Somer Fortenberry’s Area is Failing Forward in January
Written by Parsons Green
One of Mary Kay Ash’s quotes was: “People fail forward to success.” The Somer Fortenberry area seems to have mastered the failing part.
Mary Kay nsd Somer Fortenberry always sets audacious goals for her team, and January is no exception! You would think since she got to the top spot in the pyramid, she’d be better at this by now. Surely, she knows how to plan her work and work her plan so that she achieves her goals? After all, it’s all about helping women and who wouldn’t want to help more and more women each month!!??? Get it together, Somer!
This is the mid month report. Since Applause no longer publishes director commissions, these reports provide a good look at how Somer’s downline is truly doing.
The goal for January is $200,000 wholesale ordered by area consultants, and they’re not even 30% of the way there!
Based on the monthly unit wholesale totals, none of her directors have yet made the MINIMUM production needed to qualify for the lowest car level! (Currently it is $8000 monthly for the Grand Achiever, $11,000 for the Premier Club and $19,000 for Cadillac. I wonder what the numbers would be if Somer dared to report how many directors had a copay?
And then we have the year-to-date numbers. Sigh. The YTD Retail sales numbers are not accurate. It’s based solely on orders of products from MK, not actual sales. Mary Kay does not track any retail sales to customers. These numbers are the wholesale totals doubled assuming that all items are sold for the suggested retail price.
Mary Kay does not offer health insurance to its consultants, but does offer a wellness bonus in January based on unit production for the previous calendar year.
None of her directors received the $2000 bonus. Five received the $1300 bonus, nine received the $800 bonus. Check out the annual unit “sales volume” (i.e. orders of products) that the directors achieved to get those bonuses:
Somer has a goal to have five offspring nsds by the time she turns 45. FIVE!!!
Based her other goals, do you think this will happen?
Visit the
Wait, she’s not 45 yet?? I’d have pegged her in her late 50s. Shows what too much unflattering makeup, the wrong hairstyle, and sun damage can do.
Somer posts these updates every month and they’re all equally grim. They show that her downline isn’t making any kind of money, her unit isn’t growing, and I wonder how she holds onto her title.
She’s only 43!
Uncanny Valley territory there.
Yes. Like there is an “Evil Elf Queen” filter.
“too much unflattering makeup, the wrong hairstyle, and sun damage”
And continuous stress.
“Somer has a goal to have five offspring directors by the time she turns 45.”
Did you mean five National Sales Directors?
Yes! That should be NSD.
Got to wonder how many of those “Wellness Bonuses” end back up in MK corp’s pockets or as credit card repayments.
I’d say all of them, since in effect they’re paying for their own “bonuses” through their “production”. Same old gimmick as the cars and trips – everything get in MLM, you’ve paid for yourself many times over.
Directors end up paying $$$ for those so-called “bonuses.”
YTD Retail Sales only tracks what is ordered, lol!
I could absolutely NEVER work MK as my full-time job. Aside from the obvious things like inconsistent income, inventory, dealing with the tax nightmare, the constant churn and burn, etc., I carry the health insurance for our family. $1300 (or even $2000) annually wouldn’t make a dent in the cost. I work for a university that is part of a huge system for health insurance, and I pay roughly $1800/month in premiums for a Blue Cross/Blue Shield PPO (employee/spouse/dependents). That comes out of my check pre-tax. When I was unemployed during COVID, we had to buy health insurance from Marketplace, and to get comparable coverage, it was $1900/month, just for me, my husband, and my 19 y/o son. We had to pay an additional $250/month for Medicaid for our two minor children. No way could an MK director pay for health insurance on their profit.
And even after all the challenges, contests, motivational messages and goal setting, not a single one of those MK downlines is profitable as a whole.
She might as well set a target for aggregate losses in her unit. This is just as relevant as aggregate wholesale orders. The bigger the losses, the greater her commissions and bonuses. Yay for downline losses!
She wants to have five NSD offspring in the next two years? 🤨 The math ain’t mathin’. I know Mary Kay is all about having these big audacious goals that require the consultant to have faith and determination and blah blah blah. All it really does is embarrass them, over and over and over. They’ll spend a lifetime “failing forward” repeatedly until they retire or die. And then the company has all the revenue they brought in and the consultant is left with…what, a bunch of dusty boxes of expired product they ordered to “meet a goal”? I would ask any MK consultant to do a Profit & Loss analysis. Seriously, do it. Then ask yourself if all the energy and time you give to Mary Kay is worth it. Based on the dollar amount vs. time, effort and investment. Not based on the warm fuzzy feels. Because I promise, when you leave it will be like taking your hand out of a bucket of water. Within seconds it’s as if you were never there. Get back to your life and make some REAL friends and memories that don’t revolve around Mary Kay.