Are You Not Adults?
Failed Mary Kay consultant Gail Mason has words for us. Despite her inability to get to the status of sales director, she feels qualified to give us business advice. Gail posted the below comment on our article Mary Kay Doesn’t Pay the Bills:
I am surprised at what I am reading. Are you not adults that started your own business? No one makes you spend money in Mary Kay. Do you not have a business sense?
Mary Kay is no different than if you opened up your own store. Matter of fact, you don’t even have a middle supplier. And the start up is way less expensive. You buy from the company and sell directly to the customer.
No one says you have to buy beyond your means. You do not have to build and maintain a team. Take some responsibility.
It’s interesting that Gail thinks she knows more than us. But she doesn’t even realize that Mary Kay is not a “business” and is just a glorified scam.
She compares it to opening a store, except a store is a real business, not a thinly veiled pyramid scheme. And we’re the ones that don’t have business sense?
Gail feels clever with the whole “no one made you do it” argument.
But Gail is really just another loser MK consultant who is lucky if she makes a hundred bucks here or there. She has convinced herself that Mary Kay is not MLM. And she doesn’t know this little-known tidbit.. everyone does NOT get “access to” the same 50% profit. Sales directors receive a kickback from MK on their own product orders, meaning they have the potential for greater profit on product sales than consultants.
Thanks for your input, Gail, but it seems we know much more about Mary Kay than you!
Visit the
I am surprised at what I am reading.
Yet I’m not surprised to be reading another director trying desperately to defend her lack of awareness.
Are you not adults that started your own business?
Yes, I’m an adult but I have more sense than to try and make my living from a fauxoptunity like Mary Kay.
No one makes you spend money in Mary Kay.
And yet there are plenty of posts here which give sales directors scripts to get as much ordered from their
.downlinesrecruits as possible like this onehttps://www.pinktruth.com/2024/07/09/getting-recruits-to-order-as-much-as-possible/
Do you not have a business sense?
Yes, which is why I’m not in Mary Kay Wagner Rogers Eckman Weaver Louis Miller Hallenbeck Ash’s fake employment.
Mary Kay is no different than if you opened up your own store.
it is, actually. if I opened my own store I could choose what to buy, who to buy it from, how to advertise. Additionally I’d know exactly how many competitors I’d have in my hinterland trying to vie for the same customers. Also I can dispose of any unsold inventory how I like as I’m not bound to any rules about it.
https://www.pinktruth.com/2024/07/11/what-does-the-sales-director-agreement-say/
Matter of fact, you don’t even have a middle supplier.
Lots of small business buy direct from the manufacturer, Mary Kay Whoever isn’t unique in that. Nor are the other MLMs.
And the start up is way less expensive.
Less expensive than what, exactly? Not being a MKBot?
You buy from the company and sell directly to the customer.
As I said before. not unique to Mary Kay et alia
No one says you have to buy beyond your means.
Not out loud, anyway but the implication is there.
https://www.pinktruth.com/2012/07/24/harpers-magazine-mary-kays-pink-pyramid-scheme/
You do not have to build and maintain a team.
Then why are you constantly told, “Book, Sell, Recruit”? This is from the 2023 Mary Kay Canadian Income disclosure, it shows only the
profitsgross commissions made from the average IBC’s downline recruits. The boast “executive wages for part-time work” is shown to be meaningless for the overwhelming majority of IBCs.https://imgur.com/a/mary-kay-income-disclosure-2023-LFdntKd
Take some responsibility.
The commentariat who were in Mary Kay multitudinous lasts names did and left, returning inventory and breaking free.
I am sorry to say but most people are not able or willing to do what is actually needed to start their own businesses. You by no means need an MBA or even a degree but you do need to do research. To find out what you do not know and what it takes to possibly succeed. I did small business consulting and I was amazed how little people seems to know and how unrealistic their ideas about compensation were.
MLM is just a way for people to get around seemingly hard parts. What ends up happening is that they loose thousands of dollars and don’t really learn from the experience. Failures in business can teach valuable lessons to those who have taken the time to learn how to start correctly.
There are no short cuts believe me I know from personal experience and I have learned each time.
Hahahaha – MLM is not even a business.
I am sorry to say but most people are not able or willing to do what is actually needed to start their own businesses.
This is true.
You by no means need an MBA or even a degree but you do need to do research. To find out what you do not know and what it takes to possibly succeed. I did small business consulting and I was amazed how little people seems to know and how unrealistic their ideas about compensation were.
If I wanted to open say a florist shop in my town of approx. 12k people, more in the summer as we are on the edge of cottage country, I’d be up against one shop which has been open for at least 25 years, the sign says “depuis 19xx” or since 19xx, I can’t read the faded part as I drive past the store.
There’s another which has been open for 15 or so years, both of these shops are InterFlora /TeleFlora associated.
There are also 3 supermarkets selling bouquets as well as several fruit-shops and garden stores which may or may not have cut flowers for sale. Those are just the ones I know about.
I’m already in the worst position to start .
MLM is just a way for people to get around seemingly hard parts.
Well, yes and no. The hard part in an MLM is “Book, Sell, Recruit” with the emphasis on “Recruit, recruit, recruit”. You are not able to raise up through sales alone, you need to have a steady supply of
downline membersrecruits under (general) you to get all the stars and bars and cars.What ends up happening is that they loose (sic) thousands of dollars and don’t really learn from the experience.
Lose, the word is lose. Some do jump from MLM to ML but many also do learn and send back their inventory and “throw the metaphorical bird” and walk away dignity intact.
Failures in business can teach valuable lessons to those who have taken the time to learn how to start correctly.
See “Why DA would fail as a florist” and I know how approximately how many business I’d be up against, MKBots or MLM Huns in general are not given that information up front.
There are no short cuts believe me I know from personal experience and I have learned each time.
And yet, if only your parents were multi-millionaires or billionaires or even had access to a major computer company, you too could be the next Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk.
Shes not very bright, doesnt even know what an MLM is and that she actually is in one LOL poor pet.
“Mary Kay is no different than if you opened up your own store.”
Oh yes it is. With a real store it is possible for everyone involved to make positive money…the supplier, the owner, the employees, the landlord…everyone. And not one of these money makers needs to personally buy or use any of the products being sold in order to make positive money.
In MLMs like Mary Kay, for everyone turning a true business profit, another 249 must be losing money. This is what PTC does not understand. In real businesses, cash flow comes from sales to outside customers, from which business expenses (including payroll) are funded. In MLMs like Mary Kay, the primary cash flow comes from the pockets of the sales force, who are required to personally purchase the products they are selling.
Contrary to PTC’s assertion, real retail stores and MLMs like Mary Kay have very, very little in common.
I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I’ve never let that stop me.
When I read so many of these Friday critics, the song “Once in a Lifetime” by Talking Heads pops into my head. To recap the video, lead singer David Byrne, looking very neurotic and dressed in an ill fitting suit, frenetically dancing as pictures of various peoples of the world performing religious observances pop up in the background. Other times the background is multiple images of Byrne doing his spasmodic dance.
The song isn’t “Pink Cadillac”, and none of the dance moves involve sitting in a heart shaped bathtub or making cow eyes at an oversized portrait of Mary Kay or stuffing balloons in their britches, but the imagery is there.
And you get lyrics like:
Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Leting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again, after the money’s gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground
Which I can see as both their refusal to take a hard look at their situation and falling back onto familiar clichés so as not to have to think about it, or the facts about MLM that make it a rigged system in which it’s next to impossible to make any kind of money. No matter how hard you work or how much money you put into trying to drain the ocean.
And of course the refrain, “Same as it ever was” repeated over and over. Never anything new out of these critics.
At the end of the thing, Byrne appears dressed normally (for the early 80s anyway) looking a bit wistful and melancholy but relaxed, much like the MK veterans who were able to break the cycle and start living the way they want to without the stress and conformity.
And now I’m going to have it stuck in my head for at least a week, so I hope I’ve earwormed a few of you as well 😜
…and her example illustrates 100% profit, not 50%… “Buy for $1, sell for $2…” We must all be chumps for not taking the ‘free’ money!
noun: multi-level marketing
the practice of selling goods or services on behalf of a company in a system whereby participants receive commission on their sales as well as the sales of any participants they recruit.
Only in Mary Kay commissions are received on orders from the company, not sales.
Gail-You can sugar coat it any way you want, duo marketing, order direct from the company, 50% profit etc. It is still a multi-level marketing company- MLM.
We’re on the road to nowhere, come on inside!
We’re on the ride to nowhere, let’s take that ride!
Yes. I do wish Oxford would change that definition though, as it is very misleading. That definition is what MLM pretends to be, but we all know that MLM inherently defaults to the endless recruiting of affiliate-customers.
It is all MLM companies, not just Mary Kay, that pay commissions on orders. If they did not, it would not be MLM as we know it. Sure, a person can make a commission on a non-affiliate sale, but that is not the primary goal in MLM, nor is it necessary to make money. Officially yes, but not in practice.
Given the “wholesale” prices and crappy quality of its products, Mary Kay might as well be the middle supplier.
While I am no expert, I did watch The Profit for awhile and Marcus would say that those would be terrible margins. Material/product should factor in about 30% of the total price.
Dear God Mary Kay is the middle supplier it’s actually the supplier and the manufacturer, wholesale make up does not cost as much as Mary Kay sells it to you for
Ladies, Ladies, Ladies,
I say thus from a good heart. If you have to put your inventory on a credit card, that is not a good sign. If you can’t pay the bill in full by its due date, you are failing and your business is going broke.If you have to put anything on any credit card a second month and did not pay it off full the second month, YOU ARE BROKE. YOUR BUSINESS FAILED. Admit it and get a real job! You do not have to do this exercise for several months or until bankruptcy. Unless you desire more pain and stress. If you are using family money, in any way, shame on you for making them go without. That is called stealing. That money was for food, mortgage, etc. Your Mary Kay business is suppose to not only be self supporting but make a profit. Isn’t that what you were told? Isn’t that what you promised your family and recruits? Hmmm? Are you lying??? Prove your business stands completely own using its own checking account and one credit card. If you have nor made enought profit to completely pay for training events…you don’t go! This is how real businesses run. Only buy what you can afford and make sure you can sell it with in 30 days max. Honestly, unless you have a lot of rich friends who are willing to switch to MK only and get their friend to do the same, you arnt going to make it. 1. Market, in today’s economy makeup is not on the radar for most women. You are going to have to run in high paid exec circles to get proper orders. 2. Saturation, look at how many MK consultants live near you. Not counting AVON, etc. So if you were to find victim, 90%+ she already has a consultant. The other 9% already had a negative pushy experience with MK. So what are your odds of getting a new customer? Plus you have Amazon and other consultants
unethically selling MK for 60% off. How many credit cards and total debt are you willing to get to before admitting this doesn’t work for me. I’m quitting!??? How long until you realize all that product your director has at home was ordered just to make production. If her unit doesn’t order a certain amount, she loses her unit and goes back to being like you….a lowly consultant…notice she really doesnt hold several parties a week and bragg how much she makes? Unless its a rare occasion. If she loses her directorship, her erecruits (you) no longer belong to her, but now you belong to her boss. You might want to see if you like her prior to signing up. How high pressure is she?
Just take a piece of paper…income and expenses…keep it like a checkbook register and see for yourself. Good luck!