Ep 150: How Billionaire Entrepreneurs Overcome Self-Doubt and Learn to Believe in Themselves with Jamie Kern Lima

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No one believed in Jamie Kern Lima’s vision. At the end of one meeting, an investor even told her that no one would buy cosmetics from someone who looked like she did. In 2016, and after building one of the biggest cosmetics brands in America, Jamie sold it to L’Oréal for $1.2 billion.

Today we’re joined by Jamie to talk about how she overcame the limiting beliefs of an entire industry to achieve her wildest dreams. We open our conversation by discussing how Jamie founded It Cosmetics, a journey captured in her new book, Believe It.

A key theme in this episode, Jamie shares her mission to create a cosmetics company that represents all women and not just the airbrushed models that are typically used to market products.

Jamie then highlights how this mission motivated her to keep fighting for her company, despite a lack of interest from investors.

Later, she reveals how she got her big break before unpacking the value of authenticity and following your intuition.

We wrap up our discussion by chatting about Jamie’s book and the giveaways she’s releasing alongside it. Jamie’s story is an inspiring example of how you can challenge the status quo while building a strong brand that serves your community.

Tune in to discover why staying authentic and believing in your vision can put you on the path to success.

KEY POINTS FROM THIS EPISODE

  • Introducing today’s guest, It Cosmetics Founder Jamie Kern Lima.
  • How Jamie went from being a waitress to selling her company for billions of dollars.
  • What motivated Jamie to start her company. 
  • Why having a deep mission can drive you to success.
  • Jamie shares the nightmare meeting that she had with an investor.
  • How Jamie landed her break in the cosmetics industry.
  • The journey in learning how to listen to ourselves.
  • Selling your product while remaining authentic to your brand.
  • Why Jamie’s biggest lesson is to trust your intuition.
  • Authenticity and trusting yourself; the key to your personal branding journey.
  • Hear about the bonuses that you can get from ordering Jamie’s book.

TWEETABLE MOMENTS

“I wanted to use models that are every age, shape, size, and skin tone — I wanted to shift the culture in the beauty industry for every little girl out there who was starting to doubt themself.” — @JamieKernLima [0:06:58]

“It’s so easy for self-doubt to creep in and to second-guess ourselves. But you need to keep listening to that voice in your head that tells you that you can make it.” — @JamieKernLima [0:14:40]

“All of us are on the journey of learning how to hear ourselves. And how to step into who we are and who we are meant to be.” — @JamieKernLima [0:18:50]

“Authenticity alone doesn’t guarantee success, but inauthenticity guarantees failure.” — @JamieKernLima [0:26:49]

“When creating a personal brand, the journey is not about making a million followers. It’s about learning to believe in yourself and stay authentic to who you are.” — @JamieKernLima [0:31:39]

ABOUT JAMIE KERN LIMA

Jamie Kern Lima started IT Cosmetics in her living room and grew the company into the largest luxury makeup brand in the country. She sold the company to L’Oréal in a billion-dollar deal and became the first female CEO of a brand in its history. Her love of her customers and remarkable authenticity and belief eventually landed her on theForbes America’s Richest Self-Made Women list.

Today, she’s a mother of two and an active investor, speaker, and thought leader who is passionate about inspiring and elevating women. She’s also an active philanthropist who has donated over $40 million in product and funds to help women face the effects of cancer with confidence.

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Jamie Kern Lima — https://jamiekernlima.com/

Jamie Kern Lima on Twitter — https://twitter.com/JamieKernLima

Jamie Kern Lima on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/jamiekernlima/

Believe It: How to Go from Underestimated to Unstoppablehttps://amzn.to/3s3pKwR

Believe It Website: BelieveIt.com

It Cosmetics — https://www.itcosmetics.com/

Forbes https://www.forbes.com/

L’Oréal — https://www.loreal.com/

Good Morning America — https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/

CBS Show — https://www.cbs.com/

The Today Show — https://www.today.com/

ABC Nightline — https://abcnews.go.com/Nightline

Tony Robbins — https://www.tonyrobbins.com/

David Ramsey — https://www.daveramsey.com/

Denny’s — https://www.dennys.com/

QVC — https://www.qvc.com/

Brand Builders Group Consultation Call — freecall.brandbuildersgroup.com

Take The Stairs https://amzn.to/2ZAJNUS

Hey brand builder Rory Vaden here. Thank you so much for tuning in to listen to this interview. We are so excited to bring you this information and wanted to let you know that, Hey, there’s no sales pitch coming from anything that we do with this is all our value add to you and the community. However, if you are somebody who is looking for specific strategies on how to build and monetize your personal brand, we would love to talk to you and we offer a free call to everyone that’s interested in getting to know us and is willing to give us a chance to get to know them and share a little bit about what we do. So if you’re interested in taking us up on a free strategy call, you can do that at brand builders, group.com/summit call brand builders, group.com/summit. Call, hope to talk to you soon on with the show. You know, it’s not every day that you get to sit down and learn from a billionaire especially somebody who is according to Forbes, one of the richest self-made female billionaires, or, you know, self-made richest females in the world. And you’re about to meet Jamie Kern Lima, who is a new friend of mine. And she is most known for being the co-founder of it cosmetics, which was a company that had millions of customers. They sold it to L’Oreal for $1.2 billion a few years ago. And she became the first female CEO and L’Oreal’s hundred and eight year history. She also has been in lots of media. She actually started her career as an award winning TV news journalist, and then her story has been featured on good morning, America. The today show CVS this morning, ABC Nightline and in the last really year. So she’s been building her own personal brand as she’s working towards her new book, which is called believe it, how to go from underestimated to unstoppable which if you’re listening to this live comes out two day. The book is out right now at you know, if you’re listening to this, as soon as this is published and you know, building her brand has happened very her personal brand has happened very fast. She spoken for Tony Robbins. She spoken for Dave Ramsey’s team. She’s worked with a lot of very influential people, but her story and her book is really about how to overcome self doubt and achieve your wildest dreams. And so she’s here to tell us a little bit about that story and how that applies to all of us building our personal brand. So Jamie Kern, Lima, welcome to the show, Lori. Thank you so much. It’s so, so great to be here. Well so, you know, when you look at, can you just give us the, tell us the story, right, so that, you know, obviously the, the, the book you go walk us through, but you went from being a Denny’s waitress to having an idea to start a company to 10 years later, selling that company for $1.2 billion. I mean, that all happened in 10 years, like real in real life. Yeah. Yes, that is true. And you know, what I kind of realized is, is, you know, over the years and just hearing from so many people all the time who maybe you see like a headline on my story or something like that, that, you know, I’ll get messages on Instagram and people will say, Oh, you know, did you get lucky or how did it happen? Or, you know, I wish I could do that, but I’m just facing so much rejection. And what I realized worry was that so many people, you know, they, they see sort of like the highlight reel out there. And what I wanted to do is, is for the first time ever, like share the story behind the story of everything the one I hope has everyone out there in their own journey of building their personal brand or any other dream they’re going after helps them feel less alone. And and, and more connected also in the struggles we all go through and cause really, you know, believe it it’s the first time ever, I think like 85 or 90% of the stories in the book I’ve never shared before, but it’s really Share some personal stories in there. Like some very intimate, like when you were on a reality TV show and you share some stuff about that, like in your younger days, like you really, it’s really honest, It’s super honest. And it’s really the heart and soul of this book. It’s a story about a girl who goes from not believing in herself to believing in herself and not trusting herself to like learning how to, you know, hear my own inner knowing and then trust myself and going from doubting I’m enough to knowing I’m enough. And the reason I really wrote it as I think it’s the story of so many people out there right now, probably so many of your listeners and people in your community on their own journey of, of learning to believe in themselves and trust themselves and, and know they’re enough. And Let me, I want to, I want to ask you about this because one of my favorite stories is the story of, I think it was the first time that you were pitching to one of these companies, all tower, maybe it was an investor and this investor said something to you and, and you know, if you’re not familiar, it, cosmetics is now like the, the leading luxury brand of cosmetics in, in the United States. And, and, but where this started, there was an executive who said something directly to your face. Can you, are you, are you comfortable sharing with everybody with that? Yeah, I, you know, we I had this dream and this vision, you know, to create a makeup company cause I had a skin condition and, and in the process of, of realizing that I couldn’t find a product that worked for me, I’d also realized that all the images I’d seen a beauty in my whole life never showed women that had problematic skin or women of different ages or sizes or shapes or skin tones or skin challenges. And I kind of had this big aha moment when I launched my company that, Oh, if I can really create a product that works for people that have skin challenges like me, it’s going to help so many people. But at the same time I had this like deeper, deeper, deeper why, but I had identified really early on, which was, you know, my entire life, you know, seeing all these images of, of kind of like flawless airbrush models on, in ads, on TV or in magazines. Like I growing up, I always aspire to look like those, but they also always like made me feel deep down inside. Like I wasn’t enough. And I had this huge moment creating my, my company where I realized, Oh, it’s not just going to be about a great product that works. If I can get this thing off the ground, if I can create this, this beauty company, when I know nothing about the industry, by the way if I can do this, I’m going to use models and calm and beautiful and mean it that are every age and shape and size and skin tone and skin challenge. So I had this whole vision of something that meant more, that was bigger than myself because I wanted to do it, not just to create a product, not just to, but like to try and shift culture in the beauty industry for every little girl out there who was about to start doubting herself and every grown person who still does. So I had this deep mission, meanwhile, to, to get to the investor story you’re talking about you know, the first several years of launching my company was really hard and I love that you share like, Oh, you know, it, cosmetics now is the largest luxury makeup company in the country, which is crazy and amazing. But, but the first three years was packed with no after no after no and rejection and down to no money. And, you know, after hearing no from all the department stores and even QVC and so forth we finally got what I thought was going to be a life-changing meeting that this potential investor, and this was a private equity company. And they had invested in tons of, of consumer product companies. A lot of them pre-revenue in their small and then they built them. They helped build them into these companies that like we all shop at grocery store for, and they’re they’re household names. And I thought, wow, they love our product. Like this is going to be huge. And so we took meetings with them and started the diligence phase, which is when you hire you know you just show your financial projections. Sometimes you end up hiring bankers and lawyers. We got pretty far along thinking they were going to invest in our company. And I thought two things were going to happen. I thought, Oh my gosh, if they invest then a I’m not going to go bankrupt and maybe they can use all of their leverage to try and get us into these stores that I’ll keep saying no to us. Right. Because QVC said to us, you’re not the right fit for us or for our customers. So for us and no, all the department stores. So I’m like, okay, no, one’s believing in this vision. And when I keep checking in with my gut, I keep feeling like I’m on the right track and that people need this product and we need a new definition of beauty, but everyone’s saying no. So I thought like it, like this investor is going to change my life and I’ll never forget I was with my husband actually. And we went to the final meeting where I thought, okay, this is going to be, yes, this is going to be huge. And I was standing about three feet from the head guy and, you know, he thanked us. He said, we really don’t. We think your product is really great. And all that, but you know, it’s going to be a no, we’re gonna pass on investing in a cosmetics. And I was like, okay. And by this point I’m super used to hearing, no, right. So I’m like, okay, can you share why? Like, can you, can you share why? Because feedback is always a gift. At least usually it’s a gift. And I said, can you share why? And he goes, well, do you want me to be really honest with you? And I’m like, yes, please. And he was literally like about three feet from me. And my husband was right next to me. And then he looked at me and he said, I just don’t think women will buy makeup from someone who looks like you, you know, with your body and your weight. And I remember like, it almost felt like his mouth was moving in slow motion. I remember the words coming out and you know, anyone who’s dealt with with body doubt, self doubt, which for me had been my whole life. At that point, I remember feeling like my whole body flood with this like self, like a lifetime of body doubt and self doubt. And it, when, as I was watching him say these words to me, it was almost like I was staring my own fears straight in the eye. And I, I knew in that moment, two things, okay, I’ve got to figure out how to keep my faith bigger than this. I’d also hurt really bad, but he was saying, but one thing happened in that moment. That would be a defining moment. That would happen to me many more times, which is, as he was saying, these words to me, I just don’t think women will buy makeup from someone who looks like you with your body and your weight. I got this like deep feeling in my gut that he was raw. It was like this deep knowing that he was wrong and I felt it. But I also knew like if I was ever going to prove that it would come down to me, learning how to believe it for myself. And the other thing was, even though it hurt my feelings, like I didn’t, I didn’t get mad at him. I actually felt no ill will toward him. One thing that happened was I was like, Oh wow. It, this whole beauty industry, isn’t just about making me as a little girl feel like I’m not enough. Like he’s actually making a business decision to not invest in my company because guess what? He’s been impacted by it too. He’s using his best judgment to say, Oh, I think you have to look a certain way for people to buy from you. Right. He’s making a business decision based on my weight. And so he’s as much of a by-product of evidence me. And so for me, while it hurt, I also, I also used it as fuel to go, wow, why I’m doing what I’m doing is really big. It needs to change. Not, you know, not just because it impacted me growing up, but there are so many people out there that are in this kind of, you know, that, that it needs to change for. So yeah, I mean, I mean, it’s like they’re living this whole industry is living with this paradigm that they don’t realize, like there’s this set of beliefs that beauty can only be sold. And you talk about how they literally used to say things like you have to show them what, what, what was the language and impossible level of beauty or a flawless. There was like a term that they used to always say. And if you, if you don’t show them that people won’t buy, it’s amazing how pervasive a limiting belief can be on an entire industry now. So that’s a big part of your story. So you you’re, you’re at Danny’s you have this idea, you start in your living room, you’re working hundred hour weeks. You’re being told, no, you get this meeting with the investor. This guy tells you that. And then you fast forward to, you finally get a chance to be on QVC. And one of the parts that I I love, well, we’ll talk about how many presentations you did. Cause I think that’s really important for personal brands, but the very first time you were on QVC, I want you to walk us through that moment, that story of your thoughts going into it. And then what happened when you were live on the air and how you were feeling, and then just like tell us that story. Yeah. So it Had been, gosh, three years of nos, we even Rory had QVC, you know, I had, at one point I had gotten their head of hot beauty there who was like, he’s literally a visionary in the industry. I’m responsible for building this multi-billion dollar division of beauty there. And I got him on a phone and I thought, Oh my gosh, if he’s going to bless me with his time, it’s, it’s going to be a yes. And, and I remember getting him on the phone and him telling me I’ve met with all the buyers at KVC and it’s unanimous that you’re not the right fit for us or for our customers. And I remember crying myself to sleep three nights in a row. Not knowing what we’re going to do, but every time I would, I would check in with my gut. I had this, like this, knowing like this feeling, you’re going to be on QVC. You’re going to sell your product. Can you see? And sometimes we have these gut feelings, but then like nothing around us, how’s us we’re right, right. And we start to doubt our own intuition. And every time I would send my product to them, it was always a no. And you know, a lot of times when we have these dreams on our heart or these feelings, it’s so easy to let self doubt creep in. It’s so easy to second guess ourselves. It’s easy to think that our gut is wrong when we still don’t see the proof around us, that it’s right. And even in the hardest times of QVC, I just kept feeling like we’re going to be on there. Like we’re supposed to be on there, but it was three years of them saying, no, I just share that. Because I think a lot of times people let things hold them back or they just get stuck or they just give up because they feel like, well, I think I’m just wrong. I have this feeling, but like I tried and it didn’t work or they keep, you know, in this case they literally said, you’re not you the word, because you are not the right fit. Which when someone says you’re not the right fit for us, obviously it feels like rejection. But it also, it feels like these, these statements of you’re not enough, you don’t belong here. All those things. Right. And, and the one thing that really truly kept me going, and for some people, this is how they hear God and their faith. And it’s every time I would get still, I would just hear that voice saying, no, no you’re supposed to, you’re supposed to be there. So so we eventually, after three years, we’re at this big beauty show, demonstrating our product in it and a really amazing moment. And a bunch of other stuff happened that I share in the book, but we eventually got a meeting and one shot on QVC. So, so, and, and we were down to under a thousand dollars in our bank account. I didn’t know how we were going to make it. We were only selling two to three orders a day on our website pack them up in our office, which was our living room. And we get this one shot. And what it meant though, was we had this 10 minute airing where you’re going to go live. Right? So QVC a live TV shopping channel for anyone who hasn’t seen it before, it’s, it’s a live TV shopping channel, your broadcast live to a hundred million homes and there’s no script, no teleprompter, nothing you’re, you’re live. And in homes, yeah. A hundred million homes shot big shot. And it was, it was 10 minutes, but Rory, what it meant was, so even though we were selling just two to three orders a day down to our last thousand dollars as well breast to say yes, to this one opportunity, this one chance, this one shot we had to actually, it was a consignment deal. And we had to sell over 6,000 units of our product in a 10 minute window in order to hit their sales goal. Why not come back? And so we had to apply for SBA loans and 22 banks said no. And the last bank, the 23rd bank gave us an SBA loan that covered just that inventory to be able to do that 10 minutes segment. And so but it was consignment. And what that, what that means for anyone who’s unfamiliar with that word is, is we had to pay for everything ourselves we, to pay, to make all the 6,000 units pay to ship them in, pass all the clinical testing regularly, all the steps Like you got to have the physical product sitting. You have to have 6,000 all the money to PR to create 6,000 units sitting there so that if they sell them, they can actually ship them. And you weren’t selling, you were selling two or three a day. So you basically leveraged your whole life on this one moment, like all your financial on this one moment, And you should never do this. Like, like in the business world, they say, never take a purchase order. You can’t afford to lose. This was a decision we made because at this point it was like, we didn’t even know what we’re going to do. We were about to go out of business. Anyway. It was like, okay, we have one shot. Let’s just go all in. And so we got the loan manufactured is over 6,000 units, got them into the QVC warehouses. And I’m sitting there with one shot and 10 minutes and it was so stressful. And, and here’s why and, and, you know, when I talk about that, this is a book about learning to believe in yourself and trust yourself. Because to me, that’s everything, right? Not everyone’s going to want to go create a product company or build a billion dollar company or whatever, but I think every single one of us, no matter where we’re at in our own personal brand or why we’re doing what we’re doing, I think all of us are on the journey of learning, how to hear ourselves, our inner knowing and learn how to actually like step into all of who we are and all of who we’re created to be. And, and in this moment on QVC was really this big defining moments. I get this 10 minute window. And I we had hired these third-party experts consultants, which are amazing. They help so many people sell their products on TV and in stores. And but in my case, I wanted to do something really different. I wanted to not use the traditional type of models with perfect skin. I wanted to sh to show like, like Rory, I kept imagining, I know, I know from so many people who love being your clients, and they talk about the amazing work they’ve done with you and AIG, and they talk about like their customer avatar and things like that. Right? So this is a real life example of that. I was sitting in my car. I flew out a week before this 10 minute airing, okay. This one shot, I fled a week before I sat in this rental car, in the parking lot of QVC staring at the front door, watching people walk in and out knowing the next time I walked in that building, I was either going to be out of business or a whole new world was going to open up. But here’s where here’s here was the big challenge. And the big dilemma I faced, we worked with these third party experts who are amazing with amazing track records. And when I had explained to them, well, the reason I’m doing this company is like, you know, I would imagine my customer avatar to use your words. Like I would imagine that women sitting at home and let’s just say I’m 70 years old. But if I’m only seeing models that look like they’re 12, how I know the product’s going to work for me, or, you know, I have a, you know, a skin challenge or, you know, a different, you know, skin tone skin issues. If I don’t see someone live on TV, show him in this, how do I know it’s going to work for me? And I would argue with them, I’m like, in fact, let me just show my bright red rosacea national television. Let me prove to everyone live that like why I created this product. Yeah. So pause right there. If y’all didn’t catch this. So Jamie’s got her whole life on the line and you make the decision that not only are you not going to use models, you’re going to go on there personally with out makeup. You’re going to show the world rosacea, which was what your, your skin situation was all about. And you’re going to like show people your real skin on TV, which at the time was crazy. I mean, crazy. Unheard of. And your height, the people you hired told you, this is stupid, that they, the people almost never let you on because you want it to do this. And yet you believed in it and you’re going to do it anyway. Well, I, and I think it comes down to like, do we learn how to listen to what our guts telling us to do? Even when other people are telling us to do the, and you know, QVC was supportive. QVC was like, you do, whatever’s authentic to you. But I knew I had one shot. And so it was the, you know, third, third party experts are so good. And I said, yeah, I want to show my bright red rosacea. And I said, and you know what, because you need to, you need to use models to show the product. I’m like, Lemmy actually put models that are ages and shapes and sizes and skin tones. And I S I remember but, but here’s the thing. They, they are all, they all thought I was crazy. And they’re like but they wanted me to when they had the best intentions of at heart, but sometimes even people that are, that are visionaries still can’t imagine something working. If it hasn’t been done before. And if I learned that lesson earlier, I would have saved myself. So many nights, cry myself to sleep. When so many people did it believe in this, this vision I had or what I was trying to do. And, and so, you know, it felt heavy. I knew this was going to come down to this 10 minute moment. And I sat in that rental car in the parking lot. And I imagined who my customer was like, I imagined who I was talking to because honestly, worry self-doubt did enter my head. I thought thoughts like, well, what if your gut is wrong? What if there’s no proof around you now for three years, that what you’re trying to do, you is going to gain any traction. Right? You have all those thoughts. You have friends and family that love you so much, but they’re like, you know, are you sure, sure. This is how you should be doing it. Like, didn’t, you want to be a talk show, host your whole life. Are you sure you want to stay in this makeup industry? Like, you know, all those things, you hear everyone who loves you. They mean so well, but all of it can turn into this noise of self doubt. And I just remember this moment sitting in that rental car going, who is, who is my customer. And I imagined her sitting at home like watching this 10 minutes and who is she? I imagine all different types of women. And I imagine like, you know, women that maybe had never seen someone who looked like them on TV as a model, and I wanted to show real women, call them beautiful and mean it, you know, literally. And, and, and I, I had this moment where I realized, you know, if I was going to get one shot, I would rather have women turn their television on and not buy anything, but see someone that looked like them, someone that I am authentically saying is beautiful, but that, that makes them, or reminds them that they matter that they’re enough and have them by nothing. I’d rather do that than sell a ton of product and stand for nothing. And it was this, this moment where I knew what I had to do, but sometimes we know it doesn’t mean that it’s easy. And you know, when, when I walked into the building so, so for all the everyone building a personal brand and, and, and doing all kinds of stuff right now share this, this part of the story. I thought I had my 10 minutes, like produced in my mind, right. I had a whole script of what I was going to do and what demonstration I was going to show and how the flow was going to go. And so you get like a two minute meeting with the host right before the show. And they meet with all the different presenters from all the different companies. And and in that two minute meeting, I was explaining to the host that I wanted to do in my one big shot. And she’s like, well, thank you, but that, but here’s what we’re going to do. And she basically threw everything out the window that I wanted to do. And at that point, you have to just trust. You have to trust. Cause the last thing in the world you want to try to do is become the expert of something. You’re, you know what I mean? That when someone else is the, I had to trust and, and, and I prayed like crazy, but we went out there and I remember that, that there’s this big 10 minute clock and there’s cameras everywhere in the studio. And here’s the thing when the, I knew once the clock boom went live and it was nine 58, nine 57, I knew everything was on the line. I knew I couldn’t do it both ways. But I also knew that you can’t fake authenticity. And in that moment, there is so many thoughts going through my head thoughts about, Oh, if, if this doesn’t go well, you’re not guaranteed 10 minutes to sell your product. If it doesn’t go, well, your clock gets cut live. You can go from, you know, maybe you’re at nine minutes and it’s not going well, boom, you’re down to two minutes like that because they’re wrapping up and they’re onto like Dyson vacuum or vitamin X or whatever, right? Like it’s no one messes around. They’re like, it’s high pressure. And, and so, you know, I had to kind of like get thoughts like that out of my head and focus on like, why am I doing what I’m doing and how it’s bigger than myself? And I remember little moments where you know, things I’ve never shared before, but I remember being live on air and being like, Oh, my dress feels a little tight or, Oh, I feel sweat, literally dripping down my back. And I hope that’s inspiring where you’re like, this is the biggest moment of my life. I can feel sweat trickling on me. Yes. But, you know, I, I knew I knew it enough to know and something I share, but then I learned it. I share a lot about authenticity and trust and belief in this book for everybody, regardless of what journey they’re going on, lessons I’ve learned in that. But one of the lessons is like authenticity alone. Doesn’t guarantee success, but in authenticity guarantees failure. And I knew in that moment, I could not show up as somebody else or as this, this version of a brand that works for everyone else that wasn’t authentic to why I was doing what I was doing. And I also couldn’t stand up there on live television and, you know, be all about inspiring women to know they’re enough, but then stand there in my own head about my own stuff. Right. So I knew it had to, it had to be bigger than myself. It had to be about the woman watching at home. And that’s the only way that I was able to get through those 10 minutes because the pressure was so heavy. I remember, you know, I had practiced this demonstration on my wrist a million times, but when we went live, my hand was shaking so much that I couldn’t even show this demonstration properly on how our concealer didn’t crease like the other two departments are concealers. So the host had to kind of like put my hand under the pedestal. I remember the moment, my bright red rosacea, my bare face before shot came up on national television and then walking over to the models. And I remember there was about a minute left and the host was like, the, the deep shade is almost sold out the tan shade. We’re down to 200 units. And I was like, and then I remember it was like at the 10 minute Mark, the sold outside came up across the screen. It was like this big diagonal sold outside. And I literally Rory started crying. Like I, it was just, it was, the pressure was so much and I just started crying and I remember they cut the segment and my husband came rushing through the double doors of the studio and like sobbing. And I’m like, real women have spoken. He’s like, we’re not going pay crops. And it was this whole thing. One airing turned into five that year and then 101 the next year on QVC, eventually 250 airings a year. I’ve done over a thousand live QVC shows myself and we grew to be the largest beauty brand and QVC is history and right. In many, did you say a thousand worth over a thousand live shows? Yeah. and, and right now at this moment that we’re talking it cosmetics is, is still the largest beauty branding in QVC history. And I only share that because for three years it wasn’t just like, no, or, Oh, can you come back later? It was like, you’re not the right fit. Right. And that wasn’t just QVC. It was everybody. It was, it was all the retailers, all the stores. It was, it was everyone. And I just think that for me, one of the biggest lessons is a, no one can tell you you’re not the right fit. That’s the first thing. And the second thing is when you check in with your, your knowing, right? And by the way, I hear so many people just saying, Oh, just don’t quit or just don’t give up or whatever. I don’t agree with that. I think, check in with your gut, check in with your, your, your internal knowing, because sometimes letting go of a dream, knowing when to let go of a dream is as important as knowing when to go after one. And, you know, I thought it was gonna be a talk show, host my whole life. And it was working as a TV journalist and thought that’s what I was going to do. And when I got rosacea and I felt this, knowing that I’m supposed to let go of that dream and actually start this makeup company, even though I knew nothing about it, you could see it as quitting or as like the victory of knowing what you’re, what you’re feeling in your, in your own intuition and then deciding to trust it. And I think that, I think that for me, that’s one of the greatest, the greatest lessons. Cause when I look back now, you know, it cosmetics, we eventually gotten to all of the stores that said, no. L’oreal said no for three years and then they eventually acquired us. But you know, in that whole journey, when I look back all the times a I, most of the times I made mistakes, which I talk a lot about the stuff I did wrong in the book too, as well as like lessons personally and professionally. But when, when I didn’t, when I trusted either other, you know, other people’s opinions or whatever, when they, when they differed from what my gut said, when I didn’t trust myself, that’s usually when I made the wrong choices and, and the wrong decisions. And, and similarly during all the years when there was no proof around me that we were onto something or no traction, or when it didn’t make sense to keep going, like, like getting still. And, and, you know, for me, just praying and trying to hear that, that gut feeling that still small voice, when it would say to keep going, like I made the decision to trust it, even when it was hard, even when we had no money, even when you know what I mean. And, and I think, I think that that that’s the greatest journey, not, Oh, are you going to build a personal brand that has millions of followers? It’s Oh, on your journey of building a personal brand, are you listening? Are you learning to believe in yourself? Are you learning to trust yourself? Are you learning to stay authentic to who you are? Are you learning that you’re not here to compete with anyone else you’re literally just here to compete with who God made you capable of becoming like, like all these lessons, like to me, that’s the victory, that’s the success, the journey of stepping into all of who you are and all of who you’re created to be is is the success not any types of other outcomes. Yeah. Well, my friends, if you go to believe it.com right now, you can order the book. There is a little, there’s a special for the moment that if you go right now, believe it, dot com you get a couple bonuses, right. Jamie. So what do they get if they go order right now? Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. I’m so excited to share it, share with everyone at brand builders group, too, that everyone in the community yeah, if you get, believe it the book anywhere, you can get it anywhere at sold, which has all the retailers like Amazon Barnes and noble, independent bookstores target, you pick it up anywhere. And then you go to believe it.com. So the book’s called, believe it. And then the websites, believe it. Dot com. If you go there for, it’s a big, big launch celebration, you’re going to get a bunch of free stuff. It’s all free. So you’re going to get this action plan I put together. So it’s like a 90 page action plan, which is how to implement all the lessons from the book into your real life. You’d get that for free plus yeah, I, I’m so excited. I’m so excited for this worry. But, and then also my first ever course called becoming unstoppable how to overcome the things holding you back. You’ll get that for free as well as a, as a book launch bonus. And and I’m just excited for all of this, you know, I’m donating a hundred percent of the proceeds of the book. I’m literally just doing this because I believe that we’re all in this together. I believe that when we share, like really share the stories behind the stories, that’s how we all, you know, rise. That’s how we all grow. It’s how, you know, w we’re really all in this together. And I think every one of us has a powerful story and it’s, it’s been a crazy journey. I’ve made a lot of mistakes personally and professionally, and I’ve, I’ve also learned how to accomplish some of my, my biggest dreams. And, and now it’s like my greatest joy is helping other people on their own journeys of accomplishing their, so it’s an honor and I’m, I’m super grateful and I’m grateful for you and AIG, by the way yeah, grateful for your friendship. And just so many people I know have their businesses and also just who they are, has been impacted by the two of you. So I just want to say thank you for that as well. Of course. Well I’ve read, believe it. It’s awesome. It is not every day. Again, you just get to hear a story like this, and you, you do such an, a good, just such an honest job of walking us through the self doubt over and over the rejection, but systematically just continuing to follow that intuition and overcoming it and learning to believe in yourself. And then, you know, you’ve got, there’s so many great lessons and takeaways, so go to believe it, dot com. You can get all of our pre-order bonuses, which you all know, we teach you how to do book launches, right? Like, so there’s, Jamie’s have some killer ones, the course, and the workbook are legit way massive. Over-Delivers just for, for ordering the book during her launch, but check it out and I’m telling you, you’ll love the book. It’s really entertaining and inspiring. It’s funny. I laughed out loud several times. I cried a few times. Like I’ve never, I’ve never heard the story of how a billionaire sold a company. So that was fascinating. And her husband Palo and adopted not, not adopting, excuse me. But you had surrogacy as a mom and also you were adopted, I mean, there you’ve had the craziest story. Y’all, it’s, it’s like a movie. It probably will be a movie at some point. So go to believe it, dot com check out the book, plug into what Jamie’s doing. We’ll link to her social media, of course, on our website so that you can follow her. And Jamie has thanks for the gift of, of changing an entire industry of challenging the status quo of believing that there’s a better way to do it a more uplifting way to do it. And following that intuition. And then also, I would say caring enough that it’s like it wasn’t about money. That it’s been about mission for you over money the entire time, which goes to show why you would write a book when you don’t need money. Like you don’t need the money. You did this because of mission. And we think that’s a great gift to the world. So we wish you the best. And thank you so much. Thank you.

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25 of the World's Most Recognizable Influencers Share Their Tips on How to Build and Monetize a Personal Brand

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