How I Built Hailey Bieber’s Favourite Beauty Brand In My 30’s (They Thought I Was Just Pretty!)

0:00You're about to make a trade. Which you do you listen to? Is it get optioning those options? or let's do a little research. Learn more at finra.org slash tradesmart.

0:17Ford Blue Cruise hands-free highway driving takes the work out of being behind the wheel, allowing you to relax and reconnect while also staying in control. Enjoy the drive in Blue Cruise-enabled vehicles like the F-150, Explorer, and Mustang Mach-E. Available feature on equipped vehicles. Terms apply. Does not replace safe driving. See Ford.com slash Blue Cruise for more details. Do you feel like people treat you differently as the founder of Genchi versus being a model when you introduce yourself? Yes. There has been so many lows. Mari Fonseca. You're 16. It's a small city in Brazil at the time.

0:59You're booking jobs modeling. I was like begging my parents, please take me to Sao Paulo. And then from there, I just never came back home. A lot of my dreams as a model came true, but not all of them. A lot of jobs don't pay much. The magazines don't pay anything. I don't enjoy it. I really don't enjoy it anymore. What was the hardest part when you decided to transition from being a model to being an entrepreneur? When you take a meeting, sometimes guys would just like hit on me. It was really hard to come around that people would respect you. You're pretty already like be happy with that. I'm an immigrant.

1:32I have an accent. I don't have a business background. I think people could tell, I don't know what I'm doing. I just have this dream to do a brand. I started the brand with... I was prepping for this interview. Holy s***, this is Hailey Weaver's favorite lymphatic drainage brand. I used to bring the packaging to different big retailers, like a Sephora or a Target, and just imagine that they were there, manifest and pray, and now seeing it for real. Wow, we did this. If there is one thing, if people are looking to glow up, I always tell them...

2:08in case you missed it you're allowed to be hot smart and rich so let's get into it

2:18Mari Fonseca are you ready to get hot smart rich yes are you nervous to fear I'm excited you are one of the hardest people to plan to book with because you live a very busy life you just got back from Paris doing some wedding dress try-ons. Can you tell us about that? My mom came from Brazil and we tried my wedding dress. It's almost ready and it's like a dream. I feel like you have to be a very, very secure woman to date a famous musician, especially Drew from the Chain Soakers. Like, have you always been secure or was that something you've learned over time? I think there's two things. I think it's a personality thing that I always felt secure, but I also think is like us in Brazil, we don't compare ourselves a lot.

3:03Going back a little bit to growing up in Brazil, what did it look like in your family in terms of the relationship that your parents had? My parents got divorced when I was nine, but both loving parents. They're both in my life still. And I love them so much. And they didn't work out because they got married really young. And then my mom got remarried when I was 12. I actually was the flower girl at her wedding. I lived with my stepdad and my mom and my sister for two more years three more years and then my mom got pregnant she had my brother I was 15 and then I started modeling so I just left did you have any entrepreneurs in your family like did your mom have any entrepreneurial people in her family or a dad or this was like the first person at 16 that was like I'm leaving and I'm gonna go do my own thing?

3:53I think I was the first one, but I also, my mom started like studying really young and she moved away from her city, but it's like the city next to her city. So I think I was the more like the one that just really wanted to like break out of like being in my city. I just felt like it wasn't enough for me. I wanted to do something else. I wanted to do more. And I always dreamed of coming to the United States. I always like had this dream. I didn't know it was going to happen but I needed to try because I just felt like I didn't have a future in my city that I would be happy so I just had to go you're 16 you're living it's a small city in Brazil at the time yeah you're booking jobs modeling are you leaving your city to go do that or they're kind of in your city but they're small they started in my city okay small when I was 13 I was already like doing like kind of like little jobs here and there my dad has like these friends they own a store and they're like oh Mari should model for us so like it started there so I had like some pictures and some like little runway stuff and I sent that to a modeling agency that was like in the very beginning of also like having internet and being able to send like an email with photos and all of that and then some agencies wrote back and they were like we would like to meet you and everything and I was like begging my parents like please take me to Sao Paulo because I'm from another state and then they took me to Sao Paulo we met some of the agencies and I was like so excited and this agency that wasn't very good signed me and I was like please please like let me stay so like we went back to my city it took some convincing from like my dad and my mom and and everything and then they both were like okay let's go with her let's see you know how this is and so we went back to Sao Paulo to see where I was gonna live and my mom was like you need to continue going to school So we found a school for me and it was the same school that some of my roommates, model roommates had.

5:51Yeah, it was really interesting, like how everything started, because I never thought it would like I would be here today. But like I had to convince my parents and be like, please, like, let me go. And they wanted to make sure like I had a good place to stay. I had a school to go to. And then from there, I just like never came back home to live in my house. So you moved technically out at 16, which is a lot younger than most people. Do you feel like there is a part of you that is relearning your childhood because you did become an adult so quickly? That's a great question. I think so. Honestly, like I'm doing pole dancing right now.

6:29I saw this. I was hoping you brought it up. Which is not at all what you do as a child. But like when I obviously, but when I saw I saw my mom now in Paris and she brought some videos from when we were kids because I want to I want to like do a little collage for our wedding, like drew as a child, me as a child and us growing up and meeting each other. So a lot of my life was like dancing. I did ballet for six years. And so sometimes I like miss that. And now that I have a little more time, I'm like, yes, I want to do this and this stuff that like hobbies that I used to do as a child. So, yes.

7:03Which I feel like is so important and it needs to be talked about more because the most successful people that I'm around have actual hobbies. Like they are spending time to carve out and think and do these things that like actually make them a better person. so when you were 16 and you had this big dream of leaving your small city and becoming a model what did you expect it was going to be like honestly I expect it was going to be more like the dream that you have like I used to watch like the Victoria's Secret fashion show for example and see like Adriana Lima Alessandro Ambrosio Giselle Binching and they are like all Brazilians and they all different from each other.

7:44And that was what I like, hoped for and imagined for me, not necessarily like VS, but more like, I want to be like those girls, like, they're so gorgeous, they're so confident. And like, I want to have a successful career as well. But I went to Asia before I went anywhere else. So like, I stayed in Asia for almost two and a half years, like going from China to Singapore to Hong Kong, Thailand, the Philippines. Like I lived everywhere in Asia first. And then I did the same thing in Europe and kind of lived everywhere because at the time to get a visa to come to the United States, it's always been hard.

8:23But at the time there was no like real like internet or like there were like magazines were actually printed magazines. So I I had to like collect like work from those magazines, like printed magazines, printed, you know, like campaigns and like signs from like photographers saying like she's a real model. Like I worked with her. You had to collect all that stuff, have an agency to, you know, sponsor your visa for you, which for me was elite. And you collect all of that, which takes like a really long time. You send it to them, then they file for the visa with all of those magazines and stuff.

8:56And then you finally get approved. So like only that took me like a few years to start. I dreamed to come to the U.S. like earlier, but it happened when I was 21. So like from 16 to 21, I was like around the world and other places and trying to build that portfolio. And then I moved here and, you know, I was living in New York for seven years. A lot of my dreams as a model came true, but not all of them. It's not that like fairy tale thing that people think, you know, like that glamour and that you just have like you're just making so much money with every job. Like a lot of jobs don't pay much.

9:32Even the jobs that you think are super glamorous, like magazines, the magazines don't pay anything or like shows. Sometimes they can pay really little because it's a lot about like you being in a magazine is good for you. It's a trade off that like the magazines know about. And so it's not that like you make this crazy amount of money and, you know, it's a buildup to get to that place. And it's not that glamorous. Like there is a lot of like hard work that goes behind the scenes that people don't see necessarily. You know, like you're far from your family. You're in another country that maybe you don't speak that language.

10:09There is like a lot of different like the seasons of the year. Like I'm from Brazil. We only have summer. and then I go to New York and it's like this winter that I've never I've never even seen snow and then I'm like leaving in like I don't even have shoes or clothes that I don't know how to dress up for that so like you're just like so much struggles that you know people don't realize and like you don't have a lot of money I couldn't go back home because I didn't have a lot of money in the beginning so I would never see my family you know like there's a lot of like little things that you have to sacrifice really for for this career a lot of the time you hear model and you kind of roll your eyes like, oh, pretty, but like must be nice.

10:47And it's not very hard. What do you think coming as a model is the hardest stereotype to shake now that you do so much more than just modeling? I mean, I think it's being smart. Like people don't think that you can be beautiful and smart at the same time. Hot smart rich. Hot smart rich. You can be all of them. You have to pick one, And especially because we live in a society where like women cannot be like bosses or we cannot like run a company or run the country or, you know, so like there is this like feeling always that, you know, you're not enough or, you know, you're pretty already like be happy with that.

11:25and being pretty and smart and rich. It's just something that it's not very acceptable sometimes. And I think that is just being around whenever I try to raise money or talk about the company to anybody or even the beginning when I just had the idea, it was really hard to come around that people would respect you in a way like when you take a meeting, sometimes guys would just hit on me. and it's just like I'm trying to talk about something serious and like actually like raise money but like people would just be thinking other things you know or like wouldn't understand like what I'm trying to build just because I don't know there is this stereotype of like you can do it all yeah you know you also as a model are always having to be in person you're on a shoot it's a very cash centric job so there isn't something where you're building ownership in something.

12:23And something that I find really hard, even when I'm trying to tell my friends about the power of equity to invest in something with me, they're so apprehensive. Because I think when you're a model too, you're told you have a ceiling. After 35 or 40, you're going to be past your prime and there's going to be people younger than you. So you're trying to make as much money as possible because you're like, I need to do it now. How did you successfully transition your brain to go from like cash to now putting everything you have into equity into your brand? I never really had a sense of money in the way I think that in the United States, like people invest their money and there's their stock market and all that stuff.

13:01Like I didn't grow up like that. We grew up like from paycheck to paycheck in my house. Like we had maybe a little bit over, you know, cause my parents were dentists, but still like we didn't grow up with like this sense of like, you have to like invest your money. And I didn't know about that until I moved to the US. So like a lot of the money that I made, I would spend it or I would save in a savings account. Like I wasn't smart with my money because I just didn't know how to be. I wasn't taught that. I left Brazil really young. And so all my money from modeling now is invested. I actually feel like it's safer to, you know, make a bet in something that you really care about.

13:43And because if you push, there is no like limits there's no time limit for that like there is for my career as a model so I feel like yeah I'm I'm safer in that way if that makes sense totally yeah I think it's just an interesting question for people that value cash so much because a lot of the time when I'm trying to get a friend to invest into a company they're like but I could buy a bag with this and it's such a hard thing to rationalize like even with a brand deal now as a creator myself right I get offered a lot of cash deals and sometimes with brands I really believe in I'm like I'll do it half for cash and half for equity.

14:17And the brands are always so shocked by that because they're like, most creators don't want to take equity for this because you never know. I mean, I have companies that have gone bankrupt, some that will never do anything. I've lost way too much money at this point, but I think any successful person will tell you that. And so I love what you said about betting on yourself because it's so true. But I want to go back to something that you said, because I think it's so important for people to hear this about aging. Do you think that being in the modeling industry for so long made you afraid to get older?

14:49In a way, yes. I am not afraid to get older. I think I enjoy getting older because when I before I turned 30, when I was 29, I had this like moment of freak out. I don't know if you had that. Like I was like, oh my gosh, I'm not married. I need to get on with life because I'm going to 30, you know, and you all exactly. And you just feel like, oh my gosh, from here, it's just going to go downhill. And then I woke up with 30 and I was like, okay, nothing changed. Yeah. And then from, from now I'm 35. So like from 30 to 35, I'm actually feel more beautiful, more confident, more energetic. There is something about being on your thirties, like, and I don't know how it's going to be about my forties, but I'm excited now because Because in my 20s, it felt like I didn't really know myself or like now that when I look back, I'm like, I didn't have a full personality like formed.

15:39And now I'm like, I know what I want. I know what I like. I'm so confident. I just have this like extra. Spice, as Alex would say. Yeah, spice and sauce because you're just older and also like you just don't care. Yeah. You care less about like the little things or like what people think about you or how you look in this way or that way. Like how you're going to say something like, I don't care. I just am more confident. So like, I'm actually excited to be older. But I would say that anybody that's like struggling with that, it's not that big of a deal. The industry is so like developed for, you know, procedures you can do or like, the wellness business is so big right now.

16:19So I feel like, why would we be afraid of, you know, be older? I think it's like nice. And I also think you changed a lot about your life, right? Like you went from being in an industry that scares you to that to being in something that actually, I would say, prevents it. What was the hardest part when you decided to transition from being a model to being an entrepreneur? I really wanted to stop modeling when I started my brand. So what happened was I met somebody that kind of like encouraged me to start a brand. And I was already kind of like thinking, what am I going to do after modeling? I don't really enjoy this job anymore.

16:54I'm a little bit like unfulfilled with it. You know, I don't feel like I'm helping anyone. I don't feel like I'm doing anything that's meaningful. And that dream to become this huge model didn't really happen for me. So I was just like, what else is there? And so I think I believe a lot of right place and right time. And I think a lot of the times that did not happen for me with modeling, but it happened for me with the brand, which I was at this dinner. This guy came over to say hi to other friends at the table. and just sat down with us and started talking to me. And we were like, he's like, okay, you should start this brand.

17:35And connected me with Center that we were talking about before, which helped me design the packaging and everything. And yeah, it just kind of happened. And when was this? This was 2020. Okay, this is during COVID. Yeah, right after COVID. It was the end of 2020, beginning of 2021. And were you dating Drew at the time or this is pre-Drew? No, this is pre-Drew, but I was about to meet him. I met him like 2021 in the beginning around that time, like maybe like in April of 2021. And this dinner was like in February. But yes, like the transition was something that I wanted to happen. I was like looking forward to like what else I was going to be doing after modeling.

18:12So yeah, I'm very happy that this happened right place, right time, which is what I believe it was. And did you completely stop modeling once you started it? Or has there been a little bit of a transition where you were doing both for a bit? I was doing both for a while because, you know, modeling was still my main source of income and still is because I don't take any salary from Jane Sheehy still. So you still do model? Not really. Okay. Not anymore. Not anymore because I don't enjoy it. I really don't enjoy it anymore. Yeah. It just it was 20 years of my life that it really was like a dream.

18:45And it set me up to do things that I'm doing now and to meet amazing people and all, you know, my whole life. I look back and I'm so happy with how it went and how, you know, it turned out. But right now I just like don't like it. Yeah. Don't enjoy it. Do you feel like people treat you differently as the founder of Genchi versus being a model when you introduce yourself? Yes. Can you think of a situation where someone's like completely changed how they think about you? I think like people have a different like respect for me because in the beginning when I was talking about the brands, people would just be like, OK, good luck.

19:24You're going to do a brand queue, you know. And like I think because I've pushed to this point now where like it's a real brand and I don't model anymore. I could take a salary if I want, but I don't want to. I want to invest in the brand. I think now that like we are, you know, profitable and it's like a real brand. And a lot of my friends, like I can just see, it's not like something that they tell me, but I can just tell that like there is this different like respect or admiration that like, yeah, some people also have mentioned to me like, wow, you talked about this brand and look how far you've come.

19:54And, you know, it's really nice to like see that people can, you know, believe in you in a different way or see you in a different way that you're not just a model. Not that like modeling is just a career because it's been my career forever. But you can be put in that place where like it's kind of like a vain profession, you know, and like now I'm doing something that I don't really actually have a background on, but I'm making it happen. And I think people like admire that in any founders, I think. You mentioned this a little bit before, but I want to hear of a specific situation because I think this needs to be talked about more.

20:28When you started fundraising for the brand, you had either venture capitalists hit on you or just completely dismiss you being like, she's just a model with a product. Can you talk a little bit more about that? I think it's hard for anybody that's just selling an idea. So in the beginning, the products weren't here. I had this idea to do a lymphatic drainage product. And a lot of the times, I think now the perspective is a little different around lymphatic drainage and much more people know about it. But I think at the time I would go into these meetings with especially like males and they would be like, what?

21:02Like, what is lymphatic system and lymphatic drainage? Like, what are you talking about? So like a lot of the times I think people would pass because they wouldn't understand what the vision was. and the body care industry became like really big in recent years, but it wasn't that big when I started, you know, raising money. Like it was a lot like face and skincare on the face and makeup. Yeah, it was really hard. Also, like I'm an immigrant, I have an accent. I don't have a business background. Like I didn't have a team. It's not like I'm, you know, I have this whole team and we're trying to build a brand and we know what we're doing.

21:34I think people could tell like I'm very green. I don't know what I'm doing. And I just have this like dream to do a brand. And so that was hard in the beginning to get capital. And then you start like, we started with like angel investors and like friends and people that like would put a little bit of money here and there. But like I started the brand with like$250 ,000. And we made like two products and the whole like campaign and, you know, advertisement and release and all of that, like the launch and everything with that budget. So that was like difficult. to do. But then once the brand was like here and it's real, you have like real products, like then you get like more, but raising money historically, at least for me has been always really hard.

22:21You know, like you either like don't have the right numbers or you don't have the product yet, or you know, you are in a saturated market or there is always some reason why. And I feel like only now I have a little bit of more confidence because, you know, the brand is three years old and we have proven you know that you know numbers and and product like efficacy and all of that stuff like we are in different retailers now so like that gives credibility you know like we are at revolve we are at nordstrom so like that gives credibility but until we got to that point it's just like i always tell nicole my partner i'm like it's just a humiliation process you're just like humiliating yourself you're always like okay can you give me some money like this is my idea and you're just always in that process of like begging which honestly makes you stronger like there is a part of it that I appreciate I'm like in the beginning I used to be like so afraid to like go in and like now I speak with my confidence about the brand and like what we're doing and everything so like also that like helps it helped me in a way too yeah I feel like also as a model you get rejected a lot because you're constantly being put up for campaigns and you're being told no and it's based on solely what you look like which I feel like builds really strong skin because you're like I'm just being told no based on what I look like not even what I think or what I can do so I feel like in some weird way although you didn't come into this with like a crazy degree background or like experience you did come into it with a lot of rejection therapy which is I think half the battle of being a really successful entrepreneur.

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25:23I shop anywhere else.

25:27You haven't notoriously done a lot of podcasts, which I love because I just feel like people are getting to know you. But one of the things that you did say that went a little viral was big audiences don't equate to big sales. What do you mean by that? I don't know. I think for our brands, I obviously have a lot of friends in the industry because of my modeling career. And I think that like sometimes even myself, like when I post about the brands, there is sometimes not that many sales as like a small influencer you know like I think we underestimate how much like smaller influencer or a person that have a very faithful following can do for your brand and I think that that's have been for us like a proven you know concept and over and over again like the little you know influencer in the middle of the U.S.

26:17that makes a video that's so genuine that like that ones is the one that converts for us so i think that that has been always our our memo now to just like not look for like let's not like go out and like pay celebrities or like the word of mouth is so much more important it's so special and i think even though like we've been growing slowly that's what made us grow it's like the word of mouth is people like talking about the brand and like slowly you see your sales like going up it's not because like one person posts and it's like okay done yeah but I have to ask about her because I love her Haley Bieber she posted last week I saw and I was prepping for this interview and I was like holy shit this is Haley Bieber's favorite lymphatic drainage brand like I am influenced by Haley Bieber and what she does me too are do you notice like they call it like the halo effect right like Do you notice a halo effect of things that move in the business when someone like Haley does post so obviously about your brand?