IAM508- Founder Shares Her Knowledge Through a Glamorous Lens

Eve Dawes is the founder of Dawes Custom Cosmetics, a natural, cruelty-free, USA-made line. A WBFF Pro, NASM certified trainer, and Mrs. Nevada United States 2017 she shares her knowledge on Glamour and Gains By Eve lifestyle blog and podcast, covering the latest fashion, curated cruelty-free beauty, health tips, and luxury travel through a glamorous lens.

Eve Dawes interviews the world's leading founders, influencers, and leaders to share their knowledge in realistic, actionable tips to help you live your best life and reach your full potential. You may have seen her in Oxygen, Iron Man, Strong, Fit & Firm Magazine, Huffington Post, bodybuilding.com, and various commercials.

• CEO Hack: Routine and gym work in the morning
• CEO Nugget: Don't try to do it all and concentrate on what you do best
• CEO Defined: One who provides solutions

Website: https://www.dawescustomcosmetics.com/

https://glamourandgains.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/evedawes & https://www.instagram.com/dawescustomcosmetics
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EveDawes/ & https://www.facebook.com/dawescustomcosmetics/
LikeToKnow.it: https://www.liketoknow.it/evedawes

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Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of.

This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Eve Dawes of Dawes Custom Cosmetics. Eve, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Eve Dawes 0:39

Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to share the insights I've been learning over the years.

Gresham Harkless 0:43

Yeah, absolutely. Super excited to have you on because you're doing loads of awesome things. What I wanted to do is just give you a little glimpse into Eve and all the awesome things that she's doing.

Eve is the founder of Dawes Custom Cosmetics, a natural, cruelty-free, USA-made line. A WBFF Pro, NASM certified trainer, and Mrs. Nevada United States 2017, she shares her knowledge on Glamour and Gains By Eve lifestyle blog and podcast covering the latest fashion, curated cruelty-free beauty, health tips, and luxury travel through a glamorous lens.

Eve Dawes interviews the world's leading founders, influencers, and leaders to share their knowledge in realistic, actionable tips to help you live your best life and reach your full potential. You may have seen her in Oxygen, Iron Man, Strong, Fit & Firm Magazine, Huffington Post, bodybuilding.com, and various commercials.

Eve, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Eve Dawes 1:39

I can't wait and thanks for the amazing intro.

Gresham Harkless 1:41

Yeah, you're doing awesome things, so I appreciate having you on the show. I wanted to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story. What led you to start the business?

Eve Dawes 1:50

Well, as you can probably tell from my bio, I like to be busy, and I like to juggle a lot of things. I'm very creative. I used to be a ballerina, but the Dawes Custom Cosmetics came about because I used to love luxury cosmetics. Everyone likes nice things. But the gap in the cosmetic market was for cruelty-free makeup, there's a lot in Sephora, but there was nothing in that luxury high-end cosmetics, one that works. I can't find the solution, just go out and create one. So I was also looking to start up a new company because I love doing that. I enjoy being creative, starting things from right to scratch and growing a baby and that fulfilment of growing something.

So that just all fell into place. Then the glamour and games, my Eve Blog has been going for about seven years under three different names, it's constantly been evolving. It started as a way to help others reach their fitness goals because the personal training, was so limiting. With the super antisocial hours, it's super long. I was helping one person at a time, right? It's one-on-one, probably the most clients I could help was 25 a week when they're coming two, or three times a week. So there just wasn't that reach. Whereas the blog, and then the podcast make it really easy for everyone to access it, without paying any money for a trainer, without paying a gym membership, they're getting all of that information easily.

Then the podcasts, I think people have stopped reading as much as they want to get their information on the go, and my podcasts are great. Put them on whilst you're doing your makeup at the moment, your car driving to work, driving to the gym, they just fit into people's lifestyles a lot easier. So that's kind of the backstory on both of my businesses.

Gresham Harkless 3:26

Nice. I definitely appreciate that and just as you said, I think that so many times there are people who might be listening to this as well, too, who are super frustrated with something that doesn't exist. I think a lot of times, we're always waiting for somebody else to create it.

But just as you've been able to do and remind us that we're able to do if there's something that is missing, or is not maybe as good, we can go and create it ourselves, just as you did with Dawes Custom Cosmetics.

Eve Dawes 3:50

Absolutely. I'm not saying it's one of those. I mean, it was a lightbulb moment moment during it, but it wasn't an overnight success thing. It was a long time building it, resourcing and researching ingredients, doing all the licensing insurance, and learning the chemistry of how to create cosmetics, I'll just throw these things together and hope it works. It's a very long process.

But if you think that makes it more rewarding when you've grown with it, and you've learned all these skills as you've gone. So be patient with it and if you want to do it, just do it. But don't expect it to happen overnight. Put the time in like a farmer, plants or seeds don't spring up overnight. Give it time to grow and evolve.

Gresham Harkless 4:27

Yeah, absolutely, and what do they say the secret to the overnight success is it takes 10 years. At the very least it didn't and I love that you touched on your blog and your podcast just because I think a lot of times, especially you touched on it when we are providing our services or our products, sometimes we have that one to one and that's great, but to really have a lot of influence and to make a huge impact, sometimes we need to be able to use platforms like blogging and podcasting so that we can have a great reach and make an even bigger impact.

Eve Dawes 5:03

Absolutely. It works. It looks twofold. Not only are you helping other people, but you're also creating that very soft funnel to your businesses as well, for extra sales and setting yourself up as an expert in your industry.

Gresham Harkless 5:15

Yeah, absolutely. I usually always say I love podcasting and blogging as platforms because a lot of times you can have more listeners and have more people that are going to be reading than people you can sometimes work with because we're limited as far as the number of hours that we can sometimes work.

Eve Dawes 5:31

Yeah, absolutely. There are only so many hours, there's only one of us.

Gresham Harkless 5:34

Exactly, as much as we try to duplicate ourselves. Now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. This could be for you or your organization, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Eve Dawes 5:47

Well, most cosmetic companies product-based. So whilst we still have superior products with natural ingredients, the organic vegan ingredients gluten gluten-free, we're an experience-based company. So that's what makes it very different. We want to create memories with you, whether you're coming to the lab to visit us or you're making a virtual appointment from wherever it's convenient for you. We're creating those customer experiences for you. We also offer professional hair and makeup, making you feel special. So you leave with a perfect color for you. It's not like oh, I'm just going to try a million colors at Sephora or the lipstick store and hope one works or buy 100 to get one that works and blend a few.

We want to create that color for you to save you that aggro and then make thrown parties come with your friends, you get to add the scent, and flavor and name it, and then you always have those memories with your friends and your time in Vegas or wherever you're doing this. So it's just a really fun, unique thing that we're able to offer. Ty's staff like, set us apart. That's what makes us unique. Like I say it's an experience. They spend weeks if not months in training with me, and I do the training myself with them. I just want them to make you feel special and ensure you get what you want.

Gresham Harkless 6:55

Yeah, that makes so much sense. It seems like a lot of times and definitely correct me if I'm wrong with a lot of businesses, you can of course get stuff shipped to you, you can find stuff online and things like that. But it's those experiences that you can't really trade and you can't replicate that. So as you talked about having that experiential aspect of it is something that not only do you have at that specific time, but it's something you'll remember for the rest of your life.

Eve Dawes 7:21

Exactly. I think that's the way we're going, especially with gifting is buying experiences, not things because we're such an instant gratification nation, we buy it when we want it right. So it's like, okay, I want it I'm gonna get it now. So then what's your gift? Well, you can give this and you can do it with them as well and have that fun experience together.

Gresham Harkless 7:37

Yeah, absolutely. It's like waiting. When I was younger, I used to wait for Santa to come and then you would go and you would find out what was under the Christmas tree. That was a whole experience, then nowadays, as you say, Santa comes every day and in the way of Amazon and you order something and it comes right there the next day. So a lot of times you don't get that build-up in that experience and that excitement that you missed.

Eve Dawes 8:00

Yeah, absolutely. So bringing that excitement back to gifting and making it very personalized.

Gresham Harkless 8:05

Absolutely. I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app or book or a habit that you have. But what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Eve Dawes 8:18

With my background? Being ballet, I'm very, very disciplined. I like a routine. So having the fitness blog, it's gonna have to be a fitness hack. It might sound like how does this fit into being a CEO in business? But if you neglect your fitness and your health, you're gonna get sick, you get tired, and you can't do your job properly? For me, I do the gym work morning, I do the workout in the morning first thing as soon as I get up before breakfast, so I can't make excuses.

I tend to find it if I put it off till later in the day, it gets pushed back and pushed back until it doesn't get done. Whereas if I do it in the morning, actually, I go there, I'll be going through my emails, I could do some social media. I'm getting my head in the game and I feel energized for the rest of the day and it's done. I'm not thinking about it again. I like having a checklist of things to do in the day and working through them.

You've also got that sense of accomplishment that sets you up for the rest of the day.

Gresham Harkless 9:06

Yeah, absolutely. That makes sense as well. It's funny, I've written a lot of stuff related to it because I'm a big sports junkie. So I love sports and being athletic and doing different competitions, because I feel like there's such a synergy between that and business.

A lot of times that you spoke to the discipline you have to do to be evaluated and do all the different movements, you have to have that same kind of discipline in business, because if you don't take care of those small things, then it doesn't build up into being a great blog, a great podcast, as you've been able to do.

Eve Dawes 9:37

Yeah, you have to have the eye for detail and go the extra mile that other people aren't willing to do and like say it's tender overnight success in 10 years. It is the people who are successful, the people who don't give up and they're able to evolve and keep changing with the times and not be stuck in a rut or give up.

I think it was the podcast stats that people normally give up after Episode Seven like doing something just stick with it, especially if it's that, you have to believe in it. If you believe in it, it will work. Stick with it.

Gresham Harkless 10:03

Yeah, it's definitely quite alright for those first seven podcasts, if only the person listening to it, listening to it as your mom, which is in my case, still keeps pushing forward and keeps creating content. Because if you stay in your lane you're doing what's your special thing and what's unique to you, then you'll continue to grow and that snowball moment will definitely happen.

Eve Dawes 10:23

Yeah, absolutely. It suddenly gets traction, and you don't know how it started. But it gets going. It's really nice, and really rewarding when you see those figures suddenly spike with your listeners and your download stats. Definitely.

Gresham Harkless 10:36

Exactly. That makes so much sense. Now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. That is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice or if you could hop into be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Eve Dawes 10:47

Okay, I probably learned this the hard way, because I did try and do it all. I would say don't try and do it or really concentrate on what you do best. You'll probably find the things you do best are the things you enjoy most. That makes your job more enjoyable. Then hire pros for the other areas that can do that the best, so that your business functions optimally and you avoid burnout.

I'm running around like a headless chicken. It's good to learn the basics of everything. I think that's really important. So you understand what you're delegating, and what to expect. But you don't necessarily need to know how to do everything and do it all yourself. It's a really just do what you do best.

Gresham Harkless 11:22

Yeah, absolutely. I think I'm glad you brought that up. Because I think a lot of times when we're looking for our quote and quote zone of genius, and what we do best, sometimes it doesn't happen where you just wake up and you see it.

A lot of times you find that out, or at least I did when I wasn't doing something that I enjoy doing. I was like, I don't want to do this and I would be better off finding somebody that has a zone of genius so that we can work together and make that happen.

Eve Dawes 11:46

Yeah. Oh my gosh, like the thing for me. I'm terrible at sales, and I'm terrible at accounting. Is that okay, I will do that. Then I could just feature on creating the new makeup and the new line. I love the marketing, I love the writing, I love the public speaking, and all of those fun things.

Gresham Harkless 12:03

Yeah, absolutely. I'm sure if you were to talk with the people that you're able to partner with and make that happen, they probably wouldn't want to do any of that stuff that you love doing. So it's just finding that kind of win-win situation in that relationship.

Eve Dawes 12:15

Oh, yeah. My salespeople. That's what they love doing. I thrive on it and you can tell and it's so genuine. It's like, okay, awesome.

Gresham Harkless 12:22

Yes, absolutely. That That makes so much sense. Now, I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote-unquote, CEOs on the show. So Eve, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Eve Dawes 12:36

So for me, it's not someone who sits behind a desk or is at the top of the chain. It's someone who provides solutions, who's really hands-on, and whatever area is that innovators are always evolving, growing, and looking for ways to help others. I think that's what it is, you have to be a solution provider, how are you helping others?

Gresham Harkless 12:55

Absolutely. I think a lot of times, it puts it all in perspective, because usually when we create our organizations or businesses just as you spoke, it is to provide something that is high, and that can provide value for people. A lot of times, we can lose that in the day-to-day, kind of hustle and bustle of business. So you have to make sure to go back to that so that you are doing that for your team for your clients for everybody that you connected with.

Eve Dawes 13:18

Yeah, absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 13:20

Awesome. Well, Eve, thank you so much for your time, what I want to do is pass you the mic so to speak, and to see if there's anything additional, you want to let our readers and listeners know. Then of course, how best they can get a hold of you, subscribe to the podcast, find out about the blog, and see all the awesome things we're working on.

Eve Dawes 13:37

My takeaway from this would be don't procrastinate. If you want to do something, don't wait until you're ready. Because it's never going to be the perfect time. You're never going to have all your ducks in a row. It's just habit. But I'm not saying don't go out there unprepared. Like being prepared, and having a plan. But you can start small, it's okay as long as it's scalable. Then you can just scale at a pace within your financial means. Just don't try and do it all from day one.

The important thing is just just get started and follow your dreams and your passions. Then the best way to contact me and my websites are dawescustomcosmetics.com for the cosmetics or glamourandgains.com by Eve for the lifestyle blog and podcast. Or I'm always on Instagram, dawescustomcosmetics, or you can reach me by email at info@dawescustomcosmetics.

Gresham Harkless 14:22

Awesome. We will make sure to have those links in the show notes as well so that everybody can follow up with you. I thank you so much for your time of course for the reminder as well to about making sure that you keep putting one foot in front of the other. Rome wasn't built in a day and neither were the most successful businesses.

So if you just keep doing what you're doing and take it one day at a time, then we can definitely reach success. So I appreciate you again for that reminder and I hope you have a phenomenal rest today.

Eve Dawes 14:46

Thank you too, Gresh. I appreciate you having me on your podcast.

Outro 14:50

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community.

Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless.

Thank you for listening.

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