#GirlBoss Maria Hatzistefanis of Rodial and her Rise To Success as a Cosmetics and Skincare Company Powerhouse: Beauty and the Vlog Podcast 142
“Everyone is unique, and what you have, no one else has.”
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Are you thinking about starting your own business? What is the formula for success? How do you even start? Tune in as Maria Hatzistefanis, founder, and CEO, of skincare companies Rodial and Nip+Fab, shares her success story and lessons learned throughout her business journey.
When Rodial launched their cult product, Snake Serum, the press quickly called the business an “overnight success.” However, Maria had been toiling for 18 years, building the company from scratch in her bedroom.
“You need to take risks in business and in life.”
Born and raised in Greece, Maria was passionate about beauty from a very early age and worked as a beauty writer for Seventeen Magazine while she was in university. She knew early on that working in the beauty industry was something that she wanted to do in the future. Now, the beauty boss sets out to demonstrate how her success stemmed from sheer hard work, tireless efforts and a lot of patience.
“In this business, you have good days and you have bad days.”
Maria Hatzistefanis worked hard, surrounded herself with the best, created buzz, and built her own personal brand, and is now a favorite with high-profile models and media personalities including Poppy Delevingne, Daisy Lowe, Erin O’Connor, Jade Jagger, and Kylie Jenner. She believes anyone can do this and her new book, How to Be an Overnight Success, shows how.
“There is not one person in this world who can do everything.”
10 Key Interview Takeaways
- Take a cue from Maria Hatzistefanis and do your research. Before she started her business, Maria went to a whole bunch of trade shows and met people who were formulating cosmetics and skincare. She would go from stand to stand to exchange ideas with people and learn how to put a brand together.
- Consider starting small. It’s not always easy to get investors on board with your vision. Rather than getting discouraged and giving up, you don’t have to go big right away.
- It only takes one product to put your business on the map. For Maria Hatzistefanis, it was Snake Serum. With a unique name and brilliant marketing, Snake Serum became a huge hit and changed everything for Rodial.
- Success doesn’t happen overnight. Despite the title of her book, How to Be an Overnight Success, Maria Hatzistefanis shares that even a little bit of success actually takes a lot of work, a lot of challenges, and a lot of perseverance with whatever you do.
- Find ways to lift yourself up. As long as your good days are about 30%, then you can deal with the 70% that could be bad. Success will happen, but it’s a long game, and you need those good days to keep you going.
- Don’t take rejections personally. Sometimes the timing is just not right, or the fit is not right. It has nothing to do with you. If you strongly believe in yourself and in your product, no amount of rejection is going to stop you. If you want to achieve your goal, you have to keep going.
- If you want to start a business, be prepared to be a business person. It’s not about rubbing elbows with the rich and famous. 99% of what you do is deal with a lot of crap every day, from warehouse disasters to staff drama to situations with retailers and all kinds of unglamorous work.
- Find a partner. If you feel that you can work more on the creative side of things, find a mentor or someone that you can trust, who can take care of the business side of things.
- Before you start a business, do a self-analysis. Be honest about what your strengths are and what you can do, and then identify what your weaknesses are and find a way to make up for them.
- Do YOU. Maria Hatzistefanis says that instead of trying to fit into a mold or fit into someone else’s image and profile, doing something that represents you and what makes you feel good is what will resonate with your audience. People will connect to authenticity.
Resources
Maria Hatzistefanis’ Book: How to Be an Overnight Success: Making It in Business
Conde Nast International Luxury Conference
My favorite free SEO tool for YouTube: TubeBuddy
PR Guide: How to Get onto PR Lists and Get Lots of Free Product
Getting Started on YouTube: The #1 Downloaded Free Niche Discovery Workbook
Connect with Maria Hatzistefanis
Maria Hatzistefanis’ YouTube Channel
Maria Hatzistefanis’ Instagram
Facebook Group:
Podcast Music Credit: Boop by x50 @x50music
Music provided by Free Music for Vlogs youtu.be/o52xQkQWzyU
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