Staying at Your NSD’s Hotel for Seminar
It’s almost Seminar time in Mary Kay, and there is a push to stay at your NSD’s hotel. They’ll tell you it’s all about the camaraderie and being together and being close to the convention center. As with everything in Mary Kay, there is a REAL reason why.
It’s the perks your NSD gets if she “sells” enough rooms to her area. It’s not enough that she’s making tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of the backs of her consultants. She needs more. What is on the line is her suite at the hotel. She’ll get that free with enough consultants booking rooms. She’ll also get the use of a ballroom space for your area awards at no cost.
One NSD tried to sell it this way:
The experience of staying in our very nice hotel permits the consultants to get a feel of prosperity. We are selling success, and you need to see what it is like to stay in a first class hotel. You don’t need to feel less than other Consultants and Directors by staying at a cheap hotel up the street or across the tracks. You need to feel as entitled as the others who are staying at our hotel. Directors who stay at the National Hotel have a vision of prosperity for their people.
Also, Mary Kay Cosmetics chooses these hotels. If Mary Kay Ash wanted our people to choose from the least expensive hotels in Dallas, we would be using them and be running bus service to them. But that is not Mary Kay’s choice. She wanted our people to experience something quite nice. She knew what she was doing.
And don’t you know that staying at the area hotel shows loyalty?
By supporting your NSD in this way, by action and not words, you are “paying it forward,” and teaching YOUR people how to support their leader: YOU!! You will enjoy loyalty, a willingness to stick with you as your area grows, and a faster trip to NSD.
An NSD is keen to help the ones who help her by supporting the Area by their ACTIONS.
Yet another example of how being in Mary Kay warps your thinking. Use an expensive hotel and cram them in the rooms like cattle so they can feel what it’s like to live the good life. News flash: tripping over three other women for 3 days doesn’t make me feel good!
Visit the
Louis XIV of France, the Sun King, had the bright idea of turning the court into a tourist attraction. That meant that even commoners could pay money to watch him eating, and doing other every day things. The wealthy could see bigger and more extravagant events. The most prestigious and most expensive was getting to watch the King’s petit coucher (“little throne”) ceremony before bedtime. And yes, the “little throne” is the one you’re thinking of, so they were paying serious money to watch the King go potty.
The French aristocracy were often poor because of living beyond their means, buying on credit, and trying to buy their way into the King’s favor, even sending their daughters and sisters the King’s way hoping that he’d make them one of his mistresses and shower her with gifts (which she’d be expected to pass onto her pimp relative). The poor and bourgeois were hit with taxation, and were in turn trying to buy their way into the nobles’ favor. The court’s extravagant lifestyle was funded by these taxes and bribes, and they got the “priveledge” of coming to the court and spending even more money on it.
Maybe MK should start producing a Poo-Pourri knockoff and load the NSDs in their up with prunes. It wouldn’t be far different from how they’re operating now.
Darn it. The last line should be:
Maybe MK should start producing a Poo-Pourri knockoff and load the NSDs, in their private suites paid for by their underlings, up with prunes. It wouldn’t be far different from how they’re operating now.
Les Misérables ,Victor Hugo.
10th grade world history. The teacher knew how to keep a roomful of teenagers interested 😀
What do the poor schmuck do who are in a Go-Give unit? Stay in the cheap hotel down the street?
Actually yes, in a gaggle. And hanging at dennys, waffle house. etc. Had a GF who was in this area, on your own baby! Spot on!
I don’t know how to make this query not sound judgmental, so here goes…
I’ve never been in an MLM of any stripe, so in fairness I am only getting reports of the “conditions” at Seminar from contributors to this web site. My question: What level of desperation would compel a consultant to attend Seminar more than once? Just reading these stories makes me cringe. I would think this experience would turn away consultants in droves, from Seminar for sure, but possibly from Mary Kay as well.
Now I will sound sexist on top of it all, but I think a typical man is more likely to tolerate uncomfortable accommodations (think camping) than the typical women (there are exceptions in both cases, of course, but I mean in general). I can easily see 4+ guys cramming into a hotel room in Vegas for example, or crashing on a friend’s floor after a night of partying. But four women, strangers all, who are trying to present as professional, to look their best (rested, fresh and made-up) every day while sharing a bed and a tiny hotel bathroom? Especially given the Poo-Pourri images created by Popinki above? Yikes.
I’ll give these NSDs this much: If these ladies can sell this crappy Seminar experience to their MK underlings, they deserve the spoils, I guess.
I went repeatedly. Eight or nine times, maybe? Most of the time, the women you room with aren’t strangers, so that helps. I wasn’t attached to a national sales director, so had more liberty to choose my hotel and always went with the Embassy which had more mirrors and space to spread out. Honestly, you spend so much time running around that the hotel is really a secondary consideration–you’re just there to sleep and shower.
As for going more than once? Firstly, it’s not 100% bad. It’s a get-away and there are some parts that are really fun. It was time to spend with friends I didn’t see often. Those were the parts of the abusive relationship that made it hard to leave. And that’s really what it is–it’s an abusive relationship complete with the conditioning that “this is just how it is” or “this is what you deserve.” If you say anything bad, you’re chided for being negative–the MK Way is 100% positivity 100% of the time, and that mentality makes it difficult to criticize anything, especially your leaders or the company (which extends to company-sponsored events).
It’s hard to get out, and it’s hard to see the reality when you’re in the middle of it.
And I’m sure if it’s an event you’re really psyched up for, the inconvenience and discomfort don’t matter. It sounds as if they try to keep you so busy that the room is just someplace to flop over at the end of the day anyway.
back before internet, this was a popular networking meeting, one that MK corporate would look at her peep and go ahhhhhh……suckers!
I have a really dumb question and I’m embarrassed to ask cause I literally never travel.
Do hotels charge for rooms based on the cost of the room or the # of people in the room?
Most charge per person. That’s why they ask how many staying whenever you make a reservation.
Smaller or locally run hotels or a B&B may not charge by person.
I’ve not found that we are charged more per person. Perhaps if there are 4 adults rather than 2 adults and 2 Children. But even then if you book a room online for two queen beds, you pay for the room. It does make a difference though if it’s a cruise or all-inclusive which often require 2 adults per room. But you raise a good point about 4 people to a room. What if you WANT your own room and are willing to pay the room price. Can you do that? How do they figure out how to put 4 people in a room if they are strangers?
Note: Room charges depend on the hotel and the promotion. When you hear rates are “double occupancy”, that refers to a “per person” rate on room shared by two people.
Most travel sites will ask how many adults and kids are traveling, and will quote the price accordingly. Even VRBO and AirBNB can have surcharges for extra guests…depending on the location and configuration.
But it all depends on the property and the promotion.
I’ll never forget Leadership in Nashville. MK had all these rooms on-site held for our booking, but people went elsewhere to get cheaper rates. I was told MK lost money and was furious at Directors and NSDs who did that. And they’ve never gone back to Nashville again.
I would have night terrors or not be able to sleep if I had Mary Kay’s evil visage staring at me from that picture. Is this a bedroom in somebody’s actual house or hotel, or just a scene from a photos hoot for their catalog?
Photo shoot, I mean.
What does mk do with all the NSd’s who have no offspring sale directors or maybe one… and the nsd never shows up for an event?
Many years ago, a CC was held in my small city. The new convention center/hotel had just opened downtown and it was THE place. Peeking at her FB page, I followed a local SSD and a few of her team. Although local, they all stayed at the hotel and shared a room. What I remember is all the photos posted of the hotel room, including a group picture of them IN THE SHOWER in their pajamas and full makeup.
They have all since left MK.
Does Mary Kay rent these rooms beforehand and make consultants pay extra(to what it would cost on non convention days?) This is so clearly scammy.
Conferences usually reserve a block of rooms (at a discount) and guarantee they will be paid for – attendees are given a booking code to use for the room.
A normal conference will rent the rooms at the discounted rate and use the freebies (use of meeting rooms, bonus suites, etc.) for the general good of the conference as rooms for guest speakers, and meetings.
I do NOT know if it’s possible to increase the room rate and pocket the difference.
The experience of staying in our very nice hotel permits the consultants to get a feel of prosperity.
One thing you can count on from all MLMs is their appeal to people’s greed. The fancy car, fancy house, fancy hotel, paraded before them constantly. Like keys jangled in front of a toddler, it keeps them distracted from their grim reality.
Not a good look, but there it is.
When you are booking rooms at hotels for business travel, there are phrases you use to in order to get the best possible deal for your client, like name-dropping a major nearby business in hopes that they have a corporate deal with that hotel chain for a cheaper room rate.
MK isn’t one of the top names for Dallas. Outside of seminar I doubt that high end hotel chains are going to be offering corporate pricing for the casual business person saying that they are in MK. I could be wrong though.