WOW Pynk, what a story! Sorry, but a story we hear ALL the time!!!!! I felt the same way as you do! I saw what you saw in my director, and finally saw the true light of MK! It's ALL SMOKE AND MIRRORS! None of what you hear is truly true, so much is padded.

My director use to tell people she made $8000.00 a month (that was one time, but her wording made you think that was EVERY month).

Pynk, MK is all about the consultants buying MK, it has nothing to do with selling it!

For a director to make real money they would have to be recruiting 24/7, and that's not possible. Read the posts on this board and you will find that you too can "overcome it" (the pink bubble). Best of luck to you pynk! Hope to see you around a lot!!!!!! 

Hi Pynkpanther.  I've not been in that position (My big goal was making Red Jacket ), but I want to welcome you to the forum.

I applaud the other ladies for their responses.  They're definitely heartfelt and wise.

You'll find a wonderful community here, glad you found us.

 

That's the dilemma for me.  My husband asked that I contribute an extra $400-$500 a month to our family budget- I sell enough to contribute about $300 and with my tiny recruit commissions (bwt $75-$120 a month), I'm close to the $400. I enjoy  my business, I have a nice small but loyal customer base and  have been recruiting a couple  of people a year. I don't push it.  But in spite of the fact that I was the most consistent person in my family member's former Unit and now even in her Sr. Director's Unit, because I'm not setting the world on fire with huge sales, I never qualify to win anything. The amounts I sell or order in any given month are never enough to win the contest or challenge "dujour"  so I get no recognition for anything I do. Just more encouragment to "dream big", "step out of my comfort zone" , I'm sure that many of you hear or heard the same things. It makes me feel like crap and so I find myself thinking, obsessing really that if I was a Director things would be different-   even though I know better!

I deal with esteem issues and for someone like me, this Co is like catnip.Talk about knowing what buttons to push! I guess I know that I can't have it both ways,  if I choose to stay in I'll just have to learn not to let it get to me

WWIT is exactly right. You can bring in that amount of money in MUCH less hours than MK, and with none of the 

If you were to actually look at what you spend in MK, and what you owe (or at least are owed - sounds like your friend still owes you $ due to MK), you are not making money. At best, people in MK break even. For those that are actually able to make a meager profit, their wages are are less than what they would make working at McDonald's per hour. You have to account for the fact you are going to pay self-employment tax, which will cut 30-40% total out of whatever profit you made. The "tax deductions" are a farce - if you manage to use them at all to show that you didn't make a profit because you spent so much, guess what - you really didn't make a profit and now you have it in black and white in front of you.

I would encourage you to keep a record of every minute you spend on MK in a month, how much money you owe (and its owed you), your interest spent each month, and every penny you spend on your business. Mary Kay does not teach you how to run a legit business in any sense and they NEVER have you keep track of your time, your most valuable asset. Even if it's doing something you are having fun with, say a meeting or a prize lunch, it's time spent on your business and COUNTS. Write it down. Every second you spend cleaning those mirrors, handing out a sample, taking an order, placing an order, etc - write it all down. You'll be surprised and dismayed at what you find at the end of the month - maybe even appalled.

Commission cannot be relied upon either - it's not the "free money" MK presents it as. I left directorship and chose not to sell back my inventory, even though I hated MK by that point, because I falsely believed that just by maintaining my customer base I had built and collecting commission on what was left of my team that I would make... $400-$500/month to pay off the debt I had accrued. As time goes on, this gets harder and harder and harder to maintain. Suddenly your customers don't all order at the right times and you don't have enough to make a min. order to maintain active status - no commission for you until you do. Or you fall back into ordering a min order, even though you don't need it all, justifying that you WILL need that product to sell... eventually. No you won't. You'd be sick at the amount of product I had to literally throw in the trash. Then, your team members start dropping off over time. They won't be interested in MK forever, much less be active themselves all the time. The ones that stay eventually become personal use, ordering 1-2 times per year. If you get commission at all at this point, it drops to maybe $10/month or less. I had a team of around 20 personals when I left directorship - within a year I was collecting NO commission because I couldn't stay active myself. And when I did, it was pitiful - $20 was a good month. By the time I sold back my inventory for a pitiful $600, I had about 4 personals left out of that 20 (w/in 2 years, 16 had dropped out of MK). Had I sold back my inventory when I quit, I would have gotten over $7000.

Sitting back and maintaining you own business will never be enough for them, because your upline and MK makes no money unless they get you "moving upward". Everything is designed around this goal for them. If you think you have self-esteem issues now, directorship will send you over the edge. You get to see firsthand how everything is orchestrated to make the consultants beneath you want what you have. What recognition you do receive as a director is totally false, and usually given with instructions on how to make it look good to the little people so they want what you have. And the farther you go up, it never ends. They're always pushing you to do more, go higher, get more, order more, recruit more because they're not top and you're NEVER EVER GOOD ENOUGH. Never.

Now you get to room with other directors, but there are 4 of you in a room and you don't get the "top director" suite for your area. You don't get to go to your Sr. Director's house for lunch that month because you weren't a "big girl" and didn't recruit 3 qualified in your unit, so you don't get to learn all the "secrets" that your sister directors will get to learn (you're punished and banished). You didn't get a commission check over $2000 that month (ha!) so your name and face aren't on the area newsletter, so everyone sees what a loser you are. You don't get to run up to the front of the room at an area retreat because you didn't have enough production - so you have to sit with your unit and be embarrassed to watch your sister directors run up there (the few that did), even though you know most of them either bought their production themselves or goaded new consultants into large inventories (or placed orders under consultants names). But yet you still get to feel like loser in front of "your girls" who wonder why their unit isn't running up front with the others - not aware of the cheating. You think they make you feel like crap now as a consultant - it's nothing compared to what you feel as a director.

If you just need money, MK is a way to lose it, not earn it.

If you're looking for fun, MK is fake and will suck you in a bad way. Get a new hobby, take a class at community college, start an aerobics class, join a church group, volunteer - anything is more real and will be fun and many times FREE. MK is never free - not financially or emotionally.

I really wanted to become a SD, but after 8.5 yrs and amassing the debt I did, I am glad I accidentally found my way to this site and another one.  It truly woke me up and let me know that achieving that level was not really better, that even if you operate ethically, the money is not there for most.

When I first sent my product back in September, I felt very sad, like I had lost something...now after a few months and getting the blue check to help out with some of the debt, I realize that I wasn't mourning the loss of MKC, I was mourning the loss of a dream and trying to find a new direction!

I discovered that life is so much better when you are free of MK and the deception.  When I was lost in the fog, I really thought that MK was a positive environment and a great place to be....it is really just an elusive shadow.  Glad to be out of MK!

  for this site and the wonderful ladies who make it a safe haven.  I'm living life, not chasing dreams!

 
So, pynk, it sounds like you have your options laid out plainly (no sugar-coating here!) in front of you.  Quit while you can, get off the hamster wheel, and get out alive, OR attempt to keep selling but cut ties w/ the pressuring uplines, block their pink spam email addresses so you don't even see those stupid prizes/contests, and leave them out of it.  After all, if it's your own independent business, why do you need anyone except yourself and perhaps your DH who sees you working hard to pat you on the back?  You could do things for yourself when you reach your goal, like get a new top, get your nails done, or put a little into a vacation fund (the ideas are endless, you would get to choose, and it wouldn't be some crappy peice of 50-cent children's jewelry).  
Whatever you end up choosing to do, I seriously recommend not going to anymore meetings (immediately!), not reading the MK forwarded emails, not listening to the hype.  Stop taking their crap.  They don't appreciate the padding you've already contributed steadily to their pockets or the free ride you're giving them on your hardworking back.  They will always want more.  Don't feel guilty, don't give in to that.
I must say though, I completely agree w/ Baroness.  She is laying it all out for you in truth.  
((((HUGS)))) Hang in there, it's a hard process.  

"I want to continue in MK, for that you all may feel that I'm not angry enough and request that I leave, again if so, I understand."

Oh dear hon, you have us confused w/ another site.  This is the ban-free zone!  There's even a section for active consultants.  To each their own but w/ eyes wide open, I say!