This is a two part post.
Part 1
Part 2
(part two is addressed to Havurah, who is still refusing to comment on this site and is using "Google locked me out" as a weak excuse. Click Here to skip to that part)
Part 3
(part three is my response to "blessed", a.k.a. all I have to about this nonsense.)
Nonsense
I nearly did not link to this article. Speaking to, or for that matter, about, "blessed" is futile.
The very fact that Tracy not only allows his nonsense on her site but, in fact, publishes it on the front page demonstrates that she is not serious in her criticism of Mary Kay.
Are there flaws with Mary Kay's business model? No doubt. In fact, we discuss them on this site -- and I am sure that they are brought up at corporate headquarters on a daily basis.
Is comparing a cosmetics company (or its marketing plan) to a social disease, a cult or a plague helpful in any way? I say, no.
I have made very clear my belief that Tracy is, to say the least, misleading many about her intentions with Pink Truth. Her deception and, frankly, outright lies are what motivate me to keep this site in existence.
That she has a problem with Mary Kay does not bother me.
That she actively campaigns to smear honest and integrous women with no concern for the truth is despicable. This post from "blessed", who has allowed his outrage at what happened to him and his wife (he has not actually told us what happened, so we can only guess that it must have been pretty bad) to consume him with with an illogical and ignorant belief that anyone involved with Mary Kay must be either knowingly or unknowingly complicit in the scam-to-end-all-scams, and must be stopped at any cost.
I do, however, believe that they are aware, to some degree, that their position (extreme hatred against anything and anyone involved with Mary Kay) is not bulletproof. This is evidenced by the fact that neither of them will allow dissenting opinions. Tracy avoids it by only having conversation in places where she can control the outcome, and "blessed" by not ever responding to the questions that are asked of him.
This, to me, is sad.
Finally, "havurah", in the comments on this post (the one that I linked to by "blessed") responded to my request for her to be respectful enough to comment over here, by either feigning ignorance or being to lazy to actually read what was said here.
So I will clarify... and this time, I will try to make it simple.
Havurah:
No one here suggested that Tracy "locked you out" of anything.
There is nothing wrong with creating an account with the name(s) "havurah1" "havvie" or any other such pseudonym that will be easily recognized and starting your comment with, "this is "Havurah" from Pink Truth. We will all know who you are. Plus your now famous third person monologue(s) should be easy to spot.
What we did ask you, specifically, was why your comment that referenced this site by the name "The Truth About Mary Kay" was suddenly censored to read "*********"
Was that your doing?
Or were you censored because the owner of the site is threatened by this little slice of truth over here on the other side of the internet?
Either way, how does that stack up in your evaluation of Pink Truth?
Finally, I would like to emphasize, I am calling you out. I believe that you are hiding from having an open discussion with an audience that is not censored by Tracy. None of your excuses for not leaving a comment and having a conversation, to date, hold any water.
You seem to hold what I at first interpreted as a strong set of values: honor and respect, specifically. I hope that you will prove me right and show this site the respect of visiting and explaining how you can support a cause like Pink Truth when even you yourself have been either voluntarily or obligatorily censored. This is clearly a paradox for a site claiming to be offering THE truth, don't you think?
It is your move. I hope that you will respect me (and if not me, at least your own values) enough to come visit and explain this apparent contradiction.
Posts
I think Blessed's family had a horrible experience. He's speaking from a place of having been traumatized. He vents, and he feels better. I wouldn't try to deny him the right to speak his mind regardless of my level of agreement with him. And sometimes, I do agree.
ReplyDeleteDave, you and MK4ME seem to be doing better with MK than a substantial number of people. I think the bad experience rate is too high. The fat cats at the top need to be replaced and a lot of stuff needs revamping, because this just shouldn't happen so often, and those who are greedy and manipulative should not be ruining it for everyone else and getting away with it. Surely you agree with that, yes?
Certain other companies have also run into issues and have people mad as hell and blogging: Wal-Mart. Do I buy stuff there? yeah. I'm broke, so what else am I gonna do? But...Look how they treat their employees. Like utter crap. Do I think Sam Walton originally intended it to get like that? oh hell no. They need fixin' like hardcore, like yesterday.
Havurah can post here if she wants, I'm certain. The fact is, she doesn't want to. I don't like the back and forth where this site says something and invites a response and Hav. only responds on PT. (Why don't I respond on PT myself? because getting deleted accomplishes nothing.) Look, Hav, I think you're a smart girl. I don't know what is going on on the boards over there...if I had to guess, some version of "gothchiq really sux/is a dummy" but so what. I have thick skin after all these years, you try walking around in broad daylight draped in black and wearing combat boots, you will too. lol.
I'm here in most part as a dissenting opinion. That doesn't mean I won't listen to anything anyone says, and I'm not under the impression that MK4ME is telling a fish story. If she makes money in spite of the system rather than because of it, as I believe, then you know...more power to her managing to do that. I don't believe she recruits people who can't/shouldn't do it, nabs their credit cards and runs away laughing. Nope.
I will end with a Monty Python quote:
"Yes! We are ALL individuals!"
Hi Miranda,
ReplyDeleteHow goes it? You may have read my earlier posts where I spoke about my experiences in MK. Let's just say I am no longer in MK and will never be "in" it again.
I also have posted a couple of times on PT. I am curious you mentioned on your previous comment about PT deleting comments. Is that true? Did that happen to you personally?
I teach what I was taught and if I was taught something that didn't make sense, I went and researched stuff. Between our consultant guides and Mary Kay intouch, everything is spelled out. Much of it in conflict with what some directors say. I BEG any and all consultants (yes listen to your director) but don't take that to the bank, go to your consultant guide (READ) and then go to Learn MK on intouch - you can even "search" on the subject you want information.
ReplyDeleteIf someone gives you poor information, ie: or you are 1/2 way to star consultant, you should just go ahead and finish it and you can sell harder next quarter, (mind you, you already have a full store (to me this is poor advise) but if it were done, why when the end of the next quarter comes along would a consultant take that information again. (There does come a time we must be responsible for ourselves).
The most important thing to me is the well being of my consultants. It is foremost with me. I want noone getting in over there heads. My unit does laugh at me about being a "mother hen" - joke, mothers are always telling kids to clean their room and save the money and you are always telling us book appointmnets and spend our money wisely. We do not believe in buying prizes - we believe in working hard. The prize is suppose to be for acheiving the goal, not for manipulating.
I was at a training work shop once. The great NSD Anne Newbury, was telling all of us directors, that there was no reason for consultants to be pushed into doing more than $600 to start, she did not agree with the $3000 or larger orders - she urged us not to do these large packages to young new consultants.
BUT FOR ALL THE QUOTING NDS'S pt this is one quote that I have never seen repeated over there.
With what Anne Newberry accomplished, if it was good enough for her, it is going to be plenty good for me to.
For any reading this site. Please realize, recruiting every client you have will not advance you up the career path in a way that you will stay there (I am sure there have been exceptions) but I will continue to build my business on the norms. Having a customer base of at least 100 skin care clients becomes a must. As I continue to add new clients, I can continue to build my team. New clients must out number the number of new team members always.
I tend to recruit 1 out of 5 that I actually share the company info with but to even get to the 5 to share, I have probably seen 25 - 50clients. If you are not seeing enough people non of this is going to work.
It is see the people sell the product. It is not see the people recruit the people.
This can work and it can work profitable. I make money, I make decent money. No I don't make 6 digits but I also choose not to work 24/7. I still have one more rug rat in school, with a gradustion and possible wedding in the near future, I continue to balance my life.
I believe because I built this business the way I was taught (the way MK intended it) and built it with a strong client base and then starting building my team but continued to be very strong at clases/facials - then this is how I train my people. We have a strong selling unit.
I am really babbling but if one justs things about it. You buy something at 50% off and sell it for retail, you have a gross profit of 50% - now what you do with that will determine how much you will actually NET. If you do things wisely, it is very easy to make some money even early in your business, but executive income will have to wait until you are ready to work harder than most of us want to work (unless you shortcut the system) and we all know what happens when you do.
RedSox, after I left the site, I have no idea if my former posts were deleted. The problem is that if anyone falls out of favor there or says something that doesn't toe the PT party line, they are going to get deleted and banned pronto. The reason I left is that TC banned most of my friends, who hadn't done anything wrong anyway that I could see, and I felt that was wrong.
ReplyDeleteMany of us have seen not only comments deleted but entire articles disappear. Especially if it makes pt look bad/immature. And over the last few years, when the site has changed services, etc.. many of the more offensive articles were not carried forward onto the new site, they were left hidden in the archives.
ReplyDeleteSome great points have been brought out - the way some directors, take advantage of consultants, encouraging them to buy product to make production they don't need, or having them recruit, the homeless lady on the street to get your number 12, 30 etc... this behavior is important because it should not be happening and should be stopped. I totally agree with pt, I do not feel there is any reason for a new consultant to come in with a Pearl $4800 wholesale order. They don't like Pam Shaw for this teaching, the don't like other nsd's teachings but they never show a good document from a nsd that is a good example and show that there are good and bad. - I guess that would defeat the purose.
Making fun of the dress a consultant wears on seminar stage, posting personal information, outing people, etc.. discredits some of the good that could be done. Making fun of an individual's grammar and their spelling, (especially if it is a typo versus an actual misspelling) don't (imho) lend creditability to their cause.
I believe that the stories are the truth of many, the sad part is, it is not the only truth, it is the editted truth. I think everyone of us learned (and fast) don't go and try to explain that what happened to them was wrong.
and omg, please new consultants that are so filled with the enthusiasm and love of their new adventure, don't go trying to tell anyone how great something is after they have been burned. You are going to get chewed up.
There are two sides to everything, but it only seems reasonable if you are going to call a site "The Truth" that even though what is there is the truth of the members, it is not the whole truth, so it is midleading because the site is designed for everyone to believe that MK is all bad. As long as people do not realize that many comments are banned or deleted, or posetive posters get threating emails about them posting on pt, well.. I guess it will remain one sided. (and I know many of us here hope that if they are willing to google a little more and hopefully land here to see both sides.
We could have our site use aka The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
A classic Eastwood spaghetti western! *whistles GB&U tune*
ReplyDeleteSay, you know...there was no In Touch when I was in MK. No web sites for consultants. No online anything at all. I got none of that training stuff at all! There was just a skin care class video which was not that helpful, and an autobiography of MKA. I am a complete dinosaur.
ReplyDeleteMy old flip chart was very verbose. I didn't realize I should, err, summarize. oy.
First time we disagree Miranda, as long as I have been in Mk, there has always been a consultant guide and product guide in the showcases aka starter kit and it has everything in it that intouch did. Finding it would have been more difficult. For many years there were even worbooks for consultants to go thru and fill in answers in the blanks (like one would do with a schoolbook). one would have to read the chapter to answer the questions. In the olden days, many directors had consultants turn these pages in for prizes such as money bags, etc..
ReplyDeleteSo the material has always been available, just in different forms, it just boiled down to whether or not an individual wanted to put the time into studying.
Information is easier to get this day, but as we can see alot of it is not correct. So at the risk of sounding like a broken record, (for those that remember what a broken record sounds like) - please ...READ YOU Consultant Guides, Please read Learn MK on Intouch, please if you have a question and you aren't sure if your director is steering you in the right direction, CALL the Company.
If you happen to read here, ask here, you won't just get one answer but you can take all you get and see what the common idea is.
Protect yourself. One of the best ways to learn more about the products and color application is simply to read a Look Book. Great information is in there. The Applause Magazine (if you skip the recognition pages also have great product and other information in them). Everything is available.
The one thing that many seem to miss is that it just isn't going to work for everyone no mater how hard they try. (Sometimes it is personality, sometimes it is location, who knows but nothing in this world is going to work for everyone, we are all different. If we weren't think of how boring this world would be!
I have thought this for a long time as far as the outbursts from Blessed, I could be wrong as rain, but, I just get the feeling his wife got in way over her head, but that he cheered her own as she was doing it. I think instead of being the "macho" guy laughing at the pink princesses, he wanted to be a part of it. I think at some point he saw that buying your way into positions didn't work and they were loosing money. He got angry and wanted out and she was hooked - I think his anger comes from the point that the "smart, intelligent, male" fell hook line and sinker for the nsd's charm and enthusiasm and charm and when he realized what a pushover he had been, his manhood was damaged. He felt duped. Let's face it is one thing for a woman to get caught up in the sisterhood and prizes but for a big stronger he-man. (He probably even dawned a pink shirt and pink ballcap at one time. uggg. looking back, how could he have?? If his friends had ever seen this, they may not want to be in the gym locker room with him ever again, yikes is that a pictue of blessed in a pink leather boa with a tiara on his head? Oh my, isn't he married??? Doesn't he have kids? Does his wife know? What will people think? Has he decided to come out of the closet...
ReplyDelete(perhaps he was just having fun?
So to compensate for these inner feelings - he is compensating... But what is that line?? He prostests too much???
The above blatherings are not to infer any reflection on who blessed is as a person. Could be a super cool dude, I don't know. I could just see this happening if a "real" neandrothal type dude ever got wrapped up in something so "sissified" and then realized, he didnt' look quite so "stallone" in a tiara, boa, and tutu!
I just thought it was a funny visual.
And I know I will never get an answer but mrs. blessed doesn't seem to have the problems that blessed does. Perhaps she realized, she tried something, made some poor business decisions, lost some money, wasn't willing to compromise her standards to get what she wanted and decided, it wasn't how she wanted to conduct herself and decided to move on!!
Yup, in a soapbox kind of mood today.
AAAHH, why didn't I know about any of those training items? Was my showcase improperly packed? :( I would have given an arm and a leg for the things you just mentioned that I never knew existed at the time. My director never said word one. POOOOO
ReplyDeleteI think there is a gene that we getfrom birth (you know how guys can't read the directions on how to put something together) or if they get lost they can't ask for directions. -- that sort of thing
ReplyDelete