February 11, 2025 • 26 mins
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Kristen Jones Miller's entrepreneurial journey is both inspiring and transformative. Driven by a personal frustration with the lack of suitable nude lip colors for darker skin tones, Kristen co-founded Minted Cosmetics with Amanda Johnson, turning a light bulb moment into a multi-million dollar success. Their story is a testament to the power of creativity and resilience, as well as the vital role of community support. Kristen shares how her faith and the encouragement from Second Baptist Church empowered her to pursue her dreams. This episode is a must-listen for anyone keen to understand the intersection of entrepreneurship and legacy-building, especially in the context of addressing the needs of underrepresented communities.
We also tackle the challenging landscape Black founders face in securing venture capital, with Kristen detailing her journey and the strategies she employed to overcome these odds. After pitching to 70-80 investors before receiving an initial $50,000 investment, Kristen emphasizes the importance of persistence, market demand, and mentorship. She also highlights the influence mentors like Coach Tim Brown and others have had on her journey. Transitioning into her role as a full-time professor at The Ohio State University, Kristen explores her passion for teaching and her unique philosophy, prioritizing class participation and critical thinking over traditional exams, offering invaluable insights for aspiring entrepreneurs setting out to create their vision for the future.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Be A Baller where we're building a
lifelong legacy for our families, communities and the world.
Your host, coach Tim Brown, isexcited for you to join him on
this journey.
On each episode, we'll betalking about how to be
intentional about building alasting legacy.
We'll be exploring what itmeans to leave a mark that goes
(00:22):
beyond just our lives but has apositive impact on those around
us and even generations to come.
So if you're looking forinspiration, guidance and
practical tips on how to build alasting legacy that makes a
difference, then you're in theright place.
So grab your earbuds, getcomfortable and let's dive in.
It's time to be a baller.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
My name is Tim Brown and I'm the host for Be A Baller
podcast.
I want to welcome you all toour Be A Baller podcast live
event and, today, what we do inour podcast.
We talk to people in thecommunity who are building a
lifelong legacy.
Guests a young lady namedKristen Jones Miller, who's the
co-founder of Minted Cosmeticsin 2017, along with her Harvard
(01:09):
graduate business classmate,amanda Johnson.
Today, minted is sold in retailstores and online all over the
country, and today it's amulti-million dollar company.
We can do better than that.
Come on, now we got amillionaire sitting here.
(01:36):
So, kristen, welcome to theshow.
Kristen is also a graduate ofGahanna Lincoln High School, so
she's a Central Ohio native aswell.
Kristen, I've known Kristen fora while.
We grew up well, she grew up Iwas older at Second Baptist
Church.
We used to hang out at SecondBaptist Church, kristen was in
our youth group, and so it'sjust been a blessing watching
her grow up and become thegifted and talented woman that
(01:56):
she is today.
She's also a mother and a wifeas well, so we're blessed to
have her in the audience today.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
One thing, kristen, as we get started, can you talk
about your faith foundation andhow that's grounded you in your
purpose in life?
Sure, well, first of all, thankyou for having me and thank all
of you for allowing me to comespeak.
So my faith foundation I didgrow up in church with my family
.
We went to Second Baptist and,honestly, what it gave to me and
that I'm still so grateful foris community.
I think, regardless of yourfaith right or regardless of if
(02:32):
it's something you continue topractice as you age, having a
community when you're young andhaving people older than you who
you can look up to and say, ohwow, this person is a doctor,
this person is a lawyer, thisperson is a reverend, this
person is an accountant,whatever it might be.
Seeing all of those models, Ithink, helped shape me into
(02:54):
believing I really could dowhatever I wanted to do, even if
that thing I wanted to do wassome far-off entrepreneurship
goal.
That didn't feel too out ofreach to me because I had so
many people in my community, atmy church, doing so many
different things.
So that was one of the thingsthat was really so helpful for
me growing up.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Thank you.
You have said the idea forminted cosmetics was shortened
for pigmented spark, becauseyou've been looking for a
perfect new lipstick for yourdark skin for more than three
years.
Can you share with the audiencewhen was that light bulb moment
that happened in your life tosay, hey, I can do this?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Yeah, absolutely Well .
First of all, my guess is a lotof you have similar light bulb
moments in your lives becauseyou are trying to do something
and you realize the thing thatyou've got to do it with doesn't
work that well.
I was speaking to a young ladyearlier who makes her own
fashion.
She's, she sews, she's fromGahanna Lincoln and she makes
(03:56):
her own dresses.
And my guess is part of thereason that she started making
and you can tell me if I'm wrongher own dresses is because she
realized a lot of the things instores didn't fit her the way
that she wanted them to, maybedidn't have the fashion, the
design that she wanted it to,and she said I can fix that.
I don't have to wait forsomeone else to do it for me, I
can do it for myself.
Similarly, for our mintedcosmetics my brand, my
(04:18):
co-founder and I we could notfind lip colors that we felt
looked good on our skin.
She and I are both darker skin,african American women and
particularly nude lip colors.
So nude and neutral being your,you know something that looks
good or complements your skintone, your lip tone.
And so we kept finding thatpeople wanted us to wear these
beiges and these pale pinks.
(04:40):
And in order to make it looknude, they told us we had to mix
it with a brown lip liner and agloss and a balm and four other
different things.
By the time you've done allthat, first of all, it's taken
you 10 minutes to put on a lip.
Second, of all, that's going toseparate throughout the day.
I don't want to have to wearfour different lip colors to
achieve the shade that I want,and we just thought that's silly
(05:00):
.
Why, if I'm pale, do I get arange of nude lip colors for me,
a bajillion different types ofpinks and beiges but if I'm
brown skin, I've got to put inall this extra work and try to
make what's available work forme.
We didn't think that was right.
So we said you know how hardcan it be To make a nude lip
color that looks good on us?
(05:21):
And we bought the necessaryingredients.
We bought the colorants, webought the micas, we bought the
molds, we bought the oil and thewax and we actually started
making lipstick on our own inour apartments.
We lived in New York at thetime, in Harlem.
We started making it on our ownand realized oh, it's not that
hard, you just have to want todo it.
It's not rocket science, we'retalking about lipstick.
(05:50):
You just have to want to makeshades that will work for people
who look like us, and we did,and the shades that we developed
literally in our apartments inHarlem this would have been 2015
or so are still top sellingshades for us today.
So we just we had to want to doit.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
You know you kind of glossed over that, but can you
talk about sitting in anapartment watching YouTube
channels, you know, and just,and how long did that?
How long did you do it?
Was it just one time you hadthe right formula, what was it?
Talk about that experience.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Yeah, well, so you mentioned YouTube.
We did learn how to makelipstick on YouTube and I am a
firm believer you can learnanything on YouTube, anything.
Your am a firm believer.
You can learn anything onYouTube, anything your little
heart desires, right?
So don't ever let the fact thatthere's something you don't
know how to do stop you, becausesomeone has done it and they
have almost certainly alsofilmed themselves doing it.
Um, so that's, you knowsomething that I, that I learned
(06:39):
and took with me.
But yeah, we, we watched abunch of a bunch of videos and
then we said, okay, let's try it.
And this was weeks and weeks andweeks and weeks of kind of
perfecting the formula that wethought would work well for us
and then perfecting the shades.
And then, after we had a set ofshades our first six shades
that we wanted to launch with,we started testing them on
(07:01):
people.
We didn't just say, okay, well,you and I like them, let's go
to market.
We said, all right, well, let'sstart testing them on other
people.
So we would bring in ourfriends of a bunch of different
skin tones, our Indian friends,our Hispanic friends, our black
friends and try the shades onthem and get their feedback and
then tweak.
So it was definitely aniterative process, right.
(07:22):
It wasn't just like oh, we gotsomething we like, let's launch.
It was we got something wethink is good, let's try it on
some people, let's get theirfeedback, let's see what they
say, and then we were ready tosort of send it out into market.
And then from there, before weeven launched, we actually
started sending those lip colorsto influencers.
So we were reaching out onInstagram.
We were DMing people every dayon Instagram saying, hey, we're
(07:46):
these two black girls fromHarvard and we have this
lipstick and we want you to tryit.
And that was kind of the pitch.
I mean, we made it sound alittle bit nicer than that, but
that was kind of the pitchbecause we weren't a real brand.
You couldn't buy theselipsticks anywhere.
We were asking these people totake a chance on us.
Let us send you our homemadelipsticks and if you like them
and you wear them, post them forus.
And a lot of influencersstarted doing this.
(08:07):
So, before you could evenpurchase the lipsticks, we had
people on Instagram wearing ourproducts and showing it off and
saying I just got sent theselipsticks.
And this started happeningbefore we even had a name for
the brand.
So then it was like oh snaps,now they want to tag us.
We don't have a name and wedon't have anything to tag.
So we quickly thought of a nameand Minted, as you mentioned, is
(08:29):
short for pigmented.
We thought of a name, we gotour tag on Instagram, our handle
on Instagram, so that peoplecould tag us.
But then it was okay, peopleare looking and people want the
product, but they can't buy it,and so we sort of had demand
before we had an actual productpeople could purchase, which is
something I always recommend.
If you can do that, if you canstart getting whatever it is
(08:50):
you're working out in people'shands and prove that there's
demand for it before you startselling it, then when you
actually launch the business,you can feel a lot better, a lot
more confident that there arepeople out there who want what
it is you're making.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
That's powerful.
That's powerful.
Hand clap, hand clap, hand clap.
Y'all can be slow with that.
She was sharing that.
Some of our older audienceremember Jet and Ebony magazine,
remember the old Jet and Ebonymagazine.
Young people don't know aboutthat, thank you.
Got a few hands back there.
But Bob Johnson started that.
This is what he did.
He went to a store, went to agrocery store.
(09:27):
He said just take a chance onthis, now let me put it on the
rack and see if it sells.
So what he did?
He took him to the rack, puthim on, put him on the stand and
he had all his friends goingand buying.
He had all his friends goingand buying.
And so he comes back, oh, thisis empty.
And the store owners think, oh,this is great, this is great,
all these sales.
So he brought some more,brought some more, had more
(09:47):
friends going and buying themout.
Basically, they sold out.
So what happened was he piquedthem with what Christian is
saying If you have an idea, youjust got to put it out there.
You just got to put it outthere.
And here's living proof of whathappens when you really believe
in what you're doing.
And there's a need, there's ademand.
Now, there's another side tothis as well that I want Kristen
to share about, and that's thefinancial side, because to
(10:09):
launch a company, it takes a lotof money.
It takes a lot of money.
So how did you, as anAfrican-American union, you and
your co-founder,african-american women I'm sure
you're going around all thesemen you know, trying to convince
them that this is the dealinvest in me?
Talk to the young people aboutthat process as well.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Yeah.
So we did end up raisingventure capital.
Venture capital, of course, isa type of capital that you can
get from large investment firmswho will put half a million, a
million, a couple milliondollars into your company, and
they'll do that because theywant to purchase a stake of your
company.
So we did end up raisingventure capital.
(10:48):
We ended up across, I think,three different rounds, raising
about $9 million in total, butin the very beginning we were
just looking to raise a quarterof a million dollars $250,000.
We thought that was going to beenough for us to get our idea
off the ground and the reason wewere able to do that.
First of all, something likeless than 2% of venture capital
(11:10):
goes to black founders, right,so we were up against incredible
odds, but part of the reason wewere able to do it is because
of that work that I was justtalking about, because we
weren't coming in and justsaying, hey, we've got some
lipsticks and we think they'regreat.
We were coming in and sayingwe've got some lipsticks that
people are already trying to buy.
(11:30):
People are already trying tobuy.
Before we had a brand name,they were looking for it.
Once we had a brand name, butwe didn't have a shop.
People were trying to buy it,people were buzzing, influencers
were talking about it and thatmade investors say, okay, well,
there's really something here,because before they even were
able to sell the lipsticks,people were wanting to buy the
lipsticks and that that gavethem a bit more confidence and
(11:53):
willingness to invest in us.
But it was extremely difficultand you know I don't always
advise young founders to try andraise money only because it is
such a difficult thing to do.
But I will say, if that is apath that you want to go down,
then the most important thing isbeing able to walk into the
room and say there's alreadydemand for my product.
(12:15):
People have already shown methat they want to purchase it.
That's going to speak volumeswell, and far beyond what you
can just say about the idea thatyou have.
So if you do want to go downthat path, that is something
that we had going for us.
But I pitched at least 70, 80investors before I got my first
yes, and my first yes was awoman who wrote us a $50,000
(12:40):
check.
But I had pitched dozens anddozens and dozens of people
before I got to that yes.
So that's what I'll say aboutthat.
But if you're not looking toraise outside capital in order
to launch your business, you canstill launch your business.
That just means you're going togrow it bootstrapped, as they
(13:00):
say money to make our lipsticksand to start shipping those
lipsticks out to influencers.
We used our own money to dothat, and we could have also
used our own money to buy thedomain mintedcosmeticscom and
use our own money to startshipping that way as well.
(13:21):
So you can do it.
A lot of times what you needoutside capital for is to grow
more quickly, but it is possibleto do it if you're savvy and
you save.
It is possible to do it withoutraising outside capital.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Good, that's a good word.
You know, I know that as we'retalking, I know our important
mentorship and investing in thenext generation of entrepreneurs
is so important to you and youkind of alluded to that because
of the fact how hard it was foryou.
You know again, I know nowyou're an angel investor and
giving back, you talk to the, tothese young people, why that's
so important to you.
(13:57):
Mentorship and giving.
Yeah um.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
So mentorship is incredibly important to me
because I know what it did forme.
I know what it did for me.
I know what it meant to havepeople like Deacon Brown in my
life, who were willing to pourinto me and were willing to
answer my questions, werewilling to sit with me, willing
to take time out of their busyschedules to mentor me.
(14:24):
I know what that meant for me.
So that's why I like to pay itforward.
But I will say and I think thisis incredibly important people
will rarely just hop up, step upto mentor you.
That sometimes that will happen.
Sometimes someone will see youand be like let me be your
(14:48):
mentor, but that's rare.
Typically, what happens is youhave to be the person.
When you meet someone who youthink can pour into you, and you
have to say I would love tolearn from you.
And then you have to make iteasy for them to pour into you.
So by that I mean don't say Iwould love to learn from you and
then ghost them.
Don't say I would love to learnfrom you but say but only if
you can come meet me at myschool on these days, between
(15:10):
these hours, why would I go outof my way to do that.
You want something from me,right?
So the best mentorshiprelationships I have had have
been people who have made itvery easy for me to mentor them.
They've said what's yourschedule?
When can you meet?
Let's do virtual.
Let's put these times on thecalendar right, like so I have a
(15:33):
daughter.
Weekend days I'm with my child.
I rarely am going to leave herto come do whatever the thing is
unless I can bring her.
So that means the best time forme to meet with someone is
actually weekdays, when I canfind 30-minute pockets in my
workday.
I can find 30 minutes at 3 pmon a Tuesday Can you and you
guys are in school.
(15:54):
I'm not telling you to skipschool.
But, to be very clear, thepoint is when people reach out
to me like you've got to do iton my time, so you've got to
look for these people and thenyou've got to make it very easy
for them to mentor you becausepeople are willing to do it,
them to mentor you becausepeople are willing to do it.
But if it's got to be on yourtime and on your schedule and
the way you want to do it, thenthat just makes it tough for
people to be able to pour in.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Wow, that's some great wisdom.
That's some great wisdom.
You know you're a teacher atheart.
You know being a lecturer atYale University and then at your
alma mater, harvard, and nowyou're actually a full-time
professor at the Ohio StateUniversity.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
I am a professor at the Ohio State University.
Yes.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
I don't think you all missed that how big that is.
We're talking about the OhioState University and this young
lady is a full-time professor atthe Ohio State University.
That deserves a bigger handclap than that.
So you come back full circle toBuckeye Land full-time
professor.
(16:56):
How does it feel being on theother side?
Now you know you're a studentat one time.
Now you are the teacher.
How does that feel?
Speaker 3 (17:02):
I love to teach.
I really, really do it issomething that brings me a lot
of joy, and the reason I love todo it is because I love when
I'm watching sort of an unlockhappen, when someone's listening
and understanding and sayinglike, oh you know, you can kind
of see the light bulb go off andI just know and I teach
(17:22):
business.
So I teach at the FisherCollege of Business.
Before that I taught at YaleSchool of Management.
I think business should feelfar more accessible to far more
people, and so helping it feelaccessible and tangible to
students is just something I'mquite passionate about.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
I also read where you wanted to teach.
Because you wanted to.
You wanted to be that teacher.
You didn't have that.
There were certain things thatthat.
So talk, talk to the audienceabout what kind of?
If I signed up for your class,what kind of teacher are you
giving me a thousand page paperto do?
You know you always homework.
What kind of teacher are you?
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Yes, a thousand pages .
No, I so um.
So I went to Harvard BusinessSchool, and one thing that
Harvard Business School isfamous for is we teach
everything.
They teach everything viawhat's called the case study
method, and so the way the casestudy method works is you read a
case about a particularbusiness maybe about Google,
maybe about Apple but then, whenyou get in the classroom, the
(18:22):
whole class session is adiscussion, and so the theory is
that the professor isessentially guiding the learning
, but every single student inclass is helping teach, because
everybody has read the case andeverybody is bringing their
experience to the case.
So I you know, before I got toHarvard Business School, I was
(18:42):
working in retail.
I was a buyer for several years.
So I might you know, before Igot to Harvard Business School,
I was working in retail.
I was a buyer for several years.
So I might be reading aboutApple.
I've never worked in tech, butsomething about my experience in
retail is going to be relevantto the case.
So I'm going to raise my handand I'm going to say what I
think, based on my experience.
That's how every single class atHarvard Business School is
taught, and I found it to bevery impactful, because what you
(19:05):
learn more than anything inthat method is you learn how to
be persuasive, you learn how tobe compelling, you learn how to
think when someone challengesyou and says I disagree with
that, and here's why, to takethat information in, digest it
and come back with acounterpoint.
(19:25):
All of these things are soimportant in business, and so I
have taken that method andthat's really how I teach my
class at Ohio State.
That's how I taught my class atYale, because I believe every
single person in the room cancontribute, and I think one of
the most important things inbusiness is being able to
persuasively and compellinglymake your point, whatever that
point is, and so I actually puta lot of stock in participation.
(19:47):
More than papers, more thanexams, are you capable of
participating in my class issomething I care a great deal
about.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
That's good.
That's good For the youngentrepreneurs in the audience or
just for young people period.
What advice, words ofencouragement, would you give to
them to pursue their dream?
This whole day is about myvision plan.
It's about creating that vision.
What advice would you give to ayoung person to have this
vision, to be able to pursue it?
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Yeah, I would say my number one piece of advice is I
consider myself to be a lifelongstudent.
I am always learning and I'malways excited to be learning.
It's actually one of the thingsI like about teaching.
I'm always having to learn andto read whatever the case study
is or the text is before I cango teach it, which means I get
to learn it again.
And I think if you can approachwhatever it is you're doing
(20:41):
with that sort of learningmindset and that curiosity, then
whatever, regardless of what itis you have on your vision plan
and you should make a visionplan you keep yourself open for
additional opportunities.
So an example I'll give is Idon't know if any of you are on
TikTok, but I spend a lot oftime on TikTok.
(21:07):
And I've built a following overthere of about 300,000 people
and I was able to do that.
Oh, thank you, I need to join.
But I was able to do thatbecause I stayed curious.
And so when I got on TikTokwith the rest of the world in
2020 during the pandemic youguys probably preceded that
because you know more, but Ididn't get on TikTok until 2020.
And I got on it and at first itjust was like, ok, this is a fun
way to waste time, frankly.
(21:29):
But eventually it became a funway to learn things and to
discover new things.
And I thought what if I startedusing TikTok and posting one
about my business to bring moreawareness to my business, but
also because there are thingsthat I've learned?
I've learned about business,I've learned about marketing,
I've learned about all of thesedifferent things.
(21:49):
What if I start chroniclingthat on this channel?
Simply because I was curiouswhat would happen?
And what's happened is I've nowopened up a whole nother career
avenue for myself because I makea significant amount of money
via TikTok.
But that also got me thinkingwell, what about longer form
content?
Now I post on YouTube, nowthat's become an income channel
for me.
Then I started thinking aboutwell, what about written form of
(22:11):
content.
I started a sub stack.
Now that's a revenue channelfor me.
So just because I was curiousyears ago about this platform,
it has now opened up a wholenother income channel for me as
a content creator platform.
It has now opened up a wholenother income channel for me as
a content creator because Iapproached it from the
perspective of, oh, I'm learningsomething here that's
interesting to me.
So I would say stay curious,have a vision plan yes,
(22:33):
absolutely.
I think that's so important,but never feel so tied to the
vision that you aren't able tolook up and ask questions and
think, oh, that's interesting,what's going on over there?
Because you don't know what itmight open up for you.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Boy.
That's good.
This is a legacy podcast.
So what does the word legacymean to you, First off, and then
what is the legacy you'rebuilding through your company
meant to?
Speaker 3 (22:59):
Yeah, legacy took on new meaning for me once I did
have my daughter.
I see pretty much everythingthrough her eyes.
Now I look at this world, thepolitics of this world, the
president of this country.
I look at everything and thinkabout, like, what is this going
to mean for her?
And I think, by extension, whatis this going to mean for the
(23:22):
generation coming after me?
So to me, legacy is aboutleaving something better than
you found it and creatingsomething that is going to be
useful and helpful to my childand to the generation coming
after me, to the extent that I'mable to say that I've done that
, done that more broadly, butcertainly done that with my
(23:43):
business as well that that'svery meaningful to me.
And so, when I think about itin the context of Minted you
know the fact that so mydaughter loves to play with
makeup.
She's three, she'll be four ina couple of months One of her
favorite things to do is tobring out my makeup bag and for
us to sit down and play withmakeup, and one thing that I can
say for her that my mom wouldnot have been able to say for me
(24:05):
is that every single productshe is pulling out of that
makeup bag was made with her inmind.
It is not something that she hasto, you know, mix around and
try and figure out.
It was made with her in mind,and so her entire concept of
makeup is different than mine,right?
Because when I remember thefirst time I shopped for makeup
at CVS or Rite Aid or whateverit was, and looking at a wall of
(24:26):
beige and realizing the vastmajority of this is not for me
and I'm going to have to figureout how to make it work, that is
not her experience.
So, just in that, the legacythat I'm leaving is very
powerful, at least to me.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Well, chris.
This brings us to the end ofthe episode.
I want to thank our specialguest, kristen Jones, co-founder
of Minted Cosmetics.
I want to thank you for sharingyour inspiring story.
I also want to thank you forbuilding a legacy and not just
talking about helping thegeneration, because she's not
just talking, but actually beingcommitted to investing time,
talent and treasure which ismoney into you all.
(25:06):
So, kristen, thanks for being aguest on Be A Baller Podcast.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Before we go, you've got your phones out, so give
them your TikTok channel and allthat YouTube.
Get them phones out, becauseI'm helping with these followers
.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
I keep most of my content high school friendly, so
it's I am underscore KJ Miller.
That's my TikTok, and forYouTube it's just I am KJ Miller
.
All right All right, thank youguys, thank you.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Thank you, Kristen, for your time.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
If you've enjoyed this episode, please share it
with family and friends.
The Be A Baller podcast isavailable on all major podcast
platforms.
This podcast was created byCoach Tim Brown and recorded and
edited by the video productionclass of Worthington Christian
High School.
Be sure to come back next weekas we continue to discuss on how
(26:01):
to build a lifelong legacy.
Until then, don't forget to bea baller.
Welcome to Be A Baller where we're building a
lifelong legacy for our families, communities and the world.
Your host, coach Tim Brown, isexcited for you to join him on
this journey.
On each episode, we'll betalking about how to be
intentional about building alasting legacy.
We'll be exploring what itmeans to leave a mark that goes
(00:22):
beyond just our lives but has apositive impact on those around
us and even generations to come.
So if you're looking forinspiration, guidance and
practical tips on how to build alasting legacy that makes a
difference, then you're in theright place.
So grab your earbuds, getcomfortable and let's dive in.
It's time to be a baller.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
My name is Tim Brown and I'm the host for Be A Baller
podcast.
I want to welcome you all toour Be A Baller podcast live
event and, today, what we do inour podcast.
We talk to people in thecommunity who are building a
lifelong legacy.
Guests a young lady namedKristen Jones Miller, who's the
co-founder of Minted Cosmeticsin 2017, along with her Harvard
(01:09):
graduate business classmate,amanda Johnson.
Today, minted is sold in retailstores and online all over the
country, and today it's amulti-million dollar company.
We can do better than that.
Come on, now we got amillionaire sitting here.
(01:36):
So, kristen, welcome to theshow.
Kristen is also a graduate ofGahanna Lincoln High School, so
she's a Central Ohio native aswell.
Kristen, I've known Kristen fora while.
We grew up well, she grew up Iwas older at Second Baptist
Church.
We used to hang out at SecondBaptist Church, kristen was in
our youth group, and so it'sjust been a blessing watching
her grow up and become thegifted and talented woman that
(01:56):
she is today.
She's also a mother and a wifeas well, so we're blessed to
have her in the audience today.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
One thing, kristen, as we get started, can you talk
about your faith foundation andhow that's grounded you in your
purpose in life?
Sure, well, first of all, thankyou for having me and thank all
of you for allowing me to comespeak.
So my faith foundation I didgrow up in church with my family
.
We went to Second Baptist and,honestly, what it gave to me and
that I'm still so grateful foris community.
I think, regardless of yourfaith right or regardless of if
(02:32):
it's something you continue topractice as you age, having a
community when you're young andhaving people older than you who
you can look up to and say, ohwow, this person is a doctor,
this person is a lawyer, thisperson is a reverend, this
person is an accountant,whatever it might be.
Seeing all of those models, Ithink, helped shape me into
(02:54):
believing I really could dowhatever I wanted to do, even if
that thing I wanted to do wassome far-off entrepreneurship
goal.
That didn't feel too out ofreach to me because I had so
many people in my community, atmy church, doing so many
different things.
So that was one of the thingsthat was really so helpful for
me growing up.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Thank you.
You have said the idea forminted cosmetics was shortened
for pigmented spark, becauseyou've been looking for a
perfect new lipstick for yourdark skin for more than three
years.
Can you share with the audiencewhen was that light bulb moment
that happened in your life tosay, hey, I can do this?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Yeah, absolutely Well .
First of all, my guess is a lotof you have similar light bulb
moments in your lives becauseyou are trying to do something
and you realize the thing thatyou've got to do it with doesn't
work that well.
I was speaking to a young ladyearlier who makes her own
fashion.
She's, she sews, she's fromGahanna Lincoln and she makes
(03:56):
her own dresses.
And my guess is part of thereason that she started making
and you can tell me if I'm wrongher own dresses is because she
realized a lot of the things instores didn't fit her the way
that she wanted them to, maybedidn't have the fashion, the
design that she wanted it to,and she said I can fix that.
I don't have to wait forsomeone else to do it for me, I
can do it for myself.
Similarly, for our mintedcosmetics my brand, my
(04:18):
co-founder and I we could notfind lip colors that we felt
looked good on our skin.
She and I are both darker skin,african American women and
particularly nude lip colors.
So nude and neutral being your,you know something that looks
good or complements your skintone, your lip tone.
And so we kept finding thatpeople wanted us to wear these
beiges and these pale pinks.
(04:40):
And in order to make it looknude, they told us we had to mix
it with a brown lip liner and agloss and a balm and four other
different things.
By the time you've done allthat, first of all, it's taken
you 10 minutes to put on a lip.
Second, of all, that's going toseparate throughout the day.
I don't want to have to wearfour different lip colors to
achieve the shade that I want,and we just thought that's silly
(05:00):
.
Why, if I'm pale, do I get arange of nude lip colors for me,
a bajillion different types ofpinks and beiges but if I'm
brown skin, I've got to put inall this extra work and try to
make what's available work forme.
We didn't think that was right.
So we said you know how hardcan it be To make a nude lip
color that looks good on us?
(05:21):
And we bought the necessaryingredients.
We bought the colorants, webought the micas, we bought the
molds, we bought the oil and thewax and we actually started
making lipstick on our own inour apartments.
We lived in New York at thetime, in Harlem.
We started making it on our ownand realized oh, it's not that
hard, you just have to want todo it.
It's not rocket science, we'retalking about lipstick.
(05:50):
You just have to want to makeshades that will work for people
who look like us, and we did,and the shades that we developed
literally in our apartments inHarlem this would have been 2015
or so are still top sellingshades for us today.
So we just we had to want to doit.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
You know you kind of glossed over that, but can you
talk about sitting in anapartment watching YouTube
channels, you know, and just,and how long did that?
How long did you do it?
Was it just one time you hadthe right formula, what was it?
Talk about that experience.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Yeah, well, so you mentioned YouTube.
We did learn how to makelipstick on YouTube and I am a
firm believer you can learnanything on YouTube, anything.
Your am a firm believer.
You can learn anything onYouTube, anything your little
heart desires, right?
So don't ever let the fact thatthere's something you don't
know how to do stop you, becausesomeone has done it and they
have almost certainly alsofilmed themselves doing it.
Um, so that's, you knowsomething that I, that I learned
(06:39):
and took with me.
But yeah, we, we watched abunch of a bunch of videos and
then we said, okay, let's try it.
And this was weeks and weeks andweeks and weeks of kind of
perfecting the formula that wethought would work well for us
and then perfecting the shades.
And then, after we had a set ofshades our first six shades
that we wanted to launch with,we started testing them on
(07:01):
people.
We didn't just say, okay, well,you and I like them, let's go
to market.
We said, all right, well, let'sstart testing them on other
people.
So we would bring in ourfriends of a bunch of different
skin tones, our Indian friends,our Hispanic friends, our black
friends and try the shades onthem and get their feedback and
then tweak.
So it was definitely aniterative process, right.
(07:22):
It wasn't just like oh, we gotsomething we like, let's launch.
It was we got something wethink is good, let's try it on
some people, let's get theirfeedback, let's see what they
say, and then we were ready tosort of send it out into market.
And then from there, before weeven launched, we actually
started sending those lip colorsto influencers.
So we were reaching out onInstagram.
We were DMing people every dayon Instagram saying, hey, we're
(07:46):
these two black girls fromHarvard and we have this
lipstick and we want you to tryit.
And that was kind of the pitch.
I mean, we made it sound alittle bit nicer than that, but
that was kind of the pitchbecause we weren't a real brand.
You couldn't buy theselipsticks anywhere.
We were asking these people totake a chance on us.
Let us send you our homemadelipsticks and if you like them
and you wear them, post them forus.
And a lot of influencersstarted doing this.
(08:07):
So, before you could evenpurchase the lipsticks, we had
people on Instagram wearing ourproducts and showing it off and
saying I just got sent theselipsticks.
And this started happeningbefore we even had a name for
the brand.
So then it was like oh snaps,now they want to tag us.
We don't have a name and wedon't have anything to tag.
So we quickly thought of a nameand Minted, as you mentioned, is
(08:29):
short for pigmented.
We thought of a name, we gotour tag on Instagram, our handle
on Instagram, so that peoplecould tag us.
But then it was okay, peopleare looking and people want the
product, but they can't buy it,and so we sort of had demand
before we had an actual productpeople could purchase, which is
something I always recommend.
If you can do that, if you canstart getting whatever it is
(08:50):
you're working out in people'shands and prove that there's
demand for it before you startselling it, then when you
actually launch the business,you can feel a lot better, a lot
more confident that there arepeople out there who want what
it is you're making.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
That's powerful.
That's powerful.
Hand clap, hand clap, hand clap.
Y'all can be slow with that.
She was sharing that.
Some of our older audienceremember Jet and Ebony magazine,
remember the old Jet and Ebonymagazine.
Young people don't know aboutthat, thank you.
Got a few hands back there.
But Bob Johnson started that.
This is what he did.
He went to a store, went to agrocery store.
(09:27):
He said just take a chance onthis, now let me put it on the
rack and see if it sells.
So what he did?
He took him to the rack, puthim on, put him on the stand and
he had all his friends goingand buying.
He had all his friends goingand buying.
And so he comes back, oh, thisis empty.
And the store owners think, oh,this is great, this is great,
all these sales.
So he brought some more,brought some more, had more
(09:47):
friends going and buying themout.
Basically, they sold out.
So what happened was he piquedthem with what Christian is
saying If you have an idea, youjust got to put it out there.
You just got to put it outthere.
And here's living proof of whathappens when you really believe
in what you're doing.
And there's a need, there's ademand.
Now, there's another side tothis as well that I want Kristen
to share about, and that's thefinancial side, because to
(10:09):
launch a company, it takes a lotof money.
It takes a lot of money.
So how did you, as anAfrican-American union, you and
your co-founder,african-american women I'm sure
you're going around all thesemen you know, trying to convince
them that this is the dealinvest in me?
Talk to the young people aboutthat process as well.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Yeah.
So we did end up raisingventure capital.
Venture capital, of course, isa type of capital that you can
get from large investment firmswho will put half a million, a
million, a couple milliondollars into your company, and
they'll do that because theywant to purchase a stake of your
company.
So we did end up raisingventure capital.
(10:48):
We ended up across, I think,three different rounds, raising
about $9 million in total, butin the very beginning we were
just looking to raise a quarterof a million dollars $250,000.
We thought that was going to beenough for us to get our idea
off the ground and the reason wewere able to do that.
First of all, something likeless than 2% of venture capital
(11:10):
goes to black founders, right,so we were up against incredible
odds, but part of the reason wewere able to do it is because
of that work that I was justtalking about, because we
weren't coming in and justsaying, hey, we've got some
lipsticks and we think they'regreat.
We were coming in and sayingwe've got some lipsticks that
people are already trying to buy.
(11:30):
People are already trying tobuy.
Before we had a brand name,they were looking for it.
Once we had a brand name, butwe didn't have a shop.
People were trying to buy it,people were buzzing, influencers
were talking about it and thatmade investors say, okay, well,
there's really something here,because before they even were
able to sell the lipsticks,people were wanting to buy the
lipsticks and that that gavethem a bit more confidence and
(11:53):
willingness to invest in us.
But it was extremely difficultand you know I don't always
advise young founders to try andraise money only because it is
such a difficult thing to do.
But I will say, if that is apath that you want to go down,
then the most important thing isbeing able to walk into the
room and say there's alreadydemand for my product.
(12:15):
People have already shown methat they want to purchase it.
That's going to speak volumeswell, and far beyond what you
can just say about the idea thatyou have.
So if you do want to go downthat path, that is something
that we had going for us.
But I pitched at least 70, 80investors before I got my first
yes, and my first yes was awoman who wrote us a $50,000
(12:40):
check.
But I had pitched dozens anddozens and dozens of people
before I got to that yes.
So that's what I'll say aboutthat.
But if you're not looking toraise outside capital in order
to launch your business, you canstill launch your business.
That just means you're going togrow it bootstrapped, as they
(13:00):
say money to make our lipsticksand to start shipping those
lipsticks out to influencers.
We used our own money to dothat, and we could have also
used our own money to buy thedomain mintedcosmeticscom and
use our own money to startshipping that way as well.
(13:21):
So you can do it.
A lot of times what you needoutside capital for is to grow
more quickly, but it is possibleto do it if you're savvy and
you save.
It is possible to do it withoutraising outside capital.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Good, that's a good word.
You know, I know that as we'retalking, I know our important
mentorship and investing in thenext generation of entrepreneurs
is so important to you and youkind of alluded to that because
of the fact how hard it was foryou.
You know again, I know nowyou're an angel investor and
giving back, you talk to the, tothese young people, why that's
so important to you.
(13:57):
Mentorship and giving.
Yeah um.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
So mentorship is incredibly important to me
because I know what it did forme.
I know what it did for me.
I know what it meant to havepeople like Deacon Brown in my
life, who were willing to pourinto me and were willing to
answer my questions, werewilling to sit with me, willing
to take time out of their busyschedules to mentor me.
(14:24):
I know what that meant for me.
So that's why I like to pay itforward.
But I will say and I think thisis incredibly important people
will rarely just hop up, step upto mentor you.
That sometimes that will happen.
Sometimes someone will see youand be like let me be your
(14:48):
mentor, but that's rare.
Typically, what happens is youhave to be the person.
When you meet someone who youthink can pour into you, and you
have to say I would love tolearn from you.
And then you have to make iteasy for them to pour into you.
So by that I mean don't say Iwould love to learn from you and
then ghost them.
Don't say I would love to learnfrom you but say but only if
you can come meet me at myschool on these days, between
(15:10):
these hours, why would I go outof my way to do that.
You want something from me,right?
So the best mentorshiprelationships I have had have
been people who have made itvery easy for me to mentor them.
They've said what's yourschedule?
When can you meet?
Let's do virtual.
Let's put these times on thecalendar right, like so I have a
(15:33):
daughter.
Weekend days I'm with my child.
I rarely am going to leave herto come do whatever the thing is
unless I can bring her.
So that means the best time forme to meet with someone is
actually weekdays, when I canfind 30-minute pockets in my
workday.
I can find 30 minutes at 3 pmon a Tuesday Can you and you
guys are in school.
(15:54):
I'm not telling you to skipschool.
But, to be very clear, thepoint is when people reach out
to me like you've got to do iton my time, so you've got to
look for these people and thenyou've got to make it very easy
for them to mentor you becausepeople are willing to do it,
them to mentor you becausepeople are willing to do it.
But if it's got to be on yourtime and on your schedule and
the way you want to do it, thenthat just makes it tough for
people to be able to pour in.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Wow, that's some great wisdom.
That's some great wisdom.
You know you're a teacher atheart.
You know being a lecturer atYale University and then at your
alma mater, harvard, and nowyou're actually a full-time
professor at the Ohio StateUniversity.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
I am a professor at the Ohio State University.
Yes.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
I don't think you all missed that how big that is.
We're talking about the OhioState University and this young
lady is a full-time professor atthe Ohio State University.
That deserves a bigger handclap than that.
So you come back full circle toBuckeye Land full-time
professor.
(16:56):
How does it feel being on theother side?
Now you know you're a studentat one time.
Now you are the teacher.
How does that feel?
Speaker 3 (17:02):
I love to teach.
I really, really do it issomething that brings me a lot
of joy, and the reason I love todo it is because I love when
I'm watching sort of an unlockhappen, when someone's listening
and understanding and sayinglike, oh you know, you can kind
of see the light bulb go off andI just know and I teach
(17:22):
business.
So I teach at the FisherCollege of Business.
Before that I taught at YaleSchool of Management.
I think business should feelfar more accessible to far more
people, and so helping it feelaccessible and tangible to
students is just something I'mquite passionate about.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
I also read where you wanted to teach.
Because you wanted to.
You wanted to be that teacher.
You didn't have that.
There were certain things thatthat.
So talk, talk to the audienceabout what kind of?
If I signed up for your class,what kind of teacher are you
giving me a thousand page paperto do?
You know you always homework.
What kind of teacher are you?
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Yes, a thousand pages .
No, I so um.
So I went to Harvard BusinessSchool, and one thing that
Harvard Business School isfamous for is we teach
everything.
They teach everything viawhat's called the case study
method, and so the way the casestudy method works is you read a
case about a particularbusiness maybe about Google,
maybe about Apple but then, whenyou get in the classroom, the
(18:22):
whole class session is adiscussion, and so the theory is
that the professor isessentially guiding the learning
, but every single student inclass is helping teach, because
everybody has read the case andeverybody is bringing their
experience to the case.
So I you know, before I got toHarvard Business School, I was
(18:42):
working in retail.
I was a buyer for several years.
So I might you know, before Igot to Harvard Business School,
I was working in retail.
I was a buyer for several years.
So I might be reading aboutApple.
I've never worked in tech, butsomething about my experience in
retail is going to be relevantto the case.
So I'm going to raise my handand I'm going to say what I
think, based on my experience.
That's how every single class atHarvard Business School is
taught, and I found it to bevery impactful, because what you
(19:05):
learn more than anything inthat method is you learn how to
be persuasive, you learn how tobe compelling, you learn how to
think when someone challengesyou and says I disagree with
that, and here's why, to takethat information in, digest it
and come back with acounterpoint.
(19:25):
All of these things are soimportant in business, and so I
have taken that method andthat's really how I teach my
class at Ohio State.
That's how I taught my class atYale, because I believe every
single person in the room cancontribute, and I think one of
the most important things inbusiness is being able to
persuasively and compellinglymake your point, whatever that
point is, and so I actually puta lot of stock in participation.
(19:47):
More than papers, more thanexams, are you capable of
participating in my class issomething I care a great deal
about.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
That's good.
That's good For the youngentrepreneurs in the audience or
just for young people period.
What advice, words ofencouragement, would you give to
them to pursue their dream?
This whole day is about myvision plan.
It's about creating that vision.
What advice would you give to ayoung person to have this
vision, to be able to pursue it?
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Yeah, I would say my number one piece of advice is I
consider myself to be a lifelongstudent.
I am always learning and I'malways excited to be learning.
It's actually one of the thingsI like about teaching.
I'm always having to learn andto read whatever the case study
is or the text is before I cango teach it, which means I get
to learn it again.
And I think if you can approachwhatever it is you're doing
(20:41):
with that sort of learningmindset and that curiosity, then
whatever, regardless of what itis you have on your vision plan
and you should make a visionplan you keep yourself open for
additional opportunities.
So an example I'll give is Idon't know if any of you are on
TikTok, but I spend a lot oftime on TikTok.
(21:07):
And I've built a following overthere of about 300,000 people
and I was able to do that.
Oh, thank you, I need to join.
But I was able to do thatbecause I stayed curious.
And so when I got on TikTokwith the rest of the world in
2020 during the pandemic youguys probably preceded that
because you know more, but Ididn't get on TikTok until 2020.
And I got on it and at first itjust was like, ok, this is a fun
way to waste time, frankly.
(21:29):
But eventually it became a funway to learn things and to
discover new things.
And I thought what if I startedusing TikTok and posting one
about my business to bring moreawareness to my business, but
also because there are thingsthat I've learned?
I've learned about business,I've learned about marketing,
I've learned about all of thesedifferent things.
(21:49):
What if I start chroniclingthat on this channel?
Simply because I was curiouswhat would happen?
And what's happened is I've nowopened up a whole nother career
avenue for myself because I makea significant amount of money
via TikTok.
But that also got me thinkingwell, what about longer form
content?
Now I post on YouTube, nowthat's become an income channel
for me.
Then I started thinking aboutwell, what about written form of
(22:11):
content.
I started a sub stack.
Now that's a revenue channelfor me.
So just because I was curiousyears ago about this platform,
it has now opened up a wholenother income channel for me as
a content creator platform.
It has now opened up a wholenother income channel for me as
a content creator because Iapproached it from the
perspective of, oh, I'm learningsomething here that's
interesting to me.
So I would say stay curious,have a vision plan yes,
(22:33):
absolutely.
I think that's so important,but never feel so tied to the
vision that you aren't able tolook up and ask questions and
think, oh, that's interesting,what's going on over there?
Because you don't know what itmight open up for you.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Boy.
That's good.
This is a legacy podcast.
So what does the word legacymean to you, First off, and then
what is the legacy you'rebuilding through your company
meant to?
Speaker 3 (22:59):
Yeah, legacy took on new meaning for me once I did
have my daughter.
I see pretty much everythingthrough her eyes.
Now I look at this world, thepolitics of this world, the
president of this country.
I look at everything and thinkabout, like, what is this going
to mean for her?
And I think, by extension, whatis this going to mean for the
(23:22):
generation coming after me?
So to me, legacy is aboutleaving something better than
you found it and creatingsomething that is going to be
useful and helpful to my childand to the generation coming
after me, to the extent that I'mable to say that I've done that
, done that more broadly, butcertainly done that with my
(23:43):
business as well that that'svery meaningful to me.
And so, when I think about itin the context of Minted you
know the fact that so mydaughter loves to play with
makeup.
She's three, she'll be four ina couple of months One of her
favorite things to do is tobring out my makeup bag and for
us to sit down and play withmakeup, and one thing that I can
say for her that my mom wouldnot have been able to say for me
(24:05):
is that every single productshe is pulling out of that
makeup bag was made with her inmind.
It is not something that she hasto, you know, mix around and
try and figure out.
It was made with her in mind,and so her entire concept of
makeup is different than mine,right?
Because when I remember thefirst time I shopped for makeup
at CVS or Rite Aid or whateverit was, and looking at a wall of
(24:26):
beige and realizing the vastmajority of this is not for me
and I'm going to have to figureout how to make it work, that is
not her experience.
So, just in that, the legacythat I'm leaving is very
powerful, at least to me.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Well, chris.
This brings us to the end ofthe episode.
I want to thank our specialguest, kristen Jones, co-founder
of Minted Cosmetics.
I want to thank you for sharingyour inspiring story.
I also want to thank you forbuilding a legacy and not just
talking about helping thegeneration, because she's not
just talking, but actually beingcommitted to investing time,
talent and treasure which ismoney into you all.
(25:06):
So, kristen, thanks for being aguest on Be A Baller Podcast.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Before we go, you've got your phones out, so give
them your TikTok channel and allthat YouTube.
Get them phones out, becauseI'm helping with these followers
.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
I keep most of my content high school friendly, so
it's I am underscore KJ Miller.
That's my TikTok, and forYouTube it's just I am KJ Miller
.
All right All right, thank youguys, thank you.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Thank you, Kristen, for your time.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
If you've enjoyed this episode, please share it
with family and friends.
The Be A Baller podcast isavailable on all major podcast
platforms.
This podcast was created byCoach Tim Brown and recorded and
edited by the video productionclass of Worthington Christian
High School.
Be sure to come back next weekas we continue to discuss on how
(26:01):
to build a lifelong legacy.
Until then, don't forget to bea baller.
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