The BASIC Show

SHIMA KATOUZIAN: From Flight Attendant to Beauty Influencer | EPISODE 7

• Viktorija Pashuta • Season 2 • Episode 7

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From 35,000 feet in the air to millions of views online — Shima Katouzian’s journey is anything but ordinary.

In this deeply personal episode of The BASIC Show, Shima (@sheemoma) opens up to host Viktorija Pashuta about her unexpected career path: how she went from being a flight attendant in her early 20s to building BODO MAKEUP, becoming a viral influencer, and redefining beauty on her own terms.

Shima shares the real story behind the glam:

·       How she transitioned from aviation to entrepreneurship

·       Building a beauty brand from scratch in a crowded market

·       Life behind the filters as a digital creator

·       The power of authenticity, faith, and trusting your timing

·       What she’s learned about confidence, femininity, and staying grounded online

This episode is a must-listen for beauty lovers, aspiring creators, and anyone on the edge of reinvention.

👉 If you enjoy the show, please follow, rate us ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐, and leave a review — it truly helps spread these incredible stories to more listeners.

🎙 Hosted by Viktorija Pashuta, award-winning fashion photographer & Editor-in-Chief of BASIC Magazine.

Full length video episodes available on YouTube

Subscribe to the Print Edition of BASIC Magazine — A Collectible Work of Art Delivered Quarterly - https://buybasicmagazine.myshopify.com/products/basic-subscription 

🎥 Recorded at The Maybourne Beverly Hills www.maybournebeverlyhills.com
🎵 Music by Brandon Dalo: brandondalo.com

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Filmed at The Maybourne Beverly Hills
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SPEAKER_01:

When I was a flight attendant in Russia with private jets, then I started working at United Nations. So I was working with refugees. So I started my own business in Iran. Who's the writer? Oh, she's a beauty influencer. How a beauty influencer who does makeup is writing a book. Okay, scared, but also proud. Such a disgrace to like the writer's community. I would be if I had a wife. More than like 500,000 people were like involved in like creating this. The bruises are covered under the makeup. Wow. They are like so worried to wear something that it's not showing the roses on their body. Do we have men telling each other that like, hey, you should not treat your wife like that? Fights need to have a result. Otherwise, it's just a fight and it's a loop that we're stuck in. I could be angry. I could be upset. I could just like have a wrong opinion. I could just make mistakes. I could do all of that and still be the same person and still have the same respect. They say luxury is a lifestyle. I say it's a mindset. And this one comes with room service. Here at the Mayborn, where European charm meets California flair, I don't just check in, I reset. Because real power isn't loud. It's knowing when to ghost the noise and draft something far more lasting behind the scenes. The Mayborn, Beverly Hills.

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome

SPEAKER_01:

to The Basic Show. We're here, this gorgeous suite of the Mayborn in Beverly Hills in California. And I have a stunning guest, Shima Katuzian. An amazing beauty influencer, entrepreneur, the mogul, a person who millions of people are looking up to. But how everything started, I looked in one of your earlier interviews that you actually used to be a flight attendant. Yes! Can you tell us about this amazing journey being a flight attendant? Now you're this beauty guru online? I love how I had no idea how your questions were going to be like. Yes, I was in my early 20s, actually. I'm not that young anymore. Oh, you look fabulous. Oh, thank you. Thank you. But when I was a teenager, I dreamed of being a flight attendant because in my head, it was all about you have to be beautiful, pretty, having a great body and flying and then just traveling and being on vacation for free and absolutely being paid for it. So at that time, it was the limit of the best of best for me. So I was dreaming about it. So as soon as I turned 18, I started looking into how can I become one. And then when I was 20, I became a flight attendant. I was flying around. But that's like more than 15 years ago. It was an absolute fun part of my life. The experience was wild. And I'm so happy I did what I did. Well, speaking of that, flying and moving. So you are an Iranian-American influencer. You came all the way from Tehran. to America. So tell us about the journey and changes you had to go through coming from your country to the USA. Absolutely. I actually did a lot of different things in the middle of that. So I was a flight attendant and then I moved to Turkey and I was flying there. And then I moved to Russia and I was a flight attendant in Russia with private jets and I went back to Iran again. Then I started working at United Nations. So I was working with refugees and that was my life for a while. Then I was also tired of that. So I started my own business in Iran. And yeah. So you had that entrepreneurial spirit from the start. All of that. I feel like there is this age of everyone's life, especially women, that nobody puts it out there for us, like who we should be. And especially if you have the freedom of actually dreaming about bigger life, like having like more than what's put in front of us, we actually try multiple things. We don't know what we're doing. We would try studying, going to university, changing the subjects, like going from boyfriend to boyfriend to find out like who is the best guy for us or doing different jobs, like starting a business, doing different things. I feel like I am a good example of a woman who always wanted a big life but didn't know what she should be doing. So I was trying multiple things. And yes, that was the wild era of my life that I absolutely did a lot of different things until I found out what actually I need to do, what is satisfying for me. And now I'm living that life. Well, so by going through all of these challenges and trying things, you actually found out who you are. And we need to have these experiences to really truly find what we want and also what we don't want. And maybe by trying these different activations, you find out, okay, I'm good at this. Or maybe my heart lies towards this. you know, specific area that I want to explore more. And I want to give a few notes to our viewers because you're extremely talented. You speak four languages, right? Is it French, Turkish? Yes, Farsi and English. Farsi and English. So extremely talented. You traveled and visited 29 countries. More than that, actually. More than that now. Okay, old information. Forty-something now. Forty-something now. Yes, and which was interesting fact for me that I found out that you also... wrote a best-selling book in Farsi called Stupid Me. So can you tell... I was trying to find the correct explanation and then I saw one of your interviews that, oh, it's Stupid Me. Can you tell us a little bit more what this book is about and how did it come along? And congratulations, it's a bestseller in your country. Thank you, thank you, thank you. So when I was 20... One, I wrote a list of things that I want to do in my life. Writing a book was on that list. Getting a tattoo was also on that list, but I never got a tattoo. So I guess not everything actually happened. However, writing a book was on my bucket list. So at that time, just to make it happen, I started writing this story. And I wrote this story, which at that time I was a flight attendant. So the story is also about a flight attendant woman. But it's a fiction story. It's not about my life. It's like a heartbroken girl who just happens to be a flight attendant. And I'm not even talking much about her job. It's mostly about her relationship on the story and the stupid things that she's done. And then she's the narrative of the story. So she's telling the story, but I wrote it. I wrote this 14 years ago, right? And I just started writing the story only to put it out in the universe and just make it happen one day. And when I became big on Instagram, like I had like a huge following. One day I just wrote a story and I said, yeah, I always had this dream of like publishing my book. I don't know if it can ever happen. That's just one of my dreams. I posted that. A few hours later, one of my followers, she would just like write back to me. She's like, I'm actually a writer too. I have a publisher. I would love to help you with that. Like you are my inspiration. Whatever I can do for you to just like make your dream happen. Let me do that for you. And I was like, okay, why not? And I sent her my story and I was like, if like an editor can edit it and just a publisher, if you can find that can do that. She did everything for me and the book was published and I didn't have a copy of my own physical book in my hand yet, and it was published. And it made it to the book fur, which is like one of the biggest book furs in Middle East, but it was happening in Tehran. And I just posted one story saying that, oh my God, my book is published. Like it's there. You can go get it. I still don't have my book in my hand. What? Exactly. We need a copy. And as soon as I post that, a few hours later, I'm being tagged on so many pictures, so many posts. And I see people lining up like just to get the book. And I see like the security closing the booth because it was so out of control. And then and also it was happening in Iran. So the government was not super happy with someone being that influential to actually being able to gather those many people. So that's not something they like. They started like going against what I'm doing, saying that, oh, you cannot go to the book fair because we cannot. control such crowd around one person and I was like okay scared but also proud so yeah and then when it happened it was just like mind-blowing and I was like wow and then when the news came out this is the most the best-selling book at the book fair who's the writer oh she's a beauty influencer how a beauty influencer who does makeup is writing a book this is such a disgrace to like the writers community then I was like what well because I guess it was relatable to many young women It was, it still is. I still, to this day, I get so many girls writing and they're like, I saw this book that it was on a bestselling book shelf at the bookstore, but your name is on it. Is it just a coincidence or is it you? Still, I get people who are following me and they see the name on that book too. They don't know I'm the same person. They're still doubting if it's you or not. Yes. I just love that. And it just happened. And I would love to have my second book published too, but with everything going on with the first one, I don't know, like I'm on the radar of like so many people and that's like a little scary. It's going to be a little harder from now on, but I'm still dreaming. Well, the thing is, the interesting thing you mentioned, you said, oh, it's just happened. And at first glance, it may seem it was a miracle or luck, but at the same time, I feel you already put the work, you wrote the book, you know, you already, it's not like you just put, oh, I dream one day to publish a book. And you had nothing in works, right? So you already wrote it, you already put your part into it. And then you just kind of put physically, I don't know if it's manifesting, right? But you put it out there. Obviously, I did something about it. Yeah, obviously. Yeah, I manifested because it just seemed so unreal at the time when I wished for it. But also, yes, I wrote it, I did something, I talked about it. And when you talk about it, you actually like, attract people who could possibly help you when you talk about something there should be someone in the crowd and saying that oh I can help you with that and when they help it's not luck it's you asking for it and someone raising hand and saying that I'm here to help and like letting things to just like happen I guess like when I say like it just happened in a way that it was so unexpected like it was a very unexpected time and usually I'm so used to put so much energy into things that I want and for this one I just didn't like put that much energy that I'm so used to. So maybe that is why. Because it was natural. Sometimes if you work hard on something, it means it's not natural. For you, it was something you needed to get out of your system. Absolutely. And another thing I like what you said that you are a storyteller. Yeah. From writing that transcends into your beauty products. And if I'm not mistaken, the plot of the story is about the immigrant girl, right? And you are the immigrant girl. Yes. And you use that storyline in your personal experience that transcended to your cosmetic line. Yes. So tell us a little bit more about your brand, the Bodo Cosmetics. Bodo Makeup. Bodo Makeup. Tell us, I'm not going to give a tease. I want you to talk about the palette and what it means and the story behind it. No, absolutely. Absolutely. So I just didn't wake up one day when saying that, oh, I need to start my own brand. No, absolutely. It happened throughout the time. So there was a time that I was doing makeup and putting my makeup on and telling a story. That's how my platform became the platform that I have today. Because people love hearing the story and I was putting makeup on. It was before the Get Ready With Me era. It was the time that I was just talking about myself, right? And At that time, I wasn't receiving any PR packages from brands. It was me putting my own makeup stuff and just going to Sephora and Ulta and buying stuff myself. And I just learned that somehow the kind of makeup that I put on, it's bold. It's like colorful. There's a lot going on. And so many girls are not used to seeing that kind of makeup. But me putting that on every day and posting that every day and them seeing that, it just clicked for them. Like, wow, I can be this bold. I can do that makeup too. So that became my signature. That people knew me and my makeup with bold, dramatic eye makeups. So I started going with that route and just finding more colors, more stuff for eye makeup. And I go to Sephora and Ulta every week spending$500 on products, but I still don't find like the colors that I actually want. So I was like, maybe the market has a problem. Maybe the product that girls like me want is not out there. So I started thinking about creating eyeshadow palettes, which is like mostly for eye makeup, but also like bold colors, like weird colors, things that not everyone would use. So when I started doing that, I was like, wait a minute, I can't just create something without telling a story. There has to be a story. So I told the story. However, the difference between my products to any other product in the market or any brand in the market is that I didn't create this on my own. This is something that I created with my followers. How? I told this story and I write this story for them. And I'm like, okay, so we need to find the colors. What colors do you think should be on the story? And they're like, oh, with this story, the colors should be purple, should be orange, should be like out of this world. Like they named the colors. So I find the colors, I send them to the lab and I'm like, this is the color that I want. When the colors come, I'm like, okay, now the packaging, what color do you think the packaging should be? They're like, This should be on a white packaging. So we do that. We do everything together. So how did you communicate with them? Through stories? On my stories. On your stories. Yes, the questions on the stories, them sending me messages, me reading it, or doing polls and asking questions. So more than 500,000 people were involved in creating this. So we, all of us together, we came up with the names. We came up with completing the story, finding the colors, the packaging, everything. the little details of the packaging. So when it was out, it felt like, oh my God, I had to stay into this. This is not just a product that I go to the store and buy. I said, I voted about stuff about this. It's a collaborative project, but also at the same time, very smart marketing strategy, right? Because everybody who participated, they wanted a piece of it. Absolutely. And it felt like, and I never said my brand with my followers. It was always our brand. It was always our product. So yes, even before the brand was out there, even before the name was out there, they knew about it. We talked about it. And it felt such a family thing for us. It wasn't just a regular brand just opening like another day, another brand, another product. So it wasn't commercially, it's more of you connecting with your community as well, who supported you because you are a role model for them. Okay, there's a girl from Iran, you know, making these big waves and she's authentic and she's, you know, successful. So, and plus she's making us feel a part of her product. I mean, I hope that's how they felt, but yeah. And let me confirm. So the palette that you had had nine colors, each representing a story of an immigrant girl. Is that correct or no? The story was one story. So the words that we used on the story was under each shade, like a different word, which was part of the story. So the shade colors are telling the story too. And the story is also written in the back of the product. So back of the product is not just the ingredients. It's not just the website or like, Expiration date whatsoever is also the story of the product that you're holding. So it's like a little book in your hand. It has the colors and you can put the makeup on. We've had three products for Bodo Makeup and all three of them are telling a story and all three of them were like made with my followers. So what's your three favorite shades with the story on your product? Extra luggage on Immigrant Girl. Okay.

UNKNOWN:

Awesome.

SPEAKER_01:

It's like what I like. Fear on Eye Exist palette is what I like. And these are my favorite because it's like black and it's like yellowish gold. And I love that. It's just a combination. It's usually like a good makeup for me. I love that. I need to check it out. You should. Which one would you recommend for me? I mean, you have the most beautiful eyes. So I feel like, yeah, the gray and darker colors on the Eye Exist would probably like... make your eyes even more gorgeous. You know what? I usually wear minimal makeup, almost no makeup. Today is probably the most I've glammed up, but you inspired me to try... to try different more bold colors. Yeah. Absolutely. Because I thought it would maybe look something too extravagant, but I feel now looking at you, you look so gorgeous. Maybe I can try that gray light blue. Yes, I totally will. No, you should just be bold. Be bold. Yeah. Bodo. Bodo. Be Bodo. But Bodo in Farsi means let's make up. So Bodo make up means let's make up. Oh, I see. So there's also meaning behind the name. Yeah, it's Farsi word. Bodo in Farsi means like let's, like yalla, like come on. It's a Bodo make up. I love it. Yeah. And Then another palette, correct me if I'm wrong, it was a black and blue palette raising awareness for gender-based violence. Can you talk a little bit more about that and your activities for refugees and victims of sex crimes? Absolutely. It's actually like the story started when I was working at United Nations. Okay. Part of my job was like, I started as an intern and then I just got into this whole industry as like helping refugees. But part of my job was to interview refugees or asylum seekers who are under violence and just deciding what's best to do for them. Most of the time, what we were offering was not even a solution to what they were going through. It was mostly like a temporary solution for them. And even I knew that at that time. However... It just clicked that, oh my God, there are so many people living so many different lives that I haven't seen. I don't need to go through the same thing they did to just understand what's going on. I just need to hear their story and just be the voice for them. So it just started from there. And then from then, I started looking at women with a different eye. As like, you never know what's the story behind a beautiful girl with all dolled up, like all makeup done and everything. You don't know what they went through yesterday or even this morning before getting out of the house. Because so many of those women, their story was so heartbreaking, but also at the same time, you wouldn't see that in them. You're like, hey, what's going on? And wow, the bruises are covered under the makeup. Wow, they are like so worried to wear something that it's not showing the bruises on their body. So... Talking about violence against women became a thing in my stories. When I tell the story, I'm always talking about it, especially because most of my audience are women. I want them to feel they're heard, they're understood. But when it came into creating a product for it, and I was telling to my followers too, I was like, listen, we can change the color of the bruises and just... separate all these colors and beautify it and just put it in a palette and just put these colors separately the way we want it which is black and blue everybody knows black and blue is the color of the bruise and it's just like that's how like violence is shown in just two colors in your creativity to support so we just put it together and I was like listen I know bruises could be purple bruises could be like painful but also like we can separate these two and just create different colors and just beautify Put makeup on. Why not? I love that. That's genius and authentic and real and so great that you went a step further to help and facilitate and bring awareness. So speaking of bringing the awareness, is there any way we can help or bring more exposure to this issue? Is there any hashtags or any organizations we can reach out to to help and spread out the word? That's amazing you're saying that. I feel like we should... kind of stop like categorizing ourselves into like different organizations that works towards this i feel like we should try to personalize it a little more okay talking about our own loved ones our own family we don't need to just put a name out there we don't need to put a campaign on it it's just about being the voice of these people and like telling the story as like i'm just telling a story like It shouldn't be shame. It shouldn't be like people saying that, oh, we should not be talking about that. We should just like talk about that more often, I guess. And just like normalize talking about it. So then people would actually look at themselves like, am I doing anything towards this? I always talk to my audience. I'm like, yeah, we're women. We're so used to telling each other, yeah, you should do this for a man to like you. Yeah, you should wear that so a man would just like love you. Or you should talk like that. Do we have men telling each other that like, hey, you should not treat your wife like that? I don't see men saying that to each other. But I see women saying that, hey, you should not talk to your husband like that. Hey, you should make sure your husband likes this food, this dress, this outfit, this makeup and all of that. But men don't say that to each other. I feel like we need to, at some point, normalize men telling each other what they should not be doing towards women because... That's how, like, it seems like that, yeah, in that case, then yes, we're doing something. Yeah, very good point. Because usually women try to find all these tricks and educate themselves and improve the life and work on relationship. But the men usually very straightforward, very simple. Like, oh, this is how I am. Yeah, this is how you are. Oh, this is men, right? That's what they do. But you're absolutely right. There need to be more conversations amongst men to how to treat better. But I guess it's all coming from the culture, from the upbringing. Absolutely. But look at the content creation industry. I create content. There are so many other women doing the same thing. We talk, we tell stories, we put makeup on. Sometimes we jokingly talk about men. We do a lot of things. But how many men do you see doing that? How many men do you see telling stories and telling other men how they should be? I don't see that that often. It was on my expert page and I saw this guy talking how he was... supporting his wife. And I saw my husband following that guy and liking that video. I was like, oh, that feels so good because not only there is someone who's talking about that, but also my husband is following them. That means if we have more men creating content about how they should actually act right towards women, I feel like I personally would support that man. I would just help them to just grow bigger on Instagram or wherever they're working on because we need more content creation. towards like men teaching each other how to be like. But if you think about it, now you made me think how low are the standards for men, right? Oh, he just said he's supporting his wife and he gets all the praise and all the ah and ah. He's such an amazing man, but it should be by default. The man is a provider. Make sure he makes his wife secure and cherished and loved and supported. And I know there's so many men out there, but like you said, publicly, for some reason, they're not speaking about it, right? They're not publicizing that because maybe it's a sense of weakness, right? Or maybe they don't think that's what needed to be heard publicly. But you absolutely gave an amazing idea and encouraged more men to talk about it, how they care for their loved ones, how they're supporting them. That will maybe cause a chain or snow reaction for other men to follow and give that support. Absolutely. Absolutely. It's just like some sort of content we are not seeing. And I feel like If men want to make money with the content creation, this would be a good idea for them. Please just stop going out like asking women for their numbers and just making a joke out of it and posting it online because that's so weird. Have you seen that kind of content? Maybe that's why there's so many things wrong with the modern dating. Oh my gosh. This has become my absolute fear. there's these meta glasses that men wear they go out there and they're like they have the glasses on so they're recording the girl in front of

SPEAKER_02:

them

SPEAKER_01:

and they're like hey can i get your number hey you look so beautiful to just get the reaction take the video post it online and that is their content i'm like bro you're so wrong on doing this then i was just so many ethical issues now about it i never thought and i just like i don't know how people are following this person how this person is like still like creating content with that nature i just don't address that I guess nowadays we're running for hype you know we're running for followers for likes and we're missing the authenticity and we think that's what's making money making successful but the long term you are the problem with the society that's exactly making this you know changes that creating more problems creating more problems and like it's so many people following these people you can't even question that person like why are you following this person because You don't want to be too nosy about who they follow, but also at the same time, you're also part of the problem. That person creates that kind of content and you follow that kind of content. So it's like, oh, you're... You're giving energy. Yeah. You're part of it. So if there's guys out there trying to figure out how to get more following and exposure on social media... Please be nice. Just be nice. Just be nice. Shima will give you a little boost. Teach others how to be nice. so I will have you on camera you're gonna repost more of this stuff I will absolutely do that just like create some content about how you make coffee for your wife in the morning because why not that would be cute content so what so what are the nice things that your husband does for you oh he's an absolute angel okay I don't cook so he cooks he makes my coffee in the morning and I love how he knows what time I need my coffee oh And I love how he knows how to make my coffee better than me because like the time that like he's not home and I act like I can make my own coffee and I go to the kitchen and I'm like, okay, how much of creamer should I put? Like how much of sugar? Like which flavor do you put? How does this coffee machine work? Like none of that. He knows all of that. He makes my coffee. He makes my breakfast. He actually makes a breakfast when I'm still in bed. Oh, wow. Lucky you. I know. I guess it's also the gesture, right? I guess it's just the attention and Showing him he cares. It also took a long time for us to communicate about these. He wasn't like this from first date. No, absolutely not. We actually, we obviously as many, many couples, we fight, we just talk about things. But that's my thing. I keep telling him all the time. And I'm like, fights need to have a result. Otherwise, it's just a fight and it's a loop that we're stuck in. And we are going to be fighting for the same thing over and over and over again. So when we fight over something, we need to come up with a solution and we need to work on that. It cannot be the same fight. Don't bring it over a month later. Remember one month ago. Exactly. Which I am like that too. He could be telling me the worst thing. The worst thing. And we fight about it, right? I'm pissed. I vent, we fight, but if we come up with a solution and he stops doing that, I would also not bring that up ever again. So this is just the progress for like two mature people to just like learn things about each other and just like work that relationship together. What comes to communication, right? So you need to communicate. I feel like if you know how to communicate, there's no fight or argument that can bring you apart. Anything is solvable. So I guess in your case, do you believe that you should never go to bed angry? No, I can go to bed angry. But it's just never like, hey, you cannot sleep in bed with me. You need to sleep on the couch. No, you can sleep in the bed. I was just like, not at all. Will you address it the next day? I am the kind of person that I cannot be angry at the same thing for like a long time. And my husband like, when we started like when we started living together he saw me and my sister fighting fighting right sister how sisters fight we fight right the worst thing is to observe right so he's like scared he's like whoa like they're fighting right we say the worst things to each other right a few hours later my sister will come to me and she'll say something and he's like the hell what happened you were just like killing each other like two hours ago and i'm like yeah but okay it ends and he could not understand that because he was like when we fight we fight and just we stopped talking to each other until like whatever happened and i'm like oh not with me not with us like this is not how i was like raised like sister's love is different absolutely even with my mom even with my dad we fight we went and then that's it like we get back to like everything normal it's never like oh i want to see your face ever again no Obviously, you're still my family. I could hate you today for whatever you said, but we're going to work it through. So no, I'm not that kind of person who would just like, no, you cannot sleep with me. I'm not going to talk to you. No, we can do whatever. You don't hold grudges, right? You don't hold grudges. No, not at all. So who's doing the chores? Oh, he does. I love that. So he does the chores. He makes breakfast. So what do you do in the relationship? I'm just being weird. You're the dream girl in a relationship. I love that. Hey, I'm just being me. I'm just being pretty, doing makeup. I'm just pretty. Well, I guess he has to be getting something out of it. So I guess, I mean, does he get like nurturing, loving affection from a beautiful wife? So no, we actually, so I make money. He helps me. Okay, so he would be like a stay-at-home dad. Yeah. I love that. But we don't have kids, though. Yeah, but I'm saying, I mean, I don't know if that's in the plans for you, but down the line, he could be. No, absolutely. I'm like, I don't mind making money. Honestly, I feel like, have you seen women, when they start talking about it, do you know how successful I would be if I had a wife? Yes. Someone who takes care of me. So I'm living that life

SPEAKER_02:

now.

SPEAKER_01:

That's great. Every woman needs a wife. Right? Every successful woman needs a wife. Yeah. So he lets me to be six. He lets me shine. He fixes my crown. He's like, oh, you got it. He makes sure that my dress is always right. My makeup is right. My lighting, like my content is always out there. Like I'm working. Like when I'm down, he would talk to me and make sure that like I'll get out of the bed. I would just like put like all the depression aside. And on my period, he would take care of me. He would just like. Give me everything I need just to make me feel better. He's like, do you want me to get to Tylenol? I love that. I mean, we need all men supposed to be the support system, right? Because as women, we have to do so much. So many responsibilities, so much pressure. But when you have the right partner who supports you, that makes it so much easier in a relationship. So you're a hardworking girl. You build your brand. Before talking to you, I asked if you make up artists. to ask me which questions they would like to ask you. And one of the questions was, so what is the first thing you need to know if you do want to start your own brand, your cosmetic brand? How did you start? What was the most difficult, challenging part in starting your brand product? Okay, I'm sure that people know that when they're starting a product, like making a product, they know that they need to solve a problem.

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

That's like given. Everybody knows that. You know your why. And I'm sure everybody knows that. But when it comes to cosmetics, only because the competition is like huge, especially in the last 10 years, maybe 10 years ago, it wasn't as much that we are seeing right now because all the celebrities, they're making their own brand. Influencers coming out with their own brand. Like everybody is like the next day, yeah, I can have my own brand too. It's like a cool thing to do, right? But It's always about what problem are you solving and what makes you different from everything else going on in the market. For me, obviously the story, obviously packaging, obviously like working with my followers. It was my why. It was like creating something that we don't see in the market, bold colors. Because so many people were like so into, oh, the neutral makeup or the nude colors or no makeup makeup. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. Full glam. Bring 2016 back. Yes. So that's what I love. And I was like feeling that at that time, it was a kind of product that the market didn't have anywhere. So I added in there. The difference was that I told the story, not a brand was doing that. I was doing it with my followers, not a brand would do that. So it's like the uniqueness needs to be there. They need to solve a problem. They need to stand out. They need to tell a story. tell their own story I started this because of that whatever reason that they have what about the production the technical part of it did you experience any problems in that or that's the easiest thing well actually okay the formula and everything was made in US for me but also with the packaging obviously with the labor the cost and everything I felt like if I was doing it in US the cost would be like a lot higher so I started looking into like manufacturers in like other countries and obviously with all things going on with the tariffs right now it's like It fluctuates things a little bit. But I feel like eventually things come together when you have a clear vision of what you're doing. Because if I have a vision of like, hey, this is the bottle that I want. This is the product that I want. There is no way that I would just go wrong with that. Because when I know what I want, I will find it. You'll find the way. I'll find it. So as long as the vision is clear and out there, finding the way, like... with production or everything and that is the most essential part to figure out why to figure out the story how you're personally connected to the brand because i feel most of the beauty influencers they're going from the uh from the area i need to make money i want to be successful they're looking backwards they're not looking with what you said finding out what's the problem in the market. And because right now the market is always saturated. I mean, there's so many thousands of different brands. I mean, every single influencer has their own brand. So you need to find a way how to stand out on the market. And the only way to stand out is be yourself, is find your true story, your core, why you're connected and why you want to do this. And that creates a very stable foundation of the whole brand. And then the marketing can Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. creates a whole vibe of like oh i know what influencers i need to work with to promote this you will know everything when the foundation is set right you will know everything after so i feel like now there's so many options so many choices so many resources just go and create so another question was um obviously you have your own product and you are the face of your product your brand ambassador for your product uh the makeup artist asked this question Do you have to be on camera and do you have to be an influencer to be successful if you're a makeup artist or a beauty influencer? Is there any way to reach success without being on camera if you're shy, if maybe you're not ready to put yourself out there, I mean, your face out there on the internet? No, absolutely. The only difference is that you probably need to put a little more cost into marketing, to advertisement, the way that the website looks, the way that you put yourself out there and the kind of influencers you work with to promote your brand. You just need to know who has a hand on your product, who talks about it and what they say about it. It's just, you just need to strategize your marketing a lot more deep and detailed compared to like someone who has their face out there and they're known. Because when I'm known, obviously like at the very beginning, I don't need to pay anyone for the marketing. I would just go out there and be like, hey, I have my own product. You can buy it from here. And so many people who love me would actually buy it, right? But are those people are going to be coming back again? That's about the product. Or am I going to reach people who don't know me? That's about the marketing. And I will do all of those. But if I'm not known, then I will need to strategize all of the next steps as the first step. So it's going to be, oh, what influencer I'm going to work with or... Oh, what kind of verbiage am I going to use for my marketing and all of that? Which again, it has to align with your vision and with the story. Absolutely. Right. So it's still the same formula is applied. Either you're promoting your own brand or if you, I mean, are they using yourself promoting your brand or you have models or, you know, other influencers to help you to promote it? Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So in terms of, are you always loyal to your own brand? Would you do promotions for other cosmetic brands? Have you worked and collaborated with other brands? Of course. Well, here's the thing. With cosmetics, especially colored cosmetics, you really do not have to be loyal to one brand, one color, or one specific type of product. You can explore. You can do a lot of things. You can mix and match. You can come up with mixing and coming up with a new idea, a new design, a new makeup. Maybe like the only thing that we could like possibly be loyal to probably is like what product I use for my hair or what product I use for my skincare. That, yes, you could just stick into one sort of ingredient. Not competing. Well, when it comes to color cosmetics, just go on with whatever you want to do. And I absolutely do that. Of course, I promote other brands too. I love that. Who is your dream collaboration that you want to work in the future with? In the future? Yeah. I actually, there are so many brands that they're under the umbrella of L'Oreal that I love working with them. So I hope that happens. L'Oreal. Yeah, right? We're here. Make notes. Putting out there in the universe. Watch me. I'll make a phone call. Right? From my email. Yes, me. I know, knock on the door. Right? Yes. Whatever it takes to get that collaboration. No, absolutely. No, it's going to happen probably like this year. I know that. It will happen. Yeah, absolutely. I'm sure they will love you. Yeah. So how do you stay relevant? You know, I know trends come and go and I know some influencers copy each other's trends, some influencers create trends. So how do you stay relevant to, you know, to millions of followers who watch you? My husband was talking about this two days ago. I was telling him that, oh my God, the new algorithm is so annoying. The engagement rate is not as much as it used to be. Like before I used to like post one long video, not even edited perfectly the way I'm doing it right now. And the number of likes or comments were like a lot higher, which like the difference is not even as much. I'm just like, so like such a perfectionist and like my own biggest failure. But like his point was that the thing is that back then when you were making content, it was all about you telling story. It was all about you being vulnerable and just telling the story without being worried about what people think about you. But now you're kind of mixing it with a little bit of a luxury lifestyle. Oh, I bought this. Oh, I bought that. I'm not even bragging about it. I just think maybe every here and there, I would tag the purse or the watch. And it's like, don't do that. You don't want people to just see what you wear or what you do. You want them to see your vision as how you tell the story that will happen. If your watch is part of the story, then obviously talk about it. If it's not, Let it go. Do not brag about like anything. That's just the regular thing that everybody does. Your audience does not like that. Just let it go and be loyal to like what you were doing. Just be vulnerable. Be humble. Just be humble. I am humble, however. It's not about me bragging about it, but he was just like, Some people might think that you're bragging about like stuff. Just don't do that. Whatever like changes that you have done, make sure that you're not going with that route and just like keep being vulnerable and like telling those stories. So how much do you care if somebody you have negative comments? I mean, have you had negative comments? Do you take them to heart or ignore them? How do you deal with that? At the beginning? Yes, obviously. Like there were like times that I was getting backlashes because like I Okay, with the Farsi content, I think like I'm on top of three influencers with the Farsi content. That's like out there and people watch them, with female at least. And I know that I'm seen, I know I'm on the radar of like so many people. And only because like my content is mostly about women empowerment. Obviously, it's like misunderstood with like men hating. And like so many men like attacking like, oh, you hate me. And I'm like, bro, you don't have anything for me to hate. Like there's no hate here. It's just like I went to therapy and I just know that. This energy is not what I'm looking for. Trying to

SPEAKER_02:

provoke you.

SPEAKER_01:

So exactly. I'm like, no, it's not about hating. Also, that's like the transition of my content. So obviously I get a lot of hate. So I was receiving backlashes about like, what you said is politically wrong. Oh, you are like with this kind of party of the government. Or, oh, you're standing with this person who said that thing. Or, oh, there's so many layers into things that I get tagged into only because of one thing that I said, like, I don't know, 10 years ago. And it follows me even to this day of like, oh, do you remember what you said 10 years ago? That means that you are with that person in that part of government. That means you're this person. And I have to like constantly explain myself, which I stopped doing that a long time ago. I was like, I don't owe nobody an apology for what I thought. You know what I'm saying? So I receive a lot of backlashes at the very beginning, only because I grew so fast in a very short amount of time. I was receiving backlashes also very fast with a lot of people that I was not used to. So that's like the downside of going viral because you go viral, you get a lot of love, but everybody's gonna immediately get a lot of it. So like there were time, maybe four years ago, that I would just like read tweets about myself and I would just go to bed and I would cry for like a whole night, right? And I would just like not be able to sleep, not be able to eat, like a true depression, right? But then I grew with, the love and hate so I was like okay I guess that's how it is and like the fascinating part about it is that when you get a hit it's just one day and it just stops like one day is an example but it could just like be one week or whatever and it immediately stops it immediately goes like and everything goes back to normal it's never a consistent thing it's never constantly like people hating you It's always like one person thinking something and just come attacking you because they're having a bad day. They don't have the right to do that. But I also don't have the right to get upset over like this and make my day like going bad. So I get that. I get so many like hate, like talks, comments, tweets, all of that. But I also learned not to even say that. Just ignore it. Wash it off. It's like, okay. Well, most of the times when somebody comments something negative, this is something that they hate about themselves, right? So those men, they probably have no girlfriend, they have no relationship. They see you being successful and they have that rejection of themselves and they need to put it somewhere. They need to put it out. By doing that, they give the energy to that negativity in their own life. So for you, you have to have sort of this invisible wall to protect yourself from this negativity. Because you cannot be a people pleaser. So I guess my question is when you become a public person, Do you think it's better to stay neutral, let's say politically wise or regime wise or anything that goes viral? Or you still think it's better to have an opinion even though many wouldn't like that opinion? My husband believes that I should do the first, that I should just stay neutral and not say anything. I cannot stay silent. I can't shut my mouth. I wish I could. I wish I could. It's just I never had that talent. So I have to say something. I always get like people hating on me for saying what I said. And I was like, listen, at the end of the day, this is me. I wish I was just a character out of a movie and just living whatever it was written for me. But that's not the case. I'm a real person showing the real thoughts, opinions and sides of my life and having opinion about something that goes on in the world. War, conflict, talks, whatever. if I'm asked my opinion or if my community is like so heavily involved with it, like let's say my country is in war, I can just go out there and put the makeup on and just tell the story. I have to pick a side. You know what I'm saying? Because otherwise I'll be like, like nobody would understand me. People will be like, you can't speak Farsi and like claim that you're from Iran and like not say anything when this is going on. You know what I'm saying? That is risky. I love you taking risk. But at the same time, you also... being real and honest and that's what your audience loves about you you're not this perfect picture a girl who has this fake life right you're sharing your thoughts you're sharing your opinions and that's actually my um my thing with my content i'm like i'm not perfect and i don't have to be i know that the society wants this woman to just be perfect in like different ways i could just wake up in the morning have no makeup on like having like horrible hair and still have the confidence just come in front of the camera and talk to you guys That doesn't mean I'm at any less of value like that I am when I'm perfectly done. And I just come and talk. I could be angry. I could be upset. I could just have a wrong opinion. I could just make mistakes. I could do all of that and still be the same person and still have the same respect. And that actually has given my audience a lot of courage and confidence. As they tell me, they're like, seeing you makes me feel like I'm actually enough too because I don't have to be perfect. Obviously, I try about it. I would do my skincare. I would spend money on my makeup. I would spend money on like getting my hair done because that's what I do. And they're like, I've never done this before because there are times I go get my hair done and there's nothing going on in my life on that day. Like, my hair is perfect, but nothing. I'm going back home watching TV. And everyone's like, why? What would you spend your money on that? I'm like, it's spending my money on me. And I love that. And I love to just look great today in front of TV, because why not? Well, if you have an opposite opinion, would you ever go outside without makeup? Oh, yeah, I do that every day. One time I did that, and I felt empowered and vulnerable at the same time. And I love that. And you feel a certain amount of freedom knowing that, okay, I can still be confident. Yes. I can still own it. Yeah. And I can still, you know, feel great. Not just, I mean, it doesn't matter how I look, but I feel great. And that's confidence. I guess it's more attractive than being pretty, right? Or having makeup on. I feel like being vulnerable is also giving us some sort of strength because that means I actually put whatever that I don't like out there. People saw that. They can take it or leave it. But whoever that takes it, I'm strong, baby. Because you saw that. I know I'm still here. I'm strong, baby. I'm strong. No, absolutely. Yeah. No, you're definitely coming off such a strong personality and obviously challenges in life, how to transform you. And like what they say, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Absolutely. Yeah. So you're very strong, positive role model. And we need more people like you. We need more beauty influencers like you who are not about fluff and being pretty, but have some substance to them and have the ideas that they're not afraid to speak up. So in order for us to wrap this conversation, is there any advice you can give to talented makeup artists and beauty influencers or aspiring beauty influencers who have the skill, have the talent, but don't have that acknowledgement and following as of right now? What's What would you advise to them? Post whatever you think. You should be posting. Just post it. Because you never know how many people like you until you put yourself out there. And you have to put yourself out there for people to find you, to see you, and to feel you, and then to like you, and then to follow you, and then to become loyal. Because if you're just hiding here, I don't know who you are to like you. I don't know you. You just need to be out there. Put yourself out there. Put yourself out there. Whatever you're doing is right. There's no right or wrong in like creation industry, which is the beauty of it, is that you can just like have the weirdest makeup and some people are going to be like, wow, that is so cool. And those are your people and you just need them. So just post, be out there and you definitely are going to see so much support more than what you think. Well, thank you for this beautiful words. Thank you again for coming to The Basic Show. It was a true pleasure. Thank you for sharing your story. And have a wonderful day

SPEAKER_00:

today. Oh, thank you. Thanks for having me. This was fun. It's a pleasure. It's been definitely a fun conversation. Thank you, Shima. Thank

SPEAKER_01:

you. Thank you.

UNKNOWN:

Of course. Thanks.