Rihanna’s business secret will make you SUCCESSFUL

There is a business secret that is pretty much guaranteed to make you successful. And I’m going to share exactly what it is and three steps to implement it. 

So, Rihanna was recently named the richest female musical artist in the world and the second richest woman in entertainment right behind Oprah with her estimated worth being around 1.7 billion. And 1.4 billion of that is from Fenty Beauty, which is something that I love. I wear the gloss balm lip gloss every single day. I wore it at my wedding. It’s a staple. But it’s not just because I love Rihanna, it’s actually because the products are really, really good and she’s built a world-class beauty brand, but the meaning and purpose behind it is so much more than just skin-deep. 

But I thought it’d be really fun to switch it up and talk about one of my favorite brands, which happens to be this billion dollar business and reverse engineer some of the success behind it. My mission is really to make entrepreneurship available to everybody. 

There is one business secret that (after doing this for this long) I have realized is a real key behind some of the wealthiest brands, businesses and people in the world. 

I’ve mentioned many times, that your best business idea comes from the internal, not the external. But with social media, it’s created this problem where you see other people succeeding with their businesses and you think, “Oh, well if I just copy what they do, I’m going to see the same level of success.” But the problem is, it’s creating a bunch of copycat businesses that lack any originality and will never outlast the original business and will probably have a hard time lasting longer than a trend. So how do you create a business that lights you up, serves a deeper purpose and stands the test of time? Let’s get into three things that help you create a business that is uniquely you. Number one, make it personal. So Warren Buffet, who is one of the most well-respected investors in the world and also one of the richest men on the planet, one of his best pieces of investing advice is do not invest in what you cannot understand.

And the same goes for building a business. So often we see people try and start businesses on things that they have really no interest in and they don’t truly understand, and that causes so much more friction in creating a successful business because then you’re climbing up this huge steep learning curve. You want to invest your time, energy, resources into things that you actually understand and you are interested in because that reduces the friction. There is enough friction in trying to build a business, you don’t want to try and build a business on something just because you’ve seen it make money for somebody else, because that is not a good enough reason. And it will not hold you through the hard times as an entrepreneur. If you’re actually obsessed and interested in what you do, it doesn’t matter what your goal is, you’re going to get there because you won’t quit.

You won’t stop. So when I say that, you have to think beyond a product and you have to think of a transformation. I say this all the time in my industry and with our clients in creating online courses, it’s not about selling information. That is not what people are paying for. People are paying for a transformation. So, I always ask to create a transformation statement because that really is the core of your business. And it’s what you build everything off of, your social media, your marketing, all of these things. So the statement goes, I help blank go from blank to blank so that they can blank. So if you think of Fenty Beauty, think of a lip gloss. Okay, why do I like this lip gloss? What am I actually paying for? I’m not just paying for the makeup. I’m paying for the emotion, the feeling, the outcome of the makeup.

And why did I choose to wear it on my wedding day? Because I wanted to feel the most confident I possibly could. So I’m thinking like Rihanna, it’s not like she just started a beauty brand, she started a movement. And if she were to fill in that transformation statement, it would go something like, “I help women go from feeling invisible to feeling confident and sexy so that they can own their power.” When they own their power, they can own a room. They can own the business, they can own everything else. That really is the deeper purpose and meaning behind her product. So, when you think about yourself, you have to make it personal. So, ask yourself questions like what really matters to me? I mean with Rihanna, she started her obsession with makeup when she was a little kid watching her mom put it on. That’s when she sort of piqued her interest and it carried through her whole life.

She loves what she does. And so with you, what is something you’re obsessed with? When do you feel in flow? Those are really good hints as to what you should be building your business around, what’s going to be most successful for you. And the other key thing, and I say this often, is what is your own transformation story? What is your own zero to hero story? If you were to rewrite the story of your life as the hero of the story, what does it sound like? Because whatever it is that you’ve overcome, a challenge or obstacle that you faced and you’ve come out the other side of it, oftentimes that is where your best business idea lies. Step two is identify the gap. This is so important. So take for example, imagine if Rihanna didn’t pursue music because Beyonce already did it. Imagine if Justin Bieber didn’t pursue music because Justin Timberlake already did it.

There is always room for a new voice and a fresh perspective in music as there is in business. I can tell you this because I’ve seen it happen time and time again. And one of the most frustrating things that I hear is, “There’s so much competition. I can’t start this business because there’s already people doing it.” Oh my gosh, that’s amazing. That gives you proof that there’s actually demand for what it is that you want to do. Use competition as proof and as fuel. And the big reason why your business can succeed in amongst any competition is you and your unique perspective and fresh take on it.

I wanted to share with you something that Vogue wrote about Fenty Beauty that hits it on the head. It’s this, “From unrealistic beauty ideals to blatant lack of representation reflected in campaigns and product offerings, the beauty industry’s relationship with diversity was problematic at best. The messaging, essentially that if you don’t fit an age-old Eurocentric ideal of beauty, you are not welcome, was the white elephant in the room of a tone, deaf business. Fenty Beauty didn’t just address this, it blew the conversation wide open.”

So, how do you identify the gap? Well, you’ve got to do the research. You have to research the market. You have to identify what frustrates you, what makes you mad, because if it makes you mad, there are other people out there who are also mad about it. That creates a problem you can solve and entrepreneurs are problem solvers. So you want to look at the current industry, the current market, products that are out there and really understand how you can use your own unique experience and perspective to disrupt and to create a new spin on an old industry or product. The thing is there are hundreds of thousands of beauty brands on the market, but because Rihanna used her own personal experience and completely shifted the industry, and now every other beauty brand is copying what she’s done, she was able to rise to the top.

There are so many influencers out there who have created beauty brands, but hers has skyrocketed and continues to be a business that people respect and it continues to grow, and it just has great products. A big piece of that is because she had her own story and perspective that she brought into the space to make it unique, different, stand out, and reach a much wider audience than what most beauty brands were used to reaching. The third piece here is your ideal client or your ideal customer is you. I work with a lot of people and one of the biggest questions I get asked is, “I don’t know where to find my audience. I don’t know where to find my perfect client or customer or viewer.” And the reality is more often than not that ideal customer, client or viewer is you at the place when you were seeking a solution to the thing that was frustrating you and when you identified the gap.

In Rihanna’s case, growing up as a little girl, watching her mom put on makeup, starting her own journey with really becoming obsessed with makeup, she realized that there was a huge problem and that there was a lack of representation. That became the entire foundation of her business, literally. Her now iconic launch of 40 shades of foundation, which had never been done before and it’s now gone up to 50 shades of foundation, made her product available to so many more people and really led with inclusion, which is a part of her story and a part of her mission behind the brand that she created. So really, her ideal client is a mirror for her. It’s a mirror for the little girl that was seeing that she loved makeup but there wasn’t a lot of makeup that was available to her and made for her.

So what did she do? She grew up and became the person who actually made it. And for me, I’ll say the same thing. I mean, if you’ve heard my story, which I’ve shared on my channel and shared very openly, my biggest struggle my whole life was feeling like I didn’t have a voice. I couldn’t really find my voice and truly who I was, and I didn’t feel like my story mattered or that I was worthy of being heard. When I look back, I mean, it’s not really a huge surprise that the entire business I built centers around helping people identify their voice and their stories so they can use it to impact others through transformational online courses. Your story is a key part of building a successful business. And the reality is, I mean, building any business is not an easy journey. It doesn’t matter if you’re Rihanna or if you are an everyday person just trying to get your business off the ground.

It’s not an easy process. There are so many challenges that come along the way, but when you’re building a legacy business, which is what I call a business that is built to outlast you, the impact it’s going to have and the vision and mission it has is going to outlast you, it’s really important to play the long game. And it’s really important to build a strong, solid foundation because if you’re just quick to start, you copy what somebody else’s doing, it’s just not going to last. And I don’t just say that theoretically, it’s because I’ve watched it happen to many businesses that are now obsolete. So, you’ve got to play the long game. You’ve got to pace yourself, which is something that Rihanna also talks about.

You have to work really hard. A lot of sleepless nights. Do not quit, but also try to take breaks. And I’ve got to give myself that advice. You’ve got to take breaks just to check in with yourself.

I want you to know and remember that what you bring to the table, your story, your experience, it matters.

Are you with me?