Oh, the People You'll Meet
The people who have come into my life along this path of entrepreneurship have been nothing short of a miracle. How I found the lawyers and then the scientists were shocking to say the least. Then having a friend who had a global marketing business to help shape the brand, another friend who knew a graphic designer looking for freelance work, and yet another who knew of a great project manager looking for an exciting opportunity were strokes of incredible luck. But to win at an auction the right to spend the day with the publisher of a major beauty magazine in NY was absolutely Divine Intervention.
Read more: If You Need Expertise - Hire an Expert - The Scientist
It's such an incredible story because if I had tried to contact this woman on my own I would never have figured out how to do it.
"Spend the day with the publisher of X", was the advertisement for an auction item at my son's school. I couldn't go to the event but last minute I texted a friend and asked if she did end up going to please bid for me. I told her to bid up to a certain amount and see how it goes. Miraculously I won. Even crazier was when this publisher called me back.
"Most people buy these things for their high school age children to see if they want to go into the magazine business", she said. But I had other aspirations. She asked me why I bought it. My reply was simple: I have spent 20 years on Wall Street and now I'm starting a cosmetics company. I know nothing about the magazine business (which is an integral part of the beauty industry) and I need to learn as much as I possibly can from you. She was shocked. She wanted to know my full story - who I was, how I started this, how could I possibly be doing this and working full time, who I was working with etc; she wanted it down to the very last detail.
Read more: Successful People surround themselves with Smart People - The Lawyers
She was so interested said not only would she spend the day with me but once my product was ready she would send it to her beauty editor and make sure I got in front of the beauty editor as well. She said I could bring my daughter who could get a tour of the "closet". She suggested I join the Cosmetic Executive Women group "CEW"; that the beauty awards were coming up; and she suggested PR firms I may want to work with. I told her I wanted to wait to meet her until I had a final product and she could give it to the beauty editor.
This was last spring and we have kept in contact via email. She just sent me a note over the Christmas break to check in and see how I was doing.
Yes, I did pinch myself.
Jill,
I have another potential angle for you. There is a whole group of aspiring photographers, models and cosmeticians (is that a word?) that share their work in kind. Model gets pictures, photographer gets use of model, model gets “made up”, cosmetician gets pictures etc. This might be a great place for you to introduce your brand and maybe share some product to build up a buzz. One of the websites where you can do some research is model mayhem. Another one is meetup.com, they have a list of all sorts of meet ups from anything like people who like grilled cheese to photographing architecture/nudes. They have meetups all over the world.
Hope this helps. If you need more info, let me know.
Vinnie