NYT Bestselling Author & Founder of IT Cosmetics
Jamie Kern Lima: Biography at a Glance
- As the founder of IT Cosmetics, Jamie Kern Lima shares her journey of growing a startup from her living room into a billion-dollar brand, offering insights on entrepreneurship and leadership.
- From being a Denny’s waitress to becoming the first female CEO of a L’Oréal brand, Jamie’s story resonates with anyone navigating rejection, imposter syndrome, or the pressure to conform.
- A two-time New York Times bestselling author, Jamie speaks to the transformative power of self-worth, building lasting confidence, embracing inherent value, and how believing you're enough can change your life.
- Through her philanthropic work funding leadership training in prisons and shelters, and donating over $40 million to women battling cancer, Jamie inspires conversations about purpose-driven success and making an impact at scale.
- As the host of the popular podcast The Jamie Kern Lima Show, she brings warmth, humor, and unfiltered honesty, connecting deeply with diverse audiences across platforms.
Videos
Biography
Jamie Kern Lima is the New York Times bestselling author of WORTHY: How to Believe You Are and Transform Your Life, she’s a guest teacher of the Life You Want class live with Oprah Winfrey, and Founder of IT Cosmetics, a company she started in her living room and grew to the largest luxury makeup brand in the country. She sold the company to L’Oréal in a billion-dollar deal and became the first female CEO of a brand in its 100+ year history. Her love for her customers and remarkable authenticity and belief eventually landed her on the Forbes America’s Richest Self-Made Women list. She’s been a Denny’s waitress and a struggling entrepreneur, lived a lifelong journey of rejections, and has battled her way through years of self-doubt, body-doubt, and God-doubt. She was adopted at birth and has been on a journey of learning to believe she’s here with purpose, on purpose, and for a purpose, and is worthy, lovable, and enough. She's a two-time New York Times bestselling author of Believe It: How to Go From Underestimated to Unstoppable, and WORTHY: How to Believe You Are and Transform Your Life. She's a mother of two and an active investor, speaker, and thought leader who is passionate about inspiring and elevating women. She recently held her live event called Becoming Unstoppable, where more than 260,000 women joined live from their living rooms, and many iconic women of our time including Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Robin Roberts and Maria Shriver all joined to support Jamie in her mission of building self-worth in every single girl, woman and person! Jamie’s also an active philanthropist who has funded leadership training in more than 100 prisons and shelters across the United States and has donated over $40 million in products and funds to help women face the effects of cancer with confidence. She’s donating 100% of her author proceeds for both WORTHY and Believe It.
Topics
The Power of Self-Worth: How Belief Fuels Breakthroughs in Life and Work
Jamie Kern Lima reveals the pivotal role self-worth plays in achieving personal and professional transformation. Drawing from her journey as a Denny’s waitress, TV news anchor, and ultimately the first female CEO of a L’Oréal brand, Jamie shares how learning to believe she was “enough”, despite years of rejection and underestimation, became her greatest asset.
Through candid stories and actionable insights, Jamie explores how impostor syndrome, self-doubt, and external criticism can hold us back and how shifting our inner narrative opens doors to new possibilities. She draws on lessons from her bestselling books and her hit podcast, where she helps others rewrite limiting beliefs and step into their full potential. Audiences will leave this talk with practical tools for building resilience, handling setbacks, and cultivating the unshakeable self-worth needed to lead confidently, even before they feel “ready”.
Purpose-Driven Leadership: Building a Billion-Dollar Brand from the Inside Out
Jamie Kern Lima takes audiences behind the scenes of IT Cosmetics, sharing how she built one of America’s most successful beauty brands from her living room without following the industry’s conventional rules. Jamie unpacks the critical decisions and values that guided her, including her commitment to authenticity, her intuition in business, and her refusal to compromise on her mission to empower women.
She discusses the challenges of bootstrapping a business, hearing “no” after “no” from investors and retailers, and the leap of faith required to stay true to one’s vision. Jamie also highlights how purpose-driven leadership, rooted in empathy, perseverance, and a clear sense of mission, can create organizations that not only achieve financial success but also make a lasting, positive impact on people’s lives. This talk is a masterclass in resilience, intuition, and leading with heart, designed to inspire entrepreneurs, leaders, and anyone seeking to make a difference.
