To motivate her team and give sales advice, Celeste often hosts potluck dinners at her home in the country outside Eugene, Oregon. During a recent meeting, eight women gather around the dining room table, including Fatima, who sits quietly at the end of the table; Carol, a tall blonde who still drives Celeste to weekly unit meetings; and Ginny, an enthusiastic consultant who just recruited her sister-in-law. Celeste’s husband, Joe, lingers in the kitchen to listen.

Mary Kay said life works best when it is in proper perspective: God first, family second, and career third. For Celeste, the three intermingle; she met Fatima and several of her customers through her church, and Joe has accompanied her to annual conventions three times. Tonight, Joe is wearing a brown t-shirt with “Mary Kay” embroidered on the chest.

Celeste talks her team through the most important part of a skin-care class: the closing.
“Kim, you know your situation a whole lot better than I do,” Celeste enunciates, using the name of one of her new recruits, a young blonde who scribbles notes. “Which would you rather start with tonight, the Complete Collection or the Miracle Set? Whatever you decide is fine with me. Give them two choices. Then look away. You don’t stare her down. Let her make the decision.”

Carol mentions that it helped her to memorize a list of positive-answer questions, including “What product did you like best?” and “Wouldn’t it be fun?”

“Smile, nod and ask questions,” Carol says.

“That can be useful with husbands and kids, too,” Ginny says.

Next, Celeste instructs each of the women to write down goals for selling and recruiting, and ways that Celeste can help – by offering her house as a setting for a skin-care class or helping with role-playing.

Celeste explains her goal of making it through the rigorous Director-in-Qualification period within the next four months, but that means adding 20 more women to the team and making sure the team orders at least $4,000 of wholesale makeup products each month.

Joe walks into the dining room and tells the women that he’ll be their recruiting cheerleader. “Everyone you sign up is money in your pocket,” he says.

As the women finish writing their goals, Ginny announces hers to the group – within one year, she wants to be Celeste’s first offspring Sales Director. Celeste recruited Ginny two years ago, but Ginny never devoted much time to growing her business. Since she started Mary Kay at 21, she cycled through two office jobs, had her second child, and started a day care in her home.

This year, she decided to work her Mary Kay business in addition to the day care. Now she spends at least four hours a day on Mary Kay; her bills are being paid with the extra money, her husband is supportive, and she’s thinking about doing Mary Kay full-time.

Two days after the meeting at Celeste’s home, Ginny meets with a potential recruit, a new mother named Stephanie. Stephanie booked a skin-care class after meeting Ginny at church; the extra earnings potential of Mary Kay attracted her to the business. She sits on the couch while Ginny’s children and day-care kids play at her feet.

Ginny pushes a video called “Your Future is Now” into the VCR. In the 45-minute video, Lisa Madson, the No. 1 National Sales Director, speaks about why she loves her business. One reason is that Mary Kay products are consumable items – they go down the drain every night when women wash their faces. Another reason is the recognition and money – she goes on company-paid vacations and earns $15,000 in commission monthly. And she gets to enrich women’s lives with her work. She quotes Mary Kay: “When you love what you do, you will never work another day in your life.”

Lisa wears a black suit with three diamond-studded bee pins on her shoulder. Mary Kay often said that aerodynamically, bumblebees should not be able to fly, but they do so anyway. The bees represent the highest honors in the company for recruiting.

At the end of her speech, Lisa tells the audience to rank their interest in joining Mary Kay on a one-to-ten scale. One means that you’re not at all interested, and your consultant should never ask you about it again. Ten means that you’re so excited that you want to sign up right now. “Don’t think too hard,” she tells the audience, and reminds them that Mary Kay accepts credit card payments for the required $100 starter kit.

Ginny turns off the television and asks Stephanie, “What did you think about that?”