July 2, 2025 • 34 mins
Victoria Jackson is a beauty industry pioneer whose billion-dollar brand helped define the “no-makeup makeup” movement — but her most powerful pivot came far beyond the world of cosmetics. In this episode, Victoria shares how building her business from her garage was just the beginning of a life shaped by resilience, reinvention, and purpose. When her daughter was diagnosed with a rare and life-threatening disease, Victoria left her company behind and stepped into the unknown, founding the Guthy-Jackson Charitable Foundation and ultimately funding groundbreaking medical research that led to the first FDA-approved treatments. Now at 70, she’s returning to beauty with a renewed mission and product line, reimagining beauty for women who, like her, are still evolving.
Be sure to subscribe, leave us a rating, and share with your friends if you liked this episode!
She Pivots was created by host Emily Tisch Sussman to highlight women, their stories, and how their pivot became their success. To learn more about Victoria, follow us on Instagram @ShePivotsThePodcast or visit shepivotsthepodcast.com.
Support the show: https://www.shepivotsthepodcast.com/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Victoria Jackson (00:00):
Welcome back to she Pivots and I'm Victoria Jackson.
Emily Tisch Sussman (00:13):
Welcome back to she Pivots, the podcast where we talk
with women who dare to pivot out of one career
and into something new and explore how their personal lives
impacts these decisions. I'm your host Emily Tish Sussman today.
I'm so excited to have on Victoria Jackson to talk
(00:35):
about her many pivots and plot twists. Victoria is someone
whose life embodies everything we talk about on she Pivots,
the way our personal stories shape our professional paths, and
how reinvention isn't a one time decision, it's a way
of living. She may be best known as the woman
who coined no Makeup makeup, the beauty pioneer who built
(00:55):
a billion dollar empire by championing natural confidence's first beauty
long before it was trending, but her story goes far
beyond the surface. She launched Victoria Jackson Cosmetics from her
garage in the nineteen eighties with a singular mission to
help women feel like the best version of themselves. She
was scrappy, bold, and entirely self taught, selling her products
(01:20):
on infomercials and later on QBC, becoming a household name
in the process. But in two thousand and eight, everything
changed when her daughter Ali was diagnosed with a rare,
life threatening disease called neuromya litis optica or NMO. Victoria
didn't hesitate. She walked away from the business she had
(01:40):
built and pivoted without question into a world she knew
nothing about medicine. She taught herself the language of molecular immunology,
founded the Guthy Jackson Charitable Foundation, and mobilized nearly eighty
million dollars for research that helped fund the first ever
ET approved treatments for the disease. She became an advocate,
(02:04):
a fundraiser, a force in a space that she had
never expected to enter. But never once did she doubt
her decision to put love, purpose, and motherhood first. Now,
at seventy years old, Victoria's pivoting again. She's returning to
where it all began, with a new generation of no
makeup makeup products, blending skin care and simplicity with the
(02:27):
same mission that started it all, helping people feel confident
in their own skin. She's not just reviving a brand,
She's reimagining beauty for women who like her are still evolving.
Victoria's story is raw, resilient, and deeply human. It's all
about surviving trauma, building success from scratch, and walking away
(02:50):
from an all for something even greater. And now, decades later,
it's about choosing joy and creativity again on her own
Termslet's get into.
Victoria Jackson (03:00):
It, Victoria Jackson, and I do so many things. Philanthropist, entrepreneur, mother,
makeup creator, really kind of an accentrist and alchemist, you
name it. That's just sort of who I am.
Emily Tisch Sussman (03:20):
Okay, we're rewinding, we're going all the way back. So
little Victoria, when you were growing up, what did you
think you wanted to be when you grew up?
Victoria Jackson (03:29):
You know, I always say I was born prematurely. I
was born in the six and a half month, so
I think. And I was born I think early on
I had that little worry gene and worried about everything.
So probably I was just worried about the stability of
my parents. And you know, how did I get into
a situation where I never quite knew what was coming next?
(03:53):
So I don't even know that. It was very much
later in life that I started thinking about what I
wanted to do and that question bothered me more than anything,
not the way you've just asked it, but the way
people in my life did at the time, which is
probably for a lot of young people when they say, well,
what do you want to do or what do you
and I had no sense. I was always a person
(04:13):
that was just trying to figure out who I was,
let alone where I was going or you know, what
my career might look like. Things seemed to evolve in
a different way for me as I was always struggling
and fighting and dealing with much bigger inner demons. You know,
I was always in survival mode. Is one thing that
(04:34):
I realized, having come from a childhood that was, you know,
filled with a lot of uncertainty. And then you know,
the episode that happened when we'll call it beyond an
episode of what happened in my life, the incident with
pillowcase rapist when I was seventeen. So I've always really
struggled with trying to figure things out and not knowing
(04:55):
where my place was, not coming from a family that,
I said, a lot of instability, there wasn't a lot
of money, just sort of you know, I wasn't great
going to school. I was ditching school all the time.
So yeah, it's just a lot. I was always dealing
with a lot internally.
Emily Tisch Sussman (05:14):
One of the first moments that forced Victoria to pivot
was once she just touched on one of the most
horrific moments of her life. When she was just seventeen,
she was the victim of a violent attack from a
man known as the Pillowcase rapist, and it changed her
life forever.
Victoria Jackson (05:31):
You know, I always felt, I don't know if a
lot of the people that are listening to this, they
always feel like, you know, there's a sense of foreboding
about maybe something in their life and then it happens.
For me, it was always I felt like somebody was
out to get me, and that was always, you know,
and I would be teased about it in the family,
like Who's going to get you? And to the point
(05:51):
where one a night, my brother was, you know, always
making jokes at a step brother. My mom remarried and
I had a stepbrother who basically was a good guy,
but he would play jokes on me. And so one
night when I was home in my room alone, I
saw behind me, you know, that awful scene in a
horror movie where there's somebody standing behind you that I
(06:13):
was looking in a mirror and someone was behind me
and had on a ski mask and looked like a
dish towel hanging over something and was all covered up
with gloves and lots of clothes. And I thought it
was my brother playing a joke, saying don't move, and
it turned out it was not my brother. And you know,
I don't really need to go into all the details
(06:35):
of it, because I do talk about it in my book.
We all worry, now what, but enough that I thought
my whole family was, you know, had been killed and
I was the last victim. And so that's all I
kept thinking about. And really from that experience, which manifested
in severe claustrophobia for me, and you know, he had
(06:58):
a knife and I stabbed and brutally raped, and it
was I learned about something called which I talk about
in my book called zooming out. But for at the time,
it was really disassociating from what was happening to my body,
kind of you know, sort of floating above looking down
(07:19):
and really being very cognizant of there was a reason
that I was here. This wasn't going to be how
I went out and was very clear that when I
had a moment to scream and break free, that's what
I did. And that was obviously another pivot point, for sure,
you know, a brutal pivot, but a pivot to there's
(07:43):
a reason I'm here, I've been spared, there's a reason
I'm here, and what is that reason?
Emily Tisch Sussman (07:50):
And from there you wrote that you never went back
home after that.
Victoria Jackson (07:55):
Yeah, I never went back in my room. I was seventeen,
I didn't graduate high school. I was in my final year,
of my final months actually of graduating in the twelfth grade. Yeah,
I just could never go back in the room. And
then at eighteen, when I turned eighteen, I got married
because you know, I had to be eighteen and just
didn't want to be alone, basically, was it. So you know,
(08:17):
I married sort of like almost like a high school
friend and to not be by myself, and I was
you know, I think we lasted about nine months, and
because you know, his last name was Jackson, and I
wanted to just sort of like, I think it raised
so much of the past. And I'd had different names
because I was born one name and then my stepfather
(08:39):
adopted me and I had a different name. And then
you know, I just thought, as in this pivot, I'm
going to now be Victoria Jackson, and I decided to
go to beauty school, which is because I am more
of a creative and learn about doing makeup and hair
and went to Marinello's School of Beauty. I was able
(08:59):
to get a scholarship and did that. My marriage didn't
survive that, but it really wasn't a marriage marriage. It
was a friendship. And I think we've both figured out
it was best to go our separate ways.
Emily Tisch Sussman (09:13):
After everything that happened, Victoria leaned into beauty school, carving
out a new life for herself. She hustled, made connections,
and eventually, after spotting a gap in the market, she
decided to start her own makeup company out of her garage.
Victoria Jackson (09:29):
I mean, while I was, you know, when I decided
I wanted to be a makeup artist, and to be
a makeup artist, a Hollywood makeup artist, you have to
start building a portfolio. And at the time I started
doing that by working. I'd look through which no longer exists,
the phone book, and I would look to see different photographers.
I'd look on magazines credits, you know, for photographers, I'd
(09:51):
go see them and I had to ask if I
could work for free to start building my portfolio. And
I noticed as I was doing that, and that was
after graduating from a beauty school sixteen hundred hours later,
that makeup was really what I was excited about. I would,
during the day work for in the makeup counters, you know,
clinique or different department stores. I'd work in the makeup
(10:15):
counters and be familiar with different brands and makeup, and
I didn't find anything. As I was now working and
testing and building my portfolio with photographers, a makeup that
was more of a neutral base foundation. And so I
decided that everything was like two pink and orange. This
is going back aways before there was you know the
(10:36):
companies now that have eight hundred shades of foundations. So
I started to create in my garage my own makeup
by mixing and matching different things so to create what
was more of what I called at the time, it
was Victoria Jackson Beauty Basics. That was my first line.
And while I was doing that, I started I thought
(10:58):
I would see if I could teach makeup class, and
I was doing that at ACLA in an extension course,
and I started to perfect and see what people were
responding to with my makeup. But it was all really
started in my garage.
Emily Tisch Sussman (11:13):
So you really started it out of necessity looking for
the products that It wasn't like you were approaching this
as saying I'm going to be an entrepreneur, let me
find the product. It was really the tool that you
needed to make your business work.
Victoria Jackson (11:24):
I always believe like if you build it, they will come.
But yeah, I wasn't thinking I had no idea. Everything
very organically came from that where I was in my
class and a student in my UCLA class also said
that she basically worked with a group of guys that
were selling products on television, and I said, I had
(11:46):
a great idea of how to sell cosmetics and TV,
although I wasn't really sure that I had a great
idea for how to do that. But I thought I
would take what I'd been doing in my classes. I'd
put together these color coordinated kits, and I took a
lot of what I was teaching, which are now you
see on TikTok all the time as these tutorials. I
was doing a three hour class and lessons on you know,
(12:09):
a ten over a ten week course of how to
do your makeup. So I started to extract a lot
of that and thought, how could I take all of
what I do and bring it down to where, you know,
I could sell this on television.
Emily Tisch Sussman (12:25):
And here we are with Victoria, and.
Victoria Jackson (12:28):
I'm going to take you through a complete makeover or
I make someone up from the start to finish, and
show you all the right techniques for a general makeup application.
And now joining me is Victoria Jackson. Hi, Cathleen, So
what are we going to do today?
Emily Tisch Sussman (12:40):
What are we going to learn?
Victoria Jackson (12:42):
And I got on the set and I did a
million dollars a week in sales. From that point on,
I did thirteen years of inpromercials, ten years of QVC.
Where by the way, I just went back on QVC
twenty five years later last week and it was amazing. So, yeah,
I've talked about full circle.
Emily Tisch Sussman (13:03):
Yeah I got yeah, Well when did you Maybe it
was now, But at this point, when did you know
that you'd made it in the cosmetics industry or even
just like made it professionally.
Victoria Jackson (13:14):
I don't know that I ever thought about. It's so strange,
but the making it. When you deal with low self
esteem and insecurity, you're always sort of like did I
make it? And I always saw I was just saying
the next thing. You know, when you do things like
QBC at the time, you know, I'm I'm very hard
on myself, so I'm a perfectionist, so I never quite
(13:35):
Only now I think as I'm this year about to
turn seventy, and I thought, you know what, this year
I'm starting to take you know what, I'm looking at
my resume and I'm ticking over a lot of boxes off, going, oh,
you've done a lot, so I think it's just catching
up now to all that I've done.
Emily Tisch Sussman (13:54):
By all accounts, Victoria had found success in her career.
She was doing millions in sales. I was bringing in
over twenty two thousand new customers a week in the
nineteen eighties. No less. When we come back, Victoria's life
takes an unexpected turn as we explore the more personal
side of her story. Stay tuned. Before the break, Victoria
(14:25):
was setting records and breaking glass ceilings at QBC, But
while she was growing Victoria Jackson Cosmetics, her personal life
grew as well.
Victoria Jackson (14:35):
I was married for my first marriage, which was very
short with the gentleman named last name Jackson. I remarried
years later to you know, the love of my life,
the first love of my life. I now have a
new love of my life. I'm very lucky. And I
was married and I had a son who is now
(14:56):
forty years old. And you know, as our I was
going up kind of in the world of infomercials. You know,
we drifted a little bit apart, and again we split,
you know, amicably, and have a beautiful son now as
I say that we have together. And during that separation
and as we were finalizing our divorce, I met my
(15:17):
current husband, Bill Guthi of Gutty Ranker, and we have
two children. So I have three beautiful children. And it
was really during my time married with Bill, as we
have a son and a daughter, that I was going
along in my makeup world. And all things have been
going well. And you know, I think Victoria Jackson enjoyed
(15:40):
sales up to a billion dollars, thirteen years of infomercials,
ten years of QVC. I created about six hundred beauty products,
and just overnight my daughter said she had an eyeball headache,
and so began this kind of nightmare of she was
diagnosed with this rare auto immune disease called NMO used
(16:02):
to be known as Devik's disease. And they told me,
and by the way, it's not so rare, that she
had four years to live. And then I basically said,
I'm closing the door on makeup, and I'm opening the
door on everything medicine. And you know, I never went
to college, as I said, I didn't graduate high school.
(16:23):
So now I was really going to have how do
I learn to cure this autoimmune disease when I've been
making like foundation and lib gloss for the last fifteen years.
Emily Tisch Sussman (16:33):
Her daughter's diagnosis changed everything. Neuromyolite as optica or NMO,
is an autoimmune disease where your immune system, which usually
protects you, mistakenly attacks parts of your nervous system, usually
your optic nerves and the spinal cord. So without his
second thought, Victoria dropped everything to find a cure, not
(16:55):
once looking back, people react to these moments differently. I
think it probably just depends on you know, your life
experience and kind of your disposition. But for some people
they jump immediately into action. For some people they need
to have a down period, they need to evaluate. When
she got this diagnosis, can you talk us through, I
(17:17):
mean obviously devastating, but you know, what were your feelings,
what were your thoughts then, and what did you pull
from in your past to help you get on a
on an active track of figuring out trying to find
the diagnosis.
Victoria Jackson (17:29):
Well, I knew that I had to work let's call it,
at the speed of life, and so certainly I fell apart,
you know, and I curled up in a ball, and
you know, was like, couldn't move off my bathroom floor
for a while. But it's the thing that separates, you know,
people from like you can stay in that position or
(17:50):
you can allow yourself that and then you get up
and you start making a plan. I was so focused,
you know, I literally have to remember, like I was
picturing the hour glass of the sands of time running out,
and I was on this like had to get something done.
So sure it was upsetting, but I became so singularly
focused because I knew without me driving that narrative and
(18:15):
being the person who's doing it and the quote unquote
mom on the mission, as they called me, there was
no other choice. So I just knew that I was
going to have to put together a group of really
smart people, doctors, researchers, scientists, anybody that knew anything about this,
and start I just started thinking through in business, what
would you do to solve something. You'd start bringing in
(18:38):
the people, You start building on the foundation, you start
getting great minds together, you start about collaboration. All the
fundamentals that I built in my beauty business, I just
started to apply that here. So I started to seek
out the experts and build this team. And I was
just going to be as I've always been, just my
(18:58):
authentic self telling the story. Because infomercials were telling a
story for thirty minutes. I'm going to tell the story
of my daughter where I am, what I'm trying to do,
and I'm going to pay. I've spent eighty million dollars
of my own money. But people are going to work
the way I need them to work, which is they
need to collaborate, share information. And I'm going to change
(19:22):
the way in which medical research is done. So I
set a big bar for myself and a big agenda.
But I knew this was serious and I was going
to save her life and the life of all the
people that have this condition. I will say, in the
midst of all of that I was diagnosed with cancer. So,
but I always see things as a movie and I
(19:44):
was sort of like, this can't be the part in
the movie where the mom dies trying to save the daughter,
you know, And so I was able to get through that.
Emily Tisch Sussman (19:54):
It's unbelievable what you've done. Can you walk us through
a little bit of that, like how did you know
what barriers needed to be fixed? And it sounds like
you had some idea about how to solve them by
funding them and forcing them to work in a collaborative way,
But how did you even know that that was a problem?
And then how did you force it forward? You did
(20:14):
it very quickly.
Victoria Jackson (20:16):
Yeah, I've done it very very quickly, because it became
apparent to me early on and people let me know.
And I have to give a lot of credit to
the head of my scientific team, who is the head
of molecular Medicine at an Infectious Disease at UCLA, doctor
Michael Gaman, And it became clear to me. I was like, well,
tell me what are the challenges of getting cures and
(20:37):
getting things made? And the biggest one was collaboration, people
not wanting to work together. And so immediately became clear
to me, what I was going to need to do
was sort of create new rules of the road for
how I was going to if I was going to
give money, how people were going to have to work
together and share. And then I brought together a group
of people where I said, help me build this, build
(21:00):
it together. You tell me what you need and I'll
go and get it. You know, you tell me if
you need a certain specialist or research in a certain area.
And I mean, I'm so simplifying what has been over
seventeen years of problem solving, bringing people together, hundreds of
people's together, forty plus countries together, over fifty short films
(21:26):
that I've made, creating apps, building my own blood bank
that has over one hundred thousand specimens, where I started
with nothing because who knew that to you know, have research,
they needed the material to work on. So I had
to kind of go back in my old way of thinking.
(21:47):
This is how creative you start thinking. I needed blood
from people in the world that had this, and I
was like, instance, it's mostly women that have autoimmune diseases.
I was like, I'll give you blush if you give
me some blood. Right, Like, I'm going back into my
old makeup role. I'm thinking again that creative, which sounds
(22:08):
kind of insane now, But I started with one nurse
going across the country. She'd have extra blush in her bag,
getting specimens, and that's how I started creating a blood bank.
So anything that I saw was an obstacle. I tried
to figure out the solution.
Emily Tisch Sussman (22:25):
Wow, that is really extraordinary. How quickly did you feel
like you were making progress? Was it immediate or was
it very frustrating? No, it was very frustrating because to me,
progress was going to only look like, you know, again
a high bar of a cure or a therapy. So
it's taken me a while to be able to sit here,
Emily and say to you, and now I have four therapies.
(22:48):
But in real time, people said, nobody gets a drug made,
even one maid this quickly. They say, you have to
cross what they call, which is a not a great name,
the Valley of death, where a lot of ideas, research,
science just kind of goes into this chasm of like
nothing happens. And I crossed the Valley of death with
(23:08):
building bridges between a lot of people that had I
think a great sense of humanity, perseverance, amazing brain trusts
to help me build that bridge. You can't just have
the researchers, clinicians and scientists without the patients. And I
think you would see the pharmaceutical companies and it's why
(23:30):
I have four drugs made. They were engaged. I mean,
of course it's about money, but it's also about the
humanity of helping people. And that's what I had to
do was try to build that bridge and show both
sides we need to work together and here's how we
can do that. Remarkably, Victoria did it. She brought the
(23:51):
right people together to create an FDA approof treatment that
her daughter is still on now seventeen years later. Not
only did she help other NEMO patients to fight the odds,
she created a new model for bringing everyone together in
the room, hundreds of researchers and clinicians from thirty two countries,
plus pharmaceutical execs and tech teams at Google. She did
(24:14):
it all within a high school or college degree. But
Victoria isn't done yet. After the break, Victoria makes another pivot.
(24:37):
After spending years in the medical industry, Victoria was ready
to take on another challenge. At this time, something a
little more fun than familiar.
Victoria Jackson (24:47):
And what I missed most. You know, in medicine, everything's
black white gray through that. Really sixteen seventeen years I
was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame by
Glorious da which was unbelievable. I received an amazing acknowledgment
from the Pope the Vatican. I was at the Vatican
(25:08):
like for my work around the world. I mean, amazing
things happened that if somebody would have told me as
a high school dropout and not knowing what I was
going to do have happened in my life, I would
never have believed it. But medicine is black white gray.
I've always sort of missed the color of getting back
in making my cosmetics, and I still own my trademark
(25:32):
no Makeup Makeup, and I decided, you know what, I'm
not going to come back with a product until again.
I feel like I have like the world's best foundation
and I've been working over the last few years to
create that. And when we actually came up with it,
I was like, Okay, you know what, I'm ready to
go back out there again with no makeup. Makeup.
Emily Tisch Sussman (25:52):
A lot of people think.
Victoria Jackson (25:53):
Makeup has changed so much over the years do to work.
Emily Tisch Sussman (25:57):
With the cold great law reflection.
Victoria Jackson (26:00):
To me, beauty has always been the same.
Emily Tisch Sussman (26:02):
Here is one of the most successful business women in
all America.
Victoria Jackson (26:05):
Her name was Victoria Jackson.
Emily Tisch Sussman (26:06):
Victoria Jacks Victoria Jackson is a phenomenon in the world
of beauty.
Victoria Jackson (26:10):
My whole philosophy is really based on a no makeup, makeup,
no makeup, makeup, no makeup makeup, no makeup make up,
introducing no makeup makeup.
Emily Tisch Sussman (26:19):
So how do you think about dividing your time. You're
relaunching makeup, You're doing no makeup makeup? Why now? Why
make up again?
Victoria Jackson (26:29):
Oh? I mean for me? Like I said, I wasn't
coming back until I made what I felt was the
most extraordinary product. And I'm you know, I love being
in a lab and I love creating product. I just
knew that it was. It's just something that I wanted
to do, and I trademarked no makeup makeup early on.
It's still my philosophy. I feel strongly about it. As
I said, I'm turning seventy and I'm still talking about
(26:51):
no makeup makeup. I just went back on QVC where
I was looking at old footage of me when I
was there in my little mini skirt like thirty five
years ago or whatever it was, and I just went
back and I had three fifteen minute segments and I
was fortunate. I sold out and I did over a
million dollars in sale. Thank you everybody. But more than that,
(27:13):
it's a great product and I was really excited about it,
just like I was when I did my infomercials. Like
it's easy for me. I'm not just selling and pitching.
It's more I know that I've got something great and
I made it, and I'm really excited about it, and
I want women to try it and always say, if
you don't like it, send it back.
Emily Tisch Sussman (27:31):
That's just me.
Victoria Jackson (27:32):
So this is just a continuation of it, and it's
it's fun and I'm enjoying doing it.
Emily Tisch Sussman (27:39):
How is building the company coming back in entering again different?
I'm sure different in a million ways, But how is
it different this time around? Oh?
Victoria Jackson (27:47):
I mean, it feels like I was asleep for seventeen years.
I woke up and now I'm in the world of
TikTok and there are no infomercials anymore. It's like wake up, Victoria,
but there's no infomercials. Anymore. It's it's TikTok, and it's Instagram,
and it's influencers and creators and tutorials. But I did
all of that, so it's it's taking it now and
(28:09):
as they say, making everything my messaging more snackable. But
I was talking about a lot of the things that
I was doing then I'm doing now. It's just in
a new way. And there's things that I'll I listen
to my team and they're going, Okay, you need to
go in the bathroom and you need to like show
people before and after. And I was, you know, like
(28:31):
in only this time, you don't have thirty minutes to
do it. You've got you know, thirty seconds. So it's
been a learning I sound like a you know, old lady, like,
what is this new era we're in? But it's kind
of been like that for me. But you know what,
I pioneered the infomercial world, and I'm sure I can
navigate this and a lot of people, you know, interestingly,
(28:52):
to a lot of people have been talking about no
makeup makeup for a long time, not realizing that I
originally am the one that kind of started that movement
early on in trademarket so it's been nice. A lot
of people now are going, wait a minute, I've heard
it from so and so, but you're the one who
did that, so it's kind of nice to do that.
Emily Tisch Sussman (29:13):
And thinking about your metric for success, what are your
dreams for your relaunch of the makeup Like, is your
metric of success different this time around?
Victoria Jackson (29:23):
I think ultimately will be since I kind of walked
away from that, will be to sell this company when
the time is right. That will be a metric. Like
it'll sort of be like it was something that I
was wanting to do then and they all will have
recreated something that I can do now. So I think
that will be a metric for me. But again, going
(29:46):
back to already, I'm feeling pretty amazed because I can
see how people are responding to it, and that's really
there's no better metric than that than people just loving
something that you've created.
Emily Tisch Sussman (29:57):
Yeah, you know, I have a lot of conversations with
listeners where especially after they've had young kids, once they
have sort of medium aged kids and maybe they had
taken a step back from the workforce at that time
and then they think, oh, well, you know, I'm too
old to start something new. Ah, what would I start now?
I can't start again now. But you are starting a
new company at almost seventy So what is your message
(30:19):
to them?
Victoria Jackson (30:21):
Oh? Just do it, just you know, don't even like
seriously like I think it's harder the thought of not
doing something. You're already failing. If you don't do it,
you've already failed. So why not see if you can succeed?
Because not doing it, to me is already a failure.
So it's really like, you put yourself out there, you know,
(30:41):
and do it if it's real for you, if you
believe it. Don't do it just to do it. Do
it because there's something in you that you want to
do it and you feel passionate around that to me,
is always makes it authentic and people can feel your authenticity,
your excitement.
Emily Tisch Sussman (30:59):
So I asked this question of all of my guests.
What is something that at one point you saw as
really a negative or a low point, and now you
see it as having really launched you into the path
that you are on now or the success that you
found now.
Victoria Jackson (31:12):
I mean, I'd say so many, so many things, things
like obviously my daughter's illness was clearly the lowest point,
but I see out of that, and I certainly wouldn't
wish that or say oh, but ultimately it was the
best thing that happened. No, it wasn't the best thing
that happened. But I see what I was able to
(31:33):
make of it, and how I was able to you know,
help thousands, hundreds of thousands of people and getting drugs made.
That's pretty extraordinary. So something that was so low and
I felt like I didn't even know where to begin,
where to begin, and to see what it's turned into
that's been extraordinary. And the same thing with the makeup,
(31:55):
that you start from this tiny little seed. And you know,
I always remember this, Jay Shetty had said it, and
I remember it. You can water the seeds or the weeds,
you know, And I always try to water the seeds
and try to get rid of those weeds. And I've
seen all those seeds now really grow into something pretty extraordinary,
(32:19):
and I'm very, very proud of that.
Emily Tisch Sussman (32:22):
Do you think you'll pivot again?
Victoria Jackson (32:23):
Absolutely, I think I'll be pivoting, you know, I think
I'll be like pivoting in my grave. I mean, i'd
just be like, I think that's just who I am.
But I pivot. But It's not like I pivot and
then the other thing is shit. I just bring something
new into my life and I keep them all going.
They're all on burners, and you know, the heat is
(32:45):
turned up a little more on one than the other.
But I keep them all going. They're all cooking. So
I think sometimes people can think pivot, like you know,
you turn, and then are you turning your back on
something or closing a door. I really try not to
always do that to sort of now, Like I say,
they're all on a burner, they're all cooking, and I
(33:05):
know it's part of those ms, which one am I
in and what am I giving a little bit more
love or attention to today? But they all coexist in
the world of Victoria Jackson.
Emily Tisch Sussman (33:18):
Well, thank you so much, Thank.
Victoria Jackson (33:20):
You so much. I appreciate it.
Emily Tisch Sussman (33:23):
Victoria still has all her burners going, from publishing her
latest book, We All Worry Now What, to growing her
company no makeup Makeup, to running her bookstore, Godmother Books.
She doesn't slow down. You can keep up with Victoria
and her many pivots on Instagram at official Victoria Jackson
(33:44):
Talk to you next week. Thanks for listening to this
episode of She pivots. I hope you enjoyed it, and
if you did, leave us a rating and tell your
friends about us. To learn more about our guests, follow
us on Instagram at she pivots the Podcast, or sign
up for our newsletter where you can get exclusive behind
(34:04):
the scenes content on our website at she pivots thepodcast
dot com. This episode was produced and edited by Emily Davelosk,
with sound editing and mixing from Nina Pollock, Audio production
and social media by Hannah Cousins, research by Christine Dickinson,
and logistics and planning by Emma Stopic and Kendall Krupkin.
(34:28):
She pivots is proud to be a part of the
iHeart Podcast Network. I endorse g pivots
Welcome back to she Pivots and I'm Victoria Jackson.
Emily Tisch Sussman (00:13):
Welcome back to she Pivots, the podcast where we talk
with women who dare to pivot out of one career
and into something new and explore how their personal lives
impacts these decisions. I'm your host Emily Tish Sussman today.
I'm so excited to have on Victoria Jackson to talk
(00:35):
about her many pivots and plot twists. Victoria is someone
whose life embodies everything we talk about on she Pivots,
the way our personal stories shape our professional paths, and
how reinvention isn't a one time decision, it's a way
of living. She may be best known as the woman
who coined no Makeup makeup, the beauty pioneer who built
(00:55):
a billion dollar empire by championing natural confidence's first beauty
long before it was trending, but her story goes far
beyond the surface. She launched Victoria Jackson Cosmetics from her
garage in the nineteen eighties with a singular mission to
help women feel like the best version of themselves. She
was scrappy, bold, and entirely self taught, selling her products
(01:20):
on infomercials and later on QBC, becoming a household name
in the process. But in two thousand and eight, everything
changed when her daughter Ali was diagnosed with a rare,
life threatening disease called neuromya litis optica or NMO. Victoria
didn't hesitate. She walked away from the business she had
(01:40):
built and pivoted without question into a world she knew
nothing about medicine. She taught herself the language of molecular immunology,
founded the Guthy Jackson Charitable Foundation, and mobilized nearly eighty
million dollars for research that helped fund the first ever
ET approved treatments for the disease. She became an advocate,
(02:04):
a fundraiser, a force in a space that she had
never expected to enter. But never once did she doubt
her decision to put love, purpose, and motherhood first. Now,
at seventy years old, Victoria's pivoting again. She's returning to
where it all began, with a new generation of no
makeup makeup products, blending skin care and simplicity with the
(02:27):
same mission that started it all, helping people feel confident
in their own skin. She's not just reviving a brand,
She's reimagining beauty for women who like her are still evolving.
Victoria's story is raw, resilient, and deeply human. It's all
about surviving trauma, building success from scratch, and walking away
(02:50):
from an all for something even greater. And now, decades later,
it's about choosing joy and creativity again on her own
Termslet's get into.
Victoria Jackson (03:00):
It, Victoria Jackson, and I do so many things. Philanthropist, entrepreneur, mother,
makeup creator, really kind of an accentrist and alchemist, you
name it. That's just sort of who I am.
Emily Tisch Sussman (03:20):
Okay, we're rewinding, we're going all the way back. So
little Victoria, when you were growing up, what did you
think you wanted to be when you grew up?
Victoria Jackson (03:29):
You know, I always say I was born prematurely. I
was born in the six and a half month, so
I think. And I was born I think early on
I had that little worry gene and worried about everything.
So probably I was just worried about the stability of
my parents. And you know, how did I get into
a situation where I never quite knew what was coming next?
(03:53):
So I don't even know that. It was very much
later in life that I started thinking about what I
wanted to do and that question bothered me more than anything,
not the way you've just asked it, but the way
people in my life did at the time, which is
probably for a lot of young people when they say, well,
what do you want to do or what do you
and I had no sense. I was always a person
(04:13):
that was just trying to figure out who I was,
let alone where I was going or you know, what
my career might look like. Things seemed to evolve in
a different way for me as I was always struggling
and fighting and dealing with much bigger inner demons. You know,
I was always in survival mode. Is one thing that
(04:34):
I realized, having come from a childhood that was, you know,
filled with a lot of uncertainty. And then you know,
the episode that happened when we'll call it beyond an
episode of what happened in my life, the incident with
pillowcase rapist when I was seventeen. So I've always really
struggled with trying to figure things out and not knowing
(04:55):
where my place was, not coming from a family that,
I said, a lot of instability, there wasn't a lot
of money, just sort of you know, I wasn't great
going to school. I was ditching school all the time.
So yeah, it's just a lot. I was always dealing
with a lot internally.
Emily Tisch Sussman (05:14):
One of the first moments that forced Victoria to pivot
was once she just touched on one of the most
horrific moments of her life. When she was just seventeen,
she was the victim of a violent attack from a
man known as the Pillowcase rapist, and it changed her
life forever.
Victoria Jackson (05:31):
You know, I always felt, I don't know if a
lot of the people that are listening to this, they
always feel like, you know, there's a sense of foreboding
about maybe something in their life and then it happens.
For me, it was always I felt like somebody was
out to get me, and that was always, you know,
and I would be teased about it in the family,
like Who's going to get you? And to the point
(05:51):
where one a night, my brother was, you know, always
making jokes at a step brother. My mom remarried and
I had a stepbrother who basically was a good guy,
but he would play jokes on me. And so one
night when I was home in my room alone, I
saw behind me, you know, that awful scene in a
horror movie where there's somebody standing behind you that I
(06:13):
was looking in a mirror and someone was behind me
and had on a ski mask and looked like a
dish towel hanging over something and was all covered up
with gloves and lots of clothes. And I thought it
was my brother playing a joke, saying don't move, and
it turned out it was not my brother. And you know,
I don't really need to go into all the details
(06:35):
of it, because I do talk about it in my book.
We all worry, now what, but enough that I thought
my whole family was, you know, had been killed and
I was the last victim. And so that's all I
kept thinking about. And really from that experience, which manifested
in severe claustrophobia for me, and you know, he had
(06:58):
a knife and I stabbed and brutally raped, and it
was I learned about something called which I talk about
in my book called zooming out. But for at the time,
it was really disassociating from what was happening to my body,
kind of you know, sort of floating above looking down
(07:19):
and really being very cognizant of there was a reason
that I was here. This wasn't going to be how
I went out and was very clear that when I
had a moment to scream and break free, that's what
I did. And that was obviously another pivot point, for sure,
you know, a brutal pivot, but a pivot to there's
(07:43):
a reason I'm here, I've been spared, there's a reason
I'm here, and what is that reason?
Emily Tisch Sussman (07:50):
And from there you wrote that you never went back
home after that.
Victoria Jackson (07:55):
Yeah, I never went back in my room. I was seventeen,
I didn't graduate high school. I was in my final year,
of my final months actually of graduating in the twelfth grade. Yeah,
I just could never go back in the room. And
then at eighteen, when I turned eighteen, I got married
because you know, I had to be eighteen and just
didn't want to be alone, basically, was it. So you know,
(08:17):
I married sort of like almost like a high school
friend and to not be by myself, and I was
you know, I think we lasted about nine months, and
because you know, his last name was Jackson, and I
wanted to just sort of like, I think it raised
so much of the past. And I'd had different names
because I was born one name and then my stepfather
(08:39):
adopted me and I had a different name. And then
you know, I just thought, as in this pivot, I'm
going to now be Victoria Jackson, and I decided to
go to beauty school, which is because I am more
of a creative and learn about doing makeup and hair
and went to Marinello's School of Beauty. I was able
(08:59):
to get a scholarship and did that. My marriage didn't
survive that, but it really wasn't a marriage marriage. It
was a friendship. And I think we've both figured out
it was best to go our separate ways.
Emily Tisch Sussman (09:13):
After everything that happened, Victoria leaned into beauty school, carving
out a new life for herself. She hustled, made connections,
and eventually, after spotting a gap in the market, she
decided to start her own makeup company out of her garage.
Victoria Jackson (09:29):
I mean, while I was, you know, when I decided
I wanted to be a makeup artist, and to be
a makeup artist, a Hollywood makeup artist, you have to
start building a portfolio. And at the time I started
doing that by working. I'd look through which no longer exists,
the phone book, and I would look to see different photographers.
I'd look on magazines credits, you know, for photographers, I'd
(09:51):
go see them and I had to ask if I
could work for free to start building my portfolio. And
I noticed as I was doing that, and that was
after graduating from a beauty school sixteen hundred hours later,
that makeup was really what I was excited about. I would,
during the day work for in the makeup counters, you know,
clinique or different department stores. I'd work in the makeup
(10:15):
counters and be familiar with different brands and makeup, and
I didn't find anything. As I was now working and
testing and building my portfolio with photographers, a makeup that
was more of a neutral base foundation. And so I
decided that everything was like two pink and orange. This
is going back aways before there was you know the
(10:36):
companies now that have eight hundred shades of foundations. So
I started to create in my garage my own makeup
by mixing and matching different things so to create what
was more of what I called at the time, it
was Victoria Jackson Beauty Basics. That was my first line.
And while I was doing that, I started I thought
(10:58):
I would see if I could teach makeup class, and
I was doing that at ACLA in an extension course,
and I started to perfect and see what people were
responding to with my makeup. But it was all really
started in my garage.
Emily Tisch Sussman (11:13):
So you really started it out of necessity looking for
the products that It wasn't like you were approaching this
as saying I'm going to be an entrepreneur, let me
find the product. It was really the tool that you
needed to make your business work.
Victoria Jackson (11:24):
I always believe like if you build it, they will come.
But yeah, I wasn't thinking I had no idea. Everything
very organically came from that where I was in my
class and a student in my UCLA class also said
that she basically worked with a group of guys that
were selling products on television, and I said, I had
(11:46):
a great idea of how to sell cosmetics and TV,
although I wasn't really sure that I had a great
idea for how to do that. But I thought I
would take what I'd been doing in my classes. I'd
put together these color coordinated kits, and I took a
lot of what I was teaching, which are now you
see on TikTok all the time as these tutorials. I
was doing a three hour class and lessons on you know,
(12:09):
a ten over a ten week course of how to
do your makeup. So I started to extract a lot
of that and thought, how could I take all of
what I do and bring it down to where, you know,
I could sell this on television.
Emily Tisch Sussman (12:25):
And here we are with Victoria, and.
Victoria Jackson (12:28):
I'm going to take you through a complete makeover or
I make someone up from the start to finish, and
show you all the right techniques for a general makeup application.
And now joining me is Victoria Jackson. Hi, Cathleen, So
what are we going to do today?
Emily Tisch Sussman (12:40):
What are we going to learn?
Victoria Jackson (12:42):
And I got on the set and I did a
million dollars a week in sales. From that point on,
I did thirteen years of inpromercials, ten years of QVC.
Where by the way, I just went back on QVC
twenty five years later last week and it was amazing. So, yeah,
I've talked about full circle.
Emily Tisch Sussman (13:03):
Yeah I got yeah, Well when did you Maybe it
was now, But at this point, when did you know
that you'd made it in the cosmetics industry or even
just like made it professionally.
Victoria Jackson (13:14):
I don't know that I ever thought about. It's so strange,
but the making it. When you deal with low self
esteem and insecurity, you're always sort of like did I
make it? And I always saw I was just saying
the next thing. You know, when you do things like
QBC at the time, you know, I'm I'm very hard
on myself, so I'm a perfectionist, so I never quite
(13:35):
Only now I think as I'm this year about to
turn seventy, and I thought, you know what, this year
I'm starting to take you know what, I'm looking at
my resume and I'm ticking over a lot of boxes off, going, oh,
you've done a lot, so I think it's just catching
up now to all that I've done.
Emily Tisch Sussman (13:54):
By all accounts, Victoria had found success in her career.
She was doing millions in sales. I was bringing in
over twenty two thousand new customers a week in the
nineteen eighties. No less. When we come back, Victoria's life
takes an unexpected turn as we explore the more personal
side of her story. Stay tuned. Before the break, Victoria
(14:25):
was setting records and breaking glass ceilings at QBC, But
while she was growing Victoria Jackson Cosmetics, her personal life
grew as well.
Victoria Jackson (14:35):
I was married for my first marriage, which was very
short with the gentleman named last name Jackson. I remarried
years later to you know, the love of my life,
the first love of my life. I now have a
new love of my life. I'm very lucky. And I
was married and I had a son who is now
(14:56):
forty years old. And you know, as our I was
going up kind of in the world of infomercials. You know,
we drifted a little bit apart, and again we split,
you know, amicably, and have a beautiful son now as
I say that we have together. And during that separation
and as we were finalizing our divorce, I met my
(15:17):
current husband, Bill Guthi of Gutty Ranker, and we have
two children. So I have three beautiful children. And it
was really during my time married with Bill, as we
have a son and a daughter, that I was going
along in my makeup world. And all things have been
going well. And you know, I think Victoria Jackson enjoyed
(15:40):
sales up to a billion dollars, thirteen years of infomercials,
ten years of QVC. I created about six hundred beauty products,
and just overnight my daughter said she had an eyeball headache,
and so began this kind of nightmare of she was
diagnosed with this rare auto immune disease called NMO used
(16:02):
to be known as Devik's disease. And they told me,
and by the way, it's not so rare, that she
had four years to live. And then I basically said,
I'm closing the door on makeup, and I'm opening the
door on everything medicine. And you know, I never went
to college, as I said, I didn't graduate high school.
(16:23):
So now I was really going to have how do
I learn to cure this autoimmune disease when I've been
making like foundation and lib gloss for the last fifteen years.
Emily Tisch Sussman (16:33):
Her daughter's diagnosis changed everything. Neuromyolite as optica or NMO,
is an autoimmune disease where your immune system, which usually
protects you, mistakenly attacks parts of your nervous system, usually
your optic nerves and the spinal cord. So without his
second thought, Victoria dropped everything to find a cure, not
(16:55):
once looking back, people react to these moments differently. I
think it probably just depends on you know, your life
experience and kind of your disposition. But for some people
they jump immediately into action. For some people they need
to have a down period, they need to evaluate. When
she got this diagnosis, can you talk us through, I
(17:17):
mean obviously devastating, but you know, what were your feelings,
what were your thoughts then, and what did you pull
from in your past to help you get on a
on an active track of figuring out trying to find
the diagnosis.
Victoria Jackson (17:29):
Well, I knew that I had to work let's call it,
at the speed of life, and so certainly I fell apart,
you know, and I curled up in a ball, and
you know, was like, couldn't move off my bathroom floor
for a while. But it's the thing that separates, you know,
people from like you can stay in that position or
(17:50):
you can allow yourself that and then you get up
and you start making a plan. I was so focused,
you know, I literally have to remember, like I was
picturing the hour glass of the sands of time running out,
and I was on this like had to get something done.
So sure it was upsetting, but I became so singularly
focused because I knew without me driving that narrative and
(18:15):
being the person who's doing it and the quote unquote
mom on the mission, as they called me, there was
no other choice. So I just knew that I was
going to have to put together a group of really
smart people, doctors, researchers, scientists, anybody that knew anything about this,
and start I just started thinking through in business, what
would you do to solve something. You'd start bringing in
(18:38):
the people, You start building on the foundation, you start
getting great minds together, you start about collaboration. All the
fundamentals that I built in my beauty business, I just
started to apply that here. So I started to seek
out the experts and build this team. And I was
just going to be as I've always been, just my
(18:58):
authentic self telling the story. Because infomercials were telling a
story for thirty minutes. I'm going to tell the story
of my daughter where I am, what I'm trying to do,
and I'm going to pay. I've spent eighty million dollars
of my own money. But people are going to work
the way I need them to work, which is they
need to collaborate, share information. And I'm going to change
(19:22):
the way in which medical research is done. So I
set a big bar for myself and a big agenda.
But I knew this was serious and I was going
to save her life and the life of all the
people that have this condition. I will say, in the
midst of all of that I was diagnosed with cancer. So,
but I always see things as a movie and I
(19:44):
was sort of like, this can't be the part in
the movie where the mom dies trying to save the daughter,
you know, And so I was able to get through that.
Emily Tisch Sussman (19:54):
It's unbelievable what you've done. Can you walk us through
a little bit of that, like how did you know
what barriers needed to be fixed? And it sounds like
you had some idea about how to solve them by
funding them and forcing them to work in a collaborative way,
But how did you even know that that was a problem?
And then how did you force it forward? You did
(20:14):
it very quickly.
Victoria Jackson (20:16):
Yeah, I've done it very very quickly, because it became
apparent to me early on and people let me know.
And I have to give a lot of credit to
the head of my scientific team, who is the head
of molecular Medicine at an Infectious Disease at UCLA, doctor
Michael Gaman, And it became clear to me. I was like, well,
tell me what are the challenges of getting cures and
(20:37):
getting things made? And the biggest one was collaboration, people
not wanting to work together. And so immediately became clear
to me, what I was going to need to do
was sort of create new rules of the road for
how I was going to if I was going to
give money, how people were going to have to work
together and share. And then I brought together a group
of people where I said, help me build this, build
(21:00):
it together. You tell me what you need and I'll
go and get it. You know, you tell me if
you need a certain specialist or research in a certain area.
And I mean, I'm so simplifying what has been over
seventeen years of problem solving, bringing people together, hundreds of
people's together, forty plus countries together, over fifty short films
(21:26):
that I've made, creating apps, building my own blood bank
that has over one hundred thousand specimens, where I started
with nothing because who knew that to you know, have research,
they needed the material to work on. So I had
to kind of go back in my old way of thinking.
(21:47):
This is how creative you start thinking. I needed blood
from people in the world that had this, and I
was like, instance, it's mostly women that have autoimmune diseases.
I was like, I'll give you blush if you give
me some blood. Right, Like, I'm going back into my
old makeup role. I'm thinking again that creative, which sounds
(22:08):
kind of insane now, But I started with one nurse
going across the country. She'd have extra blush in her bag,
getting specimens, and that's how I started creating a blood bank.
So anything that I saw was an obstacle. I tried
to figure out the solution.
Emily Tisch Sussman (22:25):
Wow, that is really extraordinary. How quickly did you feel
like you were making progress? Was it immediate or was
it very frustrating? No, it was very frustrating because to me,
progress was going to only look like, you know, again
a high bar of a cure or a therapy. So
it's taken me a while to be able to sit here,
Emily and say to you, and now I have four therapies.
(22:48):
But in real time, people said, nobody gets a drug made,
even one maid this quickly. They say, you have to
cross what they call, which is a not a great name,
the Valley of death, where a lot of ideas, research,
science just kind of goes into this chasm of like
nothing happens. And I crossed the Valley of death with
(23:08):
building bridges between a lot of people that had I
think a great sense of humanity, perseverance, amazing brain trusts
to help me build that bridge. You can't just have
the researchers, clinicians and scientists without the patients. And I
think you would see the pharmaceutical companies and it's why
(23:30):
I have four drugs made. They were engaged. I mean,
of course it's about money, but it's also about the
humanity of helping people. And that's what I had to
do was try to build that bridge and show both
sides we need to work together and here's how we
can do that. Remarkably, Victoria did it. She brought the
(23:51):
right people together to create an FDA approof treatment that
her daughter is still on now seventeen years later. Not
only did she help other NEMO patients to fight the odds,
she created a new model for bringing everyone together in
the room, hundreds of researchers and clinicians from thirty two countries,
plus pharmaceutical execs and tech teams at Google. She did
(24:14):
it all within a high school or college degree. But
Victoria isn't done yet. After the break, Victoria makes another pivot.
(24:37):
After spending years in the medical industry, Victoria was ready
to take on another challenge. At this time, something a
little more fun than familiar.
Victoria Jackson (24:47):
And what I missed most. You know, in medicine, everything's
black white gray through that. Really sixteen seventeen years I
was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame by
Glorious da which was unbelievable. I received an amazing acknowledgment
from the Pope the Vatican. I was at the Vatican
(25:08):
like for my work around the world. I mean, amazing
things happened that if somebody would have told me as
a high school dropout and not knowing what I was
going to do have happened in my life, I would
never have believed it. But medicine is black white gray.
I've always sort of missed the color of getting back
in making my cosmetics, and I still own my trademark
(25:32):
no Makeup Makeup, and I decided, you know what, I'm
not going to come back with a product until again.
I feel like I have like the world's best foundation
and I've been working over the last few years to
create that. And when we actually came up with it,
I was like, Okay, you know what, I'm ready to
go back out there again with no makeup. Makeup.
Emily Tisch Sussman (25:52):
A lot of people think.
Victoria Jackson (25:53):
Makeup has changed so much over the years do to work.
Emily Tisch Sussman (25:57):
With the cold great law reflection.
Victoria Jackson (26:00):
To me, beauty has always been the same.
Emily Tisch Sussman (26:02):
Here is one of the most successful business women in
all America.
Victoria Jackson (26:05):
Her name was Victoria Jackson.
Emily Tisch Sussman (26:06):
Victoria Jacks Victoria Jackson is a phenomenon in the world
of beauty.
Victoria Jackson (26:10):
My whole philosophy is really based on a no makeup, makeup,
no makeup, makeup, no makeup makeup, no makeup make up,
introducing no makeup makeup.
Emily Tisch Sussman (26:19):
So how do you think about dividing your time. You're
relaunching makeup, You're doing no makeup makeup? Why now? Why
make up again?
Victoria Jackson (26:29):
Oh? I mean for me? Like I said, I wasn't
coming back until I made what I felt was the
most extraordinary product. And I'm you know, I love being
in a lab and I love creating product. I just
knew that it was. It's just something that I wanted
to do, and I trademarked no makeup makeup early on.
It's still my philosophy. I feel strongly about it. As
I said, I'm turning seventy and I'm still talking about
(26:51):
no makeup makeup. I just went back on QVC where
I was looking at old footage of me when I
was there in my little mini skirt like thirty five
years ago or whatever it was, and I just went
back and I had three fifteen minute segments and I
was fortunate. I sold out and I did over a
million dollars in sale. Thank you everybody. But more than that,
(27:13):
it's a great product and I was really excited about it,
just like I was when I did my infomercials. Like
it's easy for me. I'm not just selling and pitching.
It's more I know that I've got something great and
I made it, and I'm really excited about it, and
I want women to try it and always say, if
you don't like it, send it back.
Emily Tisch Sussman (27:31):
That's just me.
Victoria Jackson (27:32):
So this is just a continuation of it, and it's
it's fun and I'm enjoying doing it.
Emily Tisch Sussman (27:39):
How is building the company coming back in entering again different?
I'm sure different in a million ways, But how is
it different this time around? Oh?
Victoria Jackson (27:47):
I mean, it feels like I was asleep for seventeen years.
I woke up and now I'm in the world of
TikTok and there are no infomercials anymore. It's like wake up, Victoria,
but there's no infomercials. Anymore. It's it's TikTok, and it's Instagram,
and it's influencers and creators and tutorials. But I did
all of that, so it's it's taking it now and
(28:09):
as they say, making everything my messaging more snackable. But
I was talking about a lot of the things that
I was doing then I'm doing now. It's just in
a new way. And there's things that I'll I listen
to my team and they're going, Okay, you need to
go in the bathroom and you need to like show
people before and after. And I was, you know, like
(28:31):
in only this time, you don't have thirty minutes to
do it. You've got you know, thirty seconds. So it's
been a learning I sound like a you know, old lady, like,
what is this new era we're in? But it's kind
of been like that for me. But you know what,
I pioneered the infomercial world, and I'm sure I can
navigate this and a lot of people, you know, interestingly,
(28:52):
to a lot of people have been talking about no
makeup makeup for a long time, not realizing that I
originally am the one that kind of started that movement
early on in trademarket so it's been nice. A lot
of people now are going, wait a minute, I've heard
it from so and so, but you're the one who
did that, so it's kind of nice to do that.
Emily Tisch Sussman (29:13):
And thinking about your metric for success, what are your
dreams for your relaunch of the makeup Like, is your
metric of success different this time around?
Victoria Jackson (29:23):
I think ultimately will be since I kind of walked
away from that, will be to sell this company when
the time is right. That will be a metric. Like
it'll sort of be like it was something that I
was wanting to do then and they all will have
recreated something that I can do now. So I think
that will be a metric for me. But again, going
(29:46):
back to already, I'm feeling pretty amazed because I can
see how people are responding to it, and that's really
there's no better metric than that than people just loving
something that you've created.
Emily Tisch Sussman (29:57):
Yeah, you know, I have a lot of conversations with
listeners where especially after they've had young kids, once they
have sort of medium aged kids and maybe they had
taken a step back from the workforce at that time
and then they think, oh, well, you know, I'm too
old to start something new. Ah, what would I start now?
I can't start again now. But you are starting a
new company at almost seventy So what is your message
(30:19):
to them?
Victoria Jackson (30:21):
Oh? Just do it, just you know, don't even like
seriously like I think it's harder the thought of not
doing something. You're already failing. If you don't do it,
you've already failed. So why not see if you can succeed?
Because not doing it, to me is already a failure.
So it's really like, you put yourself out there, you know,
(30:41):
and do it if it's real for you, if you
believe it. Don't do it just to do it. Do
it because there's something in you that you want to
do it and you feel passionate around that to me,
is always makes it authentic and people can feel your authenticity,
your excitement.
Emily Tisch Sussman (30:59):
So I asked this question of all of my guests.
What is something that at one point you saw as
really a negative or a low point, and now you
see it as having really launched you into the path
that you are on now or the success that you
found now.
Victoria Jackson (31:12):
I mean, I'd say so many, so many things, things
like obviously my daughter's illness was clearly the lowest point,
but I see out of that, and I certainly wouldn't
wish that or say oh, but ultimately it was the
best thing that happened. No, it wasn't the best thing
that happened. But I see what I was able to
(31:33):
make of it, and how I was able to you know,
help thousands, hundreds of thousands of people and getting drugs made.
That's pretty extraordinary. So something that was so low and
I felt like I didn't even know where to begin,
where to begin, and to see what it's turned into
that's been extraordinary. And the same thing with the makeup,
(31:55):
that you start from this tiny little seed. And you know,
I always remember this, Jay Shetty had said it, and
I remember it. You can water the seeds or the weeds,
you know, And I always try to water the seeds
and try to get rid of those weeds. And I've
seen all those seeds now really grow into something pretty extraordinary,
(32:19):
and I'm very, very proud of that.
Emily Tisch Sussman (32:22):
Do you think you'll pivot again?
Victoria Jackson (32:23):
Absolutely, I think I'll be pivoting, you know, I think
I'll be like pivoting in my grave. I mean, i'd
just be like, I think that's just who I am.
But I pivot. But It's not like I pivot and
then the other thing is shit. I just bring something
new into my life and I keep them all going.
They're all on burners, and you know, the heat is
(32:45):
turned up a little more on one than the other.
But I keep them all going. They're all cooking. So
I think sometimes people can think pivot, like you know,
you turn, and then are you turning your back on
something or closing a door. I really try not to
always do that to sort of now, Like I say,
they're all on a burner, they're all cooking, and I
(33:05):
know it's part of those ms, which one am I
in and what am I giving a little bit more
love or attention to today? But they all coexist in
the world of Victoria Jackson.
Emily Tisch Sussman (33:18):
Well, thank you so much, Thank.
Victoria Jackson (33:20):
You so much. I appreciate it.
Emily Tisch Sussman (33:23):
Victoria still has all her burners going, from publishing her
latest book, We All Worry Now What, to growing her
company no makeup Makeup, to running her bookstore, Godmother Books.
She doesn't slow down. You can keep up with Victoria
and her many pivots on Instagram at official Victoria Jackson
(33:44):
Talk to you next week. Thanks for listening to this
episode of She pivots. I hope you enjoyed it, and
if you did, leave us a rating and tell your
friends about us. To learn more about our guests, follow
us on Instagram at she pivots the Podcast, or sign
up for our newsletter where you can get exclusive behind
(34:04):
the scenes content on our website at she pivots thepodcast
dot com. This episode was produced and edited by Emily Davelosk,
with sound editing and mixing from Nina Pollock, Audio production
and social media by Hannah Cousins, research by Christine Dickinson,
and logistics and planning by Emma Stopic and Kendall Krupkin.
(34:28):
She pivots is proud to be a part of the
iHeart Podcast Network. I endorse g pivots
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.