Mary Kay Mind Control
Written by Lazy Gardens
How do Mary Kay recruiters get women to do things that are not in their best interests? The most basic example is ordering inventory they don’t need on a credit card, because they don’t have the money. There is an easy explanation and it is called mind control.
That sounds dramatic, doesn’t it? But check out this list of seven mind control tactics, developed by Dr. Margaret Singer, an expert on brainwashing. These tactics are used to gain control over another person without “putting a gun to her head.” I mean, guns are tacky, right? And Mary Kay is against tackiness, unless it is unit prizes and those suits the directors are required to buy.
TACTIC 1: Increase suggestibility and “soften up” the individual through suggestibility-increasing techniques such as: extended audio, visual, verbal, or tactile fixation drills, excessive exact repetition of routine activities, sleep restriction and/or nutritional restriction.
The goal posters, the chanted affirmations, the videos, the social media posts … it’s all softening your brain for the takeover. The busy, busy, busy scheduling, the incessant tracking of trivial data … I feel my brain turning to mush just thinking about it.
TACTIC 2: Establish control over the person’s social environment, time and sources of social support. Contact with family and friends is abridged, as is contact with persons who do not share group-approved attitudes. Economic and other dependence on the group is fostered.
Has your spouse been declared a NSP (non-supportive person)? Have you been scolded for missing a meeting? Is your life becoming all Mary Kay, all the time?
Have you been encouraged to drop old friends and hang with the Pink Predators? Have you been told to stay away from certain people because they will steal your dream?
TACTIC 3: Prohibit disconfirming information and non supporting opinions in group communication. Rules exist about permissible topics to discuss with outsiders. Communication is highly controlled. An “in-group” language is usually constructed.
Have you been told to stop watching the news because it’s “negative”? Are your questions shushed, your problems glossed over? If your spouse asks where the profits are, does your director call him a concerned husband, or a “negative influence”?
Is there a group-speak: faces, suits, red jacket, dead reds? Are there short-cut slogans to stop your thinking (thought-stopping cliches)? Do you get a steady barrage of positive emails and phone messages?
TACTIC 4: Make the person re-evaluate the most central aspects of his or her experience of self and prior conduct in negative ways. The subject is guided to reinterpret his or her life’s history and adopt a new version of causality.
I-story pimping anyone? Was your previous career as an ER nurse relegated to the trash heap as “not enriching women’s lives”? Was your work in a Fortune 500 company described as being “a slave to Corporate America”?
TACTIC 5: Create a sense of powerlessness by subjecting the person to intense and frequent actions and situations which undermine the person’s confidence in himself and his judgment.
Set impossible goals while letting them think that everyone else is achieving those goals with ease … Power Starts, 30 faces in 30 days, sell X sets in a week, etc. It’s all to keep you thinking that there’s a pony in that pile of pink crap: you keep hearing others shouting “found one!” from their own tunnels into the pile. You are ashamed to admit you can’t find a pony, so you act like you found one.
TACTIC 6: Create strong aversive emotional arousals in the subject by use of nonphysical punishments such as intense humiliation, loss of privilege, social isolation, social status changes, intense guilt, anxiety, manipulation and other techniques.
Have you been tossed the skunk for “stinking thinking”? Relegated to the back of the room at an event because you didn’t buy enough? Left out of the Big Girls Club? Been blamed and shamed because you aren’t a team player? Had “wearing the suit” and the “strut across the stage” dangled in front of you?
TACTIC 7: Intimidate the person with the force of group-sanctioned secular psychological threats. For example, it may be suggested or implied that failure to adopt the approved attitude, belief or consequent behavior will lead to dire consequences such as economic collapse, social failure, divorce, disintegration, etc.
If your husband dies or is disabled, you will have to have Mary Kay to survive, so don’t send back that product. What would your neighbors say if the Cadillac was towed away?
So…. do these mind control tactics apply to Mary Kay? It’s not a stretch to see how they are used daily in pursuit of the pink goals. The women using these techniques may not recognize them as such, but it is clear how the MK training and scripts fit right into this mind control framework.
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Excellent information and article.
The “leaders” of these MLM organizations convince you to become a money-hungry, arrogant robot under the guise of improving yourself and others. The twist is, it improves a few hierarchy’s lives and makes the organization’s founder “debt-free”. These con artists use you and your wallet.
No one joins a cult believing it’s harmful. They join because they believe, i.e. have been convinced, it will improve them and others. The mind control tactics above aid in the convincing. In MLM cults like Mary Kay, the ultimate goal is money mixed with power. In other cults, there are added rewards for it’s leader – like s€x. See David Koresh.
Lurkers should start paying attention and read between the lines. Is your “training” about reselling your so-called inventory in your makeup business? Or is it ‘mostly’ about your dreams, hope, faith, ordering, and about sharing the “opportunity” with others to grow your organization. The outside world (those not in the organization) doesn’t see you as a business woman. The sad truth is, they see you as a brainwashed cult member.
*You won’t believe me because you’re brainwashed. Isn’t it funny how that works? You don’t have to believe me though. Just research the facts, but not the “facts” fed to you by those within the organization. Duh.
Ask yourself: Do you refer to upline as “your leader”? Do you worship them and aspire to be them? Has it been suggested you kiss their feet? Do you pray and chant together? Attend retreats? Weekly sessions? Dress alike? Do you have a picture of the dead founding leader somewhere in your house as a shrine? Oh my!
About that “towing the car away” tactic: if you qualify for a new MK car you’re allowed to drive your old MK car to the dealer for pick up. But if you just terminate your MK lease the company insists that the car be towed away from your home, like you were a deadbeat whose car was repossessed for failure to make payments.
Public shaming much? The neighbors neither know nor care how much MK inventory is in your closets. OTOH, that repo company tow truck in broad daylight can make you the subject of neighborhood gossip for a long time.
If MK wanted to make the lease termination cost efficient they’d let you drop off the car at the dealer, just like any ordinary lease termination. Instead they pay $$$ to repo services to take the car to the dealer, while publicly shaming you.
The manipulation starts at the top. This company is evil to the core.
Ooooh, that’s such a good point. Because you KNOW the neighbourhood is routinely hit up to buy products or have a party, so of course it’d be the hot topic if the MK car gets towed!
Is it the same scenario if a MK person has to go down a car level? At least here in Canada, the cars are different makes so I can’t see it being ok to return the pink Caddy to the Ford dealership to pick up the Edge or the lowest of the low, the Ford Focus. It’d be fun to watch though, no Pick Up Party that day!
This tidbit of info is truly evil and disgusting. They willingly spend money on repossessions just to humiliate someone. Sickos! I wonder what would happen if the person just drove the car to the dealership and returned it (with documentation, of course)? I’m sure some mucky muck would get their panties in a bunch, but what could they do? Insist the car be driven back to the person’s house so they could have a tow truck come take it away?
Exactly! I was wondering the same thing. I’ve never been in MK, I’m just an anti-MLM’er who has witnessed my dear sweet brainwashed MIL blow all kinds of $ she doesn’t have on these scams, but if I was in that situation and had to give back that ugly a$$ greedmobile, no WAY would I do it their way. I’d drop it off on MY terms, thank you very much. Like you said, what could they do? ??♀️
I wish there was a like button for this. Like like like like!!!! (Had to borrow some explanation points from the rabid kaybots.)
Love this site, do not want to see a gun picture here. Not kosher, not cool. Understand the MK mantra.
I’m not sure I understand. The gun signifies the “no one put a gun to your head” mantra we have heard so many times from MK ladies.
And I found another one … “priming”.
http://blog.motivemetrics.com/What-is-Priming-A-Psychological-Look-at-Priming-Consumer-Behavior
Here I am, in full quarantine, reading Pink Truth’s posts. I haven’t commented here but I read them all! The situation here in Brazil is no different from the rest of the world. Mlm predators are sucking the last financial resources from the unwary. A visit to Instagram shows you a glimpse of Hell. There are many posts, all with the same content, of these mind-eaters. Sorry for the bad English. I’m using google translator.
Your English is very good!
I am very sorry that Brazil is no different. I hope you are safe and healthy.
Hmmm NSP, Non supportive person, sounds like what scientology call people who try to pull their loved ones away “Suppressive person”!!
That’s exactly what I thought when I read that! Very Scientology.
Nsp, non supportive person sounds like jehovah witness religion where anybody criticizing the religion is an apostate and the leaders pull away your loved ones who are still brainwashed!