Start Right Here! Podcast

Ron Robinson's mother wanted all of her sons to be doctors. Ron, who is now the Founder and CEO of BeautyStat Cosmetics, went as far as attending medical school before he decided it wasn't for him. Putting his background in chemistry to work he landed a job at Clinique and one of the first products he helped to formulate was their Turnaround products. From there he moved to mass brand Revlon and later Avon. Each job brought him closer to understanding the consumer.

During the early days of social media, Ron saw a gap in the market and created the first iteration of BeautyStat which was a beauty community where he and a team of experts gave insider information about products and trends. But the stability of Vitamin C was a constant question he was asked about as an expert. He and a former colleague decided to work on a side project where they set out to stabilize this sought after ingredient and BeautyStat Cosmetics was born.

Ron explains how his hero product, Universal C Skin Refiner, has become the darling of not only editors, racking up numerous awards, as well as consumers. How in just one year, the line has expanded both the products it offers and the outlets through which it is available. And how Covid-19 and the beauty industry's response has impacted his business.

Ron explains that his position as a cosmetic chemist has made him view the clean beauty movement differently, why it is important for him to support BIPOC women in beauty and what types of individuals make the best entrepreneurs.

Dixie Lincoln-Nichols learned about natural beauty ingredients at about five-years-old from her grandmother in Trinidad. But accessing that knowledge came much late, following a brief career as a biology teacher. After a diagnosis of uterine fibroids and an encounter with an insensitive doctor, Dixie started exploring ways to heal herself naturally. She saw an opportunity to bring toxicant-free beauty, wellness, and home products to a multicultural audience. She launched Inside Outer Beauty Market a brick and mortar store which contains products that have been carefully curated by her and her team. She explains that the marketing of clean beauty has created a perception that it is for an affluent white customer, but points out that the ingredients in many of the products are the same ones her grandmother used. An expresses concerns about the ingredients in beauty products marketed to Black women in particular. Dixie gives us insight into how she sources and tests products and how she uses her background as an educator to teach her customers about toxicant-free beauty and wellness.

We discuss how the mind/body connection factors into beauty and wellness and how she uses her training as a Qi Gong instructor as part of a holistic approach to beauty and wellness.

Patrice Yursik was already a pint-size beauty aficionado at 8-years-old when she worked at a boutique in her native Trinidad. But writing also called her and eventually she was able to merge her two interests when she launched one of the first natural hair beauty blogs, Afrobella, in 2006. Patrice explains how she not only learned tech to build her blog but how she built a community pre-Twitter and IG.

Patrice explains how she leveraged the business opportunities that came her way, and how she felt about the changes in the industry once influencers became the preference. She points out the difference between having influence and being a photo-a-day influencer, why boundaries became essential for her and how she has chosen to evolve both herself and her brand. She shares how she is back to writing for media outlets like Zora, Food & Wine, and Reader's Digest, as well as why she launched her own copywriting business.

Meloney Moore, associate chair of The Business of Beauty and Fragrance department at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), joins this week's podcast to discuss how leveraged her experiences at fashion brand Liz Claiborne, to Toys 'R Us, to spirits company Diageo, to break into beauty at the Estee Lauder Companies. She tells us why global marketing is a lot like being the Secretary of State. We discuss how her interest in education, which started as a volunteer pursuit, morphed into a full-time SCAD role. Meloney tells us how she helped build the curriculum and why she is excited about the young professionals she's preparing to enter the industry.

Ni'Kita Wilson has always loved science. She thought she'd become a doctor, but a summer program where she got to shadow MDs as she studied for the MCATs made her realize she didn't have the passion for it. But she stayed with science and when into forensics straight out of college, Quickly realizing that this was the wrong job for her, Ni'Kita started looking for other work and stumbled upon cosmetic chemistry when she landed a job at a consulting company that formulated in every category of beauty and personal care.

She found her home and never looked back. Ni'Kita explains how she mastered her craft, how a mentor encouraged her to go beyond the bench, and why it's her goal to formulate products that impress her peers as well as beauty editors. Now working in product development for a contract manufacturer, Ni'Kita explains why beauty brands large and small use their services, the timeline for a product launch, and why every product, even those created by kitchen chemists should be safety tested.

Finally, Ni'Kita discusses why she believes that Black women are overlooked by the beauty industry, why she created her line, and why empowering her customers takes precedent over products.

Plus, she shares the smartest way to network and why your reputation is a valuable currency that you shouldn't overlook.

Tomasina aka "Tommy" Boone thought she was going to be a broadcast journalist but ended up becoming a hospital auditor instead after graduating college. When she found her first job in advertising sales at The Nation, she found a more compelling use for her analytical skills. But it was when she began working at Jet that beauty became part of her career. Tommy found her niche and went on to roles at Hype Hair and Essence.

When she moved abroad 13 years ago, Tommy unexpectantly became an entrepreneur, when she purchased a beauty e-commerce business afropuffs.au and has since added a brick-and-mortar business, Curls and Natural Hair, a salon and boutique. Tommy tells us about entrepreneurship, the differences in the natural and curly hair movement, and the things to consider if you want to live and work abroad.

If it weren't for an injury she sustained, Andrea Fairweather would have been a performer. But her current business, Fairweather Faces, the mobile beauty service platform, started more than 20 years ago, was an idea she put together for one of her college classes. After the class was over, her professor suggested she pursued the idea. Before she embarked on that adventure, she first learned makeup artistry and worked for many well-known brands, including Clinique and Bobbi Brown.

In addition to the mobile services, Andrea shares how she developed a makeup application teaching system that has been awarded several patents and how her product line came to fruition.

She also shares how a telephone call to fill in for someone at the last minute led to her becoming a key makeup artist for "Good Morning America." In addition, Andrea shares how the pandemic has impacted her business, and how her "Sip & Shop" show on Instagram helps her stay connected with the community she's built.

Kim Roxie spent hours studying the piano, but although she didn't make music her career, she has called on that discipline in her work as a beauty entrepreneur. Kim founded Lamik Beauty, a clean beauty brand for women of color, and opened her first store in Houston, TX, shortly after graduating from college. With the odds stacked against her, Kim relied on her ability to connect with women, her belief in a new category of beauty, and her faith to succeed. But then her dream expanded and decided that reaching more women required her to change her business model from brick and mortar to e-commerce, incorporate technology, and learn a new way of business. Find out how Kim relied on her crazy faith to build Lamik and chart its new path.

If you asked Ukachi Anonyuo about pursuing a career in the beauty industry as she was entering college, she would have explained that she was headed for a career playing basketball. But a year later, she was entrenched in Industrial Engineering as her major. As graduation approached, she was determined to get a job and saw a posting for a position at Del Labs. She's been hooked on the beauty industry ever since. Ukachi will explain how she landed her first job in packaging, why the fit, form, and function of a product's packaging is critical, why maintaining relationships is essential, the difference between working on mass and prestige brands, and how her current role, which focuses on innovation continues to fuel her career growth. Learn that and so much more on this week's episode.

On this episode, guest Kelila Venson talks about her journey on the digital side of beauty. She always wanted to work in the industry but her original plan was to become a cosmetic chemist (she was attending Society of Cosmetic Chemist meetings as a teen). But while studying at Northwestern she found little joy in pursuing that major and more in studying Spanish and marketing. Kelila explains how an internship after graduation at the legendary brand Erno Laszlo, set her on her current path. She grew from an intern to a role that married marketing and operations. Since then she has worked in every vertical of beauty as well as on the agency side evolving in her roles as digital marketing, direct-to-consumer sales become increasingly important. Learn all of this and more about Kelila's journey on this episode.