In 2016, our next guest sold the cosmetics company
that she created in her living room
to L'Oreal for $1.2 billion, becoming the first female CEO
for that company in over 100 years.
Her first book is called Believe It,
How To Go From Underestimated To Unstoppable is on sale now.
Please welcome Jamie Kern Lima.
Ellen, hello.
Hello, hello.
Hi, Jamie.
Jamie, you are incredible.
You and I are texting buddies but we're
kind of meeting for the first time,
even though we've texted back and forth.
But your story is amazing.
So you're the founder of IT Cosmetics, which I know
everybody knows what that is.
But tell everybody how you started your company.
Yeah, I started actually in the middle of a whole season
of setback in my life.
It was like a big season of self-doubt,
which I know lot of people are struggling with right now
actually.
But I was working in what I thought was my dream job.
Like, my whole life I wanted to host a talk
show since the time I was a little girl.
And I was working as a TV news anchor,
and I got a skin condition called rosacea.
And what happened, Ellen, is I'd be live on TV
and I'd hear from my producer like, there's
something on your face.
You need to wipe it off.
And, you know, the redness would sort of come through
and the makeup will be breaking up.
And so I went through a really tough season.
I started trying to find makeup out there that worked,
and I realized nothing did.
And I had this, kind of, moment going, wow,
if I could figure out how to make makeup that
worked for real people with real skin challenges,
maybe it would help a lot of other people.
So what I realized was this, sort of,
season of setback that I was going through
was actually a set up for what I was supposed to do.
And I took a big, big risk, went with my gut,
launched the business in my living room,
had no idea how hard it was going to be.
There you see the living room right there,
went through three years, Ellen, of all the beauty retailers
saying no after no after no.
And it was really like a three-year journey
of rejection, and kind of trying to figure out how to believe
in myself when no one else did.
That's really why I wrote this book,
because I think we all can go from not believing ourselves
to believing in ourselves.
It really is.
It's such an inspirational book.
And, you know, especially for someone starting out
in anything, but especially business.
But I mean, you had someone really, to your face,
say, no, this is never going to work.
No one's going to buy makeup from someone who looks
like you which is unbelievable.
And it's just such sweet revenge to sell your company
for $1.2 billion when someone saying, you'll never make it,
you'll never work.
When people ask you for advice, which
I'm sure happens all the time, what's
the most important bit of advice?
I think the most important thing is
to learn to literally break yourself out and hear
your own gut.
Like, I think, Ellen, we all have a knowing inside of us.
And I think that especially for women, so many women,
we ask everyone else their opinion
and we don't ever learn to listen
to our gut to trust ourselves.
And the story you just mentioned, yeah, we were down--
I was down to under $1,000 left.
I didn't know how I was going to make it in my business.
And it was as a potential investor
and I thought, oh my gosh, if they investment enough,
this is going to be life changing,
and we did all these meetings.
It got to the final meeting and he looked at me and he said,
I love your product, I believe in it,
but we're going to pass on investing in your company.
I just don't think women will buy makeup
from someone who looks like you with your body and your weight.
And I remember, Ellen, there was this moment where--
I mean, listen, I went in my car and cried afterwards.
But in that moment, I had this feeling in my gut that said,
he's wrong.
Like, I just had this feeling.
And six years later, the day L'Oreal
bought our company for over a billion dollars.
I actually heard from him for the first time in six years.
And he said, congratulations, I was wrong.
And I learned it would have actually
been the most successful investment
in this whole company's history had he believed in me.
But there's a famous saying, Ellen,
and anyone going through a season of rejection
or having someone tell them they're not in that right now.
The famous saying, "Rejection is God's protection
or rejection is the universe's protection," right?
Like, had he invested in me back then,
Ellen, I was so desperate.
I had no money, and I probably would
have given him most of the company
for like almost nothing.
But because he didn't believe in me
by the time L'Oreal bought IT Cosmetics,
I'm still the largest shareholder.
So I was like, thank God he didn't believe in me, right?
So I just think that a lot of us during these times where we're
feeling rejected right now, and I don't know,
I think this book is really all about how
to ignite that light again, and go
from not believing in yourself to believing in yourself.
And by the way, I'm donating 100%
of the proceeds of the book to Feeding America
and Together Rising.
And I'm so inspired by Mattress Mack that you just had on.
And I don't even know if I can do this,
but I want to do this because this is the Ellen Show.
And I know that you just--
I think with Shutterfly donated $20,000 to what he's doing.
I want to add to that and donate another $20,000 to what he's
doing in Texas.
Oh, Jamie, that's fantastic.
I think that's amazing.
I'm so inspired.
Jamie, thank you so much.
You are really an incredible person.
And like I said, we've texted back and forth
because you're so inspiring and so generous.
And you gave me an advanced copy before this came out.
And I said I want you on the show for this,
because I think it's such an important book for so
many people starting out, especially women.
And like you said, women are always
saying, what do you think, what do you think,
instead of paying attention to your gut.
So good for you, I am so happy for you.
And you can get Jamie's book, Believe It,
How To Go From Underestimated To Unstoppable everywhere books
are sold.
It's very inspirational.
Great seeing you, Jamie.
Great to see you.
Thank you so much, Ellen.
All right, we'll be back.