T HOMas FRANK: BUY A FAKE COLLEGE DEGREE!

harper’s magazine/AUGUST 2012 $6.99

u THE PINK PYRAMID SCHEMe How Mary Kay Preys on Desperate Housewives By Virginia Sole-Smith welcome to free syria Meeting the Rebel Government of an Embattled Country By Anand Gopal palm sunday A poem by Frederick Seidel Also: The lies of food labeling u

August Cover US Subs Final.indd_0625 1 6/25/12 9:15 AM report

the pink pyramid scheme How Mary Kay cosmetics preys on desperate housewives By Virginia Sole-Smith

met my first Mary Kay ladies at a der her own pancaked “I’ll bring my catalogues next week!” beautyI school wedged between a liquor and penciled brows. one woman warned. store and an offtrack betting parlor on Kim and I had first met two months Kim passed out little Styrofoam the backside of a strip mall near earlier, when we both enrolled in the trays stamped with compartments, like Poughkeepsie, New York. “Indepen- beauty school’s 600-hour esthetician tiny TV dinner plates, and mirrors dent Beauty Consultant” Kim Mon- training program, where we spent our with black vinyl covers that folded tero was giving her very first “skincare weeknights learning to give and back to make a stand. Some of the class,” the preferred term for the direct- wax bikini lines. During class breaks, mirrors were streaked and spotted, and sales cosmetics brand’s shopping par- she smoked Newports and showed me my tray had cakey crumbs of eye shad- ties at which friends help friends buy cell phone photos of her ten-year-old ow lingering in the corners. , hand cream, and “unlimited son and their cat, both at home with “This one is busted,” said a fortyish opportunity,” as the company’s found- her live-in boyfriend. Before signing woman named Bronetta, trying to er, Mary Kay Ash, described it. Mary up for the program, Kim had worked— hand back a cracked mirror. Kay ladies have been holding skincare and been laid off from—a variety of “Can you just use it anyway?” Kim classes in suburban living rooms and low-paying jobs: bartender, bank teller, whispered, eyeing Daria. “I don’t have church basements since the 1960s, retail clerk. After signing up to be a any extras.” and have come to represent a Steel Mary Kay consultant, she had received Kim joined Daria at the front of the Magnolias kind of Americana—all big special permission to hold her “grand room, but before she could speak, Daria hair and folksy aphorisms. opening” skincare class in a small had begun: “My dream was always to be The modern-day version of the room off the beauty school’s main sa- at home with my children while they shopping party is a little more busi- lon floor. Kim had actually signed up grew up,” she told us, fingering the gold ness, a little less coffee klatch, though as a consultant twice before. “The first charms hanging around her neck. Not the hair, pink packaging, and talk of two times, I didn’t make any money,” only had her Mary Kay business allowed “opportunity” are much the same. she explained later. “But this time, her to realize that goal, Daria said, but Presiding over the evening class was with my esthetics knowledge, I think she now earned a “corporate income” as a kind of Mary Kay consigliere, Daria it makes a lot of sense.” a sales director. “My husband has even Rocco, carefully painted and pressed Happy to have a break from lessons been able to retire early.” Mary Kay, she into a royal-blue skirt suit, the official in zit extraction, my beauty-school told us, let beauty consultants buy their sales director’s uniform, which she classmates and I crowded around the inventory at wholesale prices and then accessorized with black fishnets, tables, chatting and flipping through sell it at a 100 percent markup. Consul- black knee-high boots, several rhine- glossy Mary Kay catalogues while Kim tants could also earn an extra “love stone pins, and a gold charm necklace and Daria unloaded bottles of check”—a commission of up to 13 per- from which dangled three heads in and foundation from a giant rolling cent on the purchases of women they silhouette, one for each of her chil- suitcase printed with tiny pink hair dry- recruited to join their teams—which dren. Next to Daria, Kim, at least ten ers and makeup brushes. Some of the helped explain why Daria had taken years younger, looked uncertain un- other students sold for Avon and Ar- such an interest in Kim’s fledgling busi- Virginia Sole-Smith is a reporting fellow with bonne, though they seemed good- ness. A new beauty consultant could set the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute. natured about being Kim’s competition. up shop with an investment of as little

26 HARPER’S MAGAZINE / AUGUST 2012

(26,29,31,34) Sole-Smith Final4 REV3.indd_0626 26 6/26/12 10:20 AM as $100, which would buy her the Mary really are helping a friend and yourself. books and housewares for Stanley Kay starter kit: trays, mirrors, and That’s how Mary Kay works.” Home Products. When her husband enough samples for her to hold her own A trim blonde student ordered eye left her at the end of World War II, skincare class. shadows for herself and took a catalogue Ash employed her talent for direct As Daria spoke, Kim squirted bits of home to show her mother. One of the sales to keep the family afloat. The cleanser, , and other prod- beauty-school instructors wanted a way her biographers tell it, her chil- ucts—all interchangeably opaque and Satin Hands Pampering Set, and I dren helped pack and deliver orders gooey—into the various compartments bought the Satin Lips kit after Kim on Saturday afternoons as the family’s on our trays. Daria briefed us on each promised me that its exfoliating Lip version of quality time, and Ash one, instructing us to dab and blend as Mask would cure my chapped lips for- tracked her sales goals in soap on her appropriate. We exfoliated with a tacky, ever. And Bronetta put away her note- bathroom mirror. By the end of the granular scrub, then moved on to ton- book and bought the $100 starter kit. 1950s, she had worked her way up to ing and moisturizing. I kept discovering As the rest of us trickled out with national training director for the grainy patches of scrub on my face that our new purchases, Bronetta stayed World Gift Corporation. But when wouldn’t wipe off. “It’s really nice, behind to help Kim pack up. Together she was passed over for further pro- right?” Kim asked us. “Doesn’t your skin they lugged Daria’s giant suitcase back motion at age forty-five and saw the feel amazing?” out to her car, a Mary Kay–sponsored job go to a man she had trained, she My classmates realized that they Chevy Equinox LT. I watched them resigned in protest. weren’t just being sold makeup, and head to the darkened parking lot, Soon after, in 1963, Ash started Beau- spoke up accordingly. What was the two women in foundation-stained ty by Mary Kay with $5,000 and the minimum purchase requirement? How did white smocks, dragging pink luggage. tagline “Enriching Women’s Lives.” “I the commissions work? How do you learn Daria strode on ahead, unencum- wasn’t interested in the dollars-and- how to give these presentations? Daria bered and perfect in her blue suit, sti- cents part of any business; my interest in answered each question in the same letto boots clicking across 1963 was in offering women opportuni- assured tone. Bronetta had taken out a the asphalt. ties that didn’t exist anywhere else,” she pad of paper and began jotting notes. later wrote. Soon it was time to shop. “Remem- n 1938, Mary Kay Ash, a twenty- After being told for years by her for- ber, ladies, if you order tonight, Kim year-oldI Army wife raising three chil- mer colleagues to stop “thinking like a gets half of every sale,” Daria said. “You dren alone in Houston, began selling woman,” Ash was now free to rethink

Photographs by Misty Keasler REPORT 27

(26-34) Sole-Smith Final4.indd_0625 27 6/25/12 8:58 AM much of the traditional direct-sales busi- rectors in 1969, ensuring that her best days. You don’t need connections, an ness model. She ditched the accepted earners would also advertise the com- impressive résumé, or a college degree practice of assigning associates to fixed pany everywhere they went. Today, to get hired in direct sales—you only territories, instead teaching her sales- Mary Kay distributes millions of dol- need an open wallet. Put that way, women to build circles of influence by lars’ worth of cars, vacations, and jew- the company’s $3 billion wholesale culling prospective customers from elry at every Seminar. figure seems to tell a different story; among their families, friends, and com- Ash’s talk of sisterhood, however, rather than documenting the suc- munities. Potential clients were invited was no byword for feminism. Her real cess of these newly empowered wom- to intimate shopping parties where they targets were the bored housewives en, it reveals just how much they could sample products. Ash kept the turned off by The Feminine Mystique spent to be in business gatherings small; she claimed her sales- (published the year Beauty by Mary with Mary Kay. women could give their best, most per- Kay launched) who wanted to earn sonal service to a maximum of six pocket money without threatening fter Kim’s skincare class, I guests. And unlike Avon’s sellers, Mary their breadwinner husbands. God Awent online to contact the sales di- Kay ladies would not knock on doors— first, family second, career third, was rector nearest me. My phone buzzed that was deemed far too impersonal for Ash’s mantra. “Although my late hus- with a new text message a few hours their clientele, who needed, above all, to band, Mel, was very supportive of my later: “This is Antonella Miccarelli be befriended. “Whenever I meet some- career, he let me know that begin- with Mary Kay. I just read ur email one,” wrote Ash, “I try to imagine him ning at seven each evening, I was to and would love to know what would or her wearing an invisible sign that says: be Mrs. Mel Ash—period. Starting be a great time to call you tonight?” make me feel important!” then, it was his time,” Ash wrote of She invited me to her house that Women who felt important were her third husband in her self-help same evening for a one-on-one skin- likelier to buy products, but, more book You Can Have It All. care class and meeting about my crucially, they were likelier to want to That tension between empowering Mary Kay career. join the Mary Kay sisterhood. A con- women and ensuring that they retain Like Daria, Antonella lived in sultant’s circle of influence could be- their traditional roles remains essential Hopewell Junction, a tiny suburb come her sales team, with each team to the company’s success. Mary Kay twenty-five minutes outside Pough- member ultimately building her own insists that it employs multiple sales di- keepsie that is generously dotted with team from her own circle. rectors who earn more than $1 million crisp new subdivisions. Her house was In 1964, Beauty by Mary Kay hosted a year—all while setting their own the kind of oversize new construction its first award night, for 200 people, in hours, working from home, and never for which the builders only put brick a warehouse. Ash made the having to explain to an unsympathetic on the front. There, however, they chicken, jalapeño dressing, and Jell-O boss that they want to leave early for a had spared no expense, adding col- salad herself, and handed out dime- child’s piano recital. The current reces- umns, a curved Juliet balcony over the store prizes to her top earners. The sion has heightened Mary Kay’s appeal. front door, and smart black shutters event, known today as Seminar, be- The company’s sales force has doubled framing every window. I parked my came an annual tradition, and its pro- since 2003, to more than 2 million con- beat-up Subaru Outback next to her duction values grew with the compa- sultants in thirty-four countries. In April car—another Mary Kay Chevrolet— ny. Seminar has become equal parts 2011 alone, Mary Kay signed up 165,000 and rang the bell. Vegas show, beauty pageant, and new consultants, the greatest monthly Antonella was small, with a sleek megachurch revival. The top national recruitment total in a decade. The com- bob and big brown eyes. She wore a sales directors perform a kick line with pany does not disclose sales data beyond turtleneck and corduroys and was car- the help of an official Mary Kay dance an annual wholesale figure ($3 billion rying a tired-looking one-year-old. She troupe. Video footage of Ash, who worldwide in 2011), but a press release seemed slightly frazzled. Antonella died in 2001, is played repeatedly. Ev- from January 2012 noted, “Mary Kay is told me she was late getting her daugh- ery time her image appears on screen, breaking records” with “a 15 percent ter down for a nap. “Don’t worry if you all the Mary Kay ladies in the arena increase in sales in 2011.” March 2011 hear a few screams!” she said with an give it a standing ovation. represented the “highest sales month in awkward laugh as she directed me to In death, Ash has become something company history.” the dining room and swept off with of a patron saint. When a beauty con- In 2008, in the early months of the the little girl. sultant is promoted to sales director, she economic crisis, Mary Kay launched a The dining room’s long, polished flies for a week of special training to new television ad campaign, and it table and sideboard were set up like Dallas, where, between lectures on lead- wasn’t selling skincare: “Discover a a department-store cosmetics coun- ership and sales tactics, she can pose for part-time choice that can lead to in- ter, with Mary Kay products grouped a photo in Ash’s own heart-shaped pink dependence,” a voice-over intoned. on every surface. Poster boards deco- bathtub, which originally occupied one “Earn extra money. Be your own boss. rated with neon-pink stars and snap- of the eleven bathrooms in her thirty- Need this now? Discover for yourself shots of smiling team members were room pink mansion. at marykay.com.” The traffic to the tacked up along the maroon walls. Ash began awarding the famed website’s recruitment page increased When Antonella returned, she sat pink to successful sales di- 108 percent in the following three across from me at the table and be-

28 HARPER’S MAGAZINE / AUGUST 2012

(26-34) Sole-Smith Final4.indd_0625 28 6/25/12 8:58 AM gan reading from a flip chart. “ ‘In fact, did you know that when you host a Mary Kay party, you’re party- ing with a purpose?’ ” she asked, be- fore launching into her own Mary Kay story: She had been working insane hours for not enough money as a pharmacist when she was intro- duced to Mary Kay and realized the income potential of direct sales. “I’ll be honest with you,” Antonella told me, looking up from the chart. “My first reaction was, ‘But I save lives— all you guys do is sell lipstick.’ ” Yet soon, Antonella stopped saving lives and started selling lipstick, “and really, so much more—this is about enriching women’s lives!” Like Daria, Antonella said she’d always wanted to be able to stay home with her chil- dren. “And look, here I am doing it!” she exclaimed. Once again, the career sales pitch included product demonstrations. An- tonella wanted me to try a microderm- abrasion system that she promised would cure my adult acne, and was horrified to learn that I never wore foundation: “It protects your skin from the elements,” she said. “Promise me when you become a beauty consultant you’ll start wearing foundation every day for the sake of your skin.” She then ushered me into her half- bathroom to try out the Satin Hands scrub. When I complimented the van- ity with its brushed-nickel faucet, An- tonella beamed. “This is the house that Mary Kay built,” she said, waving a hand around to indicate the bathroom fixtures, the cathedral-ceiling foyer, the dining room, and, presumably, the brick façade out front. cal beauty consultant Margo Ander- do have some male consultants,” An- I left with the $55 microderm- son was making her debut as a sales tonella said. “And husbands are always abrasion kit and a brochure entitled director. “We’ll be sharing more in- welcome. You know, ‘family second, “Have you ever considered pink?” formation about how our business is career third.’ ” which included “very conservative!” an incredible opportunity for wom- The sales-director induction began estimates of how much I could earn en, especially during this unstable with Margo giving the Mary Kay with my Mary Kay business. Annual economy,” Antonella texted. “You’ll equivalent of a tearful Oscar accep- profits ranged from $17,040 for hold- leave feeling so inspired about how tance speech from a podium. She ing one skincare class per week to you can achieve your dreams.” made sure to thank her Mary Kay more than $49,000 if I were to hold We crowded into the small audito- mentors and the twenty-six members three classes per week. “$100 may not rium, snacking on the popcorn that of her sales team individually. “Hon- change your standard of living,” said Margo had packed in shiny pink gift estly, this is just a big girlfriends’ the brochure, “but it may bags for us. The room was a sea of club!” she said. change your life.” women: sales directors like Antonella We gave round after round of ap- and Daria, dozens of star recruiters plause to new consultants, different wo weeks later, I met Antonella wearing red jackets, and a motley as- kinds of “star” consultants, consultants atT the Bank Street movie theater in sortment of people like me—all guests who had recently earned the right to New Milford, Connecticut, where lo- of Margo’s “sister sales directors.” “We wear red jackets, and consultants

REPORT 29

(26,29,31,34) Sole-Smith Final4 REV3.indd_0626 29 6/26/12 10:20 AM dubbed “Directors in Qualification.” In The theater combusted into ap- my first inventory order.” At the time, order for a beauty consultant to achieve plause as we returned to our seats. An- Antonella and her husband were this rank, her team had to place tonella turned to me with a happy sigh. working their way through some siz- $18,000 in wholesale orders during a “Well, Virginia,” she said, “what did you able credit card debt. “But my hus- single four-month window and then think? Are you ready to band said, ‘Ant, you have to do this maintain at least $4,000 in purchases achieve your dreams?” right. How are you going to sell from each month thereafter. If a director an empty storefront?’ ” Antonella or- missed the mark two months in a row, ntonella perched on one of the dered $1,800 worth of inventory, set she’d be forced to give up her title. movieA theater’s flip-down seats and up a lavish display on the island in Finally, it was time to hear from the keyed my address, credit card data, her kitchen, and invited four friends night’s guest speaker, Independent and Social Security number into her for a skincare class. She sold out her Elite Executive National Sales Direc- iPhone, while the other guests gath- entire inventory of skincare products tor Barbara Sunden, who was billed on ered up the extra bags of popcorn, that first night and turned a profit of Margo’s invitation as the “#1 National much of which now crunched under- about $2,000 in her first month. Sales Director in the Entire World!!!” foot. The next afternoon I received a That $1,800 turned out to be a Sunden was small and soft-spoken but text from Antonella: “Hi congrats on magic number. Once I ordered that somehow terribly intimidating. As she a great business decision! I just read amount, I’d be automatically promot- took the podium, the microphone my emails and the company accepted ed to Star Consultant—climbing a malfunctioned. “We are going to need the agreement!” I was officially a rung on Mary Kay’s ladder without a working mic, I just can’t speak loud Mary Kay lady. making a single sale—which entitled enough for you all to hear me without A few days later, UPS dropped off a me to a range of perks, including di- it,” she said coolly—and quite audi- large box printed with black and pink rect shipping whenever a customer bly—as Margo raced around looking daisies. Inside was my starter kit, filled ordered a product I didn’t have in for a replacement. with product samples, catalogues, and stock. No driving door to door drop- Technical difficulties resolved, Sun- dozens of Styrofoam trays and folding ping off orders. “Remember that your den told us why success with Mary Kay mirrors. When she called me about my time is money,” Antonella said. As I meant so much more than free cars and new consultant training, Antonella became more successful, I’d want to big paychecks. For her, it was about again congratulated me on “the won- keep even more in stock. Antonella defying social expectations—what derful decision” I had made to join her had around $2,500 in inventory on people assume a stay-at-home mom unit, Bellas of the Ball, because our hand most of the time. can do with her “silly little Mary Kay current national sales director was Bar- My final step would be to “Book a business,” which for Sunden now bara Sunden. “Barbara has been with Power Start,” which meant finding brought in an annual income of more the company since 1972—she was eight people in a two-week period than $1 million. She made a Mary Kay trained by Mary Kay Ash herself,” An- who would agree to let me book career sound almost subversive. tonella said. “So our unit has strong skincare classes with them. I could After Sunden’s speech, Margo in- bloodlines. We are direct descendants expect a couple to cancel, but as long vited the special guests to join her at of our great founder.” as I hit five out of the eight, An- the podium. I slunk down in my seat, The first step on my Mary Kay to-do tonella assured me, I’d be on track. but Antonella was at my elbow. list was making my initial inventory Which brought us right back to step “You’ll love this!” she whispered. “It’s investment. Of course, Antonella was number one: How much inventory the best part!” So I filed up to the quick to work in the standard caveat, did I need to get me through those front, where Margo handed each of necessary because it’s the technicality five to eight classes? us a long-stemmed rose, her eyes that separates Mary Kay from a pyramid When I delicately conveyed that I shimmering with tears and three scheme: “Buying inventory is always didn’t have $1,800 on hand, An- distinct shades of Mary Kay Mineral optional with Mary Kay, and if anyone tonella was unconcerned. “I actually Eye Color. has told you otherwise, they were lying don’t suggest that my consultants “These roses are my gift to you, and to you. You do not have to buy products use personal funding to buy their in- they represent your future with Mary in order to be a Mary Kay consultant.” ventory, even if they do have the Kay,” Margo explained, holding her own There was a slight pause. “But there money,” she said. “I find that unless rose aloft. “The stem is for the support are some advantages.” someone holds you accountable, you’ll receive from your sister consul- It was true, Antonella acknowl- consultants forget to pay them- tants, your director, and our wonderful edged, that some consultants pre- selves.” Instead, I could apply for a company. The green leaves represent the ferred to wait to order products until Chase Mary Kay Rewards Visa card. money you will earn. The thorns are the after they had made some sales using “What you need to understand is growth points and obstacles you will the catalogues and samples in the that this is not a debt,” Antonella overcome along the way. The pink rep- starter kit. But she didn’t think it was said firmly. “If you spend eighteen resents the ultimate symbol of success in the best course of action for me, be- hundred dollars on a new couch, our company—the beautiful pink Cadil- cause she could tell I was so serious sure, that is a debt sitting in your lac! And the fragrance of this rose is the about my Mary Kay career. “I was just living room. But this eighteen hun- sweet smell of your success.” like you, Virginia—terrified to place dred dollars is an investment in your

30 HARPER’S MAGAZINE / AUGUST 2012

(26-34) Sole-Smith Final4.indd_0625 30 6/25/12 8:58 AM business.” This eighteen hundred was quick to emphasize the same tech- Now you can read dollars would also be almost half of nicality that Antonella had: buying Antonella’s December inventory is “a personal choice.” On top Harper’s Magazine wholesale goal. of that, she said, the commissions that sales directors earn on purchases by anytime, anywhere . . . or the half dozen Mary Kay con- their team members are paid by Mary sultantsF I interviewed, the “corporate Kay corporate itself; they’re never taken income” Daria talked about, to say out of the pockets of lower-level consul- nothing of Antonella’s Mary Kay tants. The company’s website is equal- LAWRENCE DOUGLAS: THE LAST NAZI WAR-CRIMES TRIAL dream house, never seemed to materi- ly emphatic: “Is Mary Kay a pyramid

alize. These anecdotal accounts re- scheme? Absolutely not,” reads one HARPER’S MAGAZINE/MARCH 2012 $6.99 flect the findings of Tracy Coenen, a FAQ. “The entire marketing structure financial-fraud investigator and for- is based on and intended to foster retail mer Mary Kay lady who founded Pink sales to ultimate consumers.” Truth, an online community that de- Despite this supposed focus on the scribes its mission as giving “a voice to ultimate consumer, however, Mary the millions of women who have had Kay has little real idea where its prod- X STARVING YOUR WAY TO VIGOR The Benefits of an Empty Stomach negative experiences with Mary Kay.” ucts end up. When I asked the press By Steve Hendricks THE TYRANNY OF BREAST-FEEDING Extrapolating from data published in officer to comment on Coenen’s in- New Mothers vs. La Leche League By Elisabeth Badinter the company’s Applause magazine, come estimates, I was told that the THIEF A story by Jess Walter Coenen estimated that fewer than company tracks only wholesale figures. Also: Dale Peck, Mark Kingwell 300 U.S. Mary Kay ladies are earning After a saleswoman places her order, X a six-figure income after business ex- Mary Kay disassociates itself from its penses—roughly 0.05 percent of the carefully cultivated girlfriends’ club; 600,000 American consultants. every consultant is her own business, Coenen also estimated that the independent from (and yet completely highest-earning sales consultants gen- dependent on) the mother ship. . . . when you sign up erally order only about $50,000 worth On the Pink Truth message boards, of products per year, meaning the most detractors share stories of Mary Kay– for our digital edition they’re making annually from direct sponsored divorces and financial ruin; a sales is $25,000. But hostess gifts, offi- kind of battered-woman syndrome per- through Zinio. Subscribe cial Mary Kay skirt suits, travel, and vades. Members struggle to understand other expenses—not to mention the how they could have fallen for the com- today and have the next challenge of moving so much inven- pany’s cheap marketing ploys, even as tory—eat into their profits. “Almost many of them continue to defend their 12 issues of Harper’s everyone loses money,” said Coenen. particular recruiter or sales director as “Most of those who do profit are mak- the exception. There’s a lot of anger and Magazine delivered to ing about minimum wage.” a lot of fear, and when I posted a note A business in which only a select few seeking interview subjects for this arti- your desktop, laptop, earn real money while everyone else cle, I received several suspicious respons- pays to play sounds a lot like a pyramid es questioning my intentions, but no tablet, or smartphone. scheme. The Federal Trade Commission takers save for Lynne, now a forty-year- distinguishes between recruiting sales- old real estate agent in the suburbs of people to sell a product, which is per- Washington, D.C., who asked that I not fectly legal, and making money exclu- use her last name. Subscribe now by sively through “fees for participation,” Lynne joined Mary Kay in 2002, after which isn’t. What constitutes a fee is, of tagging along with a friend to a Success visiting the digital course, vague, but the FTC has charged meeting, held Monday nights in a con- some multilevel-marketing companies ference room at the local Comfort Inn. subscription store at with employing pyramid schemes. In Lynne had arrived in a black mood. She those cases, the majority of sales oc- was working as a proposal writer and had www.harpers.org curred between company and sales- just landed her employer a multi-million- people; the retail products were essen- dollar government contract; her bonus tially decoys. The FTC has never taken was a $50 gift card. action against Mary Kay, and an agency At the Success meeting, she had spokesperson told me that he was “un- walked in to find a crowd of chatty, able to confirm or deny” whether the cheerful women. The annual Seminar company had ever been investigated. in Dallas was coming up, and they talk- When I contacted a public-relations ed excitedly about all the faux-diamond manager at Mary Kay headquarters, she pins, designer handbags, and piles of

REPORT 31

(26,29,31,34) Sole-Smith Final4 REV3.indd_0626 31 6/26/12 10:20 AM Mary Kay products that would get doled meeting a real estate client after our made up the difference herself that out. Later, Lynne watched as the attend- lunch. “I almost wore a pink jacket for month. And then every other month ees stood to applaud a short woman in you because it was so Mary Kay,” she for a year, just barely holding on to her a red jacket that signified her newly said. “Like, not official Mary Kay, but director status. achieved position as a team leader. The so Mary Kay. But then I put it on and Although Lynne was great at teach- other consultants lined up to give the I just looked so fat, I couldn’t do it.” ing her unit how to sell, she couldn’t Red Jacket a series of gifts—red note After we ate, Lynne pulled out her do what successful sales directors do: cards, red candy, red coffee mugs—and laptop to show me almost a decade’s persuade her team members to buy. “I pose for photos, after which the Red worth of pictures documenting Mary couldn’t push them to front-load their Jacket talked about how she never Kay parties. “Here we are at a Star inventory when I knew I wasn’t selling thought she’d be able to run her own Consultant barbecue at our director’s what I was buying myself,” she said. business because she was partially deaf. house,” she said. A photo of women in One month, she finally did get a new The woman was older than Lynne, pastel business-casual milling around consultant to put $1,800 worth of in- but she looked younger, rosy and tri- an expensive hotel suite was followed ventory on a credit card. “It felt like I umphant. The sales directors and the by women playing volleyball and eat- was losing a little bit of my soul.” senior consultants seemed like friends ing hamburgers. “Here’s a mixer with Lynne started to feel increasingly cheering on her accomplishments. our National. Oh God, that director alone inside her big girlfriends’ club. Lynne signed a new-consultant con- there is the lady who invented the Her husband was anxious about the tract that night. Flowers and Chocolate Plan.” I asked credit card debt, and she couldn’t She put $1,200 worth of inventory what that meant. “More stalking of figure out why she was having prob- on her credit card during her first meet- women,” she said, almost under her lems meeting her monthly goals when ing with the recruiter, telling herself breath. “You hand out roses and choc- everyone else talked up their big pay- that doing so “felt reasonable for a part- olates and say it’s in honor of Mother’s checks. “It took me a long time to timer.” Once she saw her sales director’s Day or whatever, but really you’re just realize that having inventory on your fully stocked shelves, she added an- trying to get their contact info so you shelves is not a sign of success,” she other $600. Lynne turned out to be can call them for an appointment.” said. We looked at pictures from an- great at selling, and the first order of Lynne found out that she’d qualified other party, a debut for a new consul- inventory moved quickly. She also to be a sales director the same day she tant that Lynne hosted at which loved the girlfriend time at Mary Kay discovered she was pregnant with her only two people showed up, one of parties. She became an expert at make- first child, in November 2005. It felt whom was the consultant’s mother. up application. And she wasn’t embar- like everything was clicking into “That would happen a lot. Everybody rassed to approach complete strangers place. A few months later, she flew out acts like they’re selling all the time, and start chatting about her new busi- to the Dallas headquarters for her and it’s really hard to tell, ness and how it was changing her life. Director in Training week and had her because everybody lies.” By March 2004, Lynne’s Mary Kay picture taken in the famous heart- career was going so well that her shaped pink bathtub with two other bout a year after she began husband suggested she quit her day almost-directors. In the photo, all Afrontloading her own inventory, job, where she was earning $75,000 three are crouched down, wearing Lynne sat in the audience in yet an- a year, to do Mary Kay full-time. It matching gray suits and holding up other hotel conference room, this one seemed entirely possible to replicate champagne glasses. Lynne is in the in Scottsdale, Arizona. It was the and even surpass her old salary with- middle, leaning forward with her chin 2007 Fall Advance—“because in in a year, so Lynne took a part-time resting on her hands, right in the point Mary Kay, we don’t go on retreats, we job while she built her business. She of the heart. She is smiling, but looks only advance”—at which Mary Kay turned her basement into a show- tired. Above her head is a portrait of unveiled a new line of mineral eye room, painting one wall bright pink. Mary Kay Ash, gazing beatifically from shadows that would cause all previous In January 2005, she quit her part- a golden frame perched on a golden eye shadows to be discontinued. Con- time job to focus all her energies on easel. “Even then, I think most people sultants could clear out their invento- becoming a sales director. were a little torn about doing this, ry by encouraging women to use more When I met Lynne last winter at a because the line was so long, and it was of the old product. A sales director Panera near her house, it had been all so campy,” Lynne said. “But at the demonstrated by applying seven dif- over a year since her last skincare same time, there’s this huge tradition ferent colors of to her own party. “I’m so embarrassed now, to that you can only be successful if you lids, a look Lynne described as “abso- think about the things I did back take the picture in the tub. So nobody lutely ridiculous.” then,” she said. Lynne has an expres- was willing to forgo that step.” The next presentation was from a sive face with a big smile, and she The next month, Lynne’s unit fell different sales director, who had “just laughed a lot when she talked about short of the $4,000 requirement. Her one question” for the crowd: “Who Mary Kay, though occasionally her Mary Kay mentors weren’t fazed. Just wants to have a ten-thousand-dollar eyes looked damp behind her glasses. make up the difference out of your Christmas this year?” Every hand shot She wore a long black skirt and boots, own pocket, they told her. You’ll do up. Like any retailer, Mary Kay consul- dressy for a Saturday, because she was better the next month. So Lynne tants do their biggest business during

32 HARPER’S MAGAZINE / AUGUST 2012

(26-34) Sole-Smith Final4.indd_0625 32 6/25/12 8:58 AM the holiday season. It’s also a prime But she hasn’t left Mary Kay be- brother and his friends were playing time to recruit new team members as hind entirely. The consultant who video games. So Kim stood in her suit women look to pick up holiday shop- debuted with only two guests at and heels, with her flip chart and sam- ping money. “Of course! Everyone Lynne’s party remains one of her best ples, and gave her spiel amid the piles of wants to have a ten-thousand-dollar friends and is her son’s godmother. clothes and half-used styling products Christmas!” exclaimed the director. As Lynne’s new career in real estate al- in the girl’s bedroom. Her client loved the presentation went on, Lynne lows her to apply her sales knowl- the , but, she finally explained, she watched the women in the audience edge, and the commission checks are couldn’t afford to buy anything. She had taking notes. Some had even pulled at least bigger. just started working at ShopRite and out calculators, but it was hard to see “Oh gosh, we were all so happy,” wouldn’t get her first paycheck until the how they’d offload the old eye shadows Lynne said as we looked at a picture of following week. and other products being discontinued women in sequined cocktail dresses and “The crazy thing is that I kept going in time to stock up on the new holiday layers of Mary Kay makeup smiling into after that,” she said slowly. “But I guess deals. The speaker was undeterred. “So the camera, their arms slung around when you’re doing it, it is a little like you know you want a ten-thousand- one another. “I guess I didn’t know who being in a cult.” dollar Christmas,” she concluded. I would be without Mary Kay Kim didn’t decide to quit until sev- “How are you going to sell that if you to define me.” eral months later, when her boyfriend don’t put ten thousand dollars’ worth started to comment on the piles of un- of new products on your shelves?” n October 2011, a year and a half sold inventory taking over their spare Lynne realized the consultant sit- afterI I attended her skincare class, I bedroom. “I think he felt bad for me, ting next to her, a usually cheerful texted Kim Montero to see whether because he knew how much I wanted stay-at-home mom, had started to cry. she was still doing Mary Kay. “Not this, and he could see it wasn’t working “How can anybody afford to do that?” really,” came the response. We met for out,” she said. After Kim went three she whispered. “I can’t put any more lunch on a warm fall Tuesday, an hour months without buying new inventory, on my credit card.” Lynne thought of before Kim needed to be at her job she was deemed “inactive.” She found the hours she would spend making gift tending bar. She had quit Mary Kay in the bartending job and held a half-off sets and booking appointments and 2010. “I wanted Mary Kay to work,” sale to clear out the guest room. how she would yet again turn her fam- Kim said. “I really did.” She succeeded “I did gain confidence,” Kim said as ily’s annual holiday party into a work in becoming a Red Jacket, with a we finished our sandwiches. “I can get event by manning the Mary Kay room team of seven consultants under her. up in front of anyone now and talk. I all night. There was no way she’d have Daria mentored her constantly. Kim couldn’t do that before.” She was also $10,000 to show for it by the end of the put on a skirt suit and a full face of sorry to lose touch with Daria, who had holiday season. “Here they were want- makeup every morning to sit in her seemed like such a successful role model. ing us to buy, buy, buy, when we all house and work the phones, trying to “She gave me these heart-shaped ear- knew—because they just did the pre- book the ten skincare classes she rings at my Grand Opening party—she’s sentation about it!—half the stuff needed to hold every week to sustain very nice like that,” she said. Kim’s “in- would get discontinued before you’d her business. Most weeks, she aver- active” status lasted for a year, giving her ever get it off your shelves.” aged one or two. plenty of time to reconsider. “I’d just Lynne resigned from her director- When she didn’t have classes booked, have to pay twenty dollars and do the ship soon after, but she stayed on as a Kim would hang out at the local mall product order to get started again,” she consultant. She had over $15,000 in wearing her red jacket. She left cards at said. “But really, this time, I’m done.” credit card debt and a basement full of local businesses and put a raffle box in her For a while after our one-on-one ses- unsold products inching closer to their neighborhood’s Smokes 4 Less store. sion, Antonella texted me every few expiration dates. It took three more Anyone could write down her name and days: “Will u be a statistic or will u step years to fully extract herself, paint over number and be entered to win a free into ur greatness?!” “How can I help u the pink wall, and get rid of the prod- facial for herself and her friends—and achieve your dreams?!” Then she ucts. In 2011, her husband filed for di- everyone was a winner, a new member of switched to emails and occasional vorce, citing as one of the reasons their Kim’s “circle of influence.” Facebook comments. Ten months later, “different attitudes towards money.” One week, she drove to meet a win- I began receiving notices that my con- “He meant the whole Mary Kay thing,” ner, finding a sulky teenager waiting tract would soon be terminated. In the Lynne said. “We just never got past it.” outside a run-down ranch house. Dogs final month, a national sales director But it wasn’t for lack of trying. When barked from behind a chain-link fence. named Vivian Diaz emailed offering to her husband first began to talk about “Nobody’s coming,” the girl told Kim. text me daily with a list of activities leaving, Lynne cleared every last Mary “All of my friends canceled on me at the that would jump-start my business. All Kay product out of the house, selling last minute. Sorry.” Since she’d made I had to do was agree to text her back much of it at a loss and throwing the the trip, Kim decided she might as well as I finished them and await new orders. rest in the trash. “I didn’t want him to give the girl a facial and see if she’d buy “Let me warn you up front that you will see so much as a bottle of and anything. Her client led Kim inside and be pushed more than you have ever be reminded,” she said. “I didn’t want down the hall to her bedroom. They been pushed before,” she wrote. “This to be reminded either.” couldn’t use the living room because her is not for the faint of heart.” n

34 HARPER’S MAGAZINE / AUGUST 2012

(26,29,31,34) Sole-Smith Final4 REV3.indd_0626 34 6/26/12 10:20 AM