gwen Stefani
GXVE Beauty
For the past 30 years, Gwen Stefani has remained the rather timeless musical superstar of our generation. From her many years as the lead singer of American rock band No Doubt to her solo career, Gwen, 52, has brought what feels like countless sing-along hits to the airwaves throughout her celebrated career. . What some may not know, however, is that Gwen began her young adult life as a makeup artist and recently returned to her creative roots as the founder of GXVE Beauty (pronounced “give”), which launched in March and is now expanding. even more in the GXVE community.
“Right now, just so you know, this is a big day for me,” Gwen tells me, referring to The GXVE Community’s debut. “My dream has been touched and come true. I’m talking to you right now about it, so this is a big deal for me.”
The GXVE Community is a proprietary digital platform that gives consumers the tools they need to create, share and inspire their unique makeup looks while benefiting financially through a commission rate.
Gwen says of her fans joining and becoming ambassadors in the GXVE community: “To be able to say now that we are partners. We’ve always been partners, but you’ll actually get a 30% commission, if you want. It’s great and the beauty industry community is a great community because we get to share and learn so much from each other.”
The GXVE Community
GXVE Beauty
Stuart Leitch, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at New Theory Ventures, has been collaborating with Gwen to bring the GXVE community to the public and spoke briefly with me about her profitable incentives. “Offering 30% commission is higher than anything we see in the industry today and we wanted to be really aggressive with that and make it meaningful to people so they can put some money in their pocket.”
Allison Statter, CEO and Co-Founder of Blended Strategy Group, shared with me how GXVE initially came about and what it hopes to become for makeup enthusiasts. “I’ve been with Gwen on this since the first meeting five years ago when she said she needed to have my own brand. She cares so much about her community, she cares so much about her fans, she cares so much about the quality of what she’s giving to her community and her fans. With GXVE, it wasn’t just about bringing an amazing product to market, it was also about cultivating a community of people who can not only wear our makeup but also sell our makeup, feel good about themselves, and have more than just putting on a pretty face”.
GXVE beauty products
GXVE Beauty
To fully appreciate where Gwen is headed with the GXVE community, you need to understand where she’s coming from.
“I worked at the makeup counter when I was in my twenties,” recalls Gwen. “There was a specific moment that I remember that really led to this very emotional moment for me, when this lady came in with her baby and her husband. She didn’t really speak English, she had a birthmark on her face and she wanted me to do her makeup so she could figure out what she needed. So, I put makeup on her and it was like she was born again. The feeling that she had and the feeling that I had to give her that feeling was something that has been with me all my life. That’s where I landed with the desire to make this mark at this point in my life. I didn’t need to be doing this. I just knew I still needed to do something creative and that’s when I decided I was going to do GXVE.”
Between her ongoing music career as a three-time Grammy winner, her successful years designing clothes with her LAMB fashion line, and returning as a coach alongside husband Blake Shelton in a new season of The Voice, I asked Gwen after three decades of business. To her credit, how would she say that she has changed her mindset with business over the years?
gwen Stefani
GXVE Beauty
“Shoot, you know what? It’s so weird when you say business because I never see myself like that, but when I look back, you’re right: I’ve been doing that. I really don’t like business, you know what I’m saying? I am more creative. I’m like a visual person. I’m passionate about style and self-expression through anything, whether it’s the way you dress or the makeup you wear. [It’s] It’s crazy to think now of extending it to a place where I can really give back to the community that I’ve had a love affair with all these years that we’ve been exchanging love, back and forth.”
Gwen’s rise to stardom was not without its bumps. She goes on to tell me that she doesn’t think many people realize that she had so much trouble in school, which revealed to me that she has dyslexia and ADHD. She says it wasn’t until she wrote her first song, not knowing she had the power to do it, that she felt she had found her calling, saying, “God just put it in me and it just came out of me.” she”.
Gwen Stefani during her early years of music with No Doubt
@gwenstefani (Instagram)
Discussing her early years performing and writing songs with No Doubt, Gwen says, “I had this gift to express myself through these songs. I was doing that for nine years before anyone saw it. It was what I did, not being famous or not achieving it because I knew that would never happen. We did it as a band because that’s what we did to put off school. The fact that I wrote ‘Just A Girl’ and was so naive living in my parents’ house. I designed myself in the video, I came up with the concept for the video, I went to the video set and made the video and then I walked on a plane and never came home for two and a half years, and I was a millionaire. When I get home.”
With fans eagerly awaiting new music from the longtime superstar, I asked Gwen if she was noticing her interest in certain sounds and her chosen storytelling through changing lyrics at this stage in her life and career.
“That’s a good question and you’re taking advantage of something that is my insecurity. As a composer at a certain time, you know that you are in a certain place, right? I’ve already had my great records. You can only be new when you are new and I accept that. There’s one thing with songwriting: I’ve never been a writer where I write on a daily basis or I never know when it’s going to work and when it’s not, or when it’s going to hit or not. I have written a lot about this. Every hit I’ve ever done has been like this and the fact that I’ve been blessed with so many and they’re still being played and people are still mentioning them is truly a true miracle.”
Gwen Stefani and her husband Blake Shelton
@gwenstefani (Instagram)
Gwen goes on to share with me: “I came in during the quarantine years and wrote a bunch of songs, like 30+ songs, but I didn’t feel the passion that I wanted to put out. I also got married that year and I just wanted to be in the marriage and try not to do so many things at the same time and be realistic that there are a limited number of things you can do at the same time. So I put it on the back burner, but I also feel like sometimes I don’t have much to say or don’t know if I do, so I’ll wait and pray about it. .”
As Gwen offers her loyal fans the chance to experience a mutually beneficial association within the GXVE community, she also makes it clear that she has had and will continue to have direct input into what her GXVE brand has become and the opportunity it looks like. become. for others.
“To be able to do this on such a large scale, as far as everything from the paper for the packaging to the font and the color palette, everything that comes with the business side of this. Partnering with Sephora is a lot to learn in the last four years, but I’ve also surprised myself. I mean, I’m in my mid-fifties, you know what I mean? It all led up to this moment and I think it will be a really amazing thing to be able to have a business that people can be a part of, like the people who loved me all these years. I’m super excited to be where I am.”
Source: www.forbes.com