1. Trade Shows Are Like Speed Dating (for Your Business)

• • Expect to walk into a sea of serums and sample packets.

  • You’ll learn more in one day of wandering booths than from months of Googling.

  • The value: meeting suppliers, seeing real-time market trends, understanding what buyers want (and what’s oversaturated).

  • Funny insight: Bring comfy shoes and a poker face; everyone’s pitching you. 

2. Formulation Is a Relationship, Not a Transaction

• • • You’re not just “ordering” a product—you’re building a long-term relationship with chemists and manufacturers.

    • Expect multiple rounds of samples, endless tweaks, and learning to translate your vision into ingredient language.

The lesson: patience and clear communication matter more than you think.

3. Marketing Is 90% of It (Even If You Think You Have the Best Product)

• The hard truth: no one cares how great your moisturizer is if they don’t know it exists.

• Includes learning paid ads, social strategy, content, influencer gifting, etc. And the competition is STIFF. 

• What you thought would be easy (posting an Instagram) becomes a full-time job.

4. Logistics Will Humble You

• • Warehousing, shipping, customs, MOQs, managing inventory—none of it is sexy, but all of it can make or break you.

Anecdote: the “weirdly specific” things you didn’t know you’d have to decide, like box weight or how labels line up on a frosted bottle (wink wink).

5. Your Brand Is Built in the Tiny, Unseen Moments

• The BTS no one shows: late-night website edits, calling FedEx, DMing micro-creators, begging your roommates to model, figuring out taxes.

• The lesson: these tiny, consistent actions compound into a brand; the highlight reel is just the tip of the iceberg.