http://www.pinktruth.com

Last time I wrote, I talked about discovering our true dreams and goals after Mary Kay. Of course, knowing what we want is a big step. And many of you responded, talking about your goals and dreams, AND what you’re already doing to get there. (Yeah!) But sometimes, those dreams seem so far away, it’s hard to see how we can ever get there. Life gets in the way. After a really daunting experience (like, say, trying to make a success out of Mary Kay), moving forward can seem so difficult, we can’t even see where we want to go. .

So much of what holds us back is how we feel about ourselves. We made mistakes, and we feel bad about them. Sometimes, we feel bad about feeling bad – we tell ourselves, “Get over it, already!” But feeling bad about it does nothing to help – what we need are some tools to help ourselves get over it. We need to understand that that moving forward with our goals is worth the effort. That we are worth it. Maybe we need a little time to understand that our – and forgive ourselves.  Because guess what? YOU are worth it.

This piece is by one of my favorite brainiacs, Mary Kay national sales director Anita Garrett-Roe. We've learned in previous posts how Anita goes about stealing recruits while technically following the rules, why it's a good thing to have a class with no sales when a new recruit is watching, and a sneaky little technique she calls "backup recruits".

Today's lesson is all about getting a big inventory order out of a new recruit. This is something that the do-it-fasters like Dacia Wiegandt call "pulling inventory". (Isn't "pulling" so appropriate? Kinda like pulling teeth?)

Hello Pink Truth:

I stumbled on your site by accident. I read on just to see if you had uncovered some things about MLM businesses that might be new and different and, of course, accurate.  To my disappointment, I found many generalized short statements not supported by sufficient detail to help any objective person to learn anything about the businesses.

The IRS does make a distinction between a pyramid and a multilevel marketing business.  Your web sit confuses and jumbles the two. 

Here's another one of those Mary Kay "training" items that is really meant to make you feel like you just didn't work hard enough. Who couldn't five extra hours a week to do something important like Mary Kay???

Well, I'm sure that if we all tried, we really might be able to find five extra hours to do something that we're really motivated to do. But the truth is that you can't really get anywhere in Mary Kay with five hours a week. There is a far bigger time commitment if you want to do anything more than make some pocket change.

So what is the motivation for making you feel like a loser who didn't try enough? Well, hopefully you will be guilted to put in one more order to get back that "active" status . (As if it really means anything at all.) Maybe you'll put in another order to "finish your star."

You see, these types of documents are meant to squeeze every bit of life out of you that they can. Maybe you'll put in one more order before you call it quits. Maybe you'll twist the arm of one more recruit who will hopefully put in an order.

Did your sales director ever tell you, “Don’t let anyone steal your dream”? Well, that was good advice. As long as you know what your dream is. The trouble is, once you’ve spent enough time in the pink fog, it can be hard to tell the difference between your dream, and an artificial “dream” handed to you by Mary Kay, your sales director, NSD, or… well, who knows where it really came from? Once that happens, as with much else in MLM, the true words from your sales director’s mouth become a “pink lie” to trap you. They lie, by telling you that giving up Mary Kay is giving up on your dream . They may even tell you that we, here at Pink Truth, are dream stealers. But I am here to tell you: Giving up Mary Kay does not mean giving up on your dream.

In fact, for many of us, giving up MLM is the first step on the path to rediscovering our dreams. But sometimes, the next step can be so hard to see.  Mary Kay (or any MLM, for that matter) has a way of replacing our identities with false Mary-Kay-centered identities, and replacing our dreams with false, Mary-Kay-centered dreams. So, in order to move on, we have to remember who we really are , and what we really want and need in our lives.  This is one reason recovering from MLM can be so hard . But we, at PT, are here to help.

If you are recovering from Mary Kay MLM, and wondering what to do with your life now, here’s a place to begin. What attracted you to Mary Kay MLM in the first place? Did they promise you something that sounded like a dream come true? Maybe...

The end of the month is a critical time for your sales director as she is calculating how big (or in most cases, how small) her commission check is going to be. Did you know how little sales directors make? Even if your unit does $10,000 wholesale production in one month, your sales director is probably only getting a commission check of $2,000 to $2,500. Not the big bucks you thought she was getting, huh?

So as the end of the month approaches, your sales director is looking for any and every way to get more wholesale orders from the unit. How many times have you been asked to place an order to "help the unit", etc.?

I’ve decided to spend my evening relaxing a bit. Put the feet up, light a candle or two, and pop in the New Consultant Inventory Talk CD by NSD Dawn Sweeney. I know, I know - to subject myself to such terror of my own free will is scary, but egads, it must be done!The last track on this CD both delivers and sickens, my friends – it features Sweeney and a brand-new consultant having a lively back-and-forth conversation regarding inventory.

Imagine yourself in the front row of this pink pow-wow, only instead of wearing your Great Value pantyhose (hey, it was a pack of six for three bucks – lay off!) you’re wearing baggy shorts, flip-flops, and a shirt bearing a witty slogan, such as “Don’t Hassel the Hoff.” Count how many times you cringe as you read through this transcription - my comments are in bold:

Mary Kay Inc. claims that they really want consultants to sell products. The truth is that corporate really only cares about ORDERS, and they don't care what the consultant does with it after the order is placed. Here's the proof.

This is what a Mary Kay sales director sees when she goes into Mary Kay InTouch and looks at her "to do" list from the company. Looks to me like it's all about orders!