Imagine yourself starting a business and pitching it to firms for funding. After many “no’s,” you finally got the interest of a private equity firm. You tell yourself that finally, this investment was what you were waiting for all along! So you diligently went through the process of product presentation, got so excited for the final meeting, only to hear this:
“We want to congratulate you on your product. We think that it’s awesome. We want to wish you the best, but it’s a ‘no.’ We’re going to pass on it.”
That “no” is only one of the many times IT Cosmetics Founder and one of Forbes America’s richest self-made women, Jamie Kern Lima has received for nearly three years before finally finding the break she needed. However, instead of giving up, she used these setbacks in her life to catapult her toward success.
In our conversation, Jamie shares her story of how she built a billion-dollar business. She also shares her insights and experiences on how she could push through self-doubt when nobody believed in her dream and get over multiple rejections in her life.
Jamie is absolutely remarkable and inspiring. Her story will make you want to go out there and follow your dream, so let’s get into it.
Who Is Jamie Kern Lima?
Jamie Kern Lima is a self-made entrepreneur, champion of women, philanthropist, keynote speaker, and Co-founder of IT Cosmetics, a company she started in her living room and sold to L’Oreal for $1.2 billion, becoming the first female CEO in L’Oreal’s 100+ year history. She’s on the Forbes’ Richest Self-Made Women’s List and is an active investor in more than 15 companies.
Jamie’s business journey began with starting IT Cosmetics from her living room, not paying herself the first three years, hearing countless “no’s” from retailers and investors, all while working 100+ hour weeks to keep her dream alive. Her passion for her mission, unremitting perseverance, hard work, and belief led to her turning every NO into an eventual YES, presenting and selling her products in more than 1000 live shows on QVC, and eventually building the largest beauty brand in their history.
Jamie is passionate about inspiring and mentoring entrepreneurs, building businesses, making a difference in women’s and girls’ lives, and giving back in a big way. As a highly sought-after speaker, Jamie loves sharing stories of inspiration, underestimation, rejection, overcoming self-doubt, and never giving up. She’s especially passionate about inspiring, elevating, and empowering women and entrepreneurs.
She also just recently came out with her book called Believe IT, where she shares the wild but true story of how a once struggling waitress turned her against-the-grain idea into an international best-selling sensation, eventually selling the company for over a billion dollars and becoming the first female CEO of a brand in L’Oréal’s 100+ year history. This is a great read if you ever doubted yourself or felt truly underestimated and would like to gain confidence in yourself and your dreams!
With all these achievements, I was truly honored to have Jamie on the podcast. She has so much wisdom to share with you all in this episode of The School of Greatness!
Can Rejection Be for Your Protection?
One of the things that I think is so incredible about Jamie’s story is that she had a lot of rejection early on. Many of us look at rejection as if it’s the end of opportunities, our lives, and our dreams. Jamie shared her insight on how we can turn this around and look at it as a good thing.
“The hardest thing is many people actually never step out of their comfort zone because they’re afraid of rejection. I agree that it hurts, and it sucks when it happens. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense, and it doesn’t feel fair. … But I believe that rejection is God’s or the universe’s way of protecting me.” – Jamie Kern Lima
This might seem an idealized way to approach these hard moments in everyone’s life, but it’s Jamie’s truth. Her dream was always to become a TV anchor, which she achieved in the past. However, due to rosacea, a skin condition that leaves red bumps all over one’s face, she was forced to leave this dream job. She bravely started and pursued another dream, but what she didn’t know is stepping into that dream would mean facing three years of constant rejection.
“My husband and I finally came out with a product. I was beyond excited. I believe that it’ll sell, and it’ll do well. But after three years of pitching our product to every single beauty retailer that I loved, all we literally received was ‘no’ after ‘no.’ There was a point in our lives that what’s left in our bank account was under a thousand, which was our company and personal funds combined.” – Jamie Kern Lima
Despite these setbacks in her life, Jamie still chose to see those rejections as set-ups for the greater things life had in store for her. For the first three years of their journey, they went to grocery stores, fairgrounds, trade shows, beauty events, and anything promotional online events to advertise their products. They would extensively do follow-ups. They even used LinkedIn to scout for people working in big beauty stores to send their samples. They hustled and hustled until finally, they got the “yes” that they had worked so hard for.
“QVC was our big first, yes. It was probably the scariest, biggest life and business decision we’ve ever made. But it made us build the largest beauty brand in QVC’s history. Truly, at the end of the day, nobody can tell you you’re not the right fit. If one of those people whom we pitched in before said ‘yes,’ then we might not be where we are right now.” – Jamie Kern Lima
This is what Jamie was trying to point all along. Rejection is sometimes the universe’s way of preparing us for the biggest moment of our lives, and it’s protecting our best interests all along! If they’d pitched the product to QVC three years earlier, they wouldn’t have been ready. They could have bombed and would’ve never had another chance.
Like Jamie, I believe in the power of the right timing. I believe that sometimes people saying “no” is good for you to figure out how you can become better. I think that’s how we should set ourselves up for something when someone says “no.”
“My journey has been filled with hundreds of ‘no’s’ and tons of rejection. It honestly hurts, but I feel like figuring out how not to take it personally has been huge on … [the] business side. But also I believe, and no matter if someone believes in God or the universe or whatever, when I look back at everything I’ve gone through, I think that the saying rejection is God’s protection is true.” – Jamie Kern Lima
Here’s the thing — we cannot underestimate the pain of getting rejected. But when we try not to take it personally or look at it in a way that benefits us, we can begin to truly grow ourselves as people and get better instead of feeling that life is punishing us.
So before you throw in the towel and say that something isn’t for you, stop! Train yourself to take rejections differently. If you know that what you’re doing is your calling, listen to what it’s telling you. You’ll be surprised that rejection is never about giving up. It’s all about letting yourself level up.
