Beauty business with the human details intact.
Where Brains Meet Beauty follows the people shaping beauty, wellness, personal care, aesthetics, and creator-led brands. Its conversations move between growth strategy and real career texture, from QVC audiences and TikTok pivots to family businesses, influencer events, and the pressure of making creative work pay.
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Where Brains Meet Beauty is an insider beauty-business show about the people behind launches, pivots, communities, and careers. It treats beauty as serious work. The conversations often begin with real agency projects, such as influencer events, creator campaigns, brand refreshes, and cultural programs, then open into broader lessons about how brands show up in market. That gives the show a grounded texture. It is not just founders telling origin stories or executives reciting wins; it spends time on audience clarity, creative tension, family dynamics, and the emotional cost of public-facing work. Recent episodes feature sisters scaling Le Prunier, a modern makeup conversation around mature skin, the team behind DIBS Beauty, the press-on playbook at Bessie Nails, and skincare community building for Lancer Skincare. The range is narrow in category but wide in business problem. A conversation can move from product testing and unused farm resources to maternity leave boundaries, or from QVC loyalty to TikTok growth and the importance of knowing exactly who a customer is. Short moments matter. Guests talk about not taking difficult personalities home, needing creative freedom when brand partnerships fall outside their normal world, and learning that leadership requires listening rather than simply rolling out a strong idea. The show also has a recurring interest in power duos. Vision and operations are treated as complementary forces, not abstract job titles. Beauty creators appear as workers building careers, not just personalities with followings. That lens makes the show especially useful for people trying to understand the business behind influence. The pacing is conversational and polished, with enough industry vocabulary to feel specific but enough personal detail to stay accessible. It is aspirational without pretending the work is effortless. The show returns again and again to growth, clarity, resilience, and relationships. It also makes space for humor, from career icebreakers to a firm refusal to repeat a rough cruise experience. For beauty professionals, founders, marketers, creators, and career-watchers, Where Brains Meet Beauty offers a current, candid record of how modern beauty brands are built and rebuilt.
Made for: For beauty founders, marketers, creators, and industry-curious listeners who want the business story behind polished brands. It also suits people studying career pivots, audience strategy, and creator-led growth.
What sets it apart: The show pairs industry access with lived detail: agency campaigns, founder choices, audience pivots, and team dynamics all share the same table. Its strongest angle is the way it connects beauty marketing to real working lives.
The beauty industry's top talent share their wisdom, advice and authenticity with our WHERE BRAINS MEET BEAUTY™ listeners. Topics include: work/life balance, how to hustle and how to handle challenges - all discussed with great honesty and humor. Conversations humanizing the beauty exec experience. Hosted by Jodi Katz, Founder and Creative Director of Base Beauty Creative Agency. New episodes launch every other Wednesday - follow us to get alerts!Episodes can be found on all streaming platforms and our website www.wherebrainsmeetbeauty.comFollow us on LinkedIn @JodiKatz and @BaseBeautyCreativeAgency for announcements, BTS, and more!For inquiries about the show, please email Natasha@basebeaut…
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Jodi Katz connects beauty-industry ambition to the practical choices behind career pivots, audience focus and brand growth.
WHERE BRAINS MEET BEAUTY follows the decisions behind beauty careers and brands, with Jodi Katz steering paired-guest conversations toward the work beneath the polished surface.
A pink-haired influencer shoot sends you straight to the customer data.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Three sisters discuss a new revenue stream for their family operation and how they share the work.
The sisters trace a new business channel to something their family operation had been throwing away. Testing suggested another use for it, so they took the idea to their father.
Beauty leaders revisit trust with franchisees, team development and creative freedom for creators.
The Listen Again Awards return to one guest from each of the show's quarterly themes. They open with Danessa Myricks and Ansi Rowe before turning to a guest's experience with franchisees. An idea can test well and still need the people who will put it into practice to trust it.
Tanya talks creator work, client worries and letting a difficult interaction go.
Where Brains Meet Beauty marks its 300th episode with a conversation about creative work and the pull of other people's opinions. Tanya recalls posting dance videos on Instagram in high school and hearing from brands.
Grace gives the uncertainty of independent work a personal scale.
When Jodi Katz asks Grace what scares her most about taking the leap, Grace has a plain answer: no steady paycheck and no trust fund to fall back on.
From ballet to Miss South Carolina and content creation, the guest considers a new career and the ambition she left behind.
A year representing Miss South Carolina gave the guest her first sustained chance to make content for people beyond the ballet studio. She promoted the organization, brought followers along to events and found she could connect with people she had never met.
Kim and Felicia talk about work, belief and feeling afraid while taking new paths in beauty.
Jodi Katz asks Kim how she enters bold situations when she feels afraid. Kim's answer is plain: believe in yourself, apply yourself and do the work. She connects that advice to a wish she had held for years, to work with women of different backgrounds, shapes and sizes.
Beauty talk with a life behind it.
Glamour, candor, and life after 40.
Odd questions, followed patiently down to the incentives.
Jodi Katz and Eleni celebrate the 300th episode of Where Brains Meet Beauty, reflecting on the podcast's eight-year journey and its evolution.
Jodi Katz introduces an interview with Chris Payne, CEO of Jane Iredale, discussing his career journey and the brand's legacy as a pioneer in clean beauty.
Jodi and Eleni announce the Listen Again Awards winners, revisiting inspiring conversations with Shontay Lundy, Neil Scibelli, and Ron Robinson.
Where Brains Meet Beauty episode 306 opens with a Z.O.
Jodi Katz and Eleni discuss a behind-the-scenes episode with Laura Geller and Sara Mitzner about their partnership and the launch of Leaked Labs.
Jodi Katz and Eleni discuss Base Beauty Creative Agency's brand refresh, emphasizing clarity, evolution, and their data-driven, creative-led approach.
Jodi Katz and Eleni discuss Eleni's LA trip and client meetings before introducing an interview with the founders of Bessie Nails.
Jodi Katz introduces the theme of Power Duos for the new season and teases an interview with Blair Lancer and Daniela De Los Santos about using skin science to build community for Lancer Skincare.
Where Brains Meet Beauty opens the 2025 Listen Again Awards by honoring one guest from each quarterly theme, with Jodi Katz revisiting winners who sparked new thinking and thoughtful feedback.
Where Brains Meet Beauty marks episode 300 with Jodi Katz, Eleni, Sarai Martinez, and Tanya Grover, and Jodi says the show began because she wanted "free therapy and free business coaching." Sarai Martinez traces a route from a sixth-grade hairstylist project and a fashion-design detour to salon training on Newberry Street, $10-an-hour shifts, and a return to hair after insurance work, marriage, kids, and a three-to-five-year break.
Jodi Katz hosts Grace Choi, an AR and AI developer who makes beauty filters for brands like Patrick Ta, Benefit, Dior, NARS, and Fenty Beauty, and Emily Kammeyer Sumner, a content creator and technical design consultant with fashion and fit expertise.
Where Brains Meet Beauty episode 298 brings together Miranda Sturce, a celebrity esthetician, and Davia Esther Bunch, an influencer and content creator, for a conversation recorded in New York City on the show’s road to episode 300.
Where Brains Meet Beauty episode 297 brings together Kim Baker of Glamazon Beauty Cosmetics and Felicia Walker, author of Your Glow Guide, for a career-journey conversation with Jodi Katz.
Jodi Katz and Eleni discuss the behind-the-scenes planning of an all-agency workshop at Base Beauty Creative Agency, focusing on skill-building and crisis management.
Jodi Katz announces the Listen Again Awards, honoring past guests Dr.