Excuses to Avoid Seminar
Are you ready for the push to go to Mary Kay Seminar? You can’t miss it! This will catapult your business. You NEED to hear what is being said there. You can’t afford to not go. THIS will be your year.
But if all of the positive slogans aren’t enough to convince you to go, then they are going to have to start shaming you. Any of your reasons for not going are “excuses” and your director is going to overcome those objections.
Here is one NSD’s take on it. We’ve seen the list of “excuses” before, and she has her own spin.
EXCUSES YOU WILL NEED TO OVERCOME:
1. “I don’t have the money.”
That’s exactly why you NEED to go. Expenses will be staggered over the next 4 months,so start putting something aside from each sale.The anticipation of going will increase your productivity this summer (I see it happen every year) & you will be even more productive when you get home. Plus, all expenses are tax-deductible, so about 1/3 of the expense can come back to you at tax time, & another chunk comes back to you in free product, so the net cost of attending ends up being only about 1/3 of what you will be out-of-pocket. When you come home & work your business with the new level of confidence & expertise that the Seminar experience gives you, you make much more money long-term.
Trust me, if a lack of cash is your situation, YOU CANNOT AFFORD NOT TO GO! Seminar is for ALL consultants, not just the full-timers.On average 25faceswill pay your expenses, so use Seminar as a booking tool now!
2. “I can’t leave my children.”
Kids need a break from Mom, too. They’ll appreciate you even more! Begin making arrangements now. What this trip costs in inconvenience, it will pay off in glory! Birthday conflicts? Celebrate twice!
3. “My husband doesn’t want me to go.”
If your husband’s job required him to be away from home for 4-5 days in order to better his business, would YOU say he couldn’t attend? Take him with you! He’ll love it!
4. “I don’t deserve to go, because I didn’t meet the goals I set for myself this year.”
NONSENSE! Seminar attendance is not a reward for a great year (although if you had one, we’ll celebrate it!) Seminar is the catalyst for making next year great! The most significant Seminars for me were those in which I had NOT achieved my goals…t hey became turning points. Go & make this Seminar YOUR Breakthrough!
5. “I’m a new consultant. I’ll wait & go next year.”
Why wait a year to make a lot of money & be very successful? Why postpone success? If you want an awesome rookie year, it’s the best reason to go! (Ask anyone who’s been.)
6. “I went to Career Conference. Isn’t that enough?”
Ever heard the phrase, “You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet”? While the regional conference is fun& educational, it’s a weekly unit meeting, compared to Seminar. NO comparison.
7. “I don’t have the right clothes.” Formalwear is optional. Business attire & a nice Sunday dress are perfectly fine.
Visit the
8. “You’ll save money by sharing your hotel room with strangers. Since this is a sisterhood that’s doing life together – this will be an excellent bonding experience.
9. “The heat in Dallas in the middle of summer is actually good for you; people pay perfectly good money to visit saunas. MK thought out every detail!”
10. You’ll mingle with the best of the best and learn their secrets!
Yes. You’ll overhear their conversations about how they “gamed the system” or cheated to earn Queen of Something. You’ll learn that many are in deep debt and hiding credit card bills from their husbands.
Everything in Mary Kay is paid for by the consultants…including Seminar!
1. “I don’t have the money.” I’m sure there are a lot of details involved in submitting your expenses so that in actuality you get far less than 1/3 back. And another 1/3 comped in product? Oh, goody, more inventory to gather dust in your spare bedroom!
2. “I can’t leave my children.” When I was 6, my father started having a series of heart attacks. At one point that summer he was transferred to a hospital near Philadelphia, PA (Lankenau), about 2 hours away from us. My mother didn’t even stop to pack; she grabbed my uncle and had him drive her there because she didn’t drive. She about camped out in his hospital room until he was released. I wanted my mommy. I was 6. All I knew was that I wanted my mommy and she wasn’t there and no one would tell me why she wasn’t coming back.
As I got older there were times when birthdays and personal achievements and my problems were either ignored or downplayed and that hurt like hell. I could comprehend that she had a job she hated with mean girl coworkers who bullied her because they never matured beyond 6th grade, but it still hurt. There were times when I really needed some motherly love and advice, not be told to leave her alone because I wasn’t the only one with problems that were my fault anyway.
So no, your kids won’t understand the whole “ad maior Mary Kay gloriam so we’ll celebrate your birthday some other time, sweetie.” They will resent you for it, because they will hear “this thing is more important to me than you.”
3. “My husband doesn’t want me to go.” I’ll skip the feminist diatribe this time 😉 The difference between his business trips and Seminar is that his company would pay for hotel, travel, meals, etc. plus he’d get paid for going to the thing, not footing the bill himself and getting nothing out of it but a boatload of worthless makeup.
4. “I don’t deserve to go, because I didn’t meet the goals I set for myself this year.” Translation: “I don’t have the money” (so see above) or “I’m trying to come up with an excuse that will fly without offending you by telling you to take a flying leap.”
5. “I’m a new consultant. I’ll wait & go next year.” But if you wait a year you’ll probably quit and we won’t get any money out of you then!!!!!!!!!!
6. “I went to Career Conference. Isn’t that enough?” MORE than enough, it seems to me.
7. “I don’t have the right clothes. Formalwear is optional. Business attire & a nice Sunday dress are perfectly fine.” Just don’t you dare wear pants, even dress pants, jeans, skirts that are too short, tops that are too decollete, or which violate any other imaginary rules, lest you be mocked and scolded on the directors’ Facebook group.
Picture this: pre-seminar packing and planning, summer 2004. I tell my Director about the cute sundress I purchased on clearance at Sears. I planned to wear it for travel time (we were coached and expected to dress up for travel as well as the event itself.) I explained it was strappy and my shoulders would be bare. She suggested I get something to wear over it, so I wouldn’t “look like a stripper.”
Excuse me??? Yet I “respected” this advice, followed it, and stuck around and listened for another 20 years!! Ha
If you don’t go, it’s less likely you be sucked into the pink vortex. If I hadn’t gone in 2004, there no way I would have stayed in MK for another 20 years. If you go, you’ll see “the big picture” and may get swept into the rah-rah nonsense.
Stay home. Attendance will be at LEAST $1,500out of your pocket, depending on how you travel. I never was able to go for less than that, and I did take packets of tuna fish and made my coffee in the hotel room.
Not worth it!!
My last Seminar I packed one “travel” dress, which I wore on the plane, one black skirt, 4 white tops( you sweat a lot in July Dallas heat) one MK red jacket, black pumps, 5 or 6 pairs of panty hose, a swimsuit, pj’s and undies. I quit on Day 1of Seminar after General Assembly but had to wait until my flight home because I couldn’t afford to change my flight. I wore my travel dress for 3 days when not hanging out at the pool. When it was finally time to go home I packed my stuff, put on my travel dress one more time and headed to DFW airport. I left all the pantyhose and my red jacket on the hotel bed. True story.
This is an awesome story! What was the final straw that made you quit on Day 1?
When I saw all the Gloria Mayfield Banks Directors making an X with their arms, it just struck a cord that I was in a cult. I just couldn’t do it anymore. My director never called me to ask what happened. I just went home and started packing up what inventory I could send back, notified my customers I was having a liquidation sale and that was it. To this day, I have never heard from that woman who was my director.
That’s WILD she never even called you to check in!! I can’t imagine her thought process: “A woman on my team traveled here, PAID to be here, but I don’t see here anywhere. Eh no biggie? I’m sure she’s fine.”
But, my unit was small & we only had 4 people go to Seminar, so maybe it’s different if you were a large group. I hope she saw the light & got out right after Seminar, too.
This is fabulous. Congratulations on a great decision! And yes, what made you dip so quick?? lol, I love it
I wish I had done that & checked out the city instead of attending the entire seminar! Awesome choice!
Spoiler alert: You missed “Book, sell, recruit” and “This year is the best year to be in Mary Kay”
But, please, spill the tea!!
Ha, right! The same classes I heard at previous Seminars! One day I did go to the book depository exhibit where President Kennedy was killed. Very moving, but way too hot to be outside in my “travel” dress!
Good for you. Did your director or sponsor call you after to try and persuade you to come back?
No, she never called me and to this day I have never heard from her. She is still a sales director.
As a consultant, and when you recruit someone, do you immediately think, “I can’t wait for Sally to make herself a lot of money”? Or do you immediately think, “Yay, I’ve just grown my own team, and I am making a commission by recruiting Sally”?
The latter? So why then, when the NSD explains why you need to go to Seminar, do you immediately think of yourself? Why do you think the NSD is helping you with all her “advice”? Why don’t you assume that the NSD is listing all those reasons for her own benefit? (She is. This is the part of the MLM con game where you make the mark think it’s about them.)
NSD commission comes from her downline orders, your orders. The more she can get you to the Dallas Revival, the more brainwashed you will be. This benefits HER pockets.
So you want to be an NSD? Are you prepared to tell a mother to leave her kids at home so YOU can make a commission off mom’s newly enthusiastic July orders? Especially if mom really didn’t have the money to be buying all that crap in the first place? Are you really aspiring to be her? For shame.
Tell us everything! Mention it all!!!!
POPINKI:
1. “I don’t have the money.” I’m sure there are a lot of details involved in submitting your expenses so that in actuality you get far less than 1/3 back. And another 1/3 comped in product? Oh, goody, more inventory to gather dust in your spare bedroom!
3. “My husband doesn’t want me to go.” ,,,,,, his company would pay for hotel, travel, meals, etc. plus he’d get paid for going to the thing, not footing the bill himself and getting nothing out of it but a boatload of worthless makeup.
4. “I don’t deserve to go, because I didn’t meet the goals I set for myself this year.” Translation: ….. “I’m trying to come up with an excuse that will fly without offending you by telling you to take a flying leap.”
5. “I’m a new consultant. I’ll wait & go next year.” But if you wait a year you’ll probably quit and we won’t get any money out of you then!!!!!!!!!!
———————————————————————
1. Most undeniable, regrettable, heartbreaking point – more inventory to gather dust in your spare bedroom! [and haunt you every time you see it, think of it, fall over it, and for us treehuggers – the inexcusable waste…]
3. Most relevant – HIS COMPANY PAYS HIM AND FOR THE TRAINING!!!!
4. I AM TRYING NOT TO INSULT YOU BY TELLING YOU TO GET LOST AND LEAVE ME AND MY MONEY ALONE!
5. YOU WON’T BE HERE NEXT YEAR!
secondary – I am getting a bonus from my upline for each of “my” people who PAY for seminar…whether they GO or not isn’t the measurement, it’s PAYING.
When “stripper” insults are made to humiliate with no basis in fact at all, asking for clarification on what part of your outfit routinely appears in stripper shows can be enlightening. “Your shoulders are showing”. Okay. And? ….. another question – how are you so well informed on stripper outfits? TV? Why do you watch such shows if you are so easily offended?
Just being annoying sorry!!!
Besides, there’s nothing wrong or shameful about being a stripper, as long as everyone involved is 18+ and there’s no element of coercion involved. Bodies are beautiful and if you want to flaunt yours, that’s way more empowering to women than the MK culture of repressive conformity.
Dallas in July is criminally hot. I want to go back in time and find the person who thought having Seminar that time of year was a good idea and smack them.
Because the convention center was/is cheaper in July. No one in their right mind would book Dallas in the summer!
Number 1, “I don’t have the money,” is beyond common, and yes, I used that excuse and overcame it far too many times. Living in Hawai’i and traveling to Seminar was ungodly expensive. You had to plan at least two extra days on your trip — a day before Day 0 and a Day 4 — because of flights. Five nights in a hotel, about $600 in airfare round-trip, and additional meal expenses meant your Seminar trip could cost you $1500 from the start. This didn’t include registration, paying for that stupid NSD awards night and a crappy meal, your unit’s awards night with a crappy meal, and other incidentals. It was a small fortune for consultants and directors from Hawai’i and Alaska to go.
My last Seminar (2006), when we still lived there, cost me over $4000 as a director: travel, hotel (I refused to stay at my NSD’s hotel—too expensive for what you got—I stayed at a boutique hotel around the corner, where I got travel points as a loyalty member), additional meals, unit-area awards night, prizes, and more. And no, hubs didn’t go with me; dude was on a submarine and never had a consistent schedule of time off.