Written by Parsons Green

Cindy Sheppa has been in Mary Kay for almost 25 years and has earned 7 top director trips. In 2025, she missed out on her 8th director trip.

Then in 2026, she missed out for the second year in a row. She and her unit only did the $500,000 unit club ($250,000 in wholesale orders).

Cindy used Facebook messenger so much that she was locked out of her account! What a horrible thing to do to a business owner and CEO. (What happened? She was messaging people she didn’t know, trying to sell MK, at such a high rate that FB brought the hammer down and made her stop.)

When she started seeing pictures from this year’s trip to Switzerland, she felt sad. She and her husband always looked forward to these trips. She dried her tears and pledged to be on the next trip to Rome.

Cindy jumped on the latest Mary Kay trend of K Beauty.

And earlier this month, Mary Kay reignited her desire to take her husband to Rome. IT HAS BEEN HARD FOR KEN! Not going on a Mary Kay trip has been so hard for both of them! Mary Kay sent Cindy a glamorous passport holder to remind her that she is on target to earn this trip. She even admits they are nowhere close to where they need to be at this point in the year, but declares that they will earn this trip. (If she’s so far off the mark, how is she “on target”???)

Plus, Cindy still *owes* Rome to her husband.

Cindy again declares her love for the new K Beauty products. She clowns herself up to demonstrate how well one of the products removes makeup which will be perfect for the upcoming Halloween season.

Mary Kay is so, so good at intermittent rewards. They dish out enough positive reinforcement to keep women going. Most importantly, it keeps women purchasing products that they don’t need and won’t sell. You KNOW that at the end of the seminar year, Cindy’s credit card is going to get a workout to top off production if they are anywhere near the production needed for the trip.

These women are not running a business. If they had a real mind for business, they would see what is happening, evaluate it objectively, and conclude that this is a losing proposition. Production continues to go down as Mary Kay Inc. continues its downward spiral. But WHEEEEEE!!! Mary Kay is giving Cindy the “Go Give Award” in February 2027. Way to go MK…. an intermittent reward that keeps her engaged and positive and spending money. This is part of the false hope that Mary Kay has used as a manipulation tactic from the start.