Neada Deters | Lesse: How to self-fund your startup

In today’s episode, we’re joined by Neada Deters, founder of LESSE, a skin care brand redefining beauty through simplicity, efficacy and sustainability.

Born in Sydney and now based in New York, Neada began her career as a beauty editor, interviewing leading experts and testing countless products. Yet her own struggles with cystic acne and reactive skin revealed a gap in the market for effective and natural skin care that worked for sensitive skin. In 2018 she launched LESSE, a self-funded business pioneering high-performance formulas that merge active botanicals with brilliant results.

Stay tuned to hear Neada’s insights on building a self-funded beauty business in a VC-driven industry, the lessons she’s learnt in balancing simplicity with efficacy and how she’s working to raise standards in the natural skin care space.

Neada's Advice: 

• Self-funded startups tip: Stay independent and fully in control of your vision
• Bootstrapping advice: Grow at your own pace without investor pressure
• Entrepreneurship lesson: Build trust by prioritizing quality and ingredients
• Small business survival tip: Gain resilience by staying clear and focused
• Startup motivation: Celebrate small wins along the journey
• Business growth advice: Be resourceful, run a lean team, and know your numbers
• Money management for entrepreneurs: Always keep cash flow top of mind
• Financial planning for startups: Get advice from experts who understand small businesses
• Working with your partner in business: Define clear roles from the start
• Founder health tip: Protect your wellbeing — it’s one of your biggest business assets
• Work-life balance for entrepreneurs: Learn when to push hard and when to rest

FF&M enables you to own your own PR & produces podcasts.
Recorded, edited & published by Juliet Fallowfield, 2024 MD & Founder of PR & Communications consultancy for startups Fallow, Field & Mason.  Email us at hello@fallowfieldmason.com or DM us on instagram @fallowfieldmason. 

FF&M recommends: 

• LastPass the password-keeping site that syncs between devices.
• Google Workspace is brilliant for small businesses
• Buzzsprout podcast 'how to' & hosting directory
• Canva has proved invaluable for creating all the social media assets and audio bites.

MUSIC CREDIT Funk Game Loop by Kevin MacLeod.  Link &  Licence

Transcript

[00:00:00] 

Juliet: Welcome to How to Start Up, the podcast that dives into stories of startups told directly by the founders. I'm Juliet Fallowfield, your host and founder of Fallow, Field and Mason, a consultancy that teaches founders how to confidently run their own PR and podcasting in-house. In today's episode, we are joined by Neada Deters, founder of Lesse, the Skincare brand redefining beauty through simplicity, efficacy, and sustainability. Born in Sydney and now based in New York, Neada began her career as a beauty editor, interviewing leading experts and testing countless products. Yet her own struggles with cystic acne revealed a gap in the market for effective and natural skincare that worked for sensitive skin.

In 2018, she launched Lesse, a self-funded business pioneering high-performance formulas that merge active botanicals with brilliant results. Stay tuned to hear Neada's insight on building a self-funded beauty business in a VC-driven industry, the lessons she's learned in balancing simplicity with efficacy, and how she's [00:01:00] working to raise standards in the natural skincare space.

Neada, it is wonderful to have you on How to Start Up today. Before we get into the details about how you have self-funded your startup, I'd love it if you could introduce a bit about you and the brand that you have started.

Neada: Thank you so much for having me. So, I'm Neada, the founder of Lesse, and we make clinically advanced skincare using a hundred percent natural ingredients. Our focus is really on this philosophy of less is more, so pairing back to the essentials and delivering exceptional results through real innovation in the natural space.

Juliet: For you, what were the key motivators when you were setting up Lesse and how did your personal skincare story impact that?

Neada: Great question. To your point, it was personal, but also professional. So, it was really the two parts of my life coming together. I struggled with my skin immensely for years and years and years. So, I was writing about [00:02:00] beauty. I was a beauty editor and maybe people don't realise this, but when you're in that position.

You are just sent products from every single brand out there. So, I was testing every product on the market. I was interviewing skincare experts from around the world, and yet I was really struggling to find any products that were supportive of my skin concerns, which were cystic acne, terrible hyperpigmentation, and incredibly sensitive skin, but that contained safe ingredients that really upheld my values in terms of, natural ingredients a real focus on long-term safety, but were also going to provide the outcomes I was looking for, and I heard this again and again, that people wanted to use natural skincare, but they just didn't believe that natural formulas held the efficacy that they, you know, so desired.

And- 

Juliet: Yeah, they're not chemical. They wouldn't get the results say that hyaluronic acid might do or something like that. And for me, when I [00:03:00] heard hyaluronic acid coming through the industry, I was like, you want me to put acid on my face? This doesn't feel necessarily the right thing to do. So if you've nailed the fact of finding natural ingredients that actually work and have the results at the end of it, it's fantastic.

And did that very quickly impact your own skin once you tapped into it, or how long did it take for you to see the difference?

Neada: Yeah, so I spent about a solid decade looking for products that would really support my skin. And I had, during that time, become absolutely obsessed with ingredients. So, I had started, typical type A person. I had just started this index of different ingredients that I was seeing, ingredients that I didn't want to use on my skin, but also ones that I did.

I started to read these peer-reviewed studies on different ingredients that I had come across, but that I wasn't really seeing in formulas out of there. And it just became this kind of snowball effect, and I still contribute to that index all the time. To this day, I'm constantly reading papers.

Juliet: I'll add onto that and say [00:04:00] 10 years of research is a lot for people who sometimes get an idea and want to start a business tomorrow.

Something that's really impressive about Lesse is that you took your time, and you are self-funded. So, in a beauty world that is very proud of the fact that it has VC funding, probably not enough, and female founders, let's be honest, but what made you want to self-fund your business?

Neada: Great question. So actually, it comes back to this question of time and also a question of compromise. And I think that really underlines our approach because we take a very slow, intentional approach because our values are very much focused on, integrity and remaining uncompromising in everything that we do.

And I think that's really what I saw when I was out there searching for my own solutions for my own skin, was that it felt as though there were layers of compromise. I had to make a compromise in terms of my skin. If I wanted to treat my acne, it would always lead to some kind of compromise to my skin barrier, which became [00:05:00] this terrible cycle.

Same when it came to treating hyperpigmentation, really the options out there were harsh synthetic formulations and products that I didn't feel comfortable using long term. So, when I started Lesse which, during those many years of ingredient research, I hadn't really set out and said I'm going to start a business.

I'm going to launch a company that wasn't in the beginning, it was purely just passion and me wanting to find answers and really get to the meat of what are the pillars of good skin and how can we achieve great skin for those who do have real chronic skin concerns. In ways that are safe and are going to yield wonderful results, like really focusing on those exceptional outcomes.

And so, when I launched Lesse, I made the decision to not raise any money because I wanted us to be in a position where we could remain uncompromising, where we didn't have someone sitting there telling us, you should [00:06:00] opt for hyaluronic acid instead of tremella mushroom. Even though tremella mushroom is proven to be three to 400 times more effective and much better for the skin in terms of its hydrating benefits, because hyaluronic acid, it's made in a lab and it's so much more affordable, and we wanted to be in a position to, make the decisions for

optimal outcomes and to build real trust with the community and to say we absolutely stand by these formulas. And for me, that was so important. People ask me all the time, they always say like, do you really use your products? Are those the products that you use? And, I wanna be able to say, absolutely.

These are the products that I use. I stand by them. It's so important to me that. What we are putting out there is safe, is transformative, is really going to be supportive. And one thing that I always think about is that I want these to be essentials for people at every stage of life. So, we use all [00:07:00] pregnancy and breastfeeding safe ingredients.

We have a lot of people who are going through chronic illness or might be going through chemotherapy who actually. Begin using Lesse for that reason because our ingredients are so safe. And so, it's just important to me that no matter what happens, you have this, simplified, but like very supportive ritual

That you can come home to, your skincare is such a personal aspect of your day, and I was so inspired by my grandmother, who was one, she had five kids and it was just like an absolute mad house. I was the eldest grandchild, so I spent a lot of time with her growing up, and despite the kind of chaos at home and people coming and going, grandkids, kids everywhere, she would shut her bedroom door and she would.

Sit down at her vanity, and she would spend time applying these oils and these creams, and it was time for herself. And of course, we're so focused [00:08:00] on the outcomes of our skincare, and that's such an important piece. But I also believe in focusing on that experience, that ritual of skincare and how it really makes you feel and

You want to know that you can rely on that through every chapter. So, you know, to come back to this idea of, why did we decide not to take funding? Why have we been so intentional in that? It's because we didn't want to have the pressure of short timelines that would lead us to compromise. And we didn't wanna have to compromise on anything from ingredients to innovation to 

Who we cast, for instance, in our campaigns. These are decisions that I want to be able to make so that we can change standards within the industry, and that's such an important aspect of what we do. Otherwise, why do it at all?

Juliet: Yeah, and I've been questioned a lot, it's like, why don't you wanna take investment? Why don't you want to scale? Why don't you wanna employ more people? It's like, well, for me, I've learned the hard way, less is more. And hitting five years, I'm like, less is so much more.

And [00:09:00] I've worked out less people, less clients, more time, more revenue for me in my business. But people in the investment world are like, there's a kind of. Bragging right about, oh, you got funding, or, oh, you've got investment. Oh, you are at Series C. It's kind of one-upmanship. But what people don't talk about is then you have a whole load of people breathing down your neck.

You give up the freedom, autonomy that you have bought yourself by becoming self-employed, but still with all the stresses and strains of being self-employed, which are way more than working with somebody else, which no one ever really is honest about, you don't get annual leave, you don't get pension, you don't get a sick leave.

You are quite lonely. You have to employ people you have to fire people. There's so many brutal things you have to do if you are gonna do it. You've gotta do it for the right reasons, and I feel you've set up a business with incredible core values, an amazing goal at the end of it, that the product itself is born out of natural ingredients with really good results.

But the fact that you haven't taken funding and you've done this the hard way, is almost gonna make your life easier in the long [00:10:00] run.

Neada: Yes. I hope so. I think, For me, it's, I have poured in so much time, energy, just like blood, sweat, and tears as you well know when you have a self-funded company, and the number of times that people have come up to me and said, oh, you'll raise money one day, and what they don't realize is that we get emails all the time from VCs asking us to invest, and it's not something that we intend to do. It's not on our roadmap. It's not part of our plan. And it's really about building a company to help change the industry and to provide a different perspective that we hope can shape it a new way of thinking about skincare. And I think that is the piece that people don't realise, which is, to your point.

When you take on investment, you are working for someone else. It's no longer solely your vision. And I think that there is such a compromise in that, that it just was something I'm not interested in, haven't been interested in and not interested in the future, really.

Juliet: [00:11:00] And I should take that back about what I said about slow growth, 'cause just 'cause you're self-funded doesn't mean that you are growing slowly. You are just growing in a different way, and one that you can control. And for you, what have been the biggest challenges and advantages in taking this decision not to take funding?

Neada: So I think really the challenge that I faced more as a founder has been just learning how to prioritise at every step. Of course, you have the financial constraints of being self-funded, and so you have to be very clear on what your vision is. You have to learn how to prioritise and be very adamant about the kind of path that you want to take, and I think there's an advantage and a disadvantage to that of course. Like when you have unlimited funding, you can go out there, you can test a million things. But when you are self-funded, you have to be very clear on how you are, where you are meeting your community, how you are growing. And I think that in and of itself has been such an amazing lesson for me personally, and something that [00:12:00] has really taught us as a team how to be resilient, and we are not playing by the same playbook. Really, when we think about the beauty industry and we look at other brands out there, there's a very clear playbook that I think these VC-backed brands are following and, not to discredit that at all because I think, there are so many brands out there doing great things who are, adhering more to that playbook and are making a difference in people's lives.

But to go out there and to carve your own path to really throw the playbook, out the window and. Go all in on a completely different route is something that is so incredibly rewarding. And there are countless challenges, as you well know, and it's unbelievably difficult in moments, but every win is such a celebration for us.

We know exactly how much hard work it took to achieve that, small or big win, day after day. And actually, that's one thing that I highly [00:13:00] recommend anyone listening to this who may have their own company, is just really take time to celebrate those small wins you have to really take note of those moments so that when you do have a difficult day, you can look back on that fondly and think we have still achieved, so much.

Juliet: A friend of mine, episode five says, celebrate when you fix the printer, 'cause you are now it, you are hr, payroll, it, recruitment, everything. Celebrate when you fix the printer, it's oh God, printer. But you get pretty savvy pretty quickly. And to your point about prioritisation, working out what really matters.

Someone said to me recently, it's the trampoline effect is where you hit. Potential rock bottom or a scary time. And you get very laser-focused on what your solutions and answers are. And for us, we hit it last year, where I think all sorts of weird things happened in the world at once.

And suddenly our whole business model completely changed, and our whole client roster changed. And I had to ask myself some really difficult questions about what I was doing this for, did I want to do this? And actually, our previous guest [00:14:00] was the founder of G Adventures. Bruce Poon Tip, who's 35 years into the business, 30 years in the business, he was double-digit growth, and suddenly COVID hit, and he went to zero revenue for two years. He said it was great. I'm not gonna waste a good pandemic. I rebuilt my business from start, and we hung onto the culture, and it was a privilege to be able to start again, 'cause I had the startup mentality with 30 years experience.

So that hunger at the beginning isn't something to be wasted. What would you advise founders in how to set themselves up for success if they are going the self-funded route? What did you do to equip yourself with not having to worry about money? Potentially?

Neada: I'm not sure that not having to worry about money comes in, but what I can say is that if you are going, and I will say that I think all founders need to worry about money. I think that's such a crucial part of owning a business is really thinking about; where is the money going and what is the return on that?

And that's really your job as a founder and a leader is to know that. And it's not always easy, I've learned so [00:15:00] much about that over the years, but trying to really laser in on that from the very beginning is such an advantage. And then I think second, really, to circle back on what we were saying is.

Learn how to be very resourceful. I think that's so crucial. There are so many people out there who will sell you on an easy fix. I'll come in, I'll show you exactly how it's done, but in particular, if you're self-funded, learning how to get into the weeds, roll up your sleeves, get into the weeds learn how to be IT.

Learn how to really operate Shopify, learn Klaviyo, learn all of the software that is a part of that crucial ecosystem of what makes your business tick. That's such an important piece because as you do grow, you need to be able to recognize when someone on your team is being successful or not.

Juliet: Especially as a self-funded founder, your team's probably going to need to be more agile, leaner, and It really [00:16:00] comes down to you and your knowledge and being able to gauge who is doing their job well and who maybe is struggling a bit more. And well, ultimately, you're paying their salary. That's money coming out of the business and not going into your pocket. And I think I was always quite astute with money. I was always good with pension planning and saving. And I, we still travel, still had a wonderful time, but I learned money in a whole different way when I became self-employed because every Penny matters, and I was the same.

I haven't taken investment. The business has only ever paid for itself. And I was like, I'm a small business. I'm proud of what we've done, but I, I wasn't super proud. And then someone said, no, Jules, that's really amazing that you've never ever taken any investment or, and it ever put any money into the company, and you are five years in.

I was like, oh. Actually, yeah, that's quite a relief in a way that it can serve itself. But when you are outsourcing and we've just started doing a paid search campaign for the first time 'cause we're marketing our podcasting training course. We know there are people out there, we weren't sure how we were gonna meet them and putting money into the business or spending money outta the business.

It [00:17:00] feels really. Uncomfortable. But then you see results, and you see how it works. And it's amazing. When we were working with this incredible girl called Rachel, who set up our campaigns for us, and it's the best money we've ever spent, but I was like, God, it's taken me five years to learn to spend.

Obviously, I'm a service-based business is very different to a product-based business product. You need to do, pay your packaging, shipping stuff and things. service-based. You just need a laptop and internet. So, we are very different in terms of our overheads, but it's that being comfortable with the numbers.I know what's coming in, I know what's going out. In laser detail.

Juliet: We're taking a quick 30-second break from this episode to ask, are you thinking of starting your own podcast? If so, this is great news because we run a course that will train you how to produce your own podcast yourself. This course is for people who do not want to outsource and pay someone else to do it.

You want to learn how to do it yourself. We teach you everything that you need to get up and running with your own podcast show, and so much more. Just DM us at [00:18:00] hello@fallowfieldmason to book your spot. 

For people who are not necessarily comfortable numerically or maybe numerically dyslexic, what would you advise they do to seek support around that?

Neada: You really have to find someone who, ideally, someone who has worked with smaller business owners. That would be my recommendation. Have someone in your corner a bookkeeper, an accountant who can keep things really clean, and who is familiar with working with the business IQRs. That would be my number one recommendation.

 There are a number of founders and independent contractors in my circle, and there are just so many people I know who they’re four, five years into working for themselves. And they have realised that who they've been working with, whoever has been doing their books, just has been not competent. And they have been losing out on X, Y, or Z, and you just don't wanna get that far in and realise that there's a serious problem with the way that your finances have been managed, [00:19:00] the way that your taxes have been filed, et cetera.

I do not come from a finance background. I studied literature and art history. very fortunate that, my husband, who's now joined, he joined the company a few years ago. He comes from a finance background, and we have an incredible accountant that we've worked with. For many years, and he's been so helpful, along with my husband. 

Juliet: In 2022, with your husband joining officially as CEO, how has that partnership shaped the way you work and your role as a founder?

Neada: I'm going to be completely honest here. It was really not easy for the first six months. It was a lot of us learning how to communicate again, how to really set clear boundaries between work and our personal lives. And, he's always been a sounding board for Lesse. He's always been involved to some degree.

I've valued his opinion since the very beginning. He has had a couple of businesses prior to me starting Lesse, and so he was running [00:20:00] his business. I was running mine, and so I'd run this by him. I'd, we shared the same accountant, many factors that overlapped and. When he joined in a more official capacity, COVID had hit, and people all of a sudden were so focused on skincare, and we had been going through this kind of period of immense growth, and things were just happening.

And, a year or two in, he realised that I was just absolutely struggling. And at that point, he had sold his business, and he turned to me one day and he said, do you need any help? And I think, some days, I think maybe he regrets asking that question, but I said, actually, I really do need some help.

And so, he started to help, a few hours a day, a few days a week, that sort of thing. And that evolved into him coming on and being in the trenches with me. And then, really officially becoming CEO. And from that point, it took us about six months to learn how to set up those boundaries in a really clear way.

And then it[00:21:00] took us maybe another six months to really say, okay, we are going to prioritise our personal life just as much as we prioritise Lesse. And, it's been transformative for us to work together. But I think you really have to come into dynamic of working with a partner or a loved one.

Where you are very, very clear on what your roles are. Very, very clear on your skills, your roles, who is leading on what aspect of the business. And we have such complementary skill sets. We value each other's opinions; we really respect one another. But we own such different parts of the company, and we really run with that.

And I think that's been what has allowed us to work so well together. And he's truly been, I can't thank him enough. He's been such an asset to our growth and also to navigating everything that [00:22:00] has transpired, after COVID. Different production delays, really understanding what was ahead in a tumultuous period like that and what the fallout post-COVID might look like in terms of production times extending and, difficulty and maybe sourcing, procuring certain ingredients.

Juliet: Well, having someone you can trust implicitly is mega 'cause I, started on my own, and I don't think I could work with a co-founder. And there's a lot of people like, oh, do you not want to take a co-founder? I was like, no, I'd rather employ people 'cause I know I can fire them if it doesn't work out and there's no love lost.

Whereas if it's with a friend, family member, or partner, it's a big risk. But with that running, that self-funded high growth brand has its unique pressures, of course, but what would you need to maintain that right mindset and that energy to show up as that leader of the role that you're in now?

Neada: I think it's really important to find time to just really reset [00:23:00] ground yourself. Lesse swears so much about. Rituals and truly, my mornings are so sacred to me. It's really important to me that I wake up and I take a slow morning, and I have that time to myself. And as you well know, as anyone who's self-employed out there knows you, you don't have a day off.

You're still making sure that there are no fires on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and it's all just, there is no downtime. I mean, I found myself working on the edge of a bathtub in a hotel bathroom at two in the morning. It's just unbelievable the lengths that you go to to make sure that things are trucking along well, and the business is in good health. 

Juliet: But that's actually why mornings are so important, 'cause I learned when I lived in Sydney, if I just didn't look at my email until I'd gone for my run and done my meditation and whatever else I needed to do, then I'd pick it up and then the day would escape me. But if I didn't pick up my phone back in the day, it was a Blackberry.

I didn't know an ignorance was bliss, and sometimes working in a different [00:24:00] time zone is quite helpful. So when I've come back to Australia and I'm working in a UK time zone, like they're all asleep. It doesn't matter if I email 'em now or tomorrow, it's the same problem. But yeah, you need to carve out that time, don't you?

Because you cannot, you're not a battery that's gonna not drain. You have to make sure you look after yourself.

Neada: Absolutely. And I think, many people say it's a marathon, not a sprint, but actually, I subscribe more to this idea of work like a lion. Lions, for instance, when they're on the hunt, they are all in, and they are in the zone, and they are going full bore. Then they take time to break, and there are weeks and sometimes months where it's truly weekends, evenings, I am on the hunt, and I am full bore.

And then we have a quiet moment. Things are ready. We're working ahead. It's peak summer. That's when I say, okay, we need a real holiday. We need a real break to reset and to come back and be re-inspired. And so I [00:25:00] think it's a mix of the two, focusing on downtime, focusing on your health, really seeing your body as I think an instrument for the job, and really caring for it as such.

And then also knowing when to hunt and when to rest for longer periods of time has been so helpful.

Juliet: A number of founders I've interviewed about female health and age, especially saying, tracking your cycle, but then tracking your annual cycle and then tracking your audience's cycle. So, if you are pitching for investment to male investors, pitch it an afternoon, but know when you are in your luteal phase versus when you are not, like is maths to it and you can work out. For us, for example, we know that we quite love August, 'cause we can do a lot of housekeeping. We do our website, do a lot of internal work that we need to do that we're not gonna get to September through December or Feb through June because that's our busy client work. But that comes with time and that comes with experience and knowing, but being okay with it.

And everybody said. Be okay with a rollercoaster. It's like, I'm really not okay with it, but I accept it. But [00:26:00] yeah, being all right and actually I, last night I came back from Aha. I had a full week off. I didn't open my laptop once. I looked at my emails on my phone, and I feel amazing for it.

It's such a treat, but I didn't realise how much I needed it. I read a book, I slept, I swam, and it's such a recharge. And actually, my cheat before that was going to Australia for a couple months because that time zone thing, I was like, oh, well, they're all asleep. I can go for a surf. So yeah, thank you for sharing that 'cause I think people aren't honest enough, and especially if you are leading the way in the beauty world, you have to practice what you preach. It's on the label.

Neada: Absolutely. Don't worry about me. I'm in the bath on a Sunday for two hours. Our bioactive mask on. I'm living the lifestyle I promise.

Juliet: Anyone watching on YouTube will be able to see how beautiful your skin is. And I can't even imagine that you would suffer from acne because your skin is radiant. So, whatever you are doing is working. What's something that we do is a question from our previous guest, who was the founder of G Adventures, Bruce Poon Tip.

And his question for you was in this, what he referenced as an industrial [00:27:00] revolution with AI and human connection is. All the more important, but what type of leader are you gonna be in this new type of environment? He was saying we've had to adapt through various chaotic things. The world has thrown us, but AI being something we cannot ignore.

For you as a leader, how are you adapting to use AI or embrace it?

Neada: This is such an interesting question. I feel as though that's all we talk about right now, in a professional setting, but also amongst friends, is just this AI revolution and how it's more likely to impact our lives in in a more meaningful way than even the advent of the internet.

I really think that this is going to reshape. I don't know-

Juliet: Life as we know it.

Neada: Exactly. Exactly. So in terms of AI, I think, we are a company. All of our images we still shoot on film, 

Juliet: You can tell. Your press materials are stunning, and the packaging, everything, oh. 

Neada: Thank you. So we shoot even our product [00:28:00] images, our campaign images, all of our motion is shot on Super eight, which is that winding camera.

So we are there, I think it’s a kind of nostalgia and a humanity that comes from the universe that we have shaped. And so, in terms of AI and how that's going to impact our business, I see the opportunity as. being able to help to speed up some of our investigative research that we do in terms of ingredients, and there being, some incredible ways that, that can just help us really get to verifying. The absolute safety and performance of many of our ingredients and how they come together and you know, I formulate everything myself.

So being able to say, give me the top 50 peer-reviewed studies on these qualified websites in one place, where I don't have to be digging and digging. But that being said. I want us to be a brand where [00:29:00] humanity is the focus, where we are still shooting on film, where we are taking that moment, that breath in order to do things in a very specific way.

And I do feel as though AI is going to put us in this position where people are valuing speed and efficiency above everything. And the issue with that, especially in the early years, will be that. Often, with speed and efficiency, things are lost. There are details are missed. There are certain, for instance, when it comes to formulating dosage, concentration of an ingredient in a formula is so crucial. You have certain ingredients that 0.2% are incredible for sensitive skin, but if they're at five or 7% in a formula, they can be incredibly damaging to sensitive skin. And I think it's very easy for us to scan our phone over an ingredient list and feel as though we're getting all of the information when in truth there's so many [00:30:00] more layers beyond just that kind of superficial scan of, A label or a very quick scan of a couple of peer-reviewed studies. And, from what I have seen, when it comes to AI, a lot of the information that is pulled is quite surface-level. And for us it's going to be really important to know when to use it as a resource to collate.

Things for us, but to still invest the time into doing that deeper research and verification ourselves. I think that we're going to see people who embrace it wholeheartedly and people who resist. And it's going to be a very interesting time. But, it's a work in progress, I think all for all of us in terms of how will we embrace the future.

Juliet: Yeah, 

Neada: But that's, that's what I see right now. 

Juliet: And what would your question be for our next guest? It could be anything around entrepreneurship.

Any Challenge you're currently facing in the business.

Neada: No, I think this is wonderful. Gosh, [00:31:00] AI is such a good topic, isn't it? 

Juliet: The three, three guests ago I interviewed the founder of Fathom AI, the note taker, and it was so interesting, he said, oh yeah, in 2022 I told the board I'm putting AI in our business name, like, don't be ridiculous. Everyone hates ai. It's gonna be detrimental.

And he's like, totally game changed the business that he was probably one of the most grounded. It was such an interesting conversation, 'cause you think AI, you think automate everything. And he's like, no, we get more time with our customer service now. We get more connection with our clients. We get all of that luxury. But for you, what's your burning question?

Neada: Well, sorry, just on that topic. I, when I go see a specialist now for medical reasons, she uses an AI note taker, and hopefully it's, the same AI note taker that, this founder, developed. But what I have found is that when I'm with her, she's so present. She's not taking notes, and there is a lot of value.

And I think that there are ways that AI can actually allow us to be more human, which [00:32:00] is such an interesting perspective. I think my question for the next person that you interview has to be how, and I'm going to ask an AI question as well, if that's okay. 

Juliet: Love it.

Neada: How do you see AI reshaping the landscape for employment? What jobs will surface, which do you think will be most greatly affected? And obviously, we have gone through the industrial revolution where people, thought oh gosh, we'll never have a job again.

And that actually gave birth to so many new industries and so much opportunity. And do you see that as something that could be the ultimate outcome of AI or how do you think the job landscape will shift due to AI?

Juliet: Yeah, it's fascinating because Richard said the same thing. I, his question was how do you look at the next generation of leader? So the next generation coming through, and he's like, to be honest, I don't really employ anyone under 30, 'cause I only want to employ people with experience because AI is replacing so many of the entry-level [00:33:00] jobs.

There aren't the jobs there for them to get in and learn. And I was like, gobsmacked. I was like, I found that in my business, we've downsized our headcount for various decisions last year, but actually, I haven't needed to replace people because AI is supporting in those roles. But we all have to learn somewhere.

So how are we gonna conquer that? How are we gonna equip the next generation to come through? Which we don't know the answer to yet.

Neada: I had this exact conversation with a friend of mine the other day is what happens to those roles in your twenties? Is it just like you just download information into your brain, and all of a sudden, you're actually employable at 30? 

Juliet: Yeah. It's really hard. It's this, let's schedule a call for five years from now and see where we're at because yeah, God knows. Thank you so much for your time. It's been so interesting chatting to you about this, and it's gone so fast. I've learned a lot in a very short space of time, so thank you for sharing.

Neada: Thank you so much for having me, Juliet. It's been such a pleasure. 

Juliet: If you'd like to contact Neada, you can find all of her details in the show notes along with a recap of the advice that she has so kindly [00:34:00] shared. And tune in next week to find out the answer to her question around AI.