blackbeautypodcasts

For this show, I had the privilege of chatting with my friend and legendary makeup artist Sam Fine about his career journey. He's worked with Iman, Vanessa L. Williams, Patti LaBelle, Queen Latifah, and Cynthia Erivo, to name a few. So, folks, get out your pad and pencils or note app, Sam is about to take you to school.

We chatted about his early aspirations to become an illustrator initially brought him to New York City from his native Chicago and later sent him back home. But while working part-time as a floater for Naomi Sims Cosmetics allowed him to move back to the Big Apple.

Among the many things that Sam shares are what working behind the counter for Sims in Herald Square taught him and the importance of finding good mentors. He found two amazing people that nurtured his career. One of them was Fran Cooper, whom he assisted on many shoots until he was ready to go out on his own. Sam shares how he led a double life--working behind the counter and working with celebrities and shoots until something had to give. 

Sam also shares how he became the first Black makeup artist with a spokesperson deal with Revlon working with Veronica Webb. Later he worked on CoverGirl campaigns with Niki Taylor (who is not Black), and later with Tyra Banks and Queen Latifah. 

He also talks about the importance of asking for what you want. Whether in his case, it was a book deal, a preferred payment arrangement, or to work with a specific brand such as Fashion Fair. And the importance of the many covers he did for Essence. 

Sam explains why he decided to move to Los Angeles, Oakland, and eventually back to New York City. Why being in the union is essential, and what's it like to come back to Fashion Fair as its Global Ambassador under its new ownership. 

He shares what it is like to come to prominence in a time before Instagram and why it is harder for a makeup artist to replicate what he's done in the age of social media. And he shares his thoughts on the inequity that Black creatives face in recognition and opportunities. 

After his bestselling book and DVD, Sam shares what he'd like to do next. Then, tune in to hear the whole story.

Keren Davy, Senior Manager, Clinical and Luxe Skincare at Sephora has beauty in her DNA, she was raised in her mother's hair salon. First had tea parties, later got to work, and eventually obtained her cosmetology license, yet it was a challenge for her to land her first corporate beauty role. So in this episode, Keren and I explore whether there is such a thing as the "right" school when it comes to getting a job at a big beauty brand. And if that is indeed true, what do you do when you don't fit the criteria?

Keren talks candidly about how a lack of knowledge about internships may have hindered her. But the reality is, although Keren was a scholarship student, she had to work, so she made money in two ways: as a bank teller, and putting her cosmetology license to work. She landed a marketing internship during her senior year and she explains how she turned that internship into a full-time job offer after graduation. 

Even with marketing experience, however, beauty brands still weren't interested in her. So Keren returned to school for an MBA. There she got her first taste of skincare, leading a team working on a project for Kiehl's.

But her first position at Johnson & Johnson was working on the Band-Aid and Neosporin brands. But even when she wasn't I'm a beauty role, Keren made her beauty expertise known to her colleagues and was hand-picked for a role in brand management at Aveeno. She shares how she continued to uplevel her skills and the importance of stretch assignments. After being laid off from her role at Aveeno, Keren started a consulting firm with client recommendations from her former colleagues.

For her current role at Sephora, Keren made the decision to move to West Coast. Acclimating to her new role and a new home. Keren shares how important giving herself grace in times of change. She also shares the importance of faith in her career journey. It sustained her as she encountered rejection and disappointment and fueled her as she forged forward, blazing her career path. 

In our Starting Five section, Keren shares some valuable tips on blazing a career in marketing, even if you are an outsider. 

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!

This week, Maisie Dunbar, President of the Maisie Dunbar Beauty Brands and Bluffajo Cosmetics, joins the podcast to discuss changing careers, building a clientele, embracing entrepreneurship, and empowering underserved communities with new skills during our chat, and so much more.

Maisie explains that she always received compliments on her nails from her colleagues when she worked in IT at British Telecom and later the FDA. Still, she never thought about pursuing a career in beauty until a friend mentioned that she had enrolled in nail school Maisie followed suit and discovered that although she was great at doing her own nails, she really was terrible at doing It for others and vowed to master the skill. 

Her first job in beauty was doing nails at a barbershop, and a few months later, when she moved to a popular DMV hair salon, she decided to pursue her dream full-time. This was a risky decision that forced her to find clients. So she took a script and started recruiting at the bus stop, offering free manicures. She reasoned, if she were always busy, people would want to try her services. It worked. Soon Maisie was so popular that she needed help, and she made a connection with a local nail school to get an assistant. This started a tradition of her offering a training program that prepared students for the workplace. 

Once Maisie was an entrepreneur, she began expanding her services, first offering massage therapy and later skincare services. She also became licensed in these areas so she could walk her talk. As her business grew, she realized that her team couldn't give excellent service if they were never served themselves, so she exposed them to the best in class beauty experiences. Later, she learned makeup artistry and cosmetic ingredients so that she could apply those skills to her own line, Bluffajo Cosmetics.

Maisie explains that although her eponymous salon and spa were an award-winning venture, she wanted to pivot her business because legacy creation became important. She also wanted to establish better beauty training programs on the African continent and her native country of Liberia and explore distribution options for her makeup line. 

She also explains why she always believes in leading by example and becoming a trainer and influencer for two of the biggest companies, Seche and CND.

Miki Wright, a salon coach and founder of the "Beauty Superstars Talk" podcast, says that working in the beauty industry was her destiny. But that doesn't mean that her path has been easy. Miki packed her worldly possessions into her car and drove from Houston to Washington, DC, determined to start her beauty career. She landed her first job asking women whose hair she admired where they got it done and tracked down that salon. When she was offered a chair in that salon, she happily accepted but found out quickly that it may have been premature since she didn't have any customers. Because she needed to pay her bills, she thought about the opportunity differently--working in the salon in the evenings and on weekends until she could afford to leave her full-time position. 

Miki then built and sold two hair salon businesses while living in the DC area. The first where hair was the focus, the second was the first day spa owned by a Black woman, which won multiple awards. But the stress she was under was antithetical to the message she was offering her customers. 

Miki took a break from the business before taking several corporate positions at Ulta. And after she stopped doing hair, an award from Bronner Brothers made her reconsider the decision. But this time around, Miki is coaching those who work directly with clients to do business better. 

However, the death of George and the subsequent social justice reckoning caused her to consider how to make a difference. She noticed that the work of Black creatives in the hair industry was going unnoticed and set out to tell their stories via her podcast. She has interviewed legends as well as talented up-and-coming beauty professionals. Her hope is not just to highlight the greatness within our community when it comes to beauty but to document our history and business success so that the next generation doesn't need to reinvent the wheel. 

Dr. Edward Dickerson, founder of Fayetteville Plastic Surgery Specialists and Cape Fear Aesthetics is among a small group of  25 Black doctors who are double board-certified in facial plastic and reconstructive surgery. On this episode, he shares how he journey on a path from Peekskill, NY, where he grew up, to West Virginia State University (where a number of generations of his family have studied), to Morehouse School of Medicine as part of an ROTC program to building his plastic surgery and aesthetics practice. 

 Dr. Dickerson shares why it was important to study at an HBCU and how it prepared him for his career as a doctor. He also shares one of the biggest lessons he learned in the Army, which he describes as the biggest corporation in the world. That is, to know the value of your "ships" aka your relationships and leadership. Dr. Dickerson says both are essential to his success since he started his practice after a career in the army as an ENT surgeon. 

Dr. Dickerson shares the difference between treating Caucasians and a broad spectrum of patients with skin of color. He breaks down the Fitzpatrick scale in flavors of ice cream and points out that he works with all flavors and shapes. He also explains why it is not just the skin's appearance that factors into Fitzpatrick ratings, but how skin reacts to treatments and environmental factors. He touches on the power of melanin and explains why "Black don't crack" is not the whole story.

He notes that the most popular nonsurgical procedure requested by women of color is wrinkle relaxers and fillers and teaches listeners not only to understand how and where they should be used. And he talks about the importance of instilling confidence as one of the most important parts of his work.

Hear about that and more on this episode of Start Right. 

If you've ever wondered what it's like to work in marketing communications, aka comms for beauty and other CPG brands, then this conversation with Liv Lewis, Senior Vice President of Client Experience at Egami, an award-winning multicultural agency, will answer many of your questions.

Liv had her heart set on working in fashion when she first arrived in NYC. However, she couldn't envision a future being in a room full of racks of clothing. She quickly pivoted to beauty p.r. via a temp job that quickly turned permanent. There she helped launched Eternity Moments, one of Calvin Klein's blockbuster brands. But she followed the advice from one of her colleagues, who told her that working at an agency would help her learn and grow more quickly. Liv landed a job at a boutique agency and, from there, moved to a mid-sized agency. At the latter, she got a 360-degree view of creating a successful strategy for a brand versus a focus on pitching and placement.

After having her children and taking a brief sabbatical, Liv looked for a role she could sink her teeth into, and she found that at The Egami Group, where she has worked with some brands that also have a purpose-driven mission. One of them is P&G, which has the "My Black is Beautiful" initiative. They also charged Egami and some of their other partners to make them uncomfortable, so the spot "The Talk" was created, followed by "The Look." We discuss how that meaningful work continues in this age of reckoning.  

Liv believes that anyone who wants to lead a team in this new "comms" world needs to know how to "do" first. Only then will they fully understand the time and commitment that is needed for the work. And those who want to enter the industry now need to be hungry, quick on their feet, and flexible. 

Check out these tips and more in this week's episode!

Monae Everett initially became a hairstylist because she didn't believe in being broke in college. But afterward, she set her sights on becoming a celebrity hairstylist before she understood what would be required of her. Once she discovered that she needed to learn more about hair and the industry, she secured a salon at a chain salon in Virginia, where she mastered the art of doing every hair texture. Later she moved to another salon where she became its manager. Along the way, she also became a hair color educator.

But Monae still had her eye on being a celebrity hairstylist. She spent her days off doing test shoots and small jobs to develop her on set skills and portfolio. When she got laid off, she took that as a signal to move to New York City and never looked back.

She has not only achieved her dream of working with celebrities but also realized that there were so many people who wanted to do the same. So she decided to create a course and later pen a book, "Get Out of Your Own Way: 25 Tips for Booking Celebrity Clients." 

Learn about the skills she looks for in other hair pros when she is assembling a team, why communication is a critical component, and why ending on time is paramount when working when celebrities and so much more on this week's episode.

On our second special Men's Edition, Corynne Corbett welcomes Mezei Jefferson, Assistant Vice President, Education Curriculum, ACCESS, and Digital Content for L'Oréal's Professional division. Although Mezei grew up around the industry because his grandparents owned a salon, being a hairstylist wasn't his initial career ambition. Mezei wanted to be a rock star (although he neither sang nor played an instrument). After his father convinced him of the impracticality of that goal, Mezei enrolled in beauty school. He shares his journey from a local salon in Maryland to a chain salon, where he first had the opportunity to join an education team. He fell in love with the theatrics of hair after attending one of his first hair shows, and he never looked back! Initially reluctant, Mezei also learned the value of being a hair color specialist and added that skill to his wheelhouse. His abilities as a colorist and Redken educator led to a role at Ulta, where he grew the education team nearly eight-fold during his eight-year tenure. At the same time, he also oversaw the curriculum for over 800 salons. 

Mezei explains how his first role at L'Oréal had him thinking about hair education differently since it was focused on consumers and how his position expanded to encompass Optimum Professional and later Carol's Daughter when it became part of the multicultural division of the company. He points out how social media and influencers shifted education. 

Finally, Mezei talks about his new role in the professional division, how Covid-19 accelerated the need for digital education, why he gets excited about new challenges, and why he feels like he's achieved his ambition of being a rock star. 

Beauty wasn't on Dorian Morris' mind as a career but she got a taste of the industry early when she worked with the fragrance buyer at Robinson-May. But she didn't think about it again until she'd already worked as a planner at Macy's, obtained an MBA from Harvard Business School, and done a stint working in brand management at CPG behemoth General Mills. Dorian chats with us about how she found similarities between working in food and beauty when she landed a job at Kendo, the brand incubator for Sephora, and why the scrappy environment allowed her to thrive. She points out that her next job, at Sundial Brands, where she was responsible for relaunching the Madame CJ Walker Beauty Culture brand was even scrappier. Dorian shares how a short stint at CoverGirl helped her realize that she does better in smaller environments that huge brands. After quitting that job, Dorian started exploring her next act and founded Undefined Beauty Inc. She shares why she took the leap and launched her company at the Indie Beauty Exo two years ago, why she wants to make quality CBD beauty and wellness products that are affordable, the challenges of working in the CBD space, why her supply change is built on conscious capitalism and why adaptogens are her next move. Dorian shares invaluable advice to new entrepreneurs and so much more on this episode. 

Plus, find out about the special discount code available for our listeners. You might want to use it to get the newest offerings: Glow Bars, adaptogen-based (CBD) chocolate bars designed for creativity, pleasure or sleep. 

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. 

On this episode, I chat with the amazing Tia Williams, the only other Black woman to be a staffer in Elle magazine's beauty department in its early years. We discuss the massive collection of magazines she started at age nine, her obsession with Kevyn Aucoin and other legendary makeup artists, and how she'd obsess over makeup in the drug store. 

We talk about how she landed positions at some of the most prestigious print magazines, started one of the first successful beauty blogs for Black women, Shake Your Beauty, and her transition to a more corporate role and the learning curve involved in that. 

Tia is more than a beauty editor, she's also a novelist and we'll discuss what she's learned about being an author. And how excited she is about actress Gabrielle Union turning her 2016 novel, "The Perfect Find" into a Netflix film. And we've got more to look forward to with her next book due out in 2021.

Learn all of this and more.

Shenelle Mays-Smith knows that beauty has always been a destination for her. Not necessarily because she dreamed about it as a child, but because others saw her talent as early as high school. Yet, she initially set her sights on theater and it wasn't until her classmates in college were applying to graduate programs that she realized that wasn't the path for her. She discusses how she got her start, the value of relationships, why developing a thick skin is essential, and. why your talent alone is not enough. She also explains why for her, makeup needed to go hand-in-hand with getting her aesthetician's license. She shares the invaluable skill her mentor taught her and more.

This episode features Integrated Marketing and Communications Strategist Trenesa Stanford-Danuser. She started her career in Crisis Communications at the American Red Cross and she not only chased storms for a living but all kinds of disasters. She discusses how that background prepared her to be the level-headed one in the room when everyone else thought the sky was falling once she began working at agencies and eventually, Estee Lauder Brands. 

She explains the differences in working at an agency and working at a large corporation both in proximity to new product creation and company structure and lines of communication. Trenesa wholeheartedly believes that you must always bring your whole self to work and points out her reasoning for wearing her big afro to her final interview for a corporate role. 

We discuss the current climate and the fight against systemic racism, allyship fatigue, and the truth about Angry Black Woman trope as well as why we may have to fix our faces as Black women. Trenesa also points out why it is important to be the "squeaky wheel" and advocate for your own advancement. Plus, so much more! 

On this podcast, it is important to hear perspectives on getting your start from individuals at different stages of their careers in beauty. On this episode, Corynne chats with Kourtney Pope, a social media and influencer market professional who has successfully made the pivot from fashion to beauty early in her career. 

Corynne and Kourtney discuss how she landed her first internship, how she has strategically used networking to advance her career, why Oprah is the reason she'll never choose between fashion and beauty. The differences between working in fashion and beauty. How her time at a fashion startup, Eloquii differed from a corporate role at L'Oréal. Why your 20s is the best time to explore different career paths. And why she is back in the world of startups as she consults with the relatively new beauty, wellness, and lifestyle platform, Drk Beauty , and the platform's initiative to give away hours of free therapy to women of color.