Serious Business: Why the funniest panel was also the smartest
Last Thursday, I attended BeautyMatter’s Future50 Summit along with a who’s who of the industry founders, execs, & brands who are shaping what comes next in the beauty biz. Kudos to Kelly Kovack, Founder BeautyMatter + CEO & John Cafarelli, Co-Founder & President.
Great event. Genuinely valuable content spanning How retailers will define the next era of beauty to breaking through the noise, gaining traction & maintaining momentum as an Indie brand.
But one panel unanimously stood out.
It was Beauty’s Lost Generation: The Gen X Opportunity featuring Laura Geller (Founder Laura Geller Beauty), Sarah Creal, (CEO, Sarah Creal Beauty) & Erica Taylor, (Makeup Artist + Digital Creator.)
The panel focused on Women Over 40 - a highly misunderstood consumer group. These women hold enormous spending power & deep brand loyalty. They have integrated beauty & wellness into their daily ritual. They know what works. They know exactly who they are. & they reward brands that respect them. All true.
Using over 40 as a milestone is a bit of a misnomer. Some GenXers are actually closing in on 60 with Millennials being the actual 40-somethings. (Seems only moment ago they were the industry darlings.)
But, what truly differentiated this panel from the others that day wasn’t just the intelligence. The entire day was filled with brilliant insights.
It was the humanity. The self-awareness. The biting, delightful honesty with which the subject was treated.
Above all, it was the unapologetic humor. These women weren’t just funny. They were hilarious. & they had the entire audience laughing, applauding & at full attention. iphones down. How rare is that!
It felt less like a conference panel & more like sneaking into a really good book club. The kind that pours wine non-stop. & dishes unmercifully.
On Humor.
The fact is, women often get a bad rap. Some say we’re not funny. But we are. (I harken back to the book club).
And our humor grows even sharper with age.
We get funnier. Can laugh at ourselves. A combo of hard-won self-confidence, a genuine Fuck it, I’m done attitude toward pleasing others & an accumulation of life experiences that provide endless comedic material. We can laugh at life’s chaos & the cringe-worthy mishaps that once would have devastated us. Dealing with age-related body changes. Laugh lines. You get the picture.
Erica Taylor’s repeated line:“Over the river & through the hood” referring to blending eyeshadow high enough to actually be seen on mature lids brought the house down.
Laura Geller, whom I had the pleasure of working with many years ago, has always possessed a shoot from the hip honesty. (BTW: I was genuinely flattered when she vividly remembered the work we did together when I grabbed her to say hi afterwards.)
But Laura - ever true to herself & her audience - also offered a sharp & much-needed corrective to the industry stereotype that presents a busy 24-hour woman juggling career, family & responsibilities. The “She does it all” narrative that permeates beauty marketing & advertising.
Laura’s caution: Not every woman across America is the Enjoli woman: “I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan & never let him forget he’s a man.”
Many women are at home. Managing households. Living quieter lives. & they are not footnotes.
It was a crucial reminder: trend reports are no substitute for the reality of people’s lives. Laura’s decades-long pulse-taking of her actual audience is precisely what has kept her relevant, vibrant. Beloved. & super successful.
On Listening.
Which bring me to the harder truth.
As marketers, we simply don’t listen well enough. (See my previous post: Research vs. Reality.)
We are so bogged down in research data or frankly & a little lazy relying on syndicated trend reports that try to tell us who our consumers are, rather than actually talking to them.
The week before the conference, I participated in an agency pitch targeting Gen Z. The agency came armed with suppositions: They’re on TikTok. They’re overwhelmed. We didn’t assume. We went out & actually talked to them. One-on-one.
The revelations were riveting. Gen Zers had never heard of our client’s brand. Had no idea what it was for. We didn’t spare our client the truth. Hard as it was for them to hear. That real insight gave us a genuine strategic advantage. & while we didn’t win the business, we showed up as smart, human, & worth a separate project.
The art of listening not just to what people say, but why they’re saying it has gotten lost.
In an article for FastCompany, Thomas Chamorro-Premuzic wrote that high-quality listening is an underrated. An extremely rare skill.
He’s right. Here are a few principles worth considering:
Don’t act like you’ve heard it all before. Having humility about what you don’t already know is where the AHA moments, big ideas & insights live.
Hear, don’t just listen. Empathy means actually placing yourself in someone else’s shoes, not pretending interest while waiting for your turn to speak.
Reject selective listening. Hearing only what confirms what you already believe isn’t research. Confirmation bias never moves the ball down the field.
Pay attention to what isn’t said. The pauses. The racing words. The fidgeting body language. The feelings underneath what’s said. & isn’t. That’s where the real signal is.
So please. Shelve the research report. Or at least read it with perspective. Put down your iphone.
Go out & talk to an actual human being. Get a little uncomfortable. Stop looking for confirmation of your ideas. Enjoy being wrong for a change.
As the Greek philosopher, Epictetus said nearly 2000 years ago: “We have two ears & one mouth, so we can listen twice as much as we speak.”
& while you’re at it - next time you’re on a panel - lighten up. Panels don’t have to be deadly serious to be taken seriously.
Sometimes funny is just smart.
Best, Robin
