Pink Truth: Mary Kay Dreams That Will Not Come True

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Mary Kay Dreams That Will Not Come True Aug 28th 2012, 11:00 I can’t help but feel sorry for this Mary Kay consultant. She is somewhere below Red Jacket level, but appears to really believe she’s going to be a national sales director in 5 years. She’s decided that she will have commission checks of $7,500 a month starting six months from now. All of our former [...]

I was thinking the same thing that Raisinberry said.  "Goal setting in any endeavor of life is great"

Pink Truth: Another Reason to be a Star Consultant: Your Director’s Paycheck

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Another Reason to be a Star Consultant: Your Director's Paycheck Aug 27th 2012, 11:00 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 a “star,” or recruit enough to be a “red jacket,” and the like. Why are [...]

I still don't see what Tracy sees when she reads and posts these.  She apparently sees lies and deception in this piece.  What do you think?

Pink Truth: Tips For Moving Up NOW in Mary Kay

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Tips For Moving Up NOW in Mary Kay Aug 24th 2012, 11:00 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 far between. But pieces like this will make you think you’re the only one not [...]

This is the difference between people that will make it in Mary Kay and those that will not.  No wonder Pink Truth hates these so much.

Pink Truth: Getting a Bank Loan For Your Mary Kay “Business”

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Getting a Bank Loan For Your Mary Kay "Business" Aug 23rd 2012, 11:00 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 quite going to cut it. To: Loan Officer Business Proposal I recently became a Mary [...]

I am not sure that this is as pathetic as Pink Truth would like everyone to believe.  Obviously a business loan decision is going to be based more on the tangibles (down payment, collateral, etc) than the shape of an introductory letter, but having on paper what you need the money for and all of your expenses is better than nothing. Also, it wasn't all that long ago that you could walk into a bank and for next to nothing borrow money for just about anything you wanted.  I believe this phase was later referred to with phrases like "reckless lending" and has now made borrowing money virtually impossible.  So the banks really hold all the cards on this.

Pink Truth: Former National Sales Director Amy Dunlap Alleges Mary Kay is a Pyramid Scheme

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Former National Sales Director Amy Dunlap Alleges Mary Kay is a Pyramid Scheme Aug 22nd 2012, 09:00 This week Amy Dunlap filed an amended answer in the lawsuit Mary Kay Inc. has filed against her for alleged violations of her national sales director agreement. The most notable part of the answer and counterclaims is the portion in which Dunlap alleges that Mary Kay violates the Texas Business and Commerce Code by promoting [...]

This one really has Pink Truth chattering.  Of course, this does not prove that Mary Kay systematically engages in the practices that Pink Truth would love everyone to believe they do.  It proves that one woman is claiming to have done those things and further claiming that there were others that also did. It certainly doesn't prove that Mary Kay approves or encourages it.  In fact, from the sound of it, Mary Kay needs only to take a step back (distance themselves from Amy, obviously) and let her keep screaming about all the unethical things she did to cheat them and their sales force.  When the dust settles they can investigate the women that she implicates and, if necessary weed them out of the 'fold' and be stronger for it.

Pink Truth: Caption This Mary Kay Photo

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Caption This Mary Kay Photo Aug 21st 2012, 20:00 Gloria Mayfield Banks, was presented with a plaque indicating she has received $8 million in gross commissions from Mary Kay Cosmetics during her 24 years with the company. Leave your caption below!

This, to me, typifies Pink Truth so definitively I had to share it. A little bulky, but from the comments section: anthonysmom August 21, 2012 at 4:05 pm| # Not a caption, but just a comment – only $8MM in commissions???? In 24 years??? That only comes out to an average of $33,333/year. Holy smokes – I make TWICE what Madam Banks makes and I only have to work 40 hours a week!! Woot woot!! Reply Philip Arlington August 21, 2012 at 5:08 pm| # It seems that you’ve either divided 800,000 by 24 or 8,000,000 by 240. 8,000,000 divided by 24 is 333,333. Reply Philip Arlington August 21, 2012 at 5:14 pm| # You made your mistake to Mary Kay’s disadvantage, but I think that the fact that you could make such a mistake by a factor of ten – and you are very far from being alone – is a perfect illustration of the sort of muddled understanding of numbers that makes so many people easy for Mary Kay to take advantage of. I virtually always spot such errors straight away, but many. many people don’t, including many intelligent and educated people. I see mistakes of this kind in the “quality” press over and over again. Once we get into the billions, we might was well be casting spells so far as most people are concerned. Mary Kay knows that too – the fact that its wholesale revenue is only $2.5 billion while it has two million or whatever agents should completely destroy its credibility as an income opportunity, but it is rarely remarked on. Reply Deflated Pink Bubble August 21, 2012 at 8:12 pm| # Great point! I like the way you think. Reply anthonysmom August 22, 2012 at 10:30 am| # Yes, I did make a mistake – the correct number should have been $333,333. My bad. As a side note: My error had nothing to do with having a “muddled understanding of numbers…” as your comment below states. I just looked at the little tiny calculator on my computer wrong since it doesn’t put in commas. I’ll try not to worry my pretty little head too much about it though. Yes, I do take your comment as rather condescending. Thanks. Reply seeing the truth August 22, 2012 at 11:12 am| # Yeah I thought his comment was a little on the rude side, it was simple mistake. Not because you can’t do math just that you looked at the answer wrong. Some people Reply Wow. just wow.

Pink Truth: Direct Sales: Easy or Hard?

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Direct Sales: Easy or Hard? Aug 21st 2012, 11:00 We know Mary Kay isn’t “direct sales” and that the real focus is recruiting. Nonetheless, the company and its reps like to use that phrase because it “hides” the focus on recruiting and sounds like something legitimate. Who could object to selling??? I thought this was an interesting piece from Anita Garrett Roe’s site. The [...]

I don't see what Pink Truth sees here, but I don't see a whole lot of training here either.  More of a sales pitch. I don't see anywhere that it is billed as training either though.   If you are going to work for yourself, you will likely need occasional (or often) external motivation.  This could (depending on your personality) provide that.  It seems to me that is the intent. Way to blow things out of context again Pink Truth.

Pink Truth: The “Spiritual” Spin of Mary Kay

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

The "Spiritual" Spin of Mary Kay Aug 20th 2012, 09:00 Written by SuzyQ This was the hardest part for me.  I remember running into a director at a gas station after my first seminar in 1998.  I asked her "I don't get this part of making God my business partner."  She said "You will."  At that seminar I heard Cindy Williams say "God does not [...]

I will agree with SuzyQ on one thing she said.  "This was(is) the hardest part for me (as well)".  It is awful anytime the name of God is invoked to accomplish selfish, personal objectives. Period. SOME in Mary Kay do it. SOME on Pink Truth do it. MOST of us (those that aim to follow Christ in our day to day lives) have done it. It is an unfortunate, disappointing sign of our fallen nature. I do find it interesting however that a business has managed to bring together Christians from so many denominations in a 'spirit' (if you will) of cooperation and tolerance. SuzyQ mentions, for instance, that her Priest suggested that she "had the "saved" thing covered" when she was baptized as an infant.  My background suggests that salvation is a personal choice that each individual must make. Right or wrong, that is a considerable difference of belief.  She also mentioned a Catholic woman being a part of her experience. What a wonderful way to open yourself to hear and see things that may help deepen your faith and walk. My pastor always said that listening to any sermon is like eating chicken.  You eat the meat and throw out the bones.  Whatever you hear that resonates with your spirit and what you believe God is speaking (filtered through the wisdom of scripture) you eat and whatever comes off as being 'human' or askew with the Word of God you toss out.  (My tradition also believes that the pastor is a fallible human just like me, not a deity so even the sermon could have 'mistakes' in it.) Our relationships with people (and business opportunities) ought to be the same way.  If you refuse to ever work with people that sin, you might as well go apply for welfare because you will never work.  But, there again, you would be accepting money from the government and this post is already to long for me to get into how much worse THAT would be!

Pink Truth: Reasons for Mary Kay consultants to order

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Reasons for Mary Kay consultants to order Aug 17th 2012, 11:00 Even Mary Kay Inc. knows that consultants are not selling their products. There is no significant retailing going on. Yes, there are some retail sales. But if you’ve ever been told the truth by a sales director, the bulk of the company’s income comes from big initial orders by new consultants (frontloading). Directors receive all [...]

1. If you are writing an email to a SALESperson, the fact that they are ordering to replace inventory is a given. 2. The entire first paragraph (other than the word "contests") is talking about this SALESperson's clients. 3. As "girlnextdoor" points out, they talk about profit potential -- this isn't a great deal if you don't turn around and sell it. It would be very interesting to see what life as a consultant would be like if corporate had to send out all their communication with the women of Pink Truth in mind.  Every email, letter, postcard, and magazine would have to have a half page of disclaimers for every half page of information. *PLEASE make sure you SELL product before you replace product. *KINDLY remember that cheating isn't winning.  If you place large orders and then don't sell the product, you didn't really win the contest. *REMEMBER that we are a business and our primary interest is in selling our merchandise.  What YOU do with it is entirely up to you. While we do offer our 90% buyback program, ordering yourself over your head and then returning it all benefits no one and does not make any sense.

Pink Truth: The Price of Success in Mary Kay

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

The Price of Success in Mary Kay Aug 16th 2012, 11:00 This comes from Mary Kay national sales director’s site. Yes, success has a price. But in Mary Kay, you are expected to try to get to the top at any cost. And almost no one gets there, as you can see from the fact that there are a couple hundred national sales directors and 14,000 [...]

Reading Pink Truth reminds me of sitting in middle school (and high school) classes.  The teacher told us over and over and over not to cheat, showed us what to study, made it ALMOST impossible to fail the test. It never failed that there were kids that refused to study, tried to cheat, got caught and failed the test.  Without fail, they ALWAYS blamed the teacher. I don't know how Mary Kay could make it any clearer than this document (and many others that Pink Truth posts) that the definition of success and subsequently HOW you should run your business is completely different that what Pink Truth claims, and they brush it off with "this is just lip service".  Convenient.

Pink Truth: Need a Job? Don’t Choose Mary Kay

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Need a Job? Don't Choose Mary Kay Aug 15th 2012, 11:00 Here is one Pink Truth reader’s experience with Mary Kay when she needed a job: I joined Mary Kay because I had been one of the millions of people who had been looking for a job for two years and after many job applications and only a few interviews, I decided to join Mary Kay [...]

I wonder if no one is commenting on this post because they don't want to be hypocritical and NOT point out the spelling and grammar errors that they are so fast to point out when Mary Kay folks make them.   Yeah right.

Pink Truth: Why You Shouldn’t Read Pink Truth If You’re in the Pink Fog

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Why You Shouldn't Read Pink Truth If You're in the Pink Fog Aug 14th 2012, 11:00 From a Mary Kay sales director to other sales directors: Hey Ladies, I’m not sure if everyone realizes this, but every single time we go to a negative MK site “just to see” what is going on there we increase their hits which causes their sites to come up higher on search engines. What does [...]

A lot of general misinformation in this, but considering that most Mary Kay folks are not extremely internet savvy, this is not too surprising. Mary Kay (corporate) is definitely interested in not fueling any negative site and their strategy is to not engage them at all.  This shows through in this 'letter'. For the vast majority of consultants, the general advice in this letter is probably the best.  Don't waste your time dwelling on controversy, just do what you know is right and leave the 'fighting' to the legal department.

Pink Truth: Things I Wish I Knew About Mary Kay Inventory

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Things I Wish I Knew About Mary Kay Inventory Aug 13th 2012, 10:00 When I first started Mary Kay, oh so long ago, I bought into the hype. I heard about inventory, was told I NEEDED it in order to be successful, so I bought a bunch. After all, who in their right mind starts Mary Kay with the intent to fail? We all start with the intent [...]

First of all, I thought Tracy had never been in Mary Kay.  So is this written by someone else and Tracy forgot to give credit? Or is this a very revealing post in and of itself? Second, I find it very interesting that Pink Truth, who claims that no one should get involved with Mary Kay EVER, is giving advice on how to be successful in Mary Kay.  Taking the advice of people that think everyone fails at the endeavor they are giving advice about seems like a bad idea to me! Third, I can't imagine that the "kaybots" are seething over this post.  For one, they probably don't even read Pink Truth anymore, for another, this would probably make a helpful handout at an inventory discussion.  "Here is the 'flip' side or other perspective on inventory.

Pink Truth: Mary Kay Canadian Commissions Down

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Mary Kay Canadian Commissions Down Aug 9th 2012, 07:00 Written by Lazy Gardens A common way to evaluate businesses is to do a “year on year” comparison to see if business is up, down, or holding steady from one year or decade to the next. The news from Mary Kay Canada is bad. Really bad. In a decade, commission income for the majority of [...]

Not sure what to make of this as LG seems to jump in and out, so it is hard to tell what the numbers from MK are and what her comments on those numbers are.  Also, this is Canada which is a different market. I am sure there is some good information in there, but it doesn't add up for me.

Pink Truth: If You Love Mary Kay and the Opportunity…

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

If You Love Mary Kay and the Opportunity… Aug 7th 2012, 11:00 Written by Blackbird This is an article for those people out there who enjoy being a MK consultant, director, etc. For those who think the company offers a lot of good things to women and who want to see the company succeed. If you really care about MK (and I mean actually care about the [...]

This article by 'blackbird' could (and probably should) be titled in reverse -- "If you do these things..." People that love Mary Kay probably don't need to hear this.  This is probably how they are already operating.  People that are lying and living in deceit probably are not enjoying their run and will likely end up on Pink Truth. Of course, if you need to be told to do these things, it is not likely you will heed the advice.

Pink Truth: Mary Kay and Allison LaMarr Settling Their Lawsuit?

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Mary Kay and Allison LaMarr Settling Their Lawsuit? Aug 6th 2012, 09:00 Nearly a year ago, Mary Kay Cosmetics sued Allison LaMarr, a former national sales director who was accused of violating her contract with the company. Mary Kay Inc. is going after Allison LaMarr for selling products in violation of her contract with the company, and for violating the non-solicitation portion of the contract. Essentially, she [...]

Another, "this doesn't make anyone look good" post.  At least this is a relatively objective post from Pink Truth.  This is obviously because they can't figure out which "side" to root for. Regardless, not much information.

Pink Truth: Mary Kay Lies: Cynthia Ruccia, Senior Sales Director

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Mary Kay Lies: Cynthia Ruccia, Senior Sales Director Aug 3rd 2012, 11:00 Written by The Scribbler After Virgina Sole-Smith's insightful article, "The Pink Pyramid Scheme: How Mary Kay Cosmetics Preys on Desperate Housewives" was published in Harper's, it didn't take long for Mary Kay supporters to ride in and angrily denounce the piece as being one-sided, imbalanced, and other knee-jerk accusations that contained exactly 0% forethought before [...]

This is just ugly all around.  Not sure how to break it down and assign blame/fault, so I won't.  Mary Kay looks bad, Pink Truth looks bad, Cynthia looks bad.  No one reading any of this will get any "real" information about Mary Kay.

Pink Truth: Don’t “Burn Your Bridges” for Mary Kay

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Don't "Burn Your Bridges" for Mary Kay Aug 2nd 2012, 11:00 Written by SuzyQ Tracy’s Note: This is one of my favorite topics in Mary Kay. Your upline is notorious for telling you to “burn your bridges” so you can be fully committed to Mary Kay. Nowhere in the real professional world would anyone else tell you that. Got a CPA license? No one in their [...]

I like this for the fact that it is honest.  Which is what you would expect from a website claiming to offer the TRUTH.  I hate to hear stories like this but it is good for people thinking about Mary Kay to hear.   If only more of what Pink Truth offered was as straightforward and honest as this.

Pink Truth: Women Join Mary Kay Just to Make a Little Extra Money

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Women Join Mary Kay Just to Make a Little Extra Money Aug 1st 2012, 20:51 Mary Kay Cosmetics has responded to the Harper’s Magazine cover story, The Pink Pyramid Scheme: How Mary Kay Cosmetics Preys on Desperate Housewives,  with almost no substance. There have been two primary arguments set forth by corporate representatives: Mary Kay products are sold to end users! Mary Kay’s Laura Beitler proudly proclaimed, "The majority of the [...]

Some balance here with Pink Truth offering an outside opinion.  Funny that no one has criticized Virginia Sole-Smith's spelling or grammar. Also funny that while they collectively criticize Mary Kay for proclaiming that "most product goes to end consumers" without having any way of backing that 'statistic' up (a valid point) they have no problem jumping to their own conclusions regarding how many people in Mary Kay have similar experiences to their collective experiences.

Pink Truth: The Burden of Positive Mary Kay Lies

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

The Burden of Positive Mary Kay Lies Aug 1st 2012, 11:00 Written by Raisinberry "Never give up-never give in" music rolls over the spastic verbiage of her Unit net site. It is just too painful to visit there anymore. It isn't just the screaming words and colors and pictures of success, it is the information. One more Offspring is biting the dust, right before her eyes [...]

Typical Pink Truth garbage.  Mixed in with all the ranting and raving though, is a point that Mary Kay should really consider.  With the relatively recent expansion of readily available credit, it has become possible to buy (as Pink Truth would say) a basement full of product.  This DOES allow people to 'buy' recognition and levels and SHOULD be monitored, somehow. It is and would be a tricky balance to avoid being invasive on people's privacy on one side and making sure that money spent is money earned, but if they are not, Mary Kay should be looking into ways to do this.