Bobbi Brown | Beauty Inside & Out

0:07Welcome to the Talks at Google Podcast, where great minds meet. I'm Emma, bringing you this episode with Bobbi Brown, beauty industry titan, world-renowned makeup artist, and author. Toxic Google brings the world's most influential thinkers, creators, makers, and doers all to one place. You can watch every episode at youtube.com slash toxicgoogle. As a professional makeup artist, Bobbi created 10 simple lipsticks that evolved into a global beauty empire. She's written nine beauty and wellness books and is a New York Times bestselling author. Since leaving her billion-dollar company, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, in October 2016, she has launched Beauty Evolution, LLC, and was certified as a health coach through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.

0:58Bobbi joins Google to discuss her entrepreneurial career and her beauty philosophy. The secret to beauty is simple. Be who you are. Originally published in August 2020, here is Bobbi Brown, beauty inside and out.

1:24Hi, Bobbi. I have to say I'm beyond excited and super honored to be hosting you at Google today. Thank you for making the time to join us. My pleasure. Happy to be here. Barbie, now you've made a life out of the beauty industry. Can you tell me where it really started? I've always loved beauty, and I used to watch my mother put her makeup on, and I was always in awe how just a little bit made her look so much more glamorous. And when it was time for me to go to college, I had no clue what I wanted to do, and my mother helped me figure out that I had this passion for makeup. and I went to Emerson College and I studied theatrical makeup.

2:07No, they didn't have a program. I was able to create my own. Now I know that's called being an entrepreneur. Honestly, that's really where I started. And then I started just figuring things out right after college. And how did the makeup even start? So what was it about makeup that you enjoyed? Well, I just love the way it transformed you. And I even knew when I played with my mom, makeup and used it, I instantly felt prettier. I felt better. And then I would make up my friends. I made up my dog, even my doll. When I went to college and I was able to use makeup to create characters for the theater, for television, I just honestly, I just fell in love with everything from the textures to what I actually saw happen and how I was able to help the actors transform into the character.

3:03And then when I started doing it in the beauty world, I saw a similar thing, transforming people. And that's something I was always interested in. So probably when you started with makeup, it was the 80s. And the trend was the bright makeup, the bright lipstick. And you came up with the natural makeup, the no makeup makeup, at a time when people didn't know who you were. How did that feel, like taking the trend, going against the trend? Well, I never tried to be a rule breaker, and it's almost like I was the opposite. Here were all these rules of contouring and multicolor and foundation to change the color of your skin, and I just could never make anyone look pretty.

3:50And I just realized that the girls were so pretty without all that makeup on, I would use makeup just to enhance and to look suntan. And slowly it started picking up and people started hiring me because they wanted the look. Certain photographers didn't want that overdone look. They wanted my style. So I always tried to work with people that understood my aesthetic. Can you tell me about, I know you started with your 10 lipsticks, but how did it start? So you thought you want a new color and then what? Well, I was always fixing the makeup that was in my kit. You know, I couldn't afford a lot of makeup back then.

4:28I would buy all these different things and I'd buy things from the health food store. I'd buy things from the department store and I could never get the foundation to match the skin. I could never get blush that didn't have to be blended. And I would lipstick. I hated the look and the feel of overdone lipstick. So I used to mix and blend a taupe eye pencil, a little bit of a pinky blush and a little Vaseline to make a lip that looked like my lip color. And one day I was at a shoot and I met a chemist and he had made this range of lip gloss for the for the drugstore he was at. And I told him I had an idea.

5:05I wanted to make lipstick that looked like people's lips. And he made it for me. And how was it to sell it then? Because people weren't looking for the natural lip lipstick. Well, I also wasn't, I never thought I would have a cosmetics line. I just made these lipsticks and I thought, wow, people would like these. I bet the models would like them. I bet my friends would like them. So I started making them with him and selling them out of my house. And I learned because I was a makeup artist that all of us women have different color lips. It's not even about skin color. It's your different lips.

5:39You could be a woman of color and have clear pink lips. You could be a white woman and have really dark lips. So you've got to find a lipstick that actually looks like your lip color. And I discovered that early on. And I made a range of 10 lipsticks, started selling them out of my house. And then about a year later, and I was a working makeup artist. I had just had my first baby. I was commuting to New York. And I was at a party. And I met this woman. And I said, what do you do? She said, I'm a cosmetics buyer at Bergdorf Goodman. I said, oh, I have a line of lipstick. And that's how I got into Bergdorf Goodman.

6:17And I'm not kidding. And how did you decide then to like this was a time now to sell and go work with a corporate when you had started something on your own? I just never thought of not doing it. I thought, wow, this is so interesting. This is so cool. This is a I never even said things like this is a great opportunity. That was not what my mind was. I just thought, oh, this makes sense. Here's this fancy department store that I couldn't afford to shop in at the time, by the way. To be able to sell the lipsticks was so awesome. I never thought about next steps. I did it. We opened. We thought we'd sell 100 the first month.

6:59We sold 100 the first day. So buzz started happening. I didn't know what buzz was. I didn't know what PR was. I didn't know what marketing was, but it all just started happening. And then after a few months, people said, well, I love this lipstick. I need lip pencils. And I'm like, oh, pencils. Now I got to find out where to do those. And that's how the company started. And then how did you, I guess when you started with your chemist with the 10 colors, is it the same chemist now making your lip pencils too? Or how did that move from there? No, I learned very early on that this great chemist that helped me create these lipsticks was wonderful.

7:40But if I needed to scale and to work on the price point and work on the profit and work on everything, I needed a different model. Like our original partnership, he made the lipsticks. We sold them for$50 and we each got$750. Yeah. So I have no idea what it cost us to make. I don't know anything. It was time to get a little more professional when I got into Bergdorf Goodman. And then you also mentioned when you first started off, you were a young mom. This was something you started almost as a hobby and a passion. Tell me a little bit about that. God, it's so crazy. I remember being pregnant with my son, who's now 30 years old.

8:23I had just started this idea for the lipsticks. I somehow did this before he was born. So when he was born, I'd be on the phone from my suburban home in New Jersey. And no one admitted they lived in the suburbs back then in the fashion industry. And I'd be on the phone talking to editors, telling them about this makeup and giving them tips. And my son would be either crying or throwing up on me. You know, back then we had luckily there was no Zoom or no picture. It was it was very comical me talking about how this is how I fix my makeup and these are the tips. And here's this baby like, you know, hanging on me.

9:04And, you know, somehow somehow it works. And, you know, it wasn't easy. Anyone that has young kids know that, you know, I have three sons. So during the different parts of my career, I had babies. Thank goodness, because I love being a mom even more than I love being an entrepreneur. And then did you start this with somebody? So when you came up with the lipstick idea, initially it was with the Kevist where you shared profits, but what happened after that? Well, I'm really lucky because my husband is an amazing businessman and, you know, I am an entrepreneur, but I'm creative. I'm a visionary, but I'm not a business person.

9:44So lucky for me, I had someone that was able to do things that I was not capable of. So I started with my husband. we somehow decided to form a partnership with another couple she worked at a big PR agency and he was already in cosmetics so we formed a partnership and that's how we launched Bobby Brown Professional Cosmetics is what it was called in the beginning and then you kept the name Bobby Brown but then you sold the company okay how was yes we sold the company I can barely believe it was that quick, but four and a half years after we founded it and we sold it to Estee Lauder and I stayed an employee for 22 years.

10:29And what was that like being suddenly now you have your own company, you're running the show and then now 20 years in a corporate scenario, what was that Well, it's like landing on the moon or Mars. All of this creative makeup artist working in photo studios that commuted home to my baby and then my second baby. And all of a sudden I had to go to a fancy building with corporate people sitting in these meetings. I had never been in a professional corporate situation before. So it was like it was a little deer in the headlights. In the beginning, it worked really well. They all thought I was, you know, interesting.

11:16They thought I was interesting. And, you know, I had I certainly had my early supporters there and I was able to really lead and push the company where I believed it needed to go. I would say for 20 of the years, 20 to 21 in the last year or so was like pushing a horse up a hill. It was not easy. Yeah. And so I left. Yeah. So Bobby, I realize now that you don't associate with the Bobby Brown brand anymore, even though it has your theme. So how was that an easy decision? Tell me a little bit about that decision. So you're with the company now for 20 plus years. How do you know it's the right time to move out of that?

11:59Well, you can imagine I complained a lot. You know, people in my circle. And one day I was walking in Colorado and my aunt Alice, who's 89 years old, she said to me, Bobby, it's time. Every time I talk to you, all I do is hear you complain and you tell me you think you could fix it. I don't think you could fix this. And she's the most optimistic person I know. And I said, you're right. And then that October, I left. And it was a hard decision. It wasn't easy. And it was a very interesting transition. Yeah. And then, Bobby, I'm thinking about this. You have a billion dollar empire, Bobby Brown.

12:43You leave that, you are 60 plus. And now you're starting out on like more entrepreneurs. That's why I called you a serial entrepreneur. Is this the right time? Well, funny, when I left, my birthday's in April. So when I left the company in October, I was 59. Okay. So how many women at 59 years old, you know, they retire. I had no idea if I was going to start a new company. I didn't know anything. When I left the brand, I did, it was a very good gift. I had my ninth book to promote, which is called Beauty from the Inside Out. So that allowed me to spend six or eight months going on talk shows, doing Google talks, doing all these new things that when I was busy at Bobby Brown Cosmetics, I wasn't able to do.

13:38I've been fascinated by younger people, the new world, different ways to reach people. And I had an opportunity to, you know, to podcast and to do everything. You know, I was the first person that did a blog when no one knew what a blog was. I did, you know, I was on a beauty editor of the Today Show, the first chance I was able to push myself to. And, you know, I was the editor in chief of Yahoo Beauty, creating a beauty magazine. So I'm someone that likes to do things that I have no idea how to do and just figure it out. And so leaving the company, I realized there's no one to tell me no. There's no one to say you can't do this.

14:20So I just continue to do what I do, which is to reach out, talk to people, meet new people. It was so much fun. I hadn't had lunch with people in, you know, 10 years. It was for no reason. It was really fun. and Bobby whenever I read about you I hear about you I notice a lot of your success is just from being nice to people or connecting with people or talking to people I know you're I read about how you became a beauty editor at the Today Show would you mind sharing that story that's another example of just connecting with people which I really like yeah well I am a people person and I I was promoting my first makeup book and I was it was my last, last visit to a department store.

15:07I was at Neiman Marcus in Florida. And after I finished my talk, no one was listening to me. I'll never forget it. And someone had a question. I walked back to the room. There was a woman. She must have been four feet ten. And she said, you know, you're terrific. She asked me a makeup question. I answered her and she said, I've seen you on the Today Show. I had been on once. And I said, yeah, I love the Today Show. She said, if you could do anything that you'd want to do that you haven't done, what would you like to do? And it popped in my head. I said, I'd like to be the beauty editor of the Today Show.

15:41She said, honey, Jeff Zucker, who was the executive assistant, was her grandson. She said, I'm going to call Jeff. And that Monday I became the beauty editor of the Today Show. for 14 years yes i love that story when i heard it so i had to make sure people listening today got a chance to hear that too if they hadn't so thank you for sharing that but we i read about your updates and i know you you strongly believe in supporting other women empowering other women what advice do you have for your listeners here men and women listening to you on how we in our corporate world here support other women?

16:18What should we be doing? Well, you should be doing everything that hopefully your parents taught you to do and taught you to be, which is be kind, be someone that listens, because it's not, you know, when I was growing up, we were taught be nice to everyone because you never know who you're going to meet on the way down. And you know what, that's not the right information. It's Be nice to everyone because you never know what people are going through. So I think that, you know, I'd like to tell everybody in the world right now, it's a tough time right now. Just be kind and care and ask questions.

16:53And, A, you never know what's going to come out of it, a friendship or someone knows someone, not because you're looking for it, but because if you're nice and kind and open. And guess what? How good does it feel to give someone, like, random acts of kindness, you know? Some people are going through something really badly, and you could be the person that basically says, you know, sorry, that's my dog. Biggie, good girl. I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine. But you want to make sure that you're nice to people because it's human kindness, and you get a lot more back in life if you are kind to other people and they're kind to you.

17:36So, Bobby, also through your other philosophy around beauty as a whole, and that's what you're doing now. So you're a wellness entrepreneur. And can you talk a little bit about Evolution 18 and your new products? Sure. After I left the brand, I promoted Beauty from the Inside Out, the book I'm most proud of. I actually went back to school and got my degree as a health coach from Institute of Integrative Nutrition. and it just really led me on, you know, this path that is, by the way, it's been my passion. You know, I always think I could, I always thought I could look better, but now I think I could feel better.

18:14And it's not just about age. And there's so many things that we go through that if we just pay attention and make changes, you will feel a lot better. So when I was promoting the book, I met, actually a QVC called and said, what would you like to sell? We'd like you to sell anything you want. And I was like, I don't know what I'm choose. I don't know. I couldn't figure it out. And I said, you know what? I really care about wellness. I think I could create a wellness brand. And they said, all right, great. Go create one. And I met a chemist who has a manufacturing site and I created Evolution 18, which are supplements.

18:55And I say that because you can't follow an unhealthy diet, take a supplement and think you're going to feel good. And so a lot of the products are anything that will help your skin, your nails, your hair, and your gut, you know, all things that we go through. There's a vanilla collagen, which is my favorite, that has hyaluronic acid and magnesium that calms you down, but also gets into your joints and muscles and it's good for your skin and tastes really good and good ingredients. So I really love being part of this wellness world. And I think a lot of people out there have to really understand it's not as much about how you look, but it's about how you feel.

19:38And if you feel good, you look better. If there were only three things that I would want to change tomorrow, or anybody listening to you, what would be that three things of advice from you? I would say, you know, first of all, know that anything that that takes time is going to work. There's nothing quick. You could start any cleanse, any crazy diet, I guarantee in two weeks, you're not going to be on it. So it's a small steps. So the little changes, the first one is make sure you drink enough water. it's I cannot, you know, press that enough. I try to drink and I've been not very good this week, you know, eight glasses a day.

20:18Sometimes I put, you know, something in it. So it tastes better, but night and day, if you're drinking the water, so hydrate number one, number two, increase how many vegetables and plants you eat. So things that grow in the ground are so good for you. Things that are made in a plant, not so good for you. So try to eat as many things that grow in the ground. Number three is just to move your body. I'm not saying go take kickboxing or do something strenuous. Go do something. You could walk. You could do yoga classes. There's even 10-minute Peloton strength classes. There's things that you could fit into your life.

20:57So those are the three things and just to make them part of your habits. Okay. Thank you for sharing that. And then, Robbie, what advice would you have for somebody who's listening to you and comes to you, I'm sure a lot of people do. I want to start a new company. I don't know if I have the financial bandwidth for it. Where do I begin? Do I go looking for a co-founder? Do I look for funding? How do I even know if it's the right idea that I should be investing money or time in? Well, first of all, when people call me up or come to me or stop me and say, I have a question, I say, okay. And they say, I want to start my own company.

21:35And I say, okay. And that's the end of the conversation. You don't just start your own company. You have an idea. And what is your idea? And whatever idea you have, you have to make sure it could come to fruition. If it's a product, you can't tell someone about the idea. You have to show them the product. And I think it makes no sense for someone to invest and ask people to lend them money to create something that they don't know is actually going to work. So there's ways to get products made to show someone. There are certainly ways to ask people in your network if they like your idea, if they like the products.

22:19So you have to do your market research. That doesn't mean you have to hire a market research firm. You have to ask around. And if you do have something, test it before you go big scale, test it. And sometimes this is your side hustle. You need your job because you have to pay your rent. So you have to be practical. And with social media, you don't need to hire big PR agencies. You could do things yourself until you need to scale. But you only need to scale when you have something that you know is scalable. Okay. And then, Bobbi, what advice would you have for parents? and maybe I'm being a little selfish here with a teenager daughter at home on how do I make sure I'm teaching her beauty in the right way and the way you think about it, which I mostly think is the right way.

23:10It's just not external, but a whole beauty. Well, I am a mother of three sons. I've written two books for teenage girls. So I've done my homework. I honestly, you know, I could say now that my kids are 30, 28 and 22. two, most of the things that they have learned, I didn't necessarily teach them, but they actually watched. So they learn a lot by observing. So certainly, I would say, make sure your daughter is a good person. Make sure she has very good health and wellness and hygiene habits, which I'm sure you have taught her that. And make sure she knows how to to to understand passion, because I think a lot of kids are so pushed by their parents to get ahead, get ahead, get ahead.

24:03But you know what? You don't want to spend, you know, 10 years in a job that you're not happy with. So there's a way to figure out how to make money with your passion. OK, thank you. I could keep going on, but I know there are some great questions here coming in write a comment. So I'm going to turn to them. There's a question here from Krista. Krista wants to know, what was the experience teaching a course in masterclass? Where did you learn about yourself and your company through the process and aftermath of the release? Oh my God, it was one of the most epic things I have ever done in my entire career.

24:40I have never seen a better, bigger infrastructure than masterclass. So dedicated, you know, just so involved. And I literally poured everything in my heart out there. And we spent five days in a studio in Montclair, New Jersey, where I live, shooting it. Didn't know what I just had to literally give it up and trust the process because you don't know what's going to happen. And it was very intense seeing the first dailies you could imagine. But I'm so proud that I was the first and the only beauty makeup artist to teach the course. And, you know, hopefully it'll be a gift for my grandchildren to have it on film.

25:20And I still get really great comments on my social media. So I know people have learned a lot. It was an amazing experience. And what no one really knows is right before the day before I started Masterclass, we hosted a family of 20 people from the Bahamas that lost their house in the hurricane and didn't know them. And they arrived at my house the night before. It was an intense week. There's another question here from Stephanie. She says, long time fan of your lips. Actually, the first lipstick she's saying was Ruby 10. Do you remember that, Bobby? I do. I do. Okay. And she wants to know how the company is changing with the rise of tech in beauty and makeup.

26:04Well, I can't really talk about... I was going to say another company. So maybe just a makeup industry. Right. Yeah. I mean, I've not been involved in anything Bobby Brown in four years. But I think that there have been so many changes since I launched the company, for sure. And I just remember when YouTube, you know, kind of came on and all these influencers, we didn't even know what an influencer was then, started doing makeup tutorials. And they didn't have to be experts. They just happened to be passionate makeup artists showing different things. You know, it was a little overwhelming when it first happened.

26:41And, you know, certainly most of the makeup on YouTube were things that were not my aesthetic. But, you know, I experimented and tried to hop in that. And certainly there's so much technology that, you know, is infiltrated the makeup industry. I don't really understand all of them. I don't understand how you can go and put your colors on. And all of a sudden there's a photo of you and the colors are on your face. It always seems not authentic and not real to me, but I know a lot of companies do use it. There's a question here from Titania. She's saying, thinking about the life of your company from launch till now, is there anything in particular that you would have done differently looking back?

27:26That was going to be one of my questions, too, so I'm glad you've covered it. Thank you. Well, I mean, which company? I've done so many different things. If it was the beauty company, I'm not part of it. But yes, I could easily, which I'm not going to even spend my time doing, I could easily go back and tell you the different things I would have done differently. But, you know, I wasn't in charge, which is one of the reasons I left. And certainly my wellness brand, we launched Evolution 18 with literally three people. And now I think we might have eight. We are, again, self-funded. I wouldn't change anything, but I probably would have done a few things differently.