Seeing How It’s Made

• July 22nd, 2009
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The first thing I wanted to be sure to accomplish this trip to Seminar was seeing the manufacturing plant and corporate headquarters. My friend also had this goal. She had completely missed it the first time and ran out of time on her second trip. For her, I told her the third time’s a charm! Today we traveled to Addison!, TX to accomplish this mission. The reason I type “Addison!” is because every street sign in this town says, “Addison!” underneath the street name. I found it amusing. It must be a fun place to live. There are tons of restaurants in Addison!

So, we started our day picking up our packets at the expo and looking around there for a few minutes. Our packets came with some great items! Since this is only my second Seminar experience I don’t have much to compare it to, but I’m very impressed with the contents. We received the upcoming Fall/Holiday Look Book. What I love about it is that the back of the Look is a Gift Guide and it is upside down so that you can differentiate between the Look and the Holiday Gift Guide. It’s very cool. At first I was confused and thought mine was defective, but then I figured it out.

We received new full sized products of upcoming items: loose eye shadow. There are three colors and we received all three. I’ve been wearing them every day because they are very pretty. I wasn’t sure about them at first, but I really like them. I wore them for awards night. We received two cheek color palettes. The size is comparable to the Coastal Colors from spring. We also got a cheek brush and a lacy pretty makeup bag. That’s not all we got, either. We got Bella body lotion and a Bella solid fragrance. We also got an upcoming holiday spa set in Peppermint Cream. It’s a body wash and lotion. It smells nice. I think that is everything…Oh! I forgot! We got an Ultimate Mascara! Which was a lifesaver because I noticed as I was applying mine this morning it is dried up. I was wishing I’d grabbed a fresh one from home. Now I have one. Wishes do come true.

So, from packet pick up we (my friends and I) were off to tour the corporate offices and the factory. We opted to see the factory first. It’s a self guided tour. It reminded me of the show “How It’s Made.” My husband loves that show. He is a builder so he is fascinated by seeing how things are constructed and put together. I think the factory tour is something he would enjoy. He had thought about coming with me to Dallas, but his business has been slow and he decided to stay behind and focus on working his own business. Perhaps next year he will come with me.

This is definitely not your typical factory. The people are all very happy. We were greeted by a woman who said she has been working there for 28 years. She wasn’t on the assembly line. She had some sort of office/supervisory position. As we proceeded along the tour path the walls were lined with adages often repeated by Mary Kay Ash. The Golden Rule was one of them. There were several product displays set up throughout the tour. We were to vote on our favorite at the end. The designers of the displays engaged us in song and dance in attempts to win our votes. It was very enthusiastic. The warehouse was filled with large shelves stacked full of packeged products ready to be shipped off to distribution centers.

As we approached the large tubs where lotions and creams (including Time Wise®) are mixed I noticed that the workers are very decorated. They had on pins and badges just like we consultants do! One worker had a name badge on similar to the ones we get for Seminar and Career Conference that had his name and it said he was celebrating 3 years working for Mary Kay and to make him feel important! I thought that was cool. We also went through the lipstick line and saw lipsticks in the making. The ladies working in there had caps on their heads and gloves on their hands. It reminded me of Laverne & Shirley; except they were in a makeup factory instead of a brewery. As we walked by a machine that was making Satin Hands I really wanted someone to put her glove on one of the bottles and wave good bye. Hee hee!

After touring the factory we were off to the corporate headquarters. Lunch was first. We ate at the restaurant at headquarters. Then we toured the museum. There was interesting stuff in there. First of all, I had no idea Mary Kay Ash painted. There were some paintings by her in the lobby area as we made our way to the museum entrance. She wasn’t a bad artist. There was on painting in particular that she did of some daisies that I especially liked. If I can figure out how to get my picture to upload to this blog I will post some. For some reason, it’s not working and I don’t know if it’s this computer or if something is wrong with the server. *sigh*

We saw everything from previous sales director suits to international product and catalog displays to former products. Once we were through the museum it was time to see the 13th Floor! This is where all the executive offices are! We were greeted at the elevator by a frienly man who said how much he loved working for Mary Kay, Inc. Everyone there was very happy and cheerful. It seems like a nice place to work. Although, my friends and I joked that we wonder what floors 2-12 look like. The offices on the 13th Floor are breath taking. They all have amazing views and beautiful furniture that seems to fit the occupant’s personality. We saw Mary Kay Ash’s office, but couldn’t go inside. We got our picture taken in front of it. We’ll just have to go back as directors so we can get pictures at her desk during DIT. Hehehe.

Now I must get ready for my National Area Dinner.

Tags: Mary Kay Tours, Seminar