Why Did Your Former Director Drop You?
We’ve often seen Pink Truth members upset at the loss of a Mary Kay friendship. What happens when someone is your friend first, and then becomes your sales director…. and then once you leave Mary Kay, you never hear from her again? And what happens when your husband becomes seriously ill and you still don’t hear from her? Here’s what may go through the sales director’s mind.
Written by PinkPeace
Giving your ex-SD the benefit of the doubt and assuming the best about her, I could see the following scenario:
She finds out her close friend is leaving Mary Kay. She is sad, because she has been friends with her for a long time, and she takes it a little personally that she won’t be working with her anymore. In addition, she’s worried about how her loss will affect her unit’s production. The unit’s not doing too well as it is, and now she’s really going to have to scramble to replace one of her top people (let’s call her Anna).
Then the chargeback comes from your product return. OMG, it’s $1000 taken out of her check in one month! How is she going to pay her expenses this month? Can she really afford to put another $1000 on a credit card again? Her husband will KILL her if he finds out. But, she has to go to Seminar, right? I mean, she is a sales director and the speed of the leader is the speed of the gang.
She prays that God will somehow bless her business, send the next superstar into her path and guide her into the success that’s hers, if only she will believe. And as Christian as she is trying to be, it’s really hard to be pleasant to someone who has just taken $1000 from you. She’ll give Anna a call in a couple of weeks when she’s feeling a little more Christ-like.
Meanwhile, Anna seems so happy and at peace. It’s like the weight of the world is off her shoulders. She’s starting to have fun with her family and friends, and has time for new interests that have nothing to do with Mary Kay. Must be nice. Wait, Anna’s gotten a job that she likes? Dang. With benefits, too.
Well, she’ll show HER. Doesn’t Anna know that Mary Kay is the best opportunity for women in the world? She may be happy working for someone else now, but one day she’ll regret leaving the SD, her unit and Mary Kay. Meanwhile, the SD can’t let on that anything’s wrong in the land of the pink. She’s going to focus, focus, focus to turn her unit around. She can’t spend time on people who aren’t going to help her get to her goal. Short-term sacrifice for long-term gain. Put those blinders on. Eyes on the prize.
She hasn’t seen Anna around for awhile. Well, her fault for throwing away a God-given opportunity. She hopes her former friend sees how much activity she’s doing so that, even if she can’t come back to Mary Kay, she’ll see all the success she’s missing. She can’t let on the truth about her mediocre unit, her constant lack of money, her fights with her husband. Nope – that is NOT painting the picture. You know, maybe it’s better that she doesn’t even call Anna. She can’t afford to be around negativity (truth).
Oh no, Anna’s husband is sick. Really sick. She should send a card or make a call or something. But she hasn’t talked to Anna in so long – it would really be awkward. Maybe stop by for a visit at the hospital? Well, they probably don’t want visitors. Besides, tonight’s her success meeting, tomorrow night’s the red jacket conference call, then there’s pizza & possibilities, then the NSD is coming to town for a big recruiting night… maybe next week.
Man, Mary Kay is getting to be such a drag. No one in her unit appreciates her and what a sales director has to go through to be successful. It’s a constant grind, not enough money and she seems to be losing friends. Wasn’t Mary Kay supposed to be executive pay for part-time work? Wasn’t every stranger just a friend you haven’t met yet? Why is she always stressed and depressed?
Time to pull out notes from last Seminar. What did she underline at that NSD-to-be class? Oh, right.
Winners never quit and quitters never win.
God gives you valleys so that you can enjoy the mountaintops.
Never associate with someone you wouldn’t trade places with.
God has put you in Mary Kay for a foreordained reason. It’s not yours to question, it’s yours to obey.
Put on your big-girl panties and deal with it.
She sighs, sends up a prayer for abundance, and picks up the phone…
Visit the
“Besides, tonight’s her success meeting, tomorrow night’s the red jacket conference call, then there’s pizza & possibilities, then the NSD is coming to town for a big recruiting night… maybe next week.”
This hamster wheel is designed to keep Mary Kay reps from seeing the reality they are living. The plan is to keep Mary Kay reps too busy to take stock of how their time is spent. The “urgent but unimportant” (see list above) ends up trumping the “non-urgent but very important” (time with family, personal time and time away from work).
Anna gets to finish her day at her JOB and leave her work-stress at the office, then enjoy her evening with her family. Her ex-SD secretly envies this, but does not have much time to dwell on it, thanks to the aforementioned hamster wheel.
PinkPeace’s excellent article is a case study in how the pink fog warped SD’s thinking. SD saw the $,1000 hit on her own finances, but overlooked the bigger hit on Anna’s finances. At 9-13% commission, $1,000 in SD’s pocket came at the loss of $7,700 to $11,100 by Anna. And Mary Kay kept $770 to $1,100 with their “generous” 90% buyback policy; Anna is still in the hole. There were certainly more costs Anna had to eat in unreturnable products and Section 2 stuff. SD couldn’t even see that.
When Anna’s husband got sick, SD put her own needs ahead of Anna’s. We can’t let little distractions like a friend in need get in the way of our pretend business, can we?
The pink fog warps the mind and overturns priorities. That’s why SD cannot see past the end of her own nose.