One of the patterns I've seen over and over in speaking with successful founders is this.
They don't wait for HR problems to show up.
They build solid systems early on so their company can grow without tripping over itself.
JustWorks is one of those systems.
JustWorks is the human resources platform that helps you scale without sacrificing your team's needs.
It handles automated payroll, benefits compliance, even international hiring, so you can scale your team without slowing your momentum.
JustWorks secures your hiring systems so they don't cost you time, money or people, which is how you scale with confidence.
JustWorks.
For your people.
Your company's data is everywhere, in systems, in silos, and across teams.
But if your AI can't reach it, then that data isn't working for you.
Every business has unique data.
What really makes a difference is how you use it.
IBM helps your AI access your data wherever it lives to change how you do business.
Let's create smarter business.
IBM.
I met and I worked with so many celebrities.
But when I met Oprah was my Oscar moment.
Oprah's production team called Anastasia Soiree.
Would she come do Oprah's eyebrows live on the massively popular daytime TV show?
And it was kind of scary because to do live her eyebrows in front of a camera is very difficult.
I knew she was coming today, so I haven't plucked yet.
This is Anastasia, queen of brows.
Anastasia was used to fixing up the eyebrows of famous people in her Beverly Hills studio.
But to do it for Oprah, I mean, it's Oprah, live, on stage, on television.
I wanted to cry.
I wanted to jump.
I don't even remember what.
But Anastasia kept her cool on camera.
She walked the audience through how to perfectly shape your eyebrows, and Oprah loved the result.
You will not find anybody better than her on the planet for doing brows.
I haven't.
Ooh, look at that brow, baby.
This was a different era.
Daytime television really mattered.
And no one mattered more than Oprah.
Her talk show was seen by millions and millions of people every day.
So after the episode aired... The phone will not stop ringing.
And it hasn't stopped ringing ever since.
The Romanian immigrant celebrity-fueled beauty business grew from renting a room in Beverly Hills to a global brand that peaked at a valuation of no less than 3 billion.
You've got to have incredible talent at every position.
There are fires burning when you're going home.
Can you believe it?
Such an idiot.
And then you go back to, this is totally going to be amazing.
There are so many easy ways.
I have no idea what to do.
Sorry, we made a mistake.
But you have to time it right.
Oops.
Working out of a three-bedroom apartment.
Stuff that just seems absolutely nut balls.
Ten years later, we're like, well, that's just how you do it.
We haven't made just how you do it.
This is Masters of Scale.
I'm Jeff Berman, your host.
Anastasia Soiree is the expert esthetician responsible for the way everyone from Oprah and Michelle Obama to Kim Kardashian and Michelle Pfeiffer shape their eyebrows.
In this episode she shares lessons in leveraging today's influencer economy and explains why she never wants to retire.
I was thrilled to sit down with Anastasia in Los Angeles for this conversation and honestly, a little bit shocked by what she said when we started talking.
You have good eyebrows, by the way.
My day is made.
Anastasia, welcome to Masters of Scale.
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm thrilled to have you.
You like.
So many of the founders we have on Masters of Scale are an immigrant, but most of the immigrant founders we have on the show came to the US as children or came here for college.
You came a little bit later.
Can you tell us about growing up in Romania and what brought you to the United States?
So I grew up in Romania and after the communist regime came to power, things slowly start changing.
They start taking property from my grandparents.
My uncles, they were not allowed to own the restaurants anymore.
They were taken by the government.
It was very difficult.
They started cutting electricity.
Food was scarce, and that was probably one of the reasons why I wanted to defect, to leave the country.
And so you were 30 when you came to the U.S.?
I was 31, yes.
You were 31.
And how did you get here?
So my husband was ship captain and he went to American embassy asked for political asylum and he came to United States.
And I had to wait three years.
The Romanian government didn't want to give me the passport.
So you have this three year wait between your husband applying for political asylum and getting to the US, and you landed in Los Angeles.
Yes, I landed because I told him we need to move only in Los Angeles.
We were restricted.
We couldn't watch movies, Hollywood movies.
Everything was black market.
So we had to close the drapes and watch everything in the dark.
And it was a dream.
I remember watching Pretty Woman and Beverly Hills Cops.
And I thought, I want to walk on that street.
So what was it like when you got here?
You land at LAX and what happens?
Okay.
So the rule was that I could not leave with 1 in my pocket, because every citizen Romanian citizen that own any dollars will be put in jail.
So I asked can I have at least 10 that, just in case my husband will not be there, I could make a phone call?
They're like, no, we'll put you in jail if you have $1.
And my fear was that I will walk in the airport, Los Angeles airport and my husband will not be there.
And I will not have a coin to make a phone call.
Thankfully, he was there.
And I just remember getting out of the airport in the car and I saw that bright light and the palm trees.
The Los Angeles light.
The Los Angeles light.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Was magical, but scary in the same time.
Tell me about the scary part.
Oh my God, everything was scary.
The first thing that I wanted to see was a supermarket.
I started walking on those endless aisles and I was thinking, oh my God, we didn't have.
12 o'clock at night until the next day at 3 o'clock.
And sometimes some of them, they will still not be able to leave with anything.
So I thought, oh, my God, abundance.
Right.
You go from literal bread lines to lines of bread.
Yes, exactly.
Yeah.
You've got culture shock, you have- Everything, it was a shock.
Everything.
So what do you do then?
So I found out from the church that was close to the apartment that they had the English classes for immigrants.
So I went and I started taking those classes.
And my husband worked as a taxi driver.
He met a Romanian gentleman and his wife was an aesthetician.
And when we met, she said, I'm pregnant and I have to take three months off.
And I would love to introduce you to the owner.
You could work in my place.
And then when I am back, you have to leave.
So for her it was a good arrangement, because she didn't want the owner to hire somebody and she could lose her job.
Did you have a background in beauty at that point?
So while my husband came, he saw that Eastern Bloc women, they all were esthetician.
So he suggested I should go and get my license in Romania.
So while I was waiting for my passport, I went to beauty school there.
I worked there for two years and I was kind of surprised that nobody in Hollywood paid attention to eyebrows.
And of course, in Romania, we didn't have disposable cameras.
I bought a disposable camera, and we started taking pictures of people. of us, family.
And I realized that I look surprised in the picture because my eyebrow was pencil thin and round.
So the shape of my eyebrows wasn't correct.
And I remember my art teacher talking about how to draw a portrait and change an emotion.
And using golden ratio, you could change an emotion.
Let me pause you there because I'm not sure that all of our audience is familiar with the golden ratio.
Could you explain the golden ratio for us?
It's a mathematical formula that is found in nature, plants, and everything that surrounds us.
So it's a proportion that the human eye is encoded to recognize, because it creates balance and proportion with everything.
So the proportion is 1.618. that creates a harmony.
And as you are seeing your own face in these photos from the disposable camera and looking at your clients, you're realizing the golden ratio needs to be applied to the brows.
What did you do with this realization?
So I started, I wanted to fix my own eyebrows.
And once I did that, my clients used to come and say, wow, you look different.
You look rested.
What did you do?
And I, of course I started sharing with them my discovery and I started shaping their eyebrows.
And I went to the owner and I said, look, I think we should do this as a service.
And they said, well, we cannot charge more than $10 because it wasn't a service.
And it didn't make business sense for them.
It didn't scale.
Which didn't scale.
But I really believed in it.
And one Sunday, I told my husband, I'm going to open my own business.
So this was two years after I came to America.
I said, well, look, I came here to do something.
I have to do this.
This is why we came here.
Otherwise, we could stay in Romania or we'll go back.
If I will not be able to make it, we'll go back anyway.
So I looked in a newspaper and I said, I'm going to rent a room in a salon only in Beverly Hills.
Nothing to lose and everything to gain.
So the boldness of the vision, the I'm going to do this I know it doesn't scale yet, but I see the opportunity, I can feel it.
I'm going to rent a room is a real leap of faith.
Yes, absolutely.
And this was the only country that will allow me to do that.
So in the course of most of the 90s.
Then you go from one room rented in someone else's salon to Oprah.
Oh, yeah, that was.
So how do you go from renting a room and just starting to working with the biggest, most famous talent in the world?
That's a very good question.
So the moment I rented the room which was scary in a way what I wanted to do was to master my skill.
I cannot tell you how many free eyebrows I've done at the beginning of my career.
Every shampoo girl, every hairstylist, every makeup artist everybody, because I want them to believe in my skills and talk to their clients.
Send me their clients.
If they were happy and was important for me that they will be happy, they will send me their clients.
Soon, Anastasia was working with some of the biggest names in Hollywood.
It didn't take long for women's magazines to take notice of this new beauty trend.
She says that Allure magazine was the first to call her in the early 1990s.
They asked me if they could write about the best-kept secret in Hollywood and use a celebrity client.
I asked Michelle Pfeiffer, I called Michelle and I said, can I use your name?
It's like, oh, of course, of course.
And at that time, remember, people didn't talk about facials or bikini, Brazilian bikini.
And I thought...
I'm going to talk about the eyebrows because eyebrows is something that it's a walking advertising.
Everybody could see it and everybody's happy to talk about it.
And what it sounds like, is you built really a hand-by-hand, person-by-person and incredibly devoted clientele to the point where, within just a few years I mean, I don't know that our younger audience members know that Michelle Pfeiffer in the early mid-90s was as big a star as existed.
The biggest star that existed is true.
Yeah.
This is not a small thing.
Not only can you call her, but she's going to say yes to being with you in Allure magazine.
I have to say that my clients were the biggest supporter.
They were the most wonderful people that helped me to learn the language better.
If I had a question, hey, I don't know how to write a check.
How should I do?
We're like, okay, we'll help you.
Yeah.
No, I have a photograph in my home that I love.
It's a sign and it reads something like the words I love.
You are indeed beautiful and powerful, but there are no more important three words in the English language than can I help.
And that spirit of wanting to help is so deeply powerful.
Absolutely.
And I learned from them that you have to ask.
Still ahead how Anastasia's daughter helped her company reach new heights as an early adopter of Instagram.
Real leaders don't back down when the stakes are high.
They innovate, they push forward, and then they take the stage at the Masters of Scale Summit.
Join us in San Francisco October 7th to 9th to hear from the CEO of The New York Times, scientists using cutting-edge technology to find cures, the leader of crypto powerhouse Coinbase, a retired four-star general and many, many more.
Apply now at mastersofscale.com slash apply25.
That's mastersofscale.com slash apply25.
If you're ready to take your startup from idea to impact, then AWS is your launchpad.
From data storage to machine learning to secure app hosting, AWS gives you the tech trusted by the world's fastest scaling startups.
And here's the best part.
Join AWS.
Activate today and you could score up to 100000 in AWS credits, tailored to your stage and network.
Go to awsamazoncom slash, activate and start building.
Expanding your business in the US can feel like a maze.
Every state has its own payroll benefits and compliance rules, which can pull your focus away from growth.
That's why founders use Deal.
Deal is the professional employer organization, or PEO, that gives you a dedicated HR expert plus Fortune 500 level benefits for your team.
The National Association of PEOs says businesses can grow twice as fast if they use one.
So if you're scaling, make it simple with Deal.
Go to deel.com slash MOS and get up to three months free.
Welcome back to Masters of Scale.
You can find this conversation and more on our YouTube channel.
Anastasia went from Hollywood's best-kept secret to a household name when she appeared on Oprah.
They said, well, Oprah wants to get her eyebrows done by Anastasia live.
And it was kind of scary because to do live her eyebrows and doing live in front of a camera is very difficult.
So of course I said yes.
I went there and it was very powerful.
Oprah had always been central to Anastasia's idea of success in America.
And remember, I came in this country and we had only one TV.
And my husband used to watch Lakers and all the news.
And I said, I want to watch only one show, this three o'clock show. this woman called Oprah.
And he's like, but you don't understand English.
Like, why do you want?
And it's like, I don't know.
But I feel like I want to watch this show.
This is the deal.
You could watch all day long, all day night.
I need to watch at 3 o'clock.
I need to understand how she asks questions because one day I'm going to be on her show.
You saw it.
I saw it.
I put it in the universe.
So when I went and I did her eyebrows was, oh my God, I couldn't.
I wanted to cry.
I wanted to jump.
I don't even remember what, you know what I mean?
It was one of the most powerful woman on the planet, the most influential woman.
And her power and her energy, her aura was so powerful.
What is the Oprah effect?
What happens after you're on the show?
The phone will not stop ringing.
It changes everything.
And so there's one direction to go in building this business, where you could be franchising and launching Anastasia Browse all across America, and what have you?
There's another where you start launching consumer products.
Which direction did you go?
So I start, I actually, I work on both.
I used to do master classes and teach people, esthetician, how to do eyebrows.
And it was very difficult because they will get the certificate, they will put it in their salon.
And then if they will have a client that wasn't happy, they half of their eyebrows they will call my salon because it was my name there.
You've certified them.
Yes.
So to keep the quality was very difficult.
But every face is different.
Completely.
And so the judgment of the person who's providing the service comes into play in a way it just doesn't in other kinds of businesses.
Absolutely, absolutely.
So when I start doing eyebrows, I used to mix some Vaseline with aloe vera and eyeshadow to fill in the eyebrows to create that perfect shape.
And the client will come back and say well, I know my eyebrow looks amazing when I leave, but after I take a shower I need that product.
So that was the reason why I wanted to create products.
So it was an authentic, a normal thing for my business to do.
Because I had such a long list of celebrity, Nordstrom invited me to launch the product there.
And that was the perfect moment for me to launch the Brow Studios.
Because in 2001, I launched in Nordstrom's.
Women were not very familiar with filling their eyebrows with powder or pomade.
So they needed to be educated.
So partnering with Nordstrom was the best thing.
We opened brow studios, esthetician.
I had at that time a team of field team that will go and will train the girls and myself.
Every weekend I used to travel in different cities and train the estheticians.
Did you need to raise money to be in the consumer products or were able to use the Nordstrom deal to fund the consumer products.
In 1990, nobody wanted to invest in something called eyebrows product.
So I had to work nonstop doing eyebrows in the salon.
I had a part-time job flipping houses.
So I will buy a house, fix it and after two years I will sell it and those money I will put in the company again.
So it was quite a challenge.
And going to Nordstrom's, it really helped me to have a different way of doing the business.
I mean, they were great partners.
Even today, they are still amazing.
And they helped me to build that service business.
Right, and the service business marketed the products as well.
Of course, of course.
It's a virtuous cycle.
Absolutely, it's perfect.
In that 2000 to 2010 11, 12 range sort of the consumer internet is starting to explode.
But finally Instagram arrives and changes how beauty and beauty products are marketed.
How did you grow the business in that phase, before we got to the explosion of beauty on social media?
I used to be on every single show, TV show that I could think about it.
Because if you think about it, all the TV anchor, they wanted their eyebrow beautiful.
So they used to come to the salon, producers and everybody.
So my deal was okay.
I will do your eyebrow, but I want to be on the show to talk about my products.
So that was very important.
Plus, when I used to travel Sundays and Mondays around the country, before I would go at Nordstrom's I would go on TV network in that specific area.
Right.
If you're going to the Nordstrom Cincinnati, you're going to hit.
Exactly.
Right.
Or Chicago.
Yes.
So plus all the beauty editors.
Yes.
So I did everything possible the old way.
Well, there's no question hard work has been a core part of your story.
And then this cheat code arrives in the form of Instagram when it comes to beauty.
So a lot of businesses that were established in the 90s and early 2000s were not able to to take advantage of the opportunities.
It just, they didn't see it.
They weren't nimble enough.
They weren't entrepreneurial or opportunistic enough.
And a lot of companies that reach scale, right?
And have a founder who've done things one way for a long time, they miss it.
And that's where insurgents come and take over.
But you caught that wave.
You took that wave.
So what, what happened that let you do that?
How did that happen?
So my daughter started working with me.
Saturday night we will take our carry-on and we'll fly to different cities to promote the product.
I used to shave the eyebrows and I would recommend the color and the products and she used to tell them how to use them.
So after a while, she said, Mom, I work seven days a week.
I'm only 18.
I was like, is this app?
We should have our products there.
We should talk about them.
We should post.
We should do videos.
And I said, Claudia, I don't like Facebook.
I don't care how many coffees people will get.
Like, no, no, no, this is not Facebook.
This is a different type of app. social media.
I'm like, okay, let's give it a try.
So we posted one video and it was incredible.
It was our brow whiz that is one of our most popular mechanical pencils.
And, of course, we read every single comment and was one comment that said oh, I wish I would have that pencil.
I could buy that pencil.
And I answered, I said, can you please send me your address?
I would love to gift you one.
And she said, oh, no, you can't because I live in a small little town or village in India.
When I read that, I thought, wow, this is something to pay attention to.
I will never be able to reach a person in a small village in India.
Yeah.
So I sat down with Claudia, like, let's hire some younger kids and let's really do this.
So we were 24 seven with the Instagram posting.
And you caught the next wave of what we now call influencers, right?
Whether it's Kardashians or what have you, who were native to that platform and so powerful on that platform.
Yes.
And so you built the business quite impressively.
I mean, this has become a very big business to the point where you took on private equity money.
Yes.
Can you tell us about the decision to take a private equity investment?
In 2018, we were unstoppable.
Like, it was incredible.
How big was the business in 2018, give or take?
The business was 320 million, so 300 in sales.
And with an incredible margin, incredible margin.
And you had not taken outside investment up to this point?
No.
No, I owned 100% of the business.
To be honest with you, I didn't even know how much the company was worth it.
But we wanted to expand international.
I realize to do business internationally, it's much more difficult.
And to establish every country was way difficult.
And for me to do that will take me away from doing what I have to do, that nobody else could do, which is marketing in the products.
And was a decision that we wanted to take a partner to help us expand internationally.
And this is how we end up partner with TPG.
Right.
And they made a sizable investment in the business.
Yes.
How has it changed having a private equity partner in the business?
Well, I mean, they are great partners, very smart people.
Unfortunately, there were some events, natural events that really hurt the business.
COVID was probably the most difficult part and it was very hard.
Yeah.
Very hard because you couldn't touch the makeup.
Stores were closed.
Even when they open, you couldn't use the tester.
So it was hard.
What keeps you optimistic?
What keeps me optimistic.
This country, I think, is a country that could always recover and always will win.
I believe in America.
America is a country of people that will not give up.
I mean, I don't think it's another country like this.
Anastasia, I want to ask you to imagine a young woman, a young person who comes to the US much like you did, with nothing, and who finds a job in a salon and is starting and has your work ethic and your ambition and your values.
What's your advice to her for how to begin pursuing an entrepreneurial journey where she has a chance to control her own destiny?
I think the most important thing is do your homework.
First of all, what do you exactly want to do?
Because there are few options that you have.
You want to be a housewife?
That's a CEO of a household and it's a lot of work, okay?
Do you want to have your own business to be an entrepreneur?
That's a lot of work.
So you need to have the support if you still have a family.
So see where you are, how much time you could put into this.
To be an entrepreneur never stops.
The only time when you don't work is when you sleep.
It's just period.
And then if you check all those points, then you have to think, okay, I believe in something.
You need to perfect your skill constantly.
I am in this business for 32 years, okay?
I constantly want to be better every day.
I want to learn more.
I want to be better than I was yesterday.
So perfect your skill, master your skill.
That's your foundation.
Then you have to market your skill.
That's another important thing.
As well.
You have to surround yourself with people that share your vision, and they will go with you on this journey.
And it's a lot of work.
It's a lot of discipline, a lot of determination.
But you have to love it because it's not easy.
But if you love what you do, you feel like you don't work.
You have achieved so much and done so well financially and built something and have a world-class investor behind you.
Many people in your position might say it's time to pass the torch.
What keeps you going?
I think it's the desire of Being better every day and doing something that I love.
I don't see myself doing anything.
I love to work.
I mean, I work like I can pay my rent next month.
It is very important to have a passion and to have a purpose.
I don't think...
Retiring for me, it's not going to happen.
Never.
I will never retire.
I always said my retirement idea is to work nine to five.
That's my retirement plan.
Well, let us hope you're able to get there sooner than later.
In the meantime, it's a great place to wrap.
Thank you so much for being on Masters of Scale.
Thank you so much.
I appreciate you inviting me.
Thank you.
Anastasia Soiree's scale journey is truly incredible.
She landed in Los Angeles without a nickel in her pocket almost 40 years ago and built a brand synonymous with beauty around the world.
It's a testament to how much hustle and heart can achieve in a country where immigrants are given a chance.
I'm Jeff Berman.
Thank you for listening.
This is Emily Worden Capital One business customer and owner of Emily Worden Designs, a bespoke, fine jewelry store that quickly gained buzz after opening its doors in Richmond Virginia.
My customer base grew exponentially once we had a storefront.
We had one engagement ring case at the time, and we had lines out the door every weekend.
As her storefront continued to have record sales, Emily knew it was time to up-level production.
We normally just purchase diamonds in very small batches or per order.
So we wanted to invest in not just one or two pieces, but a collection of natural diamonds.
Emily knew creating a collection would be a big investment but with the help of her Capital One business card, she was ready to bet on herself and bet big.
It was about $40,000, $45,000 all in up front.
Having the Capital One card was definitely reassuring to be able to make such a large investment purchase.
And of course, to get the cash back that came with it.
To learn more, go to CapitalOne.com slash business cards.
If you're in private capital, you understand that your next great deal starts with who you know.
That's why over 3000 firms trust Affinity, the CRM platform purpose-built for private capital.
Affinity's relationship intelligence reveals your team's strongest paths to founders, investors and decision makers, using insights hidden in emails, calendars and meetings.
With powerful AI tools like Affinity Notetaker and Deal Assist, you'll spend less time managing data and more time closing the right deals.
Learn more at affinity.co slash marketplace.
The business world moves fast and you don't have time to wait for your AI to turn into ROI.
Because any business can use AI.
The real breakthrough is how you use it.
IBM helps you turn AI into more than potential.
It helps you turn it into smarter ways of working and ultimately scaling.
Let's create smarter business.
The production team includes Tucker Legerski, Masha Makotunina, and Brandon Klein.
Our senior talent executive is Stephanie Stern.
Mixing and mastering by Aaron Bastinelli and Brian Pugh.
Original music by Ryan Holiday.
Our head of podcasts is Lital Molad.
Visit mastersofscale.com to find the transcript for this episode and to subscribe to our newsletter.
