Mysteries

My Reformed Mary Kay Story

Never thought I'd be a "Mary Kay Lady".  In fact fought tooth & nail to keep it from happening--didn't even sign up when my sister (a Cadillac Future Exec. Sr. Sales Director) was trying to earn her first car.  Oh, I can think of a million reasons why I never saw myself in pink: too much of a hippie, undisciplined, pregnant, a million other things to do, the $100 in cost to start, rarely wearing makeup...this list goes on.  Frankly, I thought it 'just wasn't my style'.

It was February 2009, and I had just returned to my corporate job working 3:30 to midnight for a major airline. Pre-baby, this was manageable. But as a new mom of three months, heading back to her j-o-b, my postpartum mind was on OPTIONS.  I needed a Plan B.

My sister was celebrating earning her very first Mary Kay Career Car, and our National Sales Director, salt-of-the-earth, faithful, beautiful, smart and successful: Kathy Helou, was coming to our hometown to help her celebrate. Our mom was there and we were SO proud and excited for all my sister had accomplished in such a short amount of time.

As I listened to Kathy's story, I was overwhelmed with emotion. She hadn't come from a privileged background, wasn't at all what I expected from my preconceived notions of what a Mary Kay National Sales Director should/would be like. Even though what she told me was much of what my sister had also shared with me, it was different hearing it from her, or any of my peers. What really got my attention was the positive frame-of-mind that was not only prevalent, but encouraged, and fought for--years of bitterness had worn hard on my spirit and the snarky, sarcastic world of food service and Customer Relations for an airline, was my norm.  The "yes, YOU can" attitude was such a breath of fresh air! By the end, I knew, I had to have a Plan B and this incredible company was a great place to start. My mom gave me the Starter Kit as a belated birthday present--and that's how I 'became' a Independent Beauty Consultant with Mary Kay.

That Seminar, the yearly training conference and celebration of accomplishments, I was Rookie of the Year for our Unit and #3 on our Unit's Queen's Court of Sharing; by 2010, I had earn our unit's Queen of Sharing Award and was feeling a little proud of myself. A little too proud. Proud enough, the Lord didn't let a single lady sign up under me after cleaning 30+ faces the month following the 2010 Seminar--nor did I have any sales. Disappointed and frustrated, feeling once again, like maybe this just wasn't for me, I took the spiritual guidance laid out by Kathy (and reinforced by my 2010 Seminar experience) and decided Mary Kay needed to go to the back burner.

What I had been missing was a relationship with the Lord.  Having grown up in a very legalistic church, I had never experienced the grace, that awaited me in Jesus Christ and especially, with a new baby and as a new mother, I knew that I wanted my children raised in church.  During 2011, I received salvation through Jesus Christ, was baptized and the most important product of my Mary Kay business was realized--Faith: first, Family: Second, Career: Third.  Mary Kay Ash said when done in that order, everything goes as it should; when not in that order, nothing goes as it should.

Since originally writing this, I have ceased being a Mary Kay consultant altogether. It had absolutely nothing to do with the company, but with me.  I guess, at this point in my life, I'm a better consumer than salesperson. Nevertheless, I learned a lot of life lessons through my experience with Mary Kay and that in and of it self, made it all worthwhile.

Rabbit Trails and Social Consciousness

I've been told I should probably be tested for ADHD after disclosing some of my best practices to the company EAP.  

Case in point: I have been reading Julie & Julia by Julie Powell (a recent inspiration), left it at home today (although, I've toted it around for a week--you'd think I would have missed it, walking out the door), looked, and have 7: An Experimental Mutiny, by Jen Hatmaker, in my purse.  But like so many other books I start, I end up starting another before I finish the first, so I don't really want to dive into 7, just yet.  

Instead, I decide I'll just flip through the front pages, where I find this statement: "How can I be socially responsible if unaware that I reside in the top percentage of wealth in the world? (You probably do too: Make $35,000 a year? Top 4 percent....)"

Hm. I make around that much a year.  So, rabbit trail, now I'm off to find where this statistic came from, and I did find website that allows you to see what percentage you fall in--apparently I'm in the top 19%--adding in my husband's income would probably bump us up, but that's still pretty amazing.

What's amazing, too, is that even being the top 19% in the world, we've got to be on the lower end of the financial totem pole in the U.S.  And yet, we struggle.  So I'm eager to read this book.  My love of good food directly conflicts with my social consciousness.  Need to have a come to Jesus meeting about that.

And to come full circle, I'm excited about cooking the lamb chops I picked up at the grocery today.....

Intro: A Girl Named Dudley

Hello all! Let me preface by saying, this is my first attempt at blogging and I haven't really written creatively since middle-school.  That being said, I'm nervous about 'putting it all out there'!  This brain of mine has so many random thoughts, ideas, commentaries, etc. that I figured I better get it in writing before I lose it.  So here I go....!