U.S. (So much so, that MK Inc. is cutting costs at corporate and sales directors are are eager to “open new markets” overseas.) If MK continues to shrink here, NSDs will be dropping like flies.
        4. They know they have little recourse if MK decides to enforce the contract language that says DON’T SELL OTHER SHIT TO OUR CONSULTANTS.
        5. The power of peer pressure in MK is strong. It’s all one big competition, too. You’re nothing if you don’t have a “side hustle.”

    • I don’t comment much, and I never was in MK. But I follow this site (and I have vast experience in retail and wholesale sales) and I think this sudden change in Dacia’s status/direction is a HUGE indication that much change is afoot for MK. As we say here, “something’s coming down the pike.” I’m staying tuned!

    • I went scrolling through her Instagram feed yesterday and it has been over a month since she has had a dedicated ‘Mary Kay’ post. She’s more into trying to get you to buy her clothes through affiliate links.

      • She’s got to be making a ton on those affiliate links, which is why she keeps whoring herself out with them.

        • She shills products that she receives for free but they’re the same as what she sells with MK.

    • She has a new facebook page called “Delightful Dacia” too. There she says she is a Miami based blogger and Senior NSD with Mary Kay, Inc.

  8. “didn’t appear to be moving up”

    Even the NSDs’ daughters aren’t moving up.

    Want to build your team? You need to book your flight to South America.

    • Kelly Brock is offically off the Mary Kay website. That means she is a Terminated consultant.

  9. Anyone know of/about Kim McClure (NSD from the old Pearl Seminar). She always seemed shady even when I had pink lenses on. I looked at her fb a while ago, and she had low engagement and doesn’t seem to be posting much.

  10. What every one of these former sales and national directors with “unique insight that will change your life” somehow don’t realize (likely due to denial mixed with inflated self value) is that their “success” in MLM environments does NOT translate in any meaning way to the actual business world.

    We here know that, but they don’t know that. The ONLY possible customers they can get for their coaching gigs are current MLM victims. No true sales executive would ever sign up for their courses.

    So their potential customer base is only those currently or recently in the MLM from which they just bolted. It means that the future potential for these coaching gigs is extremely limited due to an isolated and shrinking “fan base”. Once they’ve plowed through their MK contacts, their potential client base drops to zero, because nobody outside of MK places any value on the training from “executives” in MK.

  11. Before MK corporate pulls the plug. They may start holding NSD’s accountable for the clause 8.6 to get around NSD “payouts” due to NSDs breaking rules.
    When they decide to pull the plug, the lower monthly, qtrly, sales figures coming in now to the NSDs’ help corporate again with lower payouts. Why continue to bleed at the top. They did not think NSD level of the branch would jump ship one after another; either retirement or ooops suddenly off doing something else now. The bailout was not factored into the original business model. It was always a given, went into a slow sleepy decline and now the snowball is gaining speed. I can hear the sound of the pink wrap being taken off the MK pink cars at the car dealers.

    Like a football pool – chapter 7 or chapter 11 and which month and year it gets filed.
    Advanced players can hit the upper tier by guessing of the T & C’s (terms and conditions) of filings.

    • P@tracy and best decision, does anyone know what happened to Rena Tarbet’s Daughter (Director Kim West)? During Rena’s career toward the end she was onstage and such….now I think she has completely disappeared.

      In regards to Dacia, she’s had her 40th or 41st birthday which leads one to thinking about the next 10-20 years…. Maybe she has realized she doesn’t want to churn and burn thru another 25 years till mandatory retirement and sees the ship sinking also and that’s why she is distancing herself.

      • Never heard of her. But, Rena Tarbet was an interesting character and horribly outdated even before she retired.

    • Interesting…if Corp folds and they target those NSDs who are getting retirement by trying to enforce the rule you mention, will they go digging back in the past actions/words of these NSDs to find possible violations (which Corp previously disregarded) that they can use as reasoning to terminate the retirement payments? If so, what if any are the statute of limitations on past violations? It would be interesting to see that played out in lawsuits.

  12. Is her fourth goal really ‘I have abs’?????????????? And that’s ahead of “I make $15,000 per month’????

  13. The company is now seemingly allowing more consultants reselling their products on social media. Three opened up recently. One has sales directors in it. My director is seriously pushing. Almost every night were having “parties” to bring in our own clients. It took 2 weeks to get my latest order. My business has all but died with the Covid 19. I refuse to recruit. I deal with older women 50-84 and I love it. I’ve been in 5 years. I will not lie.

    • Thank you for your insight. All of us that used to be Directors can see the ship is sinking quickly. I feel bad for people like you, truly.

  14. K.T. Martin, former annual go-give award winner Ruby Seminar. Top Cadillac director in the Carol Anton Area has also completely given up her directorship and is no longer listed as a consultant for Mary Kay. She too, is a Life Coach who talks about stress and anxiety , sickness and now living a minimalist lifestyle. It’s all very interesting.

    • I remember her! One of her posts talks about never feeling like she was doing enough. She was in a Cadillac. This is EVERYTHING we talk about on here!

  15. While I don’t know for sure, I would bet that K.T.’s feeling of not doing enough came from her ENSD. As soon as Carol retired and became Emeritus, Anton directors started quitting or scaling back their business’. They were no longer having to answer to her. While there are still Anton directors, many of the top ones are gone-off the leader board in Applause. I would also bet Carol was disappointed that K.T. nor Carol’s own daughter never became NSDs. Just my opinion of course, based on the limited time I was in Carol’s unit. She doesn’t take no for an answer and if you do say no-you’re out of the club.

  16. Hello. I stumbled upon your page and have gained some good insight. Full disclosure, I joined Mary Kay as a consultant for 30 dollars during this month. I have no stock except for the skin care I use, which I actually really like. My director hasn’t encouraged me to purchase any stock. I have had facial parties via online and had success. I haven’t really gotten the impression that has been mentioned, but I appreciate your brutal honesty and it’s definitely something I will always keep in mine. I’m thankful I haven’t had the experiences mentioned through the site, but i am leary now because of this. I hope this isn’t taken the wrong way since I’m on the “other side” but I still appreciate your honesty.

    • Marissa, what “other side” are you referring to? Sales rep vs. SD? If you are a lowly rep, what you read here is what awaits you, as most of the contributors to this site have seen the dark (aka other) side of Mary Kay.

    • Hi Marissa,

      Of course she didn’t push you to buy inventory… yet. You’re a brand new consultant. She needs to soften you up first.

      But it’s coming, fast. The Mary Kay fiscal year ends June 30th, and everyone is really hurting for annual Seminar purchasing goals because of the COVID-19 stay at home orders. You’re part of the “team” now, so you should expect the inventory talk within the next two weeks.

      $30 won’t get you your MK “discount.” You’re going to need to place your $450 retail / $225 “wholesale” order to get that discount you’ve been hearing about, and you’ll need to do it soon so that your Director can get your order into the year-end tally. While you’re agreeing to that you should know she’ll think sssooooo much better of you if you just raise that order to $600 or more.

      She deserves her monthly bonus and YOU can help her get it. You do want to help, right? Especially since business has been so hard lately, right? Don’t worry…. you’ll sell it… (hhiiissssss).

  17. Kelly just posted Stories updating where she was in her head a year ago as a Trip Director. The grass isn’t always greener at the top!

  18. Directors, remember Amie Gamboian from Pearl division? She left MK as a new NSD. I just sent an article to Tracy, so let’s hope she posts the nuggets from the interview of Amie!

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