8 Out of 10 Mary Kay NSDs Are Okay With Lying to Customers
Written by The Scribbler
Back about 90 years ago, I worked in our church’s nursery. On this particular day, my three-year old daughter and her playmates were playing the classic toddler game, You Scream and Run Like Hell and I’ll Try to Catch You While I’m Laughing My Can Off. I was changing an infant’s diaper when my daughter raced past me, made the off-comment of, “It’s hot in here,” and continued onward. I finished cleaning/dressing my young client, turned, and gasped as I witnessed my little girl running and laughing with her friends. Stark naked. Hey, Mom, I told you it was hot in here, remember? Find a way, make a way!
Aside from the fact that I can now tease my daughter about having lived out the American Dream by running through a church au naturale, her situation made for one nifty object lesson: the Mary Kay guidance of “Find a way, make a way” does not mean that the right thing will always be done. I want to highlight one NSD who is teaching Mary Kay consultants how to lie; an act I would definitely file in the “Doing Whatever It Takes” drawer.
At NSD Gillian Ortega’s 2009 Fall Advance, NSD Dacia Wiegandt was featured as the guest speaker. Amidst cheers and applause, Wiegandt took the microphone with a broad grin while someone off-screen cranked up the boom box. “It’s the God in me…” the music crooned. “It’s the God in meeee!” The churchlike atmosphere continued as Wiegandt name-dropped God throughout her speech. She praised Him as being the #1 presence in her life when she was striving to meet her National-in-Qualification quotas and claims that she surrendered her business to Him, praying, “Enlarge my territories, God”…I’m going to do the work, I know you’re going to bless it.” That being said, it’s easy to understand why I’d do a catfish-mouthed double-take after hearing NSD Wiegandt explain her plan for getting customers into recruiting interviews:
“I would love to share with you a little bit more about this opportunity because I believe that this is the best unkept secret…if she says to me, “Well, I’ve actually gotta go because I gotta pick up my child,” what am I going to do? I’m going to leave something out of her product. So I have a reason to get back with her within 24 hours. Y’all have to think quick, y’all have to think on your toes. So how does tomorrow sound? I have that Miracle Set, but I don’t have the foundation (hint hint, right?) So tomorrow, I’m going to have lunch with you, bring the foundation, and then I’m going to market her right there and share the opportunity.”
Shocked? I was too. I knew Wiegandt’s teaching had to be one of the tallest trees in Big Fat Fib Forest, but I wondered if other Mary Kay National Sales Directors would feel the same way. Anxious to get other viewpoints, I posted Wiegandt’s teaching on ten NSD Facebook walls (to include Wiegandt’s), along with this introductory phrase:
“I need opinions from everyone on something another NSD teaches. I was watching a video of NSD Dacia Wiegandt speaking at a Fall Advance, and in the video Dacia is telling the consultants that it’s okay to lie to a potential recruit to get her into a recruiting interview…you guys tell me if godly consultants should be doing this.”
Note that absolutely no reference to Pink Truth was made in each case to avoid a potential knee-jerk/spontaneous human reaction. Human ash is the dickens to get out of a shag carpet, and don’t ask me how I know this. Would these Mary Kay leaders address NSD Wiegandt’s teaching like true leaders or shriek “Shun the unbeliever! Shuuuun!” Here are my findings.
To no one’s surprise, NSD Wiegandt rushed to delete her words and pound the “Block” button until her laptop screen cracked, but not before one of her acolytes rushed to her rescue: “Have some class! No one cares that you have such negative thoughts about Dacia. Focus on edifying others, not trying to break them down. This post shows your immaturity and envy of her success.”
Fun Fact: Leaders who shamelessly teach women how to lie are not to be edified for doing so. Also, success acquired through fraud is not worthy of envy. Pity, perhaps, but not envy. Next!
The second NSD to play the Delete-and-Block Card was NSD Gloria Mayfield-Banks. Despite this, I’m proud to see that that at least one consultant in the Magic Area refused to agree with NSD Wiegandt’s trickery. The consultant wrote: “There is never an excuse to lie! How can God honor our efforts and our business if we sin against HIM while doing it? If we teach other consultants to deceive (to get the job done) how can they trust us to be honest with them in all things?”
This consultant’s post was deleted, so what does that say about NSD Mayfield-Banks? To me, it says that placing all those orders to be a “Super Duper Magical Advance Winner” and “earning your ribbons to the floor” is much more important than identifying a spiritually-damaging teaching and advising one’s National Area to avoid it like the plague.
Other NSDs who deleted Wiegandt’s teaching from their Facebook pages include NSD Gillian Ortega, NSD Linda Toupin, NSD Robin Rowland, NSD Caterina Harris, NSD Tammy Crayk, and NSD Kathy Helou. In addition, I posted the quote on Senior Sales Director Jordan Helou’s wall, only to receive the same delete-and-block treatment. Her actions surprised me because I’d have thought that Jordan, who is quite vocal about her faith, would have stepped up to the plate and been just as vocal towards someone who was openly encouraging women to sin. I did offer Jordan the chance to explain her position via e-mail, but she has refused to respond.
All’s well that ends well: Two NSDs let NSD Wiegandt’s quote stay; NSD Janet Tade and NSD Rena Tarbet. These Mary Kay leaders get credit where it’s due because they were the only two who didn’t try to defend Wiegandt’s lies or pretend they never existed. I am also pleased to say that after an extensive online search of the Ortega Fall Advance video, I was met with either broken links or notifications that the video had been removed. Isn’t it great to see that Mary Kay culture just got a little more honest?
Some gentle guidance for all the IBCs and Sales Directors reading today: The next time you’re facing a goal and you’re advised to “Find a way, make a way,” ask yourself this: “If the Associated Press released an article describing the ways I “found and made” in my Mary Kay business, would I be completely covered? Or would my practices – like NSD Dacia Wiegandt’s – end up being exposed for the blasphemous blarney that they are?”
Don’t do what your NSD says, my friends. Do what is right.
Visit the
Well, since no-one else has said it yet, may I just point out that there’s nothing at all inherently wrong with nudity, not in a church nor almost anywhere else? Especially if it’s done right, with sitting towels and such :p It’s perfectly sane and logical to striiip when it’s hot out – I’m going to have to side with the kid on that one 🙂
Back on topic, I have to say she comes across a lot like a dealer trying to get someone on their drugs, or those scumbag ‘Pick Up Artists’ (PUAs) – not above premeditated deceit and inventing excuses, for opportunities to keep popping back into someone’s life in order to gain more attempts at manipulation, in order to eventually get them to give you what you want. Whittling away at a person’s resolve, wearing them down, sometimes with some corrupted approximation of ‘niceness’, until they finally give in and ‘consent’. It may be just enough to met the legal requirement of consent, but anyone who struggles to stay above that line, they’re scum no matter what they’re pushing/taking.
When I’ve confronted MLM pushers on Facebook though, usually in local Facebook Groups, they tend to come across as if they believe their own line – I think it’s only usually after you get up a level or two that you find people who know beyond a doubt that what they’re doing is scummy, but they’re committed and play the game too well that it’s a part of who they are now. It’s *possible* to come back from that, but most of those people will just never again be _genuine_ by any reasonable estimation.
Dacia is so full of herself and came across that way when I was on a Lisa Madson call in 2003 when she was asked by Lisa to share a document she’d been using. Dacia’s reply was “Wellll, I gueeesss…” showing complete hesitation to share anything with people who wanted just as much success as she’d had. Lisa always struck me as being very honest, humble, and willing to help people, so this was opposite of the tone of the rest of Lisa’s conference call.
Then, I met Dacia years later and got the same vibe from her. She comes across as smiling, so sweet, and so Godly, but she snubs you when you ask for help or have a struggle you want to discuss. Completely fake!
This is one of the many reasons I left the company and sold my product back. Professing your ethics and using God’s name is like a vacuum to people, and it’s misused all over the place. I’ve seen Pam Shaw do the same thing, even quoting scriptures to make people think she’s honest, humble, and trustworthy. The abuse of God is sickening, and I am so glad I don’t have that in my life anymore. I have to think God is happy for me and my BestDecision.
‘Especially if it’s done right, with sitting towels and such :p It’s perfectly sane and logical to striiip when it’s hot out – I’m going to have to side with the kid on that one ?’
How old are you?
Aw be nice, it was just a joke.
I thought it was funny. 😀
How old are you?
It hurts to watch a friend get sucked back into an MLM -again – because she wants to surround herself with Godly people who have uplifting, supportive attitudes. And because they promise she can make some money so she can have something of her own besides.
She’s never made any money at it before, but she’s sure this time will be different since she’s more confident in herself. And the words “All glory to God, thank you Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit!” echoing around her have really convinced her that this time it will be For Real.
It’s almost impossible to reach someone who totally wants to believe. So I told her that she’s being suckered, which I can’t and won’t support. But I’ll be there for her later when she needs to be picked up off the ground.
Sigh….
MLM Radar: “It’s almost impossible to reach someone who totally wants to believe.”
It will be impossible while she’s part of a cult (oh sorry, when they get large they prefer ‘religion’) which promotes the idea that it’s virtuous to believe something without rational justification, and (in many sects) that it’s a virtue to *believe in the face of evidence to the contrary*. The only way they can both hold that worldview and avoid scams, is with a hell of a lot of cognitive dissonance.
The real solution is to eventually grow as a civilisation, past the immature notions of magical thinking (woo and religion); once you remove those excuses for shunning critical thinking (or at least relegate those to the fringes, to obscurity and social unacceptability where they belong), there will be that many fewer barriers in the way of the average person making a good decision based in reality.
Dacia’s best unkept secret is to deliberately leave paid-for product out of the order? In my ex-unit, we were taught to put extra product in the order. The customer is so honest that she will call to let us know that there’s extra product so we have a second chance to make face-to-face contact to upsell or recruit. We were advised to use old outdated product because the customer isn’t sharp enough to realize it’s obsolete, but she is so sharp that she will recognize our wonderful business opportunity………
If I had a “personal beauty consultant” who repeatedly left product out OR added extra product in to my orders I would assume she was either overwhelmed, disorganized, or incompetent. Not a very professional look. 😛
Mindy, I completely agree and I would be ticked. Like everyone else, I am busy and have a schedule to follow to get most of what I need to accomplish done in a week, and to have to alter just to get a product I already paid for would be inconvenient, and to know that this was done as a subterfuge? Well either way it would be the last time I ever ordered from that person and she is high if she thinks I would “meet” her for coffee, dinner, invite her in my house, etc to get my paid item anyways.
“consultant who repeatedly left product out OR added extra product in….I would assume she was overwhelmed, disorganized, or incompetent”
Remember, this same chick is taught to ask you, “Do you think you could do what I do?”
I wonder if she ever deliberately messes up the “Just smile and squirt” routine at a skin-care class. Could get messy.
You know what gets human ash out of the carpet?
A Kirby vacuum!