Marcia Kilgore: Serial entrepreneur and founder of Bliss, Soap & Glory, FitFlop and Beauty Pie; built five companies with combined exits and revenues in the hundreds of millions.
What this episode covers
Marcia Kilgore tells Steven Bartlett how growing up poor in small-town Saskatchewan after her father's early death shaped her independence and drive. Starting with three part-time jobs as a teenager and bodybuilding, she moved to New York at 18 and became a celebrity personal trainer, then a facialist, building the Bliss spa empire she sold to LVMH at 30. She walks through founding Soap & Glory and FitFlop, learning to deal with monopolistic retailers like Boots, and now building Beauty Pie. Throughout, she returns to her core principles: relentless attention to detail, treating every customer equally and with gratitude, editing ideas ruthlessly with her 'so what' test, and using the 'deathbed test' to prioritize what matters.
Recommended on this episode
Beauty Pie protein powder
Beauty Pie
“the brand new protein powder which I've talked about a couple of times in this podcast now 100 odd calories in total 26 of your vitamins”— Steven Bartlett
Beauty Pie Mix Berry RTD protein drink
Beauty Pie
“my starting point was the mix Berry RTD didn't really like mixing protein powders before um so I when they had a a ready to drink”— Steven Bartlett
The guest's own work
Beauty Pie
Marcia Kilgore
“beauty pie right is kind of like Costco but for luxury cosmetics and skincare and wellness products and so we Source from all these fantastic labs”— Marcia Kilgore
Soap & Glory
Marcia Kilgore
“wouldn't it be fun just to kind of make a a really great brand um that has we couldn't do at drugstore prices”— Marcia Kilgore
Bliss
Marcia Kilgore
“Bliss even which was my spa that I created in in New York I mean we had everybody coming in from like mad and um Thurman and Oprah”— Marcia Kilgore
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
Originals
Adam Grant
“have you read the book it's called Originals by Adam Grant yes I'm there yeah yeah so someone gave it to me”— Marcia Kilgore
The Psychology of Money
Morgan Housel
“I've read like the psychology of money which I think is pretty much behavioral economics”— Marcia Kilgore
Pumping Iron
“everybody was talking about Arnold I think Pumping Iron had kind of maybe just come out”— Marcia Kilgore
Big reveals from this episode
- She sold 70% of Bliss to LVMH for tens of millions in 1999, just three years after launch, at age 30.
- After Bliss she founded Soap & Glory, building affordable high-quality cosmetics sold through Boots.
- Soap & Glory was selling over a hundred million dollars worth of product a year through Boots.
- She founded FitFlop because she couldn't find comfortable shoes; it now sells in 65 countries.
- Her idea filter is the 'so what' test: if you can't explain why anyone should care in one sentence, it's not good enough.
- The 'deathbed test', learned from a Saks Fifth Avenue CEO, guides her to never miss her kids' milestones over work metrics.
- She credits failure, not mentorship, as her real teacher, citing a failed Soap & Glory men's range.
Worth remembering
- She was a middleweight bodybuilding champion as a teenager before moving to New York.
- She trained at Better Bodies gym in NYC alongside Jean-Claude Van Damme and bodybuilder Gladys Portugues.
- At 18 she charged celebrities $5 to $20 an hour for personal training when minimum wage was about $3.50.
- Bliss began with models lying on the floor of her East Village apartment for facials.
- Bliss was booked roughly a year in advance, with clients booking the same monthly slot two years out.
- Pre-email, staff made nightly apologetic 'story calls' to every customer on the waiting list.
- A suitor flew her to Paris on the Concorde for lunch while courting an acquisition of Bliss.
- Soap & Glory's first week in 300 Boots stores generated only about $300 because it was on the bottom shelf.