In this week’s episode of Earned, In Ep. 150 of Earned, Conor Begley sits down with Colette Laxton, co-founder of The IKEY List, a skincare company centered around knowledge, quality and efficacy, transparency, and equality.
To start, Colette shares her inspiring journey from corporate life to becoming a skincare innovator. Launching The INKEY List in 2018 with her partner Mark Curry, Colette embraced a market shift towards transparency and simplicity in skincare, quickly securing a presence in major retailers like Sephora. Central to The INKEY List's triumph is building genuine relationships with creators and consumers. Colette delves into how authenticity and shared values have been pivotal in nurturing these connections, balancing internal efforts with external support. She discusses the challenges of finding team members who excel at fostering these relationships, emphasizing sincerity and continuous engagement as keys to long-term success. Switching gears, we explore Colette’s perspective on personal growth, as she reflects on leveraging TikTok's dynamic platform during the pandemic to propel brand success. To close the show, Colette shares about her love of antique items that have had a past and will have a future beyond us.
Check out highlights from the episode below, or or tune into the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen!
The following interview has been lightly edited for concision.
Conor Begley: Transparency is a really big part of this and you guys really hit on that. But I think separately, you have done a really good job of building relationships right. You guys are a top 30 brand globally [by Earned Media Value] that we track ahead of brands like Dermalogica, Skinceuticals, Dr. Jart, and these are big names. Why do you think you've been so successful there? What has made you guys do so well?
Colette Laxton: In business, in totality, relationships are everything. So, whether you're talking internally, retail, suppliers, community really building a true and authentic relationship takes more time. It takes a hell of a lot of effort, but it's really rewarding and the results come. And for the community, from the outset, we have built a genuine community of people that have grown with us. From an influencer standpoint, we identified creators early on that aligned with our values, aligned with the education and knowledge, philosophy and transparency, and had a style about them that felt authentic and we've grown with them.
There's one particular influencer who's just got a major major brand deal with a huge brand and I DM'd her the other day and said ‘I just want to say congratulations.’ She was working with us when she was so small and she DM'd me straight back and said ‘thanks so much, you guys have been with me from the start.’ It's really nice when you're building your brand and your business and you've got creators that are doing the same. There's like a genuine connection there. You both stand for the same things, you both build together and for me, we're in a mindset now of figuring out how we take the magic that we've built in our community and continue to scale that meaningfully. That's the challenge. We see influencers and consumers and micro-creators all as our community. I don't care if you spent $10 on our hyaluronic acid or you're a huge influencer. If you align with us, you're part of our community. And if you love our products, everybody wins together. That's been our approach to working with influencers.
Keep up with new episodes of Earned by following the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts, or if you prefer to watch these interviews, by subscribing to our YouTube channel.