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Chrissy Cabrera, the founder of Naturally London, never dreamed about becoming a beauty entrepreneur. But a rough first pregnancy, where she suffered from swollen feet and an aversion to ingredients in many foot care products, prompted her to make her own. Still, she didn't think about selling the products until the friends she gifted started asking where they could purchase her products. Along the way, she evolved her hand-crafted line of products and became a certified aromatherapist.

Chrissy shares how she transitioned through several careers, from working in the military to the federal government and running a fashion consulting business and blog. And why she held down two jobs for most of her adult life. How her conversations with God prompted her to step out of faith as she built her business. And what having her brand featured on "Good Morning America" taught her.

Plus, why every entrepreneur should have a business best friend! Learn these things and so much more on this episode of the show!

In this episode, I had the pleasure of chatting with Jolorie Williams, the General Manager of Revlon. In her role, she proudly oversees the Multicultural Division, which includes Cream of Nature products and Contract Services. Jolorie loves working in haircare and even has some mannequin heads in her home where she tries out the latest products in the pipeline.

Her first job was in a non-beauty role at Bristol-Myers Squib. But at the time, they also owned Clairol, and when a position opened in their Professional Beauty Division, she landed it and never looked back. When she started, her job was in "ethnic haircare," and she loves how consumers demand has helped the category evolve.

Jolorie also held pivotal roles at L'Oréal, working in Multicultural Haircare and Lancome, overseeing makeup marketing. Then she moved over to the Estee Lauder brand, Origins, which exposed her to how a brand with freestanding retail stores operates. But there is something about haircare that Jolorie loves, so when the opportunity to join Revlon presented itself, she joined their Professional Division before she took on her recent role. She is serving her multicultural audience with passion and purpose.

Jolorie's a proud FAMU graduate with a C-Suite position. We talked about the importance of her HBCU education and how she uses her role to impact the next generation. 

Plus, Jolorie offers five tips on succeeding on the corporate side of beauty. Make sure you stay until the end, so you don't miss them!

You may know Trae Bodge from her more than 1,000 television appearances as an intelligent shopping expert. But, Trae has deep roots in beauty. You can say that she was practically born into the business because her mother owned a shop in her small Massachusetts town where they sold creams, soaps, and other products.

Trae initially wanted to be an artist but found a way to use those talents in beauty with a custom-blending company called Visage Beaute.

She initially started working for the brand in Massachusetts and later moved to the counter at Bergdorf Goodman in New York City. When the brand was sold to Revlon, Trae actively campaigned for a job at Kiehl's, then privately owned. As part of a collaborative team at their 3rd Avenue store in NYC, she created a position overseeing their catalog sales. While there, she banded her savings together with a former colleague at Visage and another friend to form Three Custom Color. They not only custom-blended shades, but they also recreated shopper's favorite discontinued shades in their NYC retail store/lab.

After leaving that business, Trae thought she would end up at a big cosmetic company in product development or another role, but wearing too many hats made her hard to place, so she stuck out on her own and began writing more.

She landed her first corporate job at RetailMeNot and began doing television appearances, which morphed into a new career.  After being laid off, Trae started making appearances on behalf of several clients.

She's noticed an uptick in bookings since the social reckoning and sees that as a good thing, and has also adjusted to doing segments in her home. But doing television isn't easy; Trae shares the secrets to booing and delivering segments, and here's a hint, there's no such thing as winging it!

Because she knows that others interested in television could benefit from her expertise, she has partnered with a colleague on One Take Media. 

And best of all, Trae shares five tips on perfecting your pivot. 

Check out all of this and more on this episode.

And Follow Trae Bodge on all social platforms @truetrae!

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.