There are some mornings that an eight-step skincare routine and elaborate makeup look simply aren’t in the cards. However, trust me when I say that between waking up and entering the real world, there’s a slight transformation.
In Episode 122 of Earned, Conor sits down with Taylor Frankel, Co-Founder and Chief Brand Officer of Nudestix—a collection of foolproof makeup crayons that take care of all of your glam needs. Now featuring product lines of skincare and bodycare, Nudestix has evolved into your one-stop beauty shop.
To start, we dive into the founding story of Nudestix. Back in 2014, at the young age of 17, Taylor launched the brand in collaboration with her mother (Jenny Frankel) and sister (Ally Frankel). With a desire to create a product for those wanting “just enough” to feel more put together, the mother-daughter trio was armed with Jenny’s experience at beauty brand CoverFX. With Nudestix’s EMV surging 99% over the last four months, we learn about the data-driven strategy behind the brand’s growth—and how Nudestix has utilized CreatorIQ to achieve this momentum. Next, we explore how Nudestix views relationship-building with creators, and how being community-driven has gotten the brand to where it is today. Taylor speaks to her personal goals as a founder and how even as a public face of the company, she still finds balance when it comes to sharing her content.
By enforcing boundaries, Taylor has built and maintained her own following, sharing some of the day-to-day tasks she performs as a founder and what it takes to build a business. We then learn about how Nudestix formed partnerships with high-profile celebrities such as Hillary Duff and Sophia Ritchie Grange, and how these partners truly immersed themselves in the success of the business. Between the virality of Sophia’s wedding and the collaboration that Hillary inspired, Taylor praises both partners for their investment in the brand from the start. Taylor then lets us in on Nudestix’s entry strategy for the skincare and bodycare categories, which includes making sure that each line has its individualized moment. To close the show, Taylor and Conor chat about their email inbox numbers and the goal to have it at zero each day—which reminds me….
We’ve included a couple of highlights from the episode below, but be sure to check out the full video above, or tune into the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen!
The following interview has been lightly edited for concision.
“That is always the goal—that you can really become one with your brand”: How Taylor Frankel Leverages a Public Presence
Conor Begley: You're a front-facing founder, which is something that not everybody does, and has its kind of negatives and its positives. What are the challenges associated with your being kind of the face of the brand? And have you ever questioned maintaining such a public presence?
Taylor Frankel: The biggest challenge about being a front-facing founder is definitely the fact that you need to ensure that your persona and your personality is aligned with your brand. From a personal perspective that can be challenging, because you want to make sure that your voice, how you speak, your presence, is very aligned with your brand mission as well. As a founder, that's obviously very organically the case.
I think it can be challenging to separate the two at times. The biggest challenge is definitely separating the two. You as a person, Taylor Frankel as who she is personally, and then obviously Nudestix as a brand. The funniest thing I love to hear is whenever I meet someone, if I run into someone, or they know me, or they've seen my face somewhere, they'll come up to me and typically they say, ‘Nudestix!’ I find that hilarious, because that is ultimately the goal and I am such a representation of the brand. You can see my face across all of our branded merchandising in store or social content, so it makes complete sense. I think that is always the goal—that you can really become one with your brand.
“Community is at the center of everything”: Nudestix’s Taylor Frankel on Being a Community-Centric Brand
Conor Begley: You mentioned the word community a few times, and I've noticed that in your other interviews you use the word a lot. How do you think about building a community? You've got 50,000 people that follow you. If you were to really think about it, 50,000 people in a room is a lot of people. Then the brand has a much larger community even than that. What are some of the ways that you think about investing in that, and then how do you maintain trust? I feel like trust is a super-important element as you scale it up.
Taylor Frankel: Community is at the center of everything. Community is at the center of both your brand and your personal brand. Since we launched Nudestix in 2014, I was always the ‘face of Nudestix.’ I would be on social media, and I remember at the time that TikTok wasn't as much of a thing. The authentic platform for me to create these long form videos and to talk to our customers was Snapchat. I remember doing daily tutorials, talking about my day, and talking about where we were at with Nudestix.
That was really important to me, because this was less of a full marketing strategy at the time. I don’t think of it as a marketing strategy, I just want to take people along with us, because I think this is a really cool journey and that people can learn from it. When you remove gatekeeping and you're willing to expose things to your community and educate them, it builds trust. There's also space for everyone. Why would you keep those things to yourself?
Keep up with new episodes of Earned by following the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts, or subscribing to our YouTube channel. To catch up on our previous episodes, featuring leaders from brands like Revolve, K18, Instagram, and Roblox, visit our Earned Podcast page.