Allison Statter and Sherry Jhawar: Co-Founders of Blended Strategy Group and Nez

Hi everyone, I'm Hilary Kerr, the co-founder and chief content officer of Huatware, and this is Second Life, a podcast spotlighting women who have truly inspiring careers. We're talking about their work journeys, what they've learned from the process of setting aside their doubts or fears, and what happens when they embark on their Second Life. Today, I'm joined by the co-founders of Blended Strategy Group and, Nez Deodorant, Allison Statter, and Sherry Joir. Allison and Sherry founded Blended Strategy Group in 2015 as a celebrity and influencer marketing agency, and since then, the company has evolved to include services in integrated marketing, PR, social media, and more. Along the way, they've helped build numerous brands, including Give Beauty by Gwen Stefani, and Jennifer Meyer, Fragrance, and Beauty. But just last year, they set out to create and develop their own brand, Nez. Nez is a line of aluminum-free deodorants that are customized by the occasion. There are three types of deodorant, and each come in both a bright and a smoky version and are sold direct to consumer and in retailers like Urban Outfitters. But, before Allison and Sherry were teaming up to disrupt multiple industries, their careers looked a bit different. After graduating from Harvard Business School, Sherry went on to become a founding member and the head of global marketing at the lip balm company EOS. Meanwhile, Allison was working at Azov Music Management, managing artists like Jennifer Watson, Jewel, and Mariah Carey. While working together to book celebrity and talent for EOS, the two realized they could create magic if they just joined forces. Sherry and Allison's partnership is so beautiful, and I can't wait for you to hear from them today. Now, on Second Life, it's Allison Statter and Sherry Joir. All right, ladies. Are you ready to talk? Let's do it. I'm so excited. So we always like to start this podcast at the beginning. What did you study in school, and much more importantly, what did you want to be when you grew up? Sherry, can we start with you? I don't know. I mean, I really wanted to be a lot of different things when I grew up. I wanted to be an astronaut first, but when I went to college, a lot of South Asian kids get influenced by their parents to become a doctor. So I went to UCLA as a pre-med, totally scared to touch people and not in hospitals at all, so really good major to be in. And I have an older brother who is eight years older than me and had ended up in investment banking. In mind, this is 1996 when I started college. So he was early world of investment banking as a career. And I was like, what do you do for a living? And he told me a little bit about it. So I decided to take a business class and accounting class and economics class. And I really liked it. It fit well with my ability, my math skills. So I ended up pivoting to that. And at least my brother had trail braze by not being a doctor, so, you know, both good and bad. My parents thought I was the last hope for a doctor in the family. But then also I was like, well, you know, I'm going to go do what my brother did. And so I ended up studying economics and accounting and really enjoying it a lot. And so that was sort of my first fray into this world. Allison, what about you? Well, it's interesting because Sherry has this really robust academic career behind her. I have the polar opposite. I'm actually a college dropout. And I was never a great student. And I went to so many different schools through elementary, middle high into going to the University of Arizona for two years before I dropped out. And I think that for me, school is hard. It was hard for me academically. It was hard for me socially. I was challenged a lot within the different environments that I was in. And ultimately, I think it was because I had such an entrepreneur spirit and because I'm such a go, go, go, go, go type of person. So I was confident in leaving college and starting my career. And back then, I wanted to be a makeup artist. And so when I dropped out of school, I went and worked at a little salon in West Hollywood at the time. This was in the early 2000s. And I worked at a salon called Art Luna. And I worked for Chris Levine. She taught me how to do makeup and she taught me how to eyebrows. And I was living my best life. I would say that before I knew career inspiration, I am not kidding you, Hillary. When I was like 10 years old, all I wanted to do was be a mom. Oh, so I feel like now between being a mom and then the dream of makeup and beauty, I guess it was always in my DNA. I just didn't realize it back then. It's always so interesting when you look back and you realize, there are these little breadcrumbs in all of our lives that lead us where we're supposed to go. I love that the two of you have such different backgrounds because having done over 400 interviews for this podcast over the years, I am very clear on it doesn't matter like what your background is, what you come from, what you study, what you don't study. When you have a passion and you follow that passion, that's ultimately the thing that really matters. It's all building towards the thing that it's supposed to build toward. And the path's shift, right? You think you're on one path and then something pops up and you're like, Oh, Jessica, wait a minute, that wasn't part of my plan, but I'm going to roll with it. It's a windy path very much so. So Sherry, you went to Harvard Business School, so parents must have been proud about that at least. Yes. But before that, you worked at Goldman Sachs for a couple of years. So tell me a little bit about how you got that job. Was it the right fit? Was it what you expected? Yeah. So being in accounting and economics major at UCLA, graduating in 2000, so there were like big five accounting back then. Now I think it's big four. But I did an internship in that. You know, it was like fine. It was fun. I always say interns are somewhere between managing director and God. They're treated very well because they're trying to recruit you to come back full time. So you have a blast. But it was kind of boring, like the actual work, like what an accountant does and stuff, because it's really me. And so again, I mean, my brother has been a significant mentor in my life. I was like, what do you do for a living? And he told me and I was like, okay, that sounds kind of interesting. So I applied to all the investment banks, which they didn't recruit heavily from UCLA at that time. They recruited for Morton and, you know, you know, you're for Pennsylvania and different schools out east. A lot of Ivy Leagues and Stanford and stuff. And so, you know, it wasn't a common thing to get a job out of UCLA at the investment banks, and certainly not the top ones. But I was really determined. I knew I was really good at finance and numbers. And I thought it would be an interesting thing. I also really liked that it's almost like an extension of college unlike Allison. Like I really liked the structure of what college did for me in terms of helping me figure out where I fit in life. I didn't really love high school. We moved when I was in high school to California from the East Coast. So you never quite fit in. And in college, I found myself and I found people like me who were very confident in their own skin. We were all just a bunch of nerds and we were happy being nerds and it was great. So I wanted that extension of college. And Goldman had a really large starting analyst class. It was like 250 or 300 analysts all sorts of gather. So it's like, feels like college all over again. You all just graduated from school. You're all looking for friends. You're going through the same kind of hell of working 100 hours a week. And it was an amazing experience for that reason. The people like some of my best friends are still for my analyst classic Goldman, which is like really cool. The work was fine. I enjoyed some of it. It wasn't the most stimulating thing, but it was fine. I was good at it. But the actual like energy, you know, and it wasn't that it was just, oh, it's male dominated. It was like, you're made to soften yourself or at least back then. And I'm hoping the industry has changed a lot in the last 23 years. But I read something recently where someone used the analogy of like you sandpaper yourself and I really loved that analogy because that's what I felt like I was doing. I was sandpapering myself. I was told in reviews, you smiled too much. And I'm like, that's just my face. I can't change it. And so, you know, when you're told something like that at 21 years old, it's really traumatizing. And I know that's not what they intend. And Goldman is an incredible culture. So I'm not bashing that company. You know, it's just that they said, I appeared young because of my smileyness. And then it's like, I knew I had to wear the boxy as suits. Like, you know, it was just like, I just felt like I was sandpapering myself, dulling myself down. And when you do that, you spend more time worrying about what you're doing to dull yourself down than actually doing the work. Am I smiling too much? Did I blink too much? Am I not wearing the right things? You're self-conscious. Exactly. And that takes away from you actually, like paying attention to the work you're doing, a paying attention in the meeting and learning and growing. And so, I didn't realize it at the time. I realized it later on in my career when I ended up exactly where I belonged in life. That I was like, oh, wow, that's what it feels like to just be you. So I wouldn't trade that experience for anything in the world because it was the best training ground. And one of the deals I worked on was selling a denim company to Jones Apparel Group. It was a company called L.E.I. jeans. And that really got my consumer bug bitten, where I was like, oh, this is better than energy and power. Like, oil and gas is kind of boring, but acid-wash jeans are really washed with acid. Who knew? That's awesome. It is true, though, that like being able to show up as your full self to work is game-changing in so many ways. Also game-changing, I would imagine, is having a little Harvard Business School experience. What made you decide to want to do that? We've had a number of folks who have gone through that program. It sounds phenomenal, but also I have definitely gotten the sense that it's like the timing needs to be right. You need to know what you want to get out of it to really have the most of that experience. I fully agree with that. There are a lot of people I advise not to go unless they really just want the experience for life. If they think it's going to help their career, I'm like, I don't know that it will. It might actually take you back a couple years. And so I was 23 when I went, which was very, very young. Most of my peers were 26. And most of my peers in my college and my golden class were at Business School years after me and stuff. And so I actually thought about applying because I started working in 2000. I started working in the whole tragic events that occurred in the world. After watching that tragedy in the world, I watched the economy plummet. And I watched like the financial services business plummet. And the work I was doing was not very interesting in terms of like I wasn't actual deals. It was just more pitching. It was still like learning. And I just was like, I don't think this is a good time to be in the workforce. Like I don't think I'm going to be able to accelerate myself much by working. But if I could use these two years while the market's in a recession and go hide in Business School, like basically they'd come out and be like, oh, it's a new world. That would be a good thing. And people thought I was crazy. I mean, I was told by everyone that I was a lunatic that I was applying as young as I was. There was like, there's no way you're accepting you, you're less than two years. We're experienced. And I was like, what's the harm in applying? So what? If I don't get in, I'll reapply in a year like it's not the end of the world. And I was very honest with Goldman. I was like, I'm going to do this. And if I don't get in, well, you extend me the third year analyst position. And if I do get in, then I'm going to go. I got in. And then I was like, basically felt like L Woods, like leaving L.A. and going to post. I love it. It was again, an incredible experience. And for me, the timing was perfect because I was young enough in my career that I didn't really know what was next for me. And I really got a lot out of it. I will say that I might have gotten more out of it if I'd worked a little bit more because I had a lot of imposter syndrome going in there, feeling like I didn't belong. I didn't want people to know how young I was. I tried to hide it for a really long time. So pros and cons. Although I feel like imposter syndrome comes with you no matter what, no matter when, whether you're 23 or 33. Exactly. But I do advise people to really think about the timing and what they want out of the experience before they go because it's also a very big investment cash-wise for the tuition and housing and everything. And then to really get the most out of it, you've got to do the experiences that come with that traveling, with your class, all those types of things, that's what makes it. And then you think into the lost income over those two years. So it really can end up being a very significant overall investment, opportunity cost and actual cost. But also yields great opportunities because when you came out of that, you realized like, OK, I'm going to go for marketing and ended up working at Luriao. So what was that initial career pivot like to work in marketing? So it was significant. I had no idea what a marketer does. I actually didn't even think it was a real job. I was such an obnoxious finance person. And I interned in finance at Mattel and it was interesting and I loved toys and it brought me back to L.A. for the summer. But then I realized like, oh, wow, the marketer is really ruled the roost here. I worked at Goldman Sachs. I went to Harvard Business School. I might have had imposter syndrome, but I like to think of myself as someone who's part of the team that rules the roost. So I was like, I guess I have to become a marketer. I don't know what they do, but I guess I have to become one. And I really set all my sights on Luriao. I told only company I applied for, so thank God they accepted me. And the reason I set my sights on Luriao was because I thought it was a really great beauty company. I wanted beauty because it's considered fast, traditional food and household goods are great training grounds for marketing, but someone gave me advice that coming from investment banking, that's very fast pace, if you're going to do marketing, do it in an industry that launches products very quickly and beauty and toys that are those types of industries. And Lori also at that time in 2004 was one of the few beauty companies that had a little MBA class is small, but it still felt like, again, me being this very structured person of college at UCLA Goldman Sachs in Harvard Business School, I knew I wasn't the person that could chart my own career, especially in something I didn't know anything about I don't know anyone who worked in it. So I was like, I'm all in on Luriao, interviewed, again, didn't realize how much I was just being myself. And that's why I got the job because I just was me and I walked through those doors and you just knew you belonged and it's a crazy place. It is an incredible training ground, it is fast pace, but it's like, I just knew I belonged because there was nothing I could talk about that wasn't okay to talk about because it was the beauty industry and it was women and you were allowed to smile. I was just going to say that I was like, you could smile, I could smile. And my first project at Luriao was to rename all the preference hair color shades. They said, give them all a fantasy name. I'm like, what's the fantasy name? Like, what does that mean? They're like, this says, medium ash brown, is that cafe ole, is that toffee almond? And I'm like, oh, okay, cool. My boss told me at the time, like, go talk to so and so in this group, she'll be able to tell you more about the color wheel and what it's all about. And I like walked in there apparently just so excited being like, is, you know, patty slattery here? I was told to come talk to you, I have to rename all the preference shades. And she was like, who is this lunatic who's so excited about this stuff that she sat with me and she was like, oh my god, she's genuinely just this so excited. And like, this is awesome. She's meant to be here. And I realized I was made for marketing and I didn't even know I was made for marketing because I didn't know what a marketer did. And Lori Al is a place that let you be you. And I cannot say a bad thing about my experience there because it shaped me for exactly who I was meant to be. At risk of fast forwarding too much, I would like to talk about getting bitten by the entrepreneurial bug before we get over to you, Alison. So you were at Lori Al for about three and a half years and then you joined a founding team. Talk to me about that. Yes. I met these two guys who were creating a company that was either going to incubate brands or invest in brands since 2007 when I met them. A lot of the middle market private equity firms that exist now in consumer didn't exist or they existed and they're very small like the BMG existed, it was so much smaller than what it is today. ACG, I don't think even existed, definitely not like prelude and all these other ones that have come up that are amazing in this day and age. And I always had this thesis that like one day these worlds would converge finance and consumer and I always wanted to merge myself into that. And most people who were in traditional private equity didn't see that side. They were like early stages only tech, blah, blah, blah. And so I was fascinated by what these guys might be building, incubation, investing. And it was a total leap of faith. There was nothing that told me this brand was going to be anything. They hadn't designed the egg-shaped lip balm, you know, the company was EOS. None of that was there. You know, most people are like, oh, you must have seen it and known it was a winner. I was like, no, no, it was nothing. They heard the joint. It was just two guys and a brand name and some ideas around categories. That they thought could be disrupted. And I just really trusted that they would be good guys to work with. They seemed like they were visionaries. And I knew what I wanted. And I wanted to be someone who made a difference in the organization and in the product storytelling. I also recognized L'Oreal for what it is, a very large company. And I had just been promoted to a marketing director. And a marketing director is kind of this mushy middle area. You're not senior enough that your decision maker, but you're not still doing the actual day to day. You're going a lot of meetings and pushing a lot of paper around. And like just constantly updating people. And I was like, this is just not my jam. But I also recognized like I'm not going to get promoted to a system by President in two minutes. Like it's not be unrealistic here. I respected the system. I really respected what it took to be promoted. Even though it's a meritocracy completely there, but still I was like, it's still going to take time. And I was like, how do I fast track that time? I could accompany with two people. Yeah, my biggest mentor is Carol Hamilton, who's quite senior over there. And she was asking me like, is there anything that we can do to help convince you to stay? And I was like, I want to be you. And I'm not going to become you here for 34. I don't even know how long it's going to take a long time. And I respect that. Like I'm not saying I'm anywhere near you. But this gives me a snippet to be you in a microcosm of a size of an organization. So I can at least think what I've seen you think in meetings, how you ask questions. I can try and do some of that. And it may fall flat on my face. I may hate it. But worst case scenario is I go back to L'Oreal. I go back to another big company. That doesn't go away that opportunity. Yeah. So I've got to take this leap. And she was like, I hear you. And the door is always open for you if you want to come back. But I want you to have this leap. And it was a great experience. Never in my life did I think I'd be one of the chickens that helped play the egg-shaped lip balm. And I loved the guys that I worked for. And Jonathan Teller, who's still the CEO of the brand, was an incredible person to learn from. And also just trusted me. Let me also again be me. Let me lean into social media when social media wasn't even a word. And that was, again, a pivotal change for me and the ability to learn real marketing. Like now all the aspects of marketing and a big company, you're very much in one lane of marketing. You don't touch all the other aspects of what it is. Ah, sounds like the dream in so many ways. We have so much more to talk about. But first, Allison, you're living your dream life. You're in West Hollywood, you're working at Art Luna, you're doing makeup. At what point did you start thinking like, OK, this is great. I love this. But maybe it's time to try something different. It's funny. I didn't have that moment. I really was. I was living the dream. You know, however, I was still living with my parents. And my dad came to me and he was like, hey. I need you to come work for me for two weeks. I was like, I have a job. I can't take off of a job for two weeks to come work for you. And it was this back and forth and this back and forth. And he had just sold his record label and was kind of vamping up and restarting his management firm. And it was like, I just need you for two weeks to come in and help me. And yadda, yadda, yadda. And little did I know, he for sure, him and my mom, by the way, had some sort of plan that I wasn't aware of. And two weeks turned into 17 years. I never actually had the moments that Sherry had where it was like, oh, now I want to try this or now this has taken me here. Yeah. For me, it was more that, you know, I fell into it and it just took shape and I was good in it quite frankly. I was really nervous about going to work for my dad. I really wanted to have my own identity. I'm not the type of person that was like, oh, yeah, I'm just going to go be the boss's daughter. I remember my first day at the office in Burbank. I remember getting into the trenches quickly. I sat at the third desk all the way back and my job was to answer the phones and to do the faxes. Literally, that was my job for two straight weeks until it just inevitably never ended. And he signed a bunch of artists pretty quickly on the management side and he just threw me into the lion's den and it was the sink or swim mentality and I'm not the type of person ever to sink. So I just sat there and like, I just swam and swam and swam and swam and swam. So yeah, I never really had that moment of like, oh, I shouldn't be a makeup artist. You know, I look back on it and again, it is one of those things where it has come full circle because of the work that we do, it blended and where we touch beauty and all of the things that I did learn being a manager for so many years are very much implemented into what we do at all of our businesses. That's so amazing on so many levels. I also have to ask, like, I have some understanding of what a manager does, but I also realized that there's so much more to it. Could you give us like a management 101, like top line, what were some of the things that you worked on, the things that you loved, and also some of the stuff that you might not have loved as much? Yeah, I mean, it's actually really simple. Managers do anything and everything, right? Like literally anything and everything, at least that's how I manage and how we manage I should say, you know, and I'm so grateful to my family who have taught me that, right? Like my father has taught me, as has my mother, like we're behind the scenes. Our job is to protect our clients fiercely. Our job is to make sure our clients are taken care of in the best ability, right? It's not just about how are you generating revenue or how are you making sure that they're getting the best deal? It's everything, right? It's how are you making sure that they have everything they need in order to do their job? Because I think what people forget is how hard their job is to do. It is really hard and some people are made for it and some people aren't. And I talk a lot about how the management world has shifted from when I started or even from when my dad started, right? Like when he started his career, it was one to one, right? You made a record deal, the artist went into the studio, they made a record, they traveled around promoting the record, radio show to radio show, then they would go live toward the record and they would go do concerts and the whole thing and then after that they would take a little hiatus and then it was right back in the studio, right? And you just started all over again. At the time, yeah, it was complex. But when you reflect on it compared to now, it was quite simple. Now it's not one to one. You need a village behind you. We fundamentally believe that our talent clients are brands. They're just living breathing brands. So Gwen Stefani is no different than a give beauty, right? They're just intersected now. One is a person and one is a consumer product. So we're looking at everything and you're looking at how are we making sure that they're relevant across social? How are we making sure that they're thinking about everything from live to books to podcasts to PR to brands? It's crazy. It takes a village. It really does take a village to be a manager and it's a hard job and there's no days off. You're 24-7. I mean, the way we manage, we're like, you need a doctor, we'll get you a doctor. Whatever you need, we've got you. And I think those are the best managers and I also think the best managers are the ones who want to do just that. They want to manage. They don't want to be the start. We're meant to help cultivate the client and help them achieve their dreams. And I think that that is the biggest thing in management. And now you think about how many managers there are. Back then there was musicians, actors and actresses and comedians and that was pretty much it. Now you have influencers, you have YouTubers, you have athletes, you have all these different type of people, you know, the glam teams need managers. So it's just shifted so much over my career and I'm so grateful that I got the nitty-gritty dirty down how to do it at such an early time because I feel like those roots of management I'm carrying with me in everything that I do, even how we manage our team at Blended. It's very much similar to how my dad manages his teams, right? Like empower your team, give them the runway to do the job, let them make mistakes, you know, all of that is so, so important. It's interesting because it's like you have to be so forward thinking and you have to be so detail oriented and you have to have this great business sensibility, but then there's also this part that's like very nurturing and it feels like you're really care-taking in a way so that then your client can be their best selves and do their work and those skills feel disparate, but it's really incredible when they all come together. Exactly. So you're answering phones, you're dealing with faxes, next thing you look up 17 years later practically, but was there a moment when you realize like, oh, I'm staying, I'm good at this, I want to keep going. You know, being a manager is hard, you have to really have thick skin. You can't take things personally and it was hard for me because I am very emotional. And so I had this moment where I was like, oh, I got to go take a hiatus from this madness. And I went and I worked at Harrison and Shriffman and I was like, wow, this world's wild too. Like this is crazy what goes on in the PR world. And that wasn't for me. And so I went back to working for my dad and he had just signed jewel. And he was like, oh, come back and help me with jewel. And I was like, okay, no problem. And I did that. It was more than I had a moment when I was there that I knew that doing the 360 management on a day to day level wasn't what I wanted to do. But at the same time, I knew that brand and the intersection of talent and brand was critical. And it was critical for our clients because they were musicians and it was a time when the music industry was in disarray because of the online and the streaming and the Napsters and the labels were trying to figure out everything. And our clients needed brand dollars more than ever from a marketing perspective. And so I knew I was like, you know, I got to go find the money. I got to go find the marketing dollars. It wasn't even just a paycheck to my clients. It was like, how are we going to leverage brand to help promote clients? Knowing that the labels right now aren't able to put as much towards the records or that the promoters aren't able to put as much towards the life. And so that really, for me, was a big driving moment where I was like, I'm just going to focus on brand because it allows for me not to have to do that day to day and interact with the talent at that level. And I knew that our management firm needed someone internally who was highly focused on being proactive and finding these opportunities because sure, of course, the agents were out there. They were on the inbound and they did some proactive stuff, but you also have to remember musicians back then were very different than actors and actresses back then actors and actresses never really had managers. Very few of them did. They only had agents, musicians had managers and that was their real point of contact. And the manager would go manage the agency. So when the commercial divisions and the agencies were pitching my clients, like they were so far removed from the client to understand how to pitch them in a creative way, I took it on myself and I went and did that. I mean, I got a lot of pushback, you know, the agents, especially were pissed. They were like, you can't pitch that. And I'm like, you're not. So I'm going to and they were mostly men. I think that was the moment for me. It was less about like, this is it for me. It was more of like, I'm going to shift my role here. And I did. I went to my dad and I was like, we need to have a commercial division in house. You know, he was growing the management companies substantially through a roll up. I was like, we have to be able to deliver this service for our clients in a big way. And that's what I did for many, many, many years. So tell me about the two of you deciding to star your company together first with blended strategy group. Also, if you could walk our audience through the magic, that is blended strategy. I would love to hear that. I mean, look, it's been a journey, you know, it's been an eight year journey and partnering with Sherry and starting blended has been one of the biggest gifts of my life. Our paths crossed because as I was saying before, I would get a lot of pushback from the agents. And it was really hard to get deals done. I'm so talent forward and talent first mentality that when I was trying to do deals and I would work with buyers who were sometimes advertising agents, sometimes just straight procurement agencies, sometimes they were marketers brand direct, sometimes they were PR agencies. The one common thing across all of those was that they were representing the brand and they had the brand at the center of all of their thinking, right. Being on the receiving end of that, most of the time was very challenging, right. Because they were just trying to get a deal done, whereas I was trying to get a deal done, but also make sure that my client was protected within that deal, right. And so making the deal with step one, executing the deal with step two and the execution is where it got really tricky sometimes because the buyers were like, what do you mean? They won't go in a G string and do this down the beach. And I'm like, guys, why would she ever do that? For you, it makes sense. You know who it doesn't make sense for her. And if you're going to use her to sell a product, you want her to be excited about it. And you want her to feel good about it. And so for me, I had met Sherry funny enough through a buyer who had come to me and was representing EOS and said, oh, there's this new lip balm and they have $2 million and they want to buy a Kesha tour sponsorship. And I was like, well, Kesha doesn't have a tour, but for $2 million, I'll book her one, you know, like no problem. And then the can kept getting kicked down the curb. And I finally was like, what is going on? And I sent her an email. I said, this is who I am. This is what I do. And I would love to get on the phone and hear what you want to do. And she called me and she was like, oh, there's this new platform. And it's called Instagram just for clarification. This is at the end of 2012, beginning of 2013. Instagram had only launched a year prior, so it was so new. And so I had used Facebook as my primary marketing tool at EOS and Twitter for that matter, you know, for a lot of different things that now would be deemed like very revolutionary in micro-influencer programs. That's not what they were called at the time. I was just using the platforms to communicate. And I had a thesis in 2012 that social media essentially was going to be the new form of media. And so then I was like, I don't want a tour sponsorship at all. I told them if what I want needs to be papered and called a tour sponsorship, call it whatever you want. I was like, I want to pay some people to post on Twitter. And by the way, there's this new platform called Instagram that launched a year ago. And if they happen to have an Instagram, it'd be awesome if they could post on that too. I was like, wait, you don't want a 12 hour production day. You don't want three media days. You don't want any of this. And she's like, nope, I just want them to take their own picture and put it on these platforms. I was like, this is heaven. By the way, this was pre-hash tag ad. Yes, it was before an FTC, before there was any market for this. And I'm like, well, who do you manage? And she started rattling off these names. And I'm like, who the fuck are you? Like, how is this real? I reached out to the person that put us in touch. And I was like, hey, this Alice and Statter Woman reached out to me. Is she a good egg? I was like, is she legit? She said she manages all these people. I've met a lot of people who say this crap and like, they don't manage anyone. And so he said, yeah, no, she's super legit. She's a good egg. And then I took it from there. I was like, okay, so who do you want? What do you have? What are your budgets? And we just started running deals. Really seamlessly, super easy, not tons of middlemen, women, whatever you want to call it. I was going to talent direct because at that time, the agents didn't even know what to make of these deals, you know? Yeah. And I'm a very like, I like everything just simple. I'm a get it done type of person. What's it going to take to get it done? And how do we minimize all of the chaos that goes in between? So we did all that. I mean, Sherry and I must have done over a dozen of these placement deals. And, you know, with Miley Cyrus, with Kim, with Jennifer Hudson, with Hillary Duff, I mean, we went on and on and on and on. And people in the industry were like, how's Sherry getting all these people for EOS? And, you know, we just kept doing it. And she came to me and said, okay, I have one for you. And I just want to get your point of view. And I was like, okay, what is it? And she was like, you know, we need someone for our Asian market. You know, she's like, I need to use their image on packaging. I need to be able to get a bunch of social content on Weibo. Weibo for those who don't know is the Instagram over in China. And that's pretty much it. And I want Angelina Jolie, Katie Perry or Taylor Swift. And I literally was like, you're crazy bitch. And I hung up the phone. And she called me back and she was like, no, no, hear me out. Budget is an issue. I just need this person to really compete on shelf and instore with my competitors over there. And it's a new market for us. And I need to be able to build our awareness. And I explained it very clearly to her. I was like, look, Angelina Jolie is never going to do this. Even if you make the biggest offer to her for UNICEF or whatever it is, it's just not up her alley. Katie Perry has a cover girl deal. It's going to be incredibly challenging to carve her out to do this. Taylor Swift is technically open in the category, but she's very expensive. And this is what's going to be required of you. And I know her team, give me these materials. I'll make the phone call. And you know, long story short, is we ended up activating with Taylor Swift. And it was at that moment that I said to her, okay, you're done selling lip balm. I'm done running deals here. And I've taken my role within our family business as far as I can take it. And I had always wanted to have my own company. And I never wanted to do it alone. And for me, I think it was like a security thing quite frankly, you know, like I really loved having that partnership and knowing that we could rely on each other and knowing that we weren't in it alone. And I had found Sherry in that. And I somehow convinced her. I was like, I don't know how you live in New York. It's gross. And your family is here. Get back. You're done living in New York. You're done selling these lip balms. And we're going to start a very focused agency that has people who have talent experience and brand experience at the helm of it to do what we did for EOS. And that really was the catalyst and the incubation for blended. And funny enough, it took us forever to figure out our name, which seems so crazy because it really is such a blend of our backgrounds and our capabilities. You know, we knew that two people with two very different backgrounds and two very different skill sets was a one plus one equals a hundred. And so that really was our goal. Like we started blended with the intent to be an influencer agency and were eight years old, new, young, whatever you want to call us. And we've had lots of growth. We've had lots of pivots. We've had lots of ups and downs in all of it. But at a high level over the eight years, we have grown into a strategic marketing agency with over a handful of capabilities under one roof. And each capability that we added came organically and quite frankly, I saw as the next need in marketing to become this very thoughtful and strategic agency for both brands and talent. And so we do that. And we have a brand division that does influencer celebrity marketing, PR, social media content, strategy, production in our most recent capability that I'm super psyched about as we hired our first employee in January to start our paid division. And when you think of every single one of those capabilities under one roof, we become an extension of a marketing team, whether we're an extension of a marketing team for a give beauty or for a nez or for a dermatological love wellness, a Coca-Cola, a vans, those are some of our clients and olive vitamins, whether we're doing all of it or one of the things or two of the things we're thinking about all of it. And we're talent agnostic, you know, when we're working on a vans, for example, we're working across multiple different levels of talent. And when we're on the talent side of our business, you're thinking about it the same way, right? Talent living breathing brand. How are we activating with them and managing them across all of these different things? What is their brand portfolio? How are they doing their pay for play? How are they creating their own brand? If they can carry their own IP, we're looking at all of those things the same way for our talent clients. And when we have a brand client that fits with our talent client or vice versa, it's just a win all around and it makes everyone's lives easier. So I could do an entire episode just talking to you about blended, but I want to talk about one other aspect of your business, which is NES. And for anyone who doesn't know, it is the most unbelievable aluminum-free deodorant. I am saying that as someone who recently went on a journey. I have so much of it in my house right now. It's actually kind of overwhelming. I ask for a million recommendations. I tried a bunch of things. And I have to say, and this is truly just my own personal thoughts and feelings. It's the only one that I actually really like. This is major, Hillary. This is major because you're product junkie. I am. I see it all. It's just so good. And especially because I am a sweaty lady. And it actually works and like efficaciousness in this department is not always a given. So lunch in 2022, talked to me about why in the world did you come up with this idea? How did you get off the ground? Like what were you thinking? Well, first of all, I'm just so excited that you love the product. And that means so much because ultimately that's the number one goal is that people love the product. And so in 2019, Alice and I had started getting approached by a lot of talent to help them think about maybe starting their own brand. And we'd been talking to a lot of different people about that and working on those things. Like we were starting to think about how would we help Gwen Stefani start what is now give beauty working with like Deepak Kamutiala and what is live tinted. And a lot of them happen to be beauty and wellness, not just because of my background. It was more because of like the fact that that's just where the industry is going. Of course, everyone was so enamored with Kylie. And Kim had done and you know, even Jessica Alba and honest company. So it was a natural thought as beauty as a category. And as I was working on some of that stuff with Alice and looking at that stuff, I never thought I was going to be a beauty brand founder. Like that just never felt like that was necessarily what was in my future or my calling. I loved the industry and I love marketing for those products and stuff. And I came back from a business trip and I came into her office and I was like, Hey, I have this idea on a new form of deodorant. It's such a sleepy category. And it's a really important category to me because I'm a breast cancer survivor. And I was very young when I was diagnosed. There was no rhyme or reason. But the one thing I immediately changed was stopping using aluminum-based anti-perspirant. And you know, I'm not saying aluminum caused the cancer by any means, but it's one better choice you can make for yourself. And yeah, you know, it's your lymph nodes. It's all these things around breasts. And so it's like why? So I was like, I've tried everything on the market. The categories evolved a lot. There's a lot of new players. It's definitely gotten better. But it still hasn't really been thought of like a beauty category. Like, you know, and I was watching innovation and other categories like oral care and things like that. And I was like, it's ripe for a disruption in a really cool way. And who better to do it than someone with, you know, an actual authentic story around the category. And then two people who are just passionate about brand building and storytelling. And I told her the idea. I was like, people sweat through two different glands. And there's this whole thing. So I did the one size fits all. Like, if you're stressed out, that's smelly sweat. If you're running at a berries class, that's wet sweat. That's when you're dripping. You don't actually become that smelly. So like, should I be using a different product? Like these different products for my hair, my skin type. Why is deodorant just coconut vanilla or cucumber melon? And that's all you're thinking about. Or 72 hours of long wear, which I'm just like, who is not taking a shower in 72 hours? Like why? And so that was the thought. And Allison said, if there's anyone I'm going to trust to do this with, it's you from marketing and storytelling standpoint, but the products got to frickin work. But what I also think people don't realize is when you're taking out the chemical of antiperspirin, when you move to a clean aluminum free deodorant, they're not going to work the same. And so the other thing I think people thought was like, okay, I'm going to buy my native. I'm going to put it on once and I'm good to go for the day. No, guys, absolutely not. So I like to call it like you re-ness. You have to put it on multiple times a day, potentially, dependent on how much you sweat, what your body odor is, and your body adjusts as well. So that was a big thing for me in all of this too. And with Sherry is, she really went deep on the formulas, trying all of them, even before she came to me to try them, you know, they were pretty perfect when they got to me. Then it became how are we going to be different? How are we going to stand out? We have these three incredible formulas and how are we going to be different? And it became scent-based, right? Like I want to also smell good, not just not sweat. And so that's really where we went with it is let's make this about reapplying, how you smell, which occasion are you using, and really making it a whole story as opposed to just, here's a new clean deodorant, you should try it. So talk to me about that initial offering, please, because the very first ones were mini. I have a whole bunch of them. By the way, the minis are great because I have them stashed everywhere. Everywhere. Every purse, my kids backpacks, yes, completely. So the initial launch was direct to consumer and there were like mix and match sets of three minis, correct? Yeah, so we were really excited about launching in a mini format, but it was also like, you know, in the spirit of entrepreneurship, it was a little bit of a happy accident in the sense of our full-size packaging, which now just launched about a month and a half ago, is a custom shape. It's a very ergonomic shape. It's like sort of, you know, fits in your hand really nicely and it's contour to your underarms so that it glides on really smoothly. And it's just, I've done a lot of studies on curves and how people like curves and shapes and they're drawn to it and stuff. And so like EOS and beauty blenders, there are lots of things that sort of you can talk about that study. So we were delayed a bit on some packaging just because the custom packaging was being done overseas and with everything happening with COVID-19, it was just harder. And I took a step back with Allison and I was like, okay, well, what can we do in the US that maybe isn't custom and stuff? And it was like, okay, well, maybe we do the minis because it also forces people because we only sold them in bundles of three and you can mix and match and create your own package and we had like versions that were already created for you. And it sort of got people the opportunity to one start to understand the concept of every formula is different. And by all means, use board meeting if you're going for a workout because you love that scent and you love that formula. Like, that's awesome. But they are really actually designed for each one occasion. So there was some science and chemistry that really went into that. And it also allowed people to try three scents. So we have three occasions and we have two scents per occasion and each scent is made for the occasion. So it's like calming and focusing scents for board meeting. It's energizing scents for your workout sessions. It's more like fine fragrance oriented scents for date ready because you're willing to have something that sort of emulates a perfume. And you could find your favorite scent too. And I will say what's been amazing as we've launched full sizes that the repeat is so significantly high and people are buying too. And they're buying two different scents. So they're finding what our hope was that it's like wardrobe your deodorant. Yeah. Treat it like you do other beauty and personal care products. Make it part of your lifestyle. It is a really good product. So it can last all day if you don't have an active lifestyle. But as Allison said, no matter how much you test this stuff, body chemistry, what you're doing the day, if you live in like Houston right now, it's going to be different than you if you live in Alaska. Like if you just had a baby, if you're going through, I mean, I just did a whole thing for pride with some transgender influencers. And when they start testosterone, like that's a whole different thing of like male puberty and what they're smelling like and sweating. So it's like so different for what your life is. So reapply like we live in a generation where my 17 year old niece is walking into school with yellow stars on her face. Correct. It is incredible what that category of pimple patches and what people like Julie shot and star face have done for that category and rail and other incredible brands. And I would entomatize if I walked into school with clear soul in my face like, you know, when I was 17. But there's nothing wrong with having a deodorant in her back back or in your work bag and freshening up. We put hair spray in our hair. We put on lipstick again. And so the minis are a great way for customer acquisition and sampling. And now with the full size, it's like have one in your bathroom tried and true and then have the minis wherever you're going. So it was really meant to be like, let's rethink this category in a really fun way. And the sense are just so good. They're so good. It's funny how many people are like, oh my god, I love, Nez. I love the boardroom break. Or I love that this, you know, smoky and I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm so glad a girlfriend of mine called me the other day and it was like one of the hottest days of the year. And she was like, I just had to call to tell you that I just had to like walk so far and I worn as and I didn't sweat and I still smell so good. And I'm like, thank god, you know, like I'm just so glad it works. But even in some of the meetings that we're having as we go forward and continue to build and grow the brand, we emphasize like this is not just a deodorant, right? Like yes, it is technically a deodorant product, but it is a scent. People are like, oh, you smell so good. What are you wearing? And I won't have any perfume on for the day. Like I will just have the Nez on, you know? And I'm like, oh, that's my Nez. It's my deodorant. They're like, what? And I love that it feels like it's this incredible amalgamation of deodorant, but also like skin care because I also have really sensitive skin and oftentimes the ingredients and clean deodorants do not agree with it. So it has that aspect and then it has this elevated scent aspect to it because by the way, it's like giving Burrito run for its money. Like it's really another level of scent that I have never come across in a category like this. And that all adds up to something that feels like an attainable luxury. It works in all of these different ways, and you want to put it on more. And that's behavior changing in a category where it was the opposite for me for so long. It was like one and done. And I want to think about it as little as possible instead of actually like enjoying the process. Well, we're just thrilled that you of all people love it as much as you do. That's a huge compliment for us. It's interesting to how many men love it. Yeah, talk about sleepy. They have less options than women do when it comes to deodorants and shaving creams and all the things. So it's cool that we've created a product and that everyone can use it actually inclusive. Yeah. So I know that you started as D to see, but you have recently expanded into retail. And the fact that you expanded to urban outfitters is actually genius. Like I got so excited when I read that. Tell me about how the two of you strategically thought this through. Yeah, no, I mean we're so excited about urban outfitters. Like the whole anthropology group is just a cool group of retailers. And I believe that growing methodically and slowly is a good thing. Like people always be like, Oh, well, why aren't you talking to Target or why aren't you talking to Sephora? And don't get me wrong. Like Sephora, all to Target. Like I want all all me guys, if you're listening. But I also believe that you want to walk before you can run, you want to crawl before you walk. And sometimes when you go big retail first, if you don't have the right capital support, financial support, if you don't have the right infrastructure, it's the fastest way to go bankrupt because you just weren't ready for that growth. And I've always just been a big fan of how urban outfitters merchandise this stuff, especially around their impulse area. And I was fortunate to be introduced to the lead merchant at urban outfitters. And I center some product. And I'm like terrible salesperson. Like I'm a marketer. So like I don't know how to follow up. I don't know how often you're supposed to follow up. Luckily she reached back out to me after like a month or so. And she was like, I'm obsessed with this product. Let's talk. And in the Zoom call, where I was taking her through the brand and more detail, her and her colleague just kept opening them and sniffing them all through the call for like the full hour. They just kept opening them and sniffing them and sniffing them. And they were like, we want to launch this. We want to test it in select doors. If it does well, we'll load out fast. We'll put it online. We'll help guide you on something that's very impactful on shelf at our stores. And I appreciated that collaboration. And they've just been a great partner, very communicative, very easy to navigate. Like something where I didn't feel like it's like in another language, these paperwork to set up a spender document because it is really overwhelming. I also just loved that urban was somewhat unexpected. Everyone is like, go big or go home, right? Like Cherie and I know it because we're deep in it in some of our other venture backed businesses. Everyone just thinks like, oh, I got Sephora. Yes, I'm going to be a billion dollar business or I got Walmart or whatever it is. The reality is that's actually like step one. And there is so much to do once you get that. And if you can't fulfill the flip side of being in those mass big retailers and standing out and standing out and converting off of shelf, after you've made this massive investment, you're pretty screwed. Yeah. So for us, it was also that too. It was like, oh, okay, this isn't the traditional path that everyone ourselves included, right? Give beauty. We launched with Sephora. We are deep in it with Sephora, which has been a fantastic partner to us. But I loved that it was also a little bit different of a retail entry point than what everyone would expect for us to be like, oh, yeah, we're going target. I think it's clever. Thank you. And at the end of the day, they have 500 stores in the US. So it's like, they're huge. People don't realize sometimes how big they actually are. So they can be in a really incredible partner. And it's awesome. Okay. So one of the things that we like to talk about on this podcast is mistakes because we all make them. But we don't always talk about it. We just give the highlight real. So I'm hoping that the two of you can tell me about a mistake that you've made at any point in your careers and what you've learned from it. Well, I always say to the team in trying to get them to be less fearful in the work that they're doing is I've learned my biggest lessons in the mistakes that I've made. So I am so grateful for the mistakes that I've made. I think for me, the biggest mistake that stands out is probably back in my management days, which is I've learned that the client is always right, even when they're wrong. And I think with my personality sometimes, it's hard for me to swallow that. And so I think the biggest mistake that I would say I've made is in my management career with a specific artist that I was managing in just fighting back and trying to prove that she was wrong and I was right. It actually was a horrible mistake because it ended up costing me my job because when you think about that mentality of the artist or the client is always right, even when they're wrong, you've got to swallow it. You've just got to take it. You have to learn and not fight back and not try to prove your point because at the end of the day, you lose the client. I just try really hard now to live by that. Like, I do a lot of work on, okay, it might not be fair. It might not be right, but they're right. Sherry, what about you? So I made a lot of mistakes. I feel like, you know, that's just part of all of it. Like, I remember when I was at EOS, I made a mistake on like a coupon program. Coupons are really complicated actually. Like, I think people realize, oh, complex coupons are, especially like the coupons who take to like a grocery store or a Target or Walmart and like, they scan and stuff. Yeah. How those get mailed back and collected and the brand gets charged. It's a very intricate process and something I just set up wrong and all of a sudden it was like, it didn't seem like the coupon had been redeemed that much, but it had and so there was a huge amount of money that we were going to owe that like came up months later that like I didn't know about and I was like, oh my god, this is like half a million dollars holy shit. They're going to fire me. Like, I was like, this is horrible. And I called my boss and I was like, I remember like so distinctly where I was in my apartment and I was like, hey, I need to tell you about something that I discovered last night. And like, I don't even want to wait till like we're in the office later today or whatever. And like, he's like, okay, what? And I like told him, I'm like, this happened. I'm looking into it further. I'm trying to figure out what happened. If it's right, if it's wrong, how will fund it? But I just want you to know right away that this happened. And like, I take full accountability. It's my fault. And he was like, yeah, that's fine. He's like, mistakes happened. I'm just glad you called me and told me the minute you found out that this mistake had happened. Not after you tried to solve it and then couldn't solve it. And then it becomes a bigger fire and a bigger screw up more time is lost. Or even if you could solve it, there's no bigger prize for you because you got to solve it silently in a corner by yourself. We're in it together. Now I know the boats on fire. I'm going to assume you're going to put the fire out. But if you can't, you're going to call me. And I'm going to know there was always a fire. So I'm going to jump right in and help save us both. And he was like, calm down. You're not being fired. It's fine. And like, that has always stuck with me about mistakes. I encourage the team that we work with that blended and other people that I work with in my career that it's like and a lot of people that I manage and how I manage is like, keep me along for the ride. You're never going to get in trouble for making a mistake. But like, let me know it's happening so that I can help or like Allison can like whoever it is can help. And it doesn't serve anyone to find out about it further along. And I'm not going to try and stop you from solving it yourself. Like you still have that opportunity. And so I think that that's like what's really critical about mistakes is knowing that everyone makes them like no one is perfect. And as Allison said, they make you who you are and they help you not do those same things again or learn from it the way I do where I'm like, still going to make mistakes. I just call for help early on. Yeah, it's also like a culture of fear does not lend itself to transparency. And again, it's like the earlier you know, the sooner you can fix something totally. So a lot of the folks who listen to this podcast are in their first lives. And they want to make a pivot of some sort, whether that's in the same industry, but just a different aspect or doing something completely different as two people who have made pivots and had great success with those pivots. What advice would you give someone who's standing there thinking about doing it? But it hasn't made the move quite yet. One, you have to trust your instincts and you have to believe in yourself to do it. And you can. There is no playbook. You know, I remember when my brother graduated college and we were talking and you know, he was like, I don't know. I don't know what to do. Should I do this? Should I do that? I'm like, it doesn't matter which one you do because each thing that you're going to do is going to lead you to the next and you're going to have experience and education from what you got in the prior thing. And so I think that's the biggest thing is knowing that you might be going into a new chapter or your second life, but you're still taking so much of your first life with you. And you've got to do it. You just have, there's no choice. You have to. You just have to. So I fundamentally agree with Alison that I've sort of like three things that I always tell myself. One is I live by the worst case scenario. Every decision I've made has been that in that it's like, what's the worst case scenario? I suck at it. I hate it. That opportunity doesn't do well in itself. Okay, well, I can go back to like Alison said my first life. First life doesn't go away. That's like how when I pivoted to marketing, it's like, well, if I don't like it, great. I'll go back and become a first year associate. What did I lose? A little bit of time. That's not the end of the world. So that's number one. Number two, don't ignore the signs no matter where you are on that spectrum of believing in manifestations and synchronicity and stuff like that. If something keeps appearing, it appears for a reason, like someone, some higher powers force, some whatever, whatever you believe, like something is trying to create a pathway for you to go down. And that's why it keeps appearing because you keep choosing another pathway. So like go choose that pathway. That's been something that's been very significant in my life. And then the third is don't tone yourself down for anyone. Just be who you are. Like if you have parents that tell you to calm down, if work is telling you to smile, they just find a place you can be a smiley person. Like don't get lost in what other people think you should be because then you don't belong there. Find a place with your people because they exist in this world with billions of people, you will find your people. Just keep finding it because you'll never be able to understand how good you can be if you have to tone or soften yourself or sandpaper yourself down. You'll just never reach that feeling of your potential as well as how confident you can feel in your own skin. So on that note, my last question, also my favorite question. If you could go back in time and speak with your younger selves and give your younger selves a little advice, what would you say? A lot of my childhood was being told that you know I wasn't good or I was dumb or everything I did was bad and that weighed heavily on me through my early years of my career, right? I was fearful of being told that I was bad at my job. I was told I was bad at my job. I sometimes am still told that I'm bad at my job, right? And I think that if I could tell that girl that none of that was true, I think that that would do me so much good as a little girl. Yeah. So I mean, it's similar but different. I was never told what Allison was told, but especially, you know, as a kid, I'm immigrant family. We didn't have a lot of money growing up. We didn't have any money growing up. And like you're just striving to fit in and be cool, right? I would tell the younger me, you will be cool. It's like don't cut yourself short into thinking that like because you didn't come from money or because you're not a specific look to yourself, you're not like, you know, a very traditionally beautiful person in what society at that time, I consider beautiful or whatever that you're just never going to like achieve what you want to achieve or be seen. I just want people who are young in their careers or in their lives or in a different stage of life to know they will be seen. They will absolutely be seen. I love that. Ladies, thank you so much for your time. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it, congrats on everything that you have achieved. You have so much more to come. I can't wait to see it's so exciting. And thank you for making such an amazing product just very selfishly for me. I like to think. Hillary, I love you and I love that we got to do this with you after so long. And I'm so happy. This is so fun. The biggest compliment is that you like the product. So thank you truly for trying it and sticking with it. That was the co-founders of blended strategy group and mes deodorant, Allison Statter and Sherry Joire. For more inspiring interviews with women like Allison and Sherry, head on over to SecondLivePod.com where we have so many more for you to peruse. If you like today's show, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. And don't forget to rate and review us. We love seeing spread the word on social and now you can tag us in your posts. We are at SecondLivePod on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. We always want to know who you're interested in hearing from on the show. So send in your requests to hello at SecondLivePod.com or you can DM us on Instagram. I'm at Hillary Curr. The show is at SecondLivePod. Our DMs are always open. I'm Hillary Curr and you've been listening to SecondLive. This episode was produced by Hillary Curr, Summer Hammeres and Natalie Thurman. Our audio engineers are at Treehouse Recording in Los Angeles, California. And our music is by Jonathan Leahy.