Lina Says “…maybe all you who spoke so mean about this company really do not have what it takes to have your own business…”
Written by L J on July 9, 2008 – 9:54 am -Your Name: Lina
Date Joined MK : 2007
When Left MK or Still Active?: Still Active
Initial Inventory Purchased: none
How were you recruited?:
I researched them and signed up
Memorable experience you had in MK:
My first sale!
What did you learn from MK?:
Tons of stuff: money management, getting over fear, tracking using forms, goal setting, dreaming big, customer service, being in business for myself, leadership, follow-up, setting priorities, etc.
What are you doing now? :
Proudly I am still teaching Mary Kay skincare and cosmetic application.
Additional Comments:
For all those people who have negative things to say about this company, I find that sad. For some people they do need or like praise for their success. The ‘fake it till you make it’ quote is actually in many books as to raise your self-esteem and confidence. Everything Mary Kay has taught us and written in her books has taught many many people how to be in business for themselves and she has recieved many awards for her knowledge and heart. For the people that wish they had more knowledge on the company- that is your own fault you didnt do the research- maybe all you who spoke so mean about this company really do not have what it takes to have your own business but dont blame a company for that, accept that instead.
Tags: Mary Kay Consultant Stories, mk
Posted in Mary Kay Consultant Stories |
July 9th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
I have 3 successful businesses. How does a Kaybot like you explain that?
July 9th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
P.S. I bet I make more money than you. You’re a joke.
July 9th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
So much for “go give” and “Golden Rule” applications.
Quoting “maybe all you who spoke so mean about this company really do not have what it takes to have your own business”
In Mary Kay, you don’t OWN your own business - you can’t advertise anyway you want, you can’t sell the business, you can’t leave the business in a will. It is an independent contract to sell their stuff - and take deductions for tax purposes. It is NOT AN ACTUAL BUSINESS, individually owned and operated!
July 9th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Good luck to you…..we’ll still be here when you too “fail” as that’s how MK is set up sweetheart! You will be welcome with open arms when you are ready for the healing to begin!
July 10th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Lina, the women who post on this site are talking about REAL experiences in MK and they did everything they could to make it work.
I am sure if you rethink your statement that you really didn’t mean to make such a mean-spirited generalization about women you don’t know.
I am truly happy for you that your experience has been a good one, but I would suggest that you take a good look at your business and see what you are actually making. Those tax deductions are real deductions from your income and therefore they do not count as profit made. After deducting all the costs associated with MK…. samples, books, PCP, gas, hostess gifts, unit dues, fees for attending MK events, class supplies, clothing, wholesale cost of product, shipping….take what’s left (if there is any) and divide that by the number of hours you put in. I mean ALL the hours spent on booking calls, preparing for a class, warm chattering, packing for a class, setting up the class, actual class time, packing up and cleaning up, delivering orders, unpacking orders, inventory.
Come back and let us know how profitable your MK business is! When one of your fellow IBC’s or SD steals one of your customers or recruits one of your customers, we’ll be here to listen. When you do the “math” and figure out that your business is not as profitable as you thought, we’ll be here with a sympathetic ear!
None of us will say you didn’t have what it takes to make your business work!
July 10th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Wow. I’ve never heard that before.
I “failed” myself right through a “FREE” car and directorship - just about into bankruptcy. But I got paraded around as the MK model of success - something for the consultants to aspire to. I followed *exactly* what my Sr. Director (a National) told me to do and got exactly what she said - directorship and a car. But I got more of what she purposely didn’t say (but every director knows): massive credit debt, constant stress, and emotional turmoil, all of which took years to recover from.
Reading MK propaganda does not equal researching a company. And hundreds of thousands (probably millions at this point) of women who quit or were forced out of Mary Kay after they ran out of money does not mean they failed. It means the company failed them. They were steamrolled by the big MLM machine, which has a bad habit of making women feel like it’s their own fault. Looks like you’ve already bought into that emotional manipulation just like all us other “failures” out there did.
July 10th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
I hope, for your sake, that the pink fog lifts more quickly for you than it did for me. I was the epitome of success for others in my unit, moving my business 4 times and still “achieving” directorship and “free” car status. Behind the success, of course, I had paid over $20K for lots of crap I didn’t need, a car, the chance to prance around on stage, and a ring, along with myriad other pink junk. All of this led to difficulties in my personal life and the need for a second mortgage. HMMMMMMM! What’s wrong with this picture. I certainly “faked it until I made it” then I figured out that making it SUCKED and costed more money than I had on my over-the-limit credit card! Now, instead of being able to just stay at home with my son, I have to look for a job to help pay for that second mortgage resulting from my oh-so-successful career in MK…just something for you to think about.
As the others have said, we’ll be here to listen when you’re ranting about putting your life back together after your huge pink mistake (and hopefully before you bankrupt yourself).
July 11th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
I’ve heard this drone so many times before. You really sound brainwashed sweetie. Rest assured, you’ll come out of the pink fog at some point. Good luck with paying off all of your credit card debt!
July 12th, 2008 at 12:30 am
Um…okay. What is this, kindergarten? I almost thought you were going to say “I’m rubber your glue”.
So, all the directors that left were failures? They weren’t cut out for mk? Um…okay. You really need to come out of that pink bubble and fast.
You do realize that the only reason MK is the “#1 selling brand” is because their customers are the the consultants right? You do realize that it is not your “own business” you are an independent contractor. You can’t advertise, you can’t have a store front. Yeah, good luck with “your own business”
July 12th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
I am sickened by your comment. The one lady that said you would be welcome with open arms….not with me. None of us chose to fail - who wants to waste money? I researched this, but did not know how twisted it is until I saw the backstabbing for myself. I am so angry that you would come here and say that…..I am disgusted.
July 21st, 2008 at 7:05 pm
To Baroness vFP, who wrote:
And hundreds of thousands (probably millions at this point) of women who quit or were forced out of Mary Kay after they ran out of money does not mean they failed. It means the company failed them. They were steamrolled by the big MLM machine, which has a bad habit of making women feel like it’s their own fault.
thank you so much for writing this! I felt like a failure for the 6 months, and am not over it yet. I only did Mary Kay for about 5 months, never even got a party booked, but had $2,000 of inventory that I am sending back tomorrow, but for so long I didn’t want to do it cus I thought I failed and couldn’t admit to my husband that he was right. He said we didn’t have the leverage to suffer 10% loss (plus the sales tax I was never told would be included in the charge until I agreed, another $400 on $4,000 retail value) but I pressured him into it. I made him trust me because I trusted the hype. I still feel a little foolish but recognize that being preyed upon doesn’t make me weak, just human.
July 26th, 2008 at 2:17 am
does anyone else find it odd that lipstick said “a mean-spirited generalization about women you don’t know”, when lipstick seems to do that all day long in the postings about all of mary kay. most of the mean-spirited comments come from the former consultants/directors. i managed a subway for 10 years and the owner called it “his business”, even though we were told by corporate what to wear, he couldn’t advertise on his own (everything had to be approved by subway) and he had to absorb operating costs. is subway a multi-level marketing? just asking.
July 26th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Not MLM, but it is a franchise. You pay lots of money to purchase the franchise, yet it really isn’t yours in the sense that, just like MLMs, there are rules and restrictions on what you can and cannot do.
Sure, it’s his Subway business. But his Subway business is a franchise.
I frequently refer to MK as a home-based franchise, because in reality, that’s what it is. But when you add the recruiting, then you’ve got an MLM.
July 27th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Lisa, I’ve been where you are, horrified that “anyone” could say such things about a company like MK. Within 3 months I was out of the pink fog and into a real life with “THOSE” women.
Meanspirited? NO Truthful about my experiences and many others in this forum? YES
Come inside and discover what we are all about, most of our chat doesn’t even center around MK. We have all moved on and are much happier!
The TRUTH will set you free and you will wonder how you could have possibly been so blind for so long!
I promise we won’t say you are negative and you didn’t work your business!
You might even LIKE us….you’ll never know if you stay on the front page and never go any further….come on ….you know you want to!
July 28th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Lisa,
I took Lipstick’s comment “Lina, the women who post on this site are talking about REAL experiences in MK and they did everything they could to make it work.
I am sure if you rethink your statement that you really didn’t mean to make such a mean-spirited generalization about women you don’t know.
I am truly happy for you that your experience has been a good one, but I would suggest that you take a good look at your business and see what you are actually making”
to be referring to Lina’s statement “maybe all you who spoke so mean about this company really do not have what it takes to have your own business but dont blame a company for that, accept that instead.”
I do not find “most of the mean-spirited comments come from the former consultants/directors.” I find that most of the comments from former IBC/Directors are HONEST, perhaps extremely and brutally honest, but I don’t think most of us intend them to be mean-spirited, as opposed to the comments posted by the Kaybots, that we (as former IBC/Directors, and MANY current IBC’s that are regulars here) were “lazy” “did not work the business”, etc. , which I find are nothing but mean spirited. JMO
July 31st, 2008 at 12:56 pm
i get that many women were in units whose directors or recruiters were only thinking of themselves when talking inventory. lipstick, i’ve been selling for 28 years and while i don’t make a 6-figure income with mary kay, i make enough for it to be considered a part-time job. i can’t emphasize enough how it saddens me that most of the gals that comment here appear to have had greedy gals around them. i’m in a unit that if i didn’t know to order product all by myself, i wouldn’t know to order product. my director never talks about it or asks - i know there are directors/recruiters who do, just not, maybe rarely, in my case.
August 1st, 2008 at 5:00 am
Lina,
Why does it upset you that women who were truly lied to and hurt by MK have a place like this to come together, heal, and warn others out of genuine concern?
There are multitudes of us here and elsewhere on the net, and that’s only those who’ve found a forum & joined.
If something hurt you so very badly you’d be sharing your story too, OUT OF LOVE AND CARE so that others wouldn’t have to learn the hard way to.
Lina, quit hating. Go sell some lipstick and
endebtenrich another life.August 1st, 2008 at 5:01 am
oops that should read “the hard way too.”, not “to.”
August 1st, 2008 at 5:02 am
…and the word “endebt” was supposed to have strikethrough. Why didn’t that work?
August 20th, 2008 at 12:57 am
Ouch, now I have a headache! An oozing pink headache! Ish!!!!