Most of us spend the better part of our adult life actively building a career, and all that dedication results in extensive skills, deep knowledge, and overflowing rolodexes. When it comes down to it, most of us have a basic desire to do good and feel that we're making a positive contribution. A genuine investment in social responsibility means everybody wins. This week’s guest embodies the spirit of paying it forward. Don Frey, the President and CEO of the Independent Beauty Association sits down with Kelly Kovack to talk about his 35 years in the beauty industry, and his commitment to the education and advocacy for independent business in the beauty ecosystem.

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Indie beauty is a breeding ground for generations of innovators who color outside the lines.While often considered a trend that has gained momentum in the rise of social media, these brands have always been around. They're an integral part of the beauty business cycle.

For example, MAC Cosmetics launched in 1984 with a new perspective on beauty, and it grew from an Indie, into an iconic global brand. This week's guest, Victor Casale, was at ground zero for MAC's inception, as a chief chemist, and he has never stopped innovating or raising the bar with his brands. He joins Kelly Kovack and they discuss how the businesses he has launched, like Mob Beauty, Pure Culture Beauty and Pact Collective, have all made beauty better.

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Failure is often underrated. It's what you do with the failure that matters. The truth is success is often the result of a lot of mistakes. If you don't make a mistake, it probably means you're not taking risks, pushing beyond your comfort zone, or aiming high enough. Very often, founding stories are told through the lens of revisionist history, creating a perception of perfection that is rarely the truth. That's not the case with this week's guests, Colette Laxton and Mark Curry, the Co-Founders of the INKEY List. They sat down with Kelly Kovack to discuss how they set out to build a brand that filled a gap they saw in the market, and how learning from their past failures helped them create an instant hit.

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Many things are not always intended to live forever, but many live on past their expiration dates, fueled by emotion rather than rational thinking. The reality is sometimes moving forward requires the courage to leave something else behind. This week, Kelly Kovack sits down with Garance Doré and Emily Yeston, to discuss why they decided to leave the beautiful chaos of the media business they had built. They explain how taking a break to reset both personally and professionally, led to a pivot to beauty, and the launch of their brand, Doré.

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The tension between creativity and commerce is probably as old as humanity. There's no other beauty category where striking this balance is often at odds, than fragrance. At its core, perfumery is a profession with its soul grounded in creative processes. Yet the category is big business, and dominated by beauty conglomerates and licensing deals that turn out crowd pleasing scents for the masses. However, on the other end of this spectrum lies the passionate and growing tribe of niche fragrance houses, led by the art and love of perfumery. This week, Kelly Kovack sits down with Christopher Yu and Laurent Delafon, the Founders of United Perfumes and Ostens. They discuss how they've used passion and partnership to build a successful company in the business of fine smells and olfactory dreams.

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Cult products are almost impossible to manufacture.This coveted status grows organically and happens when a product resonates with a loyal, sometimes fanatic community of fans. In today's fast moving beauty space where trends happen at the speed of TikTok, achieving cult status that sticks can be elusive. It requires vision and serious business chops. This week, Kelly Kovack is joined by Ju Rhyu, the Co-Founder and CEO of Hero Cosmetics. Ju explains how she self-funded the business' launch with one product on Amazon, built a brand that redefined the acne category and achieved a $630 million strategic exit in five years. 

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Sex sells and its big business. Sex is a fundamental part of being human, yet it's rife with social stigmas and moral judgments. Thankfully, the norms around sex are evolving and the sexual wellness conversation is helping to shake its taboo status and moving beyond a legacy industry, dominated by condoms in drug stores and sex toys in seedy strip malls. Sexual wellness is evolving from a niche category to a mainstream opportunity, gaining the attention of investors and retailers, and giving rise to a new wave of brands capitalizing on this shift. This week, Kelly Kovack is joined by Eva Goicochea, the Founder and CEO of Maude. They discuss how Eva has redefined the narrative through an inclusive approach and engendering better intimacy by pushing boundaries and breaking down barriers. 

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Leadership can be learned, but some people are just born with the innate capacity to lead. Being a natural leader often has a, you know it when you see it quality. Instead of learning to become an effective leader, they have the instinctive ability to inspire others to follow their vision. The charisma of such leaders can have both a light and dark quality and Nicola Kilner, the Co-Founder and CEO of Deciem has had to navigate both. Nicola joins Kelly Kovack to discuss going through the incredible ups and very public downs, and how she has used empathy, honesty and radical transparency to build a formidable global brand, and a strategic exit to The Estée Lauder Companies. 

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Being the agent for change inside a large organization is not for the faint of heart. The concept of innovation has been a corporate talking point for years, but the framework to harness disruptive thinking and visionary goals have yet to truly be established. Innovation should be as dynamic as the forces that make it necessary in order to remain competitive now and into the future. When teams begin to think differently, traditional ways of operating become a thing of the past. Innovation may not be easy to affect in a $7.5 billion business, but this week's guest has done just that. Kelly Kovack is joined by Brandon Ford, the Chief Accelerator Director of Lubrizol Life Science. They discuss how the confluence of skills that Brandon has mastered through his enigmatic career as a nurse, lawyer, wine educator and team master have set him up for success.

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Influencer marketing is not a new idea. From a marketing perspective, the notion of leveraging an individual to influence potential consumer purchasing behavior, can be tracked back over a hundred years. However, the rise of social media democratized the concept of influence, giving birth to the creator economy and creating the equivalent of marketing rocket fuel, in the right hands. Today more than 50 million people globally consider themselves to be creators. At ground zero of the beauty influencer wave, was a business called Tribe Dynamics that schooled the industry on influencer marketing.. This week, Kelly Kovack is joined by the Founder, Conor Begley, who discusses how to leverage the power of influence.

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