What I Don’t Miss About Directorship
Written by PinkPeace
Our friends. I have made/re-ignited real friendships in the real world, once I didn’t have to worry about hanging out only with “positive” people and trying to recruit every new person I met.
Make-up stashes. Mine consisted of the limited edition crap I couldn’t sell to my customers. Now I have I want without all the junk I couldn’t find in my conscience to throw away.
Customers. Almost all of my customers that I care about are so happy for me in my new life, and we make plans for lunches together, we e-mail each other, etc. On the other hand, I get to say SO LONG to the deadbeats and the ones who return seven shades of foundation before they decide that Mary Kay just isn’t for them.
Cars. Two words: car copays.
Unit, unit names, unit pins, flags/signs we used at career conference to find our unit members. Four words: pain in the a$$. I loved my women, but I hated trying to motivate them every week (here’s a free tip: you can’t motivate anyone to do anything). I hated trying to think of new ways to build “unit-y” when I just didn’t care that much myself anymore.
Director meetings. Two hours of comparing myself to other women, hiding my problems in order not to appear negative, feeling superior when I was recognized for a unit accomplishment and feeling like an insect when I had a bad month, listening to the latest flash in the pan gush on and on about how she was on-target for Cadillac (and wondering where she was six months later), hearing about yet ANOTHER sure-fire guest night/recruiting script/consistency club, etc. that wouldn’t work. Gee, why wouldn’t I miss that?
Endless phone calls, emails, etc. And endless family interruptions and consultants who think you are a therapist.
Production tracking. Months of staring at numbers that will never add up, no matter how hard you work.
Our meeting agendas, interviews, inventory talks, debuts. GAAAKKK!11 years of trying to make a unit meeting fresh, trying to convince a warm body that MK is just PERFECT for her, rationalizing why the only real option for a new consultant is a “full store,” taking a whole Sunday afternoon to do a debut for 4 people instead of watching a football game with my husband . . . now that I’m out, I can’t believe I did all that for so long.
Christmas gifts from the company. Directors, you know what I’m talking about.
Director suits. Remember the smurf suit?
Early ordering/support packages/etc. Whatever. The more the product line deteriorates, the less I have any desire to see it at all, much less early.
Yes, it’s all gone, and I’m not depressed, I’m elated! What directors really miss is a sense of being special and superior to others. But if they can ever see what it really costs them, they come to realize they have been played by the company, and the only ones coming out on top are the owners of Mary Kay Inc, Richard Rogers and other members of Mary Kay Ash’s family.
Visit the
All. Of. This! And:
“Pink Friday”: Now I can enjoy my entire Thanksgiving weekend in peace with my family. Or go shopping myself if the mood strikes!
“The entire freaking Christmas selling season”: Seriously. How many times can I set myself and my unit up for failure with the same tired “Sell $10,000 and earn a car by Christmas” schtick?
“Continuing to support women who have no hope of breaking even in MK”: You know the ones. They have so many personal challenges that they can barely show up for a 9-5 with heavy direction, much less self-motivate to the level required by MK. The vulnerable, the child-like, the lonely, the ones in almost-abusive relationships. Now I can love them where they are, instead of pretending to support their best interests while really looking out for my own.
“Summer in Dallas”: Just yuck from start to finish.
“The constant comparison game”: Whether I came out on top or not on the scoreboard that month was irrelevant. We were all comparing our internal mess with everyone else’s external “fake-it-till-you-make-it.” And we all felt less-than, while also feeling superior to the 99% who would never make director.
“Suppressing my own gifts”: I am really really good at fixing things. Part of that giftedness is seeing and acknowledging where there are problems. In Mary Kay, of course, this amounts to being negative and is to be avoided at all costs. It took me a long time to embrace this ability again after exiting The Fog.
I have never participated in an MLM (but I was surrounded by it growing up). Reading this post stresses me out, wondering how women can tolerate this MK insanity. My wife is busy enough with all the orchestrating of the family schedule and making our house a comfortable and welcoming home, all while working outside the home.
I can only imagine how MK would destroy the impressive beauty and seemingly effortless orchestration she brings to our home and family. Women are specially gifted in filling a home with caring love…something I regularly view with awe. Sure, I can fix anything…mechanical. But when the kids, a friend (or even I) have a rough day or need encouragement, she’s the go-to.
Adding MK onto what seems an already impossible task of tender and effective home-making, spells disaster. I feel for the families whos homes the MLM storm has blown through. I can easily understand how this could push a marriage past the breaking point.
Meanwhile, I feel such a sense of second-hand relief after reading articles like this, knowing OP has broken free from the MLM insanity.
There are at least two women in that photo who have lost their SD status. Maybe more.
Those suits are so unfashionable and look so itchy!
Getting someone into the trap of “wanting to become a director” has to be a dream come true for a director. Get that DIQ in there to run the hamster wheel for… a long time… but never make it?? Wow, ample “almost” production, and someone to put her foot on the gas so the SD can chill for a bit. Just keep throwing her pink bones to keep that dream alive so she never bails on the hamster wheel.
I was in and out of DIQ for YEARS! I was a selling machine and by myself I averaged $1,200 w/s per month. My team usually did another $1,800ish without a big stretch. So $3,000 or so from my team fairly consistently, and car qualifications were only $7,500 at that time. My senior still didn’t earn her first car until my 3rd month of my only successful trip through DIQ. And even then, it was dialing for dollars at the end of the month to scrape up the last couple thousand in production. I thought it was a “her” problem. Now I see clearly that she was operating exactly how the system set her up to.
They were horrible. Didn’t fit right. And very expensive. Needless to say, I could never sell it, especially since they came out with a new one the next year!! Grr
Oh PP, the memories… what an awful time in our lives and with all the new changes I see on the discussion board, I don’t know why anyone stays anymore. How horrible it must be to realize their dream is going away bit my bit. Can you imagine recruiting anybody in this “business”? I used to pride myself on my ability to overcome any objections in my recruiting spell– it wouldn’t work anymore. PAY for advertising? Holy shit. I see some of my old director friends on the quoted discussion board posts and it is heart- breaking. One of them is too old to be a NSD and is very concerned. She has been in MK 40+ years… No SS$, maybe medicare (not sure), dying unit… Damn.
Great post!
I especially don’t miss the last day of the month madness!! Staying up until midnight trying to find one more sale before having to resort to topping off my own production to keep my unit!! The pink fog was a dangerous place!!