The Same Play For a Different Mary Kay Audience
Written by SuzyQ
Why do we keep doing what we do at Pink Truth? This page explains why Pink Truth exists in the first place, but I wanted everyone to know a little more about why it’s important for me (and so many others) to continue to discuss Mary Kay day after day.
There are diehard Kaybots who will never believe what we have to say. There are other Kaybots who don’t want to believe it, but probably will sometime soon. There are still other Kaybots who know that our stories ring true, but are fighting it. And there are those who are ready to come out of the fog and into the light.
Here’s what some Kaybots will never understand: We don’t do “this” (Pink Truth) for us. We aren’t here to relive our MK stories daily for our own satisfaction.
We are doing this for all the women who need this information and won’t get it anywhere else. We support them and love them and tell them our stories so they understand they’re not alone.
And we keep doing this week after week, month after month, and year after year because each day Mary Kay creates new victims. With thousands of women STILL being recruited each month in the U.S., you know that there are many who need this information and need our support.
And for that very reason, I will not stop. Do you think maybe I’m a little tired of explaining things about returning inventory? Yes, I’ve been at it for years now, so it’s old to me. But it’s NEW TO THEM. I never knew how many consultants have no idea that they can get their money back!
And it’s not just that issue. There are many others. I’ve discussed them to death. But this isn’t about me. This is about the women who are seeing this stuff for the very first time.
I do it for them.
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I found Pink Truth eight years ago when I was searching for information on another direct selling skincare company. I had foolishly joined this other company because it was “different” from Mary Kay.
You see, I was aware that it was really difficult to be profitable in Mary Kay. I live in a very small town and personally knew at least a dozen women on one “team” whose leader was driving a “free” car but it wasn’t the Cadillac. She was a really nice person but I knew that there had to be problems because even though she seemed to be successful and her husband worked at a company with a good salary and great benefits she was constantly passing bad checks. She would always make good on them, sometimes with Mary Kay products instead of money. Having witnessed all of her struggles (and she still loved Mary Kay) had convinced me that I would never fall for such a scam.
I did indeed fall for the same old scam all dressed up in different packaging. The consultants who lured me into “the doctors’ brand new skincare company” wore white lab coats and their nametags indicated that they were part of a dermatology group.
I have a small brick and mortar business and met these women at a local bridal show when I was setting up my booth. Their “elevator speech” was that they had “partnered with the doctors” and were looking for someone in my area to represent the company. They lived several hundred miles away and were looking to expand their territory; it sounded great to be able to get in on the ground floor with the doctors who had one of the most famous acne treatments in the world!
I fell for it, hook, line, and sinker. I threw myself into becoming one of the team; driving hundreds of miles to various meetings and soaking up the lingo.
I learned that the group I signed with consisted of several levels and it turned out that even though I was the only one in my area on their team there were many more consultants in the vicinity who were on other teams.
When I signed up my kit price $600+ promoted my recruiter from consultant to executive consultant and she would earn begin to earn a 10% commission on all of her sales and I think it was a 5% commission on my sales. Any consultant could earn 25% of what they sold so for a $100 in product the earnings were $25. To be “active” each consultant had to have $100 per month of Sales Volume (SV) BUT that wasn’t the actual price of goods sold. The website was $25 per month and counted as $20 towards the SV so monthly sales had to be at least $100 in order to get the additional $80 in SV to remain active. I think that they now refer to it as CV commissionable volume.
Just like Mary Kay, selling the product was not the goal. I learned that you could sell a million dollars worth of product and still that would not be enough to earn the “free” Lexus (now its a Mercedes). The way to grow up was to show up and going fast was the only way!
Thank goodness I am endlessly curious. Although it wasn’t encouraged I read the entire consultants agreement, but that was after I signed. I learned that if I recruited someone and they advanced in the company quicker than I did that they could roll around me and I would never benefit from the team that they might grow.
Even though the up line consultants continuously boasted that this direct selling company was not a party plan they constantly pushed the big business launch (BBL). In my own traditional business customers came to me for my product, sometimes approaching me in social situations however in this new skincare venture they seemed to run away! I invited more than 100 people to my first BBL and only 10 people showed up. I was grateful for the ones that came but was really disappointed in the numbers. However my direct up line was pumped, she had experienced launches with less than half that number. I had a few who purchased that day and then nothing. So I had another BBL with a spa theme and absolutely no one showed up. By this time they had convinced me that you have to fake it ’til you make it so I posted a picture of the cute setup and pretended that people actually came.
Just like Mary Kay, this company encouraged contacting a certain number of people every single day. They also taught lifestyle marketing which I learned from Pink Truth is just their version of Mary Kay’s warm chatting.
I managed to acquire a handful of customers and finally about a year in sold $600 in a month and promoted to EC. The next month nobody ordered and I quickly demoted. That’s when I learned what pressure is on the consultants who promote. I received an email from a consultant five levels above me chastising me for letting the team down. I had never even met this person but after I had promoted my earnings became part of their percentage earned and they didn’t want to lose those few dollars. I was told that it was up to me to make up the difference in order not to lose my position. I had already read in some of the groups that it was common practice to create “ghost” preferred customer accounts in a husband’s or pet’s name. By placing an order in one of these accounts the status could be maintained, but at what cost?
I ended up leaving after two years having lost roughly $2,800. Why did I stay in that long? Because even I, who considered myself too smart to sign up with a known entity like Mary Kay could be pulled in by the seduction of something shiny and new.
If you hear the words, “why not you, why not now”, disengage yourself from the conversation, and run. A predator is trying to recruit you and part you from your money.
Dorothy, I’m so glad you shared your story. I was a makeup artist for Chanel when that other skincare company approached the artists during an event. A number of the artists went to that “groundfloor” meeting and most joined, including a good friend of mine. Because I had been in MK for so many years previously, I knew how this would also be a mlm for my friends. I tried to discourage them sharing my experience. But they stayed.
The sad ending for my friends was that were fired from Chanel – our Account Executive would not allow artists to also work as a competitor – afraid they would try to skim customers. Within a year, they all “failed” and had tried to come back to the prestige firms again…but no one would hire them because of this. Our world is a small one and word travels fast.
I hate that your friends were also pulled into that skincare company; as I attended more and more meetings I learned that most of the women were new and we were encouraged to use someone else’s story to illustrate how successful we expected to become.
I really couldn’t, in good conscience, deceive anyone with a story that wasn’t mine. However I was witness to many who had no problem with faking it.
Pink Truth really helped me cope with what I felt was my failure (because we were constantly told that the only people who fail are those who quit). Although intellectually I realized I had been duped, emotionally I had bought into their completely flawed reasoning.
Pinkiu, I’m so glad that you had the experience and wisdom to recognize the scam.
I’m guessing this “doctors’ skin care company” was—to put it in Sesame Street terms—brought to us by the letters R and F. Am I right?
You would be correct. Over the years they have aggressively shut down their critics with cease and desist threats.
I was one of those consultants that didn’t know that I could send back products. My SD told me I can’t do that after the 1st year. Pink truth helped me get some money back.
I was as well, brainwashed! I will be forever grateful to suzyQ and pink truth for their tireless efforts to help everyone scammed by MLM!
Looking at social media pics of Career Conference. It’s looks like it keeps getting smaller and smaller.
Fewer cities utilized, too. They just can’t get people there who aren’t making money.
Does Dacia ever attend MK events anymore? She is in Vail .
You mean she isn’t gracing them with her presence? The first time I met her, I was appalled at how much I’d been thinking of her, buying CDs with her speeches, etc. Anything to do like Dacia did!
I’ll never get those years back, nor all the mental anguish I put myself through in emulating people like her. “Muffins & Makeovers”!