Meeting Poppy King - The Lipstick Queen

What do you do when you unexpectedly come face-to-face with one of your business heroes in a Department Store?

1. Panic, forget your own name and stare at your shoes as your cheeks grow increasing pink?
2. Jump at the chance to pitch your latest idea...she'll be clammering to get on board...right?
3. Ask her to help you choose a new lipstick?

Luckily, the day I ran into US-based, Australian lipstick entrepreneur Poppy King, during her recent visit to Sydney, she was kind enough to offer to help me choose a new lipstick. Trying to pitch an idea (if I'd had one) to a woman with a lipbrush in one hand and a daring pink lipstick in the other would be akin to trying to talk to your dentist once they've begun work. Best to just keep your thoughts to yourself and let them get on with the job in either situation.

For the record...3 weeks ago I would have never thought a new lipstick could be a life-changing purchase (so much of our feminity is expressed through our lips), and I wouldn't have considered myself a pink lipstick kind of girl...a lot can change in a few weeks!

The glamorous Poppy King launched her brand of the same name in 1992 in Australia, 6 months after leaving High School at the tender age of 18. The brand was a runaway success as it seemed there were many women who were also searching for the style of lipsticks Poppy was making. On her Lipstick Queen website, Poppy says "I wanted lipsticks that gave me the look of the 1940’s. Rich, opaque and filled with pigment." After 12 years of ups and downs, running her business, the challenge of trying something new appealed when she was approached in 2002 by a major US cosmetics company to join them, and set off for New York later that year.

An entrepreneur from the age of 18, King has now written her book 'Lessons of a Lipstick Queen' to help show other would-be entrepreneurs how they can achieve their dreams. Of this desire to help others achieve she says,

"over the years so many people have asked me how I managed to start my own lipstick brand at just 18 years of age. I wanted to break the process down in a way that is helpful to others by exploring all I learnt over the 10 years of my first business and how that can help others who have a desire to do something themselves."

I asked the successful business woman what she thought were the most important attributes for an entrepreneur to possess,

"Vision, Persistence, Humility and Passion. In that order. Firstly you need to see something in your mind eye, you need to be dogmatically persistent in pursuing and have the humility to learn along the way. Finally you must have passion even if it waxes andwanes (which is does) the first 3 can get you through until it floods back in but it must be there."

The day I bumped into Poppy King, she was surrounded by customers win a Sydney Department Store, who had queued to have their lips 'read' by the Queen herself. Later she told me,

"What I have always enjoyed from the moment I started in this business, is meeting the customers. My customer is my mentor. It's the customer that I learn the most from and always has been."

What I learn't from The Lipstick Queen

Being upfront and personal is surely a fantastic way to protect revenue in the current economic climate and even though we can't be everywhere, speaking to each and every client individually. Perhaps we can give a little more of ourselves in our client communications and keep our websites full of useful and relevant content for our clients. Poppy King's Lipstick Queen website is a great example of this and I'd urge you to take a look!

Lesley-Ann Trow is Founder of Gorgeous Things - The Pink Guide to Being Green