0:05

Welcome to Made by Women by the Seneca

0:07

Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio.

0:11

At a moment when businesses face some of the biggest

0:14

challenges in recent history, we bring you

0:16

inspiring stories, practical

0:18

insights, and shared learnings to

0:20

help you successfully navigate in today's environment.

0:25

I'm Sharon Bowen, and thanks so much for joining

0:27

us today. You would think

0:29

that the beauty industry would have thought

0:31

of everything by now, but think

0:34

again to Leslie

0:36

and Laurie King, co founders of

0:38

Care Beauty, or shaking things up

0:41

with a skin care line that's taking

0:43

a new approach to aging and beauty.

0:46

Care Beauty is spelled c

0:49

A I R E. Because,

0:51

as Laura and so Less say, they're

0:53

putting the eye in Care, their

0:57

independent beauty brand up as what

0:59

they just i as hormone

1:01

defying products designed specifically

1:04

for women over forty. It's

1:06

a market that's been neglected for too

1:09

long. Today I'll

1:11

be talking with Celeste and Laurie about

1:13

their unexpected path to founding

1:15

this company and their struggles

1:18

and successes along the way.

1:20

Enjoy my conversation with Lori King

1:23

and Celesslie, co founders

1:25

of Care Beauty.

1:30

Well welcome, Celeste and Laurie tell

1:33

us about Care and what sets

1:35

it apart from other skin care brands.

1:38

Well, thank you Sharon for having

1:40

us and for having

1:42

as share a lot about Care beauty

1:45

and what this brand means for us,

1:47

for Celeste and I and we

1:49

created Care because we knew that

1:51

there was a need for skin care for

1:54

women over forty who are experiencing,

1:58

you know, deteriorating skin um

2:01

due to or drastically changing skin

2:03

due to hormone decline in menopause.

2:06

And we have decided that

2:09

these women there are seven thousand

2:11

of them that enter menopause every

2:13

day, whether it's the pre

2:16

menopause phase all the way to the post

2:18

menopause space, that they don't

2:20

have special can care

2:22

for them. That is age empowering.

2:24

The whole message out there is anti

2:27

aging and most of those

2:29

products nine percent

2:31

of them actually only

2:33

work on the surface of skin

2:36

and hair. Beauty goes much deeper

2:38

than that deep beauty.

2:41

That's great. Now I understand

2:44

that Kia specializes in

2:46

something called defiance

2:49

science. What does that mean?

2:52

We came up with the phrase defiance science

2:55

for two reasons. Number

2:57

one, we're literally defying what

3:00

happens with hormone change and

3:03

I think I need to explain for a second what this

3:05

means when you get older.

3:07

It actually starts at thirty, by the way, for men

3:09

and women, but for women it gets

3:11

the idea of hormone decline accelerates

3:14

around forty. Specifically, it

3:16

means that estrogen and progesterone

3:18

production itself declined,

3:21

so you've got less estrogen and progesterone running

3:23

around your body, and it affects

3:25

all kinds of body processes, because that's

3:27

what hormones do. Hormones are like the green lights

3:29

of the body, and they turn on and

3:31

turn off everything from hunger

3:34

to desire, your libido, to

3:37

sleep, and and it also impacts

3:40

directly sell production. So when

3:43

you have fewer hormones, you literally,

3:45

on a daily basis make your

3:47

skin cells. And at first in

3:50

your thirties, it's not so noticeable because

3:52

you've only lost about one percent a year

3:55

of your hormone production. But around

3:58

when you start to enter what called peri

4:01

menopause or pre menopause for

4:03

a woman, the rate of decline doubles

4:06

every single year. So, as

4:08

we all know from math, when you keep

4:10

losing two percent a year, it's obviously a lot

4:12

more serious than one, and then

4:14

when you get to what's you know, technical menopause,

4:17

and that's the year that you you stop your period.

4:20

You actually, for the first three years

4:22

post menopause lose of

4:25

your collagen, carlonic acid,

4:28

and a lasting production, and those are your key skin

4:30

building blocks. So all of a sudden, it's

4:32

like you got hit by freight train. And

4:34

it's terribly ridiculous that

4:36

the skin care industry, knowing this,

4:38

has deliberately ignored it. So

4:41

that's what we have gone after. We're defying

4:45

the skin aging that is

4:47

caused by hormone decline, and that's why

4:49

we call it defiant science. It sounds

4:51

like I could have used you guys about twenty years ago,

4:53

but I'm using you now and living it. So

4:56

but before before we

4:58

get too far ahead, though, um,

5:00

I'd like to start with your personal backgrounds.

5:03

Laura, you started a sandwich business

5:06

and celest you help your school

5:08

store with a product. Did

5:11

you always want to start your own company?

5:13

Was there something else in your path that

5:16

led you to where you are today? You

5:18

know, it's it's very interesting that an

5:21

elementary school experience

5:24

that actually spark an entrepreneurial

5:26

interest, and that's what this very dynamic

5:29

elementary school did for me in East

5:31

Dart, New Jersey, and because

5:34

of that, I always had

5:36

in the back of my mind that

5:39

I wanted to have my own business.

5:41

Even when I applied to UM get

5:43

my m b A. I applied for entrepreneurship

5:46

and one of the things that I

5:49

needed was a big boost

5:51

of confidence. And what I

5:54

mean by that is just sort of knowing

5:56

that I could do this, I could bring all my knowledge

5:58

forth and create a company on my own.

6:01

So when Celessa and I came together, yes,

6:03

it was very much a building

6:07

of all of these ideas and sparks

6:09

of creativity and friends asking

6:12

us for something better. That truly

6:14

brought us together. And I

6:16

said, it's tine to do this,

6:19

and that confidence is now fully

6:21

here and I'm embracing it and loving

6:24

it. And what about you, Celist. You

6:26

know, it's so funny that we had this parallel

6:28

experience. And I love the way that Laurie just said

6:30

that her elementary school embraced her.

6:33

I moved from one school

6:35

to another in fifth grade and I

6:37

went to this very seventies sort

6:40

of post hippie dippie. It was an open

6:42

planned school and I'll

6:44

never forget that Mrs Sober in the fifth

6:46

grade, she was my champion before I knew

6:48

there was such a thing as a champion. And

6:51

she made me a school crossing guard, and

6:53

she made me the head of the school store, and she did

6:55

all these things. I never asked. I didn't

6:57

even understand the value of it. But I

6:59

can tell you, Sharon, it was a lot of fun.

7:02

And for me, a shy Asian

7:04

American person who didn't know

7:07

anybody, it was a wonderful way

7:09

to just meet people and and then

7:11

to have this moment where by accident

7:14

we found or I found this wacky gum

7:16

eraser that became this this hysteria

7:20

um and everybody had to have and I became instantly

7:22

popular. Well, you know what, that was a wonderful thing.

7:25

So yes, maybe I do think that impacted

7:28

the whole idea of the value of

7:30

of having your own business and what that could

7:32

bring to your life. I think, you

7:34

know, I've read someplace that your

7:37

competence comes at a really early age,

7:39

and it sounds like you both were set

7:41

up to succeed, which is really great. Another

7:45

really interesting thing about buff of your backgrounds

7:48

is that you had experience in finance,

7:51

Um, what would it like transitioning

7:53

into the beauty industry with that kind

7:56

of background. You

7:58

know, it's very interesting because when

8:00

I I started in finance with

8:03

pharmaceutical company

8:05

and I needed

8:07

to pay off my business school loans.

8:09

So I actually did a few things

8:11

that were entrepreneurial at the time. One

8:13

of them was starting a jewelry business.

8:16

And I designed jewelry and sold it at the

8:18

big museums outside

8:20

here in New York City, and I sold

8:22

it to all sorts of stores

8:24

and art galleries. So what

8:27

that did for me was actually

8:29

helped me to name a business

8:31

a brand it called. It was called to Beat

8:34

or not to Beat. It allowed

8:36

me to understand my pan l top

8:38

to bottom, and um,

8:41

I began to understand my consumers. So transitioning

8:43

into the beauty industry, when I

8:45

interviewed with Elizabeth Arden, it was a

8:48

perfect bit because

8:50

I got to work with these

8:53

amazing celebrities are a Loggerfeld

8:55

and Elizabeth Taylor and create these

8:58

fragrances for them. But happens

9:00

in brand marketing is that you're

9:02

actually running a

9:05

mini business. You're coordinating

9:07

people, you have multiple

9:10

different avenues, were getting things

9:12

done from financed operations to

9:14

creative photography, etcetera.

9:16

And so for me it was

9:19

a it was a challenging

9:21

transition because I had to stay up

9:24

until well past midnight to

9:26

learn on the go brand marketing,

9:28

but it was also thrilling. It's

9:30

great enough about you, Cels. I don't

9:33

have nearly as interesting a story for

9:35

me. It happened by accident, Sharon. I mean, I

9:39

worked at Lehman Brothers in Tokyo, and quite

9:41

honestly, I hated it. I could

9:43

not deal with the investment banking hours, and

9:46

I felt very uncomfortable

9:49

as a Chinese person in a Japanese culture

9:52

that was very challenging. And a woman was

9:55

even worse. If they think you're going to be a tea lady.

9:57

And I was so not happy. So I

9:59

came back to the US and I'm like, I got

10:01

to change my life, that this whole tea lady

10:03

thing has got to stop. So I

10:06

my now brother in law, I said, do you

10:08

want to open an office for AMC

10:11

movie theaters? And I was like sure,

10:13

And I had the best time. I was going to movies

10:15

all the time. I honestly had

10:17

very little work, had very little money,

10:19

but very little work, and I just sort

10:21

of enjoyed life. And because I had some time,

10:24

a friend of mine from from Penn calls

10:26

me up and says, you always have lots of crazy

10:29

ideas and know how to tell stories. Would

10:31

you be willing to come up with some ideas

10:33

for for the body shop? And

10:36

I worked on the right away. This thing called Mama

10:38

Toto was a mommy daughter brand um

10:42

for very early the body shop and need

10:44

Erotic And from there I fell in love

10:46

with beauty and the next thing

10:48

I know, I started getting calls from

10:50

the beauty world to to come on, and

10:52

I said, okay at a certain point because frankly,

10:55

they were offering me three times as much money as AMC

10:57

and who can say no to that? And that's how it happened.

11:00

That's amazing. So take

11:02

us back a little bit then to the early days

11:04

of care. How did you both actually

11:07

come together and where did the

11:09

initial idea come from?

11:11

But you know, it's interesting because the less

11:13

and I have, you know, almost

11:16

forty years of experience across

11:18

beauty consumer brands

11:20

as well as directed consumer

11:23

businesses, and you know, we

11:26

would occasionally see each other

11:28

at different beauty events after we were

11:30

introduced by a mutual warding friend

11:32

that the Less went to undergrad with and

11:34

I went to get my MBA with

11:37

him, so he introduced us and

11:39

we kept running into each

11:41

other at different events, and there was you know,

11:43

the beauty industry is actually quite small. So

11:46

one day I see her from across the room

11:48

and I'm like, the last is that you and

11:51

we hit it off. I said what are you doing? And next

11:53

thing we know, she's consulting

11:56

at Cody where I was to executor's leadership

11:58

team. I was in global marketing working

12:00

with Halle Berry and Lean Dione

12:03

and other celebrities, and I says, Less, can you help

12:05

me with some brand projects?

12:08

And that was the first time we actually worked together.

12:10

And then I went to a startup

12:13

and I built this for an investor um

12:16

and I brought to the less end help me

12:18

with that brand in terms of

12:21

naming and ideation and taking

12:23

and developing this skinkcare Patch brand

12:26

into something that was going to truly

12:28

be dynamic and differentiate in the market.

12:31

And that's really how we

12:33

came together to create Care.

12:36

And the way that this initial idea

12:38

came about is that, as I mentioned earlier,

12:41

the Less and I've always exchanged lots of ideas.

12:43

Well. I'm someone that I'm

12:46

always networking. I'm always

12:48

looking and thinking of that next

12:50

opportunity, and I constantly

12:52

have met different scientists along

12:55

the way. And we actually

12:57

met these amazing scientists.

13:00

Says, lest you've got to meet them, Let's

13:02

have lunch. So we

13:04

met lunched in midtown similar

13:07

to like Sharon, you and I had the drinks at

13:09

the end of the day and one of those locations

13:15

ket me going. But let's have lunch was

13:17

the key part, and

13:21

we came together. We met with these

13:23

guys and we had

13:26

this idea for these women over forty

13:28

said, they said, we can do this. And

13:31

we have a PhD, these pH

13:33

d s on our team, and we've created

13:35

the science together that's proprietary

13:38

that we own, and that's

13:40

really where the science began

13:43

and this story began and where this amazing

13:45

brand can It's a great

13:47

path, it really is. We'll

13:51

be back with Seneca's Made by Women after

13:54

this short break. We

14:05

know that you know, all entrepreneurs

14:07

inevitably face challenges

14:09

and getting started. Can you

14:11

tell us about some of the obstacles

14:13

you've faced in getting care started

14:16

and how you became them?

14:18

Sure, I would say, and

14:21

This is probably true of so many burgeoning

14:24

startups, is that you've got to have

14:26

money to start up. You can have all the passion

14:28

in the world and you can work

14:30

as hard as a dog, but you do have to

14:33

have some kind of money. And the

14:35

good news for us is we got lucky because

14:37

Lorie finding Dr Joe

14:39

and Kevin was a bit of a miracle because they

14:41

were also willing to invest their own

14:44

um your law, years of experience

14:46

and knowledge base and some of their

14:48

innovation ideas that they had had rolling around

14:50

in their heads. We all came together

14:53

and we're able to activate that. So that was the good

14:55

news because otherwise it would have been you

14:57

know, five thousand, a million dollars

14:59

just to get product number one, even

15:01

in one little jar. But nonetheless,

15:04

we got to that point on our own,

15:07

using our own heads and arms and effort.

15:09

But you still have to be able to produce product,

15:12

and in order to do so, you need some kind

15:14

of funding. And that has been a really

15:16

interesting challenge. Even though Lori

15:19

and I both have these um these warton

15:21

backgrounds mean for me, it's a very long time

15:23

ago. Uh. The fact of the matter is

15:25

that they don't really teach you

15:28

what happens in the modern world in

15:30

terms of fundraising. What is a series

15:32

A, what's a series B, what's a seat, what's

15:35

a safe note, what's a convertible note? This

15:37

whole world was a shocker

15:40

to us. It's still a little bit of a shocker

15:42

to us. Um. One of the things that we did

15:44

to overcome our lack of knowledge, other than

15:46

calling up everybody we know and asking dumb questions,

15:49

is and they weren't dumb, they were just but we would ask

15:51

everybody the same questions to see if we would get the same

15:53

answers. And we actually

15:56

went and found an accelerator.

15:58

This is Lorie's doing because she is the ultimate

16:00

networker, and there are these

16:02

amazing boot camps and accelerators

16:05

all over the world that who's

16:07

sole purpose in life is to help people

16:10

like us or anybody at any

16:12

age, to take

16:14

their dream and to turn it into reality.

16:16

So we found a great one. It's one of the oldest

16:18

and most important in New York City. It's called

16:20

e r A and it's modeled after

16:23

the iconic what's called y Combinator

16:25

and that sin Silicon Valley, and they birth you know,

16:27

Airbnb, and had something to do with

16:29

Uber, I think, so you can get an idea and there's

16:31

an there's actually a methodology

16:34

and it's a boot camp, and it teaches you how

16:37

to learn, how to find raise, how do you

16:39

talk to people, what do you need to know,

16:42

how do you structure things, how do you answer

16:44

things, what do you present to people? And

16:46

how do you do it? And so that

16:48

was our biggest challenge, and in all honesty,

16:51

it continues to be a bit of a challenge, but we're

16:53

getting better at it every day. You know, I

16:55

often talk about that being a obstacle

16:58

for many women on trepreneurs and the

17:01

access to capital, credit

17:03

loans. I am optimistic though,

17:05

because I do see lots of great programs

17:07

like the e R a Accelerated program

17:10

Um and a number of initiatives you know, we at

17:12

Cynical Women have been involved with and that

17:14

that gives me a lot of hope about the

17:16

future. So, now

17:18

that you've found successful care and

17:21

you've been called I think an indie

17:24

brand, tell us a little bit what

17:26

does indie brand actually mean? Right?

17:29

Well, in the beauty industry, this

17:31

terminology if you started a few years ago,

17:33

you know indie beauty brands and there's

17:36

actually a segment within there's a

17:38

there's a Cosmetic Industry Association,

17:40

a group of women's called COSI Semetic Executive

17:43

Women, and they actually nurture

17:46

what they call indie beauty brands. And

17:48

these are independently owned, operated,

17:50

bounded businesses that have come

17:53

up with unconventional

17:55

ideas, things that haven't

17:57

been done before. You know, part of our pilosophy

18:00

is a clean philosophy, meaning that our ingredients

18:03

are green, they're vegan, they

18:06

don't have bad ingredients

18:08

for you in them. That's a whole big

18:11

piece of it. We are as sustainable

18:13

as possible. And then we're carving

18:16

out this segment for the sporty

18:18

plus woman that really is an untapped

18:21

opportunity when most of

18:23

the market that sells skincare

18:25

products sells them to you whether you're

18:27

in your twenties and early thirties all the

18:29

way up until your eight and they can't

18:32

they can't step back and carve out this segments

18:34

say we've actually got a product for you

18:36

that works specifically for you because

18:38

your skin is aging differently

18:41

due to the fact that something's happening to

18:43

you inside. And they're also

18:46

not doing it in a way that is

18:48

genuine embracing and

18:51

um sort of you know, in a way that's not about

18:53

fear. They're all about a lot of them about anti

18:55

aging and fear. We are about

18:58

positivity and embracing you. And

19:00

so once Less came up with the name care

19:03

it's spelled c A I R E.

19:06

Well, we put the eye in care

19:09

for the individual in you. And that's

19:11

what we like to say, because we're embracing

19:13

this woman's independent, she's

19:16

our own person. She's bursting

19:18

with confidence, and we want to

19:20

build that type of community and know that

19:22

we're bringing her excellent, excellent

19:24

science at a price you truly

19:27

can afford. Because

19:29

as you age, women

19:31

at the age of fifty start

19:34

plate towing in terms of their income

19:37

and they're at the top of their income earning

19:39

years, and yet products

19:42

that say they can do things for you are two

19:44

hundred dollars three hundred dollars, Well,

19:47

who can do that if your income is starting

19:49

to decline and you've got

19:51

so many other responsibilities to start

19:53

to think about. So our average price

19:56

point is around fifty dollars, and we

19:58

want to offer that type of good value to her.

20:01

That's that's really remarkable. UM,

20:04

I really love the positivity to and

20:06

and the the notion of you

20:08

know, the positive image uplifting women

20:11

especially. But we also

20:13

know, you know, it's been a really

20:16

difficult past year um,

20:18

with COVID and the pandemic and

20:20

the economic downturn. So

20:23

were you able to or did you need to pivot

20:26

to meet these new challenges? Sharon,

20:29

that's a great question. You know it was

20:31

actually it too, be honest, it was

20:33

a forced opportunity, shall we say.

20:35

So all of a sudden, it's

20:37

it's the end of March. Um. Laura

20:40

and I had gone to a birthday party with a with a friend

20:42

and she's looking at me and she's like, you know, the

20:45

next month or two is going to be really weird, because

20:47

we're thinking at this point that it's all gonna end around

20:49

June, you know, maximum July four.

20:52

And she's like, you know, remember that cocktail

20:55

party that I sent you to go to? This women

20:57

in the r A thing. I'm like, yeah, yeah, yes, because I

20:59

think we should it apply. She goes,

21:01

what else are we doing? Why not? And

21:04

because we had already started the business and we were well

21:06

on the road with product, and so she sends

21:08

me this link and I'm like, mm, hmm.

21:11

But you know, Laurie's very forceful

21:13

and she's very compelling. I was like, let's give it a go. Why

21:15

not, I'm like, and then you know, she didn't

21:17

tell me the part that there's a thousand applicants

21:20

for like ten spaces. She neglected to

21:22

mention that key piece of information. So

21:24

I'm thinking it was like, okay, one in a hundred,

21:26

you know, let's see what happens. So we

21:28

went for it. I mean, the good news is they actually

21:30

delayed the application deadline from I believe

21:32

it was like April four to May five, but

21:35

it gave us time to really it. Actually,

21:37

it was great because it forced us to hone in

21:40

on exactly what our initial

21:42

message was going to be. Who are

21:44

cohort Is five

21:46

into seventy woman? Um,

21:48

you know, we came up with the phrase defiance science

21:51

at that point, we came up with hormone,

21:53

defying, age, empowerment, all of these

21:55

keywords that our signatures

21:58

of our brand and will continue to be signatures

22:00

as we grow. We're developed at

22:02

that time, and we we went for it. We got accepted,

22:05

and believe me, it was a real boot camp. We

22:07

were like living and breathing seven

22:09

days a week, twelve hours a day

22:12

or more this program because they introduce

22:14

you to like hundreds of mentors as

22:16

well as potential people that might want to invest

22:18

in your business or at least just help you get

22:20

on the road. So I would say that in our

22:23

case, we were fortunate that we

22:25

were able to take what could have been a very

22:27

negative time and and turn it into

22:30

a positive time. And and I'm grateful

22:32

for that, yes, very much,

22:34

So very much though. And you

22:36

know, it's interesting because it was all done on

22:38

Zoom and we all

22:41

of it. We had one meeting in Central

22:43

Park where we were all socially distanced

22:45

at the time, and we really, really,

22:47

you know, appreciated these

22:49

these people investing their time with

22:52

us, and they continue to. It's

22:54

it's like it's it's like a family, and

22:56

it's fantastic for us. And

22:59

that has been so beneficial to

23:01

getting through COVID psychologically

23:04

as well, and that's why it has

23:06

been on something of great fortune.

23:08

Well, we we did be our mentor. Laurie

23:10

and I made well I made the ribs, Laurie made

23:13

the salads, and we lured our mentor

23:15

out and we got extra help. Yes,

23:17

we have two mentage a great

23:19

guy and another woman, so we have two

23:22

mentors and it's it's been fantastic to

23:24

have that guidance and a

23:26

good laughter or drink with them every once in

23:28

a while too. So it is interesting

23:30

I've heard that from other women entrepreneurs to

23:32

that, you know, that time of the pandemic

23:35

gave them some quiet time, sometime to refocus,

23:39

sometime to engage people. Um,

23:41

because people weren't traveling and so people were

23:43

willing to do a zoom fifth team and at coffee

23:46

break if you will, UM, it was more

23:48

efficient. That's very true.

23:51

And you do have to know how to take advantage

23:53

of this time. I mean sharing you know

23:55

you know this. UM. I did a

23:57

ten day silent meditation for

24:00

the pandemic by chance, and that

24:02

allowed me to have a centering

24:04

and focus during the pandemic

24:07

and to keep diminished

24:09

the anxiety as much as possible, because,

24:12

as you know, starting a business is

24:14

one of those activities in your life

24:16

that you can take on that

24:18

can cause a very high stress level.

24:21

And so to be able to manage

24:23

that stress level and be

24:26

very confident in approaching

24:28

how you build a business is a whole another

24:30

ball game. Well, you're taking

24:32

us right to my next question,

24:35

and you started to answer it, which is,

24:38

for those you know who are out there in the audience

24:40

we're thinking about starting their own ventures,

24:43

what have you learned that you wish someone

24:46

else had told you about before you start

24:48

at your own company. Well,

24:50

you know, it's it's very interesting. There are a few things,

24:52

and I'll you know, there's the surprises

24:55

like ce less than I. You

24:57

know, we're a corporation and inc. We're

25:00

in Delaware where a lot of different corporations

25:03

are. We're actually trying to figure out

25:05

why.

25:10

So we go online to pay what's

25:12

called a franchise tax, and I'm like, we're

25:14

not a franchise. We don't have to pay this tax,

25:16

right, this is me. So I

25:18

go online and I put the

25:21

information in of what our number is and it

25:23

says your taxes due an amount

25:25

of forty six thousand, seven hundred

25:27

dollars, And I went

25:30

to last what is going

25:32

on? So what I'm saying is

25:35

there will be surprises when you start

25:37

your own company. Take a breath, don't

25:40

panic, and so

25:42

let's pop me off the cliff and

25:46

we got it down. Yeah, do you remember?

25:48

And we got it down to four hundred dollars, which

25:50

is the typical, but

25:53

it just shows that delawares trying to get all

25:55

their money up front, and

25:58

you've got to keep your eyes open. But

26:01

on the more serious side, you know you

26:04

you have to prepare yourself mentally

26:08

financially, it's very important

26:10

to save and

26:13

have you know and budget,

26:15

understand what you're going to live off

26:17

of. Start cutting down

26:20

your expenses before you leave a job, um

26:23

and before you dive in the start of business. And

26:26

then once you've saved enough to

26:28

say to yourself, save a little bit more more

26:33

and stay in that job as long as you possibly

26:35

can before you dive in. The

26:37

Other thing is, don't waste

26:39

money when it comes to building

26:42

a website, when it comes to

26:44

resources, um, to get things

26:46

started. You can find unique

26:49

routes to get people to help

26:51

you. Be very creative about

26:54

building that around you and

26:56

leveraging as much as you can't other people.

26:59

Uh, don't think that you can't do it yourself. And

27:02

as I said in the beginning, that confidence

27:06

that I got in fourth

27:09

sixth grade in this amazing

27:11

elementary school, keep

27:13

that in mind for yourself. It

27:16

is something no matter what

27:18

you're going through, no matter where

27:21

that day is believe in yourself, believe

27:24

that you can do this, and believe

27:26

in your dream as less the staying earlier.

27:29

I want to add one little note to that. Listen,

27:32

if you don't actually get started, it's

27:34

never gonna happen. You just gotta start

27:36

too. That's true too,

27:39

That's very true. You're absolutely right,

27:41

because there are so many times where I've

27:44

had ideas and someone else

27:46

has come out with it. You

27:48

know, you just have to go do

27:50

it, or you and nothing had an idea.

27:52

Remember around um, you know when

27:55

work out working out became a thing with

27:57

bar classes and and you

27:59

know, soul side goal on all this, and I wanted to do

28:01

a skincare brand for workouts, and we talked

28:04

and talked and talked, and you know what, our idea was right

28:06

because there are brands doing that, but we didn't

28:08

actually get started. You

28:10

have to just jump a little

28:13

bit too. That's right, that's

28:15

right. But I guess also at the same time, the

28:18

opportunity presents itself when it should.

28:20

Yes, yes, but thank you both so

28:22

much. This has been great, and I'm

28:25

sure the audience really appreciates

28:27

all the great advice that you gave. I love hearing

28:30

about how you began and

28:32

the great success that you're having today. So congratulations

28:35

and getting the company up

28:37

and running a great product. Thank

28:40

you, Thank you, Sharon, and thank

28:43

you for bringing Santeca women forth and

28:45

embracing women, empowering women and

28:48

creating something and not this off. We

28:50

really appreciate it. I'd

28:56

like to thank Lorean Celes for sharing

28:58

their story about finding the excess

29:00

with care Beauty. Here

29:02

are three things I took away from that conversation.

29:06

First, mentorship is critical

29:08

to creating new entrepreneurs.

29:11

So let's tell how her fifth grade teacher

29:13

encouraged her budding sense of entrepreneurship

29:17

but letting her run the school store.

29:20

It's never too early to show young women

29:22

the value of owning your own business. Second,

29:27

you can practice the skills of entrepreneurship

29:30

in almost any job. Laura

29:32

used to work in brand marketing, and she

29:34

approached it as if she was running

29:36

her own mini business. Try

29:39

thinking about your job as a testing ground

29:41

for your future enterprise. Finally,

29:46

you don't have to know everything before you

29:48

launch your business. Laura and

29:50

Seless found that asking questions

29:52

was a key factor in their success.

29:55

Whatever they didn't know, they sought

29:57

out from those who did don't

29:59

be a ray to reach out to your network

30:01

to get the answers you need. There's

30:04

no such thing as a bad question.

30:08

Made by women is brought to you by the Seneca Women

30:11

Podcast Network and I Heart Radio, with

30:13

support from founding partner PNG