The video explores Hailey Bieber's transition from celebrity to entrepreneur, focusing on her beauty brand and content creation strategy. It discusses the shift in approach that celebrities are taking by directly engaging with their audiences on platforms like YouTube and TikTok, bypassing traditional advertising channels. Bieber's strategy involves creating her own controlled content to communicate her brand, mitigating the negative narratives that often accompany fame.

In this engaging dialogue, Hailey Bieber shares insights into her entrepreneurial journey, the challenges of social media, and the evolving dynamics of online presence. Despite facing public scrutiny and backlash, Bieber manages to leverage her fame to build a successful beauty brand. Her journey highlights the complexities of being a celebrity-turned-entrepreneur and the strategies to maintain control over her public image and business endeavors.

Main takeaways from the video:

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Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. superstardom [suːpərˈstɑːrdəm] - (noun) - The state of being a very famous and successful star, especially in the entertainment or sports industries. - Synonyms: (celebrity, fame, stardom)

Even in the land of superstardom, there's always some new Hollywood hill to climb.

2. narratives [ˈnærətɪvz] - (noun) - A spoken or written account of connected events; a story. - Synonyms: (story, tale, account)

There's narratives that exist for anybody who's in the public eye, and there's narratives that exist for me that really hurt my feelings.

3. vulnerable [ˈvʌlnərəbl] - (adjective) - Capable of being physically or emotionally wounded or hurt. - Synonyms: (susceptible, unprotected, exposed)

How have you gotten comfortable with letting people see you so vulnerable?

4. magnifying glass [ˈmæɡnɪˌfaɪɪŋ ɡlæs] - (noun) - A lens that makes things look larger for clearer examination, often used metaphorically to mean close scrutiny. - Synonyms: (close inspection, scrutiny, examination)

It kind of just, like, really puts you under a crazy magnifying glass.

5. cliche [kliːˈʃeɪ] - (noun) - A phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought. - Synonyms: (platitude, stereotype, overused expression)

There are a lot of celebrity beauty brands out there. Some people think it's almost a cliche.

6. archaic [ɑːrˈkeɪɪk] - (adjective) - Very old or old-fashioned, no longer in common use. - Synonyms: (obsolete, outdated, antiquated)

The idea of a commercial or forcing a product or demanding they buy something I think is a bit archaic.

7. scrutiny [ˈskruːtəni] - (noun) - Critical observation or examination. - Synonyms: (examination, inspection, investigation)

I don't think there's anything in the world that can prepare someone to step into such a broad amount of scrutiny and being talked about

8. fatigue [fəˈtiːɡ] - (noun) - Extreme tiredness resulting from exertion or illness; also used to express growing weariness of things or actions. - Synonyms: (weariness, tiredness, exhaustion)

I do feel like people had a fatigue of celebrity beauty brands.

9. ambition [æmˈbɪʃən] - (noun) - A strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work. - Synonyms: (aspiration, goal, desire)

So let's talk about the growth plan, because you are expanding globally. What's the ambition there?

10. perfectionist [pərˈfɛkʃənɪst] - (noun / adjective) - A person who refuses to accept any standard short of perfection. - Synonyms: (meticulous, exacting, idealist)

The problem for me is that I'm a perfectionist.

Hailey Bieber on Her New Career | The Circuit with Emily Chang

Even in the land of superstardom, there's always some new Hollywood hill to climb. And these days, it's not enough to just be a megastar. Everyone also wants to be an entrepreneur. Over the years, I've seen plenty of famous faces attach their names to new business projects, launch their own funds or startups. And with the power of social media, celebrities can cut out traditional marketing and empire build in a whole new way. The problem is, the very same platforms that can give any celeb that boost can also be their downfall.

Today, I'm doing something I never thought I would do as a business journalist, heading to meet my next guest on a soundstage in a very special bathroom. Hailey Bieber, wife of one of the most famous pop stars in the world and daughter of the famous Baldwin family, is using a celeb to entrepreneur playbook. Step one, launch beauty brand. Step two, go direct to your audience on YouTube. I'm here to find out how she's putting this content to commerce strategy to work. All right, we're gonna meet Hailey. Let's go.

Her hair is so thick, she only needs a few. Duh. Hello. Hello. How's it going? How are you? Good. Come sit. What are the must haves in the who's in my bathroom glam routine? I'm always so big on the skin prep, so it has to be really good. Hydrating, dewy, moisturizing skin prep. I'm pretty fast with glam, though. I just don't like sitting. I'm so antsy. I didn't like sitting in school either. I don't like taking too long.

So what's your prep routine like? One interviewer to another. I like for it to flow very naturally. It's kind of like going on a date. In what way? Like, you just ask the person about them and get to know them. The best interviewers, too, I feel like, are good listeners. Totally. You're going direct to your audience with this, and, you know, the Internet's not always a nice place. It's been kind of hard on you sometimes hard on your marriage. It's a more comfortable experience for me that way. I think it's really hard with the Internet as it is about, you know, there's narratives that exist for anybody who's in the public eye, and there's narratives that exist for me that really hurt my feelings and make me really upset. But I think that I have had a lot more comfort in being able to create my own content that I have control over. That feels good for me.

How are you evolving? How you use social media, whether it's YouTube or TikTok or Instagram. I found for YouTube to be a really embracing, positive place. I have a love hate relationship with TikTok because I found for it to be a very nasty, negative place. When they're talking about you, you have a face and a voice to the things that are being said, so it feels a lot more of, like, a personal attack on you when you see someone vocalizing it. We've seen so much of you behind the scenes, and, like, how have you gotten comfortable with letting people see you so vulnerable?

I do think it has helped people to see more sides of me, and I think when they get to see me in these different settings, they can at least just digest it and be like, oh, okay. Like, that seems like that's how she is, and this is what she does, and that's her job. And I would just rather let people in in a way that's comfortable for me than always having assumptions be made about who they think I am. I just want to let everybody know we're getting really close. If you are sitting behind in the sight line of this stage, please keep your movements to a minimum.

I feel like you love the nineties working girl look. I do. I really do. I love the blazer. I love anything very princess Diana inspired. Is there something about the business look that appeals to you? I like when you see in a lot of business style things, like a structured shoulder, a great power suit. I've always kind of gravitated towards stuff like that. So I hear it was entirely your idea to not just shoot in the bathroom, but eat in the bathroom.

The concept really did come from when you're having a night out and you're in the bathroom with your drink and fixing your makeup, and you're chatting with your girls, like, oh, my God, my ex is here. I always tell people that when you go to the Met gala, the most crazy part of it is happening in the bathroom. Take one. Action on Hailey. What's up, everyone? It's Hailey. And welcome to who's in my bathroom delivered by Gopu. And I wanted us to be able to have real conversations, be able to talk about our passions and our businesses and things that we love and get silly and drink tequila and get a little tipsy.

Thank you for having me. Welcome to my bathroom. Oh, my God. It's just like mine. All while doing that on the other side of things, we were weaving in conversations early, early on about skincare, about beauty, about, you know, we were, like, using Road on camera before people even knew Road was Road. Let's pause one sec. Let's cut for a moment. Oh, yeah. Yeah. The founding partner of Road as well. What came first, the idea for the bathroom show or the skincare line? One didn't lead to the other.

I think my outlook as an entrepreneur is the worlds of content and commerce are blending. Truly. They are married. Pairing with a production company and a production company that's going to let you lead and let you control the IP. Whether it's merch, whether it's, you know, skincare, whatever it is, is really exciting. Okay, well, welcome to the show. Thank you for being here. We're gonna make our grilled cheeses and we're gonna have a chat. Okay, let's do it.

You know, I built Obb when I was 26 years old, and she was then like 22, finishing up a Bare Minerals contract. And she was like, who can I turn to that will build with me? And definitely an unconventional choice was somebody who started a media company. And you're like, at some points, are we in over our head? You know, maybe I should have went with a more traditional, like, founding partner, or maybe I should do I know what I'm doing? And of course that fear creeps in.

You've become the go to director producer for celebrity shows like Kevin Hart, Shaq, Justin and Hayley, scaling content that has racked up billions of views. Is there a changing of the guard in terms of how people are reaching their audiences these days? I think at the level of fame that a Justin or a Hailey or some of these stars have, it's sometimes really nerve wracking to go and do content that you can't control because everything could get manipulated. It's like doing an interview. Could we go and create a safe space where she can go and engage with the community and most importantly, a skincare community? That's what she really wanted to talk about.

So you're working directly with brands and kind of cutting out the ad man. Is that a threat? Yeah. To them, yeah. The audience is getting so damn smart. Do not take the audience for granted. The idea of a commercial or forcing a product or demanding they buy something I think is a bit archaic. I think the old ad agency model is dying a little bit. Technology is truly allowing creators to connect directly to their audience. I frequently look to some of our big talent and I think, oh, my lord, I, you know, if you added up like five, six of them, it's like an 8th of the planet in followers.

So the question always used to be great idea. Packaged. How are we distributing it? The answer is with them. A quick look on Hailey's social accounts, and you'll see nods to her skincare line Road. Hailey launched the company in 2022, catching the tail end of a wave of celebrity brands that have saturated the beauty market, which raised $1.2 billion in venture capital funding at its peak. For these founders, fame is a double edged sword. It's easier to launch a brand when you already have so many eyes on you. But what happens when gossip and drama come for you and your company?

There's a lot of folks who think celebrities don't get into the details of their brands. Like, what are you doing here on a day to day basis? Everything that you could imagine that has to do with the creative direction of the entire brand is like, that's my job here. And also, the formulation is also the other thing that I'm the most involved in. So testing the products, talking about what I want to be the next product, figuring out our timeline and the pipeline, and for me, the biggest and most important thing about the brand, and the two biggest things actually, are the aesthetic and what it makes you feel and then the actual product itself that you're using.

I wanted it to be so, so effective. So are you and Justin digging into spreadsheets late at night? Him, not so much, but maybe me a little bit more. Yeah, he's definitely also. I run things by him all the time, and he gives his input, and I appreciate that for sure.

Before you started a company, what was your impression of Silicon Valley and what it takes to be a founder? Honestly, I didn't really know. I don't really feel like, you know, what it takes and what it's like and how it is until you're actually in the process. So I kind of just always went into it asking a million and one questions, but I feel like I'm a fast learner, and I really love to absorb information, so that was kind of my biggest thing from the beginning.

Elon Musk has said starting a company is like staring into the abyss and eating glass. How did it feel for you? I think anything that you take a leap of faith with is scary, and I think that you never really know how it's gonna be received until it's out there in the world, and that's a huge risk to take. Yeah. So no eating glass moments. I mean, starting, that's, like, a very broad thing, you know, eating glass. I mean, it's definitely. Yeah, I get there's pains to it. There's a lot of growing pains. There's a lot of learning pains.

What kind of market research did you do? Like, did you try everything from Walgreens to Chanel, and where did you see something missing? I remember always loving and going in my mom's bathroom and trying all her stuff and her creams and her makeup. My grandma, she always loved creams and skincare. She had this crazy obsession with it my whole life that always kind of stuck with me. And when the pandemic hit, I was like, all right, this is the time that I really want to nail down what it is I want to do.

And I started with exactly what you're talking about, which was trying everything. And I would literally get deliveries of, like, hoards of skincare and beauty stuff. And I was just trying everything. What works, what doesn't, what's popular, what's not. And that kind of really helped me hone down, which was already my philosophy, that, like, less is more. I found that the more simple that I kept it, the easier it was to maintain that routine and the better it was for my skin.

Who are your beauty business role models? I think there's a lot of people that have gone and done this before me. I think I have a lot of people in my life and friends of mine that have even developed their own brands and businesses that I'm just, like, so impressed by. And I think what's nice about that is there's people to be able to run things by and have those conversations with. And to be honest, I admire any woman who takes the leap of faith to launch their own business.

Initially, there was a super long waiting list. Yeah. Was scarcity part of the plan or part of the strategy? People want what they can't have. No. I almost wish that it was because then maybe that would be a better explanation for why. But it was. Honestly, we did as much demand planning as we could for what we were projecting was going to be the feedback and the popularity, but it just completely far exceeded everyone's planning and expectations.

So let's talk about the growth plan, because you are expanding globally. What's the ambition there? Where do you want to be? What about new products? With Canada, that was what we felt like was the next best territory to enter into, not only because it is basically the neighbor to the US, but also because my husband's Canadian, so I really felt like Canada needed to go next. And then our plan is to then go into the UK, and we're kind of just taking it one place at a time. Obviously, I want it to be everywhere possible.

I know you're funding most of this with your own money. Yeah. Are you planning to take on new investment or raise new funding? I think if the time comes where that makes sense and it's necessary, then I will and I would. But for right now, it has not been the case and it hasn't been needed. So we're just trying to take it slow. I mean, my goal is to retain as much of the company as I possibly can as we expand and as we grow.

How are you thinking about an exit strategy? Like, long term? Do you want to go public? Do you want to sell a big stake like Kylie Jenner? I mean, of course, like, I have my goals for the brand. I have goals that we want to reach. I think that it's important to have those goals. But I'm just, like. I just think it's not even really, like, at the forefront of my mind. It's kind of like looming in the background of, like, yes, eventually, I think that's probably the goal, but I just don't even know what that looks like yet.

There are a lot of celebrity beauty brands out there. Some people think it's almost a cliche. What's going to make yours stand out? One of my biggest things that I noticed with being a consumer of skincare and beauty was like, if I went on a website and it felt like I don't even know what to choose at this point. Our approach is just always going to be that. One of everything. Good. Yeah. Just these curated, edited essentials. And that's why our drops are always very much one at a time.

There have been a number of celebrity beauty brands that haven't worked out. Yeah. And I wonder if you, you know, just being connected to a famous face isn't enough. And that's like, this is from the point of view of consumers. Yeah. Do you worry at all that you miss the wave? Like the wave of. The wave of celebrity beauty brands when the economy was going well and people felt like they had a lot of disposable income to try new things? I don't feel like that's the case. I do feel like people had a fatigue of celebrity beauty brands. That is a tongue twister. I know.

I do feel like there was a fatigue. I felt like when I announced the brand, of course there was people that were like, oh, here we go, here's another one. And I'm like, I get that. I understand. I'm also coming from the point of view where I'm like, trust me, I know but this is my approach, and it is different to other people. And my goal from the beginning was that this brand, if you took me out of it, would stand on its own regardless of me.

Internet's always talking. There's people think you might be expanding into clothes. Is that for real? You trademarked mood boarding? I did trademark what's happening there. I did trademark that for clothes. Cause I just kind of. I like the idea that this word mood board, like, I'm such a big person that likes to mood board things. That's kind of how I, you know, I mood board my hair and makeup inspiration, and I mood board inspiration for the road campaign shoots. I mood board inspiration for my fashion. It may never come to life. It may be for something else. Who knows? I just kind of wanted to. I had had that name in my mind for a long time.

So we'll stay tuned. Maybe stay tuned. Perhaps mood board will come to see the light of day. Okay. Your fashion and makeup tips can either spark the next big beauty trend, or you get some serious backlash. And I'm curious if you're ever surprised how the world reacts. It comes with the territory. I think that it obviously makes me sad because I feel very misunderstood, and I feel like there's nothing you can do to try to get people to understand you and know you. But I think that the bad side and the negative side of the Internet doesn't outweigh the good side and the positive side.

How does it feel to be someone that so many people have opinions about? I think it can be hard sometimes, but I also think that you can't expect to exist in this place and not have that. So I think sometimes it's just a harshen reality check for me. I also think it boils down to, you know, having to learn how to navigate it and be able to shut all that stuff out. And for me, it's like the Internet is not real life to me. Like, my real life with the people that I love is my real life.

And sometimes it's hard to just stay there and stay focused on that when things online can feel loud and disruptive. I don't think there's anything in the world that can prepare someone to step into such a broad amount of scrutiny and being talked about. And it kind of just, like, really puts you under a crazy magnifying glass.

And I had just never experienced that before. So I feel like I've seen you leaning into it a little more or almost accepting it a little more. Like the nepotism thing. You stepped out in a Nepo baby t shirt. Yeah. Explain that. The Nepo baby t shirt was just meant to be my little comment on the whole discourse that had been going around. And my point to having worn the t shirt was not to poke fun at it or kind of be like, yeah, I'm an EPO baby, and ha ha type of a thing was more so to be like, this is what everyone is saying, and I want you to know that this is my way of responding to it and my way of acknowledging it in a way that is so overly literal that it's like, I'm just gonna call myself a Nepo baby because I am one, and I embrace that I am.

But I thought what was funny about that is like, to me, the way the Internet is, is like, nothing's ever enough. So it's like, I do that, and it's like, half of people find it funny and they get the humor behind it and they got it, and then half the people are like, well, you're not even really a nepo baby like, that much. And I'm like, so you're gonna sit there and call me a nepo baby all day long? But then I acknowledge it, and then I'm not enough of a Nepo baby. So it's like, there is never any, like, winning with the Internet. And that's what I've always, time and time again, realize.

I'm probably too old to understand why this is an issue, but here we go. There's some ongoing drama between you, another celebrity, and eyebrows, and you reached out to her saying you've been getting death threats, and she told her fans to stop. I don't think that this is about me, Hailey Bieber and Selena Gomez. This is not about this pitting between two women and division between two women. It's about the vile discussing hatred that can come from completely made up and twisted and perpetuated narratives. That can be really dangerous.

And I think that it's an opportunity to really stand for bringing people together and not being okay with the kind of division that it caused, because I'm not okay with the kind of division that it caused. I don't like this whole idea of team this person and team this person. I'm just not about that. I want to be able to bring people together, and I think that that was a really important moment for people to see that you can do that and you can bring people together, and it doesn't have to be about this divisive nature.

It's such a frustrating old narrative, like, two women being pitted against each other over a man because of a guy, it's awful. I hate it. I've hated it since the beginning. And I think that kind of goes back to a little bit of just being misunderstood when it's like, time and time again. I don't know why I keep having to say, and we keep having to say that there is no issue and there is no problem. It's so disappointing that people still behave this way because of a man. Like, over a man. It's. Yeah, it's the world we live in. Unfortunately, backlash can be so swift and fierce and relentless.

And now you've got this business, right? Like, how do you think about that and how, you know, when public opinion sways, what does it mean for the brand? What does it mean for the business? My head goes there because this brand is so important to me. And of course, I don't want silly, made up drama to affect what I'm focused and working on. And I think at the end of the day, you kind of just have to keep it pushing and just keep moving forward. It doesn't mean that the work falls to the side because of noise and because things are being said, because there's always going to be noise and there's always going to be things that are said and if it's not that, it's going to be something else. So it's kind of about just knowing just how to navigate it as it comes because it wasn't the first time and it won't be the last time.

What's the biggest lesson you've learned from starting a business? The biggest lesson I've learned is that there's going to be mishaps and mistakes. And the problem for me is that I'm a perfectionist. So when issues come up or problems arise or there's hiccups, I'm like, like, how do we stop it and fix it? And it's like, it actually is just part of the learning process. And sometimes the learning is really hard, especially if you're like, a perfectionist. People pleaser. People pleaser.

I feel like I hear a lot of women say that a lot. Do you feel like that's one of your flaws or just part of your character? I think it's something that I struggle with. Yeah, for sure. I don't necessarily think it's a flaw. The base of where I think that comes from is I just care so much. I care so deeply about people. I care about my, like, I'm a people pleaser with my friends, with every aspect of my life with everything that you're doing.

And there's so much more than road. The YouTube shows, the fashion and makeup tips. Are we seeing you try to separate the Hayley from the Bieber and the Baldwin at all? It's hard to say that you can separate it, because it's like, this is my life. That is the family I come from, and that is my husband. There is no denying that. And I don't want to try to run away from that. I'd like to just embrace that.

So I think there's a space that within all of that for people to understand, take any last name out of it. Like, who exactly is Hailey? And I think my journey with the YouTube channel and kind of the vlog style videos I put out is really just for people to be able to connect to who Hailey is, without the last names, without the headlines, without the gossip, without all that other stuff, and just form their own connection to me personally as much as that's possible through social media.

So ten years from now, what do you want people to be talking about? I know what I don't want them to be talking about anymore. I always want road to be a reflection of my life and where I'm at and what's going on with me in that time. So I feel like if I see that being motherhood in a different space, then I feel like the brand in some ways will definitely reflect that as well.

Well, you are multi platform in a multimedia world. Yeah. And it continues, and it's been really fun. There's nothing better than being able to kind of really have ownership over your own platform, and it be this machine that's kind of funneling all things in one space.

Entrepreneurship, Technology, Innovation, Hailey Bieber, Celebrity Brands, Social Media Influence, Bloomberg Originals