Numbers Don’t Lie
Written by JTA
How many times have we heard that the numbers don’t lie? Well, the numbers are precisely what caused me to become disillusioned about this “business” and this company. A person in their right mind would not be able to look at the numbers I see and continue on.
Not so much my personal numbers in Mary Kay, although I spent an extraordinary amount of time working, doing the “short term sacrifice for long term gain” thing. My schedule was 8am-10pm Monday through Friday. I worked on Saturday, too, and took off from 6pm Saturday to 6pm Sunday and then got back on the phone. I was taught by other NSDs to only ‘relax’ those 24 hours so that I could become NSD more quickly.
I made okay money, usually around $10,000 per month, BEFORE expenses and chargebacks. But that was for an 80 hour work week. Pretty sad, isn’t it? When I added up the hours for the first time, I wondered why my family even put up with me! But that is for another post.
The numbers that caused my stellar career to crumble were that of my offspring. None of them made any money, and most were losing money. Yes, Mary Kay sales directors lose money. Lots of them lose money. I observed, for years, the deceptive and destructive practices by sales directors as it related to production, and finally I could ignore it no more.
It is important to note that not a single one of my offspring were willing to do what I did. They didn’t and still don’t work the enormous hours and make the sacrifices necessary to have a “successful” business. That is what it takes, if you don’t already know. You must work basically around the clock to keep it up in Mary Kay. I’m not shaming them for not putting in 80 hours a week like I did. Rather, I’m pointing out how difficult it is to make money if you don’t do it.
I admire that my directors had the good sense to spend time with their families and have some sort of a balance in their lives, as probably most directors who are categorized as ‘mediocre’ or ‘unsuccessful’ do. What is so puzzling, though, is WHY they remain on the proverbial hamster wheel, on the road to nowhere month after month, year after year?
Case in point: One terrific lady had been a director for about a year. She is beautiful, talented and smart. During that year, she made minimum production on 6 times. Of those 6 times, 4 times she made the minimum because of a large personal order she placed. Two of the later months she placed orders around $3,000.
You might wonder if this director needed that amount of product? Did she need the $1,200 of product or the $1,500 of product she ordered several months? Perhaps, but why were those orders always placed on the last day of the month, and for the EXACT amount she needed to hit the minimum production needed to maintain her unit?
This is not a coincidence.
These orders were purposely placed so that she would not lose her directorship. A position that has made her no money, but has cost her thousands, not to mention marital strife. Why would an otherwise smart and savvy person willingly participate in such madness? Why do her supposed leaders and mentors, again otherwise Christian and caring women, allow this to happen?
The only reason that I can come up with is this: They are all brainwashed. I don’t have an explanation for why corporate does nothing about it, even though they can see the same thing I do, but on a much larger scale with thousands of people instead of a dozen. Greed, I guess. (Hey Mary Kay, take a look at all those who you sent letters to that missed production last month. I bet you will see a lot of similarities to the above, several huge personal orders to make the minimum. Don’t you think you should do something about this?? NSDs, or even the senior directors, it has been happening for years, aren’t you supposed to be helping these women?)
If you are not making any money, if your unit size is less than 10, if you are having to order personally in the thousands to keep it up, if your family and husband are upset at what you are doing, if you have spent years and have gotten nowhere, STOP and take a look at your past year. Someone’s life is getting enriched, but it isn’t yours.
Wise up ladies. The numbers don’t lie.
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“The only reason that I can come up with is this: They are all brainwashed. I don’t have an explanation for why corporate does nothing about it, even though they can see the same thing I do, but on a much larger scale with thousands of people instead of a dozen. Greed, I guess.”
DING DING DING DING! We have a winner! As long as the status quo benefits corporate, there’s no impetus to change it. They can argue in their lawful evil way that each consultant signed a contract and therefore should have known what they were getting into, and that their participation is purely voluntary. So if you’re broke, Corporate Pilate can wash his hands of it by saying that it’s your fault for being gullible, or greedy, or for signing the contract without reading it.
The whole “no one held a gun to your head” chestnut had to start somewhere; from what I know of Corporate America, systemic disfuntion within the company comes from high above. Then the sycophants, in this case Mary Kay [snip] Ash’s fangurlz, take over and do the work of making sure everyone else stays in line. This is where the brainwashing comes in.
They rush you into signing up. Rush you into DIQ. Dangle prizes before you to trigger the “ME WANT SHINY” node in your brain (I can’t be the only one who has one of those, right? Please say yes!) without considering the value of the prize vs. the effort it takes to get it. Love bombing and propaganda, stuff that goes right to your heart and the missing piece of your soul without bypassing your brain.
Real life example: my sister Angie was a smart, practical sort of a person. However, during the 90s Virginia Slims cigarettes did a prize giveaway where you got “free” stuff for sending in UPCs. One of the prizes was a black leather backpack for a really insane number of UPCs, so she not only increased her smoking, she got her friends who smoked to smoke VS and save the UPCs for her. The day finally came when she could mail off her big manilla envelope full of UPCs and wait for her prize. It was a nice backpack, something you could probably buy for like $150 somewhere back in the day, definitely at a fraction of the cost of a zillion packs of Virginia Slims. And I’m sure our mother, who was very smart and careful about money, tried to tell her that, and some of her friends. And none of it mattered because she had to have THAT backpack because she’d have WON it.
And that’s not the crazy part. I was 11 years younger; Angie was my favorite sister. I grew up in the 80s with all its “smoking will effing kill you” messaging. I WISHED I COULD SMOKE TOO IN ORDER TO HELP HER WIN THAT BACKPACK.
A few months later, she moved off to Seattle to start a new life A few months after that she died suddenly of a massive stroke due to uncontrolled hypertension two days before her 29th birthday and a week before my high school graduation. A few months after that I plucked up the courage to open up her trunkful of effects and found… that muggleforking backpack. I used it for the first two years of college. It wasn’t until years later that I realized that that thing had helped kill her. It was decades before I finally realized that “free” prizes aren’t. At least I never started smoking.
” Why would an otherwise smart and savvy person willingly participate in such madness? Why do her supposed leaders and mentors, again otherwise Christian and caring women, allow this to happen?”
Because they’re up to their asses in metaphorical pink cigarette butts, too. You can’t force them to see the overflowing ashtrays and empty packs. They have to see it for themseves and listen to that voice in their head that’s telling them, “maybe this isn’t such a great idea…”
Whoa…. as someone who works a lot with cardiac and stroke patients, this is heartbreaking. So young for something so preventable.
PS. I have added muggleforking to my lexicon; it’s right there next to clownfcukery.
Smoking wasn’t the only thing that did her in… she had some kind of kidney issues that were never really resolved and when she went out west I’d bet serious cash money she never went to a doctor or took her meds.
Smoking like a chimney sure as hell didn’t help, though.
So sorry you lost your sister at such a young age. This is a good illustration of MKs manipulation to get consultants to spend more earning a prize than the prize is worth, whether jewelry, cars, etc. Your sister paid the ultimate price, whereas the consultants are paying with the emotional damage caused by debt, divorce, and anxiety.
Tracy, this looks like a great article.
Thanks, JANRD. It mega-sucked. Manipulative marketing is so pernicious it’s easy to get sucked in even for people who’d think they’d be immune to that kind of thing. I was very glad when the laws about tobacco advertisements got super strict. And in hindsight the parallels to MLM are pretty glaring. If someone reads here and gets something from the story, it makes her death a little less pointless maybe.
Well, I’m adding’muggleforking’ to my vocabulary. This should be a wake up call to any MK consultant who isn’t too deep into the fog.
It sounds like you are waiting for corporate to be advised of the inequities, AFTER 60 YEARS. They know.
Corporate takes no notice because the system is running AS DESIGNED FROM DAY ONE.
It has never been designed to enrich more than a few, and those are enriched grossly and inequitably. There is NO legitimate effort expended by those who benefit the most in every from mkrap.
WWII Germans used to lament “if only the Fuhrer knew”. He knew.
I’m not overdoing it or overreacting. MLMs destroy families and JUST PEOPLE daily, day in and day out. Just because it’s not a streaming social issue doesn’t make that not a fact.
Popinki, I am so sorry you lost your sister so young and so needlessly. You tell the most effective stories about your life and lessons learned and I greatly appreciate it. I hate that anyone has lessons learned through heartache, grief and sorrow but when those events are shared, it definitely does bring even more meaning to the suffering. xoxoxoxoxoxp
THanks Juliet. 🙂
Nothing for MK corporate to do, but watch the insanity they put in motion play out, over and over again… oh, and line their pockets on other’s debts. It’s truly sickening and why I feel compelled to keep reading and posting on PT.