The Trinny Tribe: How Trinny Woodall built a community, and a multi-million pound business

Explicit content warning

04/17/23 • 25 min

When you’re going into business, it’s always good to bring someone along with you. How did What Not to Wear’s Trinny Woodall build a multi-million-pound business? She didn’t start with that number in 2017. In fact, the number some potential investors were more interested in was 51 - her age when her company, Trinny London, launched.

‘Trinny’s Tribe’ has also been a huge part of Woodall’s success building her makeup empire.

In this episode we talk about:

Her first business, selling bows as a 16-year-old
Age bias from potential investors
Why she stood by her plan to sell to 35+, not 20-year-olds
The value of slow retention and community engagement over rapid growth
Why being “Trinny off the Telly” didn’t help as much as you might think
The challenges faced by female entrepreneurs
Her admiration for Gen Z founders, and tips for getting global reach
The best way to get her attention.

Trinny is one of the speakers at our SME XPO event. It’s being held on the 25th and 26th of April at ExCel London – tickets are free, and there’s loads of other speakers there too, like Deborah Meaden and Charlie Mullins. AND we’ll be recording a live edition of How to be a CEO with Krept and Sasha the founders of Nala’s Baby ,the kids cosmetics brand. Go to smexpo.co.uk for more details.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

‘Trinny’s Tribe’ has also been a huge part of Woodall’s success building her makeup empire.

In this episode we talk about:

Her first business, selling bows as a 16-year-old
Age bias from potential investors
Why she stood by her plan to sell to 35+, not 20-year-olds
The value of slow retention and community engagement over rapid growth
Why being “Trinny off the Telly” didn’t help as much as you might think
The challenges faced by female entrepreneurs
Her admiration for Gen Z founders, and tips for getting global reach
The best way to get her attention.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

Jenny Taylor MBE: How to get a job at IBM (and elsewhere)… and get to the top

The boss of IBM’s trailblazing apprenticeship programme, Jenny Taylor MBE, joins us to talk about education and employment opportunities for the next generation.

As part of our new Step Up campaign, this episode was recorded ahead of the Evening Standard and WorldSkills forum with employers and education leaders.

In this episode, we talk about:

How Jenny got her own job with the company 37 years ago
Why you don’t need a university degree to work in tech
Is it possible to go from apprentice to CEO
How IBM has changed over the last four decades
How the company started its apprenticeship programme
The value of doing a variety of work experience when you’re young
Advice on improving CVs and the common mistake often made by young women – including Jenny
Her own memories of her first ever job interview

For more news, interviews and analysis go to standard.co.uk/business.

To learn more about our Step Up campaign go to standard.co.uk/stepup.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next Episode

How Atom Bank made the four-day week work

When you’re rushing to become a CEO, or have the job and are just trying to stay on top of it all, the idea of a day off may be laughable at times. But securing a fair work/life balance can be an achievement in itself. How’s this for an idea: A four-day week? Anne-Marie Lister is the chief people officer who led Atom Bank through a giant transformation in working practice. A trial at the end of 2021 was such a success they decided to make it permanent; following an increase in productivity, and a lot of talent wanting to join a bank with barely a decade’s history behind it. In this episode we talk about:

Why they did it and the research they did before taking action
How they did it in six months, but what challenges they had to overcome
The surprising reaction of some staff
How they kept staff informed through a huge range of channels as the transformation happened
How the move is working to retain talent during 'The Great Resignation', and increased the number of applications by 500%
Why they didn’t announce the move to their customers

Anne-Marie will be appearing at the Watercooler event which is taking place alongside our SME XPO at ExCel London on April 25th and 26th.

Tickets are free, go to www.watercoolerevent.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.