Latest / Glovisor Podcast / Ep. 45: 40+ Years in Mary Kay: The Secret to Surviving Change - Jeanette Deatherage
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Imagine running a business within a global brand that survives
- 0:04Speaker 1: every move, every market change, in every tenological shift. Welcome
- 0:11Speaker 1: to the Globvizer podcast, where we explore business growth, communication
- 0:14Speaker 1: and personal development through real conversations with people that make
- 0:18Speaker 1: an impact. Our guest has spent more than four decades
- 0:21Speaker 1: mastering the art of resilience. Her journey through military relocations,
- 0:26Speaker 1: market shifts in digital transition has empowered countless women and
- 0:31Speaker 1: built a powerful personal brand inside a global sales organization.
- 0:37Speaker 1: Globvisor welcomes Jeanette.
- 0:39Speaker 2: That's rich.
- 0:40Speaker 3: Well, Hi Joe, thank you for having me.
- 0:42Speaker 2: It's a pleasure looking forward to the conversation.
- 0:45Speaker 3: Read too.
- 0:46Speaker 2: All right, Jeanette, So let's start off with please tell
- 0:49Speaker 2: us more what you do.
- 0:50Speaker 3: While our beauty consultant with mary Kay Cosmetics, and as
- 0:54Speaker 3: we'll talk about it later. I've been around for quite
- 0:56Speaker 3: some time.
- 0:57Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean over four decades. That's pretty good.
- 1:00Speaker 2: So you've seen a real shift in Mary Kay absolutely,
- 1:05Speaker 2: So what inspired you to pursue this path?
- 1:08Speaker 3: When I was sixteen, I had a facial number my cousin.
- 1:12Speaker 3: And when I say facial, we actually don't touch. We
- 1:14Speaker 3: teach how to put it on and I liked the
- 1:17Speaker 3: products in but you know, I was pretty young and
- 1:19Speaker 3: so it wasn't really something I thought about. So instead,
- 1:23Speaker 3: I joined the Air Force, and I have a good
- 1:25Speaker 3: math scores, so I was working with all men. There's
- 1:28Speaker 3: twenty one men to every one woman, and that's when
- 1:31Speaker 3: I realized I had to find a different situation for myself.
- 1:35Speaker 3: So I remember the culture of mary Kay was faith, family, career,
- 1:40Speaker 3: and I thought that's exactly what I need, so I joined.
- 1:44Speaker 3: I like to say, I traded my combat boots in
- 1:46Speaker 3: for high heels. I like that.
- 1:51Speaker 2: So let's go back though. How was mary Kay back
- 1:56Speaker 2: then compared to where it is today.
- 1:59Speaker 3: Well, we did do anything on computer at all, and
- 2:03Speaker 3: just as a kind of fun thing. We actually I
- 2:07Speaker 3: was in Oklahoma City, so when we had you know,
- 2:10Speaker 3: orders or things like that, maybe agreements to get started
- 2:13Speaker 3: with the business, we literally drove them down on the
- 2:16Speaker 3: last day of the month from Oklahoma City to Dallas.
- 2:20Speaker 3: So we you know, everything I do is electronic now
- 2:24Speaker 3: and it's so much easier than having, like I said,
- 2:27Speaker 3: one person we picked to drive everybody else's stuff down,
- 2:31Speaker 3: So it wasn't like we all drove, but it was
- 2:35Speaker 3: just completely different and I do a lot through Zoom
- 2:38Speaker 3: and I'll talk a little bit about that later, but
- 2:41Speaker 3: it's entirely different than you know in person that and
- 2:45Speaker 3: now a lot of people do both that do in
- 2:46Speaker 3: person they do Doom. But I'll kind of explain that
- 2:50Speaker 3: in a little bit.
- 2:51Speaker 2: Sure, now have the products and offerings changed at all?
- 2:56Speaker 3: Well, the products have completely changed it. We have some
- 3:00Speaker 3: scientists on our staff. They're constantly testing the product there
- 3:05Speaker 3: and we get new products. When I first started, there
- 3:09Speaker 3: was only like five pieces to the basic and then
- 3:12Speaker 3: there was one palette of lipstick and one palette of
- 3:14Speaker 3: eyeshadows and that's all we had. So it's entirely different.
- 3:19Speaker 3: Then we do have one the original night cream that
- 3:23Speaker 3: we have is is the one thing that state since
- 3:27Speaker 3: nineteen sixty three, one product.
- 3:29Speaker 2: Well, is that the beginning of Mary Kay nineteen sixty three?
- 3:32Speaker 3: Yes, you started on Friday the thirteenth, nineteen sixty three.
- 3:36Speaker 2: So now has marketing changed dramatically in those years?
- 3:41Speaker 3: Yes, because we do everything by sending out emails and
- 3:45Speaker 3: you know, we could do everything from Zoom or meats whatever.
- 3:49Speaker 3: People like. I like Zoom talk about it a lot,
- 3:53Speaker 3: but it's definitely changed. I mean now some people still
- 3:57Speaker 3: sitter on the table and then they demonstrate, you know,
- 4:00Speaker 3: put this on and take it off. Put it this on,
- 4:02Speaker 3: take it off. But I just find that I can
- 4:06Speaker 3: see more people and you know, through electronics systems than
- 4:11Speaker 3: you can just locally.
- 4:13Speaker 2: Do you think your customers are embracing the new technology
- 4:16Speaker 2: or do you think that there's still a segment of
- 4:19Speaker 2: the population that still needs that one on one.
- 4:22Speaker 3: There's definitely people that want one to want But again
- 4:26Speaker 3: I most of many times I can do it right
- 4:29Speaker 3: over the phone. If they don't want to do a
- 4:30Speaker 3: zoom call, we can do it over the phone, and
- 4:33Speaker 3: it works out that way. But I remember, like the
- 4:36Speaker 3: first or second move, my customers would say, oh, you
- 4:39Speaker 3: don't have to mail it. I'll just find somebody else,
- 4:41Speaker 3: And in my horror, I's thinking, you know, I really
- 4:44Speaker 3: like this person. I hope that she stays with me.
- 4:47Speaker 3: And sometimes I did and sometimes they didn't.
- 4:50Speaker 2: So the goal is a Mary Kay consultant is to
- 4:54Speaker 2: show them the offerings and then somehow match it to them.
- 4:57Speaker 2: Is that what you're doing during those zoom calls.
- 4:59Speaker 3: We have our books that gets sent five times a year.
- 5:03Speaker 3: And then also you know, through like I said, through
- 5:06Speaker 3: Zoom you can do almost anything, and we send out samples.
- 5:11Speaker 3: Some some do samples and other people just say let's
- 5:14Speaker 3: get together and we're going to do it, you know,
- 5:16Speaker 3: just in first and through electronic media.
- 5:19Speaker 2: So now, how has the world changed for mary Kay?
- 5:24Speaker 2: Episends these other big companies like Amazon, and it was
- 5:28Speaker 2: large corporations who are now just pumping all these products
- 5:31Speaker 2: out there. How has it changed for mary Kay? And
- 5:35Speaker 2: also what is the difference that mary Kay offers that
- 5:39Speaker 2: they don't.
- 5:41Speaker 3: We had personal service? As you order something through Amazon
- 5:45Speaker 3: or whatever, no one's going to call back and say, well,
- 5:47Speaker 3: how is the product working for you? I just really
- 5:49Speaker 3: want to know, So that's the that's the biggest difference.
- 5:53Speaker 3: We stand behind our products personally, but then the company
- 5:56Speaker 3: also stands behind the product. They can use half bottle
- 6:00Speaker 3: and we still will exchange it for them or return
- 6:04Speaker 3: it for them. So it's just so much different than
- 6:08Speaker 3: you know, the big companies. Yes, they might be a
- 6:10Speaker 3: little tiny bit faster, but not necessarily. I mean, I
- 6:14Speaker 3: use it's something called pirate ship and it tells me
- 6:17Speaker 3: the fastest way to send the product and which is
- 6:20Speaker 3: the least expensive and the fastest weight and I'm always
- 6:23Speaker 3: going to go with the fastest way for them to
- 6:24Speaker 3: get their products.
- 6:26Speaker 2: Now has anything else changed that do you think that
- 6:30Speaker 2: it's valuable to share?
- 6:33Speaker 3: I like to tell people that, you know, at first
- 6:36Speaker 3: I'm get in front of a camera. It could be hard.
- 6:38Speaker 3: It was hard for me when I first moved here.
- 6:40Speaker 3: You're gonna laugh, but I did networking with the camera off.
- 6:44Speaker 3: It's not a great way to network. But I finally
- 6:47Speaker 3: because we got here right when Florida closed up for COVID.
- 6:52Speaker 3: So when I got my haircut put my makeup on,
- 6:54Speaker 3: I said, I can do this, and I went from
- 6:56Speaker 3: the camera and ever since then, it's been so much
- 6:58Speaker 3: more fun see people on camera. And I made really
- 7:02Speaker 3: really good friends from Zoom just because you see them
- 7:06Speaker 3: in the Hollywood Squares or Brady Binds some people call it,
- 7:08Speaker 3: but you can really make good friends. And sometimes I've
- 7:11Speaker 3: actually had some of those friends, Like one person lives
- 7:14Speaker 3: in Philadelphia and I've seen them in person twice now,
- 7:20Speaker 3: so that's kind of neat. It doesn't have to be,
- 7:22Speaker 3: you know, only electronics. We could try to find each
- 7:25Speaker 3: other in person too.
- 7:27Speaker 2: You take us through the process. If someone contacts you today,
- 7:31Speaker 2: how does it work, what does it look like?
- 7:35Speaker 3: Well, the first thing we would do is ask if
- 7:37Speaker 3: they've ever tried the product, and then the next thing
- 7:41Speaker 3: is if they say, oh, yes, I love so and so,
- 7:44Speaker 3: then the next thing is I'll say do you have
- 7:46Speaker 3: a consultant? And if they say, oh, yes, but she
- 7:49Speaker 3: lives so and so, I'd really like to have you
- 7:52Speaker 3: do it. We actually send them back to the consultant.
- 7:57Speaker 3: But if you know, if that consultant really wasn't working
- 7:59Speaker 3: for business and she wasn't getting any catalogs in the mail,
- 8:03Speaker 3: then we'll go ahead and you know, we'll work with them.
- 8:06Speaker 3: But it is so important Mirka called the golden rule
- 8:09Speaker 3: that we always send that consultant, I mean that customer
- 8:12Speaker 3: back to the consultant. So that's one thing that's really
- 8:16Speaker 3: really important in what we do. But you asked the process.
- 8:20Speaker 3: So if somebody, you know, just contact me today and
- 8:23Speaker 3: they said that they want to join the company, I
- 8:25Speaker 3: would ask them again some of the same questions and say,
- 8:29Speaker 3: why don't we try the product first. I don't want
- 8:31Speaker 3: them to become a consultant if they don't like the product.
- 8:34Speaker 3: So that would be the first thing. Let's try the
- 8:36Speaker 3: product first, and if they're really excited about the product,
- 8:39Speaker 3: then we can help them get started. And it's like
- 8:42Speaker 3: thirty five dollars to get started. They fill out some
- 8:46Speaker 3: information and then they even get a free website for
- 8:49Speaker 3: that thirty dollars, So it really it's changed. We didn't
- 8:52Speaker 3: have websites back then. Everything's done well either over the
- 8:56Speaker 3: phone or you know, just at their kids table.
- 9:00Speaker 2: It sounds like a very small investment to get into
- 9:04Speaker 2: a business.
- 9:04Speaker 3: Yes, yes it does.
- 9:06Speaker 2: Can you share with us a little bit more about
- 9:08Speaker 2: mary Kay? How big is mary Kay? Where are they servicing,
- 9:12Speaker 2: where are they selling their products? How many consultants do
- 9:15Speaker 2: they have worldwide?
- 9:16Speaker 3: First of all, I want you to remember that Mary
- 9:18Speaker 3: kay Ash was one person who started this company because
- 9:21Speaker 3: of a dream. She was writing a book and when
- 9:24Speaker 3: she after she retired from sales, she started to write
- 9:26Speaker 3: a book and she says, oh my gosh, I have
- 9:28Speaker 3: a business plan. And so that's how the company started
- 9:32Speaker 3: with her just writing that book, and then it spread
- 9:37Speaker 3: and we're actually in thirty countries around the world, so
- 9:42Speaker 3: i'd say over a million consultants. And it's just amazing
- 9:45Speaker 3: that one person had a dream in her heart and
- 9:48Speaker 3: then she gave us that same dream that we can
- 9:52Speaker 3: do anything as long as we try hard enough.
- 9:54Speaker 2: One of the things that I do remember from Mary
- 9:56Speaker 2: Kay a very long time ago was these pink cats.
- 10:01Speaker 2: Can you tell us a little bit more about that?
- 10:02Speaker 3: Well, the pink Cadillacts are iconic, and if you see
- 10:05Speaker 3: a pink Cadillac, you know that that's somebody that worked
- 10:08Speaker 3: really hard in their business. The way the car program
- 10:12Speaker 3: actually works, you have a team, and it's right now,
- 10:17Speaker 3: it's for directors only. Back in like twenty thirty years ago,
- 10:21Speaker 3: consultants could also earn a car. But the pink Cadillac
- 10:25Speaker 3: the way I actually sorry, it wasn't going to be
- 10:27Speaker 3: a pink Cadillac. Mary Kate took her palette, her eyeshadow
- 10:31Speaker 3: and went to I believe it was the Mercedes. I
- 10:35Speaker 3: can't exactly remember, but she said, I would like you
- 10:39Speaker 3: to paint that car pink. And the guy says, oh, no,
- 10:44Speaker 3: Mary Kay, then we're going to have to paint it back.
- 10:46Speaker 3: You're really just not going to want to have a
- 10:47Speaker 3: car that's pink. So she went across the street to
- 10:50Speaker 3: the Cadillac dealership and she said, I would like to
- 10:54Speaker 3: have this car painted pink. And they said, fine, we
- 10:58Speaker 3: will painted pink. So that's how we actually got started
- 11:02Speaker 3: with Cadillac. And it is iconic. If again, like I said,
- 11:08Speaker 3: if someone sees a pink Cadillac, they know that person's
- 11:10Speaker 3: worked hard because Mary Kate pays the taxes, the tags,
- 11:14Speaker 3: and mostly insurance and the cars leased and Mary Kay
- 11:18Speaker 3: also pays that least. As long as you keep up
- 11:20Speaker 3: your production and your sales and you're bringing in new
- 11:23Speaker 3: people every two years, you can get a new Cadillac.
- 11:27Speaker 3: I do want to mention only one percent of the
- 11:29Speaker 3: company actually drives a company car.
- 11:32Speaker 2: An original company car or pink Cadillac.
- 11:35Speaker 3: Oh there's two other cars before the pink Cadillac. I
- 11:39Speaker 3: don't have the stats, don't know how many people drive
- 11:41Speaker 3: a Cadillac, but it's definitely a team effort that's gonna
- 11:48Speaker 3: earn the Cadillac. But yes, they've changed the other cars.
- 11:52Speaker 3: Like when I was consultant, I actually got a grand Am,
- 11:55Speaker 3: a red grand Am, and that was pretty fun too.
- 11:58Speaker 2: I wasn't aware that you had the different car levels,
- 12:01Speaker 2: and so can you explain to us a little bit
- 12:03Speaker 2: about that because you mentioned consultant and I believe you
- 12:05Speaker 2: also used the word director.
- 12:07Speaker 3: Yes, I actually was a director for thirty years and
- 12:11Speaker 3: I earned the use of eleven cars in twenty two
- 12:14Speaker 3: of those years. So it is you know, it's really
- 12:19Speaker 3: the real thing. And again you have consultants on your
- 12:24Speaker 3: team in the production, the sales might be the same
- 12:27Speaker 3: as somebody with the smaller team, so it really depends
- 12:30Speaker 3: on meeting the production requirements in order to get a car.
- 12:34Speaker 3: But again, you know, they hand you the keys and
- 12:37Speaker 3: she pays the tags, the taxes, mostly insurance, and the
- 12:41Speaker 3: lease in that car. My last car I actually bought
- 12:44Speaker 3: because we were in the middle of moving and then
- 12:48Speaker 3: I had an accident and I wasn't hurt, but the
- 12:51Speaker 3: car was hurt. So that was that was the last one.
- 12:54Speaker 3: We have an a Mary Kay car.
- 12:56Speaker 2: Now Jeannette, who should be contacting you right now.
- 13:00Speaker 3: Are going to the store because they saw an ad
- 13:05Speaker 3: and they pick up the product and they get a
- 13:07Speaker 3: handful of products and they buy them and they have
- 13:11Speaker 3: no idea how to use them. So that's people. You know,
- 13:15Speaker 3: anybody that wants cosmetics, they can contact us. There's consultants
- 13:19Speaker 3: all over and I can help them find a local
- 13:21Speaker 3: consultant that they want one. But service that comes behind
- 13:25Speaker 3: that product. And again after you use it for a
- 13:28Speaker 3: day or two and someone says, how's that product working
- 13:30Speaker 3: for you? How's it do you like the color? Is
- 13:32Speaker 3: it all working? And they say, well, no, it really isn't.
- 13:35Speaker 3: Then we get right with them and say, well, how
- 13:37Speaker 3: can we help you. Let's exchange it, let's make sure
- 13:40Speaker 3: it's right, so that way you like and loolve what
- 13:43Speaker 3: you're using instead of having a drawer full of cosmetics
- 13:46Speaker 3: that they're never going to use. They tried and they
- 13:48Speaker 3: didn't like it, and they can't take it back usually
- 13:51Speaker 3: because it's an open jar. So we you know, we
- 13:55Speaker 3: take it back, but it doesn't happen that much. About
- 13:57Speaker 3: ten percent of the total sales so I've heard, does
- 14:01Speaker 3: come back.
- 14:02Speaker 2: And having that relationship with the consultants. Is there an
- 14:04Speaker 2: additional fee or it's this just products that you're purchasing.
- 14:08Speaker 3: It's only products that they're purchasing. There is no charge
- 14:11Speaker 3: to become a customer, and you know, to be become
- 14:15Speaker 3: a consultant, as I said, going to get a free
- 14:18Speaker 3: website for thirty dollars and they can you know, we
- 14:22Speaker 3: help them, We train them and we can train them
- 14:25Speaker 3: through either the phone or through Zoom, so they don't
- 14:28Speaker 3: have to be like sitting at my kitchen table to
- 14:31Speaker 3: get trained. We can train them through many different areas,
- 14:34Speaker 3: and you know, we all treat we treat everybody the same.
- 14:38Speaker 3: They might, you know, go faster or slower, like I
- 14:41Speaker 3: was pretty slow for a while. I didn't yet. I
- 14:43Speaker 3: don't know if you'll come to the numbers, but I
- 14:45Speaker 3: didn't really earn. It took me five years to earn
- 14:49Speaker 3: the use of my first company car because I really
- 14:52Speaker 3: didn't have a goal, and my mentor said, you need
- 14:54Speaker 3: a goal. So I bought a Thunderbird, and six months
- 14:58Speaker 3: later I earned the ease of my first car, and
- 15:00Speaker 3: I gave my husband thunderbroots, so we went from always
- 15:03Speaker 3: driving an older car to we both had new cars
- 15:05Speaker 3: in the driveway. So that was pretty fun.
- 15:07Speaker 2: If someone contacts you to join your team, will they
- 15:12Speaker 2: be working directly with you?
- 15:14Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll be working directly with me, but also with
- 15:17Speaker 3: my sales director, my mentor who's is helping me. She
- 15:21Speaker 3: might you know, not exactly get everything as she can
- 15:24Speaker 3: for me, So she can go to our sales director
- 15:26Speaker 3: and she'll get trained that way too. But our back
- 15:29Speaker 3: office is so good there's a whole library of training,
- 15:32Speaker 3: so I always teach you how to do that too,
- 15:35Speaker 3: to go into the back office and learn all I mean,
- 15:38Speaker 3: there's just hundreds of different trainings in there, and you
- 15:42Speaker 3: wouldn't do all of it as a new ben cellphone.
- 15:44Speaker 3: Of course, just take them through baby steps. It's so
- 15:47Speaker 3: important that they get they have a goal and have
- 15:51Speaker 3: a small goal, and let's get that accomplished and then
- 15:55Speaker 3: go on to the next thing. Instead of throwing something
- 15:58Speaker 3: out there and say well, you need to do this, this, this.
- 16:00Speaker 3: That person may not want that. They may just want
- 16:03Speaker 3: a little bit at a times where we start them,
- 16:06Speaker 3: what's where they're going to go and what's going to
- 16:09Speaker 3: be best for them.
- 16:10Speaker 2: They contact you today to join your team, how soon
- 16:14Speaker 2: can they ramp up and start doing your first sale?
- 16:17Speaker 3: They can talk the same day because as soon as
- 16:19Speaker 3: we get them to sign the agreement, electronically will help
- 16:22Speaker 3: them set up their website. They can tell their mom,
- 16:27Speaker 3: their sister, or anyone their best friend to go to
- 16:31Speaker 3: the website and they can start purchasing the product.
- 16:34Speaker 2: Now, if listeners remember only one thing from today's conversation,
- 16:38Speaker 2: what do you hope that message.
- 16:40Speaker 3: Is that we take each person seriously. We wanted to
- 16:46Speaker 3: help them. We want to make them feel successful, and
- 16:49Speaker 3: we want them to love the product. First that's the
- 16:52Speaker 3: first step. But after that if they can go as
- 16:55Speaker 3: faster as low as they want to. And you know,
- 16:58Speaker 3: Mary Kay said that every person and is individual, but
- 17:01Speaker 3: they're also all beautiful, and we show them how the
- 17:03Speaker 3: beauty comes from within and the makeup is kind of
- 17:08Speaker 3: the second thing. So we really teach them confidence and
- 17:11Speaker 3: that's important part of it.
- 17:12Speaker 2: It seems that it's not just getting into a business,
- 17:15Speaker 2: you're also joining a very helpful team. Exactly.
- 17:20Speaker 3: Yes, it's all about teamwork.
- 17:22Speaker 2: Jenett. Please tell us where can our audience connect with you,
- 17:26Speaker 2: learn more about your work and continue this conversation.
- 17:28Speaker 3: Well, the first step would be go to my website.
- 17:31Speaker 3: It's www dot Maryka dot com slash Jeanette d and
- 17:38Speaker 3: they would get to my website to get my phone
- 17:39Speaker 3: number there and everything out, all the products are right
- 17:42Speaker 3: there and Assue's you know, I'll get an email that
- 17:46Speaker 3: says someone's looked at your website and we go from there.
- 17:49Speaker 3: I'll give her a call, ask her what she knows
- 17:52Speaker 3: about the product, does she have another consultant, and if
- 17:55Speaker 3: she doesn't, we'll get started with their training and those
- 17:58Speaker 3: small baby steps to because we want to make her
- 18:01Speaker 3: feel successful right off the bat. We don't want to
- 18:04Speaker 3: give them a huge goal and they say, well, I
- 18:06Speaker 3: can't do that, so that's not really fair to her
- 18:09Speaker 3: or anybody else. So we're going to take them and
- 18:12Speaker 3: hold her hand step by step.
- 18:13Speaker 2: Dinnette, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate
- 18:16Speaker 2: your time and the value you've shared.
- 18:18Speaker 3: Well, I appreciate having an opportunity to tell you what
- 18:21Speaker 3: we do and if anybody has any questions, I'm really
- 18:24Speaker 3: here to answer anything that they might have.
- 18:27Speaker 2: Well, thanks everyone for listening. If this episode inspire you,
- 18:30Speaker 2: share it with someone who needs it, and don't forget
- 18:32Speaker 2: to follow the Globvisor podcast for more conversations that make
- 18:35Speaker 2: an impact. Till the next time.