Written by Raisinberry

Let’s welcome the new superstar who comes on board for the 2007-2008 Seminar year heading straight to the top. She is about to enter a land she has never experienced before… not even in Mrs. Turner’s Girl Scouts group or when she was in “Dance Angels” did she ever get “recognition” like this!

No, she has never, ever experienced the mind numbing whirlwind of a typical first year of prize acquisitions from Mary Kay Cosmetics. Nor will she ever fully realize the intent of having multiple contests blaring at her every time she opens Intouch or a Newsletter or gets on a Conference call. She is immediately “conditioned” for her first reward… her first prize is her Diamonelle Trillion Ring for her Sapphire Star Order!

When our star comes on board, she is focused on her “power start plus” to do her 30 faces and interviews to get her first recruit. Not only does she get her PS pearl pin, but doing that level of activity will also get her, her “Pearls of Sharing” necklace, then ear rings and then bracelet (should she set her sights on that second recruit before 30 days are up).

Along the way, she is informed that she must sell (order) 45 compacts to win a charm compact for her Miracles happen bracelet!! This of course is to celebrate the 45th Anniversary of enriching lives in Mary Kay. If she sells “the most”, she will win a designer handbag and a name badge ribbon for her Seminar ID.

Of course while she is ordering and selling all those compacts, she will be in front of faces, and that means marketing plan! If she has 3- $600 qualified recruits before June 30th, she gets to go to the “It’s in the Bag” reception and win a brown or black designer handbag!! But wait…if she adds one more, she gets the luncheon. But wait, if she adds one more she gets a wallet too, and if she is in the top 50, she gets to go ON STAGE in DALLAS!

The big deal of course was having 12 qualified by Dec 31 to win her Crystal bee earrings. She needed 16 Qualified by Feb 29th to win the crystal bee necklace, and the big kahuna… the anniversary dazzling diamond ring or pink sapphire and diamond bee pin for those 24 qualified!

But if you have 24 qualified, you will no doubt have 30 for DIRECTOR, and so you will also win the Class of 2008 Directors Ring! This includes your name badge ribbon and on stage walk for your oath! WHOPPEE. You are haute chocolate for Seminar in your new suit!

And gratefully, you had to keep adding to production all year, so you made the Star Consultant Consistency Challenge to win your 45th anniversary charm! If you are an Emerald or Pearl, you get to go eat the warm food at the luncheon! Pearls get to go on “stage”. Only $19,200 wholesale on your credit cards! And look at all those prizes!

Recruiting being the lifeblood of Mary Kay, all your recruiting efforts will get you into the CMA AWARDS because if you recruit the most in your Cadillac Unit, the Director and her Number One get to go!! That’s for all Seminars! See how many times you get more and more prizes for doing exactly the same thing?

But this doesn’t include all your Area contests. And Unit contests. You can win a Consistency Club prize for ordering a minimum every month…or a Charm bracelet with different Mk Charms, or an Add a bead necklace, or the weekly challenge just for doing something… ANYTHING… in Mary Kay! Doing your Area’s Pacesetters or Top Gun program is even more prizes for doing exactly the same thing.

You can even win a name badge ribbon and pin for 45 customers added to your preferred customer program for all 4 quarters!

And if that weren’t enough, you can collect $50 from your customers to qualify for your MKACF donation ribbon! Imagine how far down your name badge ribbons will go!

And because you made it to Director, you can qualify for additional things like becoming a Fabulous 50’s Director and get your $1000 Bonus! “On the right track” is another one for New Directors, because when you have $15K in wholesale at the end of month 3… guess what? Another $1000 Bonus! And don’t forget Honor’s Society on your one year anniversary! If you have $60K in wholesale and 50 Unit members, it’s another $1000 bonus to go for! You have so much to look forward to! So much to focus on!

And boy oh boy, if you were the highest Honor Society Member… one of the top three with the highest wholesale, can you even believe it??? You win yet ANOTHER topaz and diamond ring!

With all this going on you are sure to be in the Queens Court of Sales and might even end up in a Unit Club of $300,000 pretend retail or more which will mean for you, that you TRIPLE CROWNED (Courts of Sales, Sharing & Unit Club) and got a Trophy on stage! Where are you going to put all this stuff?

And just think. All this great “eyes on the prize” stuff started when you simply signed in consistently in your Unitnet guest book, or attended 5 consecutive meetings, or brought the most guests. It’s been a whirlwind, hasn’t it… and I bet you just haven’t had one moment to think with all the excitement going on. No siree. Jumping from goal to goal to goal to challenge to contest, it’s like all Mary Kay wants us to do is win, win win!

There is something for everyone in Mary Kay. And as long as you stare straight into the spotlight collecting your bling, you will never ever see what all these great contests cost you.

Can you even imagine the overkill, the redundancy, the sheer misdirection of contest after contest after contest overlapping and duplicating prizes for variations of the same effort. And we haven’t even talked about monthly wholesale prizes, to get those orders in, Year End prizes for Princess Court, Top Ten, Most Improved, Miss Go-Give. The human mind boggles with what exactly is the intent of this many contests which will run concurrently for the same women. (The“show up to go up” ones.)

Unless of course, all you really want to do is to create a frenzy of activity that a consultant might mistake for progress. Keep her frenzied enough and she may never have the time to evaluate where she really stands and whether all this is worth it. Load up her datebook cover with cut outs of all the prizes and surprise her when even she does not know what she has won.

Imagine a company like IBM or Ford or Microsoft deluging its employees with 25 variations of the same contest with accompanying prizes, and multiple recognition tokens for the same activity (ie: Handbag, name badge ribbon, luncheon) in a never ending weekly, monthly and yearly dangling of promo’s over their heads.

The mind boggles and goes numb. Can anyone remember what they are working on? Absolutely! Miss Director will keep you constantly updated with where you are and how far you have to go, in any number of promotions that will encourage you to order and achieve. Isn’t it great that Mary Kay gives so many prizes? That your NSD gives so many prizes? That your Director gives so many prizes?

Oh look! Everyone who signs up for Seminar is winning a special Unit pin to wear on the plane! Won’t it look so cool? All the other Units will want their own… So better register today! It is going to sell out. After all, the only place to show off all your name badge ribbons, pins, rings, handbags and pearls is SEMINAR! And with any luck, all the “stuff” will keep you happy and completely unaware of the price you paid and the real cost.