Beauty, Burnout, and Bitcoin with the Original Influencer, Michelle Phan
11/19/19 • 22 min
Michelle Phan was a creator and influencer far before those were even a thing. In 2007, while working as a waitress and struggling to make ends meet to attend art school, Michelle began posting beauty tutorials on YouTube. Her infectious personality and creativity quickly garnered her millions of subscribers. She went on to found IPSY in 2011, a beauty sample subscription service that was valued at $800 million dollars in 2015. She also was one of the first creators ever to launch her own product line, which she did in 2013, launching EM Cosmetics in partnership with L'Oreal.
Michelle has received countless accolades, including being named to Forbes 30 under 30 and Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People. Yet, the demands of all of Michelle's fans and business partnerships, as well as the vanity as a beauty industry, led her to burn out in 2016. Faced with a choice of her career or her mental health, Michelle chose herself. She took a digital hiatus that shocked her millions of fans.
In 2017, Michelle came back to the public eye, but this time on her own terms. She exited IPSY and purchased EM Cosmetics from L'Oreal, relaunching it with full creative control and ownership. Today, she is completely self-funded and contract free for the first time in her more than decade long career. On this episode, Michelle talks about the importance of creative control and learning to say "no".
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Michelle Phan was a creator and influencer far before those were even a thing. In 2007, while working as a waitress and struggling to make ends meet to attend art school, Michelle began posting beauty tutorials on YouTube. Her infectious personality and creativity quickly garnered her millions of subscribers. She went on to found IPSY in 2011, a beauty sample subscription service that was valued at $800 million dollars in 2015. She also was one of the first creators ever to launch her own product line, which she did in 2013, launching EM Cosmetics in partnership with L'Oreal.
Michelle has received countless accolades, including being named to Forbes 30 under 30 and Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People. Yet, the demands of all of Michelle's fans and business partnerships, as well as the vanity as a beauty industry, led her to burn out in 2016. Faced with a choice of her career or her mental health, Michelle chose herself. She took a digital hiatus that shocked her millions of fans.
In 2017, Michelle came back to the public eye, but this time on her own terms. She exited IPSY and purchased EM Cosmetics from L'Oreal, relaunching it with full creative control and ownership. Today, she is completely self-funded and contract free for the first time in her more than decade long career. On this episode, Michelle talks about the importance of creative control and learning to say "no".
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Previous Episode
Keeping It Real in Business and Fashion
Julie Wainwright is a true Silicon Valley veteran. She has been the CEO of multiple tech companies, including two public companies, and is currently CEO of The RealReal, an online luxury consignment site. Julie took The RealReal public in June of this year, and is one of only a handful of female founder CEOs who have accomplished that feat.
After working as a turnaround CEO for companies in tough times, The RealReal was the first company she founded from the very start. This gave her the chance to craft a company where she, and all of her employees, could show up as their authentic selves, follow a passion, and upend the fashion world. And today, millions of shoppers and cosigners are thrilled that she did.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Next Episode
Democratizing Healthcare with Activist Roots: A Conversation with Amy DuRoss
Amy DuRoss was born and raised in the Washington, D.C. area and politically engaged at a very early age by lawyer-activist parents, as well as her Quaker school, both of which nurtured her strong social justice compass. She studied humanities at Yale, Oxford and Stanford, graduating with a master's degree in English, and then returning some years later to Stanford for an MBA.
Amy's career has spanned tech, consulting, policy and healthcare. With 10 years at really big organizations such as E-Loan, G.E, the World Bank and Life Tech, as well as in precision medicine startups from Gene Sage to California's Prop 71 initiative to Navigenics, and ultimately to the founding of Vineti, where she is CEO. Vineti is defining a whole new software category for precision medicine therapy management by enabling vein to vein supply chain documentation and analytics for these breakthrough new therapies.
Amy has been honored by fellowships with the Cora Foundation and the Aspen Institute, in fact twice, and she is actively committed to diversity and inclusion across business and in politics. With three young children and a writer husband, Amy is living the Bay Area dual-income, always -on chaos and is doing so with incredible finesse and stamina.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/woven-women-who-venture-158381/beauty-burnout-and-bitcoin-with-the-original-influencer-michelle-phan-8708238"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to beauty, burnout, and bitcoin with the original influencer, michelle phan on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy