Billion Dollar Authenticity w/ Jamie Kern Lima

“Champions aren’t made when the game is easy!” If inspiration was a person, Jamie would be it! Jamie Kern Lima started a makeup company in her living room and eventually sold it for over $1.2 BILLION! She’s on the Forbes Richest Self-Made Women's List and is an active investor in more than 15 companies. She’s a self-made BILLIONAIRE, champion of women, philanthropist, keynote speaker, and co-founder of IT Cosmetics! The number one quality that makes a successful entrepreneur is their ability to persevere in the face of rejection! You MUST develop a healthy relationship with this gut-wrenching experience. And Jamie will be the first one to tell you, “rejection is like serendipitous grace.” Down to her last $1k in the bank and over 3 years of ongoing rejection, Jamie leaned even harder into her calling. Even though others couldn’t perceive her vision, she remained steadfast and let her FAITH grow stronger than the rejection. In this interview, Jamie shares her INCREDIBLE story of how she turned her biggest setBACK into her biggest step UP, not letting external voices of doubt drown out her internal voice of knowing she was meant to do something great with her life. 99.9% of dreams die because of rejection. The gems Jamie and I share in this interview will prepare you for your next inevitable encounter with rejection and teach the tools you need to be able to lean into your insecurities, embrace your vulnerability and go from DOUBTING you are enough to KNOWING you are enough! Flaws and all, success is waiting for you! And this is just the beginning. Click the link below to order Jamie's new book "Believe It" to go from underestimated to unstoppable! 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽 https://believeit.com/ 👉 SUBSCRIBE TO ED'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL NOW 👈 → → → CONNECT WITH ED MYLETT ON SOCIAL MEDIA: ← ← ← ▶︎ INSTAGRAM ▶︎ FACEBOOK ▶︎ LINKEDIN ▶︎ TWITTER ▶︎ WEBSITE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

• 0:00Ed Mylett?

  I hear so many small business owners say the exact same thing. They just never have enough time in the day. Well, I measure time differently. I've compressed, condensed, heck, I've bent time. My first day is 6:00 a.m. to noon. My second day starts at noon and goes till 6:00 p.m. And my third day, 6:00 p.m. to midnight. I now get 21 days a week. Stack that up over a month, over a year, over five years, and my life's completely different than it would have been otherwise. And if you want to win as an entrepreneur, you have to compress your time, too. And you definitely can't afford to waste it. Waiting weeks on a big bank for capital? Your best bet's to work with my friends at Cardiff. They know how to compress time for entrepreneurs. They get your business approved in minutes and funded the very same day. They're America's favorite small business lender, and for good reason.

• 0:45Ed Mylett?

  Over 20 years in business, over $12 billion deployed to small business across America. Stop letting bank delays slow down your momentum. Head to cardiff.co/ed. That's cardiff.co/ed. Cardiff.co. Real growth, fast funding. Cardiff. Borrow better.

• 1:01Speaker 01

  Mr. President, my company, for me, of the explosion on our rig.

• 1:05Speaker 02

  On October 2nd.

• 1:06Speaker 01

  Causing massive water displacement and triggering a tsunami. They all heap the blame on me.

• 1:11Speaker 02

  Tom Cruise is. Digger got us into this mess. And Digger's gonna dig us up. From the director of Birdman and the Revenant.

• 1:18Speaker 01

  What would happen if I stopped drilling? You stop, you freeze to death, that's what.

• 1:22Speaker 02

  With great power comes great deniability.

• 1:25Speaker 01

  I'm not the first nanny.

• 1:27Speaker 02

  Digger. See the trailer online. Only in theaters October 2nd. Rated R. Under 17. Not a minute without parent.

• 1:39Speaker 03

  This is The Ed Mylett Show.

• 1:48Ed Mylett?

  I love the TheraGun, and I've been telling you guys about it for a while. I use it every single day. So if you're an elite athlete. Or you're just a person every single day who's got aches and pains and dings and knots. The Theragun is a flipping game changer. I love this product. And so I use it because, you know, I get sore after workout. Like when I go to the gym, I can lift the weight. Sometimes it's picking them all off the rack at the wrong angle that'll get me. And that sounds crazy, but I'm sure some of you can relate to this, these odd injuries. And this Theragun has been the difference maker. So if you've got knots, aches and pains, or you just want to feel a good massage, try the Theragun for 30 days, starting only $199. Go to theragun.com/milet. That's theragun.com/milet.

• 2:32Ed Mylett?

  Welcome back to the program, everybody. I have such a remarkable woman on my show today. I've been a fan of hers from a distance for a long time. We have a bunch of mutual friends who rave about her. I knew her story. You're going to hear it today. You're going to hear about her new book, Believe It, which is awesome. But you're just going to be so inspired. And why? Well, she used to work at Denny's, which I love. She also bagged groceries at Safeway, which I did. And so that's why I'm having her on the show. No, I'm just kidding. After she did all that, she went and built a cosmetics company that she sold for $1,200 million. That's all she did. She's just changed

• 3:12Ed Mylett?

  thousands of people's lives with her products after working at a swap meet, after bagging groceries at Safeway. And by the way, she's on Forbes list every year of America's most rich, successful women. And she's the youngest on that list. She's ranked the youngest by only two people. Some lady named Taylor Swift, another one named Beyonce, and then my guest today, Jamie Kern Lima. So thank you for being here today. So glad you're here.

• 3:41Jamie Kern Lima?

  Thank you so much. I'm so excited.

• 3:43Ed Mylett?

  You are. Trust me. This is one of those where I already know it's going to be awesome. So let's talk about you a little bit. I love that. I read your whole story. First person in your family to go to college, valedictorian, obviously you're an achiever. But your dream, your story came out of really.

• 4:04Ed Mylett?

  A struggle of yours, right? Your whole dream, your whole business. And so many people, you know, that are listening to this are going through a struggle right now. And they think that struggle they have disqualifies them from becoming successful, when in fact, it may be the very pathway to their dreams. So tell us about that with you, first of all.

• 4:22Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes, I love that. Thank you so much. Yeah, it literally, an entire thing I thought was a big setback in my life and ended up being set up, right? For one of like, my biggest dreams coming true. So, yeah, I mean, you know, I, ever since I was a time I was a little girl, I always watched Oprah and I thought, oh, I'm gonna be a journalist my whole career and tell other people's stories. Like, right now, I literally just want to ask you questions, Ed, about you. Like, it's what's in me. And, and, and so, so I just knew, I knew that was my dream. And I started working as a journalist and a TV news anchor. And all of a sudden, I, in my twenties, I got this skin condition called rosacea, which is hereditary.

• 5:04Jamie Kern Lima?

  So there's no cure for it. And it started, you know, getting, I get, we get these big bumps that were bright red and feel like sandpaper on my, my skin. And I'd be anchoring the news, I was working as a, as a television news anchor, and I would be anchoring the news live, and I would hear 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 wipe it off. And I'd be live on television. And I knew there was nothing I could wipe off. And I saw dermatologists and tried like every makeup product out there, nothing would work. And it was this kind of season where I was like, okay, am I gonna lose my job?

• 5:43Jamie Kern Lima?

  Our viewers gonna change the channel? What do I do? Because nothing is solving this. And so, you know, I went through a season of self doubt for a while, and I started just trying to, you know, try everything out there, and no makeup product would work. And I had this moment where I realized two things. I was like, why? There's millions of makeup companies out there. Why is nothing working? And then I kind of had, and I know you have a daughter too, Ed, so you'll, you'll connect with this. But I had this aha moment where I'm like, wait a minute, like, my whole life, I've, I've seen these ads on television and in magazines, I've never seen anyone that has problematic skin the way I do. I've never seen any, I don't even know if those models were actually using that product. And I'm like,

• 6:26Jamie Kern Lima?

  What if there's literally nothing out there that works? And if I can figure out how to create it, A, I can, you know, solve my own problems, but I could probably also help a lot of other people out there who maybe have given up on makeup. And then I had this like, I think, moment of grace where the, where what hit me was way deeper in the sense of I realized like, okay, if I can do this, I want to actually create a company where instead of these like unrealistic images of beauty that, you know, from the time I was a little girl, I wanted to look like that, but they always made me feel like I wasn't enough. I was like, what if I, you know, create this company and actually use real, you know, women, all ages and shapes

• 7:11Jamie Kern Lima?

  and sizes and skin tones and, and, and call them beautiful models and mean it? Like, maybe I can shift culture around inclusivity and beauty for every little girl out there who's about to start doubting herself and every grown woman who still does. And so it became this big mission. But like anyone out there listening right now who's going through this, or maybe you've launched a business right now and you're like, why isn't this gaining traction? I poured everything I had into this dream. And, you know, I wrote the business plan with my husband on our honeymoon flight to South Africa. We got back, quit our jobs and went all in, used all of our savings. And I thought, oh, if we can just create something that literally works,

• 7:56Jamie Kern Lima?

  like, it's just gonna sell.

• 8:00Jamie Kern Lima?

  Then I learned how hard it was to, to become an entrepreneur. And it was this moment where I learned probably one of the most important lessons in my whole journey, which is like, how to get still, how to listen to your own inner knowing and making the decision to trust it, right? And when I left television news, I thought that was my dream job, that that was what I was gonna do my whole career. But sometimes knowing when to let go of a dream isn't quitting. It's actually the victory. It's like that knowing of when to let go of a dream is as important as knowing when to go after one. So I listened to it to launch this dream. But then, the first three years of running this business

• 8:44Jamie Kern Lima?

  from my living room, I couldn't afford to pay myself. And Literally hundreds of rejections. I thought, Ed, oh, I'm gonna shift culture and beauty. I have this great idea. And, and you know, so there's, there's beauty stores like Sephora and Ulta and QVC and department stores. Every single one of them said no, after no, after no, for three years. Literally would say things like, well, you're not the right fit. Uh, your packaging isn't, isn't prestige enough and women won't buy makeup from women they don't aspire to look like. And it was just no, after no, after no, um, for three years. Uh, we got down to under a thousand dollars in our bank account. By the way,

• 9:27Jamie Kern Lima?

  I'm sharing this because when you Google my story, and this is why I wrote this book, Ed, because if we don't share the real stuff, like, that's when we feel alone in our own rejection and our own, you know, uh, uh, lack of success or traction, right? And when you Google my story, all you ever see is like, oh,

• 9:45Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 9:46Jamie Kern Lima?

  Denny's waitress sold her company for a billion dollars cash. And it makes it seem like, oh, she just got lucky or

• 9:52Ed Mylett?

  It cruised. Yeah.

• 9:53Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah, yeah. And, you know, it was a journey that didn't make sense to keep going, except for every time I would check in with my gut. I was like, okay, I'm supposed to do this. But everyone keeps saying no. Um, you know, we got down to under a thousand dollars in our bank account, as I mentioned. And sometimes when there's no proof around you that your idea is right, and like, your friends and family are starting to worry about you. And they're starting to be like, are you sure you should have, you know, started this? Are you, are you getting any sales yet? And it was like that. And it was this, this three-year journey of having to figure out how to turn down the volume on my own self-doubt and on rejection everywhere and kind of like tune in or turn up the volume,

• 10:38Jamie Kern Lima?

  rather, on that, on that inner knowing that kept telling me, you're supposed to do this. Um, uh, and that kind of was one of the things that made all the difference.

• 10:47Ed Mylett?

  You, uh, there's so much there. And I want you to keep going. Couple of things I want to unpack there. Number one is this unrealistic image for women. It's really interesting.

• 10:58Ed Mylett?

  You know, with men, it really isn't that way. If you look at football, Tom Brady has a few ads. He's the good looking dude, right? He's got a watch ad or whatever, but the guy that got all the ads was Peyton Manning. It was the every man when it comes to men with women, these unrealistic images, especially in the beauty industry. For the most part are the images that we see. And so you really did revolutionize an industry. That's number one. Number two, it's interesting to me that your dream was to be a broadcaster. I got to tell you, we both bagged groceries at Safeways. And I was a broadcasting major in college and that was my dream. I didn't know I was going to show up 30 years later, you know, after my entrepreneurial journey. But I think life starts after your first dream is goes away. I really believe that's where you're defined. And I'm so curious about this journey with the rejection.

• 11:42Ed Mylett?

  I have a philosophy. I don't know if you agree with this. I love the title of your book, Believe It, because what you're talking about turning up this volume on your inner voice and turning down the external rejections. Those rejections you got were over and over again. I actually was telling my son this, who thinks he wants to be an entrepreneur. He said, Dad, what's one of the things that? Most people wouldn't tell you. I said, I don't know that maybe the most important thing is your ability to deal with rejection as an entrepreneur. We talk about vision. We talk about, you know, communication, but can you deal with the rejection? And in your case, it broke my heart, but there was one meeting you had. Where you thought you had a deal finally, right? With this VC guy. And I want you guys just to feel the the the depth of the rejection that you may experience as an entrepreneur. And could you do what Jamie did and still push back?

• 12:27Ed Mylett?

  So picture years and years of rejection. You're running out of cash. You're working out of your living room. Everyone's telling you no. And then this dude. Almost says yes, but then really hits you with a hard no. Tell them about that.

• 12:38Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah. And I thought literally he was going to be my saving grace, right? Because again, we were down to no money and we got an interest from. From a private equity company and they loved our products. Our product worked like it really worked. So they love the product. And they wanted to have meetings. So we started going down that path and you know, they were really big. I mean, they are really big. They they've invested in a ton of consumer product companies that. You and I buy the grocery store and you know, they made a lot of them household names from nothing. And I just thought, oh my gosh, if they. If they invest, A, I'm not going to go bankrupt. B, maybe they'll help get me into all these retail stores that keep telling me no and keep telling me I'm not the right fit and all that. And so, you know, we did meeting after meeting and we started the diligence phase, which is, you know,

• 13:21Jamie Kern Lima?

  where you show all your projections, your product pipeline, everything. And it got down to the last meeting and my husband Paulo and I flew up for it and I thought like, this is it, like this is going to be it. And I'll never forget, the head guy was about, was standing about three feet from me. And he thanked me, said, you know, that we should be proud of the product we created. And then he says to me, and he's about three feet from me, face to face. And he says, so I want to let you know, it's a no, and we're going to pass on investing in it cosmetics. And I said, okay, like I'm used to hearing no at this point, right? And I'm like, all right, well, you know, can you tell me why? Because usually feedback is a gift, usually. And I'm like, can you tell me why? And he's like, do you want me to be really honest?

• 14:06Jamie Kern Lima?

  And I said, yeah. And I'll never forget, like, I remember just like him looking at me for a minute and I remember feeling my heart racing really fast. And then I remember seeing his, like, his lips move in slow motion. And he basically said, I just, he did say, straight, straight to my face. I just don't think women will buy makeup from someone who looks like you with your body and your weight.

• 14:31Jamie Kern Lima?

  And I remember it was this moment where for me, it was almost like this lifetime of bodied out and self doubt kind of like flooded my body and almost felt like, like I was staring my own fear straight in the eye, listening to him and I, like I, A, I knew I had to keep my faith bigger than it. But Ed, in that moment, like, it's wild, I actually, yeah, it hurt. Like I literally went in my car in the parking lot and cried my eyes out. Those things hurt. But what stands out to me in that moment, and I actually never felt, I didn't get mad at him. I still am not mad at him. Because guess what? The whole reason, that whole why beneath the why on why I was doing this, this company?

• 15:14Jamie Kern Lima?

  Like, he literally passed on investing in my company because he had the exact same mindset, right? Right? That everyone else does about what you have to look like, the box you have to fit into to be successful. And, and he's just as much a, I don't wanna say victim, byproduct maybe of, of the whole beauty industry too. He's passing on an investment in my company because of my weight. And, and I remember this moment, but the thing that sticks out to me most is in this moment, I had this feeling, this deep, this deep feeling, like as he's telling me this, that he's wrong. And I had that feeling, but I knew nothing yet that I had done prove that.

• 15:58Jamie Kern Lima?

  Cause I had no sales yet, really. And I also knew like proving it would, would first and foremost hinge on me believing it for myself. And, you know, fast forward, and by the way, in the years after that, like it's discipline of recognizing when, when, when someone else's voice is playing in your head all of a sudden. And I listened to a show you did actually where you, where you scratch, like you scratch it and right? And, and that's what I have to do over and over. Like I'd have to literally get really good at turning down the volume on those things. Because, oh, and I wanna tell you a full circle moment that happened. It's so good. But like that's, I feel like that, what you, what you just shared about telling your son this advice, right?

• 16:43Jamie Kern Lima?

  I feel like that's everything because I feel like so many people, what ends up happening is everyone else's rejections, right? End up like equating to self doubt in our own head, our own self doubt about ourself. We start to turn the volume up on that to the point where with all of it, with our, with, with everyone else's opinions. And in my case, the lack of success around me, it can get so loud that we can't even hear our own internal knowing anymore. And I feel like so many people, and then you have your friends and your family, like they mean the best, but they're seeing you through their own line, their own lens of fear. And an experience, right? And, and so between all of it, so many people I feel like end up

• 17:28Jamie Kern Lima?

  literally talking themselves out of their own calling and talking themselves out of their own truth and staying in their comfort zone at like the cost of it chipping away at their soul. We've all done this. And literally missing out on the person they're born to be. And I feel like that's and my story is like years and years and years of rejection. But when I look back at the things I did wrong and the things I did right, usually like my biggest mistakes came down to when I actually didn't listen to something I knew in my gut. And I decided to go with something an expert had told me when it didn't feel like quite

• 18:07Jamie Kern Lima?

  right. And the biggest successes are when I really listened to that knowing even when it went against what other people told me. So like this guy telling me this, had I changed who I was, right? And, and tried to fit some mold that he said would sell the if that were going to be if that was who I was authentically, then great. But it's not for me, right? And so had I ever conformed to him or any of those retailers that told me change this, change that, and maybe we'll bring you into our store, or L'Oréal that for three years of meetings said no, and all the things I needed to do differently. Had I listened

• 18:48Jamie Kern Lima?

  to most of any of that, especially the parts that didn't align with with my gut instinct, I would have never sold my company for over a billion dollars. I would have never, I probably would be out of business. So, so that's

• 18:59Ed Mylett?

  When you say this, Jamie, where you're like, I would have never sold my company for a billion dollars. Still, when that comes out of your mouth, is there a part of you like, I sold my company for over a billion dollars? Does it still hit you a little bit?

• 19:13Jamie Kern Lima?

  On one hand, I still can't process it. On the other hand,

• 19:19Jamie Kern Lima?

  you'll understand this when I say this, and you won't judge me for saying this. And I believe actually everyone in your community.

• 19:26Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 19:27Jamie Kern Lima?

  I believe they're part of your community because they'll understand this too. Um, selling your company for a billion dollars is exciting, but like for me, I don't feel like I'm put on this earth to compete with anyone else. I feel like I'm put on this earth to compete with who God made me capable of becoming.

• 19:46Ed Mylett?

  Amen.

• 19:46Jamie Kern Lima?

  And I feel like I'm just getting started. Like I'm not there yet. So selling company for a billion dollars is exciting, but like I feel like stepping into all of who I am and serving and giving and all the things I'm really called to do, I still feel like I'm not there yet. By the way, you talked about-

• 20:04Ed Mylett?

  I feel like having watched you speak a couple of times and then listening now, I feel like all of that happened, all of the struggle, all of the ups and downs, all of the selling of the company, all you've learned, all you've been able to articulate, your broadcast background, all of that stuff is leading you right now to your time. Like I think you were called for what you're doing now, which is teaching and inspiring people and giving them hope. However, you did say it came full circle. What did you mean when you said that? What's the full circle?

• 20:29Jamie Kern Lima?

  Okay, you love this. Okay. So this is so good because I actually never got, like I never got mad at him, right? Because for me, it was like something bigger than him.

• 20:38Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 20:38Jamie Kern Lima?

  Um, so, so, so fast forward a few years. Um, and when we actually ended up selling to L'Oreal, you know, it was their largest US acquisition in their history. And so it made the homepage of Wall Street Journal, a bunch of stuff like that. And the day that the deal was announced, I got an email from him. And, and he said, you know, congratulations, you know, I was wrong. So proud of you, that, that whole thing he did. Um, and also I learned that it would, so two things, I learned it would have been the, the most successful investment in his firm's history. But here's the thing, and this is where- This is where our setbacks, I feel like, oh my gosh, our setbacks, even when they suck,

• 21:20Jamie Kern Lima?

  like, it sucked to hear him say those words to me. It hurt. I cry. Like, it hurts, right? Rejection in almost any form basically says to us, you're not enough. You don't belong. You're not worth, I don't think I will make money off you, or I don't believe in you, or it comes in all those forms and it sucks. But I really believe even almost all the time, when I look back at almost all the rejections, I feel like that, like, again, those setbacks really are our setups and sometimes, like, sometimes rejection is really like serendipitous

• 22:00Jamie Kern Lima?

  grace wrapped in this package labeled painful rejection. And what I mean by that is, I was so desperate at the time. I think you just posted, I just saw your thing where you're like scarcity is value. So, yeah, I had no scarcity back then. I would have given him, like, any part of my company. We were down to under a thousand dollars in our bank account. I didn't know how we were going to survive. Had he wanted to invest, had he said yes to us that day, I would probably have given the majority of the company for probably almost no money, just hoping to survive. But because he didn't believe in me, and because we got so much rejection along the way, when we ended up selling to L'Oréal, eight years into the business, I was still the largest shareholder.

• 22:45Ed Mylett?

  That's awesome.

• 22:46Jamie Kern Lima?

  Right?

• 22:47Ed Mylett?

  I love this. Serendipitous grace. I may steal that from you. That is beautiful. And you guys have to say something. It's why you want to get this book. It's loaded with information like this. It's loaded with stories like this about believing it. Why do you need to believe it? Let's just unpack this rejection thing, and then we're going to get to a magic moment. The reason that I think your ability to deal with rejection is so important, it's not talked about enough. Let's just be honest. You know why 99.9% of dreams die, everybody? You eventually get too much rejection. So, if that's the thing that's going to cause you not to get your dream, 99.9% of the time, it's just, there becomes a threshold that you, people don't take the rejection long enough. So, they don't Stick around to receive the grace. And so if that is true, if we already know that going in, then why not pre-negotiate in the

• 23:32Ed Mylett?

  in the very beginning, what price you're willing to pay. Hopefully it's anything as long as it's legal, ethical and moral. So that the the ninety nine point nine percent of the reasons why your dream won't happen, you've already set in your favor. If you've just decided you'll take the rejection, that's why it's such a big part. How do you take the rejection? You got to believe it. And that's why this book is so powerful. So we lead to this point. Guys, and again, the beautiful thing about Jamie's story is it's her vulnerabilities and her authenticity that made the brand relevant. All the way up to the extreme magic moment. Don't hide your insecurities. Don't hide your blemishes, guys. Figuratively and literally in your entrepreneurial journey. Get people wanting to root for you.

• 24:14Ed Mylett?

  Your fears and insecurities are what connect you with the marketplace. Ironically, you don't have to hide them. You can work on them, but there's nothing wrong with saying I have them. So finally, somehow you get this moment on QVC, right? And you are so brilliant in this moment. You asked them, I'll let you tell the story, but to me, it's like if you don't do this thing. Again, maybe it still doesn't hit all the way to the last second, the last moment. It was your vulnerability that connected you with the audience. So everyone listen so closely to this woman who sold her company for a billion dollars plus. So here we go. Take us to the moment.

• 24:51Jamie Kern Lima?

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

• 25:36Jamie Kern Lima?

  And I started like pouring, like pitching my heart out, right? And he thanked me, thanked me for loving QVC and it was a no. So. That was like one of the most memorable nights because I spent, I don't know if you've ever had, you know, bad news in business or something like that and you wake up the next morning and you're like, oh, fuck, it's like you hoped it was a dream. Yeah. And it wasn't, right? It was like that for three days in a row. I just knew in my gut we're supposed to be on QVC and it's so, and I knew for years because I thought, Ed, oh, my gosh, I can go live and unlike all those ads I've seen my whole life that I don't even know if they're real. Like, let me show real women, like my mom and my friends and my, like, let me show real women. And I believed it and yet everyone kept telling

• 26:21Jamie Kern Lima?

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

• 27:04Jamie Kern Lima?

  updates and send them product launches. And they're like, who the F is, and I'd keep, like, I just made that decision. So, three years into this, we finally got this yes on QVC. And what happened with this yes and this one shot is literally one of the single greatest lessons I've ever learned in life and in business. So, it, you know, what this meant was, we had one chance to sell our product in this 10-minute window, live on QVC. And, you know, for anyone unfamiliar with QVC, who might be listening, it's a live television show and it's broadcast to 100 million homes. There's no script, no teleprompter.

• 27:40Jamie Kern Lima?

  And what I learned, Ed, right before I went on, is that you're given 10 minutes, in the case of the segment I got, but that's not a guarantee, right? If you go live and let's say a minute or two in, you're not hitting the sales goals, your clock cuts live. So you might be a minute or two in, thinking you have eight minutes left and you're not doing well, boom, you're down to one minute. And you know, you can calculate in your head how much money you just lost and what that means. So we get one shot, we get a yes. And this is like huge, right? Because I knew, I knew in my gut, like this is supposed to happen. And I'm going to show real women live. I'm going to shift culture and beauty. Like, I knew it. And here's what happened.

• 28:23Jamie Kern Lima?

  We got a purchase order and I quickly learned, oh, we were only selling two to three orders a day on our website, right? Packing them from our living room, just trying to survive, down to no money. Well, for a 10-minute window at QVC, we had to sell over 6,000 units of our concealer to hit their sales goal or not come back and their consignment in beauty. So what it meant was, if we didn't hit those numbers, we didn't sell in that 10-minute window, everything that we didn't sell got shipped back to us and we weren't paid for it. So, and you know, you should never accept a purchase order. You can't afford to lose. But in this case, it was like, we didn't know how we're going to make it, either way. So I thought, okay, this is our one shot. This is going to like be life-changing, right?

• 29:08Jamie Kern Lima?

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

• 29:53Jamie Kern Lima?

  And I would say to them like, well, but that's actually not why I created this, this brand like, like. And I would tell them, you know, imagine if you're 70 years old, sitting at home and you see someone you can't even relate to that doesn't look like you. How do you know the product's gonna work for you? Or, you know, I have rosacea or 70% of people have hyperpigmentation. If they don't see someone that looks like them and we would get into it and argue and fight. And they wanted, they wanted me to win like, but they were literally giving me the very best advice through the lens of their own experience. And the thing, the thing that I wish I knew, um, so that I know now, but this would have saved me so many nights crying myself to sleep is

• 30:36Jamie Kern Lima?

  sometimes even experts, even, even the people that are touted visionaries, right? And they really are, and they would never admit this, but they still often can't imagine in their subconscious, something succeeding if they haven't seen proof that it has before, right? And that would have made the rejection sting a lot less because if you're doing anything authentically, anything that hasn't been done before, anything differently, people often can't even imagine it succeeding because of their own, right? And so all of them told me to do it and they're like, listen, and we would fight. We, we got into it and they're like, we want you to win. So I was in this moment where I flew out to QVC in Pennsylvania, uh, a week early

• 31:20Jamie Kern Lima?

  before this one shot on live TV to either, you know, hit their sales goals or, or basically go out of business. And I went all alone and sat in this rental car, um, in the QVC parking lot because it literally felt so heavy, like I knew what my gut was telling me to do. But in that moment, I hadn't seen any proof that it was right. No proof in the form of sales anywhere. I mean, we're doing two to three orders a day for three years in. Uh, no other retailer saying yes. Everyone telling me you're not this enough or that enough and.

• 31:58Jamie Kern Lima?

  But those moments in life where we still have that knowing, it's so easy to doubt it and it's so easy to think we're wrong and to not trust it anymore. And I sat in this rental car praying and crying and literally asking God to take this from me because it felt so heavy. I felt like everything came down in this moment. Honestly, I was tempted to go against my own gut. I was like, okay, well, maybe if I listen to what they're saying, right? Yeah, like maybe I'll do that and I'll do really well for a while, then I'll try it my way. And I just sat in that car and it didn't feel right and I just kept praying about it. And I would imagine like who my customer was on the other end.

• 32:39Jamie Kern Lima?

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

• 33:22Jamie Kern Lima?

  So I knew what I had to do, but sometimes when we know what we have to do, it doesn't mean it's easy to do it. And honestly, like I was, I was freaking out. I was so prepared. I had this demonstration on my wrist I was gonna do that shows how our product doesn't crease and the top two department store ones do. And I get to the, the live studio, I walk in, we have our 10 minutes. Um, and I go out there on the set live with the host. And I'll never forget, Ed, the clock was like, was it 10 minutes, it's like 9:59, 9:58, like shit, like I'm on live. Like this is happening, right? And I was trying to, and I felt literally sweat all the way dripping down everywhere. I didn't want to talk about that. I was free, and I'm not nervous for television,

• 34:02Jamie Kern Lima?

  but everything was on the line and I was trying to do this demonstration. I had practiced a million times in my bathroom mirror. And my hand was like this and I was trying so hard to do it and the host was like, thank you, sugar. And she pushed it under and we wa- I remember the moment my bare face.

• 34:20Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 34:21Jamie Kern Lima?

  Bright red rosacea came up on national television, right? And I, I remember walking over to these real women and calling them beautiful and meaning it. And there was about like one minute left in the cell and in the, in the 10 minute segment. And the host was like, the deep shade is almost sold out. The tan shade were down to 200. I was like, and then I remember literally right at the 10 minute mark, the sold out sign came up diagonal, like across the screen and tears like start streaming down my face. And I remember my husband, Paula, he came rushing through the double doors. And I'm like sobbing and I'm like, real women have spoken. And he's like, we're not going bankrupt. And I was like, ah, and that one airing turned into five that year, 101 the next year. And then

• 35:07Jamie Kern Lima?

  we did 250 live shows a year. So I've done over a thousand live shows myself on, on QVC. And we grew the largest beauty brand in QVC's history. And it is right now at this moment to this day. And I only share that because it was three years, right? Of them saying, no, and you're not the right fit. And no one can tell you, you're not the right fit. You know what I mean? And sometimes I feel like we hear those, every one of us has heard that in some form or another, that you're not the right fit, or you're not enough. And I feel like those aren't the moments where you give up. Those are the moments like you get back up and with God and grace and grit,

• 35:48Jamie Kern Lima?

  like you keep hustling and you keep going and you keep following your knowing. And, and, and one more little thing to share with you just on the topic of full circle moments, Alan Burke, who's the head, like li- legend, after we launched on QVC, right? He's the one that said, no, and was crying myself to sleep three nights in a row. And he told me I'm not the right fit for QVC, all that kind of stuff. After we launched on QVC, I ended up getting to know him really well and he became not only a dear friend, but literally one of my greatest mentors in my entire career. He is right now, to this day, one of my greatest mentors. And, you know, he's the one that built that billion-dollar beauty, multi-billion dollar empire at QVC for Beauty. When he retired from QVC, we hired him

• 36:32Jamie Kern Lima?

  in a paid position on our advisory board. So Ed, the guy that rejected me, was now working for me. Like, no one can tell you you're not the right fit, right? And so anyways,

• 36:48Ed Mylett?

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

• 37:31Ed Mylett?

  we've met a couple of times in green rooms or backstage and different things. And just so you know, Jamie is so kind. It has so much humility. And you can't find anyone anywhere who has a bad word to say about her. She's just a beautiful spirit. And so I knew the story a little bit. And then I knew you were going to be on the show, so I was prepping. I already know the work that went in, and I know the result. But I went and watched the clip when you showed your rosacea, right? And I found myself, even though I know what happens, I was like, got butterflies in my stomach for you now, even though it's years later, I'm kind of saying quiet prayers for you. And I already know that you won. But it was just, it's such a poignant moment to go through all of that rejection. And I think you're giving so many people hope that you stuck to your guns about

• 38:16Ed Mylett?

  your beliefs as well. I just want to ask you one thing you said there. I want to unpack a few things. I want to give some people some nuggets and some keys that you did. But I want to, I want to ask you one thing. If you could go back to you in year one, In the living room and you've got one employee and you're part of the, one of your first employee basically paid with free rent in your house. So they'd work 20 hours a week, right? The story's remarkable. See, I know everything. I've really done my research. But, but I would wonder if you could go back and whisper in your ear, a piece of advice or a message to you at that stage, because millions of people listening to this right now and hundreds of thousands who are watching it are at that stage somehow. I'm curious what you might say to yourself back at that stage.

• 38:57Jamie Kern Lima?

  Oh my gosh. Three things just flew into my mind right now. Can I do three instead of one?

• 39:02Ed Mylett?

  A hundred percent.

• 39:03Jamie Kern Lima?

  By the way, I love what you said. Thank you. Because yes, I built a billion dollar company. Yes, I was a Denny's waitress, all those things. But this book in and of itself, it's really a book about like a girl who went from not believing in herself to, to learning how to believe in herself and, and doubting she's enough to knowing she's enough. So if I could go back and, and tell that, that girl anything, you're one. Cause I was already working hundred hour weeks and literally not knowing.

• 39:30Ed Mylett?

  Hundred hour weeks. There we go.

• 39:31Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah, yeah. And I didn't know this like double workday thing you do yet either. So I was like, it was, it was, uh, um, three things I would say really that just flew into my mind right now. I would say champions aren't made when the game is easy.

• 39:48Jamie Kern Lima?

  And you're a champion. You're born to be a champion. So when the game isn't easy, embrace it, right? Because that's how champions are made. I would tell myself that earlier on. I know that now I learned that, but I would tell myself that earlier on. That's one thing. The next thing, I would tell myself something that I actually told myself a lot to help get through it. And I think, you know, no matter what faith someone might practice who's listening or no faith at all, I feel like these words apply to everyone because so many of us go through seasons where we don't feel qualified. We feel like an imposter. We feel like we didn't, we're not, for me, I'll speak for myself. I would have feelings like I'm not smart enough. I didn't come from the right family, didn't go to the right school,

• 40:33Jamie Kern Lima?

  don't have the right connections, all those thoughts, right? I don't feel qualified. And whenever I'd have those thoughts, like there are words I'd call on that, that for me would help me get through it. And it's a famous, a famous quote that says, uh, God doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called. And I would tell myself that over and over and over. And to me, I think, any of us, any person listening right now who's part of your community, it's like, when we really get still and, and there's this like dream on our heart or this feeling in our gut that we're supposed to be doing something and you just can't shake it no matter what. I feel like that's part of your purpose and part of your calling. And you know, God doesn't call the qualified,

• 41:14Jamie Kern Lima?

  he qualifies the called. To me, it means you already have everything inside of you you need, right, to, to, to accomplish your wildest dreams. And, and, part of our greatest journey in life is learning to believe that for ourselves. And so I would tell that girl that, but that's something I had to tell myself a lot. And the, and, and, and the other third thing that just flew in my mind is like, I learned this time and time again, that your gut, like your gut is more powerful than anyone else's advice. It just is. It just is. And, and, and learning how to get still, how to turn down the volume and all that other stuff and how to hear it and how to hear your own gut and then trust it.

• 41:57Jamie Kern Lima?

  To me, that's more important than how smart you are, how, if you went to school or not, any of that other stuff.

• 42:04Ed Mylett?

  I relate to all of those, those doubts. And that is so beautifully said. Thank you for giving us three. Cause there were three remarkable ones. And you know, gut is sort of what I would call discernment. The Bible talks about the gift of discernment and you all have that gift at some level. And trusting it when it's easy, as Jamie said earlier, is, that's one thing. Trusting it when no one else sees it. Trusting it when you're being rejected in deep, painful ways. Is really where you're going to be measured. And I want them to read the book, so I don't want to go through all of it. You talked about body doubt and the different doubts. Would you mind just sharing what God doubt is, since you mentioned God? Just that one form of doubt. And I'll let them get the book to go through the other ones. But what is God doubt? What do you mean when you say that?

• 42:47Jamie Kern Lima?

  For me, I was raised going to church every Sunday. It never resonated with me. Like when the pastor would be giving the sermon, I was literally counting down the minutes, like scanning the church pews for cute boys. And

• 42:59Ed Mylett?

  I wasn't scanning for the cute boys, but I was trying to get out of there.

• 43:01Jamie Kern Lima?

  But you were trying to get out of there. And so, you know, and so then, you know, but I, but I believed in God and I prayed and all those things. The older I got, and this really started in my twenties, you know, I always wanted to get out and see the world and see and meet different people. And, you know, I lived in the East Coast for a while and all these things. And I started meeting people that have different faith and have no faith. And I started meeting a lot of people that believe in science-based arguments, of which, you know, you believe in what you can see and touch and feel and prove, for which faith is not required. And they all started making sense. And I started, every time I would pray, I started feeling like

• 43:40Jamie Kern Lima?

  an imposter, because I felt like I still doubted God existed and had those doubts. And I, you know, I was raised in a family that, that never went to therapy for anything. Like you either just don't talk about it, or you figure it out. And, and I went through this season. There's a, there's a, I won't give it all away, but there's a big thing in my late twenties where I found out I was adopted by surprise and went on this crazy five-year journey with probably the deepest rejection I've ever gone through. And so I talk a lot about, about that in the book, about what happens in our, in our personal life with relationships with people we trust and like the rugs pulled out from underneath us. And so I was going through a lot, is the summary. And I finally started seeing a therapist.

• 44:22Jamie Kern Lima?

  And one day I told her, I said, you know, I'm, I'm doubting God exists. And I'm just like feeling

• 44:31Jamie Kern Lima?

  hopeless in a lot of ways. I don't know where I come from. I don't know who my parents, I was just in this season. Um, I talk about for the first time ever in the book and this therapist said something to me that literally changed my life. She says, well, what, what makes you think God can't handle your doubt? And like, what do you mean? And she goes, what, what makes you think God can't handle your doubt? Like, okay, if he created the whole universe, what makes you think he can't handle your doubt? Why don't you tell him you doubt him? And ask him to prove you wrong. And this thing she shared with me literally started a multi-year journey. Where I was like, okay, that makes sense to me. Every time I would pray, whether it was like, oh, praying

• 45:13Jamie Kern Lima?

  for somebody's health or this or that, or at the end, I'd be like, literally in my own head, I would be like, and also God, I'm doubting you exist. So if you could please prove me wrong and like, show up somehow, be on a shadow of a doubt, so that I know in fact you do exist. I would be super grateful. Thank you. In Jesus's name, amen. Like, I would literally pray that for years and what started happening and I, I am, oh, I'm so excited. Okay. I don't want to give all of it away, but like, my journey of a learning beyond a shadow of a doubt that God exists and seeing him show up and knowing he can dream bigger dreams for us than we can for ourselves and knowing, uh, uh, you know,

• 45:56Jamie Kern Lima?

  I don't know. I think so many people now, you know, say, oh, Jamie's self-made. All these things. It's like, oh, I'm partly self-made, but what I know for sure is like, I'm mostly God-made. Right? Like, like, like, yeah, I worked harder than I possibly thought I could ever work. And yeah, I didn't give up. I got back up every time I got knocked down, but like, he did everything else, like the open doors, the closed doors, thank God, um, the serendipitous grace, right? Which we, uh, really the grace beyond comprehension.

• 46:30Jamie Kern Lima?

  The connections I didn't have, the people I didn't know, you know, I feel those things. I feel those things, so.

• 46:38Ed Mylett?

  Jamie, I love you, sister. I love you because I just must say, your vulnerability is remarkable. Most people would never share that because we want to look like these great people of faith. And, you know, I've told people many times, I must, I just want to say this, we can go back and forth a little bit. Yes, I relate to that very deeply. And ironically, some of my successes or my struggles that came along, I, I think you inevitably reached the journey or the conclusion as you're chasing your dream, that maybe you can't do it alone, that you need to enroll God. That, you know, I have this, I've written about my successes and failures and even the successes. Like there's sometimes I just want to go, can I just be honest with you guys? I did all this work, I know these things work, I know the mindset, I know the techniques,

• 47:19Ed Mylett?

  but then there's entire windows where it's kind of a blur and these people come into my life and these circumstances happen. And I believe in science, I believe in the quantum field, I believe in vibration, I believe in energy. I just happen to believe that the creator of the universe created those things.

• 47:32Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes.

• 47:32Ed Mylett?

  And I, I want to share with the audience something because you were willing to share. So I just want to say, people ask me sometimes, do you ever struggle with your faith? The answer is yes, and even to this day, sometimes I do. I have a relationship with God and in any relationship, it has ups and downs and ebbs and flows and, and good times and rough times. And so my relationship with God, ironically, the doubts that I do have from time to time, strengthen it as that conclusion is reached over and over and over again. When there's real difficulty, you see a child, I, I work a lot with children and try to help families that have children with cancer. When you see a three or four year old child, you can't help but think, God, why would you allow this to happen? Right? And those things are healthy.

• 48:15Ed Mylett?

  So yes, I have a relationship with God that's growing and growing and growing over my lifetime until the day my body stops working here. I want it to grow and I want to be in this conversation with God. So that's beautiful that you share that. You guys have got to get this bump from this woman.

• 48:31Jamie Kern Lima?

  You know what, Ed, one more thing, because we talked about feeling unqualified, like in our business, or in our success, or in our, all of that. I have this deep knowing, so just to share it, I feel like so many people feel unqualified to like have a relationship with God. I feel like so many of us, I do, I think we think, "Oh, it's too late, I've made too many mistakes, I'm not worthy of showing up in print." And I feel like I have this deep knowing, because for me, I thought that for a long time, like, and I have this deep knowing that I don't think God shows up for perfect people that are, I feel like God delights most in showing up for like imperfect people who just seek after Him, and I don't think it, it's never too late. No one's ever too

• 49:14Jamie Kern Lima?

  old, no one's ever made too many mistakes, ha, ah, He's there and like...

• 49:19Ed Mylett?

  That disqualification thing is so big, I think people carry shame with them as a weapon they use against themselves. "Oh, you don't know about these thoughts I have, you don't know about this person I hurt, you don't know about this lie I told, or this thing I'm so ashamed of, or this divorce I've had, or this failure, or this moment of weakness," and I relate to that. I think I beat myself up with that, you know, very regularly, but I've learned that, you know, God's grace is beautiful, that I'm a sinner saved by the grace of God, I just believe that. That doesn't mean I want to sin over and over again, it just means that it's part of who I am as a human being. I try to do as little of it as I can, but I so love your message. I just, I just love that when someone becomes so successful, I believe, tell me if you've noticed this, I think some of the

• 50:04Ed Mylett?

  most blissful people that I know, they toe this very unique line of self-confidence, because we have to work on that. You, I think you, like me, struggle with it and have what had to build the tools to become a more self-confident person. Yet, they're confident, they believe it, to quote you, yet it's combined with a very high level of humility that allows them to be open to learning, open to be coached, open to be criticized. Do you see that in most of the people that you know that are the happiest and most successful? They kind of have that line of confidence and humility. Humility without the confidence is tough, confidence without humility can be really ego-driven, and for me, my faith contributes to my humility. Do you agree?

• 50:44Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah, I agree, and I see it in the people that are not just the most successful, but the ones that are actually fulfilled. And I think it's because when you're doing something bigger than yourself and that's what's driving you, like it's literally not about yourself anyway. So you don't have, right? But the people that haven't transcended that yet are still so caught up in doing so many things for our ego or getting significance out of it. You know, I remember, I guess this might sound weird, but you know, the moment like I remember sitting in this corner office. Cause you know, the first three years was in our living room where I couldn't afford to pay myself. Like when my husband and I would go on a date night, it was like, if it was a fancy

• 51:26Jamie Kern Lima?

  one, it was like that, um, you know, that I don't know if you've ever been to the outdoor Costco hot dog stand, like right out front, right? The dollar hot dog. It was like a big, I mean, it was like, we had, I mean, it, every penny went into the business and you know, so-

• 51:41Ed Mylett?

  That's a pretty weak date night. So I, the struggle. That's awesome. You were together.

• 51:46Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yeah, we, yeah. And, and I just remember, you know, this moment where I'm like, oh my gosh, I sold my company for a billion dollars cash. I'm sitting in this corner office with this, I mean, the office, my office was like, like a movie, right? And like, I don't know if you've seen Devil Wears Prada where Anne Hathaway walks into this, I mean, that's what my office looked like. And I'm looking at this whole Manhattan skyline and I'm sitting there in this moment. And by the way, this was one year ago. Okay. So I, I haven't even shared this, but, but after we sold the L'Oréal, you know, I, I agreed to stay on for three years. And I think when people believe in you, you prove them right. And you know, I, I worked really hard. We doubled the size of the company in the first two years post

• 52:26Jamie Kern Lima?

  acquisition. And on year three, which was just a year ago, um, I was trying to decide, do I stay? What do I do? And this is crazy, Ed, because this was literally the highest moment of my entire career. I just remember sitting in, we'd just opened this brand new 60,000 square foot office. I'm sitting there in my office and just my corner office alone. It's bigger than almost any place I've ever lived in, right? And I'm sitting there and I'm looking around and I have this knowing of two things. I can stay and I can get so much significance from the outside, the things that that that feel like significance, but they're not what life's about. You know what I mean?

• 53:10Jamie Kern Lima?

  And I had this this deep knowing of at this highest moment, like you're meant to transcend the stuff that actually doesn't matter. Like the company's actually in the spot where now your mission can scale, you know, because our mission is scaling so huge with L'Oréal globally now. Um, it cosmetics this year became the largest luxury makeup company in the country, which is crazy because when I was a Denny's waitress, I could save my tip money to buy like a department store lipstick and eyeliner and and for MAC or Lancome. And now this company I started in my living room is is larger than all of those brands in in the country. And it's it's crazy. But I think when we listen to our truth and we know, like, again, and I like when you

• 53:55Jamie Kern Lima?

  talk about separation season and listen, I think other people and what they're doing can drive us to up our own game. But literally, I think the ultimate separation season is, are we going to stay where we're at now? Are we going to separate ourselves from ourselves? Yes. Because we know the calling God put in our heart. We know what we're we're born for more. We know, right? And I just had that knowing. And so, uh, it was a crazy thing that I I just decided to um, to leave when all of a sudden it could get really comfy and pretty freaking fun and glamorous. Like for several years, we're not glamorous.

• 54:36Jamie Kern Lima?

  And all of a sudden, it was like this one in a billion glamorous situation. But I really believe had I stayed, it would be awesome in so many ways. Um. But awesome in a lot of ways that that fill our our I don't want to say egos of significance that that don't they never are enough and they never are truly fulfilling and I think when we do things bigger than ourselves right which is which is what you show up and do every single day I feel like that's when that's when that's when fulfillment happens.

• 55:10Ed Mylett?

  You're still trusting your gut which is remarkable that you keep doing that that's another decision most people would not walk from that level of influence significance the external trappings that come with it I got two more questions for you and by the way we went longer than I told you we were going to Jay because this is so good and I I'm watch I can feel people in tears I can feel people feeling inspired I want everybody by the way to go get believe it whether this is you know the release will be very close if you gets pre-order or order go get it it's available everywhere follow Jamie we'll put her stuff up on social media here on the YouTube version on the audio go follow her on Instagram and all the other platforms I got two questions for you women is there

• 55:52Ed Mylett?

  anything unique to being a woman because I'm not one is there anything to being unique to being a woman entrepreneur that you might impart some counsel advice wisdom on to women or is it the same exact thing as it is for men what would you say to that?

• 56:08Jamie Kern Lima?

  So I think I think there's a lot of overlaps but I think two of the things that are are a little bit more difficult when you're a woman as you know so many of us are are raised to be people pleasers and we are raised to not want to disappoint other people and you know in my journey of of building at cosmetics after years of rejection when we finally got yeses from like Sephora or QVC or the department stores or Ulta they would often tell us things that we needed to you know they they wanted us like let's say some big trend was happening in the marketplace and they wanted us to create this whatever because it was going to sell I got really good at disappointing people

• 56:50Jamie Kern Lima?

  when I knew it wasn't aligned with our authentic mission of the brand and I think that women struggle with that I think that you know and and by the way I think on the second on the second part of this is comparison which I'll talk about in a second as well that I think is really even even more difficult on on female entrepreneurs but

• 57:10Jamie Kern Lima?

  Sticking with your own authenticity and being okay disappointing people, being okay saying no, being okay letting people down and getting over that people pleaser element is really big for women. I think women are less likely to set boundaries, less likely to say no because they want to make everyone happy. They want to take care of everybody. So they're more inclined for burnout. They're more, right? And all of those things. And so when I look back, you know, I am, it's funny. I used to, I used to always say to our employees, we built to over a thousand employees before I sold the company. And they could probably repeat these words in their sleep by this point. But when they would bring me something another brand was doing, or something that was hot in the market,

• 57:52Jamie Kern Lima?

  or a big trend, it was like, I would say over and over to them, like, our biggest threat to our success is not what our competition's doing, is if we ever get distracted by it and then consider, you know, changing our own strategy and diluting our own authentic secret sauce, right? Because here's the thing, Ed, is after, after doing a thousand QVC shows, I've seen thousands, literally thousands of brand founders come and go, and almost all of them don't make it. And when I look at that common thread of who lasted at QVC, or even who lasted in the beauty industry, it's two things. It's the, the brand founders that were good at saying no, when the buyers wanted them to launch short-term products that made them success for five minutes,

• 58:37Jamie Kern Lima?

  but diluted their own authentic brand DNA. I think women especially need to get good at saying no to, and not wanting to be a people pleaser. When someone's giving you advice, whether it's an expert, or a buyer, anyone else, when it's not aligned with your own authentic mission. And the other thing is authenticity, right? When I look at the thousands of, of brand founders that I've seen go on air, and I look back like, oh, wow, like, just like a small fraction ever built anything that lasts and ever, ever made it. And it's like, what's that commonality? And I look back at that and it's like, oh, it's the people that, it didn't even matter how smart they were, or how talented they were, or what their personality type was like.

• 59:19Jamie Kern Lima?

  It's the people that were the same on air when they were selling as they were in the green room, for better or worse, right? And, and I realized and learned this, this life lesson before my eyes that like,

• 59:33Jamie Kern Lima?

  Authenticity alone doesn't guarantee success, but inauthenticity guarantees failure. And so with women, right? And by the way, you know, all the studies that show like you can never have a true connection with another human being unless you show up authentically, right? And a connection with another human being can also mean your customers, right? So I think that as it pertains to women and entrepreneurs and really everyone, I feel like nowadays with social media, especially it's so easy to compare ourselves and to see everyone else's highlight reel and get distracted and think we need to do all these things and think we need to change how we show up. But that's actually the recipe for disaster, right?

• 1:00:15Jamie Kern Lima?

  And I think that if you, I think that when people realize fully showing up authentically for better or worse, and especially women that deal with perfectionism and people pleasing, when you get rid of all that and you realize that's going to come at the price of your own success and you stop getting distracted about what everyone else is doing or what this woman's doing or that woman's doing and you fully show up authentically in your own business with your own authentic mission, A, it's freedom because you don't have to worry about all that other stuff and B, it's literally the only way, I believe, to ever have success or build anything that lasts or build anything that matters.

• 1:00:56Ed Mylett?

  Wow. In the midst of one of the greatest interviews I've ever been privileged and honored to do, that was one of my favorite moments. I hope everybody stayed this late in the conversation because that, by the way, that applies to men, but I completely agree with you. The more I'm thinking through what you're saying as it applies with women, the other thing I noticed is that I think women entrepreneurs and women in the workplace seem to get more unsolicited advice than men do. It's almost like, can I give you some advice? I just think that happens more often. So your, your ability to not take it sometimes, your ability to be willing to make people uncomfortable is so real. Last question, you're amazing.

• 1:01:31Jamie Kern Lima?

  You're amazing.

• 1:01:33Ed Mylett?

  Was it worth it and why? Meaning, what we're not talking about, those hundreds of hours, I'm sure you sacrificed. It's not just, when you're an entrepreneur and you struggle, let's be real, there's the other little things. You're sacrificing some time, you've sacrificed friendships. Sometimes even if you're not careful, you sacrifice your health, you can sacrifice part of your faith. You can, you can, there's a lot that we give up in order to make a dream come true. And I get asked all the time, is it worth it or not? And if not, or if so, why? So after all of it, and it's a long journey you've been on, was it worth it and why?

• 1:02:17Jamie Kern Lima?

  Yes, because I believe everything I went through isn't for me. I believe it's, it's for something greater than myself. Do I question it often? Yeah, I, I pray every day that I didn't do damage to my health that I don't know about. I, you know, for the first time ever, I get so real, Ed. I've never shared these things before, but for anyone out there who is especially going into business with a partner, a spouse, a friend, a family member, I really share the story behind the story because, you know, my husband and I started working hundred hour weeks and we did that for almost a decade.

• 1:02:57Jamie Kern Lima?

  And it got to the point where if my phone rang and it was him, I actually realized I saw it as a work call. Right? And, and all these things happen. And, you know, I talk about the journey that I went on of, for a decade of, of struggling to carry a baby and having, and just all the, you know, we did hundred hour weeks for 10 years. So. And I, and I did barely see my friends and family for a decade, right? So, and it was all choices, right? It was all choices.

• 1:03:35Jamie Kern Lima?

  And all I can say is every time I would pray and get still and every time I would listen to my gut, I felt like I was supposed to keep going. It was where I was supposed to be. And that I was doing something bigger than myself. You know, there was a big moment where I, you know, after selling to L'Oréal, I got this big award in the beauty industry and it was this whole thing. And I, I remember this moment where I got to stand in, in this one room in New York City and get this award. And I think everyone expected me to give this people pleaser speech that made everyone happy in the room. And instead I had this, and I wrote a people pleaser speech. And then I had this huge moment, like days before the event where I was like, oh,

• 1:04:17Jamie Kern Lima?

  in this one room right now, it, it happens once a year, is, is literally the heads of the companies that represent the image, every beauty company in the world is there. And they represent the images billions of, of girls and women see globally. They're all going to be in this room on this one day. And I remember taking this moment and going, okay, maybe they're not ready to do the right thing morally, but maybe they'll see my success and want to make money. And because of that, they'll change the images they're using. And I took this moment, I took this shot and I probably lost some friends that day. But I basically wrote this whole speech called, What Will You Do With The Power That Is You?

• 1:04:59Jamie Kern Lima?

  And challenged every person in that room to think about the impact of what they're doing and the decisions they make and the decision makers in that room that day. And, and what impact do they want to have on the world? They literally in that one room had control the images billions of girls and women see globally. So those moments spoke my truth. So those moments. Make me feel that it's worth it and all the lessons. And here's the thing is I've made so many mistakes and they share all those in the book too. By the way, I've done a lot of things wrong and I've done a lot of things right. But the thing that I think feels most right is, okay, I've figured out how to go from not believing in myself to believing and not hearing my own inner voice to trusting

• 1:05:44Jamie Kern Lima?

  it and doubting I'm enough to knowing I'm enough and figuring out how to really listen to know, am I on this right path of the person God created me to be? And it's been really fun to accomplish some of my greatest dreams, but what makes me think it's all worth it is like, I'm so honored and blessed and grateful and fired up to do whatever I can for God to use me to help other people on their own journey to stepping into who they're called to be. So that's a long answer to say yes, I think, I hope, I pray it was worth it.

• 1:06:17Ed Mylett?

  It's a beautiful answer and it was, I loved your hesitation and your honesty. It wasn't a hesitation, the answer was hesitation to say it the way you really felt it. And I gotta tell you, I'm so struck by you. I'm, I just think you're a remarkable woman. I'm actually holding back some emotion right now because I'm, I'm just so grateful that we did this today. And the time happened right, you know? It just, it was the right time, it was God's time. You've inspired so many people, you truly inspire me, you've taught me things today. And I just have this feeling that you're gonna teach me more things. I just think you're incredible, I really do. I hope, I hope, words are so easy. I hope you feel my sincerity because your authenticity, your vulnerability, your experience

• 1:07:02Ed Mylett?

  combined in a package that's obviously incredibly articulate and God has been preparing you for this moment to step into this time right now. And I'm, it's so obvious to me, I want everybody to go get Believe It, I want everybody to follow you, and I just want to say thank you for today. I enjoyed it tremendously and it flew by for me. I wish we could go another hour. So God bless you and Jamie, thank you for being here today.

• 1:07:24Jamie Kern Lima?

  Ed, thank you so much. God bless you, thank you.

• 1:07:27Ed Mylett?

  Share the show, everybody. Share it with everybody you care about and you love.

• 1:07:36Speaker 03

  This is the Ed Milat Show.