00:00Being in brand management at the time in the D.C. area, there were very few options of companies to work for, like a marketing executive.
00:08You could work at Marriott. There's a couple of companies, but a small company at the time that no one had heard of was called Capital One.
00:15Like the Capital One that's now the Capital One.
00:17Like that one, but very few people had heard of that company. It was only seven years old.
00:22And so they were on a mission to hire people with brand management experience to create the brand Capital One, create awareness for the brand.
00:32And so I went to Capital One. I didn't love banking or financial services or credit cards or anything like that.
00:38But the challenge of can you create a brand and make it, exactly, and make it resonate.
00:45So my proudest moment there was I worked on the first What's in Your Wallet campaign.
00:50So in your time at L'Oreal, did that story change? Did the story of seeing people look like you in roles and campaigns and products change?
00:59No, it's very interesting that you say that because it did, because while I was there, that was when L'Oreal acquired Softsheen Carson.
01:08Google it, Millennials.
01:09Brought in.
01:09Your local beauty supply.
01:10Yeah. And brought in a woman by the name of Candice Matthews.
01:15Okay.
01:15And an amazing, amazing woman, an amazing executive.
01:20So she was the CEO for that group, and her office happened to be next to mine.
01:24And so, yeah, so I got to see, like, real representation with products and with leadership and with advertising.
01:32So it did evolve.
01:34So you took a break.
01:35So I took a break.
01:36What are you doing in your break?
01:36So from there, I went to work for a private equity company.
01:40Oh, wow.
01:40That's a piece of it.
01:41That owned a license.
01:43And there actually was a method to the madness because up until that point, my beauty career had been all masks.
01:50Masks meaning Target, Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, grocery stores, those kinds of channels.
01:55And there wasn't the blurring of the lines between masks and prestige.
01:58I think Ulta was around, maybe Sephora wasn't around, but not to the extent that they are today.
02:05And so in growing my beauty career, if I wanted to work in prestige, I knew I needed to have department store experience.
02:11Which is so short-sighted because now that's completely irrelevant.
02:17But at the time, that's what she needed to have.
02:20So the private equity company had licenses for isotoner, gloves, slippers, toes, umbrellas.
02:28Those were supposed to be like, well, I lived in Minnesota, so that was like how you could freeze your fingers off but be cute when you die.
02:34Like it was literally leather that they had made but had gave you no heat protection.
02:39It was a scam.
02:41Anyway.
02:41So that was interesting because I got to, you know, create.
02:46So I was in charge of the footwear division.
02:49So I had designers, I had the sourcing team, I had marketing, and we had distribution all the way from like Walmart and Sam's up to Neiman Marcus.
03:00And so the breadth of exposure to the retailers really helped me professionally to understand their economics, how they work, what they need.
03:09Because department stores had the special skincare stuff.
03:11They had the special fancy stuff.
03:13Right.
03:13That might be the same as the other stuff, but it was in a department store with perfume spray.
03:17With a nice package.
03:18With a nice package and a free gift.
03:19Maybe get a little gift of purchase.
03:20That's right.
03:21Here's the next cologne coming out.
03:22Right.
03:23Exactly.
03:23So I was happy.
03:24I was a vice president.
03:26I, you know, was leading a big group.
03:29I was traveling to China often because a lot of our sourcing came from China at the time.
03:35And I was content and, you know, things were good.
03:39And then I got a call, took this position, leading global marketing for Clinique Makeup and Fragrance.
03:44It was over a billion dollar portfolio.
03:47It was giving me prestige experience.
03:49It was giving me global experience.
03:50Fit with what you wanted to have.
03:51It was everything, right, that I thought I wanted.
03:55And it was, Clinique as a brand was a brand that, again, back to family, that I really resonated with.
04:02Because I remember being a young teenager and my mom taking me to the department store.
04:07And Clinique at the counter had the little tool that you, you know, you think about online diagnostic tools.
04:14This was a physical, like, abacus on both.
04:18And your skin type, how much exposure.
04:20Right.
04:21And so it would tell you.
04:22This is your product.
04:22Right.
04:22So this cleanser, this clarifying lotion, this moisturizer.
04:27So it felt like home.
04:29It felt like a brand that I deeply knew.
04:31It was, again, just a really incredible learning experience.
04:36I traveled everywhere.
04:39Malaysia, Copenhagen, Shanghai, Mexico City.
04:43Just the exposure that I got to global consumers was really, really enriching.
Comments