It's been a little over six months since I launched the Start Right Here Podcast and I have had 27 guests who have dropped gem after gem. So to celebrate this milestone, I have gathered some key insights on breaking into the business, using transferrable skills, lateral moves, counteroffers, accessing opportunities, flexibility, advocacy, and knowing when it is time to leave a job. All this advice from accomplished Black women who work in beauty or related industries. Check out this show and you...
Feb 04, 2021•45 min•Season 1Ep. 28
When Shekela Joseph got her first job as a cashier at Sephora, she was excited; however, hair had always been her thing. But her colleagues saw something different, they saw Shekela's face as a canvas, and they wanted to use her as their model time and time again. Along the way, she picked up the skills and moved to a beauty advisor role and was so proficient that she was recruited as a beauty educator for Too Faced Cosmetics . In this role, Shekela traveled to more than a dozen stores in the NY...
Jan 28, 2021•28 min•Season 1Ep. 27
Marti Moore really wanted to be a painter, but as she graduated college, her mother told her she needed a job. She landed a position in the management program at Macy's and moved up from department manager to the buying department, and her connection with beauty took off. Marti's fondly remembers her early days, where she bought legacy lines that included Flori Roberts, Lancōme, and Fashion Fair. She quickly realized her next position as a buyer for a chain drug retailer was not for her and work...
Jan 21, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 26
Eunice Cofie-Obeng wasn't thinking about a career in beauty until she had a chemistry class in college in which the professor taught her and her classmates to formulate a chemical relaxer and other beauty products. With her interests piqued, she wanted to know and do more. And skincare became her focus. In fact, Eunice had the idea for the Nuekie product line more than a decade ago. While she honed her skills as a cosmetic chemist and entrepreneur, Eunice took on jobs that helped her further her...
Jan 14, 2021•35 min•Season 1Ep. 25
Monae Everett initially became a hairstylist because she didn't believe in being broke in college. But afterward, she set her sights on becoming a celebrity hairstylist before she understood what would be required of her. Once she discovered that she needed to learn more about hair and the industry, she secured a salon at a chain salon in Virginia, where she mastered the art of doing every hair texture. Later she moved to another salon where she became its manager. Along the way, she also became...
Dec 18, 2020•36 min•Season 1Ep. 24
On our second special Men's Edition, Corynne Corbett welcomes Mezei Jefferson, Assistant Vice President, Education Curriculum, ACCESS, and Digital Content for L'Oréal's Professional division. Although Mezei grew up around the industry because his grandparents owned a salon, being a hairstylist wasn't his initial career ambition. Mezei wanted to be a rock star (although he neither sang nor played an instrument). After his father convinced him of the impracticality of that goal, Mezei enrolled in ...
Dec 10, 2020•50 min•Season 1Ep. 23
If you asked Kimberly Smith, founder of Marjani and co-founder of the Brown Girl Beauty Co-op in Washington D.C., about pursuing a career in beauty, she might have once told you that wasn't in the cards. However, a local Sephora trip, where she found not one contour product suitable for her medium brown skin tone, changed her perspective. Before that trip, Kimberly was firmly ensconced in her career as a lawyer, focused on healthcare compliance. But that visit set her out on a new path, where sh...
Dec 03, 2020•47 min•Season 1Ep. 22
Beauty wasn't on Dorian Morris' mind as a career but she got a taste of the industry early when she worked with the fragrance buyer at Robinson-May. But she didn't think about it again until she'd already worked as a planner at Macy's, obtained an MBA from Harvard Business School, and done a stint working in brand management at CPG behemoth General Mills. Dorian chats with us about how she found similarities between working in food and beauty when she landed a job at Kendo, the brand incubator f...
Nov 27, 2020•54 min•Season 1Ep. 21
Tasha Turner thought that she would have a career in fashion, especially after she landed her first job as a booker at Elite Runway. But editorial came calling. She was the first Black editorial hire at Town & Country, working as an assistant in the beauty and accessories departments, but while she learned to be an editor there she knew that it wasn't her long-term home. It was at her next job, at Vibe where she again worked in beauty and accessories that she found her happy place. There she...
Nov 20, 2020•52 min•Season 1Ep. 20
Ron Robinson's mother wanted all of her sons to be doctors. Ron, who is now the Founder and CEO of BeautyStat Cosmetics, went as far as attending medical school before he decided it wasn't for him. Putting his background in chemistry to work he landed a job at Clinique and one of the first products he helped to formulate was their Turnaround products. From there he moved to mass brand Revlon and later Avon. Each job brought him closer to understanding the consumer. During the early days of socia...
Nov 12, 2020•34 min•Season 1Ep. 19
Dixie Lincoln-Nichols learned about natural beauty ingredients at about five-years-old from her grandmother in Trinidad. But accessing that knowledge came much late, following a brief career as a biology teacher. After a diagnosis of uterine fibroids and an encounter with an insensitive doctor, Dixie started exploring ways to heal herself naturally. She saw an opportunity to bring toxicant-free beauty, wellness, and home products to a multicultural audience. She launched Inside Outer Beauty Mark...
Nov 05, 2020•37 min•Season 1Ep. 18
Patrice Yursik was already a pint-size beauty aficionado at 8-years-old when she worked at a boutique in her native Trinidad. But writing also called her and eventually she was able to merge her two interests when she launched one of the first natural hair beauty blogs, Afrobella, in 2006. Patrice explains how she not only learned tech to build her blog but how she built a community pre-Twitter and IG. Patrice explains how she leveraged the business opportunities that came her way, and how she f...
Oct 29, 2020•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 17
Meloney Moore, associate chair of The Business of Beauty and Fragrance department at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), joins this week's podcast to discuss how leveraged her experiences at fashion brand Liz Claiborne, to Toys 'R Us, to spirits company Diageo, to break into beauty at the Estee Lauder Companies. She tells us why global marketing is a lot like being the Secretary of State. We discuss how her interest in education, which started as a volunteer pursuit, morphed into a fu...
Oct 22, 2020•33 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Ni'Kita Wilson has always loved science. She thought she'd become a doctor, but a summer program where she got to shadow MDs as she studied for the MCATs made her realize she didn't have the passion for it. But she stayed with science and when into forensics straight out of college, Quickly realizing that this was the wrong job for her, Ni'Kita started looking for other work and stumbled upon cosmetic chemistry when she landed a job at a consulting company that formulated in every category of be...
Oct 15, 2020•38 min•Season 1Ep. 15
Tomasina aka "Tommy" Boone thought she was going to be a broadcast journalist but ended up becoming a hospital auditor instead after graduating college. When she found her first job in advertising sales at The Nation , she found a more compelling use for her analytical skills. But it was when she began working at Jet that beauty became part of her career. Tommy found her niche and went on to roles at Hype Hai r and Essence . When she moved abroad 13 years ago, Tommy unexpectantly became an entre...
Oct 08, 2020•36 min•Season 1Ep. 14
If it weren't for an injury she sustained, Andrea Fairweather would have been a performer. But her current business, Fairweather Faces, the mobile beauty service platform, started more than 20 years ago, was an idea she put together for one of her college classes. After the class was over, her professor suggested she pursued the idea. Before she embarked on that adventure, she first learned makeup artistry and worked for many well-known brands, including Clinique and Bobbi Brown. In addition to ...
Oct 01, 2020•45 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Kim Roxie spent hours studying the piano, but although she didn't make music her career, she has called on that discipline in her work as a beauty entrepreneur. Kim founded Lamik Beauty, a clean beauty brand for women of color, and opened her first store in Houston, TX, shortly after graduating from college. With the odds stacked against her, Kim relied on her ability to connect with women, her belief in a new category of beauty, and her faith to succeed. But then her dream expanded and decided ...
Sep 24, 2020•48 min•Season 1Ep. 12
If you asked Ukachi Anonyuo about pursuing a career in the beauty industry as she was entering college, she would have explained that she was headed for a career playing basketball. But a year later, she was entrenched in Industrial Engineering as her major. As graduation approached, she was determined to get a job and saw a posting for a position at Del Labs. She's been hooked on the beauty industry ever since. Ukachi will explain how she landed her first job in packaging, why the fit, form, an...
Sep 17, 2020•40 min•Season 1Ep. 11
On this episode, guest Kelila Venson talks about her journey on the digital side of beauty. She always wanted to work in the industry but her original plan was to become a cosmetic chemist (she was attending Society of Cosmetic Chemist meetings as a teen). But while studying at Northwestern she found little joy in pursuing that major and more in studying Spanish and marketing. Kelila explains how an internship after graduation at the legendary brand Erno Laszlo, set her on her current path. She ...
Sep 11, 2020•37 min•Season 1Ep. 10
On this episode, I chat with the amazing Tia Williams, the only other Black woman to be a staffer in Elle magazine's beauty department in its early years. We discuss the massive collection of magazines she started at age nine, her obsession with Kevyn Aucoin and other legendary makeup artists, and how she'd obsess over makeup in the drug store. We talk about how she landed positions at some of the most prestigious print magazines, started one of the first successful beauty blogs for Black women,...
Sep 03, 2020•30 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Shenelle Mays-Smith knows that beauty has always been a destination for her. Not necessarily because she dreamed about it as a child, but because others saw her talent as early as high school. Yet, she initially set her sights on theater and it wasn't until her classmates in college were applying to graduate programs that she realized that wasn't the path for her. She discusses how she got her start, the value of relationships, why developing a thick skin is essential, and. why your talent alone...
Aug 27, 2020•22 min•Season 1Ep. 8
This episode features Integrated Marketing and Communications Strategist Trenesa Stanford-Danuser. She started her career in Crisis Communications at the American Red Cross and she not only chased storms for a living but all kinds of disasters. She discusses how that background prepared her to be the level-headed one in the room when everyone else thought the sky was falling once she began working at agencies and eventually, Estee Lauder Brands. She explains the differences in working at an agen...
Aug 20, 2020•35 min•Season 1Ep. 7
On this podcast, it is important to hear perspectives on getting your start from individuals at different stages of their careers in beauty. On this episode, Corynne chats with Kourtney Pope, a social media and influencer market professional who has successfully made the pivot from fashion to beauty early in her career. Corynne and Kourtney discuss how she landed her first internship, how she has strategically used networking to advance her career, why Oprah is the reason she'll never choose bet...
Aug 13, 2020•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 6
On the latest episode, Corynne L. Corbett chats with Regina Gwynn, CEO of TresseNoire , a virtual beauty coach designed to provide custom haircare solutions for women with textured hair. They discuss how Regina moved from a job in product development at Macy's to management consultant after she received her MBA, to ultimately, entrepreneurship. Regina shares the valuable lessons learned in corporate America that she still uses today. Regina details the challenges she faced in building a tech-ena...
Aug 06, 2020•34 min•Season 1Ep. 5
In this episode of the podcast, Leslie Bethel, a 25-year veteran of the beauty industry joins host Corynne L. Corbett to discuss the critical role a retail business manager plays in a brand's success in-store. Leslie's specialty is at ground zero, at the retail counter with customers. She's worked for luxury brands that include Christian Dior, YSL Beauty, La Mer, and Laura Mercier as well as managed Blue Mercury, a brick and mortar store. Leslie discusses how she balances the needs of the retail...
Jul 30, 2020•38 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Jazmin Alvarez talks to host Corynne L. Corbett about her winding path to becoming a beauty entrepreneur. She came to NYC after graduating from college with two suitcases and $300, determined to be a model agent. Her first opportunity came from Ford Model Management on the men's board and she turned it down in favor of an internship at another agency. When that opportunity didn't pan out as hoped, Alvarez went back to Ford and asked if they would consider her for the men's board again. This is j...
Jul 23, 2020•41 min•Season 1Ep. 3
On this episode of Start Right Here, digital and editorial strategist India-Jewel Jackson talks about her journey from print editorial to digital in its early years, how she was able to take the lessons learned there, and transition to branded content and social media. She shares the value of internships as well as choosing the right university and offers advice for those studying on communication and journalism tracks. Jackson also tells us how she landed a job abroad and the critical differenc...
Jul 16, 2020•33 min•Season 1Ep. 2
In the premiere episode of the podcast, host Corynne L. Corbett chats with Karen Chambers, executive director of Iman Cosmetics about her career journey. Chambers will share how she went from being a communication major to beauty retail and how she combined ambition and passion to learn brand and product development. She will share the invaluable lessons she learned along the way including the importance of showing up on time and flexibility in the ever-changing beauty landscape.
Jul 13, 2020•34 min•Season 1Ep. 1
