Are You in Debt From Mary Kay?
Written by Raisinberry
I remember lying in bed looking at the ceiling, sick inside, because 4 credit cards were maxed out… How did I get here???
At an area event, I was teaching the DIQs, and I opened my mouth and these words came out:
”How many of you are in more debt than ever since joining Mary Kay?”
Every hand went up. The directors sitting in the back of the room had heart attacks.
Since I was “still a believer,” I said:
“That stops today. No more personal ordering until you have sold at least $1500 to clear some debt. From now on, exact records must be kept, including all costs, deducted. If you end the month with a profit, send another 50% of that to your lowest balance credit card.”
You could have heard a pin drop. Even the Mocha Bronzes went Soft Ivory. And that was the beginning of the end. How dare I encourage them not to order! They were DIQ!! Was I nuts??? One of the DIQs said, “Are we allowed to talk about this?”
Let that resonate for a minute. Are. We. Allowed. To. Talk. About. This.
In the face of some 15 women raising their hands, the reality of the situation still escaped their ability to assess the truth. Mary Kay and its directors cannot afford any honest information about money management, ordering for goals (rather than because you’re selling), and the lack of accounting, with wall to wall financial denial going on.
Because they need the opposite. Upline and corporate make their money, off YOUR credit card debt. They know it. We know it. How easy would it be to teach and verify, good accounting practices?
But would that change the reality of how little is sold, how little money you make even if you are one of the “big” sellers, and how Mary Kay is really just about recruiting and frontloading.
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I will tell this story on repeat until the cows come home.
I was having a nervous breakdown in the ladies room at Director in Training week because I had around $24,000 in debt that my husband didn’t know about. NSD Jan Thetford, who was one of the trainers, walked in, listened empathetically, and said, “Oh, honey, don’t worry about it! I was $75,000 in debt in my Cadillac! Just get to National—that’s where the big money is!”
$75k in debt at the director level they tout as the be-all-end-all income generator for women. At that time, she could have put the damn Caddy on a credit card for less than that!
“Mary Kay and its directors cannot afford any honest information about money management, ordering for goals (rather than because you’re selling), and the lack of accounting, with wall to wall financial denial going on.”
More broadly, Mary Kay as a whole cannot afford to be honest about how the whole thing works. Mary Kay sees the IBCs as customers, and xSDs as customers recruiting customers. Mary Kay fully expects to get substantially more money from the sales force than they will ever pay out to the sales force. Again, this is because the sales force provides the cash flow for everything in Mary Kay.
Mary Kay can’t give anything to anyone without first taking it from the sales force.
“How easy would it be to teach and verify, good accounting practices?” Don’t they have two weeks that they call “seminar” every year where this could happen..?
They don’t teach “good accounting practices” because the consultants would quickly realize what a money-losing flopportunity they’re involved in.
It’s better to love-bomb consultants and shower them with shiny trinkets, sashes, and “Certificates of Achievement.” Convince them that Mary Kay is a ministry…they are in a sisterhood on a mission to “change women’s lives” and should feel guilty if they don’t share Mary Kay with others.
A banner is up at Seminar announcing that MK is the #1 direct seller of skin care and color cosmetics in the world. This leaves me with two questions:
1. How many direct selling companies are there?
2. If they’re only tracking sales to consultants, how can they know this?
I heard recently that Laura Beitler is no longer with Rodan & Fields since they changed their business model from MLM to an affiliate program. She was a VP of sales at Mary Kay. Some of you may remember her. She’ll probably work for another MLM and share the same losing strategies she learned at MK!