Written by SuzyQ

Welcome home from Seminar!!! It was wonderful wasn’t it? The best one ever! AND you received the gift of hearing exactly what you needed to hear, exactly when you needed to hear it. If you had lots of consultants attend from your Unit, well, then… You go girl! Not so many? One maybe? Well, that’s okay. She caught what was taught, and off you go on the new Seminar year adventure!

The classes were awesome! Such great unit building ideas! Different ways of doing consistency clubs—recognizing sales—wow, you needed to hear that! And off you go! Been to the negative site, yet? Whew, glad that is out of your system, now you can set your course, and there will be NO negativity permitted this year. I am so glad you were able to buy motivational tools at the vendors, (not to mention the unit prizes)… saves the shipping charges! And they will turn it all around for you! This is truly your year! Top director trip, here you come! On to NSD! THIS year is your year!!!

Except. Just a little except… the production is down. Nobody orders in July, because you sucked them dry in June, and there’s nothing much to order in August and everybody is busy getting ready for back to school or last minute vacations. You did remember to tell your unit members to recruit and book and sell when they were at the family reunions, didn’t you? THE BACK TO SCHOOL SALES. There we go! You can run one of those sales and get some extra money and maybe even a class or two on the books because everybody wants a new look for a new school year. Except that your hostesses are not willing to book a class. It’s too hot, too humid, too something… and the plan you wrote down at Seminar is not working. All you need to do is Gold Medal, and your business changes. That’s all there is to it!

You have Gold Medaled before, in DIQ, remember? Everybody Gold Medals in DIQ! You were told, again, that you are the best consultant in your unit and you know that is true, and the speed of the leader is the speed of the gang, you can’t follow a parked car, so you are MACH THREE WITH YOUR HAIR ON FIRE! You are a booking machine and a recruiting magnet! You heard this again, over and over… it’s in your notes. PLUS… you are the one who recruits directors! You remember, directors recruit directors! Please, God, send them your way.

Has the guilt started yet? The fear that immobilizes you? Are you making new tracking sheets instead of making new contacts? Running out of names? Hostesses? Designing new contests for your consultants? Updating your social media with new pictures from Seminar? Changing your voicemail? Redoing your newsletter? Sending out different emails and text messages? You did send some messages from Dallas to your unit members who didn’t attend Seminar didn’t you? Is your NSD planning some new promotion to help you directors out? Did you have a “Power Up Day” to keep this seminar momentum going? Do you have one planned for the Holiday product intro?

It’s awfully hard to throw the ball or row the boat by yourself, isn’t it?

Have you noticed that your hotshots have cooled down, and you have a unit of dead reds, or personal use consultants? They obviously don’t get it. Your job is not to revive the dead, but to give birth! Except, there aren’t that many women out there who want what you can offer. Big change.

The internet leveled the playing field and women are as likely to find a “negative” site when they are checking this amazing opportunity out as they are to find a “pink” site. What to do with that? Easy, shoot the messengers! These disenfranchised women are just that… negative, lazy and unwilling to do what it takes to be successful. Sour grapes. Bad apples. Full of negativity. Examples of demonic possession.

Thank goodness you know how to deflect these objections! Get yourself on the unit’s website, and you’ll find scripts. Common objections and the responses are listed! Whew.

But. There is always a “but.” Have you noticed it is not as easy as it used to be? Your hostesses are not willing to be hostesses any more? Your models know what happens at meetings, and don’t want to be a model, or be in your portfolio, or have a computer generated make over guide they can print out and take home. The gift certificates are not redeemed, and all of time you spent promoting some contest or another is going to be a loss this year, too. You can’t offer as much “bang for your buck” as you used to, because that cuts too deeply into your profit margin. This leaves you with the young girls who are very enthusiastic until they talk to their moms.

So here you are. Post seminar, ready to go, loaded for bear and not only are the bears gone, you can’t even find the forest anymore. If you have been pursuing the dream of NSD for 5 or 10 years, and it’s not any closer, take a look at the numbers. I mean, really, take a look at the numbers.

Look at your own areas, and count the directors who come and go. Look at your own units and count the consultants who come and go. This is like Vegas, Baby, and the odds are not in your favor. Mary Kay Inc. always wins. The House always wins, and you have been gambling with your life.