July 13, 2021 • 50 mins
On glitter and running your own race.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:13):
So I had a decent amount of experience in the
dieting space. It's a multibillion dollar industry. My book, Naturally
Thin was on the New York Times bestseller list for
twenty seven weeks. Um. I was really not very well known,
and that book just really came out swinging. And it
was interesting because when I was trying to sell the book,
(00:34):
nobody wanted to buy it. That's always my story. That
was the same thing with the skinny Ball cocktail. Nobody
wanted to do this idea. No one wanted to buy
my book because they said that it needed to be
six weeks to X pounds. That was back in the
day where it was you would see seven day diet
and you would know exactly that on next Thursday and
you're supposed to eat an egg white omelet and next Tuesday, uh,
(00:57):
you know, oatmeal or oprand and a couple of berries.
And the truth is maybe next Thursday you would be
PMS and you would want chocolate or not want eggs
or whatever. The reason is, maybe you're hungover, maybe you
want something more hearty. And the word diet had the
word die in it, so um, and I despise the word.
(01:18):
I really hate. When you hear, particularly a mother, it's
usually a mother say in front of their child, and
particularly a daughter, Um, oh my god, my jeans don't fit.
I'm fat. I was bad, I was good. I've got
a diet. I've gotta lose weight. Because kids, the younger generation,
they absorb everything we say. They want to be like us.
(01:39):
They imitate what we say and do. Uh. Whether they
like it or not, it still just becomes part of them.
And so this vernacular and this world of diet has
evolved and changed in different ways. So when I was
selling that book, no one wanted it to just be
the emotion reality of food. I call it food noise,
(02:02):
the relationship that you have with food. They wanted it
to be prescriptive, and I'm gonna guarantee you that you
do this for six weeks and you lose this many pounds,
or five days and you lose this many pounds, because
that's what people want to hear. Because it's like when
you walk into Starbucks and you see one of those muffins.
It's is low fat blueberry muffins. Even though it has
eight thousand calories. It's low fat. It just makes you
(02:22):
feel better, even though you know you're lying to yourself.
So some books says you're gonna lose twelve pounds in
six days. You know you're not really going to and
you know it's not going to be real if you did.
It's just making you feel better about it. Growing up
in a house with eating disorders, I've been through seeing
the magazines that used to be you'd rip out Cosmypolitan
or Mademoiselle or any of the magazines when you'd rip
(02:42):
it out because it would tell you exactly what to eat,
and ripping out that page was hope. Okay, I'm gonna
go buy everything. I'm getting excited. I'm starting tomorrow, but
I have half a cup of Brands Cereal with a
corner cup of skim up. I'm gonna measure everything I eat.
I'm so excited. Then you have to go out to
dinner or have lunch of someone, or you're not in
the mood for that. You cook for your kids, or
you see your kids chicken finger, and like you get
all messed up. So that's why diets really don't work.
(03:06):
I've been through the world of when I was a kid,
the Beverly Hills diet. I remember that one I think
it was like a whole day of fruit, the whole
day of vegetable. I think the whole week. First week,
maybe you had to eat fruit. I forgot what the
rest of the thing was, but something heavily and fruit.
There was the Atkins diet. And I don't mean the
way we knew it in the last years. I mean
when I was a kid, the Atkins diet was a
(03:26):
paperback book, and it was back before the Suzanne Summers Diet,
before the South Beach Diet, before the modern Atkins diet.
Anything besides bacon, cheese, oil, butter, eggs, fact was the devil.
Like you are allowed, to believe it or not to
have lettuce, but it had to be drowned in season dressing.
(03:48):
But if a Crewton, if a Crueton came anywhere near
that fucking salad, you're gonna blow up like a tick.
You are allowed steak, bacon, blue cheese, melted on the steak,
all of it, but you couldn't have fuckily, you couldn't
have fruit. It was the devil. So that evolved later
into the South Beach diet, the Zone diet, the eat
right for your type, for your blood type diet. There
(04:10):
was the Scarsdale diet. There was the Mediterranean diet there.
I mean, let's you get the picture. This is more
ironic and we're more on. And when I had my
Wheat Egg and Dairy Free Cookie Company, they were low
fat wheat egg and dairy free cookies and some brownies
and blondies and they were delicious. I was a natural
(04:31):
food chef long before that, was in a local, seasonal,
you know, plant based chef. This was back in two
thousand one, before it was cool and hip and everybody
said it, and being vegan was an alien thing. Um,
some people had the allergies, but everybody wasn't allergic to everything.
Back then, everybody wasn't allergic to gluten and dairy and
(04:53):
all of this. There were were like oat milks, Macadamian
nut milks, cashew milk. I mean, this is almond milk
on and milk has become like whole milk at this point,
it's like, soy milk is forget it. Soy milk is
like an eighties band. It's like so not even cool.
Soy milk, it's so out on. My milk is the
new soy milk, and it's quickly leaving because of oat milk.
(05:15):
But anyway, back then, no one had any of the ship.
It was just like we have regular milk, and we
have skim milk, and we have sweet and low, and
we have you know, equal and nutra sweet. Now equal
is nutra sweet. It was equal, and then later came splenda. Okay,
So when I had this wheat egg in Dairy Free
Cookie Company, it was amazing. But and I went to
(05:38):
the food shows, the trade shows, but the timing wasn't
great because everybody was into low carb. It was all
low card and it was everything was atkins. Everything was
these fake protein bars. Everybody, you know, eating a piece
of watermelon was bad. Eating a fake manufactured bar that
tastes like chalk and chemicals and has this protein processed
(06:01):
garbage powder was right. And um, it was so annoying.
Everything was just like kind of like it is now
with the cheese crisps and but it was like these
manufactured space food protein copycats of everything. And we kind
of moved away from that a little bit years ago.
Long before that, it was the exact opposite. Everybody every
(06:22):
night in a bowl pasta with tomato sauce, but you
couldn't have any oil anywhere near it because carbs could
go with other carbs, which was tomato sauce. It was
effectively food combining. But carbs couldn't go with oil. So
steak could go with oil, chicken go with oil, vegetables
go go with oil, Salad can go with oil, but
carbs bread could go with bread, Pasta could only go
(06:43):
with pasta. And and this is post Atkins diet. Like
Atkins would never allow any of this. This was a
little bit of South Beach where you goose food combining.
It was separate. But this woman, Susan Powder, who at
short blond, bleach blonde haircut, go on talk shows and
pile up a baked potatoes and pile up pasta and say,
as you can pile up pretzels, you can have as
(07:04):
much of this as you want, as much you cant
have fifty baked potatoes, as long as you have no
fat with it. Carbs are great, all carbs. It was
fat that was the devil. That was the devil. Carbs
are now the devil. So now the pendulum has swung
again and we're in some weird keto universe, which I
think is effectively saying, like Atkins meet South beach chicks up.
(07:25):
But they're kind of allowing you to have maybe probably
like healthier carbs like brown rice or something. I'm not
even sure, but I know that ketos the whole new
thing now and everybody's obsessed, and I just want to say,
this is all crazy. This is all crazy, okay it
None of this is moderation. None of this is a
(07:45):
good relationship with food. None of this is balanced. Some
people get mad because they have glue glucose issues. I
understand that if you if you have to be in
a state of katosis, great, that Actnsiety used to have
you peeing on a stick to see if your body
went into katosis um, which was good, and your breath
would be bad and you'd be constipated, and that was good.
Don't ask me why. But um, with keto, I think
(08:07):
there are some medical reasons for some people. So let
me just disclaim that. And I'm also not a doctor
and just comment thing. But I do know that just
being afraid of carbs is absolutely moronic. I don't care
what anyone says. We could go throw it down, we
can have a fight. I don't give a ship, but
it's moronic, Like you have to eat some things in moderation.
(08:29):
I bagels. People think I'm doing something revolutionary, like I'm
literally this crazy, reckless, evil kin evil because I bagels
like bagels. Okay, I'd say to Bagel twenty minutes ago.
So that's what I have to say. What do you
all think of this? What do you think about low
carb versus carbs, versus keto versus South Beach, versus Atkins
(08:54):
versus oh natural vegan. Another day We're gonna do a
whole thing on be in because just because you're eating
vegan doesn't mean it's healthy. There's a lot of garbage,
like and I it's some of it, some of the frozen,
fake wings, fake burgers, fake cheese, fake pizza, fake ship
that's garbage. Okay, So when if you're really being serious
(09:15):
and legiti about being vegan, it's not that easy and
it can be a little harsh on your stomach. So
there's got to be a balance to all of this.
I have to say. My guest today is Jared Blondino,
the co founder of two Faced, a beauty brand that
(09:37):
was launched in Blondino got his start working from behind
the stay Lauder department makeup counter in the nine nineties
before creating his own female empowering makeup brand with a
credit card and laser like focus. Today we talk about
why you need to take a chance on yourself, the
importance of a good work ethic, how sometimes life comes
full circle, how you should lean into what makes you
(09:59):
special to make brand authentic, and why you need to
run your own race. I always love chatting with Jared,
and I think you'll really enjoy this episode. So I
don't know what you know about this podcast, but the filter,
(10:20):
which I adhere to very strictly, is started from the bottom.
Now you're here, brand builder, game changer, maverick, just extraordinary stories.
So it's not about being rich, it's not about being
famous per se. But it's about building and growing. And
we've had, you know, we have Cheryl Sandberg coming on,
We've had Hillary Clinton here and Mark Cuban and I
(10:42):
really do stick to the filter. So I want you
to know that that's what I think of you, and
you undeniably are successful, but not because you inherited something,
not because you you know, because you created something. So
that's why that's why I thought it was interesting to
talk to you today. So we'll get into your whole
brand and how what it what it is and what
(11:03):
it means to you. But where did you grow up?
I grew up in southern California. I'm like one of
the rare few people that is from here. So yeah,
it's true and and humble beginnings. What kind of financial
situation was in your household growing up? No, you know,
I grew up upper middle class. My dad, uh started
off kind of from nothing. My grandparents were Italian immigrants,
(11:27):
and my dad grew up just kind of fighting his
way through and became very successful. My mother's my mother's
family were more boogie and doctors and lawyers and that
kind of thing. And I think through them dating very young,
maybe some of my great uncles weren't so kind to him,
and it motivated him through kind of don't date the
help kind of thing to him, saying well, I'm gonna
(11:48):
be something. I'm gonna prove you wrong. And he became
very successful at what in the car industry, through dealerships,
through is Chevy actually you know Chevy dealerships, And you know,
he started from a lot boy to a mechanic to
running and in doing that, so I had a lot
of privileges growing up, but I also saw how hard
he worked and what he's sacrificed to be successful. And
I think you, I don't know how you feel, Bethany,
(12:10):
but I feel like you learned work ethic. You see
someone work the rass off or struggle or sacrifice, and
if you've got an entrepreneurial brain or you've got that
kind of in you, you somehow connect to that energy
and understand that it's not easy and it shouldn't be easy,
because nothing great comes from easy, but you go for it,
you don't give up. Well, what's interesting two people is
(12:32):
with a relationship within your house to work ethic and
money and having and not having. So do you remember
not having and did you have to have a job?
What what was your what was the work ethic in
your house? What was told to you if you have?
Because it's not easy to raise wealthy kids because you're
(12:52):
saying to them, you have to do all these things
that I did like me. But but then again, I
can do anything I want and my daughter and do
anything we want. And I do not have a spoiled
child at all because I do not negotiate with terrorists.
But it's certainly harder, you know, when you flew coach
as a child, when your kids flying you know, private
sometimes or a lot of the times, or you know,
(13:14):
first class. It's hard to still instill that. So what
was that dynamic like in your house, work, ethic and money.
It's funny you say that because I we helped raise
my nephew and I struggle with that and I struggle
with my family today. How much do you give? It's
it's difficult. But I grew I grew up with a
lot of boundaries. I had things. I had eight cars
by the time I graduated high school. You know it
(13:35):
was car thing. Um, I got a pony for Christmas.
You know, my husband grew up much different. I got
a pony for Christmas and he was evicted on Christmas Day.
So there's a there's a huge you know that we
come from two different worlds. But I but I have
to tell you, I had to um, I had to behave,
I had to perform. I had to well on my
mother's side, like she was very much about like presenting
(13:56):
yourself out like you. I had to talk. You know,
as a kid, when you when you meet a friend
in the grocery store and you're shy. I was like,
you go talk to them, you go say hello, like
I was, I saw. I was kind of trained to
be out there. But then also I got a lot
of things, but I had to act a certain way.
I had to perform, meaning I had to behave you know,
(14:17):
there were rules that the gift's head strings. Yes, oh
oh yes, it was not. It was not unconditional, it
was they were conditions to being privileged. Absolutely. So, um,
when did you come out? Wow, that's a that's a
that's a very interesting interesting story. So I actually have never, well,
to my father, I've never come out, which is a
(14:38):
funny story. So you know, I grew up kind of
as the kid who was very creative. My tater bearer
was alive. I was, I was hunting smurfs. You know.
I always grew up looking at life through kind of
rainbow colored glasses. So I think that I never I
never edited myself and I never changed who I was,
even though there was a lot of pressure maybe to
do that, to man up, to to be become normal
(14:58):
or act normal or whatever, that I never did that.
I always felt like people didn't get it. You don't
get it. I kind of knew who I was, but
I didn't. I wasn't sure what that meant. I struggled
as a as a religious kid, what that meant. So
I had to figure that out for myself. So I agree,
I agree, But you know, listen, you are very successful
you so no didn't. No one gave you money to
(15:19):
start your business. You started at the makeup counter. I
had to work, so my my parents bought me a condo.
But I had to work. I wasn't allowed to do
nothing like I had to succeed. I had to do something.
I had to participate, I had to excel. And so
I fell into beauty on complete accident, and I just
saw it as another form of art. And I found
(15:40):
I discovered there was a way that I could help
instill self esteem in to these women for ten minutes
and become their gay best friend. And and it was.
It was in the late nineties and I had some
celebrity clients I worked at sex and they would come
in and be like, I'm going to the Emmy's, I'm
going to the MTV Awards. I want brown eyeshadow. And
I was like, no, no, let's do something fun. So
I would chop up a channelle blash and mix it
with a land Home lipstick, and you know, I just
(16:02):
destroyed every test. You're creating these crazy things that I
got a reputation for it. And so you would come
in Bethany, you'd have to buy eight things. I would
take them home, melt them in my microwave, bring them
back to you in a little tough work up. You
would pick it up the next day. And that's how
I operated. No, really, yes, yes, until until security caught
me and was like, you can't do that, you know,
And so I thought, let's do something. Let's let's figure
(16:23):
this out. You were busting out. I saw there was
more potential for fun, for dreaming, and through it, we
created the first glitter eyeshadow ever, there was no glitter eyeshadow.
We we created the first efficacious lip plumper. And we
launched this little brand called Too Faced at Fred's, Siegel
and Nordstrom, and I would walk on my lunch hour
from Sex to Nordstrom, sell Too Faced, and then go
back to Sex. And we got a Vogue feature and
(16:45):
my executive through the Vogue down on my counter at
one point said what are you doing? And I was like,
I think I have to quit. I don't know I mean,
it really happened in this organically creative, ambitious wild way.
Well it's funny because you talk about making baking and
you've done a colab with a bakery. But when I
read about you and this process, I thought about how
(17:07):
cooking used to be, like exactly precise and you follow
these steps and then this thing comes out that looks
like the picture theoretically. And makeup was the same thing.
First you do this, then you do that, then you
do the eyeline, or then you do it inside or
there was not contouring. They were not different ways. It
wasn't art. And you're talking about the way that I
cook whatever's around, I throw it in. You could make
(17:30):
chicken with cilantro, parsley basil. It doesn't make a difference.
It's all gonna all road lead to Rome. And you're
talking about just being inspired and sort of being creative
and having the freedom to treat beauty that way, like
choose your own adventure. That's exactly it. No one has
ever articulated it that way, and you're a thousand billion
percent correct. I walked into this world of rules and
(17:52):
I was like, why are you taking this out? Seriously?
Add a little this at a little that Yes, that
was that is to face, that is a percent how
it happened, because I think you're inclined to baking for
the same reason and banking is supposed to be precise.
But you can still a nutmeg in set of cinnamon
and ed almonds instead of wall nuts. I mean I
do that and they're happy accidents that come out. Yes,
(18:13):
that's exactly what happened. You're the first person in twenty
four years of ever talking to anyone who who articulated that.
For me, I believe you. That's why I ask you
so many questions because I want to get to like
the core of what we're talking about. You know, what
what makes you different? What you're thinking about, humanizing you
so people can go choose their own adventure and be
successful at anything. Could be shoelaces. It doesn't make a difference.
(18:35):
It's just like, what is it? And that's the thing. Obviously,
you're creative, that's clear. Um, we've made that clear. But
do you consider yourself as much of a business person
as a creative person. Well, you know, my husband would say,
I'm I have two sides in my brain. I'm like equal,
He's much much more business oriented and he's partners with
you in this business. Yeah. We created it two years
(18:56):
after we met together as kids at them all. Yes. Wow,
he was working at the mall too. Yeah, because of me.
Because of me, I met him and he ended up
working for Chanelle. He fell into channelle is his first job.
Who does that? Um? But yes, he has the most innate,
amazing business mind. I will tell you that his instincts
are amazing. I'll get myself into trouble all the time, Bethany,
(19:18):
because I'm emotional and I don't know when I'm crossing
a line. Sometimes I just I'm too direct, and I'll
just say it. He's very good about, you know, playing
the he's a good cop. Yeah, and he can he
can dance to the rhythm of business a little more
than I can. But I think, Bethany, you can't just
be creative without having a business mind, otherwise you're unharnessed energy.
I know a lot of creative people who don't have
a business mind, and they're just crazy, fun creative people.
(19:40):
They haven't focused it into something. It's not corralled. It's
not corralled. But you have to know what you know
and know what you don't know. I am a person.
I'm definitely a business person obviously, but I really am
very familiar with concepts. So I could be talking to
lawyers about a concept that has never happened before and
weave it into a contract. Meaning I don't know exactly
(20:00):
what all those words mean, and I don't know what
all this lingle means. Go make sure that they do that.
And that's a concept. So you can be a person
who's creative and still execute like a business person because
you know what you don't know. So just don't count
yourself out at home if you're a creative person that
you're not a business person because they they're not necessarily
mutually exclusive. Well, and you grow into what you have
(20:22):
to pull the balloon down and tie it to something. Yes,
but you you learn that you have it in you. Perhaps,
but you you you sharpen that skill as you go
through it. Well, yes, and the more people, the more
you succeed, and the more people give you opportunities, then yes,
you learn each time each you know, it's like case law.
Every time you do something in business, every time I
make a mistake, every time we have a success, you
(20:42):
have that case law to draw upon. For the next case.
So obviously you're an innovator, and you did it your
own way, and you did it very differently. And you know,
you talk about the emotionality of makeup. I actually I'm
in swim now. I'm getting into swim and I'm in jeans,
and is an emotionality to the purchase, And it's okay. Like,
for example, I don't unless i'm you know, working or
(21:04):
being paid, I don't wear makeup. I just I'm not
wearing makeup now, And the irony is not lost on me.
But I love certain makeup because I like the way
it looks and the way it makes me feel in
the way it smells. And you can have a person
you never wear that you just keep in your closet
as sort of a beautiful design, and I it makes
me happy and I like looking at it and once
and like I like opening it and playing with it
(21:25):
with my daughter, and I like it gives you guys.
You know that I've seen that you guys do at
stores and and the smells and like the chocolate stuff.
So you're being creative and having fun with it. Everything
doesn't have to be so serious and so literal. So
I'm a person who doesn't even care or know that
much about makeup. But I love it and I appreciate
I like having it. So it's interesting that you just you,
(21:47):
you hit a whole other market. Well, Bethany, you have
to look at it from your own point of view,
And that's what I always tell someone. Don't be a
version of someone else. Don't try to come in because
you want to get rich. What do you have to say,
what you have to offer the world. So I enter
this world with a very specific point of view, which
was be fun, break every rule, don't meet other people's expectations,
(22:07):
meet your own. Reinvent yourself every day, and I want
to help you create the best version of yourself so
you can feel empower to go through this world. Move
through this world, get the job you want, dump that
loser boyfriend who's not treating you right, and go grab
life by the balls. Because the way you look at
yourself in the mirror affects the way you feel. Your
shoulders go back. When you when you've when you've got
(22:27):
a great face to makeup, or you have a great
hamburg er, whatever makes you feel you you kind of
sit up straight or right, and you go out in
the world and you put your still lettos on, you've
got your air mess bag and you've got your better
than sex slashes and you go attack the world. And
for some people it's a game changer for them, it
helps them express themselves. I agree, and I would really
no one's really executed properly the makeup palette for the
(22:52):
person doesn't really wear makeup like the very instant one
thing where everything doubles. I would love to do that.
But anyway, because that's really me. It' so it takes me.
I can help you. I can help you, all right, well,
maybe will do that. What can name it after cocktails
and we can be like authentic. So I love that.
(23:18):
So but everyone, you know, the way the story sounds
is like you were Renais Lwerger, plucked off the street
and then had an Academy award. So you said, you're
ch counter. You're working at a counter for how long?
I was working behind the counter for a total of
about four and a half years, okay, in Beverly, in
Beverly Hills Are in Newport, in Newport Beach. Um. It
(23:41):
was funny because John Dempsty who's now I worked with
John Dempsy as the latter had a full circle. He
was my executive at the time, and um, they had
to change dress code for me at Corporate Dressco. Because
I was this crazy kid who walked into this very conservative,
conservative environment and I just was breaking every role. I
would not wear a suit, I would not wear a tie.
I was the highest paid this person when I left,
because you were making real money. Yeah, I didn't work weekends, Bethany.
(24:04):
I was like, I won't work Friday or Saturday. Sorry,
I wouldn't were Saturday or Sunday, and I wouldn't work
past for and Friday. You popped off. You popped off.
Earned it. I earned it, made more money, you know you.
I proved myself and by the time I left, No,
it's a horse race that counter. It's the best person wins. Yeah,
I got it. The retail is like the whole story.
I was competing against guys in suits. I wanted to
(24:26):
be number one and that was just in me. Okay,
that says a lot so that it doesn't matter where
you start. That's the other thing. That's why I always
like to bring it home to them. Everything is your business.
You're working. I used to work on this as a
saved by the bell p A. I got the coffee better,
I made the copies better. It doesn't matter what you're doing.
If you are a bust girl or boy, you come in.
(24:48):
I've hired people who are bust girls or boys. I've
hired people who didn't even know how to cook, who
were helping me because they were like, I'm on it,
I've got it, i'll do it, I'll figure it out.
We did not live in the generation enough, when's my break,
when's my vacation? Count my hours? We worked our asses off,
and we figured it out. And it doesn't matter where
you start. You can start a jack in the box.
(25:10):
If you are good, you will rise to the top
and then be able to make a move to something
else that's bigger. The way it goes hard at work,
no Instagram and none of that. I'm afraid of corporate
people because from my experience, they don't have what you
just described is the drive, the tenacity that the figuring
it out when you get into the corporate environment. I
don't know if you've noticed, but there are a lot
(25:31):
of lazy, ass, entitled people who just want to point
their finger and get out. But you were in no
I disagree because you were in the corporate structure. You
were working in great, but don't fit in at your office.
Just make it Just rise, don't right, Just rise to
the goddamn top and figure it out, you know, just
figure it out. But I was also at the store level.
(25:54):
I'm talking about when you get into the towers in
New York and you know, like I know, but there
are people there and they have to figure out how
to rise above the fifty people. And the way that
they do that is not to look to the left
of the right, look at that wall in front of you,
and get there and don't think about everybody else is doing.
I always say that run your own race. I do not.
I'm not in competition with other brands. I'm a fan
(26:15):
of other brands. I don't look at what they're doing.
I don't look at what they're doing. Keep your eyes
focused on the price, and keep running. That's it. Nobody
needs to fail for me to succeed, Bethany, So like,
run your own race, be the best you you can be.
Create the breast product you can exactly. Okay, so you
have a private labeled person making it, and you, because
of your relationships and your reputation, because you got pressed,
you hustled. That's how you got into fred Siegel and
(26:36):
then it took off. You know, this is where like
for me, the god element comes in. I have I
believe in God, I pray a lot and I have faith.
And so it wasn't just about me. So I'll tell you, like,
because I was this crazy kid behind the counter calling
corporate saying I just made this sale, and why don't
we have this concealer and why don't you know? I
just would call corporate because I didn't know I shouldn't.
(26:56):
They came down a couple of times and show it,
which show me things not because they really cared about
what I thought. I think they were in town. They said,
go see this crazy kid, and they showed me some
products and they had lab names on them. So you
were connecting. You are making connections, and you were raising
your hand. Who can everybody's accessible. You can call anybody.
I've called producers whose names I've seen on television. I
will call. There's nobody I will not call and leave
(27:18):
my name. And even when I was a nobody, I'd
call them and I'd send them cookies or I did something,
or I'd get noticed connect so you were connecting and
rising above from just being some schmuck making whatever an
hour at the counter out of just pure passion and drive.
So yeah, I saw these lab names and then I
was talking. Jeremy came home one day and I'd create
you know, I've been creating all these crazy things in
(27:38):
my kitchen with craft glitter and things, just creating stuff.
And I said, I I and and prior to the
Spethan day, I went to animation school out of high school.
So when I was in high school, Disney and Warner
Brothers had this little school after school that they were
kind of incubating creative people, and through that I learned
how to really expect myself they're trying. So anyway, I
had created this character named Envy, who she was little
(28:01):
pieces of all the girls and guys that I worked
with in the cosmetics department, the arrogant, crazy ones, the
ones that were too much makeup, the ones who would
couldn't be bothered to help you, you know what. So
her name was Envy, and I created this whole world
around her, this cartoon character. And Jeremy came home and
I said, I've created an idea. I have this idea.
I want to create a makeup brand. I want to
use that stuff that I've been doing, but I want
(28:21):
to do it for her. Like I created a I
created a prototype of my customer and I created everything
for her and we and and so through that, we
called this lab and I said, I worked for a Lauder. Well,
it's like, what end does? What does she want? You're
saying this fictitious character, what does she want? Where does
she live? Yeah, that's you're creating a brand culture. You're
saying everything that you do has to adhere to what
(28:43):
she wants, does lives, breeds, et cetera. It wasn't you,
because you're not making this for you, you're making it
wasn't for me. It was for the best the best
friend that I wanted kind of And I drew a car.
She drove and her her review mirror had a five
times magnified, so she put on a makeup. She was
at a stop sign. I did all this stuff. So
Jeremy came home and I created this idea, and he
(29:03):
took me seriously, and we called this lab, said we
worked for a Lauder. I did not say at them
all and they let us in. And while I was
creating this little line. Um, I was pressing eyeshadow and
I had this There was this club called nineteen seventies
in l A at the time. We used to go
so we would go to this shop called art Varks
and Melrose and boy, these nine remember Artvarks. So I
had this black shirt with silver thread in it. It
(29:24):
was like this disco shirt from the seventies. And I
brought the shirt and I go, I want to create
an eyeshadow that looks like this. So they were putting
pearls and stuff and I's like, no, no, no. And
I looked over to the other side of the lab
where all the lip loss was being made and there
was glitter jars, jars and glitter lined up and I
got no, no, I want that put that in this
black eyes shadow. And the woman who was helping me said, oh,
you can't do that. I said why, So I ran over,
(29:45):
and not knowing I shouldn't, everybody looks at you, like,
you know, you've crossed the line because people look at you,
you know. So I walk over, grab the jar glitter.
People are looking at me like I just committed some
kind of crime. I don't care, and I go put
this glitter in there and she said no, and I
said why. She said it needs buying her and I said,
we'll put more bund here right after. Like the fifth try,
it worked, so we created the first glitter eyeshadow. At
(30:05):
the time, I didn't have contracts, I didn't have lawyers,
so of course they sold it to everyone. But I
was so thrilled, and we launched with ten eye shadows,
ten lipsticks, and eight nail polishes, which which we couldn't
afford to have felt so we poured the We poured
the nail polishes into the jars ourselves with little Baby's.
I bought it, Kymark. Could you just do what you
have to do? Right? I did. I used to blow
dry my cookies and shrink wrap plastic and shrink wrap
(30:27):
and by blow drying and stay up all night and
time in my five dollar car Delhi's. You're young, you
have no responsibility, but you just gotta make it work.
I love this, Okay, So now you have a big distribution,
and now what happens next? Where do you get where
do you get the money to expand? Well? No, we
got bught in. We got bought into, you know, and
(30:48):
out of pure craziness, we get it. We get an
a point with Nordstrom after being in fred Seagull for
a couple of weeks and and they buy it and
it happened. So we immediately kind of connect with young Hollywood.
So Drew Barrymore's calling, Mediez is calling Julia Robertsons, calling
the Oscar bags, call us. This thing starts blowing up,
and um again, we get a feature in Vogue, And
because at the time there was no category like two Phase,
(31:11):
there was a hard candy that had launched, Urban Kay
was brand brand new, and then two Phase. So we're
these wild kids disrupting the beauty area and you know,
it kind of just took off from there. But I
have to tell you it was not easy. Everything was
make or break. Every move we made was do or die.
And it wasn't until about six or seven years in
that I felt really successful. Even though we've made multimillion
(31:34):
dollars along the way, you were able to take money
out of the business. Within the first six or seven
years you had made you had millions of dollars in
your bank account. By the seventh year that you had had,
yes by like you had had like a couple hundred
thousand dollars to start or nothing, not even thousands. My
parents gave me up twenty thousand dollars. I did everything
on charge cards and we rolled the Dice. I had
great credit. My parents always taught me, your credit cards
(31:55):
are like a checking account. You don't keep it, you
know whatever, a great credit. My parents gave me some
money and we rolled the dice and we ate peanut
butter sandwiches instead of buying groceries. We were able to
hire our first person. My sister worked for free. Everything
went into the business, so everything went in. So even
when you get an order and you think, oh my god,
this is life changing, it all has to go back in.
So you first, after like four or five years, you
(32:17):
were able to you had money coming into the bank acount,
because I never had that. I've never had money coming
in from Skinny Girl Cocktails until I sold it. It
went from like nothing to then selling, so there was
no money coming to me. It was beyond going back
into the business, and my partner didn't have enough money
to spend ahead of the brand. And I read part
of your thing about people going bankrupt and not wanting
(32:38):
to pay you, and we didn't have the money to
spend ahead of the brand. And what I mean everybody
is that I knew if we build it, they will come.
I knew it. I knew I was putting it on TV.
I was forcing my partner to get me a shrink
wrapped beetle car because I don't up a car and
I was driving a skinny roll car. And I was shameless,
and I knew it, and I said to my partner,
we build it, they will come. But he didn't spend
(32:59):
enough money to have all of these bottles in the warehouse.
So the first year we did like three cases, which
is astronomical. That would be a billion dollars now almost,
and we would have done five hundred thousand except that
we didn't spend ahead. We had to make as we went. Well,
you couldn't have fired. You couldn't have farged to stock
your warehouse full. I mean, who can you get orders?
And you can't listen. We grew very slow and very
(33:22):
smart and very strong. We could have been twenty times bigger,
twenty times faster, but we would not have been able
to survive it. Now, you would have had bad qualities
because you would have suffered. Yeah, you can't do that.
Two years ago, when I was doing those healthy wheat
hagon dairy free cookies, I was able to get interest
from UH Target and Whole Foods, but I knew that
the packages used to break sometimes and some of the
cookies were different sizes. Because I didn't have enough of
(33:43):
a volume to get the big manufacturer. And if I
got into Target and the Whole Foods, I could have
gotten the big manufacturer. But I thought, I'm gonna get
jammed up in this process. I'm gonna send Whole Foods
some shitty cookies that are crumbling and they're not They're
gonna remember me for the next twenty years. So I
did not do it, and I ended up later folding
the business. Because everybody who's been in this pandemic knows
the difference between succeeding and failing can be a week.
(34:06):
A week of something going wrong, like you're literally on
fumes and you know that like you you you know,
it's it's, it's it's it's gnarly. For years, for years,
you're living that everything is due or die and it
and it ends up either breaking people or people become
stronger and you thrive through it and people have asked me,
even to this day, how do you continue with the
pressure of constantly staying on top Like Betheie. We had
(34:30):
the number one and number two best selling product launch
of the entire industry last year, out of every brand
you've ever heard of, So you're right, you still got
how many years ago did you launch? Twenty four? This
this year? Right, So to be thriving. You know, I've
had a brand for a decade, a little over a decade.
You were two and a half decades. This is crazy
to sustain because you have got to ride that rocket
(34:51):
ship while it is flying. And that's the hardest thing
you can launch, and it can be great organic avenue.
That juice company they launched, Okay, where are they? You
don't relax, don't take your eye off the ball, don't
stop running. If you want to stop running, just get
out exactly. So it's not that easy, and it's not
for everybody. You have to know who you are. Doesn't
mean you can't make money, doesn't mean you can't be successful.
But there's a certain thread going through all these people
(35:13):
I speak to, and it's that it's that like, you've
got to work hard. You're big into social media. It's great.
All that's great. Press is great. They are not going
to sell products. Hard work, hard knocks sells business. There's
no magic. So I don't even feel the pressure anymore.
But because I'm so used to it, and I'm sure
you are too, But you also have to ask yourself,
(35:34):
what are you in this for. I am in this
because I want to change the world. I am not
as insane as the sounds because we broke records selling too.
Pats and know that I'm not motivated by money. I
like having money. You know, money gives you options, That's
all it does. It magnifies the world. If you're if
you're a wonderful, generous, loving person, you can become more
loving and generous through it. If you're self conscious and
(35:55):
and and selfish and angry, it can destroy you. It's
a magnifying glass. I want to change the world. I
want to empower people to see the best versions of themselves,
to have fun with your beauty, to love themselves more
so they can hopefully go out in the world, be kinder,
be more generous, to be more loving. And its privoleence
is that myself the lip gloss or lip plumper, or
having the number one mascara in the world. It is
(36:17):
literally about changing the world for the better. And I
want to spread and reflect God's light with what I
do with my life. So everything I do goes to
empower to to make sure that you know you're seeing
that your love. That's my brand and I have a voice.
So why am I motivated this many years in to
keep doing what I'm doing. I could literally go off
and buy anything I want and disappear I have. I'm
not interested in that at all. Actually, I have a
(36:39):
great friend of mine. Madonna's a really good friend of mine,
and she reminds me of that. No matter how much
success she has, she has a job to do. She
has a vision to make the world better, to educate,
to lighten. And it has nothing to do with your
last album or how much money is in your bank account. No,
but you can connect that into your brand. But you're
allowed to do good and do well. You can talk
about your hot You just said the word reflect and
(37:00):
it made me think of your highlighter. You can connect
the reflection to your highlighter and may mean that that
like a symbolic of your religion and your spirit and
the joy and you're allowed to do well and do
good at the same time. Um, you said before though
you were methodical, so you didn't rush, you didn't do
a smash and grab job. So so tell people who
(37:21):
are listening what that means, Like, what do you mean
by that? So someone has an idea, they're doing well
or they're starting out, give like the three real solid
usable toolbox tips to this to how the sausage gets made.
So you must have an authentic idea that comes from
your heart, your soul. You can't just want to be
someone else or replicated or just get rich. So we
(37:41):
had something that we believed and then we knew the
world wanted. I never questioned once does the world need?
Do ort wanted? And then you've got to go in
and you've got to be smart. And your dream when
you what you think is the dream when you go in,
is that someone's gonna write you a million dollar check
and bring you into every blooming Dellas are every you
know north Strom. But the reality is if you don't
(38:04):
have the infrastructure or the ability to go in strong,
it will delude you. You will be deluded, You will
be stretched out, and your your product and your ability
to sell it and and to present it to the
world will be diminished by the way. That's a great
tip because with me, that's why, in addition to wanting
street cred and wanting to own the logo myself, the
(38:25):
reason I sold the cocktail portion of Skinny Girl, I
own a undred percent of everything else, I only sold
the one portion was because I you gotta know your limits.
You have to know what you're dealing with. I was
walking into a world where now quer Voux and Salza
and Betore, everybody was coming in hot to copy the
Skinny Girl, Skinny Girl, margaarted with a skinny be And
you gotta know I'm not. That's David and Goliath. I
(38:45):
don't know if I could take them, and I will
lose everything. So you have to make certain decisions along
the way based on I think you could. I think
you could have taken them. I think you could have
taken up. But you have other you have other you
have other ambitions and things that you you gotta make
sometimes decisions based on the board and what's going on
and who's around you, and and but no, but for real,
like faj was the first real Greek yogurt that was
out in supermarket stores and then all of a sudden,
(39:08):
Shobonnie came in and you know which is what owned
by Coke or something like yeah, you can't. Yeah. And
I once took on Coke because they tried to come
after me for a logo infringement that was not a
logo French me too, sister, me too. And I once
took on Nestley who owned Skinny Cow, because of skinny Girl.
And they don't even exist anymore, skinny Cow. So the point,
(39:29):
I don't think, but not in the same way. The
point is you've got to be fast and furious. You've
got to come in hard and have your ship together,
with your I P with your logo, with your team,
have your ship together, and spend spend twice as much today.
Learn every lesson you can today, so tomorrow you're equipped
and you're prepared. And we've like saying, we've been through
(39:50):
freaking people assuming us that is so erroneous and so
unfair and so wrong. But you learn, guys, learn from
your mistakes, learn from your successes, learned from the pay
so because God's preparing you for something bigger tomorrow. And
if you don't learn the lesson, you're gonna repeat it,
and it's going to keep hitting you in the head,
but the stakes will be higher. Well Ellen said that
to me one time. If you will keep making the
(40:10):
same mistake, if you don't learn the lesson. But what
you just said is what I always say. Now, when
it's not that big time is when you want to
make the mistakes, because when you later make the mistakes,
the stakes, the stakes of your mistakes are so much
higher and the stage is so much bigger when you fail.
When you're smaller, the world isn't seeing you and you're
developing your brand. Like you said, when you're on that
(40:31):
when you're on the global stage and your cookies are
crumbling or your lipstick is falling apart, you don't get
a second chance. Yeah, exactly. You're making millions of dollars.
Things are going great. How does the process happen that
someone comes and wants to buy? Who came to buy? It? Was, say,
a lot of they came to buy you. Uh no,
so we we sold little pieces of the company. We
have three events, all right, So you have millions of
(40:52):
dollars your bank cannon, you too, own a hundred percent
of it at that point. Okay, So then what happened? Now?
What happens? So then you know another level, another devil.
We were smart enough to realize we've taken it as
far as we could. At this point, I think it
was like seventeen years in. And what numbers were you
doing annually? Yeah? Like a lot. How important is who
(41:12):
you partner with in this life personally and professionally? I
mean talk about how important is it defined your team?
For me? Trust is number one. For me, I can't
have a friendship, any relationship without trust. And the unfortunate
thing is you can't trust everyone. And you need to
be smart enough and not naive enough to understand it
(41:33):
when somebody shows you who they are believe it. But
you have to go in with an open heart and
give everyone a shot and give everyone a chance and
hope for the best, and stay smart enough to keep
your to stay protected and to keep that trusted group tight,
keep your circle tight, keep it tight, tight, tight tight. Well,
you stayed in, which is interesting. Obviously the numbers you're
talking about. You could walk away and swim away now
(41:56):
and do anything you want, but you stayed in. This
is your baby. You're at chief creative officer. Did you
have to stay in or could you have just walked
out and jet skied, you know, behind your yacht. Well,
I have a deal that me staying in makes a
lot of sense. Um, I could leave at any time,
of course, anyone care the deal made with laughter. They
(42:18):
understandably wanted Jeremy and I to go. It was a
part of it, Like we are the brand. We are
the brand, So that was a part of the deal. Yeah,
we we had to go. And do you still feel
that it's your brand, that it lives and breeds you,
and that you get to, you know, infuse who you
are into it. What I've learned through this process, through
the through the billions of dollars and the corporate game,
(42:39):
is that two faced is in a logo or a
pantone or a mascara. It's me. It's what's in my heart.
Skinner girls, in your heart. No one could do it
the way you do it. It is who I am,
It's how I see the world, and I will not
delude it in any way. So I fight every day
to keep too faced and sharp and it's authentic, and
it's powerful and as pure as I can and as
(43:01):
our customers and clients deserve and it has been challenging.
That's what I call protect the realm, and it comes
out of cost. Yeah, I got it. I know it's
hard to protect the realm, and letting go is not
that easy too, But it's something that I don't let go. Bethany,
teach me how to let out. Everything matters to me,
Every fucking thing matters to me. Say it's it's not great.
(43:23):
I know, but you've done well. The hell am I
to tell you? But I'm saying everything matters to me too.
Everything is my business. I would rather not do it
than than do it poorly, no matter what it is.
I don't care. Don't don't do it. I have been
in meetings where they're like, well then we're not gonna
do it. Now make them don't do it, and there's
there's a hundred million dollars in the line, I might
(43:45):
then don't do it. I'm not going to put something
out that's in authentic. I don't believe in or that
you dumbed down or that you infected with your own shit.
So the most important thing to ask is um about relationship.
Like so, I talk a lot on here about successful relationships,
and and it's not just about having a successful relationship.
It's about successful people having a quote unquote success relationship.
(44:09):
I don't think anybody's got a perfect relationship. I don't
wan anybody else's relationship, but there are certain things in
powerful people that our threads. I've spoken to people on
here that have said, I don't work on me, I
don't work on you, meaning we're together, I don't work
on you, I work on myself. Or I give the
other person ALII and let them be who they are,
or we don't worry about what it's supposed to be.
(44:29):
What is it for you a successful relationship? What works
for you? Well, Jeremy and I have been together for
twenty five years. This year we built two Phase two,
you know, two years after we met. Um. He's my
absolute favorite human being in the planet. I'm so grateful
for him every day. He takes care of me like
no one else on the planet has or could, understands
me in a way that nobody else could. And he's
(44:51):
my favorite human being and my favorite thing. That alone
is remarkable, Like is that a remark? That's like so
much more luck even any of this other stuff we're
talking about. That is it's everything. Get your personal ship
in order before you become a business part like whatever,
whatever whoever is, if it's your best your relationships, your
best friend, your mother, your life partner, that whole area
(45:13):
needs to be in check. And it sounds like that's
your foundation. That might have been what created your foundation,
your foundation, that's the reason for your foundation. Yeah for real?
Um no, he he allows me to be the best
version of myself. I don't trust very well and I'm
very guarded, and he makes me feel safer than I
(45:35):
could imagine. And he's my favorite thing. And I'm grateful
for him every day, and I feel like that's the
most important thing. Be grateful for the love that you have.
Be grateful for your partner. Number one. Don't forget to
say thank you. Don't forget to be appreciative. When he
takes something upstairs for me, I thank him, you know,
when I see people. He's the thing I'm most grateful for. Wow,
you're at such another level. But this pandemic has shaken
(45:58):
a snow globe up. Some people are the right side
of it, some people are on the wrong side of it.
I feel that this is such a rebirth and that
it's a very challenging growing pain and obviously detrimental and
devastating for many people, but it can be something where
you plant seeds and they grow into big, beautiful flowers
and trees. Like if you can weather the storm, if
(46:18):
you can get unstunted and figure out how this affects
you and how you can thrive in it, you can
come out on the other side. And we can be literal,
like if you have a business and e commerce is
changing people's lives in the way they do things, or
we can be metaphor you know, just like sort of
spiritual about the fact that open up the channels, because
(46:40):
when you're not panicked, that's when you can have the
great ideas and figure out how you're going to make
this into something positive for you. I was panicked, you
know for me. Listen, it's been devastating for many people,
including some of my very closest friends have lost parents.
It's been horrible. But another if we if we're gonna
look for something good in it. I think it gave
us a pause. I was on a rollercoaster that I
(47:02):
could not get off of, and now there was one
way of working, one way of being it was it
was just a thousand miles an hour NonStop, and you
want sometimes you want to get off the ride. At
any level, you want to get off the goddamn red
sometimes you need to. And what this did is it
forced me to pause and forced the salt to pause
and to look around and see how we've been doing it,
(47:23):
how we can do it differently, and how we maybe
should be doing it for ourselves, for our health, for
our happiness. And don't the best ideas come to you
during those pauses, like the logical explanations and ways to
do things. I'm better when I'm around people like for me,
I I thrive on what you're eating, what you're drinking,
while you're wearing three rings on one finger, what do
your shoes look like? I soak everybody's energy. Yes, And
(47:45):
so for me it's been difficult because I'm not around
my team. But what I had to do was go
back to how I started to face. I was alone,
and I had to open my heart and open my
mind up to the to the environment that I'm in
at every level. And I think that if you're creative, Bethany,
this is something that people don't tell you. The more
creative you are as a as a creative person, the
more you have to leave your heart open, the more
(48:07):
vulnerable you become, the more pain you're going to feel.
And as a person who you need to leave it
open wide so I can be inspired by a tissue box,
or by a flower, or by you know, do you
have any final like mantra or thing that you want
to say? Yeah, never give up, Never let anyone tell
you who you are or who you should be. Be.
(48:27):
Be the most intense, potent, beautiful version of yourself and
show that to the world. Because God only made one
of you, there will never ever be another Bethany, So
share her in the most dramatic, right, beautiful, authentic way
you can so you can affect as many people as
you can, so we can propel this world forward and
(48:47):
make it better because you make this world better. Every
single one of you make this world better. You're amazing.
This was a delight. I'm so grateful. I'm so glad
youating here. I was really excited and you exceeded my expectations.
So thank you so much. Thank you. Can we have
dinner again next time I'm in New York? Please? I
would love it. I would absolutely love it. So that
(49:13):
was Jared, and he was amazing. We all loved him,
My producers loved him. He is inspiring, he's authentic, he's spiritual,
he's religious, he's honest, he's loving. He's been through a lot,
and he's successful, and he does great things in the world,
and he does well for himself. And it's all really
(49:34):
based in this foundation of his loving relationship with his
life and business partner, which is very rare, and that
foundation has laid the ground works for his makeup foundation
at two faced. So he was wonderful and great and
I mean wow, you know that there are people who
come on here who are successful to have a major public, international,
(49:57):
global company call you and a we want to aspy
your company for one and a half billion dollars. I
don't know what to say. Thank you for all listening.
Remember to rate, review and subscribe. Thank you so much.
Just Be is hosted an executive produced by me Bethany Frankel.
(50:21):
Just Be as a production of Be Real Productions and
I Heart Radio. Our managing producer is Fiona Smith and
our producer is Stephanie Stender. Our EP is Morgen Levoy.
To catch more moments from the show, follow us on
Instagram at just Be with Bethany
So I had a decent amount of experience in the
dieting space. It's a multibillion dollar industry. My book, Naturally
Thin was on the New York Times bestseller list for
twenty seven weeks. Um. I was really not very well known,
and that book just really came out swinging. And it
was interesting because when I was trying to sell the book,
(00:34):
nobody wanted to buy it. That's always my story. That
was the same thing with the skinny Ball cocktail. Nobody
wanted to do this idea. No one wanted to buy
my book because they said that it needed to be
six weeks to X pounds. That was back in the
day where it was you would see seven day diet
and you would know exactly that on next Thursday and
you're supposed to eat an egg white omelet and next Tuesday, uh,
(00:57):
you know, oatmeal or oprand and a couple of berries.
And the truth is maybe next Thursday you would be
PMS and you would want chocolate or not want eggs
or whatever. The reason is, maybe you're hungover, maybe you
want something more hearty. And the word diet had the
word die in it, so um, and I despise the word.
(01:18):
I really hate. When you hear, particularly a mother, it's
usually a mother say in front of their child, and
particularly a daughter, Um, oh my god, my jeans don't fit.
I'm fat. I was bad, I was good. I've got
a diet. I've gotta lose weight. Because kids, the younger generation,
they absorb everything we say. They want to be like us.
(01:39):
They imitate what we say and do. Uh. Whether they
like it or not, it still just becomes part of them.
And so this vernacular and this world of diet has
evolved and changed in different ways. So when I was
selling that book, no one wanted it to just be
the emotion reality of food. I call it food noise,
(02:02):
the relationship that you have with food. They wanted it
to be prescriptive, and I'm gonna guarantee you that you
do this for six weeks and you lose this many pounds,
or five days and you lose this many pounds, because
that's what people want to hear. Because it's like when
you walk into Starbucks and you see one of those muffins.
It's is low fat blueberry muffins. Even though it has
eight thousand calories. It's low fat. It just makes you
(02:22):
feel better, even though you know you're lying to yourself.
So some books says you're gonna lose twelve pounds in
six days. You know you're not really going to and
you know it's not going to be real if you did.
It's just making you feel better about it. Growing up
in a house with eating disorders, I've been through seeing
the magazines that used to be you'd rip out Cosmypolitan
or Mademoiselle or any of the magazines when you'd rip
(02:42):
it out because it would tell you exactly what to eat,
and ripping out that page was hope. Okay, I'm gonna
go buy everything. I'm getting excited. I'm starting tomorrow, but
I have half a cup of Brands Cereal with a
corner cup of skim up. I'm gonna measure everything I eat.
I'm so excited. Then you have to go out to
dinner or have lunch of someone, or you're not in
the mood for that. You cook for your kids, or
you see your kids chicken finger, and like you get
all messed up. So that's why diets really don't work.
(03:06):
I've been through the world of when I was a kid,
the Beverly Hills diet. I remember that one I think
it was like a whole day of fruit, the whole
day of vegetable. I think the whole week. First week,
maybe you had to eat fruit. I forgot what the
rest of the thing was, but something heavily and fruit.
There was the Atkins diet. And I don't mean the
way we knew it in the last years. I mean
when I was a kid, the Atkins diet was a
(03:26):
paperback book, and it was back before the Suzanne Summers Diet,
before the South Beach Diet, before the modern Atkins diet.
Anything besides bacon, cheese, oil, butter, eggs, fact was the devil.
Like you are allowed, to believe it or not to
have lettuce, but it had to be drowned in season dressing.
(03:48):
But if a Crewton, if a Crueton came anywhere near
that fucking salad, you're gonna blow up like a tick.
You are allowed steak, bacon, blue cheese, melted on the steak,
all of it, but you couldn't have fuckily, you couldn't
have fruit. It was the devil. So that evolved later
into the South Beach diet, the Zone diet, the eat
right for your type, for your blood type diet. There
(04:10):
was the Scarsdale diet. There was the Mediterranean diet there.
I mean, let's you get the picture. This is more
ironic and we're more on. And when I had my
Wheat Egg and Dairy Free Cookie Company, they were low
fat wheat egg and dairy free cookies and some brownies
and blondies and they were delicious. I was a natural
(04:31):
food chef long before that, was in a local, seasonal,
you know, plant based chef. This was back in two
thousand one, before it was cool and hip and everybody
said it, and being vegan was an alien thing. Um,
some people had the allergies, but everybody wasn't allergic to everything.
Back then, everybody wasn't allergic to gluten and dairy and
(04:53):
all of this. There were were like oat milks, Macadamian
nut milks, cashew milk. I mean, this is almond milk
on and milk has become like whole milk at this point,
it's like, soy milk is forget it. Soy milk is
like an eighties band. It's like so not even cool.
Soy milk, it's so out on. My milk is the
new soy milk, and it's quickly leaving because of oat milk.
(05:15):
But anyway, back then, no one had any of the ship.
It was just like we have regular milk, and we
have skim milk, and we have sweet and low, and
we have you know, equal and nutra sweet. Now equal
is nutra sweet. It was equal, and then later came splenda. Okay,
So when I had this wheat egg in Dairy Free
Cookie Company, it was amazing. But and I went to
(05:38):
the food shows, the trade shows, but the timing wasn't
great because everybody was into low carb. It was all
low card and it was everything was atkins. Everything was
these fake protein bars. Everybody, you know, eating a piece
of watermelon was bad. Eating a fake manufactured bar that
tastes like chalk and chemicals and has this protein processed
(06:01):
garbage powder was right. And um, it was so annoying.
Everything was just like kind of like it is now
with the cheese crisps and but it was like these
manufactured space food protein copycats of everything. And we kind
of moved away from that a little bit years ago.
Long before that, it was the exact opposite. Everybody every
(06:22):
night in a bowl pasta with tomato sauce, but you
couldn't have any oil anywhere near it because carbs could
go with other carbs, which was tomato sauce. It was
effectively food combining. But carbs couldn't go with oil. So
steak could go with oil, chicken go with oil, vegetables
go go with oil, Salad can go with oil, but
carbs bread could go with bread, Pasta could only go
(06:43):
with pasta. And and this is post Atkins diet. Like
Atkins would never allow any of this. This was a
little bit of South Beach where you goose food combining.
It was separate. But this woman, Susan Powder, who at
short blond, bleach blonde haircut, go on talk shows and
pile up a baked potatoes and pile up pasta and say,
as you can pile up pretzels, you can have as
(07:04):
much of this as you want, as much you cant
have fifty baked potatoes, as long as you have no
fat with it. Carbs are great, all carbs. It was
fat that was the devil. That was the devil. Carbs
are now the devil. So now the pendulum has swung
again and we're in some weird keto universe, which I
think is effectively saying, like Atkins meet South beach chicks up.
(07:25):
But they're kind of allowing you to have maybe probably
like healthier carbs like brown rice or something. I'm not
even sure, but I know that ketos the whole new
thing now and everybody's obsessed, and I just want to say,
this is all crazy. This is all crazy, okay it
None of this is moderation. None of this is a
(07:45):
good relationship with food. None of this is balanced. Some
people get mad because they have glue glucose issues. I
understand that if you if you have to be in
a state of katosis, great, that Actnsiety used to have
you peeing on a stick to see if your body
went into katosis um, which was good, and your breath
would be bad and you'd be constipated, and that was good.
Don't ask me why. But um, with keto, I think
(08:07):
there are some medical reasons for some people. So let
me just disclaim that. And I'm also not a doctor
and just comment thing. But I do know that just
being afraid of carbs is absolutely moronic. I don't care
what anyone says. We could go throw it down, we
can have a fight. I don't give a ship, but
it's moronic, Like you have to eat some things in moderation.
(08:29):
I bagels. People think I'm doing something revolutionary, like I'm
literally this crazy, reckless, evil kin evil because I bagels
like bagels. Okay, I'd say to Bagel twenty minutes ago.
So that's what I have to say. What do you
all think of this? What do you think about low
carb versus carbs, versus keto versus South Beach, versus Atkins
(08:54):
versus oh natural vegan. Another day We're gonna do a
whole thing on be in because just because you're eating
vegan doesn't mean it's healthy. There's a lot of garbage,
like and I it's some of it, some of the frozen,
fake wings, fake burgers, fake cheese, fake pizza, fake ship
that's garbage. Okay, So when if you're really being serious
(09:15):
and legiti about being vegan, it's not that easy and
it can be a little harsh on your stomach. So
there's got to be a balance to all of this.
I have to say. My guest today is Jared Blondino,
the co founder of two Faced, a beauty brand that
(09:37):
was launched in Blondino got his start working from behind
the stay Lauder department makeup counter in the nine nineties
before creating his own female empowering makeup brand with a
credit card and laser like focus. Today we talk about
why you need to take a chance on yourself, the
importance of a good work ethic, how sometimes life comes
full circle, how you should lean into what makes you
(09:59):
special to make brand authentic, and why you need to
run your own race. I always love chatting with Jared,
and I think you'll really enjoy this episode. So I
don't know what you know about this podcast, but the filter,
(10:20):
which I adhere to very strictly, is started from the bottom.
Now you're here, brand builder, game changer, maverick, just extraordinary stories.
So it's not about being rich, it's not about being
famous per se. But it's about building and growing. And
we've had, you know, we have Cheryl Sandberg coming on,
We've had Hillary Clinton here and Mark Cuban and I
(10:42):
really do stick to the filter. So I want you
to know that that's what I think of you, and
you undeniably are successful, but not because you inherited something,
not because you you know, because you created something. So
that's why that's why I thought it was interesting to
talk to you today. So we'll get into your whole
brand and how what it what it is and what
(11:03):
it means to you. But where did you grow up?
I grew up in southern California. I'm like one of
the rare few people that is from here. So yeah,
it's true and and humble beginnings. What kind of financial
situation was in your household growing up? No, you know,
I grew up upper middle class. My dad, uh started
off kind of from nothing. My grandparents were Italian immigrants,
(11:27):
and my dad grew up just kind of fighting his
way through and became very successful. My mother's my mother's
family were more boogie and doctors and lawyers and that
kind of thing. And I think through them dating very young,
maybe some of my great uncles weren't so kind to him,
and it motivated him through kind of don't date the
help kind of thing to him, saying well, I'm gonna
(11:48):
be something. I'm gonna prove you wrong. And he became
very successful at what in the car industry, through dealerships,
through is Chevy actually you know Chevy dealerships, And you know,
he started from a lot boy to a mechanic to
running and in doing that, so I had a lot
of privileges growing up, but I also saw how hard
he worked and what he's sacrificed to be successful. And
I think you, I don't know how you feel, Bethany,
(12:10):
but I feel like you learned work ethic. You see
someone work the rass off or struggle or sacrifice, and
if you've got an entrepreneurial brain or you've got that
kind of in you, you somehow connect to that energy
and understand that it's not easy and it shouldn't be easy,
because nothing great comes from easy, but you go for it,
you don't give up. Well, what's interesting two people is
(12:32):
with a relationship within your house to work ethic and
money and having and not having. So do you remember
not having and did you have to have a job?
What what was your what was the work ethic in
your house? What was told to you if you have?
Because it's not easy to raise wealthy kids because you're
(12:52):
saying to them, you have to do all these things
that I did like me. But but then again, I
can do anything I want and my daughter and do
anything we want. And I do not have a spoiled
child at all because I do not negotiate with terrorists.
But it's certainly harder, you know, when you flew coach
as a child, when your kids flying you know, private
sometimes or a lot of the times, or you know,
(13:14):
first class. It's hard to still instill that. So what
was that dynamic like in your house, work, ethic and money.
It's funny you say that because I we helped raise
my nephew and I struggle with that and I struggle
with my family today. How much do you give? It's
it's difficult. But I grew I grew up with a
lot of boundaries. I had things. I had eight cars
by the time I graduated high school. You know it
(13:35):
was car thing. Um, I got a pony for Christmas.
You know, my husband grew up much different. I got
a pony for Christmas and he was evicted on Christmas Day.
So there's a there's a huge you know that we
come from two different worlds. But I but I have
to tell you, I had to um, I had to behave,
I had to perform. I had to well on my
mother's side, like she was very much about like presenting
(13:56):
yourself out like you. I had to talk. You know,
as a kid, when you when you meet a friend
in the grocery store and you're shy. I was like,
you go talk to them, you go say hello, like
I was, I saw. I was kind of trained to
be out there. But then also I got a lot
of things, but I had to act a certain way.
I had to perform, meaning I had to behave you know,
(14:17):
there were rules that the gift's head strings. Yes, oh
oh yes, it was not. It was not unconditional, it
was they were conditions to being privileged. Absolutely. So, um,
when did you come out? Wow, that's a that's a
that's a very interesting interesting story. So I actually have never, well,
to my father, I've never come out, which is a
(14:38):
funny story. So you know, I grew up kind of
as the kid who was very creative. My tater bearer
was alive. I was, I was hunting smurfs. You know.
I always grew up looking at life through kind of
rainbow colored glasses. So I think that I never I
never edited myself and I never changed who I was,
even though there was a lot of pressure maybe to
do that, to man up, to to be become normal
(14:58):
or act normal or whatever, that I never did that.
I always felt like people didn't get it. You don't
get it. I kind of knew who I was, but
I didn't. I wasn't sure what that meant. I struggled
as a as a religious kid, what that meant. So
I had to figure that out for myself. So I agree,
I agree, But you know, listen, you are very successful
you so no didn't. No one gave you money to
(15:19):
start your business. You started at the makeup counter. I
had to work, so my my parents bought me a condo.
But I had to work. I wasn't allowed to do
nothing like I had to succeed. I had to do something.
I had to participate, I had to excel. And so
I fell into beauty on complete accident, and I just
saw it as another form of art. And I found
(15:40):
I discovered there was a way that I could help
instill self esteem in to these women for ten minutes
and become their gay best friend. And and it was.
It was in the late nineties and I had some
celebrity clients I worked at sex and they would come
in and be like, I'm going to the Emmy's, I'm
going to the MTV Awards. I want brown eyeshadow. And
I was like, no, no, let's do something fun. So
I would chop up a channelle blash and mix it
with a land Home lipstick, and you know, I just
(16:02):
destroyed every test. You're creating these crazy things that I
got a reputation for it. And so you would come
in Bethany, you'd have to buy eight things. I would
take them home, melt them in my microwave, bring them
back to you in a little tough work up. You
would pick it up the next day. And that's how
I operated. No, really, yes, yes, until until security caught
me and was like, you can't do that, you know,
And so I thought, let's do something. Let's let's figure
(16:23):
this out. You were busting out. I saw there was
more potential for fun, for dreaming, and through it, we
created the first glitter eyeshadow ever, there was no glitter eyeshadow.
We we created the first efficacious lip plumper. And we
launched this little brand called Too Faced at Fred's, Siegel
and Nordstrom, and I would walk on my lunch hour
from Sex to Nordstrom, sell Too Faced, and then go
back to Sex. And we got a Vogue feature and
(16:45):
my executive through the Vogue down on my counter at
one point said what are you doing? And I was like,
I think I have to quit. I don't know I mean,
it really happened in this organically creative, ambitious wild way.
Well it's funny because you talk about making baking and
you've done a colab with a bakery. But when I
read about you and this process, I thought about how
(17:07):
cooking used to be, like exactly precise and you follow
these steps and then this thing comes out that looks
like the picture theoretically. And makeup was the same thing.
First you do this, then you do that, then you
do the eyeline, or then you do it inside or
there was not contouring. They were not different ways. It
wasn't art. And you're talking about the way that I
cook whatever's around, I throw it in. You could make
(17:30):
chicken with cilantro, parsley basil. It doesn't make a difference.
It's all gonna all road lead to Rome. And you're
talking about just being inspired and sort of being creative
and having the freedom to treat beauty that way, like
choose your own adventure. That's exactly it. No one has
ever articulated it that way, and you're a thousand billion
percent correct. I walked into this world of rules and
(17:52):
I was like, why are you taking this out? Seriously?
Add a little this at a little that Yes, that
was that is to face, that is a percent how
it happened, because I think you're inclined to baking for
the same reason and banking is supposed to be precise.
But you can still a nutmeg in set of cinnamon
and ed almonds instead of wall nuts. I mean I
do that and they're happy accidents that come out. Yes,
(18:13):
that's exactly what happened. You're the first person in twenty
four years of ever talking to anyone who who articulated that.
For me, I believe you. That's why I ask you
so many questions because I want to get to like
the core of what we're talking about. You know, what
what makes you different? What you're thinking about, humanizing you
so people can go choose their own adventure and be
successful at anything. Could be shoelaces. It doesn't make a difference.
(18:35):
It's just like, what is it? And that's the thing. Obviously,
you're creative, that's clear. Um, we've made that clear. But
do you consider yourself as much of a business person
as a creative person. Well, you know, my husband would say,
I'm I have two sides in my brain. I'm like equal,
He's much much more business oriented and he's partners with
you in this business. Yeah. We created it two years
(18:56):
after we met together as kids at them all. Yes. Wow,
he was working at the mall too. Yeah, because of me.
Because of me, I met him and he ended up
working for Chanelle. He fell into channelle is his first job.
Who does that? Um? But yes, he has the most innate,
amazing business mind. I will tell you that his instincts
are amazing. I'll get myself into trouble all the time, Bethany,
(19:18):
because I'm emotional and I don't know when I'm crossing
a line. Sometimes I just I'm too direct, and I'll
just say it. He's very good about, you know, playing
the he's a good cop. Yeah, and he can he
can dance to the rhythm of business a little more
than I can. But I think, Bethany, you can't just
be creative without having a business mind, otherwise you're unharnessed energy.
I know a lot of creative people who don't have
a business mind, and they're just crazy, fun creative people.
(19:40):
They haven't focused it into something. It's not corralled. It's
not corralled. But you have to know what you know
and know what you don't know. I am a person.
I'm definitely a business person obviously, but I really am
very familiar with concepts. So I could be talking to
lawyers about a concept that has never happened before and
weave it into a contract. Meaning I don't know exactly
(20:00):
what all those words mean, and I don't know what
all this lingle means. Go make sure that they do that.
And that's a concept. So you can be a person
who's creative and still execute like a business person because
you know what you don't know. So just don't count
yourself out at home if you're a creative person that
you're not a business person because they they're not necessarily
mutually exclusive. Well, and you grow into what you have
(20:22):
to pull the balloon down and tie it to something. Yes,
but you you learn that you have it in you. Perhaps,
but you you you sharpen that skill as you go
through it. Well, yes, and the more people, the more
you succeed, and the more people give you opportunities, then yes,
you learn each time each you know, it's like case law.
Every time you do something in business, every time I
make a mistake, every time we have a success, you
(20:42):
have that case law to draw upon. For the next case.
So obviously you're an innovator, and you did it your
own way, and you did it very differently. And you know,
you talk about the emotionality of makeup. I actually I'm
in swim now. I'm getting into swim and I'm in jeans,
and is an emotionality to the purchase, And it's okay. Like,
for example, I don't unless i'm you know, working or
(21:04):
being paid, I don't wear makeup. I just I'm not
wearing makeup now, And the irony is not lost on me.
But I love certain makeup because I like the way
it looks and the way it makes me feel in
the way it smells. And you can have a person
you never wear that you just keep in your closet
as sort of a beautiful design, and I it makes
me happy and I like looking at it and once
and like I like opening it and playing with it
(21:25):
with my daughter, and I like it gives you guys.
You know that I've seen that you guys do at
stores and and the smells and like the chocolate stuff.
So you're being creative and having fun with it. Everything
doesn't have to be so serious and so literal. So
I'm a person who doesn't even care or know that
much about makeup. But I love it and I appreciate
I like having it. So it's interesting that you just you,
(21:47):
you hit a whole other market. Well, Bethany, you have
to look at it from your own point of view,
And that's what I always tell someone. Don't be a
version of someone else. Don't try to come in because
you want to get rich. What do you have to say,
what you have to offer the world. So I enter
this world with a very specific point of view, which
was be fun, break every rule, don't meet other people's expectations,
(22:07):
meet your own. Reinvent yourself every day, and I want
to help you create the best version of yourself so
you can feel empower to go through this world. Move
through this world, get the job you want, dump that
loser boyfriend who's not treating you right, and go grab
life by the balls. Because the way you look at
yourself in the mirror affects the way you feel. Your
shoulders go back. When you when you've when you've got
(22:27):
a great face to makeup, or you have a great
hamburg er, whatever makes you feel you you kind of
sit up straight or right, and you go out in
the world and you put your still lettos on, you've
got your air mess bag and you've got your better
than sex slashes and you go attack the world. And
for some people it's a game changer for them, it
helps them express themselves. I agree, and I would really
no one's really executed properly the makeup palette for the
(22:52):
person doesn't really wear makeup like the very instant one
thing where everything doubles. I would love to do that.
But anyway, because that's really me. It' so it takes me.
I can help you. I can help you, all right, well,
maybe will do that. What can name it after cocktails
and we can be like authentic. So I love that.
(23:18):
So but everyone, you know, the way the story sounds
is like you were Renais Lwerger, plucked off the street
and then had an Academy award. So you said, you're
ch counter. You're working at a counter for how long?
I was working behind the counter for a total of
about four and a half years, okay, in Beverly, in
Beverly Hills Are in Newport, in Newport Beach. Um. It
(23:41):
was funny because John Dempsty who's now I worked with
John Dempsy as the latter had a full circle. He
was my executive at the time, and um, they had
to change dress code for me at Corporate Dressco. Because
I was this crazy kid who walked into this very conservative,
conservative environment and I just was breaking every role. I
would not wear a suit, I would not wear a tie.
I was the highest paid this person when I left,
because you were making real money. Yeah, I didn't work weekends, Bethany.
(24:04):
I was like, I won't work Friday or Saturday. Sorry,
I wouldn't were Saturday or Sunday, and I wouldn't work
past for and Friday. You popped off. You popped off.
Earned it. I earned it, made more money, you know you.
I proved myself and by the time I left, No,
it's a horse race that counter. It's the best person wins. Yeah,
I got it. The retail is like the whole story.
I was competing against guys in suits. I wanted to
(24:26):
be number one and that was just in me. Okay,
that says a lot so that it doesn't matter where
you start. That's the other thing. That's why I always
like to bring it home to them. Everything is your business.
You're working. I used to work on this as a
saved by the bell p A. I got the coffee better,
I made the copies better. It doesn't matter what you're doing.
If you are a bust girl or boy, you come in.
(24:48):
I've hired people who are bust girls or boys. I've
hired people who didn't even know how to cook, who
were helping me because they were like, I'm on it,
I've got it, i'll do it, I'll figure it out.
We did not live in the generation enough, when's my break,
when's my vacation? Count my hours? We worked our asses off,
and we figured it out. And it doesn't matter where
you start. You can start a jack in the box.
(25:10):
If you are good, you will rise to the top
and then be able to make a move to something
else that's bigger. The way it goes hard at work,
no Instagram and none of that. I'm afraid of corporate
people because from my experience, they don't have what you
just described is the drive, the tenacity that the figuring
it out when you get into the corporate environment. I
don't know if you've noticed, but there are a lot
(25:31):
of lazy, ass, entitled people who just want to point
their finger and get out. But you were in no
I disagree because you were in the corporate structure. You
were working in great, but don't fit in at your office.
Just make it Just rise, don't right, Just rise to
the goddamn top and figure it out, you know, just
figure it out. But I was also at the store level.
(25:54):
I'm talking about when you get into the towers in
New York and you know, like I know, but there
are people there and they have to figure out how
to rise above the fifty people. And the way that
they do that is not to look to the left
of the right, look at that wall in front of you,
and get there and don't think about everybody else is doing.
I always say that run your own race. I do not.
I'm not in competition with other brands. I'm a fan
(26:15):
of other brands. I don't look at what they're doing.
I don't look at what they're doing. Keep your eyes
focused on the price, and keep running. That's it. Nobody
needs to fail for me to succeed, Bethany, So like,
run your own race, be the best you you can be.
Create the breast product you can exactly. Okay, so you
have a private labeled person making it, and you, because
of your relationships and your reputation, because you got pressed,
you hustled. That's how you got into fred Siegel and
(26:36):
then it took off. You know, this is where like
for me, the god element comes in. I have I
believe in God, I pray a lot and I have faith.
And so it wasn't just about me. So I'll tell you, like,
because I was this crazy kid behind the counter calling
corporate saying I just made this sale, and why don't
we have this concealer and why don't you know? I
just would call corporate because I didn't know I shouldn't.
(26:56):
They came down a couple of times and show it,
which show me things not because they really cared about
what I thought. I think they were in town. They said,
go see this crazy kid, and they showed me some
products and they had lab names on them. So you
were connecting. You are making connections, and you were raising
your hand. Who can everybody's accessible. You can call anybody.
I've called producers whose names I've seen on television. I
will call. There's nobody I will not call and leave
(27:18):
my name. And even when I was a nobody, I'd
call them and I'd send them cookies or I did something,
or I'd get noticed connect so you were connecting and
rising above from just being some schmuck making whatever an
hour at the counter out of just pure passion and drive.
So yeah, I saw these lab names and then I
was talking. Jeremy came home one day and I'd create
you know, I've been creating all these crazy things in
(27:38):
my kitchen with craft glitter and things, just creating stuff.
And I said, I I and and prior to the
Spethan day, I went to animation school out of high school.
So when I was in high school, Disney and Warner
Brothers had this little school after school that they were
kind of incubating creative people, and through that I learned
how to really expect myself they're trying. So anyway, I
had created this character named Envy, who she was little
(28:01):
pieces of all the girls and guys that I worked
with in the cosmetics department, the arrogant, crazy ones, the
ones that were too much makeup, the ones who would
couldn't be bothered to help you, you know what. So
her name was Envy, and I created this whole world
around her, this cartoon character. And Jeremy came home and
I said, I've created an idea. I have this idea.
I want to create a makeup brand. I want to
use that stuff that I've been doing, but I want
(28:21):
to do it for her. Like I created a I
created a prototype of my customer and I created everything
for her and we and and so through that, we
called this lab and I said, I worked for a Lauder. Well,
it's like, what end does? What does she want? You're
saying this fictitious character, what does she want? Where does
she live? Yeah, that's you're creating a brand culture. You're
saying everything that you do has to adhere to what
(28:43):
she wants, does lives, breeds, et cetera. It wasn't you,
because you're not making this for you, you're making it
wasn't for me. It was for the best the best
friend that I wanted kind of And I drew a car.
She drove and her her review mirror had a five
times magnified, so she put on a makeup. She was
at a stop sign. I did all this stuff. So
Jeremy came home and I created this idea, and he
(29:03):
took me seriously, and we called this lab, said we
worked for a Lauder. I did not say at them
all and they let us in. And while I was
creating this little line. Um, I was pressing eyeshadow and
I had this There was this club called nineteen seventies
in l A at the time. We used to go
so we would go to this shop called art Varks
and Melrose and boy, these nine remember Artvarks. So I
had this black shirt with silver thread in it. It
(29:24):
was like this disco shirt from the seventies. And I
brought the shirt and I go, I want to create
an eyeshadow that looks like this. So they were putting
pearls and stuff and I's like, no, no, no. And
I looked over to the other side of the lab
where all the lip loss was being made and there
was glitter jars, jars and glitter lined up and I
got no, no, I want that put that in this
black eyes shadow. And the woman who was helping me said, oh,
you can't do that. I said why, So I ran over,
(29:45):
and not knowing I shouldn't, everybody looks at you, like,
you know, you've crossed the line because people look at you,
you know. So I walk over, grab the jar glitter.
People are looking at me like I just committed some
kind of crime. I don't care, and I go put
this glitter in there and she said no, and I
said why. She said it needs buying her and I said,
we'll put more bund here right after. Like the fifth try,
it worked, so we created the first glitter eyeshadow. At
(30:05):
the time, I didn't have contracts, I didn't have lawyers,
so of course they sold it to everyone. But I
was so thrilled, and we launched with ten eye shadows,
ten lipsticks, and eight nail polishes, which which we couldn't
afford to have felt so we poured the We poured
the nail polishes into the jars ourselves with little Baby's.
I bought it, Kymark. Could you just do what you
have to do? Right? I did. I used to blow
dry my cookies and shrink wrap plastic and shrink wrap
(30:27):
and by blow drying and stay up all night and
time in my five dollar car Delhi's. You're young, you
have no responsibility, but you just gotta make it work.
I love this, Okay, So now you have a big distribution,
and now what happens next? Where do you get where
do you get the money to expand? Well? No, we
got bught in. We got bought into, you know, and
(30:48):
out of pure craziness, we get it. We get an
a point with Nordstrom after being in fred Seagull for
a couple of weeks and and they buy it and
it happened. So we immediately kind of connect with young Hollywood.
So Drew Barrymore's calling, Mediez is calling Julia Robertsons, calling
the Oscar bags, call us. This thing starts blowing up,
and um again, we get a feature in Vogue, And
because at the time there was no category like two Phase,
(31:11):
there was a hard candy that had launched, Urban Kay
was brand brand new, and then two Phase. So we're
these wild kids disrupting the beauty area and you know,
it kind of just took off from there. But I
have to tell you it was not easy. Everything was
make or break. Every move we made was do or die.
And it wasn't until about six or seven years in
that I felt really successful. Even though we've made multimillion
(31:34):
dollars along the way, you were able to take money
out of the business. Within the first six or seven
years you had made you had millions of dollars in
your bank account. By the seventh year that you had had,
yes by like you had had like a couple hundred
thousand dollars to start or nothing, not even thousands. My
parents gave me up twenty thousand dollars. I did everything
on charge cards and we rolled the Dice. I had
great credit. My parents always taught me, your credit cards
(31:55):
are like a checking account. You don't keep it, you
know whatever, a great credit. My parents gave me some
money and we rolled the dice and we ate peanut
butter sandwiches instead of buying groceries. We were able to
hire our first person. My sister worked for free. Everything
went into the business, so everything went in. So even
when you get an order and you think, oh my god,
this is life changing, it all has to go back in.
So you first, after like four or five years, you
(32:17):
were able to you had money coming into the bank acount,
because I never had that. I've never had money coming
in from Skinny Girl Cocktails until I sold it. It
went from like nothing to then selling, so there was
no money coming to me. It was beyond going back
into the business, and my partner didn't have enough money
to spend ahead of the brand. And I read part
of your thing about people going bankrupt and not wanting
(32:38):
to pay you, and we didn't have the money to
spend ahead of the brand. And what I mean everybody
is that I knew if we build it, they will come.
I knew it. I knew I was putting it on TV.
I was forcing my partner to get me a shrink
wrapped beetle car because I don't up a car and
I was driving a skinny roll car. And I was shameless,
and I knew it, and I said to my partner,
we build it, they will come. But he didn't spend
(32:59):
enough money to have all of these bottles in the warehouse.
So the first year we did like three cases, which
is astronomical. That would be a billion dollars now almost,
and we would have done five hundred thousand except that
we didn't spend ahead. We had to make as we went. Well,
you couldn't have fired. You couldn't have farged to stock
your warehouse full. I mean, who can you get orders?
And you can't listen. We grew very slow and very
(33:22):
smart and very strong. We could have been twenty times bigger,
twenty times faster, but we would not have been able
to survive it. Now, you would have had bad qualities
because you would have suffered. Yeah, you can't do that.
Two years ago, when I was doing those healthy wheat
hagon dairy free cookies, I was able to get interest
from UH Target and Whole Foods, but I knew that
the packages used to break sometimes and some of the
cookies were different sizes. Because I didn't have enough of
(33:43):
a volume to get the big manufacturer. And if I
got into Target and the Whole Foods, I could have
gotten the big manufacturer. But I thought, I'm gonna get
jammed up in this process. I'm gonna send Whole Foods
some shitty cookies that are crumbling and they're not They're
gonna remember me for the next twenty years. So I
did not do it, and I ended up later folding
the business. Because everybody who's been in this pandemic knows
the difference between succeeding and failing can be a week.
(34:06):
A week of something going wrong, like you're literally on
fumes and you know that like you you you know,
it's it's, it's it's it's gnarly. For years, for years,
you're living that everything is due or die and it
and it ends up either breaking people or people become
stronger and you thrive through it and people have asked me,
even to this day, how do you continue with the
pressure of constantly staying on top Like Betheie. We had
(34:30):
the number one and number two best selling product launch
of the entire industry last year, out of every brand
you've ever heard of, So you're right, you still got
how many years ago did you launch? Twenty four? This
this year? Right, So to be thriving. You know, I've
had a brand for a decade, a little over a decade.
You were two and a half decades. This is crazy
to sustain because you have got to ride that rocket
(34:51):
ship while it is flying. And that's the hardest thing
you can launch, and it can be great organic avenue.
That juice company they launched, Okay, where are they? You
don't relax, don't take your eye off the ball, don't
stop running. If you want to stop running, just get
out exactly. So it's not that easy, and it's not
for everybody. You have to know who you are. Doesn't
mean you can't make money, doesn't mean you can't be successful.
But there's a certain thread going through all these people
(35:13):
I speak to, and it's that it's that like, you've
got to work hard. You're big into social media. It's great.
All that's great. Press is great. They are not going
to sell products. Hard work, hard knocks sells business. There's
no magic. So I don't even feel the pressure anymore.
But because I'm so used to it, and I'm sure
you are too, But you also have to ask yourself,
(35:34):
what are you in this for. I am in this
because I want to change the world. I am not
as insane as the sounds because we broke records selling too.
Pats and know that I'm not motivated by money. I
like having money. You know, money gives you options, That's
all it does. It magnifies the world. If you're if
you're a wonderful, generous, loving person, you can become more
loving and generous through it. If you're self conscious and
(35:55):
and and selfish and angry, it can destroy you. It's
a magnifying glass. I want to change the world. I
want to empower people to see the best versions of themselves,
to have fun with your beauty, to love themselves more
so they can hopefully go out in the world, be kinder,
be more generous, to be more loving. And its privoleence
is that myself the lip gloss or lip plumper, or
having the number one mascara in the world. It is
(36:17):
literally about changing the world for the better. And I
want to spread and reflect God's light with what I
do with my life. So everything I do goes to
empower to to make sure that you know you're seeing
that your love. That's my brand and I have a voice.
So why am I motivated this many years in to
keep doing what I'm doing. I could literally go off
and buy anything I want and disappear I have. I'm
not interested in that at all. Actually, I have a
(36:39):
great friend of mine. Madonna's a really good friend of mine,
and she reminds me of that. No matter how much
success she has, she has a job to do. She
has a vision to make the world better, to educate,
to lighten. And it has nothing to do with your
last album or how much money is in your bank account. No,
but you can connect that into your brand. But you're
allowed to do good and do well. You can talk
about your hot You just said the word reflect and
(37:00):
it made me think of your highlighter. You can connect
the reflection to your highlighter and may mean that that
like a symbolic of your religion and your spirit and
the joy and you're allowed to do well and do
good at the same time. Um, you said before though
you were methodical, so you didn't rush, you didn't do
a smash and grab job. So so tell people who
(37:21):
are listening what that means, Like, what do you mean
by that? So someone has an idea, they're doing well
or they're starting out, give like the three real solid
usable toolbox tips to this to how the sausage gets made.
So you must have an authentic idea that comes from
your heart, your soul. You can't just want to be
someone else or replicated or just get rich. So we
(37:41):
had something that we believed and then we knew the
world wanted. I never questioned once does the world need?
Do ort wanted? And then you've got to go in
and you've got to be smart. And your dream when
you what you think is the dream when you go in,
is that someone's gonna write you a million dollar check
and bring you into every blooming Dellas are every you
know north Strom. But the reality is if you don't
(38:04):
have the infrastructure or the ability to go in strong,
it will delude you. You will be deluded, You will
be stretched out, and your your product and your ability
to sell it and and to present it to the
world will be diminished by the way. That's a great
tip because with me, that's why, in addition to wanting
street cred and wanting to own the logo myself, the
(38:25):
reason I sold the cocktail portion of Skinny Girl, I
own a undred percent of everything else, I only sold
the one portion was because I you gotta know your limits.
You have to know what you're dealing with. I was
walking into a world where now quer Voux and Salza
and Betore, everybody was coming in hot to copy the
Skinny Girl, Skinny Girl, margaarted with a skinny be And
you gotta know I'm not. That's David and Goliath. I
(38:45):
don't know if I could take them, and I will
lose everything. So you have to make certain decisions along
the way based on I think you could. I think
you could have taken them. I think you could have
taken up. But you have other you have other you
have other ambitions and things that you you gotta make
sometimes decisions based on the board and what's going on
and who's around you, and and but no, but for real,
like faj was the first real Greek yogurt that was
out in supermarket stores and then all of a sudden,
(39:08):
Shobonnie came in and you know which is what owned
by Coke or something like yeah, you can't. Yeah. And
I once took on Coke because they tried to come
after me for a logo infringement that was not a
logo French me too, sister, me too. And I once
took on Nestley who owned Skinny Cow, because of skinny Girl.
And they don't even exist anymore, skinny Cow. So the point,
(39:29):
I don't think, but not in the same way. The
point is you've got to be fast and furious. You've
got to come in hard and have your ship together,
with your I P with your logo, with your team,
have your ship together, and spend spend twice as much today.
Learn every lesson you can today, so tomorrow you're equipped
and you're prepared. And we've like saying, we've been through
(39:50):
freaking people assuming us that is so erroneous and so
unfair and so wrong. But you learn, guys, learn from
your mistakes, learn from your successes, learned from the pay
so because God's preparing you for something bigger tomorrow. And
if you don't learn the lesson, you're gonna repeat it,
and it's going to keep hitting you in the head,
but the stakes will be higher. Well Ellen said that
to me one time. If you will keep making the
(40:10):
same mistake, if you don't learn the lesson. But what
you just said is what I always say. Now, when
it's not that big time is when you want to
make the mistakes, because when you later make the mistakes,
the stakes, the stakes of your mistakes are so much
higher and the stage is so much bigger when you fail.
When you're smaller, the world isn't seeing you and you're
developing your brand. Like you said, when you're on that
(40:31):
when you're on the global stage and your cookies are
crumbling or your lipstick is falling apart, you don't get
a second chance. Yeah, exactly. You're making millions of dollars.
Things are going great. How does the process happen that
someone comes and wants to buy? Who came to buy? It? Was, say,
a lot of they came to buy you. Uh no,
so we we sold little pieces of the company. We
have three events, all right, So you have millions of
(40:52):
dollars your bank cannon, you too, own a hundred percent
of it at that point. Okay, So then what happened? Now?
What happens? So then you know another level, another devil.
We were smart enough to realize we've taken it as
far as we could. At this point, I think it
was like seventeen years in. And what numbers were you
doing annually? Yeah? Like a lot. How important is who
(41:12):
you partner with in this life personally and professionally? I
mean talk about how important is it defined your team?
For me? Trust is number one. For me, I can't
have a friendship, any relationship without trust. And the unfortunate
thing is you can't trust everyone. And you need to
be smart enough and not naive enough to understand it
(41:33):
when somebody shows you who they are believe it. But
you have to go in with an open heart and
give everyone a shot and give everyone a chance and
hope for the best, and stay smart enough to keep
your to stay protected and to keep that trusted group tight,
keep your circle tight, keep it tight, tight, tight tight. Well,
you stayed in, which is interesting. Obviously the numbers you're
talking about. You could walk away and swim away now
(41:56):
and do anything you want, but you stayed in. This
is your baby. You're at chief creative officer. Did you
have to stay in or could you have just walked
out and jet skied, you know, behind your yacht. Well,
I have a deal that me staying in makes a
lot of sense. Um, I could leave at any time,
of course, anyone care the deal made with laughter. They
(42:18):
understandably wanted Jeremy and I to go. It was a
part of it, Like we are the brand. We are
the brand, So that was a part of the deal. Yeah,
we we had to go. And do you still feel
that it's your brand, that it lives and breeds you,
and that you get to, you know, infuse who you
are into it. What I've learned through this process, through
the through the billions of dollars and the corporate game,
(42:39):
is that two faced is in a logo or a
pantone or a mascara. It's me. It's what's in my heart.
Skinner girls, in your heart. No one could do it
the way you do it. It is who I am,
It's how I see the world, and I will not
delude it in any way. So I fight every day
to keep too faced and sharp and it's authentic, and
it's powerful and as pure as I can and as
(43:01):
our customers and clients deserve and it has been challenging.
That's what I call protect the realm, and it comes
out of cost. Yeah, I got it. I know it's
hard to protect the realm, and letting go is not
that easy too, But it's something that I don't let go. Bethany,
teach me how to let out. Everything matters to me,
Every fucking thing matters to me. Say it's it's not great.
(43:23):
I know, but you've done well. The hell am I
to tell you? But I'm saying everything matters to me too.
Everything is my business. I would rather not do it
than than do it poorly, no matter what it is.
I don't care. Don't don't do it. I have been
in meetings where they're like, well then we're not gonna
do it. Now make them don't do it, and there's
there's a hundred million dollars in the line, I might
(43:45):
then don't do it. I'm not going to put something
out that's in authentic. I don't believe in or that
you dumbed down or that you infected with your own shit.
So the most important thing to ask is um about relationship.
Like so, I talk a lot on here about successful relationships,
and and it's not just about having a successful relationship.
It's about successful people having a quote unquote success relationship.
(44:09):
I don't think anybody's got a perfect relationship. I don't
wan anybody else's relationship, but there are certain things in
powerful people that our threads. I've spoken to people on
here that have said, I don't work on me, I
don't work on you, meaning we're together, I don't work
on you, I work on myself. Or I give the
other person ALII and let them be who they are,
or we don't worry about what it's supposed to be.
(44:29):
What is it for you a successful relationship? What works
for you? Well, Jeremy and I have been together for
twenty five years. This year we built two Phase two,
you know, two years after we met. Um. He's my
absolute favorite human being in the planet. I'm so grateful
for him every day. He takes care of me like
no one else on the planet has or could, understands
me in a way that nobody else could. And he's
(44:51):
my favorite human being and my favorite thing. That alone
is remarkable, Like is that a remark? That's like so
much more luck even any of this other stuff we're
talking about. That is it's everything. Get your personal ship
in order before you become a business part like whatever,
whatever whoever is, if it's your best your relationships, your
best friend, your mother, your life partner, that whole area
(45:13):
needs to be in check. And it sounds like that's
your foundation. That might have been what created your foundation,
your foundation, that's the reason for your foundation. Yeah for real?
Um no, he he allows me to be the best
version of myself. I don't trust very well and I'm
very guarded, and he makes me feel safer than I
(45:35):
could imagine. And he's my favorite thing. And I'm grateful
for him every day, and I feel like that's the
most important thing. Be grateful for the love that you have.
Be grateful for your partner. Number one. Don't forget to
say thank you. Don't forget to be appreciative. When he
takes something upstairs for me, I thank him, you know,
when I see people. He's the thing I'm most grateful for. Wow,
you're at such another level. But this pandemic has shaken
(45:58):
a snow globe up. Some people are the right side
of it, some people are on the wrong side of it.
I feel that this is such a rebirth and that
it's a very challenging growing pain and obviously detrimental and
devastating for many people, but it can be something where
you plant seeds and they grow into big, beautiful flowers
and trees. Like if you can weather the storm, if
(46:18):
you can get unstunted and figure out how this affects
you and how you can thrive in it, you can
come out on the other side. And we can be literal,
like if you have a business and e commerce is
changing people's lives in the way they do things, or
we can be metaphor you know, just like sort of
spiritual about the fact that open up the channels, because
(46:40):
when you're not panicked, that's when you can have the
great ideas and figure out how you're going to make
this into something positive for you. I was panicked, you
know for me. Listen, it's been devastating for many people,
including some of my very closest friends have lost parents.
It's been horrible. But another if we if we're gonna
look for something good in it. I think it gave
us a pause. I was on a rollercoaster that I
(47:02):
could not get off of, and now there was one
way of working, one way of being it was it
was just a thousand miles an hour NonStop, and you
want sometimes you want to get off the ride. At
any level, you want to get off the goddamn red
sometimes you need to. And what this did is it
forced me to pause and forced the salt to pause
and to look around and see how we've been doing it,
(47:23):
how we can do it differently, and how we maybe
should be doing it for ourselves, for our health, for
our happiness. And don't the best ideas come to you
during those pauses, like the logical explanations and ways to
do things. I'm better when I'm around people like for me,
I I thrive on what you're eating, what you're drinking,
while you're wearing three rings on one finger, what do
your shoes look like? I soak everybody's energy. Yes, And
(47:45):
so for me it's been difficult because I'm not around
my team. But what I had to do was go
back to how I started to face. I was alone,
and I had to open my heart and open my
mind up to the to the environment that I'm in
at every level. And I think that if you're creative, Bethany,
this is something that people don't tell you. The more
creative you are as a as a creative person, the
more you have to leave your heart open, the more
(48:07):
vulnerable you become, the more pain you're going to feel.
And as a person who you need to leave it
open wide so I can be inspired by a tissue box,
or by a flower, or by you know, do you
have any final like mantra or thing that you want
to say? Yeah, never give up, Never let anyone tell
you who you are or who you should be. Be.
(48:27):
Be the most intense, potent, beautiful version of yourself and
show that to the world. Because God only made one
of you, there will never ever be another Bethany, So
share her in the most dramatic, right, beautiful, authentic way
you can so you can affect as many people as
you can, so we can propel this world forward and
(48:47):
make it better because you make this world better. Every
single one of you make this world better. You're amazing.
This was a delight. I'm so grateful. I'm so glad
youating here. I was really excited and you exceeded my expectations.
So thank you so much. Thank you. Can we have
dinner again next time I'm in New York? Please? I
would love it. I would absolutely love it. So that
(49:13):
was Jared, and he was amazing. We all loved him,
My producers loved him. He is inspiring, he's authentic, he's spiritual,
he's religious, he's honest, he's loving. He's been through a lot,
and he's successful, and he does great things in the world,
and he does well for himself. And it's all really
(49:34):
based in this foundation of his loving relationship with his
life and business partner, which is very rare, and that
foundation has laid the ground works for his makeup foundation
at two faced. So he was wonderful and great and
I mean wow, you know that there are people who
come on here who are successful to have a major public, international,
(49:57):
global company call you and a we want to aspy
your company for one and a half billion dollars. I
don't know what to say. Thank you for all listening.
Remember to rate, review and subscribe. Thank you so much.
Just Be is hosted an executive produced by me Bethany Frankel.
(50:21):
Just Be as a production of Be Real Productions and
I Heart Radio. Our managing producer is Fiona Smith and
our producer is Stephanie Stender. Our EP is Morgen Levoy.
To catch more moments from the show, follow us on
Instagram at just Be with Bethany
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