Fireside Chat, Conference Presentation
Anastasia Soare: Building a Billion-dollar Beauty Brand
- Anastasia Sorey, founder and CEO of Anastasia Beverly Hills, and author of the new Amazon #1 book Raising Brows, joined Goldman Sachs to discuss building a billion-dollar beauty empire from scratch.
- Sorey emphasizes that her core business philosophy prioritizes "giving love to clients" and mastering her craft over immediate financial gain.
- Her foundational values of resilience, gratitude, and determination were instilled by her grandfather, a father figure who taught her that while external circumstances (including government oppression in communist Romania) can be controlled by others, one's mind and spirit remain under personal control.
- Sorey's father died when she was 12, forcing her mother, who ran a clandestine clothing atelier for high-ranking communist party wives to survive government restrictions, to rely on her daughter for business operations.
- Sorey's transition to the U.S. involved moving from communist Romania to Beverly Hills without English proficiency and with a young child, a journey motivated by watching American films like Pretty Woman and Beverly Hills Cop which depicted the freedom and lifestyle she aspired to.
- Upon arriving in Los Angeles, Sorey worked as an esthetician for three months, extending her hours beyond the 9-to-6 shift and performing all menial tasks to absorb business practices from her German and Italian owners, a strategy that secured her a permanent position.
- Sorey identified a market gap in eyebrow aesthetics, rejecting the 1970s pencil-thin trend by applying the "golden ratio" of face structure to create natural, rested-looking brows, which initially generated organic word-of-mouth growth among clients.
- Although salon owners initially rejected her eyebrow service idea as financially unviable compared to facials, Sorey persisted, driven by her mother's belief that making clients feel beautiful empowers them.
- In 1997, Sorey secured a lease in Beverly Hills with $60,000 in savings and a six-month trial period, convincing a skeptical landlord by leveraging her celebrity clientele and promising to make the street famous.
- Within two weeks of opening, Sorey demonstrated her business model's viability by generating such high demand that lines formed before the salon's 9 AM opening time.
- Sorey bypassed a traditional business plan, instead creating proprietary pomades by mixing aloe vera and eyeshadow to solve client over-tweezing issues, leading to a product line born from authentic service needs.
- Sorey secured a partnership with Nordstrom by rejecting a purely retail-only offer; she demonstrated immediate value to 14 buyers by performing a live eyebrow transformation, convincing them to establish dedicated "brow studios" within their stores.
- The brand currently operates 80 brow studios nationwide within Nordstrom, a significant expansion initiated after Sorey convinced the retailer to offer in-store services rather than just products.
- Sorey's relationship with Oprah Winfrey began in 1998 after a boat conversation led to a 11-minute appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show, which generated a massive surge in phone inquiries and served as a massive advertising campaign.
- Sorey maintains long-term relationships with high-profile clients like Jennifer Lopez, Kim Kardashian, and Sharon Stone by prioritizing client safety, privacy, and feeling beautiful over her own ego.
- Sorey advocates for a "pay it forward" mentality, supporting competitors and industry peers, arguing that lifting others creates more love and value rather than diminishing one's own success.
- Her new book, Raising Brows, aims to encourage young people, particularly immigrants, to pursue their dreams without fear, emphasizing that anyone can achieve success through hard work, focus, and a genuine love for their chosen craft.
- Sorey warns that success is not easy but asserts that doing what you love is the "best thing you will ever do," urging listeners to never let anyone crush their dreams.