Mary Kay Ash and a Lesson in Karma

I listen to a lot of talk radio. We have a local station here, thanks to the Johnson family, that has some hilarious people on great shows. Some of them are even friends as a result. As a reformed musician, I also find music distracting because I really focus on it. If I'm working, I like just having voices as my background noise during the day.

So this means I hear all sorts of different shows. There's a gardening show I adore. There are real estate and money market shows, which I loathe. There are local news discussion shows which are great and really Austin-focused.

And then there's the Car Pro show.

Now I know what you're thinking. How in the world can she like a car talk show? But I actually really do. I feel like the hosts are honest, they're pretty funny, and I've learned a lot about a lot of different vehicles. Keep in mind that I own the WORST SORT OF AUTOMOBILE IN THE WORLD - the most unreliable, fly-apart-at-the-seams-instantly-after-the-warranty-expires vehicle. So no matter WHAT those guys are talking about, it gives me hope for my automotive future!

But this weekend, they told the most interesting story about Mary Kay Ash and the pink Cadillacs.

It turns out that when Mary Kay Ash decided to launch her pink fleet in 1967, she actually liked the Lincoln she tried out better. So why didn't she go with Lincoln?

Well, my friends, what follows is the best lesson in Karma I've ever heard.

The Car Pro guy explains that when Mary Kay Ash asked the dealer about purchasing a pink Lincoln, that unfortunate man told her to go home and come back with her husband.

I'll wait a minute while you collect yourselves.

Still with me?

Needless to say, she was treated better by Cadillac.

I don't know what happened to this person, but I'm quite certain that that mistake followed him the rest of his days.

I had a similar experience with a leather couch. This was decades ago after we had bought our first house. We wanted a really nice living room set and so we went to the store that was actually advertised on my favorite radio station I listen to every day. The name of this store was the name of the owner - Theresa Mink. It was not cheap, but I was going to spend my Christmas bonus on a nice piece of furniture, and this store was THE leather furniture store in town.

We walked in, and were swooped down upon by a commissioned sales person. At first, I did not want to kill this man.

We looked around and then I had a few questions, so I asked him one.

He turned away from me and started talking to my husband.

Physically turned away from me.

Now, just as in the wild kingdom, I could see that my husband understood that terrible, terrible things were about to happen to this salesperson, and he started moving backwards slightly. His amygdala was probably screaming at him to run, but he did not. However, the salesman, who clearly had no amygdala, did not sense any danger.

I interrupted him, channeling my mother, and said "Excuse me" and asked my question again. Again, he turned his back on me and spoke to my husband, now pale, sweating and nearly unrecognizable.

However, I did not do what I wanted to do, which was to deliver a knee to his nether regions. Instead, I poked him on the arm and said "You just cost yourself a $2K sale (insert one of my favorite words here).

Now - this was SO long ago that people still wrote letters. Which I did. To Theresa Mink, the owner. Her response was the response of a person who would hire a man who would do that. Classless.

Now I'm no Mary Kay Ash, but karma is still a beast, and she is out of business.

Mary Kay Ash, on the other hand, purchased 22,000 Cadillacs and counting. 

 In general, it's just better to be nice to people and not assume you know something about them. Let their stories surprise and delight you, and the world will be a little kinder to you. Perhaps, the world will give you a commission on 22,000 cars. That's how karma works, my friends.

In honor of this revelation today about Mary Kay, I thought I would bring you a little pink.

In my presentation at Convention, I talked about ways to make your sentiment stamps the star of the show. One thing I like to do is create backgrounds for them on one layer cards, and so I came up with a fun sponge dauber floral background, inspired by Donna Mikasa, an AMAZING artist, who made flowers like this with alcohol markers.

And I promised my sweet friend Linda Ostby that I would do a tutorial, so here's a video showing you this simple AWESOME technique!

I hope you try this! And I hope you try different colors - it's so fun.

And in the meantime, remember - the next person you meet may be your Mary Kay Ash! Be kind!

Loveyameanitbye.