Get Out Now
Written by SuzyQ
I returned my inventory in 2007 using a form that Pink Truth created, because Mary Kay was of little help if you wanted to send back products. I think I got about $3,000 back.
My senior director did not know. She knew I had lost my director status but was excited to tell me I was still a team leader and could build a unit again. I was her first director, and my God, the money I made for that woman. She got the commission hit in June. Perfect! We haven’t spoken since.
When I was heavily into Mary Kay, I was told to burn my bridges (RN, therapist credentials) and so I did. Mary Kay Ash (was that six or seven husbands?) did not want her directors to “work” so I let my licenses and certifications go inactive. After I returned my product, MK math did its work and my blue check was nowhere near what I had expected and counted on.
I needed a job, I had no credentials. I was hired by a company that called people for donations for progressive candidates and organizations. No resume needed. I was working with a bunch of idealistic young adults. They were very kind and welcoming to me. I was making $9/hr. No insurance, no anything. Mucinex and Advil got me through. I had to declare bankruptcy.
It was the most humiliating period of my life. I went from 18 initials behind my name and a career I was proud of… to feeling like a totally wasted loser.
On my resume, I stated I had a leadership role in a large cosmetic direct sales company. I had a huge gap from the regular workforce during my years in MK and wanted to explain it. I mentioned soft transferable skills like leadership, mentoring, sales, organizational skills, public speaking and networking. Somehow it worked.
I interviewed for a job at a non-profit organization helping domestic violence victims. I didn’t get it. A month or so later, I got a call from the director telling me she had a perfect job for me. (It was!) I did the interview and got the job. Tracy (Pink Truth founder) sent me gift cards to get a new wardrobe. (Bless you REAL good!)
The job paid better than the previous job and I was able to restore my licenses and credentials at considerable personal expense of time and money. But I got those darn credentials back in spite of the terrible, terrible Mary Kay advice.
This is the first time I have acknowledged this on this forum. I do it now because the Mary Kay peeps who “stumble onto” this page need to know what is happening now. Have professional help with your resumes, return your product while you can and GET THE F OUT!
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Congratulations for getting your life back! I had a friend who became a director who was a marriage and family counselor. She too was told to let her J.O.B. Slide away. Fortunately, she did not listen and kept her credentials.
I always refer back to Mary Kay’s cult mentality. Cults want to cut you off from anything in the outside world, Mary Kay wants to cut you off from anything outside the pink bubble. They’re the same. My friend let her directorship expire after one year and went back to her counseling job where she had actual security. It wasn’t too long after that she returned inventory.
To the lurkers, if you have a good job and you’re in the Mary Kay bubble do not let anyone convince you to quit and do Mary Kay full time. You will regret it. If you hate your current job, find a different one. But don’t believe the lie that doing Mary Kay full time is going to replace a secure full time job with benefits.
I hope that in a crisis I would have a smidgen of your resilience, SuzyQ. And Tracy, you’re a mensch.
During my brief life as a consultant, my director held her weekly meetings (waste of time!) with another director and her group.
I was horrified at the level of pressure placed on attendees to quit their job- when clearly nobody was really making any regular sales/income. One naive young lady was cheered and celebrated when she announced at one meeting that she was quitting her job to sell Mary Kay full time. It was sadly obvious that she did not have a solid backup plan or fat bank account to save her once she inevitably realized you only lose money in Mary Kay.
My director let slip to me that the other director secretly had a waitress job in order to pay her bills. We both quit soon after and she helped me return my inventory- best feeling ever!
Is that picture AI? If so, it’s scary good.
Thank you for sharing SuzyQ. What an ordeal. These stories are not unique and need to be shared. That takes courage to share!
The only people I know of making any real money selling their wares out of their homes are artisans, who sell unique and/or one-of-a-kind items. And most of them also have an online presence for national (and sometimes global) reach. Etsy provides a shared platform to enable this type of selling.
Selling commodity retail out of your home when hundreds of thousands of others are selling the exact same product at the exact same price cannot scale. Especially when you can’t open a unique store-front (brick and mortar or online) to differentiate your offering.
The folks making the big bucks in MLM are not doing so through personal product sales. They are recruiting and building a huge downline, from which they profit primarily off front-loading…which is an MLM term for sales to their own down-line sales folks. Need proof? Notice how the upline’s biggest flex is their commission checks? If a successful MK rep were selling tons of product, her flex would be her true profit margin. That is her cumulative sales revenue after expenses. None of the MLM bigwigs talks about cumulative sales margins, because that is not how they are making money.
The primary customer in most MLMs is the sales force. No outside sales necessary!
It’s a fake opportunity, people. The only way to make it big on MLM is to create a huge team of downline losers to fund your commission checks.