In case you are not yet aware, Hollywood celebrity Gwyneth Paltrow is now a successful CEO of her own company. She founded goop, a wellness and lifestyle brand, in 2008.
The business started as a humble online newsletter that eventually expanded to what it is today—a company that sells a tightly-edited array of products along with its own product lines that offer skincare, fragrances, bath and body, apparel, and consumer supplements.
goop also currently releases podcasts, a book imprint, permanent and pop-up retail experiences, and live event series. It has even rolled out an original series streamed via Netflix—The goop Lab, a 6-episode series that premiered in January 2020 and is up for a second season.
During the recent Philippine Digital Convention (PH DigiCon 2020) hosted by PLDT Enterprise, Paltrow revealed to PLDT-Smart FVP and Head of Corporate Communications Cathy Yap-Yang the most difficult part of starting and managing a company.
“I think the hardest day almost was the day that I decided to press SEND on the first newsletter because it was really me planting a flag and saying this is who I wanna be and I don’t know how I’m gonna get there fully but this is who I wanna be and this is what I wanna do,” Paltrow said.
The 48-year-old Academy Award-winning actress recounted that her first newsletter gathered strong feedbacks. “I remember sending out this little weekly newsletter with some recipes and some wellness ideas and travel things and the New York Times write this huge piece about what was I doing and why was I doing this and everybody was so confused by it,” she said.
Paltrow took numerous years before being able to effectively navigate the unpredictable waters of business. She admitted that she had also made lots of mistakes, learned from those, and moved on—with the realization that challenges are keeping her on her toes.
“This business has been very interesting and such a steep learning curve for me and I have learned on the job,” she said. “I look back and think, my God, I wish I have known X, Y, and Z before I had made this mistake or that mistake but I think I’ve come to a place where I’m very philosophical about it and I’m proud of myself for taking the risk. I am proud of myself for all of our failures because we’ve learned so much through the process.”
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