Chelsea’s Team Did Not Sell $602,000 of MK Products
Why do I have to expose this over and over? You’d think the Mary Kay ladies would eventually start telling the truth about their pretend businesses, but no.
One of our favorites, Chelsea Adkins, encouraged her team and customers to “crown the trip.” In other words, order enough products (whether needed or not) so that Chelsea and her husband could go on the top director trip to Barcelona this fall.
One of the gimmicks they use when they’re trying to “finish a goal” is doing “____ orders to go!” The orders are typically $100 or $200 orders from a customer. In Chelsea’s case, she was doing 50% off to entice people to order. Which means no profit for her, and likely a loss because of packaging/shipping costs, credit card interest for her maxed out credit cards, gas for deliveries, and other supplies.
As usual, Chelase weirdly brings God into this, as if somehow He is worried about MK ladies and their pretend businesses. (Remember when God told Chelsea she’d be a national sales director by January 2022?) So this time “God told her not to” look at the number she needed to get to $650k fake retail to make it on the trip.
The goal was not achieved by June 30, but Chelsea said they had a few more days to get it.
I have no idea whether the company extended deadlines because not enough directors reached the goals, or if she did something shady to buy herself a few days.
But it was not to be.
The big goal was missed (much like “million” was missed in 2021and the trip goal was missed in 2022), even after it was reduced from $1 million.
But of course… Chelsea still has to lie. She’s proud of her team for selling $602k in the past 12 months. No, they did not sell $602k. They ordered somewhere between $250k and $280k wholesale (depending on how much double credit Chelsea received throughout the year). Much of that product was never sold to a customer. A lot of Chelsea’s personal products were sold at cost. The $602k figure would assume that all products were sold at full suggested retail and that there wasn’t any double credit. Complete fiction.
Chelsea cried big tears for not making the trip.
But let’s go back to some weird business about God telling Chelsea things. Now she didn’t fail because she didn’t work hard enough. She failed because God decided she should in order to teach her a lesson. Or something.
Visit the
How many really nice vacations could she and her downline have taken if they’d taken the money they squandered “playing makeup” and just, you know, called a travel agent? She’s so permafogged that she can’t see the absurdity of it all.
God might have a lesson for you, Chels, but it ain’t the one you’re claiming. I repeat my grandmother’s saying about nagging doubts being Jesus trying to tell you something all the time. This time God is shouting into a bullhorn right into your face while dancing the Electric Slide in purple bunny slippers, telling you to get out. The goals are arbitrary and impossible. They leave you with nothing that lasts except debt. But Mary Kay Ash has supplanted him in your mind and you’re not even trying to hear him.
“I am so proud of my team and the way I saw them rise up this year. I am grinding to do this for them. They deserve this win!”
So selfless sounding. Chels…what exactly does your team win again? What do the folks in your downline get in return for sending you on a trip?
I agree with Popinki. Instead of sending all that money to Mary Kay, save up and pay for your own trip. How big is her unit? That $250K would buy 100 people (plus spouse/guest) a decent cruise or even a week at an all-inclusive. Instead they are stuck at home with a mountain of makeup they can’t sell.
Debt. That’s what her downline gets in return.
Debt indeed. And look at the contrast. All that money spent to send ONE person on a trip, when the same money spent could send 200 people (100 consultants plus their guest) on a decent week-long getaway to an all-inclusive Caribbean resort.
This, my friends, is a case study in the inefficiency of using MLM to achieve your life goals.
This is indeed the conversation that needs to be had with MLM recruiters…
“So let me get this straight. You are asking me to sign up to spend $600-$1000 on my initial inventory, plus an additional ~$1000/yr on Mary Kay make-up (qualifying minimums to be eligible for discount and commissions), with no guarantee I will be able to sell any of this stuff at all, much less at a profit, when meanwhile I could spend about the same money on an annual getaway with my hubby at an all-inclusive in the Caribbean? I know which one my hubby would choose!”
Perspective is everything.
“…..with no guarantee I will be able to sell any of this stuff at all, much less at a profit,….”
Enter the cunning use of the word “opportunity” out of the mouth of every MLMer.
I think the word you’re looking for is selfish, not selfless. Chels is definitely not a selfless person when it comes to her downline. But not to worry, another “opportunity” to suck them all dry will be coming up in no time!
And so many blue-collar workers making humble wages take their families on all sorts of fun vacations. Every state has its parks! When I was a kid we did a vacay every year to state parks here in Wild Wonderful West Virginia or Eastern Ohio. The memories from those trips are worth so much more than what any MLM-er has from the trips their uplines “earn” based on the consultants’ spending. I’m picturing trying to explain to my dad how someone in Mary Kay only gets to take a trip based on what their subordinates buy!
You and your logic! So negative!!!!
/s
Ha, yes. One word and this is it.
Hey but hey, her nashy-Nash begged Chelsea’s downline to Venmo her bachelorette beverages. Even after said downline drained their wallets for Chelsea’s unit and Jamie’s National Area.
In Chelsea’s “play-makeup” world, grinding=begging.
Just makes you wonder how God thinks.
Why did Megan Coleman earn Top Trip and not Chelsea?
Why did Brittani Jenks become an NSD and not Heather Daniel Kent?
Why is Pam Shaw Inner Circle and not Somer Fortenberry?
Maybe the message God is trying to send is that Mary Kay is a dog of an opportunity and to get out now.
Yeah, apparently God picks winners and losers amongst us?
While God is a forgiving sport, The Ghost of Mary Kay (……) Ash is less likely so, thus HDK’s relegation to yet another year of failure. MKA would NOT approve of HDK’s published “fitness model wannabe” photos.
MK ladies typically use vague phrases such as, “We finished $______” or “Our team did $______” or “We met our $______ goal.” I’m surprised she said “sold.”
“Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord,
But those who deal faithfully are His delight.”
~Proverbs 12:22
Do most of the team members know the drill on the fake numbers? I mean, are there still new consultants on her team who are thinking, well I only sold $125 in product last year — how did we get to $600,000?
He he. Good point. “I only sold $125 in product last year.” But if you kept up your minimums to qualify for your discount, you ordered at least at least $900 wholesale/$1800 retail in product last year! That’s how these numbers get so big.
Consider this: $650K/$1800=361. That’s 361 consultants (all meeting minimums for the year) an SD needs in her downline to post $650K in retail sales for the year, without a single item sold. Of course recruiting 361 is hard enough…getting them to stay “active” is another beast entirely, which Chels if facing with some difficulty. With an attrition rate of 40%, you actually need to sign an average of 20 new consultants every single month (~5 per week, or over 240 new consultants annually) to build and maintain a stable count of 360 consultants in your down-line. You are losing 144 per year, but you only keep 60% of the replacements. All this just to keep your downline from shrinking!
Look at the bright side: With “churn” comes the opportunity to get a big initial order!
BTW: It is not difficult to produce these formulas. For example, let me know if anyone needs the math to answer the following questions:
– How many consultants does my downline need to recruit annually to achieve $X in sales?
– How many consultants do I need to recruit annually to maintain a downline of Y consultants?
– If my downline recruits Z consultants per year, how big will my downline be after year 1, 2 etc., and at what number of consultants will my downline stabilize?
– With an average initial order of A and I recruit Z consultants per year, what will my annual retail be?
– If I want to “net” B dollars per year, how much must I sell per year, month, week, day?
– If I want to “net” C dollars per year in bonuses, how big must my downline be?
– If the industry cold-calling rate is 2%, how many strangers do I need to approach to sign D consultants? How many per year? Per month? Per week?
A spreadsheet that answers all of these questions should be provided to all prospective DIQs.
How about this question?
– If I don’t have any downline but am a total selling machine, how much do I have to sell per quarter to qualify for a car?
(Spoiler Alert: There is no amount. Only recruiters get a car. And coffee.
“Coffee is for recruiters!”
Blake, Glengarry Kay Ash
I’m tired just reading that. Imagine trying to DO it! But hey, full time pay for part time work, right?
I’m on my way to South America right now! My ticket with some seat upgrades cost about $1000. I’m staying with family and visiting local parks and such. I anticipate that I won’t spend more than $500 while there. That’s a whole lot less than spending thousands on product that sits on a shelf.
Enjoy your trip!
“I’m grinding to do this for them (my team). They deserve this win!” So, her team deserves for her and hubby to go on a trip. How thoughtful…
Lmao exactly
Her team has a high deserve level! They DESERVE to see pictures of someone having drinks they paid for, in a hotel they paid for.
Geez, selfish, entitled, greedy and clueless all at once.
Yes, 100%.
My director used to tell us “You deserve to be part of a Cadillac Unit”. This left me scratching my head. I couldn’t quite figure out how the car my director drove benefited her team members.
The prizes are symbolic of the whole MLM model….the downline spends the money, the upline gets rewarded.
Actually I would like it. I just started a week ago. Your absoluty right. I have not been able to find this information. Tje only thing I know is that to get 3 in the office you have to call 10. I Will not use my real name here sorry! My uplines seem really tired.
I like how she says she is doing it for her team. NOT.
Anywho..
How does she decorate her Instagram posts?
Here is how “The goal was not achieved by June 30, but Chelsea said they had a few more days to get it.”….. Directors can place orders for their team. It’s a separate program from “Mary Kay InTouch” I forgot what it was called. But anyway. They can place an order on the last day of the month and put in a credit card number that they know will decline. The order then goes on hold. I can’t remember how many business days they have to clear it up. I think two or three business days. So, an order placed on June 30th could have until the 5th or 6th and still count towards June. This is also the software they use if they want to split the payments between several cards. They can also be short by a little bit they call it “fudge factor” in case someone miscalculated something. I don’t know what the dollar amount is for the “fudge factor” They also you this system of putting in orders on hold for car qualifications too. You could also get a few more days for star consultant if you mail your order and post marked by the last day of the quarter. That could gain you 2 or 3 more days. Anyway this is the way it was during my time between 2004 and 2011, I don’t know if it’s changed since then.
I started a week ago and my director put in my first initial order.
“I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.” — Susan B. Anthony