 Today we're excited to welcome someone who carved a unique path to fulfill a dream. Kristen Boss joins us to talk about creating a product with purpose, standing out in a saturated marketplace, and winning the entrepreneur elevator pitch. This is School of Hustle, the show where we find advice and inspiration from people who are making their own way. I'm Shannon, the VP of Social here at GoDaddy, and I live and breathe at the Hustle of Business. Today we're filming from the Hustle of it all at the WeWork Times Square in New York City. Everybody, let's give Kristen the biggest warmest welcome! Oh, it's so fantastic to have you on the show. Thank you for having me. Thank you for inviting me. I'm so excited to be here. Can we go right into the present that you brought me? Yeah, I wanted to bring you a couple of the things that were some of my favorite products that I made, so just a few things. Thank you. I heard that there might be a lip gloss in here, so I didn't put anything on yet, and I heard that you painted this. I do, so I hand paint all of my own bags, and I like hand stamp all of my tissue paper because, you know, I think that like the personal side of it is just as important as the products. So there's the lip gloss is lovely. I actually just made these about a week ago, so the one that I'm giving you is the pink champagne. This is from your KVOS beauty line, and you said that when you made this like a few weeks ago, what do you mean you made this? So most of the products I make myself in my kitchen, for real. Really? Yeah, the most I've made at one time is about 13,000 for one order. Usually if it's anything more than like 10,000, I have to source it out to my manufacturer. This feels really good. Thank you, and everything is certified vegan and 100% organic. Well it's experiential, like the second you hold the box in your hand and you open it, you crack the product, you smell it, you put it on. Yeah, this is made with a lot of love, I can tell. Tell us exactly what is KVOS beauty, and why was it important to you to launch this business? So I mean, when I first started making products, it was just because I had become aware of how many chemicals were in the ones that I was using. You know, there were, if you use 10 products a day, there's over 540 chemicals, I mean just in 10 products, and I think a lot of us women use a lot more than that sometimes. Absolutely. So I just started making stuff at home, and it came out lovely, it came out really lovely, and then I thought to myself, you know, people don't know that what you put on your skin, it goes straight into your bloodstream faster than if you actually ate it. Basically what I wanted to do was create something that was totally vegan, totally organic, and was healthy and nourished you, you know, and didn't strip away your skin. Well, the last time I saw you, this is the first time I've met you in person, but I saw you on the entrepreneur elevator pitch with Danika Patrick, and you won. I mean, they loved your product, that was exciting to see that, and so for those watching who don't know how this show works, you get in an elevator, and you have like 60 seconds, and the elevator goes up, and there are people watching you on cameras. Danika Patrick was one of them, and she was with us, and the door opens, or it doesn't. So you have 60 seconds to make your pitch, literally your elevator pitch, and you get like a red or a green light. Well, there's a clock, there's a huge digital clock counting down that's like that you're looking at in your face, and so you're looking at it, and you're seeing this happen. That's like a true way mirror, you know people are watching you. Yeah, and it's just, it's actually terrifying because it's like you are trying to spit out as many words as you can, and you know make your, get up, get across what you want to say, but how can you make what you do in your business down to 60 seconds? Like how can you be that concise? So it was like... And so the doors open, they actually agree to see you, and you step out, and you go through talking about your business and impress these folks. How did you keep your composure in that sort of a high-pressure environment? That's super kind of you, I didn't think that I did. I thought you look great! I think that's really nice of you to say. I guess if I watch it again I might think differently about it. I think we're just all hardest on ourselves. Oh well, we are. You know, and when you watch yourself you are your toughest critic, right? Yeah. But do you think that quality in you, because not everybody has that quality, do you think that is part of what makes you successful? See I don't even define myself as like really successful. I'm super happy every day with what I do, which is awesome. So that's my success. I'm not successful really financially or I guess in ways that other people might dictate what success is. But as far as what I think success is, I think I'm pretty successful because I'm super happy every day with what I do. And your background is in art. Yeah. And we did see the painted bag and stamped tissue with that love that you put into what you do. But are there other ways that your background in art influences your work today with K-Vos Beauty? I mean I think that with being an artist everything was off my life has always been about been super colorful and been you know about creating something that's beautiful and sharing it and seeing other people enjoy it. You owned a restaurant. I did. Yeah. Okay, I have to ask that because you ran your restaurant bar for four years and then you ended up selling it and this was before you launched that your beauty line. Yeah. I bartended to put myself through college. Okay. And then you know when I first moved to New York City I you know got a job at an ad agency as an assistant and you know they basically pay you and hugs there you know like you don't make much money. So I had to get you know a bartending job to you know to be able to live in the city and then from there I just you know I was making in one night at a bar what I was making in a week and a half at the ad agency. So I started bartending at clubs and I saved a bunch of money and and then I had an opportunity to to be a partner in this business and I thought this is awesome. I want to own my own. I wanted to be an owner. I knew that I knew that I wanted to own something and it wanted to be working for someone else. That's all I knew. This was a good first stab at owning something else but this was not a good this was a really really tremendously difficult experience. Owning a business as such like a bar is just it's an I mean it's a 26 hour a day eight day a week job. You never you're never not working. How did you know it was time to get out? My partners I had some you know my partners basically were you know we're not we're not really doing the right thing and so it was one of those things where I just knew I mean the business was starting to not do well and I was before you know before things got any worse. I just wanted to try and find a good buyer for it and I did have you know that it has a nice it has a nice home without these other people. Yeah so and that's part of it too knowing when to pivot yeah right yeah and and now you've pivoted you've pivoted to KVOS Beauty and this this line is it's just it's it's your passion. Everything really does come is made with love and it really does come from a good place you know I mean I have spent I didn't have like you know a like a famous parent that just said what do you want to do here's money for a purse line or you know everything that I make has come from hours and hours of trial and error like good old-fashioned you know learning and making mistakes and figuring it out and and they're all they're all really good products and they're all really simple basic products and they are products that should when you use them you should just feel good about yourself. How do you think about standing out from other competitors in the space? Name recognition is a huge thing and since I don't have the same name recognition as say Tata Harper or you know or one of the other really big brands um I don't think that it's it frustrates me sometimes because I don't think enough people are getting exposed to products that are as um as really nourishing as mine but you know with time. So what are some of the things that you do to kind of help get yourself out of the doldrums because you have a beautiful product and you are positive and people do know who you are so what what sort of things do you do that could help people watching you know when they're in a similar mindset to get out of it? You know I mean one of the biggest things that I do for myself is the environment that I work in yeah I keep it a really happy bright place um you know my I work out of my apartment and I keep a very specific part of my apartment like very bright very happy um lots of light and you know and wine helps. Well I like that you work wine into your product lineup. Thank you for opening up and sharing your personal story with us. Thank you. That really was fantastic and now I want to kind of spice things up a bit and play a little game. In hustle time we set a clock for 60 seconds. Okay so you're having I'm having an elevator flashback. I'll say the stakes are actually pretty low. Can I have 60 seconds on the clock? All right football, NFL or soccer? Um NFL. Aliens factor fiction? Fiction. Beer or wine? Wine. Favorite part of a s'more? Um chocolate. Top quality look floor and employee? I don't have anybody working for me. Camping or glamping? Um camping. Finish the sentence when I dance I look like? Someone who shouldn't be dancing. New York tourists help with directions or keep on your own way. Oh I mean I'll help them. If you could have a superpower what would it be? Um super power um to be invisible. Best chocolate in the world comes from? Um a non-dairy farm. King size or friend size? King size. Would you rather fly or talk to animals? Talk to animals. Favorite holiday? Um my birthday? Instagram or Twitter? Instagram. Binge watch or watch weekly? Binge watch. Your go-to outfit? Uh sweatpants. Music or podcasts? Music. Three things in your closet right now? In my closet? Sweatpants, sweatpants, sweatpants. Fireplace or fire pit? Fireplace. What's the most successful person you know? Um someone who's happy anyone who's happy. I'm gonna count it. I'm gonna count it. I'm gonna count that. 17, 18, 19, 20. 20? That is a lot. Is that good? Yeah. No I got really. No really. I feel real. That's really good. We ask these 10 or so questions to every entrepreneur. Okay. Who comes on and it's fun to see how different people answer the same question. Okay. Favorite part of your day? First thing in the morning when I wake up because I get to snuggle with my dog. Best piece of advice you've ever gotten? Keep going. Worst piece of advice? I think any advice from anyone that compromises your integrity for your morals can be considered bad advice. How do you use your career to inspire others? You know I just sort of try and lead by example. You know when I owned my bar if a table needed to be bust I would bust it so if people would see it needed to get done you know and then they'd think oh look what she's doing so I just think doing the right thing by example is the best way. Have you ever felt like walking away? Not in a long time. One thing you still need to learn? To not trust everybody. What do you want people to learn from you? That if you really do what you love it doesn't matter how much money you make. What's next for you? To keep growing I hope. Who inspires you? My mom. Who challenges you? My mom. Well we let everybody know in social that you were coming and I have a question from an entrepreneur who was working on an app wants to learn something from you. So Shethwalla asks what is one tip that you can give them for their app as they're trying to launch a fashion marketplace app in today's crowded app space? What's some advice that you would give this person? I'm not a really big app person and a lot of these you know these shopping apps are you know are they're great but if you're a smaller business you it kind of limits smaller businesses because they don't have the financial capabilities to participate in them and you know these apps always take a percentage. So I would just say you know the best advice I can give anyone is just really know your industry like really know your marketplace and really know who you're competing against and find something that's different about you and make that part stand out. That's fantastic. Well I have one more question. More advice needs to be given and this advice is for noodle our favorite pug. So noodle is approaching 11 human years which is about 60 in dog years. Noodle is noticing some some fairly prominent wrinkles. I see. What advice would you give to noodle around looking and feeling younger? You really are only as old as you feel you are. I think noodle is just perfect. Thank you for saying that he is. Look at his little face. Every wrinkle is cute to me. He's perfect just the way he is. Don't change a thing. It's a matter of like what you feel inside right? Absolutely. Your inner projects outward. Your inner noodle. Find your inner noodle. That's amazing. I love it. That's actually amazing. Well and in the spirit of inspirational sort of phrases I have three quotes that I would love to share with you and I would love to ask that you tell me what quote resonates the most with you and why. Okay. One. The past cannot be changed. The future is in your power. Number two. Never limit yourself because others limited imagination. Never limit others because of your own limited imagination. Number three. My mission in life is to not merely survive but to thrive. The first one. The first one. Okay. Because the past is the past and we all make mistakes and I've made my share and so always looking forward and you know keeping what's in the past being the past and move forward. Thank you for opening up today. I really appreciated talking with you. You too. And I love my presence. You're welcome. I will use my presence all spring and summer. I hope you love that. I have loved that. I am a new K-Vos customer. I am a new K-Vos customer and I want to encourage everybody watching if you really enjoyed the interview today follow K-Vos beauty across social. What are you on Instagram? K-Vos NYC. K-Vos NYC and follow GoDaddy too because every week we are bringing more fabulous entrepreneurs just like Kristen your way. So follow GoDaddy across social, follow K-Vos NYC and we'll see you all soon. Bye.