Going Viral — How to Stand Out & Make Sales in a Crowded Market | Laney Crowell

A lot of women in my audience have dreams and aspirations of starting their own business, but they feel overwhelmed and afraid because they don't want to fail. So for anyone watching right now, if there were three things or two things are one thing that you've witnessed in your journey and meeting so many other women that keep them stuck from either starting or growing their company, what do you think those would be?

Well, I think you have to get very comfortable with failure. I mean, I talk to my girls, I have a six year old and a four year old about this all the time. I feel every day. Many times a day. It's about grit. It's about being so comfortable with that grit. I think if your. But that comes from practice, right?

Yeah. You have to be able to practice failing. I think the the other thing is knowing your market, if you know your market really well, it makes it a lot less scary because you know what's happening out there. You know that these are the players. This is my competition. This is the white space. And so it makes it more comfortable to take that leap.

At least that's how it felt for me.

Yes. So, you know, I think self-doubt and imposter syndrome are related here. And those things I cannot tell you how often I hear about that on social and emails from folks in my community. Have you faced that in your journey? I certainly did. You know. Yeah. Like. And how do you deal with that? Like, does it still come up now at each stage of your growth?

I mean, of course. Yes. I think for me though, like light bulb went off when I realized that men don't feel that way.

Tell me more.

And you look around yourself and you realize just how there are so many. There's a meme that went out that was like a light bulb for me that was like, feel as confident as a not very smart white man. And I was like, oh, that's the vibe. Like, they are so comfortable and they are so, so sure that they deserve it.

Yeah.

There's no question in their mind. I have this other like very strange but thing that works for me. I think about all of the boxes that come to my house, and how I am so sure that I will always have boxes coming to my house. Amazon Online orders, influencer boxes that I have no fear around, there being a lack of things coming in boxes to my house.

I know this sounds so strange. I find what works for you. Whatever that thing is that you have no doubt about. Think about that and what that feeling is. Because that's the feeling of abundance. That's the feeling of confidence and trust, right? Because it all comes down to trust. Like, I think I posted it yesterday and I had so many people messaging where it's like the opposite of anxiety is not calm, it's trust.

When you are so sure that it's going to happen. Yes. Then you feel confident and sure that you can go and do anything right.

Yeah. And I think my riff on that would be trust that it will all work out. Like even if it doesn't work out immediately or the way that you think it should or your mind or, you know, for me, I'll talk about like, my mind or, you know, the personality based Marie or the ego based Marie thinks it should go this particular way.

And if that particular way doesn't work out, it's going to work out another way that might even be better or so different that my mind is so small it couldn't have predicted that.

Totally right? You think about all I think about where I am today and when I had been dreaming about, say, it was nowhere near as big as we are today. So it's like, well, why? Make sure you're dreaming big enough. Yeah, right. It's like trust. But trust even that it could be even bigger than you think your biggest dream is.

So you and I first started out in the magazine world, and that was something I was like, oh, my God. And you were there probably, a little bit after I was I feel I was still there when it there was no kind of real hint yet that it was going downtown because the internet was still so new and Mademoiselle was still a thing.

And that's where I worked. I know, and I was like, it was so proud. And I felt so good to be there. But I'm curious to hear from you. What, if any, mindset shifts that you had to go through or develop to go from being an employee to an entrepreneur. So I'll just share, like in my own experience, when I was working for other people, I felt like I kept failing and I took it really hard.

I thought that I was a failure because I didn't yet realize I wasn't really built to work for other people, but I hadn't made that connection yet. All I knew was that I would always be so happy. Like, I started working when I was nine, babysitting and then working at Carvel. Like I've never stopped. It's been like 40 years of just hitting whatever I can do.

And, and I remember just going into work every day and, like, having my paycheck be determined by someone and how I spent my time be determined by someone, I was like, I can't do this. I can't do this. Like, I felt like I was dying. Yes, Suffolk hating, dying a slow death. So for me, I didn't really have to make so much of mindset shifts, but it was like a realization.

So I'm just curious what your experience of that journey was like because you did work for some incredible companies and then you're like, okay, I'm ready to build my own thing.

Well, I was laughing to myself about this the other day because I was thinking about how there must be so many people on along the way that look at what I'm doing now and they're like, I didn't see that happening. Like, she kind of was a cop, and she was kind of like, you know, always. I was always in trouble.

There are many jobs where it was not my work, that my work ethic was not there. There was times where I just honestly had an attitude. So I look back on that and I'm like, well, what was that? Yeah. Like, why was I honestly kind of being defiant and, you know, rebelling a little bit. And I think it's because I was always meant to be an entrepreneur.

I think that's where I feel the most comfortable. I feel my mom was in the Foreign Service since we moved every three years growing up, and my parents did not have, like, particularly great, sorry, mom, dad. They did not have particularly great emotional vocabularies. So there wasn't like this, hey, we're moving to a new country. You're not going to know anyone.

We're going to put you in a school where you don't even speak the language. Let's talk about it. No, no, it was like, hey, this is what's happening.

Yeah. And that was also culture back then, right?

And so that was really what formed my personality. And so I am way more comfortable being on my own and leading what, what I need to do. And so being in a place with bosses was hard for me.

Yeah. So it feels like you were always an entrepreneur in similar, even though they were different experiences. Like, I definitely even though I tried to put on my game face and all of my jobs, you know, I was certainly like, I was like, I can't do this. I can't, you know, I was like, faking it, you know, and dying a slow death inside.

So when did the idea for say come to you? Like, when was that dream born and how did that manifest? What is a vision? Did you keep hearing voices? Did you see other entrepreneurs? And like, I can do that, I think I can do that. Like what did that how that unfold for you?

Yeah. So I had left Stillwater and I'd been there for five years, so I'd been there for a long time, which in, in some ways is not that long in a corporate culture. But for me, given the fact that it was so not a perfect fit.

Was a really.

Long time for me to be there. Like I saw my old boss the other day who I adore and I learned so much from. And she was like, I couldn't believe you made it that long, actually, because I was so ready to do and building. I want to work. I work very quickly, and those are all the antithesis of.

How that world is. Yeah.

So I had left, and I had left with this kind of amorphous idea of beauty being bigger and better. I wanted it to be really, truly serving the consumer because I'm the consumer. So I was sitting there being like, wait, none of this is adding up to me. I'm the consumer. I want products that are good for my skin.

I have acne prone skin, I have sensitive skin, but no one's talking about ingredients. No one's talking about the fact that I'm putting makeup on my skin that's making my acne worse. Like, doesn't that feel weird to you? I mean, this is a product for us. Shouldn't it be serving us and what our needs and health and everything are?

You know, that's what we want. And so that was one aspect of it. I also have been a lifelong environmentalist. I grew up, I was born in Colorado. My parents were outdoorsmen. I'm very passionate about our planet, and no one was talking about that in industry that we made 129 billion units of plastic or made every year in the beauty industry.

So it was this, again, it was like nebulous at this point. It was like all these kind of like touch points that I knew were connected, but I didn't know how they were connected. I also didn't get why beauty images didn't make me feel good. When I would look at people, I'd be like, oh well, I don't have that skin that doesn't look like me.

So I laughed and this was around the time of like DDC companies started. So this was, Casper, Allbirds, Glossier. They were they were coming in and there was other beauty founders that I was starting to meet. So I did have expanders that were there. Again, all these kind of things moving around. But the moment, I had started a blog to have a conversation about this, the moment that happened on Prince Street, was I was going out to dinner and I went to go look for some makeup to put on, and I went into the beauty closet and it was like kind of like one of these credenza those, it was under a

TV and I open the cabinet doors and every single bin was overflowing except for the makeup.

And it was so visual. Like I can still see the carpet as I was walking across the carpet to open it, like when you were saying like was it a moment? It was a moment. Yes. I in that moment it was like I just saw the whole market. I saw very visually what the white space was. And so Instagram Stories had just launched and I went to dinner.

After dinner I was walking home, through Washington Square Park, and I started just typing on my phone and asking my community on Instagram questions of like, well, what would you create if you could create something? What does work? What brands are you buying? Like just peppering them with all these questions. And it was in that conversation that people said, you should start something, and here's what it should be.

And that's where the name of the brand comes from. It's from that conversation of them saying, you should make this, and here's what it should be. So that's why we say, you say we create it.

I love it. What was the hardest part for you of starting, say so.

And during that conversation that I was walking through Washington Square Park, I was pregnant. And so I was with my first daughter, Isabella, and I really didn't know what was going to come with that. I didn't know what it meant to have a baby. I didn't know what it meant to be a mom. So I was like, I'm not going to start anything until I have Isabella.

And kind of it all settles. I found my journal the other day, and I have an entry that says, today is my due date. Isabella's doesn't. I didn't know her name at that point, but I was like, baby doesn't seem to be coming. I wound down all my consulting clients. I had nothing to do. And so I said, I think I'm going to start a business plan for that idea that I had.

And so it was on her due date that I started typing it all out of like, this is what it would look like. This is like actually putting pen to paper. Yeah. And then it wasn't until three months after that because I, I had Isabella, it rocked my world. I had a kind of an identity crisis in that moment, because I am so strong in who I am and I'm super independent.

And all of a sudden you have a baby who needs you. And so it took me a minute and then it was just pedal to the metal. And I just started like putting the pieces together and I know your question was, what was the hardest part? It was all hard.

Yeah.

Oh, it was all hard.

I want to highlight something because my audience know this. I talked to you guys about this all the time. Writing it down is key to making it real. You know, there's great stories about this. I talk about this and everything is figure out of all that. Every single human being is 42% more likely to achieve their goals if they simply write them down.

And I always think that there's something magical in that. Like we have all of us, we have these incredible notions of possibilities. And whether it's for a business or for a product line or for some change that we want to make in our lives, you know, it is it can be like these beautiful possibilities that are a little nebulous and a little maybe disconnected.

And we're not sure. But there is magic when we start writing things.

I, I love that, I totally agree.

It's like there is this speeding up, this quickening, this reality. Like we're just talking, you know, you and I are both out east and, we didn't get to hang out because, like, we haven't been in our house in a while because it's a renovation. Like, we would all be idiots to start a renovation just running around with a sledgehammer.

Do you know how to plan without.

A plan, without a blueprint, without actually writing down some details about what we want? For me, in my case, my dream house to look like. And we weren't building it from scratch. We were taking something that already existed, like most of us do our lives. Or if you've been in business for a while, you have a business and it's okay to renovate it.

And part of that is writing down. So I just wanted to highlight that because I have to say, just as an aside, and we'll go back to questions every friggin time I walk into a Sephora, every time I see, say, like, your brand fills my heart with so much joy, I just. You are such a magical. And I'm like, I know.

Her, she's.

Amazing and I also want to just highlight and acknowledge and appreciate and love on you for I think it's a really special gift. There's a there's a speed. You said you work really fast and like when you were at Estee Lauder that there were like, you know, things do not happen fast here. It's very, very slow. But that's a super magical gift.

When was the year that you.

Started to speed as a super magical gift? Oh, we we launched at the end of 2019.

At the end of 2019. So let me ask you this. When you wrote down in your journal, you're like, okay, this is the day. Did you have say yet as the name? Like.

No, I didn't, I didn't I, I more just had all of those ideas. Yes. I put them all onto paper. I made a list, speaking of writing down, which I still have of all of the people that I had heard them mention the word fundraising because I had never raised money before. I didn't even know what a convertible note was.

I didn't know what a save was. I didn't know how to raise money, I knew nothing.

Yeah. Which most of our audience doesn't know that those words are either.

Yes, I knew zero. Yeah. And so first of all, I would start making the business plan for the company. But the hardest part was learning an entirely new skill, which is fundraising. Yes. And so I wrote down on a list, like all the people that I knew and who I'd heard of the first was Unilever. Because I'd heard there at the time, CEO speak about their values, which were very aligned with my values and with these values.

The next with one was Gwyneth Paltrow, because I been at a party once and someone I had heard said that they knew her, and I think I remembered that person. I mean, this was like a distant list. Yes. Of people. Like, it was not like, oh.

These are my friends. These were just like anyone that.

You're mine didn't have found her friends. Yes, I do had no friends. I love that her friends. Good. And so I that was from scratch and not. I always say it was the hardest, even though it was all hard. Yeah, I always say that was the hardest part for me because I came from big beauty. I wanted this to be a big brand.

Yes. Like I am very competitive in the sense that like when I do something like I want to be number one. Yes. And so I knew I needed to raise money. This was not like a.

Bootstrapping kind of thing. No. Yeah.

And so I started that list and I wrote down, I think, 75 people, and I kept adding to that. So every time I'd meet with someone, which, by the way, I think it's important to note it took me a lot of time to get the guts up to do this, I would meet with someone and I would say, could you please introduce me to someone you think would be a good fit?

That was very hard for me to do.

And to be a good fit. That would be a good fit for.

To to raise money, to.

Raise money from me. Okay. So a possible investor. Yes. Great.

Like, you know it was all no's every it was all no's. No no no no no I was a first time founder. I was trying to raise money mainly from men who didn't really understand the importance of clean makeup. Yeah, so I got a lot of no's. And then, I had a woman. Her name was Chris, whose name is Christina White.

And, I had been introduced to her through Emily Weiss, who started Glossier. And it was just kind of a random connection that Emily thought would be interesting for me. And she ended up really helping me get that confidence of saying, I need, you know, thank you for your time. Can you now introduce me to someone else that you think would be a good fit?

And so then I just kept adding to that list and adding, adding, adding. And then, you know, my mantra was like, you just have to keep going until you got there. Like, there is no option of stopping.

That's awesome. It's so good. So you've shared it's not personal. It's business is that it's all personal. Say more please.

The creative director at Stillwater once said this to me because I remember, like, you know, working on some designs with him and everyone was criticizing it, and it was hard for me. And he said, you know, everyone says, oh, it's just business. He's like, that's not true. It's like, this is your creative work. Of course it hurts.

Yeah.

And so I just I don't like advice like that where it's like, oh, it's not personal because I'm a sensitive being. I think a lot of people are sensitive and I and I think being sensitive is my superpower.

Greed. I, I'm not going to say names, but I had someone who is is quite well known try and poach some team members from me and I called them out on it. And the response was.

Oh, it's just business.

Yeah. I was like, oh hell no. Yeah. Like if you want to see Jersey Marie on that show, you know what I mean? And shake the shit out of some BS. Like that's one way to do it, is to come try and poach some people. So I think you and I are aligned on that and you know it.

Sure. There is a way to say, hey, this is going to be a business discussion or I'd like to talk about this and this might be sensitive or whatever, but it's like, don't be. If I didn't think that you're not going to run into people or that it's not going to hurt or they're not going to have an emotional reaction to, yeah, it's just business.

It's like, oh, hell no, it's not. So I just wanted I wanted to hear your take on it because I think it's really important to get and I think it's important. I know it's been for me to make alliances with people that I want to collab with who have that same philosophy, who know that we're human and we have emotions and things hurt so that if there's a disappointment coming or we're going to take a left turn, there's a way to handle that.

So you preserve someone's dignity and their integrity, and you take care of their heart while perhaps sharing some challenging information.

Well, because there's power in being honest, right? Yes. Because by saying, oh, it's just business, you're just not being honest. You're just saying, like, I don't care. But really we're saying I don't care that it hurts your feelings. I that's right. I don't care that this is perceived rude or that I'm doing something unethical. Yeah. And that's one thing that I always go back to his integrity.

Yes, yes. So I also love you have the same way of doing business. And I've seen that you've written about like that. You called out gossiping on your team and done a little. We do. We've done that in our team because we're human, right? We're all humans. And you get any group of humans together. We get our families together.

You know, you get a group of friends together. And it's just part of our nature that perhaps we can slip into a little politicking, gossiping, this, that or the other. I'm curious if there wasn't.

Just gossiping, it was just any bad behavior. It was just like, let's be better.

Yeah.

And so we actually talk about that and say we have the same way. And it's a code of conduct that we created together. And every offsite we remind ourselves of it. And so we review it and it's like here's who we want to be. Like we all want to be better. We want to go to work someplace that we look forward to going to work to every day.

We want to, enjoy being with our teammates.

Yes.

And I think we achieve it. I think we really do. Yes. But you have to work for that.

That's right. And it's a work in progress because I think the world changes. Humans change. You know, for us, we've always had a distributed company. So I've always run a virtual team. My vision, when I started my business like 23 years ago, my image in my mind was never of having actually a physical, physical location. So we're here now at our studio where we do production, which I was sharing about, but 99.9% of the time we're not together in person.

And so I just wanted to acknowledge and appreciate you for that, because I feel like it's so important. It's such a great leadership quality, and to be able to create it together so that your team doesn't feel like it's like top down, like this is what Looney wants. It's like, no, this is what we all want.

It's what we all want. And I think I've had to apologize before.

Yes.

Mistakes.

Oh my God, you.

Can just apologize for it. Yeah.

So let's talk marketing and brand building. So I think that your new product drops are so good. I always feel like I feel your heart in them. They're always very personal and creative. How involved are you in creating those campaigns? Any lessons that you've learned about things that work or don't work just from an ROI perspective, or anything you want to share on that?

I think it's fascinating.

So the thing that I'm best at is marketing, which is storytelling. It to me, they are the same thing. If you look at my career, it's always been storytelling. When I was at magazines, it was storytelling. When I went to digital, it was storytelling. As a blogger, it was storytelling. It's always been storytelling. To me, that is where power comes from.

That's where, desire comes from. And for me, brand is a marriage of desire, and purpose. And so when we are marketing a new launch, we ask ourselves, what would make us want to buy this? What would make me go to a store and spend my money that I worked for to get that product? It has to be compelling.

Yes. Right. You have to have a real reason for being. And so, you know, we we try so many different things. We are not scared to fail. We fail hopefully fast and hopefully cheaply. Yes. But we're not scared to fail. And we try all sorts of different things. And, we have some things oftentimes it's the one of the random ideas that we had.

We have a call every Monday. It's an hour and a half, and it's our creative marketing call. And there's no agenda. It is us getting on a zoom and just brainstorming and thinking and saying, oh, I saw this. I thought this was really interesting. Across all industries, we try not to look at beauty too much because then it just becomes an echo chamber.

So really looking outside of beauty and saying this was really compelling. This is what made me double click. That's really the purpose of that call. What made you double click? What made you buy something? What means you watch a full video? Okay, let's talk more about that. Oh, that's so interesting. What if we did something like that? We just did something that I don't know.

I'd have to ask my team how much it cost, but let's say a couple hundred dollars. We had these fires printed, and the language on the flier was inspired by, I think, a real life like smear campaign on someone that had, like, ghosted, like someone had gone on a date and the guy had ghosted her. And so they plastered all over the city, like, this guy ruined my life and put his phone number on it.

And it was so funny. And we did that for one of our launches. We said, like, this product ruined my life and we put a phone number with me leaving. I had a message on there about talking about the launch.

Yes.

Because it's a couple hundred dollars. Of course, it like took some of our time, which is also money. But like, you know, we put them all over the city and the tick tock of it going up on a light post got millions of views. And so like that to me is where marketing genius lies. Yes. Is in like the random ideas that come from desire that then you execute in a cost effective, smart way because we're still a very lean team.

Yes. At lean. And so one of my favorite phrases I live my life by phrases because with an ADHD brain and ideas for days, you know, and a real propensity to, like have a basically an appetite bigger than my stomach for everything. Simplify to amplify is something that keeps not only me sane, but keeps kind of the spaciousness that I need in my life to be joyful and creative.

And I love that. And that's something that we've done on the team, too. Like, I'm very, very inspired. We were talking about this on, when I saw you guys for your husband's birthday party. Like dance movement and music. My life, like it gives me life. So we often take inspiration and I find inspiration not only getting downloads when I move, but through other industries, entertainment, movies, different stuff like that.

And similarly, we try our best to stay away from other people that do similar things because then it just gets boring. Like super boring, super fast. If someone feels like they're just starting out right now and they can't build their brand or make sales or build a community because they don't have the money or budget to do so, any advice or any things that you'd want to say to them?

I would say go on TikTok. I think TikTok is a really fun place right now. I think going back to what we were just talking about, like you find something that works and then you keep following it. Yeah. And TikTok right now has a pretty low barrier to entry. I think anything with a low barrier to entry is something that you should explore.

Explore? Yeah. At the time before TikTok, it was Instagram, before Instagram, it was Facebook, you know, but there's always something that is in that nascent time and go, go there and go there as fast as you can. And don't stop. I mean, if you're on TikTok and you're posting six times a day, you will get followers. That is a lot of work to do that.

Yeah, but you can. Yeah. You know, which is not the case for other platforms. There is an opportunity for virality on TikTok right now. And I'm sure there will be a new platform. Yes, of course there will be. Exciting. But for now, like that would be my advice of like, find that low barrier to entry. I don't know, maybe it's that you live near a grocery store and you can go to that grocery store and have conversations like whatever is easy, low cost, and that you can then build on is where you should double down.

How are you as the business continues to grow and scale? How are you personally deciding, like, here's what I'm going to keep my hands on. Yeah. You know, and here's what I'm going to have other really smart, awesome people on the same team. Yeah. Handle and delegate. I for me have found that over the years. It's always a dance, you know, and I'm always navigating that.

And I'm always testing my own boundaries too. And seeing like, what I can have other people help me with. And then I'm like, no, you know, that really needs to stay with mama, you know what I mean? Then and then find people. So I'm curious to hear, how that's been evolving for you and how you like where, you see, like, this is my zone of genius.

Yeah. This is where other people really need to come in because that's theirs.

So we have, a really strong team and social and creative. There are times where I need to kind of leave and I need to go do other things in the business. Yeah. And, and then I can come back to them, and I feel very comfortable that like that they will keep that ball rolling, even though that's my happy place.

And I want to always be there. Yes. I think because we've kind of, we've grown together. Right. Like, we've my team has been with me for a long time now, and we've grown together to really shape what that looks like and how we continue to do that. They also know that they can always text me and be like, hey, you know, something's not working or whatever, and I I'll come back as quickly as I can.

I've also hired a suite C suite, so that's new for SE. We have executives who have a lot of experience who are, you know, running retail sales, finance. And I don't get super involved with those departments, which are not my expertise, so that's great. Yeah. But the word dance that really resonates with me.

It. I've always said my job changes every three months.

Yes. Yeah. And it's, It's interesting. I think that's healthy too. I think it's really healthy to do that because the market changes so fast. We're constantly evolving as humans and the needs of the business, its own beautiful organism is constantly evolving.

There's a quote that my I don't actually know if it's quote, but it's my sister works at Nike and she's an athlete. I was also an athlete, but she was a more successful athlete. And so when we talk about business, she often references sports. Yeah, which I love. And she was saying that the really the what they've found is that the sign of a great athlete is not talent or skill.

It's the speed of their ability to transition. So if you fall down the speed at which you can get up and see what the next play is, that's actually what determines the success of that athlete.

Interesting, right?

I love that because it goes back to speed, which Jeff Bezos talks a lot about, about the speed at which he makes decisions. And I think I see that more clearly now. I've always been a very quick decision maker. I've become better and more confident in it. And part of what my confidence is, is that I'm not so worried if I'm making the wrong decision, and I think that's where people can get really stuck.

Yes. You know, I think we started the conversation about this, about people who feel stuck or scared and, you know, you have to be able to make quick decisions. And the way you get better at making quick decisions is not being so concerned about the outcome. I have friends where it takes him six months to make a decision.

You probably want to be like Jersey Marie and shake them off. Yeah.

I mean, I you know, it's it's actually it's well it's hard because I, I make decisions so quickly. Yeah. And and they're not always right. Like I'm not saying they are. I'm just saying that I make them quickly and that I can then move forward to see if it is the right decision or not.

I love to looking at it like it's a muscle that you can build because it really is. Oh, totally. You know, and I think, on our team, you know, I've talked about this in other Marie TV episodes about procrastination, and there's this interesting nuance here that I want to break down just a little bit. It's like as business owners and as creatives training ourselves, like, you know, doing those nice arm curls in terms of our decision making muscle hugely important.

And then I'll say this, that we found as a team. I remember there was years ago, we were supposed to do a deal with someone and it was going to be, you know, very important and a lot of time and energy and resources going into this. And there was kind of a contract on the table and all the things were lined up and could move forward with it.

It was just there's like some resistance. So it wasn't necessarily a decision per se, but there were things that we were supposed to do to like move this ahead and it wasn't happening. And it was so out of character for us because we're pretty good of staying on track with stuff and making things happen. And I was like, why the hell am I procrastinating?

Like, what is this about? Like, is something wrong with me? And then I get a phone call from said part potential partner and the kind of behavior that was displayed like I had never seen before. And it became very clear to me that this should not move ahead, that we were not aligned in terms of how we believe things should be done.

And I was like, Thank God I procrastinated. I just dodged a damn bullet.

So I, I find that too, though I find when I'm dragging my feet it's for a reason. Yes, and I can and I and I'll be like, wait, why am I dragging my feet? What? What is happening here? We the. We've never aligned with a celebrity before, but I had this vision for this photoshoot with the celebrity that we hadn't that had been kind of out of the limelight.

I wanted to bring her back. It was this whole thing. I was excited about it. And then I once I started the conversations, I started dragging my feet. And in that moment I was like, oh, there's a reason why I'm dragging my feet. This doesn't feel right.

Yes, if.

It did feel right, I would have it would the contract would have been signed.

That's right. Yeah. That's right. And so I, I love that we're kind of opening this up and unfolding it because also too, I loved what you said around like making decisions fast when you remove that pressure that it has to be right. And I think that speaks into a lot of perfectionism that can hold many of us back.

I know it's helped me back before, but what if it's not right? But what if it's not right? And I think another kind of layer underneath that is can you make decisions that are not life or death, you know, meaning that it's not such a huge swing in terms of time or money that's not going to take you out.

And I think that's another skill set to is to be able to, you know, train yourself. It's like, how can we test this? There's another one of my sayings that, again, keeps me sane. Clarity comes from engagement, not thought like, we can think about this potential campaign. We can think about this marketing strategy all day long. But unless we have some way of like dipping our toe in the water, testing it, taking a couple hundred bucks and seeing if it's got legs, we're just going to sit around and, you know, twirl our thumbs until the cows come home.

So let's not do that. Hey, if you want to write faster and make more sales, you got to grab my free seven day writing class from the link in the description. Every lesson covers a simple but powerful technique to help you write words that make people want to whip out their credit cards and give you money. Go to Marie loves you.com/free writing class and get instant access to lesson one.

Or if you're watching this episode on video, just scan the onscreen QR code right now. So let's talk AI for a second. Have you seen your team just because it's so I just find that that field, it's advancing so fast.

Yeah.

And it's coming into every parts of our lives so fast and there's so many different layers of it. Is there any place that you guys are either experimenting with AI, and you're finding it to be extremely helpful? Is is it something that you're excited about? You're like, no, we're just playing over here. That's not really in our in our sandbox right now.

So I don't lean into I personally and I also feel like the brand is it's not just aligned with us as who we are as a brand. So it's not to say that we won't bring in AI for things that could be really exciting around product formulation, around, optimizing things on.com. Yep. But when it comes, I also I'm just a little hesitant because it's happening so fast.

Yeah. And I think I feel like I experiences with.com and with social that I just want to be one step back to let everyone else kind of test and learn before I test and learn. Yeah. I think that, ChatGPT writing your newsletter captions is a really good example of that. Everyone was so excited about ChatGPT to write their newsletter captions.

You can do all your work in 20 minutes. You can do it or two minutes for 20 minutes. You can do it so quickly. And then I can tell when newsletters are written by ChatGPT.

Yes, ma'am.

And so it's like, but but everyone else kind of test it for a second before we do. Because I also just think that there's nothing that will ever replace human touch.

Correct? Correct, correct. We did, we actually did a little workshop because we had a lot of folks in our audience, like super curious because I've been doing this for so long, and I talk about I even have a whole course on copywriting, because I saw it was where a lot of our B-School grads were kind of falling down.

They have amazing ideas and amazing products and services, but their ability to communicate that in a way that was compelling and that got people to take action, there was a gap there between their ambition and ability. And we still tell people are like, look, there are certain things that I is great for. Like on our team, I did a whole workshop because there are certain aspects of like production, you know, and there's certain AI based tools that will remove some of the laborious work, like it can do captions so that we can make sure that we have the right captions underneath.

Videos for accessibility. Like there are certain aspects where you know exactly where it can really help speed along the process, so that my team has more time for the human touch stuff. Yeah. But that so I love your perspective there. I also love how fiercely supportive you are of other women in the industry. I know you are so kind.

You and Molly Sims invited me to that great dinner.

Wasn't that a fun dinner?

So wonderful. And so I love how you collaborate. And then you have this amazing video online, which we'll put up in post where you were straightening the products on the shelf at Sephora of other beauty brands.

You own that.

Yes, yes. So just anything that you want to say on the notion of competition and how how you see it.

I love and it sounds so cheesy, but I think I just need to start owning it because I actually reference it a lot personally. The book The Secret. Yes. So in the book it talks about competition and how when you are competing with other people, you're actually competing with yourself because we're all one. Right? Okay. I'm I'm going a little.

No, you're not there right now. But, lady, this is the perfect place. I've been in personal development for decades. There ain't nothing that can be too woo. And it is. Everything is energy and it's connected. And anyone who don't like that book, they can go bye bye. We don't. We don't.

Care. And so I believe that. I really believe that if and I catch myself every single day because I'm on social media every single day, I'm human. I have those emotions where I see something and I say to myself like, oh, like, why did they get that? And I didn't get that. And then I'm like, wait a minute, first of all, we're all one.

So actually I did get that. And that's just a piece of driftwood for me to remind myself that it's coming. Yeah. And also when I have a moment of of feeling competitive or feeling like whatever that because there's different ways to feel competitive, right? You can have ambition like I was talking about earlier of like, okay, like if I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it really, really well.

But you can also have the competition where you're competing against someone, your your peer and not in the book, they talk about how that's really you competing against yourself and, and will keep you from getting what you want.

Yes.

I loved that. That's a for a video. And then other founders started doing it. I don't know if you saw.

That that was I. No, I didn't I didn't see that. But I just think that's the spirit of where we're going. That's the spirit of how we need to evolve as a world. Because what that spirit is for me, is rooted in the truest definition of abundance, that there is more than enough to go around and with like eight point whatever billion of us on the damn planet, there is more than enough of all the good stuff, everything that we could possibly need for everyone to have the level of success that they desire.

So I just love that. Let's talk a little bit of, mental resilience. So at Sean's birthday party just a few weeks ago, I learned you were training for your first triathlon. How did it go? Like, what did you learn? Tell me everything. Okay?

I tell you why I did the triathlon.

No.

Okay. So I was, on TikTok, and I saw a video that Jesse Eisler had made. It's the husband of Sarah Blakely. Yes, the woman that started Spanx. Her husband did this video where he said, if you don't map out your entire year in advance, it will pass you by. And in that moment that I was watching, I was feeling that way.

I was feeling like all I'm doing is work and being with my kids. And I'm I'm not. My cup does not feel full and so, he has three principles, and one of them is that you have to have a light decide at the beginning of the year what your life changing event will be. It's called the Mizoguchi, the Japanese principle.

And, so I, for no reason, like there was no rhyme or reason to it. I said, my Mizoguchi, this year I'm going to do my first triathlon. And so I've trained for, I want to say, six months. I talked about it way too much. Partially because I felt like if I didn't, then I would back out because I.

Was.

So much harder than I thought I was gonna be. I started from zero, I wasn't swimming, I wasn't biking, I wasn't running, so it wasn't like I was, you know, was able to run six miles or three miles or two miles, you know, I couldn't run one mile. And I did it, and it was like three weeks ago, and it was super fun.

And I'm definitely doing it again next year. That's how much fun I had. Come on, it was good and it did. It filled my cup and it really gave me something that was just for me. Yeah, that was a challenge. Yeah, because I think we all do really, really well with challenges.

Yes, ma'am. Yeah. No we do. It's an opportunity to grow. I'm so happy for you and so cool. So I think for all of us, you know, business and life is all about solving problems, you know? And that's why I wrote everything is figure out. Well, because that is the philosophy that I strive to bring to life, because you never know what's going to show up on your lap any given day of the week.

Curious if there's anything that you're actively working on figuring out now? It doesn't need to be like a huge problem, but something you're kind of having fun with or like exploring or. And it could be business, life. If anything comes up, you're like, yeah, I'm really interested in poking around here or learning more or expanding or shifting.

Well, there was that great podcast. But it still exists. How I built this. Yeah, there was an episode with Danny Meyers, and he says, if you don't like big problems, do not start a business, because that's all it is. Hell, yes. And I remind myself of that all the time when I have those days where it just feels like all the entire day is just problem after problem.

It's a stress and they feel like big problem. Yes. And I'm like, well, I signed up for this. Yeah. So I can't complain about it. I, I think I'm always trying to figure things, stuff out. And I love the saying that everything's for you audible. I actually say that to my daughters a lot, because when they get when they get stressed about something, I remind them, I'm like, we can solve anything.

Yes, we can solve anything. Yeah. It's about reminding yourself that you have that ability so that you don't panic and you don't get upset and that everything is fearful. But I love that love that love that something that I'm trying to figure right now. Let's see, the first thing I went to, just because it made me laugh in my head was at the ports in New York might be closing.

And so it's like, no, yeah, where are we going to be sending our products to be figuring that out? Yeah. But those are actually the problems that don't stress me out the most because it feels like that is out of my control. I can't control of the ports in New York are going to close, and we will figure out the solution to that.

That stuff I spend more time thinking about are the things that do feel more in control. Like I try to really let go the problems that aren't and spend more time on the problems that are, something I'm thinking about right now is we are very blessed at say, we have a lot of products that are very successful.

Yeah. So we're not a brand that only has one product that is a hero product. We have eight products that are all like hero products, and we have more that are equally as amazing. How do we talk about all of them? That's a big problem, right? Like because that's not how people's attention spans work right now. That's right.

People have very short attention spans. How do we showcase. Because our formulas, our luxury formulas. So this was something that, was very clear in that Instagram Story conversation that, like everyone said, we want high performance products. And I said, great, I come from big beauty. I can do that. I wasn't I didn't know if I could do it as clean as we do it.

So that was a question I had to figure out, because we have over 2000 ingredients that we don't use. Some of those are very, prominent in product development, like silicones, petroleum. So we don't formulate with those, but they have to be luxury formulas. We have very expensive formulas. So we have beautiful products.

Yes.

You do. It's how do we tell that story and how do we give all of them their time in the spotlight? That's something I'm figuring out right now.

And what else are you passionate about? I know there's some new initiatives that you wanted to give some light to.

I think I mentioned it at the beginning. I'm very passionate about the environment. I'm very passionate about fighting climate change. So we just announced the Safe Climate Initiative. I'm so proud of this. I'm so proud of the team at say that brought it to life like I yes, I had the idea and I worked on it, but the team, we treated this like an A-plus launch, so we spent months and months putting together our first sustainability report that dives into every aspect of, say, and the impact that we're having.

We made a really big announcement that we are committing to go to eliminate or offset all of our carbon by 2039. It's a very aggressive goal, but I believe that we can get there. And then we doubled down on our partnership with repurpose. So we are committing to collecting 5 million pounds of plastic over the next three years with repurpose.

It's over, four different countries, five different coastlines. And what I'm most excited about is that this is just the beginning and that hopefully other brands will want to join us on this journey. We have an all female board leading the initiative. Savannah, Co, who's the co-founder and CEO of repurpose and then Sydney Fitter who is the director of clean makeup at Sephora.

So we'll be working together to clean up more plastic and bring more brands in, which I'm really excited about.

Our tagline on Marie TV is the place to be to create a business in life you love. And I'm curious, what does that mean or look like to you?

Oh, I'm going to cry my life right now. I feel like really blessed. And I'm really grateful every day for what it is. And I think about that. My sister just came to visit me. She lives in Portland, and we were driving around and she was just like, can you believe this is your life? And I was like, I was like, some days, no.

Like, I feel like I like, dreamed this dream and that I'm living in it right now.

You are extraordinary. Thank you for doing what you do and creating what you create and standing for all the things that you stand for. And I just. I adore you inside and out. You were such a beautiful soul and a beautiful, creative spirit. And thank you for making the time to be here. And thank you for your gorgeous like I love wearing say, I really do.

You said you came in my little glamor and you're like, oh, you have the. I'm like, oh girl, I gotta say all over the place because.

Your your skin feels good.

My skin feels good.

Yum. Oh I feel this way all the time. But I especially feel this way right now. I feel like we're just getting started and I want to keep talking.

Yes. Oh, no. We're going to have more. We're going. There's going to be more questions. We have such a big community. We'll have a second one. But but thank you for making the time today and I'm so excited. You guys, I'm sure you've seen say all over the place and now, you know, the incredible creative force that started it all.

Hey, if you love this video, you need to watch this one next. Trust me on that.

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