How Much Do Directors Work

I posted this one a couple of years ago, but I’m bringing it back because it’s important and amusing. The big selling point in Mary Kay (or any MLM, for that matter) is “part time hours with full-time pay.” You have to get to sales director level to (hopefully) get that full-time pay. (Sadly, the vast majority of sales directors only make minimum wage.)

We’re told over and over that you can be successful with just a few hours a week. Recruiters promote the idea that you can make it to sales director if you work 10 to 20 hours per week for one month. Or you may be told that working 9.5 hours per week for six months or less will get you to sales director.

Truthful sales directors will tell you that they easily work 50 hours a week or more, just to maintain a small unit. They’re struggling to make minimum production each month, and it takes a lot of time to stay afloat. Those with larger units and bigger production are spending just as much time, because they have to do a lot of recruiting and inventory frontloading to get their production. That takes lots of time too.

Here’s NSD Dacia Wiegandt answering a question on Instagram:

 

I love how she puts the hours in quotes. Quotes are used to either quote someone or to express sarcasm or irony. Do you think this former school teacher meant to be sarcastic or ironic in giving the number of hours?

I suspect Dacia worked more than 40 to 50 hours a week as a director. And she works more than 20 hours as an NSD… although if you are lucky enough to get a large pyramid underneath you and you can use your “celebrity status” (see what I did there?) to help sell the dream, you can get a lot of mileage out of the people underneath you and work less than you otherwise would have to at that level.

14 COMMENTS

  1. I never felt like I was NOT working my business since I had to constantly view everyone in terms of potential dollars. Kids swimming lessons? Working. Church? Working. So…105 hours a week. Maybe her quotes are for the hours she was supposed to be working.

    On a side note, I saw a pink Escalade on the road yesterday. Before my eyes were opened, I once thought, “There’s a woman who did it. She figured it out. What a loser I was because I never did.” Now, I know the truth and I felt sorry for that woman who probably feels trapped.

    11
  2. Directors never discussed the meeting prep, calls to avoid chargebacks, unit members’ complaining, product deliveries, coaching calls, booking calls, interview follow ups, ordering inventory, labeling products, unit conference calls, Director meetings, Director conference calls, Career Conference days, Seminar week, Leadership Conference week, late night production monitoring, typing in unit members’ orders, newsletter creation, postcard mailings, prize ordering, prize mailing, offspring discussions, website maintenance, email responses, personal website maintenance, customer returns, customer exchanges, Director suit ordering, Director suit alterations, Red Jacket parties, RedJacket trainings, Holiday Open House days, setting up open houses, shopping for open house packaging, open house invitations, Holiday Open House workshops, self-taught product training…

    Have I left out anything, former Directors?

    17
    • Have you left out anything? Sheesh, I hope not. I’m exhausted from just reading that list.

    • Handholding needy consultants, lol .
      Oh yeah, and the hours spent planning and forecasting breakdown of a good month.
      And the affirmations of how it will be my “best month ever” BS

    • How about all that tending to your social media … the Instagram photos and editing, the Facebook group monitoring.

    • OMG I just took a blood pressure reading on my home monitor because re-remembering the stuff you just listed felt like my arteries filled with concrete!

    • Not a former director at all, but I feel like I could give it a great shot from all the education I have received from Pink Truth!! So here’s my submission for Did I leave anything out?

      Debuts?
      :::::ducking and running just in case that is a big deal that sucked up such precious time:::::

  3. I spent a minimum of 2 hours a day just talking to consultants About their personal issues or personal goals. Then I also spent at least 8 hours a week warm chatting. And every Sunday evening calling contacts to book shows.

  4. When you added all of the pieces up, I easily worked 60 hours a week as an SD. No overtime, no comp time. Plenty of nights and weekends away from the family. Calls across multiple time zones (Hawaii to Georgia). There was NO downtime, and my unit had about 60-75 people in it.

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