Designer Juaneice Munoz of La Casa Azul Design: 5 Things You Can Do To Help Your Living Space Spark More Joy
Light it up. Lighting is everything. Without proper lighting, a room falls flat and can never spark joy. Take the time to survey the room and add light to the space . Set the mood with a dimmer. Dimmers are everyone’s friend.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Juaneice Munoz
Founded in 2011, by Principal Designer Juaneice Munoz, La Casa Azul Design is bringing award winning design to its clientele. In the belief that we must strike a fine balance and create an interior that reflects the way you live. We believe each home has untapped potential, so we use design principals and the fine balance between art and science to create the finished product. Having worked with professional athletes, executives , and entrepreneurs , our team works hard to meet our client’s changing needs and places a high value on increased well being and perspective in design.
Juaneice gathers inspiration from nature, as the creation has some of the most exquisitely and carefully designed art, and natural beauty. Her globe trotting and love of new experiences also provides a wonderful insight to projects. She is committed to excellence and applying her diverse skills to each project for local and national clientele. It’s the perfect marriage that blends her years of experience in custom building, renovating and design with the clients wish lists and needs.
When Juaneice is not working with clients you can find her spending time with her family, practicing to win the ultimate “uno” card championship against the kids and reading non-fiction as of late. Thank you for stopping in. We appreciate you and can’t wait to hear about your needs and future plans.
Thank you so much for joining us in this series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
The beautiful path to design was born from tragedy . My husband and I lost everything, houses, cars , jobs and were forced to start over. No one would hire me in the fields I wanted to work . My husband suggested interior design. I loved the idea and decided to go back to school to begin carving out a new life for myself and my family.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?
I acquired the nickname, the clumsy fashionista because I always managed to trip, slip, knock something over or fall.
This is still occurring today 🙂
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
The funniest mistake I made when first starting out was trying to look super professional when meeting a new client , so I brought my husband along to play a member of my “team” … the funny part was that my husband forgot he “worked” for me and started talking to the client about sports and other things …. I kept trying to get my husband’s attention, but he was in full social mode…. it ended with the client telling me I should fire my “assistant “…. To this day I still tease my husband about that! It taught me to just be myself….
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?
We are working on revamping a 1960’s mid century modern building and turning it into a gathering hub for the community.
I am so excited because this is going to be place for families to gather with friends and really have a great day together. The design is being curated to meet the needs of several families in the community.
It’s very rewarding to see design actually improve the lives of those who experience it!
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.
this is so relevant to me because I pride myself on being very knowledgeable in my field , but I realized over time that when working on a project it’s the people that matter far more than the paint. Investing in the client has been its own reward.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I would not be where I am without my husband Paul. He sacrificed and worked 2 jobs at times so that I could pursue interior design full time. He also encouraged me to never give up! I think that was one of the most pivotal changes that allowed me to press forward. To have a cheerleader, who believes in your dream and encourages you to never quit.
Thank you for that. Here is the main question of our discussion. What are your “5 Things You Can Do To Help Your Living Space Spark More Joy” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
1. Organize it …. as simple as that sounds. Having everything in its place will naturally give you a sense of calm peace and order
2. Move things around …. getting a new perspective on the room can be as powerful as a new hair cut or new outfit. It makes you feel fresh and ready to take on new challenges
3. Make that bold purchase….sometimes a room just needs a shot of adrenaline, like a unique rug , or piece you have been eyeing but too afraid to purchase, a light fixture. Sometimes the smallest change can make tremendous impact.
4. Make it cozy. …. I have yet to meet a client that doesn’t desire their favorite room to be comfortable and cozy on some level. Even if it’s an open beach house they still want a casual and comfortable room. Add comfortable moments to the seating in your room. You will value and appreciate it long after the guests have gone.
5. Light it up. Lighting is everything. Without properly lighting a room it falls flat and can never spark joy. Take the time to survey the room and add light to the space . Set the mood with a dimmer. Dimmers are everyone’s friend.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Love must be sincere, hate what is evil, cling to what is good….Honor one another above yourselves.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might see this, especially if we tag them 🙂
Darren Hardy , he has been so pivotal in helping me shift and cultivate my business mind. He understands the limitations we place on ourselves and really speaks to overcoming bad habits and taking bad thoughts captive
I would love to create spaces where we can return to community and find unity again. I love the idea of a return to communal living — making structures with a central hub of shared space and peripheral spaces for our individual spaces nearby. This would bring back extended family or co-locate friends with common needs like childcare so that our homes can be a vehicle to support a re-integration of time with family and friends. I visualize shared mortgages and shared kitchen duties! It would be the creation of family campuses!
As part of my series on the “5 Things You Can Do To Help Your Living Space Spark More Joy”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Lisa Queen. Queen’s first design project was her own home in Kansas City, MO back in 1995. It was a five-story brick house with a steel metal staircase winding up the center. She combined her love for edgy architects like Frank Israel, with her enthusiasm to use cutting edge material selections. Before design, her career was (surprisingly!) in aviation. Queen was a corporate pilot, flying across the US for private clients. This aviation history comes through in her ability to think on her feet, an acute attention to detail, and a better than average understanding of the mechanical side of the business. Besides that, it makes for fun conversations! Queen created Lisa Queen Design after relocating from the Midwest to California near the millennial change, some 18 years ago. She welcomed her daughter, Sara, into the fold in 2016 to deepen the offerings and to share the fun of making this a life calling.
Thank you so much for joining us in this series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
It was a circuitous route, that is for sure! My first career was as a corporate pilot. Bear in mind that it was the early 90’s and I was a lone female in a male-dominated world of aviation. I wanted an exit strategy after realizing that aviation alone was not fulfilling my intellectual or creative needs. I wore multiple hats for a startup venture and as we rolled 9 acquisitions together, 3 of us, in two years, we needed someone to take the helm of branding and all that went along with that. We flew all around the country in our efforts and the properties we were acquiring had a truly diverse market face and very diverse physical location aesthetics. The CEO and general counsel were busy with other matters, as you might ascertain, so it fell on me to be pilot in command of all things aesthetic for the company when I was not in the cockpit. We eventually took that company public in 1995. By then, I had designed and branded 11 locations across the country as well as our corporate headquarters using natural inclinations with textiles and color and learning the business of design on the fly. Shortly following the IPO, I married the CEO! As you might imagine, there is a lot of story and love drama mixed up in this launch to a career in design, but I eventually handed the cockpit duties to a former student of mine and focused full time on personal residential ventures. Thus began more focus on residential design projects while starting my family.
My husband and I bought a 15,000-sf contemporary home in Kansas City that needed a full remodel and I worked together with Tracy Sterns, an extraordinarily creative space planner, and we created a residence that was a showstopper.
I was highly influenced by Frank Israel at the time and loved his creative use of materials. Since it was our personal investment and no one could hold me back, I went full out on that first major residential project.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?
My most interesting story as a designer would have to be the free rein I had on the remodel at 56th St in Mission Hills, KS. The house was built like a commercial building with interior brick and mechanical chase ways on every floor (4 floors, plus an upper mezzanine and finished rooftop). I sandblasted all the white paint off the interior brick, leaving a distressed red brick on several of the 19’h walls throughout. I stepped up the center portion of the floor plan so we could bring in wood flooring on that section and keep the brick flooring on other adjacent areas; this began to define “spaces within spaces.” I found an old tobacconist and used it to create a partial wall to break the space between the kitchen and dining area. I had custom stainless-steel shelves created to break between traditional stained mahogany columns in the library “space” to create yet another nested area. All of this was done to use materials and space layout to turn “echo acres” into a cozy series of spaces that integrated and gave the larger space a sense of comfort and coziness.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
My funniest mistake was in this same project — I had designed the master bedroom and bathroom to be split into separate spaces using the master closets and a central axial layout very similar to what I.M. Pei had done several times in his career. This effort makes it so that the closet buffers the bathroom noise from the bedroom, which is often needed when the two people sharing this room might be on different schedules. The master suite area was just a box space with high ceilings and brick walls, so I stepped up onto a semi lofted area (again the wood flooring transition to soften all the brick flooring and break up the space). At this stepped-up area, I had two partial walls on either side of the axial center that I wanted to be able to close off. I wanted to use custom “barn type doors” but use a steel I BEAM as the header. The door was large, so I kept it from getting heavy by using FLAT fiberglass for the center of the frames, also creating a bit of a shoji screen aesthetic. The funny mistake was that this I BEAM was huge…but then so was our front door and 5 story stairway…but the steel beam was just too long to make the turns required to make it up one floor from the front door. So, we had to bring in a CRANE to lift the I BEAM OVER the master balcony to get it into the bedroom. This mistake was COSTLY! That I BEAM design element was the costliest industrial design element I ever used. We had cut circles into the I BEAM and painted it eggplant, so it was already expensive even before we had issues with the installation.
BUT it was a great lesson…check scale!! Not only on the final design but all scale on implementation. No one in KC had done any type of installation like this before, so the builder did not see this one coming either. OUCH. Of course, it was stunning once installed. And it was a lifelong lesson that stays with me to this day. A great idea must be well thought out from concept to execution.
Most mistakes still tie to scale. Right fit, right size, right proportion to other elements and overall story and lastly, scale to install. Doors do not bend; sofas are often deeper than door widths…!
Since we are talking mistakes…I have more than one to share — so let me indulge in a second one — a few years after the KC venture, we decided to take the kids while they were young and move to the sticks in Colorado. My husband is an avid fly fisherman and I am a reasonably decent cowgirl on horseback, so we left the city and bought 7 acres in rural Colorado near Carbondale. We, of course, had to DIY a remodel there over a few years that involved converting the barn to an office, adding a glass garage door, creating a bunkhouse for guests and an outdoor horse arena, plus make the usual decorative cosmetic upgrades to the main house. Makes me tired now just thinking of all we did in those two years while our 2 and 7-year-old girls were riding ponies and driving Barbie cars!
We painted the exterior of the house which was natural cedar (ouch! Should have left it alone!) and I must have been too influenced at the time by all the John Deere equipment, but I chose a John Deere GREEN for the exterior color. From afar across the ranch, this color was so vibrant and beautiful, but it was really a huge mistake to paint the house that horrible strong green tone. It was too late once we realized it was too green. The pain did not last too terribly long as we had a walk-up buyer who drove down our long driveway and asked if the house was for sale. He absolutely LOVED the John Deere GREEN. He saw the glass garage door to the barn office, and he did not even walk through the main house. He put an offer out to us that day and we closed 72 hours later.
So, the GREEN mistake was only a mistake in this designer’s eyes — one man’s ceiling is another man’s floor!
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?
I have a few outliers that are we are working on right now like restoration of a fabulous mansion on a hilltop in Los Angeles and refurbishing a private premier golf and tennis club — beginning with the 7000 sq. ft spa. But mostly we help people just like us — well, maybe with a little more disposable income! It is our intention to bring a piece of the family or individuals we are blessed to call clients to their “space” and make “home” for them. The value in that is something I have always had to reconcile. We don’t cure cancer or explore outer space for any greater good — but I find that my heart is satisfied by how I see the world of my client change and how they feel embraced by their new home or office. Honestly, the best compliment we get is, “this feels so much like an extension of who I am!” Especially in this time when we need psychological advantages in our homes, we need them to service us not just practically and by being aesthetically pleasing but by really honoring the inhabitants!
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Well, this one is funny because as much as I would like to quote Marcus Aurelius and pitch a stoic quote to you (“We don’t control what happens, we only control how we respond.”), what I really love and think offers similar wisdom is from Pixar’s The Incredibles, Edna Mode — “I never look back darling, it distracts from the NOW.” It is all about being present, which ties to a passion I have for studying Eckhart Tolle — but it has my sense of lightheartedness to it. I am an enneagram 7 and need the humor woven into things that give me energy!
I adore the double entendres woven into the Pixar films — Brad Bird is amazing! I often take these characters with me into tough situations and hear quotes coming from characters who keep me company in times when I need encouragement but with a light touch of humor. This is relevant to me in that it balances my desire to go deep, look back, analyze, and over-contemplate things. We all need to stay focused and present but balancing with humor is my challenge!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Yes…would have to be Windsor Smith. Where do I begin with her? She is genius and so full of energy and vision. She is a friend and a former client of mine from more than 12 years back. Our story is long and fun, but I will tell you she taught me so much by observation — I watched her take her crazy ideas and believe in them. She met so many challenges and just kept on keeping on with humor and continued drive. She hired me as a business consultant to launch her brand and line when she was just starting out. She was a freight train going 100 directions and we channeled her energy in a few focused directions to really start her path to designer stardom. What an honor to have been a part of her journey, and she still weaves back into my world and acknowledges my part now and then, reconnecting despite her demanding schedule and lifestyle. She is just an amazingly creative visionary in our industry.
If you need just one story…I would say it was when she was on day one of the Veranda Home Tour event for the house on Mandeville that Gwyneth Paltrow eventually purchased. She had given me a private tour a week or so prior to thank me for helping her achieve a milestone with Century Furniture by becoming an Icon for them. On this particular day, though, I arrived about an hour before the tours were to begin and encouraged her to give me a personal tour so the Veranda PR point person could take notes. Just as we finished, she snuck us off out a back door and we caught a ride into Santa Monica and began drinking martinis mid-day, not checking phones or responding to all the plethora of folks trying to reach her as this big day launched. It was like a little vacation in the middle of a storm and I will never forget it. I hope I am this kind of light to others. I love to mentor and coach and find that each person I partner with in this regard becomes a teacher to me as well.
Thank you for that. Here is the main question of our discussion. What are your “5 Things You Can Do To Help Your Living Space Spark More Joy” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
Bring joy..!! My favorite word shortly followed by savor. As we look to our homes to provide us protection, we also want our homes and workspaces to “nest” us — to honor us in a psychological way. Let us look at how that translates into actionable items for anyone to employ to bring JOY to their spaces.
Begin with a scavenger hunt — look at your collections, favorite book(s), photos (loose is sometimes the best), and go outdoors if you want to and bring some elements inside if they won’t impede any of nature’s flow to do so.
Identify what makes you feel most at ease with who you are. Bring some physical elements of that to your environment: your desk, front porch, kitchen table. It could be cookbooks, art/coffee table books, or a small black and white photograph simply leaned up against another element or two. It could be a small indoor plant or fresh flowers, of course, but refresh the water and pull any wilting blooms; augment with some lower limbs of small shrubs or trees to boost the arrangement without adding cost.
Create/collect an ensemble of feathers and fossils, crystals, leaves or shelled acorns. The spoil of this “hunt” could be a piece of art by a child, by you as a child, or that makes you feel connected to the child side of yourself.
If your space is small, butt a table up to a wall and anchor a small collective of these things to the end to place a signature of you, just a small nod to something that settles you or stimulates and excites you if you are in a space that needs energy.
Use scarves or jewelry to dress a lamp or a water goblet to bring a personal element and dimensional texture to that object.
Natural light is a booster for the mind and soul (unless it is bedtime!) so scout the best spots in your space at different times of day and create “nests” of space to suit your personality type. If you are a morning person that needs a few minutes to meditate, read the paper, or sip on a chai tea or pour over coffee, then set a “nest” with elements that are nurturing in the zone where the light comes in the morning, even if it is in a secondary area. If you are allergic to the morning, then perhaps drive a similar “nest” in the area where you can see the late afternoon sun or rising moon by a window.
Small lamps are great for unexpected places, especially on a bookshelf or on the counter in a bathroom to create ambient light.
Once you have added a few of these spaces, then do as Coco Chanel encourages… remove one thing before you leave the room because having a bit less can be the key to having a bit more.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I would love to create spaces where we can return to community and find unity again. I love the idea of a return to communal living — making structures with a central hub of shared space and peripheral spaces for our individual spaces nearby. This would bring back extended family or co-locate friends with common needs like childcare so that our homes can be a vehicle to support a re-integration of time with family and friends. I visualize shared mortgages and shared kitchen duties! It would be the creation of family campuses!
One hub could be all about business so any home office needs would be there and one hub for shared kids’ space. It might be preferred to share a nanny or personal teacher or tutor, toys, books and so much more with friends over being alone and isolated or in a group with other daycare families.
The house would not be empty when you leave for vacation — someone would likely still be there and can rotate care of the pets and plants. I think of all the clients of mine who have support staff that come in and perhaps that is perfect for many, but wouldn’t it be a fun model to create to bring some further integration of others into our spaces?
If you are sharing a mortgage, then perhaps you can find that you can either travel more or take those additional funds and invest in a second property. This would be especially valued if you are WFH or mobile in your work tasks so you can have the luxury of two different physical places where you call home.
The intended good would be to bring people together again using living spaces and design. Unity…we need more unity!
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might see this, especially if we tag them 🙂
I would like to have lunch with Brene Brown; I want to bring vulnerability into how we LIVE. I think she would be the most likely person to “get it” without too much esoteric hyperbole. I mean, get the psychology of our lived spaces and the power space has on our ability to connect with ourselves and others.
I would want to explore how to bring ourselves “home.” Creating “home” for ourselves and, if you are in my business, for others, is not really about buying “stuff” or acquiring product per say, but about curating an environment that brings a part of you to life, in your world, in your space. Asking our homes and offices to bring us joy is about asking ourselves to bring a sense of vulnerability, our softer selves, to our work, home, and play spaces. Making “home” is not necessarily making “pretty”, but rather bringing an essence of the personalities into the space to make it feel like it is an extension of you.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
Follow us on Instagram @lisaqueendesign
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational!
Alicia Sharp of Upfront Cosmetics: “Beauty doesn’t come in the products we use; it’s rather how we think about ourselves”
Beauty doesn’t have to come in the products we use; it’s how we think about ourselves. Don’t ever let a company make you think you need to buy their product to feel beautiful. It comes from the inside, and YOU have control over it. Not the retailers.
As a part of our series about how technology will be changing the beauty industry over the next five years, I had the pleasure of interviewing Alicia Sharp, Founder of Upfront Cosmetics.
Alicia Sharp is the Founder of Upfront Cosmetics. Upfront Cosmetics are the makers of salon quality shampoo and conditioner bars without the plastic waste. To date, they have kept over 30K plastic shampoo bottles out of oceans and landfills. Their products are vegan, sulphate-free, paraben-free and Leaping Bunny certified. Alicia was inspired to start the company after the birth of her first son when she began looking for shampoo products that were safe to use on her baby. She couldn’t find any products that were sulphate-free, so she decided to do her research and create her own product. Today, Upfront Cosmetics ships shampoo bars to stores and customers across North America. You can learn more at www.upfrontcosmetics.ca
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
My path to becoming an entrepreneur in the beauty space was unconventional. It all started when my oldest son Eli was just a baby. As a new mother, I was looking for safer alternatives to use on him. While there were many “safer” brands, none of them was doing things the plastic-free way, and many were still using harsh ingredients such as sulphates.
Before I knew it, I was doing a lot of reading and researching what cosmetic formulators were doing. I guess you could say; I was a prime example of “If there’s a will, there’s a way.” But I also knew that whatever I created, wouldn’t come in a plastic bottle. I mean, just because shampoo has always come in a plastic container, doesn’t mean that’s the only way. Not to mention, when you have a baby, everything comes in plastic bottles from the baby oil to powders.
Not long after, Upfront Cosmetics was born, and I was on a mission to keep our customers safe from harmful chemicals while protecting our environment from unnecessary plastic waste.
In short, a passion for creating something without plastic waste and something safer for my babies brought me to where I am today. And I’m proud to share that Upfront Cosmetics has kept over 30,000 shampoo bottles out of our oceans and landfills to date.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I think the most interesting moment in the story of Upfront Cosmetics is we suddenly started landing wholesale customers from cities and places we had never even heard of. When you’re beginning, it’s only normal to start selling to local stores and entrepreneurs that you know. You can usually trace every new stockist back to where the interest originated.
When orders started coming in from all over Canada and the US, that was pretty wild. Strangers were signing up to be wholesalers on our website, without any outreach or business development on our end. Growing beyond our degrees of separation was the moment where we realized we had created something much bigger than just a hobby business.
Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Are there takeaways or lessons that others can learn from that?
Our tipping point began when we featured in Vogue. The article was published, and of course, our local media outlets took an interest in hearing from us because it’s not very often a small business from a rural town gets featured in Vogue. After completing a few local interviews, we came into the office and overnight, we had all of these inquiries from stores wanting to carry our products. So, of course, we started fulfilling these requests, opened more wholesale accounts and just kept doing our thing.
It wasn’t until this summer that it hit me. A year ago, we were only in three stores. Today, we’re in over 140 stores across North America. We were so busy doing what we love and focused on consistent growth, we never even realized how much we had grown and how much we had to celebrate.
The lesson I learned from this experience is that as entrepreneurs, we tend always to be thinking about the next big thing, the next significant milestone. Don’t be afraid to stop and smell the roses and to celebrate the wins along the way. Trust me when I say it goes by so fast!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person to whom you are grateful who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I definitely owe so much gratitude to the Summer Institute at the University of New Brunswick. The Summer Institute is a three-month intensive accelerator for entrepreneurs with an innovative idea and the passion needed to turn that idea into a sustainable venture. It’s also a member of the Global Accelerator Network (GAN), an invite-only community of the world’s most respected organizations that provide startups with the best resources to create and grow their businesses, wherever they are.
Being a part of the Summer Institute and having access to all of the mentors was invaluable. It was like being accepted into a whole community of people that just wanted to see me succeed. They saw a vision and a passion in me that I didn’t even know that I had.
A year and three months ago, I did not think I would be sitting here doing this. I knew I wanted to do big things and go big, but I could never have expected this, and I credit the Summer Institute with helping me get to this place.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. The beauty industry today has access to technology that was inconceivable only a short time ago. Can you tell us about the “cutting edge” (pardon the pun) technologies that you are working with or introducing? How do you think that will help people?
For starters, we’re a little unconventional at Upfront Cosmetics in that we believe that while there is more cutting edge technology to choose from than ever before available to entrepreneurs and creators; we’re focused on taking beauty back to the basics. It’s now more than ever incredibly crucial that companies leverage technology to help them be more sustainably-minded going forward. Whether that means finding ways to create 100% biodegradable packaging or plant-based alternatives to preservatives or common ingredients. If we’re unable to embrace sustainability and make real changes for our planet, we and our businesses are not going to survive.
We chose to use technology and the internet to educate consumers on our product and how we have chosen our ingredients. We believe that consumer knowledge is power, and we want to help consumers make informed decisions about the products they buy and the businesses they support. Not enough companies are talking about the ingredients behind their products.
Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?
Here’s where things can get dangerous on the internet! It’s a little thing called greenwashing. It’s when companies claim their products are “natural” or “green” so that they look good on the internet, but in reality, their products contain hidden chemicals and harmful ingredients. As with anything on the internet, false information can travel fast and next thing you know, people are touting products as good for your health and the planet, when really, they’re not.
There is also a lot of fear-mongering going on when it comes to the proper names of ingredients. You will hear people saying “If you can’t pronounce an ingredient name, it’s not good for you.” There isn’t an ounce of fact to that statement. Take shea butter, for example. It has a long proper ingredient name, but it’s still good for you and a healthy ingredient. We need to put an end to people thinking if they can’t pronounce an ingredient, it’s not safe. It turns out; it just means you’re not proficient in Latin, and that’s OK! Not many of us are!
Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the “beauty-tech” industry?
One: I love seeing people moving towards creating more eco-friendly, sustainable products. It’s reassuring to have people finally start questioning what’s in our products and choosing to be more informed in their purchasing decision.
Two: I’m very excited to see more of a push for handmade products over mass manufactured. Some people think that handmade means lesser quality but makers of handmade products have the time to provide better quality products and with more quality control over the end product. Mass manufacturing doesn’t always mean good. We are conditioned to think that.
Three: I’m very excited about what Chinova Bioworks is doing. They’re creating a mushroom-based preservative that is looking to be very promising. They were even a part of the Sephora Accelerate Program!
Can you share 3 things that most concern you about the industry? If you had the ability to implement 3 ways to reform or improve the industry, what would you suggest?
One: Most definitely greenwashing. There are too many companies now claiming to be green or eco-friendly when in reality, they’re not. Their products are still full of chemicals and harmful ingredients. A simple solution to this would be to educate consumers to be comfortable asking questions about the ingredients in the products their purchasing. To push the businesses, they support to be more forthcoming about what’s really in their products.
Two: The overuse of sulphates in beauty products. At Upfront Cosmetics, one of our key selling points is our “no sulphate” promise as studies have determined most sulphates to be cancer-causing. We use coconut and plant-based surfactants that are less likely to irritate and that provide a more gentle and skin-friendly cleanse. We believe you should never have to compromise the health of your hair for a quality shampoo!
Three: Synthetic fragrances. The problem with synthetic fragrances is that companies don’t have to disclose what’s in them, so consumers have no idea if the products they’re purchasing are harmful or not.
Overall, I think North America needs to embrace regulations more similar to the EU. All beauty products in the EU are third party tested. You can’t have products that aren’t stable, and you can’t do things the wrong way. Your product will never get approved and put on the shelves. While we’re making strides in Canada and the US, we still have a long way to go over here.
You are an expert about beauty. Can you share 5 ideas that anyone can use “to feel beautiful”? (Please share a story or example for each.)
One: Embrace natural, sustainable products. When you’re reducing your ecological footprint with the products you choose to buy, you’re making an impact, and I promise you, you’ll feel more beautiful in doing so.
Two: Prioritize self-care. One sure way to feel beautiful? Is to take care of yourself and recognize when you need a little self-care. Maybe that’s running yourself a hot bath. Perhaps it’s booking a massage. Whatever that might look like for you, no matter how big or little, make sure to prioritize it.
Three: Be more mindful. This goes back to embracing sustainable products, but overall, being more conscious of the companies and small businesses you choose to support.
Four: Beauty doesn’t have to come in the products we use; it’s how we think about ourselves. Don’t ever let a company make you think you need to buy their product to feel beautiful. It comes from the inside, and YOU have control over it. Not the retailers.
Five: Invest in businesses investing in people. There are so many companies that you can choose to purchase your beauty products from these days. Why not choose companies that are giving back to their communities and investing in people?
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
That one is easy. I would love to see a world-wide ban on single-use plastic waste. With research suggesting that by 2050, we’re going to have more plastic than fish in our oceans, we need to take these predictions seriously. Single-use plastic affects everyone: we as humans and our planet. It’s time to put a stop to them.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Just start somewhere. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it’s crucial that you just do it. I had absolutely no idea two years ago, where I would be today and that my product would be sold in stores across North America. I could never have guessed we would be in the pages of Vogue. We are where we are today because I was brave enough to identify a problem (lack of sulphate-free shampoo for my baby) and create a solution.
Track your leads: Use LinkedIn Tools like sales navigators to track individuals from your target accounts. Whenever you log in each day you can see what your target accounts have been up to. Make sure you are always commenting, liking and or sharing their posts which will increase your visibility with them greatly over time. So if you were trying to land Vodafone as a client for your HR software you would identify all the HR heads across the territories you serve and save them as leads within sales navigator. By doing this you will create a personalized feed of all their LinkedIn interactions
As part of my series of interviews about “How to Use LinkedIn To Dramatically Improve Your Business”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Larry Kotch. Larry is a Lead Generation expert based in London. He marketing agency The Brains and is also host of the YouTube Channel Brainy Marketing. He’s a LinkedIn addict and regularly tops the B2B marketing and LinkedIn marketing rankings on YouTube.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I used to work in Corporate Finance as an analyst but felt my creativity was being stifled so I began getting interested in the Tech Startup space which felt was full of creativity. I started a business on the side trying to raise money for clients. Really it was trying to make that business grow which caused me to discover how difficult that was and the need for an automated lead generation system. Since I was attending startup events each week I began to get slowly introduced to Digital Advertising and Marketing Automation and basically became progressively obsessed. After a few years I had quietly become very proficient in generating leads for my business and decided to start adding marketing services to my capital raising clients. The rest as they say is history and the Brains was born!
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?
I was brought in to help one of the largest political parties in the world (in terms of members) win an election through targeted Ads. This took me on a whirlwind trip around the world and I started to understand the incredibly fine line between persuasion and manipulation online as well as the very real internal politics of huge organizations. At one point I was mediating between the campaign manager of the party and the communications strategist because they refused to talk anymore. Call it a crash course in organizational psychology — not something I ever thought I would have to contend with to that scale!
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I remember pitching for work with a big Tech company for a big SEO project before The Brains had an SEO department. Because I was keen to get the account and we had proposed other services, I brought in a contractor who I had only had a 30-minute vetting conversation with a week before. I met the contractor outside the potential client’s office, and he turned up in jeans and a hoodie. In the meeting he was so talkative and awkward that the client started repeatedly shushing him every time he started talking. We lost the entire pitch. I learned sometimes when the resources are not on your side just pass on the opportunity or refer it to someone else, hastily assembled teams always end up letting you down and potentially losing a client if you aren’t careful and that’s no way to build a sustainable business.
Which social media platform have you found to be most effective to use to increase business revenues? Can you share a story from your experience?
For B2B companies I think LinkedIn is the most criminally underused advertising platform yet is incredibly powerful. Your ability to target business executives and target accounts is laser specific. Obviously Facebook and Instagram are superior when it comes to B2C products and if you have a large customer or marketing database you can always use custom audiences on Facebook for B2B which has a lower CPA than a custom audience on LinkedIn. We worked with the largest satellite imagery company in Europe who were looking for senior execs in the forestry and infrastructure sectors. While they were convinced it would be difficult to find this audience anywhere online, within 4 weeks they were gob smacked at the number of Leads and the CPL coming from LinkedIn. You would be incredibly surprised how many seemingly obscure and niche industries can be zoned in on through LinkedIn’s Ad manager. With a strong Lead magnet and email automation strategy you can hoover up the top of funnel audience on LinkedIn very fast.
Let’s talk about LinkedIn specifically, now. Can you share 5 ways to leverage LinkedIn to dramatically improve your business? Please share a story or example for each.
LinkedIn Ads: LinkedIn’s Ad manager can help you target at an exceptionally fine level of detail. I think my story above probably serves as a great example of how niche you can get.
Use a LinkedIn bot: I helped a media company acquire Siemens Europe and a Large Charity as a client through a LinkedIn message. Technology exits now that can help you totally automate your connecting with and messaging of ideal prospects on LinkedIn — while you sleep. Just type Linkedin bot into YouTube and you will see my videos about it at the top of the list It is an immensely powerful outbound channel.
Rank your site content: If you are creating loads of content for SEO across your site then bear in mind that social links are considered in Google’s ranking algorithms.
Track your leads: Use LinkedIn Tools like sales navigators to track individuals from your target accounts. Whenever you log in each day you can see what your target accounts have been up to. Make sure you are always commenting, liking and or sharing their posts which will increase your visibility with them greatly over time. So if you were trying to land Vodafone as a client for your HR software you would identify all the HR heads across the territories you serve and save them as leads within sales navigator. By doing this you will create a personalized feed of all their LinkedIn interactions. The aim is to interject yourself in these conversations as and when to keep you top of mind before or during outreach efforts. If you are following an Account Based Marketing strategy this will be a great tool for you.
Get maximum free views on your posts: If you use a marketing automation tool like HubSpot you can schedule LinkedIn posts to go out using their tool. You can set up email notifications to all your staff asking them to share and like and comment on the post to massively boost its reach. At the end of the month the person with the most shares will get a prize. You can increase the average post vies by 100x doing this depending on the size of your company.
Because of the position that you are in, you are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Given my time in political advertising and interest in politics and philosophy I would urge people to consider the movement already outlined by Brett Weinstein called Unity 2020. I think the political climate has become very divisive. My movement would try bring people to the center ground like Unity 2020.
Some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
I’d love to sit down with Russell Brunson. I think he is one of the only people that really gets modern persuasive advertising. Almost every online business guru follows his science and theory behind online persuasion. I have studied his work and others to develop a theory of content marketing for B2B brands that is far more effective than what I see 99% of B2B brands doing. I would love to know his thoughts and pick his brains on how to improve it.
Thank you so much for these great insights. This was very enlightening!
A piece of advice I would offer to others is to genuinely care about your people. Don’t manipulate them into thinking you care, but actually care about them. Ask how they’re doing and ask about their families. Learn and know what makes them tick, then guide and direct their efforts so they’re performing a task in your business which motivates them personally.
As part of my series about “exciting developments in the travel industry over the next five years”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Paul Bender.
Paul is the Founder and CEO of American Adventure Insurance, the nation’s leading provider of RV, boat and motorcycle insurance. For 28 years, AAI has led the industry with its speed of service, with “insurance in 12 minutes,” along with its capabilities to bundle services with low rates. With more than 25 employees in its Newbury Park, California office, and 10 regional salespeople, Bender anticipates that AAI will grow its national footprint from 2,500 dealer partnerships to 3,000 dealers by the end of 2020. Born and raised in Northern Minnesota, Bender takes a blue-collar approach to his desire for business growth, with employees and managers at the forefront of his focus, who Bender believes when treated correctly perform beyond expectation. His future strategic goals are reached when he can help others attain their full potential.
Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
It’s strange the winding path we take though life, isn’t it? Ask those you view as successful and I expect you’ll rarely hear, “I laid out a plan for success 20 years ago and it went just as I expected. I’m exactly where I had planned to be.” As for me, I’m nowhere near where I expected to be.
Graduating from a small college in Wisconsin with a degree in Secondary Education, I taught high school speech, acting and dramatic production for ten years. The eventual intention was to pursue a Master’s Degree (and perhaps more) and teach on the college level. During that time as a teacher, my instincts to think big and harness creative freedom led me to dream up and produce huge dramatic productions (huge for a high school theater department, I suppose). Over the years budgets grew significantly, and cast sizes went from single digits to well over 60, and more than 100 if you include the full crew.
In 1992, while still teaching full time, my think-big entrepreneurial spirit led me to run a side insurance business out of my home. About a year in, as I was reviewing my book of policies — at the time sold through Foremost and Progressive, the primary providers of recreational products insurance for independent agents in those days — I realized that I wouldn’t grow the business fast enough through ads in the Yellow Pages and waiting for the phone to ring.
So, I started visiting local RV dealerships in an effort to introduce myself and my company, asking owners if they would refer their customers to my small agency. Eventually, my partnerships with one dealership turned into two, then four, and eventually that grassroots work fueled consistent, steady growth of what became a national footprint with RV America Insurance, founded in 1992. Known for returning insurance quotes within 12 minutes of the request, my reputation for fast service and low rates gained me quick access into dealer circles.
In 2009, I changed the company name to American Adventure Insurance to reflect my expertise in all recreational products including boats, motorcycles, ATVs, RVs and travel trailers.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
In 2004, I had just bought a brand new Malibu Wakesetter to use at a vacation home we had on a lake in Northern California. My family and I had a trip scheduled, but a buddy of mine was going camping in the area a couple of weeks prior, and asked if he could take the boat with him. I said yes, but asked him to please avoid the shallow end of the lake. Sure enough, that’s where he went looking for calm water — right over a barely-submerged massive tree stump — and the boat was totaled.
I have to admit I was upset, but thankful there had been no injuries. With a specialized policy through Progressive and the accompanying coverage called Total Loss Replacement, there was a brand new boat delivered to the lake for me within the two weeks, just before we arrived. Actually, it was better than brand new; it was honestly a little nicer than what I’d had before, and I even felt a bit guilty as I pushed that throttle lever forward to pick up speed when I took it out on the water the first time. That experience of being the customer helped me realize the true value of my business. I was upside down on the loan at that time, so without Total Loss Replacement we would have been required to hand over about $6,000 to the lending bank, plus there was a hefty down payment should we have wanted to acquire another boat. Total cash out of pocket for me would have been about $20,000, but Total Loss Replacement made me whole.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I’ll go way back to when I was a young pup of just 16 years and got my first real job at an A&W restaurant flipping hamburgers. Not two weeks into my tenure, after making a Papa Burger for a coworker going on break, I placed it on a piece of wax paper on the break table instead of creating waste by putting it in the standard A&W foil bag. My shift supervisor — a role I would soon inhabit — scolded me for not following the established protocol and reported me to the owner. When the owner was informed of the situation, however, she commended me on my ability to think like a business owner, and then had a few unpleasant words with the supervisor. (Needless to say that supervisor didn’t really care much for me after that.) My “polite rebelliousness” was maybe a foreshadowing of that future entrepreneurial path, eventually leading to the founding of American Adventure Insurance, now the nation’s the leading provider of RV, boat and motorcycle insurance through dealerships.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
I think I can truly say I disrupted the insurance agency model 25 years ago. Our company stands out because we changed the insurance game at point of sale. I set about to make sure that dealers nationwide could instantly obtain insurance for their customers and close a deal. This had never been done before on such a scale, nor was insurance ever instantly available by fax and email in a matter of minutes.
…And these were the dial-up internet days! I had a dial-up modem in the computer under my desk, a cell modem in my laptop, and WordPerfect 5.1. I was able to program WordPerfect to request keyboard input, and I reformatted major insurance company applications into my program. I was so fast that I was ready to click the send button and deliver the quote to a dealer in about 90 seconds.
It was about this time that I read a little paperback called “The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing.” The golden nugget I took from it was that an organization should choose one narrow marketing word or phrase and concept, then take that one word or phrase, own it, build your business around it, and burn your way into the mind of the prospect. Also, if you can be the first to own that word in your industry, you have then created your market leader status. One thing I did not do was ask for the opinions of others on how to market my new business. Looking to others or doing market research would have been more of a hindrance than a help to me because new ideas are simply not measurable, right?
I began the process of finding my word and phrase and thought to myself, “What is the biggest need for the national dealership community?” It’s speed. They endeavor to move units quickly and they don’t want to be slowed down during the close. I narrowed my focus to a single word — FAST. And then I chose a phrase that would best earn dealers’ attention and respect and landed on “Insurance in 12 Minutes!” This meant nothing to the buying public, but it wasn’t meant for them. I had to trust my gut and push forward, and I did so with national marketing campaigns, trade shows and national sales representatives. This nationwide model does not exist elsewhere today except for the brands I have built — RV America Insurance and American Adventure Insurance — and we’re still doing it many years later.
Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”? Can you share a story about that?
I suppose I manage my life and business by working incredibly hard for fixed periods of time, then taking a short break. One of the smartest things I ever read was, “Adjust your six year plan every six months.” So, I let the business consume me for a period of time and work like a dog to reorganize and implement adjusted strategies, then I sit back and observe the results through the buying season. Then, like a bear waking from hibernation, I evaluate the numbers and pivot in a new direction to make sure I’m staying on course. I’m never static.
I remember back in the late 90s, I had just come out of teaching, and I was experiencing some of the early years of financial success. I said to one of my hockey buddies, “In about five years I’m going to retire early.” Looking back, I was dreaming! Not a chance. In business, you can NEVER just sit back and think you’ve got it all figured out. The business world moves forward quickly; the competition pushes you and you’ve got to respond.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
Tough question. Coming from a small town in northern Minnesota, I didn’t really have someone I looked up to as a titan of business, let’s say. There is a sage old man out there, however, and his name is Experience. Experience has been my biggest teacher, and he didn’t take it easy on me. I’ve made some mistakes along the way, but you learn valuable lessons through the hills and valleys. I’ve never been the least bit afraid of failure; taking calculated risks is part of what makes me thrive. I tend to be fairly — maybe overly — optimistic, meaning I don’t ever feel like there are hurdles I can’t overcome, but that can bring its share of troubles, or what I’ll call learning opportunities. I adjust based on these virtual beatings and the next decision is more calculated, more focused. I think I’m much better at understanding people and what motivates them than I was years ago. Watching other industry pros taught me what I want to emulate, as well as what I don’t, and all of this shapes how I make business decisions today.
A piece of advice I would offer to others is to genuinely care about your people. Don’t manipulate them into thinking you care, but actually care about them. Ask how they’re doing and ask about their families. Learn and know what makes them tick, then guide and direct their efforts so they’re performing a task in your business which motivates them personally.
I place a great deal of trust in the “Strengths Finder” model. This is a valuable tool I use to be sure my people are doing a job that naturally fits the foundations from which they operate. When your people know you care about them, they will care about your business, and isn’t that what you really want, someone who cares about your business as much as you do? During the COVID-19 crisis, even though our new business had dropped off significantly, I kept every single employee’s full hours and pay because I was thankful for the efforts and care they had put into my business.
Let’s jump to the core of our discussion. Can you share with our readers about the innovations that you are bringing to the travel and hospitality industries?
In addition to speed of service and the human touch that goes into customer relations, American Adventure Insurance also differentiates from the typical auto insurance agency because of the number of specialized insurance carriers we represent. This allows us to offer low rates, and a breadth of coverage including unlimited towing and roadside assistance, total loss replacement, personal belongings replacement, campsite liability, disappearing deductibles and more.
As a critical point of understanding, AAI limits financial risks for policyholders in two ways. First, we make sure they don’t insure a recreational purchase with an auto policy, which is designed for autos not travel trailers, motorcycles or boats. Auto policies leave significant gaps in coverage. We also limit financial risk by providing a policy that covers nearly every potential hazard that can be encountered by those who travel far from home on vacation.
Can you imagine the total eventual cost of a vacation where your motorhome was damaged a thousand miles from home and the repairs will take two weeks to complete? It doesn’t take long to calculate two weeks of hotel stay and rental car, and what about the potential plane flight home you didn’t plan for? Towing or trailering a broken down motorhome can cost thousands, and most auto policies cover a mere $75 of the total expense. This happened to me on my very first motorhome trip and the nature of the disablement required that the motorhome be loaded onto a flatbed. The cost was over $2,000, but we had towing coverage through Foremost.
Which “pain point” are you trying to address by introducing this innovation?
A pain point for dealers (and buyers) when closing the sale is obtaining that verification of insurance document. All too often, the local Farmers or State Farm agent is out playing golf, and they can hold up the deal. American Adventure Insurance plays a key role in the loan process; the loan can’t be funded until the insurance provider is in place, so it’s incumbent on us to provide service in an expeditious manner. Focusing on our speed of service is how we grew our national footprint, and we will continue to develop new partnerships with dealers across the U.S. to reach our goal of 3,000 using our service by the end of 2021.
How do you envision that this might disrupt the status quo?
Oh, we already disrupted the status quo of auto insurance carriers and auto insurance agents a long time ago! It’s fair to say that most insurance agents nationwide truly don’t know how to provide quotes and issue a policy in mere minutes.
When the majority of U.S. states went into lockdown after the outbreak of COVID-19, it also forced a paradigm shift which I believe will not go away anytime soon. This forced shift has led to the opportunity for families to spend more quality time together. Why not social distance while spending time in nature in your new travel trailer or boat? Even with the inevitable challenges of schools and offices being closed, many parents have appreciated the extra time spent with their children and are already looking for ways to create new family adventures when restrictions are lifted. For families who are considering becoming first-time RV owners, partnering with an agency that specializes in recreational vehicles can help them rest easy knowing that they will be protected from financial disaster as they embark on new adventures.
If RV owners choose a basic auto insurance policy, they’ll be missing out on important coverage options and spending more money when a claim is filed. These extra coverage options usually result in a few extra dollars a month, but most times the overall premium is lower than what would be charged by a typical auto carrier.
Can you share 5 examples of how travel and hospitality companies will be adjusting over the next five years to the new ways that consumers like to travel?
The wholesale RV shipping numbers provided by the RVIA website show that sales were up early in 2020 compared with the 2019 numbers, even before COVID-19 cases began increasing exponentially in the U.S. By March and April 2020, the dramatic effect of the pandemic on RV sales was clear from the rising number of units being shipped to dealers. Markets in states that have deemed RV sales essential have stayed busy through April and May. Currently, many dealerships are experiencing low inventory levels and are unable to meet the demand
The buzz within the RV industry is extremely positive. The dealers that American Adventure Insurance works with are almost universally echoing that sentiment in markets across the country. Even in the most stringent locked-down states, dealers are seeing a major increase in sales as they slowly start to ease restrictions.
While forecasting seems like a fool’s errand with so many lingering unknowns, sales trends suggest that the remainder of the year will be good for the industry, should manufacturers be able to ramp up production to meet demand.
In the long-term, the RV industry will see major growth within the millennial generation. This will likely have a significant impact, as these younger generations shop differently and demand innovative amenities. This has also had a positive effect on the products themselves, with dealers looking into technology-driven forms of marketing and sales. Additionally, in 2025 there will be 15% more people between the ages of 55 and 74 in this country than there were in 2015. This is a major demographic within the RV industry and will likely result in an increase in sales.
For these types of products — travel trailers and motorhomes — people don’t shop locally, they shop the entire nation. If there’s something someone wants to buy and it’s based in Florida, they will find a way to get it home. Some dealerships even have programss where they’ll pay for an overnight hotel stay or an airline ticket for the customer. Dealers have adapted their websites to be more user-friendlywith inventory being updated accurately and consistently. If it’s not online, dealers are probably missing out on hundreds, maybe thousands, of qualified buyers.
You are a “travel insider”. How would you describe your “perfect vacation experience”?
Promise not to tell my secret? I’m not much into the RV lifestyle at the moment. I did it, I loved it, but I’m over it for now. Hailing from Northern Minnesota, I’ve spent considerable time camping and out on the lake, and when the kids were young, we had a motorhome and spent a lot of time “roughing it.”
What has become our perfect travel experience is to fly our airplane to explore a whole new area. We like to stay in a perfectly manicured little Airbnb and immerse ourselves in the local culture. Among other things, we’ve recently spent time wine tasting in Napa, skiing in Lake Tahoe, relaxing on beautiful St. Pete Beach in Tampa, and have flown to play in multiple hockey tournaments across the nation. A recent trip took us to southern Oregon for a daughter’s wedding, as well as local wine tasting, after which we jumped 800 nautical miles to the east and took in Cheyenne, WY. Greece, Italy, Germany, France, and Switzerland are in the not too distant past as well.
All that being said about camping though, we do have a cute little Airstream, and I’m thinking we’ll head over to Sequoia National Park this fall.
Can you share with our readers how have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
As human beings, I think it’s important to understand that we can’t personally solve every problem in the world today, but we can contribute by having influence in our small circle. We raised our kids to contribute to society, and they have gone on to pursue college degrees as well as Master’s Degrees. I take my familial relationships very seriously, as well as the relationships I have with my employees. I hope it can be said about me that I care about the people around me. I have a good friend who is a missionary to missionaries’ kids. I support him monthly with a contribution to his living expenses. He’s in Europe now and works with American missionary kids whose only friends are sometimes other missionary kids. They struggle with life decisions, and their parents often ignore their needs in their efforts to fulfill their own personal life endeavors. Todd works with these struggling kids and helps them find their paths in life. We have also contributed to local miscellaneous charities and youth programs.
Specific to the current times, amid a global pandemic, I believe my business can allow families to have a special travel experience without having to risk being in an airport and on the airplane and the associated health implications.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Well, I’m not sure I would consider myself a person of great influence…just a guy with an idea and a good work ethic. But with these wisps of gray hair making their presence known on my temples, I’d start a virtual ‘College of Wisdom’ for young aspiring business professionals, with classes such as:
— Decision Making — Let’s not Rush into Things
— The Care, Feeding and Watering of Your Most Important Asset — Your People
— There’s More to Life than Your Business — Don’t Forget About Your Family (And Call your Mom)
— Future Business Planning — Never Stop Evaluating and Adjusting. NEVER.
— Wear a Smile — Be the Positive Leader Your People Need.
— Negotiation — Be Quiet, Wait, and Be Real.
— Finances & Happiness — Don’t Work to Obtain Possessions. Love What You Do or Change It.
And let’s bring in some high-level executives to teach these courses… I think I’ll sit in the back and take notes.
We make music that isn’t necessarily following the current trend or flavor of the month. We make music that as artists we are inspired by, and has relevance to what is happening in our own lives; not necessarily what we think the consumer will like. Our goal is to lift the narrative out of mediocrity, and to touch the listener with something personal.
I had the pleasure of interviewing a Multi-Emmy and Grammy Award recipient,Tommy Vicari. Internationally recognized as one of Hollywood’s finest recording engineers and music mixers. During a forty plus year career, he has recorded music for every aspect of the entertainment industry. Billy Preston, Prince, George Duke, Jeffrey Osborne, Philip Bailey, Quincy Jones, Barbara Streisand, Pino Daniele, Sammy Nestico and the 2015 Grammy Award winning Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band are just a few of the musicians he’s teamed with.
His television credits include: The Oscars, Six Feet Under, The Newsroom, Angels in America. His mix for HBO’s celebrated, Behind the Candelabra earned him both an Emmy and a Cinema Audio Society Award for excellence in sound mixing.
Vicari’s work on feature films ranges from the Brian DiPalma cult classic, Phantom of the Paradise, to the Pixar multi Academy Award™ winning classics, Finding Nemo and Wall-E. Along with longtime collaborator, Thomas Newman, Vicari worked on Road to Perdition, Little Children, Revolutionary Road, Cinderella Man, A series of Unfortunate Events, The Adjustment Bureau, Brothers, The Debt, Saving Mr. Banks, Get on Up, The Judge, Side Effects, The Help, He Named Me Malala, Bridge of Spies, Passengers, Thank You for Your Service and The Highwaymen. With composer Nicholas Britell, Vicari worked on Adam McKay’s The Big Short and his HBO series Succession, Barry Jenkins’ Academy Award winning Moonlight and his subsequent feature If Beal Street Could Talk, and David Michôd’s upcoming Netflix feature, The King.
Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to ‘get to know you’ a bit better. Can you tell us your backstory?
My name is Tommy Vicari. I am a record producer, recording engineer, scoring music mixer, and a multi-award recipients; Grammy Awards (two wins — six nominations), Emmy Awards (seven wins — 24 nominations), Cinema Audio Society Awards (two wins — three nominations).
I began my career at 18 years young in the mailroom of the famous Capitol Records. At the end of my shift, I wouldn’t leave the building, but instead, attended any and all sessions I was allowed to sit in on. I basically lived there for two years. Then I made a move to A&M Records, the most successful independent company in the world at the time. It was an oasis of creative activities, the place to be. I began working as an assistant engineer, and after two years, made my way to engineering.
Since those early days, I have worked with such artists as: Paul Williams, Billy Preston, Gino Vannelli, Jeffrey Osborne, Joni Mitchell, George Harrison, Prince, Quincy Jones, George Duke, Philip Bailey, Barbra Streisand, Pino Daniele, Filippo Perbellini, Sammy Nestico, Gordon Goodwin’s, Big Phat Band, Brenda Russell, Teena Marie, The Dazz Band, Stanley Clarke, Santana, Bill Champlain, Seawind, Taste of Honey, Joan Baez, Howard Hewitt, David Foster, Atlantic Star, Stephanie Mills, Jimmy Cliff, Shanice, Ray Charles, and many more.
My television credits include: Succession, The Oscars, Six Feet Under, Angels in America, The Newsroom and Behind the Candelabra, to name a few.
My feature films credits include: the Brian DiPalma cult classic, Phantom of the Paradise, Paul Williams’ A Star is Born,to the Pixar multi Academy Award™ winning classics, Finding Nemo and Wall-E. Along with longtime collaborator Thomas Newman, I recorded and mixed scores for Road to Perdition, Little Children, Revolutionary Road, Cinderella Man, A Series Of Unfortunate Events, The Adjustment Bureau, Brothers, The Debt, Saving Mr. Banks, Get on Up, The Judge, Side Effects, The Help, He Named Me Malala, Bridge of Spies, Passengers, Thank You for Your Service and The Highwaymen.
In collaboration with composer Nicholas Britell, I scored Adam McKay’s The Big Short and his HBO series Succession; Barry Jenkins’ Academy Award winning film Moonlight and his subsequent feature If Beal Street Could Talk; as well as David Michôd’s Netflix feature, The King.
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? How do you think that will help people?
We make music that isn’t necessarily following the current trend or flavor of the month. We make music that as artists we are inspired by, and has relevance to what is happening in our own lives; not necessarily what we think the consumer will like. Our goal is to lift the narrative out of mediocrity, and to touch the listener with something personal.
I am currently re-mixing an album for World Goes Round that I produced almost 30 years ago, as it was just discovered. It is as relevant today.
World Goes Round is a band made up of respected songwriters, singers and musicians who teamed up to make an album during the late 1980s that never got released, and are finally issuing songs from the long-lost collection after a cassette copy of the project was recently discovered. The second single from the album titled “Round The World”, as well as a companion video, are now available; following the recent release of the song “Big House”.
World Goes Round features Frank Musker, Elizabeth Lamers, Jeff Hull and Marty Walsh, who collectively wrote, performed and/or recorded with such famous artists as Queen, Linda Ronstadt, Chaka Khan, Quincy Jones, Kenny Rogers, John Denver, Supertramp, John Fogerty, Donna Summer, Neil Diamond and Air Supply, among others.
Musker is a veteran British songwriter whose credits include co-writing such hits as The Babys’ “Back on My Feet Again” and Paul Nicholas’ “Heaven on the 7th Floor.” He and Lamers also teamed up with Queen guitarist Brian May to co-write “Too Much Love Will Kill You,” a 1996 U.K. hit for the legendary rock group Queen. Lamers’ resume also includes stints singing backing vocals for Denver and Jeffrey Osbourne. Hull has co-written songs for Khan, Patti LaBelle and many others. Walsh is an acclaimed guitarist whose many credits include Donna Summer’s “She Works Hard for the Money,” Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5” and Diamond’s “Heartlight.”
Musker, Lamers, Hull, Walsh and Vicari recently got together via Zoom to discuss the music they made together 30-plus years ago. For more info check out: https://www.worldgoesround.info/.
What do you think makes your company or organization stand out from the crowd
Since 1976, I have been an independent recording engineer. My company, VSO, inc. (Vicari Sound Organization), does not adhere to one genre of music. We record and mix music for records, motion picture scores, theme parks, television movies, television series, television variety shows, Super Bowl Half Time shows, commercials, and last but not least, documentaries.
I have worked in every sound recording studio around the world, be it on an eight channel Mackie to 100 channel Neve, to unlimited channels DAW (digital audio work station). I have been thrown into every situation you can think of, and my responsibility is to make it work. I approach every project with the same respect, knowing that at the tip-of my fingers, is someone else’s dream.
Has there ever been a time that someone told you something was impossible, but you did it anyway? Can you share the story with us? What was your idea? What was the reaction of the naysayers? And how did you overcome that?
There have been so many stories of this nature throughout the course of my career. However one stands out above all the rest: New Year’s Eve 1999, The Millennium Show, Washington DC.
I was commissioned by Quincy Jones to mix a 100 piece live orchestra on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on December 31, 1999, featuring every major artist of the 20th Century.
The temperature was below freezing level. It was the turn of the century. Y2K was the belief that all computers would fail. Wide scale panic was pervasive across the country. What would happen if all computers failed? Concerned citizens stocked up on provisions in case of Armageddon.
Because it was such an historic event, all recording mobile trucks were booked…all analog trucks. The choices I had was an SSL (Solid State Logic) digital console. I was advised over and over by colleagues to under no circumstances, use a digital console. It would fail on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with the President of the United States in attendance, beamed around the world on live TV. Y2K would wreak havoc on my broadcast.
After weeks of research in the U.S. and in Europe, I had to make a decision to go with the digital console, or use equipment that clearly could not handle the scope of this endeavor. In spite of the collective consensus, I made the decision to use the SSL digital console, and leave the outcome up to the recording Gods.
At the first rehearsal, all the microphone pre-amps froze. Not a great start. We acquired heaters to warm up the pre-amps, and they functioned as planned.
The show went live in front of an enormous crowd across the mall, with every popular artist of the 20th Century, with John Williams conducting a 100 piece orchestra, as well as a choir. The clock struck midnight, and as in a fairy tale, the show went on with no interruption. 2000 started with an unanticipated success. I followed my instinct, took the risk and the gamble paid off.
In the end, how were all the naysayers proven wrong? 🙂
Succeeding in the end speaks for itself.
Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I have had mentors and have been inspired by the ones who preceded me every step of my career, and to this day, I am still learning. There are so many names and so many stories. I will focus on a few: Herb Alpert, Hank Cicalo, Bruce Botnick, Phil Ramone and Al Schmitt.
I left A&M Records as a young engineer with a secured staff position to pursue studying under Armin Steiner, owner of Sound Labs. Armin was at the time an innovator in orchestral recording and popular music. Armin Steiner is in a league of his own.
Quincy Jones called me in 1997 and requested that I attend a meeting at ABC Television. I had no idea what the meeting was about until unbeknownst to me, I was to mix the Oscars, live. I told Quincy: “I don’t know how to mix a live TV show, I’m a studio rat.” Quincy looked at me and replied: “Figure it out!” He knew that I would rise to the challenge and had the talent to do so. I have been mixing the Oscars for 24 years now.
Thomas Newman took a chance with me when I was hired to sub for his scoring mixer. I recorded and mixed the theme for Six Feet Under. Next thing I knew, he hired me to score Road to Perdition, one of his all time classics. I had worked on film before with Paul Williams on Phantom of the Paradise, A Star is Born and Yentl, but I was mostly experienced as recording engineer. We have had many successes together since.
Nicholas Britell asked me to help him mix this movie for Paramount. It turned out to be The Big Short. Since then, we have collaborated on Moonlight,If Beal Street Could Talk, The King, and HBO’s series Succession.
The list goes on and probably would be more fitting for a book.
It must not have been easy to ignore all the naysayers. Did you have any experiences growing up that have contributed to building your resiliency? Can you share the story with us.
First and foremost, for as long as I can remember, I have loved music. To this day, it is my driving force.
I remember clearly watching my father coming home one evening, his head down after being let go from his day job. I looked at his embarrassed face, and swore I would not allow that to happen to me. Ironically, it has happened to me, only I had the resilience and determination to get up, dust myself off and go back to doing what I do best.
Based on your experience, can you share 5 strategies that people can use to harness the sense of tenacity and do what naysayers think is impossible? (Please share a story or an example for each)
I have no strategy to share other than to pursue what you love. There is no easy path to any career and there is always a mountain to climb. A doctor needs to put in many years in residency before he can practice. A violinist must practice hours and hours before mastering his instrument. In his bestseller Outliers — The Story of Success, author Malcolm Gladewell writes that it takes roughly 10,000 hours of practice to achieve mastery in any field.
I am reminded of a quote Composer Bill Conti once shared with me during a session: “There are three reasons to take a job: 1) the project 2) the people 3) the money.” You must have one out of three to go to work. If you get all three, you’ve hit a home run.
What is your favorite quote or personal philosophy that relates to the concept of resilience?
In my earlier days I was taught: “you will be given a chance to sit in the seat. If you are not prepared, you might not get a second chance.” Quincy Jones once said: “If you can see it, you can be it.”
Commitment, preparation, persistence, and showing up will get you there.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I must borrow a quote which still moves me. From his documentary film: Shadow Man, The Sammy Nestico Unfinished Story. Maestro Sammy Nestico says: “Never let anyone steal your dreams. If I can make it, so can you. We may not be changing the world dramatically, but we are improving it, one note at the time.”
Don’t take what naysayers think personally — Be humble in what you are creating as it is hard for people to dislike what you are doing if they feel a connection to who is doing the creating. Trying to outdo a naysayer plays into their game and takes your advantage away from being the most knowledgeable person in the conversation around what you believe.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Jon Werner, KOYA Innovations.
Jon recently served as a Senior Director and Innovation Explorer at adidas focused on bringing digital experiences to life for the brand. Before adidas, Jon founded Bones in Motion, a mobile software start-up in 2003 that pioneered using GPS in mobile phones to deliver real-time fitness experiences that was acquired by adidas in 2009 and became the foundation for adidas’ miCoach mobile. He has also worked at several start-ups in consumer electronics, enterprise hardware and software and military software development. His work as a software architect for IBM brought his family to Austin, TX where he still resides. He holds over 50 patents covering user interface design, speech recognition, networking, mobile fitness related software and hardware and other fun stuff. Currently, Jon handles the CEO and CPO duties at KOYA Innovations leveraging over 17 years of building mobile apps based on location awareness.
Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to ‘get to know you’ a bit better. Can you tell us your ‘backstory’?
Sure. I’ve had a passion for DIY ever since my dad gave me his 10 year old 1966 Mustang. My dad was wise and knew this would keep me focused after school and on the weekends. Making the car my own not only kept me out of trouble, but also opened up a new world.
When I wasn’t rebuilding cars in the garage, I began dabbling with theBASIC programming language on a Radio Shack TRS-80 my junior year in high school. This solidified my decision to pursue a computer science degree in college which jump-started my 35 year career in software development.
My first job out of college was working inside the Pentagon on projects for the Air Force. While fun, the excitement quickly wore off after spending long hours in a windowless office. Working on trailing edge technology wasn’t fulfilling.
I then found a position at a 2-person startup doing advanced software development for the Navy and enjoyed the scrappiness of working lean. In fact, I liked it so much that, outside of a 4 year stint at IBM and 10 years at Adidas, I have found myself working at 6 startups throughout my life.
While I enjoyed programming during the early years, the opportunity to architect projects and work with folks in marketing and business development really helped round out my skillset. These experiences also gave me the push to start my first company in 2002.
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? How do you think that will help people?
I’ve co-founded my second startup, KOYA Innovations, with my wife and two eldest daughters. Our goal was to make it fun and easy for people to stay meaningfully connected at the right place and time. We found that maintaining meaningful connections is integral in combating the loneliness epidemic. In the US alone, more than 70% of Gen-Z and Millennials have reported they are lonely. Social networks have been watering down meaningful points of connection over the last decade and KOYA aims to change the narrative. Our vision is to end loneliness by facilitating moments of meaningful connection between friends and family.
In your opinion, what do you think makes your company or organization stand out from the crowd?
Being highly connected to each other and to our friends and family has given us a competitive advantage in that we are creating for others what we have already been doing for the last two decades as a family. We have surrounded ourselves with other highly successful entrepreneurs as key advisors in the areas we need to grow. It also helps that our team places purpose and profitability on the same priority level.
I’m an innovator at heart with over 50 patents and see the intersection of trends in the future that a few times I’ve tried to adopt too early. I believe the timing is spot on for what we are bringing to the market as it solves a problem many people are experiencing right now.
Ok, thank you for that. I’d like to jump to the main focus of this interview. Has there ever been a time that someone told you something was impossible, but you did it anyway? Can you share the story with us? What was your idea? What was the reaction of the naysayers? And how did you overcome that?
The first startup I did was called Bones in Motion. The problem we were trying to solve was giving runners and cyclists an easy way to keep track of their speed, distance and calories burned. We wanted to automatically track their workouts or race events using a device they already owned — their mobile phone.
An early obstacle we faced was that in 2003 there were no GPS capabilities in mobile phones. Despite this initial challenge, federal E911 mandates began requiring the ability to track the phone’s location when dialing 911. Given our location based services expertise, all of the wireless carriers wanted to partner with us as a way to fulfill the E911 requirements and monetize their investments.
Being on the bleeding edge of technology, we had access to all the new mobile phones that had GPS capabilities and were able to develop a solution that worked perfectly by the middle of 2004. We showed this to Nike in the fall of 2004 and they quickly validated our value proposition and wanted to license the technology once it was available. However, another obstacle we ran into was that the wireless carriers were dragging their feet on turning location based services on and their fall 2004 dates slipped to the spring/summer of 2006!
We had raised enough capital to get us through 2005 and started speaking with VCs for an institutional round of funding to get us to product availability. Armed with accolades from wireless carriers and being awarded the Global Location Based Services award in 2005, we were confident about our ability to close our round. We had a proven demo they could go outside to experience and check for accuracy. We also had filed patents covering the use of mobile app software using GPS to calculate speed, distance, space and calories burned. What could possibly go wrong?
Remember, this took place in 2005, two years before the iPhone with iTunes launched. While iTunes was still a few years out, there were several trends pointing to why consumers would run and bike with their mobile phones. These being the availability of downloadable music on mobile phones and Bluetooth support for wireless listening. However, even with all of this evidence, VCs just couldn’t get their heads around the idea of carrying a mobile phone on a run. We never did close an institutional round, but were able to raise additional friends and family capital to fill the gap.
In the end, how were all the naysayers proven wrong? 🙂
Once we went live on Sprint in the spring of 2006, then on Verizon in the fall, we found market-fit for the service and began waiting for more mainstream GPS enabled mobile devices to hit the market. Verizon highlighted us in commercials and we branched out to Canada, Mexico and Europe with their country specific wireless carriers. Our patents were granted in 2007 and, in the end, Adidas acquired us in February 2009.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I grew up in a home that was super encouraging and believed in my ability to do whatever I put my hands and mind to. That being said, I felt stuck during my college years and it took my wife, then college sweet-heart, to give me a greater purpose to finish strong and achieve my degree in Computer Science (five year plan). I also married into an incredible relationship that trusted in my abilities and allowed me to pursue my dreams, even when times were challenging. We sold our home and emptied our retirement accounts to keep Bones in Motion going. I would not be where I am today without the support of my incredible wife.
It must not have been easy to ignore all the naysayers. Did you have any experiences growing up that have contributed to building your resiliency? Can you share the story with us?
I am fortunate to see the world as overflowing, not just half full. I would have to point this perspective back to how supportive my parents were in letting me think for myself and pursue different endeavors. I experienced early that failure was a good thing if it happened fast and you could take your learnings to the next level. For me, failure is simply an opportunity to iterate and makes things better than before.
Back in high school, our junior class sold holly wreaths one fall as a fundraiser. We were not doing that well and school was about to break for the holidays. So a friend and I decided to buy up the remaining inventory at cost and try to make a profit selling the wreaths out of the trunk of our cars in shopping center parking lots. Let’s just say we ended up with a lot of holly decorations at our homes that year. My big takeaway from this experience, as my friend and I were the only ones who believed we could actually succeed, was that we tried together. I believe that resilience is built by having the confidence to succeed and not caring what people might think if you fail.
Based on your experience, can you share 5 strategies that people can use to harness the sense of tenacity and do what naysayers think is impossible? (Please share a story or an example for each)
Be authentic with who you are and what you believe. When the going gets tough and you are pressing through to the finish line, you need all the gas you can muster. If you realize that you no longer believe in the mission at any point, pull the ripcord and preserve your integrity versus trying to prove the naysayers wrong. Because, sometimes they are right.
Surround yourself with those who have diverse ideas, avoiding echo chambers. The world is a diverse place. If you want to avoid being blindsided by naysayers, solidify what you believe through the testing of others in your circle before exposing it to the world. Remember, you need to know more about what you believe than the naysayers and use this to your advantage as you pass them by.
Be available to mentor others through their challenges. Don’t waste your failed experiences, share them with others so the failures have a positive return. Being vulnerable helps those you are mentoring know you are not perfect. We make mistakes but we learn from those mistakes and move on versus dwelling on what could or should have happened.
Always be looking for how to make things around you better. Don’t assume anything is complete. Even the most mundane things, like emptying the cat litter, can be done better.
Don’t take what naysayers think personally — Be humble in what you are creating as it is hard for people to dislike what you are doing if they feel a connection to who is doing the creating. Trying to outdo a naysayer plays into their game and takes your advantage away from being the most knowledgeable person in the conversation around what you believe.
What is your favorite quote or personal philosophy that relates to the concept of resilience?
Never quit something you strongly believe in. I’m also a man of faith and believe in a higher calling and not just swimming with the flow.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I believe firmly that what we are building at KOYA will change the way we relate to one another. It is my desire to see the KOYA platform deepen relationships and help end the loneliness epidemic.
Can our readers follow you on social media?
I occasionally tweet (@jonw) and post on LinkedIn (https://linkedin.com/in/jonwerner). I am happy to connect with you and find creative ways to make the world a fun place to share together.
Thank you for these great stories. We wish you only continued success!
As women, we need to have confidence, self-belief and faith in our significance. When we embrace the fact that we have a unique purpose and importance that goes beyond any accomplishment or title, I believe confidence follows naturally.
As part of my series about “the five things we need to do to close the gender wage gap” I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Cortney Baker.
Dr. Cortney Baker went from teenage mom to becoming the founder and CEO of an eight-figure healthcare business, KidsCare Home Health, servicing over 5,000 special needs children. Leveraging her experiences, she coaches female entrepreneurs on how to start and scale their own service-based businesses. As a leadership expert, business coach, and mother, Cortney is passionate about empowering women to close the gender gap through the power of entrepreneurship. This area was also her area of research when pursuing her Ed.D. in Organizational Leadership from Pepperdine University. A TEDx speaker, podcast host, and author of the best-selling book, ‘The Ten Do’s and Don’ts for Business Leadership: Lessons to Lead Effectively’ and, ‘Unlimited: Conquering the Myth of the Glass Ceiling,’ Dr. Cortney shares these messages internationally for organizations, associations, and entrepreneurs. Dr. Cortney was named the 2016/2017 Texas Business Woman of the Year, and the Top 100 in Healthcare in America.
Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us the “backstory” that brought you to this career path?
My introduction to the working world was a little different to the rest of my high school classmates! Six months after graduating, I gave birth to my son and became a single teen mom. Surviving on double waitressing shifts and food stamps, I was eventually able to work my way through college and earn my master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology.
I jumped straight into entrepreneurship after college and founded KidsCare Home Health, a pediatric home healthcare agency in Dallas. We’ve grown from just ten patients in the beginning, to an eight-figure national healthcare enterprise spanning 11 cities and three states.
After a decade in business, I decided to go back to school and get my doctoral degree in Organizational Leadership — something I’d dreamed about since those single-teen-mom days. As I began classes at Pepperdine University, I had something of an epiphany. We had an orientation task that involved writing our own 80th birthday toast. I put myself in the shoes of my 80-year-old self, reflected back, and realized I wasn’t living my purpose at all. I didn’t know exactly what that purpose was at the time, but I knew I wasn’t fulfilling it.
A month later, at the age of 37, I suffered a massive stroke in two places and underwent a seven-hour brain surgery. Needless to say, the experience was brutal, but I did a lot of soul-searching during my recovery.
When I returned to my studies, I knew exactly where I wanted to focus my attention: women’s leadership. I wanted to know why there were so few women leaders in healthcare. Despite women making up 80 percent of the healthcare workforce, we only occupied 11 percent of the CEO positions. What was stopping us climbing the corporate ladder?
Through my doctoral research, I found that women face four key challenges in advancing their careers:
1. Family obligations
2. Limited opportunities for growth
3. Gender-based discrimination
4. Lack of confidence
These issues are not unique to the healthcare industry; they’re specific to being female. We’re supposedly more than 100 years away from gender equality at the highest levels of leadership, and that’s not good enough for me or for future generations of women. So with the life and business experience I’ve gained from the past 20 years, I’ve made it my mission to help female entrepreneurs overcome these obstacles and scale their own businesses.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this career?
In May 2018, I was a keynote speaker at a conference in Dallas. A young woman approached me looking, frankly, star-struck! Valerie wanted to know more about my research findings, so I shared my book Unlimited: Conquering the Myth of the Glass Ceiling.
After she implemented the strategies in the book, Valerie emailed me to tell me she’d negotiated a $10,000 raise from her employer, and to ask if I’d consider mentoring her. We met over dinner and she told me she wanted to start her own business when she was “older”. I told her that if she was serious, then I could help her right now.
Four months later, on the sixth anniversary of my stroke, Valerie launched a digital marketing agency called Lumos Creative. Within the year, she was leading a global team of ten.
Can you share a story about the funniest or most interesting mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
When I first started sharing my research, I’d publish short videos about my findings and strategies on YouTube. I’d get so many hateful comments and messages, usually from men.
One comment was particularly spiteful and offensive, and I found it really difficult not to take it to heart. However, after a little digging, I found that the commenter also published videos with titles like “hot turtle sex”. Suddenly, his critique didn’t feel quite so scathing!
The lesson? As Dr Brene Brown says, consider your source. I learned that only those in the arena with me should be allowed to speak into my life.
Ok let’s jump to the main focus of our interview. Even in 2019, women still earn about 80 cents for every dollar a man makes. Can you explain three of the main factors that are causing the wage gap?
When we compare average salaries by gender, without taking into account variables like job role or qualifications, men are paid around 20 percent more than women. When we look at women of American Indian, Black and Hispanic descent specifically, men are paid 25 percent more.
But let’s take into account those variables. When we do, we see that a woman actually earns $.98 for every $1 an equally qualified man in a comparable role earns. That pay divide increases for women in executive level positions.
Now two cents per dollar may not sound like much of a difference initially, and it’s considerably less than the 20 cents we’re used to hearing about. But when you consider that money compounds and grows over time, those lost earnings are still significant across the course of a woman’s lifetime.
So what’s the cause of the disparity? There are several, but let’s look at the big three.
Occupational segregation
One of the biggest contributing factors to pay inequality is that women are generally employed in lower-paid occupations. Think childcare, hospitality, care work, etc. On the other hand, men are more likely to be employed in high-paying fields like sales, aviation, engineering, medicine, etc.
This is known as occupational segregation, and it usually happens because we’ve been raised according to certain societal expectations and gender norms. In other words, we raise our girls to play with dolls and kitchens, and our boys to play with cars and microscopes. How can we be surprised when they end up in the roles we’ve primed them for their whole lives?
Work policies vs family obligations
To ever achieve gender equality in the workplace, we have to achieve gender equality at home. Studies have shown that for every hour of house or childcare work done by a man, a woman does 1.7 hours. To meet these extra demands, women are more likely to accept lower-paid jobs that offer more flexibility, and they’re more likely to have to juggle work demands during home time. Whether it’s the boardroom or the classroom, they’re always left with the sense that they’re failing somewhere.
At work, mothers experience what’s known as “the motherhood penalty”. They’re perceived as less competent than men and childless women, and this is reflected in their compensation, benefits, and career opportunities.
When women do leave the workforce for their families, it’s not always because they want to stay home. In fact, women who satisfy their personal desire to work are proven to be better psychologically equipped for parenting. They’ve often tried exhaustively to negotiate flexibility at work or extra support at home, but with neither boss nor partner offering any leeway, they’ve felt they had no other option.
What about the child-free woman? Whether she’s planning to have kids or not, many employers assume (not always consciously) that it’s only a matter of time before a woman takes off to start a family. She’s considered more of a risky hire/promotion than her male peers, who they assume will continue their career uninterrupted by family life.
Gender-based discrimination
Women are making great strides in attaining mid-level management positions, but men are still promoted around 30 percent more often early in their careers. It’s not just a simple case of male vs female, though. The reasons are more nuanced.
First, we have the good ol’ boys club. Men have historically held the upper ranks of leadership and the power that comes with it. They get the clout, they hold the purse strings, and they control the resources — and some of them (not all) don’t want to share it with their female peers.
Second, women can be their own worst enemy. When women are underrepresented in a workplace, it creates a sense that there’s only room for a chosen few. Some women react to this by viciously protecting their place at the table from other women. Rather than supporting their progression, their manipulative or underhanded behavior simply perpetuates the stereotypes used to oppress them in the first place.
Finally, women are often led to believe that in order to compete in a male-dominated environment, they have to act like men — and are then penalized for doing so. They adopt stereotypically masculine behaviors like assertiveness, only to be labelled bitches or ballbusters. They’re damned if they do, damned if they don’t, and this “double bind” only gets stronger as they get higher up the ladder. These stereotypes directly and indirectly contribute to the pay gap and have a significant — but vastly underestimated — influence on women’s career progression.
Can you share with our readers what your work is doing to help close the gender wage gap?
We’re currently not on track to achieve gender equality at the C-level for another 100 years. I will not accept that for myself nor for my teenage daughters. I’m committed to changing it, but the only way we can make the change we want to see is to BE the change we’re looking for.
For the last two years, I’ve been helping female entrepreneurs start and scale their own service-based businesses through my two signature programs, From Side Hustle to CEO and Scaling Society. Let’s stop asking for a seat at the table and build our own damn tables!
Can you recommend 5 things that need to be done on a broader societal level to close the gender wage gap? Please share a story or example for each.
Reframe the glass ceiling
I do not believe in the glass ceiling. When a woman accepts she’s going to held back by this invisible force, she surrenders her power. So reject the myth of the glass ceiling and stop perpetuating your own powerlessness! Reframe your perspective and the language you use to describe your journey, and you will better arm yourself to achieve success.
Gender equity starts in the home
Balancing family and career continues to be a source of struggle for women, with little support being offered on either side. When couples split the childcare and financial labor evenly, children are happier, moms experience less guilt, and men are more connected to their families. Everybody wins in an equal home, and there’s a weight of evidence to back this up.
Get comfortable with hard conversations
Conflicts are inevitable on any career path. To be successful, we need to lean into this and master the art of the hard conversation. To communicate our point assertively, but also be respectful of everyone involved. To let go of passive aggression and express ourselves with honesty, compassion and conviction. To give feedback constructively, and accept feedback gracefully.
Women tend to receive more generic, less constructive feedback than men. Rather than actionable points, they’re given fluff and filler. How are we supposed to course-correct or grow from that? If we don’t speak up, then we can’t.
It can be uncomfortable, but all leaders, male and female, should practice giving clear, direct and actionable feedback to women. And women should practice requesting this feedback should it not be offered.
Socialization, media, and playing on the same team
Female workplace harassment is on the rise, and four in five women claim that other women have sabotaged their careers. When women engage in this behavior, they’re only supporting the very stereotypes that are being used to oppress them.
Female aggression is the result of young girls being socialized to internalize their anger. Instead of healthy outward expression, they’re taught to be more indirect and underhand in expressing negative feelings. And of course, they’re not supposed to be competitive, at least not overtly. This is strongly reinforced by the media, with caricatures of bitchy, catty, spiteful women far outnumbering representations of positive female teams or leaders.
If we’re to buck this trend, we need to raise our girls with a strong sense of self, a healthy outlet for their emotions, and an appreciation for competition. Women with solid self-esteem and high emotional intelligence are much less likely to engage in aggressive behaviors, and those who experience competition in a team environment are better equipped to work collaboratively with others.
The definition of confidence
One of the biggest challenges women face in the quest for the corner office is a lack of self-confidence. Regardless of the success we’ve earned, our own insecurities and fears can shape our internal and external narratives. We feel this in every area of our lives — work, finances, parenting, you name it — and it manifests in our relationships too.
My theory is that confidence is found in resilience, which is developed through perseverance. When you face adversity head-on without crumbling. When you have the courage to grow after failure, stagnation, or loss. When you know your purpose and you stand by your integrity.
As women, we need to have confidence, self-belief and faith in our significance. When we embrace the fact that we have a unique purpose and importance that goes beyond any accomplishment or title, I believe confidence follows naturally.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I’d start the #screw100years movement, because we’re not waiting 100 years for pay equality! When women gain their confidence, realize their power in a healthy way, and begin to collaborate with each other, I believe we can make tremendous strides in gaining gender equality much sooner.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“In a world full of rhinestones, be a diamond.”
We’re all put in positions where we can decide how we want to show up and who we want to be. We don’t have to accept anything we’re given, whether it be a circumstance or a label. When I was a single teen mom on Medicaid and food stamps, I decided I wanted more. I knew my worth, I showed up, and I built a better life for myself and my child.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might see this, especially if we tag them.
Dr Brene Brown is doing some incredibly transformational work around workplace culture and leadership change right now. I’m a big proponent of her message and I’d love to see how her work can be used to help decrease the gender gap sooner than the projected 100 years. And as a bonus, she’s a fellow Texan! 🙂
This was really meaningful! Thank you so much for your time.
The Future Of Beauty: The Future of Beauty is Personalization, with Dr. Brandon Kirsch of ClearifiRx.com
The first thing that excites me is the opportunity to make a meaningful difference with minimally invasive office and home-based treatments. I like to think of meaningful difference as the “man on the street” test. If you were to ask 10 people the age of someone, what would they say? Over the past 10–20 years we have developed dozens of extraordinary tools to make people look younger and more beautiful.
As a part of our series about how technology will be changing the beauty industry over the next five years, I had the pleasure of interviewingDr. Brandon Kirsch.
Dr. Brandon Kirsch’s work spans the worlds of dermatology, technology, business and law. He is a board-certified dermatologist who started his career as a lawyer and holds law degrees from the University of Western Ontario (LL.B.) and Georgetown University (LL.M. Securities and Financial Regulation). He completed medical school at Brown University, an internship at the Mayo Clinic and dermatology residency at the University of North Carolina. Dr. Kirsch is the President and Chief Executive Officer at ClearifiRx.com, a dermatologist-led online platform providing personalized prescriptions to treat skin conditions. Dr. Kirsch also serves as Chief of Dermatology for the Naples Community Hospital and is the founder of Kirsch Dermatology in Naples, Florida. He was previously an Assistant Clinical Professor of Dermatology at the University of Colorado and Medical Director and Vice President of Clinical Development at Brickell Biotech, Inc. At Brickell, Dr. Kirsch provided leadership and strategic direction for the clinical science team. In his role, he had primary responsibility for overseeing development programs from late preclinical to registration Phase 3 randomized studies.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Great question! I was working as a corporate lawyer in the London office of the law firm Shearman & Sterling. Someone won a record-breaking Powerball lottery back home in the US and it was all over the news. It got me thinking about what I would do with that kind of money. After dreaming of a two-week vacation to Tahiti, it occurred to me what I really wanted was to become a doctor. And then I realized: I don’t need all the money in the world to do that — so I resigned and went back to school.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
While I was in training at the Mayo Clinic, a senior attending physician of mine sat me down and told me that I was the worst resident he had seen. He asked me if I had ever been tested for a learning disability. That was humbling. It wasn’t deserved but it wasn’t unwarranted either. It certainly motivated me to work harder. In retrospect, given the outstanding talent of Mayo Clinic residents, he could have given a worse criticism. I like that story because it is easy to forget the amount of failure that is needed to succeed.
Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Are there takeaways or lessons that others can learn from that?
There were a lot of times during pre-med and medical school when I thought to myself that learning this stuff might be impossible. I was twenty-seven and I hadn’t taken math or science since the eleventh grade. I would open up a book on calculus or organic chemistry or anatomy and it might as well have been in Sanskrit. I read those books until the pages fell out. I did calculus in my dreams. The tipping point for me was simply realizing that you can succeed just by never giving up.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person to whom you are grateful who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Dr. Lionel Bercovitch, a pediatric dermatologist at Brown University. I first met Dr. Bercovitch while I was a medical student. It was Dr. Bercovitch who introduced me to dermatology. I remember watching him provide the most brilliant and compassionate care and thinking, I want to be like Dr. Bercovitch! He recognized dermatology as my calling before I did and he has supported me through my career, including advising me to “lose the tan” prior to my residency interviews. There is no way I would have become a dermatologist without him (or met my wife… but that’s an entirely different story).
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. The beauty industry today has access to technology that was inconceivable only a short time ago. Can you tell us about the “cutting edge” (pardon the pun) technologies that you are working with or introducing? How do you think that will help people?
The future of beauty is personalization. At ClearifiRx.com, which I co-founded with three other dermatologists, we are relying on several new technologies to tailor dermatologic treatments to each patient, as well as to adapt treatment plans based on individual response. Analyzing treatment response at the individual level represents a relatively recent paradigm shift in the practice of medicine. ClearifiRx is building a foundation to apply the principles of precision medicine to beauty through the use of virtual visits, biological databases and the application of computational tools for analyzing large sets of data. This has the potential to democratize accessibility to world-class, expert-level care and substantially improve treatment outcomes.
Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?
Clearly, the practice of truly effective precision medicine requires the collection of a lot of detailed personal information from many people. There are ample opportunities for the misuse of that data, which has a tremendous amount of commercial value.
Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the “beauty-tech” industry?
The first thing that excites me is the opportunity to make a meaningful difference with minimally invasive office and home-based treatments. I like to think of meaningful difference as the “man on the street” test. If you were to ask 10 people the age of someone, what would they say? Over the past 10–20 years we have developed dozens of extraordinary tools to make people look younger and more beautiful. Cosmetic Botox, a relative dinosaur now, is less than 20 years old. The second thing is the focus on individualized care. It has taken us a long time to recognize that a one-size-fits all approach to beauty doesn’t make sense. In this regard, the expectations of the public are shifting, and this will lead to better therapeutic results. The third thing is the scale of effort. We are seeing phenomenal industry growth, which has led to corresponding investments in research and development. Those efforts are definitely starting to yield dividends. For example, at ClearifiRx we are working to leverage emerging third-party artificial intelligence technologies, as well as visual recognition software, with the expertise of leading dermatologists to optimize treatment regimens.
Can you share 3 things that most concern you about the industry? If you had the ability to implement 3 ways to reform or improve the industry, what would you suggest?
First, there is an enormous amount of “snake oil” in the beauty industry. We are surrounded by endless marketing appeals based on the most superficial of scientific claims. Second, there is an ingrained perception that more expensive is better. Ironically, the opposite is often the case. The large companies with the most scale tend to do the best research and the best job formulating their products. In other words, the $10 moisturizer and sunscreen at your local pharmacy is probably at least as good, if not better, than the $200 version. Third, the beauty industry seems to intentionally promote unrealistic aesthetic benchmarks. What we see in the majority of advertisements are the most naturally beautiful people in the world under special lighting, with professional makeup, after photo retouching. Somehow this has become the standard for beauty and as a result very few people can feel good about themselves. Reforming the beauty industry really comes down to demanding more honesty, transparency and authenticity.
You are an expert about beauty. Can you share 5 ideas that anyone can use “to feel beautiful”? (Please share a story or example for each.)
1.Do good. I think it is fairly obvious that a lot of beauty radiates from the inside out. The fastest way to feel beautiful from the inside is to help someone else. There is nothing more beautiful than a genuine smile. 2. Exercise. Staying in shape is critical to feeling beautiful. Sweat itself is good for your skin. It is also well known that exercise reduces stress and decreases inflammation throughout your body. This all leads to a brighter and clearer complexion. 3. Diet. Many delicious and wholesome foods contribute to a skin-healthy diet. Nutrient-rich foods help support healthy skin and combat various skin problems, along with boosting your overall health, wellness and energy levels. Along with nutritious foods, drinking lots of water promotes the appearance of a youthful and radiant skin. 4. Rest. Everyone needs their beauty sleep! Frequently, we look tired because we are, in fact, tired. You are also are more likely to make poor diet choices and put off exercising when you are not adequately rested. 5. Words of affirmation. You won’t feel beautiful unless you believe you are beautiful. Based on my experience with thousands of patients, I can tell you with near 100% certainty that you are your own worst critic. That pimple you can’t stop staring at… nobody else even notices. Look in the mirror at least once daily and tell yourself that you are beautiful. Telling yourself you are beautiful is the first step to believing it.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Sadly, we have a real shortage of honesty and authenticity in the beauty industry. I’d like to see a commitment to limiting claims to those based on good scientific evidence. It would also be nice to see more authentic images that do not promote unrealistic expectations.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Muhammad Ali It has been a sort of a guiding principle to me that if you work hard enough, anything is possible. There have been so many amazing accomplishments that were once thought to be impossible. I think it is best to dream big and then to worry later about how to make those dreams a reality.
The Future of Beauty: Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality in the Retail Environment, with Sonia Khemiri and Sylvie Giret of Beautyque NYC
Online enhanced experience technology such as what we’re doing with our advanced 3D platform: the ability to provide real time and personalized advice through voice or video assistants, customized skincare and makeup with intelligent mirrors, and various try-on apps are a trend we look at closely, and include in our platform, shoppable live stream.
As a part of our series about how technology will be changing the beauty industry over the next five years,I had the pleasure of interviewing Beautyque NYC Co-Founders Sonia Khemiri and Sylvie Giret.
As beauty brand founders, both Sonia and Sylvie, who are French born and US-based business women, understand the complexities of taking a product to market. It was when discussing their own needs as indie brand founders that Sonia & Sylvie came up with the idea of Beautyque NYC: creating a space that would mix the benefits of a tradeshow, of a showroom and of a retail store, where they could safely engage with customers and take the time to explain their products and brand concepts. They created Beautyque NYC as a disrupter for the beauty and wellness retail industry to elevate the digital platform for independent and emerging brands.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Sonia: Beauty came a bit by accident but being an entrepreneur was already in my head since I was six years old as the teacher asked the students about our dads work and I wrote “Entreupreuneur”. A misspelled word but I loved the word. I was good in math and it was natural to be directed to finance and management. While doing my Master’s Degree in finance I thought I would become a market financial analyst or a portfolio manager and create my own company by 35. It didn’t work out this way exactly. I had extensive and various experiences in the corporate world from being an assistant to a major real estate developer, corporate financial analyst to open restaurants in some parts of the world. At 35, I was a single mom, left my work at Ubisoft Entertainment and decided to start my journey of building a business from nothing. Having psoriasis, I thought of opening an alternative medical center for people with psoriasis. There was no help for this part of the industry in Canada. While looking for another way to do business, I discovered not far from my hometown in Tunisia a new invention to try on my skin, the prickly pear seed oil. It took time to start the business itself, but the luxurious oil helped my skin condition. This in turn led to creating my brand Sunia K. Cosmetics using prickly pear seed oil. I was dedicated to learning everything about the beauty industry. I understood pretty quickly that the market was very challenging and learned what was missing for brands like mine.
Sylvie: After a career in tech startups in Europe, I moved to the US with my family in 2007. I was working for a bank at that time, and it was in 2011 that I started to specialize in beauty, when I created my own advisory firm. I was advising and operating niche beauty, fragrance and fashion brands that wanted to develop in the US. It took me until 2018 to decide to create my own brand, Skinergies, in a category that is largely underserved when it comes to beauty and innovation: sun care. I met Sonia as I was working on launching and developing Skinergies, and Beautyque NYC was created from our own experience as brand founders facing the same challenges, opportunities and frustrations. Either when I was working for other brands, for mine or through Beautyque, I have always been fascinated by the consumer behavior and decision cycle: how do you get the consumer to know your brand, understand it and buy it, when there is so much competition, dispersion and noise out there?
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
Sonia: Looking backwards, the most interesting thing that happened is that I never knew where I was going but I always kept the same vision in my mind no matter what happened. I just wanted to be an entrepreneur — my passion was business. Where I come from, a woman is taught to be educated and married and I did not follow that path. There was always an invisible drive that let me move from Tunisia to Montreal to NYC. NYC was not a planned destination. I had an offer as a financial analyst in NYC while I was living in Montreal. I moved with my daughter, met my actual partner, built two beauty businesses and I have a great business partner. Life is full of surprises if we keep moving toward our goals.
Sylvie: There are many since there have been so many different chapters in different industries, different countries and different environments. The one I want to mention is when I left the bank I was working for in NYC from 2008 until 2011. I was left high and dry with no work authorization (I only had a resident visa through my husband), I had just turned 40 and I had to decide what to do. This is when I decided to pursue my career on my own and create my own company, which would be an advisory firm for French companies willing to develop in the US. I hired an immigration lawyer, applied for my own work visa, created my business plan, got my first clients and off I went. I did not have a clear idea of what I was doing but I was moving forward and creating something (making decisions — good and bad, and getting things done as my two early mentors taught me to). Two years later I had specialized in beauty, and I had a team of 10 people working with me.
Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Are there takeaways or lessons that others can learn from that?
Sonia: Yes there is. There are probably a few with bumps in between. The most recent one is creating what we have now. It’s innovative, exciting and serves an important purpose. Every time there is a tipping point or some sort of accomplishment there is almost a similar pattern behind: believe in what we want to accomplish, be aware of our weaknesses and strengths, work hard and smart and adjust to the circumstances.
Sylvie: Most of my career has been about experimenting and trying new things so I had many tipping points. From tech to beauty, startups to government organization, large banks and my own firm, from Paris to London and New York, I had to reinvent my career and adjust constantly. I have been rather successful through every chapter, but my satisfaction comes from being an entrepreneur. It is however extremely difficult and challenging, and creating Beautyque is certainly the tipping point of my short but intense entrepreneur career: what Sonia and I are creating checks many boxes, both on our own personal levels and the business side.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person to whom you are grateful who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Sonia: I won’t be able to name only one. The first people who helped me indirectly is my mom and dad. My mom is a very detailed oriented person and my dad a hard-working entrepreneur. Even if I had that in my DNA, life didn’t go without bumps and sometimes big ones. When times are tough or there is doubt these two people are there for me, my daughter who gives me the continuous drive with her contagious energy and my partner’s trust, his belief in me and the fact that he never judges me. I didn’t like to have bosses, but one boss had a large influence on me and he was always saying to me, method, discipline, precision. Did not forget that.
Sylvie: Two of my bosses in my early career helped me a lot. They had one principle in common that they kept repeating, and I still remember it fondly and I use it every day: make decisions every day and get things done. You’re going to make bad decisions and good decisions, but at least there will be good decisions in it.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. The beauty industry today has access to technology that was inconceivable only a short time ago. Can you tell us about the “cutting edge” (pardon the pun) technologies that you are working with or introducing? How do you think that will help people?
When COVID-19 hit, we were somehow forced to transpose our physical concept into the digital space. Creating a 3D space that was “mimicking” the real store was a start. Combining the 3D with an e-commerce platform is new and has never been done before: giving it too much thought, we created the first 3D store in the beauty and wellness industry. A 3D alone is not enough to recreate the sensations of a real store. In a real store people enjoy the environment, try the products, can talk to a sales associate for more info, they can browse, smell, touch, attend events… these are all the features we are adding one by one, and we have a lot more in the works. While smelling and touching may not be an immediately available option, if the technology allows it, we will include it. This new way of shopping is a convenience for shoppers because they can enjoy the space, they can meet the brand’s founder and learn about the story behind each brand, attend product demonstrations, attend live events, talk to a Beautyque specialist and shop, all that in the comfort of their home. They don’t wait in lines, risk their safety and they have the experience while shopping online.
Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?
We don’t really see a drawback but a reality check: humans are social by nature, they need to go out and about, meet people in person, touch, smell, feel and this is all part of our mini daily experiences, what makes us whole.
While some of it may be possible with VR in the near future, nothing will ever replace the feeling of the real. So hopefully this digital model can soon be mixed with a physical one, that we had to put on hold because of COVID.
Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the “beauty-tech” industry?
The top 3 trends that we are closely looking at include:
Online enhanced experience technology such as what we’re doing with our advanced 3D platform: the ability to provide real time and personalized advice through voice or video assistants, Customized skincare and makeup with intelligent mirrors, and various try-on apps are a trend we look at closely, and include in our platform, shoppable live stream.
The use of data (the “big data” trend) to optimize consumers’ experience and brand’s performance, whether in a development or pre-launch mode, is fascinating and at the core of what we do.
The acceleration of Augmented reality, Virtual reality and mixed reality in the retail environment is something that we are looking at very closely. Like the ability to see the whole product in 3D, the ability to move it, touch it.
Can you share 3 things that most concern you about the industry? If you had the ability to implement 3 ways to reform or improve the industry, what would you suggest?
We are certainly not here to give anyone any lessons or pretend to be better but again, Beautyque was born out of a need that we identified as brand founders. Our two brands are of high quality and fill a need but could never reach the shelves of traditional retailers because they were missing something: our experience made us identify a white space, and even if we all agree on the fact that not all beauty brands are meant to succeed, it is somehow to the consumer to decide what they want.
Our #1 thing is that the retail market is organized around the offer rather than the demand or the customer needs: retailers need products that sell. It is first of all about trends, for many of them the result of fears: the all natural / clean beauty trend is not based on any skincare rationale, it is the response to years of abuse and of brands — large brands first — putting all sorts of junk in their products. There was absolutely a need for improvement, but it is going so far that it is almost killing skincare innovation. All the science that is out there, whether for anti-aging, skin conditions treatment or else, is being seen as suspicious. Retailers — and other market players such as the media — managed to make consumers believe that the only way to be safe was to use all natural/clean products, also making them believe that this was the answer to all their skincare needs.
Another aspect of it is money: only brands that can spend 1M$+ in their first year can imagine succeeding. Money buys visibility and traction, and this is what retailers are after: they need products that sell well and easily. Although it is somehow understandable, this is cutting out many valuable brands that don’t meet these criteria.
Our #2 thing is that beauty is still very limited to skincare and makeup. But for us, beauty starts in the head, it’s mental and emotional balance, and it is everything that makes a woman — or a man — feel confident and beautiful: intimate care, sexual wellness, skin care, make up, nutrition, fitness etc… and it’s not only through buying products and always more products: it’s about learning, testing, and thinking.
Last but not least: inclusivity and diversity. Just by watching YouTube randomly, you can tell that beauty is still very coded and conservative. We believe that beauty has nothing to do with age, looks, skin color, figure, religion or else. Each individual has the right to feel and be beautiful. The same way as brands have the right to play, even if they don’t meet the absolute standards that are dictated by retailers and other market players. Our motto is: let the consumer decide what they want.
You are an expert about beauty. Can you share 5 ideas that anyone can use “to feel beautiful”? (Please share a story or example for each.)
Well-being beautiful starts in the mind and we’re not always thinking about it as we may be on automatic pilot.
– Take the time to appreciate who we are: look to yourself in the mirror and appreciate what you see. Sometimes just saying it out loud may change your perception and make your day brighter.
– Awakening your senses: Being involved with life and all the chores we have to do we tend to forget about our femininity and sex appeal. We do not have to look to someone else to appreciate us, we have to look inside ourselves to do it first. The rest is necessary to connect to our senses and at times we need some tools to reconnect to our feelings. Music can help, smells, and touch that can remind us of moments of the past where we were feeling attractive is a way to shortcut that.
– Take the time to take care of ourselves: take the time to do your nails, to do our skincare routine, make up, dress up accordingly, change style… all of this not done for anyone else, just to ourselves in order to feel good about ourselves
– Acknowledge and appreciate our strengths. Understand and accept our weaknesses: and if we want to improve it, have the courage to do so.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
#Beautyquefest a festival celebrating beauty in all colors, age, sex, religion… a party where everyone will put themselves at their best. We help them do that and party together. A semi-annual event where thousands of people come to celebrate and enjoy their life and celebrate their beauty.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Sonia: If someone can do it, then I can do it! That comes from my dad. It was relevant for me as I learned to study what people do to get where they are and I do the same if that’s what I want, but different in my way. It just gives me the confidence to do it.
Sylvie: Do not let anyone decide for yourself. We are all surrounded by people who want to give us advice and “help” us. Listening to the right people is important making sure we don’t listen only to what we want to hear is too, but at the end of the day, we are the ones who decide what we believe in and we want to do. Especially in business.
