Fun fact: Making and selling candles isn’t my first foray into the world of small business.
Repurposing birch branches into home décor wasn’t my first business either—shout out to Log Slices by Margie!
In fact, my first entry into the world of entrepreneurship was back in my college days, while I was attending South Dakota State University in the great state of—wait for it—South Dakota. No, my gig wasn’t OnlyFans (important side note: Sex work is valid work).
Like many naïve and hopeful young Americans in the pursuit of financial freedom, I joined a multilevel marketing company: I became a Mary Kay consultant.
Now, “consultant” is a loose word, as nothing of what I did was consultative in the slightest. This was early 2000s, barely out of the roll-glitter-all-over-your-face-and-body trend. This was also before YouTube, so the only make-up training I had was from Cosmo magazines and chick flicks.
I didn’t let that deter me, though: Armed with sample sizes of lipstick with strangely colorful names like Coral Confetti and Boho Plum, I explained to my friends that I was their new make-up person, and they should ditch their Cover Girl and go with me.
I wasn’t a fool, though. I knew I had to entice--and subsequently hook--my new customers. So I offered them introductory deals of merchandise at cost.
There were a few reasons why I did this:
- I am a wonderfully terrible combination of People Pleaser and its closely related cousin, Generous to a Fault.
- I wanted to recoup my initial investment.
That’s it. Those were my reasons.
Even with selling at cost, it was not easy convincing 19-year-old college students that Mary Kay was a better and cooler product than what they were getting from Wal-Mart at half the price. Occasionally they’d pick up a mascara or body spray, but their individual purchases were seldom more than $20.
My excitement quickly faded. My upline (director? mentor? lady who wanted a pink car so bad she was willing to onboard women too young to legally drink?) tried to encourage me. “Just reach out! Call everyone in your cell phone! Make a goal to host three parties per week! Leave samples for your neighbors!”
Ehhhh…. no, thank you.
Instead I went to keg parties with my former customers, slept in until two in the afternoon, and used my individual Sunset Peach samples on Saturday nights.
My upline stopped calling when I stopped answering. And that was that.
Do I have regrets? Not at all. It taught me things about MLMs and their predatory practices, for sure, but it also taught me I need to care about what I’m doing. If I don’t have passion for something, I’m not going to do it.
I’ve long since ran out of Rich Truffle and Spiced Ginger samples, their tiny plastic wrappers resting comfortably in a landfill somewhere far away. From now on, I’ll just stick with log slices and candles.
At least with those, I can give them my own strange and vibrant names.