Written by SuzyQ

Wow! So much excitement in the Mary Kay world as we work our way towards the end of the Seminar Year… Can you believe all the perks and such that MK is offering? $175 in products, so essentially your seminar is paid for? Cool! (Do you want what they are offering for $175? No matter, you can sell it if you don’t)

All over the MK world I have heard that the mineral foundation is the fastest selling MK product since, can’t remember, Microderm? Cellu-Shape? Whatever, it is HOT HOT HOT. Except for the returns and the talc issue. Limited colors and the colors smear and they are so tiny and the cases smudge, and there are some other concerns but, hey, what a great product!

And a new lawsuit! Oh, the drama! Of course Mary Kay Cosmetics has your best interests at heart, so it’s all good and well in the MK world. Unless, of course, you or your consultants were Touch of Pink’s customers and then it’s an oopsie. It is so not about Touch of Pink, it is about you, dear ones.

Oh, and the fairly public defection of current and former directors and at least one nsd to another MLM ? What does that say/mean? They made the move from a dual marketing non MLM to a “real” MLM? Oh, please, guess what? Mary Kay is MLM and all MLMs spell disaster except for the few. And I know you are one of the few, but in case you aren’t one of the few… There are better ways to put food on the table and a roof over your head.

Why am I writing to directors? 1) I used to be one and 2) Our issues are different than the consultant who orders every now and then, contains her expenses, has fun, enjoys the recognition, and likes the product. Directors are different, you know it, and I know it, and this pretending has to end.

Have you all noticed that the “miss two months in a row of at least $4,000 unit production and you are out” rule has changed? It has. It is highly likely that a director will get automatic extensions/exceptions now.

Doesn’t that make you wonder what’s going on? Do you know your senior is counting on your production (no matter how pathetic) to pad HER production? And, now she is counting her eggs before they are hatched? And then is horribly disappointed when you are granted an extension? Darn it all anyway.

And the frontloading. Mary Kay reads this site daily, you know, and when they figured out Pink Truth readers were pretty upset about this practice, an article appeared in the Applause magazine suggesting that $600 was an appropriate order for newbies? Whoa. Very different than what your nsd is telling you, right? Gloria likes at least $1200 and Stacy is comfortable with $4200 or so.

Please tell me who needs that much product as a new consultant? Think about this for a minute, so far, you can order 6 eye shadows? SIX EYESHADOWS???????????? And you are bringing these newbies in with an emerald star?????????? Do you know that Jergen’s gradual self tanner is half as expensive as Mary Kay’s and is frequently on sale? Have you cruised the cosmetic aisles (or eBay for minerals????) Cutting edge? Not so much. Even “Wet and Wild” had mineral stuff before MK. Worth more/quality product? Not really.

And let’s talk about being thrown under the bus. As directors, we are expendable. Really. If directors were really that important, the strange numbers in the Ruby seminar, and the fact that many of you learn about what is happening in the company on this “negative site” before MK tells you, wouldn’t happen. They would tell you first and we would have to tuck tail and shut down. There wouldn’t be a need that Pink Truth is filling. (Yes, we know that much to your horror, you’re checking here regularly so that you can find out all the things that Corporate is not telling you.)

My heart breaks for those of you who are running their units and businesses with integrity. You won’t make it to nsd and you will not be a top director. There’s no way. This notion of being a “find a way, make a way” kind of woman has given license to many to bend and break rules with impunity. Read the Applause scoreboard and listen to that voice in your head that tells you all is not right in the MK world.

Another example: You paid wholesale for the platinum compacts, did you not? Mary Kay is asking you to turn them in for recycling, right? They will plant a tree from the Arbor Day Foundation for each compact, right? Check out the Arbor Day Foundation for yourself, and see what your contribution is actually buying, and you could call MKC and ask where the “trees” are going to be planted. And maybe when. And you are expected to take the compact turn-in as a business loss? Because MK is going green? You take the loss and it’s a good thing????

Seriously, most of the directors I knew were smart, funny, savvy women and I was so proud to be associated with them. And then I quit, and was called negative and you all know the rest. And then I learned (again) that truth is not negative, it is not positive, it is simply truth. Truth is truth.

You are not being given the truth from Mary Kay Inc. We used to say with some humor, “Mary Kay is a cult, but it’s a good one.”

Hear my heart, it is destructive.

The marketing plan is outdated, the products are not economically competitive (I know the mineral foundation is only $18 and Bare Minerals is $25… Let’s talk about talc again as a filler some other time) and the market is over-saturated and being turned off by the warm chatting/stalking behaviors of some of the sales force. The discounts and preferred customer gifts, section 2 purchases and hostess gifts cut into your profit margins and then there is the whole cost of all the unit support you provide.

Your profit margin is dropping wildly and you assume you aren’t working hard enough, and next month is going to be better. You are working very hard and next month will suck wind as well. Everybody gets excited about June. But, remember July.

Stop. Think. Read. We are here for you. There is life after directorship and it is good.