Diane Mentiply, Shaklee, and the Mary Kay Contract
Mary Kay has a ton of national sales directors retiring in January at leadership conference. Some of them are because they’ve aged out, while others have seen the writing on the wall and are locking in their retirement benefits before their numbers go down any further.
Diane Mentiply is retiring in January, but went over to Shaklee this fall for a “soft landing.” She was undoubtedly offered a sum of money from Shaklee to entice her to bring over a ready-made team.
The problem is… Diane’s contract with Mary Kay prohibits her from poaching consultants and directors.
To heck with the contract…
In October, Diane reached out to at least 5 of her directors and asked them to leave Mary Kay and go with her to Shaklee. Naughty, naughty.
Diane told her directors that Mary Kay is crumbling. At the same time, she was announcing a team building event that MK is doing in March 2025. Naturally, she was questioned about the contradiction. Her directors asked her what level she was starting at Shaklee and how much she was being paid… of course she didn’t tell them.
She was also asked whether she was risking termination by soliciting these MK directors for Shaklee. Her response was that… she was only asking people she trusted!!!
Diane’s Facebook postings have been lots of vague things… talking about health, drinking smoothies. I’ve been told she is overly concerned about ingredients and organic things… so it’s unlikely that she’s actually consuming Shaklee products. But of course she won’t say what product she’s using publicly… DM for details!
In November, Diane sent a message out to her directors:
Hey friends, a situation has arisen whereby I’ve made the difficult decision to NOT attend Leadership Conference. And, as you can imagine, this has been a difficult decision for me to make yet at the same time a necessary one. I am grateful we were all together at Seminar because that truly felt like more of a celebration. And just in case you’re wondering – I’m healthy and fine.
I just wanted you to know in the event it impacts your choice to attend. And, of course, I respect any choice you make. For those of you who choose to attend, you’ll be able to be fully immersed into the MKNA. If you want to chat one on one, please feel free to reach out.
It’s interesting that Diane’s social media doesn’t even mention MK or provide a link to anything MK related.
Directors are wondering whether Mary Kay Inc. is going to allow this to go on or if they will hold Diane to her contract and terminate her. (Interestingly, I can’t seem to find her on marykay.com.)
The wheels are in motion for her big exit from Mary Kay, however. Initially, Diane was talking about dividing her unit up between her four first-line directors. Then a change of plans….
She’s going to give her unit to her daughter Rochelle, who has never before expressed an interest in Mary Kay. She was even known to criticize MK and say she would never ever want anything to do with the company. Rochelle is busy trying to become a rock star, but now she is supposedly in DIQ?
Here’s a text sent to Diane’s directors recently:
hey friends! Good morning! I just wanted to give you a head’s up that my good intentions posted here may change ☹ Rochelle overheard me sharing with Ian about how I was going to handle distribution of my Unit and quickly questions “what happened to me inheriting it?” And so we had a long conversation about it and I explained the long and short of it to her. She decided she wanted to do it and so she is in DIQ this month but also ahs to finish this month lol I was holding off saying something because I just wasn’t sure how this was going to play out but given that she’s half way finished I didn’t want to wait to share this info. Proof positive that it doesn’t matter what you know and that a goal with a deadline is the only way to make things happen. As leaders, I know you weren’t counting on this but I still wanted to be transparent about what’s happening. And I know you understand. Rochelle appears to be growing quite a team in the Dayton Ohio area so she’s going there in January to do some live parties with me on screen via zoom (I’m confident I will be the security blanket for quite some time). So, that’s the news of today.
If Mary Kay is a sinking ship, as Diane says, why would she want her daughter involved?
Diane is still promoting one Mary Kay event, but it seems weird given how she doesn’t otherwise talk publicly about MK and she’s choosing to not go to Leadership.
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Her post is so confusing. Did she resign or retire to get her benefits? If she was terminated she wouldn’t be getting anything. And passing off her unit to her daughter who magically became a DIQ? Then, “I’m not attending leadership conference” How does Mary Kay corporate feel about that? It’s so funny how these directors and NSD’s always turn to being an amazing business coach. lol! I have seen it with numerous former top directors.
She is retiring. There is speculation that she may get terminated or may have been terminated because of her activities.
Shaklee seems to be making a big time play for top level reps from other MLMs/soon-to-be former MLMs. Lots of former R +F and Bodi huns have moved to Shaklee this year. ( I didn’t realize Shaklee still existed until the R + F people started moving over there.)
If moving to another MLM would jeopardize her MK income, “giving” her unit to her daughter makes perfect sense.
She even says, “I’m confident I will be the security blanket for quite some time.” In other words, she’s double dipping. Run the old unit in her daughter’s name while building her new downline in a new MLM, and collecting her MK retirement.
But do the “no compete” and “no poaching” clauses apply to retired NSDs collecting from MK? Once an NSD has retired, can they work for another MLM and still collect retirement income from Mary Kay?
Your retirement income can be cut off if you break the contract.
Scarlett entered a diet / fitness coaching MLM right after she retired and seemed to rise very quickly. Maybe she didn’t officially “market to” her former downline (or Kimmie’s, Krystal’s or Wave’s) but I bet that they have all been exposed to the plan.
This is triple dipping! Hot diggity dog. There’s no end to this madness! I met Ms Mentiply at Denver CC maybe ten years ago. I was all a-dither. I hope people are growing wiser and sidestepping the pink freight train. Ick.
Rochelle overheard me sharing with Ian about how I was going to handle distribution of my Unit and quickly questions “what happened to me inheriting it?” And so we had a long conversation about it and I explained the long and short of it to her. She decided she wanted to do it and so she is in DIQ this month but also ahs (sic) to finish this month lol
I wonder if she’s going the Linda/Elizabeth Katie Toupin route.
It sounds like Diane is trying to follow in Linda Toupin’s footsteps. I don’t know that Diane is as ‘successful’ an NSD as Linda was, though, so not sure that Rochelle will do so well.
Yes, I was told that they are following the lead of the Toupins.
A few months ago, retiring NSD Kathy Oliveira announced she plans to “bequeath” her unit to her son Johnny. He joined MK in February 2024 and became SD in September.
Diane Underwood retired in 2018(??) and bequeathed her personal unit to Nikki McDaniel, her daughter. I didn’t know this was a thing. Nikki made sure to “earn” her Cadillac before she got the unit. She was then a million dollar director and top director going forward. I lived in the same city as her and considered her my adopted director.
Diane Mentiply = Inspirational.
How it must feel to be a director underneath Diane and to hear this news about Rochelle. How many times did you stretch and order things you didn’t need because Diane needed YOU to help her finish a goal. And she tells you this in text and not even face to face or a phone call?
I’d love to find out what Diane’s monthly production was for the past couple years.
“If Mary Kay is a sinking ship, as Diane says, why would she want her daughter involved?”
The ship may “list” awhile, providing a bit more income before it disappears into the deep.