Drew, hello, hello, Drew.
So great to be here.
Thank you so much for having me.
First of all, your book is amazing
and we're gonna talk about that throughout the segment,
but I started a beauty company
almost 10 years ago, Flower Beauty.
I know the beauty industry.
I love the beauty industry.
IT Cosmetics is like the biggest juggernaut.
I mean, in the last decade, it's really been the,
the company that we've all marveled at
and please tell me how and why you started IT Cosmetics
because for us in the beauty industry, you're the one.
Yeah, I mean, IT Cosmetics.
It started out of this season
that I thought was a big season of setback in my life.
I thought I was my dream job working in,
and I always wanted to interview other people
and I thought I was in my dream job
and I started getting rosacea.
I had hereditary rosacea and for me,
it would pop out in the form of these big, red bumps
and it would break through the makeup
and I'd be anchoring the news live
and I would hear in my earpiece,
"There's something on your face.
"Wipe it off, wipe it."
And I went through this season of not finding anything
that could work for my skin
and I thought I was gonna get fired
and thought it was a big season of setback
and I kind of learned this big lesson in life.
That sometimes our setbacks are really our setups
for something we're supposed to do next.
We just sometimes can't see it in that season
of self-doubt or hardship.
And anyways, I got this strong gut feeling, like,
"What if you could create a product that worked for you?
"It's probably gonna help a whole lot of other people."
And Drew, it was kind of this moment
in my life where I was like,
"Oh my gosh, my gut's telling me to do this,
"but my head is saying, 'Oh, you're not qualified.
"'You don't know anyone in beauty.
"'You don't know what you're doing.'"
And in that moment, I made the decision to turn down
all the self-doubt in my head and listen to my gut
and launch IT Cosmetics in my living room.
But Drew, and I know you know this
from being a huge boss that you are,
launching a business is so much harder
than I could have ever imagined.
I didn't know that it would be three years
before I could afford to pay myself
and three years of every beauty expert telling me "no,"
that this company would never make it.
And you know, Drew, I had this vision to put real women
as models and try to ship culture and beauty
and all the big department stores and beauty retailers,
everyone, everyone said "no," so it was three years
of constant rejection.
So it was a tough start.
And you yourself had gone through a personal experience
of feeling rejected yourself,
which is why you wanted the women in your campaign
to look a certain way.
Can you tell me about that?
Drew, one time we were a couple of years into our business
and I didn't know how we were gonna make it.
We were done to under $1,000 in my personal account
and company account combined
and I got a big call from a potential investor.
And it's like a huge private equity company
and they loved our product
and they've made a lot of products we shop
at in the grocery store, really famous household names.
And I thought it was gonna be my big break
and we went through all of these meetings
and it got done to the final meeting
and I flew out for the meeting.
He was standing about three feet from me
and he said, "It's a "no."
"We're gonna pass on investing in IT Cosmetics.
"I just don't think women will buy makeup
"from someone who looks like you,
"with your body and your weight."
And I remember, I felt like this lifetime of body-doubt
and self-doubt fled my body.
I went into my car and cried my eyes out
and this feeling in the pit of my gut said, "He's wrong."
And I just felt it and I also never got mad
cause I realized, "Oh, he's just like the rest of us.
"He's been impacted by the beauty industry, too.
"He thinks you have to look a certain way
"to be successful."
And six years later, when L'Oreal bought IT Cosmetics
and it made the press everywhere--
For $1.2 billion, go ahead.
(laughing)
He, I heard from him that day.
He said, "Congratulations, I'm so happy for you.
"I was wrong and I learned it would've been
"the most successful investment in this company's history."
And like, Drew, had he believed in me back then
when I was so desperate I probably would've given him
the majority of the company for almost no money,
but by the time we sold the business,
I was still the largest shareholder.
So I was like, "Thank God he didn't believe in me."
And sometimes our hardships and our setbacks
and they are painful and they're unfair
and they don't make sense,
but I just think that when we keep believing
in the possibility of our own dreams
and hearing our gut and believing our setbacks
are our setups, I think all things are possible, so ...
Well, I, I'm glad you don't approach that
with an angry reception.
I think your highroad approach to being able
to hear that and have the lesson learned
that you should stick with your gut instinct is fantastic.
I want to take out all my anger issues on this man,
but I'm glad he called and said, "Congratulations."
It took the sting out of it a little bit for me.
(laughing) But ...
Yeah. I have watched
the trajectory of IT Cosmetics as someone who's living
inside the beauty business and it's just incredible.
You started this to help people, to solve a problem.
I, I love your products, too.
I mean, they're just, they're successful for a reason.
They're really gold standard in the industry
and everybody's on the feeder of IT Cosmetics
as they should be.
And Jamie, the fact that you're sharing your story,
which is just ...
Especially when you're in like a beauty industry
or like a Hollywood game,
it's got to be about who we are inside
and what our journey is and the outside is affected by that.
It's not the other way in.
How we look and then that's the journey.
It's in here.
And "Believe It: How to Go
"from Being Underestimated to Unstoppable"
is available now wherever books are sold.
100% of the proceeds are going to Feeding America.
My goodness, what an amazing person you are.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, thank you, Drew.
Thank you so much.
(upbeat music)