WEBVTT - IT Cosmetics Founder on New Book 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:03.000 Our next guest created a cosmetics company. After a lot 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:05.240 of hard work and staying true to her brand, it 0:00:05.320 --> 0:00:09.240 took off. She sold it to Loreal became excuse me, 0:00:09.280 --> 0:00:12.360 the first female CEO of a Loreal brand in the 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:14.800 company's long history. She'd be the first to tell you 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:17.560 it was a journey and often not easy. She's written 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:19.320 about it in a new book, Believe It, How to 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:22.960 Go from Underestimated to Unstoppable. So great to be talking 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:25.680 once again with Jamie kurn Lima. She's on the phone 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:28.320 in Palm Beach, Florida. Jamie is so great to have 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:30.960 you here with us. How are you And tell me 0:00:31.000 --> 0:00:33.680 about your past year. It sounds like it's been an 0:00:33.680 --> 0:00:37.199 interesting one and a busy one, Carol, thank you so 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:40.440 much for having me. Yeah, this has been it's been 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:43.680 a journey. First ever book, and I just, you know, 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:47.400 after hearing from so many entrepreneurs and so many people 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:50.839 out there that would send me messages on Instagram and say, 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:54.480 you know, oh wow, congrats on going from Dunnie's waitress 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:57.120 to selling your company for over a billion dollars, like 0:00:57.160 --> 0:00:59.600 did you just get lucky? Or you know, did you 0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:02.120 have actions? And then they would share with me how 0:01:02.120 --> 0:01:06.040 they're you know, struggling and and having uh not having 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:08.720 traction in their own businesses. And it kind of made 0:01:08.760 --> 0:01:11.440 me realize that when you just see the highlight reel 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:15.440 that's out there everywhere, UM, people feel alone in their 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:19.760 own seasons of rejection and setbacks. And so I just 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:23.280 decided um to literally share it, like first time ever, 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:27.040 share all the stories behind the stories of the real 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:30.120 the real stuff that happened, and kind of like starting 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:32.760 my business from my living room and going through three 0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:38.520 years of hearing no um and how to turn those 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:41.839 nose into yeses, and how to believe in yourself when 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:44.600 no one else is believing in you, and and how 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:48.920 I turned that into a company with over a thousand 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:51.840 employees and and then went to the acquisition process and 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:54.840 everything else. But it's really really all the stuff people 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:58.120 typically never share. I just decided let me share it 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:00.720 all because I don't know, I think we all are 0:02:00.760 --> 0:02:03.280 stronger together when we do that. Well, can I just 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:08.600 say it's so you because you're you're very um upfront 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:10.560 about everything, and I feel like, you know, we often 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:12.520 talk about stocks, and we've been talking about a lot 0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:14.440 about some of the trades that just seem to just 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:16.320 go up and up and up. Nothing's ever up in 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:18.800 a straight line, right. There's a lot of things that 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:21.760 we have to get through. There's down periods. But just 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:25.240 like you when you were on QVC to show how 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:28.840 your makeup line worked, you took off your own makeup 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:32.120 to show, uh, and you bared yourself before was really 0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:35.000 in vogue for people to maybe do something like that. 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:37.480 And I feel like you're very kind of out out 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:41.240 front and center. Tell me about that and how you 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:45.280 want to kind of send that as a message to people. Yeah, 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:48.400 you know, I think the power of authenticity and of 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:52.959 hearing our own gut and it is huge. I think, 0:02:52.960 --> 0:02:56.399 whether we're talking about stocks or talking about if we're 0:02:56.440 --> 0:03:00.040 supposed to go after our own dream or like go 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:04.040 of a dream, I think too many people like start 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:06.799 to second guess their own gut and sometimes their own 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:09.480 common sense, and they start to get distracted by what's 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:12.120 hot right now and what everyone else doing. And and 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:15.440 you know, it's funny growing at cosmetics and you know, 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:18.239 I was trying to do something really different because it 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:22.280 made sense in my gut. Right, for so many years 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:25.160 in my industry and the industry I was in it 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:28.280 has always been done a certain way. Makeup companiesn't always 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:33.560 sold beauty products using super you know, flawless images of 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:38.240 in a way unattainable beauty. And I just in my gut, 0:03:38.320 --> 0:03:40.440 I was like, and this is before anyone was doing this. 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:43.640 But I'm like, you know, how are women supposed to 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:45.480 know a problem or men and supposed to know a 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:47.800 product is going to work for them if they don't 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:51.040 see someone who looks like them using it, right? And 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:53.040 here's the sting, Carol, And this is what I'd say 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:56.280 to any entrepreneur, anyone looking at is this business or 0:03:56.320 --> 0:03:58.720 that business, or this stock or that stock a good investment? 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:02.440 Is like, take it back to the fundamentals of of 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:05.760 of gut instinct in the sense of, you know, I, 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:12.280 for three years look pulled by every retailer. No one 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:14.960 will buy makeup from someone who looks like you, or 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:18.200 who's going to use models the way you are planning 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:21.279 to do it. And it was three years of rejection. 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:22.920 And you know, we got done under a thousand dollars 0:04:22.920 --> 0:04:25.719 in our bank accountant. Sometimes in life, when that happens 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:29.280 to us, we're tempted to go, let me change what 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:32.479 I'm doing because it's not working. But every time I 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:34.599 kept checking with my gut, I'm like, no, this is 0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:36.360 what I'm supposed to be doing. And I made the 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:40.120 decision to trust my gut, and you know, FoST forward 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:43.120 a decade, we are now the largest beauty brand in 0:04:43.160 --> 0:04:45.760 the country. Jammy, what did you learn about this process? 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:48.880 Writing a book from someone who created a company probably 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:51.400 learned a lot along the way. What did kind of 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:54.400 writing it down going through it again? What did that 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:58.720 teach you? I mean, I think the biggest thing is, 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:01.560 you know, how I build could billion dollar company was 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:05.080 always remembering it's not about me, remembering it's about doing 0:05:05.120 --> 0:05:07.880 something bigger than myself. And I had to remember that 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:11.680 and writing this book because it is scary. It is 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:16.200 scary and vulnerable and all those things to share all 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:18.480 of the things I did wrong building this business and 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:21.880 then all of the things I did right. Um, but 0:05:22.000 --> 0:05:24.880 also just the real vulnerability that I think we all 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:30.560 face as entrepreneurs or as people in business where um, 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:33.839 you know, sometimes we we don't listen to our gut 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:38.600 and we regret it. Sometimes we are tempted, uh, you know, 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:42.400 to to have everything we believe in on the line, 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:45.560 have other people telling us what to do and how 0:05:45.600 --> 0:05:48.960 do we decide what to do? Like I I was 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:51.280 the first time ever care all where um, I would 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:54.000 say probably ninety five per cent of the stories in 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:56.000 the book, um, and I wrote I was doing a 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:58.840 word of it myself, all eighty thousand words, and our 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:02.080 stories are never shared before. But I had to make 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:03.720 it bigger than myself. I think at the end of 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:06.280 the day, that's how we all know that what we're 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:09.040 doing in this world and our time on this earth matters. 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:12.000 And um, you know, I just this is passed with 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:14.599 the things I wish I had known that would have 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:18.159 saved me so much money, so much time crying myself 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:20.560 to sleep at night. Um. And the things I did 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:24.680 right in terms of, you know, handling so many rejections 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:29.240 and so many people telling me my idea wasn't gonna work. Um. 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:31.039 And then there's a lot of you know, a lot 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:35.159 of I think universal lessons for everyone in business on 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:37.920 you know I talked about, well wait, wait, wait, hang 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:40.839 on a second, what's one what's one thing that you 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:44.080 wish you had known when you started the process of 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:46.960 creating your company, or what's one one really big lesson 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:49.159 that you learned, because we talked to a lot of 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:51.280 entrepreneurs about the things that they learned. I'm just curious 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:53.560 what what stood out for you that was a game 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:57.080 changer if you had maybe known it earlier. Yeah, I 0:06:57.120 --> 0:07:00.320 think I think that knowing and so many in the 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:04.799 book champions aren't made when the game is easy, and 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:09.280 uh that would have helped me, uh process a lot 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:11.600 of a hard time sooner. Um. You know, one of 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:13.640 the big ones is I believe your gut is more 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:18.160 powerful than anyone else's advice. And when I look back 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:20.520 and here's actually let me just say this one, this 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:24.400 one is big. I believe that when you are doing 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:29.080 something new or novel, you shouldn't or or authentic. If 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:31.120 you're doing something authentic to you, even if it's been 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:33.480 done before. If you're doing something authentic to you, by 0:07:33.480 --> 0:07:36.560 definition it's novel, it's never been done before. When you're 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:40.600 doing something new or novel, don't be surprised when even 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:44.560 experts or even visionaries don't think it's gonna work and 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:47.680 don't believe in it, because at the end of the day, 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:50.520 a lot of people can't see something happening if they 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:54.000 don't have uh. That social proof in their mind that 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:56.720 tells them subconsciously it's gonna work because it's never been 0:07:56.760 --> 0:08:00.720 done before. And how do I realize that her? I 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:02.640 want to save myself a lot of nights trying myself 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:05.880 to sleep. Like, what I've learned, Carol, is that in business, 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:09.840 as entrepreneurs, as creators, as ideators, we have to get 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:14.360 really good at cheering for ourselves, because most people cheer 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:17.760 for you after you've made it. Right, It's so easy. Right, 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:22.040 It's like this club thing after you you've made it. 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:24.000 It's it's almost like high school all over again, and 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:26.320 like popularity. Hey, one thing I want to go through 0:08:26.320 --> 0:08:27.880 because you only have a couple of minutes left here, 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:30.280 A couple of things I just want to quickly go through. Um, 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:34.200 the way you wove wove through the story of how 0:08:34.320 --> 0:08:37.079 you watched over when you were younger, you wanted to 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:39.920 be a talk show host and ultimately you get a 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:42.640 chance to meet her and you you walk us through 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:47.760 that story. Um, it's one of those like pinch me moments. Yeah, 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:50.080 I mean I remember being nine year old little girl. 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:52.320 I would watch her in my living room and you know, 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:54.400 I don't know if you remember this moment Carol, but 0:08:55.200 --> 0:08:57.360 she said it wasn't in a Barbara Walters interview and 0:08:57.440 --> 0:09:00.960 she said, I always knew I was dead since for greatness, 0:09:02.000 --> 0:09:03.840 and I remembered took a lot of flats for it 0:09:03.840 --> 0:09:06.079 in the press. But I remember being a nine year 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:09.640 old little girl hearing that and feeling like me too, 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:11.800 Like I had that feeling at that and I think 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:13.680 a lot of us have that feeling like we have 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:18.000 something to give the world or stub or create. I 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:20.480 always had that feeling, and so she's always kind of 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:22.720 been my mentor from as far my whole life. And 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:27.800 I am crazy story, wild story. I hear the whole 0:09:27.800 --> 0:09:31.480 thing in the book. Just just give us like a second, 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:33.840 and I want everybody to go read it in its entirety, 0:09:33.840 --> 0:09:37.880 but just give us a second quickly. Thing. Well, I 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:42.640 met her and it was the craziest day, and I 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:45.280 share how I met her. I then got a phone 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:48.240 call Um inviting me to lunch at her house. It 0:09:48.360 --> 0:09:51.560 was just she and I have spent three hours with her, 0:09:51.760 --> 0:09:54.520 and I she was the very first person to read 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:57.440 this book, and I wanted her blessing on the stories 0:09:57.480 --> 0:09:59.960 I share in the book, because I share a lot 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:02.960 and I really would never do that about her blessing. 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:05.840 But I sure how I believe in the power of prayer. 0:10:05.880 --> 0:10:08.520 I believe in the power of believing in ourselves. I 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:13.400 believe in manifesting and uh. And I also talk a 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:16.440 lot about you know, really Carol at the heart and soul. 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:18.480 This book us for every woman and every man who 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:21.600 struggles with self doubt and wants to learn how to 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:23.640 go if I'm not believing in themselves to believing in 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:25.719 them to Jamie, I've got to jump I've got to 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:28.040 jump in. And I know You've got lots of stories, 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:29.920 but that means everybody's going to go read the book 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:32.720 because there's there's lots of great stuff in there. Jamie, Jamie, 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:35.320 thank you so much. Good luck Jamie current Lima. She's 0:10:35.360 --> 0:10:37.880 with us her new book, Believe It. Check it out. 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:38.840 It's out now.