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Speaker 1: Welcome back to she Pivots. I'm Kila Yang.

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Speaker 2: Welcome back to she Pivots, the podcast where women share

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Speaker 2: bold career moves and personal turning points that changed everything.

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Speaker 2: I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman, today's guest built one

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Speaker 2: of the most beloved bodycare brands of the decade, and

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Speaker 2: she did it because of a single afternoon on a

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Speaker 2: beach in Brazil, pregnant in a bikini she was talked

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Speaker 2: into buying. Kuila Yang was born in South Korea, where

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Speaker 2: skincare was an important part of.

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Speaker 3: How she grew up.

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Speaker 2: After moving to New York, she found her footing in

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Speaker 2: finance and built a successful business career. All of that

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Speaker 2: changed when she moved to Brazil for love and found

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Speaker 2: herself pregnant in a foreign country with a husband consumed

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Speaker 2: by his own work while she was unable to do

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Speaker 2: the work that had previously energized her. That's when she

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Speaker 2: had the idea to found Soul de Janeiro, a cult

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Speaker 2: favorite beauty brand that started the craze for mysts and

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Speaker 2: body products. What I love about Hila's story is that

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Speaker 2: her pivot came from embracing the unexpected changes in her

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Speaker 2: life and her body and setting out to help others

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Speaker 2: embrace their own changes. This is Hila Yang and this

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Speaker 2: is how she pivots.

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Speaker 3: What is your name and what do you do?

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Speaker 1: My name is Hila Yang and I'm the co founder

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Speaker 1: of Saul de Geneto.

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Speaker 3: Incredible.

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Speaker 2: Tell us about growing up, like, what was your family like?

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Speaker 2: What were some of your earliest memories.

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Speaker 1: I was born in Korea in Seoul, fabulous city if

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Speaker 1: you haven't been, But I grew up there until I

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Speaker 1: was twelve, and my father was in politics, so we

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Speaker 1: had a very interesting life without getting into too much detail.

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Speaker 1: The regime changed and we ended up in the US.

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Speaker 1: And I have two siblings and it wasn't a plan

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Speaker 1: that my parents had, so we came to the States

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Speaker 1: and we first moved to Maryland, in the middle of nowhere.

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Speaker 1: We could walk to the elementary school. It was like

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Speaker 1: an America, sort of the dream American life with station

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Speaker 1: wagons and garages and neighbors coming over with literally baked

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Speaker 1: apple pie coming over and showing us how to mold

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Speaker 1: the lawn snow day. Wow, people don't go to school

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Speaker 1: here once snows. Like our neighbor, she was this lovely

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Speaker 1: older woman. She brought us a radio and said, you

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Speaker 1: have to listen to the radio when it's snows and

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Speaker 1: it will tell you if your school is closed. So

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Speaker 1: that was the experience that we had when we moved

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Speaker 1: to America. We were very fortunate and it was just

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Speaker 1: a lovely, positive, happy like filled with great memories.

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Speaker 3: Do you have memories of living in Seoul?

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Speaker 1: So we were living in a house with the yard

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Speaker 1: and a dog. My father was very insistent on children

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Speaker 1: growing up with a garden and soil, and my mom

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Speaker 1: is more of a metropolitan city girl and she was

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Speaker 1: very chic and cool. My father grew up, on the

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Speaker 1: other hand, in the countryside, and he was very much

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Speaker 1: about staying close to earth. You know. It was a

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Speaker 1: very an innocent, very fun, safe environment. It was also

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Speaker 1: filled with a lot of activities. My parents were very

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Speaker 1: focused on education from the get go, so our days

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Speaker 1: were packed from day one. It was also very usual,

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Speaker 1: like it wasn't something like, oh why am I doing this?

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Speaker 1: And others are not? Like we were all doing it

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Speaker 1: like after school. There were classes and lessons and piano

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Speaker 1: and art and Abacust. I apparently thrived in Abocust, but

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Speaker 1: I did move. I think when I was in fifth

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Speaker 1: grade or at the end of fifth grade, I moved

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Speaker 1: to an apartment building. I think this was right when

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Speaker 1: the political environment in Korea was very uncertain. So my

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Speaker 1: father knew he was going to leave the country for

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Speaker 1: a little bit, and I said, Okay, we're going to

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Speaker 1: go to the hot up and coming area and they're

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Speaker 1: building these high rise apartment buildings, so we're going to

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Speaker 1: move there. That area is called Kungnam as in Kungnam style,

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Speaker 1: so that's where the latest shops were and the very

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Speaker 1: first McDonald opened. Then it was more western. That's where

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Speaker 1: we moved and lived there for one year.

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Speaker 2: How similar or different was your life day to day really,

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Speaker 2: like from when you moved from Seoul to Maryland.

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Speaker 1: The town that we moved to, this was in the eighties.

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Speaker 1: We were the first minority period ever in that town.

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Speaker 1: And my father did it on purpose, like he chose

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Speaker 1: that place on purpose so that we can really experience

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Speaker 1: the quote American life and assimilate faster, learn English faster.

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Speaker 1: And this is how your parents can change your life

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Speaker 1: over a split second. So when we arrived, my father

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Speaker 1: took the three of us to the school, lined us

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Speaker 1: up and said this one pointing to me, goes into

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Speaker 1: sixth grade, this one third grade, and this one kindergarten.

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Speaker 1: And the lady said, okay, the older one, you have

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Speaker 1: to take her to the middle school because we only

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Speaker 1: go up to fifth grade. It's the middle school sixth

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Speaker 1: through eighth. And my father literally thought for a split

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Speaker 1: second and said, oh, oh, just put her in fifth grade.

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Speaker 1: It's fine. I mean, I had no idea, but I

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Speaker 1: remember the second I'm like, but I'm in sixth grade.

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Speaker 1: That one year extra gave me the time to just

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Speaker 1: catch up in a lot of things, and especially the language.

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Speaker 1: I remember being very surprised when there was like a

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Speaker 1: school fair. Our principle, the head of school was this

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Speaker 1: older gentleman, so nice, and there was an ice cream truck.

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Speaker 1: I've never seen an ice cream truck before. And he

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Speaker 1: would be walking around with an ice cream that he

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Speaker 1: paid for himself and licking this ice cream cone and

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Speaker 1: walking around, and my parents and we all looked at

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Speaker 1: him and we thought, oh, my gosh, how did friend

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Speaker 1: is that? What part of that struck you was different? Well,

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Speaker 1: the fact that he was eating an ice cream, because

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Speaker 1: oh my god, a head of school Korea, I mean,

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Speaker 1: they're serious people like, they're serious, they're respected, they kept

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Speaker 1: their formality. And then the second thing is the fact

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Speaker 1: that he paid it for himself. Parents would never allow

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Speaker 1: that to happen in Korea. The parents would have bought

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Speaker 1: it for the teacher. You know, you have these psych

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Speaker 1: snippets from the past that stayed with you, and it

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Speaker 1: was just a joyful sight versus very authoritarian or very

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Speaker 1: hierarchical structure that I was much more used to.

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Speaker 2: You've spoken about how a multi step Korean skincare routine

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Speaker 2: is something that your mother passed down to you as

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Speaker 2: you were growing up. Was beauty and self care, very

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Speaker 2: centered in your household.

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Speaker 1: It's centered in every household Korean. I think we might

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Speaker 1: be born with skincare expertise. It might be an or DNA.

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Speaker 1: It's very much part of the culture. It all starts

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Speaker 1: with the bath or if you've ever been to a

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Speaker 1: Korean bath. If not, I would love to take you,

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Speaker 1: but you have to feel comfortable being all naked. That's

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Speaker 1: actually fine for me, Okay, great? Not co it just women, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: and from very young age and you go like every weekend,

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Speaker 1: and there are different types, the cold plunge, the medium,

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Speaker 1: and then the hot and then there's dry sauna. We

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Speaker 1: don't have steam sauna. And then there are these massage

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Speaker 1: tables where you get on totally naked, and then there

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Speaker 1: are women who will exfoliate you from head to two

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Speaker 1: and you walk out of there feeling like your skin

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Speaker 1: is just so baby soft and you just feel so

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Speaker 1: like squeaky clean, and it's manuals. It's kind of a

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Speaker 1: massage too. It's also social, like you're running to other

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Speaker 1: women and there are always multi generations there and we're

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Speaker 1: all like scratching or exfolding each other's back, and there

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Speaker 1: are women who can't reach their own back and they're

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Speaker 1: there by themselves and they just ask whoever. And I

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Speaker 1: mean that just recently happened when I was there this

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Speaker 1: past summer and this lady turned It's like, oh, can

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Speaker 1: you help me act fully hit my back? And I'm

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Speaker 1: sure I'm like exfoliating her back. It's like, oh this spot,

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Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, this pot and then then you chat

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Speaker 1: and so that's really important. So then it translates to

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Speaker 1: your face. That's why there's like a multi step cleansing process.

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Speaker 1: So if your skincare routine is ten minutes, so we

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Speaker 1: spend five minutes cleaning. You know, as I got older

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Speaker 1: and you wear more bakeup, you have to remove that

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Speaker 1: with oil because oil takes oil, oil cuts oil. So

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Speaker 1: there's the oil, and then there's the foam cleanser, and

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Speaker 1: then you usually do like a little like a cotton

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Speaker 1: pad with cleansing toner, and then you have multiple different

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Speaker 1: types of toner or water elotion depending on what your

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Speaker 1: skin needs. Like yesterday I did vitamin C like I

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Speaker 1: was a little cloudy, like I want some vitamin C.

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Speaker 1: It's less about like, oh I got to fix my wrinkles.

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Speaker 1: It's more like I'm not feeling so great, so I

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Speaker 1: need to use some more vitamins, or oh I'm going

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Speaker 1: through my monthly that time of the months and so

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Speaker 1: I need some more like minerals, like you're adjusting what

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Speaker 1: you eat as well. It's very natural in a way.

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Speaker 1: Health well being, living long life in a healthy way

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Speaker 1: is very ingrained in our lives. I have multiple startup

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Speaker 1: ideas in Parallel Whistle, and one of them was a

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Speaker 1: Korean skin care line or like more like an Asian

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Speaker 1: skin care line infused with mushrooms, because my husband is

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Speaker 1: a mushroom guru his hobby, you can talk to him

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Speaker 1: about mushrooms.

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Speaker 2: So I feel like you're going to think that I'm

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Speaker 2: making this up. But my husband went through a very

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Speaker 2: strong mushroom phase, very into mushrooms foraging. Whoa wow himself,

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Speaker 2: Like he didn't use a truffle peg or anything, like

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Speaker 2: he did it himself.

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Speaker 1: Amazing.

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Speaker 3: He has some very specific hobbies.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and they're super addictive. Like these hobbies Like when

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Speaker 1: I was dating my husband, like weekends, we'll be hanging

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Speaker 1: out the weekends, we'll go out the brunch and then

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Speaker 1: come back and he'll be lying on his couch reading

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Speaker 1: mushroom magazines that he had his friends shipped to him

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Speaker 1: from Japan, and that would be his Saturday afternoon. So

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Speaker 1: the idea that I had was, I mean, I love mushrooms,

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Speaker 1: I also love the whole like the world of fungi.

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Speaker 1: I asked him, can you grow mushrooms inject the mushroom block,

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Speaker 1: which is like replication of dead tree locks, injected with asai,

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Speaker 1: which is a super prude with amazing antioxidant from Brazil.

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Speaker 1: So inject it and grow those mushrooms and dry them

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Speaker 1: and send them to me because I'm going to create

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Speaker 1: a whole skiited caroline and then I'm going to do

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Speaker 1: a supplement with this, and I created a brand name,

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Speaker 1: I created a log the whole thing. I had the

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Speaker 1: chemist and I did some testing and I was in

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Speaker 1: New York already, and people didn't get it. And it

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Speaker 1: was fifteen years ago, so I put that aside. Fermentation

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Speaker 1: was another one, So that's like probiotic probiotic. This is

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Speaker 1: also fifteen years ago. But when I tested that concept

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Speaker 1: people again, I was in They're like, ooh, fermentation sounds

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Speaker 1: like it's something rotten. I'm like, it's exactly rotten. But

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Speaker 1: that's why it gets absorbed so well into your body

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Speaker 1: because he's already predigested. I'm obsessed with anything fermentation. And

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Speaker 1: you know Korea, like we have Kinci, which is the

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Speaker 1: most amazing food for you, Lacto, Pasilla's yogurt, all that.

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Speaker 1: You know, sauerkot is also premented wine and cheese and

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Speaker 1: all of that. That's so good. And I did some

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Speaker 1: consumer testing and they didn't get it, so I put

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Speaker 1: that aside.

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Speaker 2: Hila had it all figured out in New York. Goldman

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Speaker 2: a Harvard MBA and a corner of the corporate beauty world.

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Speaker 2: She'd spent twelve years carving out for herself, and then

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Speaker 2: she met her husband and she wound up leaving New

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Speaker 2: York behind for Brazil. After the break, we'll hear from

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Speaker 2: Hila about what it was like to transition to life

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Speaker 2: in Brazil and how some unexpected life changes through an

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Speaker 2: into her plans. I want to hear about your move

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Speaker 2: to Brazil. I understand that you went there with who

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Speaker 2: is now your husband.

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Speaker 3: Where were you guys in the relationship, Like, that's a

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Speaker 3: big move to follow someone.

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Speaker 1: To Brazil and we're still together, incredible and there is

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Speaker 1: still best friends. I think the word pivot is this

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Speaker 1: is perfect because this was not in my plan. Neither

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Speaker 1: was soul. I never planned to be the queen of

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Speaker 1: bombom Cream. I mean, look at me like a normal person.

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Speaker 1: And I met him in New York so her friends

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Speaker 1: at a bar, and you just espouse the love of

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Speaker 1: your life when you least expected. That was exactly how

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Speaker 1: it happened. And we were married when we moved. But

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Speaker 1: still I said, well, I did it once when I

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Speaker 1: was twelve. Yeah, I can do this again. And I

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Speaker 1: think that was one of the values that my parents

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Speaker 1: taught us indirectly by being a role model that they

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Speaker 1: can pivot, they can adapt and make the best out

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Speaker 1: of the new environment and new set of challenges. I

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Speaker 1: was really excited, and it's an amazing country, and we

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Speaker 1: were also going to so Fallow is a huge, giant

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Speaker 1: metropolitan city population of twenty million, that's like five times

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Speaker 1: the population of Denmark. So I got a lot of

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Speaker 1: introductions from people. I went in with a job offer

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Speaker 1: and I was just all for it. I moved there

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Speaker 1: April first, and April twenty something, I found that I

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Speaker 1: was pregnant. So that's when everything just kind of turned

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Speaker 1: upside down. I think, when you mean, do you have

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Speaker 1: a job, then you have your own community and you

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Speaker 1: and your husband like we I was so excited to explore,

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Speaker 1: go to the Amazon and go to the beaches and

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Speaker 1: travel and party on the beaches. And I couldn't do

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Speaker 1: any of that. Really. I had to let go of

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Speaker 1: the job offer because I had to travel sixty percent

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Speaker 1: of the time on the road.

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Speaker 3: What was the job going to be?

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Speaker 1: It was being head of the skincare category for a

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Speaker 1: multi international beauty company, and it was going to be

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Speaker 1: such an amazing experience to travel all throughout South America

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Speaker 1: and see a new territory and learn a new language,

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Speaker 1: make new friends. But here I was pregnant, no job,

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Speaker 1: my husband Japanese American equals alcoholic, and you know, no family,

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Speaker 1: no friends, and my friends are all new and I

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Speaker 1: had different needs because I was I was pregnant, and

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Speaker 1: so it sounded like I could go out and I

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Speaker 1: go meet up with new friends at a bar. So

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Speaker 1: my best friend was our housekeeper who spoke no English,

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Speaker 1: and she was from a region called Bahia, which is

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Speaker 1: a northern Brazil and Brazil is a very really long country,

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Speaker 1: so she was from the northern Park. That's where the

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Speaker 1: first Africans were brought in, very African, and that's where

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Speaker 1: all the amazing music comes from, and very very rich,

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Speaker 1: dynamic culture. She was wonderful, what she was so warm,

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Speaker 1: but she spoke zero English, and so there was a

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Speaker 1: lot of body language, and I mean, we have so

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Speaker 1: much fun and she was lovely. So I learned Portuguese.

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Speaker 1: I found an ovgi n through a friend's recommendation, who

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Speaker 1: I fell in love with, and he was amazing. And

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Speaker 1: remember when I was like three months pregnant, I started

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Speaker 1: telling people and these are people that I recently met,

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Speaker 1: not very close, and I said, yeah, I'm pregnant. And

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Speaker 1: this woman said, oh my god, congratulations. So which gym

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Speaker 1: are you going to join? This excuse me, like, well,

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Speaker 1: you have to join a gym now you're pregnant, unless

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Speaker 1: you already a member. And I said really, it's like, yes,

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Speaker 1: you have to keep up your health and fitness and

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Speaker 1: then you can return right back to your original body afterwards.

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Speaker 1: And so you have to go to the gym. And

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Speaker 1: in fact, there's one you're you, this is where I

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Speaker 1: recommend go there. So I said, I said, okay, sure,

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Speaker 1: why not? I really went to the gym in New York.

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Speaker 1: So I was a yoga person, so I was going

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Speaker 1: to do some yoga, prenatal yoga. So I went to

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Speaker 1: the gym and it was amazing. There was staff there

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Speaker 1: who was sort of just walking around helping people with

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Speaker 1: the machines. They're not personal trainers, they just for their staff.

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Speaker 1: And there was somebody who specialized in pregnant women. And

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Speaker 1: so then he wrote me a routine. So here are

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Speaker 1: all the machines you should go through, and this is

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Speaker 1: how many reps and this how many you know, do

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Speaker 1: the weights and then every week he would check up

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Speaker 1: on me and then he would upgrade, some change some

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Speaker 1: remove the others, and so I went four times a week.

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Speaker 1: I was actually on the treadmill when my doctor called

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Speaker 1: me to tell me what the sex was of the baby.

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Speaker 1: So it was such a different mindset, taking care of yourself,

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Speaker 1: taking care of your body through all the different phases

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Speaker 1: of a woman's life, because our bodies we go through

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Speaker 1: a lot. So I thought, wow, that's that's doing something

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Speaker 1: for yourself, I mean, not for anybody, really, going to

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Speaker 1: the general you're pregnant. So that was like my like,

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Speaker 1: I'm slowly, I'm like, wow, this is so different.

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Speaker 2: Kila felt isolated, but something about the culture around people's

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Speaker 2: bodies was different here and something she wanted to explore.

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Speaker 2: In a minute, we'll hear about the afternoon that changed

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Speaker 2: everything and the very small bikini at the center of it.

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Speaker 3: Be right back.

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Speaker 1: The story that I tell a lot, which is going

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Speaker 1: to the beach with my husband and his friends for

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Speaker 1: the first time. I mean, I've gone to the beaches

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Speaker 1: in Brazil, but that was when we were dating, and

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Speaker 1: I was not pregnant, and I was wearing small bikinis.

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Speaker 1: But here I was pregnant, and you know, I put

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Speaker 1: on this very respectable one piece black J Crew swim

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Speaker 1: suit and he looked at me like, what in the

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Speaker 1: world are you wearing as well? I mean, this is normal,

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Speaker 1: and he's like what And this question was amazing. He said,

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Speaker 1: why do you want to hydro belly? Women here don't

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Speaker 1: do that. They still keep their small bikinis on, and

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Speaker 1: in fact, they go shopping to buy new bikinis and

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Speaker 1: say okay. It's like, no, you're gonna get more stairs

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Speaker 1: and that one piece than if you know, we're in

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Speaker 1: small bikinis. So we went shopping and because the front

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Speaker 1: and the back of the bikinis are the same size,

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Speaker 1: there's no point in trying to buy extra large to

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Speaker 1: cover more of your bottom. So I'm like, you know, what,

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Speaker 1: what the hell I mean, I moved here. I'm crazy, like,

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Speaker 1: just let's just go for it. So I said, I'll

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Speaker 1: take this, and he said, you're got to pick more

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Speaker 1: than one. I mean, do you pick one webstick? Do

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Speaker 1: you own one pair of shoes? Like, you need to

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Speaker 1: buy three at least, So I bought three. I mean,

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Speaker 1: that's the whole genesis. It's like you start seeing things

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Speaker 1: that you weren't able to see before.

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Speaker 3: What did that situation show to you? Like? What did

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Speaker 3: you see in that situation? Why was that such a

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Speaker 3: pivotal moment for you?

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Speaker 1: It was such a pivotal moment because I myself at

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Speaker 1: a very low point in my life when it came

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Speaker 1: to self esteem, because all the things that I was

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Speaker 1: confident and comfortable in, like the cultural language, friends, family, job,

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Speaker 1: my city, country, like, all of that was stripped away

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Speaker 1: from me and by choice actually except the pregnancy. But

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Speaker 1: I needed to be grateful because I'm pregnant after I'm thirty,

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Speaker 1: and it's great, but when you are, at least for me,

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Speaker 1: when I was so low and I was so self

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Speaker 1: absorbed and very conscious of how people would judge me

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Speaker 1: in this tiny bikini pregnant, and in my own mind,

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Speaker 1: I'm like, they must be laughing at me. They must

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Speaker 1: I think, I'm very ridiculous. They must think this foreigner

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Speaker 1: like what is she doing? Very harsh on myself. But honestly,

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Speaker 1: that was the moment where I ended up feeling most liberated.

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Speaker 1: Because Korea is a very sort of high standard when

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Speaker 1: it comes to beauty, let's i say, and very judgmental

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Speaker 1: society when it comes to beauty and how you look,

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Speaker 1: and the New York City is and the beaches, and

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Speaker 1: I am definitely guilty of that. When I was younger,

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Speaker 1: like my girlfriends and I was sitting around on the

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Speaker 1: beaches and we would be spending most of our time

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Speaker 1: just looking at other people and comments, and that was

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Speaker 1: kind of our pastime. But when I was there in

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Speaker 1: this sort of vulnerable state, I looked around and there

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Speaker 1: were women of all shapes, all sizes, all colors, in

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Speaker 1: their small bikinis having so much fun and they didn't

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Speaker 1: care what other people thought. They were also playing with

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Speaker 1: their skin and their body. They were mixing sand and

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Speaker 1: oil making their own exfoliator. They were putting cream in

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Speaker 1: their hair to condition their hair. They were bleaching their

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Speaker 1: thigh hair to turn them into this golden shimmer. I

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Speaker 1: mean that actually inspired my one of my first products.

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Speaker 1: And I looked around, like, wow, was this like a

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Speaker 1: playground in a heaven for women? And here I am

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Speaker 1: feeling sorry for myself, and so I took off my

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Speaker 1: cover up and I'm more entiny bikini and I'm like

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Speaker 1: looking around, is anybody staring at me? Thinking? What is

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Speaker 1: she doing wearing a bikini? And she's pregnant, and people

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Speaker 1: like their eyes and my eyes would meet and they

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Speaker 1: would look at me and they're look at my belly

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Speaker 1: and they're like giving me these thumbs up and huge

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Speaker 1: smile and I'm like, oh my god, I feel so

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Speaker 1: like welcomed and go get up and I walk over

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Speaker 1: to buy some food and everybody they're like, you come

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Speaker 1: up here, cut the line, just you go first. And

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Speaker 1: it was just such an unwelcoming environment that I felt

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Speaker 1: just good in my own skin and not all judged,

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Speaker 1: and you feel free and you feel liberated. And I

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Speaker 1: think that's the feeling that is very seductive. It's not

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Speaker 1: just accepted, which is a very passive behavior. You are

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Speaker 1: proactively and actively loved and welcome and so natural. It's

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Speaker 1: like second nature. And so I loved that feeling. And

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Speaker 1: I thought I worked at the beauty industry with Loreo

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Speaker 1: and este daughter, and I thought, you know, this is

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Speaker 1: exactly the feeling that I would love a beauty company

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Speaker 1: to help women and young girls feel. Because at the

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Speaker 1: end of the day, when you feel really great, like

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Speaker 1: a good hair day, here is like that attitude, the

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Speaker 1: confidence when you're walking with like this light, like light

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Speaker 1: in your footsteps is the best successory, more than your

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Speaker 1: lipstick and makeup and a purse. Like when you have

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Speaker 1: that charm, the energy, the chrisma, because you feel so

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Speaker 1: great in your body. That is very seductive and very attractive,

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Speaker 1: and so I love you know. I want to create

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Speaker 1: a beauty company that tells people that you don't need anything.

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Speaker 2: That moment on the beach, pregnant in a bikini, surrounded

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Speaker 2: by women of every shape became the emotional blueprint for Soul.

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Speaker 2: Dejanio Kila decided to create a beauty brand that tells

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Speaker 2: people they don't need anything, So she set out to

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Speaker 2: bottle the feeling of being welcomed in your own skin.

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Speaker 1: I tell my team this kind of analogy. Let's imagine

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Speaker 1: you're invited to two different parties and you got all

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Speaker 1: dressed up and you have your makeup, your hair down,

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Speaker 1: your dress and accessories. And you go to the first

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Speaker 1: party and everybody there is a little stiff. They look amazing,

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Speaker 1: and they look at you and they look at you

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Speaker 1: up and down, your eyes meet and they turn away

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Speaker 1: like how you feel inside. And then you go to

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Speaker 1: the second party, You're exactly the same person, same mouth,

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Speaker 1: umberkle same seal, same makeup, same hairdoo. And you go

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Speaker 1: to the second party and there people are relaxed, they're

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Speaker 1: having a great time, and they look at you, your

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Speaker 1: eyes meet and they smile and they say welcome. And

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Speaker 1: how you feel inside about yourself. So as much as

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Speaker 1: the society tells you that the mental health, how you feel,

432
00:24:21,600 --> 00:24:25,000
Speaker 1: your happiness is all inside of you, you have to

433
00:24:25,040 --> 00:24:27,560
Speaker 1: work at it. And there's I mean, yes, of course

434
00:24:27,600 --> 00:24:30,320
Speaker 1: you do have to do work on yourself. But I thought,

435
00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:33,240
Speaker 1: you know, our responsibility as a beauty company and a

436
00:24:33,240 --> 00:24:37,879
Speaker 1: beauty industry is to create the second party. That's really important.

437
00:24:38,280 --> 00:24:42,520
Speaker 1: And I believe that environment that we create, as business

438
00:24:42,600 --> 00:24:47,720
Speaker 1: leaders or government leaders or just in general people are

439
00:24:47,800 --> 00:24:52,520
Speaker 1: in a position to lead and shape our environment, should

440
00:24:52,560 --> 00:24:55,239
Speaker 1: have the responsibility to create that environment for all of us.

441
00:24:55,320 --> 00:24:56,840
Speaker 1: I mean, I would love to be in the second

442
00:24:56,840 --> 00:25:02,800
Speaker 1: party and work on myself. That's my passion and that's

443
00:25:02,840 --> 00:25:05,840
Speaker 1: what drove me to create this brand and not so

444
00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:09,439
Speaker 1: much about the product. Product came later.

445
00:25:10,480 --> 00:25:13,119
Speaker 2: What does that functionally mean when you were starting it, Like,

446
00:25:13,160 --> 00:25:16,680
Speaker 2: did you start with branding and then you went and

447
00:25:16,720 --> 00:25:19,040
Speaker 2: looked for I'm guessing that you went and looked for

448
00:25:19,080 --> 00:25:21,080
Speaker 2: like a chemist. What did that functionally mean to start

449
00:25:21,080 --> 00:25:21,480
Speaker 2: a business?

450
00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:25,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's exactly right, because all of these experiences

451
00:25:25,080 --> 00:25:27,280
Speaker 1: build up, build up, and then you're like, oh, you know,

452
00:25:27,400 --> 00:25:29,560
Speaker 1: you start thinking about it, you think about it at

453
00:25:29,640 --> 00:25:33,240
Speaker 1: night in bed. And then I thought, Okay, we need

454
00:25:33,280 --> 00:25:37,520
Speaker 1: to really work on the mission, articulating it so people

455
00:25:37,520 --> 00:25:40,440
Speaker 1: get it, like it's in my head and I feel it.

456
00:25:40,920 --> 00:25:45,400
Speaker 1: But until I articulated on paper and visually show, people

457
00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:47,639
Speaker 1: are not going to get it. So I hired a

458
00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:52,080
Speaker 1: copywriter and we worked on the mission statement for six months,

459
00:25:52,400 --> 00:25:55,800
Speaker 1: literally every word. It was not just a mission statement

460
00:25:55,920 --> 00:25:58,280
Speaker 1: to the purpose, like why why are we doing this?

461
00:25:58,480 --> 00:26:01,639
Speaker 1: And I met a co founder in Brazil who also

462
00:26:01,800 --> 00:26:05,200
Speaker 1: had the same sense of this amazing experience of being

463
00:26:05,320 --> 00:26:09,879
Speaker 1: welcomed and feeling liberated. And he's this tall American white

464
00:26:09,920 --> 00:26:12,840
Speaker 1: man with freckles and white hair and blue eyes, and

465
00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:15,400
Speaker 1: he stood out like a sore thumb. Yet I mean

466
00:26:15,560 --> 00:26:17,760
Speaker 1: just like me, you know, I stood out, but again,

467
00:26:17,880 --> 00:26:21,560
Speaker 1: like he had the same experience of being welcomed and embraced.

468
00:26:21,920 --> 00:26:27,080
Speaker 1: So that's the difference, not accepted, but welcomed. So he

469
00:26:27,240 --> 00:26:30,160
Speaker 1: and I really hit it off, and so we really

470
00:26:30,240 --> 00:26:33,080
Speaker 1: worked on the mission statement and the purpose, and then

471
00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:37,600
Speaker 1: we went deeper into this missole the granado, like who

472
00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:39,119
Speaker 1: is she? What does she smell? Like?

473
00:26:39,359 --> 00:26:39,840
Speaker 3: What is she?

474
00:26:39,960 --> 00:26:42,600
Speaker 1: How does she walk? How does she smile? Like, we

475
00:26:42,640 --> 00:26:46,280
Speaker 1: went really deep into that, like, for example, how did

476
00:26:46,320 --> 00:26:49,520
Speaker 1: she smile? Does she smile in this cheeky, playful way?

477
00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:52,080
Speaker 1: And we said, you know what, I think she has

478
00:26:52,119 --> 00:26:55,119
Speaker 1: a warm smile, So like we were like, warm smile?

479
00:26:55,240 --> 00:26:58,680
Speaker 1: How did you walk? Does she walk fast? Does she march? Like?

480
00:26:58,720 --> 00:27:00,760
Speaker 1: How did she walk? How does she move? And we

481
00:27:00,880 --> 00:27:06,120
Speaker 1: said she sways, she saunters. That's sold the genado. And

482
00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:09,479
Speaker 1: then we got into scent. She has to smell us,

483
00:27:09,520 --> 00:27:10,479
Speaker 1: so how does she smell?

484
00:27:10,680 --> 00:27:10,800
Speaker 2: Like?

485
00:27:10,800 --> 00:27:15,440
Speaker 1: Does she smell like fresh? Citrusy, snooty? Like? How does

486
00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:20,000
Speaker 1: she smell well? Salt a ganado? She smells delicious. So

487
00:27:20,040 --> 00:27:23,920
Speaker 1: we literally went like detailed, like we really broke it down.

488
00:27:24,119 --> 00:27:27,560
Speaker 1: There's one thing we did not do, how did she look?

489
00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:31,520
Speaker 1: We didn't care how she looked. We only cared how

490
00:27:31,520 --> 00:27:34,280
Speaker 1: did she smell? How did she smile? How did she walk?

491
00:27:34,480 --> 00:27:38,400
Speaker 1: It's the energy, it's how she carries herself. And that's

492
00:27:38,440 --> 00:27:42,920
Speaker 1: why we rarely use a single model I'm just using

493
00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:45,800
Speaker 1: the word model as a general term. You know, people

494
00:27:45,800 --> 00:27:49,359
Speaker 1: in our ads. That's what we spent six months doing.

495
00:27:50,280 --> 00:27:52,640
Speaker 2: And I want you to to really articulate this point

496
00:27:52,680 --> 00:27:56,520
Speaker 2: for us. When you said welcomed versus accepted, that you

497
00:27:56,560 --> 00:28:00,000
Speaker 2: were welcomed but not accepted, what does that mean to you?

498
00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:07,520
Speaker 1: Accepted has a in my mind a slight connotation of resistance.

499
00:28:08,200 --> 00:28:13,119
Speaker 1: That it's accepted despite of something. You have to accept

500
00:28:13,280 --> 00:28:17,000
Speaker 1: this responsibility. No, there's a difference between like oh, I

501
00:28:17,119 --> 00:28:20,960
Speaker 1: just accepted a job offer. That's a very different usage.

502
00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:25,360
Speaker 1: But when you say I myself was accepted into this

503
00:28:25,560 --> 00:28:31,080
Speaker 1: group of people, or to me, it feels not as

504
00:28:31,359 --> 00:28:36,080
Speaker 1: wholesome or holistic, like every part of you is loved

505
00:28:36,680 --> 00:28:40,760
Speaker 1: and therefore embraced, Like I don't know a hug that

506
00:28:40,920 --> 00:28:44,080
Speaker 1: is like acting like you want to hug versus somebody

507
00:28:44,120 --> 00:28:46,000
Speaker 1: you don't want to hug, but you accept to hug

508
00:28:46,040 --> 00:28:49,840
Speaker 1: the person. There's a bit of a passive undertone to

509
00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:54,640
Speaker 1: you have to accept this, I accept this versus a welcome.

510
00:28:55,080 --> 00:28:57,160
Speaker 1: You know, when you land in different like another country

511
00:28:57,160 --> 00:29:01,360
Speaker 1: and the airport it says welcome versus we accept you.

512
00:29:02,480 --> 00:29:07,560
Speaker 1: Like it's different, right, feels it perfectly. Actually, we welcome you, verses,

513
00:29:07,600 --> 00:29:08,240
Speaker 1: we accept you.

514
00:29:08,520 --> 00:29:09,040
Speaker 2: Yeah.

515
00:29:09,240 --> 00:29:09,560
Speaker 1: Yeah.

516
00:29:10,440 --> 00:29:13,960
Speaker 2: Is there something that you saw as a low point

517
00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:16,560
Speaker 2: at the time. We've talked about it could be something different,

518
00:29:16,880 --> 00:29:19,320
Speaker 2: and now in retrospect you see it as having really

519
00:29:19,440 --> 00:29:21,160
Speaker 2: launched you to the success you are today.

520
00:29:22,080 --> 00:29:26,120
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. Absolutely. There's a saying in Korean that

521
00:29:26,320 --> 00:29:29,320
Speaker 1: hardship is so valuable that you want to go and

522
00:29:29,360 --> 00:29:32,479
Speaker 1: pay for it, and it's so true, and often you

523
00:29:32,520 --> 00:29:36,680
Speaker 1: don't know it at the moment. Definitely, I didn't appreciate

524
00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:39,520
Speaker 1: it at the moment. I was just in a low

525
00:29:39,560 --> 00:29:45,160
Speaker 1: point where I was blaming everybody else, and I thought, wow,

526
00:29:45,280 --> 00:29:47,520
Speaker 1: I made a bad decision. I made a bad choice.

527
00:29:47,640 --> 00:29:50,040
Speaker 1: I'm grateful for having a child, but like, what am

528
00:29:50,040 --> 00:29:52,560
Speaker 1: I doing with my life? And I think when you're

529
00:29:52,600 --> 00:29:54,880
Speaker 1: really down, you want everybody else to be down. And

530
00:29:55,040 --> 00:29:58,040
Speaker 1: I remember walking my son, who's now seventeen and six

531
00:29:58,120 --> 00:30:02,800
Speaker 1: foot three a stroller, pushing him and walking around Central

532
00:30:02,880 --> 00:30:05,080
Speaker 1: Park and I was looking around and I'm like, why

533
00:30:05,240 --> 00:30:08,320
Speaker 1: is everybody so happy here? And I think people have

534
00:30:08,440 --> 00:30:11,880
Speaker 1: gone through some of that, like it's probably some level

535
00:30:11,920 --> 00:30:14,760
Speaker 1: or some form of depression. And I thought, why am

536
00:30:14,760 --> 00:30:18,240
Speaker 1: I so sad? And I have a lot going. I

537
00:30:18,240 --> 00:30:20,120
Speaker 1: have a baby, I have a husband, I have family,

538
00:30:20,240 --> 00:30:21,760
Speaker 1: I have you know, of course I can go get

539
00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:25,640
Speaker 1: another job, but why am I so low? And it

540
00:30:25,680 --> 00:30:28,320
Speaker 1: was a very hard time, but it forced me to

541
00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:33,120
Speaker 1: reach out because until then my life was fairly smooth.

542
00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:35,200
Speaker 1: Even the move when I was twelve, like, we had

543
00:30:35,200 --> 00:30:38,360
Speaker 1: a very positive experience. But I look back and when

544
00:30:38,400 --> 00:30:41,240
Speaker 1: I ended up moving to Brazil in my thirties, I

545
00:30:41,280 --> 00:30:44,400
Speaker 1: thought about the move when I was twelve, Oh, no

546
00:30:44,480 --> 00:30:47,800
Speaker 1: big deal, I can do this, and didn't really think

547
00:30:47,840 --> 00:30:50,720
Speaker 1: about it's a little different when you're thirty versus when

548
00:30:50,760 --> 00:30:53,840
Speaker 1: you're twelve. Then yes, you can say that was a

549
00:30:53,880 --> 00:30:59,400
Speaker 1: traumatic experience by definition because you've been uprooted. But this

550
00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:02,400
Speaker 1: moment when I was in my thirties and having a

551
00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:05,680
Speaker 1: baby and my life was completely uprooted, like it forced

552
00:31:05,680 --> 00:31:08,959
Speaker 1: me to really reach out and ask for help. And

553
00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:11,360
Speaker 1: that was not my family, who I adore, because they're

554
00:31:11,360 --> 00:31:14,960
Speaker 1: all biased. And for the first time I found a

555
00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:17,880
Speaker 1: psychiatrist who I used to pupoo, you know, like only

556
00:31:17,960 --> 00:31:22,160
Speaker 1: week people go and see psychiatrists. And I met somebody

557
00:31:22,480 --> 00:31:25,680
Speaker 1: who was amazing, and she said, when is the last

558
00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:29,720
Speaker 1: time you took a course on yourself. We all take

559
00:31:29,760 --> 00:31:32,640
Speaker 1: courses and pay lots of tuition to learn math, science

560
00:31:32,720 --> 00:31:35,240
Speaker 1: and English history. When's the lastime you took a course

561
00:31:35,240 --> 00:31:38,600
Speaker 1: on yourself? Because I balked at her feet and she said,

562
00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:41,200
Speaker 1: this is how you should look at it, and my

563
00:31:41,320 --> 00:31:44,520
Speaker 1: job is to graduate you, not to keep you. And

564
00:31:44,600 --> 00:31:47,560
Speaker 1: she was incredible. I met her when one was sixteen

565
00:31:47,640 --> 00:31:51,400
Speaker 1: years ago, and I graduated from hers after six months,

566
00:31:51,680 --> 00:31:53,600
Speaker 1: and then once in a while I go back and

567
00:31:53,640 --> 00:31:57,280
Speaker 1: I learned a lot about myself and coming out of

568
00:31:57,320 --> 00:32:03,000
Speaker 1: that phase and then also run soul growing soul building

569
00:32:03,080 --> 00:32:06,719
Speaker 1: soul through ups and downs and the mistakes and crazy

570
00:32:06,760 --> 00:32:10,240
Speaker 1: explosive growth that drove me to like sem I alser

571
00:32:10,800 --> 00:32:12,880
Speaker 1: all of that, Like you look back and like, oh,

572
00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:14,560
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be here if it weren't for that.

573
00:32:15,440 --> 00:32:16,560
Speaker 3: Do you think you'll pivot again?

574
00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:20,360
Speaker 1: Who knows? I mean, I didn't pivot because I plan

575
00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:25,600
Speaker 1: to pivot it just like literally, life just through me,

576
00:32:25,720 --> 00:32:29,520
Speaker 1: this curve ball, and the confidence that you get from

577
00:32:29,600 --> 00:32:32,600
Speaker 1: having gone through that, you say, oh, you can pivot

578
00:32:32,720 --> 00:32:34,880
Speaker 1: as often as you need to, and you can totally

579
00:32:34,920 --> 00:32:36,720
Speaker 1: do it and you can make something out of it.

580
00:32:36,920 --> 00:32:39,360
Speaker 1: And one of the values of our company is that

581
00:32:39,960 --> 00:32:44,520
Speaker 1: I think we said problems or disasters are always opportunity

582
00:32:45,120 --> 00:32:48,120
Speaker 1: and so that's part of our culture and we try

583
00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:53,480
Speaker 1: not to make mistakes a point of fear. It should

584
00:32:53,480 --> 00:32:56,200
Speaker 1: be just really learning opportunities. I mean it was really

585
00:32:56,200 --> 00:32:58,360
Speaker 1: for me. I mean when we have challenges at least,

586
00:32:58,440 --> 00:33:00,880
Speaker 1: you know, when we had explosive growth, So our culture

587
00:33:01,080 --> 00:33:04,720
Speaker 1: did suffer a bit because it was too fast. There

588
00:33:04,840 --> 00:33:07,760
Speaker 1: is such thing as a too festival gross. But you know,

589
00:33:07,960 --> 00:33:11,840
Speaker 1: the mistakes is exactly where we learn and where we grow.

590
00:33:12,280 --> 00:33:15,080
Speaker 1: And I've made a ton of mistakes, but that's also

591
00:33:15,240 --> 00:33:18,760
Speaker 1: just part of life. Like somehow mistakes tend to be

592
00:33:18,760 --> 00:33:22,720
Speaker 1: associated with negativity. But yeah, they're welcome. They're not accepted,

593
00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:23,440
Speaker 1: they're welcome.

594
00:33:24,520 --> 00:33:29,600
Speaker 2: Yes, excellent callback, Thank you, thank you well, thank you

595
00:33:29,640 --> 00:33:32,640
Speaker 2: so much for coming on in such a great conversation.

596
00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:38,800
Speaker 2: What strikes me most about Hila's story is how clearly

597
00:33:38,920 --> 00:33:42,880
Speaker 2: she names the difference between being accepted and being welcomed,

598
00:33:43,480 --> 00:33:46,640
Speaker 2: and how she built a billion dollar skincare brand around

599
00:33:46,640 --> 00:33:49,880
Speaker 2: that feeling. Kila had to be at her lowest in

600
00:33:49,920 --> 00:33:52,880
Speaker 2: a body she didn't recognize, in a country where she

601
00:33:52,920 --> 00:33:56,000
Speaker 2: didn't know the language, to find the things she eventually

602
00:33:56,040 --> 00:34:00,200
Speaker 2: built into a category shifting success. She melded her own

603
00:34:00,320 --> 00:34:03,080
Speaker 2: Korean background with the new life in Brazil she came

604
00:34:03,120 --> 00:34:06,520
Speaker 2: to love. She founded Sol Degenneiro on the idea of

605
00:34:06,520 --> 00:34:09,600
Speaker 2: being comfortable in your own skin once she was comfortable

606
00:34:09,600 --> 00:34:13,680
Speaker 2: in hers. You can find Soul Dejaniro pretty much anywhere

607
00:34:13,680 --> 00:34:16,920
Speaker 2: body care is sold. That's all for today, See you

608
00:34:16,960 --> 00:34:21,080
Speaker 2: next week. Thanks for listening to she Pivots. If you

609
00:34:21,200 --> 00:34:23,680
Speaker 2: like this episode, follow the show so you never miss

610
00:34:23,719 --> 00:34:26,120
Speaker 2: a pivot story and share it with one woman in

611
00:34:26,160 --> 00:34:28,719
Speaker 2: your life who might need to hear it. To learn

612
00:34:28,760 --> 00:34:31,520
Speaker 2: more about our guests and join our community, follow us

613
00:34:31,520 --> 00:34:35,360
Speaker 2: on Instagram at she pivots the podcast our. Subscribe to

614
00:34:35,400 --> 00:34:38,840
Speaker 2: our substack for exclusive content and behind the scenes conversations.

615
00:34:39,200 --> 00:34:43,799
Speaker 2: You can also find us at shepivotspod dot com. This

616
00:34:43,880 --> 00:34:47,440
Speaker 2: episode was produced and edited by Paige Davis Janatt, with

617
00:34:47,600 --> 00:34:51,280
Speaker 2: sound editing and mixing by Nina Pollock. Logistics and planning

618
00:34:51,280 --> 00:34:55,560
Speaker 2: by Emastopic and Kendall Krupkin. Research by Christine Dickison. She

619
00:34:55,719 --> 00:34:57,880
Speaker 2: Pivots is proud to be a part of the iHeart

620
00:34:57,960 --> 00:35:02,240
Speaker 2: Podcast Network, endorsed the Pivots