Don’t Tell Anyone What Mary Kay Is Like
Written by Lillian
I have wanted to tell my story for years… the real story of what my experience in Mary Kay was like. But I never did. You see, there is this very serious “Don’t tell anyone what it is really like” mentality, and if you do, you’ll be reprimanded, ostracized and most likely “un-friended”on Facebook from your supposed “Mary Kay friends.”
Out of fear of upsetting anyone, I stayed quiet, and that quiet nagging inside grew for years. At the advice of my upline (both adopted and actual), I was told to “Fake it til I make it” and to never give ANYONE, a hint of what was really going on. So I listened and faked it pretty good for several years.
I have decided that terminate my Consultant agreement with Mary Kay, and I will no longer be selling the products. Many things drove me to this decision, but I won’t bore you with the logistics of why the business plan didn’t work. And with that consultant termination, I am now free to speak of my real and true experience in Mary Kay. I have been waiting for years to share all of my stories and experiences, and now, finally I can. It is such a freeing feeling to finally be able to speak about my experiences.
Much of this article won’t make sense for the average person who isn’t familiar with Mary Kay… and that’s fine. I am writing this more for me than for you anyways. But to some of my fellow former MK gals, much of what I write will ring so true to them, even if they won’t admit it, they probably felt many of the same horrible things I experienced. And, it is my hope to give all those who were in my opinion hurt, wronged and misgiuded a little bit of a voice against those upline who took advantage of them.
My MK story begins like this: I signed up for Mary Kay as a consultant in early 2006,through a very dear friend of mine. Most people who come into MK are “recruited” by someone who desperately wants them to join their team, or unit. I was never really recruited, I showed up one day on my friend’s doorstep and said “sign me up!”
I was never given “inventory”talks by her or my new director. But I had enough business sense to know that if I was going to start a business, I needed something to sell. So I ordered an $1,800 inventory package in addition to my $100 starter case. The next day I ordered all the supplies, and soon I had over $2,000 into my new business.
Shortly after signing up, I left my “home” Mary Kay area and thus was leaving any real support system from my upline. I moved across the country to the other side of the US, to town where I know no one. I knew that to build my new business, I would need some guidance. I asked my Sales Director for help and she found me an “adoptive” unit.
I met my adoptive unit and attended my first MK Monday Night Meeting. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but much to my confusion, the meeting only had three consultants and 1 Sales Director in attendance. And, not to mention, it was held in a dumpy motel in the outskirts of town. My first thought was that Mary Kay has such beautiful products, what are these women doing in this motel? But I let it go, and set off to learn as much as I could from these women about Mary Kay.
I asked the Director after the meeting where every one else was, and she replied “oh, they’ll be here next time, we’re building a bigger unit!” Strange, I thought.
I began to exit our meeting and saw that there was another MK unit meeting that seemed to be moving a bit faster, was busier and a bit bigger next door, and I want to be a part of THAT unit. I inquired some weeks later if I could switch and I was notified “no, you cannot.” That particular meeting next door was held by my director’s senior, who has delegated adoptees like me to her unit.
So I was stuck in the small adoptee unit, and that was fine. I had well over $3,000 in retail products sitting on my shelves at home and I was determined to make this business work. These unit meetings are where we exchange sales and marketing ideas, and learned “tricks of the trade.” Looking back, many of them are basic common sense marketing tools. I do admit that these tools I learned during those meetings were a great stepping stone to bring me to where I am in my career now, but I now see that they were certainly not enough to sustain a successful small consultant business.
I continued “booking, selling and recruiting” as told, and attending regular weekly meetings. All my activity started to “pay off” and I quickly went on target for my “free” Mary Kay car, and earned it in 2007.
I was so excited, this was just a single year after beginning my business. I opted to take the cash compensation option, instead of the shiny new trophy on wheels. I had a brand spanking new car I had purchased with cash savings and didn’t want or need another car or another insurance payment. Taking the cash compensation option is frowned up and this was the first time I received some formal backlash from my adoptive unit. They didn’t want me telling anyone I took the cash compensation, and they couldn’t believe I actually turned down the trophy on wheels.
Business was good, family and friends were purchasing products and I was slowly building my additional customer base. During the summer, I attended Seminar in Dallas with the rest of my national area. I walked the stage in front of thousands, picked up “fake” keys to my earned car with the other car winners and was #3 in sales in my National Area.
By all outward appearances I was a “success.” A HUGE success! But inside I knew something was wrong. I wasn’t actually making money. The expenses were eating my business alive, and trust me, I ran my business like a tight ship. But when you are required to cover all business expenses including gas to meetings, airfare to seminar, hotel rooms, meeting fees from upline, shipping, postage, shipping materials, samples, look books, samples, disposable materials for facials, hostess gifts, marketing materials, shopping bags for deliveries, ribbon for gift baskets, etc. The costs really add up!
That year, my business broke even. I was #3 in sales in our national area, had earned a free MK car”and STILL my business had only broke even.
I came home from Seminar worried that my business wasn’t actually generating income and I knew I had to grow my business and grow my customer base to make any money.
A year after earning my MK car, the financial crisis of 2008 unfolds. I am still a “car winner” and attend events and hold my finger up for the number of “free” cars I “earned,” which was a very enticing recruiting tactic for people who were losing their homes and had no income coming in.
During this time, I attend an MK recruiting event hosted by a NSD. I remember part of her recruiting pitch was how lucky she was that she didn’t even pay for gas, and how awful it is for those who have to purchase it because it is so expensive. She was implying that Mary Kay paid for her gas, and I knew that she was lying.
This was the first time, in my opinion, I caught my upline downright lying. At that moment, a major red flag in my mind went up. Why would she lie to a room full of people and say something so untrue?
I was confused and angry and left the event. I later called my adoptive director to find out just what was going on. Perhaps there was a gas compensation program and I was missing out? If there wasn’t a gas program, why had the NSD told everyone Mary Kay paid for our gas, when it simply wasn’t true? My adoptive director assured me that our NSD must have made an honest mistake, that she meant well, and I shouldn’t be so upset. She continued to explain that perhaps she meant that because her car was “free,” it was like getting free gas, or that somehow because she didn’t have a car payment it made buying gas easier.
Moving forward, my business and my customer list continued to grow slowly, and I had consistent sales of between $300 and $1,000 in sales, every single week. That level of sales earns me a “Star Consultant” award from the company.
I was invited to a Star Consultant reward event and climbed into a Pink Escalade with other car “winners” and On- Target car consultants. I was a little sour from the “free gas” comment the NSD had made at the past recruiting event but didn’t bring it up. Instead, I took the opportunity to ask her just how much her car payments were to the company when she didn’t make national unit production. I continue to say that since I took the cash compensation option, I didn’t have a co-payment and just received a reduced cash payment instead. To me, this was a smart business move and relatively risk free. Why risk driving a Mary Kay car and having to make payments on it if you missed your quota? It seemed financially irresponsible and other consultants should consider the less risky cash option instead.
The NSD’s face turned bright red, and I seriously thought she was going to kick me out of the car. She deflected the question, and later instructed my adoptive director not to let me ask any more questions. I soon learned asking questions, was NOT okay. I was reprimanded with a stern phone call following the event for speaking up, and yet another red flag hit me… This was the moment I realized she didn’t want anyone knowing there was a possibility she was making a car payment. She was dishonest for a second time. Got it.
The culture of “don’t ask, don’t tell,”,“fake it til you make it,” “never let anyone know our secrets” kind of mentality was in full effect. I was not allowed to ask questions, speak my mind, or seek help to genuinely grow my business. My rational mind knew this couldn’t be healthy from a personal or business stand point, but I let it go.
I let those first red flags go, and pushed on in my business. Next, I went for DIQ, Director in Qualification. I wanted my own unit so I could run it the way I saw fit, from an ethical and honest standpoint, with no secrecy, no dishonesty, no “silence.” My recruiter was a dear friend of mine and had long since dropped out of Mary Kay. Another friend of mine who had completed DIQ and made director had also suddenly quit.
I was instructed not to communicate with either of them and to cut them off. Looking back, I can’t believe I didn’t see this as a red flag. What a terrible and just wrong thing to do to someone! And just like that, I was no longer speaking to my former two good girlfriends. Still, in the back of my mind I wondered if becoming a director was a smart thing to do. If my recruiter and a friend of mine who had made director had abandoned the business, what was I missing?
For some reason, I thought or believed, or convinced myself, that I was different, or perhaps better at “sales” than they were. Or maybe I convinced myself, I had a better work ethic than they did? After all, I had had two years, of solid $300-$1,000 weeks, week after week of sales and had earned my car. So I submitted for DIQ, came to terms with the fact I had two less “friends,” and pressed on.
At some point, our weekly unit meetings with my tiny adoptee director’s unit and her senior director and her offspring directors merged for weekly meetings. That meant we had four units meeting in one room, with lots of consultants. Week after week, I was Queen of Sales, always consistent. My heart broke knowing that my business still wasn’t really making money, and somehow I was making MORE sales than all the other women in this room… another red flag. I knew in my gut something was seriously wrong at this point.
I can now admit that part of me enjoyed being a “big fish” in these small four units. It was fun to walk in there, week after week, as Queen of Sales, being envied by all the consultants who were selling close to nothing, week after week. My success in my sales could be chalked up to persistence, competitiveness and down right hard work ethic. And, it helped that I had a true love of cosmetics, fashion and make-up.
The hardest part of these $300 + consistent weeks of sales or more, was that I wasn’t making a profit, and I never did. My business continued to lose money.The gas for meetings, unit meeting costs, seminar, shipping to customers,supplies, it was all taking a cut out of my profit. I knew deep down that something was wrong, that if *** I *** was the most successful thing in these units, something was wrong. Still I pressed on.
Soon enough, the end of my DIQ came, and I was short. I didn’t make it. Mys ales were steady, but I began to realize that every recruit became my competition. Every person I recruited took away from my sales. I re-evaluated my business, and re-purposed myself to the embarrassing role of “professional consultant.” I decided that directorship wasn’t for me, and neither was recruiting. So I stopped worrying about a team and everyone else, and pursued what worked for me! Compared to everyone else in my adoptive and home unit, I had killer sales. So off I went, on a mission to be the best “consultant” out there, even if it meant never being a director.
A few months passed and I lost interest in my MK business. My sales dwindled, and a few months turned into a few seasons, and a few seasons turned into a few years. I stopped marketing my business all together. I fulfilled basic customer requests and stopped ordering inventory to stock my shelves with. The customer refills dwindled and so did my orders. I started working in marketing and PR and really excelled, so I didn’t mind that I had lost what little Mary Kay income I used to have.
My only orders toward the end were for friends to get them the 50% discount. I was recently notified I will finally go inactive. I told my director that I was no longer going to be a consultant or ordering and that was that. That was liberating.
I am now doing PR work professionally, representing a variety of fashion brands and a few national skincare and cosmetics brands. I have gotten editorial coverage for my brands in beauty magazines like Cosmopolitan, Teen Vogue, Glamour, etc. I recently had a business trip to New York and everything was paid for by the brands, including airfare, as really nice hotel, all meas, everything.
I have a couple of Mary Kay products that I love, and I like being simply a customer. No quotas, no drama, no meetings, no secrecy, no uniforms, no crap. I am free.
Visit the
Wow, what a journey. It’s an epic. I give you props for taking the cash compensation of the car, not recruiting because that just creates competition and dilutes your customer base, and for trying to question that lying liar of an NSD. I mean, lying about free gas during the Great Recession, when car dealerships couldn’t even sell cars without promising free gas for a year and people were trying to sell their SUVs and trucks because they couldn’t afford to fuel them. That’s scummy even for MK (though par for the course for NSDs, given Monique Anthony’s little grand larceny problem, Jamie Taylor’s exploitation of her downline, and Mia Mason Porter’s little fibs on her bankruptcy filing).
Congratulations on your new fulfilling (and quite awesome sounding ) career.
But I wonder why, knowing what you know about the company and its practices, a company headed by NSD “royalty” who have the morals of Al Capone, a company that promises big bucks yet most of its sales force isn’t even breaking even and goes deeper into debt every month, a company that effing forbade you from talking to two of your best friends because they were no longer Kompany, you can stand being a customer of theirs. If you’re an inactive consultant you don’t get the 50% discount so you’re paying an overinflated retail price. There’s nothing comparable or better out there in the marketplace?
Wow, Lillian. Thank you for sharing. You’re right, much of the content shared here, especially the personal stories, is for the writer’s benefit as much as the reader’s. It’s healing to get our stories out there, to find our tribe, to see and be seen by others who have been in much the same boat. Thank you for adding your voice to the countless here that continue to speak out against Mary Kay and the damage they do.
I, too, joined MK and then moved halfway across the country to be “adopted.” My director sought out a Cadillac director in the area, thinking that would be the best way to get me the training I needed to excel. I hadn’t been participating too terribly long before her NSD, Pam Shaw, sent out a mass email about a contest she was running. “Keep in mind, adopted consultants aren’t eligible for this contest. I mean, who among your adoptees is actually doing anything, anyway??” (No, not a direct quote, it’s been years ago, but this was the spirit of the message and wording wasn’t too far off.) I looked around that room, with a Cadillac director gunning for NSD (she eventually made it), where I was queen of sales every week, queen of recruiting most weeks, and walked out. Thanks, but no thanks, Pam. I don’t need that kind of negativity in my life. In hindsight, I wish I had kept walking right out of the company.
“There is this very serious ‘Don’t tell anyone what it is really like’ mentality”
Just like Scientology or other cult.
“NSD told everyone Mary Kay paid for our gas.”
Yes, that was intentional. (Of course, she just “misspoke.”) Liars.
Lillian, thank you for sharing. Like you, I ran a tight ship and decided not to recruit and only sell. I didn’t make much money from it because the business is designed and focused on recruiting and front-loading. You can’t make a living in MK from selling. I let my “business” dwindle over the years like you and also came to a point to just.be.done! It is such a freeing moment, isn’t it!
You helped visualize the problem for us. Again, thank you.
Great story Lillian, and I’m happy you found legitimate work. Your quotes below may be exactly as you described, but I’d like others to BOLO for these ulterior scenarios:
“I was never really recruited, I showed up one day on my friend’s doorstep and said “sign me up!””—
You just showed up? You must of known and heard of her being a MK consultant. Maybe she didn’t say “I want to recruit you”, but I guarantee she was dropping nuggets. This is common with MLMers. She dropped so many golden nuggets that you came to her. You signed up under your friend; you were recruited.
“I was never given “inventory” talks by her or my new director. But I had enough business sense to know that if I was going to start a business, I needed something to sell. So I ordered an $1,800 inventory package in addition to my $100 starter case. The next day I ordered all the supplies, and soon I had over $2,000 into my new business.”—
Are you sure? She also could’ve been dropping hints about buying inventory all along. And then said on signing day, “You’re a smart business women, so you’ll know what to do.” Even if your friend wouldn’t normally act this way, she was trained how to handle you.
“I remember part of her recruiting pitch was how lucky she was that she didn’t even pay for gas, and how awful it is for those who have to purchase it because it is so expensive. She was implying that Mary Kay paid for her gas, and I knew that she was lying.”—
She was almost certainly lying, but did you understand the context fully? I’ve also heard this: “With the team I have built, the commission gets me my Amway products for free. Wouldn’t you like free products every month?” The NSD was likely lying, or she was implying that the money from her “Mary Kay” team bought her gas. Just a thought. Either way sucks.
“Moving forward, my business and my customer list continued to grow slowly, and I had consistent sales of between $300 and $1,000 in sales, every single week. That level of sales earns me a “Star Consultant” award from the company.”—
Wow, impressive, or is it? It certainly is for a MK consultant. Was that the retail amount figure?
What amount of product do we think a person selling from a home closet can move per week? Lillian busted her butt, had sales that “sound” high to a consultant, and yet she had a net loss. When she decided to focus on just reselling, she quickly found out it was not worth it.
Translation: The MLM system isn’t conducive to retailing product. That’s its inherent flaw, and the company and the wiser MLMers know it. Lillian proved it. If you don’t recruit, you won’t last long. It’s not worth your time and effort, and upline won’t like you!.
These next two are direct criticisms, sorry:
“Business was good, family and friends were purchasing products and I was slowly building my additional customer base.”—
I have a problem with the touting of profiting off of friends and family, especially via an MLM scam. F&F are the people I think of helping, giving a deal, and not using for personal profit. THIS IS MLM.
“I have a couple of Mary Kay products that I love, and I like being simply a customer.”—
After all you discovered, you support that company and give them your money?!!! I’ll let my question speak for itself.
Also notice that not once was MLM mentioned in the email. Why? Is there confusion or denial about what kind of company MK is? This is important because MLM is the system that supports all of MK. To speak in terms many consultants would understand: It’s like discussing the Christian cult without ever mentioning Jesus.
*Lillian, please don’t take too much offense by my commentary. I think it’s fantastic you wrote in and shared all the valuable information. Borrowing your comments just helps me explain the MLM scam better to others.
My first words, “Great story Lillian” and other praises. Did I not commend her enough? I’m sorry. Explain clearly enough, right out of the gate, that I was going to offer different scenarios that could happen to lurkers, but NOT that they applied to her experience?
I gave a real incident that has stuck in my head for decades, “I get my products for free every month.” This reminded me of “free gas”, although as mentioned, her NSD was likely straight up lying. That same “free product” person initially kept dropping lines but never mentioned recruiting, etc.. I thought of that. I shared the experience of the soft sell – or whatever it’s called. And like a practice interview or a mock trial that gives you content to address, I used Lillian’s. I praised her again, and I literally acknowledged borrowing her content to further expose the MLM scam and how they operate.
I 100% percent stand by my criticisms though – if that’s the particular part causing the dislike. How can one write in about an MLM company, and not mention it? I gave an apt example. How can one be so wonderfully critical of a company, share their story which speaks volumes, but still friggin’ buy their products? IMO, there is still a disconnect. And I think targeting friends and family for your own profit is rude and predatory. This is one of the main strategies of MLM. MLM is bad.
Regardless, I’ll keep happily collecting my skunks. Yes, I could’ve just said thank you for sharing and glad you got out, but that would be boring. Plenty of people are commending her, so I used the article differently.
I’ll close now by quoting myself, “I think it’s fantastic you wrote in and shared all the valuable information.”
Char, I didn’t downvote you, but I almost did. And this is why. People come to Pink Truth at all different parts of their anti-MLM journey. Clearly, Lillian is towards the beginning of hers. Picking her article apart as you did, implying you know better than she does what she experienced, is much the same tactic that Mary Kay lifers use. Keep exactly to the party line, don’t stray. Isn’t that exactly what she was complaining about in this article? Stepping out of the Pink Fog ™ is hard. Especially when you’ve been in for this many years. Let’s give her some grace and not make it any harder than it has to be. She’ll learn. As we all did, in our own time.
And as for the lurkers? Do you think they’re going to stick around to learn more if they’re judged and berated like this? (I hesitate to use this example because of the spiritual abuse heaped on consultants, but here we go.) Do you think it’s effective when Christians beat atheists up with the Bible? Legalistic, black-and-white thinking is rarely a good way to influence people or win converts. You catch more flies with honey and all that.
I deeply admire and respect your passion for eliminating MLMs and exposing them for the abusive cults they are. I do think, in this case, you let your passion cloud your compassion.
Commenting here because I also criticized her for continuing to use and buy MK and (to my surprise) wasn’t downvoted. So it isn’t that you weren’t 100% huggles and hearts.
Frosty’s post, as always, is spot on. Mock trials and hypotheticals are fine in the abstract, or among folks who have been out for a long time and are willing to reflect on and rethink their experiences. However, this is Lillian’s story about Lillian’s journey and questioning it reads as you questioning Lillian and doubting the veracity of her lived experience.
You basically took her story and used it as a teaching moment without her consent and in my opionion that’s not right. It’s up to her when/if she’d be open to that.
Another thing is, you and I were never in MK, so this kind of thing is personal for those who are/were on a level that it isn’t for us. People are going to take it personally whether or not you meant it that way.
Thank you Frosty and popinki. (Not my downvote btw)
In hindsight I should not have directly quoted her, and instead just written options to BOLO for different situations and motives, per my actual experiences. I’ll try to remember not to do that.
You said, “ Mock trials and hypotheticals are fine in the abstract, or among folks who have been out for a long time and are willing to reflect on and rethink their experiences.”—
That’s just it, I read this: “I have wanted to tell my story FOR YEARS… the real story of what my experience in Mary Kay was like. But I never did.”
Otherwise, and as often in the past, I would have been more sensitive. I actually think this is a years old repeat story, but I couldn’t swear to it. Of course newer readers and lurkers wouldn’t know I totally give credit to people for their strength who freshly leave this cult, so point taken.
She also, to me, solidified her confidence, peace, and years distance by saying, “I am now doing PR work professionally, representing a variety of fashion brands and a few national skincare and cosmetics brands. I have gotten editorial coverage for my brands in beauty magazines like Cosmopolitan, Teen Vogue, Glamour, etc. I recently had a business trip to New York and everything was paid for by the brands, including airfare, as really nice hotel, all means, everything.”
So yes, I did use it as a somewhat “teaching” experience. But even still, I was willing to accept her account that she “was not recruited” because that is her own truth; I offered a secondary explanation that also occurs. But I wonder:
How many of us actually think she wasn’t passively recruited, seeds weren’t planted, and it was indeed her friend’s intention to recruit her all along? Be honest.
Hello,
Why should Lillian or anyone else bother to
share their heartfelt, true story in Mary Kay World,
if they risk being shredded openly
& criticized handily
by the sharp business women who make up the
Supposedly Supportive Pink Truth?!?
Like Ben Affleck said today referring to him sharing his
Addiction openly to the public, “ Some will feel compassion
But there is still a tremendous Stigma,”
As a former MK Sales Director who left that position in 2021,
I hesitate to share anymore about my story after seeing
Comments made about Lillian.
A Mary Kay “business” is a bad one. 50% margin is break-even at best, as Lillian learned. MK makes a big show of not wanting “sales types.” Well, yeah, sales types would know better than to sign up for a lousy 50% margin (even if they could get it).
Because the MLM business model sucks rocks — and they know it — MLMs like Mary Kay operate as full-blown cults to keep you in. They seek to control every aspect of your personal life: telling you how to think, who your friends are, what you can say and especially what you cannot. If you ask too many questions, you’re ostracized and shamed. Heck, you’re not even allowed to call MK an MLM, though it clearly is one.
The danger of involving yourself in an MLM — any MLM — can be summed up in two sentences:
You won’t make any money.
You’re getting ensnared in a cult.
P.S.: Note to Lillian: Good for you for getting out, but after all you’ve been through, why are you still supporting Mary Kay by being a customer? There have to be alternatives you can buy from non-cult companies.
Thank you Lillian for sharing. It is inspiring to see someone make a go of running an honest MK business.
You discovered what everyone finds out when they attempt to create a retail business in MLM: door-to-door (or person-to-person) sales as a viable distribution model died decades ago. Selling commodity products out of your home, with the marketing restrictions MLMs impose, is not scalable to make any real money, especially given that you are competing with hundreds of thousands of other consultants who are selling the exact same product at the exact same prices, with no territorial protection.
Today’s consumers have been conditioned to expect better and better quality at lower prices (aka better VALUE) for the products they need. Retailers are getting better and better at meeting customer needs. Consumers prefer an arms-length relationship with their retailers. I, personally, don’t need a relationship with the check-out clerk at Home Depot to be satisfied with my purchases. Same for Amazon.
Mary Kay’s MLM distribution model is currently the most expensive and inefficient way to get product into the hands of retail consumers. The number of uninvolved “middle-men” and the cut they take of each MLM purchase is astounding. But this is okay, because Mary Kay is not in the beauty products retailing business. Rather, they are in the business of recruiting customer volunteers, while using all sorts of deception and trickery to get these customers to think they are business owners, who then order significantly more product than they can ever hope to use or sell, who are then duped into recruiting other customer volunteers to do the same.
If Mary Kay’s products had true intrinsic value, they’d ditch the MLM and sell their products online for 1/10th their current MSRP. But why do that when they have hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of customer volunteers wiling to over-order product at outrageous prices, and then willing to find new MK customer volunteers to do the same…all at the expense of the customer volunteers?
This is all very good for Mary Kay Corporate and the kingpins at the top…but not so good for the customer volunteers.
“I wasn’t actually making money.”
Did you have a real job/spouse/other income? How were you paying bills/living expenses?
I am a long-time reader and big fan of Pink Truth. I’ve heard about several MLMs in the Dallas area. I know a few people who are associated with Mary Kay Inc in one way or another and they have shared it is actually shrinking worldwide. As of last year they are a 1.8 billion dollar company with less than 400,000 sales force members in the U.S. Ryan Rogers, Mary Kay’s grandson, is the new president and CEO. There were articles written about him in the Dallas Morning News when he was appointed to the position. So stories about it being a 4 billion dollar company with millions of consultants around the world are not true. A few MLMs there have gone out of business as well as in other States. I watched an interesting series called “On Becoming a God in Central Florida” with actress Kirsten Dunst and was surprised it was about a fictitious MLM (but loosely based on Amway)! And there’s an episode of Young Sheldon where his mother becomes a MK consultant and tries to recruit people at her Bible study – hilarious!
Thank you for sharing. I love know ing the truth and having businesses exposed. I just got into MK for camaraderie and for the products at 50% off. I just want to get my own and for family and friends the 50% off.
My grandmother, mother, aunt, and cousin have all sold in Mary Kay. I tried it 20 years ago and decided to sell it again now.
However, after reading all your stories , I won’t try. I’ll only use it for myself and offer the 50% discount just to help my F & F have good inexpensive products.
I will be a certified life and health coach soon, so I’m already in the business of helping women find their truths, desires, and exposing and healing adulterated programming always .
Please remember that any money you give to MK is supporting this abusive system.
I will be a certified life and health coach soon, so I’m already in the business of helping women find their truths, desires, and exposing and healing adulterated programming always .
because that doesn’t sound culty as F!
A quick trip to the googles tells me that there are no actual requirements for becoming a “life coach,” only 58% of “life coaches” have a bachelor’s degree in ANYTHING, and you can become a “certified life coach” by taking two online courses on how to like talk to people and ask questions and some junk, and also how to market yourself. And this bogus certification will cost you anywhere from $1000-$2000 bucks.
Culty or not, it’s just another big fat scam designed to part people from their hard earned cash and enable them to think they’re something they’re not.
Ain’t no way I’m going to seek advice on major life issues from someone who doesn’t have a solid grounding in psychology, finance, fitness and nutrition, or whatever field is appropriate.