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A Comment on Critical Thinking in Mary Kay

By on February 22, 2012 in Culture & Manipulation

This comment was left yesterday by a Pink Truth visitor. I thought it needed its own post!

MARY KAY IS A SCAM which drives women into debt with their trinkets and labels them ‘failures’ when the real issues are an unworkable, unprofitable business model and manipulative corporate culture set up for failure with unethical behavior, and no conscious.

MARY KAY is a faulty business design with lies, conning, and manipulation. Do you have any idea of the abuse at the hand of Mary Kay, Incorp. upon women?

MARY KAY has hidden real rsults, real outcomes, real expectations of earnings. Continue Reading →

Comments { 5 }

Should I Order Mary Kay Inventory?

By on February 21, 2012 in Inventory & Selling

Well what a silly question! If you’ve just joined Mary Kay, of course you should order inventory. In case you didn’t know, your recruiter doesn’t make any money unless you order inventory! You don’t actually need to sell anything. If you order, the recruiter profits, period.

Get ready for the “inventory talk.” Most importantly, you’ll be told that inventory is “optional” and that “it’s completely your decision.” Those things are said so that if you later regret ordering that inventory, the recruiter or director has an “out.” It was your choice, remember? Continue Reading →

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How to Recruit the Customers of Other Mary Kay Consultants

By on February 20, 2012 in Recruiting

Anita Garrett-Roe, national sales director with Mary Kay Cosmetics, calls this “Golden Rule Thinking Regarding Recruiting”. I think it is more appropriately titled “Do It Before I Steal Her From You”.

Once again, Anita shows us how you can technically follow the company’s rules, but be really slimy about it. Here’s her methodology for stealing customers from other consultants and turning them into recruits. Continue Reading →

Comments { 6 }

The Real Truth About Mary Kay

By on February 17, 2012 in Culture & Manipulation

Written by Raisinberry

When women come through the doors of Mary Kay, they remark how “positive” it all is. If they sign on, they are immediately bathed in an environment of support and praise, and they are taught to value it as a precious jewel, because certainly, it is not like that outside the Pink Bubble.

We all know that things go better when you are positive. Thinking positive is empowering because it makes you continue to do more towards your goal, and that activity almost always produces results. We, like you, were told not to sit next to negative consultants at meeting, to cut someone off if they try to tell you their problems, and to always talk “up” to someone who is higher up than you, when you are experiencing difficulties. You probably have already experienced that “oops” moment when you shared something negative at your Unit meeting, only to be chastised or worse, given a rubber chicken or a stuffed skunk in order to shame you. Continue Reading →

Comments { 20 }

Mary Kay Versus Real Entrepreneurs

By on February 16, 2012 in Business Basics

I love it when Mary Kay sales directors and national sales directors admit that the scam they’re running has nothing to do with the real business world! They just prove my point for me!

What???? I’m saying that being a Mary Kay consultant isn’t a real business? No kidding! Of course that’s what I’m saying.

And in this document from a Mary Kay nsd, my point is proven for me. The document even goes so far as to call this “Mary Kay vs. Real Life.” Here are a few of my favorite excerpts, with my comments in italics…

Entrepreneurs need a team of people that they pay for various services: advertising department, graphic artists, website administrators, etc.

Mary Kay provides us with all the tools: PCP, our Personal Web Site, Research & Development, Marketing Placement, Medical Relations, etc.

In reality, Mary Kay consultants pay for PCP and the websites. They’re also encouraged to pay for office help. Mary Kay does some advertising and marketing, but the market is so saturated with desperate consultants, that you’re unlikely to receive any tangible benefits from these.

—–
Entrepreneurs have to go to the bank and borrow anywhere from $50,000 to $500,000 or more to get their business off the ground. And if their business doesn’t work out, they lose everything they put in.

We borrow a maximum of $5,000 to start our business,including stocking our “store.” And if it doesn’t work out, Mary Kay gives us a 90% buy-back guarantee!

Consultants and Directors routinely put more than $5,000 into Mary Kay, and I’ve seen plenty of women not get their 90% back because of time limits. Your director will lie and mislead in the hope that you won’t return your inventory, and once your time is up, that inventory is stuck on your shelf no matter what. Consultants incur plenty of costs that can never be recovered, and billing MK as a “no risk” or “low risk” venture is beyond dishonest.

—–
Entrepreneurs pay for every piece of training they get – to the tune of $1500 to $5000 per “must attend” event or conference.

Mary Kay consultants get weekly training for free.Company events such as Career Conference and Seminar cost less than $200 (and we get brand new product to cover part of the cost!)

Most entrepreneur conferences don’t cost near those figures, and their conferences are actually beneficial to business. No Mary Kay events are free. Ever. Consultants pay for meetings, guest events, and any sort of “training” events you can think of. MK conferences and Seminar are a waste of time and money. There is very little real training, unless you count recycling the same tired scripts and stalking suggestions. These events are not for your benefit… they are for the benefit of MK and your upline who want you to recruit. Stay home and shake your pom-poms for free!

—–
Entrepreneurs often work on an “Accounts Receivable” model where they get paid 30 to 90 days after delivering their products.

We have no Accounts Receivable – we get paid the moment we deliver our product (and we have an instant 50% profit)!

You have virtually no sales, so there is nothing to receive. And even when Mary Kay consultants do sell a little, they do NOT have a 50% profit. Not even close.

—–
Entrepreneurs work extremely long hours to get their businesses started up – and have no weekends, no days off, no vacation and no breaks. They need to understand that they will not see very much of their family during start-up.

We hold three classes a week (approximately 10 hours per week) to have a very profitable business. We work our business around our family and can still take vacations and days off.

Ha! Mary Kay hours can be just as long, and time away from the family is just as bad if you are trying to “move up” in MK. And exactly who is holding those three classes? Most everyone is too busy stalking people who don’t want to hold classes, and recruiting those few who do, so in the end there are no product sales and the only income is from recruiting women who buy inventory.The reality is that sales directors work 40 to 60 hours per week to earn $15,000 to $25,000 per year. That’s minimum wage (or less).

—–
Most entrepreneurs will not see a profit for 2 to 4 years (if their business survives). They may have to work a full-time job while starting their own business (which equals carrying two fulltime jobs).

With correct money management, a new consultant can see a profit her first month in business and definitely in her first year.

More than 99% of Mary Kay consultants will never profit one thin dime from Mary Kay. Ever.

Misrepresentations in recruiting literature…. how they abound in Mary Kay.

Comments { 10 }

I Hand You the Keys to the Mary Kay Castle

By on February 15, 2012 in Recruiting

I can’t help myself. I’m going to give you the punchline up front. Why make you wait until the end?

This is being passed around and touted as the secret to making it big in Mary Kay. Here’s the “right” way to do it! Step-by-step instructions from a “Queen.”

Except there’s a bit of irony here. The woman who wrote this has been “Queen of Sharing” in her seminar twice and runner-up twice. She is in a Cadillac, and is a senior director currently. She was supposedly a future executive senior director when she wrote this. Continue Reading →

Comments { 5 }

There’s No Such Thing as 50% Profit in Mary Kay

By on February 14, 2012 in Inventory & Selling

Those of us who have been hanging around Pink Truth for a while know that the idea of 50% profit in Mary Kay is a total lie. If a consultant sells all of her product at full retail, with no discounts and no giveaways, she has a 50% gross profit… out of which all other expenses have to be paid.

There’s not 50% profit, no matter how you slice it. And with this bit of sales magic, there’s even less profit to go around: Continue Reading →

Comments { 5 }

The Truth Behind What You Heard at a Mary Kay Recruiting Event

By on February 13, 2012 in Recruiting

Written by Raisinberry

One of the real beefs we have here is that when we were introduced to Mary Kay the information we were told was grossly overstated. Mary Kay Corp has attempted to clean up some of the outrageous statements, designed to sell you on the opportunity, but not with too much fervor. If you had the facts, you might decide to pass. So, in an effort to balance the hype with the truth, here you go: Continue Reading →

Comments { 5 }

“Good” Mary Kay Sales Directors

By on February 12, 2012 in Culture & Manipulation, Sales Directors

mary kay liesOne of the frequent arguments we hear from Mary Kay Lovers on Pink Truth is “my director is a good one” or “I’m sorry you had a bad director, but mine is different!”

I believe there are many sales directors who believe they are doing the right thing. They believe they’re helping other women when they involve them in Mary Kay. They believe that convincing new recruits to stock inventory is “for their own good.”

But any honest former director will tell you that they all deceive to some extent. Many tell outright lies. Others tell lies of omission…. purposefully keeping facts to themselves, even when they know those facts might be important to the recruit. They don’t tell the whole story about their Mary Kay experience or the truth about how much money they’re (not) making. Continue Reading →

Comments { 1 }

Caption This Mary Kay Photo

By on February 11, 2012 in Caption This Photo

Comments { 23 }