Written by Frosty Rose

Since the beginning of time in Mary Kay, sales directors have “sold the sizzle” of “success” with monthly newsletters. These fluff pieces serve the dual purposes of recognizing top “producers” (read: orderers) and shaming the lazy “loosers” who don’t quite make the cut.

Pink Truth has been watching Jamie Taylor’s national area crumble around her from the very beginning, and now it seems that her general consultant results are so low that she only recognizes “reds” (consultants with 3+ active consultants) on a monthly basis on her area’s private Facebook page. These numbers must be fabulous, right? I mean, these are the top 9% of all Mary Kay consultants! Or maybe it’s the top 8%. Or 5%? I’m not sure. It seems to depend on which director is inventing the numbers.

Well, since few things in the modern age are truly private, one of our Pink Truth Super Sleuths has gotten her hands on Jamie’s October “Red Report.” Let’s see what it tells us, shall we?

Michelle Gore seems to be making a run at directorship and has achieved the prestigious title of “Double Queen.” That means she recruited more than anyone else for October and her team ordered (definitely NOT “sold”) more than anyone else. To start or continue DIQ, a consultant must have at least 8 active consultants on her personal team, and she and her team together must order at least $4,000 for the month. Michelle squeaked through those production requirements with $4,327, which seems okay on the surface. However, take a peek at her personal order: $2,022. That means that she ordered almost half of her team’s total production—and she only got commissions on the half that they ordered.

If she got the maximum commission possible, she earned less than $300 from her team’s production. And she didn’t have any qualified recruits, so no bonuses for her!

IF she sold EVERYTHING she ordered at full retail price, she may have earned about $800 from sales. (Spoiler: She didn’t sell everything she ordered, and she definitely didn’t sell it all at full retail.) So, for the full month of October, the top consultant in Jamie’s entire national area earned less than $1,100.

The earnings picture gets even worse when we look at poor Robin Wilkes, a former second line director in the area, now just a lowly consultant. She was #5 in team production, clocking in at $2,583 for the month. But her personal order? A whopping $2,072. That means her downline ordered just $509, earning her a maximum of $45.81 for her “love check” for October. So much for life-changing money. To repeat the fantasy math we did for Michelle, if Robin sold every single penny she ordered at full retail, she would have earned a little more than $1,000. Her total earnings for the month could not have exceeded $1,075.

To repeat what we often say on Pink Truth, these women are not selling everything they order. Consultants deep in the fog will often argue this point, but ask yourself this. At your last unit meeting, during the “Queen of Sales” lineup for the week, how many people sold $1,000? What was the reaction? It’s a big fat deal when somebody has a “grand week”, and everybody whoops and hollers so much that your neighbors in the hotel conference space think you’re nuts.

If it happened every week, it wouldn’t be such a big deal.

The last couple of years I attended meetings, it was a huge thing when more than one person sold $300, much less 3x that. Robin and Michelle both would have had to sell $1,000 all four weeks of October to keep up with their ordering. They didn’t. You know it and so do I.

Likely, they’re sticking it on the last credit card with any limit left and shoving it into the basement or garage without ever opening the boxes. Helpfully, if a consultant doesn’t have enough credit on her card, Mary Kay will allow her to split her order over four or five different cards. Super.

Conclusion, neither of the top two consultants in Jamie’s area of hundreds of consultants earned more than $1,000 in October. Both likely lost several hundred dollars. As our dear friend Lazy Gardens likes to remind us, that means everyone else did worse than that! Hmm… I guess they’re not making an executive income after all. Heck, they’re probably all thrilled on months when they break even.

Turning from these pitiful numbers, there’s one more illuminating piece of data in this report. When we look at the YTD Court of Recruiting, who do we find at the top but Rachel Ryan? For those who stumbled on Pink Truth for the first time today, Rachel is a director in Jamie’s unit who recently made waves by earning buying her third coveted pink Cadillac.

After a months-long social media breakdown, Rachel pulled out a “miraculous” win at the last minute. And now she’s at the top of Jamie’s red report with 24 qualified consultants. How many of those $600 orders do you think ended up on Rachel’s own credit card to fool the masses into believing her snake oil miracle? My bet is well into double digits. I can’t wait to hear all about how God moved in her unit and her life from the stage at seminar. Gag.

Gosh, that was a lot of words to say the same thing we always say here on Pink Truth. None of these women are making any money. Few of them are breaking even. And the scramble to the bottom is killing them. If you’re considering “starting your own Mary Kay business,” please don’t. And if you’re in the Pink Fog, please get yourself out.