Cindy Mac, Mary Kay “Top Director” Flameout
Written by Parsons Green
Cindy Machado announced in April that she would no longer be trying to grow her Mary Kay Business. She would continue to work with her current customers and team members, but would not be actively looking for new recruits to join her team.
She just shared that she’s decided to take the cash option going forward and would no longer have her pink Cadillac. Mary Kay towed it away a few days later.
Cindy has been driving Mary Kay cars for 32 years, and has earned 18 cars, 14 of which have been Cadillac. She’ll now be driving a Mazda.
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To qualify for the Cadillac, you and your team have to order $57,000 in wholesale products from the company each month for two calendar quarters – $117,000 in total. 
After qualification, if your production falls below $56,000 per quarter, you have to start kicking in money for the Cadillac lease. Mary Kay likes to call it a “copay.” The amount you pay depends on the quarterly production. Anything under $38,000 for the quarter, and you’re on the hook for the entire lease payment of $925. (You can see why it’s a bad idea to buy your way into a Cadillac when your unit isn’t really supporting it…. You’ll be paying for that Cadillac yourself when your unit keeps missing the quarterly production.)
If you don’t want to worry about the copay, you can select the cash option instead. If you and your team order $56,000 or more, you’ll get a full payment of $925 from the company. If you order less than $35,999 you get nothing.
Several directors commented on Cindy’s posts. Lillie Eggleston wishes she had taken the cash compensation as well. Cindy admits she almost took it last time herself.
Amy Kirby is sad to see Cindy go but will continue to follow her adventures.
Jil Johnson is taking cash as well for her 15th Cadillac.
And finally, Hannah Acker asked Heather why she decided to transition. Cindy confesses she was done with Mary Kay. She prayed for over two years to make this decision.
There are rumblings that Cindy failed to meet the Cadillac qualifications, and rather than having to settle for the Chevy Equinox, decided to take the cash option instead. Realistically, if Cindy isn’t going to recruit, her unit will continue to dwindle because failure and attrition in MLM are guaranteed. She won’t be able to keep up with production requirements on ANY Mary Kay car, so the cash compensation is the best way to transition out of the company.
Cindy Machado saw the writing on the wall. After 35 years in Mary Kay, she knew she’d never make it to national sales director. Never get the retirement package. Decades of running feverishly on the hamster wheel got to Cindy. Every month it’s the same old race to get peoplee to order to keep up the production numbers. The same “wash, rinse, repeat” story of recruit new blood, get them to buy an inventory package, hope for some re-orders for a few months after that, do it all over again month after month after month.
I can’t necessarily blame her for wanting to quit. It’s got to be exhausting. It makes sense to hang onto that unit as long as possible and collect the commissions as long as the downline is ordering. Cindy is even up front about the fact that she’s “automating everything”…. in other words, no longer actively “working the business.”
Another Mary Kay lifer is heading out the door. The optics of this are terrible for Mary Kay.
Visit the
It looks like the overall bee-lieve level is dropping precipitously.
At a local dealership, the Mazda CX-50 fully loaded comes in just under $35000. Over a 5 year loan that’s $583.34 (not including interest, and not taking into account trade-in, dealer incentives, and haggling) which is a darn sight better than the $925 copay on the Cadillac – plus once it’s paid off she’ll actually own it. Not to mention she can shop around for cheaper insurance instead of paying the exorbitant prices for the MK insurance.
It’s a shame she spent so much of her life stuck in the bubble where the visible trappings of success were everything, but hopefully as she pulls away more and more a bit more clarity will return.
All that work for $925 “compensation” that will inevitably make its way back to MKC in one way or another…SMH!
It’s saddening that it took 35 years for her to see the madness. I truly hope she finds something she is passionate about and that is less predatory in this next season. I could only imagine what so many years in that wild world could do to a person.
What’s so sad is the terrible ROI. MKC is giving back less than 2% of sales for that car. All of that ordering to produce $56K+ in sales volume for Corporate, and MK gives you just 1.7% back for the car.
It would not take much of a part time job to make $1000/month to pay for that car. So much less hassle, and you can actually pick a car that you like!
But for MK it’s genius. There was one whitepaper that was done on the marketing done by MK Inc. The gist of it was that MK (both lady and company) had figured out how to get maximum return on the marketing dollars. Meaning…. the smallest amount spent for the biggest possible return via consultant orders. The pink Cadillac was one of those things. It costs the company nothing because it encourages so many extra orders to make the production numbers (orders that otherwise wouldn’t have been placed) AND it’s a wonderful advertisement every time it’s on the road. Especially since it’s a symbol of success, since the general population doesn’t know that most drivers of the Cadillac make $40k or less per year.
Genius indeed! The ROI from the MK side is huge. Not so much for the downline.
MK was dumb for offering forced retirements. A lot of the top SD’s are leaving because they don’t have an NSD to ride/guilt them anymore and the MK National area can’t sustain the directors like the top of the pyramid knows how to do.
There’s a trend where the top nationals retire and their hot shots leave within a few years like Jordan Helou Eicher, Cindy Machado, and I know others ink at can’t think of them off the top of my head. I know my former top sales director basically quit when her NSD retired (who actually died).
Cindy left almost when Pam left and when Pam gave her unit to her son. There’s lots that still hold on but the motivation from the top needs to come in or they fizzle out. MK needs to offer optional retirement, not mandatory. Then you wouldn’t have the Pam Shaws or linda toupin fake units.
A “new” Mazda? Look at the bald tires on that thing! I wouldn’t want that old car in a million years! Some prize! Oh, well, it’s better than having your overpriced pink trophy of shaame that you paid a fortune of co-pays on hauled away.
Oh how I used to worship at the alter of these “Top” Directors. We have a “Top” Director Nikki McDaniel in our state. Her mother is Diane Underwood (retired NSD). Nikki got her mother’s unit when she retired and was a Cadillac director and million dollar director soon after.
So glad I’m done with it. The world we live in right now is sure a trip!
“Adjusted sales unit volume”
Is that retail based on doubling the wholesale purchased or is that the wholesale itself?
That is wholesale value. It’s “adjusted” because if anyone returns products during that time, it gets factored in. LOL