Latest / Skin Anarchy / Anastasia Soare on Raising Brows and the Discipline Behind the Billion-Dollar Brand, Anastasia Beverly Hills

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Anastasia Soare on Raising Brows and the Discipline Behind the Billion-Dollar Brand, Anastasia Beverly Hills · Skin Anarchy

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Hey guys, welcome back to Skin Anarchy.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_01: Today is our 800th episode, and I could not be more thrilled to celebrate this milestone with an interview that brings you one of the most amazing individuals in the beauty space.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: She is truly a force and she has created such an empire with not only her brand but the legacy that she's created alongside.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: Today we are going to be celebrating her newest book that has just come out, has been released.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: So make sure you guys check that out before anything else.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: And without further ado, please welcome Anastasia Soare.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome Anastasia.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so, so honored to be hosting you today.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for having me.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate it.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's truly an honor, and I'm excited you wrote a book.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: Putting all this wisdom out into the world.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's amazing to read from somebody who's been through it all and built something from the ground up.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: It is beyond inspirational to see that.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: I would love to start from the beginning, if you don't mind, if you can tell us about what was it like coming to a new country, starting fresh.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: Walk us down memory lane.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: It was quite difficult.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, I didn't speak the language, I didn't have a community that usually supports you.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: It was quite traumatic for me.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so I came to the United States with hope and with the desire that to make a mark, and was quite shocking for me at the beginning.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: The first six months, I think I cried every day.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, nobody talks about that, right?
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: You come to a new place and start fresh, and also the language barrier.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: How was that?
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: Navigating.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that was one of the most difficult, I have to say, because not being able to communicate is difficult.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: It was very hard.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: I used to take evening classes to learn.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, in the same time I was 31.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's very difficult when you are an adult to learn a new language.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you are young, you don't even have an accent.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: But 31 is quite difficult to learn a language.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: I came in July and by April I start working.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Within six months, how much English you could learn was traumatic.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: I was willing to try anything.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: I had the desire to do something with myself.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: This is what I had to deal with.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: I want you to speak on this because many times with entrepreneurship, founders believe you have to have this incredibly solid business plan.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: How is that for you in the early days when building your vision was?
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you had the belief that you were going on.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: Can you speak about that journey in the beginning?
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: See, I got a job in the beauty industry, first of all, because it was the only job that didn't require perfect English and was an opportunity for me to get a job.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't matter.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I didn't even think that this would be the career of my life.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I got through a person that I met in LA, a Romanian, and a wonderful lady that was able to welcome me, and she was pregnant.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: And during her three months of leave, I replaced her.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I thought that was a great opportunity for me, and I will take anything that was thrown on me.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: I never had a business plan because I never thought that that's my calling, okay?
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: And we basically needed to have a job to pay the bills and figure out what's next.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: I started working as an aesthetician doing facial and body waxing.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: I noticed nobody paid attention to eyebrows.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew from my art teacher that eyebrows are so important for the face.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: First, I kind of bought a camera and I started taking a picture of our family, and I realized that my eyebrow, I looked surprised in the picture because my eyebrow was pencil thin and round.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: I was a victim of the 80s.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: That was the fashion of eyebrows at that time.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: The aesthetician that used to go for facials, she used to twist my eyebrow that way.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I was able to kind of figure out, I went to the library and revisit all the study of Leonardo da Vinci on the human face that creates perfect balance and proportion by shaping eyebrows.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: I thought that was revolutionary because nobody in the beauty industry talked about the reason why we put makeup, why eyebrows are so important.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: It was important to understand why.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I start fixing my eyebrows and then I start sharing with my clients.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: They would look at me and didn't know I changed my eyebrow, but they always say, You look different on rested.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Did you cut your hair?
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: What is different?
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I start sharing with them and shaping their eyebrows.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: And that was the beginning.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's insane because you created a category.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't just a product.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you literally redefined an entire beauty category.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: What were your thoughts when you know ABH started kind of taking off and people started noticing how big of a deal this was?
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: How did that feel?
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: What was your plan about it?
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, did you plan like, no, I'm gonna make a whole different category, or how is that?
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't have a plan.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: It was interesting for me to understand how important eyebrows was and to find the perfect technique on shaping the best eyebrow for everybody's bone structure and natural shape.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I wanted first, it was a very organic way for me to kind of develop.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: I I never thought that would get that big, but it was something that I was intrigued by and very interested in.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I started uh diving into this, bringing science into the beauty, into the beauty.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: So doing that was important for me to start mastering this, and was it took me hours and hours and months and years to develop this technique.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't happen in a month.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: This is really fascinating because one thing that stands out in the book, you know, and for everyone listening, when you read the book, you'll see this theme that you really mentioned this where you always put your best foot forward.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: You've spoken about this in the book as well.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: You know, even back in Romania in your culture, if someone came to your home, it doesn't matter who it is, it doesn't matter what you can offer them, you always give them your best.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: Can you speak to us about that and what that means for entrepreneurship?
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, to me at that time, remember, I was an immigrant.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to really be significant, to do something that I will love and I will be passionate about.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I chose a service business.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I learned from my mother that you do the best that you could do for your client.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted my clients to feel beautiful, to feel the best, and to look the best.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: And it was so normal for me.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: I worked with my mother and I used to design the clothes for her.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Beauty is the same thing.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's being in the service business, you could be in fashion, you could be in beauty, the same desire to make your client feel beautiful.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I will always remember when I will give my client the mirror and she will look in the mirror, feel so gorgeous, amazing, you get that energy back.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: This kept me going and made me fall in love with the business.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: They were my clients that really have the confidence to keep going.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: And when I start working with a celebrity and they will come back again, they validated my work, they gave me that power to keep going and doing more and developing.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: I started the product business because I didn't have products to offer my clients.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Gave me the confidence and belief that whatever I do, I did it was wonderful, and I was keep going on to this.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: What's really interesting and very fascinating to me when I look at your journey is that you've made powerful moves in your career.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: BH was the first beauty brand on Instagram utilizing social media.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: Talk to us about that.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: When did you make that decision to bring your brand to social media and Instagram and put it out there to the world?
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: And what made you make that decision?
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, my daughter, I started working with my daughter.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: She was very young, and we used to work five days in the salon.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: And during the two days in the weekends, we used to travel around the country to promote the products.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, when you are 18, you don't want to work seven days a week.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: One day she came to me and she said, Mom, is this app that I think we should open an account for the brand?
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: And this app, we could post the pictures and promote the product because we don't have the money to promote on magazines, on TV.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that way we promote the products and we don't need to travel that much during weekends.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Every time I wanted to do something, I always thought that what do I have to lose?
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: What do I have to lose?
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't work.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: I have to try.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Fear is the most important thing that will stop people from following their dreams.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Coming from that communist regime, nothing will stop me from doing anything.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: I love that one of the biggest questions is that people get scared because they don't see immediate support.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: And you've mentioned this in the book.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: You open part two by saying, if there is no seat at the table, make your own table.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: Can you talk to us about that?
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: If you feel like you don't fit in or if no one's backing you, how do you keep pushing as an entrepreneur?
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: You have to believe in your dream.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever you do, I believed in eyebrow being the most important feature on our face.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: I studied technical design.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: I believed in my dream.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody believed at that time.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: Slowly, by doing the clients' eyebrows, they start coming back.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: If you come back and get eyebrows again and again, then you like it.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: You believe she liked the way she looked.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: This is what kept me going.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I wasn't ever willing to give up.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: I come from a line of emigrants.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: My parents and grandparents were emigrants in Romania.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen their struggle, I've seen they were rejected, they didn't fit in, they were Macedonian, they had different foods, different cultures.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't matter.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: If I didn't fit in, it's okay if you don't fit in.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: I want to encourage right now the young people that they are so bullied at school, and this is so bad for those that they do that.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: But the ones that are bullied, they should think this.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: They don't need to fit in, they don't need to be like somebody else.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: They could be their own.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: When you are young, you think, oh, I am different.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: I was young, a gymnast, so skinny.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: I never fit.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody in the school was developed with boobs and tall and gorgeous.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: I was the shortest, skinniest in class.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't fit in.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: I was passionate.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: I used to go to library, studied design, I read the books.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: I did my own thing.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: I never felt like, oh, poor me.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm depressed because I I don't fit in.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't care.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: And you'd become an adult, develop your own thing.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: You are different, and that's the beauty.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: You are different than everybody else.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's so much more powerful.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I couldn't agree more.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: That's the problem with this generation.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody's trying to fit in, and no one's like, well, you're never gonna fit in.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: You know, no one's gonna accept you.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: But that's okay.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's okay.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: You are unique the way you are.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: You have to embrace that.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: No, you built it into a billion-dollar global brand.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that is huge when you think about what it takes to scale on that level.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: What did you have to learn, unlearn along the way about leadership?
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Did you hit the plateau or you had to rethink strategy?
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you constantly need to be alert, even to these days.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: I want to learn, I want to grow.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm constantly travel, I constantly work.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: I was in Dubai, I did masterclasses.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: It was so hot and the skin was oily because it was so hot, everybody was sweating.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: When you live in a hot climate, the makeup has to be applied totally different.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: You need to clean the eyebrow before you apply anything.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: And because the product, the new product that we launched, the microstroke, will show every line better if you don't have natural oil on the eyebrow.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: I learned something.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm gonna go home and educate my entire team how they have to do the training to other social media in the stores.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's very important.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: I love to learn from other people.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: I love to learn from experience.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: So you need to be alert and adapt.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Being an emigrant taught me something valuable.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: You need to adapt to any situation.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's I that's very interesting.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: Don't panic, don't panic, don't stress, go with the flow, embrace it, change.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: But how do you separate yourself from the brand?
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: Did you have to deal with that at all?
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: I never put my ego in front of the business.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: To me, I'm the business, I represent the business.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: I learned from my mother because this is how she was.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: So my client is the most important in my business, and everything I do, I do it for my client.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously, the business is the most important thing.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: And when I take a decision, is this great for the business?
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think of myself.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Is this good for Anastasia for me as a person?
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: No, I think I will take this decision because this is the best thing for the brand, Anastasia Baby Hills.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's really awesome.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: I like that because we hear about this all the time.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: That's why I asked.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: If you would go to social media, everyone's like, work-life balance.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: You can't have work-life balance if you're building something, you have to immerse yourself.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: That's why I asked.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Let me put it this way: the only time when I don't work is when I sleep.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's reality.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: The only time when I do not work is when I sleep.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Even if I went right now to a luncheon with two wonderful ladies, yes, they were friends, but it's a business connection.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about business.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: I learned from their own business.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I always think, okay, how I could apply everything I learned into my business.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: So everything gets connected with the business.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: It makes sense.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: At the end of the day, I think it's just a matter of people, I think it's working hard, but then also immersing yourself, right?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's the culture of it.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: I would love to for you to talk about mentorship.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: I know in the book you mention mentorship.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: You say mothers and mentors make the difference.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's the title of one of the chapters.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'd love for you to speak about this, especially for women.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: Mentorship is hard to come by.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: Finding someone to teach you, guide you.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: What's your approach to that?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: And your video.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you need to find somebody you could watch.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: For me, one of the most important figures in my life was Oprah Winfrey.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I would be around her.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still doing her eyebrows.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: In many moments in her life, I was invited.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: I was lucky enough to be there and around her.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I learned just observing, not necessarily, I will sit down with Oprah, like Oprah, I want you to teach me about business.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: No, it wasn't about that.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: You need to be open to learn, observing how she does, how she talks to the people, how considerate she is.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: If Oprah is so considerate and value everybody's time, I'm like nobody.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: I have to be even more simple.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: And those are things that by observing, people think mentoring means I will teach you, I will do your business plan.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: No, you need to observe and be alert, observe people that you admire, even online, see what they do, read what events they are doing, be part of whatever business you admire and learn from what they do.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, if you are lucky enough to find somebody that will spend time with you and give you advice, you are even luckier.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: There are many forms of mentoring or inspiring people, I think.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: I know you mentioned with your daughter in the book.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: You talk about how you told her if you come in late one more time, I'm gonna fire you.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: That's a hard lesson.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: Talk to us about that in terms of how that works on people.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: I was very hard on my daughter because I wanted her to be like a Spartan, to learn that life is difficult.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: We are immigrants in this country and we have to work twice as hard as everybody else.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted her to understand that life is difficult because she used to tell me when she was like 17, 18, yeah, I don't want to work that hard.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: I want to have fun.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Life is not about having fun.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: Life is work, life is hard.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: But if you are lucky enough to love what you do, then it's easy and it's fun.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: So she didn't understand when you are 18, 19, you don't understand that, okay?
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: She used to complain, like, I am 18 years old and I work like I'm 50 years old.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, You want to have a car?
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: You want to have gym membership, you have to work for it.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Everything we have to work for it.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing is free.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: Good things, beautiful things, we need to work for it.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: So slowly she learned.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: And after I fired her, she went to work for a company.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: She didn't have enough money to pay her bills, and she came to borrow some money.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to retain her a lesson, and I said, I'm sorry, I cannot give you the money.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: Go and get two more jobs because I came in this country without speaking the language, without money.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: I still made it.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: I got the job and I'm doing something, and you should do the same.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: She was so good in what she did that I wanted her to ask for her job back, to learn a very valuable lesson.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: At the end, I said, You are so good in what to do, you are very smart and very efficient.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: I will give you the job back, but I'm not gonna give you the money.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna give you the money to pay your rent for nothing.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: You have to work for it.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: We made new rules.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not your mother when you come in the store, and I am your boss, and I'm gonna be harder on you than every other employees.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: I was quite a strict employer because I want people to learn.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: Discipline is the most important thing when you want to do something in life.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: In my 34 years in the beauty industry, I met the most incredible, talented, intelligent people.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: But to me, discipline will make you successful.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, I love that.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody talks about this.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: No one says these are the things you need.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: Every time you look for advice, everyone's talking about be positive.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, where's the hard work?
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: We need to talk about hard work.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: Being positive is great, but uh that's not enough.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's not gonna get you where you want.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: It makes a lot of sense.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me about the money aspect.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: I see this in the young generation.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: They make it big and then they start spending all of their money.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: How was that for you when you were making it big and like your investments and all the decisions you made about money?
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: How did you make those decisions?
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: What were some of the pillars?
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: I was very good with my money.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: I will spend minimum to survive.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: Everything I made, I put back into the business.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't matter if I had the beat-up car.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't care what cars people were driving in Beverly Hills.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: The bigger goal to me wasn't important what I'm driving today.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: To me, it was important that I have this dream and I want to build this business in the long run.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: BMW or Mercedes wasn't important to me because I will spend the money that rather than spending on the car, I will spend on the business and I will grow the business.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: This is how I was thinking.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: We used to live in Beverly Hills, but in two bedroom apartment was affordable, but I didn't spend money crazy.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: I had the goal, at least before I opened the salon, never take clothes to cleaners.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: I used to do my own cleaning.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: I never had a cleaning lady because I thought in my mind, why would I pay$100 a cleaning lady when I make$150?
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't make sense.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I would rather do my own cleaning and I will save the money and put it in the business, build something.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: And later, when I make enough, I could afford a cleaning lady.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: This is how my brain always works.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: It makes a lot of sense.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: In terms of the beauty industry, you've seen the beauty industry more than probably anyone else, all the ebbs and flows.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: Where do you think we're going in the industry?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like there's so many brands now.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: Every day there's a new brand popping up.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: Where do you see the future of this industry?
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: I believe legacy brands will still, because they have a strong foundation, they will still be alive and they will still be around.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: New ones be successful long term.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: Some will not, because business is not easy.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: And now it's very expensive to do business in a beauty industry.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: When I started 25 years ago to make products was way easier than is today, you know, put only tariffs.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: The amount of money you pay on tariffs, it's so high that it's very difficult to afford if you are a small little brand.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm sure some of them they will survive, some will not, but the show must go on, and who is stronger is gonna survive.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'm definitely noticing that as well.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: People are struggling in the industry, like entrepreneurs.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's difficult, it's very expensive to promote the brands, it's very expensive to make the products, and it's not easy.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: Now, my final question, Anastasia, for you if you had to pick one product from the ABH collection, which one is your favorite product?
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my god.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: If you asked me two months ago, I would say the brow, but right now we just launched the micro stroke uh brow pen, and I'm in love with this product.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: Micro stroke uh brow pen, it's amazing.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, you guys keep innovating, it's gonna keep changing.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, that's the beauty.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: We stay alert, bring new products, technology changes.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: I had the brow pen a few years ago with the brush very thick.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: We couldn't control that the flow of the ink right now.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: For in the last two years and a half, we worked with a lab that was able to fix that problem because it's not only I have the idea, but you need to find the lab to do what your vision is.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's another thing, not taking sub-por results, not accepting them and keep going till you absolutely yes.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much, Anastasia.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: This has been such an honor just to learn from you.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: I've been a fan of ABH for as long as I can remember.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: You are so amazing.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate your love and support and all the listeners.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: I hope they get inspired by my story and they will never give up and follow their dream, believe in themselves and don't give up.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Swita.
• 23:17
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