$17 Million Off the Backs of Ordinary Women Like You
MLM opportunities are sold to unsuspecting consumers with the promise of riches. See this woman? She made a lot of money. That proves that anyone can do it, if they’re just willing to put in the effort.
Lisa Madson was one of the pyramid toppers in Mary Kay FOREVER. She was a top sales director when I was in the company in 1998. She didn’t want to become a national sales director because she would have made less money than she was making as a director. So the company changed the compensation plan, because it looked bad if someone like Lisa didn’t want to move up to the TOP position.
The party has come to an end for Lisa, as she just retired from Mary Kay at Leadership Conference. The company presented her with a plaque for making $17 million in commissions in her time with MK. She is the highest earner ever.
This whole “top earner” thing has to irritate Gloria Mayfield Banks. For years, she was always at the top of the list for earnings. Now she sits atop no more.
Let’s just remember: The only way someone makes millions in Mary Kay is for loads of women below her in the pyramid to LOSE millions. It’s not a business. It’s a wealth transfer scheme disguised as a business.
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The last few sentences of this article are spot on! Saddening how many end up losing just for ONE person to win. And I wonder what was their actual take home of those commissions. In MK land, it’s like expenses, travel, the “trainings”, loss of inventory etc. just don’t exist from an accounting perspective. P&L is important context that they never share.
And it amazes me that Gloria had 6,000 consultants…I’m willing to bet not even half of them made over a few thousand dollars. With such a large of volume of consultants + all the other consultants that were underneath other NSDs, the pool was and is saturated beyond market demand. Literally everyone is a consultant, so who’s going to be your customer?! Oh right…that doesn’t really matter. SMH
Guess who the current top director in commissions and unit club is? None other than Lisa’s nepo baby Rachel Madson Zarling. No surprise there.
Chelsea has been shining in Mary Kay for over a decade, driving a pink Cadillac
Well apart from those years Priceless Chels had too many points on her license to qualify for the lease and had to buy a second hand one to make up for it. Some-one remarked to Chels policeman husband about her bad driving!
Plus Chelsea doesn’t sell a single item at “50%” profit, this is proven by her constant social media BOGOs and giveaways…yet in the same post she’ll tell those she’s trying to recruit that THEY will make that 50% profit…frankly I think it’s insulting that she contradicts herself in that way, like does she really think all of her recruits or potential recruits are too stupid to figure that out? And she’s never “crowned million” or whatever she calls it…so exactly how successful IS she with her “playing makeup” bizniss? What does she actually make a year once her product and other costs are factored in? She’s not profiting on her BOGO product sales, so it must come from commissions and bonuses, right? It can’t be much, I’d think. Definitely not “executive” income. Does she even make 50k a year? Or is it more like 30k (and without basic benefits or healthcare!)
I’m genuinely curious how many sales directors and NSDs are single and/or are the sole income earner in their households. I feel like many of the popular SDs and NSDs are married or have partners supporting them. So healthcare benefits and other funds likely come from them. I want to hear from the ladies handing everything in their own —is what they are bringing in truly enough to pay all their bills, groceries and essentials, and have a little extra profit for fun? Like no extra checks or side gigs…purely MK money taking care of all their needs and wants. Idk but I’m not convinced. Yet these are the women they often target for the opportunity and tell them it’s possible despite not experiencing themselves. Rey saddening.
Great article, Tracy, and I really enjoyed the title!
Some simple math. If Lisa had 6000 consultants ordering the qualifying mininum (~1000/year) and she gets a blended commission rate of 15% of those orders (which is overly generous), that’s ~$1M in commission revenue annually. All without a requirement for a single product to be sold outside the downline!
But if she’s been at this for 40 years, she has averaged less than half of that. This means many if not most of her downline is not staying “active” for even one year. In reality, she’s likely getting front-load orders from new recruits, most of whom soon go inactive, and she loses more than half her team every year to MLM churn. Only a tiny percentage stay active after that initial order. Even at an unrealistically low 50% churn rate, she’ll lose 90% of her downline in less than 4 years without heavy recruiting. Churn and burn baby!
What a business. The greatest concern naturally becomes recruiting, as orders, not product sales, are what drive Lisa’s revenue, and she loses so many “ordering” consultants to churn annually that must be replaced. Just think of the recruiting pressure she puts on her downline.
Get recruiting, people!!!
I hoped you would chime in! Your names suits you perfectly. You do have a way with numbers.
In addition to what you are saying, if the new recruits return their product, the commission is recalled, is that not correct? Her big earnings do not reflect commission recall .
The “doctor” title GMB uses is an honorary title and not a true doctoral degree. I get a little frosty with folks like GMB who LOVE to use the title “Dr.” before their names. I finish my doctorate in May, so yes, I can be addressed as Doctor Nurse Heather (which one of the attending physicians already calls me).
I remember when Lisa hit the two-million-dollar mark. She sat at the top for over a decade before moving into her NSD role, only after the compensation plan was changed. Of course, after becoming an NSD, she shot right to the top of the NSD earnings lists.
My sister’s boss/friend has multiple PhDs and is basically brilliant. He hates being called Doctor. The only one who ever calls him Doctor Lastname is my sister, when he’s gotten on her last frayed nerve and is the verbal equivalent to a skunk turning around and raising its tail.