You Can’t Afford To NOT Go To Seminar

While you were in Mary Kay, did you ever hear a sales director tell someone that she NEEDED to go Seminar? That if she couldn’t afford it, that’s exactly why she needed to go! That if she could find childcare while she was gone, that was exactly why she needed to go! (For her kids, of course.)

Were you encouraged to attend Mary Kay Seminar so you could “catch the vision” or “see the big picture”???

Remember how nsds encourage all of their consultants to stay at the “area hotel” so that they can get a taste of the good life? Have you been encouraged to go to seminar so that you can “sit at the feet” of the nsd’s and learn from those who have already made it to where you want to be?

Well they always say Mary Kay isn’t like Amway (or any other well-known MLM, for that matter). I disagree. Read this and you’ll see that it could have just as easily been Mary Kay they were talking about. The cons and the scripts are the same, just the name of the MLM changes. From Eric Scheibeler’s book Merchants of Deception, which details his involvement with Amway:

In mid December, Kerry and Chris came over and described to us what was essentially the opportunity of a lifetime. It was a weekend-long seminar almost five hours away. It was early in January and was called Dream Weekend. There were several reasons we could not go. First, we were feeling overwhelmed! Although we were enthusiastic, our total involvement was all moving far too quickly. Second, we had an infant son, Josh, and we were unwilling to leave him for an entire weekend. Third, we did not have the several hundred dollars that it was going to cost for the seminar and lodging in the high-end hotel, in which it was scheduled. There was just no way it was going to happen. We would catch the next one when our situation was better. Kerry and Chris were very persistent. This was something that I would thank them for later.

They explained that Josh was the biggest reason that we needed to go. His future could hinge on this important seminar. There were many millionaires and multimillionaires that were flying in from all over the country to teach those who ‘really wanted to learn.’ Money was tight for us now, but after a function like this, it probably would never be a problem again. Being strapped financially was actually another major reason to go and learn from people who were financially free. We could even bring Josh with us to the seminar and were encouraged to bring food in a big cooler to save money. After hearing all this, we felt like we had no more excuses. All the issues that caused us to not want to go were presented as the biggest reasons we needed to get there. We reluctantly agreed to put the trip on a credit card. This Dream Weekend could actually be what allowed us to become debt free.

Let’s be honest. The purpose of the annual seminar held by Mary Kay Cosmetics is to further indoctrinate women into the “pink” mentality. It isn’t about any real learning, even though they have “classes” to make it seem like you’re learning. (Just the same junk, retold again.) It’s about fanfare and showing off. Instilling materialistic goals into the independent beauty consultants. And making them think even more pink than before.

12 COMMENTS

  1. That book was excellent…and I could relate all the MK BS while I was reading it.

    Typical cult behavior.

  2. I’ve never been in MK, but I’ve been to another MLM “seminar”. It’s not until you look back at it from a distance that you think “Holy f, I was in a cult.”

    and yes, May Kay is MLM and yes, you are in a cult.

    16
  3. I recently saw a text conversation on Reddit’s r/AntiMLM between an Amway recruit and a well-meaning Redditor. Recruit hit Redditor up for “help” because he was trying to “qualify for a meeting on Wednesday.”

    “Help,” of course, was buying from his as-yet-unnamed online store.

    Redditor: “What do you sell?”

    Recruit: “Lots of stuff. Can you help me out, or not?”

    “Can you send a link to your store?”

    [Sends Amway link.]

    Redditor: “I’m sorry, I don’t support Amway because of their business practices. I would strongly encourage you to search online for negative information about them.”

    Recruit: “Failures fail. I’m not interested in what they have to say. I just asked for you to help me out, is all. Good-bye.”

    Besides the obvious fact that making would-be customers feel put-upon is pretty poor business practice, I was struck by the fact that the recruit could only attend some brainwaahing meeting if he met some “sales” goal. (No doubt self-qualifying by buying from themselves was an option. It always has been with Amway.) He was being manipulated into craving entry into the “Big Boys’ Club” with an artificial barrier, just like Mary Kay with their Directors-only food, seating, meetings, trips, etc.

    When you see these machinations for what they are — coercions to spend more money to get more ego strokes — it’s really sickening.

    10
  4. “Money was tight for us now, but after a function like this, it probably would never be a problem again.” 😂

  5. Merchants of Deception is an excellent book. Glad it’s available as a pdf now. I read it years ago and recommend it.

  6. “The purpose of the annual seminar held by Mary Kay Cosmetics is to further indoctrinate women into the “pink” mentality.”

    And there is another aspect of Seminar that the attendees don’t realize. Seminar is a big moneymaker for the speakers/kingpins. The consultants pay for EVERYTHING in Mary Kay, including Seminar. So Seminar becomes just another way for the kingpins to dig into the pockets of the consultants.

Comments are closed.

Related Posts