As we discuss breaking into beauty and related industries, it is important to hear perspectives on getting started from individuals at different stages of their careers. I invited Kourtney Pope to join me for a detailed chat on breaking into both fashion and beauty
She details how she was inspired to follow her dreams after attending a Teen Vogue event where she was determined to meet as many key players as possible. She explains how she had to turn down an internship at Eloquii because it didn't make financial sense but eventually ended up at In Style. it was at that internship that she was told that she would have to decide on an industry. Would it be fashion or beauty? To which she replied, "Nobody has ever told Oprah that she had to choose."
Although Kourtney didn't take the internship at Eloquii, she stayed in touch with her contact there, demonstrating how important it is to create genuine connections.
It was interesting because my journey with Eloquii was kind of like a bit of a loop, but everything I knew I was doing was for the greater good and it has been ever since. Because that's how I initially got my, introduction into social media.
Her name is Alex. I am forever indebted to her because she literally gave me my start in social and taught me so so much. I kept in contact and after I graduated, I updated my resume. Let her know. I have recently graduated and wanting to know if there were any openings in the New York office when their marketing team, she said, unfortunately they didn't have any openings, but if I kept an open mind, they did have some opportunities in their other home office, which was in Columbus, Ohio.
Kourtney explains how she leveraged her initial role to become an in-house influencer for the brand and eventually came to the company's New York office. How another networking opportunity propelled her pivot to beauty in social media at Kiehl's. She discusses the differences between startup culture and a legacy brand, fast fashion and skincare as well as how she brought a more diverse outlet to how the brand partnered with influencers.
The thing that I did find that was interesting between fast fashion and beauty is the timeline. So for me working at Eloquii, I feel like we were always just on like high gear all the time, because we were dropping collections every two to three weeks. So there was the constant need to like create new content, a new launch, supporting it on social, all those things. Whereas with working with Kiehl's, we would get our calendar in advance and it would probably be six or seven drops spread out throughout the entire year. And then of those, maybe three of them are actually like new products.
She explains why she made the difficult decision to leave that role. And.why your 20s is the best time to explore different career paths. And now she is back in the world of startups as she consults with the relatively new beauty, wellness, and lifestyle platform, Drk Beauty , and the platform's amazing initiative to give away hours of free therapy to women of color. [which as of today is the goal is to raise 10,000 hours].
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