PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Mary Kay

PEOPLE IN AMERICA -April 14, 2002: Mary Kay

By Nancy Steinbach
VOICE ONE:

I’m Mary Tillotson.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. This week, we tell
about one of the most successful American businesswomen. Mary Kay started a company in Nineteen-Sixty-
Three with a five-thousand dollar investment 1. Today, Mary Kay Cosmetics 2 is an international company worth
thousands of millions of dollars.

((THEME))

VOICE ONE:

Mary Kathlyn Wagner was born in the state of Texas in Nineteen-Eighteen. For much of her childhood, she cared
for her sick father while her mother worked long hours at a public eating place. Mary Kay married Ben Rogers
when she was seventeen years old. They had three children before he left home to serve in World War Two.
When he returned, their marriage ended. Mary Kay looked for a job so she could support her children.

Mary Kay began selling different kinds of products. At first, she sold books. Later, she
visited peoples’
homes to show how home care products such as cleaning fluids 3 and
equipment helped ease 4 housework.

One night, Mary Kay was showing these products at the home of Ova Heath Spoonemore.
Later in the evening, Missus Spoonemore began giving her guests some home made skin
care products. The products were developed by her father, J.W. Heath, in Arkansas. Mary
Kay tried the skin care products and found they made her skin smooth.

VOICE TWO:

Mary Kay was successful selling home care products. Her supervisors 5 praised her work. But they never increased
her earnings 6. She left the company after a man she trained was given a more important job than she had.

Mary Kay said later that she learned 7 from this experience. It taught her that men did not believe that a woman
could succeed in business. She decided 8 to prove them wrong. So she bought the rights to Mister 9 Heath’s skin
care products and started her own company. She paid five -hundred dollars for the legal rights to the products.

VOICE ONE:

The Mary Kay Cosmetics company began operating in Dallas, Texas, in Nineteen-Sixty-Three. Mary Kay’
s
twenty-year-old son Richard was the company’s financial official. The idea was to sell skin care products
through demonstrations 10 in homes and offices. Nine sales representatives were chosen to sell the products.

The sales representatives were independent workers. They bought products like soaps and skin softening 11 liquids
from the company and sold them at higher prices to friends, family members and other individuals. Mary Kay
decided that each representative who brought other sales women into the company would receive part of the new
person ’s earnings. That way, experienced 12 sales representatives would be willing to help train new ones.

Mary Kay told the women who worked for her that to be successful in life a person should put God first, family
second and work third. She said women must discover how to be good wives and mothers while at the same time
learning 13 how to succeed in work.


((MUSIC BRIDGE))

VOICE TWO:

Two years later, in Nineteen-Sixty-Five, the company was selling almost one-million dollars worth of products.
Mary Kay once said that success came fast because she did not have any time to waste. She was already forty-
five years old when she started the company. She said a woman needs money fast as she gets older!

Now Mary Kay Cosmetics is the largest direct seller 14 of skin care products in the United States. It develops and
tests many skin care and beauty products for the face, body, hair and nails --many more than it started selling in
Nineteen-Sixty-Three. Today, Mary Kay Cosmetics has sales of more than one-thousand-million dollars. It has
more than eight -hundred-thousand sales representatives in thirty -seven countries around the world. You can find
Mary Kay products and company sales representatives in Argentina, Brunei, the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan,
and Singapore.

VOICE ONE:

Every year since Nineteen-Sixty-Five, Mary Kay Cosmetics has held a yearly 15 conference in Dallas for its sales
representatives. The first one took place in one large room. Mary Kay cooked food for two-hundred people and
served it on paper plates.

As the company grew, so did the conference. Now, more than thirty-five-thousand sales representatives and
company officials pay to attend education meetings at the yearly conference. A special event at the three day
conference is Awards Night. That is when prizes are given to those representatives with the most sales for the
year. Awards Night also includes a show in which famous singers and dancers perform.

The Awards Night winners receive special paid holidays, jewels, furs, and pink Cadillac automobiles 16. In
Germany, winners receive a pink Mercedes Benz, and in Taiwan they are given a pink Toyota. By Nineteen-
Ninety-Four, seven-thousand cars had been given to sales representatives. The cars are pink because Mary Kay
products come in pink containers. Mary Kay liked that color.

VOICE TWO:

Mary Kay believed that recognizing good work is the best way to increase a company’s sales. She said her
company tried to have competitions in which everyone has a chance to win. She did not want to organize the kind
of competition where someone has to hurt another person in order to win.

So the Mary Kay competitions are designed around the idea that it is best to compete with yourself. That means
every individual is trying to do better then she did last week or last year.

Competition winners are rewarded well. For example, winners of one of the competitions get a gold pin called
the Ladder of Success. Sales representatives earn a pin by selling a large number of products. Then they earn
jewels for the pin as they increase their sales. Each jewel is placed higher on the ladder than the others. The pin of
a top sales representative is covered with diamonds.

((MUSIC BRIDGE))

VOICE ONE:

Mary Kay’s third husband, Mel Ash, died of cancer in Nineteen-Eighty. She wanted to help find a cure for the
disease 17. At first, she helped organizations raise money for research. Later, she started the Mary Kay Ash
Charitable Foundation 18, a non -profit group that provides money to support research about cancers affecting
women. In Two-Thousand -One, the company and foundation expanded their goals in an effort to help stop
violence against women.

Through the years, Mary Kay Ash received many business awards. She was named one of America’s Twenty-
Five Most Influential 19 Women in Nineteen-Eighty -Five. She became a member of the National Business Hall of
Fame in Nineteen-Ninety-Six.

VOICE TWO:


Mary Kay Ash wrote three books. The first book, “Mary Kay,
”
told the story of her life. More than one million
copies in several languages have been sold. She described her business ideas in the book “Mary Kay on
People Management.
”
Her third book was released 20 in Nineteen-Ninety-Five. It is called “Mary Kay--You Can
Have It All.
”
The money earned from its sales went to help fight cancer.

Mary Kay Ash continued her involvement in her business until she suffered a stroke 21 in Nineteen-Ninety-Six. She
died in November, Two-Thousand-One.

Business experts say she was an important business leader who cared about people. Mary Kay sales
representatives say she developed a way for women to earn money and still spend time with their families.

VOICE ONE:

One example is Valerie Yokie. She started selling Mary Kay products twenty years ago. She was an official at
Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., but left her job to stay home with her two small children. She
became interested in the Mary Kay Cosmetics company because it was a way to get started in a business for a
small amount of money. She paid less than one-hundred dollars for her supplies.

After one year and one half, Missus Yokie became a director of the company and started helping 22 other women
become successful Mary Kay representatives. Soon after this, her husband lost his job. Then he developed
cancer. Valerie Yokie has supported her family for twenty years through Mary Kay Cosmetics. She is an
extremely successful businesswoman. She has won many prizes in Mary Kay competitions, and receives a new
pink Cadillac every two years.

Valerie Yokie’s story is similar to those of other Mary Kay representatives. They agree that Mary Kay Ash
changed the business world. They say she opened a door for women by providing them with a way to earn money
that balances work and family.

((THEME))

VOICE ONE:

This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver 23. I’m Mary
Tillotson.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of
America.

Email this article to a friend
Printer Friendly Version