The Obsession That Made Her Unstoppable with Charlotte Tilbury

What does it take to turn obsession into a billion-dollar beauty empire? In this episode of Aspire with Emma Grede, global makeup icon Charlotte Tilbury sits down with Emma to share how she went from a young girl with a dream to building one of the most powerful and influential beauty brands in the world. Charlotte opens up about the mindset behind her success — how belief, obsession, and relentless innovation helped her disrupt an overcrowded industry and create products the world didn’t even know it needed. She reveals the lessons she’s learned about leadership, confidence, and self-worth, and the unshakable drive that made her unstoppable. If you’ve ever doubted yourself, hit a wall, or wondered how to keep believing when no one else does — this conversation will change how you think about success.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:10Emma Grede?

  Obsession isn't what Charlotte Tilbury does, it's who she is. When I started Aspire, I knew I had to talk to Charlotte. From a young girl dreaming out loud to creating a billion dollar beauty empire, Charlotte Tilbury is here to give you the brand building secrets that worked for her. In this conversation, Charlotte shares how obsession, belief and relentless focus can build something the world told you wasn't possible. But behind that success is a story few people ever hear.

• 0:45Emma Grede?

  Charlotte Tilbury.

• 0:46Speaker 01

  Darling Emma Grede.

• 0:48Emma Grede?

  Darling, I am so happy to have you here. Words can literally not explain.

• 0:52Speaker 01

  Oh God, I'm so excited.

• 0:54Emma Grede?

  This was hard, hard to get in, I'm not gonna lie love. You are one busy woman.

• 0:58Speaker 01

  So she says to another busy lady, I know, I know it's mad, but thank you, thank you. Thank you so much for not giving up on me and making it happen.

• 1:04Emma Grede?

  Listen.

• 1:05Speaker 01

  I was so excited, I was so excited, I was like, I have to make this happen because you are amazing and I'm obsessed with your podcast.

• 1:10Emma Grede?

  I love you for saying that. I mean, listen, day one out the gate, I was like, I made a list of all the business women. I was like, it has to be Charlotte. And I think there's so much of my...

• 1:19Speaker 01

  Thank you so much, I feel so honoured.

• 1:20Emma Grede?

  Honestly, you should, like, you should feel honoured, but you should also know that we've been dying to chat with you. I think there are so many people that are just desperate to know more about your story. And I feel like in some kind of crazy way, like, I grew up in the fashion industry, knowing so much about you. It was like, Charlotte, Charlotte, Charlotte, Charlotte, Charlotte. So I was like, in the proximity, I knew I was in the proximity of greatness, but so many people that listen to this show are dreaming about building something of their own and you've done that. But that kind of leap from idea to execution can feel completely impossible for people. So today, I really wanna dig into your background, exactly how you did it and to understand, like,

• 2:02Speaker 01

  what was the dream, how did it happen?

• 2:03Emma Grede?

  What was the dream, how did it happen? How did it all come to fruition? So the first question that I've got for you is, I wanna understand, like, the first... First concrete step that you took to building Charlotte Tilbury. Because as I understand it right now, you're the president, the chief creative officer and the chairman of Charlotte Tilbury. Did you plan it to be that way?

• 2:22Speaker 01

  It started with me wanting to be a makeup artist. You know, I think at a very early age, kind of understanding that that's what I wanted to do. And I wanted to hone my craft on everyone else's dime.

• 2:31Emma Grede?

  Charlotte, for those people that don't understand how fashion works and don't potentially know so much about your background. You were like a backstage makeup artist. You were right at the top of your game, but you were the person that would come to the show, create all of the looks. You'd be backstage yourself in charge of the overall like creative direction of the makeup. And then you gravitated into like this consultancy role where people were using you to actually help develop their own lines.

• 3:00Speaker 01

  Exactly, their own lines, exactly. So I'd had this career as a kind of world's top makeup artist, sort of, you know, where we kind of knew each other. And then ended up sort of being a creative consultant for, you know, with Tom Ford, which is amazing. I mean, he's such a kind of legend and I love working with him. And then Helena Rubinstein and Giorgio Armani and Mac and Alexander McQueen. Those were just kind of some of the products, working with all the labs, creating blue sky development, coming up with concepts, ideas, and leaving a lot of kind of amazing bestsellers in my wake. But at the same time, having a project, which I called the Ibiza Project, which was a book that I kept with all the kind of, when I just saw this massive gap in the industry where people come up to me and say, oh my God, I want to look like, you know, whoever, Penelope Cruz or Kate Moss, whoever I was working with. And I would always feel that they couldn't get the look or I didn't quite have the products.

• 3:45Speaker 01

  I was like, fine for me, because I was sitting there with mixing mediums.

• 3:48Emma Grede?

  You were a mixer and a blender, right?

• 3:50Speaker 01

  Exactly, in a blender, trying to get the kind of right products to kind of make it happen. But I couldn't just give them those products or get the look. And I also felt that they said, oh, I could never look like that. And that made me feel actually, no, no, no, you don't, we don't, everyone doesn't come from a different planet for celebrities. They know the power of makeup. They know how, you know, that can make them look and feel. I wanted to kind of decode that and demystify it and give it to everyone. And so I came up with the kind of concept of my brand, which was basically a very obvious idea. And I always think the best idea is sparkle and simplicity. And so it was, you know, and it was get the look, it was like 10 looks. And the fact that when you think about people. Actually, there was something that, you know, we're both, you and I are both dyslexic, but that kind of understanding of actually pattern recognition.

• 4:33Emma Grede?

  Yes.

• 4:33Speaker 01

  I'm really good. I'm sure you're really good at pattern recognition. You realised over decades.

• 4:37Emma Grede?

  Who you were.

• 4:37Speaker 01

  Exactly. Who are the different looks. So thirty four years of experience now, a kind of like a data kind of algorithm that I've just sort of, by osmosis, sort of sucked into this library. Having worked with so many people with kind of, you know, different haircut, different skin tone, different eye colour, different, you know, all these amazing, brilliant visionaries and creators that I have the privilege and honour to have worked with. And all of this has sort of gone into my kind of brain. And then you sort of realise, you end up sort of, it sort of spits out the kind of pattern recognition and an algorithm of this kind of library of data that is in my brain.

• 5:07Emma Grede?

  Which is unbelievable.

• 5:08Speaker 01

  Which is, which is what, and that's why kind of, you know, I've been doing this for thirty four years. Having been kind of, you know, arguably one of the world's top makeup artists, doing the fashion shows, working on the kind of runway couture, red carpet, which again, an editorial, which was quite a rare career because,

• 5:22Emma Grede?

  Super rare. You were one of very, very few. What I'd like to understand is when did you know it was time to launch your own thing? Because to my mind, like, did you?

• 5:33Speaker 01

  Always knew, always knew, always knew from a young child. I remember telling my parents, I was like, I was like, I'm gonna create a brand there like that, like, darling, Marvel, it's like, yeah. But, um, but yeah, and I'd always knew that that's what I wanted to do, but I wanted to hone my craft.

• 5:48Emma Grede?

  Yeah.

• 5:48Speaker 01

  And then go on to do it. I think, I mean, I had to learn a few lessons along the way. I think kind of, you know, I wasn't, you know, you go from being a makeup artist to being an entrepreneur, to being the founder, kind of president, you know, chief creative officer of my company and creating what I've created today, which is a, you know, the biggest beauty empire ever to have existed in the, in the UK. A global brand and, you know, it, it's like, and I'm, I'm a shame.

• 6:09Emma Grede?

  Are you so proud of yourself when you say that?

• 6:10Speaker 01

  Proud of myself. I am proud of myself. I am because, you know, it's, it's, um, it ain't always easy, but it's really, but it's really rewarding and it's really great.

• 6:19Emma Grede?

  We're gonna talk, we're gonna talk about that. So, so you are, so let me just paint the picture. You're at the top of your game at this point, right? You really, really are.

• 6:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:26Emma Grede?

  And you're carrying around the Ibiza book, which is your book of everything that you believe is needed. You've created the archetypes. Where did you go? Before you had investors, before you had staff, like?

• 6:36Speaker 01

  So, wait, let me just say, so I've gone off, I've kind of honed my craft, forty fashion show season, around the world, red carpet, editorial, couture, doing it all, right? That's a very rare career, number one.

• 6:48Emma Grede?

  Very.

• 6:49Speaker 01

  So because most artists are either one or the other or not all three. Then I have gone off and become a creative consultant to some of the biggest houses, luxury houses in the world, and created some of the best selling products and everything pretty much I did kind of sold out.

• 7:02Emma Grede?

  How are you remunerated over there? Like if you're making some of the best selling products in the world, were you seeing your products selling and going, oh, that was a nice, I love that.

• 7:12Speaker 01

  And still some of them today. I mean, I, you know, I was, I was paid extremely well, but I didn't have equity in those brands. And I was like, and that was fine, you know, for, for me, I was also holding back also, I was somebody else's vision that I was working for. So it would bring my, my brilliance to it and my, my craft and my know-how and my expertise of quality and formula and design and ergonomics, et cetera, but to a certain degree, because it was their house. And to a certain degree, their budget, their, where, what labs they wanted to work with, what kind of efficacy. I was like, fine, if you want to take it to a certain level, that's fine. I'm going to keep the best for moi.

• 7:46Emma Grede?

  I'm going to keep the best for me. All right. So you've had this extraordinary career. You're working for the best houses in the world and then you're like, you have the book.

• 7:56Speaker 01

  So then, so I'm working with the best houses in the world. I've got this vision that I'm always going to go and create my own brand, that I am just honing my craft by doing what I'm doing. I get to the point where I'm like, okay, it's now I've got to do it. After having some of these amazing consults with some of the great houses, I had to grow up and be a businesswoman. So I slightly got messed around and then, but then I was like, right, you need to grow up and become a businesswoman. But well, you've got to kind of be a lawyer, you've got to be able to be an accountant, you've got to be able to do it all. You've got to be able to understand and read a P and L. You've got to go through every single clause. You've got to read everything because, and I am a bit of a control freak. So in a way, I was like, that was, that was part of the journey to kind of becoming a businesswoman. And I think I have this tin shed that I kept, basically this with the hysterical tin shed,

• 8:39Speaker 01

  where I would keep the Ibiza project, which I wrote about, what the kind of, I looked at the, at the really kind of the end to end consumer journey. Cause I'm obsessed with the consumer, as we all are, and you and I are very good consumers. So we're kind of naturally kind of hardwired that way. I really thought about what was missing in the, in the beauty space. What would the world was so ripe for disruption. Conglomerates owned the world. Everyone told me I was mad. Everyone told me that, you know, I couldn't, I couldn't do it. That, you know, five people in the world and that was just the way it was. And things were done the way that they were for like a hundred years. And I was like, it's ripe for disruption. And also having been an expert at what I do at the top of my game, seeing what was missing for the consumer, seeing the white space that was out there in the market.

• 9:19Speaker 01

  Seeing that when I went into the shops, it was confusing, you need to mystifying. It wasn't easy to choose. It wasn't easy to use. It wasn't easy to gift. And just reimagining that whole end to end three sixty journey for the consumer. And I think just there is that thing of, you know, I really kind of live by feel the fear and do it anyway, that kind of fearless of a belief, you know, a total belief. And I'm also a big believer in, you know, creative visualization.

• 9:45Emma Grede?

  Oh, me too.

• 9:46Speaker 01

  I do, I do that all the time. So I wrote my business plan. I had my tin shed. I had my Ibiza project. I imagined.

• 9:50Emma Grede?

  Who helped you? Did you have anyone with you at that point? Or was this just you?

• 9:55Speaker 01

  So I had so creatively I had done all of my kind of, you know, I basically had my tin shed. I had the kind of Ibiza project where I I had literally imagined what the counters would look like, what the products were. I mean, still the products to this day.

• 10:07Emma Grede?

  Did it look like how the counters look with those like ten faces in the beginning? That's so crazy. That was it for me. As soon as I saw those ten looks, I was like, no, I need five, no, I need six, I need all ten.

• 10:17Speaker 01

  Exactly. You need all ten. Exactly. You need to make up wardrobe. You need to make up wardrobe. And also technology, like at the time, I really kind of had this vision of could we create this amazing app? But actually augmented reality wasn't at the place I wanted to be. So my kind of vision and my of where I want to take beauty tech to be wasn't really there all those years ago. But it's all written down in this book. And then I go and find through this great friend of mine, Isabella Cordo and Marcus Siri, I find actually this guy who helped Tamara Mellon, I think, write her business plan. So then he sat with me and we went through all the labs, wrote the business plans, started to understand the P and L, how it worked, what it was. And so.

• 10:55Emma Grede?

  And you brought him on as a consultant?

• 10:57Speaker 01

  It was just a consultant. He just helped you write the plan. Yeah, he just helped me write the plan. But then you, but then you write your own plan because you have to understand it. You know, your labs, you know, your cost of goods. And then I went out to market and basically raised money ultimately. I backed myself. I put a lot of my own money into it.

• 11:11Emma Grede?

  You did.

• 11:11Speaker 01

  I backed myself and I didn't really take a salary for the first few years of the of the brand.

• 11:16Emma Grede?

  Take me back to that part because I feel like that's where people get so stuck. They don't know where to start and you were able to just go. Was it easy for you to raise money? How did you raise that first check?

• 11:27Speaker 01

  I mean, I think I didn't have a track record as a businesswoman, but I had a track record of being a beauty. I was kind of a beauty entrepreneur at that point. I suppose it was like I was a makeup artist that had created bestselling products. And I had a lot of bestselling products by a lot of the top brands in the market.

• 11:42Emma Grede?

  The word in the fashion community was that like these things that we were all using.

• 11:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:47Emma Grede?

  Were developed by you and that you very much were someone who was like super innovative. And was just crying out for your own brand. So I think if you were somebody that just didn't know you that well, but knew you by reputation alone. There was this like thing that was kind of happening and sizzling around and quite honestly. People were probably lining up to give you money, but did you experience it like that? Was it easy for you to go out and raise?

• 12:11Speaker 01

  I mean, it's not like I knew a huge amount of the investment community at the time. I'm obviously one now knows everyone, but you know, at the time I didn't and you go and see a few people and they're just like, hmm, they don't really kind of believe in it, really get it. But then I was just like idiots if they don't get it because it's going to be huge. Then I had this amazing investor, actually Marcus, who I loved, who actually was one with me on the journey all the way to the end.

• 12:32Emma Grede?

  This was like your first investor?

• 12:33Speaker 01

  Uh, yeah, he was my lead investor.

• 12:34Emma Grede?

  How much did you have to raise in the beginning? Like, I just want to understand, like, did you have to go and raise tens of millions of dollars for a little bit of money?

• 12:41Speaker 01

  No, I didn't. It was like about a million pounds at the beginning, but it's like, it wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't a lot of money. But then we raised money every single year.

• 12:50Emma Grede?

  Wow.

• 12:50Speaker 01

  So we raised money because, and that's how I ended up owning so much of the brand. Because I was like, I'm not giving away, you know, I put, I backed myself. I put a lot of my own money into it, but then we grew so fast. I always knew how fast we would grow. I don't think anyone really quite realized how fast we would grow. From day one, it was just like it was a runaway success.

• 13:06Emma Grede?

  It was a runaway success and I think that's what everybody remembers. But so then you had to keep raising like year after year after year. How did you manage to keep hold of the business considering you had to go out and keep raising money?

• 13:17Speaker 01

  You, you do it. I mean, you know, I, I. It's like now I kind of, I mean, I still work, I'm still incredibly passionate about what I do. I kind of work. You know, we both work round the clock because we love it because we're passionate about it and, you know, obsessed, I would say. You know, I remember every summer holiday, I'd be still raising money. It was like through my summer holidays, it was like I was probably raising money and then you kind of do it all kind of, you know. You sort of get to that point where you realize, okay, we need another injection because actually the growth is so big and the opportunity is so big. So. But I'm glad I did it like that because I managed to hold on so, so much of the company.

• 13:46Emma Grede?

  I mean, it's so smart.

• 13:47Speaker 01

  And then we brought Silicon Valley in about, uh, Sequoia in about when we were about. Half a billion and then kind of, you know, from then on, we sort of, they came in and then that was, that was, that was a game changer because it was like. My whole kind of beauty tech vision of how saw the beauty industry going and in giving a consumer what she wants, where she wants. When I was reimagining this whole end to end journey, this cycle of what did I disrupt in the beauty industry? What was the white space that I saw? And what it was, was that when a consumer would go into the shop, it was A, confusing. It was five conglomerates own the world. You didn't know what to choose. You didn't know what to use. It was a very homogenized space.

• 14:23Emma Grede?

  Totally.

• 14:23Speaker 01

  It was like everything looked the same. Everything was black, homogenized. There was no personality. There was no backstage. There was no. Bring me into my world, excite me, have fun, delight me, retail theatre. It had all been taken away.

• 14:38Emma Grede?

  And you could see that.

• 14:39Speaker 01

  And I could see that. And I was like, what happened to retail theatre? Where's the fun gone? And then I thought about. All these women that would say to me, I wish I could look like celebrities or the supermodels you make up. And I was like, okay, so that's when I realized, you know, I came up with a whole kind of vision of. The archetypes and I realized that that was really my kind of the algorithm in my brain that had some recognition of realizing. Over and over, looking at people being like, oh, here we go again. It's a golden goddess. It's like, it's that type of woman. So it's that type of archetype. So then.

• 15:04Emma Grede?

  Did you find that difficult to explain to people? Because again, in creative and beauty, you know, lifestyle spaces. There's less understanding, I imagine, in the financial community for them to actually like grasp your ideas. How did you make your ideas understood? Because typically I imagine that you were pitching. Men who are not the end user of your product. So how did you actually go into those spaces? And give everybody the belief that you are really going to build something meaningful.

• 15:34Speaker 01

  I'm going to pitch yours almost as if you are them.

• 15:36Emma Grede?

  Yeah, go on.

• 15:37Speaker 01

  So that is.

• 15:37Emma Grede?

  We're doing a shark.

• 15:38Speaker 01

  We're doing a shark. Okay, let's go. Let's go. It's an overcrowded space. Five. It's ripe for disruption. Five people own the world. It's not easy to choose. It's not easy to choose. People, there's, you've got a bunch of consumers that don't think they can look like certain celebrities. I'm an expert. I'm now seeing an opportunity to come up with some of these incredible innovation, incredible quality of products that don't exist on the market, so they aren't out there for consumers. And to make products that are quick and easy, speedy, easy makeup, coming up with new categories in makeup and reinventing categories in makeup. So I reinvented powder, reinvented setting spray, and I invented glow category in in beauty. So all of these products are missing. Then if you think about the consumer, when they go into a store, they can't find what they don't know.

• 16:21Speaker 01

  What suits me? What do I choose? How do I get a look? What lipstick goes with? What blush with? What eye makeup? So I immediately bring all of my expertise of all the red carpet, all the subsidies, all the models. I put it into ten looks. I bring my backstage to the front stage, which basically I turn it into kind of, you know, my my incredible merchandising, my shop. So as a consumer then walks in, it's easy to choose. It's easy to choose. And when they get home, I then reimagine the technology.

• 16:44Emma Grede?

  Yes.

• 16:45Speaker 01

  And so I'm then doing tutorials on every single product. I then have ended up creating, I now have a CDO, and I end up creating an amazing beauty app where, you know, give the customer what she wants, where she wants. So now we bring the shop to you. We do virtual try-ons. The dermatologist come up with a kind of A I that reads your skin. Bringing the shop to the consumer, making, giving the consumer what she wants, where she wants, however she wants it, and making it easy for her. But with the most luxurious, incredible products that are so easy, my ten-year-old son could do it. And I was obsessed with kind of crazy things. Like, I looked around and I thought McDonald's was just genius. It was time is money, speedy, easy, quick looks. And I was like, that's so clever. Yeah, and I just looked around and I was like, Apple Steve Jobs. I was like, he's just so brilliant. I like everything.

• 17:30Speaker 01

  The ergonomics of everything he created, the slickness, the ease of use, everything in the palm of your hand. So like, or I was inspired by so many things. Outside of beauty.

• 17:40Emma Grede?

  I love that.

• 17:42Speaker 01

  That type of thinking, it was nothing to do with beauty. It was just imagining outside of beauty and then having my real expertise of blue sky thinking of when I was working with the laboratories and I came up with so many bestsellers. That they then said, please, will you innovate with us on just blue skies thinking and formulas? I'm obsessed with customer need states.

• 18:00Emma Grede?

  I think it's so obvious that you are obsessed with customers. Like you said that you build things that like just didn't exist. And I'm interested to understand like the first gap you were obsessed with filling. Like, how did you know that that was a need and that was something that customers would go after, especially when like it doesn't exist?

• 18:18Speaker 01

  Okay, so you look around and you would go Instagram filters, right? You're like, okay, I need an Instagram filter. I'm on the red carpet. I'm here with like whoever, Sam, I'm on whatever. And you're like, I need an Instagram filter. I like.

• 18:30Emma Grede?

  On my face.

• 18:31Speaker 01

  On the face, in the bottle, in harsh daylight, that's gonna perform speedy, easy and it's gonna look fabulous. Because women have no time. For me, I'm always looking at the world. Where is the economic state of the world? What are people going through? What do they need? What is the? Because it's all a reflection of everything that's going on.

• 18:47Emma Grede?

  It's all interlinked.

• 18:47Speaker 01

  It's all interlinked. It's totally interlinked. So I think you realize what's happening in the world is it kind of people are seeing filters, there are different types of filters. They're kind of like, they wanna glow, they wanna, they're on a beach, but it's in January. What do they want? What do women want? And actually, always thinking, a lot of consumers, like when I created Hollywood Flawless Filter, which was this amazing glow that had never existed. It was a revolutionary product in the market. And actually, remember at the time, some of the retailers were like, they were into it, but they were like, oh, I'm not sure. I'm like, because when you, when you're disrupting and innovating, you have to sometimes really sell in your idea. And they're like, okay, you're, you're this crazy lady, you, you say stuff that works and then it works and then it sells out. Well, okay, we'll go with you. Well, I was like

• 19:27Speaker 01

  Pillow Talk, you know, I was like Pillow Talk. Now that kind of, you know, Hollywood Flawless Filter sells like one every two seconds and Pillow Talk was a kind of a color that is now the world's number one lipstick and the world's number one lip liner. And it was a, you know, can you imagine? It was just a pinky nudie color that I had just obsessed forensically over lips. And the pigment in lips. And I was like, but it's a color that had never existed before. And so, and then it just goes, you know, it goes like a viral whisper and then comes, you're selling one every two seconds. But it's that forensic examination of what do women want? What do women need? What do they wish they had? Where's the consumer? Where's, where are they dreaming? I always say I'm selling pots of dreams and making dreams come true.

• 20:10Speaker 02

  Hi everyone, this is Kara Swisher.

• 20:11Speaker 03

  And I'm Scott Galloway.

• 20:12Speaker 02

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• 20:16Speaker 03

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• 20:22Speaker 02

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• 20:34Speaker 03

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• 20:39Speaker 02

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• 20:44Speaker 03

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• 20:54Speaker 03

  Boom.

• 21:02Emma Grede?

  Where do you get the inputs from? I'm very interested in that because how do you know that what everybody is going to want is like super shine? How do you know that that's the exact right shade? Is that like a gut decision? Is that taking input from trend? Like where does that part come?

• 21:17Speaker 01

  No, actually, I'm very intuitive, but I'm constantly scanning. My brain is like a scanner. So I'm constantly, whatever I'm doing, whether I'm scrolling on Instagram, where I'm meeting people, where I'm meeting consumers, where I'm looking at kind of just life on every level. It's not that I go to a trend book and suddenly discover because I was like, then you're already, you know, you're already late to the party.

• 21:34Emma Grede?

  If it's in the book, it's over.

• 21:37Speaker 01

  It's over.

• 21:38Emma Grede?

  So I'm obsessed with the fact that you are the chairman and the chief creative officer. I mean, it's pretty nuts. Are these conscious decisions that you've made? Did it just end up like that? Like, are you just an obsessive?

• 21:53Speaker 01

  I think I am a bit of a control freak and I have to understand every single part of my business. And I've grown my business from zero to where it is today. And it's a big business. You know, we're kind of three, yeah, it's business with 3,000 people, we're four and a half thousand points of distribution around the world. So it's like, it's not a small business. When you've grown something from zero to where it is today, you have been in supply chain, in legal, in obviously product development. Always, marketing always, but your leadership team, your business, your vision, your mission, your strategy. And I think you don't grow something to this level unless you are forensically all over the detail. And I just kind of think any great founder really has sort of built, that is top down, bottom up.

• 22:35Emma Grede?

  Mm hmm.

• 22:36Speaker 01

  And, and, and I think that's, it's like I've, when I sit around my leadership, leadership team. And, you know, that's grown and changed over the years. Sometimes they'll say, oh no, we can't do that. I'm like, no, no, I know you can, because I did that job and I know how, how long that takes. And I'm very intuitive with things. My gut is always right. I literally, I just, it's, it's, even when I'm looking at the P and L, like, I tell you, there's always room for improvement. How can you improve your cost of goods, et cetera, whatever it is. But you're looking at something and then it would just be like, something will take me to, um, can you, I want to interrogate that. My CFO always says, you always ask me the most difficult question. We were kind of double prepared when we were with you.

• 23:12Emma Grede?

  I absolutely love that. But where, where did that come from? Because obviously, you know, working backstage as a makeup artist, like, that is not what your skill set is, right? So how did you actually learn? I, I talk to a lot of young founders that say, I'm not good with the numbers. I don't understand the financials. What did you do to learn it?

• 23:31Speaker 01

  I think for me, it was just basically like, well, how difficult can this be? I'm not stupid. We're not stupid. I'm quite obsessed with numbers. So I kind of, so maybe, but to a certain point, right? Okay, to a certain point. And also being a bit of a control freak. So then I was just like, well, how difficult can this be? And I'm never afraid to sound stupid. I don't care. I'm like, I want to go why. I'm always like, who, what, why, where, why, why, why, why? I never start asking those questions. I'm like, because I'm genuinely fascinated and interested.

• 23:58Emma Grede?

  There's a deep curiosity, but there is no shame with you. You will, you don't mind looking stupid?

• 24:03Speaker 01

  No, I don't mind. I don't care. I don't care. And by the way, half the time when people go on about an abbreviation, I'm like, what is that? What does that actually mean? What is that? And then they can't even tell you anyway.

• 24:11Emma Grede?

  TV and CSR and their loan.

• 24:13Speaker 01

  They can't tell you anyway. They can't remember. They can't remember. It's hysterical.

• 24:16Emma Grede?

  But I think that that's really important because again, I think that a lot of female founders feel like they need to know everything and that they should be across everything. And what you're saying is, well, you didn't know, you learned. You asked a lot of questions.

• 24:28Speaker 01

  What you didn't know, you exactly, what you don't know, you learn. And by the way, you won't stop learning to the day you die. Now with A I, with the consumer changing it as it is, as it is, I'm like, I can build my three year plans. We know, get out my P N Ls, look at my strategy, look at my distribution, create my marketing, create my products. And then I've got to trade my business because trading your business right now, that consumer is changing every goddamn week.

• 24:49Emma Grede?

  Every day.

• 24:50Speaker 01

  Exactly. So it's every day. It's like, and you've got to meet them. So you've got to trade, you've got to talk to them, you've got to pivot, you've got to be agile. You've got to move, you've got, and, and that's the thing, this, you know, even though we're really big. We might be, we have lots of juxtapositions in the brand where it's kind of, you're like a heritage brand, but you're like an indie brand, but you're agile. You know, the agility of an indie brand, but people think of me because I've been in the fashion industry and beauty industry for thirty four years. They think of me as a heritage brand.

• 25:13Emma Grede?

  Very interesting positioning.

• 25:15Speaker 01

  Exactly. And then it's like, but I'm, it's founder, expert led, but it's fun. And it's chic, but it's shouting, you know, like, you know, in terms of like the fun that we have with the marketing, the luxury positioning of it, but the inclusivity and the kind of, you know. You know, it's all these juxtapositions in the brand that we kind of, that we're, we're.

• 25:30Emma Grede?

  That you've been able to play with and that you've been able to really own to some degree.

• 25:34Speaker 01

  I design my packaging, I design, I have an amazing team, by the way, that I kind of dream team.

• 25:38Emma Grede?

  Talk to me about the team.

• 25:39Speaker 01

  I couldn't have done it without my team.

• 25:40Emma Grede?

  In the, in the early days, if you take me back to those early days and it's you and you have, you know, the guy that helped with the business plan. You go out and you raise that first tranche of money, you know what products you want to do, you have this big, big vision. Who did you bring in then? I'm really interested to understand what moves you made.

• 25:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:57Emma Grede?

  That really helped you like get this brand off the ground and if there are things that you might have done differently.

• 26:04Speaker 01

  I don't think I regret anything. I think, actually, I think some of the mistakes are fantastic sometimes. I think about, you know, wanting to get my brand off the ground before I got my brand off the ground and I kind of worked with somebody who, you know. Promised me to sort of do my brand, it kind of, it didn't really work out. Aren't you so glad that didn't work? And I'm like, thank you so much. I learned so much from you and I wasn't ready to be that businesswoman that I became.

• 26:27Emma Grede?

  Was that a hard recovery for you, Charlotte? When you, when you kind of, when you could see, oh, my brand's about to happen and then it didn't, like, was that difficult?

• 26:34Speaker 01

  You know what? I'm very good at dusting it off and just getting back up very quickly.

• 26:38Emma Grede?

  How do you do that? Because that's another place where I feel like people really falter. They think if they fail, that it's finite, that they can't go again. How did you pick yourself up and say, all right, I'm going to give this another crack?

• 26:49Speaker 01

  Because I'm a great believer in you write your future. You write your future and I'm a great believer in quantum thinking. I'm a great believer in creative visualization. I have unwavering self-belief. I do, but we're all human. We're just, we're gonna be challenged. We're gonna be challenged, but in the face of adversity, you have to literally just be like, I believe and I'm gonna, I'm never gonna give up. I'm gonna stay focused. There's a reason, the reason the universe is doing this to me is they're putting this in my path. What do I need to learn? Where do I need to grow up? What do I need to do? How, which ways do I need to pivot? What do I need to look at? What am I not looking at? What am I not meeting? And I believe the adversity is put there to take us to where we need to go. And if you have big dreams, and I have big dreams.

• 27:32Speaker 01

  You know, I'm like, I'm like unapologetically, let's conquer the world. You know, why not? If you had that, well, then you're gonna have to kind of, you're gonna be thrown curveballs and, you know, situations that you're gonna have to kind of navigate to get to where you want to go to. But I believe that if you stay as optimistic and positive, then you will get to where you need to get to. And those are the building blocks that are put in place that are necessary for you to pivot and change and be agile to get to where you need to get to.

• 28:00Emma Grede?

  Ah, million percent. So I mean, you don't have a billion dollar brand without that type of thinking. Like, that's clear. Do you think there's something that has made you very different from a lot of your contemporaries that have started brands? Because as you say, you really are considered like a legacy brand. I don't feel any different buying a-

• 28:16Speaker 01

  I'm only 12 years old.

• 28:17Emma Grede?

  I could go into Sephora tomorrow and pick up, you know, a San Ant lipstick or, you know, whatever brand and pick up yours. I feel exactly the same value there.

• 28:29Speaker 01

  Well, better value, actually. Sorry, lovey.

• 28:31Emma Grede?

  Sorry, babe.

• 28:34Emma Grede?

  She is a consumer obsessed, clearly. Actually, I'm a free dollar shopper, but anyway.

• 28:39Speaker 01

  Oh, no. The reason why is the quality. It's the quality and performance, because I can come up with the best marketing in the world. I can get the best investment. I can get the kind of the best position in the shop. At the end of the day, product is queen. That's it. And it comes down to the quality, the performance, the innovation, and then it's how you take that to market.

• 28:59Emma Grede?

  So you think that you made better products than everyone else?

• 29:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, I did. I did. I did my quality, my quality, my performance. It really is, it is, it's known in the industry. I am known as like leading innovation in this industry. Wish some of them had more ideas. Be lovely. You're like, I'll take that.

• 29:16Emma Grede?

  I like very much.

• 29:17Speaker 01

  I'm like, oh my god.

• 29:18Emma Grede?

  Come on, everybody, come to me all the time.

• 29:21Speaker 01

  The way that I test, sometimes I've got eight hundred women testing foundations on them. You know, sometimes I've got, sometimes I've got things, I mean, my laboratories, they go, oh my god, you're like, your standards are ridiculous. I'm like, no, I'm exacting, I'm, I'm a perfectionist as much as I can be.

• 29:34Emma Grede?

  How did you do that in the early days? Like, when you couldn't, like, you know, have a testing company testing eight hundred women?

• 29:39Speaker 01

  We got models in, but, you know, we had all of our artists. So maybe we weren't testing eight hundred, which we are now, when we create a huge line of foundations. But we, when we, even when we had our ten looks at the beginning, we were still testing on maybe like twenty, thirty, fifty cohort, gonna be, you know, groups of women.

• 29:52Emma Grede?

  Was that important to you in the beginning?

• 29:54Speaker 01

  Really important, yeah, but also it is important to me because, don't forget, I also have tested on thousands of women. So I have an algorithm in my brain that has captured eye color, skin tone, hair color, da da, like, literally thousands and thousands and thousands of faces, data in my mind. So I just know, do you know what I mean? Like, by looking at someone, what colors they need, what color skin tone, but that's undertone, overtone, that's, that's already embedded in this algorithm of my brain, like a library.

• 30:19Emma Grede?

  But I love that you say that, Charlotte, because your success, right? You, you've got the success of a brand that feels like it's been in the market for fifty years and it's only been twelve. But it's actually everything that came before that.

• 30:31Speaker 01

  It's thirty four years of a career.

• 30:32Emma Grede?

  It's all of the experience, it's all of those backstages, it's all of that consultancy, it's every individual face, it's every little thing that you've done with your hands that led you to being able to be this successful now because you were excellent at what you did.

• 30:46Speaker 01

  Exactly, and that's what I, so I said I was gonna be the best makeup artist, I was gonna work with, leave the best selling products in my wake, I was gonna create the best brand with the best quality, I'm gonna find the best laboratories. I mean, my scientists are probably gonna be like, oh no, not her, because she's such a perfectionist, we'll be here for twenty years. And I tell you, some products, I've, I've been working with some of these labs for twenty years because I was working before my brand with other things, and I'm like, we're still there, like, blue sky formula, we're gonna try and, who knows? But if they'll be ready to, you know, before I die, if we'll even create some of them, because, you know, you have these crazy visions, whether, again, whether the science will catch up with your vision.

• 31:17Emma Grede?

  Yes, yeah. Talk to me a little bit about leadership, because you don't get to where you are with the size of company you have without. Being an incredible leader and it's very clear to me that creatively, you've got it. We might not be able to put our exact finger on it, but it's like, from all the work you've done, your gut, it's like, that is clear. Sharla is a creative genius in her space. But when it comes to running a business, it takes something very different. And I wonder if you would share, like, maybe like a leadership lesson that you've learned, something that you've learned the hard way.

• 31:48Speaker 01

  I was like, let's rip up the rulebook. This industry was ripe for disruption. It was done a certain way. Why do we have to do it a certain way? Why can't you, when I would go to selfish and be like, I want the kind of apple, the store that Apple has or the store that, only uh, Kasama, the artist or LVMH, why can't I have it? I've got a dream and so I would sell them in a dream and a vision of what I wanted. And I just don't understand the concept of no. I understand the concept of ripping up the rulebook, rewriting history, but you've got to out create and you've got to out think. You cannot just be whiny and say, I want this because of, because I'm fabulous. No, you have to out create and out think. You have to dis innovate and disrupt. So I have a North Star equation that sort of really is my mission and vision.

• 32:31Speaker 01

  Really for how I kind of run the business and that is basically product, tech, talent, community, media.

• 32:39Emma Grede?

  When you talk about your North Star, that's what you wake up thinking about?

• 32:43Speaker 01

  That's what I wake up thinking about the whole time because it's basically that customer journey. It's like, what product am I delivering? What content am I delivering to basically get through to my consumer? What talent am I, am I talking to influence? Am I talking to, you know, communities, celebrities? Who am I talking to? The media, how am I kind of using that media? What form of media? What platforms? What, how am I disseminating that? How am I using that? What am I doing? Everything you do has to be through that lens because you're how you're doing that kind of end to end consumer journey of, you know, developing a product to kind of using all of those different mediums.

• 33:14Emma Grede?

  And so when you think about leadership lessons

• 33:16Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:17Emma Grede?

  and the people that have helped you along the way, what does that really look like? Like, how did you build a team that can create a billion dollar beauty brand?

• 33:27Speaker 01

  Maria's been in product development with me. I mean, she's been with me for 20 years, 20 years, 20 years. I mean, so many people have been with me for so, so many years.

• 33:34Emma Grede?

  And what's it look like?

• 33:35Speaker 01

  And some people, I think some people you take and you train them.

• 33:38Emma Grede?

  Yeah.

• 33:38Speaker 01

  Cause it's like, it has a very particular voice, this brand. I mean, you know, obviously kind of, you know, there's me kind of at the face of it, but it's like, I'm, I've got a very particular language. You know, style, the look and feel of the brand.

• 33:50Emma Grede?

  Totally.

• 33:50Speaker 01

  You know, it's got a very particular signature and vision. So when you come here, the way I want to sort of speak to my consumers, the way I'm not a faceless conglomerate. I'm a live person, I'm an expert, an innovator, I'm a disruptor. I want to be agile. I want to think if you're going to sit around my leadership table, we have to think in that way where you're like, yes, you're a large company, but you've got to think like an agile disruptor. You've got to keep on innovating. So there's a business ethos to my brand, which is all about disrupt, innovate, embrace the challenge.

• 34:19Emma Grede?

  Hmm.

• 34:20Speaker 01

  Uh, you know, share the magic, win together.

• 34:23Emma Grede?

  I love that.

• 34:24Speaker 01

  So that, and that is really the mentality and the ethos of what you're going to be here. We have to kind of, because the consumer is changing all the time. I'm sort of unapologetically demanding of myself. Maybe and, and other people. I kind of feel like if you're here, that I attract these sort of amazing entrepreneurs, these kind of, they've all got that entrepreneurial spirit. They always, they've got, all got the passion. They've all got that kind of drive to do something, to leave their mark in the world. And they are brilliant. And I really do have an incredible team. I have to say, I do work with some of the best people in this year and I'm incredibly grateful and honoured to be working with them because it does take that kind of, everyone's very passionate that works, you know, with me.

• 35:01Emma Grede?

  What does it take to come and work with you? Like, what are you looking for?

• 35:04Speaker 01

  You have to be really good at your job.

• 35:13Emma Grede?

  Basically.

• 35:13Speaker 01

  Basically.

• 35:14Emma Grede?

  She says, you've got to be really, really, really good at your job. That's just it. I mean, it's not that difficult, is it sometimes?

• 35:21Speaker 01

  You really do like, and it's known, it's known. Like if you work here, you are really good.

• 35:25Emma Grede?

  Cause you have exacting standards.

• 35:27Speaker 01

  Yeah. I, listen, if you've got a mission to take over the world and, and create the best quality products on the market and you want to disrupt and innovate. You've always shown up with your A game, right?

• 35:37Emma Grede?

  Constantly.

• 35:38Speaker 01

  Constantly.

• 35:39Emma Grede?

  Yeah.

• 35:39Speaker 01

  I I demand that of myself, you demand that of yourself. And the people, they naturally are like that, they're so brilliant, they come up, they are that they're sort of, they are inspired, they are excited, they're passionate, they wanna show up with their A game, they wanna kind of deliver this brilliance as well. So I think that is very much the kind of the culture that I have fostered.

• 35:58Emma Grede?

  I love that.

• 35:58Speaker 01

  At the company. I'm really lucky to have such amazing people working with me, that that same mentality, they they really go the extra mile, you know, and they really care.

• 36:07Emma Grede?

  And you must have had times where you get people that are not that great at their job, that don't care that much, that don't exhibit the passion. And again, as a female leader, sometimes it can be difficult to let go of, you know, people that you had in the early days, the people that got you to that kind of hundred million, two hundred million, five hundred million for you. How have you dealt with the change of what, you know, I'm envisaging, there are people that have been with you for twenty years, but not everybody stays on that journey?

• 36:34Speaker 01

  No, not everyone stays on that journey. And I think, listen, some people grow with you, and that's fantastic. And they want, you know, as it gets bigger, the company, they've got to embrace the challenge, they've got to kind of grow, you know, they've got to.

• 36:44Emma Grede?

  Everyone needs to start their gang.

• 36:45Speaker 01

  Some people wanna do it and some people don't, and that's okay. Sometimes, you know, maybe you've given people the wrong title sometimes, and maybe you've realised that they don't wanna, you know, you just, you just keep on moving.

• 36:55Emma Grede?

  You just keep on moving. You keep on moving. And you don't look back?

• 36:59Speaker 01

  Don't look back and don't regret. I think you learn, learn from your mistakes. As I said before, you kind of, you know, mistakes can be there in a way that are kind of fabulous, and you learn from them.

• 37:07Emma Grede?

  Where did you decide in your business that you have certain strengths, but you needed other people to come in? How did you identify those decisions and how did you bring people in in the early days?

• 37:17Speaker 01

  The early days. Well, I think, you know, basically, so I had, you know, my amazing lead investor, Marcus, who is brilliant. I think the person that has made the biggest difference to me would be my CFO. I have to say, he really, having. The wrong CFO, which I definitely had at one point, was difficult.

• 37:33Emma Grede?

  Yeah.

• 37:34Speaker 01

  And having the right CFO is may is can game change your business because.

• 37:38Emma Grede?

  Game changer.

• 37:39Speaker 01

  It's game changer. When you look at that, when you're going through that P and L and you're being able to kind of, you know, you know, really get your margins to exactly where you need it to be and all the opportunities. I mean, I always say the health of your business is in the numbers, right? Everything is in the numbers.

• 37:52Emma Grede?

  Everything's in the numbers.

• 37:53Speaker 01

  Everything's in the numbers.

• 37:53Emma Grede?

  It's not about innovation. It's not about product. It's in the numbers.

• 37:56Speaker 01

  It's in the numbers. And I think having that and having, you know, a great team around me in terms of that, that's been really helpful. Cause we're only one person, even though I kind of feel like I could do everything.

• 38:05Emma Grede?

  Hundred percent. You're just one person.

• 38:07Speaker 01

  But everyone around me, I have to say, I've got brilliant people in brilliant people in product development, brilliant people in packaging, brilliant people in, you know, again, my CFO, but it, but I am all over it with them and I want to kind of, you know, be very detailed in the business and asking those questions and really understanding it and being. But I think you have to, because I think art and commerce, this whole business is it's, I don't see creativity is one thing, numbers is another thing. It's art and commerce. They are soulmates. They feed in together and you have to think, I think in a very kind of left, right brain way. And I sort of switch hats quite often. So I'll be looking at something with my creative hat and then I'll be looking through it, my commercial hat. And I'll be looking through it, merchandising hat, you know, just lots of different hats of the way that I scan things, look at things.

• 38:49Emma Grede?

  But that's wonderful, Charlotte, because I think that again, so many people, they say, I'm a creative. And then every somebody else has to do everything else. And I don't think as a founder, you get that privilege. It's like you've got to wear multiple hats and you've got to have an understanding and an appreciation. And it's very, very clear to me that what you've done so amazingly is be this like incredible creative that's learned enough about all the other facets of their business.

• 39:12Speaker 01

  Yeah. I mean, you're, you're doing supply chain right at the beginning, right? You're doing everything. You're doing, you're look, you're, you're talking to legal, you're doing finance, legal, supply chain, product development, marketing. I mean, you, you, you're doing everything, right? So it's like every part of it, then you have this tiny team that then you grow. And then you grow and you grow and you grow and you get bigger and bigger. But when you have exacting standards, when you are consumer obsessed, when you are looking at what innovating and disrupting, what is the need state of a consumer? When you are, when you love challenge, challenges, opportunities. And I love being challenged like that's I very much fostered that kind of culture of the brand as well. I love anyone for me has a great idea. I'm like, whether it's the intern or whoever like, I'm just like, I'd love to hear what you have to say. I love to be challenged by, I'm very un hierarchical as well. And so I

• 39:54Emma Grede?

  Can you be challenged in the business then?

• 39:55Speaker 01

  To be challenged. My favorite thing is to be challenged because I want, that's, that's what I want because for me, either if I'm challenged, it either hones my argument, or it makes me think differently.

• 40:08Emma Grede?

  Yeah.

• 40:08Speaker 01

  Because there's a reason I'm like, tell me why you don't think it will work or why you don't think it will. So then it's like changes, it makes you think in a different way. And that I find really exciting.

• 40:17Emma Grede?

  How do you foster that culture? How do you foster a culture where the boss can be challenged?

• 40:20Speaker 01

  Oh God, I love it. I'm like, I literally know, but I'm, I invite that around the table. I think it's really important.

• 40:25Emma Grede?

  I love it.

• 40:26Speaker 01

  It's like, really, really important. And I'm not hierarchical in that way.

• 40:29Emma Grede?

  No.

• 40:29Speaker 01

  I'm just not.

• 40:30Emma Grede?

  You don't, you don't, you don't seem like that.

• 40:36Speaker 04

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• 41:11Emma Grede?

  Do you think that you could do what you've done and feel what you feel again now?

• 41:17Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 41:18Emma Grede?

  In this time?

• 41:18Speaker 01

  In this time.

• 41:19Emma Grede?

  You were starting today.

• 41:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, I do. I think, yeah, because there's even more opportunity now. I mean, you know, think about it, social media was just starting when I started my brand. I always say necessity is the mother of all invention.

• 41:30Emma Grede?

  Oh, I know, just.

• 41:31Speaker 01

  You know, and it's like, and again, where, you know, whenever you look at that space, whenever you, with a white space, whether it's even today, when you're, you know, I'm, the reason I'm still so excited and so passionate about this brand is I can't, there's so much room to still innovate, disrupt, create. And whether or not some of those products will even be within my lifetime, but there's, I'm doing some of those. Got a pipeline. I'm excited about meeting the consumer. I'm excited about the technology of being able to give her what she wants.

• 41:55Emma Grede?

  How do you stay this excited? Because I can, it's so palpable with you. Like, all these years later, you are this excited.

• 42:03Speaker 01

  I am so excited. I am so excited.

• 42:05Emma Grede?

  How is that?

• 42:06Speaker 01

  I have disrupted the beauty industry. I have led the way for many beauty entrepreneurs. England never had a company, a beauty, you know, the, the, the Germans had, the French had it, the Americans had it. But we never, we never, we didn't have it.

• 42:17Emma Grede?

  We didn't have it.

• 42:18Speaker 01

  We didn't have it. I want to create a great beauty empire. To do that is so exciting. And then to do it where it kind of went all the way around the world and kind of, you know, and the products resonate everywhere. You have the number ones in each category. You have number one powder in the world or the number one lip liner, the number one powder or the number, you know, that is so exciting. You know what is more important to me than anything is the purpose behind my brand, is the purpose behind mine. Because the reason I really do it. Yes, that's euphoric to kind of succeed in business is gives you the most incredible feeling of gratitude. You know that feeling ever, that feeling of gratitude, the high I get. Having had this brand has given me unbelievable feelings of euphoric gratitude. You know, I've literally, it is so amazing, but

• 42:59Speaker 01

  that I am so grateful for, but actually the purpose behind it is to make everyone look and feel like the most beautiful, confident, empowered versions of themselves. Because if you can change that one person, that one person, you change a community, you change a world. It's like, the reason people make it in life and don't make it is confidence. It is confidence. And it's the beauty is just, it's so underrated. It's like, and, and it was so important to me to make people feel that it is not super, you know, to demystify it. And it is not superficial. And it is, you know, that societal value of beauty is so, because we are the human race. We judge ourselves. We look in the mirror, we judge ourselves. Oh, you look tired, you look exhausted, you're this.

• 43:41Emma Grede?

  Yeah, I'm gonna have a good day.

• 43:43Speaker 01

  Exactly. And to give people that, to give people that confidence, I, you know, I've, all the stories that, you know, I get from so many people who I've met and, you know, these thousands of people now that I meet everywhere and they, you know, out at parties, DM me, write to me, kind of whatever, that all these gorgeous customers. You know, talk about how clinging to a lipstick has really changed their life and whether it's clinging to a pillow talk lipstick that just made them feel, you know, that confident, that empowerment to be able to manifest their dreams, you know, and if that is so important to me and people, it is so underrated how. You know, it's not, it's not about the makeup, the skincare or the fragrance. It's about the feelings and it's about how people feel. And we want a world that is more positive and confident and happy and bringing joy to everyone.

• 44:29Speaker 01

  And that is why I am so passionate to this day to deliver that to people and give them things that they never thought they could. And coming from the world that I came from, which was working with all these amazing celebrities and VIPs and supermodels and everything. And people just feeling, I can't be, I am less than. It's like, no, we are going to democratize this. We are going to make this easy for you. We are going to give you the tools to empower you to feel those feelings, to feel like the most beautiful, confident version of yourself. And that is the reason I am so passionate about doing this and the legacy and the mark I want to leave on this world to help people. That feeling of when people come to you to say, this has helped me change my life. This has made me feel this way. Honestly, I'm so grateful, so grateful and so honored.

• 45:12Emma Grede?

  It shows. It shows, I think it shows in everything you do. I think it shows in every piece of content you put out, in every like new product launch, in everything that I own that is Charlotte Tilbury. It feels, no, because I think it's really true. And, you know, we just had Simon Sinek on this show and he talks about, you know, the guy that wrote.

• 45:30Speaker 01

  Why, why?

• 45:31Emma Grede?

  Yeah. And, and so it's so clear to me.

• 45:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:34Emma Grede?

  You could put every brand in the world and split them down the middle and say, here are the brands that have an extremely clear why. And here is everything else. And for me, Charlotte Tilbury is just, first of all, it's the living, breathing product embodiment of you as a person, right? Like your vision, you're this incredible, strong woman, you're so passionate about what you do, but you have a why. Like you were doing all of these like things, the shows, the consultancy, because you had a deep why inside you. And you've just lifted that into your brand. And I think that a lot of young founders really have to understand that it's got to be about so much more than just building a business, making money, figuring some product out.

• 46:18Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 46:18Emma Grede?

  Like to be truly successful and to have the success that you've had for this. Long and to to have so much runway in front of you, that comes from something much, much, much deeper. It's a purpose.

• 46:29Speaker 01

  It's a purpose.

• 46:30Emma Grede?

  It's a purpose.

• 46:31Speaker 01

  It's the purpose. I didn't start this just to make money. Yes, money is is is a measure of your success. You know, money is, it gives you, gets you respect in the business world. Money is a marker of that, but it's for me, it's a much bigger, higher purpose. And and that is the reason. I think I've been blessed and I think that, you know, I have this incredible team. And I've been able to create amazing things, sometimes scientifically they didn't think could happen. I've always had, my parents sort of taught me this as a creative visualization really as a child and that kind of belief mindset. That you don't have to limit yourself, that you can think limitless, you can do anything you want in the world.

• 47:11Speaker 01

  And, you know, I remember, you know, working with with one of the people I work with and they came in, I was like, you have to, I make everyone read the kind of, you know, the book, The Secret. I'm like, you have to believe in creative visualization. I do. I I was like, so we've got a bit of a movement and a community if you work here. I'm like, you've got to like, get rid of, get rid of your limitations in your mind. We can do anything.

• 47:28Emma Grede?

  Very Natalie Nastine of you, no?

• 47:30Speaker 01

  Limit your brilliant. Does she do the same?

• 47:32Emma Grede?

  Yes, I know that. She was the one who gave me that book.

• 47:35Speaker 01

  Oh, my God, I love that.

• 47:36Emma Grede?

  Like Creative Visualization back in the day and then The Secret and I was like, I am drinking this Kool-Aid. It worked for her. Hello.

• 47:43Speaker 01

  Exactly. Look at her.

• 47:44Emma Grede?

  Okay, girl.

• 47:45Speaker 01

  I want the burn. Go.

• 47:46Emma Grede?

  I know. It's so funny.

• 47:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:48Emma Grede?

  I want to talk to you about the thing that you're not driven by.

• 47:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:51Emma Grede?

  Money.

• 47:52Speaker 01

  Money.

• 47:53Emma Grede?

  Money.

• 47:53Speaker 01

  I'm not not driven by money, but the fact is, is that, you know, that is a measure of success and respect. So it's like, it's not that I'm not driven by it. It's like, of course, it's like, for me, it's very important. I'm like, if I'm going to build a dream, I want to be honored for that dream and I want to that marker of success. But the fact is, it's not only about money. It is a higher purpose. It is, it is something that I want to make people think, you know, believe that they could be, live a certain dream.

• 48:20Emma Grede?

  Totally.

• 48:20Speaker 01

  That they didn't think that they could have and deliver these pots of dreams that we're kind of, you know, selling them and making dreams come true. So, you know, I always say that they're little pots of dreams, that I'm selling pots of dreams, that making dreams and, you know, making them come true.

• 48:32Emma Grede?

  I think it's very clear that you have a brand. It's rooted in purpose.

• 48:34Speaker 01

  But of course you want to be successful and conquer the world and it has to be kind of like.

• 48:37Emma Grede?

  Let's talk about that because I have a lot of female founders on this show and not that many that want to talk to me about money. And Charlotte, I like to talk about money. I think if you, if you know, if we avoid the subject of money, it really avoids us. So let's get into it. You are essentially, you're estimated to be worth like, I don't know, three hundred and fifty million pounds. That's pounds, not dollars. That's more. And I'm not going to ask you to do to.

• 49:00Speaker 01

  All wrong.

• 49:01Emma Grede?

  She's like, wrong. She's, I'm way more loaded than that. That's what she's gonna, that's what she's saying, not saying. Okay, here's the thing. You're not poor. You've made a few quid and I really want to understand your relationship to money now. Because when you're a global brand and when your name is associated with this big, like billion dollar brand, like things change a little bit. And people change sometimes around you. And I wonder if anything has changed for you now that you've got a few quid.

• 49:27Speaker 01

  As I said before, money is a validation of your success, right? Which is, we love.

• 49:31Emma Grede?

  You didn't grow up with loads of money though, right?

• 49:33Speaker 01

  No, I mean, my parents weren't poor, but it's like, it was like, fine. We had a kind of, you know, quite glamorous lifestyle, but it wasn't quite bohemian. It's like my, my grandparents were fairly wealthy. We won't go down that kind of one got disinherited, whatever. But, but, but you know, so they kind of, you know, so I did have a fairly kind of bohemian, but quite glamorous lifestyle. So. I think sometimes people try and charge you more money because it's you. It's like Tilbury tax. You're like, really? It's like, I, you know, but, but you know what?

• 50:00Emma Grede?

  No, why did my haircut just cost four grand?

• 50:05Speaker 01

  But the fact is, is you didn't build an empire by not being a stupid businesswoman, right? So when they do try and do that, you're like, hmm, I know the price of milk. I know the price of what things cost. I have a, a budget for my kind of my home life as well as my business life. And I look through that P and L just as much. And I look through every single penny and make sure that it's, it's working for itself. I love to be really generous. I, you know, I, I'm philanthropic. I do kind of support charities, you know, the, the King's Trust, which now you're an ambassador of, which is so amazing. I mean, lots of, you know, different kind of missions that obviously it's really important to me to give back. If you're blessed in life and you're able to do that in the Clooney Foundation for Justice as well. I kind of work with them, which is amazing what they do. Thing is, I still have the same group of friends, right? My life hasn't really changed.

• 50:49Speaker 01

  I've got like, I'm really close to my family. I've got the same group of friends that I've always loved. Yes, I've made new ones and fabulous ones because I love people. I don't want to change, to be honest with you. I quite like just being me. I like to be feet firmly on the ground.

• 51:02Emma Grede?

  You like to be feet firmly on the ground. Is there anything that having money has taught you about yourself?

• 51:07Speaker 01

  I don't feel any different. I genuinely don't. I like to be exactly the same. I it's just who I am. I just, I don't wanna feel like, why do you suddenly have to feel different because you have money? You know, it's like, why do you have to change? Why? Why do you have to do that? So why can't you just be the way you've always been? I mean, yes, you know, maybe someone, the builder wants to charge you more money for something. But, you know, well, that's gonna be, you know, they can try, but it's a no.

• 51:30Emma Grede?

  Do you, do you manage your own money?

• 51:32Speaker 01

  I do manage my own money and I am also to have managers that kind of, that work with me.

• 51:36Emma Grede?

  Are you someone who is, like, are you a gambler at heart? Or are you someone that like, likes to keep and invest your money? Like, is it something that you look at and you're like, I need to make this money work for me? Or is that not?

• 51:47Speaker 01

  A gambler I am not. I, you know, I, some, some people might say I gambled creating this brand. But for me, it was very measured risk. It wasn't kind of like, I, for me, it was like, well, that's definitely gonna happen. So I wouldn't say I'm not a gambler, but I'm a risk taker. When I take risk, it's very measured. Like, if I'm really gonna put something behind it. Now, when it comes to managing my money, you have people who manage your money. Because, you know, when you're, when you have a certain, you know, amount of wealth, then you kind of have to do that. So, yeah, there are people, you know, but I do look at every single penny in my home life and in my work life. You know, the health of your life or your business or even your home life, the numbers will tell you.

• 52:26Emma Grede?

  The numbers are gonna tell you everything.

• 52:28Speaker 01

  And they will give you the opportunity. Exactly, they'll give you the opportunity.

• 52:31Emma Grede?

  It's clear to me that your personality is such a huge part of who you are and what your brand is and how informed your brand is by like who you are at the very kind of heart of it. Do you feel like your individuality has been a superpower for you?

• 52:46Speaker 01

  I always think people should just be themselves. I don't understand this thing of imposter syndrome. I don't get it. My parents were quite visionary, I realize. They were like, they sort of sent me to a Rudolf Steiner school. They sent me to, you know, with a guy who actually taught us about astrophysics and quantum physics. I was like, when I was eleven years old, I'm like.

• 53:01Emma Grede?

  Your parents were really visionary.

• 53:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, really visionary.

• 53:04Emma Grede?

  Creating visualization when you're a kid.

• 53:06Speaker 01

  I was like, I was eleven, I was like, how do I even understand any of this? I didn't even know how I go. It was crazy.

• 53:10Emma Grede?

  Are you a similar type parent?

• 53:12Speaker 01

  I'm in England. They were in Ibiza. It was just a different time.

• 53:14Emma Grede?

  Different time.

• 53:15Speaker 01

  Different time, different schools. But I do try to teach them like about, you know, you've got to believe in, you know, the kind of self fulfilling prophecy of the magical chain reaction of confidence and trying your best and just putting your best foot forward in life. And, you know, I do try and tell them about, talk to them about creative visualization and how to not limit themselves. That mentality of what my parents taught me was really important. I do try to instill that in them. One of the ones at teenage, they're not really listening to me.

• 53:44Speaker 01

  So my parents were always like, be yourself. That was like their mantra. Don't try and be anyone else. And I think when you are growing up, you hang out with different crowds, maybe you try to kind of like be something you're not. And actually very quickly, they were just like, no. They were always like, always be honest. It kind of honesty is the best policy. And I think that whole thing of when you are yourself and when you are honest, I think it really empowers you.

• 54:06Emma Grede?

  Have you always had that confidence?

• 54:09Speaker 01

  I have pretty much always had that confidence. I think I was kind of born this way. Then my mother also always just, thank God, but I mean, as mothers do, she just told me I was fabulous. Thank God for mommy. She just said I was fabulous. So I believed her. I believed her.

• 54:20Emma Grede?

  You're like, I am fabulous. My mom said I am.

• 54:24Speaker 01

  But you know, somewhere, you know, when I listen to a lot of entrepreneurs, you know, Jimmy, I think there's always one parent that tells you, you're amazing.

• 54:30Emma Grede?

  You are a million percent right about that. Everyone who comes on this show, and I think even in my own life, you know, it's like that a mom or a dad or someone who said, listen, you're special. You need to like lean into that. You know, my mom always used to say, Emma, you know, you, you're not better than anyone else, but nor is anyone better than you. And I really believed it. I was like, no one's better than me. You know, and growing up in England.

• 54:53Speaker 01

  But why does anyone reason that? Yeah.

• 54:54Emma Grede?

  But there's such a class society in England, but I never felt that because I was really taught that no one's better than me. And so it's so important. And I, I think if you can be that someone in someone's life, like how incredible. Because at the end of the day, what your brand is doing is giving so many women that type of confidence. And so I think it's really interesting that you were raised that way. And it's so clear, you sit with you for five minutes. And you're like, you know, if you leave the room and people say anything, it's wow, what confidence she has. You know, when you think about confidence and individuality and it being

• 55:30Speaker 01

  But that's why I'm so obsessed.

• 55:31Emma Grede?

  A business trait and not just a personal trait. How do you think you've managed to weave that into your business so successfully?

• 55:37Speaker 01

  That's my premise. Life is about confidence. That's why I created this brand. It's why I do what I do. It's when people sit in my makeup chair and they put makeup on, I can see their confidence, their heart, they sit up straighter. You know about neuroplasticity, like I have trained my mind. Darling, when you walk around with red hair, sweetie, it's like, I mean, darling, it, you know, you get teased, you get bullied, you get.

• 56:00Emma Grede?

  But that's.

• 56:00Speaker 01

  You don't say. You don't say, darling, you don't say, exactly. So, you know, you'll have your kind of, you stand out, like you always stand out. I've always stood out. That can be positive or negative, but then you're just like, you have one parent who just tells you, you're fabulous. You drink the Kool-Aid and believe it. All human beings suffer from insecurity, right? All. And so when you think about that, there'll be moments and then you're just like, I've trained my mind to just believe in myself and be positive and optimistic. I speak to myself in a certain way. I train myself in a certain way. I show up. I work hard. I work really hard. I have created my success. I have created my luck. I have done that and I am very grateful, but I am not a slacker. So like, you know, and I deserve it because of what I've done, you know, it's like,

• 56:45Speaker 01

  it's thirty four years of winning awards and going for it and working eighteen hour days and working weekends and sacrificing certain things and, you know, but it's, it's all life for everyone, but I love it. I love it and I've had a good time and I've got a lot of energy. So I can, you know, I can party, I can go out.

• 57:03Emma Grede?

  Oh, she can party.

• 57:04Speaker 01

  I can party, darling.

• 57:05Emma Grede?

  She can party. I've been to those parties. You know, you wait and you wait and you wait. You go to a pizza every year and then one day she knows who you are and you're like, I'm in.

• 57:17Emma Grede?

  Oh my god.

• 57:18Speaker 01

  It's so funny.

• 57:19Emma Grede?

  What do you say to women though? Because obviously not everybody is born without confidence. Not everybody has that person in their corner that gives them that self belief. And I do think that oftentimes we're told like not necessarily to stand out, right? Like to tone ourselves down. So what do you say? Do you think that women need to tone themselves down to be taken seriously? And how should, like, how do they do it otherwise? Like, what do you do instead?

• 57:44Speaker 01

  I know there's this, this person I started, you know, I was working with said that they were in a company where they said they had to choose. I mean, this is years ago, they had to choose makeup or high heels. And I was like, to be in a business world, I like count us out. Yeah, exactly. But I think we're living in a slightly different world. I think we're living in a slightly different world now. People will say to me, don't be fooled by the laughter, right? With me. And it's like, we're a shoot, we're smart, we're business women, we've created empires. Why can't I laugh? Why can't I dance? Why can't I wear high heels? Why can't I wear sexy outfits? I just want to be unapologetically me. Why can't I be sexy and charming and naughty and funny and bright and a businesswoman? Like, why not? I definitely have been underestimated, but you know, that's been a superpower too. I've used that.

• 58:27Speaker 01

  So I'm like, you know, they, it's like, if you want to underestimate me, no problem. I'm like, go right ahead. That's actually kind of, I can win, you know? So you just, I'll prove it.

• 58:35Emma Grede?

  It's completely amazing.

• 58:36Speaker 01

  It is. So I think live life to the full, be yourself. And I don't think you should apologize for who you are and try and be something you're not. Cause actually I think it comes out in your energy and your frequency.

• 58:46Emma Grede?

  Yeah, it does.

• 58:46Speaker 01

  And I think that people pick, we are, we have got that animalistic instinct where people pick up on that. They can pick up on something where you're not being authentic. And authenticity is 40 times more powerful than the love frequency. Right? Forty times, forty times more powerful.

• 59:03Emma Grede?

  Meaning that we're so much more attracted to authenticity.

• 59:07Speaker 01

  Yes. And also imagine, say, today's world of social, social media and where we're at and what's.

• 59:11Emma Grede?

  So much BS.

• 59:12Speaker 01

  It's like, it's, it's just that authenticity cuts through so much more.

• 59:17Emma Grede?

  Oh, I believe that.

• 59:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 59:18Emma Grede?

  I believe that because you can feel it, right?

• 59:19Speaker 01

  You can feel it.

• 59:20Emma Grede?

  You can smell it. I want to ask you about what has given, like what have been your trade offs? Because it's really my belief that when you've had a career like yours, when you've been so successful, there's always some underbelly to it, right? And I wonder what you've given. On the other side of all of your success.

• 59:39Speaker 01

  Not everyone has as much energy as I do, right? Like, I'm not being funny. When I was doing all the, you know, every single fashion show, flying around the world, doing eighteen hour days, I'd still go out. And everyone else would go to bed.

• 59:49Emma Grede?

  I know that too.

• 59:50Speaker 01

  Right? And everyone else would go to bed. So not everyone wants, not everyone has, wants to do that. I'm like, why? I'm like, I'm gonna have it all. I'm like, I'm gonna have a fabulous business. I'm gonna be the, you know, whilst whatever, like, I'll give you top makeup artist. I'm gonna basically go out. I'm gonna have fun. I'm gonna have kids. I'm like, I'm gonna have a family. Why not? Definitely there have been times when, you know, would I have liked more sleep? Yes. Would I have liked more time? Yes.

• 1:00:14Emma Grede?

  You didn't give anything in relationships? You didn't like, there was, I'm trying to understand because it's my belief that you can have it all. You can't have it all, all of the time. And I know that you are someone who really put the hours in, Charlotte. Like, no, what you, you worked. You're not somebody who's just like, you know, did a, did a four hour shoot. You went back to back to back to back to back. You did all the shows and then you're on a shoot.

• 1:00:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly.

• 1:00:36Emma Grede?

  Yeah, but that, you know, and those were, those were amazing days and it's all wonderful backstage. It was also hard graft. And I do think that there is, you know, when you're building a business, it's not all wonderful and magic. There's some kind of shit that goes down.

• 1:00:51Speaker 01

  I've missed parties, I've missed weddings, I've missed times that I really wanted to show up for my friends, that I wasn't able to be there. But on the whole, I mean, listen, time, I always want more time. Cause I'm just like, I'm a twenty four seven girl. I like, I've got, we're on this earth for such a short period of time and there's so much I wanna do and so much to achieve. But somehow I kind of, we bent time. I don't know how I've done it, but like literally, you know, she's like.

• 1:01:16Emma Grede?

  It will be mine.

• 1:01:17Speaker 01

  It will be mine. I will work for like, I will party, I will kind of go out for like twenty hours, like, you know, but that's kind of, you know, whereas most people don't wanna do that. Honestly, I don't have regrets. I don't have regrets. I, listen, the few times, a couple of weddings, a really good friend of mine, I was just like, I really wish I'd been there.

• 1:01:33Emma Grede?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:33Speaker 01

  And a couple of fun times where I was like, you know, amazing parties, people having a great time, but there's always another party. Maybe there's not always another wedding. Now I do kind of prioritize being there for my friends because they are so there for me. Am I at every play, my Kids play at school. No, I'm not. But I'm not at school gates every morning either. But I'm just not that mother. The mother that I am is like, I will show up for your major sports day or your kind of musical event or whatever it is. But otherwise, I am building an empire and I am happy and I am fun. And I'm not, you know what I mean? And so we're just.

• 1:02:03Emma Grede?

  How old are your kids?

• 1:02:04Speaker 01

  So my kids are sixteen and eleven.

• 1:02:06Emma Grede?

  And so your kids were little while you were building the empire.

• 1:02:10Speaker 01

  Oh, God. Okay, no, no, no, no, no. Like toddlers. One year, I got divorced, remarried, had another baby and launched my brand in America and moved house in one year.

• 1:02:25Emma Grede?

  And went to a lot of parties.

• 1:02:27Speaker 01

  And went to a lot of parties.

• 1:02:32Speaker 01

  That's a lot. Being like, oh, maybe a bit more than you can chew this year.

• 1:02:37Emma Grede?

  That's a lot.

• 1:02:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:02:39Emma Grede?

  And if you so, so I guess your kids have never known any different. Your kids have always known you to be.

• 1:02:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:02:43Emma Grede?

  Mummy that leaves, works, travels, does what she needs to do.

• 1:02:46Speaker 01

  Holidays. I try to take the holidays and I try to kind of like and be present. I'm very much like, I'm very that kind of mindset where I'm very present in whatever I'm doing. Whether kind of when I'm in business, I'm like obsessing about business and I'm totally focused in the room. I'm not very attached to my telephone. I'm very like totally focused. Or I'm kind of, I'm very in the moment of whatever I'm doing, whether I'm having fun, whether I'm doing, you know, whether I'm working, whether I'm kind of with the kids. It's sort of try to be kind of very present in whatever that is.

• 1:03:13Emma Grede?

  Did you ever suffer with mum guilt?

• 1:03:15Speaker 01

  No, no, I just don't believe in that. I don't believe in guilt. I believe we show up in life, we do our best and that's it. I'm like, I just don't believe in it. Throw the guilt in the bin. Like, as, as long as I'm trying my best, because I am like, you know, I, I really love my kids. I'm really family orientated. But have I been there all the time? No. But like, you know, would I like to have been there a bit more? Yes. But like, at least we really love each other and love conquers all. And all you need is love is that's what my father always used to say to me. All you need is love and that's it. So. I'm like, and as long as I'm a happy mother, do you know what I mean? I think, and I turn up to the mate, the, the right moments, then I feel like I'm doing my best. We're gonna have a good time.

• 1:03:57Speaker 05

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• 1:04:59Emma Grede?

  Charlotte, what are the biggest lessons that you've learned when you look at your career and your life? And what a career. What have you learned? And what would you say to young founders, young women that want to emulate what you've done and have the same type of success as you have now?

• 1:05:17Speaker 01

  I think my motto in life, and this is what I live by and stand by, is dare to dream it.

• 1:05:25Speaker 01

  Dare to believe it, most importantly,

• 1:05:30Speaker 01

  and then dare to do it. Because I think the biggest difference in life is that people have a dream, but they don't even try. And if you don't try, you'll never know. And if you just believe in that, if you just one step in front of the other, building blocks, just try your best. So I say to my kids, just try your best. It's all you can do. And then, literally, it just starts to happen. And never give up and always believe and embrace the challenge. And challenge is opportunity. And don't see it in a negative way. And rewire your brain. Rewire your brain to think optimistically and to think about Challenges, opportunity and drive yourself there and you will achieve your dreams.

• 1:06:10Speaker 01

  I mean, when I think of the Einstein quote, which I basically die and live by, which because he understood a thing or two old Einstein.

• 1:06:17Emma Grede?

  One or two.

• 1:06:18Speaker 01

  Exactly. Which is like, his thing was, everything is energy and that's all there is to it. So we all resonate at an energy. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you will get that reality. There can be no other way. And that's it. The universe doesn't speak Mandarin or English or anything else or French. It speaks frequency and energy. And so if you resonate at believing, if you're authentically who you are and you don't lie and you basically are unapologetic about who you are, why should you feel ashamed or insecure? Like, show up, love yourself.

• 1:06:58Speaker 01

  It's like, and, and train yourself because everyone, there's plenty of people who'll tell you, you're not fabulous. Plenty of people will tell you that you can't do things. I mean, I have had that. I've been told, I've been teased. I have been told I won't, I, I am crazy. I have been told I won't, what am I doing? I'm mad. Do you know what? Whatever. Then they says, thank you, goodbye. And literally rewire your brain to optimism. You just carry on your train. You see your white space. You keep going. You do what you need to do and it will come true. Your dreams will happen.

• 1:07:25Emma Grede?

  You have the mindset of an absolute champion.

• 1:07:28Speaker 01

  That is it. I need, I need it on our, on our like, on our bronzer and our blush it. I want, I want it to be like, dream it, believe it, do it. And every day I'm like.

• 1:07:40Speaker 01

  But it, but it's the winner's mindset, right? It is anyone. You've got it. Everyone is the winner's mindset. And look at all those athletes. We know, as I was saying, this person that I was working with, when I gave them the Ronda Byrne secret, they're like, oh my God, this rubbish creative visualization. What is this thing that you're talking about? Like woo woo, whatever. And I was like, uh-uh, this is real. This is like, this is the secret. Codes to, to, to life, to, to, to success. This is it. And they read it and they came back and they said, Roger Bannister broke the four minute mile. He, it was considered to be humanly impossible. He didn't have the lung capacity at the time. They didn't think that it was humanly impossible to do. And he believed he could, so he did.

• 1:08:23Speaker 01

  And so, and that is the same. It's like, it's the same thing that Einstein's talking about. Where all energy matched the frequency, the frequency doesn't speak anything else, but frequency that feel, what is frequency? Feeling, feel it, manifest it, and then it will be, there can be no other way.

• 1:08:40Emma Grede?

  I believe this like to my core.

• 1:08:42Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 1:08:43Emma Grede?

  I can't even, like, I know, first of all, I know it to be true.

• 1:08:46Speaker 01

  You've done it. Look at you, all the amazing things that you've done.

• 1:08:47Emma Grede?

  I know it to be true.

• 1:08:48Speaker 01

  And all the amazing things that you've achieved. You, you and I think the same way. Anyone that's achieved in that, anything in life, they all think the same way. People will still come tell you, you're crazy, you're this, that and the other. And you're like, okay, whatever. But you just, and positive thoughts and optimism, I talk about, you know, lucky girl syndrome, right? You know about this? And it's a thing that kind of like picked up on TikTok. But actually, lucky girl syndrome is something that you and I have done for years. We have rewired our brain. Neuroplasticity to literally optimize to just think positive, like a negative thought comes in, out, positive. What are we doing? What are the building blocks? Where are we going? And then, up, up, up. And then the reality, that becomes our reality.

• 1:09:27Emma Grede?

  Mm hmm.

• 1:09:27Speaker 01

  It's like conceive, believe, receive. You end up receiving. And so it's, it's, and you're wiring your brain in that way. And that's what I always tell people, that you can do it. And you know what's amazing about rewiring your brain? Is you can do it fast, really fast. That's that whole quantum thinking, it can change like that. And that's what people don't realize.

• 1:09:43Emma Grede?

  I love that you say that. We had Tracy Ellis Ross here and she says, you know, Emma, I manifest real fast. And we all were just like, you know, because when you know it and that's part of your routine and that is that your default way of thinking, it can happen really fast.

• 1:09:57Speaker 01

  Really fast.

• 1:09:58Emma Grede?

  Charlotte, what is?

• 1:09:58Speaker 01

  It doesn't need to take time. You are the blocker. You are the blocker.

• 1:10:01Emma Grede?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:02Speaker 01

  You are the only person. And what people don't realize in life is actually, I remember, you know, a friend of mine just broke up with someone. And I was saying, you know what? The problem is not the other person, it's you. And wherever you go, whether you're going to marry a fisherman or a kind of a banker or whatever. It's like, it's, it's you. What are you searching? What is the mirror in, in life that you're kind of searching for? Or how's that showing up? What is it that you need to change within you?

• 1:10:28Emma Grede?

  You know, I believe this. I mean, I've just written a book called Start With Yourself.

• 1:10:31Speaker 01

  Oh, my God.

• 1:10:34Emma Grede?

  It all starts here, right? I mean, it's so true. What do you think if you had to choose like the, the red thread that goes through your life, through your career, through your success? What is it? What goes through your entire story?

• 1:10:48Speaker 01

  I think unwavering belief, unwavering belief, unwavering belief. And visualization of what I wanted. I'm very, I was very clear as a young child, it was probably. Very, I was very young when I knew exactly what I wanted. I knew I wanted to be a makeup artist six, sixteen. I didn't become a makeup artist until I was like, go to makeup school about eight, eighteen and a half. I wanted to always create a brand. I, I knew that pretty early on. I was fortunate enough to kind of know where I wanted to go, or what I wanted to do very early on. And then really set out about kind of really achieving it and just never giving up, never give up, never give up. Never give up and self belief and train your brain, train your brain. Everyone can do it. Everyone can do, we don't, Emma, you and I just don't come from, we don't come from a different planet. Yes, we had amazing parents.

• 1:11:33Speaker 01

  The daughters were amazing. Yes, we believed, we trained ourselves.

• 1:11:36Emma Grede?

  Trained.

• 1:11:37Speaker 01

  We trained ourselves, we worked hard, we, you know, we would, you and I probably couldn't read a P and L, we're both dyslexic. I'm like, but we learnt to do it and we became amazing business women that built empires. So why, you know, anyone can do it. And that's my point. They have to look at you and I and be inspired. In the way that I'm inspired by so many other people, you're inspired by other people. If we could do it, so many other people can do it.

• 1:11:57Emma Grede?

  So many other people can do it.

• 1:11:58Speaker 01

  And I love that, you know, since I launched my brand, thousands of people. I mean, I literally disrupted the industry of five conglomerates. And then I literally went, they were like, well, if she can do it, I can do it. And it went thousands and thousands and thousands of brands, literally around the world, kind of, you know.

• 1:12:13Emma Grede?

  You must love that, no?

• 1:12:14Speaker 01

  I do. I love, and do you know what I love? I, I really love celebrating female entrepreneurs and just entrepreneurs in general. It's so amazing to have, you know, innovating, disrupting and to lead the way for so many great people and to grow the pie and grow the industry. There's enough room for everyone.

• 1:12:27Emma Grede?

  Oh, there's enough room for everyone. And so many people credit you. Again, I speak to so many young founders that are like, I did this because I saw Charlotte Tilbury did it.

• 1:12:34Speaker 01

  And I say to Beverly Hills, come up and be like, you know, you launched, like five people in the world, then thousands, three thousand brands launched after you. And now it's thousands and thousands, but it's great. It's wonderful. It's wonderful to be able to do that. What we both have is like bravery and courage. I think you have to, and that it goes back to feel the fear. And do it anyway, right? We have, we've all, we've all felt that insecurity. We've all felt that kind of fear. At some point, but we've all taken the courage to just, I'm just gonna do my best. And I just believe that, you know, and then what people also underestimate is that practice makes perfect.

• 1:13:09Emma Grede?

  Oh, it so does.

• 1:13:10Speaker 01

  I wasn't the woman, this is woman I am today 10 years ago.

• 1:13:13Emma Grede?

  Talk about 10,000 hours. I mean, you might have put 100,000 hours in. I've definitely done a few MBAs, 10,000 fashion weeks.

• 1:13:20Speaker 01

  University of life.

• 1:13:21Emma Grede?

  You know what I love so much about you, and I just had this conversation with Simon Sinek, so I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna steal it. But I think that the true mark of a great leader, a great founder, a great entrepreneur, yes, is courage. But it's courage coupled with integrity, as he would say.

• 1:13:36Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:13:37Emma Grede?

  And I think that what comes across in you, Charlotte, and I know this because I've known you for so many years. You have such unbelievable integrity. And when I met you as like literally a child backstage gaffer and wired to the floor. So you didn't trip over. Thank you. Back in those old days, you were so kind. You were so like eyes, eyes, eyes. Hello, girl on the floor. How are you? Here's some shit from my kit. You were so nice to everyone. And I think that you have a lot of integrity, not just in your work and in your incredible craft that you've turned into this business. But as a person, we all know that Charlotte Tilbury is Charlotte Tilbury.

• 1:14:22Emma Grede?

  And I think that that goes a really, really long way. And I don't think that I sit opposite many people and feel like this level of happiness for their success. You deserve all your success. You're mesmerizing.

• 1:14:36Speaker 01

  Both of us have known each other. I mean, look at what you've created and look at you've inspired so many women. Even I sit there and go, how does she do it all? Three empires? I'm like, I've got one. I'm like, and you've got three. I'm like, and then you've got three kids. I've got two kids. I'm like,

• 1:14:50Emma Grede?

  Four now, four now.

• 1:14:51Speaker 01

  Emma is a legend. Emma's a legend. I'm like,

• 1:14:53Emma Grede?

  No, it's too, it's too much. Charlotte, you spoke a couple of times about being customer obsessed. But what does that actually look like in real terms?

• 1:15:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think for me being customer obsessed is looking, looking at the need state of a consumer, number one. Looking at the white space in the market, looking at what they, thinking about what they need before they know that they need it.

• 1:15:12Emma Grede?

  Hmm.

• 1:15:12Speaker 01

  And then it's that emotional connectivity to the consumer. I think one of the, you know, superpowers of why my brand has done really well, it's that, as you, we talked about authenticity, we talked about being completely who you are and how that really resonates with people. I love my community and I think it's so important to me to connect emotionally with them. And I think if you think about it today, how do you market in an incredible way? And it is that, that mass intimacy that is really important to me. I really consider them to be all my friends and they're my darlings, right?

• 1:15:42Emma Grede?

  And they love you.

• 1:15:43Speaker 01

  And I love them. And so it's that, and that emotional connectivity is so important for me to switch on and turn on, you know, with, with that consumer.

• 1:15:51Emma Grede?

  Well, it's so clear that they, they really trust you, right? You have this trust thing going on with your customers.

• 1:15:57Speaker 01

  Trust is not just a soft metric. It really kind of, it drives loyalty, it drives long, retention and long-term profitability.

• 1:16:07Emma Grede?

  It is amazing.

• 1:16:07Speaker 01

  It is, and the people feel safe because they can trust the quality of your products, they can trust your formulas and they know you've got their back.

• 1:16:13Emma Grede?

  Look at me, trusting my Charlotte Tilbury face right now.

• 1:16:16Speaker 01

  You can trust it, gorgeous, Emma Grede, you are gorgeous.

• 1:16:19Emma Grede?

  From seven AM, seven PM.

• 1:16:20Speaker 01

  It's amazing.

• 1:16:21Emma Grede?

  Every down day.

• 1:16:22Speaker 01

  I know, you and I darling.

• 1:16:24Emma Grede?

  Look at me, fishing, fishing for a contract over here.

• 1:16:27Speaker 01

  I love it, you've got one.

• 1:16:28Emma Grede?

  All right, we're going to move to the rapid fire finish. What's the first thing you do when you wake up?

• 1:16:33Speaker 01

  Darling, I put on my makeup and my skincare.

• 1:16:36Emma Grede?

  What are you using?

• 1:16:38Speaker 01

  Is that what you're using? Charlotte Tilbury.

• 1:16:41Emma Grede?

  What's the last thing you do before you go to bed?

• 1:16:43Speaker 01

  Rinse, repeat.

• 1:16:44Emma Grede?

  No doubt. Who is a woman that inspires your confidence?

• 1:16:50Speaker 01

  My mother.

• 1:16:51Emma Grede?

  Oh, I love that.

• 1:16:53Speaker 01

  My mother.

• 1:16:54Emma Grede?

  That's so nice. Do you have a book that changed your life?

• 1:16:57Speaker 01

  I do have a book that, yeah, Rhonda Byrne, The Secret, darling, I have to say, you and I both feel that, right? We both, we just, yeah, that definitely, I definitely, and The Celestine Prophecy, my mother gave that to me when I was younger.

• 1:17:07Emma Grede?

  Oh, I'm going to reread that, I haven't read that ever.

• 1:17:11Speaker 01

  Do you remember? Yes. Celestine Prophecy and The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, those two have really had, really had an effect on my life.

• 1:17:16Emma Grede?

  That's going to be my, my Christmas reread.

• 1:17:18Speaker 01

  I give it to everyone that works with me and it really kind of helps shift their mindset and create that community and that kind of vision to strive, to do things that, to think, you know, to live a life without limits, basically, live a life without limits.

• 1:17:30Emma Grede?

  Damn right. What are you aspiring for next in your business life?

• 1:17:34Speaker 01

  Conquer the world, darling.

• 1:17:36Emma Grede?

  And what about in your personal life?

• 1:17:38Speaker 01

  In my personal life, I would just always wish for more time. Can we just bend it? Can we just create it?

• 1:17:42Emma Grede?

  Well, you might be able to.

• 1:17:43Speaker 01

  Can we quantum things?

• 1:17:44Emma Grede?

  If anyone can.

• 1:17:44Speaker 01

  Can we quantum jump?

• 1:17:45Emma Grede?

  Let's hold hands, we could probably do it. What is something that you valued when you were starting out your career that you no longer value?

• 1:17:53Speaker 01

  I think it's, it'll always be time. Time. I think, you know, I think I'm always just want more time.

• 1:18:00Emma Grede?

  What is something that you value deeply right now in your life? That you couldn't care less about when you started out?

• 1:18:07Speaker 01

  It's time.

• 1:18:07Emma Grede?

  It's still time.

• 1:18:08Speaker 01

  It's still time. I just want more time. I just love life.

• 1:18:13Emma Grede?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:13Speaker 01

  I love people, I love life, I love my family, I love my job, I love everything. It's like, I just wanna have fun. As I said before, it's like, it's so annoying that I'm human and I have to sleep.

• 1:18:24Emma Grede?

  How many hours do you sleep a night?

• 1:18:27Speaker 01

  I probably, listen, I'd love an eight hour, I love a lion. Oh, I'd love a lazy lion, but I don't do an eight hour.

• 1:18:32Emma Grede?

  No, I was just gonna say, like, when do you use an eight hour?

• 1:18:35Speaker 01

  No, no, no, no, it's not happening, it's not happening.

• 1:18:38Emma Grede?

  What do you, a solid six?

• 1:18:39Speaker 01

  Try for a six.

• 1:18:40Emma Grede?

  Okay.

• 1:18:41Speaker 01

  Sometimes it's a four, that's never great. Like tonight, last night I had four hours sleep. So it just is, because you're travelling, jet lag, it's just whatever, it's just, you know, four hours. Solid six. And sometimes when I'm having a lazy Saturday or Sunday, a lion. I, oh, I love to have a lion. But, you know, I bet, it's probably kind of a regular six.

• 1:19:00Emma Grede?

  A regular six.

• 1:19:01Speaker 01

  Six, six.

• 1:19:01Emma Grede?

  Makes sense.

• 1:19:02Speaker 01

  A regular six.

• 1:19:02Emma Grede?

  She's busy. Thank God for the flawless finish, though.

• 1:19:04Speaker 01

  Exactly, darling. I just, my mother's like, you can't just rely on magic cream for everything. I was like, yes, you can.

• 1:19:09Emma Grede?

  You're like, you know what, Mum, you can.

• 1:19:10Speaker 01

  And they are. Magic cream in a full face of silver, it's fine. She'd fake it to make it.

• 1:19:15Emma Grede?

  I love it, Charlotte. I have loved every second. I wish you could stay for another two hours.

• 1:19:20Speaker 01

  Me too, me too, me too.

• 1:19:22Emma Grede?

  Thank you so much.

• 1:19:22Speaker 01

  Thank you so much. It's such a treat. You're the best. You're the best, and we've known each other for years, and it's so amazing, and I'm just in awe of everything you've done. And you're so inspiring, and this is just honestly such a treat and an honour to be on here with you.

• 1:19:32Emma Grede?

  For you to say that, like, you make me go cold. I love you. Thank you.

• 1:19:35Speaker 01

  I love you too.

• 1:19:36Emma Grede?

  You're the best.

• 1:19:42Emma Grede?

  If you're loving this podcast, be sure to click Follow on your favourite listening platform. While you're there, give us a review and a five-star rating and share an episode you loved with a friend. We'll be so grateful. Aspire with Emma Grede is presented by Odyssey. I'm your host, Emma Grede. Our executive producers are Corinne, Gilliard Fisher, Derek Brown and me. Our executive producers from Odyssey are Maddie Sprung Kaiser, Leah Reese Dennis, Asha Saluja and Jenna Weiss-Berman. Stephen Key is our senior producer. Sound design and engineering by Bill Schultz. Angela Peluso is our booker. Original music by Charles Black. Video production by Evan Cox, Kirk Courtney, Andrew Steele, Carlos Delgado and Arnie Agassi. Social media by Olivia Homan.

• 1:20:27Emma Grede?

  Special thanks to Brittany Smith, Sidney Ford, my teams at The Lead Company and WME. Maura Curran, Josephina Francis, Hilary Schuff, Eric Donnelly, Kate Hutchinson Rose, Tim Meeke, Shaun Cherry and Lauren Vieira. If you have questions for me, you can DM me at aspirewithemmagreed. Grede is spelt G-R-E-D-E. That's aspire, A-S-P-I-R-E with Emma Grede. Or you can submit a question to me on my website, emmagreed.me.