Podcasts about sabbatical beauty

Adeline Koh is the Founder and CEO, and she started Sabbatical Beauty while on academic sabbatical because she was frustrated with the beauty products on the market. Many generic products loudly proclaim their "active" ingredients on their packaging, but these actives only make up a tiny percentage of ingredients. Inspired by the DIY beauty scene, she decided to start making her own skincare. We talked about what inspired Adeline to create a political skincare line and how her years in academia influenced her decision to start anew. Adeline talked about how beauty is rooted in social and political inequities and why self-care is so important to have the strength to defend and fight for a thriving democracy. There is so much good stuff in this interview and keep in mind, men use skincare! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We all want to do our part to change the world, and little changes add up. But sometimes we get inspired to pivot and make a big change… and that's what today's episode is all about! After a dive into the news (seriously, how is there so much breaking news every week?), Amanda, Jasmine, and Rachel are joined by Jill Jonassen. Jill creates videos and hosts Twitter Lives for Red Wine & Blue, but she didn't always work in politics. After Trump's election, she went on a journey that started with getting more involved with school boards and brought her to the work she does today. You can read Jill's Op-Ed here and learn more about her Live conversations here.And after that, Amanda sits down for a chat with Adeline Koh. While on sabbatical from her job as a race and gender studies professor, Adeline started a beauty company called Sabbatical Beauty. Like Jill, she was nervous to quit her job and start something new, but she knew she wanted to dedicate her work to the causes she believes in. Sabbatical Beauty has supported many progressive causes and now they're partnering with Red Wine & Blue on their “Beauty Is Political” line.Finally, Amanda, Rachel and Jasmine raise a glass to unexpected but necessary conversations, husbands, Hawaii, and moms supporting moms in this episode's “Toast to Joy.”It's hard to believe, but we've recorded almost 100 episodes of The Suburban Women Problem. So to celebrate, we're hosting a live virtual event with our very first guest, rockstar historian Heather Cox Richardson! The event will be happening on Monday May 15th and you can purchase pre-sale tickets here.For a transcript of this episode, please email theswppod@redwine.blue. You can learn more about us at www.redwine.blue or follow us on social media! Twitter: @TheSWPpod and @RedWineBlueUSA Instagram: @RedWineBlueUSA Facebook: @RedWineBlueUSA YouTube: @RedWineBlueUSA

It’s the dream of every beauty brand owner to be in Sephora. But I’m not interested in getting Sabbatical Beauty into Sephora. Let me tell you why: as a small business, it’s terribly risky. You could “make it” and it could work out great — but it could also work out terribly. The cost Getting your brand into Sephora requires a tremendous amount of sunk costs. You need to pay to play. A modest footprint in Sephora is going to cost you $100,000 a year more or less, with that money going to store fixtures, design fees, products for associates, product testers, money for gifts to suck up to the associates so they’ll want to sell your product. And that’s just on the low end of the spectrum. So your $100,000 per year isn’t even going to be all that effective. I would rather spend that money to pay myself or my people more, to go on a company retreat, or so many other things. I can spend it on my community, or on advertising. In short, I can use that money to create a better experience for everyone involved with Sabbatical Beauty. The relationship The second reason why I think this is a risky thing to do is because you aren’t building a direct relationship with your customer. Your customer is building their relationship with Sephora. Also consider that when you sell to Sephora, they’re going to want you to sell at the wholesale level, eating up 50% —or even up to 70%! — of your profits. And if they don’t sell all your products, they’re going to want you to buy them back or else put your brand on a fire sale. You have very little control over this relationship as well. A revolution We have a real chance to change the beauty industry if we don’t want it to be dominated by big box techniques in the future. How? Through a spirit of cooperation, sharing, and openness. We’re going to do that with the Homebrew Beauty Revolution. If you haven’t heard about the Homebrew Beauty Revolution, I’m going to start teaching you how to make Sabbatical Beauty products: where to buy the products, the science behind the formulations, everything. I want to empower you. Join the Homebrew Beauty Revolution.

Big business marketing dogma: you can’t mix business and politics — and still make money. Oh yeah? Last week, I talked about my Homebrew Beauty experiment and how I decided that there’s more money to be made in sharing rather than keeping things secret. Here’s how I’m going to test this premise: By monitoring how many organic leads I attract by using my ideal customer profile to design my marketing. Let’s break the concepts down. Organic leads are people who find my content, like it, interact with it, and get on my email list My Ideal Customer Profile or the Ideal Customer Avatar is the ideal customer I have in mind Content Marketing means generating social media posts, blog posts, videos, and other content to help solve your Ideal Customer Profile’s problem and attract them to you. My Avatar: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez From her New Green Deal to her amazing bullshit detector, her ability to stand up and confront injustice, and shutting up Republicans who are complaining about her paying her staff a living wage — these are all the things I want in my ideal customer. Someone who prioritizes human beings over profit. So this is the experiment If I radically prioritize human beings over seeking profits, will we make money? Let’s find out together. To follow along: Subscribe to this podcast Join the Sabbatical Beauty email list Join our Sabbatical Beauty Facebook Group I can’t wait, can you?

A beauty brand that’s not only going to give you the recipes for its best products — but show you how you can make them yourself, down to where to buy all the ingredients? That’s what I’m doing at Sabbatical Beauty, and that’s how I’m starting the Sabbatical Beauty Craft Skincare Revolution. The controversy In 2016, I got a lot of crap from the US Korean beauty bloggers who accused Sabbatical Beauty of stealing a recipe. It’s obviously completely false, as the ingredient lists for the two products are completely different, but that fake news has been dogging me ever since. It won’t stop following Sabbatical Beauty around, and it’s gotten on my nerves. So I’m doing something about it. Complete transparency I’m going to show all these people how wrong they are because I’m developing my new Sabbatical Beauty product in public. You are going to have the recipe for my brand new product and know exactly how to make it. Why?  I want to empower you. I want you to know what works on your skin, why ingredients are chosen, and whether a product is worth its price. Revolutionizing the beauty industry together I don’t want the beauty industry to be another industry where everything is a secret and we’re suspicious of one another. I want to empower you to start your own skincare company if you want to, and I’ll support you! To get started, sign up for my free webinar training series called “Luxury Skincare: Is It Worth The Cost?” You’ll learn how to read an ingredients list like a professor so you no longer feel lost in Sephora, trying to figure out if the rep is trying to hard sell you. You’ll know for yourself if the product is worth it or not, and whether they’re taking you for a ride! If you want to make your own products for your hypersensitive and reactive skin that nothing has worked on before, then you’re in the right place at the right time. After the webinar series, I’m releasing the product with product kits to make the products, and videos so you can follow along. It’s going to be amazing, and you and I are going to be the ones to change the beauty industry together.

Thinking about starting your own side hustle? Take it from the Side Hustle Queen herself, Marissa Rhoades: a stay-at-home mom of five who is a freelance makeup artist, does SEO for local businesses, and has been with Sabbatical Beauty for about two years. Here’s what she’s learned from all of the hustling, and her best advice for anyone who wants to start their own side hustle. Julie's successful side hustles: Jewelry making. She didn’t have too many friends (or cable) after her second child was born so she spent her time on a forum for handmade crafters. She saw that people were creating guitar pick earrings, so she created her own using special limited edition guitar picks, spending $5 and making $50 in return. Freelance makeup artist. She had been working in retail cosmetics for a long time until she finally got to her goal: working at MAC. It was great exposure and opened the door to people asking her to do makeup for weddings and photoshoots. Search Engine Optimization, or helping people rank on Google searches. She began by helping her husband, who does SEO, whenever he’d run out of bandwidth. When she created her site for her makeup artistry, she ranked in the top three within three months, and so decided to offer her own SEO services for small local brick and mortars. She’s a strong supporter of mom and pops, and likes that she’s serving the community by helping small businesses rank. Event planning. Because of her makeup work, Marissa was very close with the art community. She wanted to start a company that hosted events showcasing local artists that also benefited local charities. Their first event benefitted InterAct, and was praised by an attendee as on par with a New York Fashion Week show they had attended. Things you should know about side hustles: Don’t go into business with your friends. But if you do, clearly establish who’s boss, otherwise everyone will think they’re a boss. Family time is more precious than doing your work for cheap. You have to choose what’s more important: your personal time, or doing work for less than your value just to build up a portfolio. Keep up with trends, because you have to stay relevant. It’s just as important as having a classic staple product that people need. Customers and clients are what keep you afloat. Never stop networking or marketing to new people.  Stand your ground and trust your instincts. If you feel in your heart that you have an excellent product or idea, stick with it (but still do your research). How Boss Foundations has helped Julie succeed: Marissa has learned to set work boundaries and mentally clock out. Her day is hectic with five kids, so while she doesn’t keep a daily routine, she does have “mini-routines” and rituals for her tasks, like her example for writing copy. One very helpful thing was learning how to break down her tasks into smaller tasks, so you can set yourself up for a bunch of smaller wins during the day and build momentum. Julie's advice for side hustlers: Do the Boss Foundations Masterclasses. They help you avoid making amateur mistakes and give you the shortcut instead of you losing more time and money to trial and error. Be gentle with yourself. Don’t worry about what other people are saying. If you’re doing the best that you can without sacrificing yourself and your personal time and striving for your dreams and aspirations, then you're doing good enough. Resources Marissa Rhoades (LinkedIn) InterAct

Why does learning matter? A lot of people feel ashamed about learning, especially when it doesn’t come easily. But instead of feeling ashamed, I have learned shamelessly, and it’s been absolutely life-changing and one of the foundational pillars of my success. Here’s how to do it, and the impact it can make in your life. My story It may seem that learning was always a big part of my life because I was a full-fledged academic until I quit my tenured professor position in 2017 to run Sabbatical Beauty full-time. But learning and intelligence were a source of shame for me when I was growing up. I grew up in Singapore, where education is extremely socially important, and the educational system is rigorous and punitive. At 12, all Singapore students need to take a national exam that ranks you and determines how competitive a school you’re allowed to attend and is seen as a mark of who you’re going to be in the future. I did terribly. I couldn’t continue in my prestigious school, and was socially shunned and disapproved of. It was a hurtful experience, and the trauma of that is what led me later on to pursue a PhD, just to show to the system that shamed me that I was intelligent and could still be successful. From learning = shame, to shamelessly learning When I decided I was going to learn shamelessly instead of feeling ashamed, I started to branch out into learning many different things... things I was actually really bad at! But I developed a thick skin about it and stuck with it until I became somewhat competent (like, for example, dance-inspired exercise classes!). Being okay with being poor at something — and not being afraid of appearing that way to others — is what I mean by learning shamelessly. Shame once kept me from learning. But the thirst for knowledge kept me going. I learn I could make mistakes, make blunders, forget, relearn everything, zone out, refocus, try again, keep at it. All of this is normal. What’s not normal is powering through the discomfort — that’s what will make you stand out from everyone else. How to learn as quickly as possible This technique is called active note-taking. Make sure you always take notes when you’re learning something, because just the act of doing so makes sure you’re engaged with the material. When you’re taking notes, don’t write everything down. Listen for: The main points The secondary points that support the main point Examples that illustrate these points Then, as soon as you’re done, write a summary of what you’ve learned in complete sentences, as if you were teaching it to a friend. This technique of active note-taking helps you (1) effectively remember what you’ve learned and (2) figure out the gaps in your knowledge. I want to hear from you Join the Sabbatical Beauty Facebook Group and share your experiences with active note-taking! I can’t wait to see you start learning shamelessly. Resources Sabbatical Beauty Facebook Group Sabbatical Beauty Episode Guide

Smell ya later! Shaun and Wailin are taking off the month of August. Before they left, they interviewed three business owners about sabbaticals. In this episode: Adeline Koh of Sabbatical Beauty shares the story of how she ended up starting a business while on leave from a different job; Jason Fried explains why Basecamp offers paid sabbaticals as an employee benefit; and Rachel Winard of Soapwalla talks about what it's like to go on sabbatical when you're the boss.

How can we think about skincare as a way to care for ourselves rather than fixing imperfections? How can we reimagine beauty routines as community building practices? What does it mean to create a company grounded in intersectional feminist principles? In episode 49 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach interviews Adeline Koh about her journey from tenured English professor to entrepreneur, how she puts her postcolonial feminist training to work at her company Sabbatical Beauty, and the challenges and surprises of settling into a new life as a business owner. Transcript and show notes: https://ideasonfire.net/49-adeline-koh