It amazes me that people spend so much of their energy putting down Mary Kay. I promise life is out there. Way beyond Mary Kay.

If you were talked into buying so much product from a greedy individual, it’s your fault. If you believe that the only way to succeed by getting more and more people signed up, it’s your fault. No one else but you. If no one is not intelligent enough to say hey, I work, have kids and damn, I cannot afford this, it’s your fault. You do what the hell you want.

You make that decision, not the one who “talked” you into to whatever, nor the company. Stand up make your own decision. If you love the product, use it. If you want to join, then join. Not everyone is a “sales” person. But, if you run into one who says you are and you know you are not. Then say hell no. Don’t sign up then.

This goes for any business. Even with Mary Kay. You do what you want. When I joined, it was on my terms. Not the one I signed under and not the company. Mine!!! Simple.

Did I want a car or pink Cadillac. Well hell no. When I was done selling it, I was freakin done. I still use the product. But on my terms. I get what I want. Not what any consultant tries to sell me.

So, life is too too short. Move on. When you feel conned, just move on. Learn from it.

27 COMMENTS

  1. I’m sorry, I can’t not read this one in the voice of Cartman from “South Park.”

    “What-evah! What-evah! Ah do what Ah want!!!”

    Anyway.

    “So, life is too too short. Move on. When you feel conned, just move on. Learn from it.”

    Is that a backhanded way of admitting that you feel you were conned? Does that maybe account for the tiny smidgen of anger and bitterness that shows through this otherwise sunshiny, cheerful, upbeat letter? Because it’s OK to be upset and feel used and maybe a little foolish about falling for the persuasive lies and hard sell that they’re trained to give you.

    Many people here have had those same feelings and have had to work through them. And you can either stick your head in the sand and pretend it didn’t happen, or you can be proactive and speak out about your experiences and hopefully prevent it from happening to someone else.

    31
    1
    • Interesting, Popinki, because from the opening line of this critic’s diatribe , I was thinking, “Screw you guys, I’m going home.”

      17
    • And Popinki gets the award for the first downvote on the thread! Congratulations, friend, the KBots have found you.

        • Lol yes you are! The one big thing I don’t like about the Ridiculous Downvote ™ is that the person(s) leaving it never actually post a comment to explain WHY they downvoted. Most of the time they probably don’t even know why themselves, so the downvote is I guess their way of saying that we are just negative Nellies without trying to argue why we are wrong.

          • The idea that a stranger owes you an explanation for their opinion is a weirdly entitled mindset to have.

            1
            1
  2. It amazes me that people spend so much of their energy putting down Mary Kay. I promise life is out there. Way beyond Mary Kay.

    First day on the internet is it?

    If you were talked into buying so much product from a greedy individual, it’s your fault.

    Victim blaming.

    If you believe that the only way to succeed by getting more and more people signed up, it’s your fault.

    More victim blaming.

    No one else but you. If no one is not intelligent enough to say hey, I work, have kids and damn, I cannot afford this, it’s your fault. You do what the hell you want.

    And more victim blaming. But no blaming of the fake opportunity that is dangled a flashy fishing lure that dangles a promise of financial freedom but only fails costing people their freedom and stability.

    You make that decision, not the one who “talked” you into to whatever, nor the company

    And the victim blaming continues.

    Stand up make your own decision.

    And on with the blaming.

    If you love the product, use it. If you want to join, then join. Not everyone is a “sales” person. But, if you run into one who says you are and you know you are not. Then say hell no. Don’t sign up then.

    And more blame. But our commentator fails to realise that MK has spent years and multitudinous numbers of women to make their scripts appear to not be a trap of time and money but to be a golden future.

    This goes for any business. Even with Mary Kay. You do what you want. When I joined, it was on my terms. Not the one I signed under and not the company. Mine!!! Simple.

    Sure Jan. Keep telling yourself that.

    Did I want a car or pink Cadillac. Well hell no. When I was done selling it, I was freakin done. I still use the product. But on my terms. I get what I want. Not what any consultant tries to sell me.

    Got it. You failed and can’t understand why.

    So, life is too too short. Move on. When you feel conned, just move on. Learn from it.

    So much empathy. Just brush everything under the carpet. And DON’T under any circumstances, rock the boat for the ones still ensnared. Sorry but some of us cannot standby and watch injustice without speaking up.

    19
    • I might be crazy, but I get the sense that this critic, had she been on the receiving end of bad information and used that to make “business” decisions in MK, she’d go all scorched-earth on them and the company. Unless of course she has so much pride and narcissism that she can’t admit to being “had”.

      8
      1
      • “Unless of course she has so much pride and narcissism that she can’t admit to being “had”.”

        I think you’re right. I’ll bet she wasn’t well-liked in Mary Kay considering her comments, especially the one about the pink Cadillac:

        “Did I want a car or pink Cadillac. Well hell no.”

        What’s the word in Mary Kay with these types? “Next”

        • “Thank you, next.” Lol. Too bad for MK and their hundreds of thousands of “independent contractors” is that they indeed ARE running out of “nexts”. So many women today who might have been “nexts” years ago are hip to the scheme of “direct sales” and want no part of it. Indeed, the pool of “nexts” is almost as dried out as Lake Mead these days. Not to mention the whole thing about how endless chain recruiting requires an endless pool of recruits to continue its success, which is impossible due to the finite number of people with faces and a credit card.

  3. It’s rare to see someone who’s not an active consultant this bought in on the victim-blaming/shaming narrative that Mary Kay is so adept at pushing. I congratulate you. And welcome you to read the FTC’s information on MLMs and the percentage of distributors that LOSE money trying to play this game.

    But, yeah, it’s all their fault.

    14
    • Meh, I’m not willing to believe that she is by choice not an MK consultant or director who takes the time to tell us how wrong we are. She probably either did it and lost money, or is doing it and lost money and isn’t copping to it. I’m probably jaded but that’s what I think of her.

  4. Here’s the thing though. Some of us had so much of our time and money tied into our “business” because we believed our “blessing” was just around the corner. Our victory was coming, we just had to push a little harder and a little longer. All the adversity we experienced was just going to be part of our amazing story. All things we were being told by our directors, our NSD’s, our recruiters, and even fellow consultants. Some of us fell for it hard, and I include myself in this. I pushed way beyond what I should have and made decisions I wouldn’t normally make under normal circumstances.

    Now, take that same concept and apply it to a 9-5 job that someone loves and is really good at. They love their coworkers and their clients, but their bosses and leaders are just a little out there and don’t always do the right thing. Over time, that trickles down to the rest of the employees and it becomes a culture of white lies; and the lines between truth and lies get a little more blurred. But we can’t just outright quit because we need to work, we have bills to pay, and we don’t have anything else lined up.

    In the second situation would we blame that person for staying longer than they should? For keeping quiet when things weren’t right because they were afraid of retaliation or Laing what they had worked so hard for? My guess is probably not.

    14
    • In the second situation (the 9-5 “Journey of the Broke” aka JOB), at least they are being paid for their time working. They don’t have to spend their own money in the hopes that they might eventually see a profit (aka “Pay to Play”). I’d take option two any day over the losing proposition offered by MK and other pyramid schemes (sorry Kaybots reading this, I meant Direct Sales or Dual Marketing or whatever non-pyramid-scheme term is trending this week. In situation two (which I think many of us have experienced at some point) we do often stick it out because PAYCHECK lol. Nobody would fault a person for doing so. But to keep putting more and more of your money in without seeing any return a la option one? There’s nothing noble or respectable about doing that (though if you believe what you read on thousands of MK ladies’ social media, of course it is noble and they’re celebrated for staying the course).

  5. If you were talked into buying so much product from a greedy individual, it’s your fault.

    That’s just thing thing… if someone was “talked into”… they were coerced. They were lied to. That’s not their fault.

    21
  6. It seems like every critic uses the same lines. Beyond the inevitable victim-blaming, there is some form of: “Sales isn’t for everyone.”

    As if “sales” were what Mary Kay is all about. It isn’t, of course. Recruiting is what Mary Kay is all about. If you don’t recruit — a LOT — you cannot succeed in Mary Kay. You can’t earn commission checks, you can’t earn a “free” car, you won’t learn about obsolescent products until it’s too late, etc , etc.

    Oh, but what about retail sales for twice what you paid, right? Firstly, HA! as if you can get that much from anyone but your grandmother; secondly, even if you could get that much, you’d at best break even. 50% profit margin sounds like a lot until you experience actual expenses, then you learn why real make-up businesses run at 80-90% margins.

    In any pyramid structure, those at the bottom outnumber the rest combined. The majority cannot recruit anyone, so the majority lose money, at best. The reality is: 99% lose money; the rest are not high enough in the structure to be in the black. That’s built into the Mary Kay system, just like every other MLM. So yeah, we choose to “waste our time” speaking out against the system.

    14
    • “The reality is: 99% lose money…”

      More accurately. “99% must lose money.” That is where the cash flow comes from in Mary Kay. This is the reality in all endless-chain recruiting schemes. Retail sales are simply not part of the Mary Kay corporate business plan.

      The fact that Mary Kay hides this very important truth is one of the primary reasons we refer to women harmed by Mary Kay as “victims.” Its not your fault for believing a lie told by a woman you admire and/or trust.

      It is said, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Contributors to this site are not shaming the former. We are exposing a con that has taken decades to perfect, helping Mary Kay victims see the light. be able to recognize cons like MLM a mile away, and hopefully be protected from this type of organized fraud for the rest of their lives.

  7. This critic (who isn’t any different from the hundreds of other critics, nor brings anything new to the table) completely ignores the HUGE problem that recruits are making their own decisions based on exaggerations and flat out lies. Perhaps she needs to read up on the NSD who was outed by PT as being a convicted felon. During her ascent to NSD, this woman drove a few luxury cars that she only gained through FLAT OUT FRAUD. While I have not met this woman, I promise that when she was recruiting for MK, she did so in the luxury vehicles she got through FRAUD but presented as what a recruit might expect to be able to afford if she only willingly “chose” the Mary Kay “opportunity”. Yes, it is one lone example, but it’s not the only time a recruit was shown what her upline was “earning” from their MK “business”.

    Many, MANY smart and careful women have chosen to take the MK “opportunity” based on horribly faulty information. We aren’t faulting ANY woman for taking on more than they should; we fault the INFORMATION they are given with which to make such a decision.

  8. Angry management needed.

    “ No one else but you. If no one is not intelligent enough to say hey, I work, have kids and damn, I cannot afford this, it’s your fault. You do what the hell you want.”

    When did the face of MK take a turn down the path of trashy language?

  9. dual marketing MaryKay bots like to say, so they are basically admitting the consultant is the customer and after the consultant buys from MaryKay it stays with them. See, we told you all that sh*t don’t sell.

Comments are closed.

Related Posts