Who Is The Real Bobbi Brown?

It’s time we get to know the real Bobbi Brown. In this introductory episode of her brand-new podcast, Bobbi sits down with Tara Tersigni, her COO, to talk about everything from her makeup routine, to how she managed motherhood while building a beauty empire, to how she left the cosmetics company that made her a household name. Find out what Bobbi has been up to, why she’s busier and more fulfilled than ever—and why she feels like she still has a lot to learn.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
She built a billion dollar make cupground and walked away.
She's a New York Times bestselling author, a certified health coach,
and a married mom of three boys. Welcome to Beyond
the Beauty, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey, this

(00:22):
is Bobby and this is my first episode of Beyond
the Beauty. And I have no idea exactly what we're
going to be doing, which is exactly why I'm excited
about this. Why I do things and jump into things
is because I find things interesting and I like to
know what I don't know, and I don't know a lot,

(00:43):
which is one of the reasons why I'm doing this
podcast and why I'm really excited. I'm going to just
ask a ton of questions because I have a lot
to learn. But my very first guest is someone that
knows me really well. We have been together for seven years.
Seven years. She started as my executive assistant at Bobby

(01:07):
Brown Cosmetics, and she had never done that before. She
was a producer who produced Snoop Dogg. Came to New
York and needed a gig and a mutual friend introduced us.
Then she became the managing director of Yahoo. She ran
my eyeglass company. She also edited a book or two,
and then she moved to Montclair with her husband, had

(01:31):
a couple of babies, and now runs my empire. She
also doesn't know what she's doing, but she seems to
figure it out. But that's why her and I get
along so well. It's teratorcini. I'm really lucky to call
her my friend and really just you know, one of
my besties. So now she's crying. It wasn't just Yahoo though,

(01:56):
was Yahoo Beauty. I don't want people to get me
confused with Marissa Meyer at the time. That is correct.
And that was another time where someone came to me
and said, what would you could you create a beauty
magazine for us? And I'm like, okay, why not? I
had no clue what I was doing. Well, that was
a great introduction. So all right, let's just break the

(02:17):
ice here. Not that we have ice to break, but
we have ice. But it's not a Marten or Starbucks.
Hint hint. We love a sponsorship by you. Um, all right, Bobby,
what's your go to cocktail? My go to cocktail is
actually um Teto's on the rocks. Um either by itself
with three olives. If it's a Saturday night, and if

(02:41):
I need to be hydrated, I do a Teto's mohito,
which is a Tetos and soda with fresh lime juice,
some mint, and some cucumber, kind of like a spa drink. Okay,
what is your morning makeup routine? My morning makeup routine
is absolutely doesn't exist unless I am either being photographed

(03:04):
or working on a set or doing something fun or
going to a party. And you always just do it
in the car anyway. I never done my makeup in
a bathroom ever, No I can't. I've never seen you
do it in a bathroom. Makeup item you can't live without,
I would say moisturizer. I think that's the one thing

(03:25):
that I could actually teach people. With the right moisturizer,
you really don't need that much makeup takes makeup off.
Coconut coconut oil takes makeup off. It can even do flyaways,
pinch and I love I love oil. I love oil.
Evening skincare routine, I take off my makeup and that's

(03:48):
it I do. If you're wearing any right, right, But
I washed my face at night, I do, I do. Yeah.
I think that's one thing people always misjudge about you, though,
because you would assume makeup Mogul wears a lot of makeup. Well,
I also had the honest truth be told us. Since
I left Bobby Brown Cosmetics, I don't wear as much makeup.

(04:10):
I don't know, maybe getting rid of a lot of stress,
you look better. I've also become a health coach. I'm
obsessed with healthy eating, and I find now that when
I look in the mirror and look bad. I stopped
myself and say, what have I been doing my lifestyle
that's making me not look so fresh? And it really
does make a big difference. What's the last exercise you did?

(04:32):
This morning? My my trainer, Crystal came to my house.
I was so not in the mood and I so
wanted to cancel last night due to a couple life
things that are happening, and I just had her come
and I'm glad I did. We walked, we talked, she
pushed me. I walked with weights and my dog Biggie
came with and then we did one of her ten

(04:52):
minutes in the backyard routines and I feel much better
because of it. Oh, what's the last thing you bought?
The last thing I bought. I'm sure it was something online. Um,
and it was probably something on Amazon. I could, I could,
I'd be afraid to check my Amazon history. Oh no,

(05:14):
that's the one thing I have to learn how to
wipe it out, because God forbid, is something ever happens
to me. I don't want anyone to know the stuff
I buy an Amazon. They're all health related, They're all
some potion or something. All right, what's the last thing
you said to someone on the phone? My dad? I
told him I loved him. Oh I did that so sweet? Yeah, well, okay,
then I'll tell the story of how I first met

(05:35):
Bobby to just put things into perspective, because she described
our relationship like spot on. My mom calls us Oprah
and Gail. I'm obviously Gail. Um, It's okay, girl's killing it. So.
I had just moved back to New York from l
A and was looking for a job. I've only been
back a couple of weeks. Still wanted to be a producer. Yes,

(05:56):
I produced Snoop's reality show and a bunch of other
ones and a mutual friend. I was having lunch with
Alexander Jewett and She's like I ran into Bobby Brown
last night at her book party, and she's looking for
an assistant. I was like, so what, it's like, why
are you telling me? Then she was like, no, no, no no,
Bobby's really really cool. You should just go meet her. So,
you know, leap of faith went. They booked me in

(06:18):
to meet Bobby right away, squeezed me into her busy schedule,
you know, because she's fancy pants. And it was at
the bottom of Bloomy Street in some small, tiny, green
green room. Yeah that you had. You were sitting there
in a chair like Buddha, you know, you had your
legs crossed signature Bobby pose. And a couple of the

(06:40):
girls were in the room on your team, and and
we just started talking. And I asked if you were Jewish?
Probably probably, I don't remember. Maybe I could tell you weren't. Anyway,
we got to chatting, totally hit it off, like right
in the moment, and you said to me, just take
this job. I promise you if you're entrepreneurial, if you

(07:03):
can get everything done that you need to get done,
I'll let you do whatever you want. And you said,
I don't want to be an assistant, And I said,
you could put anything you want on the business cards.
We'll just make our own business cards. I don't care
what you call yourself. And I think we decided on
chief of staff, but we never did those business cards exactly.
That would not have been allowed at sty laughter. You
know that that wasn't cool. They weren't on our exact page.

(07:26):
But we we figured it out. So it's been one
kind of iteration after another. And then eventually, you know,
Bobby and her husband, Stephen, who's also awesome, they got
us out to Montclair and now I have two babies,
and now and you moved into my carriage house, moved
into your carriage house, had the baby there. And then
the day after you had the baby, I called you

(07:46):
and said, um, I'm no longer working for Bobby Brown Cosmetics.
That's right. And I remember one of those amazing moments
where you were feeding your baby. Your mother was there
and I started a cry because I was really upset,
and and your mother started to cry, and then you
started to cry. Like the three of us were just crying,
and your mother was like, stop you. You know you guys,
we got this, don't worry. She was like she was like,

(08:09):
next chapter, next chap, come on, and Beauty from the
Inside Out came out, which is the ninth book. And
for those guys that don't know who I am, I've

(08:30):
done nine books, but I still don't know how to type.
They were not typed, they were handwritten. Tara had to
retype them tonight. We cut and paste with pictures. But yeah,
it's just been one cool thing after the next, and
now again an environment has been created where, you know,
I brought my second baby to work almost every day.

(08:50):
It's so cool in the office. Actually, I think there's
something to it, like good vibes and doorphins. Babies, people
don't fight, they don't argue as much, tensions don't. And
somehow we've managed to build a hotel, We've managed to
build a Just Bobby dot com. We're now on our
second podcast, and a wellness brand. And you know what,

(09:12):
we still are friends and we still see each other
for dinner. That's right, and uh, it's it's you know,
it's definitely girl power. Well, so for the people who
don't know you, let's talk about when you were young,
working mom, working makeup artist, newly married. Well, I think
you were about to have Dylan, first child. I did
get married first before I had a baby right right.

(09:33):
You followed the I followed the follow the pattern. Um
tell us what it was like starting the company. Well,
it was, you know, wasn't a company. I didn't know
I was starting a company. I was a working makeup
artist commuting to New York. And by the way, I
used to drive to New York, which I haven't did
I did. I used to drive to New York. I

(09:54):
used to drive to New York, and you know, I
used to take the bus, the sixty to camp bus.
I did all sorts of things, and you know, pregnant
with my first baby. I was a working makeup artist
and then one day during a shoot, I met a
chemist and I told him that I had this idea
of a lipstick that looked like lips, and he made
it for me, and I thought people might be interested

(10:17):
in buying this, and I thought I could sell it,
so I started a company. I didn't know. I didn't
know I was starting a company. I was just we
didn't have the term side hustle, but it was my
side hustle, and I thought, wow, this is really cool.
I could sell a lipstick. But then I realized not
everybody likes nude colored lipsticks. So I thought about a

(10:38):
bunch of different colors and started selling them, and the
chemist would make them and I would I didn't know
what marketing or PR was, but I would market them
in PR. And what what when did it when? So?
When did things really start to turn? And you were like,
oh ship? All right? Well, I think it probably took

(10:58):
about an This never gets in any of the history books,
but I think it was probably a year, about a
year that I was selling these out of my house,
that I'd put them in a Manila envelope and my
husband would mail them. And one day I a friend
of mine who worked at a magazine, Glamor magazine, wrote
about them, and we got a lot of calls. And

(11:21):
it was never oh shit, it was like, oh cool.
And then I met a woman at a party who
was a buyer for Bergdorf Goodman and she said, let
me take him in the store. And that was the
O ship. Now what? Because nowadays you start something, even
if it's one product, it's people they know you know,
supply chain, you know this, and that there's so much

(11:43):
supply chain. I don't know what to supply. I don't
know what a supply chain was. You were just doing
it now. That's all I know. I am the entrepreneur
that knows nothing except how to do it. I just
know how to get things done. And if something is
not able to get done, then I do something else
to get it done differently. So even when you start
to meet with let's say, when Leonard latter came called

(12:04):
after four people, yeah, well it was after four years,
so there was probably we had our business partners at
the time, um and we when we could not have
had a company without them because they knew way more
than us at the time, and then we probably had
four to six people that worked for us. I'm guessing

(12:24):
then when Lauder bought us, we had to kind of
start all over globally. So when laud bought you, what
first of all, you guys have spent like sweet score,
But what did you think that meant for you? You know,
I don't know it. By the time St. Lauder came calling,
I already had my second baby. My husband was went
to law school. During the between the two kids, we

(12:47):
were living in Montclair, New Jersey. I was still working
as a makeup artist and going to you know, meetings,
and just I don't even know how I got through it. Seriously,
did you guys have an office in the city. We
had an office in the city, a very small office,
and I would literally just go into work for a
couple hours and then kind of go downtown to a

(13:08):
studio and be a freelance makeup artist or do a
you know, a catalog shoot, which brought the money in,
and we somehow grew the brand and in four years
we were the number one line at Bergdorf Goodman and
even Marcus and then Lauter called and we sold the company,
you know, after probably took about a year, year and
a half. You know, my husband, luckily is a businessman,

(13:31):
a lawyer. I didn't have to do it. He kind
of did most of it, and we sold it. And
that was a whole another chapter. And what was day
one like walking into the latter owned version of Bobby
Brown Cosmetics. I honestly, I don't remember. In the early
days they were it was all magic. It was just like,
oh my god, him in these cool corporate meetings. Oh

(13:52):
my god, I'm at the Whitney at a party, sitting
at Leonard Lauter's table. Oh my god, I'm meeting Helen
Gurley Brown. Oh my God, So there were some really cool,
interesting moments, you know. Um, and then my own freelance life.
You know, I've already I was already doing covers of
magazines and doing celebrities and going to Fashion Week and
doing amazing things. And then I became the beauty editor

(14:16):
of The Today Show probably around the time I sold
the company, and that was, you know, that was being
an influencer back then. I got to once a month
go on The Today's Show and teach women about beauty.
I didn't talk about my products. I never sold anything.
I would say, this is how you line your eyes,

(14:36):
you know, this is how you do this. And honestly,
my style in makeup hasn't changed a whole lot. As
a matter of fact, it's going back to what I
believed in at the beginning of my career. And how
did you? I mean that all sounds amazing, but I
know there's always another side, because you know, I'm a
working mom, And how did you go? How did you?

(14:58):
I was overwhelmed, couldn't sleep, like honestly, felt guilty. I
either wasn't doing the right job at work or I
was you know, at home, you know, calling my office.
I was in the grocery store talking to editors while
my kids were, you know, screaming in the frozen food department.
And back then it wasn't cool to be a mom.

(15:19):
I was going to say, it wasn't. It wasn't, It
wasn't at all. And you know, I even had some
very well known person saying to me, why don't you
buy a piano tear in New York City and tell
the editors that that's where you live, because no one
really cares about being a soccer mom. And I was like, no,
I don't think that's going to happen. No, I am

(15:40):
a soccer mom. And guess what, I'm going to teach
woman how to put their makeup on when they're in
the car line dropping their kids off, because that's real life.
So I've kind of always been like that. And I'll
give my husband the credit for always making sure I
was my real self. Yeah. I love the story of

(16:06):
you choosing between it was Jeane Goldberg's birthday party or
Nicolous and I got it. I got asked to do uh,
Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise makeup on a Sarday Night Live,
and I had committed to Jane Goldberg's birthday party in Clifton,
New Jersey at a tennis club, and I literally stressed

(16:27):
myself sick, and I finally made the decision to go
to Jean's party and say no to Nicole Kidman. And
actually I met Nicole this year for the first time,
and I told her the story I would I would
bet that there's only a handful of memories of the
past twenty five years while you were building by Round Cosmetics.

(16:48):
That are the happy memories from the brand, and not
all your family ones. I bet they vastly outweigh they do.
They of course they outweighed. But you know, there was
some amazing golden moment that, you know, pinch me moments,
you know, big awards I got, certainly, you know, having
a party in my honor at the embassy in France,

(17:10):
the UK and China, Like come on, that's like crazy,
so dizzy stuff, you know, having dinner at Mick Jagger's
house because I did Laurent Scott's fashion show. Cool stuff.
You I don't even know how you top those things.
I was in the motorcade, which well I did Dr
Biden's makeup inauguration inaugurations. You found myself in the motorcade

(17:33):
with some guy and I'm like, he said, who are you?
I said, I'm a makeup artist and I said who
are you? And he said, I'm Leon Panetta to the
Secretary Defense. Well, we travel with different kinds of tools. Well,
I felt very safe, right, that's the It's the perfect
segue too. So then three years ago almost you you know,

(17:55):
you close up, well, you close up your part of
the Bobby Brown Cosmetic shop, and you know, how do
you move on? You're used to fifty people in your office,
having a billion dollar brand, you know, going to the
fabulous parties, and then you know, then you and I
are you know, we're crying in the guesthouse at the
have a little just to be clear, Okay, yeah, I

(18:18):
drank tequila for two days with my friends and then
I moved on and then I just had action. That's right.
But so how did you you know? You know, it
was there's so many good things and so many not
good things about different situations. And I didn't know this
about me at the time, but I am definitely, you know,

(18:41):
incredibly lucky that things worked out the way they did, because,
you know, after working and and keeping this brand, you know,
fresh and you know, on top it's a lot of
work and a lot of angst and a lot of
different opinions. And I realized after so many years, I
wasn't in charge anymore, and I just really had to

(19:04):
work to please other people. And I just didn't agree
with the direction that they wanted to take the company,
and so I just I didn't want to be there anymore.
And honestly, it was my aunt Alice, my a d
I think now she's like she's because about her when
she was two. Oh no, she's unbelievable. She might be
eight nine even. You've never seen anyone more vibrant. Don't worry.

(19:28):
But aunt Alice said, okay, it's time. All I do
is here, you complain every time we're on the phone,
and what I'm hearing out of your mouth it's time.
And I'd say, okay, aunt Elis, it's not time yet.
Finally Aunt Alice was right, it was time, and we
jumped in. We know what we were doing, the hotel
around just at the right time. Right then the hotel
when my husband said, you know, let's renovate this hotel,

(19:50):
and we're like, okay, had no idea, no idea, no budget,
he's never done it before and we just did it.
Now we have this like cool fun hotel George. Hustlers.
I don't know of our hustlers. We're just no, we're
not hustlers. It's the best sense of the word. Like,
you know, we're not hustlers. We're just people that like
hustling on hustling, not hustling. We're just like I think

(20:13):
it's cool if someone said, hey, yeah, you're a hustler,
I'd be like, yeah, no, it's not you know, it's
just girls not knowing what they're doing doing stuff. Making
shut up. I mean that's what I'm really good at.
I make shut up. Well, and now we kind of
know what we're doing in some senses, we do, but
we we could use probably, you know, a little structure.

(20:34):
I I hopefully we will. Anybody out there, Yeah, well no,
I might have. You know, found an intern who used
to be a president and CEO of a very big
Company's seven year old guy offered him an internship. I'm
so excited. Yeah, we'll see fingers Cross and Evolution eighteen,
which I think is a great story for you to tell. Well.

(20:55):
Evan Evolution eighteen is a wellness brand that teaches people
how to be beautiful from the inside out. It really is,
you know, a combination. You know, I'm not saying don't
wear concealer, blush, you know, makeup, But the difference is
the better and healthier skin is, the less makeup you need,
and the better it looks. And so Evolution eighteen is

(21:17):
a way for me to help people not only educate
themselves on how to live a healthier life, but I've
made products and supplements that will supplement the healthy life.
There is no way that these products will work if
you're eating junk food every single day. So it's an
education platform for me, but also certain tools and answering

(21:40):
some lifestyle things. So you know, there's a chocolate powder
that literally fills you up, fuels your brain, taste delicious,
and according to the package, will keep me away from
the bread basket when I go to dinner. So things
like that, I think it's the same philosophy you've always had.
It's it's you're you're in every woman. You get women

(22:00):
and men, some some men, I plenty of their needs
are their lifestyles. The chaotic, frenetic pace of most people's life.
And now there's a whole other aspect to your life
to health coach. As I'm a health coach, I got
I had a moment to think about what would I
like to do like golf, tennis, nah, go to the
movies and plays with my girlfriends nah. So that's why

(22:23):
I had to just keep thinking of businesses. But I
always wanted to learn more about health and wellness. So
um I I n the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. I
went back to school and it was all this cool
digital program and I learned a lot. Do you still
feel that and your kids are older? But that pull
of like, oh should I be with the family, should

(22:43):
I do this? Should I do that? I'm missing out?
Or do you feel more balanced? I'm definitely feel more balanced.
You know. There's there's a good thing about, you know,
turning sixty and now I'm sixty two, and you just
kind of realize what matters, and you know what. I
recently committed to be on this really cool panel in
San Francisco, and I never in a million years would

(23:04):
have thought of calling in saying I can't do it,
but I was invited to Paris with one of my
children and their girlfriend, and I just, you know, it's
still a couple of months out, and I'm like, you
know what, And I just called the people that were
running the panel and I said, I have to be
really honest, and I told him the truth and they said,
we understand. Will you do it next year? So but

(23:25):
you know, that's how I did it myself. I didn't
ask anyone to make the call for me. And hopefully
you know, they said they weren't mad, but and they
appreciate it. We'll see if you get the call next
We'll see if I get the call next year. But
you know what, how could I not go to Paris
with my son and his girlfriend? Agreed? Um? All right, Well,
so then you have this amazing life. I mean in

(23:47):
so many senses of the word. What what's left? What
do you want to do with the left? A lots left?
I'm not what are you? What are you hoping to learn?
What am I hoping to learn? I mean, look, I
am in I have an insane shabole like hunger for
learning to type. No, I don't want to learn to type. No,
I don't want to learn to type. But there's so

(24:08):
many things I want to do. There's there's you know
a couple of things I can't talk about, and certainly
a couple of things that I am pretty excited that
we're working on. Now. You know, I'm building another empire,
but I'm doing it differently. I'm doing it my way,
and if I ever sell it, I'm not staying because
I want to build this community of people that work

(24:31):
with me that could you know, bring their dogs, bring
their kids, could you know, figure out how to have
a life. And I want to be able to mentor
the people I work with, and you know, we'll see
there's there's a whole bunch of things on my plate.
Well that sounds like the perfect definition for beyond the
real Bobby Brown, beyond the beauty. I think you just

(24:52):
summed up the podcast. My goal is um when I
am in my eighties and I have grandchildren, I still
want to have a company. I still want to work,
and my goal is to be able to say that
I could touch my toes and do yoga. I want
to be you know, really fit fit person as I
get older, I think I will be. I have no doubt.

(25:15):
I have no doubt you round circles around people. Now,
I I would say that, I mean, I hate to
talk about age, but it's I feel ageless, like I
forget how old I am, which is good. Yeah, yeah.
I don't look in the mirror a lot. I don't
shoot things in my face. You don't shoot things in
your face, you know. And I don't look in the mirror.
You don't eat a bunch of crap crazy. You have

(25:37):
an active lifestyle, I mean yeah, you sleep well. I do.
I have no problem sleeping, you know. Probably my biggest
complaint with myself as I am a little bit um
a d D. I'm a little bit o c D
self diagnosed, self diagnosed. I once did a did a
a d D test and I flunk so badly. The

(25:57):
doctor said, could you come back another time and do
it again? And I said no, I don't need to.
They thought, maybe you're just having a bad day. You
just thought I was having a bad day. I'm like
I tried to focus. Well, lots more to come from
the bobst as we call her, and I hope you
guys enjoyed the podcast The Real Bobby Brown, The Real
Bobby Brown on the Beauty. For more podcasts from I

(26:20):
Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,