Women in Health: How Mindfulness Can Transform the Beauty Industry

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios, it’s time for Women In Motion. Brought to you by WBEC-West. Join forces. Succeed together. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Women in Motion and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, WBEC-West. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Women In Motion, we have Jennifer Norman, who is the Founder and CEO with The Human Beauty Movement. Welcome.

Jennifer Norman: Hi there, Lee, it’s so great to be here on the show with you.

Lee Kantor: Well, I am excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about The Human Beauty Movement. How are you serving folks?

Jennifer Norman: Absolutely. Well, I started The Human Beauty Movement about five years ago after being in the beauty industry for about 25 years. And I just thought, you know, it’s the time of my life personally, professionally to start focusing on beauty from within. And so, that’s what The Human Beauty Movement does, it really helps to connect mind, body, soul into a more holistic approach to a beautiful life.

Lee Kantor: So, what types of services and products do you serve to your customers?

Jennifer Norman: Absolutely. So, first and foremost, The Human Beauty Movement is all about mindfulness and wellness. We believe that health is wealth and it is also beautiful. So, we want people to live their most holistic, beautiful self from within and without. And so, we conduct a lot of workshops and stress management programs. We have several grants from the LA County Department of Mental Health, where we help to provide these services locally for where we are, we are based in Los Angeles. And we also do have a very mindful skincare line called Humanist Beauty. And I also do a podcast of my own called The Human Beauty Movement Podcast.

Lee Kantor: Now, are your customers individuals or do you sell this into corporations?

Jennifer Norman: Yes, our business does actually sell B2B in terms of our service. So, workshops, corporate wellness programs, things like that are done B2B. But we are also B2C when it comes to our product line and some of our individual workshops that we conduct and have open to the community.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned having a pretty long career in this industry. Did you start out as an entrepreneur or did you work for someone else at first and then decided to go out on your own?

Jennifer Norman: Gosh. I started back in about 1997 with L’Oreal. And so, yes, I started, you know, after I received my MBA from Georgetown, I was recruited by L’Oreal, then also worked for Victoria’s Secret in Manhattan. And then, I was recruited by Neutrogena, and so I worked with Neutrogena for about seven years. And then, after that, I did various types of marketing and product development strategy work for a number of different cosmetic and beauty brands within the industry. And I did that for a really long time before starting The Human Beauty Movement.

Lee Kantor: So, did something happen that was like, okay, I want to do this on my own. I have my own vision on how to do this more holistically than maybe some of these larger enterprises.

Jennifer Norman: Yeah, I absolutely loved my experience in the beauty industry, and I want to start with that because I met the most wonderful people. I really enjoyed the work. I love playing with cosmetics and beauty products. And so, it was certainly a joy.

Jennifer Norman: But the thing that I noticed time and time again was that, as with any beauty or any business, I should say, you know, sometimes people who are really, really good, make not such great decisions because they are beholden to the bottom line. And so, it creates some dysfunction because of the capitalistic model, which is it’s really very profit-focused. What are we going to do to anniversary and grow year over year, beat the competition, et cetera?

Jennifer Norman: And I was finding that it ran counter to some of the values that I held and started to adopt, which was how are we really going to care for people in a better way? How are we going to care for the environment without creating so much waste in a better way? And that’s when I discovered the amazing community in what we call the B Corp certified movement. So, I wanted to start my own company and hold myself accountable to the highest standards of social and environmental impact, and that’s why I founded it and quickly certified it as a B Corporation.

Lee Kantor: Do you mind sharing with our listeners a little bit about what makes a B Corp different and special, because a lot of people aren’t familiar with that designation?

Jennifer Norman: Absolutely. I know that a lot of people aren’t, but it is a growing community of conscious capitalistic companies. So, not necessarily for profit – sorry – nonprofit, because we know that the government and nonprofits can’t do all this work by themselves. And it’s going to be best if private industries actually adopt what we call stakeholder values in order to make the world a better place.

Jennifer Norman: And so, the B Corp movement is a certification which is very, very stringent, you are held to very high standards in order to qualify and to be vetted in order to be able to even receive a certification. And so, these are things like, Do you have a mission? What are your values? Do you have a vision that is very beneficial for people and planet? What does your governance structure look like? What does your supply chain look like? Do you vet your supply chain and your vendors to make sure that there are no unfair practices within their organizations? Do you have enough proper benefits that really help and aid your employee base? Do you look for diversity in your employer base? Things like that and it goes on and on and on.

Jennifer Norman: There are hundreds of questions that a company needs to answer and then also be held accountable to, because once you receive certification, it’s not like one and done. You have to recertify in order to be able to maintain your B Corp certification over years. So, it is very stringent. I definitely encourage people to find out more about it. You can go over to the blab.net website to find out a little bit more about it.

Jennifer Norman: And, also, if you see a B Corporation certified logo on any products or services, definitely look into supporting them because those are the ones that really go above and beyond to make their companies shine as far as making business work for good.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you mind sharing with our listeners a little bit about being a leader of an organization like this, this mission-driven organization. Is there any advice or tips you can share on how to build the team in order to achieve what you’re trying to achieve?

Jennifer Norman: Absolutely. I always think that it comes from a place of love and concern and wanting the best for the world. And so, I know that there are a lot of people that get into business and they’re like, What can I do to make the most money, be most successful? And so, it’s really just a recalibration of what success really means to a person and what kind of legacy that they really want to leave behind.

Jennifer Norman: And so, you know, certainly making money we don’t vilify that at all. I mean, it’s very important and we think that that’s great. But we want to do so in a way that is beneficial for everybody that is involved in your company. So, thinking about the individuals that you are hiring, knowing that they are signing up for wanting to work for a company that really puts people and planet first. I think that people are really starting to get much more attracted to those kinds of organizations that do have a strong value basis and are mission-driven.

Jennifer Norman: And then, if you are a service company thinking about bringing what we call our stakeholders, so it’s not just our customers, but it’s also the employees, the shareholders, the vendors, giving everybody a seat at the table and an opportunity to really weigh in on what kinds of programs and what kinds of elements go into your service.

Jennifer Norman: If you are a product-based organization, thinking about who you’re actually sourcing from, how things are made, ensuring that the quality and the testing and the standards are high for your products so that they do no harm and that they are actually being good. They’re not extractive to the planet. They’re being very mindful of the environment.

Jennifer Norman: Also, thinking about end of life of your product. So, what happens once it does hit the waste stream? Is there a way to build in some regeneration? Thinking about your giveback programs, thinking about how you are volunteering, giving your employees time off, or enabling volunteerism, thinking about giving a certain percentage of your profits to organizations such as charity and benevolent other kinds of nonprofits, things like that.

Jennifer Norman: So, really just being extremely mindful with your business and how you’re leading from the heart and with more soul and with more passion.

Lee Kantor: Now, earlier, I think you mentioned this mind, body, soul wellbeing that’s throughout all of your products and through kind of the mission of your organization. Is there any advice or tips when it comes to an individual in order for them as an individual to live more mindfully? Is there some low hanging fruit that somebody might be able to do something right now just by listening that they can live more mindfully?

Jennifer Norman: Yeah. Lee, that is such a great question, because I will say that for the longest time I wasn’t living very mindfully. I think when we’re young, and we’re just like looking at the media, we’re looking at other people, our peers and whatnot, and trying to be like them, or thinking about other people as competition, you know, that wasn’t really very mindful. It was very much like almost a disempowered kind of life.

Jennifer Norman: And so, you end up buying a whole lot of things that you really don’t need, to impress people that you really don’t like, working in jobs that you really don’t like in order to make that money to buy the things that you don’t need. So, it’s just a cycle of almost like self-victimization, I would say.

Jennifer Norman: And so, living more mindfully, I think, is probably the most empowering thing that you can do. And it does require a little bit of work, because, the reason why, is that you kind of have to step away. You have to step away from the life that you’ve been living and really take that time to develop some quiet space.

Jennifer Norman: Now, we all live such busy lives. There’s so much to do. We have so much responsibility, especially if you are a female entrepreneur, goodness knows how busy we can be. And so, the idea of taking, you know, five minutes, ten minutes a day just for yourself seems like an inordinate sort of a challenge for us. But it does lead to a recognition and awareness of how you’re feeling of getting back to, well, what are the needs that I have? How can I better care for myself?

Jennifer Norman: And then, when I’m caring for myself better, when I build that into my daily practice, then that becomes a lifestyle and it becomes a ritual, and it becomes a way that you are better able to pour into others. But you got to do it for yourself first. So, I always say, we’ve got to start from ourselves and make sure that we always put ourselves first and really care for ourselves, our own health, our own mind, bodies, and souls so that we can inspire others to be their best selves too.

Lee Kantor: Now, what was it like kind of creating your own clean skincare brand, the Humanist Beauty. Can you talk a little bit about what that process was like to have it in your head and then to actually make it come alive on a shelf?

Jennifer Norman: Yeah. I will say that, because I’ve been in this beauty industry for so, so many years, I know a lot of the ins and outs of what it takes to get to market with a product. And there is a lot of rigor that goes into it. But I also have seen a lot of shortcuts being taken in order to get to market quickly.

Jennifer Norman: And that’s one thing that I didn’t want to do with Humanist Beauty. I really wanted to be very careful and select each of the ingredients, really determine where they were coming from, make sure that they were organic or that they were fair trade ingredients, make sure that they were sourced very carefully and with regenerative practices involved, make sure that once they were formulated that the formula was tested so that it was stable, that it was micro tested, so that it was CBD tested to make sure that it was as efficacious as we were saying that it was.

Jennifer Norman: And so, also thinking about the packaging, making sure that for me, I try to minimize the amount of plastic that is being used in packaging, because it does lead to a whole lot of waste. And I try to minimize the footprint, especially the reliance on petrol type chemicals. And so, are these types of packages recyclable or refillable? Those sorts of things become important questions.

Jennifer Norman: And so, mindfully going through every single step from formula to packaging, to sourcing, to how it’s being marketed, making sure that even the marketing is not misleading, that we don’t do retouching on any of the models, that the messaging is one of inspiration, not of you’ve got a problem here, this is the answer to fix the problem that you have with yourself. Making sure that it was really cultivating an essence of care and self-love from start to finish.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you launched, when did you start having the feeling like, “Hey, I think I’m on to something? Really, I’m getting traction and this is gravitating. People are wanting to buy this stuff and get involved, learn more.” When did you kind of get that tipping point moment where, hey, I think we’re going to be able to do this?

Jennifer Norman: Yeah. I will say there had been a couple of moments. And now, I launched The Human Beauty Movement the year before COVID started, and I launched Humanist Beauty during COVOD. And so, I automatically knew, I mean, I had to scrap my initial forecast and all of those plans because the world just changed very, very quickly. And so, I gave myself a bit of grace, and I gave the organization a bit of time to give back.

Jennifer Norman: And so, rather than going into a hard sell mode right from the beginning, I really wanted to be a little bit more helpful to those that were going through really hard times at that moment. And so, I did a lot of giving. I actually think and know – I shouldn’t say think, but I know it’s like when you give before you receive, that’s when the universe really blesses you.

Jennifer Norman: And what I found was that even just last year, The Human Beauty Movement hit an inflection point by receiving these grants from the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, where we were able to provide really wonderful artistic and wellness services to the API community. And this year, we were just granted two more, and I was like, wow, we are really on to something.

Jennifer Norman: And then, with Humanist Beauty, just this year, we actually were able to get distribution through nordstrom.com. And so, again, I didn’t want to rush into things. You know, sometimes people are like, “Oh, after year one, if you’re not hitting a certain amount of volume, then it’s probably not successful.” But I think that when you’re doing things more mindfully, you’re on a different timeline.

Jennifer Norman: It’s just doing things where I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t burning myself out, that I was doing things what I would consider the right way, and I was taking the time in order for it to really just build and evolve from there. So, give yourself that. If you do have that runway, if you are able to invest in the company for those times, rather than rushing into a knee jerk reaction to try to chase a competitor or follow a market trend, for me, this is the best way to live because I’m really designing my own life and my organization in a way that I feel is sustainable.

Lee Kantor: Now, why was it important for you to become part of the WBEC-West community? What did you hope to get out of it and what have you gotten out of it?

Jennifer Norman: Yeah. I love being part of women’s organizations, and WBEC-West is one of the preeminent ones in the country. I really love the fact that everybody cheers everybody on. You know, in an industry like the beauty industry, where there can be a lot of like mean girl attitudes, to be honest with you, it’s so refreshing to be able to have women supporting women, and being able to be connected to so many resources that can help you in your drive for success.

Lee Kantor: And if somebody wants to learn more, where should they go? What’s a website? What are the socials? What’s the best way to connect?

Jennifer Norman: Yeah, we can be found anywhere. If you just look up The Human Beauty Movement or Humanist Beauty, you can Google us, you can go to thehumanbeautymovement.com or humanistbeauty.com. And those are also our social handles, The Human Beauty Movement and Humanist Beauty.

Lee Kantor: Well, Jennifer, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Jennifer Norman: Lee, what a pleasure. Thank you so much for having me on your show.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor, we’ll see you all next time on Women In Motion.