Top Sales Directors Got It From Momma (Literally!)
Written by Frosty Rose
It may not matter who your daddy is, but this year’s results from Seminar prove yet again that it does matter who your mommy is, and that Mary Kay is not the level playing field they would lead you to believe. In Ruby Division this year, all three of the top three directors were the daughters of retired nationals.
Those trapped in the Pink Bubble will coo that they grew up in the right environment. Of course they had a leg up! They were enveloped from the womb in complete positivity, work ethic, and can-do attitude! Of course, that’s not the whole story. The pink-washed version ignores the fact that when they retire, nationals get to “bequeath” their personal units to the first-line director of their choice.
Don’t believe me? Check out what Linda Toupin herself says about her daughter, Katie, the #1 Ruby director this year and one of only 10 directors in the country to achieve a million-dollar unit this year.
This unit has been performing at this level for the past thirty years! Record scratch!! Those creams and lotions must be miraculous because there’s just no way that Katie is over 48 years old, right?!?
Of course she’s not. She is 34, which either makes her the youngest director ever at the ripe old age of 4, or it makes her and her momma big fat liars. My vote is for the latter. Katie inherited her unit after putting in next to no personal work. Heck, the support staff is even the same as it was under Linda’s leadership.
Karen, Jodi and Laura were running Linda’s unit for years before she retired, and now they continue to work for “Katie’s” unit.
In the years before Linda retired, Katie floated in and out of the Mary Kay world, mostly focusing on her music. She earned her red jacket once, then quit. But, suddenly, the year before Linda retired, Katie rocketed to director in record time.
Wonder how? Couldn’t be that dear old mom was doing all her recruiting for her? Secretly sliding new recruits in under Katie and hoping the rest of us wouldn’t notice? I can’t find any evidence of a unit (or even an active recruit) that’s actually Katie’s. Instead, she’s basking in the accolades that her mom continues to work for, only showing up at Seminar and Leadership. Even then, she shows up as Elizabeth Toupin, reserving Katie for her continued, mostly futile, efforts at breaking into the music scene.
So, dear reader, I ask you. Does everyone in Mary Kay start on a level playing field? Or do some, like Katie, get the spoils of the MLM war handed to them on a silver platter with not a drop of their own blood shed?
Visit the
I don’t know the internals of Mary Kay, but I am curious…could Linda Toupin be double-dipping? Could she be collecting her retirement bennies from MK while also running her daughter’s unit…with her daughter functioning as an NSD in name only? Katie would have to agree to continue to give most of the money to Mom, of course, but my guess is the amount directed toward Katie is a mother’s gift. Linda could be pulling the puppet strings, while Katie shows up at all the events. For her time she gets a stipend from her mother, but Katie’s time can be spent elsewhere.
Just curious if this could be happening in the case of all three retired NSDs. It’s a good deal for them if they can get away with it. And their daughters get all the acclaim and accolades without having to do any work. Mom gets quite a pay bump in the process.
Thoughts?
That’s an excellent thought! Katie is likely a director in name only, and Linda and her team run everything. It’s how Linda keeps the legacy and the income going. Katie (and possibly the others) show up when and where they are told and keep the legacy face going.
That would explain why the director of one of the top units in the Ruby area can’t afford to run her miniature horse non-profit or get her albums made – having to do Go Fund Me scams. I mean pleas
The number 2 in Canada also was a daughter of a retired NSD
I witnessed this first hand. I live near a Top Director whose NSD mom retired. The NSD mom can “gift” her unit, and she of course gifted it to her daughter. To be fair, the daughter did a lot of “work” on her own – making sure she had a Cadillac before she inherited the unit.
How much money is “enough” money? These ladies are “earning big girl money” … but at what expense to the down line? That’s what is heartbreaking.
As I’ve purged my life in the last year, I’ve come across my 1040s for many of the years in MK. I can see with my own eyes now that I was rarely making money. The most money I was making – MAYBE a couple thousand dollars a year. But that was out of 20+ years. It wasn’t an ongoing, consistent income. I’m not blaming anyone else! I had to learn the lesson the hard (and costly) way.
I never made the Big Time. I was a director. I had a car. I was a star consultant for many years. But, I QUIT. My upline enjoyed my success, because I worked hard at it. I was very consistent. I was encouraging. I set a great example for other consultants. I really bee-lieved that if I kept trying, I couldn’t fail.
I guess I failed. Now all I have to show for my failure is a whole lot of peace each day. Bummer.
Didn’t Katie have a go fund me page at one time to raise money to go to Nashville to make a music demo? I think I read that here awhile back. I wonder how that worked out?
Running the math – you were an MK Caddy driver, at about $10/hr, during your best times.
Yes she did!! The Go Fund me didn’t fully fund, so she only released an EP. Then later she did a Kickstarter for a different album and that fully funded.
She’s actually got a fledgling music career. She was at the State Fair of Texas last fall. But I don’t think she’s got the funds to do it her self and doesn’t seem like she’s been signed with anyone who would invest in her.
I would love to see someone who has access to the information do a similar evaluation on Kristin Sharpe and her mommy, Connie Kittson. Check out the pics. Connie attends every party, meeting, seminar and anything else that Kristin “sponsors”. She can’t do anything if mommy is not attached at the hip. And after the big divorce I suspect mommy could use the money.
Yes! And also evaluate long time retired NSD Mickey Ivey’s daughter, Jill, who has been a long time Director. I don’t know her last name as she has been married several times.
Did she divorce the second husband? I wonder if he got sick of Kristin mooching off of him and living at their house for years.
She did!
NSD Kathy Oliveira is retiring soon and, in a video, announced she plans to “bequeath” her unit to her son Johnny.
Johnny just joined MK in February 2024. As of August 2024, he is in DIQ.
He joined shortly before his mom retires? As church lady says… Isn’t that convenient.
https://images.app.goo.gl/J4v1sdhqhnCVMW8N8
If an NSD con artist is allowed to bequeath their team, it makes sense that they would give it to a family member. I certainly would make sure my daughter was in line to receive it – assuming she too was okay with conning others in the family tradition.
I do understand that the daughter pretending to have achieved everything on her own is a different and deceptive matter. But isn’t that the entire system, faking everything? Nothing new to see.
Is bequeathing a unit an advertised perk of becoming one of Mary Kay’s top shysters? If so, I’m not really understanding the issue.
Nepo-babies aren’t just in Hollywood and politics?
So many times I read this site and think “So glad I’m out”. After reading this I thought “I’m so glad my MOM wasn’t a director or NSD in Mary Kay.”
Can you imagine the pressure to follow in her footsteps & join MK? She’d be well-trained in the art of shaming you about “you didn’t work hard enough” on top of the normal mom guilt. It would be so hard to leave MK if your mom was a National. No. thank. you. Blech. Not worth the money.
Also, before mom hit the big time, imagine all the MK make-up or fragrance gifts the kid would get, whether they wanted them or not. 🤣
My MIL was striving for NSD…. I was director #3 of 5. She often talked about getting there and then retiring , she could then bequeath it to me. She never got past 5 directors at one time, and I was waking up at that time to all the corruption in MK…and I quit directorship soon after. She didn’t speak to me for 6 months. She felt I betrayed her by quitting. It’s sad really, all those years she spent chasing that nsd dream… many times shoving family to the wayside so she could work… striving for other people’s approval.. what a sad existence.
That’s really sad that she didn’t talk to you for 6 months & felt betrayed you left. 🙁 So much for “Family second, career third.” I can absolutely see how this happens, though.
Katie became a consultant in August 2009.
Katie became a director in October 2019.
Linda retired in January 2020.
“Their Unit” has done million 29 out of the past 30 years.
“Their unit “has 405 unit members.
78 have been in 10-19 years
96 have been in 20-29 years
32 have been in 30-39 years
3 have been in 40 years
I have less of an issue with Kallie and Kelly since they at least had established units before their moms retired. Katie was a director for 3 months before she was gifted a million dollar unit.
Keep an eye on fairly new Director Rachel Zarling’s unit her mom, ENSD Lisa Madson retires next Seminar 2025
NSD Dawn Otten-Sweeney keeps mentioning that she’s retiring in a few years. Her daughter is SD Auldon Sweeney-Wydo.
At around 10:50, NSD Vicki Auth mentions how, as she retires, she gets to “gift a big part” of her organization to her MK daughter.
https://youtu.be/yV38Ur-t0XY?si=_1nY_S_9b2eeN2gs
She touts it as a perk of NSD. Understood. But it must be demoralizing for the poor shmucks who, for years…or DECADES…attempt to rise in the ranks on their own.