Written by SuzyQ

Let’s talk about the prizes. Oh, the prizes.

When Mary Kay directors and NSDs offer a major prize there are a couple of contingencies working here… First and foremost, your director can’t afford much, so the prizes are, shall we say, meaningful, but tacky? Our usual vendors make a mint during the last 3 months of the seminar year, and in June, oh my, the prizes in June! They are cheap, really cheap. And very often, the directors offer CA$H! That’s right! Actual money you can spend. If you win the drawing.

It goes something like this… if you order $200 in June you get one entry into the $500 cash drawing… $400 gets you two entries and so on… This is to reach the unit goal of $20,000 or some extraordinary number. (Now your unit has never done whatever the goal is, but this is June!!!! The month of miracles for those who BEE-lieve, so anything is possible.)

Guess what? The director never has the drawing because the goal is never reached, but you aren’t privy to that part of the contest… But, hey, production is up! And this is called “Sucking the unit dry in June.” And that means July will be pretty awful.

Second… many of the NSD prizes offered will, in fact, have to be purchased by your director. Betcha didn’t know that, eh? An added expense for her. Actually, in my decade long career, I only received one prize directly from my NSD that my senior did not have to purchase, and quite frankly, I am not entirely sure she didn’t have to pay for it then… NSDs don’t have to buy stuff any more. Too busy, I guess.

As directors, we tell ourselves a couple of things:

1. Who else gets a prize for “just doin’ our jobs?”
2. If you don’t like the prize, save it and give it to one of your team members, the goal is to earn everything that is offered and
3. Same thing, but save it for your director debut and give it to the “winners” of your diq courts and last but not least,
4. It’s not the prize itself, it’s being a team player, and your potential unit will treat you the way you treated your director.

Audible sigh, they have an answer for everything. Don’t fall for it.