Joyce:

[0:01] COVID nearly killed Florêve. It's long, it's painful, it's stressful.

Joyce:

[0:07] And my hair turned white. Every day I think about how to save my company, how to save my baby and one word appeared in my dream, it's local market. We don't have any choice to go back to local markets, to European markets, to France markets, Because COVID is there and COVID awakened me up. And you know, I'm very grateful for this period.

Debbie:

[0:36] Welcome back to Skin in the Game. I'm Debbie Go. And in this podcast, we dive deep into the stories of leaders who are truly putting their skin in the game. Those who are reshaping industries through bold vision, resilience, and strategies. Today, we are stepping into a world where ancient wisdom meets modern innovation. My guest is Joyce Wang, the visionary founder and CEO of Florêve. Based in the heart of Paris, Florêve is doing something truly unique, masterfully blending the profound knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine with cutting-edge French science to create holistic beauty solutions. Joyce isn't just an entrepreneur, she's a pharmacist who saw a gap for clinically rigorous yet holistic beauty and decided to fill it back in 2015.

Debbie:

[1:24] Fast forward to today, Florêve’s award-winning products like their revolutionary three-step ampule system are available in 17 countries, redefining what beauty means not just on the surface, but from the inside out. Bonjour, Joyce. It is an absolute pleasure to have you on Skin and the Game.  Welcome.

Joyce:

[1:42] Bonjour, bonjour, Debbie. Hello, everyone. Nice to e-meet you. I'm Joyce Wang, the founder of Florêve. It's my honor to be invited to this podcast. Thanks very much, Debbie. 

Debbie:

[1:58] Thanks, Joyce. The name Florêve  itself is beautiful, blending flower and dream, reflecting your fusion of Chinese traditional medicine and French modern science. What personal or cultural experiences inspired you to bridge these two worlds, and how did you test or validate this idea before bringing it to life?

Joyce:

[2:19] Okay, facts. 2014, 2013, I was an intern. I did my internship in a cosmetic company in Paris. At that moment, my boss gave me a project. I was the project manager and junior, of course. I participated in this project to create a range of cosmetic products. At that moment, I need to propose some name for this range. I did lots of analysis. And like the most famous name of the French brands, like Lancome. You know, Lancome is the founder. It's like the name of Lancome. He thought this sounds good, and sounds French. So Lancome is no meaning at all.

Joyce:

[3:12] Chanel, Chanel is the name of the founder. And also Dior. Dior is is d'or from gold, from gold in French, is d'or. And so I did a research for successful names in this beauty industry. And I make a conclusion to if we want to make a successful brand and worldwide, and we want to expand it worldwide, it's better to put two words together simply and to create a new name, because it will be more original. It will be easier to register it as a new brand, not just in France, but also in other countries. This is not just something that's come out of my head. When I were in the metro, I take my metro, I put all the ideas shining out in my brain. I put a list of them. So at that moment, I propose to my boss.

Joyce:

[4:18] See, these names are very good. Perhaps you may choose one. This is how it comes. And finally, when I start my own business, I have a small meeting with friends in Starbucks. And my girlfriends prefer this name because it's related to the nature. Flower, fleur is flower. And rêve in French is dream. Flower dream is beautiful. So finally, it's like this.

Joyce:

[4:50] Beginning story.

Debbie:

[4:51] Joyce, launching a beauty brand in Paris, arguably the global capital of beauty, sounds incredibly bold in your end. What first steps did you take to turn Florêve from a dream into reality? And what unexpected obstacles emerged during those early days?

Joyce:

[5:09] At that moment, since I'm a project manager, I'm an auto, how to say that, autonome person, in French, autonome person. I'm a person driven by my own ideas. I don't like driven by others' ideas. So I move on. I found that I need to understand well the customers. So I started writing the articles on BBS for the Chinese community in France. Fighting in France is the name of the forum. And at the moment, I share my opinion about the cosmetic composition, like the formula of La Mer, the most famous cream. Why they designed this formula? And this formula is better for which kind of skin type? It's not just perhaps, it's not just as they mentioned in the marketing, but also some composition are better for some kind of skin needs. So I give lots of this kind of advice and I ask people to share me one photo of their face and also share me the products they are using. And so I analyzed if this product they use is suitable for their skin or not.

Joyce:

[6:33] I invite people to talk with me online, and progressively, I thought it's not enough. So I propose to meet them at Starbucks in the center of Paris. I put announced, a little small announce. We still could find it on the BBS. I told them that every Friday afternoon, I work there. If you want to come see me and talk with me and have the personalized suggestion, you could come. You're welcome. So every Friday afternoon, during first six months, I work there. And I told my previous boss, it's not for coffee. I work there. So I meet people. At first, no people come. But it's strange. Day by day, one person, two person, three person. By this way, I gained my first 100 loyal customers. They are still following me until today, after 11 years. So I started Florêve in this community, in this Asian community in France. There were 600,000 Asian Chinese communities in France. At that moment, now surely the number is bigger. And so I started with a small community.

Joyce:

[7:55] I give my advice, but also I create some products in the libraries and I ask them to test.

Debbie:

[8:01] Interesting how you started and then made this community so big and developed a loyal following. That's really an interesting story. Your background as a pharmacist is clearly core to Florêve 's scientific credibility. How did this expertise shape also the partnerships you have with labs like Seppic and ensure that you have compliance with the EU standards?

Joyce:

[8:24] As I shared, I didn't jump into immediately in the healthy industry at first since I was the project manager for skin cream range. But after the discussion with the customers, with the friends, I found that people don't fall resolved for a real solution of skin problem. It's not just a cream, it's not just an out solution, but also in-solution. That is why I am a pharmacist as in a base. I understand the link between the acne problem and digestion. I understand better the hair loss problems with the stress. I understand a little more better than others. And in France, there are lots of cosmetic brands and lots of very good cosmetic brands.

Joyce:

[9:19] So progressively, I make my advice for the customers. They could find some cosmetics on this market already. But the in-solution, at that moment, 11 years, 10 years before, there are not lots of in-solution. And so I went to lots of salon expositions in this pharmacy industry. Not beauty industry, pharmacy industry. And there, I met Seppic, I met Nexira, I met lots of pharmaceutical laboratories in France, because I based in Paris.

Joyce:

[9:58] And they're also proposing the composition, the actives for beauty. But at that moment, they export a lot. They export to Japan, to the rest of the world, to the U.S. But at that moment, there are not lots of nutri-cosmetics brands in France. So by this way, I found, ah, since there's not lots of proposition, I make one. I make one because since I'm Chinese. I know that in China, we consume the collagen since 18 years old, and this is not a new product. But you know what? In France, at that moment, there are not lots of nutri-cosmetic brands. There are some detox solution, for immunity solution, but not lots of beauty solution. Now, today, more and more. But 10 years ago, no.

Debbie:

[10:53] So you found that gap beyond just cosmetics, skincare, it's important to have nutrition because it's the beauty thing that goes inside your body to transform your health and wellness inside out.

Joyce:

[11:05] I'm a foreigner. I'm Chinese. I know what happened in Asia. I know what happened in France. And as a business founder, I propose something that doesn't exist here. But already very developed in Asia. This is the beginning.

Debbie:

[11:24] Blending traditional Chinese medicine and French modern science, how did you make sure that these two philosophies complemented rather than dilute each other?

Joyce:

[11:35] Very good question, because for five years, French, European markets are still too young to sell nutri-cosmetic products. Because at that moment, people don't understand. We have a very huge education work to do. Why collagen effects will give a good result on the skin? Why, why, why? Lots of questions. At that moment, at first years of Florêve, Florêve today is 10 years old, we export, we do lots of exports to Asian markets. We explain why our solution is better than, I'm sorry, than some Japanese brands. Because at that moment, lots of Japanese competitors like Polar and etc. So what we do is every day, we are better than them, blah.

Joyce:

[12:29] And at that moment, of course, we put in front French technology. We say that we have French technology brand and why the molecule is better than others. The production is high standards. Made in France, at the first five years, we sell French technology. But no, no, no, no, Chinese philosophy. And me, and at that moment, I'm not confident. I don't have this confidence as today. At that moment, I stand behind the brand. And very painful is that my Asian distributor, they don't want me to appear in the story. They are afraid to show me the brand because I'm Chinese.

Joyce:

[13:19] And so at that moment, what I do is sell products and I tell them here is a big French label and here is the scientific support and here is a lot. But COVID arrived. It's very, very painful. We can't export anymore. We can't export to Asian markets during one year, and it makes a big challenge. It's nearly killed flora. So every day I think about how to save my company, how to save my baby on one word, a pair. In my dream is, okay, local market. We don't have any chance to go back to local markets to European markets to France markets because COVID is there and it's COVID awakened me up. And you know, I'm very grateful for this period, three, four years. It's long, it's painful, it's stressful. And my heart turned white and every day I think how to save my company. I need to pay everyone. I don't have money to pay everyone. I cried but not burnout, never burn out because too much job, too much job to do. I don't have time to burn out. But it's very stressful. At that moment, I found local market. But being a player in the local market, I can't present we are French brand, we are French technology brand. There are too many competitors. No way. I'm Chinese. I can't do the competition by using this way. So I'm thinking we test. We do lots of tests. I don't have money to hire key influencers. So I do my own videos at home and very casual. You know what? It works. It works. And people call me. Hello, I like your voice. I do like mobile. You speak very well French. Okay, thank you. And may I know that you are a Korean, you're a South Korean brand. I'm not a South Korean brand, but I'm a French brand, but I'm Chinese.

Joyce:

[15:36] So I found that people interested in a foreign face present a French brand. And this is my opportunity start. Once we, I noticed that this is my opportunity because I don't have lots of competitors here. I speak better French, better English. And now that I see you, Debbie, but this is my chance. Okay, let's go. So I started rebranding the brand story by putting the Chinese philosophy, Chinese medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, with the French technology. And this makes a big difference than other competitors. And until now, in LinkedIn, I share my Chinese philosophy. And when I sell products, I use this Chinese medicine to explain our formula. And of course, we do reformulation. We update the formula with the Chinese medicine, but this is not the beginning.

Debbie:

[16:40] It was interesting how you started with the export market in China. Yes. And then COVID time hit, you started to penetrate the local market. It's smart of you to lean in to your Asian heritage, your Chinese heritage, because you are the expert in that field. So thanks for sharing that.

Joyce:

[17:00] During these past 10 years, it's a procedure. It's a position to define myself. At first, I'm hidden, right? I'm hidden behind the brand. I can't appear. I feel very frustrated when distributor told me, Joyce, you must be hidden. Nobody can find you. Once people find you a Chinese founder, they won't believe the brand. At that moment, I feel very, okay, for the sales, okay. So these past 10 years, it's a way, it's a journey. that I defined myself, I build my personal confidence, you see.

Debbie:

[17:37] You stepped out as a founder, as the CEO of the company and found your voice.

Joyce:

[17:43] And you know what, now I feel every day very strong. Lots of people say that being yourself, the Western people always say being yourself, but this is not what we receive when we are children. For example, in China, it's a collective of value. We can't be ourselves. We need to be a very good girl in a big group. So this personal value, I'm still learning how to present ourselves. I'm learning every day.

Debbie:

[18:16] What do you think would be your key learning during that 10 years of development stage when you were building your company as an entrepreneur, also as a business person in terms of character building and how you approach your business during those 10 years?

Joyce:

[18:33] This morning, I shared a post at LinkedIn, and you know what? My distributor shared just two days before in New York, the Spanish island, very famous tourist city. And we had a very successful event with the top institution named Xenia, who possessed 200,000 followers, which is the top one in Spain. And my distributor shared experience. Of course, we need to make a communication on the social network. And he said that, I feel comfortable. When I work with Joyce, with Xenia, I feel like being home. I don't feel like I'm doing my job. I feel like home. This is my conclusion after these past 10 years. We need to find our comfort zone when we feel comfortable. When we feel confident about ourselves, we can present the best vision of ourselves. Since, for example, now I feel comfortable.

Joyce:

[19:40] And I'm sure that you can feel it. But to feel comfortable is not easy. It's not easy. It's like cook the meat at first. We will become very tight, very, very tight. And we are aware that we are making lots of ease. After this period, when we truly find the important parts, the way, the method, the good people, we will enter into the next part, we feel comfortable.

Joyce:

[20:14] After lots of efforts, we feel comfortable. And before re-entering this comfort zone, sometimes it's very hard to make real success. Well, I don't know if you can understand. For example, Debbie, you make the perfect presentation of this podcast. I'm sure that you did it lots of time and you practice until you feel naturally present the podcast. People feel, wow, it's good to hear you, Debbie. So my conclusion, we need to put lots of effort to look effortless. And if we look effortless, we are successful. 

Debbie:

[20:59] Sometimes the effort that we've taken behind the scenes, when you actually execute it, makes people think, oh, it's so effortless. You know, the way Joyce has done it, it's so graceful. It's so easy. but there's a huge amount of work that goes behind the scenes. Now, I wanted to understand about your products. Your three-step ampoules, the detox, the glow, the youth takes a very holistic approach. So why did you focus on a multi-step system versus just a single solution?

Joyce:

[21:33] It's also about my philosophy. For example, when we start work, the first thing is normally we clean the table. We make it very comfortable where we stay. And once it's clean, and the second step is to make some decoration. We put this here, that here. Yes, we decorate. The third step is once some problems appear, we need to take action immediately. Don't wait until the problems get bigger and bigger. It will be very difficult to resolve it. So when we observe something go wrong, we take action immediately. This is a very positive attitude. That is why we designed these three R methods. First of all, clean, detox. We detox our body, we detox our face. And secondly, we make some re-energizing, deletion of our skin, our body. The second range of products. And the third part is repair. We repair once, we get nervous, we don't sleep well.

Joyce:

[22:46] Pay attention, the hair will, it's starting to fall off. So take action immediately. Don't wait until it's broken. After broken, it's very difficult to repair. So this is the 3R philosophy and it works a lot. And people feel that is logical. I like this clear method.

Debbie:

[23:06] It makes sense, actually, to prevent rather than wait until it's in a worse state.

Joyce:

And also doing things step by step.

Debbie:

[23:15] Now your ampoule contains four grams that's actually quite a potent active ingredient versus your standard supplements so why did you prioritize first bioavailability and what challenges you face in terms of formulating a liquid-based product versus

Joyce:

[23:33] This is about business. You know as an entrepreneur we need to find the empty parts in these markets It's very difficult to launch products already. We can find it easily on the market because there are too many big companies. They could launch the product faster and more cheaper. And so we need to create something. We need to do the real creation to attract customers simply. And at that Florêve, we choose a target. Like me, I'm a mother of three, two daughter and Florab, 10 years. So I'm a marathon runner, lover and runner. And I do, I love, I'm a foreigner in France. I have some job to do. My parents in China. And not just work. I also have lots of life missions. So every day I'm busy. I, like you see me this morning, my hair is not well prepared. So Florêve is designed for the women, for the people like me. I don't have time. So when we don't have time, Our digestion, always our digestion can't work well efficiently. You must have this kind of experience. When we get tired, we feel bloated.

Joyce:

[24:47] So we need to create a solution very easy, quick, multifunction, and high concentration. And liquid, why liquid? Because liquid in 30 minutes is entering our body, in our blood. But the gel form will need four hours. To wait, it dissolves in our stomach and enters into our bloodstream progressively. It's for the other function, but not for beauty purpose. So, fluoride, we choose the high bioavailability and liquid to give a beauty solution to the busy women. Simple

Debbie:

[25:31] Quick absorption, because it's a liquid format, yes. And also, glass ampoule helps to preserve the product freshness.

Joyce:

[25:38] Why we choose glass vial? Because the glass vial contains 15 milliliters liquid. It's not just for beautiful use. But also, we could put until 5 gram active in each dose. That's the gels. Gels or how to say the pills, we could put 200 milligram. So we take one glass vial or we open three or five bottles to take until 20 pills. We don't have time to open five bottles every morning to take 20 pills.

Debbie:

[26:11] Did you find producing glass ampoule a little complex in terms of scalability or cost?

Joyce:

[26:18] In fact, the cost is not very high, but the lead time is very low. We need to prepare, for example, for the powder. We just mix it and we put it in a bag. Perhaps one month it will be okay to lunch. But we will need three or even four months to order the packaging. And this supply chain is a little longer and slower than other kind of food supplements. It's much more expensive in logistics, of course, because it's more heavier.

Joyce:

[26:52] But still, people buy it. So that’s the most important part.

Debbie:

[26:57] Introducing a holistic brand in France, which we know is the homeland of many traditional beauty powerhouses, must have presented unique challenges for you. How did you win over the skeptics?

Joyce:

[27:09] France is one of the first countries in the industrial evolution. So in France, it's very industrial. In Asia, we have this natural solutions, holistic philosophy. In Asia, this is Asian philosophy. It's not in France philosophy. And so now what we do is the education. And today, holistic, beauty holistic solution is increasing fastly.

Debbie:

[27:37] Now, Florêve operates in 17 countries, right, Joyce? Yes. So what were the operational or cultural adaptations you had to make when expanding beyond the French market?

Joyce:

[27:48] Yes, two things. We got very fast growth, 200% growth this year. And what we did is that, first of all, meet people. Be present. For example, yesterday, I just came back from Spain. And before we talk with people in distance okay how are you and then we send them pictures videos etc but now i i found that the best doing business is to go there to meet people locally I travel a lot i make the Cosmoprof in Italy and I met you. So meet people, go to meet people ,talk with people, eat with them.

Joyce:

[28:33] Asian culture, but not just Asian culture. It's global culture. We need to laugh with people, share with them. Not just technology, but also our personal philosophy, our family, the marriage, etc. So people work with people, real people. People like to work with friends, not just partners. This is the first one. Go to meet people. And the second one is to make my business. easily to copy. For example, this year, we are creating a system, an academy system, to train the distributor worldwide. And we have a cloud. We use AI to make the translation faster. And the distributors, it will be very easy for them to find the answers in our system. The second part is to make your business easy to expand, easy to, how to say that, make the education part easily. With these two actions, normally we can do good business.

Debbie:

[29:34] You mentioned earlier, you as a CEO, mother, and marathon lover, how does your discipline shape your leadership style or Florêve s brand philosophy?

Joyce:

[29:45] Okay, I'll show you one thing. My husband lost 30 kilos during last one year and a half. My husband was a big belly person before because his job is an engineer, he's a trained engineer. Always work with a computer and he doesn't like sports. I married with him for 14 years already. At the first 10 years, always I tell him, I push him. Go out, go to sport. Look at you. You are fat. It’s dangerous for your health. It's not good.

Joyce:

[30:20] It doesn't work. Doesn't work at all.

Joyce:

[30:24] But since I do one thing, I don't care about him. Okay, go ahead. Sit in your computer with your first wife. I'm the second, even third wife, stay with your first wife. And I start focus on myself. I start doing sports and I do selfie.

Joyce:

[30:46] Selfie because after sports, we feel good and we do selfie. And then by this influence power, my husband automatically go out, go biking. And I just found a truth. The truth is that before we change something, change ourselves, and the being leadership, this is the key. This is sacred. This is my key. That means that, like the sun, we need to make ourselves hot and shiny. We give positive influence to others around us. I stopped seeing others, what they do. Do you do your job? Do you do your job yesterday? What do you do today? What do we do today? and blah, blah, blah. I stopped doing this. I focused on my own job. I did this. I make this big deal. I did this. And this is conclusion. Bravo in French is congratulations. And I stopped following others what they do every day. I start shining myself up. And then, you know what? Since I changed my focus from focus on others to focus on ourselves. Everything changed it’s better and better every day.

Debbie:

[32:04] I love your philosophy, Joyce. It's like the warmth of the sun coming from you is actually being felt by the people around you. That's insightful.

Joyce:

[32:13] And also, one of my very successful girlfriends told me, Joyce, when you enter into a new office, you must shining up. You must make others feel that, ah, wow, it's very good to see her. You must be this kind of leader. Oh my God, did she come?

Joyce:

[32:36] Oh, he come. Not this. Once we change this role, and this is the true leadership for me.

Debbie:

[32:44] I know that you've won the best brands at the Indies Beauty Awards, which is a significant milestone. What kind of impact did that recognition have on your team or even investors' interests?

Joyce:

[32:57] During COVID, I begged investors. Oh, give me money, give me money, give me money. I did lots of powerpoints and I showed the Excel table, etc. Butafter  I recovered from this crisis. I stopped seeing investors. The best investors are my customers. They are my customers. I stopped wasting my time on investors because I don't want to work for others. My best investors are my customers. And secondly, is that after the awards, honestly, I wished to receive automatically lots of other after this award, but no zero there. But not zero, but not like small, because this will make a big influence. But it made me feel more confident.

Joyce:

[33:54] I think this is the most important part and the most precious  gift from these efforts for myself. I feel good to do the pitch in front of the customers. I feel confident to show my philosophy to show my knowledge because you know as a foreigner before that I didn't have this confidence. You're Chinese. The Chinese people, we are factory. We are factories. We're good at doing factories. But not good at doing  brand. It's not your talents. It's not what you do. But this award give me this confidence. You see? I arrived here. Because this award is with 40 other founders. French founders.

Debbie:

[34:44] That's a huge recognition on your part, Joyce, receiving the best Indie award.

Joyce:

[34:48] Once we focus on building this confidence of ourselves, we will get stronger and stronger. Of course, it's not easy. But my advice to other young women, to other young men, to other younger entrepreneurs than me, is to focus on building this confidence of ourselves. It's not easy, but it's worthful.

Debbie:

[35:19] Joyce, is there a story or an experience that helped inspire and build your confidence in standing up to your own business?

Joyce:

[35:26] Yes. Debbie, you are in Singapore, right?

Debbie:

[35:30] Yes, I'm based in Singapore.

Joyce:

[35:32] You know what? I had to travel in Singapore. This made me a big changement in my mind. You know, the Cosmoprof Hong Kong, after COVID, the first Cosmoprof changed the place from Hong Kong to Singapore. So I had this occasion to go to Singapore in 2022, I think, to participate in this salon.

Joyce:

[35:58] And after this travel, it made me big, big impact. That's because you know what? I'm Chinese. I live in France. I built a brand. Lots of people don't believe me. My previous distributor, they want me to show up. Because Chinese people, we are factory. We are, okay, massage. We are like, how to say that? The nails. We are not high-end beauty brands. We were not good at to build beauty brands. And so, during long time, I don't have this confidence. If I have this confidence and other people told me that, just hide you, hide you from this brand, hide your story. Don't show up. After this travel in Singapore, I see something strange. Ask me. I see the symbol in Singapore. It's a lion with a fish. It's very strange. And a lion. Yes. And Singapore people, we are proud of it. We are proud of being strange on the way. When I'm walking in Singapore Street, I can hear is a Chinese town. And here is an Indian town. And here we can hear the Muslims. They are praying. Singapore is a culture-mixed country.

Joyce:

[37:21] It's strange, and we speak English. Singapore, you must go there. For me, it's the most intelligent, beautiful country. And there we see a real intelligence of human beings. Because we mix every strange thing together, and it's unique, it's beautiful, it's comfortable. Singapore, from the very poor country, very small country. You built your own strategy to, wow. First of all, it gave me confidence. The Chinese people, the Asian, mine, it works. We are intelligent. We are smart. It gave me this confidence. And also being strange is being unique. After this travel, I read lots of books of wrote by Lee Kuan Yew. He said that I make lots of big decisions of Singapore, but I didn't learn from any successful countries in this world. I make my own decision. I believe my own decision. I analyze the facts and make my own decision. I learned lots of this kind of strategy from Singapore. I think it's helpful for all the entrepreneurs because, you know, learning strategy from other companies is good, but the learning strategy for country, it will be very strong.

Joyce:

[38:46]  So by learning the strategy of development of Singapore, I built the strategy for Florêve, a strange, very strange mixed culture brand as Singapore. And after that, I decided to show up, to participate in these wars in Paris. I feel good and I feel confident. So this travel is fundamental for me. 

Debbie:

[39:37] Earlier when you talked about the distributor giving you advice, saying to you, don't show your face because it will not be good for the brand. So, what advice would you tell

Debbie:

[39:50] entrepreneurs who are starting out and then having people giving advice? So, when do you listen and when do you stand up to what you believe will work for your brand?

Joyce:

[40:03] My opinion is that I think when we're doing business, at first, of course, it's for earning money. Honestly, it's for earning, how to say that, the extra. But doing business, doing a healthy and good business is to always think about benefits for others. First of all, we need to identify who are our true customers. At that moment, I don't know if it was a mistake or not. I identified that our customers are the distributors and not the final customers. And so I do everything to to give more benefits to the distributors I don't know it's good idea or not you tell me but now my conclusion I very confirm that my customers are the final customers what I do I do everything I do everything for give a benefit the benefits to the final customers to the women for example menopause women what is their needs what are their pain and the pain parts and how I could create a solution for them every day. I think about it. I show up. I do this job. Once I give the true value, I give the solution for my customer, I win.

Debbie:

[41:21] You have a right approach in terms of being more consumer-centric. At that time when you were starting out, you thought your customer was the distributor. And then once you reach a certain stage, you realize that your customer is really the end user.

Joyce:

[41:35] The benefits of distributors, of course, we need to make the game a role to facilitate everyone and their margin.

Joyce:

[41:44] Of course, we do this job. But now I'm very sure that our true value is in the final customers.

Debbie:

[41:51] Now, speaking of customers, I know that you have a high 41% repurchase rate. Clearly, your customers are loving your products. So what's one piece of customer feedback that has genuinely surprised you or inspired a new idea for Florev?

Joyce:

[42:09] Every day I got the new inspiration. I can't stop learning because I think this is the engine to get in touch. Very closely with the customers in daily life and to keep moving on with them. This is our job every day. And we have the opportunity to get the very high value customer. Most parts of our customers are women and get aware that they need to take care from within themselves. Normally they are mature women after 35 years. So we share every day. not just the products. I share my knowledge about health and beauty, but they also give me lots of advice for the philosophy, et cetera. They become my very good friend. One thing I just share with you is one of my customers is a big boss, very successful boss. And she told me that when you enter into the office, you must be shining out. And lots of this kind of thing. I'm very happy. I like my customers. This is very important for me. I don't want to work with people I don't like. I'm an entrepreneur and already suffer all this stress. Why work with people I don't like?

Debbie:

[43:33] Florêve’s tagline emphasizes beauty as an inner and outer journey, right? So looking beyond skincare and hair care, where do you see your product line expanding next?

Joyce:

[43:45] It's a very, very good question, because in two weeks, I will go to Barcelona, Catalonia, in this region, I will give a presentation for the holistic approach, how to help menopause women in the summer with holistic approach. So next up, for sure, I don't just want to sell products. I also want to sell the holistic approach, holistic method. I plan this summer I will go back to China to understand well Chinese medicine and understand well all the method. And I want to bring it back to Europe. Perhaps do some creation with existing Europe beauty method and make a new thing. This is what I want to do next step because I'm lucky. I'm Chinese. I'm in France. And I have this two vision. I think it's a very valuable thing. And we are human. And to make this world brighter, we could share more knowledge. You know, today we have lots of stress. How to say that? Economy. War. But we could do some effort to make this world closer.

Debbie:

[45:07] I think it's smart that you are tapping into underserved segments like the menopause and expanding to educate consumers about taking care of themselves and having workshops or training.

Joycefi:

[45:22] I did two or three events every month by collaborating with the best of lots of good spas. And they invite their VIP customers and I go there and I do my personalized suggestion with Chinese medicine, etc. There is a truth that is a phenomenon worldwide. Women start think about themselves after menopause because before that, the children, the family, the husband, Because before menopause, perhaps our energy is this level, very high, and we feel energized. We were energized every day. We feel good. But menopause arrived. We are still the support of the family, big support of the family, but we feel that our energy is dropping down. How we could help, support these women to move into the next stage of life smoothly and more happy. How we could empower women? And this is what we want to do now.

Debbie:

[46:24] The beauty industry is seeing a huge boom in AI and data-driven personalization. How do you see Florêve's potentially leveraging technology and data while staying true to its holistic human-centric ethos?

Joyce:

[46:40] I don't want to do videos with AI. I don't think our customers like to see AI videos on the network. But AI, first of all, it makes this world smaller. For example, we use this online software. We could translate immediately our French post on Instagram into whatever language is in this world. So this makes a marketing job more easily. And secondly, the AI, of course, every day I use it as my secretary. I'm sorry, my English is. So I use it to help me clarify my thoughts and it may work more efficiently, of course. And the AI, I think that will be very interesting is that we could make like diagnostic with AI technology so that people will get a personalized solution. This is what we want to discover in next step.

Debbie:

[47:44] Joyce, thank you for taking us behind the scenes of Florêve’s remarkable journey. Hearing about your path from pharmacists to building a global brand that masterfully fuses traditional Chinese medicine with modern French science. It's a masterclass in vision, resilience, and the power of bridging seemingly two different worlds. Thank you for sharing your story and insights with us on skin and a game.

Joyce:

[48:08] Thank you for your time. And I'm very happy to share my experience with you. And you also helped me to carry Fafi. Because sometimes the entrepreneur's hand is messed up. Thank you very much, Debbie, for this occasion. And yes, I am sure that this kind of podcast is very valuable effort. Thank you very much.

Debbie:

[48:34] Pleasure, Joyce. Now for listeners, if you're ready to unlock that radiant glow inside and out, head to Florêve.com. Discover their award-winning three-step ritual, Detox, Glow, and Youth Ampules. Your skin will be saying merci. Don't miss our next episode where we'll uncover another inspiring story of a leader who embodies putting their skin in a game. Make sure you're subscribed to Skin and Game wherever you get your podcast. That's a wrap for today. I'm Debbie Go. Thanks so much for joining me. Until next time, stay fearless and always remember to put your skin in the game.