Sunday Sessions with Marcia Kilgore.

There are serial entrepreneurs. And then there’s Marcia Kilgore.

By the time I met the immaculately-groomed Marcia for a one-on-one interview, she had already set up (and sold!) two insanely successful brands; Bliss Spa (to LVMH for a whopping USD30 million after just THREE years) and Soap & Glory (to Boots in 2014).

With success like that, did you think she was done?

She now helms THREE companies – FitFlop, Soaper Duper & Beauty Pie – the first of which caused a footwear-revolution! Thanks to Marcia, I started myself on a FitFlop craze when she gave me my first pair – “It’s like walking on Gummy Bears!” – would be my best way of describing it.

Beneath the doe-eyed demeanour and signature crop ‘do, Marcia has gone into the beauty industry with guns blazing, while leaving an inspiring trail.

Over a cup of tea from her home in London, Marcia goes through my “Who.What.When.Where.How.Why.” interview.

WHO.

I was born in Outlook, Saskatchewan, Canada, a town of about 1500 people, in the middle of what can only be described as a freezing cold prairie (A more glamorous interpretation would be a comparison to the Russian Steppes). I spent the first half of my childhood living in Calgary, as the youngest of three girls. When my father died of brain cancer (I was eleven) my mother moved back to be near her sisters in Saskatchewan, where I lived until I was 18, and then I headed to New York.

It’s a very long story, my eldest sister was already living there, working as a model, and I was headed to Columbia University, but my tuition plan fell through, and I was left ‘stranded in New York’ (not a bad place to be stranded) and had to find a way to support myself. I worked as a personal trainer, then learned how to do facials, then studied cosmetic chemistry, then opened Bliss Spa.

I just LOVE making products and ideas that women like (I guess it’s their positive feedback, and making them happy that keeps me motivated.) So one after the other, as I have created brands, it’s been about what will make women feel good. What will give them inspiration. Make them feel good. What will relieve them of some type of burden. Or what will deliver the FAIRY TALE, because we all need an escape sometimes.

WHAT.

The biggest is FitFlop. We make the world’s best sandals and shoes, built on the very best ergonomic foundations (we are constantly studying and improving) to give the women (and men) who wear them the most comfort and the very best foundation (Ergonomic alignment all starts where your feet hit the ground, and if that base is wrong, you can have back pain, knee pain, foot pain, hip pain, and just general tiredness.) We research constantly to improve the foundation of what women walk on.

The second is Soaper Duper, which we launched late last year. It’s a bath and body brand made without the usual suspects (it’s paraben-free, mineral-oil free, with no artificial colours, no plastic microbeads, in recycled plastic and recyclable plastic bottles and jars). It’s perfectly luxurious and gloriously guilt-free, and supports Water Aid and Clean the World to get water and soap to people who need it.

And the most recent is BEAUTY PIE. It’s a membership club. You join up for a yearly fee, and you can buy luxury makeup and skincare at the totally transparent factory cost. Literally at exactly the cost it is coming out of the factory. We go to the best luxury makeup suppliers across the globe (in Italy, Germany, France, Spain, the USA, Korea and Japan) and take their very best and most beautiful formulations, bring them into our inventory so members can buy them at exactly what they cost to make. (This can be as low as 10% of what you’d normally buy a cosmetic at retail for, because the markups on cosmetics can be crazy.) So as a member, you pay for the product (only), not the advertising, not the counter in the department store, not for the celebrity spokesperson, not the corporate headquarters. And that’s how you can get such incredibly great prices on products. For a cosmetics –lover, BEAUTY PIE is the Fairy Tale!

WHEN.

I get inspiration every day. Every time I read an article, or talk to someone, or listen to a podcast, or scan a website. Every little bit of information is like a dot in a connect-the-dots drawing, and eventually, all of it becomes part of the inspiration. Struggles and mistakes can also be inspirational if you make the time to stop to figure out what you’ve learned from them.

WHERE.

There are a few people who have connected the link between serial entrepreneurs and people who lost a parent very early in their lives. And I can recognize that I always have a certain fear, because my father’s death left us very financially unstable, and from the time I was 12, I felt like I had to work to help my mother pay our bills! That fear probably never leaves you. (Although I’m hoping to retire when I’m 80 and have a few years to get really good at yoga!)

HOW.

I am a great believer that competition makes you stronger. If someone is beating you, it’s because they’re doing something better. Something that touches the customer faster. Something that is more desirable for the person out there being faced with the offer. It’s something to learn from, in real time, that is relevant and dynamic and real. And something to look at, listen to and learn from.

Competition is a GIFT, if you’re ready to receive it.

Similarly, there will always be people who don’t like your ideas. And it’s important to hear what they have to say, but you also have to remember that not everyone will be your customer.

It took my mother 5 years to believe that FitFlop was more comfortable than her old favourite brand of shoes. Then one weekend I was catching up with her and she said she thought she needed a hip replacement and her doctor was scheduling it. And I told her that her feet were probably in the wrong position in her shoes. And I sent her ANOTHER pair of FitFlop sandals. And she started wearing them, and the hip pain disappeared. Now she is a believer.

What you eventually realize is that people understand in different ways. And so you have to keep trying to make them understand what you’re offering, but in their way, not in your way.

Once you have a world-class product at a great price – which is what your customers deserve – the only barrier is getting people to understand the benefits. (Then again, in a world so crowded with conversation, sometimes getting that cut-through can be the most difficult thing of all!)

WHY.

I love making women feel good. And I love creating great, fun, helpful, things for women. And getting positive feedback from people makes me really happy. So the love of good feedback probably inspires me to do a better and better job. It’s like a big, lovable feedback loop!

Follow Marcia on Instagram.

Follow FitFlop here.

Soaper Duper on IG.

And last but not least … her latest baby, Beauty Pie.