THE AMBER WEITZER PODCAST SILHOUETTES OF SUCCESS
AMBER WEITZER | EPISODE 49 | SHOW NOTES
“Most Likely to…become a Mary Kay Consultant”
As the old saying goes, and I have heard it in many different forms, so I’ll say it this way… “look back to learn, but don’t stare”. You’ve heard that, surely. I have finding myself over the last many years, really looking within my own Silhouette of Success for some reflection.
Like many I began working early at age 15, sure some babysitting gigs earlier, but at a real job in retail and have been working consistently since. All of the great books and resources like to ask us about our “passions”, or “why”…uh, how about just to survive, to eat and get gas in my car to get to work then repeat again tomorrow? Seriously what a luxury it is when someone is able to hit the pause button with time to ponder the answer to that question. Real life is real life-you do you needs to be done until you can do what you want do to. Over the last many years I have been able to slow down a little to peer into this mysterious black hole of a quest!
Some early on have their path clearly envisioned, they know what they want to be where they grow up, they know where they will obtain their education, their career, a family, where they will live…that’s pretty awesome! There are those that might have a solid grip get on the path and take a new direction or deviate slightly, still on course…and then there was me. Clueless, struggling and seemingly lost…and for a such a long time. Grinding it out, making choices and decisions but not focused on a path or ultimate goal. But as my Mother has reminded me that my beloved Grandfather who I loved more than anything once told her “she’s going to be just fine, that one.”
For so many years, there has been something, okay there may be lots of “somethings” that I could not let go of-I’m a work in progress…but this was a silly crude attempt of humor at my expense, yet it was utterly humiliating, as intended at the time by a fella back in high school. And obviously it has stayed with me for far, far too long. I packed up the experience in a big brown cardboard box that had a few smalls in it that has traveled with me on my journey. Yes, I know that I was giving “power” to the person by carrying this with me, or allowing them to live “rent free” in my head-all of the wise one liners we have all head from the experts. I know, it didn’t apply this time. I shake my head too!
So, once again I invoke the wise and witty Sophia from The Golden Girls to set the story up for us off in only the way she can…”Picture it…high school 19emmhmm…a girl lost, insecure, not the best student in fact a science teacher was overheard saying “well, she’s not the brightest student but she’s sweet” but I digress…and pretty certain that receiving a diploma on graduation day was a flip of the coin in the front office, now, don’t feel sorry for as the choices and decisions were hers, she owns that, however, some of the significant insecurities were as many young ladies face were appearance, fashion and trying, overtrying to fit in. Back in those good ole’ days of having expired cheap makeup two to three shades too dark or and sometimes even orangish with no application skills, she had to sue her dad’s masculine smelling sticky pump hairspray and cutting one’s own hair…and well, that’s how it goes sometimes. Ah, those things build character! All in all it wasn’t all that bad, times were rocky but whatever. There was one instance that would stay with her for years, too many years. It was right there in an official publication in black-n-white for all to read: her name under Most Likely to…become a Mary Kay Consultant. Ouch. The little fella that penned this jab wasn’t a fan of hers and had the bully pulpit. Under ordinary circumstances, this would be a proud proclamation for sure, but it was not meant to encourage my future success. The End.
Time to reflect…why have I hung onto this cruel jab so many years? Who knows but what I do know is that it has now been released and in doing so I was able to find an absolute treasure trove hidden within the big brown beat up card board box I have carried with me….stay with me!
A few months ago, I came across a local news article about Mary Kay Ash and it triggered, let’s use the work “sparked!” my interest to read more. And did it ever. That day I ordered all the books by Mary Kay Ash and her company I could find that early morning:
- Miracles Happen
- The Mary Kay Way
- You Can Have It All
Currently I’m eyes deep into Miracles Happen by Mary Kay Ash. Isn’t it amazing, only a few chapters in and it’s allowed me to connect the dots with such whimsy and reframe the experience! Immediately I’m feeling a kinship of her values, struggles, risk taking decisions and feeling nostalgic over the good ole’ days of my youth. The ornery pain of the pesky publication jab quite literary evaporated. Strange, freeing and knowing that the time was now only because I was ready. I was ready to revisit those pains and memories…now, today- so that I might be able to understand the deeper lesson, to put them into context and see the full storyboard. The story where Mary Kay, her dream and almost out of dire, tragic circumstance-her sheer will and firm determination, backing herself despite the naysayers, living by the and creating the foundational blocks of her empire by the Golden Rule was and has been a part of me. As I am only in the early chapters of the first book I purchased, the pink power overwhelmes and heals my heart. It seems her impact was just a powerful in my life, without me realizing it, as it must have been for all of the women who actually were and are fortunate souls to wear the Mary Kay Consultant name badge.
But there is more to the story…
Mark Kay Cosmetics & Home Interiors and Gifts was a memorable part of my childhood, our Mother was a Mary Kay Cosmetics Consultant, in the late 1970’s-who also then became a Home Interiors and Gifts Independent Contractor Displayer Business Woman-in the early 80’s. We had at one point, an enclosed portion of our sunroom or mudroom to have a little boutique space at our home. Pegboard displays, getting in shipments to unpack with Styrofoam peanuts sticking to everything, her desk it was great-home office before it was cool! I still get a kick out of seeing and pointing out so many of these décor items still in people’s homes today, or in photos, now making the thrift shop and antique store shelves. And Oh the prizes she earned silver punch bowl set, goblets, diamond rings (which have given blessings X10 in, that’s another story!) and the lapel pins…just as Mary Kay Ash describes in her book.
In fact, one of the most impressionable memories and stories is when my Mother and Aunt Chris traveled…on an airplane (that was huge in my head then), to Dallas, Texas (even huger!) for a Mary Kay Seminar! Drop the mic. Dallas…TEXAS…that was unimaginable as a little girl living in a small town in Michigan. When she got home, she wasn’t empty handed…she had wrangled, found, filled and drug a big brown cardboard box of goodies she literally drug this giant box across the Cotton Bowl football field with her, they got it to DFW Airport, dragging it through the airport just to bring us treasures from Dallas, Texas! I can see this massive beat up big brown card board box sitting on the orange shag carpet in our home while she told us the stories and doled out gifts for everyone.
My Aunt Chris was and is another shining example of growth and expansion literally I was able to watch her scale up her business from her home parties to a full up expansion addition on their house for the retail shop to then opening a retail space in a local strip mall. How rich am I, to have these experiences, real life, in my family examples to witness with reels of memories.
Holy moly…the years can shade out milestones-it has brought back so many memories of my mother was a businesswoman, she was doing it…and in a big way!
I have such fond memories of the infamous ground-breaking concepts of Mary Kay’s business model, such as the skin care parties that my mother and Aunt Chris would host with the pink plastic mirrors with the postage stamp size thin samples of eyeshadow and makeup, the little pink individual engraved Mary Kay Cosmetics lip brushes…it was all so fun! Anytime we could have extra samples or play with the mirrors was awesome. My good friend, Dr. Claudia Beeny is probably loving this “creative play” revolution I have rediscovered from my youth! Check her out again, Silhouette of Success Episode 13.
Of course, as a little girl (and to this very day!) I was drawn to all of Mark Kay’s pink signature everything, the diamond jewelry, the prizes my Mother and Aunt earned, the beauty, the samples kits, the fun skin care parties, furs, Dallas Texas, Cadillacs and glamour…yes, especially the makeup yet it seems what I have carried deep within from my proximity, observation and role models was the fierce drive of being an independent business woman. Watching my Mother and my Aunt plus so many relatives, friends that joined or participated with them. Conjuring up the almost real time memory reels to replay in my head, replace the sting that I carried has healed my heart.
Sure, it may have been small minded or petty of me to hang on to this, perhaps but it cut to my core back then and it’s only recently that I’ve been ready to face this heavy package that I’ve drug across my journey all of these years to unwrap. It took all of this time to address it in my heart (Thank you Mary Kay-Miracles Do Happen!) which I have recently been able to see that he actually gave me a gift to unwrap all of these years later! That big brown card board box has been filling up over time and wrapped little by little over the years with lovely strong, paper and a confidently poised massive pink bow.
It’s serendipitous to connect the pink polka dots that Mary Kay Ash and her company were a part of me throughout my Silhouette of Success journey, in fact, my whole life..
From my youth…into high school with a dare I say an “official media publication” then traveled with me so many years as a burden because I carried what I had felt was pain in this heavy big box all along my Silhouette of Success journey-similar to the story of my Mother dragging her big brown card board box across the Dallas Cotton Bowl field filled with gifts and treasures to bring home to us in Michigan…my heavy large box wasn’t filled with a pain at all…NO, it was filled with a lifetime rich with experiences, lessons, education, and promise that I had been putting in my big box, all passed on to be in large part by amazing women throughout my my life to then unwrap when I was ready! It’s a thrill to connect the dots. It’s a delight to share with you all of the gifts so many women have shared with me, Mary Kay’s example included!
I have been packing treasures into my big box and carrying it, dragging it, sliding it from place to place, house to house, apartment to apartment, job to job, relations to relationship from state to state my whole life…just to present these gifts to all of you, courtesy of hundreds, if not thousands of strong, brave, confident, daring, tenacious real life women throughout my Silhouettes of Success journey.
Someone…please cue the pink confetti!