Before I get into Jamie's story, I share something persona... a season in my life I don't talk about much. A relationship that slowly took everything from me, and the moment someone laughed in my face when I said I wanted to get into real estate. I left. Got my license. Became rookie of the year. And I think about that laugh every time I come across a founder who had their own version of it.

Jamie Kern Lima is the co-founder of IT Cosmetics, the brand she started in her living room, built into the number one prestige cosmetics brand in America, and sold to L'Oréal for $1.2 billion. She became the first female CEO in L'Oréal's 108-year history. But this episode isn't about the billion dollars. It's about a rental car in a parking lot outside Philadelphia, a woman with under a thousand dollars to her name, and a decision she made before she ever walked through that door. A male investor told her nobody would buy makeup from someone who looked like her. QVC said no for two years. Sephora said no for six. And when she finally got her shot, ten minutes on live television, she wiped her makeup off on camera and showed the world exactly who she was. Everything sold out before the segment ended. This one is about what it means to stop covering up the thing you think disqualifies you and let it be the very thing that builds everything.

Sources & Disclaimer

• Jamie Kern Lima — Believe IT: How to Go from Underestimated to Unstoppable (Harper Collins, 2021)
• Jamie Kern Lima — Worthy: How to Believe You Are Enough and Transform Your Life (2024)
• Columbia Business School — The IT Factor (August 2025)
• Boca Raton Observer — Making It Big (August 2021)
• Foundr — Jamie Kern Lima Used 10 Minutes to Create a Billion-Dollar Business
• CNBC — IT Cosmetics Jamie Kern Lima: I Lived Completely Burnt Out for Almost a Decade (March 2021)
• Femfounded — IT Cosmetics: Rejected Everywhere, Sold for $1.2B
• Wikipedia — Jamie Kern Lima entry

All facts shared in this episode are based on information available at the time of recording. Any personal reflections, interpretations, or opinions are my own. If anything is found to be inaccurate, I'm happy to issue a correction.