Advice Line with Bobbi Brown of Jones Road Beauty (September 2025)
In this episode of the Advice Line with Guy Raz and Bobbi Brown, they explore the journeys of various entrepreneurs seeking guidance on growing their businesses. Key discussions involve rebranding strategies, tapping into niches, and how to balance personal involvement with broader market expansion.
Summary
The episode begins with Guy Raz introducing Bobbi Brown, founder of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics and Jones Road Beauty, before diving into listener calls. The first caller, Mark from Chicago, discusses his natural anti-inflammatory product, CabDab, made from cabbage leaf extract. He seeks advice on scaling his business beyond personal interactions with patients. Bobbi emphasizes the importance of PR to gain broader awareness and suggests innovative marketing methods like sampling smaller versions of the product.
Next, Abby from Dallas shares her story of Abby Rose, an online custom phone case business that grew during the pandemic. She illuminates the importance of community engagement and wonders whether to continue organic growth or explore wholesale options. Both Bobbi and Guy encourage her to deepen customer engagement and explore collaborations.
Henry from North Carolina wraps up the calls with his oral care startup, Tannin, which specializes in a post-coffee mouth rinse. He shares his aim to create a legacy brand positioned around wellness. The discussion highlights the need to clarify product benefits and consider expanding the market beyond just coffee drinkers. Overall, Bobbi and Guy provide targeted advice on growing businesses through effective branding and marketing strategies.
About this episode
<p>Today's callers: Bob in Chicago looks to promote his cabbage-based muscle and joint rub beyond the walls of his orthopedic practice. Then Abby in Dallas wonders whether her popular social media livestreams are a sustainable way to market her trendy phone cases. And Henry in Charlotte wants to turn his mouth rinse for coffee drinkers into a mainstream oral care brand.</p><p>Plus, Bobbi shares what drove her to found her new company—Jones Road—at the age of 62.</p><p>Thank you to the founders of Cabbage Labs, AbbyRose, and Tannin Oral Care for being a part of our show.</p><p><br /></p><p>If you’d like to be featured on a future Advice Line episode—where Guy and former show guests take questions from early-stage founders—leave us a one-minute message that tells us about your business and a specific question you’d like answered. Send a voice memo to <a href="mailto:[email protected]" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[email protected]</a> or call 1-800-433-1298.</p><p>And be sure to listen to <a href="https://art19.com/shows/831bd173-0992-41b7-b1eb-112db904d947/episodes/182c2b7f-874e-48ca-906a-0295d1da9dff/embed" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bobbi Brown Cosmetics’ founding story</a> as told by Bobbi on the show in 2018.</p><p><br /></p><p>This episode was produced by Sam Paulson with music by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by Andrea Bruce. Our audio engineer was Cena Loffredo.</p><p>You can follow HIBT on <a href="https://x.com/HowIBuiltThis" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">X</a> & <a href="https://www.instagram.com/howibuiltthis/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Instagram</a> and sign up for Guy’s free newsletter at <a href="http://guyraz.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">guyraz.com</a> or on <a href="https://guyraz.substack.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Substack</a>.</p><p>See Privacy Policy at <a href="https://art19.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://art19.com/privacy</a> and California Privacy Notice at <a href="https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info</a>.</p>
Key Insights
- Mark highlights that his anti-inflammatory product is being organically shared with patients, needing guidance on expanding his outreach.
- Bobbi suggests that PR is a powerful tool for gaining awareness and can significantly enhance customer knowledge and interest in a product.
- Abby reflects how Abby Rose has thrived due to organic social media growth and discusses the importance of building a community around her product.
- Bobbi points out the potential to widen Abby Rose's target audience by leveraging the natural growing market of moms and community dynamics.
- Henry expresses his goal to position Tannin as a legacy brand and sees the need for better branding and distribution strategies.
- Henry's discovery of the negative aspects of traditional mouthwash motivates him to innovate within the oral care market.
- Bobbi encourages Henry to expand Tannin's branding beyond coffee drinkers to include wine and tea consumers for broader appeal.
- The episode emphasizes the importance of entrepreneurs being open to feedback and adapting their product offerings based on customer interactions.
Topics
Transcript
This episode of How I Built This is presented by Enjin, the modern travel and spend platform built for businesses that are growing. Book faster, save more, and watch your rewards stack up. Stay tuned later in the episode to hear how Enjin is helping thousands of businesses travel smarter. If you think about it, we track almost everything these days, our steps, our screen time, our sleep. But when it comes to what's actually happening inside our own bodies, most of us are just guessing. I've been using function for about three years now, and it's genuinely changed the way I think about my health. Instead of relying on how I feel, I actually have data. One of the…
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