My Mary Kay Story: It's Not All Pink and Fluff as Portrayed

I started Mary Kay in 2001 when I was eight months pregnant. I was always career oriented, but my pregnancy was unplanned and I never thought I would have children due to my poor health. So I was REALLY wanting to be able to stay at home with the baby. My recruiter was someone I knew - she and I were in the same graduating class at the same high school. She had contacted me after seeing me at my sonogram appointment when I was around five months pregnant. She later contacted me and we got together. I didn't buy a thing the day of my appointment but she shared the marketing plan with me and I was really considering it. When I approached my husband with the subject though, he was less than enthused. So I dropped the subject and didn't think too much about it.

A couple of months later, I got a call from her again - inviting me to a Mary Kay function. I told her I would go and here again I heard the marketing plan. A couple of days later the director called me and by the end of that week I was a new consultant. I was given a packet that had different inventory options and was told to look over them, make a decision and the director would call me within 48 hours. When she called me, I told her I wanted to start with the $1,800.00 package - just like that. She didn't have to work too hard for my initial order, that's for sure! (Later, before I became a director I was naïve enough to think that this is how everyone did it. Boy was I in for a big surprise!)

I enjoyed my business, worked through the slumps and by the end of my first year in Mary Kay; I quit my full-time job to solely devote to my Mary Kay business. This was August of 2002. After the birth of my son, my health took a huge decline and I was missing so many days at work, I needed to resign before I was fired from my job. I thought being able to work my own schedule would be better for my health.

I began to work my business really hard, getting new leads every day. By March of 2003, I was on target for my Grand Am and went into DIQ. March 1st, I had to have an operation on my foot for Tarsal Tunnel Syndrome. I was not allowed to put any weight on my foot for three weeks. During this time, I was not able to hold very many appointments, even though I tried doing them at my home. It just seemed like more people cancel when they are to come to where you are. By the end of May though, I had earned the use of the Grand Am and I did it without any cheating.

By the beginning of June, my health was starting to get worse and I was having "mini-flares" of my CFIDS (Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome) that left me unable to get out of bed for a couple of days at a time. Now with it being my last month of DIQ, my director was calling me once to twice a day to check on my progress. She called me one day when I was stuck in bed. When she called and asked me what was happening that particular day I told her nothing - I was stuck in bed. Her voice sounded nervous and she wanted to know why. I told her that I was having a flare of my illness and was completely exhausted and couldn't do anything. She said, "You can't get tired until this month is over! You have to push through just a little longer!" I thought to myself, "Well, tell my body that!" People just don't understand that there are some illnesses that you just can't push through and this is one of them.

By the end of the month, I still needed about five or six consultants to come in to finish up DIQ. I had agreements already filled out and ready to enter by friends and family members in case I needed a couple to finish up on June 30th. That night, sitting at my director's computer, I got a sick feeling in my stomach and I told her, "I can't cheat. I just don't feel right doing this. I want to make it the right way". She said, "Oh, just go ahead and get it done. You will just have to work a little harder starting out, that's all". So like a fool, I did it. After we were done qualifying these people, she called our NSD and told her we had a new director in the area. The first thing my NSD said to me was, "What are your plans for tomorrow?" I told her that I was going to take a few days off to spend with my son and to get some rest. I still was not feeling well and I knew I had to take a break. She told me then to not get too comfortable because I would have to continue to work as I did in DIQ for the next six months to a year. I thought to myself, "What?" I was told that once I got through DIQ that would be the hardest! Now I am hearing this!

So my unit and I started out pretty good and the first couple of months I was a sales director I was doing okay getting production in and all. By the time I had my debut in September, I was starting to feel really bad, then by the first of October, I was completely bedridden. I had pushed my body into a major CFIDS flare. My mother had to come and live with us practically because I was unable to care for my son, myself, or my house. It was really a bad time. Of course, I was not able to hold weekly unit meetings and even talking on the phone was too much for me - I was just completely exhausted and the energy was just not there.

I called Mary Kay Corporate and advised them of what was going on and they told me that as long as I kept in touch with them on a monthly basis, they would work with me.

Also around this time I started having severe pains in my lower abdomen, was urinating every 15 minutes, was up almost all night running to the bathroom, and I felt like I was nine months pregnant due to all of the pelvic pressure. My husband had to take me to the emergency room a couple of times before I was finally given a diagnosis - Interstitial Cystitis. If you are not aware of what this disease is, do a search on the internet. It is very disabling. I was also diagnosed at this time with Fibromyalgia as well. So needless to say, I was not working.

By February of 2005, I started to feel a little better. I tried working again and catching up with my unit, but most of them had dropped off. When I couldn't work they stopped working as well. But that month we made production and I even earned a bonus! But the next month I was back down again. So I would seesaw back and forth like this over the next several months. I did go to Seminar that year, but I spent most of it in bed at the hotel - I couldn't walk because of all of the pelvic pressure and the constant trips to the bathroom just became too exhausting. I would have to leave the arena every few minutes and make my long walk to the restroom - it was just impossible.

During this whole time with my illnesses being really bad, I tried to remain as positive as possible and I tried to work my business on the few chances I was physically able. But only having a couple of hours a day that I was actually functional, I chose to spend that time with my son. He was so little and didn't understand. He needed me and I put him first. Being as sick as I was, I truly felt that I could be dying and so did many others. If that was to be the case, I wanted my son to have as much time with me as possible and Mary Kay was just not important at the time.

When I was able to go back to holding meetings, I decided to team up with a couple of other directors in my area. There were eight of us directors in our future national area who were all renting a building for our weekly meetings. At first, it was about $100.00 a month. But slowly, directors started dropping off and now there is only two directors left out of eight. They are paying over $400.00 each per month to pay for this building.

By November of 2005, I decided to give up my directorship. I was missing production more than I was making it. I only had two girls who were actually working in my unit and I was going terribly in debt. I was not purchasing unnecessary product either to make production. Since the company was working with me, I wasn't at that point in jeopardy of losing my unit. I still had monthly director expenses regardless and they were far outweighing my earnings each month and I just couldn't do that to my family anymore.

One of the other directors who I was meeting with was also beginning to struggle a lot with her business. She had lost both her first line and second line directors, and she was getting burnt out. Her husband was disabled and they have four young children. She was home schooling her children and working Mary Kay full-time. She did very well for the first few years, but it finally took a toll on her and she just couldn't do it all anymore. Together we stopped meeting at the training center at the same time.

After I gave up my directorship, I just basically focused on servicing my customers. For about eight months I took a much-needed break from Mary Kay. I was emotionally as well as physically drained. I no longer had the excitement that I once did - seeing things that I did while a director that are kept hidden from consultants left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

Then once I decided to quit Mary Kay and my NSD found out, I saw a side of her that I didn't think was possible. I don't want to go into those details, but her actions resulted in me sending back my entire inventory - almost $3,000 wholesale!

No one can say that I didn't work my Mary Kay business. In 2002, with less than one year in the company, I was #30 in sales in our National area and #3 in unit sales. In 2003, I did the National Court of Sales, was #3 in our National Area, #1 in unit sales and recruiting, and #9 in recruiting in our National Area. I had qualified for the Grand Am in three months instead of four. As a director, I never reached any real milestones but I take pride in the fact that I did not persuade others to purchase unnecessary inventory and really tried to work with my unit on the importance of selling, not ordering.