Transcript

The One Gut Decision That Will Change Your Whole Life! | Jamie Kern Lima

From Jamie Kern Lima · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 1 h 38 min · 18,884 words · 176 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "The One Gut Decision That Will Change Your Whole Life! | Jamie Kern Lima", an episode of Jamie Kern Lima published January 14, 2026 (1 h 38 min, about 18,884 words). It mentions 12 people, works and ideas, including why beneath the why, IT Cosmetics, Jamie Kern Lima, L'Oreal, Denny's.

What this episode is about

Jamie Kern Lima details her personal journey of overcoming her struggles with rosacea, which sparked her mission to create IT Cosmetics. Driven by her own need for effective makeup solutions, she transformed a setback into a successful business that prioritizes inclusivity and empowers individuals with skin challenges.

Key takeaways

  • Setbacks can be setups; Jamie's rosacea spurred a billion-dollar beauty empire—talk about turning pain into purpose!
  • In a world of flawless models, Jamie’s mission was to rewrite beauty norms—because every face tells a story.
  • Intuition over self-doubt: sometimes your gut knows best—even if it means leaving your dream job for the unknown.
  • Creating deeper 'whys' transformed It Cosmetics from just products to a culture shift—because purpose fuels perseverance.
  • The journey of a thousand mistakes is the path to success; Jamie's honesty about failures is a masterclass in resilience.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 10:00: IT Cosmetics, why beneath the why, achievement, Jamie Kern Lima
  2. – 20:00: achievement, Denny's, Billion Dollar Company, why beneath the why
  3. – 30:00: Denny's, IT Cosmetics, Jamie Kern Lima, Billion Dollar Company
  4. – 40:00: Jamie Kern Lima
  5. – 50:00: Denny's
  6. – 1:00:00: generational cycle breaker
  7. – 1:10:00: Denny's, L'Oreal, generational cycle breaker
  8. – 1:20:00: why beneath the why, Denny's
  9. – 1:30:00: why beneath the why, L'Oreal

Notable quotes from "The One Gut Decision That Will Change Your Whole Life! | Jamie Kern Lima"

  • Thought was my dream job, anchoring the news and sharing other people's stories. And I got a skin condition called rosacea, which for me, it's hereditary. There's no cure for it. but for me, it gets really bad.
    about Jamie Kern Lima · at
  • When we are able to really reflect and dissect how did an idea break through a crowded industry become a billion-dollar company. I think sharing all the parts that went wrong is really important too.
    about Billion Dollar Company · at
  • Seeing if you can peel back the layers more. What I didn't know at the time was having that deep why would help sustain me during what was going to be three years of not being able to pay myself.
    about why beneath the why · at
  • Grew to over a thousand employees and we eventually grew to the largest right now as you and I are speaking It Cosmetics is the largest luxury makeup company in the country.…
    about IT Cosmetics · at
  • Learned in your book and that is that you were kind of always on a quest for achievement and it was sort of how you were finding love. I mean you were and early in life you…
    about achievement · at
  • Like how do I believe I'm worthy of them yet? And it was this big season in my life. at the same time, Mel, the kitchen at the Denny's I worked at was a disaster. they would…
    about Denny's · at
  • Deeper. Maybe the real why there isn't to pay for my kids college. Maybe the why is to break a multi-generational cycle of complacency or poverty or whatever in your family and right that's a big that's a v that's a big why.
    about generational cycle breaker · at
  • Built to over a thousand employees. and when we eventually were acquired by L'Oreal, it was our largest acquisition in the US in their history.
    about L'Oreal · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Jamie Kern Lima — Person · Main guest · 3 mentions · first at
    She recounts her origin story from TV anchor with rosacea to founding IT Cosmetics, emphasizing purpose, self-worth, authenticity, and overcoming self-doubt.
  • Joel Osteen — Person · Referenced speaker/quote source · 1 mention · first at
    Cited for the framing that setbacks can be setups, reinforcing the episode’s theme of adversity leading to purpose.
    Could wipe off. And so it started this sort of season of what I thought was setback. And I think Joel Ostein says it best where he says our setbacks are often our setups for…

Companies & orgs

  • IT Cosmetics — Company · Core company discussed · 4 mentions · first at
    Central case study: founded to solve rosacea-friendly makeup needs and to redefine beauty marketing using real people; later scaled to a billion-dollar exit.
  • L'Oreal — Company · Acquirer / major corporate context · 3 mentions · first at
    Acquired IT Cosmetics in a $1.2B all-cash deal (2016), validating the business outcome and adding perspective on scaling and exit.
  • Denny's — Company · Early-life workplace reference · 12 mentions · first at
    Symbolizes humble beginnings and service work that shaped her empathy, resilience, and operational lessons later applied in entrepreneurship.
  • QVC — Company · Retail/media channel; rejection source · 4 mentions
    Represents televised commerce and a key distribution channel she pursued; also a source of early rejection.

Concepts & topics

  • why beneath the why — Concept · Signature framework / core topic · 6 mentions · first at
    Central method Jamie used to define a mission deep enough to endure years of rejection and to align 1,000+ employees’ decisions.
  • achievement — Concept · Core theme (misdirected driver) · 5 mentions · first at
    Discussed as a coping strategy for seeking love/significance; contrasted with fulfillment through service and deeper purpose.
  • Billion Dollar Company — Concept · Outcome / milestone concept · 4 mentions · first at
    Used to contextualize the scale of IT Cosmetics and to motivate sharing the 'messes' and leadership lessons behind the success.
  • generational cycle breaker — Concept · Purpose example / motivational frame · 3 mentions · first at
    Used as an example of purpose beyond job titles—breaking cycles of poverty/complacency or repeating parents’ absence through overwork.

Places & events

  • Miss Washington — Event · Biographical milestone · 1 mention · first at
    Cited as evidence of Jamie’s early achievement orientation and public-facing success before entrepreneurship.
    Early in life you were a very driven person. You were the high school validictorian. You had a 4.0. You went on to become Miss Washington. You competed in the MissUSA pageant.…
  • Miss USA — Event · Biographical milestone · 1 mention · first at
    Referenced to illustrate her pattern of striving and external validation through accolades.
    Driven person. You were the high school validictorian. You had a 4.0. You went on to become Miss Washington. You competed in the MissUSA pageant. You were a well accomplished…

Full transcript with timestamps

Jamie, spend a few minutes if you will and reorient our listeners and our viewers to your early journey and what came to the the confidence, the bold confidence that you and your co-founding partner and your husband decided to employ to develop it cosmetics. What was the mission?

Yeah. So, you know, our entire mission started with this season of what I thought was setback in my life. And um you know, my my whole life I I wanted to share other people's stories with the world. So, when I was a little girl, I would watch Oprah in my living room. And I was eventually working in what I thought was my dream job, um, anchoring the news and and sharing other people's stories. And I I got a skin condition called rosacea, which for me, um, it's hereditary. There's no cure for it. Uh, but for me, it gets really really bad.

So, I get uh red bumps that feel like sandpaper all over my face, and I would be anchoring the news live. I'd be in the middle of the newscast and I'd hear in my earpiece from the producer while I was anchoring the news live. I would hear there's something on your face. You got to wipe it off. You got to wipe it off. Um, and I knew there was nothing I could wipe off. And so it started this sort of season of of what I thought was setback. And I think I think Joel Ostein says it best where he says our setbacks are often our setups um for for what we're supposed to do. And we just don't always see it at the time. And so just by nature of trying to solve my own problems, I started trying to find makeup that that would work. And I tried everything from the cheapest to the most expensive that was out there. And I couldn't find anything that would work for me. Uh and I had this big kind of moment, this this dilemma in my own

career where um I had this this feeling, right? Sometimes things just start with this gut feeling um where I was like I if I can figure out how to create a product that works for me, I bet it's going to help a whole lot of other people. Um so that was what my gut told me, but then my head said, "Oh, no, but you're in your dream job." And also, you don't know anyone in the beauty industry or that space at all. And then of course all the self-doubt stuff that we all uh that we all have, right? With thoughts like you're not qualified. Are you smart enough? Do you have what it takes? You don't have enough money? All those things. You don't have enough connections. So, I went through this phase where I kept having this this gut feeling like I was supposed to do it even though it didn't make sense. And it's interesting because I look back now at so many of the key decisions that changed everything that helped us break

through with a business into a crowded industry. It's also a lot of moments where I just chose to trust that intuition over the lack of of proof of success around me or or over my own self-doubt or um all of that. So, anyhow, I'm in this moment where I'm like, okay, um I just had this realization, Scott, that like sometimes in life knowing when to let go of a dream is as important also as knowing when to go after one. and I made the decision to trust myself and I was just like I just can't shake this feeling I'm supposed to do this. Um and so on my honeymoon flight to South Africa, my husband and I both wrote the business plan, came back, quit our jobs, went allin and the mission um I would say there's so many things that I I did wrong on the journey, right? Messes as as you would say and I talk about all those for the first time ever because I think it's so important. Um, I think when we are able to really reflect and

dissect how did an idea break through a crowded industry become a billion-dollar company. I think sharing all the parts that went wrong is really important too. So I do that in the book as well. Um, but when we we got back, we quit our jobs, went all in on this this brand, and I had this big big big mission, right? You have interviewed so many thought leaders that talk about identifying your why as a business, as an individual with a goal. And you know of all the things that I did wrong which were many in the journey. One of the things that I I did right was from the beginning um like I could have had a why that was oh I want to solve my own skin problems or oh I want to help so many other uh women who have the same challenges and can't find makeup that works for them. And both of those things would sound really great and be great wise.

What I know now is those wouldn't have been deep enough uh to keep me going and keep all of our eventual thousand plus employees focused because those wise weren't actually deep and meaningful enough. And one of the things that I did right that I really encourage everyone to do as a leader, as an individual human being with goals, um, is, you know, I took this this why and I peeled back the layers of it and went really really deep. And I did that from the beginning almost to the why beneath the why. And for me, here's here's what I realized, Scott, is wow, why can't I find makeup that works for me, right?

Why can't I find a product that works for me? I realized my whole life every time I had seen TV commercials or ads in magazines, I I never saw anyone that, you know, had skin problems like I did, I always saw, you know, models with with flawless skin. And uh so which which when you see those ads, you don't even know if they're really wearing the product they're selling. You don't know any of that, right? But when I peeled back the layers, I realized, oh, my whole life seeing seeing these ads of of what the world tells me beauty is. I always aspired to look like them. Like, I love I loved those ads as a little girl, but they also always kind of made me feel deep down inside like I wasn't enough. And when I realized that, I created this mission around the company, not just to create great products that work and do what they say, but to actually try to shift culture in the beauty industry around how they how the

beauty industry defines beauty altogether. And so I had this vision from the beginning because this wasn't being done at the time. What if I put real people as models? All ages, shapes, sizes, skin tones, skin challenges, show my own uh what the world tells me are flaws, right? My own bright red rosacea and take my own makeup off and show how the product works. What if I can call all of these real people beautiful and mean it? And what if I can help shift the way the entire beauty industry sees beauty for every little girl out there who is about to start doubting herself when she sees the ads and the way it's been done and for every grown woman who still does. So it was this deep why. And one thing I I just want to share on the topic of leadership is identifying like the why beneath the why I think is so important because I think a lot of people stop at a why that sounds good or looks good on their mission statement

wall. But really going deep with it and seeing if you can peel back the layers more. What I didn't know at the time was having that deep why would help sustain me during what was going to be three years of not being able to pay myself. um three years of of hundreds of nos, right? Because when we finally poured all the money we had into creating a product that worked, I just thought, "Oh, it's gonna sell. Everyone's going to love it." And then what I encountered was all of the retailers in the beauty space who I I love them, shopped, have shopped in them my whole life. All of them said no. or that, you know, no one will buy makeup from models that aren't aspirational traditionally or change the packaging so it's more luxurious. It was no after no after no after no um for three years and we got down to no money and you know I had this really deep authentic foundational why for why I was doing what I was doing that I knew

it needed to to change. I knew the industry needed to change and it helped me keep going. But also, every time one of those retailers would say, "Change who you are and what you're doing if you want to get into our stores." Um, I I was super clear on the vision and I know you can't fake authenticity. So, so in those years of constant rejection and having that why really helped me. It helped me lean. I leaned on it. Every time I would get knocked down, I needed to get back up. And then eventually without skipping over a million stories but just just to share this part when we grew to over a thousand employees and we eventually grew to the largest right now as you and I are speaking It Cosmetics is the largest luxury makeup company in the country. But that why beneath the Y I eventually had it on little frames on every single employees desk. Some people had it as their screen saver. It became

this guiding force on how we make decisions across departments whether it's do we launch a new product or not or do we have a certain messaging or how do we build our teams out. So super important part in terms of the mission for for everything and that was really foundational from the very very beginning.

Jamie you are a superb storyteller. Your positivity and inspiration is contagious. I love this quote from Jill O. You say sometimes our setbacks become our setups. I've also heard it sometimes a disappointment leads into an appointment. Before we talk about it cosmetics, I'd like you to rewind a bit and share this concept that I first learned in your book and that is that you were kind of always on a quest for achievement and it was sort of how you were finding love. I mean you were and early in life you were you were a very driven person. You were the high school validictorian. You had a 4.0. You went on to become Miss Washington. You competed in the MissUSA pageant. You were a well accomplished television journalist. Unpack this insight that you share around how perhaps your achievement of accomplishments and accolades was an attempt to find love.

Yeah. I uh lifelong journey on figuring that one out. And um yeah, so I I went through growing up with parents who worked super hard, like really really hard. I was the first person in my family to ever go to college. And you know, I started working really hard at a young age. So pushing grocery carts in the Safeway grocery parking lot. And I eventually was a waitress at Denny's to to pay my way through school. And I always had so so two things on that, Scott. Um, I always had this feeling inside like even when I was waitressing Denny's, I didn't want I didn't know one day I would be running a billion dollar company and have a, you know, billion dollar exit to to L'Oreal and all those other things. But I did know inside that I I've always felt um I think God makes every one of us special. And I always had this feeling inside like I was, you know, made for more, whether it was to give or to

serve. Um, I had something in me to offer the world. But I I I still doubted myself and for many years of my life and actually it's probably a lot of people think my book is just how did you build a billion dollar company. It's really a book about how do you go from not believing in yourself to believing in yourself and not trusting yourself to trusting yourself and and and and hearing your own gut and trusting it because I think that's really foundational for leadership but also whether you want to build an amazing life or an amazing company um or an amazing team. Um, but that's very different than this idea of I I need to achieve um to have love, which was a big theme in my life. And I didn't realize that until I was an adult. Um, I grew up with with parents that worked all the time. And I uh realized, not I wasn't fully aware of this, but when I would achieve something big, um, that was when

they would show up, right? And so I can look back and recognize that now. Um, and what I realized is for a big journey of my life, I equated like, oh, I've got to win um uh to matter or I've got to achieve uh to um to matter, i.e. to feel love. Right? So I look back and I realize that was a definite pattern. And I think for every achiever out there, whether they're type three on the enagram or they're just simply, you know, so driven, I think the biggest thing that has been, and on top of it all, and I share this in the book, for the first time ever, in my late 20s, I found out by complete surprise that I was adopted. Um, and I went on this multi-year search trying to find my birth mom and also trying to um trying to learn how to forgive and all those things. is I so anyone who's ever had kind of the rug pulled out from underneath them um by someone that they thought they knew or or loved or

trusted, I I talk about that journey of forgiving and healing as well. Um and you know I think that um it's been a lifelong journey of trying to understand the need to achieve uh and and how sometimes we can equate that to love and separating that um from I'm enough right separating I'm not enough I need to achieve uh to find love uh to I'm enough. And this is going to sound, I guess, soft to talk about, but I think this is an issue that impacts as many men and as as it does women. I think it's an issue that especially impacts leaders and CEOs because by nature they're achievers and by nature they're driven. And one thing I talk about in this book a lot is coming to the realization that when you are an achiever and you're just trying to get the next thing and the next thing and the next thing, it's never enough. and it never actually brings fulfillment.

Um, and until what you're doing is completely bigger than yourself and in service to other people, that's really where joy and fulfillment in life comes in. It's also where joy and fulfillment as a leader comes in. It's where joy and fulfillment uh for your own teams comes in, right? To go back to like the why beneath the why. I mean, it was so much bigger than ourselves. um to to shift culture in the whole beauty industry for every little kid who's about to start doubting themselves and every grown woman who still does um is a very bigger than ourselves why that every person on our team once we grew and grew and grew could deeply identify with. So being in service for something greater than ourselves, I believe is one of the the the pieces of our secret sauce that allowed us to enter an industry of giants, pass all of these people people used to say you could never break into the beauty industry because all the

department store uh floor space was controlled by a small number of giants, etc., etc. And we were able to break in and pass all of them. And I believe a big part of that is because the the authentic reason for why we were doing what we were doing was bigger than ourselves. A lot of companies will have a why that's attached to sales or you know they think rewarding employees with bonuses and this and that is enough uh to have retention. Um but I really believe how we scaled is because the the why was so much bigger um than ourselves in service uh was a was a big component of it and it was authentic right and I think the same thing for anyone who's an achiever in life um I think the same thing is true is a lot of times people continue who are achiever-based continue to accomplish and accomplish and achieve and get praise from the outside world because they have what the world tells them success looks like um but they're

not fulfilled. And I think that you know step one is becoming aware of it. Oh wow. I actually have thought accomplishment or achievement um is significance or is love and being aware of it being like that's not true because and we know it's not true because it never feels fulfilling when when we achieve another thing right and then taking the step beyond to realize like oh yeah when I when I live my life in service of others when I approach the day with um how can I give how can I serve Um who I think it was my friend Brendan Bashard that said like when you walk in a room instead of saying look at me um you say I see you right when we switch our mindset to that whether it is in the workplace or in our daily lives. I think that is one of the foundational steps to overcoming that whole achiever thing because and it doesn't mean you're less competitive um at all at all. But it means that your your competition shifts

and what I mean by that is I talk a lot in the book about this journey of competition, this journey of how I saw the competitive landscape. um this journey of how I made sure I didn't get distracted by what our competition was doing and let it tempt me or my teams to dilute their own secret sauce. And I talk a lot and believe it about realizing like really realizing this lesson that I believe in every ounce of my being, which is that as individuals, we're not here on this earth to compete with anyone else. We're here to compete with the person God made us capable of becoming. Right? And when I think of who God made me capable of becoming, I know I'm nowhere there yet. And I know that person, while I want to give and serve and all that, who he made me capable of becoming kind of has nothing to do with uh titles or accolades or things I achieve or money in the bank. It's am I serving at the highest level? Am I using

everything that he gave me to be to live in a life of service that actually makes a difference for other people? And so for me, when we measure our own um achievement that way, that's when it becomes fulfilling. Um and so it's been a big life lesson for me. And I still right now, and I'm sure Scott, you do as well, know so many people that the world tells them every day that what they're doing is successful, but they're not happy. And I think it's because they haven't crossed that threshold from achievement uh for themselves to none of those things matter. What matters is am I am I living a life in service that that's greater than myself? Am I using all the gifts and talents that I've been blessed to be born with to live a life in service and and make a difference? And that can come at the core of every for-profit company and for-profit leader as well as of course nonprofit and everything else. said that that's an

internal like leadership is an internal job. First, I want to go back in time because, you know, I've heard you on the stages that you speak around the world talk about how you started as a waitress in Denny's

and then from waitressing at Denny's pursued a dream that you had of being on television. And as a fellow former waitress, I would love to start there.

Yeah, waitress at Denny's. Um, full uniform name tag to prove it. Oh, I forgot they had uniforms.

Full uniform. Uh, what was your favorite thing on the menu? Oh gosh, I love the pancakes. You know what? Just like simple. Um, it's so funny how our steps are ordered, I think, in life. And so often I remember being a waitress at Denny's. I remember feeling and and maybe um maybe someone uh listening to us can relate to this right now. You have this feeling inside of you like there's something more I'm supposed to do, but you don't know what it is yet and you doubt it might be possible. And I remember being waitress at Denny's and just feeling like I have these big dreams, but not quite knowing like how do I believe I'm worthy of them yet? And um it was this big season in my life. Uh, at the same time, Mel, the kitchen at the Denny's I worked at was a disaster. Like, they would take an hour to get pancakes out. So, I learned to talk to people so that they wouldn't leave. They often did leave. Um, or

they'd throw like a dime and a penny on the table and leave as your tip is if it's your fault.

Uhhuh. But it's so funny how, you know, years later when I ended up launching my own business, I'm like, "Oh, I've got to get the operations right or nothing else matters." you know, it's just those little things we learn along the way. Um, but yeah, after after that, I I um I thought my whole life I would I would have a talk show. I watched Oprah in my living room growing up. So, I thought for sure I would share other people's stories with the world. So, I went into uh you know, did all the jobs, saved up all my money to to pay through uh pay for school and and um push grocery carts in the grocery parking lot, sliced meat in the deli, all those fun jobs, and then found myself in my what I thought was my dream job working in TV news. And I thought, "This is it, right?" And what I didn't realize was I was about to enter this huge season of setback in my life, um of self-doubt. Uh I have a skin

condition called rosacea. And for me, it started getting really red, really bumpy. Uh, and I would be anchoring the news live thinking like, you know, okay, this is it. This is it. And I started hearing in my earpiece, uh, from my producer, there's something on your face. There's something on your face. You need to wipe it off. You need to, and I was live on television, right? And I would glance down during the commercial break and I saw, oh, the makeup is breaking up on my face and these big red bumps are coming through.

And it started this season that felt like setback. Um, but so often in life, the the seasons that feel like setbacks are actually setups for what we're called to do. Okay, stop right there. Did you hear that?

The seasons of your life that are setbacks are often setups for what you're called to do. I want to just make sure everybody heard that. And I want to take a a highlighter and also highlight something that you said about being a waitress at Denny's and it's this. You said our steps are ordered.

Mhm. So, can you explain what that means particularly to somebody who's listening?

Yeah. Who may feel like I know I'm meant for something greater. Yes. Why the hell am I at this step and this does not feel like it is like on the path of where I'm supposed to go? So what do you mean by the fact that our steps are ordered?

Yeah. I believe you know everything in life y is happening for us even when it doesn't make sense.

Um can we just what do you mean happening for us? So to somebody that's like really in it Jamie.

Yes. Yes. What does that mean? Let me frame it around our topic of purpose. Right. So often people feel empty because they feel like, "Oh, my purpose needs to be some job. It needs to be my job or it needs to be this this grand thing I haven't figured out yet." But for those of us that have accomplished a goal we always dreamed of, we get to it and we're like, "Oh, this isn't it." Right? It's never, in my opinion, purpose is never this this big goal necessarily. Purpose is so often when we're able to serve the person we once were or serve in a way for something we've gone through. And here's what I mean. Uh I think our purpose can be like, "Oh, wow. I went through a really freaking hard season in my life and I now am actually realizing I'm born to be a generational cycle breaker in my family." Mhm.

That is an incredible purpose, right? Purpose can be like, "Oh, I've been having a hard season for a long time." And when I actually just take a minute and say hi to someone else who's lonely, maybe it's like in the in the coffee line at Starbucks, maybe it's the the the neighbor down the street, whatever it is, you feel in your gut a sense of fulfillment, like a sense of alignment when you're doing something in your purpose. And I think that the big mistake people make is they think it's this end goal, right? A lot of times when people uh hear my story and they hear the oh Denny's waitress builds billion-dollar company, they think my purpose was to be some big entrepreneur.

It wasn't. It wasn't. What was it? In the journey of how I did it, I took this massive risk, right? Taking my makeup off on national television when I was told not to. um and and being brave enough to be seen and helping other women realize uh that they're worthy and enough exactly as they are, seeing them as who they are. To me, that is my purpose. And in doing that, um it just a byproduct of that with it cosmetics is we built a company with millions and millions and millions and millions of customers. Uh and what's wild is 5% of our customers actually have skin issues like I do. 95% don't.

It's just that they felt seen and connected with something that spoke to their soul. Right? For me, being willing to say, "Here I am exactly as I am, no makeup, and you know, all my skin issues." Um, I think people connected with that that feeling of of, "Oh, I'm enough exactly as I am." You know what else I think is a really important part of your story? It is waitressing.

Yeah. It's pushing carts in a supermarket. Yeah. It's working in the back house of a restaurant. That's my story, too. Helping my best friend on her paper route. Uh busing tables. And I think when you work in retail or you work in a service job.

Yeah. And you feel at times invisible, you start to realize how important it is to treat everybody with respect and kindness. Yes,

that there is no work that is beneath you. And when you can bring that level of service to the job that you have right now, even if you hate it, even if treat people treat you like garbage, even if the the the the back of the house is not getting those pancakes out on time and people are angry, if you can bring a sense of grace and service and just humility to those roles, I think it changes how you show up when things start working out because you don't ever forget what it's like to be treated like [ __ ]

Yes. Because somebody was mad that their pancakes weren't out on time. Yes. Yes. And also, you and I have had this experience where we've truly gotten to see and be almost every type of person in every type of environment. And so now it's like whether it's me building a business or you building one of the top shows in the world, one of the top shows in the world. Um, I feel part of that was like, oh, we understand who who's listening and watching you right now. I understand who real people are who built, you know, who who bought my products and and and so when you mentioned steps are ordered, it's like, you know, no matter where you are in your life right now, what you're going through, I believe every piece of it, whether it's, oh, someone just, you know, cut me off in a parking lot and screamed at me, or oh, whatever it might be you're going through, all of those things are happening for you. I believe

so that you're amassing this toolbox of understanding uh and getting strong enough and equipped enough for the purpose you step into.

Amazing. So, professor of purpose Jamie Kern Lima right there. That's your takeaway number one. The steps are ordered. Believe in that.

And this moment is helping you. It's giving you something. So, that is one major tool that you used along the way. Let's go back to that moment because I think you were 28 years old, right? when you're sitting on television in Seattle.

Yeah. You are a local news anchor. You're living the dream. You're on your way and you are now starting to have this nightmare happen.

Yes. Where your rosacea is breaking through on camera in front of everybody. The makeup that they put on you.

Yes. And you've got people in your ear telling you there's something wrong with your face.

Yes. and you're realizing, "Holy cow, the makeup that they've put on my face cannot cover the rosacea and the skin issues that I have." So, what do you do in that moment?

Well, the first thing I did was start freaking out, right? And I like literally I started entering this season of self-doubt where I would be live on the air uh anchoring the news, thinking thoughts in my head like, "Oh, am I going to get fired? Are viewers changing the channel right now? Like, am I costing the the company ratings?" Right. So, it was this

Could you feel those moments when you could feel like the makeup not kind of like disappearing? Like there were moments when I used to be a commentator for CNN, I was premenopausal where I could feel the hot flash coming.

Yeah. I didn't feel it until they set it in my ear and in my earpiece. And then what would start to happen was I would get so nervous and stressed out cuz I kept trying to cover it um during commercial breaks. I could feel my heartbeat in my ears. So I what I remember is like anchoring the news live and and you're and sometimes you have to be happy tell this happy story or or you're serious telling and I just remember my heart beating in my ears hoping people weren't turning the you know changing the channel and and it started this this thing where I you know would spend what you know it's funny I was I was um

anchoring the news and people think when you're doing that you must have all this money but you really don't get paid much at all and I I took my little paycheck that I had and started spending it on um department store makeup professional artistry, makeup, drugstore. I couldn't find anything that worked. And I had this idea one day like, "Oh, if I can't find anything that works for me, uh there's probably a whole lot of other people out there that feel like makeup doesn't work for them." And it was sort of this idea where I was like, if I could figure out how to make something that worked for me, um it help a whole lot of people. And that was my my knowing or this this this gut feeling, but then my head Mel was like, "Oh, but you got no money. You got no connections. you know, no one in the beauty industry, you're unqualified. So, I sat in this place, right? And I just want to, we're talking about purpose. I

had this gut feeling like I was supposed to go for this thing, but then my head was like, "Oh, but here's all the reasons why you're not qualified to do it. Plus, you're in your dream job, right?" And I sat between those two. And it wasn't until I had this big big aha moment of why I needed to do it that pushed me over the edge.

Okay. So, what is the aha moment? Yes. So, so, so I realized one day I'm like, "This makes no sense. There are thousands of makeup companies out there. How does nothing work for me?" Right? Then I had this moment where I realized I've never seen a model with bright red, bumpy skin saying, you know, selling makeup and like you always see these photoshopped airbrushed models. And I realized, Mel, like, wow, my whole life I've actually loved those beauty commercials, and I love seeing the magazines and and I always aspired to look like them, but but deep down inside, they always made me feel like I wasn't enough.

And I had this moment. I was literally on the news set when this happened where I was like, "Wait a minute. What if it's not just about launching a makeup product?" Like, like, "What if I could actually figure out how to do it?" Which I had no idea how and I had no money, but it's like, "What if I could actually launch a product that works for me?" And what if I actually put real people as models? Like every age, shape, size, skin tone, skin challenge. What if I use them as models, call them beautiful, and mean it for every little kid out there who's about to start doubting themselves and and and every grown woman who still does. And that deep source of pain from from from how I was feeling not enough and what could I do about it? That in my opinion is one of the strongest ways to find your purpose. It's it's what has just destroyed you or hurt you that you've maybe made it through.

Yeah. And how can you now use that making it through to help someone who's going through it?

Okay, that's like a mic drop moment from our professor of purpose Jamie Karn Lima. So again, I like to unpack these things to make sure this is a this is a I always say this is not just a listening podcast. It's a doing podcast.

And I want to make sure nobody's left behind. Yes. And there was billions of dollars worth of wisdom that you just dropped. And so I want to try to unpack it for anybody that is listening to this and you have this sense that you're made for more. So, one of the things that I heard is look in your life and see what problems or frustrations or things that you're struggling with that feel like a setback. And Jamie gave you the example of the rosacea on her skin and her inability to find something that actually could help her solve this issue of being able to cover it up so that she could do her dream job. And that setback is a setup for something new. and then get out of your own sort of selfish or self-loathing or the self- excuses and the self-pity and remind yourself that there are 8 billion people on this planet now. There are other people that are dealing with this.

Yeah. And that if you can figure out how to put your energy into making this better for yourself and you bring other people into the fold with you, you now have something that's worth working on

because it helps you and it's going to help other people. And I also want to point something out that Jamie will not tell you, but I sure as hell will. And that is that this was about 14 or 15 years ago. So we're talking 2007208 correct?

In my opinion, Jamie Kern Lima is the reason why we have this real beauty movement. There always has to be the first person and she was it. So when you look around the the internet and social media and you see people doing naked faces, that was not something people did in 2007. It was all airbrush. It was all perfection. That was the beauty standard. There were no plus-size or curvy models. That was not a thing back then. And so you've got a woman who is sitting in Seattle who has no experience and no money deciding that she is going to not only figure out how to create a makeup line for people who have issues with their skin, but that she's going to do something nobody has ever done, which is put real normal people like you and me into her campaigns when she finally gets this figured out. and she's going to show people what her skin actually looks like in order to sell it. I mean, that

was a revolutionary idea. She was the first. And I'm telling you this because you could be the first. You have something inside of you that is a problem, something that you can solve, and you could be the first to change the way that people think about an issue. And so Jamie, let's pick up the story because how do you go from this aha moment like, "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god."

to doing something because I think some of us have aha moments, right? Yep. And then we doubt we don't do anything.

Yes. Cuz we doubt them. We doubt them. We think like, "Oh, someone's already done it." Yes. Or, "Oh, whatever." First of all, if you're out there right now and you think, "Oh, you have an idea or or a way you want to show up in the world or or or someone else you you know you want to help, but you think, oh, someone's already done it." Literally, there's only one of you in the entire universe, which by definition means no one has ever done it the way you're going to do it. So, when I launched this,

say that again, Jamie, for the people that are like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Kids, calm down." Uh, I wait, Jamie just said something. I was doing my dishes. Say that again. Talk about the fact that this matters. This is huge because I think the biggest reason we talk ourselves out of things is we think, "Oh, someone's already done it. someone's already done it before, you know, who must be smarter than me or more talented or more whatever it is than me. And and what I have learned and then proven and I want to tell you too about all I'm going to get so excited.

Mel, because no, when you do this thing like don't be shocked then when there's millions and millions of rejections and people don't get it, right? Um uh uh because it's never been done before, right? Oh, yes. Because there's only one of you. There's only one of you doing it the way you're going to do it. But but just to recap that there is literally only one of you in the entire universe, right? And so if you are going to show up to this world authentic, that means whatever you do, if it's authentic to you, it's actually by definition it's never been done before,

right? And so when you show up that way, don't be surprised if not everyone gets it right away. Or, you know, in my case, all the experts I put on pedestals all said no. that this idea of of of how I wanted to um connect with women, they thought it wouldn't work and they thought I wouldn't therefore make them any money. Um so, but can I ask you a question real quick?

How did you go from the aha Yes. to starting? So, what did that look like? Like cuz I think like if you're in this space where

you know, let's just use an example. You've never actually you don't know the f you you you have this thing about catering that you just can't get it out of your head. You want to do these events. You want You've never actually done this cuz you had never

Yes. done anything with makeup. You had no idea what you were doing. Y you have an idea

and you have an aha moment. What was the first thing that you did to start to make this real? So leaning on that why I had to do it and why it felt like it was going to be part of my purpose was a big thing that helped me actually take the risk, quit my job.

Wait, you quit your job because you had an aha moment? Yeah, it was deep. I was like if I had

What did it feel like? It felt like um it felt like if I didn't do it, I would wake up the rest of my life with this pain in my gut, this longing knowing I was created for more. Um it felt like if I didn't do it, I would have the pain of regret. And if I did do it, I might have the pain of failure and maybe the pain of embarrassment and then maybe the pain of, oh wow, that wasn't that doesn't feel like it went how I thought it was. You know, I knew it was this big risk. I knew I was leaving what I thought was my dream job.

Why did you have to quit your job? Just curious. It was literally from day one, I was all in. Like, it was I dove all in. I knew if I was going to do this, I needed to just go all in on it. Um, and you know, I I started I do not recommend this, but I started working like 100 hour weeks from the beginning. I was so freaking passionate about it. Like I couldn't stop thinking about what if I can actually figure this out? What if I can literally because it was it became a big

So did you have any savings? Like do you have a little bit of savings? Because you didn't pay yourself for the first three years that you did this

first three years. So basically my husband and I wrote this business plan, right? Um quit our jobs, dove all in in our living room. We poured all of our savings into it. I thought Mel, and this is this is for someone watching us right now. I know this. I thought if I can figure the product out, it's going to be huge,

right? And then I realized like, oh, being an entrepreneur or or or launching a dream is not always that easy. We put every penny we had into it and I once we actually created a product by and we were scrappy if you want.

How did you create a product? Like are you in your kitchen buying stuff at the grocery store or how does this even work?

Okay, so no. So, so first um I love that you know technology is right there, right? So researching how are makeup formulations made, who makes them, what are the FDA regulatory compliance, all the unsexy stuff I know nothing about. Just diving into the research phase of how does this happen? And then what I learned is that uh manufacturers are are makeup company's closest held secrets, right? Like closest held secrets, they won't disclose who they work with, but a lot of these big manufacturers work with all the top brands that you see or a handful of them.

Gotcha. So I started So are you saying that all of the brands and top brands that you see are basically manufactured by a handful of companies?

Yes. Handful of companies and then some do it in-house as well. Um so what I did was scrappy. I walked into a Sephora. I wrote down the name of every single brand in there. Went home you know I had no money, right? Cold call every single brand and saying like oh um I'm looking for a really great manufacturer. Could you let me know who you manu? And then they hang up on me. You know what I mean? one after another after another after another and I got this really small brand in a totally different kind of positioning where the girl who answered said, "Oh, here's who we use.

They're in New York City, blah blah blah." So, that was my first manufacturer. Reached out to them, had a meeting in person, uh had no money, poured this idea out to them. They took a a risk making me samples. Uh and that's how it started was just really being scrappy. Um and and trying to figure it out. all of our money had went into uh the product development formula and the advisory board of the product and I thought okay now we have a product that works for me right this was after hundreds of formula iterations I thought that was going to be it

so is this like year one or year two like how long did this take yeah it took a good first year to get that product and then what I started doing was sending it to everyone I thought was just going to believe in me instantly so I sent it to Sephora and and Ulta Beauty and all the department stores and all of the online retailers, QVC, which is, you know, live television shopping channel. And I thought, "Oh my gosh, this is going to be huge." Every single one of them said no after no after no after no. And to your point, it became three years of not being able to pay myself. Three years of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of nos of crying myself to sleep at night.

Were you and your husband like fighting like crazy like, "You should go back to work. You should Why do we do that?" Like, were you like doing that?

You want to know what it was? We still believed in it, but we weren't sure how we were going to make it. It was like friends and family that were like, "Uh, wait, you quit your job? Are you sure you should have quit your job?" Or, "Wait, you still haven't made any money?" Like, it's been three years, right? So, you hear all of this, the voices get so loud.

Um, the loudest though were my own self-doubt. You know, sometimes we take a chance and go for something because our gut is telling us to do it and then all of a sudden you face all this opposition and you start to question, is my gut wrong? Is my knowing wrong? And there were so many times where I would literally get this another brutal no from, you know, Sephora or QVC or whoever it was. And I would just literally cry myself to sleep. Um, I would pray about it and be like, "God, I feel like I'm supposed to be doing this, but nothing is going right." You have greatness inside of you. You have greatness inside of you. And I want to share this message with you, especially if you're someone who feels like, oh, your past or your past mistakes are going to hold you back from your future or that somehow where you come from is going to somehow determine or limit where you're going, right? Or that

maybe you feel like, cuz so many of us do this, we tell ourselves stories like, "Oh, I've failed too many times. I have too many regrets. You have no idea the mistakes I made, the people I've hurt. You have no idea the things I got wrong, the times I let other people down, the times I let myself down. And we start focusing on this story and we decide that our past somehow now disqualifies us from all of our potential, from all of our goals and dreams, from all the things that we feel deep down inside in our soul that we're put on this earth to step into.

I want to talk to you right now. If you feel like somehow you've made too many mistakes or your past is I is going to prevent you from succeeding in the future or that you've failed so many times that now you feel like you're a failure. Okay, here's the deal. every single one of us and especially if you just take a moment and you Google right now, the most incredible thought leaders in the world, the people that have moved humanity forward, the people who have built incredible businesses, the people that have, you know, helped heal humanity as a force for good or a force for love, and you read their stories, every single one of them has had so many failures, so many mistakes, so many setbacks, has been cancelled.

big time and whatever version the society called cancelled in that in that time period, right? Every single one of them. But they're the brave ones willing to acknowledge and not let it take root in their identity and not let their past determine their future. So, I want to talk to you today if this is you. If you feel like you've been hanging on to a story that tells yourself things like, "I don't have what it takes because I've failed too many times." Or, "I don't have what it takes because people keep rejecting me, I must just be a reject."

Or, "I've failed so many times, I must be a failure." Or, "I'm so ashamed of of of the people I've hurt or the things that I regret in my life." And when we hang on to those things, we let them take root in our identity. And then we start to believe the lie that who we are isn't worthy. And that those things somehow prevent us from a whole different big, bright, incredible future that we're actually meant to step into. Your past mistakes do not determine your future potential. They just don't. You know, a couple stories. So, I uh I share in worthy by the way, there's an entire chapter called you have greatness inside of you. And this chapter is going to be life-changing for anybody who feels like you've made too many mistakes or you don't have what it takes or you've let people down or hurt people or you've failed too many times or people have rejected you too many times. This is an entire chapter about how to tap into the

greatness inside of you and not let your past determine your future. This is so big, y'all. You know, I have made a lot of times when people Google my story, they see, oh, Jamie Kimma, you know, went from Denny's waitress to building a billion dollar business, and it looks like a fairy tale, and it looks like maybe things must have just come easy, or maybe I was raised in a family where I was just set up to do that. And let me just tell you, I have made more mistakes in my life than I can ever count. I made more mistakes building at cosmetics than I can ever count. I have made mistakes growing up hanging around the wrong people. I made mistakes growing up when I had really low selfworth and I confused attention with love.

I made a lot of choices that I share by the way for the first time ever unworthy. A lot of choices in my life that do I regret. A lot of choices I've never shared with anyone cuz I was ashamed of what happened. a lot of choices that led me to hanging out with people that were not good for me and also just like you know keeping people in my life who hurt me because I didn't think I was worthy of more. There were times in my life I remember waitressing at Denny's. I remember, you know, um I had these big dreams, but I just felt like somehow people like me who come from the way I was raised, like don't ever have big dreams happen to them.

And here's the thing I know is that when it comes to your life, when it comes to your dreams, your goals, your careers, your ambitions, like we don't over time, we don't perform to level of our potential. We actually plateau at the level of our self-worth. And so learning to do the work to first identify like, oh wait, okay, let me just look at all the evidence out there of all the people that have ever done incredible things. Oh, they have pasts, too. They've made so many mistakes, too. They've been rejected so many times. They've failed so many times. But they keep going and look what happens. Right? Just looking at that evidence, right? Changing that story. Changing the story we're telling ourselves about our past and how it does not have to determine our future is step one. And also just being aware, being aware of the story that we're telling ourselves, right? And then making the decision to believe the truth. Because

here's the deal. When we believe our past disqualifies us from everything, A, it's a lie. B, it's a thought and a story we're telling ourselves. And our thoughts and those stories live in our minds, that's where self-doubt lives. But when you tune into your soul, you and if you feel that feeling like you're on this earth to do great things, to love, to serve, to give, when you ask your soul, whether it's for you, you pray about it or you meditate about it, whatever is is your practice of choice. But when you tune into your soul, for me, I pray and I will hear the truth. My past does not disqualify me. My past does not determine where I'm going. It just doesn't. And and who I am fully is enough. And you right now does not matter what's happened in the past. If you tune into your soul right now, you get really still. You can pause this video, pray, meditate, whatever speaks most strongly to you, and you tune into

your soul, right? You're going to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are special. You are one of a kind. You are fully worthy. You have greatness inside of you. And your past does not have to determine your future unless you decide to live there. You decide to live in the past. Focus on the past. Then it becomes a huge thing. It magnifies and it takes root in your identity. But right now, and I go in deep in how to do this and worthy right now, you can literally make the decision. I'm not going to focus on that anymore. I'm not going to believe that old lie, that old story that I've made too many mistakes, so I'm a mistake. Or I've failed too many times, so I'm a failure. Or I've been rejected so many times, I'm a reject. Uh-uh. That is a lie. That it's time to unlearn.

Okay, so awareness number one. Number two, just really paying attention. What is that story? And making the decision, I'm not going to focus on that story anymore. Mm-m. I'm not going to I'm not going to believe the lie that my past or my past mistakes are going to determine my future because they don't. And then step three is tuning into that truth that knows. It knows what it knows what it knows, which is that you right now are fully worthy, fully capable, have everything you need inside you right now to accomplish the greatest dreams and goals on your heart. And the most important journey you can ever take is building your self-worth up and learning to believe that for yourself. So the new story is the true story. The new story is the true story. The new story is that you right now are not your past mistakes. You right now are your present and future intentions.

Your present and your future intentions. That's who you are. That's who you are. And you can decide who you are right now. You can decide what you're going to step into and the person you're going to be born to be. Because at the end of our life, right, I always think about this. I don't want to look back and go, "What has self-doubt cost me?" and have the answer just be so much I can't even handle it. I want to look back and go, "Yeah, I failed. Yeah, I put myself out there. Yeah, I got rejected." But like I'm one of the brave ones that I left it all out on the field. And look at the beauty and the magic and the incredible moments in my life that came as a result of being the one out there on the field, giving it my all, making the decision that my past, my past mistakes, my past failures do not define me. And I am fully worthy of stepping in to the person God made me to be. The person your creator made you to

be the person you know in your soul you're born to be. What would you the most important uh trait would be for success?

I think besides believing in yourself because I think that's we've spoken about that so much. Um

yeah I think a I think I can give you three things but but give me three. I really think that and it's not just believe not just believing in yourself believing making the decision to believe success is possible for you. I think that so many of us just think we're not qualified um or we don't have what it takes or we don't come from the right family or we don't come from the right background or we don't have the right education or we don't have the right experience. all those things and I think we talk ourselves out of it and I think making that decision to believe it's possible is huge like huge um some of the things that that just come also top of mind is you know I talked a little bit earlier about um when I was building at cosmetics and how it wasn't just about you know finding a product that worked or was I think that so many people can be great at setting goals And so many people have done enough

reading or listened to enough podcasts where they understand the concept of like identifying your why um behind what you're doing, right? Which is like your mission for doing it.

The biggest mistake I think a lot of people make though around this um and it's why they give up or they stop their health journey or they uh whatever it is, quit quit the business or or never start it. I think that a lot of people identify a why um that they think is the right one and it sounds really good and if you share it with someone else it sounds really good like maybe it's like oh I'm doing this because I want to um buy a house or I'm doing this because I want to pay for my kids' college one day or and those are great wise right like they sound so great they make so much sense but often they're not deep enough and they're not meaningful enough to make sure you don't quit when times are tough. And of all the things I did so many things wrong, one of the things I did right was like the you you have a why, but you have to peel back the layers and go really really deep, right?

So I I I shared like for me like wanting to shift culture and beauty and and and and help help end that that process of every little girl about to start doubting themselves, every grown woman who still does and shift culture and that that was really deep for me because my whole life I'd felt that not enoughness every time I'd see those beauty images. That was way more deep for me that that mission to do that for other people than it was to go, "Oh, I want to buy a house." or oh I want to create a great product or whatever it is and I think a lot of people they've got to go deeper like I think I think they start you know whatever it is and they have a great why but like they've got to put I I suggest I recommend because a lot of people do don't do this is putting in that work of going deeper and deeper and deeper.

So what the purpose the real true purpose is versus just like a surface level. Yeah. Yeah. And some they know it like maybe it's like oh I want to you know I I want to pay for my kids school.

But if that's all it is right there for some people that's not enough. And an example I'm making this up. I'm making this up but if someone says oh you know what I want to peel back the layers deeper. Maybe the real why there isn't to pay for my kids college. Maybe the why is to break a multi-generational cycle of complacency or poverty or whatever in your family and

right that's a big that's a v that's a big why yeah and that could be the same person right but they thought their why was to pay for college and it's easy to then go oh you know what I'm saying but when it's that deep

but a lot of times people don't even know that why yet they have to go down the path first a little bit further to really kind kind of unravel what was pushing them. Like a lot of times like what for me anyway and I know with a lot of people I know you know you go down a path for one reason and your your reasons change as you kind of go through it, right? And you morph and grow and then you really find the real why.

Yeah. And I think totally and I think that's true. I I think when you get to a spot though where you're like, I just want to quit this. And if your gut is telling you to keep doing it, that's when I think it's the time where you also have to then go deeper and like, you know, I want to quit, but my gut's telling me not to, but like why is it I want to give up? And then just like, you know, in those moments, you know, figure out what is that deep deep deep why that fuels you. Um,

right. That I I agree. and you always knew well you had two things going for you. I think the first thing is and we didn't even touch upon this at the beginning of the podcast but you created uh your cosmetic company because there was you had a need for it. You had you had rosacea that you you you couldn't find any product to actually help you. So you were kind of feeling an ailment that you actually had. Right.

And a lot of Right. And a lot of times I feel like when people do that when they're feeling when when they themselves are needing of something and then the the best products usually bloom from that

and and having the why. Did you have that why at a young like because but reading your book you had a work ethic. I know you were like in the in your yearbook you said you were like the queen of procrastination or you were like dubbed that. Yeah.

But over time you became your work ethic became extremely clear like what a strong work work ethic you had.

Um do you feel like that was a huge part of why you're successful as well is because that that like 100hour weeks and and kind of grinding like you did like you just weren't going to take no for an answer

no matter what. I think I think I think not taking rejection personally was huge. Um uh which I can share about in a minute. I don't think someone needs to work 100 hour weeks to succeed. I don't think they need to work a third of the amount of hours I worked to have the kind of success I did. I think when I look back it's one of the things I actually wish I did differently um with the number of hours I worked. Yeah. Because I don't you know I pray every day. it hasn't taken a toll on my health and all those things I don't know but what I realized is that you know when I fin after three years of solid nos not paying myself when we finally um many years after that started actually you know things were doing really well and our accounts were thriving and we were getting into all these stores I couldn't process at the time or maybe a better word is I didn't know how to believe at the time that the success was

And I worried at every single second it could all come crashing down. And it's another form of imposttor syndrome, right? Where

I was going to say Yeah. And and and so I drove myself so hard because I thought, oh my gosh, like I need to strike while the iron's hot. Like like all of that, right? And it it never led up. and and and you know it was a decade before I realized oh

I actually didn't yet believe I was worthy of this success. So, I couldn't believe that it was happening. And it wasn't until I learned to believe it was real, to believe like it's possible for me, it is happening, I have earned it. All those things um that I was able to better prioritize stuff that I was able to make bigger decisions like, you know, we tried to have a baby. I tried to get pregnant for 10 years and, you know, had miscarriages and so many things. And when we finally um welcomed our daughter, she's 2 and a half years old now, wonder into the world, I you know, I was raised with parents that work so hard all the time and they were often not around. And I just made this decision like, oh wow, I'm repeating that cycle and I'm not going to do that uh for my daughter and it's going to be okay and my success is going to continue. And it was really just making those big, you know, shifts um around

that that I was better able to do it. But I don't think uh anyone needs to ever work 100hour weeks. I did it from a place of I couldn't believe this success was happening and I was just driving it so hard because I had a fear it could all come crashing down. And you know, when I was a waitress at Denny's, I could have never imagined um at the time, you know, I always knew like I was supposed to serve in a bigger way and impact and things like that, but I could have never imagined um I would have a thousand employees and, you know, sell my company for over a billion dollars cash. Like those kind of things I couldn't imagine. when they happen to us, it's it's how we react to it

is a whole other thing, right? And um and so that is that's why I did that part. Um so

I like that you say that. I think that's really true and real because um the imbalance right when you work that much you're giving like the this the amount of stress like you were saying you were trying to have a baby and like you were so overworked your body was like shutting down probably in some way or because of your hormones or probably your cortisol levels you know I mean so unhealthy um and yet it was I think a lot of people can relate to what you're saying it's that you most people do that because they don't feel like it's real, like they that that imposture syndrome is such a real thing.

Yeah. Um and that's what motivates people to do that, right? Um Yeah. And I think like, you know, I think that not feeling qualified, not like, you know, all of those things, right? And I I think that I think it's so important we're talking about it too because I think a lot of people who feel it who feel imposttor syndrome, you know, which is like, oh, I'm not qualified to be doing what I'm doing or I don't deserve to have clients trust me or I don't, you know, all the things we think, right, depending on on our own life situation. But like I feel like it's human and I feel like um it's important to talk about it too because a lot of people feel it and they think they're alone in it. You know what I mean? And it's like knowing all through it. And um and for me, you know, I started assembling like a toolkit of things that I would go to like imaginary toolkit like quotes, sayings, stories

that I would go to when I start feeling that. And um you know for me and I I think this is universal regardless of of people's faith or whatever but every time I'd start doubting myself or feeling like not qualified or any of those things um to be doing what I was doing yet I felt like uh it was my calling to to be doing it and my mission and my purpose. I felt like a calling but so many times I would doubt I was qualified. And there's these famous words I I would always go to that would help me. I'm going to share them in case they in case someone out there needs to hear this right now. Um,

and the word the the famous saying goes like this. Um, God doesn't call the qualified. He qualifies the called.

And I would read those words over and over. And to me, they mean if regardless of your faith, to me, they mean if you have this this this thing you can't shake in your gut, like you're supposed to start the the the group of moms that gets together and just shares the real stuff over wine. whatever it is you feel this thing you're supposed to do. Uh start the, you know, the the the book, start all those things. Like I believe it's start the business, leave the job you're in, all those things. I think that if you can't shake it, I think it's part of your purpose. I think it's part of your calling. And to me, if something's part of your calling, then it's like if God doesn't call it qualified, he qualifies the called. To me, that means you have everything you need inside of you already, right? to actually accomplish the calling you were born to walk into. And so

when I do doubt myself, which I still do to this day, those are words that I always reference that help me um and so many other other lessons I share in the book on things that help and just um because

I love that quote though. It's beautiful. It's a really good one. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. Why I brought up Oprah was because it I think when people are watching you, you've kind of come out of nowhere in terms of the thought leadership space, which is amazing. Like a year ago, people didn't really know who you were necessarily outside of the beauty industry, and now like she's everywhere, which is fantastic. But like authenticity is the word that just keeps coming up over and over and over again. And your your your courage, your willingness to to bear it all and share your story.

It's what I what I think of what you did in the in the beauty industry reminds me of what Oprah would have done if she was in the beauty industry.

Just like that throughine of I guess still what would Oprah do? Um so I just thought it was curious that she was your kind of hero or one of your heroes growing up and sitting there in the car think about the color purple. Does that resonate? Like I think if Oprah was going to go makeup, she would have it be the every woman on the show, not just the fancy models.

Yeah. And I think that her whole life is about authenticity. You know, one of the things um absolutely it resonates. Yeah. Thank you, by the way, for saying that. That's like the biggest compliment in the world. And you know, um yeah, the whole personal growth space. I mean, I remember 20 years ago, I was I was a waitress at Denny's and I would save my tip money at Denny's to buy Tony Robbins personal power tapes and attend my first ever seminar. And uh I've always loved and believed like it helped me then believe that where I I come from doesn't have to determine where I'm going. And I I love I just feel like I'm a lifetime student with everyone else. And you know, I went through a decade of of starting a business with nothing and going through years and years of rejection and then figuring out how to turn every no that I faced. How to not take those nos personal and there were some personal nos, but how to not take

them personal. How to turn them into yeses and went through the process of building a team of over a thousand people leading departments. Made a lot of mistakes. I worked 100hour weeks for close to a decade and there's things I would do differently. Um, and you know, then we went through the process of the acquisition process. So, L'Oreal acquired our our business for um, in this allcash deal in 2016 for $1.2 billion and went through the whole exit process. And, you know, I I feel like why I wrote this book, why it might feel like I'm popping up out of nowhere, because there's a lot of people that are amazing at motivation and inspiration.

And I think for me, I've actually been heads down like building a business for a decade, right? In the sense of like all the rejection, the resiliency, making lots of mistakes and then doing lots of things, right? And you know, I had this big realization about two years ago. For for five years, uh, I would have different lit agents approaching me to do a book. And I always said no because they're like, "We can get you a ghostriter." And I'm like, you know, no. I I know that you can't fake authenticity. And if I ever do it, I want to pour my heart and soul into it.

I want it to matter. I want it to be, you know, everything I wish I had known. That would have saved me a lot of self-doubt. That would have saved me a lot of nights crying myself to sleep. And so, I always said no to doing a book or a movie, all that stuff. And then about two years ago, I realized something. I realized that every single day on Instagram, I was getting messages. I was getting DMs from people saying, "Oh my gosh, you know, congrats on your business and all this, but like did you just get lucky?" Or like, "Did you have a lot of connections because I'm not getting traction in my business and I'm getting rejected and embar I'm embarrassed to ever tell anyone about it. I'm thinking about quitting." All those things, right? And I realized, Evan, that oh my gosh, like everything I've gone through in the past decade, but also in my whole life, if we keep it inside of us and we don't share it like

like then people just see the highlight reel. And when people Google my story, they just see Denny's waitress builds billion dollar entrepreneur or builds billion dollar business, right? And then people feel alone in their own struggles and in their own setbacks and in their own, you know, everything. And I was like, okay, I think that if I actually share all the real stories behind the stories, um that maybe it'll help other people on their own journey. Be like, oh, this is what Jamie did when someone said, "No, no one's going to buy makeup from someone who looks like you because of your body and weight." This is how she handled staring fear and rejection straight in the eye and keeping her faith bigger than it. Like I share so many stories in here that aren't for me.

You know, I'm donating 100% of the proceeds from the book, 100% to um Feeding America and to together rising. I just I literally wrote this I wrote every single one of the 80,000 words in it because I just felt like um you know I think everything we all go through when when we can make it about something other than ourselves when we can make it about something bigger than ourselves when it can help other people that's really where our fulfillment comes. Um whether it's little things we do every day or or big things like writing a book. So that's really why I wrote it.

So, it's so funny because uh because uh you're like, "You come out of nowhere." I'm like, "Oh my gosh, I've been doing 100 hour weeks for 10 years and like I think of I think it's been this this crazy journey." Um and and by the way, you know, uh this started by literally Evan, I don't know if anyone knows the story but when I knew I I knew it was time to write the book, I knew it was time to step away from the company I built in my living room and it was so hard. I love the team like like family, right? We built over a thousand employees and across the country and and and world. Um and so uh 3 days after it was three days, how many days? I don't know how many days after leaving the business, I was like, "Okay, I want to just do something I love. Let me go to a personal growth event." And I I I bought tickets to Brendan Bashard's event. Had never met him. And brought a couple women I mentor. I mentor a lot of other

women and friends. and I had the these these tickets to the event and he had a speaker fall through a couple days before the event and he sent a group text out to his friends and he's like, "Does anyone know of a you know a great speaker?" And somebody had nominated me and he and I end up getting on a phone call. He's like, "Could you hop on stage to do an hour keynote speech? There's no script, no teleprompter, nothing. You're just there's a few thousand people in the audience. You'll be live. Can you just hop on stage and do an hour keynote?"

So, I'm freaking out. I don't know Brendan, right? I don't know. I'm on the phone with him and I'm like, "Absolutely." Like, "Yep, for sure." And then inside I'm like, "Oh crap." Like like I'm like freaking out. Um, and then I tell him, I'm like, "Well, I don't know if you know this, but I'm actually I already have tickets to the event, so I'm going to be there anyway." He's like, "What?" He's like, "What?" I'm like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I bought tickets. I'm bringing a couple women I mentor. We're sitting in the audience."

He's like, "You're you're" and I'm like, "It's this funniest thing, like the most serendipitous thing." And that day I hopped on, this is talking about popping up in the personal growth space, but I hopped on his stage and and did an hour keynote. All of us were sobbing. Yes, that picture. So, this picture, I totally forgot this, Evan, in this moment. This picture cuz so Simon and Schustster want me to do like a professional photo shoot, right? which is what you do as an author, a proper photo shoot. I'm like, you know what?

What if we just share a live moment, real where we're where we're we're in real connection with other human beings. This that day I'm talking about, it's so funny. You're so smart, Evan. Oh my gosh. This is why everyone gets advice from you. So, this day was on his stage. I popped up live, did the did the hour keynote. We're all laughing, crying together in the audience. And and yeah, a picture taken by Maggie Maggie Kirkland. uh who was there just snapped this photo and like let's use a real moment. Um so that was really fun. Then I got off of the stage and and Brendan came over a couple days later, met my husband and my daughter and uh and that was I guess almost two years ago, year and a half ago. Um and now I talk to Brendan every single day and now he's one of my closest friends and amazing.

And uh uh a few months ago, Tony Robbins asked me to speak at Business Mastery and and then he and I ended up doing three hours live together uh which wasn't planned. And um and so that was a big full circle moment, especially going back to the Denny's days where I would say my tip money to buy his tapes. And so it's it's been a wild year. It might feel new, but it also kind of feels like, you know, I think everything we do in our life, um, even when we don't see it in the moment, the setbacks, the hard times, the things that suck, the things that aren't fair, I feel like they're all setups in the long term for how strong we need to be and for what we're supposed to do on the next step of our journey.

I love it. Can you tell me kind of I'm just curious, how long did you have this idea in your head? Well, it was a couple years because I was just trying to find anything that would work. And um you know, one thing that happened that sort of put me over the edge um that I think is really important just to share, especially with anyone out there who whatever phase they're at in their their business or their entrepreneurial journey, um is early on I had a blessing that I look back now and go, "Thank goodness that happened." And it's really what put me over the edge to to really launch this thing and go for it. And you know, we hear so many amazing thought leaders talk about your why and identifying the why of your your business and your brand and your mission. And what I know now because I' I've now had the the gift of just meeting tens of thousands of entrepreneurs over the years. And a lot

of people I think they think their why is strong enough, but they haven't actually done the work to peel back the layers and like go deeper and get to the why beneath the why. that's so powerful that they can lean on it when the times are super tough and they're tempted to quit. And when I look back at this moment after having this idea for a couple years, one thing that that happened so I guess serendipitously um or out of sheer grace I should say is that you know initially I thought like oh okay I can just create a makeup product that if it works for me it'll probably work for so many other people.

So my why could have very easily been like, "Oh, I'll I'll solve my own problems, but I'll help so many other people, too." And I think a why like that is why so many entrepreneurs fail. And here's what I mean by that. Because when we share a why like that with someone else, they're like, "That's great. That's so virtuous. That's awesome." And then we think it's enough. We think it's enough. If we have a why that's I'm going to help people or this or that because, you know, I did want to help people. But what happened and and I want to I want to call this out for anyone listening because I think this is really important. Challenge yourself.

Whatever you you believe your your mission or your your your personal why is for for your own company. And this isn't something that has to be part of your mission statement. I'm more talking about as a founder. your personal why for why you're doing what you're doing or perhaps why you have a big goal um that you're working on is take your why but then literally go deeper like peel peel peel back the layers and try to go deeper to the deep why beneath the why and in my case what happened is I realized like at this one moment and this is what put me over the edge to launch everything was like I was like I don't understand this makes no sense that there are so many companies. Why do none of them work for me? And then what I realized was like, wait, I've actually never seen a model who has like bright red rosacea selling makeup products, right? And then I started thinking about growing up as as a little girl. And what

I realized is every time I would see the beauty ads on on television or magazines, like I love them. I aspired to, you know, look like them. But at a real deep level, they always made me feel like I wasn't enough. And I had this big moment where I realized like, okay, I want to launch products that work. But what if what if when I launch a beauty company, what if I can actually put, you know, use real people as models and and like all different ages and shapes and sizes and skin tones and skin challenges and and call them beautiful and and mean it. And what if I could actually like like shift the definition of beauty in inside the entire industry um for every little girl out there who's about to start doubting herself and and every grown person who still does. And it was kind of this huge crazy idea for someone that was sitting there with no money, no connections, not sure how it was even going to happen. But I got that

deep deep deep deep why that was so not just painful but really meaningful purposeful for me. Um and that came early on and you know after I I jumped into entrepreneurship and you know poured every penny I had into it. I didn't know it would be three years before I could even afford to pay myself at all. I didn't know that I would get hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of nos. And I think that as founders, as entrepreneurs, as people with big dreams on our heart, we need like a toolbox of things we can pull from that help us maintain our resiliency. And and and for me, I think one of those real important tools was was was really that that deep deep deep meaningful why where I realized, okay, what I'm doing is bigger than myself. It's not just about me, right? And and the last thing I'll say to this really quickly because I think sometimes people think their why has to be some like global grandiose, you know,

thing. Sometimes your why, your deep why may have nothing to do with your actual company, but your deep why may be like, I'm gonna be the first person in generations of my family to break a cycle of poverty or of lack or I'm going to be the first person that, you know, um, uh, goes for it and doesn't let self-doubt hold me back in my entire family, right? It could be there's deep wise or I want to show my children what it looks like to go after a dream. There's a lot of different wise beneath the why, but I think identifying one of those that really truly hits home is such a key because being a founder or an entrepreneur at any stage, right? I've I've kind of seen a lot of different stages from no money, no one believes in you, you're about to go bankrupt for a few years to, you know, private equity investment and massive growth to we built to over a thousand employees. Um, and when we eventually were acquired by

L'Oreal, it was it was our largest acquisition in the US in their history. Um, and then I was part of the largest beauty company in the world as well. So, it's kind of like I've seen inside all those and they and they all come with their challenges. Um, but I think no matter what phase you're at, having that deep deep why beneath the why is super super important um to do the work for. It's worth spending the time in for sure.

Let's just be honest. Do you know why 99.9% of dreams die everybody? You eventually get too much rejection. So if that's the thing that's going to cause you not to get your dream, 99.9% of the time it's just there becomes a threshold that you people don't take the rejection long enough. So they don't stick around to receive the grace. And so if that is true, if we already know that going in, then why not pre-negotiate in the in the very beginning what price you're willing to pay? Hopefully it's anything as long as it's legal, ethical, and moral. So that the the the 99.9% of the reasons why your dream won't happen, you've already set in your favor if you've just decided you'll take the rejection.

That's why it's such a big part. How do you take the rejection? You got to believe it. And that's why this book is so powerful. So we lead to this point, guys. And again, the beautiful thing about Jaime's story is it's her vulnerabilities and her authenticity that made the brand relevant all the way up to the extreme magic moment. Don't hide your insecurities. Don't hide your blemishes, guys. Figuratively and literally in your entrepreneurial journey. Get people wanting to root for you. Your fears and insecurities are what connect you with the marketplace.

Ironically, you don't have to hide them. You can work on them, but there's nothing wrong with saying, "I have them." So finally somehow you get this moment on QVC right and you are so brilliant in this moment you ask them I'll let you tell the story but to me it's like if you don't do this thing again maybe it still doesn't hit all the way to the last second the last moment it was your vulnerability that connected you with the audience. So everyone listen so closely to this woman who sold her company for a billion dollars plus.

So here we go take us to the moment. So yeah, one of the big and one of the biggest lessons in in my whole life came down to this this moment where we finally got a shot on QVC, right? And so, you know, we had heard no from them for a couple years. And even uh Ed, I got their head guy and named Alan Burke who' built this billion-dollar division in QVC of beauty and he's a legend, like an icon. After, you know, two years of nos from them, I finally got him on the phone and I thought, "Oh my gosh, if he's giving me a few seconds of his time, like this is good." like it's going to be a yes finally. And I'll never forget on the phone he says to me, you know, we've reviewed your products with with our whole buying team and it's unanimous. You're not the right fit uh for QVC or for our customers. And so instantly I go into like, oh, but I am the right fit. Let me tell you why. And I start like pour like pitching my heart

out, right? And uh he thanked me, thanked me for loving QVC and it was a no. So that was like one of the most memorable nights because I spent I don't know if you've ever had you know bad news and business or something like that and you wake up the next morning and you're like oh [ __ ] it's like you hoped it was a dream and and it wasn't right. It was like that for three days in a row. I just knew in my gut we're supposed to be on QVC and it it's so and I knew for years because I thought Ed, oh my gosh, I can go live and unlike all those ads I've seen my whole life that that I don't even know if they're real.

Like let me show real women like my mom and my friends and my like let me show real women and I believed it and yet everyone kept telling me no. And finally to get Alan Burke on the phone and here literally I'm not the right fit. When you hear those words, it sucks, right? And by the way, like anyone who's ever been told they're not enough and is tempted to believe it is why I wrote this book. Because there's a lot of people that work really, really hard. And there's a lot of people that still don't quit. They keep going. But like making that decision to believe that you can and that your dream's possible. For me, that's huge. And I just like made the decision to believe it. And I kept and every time I got rejected, whether it was from Alan Burke at QVC or any of the retailers for year after year after year, like I would still approach them as if it was going to be a yes and send them sales updates and send them product

launches and they're like, "Who the f is?" And I'd keep like I just made that decision. So three years into this, we finally got this yes on QVC. And what happened with this yes and this one shot is literally one of the single greatest lessons I've ever learned in life and in business. So, it it you know what this meant was we had one chance to sell our product in this 10-minute window live on QVC. And you know, for anyone unfamiliar with QVC, um who might be listening, it's it's a live television show and it's broadcast to 100 million homes.

There's no script, no teleprompter. And what I learned, Ed, right before I went on is that you're given 10 minutes in the case of the segment I got, but that's not a guarantee, right? If you go live and let's say a minute or two in you're not hitting the sales goals, your clock cuts live. So you might be a minute or two in thinking you have eight minutes left and you're not doing well. Boom, you're down to one minute. And you know, you can calculate in your head how much money you just lost and what that means. So we get one shot, we get a yes.

And this is like huge, right? Because I knew I knew in my gut like this is supposed to happen. And I'm going to show real women live. I'm going to shift culture and beauty. Like, I knew it. And here's what happened. We got a purchase order. Uh, and I quickly learned, oh, we were only selling two to three orders a day on our website, right? Packing them from our living room, just trying to survive down to no money. Well, for a 10-minute window at QVC, uh, we had to sell over 6,000 units of our concealer to hit their sales goal or not come back and their consignment in beauty. So, what it meant was if we didn't hit those numbers, we didn't sell in that 10-minute window. Everything that we didn't sell got shipped back to us and we weren't paid for it. So, and you know, you should never accept a purchase order. You can't afford to lose. But in this case, it was like we didn't know how we're going to make it either way.

So, I thought, okay, this is our one shot. This is going to like be life-changing, right? So, we hired these thirdparty consultants that are amazing and they're experts and they help a lot of people sell on television and in retail stores. And, you know, we worked with them on, okay, how do we produce our 10-minute window? And and the craziest thing happened, right? When when we know what we stand for and we think that we're going to stand for it when it comes down to everything on the line, but then someone else tells you that that's not going to work. It's really hard not to question our own values and not to question our own intuition. These experts told me um you know in order to succeed, here's what you need to do. You need to use this type of model. And it was it was the the perfect flawless skin, the models I'd always seen in TV ads. And I would say to them like, well, but that's actually

not why I created this this brand. like like and I would tell them, you know, imagine if you're 70 years old sitting at home and you see someone you can't even relate to that doesn't look like you. How do you know the product's going to work for you? Or, you know, I have rosacea or 70% of people have hyperpigmentation. if they don't see someone that looks like them. And we would get into it and argue and fight and they wanted they wanted me to win like but they were literally giving me the very best advice through the lens of their own experience. And the thing the thing that I wish I knew um so that I know now but this would have saved me so many nights crying myself to sleep is sometimes even experts even even the people that are touted visionaries right and they really are and they would never admit this but they still often can't imagine in their subconscious something succeeding if they haven't seen proof

that it has before. Right? And that would have made the rejection sting a lot less because if you're doing anything authentically, anything that hasn't been done before, anything differently. People often can't even imagine it succeeding because of their own limit, right? And so all of them told me to do it and they're like, "Listen," and we would fight. We we got into it and they're like, "We want you to win." So, I was in this moment where I flew out to QVC in Pennsylvania uh a week early before this one shot on live TV to either, you know, hit their sales goals or or basically go out of business. And I went all alone and sat in this rental car um in the QVC parking lot because it literally felt so heavy.

Like, I knew what my gut was telling me to do. Yeah. But in that moment, I hadn't seen any proof that it was right. No proof in the form of sales anywhere. I mean, we're doing two to three orders a day for three years in. Uh no other retailer saying yes. Everyone telling me you're not this enough or that enough. And

but those moments in life where we still have that knowing, it's so easy to doubt it. And it's so easy to think we're wrong and to not trust it anymore. And I sat in this rental car praying and crying and literally asking God to take this from me because it felt so heavy. I felt like everything came down to this moment. And honestly, I was tempted to go against my own gut. I was like, "Okay, well, maybe if I listen to what they're saying, right?" Yeah. Like maybe I'll I'll do that and I'll do really well for a while, then I'll try it my way.

And I just sat in that car and it didn't feel right. And I just kept praying about it. And I would imagine like who my customer was on the other end. And for some reason, I don't know why, I kept imagining um this single mom in Nebraska who was like folding laundry and way too busy to remember that she mattered and that she's beautiful. And I just had this moment I'll never forget the rest of my life in that car, that rental car where I was like, it was just like it hit me like a ton of bricks where I was like, you know what? I would rather go on live television. I would ra if she's gonna give me two seconds of her precious time and look up at her TV screen like I would rather her see me up there showing real women who look like her calling them beautiful and meaning it and have her buy nothing. I would rather do that than than sell a shitload of product and like stand for nothing.

So I knew what I had to do, but sometimes when we know what we have to do, it doesn't mean it's easy to do it. And honestly, like I was I was freaking out. I was so prepared. I had this demonstration on my wrist I was going to do that shows how our product doesn't crease in the top two department store ones do. And I get to the the live studio. I walk in, we have our 10 minutes um and I go out there on the set live with the host and I'll never forget Ed the clock was like was it 10 minutes and it's like 9:59 like [ __ ] like I'm on like this is happening right and I was trying to and I felt literally sweat all the way dripping down everywhere. I didn't want to talk about that. I was free and I'm not nervous for television, but everything was on the line and I was trying to do this demonstration. I had practiced a million times in my bathroom mirror and my hand was like this. And I was trying so hard to do it and the host

was like, "Thank you, sugar." And she pushed it under and we w I remember the moment my barefaced Yes.

bright red rosacea came up on national television, right? And I I remember walking over to these real women and calling them beautiful and meeting it. And there was about like 1 minute left in the cell in the in the 10-minute segment. And the host was like, "The deep shade is almost sold out. The tan shade, we're down to 200." I was like, and then I remember literally right at the 10-minute mark, the soldout sign came up diagonal like across the screen and tears like start streaming down my face. And I remember my husband Paulo, he came rushing through the double doors and I'm like sobbing and I'm like, "Real women have spoken." And he's like, "We're not going bankrupt." And I was like, and that one airing turned into five that year, 101 the next year, and then we did 250 live shows a year. So I've done over a thousand live shows myself on on QVC, and we grew the largest beauty brand in QVC's history.

And it is right now at this moment to this day. And I only share that because it was three years, right, of them saying no and you're not the right fit. And no one can tell you you're not the right fit. You know what I mean? And sometimes I feel like

we hear those every one of us has heard that in some form or another that you're not the right fit or you're not enough. And I feel like those aren't the moments where you give up. Those are the moments like you get back up and with God and grace and grit like you keep hustling and you keep going and you keep following your knowing. Um and and and one more little thing uh to share with you just on the topic of full circle moments. Uh Alan Burke who is the head like legend after we launched on QVC, right? He's the one that said no and I was crying myself to sleep three nights in a row and he told me I'm not the right fit for QVC, all that kind of stuff. after we launched on QVC, um I ended up getting to know him really well and he became not only a dear friend but literally one of my greatest mentors in my entire career. He is right now to this day one of my greatest mentors and you know he's the one that built that

billion dollar beauty multi-billion dollar empire at QVC for beauty. When he retired from QVC, we hired him in a paid position on our advisory board. So Ed, the the guy that rejected me was now working for me. Like no one can tell you you're not the right fit, right? And so anyways,

you're amazing. You guys listen to me on this. I went and I got to say I love you. It's one of the great stories of all time told by the person still living it. Why do you need to get the book? I'm not selling the book, guys. I'm just telling you. Why do you want to get the book? Why do you want to follow Jamie? Because she really did it. Do you know how rare it is in the business entrepreneur self-help space that it's not someone theorizing about things they think would probably work but they've never applied? She did this. So what's in this book is gold. You don't have a lot of people on earth who have done what she's done. And then even fewer are like let me teach you how I did it and how I think. It's very rare and it's why today's such a gift to be doing the show with you. I have to just tell you, it's interesting cuz we've met a couple times in green rooms or backstage and different things. And just so you know,

Jamie is so kind and has so much humility and you can't find anyone anywhere who has a bad word to say about her. She's just a a beautiful spirit. And so I knew the story a little bit and then I knew you were going to be on the show. So I was prepping. I already know the work that went in and I know the result, but I went and watched the clip when you showed your rosacea, right?

Yeah. And I found myself, even though I know what happens, I was like, got butterflies in my stomach for you now, even though it's years later. I'm kind of saying quiet prayers for you. And I already know that you won. But it was just, it's such a poignant moment to go through all of that rejection. And I think you're giving so many people hope that you stuck to your guns about your beliefs as well.

Ladies and gentlemen, rock this house and welcome to the stage, Jamie Kleman. Baby K limo.

Every single one of us has had someone tell us we're not enough. Every single one of us has had someone say words to us that

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "The One Gut Decision That Will Change Your Whole Life! | Jamie Kern Lima"?

Jamie Kern Lima (Guest), Scott (Host).

What is "The One Gut Decision That Will Change Your Whole Life! | Jamie Kern Lima" about?

Jamie Kern Lima details her personal journey of overcoming her struggles with rosacea, which sparked her mission to create IT Cosmetics. Driven by her own need for effective makeup solutions, she transformed a setback into a successful business that prioritizes inclusivity and empowers individuals with skin challenges.

What is mentioned in this Jamie Kern Lima episode?

12 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including why beneath the why, IT Cosmetics, Jamie Kern Lima, L'Oreal, Denny's, achievement. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "The One Gut Decision That Will Change Your Whole Life! | Jamie Kern Lima"?

The episode runs 1 h 38 min; the transcript is about 18,884 words in 176 timestamped sections.

More from Jamie Kern Lima

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 24, 2026.