Advice From a Former Mary Kay Director
This is the advice of a former Mary Kay director who quit, sent back tens of thousands of dollars of inventory and sent back her “free” car.
It has been 3 years since I returned my product, returned my “free” car and began my humbling journey of becoming normal again. All those friend Directors? Haven’t heard a word from anyone, even in my darkest times. (With friends like that, yada, yada)
Newbies on here are often confused, so I hope this post can some light on what I have come to realize about my 20 years in the business as a director and help you with your own confusion…..
1. We directors (past and present) live/lived a lie. And it takes a long time to forgive yourself.
Unless you are ordering and moving up the way WE want you to, we really do not care. Our focus is only production and being on stage with the other liars. We stretched the truth, lied, misled you about our checks, our sales, our lives. We presented to you what we wanted to be true but our actual career/lives were very far from it.
2. We directors (past and present) are/were in debt. PERIOD. Our actual take home pay would have made you vomit.
We had a maxed out credit card (or several). We bought our production to keep our cars, our units, our time on stage. “They” will tell you I just didn’t work my business the Mary Kay way. It’s not true. I had over 400 regular customers, I held classes every week, I managed my money, and I was in debt. Nearly all directors are making minimum wage or less. Some are losing money.
3. The MK family is not a family at all.
Have something happen (living proof here!), decide to take a break. I guarantee you within 30 days, your family will disappear. If you’re not ordering, we’re moving on. You are “sisters” and “doing life” together, until you drop out of Mary Kay. Then you’re negative and toxic and you won’t hear from those sisters again.
4. We prey on your insecurities about being a loser if you talk of quitting.
No one wants to be a loser. No one wants to feel that they have failed. And we know it. And we are armed with the words to change your mind direct from the higher-ups in Dallas. DON’T LISTEN. You are not a loser. This “business” is the loser. It is set up for you to fail. The owners of the company profit. The Pamela Shaws and Gloria Bankses and Dacia Wiegandts at the top profit. Almost no one else does.
5. You can start without inventory but after your first order, get ready for a full-court press to order more and move up.
Sure, it is your choice. But beware…….we’re trained. You’ll get sucked in. No matter how much you order, we’ll always pressure you to order more. You have to “stay active.” We always have a team goal and need your participation. There is always a promotion to get you to order a little (or a lot) extra here and a little extra there. The pressure to order will never stop.
6. And finally, there is life after Mary Kay . A glorious life that is not shrouded in a cloud of lies, anxiety, pressure, and feelings of inadequacy.
You are not a loser – you are a winner – because you got out. It will take a while to realize this but the realization is worth the wait.
In closing, I have absolutely nothing to gain by posting anything but the truth. I just hope that my reflection helps that one person out there who is considering, who has had the false image presented to them and think they could do it too, that it makes you think outside the pink bubble and consider those of us who, by God’s grace, had the courage to quit the sham on others and most of all, ourselves.
Note from Tracy: Current Mary Kay sales directors and executives will tell you this woman was “one bad apple” who didn’t work Mary Kay the “right” way. They will say she is the exception, and that she obviously ran her business unethically, and that by and large women in Mary Kay do things honestly. They are lying. This woman’s experience and advice is the rule. The Mary Kay scam thrives because of deep-rooted deception from within the upper members of the sales force.
Visit the
And if one reads more of the site, one will see that she can’t just be one bad apple because every former director who’s shared her story here says the same things. The debt, the shunning by your former MK besties, the pressure, and most importantly, THE RELIEF ONCE THEY’VE GOTTEN OUT.
So either all the apples are bad, or else MK is taking good apples and turning them rotten. I think I know the answer to that one.
I was thinking the same thing as I read this. No critic writing in was an ex-Director who lived the Good Life. They’ve all been
1) about to sign up,
2) recently sugned up
3) 20 years in, but just a hobby, convinced it could be a business if they wanted to
4) in for an indefinite time convinced they’re on the way up, or
5) a dude mansplaining to all you clueless ladies how “business” works (as a man, I find them especially cringe).
If success were the rule rather than the unheard-of, Tracy would be swamped with Schedule C tax forms (business P & L) proving how great the taxpayers are doing. But, as many times as they’ve been solicited—crickets.
The math is easy. Divide MKC sales by the number of consultants, and it comes to $80-$150 per month. That’s the average income at full retail, with zero expenses. That’a the very definition of a heavily oversaturated market, with near-zero chance for anyone involved to earn amy money. You have been warned.
The math is consistent across MLMs. Really strange but if you take ALL the participants for ALL the MLMs and divide that into the GROSS MLM money activity … it’s $1000-1200 per year for them.
Which means that anyone making $1500 a month is compensated for by several people making ZERO.
You can tell the quality of a tree by its fruit. With so many bad apples coming from this one tree, it’s time to take a deeper look at the tree. Since Mary Kay is incapable of producing even one profitable down-line, it is wise to look elsewhere for good fruit. And it is long past time to cut down this tree.
“A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’ ”
— Luke 13:6–9, New Revised Standard Version
60 years and not one profitable downline. Chop chop!