Stop Blaming Mary Kay
I’ve never felt a “need” to have haters, and I had no idea that Mary Kay needed haters. Glad we can help!
With my MK business, I don’t have a store at all, yet I seem to do just fine with it. I have several customeers who are out of state even. I make enough in my business to pay all of my bills and have extra cash for whatever.
MK is also a numbers game. You can’t get discouraged or take it personal when someone tells you no, you just have to play out the numbers. I will admit, direct sales of any kind isn’t for everybody, but why try to turn everyone away? I’ve come across this site and pink truth several times by researching info to help me grow my business, and all I read is negativity. If you spend as much time being positive about something as you do at being negative, you could possibly change.the world.
Everyone needs haters, and if someone is hating on you or what you do, then you are obviously doing something right! I’m sorry that MK didn’t work out for ya’ll, and I’m sorry that you feel you have lost friends bc of it, but don’t blame the company as a whole, or even the vast majority of the consultants and directors.
Just like at any store, you run into people who are inconsiderate, and pushy, and when that happens, what do you do? I’m willing to put $$ on the fact that you either go to another store, or you don’t go to their register. Same thing with MK, you don’t like the consultant for whatever reason, then talk about your concerns with her, and if that doesn’t work, then find another consultant. I’m sure that if you tell the new consultant your concerns, she will damn near leap mountains to make you a happier customer.
Yes, MK may have a turnover rate, but look at the resturant business, or even retail stores, they have huge turnover rates too. All of my customers and even team members are happy with MK as a product and as a company. But like it’s been said several times before, anything worth having is worth working for. And fact is, I know several women personally who are millionaires who made their millions starting off as a consultant just like me.
If your director pushes you, it’s only to help you achieve your goals. She has her own goals for herself and as a unit. The only way to achieve any goal is to work toward it, no matter what it is. And any business you may start, whether it be MK, resturant, or even mechanics, you have to work at it to keep it going.
Also, to truly see any significant profit, no matter what the business is, you have to give it a min of 3-5 years. If you quit before then, then you just gave up. So, stop blaming MK, or even consultants for your misfortune, we didn’t hold a gun to your head and make you do anything you didn’t want to do. It’s pretty funny tho how our marketing plan is taught in top universities including Harvard! Think about it, why would it be taught if it didn’t work?
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“And fact is, I know several women personally who are millionaires who made their millions starting off as a consultant just like me.”
You go, Robin Leach 🙄 I know two millionaires (one’s family owned a department store and invested their money wisely; the other’s grandfather made a fortune selling a product that every business needs but no one thinks about. She still owns and manages the company) and neither one ever mentions their money.
As for the rest of this disordered, repetitive thought-cancelling cliche fest, it’s the last real day of my vacation and I’ve still got all the stuff I was supposed to do earlier this week to not do.
Hope you had a relaxing and enjoyable vacay.
With my MK business, I don’t have a store at all, yet I seem to do just fine with it. I have several customeers (sic) who are out of state even. I make enough in my business to pay all of my bills and have extra cash for whatever.
Sure Jan GIF. However, since you didn’t provide any evidence to prove your point, I’m choosing to disbe-LIE-ve you since I’ve seen this.
https://www.marykay.ca/-/media/images/mk/united-states/canada/esuite/footer/canadian-statement-of-typical-participant-earnings-2025.pdf
MK is also a numbers game.
Yup, for every one person to make a profit, 249 lose money. Also according to Mary Kay Wagner Rogers Eckman Weaver
LouisMiller Hallenbeck Ash’s corporate figures.You can’t get discouraged or take it personal when someone tells you no, you just have to play out the numbers. I will admit, direct sales of any kind isn’t for everybody, but why try to turn everyone away?
Then why do people boldly proclaim” any-one can sell{insert MLM product of your choice}?” or “make executive pay in part time work”? or “instead of doom-scrolling while watching Netflix, make money from your phone”?
(General) You can’t make claims of it being profitable for anyone who wants in while screaming out of the other side of your mouth ” direct sales of any kind isn’t for everybody”!
I’ve come across this site and pink truth several times by researching info to help me grow my business, and all I read is negativity.
Sadly, the negativity you see on here is coming from inside Mary Kay directors groups.
If you spend as much time being positive about something as you do at being negative, you could possibly change.the (sic) world.
If we can provide the guidance to get one person out of Mary Kay or any other MLM company, the we have changed the world for the better. And we have so …
Everyone needs haters, and if someone is hating on you or what you do, then you are obviously doing something right!
Or maybe, just maybe… you are doing everything wrong?? Religious manipulation and family neglection in the pursuit of the almighty dollar is and always will be wrong.
I’m sorry that MK didn’t work out for ya’ll (sic) , and I’m sorry that you feel you have lost friends bc (sic) of it, but don’t blame the company as a whole, or even the vast majority of the consultants and directors.
The blame is laid firmly at the pink pump clad feet of Mary Kay or these days the loafer clad feet of Ryan. She choose the sales model and both her son and grandson choose to follow in her footsteps. The fact that nearly all of the IBCs and SDs embrace the MLM structure with enthusiasm is also worthy of blame.
Know what else is taught at Harvard? The Holocaust. Enron. Ebola. Khmer Rouge. Just because you got featured in a case study isn’t necessarily a good thing. And Harvard has issued a cease and desist to stop telling lies about MK having anything to do with them so it’s a moot point.
PTC, you don’t believe your own BS do you? It’s one thing to be fooled into believing the claims of millions from “fake it til you make it” MLM peddlers, who are a dime a dozen. Or the silly claim that MLM is “taught” at elite business schools. But it sounds like you also believe you are personally making a true business profit with Mary Kay.
Talk is cheap. As for all the wild success claims coming from MLMers like yourself, prove it. We have been asking this of every MLMer who makes these claims, and none has done it. Redact your PII data and share your otherwise unmodified tax forms and business ledger.
Unless/until you are willing to substantiate your otherwise unbelievable claims, please spare us the repetition. We simply don’t believe you, and certainly won’t just take your word for it, especially after you repeated the lie about the business schools, likely lie of millions made by your upline.
Show us there is something positive to report about your “business”. Without it, all we have is the industry knowledge that nearly every MLM participant loses money, and of the tiny fraction who turn a profit, for most it is nothing to brag about for the hours invested. I assume you are actually losing money, and the industry statistics are firmly on my side.
We’re waiting for evidence of your success…but not holding our breath!
Just like at any store, you run into people who are inconsiderate, and pushy, and when that happens, what do you do? I’m willing to put $$ on the fact that you either go to another store, or you don’t go to their register.
Or I could buy on-line removing the whole inter-personal relationship. However if the only local supermarket is the one that I have problems with then I’m stuck with it.
Same thing with MK, you don’t like the consultant for whatever reason, then talk about your concerns with her, and if that doesn’t work, then find another consultant. I’m sure that if you tell the new consultant your concerns, she will damn near leap mountains to make you a happier customer.
Except your average IBC can’t change MKI from an MLM into another business structure which is the whole reason I have a problem with the company and those other companies which operate on the same MLM/network marketing/direct sales formula.
Yes, MK may have a turnover rate, but look at the resturant (sic) business, or even retail stores, they have huge turnover rates too.
No-one has said otherwise.
All of my customers and even team members are happy with MK as a product and as a company.
And??? Anecdote does not equal data.
But like it’s been said several times before, anything worth having is worth working for. And fact is, I know several women personally who are millionaires who made their millions starting off as a consultant just like me.
Really?? You’ve seen their bank balances? Or proof positive of their liquid assets? On paper, I’m worth more than a million.
If your director pushes you, it’s only to help you achieve your goals. She has her own goals for herself and as a unit.
Her sole goal is MONEY. Money for her, a career car for her, a trip for her, recognition for her. Your wants and needs don’t matter to your SD since the average IBC is just her personal ATM for achieving it.
The only way to achieve any goal is to work toward it, no matter what it is. And any business you may start, whether it be MK, resturant (sic), or even mechanics, you have to work at it to keep it going.
Again, no-one is saying differently. There are a lot of factors involved in creating a successful business including market saturation and timing. If (general) you are the twentieth Mary Kay IBC in a town of 10,000 you are going to struggle to make any sales.
Also, to truly see any significant profit, no matter what the business is, you have to give it a min of 3-5 years. If you quit before then, then you just gave up.
Or you could look at the figures from not only MKCanada or the FTC or any other MLM which issues an income disclosure* and decide that that you are throwing good money after bad and walk away before you are in too much debt.
* Canadian federal law requires MLM companies to publish an easily accessible IDS so check the Canadian website for details.
So, stop blaming MK, or even consultants for your misfortune, we didn’t hold a gun to your head and make you do anything you didn’t want to do.
Same old lazy cliches.
It’s pretty funny tho (sic) how our marketing plan is taught in top universities including Harvard!
Which school? Medicine, law, business?? Who wrote the book from which it is studied? How much of the syllabus is devoted to it? Can you send me a photocopy of any thesis’s written on the topic?
Think about it, why would it be taught if it didn’t work?
Universities also study the regimes of Ian Smith in South Africa and Idi Amin in Uganda. Both at the time and now in hindsight, we realise just how bad both were . So your point is rather meaningless. Not everything studied is good and not everything good is studied.
“I know several women personally who are millionaires who made their millions starting off as a consultant”
How do KNOW they are millionaires? (You don’t.)
— They may have told you they are millionaires.
— They may call themselves “Million-Dollar Directors.”
— They could be wealthy from family money, or they could even be in debt.
So, no, you don’t really KNOW if they “made millions” with Mary Kay unless you have intimate knowledge of their IRS statements.
And even among millionaires, there are “poor millionaires” who have more debt than available cash, as opposed to “rich millionaires” who are solvent.
Even if someone can prove that all their assets add up to a million, there’s a big difference between having it to spend and having it tied up in credit card debt, mortgages, stocks, trusts etc.
“Million dollar director” is just meaningless MK fluff, since all it means is that the director, and mostly her downline, who don’t see any of the benefits of their sacrifice, bought a whole lotta crap they don’t need and won’t sell.
One of the reasons that “The World’s Richest Person” changes from day to day is that those like Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg have the majority of their wealth tied up in stocks and shares in their companies. As the companies rise and fall on Wall Street and the NASDAQ exchanges, that creates the fluctuating wealth value.
Louder for the people in the back!
“Million-Dollar Directors.” … Add up ALL the commission checks for their entire career, ignoring the chargebacks and car co-pays … and if it’s close to $1,000,000 you are a “Million Dollar Director”.
By those standards, anyone whose salary was $50k with a 20-year career is a millionaire.
Million dollar director means 500K in wholesale orders. Even if they had 50 unit members each one of those consultants would need to order at least 10K in product for the year. The statistics show a director must constantly be recruiting to keep 50 active unit members. Will they all order 10K? No, so she will keep recruiting and keep supplementing her production so she can claim she is a million dollar director when really all she is doing is collecting orders for MK corporate.
The exception to constant recruiting is if you are lucky enough inherit your NSD Mother’s unit when she retires, like for example: Rachel Zarling. She went from a mediocre unit to over 1.1 million ( and counting, year not over yet) after momma Lisa Madson handed Rachel the Madson unit right before she officially retired. One of the perks of your mom being a top NSD. Mediocre to a million and most likely will be crowned Queen of Unit “Sales” in one short Seminar year.