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When you take those layers back of all the excuses, right?
Search this video
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Because that to me is the biggest reason that so many people, including myself at points in life, right?
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Didn't just start something.
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And for me, the biggest thing is you just have to start.
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With my YouTube channel, I didn't know anything, but I just started.
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And it was it it didn't matter, and it worked.
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And it was because I didn't overthink it.
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Hello everyone, welcome back to another episode of On Purpose.
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Thank you for committing to growing yourself, to personal development, and to making a positive change in your life.
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You know that on this podcast, I'm dedicated to bringing you incredible guests with amazing stories that hopefully you can relate to, connect to, and start seeing how you can find your passion and your purpose, and start creating a meaningful and fulfilling life.
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And today's guest is not going to disappoint.
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First of all, she's an incredibly dear dear friend, so I can't wait for you to get to know her story, and for me to go deeper with her.
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That's one of the reasons why I love these podcasts.
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She is one of my wife's best friends, so you're going to get to find out a bit more about that as well.
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But on top of all of that, she's had a truly remarkable journey, and she's now the CEO and founder of Live Tinted, a new incredible beauty brand that's changing the way we think about beauty.
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I can't wait for you to hear about how she describes that and how she articulates that, because she's amazing with words, and her name is Deepica Mutyala.
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Deepica, thank you so much for being here. I'm so happy right now. Thank you.
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Well, I'm happy right now because we have never sat together in an official formal situation, not that this is official or formal or at all.
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But every time I'm here, which was yesterday, today, and again probably tomorrow, you're always working, and I'm always hanging out with your wife. Yes, exactly.
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So, Deepica literally lives here, which we love. Which we love.
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I'm over And and that's the interesting thing that I've not always been sure about my wife's choice in friends, but uh but but Deepika is the best and I actually love you. Like you're amazing.
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You mean so much to both of us and what I'm so happy you live in LA.
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Like remember when we were like just messaging about it and now you're here and now I feel like you guys are just like my family. Yeah. It's so great. Absolutely.
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We we definitely are family and we both see it that way as well and I think you've made LA even more natural for Radhi and I.
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And I think that that's that's really special because I think finding family is hard, especially as we get older. This age, right? It's tough.
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But you can always there's an energy thing that I feel with people at this age that I don't feel like I had before that I just I felt with you guys. Yeah, same same.
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But I want I I just want to take a moment to say congratulations Thank you.
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incredible stuff that's happening around Live Tinted. Thank you.
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I can't wait to dive into the story behind it, why the brand exists, what it stands for and what it's changing in the world.
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You had this incredible announcement in New York. Yeah. In the New York Times.
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It was on banners all over the city.
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I mean it looked so exciting.
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Let's just just start there with how exciting that day was, that week was where all of this kind of became real.
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You know what it is is like you work towards something for so long and you have this like vision and hope that everyone's going to like just take it in the way that you want them to, but you don't actually know.
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And that feeling of the New York Times, the billboard in Times Square with the words Live Tinted written there.
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I mean I felt like I gave birth to a baby and it was the healthiest baby and it was just like everyone was talking about how cute the baby was and it was just like honestly Jay, like it made everything so worth it and that entire process to get there was such a roller coaster that I it's just I just feel so grateful, honestly. Amazing.
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And that's what I want to unpack with you today because I think, you know, we live in a world, social media world, where people are seeing all of these amazing things.
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I was observing it that day and I loved it because I'm your friend and I see what you're doing and there was so much incredible There was such an incredible energy around it.
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I felt there was so much positivity, but people see that and then we forget what happened before it.
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And so I want to kind of go there because you're from a South Asian background. Yes. Just like me. Yes.
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And and the reason why I want to start there is just did you ever think that that little South In- South Asian girl was going to build this incredible big beauty brand?
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And I grew up in Texas and the everything around me was blonde hair, blue eyes, right?
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And there was a very specific standard of beauty I saw in the media and my parents, who are immigrants, right? Of course, from India.
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They had a very specific vision of what the American dream was.
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And for them, it was all about respect in America and that came from education.
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Education on education on education.
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A degree after degree after degree.
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And for me, my vision of the American dream was really doing something that paved the path for others because in America, you have the opportunity to do whatever it is you want to do. Mhm.
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And that was like so stuck in my brain.
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So, when you say like it did I ever think I was going to be doing this, I feel like I'm one of the very few people I knew that would say like yes because like when I was 16 years old, I told my dad I wanted to create my own beauty brand.
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But the path from that to where I am now was completely different from what I could have ever imagined.
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Um but yeah, like he was so badly wanted me to be a doctor cuz again, that that equated to respect in America.
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And you know, our whole family's in medical professionals in some way, stereotypical Indian in that way.
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Um but I I just wanted something different.
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And so when I was 16, I told him that I was going to do it, but being a makeup artist in my dad's mind, just it wasn't a thing, right?
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So, it's like how How you be a makeup artist and have respect in this country?
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So, when I went to college, I kind of just had this mindset of I'm going to do the corporate side of the beauty industry, learn everything I can, and then go to HBS, Harvard Business School, to make my dad happy, check, check, check, and then start my own beauty brand.
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It did not go that way, but obviously, like, you know, life.
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But, I will say that, like, I I do feel really fortunate that at a very early age I saw beauty as a vehicle for me to express myself in a community like Texas where nobody looked like me.
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So, I was able to in in some ways change who I was to fit into people around me.
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Like, I got the blue I wanted your eyes.
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You're the one South Asian Well, you and your wife are like the two the gene pool of like the gods who have like these unreal eyes, but the rest of us got colored contacts to look like everyone around us.
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I got the blonde streaks.
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I wanted to look like what I saw in the media and everyone I went to school with and for beauty was like my way of just like self-expression.
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And so, I was obsessed with it.
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Like, I would stay in on Friday nights and do my cousin's makeup, and it's so surreal cuz I like talk to them now and they're like, "It's so crazy that you're doing it." Yeah.
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It's crazy how it all happened, man. I love that. I love that.
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What was Tell me about something you learned from that experience that has helped now.
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Like, what was it in that traditional form of success or respect, like you said, that your parents saw as the American dream?
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What about that definition has helped you and has been useful? Totally.
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Even though you've taken your own path and paved your own way.
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I think when you see the hard work that immigrant parents have that when they come to this country, they feel like they have this uh sort of um there's this like bar they have to hit, right?
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Like, it's like if we're going to be have any type of um prestige and just like be taken seriously, we have to work 10 times harder than everybody else.
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And quite frankly, I still feel that way.
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And I I we've had conversations about this that like the reality is that being South Asian or woman of color in general, like you you we're still fighting the fight.
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And I think the thing that I always think about and I tell myself is like my dad's work ethic is of one I've never seen in my entire life.
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I mean, he talks about how he was literally like picking weeds in like India in like a village.
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To see that and what we have today, my family like just in it blows my mind and it gives me this like feeling of like if they did all of that for us, I have to do that 10x harder.
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It gives me this like fuel and drive.
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That's such a beautiful point.
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I love that because I think so many of us can look back and be like, "Oh, I wasn't encouraged to do what I loved or it wasn't about my passion."
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But actually looking at from the point of view of their work ethic and they did what they didn't love. Yeah.
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Or they were passionate about with so much harder work.
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Like I said with my mom, it was my mom's birthday yesterday. I saw.
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And and you know, when I talk to my mom about it, I'm just like, "She has put in so much work, like sacrificed so much.
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She did stuff she didn't love.
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She wasn't excited about.
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She wasn't enthusiastic about.
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It's not like it was meaningful or purposeful." Totally, yeah.
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you know what's so sad about that, at least for me, I was so embarrassed of my parents growing up and that makes me sick to my stomach now.
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I'm embarrassed of that now because I my mom, she would walk out wearing like nighties and like mommies and comes, like hang out with my friends.
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Our house would smell like chicken curry and I was mortified to have people over because of that.
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I was like, "Mom, like I want you to hide behind the scenes and like all this stuff."
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They're my number one fans, my best friends and I now respect everything they've done for us and I think that's a part of my goal with like launching this brand too is like I really hope kids growing up today realize how incredible parents are. Yeah.
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Everything they give up for us is just so insane and surreal.
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Like when I think about specifically immigrant parents, I feel like there's just so much that they sacrifice just for the well-being of their families.
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Yeah, 100% that's so true and it's I think you've done a good job though because if anyone follows Deepika on YouTube or Instagram you'll see that she makes lots of videos with her parents in them and they are the best videos.
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Like they're so fun to watch. My mom.
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Yeah, your mom is just adorable and if you haven't seen it I highly recommend going and follow Deepika on YouTube and Instagram and go check out those videos because Yeah, so I think you've done a good job.
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I think my mom would love to be in my one of my videos and I haven't got there yet.
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Well, I want to have her on the podcast. Okay.
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Like that's what I'm going to do.
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Oh my god, that's going to be epic.
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Yeah, it'll be embarrassing though because my mom is literally my biggest fan too.
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So she even if I try and push it to say stuff about me I I don't know if she's going to go there so Oh my god, that has to happen like ASAP.
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Yeah, yeah, we need to do it in London.
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But let's talk about how it all started from at least an external perspective and I'd love for you to tell me when you started with it.
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But it started when you started making YouTube videos and your second video went viral. It did. That's insane.
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It I don't know many people who can say that and we live in this social media space and know people in it.
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Like I don't know how many people can say their second video went viral.
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It was like an out-of-body experience.
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So I was working on the corporate side of the beauty industry.
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So I was in the beauty game just like I had planned learning about the beauty industry and I just picked up my iPhone one day and I was like, you know what?
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I have this like beauty tip and the the the core of it Jay was like I have so many of my girlfriends texting me asking me for beauty advice and I was like, just go to this YouTube channel and leave me alone. Please, just do it.
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And so that's literally like motive of it. It wasn't over thought.
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I wasn't thinking too much into it.
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Picked up my iPhone and I just shared a beauty tip that I use to solve a beauty concern in my life.
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And that was a red lipstick under my eyes to mask dark circles.
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And because that is my number one beauty problem right now and I think a lot of people can relate with that is um dark circles and stuff I had such an insecurity in my life and so any way I could find ways to simplify beauty I took my lipstick and I put it there and it got picked up by BuzzFeed and it just went viral. That's crazy.
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I mean I had I woke up and it was like Vogue India Cosmo UK Daily Mail Refinery29 boom boom boom boom boom and before I knew it it was at 4 million views. That's insane.
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Oh my god when it hit 4 million views I got an email from the Today Show and I was like oh my god I'm going to be the Indian Hoda.
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I'm quitting my job today and I'm going to go be someone on the Today Show cuz that's how it works. That's not how it works.
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But I did quit my job that day. Wow.
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I had this like gut feeling in me that this was a moment in my life that I had an opportunity that it was like a 15 minutes right and it was like you can take that 15 minutes and have it just be a moment in your life or you can take it and build out your dream career. I love that. That's what I did. That's amazing.
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Like that's such great advice too because I feel like it's been really interesting for me whenever I've had moments they have always given me momentum and that's what I believe moments are they give you momentum and there's so many people have been like Jay you realize that's like you're going to you peaked now like that's it and I'm sure I don't know what you heard but it's so easy for people to be like yeah that's 15 minutes of fame. Every day every day.
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And and the difference is is that you took that and you turned it into something amazing and it's just continued to grow.
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You know what it is I I remember to asking myself the same question right out of college I had a job and I I left it to go to New York City and the question I asked myself was what what's what's the worst thing that could happen and to me the worst thing was not taking the risk and always wondering what if. Yes.
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Always and I knew that if I didn't just take this leap like you know people for me I always knew I had another option I could go to business school I could go get another job at a beauty brand but when in life do you have at that point 10 million people watching a video about you as a beauty kind of like expert or authority in the space.
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And so I was like, you know what? I have to go for this.
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And I actually didn't tell my parents.
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I just quit my job because I I know their mindset.
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You were in Texas at this time?
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Oh my god, I was in New York. I was in New York.
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But I just in my brain, you know, they they would be worried to their core.
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And oh my god, this I have to say this cuz it was so funny.
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I remember going home that weekend cuz I was in my brain, you know the emoji with like it just like bursting out. That's how I felt. I was like, what now?
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How am I paying my next paycheck?
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Like what's going to happen? I had no idea.
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So I was like, I'm just going to go home for a weekend, hang out with my family, not tell them anything, but just rest my mind and kind of gather my thoughts.
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Of course through the Indian grapevine my dad found out that I had quit my job.
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It was like my cousin told his brother his dad who's my dad's brother.
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And oh my gosh, I was sitting on the couch.
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We were probably watching some like Hindi movie or something.
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And my dad was like, come into the study.
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I literally thought he was going to like take me to India, get me an arranged marriage, my life was over.
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I had all this like visions.
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And I walk in there and my dad um he hands me a check.
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And this is when I start to cry.
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I'm like tearing up and he's like, don't think of this as me giving my daughter money.
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Think of this as me investing in a business I believe in. Wow.
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I'm about to Wow, that is amazing.
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That's like a I mean, beautiful. That's so nice. Yeah.
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And you know what it is is like me from a pride perspective I tore up the check and I handed it to him and I was like, you saying what you just said to me and that sort of like you know, just him like he's he's he was terrified. I know my father.
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He was terrified that I had quit my job.
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But he knew how much that mattered to me and that was all the fuel I needed to keep going. Wow. 100%.
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love I can't wait to see that in a movie.
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That's like such a like movie moment.
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You know, like just Is it a Bollywood movie? Could be. I don't know.
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If you want to do a Bollywood movie, but yeah.
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But it just it's such a As in genuine, I'm not taking away any of the energy from that moment.
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I just mean like that is incredible.
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Like that's such a So I I want to hear and I know we have conversations like this all the time.
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And so anyone who's listening or watching right now, me and Deepa could talk about philosophy and thought and wisdom all the time.
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So I know that you're very reflective and introspective in the way you kind of go about life and everything's very intentional and focused.
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Take it back for someone.
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Let's say there's someone who's listening or watching right now and they haven't had that 10 million moment yet. Right?
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They've not had that moment. Yeah.
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Talk to me about what would be some of your thoughts for them as to how they work towards getting to the point, not the 10 million moment, because I don't think that's the important thing here.
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I think the important thing here is you saw that as a moment to quit your job and go all in.
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Or you saw that as a launchpad or a stepping stone to get closer to what you wanted to do.
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Talk me through how that person should be thinking about when that's right for them, because I think timing is just so hard to understand, but also important.
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It is and I don't think I don't want anyone listening to this to think that like the viral moment is what you wait for. Right. That's yeah.
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it's not it's not predictable and it's not something that you you And that's why it happened for me, right? I wasn't predicting it.
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I wasn't strategizing it.
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I was just sharing a valuable tip that I felt like would help other people's lives.
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And so for me, when I think about how other people can go for that dream moment in their life, there's actually like real advice I can give around like I didn't just take the leap and go, right?
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I made that initiative to start that YouTube channel.
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I picked up my iPhone, so I didn't make the excuse about like I don't have the fancy equipment.
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I didn't make the excuse that I don't have time because I did it on a weekend.
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And I didn't make the excuse that like I don't know anything about YouTube or whatever, it's called Google, I figured it out.
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When you take those layers back of all the excuses, right?
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Because that to me is the biggest reason that so many people, including myself at points in life, right?
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Didn't just start something.
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And for me, the biggest thing is you just have to start.
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With my YouTube channel, I didn't know anything, but I just started and it was it it didn't matter and it worked.
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And it was because I didn't overthink it.
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And I didn't just quit my job.
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I had a momentum that made me quit my job.
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And that momentum came from me just taking that moment and making the time and not making excuses.
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And so for me, I think like whenever people ask me like what advice you have for somebody that's trying to like go for their goals and dreams, it's like you just cut out the excuses.
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If you want this bad enough, you need to figure out a way to make it happen and you will find a way to make it happen.
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And you've got to get the noise out of your head, right?
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Because like I don't know if I don't know I would love to hear what you do cuz like in my brain there are so many noises.
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I'm like, okay, what if this? What about this? What about this? What about this?
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And you just got to cut all that noise and just be in the moment and be like, but what if you didn't do it? Then what? Then what would happen?
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And so I always say always find a way to do that step one without taking that huge risk.
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Cuz you're already taking a risk by doing even that step one, right?
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And that's the the hardest thing to do that step one.
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But once you do it and that for me is it is like I felt like I tested it while I still had a job because that's the scary thing.
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It's like, how do I quit my job and just go for my dream?
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That's like an easy thing to say out loud and like, oh, when you hear it now, right?
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But in the moment, it's like I just I didn't just quit.
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I had this momentum happening.
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I had built a Rolodex of network and a contacts for the past 10 years in the beauty industry and then I made that happen.
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It was all one step led to another that led to another.
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It's not it's it's never overnight.
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Whoever thinks it's overnight because of social media and all of that BS, it's a lot of hard work and you and I talk about that a lot is like it may seem like it because of a viral video, but before that viral video was 10 years of hard work in the beauty industry that made me confident enough to quit my job and go do this full-time.
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Yeah, I'm really glad you brought that up because I think that the amazing thing about your story is you were already aligned and committed to beauty.
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So, it's like you were gathering these skills, which is why now when you're a CEO, it's like you were gathering skills from inside the industry.
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So, you were learning about it all the time.
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It wasn't just oh, I made a video and now I understand beauty.
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Yeah, that's not how it works. Exactly.
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And it's like I understand beauty from a business perspective.
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Now that a moment that's helping me gather more contacts, more networks, etc.
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But, I've actually built already and I think that's awesome advice.
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And the second thing you said there is you were using your time on evenings, weekends, whatever it was to do all the other stuff.
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And and the funny thing is that's so parallel to where I was at, too.
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Like it was the same thing.
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Like I was working my day job. Yeah.
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And I knew I wanted to help people more.
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And so, I started making videos. And that was it.
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Like I didn't know how to I still don't know how to turn a camera on. Right?
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Like literally, I'm not I'm not kidding.
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Adande can testify to this.
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I have no idea because I've always wanted to be someone who can focus on my strengths and play to those and have people around me who can play to theirs.
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But, but I love that point that you're making. Just it's not overnight. No.
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It's It's not that And 10 years in the beauty industry is why that moment This is the beauty of it actually.
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So, I'm I'm having this And I'm saying this for Deepica which she's so humble she won't say it.
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But, it's like your your 10 years in the industry is what means you can actually capitalize on that moment. Yeah. I You're totally right.
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if you don't have that 10 years, even if you have that breakthrough or that moment, it can disappear or you won't know what to do with it Totally.
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because that work hasn't been there. You're so right.
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Actually, I've never actually thought of it that way, but that's exactly it because when I quit, I was my own assistant, my own lawyer.
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I was my own lawyer, which is kind of dangerous, but I was like my own manager, agent.
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I remember I just literally emailed 250 people in my email database and I was like my fake assistant I had an assistant at Deepica email.
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I like it was a full fake it till you make it game, right?
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And I was like she's now a beauty influencer and she's doing this and she'd love to work with you.
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And then for every 250 emails I got maybe three replies. Yes.
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But those three replies led to one job and that one job they asked me my rate.
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I threw out a number and they were like, "Okay."
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And I was like, "Oh, I could have like three x that."
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And then you just learn from that and you go to the next thing and then you go to the next thing, but I just learned and I taught myself that, but it doesn't I truly believe that because of being at these other beauty brands, I was able to leave and feel really confident about getting jobs as a beauty influencer.
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It wasn't guaranteed and it took a lot of hard work and a lot of to be honest like I'm so extrovert.
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Do you consider yourself extrovert? I I do overall, yes. So overall I do, too.
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And for someone so extrovert to just be going from a place where I was working in an office with all my best friends.
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I had a roommate um who who I also like I I had a roommate.
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I didn't live alone and I was dating somebody.
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And at the all at the same time I was single, living by myself and working for myself and so I was just by myself all the time.
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I mean for somebody that's that extrovert to go into that, it leads to a really really quite frankly dark place in your own mind. Mhm. It really did.
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I remember there was days that I didn't want to get out of bed, but then the days I did go out of bed, I was like going really hard. Mhm.
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But you have these roller coaster of emotions and I never to be honest then I never showed showed that stuff on social media. Mhm. I was too scared.
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I was too nervous that you had to be a certain type of way.
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I had to look a certain type of way.
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I had to have a certain type of confidence and fake it till I make it kind of thing.
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And such a core part of what I want to do now with Live Tinted is take those barriers away and show the raw real story of it is not easy to build a beauty brand.
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Nobody just comes to you and hands you something. You have to work for it. Yeah, absolutely. I love that.
22:59
I think anyone who's listening and watching right now is going to just listen to your story and I'm hoping that as you're listening and watching you're recognizing just how much hard work goes into it. Yeah.
23:10
And I want you to I was actually having a really interesting conversation when I was working out this morning.
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And it was me, my personal trainer, and another trainer.
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And she was talking about how she'd been doing something for 15 years that the art that she wants to work on.
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And then we were unpacking that and by the way, these two people, these two trainers are far fitter than I am.
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They're always giving me like health tips physically and then I'm talking about the mind and and consciousness and all the rest of it. Love it.
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And she actually said to me, she goes, "Actually, now that I'm reflecting with you, Jay."
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She goes, "I've only been all in for 12 months." Mhm.
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So even though in her head she felt like she'd been doing it for 15 years, Yeah.
23:49
she when she actually reflected she was like, "Actually, I've only really gone all in for 12 months."
23:52
And I would really recommend that you measure whatever you're receiving based on when you went all in, not how long you've been studying a subject, not how long you've been thinking about it.
24:02
That's actually a really great point because even when I was working on the beauty corporate side of the beauty industry, it wasn't until I started working on product development for that company.
24:11
I was doing product development.
24:12
That made me feel like "Wait, like maybe I don't have to go to business school.
24:17
Maybe I can start this beauty brand and maybe this company is my business school and maybe I don't have to go that specific set path that I thought like I had steps pieced out for me."
24:26
And it was those I would say I would say yeah, like 12 a year, that last year of working in the beauty industry that made me feel a little more confident that like maybe my path is going to be a little bit different.
24:37
And so again, when that video went viral and I did it, it was like to me, I never thought quote unquote being a beauty influencer would ever be a part of my job description.
24:47
Like are you I'm I'm a businesswoman. I had that ego.
24:48
I thought about my parents.
24:51
What are they going to tell their friends?
24:52
Like, "Oh, my daughter's a YouTuber."
24:54
What does that even mean?
24:57
I every moment of the experience of being a beauty influencer had to happen for me to be able to build this what Live Tinted stands for today. I love that.
25:06
It's all steps, you know?
25:06
It's just like one by one by one.
25:09
Yeah, and and we have to see it that way in the sense that I I'm sure you can I'm listening to your story right now and I can see so many parallels with mine.
25:17
I always feel that way whenever we're talking.
25:18
Yeah, and I'm literally going right now I'm like there were times when it looked like everything was falling apart. Yeah.
25:24
But I had to go through that. Yeah.
25:26
And I had to go through every one of those and I wouldn't be anywhere close to who I am as a person or where things are for us without all those moments.
25:35
And this you're you're so scrappy in the sense of like I was just talking to your team out there and they were saying how if everyone was gone and it was just you still doing this, you would be just as successful because you know you you've done it before by yourself.
25:48
So you would make it happen anyways and I think about that I'm like yes, now I have people on my team and they help me grow quicker and stronger and I feel mentally better and I now take care of myself because I have that support system.
25:58
But I also know how to film a YouTube video.
26:01
I know how to upload that video and I know how to be a businesswoman.
26:05
And I think those skills of being able to have to do it ourselves helped shape us into like work as hard as we do now. Yeah, absolutely. I completely agree.
26:14
I didn't even have a team until like three months ago.
26:15
Like it's been so recent.
26:17
And people are still surprised that I do all my Instagram comments and I reply to everyone. get that. And By the way.
26:24
And I'm like all my Facebook comments.
26:26
Like it's me and and I believe that I believe that if you want to grow something, you can't outsource it. Yeah. Right? You just can't.
26:33
If you truly want to grow something Totally.
26:36
you can't just give it away to someone. Yeah. Right?
26:39
You have to be involved to some degree.
26:40
Of course, you can have a plan and you can have a team and you can have a agencies, but I know that a lot of people have this belief that when I find the manager or the agent, my life will be solved. Absolutely.
26:51
And I felt that for a long time.
26:51
I used to look at people being successful, I used to think, "Oh, they must have an amazing manager.
26:54
They must have an amazing agent."
26:56
And all I can honestly say, and I think Deepak is highlighting this, too, which is what's inspiring me to say is just that you are your best cheerleader, you are your best support, you are your best everything.
27:08
Don't rely or hope to find someone who's going to save and change your life. will never change.
27:14
No matter how successful you are right now, I'm going through the fundraising process, and you have this mental and our mutual friend Payal Kadakia, she obviously went through it, too, and she told me like, "This doesn't change your life.
27:25
When you get fundraising and you get investors involved, that does not make your life easier.
27:31
It quite frankly complicates it all."
27:33
And I think that's important for people to hear because there's this glorified idea of you see, especially right now, women in tech fundraising, and it's like, "Wow, she raised all this money."
27:42
It is a beautiful thing that finally women are getting to do that.
27:44
Um however, what I've now learned through going through this process is it adds more voices, more responsibilities, and it doesn't mean that you have less to worry about.
27:54
It has more people you have to answer to.
27:56
So, I think something I'm learning is now my job has just shifted from growing the team rather than like me focusing on doing the work, but what I think we both probably have problems with this is like letting go and letting other people do it.
28:08
But, I think you're so right.
28:11
There's some things that I will never let go of. Yeah. Ever. And that's important. Of course it is.
28:17
It's It's It's you that's building this, and I think it's I think anyone who lets go of that is letting go of I think the the strongest strength that a business has. Absolutely.
28:25
So, now tell us about this You have this incredible life as a, you know, a vlogger, a creator, a beauty influencer. Yeah.
28:36
But, for you, you always wanted to do more.
28:41
And I don't mean more in terms of better because people are happy doing what makes them happy.
28:44
But, for you, it was always about business.
28:47
You were always a businesswoman who became an influencer, but really had set your sights on being the CEO of this incredible brand.
28:54
So, tell me about that transition Yeah.
28:58
of moving away from this amazing thing you've built that's already working and it's already going great, but then you saying, "No, I actually want to create something that's going to shift the culture."
29:06
Because that's what I think you're doing with Live Tinted. Thank you.
29:10
Like, you're really trying to shift culture and break down barriers and and change the way things are perceived.
29:14
So, tell me about that transition.
29:16
I still remember being 16 and going down like a drugstore aisle and seeing no beauty products that worked for me and no women that look like me.
29:26
And I think that, it's crazy.
29:28
You know you have these flashback memories of your childhood?
29:31
That's one that I will never forget.
29:31
And I think it still lives on with me today.
29:35
So, when I quit my job to go be a beauty influencer, and you know, this is going to be hard for people to believe, but in my core, there was it was nothing about the fame.
29:42
And quite frankly, I am so excited that with Live Tinted I get to be more behind the scenes and stuff.
29:47
But, it was the idea that I got to finally be the face of beauty brand campaigns so that girls growing up today are finally seeing their face in it.
29:55
Like a L'Oréal commercial, a Sans commercial.
29:56
It's like, I never saw a brown girl on on the TV.
29:58
So, to be able to build that, I think was a part of my goal and path to get to a place to change representation in the beauty industry.
30:07
To see faces that I no longer saw because even within women of color, thank god we're finally seeing more African-American women, more Latina women.
30:15
But, there What about everybody else?
30:17
There's all these people in between that still need representation in this industry.
30:21
And I felt like I fell into that, too.
30:23
So, my goal really as a as a beauty influencer, and I use the quotes because I think there's everyone I know that's a beauty influencer, there's so much more to it.
30:31
There's so much hustle and grind and entrepreneurial spirit than I think people realize when they just see that one YouTube video.
30:39
Um and I think for me, it was all about changing the faces that you saw in the media.
30:44
And so, that's what I was doing really for the past 3 years, but then it got to a point of when is this brand happening and how is it going to happen and what is it going to look like?
30:51
And if I didn't do the beauty influencer thing for 3 years, I think I would have built a much more niche brand than my goals and path and passion for building Live Tinted.
31:04
And I'm so happy about it because just like you said, to me Live Tinted is a movement first.
31:08
First and foremost, more than anything, our goal is to change the representation of beauty, the faces that you see in the beauty industry.
31:15
And and I feel like we're doing it, man. And it feels good.
31:18
And I think the biggest reason of launching this, you know, when I first started everyone was like, why don't you just call it Deep Beauty and launch a color corrector and make it all about you and like brown girls and there's there's a few reasons why.
31:30
For me, it was time to build something bigger than myself and it wasn't about just a singular voice or a singular culture identity.
31:37
It was about building a home to showcase a whole range of women, a whole range of skin tones to say, I can be exactly who I am and feel great about it.
31:47
That doesn't mean that wearing makeup makes you less of like a person that feels that way.
31:50
It's more of to me, the beauty products are just a vehicle for us to share our message to make sure that inclusion and diversity is just the standard in the beauty industry.
32:00
It shouldn't be like a a campaign, which is how it's being treated right now.
32:04
Yeah, that's so interesting.
32:06
It shouldn't be a campaign. Shouldn't.
32:07
Yeah, because what what would that do?
32:09
If it was a campaign, what what are the negatives of that? It's um strategic.
32:14
It feels disingenuous and and it's not making real movement happen. Yeah.
32:20
Um and there's a lot of brands that you can see capitalizing on that, which it doesn't bother me cuz at the end of the day, at least there is a token brown girl now, right?
32:28
That wasn't something that happened before and we need that than nothing. We need that progress.
32:31
So, even though, you know, you'll see the one brown girl in things and the one brown guy in things.
32:36
That didn't exist before.
32:38
So, at least that's step one to get to a place where this is just normalized.
32:41
And so, that's how I feel about the whole thing in general, but I think when I launched Live Tinted, it was so important, you know, we launched in 2017 as a community first.
32:48
Um and while we were doing that, we just used the community, not used the community, we listened to the community to help us think through what was the first beauty product we were going to create.
32:59
And it was truly made by them for them, and it just is so crazy Jay, that what they asked for when we asked what your what your biggest beauty concern is, was dark circles. Wow.
33:09
So, it was such a full circle moment for me to go back to my red lipstick video, and it all happened.
33:17
It was like, we have there's clearly still a need in the market for this product.
33:20
And but again, for me, the the product is so secondary to what we're doing, you know, like with the campaign that we launched 3 weeks ago, which is so crazy.
33:30
Um how all this is happening, but um it was about no Photoshop.
33:33
That's not something you see in the beauty industry.
33:35
You know, like when people look at Instagram, and they look in magazines, I don't want people to feel the way I did growing up, where I felt not good enough the way I was.
33:42
I mean, I definitely went through the whole thing where I starved myself, and changed things about myself to look like that.
33:48
And so, my whole goal with Live Tinted is to just let people be themselves.
33:53
And make that a place that's like celebrated, you know?
33:54
And I think the biggest thing we say about Live Tinted is that we're a multicultural community, because if I were to just make this a brown girl brand, like everyone was expecting me to do, how is that really creating progress in the space, right?
34:08
Like for us to really be integrated into the larger world, and make this a truly inclusive brand, we have to be speaking to every ethnicity. Totally.
34:17
We have to be talking to each other, and I think the biggest thing I spent the past year before we launched this product for Live Tinted was educating people on different cultures, different backgrounds, because I feel like the more you learn about other people's cultures, the more you're able to I guess like understand each other.
34:32
You know, like when I think about um for example, we talked about like facial hair, which is something a lot of women have.
34:38
I hope some point out there can relate with me and it's not just me.
34:43
But I when we spoke about it, all these women from all different backgrounds felt like they they were chiming in a Latino woman chiming in a Middle Eastern and all these things and I was like wow, this community is so much bigger than I even expected it to be and it all organically happened, which is the most beautiful thing, right?
34:58
Like I think when people try to force something you feel it, other people feel it and it just naturally happens.
35:06
I mean, I just think that's the best way to do everything in business and in life. I love it. Yeah.
35:11
Yeah, 100% and I'm so glad that you've built something community first. Yeah.
35:16
And I remember one of my mentors in business would always say like build community first, commerce second. Like always.
35:22
And and he used to say and I was like, "Oh, that sounds good. Like that sounds cool."
35:26
You know, that's one of those statements, but it was like it's so true because not only is a community not that's not just smart or strategic.
35:35
Actually what it is is it's real because when you deeply get to know people's stories your heart expands, your vision expands, right?
35:44
Like you don't become someone who's just trying to sell something anymore because you have a community first.
35:49
See, if you start with commerce, you're basically thinking, "Are we hitting our numbers? Are we selling stuff?
35:53
Is stuff being shipped, right?"
35:56
That's what you're thinking about.
35:56
When you start with community first like you have you start hearing people's stories, you start hearing people's backgrounds, you hear about people's challenges and then your brand becomes full of compassion and empathy and love and care as opposed to being about numbers and stats and analytics.
36:10
Even when you say that it makes my like heart just like feel so good because like I I had so many tough times this past year.
36:19
I was so it was so many lows of thinking and again doubting yourself.
36:23
Like it's it's it was a complete shift, right?
36:25
Like I went and for me, I never like dreamt of being a beauty influencer, but I always dreamt of this beauty brand happening.
36:30
So, the pressure was like 10x.
36:33
And I felt like, "Oh my god, like this is what I wanted since I was 16.
36:35
It's happening, and you have to do it right."
36:38
But I had to get out of my own head and go back to the same scrappy mentality I had when I first started that YouTube video using my iPhone is you just have to start. You just have to start.
36:46
And I'll tell you, like during those low times, it was literally this community that got me through it.
36:52
Because I would read their comments, and they'd be like, "Keep going. Thank you so much. You're changing my life.
36:57
You're making me feel beautiful with who I am."
36:59
And when you see those comments, like literally when you're working at 1:00 in the morning, and you're like sitting there on your laptop, and it's a Saturday night, that is the energy you need to say, "This is why you're doing something."
37:11
And I think that that purpose-driven aspect of a And not just a beauty brand, just building a business, is the equals longevity. 100%.
37:20
Because there's an We're human.
37:20
There's a There's a real emotion that goes into it, and I think like at least for me personally, and I don't know, this could be one of my weaknesses as a CEO, but I feel like I have empathy in building this business, and it sometimes is like not a good thing, but it's who I am.
37:34
And I I don't know if that'll go away, but I I can't help but care. Yeah.
37:39
Um and it's it's tough, right?
37:41
Because when you're a beauty personality, I'm allowed to just be that girl.
37:44
When you're running a business, you sometimes have to like shift that hat and be like, "Okay, like let's think about this.
37:50
Like what's going to be right for them and and this and that?"
37:53
It's It's a weird balance of all of these things. Yeah.
37:55
I'm This is a therapy session all of a sudden, but I'm into it.
37:59
I'm like, "Man, it's a lot." Yeah, no, it is a lot.
38:02
And And that's what I think is so beautiful when when when I'm doing the podcast, and I'm speaking to someone like yourself, it's like you've just had so many transitions in life. Yeah.
38:10
And transitions are the hardest. Yeah.
38:13
And that's why most people never have them.
38:15
And that's why most people live the same day over and over and over again, and call it a life, because transitions are so hard. Yeah.
38:21
Tell me about the doubts that came in your mind and how you overcame them before you got to building Live Tinted.
38:27
Like, what were the doubts, what were the challenges, and what got you through?
38:30
So, we already know the community got you through, and I love that because that to me is to me that's a successful entrepreneur.
38:37
Like, that to me that's a successful business person.
38:39
It's someone who's living for their community, and their why is so strong. But, what else?
38:42
What were the doubts that came up, and how were you able to strategically or internally start overcoming them?
38:50
I think I had to tell myself, you have to sometimes give up the good to get to the great.
38:54
You know, like I actually like remember writing that out and like writing out like things were just going in sort of like a hamster wheel as an influencer, right?
39:04
Like, there was deals coming in and and and beyond the deals, again, like I felt like there was everything I wanted to achieve out of being a beauty influencer, you know, that had happened. But, it's comfortable. Mhm.
39:16
I had like a routine with it.
39:18
I was, you know, in a flow of it, and I was growing on like my business with it and all these things, and it it it's it's really scary to go from that to well, like I've had this dream, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
39:32
Okay, so I would say for me, my biggest thing was that I knew that to build a company, I would need people.
39:35
And so, me taking this calculated risk also impacted other people's lives.
39:40
That's a really scary thing.
39:42
And I think for me, it was like, again, the same way when I was working at that company, and I while working there, I started my YouTube channel, right?
39:51
So, while I was an influencer, I started Live Tinted.
39:53
And that was the only that's the way that I've always built my career is like, do a a little test.
39:59
It's almost like, you know, like just test it out, see how it goes.
40:02
And that's how we launched Live Tinted as like with the hashtag.
40:05
I literally just put on my Instagram story.
40:08
This is how scrappy I did it.
40:08
I thought I was going to do this whole plan and like make this beautiful grid on Instagram, right?
40:13
And then I was just like, you know what, Deepika?
40:15
I just put hashtag Live Tinted and said, if you can find a deep skin melanin South Asian woman, tag hashtag Live Tinted.
40:22
And within minutes, 200 people had tagged women all over online because I couldn't find a woman that looked like that on the internet. How crazy is that? Woah, no way. That's crazy.
40:34
So I just asked the community to do it and that's And then I was like, you know what?
40:37
Let's just launch this page.
40:37
So that was my way of testing it out because instead of just trying to think of like And I think that's the biggest thing we all get into our heads is this perfection idea.
40:47
And with the second I stopped thinking about that or caring about it, we just launched the page and it just started to organically grow.
40:52
So instead of like placing that big order for that beauty product and right away saying I needed to start this beauty product, I started an Instagram page.
41:01
And I just started a hashtag.
41:01
And you know, thousands and thousands and thousands of people have been using the hashtag as a way to identify themselves and tell their personal story about their identity and their culture and where they come from.
41:12
And that to me helped me shape what product and what I wanted to launch from a business side.
41:18
But in the beginning, it was just about trying something out. Yeah.
41:22
And I think that's the only way to do For me personally, it's not the only way to do it.
41:26
But I think it's the way that you kind of go into it with a little less fear cuz it's scary. It's It's still scary. Yeah.
41:36
No, that I love that because I I always say that all of my content is 75% complete. Oh, wow. It's just everything.
41:43
This podcast, everything on Instagram, every video I've ever made is 75% complete.
41:49
And that's crazy cuz I've had everyone watching is thinking it's 150% complete.
41:52
And it's really not from my perspective.
41:54
I know everything I could have made better about each one.
41:55
But if I tried to get to 100, you'd never have you'd wouldn't know who I am because I think that's the that's the block we all live in.
42:04
We try and go from 75 Now, it shouldn't be 50, right?
42:06
You don't want to put something out at just 50 or 40, but you want to get to a place where you are removing that fear because if I waited till I got to 99 or 100, I'd never release anything.
42:16
Because then you can just keep tweaking and keep tweaking and keep tweaking and then you don't learn and then you don't learn fast.
42:23
Like waiting for something to get to 100, you could wait 10 years to launch something.
42:26
At 75, you can launch 10 things in 10 years and learn from it and get better.
42:30
That doesn't mean you're giving low quality.
42:32
Like just to throw that out, it's not that that's not about low quality, right?
42:34
It's not about bad quality.
42:36
It's not like I don't think what I'm putting out is good quality.
42:40
What I'm saying is that I'm not giving myself the pressure Yeah. of perfecting.
42:43
Like there are times when I miss a word or mispronounce a word on a video. Right. Right. Right. Right?
42:48
And and it's like I'm not going to re-record the video for that because at that time it felt right.
42:53
And people can forgive that and I think that's what I mean that just living for creating something of high value and high quality, but not putting the fear of something that's actually going to block you from ever getting it to market.
43:03
And I don't think any entrepreneur or launching a business is ever going to feel like their work is 100%. way.
43:09
it's your baby and you're looking at it, you if you were waiting for 100%, yeah, it just would never happen. No. Exactly. think of it that way. You just can't.
43:16
And I I I think about that even with when we launched our first product, again, like I I there's so many things I wanted to do differently.
43:23
But at the same time, like you also want to put it out into the world and see how people respond to it cuz you want to learn from that and grow from that and build from that.
43:30
So the same way I started that with the hashtag the my YouTube channel to the hashtag of launching Live Tinted as a community, I treated our first product that way, too.
43:39
And I mean, fingers crossed it's going well.
43:41
Yeah, it's I look uh I think it's going amazing.
43:43
Like it's awesome and I love the branding and I know Radhi was in the video, too, which She was!
43:48
which is very fun cuz Radhi doesn't love being in front of cameras.
43:52
Which makes no sense because she could be a IRL model.
43:54
Let's be real, everyone knows that.
43:57
No, but it's amazing and I love that it was it was very real. Yeah.
44:01
Like when I saw it because I'd never seen it from well, Radhi showed me when she was there with you, but I saw it the day it all launched 3 weeks ago and I was just like, "Oh, I love this song.
44:10
Like, I love the look and feel of everyone in the video.
44:12
None of it felt pretentious."
44:13
And I see beauty ads all the time like you we see beauty ads all the time.
44:18
Yeah, and that's the point, right?
44:20
And it didn't feel like that and and and I'm not just saying that cuz you're my friend, I'm saying that because that's how I felt.
44:24
And I was just like, "Oh, this is real."
44:26
And I'm glad that I've just found out from which I didn't know which with the release was scrappy yeah, because I think it it feels real and it feels authentic and genuine and But you know what?
44:36
The thing is is like I feel like if we didn't do it that way like it wouldn't be what what I want the brand to be.
44:43
Like think about you just said it yourself.
44:45
There is a million beauty brands out there.
44:47
What is the point and purpose of just putting out another one?
44:51
There has to be something bigger than a beauty product.
44:54
There has to be something that you want to change and that's in any aspect of whatever business you're building.
45:00
What drives me and keeps me going is thinking like we are actually making momentum in this industry to make it so literally it's not an option to not feature only one type of person in a campaign.
45:10
It's it just it it's not an option anymore.
45:12
You have to make it so you're being truly inclusive and I think that's what excites me more than anything is that girls see themselves with quote and quote flaws which to me are really just like the best parts about people and I think the more that we share people's stories and give people voices. These are all women.
45:30
That's why I think we've been able to grow at the rate that we have is these are all women who have been dying to finally be heard and get their voices heard and I think you know, I can't tell you how many investors, how many mentors all told me that I was crazy to want to launch it this way. I mean, so many.
45:44
And I think that's the one of those things that you you should get advice from other people in your lives of course that you trust.
45:55
But at the end of the day, it's your vision and your gut feeling that has to make the final call. Oh, that's so true. Has to.
46:01
So true and it's funny how that gut and intuition kind of gets quieter and quieter as things get bigger and bigger. It's so hard.
46:09
Like it's almost like as things get bigger, you almost feel like, "Oh, I don't know how to do this, so I've got to listen to someone else."
46:15
I used to go to like five or six different people, and they all had different opinions, and then that just added voices and noises into your own head, and it actually, to be honest, even during the building process, there was certain people's advice I took that was so different from what I wanted. So different.
46:30
I am so glad that before we executed and launched, I I I had like a mentor snap me and say, "Where's the Deepika in this brand?"
46:36
And what she meant by the Deepika is that where is the bubbly personality, the fun, the vibrancy, the the girl that people have been following for 3 years who now wanted to launch something bigger than herself.
46:50
It's so easy to lose yourself.
46:52
And that's what happened with all the voices and noises in my head.
46:53
And I think when I had that person, thank God, like snap that into my brain, I just remembered, "Wow, I want this to be a brand that's about happiness and people to feel like just like positive and good."
47:07
Cuz the beauty space is can be really isolating. It just can.
47:09
And I think um I think, you know, just the media in general can be isolating.
47:16
If I can do one thing with this beauty brand, and it's make one person out there, and I know you I feel like you must feel the same way.
47:20
If I can make one person out there feel like they can be exactly who they are and feel good about that, then like I'm doing what I want to do. I really feel that way.
47:32
It's not It's really not about the beauty product, and I think that's the best part about building this business. I love that. It really is. I love that.
47:39
Tell me a bit about the biggest things you think you have to think about for someone who's thinking of starting a business. Mhm.
47:47
What if you had to say there were three things that I know have been really important to launch this business well, what have been those three big things?
47:56
Apart from the obvious things like getting funding or whatever, but just three key core principles that you think have made a huge difference to a successful launch?
48:03
First, the first thing that comes to mind is cutting out the noise.
48:08
Um there's a lot of things that I used to do that I don't do anymore, and that includes people in my life that I now recognize, and this is why I basically live at this home, is because I'm telling you if if there is even an inkling in you that somebody is negative energy, they're negative energy, and you need to cut that person out of your life yesterday.
48:31
And I've always been the girl that had a million best friends, and like I love being around people.
48:35
Like I said, I'm extrovert, and I I I thrive on other people's energy.
48:40
But the wrong energy can take you way down the wrong place.
48:43
So, I would say the first thing is cut out the noise, and whatever that means in your own way, like the the people, the distractions, the habits.
48:52
Um I I I don't go out like I used to go out.
48:55
I I hang out with my family more than I ever have, and my close friends.
48:59
I've really dwindled it down to a core group of people.
49:01
And you just you have to.
49:04
There's not enough time is so finite that I would say the fiat The first thing is cut out the noise.
49:10
The other thing I would say is You know, I think the whole being scrappy thing is something to emphasize.
49:14
Like I would say like the the whole making a business plan thing, I personally don't believe in that, because to me, my experience the past 10 years, I think is a business plan.
49:26
Like I don't think you have to put pen to paper in that sense of like um I was always taught that.
49:31
Like I was a business Like in undergrad, I was a business major, and it was like create this like formalized business plan, blah blah blah blah blah.
49:37
I think that that's just like there's a difference between brainstorming and doing like a whole like whiteboard situation versus like anything of that like fanciness. Be scrappy.
49:47
Just like just put things out there, see feelers, do tests, and see what happens with that, you know?
49:51
Um so I would say yeah, cut the noise and be scrappy and maybe I would say like support system, support system, support system, which kind of goes into like cutting the noise, but I I can't emphasize that enough because and that for me it was my community, but whatever a support system is to you, um it it is so crucial because whatever you see online, don't believe it.
50:14
It is the toughest journey you'll ever go on, but it's the most rewarding journey you'll ever go on and it is so worth it. Yeah.
50:21
But I wouldn't have gotten through it if it wasn't for my support system. I still every day. Yeah. Every day.
50:24
Yeah, I was going to touch on that because I know we talk a lot about like the psychological impact of like starting a business, growing a brand, whatever it is.
50:32
It's hard work and a lot of people burn out. Right?
50:38
A lot of people get totally stressed, totally burn out, and they lose themselves in the process. Yeah. And you're so right.
50:43
I think you've hit the nail on the head already that just being around the right people, being around the right energy, changing your practices and habits Mhm.
50:52
to suit that bigger goal, right?
50:54
It's not a sacrifice because it's supporting that bigger goal.
50:56
Yeah, it takes a long time to realize that.
50:58
Like I will tell you like I mean I I talked to your wife and you about it all the time is that like there really is this um a difference that just the way you start your day can change the whole trajectory of your day.
51:12
And you know, I I hear your videos and I like know it, but it for somebody who doesn't practice it, it's so easy to pick up my phone and just start working. Yeah.
51:21
And I think for me like it it really is a thing of baby steps because the second you try to say, "I'm going to stop drinking and going out and just like working out and eating healthy and try to do all of these 50 things at once."
51:37
You you end up doing none of them. Totally.
51:38
Like it's just not happening and I think I I was always that extremist.
51:42
I'm always like zero or 100.
51:45
Yeah, Robbie was telling me that yesterday.
51:47
Um I I really am that person and I'm like, "If I'm going to do this, I'm going to go all in on it." Yeah.
51:52
Finding a balance in life is is something I'm, by the way, still working on every single day. Yeah.
51:57
But so important because um yeah, that that mentally your mental capacity was going to be questioned every single day when you start your own business and everything you can do to set yourself up for success is the key.
52:10
But I will tell you, it's sad that the only reason I started caring about like self-care and self-love was because I felt like I had to do it for the company Mhm. rather than for myself. Mhm.
52:21
If I'm being totally honest, that's truly it.
52:23
And like the only reason I was like, "I need to start working out again."
52:27
wasn't because I cared about my physical appearance.
52:28
When I was an influencer, I probably would have cared a lot more cuz I was like, "Oh, I have to like take this photo."
52:33
Running a business, it just wasn't something that was on my mind and something I cared about.
52:38
Um but I started to realize I couldn't breathe well.
52:43
I took like huge gasps for air and I had vocal issues and all of these things happening and I was like, "Wow, Deepica, like if you want this business is only going to be as strong as you are helping run it."
52:54
And that's what kick-started me to start caring, which is quite frankly sad, you know?
52:59
Like self-care should not be something that you look at and think about as an afterthought or something you're doing to support another aspect of your life. Wow.
53:09
But it's the reality of is how I felt.
53:09
I I think that's how all of us are.
53:11
I think we all start taking care of ourselves when we're hit with an external challenge or pain. We're so bad at that.
53:19
Like we're so bad at taking care of something while it's here, while it's there.
53:23
You know, we're waiting for something to go wrong or some big alarm bell Mhm. to sound.
53:27
And I think I don't think that's you.
53:28
I I think that's all of us, me included. Yeah.
53:30
And I think all we can take that as is now that you've recognized that you're now moving it back to, "Actually, I'm not going to do this just for Tinted.
53:36
I'm going to do this for me."
53:37
And that helps Live Tinted cuz Live Tinted is a part of me.
53:40
I think self-awareness is the biggest thing that I've now I I feel like because I recognize that, like you just said, I'm like, "You know what? That's step one."
53:50
And I took that step one.
53:50
So, don't be so hard on yourself, Ebooker.
53:51
Like I It's It's hard to not, though.
53:53
It's this feeling of um you feel selfish doing self-care, but it quite frankly, that's just not how it works. Totally.
54:01
It's It's a part of sustaining yourself. Yes.
54:04
And it can't be looked at that way.
54:06
And you know, even for social media, like I felt like I could never show myself getting or or or going to It's two ways.
54:13
It's like at the other side of it, it's like I also just want to turn off. Yes.
54:17
And I need to give myself that moment to turn off.
54:19
And and and now I've learned a tip I give myself, and I think this is important for everybody, even if you're not doing a career in the social media sphere, I still think giving a day off is just so important. 100%.
54:33
I give myself a Saturday.
54:33
So, on Saturdays, I never feel like I have to do anything online. Amazing.
54:38
I I It's just like the world is not going to end. No. No, no, no. It's definitely not. It's definitely not.
54:42
And I think we forget like I remember it was So, this was before I really had my exponential growth on social.
54:50
So, it was December 2017.
54:52
So, you were at like 1 million instead of 10 billion? Yes. Got it.
54:57
But uh But But I was there and and it was December 2017, and I remember I took the whole month off to be creative in the sense of I didn't put anything out.
55:05
So, I didn't release anything in December 2017. That's amazing.
55:11
Because I was just like, "I don't think I'm going to be able to put out my best work.
55:14
I don't think I'm going to be able to be truly impactful and help anyone Mhm.
55:19
if I'm not giving myself time and space."
55:21
And I think that applies to products.
55:23
I think that applies to videos.
55:24
I think that applies to anything.
55:25
Like you grow in time and space, and we see taking time and taking space as a defect. Totally. Right?
55:34
We see slowing down Yeah. as a defect. Yes.
55:37
When actually it's how we're built. Right?
55:41
We need space to create space for creativity.
55:43
Creativity can only work in space.
55:45
It doesn't work in noise. Right?
55:47
You never have your best idea when there's a million things on your to-do list.
55:50
I'm not going to say that's not true. You just don't.
55:52
And so I feel like you we need to start also recognizing and again this is just step one. Yeah.
55:58
That space facilitates creativity.
56:00
Space facilitates you to perform better.
56:03
No one can go from event to event to event from meeting to meeting to meeting from pitch meeting to pitch meeting to pitch meeting and perform at the same level without taking a break to break sorry without taking a break to refine their skills, to take a pause.
56:16
And I think we have to start recognizing that if we want to move forward, we have to press pause. Right?
56:23
We just have to press pause.
56:23
I remember there was a moment where when I was doing YouTube videos, I just need I felt like I was supposed to post every single week one video to for the algorithm and like oh it'll help me grow quicker.
56:37
But my creative and all of that stuff that you just talked about wasn't there and you could feel it in the videos.
56:40
I would still put them out because I felt like I had to and and people felt it.
56:46
And you know I saw it in the comments and I saw it they were like okay this doesn't even feel like you anymore and quite frankly I hit a cap where I didn't want to make makeup tutorials because in the beginning for me making makeup tutorials was again me helping a girl out there see themselves reflected online.
57:02
But by the end of it my heart and soul was so into building this business and giving an opportunity to other girls to be the faces of on YouTube and and whatever social media you could feel it in my work.
57:12
You could tell when I put out a makeup video that I I didn't care to.
57:16
And it's cuz it's not where my heart and soul is at.
57:18
It was never to be the face.
57:19
It was to create that platform to give other people that opportunity to be the face.
57:24
That's really where it was but it's crazy how you like you you can't fake that.
57:27
Like if you put it out into the world people it is awesome because that's again the community that it was great that they called me out because it made me check myself and it pushed me to go towards building the business I wanted. Absolutely.
57:40
What's been the hardest thing about becoming a CEO?
57:44
Because I feel like yeah, it's a big steep learning curve which you're doing at an accelerated pace.
57:48
Tell us about taking on that role and and what have been the hardest parts about it and how you've navigated that.
57:58
You see all these like quotes about being a CEO on like Instagram and it sounds so cool and glamorous.
58:05
It is Everyone listens to you and everything goes to plan and you're the boss and When you have a tough day, you feel like who do you go to to talk about that tough day?
58:16
Because when you're as the CEO running the company, you're supposed to be the one that has it all together, right?
58:21
But at the end of day, we're all human.
58:23
And I think for me and I think this is why it's so great that the startup culture has like cultivated this.
58:28
You don't have to be you don't have to have it all together and I think that vulnerability of being able to show that to your the people in your um, you know, whether it's your family, friends, or your employees of like I need a day.
58:40
Or you guys like I'm not okay today and I just need that moment.
58:44
I don't think it's I and I'm I'm grateful that I've at least experienced that with the people that work for me now um, where I can show that a little bit of weakness cuz I think like nobody's a robot and if they are, then I know I wouldn't want to work for a robot, you know?
58:58
And I think um, that human aspect has made it easier, but I still feel this insane amount of pressure to deliver better and better and better and better.
59:09
And like no matter how much people tell you to stop and like soak in that moment, like Deepica, you guys launched and everyone's so happy and excited about it.
59:17
I still think about we have so many more lives to impact.
59:19
We have so much more goals to hit.
59:21
And I'm always thinking about bigger, bigger, bigger.
59:25
And again, it's not from a business perspective, but it's from a um just like the the That's exactly it.
59:31
The impact that we want to make.
59:33
So, it never feels like enough, and I consciously I'm trying to make like those moments to sit back, and usually it means going home to my family who really just, you know, they're so proud of me, but they also know like when I'm home, I don't want to talk about my job. Yeah.
59:48
I just need to like a day to like myself, and I think that's so important because I I don't feel like I can shut off except for that one day.
59:56
And I Yeah, so I think like being a CEO is I just I think it's so important people recognize that that responsibility is heavy, and it's massive, and the fact that and I I said this earlier, but it's so true.
1:00:08
The fact that any decision I make not only impacts my life, but in fact impacts other people's lives is so much heavier to like hold on your heart because even though like if I make a mistake and I have to deal with the consequences, that's one thing.
1:00:22
But if I make a business decision and we hire somebody, but then recognize that the business doesn't need it anymore, and I have to fire that person, that's their livelihood at stake.
1:00:31
So, I think it's really important that if you decide to start a business, you really recognize those those things that I was saying earlier about having that emotional support.
1:00:38
emotional support. You really cut out the noise, and you really just make time to think about what it is that you want to be as a leader because I really did have that moment, and I was like and that's why I was saying earlier, I was like I I feel
1:00:51
like I'm allowed to just be myself and be show my weakness, and and hopefully the people that work for me see that as something where I'm I'm um kind of just like letting them recognize that like this business is more than just a business. Mhm. There's something Mhm.
1:01:04
There's something behind it that matters to me more, and that's why I get emotional.
1:01:11
That's why I care, and and and that's just the way I want Live Tinted to be run.
1:01:15
I'm not saying, you know, that's for every business, but for me, if it didn't have something bigger to it, I wouldn't want to be a part of it, personally. I love that. I love that.
1:01:25
It's awesome having you on the podcast because it's so much about purpose, and I really feel when I'm listening to you that it's a purposeful brand.
1:01:33
It's a purposeful movement.
1:01:34
You're a purposeful person.
1:01:36
Like, you're living on purpose, and it's Totally.
1:01:39
And I think that that's the difference between what wins and what doesn't, and what's also fulfilling and what's not. Yeah.
1:01:47
Because I think that a lot of things can win in life and succeed, but they may not fill you up with meaning and happiness Mhm.
1:01:54
because it's not linked to purpose.
1:01:57
I think you and I have both met people where we've met that they have you what externally looks like everything. Mhm.
1:02:04
Everything that you think somebody wants, and they still feel empty inside. Mhm.
1:02:08
And for me, I when it's all said and done, I want to when I think about what footprint I want to leave on like the world and what I want to do.
1:02:15
And this is I've heard so many people say to me like, "It's a beauty brand.
1:02:19
You're in the beauty industry."
1:02:21
What I literally have when investors are like, "But it's it's makeup." Yeah.
1:02:24
And that that's when I walk out of the room and know that they're not the right partner for me because it's not makeup.
1:02:29
It's about making people feel good about themselves and who they are and giving them that confidence to walk out the door and feel like they are complete. I love that.
1:02:39
And I don't think that for me, again, this is just having that like footprint and leaving that footprint, I think everybody wants to figure out what their version of that is.
1:02:48
And that's when you feel fulfilled inside, and it's it's Don't get me wrong.
1:02:53
I mean, you listen, like I'm not going to sit here and preach this whole thing of like I worked hard.
1:02:55
I am working hard, and I do work hard, and I I feel proud, and I have goals.
1:03:00
Like, I want to one day buy my dad like He got me I think back to this and like when I was 16 years old, my father drove a Toyota Camry.
1:03:07
He was working overnight shift after overnight shift, and um you know, in in a family of doctors, he's the only one that's not a doctor. He's a lab tech.
1:03:15
And now that I understand money and the financial responsibility that he had on just that salary supporting our entire family, it blows my mind because I was a brat.
1:03:28
I wanted that Abercrombie and Fitch shirt.
1:03:30
I wanted that blah blah blah.
1:03:30
And I now realize how much we couldn't afford it. Yeah.
1:03:35
But he never let me realize that as a kid.
1:03:36
He gave me everything I ever wanted.
1:03:38
Everything I ever wanted.
1:03:38
And you know, I used to have this guilt, this like heavy guilt about it.
1:03:42
Like why was I that girl? Um I was such a brat.
1:03:47
And And now instead of feeling that guilt, I just think about how I can pay it forward to them, but to other people and hopefully one day my kids.
1:03:52
I mean, it's just one of those things.
1:03:53
And I think that's why I'm so proud of the culture and the background I came from and wanting that to be a part of the Live Tinted brand because I Again, like I used to not be proud of it.
1:04:04
And it's so silly because that is the dopest part of who people are. It's that Absolutely. that identity.
1:04:08
Yeah, but there is something about that South Asian community that doesn't have it. I know.
1:04:13
And so I'm really glad that people like yourself And you.
1:04:16
are representing that so incredibly well and with grace.
1:04:22
And I think that's very important.
1:04:22
I I think representation is never a matter of ego or competition. It's a matter of grace. Yeah.
1:04:29
And like accepting and valuing others and recognizing everyone's value, everyone's beauty, everyone's And that's what you've done with the brand, which is just unbelievable to see.
1:04:38
So, thank you for doing it.
1:04:40
Is there anything that I didn't ask you about that you wish I did? No.
1:04:43
I always ask that because I always want to make sure that you got to embody the message you wanted to share.
1:04:49
No, I mean, honestly, like I feel like it's just having a vulnerable conversation. I feel like we did. Good.
1:04:53
So, we do end every podcast with a final five. Oh my god. Okay.
1:04:56
The rapid fire, quick fire. five? No. Okay.
1:04:59
That would make it really easy. No, no, no.
1:05:02
They're I know, they're not the same five.
1:05:03
Okay, so this is your Oh my god. Okay.
1:05:05
Okay, your final five starts now.
1:05:06
I literally want one word or one sentence answers. Okay. Right?
1:05:11
One word or one sentence. Okay. Okay.
1:05:13
So, first question, what you come and sit next to me? I'm scared. I'm going to die.
1:05:17
What is your one beauty product you can't live without?
1:05:20
Huestick Dahlia of Live Tinted. Okay, good. That's very good. know. Number two.
1:05:23
Uh what's your biggest piece of advice for someone wanting to Oh, no, no.
1:05:27
I'm not going to I'm going to change that one cuz I asked you that earlier. Mhm.
1:05:29
Um what are the three biggest pillars of what Live Tinted stands for?
1:05:36
Inclusivity, acceptance, and happiness. Okay.
1:05:40
Question three, what's one step in your morning routine that you will never skip? Now, it's breathing. Nice.
1:05:45
And I think a heart a large part because of you in my life.
1:05:50
I actually take a minute to breathe.
1:05:52
Trust me, I've got to work on that myself. Like that's like poor.
1:05:53
I think that's something you have to do forever. Yep.
1:05:57
It's like drinking water, right? You can't Absolutely. Okay.
1:06:01
Uh number four, when you're having a bad day, what do you do to make yourself feel better? Um What do I do?
1:06:11
I'm working on that now actively.
1:06:13
Hang out or be around somebody I love. Okay. Awesome. That was not a word. That's fine. That's one sentence.
1:06:19
That's one That's one sentence. That's one sentence. That's one sentence.
1:06:22
And number five, what would you want to be remembered by?
1:06:27
Um I I want to make an impact and I want I whatever way that means and I want if I if if the legacy of Live Tinted is that we've somehow evolved the beauty industry to be more inclusive, I feel like we've done our purpose. I love that.
1:06:44
Thank you so much, Deepica.
1:06:44
Thanks for having It's so awesome having you on the podcast. We got to hang out. Yeah, this is great.
1:06:49
We actually got to hang out, but if you don't already follow Deepica, please go and find her on YouTube and Instagram.
1:06:54
Of course, go and follow Live Tinted as well on Instagram. Anywhere else? Yeah, you know. Go to our site.
1:07:02
Go to the site livetinted. com. Yes, no. Say it. Yeah, livetinted. com. Yeah, livetinted. com.
1:07:06
I'm sure there's so many of you out there that are listening or watching right now who are thinking I need this makeup in my life and And more than that again like I didn't say this as one of the three words but I should have it's community community community and it's like you really can learn and see other people in this community and see what products they love.
1:07:22
It's not just about our products.
1:07:23
We have a whole platform for other people to see other people's products cuz I think that education is um it's important and fun.
1:07:29
Yeah, well one of the biggest reasons I wanted to do this with you Nadi because because I want to have the same conversation with you every year as you go and build this brand.
1:07:38
Yeah, that'll be interesting.
1:07:40
I love seeing my friends like yourself just start incredible ventures with so much purpose and I feel so grateful that the community of friends we have here is so purposeful Amazing.
1:07:49
and so deep and I just want us all to support each other and I think it's so important like I want to look back on this conversation 10 years 20 years from now.
1:07:57
Gosh, it's going to be crazy right?
1:07:58
Yeah, and for all of us to just be like oh my god do you remember when we were just trying to do that and start and you were starting this company and I was doing this and I just I want to have that and I that's what I'm saying that start supporting your friends right now. Yeah.
1:08:10
Like wherever you are in the whole same space just start supporting your friends because There is room for everyone collaborating is way stronger than competing.
1:08:18
Totally totally and and thank you so much for being an amazing guest. Thanks.
1:08:22
I genuinely hope anyone who's listened or watched this is going to go back make a ton of notes and I hope that you're going to go and find out how you can actually apply some of these principles.
1:08:31
I think Deepika's set out so many great gems like so many great moments of great advice that I think that are going to help you.
1:08:37
So if you're in the process of building your startup if you're in the process of building your side hustle like if that's where you're at listen to this podcast again and take in what do I do right now? Where do I go from here?
1:08:48
Don't worry about the big dream.
1:08:50
This is a 10-year dream in the making. Yeah, it's Right?
1:08:53
It's not about starting the brand tomorrow.
1:08:55
still 10 years and 20 years to go you know.
1:08:57
Totally totally and it's not about starting the brand tomorrow.
1:08:59
It's not about building the product you wanted forever tomorrow.
1:09:02
It's about doing each part, each step of the way.
1:09:04
That's what this story is all about.
1:09:06
It's each step of the way, every step has its use, has its purpose, and that's going to help you build an amazing, amazing life, career, and most important impact. So, thank you Deepika. Thank you so much.
1:09:18
Loved having you on the show.
1:09:18
Make sure you guys share anything that Deepika said, please share on Instagram, please share it on Twitter, please share it on Facebook. I love seeing them.
1:09:24
I love reposting them as well, and I can't wait to see you again next week.
1:09:28
Thanks so much for tuning in.
1:09:29
If you want even more videos just like this one, make sure you subscribe and click on the boxes over here.
1:09:35
I'm also excited to let you know that you can now get my book Think Like a Monk from thinklikeamonkbook. com.
1:09:44
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