How Brooke Shields Keeps Growing The Business Of Brooke Shields

Forbes

Brooke Shields has been taking direction as a model and an actor since the age of 11 months. Now, she's the founder and CEO of haircare company Commence, and she spoke with ForbesWomen editor Maggie McGrath about how her entrepreneurial success is tied to her overall image.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/maggiemcgrath/2024/08/01/brooke-shields-next-role-ceo/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Brooke Shields, thank you for being here. Thank you for being one of the faces of the

00:1850 over 50 2024. Well, thank you for having me. I'm so honored to be in this company.

00:26Well, you are an actor, you are an author, you are a founder, you're really a multi-hyphenate.

00:32And we could honestly spend hours talking about your accomplishments. You started working at...

00:35Do you really want to?

00:36Well, there was a documentary, so I think we can skip ahead. Because really,

00:40you started working at 11 months, but now at 59, you're embarking on what I think might be

00:45some of the most exciting work of your career. Would you agree?

00:48I would definitely say it's the most challenging, the most exciting because I know the least

00:56about it. I am really having to just trust and know that what I don't know

01:07is just as important as what I do know. And to rely on people that I can go to for information

01:16to help educate me, I think what's exciting about it is it's so unknown. It is unlike any other...

01:24I've never had to make any of these decisions or even understand this type of an industry. So it's

01:32nerve-wracking at times, but you just have to keep going.

01:38You have to keep going. Well, let's tell everyone what we're talking about. This month,

01:42you launched Commence. Tell us what is Commence?

01:46So during COVID, I started an online community. I just opened it up to sort of get to know people

01:54and really find out what women who are over 40, what they were experiencing. And it really was

02:02an online brand. It was a community. And we just started talking to people and meeting them. And

02:09I wanted to hear what women my age were really experiencing, what they were feeling was happening

02:16in the beauty industry, how they felt they were being represented, what they felt was happening

02:25in this era of their lives. And inevitably, all of them started saying how upset they were that

02:33they seemed to have been considered only menopause, that there was this feeling that

02:40once you hit a certain age that all of a sudden you lose all your value and you don't have a

02:46place anymore. And then you look at where the marketing is and who's being marketed to.

02:52Where is the white space? What's really happening? You're either the young,

02:57newly, the beautiful young woman at the bar and gorgeous. Or you're sort of put into this world

03:07where you're in depends and dentures. And not that that's a bad thing, but there is a whole

03:15bracket in the middle. And so I started just having this conversation. And very quickly,

03:21I realized that women wanted problems solved. They wanted answers. We are all experiencing

03:31different problems, different challenges with our hair, with our scalp. There were things that

03:37weren't being really addressed. And when you hit a certain age, there are certain challenges that

03:42that happen with your hair, hair texture, not just the length of your hair, the hair loss.

03:54A lot of times I'll look at my hair now and I'll say, oh, it lost its lusciousness. I look at my

04:02daughters and they've got just this beautiful hair. And then as a 59-year-old, I have different

04:07problems that my hair is thinning, the colors, the gray, all of these things. And we weren't

04:14really seeing any brands that were answering those problems and really trying to come up with

04:22issues that could help women with scalp health, really talk to them about what the best thing for

04:29their hair at this era of their life. So it came from talking to these people. And women were

04:37all over the world. And we would have these 40 over 40, 50 over 50 Zooms. And that's all people

04:44were doing during COVID. So it was this unified group of diverse, unbelievable women who were

04:52all saying, is this it? Am I over? If I may ask, what did you say when these women told you that

04:58they felt discounted and invisible? I said, I feel exactly the same. I expect to feel it in my

05:06industry. Because if you're no longer the Ingenue, people just think you are Helen Mirren.

05:14And believe me, God bless that woman. But we're sort of not, we're forgotten about.

05:24And I didn't want it to be negative. And I didn't want it to have this poor me type of a feeling.

05:29What I wanted to do is talk to women and say, what are you feeling in your life? And how would

05:34you like it to be different? And how can we all start having this conversation? How can we start

05:41being proud of all that we've gone through? That we've lived this long or that we've gone

05:47through this? Yes, there are things that are challenges. But why not look at that as, okay,

05:54it's still beauty. And why not feel good about it? Why not feel like we matter? And thank God

06:02for menopause and for what's happening in the world now, because now it's an extremely financial

06:11subject and people are all sort of going forth with that. But in my opinion, we're not just that.

06:18And so all the women wanted to know about hair, hair care, skin health, scalp health.

06:28I did not want to go into, I was not just, there's so many other people that have different

06:40skin care. And that wasn't exactly what I felt like I could make a difference with. So hair care

06:47and issues with hair, hair follicles are smaller. We don't deal with the scalp health as in

06:57really taking care of what is at the root and what happens and how to address not just hair,

07:04but the actual root and the actual scalp. So one of the things I also said to our formulator,

07:11I said, I don't think that we should come out with a bunch of SKUs. I think we should find

07:17very specific hero products, hero products that I haven't found out there. Instant shampoo was a

07:29very, very important one. They usually call it dry shampoo with most brands. Predominantly,

07:39they are aerosol. They are benzene. Those are things that are harmful, that aren't healthy,

07:45that are not good for the environment, not good for a person's health. All of these things we had

07:50to sort of really break down. We wanted it to be, I wanted it to be plant-based. I realized that

08:00there is no instant shampoo that is on the market that also contains hyaluronic acid.

08:07And when we started to bring it to people to see it and whether it was

08:14publications that needed to know what was happening and what our first products were,

08:20they couldn't believe that we had found a way to incorporate a hyaluronic acid in an instant

08:27shampoo. So those were the types of things that I knew that we needed to,

08:32we just needed to know that these products were going to be real because the efficacy of them

08:39is the most important thing. I've sold stuff of other people's my entire life. That's what I do.

08:45I hold it, they hire me, and that's it. I don't even have to truly, I mean, nowadays,

08:50they're a little bit more conscious of that. But it didn't, there were so many things that didn't,

08:56well, I wasn't aware of, that I wasn't taught. And so it was really important to me to say,

09:03our products have to, the efficacy has to be the most important. I just have to be the conduit.

09:11Because just because I'm in the position to bring attention to something doesn't mean,

09:16because I have hair, doesn't mean we're an expert. We have to prove ourselves,

09:22and the way to do it is to have products that actually make a difference.

09:25So basically, you start this online community, beginning is now, during COVID, you get this

09:31feedback, and you just dive into hair care research. You have also put some of your own

09:38money into this company. And you've also raised from outside investors, what was the fundraising

09:42process like? Torture. I mean, honestly, I have never been in that position. And

09:50what I was fascinated by was, it was all mine. The whole, I mean, I'm the founder, I'm the CEO,

09:59I've put my own money. And we got to a point where we realized, this is bigger than

10:07I even realized this quickly. And if we really wanted to exponentially grow,

10:15we were going to need to turn this into a real company. Because at first, it was almost a feeling,

10:23and it was COVID, and we wanted communication and connection. We realized that we needed to deliver,

10:31I needed to deliver. So I met a woman who's my right arm. Her name's Carla DiBernardo,

10:38and the two of us in my kitchen, just every day. We've been working on this for five years.

10:46It was a matter of a lot of trial and error, putting together a team, finding people.

10:54When you're a startup, everybody's kind of have to, we all have to do our best. And this is not

11:01corporate America. And I think fundraising itself was just a huge education. And what I was amazed

11:10at, I mean, I ended up at first, probably being slightly intimidated, just because asking for

11:17money, there are ways to do it. And there's different ways that I didn't know to talk to

11:23VCs, or to angel investors, etc. So there was a huge learning curve that I had to fake it until

11:32I made it much of the time. And people would say, oh, just ask people you know, and it's family and

11:39friends. And I said, that's not going to work at this, that pressure is not going to necessarily

11:46help us grow the way we need it to grow. So we started really broadening who ways to raise money.

11:54And what was amazing to me is those that people that usually men that just chose to tell me what

12:03I was doing wrong. And the need that that was, it was expressed to tell me why I was wrong.

12:11And discounting the 50 plus years that I have been pivoting and keeping going and staying

12:23in the public eye, not to be in the public eye, but to just keep going and keep learning and

12:28growing and, and learning new skills and, and being stepping out of my comfort zone.

12:34And there were those, mostly women who, who were gracious and wonderful and said, it's too early

12:40for them. That's not where they choose to, but meet some of this other person. And we just started

12:47really getting to know people and realizing the kind of people we wanted, just even to be

12:51getting advice from. And those that started with all of this negativity, I remember one day saying,

12:59I'm going to apologize for this, but I also cannot not express this. I understand

13:07your need to tell me what I'm doing wrong. But in this particular case, I haven't asked for your

13:13advice. I just asked for your money. And if you don't want, honestly, I don't want to waste your

13:21time if you don't want to give us money, but I have a lot of money. I have a lot of money.

13:28But I have people that I really trust that are helping us in the company. And some are friends,

13:34some are people that just want to help, but will never invest. It depends. But those who felt the

13:40need, it sounded like I was being rude and I just tried to do it as graciously as I could.

13:47And it was so fascinating to me. It's not rude, it's direct. And I'm curious,

13:52what was the reaction on the other side of the table when you said that?

13:55There was a lot of scoffing. And I was like, please, I'm really not trying to

14:03shame anybody. Listen, your time is valuable. We are not at that level. That is fine.

14:10But thank you for your time. And it unsettled people. And, you know, that was new for me

14:18because I've always been much more of a team player and you want everybody to be happy and

14:23confrontation is something. And what I've learned the most is this is just business.

14:29It's actually not personal. And when you learn that, it's not a personal affront.

14:38It's just we will, we did find, we will continue to find those that believe in our mission and our

14:44vision and want to be a part of this startup. And we will grow and we've already grown. And

14:53we will use what we have to keep moving forward. And we've pivoted and we've made horrible mistakes

15:01and we've learned from them and we've spent money where we shouldn't have, but we didn't know and

15:07we learned then. And so there's this, the beauty of it to me was that if you find enough people who

15:15believe in, in not necessarily just easily giving up, which is easier for a lot of people and it's

15:25in, it's a game. And when I realized that I didn't have to take it personally, that this type of

15:34attitude towards me, wasn't about me. It truly was about these other entities and that's their

15:42way of doing business and that is their prerogative. So it was very important for me to

15:49not feel insulted, to not feel embarrassed or somehow less than, I just was able to step away

15:59and say, okay, there's plenty, plenty out there. Let's go where we are wanted and where people

16:06appreciate it. And, and it's interesting because we've already seen some of the people come back

16:13around and I've just been- Tails between their legs.

16:17Well, or just wanting now to be involved and listen, everything's a risk. It's all a risk for

16:23everybody all the time. And I don't take it personally. So I think that that's been a huge

16:29lesson for me in business. You're taking it as a CEO.

16:34I am taking it as a CEO. I never thought in my life that I would be that. I know I'm the founder.

16:41I have believed in and believed in the mission since day one. I have, you know, certain people

16:48that have really gone to the mat with me and for the brand and the company. My hope is that I grow,

16:56we grow exponentially so that we do have a kick-ass CEO who does that on a whole other level.

17:06But until then, we're still a startup. So, you know, I have no ego about it. I want,

17:13I also need to maintain the BrookShields machine, which is a part of it. And people very early on

17:23were saying, oh, well, you're just gonna quit everything, you know, all the acting and all of

17:28the writing and all of these other things so that you can just be. I said, well, I find that

17:33interesting because without this brand that has been growing for over 58 years, we need to maintain

17:43that. We need to be mined and harnessed properly so that the people that are experts in these other

17:51aspects of running a company as a startup and once we get into a series A and B, you know,

17:59by the time we do, we still need the BrookShields piece. You know, it's a thing that needs to be

18:07upheld so that all of it is working towards the real purpose of this brand.

18:17That in and of itself is a corporation, the BrookShields Corporation.

18:21It is. And, you know, I think I've fought it for a while because it just seemed,

18:25it didn't seem real to me. And now I've found myself in positions where I'm best used when I,

18:34there are places where I am best used and where there is value. And sometimes it's recognition,

18:41sometimes it's just history, sometimes it's access. You know, you use what access you have

18:50as long as you've got the right support for the whole team. And it always was interesting to me

18:56when people that were considering giving us money would say, oh, it's going to be great. This is

19:01going to be your whole thing. And I said, well, I'm never going to abandon this at all, but I

19:08also have to maintain this persona that has given us, me, access to even having these conversations.

19:18You know, you have to really be honest about that. And to me, the products themselves have

19:23to speak for themselves. It's not called Brook. It's not called the Brook look or the band,

19:29whatever, whatever. You know, this is not, I am the conduit to it. But this has,

19:34this brand has to live in perpetuity. It has to live and be and resonate on its own.

19:41And I'm the one that shepherds it, keeps pushing it, keeps building the attention to it.

19:47But it's actually not about me. Interesting. Ego wise. You're doing such interesting work,

19:54but we have a few questions that we ask everyone on the 50 over 50. And I want to start by asking

19:59the first, which is, is being over the age of 50 an advantage or disadvantage in your current work?

20:08In my current work, once you are over a certain age, it's considered a disadvantage.

20:14I'm choosing to not look at it like that. I'm choosing to really believe in the experience

20:21that I've lived is making me a better performer, a better business woman. So

20:27I refuse to let it be a disadvantage. But Hollywood is not set up that way. So I'm

20:33constantly finding ways of maintaining what I believe is deserved opportunity and fighting for

20:42it. You've been working since you were 11 months old. And we always ask people, when you were in

20:46your teens and your 20s, did you ever imagine your career over 50? So you've been working

20:52for so long. What did you think your career over 50 would look like back when you were 12?

20:56When you're a kid, you think 50 is ancient. You're like, that's old, you know, when you're

21:0412 and 13. I naively just assumed that I would just forever work. You know, I never, and part of

21:13it was helpful that I lived in New York because age was less of an issue in New York. You know,

21:19it wasn't the way it is in Hollywood where there is a shelf life, you know. So when I was a kid,

21:25I just, I never really looked at what my career would be. I just was always so obsessed with

21:32having a family, being a mom, being married. But I just assumed I would keep working forever.

21:40You know, and that's naive. But I refuse to, you know, when I wasn't wanted in one area, I found

21:48another outlet to work and stay creative. And, you know, Broadway invited me in when nobody else

21:56wanted to make movies or anything with me. I mean, you know, so I learned early how to pivot

22:03and stay creative. You really have. And in your 20s, right after you had gone to college,

22:08which some people framed as a break, you went, that's quite the break. You were interviewed

22:14and a man said to you, does it ever worry you that you've peaked already, that you've already

22:20had the best of your career? Do you remember getting asked that? I remember watching that

22:26again recently. I remember actually feeling bad for the person because it seemed like such a

22:36ridiculous thing to ask me, having just embarked on, having had the four years that were blessed

22:46and unbelievable and exciting and really believing I was going off into this new chapter that it

22:54struck me as that was a ridiculous question for someone to ask. And I remember thinking,

22:59oh, I wonder what he's worried about. Like, he's probably worried about he's peaking. Like,

23:03I don't know what his issue is going to be, but I feel like I'm just starting. So

23:08I didn't get insulted. I just thought he must be going through something

23:12because it's what a ridiculous thing to ask somebody when they're like 21, who asks that

23:19to someone, you know, that you've peaked at 21. Like maybe if you are an athlete, I'm sure there

23:25are different rules to that. And, you know, once you are of a certain age, maybe, you know, it's

23:31that much more difficult. I don't doubt it. But I remember thinking, oh, that seems like a waste

23:37of a question because I'm just beginning and I don't even know what that means.

23:42How would you answer that question today?

23:44I'm going to forever peak. I'm going to keep peaking. Why should there be one

23:49peak? Why does everything then have to mean you're going downhill? It just,

23:55things get difficult. Things get easier. It's just a matter of, it's when we start to categorize it

24:00as your time's up, you've had a good run, it's over. Who decides that? And yes, the world is set

24:10up to want to champion youth and have youth and freshness and young. And that is great. And,

24:17but I'm not in, I'm not occupying that stage right now. But I am occupying an equally exciting,

24:26perhaps more empowering, empowered stage because I have excitement, belief, energy,

24:36and experience. All things I, well, most of those things I didn't truly have as a younger person.

24:44I just, you know, should, should, should. You keep going, you do whatever you hope you're liked.

24:49I now come at things with such a different level of belief in myself and a fight. I'm not

24:56knocked over easily anymore. So I, I would say that I keep peaking. You will forever be peaking.

25:06Why not? There's valleys, you know, and you go back up again.

25:10There are, but you find a way to go back up. Thank you so much for sitting down with us.

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