Listen Now: Attaining the Unattainable with IT Cosmetics’ Jamie Kern Lima

A week before my one big shot on KVC, we fly to Pennsylvania. I go and I sit in this rental car all alone in the KVC parking lot, like watching the front doors of the building, going the next time I go in that building, I'm going to go on air, I'm either going to leave bankrupt, or I'm going to leave with my entire life changed. I'm Megan and this is Confessions of a Female Founder, a show where I chat with female entrepreneurs and friends about the sleepless nights, the lessons learned, and the laser focus that got them to where they are today. Any female founder or founder at all will tell you these moments happen where it feels like absolutely everything is on the line. You feel as though whatever you and your team have been working towards, somehow it's all led you to this one point in time, whether it's a big interview or a high pressure investor meeting, and I will tell you firsthand the stress it's palpable, but what do you do when despite giving it your all? It still doesn't work out when you still get a no, a crushing no, it's a lot to process. It makes you question whether chasing your dream is even what you're meant to do. But here's the thing, this is precisely the moment that you have to dig deep. You have to use every tool you've got and get right back up. My guest today has faced her fair share of those moments and oh my goodness has she come out even stronger every single time. Your every rejection, even the most painful ones, even the guy that said like no one's going to buy makeup for someone who looks like you with your body and your weight. I would write them a letter, a thank you note as if I'm a hundred percent certain we're going to be in their stores and it will be a yes. And eventually she did get that yes. Jamie Kern Lima went from being a waitress at Denny's to the founder of the billion dollar makeup line, it cosmetics her ability to believe in herself despite rejection. It's her superpower. Since selling it cosmetics, Jamie has become a best selling author invested in over a dozen businesses and has appeared as a guest shark on shark tank. But when I met her, I don't know any of that, but I knew none of that. I just knew her as Jamie, my new neighbor, and she soon became my rocking chair friend. You know, the kind of person where you can just go and sit in your sweats and cozy, no makeup on and just chat for hours. Her passion is absolutely contagious and uplifting and I have no doubt that you're going to walk away from this conversation, feeling energized and inspired. Let's go. Hi. Hi. Oh my gosh, we're actually double recording for you and we started five minutes out. Oh, Jamie, I feel like we haven't talked about our blood type, but yours is probably in a positive like mine because I was like, even my blood is overachieving. It is. It is. It is. And I just learned that this year, actually. Oh my God. Yeah. That's my running joke. It's been my blood type. A plus, a plus, a plus. Oh my gosh. Thank you for doing this. It's been a full week, but here we are. Are you good? Yes. Are you okay? Yeah. Well, you saw my text yesterday. So there's a lot going on, but that's for our rocking chairs. This is our pseudo rocking chairs. Okay. And same vibe. So let's start with that moment of how it all began. Well, and you being my friend, you know a whole lot more than everyone else and actually feel most people don't know the story. I think they just see like what the press says, which is Denny's way Trist builds billion dollar company. Oh my gosh. But it's all the beats in between that are the story. Yes. Yes. And how this all started was not only me identifying a problem. I couldn't really solve with anything out there, but then realizing there is a whole bunch of other women that like me at the time felt unseen by the beauty industry and sticking to the authenticity of the mission of that is how we entered an industry and literally became the largest luxury makeup company in the country. But growing up, I always thought, oh, I'm in a post-attaction one day. I would sit in my living and watch Oprah every single day and I just felt that like I'm going to do that one day. So I did all the jobs to get to that point and I was anchoring the news and I was moving up in markets and I thought this was my dream job. I thought this is what I'm going to do forever. I have hereditary rosacea, which there's no cure for it. I've gone to every dermatologist at the time and I was in Portland, Oregon and I was live on the air and I hear in my earpiece from the producer, there's something on your face. There's something on your face. You need to wipe it off. And I'm live. And he was just trying to help me and I remember kind of knowing what it was, but just figuring I'll fix it during the break. So during the commercial break, I looked down in my compact and I tried to cover it up. It was my rosacea. It was coming through. Yeah. And it gets really red and bumpy and just for everyone listening, imagining like the way desert clay looks, the cracks, so that hot HD lights was, it was breaking up my makeup and the red was coming through like cracks and all over. So I went to cover it up and for the first time ever, it went to cover. Well, and also just in that as you talk about feeling seen, I often think about with any of those moments, those human moments, those moments where you're so very seen. Maybe you're not seen as like who you are deep on the inside in that moment. It's a producer trying to have your back, but how did you feel initially? I felt scared and worried. And then when it wouldn't cover for the first time, I actually entered. But I would describe as a big season of self-doubt because I started spending my paycheck on all the products out there and I couldn't find anything that worked. And so I would be anchoring the news live on the air and you're talking millions of people. And then I'd hear my earpiece. It seems to me back again. It's still there. It's still there. We could still see. And so I would be talking, but I would be thinking thoughts like, am I going to get fired? Am I costing the station rating? Are people changing the channel right now? And here's what I want to say to anyone who's gone through struggles. A lot of the greatest businesses are launched out of those problems. And faith is a big deal for me in my life, but I do think this is a universal principle. There's someone who believes in God or at the universal, whatever they might believe. I believe so often in our life. I think our greatest setbacks can actually be God's setups for what we're actually supposed to do next. Faith comes up a lot. In every single one of these conversations with any female founder I've spoken to, every woman talks about faith, whether in herself, in God, in something higher, calling in a purpose. It is so profound to me that that is the commonality in any of these sectors and any of these journeys and anyone, whether they've IPO'd or they're on their rise. Everyone has this deep, deep faith. And I think there's something about that that's been revelatory for me to be reminded of, because even as you're telling the story about sitting there on the news desk and you have someone in your ear saying this thing to you, but you sort of focus on the thing in front of you, right? You can apply that to so many different things in the world. For me, I think, oh, wow, they're there in your ear, but it's still just noise. You have to stay focused. You have to stay focused on what's ahead and also say in that what could feel like a breakdown could instead be a breakthrough. And for you, it was your breakthrough. You know, I've never said this before. I've never shared this before, but I believe that that gut feeling and when I get those gut feelings, I believe it's how God talks to me. And I wait until I feel that gut feeling. And I remember having this moment where I'm like, what if I could figure out how to launch a product that like, if it works for me, like, it's probably going to help a whole bunch of other people. Maybe there's all these other people that can't find makeup that will cover and then I had this like, aha moment is over. We'll call it aha moment where I was like, wait a minute. I've never seen a woman with bright red, bumpy skin all over her face selling a product saying, this is amazing. I love the beauty commercials. I love them and the ads and magazines and I always aspired to look like that. But deep down inside, they always made me feel like I wasn't enough. And it was this why that hit me. I was like, wait a minute. What if I could launch a business where I put real people as models like every age and shape and size and skin tone and skin challenge and that was such new thinking that when you were running out to market, that was so now it might seem more normalized and people might be listening like, well, yeah, of course, it was not enough course. It was a revolutionary way to think about makeup and beauty at the time. I mean, that would have been when I was an auditioning actor, auditioning for commercials. And I remember my commercial agent could not submit me for beauty or skincare ads because I had freckles. They're like, no, no, no, no, it's just never going to work because freckles aren't a sign of beauty. It was, you couldn't see yourself reflected there. So back to your point of being seen. You said, I want women to feel seen and to not feel so I'm here to fix what you may have always seen as a flaw. No, I'm here to enhance what I see in you, which is your beauty. Yes. Yes. I'm going to jump out of my chair talking about this actor or cry one or the other because I'm so passionate about this. And it was like this why that was bigger than me. It's like, wait a minute. If I can put real people as models, call them beautiful and mean it. Like, what if, what if in some small way I could shift the definition of beauty in the whole beauty industry for a little kid out there who's about to start doubting themselves and my honeymoon flight to South Africa, I wrote the business plan, came back, quit my job. My husband quit his job. We just went all in, right? I leaned on that knowing and that why I'm like, I've got to go for this. We went all in. We poured every penny of savings we have into the business. I mean, that Jamie, but that is, that is so hard for people to imagine that is such a tremendous leap of faith and that's why we're talking about faith. But that is, can you imagine saying, no, we're all in, not just that and that's listening to that whisper, that gut, that knowing that says, we have reason to believe without anything around us that should tell us that should be the case that we can do this. Yeah. So deeply. Yes. After we poured all our savings in, after we figured out a product that like actually worked for me, we did hundreds of iterations of a formula, here's what I didn't know. I thought, oh my gosh, if the product's great and our mission is so great, it's just going to work. It's just going to sell. It's just going to be huge. Oh my gosh, every one of those department stores, those big beauty retailers, this is what they would say over and over to me. First of all, they said, no, for three years straight. It was, and I said samples everywhere. And none of them believed at the time that this idea of a product that works for people with skin issues and, and we, we showed on all ages and real people and sizes and skin tones and they would always say this to me. These words exactly, women will only buy makeup from images of unattainable aspiration. There's always those two words, unattainable, which means you can't even look like that because it's not real. And I think one of the most important things that I wish, I wish I knew with worse certainty sooner is that you can never let anyone else's doubt about you turn into doubt in your own head. And it is so important to what we were talking about for whatever that looks like for you to get still, to pray, to meditate, to learn how to hear your knowing, because I think your knowing is, that is what you listen to, not any of the nose happening around you, right? Yeah. Not the nose, the knowing. Exactly. Exactly. You know, like for me, starting a company, it's new or surrounded by very, very savvy business women, friends, and even when you and I had just become friends and I was talking about business, I remember you said to me, okay, so what's the timeline? I said, like a couple months from now, you're like, that's too soon. And I didn't want to hear that, but you're right. You planted a seed that became a knowing for me. And it gave me the grace to have the space, to take my time until it was right. To really not be concerned about someone else's urgency or the media's urgency or speculations urgency, somehow becoming my urgency, to wait until you're ready, even if I didn't want to hear it, it was the thing that I needed to hear. I want to call out when thing you just said about planting the seeds, because it's so easy if all of a sudden our timelines being pushed out or something, we think we did something wrong. We think, oh, everyone else sure looks like they have it together on social media or whatever, it must just be me, because a lot of times when you look at companies or you look at businesses or anything online, you see the outcome or the external. Yes. They create the illusion. The illusion of, here's the finished product and look at how great it is. It's just tied up with the bow and the bow is perfect as opposed to, the process is not perfect. And the process can be painful and it can be riddled with things that don't just make you question your business, they make you question yourself. Yes. Yes. And I think most of us are risk averse to the idea of looking as though we failed at something. Yes. Yes. And I'm thinking about a famous quote that says, and he has a brain of a shard that says like, you're not scared to start, you're scared to have other people see you starting small. At least for me, I can only speak for myself, at the beginning I just like making jam. All I like to do is just make jam and preserves. And it went from, okay, I'm going to share this jam with lots of friends and family to people really like it and it brings me joy so maybe I can share it more broadly. But even then, I was in so much fear of failure or opinion that I wasn't thinking big enough at first. At the onset, I thought, okay, well, I know what I can do, like, I'm going to go online and I can get what's called a cottage license, which you can get in the state of California, which means if you cook something in your home, you can sell it up to a certain amount at a farmer's market or somewhere small or, and I thought, okay, well, it's great. I'll get my cottage license and I applied for one and, and thought, I'll just do small batch jam from home. And I had to step back and look at what I was doing and saying, am I playing small because I want to play small or am I setting in motion playing small because I'm scared? And you know, Oprah, who I know as a mentor and friend to you, same for me, she was the one that said, there are tons of things you could put your name on. But for you and how you like to show up for people, once you figure out how to encapsulate your essence, then you'll know. And it was so clear, even as I'm listening to your story, the essence of who you are was about feeling seen, knowing that you're enough, knowing that you're beautiful, despite what anybody would say, and putting that essence in a product that could be shared with millions of people. I'll admit it, when it's cold out, I like to take some very long, very hot showers. Sue me. And as much as I love this little indulgence, it's definitely not great for my skin. I mean, my skin always dries out in the winter, but this habit definitely doesn't help. And that's why I've been leaning on my one skin products to rescue me. Right now, I'm all about the OS one body topical supplement. I slather that baby on every morning when I get out of the shower, and it's really improved the look and feel of my skin. One skin has so many amazing products that can help give your skin the boost it needs this season. At the core is their patented OS one peptide. The first ingredient proven to targets innocent cells, the root cause of wrinkles, crepiness, and loss of elasticity, all key signs of skin aging. And these results have now been validated in five different clinical studies. All of one skin's products are designed to layer seamlessly or replace multiple steps in your routine, making skin health easier and smarter at every age. One skin also just launched their limited edition holiday sets, including the Nightly Rewind gift set, which adds the perfect touch of luxury to your gift list. It's the ultimate upgrade to any nightly ritual. Featuring their best-selling face moisturizer, their brand new peptide lip mask, and a sculpting guashat tool. Each element is designed to work together as your skin enters its natural nightly repair mode, helping renew skin at the cellular level for a stronger, smoother, and more youthful looking complexion. I'm such a fan of one skin products. Since I've been using them, my skin just looks softer and plumper and more nourished all around. I'm very excited about gifting some one skin products to my friends and family this holiday season. Hopefully, what better gift is there than healthy, hydrated skin on these cold, wintery days? Not much. For a limited time, try one skin for 15% off using code Confessions at 1skin.co/confessions. After you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. Okay, so you've created this product, this magical concealer, and you're ready to share it with the world. No one is paying attention. That is so hard. I had no idea how many knows. I would get knows from amazing experts in the beauty industry, knows from some of my favorite stores I would shop in. I mean, I would send our samples to everyone, and finally Megan, all of the really high-profile buyers, and this and that. They were all saying no. I started, I was like, okay, I've just got to get our product so good, this is going to, and I felt in my gut it was going to work, but nothing around me said that my gut was right. So I started stocking LinkedIn going, let me just find everyone who works at Sephora, matter their position, and all to beauty, and all the department stores, and QVC. Let me just send them all samples, and I mean, it was just like over and over and over. You're not love bombing, product bombing. You're like. I was like, oh, over and over, but also, sorry, but also, you don't have the funds to just be sending out endless product that it could possibly just end up in someone's, they're going to give it to a friend, or they're not going to even open it. That is, again, such a leap of faith in an investment because you don't know the ROI at that point. Yes, and I remember we were so close to bankruptcy, and I remember I had finally got a meeting with Sephora. I was like, oh, my gosh, I could barely afford the plane ticket to get there. So it's this tall building in Market Street in downtown San Francisco, and I flew there. I remember going up the whole building. I remember the elevator door is opening, and I felt like, and halfway in double-wear as product. I was like, whoa, I remember looking all around, and I had this moment where I looked down at what I was wearing, and I was like, oh, I couldn't afford. It was an old, like, a very old kind of dress thing, but I, you know, I could not afford a new outfit, and when I walked in the boardroom, I was like pouring my heart out, and there was one decision maker, and she was actually the head buyer at the time, and I'll never forget she stopped me mid-pitch, and she said, if people were talking about this product, I'd be hearing about it, and I'm not. Yeah. And it was a no. And I remember just, like, walking out to the elevator, and it was a packed elevator. And I was trying not to cry, I remember tears, like, the edge of my lashes, and I was trying to cry my lashes off, and I said, I was like, I can't cry, I'm gonna see, yo, these are all so four people, I'm like, they can't see me cry, and I was like trying to hold all together, and we got to the bottom lobby, and I walked straight out and right around the corner, a market street, and up against this brick wall, and I just like started sobbing, because I was like, how am I gonna call? Palame has been and tell him it's a no, and I don't know how we're gonna make it, and there are so many of those. Oh, Jamie. As you're talking about all these no's for me, what was I doing before I was acting? Oh my gosh. Oh, please, I heard no all the time, especially because I wasn't cookie cutter for a specific type, and at the start of my auditioning career, you were either the black girl or the white girl or the Latina girl, or everything was tight cast. So being mixed, I could get into a lot of rooms that meant as a numbers game, I heard no even more. Yeah. I remember a no from KVC, where I finally had sent them so many samples for years. I finally got the head guy, a guy named Alan Burke, and he loved this story. Oh my gosh. So he's responsible for building the multi-billion dollar beauty business at KVC, and imagine sending hundreds of samples for years, and either getting no's or never hearing. I finally got word he wanted to have a call. I was like, "Oh my gosh, if Alan Burke wants to get, like this is huge, if he's going to give me, finally, finally." And I was like pacing around my office, which was our living room, and I was like getting ready for the call. I was like power posing because Harvard had done the research that if you pose like superwoman, you're more confident. I was like power posing. I was like pumping myself up, and I was like telling myself like, "They'll be lucky to have us, and all these things." Anyways, he, that phone call, he was very kind, but he basically said in these exact words, we've received your samples, all of them, and I wanted to call you directly and let you know myself that I've met with our entire buying team, and it's unanimous that you are not the right fit for KVC or our customers. It's horrible. I love that he did it personally. It's not like breaking up in a post-it note, but oh man, after three years, my worst rejections were to come, but that was a pretty bad one. Especially after that grind, and also at this point, how much money do you have in the bank account? Close to zero. Yeah, we were basically getting one to two orders a day on our website and barely keeping the lights on, and we couldn't afford marketing or advertising, so it was just word of mouth that people would have been hearing about it. Everything was about how do we stay alive? And I remember at the time, we got an inbound from a potential investor, and I was like, "Oh, my gosh. I started doing all my homework. I'm like, they've invested in all these companies that like, used to be very tiny now. They're big names and grocery stores and big box retailers." I was like, "Oh, my gosh. Okay. I was freaking out. I told Paul Ome. Look at this email. And it was a big potential investor, so a big private equity company, very well known, and they got in the hold of our product, and they wanted to have a meeting." Oh, my gosh. And so the thought of like, "Oh, my gosh. This investor is going to be my saving grace because if he invests in A, we're not going to go bankrupt. B, like maybe he can use all his connections to get us in these stores. And we took our first meeting, and it was amazing. We did a meeting after a meeting after a meeting, and we flew up for the final meeting where I presented like the whole future product pipeline, and I thought this was going to be my saving grace. And I was so excited. And I'll never forget. Paul Ome has been with Standing Next to Me about three feet from me. And the head of the private equity firm was there. He was lovely. And his whole team, who was great. They're all there. At the very end of the meeting, he says to me, you know, congratulations. You should be so proud that this is a really, really great product. But it's a no. We're going to pass on investing in it cosmetics. And I was like, oh, I was so used to hearing no. But it felt like, you know, like a punch in the gut because I was like, I don't know how we're going to make it. And so I said, can you tell me why? What did he say? Well, I mean, feedback can be a gift. So I said, can you tell me why? And he got really quiet. I'm standing here in person, I don't like two or three feet from him, and he got really, really, really quiet. And he says to me, do you want me to be really honest with you? And I was like, yes, please. And he just paused. And I remember feeling like my heartbeat and my ears for some reason. I was like, what could this be? And I remember his mouth started moving. And I remember looking at his mouth and his teeth for some reason. And he says to me, I just don't think women will buy a makeup from someone who looks like you with their body and your weight. And when he said those, first of all, I never even got angry or felt anger toward him. But when he said those words to me, it felt almost like a lifetime of body doubt and self doubt, like flooded my body all it went. So I almost felt like I was staring my own fear straight in the eye. But here's why I want to share this. When you said those words to me, I just don't think women will buy a makeup from someone who looks like you with your body and your weight. I got this feeling and it was so strong that I can feel it right now. Like literally, it was so strong in my gut, visceral, visceral, visceral feeling that said, he's wrong. Like, he's wrong. Oh, that's huge. And I think that's also a good reminder of in those moments where the environment, the pitch, the opportunity, feels so much bigger than we are, the building itself, the enormous elevator doors. Don't try to book the part. Just try to book the room, meaning there's always going to be a room full of people and especially in business as you're pitching some of those people from Sephora will probably end up at Ulta and some of the Ulta people and the bed of hedge fund and some of those private equity people end up at that DC company. And you might not be right in that exact moment for that part, for that pitch, if we're making the analogy. But one of those people in the room will likely remember you. And when your journey takes you somewhere else in your paths cross, you may have not book that part. You may have not gotten that exact pitch. But you've booked something in that room so that they remembered you, your essence, your product, what you can bring to the table and to try to see those opportunities even when there's a no, the no is a no for right now or it's a not yet. But it could still be with one of those people who's present to him saying that to you. Okay. I have goosebumps right now because this is okay. After every rejection, even the most painful lens, even the guy that said like no one's going to buy makeup for someone who looks like you with your body in your way, even Alan Burke, the head of QVC who said you're not the right fit for us or our customers, even the woman at Sephora, right, who said no one's talking about your product after every single one make it. I would write them a letter and thank you know as if I'm a hundred percent certain we're going to be in their stores and it will be a yes every time. Wow. And then over and over. Let's say six months later, we get an article written about our products somewhere. I would then go email every single one of those people who said no and be like, create news. This product just got featured here and it's to and when we get in your stores, when they I can't wait for this because this is going to change all your customers lives. I'm so excited to partner, as if for sure it's going to happen and I kept doing that over and over for years. They might have thought who knows what they thought about me, but guess what, oh my god, every no turned out every single no turned into a yes. This is, you know, some people will be super intentional about creating their vision board. Great. That is you putting your vision board in action every single time that you made a choice to send an email to follow up to continue believing and putting those beliefs, not just on a board, not just in your head, to putting them in words in action, putting pen to paper. As though it is true. Yes. I think that's really powerful for people to see that it's not something that you just look at, it is putting the dues behind the say is you're saying it, but you're doing something actively to signal to the universe or whatever it is that you believe in. This is in motion, maybe not as fast as I'd like it to be, but this is coming. This is coming and I'm so excited. And then perfect timing to fast forward to how you ended up on QVC. Oh my goodness. Just paint the picture for us of this epic QVC moment in 2010. This is the wildest story and honestly, the biggest business lessons and life lessons I've ever learned because here's the deal. We're over three years in, okay? And imagine everyone, if you've gone through this before or maybe you're just going through it with me right now, but we're three years in to like building this dream. And on the verge of bankruptcy, everyone is saying no. And I was at this huge beauty expo in New York City called CEW where there's 6,000 women walking the Javits Center, you get a three foot table and you're there with all the biggest beauty companies in the world and everyone's demonstrating their product launches. And the reason you do this is you're hoping that the 6,000 people walking that either there's retailers there that'll bring you to their stores or there's press there that might cover your product or that you get votes and you win one of the coveted CEW awards. So I'm there to three foot table at Cosmetics, no one has ever heard of me. And I'm around all the biggest friends in the world. Long story short, QVC has this giant booth there and I was like, now Alan Burke had said the head of QVC is a beauty, he said, no, you're not the right fit for us or our customers, just a few months before. But I was there and I'm like, I never met anyone in person at QVC. And so you're not allowed to leave your three foot table and I could not afford to get kicked out. But I was like, I've got to do, like I kept like praying about it and I felt like I've got to do this. And I kept leaving my table and every time I go over toward their booth, their buyers were mad, they're just crowded with people. So I go back, I eventually go over and I get straight to a buyer and I introduce myself to her and I say, I'm Jamie Kern, Lima, I started a company called It Cosmetics. And she's like, oh yeah, I have your samples and I was like, oh, I'm really good. And I remember this is so gross, but this is Confessions of an Entrepreneur of a Founder. I remember talking to her, trying to like pour everything I have into this and I remember sweat dripping down my legs because I was so nervous. And anyways, at the very end, she gives me her card and she says, let's have a meeting at QVC and I was like, and then I was like, wait, does she mean it? If you've ever had anyone go DM me and then like, I'm on my Instagram looking and there's no DM, I didn't know if she meant it, but she did. And we flew out to Pennsylvania. We had a meeting and we got our very first big yes, but what it meant was I got one shot, serve one, imagine this QVC's live to 100 million homes. I got one shot in this 10 minute window to go on live and either hit their sales goal or not come back. So I learned that I have to sell over 6000 units of our product in a 10 minute window to hit their sales goal. Because remember on QVC, every minute of airtime, you're competing against the numbers Apple iPhone could do or any other big product. So you have to deliver these high numbers. I then learned that it is a consignment offer. And what that meant was we somehow had to pay for over 6000 units of product. And if it doesn't sell, I have to take it all back and we're not paid. So you should never say for every listening, you should never say yes. That is, I mean, if you were a betting woman and you're in Vegas or something that the odds on that are so bad to say, but again, you were in such deep faith. You wanted it. You had the vision of being there on QVC, you put 10 minute shot. You have 6000 units of product that you have to go and pay for investing. Yeah. But I don't know credit card and let's hope we can pay that off. And now you have 6000 units of a product that you don't know if you can sell in 10 minutes. Well, and here's what's wild. We couldn't even afford to put out a credit card. So we were like, how are we going to do this? We went to 22 banks trying to get a loan at SBA loan. They all said no. And they should have because we had no accounts receivable. We had the 23rd bank, California bank interest gave us an SBA loan that covered the amount of this one big purchase order and then a little bit more. And we decided to go all in because I was like, I don't know how we're going to make it if we don't. Oh, I have chills. And we use that little extra money. We hired third party consultants and they're amazing. They all said the same thing. They said, okay, if you want to shot at actually hitting these sales numbers and making it on QVC, here's what you need to do. In your 10 minutes, you need to put this type of model demonstrating your product. And then, and they would tell me all the things to do, which was all like literally girls that look like they were 12, all at the same skin tone and no skin challenges. And so I said to them, okay, here's the thing. Here's my authentic vision for the brand. What if I put a model in her 70s or 80s and then I put someone who's dealing with under-eye circles and someone who's struggling with acne and hyperpigmentation and what if I take my own makeup off on national TV? I show my bright red rosacea and I prove the product works and they were mortified. And so I'll never forget this. A week before my one big shot on QVC, we fly to Pennsylvania. I go and I sit in this rental car all alone in the QVC parking lot, like watching the front doors of the building, going the next time I go in that building, I'm going to go on air. I mean, they're going to leave bankrupt or I'm going to leave with my entire life changed. And there is a moment in the car where I remember just like praying, crying, I remember I'd once you know Oprah show like 20 years earlier where she talks about how she wanted the color of purple so bad, the movie, and she wasn't getting it. And so she like ran around a track and started singing "I Surrender All" and asked God to take it from her because it felt too heavy her obsession with wanting it. I was so stressed in the car, I literally was like, I'm going to try that too. I started singing "I Surrender All" I was like, God this feels so heavy for me and I was like trying to ask him to take it because here's the true confession. I was so tempted in that moment to try it their way because I was like, what if I do it and it works and I make money and I don't go bankrupt, then I can try it my way. Like I had all those thoughts and it was this moment in the car that these words like they hit me that yes, you cannot fake authenticity, customers are smart and while authenticity alone does not automatically guarantee success in authenticity, guarantees failure. Like every time, over time, right? But you raised such a good point because I think especially when there are lots of opinions and you're grappling and you're trying to figure it out, it's like when do you trust your gut or when you trust the advice and especially if you enlist someone to be an adviser and at what point do you have to sit there, get quiet with yourself and be able to confidently look at them and say that maybe what works but that's not what's going to work for me. Yes, yes, that is it, that is it right there because I believe your intuition is more powerful and anyone else is advice, even your greatest mentor, right? And so that moment, so I'm sitting there in the rental car, crying, trying all the things, singing, singing, being tempted to try it their way and it was like I remember it coming to me because I was imagining who is that one person on the other end. I don't know why but I kept imagining like a single mom in Nebraska who was like folding laundry way too busy to remember that she's so beautiful and that she matters. I would rather her look up and see me showing women that look like her and calling them beautiful and meaning it, even if she buys nothing, I knew in that moment I'd rather stand for something than sell a whole ton of product and stand for nothing. I remember walking into the studio and there's all these cameras and there's you in the host and then there's this giant clock on the ground and it was set at 10 minutes. And I was like okay, then make it, then literally right before I go out, I learn after all this, I learn, you're not even guaranteed you're 10 minutes, yep, because they know by the second if you're hitting numbers, they know how many people are ordering on their phones, how many are ordering online, how many are calling in. So you might go live and you're a minute or two and you think like, oh, I've got eight minutes left. If you're not hitting numbers, your clock jumps from eight down to one. Oh my gosh. And you know you're done. Oh my gosh. So I learned that and I remember the moment that the big red on air light came on. So we were live. I have been practicing this demonstration on my wrist, okay, the big part and the back of our wrist that bends and gets all these creases and I would put our product, our concealer and then the top two best selling ones for department stores. And I'd bend my hand back and forth and there's would start creasing and cracking and ours would it. Which is a big deal. I had perfected this in my bathroom mirror, like a million times. So I'm live trying to do this demonstration in the first minute of the show. My hand is shaking so much because I'm so nervous. The host grabbed, I couldn't even finish the demonstration. The host grabs my hand, puts it under the podium and she's like, and she took over and I remember the moment my bright red bear face before shot comes up on the screen to 100 million homes. And then I remember walking over to the models, like every age, shape, size, skin tone, skin challenge, like calling the beautiful, meaning it. And I remember we were a few minutes in, I didn't know how we were doing but I knew I wasn't cut yet. So I was like, okay, this is good. And then we got down, it was like the eight or nine minute mark and I remember the host saying the deep shades almost gone, the tan shades almost sold out. And literally at the ten minute mark, this giant sold outside comes up across the screen. All six plus thousand units. I start crying on national television and they cut for me and went to like Dyson vacuum or something. Palo comes running through the double doors and I'm just like thinking, I remember looking at him and I'm like, real women have spoken and I'm like sobbing. I thought he's going to come over and give me the biggest hug ever and he just looks at me and he puts his fists up in the air and he's like, we're not good big robs. And I'm like, oh my gosh, what did you guys do that night to celebrate? I was in such a days. I don't even know if I was able yet to be in my body because it was years and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of nose, I cried all my makeup off. I was just like, I felt like I was out of my body and I remember that one airing turned into five that year and then a hundred and one the next year. And then we did two hundred fifty live shows a year after year after year. And we built the biggest beauty brand in KVC's history and sold for one point two billion dollars cash. I mean, like, like, just want a legendary acquisition. Yes. And you just reminded me too of after we launched on KVC, after we made it, after we started gaining traction, Al and Burke, remember the head guy that said you're not the right fit for KVC or our customers. We stopped sending us products. Yes. Okay. So after we launched, he ends up retiring from KVC, he'd been there several decades. He retired from KVC and we hire him in a paid position on our advisory board. So the guy that rejected me is now working for me, right? And the days I was crying myself to sleep when he said you are not the right fit for KVC or our customers, no one can tell you you are not the right fit. And I just believe in divine timing. And the other thing I wanted to share quickly is, you know, after when L'Oreal bought our company, right, they paid $1.2 billion cash and because they're a public company, they had to report it and disclose the purchase price, the day the deal went through. Because it was on the homepage of the lawsuit journal, because it was everywhere, it was the first day I heard from that one investor, that potential investor who said women won't buy makeup from someone who looks like you with your body and your weight. It had been six years and that was the first time I heard from him and he said congratulations on the L'Oreal deal. I was wrong. Yeah. And for me, I'm like, just vindication, right? Oh my gosh. Megan, how did he believe in me six years earlier? I was so desperate. I had no money. I didn't know how we were going to make it. Oh, you would have given so much effort. Yes. I would have given him a high of a whole company from us. Nothing just hoping can I stay alive because he didn't believe in me. We are still the largest shareholder when we sold our company. And by the way, when he said that, when he said, "Congratulations on the L'Oreal deal. I was wrong." I don't know if you remember in the movie Pretty Woman, where she got a big mistake. Right? That's what I wanted to say to him. Right? Yes. I wanted to say big mistake. Huge. Right. But I didn't. I kept it really classy. I wouldn't have wanted to be him. I wanted to be him. And I was like, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. All of those notes from everything that you went through, from just genuinely deeply being in perseverance to the point that we started with talking about this idea of planting a seed. Yes. And I know in this conversation how many seeds you've planted for people with how much you've been generous to share about what that feels like in the journey and on the journey that is taking you to this place where now, not just from what you can do as an entrepreneur, but what you've been able to do for women and for people to know their worth, to write these best-selling books that have changed people's lives. And that person that was there as a waitress at Denny's or as a news anchor on local news, that's that same person in there who wants to feel seen. And as a result of that, you've been able to create the most illustrious career where not just as a businesswoman, but as a person, you let so many people feel seen. And it just is the most beautiful gift that I think you've been able to give and to be so candid in your journey that makes the gift even more profound. So thank you. Oh my gosh, thank you. Next week I'm talking to a founder who makes instant drinks that are not only healthy, other cool. People really want this, and this is a completely unrealistic ritual, so Rod challenged me. If you can make the drinks with serving in the spa that people loving into a powerful and instant drink, which is the least sexy product, most antiquated product of all time, let's put this out there in the world, let's build something. Can you guess who it is? See you then. Confessions of a female founder is a production of Lemonada Media, created and hosted by Megan. Our producers are Catherine Barnes and Oha Lopez. Kristen LaPore is our senior supervising producer. Executive producers are Stephanie Little's Wax, Jessica Cordova Kramer, and Megan. Six and sound design are by John Evans Evans. Rachel Neill is our VP of new content and production, and Steve Nelson is our SVP of weekly content and production. You can help others find our show by leaving us a rating and writing a review. There's more confessions of a female founder with Lemonada Premium. Subscribers get exclusive access to bonus content when you subscribe and Apple podcasts. You can also listen ad-free on Amazon Music with your prime membership. Thanks so much for listening. We'll see you next week. Hallelu! We hope you enjoyed Confessions of a Female Founder with Megan. If you'd like to support the show, the best way to do so is by leaving a rating and review on Apple podcasts. It helps more incredible listeners like you discover the series. Thank you.