How to Find Your Purpose and Achieve Your Dreams With Jamie Kern Lima | The Mel Robbins Podcast

Want ME to be your coach!? 🌟 https://bit.ly/launch_2023 👈 Join my 6-month coaching program, LAUNCH with Mel Robbins. Get ready to make real progress and launch into the life you deserve. I only offer this once a year. Get in before it sells out! 🚀 — Today’s episode is a #masterclass on finding your #purpose, listening to your gut, and never giving up (no matter what other people say). You’re about to meet a woman who went from serving up stacks of pancakes at Denny’s to creating a billion-dollar product that would help millions of #women around the world feel #confident in their own skin. It was such a success that L'Oréal recently bought her company for $1.2 billion dollars. I’m talking about none other than Jamie Kern Lima, the founder of @ITCosmeticsOfficial And if you think that her purpose in life was to create a cosmetics company, you’d be wrong. The topic of purpose is essential and misunderstood, so today I’ll teach you how to truly find your purpose using Jamie’s inspiring story and tactical tools every step of the way. Xo Mel Jamie's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@jamiekernlimaofficial/ In this episode, you'll learn: 00:00 Intro 04:35 How Jamie Kern Lima got her career started in waitressing and ended up building a 1.2 billion dollar company 07:36 A simple reframe when you are facing setbacks in your life 09:10 The biggest misconception around purpose 13:08 The importance of showing up for everything you do, no matter where you are at 16:18 Why Jamie’s 1.2 billion dollar idea almost didn’t happen and the ‘AHA’ moment that changed everything 22:27 Why you need to listen to your ‘aha’ moments 24:17 First step to start taking action on your dreams 28:58 How to face your #1 critic (yourself) and start trusting your gut 35:28 A profound reframe on the hardships you have experienced 36:56 Jamie’s story of one of the most painful rejection she had every experienced and the life-changing lesson she learn about intuition 43:18 How to get yourself unstuck if you are unsure what move to make next 44:34 How Jamie landed one of the biggest moves of her career 48:39 Jamie’s biggest life lesson she has ever gotten 52:29 Why trusting your GUT pays off 57:58 Jamie’s advice if you have been rejected over and over 1:02:47 The definition of true power 1:04:34 The truth about finding your purpose 1:07:59 2 exercises to help have your own ‘AHA’ moment 1:14:10 Why going after your dreams is YOUR responsibility — Follow Mel: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melrobbins/ TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@melrobbins Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melrobbins LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melrobbins Website: http://melrobbins.com​ — Sign up for Mel’s newsletter: https://melrob.co/sign-up-newsletter A note from Mel to you, twice a week, sharing simple, practical ways to build the life you want. — Subscribe to Mel’s channel here: https://www.youtube.com/melrobbins​?sub_confirmation=1 — Listen to The Mel Robbins Podcast 🎧 New episodes drop every Monday & Thursday! https://melrob.co/spotify https://melrob.co/applepodcasts https://melrob.co/amazonmusic — Looking for Mel’s books on Amazon? Find them here: The Let Them Theory: https://amzn.to/3IQ21Oe The Let Them Theory Audiobook: https://amzn.to/413SObp The High 5 Habit: https://amzn.to/3fMvfPQ The 5 Second Rule: https://amzn.to/4l54fah

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

• 0:00Mel Robbins?

  Hey, it's your friend Mel and welcome to an unbelievable episode of the Mel Robbins Podcast. Okay, you are in for an incredible masterclass on purpose, success, vision, intuition. My name is Mel Robbins. I'm a New York Times bestselling author and I am so excited that you're here because today I am going to introduce you to a woman that I profoundly admire, who went from being a waitress at Denny's to solving a problem that she had in her own life and creating

• 0:42Mel Robbins?

  a cosmetics company in her living room and growing it to a game changer in the cosmetic industry. She ultimately sold It Cosmetics, yup, It Cosmetics, that incredible mega brand. She sold that sucker for 1.2 billion, that's a B, billion dollars to L'Oréal in cash. And she went on to become the first female CEO inside of L'Oréal, the first one in 100 years. She has appeared on QVC over 1,000 times. She has built the largest cosmetic brand that they have ever launched.

• 1:23Mel Robbins?

  Not only that, but she has donated more than 40 million in products and in cash to survivors of cancer. And she is one of my favorite human beings of all time. She wrote the book Believe It, and it is an instant New York Times bestseller. And today, Jamie Kern Lima is here as my friend and as the professor in the topics of drive, purpose, success, meaning, giving back. There is so much I can't wait to dig in with you, Jamie. Thank you for being here.

• 1:58Jamie Kern Lima?

  Mel, thank you. Thank you for having me. This is going to be fun and real and raw. By the way, I love purpose professor. I'm like, yeah, let's do it. Let's do it because it's one of our biggest life questions. How do I find my purpose? But I just want to say Mel, something really important to me that I didn't want to leave here without saying, but everybody listening needs to know this. You are one of the rare human beings that is the same off air, behind the scenes, in your everyday life as you are in all the public things. You and I have both met so many celebrities and so many people with millions and millions of followers and it's very rare they're the same. And I just, one of the things I love so much about you is you are even more funny, even

• 2:39Jamie Kern Lima?

  more intelligent and brilliant and kind and raw and real, um, in real life. And I'm just grateful to be here for you.

• 2:48Mel Robbins?

  Wow. Okay.

• 2:50Jamie Kern Lima?

  Just that.

• 2:51Mel Robbins?

  I think the episode's over now. Now, we gotta go back in time because one of the reasons why I wanted to have you on is because the entire mission of this show is to empower and inspire you listening to us right now to create a better life, whatever that means for you. To take the simple steps that sometimes feel impossible, to pursue your dreams, to improve your health, to create greater connections, to believe in yourself. And Jamie truly is not only the professor of purpose, but her life story is a demonstration in cultivating belief.

• 3:32Mel Robbins?

  Belief in your ideas, belief in your intuition, belief that things will turn out. And so I want to go back in time and talk about how you started as a waitress in Denny's and then from waitressing at Denny's pursued a dream that you had of being on television. And as a fellow former waitress, I would love to start there.

• 3:59Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah, waitress at Denny's, um, full uniform, name tag to prove it.

• 4:05Mel Robbins?

  Oh, I forgot they had uniforms.

• 4:07Jamie Kern Lima?

  Full uniform.

• 4:08Mel Robbins?

  What was your favorite thing on the menu?

• 4:10Jamie Kern Lima?

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

• 4:55Jamie Kern Lima?

  Or they'd throw like a dime and a penny on the table and leave.

• 4:58Mel Robbins?

  As your tip is if it's your fault.

• 5:01Jamie Kern Lima?

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

• 5:46Jamie Kern Lima?

  of self doubt. I have a skin condition called rosacea. And for me, it started getting really red, really bumpy. And I would be anchoring the news live, thinking like, you know, okay, this is it, this is it. And I started hearing in my earpiece from my producer, there's something on your face, there's something on your face. You need to wipe it off. You need to, and I was live on television, right? And I would glance down during the commercial break and I saw, oh, the makeup is breaking up on my face. And these big red bumps are coming through. But so often in life, the, the seasons that feel like setbacks are, are actually setups for what we're called to do.

• 6:22Mel Robbins?

  Okay, stop right there.

• 6:25Mel Robbins?

  Did you hear that?

• 6:27Mel Robbins?

  The seasons of your life that are setbacks.

• 6:33Mel Robbins?

  Are often setups for what you're called to do. I want to just make sure everybody heard that. And I want to take a highlighter and also highlight something that you said about being a waitress at Denny's. And it's this, you said, our steps are ordered. So can you explain what that means particularly to somebody who's listening? Who may feel like, I know I'm meant for something greater.

• 7:00Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes.

• 7:01Mel Robbins?

  Why the hell am I at this step? And this does not feel like it is like on the path of where I'm supposed to go. So what do you mean by the fact that our steps are ordered?

• 7:09Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah. I believe, you know, everything in life.

• 7:13Mel Robbins?

  Yep.

• 7:14Jamie Kern Lima?

  Is happening for us, even when it doesn't make sense.

• 7:17Mel Robbins?

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

• 7:22Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes, yes.

• 7:24Mel Robbins?

  What does that mean?

• 7:25Jamie Kern Lima?

  Let me frame it around our topic of purpose, right? So often people feel empty because they feel like, oh, my purpose needs to be some job. It needs to be my job or it needs to be this, this grand thing I haven't figured out yet. But for those of us that have accomplished a goal we always dreamed of, we get to it and we're like, oh, this isn't it, right? It's never, in my opinion, purpose is never this, this big goal necessarily. Purpose is so often when we're able to serve the person we once were, or serve in a way for something we've gone through. And here's what I mean. I think our purpose can be like, oh, wow.

• 8:08Jamie Kern Lima?

  I went through a really freaking hard season in my life. And I now am actually realizing I'm born to be a generational cycle breaker in my family. That is an incredible purpose, right? When I actually just take a minute and say hi to someone else who's lonely. Maybe it's in the coffee line at Starbucks. Maybe it's the neighbor down the street, whatever it is. You feel in your gut, a sense of fulfillment, a sense of alignment. When you're doing something in your purpose. And I think that the big mistake people make. Because they think it's this end goal, right? A lot of times when people hear my story, Denny's waitress builds billion dollar company.

• 8:51Jamie Kern Lima?

  They think my purpose was to be some big entrepreneur.

• 8:54Mel Robbins?

  It wasn't.

• 8:54Jamie Kern Lima?

  It wasn't.

• 8:55Mel Robbins?

  What was it?

• 8:56Jamie Kern Lima?

  In the journey of how I did it.

• 8:58Mel Robbins?

  Yeah.

• 8:58Jamie Kern Lima?

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

• 9:41Jamie Kern Lima?

  For me, being willing to say, here I am exactly as I am, no makeup. And, you know, all my skin issues. I think people connected with that, that feeling of of, oh, I'm enough exactly as I am.

• 9:56Mel Robbins?

  You know what else I think is a really important part of your story?

• 10:02Mel Robbins?

  It is waitressing.

• 10:03Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah.

• 10:03Mel Robbins?

  It's pushing carts in a supermarket.

• 10:05Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah.

• 10:06Mel Robbins?

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

• 10:18Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah.

• 10:18Mel Robbins?

  And you feel at times invisible. You start to realize how important it is to treat everybody with respect and kindness. That there is no work that is beneath you. And when you can bring that level of service to the job that you have right now, even if you hate it. Even if people treat you like garbage, even if the, the, the, the back of the house is not getting those pancakes out on time and people are angry, if you can bring a sense of grace and service and just humility, I think it changes how you show up because you don't ever forget what it's like to be treated like shit.

• 10:58Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes.

• 10:59Mel Robbins?

  Because somebody was mad that their pancakes weren't out on time.

• 11:02Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes, yes. And also you and I have had this experience where we've truly gotten to see and be almost every type of person in every type of environment. And so now it's like, whether it's me building a business or you building one of the top shows in the world, one of the top shows in the world. Um, I feel part of that was like, oh, we understand who's listening and watching you right now. I understand who real people are, who bought my products. And, and, and so when you mentioned steps are ordered, it's like, you know, no matter where you are in your life right now, what you're going through, I believe every piece of it, whether it's, oh, someone just, you know, cut me off in a parking lot and screamed at me, or oh, whatever it might be you're going through,

• 11:47Jamie Kern Lima?

  all of those things are happening for you, I believe, so that you're amassing this toolbox of understanding and getting strong enough and equipped enough for the purpose you step into.

• 11:58Mel Robbins?

  Amazing. So Professor Purpose, Jamie, Karen, Lina, right there. That's your takeaway number one. The steps are ordered. Believe in that. And this moment is helping you. It's giving you something. So that is one major tool that you used along the way. Let's go back to that moment because I think you were 28 years old, right? When you're sitting on television in Seattle.

• 12:20Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah.

• 12:20Mel Robbins?

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

• 12:27Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes.

• 12:28Mel Robbins?

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

• 12:36Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes.

• 12:37Mel Robbins?

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

• 12:42Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes.

• 12:43Mel Robbins?

  And you're realizing, holy cow.

• 12:46Mel Robbins?

  The makeup that they've put on my face cannot cover the rosacea and the skin issues that I have. So what do you do in that moment?

• 12:55Jamie Kern Lima?

  Well, the first thing I did was start freaking out, right? Thinking thoughts in my head like, oh, am I gonna get fired? Are viewers changing the channel right now? Like, am I costing the company ratings, right? So it was this big-

• 13:07Mel Robbins?

  Could you feel those moments when you could feel like the makeup kinda like disappearing? Like, there were moments when I used to be a commentator for CNN. I was pre-menopausal, where I could feel the hot flash coming.

• 13:19Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah. I didn't feel it until they said it in my ear and in my earpiece. And then what would start to happen was I would get so nervous and stressed out because I kept trying to cover it during commercial breaks. I could feel my heart beat in my ears. So what I remember is like anchoring the news live. And sometimes you'd be happy, tell this happy story, or you're serious telling. And I just remember my heart beating in my ears, hoping people weren't turning the, you know, changing the channel. And it started this thing where I, you know, would spend what? You know, it's funny, I was anchoring the news. And people think when you're doing that, you must have all this money. But you really don't get paid much at all. And I took my little paycheck that I had and started spending it on department store makeup, professional artistry makeup, drugstore makeup.

• 14:03Jamie Kern Lima?

  I couldn't find anything that worked. And I had this idea one day, like, oh, if I can't find anything that works for me, there's probably a whole lot of other people out there that feel like makeup doesn't work for them. And it was sort of this idea where I was like, if I could figure out how to make something that worked for me, it'd help a whole lot of people. And that was my knowing or this gut feeling. But then my head now was like, oh, but you got no money. You got no connections. You know no one in the beauty industry. You're unqualified. So I sat in this place, right? And I just wanna, we're talking about purpose. I had this gut feeling, like I was supposed to go for this thing. But then my head was like, oh, but here's all the reasons why you're not qualified to do it.

• 14:47Jamie Kern Lima?

  Plus, you're in your dream job, right? And I sat between those two. And it wasn't until I had this big, big aha moment of wow- Why I needed to do it that pushed me over the edge?

• 14:59Mel Robbins?

  Okay, so what is the aha moment?

• 15:01Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah, so I realized one day, I'm like, this makes no sense. There are thousands of makeup companies out there. How does nothing work for me? Right? Then I had this moment where I realized I've never seen a model with bright red, bumpy skin selling makeup. Like you always see these photoshopped, airbrushed models and I realized Mel, like wow, my whole life, I've actually loved those beauty commercials and I love seeing the magazines and I always aspire to look like them. But, but deep down inside, they always made me feel like I wasn't enough. And I had this moment, I was literally on the news set when this happened, where I was like, wait a minute, what if it's not just about launching a makeup product? Like, what if I could actually figure out how to do it? Which I had no idea how and I had no money.

• 15:45Jamie Kern Lima?

  It was like, what if I could actually launch a product that works for me? And what if I actually put real people as models? Like every age, shape, size, skin tone, skin challenge? What if I use them as models, call them beautiful and mean it? For every little kid out there who's about to start doubting themselves and every grown woman who still does. And that deep source of pain from how I was feeling not enough? And what could I do about it? That, in my opinion, is one of the strongest ways to find your purpose. It's what has just destroyed you or hurt you that you've maybe made it through?

• 16:22Mel Robbins?

  Yeah.

• 16:22Jamie Kern Lima?

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

• 16:29Mel Robbins?

  Okay.

• 16:31Mel Robbins?

  That's like a mic drop moment from our professor of purpose, Jamie Karen Lima. So I want to make sure nobody's left behind.

• 16:37Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes.

• 16:38Mel Robbins?

  And there was billions of dollars worth of wisdom that you just dropped. But I gotta hear a word from our sponsors. So just hit the pause button and we're going to continue this conversation when we come back.

• 16:59Mel Robbins?

  Welcome back. I'm Mel Robbins. I'm here with the founder of It Cosmetics, the billion-dollar brand that Jamie built from scratch on her own and then sold to L'Oréal. She is giving us a masterclass today on purpose. And so I want to try to unpack it for anybody that is listening to this, and you have this sense that you're made for more. So one of the things that I heard is, look in your life and see what problems or frustrations or things that you're struggling with that feel like a setback. And Jamie gave you the example of the rosacea on her skin and her inability to find something that actually could help her solve this issue

• 17:43Mel Robbins?

  of being able to cover it up so that she could do her dream job. And that setback is a setup for something new. And then get out of your own sort of selfish or self-loathing or the self-excuses and the self-pity, and remind yourself that there are 8 billion people on this planet now. There are other people that are dealing with this. And that if you can figure out how to put your energy into making this better for yourself, and you bring other people into the fold with you, you now have something that's worth working on. Because it helps you, and it's going to help other people. And I also want to point something out that Jamie will not tell you,

• 18:27Mel Robbins?

  but I sure as hell will, and that is that this was about 14 or 15 years ago. So we're talking 2007, 2008, correct? In my opinion, Jamie Kern Lima is the reason why we have this Real Beauty Movement.

• 18:49Mel Robbins?

  There always has to be the first person, and she was it. So when you look around the internet and social media and you see people doing naked faces, that was not something people did in 2007. It was all airbrush, it was all perfection. That was the beauty standard. And so you've got a woman who is sitting in Seattle, who has no experience and no money, deciding that she is going to not only figure out how to create a makeup line for people who have issues with their skin, but that she's going to do something nobody has ever done, which is put real, normal people, like you and me, into her campaigns when she finally

• 19:31Mel Robbins?

  gets this figured out, and she's gonna show people what her skin actually looks like in order to sell it. I mean, that was a revolutionary idea. She was the first, and I'm telling you this because you could be the first. You have something that you can solve, and you could be the first to change the way that people think about an issue. And so, Jamie, let's pick up the story, because how do you go from this aha moment, like, "Oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God," to doing something?

• 20:05Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes.

• 20:06Mel Robbins?

  Because I think some of us have aha moments, right?

• 20:08Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yep, and then we doubt them.

• 20:09Mel Robbins?

  But we don't do anything.

• 20:10Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes, because we doubt them, we doubt them. We think like, "Oh, someone's already done it."

• 20:14Mel Robbins?

  Yes.

• 20:14Jamie Kern Lima?

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

• 20:32Mel Robbins?

  Say that again, Jamie, for the people that are like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, kids, calm down." "Wait, Jamie just said something, I was doing my dishes." Say that again, talk about the fact that this matters.

• 20:45Jamie Kern Lima?

  This is huge, because I think the biggest reason we talk ourselves out of things is we think, "Oh, someone's already done it."

• 20:51Mel Robbins?

  Yes.

• 20:51Jamie Kern Lima?

  "Someone's already done it before, you know, who must be smarter than me, or more talented, or more, whatever it is, than me." And what I- I have learned and then proven, and I want to tell you too about all, I'm going to get so excited. No, because no, when you do this thing, like, don't be shocked then when there's millions and millions of rejections and people don't get it, right? Because it's never been done before, right?

• 21:12Mel Robbins?

  Oh, yes.

• 21:12Jamie Kern Lima?

  Because there's only one of you, there's only one of you doing it the way you're gonna do it. But, but just to recap that, there is literally only one of you in the entire universe, right? And so if you were gonna show up to this world authentic, that means whatever you do, if it's authentic to you, it's actually by definition, it's never been done before, right? And so when you show up that way, don't be surprised if not everyone gets it right away. Or, you know, in my case, all the experts I put on pedestals all said no. That this idea of, of, of how I wanted to connect with women, they thought it wouldn't work and they thought I wouldn't therefore make them any money.

• 21:51Mel Robbins?

  So, but can I ask you a question real quick? How did you go from the aha?

• 21:56Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes.

• 21:57Mel Robbins?

  To starting? So what did that look like? Like, because I think like if you're in this space where, you know, let's just use an example. You have this thing about catering that you just can't get it out of your head. You want to do these events, you want, you've never actually done this. Because you had never

• 22:14Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes.

• 22:15Mel Robbins?

  done anything with makeup. You had no idea what you were doing.

• 22:18Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yep.

• 22:19Mel Robbins?

  You have an idea and you have an aha moment. What was the first thing that you did to start to make this real?

• 22:27Jamie Kern Lima?

  So leaning on that, why I had to do it and why I felt like it was going to be part of my purpose was a big thing that helped me actually take the risk, quit my job.

• 22:38Mel Robbins?

  Wait, you quit your job because you had an aha moment?

• 22:40Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah, it was deep. I was like, if I had all

• 22:43Mel Robbins?

  What did it feel like?

• 22:44Jamie Kern Lima?

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

• 23:17Mel Robbins?

  Why did you have to quit your job? Just curious.

• 23:19Jamie Kern Lima?

  It was literally from day one, I was all in. Like, it was, I dove all in. I knew if I was gonna do this, I needed to just go all in on it. I do not recommend this, but I started working like hundred hour weeks from the beginning. I was so freaking passionate about it. Like, I couldn't stop thinking about what if I can actually figure this out? What if I can literally, because it became a big dream.

• 23:45Mel Robbins?

  So did you have any savings? Like, do you have a little bit of savings?

• 23:47Jamie Kern Lima?

  Very little savings.

• 23:47Mel Robbins?

  Because you didn't pay yourself for the first three years that you did this.

• 23:50Jamie Kern Lima?

  First three years. So basically, my husband and I wrote this business plan, right? Quit our jobs, dove all in in our living room. We poured all of our savings into it. I thought, if I can figure the product out, it's gonna be huge.

• 24:03Mel Robbins?

  Right.

• 24:04Jamie Kern Lima?

  And then I realized, like, oh, being an entrepreneur or launching a dream is not always that easy. We poured every penny we had into it. And I, once we actually created a product, and we were scrappy. If you want to know how.

• 24:16Mel Robbins?

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

• 24:21Jamie Kern Lima?

  Right. So researching how our makeup formulations made, who makes them, what are the FDA regulatory compliance, all the unsexy stuff I know nothing about, just diving into the research phase of how does this happen? And then what I learned is that manufacturers, our makeup companies' closest held secrets, right? Like, closest held secrets, they won't disclose who they work with. But a lot of these big manufacturers work with all the top brands that you see, or a handful of them.

• 24:47Mel Robbins?

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

• 24:55Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes, handful of companies. And then some do it in-house as well.

• 24:58Mel Robbins?

  Gotcha.

• 24:59Jamie Kern Lima?

  So what I did was scrappy. I walked into a Sephora, I wrote down the name of every single brand in there, went home. You know, I had no money, right? Cold call every single brand and saying like, oh, I'm, I'm looking for a really great manufacturer. Could you let me know who you manufacture? And then they hang up on me. You know what I mean? One after another, after another, after another. And I got This really small brand in a totally different kind of positioning where the girl who answered said, "Oh, here's who we use there in New York City, blah, blah, blah." So that was my first manufacturer, reached out to them, had a meeting in person, had no money, poured this idea out to them. They took a risk making me samples. And that's how it started, was just really being scrappy and trying to figure it out.

• 25:43Jamie Kern Lima?

  All of our money had went into the product development formula and the advisory board of the product. And I thought, okay, now we have a product that works for me, right? This was after hundreds of formula iterations. I thought that was gonna be it.

• 25:57Mel Robbins?

  So is this like year one or year two? Like, how long did this take?

• 26:00Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah, it took a good first year to get that product. And then what I started doing was sending it to everyone I thought was just gonna believe in me instantly. So I sent it to Sephora and Ulta Beauty and all the department stores and all of the online retailers. QVC, which is, you know, live television shopping channel. And I thought, oh, my gosh, this is gonna be huge. Every single one of them said no, after no, after no, after no. And to your point, it became three years of not being able to pay myself, three years of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of no's of crying myself to sleep at night.

• 26:34Mel Robbins?

  Were you and your husband like fighting like crazy, like you should go back to work? You should, but why do we do that? Were you like doing that?

• 26:39Jamie Kern Lima?

  You wanna know what it was? We still believed in it, but we weren't sure how we were gonna make it. It was like friends and family that were like, uh, wait, you quit your job? Are you sure you should have quit your job? Or, wait, you still haven't made any money? Like, it's been three years, right? So you hear all of this, the voices get so loud. The loudest, though, were my own self doubt. You know, sometimes we take a chance and go for something because our gut is telling us to do it. And then all of a sudden, you face all this opposition and you start to question, is my gut wrong? Is my knowing wrong? And there were so many times where I would literally get this, another brutal no from, you know, Sephora or QVC or whoever it was. And I would just literally cry myself to sleep.

• 27:24Jamie Kern Lima?

  I would pray about it and be like, God, I feel like I'm supposed to be doing this, but nothing is going right.

• 27:30Mel Robbins?

  So let's just pause in that moment. Hold that thought. We gotta take a short break for our sponsors. And when we come back, we're gonna pick this amazing conversation up with my friend, Jamie Kern Lima.

• 27:54Mel Robbins?

  Welcome back. I'm Mel Robbins. I'm here with the founder of It Cosmetics, the billion-dollar brand that Jamie built from scratch, on her own, and then sold to L'Oréal. She is giving us a masterclass today on purpose, believing in yourself. So Jamie, your story is incredible, woman. You have left your dream job. You have gotten no after no after no after no after no. How do you stay connected to your intuition in a situation like that? What tool do you have or what advice can you give to somebody who's having trouble

• 28:36Mel Robbins?

  hearing what the right decision is in that kind of situation?

• 28:42Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah, so I think that intuition is like a muscle that we build over time. And I think it's a lifelong journey to really learning how to hear it and to trust it. And one of the greatest tools, I think, is to go back, think back to times in your life where maybe you had this gut feeling to do something and everyone around you said, "Don't do it." So you listen to them, you didn't trust yourself, and then think about what happened. And then similarly, go back to a time where everyone was like, "Oh, uh-uh, no way, no way." And you're like, "But I love him. I don't think he's lying. I think his phone really did break five times every weekend. He didn't disappear, his phone."

• 29:26Jamie Kern Lima?

  Think about that situation when everyone was telling you something and you didn't listen, or even your gut was telling you, right? And you didn't listen. And you think back to those times and you start to develop pattern recognition of how it felt in moments in your life when you trusted yourself or didn't, and what happened. And you get better attuned to what that feels like.

• 29:50Mel Robbins?

  What does it feel like for you? In those situations, like can you describe what it feels like for you when you're like, "Yep, nope, that's a no."

• 29:57Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes.

• 29:58Mel Robbins?

  And what does it feel like for you when you're like, "I'm sticking with this?"

• 30:00Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes. Often, it's the tiniest of feelings in my gut, right? Some people describe it as like a still, small voice. I pray about it. I ask God to give me the answers and I try to live the answers.

• 30:12Mel Robbins?

  Do you feel the answers that God gives you? Like, is that what happens for you when you do this?

• 30:16Jamie Kern Lima?

  Like, right now, when I look at you, right? Like, I know you're a beautiful soul, right? I just know it. You know it. You feel it. Like, I feel like you have good, like, you're good. You know what I mean? It's a feeling, right? And we get these feelings, but so much around us is so loud, you know? And we just learn over time. And by the way, not to go, this could be a whole other episode, but especially as women, from the time we're young, we learn not to trust ourselves. We, we, we walk into our parents fighting and we go, "Is everything okay?" They're like, "Everything's great. Everything's great." Right? To protect us, we start to learn to doubt ourselves.

• 30:54Mel Robbins?

  You're like, "Baloney."

• 30:55Jamie Kern Lima?

  Right? But you know, or, you know, especially as young girls, you learn to make decisions by consensus, often, with your friends.

• 31:02Mel Robbins?

  Or making other people happy.

• 31:04Jamie Kern Lima?

  And making other people happy, people-pleasing. We're rewarded for pleasing everyone else and, and almost ignoring what we feel. So, so if you're someone who's an adult right now going, "I don't even know how to hear my own gut or trust myself." That's why we've been trained out of learning how to do it, right? So, it takes intentionality and really deciding, "Oh, you know what? I'm gonna put in some time, even if it's five minutes a day, just to thinking about moments in my life where I trusted myself or I didn't." And if you don't remember any of them, start now.

• 31:38Mel Robbins?

  You know what you just inspired me to think about? I don't even know if it's possible to do this, but imagine if you could go through the rest of today.

• 31:49Mel Robbins?

  And only make decisions that align with what you truly want. If you don't want to go to that party tonight, don't go.

• 32:01Mel Robbins?

  If a friend asks you something and you feel obligated out of guilt to lend them that thing, don't actually lend them the thing.

• 32:08Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah.

• 32:09Mel Robbins?

  Eat what you want to eat tonight for dinner. Don't just go to wherever your friends want to go. I think that would be a real eye-opening experiment if you were to do that.

• 32:19Jamie Kern Lima?

  And you start building that muscle, right? Some people don't even pay attention to what they actually want to eat for dinner. They're just like, what sounds good to everyone? But to your point, when you start paying attention, then you also start building that knowing of hearing your own knowing.

• 32:32Mel Robbins?

  Do you think it's possible to discover your unique purpose in life? If you are not connected and listening to your intention, intuition, I mean.

• 32:44Jamie Kern Lima?

  It's way more likely and you're going to actually discover more than one purpose often. If you're really tuned in to your intuition and you're intentional about it. But what I'll say for someone who feels like they can't hear their gut, but they still want to find their purpose. A friend of mine says that you're best positioned to serve the person you once were, right? Trent Shelton, our friend, says, "One day, the things you're going through right now will be the things you made it through."

• 33:13Mel Robbins?

  Yeah.

• 33:14Jamie Kern Lima?

  And what I would say to someone listening right now is, "Look at something in the past that has broken your heart, that has caused you grief, that has been something that you care deeply about, whether it's positive or negative, that you've gone through, something you care deeply about, or maybe pain you've gone through, something you have made it through." I believe often when we go through the hardest times in our life,

• 33:41Mel Robbins?

  Yep.

• 33:42Jamie Kern Lima?

  it's for one of two reasons.

• 33:43Mel Robbins?

  What are they?

• 33:44Jamie Kern Lima?

  It is to either equip us with the strength we need to carry the weight of our success that's to come, to carry the weight of our purpose that's to come, or we've gone through these horrible, unspeakable times, things we would never want to happen to us again in our life, because we're actually going to get our greatest source of fulfillment and purpose by one day helping someone else who's going through them.

• 34:09Mel Robbins?

  I love that saying that you're best equipped to help the person you used to be.

• 34:14Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes, yes.

• 34:16Mel Robbins?

  So let's go to that moment, Jamie. You're three years in.

• 34:19Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah.

• 34:20Mel Robbins?

  You've burned through the money.

• 34:21Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes.

• 34:22Mel Robbins?

  You have been told no by everybody. And even though you have leveraged all of the steps that were ordered along the way and like an amazing Denny's waitress, you can talk to anybody. You can hustle. You can figure it out. You have nothing but closed doors in front of you.

• 34:41Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes.

• 34:41Mel Robbins?

  And a ton of product and no money.

• 34:43Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes.

• 34:43Mel Robbins?

  What is the turning point?

• 34:44Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes.

• 34:45Mel Robbins?

  Why did you not give up?

• 34:46Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah. So two big things happened. The first was in the form of a crazy painful rejection. So I thought no. So we got a call from a big potential investor and very famous for launching all these sort of unknown brands and making them big products we all buy in grocery stores. And, you know, and I thought, and they got in hold of our product. And I thought like, oh, if they invest in A, I'm not going to go bankrupt. B, like they, we can leverage their clout to get in these stores that keep telling me no. Like I had this whole scenario planned out that was like this pretty woman moment, right? Where I was like, oh, he's going to save the day. And so we started taking meeting after meeting and it got down to the final meeting with this huge

• 35:27Jamie Kern Lima?

  investment firm. It was in person. My husband and I actually flew to the meeting and the head guy was about three feet from me.

• 35:34Mel Robbins?

  Yeah.

• 35:34Jamie Kern Lima?

  And his whole team was there. He was awesome. I just presented our whole future product pipeline. And he says, you know, you should be so proud of this product you've created. It's really, really good. But it's a no, we're going to pass on investing in cosmetics. And I was like, okay, can you tell me why? Because I'm so used to hearing no. And I was like, okay, even though really I was devastated.

• 35:57Mel Robbins?

  Well, yeah, because this was supposed to be the meeting where they're like, let's do this.

• 36:00Jamie Kern Lima?

  And I was so hopeful and I was so desperate.

• 36:03Mel Robbins?

  Yeah.

• 36:03Jamie Kern Lima?

  And he got very quiet. And he says to me, do you want to know, you know, do you, I said, I said, can you tell me why? And he says to me, do you want me to be really honest with you? And I said, yes, please. And he got really quiet. And he's like three feet from me in person. And he says, I just don't think women will buy makeup from someone who looks like you with your body and your weight.

• 36:27Jamie Kern Lima?

  And when he said that to me, and this is why it was such a big moment for me. When he said that to me, first of all, a lifetime of body doubt and self doubt. Like I remember it flooding my body all at once. And when I looked at him, I actually felt no anger toward him. I felt like I was almost like staring my own fear straight in the eye. But when he said those words to me, Mel, and this is what, this is when we talk about purpose and intuition. He said, I just don't think women will buy makeup for someone who looks like you with your body and your weight. The second he said that, I felt this feeling in my gut, like I can remember it like it was yesterday, this like strong feeling that said, he's wrong. Like I felt it, right? I didn't know how I was going to prove it, but I felt that feeling.

• 37:07Jamie Kern Lima?

  And what I realized later, when I look back at that moment, this guy, this dude gave me a no, but God gave me a knowing in that moment, in that moment. And I believe every one of us has had someone tell us we're not the right fit, or no, or you don't have what it takes. Sometimes we're the ones telling ourselves that.

• 37:28Mel Robbins?

  I don't love you anymore.

• 37:29Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes, right? But if, if you get still and you learn to hear your knowing, I believe which one you listen to, if you listen to the no, all the no's, all the rejections, all the self doubt, or you get still and listen to your knowing, whether that's from your own intuition, from your Creator, from the universe, whatever speaks to you, but we all have it, we all have it. And I believe our, our, our, our life and our purpose and, and our entire destiny comes down to which one we listen to. Do you listen to the no, or do you listen to the knowing?

• 38:03Mel Robbins?

  Okay, I promised a masterclass. That right there is worth a billion dollars. In life, are you going to listen to the no? Or are you going to listen to the knowing inside of you?

• 38:24Mel Robbins?

  That's it.

• 38:27Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah.

• 38:27Mel Robbins?

  As somebody who loves you and is your friend, when you shared that story with me and hearing you tell it again right now,

• 38:36Mel Robbins?

  I literally go, I'm gonna kill that motherfucker. I go, I have that, my knowing goes, oh yeah? Oh yeah? You think, okay, okay.

• 38:47Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah.

• 38:47Mel Robbins?

  Okay, let me, let me show you. Like it's that, like I get that sort of mojo thing going when somebody says no like that, at a moment like that. It's like, I'll show you. And I guess I just got in this moment, sort of this wake up call that my knowing often feels like, I'll show you.

• 39:07Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah.

• 39:07Mel Robbins?

  You missed out. You'll be sorry. What does yours sound like?

• 39:12Jamie Kern Lima?

  And it's almost always true. That's almost always true, right?

• 39:15Mel Robbins?

  What does yours sound like?

• 39:17Jamie Kern Lima?

  I mean, in that case, I was devastated and at the same time had this strong, it was just a piece. Honestly, in that moment, it was a piece, he's wrong. And that didn't make sense in my head. Why? Because I had had three years of hundreds of rejections. And this is the thing, right? Jay-Z says, the genius thing we did was we didn't give up. That's like one of my favorite quotes of his. In that moment, everything told me to give up, Mel. I mean, it was hundreds of rejections. And now it felt, it felt like my last hope of desperation told me something totally different. No, because not only do I not believe in anything you're doing necessarily, but I actually just think you're personally not the right fit. Women just won't buy, make it from me. It was just like, oh my gosh. All of these no's everywhere.

• 40:02Jamie Kern Lima?

  And I want to share that because, you know, it's easy for someone to go, oh wow, she built a billion dollar company. She must've just got lucky. Or maybe she just had so many connections. But really what it comes down to sometimes, in this case, that big moment for me, do you listen to the no's or you listen to the knowing, right? And I made that decision that day to trust the knowing, to trust myself. I kept feeling like I was supposed to keep going. I didn't know how, right?

• 40:28Mel Robbins?

  What do you do when you don't even know the next step? So you got this kind of, you know, jerk who's like, Yeah, they're not gonna buy it because of your body type and this, that and the other thing. You're like, yeah, you're wrong, motherfucker. But what do you do next?

• 40:39Jamie Kern Lima?

  And so the next right step, the next thing that feels right when you can't even see how the heck it's gonna work out.

• 40:45Mel Robbins?

  How do you even determine what the next right step is?

• 40:47Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah, you just get, for me, I just get still. I pray, you know that. I pray. And I just, but whether for you, you know, listening, it's prayer or it's the universe or your intuition. When you get still, all you can do is try to listen, right? And try to live that answer, whatever it is, and take that next right step. And I just felt, I just had this knowing I was supposed to keep going. And even when it didn't make sense. And, and you know, I remember crying myself to sleep. I remember writing in my journal, know your why, then fly, girl, fly. And I read those words every day till I didn't need the reminder. I would Google stories of people that had gone through thousands of rejections,

• 41:29Jamie Kern Lima?

  who no one would know that they went through them because they're so successful today. Or, you know, and I just kept trying to sort of build this toolbox of things I could lean on.

• 41:38Mel Robbins?

  How did QVC come about? Because you built it cosmetics and it became, because of you, the most successful beauty brand on all of QVC. You did over a thousand appearances.

• 41:54Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah.

• 41:54Mel Robbins?

  So how did you even get onto QVC? Because that in and of itself is no small feat.

• 42:01Jamie Kern Lima?

  Well, you know, their, their head guy of beauty, who's like a legend, had said no to me many times. No, you're not the right fit. And I happened to be at this, this big beauty expo.

• 42:11Mel Robbins?

  And was this before or after this guy was like, no, we're not investing?

• 42:14Jamie Kern Lima?

  After.

• 42:14Mel Robbins?

  After?

• 42:15Jamie Kern Lima?

  After.

• 42:15Mel Robbins?

  So she has now gotten three years of no's.

• 42:18Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah.

• 42:18Mel Robbins?

  They are almost out of money. Her intuition is knowing that she's gonna fly, girl, fly. So she is still showing up to a beauty expo. Where I want you to understand, in the business world, it's like going to a convention where everybody that you have ever fooled around with, who has then broken up with you, is attending. So everybody- That has said no to her.

• 42:46Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes.

• 42:46Mel Robbins?

  You know, she walks in and it's like, oh, here's this chick again. The it chick, right?

• 42:50Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yep.

• 42:51Mel Robbins?

  The it cosmetics person that has been sending me the stuff and calling me and we have told her no, do not make eye contact.

• 42:57Jamie Kern Lima?

  This describes it exactly. Everyone he fooled around with you, broke up with you and they're like, oh, don't make eye contact.

• 43:02Mel Robbins?

  Oh, God, this chick again. With the, with the skin, with the, okay.

• 43:06Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yep.

• 43:06Mel Robbins?

  So you're at this thing. You've been told no by the big, big, big, big, big person. It's been three years. We're talking like 2011, 2012 ish.

• 43:16Mel Robbins?

  What do you do?

• 43:17Jamie Kern Lima?

  So I, uh, so you, you get this three foot table, right? It's a huge convention. There's 6,000 women at this convention. They're walking up and down and it's every beauty brand in the world.

• 43:28Mel Robbins?

  Are they buying it for their stores or?

• 43:29Jamie Kern Lima?

  No, so what it is, it was this big cosmetic executive women award show.

• 43:33Mel Robbins?

  Okay.

• 43:34Jamie Kern Lima?

  You get a three foot table, you're demonstrating your product, you're hoping that someone who walks by either wants to carry your product in their stores or all the presses there. They cover your product. And when I got there, I saw QVC had this huge booth in the background and you're not allowed to leave your table, right? I couldn't afford to get kicked out. But I just kept having this feeling like, okay, I've called them a million times. They've told me no forever, but I've never like met anyone in person, right? So I kept trying to sneak away from my table. And every time I got over there, the buyers would, would be mobbed with people. I eventually got over there, made my way to one of the buyers, introduced myself, poured my heart out, like was, I remember sweat just dripping through my clothes because I was freaking out down to no money.

• 44:18Mel Robbins?

  Yeah.

• 44:18Jamie Kern Lima?

  Um, I'll cut a real long story short, but she gave me her card. And, uh, you know, it's like when someone says, oh, DM me on Instagram. You don't know if they mean, they really mean it. Then you're on your Instagram, checking your DMs and you're like, oh, they still haven't replied. And I thought, is that what it's going to be like? But she actually meant it and I, I flew out, had a meeting with her. We got a yes, my first big yes for one shot on QVC. And what it meant Mel was I was going to get this 10 minute segment live on the air, live in front of a hundred million homes. And I either had to sell enough product to hit their sales goal.

• 44:56Mel Robbins?

  Yeah.

• 44:57Jamie Kern Lima?

  Um, or not come back. We were only doing one to two orders a day on our website.

• 45:03Mel Robbins?

  One to two orders a day, everybody.

• 45:06Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yep.

• 45:07Mel Robbins?

  After.

• 45:09Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yep.

• 45:09Mel Robbins?

  Almost four, yeah, three years of this.

• 45:12Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah.

• 45:13Mel Robbins?

  This is like.

• 45:13Jamie Kern Lima?

  Barely keeping the lights on.

• 45:15Mel Robbins?

  And so now you get this, you get your shot.

• 45:18Jamie Kern Lima?

  I get my shot.

• 45:18Mel Robbins?

  Moments in life.

• 45:20Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes.

• 45:21Mel Robbins?

  You're at bat.

• 45:22Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yep.

• 45:23Mel Robbins?

  And you gotta be ready for those.

• 45:25Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah.

• 45:26Mel Robbins?

  And so. Put us right there with you. What happened?

• 45:31Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah, what happened was I was about to learn one of the greatest life lessons I've ever learned to this day. Here's what I mean by that. So I found out I get one shot. And I had to sell over 6,000 units of our concealer in this 10 minute window to hit their sales goal. Or not come back, which was about like 130,000 or 140,000 dollars a product in a 10 minute window.

• 45:53Mel Robbins?

  I also want to point out to everybody. That's 10 years of sales on her website. At the current.

• 46:01Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah.

• 46:02Mel Robbins?

  So in 10 minutes, everybody.

• 46:04Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah.

• 46:05Mel Robbins?

  She on live television.

• 46:06Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah.

• 46:06Mel Robbins?

  Has to move 10 years worth of volume she was selling. On her website at that time.

• 46:12Jamie Kern Lima?

  In one shot.

• 46:13Mel Robbins?

  In one shot. And she'd never done this before. I realize you were a television anchor, but this is a totally different thing.

• 46:17Jamie Kern Lima?

  Well, QVC, it's, I mean, you know, it's unlike stores where you can walk in and there's thousands of products in one space. Their one minute of airtime can get one product. So you're competing with the volume of like Apple iPhone or Dyson vacuum. You have to hit these highest sales goals.

• 46:35Mel Robbins?

  Yeah.

• 46:35Jamie Kern Lima?

  And what I quickly learned was the offer was consignment, which meant I wasn't guaranteed to be paid for it. I had to figure out how to get a loan to cover the cost of manufacturing. 6,000 units of product, shipping it in, going through legal, going through QC, going through all of it. And then I learned if I go on air and it doesn't sell, I have to take it all back.

• 46:57Mel Robbins?

  Oh, my God.

• 46:57Jamie Kern Lima?

  And therefore go out of business, right? So you should never, ever, ever accept a purchase order. You can't afford to lose ever. But at this point, it was like, I don't know what else to do.

• 47:07Mel Robbins?

  This is the shot.

• 47:08Jamie Kern Lima?

  This is it. And so here's what happened. We went to 22 banks. Also no, and they probably should have. The 23rd Bank, which was California Bank and Trust and gave us a loan that covered our very first purchase order and a little bit more. So I took the little bit more. We hired third-party consultants. I'm like, I'm going all in. I want to do the best 10 minutes I could possibly do. I want to have no regrets. And they all told me the same thing.

• 47:37Mel Robbins?

  Which is?

• 47:37Jamie Kern Lima?

  Which is, if you want a chance at making it, here's what you need to do. You need to use this type of model to demonstrate your product, which is flawless skin, early twenties, all the same skin tone. And I'm like, okay, but that's inauthentic. That's not why I'm building this brand. I'm like, what if I put models in their seventies? And then, and someone with hyperpigmentation and someone with acne? And what if I take my own makeup off on national TV? And I could prove live how the product works? And they were mortified. And here's the thing, Mel, they wanted me to win. Like, they were giving me the best advice that they know how.

• 48:14Mel Robbins?

  Did people say, wait, you can't take them on the air? Or was there any, like, were people like, oh, she's got, this is just gonna be terrible? Like, what was that like when you walked in? Did they even know you were gonna take your makeup off?

• 48:24Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah, I let them know I wanted to. And QVC was great. They want everyone to be their authentic selves. It's just this has never been done this way before.

• 48:32Mel Robbins?

  Okay.

• 48:32Jamie Kern Lima?

  And I wish I could say it was easy for me to just go, I'm just gonna go with my knowing. But the truth is, I flew out there a week early, Mel. I sat in a rental car in the parking lot, cried every day. I actually second guessed myself. I'm like, if I do it, maybe I'll do it their way first, then I'll make money, then I'll do it my way. But I know that you can't fake authenticity. And authenticity alone doesn't automatically guarantee success. But what I do know is inauthenticity guarantees failure every time.

• 48:59Mel Robbins?

  Okay, everybody, stop the professor classes inside. Did you hear that? That inauthenticity, being fake, trying to do something everybody else's way, because that's just, you're too insecure to do it your way, that never guarantees success.

• 49:15Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah.

• 49:16Mel Robbins?

  Authenticity, your knowing, your special spin on things.

• 49:22Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah.

• 49:22Mel Robbins?

  That is the pathway to purpose and success. And so after a week of crying in your rental car in the parking lot at QVC. You were like, I'm going with the knowing.

• 49:33Jamie Kern Lima?

  I'm going with the knowing.

• 49:34Mel Robbins?

  And so tell us about that first appearance. You're standing there on a television set. There's a bazillion cameras. The lights are bright. You got your models there. You're taking the risk of your lifetime on live television in front of 100 million homes.

• 49:49Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes.

• 49:50Mel Robbins?

  You're doing something that has never been done on television before.

• 49:53Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah, I remember literally I wore two pairs of Spanx mouth. Not because I cared how I looked, but like I was so freaked out. Like my hands were shaking and I was sweating through my clothes. So I had on double Spanx under my dress. And I remember the moment the, the camera went live, right? And there's a big countdown clock on the floor that started at, at 10 minutes. And by the way, a minute or two before I went on to the set, I learned you're not guaranteed your 10 minutes.

• 50:18Mel Robbins?

  Why?

• 50:19Jamie Kern Lima?

  If you are a minute or two into your cell and you're not hitting numbers, they know by the second. Your clock, you might think you have eight minutes still to go and your clock will jump to one or jump to two minutes left.

• 50:30Mel Robbins?

  Cause your products are flop.

• 50:31Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yep, exactly.

• 50:32Mel Robbins?

  And you're a flop. So you literally are racing against the clock to be successful out of the gate. So what did you do to like hook everybody? Did you take your makeup off right away? What did you do?

• 50:42Jamie Kern Lima?

  So I, first of all, I go out of the, you know, I go live. I remember it was like 9:59, 9:58, 9:50. And I'm like, and I remember I had practiced in my bathroom mirror, right? So many times, if I had known the high five habit then, I would have been way more confident. But I was practicing in the bathroom mirror, this demonstration a million times on my wrist. How our concealer doesn't crease and the best two selling concealers crease. And I'd done this demonstration like this where I show it and they all start to crease. So I'm holding my wrist up, trying to do this as we go live, but my hands like this now. And it was never like shaking when I was doing it a million times.

• 51:16Mel Robbins?

  It wouldn't bend everybody. Like she was so anxiety ridden that she's sweating through her Spanx. And her wrist will not bend. So she cannot demonstrate that her product won't crease.

• 51:27Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes. And the host grabbed my wrist and was like, thank you, sugar. And she took over. And then I remember my bright red bare face before shot coming up on national television. I remember walking over to our models, real women, all shapes, sizes. Skin tones, skin challenges, calling them beautiful, meaning it. So when did you take your makeup? When she grabbed your hand and said, thank you, sugar? Yeah, yeah. Did that wake you up? Or were you like? I was like out of my body. I was just praying. Did you like just then take your makeup off? Well, they did a whole bare face before shot of me for that show. I have, I've taken it off live a million times since. That first show, it was like, yeah, bare face before shot and then the after. I remember we were, gosh, six or seven minutes in. I didn't know how we were doing, but I knew we weren't cut yet.

• 52:11Jamie Kern Lima?

  And then it got down to like a minute left and the host said, uh, uh, the deep shades almost gone. The tan shades almost sold out. And I was like freaking out. And I remember literally right at the 10 minute mark, this giant, um, sold out sign came up across the screen. And I start crying on national television. Oh, I love you. They cut from me and went to like Dyson vacuum or something. And I remember my husband came rushing through the double doors of the studio. And he's like, has his arms up and I'm just sobbing and I'm like, real women have spoken. And I'm just like crying and I thought he was gonna give me a hug or be all excited. And he just looked at me and he's like, we're not going bankrupt. And I was like, ah.

• 52:54Jamie Kern Lima?

  And I just, that one airing, which was September of 2010, became five more that year than 101 the next year. And then I did 250 live shows a year myself, direct live on, on, on QVC year after year. So we built the biggest beauty brand in QVC's history. And the only reason that I share that is because it was years of no. And you're not the right fit. And what I love for, for anyone listening who needs to hear this is no one can tell you, you're not the right fit. No one. And you can get all the no's in the world, but you have your knowing. And, and, and, and by the way, I believe this smell. I believe even when you trust your knowing and then it seems like

• 53:35Jamie Kern Lima?

  it was wrong and things don't go your way over and over and over. Like I look back at those moments, right? I really wanted that investor to invest in us. Thank God he didn't. When I say everything's happening for us, what I mean is like, if he, I was so desperate that if he would have invested in us then, I probably would have given him the majority of the company for probably almost no money, right? By the time, many years, six years later, after that day, six years later, when L'Oréal bought this little company I started in my living room for 1.2 billion dollars cash, Paula and I were largest shareholders. And I look back and it's like, oh gosh, thank God, all the no's happened when they did,

• 54:17Jamie Kern Lima?

  even when they sucked, even when it felt like it wasn't fair. And I can look at that in many scenarios. Sometimes we don't have some big positive outcome, but we learn a purpose through a no.

• 54:29Mel Robbins?

  Right.

• 54:30Jamie Kern Lima?

  Right? We learn a calling through a no. We learn a lesson. We build strength. We build resiliency. We appreciate the beautiful moments so much more when we've gone through the tough ones.

• 54:41Mel Robbins?

  So have you ever seen that investor since?

• 54:44Jamie Kern Lima?

  I have not seen him.

• 54:46Mel Robbins?

  Of course, I asked the petty question. I'm like, have you ever like seen him to like twist the little knife in there?

• 54:51Jamie Kern Lima?

  So, so I heard from him one time ever again, and it was six years later, the day that L'Oréal announced the deal. So because they're a public company, they announced, you know, that they had acquired Cosmetics, maybe the first woman to hold a CEO title of a brand in their 107-year history. They did the big press release. So.

• 55:11Mel Robbins?

  That's kind of surprising. Hundred and seven years, L'Oréal, a makeup company? It took them that long to have the first female CEO of a brand?

• 55:20Jamie Kern Lima?

  I hope they have many more now. That is my prayer. But so, so they announced it, right? So all of a sudden, it was homepage of Wall Street Journal, the press everywhere. And that was the first time and only time since that I heard from that potential investor.

• 55:32Mel Robbins?

  And what did he say?

• 55:33Jamie Kern Lima?

  He said, congratulations on the L'Oréal deal. I was wrong. Is what he said and wished me the best of luck and

• 55:42Mel Robbins?

  That's a big deal to admit you're wrong.

• 55:44Jamie Kern Lima?

  It is. And so when you speak about petty, so I, what I did say to him was, thank you. But what I wanted to say.

• 55:55Mel Robbins?

  What did you want to say?

• 55:56Jamie Kern Lima?

  So in that moment, here's what I thought about. I thought about, do you remember the movie Pretty Woman? Where, where like she goes in the store and they wouldn't help her and then she goes back? Remember when she goes back?

• 56:07Mel Robbins?

  Yes.

• 56:07Jamie Kern Lima?

  So I wanted to say to him, big mistake, huge, huge. I could give you 1.2 billion reasons why it was a huge mistake. But I didn't. I wouldn't have wanted to be him in that situation. You know, we probably would have been one of the most successful investments in his firm's history. So I always say rejection is God's protection. So often, you know?

• 56:31Mel Robbins?

  There's another one, everybody. Rejection is God's protection.

• 56:35Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah.

• 56:36Mel Robbins?

  It's a good way to frame it. And I think when you look in the rearview mirror, you know that all the rejections you faced, especially in relationships, were there to protect you. I think the true thing that you've taught me through your story and through the example that you continue to set, Jamie, is that true power and, and grace and grit and belief is about seeing that in front of you, not behind you. That the rejections that you're facing right now, that you can look ahead and realize it's protecting you in this moment. After doing something so extraordinary

• 57:22Mel Robbins?

  and you also have made a huge difference in women's lives around the world because you are extraordinarily philanthropic. $40 million worth of product and monetary donations to people that are struggling with cancer. What is next for you? Because you are right now in the middle of figuring out on this next leg of the journey called life, what your purpose is and what your next thing is going to be.

• 58:01Mel Robbins?

  What tools are you using or how are you thinking about it? So many people, particularly after the last three years, have had a profound life change thrust on them. And they're looking ahead at an open road, wondering what their purpose is going to be, what they're going to do. Can you just speak to that person for a minute about how you're going about figuring it out?

• 58:30Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah, so one thing I just want to remind everyone too, Mel, because I think people put so much pressure on themselves that their purpose has to be their job or their next job. And a lot of times, we can be doing a job that's fine. And maybe for family reasons, we need that health coverage and we need that paycheck. And your purpose can be found in the things you do outside of that, right? There's a lot of ways to listen to that knowing and your gut. And then when it feels right, you know that's aligned with who you're born to be and how you're born to show up in the world. And so for me right now, you know, there's that famous thing, just because you can, should you, right? There's a big part of me now with all these, you know,

• 59:15Jamie Kern Lima?

  could I go launch a bunch of businesses? Yes. And what I feel drawn to is literally, because here's the deal. Yes, I've built a billion dollar business. Yes, I have other companies I invest in.

• 59:28Mel Robbins?

  You also are married and you have two beautiful children.

• 59:31Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes, a two-year-old and a four-year-old.

• 59:33Mel Robbins?

  And you're incredibly devoted to your family.

• 59:38Jamie Kern Lima?

  Well, and here's the thing, it's like, that's all part of my story. But when I look at my real story, meaning the part that ties deeply to my purpose, like my real story is a girl who went from not believing in herself to learning how to. And so when I wake up in the morning and I think about the things I've done so far, the things I hope for my kids for, and how I built a billion dollar business, it was really through Seeing women, helping them see themselves and believe in themselves and believe they are worthy and enough. And that's what fires me up every morning. So when I think about what I'm stepping into next, you know, I wrote Believe It, my book about how to go from underestimated

• 1:00:21Jamie Kern Lima?

  to unstoppable, donated all the proceeds, I'm donating all the proceeds to 100%. I funded

• 1:00:26Mel Robbins?

  Hold on, hold on. Let's just underscore that. So she writes a New York Times bestseller, donates all the proceeds from the book?

• 1:00:36Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:37Mel Robbins?

  So you're kind of in the soup of knowing that this is the area where you want to focus the impact, but it's still a fuzzy target, so to speak, as our friend Dean would say, it's a fuzzy target. If somebody kind of has a sense that there's something more, but they don't quite have their, they haven't had that aha moment yet that you had almost 14 years ago, sitting on that television set, "I'm gonna make makeup and I'm gonna bring real women and I'm gonna show my skin and I'm gonna solve this problem. I'm gonna make people think that they're beautiful because they are beautiful no matter what they're bought." And you did it. You did it. But if you're in the soup and you don't have the

• 1:01:18Mel Robbins?

  vision yet, is there an exercise or something that you would recommend that we all do while we're waiting for that clarity and that epiphany to strike?

• 1:01:28Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah, two things. One, waiting for it to be perfect can be the lowest vibration, biggest excuse, number one reason why people just never try and never get started. So I think it's rare to ever have complete clarity, like this is exactly perfect. And that's why, you know, I think two things. I think just taking a step and seeing how it feels is good, tuning into your knowing. I also think, you mentioned our friend Dean, he was saying it's a fuzzy target. You know, he was saying something to me recently about, you know, almost like when you're about to aim a bow and arrow and you're about to let go of the arrow. He's like, "You can aim and turn it and twist it a few times before you let go of the arrow. It's okay to wait a little bit and just make sure you're gonna

• 1:02:10Jamie Kern Lima?

  aim at the right thing." And, you know, so this year, for example, I've kind of been doing that. I've been saying, "How do things feel?" You know, I have the gift and blessing of being here with you right now.

• 1:02:23Mel Robbins?

  How does this feel?

• 1:02:24Jamie Kern Lima?

  Feels amazing.

• 1:02:26Mel Robbins?

  Well, like you, and maybe this is one of the reasons why.

• 1:02:31Mel Robbins?

  We have become such dear friends in such a short period of time. And I often say on this show that I truly believe that the best years of your life and the best friendships that you'll have are on the road ahead. But a lot of the reason why we connected so profoundly, even though we are different in many, many ways, is that it goes back to the Denny's waitress. Like at my core, I am still the waitress making money, waiting tables at the Red Rooster Tavern on Scenic Drive in North Muskegon, Michigan. Same as you, stalling because the fryer has now broken and the fried perch is not coming out.

• 1:03:14Mel Robbins?

  And I'm talking to the tourists from Chicago and I'm treating everybody kindly. And I know that all I want to do is impact people's lives that are just got their head down and they don't feel very seen or heard. And I want to make them know that they have it within them to tap into this incredible power inside them to create whatever they want in life.

• 1:03:37Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes.

• 1:03:38Mel Robbins?

  And it starts with believing.

• 1:03:39Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes.

• 1:03:40Mel Robbins?

  That you can. And having somebody like you on who has demonstrated that is really important for people to hear.

• 1:03:48Jamie Kern Lima?

  You know, on that topic of friendship, I love so much that you are the friend that people need to your audience. And I'm honored to be the friend for this episode with you to everyone. And so I'm honored to be part of that.

• 1:04:02Mel Robbins?

  Thank you. I think one of the things that I've learned, and it took me a long time to learn this, is that there is so much success and happiness to go around. And when you lift other people up.

• 1:04:16Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:17Mel Robbins?

  And you reach out for help, that your success comes faster and it's richer.

• 1:04:22Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes.

• 1:04:23Mel Robbins?

  And it goes back to purpose. It goes back to that knowing and staying connected to your intention and this unique thing that you have to give to the world. It is not only your responsibility in life. To stay connected to your knowing. It is your responsibility to advocate for it. Because only you have seen it in your heart and mind. Of course, your family says no. They don't even know what you're talking about. Because they only know the person that you've been in the past. Of course, the investor is going to say no. Why? Because they only know what they know. Your knowing is yours. And you have to stay connected to it. And you have to keep describing it, or advocating for it,

• 1:05:07Mel Robbins?

  or explaining it to people, so that they can see it too. And it's not until you demonstrate what you see in your own heart and mind, by continuing to walk toward it, continuing to talk about it, continuing to believe in it, that it will become a reality. And that's why people say no. Because it's your knowing, not theirs. And so, in a weird way, a ton of no's, or a lot of friction, or bumping up against things as you're trying, and you can't understand, "Why don't people get this? Why isn't this working?" It's because it's your knowing, not theirs.

• 1:05:44Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:45Mel Robbins?

  Amazing. You're just the frickin' best. And in case nobody else has told you, I want to just make sure that we end by saying that I love you. I know Jamie does too.

• 1:05:57Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah, I love you also. And you're worthy of your greatest hopes and your wildest dreams, and all the unconditional love in the world, and your purpose, and worthy of grace. You know, the grace that you want to give yourself on this journey. And we're all in it together. That's the beauty and power of your show also. Like, we're all in it together.

• 1:06:15Mel Robbins?

  We are.

• 1:06:16Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:16Mel Robbins?

  We are. Well, we believe in you. So, get out there and do it.

• 1:06:31Mel Robbins?

  Oh, one more thing. It's the legal language. This podcast is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. It is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional.