February 10, 2021 • 27 mins
Marianna Hewitt was one of the first major beauty influencers, first on YouTube, and then Instagram—and now, she’s leveraged feedback from her community to create the cult-favorite skincare line, Summer Fridays. This week, Marianna joins Bobbi to share the behind-the-scenes life of a successful influencer, how she and her partner started Summer Fridays with just one product, and why there’s beauty in simplicity.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Beyond the Beauty is a production of I Heart Radio.
I'm your host, Bobby Brown. I first heard about Marianna
Hewett through her Summer Friday's launch. I didn't know who
she was before, and when I saw the products and
kind of checked out who she was, I thought, Wow,
(00:24):
this is a cool girl, and we kept in touch
and she asked me to be on our podcast, which
I was so happy to one of her first guests,
and I'm really looking forward to asking her what it's
like being an influencer, having a brand, and how she
gets it all done. So here's my conversation with Marianna Hewett. Hi, Marianna,
(00:45):
how are you? I'm good? How are you good? Last night?
I made the date sweets that I saw your Instagram
last night. They were so good. They're so good. I
am not really a great cook, to be honest, but
I just wanted like a snack, and I was like,
I may as well show this on Instagram because people
are loving reels right now, and I feel like a
(01:06):
lot of people are having like released stagnant growth, and
people are really growing a lot the more frequently they
post on real. So I was like, I'm just gonna
throw this up and see what happen. Well, it was
honestly really good. It was perfect timing. I wanted something sweet.
I don't want to eat a cookie. And so for
those guys that are listening, it's basically tell tell us
what's in the date. It's so easy to make a date.
(01:26):
Hitted put it in the microwave for like fifteen seconds.
Almond butter, uh, sliced banana and cinnamon. Delicious. I mean
it was so silly, simple and delicious and it worked perfectly.
So thank you. Keep those coming. So, um, we've just
met each other recently. I've I've I've been in awe
of your product line. My kids love the products, the
(01:51):
girl not the boys, the girl friends, the fiances, and
I'm a really big fan. But I want to understand
how you even started Friday. It's like like take me back,
like what was what would things like for you? So
I've been living I guess my life on the internet
since two thousand twelve. Um, that's when I started my
YouTube channel. And I always had a love and passion
(02:12):
for beauty products and from years of posting product online,
every time I would post something, people would say, is
this cruelty free? As this vegan, is it safe for
all skin types, or this product is too expensive, And
so accidentally we had all of this data for so
many years of what my followers online we're shopping for.
And so for me, when my skin looks good, I
(02:32):
feel my most confident and I wear less makeup when
my skin looks its best. When my skin looks good,
it's like the perfect skin prep for everything else. And
so my partner Lauren and I dreamed up Summer Fridays,
which is our product line, and we really wanted to
start with one hero product and really, at the time
a lot of brands weren't launching was only one product
because it's high risk, high reward um. But it's very
risky because if you don't succeed with your first product,
(02:55):
that could really be the end of your business. If
you put all of your money into this thing and
you don't have a second product come out for a
long time and it's not working, it's definitely really hard,
but we felt so confident in it. So jet Lag
Mask was our firstborn. It's multi use moisturizer, overnight mask,
hand cream, I cream um And then in a time
when a lot of products on Instagram were like kind
of like that millennial pink color and everything was kind
(03:16):
of looking the same. We had picked a bright blue
tube and really that made it stand out in a
sea of products online um and helped a lot of
the brand recognition at the you know, in the earlier days,
start before that, start before that. Did you grow up
in California? I grew up in Ohio. Um, so that's
where I'm from the Midwest. I was born in Germany.
(03:37):
My parents worked for the government, so we moved around
from Germany to California to Ohio. So that's really where
I was raised and I lived there with my dad,
and my mom lived in Europe, so I would go
back and forth. So at the very early days, my
really like my introduction to beauty. My dad would take
me to the beauty counters at department stores and he
would say, here's my daughter. I don't know how to
(03:59):
tell her how to do her make up, so can
you please help her? And I always really trusted the women,
the saleswomen, as my you know, guidance and beauty of
what to buy, what their recommendations were, and how to
use product. And so I feel like I was always
learning from experts. And you know, even though I don't
work at a sales counter, I feel like I now
get to do that same kind of thing, being an influencer.
(04:20):
But you were also a TV host, Is that correct? Yes?
So growing up, I wanted to be Oprah like so
many people love her, and I felt like I had
such a passion for sharing things with people, and I
thought being a TV host was the only way to
do that. So I went to school did that. I
first was doing entertainment news, which I feel like didn't
(04:42):
really fulfill me. But I transitioned into doing fashion and
beauty news, and that's what I found. I loved because
I found with beauty and fashion you were sharing information
with an audience of things that really made them feel
more confident about themselves. It wasn't gossipy, it wasn't hurtful.
It was really like, these are great products, and if
you find them and you love them, you'll feel even
more confident in your skin or when you're going to
(05:05):
a meeting or date or whatever it is. And so
that's really where I fell in love with that. And
then when I was doing my hosting at that time,
I would post a video and people would say where's
your shirt from? Or how did you do your hair today?
Or what makeup are you wearing? And it started to
become less about the topics I was talking about and
more about myself. And so I was like, I'm going
to start a YouTube channel. And that was in two
(05:26):
thousand twelve, and that's really where my career started as
being an influencer, kind of by accident. Well, we certainly
didn't know what an influencer was back then, and really
all an influencer is is someone who has influence over
people's decisions buying all of that. So what did you
like better? Do you like? Did you like the blog better?
Do you did you like the TV better? Or and
(05:48):
didn't they work really well together? They worked really well
together because I think for beauty specifically, video content really
is king right, Like when you I can talk about
a lipstick, but if you're not seeing the swatch or
seeing the product or seeing me apply it, I can
only tell you so much um. And so I think
even if we look at social media on Instagram, product
(06:09):
shots are great, but like, really application videos is where
it's at. And so I think for beauty video really
is like the best um form of media and so
I really really enjoy that. It's just a lot of work.
So you've been called one of the very first super influencers.
So how did you know you made it? And how
does how does that terms sit with you? I don't
(06:32):
really if. I don't know if you feel like you
make it because in beauty, I guess, in in all
kinds of industries, but when you're an influencer, you compare
yourself to your co workers in a weird way with
a tangible number. So you see your number of followers,
but your co workers or people that you work within
the same industry, you also visibly see all of their
numbers too. So there's always someone bigger than you. There's
(06:54):
always somebody doing more than you. Um, So it's really
hard to know if I ever felt like I'm made it.
But once I could support myself full time financially no
longer from my former job where I could do influencer
stuff full time, I guess I was like, Okay, I'm
really doing this. And my parents were much older. My
mom is seventy, my dad is in his eighties. So
explaining to them that I was doing this job full time,
(07:15):
they were like, you're posting stuff on the internet. This
is not why you went to college. And now they're
like so supportive of it. Um and then the word
super influencer. It's it's a very funny thing, and it's
so nice to be called that, because I do think
I was at the earlier stage of you know, when
influencers started, before it was really known as a career.
(07:35):
Because I think now people see influencers and they say,
I want to be an influencer as a job, so
they're aspiring for that career. But at the time when
I started, in so many of my close friends, we
didn't know that it was going to become what it
is today. We didn't know that it could be a
full time job. We really did it out of passion
of like loving product and loving sharing stuff with people,
and so it's a very nice thing to be gone.
(07:57):
It's just the kind of funny. Well, I think it
was about five years of you being an influencer and
growing your personal brand and that brand until you started
the cosmetics companies that correct. Yeah, So I launched my
YouTube channel in two thousand twelve, and then in two
thousand sixteen, my business partner Lauren and I came up
with the idea for summer Fridays didn't have a name
yet at that time, but that we wanted a skincare company.
(08:19):
And we didn't launch until two thousand eighteen. So by
the time we launched, I'd been online for six years,
So that's six years of really building trust with my
community online um and really talking about products for so long.
So when I launched something, they knew it was genuine.
Because I think a lot of people now are randomly
starting companies and it seems like which is fine if
(08:39):
it's a business idea for you. But I think if
you're just doing something just to do it, and you've
never talked about this topic before, or you're not really
passionate about it, the inauthenticity will not carry you for
a very long time. So I think if you're starting
a business, you need to really truly be passionate about it,
and if you're leveraging your community online to do it,
I hope that it's something that you've been passionate about
in genuine be sharing for a very long time. Business partner.
(09:02):
Was she a friend? Did she have things you didn't have?
What made her your partner? So we've been friends for
ten years and we have a very similar career path. Um,
we're both from the Midwest, we both went to school
for journalism, we both wanted to be Oprah when we
grew up, were neighbors, were libras. So I know a
lot of times people say, when you want to look
for a co founder, look for someone who has the
opposite traits of you. But for us, we have a
(09:24):
really similar skill set, but we have same in different audiences.
So when we're approaching product development and marketing, it's ultimately
the same type of customer we're going to, but with
two different points of views. And so she came really
more from like a wellness background, and so we were
looking at our clean ingredients. She was pregnant when we
were starting to work on the brand. Um, the two
(09:44):
of our expertise really helped like melt together to like
what Summer Fridays became. And so it's amazing. I'm so grateful.
But I would say to anyone looking to start a
business with a co founder, it is like a marriage. Um,
you want to know exactly what you're getting into before
you partner with Boddy. You need to know them really well.
You need to know what it's like to work together
and really think about it before you go into a
(10:06):
partnership together, because running a business together is no joke.
When you launched originally, did you launch just direct to
(10:28):
consumer or did you launch with Sephora. We did launch
with Sephora, and it was humongous with so much press,
and you sold out, So could you tell us about that?
So that was really unexpected. I mean, we felt really
confident with the product and the brand, but I don't
think we knew it would become as big as it
did as early as it did, and so, um we
(10:50):
launched in March of two thousand eighteen and shortly after
that sold out, which selling out the first time it's
it's cool, right, but then afterwards it's an issue. And
we were so small we had I think we had
one consultant and one employee at that time, and we
were trying to rush to restock because we wanted to
capitalize off of the great press, and so it was
(11:10):
kind of like ping pong for a bit. We would
have a little bit of stock on our site, then
we would sell out, and then by the time Stafora
got their shipment, they would sell out. And it went
like that for a while and we had that first
product for um almost seven months before we launched our
next launch. And do you remember what the first order was? Like?
How many did you order when you first launched? We'll
say that when we first were going to launch, we
(11:34):
had a unit number in mind. We produced those units,
sofora came on board and it like multiplied and we
were like, I don't know how we will ever sell
this many units of something, and then when we sold
out of it, it was disbelief. And we recently just
shared on our Summer Friday's Instagram that we've had we
have now over a million units sold. To think that
(11:56):
one million world more than one million times now someone
decided to pay just a product from us is mind
blowing and we can't believe it thinking about how few
we were originally producing at the beginning, and so it's
it's been so incredible and we are so grateful for
our community and our customers. And how many skews do
you have now? Oh? Now we have like six or seven,
(12:18):
So it's still a pretty small assortment that you have
gotten so big and you stayed six or seven units.
Do you know how unusual that is? I think you
know coming from an influencer point of view, I get
so many products every single day. I have boxes that
come to my door. I opened them up. There's thirty
products in each box. I don't even know where to
(12:40):
begin because the assortment is just so large that I'm
overwhelmed as an influencer, I don't even know what to share.
And so that's kind of where a mentality came from
of like fewer products, fewer launches, and then a lot
of support around each launch until we could really sustain
you know, a bigger a bigger pipeline for us. And
so at the beginning, it was really easy for us
(13:02):
to manage as a small team with only you know,
two skews in our first year, and you know, we
do have to grow, so we are having more products
come out. So I'm excited for one line up, but
it's been really really helpful for us to have all
the concentration on one thing at a time. But I
do think curated brands end up doing incredibly well if
(13:22):
they're done right. So I I bet you there's going
to be a new model because you know, in the
past it's like, Okay, we need more, we need more.
The retailers want more, the customers want more, and all
of a sudden you've got, you know, fifties sixties skews,
and then you've got things laying around that you haven't sold.
So that was, you know, something that you're you're not
going to have to deal with, which is amazing. The
(13:43):
only problem with that comes is if a launch isn't
successful and you forecasted for that launch to do so well,
and then you have months that go by without a
new product launch, it cannot be great. So everything has
to be really, really, really good, and you have to
feel confident about each of those launches because if not,
you could go a whole quarter and really have a
(14:03):
decrease in sales if it's not a great launch. And
do you think being an influencer has given you any
special insights into marketing and what what is the right
thing to do for your brand? Absolutely, because I'm a salesperson, right,
That's what an influencer is. You're influencing people to either
try something, or make a date for a snack, or
(14:24):
or buy a product or go somewhere. And so I've
learned how to genuinely show a product. I've learned how
to speak about talking points, not in a marketing type
of way, but as a friend type of way. And
it's like the modern day Avon Lady, right, Like she
used to come to your house, talk to you like
a friend, sell you these products. And that's really what
we're all doing now in our own way, and so
(14:46):
it's so helpful. And then I think being an influencer,
we share product online and we really know how to
photograph it and speak about it, and so that really
helped with like the aesthetic part of the branding, because
we wanted photogenic packaging that looked good on Instagram that
people wanted to share. Because I used to receive product
that I love so much and I didn't love the packaging,
so I didn't want to post it on my Instagram.
(15:07):
And that's so so important. That's why with your brand,
I love the packaging. It stands out so well. The
brand name is so easy to see. I love the
black and white, and so I feel like packaging is
so important because especially now, if people aren't shopping in store,
the only way they're saying product is online, So you've
got to get them with imagery and with the video,
or else they're never even going to get to the
(15:27):
chance to to order or sample or try and store.
And and I am someone that doesn't do paid influence influencers.
You know, I call them my fobs, friends of Bobby
I sent to do you do? Do you pay influencers
or is it just your friends? We do UM, So
we pay people because I say, you know, Lauren and
I are both influencers, and we really value the job
(15:50):
that we have, and we know how much UM value
you can bring to other brands. And so if we
say we value our job as influencers for other people,
why would we not value that job for our own company?
And I could pay X amount of dollars for a
Billboard or a magazine ad. I have no sense of tracking.
I don't know what kind of return I got on that.
(16:10):
But if I spend money with an influencer, I'm getting
content in return. I have some sort of tracking. I
can give them a bit Lee tracking link to see
how many swipe ups they had, how many clicks they had.
If you give somebody a promotional code, you can see
how many sales they you know, converted on your website.
So there's so much more data that you can have
when you're working with an influencer, and so it is
(16:30):
something that we wanted to do and you know, really
increasing that with our spend and influencer marketing, especially as
we're not able to use that marketing budget on in
person events right now and then? And what about you?
How do you decide who you should, you know, work for,
because you must get constantly requested. I'm pretty selective. I
would say I turned down at least, if not more,
(16:55):
of the jobs that come my way. Um, either it's
not a fit, or it's a competitive brand or product,
or I don't think it will resonate with my audience.
I have been doing this so long now I have
a pretty good sense of what my audience wants to buy.
And a lot of times a brand will come to
me and it's a lot of money, but I'm like,
I don't think my followers will buy this product, and
so I'm doing you a disservice. And you have to
(17:15):
be really honest with the brand. If you don't think
you can deliver, don't work with them and disappoint them.
And so I'll turn down jobs if I don't think
it's the right fit for my audience. And um, now
it's there's so much more you can do with Instagram
stories so it doesn't have to live on your feed.
So I'm able to do a lot more work. And um,
I still love doing it, and so that's why I'm
still doing influencer work. Plus summer fridays. How do you
(17:51):
tell someone that you don't want to post their face
and you get so much in the mail? Do you?
How do you decide what to post and what not
to pose? So in brands and people reach out to
me for gifting, I'll just email back and say, like,
I politely decline, I'm so overwhelmed with product. If I
don't think I'm going to share it or use it,
I don't want to take it away from you. You
(18:11):
could give this to somebody else. And most people respond
back and say like, thank you so much for your honesty.
It's not that I don't like the product, it's just
like I can't use that. I have so many things
I don't want to be wasteful, and like I'm living
at home, working from home right now, I can't have
so much clutter here. Um, and then as far as
like not passing on working for brands, I do have
a manager, so any like brand deals goes to my agency.
(18:32):
They bring me the offers, and if it doesn't work
for me, they have an amazing roster of talent and
so they can pass it on to somebody else who
may be a better fit, and so they kind of
handle all of that well. I can't even imagine how
much you have, because I get so much sent to
my office, and you know, truthfully, I keep very little
of it. I share with the girls in my office,
I share with my daughter in laws. I'm pretty minimalistic
(18:53):
when it comes to what I use. And then I
donate a bunch of it too, uh A. Families that
have of girls in school and you know, can't really
afford makeup. What do you do with yours? I donate
it um But because of COVID, a lot of the
places in l A that I usually donate to they
are not accepting donations right now. So it's kind of
all piling up at the office. I bring a basket
(19:14):
over there and keep it there, and it's also like
a great job perk of hopefully when we go back
to the office eventually there's a table and any of
the girls that work for us are like free to
take those products and they make for great holiday gifts,
so everyone's getting lots of beauty products from me. And
what do you think is the best advice you got
when starting summer Fridays. The best advice I got was
(19:34):
celebrate the moments along the way, because things move so
quickly that you're almost forgetting when they happen that these
things are big because you get so used to things
right Like now, I still pinch myself when I walk
into a staffour and see our products, but nothing is
like that first time when I went in, I saw
it was sold out, so I didn't actually see the product.
(19:54):
It was just like our brand name. But I still
was like crying in store because I couldn't believe it
was possible. And so the those moments along the way,
all those tiny things, even small winds, like really remembering
and celebrating those moments, because there's a lot of hard
times and a lot of hard moments when you're running
a business, and really, you know, celebrating those moments not
only with yourself but with your team it's so special
(20:16):
and so I have to like consciously like remember and
tell myself like, Okay, this is a big deal what
we did today, Like we worked so hard for this, like,
let's all celebrate with this and not just like move
on too quickly and you any plans to expand categories
like makeup for example. Um, you know, being beauty influencers
were not just you know, if you're a hairstylist and
you come out with a hair caroline, it makes sense
(20:38):
to stay in hair. But because we're beauty influencers, we've
talked about so many categories, you know, throughout the years,
from hair care, body care, makeup, son all of the things.
So our community online we have a really close relationship
with them and they're always asking us for new things.
So we definitely have some things that are in the works,
but we will see you and they actually launch. Okay,
(20:59):
And so what do you think is next for for
the brand? And then what is next for you? So
what's next for the brand? We have a really incredible
lineup for one that we are so excited about. Uh So,
I can't wait for these things to come out next year.
And we have such an incredible team of employees now
and so now we have really a proper marketing team
(21:19):
to help support these things, and so very excited for that. Um.
And then for me personally, I launched a podcast. You're
John loved loved the experience, and You've done a phenomenal
job promoting it, and I've listened to a bunch of them.
You're very good at it. Thank you. I'm so glad
that you're on. People loved your episode and so that's
been really great for me because I feel like I
(21:40):
have such a great network of friends of people, and
not everyone has access to people who they can learn from.
And so if I can share my network of friends
and the questions that I want to know or the
questions my followers want, it's such a great way to
give back and inspire people, especially in the new year.
And I think especially with this year, so many people
are thinking about their careers, what they want to do
in the future, what's important to them, and so if
(22:02):
this can inspire someone or motivate somebody, I really really
love it because thinking back to the days of TV hosting,
it's another way of communicating and sharing things with an audience,
and I feel really fulfilled from it, and so I'm
really really enjoying it. And then influencer life, We'll see
you know, like um, we were still spending and influencer marketing.
This year, but a lot of brands cut back and um,
(22:24):
a lot of brands didn't have the budgets that they
used to this year. So as an influencer, you know,
our jobs changed a lot this year. We had to
become more creative in our projects what we did. And so, um,
I'm hopeful for next year because a lot of my
friends had a really tough year, you know, financially, because
a lot of the jobs that they used to work
they weren't able to do them. And so hopefully a
(22:44):
lot of brands will come back strong next year. Well,
this podcast is called Beyond the Beauty, and so I
always ask everyone the same simple question, which is what
is beauty mean to you? To me, it's really all
about whatever makes you look good and feel good. And
I know that you've talked before about like not really
following beauty trends, but like less is more and whatever
(23:04):
works for you. So if no makeup makeup is good
for you, or a full glam look or whatever it
is that makes you feel your most confident, do you
don't follow trends, do whatever it is that makes you
feel good. Because for me, some days bear skin. I
feel my best when my skin is looking good. And
another time I want like a full face of makeup
and a lash and the contour and all the things,
(23:25):
And that's when I feel my best. And so I
think with beauty, you can be so many things, you
can try so many looks, and whatever I'm feeling that
day is what makes me feel my most confident, which
makes me feel beautiful. What's your everyday skincare routine? Everyday
skincare um summer Fridays see see me. Serum in the
morning is incredible. It's for hyper pigmentation and dark spots.
(23:46):
I fill up with moisturizer SPF every single day. Um,
that's pretty much it. I've been pretty like minimal makeup
in quarantine. I love Armandi Beauty Luminous silk foundation is
like the best. I love the Jones Road Miracle Bomb.
It's so pretty. I just like apply it to my
cheeks a little bit to my lips like an all
over flush of color. I love, love, love creamy products
(24:07):
and like those things enough are alone for me to
like look okay on zoom And what's the most recent
beauty purchase? What did you actually spend money out the
most recent beauty purchase. I'm looking behind me to see
what all my counter um I so I'm trying to think. Oh,
(24:29):
I bought a new um cokey coke. I think that's
how you say it. It's like a summary scent. I
love fragrance, and I'm always like spraying things on me
and they have like a summary coconut smell. So I
just bought it. So anything that smells like summary and sweet,
kind of like that summer Friday's feeling I love. And
so fragrance is one of the things even though no
(24:50):
one's really smelling me, like I'm not going anywhere, I
still I still like put it on, even for myself
at home. And what's your guilty pleasure? Oh, I love
to eat. So food is really like my like love
in life, Like I really really look forward to a
yummy meal. And I've been postmating a lot. I say
all the time. I'm not really a great cook. So
(25:12):
supporting local restaurants, ordering food to go from them, and
really food is makes me so happy. What's the most
delicious thing you eat? Not not the healthiest, but the
most delicious. Well, if I was in New York, Carbone
the spicy um penney is incredible. I have tried to
make it at home by myself. It's really not the same.
But I love a spicy Penny vodka sauce pasta is
(25:34):
just like amazing um. And then I could eat like
a whole box of Oreos by myself. And do you
have a favorite Cops pill? Um. I am honestly not
really drinking that much at home. I was really a
social drinker, like pre quarantine, Like I love to go
to events and have a glass of wine and go
to dinner and have wine. But if I'm just at
home by myself, I haven't really been drinking. And so
(25:57):
this year, my skin and my body is probably really
thanking me from giving it like a nice break. Well,
better better girl, because of it. I haven't done haven't
done that yet, but better, better, better because of it.
So I have really enjoyed talking to I've really enjoyed
seeing you. You're a doll. I'm really proud of you.
I see a lot of cool things for you in
the future. Amazing. Thank you so much, thank you for
(26:20):
having me on. And again, I am so thankful that
you came on my podcast. People love the episode and
I keep seeing them tagging you and stuff, and so
I really appreciate it, and I appreciate really what you
do for all aspiring beauty entrepreneurs and people who are
starting out of the industry. I said it when you
came on my podcast. You really paved the way for
women and beauty and myself and so many people are
(26:40):
thankful for what you did for so many of us. Well,
anytime you've got myself, you can d M me and
tell everyone who's listening where they can hear your podcast,
where they could find you. All of that. You can
follow me at Marianna Underscore, Hewitt m A R I
A N n A Underscore, h T W I T
T and my podcast is Life with Marianna. Thank you
(27:02):
so much, Thank you Wealthy, and I will see you
as soon as this is over. I take care. For
more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the I heart
Radio app Apple podcast wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Beyond the Beauty is a production of I Heart Radio.
I'm your host, Bobby Brown. I first heard about Marianna
Hewett through her Summer Friday's launch. I didn't know who
she was before, and when I saw the products and
kind of checked out who she was, I thought, Wow,
(00:24):
this is a cool girl, and we kept in touch
and she asked me to be on our podcast, which
I was so happy to one of her first guests,
and I'm really looking forward to asking her what it's
like being an influencer, having a brand, and how she
gets it all done. So here's my conversation with Marianna Hewett. Hi, Marianna,
(00:45):
how are you? I'm good? How are you good? Last night?
I made the date sweets that I saw your Instagram
last night. They were so good. They're so good. I
am not really a great cook, to be honest, but
I just wanted like a snack, and I was like,
I may as well show this on Instagram because people
are loving reels right now, and I feel like a
(01:06):
lot of people are having like released stagnant growth, and
people are really growing a lot the more frequently they
post on real. So I was like, I'm just gonna
throw this up and see what happen. Well, it was
honestly really good. It was perfect timing. I wanted something sweet.
I don't want to eat a cookie. And so for
those guys that are listening, it's basically tell tell us
what's in the date. It's so easy to make a date.
(01:26):
Hitted put it in the microwave for like fifteen seconds.
Almond butter, uh, sliced banana and cinnamon. Delicious. I mean
it was so silly, simple and delicious and it worked perfectly.
So thank you. Keep those coming. So, um, we've just
met each other recently. I've I've I've been in awe
of your product line. My kids love the products, the
(01:51):
girl not the boys, the girl friends, the fiances, and
I'm a really big fan. But I want to understand
how you even started Friday. It's like like take me back,
like what was what would things like for you? So
I've been living I guess my life on the internet
since two thousand twelve. Um, that's when I started my
YouTube channel. And I always had a love and passion
(02:12):
for beauty products and from years of posting product online,
every time I would post something, people would say, is
this cruelty free? As this vegan, is it safe for
all skin types, or this product is too expensive, And
so accidentally we had all of this data for so
many years of what my followers online we're shopping for.
And so for me, when my skin looks good, I
(02:32):
feel my most confident and I wear less makeup when
my skin looks its best. When my skin looks good,
it's like the perfect skin prep for everything else. And
so my partner Lauren and I dreamed up Summer Fridays,
which is our product line, and we really wanted to
start with one hero product and really, at the time
a lot of brands weren't launching was only one product
because it's high risk, high reward um. But it's very
risky because if you don't succeed with your first product,
(02:55):
that could really be the end of your business. If
you put all of your money into this thing and
you don't have a second product come out for a
long time and it's not working, it's definitely really hard,
but we felt so confident in it. So jet Lag
Mask was our firstborn. It's multi use moisturizer, overnight mask,
hand cream, I cream um And then in a time
when a lot of products on Instagram were like kind
of like that millennial pink color and everything was kind
(03:16):
of looking the same. We had picked a bright blue
tube and really that made it stand out in a
sea of products online um and helped a lot of
the brand recognition at the you know, in the earlier days,
start before that, start before that. Did you grow up
in California? I grew up in Ohio. Um, so that's
where I'm from the Midwest. I was born in Germany.
(03:37):
My parents worked for the government, so we moved around
from Germany to California to Ohio. So that's really where
I was raised and I lived there with my dad,
and my mom lived in Europe, so I would go
back and forth. So at the very early days, my
really like my introduction to beauty. My dad would take
me to the beauty counters at department stores and he
would say, here's my daughter. I don't know how to
(03:59):
tell her how to do her make up, so can
you please help her? And I always really trusted the women,
the saleswomen, as my you know, guidance and beauty of
what to buy, what their recommendations were, and how to
use product. And so I feel like I was always
learning from experts. And you know, even though I don't
work at a sales counter, I feel like I now
get to do that same kind of thing, being an influencer.
(04:20):
But you were also a TV host, Is that correct? Yes?
So growing up, I wanted to be Oprah like so
many people love her, and I felt like I had
such a passion for sharing things with people, and I
thought being a TV host was the only way to
do that. So I went to school did that. I
first was doing entertainment news, which I feel like didn't
(04:42):
really fulfill me. But I transitioned into doing fashion and
beauty news, and that's what I found. I loved because
I found with beauty and fashion you were sharing information
with an audience of things that really made them feel
more confident about themselves. It wasn't gossipy, it wasn't hurtful.
It was really like, these are great products, and if
you find them and you love them, you'll feel even
more confident in your skin or when you're going to
(05:05):
a meeting or date or whatever it is. And so
that's really where I fell in love with that. And
then when I was doing my hosting at that time,
I would post a video and people would say where's
your shirt from? Or how did you do your hair today?
Or what makeup are you wearing? And it started to
become less about the topics I was talking about and
more about myself. And so I was like, I'm going
to start a YouTube channel. And that was in two
(05:26):
thousand twelve, and that's really where my career started as
being an influencer, kind of by accident. Well, we certainly
didn't know what an influencer was back then, and really
all an influencer is is someone who has influence over
people's decisions buying all of that. So what did you
like better? Do you like? Did you like the blog better?
Do you did you like the TV better? Or and
(05:48):
didn't they work really well together? They worked really well
together because I think for beauty specifically, video content really
is king right, Like when you I can talk about
a lipstick, but if you're not seeing the swatch or
seeing the product or seeing me apply it, I can
only tell you so much um. And so I think
even if we look at social media on Instagram, product
(06:09):
shots are great, but like, really application videos is where
it's at. And so I think for beauty video really
is like the best um form of media and so
I really really enjoy that. It's just a lot of work.
So you've been called one of the very first super influencers.
So how did you know you made it? And how
does how does that terms sit with you? I don't
(06:32):
really if. I don't know if you feel like you
make it because in beauty, I guess, in in all
kinds of industries, but when you're an influencer, you compare
yourself to your co workers in a weird way with
a tangible number. So you see your number of followers,
but your co workers or people that you work within
the same industry, you also visibly see all of their
numbers too. So there's always someone bigger than you. There's
(06:54):
always somebody doing more than you. Um, So it's really
hard to know if I ever felt like I'm made it.
But once I could support myself full time financially no
longer from my former job where I could do influencer
stuff full time, I guess I was like, Okay, I'm
really doing this. And my parents were much older. My
mom is seventy, my dad is in his eighties. So
explaining to them that I was doing this job full time,
(07:15):
they were like, you're posting stuff on the internet. This
is not why you went to college. And now they're
like so supportive of it. Um and then the word
super influencer. It's it's a very funny thing, and it's
so nice to be called that, because I do think
I was at the earlier stage of you know, when
influencers started, before it was really known as a career.
(07:35):
Because I think now people see influencers and they say,
I want to be an influencer as a job, so
they're aspiring for that career. But at the time when
I started, in so many of my close friends, we
didn't know that it was going to become what it
is today. We didn't know that it could be a
full time job. We really did it out of passion
of like loving product and loving sharing stuff with people,
and so it's a very nice thing to be gone.
(07:57):
It's just the kind of funny. Well, I think it
was about five years of you being an influencer and
growing your personal brand and that brand until you started
the cosmetics companies that correct. Yeah, So I launched my
YouTube channel in two thousand twelve, and then in two
thousand sixteen, my business partner Lauren and I came up
with the idea for summer Fridays didn't have a name
yet at that time, but that we wanted a skincare company.
(08:19):
And we didn't launch until two thousand eighteen. So by
the time we launched, I'd been online for six years,
So that's six years of really building trust with my
community online um and really talking about products for so long.
So when I launched something, they knew it was genuine.
Because I think a lot of people now are randomly
starting companies and it seems like which is fine if
(08:39):
it's a business idea for you. But I think if
you're just doing something just to do it, and you've
never talked about this topic before, or you're not really
passionate about it, the inauthenticity will not carry you for
a very long time. So I think if you're starting
a business, you need to really truly be passionate about it,
and if you're leveraging your community online to do it,
I hope that it's something that you've been passionate about
in genuine be sharing for a very long time. Business partner.
(09:02):
Was she a friend? Did she have things you didn't have?
What made her your partner? So we've been friends for
ten years and we have a very similar career path. Um,
we're both from the Midwest, we both went to school
for journalism, we both wanted to be Oprah when we
grew up, were neighbors, were libras. So I know a
lot of times people say, when you want to look
for a co founder, look for someone who has the
opposite traits of you. But for us, we have a
(09:24):
really similar skill set, but we have same in different audiences.
So when we're approaching product development and marketing, it's ultimately
the same type of customer we're going to, but with
two different points of views. And so she came really
more from like a wellness background, and so we were
looking at our clean ingredients. She was pregnant when we
were starting to work on the brand. Um, the two
(09:44):
of our expertise really helped like melt together to like
what Summer Fridays became. And so it's amazing. I'm so grateful.
But I would say to anyone looking to start a
business with a co founder, it is like a marriage. Um,
you want to know exactly what you're getting into before
you partner with Boddy. You need to know them really well.
You need to know what it's like to work together
and really think about it before you go into a
(10:06):
partnership together, because running a business together is no joke.
When you launched originally, did you launch just direct to
(10:28):
consumer or did you launch with Sephora. We did launch
with Sephora, and it was humongous with so much press,
and you sold out, So could you tell us about that?
So that was really unexpected. I mean, we felt really
confident with the product and the brand, but I don't
think we knew it would become as big as it
did as early as it did, and so, um we
(10:50):
launched in March of two thousand eighteen and shortly after
that sold out, which selling out the first time it's
it's cool, right, but then afterwards it's an issue. And
we were so small we had I think we had
one consultant and one employee at that time, and we
were trying to rush to restock because we wanted to
capitalize off of the great press, and so it was
(11:10):
kind of like ping pong for a bit. We would
have a little bit of stock on our site, then
we would sell out, and then by the time Stafora
got their shipment, they would sell out. And it went
like that for a while and we had that first
product for um almost seven months before we launched our
next launch. And do you remember what the first order was? Like?
How many did you order when you first launched? We'll
say that when we first were going to launch, we
(11:34):
had a unit number in mind. We produced those units,
sofora came on board and it like multiplied and we
were like, I don't know how we will ever sell
this many units of something, and then when we sold
out of it, it was disbelief. And we recently just
shared on our Summer Friday's Instagram that we've had we
have now over a million units sold. To think that
(11:56):
one million world more than one million times now someone
decided to pay just a product from us is mind
blowing and we can't believe it thinking about how few
we were originally producing at the beginning, and so it's
it's been so incredible and we are so grateful for
our community and our customers. And how many skews do
you have now? Oh? Now we have like six or seven,
(12:18):
So it's still a pretty small assortment that you have
gotten so big and you stayed six or seven units.
Do you know how unusual that is? I think you
know coming from an influencer point of view, I get
so many products every single day. I have boxes that
come to my door. I opened them up. There's thirty
products in each box. I don't even know where to
(12:40):
begin because the assortment is just so large that I'm
overwhelmed as an influencer, I don't even know what to share.
And so that's kind of where a mentality came from
of like fewer products, fewer launches, and then a lot
of support around each launch until we could really sustain
you know, a bigger a bigger pipeline for us. And
so at the beginning, it was really easy for us
(13:02):
to manage as a small team with only you know,
two skews in our first year, and you know, we
do have to grow, so we are having more products
come out. So I'm excited for one line up, but
it's been really really helpful for us to have all
the concentration on one thing at a time. But I
do think curated brands end up doing incredibly well if
(13:22):
they're done right. So I I bet you there's going
to be a new model because you know, in the
past it's like, Okay, we need more, we need more.
The retailers want more, the customers want more, and all
of a sudden you've got, you know, fifties sixties skews,
and then you've got things laying around that you haven't sold.
So that was, you know, something that you're you're not
going to have to deal with, which is amazing. The
(13:43):
only problem with that comes is if a launch isn't
successful and you forecasted for that launch to do so well,
and then you have months that go by without a
new product launch, it cannot be great. So everything has
to be really, really, really good, and you have to
feel confident about each of those launches because if not,
you could go a whole quarter and really have a
(14:03):
decrease in sales if it's not a great launch. And
do you think being an influencer has given you any
special insights into marketing and what what is the right
thing to do for your brand? Absolutely, because I'm a salesperson, right,
That's what an influencer is. You're influencing people to either
try something, or make a date for a snack, or
(14:24):
or buy a product or go somewhere. And so I've
learned how to genuinely show a product. I've learned how
to speak about talking points, not in a marketing type
of way, but as a friend type of way. And
it's like the modern day Avon Lady, right, Like she
used to come to your house, talk to you like
a friend, sell you these products. And that's really what
we're all doing now in our own way, and so
(14:46):
it's so helpful. And then I think being an influencer,
we share product online and we really know how to
photograph it and speak about it, and so that really
helped with like the aesthetic part of the branding, because
we wanted photogenic packaging that looked good on Instagram that
people wanted to share. Because I used to receive product
that I love so much and I didn't love the packaging,
so I didn't want to post it on my Instagram.
(15:07):
And that's so so important. That's why with your brand,
I love the packaging. It stands out so well. The
brand name is so easy to see. I love the
black and white, and so I feel like packaging is
so important because especially now, if people aren't shopping in store,
the only way they're saying product is online, So you've
got to get them with imagery and with the video,
or else they're never even going to get to the
(15:27):
chance to to order or sample or try and store.
And and I am someone that doesn't do paid influence influencers.
You know, I call them my fobs, friends of Bobby
I sent to do you do? Do you pay influencers
or is it just your friends? We do UM, So
we pay people because I say, you know, Lauren and
I are both influencers, and we really value the job
(15:50):
that we have, and we know how much UM value
you can bring to other brands. And so if we
say we value our job as influencers for other people,
why would we not value that job for our own company?
And I could pay X amount of dollars for a
Billboard or a magazine ad. I have no sense of tracking.
I don't know what kind of return I got on that.
(16:10):
But if I spend money with an influencer, I'm getting
content in return. I have some sort of tracking. I
can give them a bit Lee tracking link to see
how many swipe ups they had, how many clicks they had.
If you give somebody a promotional code, you can see
how many sales they you know, converted on your website.
So there's so much more data that you can have
when you're working with an influencer, and so it is
(16:30):
something that we wanted to do and you know, really
increasing that with our spend and influencer marketing, especially as
we're not able to use that marketing budget on in
person events right now and then? And what about you?
How do you decide who you should, you know, work for,
because you must get constantly requested. I'm pretty selective. I
would say I turned down at least, if not more,
(16:55):
of the jobs that come my way. Um, either it's
not a fit, or it's a competitive brand or product,
or I don't think it will resonate with my audience.
I have been doing this so long now I have
a pretty good sense of what my audience wants to buy.
And a lot of times a brand will come to
me and it's a lot of money, but I'm like,
I don't think my followers will buy this product, and
so I'm doing you a disservice. And you have to
(17:15):
be really honest with the brand. If you don't think
you can deliver, don't work with them and disappoint them.
And so I'll turn down jobs if I don't think
it's the right fit for my audience. And um, now
it's there's so much more you can do with Instagram
stories so it doesn't have to live on your feed.
So I'm able to do a lot more work. And um,
I still love doing it, and so that's why I'm
still doing influencer work. Plus summer fridays. How do you
(17:51):
tell someone that you don't want to post their face
and you get so much in the mail? Do you?
How do you decide what to post and what not
to pose? So in brands and people reach out to
me for gifting, I'll just email back and say, like,
I politely decline, I'm so overwhelmed with product. If I
don't think I'm going to share it or use it,
I don't want to take it away from you. You
(18:11):
could give this to somebody else. And most people respond
back and say like, thank you so much for your honesty.
It's not that I don't like the product, it's just
like I can't use that. I have so many things
I don't want to be wasteful, and like I'm living
at home, working from home right now, I can't have
so much clutter here. Um, and then as far as
like not passing on working for brands, I do have
a manager, so any like brand deals goes to my agency.
(18:32):
They bring me the offers, and if it doesn't work
for me, they have an amazing roster of talent and
so they can pass it on to somebody else who
may be a better fit, and so they kind of
handle all of that well. I can't even imagine how
much you have, because I get so much sent to
my office, and you know, truthfully, I keep very little
of it. I share with the girls in my office,
I share with my daughter in laws. I'm pretty minimalistic
(18:53):
when it comes to what I use. And then I
donate a bunch of it too, uh A. Families that
have of girls in school and you know, can't really
afford makeup. What do you do with yours? I donate
it um But because of COVID, a lot of the
places in l A that I usually donate to they
are not accepting donations right now. So it's kind of
all piling up at the office. I bring a basket
(19:14):
over there and keep it there, and it's also like
a great job perk of hopefully when we go back
to the office eventually there's a table and any of
the girls that work for us are like free to
take those products and they make for great holiday gifts,
so everyone's getting lots of beauty products from me. And
what do you think is the best advice you got
when starting summer Fridays. The best advice I got was
(19:34):
celebrate the moments along the way, because things move so
quickly that you're almost forgetting when they happen that these
things are big because you get so used to things
right Like now, I still pinch myself when I walk
into a staffour and see our products, but nothing is
like that first time when I went in, I saw
it was sold out, so I didn't actually see the product.
(19:54):
It was just like our brand name. But I still
was like crying in store because I couldn't believe it
was possible. And so the those moments along the way,
all those tiny things, even small winds, like really remembering
and celebrating those moments, because there's a lot of hard
times and a lot of hard moments when you're running
a business, and really, you know, celebrating those moments not
only with yourself but with your team it's so special
(20:16):
and so I have to like consciously like remember and
tell myself like, Okay, this is a big deal what
we did today, Like we worked so hard for this, like,
let's all celebrate with this and not just like move
on too quickly and you any plans to expand categories
like makeup for example. Um, you know, being beauty influencers
were not just you know, if you're a hairstylist and
you come out with a hair caroline, it makes sense
(20:38):
to stay in hair. But because we're beauty influencers, we've
talked about so many categories, you know, throughout the years,
from hair care, body care, makeup, son all of the things.
So our community online we have a really close relationship
with them and they're always asking us for new things.
So we definitely have some things that are in the works,
but we will see you and they actually launch. Okay,
(20:59):
And so what do you think is next for for
the brand? And then what is next for you? So
what's next for the brand? We have a really incredible
lineup for one that we are so excited about. Uh So,
I can't wait for these things to come out next year.
And we have such an incredible team of employees now
and so now we have really a proper marketing team
(21:19):
to help support these things, and so very excited for that. Um.
And then for me personally, I launched a podcast. You're
John loved loved the experience, and You've done a phenomenal
job promoting it, and I've listened to a bunch of them.
You're very good at it. Thank you. I'm so glad
that you're on. People loved your episode and so that's
been really great for me because I feel like I
(21:40):
have such a great network of friends of people, and
not everyone has access to people who they can learn from.
And so if I can share my network of friends
and the questions that I want to know or the
questions my followers want, it's such a great way to
give back and inspire people, especially in the new year.
And I think especially with this year, so many people
are thinking about their careers, what they want to do
in the future, what's important to them, and so if
(22:02):
this can inspire someone or motivate somebody, I really really
love it because thinking back to the days of TV hosting,
it's another way of communicating and sharing things with an audience,
and I feel really fulfilled from it, and so I'm
really really enjoying it. And then influencer life, We'll see
you know, like um, we were still spending and influencer marketing.
This year, but a lot of brands cut back and um,
(22:24):
a lot of brands didn't have the budgets that they
used to this year. So as an influencer, you know,
our jobs changed a lot this year. We had to
become more creative in our projects what we did. And so, um,
I'm hopeful for next year because a lot of my
friends had a really tough year, you know, financially, because
a lot of the jobs that they used to work
they weren't able to do them. And so hopefully a
(22:44):
lot of brands will come back strong next year. Well,
this podcast is called Beyond the Beauty, and so I
always ask everyone the same simple question, which is what
is beauty mean to you? To me, it's really all
about whatever makes you look good and feel good. And
I know that you've talked before about like not really
following beauty trends, but like less is more and whatever
(23:04):
works for you. So if no makeup makeup is good
for you, or a full glam look or whatever it
is that makes you feel your most confident, do you
don't follow trends, do whatever it is that makes you
feel good. Because for me, some days bear skin. I
feel my best when my skin is looking good. And
another time I want like a full face of makeup
and a lash and the contour and all the things,
(23:25):
And that's when I feel my best. And so I
think with beauty, you can be so many things, you
can try so many looks, and whatever I'm feeling that
day is what makes me feel my most confident, which
makes me feel beautiful. What's your everyday skincare routine? Everyday
skincare um summer Fridays see see me. Serum in the
morning is incredible. It's for hyper pigmentation and dark spots.
(23:46):
I fill up with moisturizer SPF every single day. Um,
that's pretty much it. I've been pretty like minimal makeup
in quarantine. I love Armandi Beauty Luminous silk foundation is
like the best. I love the Jones Road Miracle Bomb.
It's so pretty. I just like apply it to my
cheeks a little bit to my lips like an all
over flush of color. I love, love, love creamy products
(24:07):
and like those things enough are alone for me to
like look okay on zoom And what's the most recent
beauty purchase? What did you actually spend money out the
most recent beauty purchase. I'm looking behind me to see
what all my counter um I so I'm trying to think. Oh,
(24:29):
I bought a new um cokey coke. I think that's
how you say it. It's like a summary scent. I
love fragrance, and I'm always like spraying things on me
and they have like a summary coconut smell. So I
just bought it. So anything that smells like summary and sweet,
kind of like that summer Friday's feeling I love. And
so fragrance is one of the things even though no
(24:50):
one's really smelling me, like I'm not going anywhere, I
still I still like put it on, even for myself
at home. And what's your guilty pleasure? Oh, I love
to eat. So food is really like my like love
in life, Like I really really look forward to a
yummy meal. And I've been postmating a lot. I say
all the time. I'm not really a great cook. So
(25:12):
supporting local restaurants, ordering food to go from them, and
really food is makes me so happy. What's the most
delicious thing you eat? Not not the healthiest, but the
most delicious. Well, if I was in New York, Carbone
the spicy um penney is incredible. I have tried to
make it at home by myself. It's really not the same.
But I love a spicy Penny vodka sauce pasta is
(25:34):
just like amazing um. And then I could eat like
a whole box of Oreos by myself. And do you
have a favorite Cops pill? Um. I am honestly not
really drinking that much at home. I was really a
social drinker, like pre quarantine, Like I love to go
to events and have a glass of wine and go
to dinner and have wine. But if I'm just at
home by myself, I haven't really been drinking. And so
(25:57):
this year, my skin and my body is probably really
thanking me from giving it like a nice break. Well,
better better girl, because of it. I haven't done haven't
done that yet, but better, better, better because of it.
So I have really enjoyed talking to I've really enjoyed
seeing you. You're a doll. I'm really proud of you.
I see a lot of cool things for you in
the future. Amazing. Thank you so much, thank you for
(26:20):
having me on. And again, I am so thankful that
you came on my podcast. People love the episode and
I keep seeing them tagging you and stuff, and so
I really appreciate it, and I appreciate really what you
do for all aspiring beauty entrepreneurs and people who are
starting out of the industry. I said it when you
came on my podcast. You really paved the way for
women and beauty and myself and so many people are
(26:40):
thankful for what you did for so many of us. Well,
anytime you've got myself, you can d M me and
tell everyone who's listening where they can hear your podcast,
where they could find you. All of that. You can
follow me at Marianna Underscore, Hewitt m A R I
A N n A Underscore, h T W I T
T and my podcast is Life with Marianna. Thank you
(27:02):
so much, Thank you Wealthy, and I will see you
as soon as this is over. I take care. For
more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the I heart
Radio app Apple podcast wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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