Woman celebrates 30 years as Mary Kay saleswoman

You might say that Audrey Renter had a jewelry malfunction that turned out all right.

The Fremont woman, a longtime Mary Kay Cosmetics consultant, had come home after visiting a client. She went upstairs to freshen up when she noticed something: She was wearing one large black earring and one large blue earring.

She called the client to explain her fashion faux pas. The customer noticed the different colored earrings, but hadn’t thought much about it.

“I just thought that maybe it was a new fashion,” the other woman said.

Renter smiled about the experience.

“It shows that you can do anything wrong with a right attitude and still succeed,” she said.

And Renter has known lots of success.

Just this year, Renter celebrated her 30th anniversary with Mary Kay. Now a senior sales director, Renter recently learned she has earned her 14th car, which she gets in December and can use two years for free. She currently drives her 13th car, a black Saturn Aura.

Her list of accomplishments includes:

n Reaching the National Court of Personal Sales 13 times for selling more than $36,000 worth of retail product in a year.

n Being in the Circle of Achievement seven times after her unit sold more than $300,000 worth of retail product in a year. She now has a unit of about 120 consultants. Various women she’s trained have gone on to become directors with their own units.

n Earning the Go-Give Award from the corporation which recognizes someone in a directorship position, recommended by consultants and other directors for helping many other people.

Sitting in her Fremont home, Renter reflected on her life. Her career with Mary Kay began in 1979 while she was a bank officer.

“I feel it was God-led,” she said. “My husband, Roland, was in the process of being laid off of his position and we had just built this house about a year before, based on his income.”

Her husband decided to return to an earlier barbering career, but the couple knew it would take time for him to build a clientele base. So Audrey wondered what she could do to help. She noticed a newspaper article which stated that the highest paid women in the United States were in sales.

Having used Mary Kay before, she wondered if she should try selling it. Then fear set in. She wondered if it was something she really wanted to do. In the end, she opted to try it.

At first, Renter figured if she could earn $200 profit a month, she could help pay bills.

“I had no intention that it would become a career,” she said. “I liked the people I worked with at the bank. I liked my work ... so I did both — I worked at the bank and with Mary Kay for four years.”

Her first customers were family, friends and acquaintances, and her client base expanded from there.

“People lead you to people,” she said.

It hasn’t always been easy.

She’s dealt with cancellations and no-shows. She recalls the time she drove to Lincoln for an appointment that was to involve several people. The would-be hostess appeared to be home, but never answered the door.

Such things didn’t stop Renter.

“These are things you can’t let get you down,” she said. “You need to overcome and move on and have a positive attitude.”

Renter said she began to see Mary Kay was making her a more positive person. And while working her business consistently for 10 hours a week, Renter found she was making as much selling the cosmetics as she was working full time at the bank.

She reached a crossroads. With the support of her husband, who was running his own barbershop, she decided to resign her position at the bank and sell Mary Kay full time.

By that time she’d reached the directorship level, meaning she was training other consultants. One of the first people she trained was her daughter, Mary Beth, who’s now a director.

Not every person she’s trained has stayed with the corporation, but she believes they’ve still benefited from the experience.

“I feel that each person who decides to give the Mary Kay career a try gains something from it — and it may just be the confidence to step out and do what they really want to do with their life,” she said.

She cites the example of a woman who wanted to become a physician’s assistant.

“She has told me several times that she wouldn’t have had the confidence to fulfill her dream if she wouldn’t have had the experience of building self-confidence in Mary Kay,” Renter said.

Some women have moved on to other things because they chose not to put in the time and effort to make the career work.

But many who have stuck with it have done well, she said.

She lists the example of a woman who’d drive 1 1/2 hours for training each week. Today, she supports a family of four children and a disabled husband on her sales earnings. Renter said without Mary Kay, she knows this woman’s family would be on public assistance.

Renter credits her own husband for much of her success. He has assumed his share of the household duties — namely planning meals, grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning up afterward — for decades.

“For the past 30 years that’s been his responsibility,” she said. “I have no idea what we’re having for a meal or what’s in the cupboards. That’s his territory.”

Renter paid her husband a tribute one of the years she reached the National Court of Personal Sales.

“I had a choice of the kind of prize I was going to receive and I chose to get a diamond ring for my husband,” she said.

He had no idea. She came off the stage and presented it to him in the midst of other directors and consultants. Tears rolled down his face.

“He was touched that I decided to get something for him instead of me,” she said.

Renter intends to continue her Mary Kay career.

“I absolutely love what I do,” she said. “I love my customers. It has been a very positive thing in my life and I don’t have any plans to retire as long as God gives me the ability to keep working. ... It’s because of God that I’m where I’m at today.”