How I became a ... beauty mogul
Influencer Huda Kattan on running her brand.
Our series “How I became a …” digs into the stories of accomplished and influential people, finding out how they got to where they are in their careers. Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
With more than 26 million followers on Instagram and 2 million-plus subscribers on YouTube, makeup artist and founder of billion-dollar cosmetics brand Huda Beauty, Huda Kattan has transformed a beauty blog and YouTube channel into a thriving career and business. She has been described as “a Kim Kardashian West of the beauty influencer economy” and was declared one of the “10 most powerful influencers in the world of beauty” by Forbes magazine. Her first season of “Huda Boss” just completed on Facebook Watch and averaged about 7 million views per show.
USA TODAY caught up with Kattan, 34.
Queston: Who has been your biggest mentor?
Huda Kattan: One of my biggest mentors was – is – an incredible man in charge of internships at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. He just gave me so much wonderful advice while I was at school, and it still impacts the way I do business today. He was really into making sure that students would make a difference in the world after school. Going to school and formal education wasn’t all that impactful to me, but it was the people I met at school that really made such a difference. His name is Mike Callahan, and he is just so wonderful.
Q: What does your career path look like, from college to now?
Kattan: Out of college I started working in recruitment, because I realized I hated finance (her major). I became a recruiter in Michigan for an HR company called Robert Half. Then my husband (Christopher Goncalo) – my fiance at the time – (said he could) see this financial crisis was about to hit Michigan. He was working at Ford and he just knew. He said we should get out of Michigan, and he said, “let’s go to Dubai.”
I contacted Robert Half headquarters to see if they had any positions open in Dubai (in the United Arab Emirates), and they did. A few months after I moved, the financial crisis hit, and it hit Dubai really hard because Dubai was going through such growth at that time. I lost my job shortly after we moved and decided I would go into PR. And then realized that I don’t actually like PR. So, I quit within two weeks. I’m not doing anything unless I love it.
I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, and my sister was really encouraging me to study makeup. I finally decided to do it, and I was like, “I don’t know how to do makeup, I don’t know how to do this.” So I needed to take it seriously.
I kind of wanted to prove to my husband and my father that I really could take this leap – that it wasn’t just a hobby. I went to school in Los Angeles and then came back to Dubai and started working really aggressively right away. I became a blogger and then a makeup artist at about the same time and then an influencer shortly afterward. I got pregnant and decided to only become a blogger. I stopped doing makeup full time, and I kept just a few clients, like the (UAE) royal family and celebrities when they would come into town. The blog had become this marketing tool that had allowed me to get into this new wave. When I started blogging, all the makeup artists around me were like, “you’re crazy – you’re giving out free advice.” But a few years later, when I got pregnant, it was a good thing because I was able to pick and choose (clients) and charge more money and work less and save up for what would later become our makeup brand.
In 2013, we launched our lash line, which did really well, but we were kind of just stuck in the Middle East. A year or two later, we launched in the U.S. And then just 21⁄2 years ago, we launched color cosmetics and, since then, our company has just exploded.
Q: What is your typical day like?
Kattan: I wake up at 5:30 in the morning. I do yoga three times a week, and I have my life coach come twice a week. By 6:30, I’m spending a little time with my daughter and, at 7, I leave to go to the office. I like to be the first person in the office – it’s really quiet. By the time 9 a.m. rolls around everyone’s in the office, and I just say good morning to everyone as much as I can. My day starts from about 10 a.m. From about 9 to 10, I spend time with my sisters (who also work at the company), just kind of talking about work and planning. I spend so much time planning – I find it really makes me effective and efficient. From 10 to 5, I’m in hardcore meetings. Some of the meetings are 15 minutes, some of the meetings are five minutes, but literally it’s a revolving door coming in and out of my office.
Q: What has been your biggest career high and your biggest career low?
High: Getting our investors on board was a huge thing for us. They’ve been wonderful partners. To be honest, I’m not really into the private equity world – I’m more focused on magic and (being) creative.
Low: After getting the investment, our concealer launch was a disaster and then – boom – we lost almost $2 million worth of product, and we didn’t have anything new to put in its place. It definitely created a lot of anxiety for me. It was the best lesson, and I don’t think I would have done that any other way because I don’t want to learn something like that later on.
Q: What is the biggest lesson you have learned in your career?
Kattan: Not to be confined by your own limitations. That is the biggest hurdle holding people back – that they are confined by their own limitations, and that they are only as big as they think they are, and that they are only able to do as much as they think they can. I’ve always said that to myself, and I break down those barriers, but really, really understanding that has been really transformational to the business. You need a team who really, truly believes that the impossible is possible, and will do everything in their power to make those things happen.
Q: What advice would you give someone who wants to follow in your footsteps careerwise?
Kattan: It’s a lot of things, really. The most important thing is that this isn’t a part-time job. When you leave the office on weekends, you are always going to be this person – especially if you are an influencer-founded brand, you never get to leave that life. It’s really challenging. It may appear really great on the outside – amazing, peaches and cream – but, you know, once you have a kid you’re thinking about your child, and what school they might go to, and that people may bully them for who you are. It’s really challenging sometimes! I think you need to be aware of those things, and you need to be ready for the sacrifice. And if you are, full-steam ahead.