Mary Kay Terminated Nsd Tehrie Brinkley
As Mary Kay Cosmetics scrambles to save itself from going under, cost cutting measures continue to be implemented. Perks have been taken away from national sales directors (the top of the pyramid) and the “retirement” of nsds has been included.
One has to wonder if the company isn’t searching for reasons to terminate nsds, too. These pyramid toppers cost the company money, so any nsd they can eliminate immediately increases profits.
Last week, nsd Tehrie Brinkley announced on Facebook that after 4 years as a national sales director, Mary Kay Inc. has terminated her contract, effective April 1, 2026. Tehrie started with Mary Kay in 2016, and became a national sales director in late 2021. That’s fast! Check out her announcement of the termination:
Tehrie’s explanation for the termination was that Mary Kay did not like some of her social media posts, and they are able to terminate the contract if they want to. There is speculation as to what she could have posted that caused this. Could it be one of her paid events? (Remember, Kristin Sharpe and Brittani Jenks are currently under investigation for this very thing.)
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Or does it have anything to do with her work as a nurse practitioner? She posts frequently about that, and you know how Mary Kay gets bothered at outside business interests that they haven’t approved…
Or is it something else that I’ll need a little helper to tell me about?
No matter what it is, Tehrie says she’ll continue working until April 1 because she has lots of women who are counting on her to lead them. But people are speaking up. Tara Pratt wants to know how other people like Pam Shaw, Linda Toupin, and Cindy Williams could “say whatever they wanted” on social media.
Chelsea Adkins is watching what she says!
Former nsd Caterina Harris Earl thinks Tehri “rose the bar” for everyone. (Raised. The word you’re looking for is raised.)
And Tehrie’s friend thinks God is protecting her, and kindly linked to the D Magazine article about Mary Kay’s sinking ship.
Let this be a reminder to all: Mary Kay can terminate your contract at any time, for any reason, or for virtually no reason at all.
Visit the 
I can’t help but wonder if Ryan Rogers knows the truth about front-loading. Without a significant drop in retail prices, I don’t see how MKC can sell enough product to outside consumers to stay in business.
Getting rid of the high cost of the downline makes sense if you are trying to contain costs. But the downline is also providing significant revenue via front-loading. To get outside consumers purchasing at the rates the sales force was “ordering” would require significant price restructuring, marketing, advertising and other changes to increase product “value”.
Then again, if MyShop is really only a token gesture to ward off FTC action, and nobody chooses to use it, the MK pyramid can continue to operate as it always has. MKC can demonstrate that the suckers at the bottom are choosing to over-order even when it is clearly not necessary, while showing that MK has provided a simple path to selling without front-loading.
But it remains that MKC still depends heavily on front-loading. Trimming costs only from the top certainly makes more sense if MyShop is just an FTC diversion, and MKC is not ready to abandon the downline entirely. But what becomes the incentive to devote your life to this if the big prize (NSD) goes away?
I find all of this quite fascinating. Ryan is walking a tightrope.
Ryan is definitely not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he certainly knows EXACTLY what frontloading is and how it is what fully funds MK Inc. He is also hoping that somehow the affiliate model works. He is lying to himself and saying that consultants actually sell the inventory that they order. So it will be easy to convert that to direct-to-customer sales, right?
Why the 6 weeks’ notice of termination? Does this just buy MKC time to calculate commissions for her final payment?
If it was January 8, that’s almost 3 months. That’s interesting to me.
I hope a little helper will be involved 😉🍿
Me too! But my guess is that Tehrie is keeping the details SERIOUSLY under wraps.
Is Tara Pratt seriously insinuating that this termination is based on race?
I didn’t read it that way. I read it as those women are the OG untouchables.
Another perfect example of “My Small Business” versus “Being Terminated By The Corporation Behind It”.
This! Directors and NSDs love to say this is so different from a 9-5 and corporate is the real pyramid scheme. No ma’am. If you don’t play by MKC’s rules, you too can and will be terminated whenever they get ready to let you go. MKC id the boss and that’s the thing they don’t want to accept.
Anyone in their right mind would take this situation and reflect on the fact that it could be them at any moment. But so many in her comments will likely keep on keeping on despite saying they’re shocked and feeling like it’s an error on MK’s part. I truly wonder what will be enough to make people stop the shenanigans and give it up?!
What’s interesting to me is that if it were based on just social media posts – why not give her a warning to take those posts down and not do them again? Even after her termination Tehrie is actively supporting her down line to continue to chase their Mary Kay goals
One thing I did find was that Tehrie signed up for class on receiving her Botox certification. This was the caption on a TikTok post she did after she signed up.
https://i.imgur.com/uoto0pN.jpg
So I wonder if it is a combination of having these events and telling Mary Kay customers that eventually they may need Botox as part of their skin care routine!
Unless we get a little birdie to spill some tea, we may never know.
But one thing I’d love to know –
Who’s next?
I guess she won’t be collecting much of a Mary Kay pension.
Another thought I just had – I wonder if she was terminated because she and her down line weren’t bringing her $100,000 or more in commissions per year? And instead of admitting that and making her team feel bad, she came up with the excuse that it was for social media posts?
MKC is definitely pruning and I think the NSDs who aren’t the “top performing” or daughters of former NSDs will be under a microscope. Those are the easiest to nit pick, sever ties with, and the salesforce would have limited outrage about. It just shows there’s a ranking even when you reach the highest position. I imagine she’s not the only one being let go this year, just the only to come out and announce so far. I wonder what will happen to her IBCs?
Maybe MKCs hope is by letting some leaders go the IBCs will eventually follow and drop off on their own without them having to do much before a shift.