The Mary Kay Truths You Find Out Later

"Mary Kay-isms" abound in every Unit, everywhere, USA. The problem is, since they are repeated without analysis or corroboration, these little gems are the backbone of the fraud that keeps recruits coming in and "kaybots" from getting out. Sooner or later, you find out just how conned you were, but by then, you usually HAVE to make it to Director to pay down your credit card debt. How many of these were you told?


1. The product sells itself. No it doesn't and you cant sell it at all if you don't get bookings.

2. There are no quotas. Of course there are quotas! There is no discount unless you order every 3 months, a minimum 200 wholesale. That's a "quota." Cars have quotas, Units have quotas. There are quotas.

3. It takes $18,000 and 12 team members to win your car. The numbers are right, but you will find yourself having to continue $4,500 wholesale a month to keep it, so while you may have "earned" it with 18,000, but to keep it you'll need $4,500 every month or have a co-pay.

4. Stars drive cars. No, stars have ordered $1,800 wholesale and up. There is no telling if they ever sold anything, much less whether they will ever drive a Mary Kay car. There is no basis in fact for the Stars Drive Cars lyric.

5. You need a business plan. The Mary Kay inventory options worksheet is not a business plan. A worksheet is a veiled smokescreen to make it appear you have thought about what activity you will do. The worksheet is a tool to get you to buy, not a tool to help you really plan your business.

6. If you don't recruit you are being selfish. If you don't recruit you will build a customer base. If you are "unselfish" by recruiting your cusomters, you will have no sales income and will place orders on credit without sales to back them up.

7. Reinvest until you hit profit level. $3,600 wholesale inventory is a made up number that has no bearing on a Power start or perfect start. Profit is when your income exceeds your outlay-usually not known till quarter end. Having lots of inventory on your shelf just costs you money, and doesn't mean you'll have any profits.

8. Mary Kay has 10% of the market. We have 1 million active consultants supplying themselves and friends in a large network as hobby consultants. Mary Kay doesn't keep retail purchase figures. We have no idea what are retail market is, but were know it's not much

9. More women in Mary Kay make $50,000 a year and up than any other company. Less than 3% of the Directors (who are 2% of the sales force) make over 50,000 a year... 97% make less.

10. You can do it too! A multi-level marketing plan like Mary Kay prevents the majority of consultants from achieving the top 2%, because attrition collapses the unit beneath them. Mary Kay Ash called it filling the tub with the drain open. So it is very unlikely that you can too!

11. The Mary Kay marketing plan has been taught at Harvard Business School. This has never been true. The closest they ever came was a case study discussing Mary Kay, which is used in some business schools. That is far from "teaching" the marketing plan or in any way endorsing MLM.

12. Fake it till you make it. Faking it generally causes a lack of personal integrity, and blurred boundaries which ends up backfiring on the consultant. It is one thing to walk with confidence, and quite another to inflate your income and success when trying to recruit others into the company.

13. Find a way or make a way. Ways exist, but getting the goal at all cost usually means some pretty unethical stuff was done to accomplish it.

14. Cream rises to the top, but has to float on a lot of milk. The milk of MK is the thousands upon thousands of consultants and Directors churning out production. If you can look away from the fact that you make your money loading up other women in credit card debt, by all means... be cream.

15. 20% of your Unit will do 80% of the sales. According to statistics and NSDs, production comes from new recruits. Nobody expects to make money training consultants.

16. Seminar Year-to-Date Sales Leaders. Since no retail sales figures are generally known, the top ten of Seminar have no relationship to retail sales. They are actually awarded for "wholesale ordering" with a ribbon.

17. Show Up to Go Up. Showing up means you help pay for the room rental for your Director or NSD. Many people show up and show up again, looking to hear that magic statement that will make them Go Up. If you are ethical and honest, all the showing up in the world wont put you in a Suit or Car. You still have to sign women up to become competitors inside your market.

18. Never miss an event. Never missing an event means you have to take any meager profit you have and use it to pay airfares, hotels, registrations, meaning you will lose money. Events are motivational brain washing events filled with hype and fraud, and are absolutely necessary in order to keep you on the treadmill. Miss even one, and the fog starts to lift. This Mary Kay fears above all things.

19. The Secret to Success is "book, sell, book, recruit". No, the secret is how to get a booking to hold, how to disengage caller id, how to make women want the product, how to violate the Temporal Prime Directive and get women back to 1965 when they didn't work and held home parties, how to de-saturate the market, how to erase the negative perception of the typical Mary Kay consultant, how to find an honest to goodness business training class within Mary Kay. These are surely secrets!

20. You can do everything wrong in Mary Kay with a good attitude and succeed, and do everything right with a poor attitude and fail. Doing everything right produces exactly the same results long term as doing everything wrong. In the end, you represent a product and business that still functions as if it is 1963 and no one has heard the word PYRAMID SCHEME. You will purchase product for arbitrary goal designations that have nothing to do with retail sales, pressured by the production ploys of your Director and NSD, working many more hours than you ever dreamed trying to establish a customer base while recruiting same. You will move up the career path, which will require you create the illusion that you are becoming increasingly more successful, meaning you must maintain STAR STATUS, Unit production, or Courts of Sales and Recruiting at various levels.

21. The only way you fail in Mary Kay is if you quit. The only way to win in Mary Kay is to quit! If you continue, you will build debt trying to get all the new product, trying to achieve a fabricated dream, while the stuff you have on your shelves goes obsolete and formulas change and packaging changes and you wait for women to buy what you have, but they always want something you don't, so you order again and again. Add the "events" tab, and in a few years you are buried.

22. Mary Kay works when you do! Mary Kay works in dribbles. Just enough to keep you in the game, believing it will turn around. You are hanging on to that $500 class you had 6 months ago... or that $1,000 week when you first started, thinking that will someday be the norm. Your family and friends bought to help you. Once out of your warm market, you see the real results. Any business that wants you to recruit your customers is after THEIR money, tricking you into appreciating 4% of wholesale, and creating your own market saturation and competition.

This concludes orientation on the PinkTruth Website. You owe us nothing, we don't get commission, and there is no prize for joining the board. This moment of clarity is brought to you by all the women here who bought the "dream" and realized that's exactly what it was. We woke up.

Comments (49)
  • 25 Feb 2009 18:03 | Pink_Poison

    Thank you. "I just saved a ton of money swithcing to Pink Truth" MK is truely the devil...And to think all these years we thought the devil was red! ;)

  • 30 Apr 2009 06:43 | lucylu

    I Like number 15: 20% of your Unit will do 80% of the sales. According to statistics and NSDs, production comes from new recruits :woohoo: . Nobody expects to make money training consultants.

    This is so true-- I haven't even been in the business for more than three months and I am already number 2 in sales out of the whole year. I wonder what is going on with the rest of the consultants that seem to know more and have a lot of products??hmm I'm not going to be dumb and buy all of these products and put myself in debt. If my customers want the stuff -they can wait till it gets here which is usally in the 3-4 days. I'm having so many doubts and questions about MK-- it's like a puzzle that i am trying to solve with facts. --thanks for the help

  • 25 May 2009 19:23 | thinkpinkagain?

    What always cracks me up is the whole "Your customer doesn't want to wait for a lipstick, so keep up a full store".

    Thats what we do anymore for those of us shopping off the 'net, wait. Duh.

    And don't forget to partake in the free gift when you order $400 or more, or if you buy one get one free, that's free inventory! How many folk STILL have cases of the Peach Smoothie Satin Hands Set from that little promo a year or so ago?

    Oh yes, you have to show up to go up...the mind stays blissfully clear when you stay away from events. And your wallet full.

    Sad sad sad.

  • 25 May 2009 21:22 | PUNKEDBYPINK

    #7, Profit Level.What exactly is that number and who's profit level are we talking about? When they mention this "level", it may not be necessarily YOUR profit. Just take a number, throw it out there and POOF! Mary Kay doctrine's are born! :evil:

  • 25 May 2009 21:36 | raisinberry

    lucylu...you make an excellent point! Every consultant reading today needs to grab her latest copy of the unit newsletter. We are going to show you how dumb you are. (No "dis"...we were too!)

    Look at the top 10 consultants. Chances are they are two groups; DIQ/CAR women or new recruits. New recruits with their initial inventory doubled plus bonuses shoots them to the top of the list. From here, everybody pretends she actually is number one or two or three. She will get a ribbon at year end for #3 or #2 or #4..some never having sold a DROP. You will all applaud this. Here's the amazing thing...YOU KNOW SHE HASN'T SOLD IT, and you applaud anyway.

    Right from the getgo, you are been trained for pretense. Now this prepares you for group two; DIQ's/Car winners. These women are BURIED in debt, and smile smile smile because you will not keep following them if they appear "stressed". Pretense training from early in your career has paid off...These women on the sales list are topping off STAR consultant and DIQ production, and car production to be seen as a "leader" in their budding units.

    The entire vast remaining membership of your unit is made up of personal use and barely alive consultants who figured it out, and are staying away, but like the product. That's why you have no turn out for meetings.

    Here is the mind melter. IF ANYTHING YOUR DIRECTOR SAID IS TRUE...Wouldn't your unit be HUMMING with active members, selling up a storm? Wouldn't She herself and every veteran consultant in your unit be on the Queens Court of sales and recruting?

    So if production is coming from new IBC's...and Director wannabees..and YOU YOURSELF are Number 2 or 3 or 4 on the list with 90% of your stock still sitting on your shelves...just what do you really think is going on?

  • 25 May 2009 21:45 | kirads09

    I love #19. :lol: Truer words were never written!

  • 25 May 2009 21:53 | PUNKEDBYPINK

    This lie goes on because I(miss newby IBC) keep comparing my insides(feeling inadequate,"less than";) to Miss Star's outsides(Shes selling, rolling in $$, etc). When you're new, you don't know any better. In MK "appearences" are everything! What kind of woman would teach other women to doubt that little voice inside of all of us? Only :evil: women!!

  • 25 May 2009 23:22 | pinkpeace

    Raisinberry - another perfect post! Thanks for putting these together - yew rawk, girl! :kiss:

  • 26 May 2009 00:00 | Kinzie

    #5 Business Plans.....

    are a tad more complex than what MK deems it to be, and usually require the help or advice of a SBA consultant to prepare one. Banks require them if applying for a Small Business Loan.

    Preparing your activity for the week is wise but it is NOT a business plan by any means!

    Here is a link to the SBA website:
    http://www.sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/index.html

  • 26 May 2009 00:18 | dupedbypinkfriend

    Right-E-O, Raisin. (You really are my twin. I'm convinced we were born joined at the hip. I have to say though, that I'm upset we weren't joined at the brain, cuz you seem to have gotten the lion's share there. :angry: )

    Let's look at #16 for a minute. Short and sweet, this is why Mary Kay is a product based pyramid scheme, whether folks want to believe it or not. The day that MKC starts collecting and reporting actual retail sales and can prove that the majority of their sales force earns at least 50% of their income from their personal retail sales will be the day that I quit griping about this. :X

  • 26 May 2009 00:43 | pinkylee

    "This moment of clarity is brought to you by all the women here who bought the "dream" and realized that's exactly what it was."

    More like a nightmare! :0


    "We woke up."

    And I thank God every day that I did and for PT!

  • 26 May 2009 01:55 | The Scribbler

    "You can do everything wrong in Mary Kay with a good attitude and succeed, and do everything right with a poor attitude and fail."

    Oh, I love this one - it's one of the most idiotic piece of pink logic out there.

    Let's say that I truly own my own business - welcome to Scrib's Coffeehouse! You're there trying to wrap up DIQ. What's that? You want two mochas? Gotcha!

    I am having a stellar day and my attitude right now is soooo bubbly that I'd make the Joker look like he's got raging PMS, so I think I'm going to mix things up a bit.

    For starters, let's grind up some coffee beans that I rinsed in the toilet - adds that earthy flavor everyone loves! I'm gonna brew 'em with some water I mopped up off my floors with a ShamWow - holds 20 times more liquid, dont'cha know!

    Next, I've got some milk that's been in my trunk for the past week - nothing says quality like home-clotted cream! Give it a big ol' stir with this spoon I just French-kissed and your mochas are ready to go - sorry, I ran out of coffee cups, so I hope those two old tomato cans I hastily wiped out will suffice.

    Don't get mad - according to Mary Kay logic, I did everything wrong but because had the right attitude, I succeeded! So stop being negative and drink yer slurry, Your Majesty.

    Now turn that around - what if I'm having a bad day and have raging PMS? Yet I fresh-grind your non-toilet-soaked beans, brew up perfect coffee, add fresh cream and flavorings, and serve 'em up tall in those delightfully comforting insultated cups with a free biscotti on the side. Mary Kay logic says that I did everything right, but because had the wrong attitude, I failed.

    Then again, this logic comes from the same leaders that brought you gems like "Be too dumb to doubt" and "Being professional doesn't work, being dumb and humble does!"

  • 26 May 2009 02:03 | thinkingpinkstinks

    Raisen, I like No. 21, "The only way you fail in MK is if you quit", and your response thereto. This probably has affected more people in MK than anything else. You get nowhere chasing this dream and trying to keep up on their products and all of the changes made. I just kept putting the old obsolete products in a separate place trying to unload them as fast as I could. Problem was the old and obsolete group grew bigger and faster than I ever could have expected. And, it is happening again and will continue to happen as long as one stays in MK.

  • 26 May 2009 02:05 | dupedbypinkfriend

    :X Scrib. Will you please let us know which days you are PMSing? Cuz I'm only coming to visit Scrib's Coffeehouse on your "failing" days! :whistle:

    "PMS Alert! The water is safe today."

  • 26 May 2009 02:20 | Pinkslipping

    Great list Raisinberry!

    I'd like to add a couple:

    23. Product Giveaway - it will be promoted for you to offer FREE product to your customers for booking/hosting/recruiting/attending events/etc. While you will be told that its all a tax deduction, what is really happening is you're losing money that you spent on your wholesale product and any potential "profit". In order for it to make a difference on your taxes you need to show a profit.

    24. Demo from full size retail. Of course you will want to keep it sanitary, like never putting a used demo mascara wand back in the tube. Really what your director wants you to do is spend more money on product by demoing from section 1 - she'll tell you that women want to see the actual product bottles, hold it in their hand. What she actually wants is to get credit for her unit production and samples in section 2 do NOT count.

  • 26 May 2009 02:22 | Pinkslipping

    I just realized that you were sharing Mary Kayisms. Oops! Guess I should have had some coffee before adding my two cents. :dry:

  • 26 May 2009 02:25 | pinkladynomore

    One way to get rid of the old stuff is to keep your old look books. That way people don't see the new stuff. Just a thought. I have been trying for over a year now to unload my stuff. It's still sitting on the shelf. This stuff definitely does not sell itself even at 50% off. Another myth that has been debunked.

  • 26 May 2009 02:29 | windycitygal

    I'd like to comment on #9 - $50K isn't an outrageously high salary anymore [imho] - you can't tell me that MK has more women earning a higher annual salary than any Fortune 500 global company?

    The statement makes no sense and there is no source quoted. It, like the other statements, is passed around as truth, because someone higher up said it.

    Lurkers - ask for these statements to be qualified. I started asking questions and was told that "I thought too much". What does that tell you?

  • 26 May 2009 03:50 | Pinkslipping

    [quote]23. Product Giveaway - it will be promoted for you to offer FREE product to your customers for booking/hosting/recruiting/att ending events/etc. While you will be told that its all a tax deduction, what is really happening is you're losing money that you spent on your wholesale product and any potential "profit". In order for it to make a difference on your taxes you need to show a profit.

    24. Demo from full size retail. Of course you will want to keep it sanitary, like never putting a used demo mascara wand back in the tube. Really what your director wants you to do is spend more money on product by demoing from section 1 - she'll tell you that women want to see the actual product bottles, hold it in their hand. What she actually wants is to get credit for her unit production and samples in section 2 do NOT count.
    . [/quote]

    I got it!! I'd like to add onto my post above.

    23. "If it's free then its for me!" A popular mantra taught to consultants to share at their appointments. Ex: Who likes free stuff? Raise your hand...well in Mary Kay we say "if its free then its for me!".

    24. Think like a retailer. Make wise business choices. Enough said.

    :X

  • 26 May 2009 03:51 | Kinzie

    Great analogy, Scrib!

  • 26 May 2009 06:05 | PinkButConfused

    [quote]Look at the top 10 consultants. Chances are they are two groups; DIQ/CAR women or new recruits. New recruits with their initial inventory doubled plus bonuses shoots them to the top of the list. From here, everybody pretends she actually is number one or two or three. She will get a ribbon at year end for #3 or #2 or #4..some never having sold a DROP. You will all applaud this. Here's the amazing thing...YOU KNOW SHE HASN'T SOLD IT, and you applaud anyway.[/quote]

    Oh my goodness I asked my director about this!!! Why the only people in the newsletter getting commended for their 'acheivements' are new consultants! You know what she told me, "Some people just choose not to work Mary Kay as a business. But you and my other new ladies are different"

    i totally believed her...

  • 26 May 2009 08:29 | caralyntheresa723

    I was told almost all of these and believed them too. Another one that I was told and the one that really made me trust the products was: Mary kay products are the only cosmetic products that are voluntarily FDA regulated. That means they all do what they say they will do. We can know that b/c the FDA backs this up. I am not sure if this is one that only my director made up or not. Even after I stopped trying to really sell (which was always painful)and used only for personal use and for family and friends, I would say this to everyone. How embarrassing. ugh.

  • 26 May 2009 08:30 | raisinberry

    windycitygal...you must have had "analysis paralysis"..that cute euphenism for bugging the snot out of suited hamsters.

  • 26 May 2009 09:28 | Lazy Gardens

    [quote]More women in Mary Kay make $50,000 a year and up than any other company. [/quote]

    $50,000/12 is $4,166.67 ... so all 14,000 directors have production above that, or they are no longer directors. But that's a long way from having it as spendable income.

    I can think of many companies - IBM, Intel, AMEX - who have several hundred thousand employees and I know they each have lots of women programmers and engineers making well over $50K. Heck, They have office admins and HR staff and production supervisors making more than $50K. (with 401K plans, paid vacation, health insurance, and sick leave)

  • 26 May 2009 10:41 | vintagegold

    caralyntheresa743 - Mary Kay is REQUIRED to put their sun-screen containing and salicylic acid containing products through FDA testing.

    The FDA DOES NOT have many regulations for cosmetics. They even allow melamine in infant formula in the United States. That stuff causes kidney failure. If you think Mary Kay products are safe, then you need to go to the cosmeticsdatabase website. They can cause breast cancer, and infertility and rare forms of brain cancer because they are highly absorbed through the skin. Some of the ingredients that are in MK products are also in some of the food we eat, but our digestive system breaks it down enough to where it doesn't harm us. The stuff you apply to your face is another story.

  • 26 May 2009 15:50 | Jena

    The following relates to more than one of the articles above, this is an excerpt from a very recent unit newsletter.

    "Build your inventory to Star Consultant level as quickly as possible so you can spend your profit. To build a good sound business, you must RE-INVEST until you are at least the Emerald $3,600 wholesale level."

    Geez, I guess I better send in a whopping big order?!? lol

  • 26 May 2009 16:10 | Pinkpig

    I seriously have to thank you guys after signing up in Mar 09 I really thought I could sell this stuff and I was rushing around like a mad person trying to figure out how I was going to buy my inventory. My upline was hounding me and calling me non stop everyday from the time I signed up after telling her finally to back off a bit I havnt heard a word from her and it's been a month now (funny she cared so much for my needs and feelings yeah right) Since it seems that I'm lazy and can't line her pockets I'm probably on her black list. My director still sends me emails regarding seminar and other crap fees and events (whatever) Personally once I found this website that was it for me I just could not go on. (the nagging dont do it wouldnt leave me lol) Id rather be called lazy then dead broke and in debt to my arss. Heres a funny little link someone sent me today I had a good laugh. I'm wondering what this person is trying to get rid of?

    http://winnipeg.kijiji.ca/c-services-health-beauty-Looking-For-Cheap-Mary-Kay-Products-W0QQAdIdZ103736275

  • 26 May 2009 16:13 | | Pinkpig  - Cheap Mary Kay Product

    Sorry here's the fixed link

    http://winnipeg.kijiji.ca/c-services-health-beauty-Looking-For-Cheap-Mary-Kay-Products-W0QQAdIdZ103736275

    I hope it works

  • 26 May 2009 22:00 | iwokeup

    Yes, I woke up.

    Lurkers, wake up too.

    June is coming.
    You don't have to help the team make some goal that doesn't help you personally. Do what is best for YOU!
    Don't have a "walletectomy" for someone else's paycheck.
    Don't stock the shelf with product that too soon becomes obsolete. It doesn't come with "wings" so that it will "fly off the shelf".
    Inventory is NOT like "Money in the Bank".
    Money is Money in the Bank.
    Keep your Money and Credit.
    Only replace what you sell.
    Skip Seminar, unless you enjoy clapping for someone else for 3 days, and being broke or maxed when you get home.
    B)
    It is ok. It really is.

  • 27 May 2009 07:07 | Angelwoman

    In June, 1997, on a Sunday afternoon I hosted a Party-Lite candle party as a request from a distant relative, who no longer sells Party-Lite. I sent out 60 invitations and also stated that it was a house warming party. 7 people showed. They didn't buy much. What a surprise??? The biggest surprise of them all was that I invited my MK SD next door neighbor and she said she had to go to a meeting (MK). I had previous bought some MK from her. I tested her out by inviting her. I could have placed a bet for big money; that she would not show. She wants to sell to you; but don't you dare sell her anything. I saw her true colors. I learned after this Party-Lite event that direct selling was a bomb. Besides, I love Yankee Candle brand, not Colonial Candle brand. Mary Kay Cosmetics should do away with the present business plan and sell their product in regular stores next to Maybelline, Max Factor, Rimmel, Cover Girl, L'Oreal, etc. They would probably sell more product. The quality of MK is similar to drugstore brands anyway.

  • 27 May 2009 10:01 | Lazy Gardens

    [url=http://winnipeg.kijiji.ca/c-services-health-beauty-Looking-For-Cheap-Mary-Kay-Products-W0QQAdIdZ103736275]fixed pinkpig's link[/url]

  • 27 May 2009 12:44 | PUNKEDBYPINK

    Angelwoman, I'm with you! I have a co-worker who is selling party-lite and is FAST burning(no pun intended) thru her warm market. I LOVE yankee candles. Much better and no hassles! :D

  • 27 May 2009 13:33 | Glamour Queen

    :X :X :X :X :X :X :X :X :X :X
    I heard every last one of these lies...if you are lurking here, there is a reason. Keep reading and run like hell from anything MK!!!!!

  • 27 May 2009 14:02 | beefreeis4me

    Free Training--- I will never forget when I went to Future NSD Dana Berry workshop about taxes. She had a guy from H&R Block there saying he could help us with taxes. Me and my spouse went along with another consultant and her spouse to hear the tax workshop. It had nothing to do with taxes. He was basically there to promote himself, refer another consultant, get a 100.00 free from him. He passed out cards with Dana Berry's name on it and said bring it in. So, she was making money by sending us there. Guess that is one way of making money when your unit is drained out. Instead we learned how to pack for a skin care class using the new black cases when the pink ones were deleted from the line. Then we heard personal "hear my heart I -stories." So, if they teach this at Harvard, the students might want to get a refund on that class.

  • 27 May 2009 14:06 | PUNKEDBYPINK

    Lies, lies all lies!! :angry: :angry:

  • 30 May 2009 13:03 | stinkinpinkthinkin

    I heard most of these and a few of them several times over as they were the mantra's of our weekly team meetings. I was just about beginning to wonder if my director and her buddy director had lost the ability to speak normally as they never seemed to have any conversations without the sprinkling of the same old MK diabtribe.
    As angry as I am at my former director for many of the lies and cons she pulled, I also have a very soft spot for her knowing that she totally bought into and drank the "pink koolaid." Our unit folded after she moved to another city several hours away and the majority of the consultants needed to be adopted, but weren't. I had only been part of MK and this unit for 5 months when this happened. Surprisingly her very good buddy, whose unit had shared space with our unit since the day the two units had been formed, didn't seem to care what happened to the rest of us once our director was out of the picture.
    I never realized all that was involved in the emails she sent trying to get us, as a unit, to make "production" (aka "quota";) each month. I was surprised to find out all of the emails were built on the "scripts" I have read about here on this site. Our unit had been a Cadillac Unit for several years and the director was now taking a pay-out instead of driving the car. Her buddy director was driving a new Saturn Vue. I can now only imagine how severely in debt the two of them must have been and perhaps still are.
    It was amazing to me how quickly it all fell apart, once our director wasn't present to keep the "stats" up.
    After reading so many of the stories here on PT, I believe my director was probably "buying" the success of the unit those last few months until she could no longer afford to. She moved so her husband could take a better paying J.O.B. I doubt she would ever really admit to paying the unit's way to exist since she was so close to Kathy Helou and talked non-stop about her own MK success. I'm pretty sure she had to continue the myth for her own emotional well being. However, she lost her director status, though she said "it was her choice" to step down from directorship. The last contact I had with her (as I had become an unproductive consultant and thus contributed to the demise of our unit) was that she was going to stay a consultant and try to rebuild her business in her new location. SO SAD.
    There should be stricter laws to prohibit this kind of deceit!!! :evil:

  • 31 May 2009 00:14 | PinkBubblePopper

    Did you notice this "Shop 24 Hours
    Visit me, your Independent Beauty Consultant. Free Shipping" on that link anyone? A little too ironic lol

  • 02 Jul 2009 10:41 | pinkboundries  - Pink Lips, Pink Truth, Pink BOUNDRIES OH MY!

    Hello,I'm new as a babys pink bottom to this site and glad to be here. Have I been learning alot. OK, I'm in my first 3 months of Mk and my "christian" consultant neglected to tell me about the ongoing min. purchase every 3 months, oh and suggested the credit card- Hello! The real kicker (Pink Truth be told) I'm going through a divorce Cha ching, and just had surgery Cha ching, but I let her convince me this was a great investment- for me? Anyway,when the new Psychologist (helping me through my divorce and who used to sell MK!) explanined to me NOT a good idea and especially right now. So I informed my recruter of my "precription" and she responded saying "why don't you suggest to the psychologist "WE feel Mary Kay would be great therapy!"
    What the Pink Fluff is that? Wow, so now I'm learning about Boundries. In the next phone call to my recruter/"friend" she will get to experience my new pink boundries! Alleluiah! I have seen the Truth, and now the Pink Truth! What an eye opener! Pink eye!

  • 02 Jul 2009 12:20 | chopportunity

    Welcome to PT, pinkboundries! Bless your heart, you are going through so much. I totally agree with your Psychologist. Run far and fast away from MK. Please feel free to join us on the Discussion Board. We would love to hear your story! B)

  • 07 Jul 2009 11:24 | | pinkboundries

    Thought at first about recycling some of my starter kit and fliers I composed(and was so proud of) to the "friend" who pink punked me, then I woke up from the pink fog, like Dorothy in Oz and figured DUH Why help contribute to the Emotional Blackmail? Let's call it what it is people. I am finding it's the social contact I enjoy and creativity I crave, not the "God wants you to have your own business"? More pink NARCISSISTIC fluff!Like cotton candy.... Looks big and soft, till you touch it and it suddenly sticky and shrinks.. melting... melting...

  • 07 Jul 2009 13:55 | icanbecomesane

    Welcome Pinkboundries,

    Wow! What a story you have!
    So glad to see you are getting out.
    Look forward to hearing more from you. :)

  • 07 Jul 2009 16:40 | lightpinkmkgirl

    Pinkboundaries!!! My prayers are with you. So sorry to read about your trials and tribulations at this time. MK is not for anyone, at any time for any reason. Welcome to PT!

  • 07 Jul 2009 16:41 | lightpinkmkgirl

    I sound bitter. Do I sound bitter? OH WELL! :evil: I won't win the Miss Go Give award again. DARN IT!

  • 04 Oct 2009 15:38 | wonderfully_made  - didn't take me long

    I found this website on my second day. Obviously I was looking to see the negative side, because there is a positive and negative to everything.

    Don't know how I figured out so quick that something fishy was going on in the pink bubble, but I'm glad that others on PT are so honest in saying that if you feel something isn't right then you should, ah, find a way to make your way out the pink bubbled (blah, heard that too much these days) as soon as you can.

  • 04 Oct 2009 23:10 | raisinberry

    wonderfullymade...amen to that sister.
    Escape from the big pink borg is best done before the implants are secured and the mental re-circuitry begins. Lots of things masquerade as "godly" these days and MK is at the top of the list.

  • 04 Mar 2010 17:42 | | partyplanpat  - RE: Mary Kay Issues I need Help with

    Hi
    I am Party Plan Pat.

    At one point in time I was involved in the Mary Kay stuff buying etc and people have always tried to recruit me.

    Anyway, my mom had always been involved in MLM, Party Plan & Direct Sales.

    I put together 10 Deadly Home Party Plan Business Mistakes from my many experiences.

    I have been getting a lot of hate mail from MK consultants which is fine because I know what I am talking about.

    I also get very disturbing emails like these from people of color, trying to be like G.M. Banks.

    [quote][/quote]My name is Jennifer and I'm a Mary Kay Beauty Consultant. I have been In business in 3 years. I found out about Mary Kay Inc in my senior year in high school. I was very young at the time but I saw the potential of the company and the products. I join in head first and I got no help from my Recruiter or Director. But I was still giving $500 every couple of months for inventory. I was told by my Recruiter to give the money to her to make my order. Then one day I decided to call the corporate office to get information to on my tax. The operator told me that I never made any order. That's when I found out the money that I was giving her, she was putting it in her own name. So I never got credit for it, so I quit. Then Five Years later I started to see more Mary Kay vehicles out on the road and they had more to offer. So I rejoin again and now Even though Things are different now but its hard. My new Director will not speak to me because I have not gotten any inventory since I joined. I had recruited two people and they both quit because the treatment that they receive from my Director and others in Mary Kay. I stop going to the meeting or conference call. When I did go to Unit meetings, I told my Director I wanted to learn my business first before I started to sell it. She told me to just sell and you will learn on your way. But the methods they tough to get business only got me hurt by mean people and disrespected. So I just only sold to my Co-workers. Now that I'm laid off I can't sell to my co-workers because they too is with out a job. All I want from my business is everything that they have to offer. I want to be a Director and my team to be a two million dollar unit. I want to own that pink Cadillac, and I want to own properties. But I don't have a clue how to get my business and dreams off the ground. Every thing Mary Kay teaches only leads to a dead end, too mix emotion, and broken dreams. I know God has called me to do Mary Kay and really enrich women's lives and my own. But only you can help me get there. I willing to to what it takes and pay the cost to have the live that I've dream. I want it so bad and my business needs it . Thank you for speaking with me today and taking your time to read this.[quote][/quote]

    I would like to get some folks to review my book and tell me their honest opinion.

    Thanks

  • 23 Jul 2010 20:53 | mistakein09

    Oh my gosh, I just quoted my SD saying # 17 in the "Seminar" posting, lol. I had NO clue this stuff is used by everyone in the company. I'm going to have a difficult time at Seminar this coming week without wanting to correct statements/ism's that I hear there.

    I stumbled across this site by accident earlier today and it really caught my attention. I've been an IBC for just over a year and have had so much doubt and regret about all of it, not to mention the financial stress it has caused. (I was one of the fools that started with the $2400 inventory and still have close to half of it, lol)
    Anyway, thanks for making me feel so welcome. (and re-assuring me that I'm not the only person that made this pink-mistake!)

  • 15 Aug 2010 09:06 | Disillusioned1  - Light Through The Fog....

    My first red flag...Duh...Should've listened...I made SURE to ask about quotas...I was assured that the only thing you would have to do is order $200 w/s once a year...What she failed to mention (read: lied!) was about how often I'd have to do that to stay "Active." This is coming from a Christian woman...My husband and I were upset from the moment I signed up...She didn't clarify the quota until AFTER I had already signed up. She pushed me to get a loan - Always being sweet and supportive and peppy (Which is so fake!)...My husband and I talked about it...We both sincerely felt like God was telling us that it wasn't a good idea to get a loan...We don't need more debt. My second big red flag was more recently...I told my MK director-recruiter that my husband and I were blesses (and surprised) to be expecting our first child! I told her that I wanted to focus on my family, and wasn't sure how much time I'd be able to commit to pursuing MK...I expected her (even though she and her husband do not have children) to fully understand and support me. HA! She jumped on it, saying that NOW is the time to focus my attention to MK to work anymore @ my full-time job! Wouldn't it be great to not have to work at my full-time job?!?! She has a car (not yet a Caddy), and I have seen the (copies of the) commission checks that she has posted in her office...Hmmm...I make more @ my hourly job than she does (according to those checks) @ MK when she's been in it for nearly a decade...??? Why would she and her husband need to work if she was doing well in MK? I have a feeling the pink fog is clearing...Thank you all for being REAL, honest, women...

  • 15 Aug 2010 10:59 | raisinberry

    Welcome and hopefully you will be spared greater losses. The quota thing is explained as a 200 order once a year because truly that keeps your consultant number from terminating. But you will NOT get a discount on merchandise unless you order a minimum 200, and that enables you to get 50% off for only 2 additional months, on smaller orders. Once you pass that 3 month window, you start over and need to place 200 again. That's a quota.

    In other words, every 3 months a 200 order must go in or your 50% discount is not maintained. At four months, that $14 lipstick costs $14.00 plus 8.75 shipping. Who's gonna do that? Nobody.

    SO every 3 months they hope to get at least another 200 out of you. So the truth is, to keep yourself active and at a 50% discount for an entire year, it will cost you over $700 plus the starter kit.

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