Mary Kay Cosmetics was hoping that ABC’s 20/20 would share their version of the story: that lots of products are sold, lots of money is made, and Mary Kay enriches women’s lives. Unfortunately for them, Rebecca Jarvis dug into the Read more…

Tune in to 20/20 on ABC on Friday October 2  for a story on the truth behind Mary Kay’s multi-level marketing “opportunity.” MLM is not a business opportunity, it’s a clever scam that has been made to look like a Read more…

The Direct Selling Association (DSA) promotes itself as a trade association that ensures ethics and integrity among the multi-level marketing companies that are members. The real truth about the DSA is in this clip of my appearance on HuffPost Live:

The concept of “playing ball” in Mary Kay is simple. It’s a fancy way to say that if you aren’t ordering, your director won’t help you. It doesn’t really matter if you have a ton of inventory that you’re working Read more…

Here’s a cool Mary Kay training piece that the sales directors pass around ad nauseum. Someone made up four stages for your Mary Kay career. Below are those stages, with my description of the reality of those stages in italics. Read more…

One sales director is suggesting that new Mary Kay consultants use this letter to get a bank loan. Yes, she’s suggesting that the consultant actually present this nonsense to a bank loan officer. I’m afraid to say that this isn’t Read more…

Mary Kay executives, directors, and national sales directors always focus on certain activity levels that they say help the consultant. When I say “activity levels,” I really mean buying levels. So for example, you’re encouraged to order enough to be Read more…

They make it look so easy to move up, don’t they? If you’re not moving up in Mary Kay, you must not be working hard enough. Those who are really moving up legitimately and making more money are few and Read more…

Multi-level marketing is not a business. It is a thinly veiled pyramid scheme, designed to appear legal to regulators. Not only is it not a business, when you’re in Mary Kay, you don’t actually OWN anything. Look no further than Read more…

Today we take a trip down memory lane. Almost three years ago, Harper’s Magazine did an expose on the Mary Kay “opportunity” that ruffled a lot of feathers. The story, The Pink Pyramid Scheme: How Mary Kay Cosmetics Preys on Read more…