We Are Mary Kay, Not Scary Kay
Can you spot the lies in these Instagram stories by Mary Kay sales director Violette Tabor? I wish the “no hassling allowed” part was true. But it’s all hassling, all the time, because recruiting is the only way to move up in Mary Kay. Like they say, no doesn’t mean no, it just means I need more information.
And here we go with the 50% profit lie again…
Pssst…. it’s not a business!
Visit the
False advertising
“This is your business. Work it as you please. ” Not really. This is not your business. You are the customer. You can’t advertise unless it’s mk approved. You can’t show the products in a store. You don’t have all this freedom that this says you have.
“There’s still room for you. ” maybe for you as a customer. No, the market is oversaturated.
“50% profit on sales” The expenses is most of the “50% “profit”. So many expenses to sell that the profit is non existing.
“Only $30 to get started” plus the website, business cards, etc.
Let’s be honest. It’s not even a business. It’s a carefully crafted scheme of recruiting people into the opportunity to recruit, and we have a product that a relatively small number of people like and use, but that makes this scam seem like a legit thing.
Many decades to hone this confidence trick. They manipulate and teach manipulation well. And p & l is for people and love, not profit and loss. They convince women to do this for friendship, for fun.
Can you tag Vi Tabor so this shows up on google searches?
Done. I had no idea who this was.
You don’t own a business. You’re an independent contractor for Mary Kay. You’re the customer, trying to hawk overpriced, mediocre products. Your competition is every other skincare/beauty brand ever.
The cost isn’t “just” $30. After signing up, you’ll be pressured to buy inventory. This is how MK makes its money: through consultants (customers) buying large inventory packages.
MK doesn’t track, nor does it care, where the products ultimately end up. As long as MK gets its money, all those mediocre products can end up in a landfill as waste and they won’t care at all.
“You’ll learn how to show up genuinely.”
Except…it’s still not genuine. All you’re learning is how to be better at making people believe you’re being genuine. The end goal is still to make money off of people. There’s no way around it.
“No comment”
She meant no commitment.
“I’m here for guidance.”
No comment.
Yeah, I wondered what “no comment” was about. Thanks for translating!
This is so tacky. Does this actually work? The best thing Instagram could do is to ban mlm promos for good.
Also, how is this not an #ad? Honestly wondering.
Yes, Instagram should ban mlms but their bread and butter is false advertising, hence all the photoshopped “insta models”. If they aren’t false advertising, I don’t know what is.
The nausea this kbot’s ads bring up in me is genuine. She is promoting a barbie doll dream job, where you get to “play with makeup”, dress up fancy (however you define it), and win cars and jewelry and titles and IT’S ALL REAL! No, for the Love of God, No It Is Not Real. NEVER HAS BEEN, won’t be “again”, never was, never will be. There AREN’T ANY BARBIE DOLL DREAM JOBS.
All jobs have a working element to them or they would not call them jobs, and no one would pay you to do them. That would be FUN. Mary Kay IS NOT FUN. It is destructive to womens finances, relationships and self worth.
Mary Kay is a con artist’s creation and her spawn has kept it alive long after the demon herself departed. Don’t feed the demon spawn, let them starve and have to go out and earn a living if their trust funds have been depleted, or when, if that should ever be.
“I’m here for guidance/to help you when you need it”/”I’ll help ya learn all the skills you need to work this biz”: I’ve got plenty of tired old scripts designed to keep you recruiting and ordering
“I’m as invested as you are”: Unless, of course, you’re not ordering. Then you’re dead to me
“No hassling allowed”/”This is your business. Work it how you please”/”Work when you want, how you want”: except at the end of the month/quarter/seminar year. Then I’m totally going to hassle you about ordering
To whomever signs up as a consultant under Violette:
1. Save these Instagram photos to your phone or print them out the old fashioned way.
2. Hang them on the wall of your office, if printed.
3. When Violette inevitably comes round pushing you to buy inventory, to recruit all your friends and family, to warm chat, to cold call, etc., point to these photos and say, “But you said it only cost $30 to get started and now you’re saying I have to spend as much as $1,800. And you said I’d make 50% profit, but I’m spending it all on the business. You also said I make the rules, so why do I have to wear dresses? Attend unit meetings? Go to seminar? Avoid negativity? Those aren’t my rules. You said you would give me guidance (point to that part), but all you’ve done is tell me to recruit other women. I’m not selling anything.”
If she’s still listening to you by the time you finish (doubtful), she will start backpedaling and start making excuses. Keep asking these questions and you’ll be shunned.
I legit hope someone does this.
“You make the rules” … except for all the rules in your contract with Mary Kay that you had no say in.
Spot the lies? They’re all lies. Even the way she dresses is misleading with regard to the antediluvian MK dress code. Try posing in the Director’s suit, Violette, and see how many want to sign up.
“No comment” is a pretty bush-league typo, but what really caught my eye was this flummoxing phraseology:
“You’ll learn how to show up genuinely.”
What is that supposed to mean? Maybe she means to present yourself as a genuine person, but that’s a guess on my part. Here’s the thing, though: you cannot be genuine while running a scam. You can come across as genuine, but that’s just more phoniness and lying.
You know who’s good at appearing trustworthy and genuine while running a scam? A con artist, that’s who.
What is going on in that middle picture? Is she “trying on” the jeans that she clearly already owns? Is she hitching up her big girl britches to get down to work? If she showed up at a job interview wearing that outfit, she’d have an uphill climb to prove that she is professional, but she expects that look to help her recruit? The trendy young women she is hoping to attract to her team will see that as trying way too hard to seem cool and modern. And if they do sign up, just to be told that they have to wear skirts and button-up blouses, they should absolutely call her on it.
I still follow a bunch of MK people on Instagram. You know, to keep up with the shenanigans. I’ve seen several posts with all of these lies lately. I want to comment so badly, but I don’t want them to block me. We all know they can’t handle and criticism.
No comment?
You mean “no commitment” ?