Episode 100: Trish McEvoy, Founder of Trish McEvoy Beauty

03.20.2019

Summary

For decades, legendary makeup artist and cosmetics mogul Trish McEvoy has led her namesake brand with one focus—the customer. From making pro-quality brushes accessible to consumers to innovating the iconic Makeup Planner, she’s changed the landscape of beauty to the advantage of women everywhere. Hear how she’s managed to maintain the independence of her brand in a marketplace noisy with investors and acquisition while doing it all with a sense of joy. Part of our Podcast-In-Residence series in partnership with Saks Fifth Avenue.

Transcript

Announcer	Welcome to WHERE BRAINS MEET BEAUTY® hosted by Jodi Katz, Founder and Creative Director of Base Beauty Creative Agency.
Jodi Katz	My name is Jodi Katz. I am the host of WHERE BRAINS MEET BEAUTY® Podcast. Isn't this space beautiful? Have you all been here since the escalators were revealed? Or is this your first time? It's incredible, right? It's so breathtaking. So thank you so much to Saks Fifth Avenue, Beauty On 2, and the whole Saks team for letting us do this incredible event here. So we have a little bit of housekeeping to do before I call on our star who I know you're all really excited to hear from. The first thing I'd like to say is that there are goodie bags, okay. Who wants to win one? Filled with products, right. So I'm going to ask you all to take out your phones because it's in your hand already. Show me your phone. Please turn off your wifi. If you're trying to connect with the wifi in here, it's a little spotty. So you'll have more success if you just shut it off and use your data. To be entered to win one of these beautiful gift bags of Trish McEvoy products you're going to submit a question on today's Instagram post on Where Brains Meets Beauty™ podcast feed. So take a second to find our feed and find today's post. And that's a picture of me. You can see I'm trying to channel spring with my wardrobe choices. So if you have a question for Trish, and I'm sure you will, please be curious, don't be shy, submit it as a comment on today's post. Three of the questions that are asked, Trish will answer at the end of the presentation and those people will win gift bags. So you don't want to miss out on that opportunity. Okay. So just a little bit more that I need to know about you before we start. So I know there's a lot of Trish fans out there. Raise your hand if you came here because you know Trish and you love Trish. Yes. This is most of the space. I just got to know Trish recently, and I'm super grateful for the opportunity to get to know her better and to bring her story to you today. So this episode ... Right now we're recording a podcast live. It is not being broadcast live. So it's being recorded today, you are first to hear it. And then it will go live next Wednesday, and that's when you can download it and tell your friends. So you are literally first here, and we're super excited about it. Before I call Trish out, I want to introduce you to what we are as a podcast, what is WHERE BRAINS MEET BEAUTY®? We are a podcast rooted in the beauty industry and the wellness industries, but we don't talk about tips and tricks. We talk about journey. So life journey, career journey, and all of our guests are really incredibly generous with the intimacy of how they share what's in their mind-space, how they navigate the world, how they deal with stress, and how they celebrate wins. So this is a podcast that's really for anyone who has a job or wants a job, which is essentially everybody. So tell your friends. And now we're going to get ready for our star. Tonight we are joined by Trish McEvoy. For decades Trish has led her namesake brand with one focus, the customer. She has maintained the independence of her brand in a marketplace that is noisy with investors and acquisitions. She does this all as she radiates joy. Please welcome Trish McEvoy. Thank you for being here.
Trish McEvoy	Aw. I so respect you, my goodness. This is so much fun.
Jodi Katz	Thank you.
Trish McEvoy	Jodi, I just so respect you. What you've done is so amazing.
Jodi Katz	Well, I have a very long list of questions. I wonder if we're going to get through them all.
Trish McEvoy	We will, Jodi. You're efficient.
Jodi Katz	So I want to start with an easy one, but one that our listeners really love, which is, how did you spend your day today?
Trish McEvoy	How did I spend my day today? At the Javits Center looking for makeup chairs, then meeting with my marketing team, then looking at the fabulous new restaurant here, and I was looking so forward to being with you. And I worked out.
Jodi Katz	You did? When did you work out?
Trish McEvoy	Five o'clock.
Jodi Katz	Is that your normal?
Trish McEvoy	In the morning.
Jodi Katz	So what time do you set the alarm for?
Trish McEvoy	I don't set an alarm, darling. I just wake up.
Jodi Katz	What time?
Trish McEvoy	Four-thirty.
Jodi Katz	Four-thirty. And then do you have a date with a trainer? Or you just get yourself-
Trish McEvoy	A date with an app.
Jodi Katz	An app.
Trish McEvoy	No one should see me at five in the morning. A date with an app.
Jodi Katz	Is that your daily routine?
Trish McEvoy	Yeah. She's looking at me like I'm crazy, which I am. I use Jillian. I use Peloton. There are so many. AK ... What is it, Lizzie?
Jodi Katz	Anna Kaiser?
Trish McEvoy	Yes. AKT-
Lizzie	And you mix it up.
Trish McEvoy	And I mix it up. But I'm very ... I love it.
Jodi Katz	Is this a seven day a week routine? A five day week routine?
Trish McEvoy	Seven, honey. Every day of life I've got to work to keep this thing together.
Jodi Katz	What else is a daily morning ritual for you?
Trish McEvoy	Are you ready for this? Write this down. F-Factor. Phe-nom-enal! F-Factor. You can stay in the best shape. You don't have to worry about eating or not eating or any of that. It fills you up. Have you heard of F-Factor?
Jodi Katz	No. What is it?
Trish McEvoy	Oh. You've got to interview her. She's phenomenal. Look on Instagram. F-Factor. It's protein and fiber and honey. It works! You stay in shape. You get everything out that you want to get out, and, honey, you look good.
Jodi Katz	Thank you for sharing that.
Trish McEvoy	I don't think this is the direction Jodi wanted to go.
Jodi Katz	It is! It is. Well, I asked that question because this morning I woke up at two-thirty in the morning, not with any intention-
Trish McEvoy	Children.
Jodi Katz	And I couldn't go back to sleep, and I think about this question, what keeps other people up at night? I'm not sure what it was for me. It could've been this, the event or somebody told me Mercury is in retrograde. So that's going to effect my day, but I'm curious as to know what keeps you up at night.
Trish McEvoy	Well, Cassandra, what can we do better? Poor Michelle, what can we do better? Poor Sinetti is everything in order? Poor Lizzie, is everything in order for your wedding? I think about the people that are in my life. I think about what I have to do. I think about what I'm not giving the consumer that I have to give to the consumer. And more than anything, I think it's so important to be curious. I'm always thinking of the next thing.
Jodi Katz	And do you keep a notepad next to the bed?
Trish McEvoy	No. I have a phone.
Jodi Katz	So you keep the phone next to the bed when you sleep.
Trish McEvoy	Honey, yeah. I use my thumbs. They're not supposed to do that, but I do.
Jodi Katz	I think these are important questions because it helps me understand how other people navigate the world. So I'm-
Trish McEvoy	A crazy person.
Jodi Katz	Well, I try to disconnect. So I-
Trish McEvoy	I never disconnect.
Jodi Katz	Why not?
Trish McEvoy	I don't want to disconnect. I'm gonna be disconnected a long time. I wanna be connected as long as I can be connected. It's the way I feel.
Jodi Katz	I feel the pull, though. I feel the seduction.
Trish McEvoy	You have children. You are 20 or 30 years younger than me. Honey, I am not going on the same path as you. You are at the beginning of yours. I'm more, yeah, at the other side of it.
Jodi Katz	Okay.
Trish McEvoy	I don't have kids. I don't have to make breakfast. Don't have to get them out to school. Don't have to babysit for grandchildren.
Jodi Katz	So when these things keep you up at night does it feel-
Trish McEvoy	Nothing keeps me up at night. I wake up and I think of it and I go right back to sleep. I have no sleep issues.
Jodi Katz	Okay. So-
Trish McEvoy	I have a chip.
Jodi Katz	A chip.
Trish McEvoy	A chip. Lizzie. Where are you?
Lizzie:	I'm right here.
Trish McEvoy	Can you come up here?
Jodi Katz	Lizzie, come on up.
Trish McEvoy	Oh, there you are. Lizzie. Can you come up here? No. I know you're not supposed to be on this podcast, but can you talk about my chip.
Lizzie:	So me and Trish say that she has a chip because she has boundless energy, boundless ideas, she is ready for anything at any time. We land on a plane, we go to a meeting, we go to another meeting. No food, no sleep, and she's the energizer bunny and we all-
Trish McEvoy	F-Factor. We have F-Factor methods-
Lizzie:	Her chip one day.
Jodi Katz	Yes. I think that's worth a round of applause for sure.
Trish McEvoy	It's just called genetics. Some people are tall, I've got energy.
Jodi Katz	So I would like to bottle some of that up, and apparently this is also a commercial-
Trish McEvoy	You have it. Are you kidding? Well, I just love it. And I love Saks Fifth Avenue, and I love your fabulous podcast.
Jodi Katz	Thank you. So I want to really dive deep into you because you radiate joy.
Trish McEvoy	How deep? How deep?
Jodi Katz	Very deep. We're gonna go far. And you've seen all the questions ahead of time, so you're game. Let's start at the beginning. Why beauty?
Trish McEvoy	I love joy, and I always found joy in makeup. And, for me, I was so attracted to it because my grandmother owned a perfumery, and that's where I really learned the joy of beauty, the power of beauty.
Jodi Katz	And what are those key memories when you were five years old, six years old?
Trish McEvoy	The key memories ... Well ... Seeing women come together, one. Two, women walking into a location and walking out feeling differently. I think it's a very bonding moment for women, and now it's wonderful. It's not only women, it's also men. You walk in you feel one way, you feel whatever, and you walk out and the fantasy is a reality.
Jodi Katz	Well, I had my makeup done by Tamara who's here tonight and-
Trish McEvoy	She is beyond fabulous, Ms. Tamara. She does shoots with me, she does weddings with me, she does events with me, and I think this could be a promotion for you.
Tamara:	Hi, I'm Tamara.
Jodi Katz	In fact, there's a woman here, Renee, who you did her son's wedding.
Trish McEvoy	Renee, wait, wait, wait, wait. Renee. I knew Renee before her son was born. I knew Renee before she was married. I knew Renee when she ... I think you were 20. And what makes my life so fabulous is that so many of my clients add generations coming to us, and it's a pure gift. I feel that in beauty you really live the life with your clients. It's like, "Tell me about people that you're close to," the people that you're closest to are the ones you share their journey with. Not that they've told you their journey, but you share their journey. And that's what beauty and being in the beauty industry can do for us.
Jodi Katz	Well, you mentioned bringing people together and look what beauty does tonight.
Trish McEvoy	Thank you all for coming.
Jodi Katz	And Aleni was getting her makeup done with Michelle who's also a superstar-
Trish McEvoy	Oh. Wait, wait. Michelle. Are you kidding? The best hair. The most patience. The most energy. She's a fabulous cook. She does everything perfectly, and I am so lucky to have such a wonderful person on my team. She cares. I had sent a friend of mine that had just had radiation and she came back and she said, "I feel that I'm not even ill after seeing Michelle". And that's the power of beauty. It really is. It's very very powerful.
Jodi Katz	And just the four of us were together. Two makeup artists, two clients, and everything I wearing is Trish.
Trish McEvoy	I should hope so. I am very happy, Jodi.
Jodi Katz	Pink Jasmine fragrance.
Trish McEvoy	I love you, love you, love you.
Jodi Katz	It's over there. The tester is right there.
Trish McEvoy	Keep speaking. I'll be completely quiet. Tell them everything you're using.
Jodi Katz	So it's actually not a lot of product.
Trish McEvoy	I don't believe in a lot.
Jodi Katz	So, anyway, this idea of bringing people together. So it was just four of us. It was pretty quiet here when we were having our makeup done, and the way that your team talks about beauty, it really is very different. There is an incredible intimacy, and it wasn't a "do this", "do that". She put the mirror in my hand and said, "Look", "Watch, and then do it"-
Trish McEvoy	This is not a massage. You have to do it. And what did you do?
Jodi Katz	I did most of this side of the face, and then she fixed it.
Trish McEvoy	No.
Jodi Katz	I had a little challenge with avoiding the water line, and then I did my triangle of-
Trish McEvoy	Lights.
Jodi Katz	Lights. And then some blending. So-
Trish McEvoy	A lot of blending.
Jodi Katz	Putting the tools in my hand was actually really interesting, and it made me think of probably something that I experienced in one of my first visits to a makeup counter when I was younger, but that I don't actually see anymore. Right? There's a lot of mandating. Right? Or try to do following, and I didn't feel like I was just a canvas, right? I felt like I was really a part of the process, and that intimacy is really special.
Trish McEvoy	Intimacy is everything. I think we have the most intimate profession other than going to a physician or a masseuse. It is very ... And we're touching your face. We're teaching you how to do what you do every morning. It's very very intimate. It's very personal.
Jodi Katz	So I wanna talk about something that you mentioned to me when we first met, which is this idea of visualization. When I said, "Why beauty?", you were like, "I chose it", right, "I visualized it". But I wasn't really understanding at the time what you were saying. Explain that to us.
Trish McEvoy	I have always been a visualizer. And what does that mean? It means that I've always thought of my life fast-forward, and I've always thought of my future self. I have always been in the moment, but I've always thought of my future self. And I knew that beauty was the direction that I wanted to go because it felt good, it made others feel good, it came very very easy to me. And I knew that I wanted a very independent life. I don't like people telling me what to do, and I don't like asking people to do things for me. And how do you live that kind of life unless you're an entrepreneur. And you can understand what I'm saying. And so, for me, being able to help women feel good about themselves ... and thinking forward, I knew I had a gift, I knew it came easy, and I just knew I could do it. And I did it one person at a time. I didn't go with trends. I didn't go with where other people did it. I truly did it one person at a time, and Renee is an example of that. And I have so many women that I'm still doing one-on-one makeup lessons on, even though I now have a company, and it's given me the most joy in my life other than my family. I mean, it has been a wonderful journey. A wonderful wonderful journey. Thinking of myself as a young person, where I was and where I wanted to be, and I was very lucky that I had very good companies that I worked for. And then I started my own when I was 25.
Jodi Katz	You were not born in the U.S.
Trish McEvoy	I was born in Dublin, Ireland. I can't tell you which street. I can't tell you which hospital. I can look on my passport, of course, and figure that out, my birth certificate. But I'm half German and half Irish.
Jodi Katz	And you grew up in Germany?
Trish McEvoy	No. You did your homework wrong. Five years in not growing up-
Jodi Katz	Okay.
Trish McEvoy	But I lived ... German was my first language. French, my second. English, my third. And I lived with my grandparents until I was five. Then we moved to France, and then we came to the U.S.
Jodi Katz	How old were you when you came to the U.S.?
Trish McEvoy	12
Jodi Katz	Do you remember it?
Trish McEvoy	Oh, yeah.
Jodi Katz	Where did you go? Where did you move to?
Trish McEvoy	Georgia, and it was not easy. I learned how to become invisible very quickly.
Jodi Katz	So you moved in middle school, the height of preteen-ness.
Trish McEvoy	Yes, and I learned to become invisible. It was before Instagram. It was ... Everybody wore the same thing, they acted the same way. And my mother was European. I definitely learned how not to fit in in a way that was comfortable.
Jodi Katz	And why did you feel that you needed to do that?
Trish McEvoy	Because it was the south in the 60s, and I just didn't want to play the game.
Jodi Katz	And how old were you when you felt a shift instead of wanting to be invisible, wanting to be seen?
Trish McEvoy	The minute that I left. And I loved the south, and I loved the people that were in the school. It was just that I had a very strict mother. I couldn't do anything. She was European, and anyone that's every had a European mother, it's no. No to this, and no to that, and no, no, no. And when I left home it was yes, yes, yes.
Jodi Katz	So as a kid growing up trying to be invisible, but also probably wanting to make connections.
Trish McEvoy	Oh, no. I didn't want to make connections-
Jodi Katz	Really.
Trish McEvoy	I was very comfortable being invisible.
Jodi Katz	So you didn't want to go to the birthday parties and have sleepovers and-
Trish McEvoy	I just wanted to focus on what I was going to do.
Jodi Katz	And at that time-
Trish McEvoy	I've never been someone that had ... What I didn't have is not what I was going after, you know?
Jodi Katz	But at that young age of 12, 13, 14, 15, what was that that you were going after?
Trish McEvoy	Leaving Atlanta, starting to work for a cosmetic company, and starting my own business.
Jodi Katz	So that's pretty phenomenal, right?
Trish McEvoy	No, no, no. I don't think so. I think anyone, and I'm not going to play the immigrant card, but anyone that has ever known an immigrant or has been an immigrant knows that feeling. It's a dream, and you know here you can make that dream come true.
Jodi Katz	And you have.
Trish McEvoy	I sure as hell have.
Jodi Katz	So I've been thinking a lot about our conversation, and what's so compelling to me about the business that you've built today is the independence that you have. And I left our first conversation, and I immediately reached out to my friend who runs Indie Beauty Expo, and I'm like, "She's a superstar. She's the Elvis of indie beauty". Right. That's sort of ... I thought of it that way. People would bow down and go crazy and go nuts around you.
Trish McEvoy	No. I just think that I am an example of ... You have to ask yourself how do you want to live your life. What's important to you? Is fame important? Is money important? Is being recognized important? None of that was important to me. What was important to me was living a life where I felt really good about myself, living a life where I could do it my way.
Jodi Katz	So at 25, you created your first products?
Trish McEvoy	I was very, very lucky. I worked for Lauder and I worked for Revlon. They were wonderful building blocks for me and I knew that I wanted to start my own thing. How do you start your own thing? The first thing you got to look for is, what are you good at and what isn't out there? I was good at makeup, I was good at skincare, but what wasn't out there were professional makeup brushes, so I came out with five. I took a little ad in Vogue. I think it was a quarter of a page. In fact, then, it was a very big deal for me and I worked out of my apartment, but it all came together.
Jodi Katz	So you saved your own money from your jobs to be able to launch these brushes and pay for that ad?
Trish McEvoy	Well, no, not really. That sounds like a good way of doing it, but I didn't do it that way. I was 23. I had a job in product development and marketing, and prior to that I worked for Lauder in the field and Ultima II. I helped to run New York and I loved it, and then I had a tragedy. My 12 year old brother died and it was a tragic death. I realized, life is short, and so I just stopped working for a while. I had a little money saved up. It sounds like I saved up for a makeup brush company, I did not, and I met my husband. My life before my husband was in black and white, and these are not original words. Gilda Radner said the same thing, so I don't want you to think I made this up. I'm not that good. When I met him, truly my life went into technicolor and it was magic. I knew together we could build something, I knew that the world was my oyster. One day, I was walking down Madison Avenue and I walked into a drug store. There was a soda fountain there and a lot of fabulous people. Someone said to me, "Well, tell me about you." And I told them about what my background had been and they said, "Why don't you work here?" I'm like, "Cool, but I only want to work part-time." They offered me a job. It was Boyd's Pharmacy. I was paid probably $.50, and within three months, I was booked, I was doing makeup in the evenings. It was a blast, but I knew I was not going to stay at Boyd's making $.50. So I went in and I said, "I can change your company. I can really do something with this, but I need a raise, and if you listen to what my ideas are, it could be phenomenal." They said no to the raise, they said no to my idea, and I walked out with my book of people that I had done their makeup on for 90 days, and I started my business.
Jodi Katz	That's awesome.
Trish McEvoy	It's such a cool story and it's my life.
Jodi Katz	You have this confidence about yourself and this optimistic attitude. You mentioned to me that you think being the grandchild of Holocaust survivors sort of put this in you, right, this idea of not to take things for granted. I really feel that from you.
Trish McEvoy	Well, I was brought up by ... I'm a real mutt. My grandfather, German Christian; my father, Irish Catholic; my mother, half Jewish; and so you look up mutt in the dictionary, that is me. I grew up very, very fortunate with my grandparents because they had really built a life for themselves and five years after the war with perfumery and restaurants, I had this glorious life. They would tell me never to take anything for granted because no matter what you have, materialistic things can be taken away very quickly. That the only thing that truly matters is who you are and how you feel about yourself because that can't be taken away, and that's what gave me the confidence.
Jodi Katz	It's such a great lesson.
Trish McEvoy	For me, I think that's what truly made me the person that I am.
Jodi Katz	That might fuel the trip, it might give energy to the trip. It's almost like your hybrid car…
Trish McEvoy	I think I'm present, I think I appreciate people. I never carry a garbage can around. You know what I mean by garbage can? People that carry on everything that ever happened bad in their life and they carry around and they keep blaming you. They never blame themselves, they're always blaming you. I'm not, I just, something doesn't go right, you just let it go.
Jodi Katz	So I want to get back to the building the business thing because I have some friends in the audience that are building businesses and are faced with this point in their business where like, "Well, if I wanna grow, I might need an investor, which means that I have someone breathing down my throat. Or do I just keep riding this wave?"
Trish McEvoy	I think you have to do everything that's best for you. If you're looking for money and if you're looking for people that can grow your business at a faster rate, to have investors is wonderful, to have partners is wonderful. For me, that wasn't so important. What was important for me was my community, my freedom, and to work with people that I really enjoy working with, but it all depends on what your end in mind is. When I started, you didn't need that much money. There were no cell phones. Nothing existed. We didn't even know what a fax machine was. Nobody had dreamed of it. I mean, I don't think we knew a telephone or maybe a television even then. But, I think it's really a matter of what do you want to do? I think the first thing is, you've got to really know your craft. That's most important, and don't fool yourself, you've got to then really know your landscape. That's very, very important and you've got to have a following. Without a following, in any business, you really can't go anywhere, big or small.
Jodi Katz	So there have been times, I'm sure, that investors have tried to woo you or private equity wanted to acquire you. In those moments-
Trish McEvoy	Almost everybody.
Jodi Katz	... So there's a seduction to growing the business that I face in my own business, right? Like I have these visions, right? How do I get there? So there's a seduction and that's sort of why I put my phone in the other room-
Trish McEvoy	There was never a seduction for me. It was a seduction for many, it was never a seduction for me.
Jodi Katz	The growing the business wasn't like-
Trish McEvoy	No.
Jodi Katz	... inside of you like that?
Trish McEvoy	No. No. My seduction was, loving my work, loving my clients, and if it took a short amount of time or a long amount of time to make it the best that it could me, small or big.
Jodi Katz	That sounds like patience to me.
Trish McEvoy	I have tremendous patience.
Jodi Katz	Where there any times in the past few years or at any point in your growth where you actually thought, "Maybe I will take the offer."?
Trish McEvoy	Half the time I need money. Half the time I'm looking for more money, but you know, it's just, you gotta get tighter, you gotta get leaner, and for me, I just didn't go after that. I didn't go after it.
Jodi Katz	So your goal, it sounds like, is living the life you want to live more than seeing numbers grow on a balance sheet.
Trish McEvoy	Oh hon, I wanna be number one at Saks Fifth Avenue. I'm not saying I'm not competitive. I definitely fight for being whatever ranking I'm in, in any store every day. But, I just like the freedom of, if I want to do something, I do it and if don't want to do it, I don't have to do it.
Jodi Katz	What do you think comes with that outside investment? In your mind-
Trish McEvoy	I think what happens with outside investment, which is wonderful, they can bring in people that can really help grow your business. With outside investment, you get more expertise. There's a lot of very good in outside investment, there is. And one day I may do that too, but so far, I've held on independently.
Jodi Katz	Do you realize how phenomenally unusual that is, 'cause you're so calm about it?
Trish McEvoy	I really don't. I think at the end of the day, it's really about, what do you want? And phenomenal is only someone else's illusion of what you are, someone else's view of what you are. What I am is a simple girl with a big heart and big imagination. I love people and that's what it's about for me.
Jodi Katz	So now I want to shift gears a little bit and talk about a challenging topic, which is the passing of your husband. He passed about five months ago and you've been with him a very long time.
Trish McEvoy	Since, I was 24.
Jodi Katz	So I'd love to hear this story again of how you met.
Trish McEvoy	We met on a blind date. He was supposed to go out with my roommate, and he was a dermatologist. He said, "Listen, I'm very busy. Be here on time. We'll meet for lunch. La, la, la ... " I got there a half hour late. We went to a diner and he was just adorable. We were one of the first medispas in the United States. When we started our medispa, what dermatologists did was take care of skin cancers and skin conditions. They dried it, they wet it, and then they said goodbye, or the cut it. When we got together, what we did is we made people feel pretty when they left. We were, me and Yurad, were the ones that really opened the minds of people to combine beauty with science and I'm very proud of that. It was a tremendous time.
Jodi Katz	How many years were you married for?
Trish McEvoy	38 and I proposed.
Jodi Katz	Tell us about the proposal.
Trish McEvoy	Well, we had lived together four and a half years and we were crazy about each other, but I mean, that question, you know ... He was very funny. We met, and he said, "I want you to know one thing about me," and this is a lesson for every woman and every man in the audience, don't believe what people say. He said, "I'm never getting married." And I'm like, "Cool." I was 24, and at 24, it really doesn't matter that much. And then we'd been together for four and a half years. We had worked together for quite a while and I'm like, "I really think it's time. Let's get married." And he's like, "Okay, but don't tell anybody." I mean, what do you mean don't tell anybody? Because he wanted to tell his parents first, so that was "don't tell anybody."
Jodi Katz	Was it at City Hall?
Trish McEvoy	No, I'm not gonna get married at City Hall, not at all. So, okay, you first think City Hall, now what do you think?
Jodi Katz	I think you eloped to Vegas, I don't know.
Trish McEvoy	Do I look like an eloping girl? No.
Jodi Katz	But you couldn't tell anyone.
Trish McEvoy	Well, no, see, it's all how you hear a story. I couldn't tell anyone until he told his parents-
Jodi Katz	About the engagement?
Trish McEvoy	... I spoke to my mother ... that's why don't tell anyone.
Jodi Katz	So where was the wedding?
Trish McEvoy	Where do you think it would be?
Jodi Katz	The Plaza.
Trish McEvoy	And how many people do you think I would have?
Jodi Katz	350
Trish McEvoy	Okay, let me ask, how many of you think the Plaza? How many of you think 350?
Audience Member	800
Trish McEvoy	800? How many do you think?
Audience Member	A thousand.
Trish McEvoy	A thousand? How 'bout you?
Audience Member	2000
Trish McEvoy	2000?
Audience Member	10 people.
Trish McEvoy	40 people.
Audience Member	That's what I was gonna say.
Trish McEvoy	40 people at The Pierre. My office was across the street at 800 5th and I lived there, and I only had the closest people in my life, and I worked that day.
Jodi Katz	You worked the day of your wedding?
Trish McEvoy	I did.
Jodi Katz	What were you doing?
Trish McEvoy	Someone's makeup and facial, and who knows, whatever.
Jodi Katz	And then your own?
Trish McEvoy	Yeah.
Jodi Katz	So I want to talk about a topic that probably a lot of people have faced in the audience, which is grief and moving through grief. What does that look like for you today and does it change every day?
Trish McEvoy	Grief is so personal that everyone feels it differently. There's no map to grief. The way I feel about grief is that my best friend went away, and yet ... my best friend's always with me because grief is inside of you, and grief is something that comes and goes. I'm also a big believer in your grief is personal. For me, it's personal, but I speak about it. I feel ... People will say to me, "How do you feel?" And I'll say, "I feel awful," but I am not gonna show it to you. I think that's important too because you have to live life. You only have today. The memory never leaves, the person never leaves. For me, my husband is half of me, was and is. He didn't choose to leave, he was forced to leave. So grief, we all face it, we're all going to experience it, and I think compartmentalizing everything in life is very important.
Jodi Katz	And when you're in a moment where you don't want to show it, right? You want to say, "I'm not feeling good, but I don't want to show it."
Trish McEvoy	Oh, I never do that. I just showed you my feelings one second ago and I recovered very quickly. So, I never make a big deal like, "Oh ... " No, you saw it a minute and I do show it. I'm not going to hide it, but then I move right into my next moment.
Jodi Katz	So you give yourself that moment to feel and then you also give yourself permission to move on.
Trish McEvoy	Mm-hmm (affirmative). Not to move on because you have to ... you feel what you feel, but then I think it is personal, and I think it's extremely selfish if you are trying to, to others. I just don't do that.
Jodi Katz	Thank you for sharing that. So I'm sure the audience has a ton of questions for Trish, so Cate's gonna give me the three questions and then if you're here, you have to be in it to win it, if you're here, you'll get an awesome good bag. What is the goodie bag?
Trish McEvoy	My makeup planner with the look of the season, my makeup brushes that give you the look of the season, and my new foundation. And wait a minute, I am lying. Lizzie is saying, "No, that's not what they're getting." What are they getting?
Lizzie	A gorgeous Carpe Diem planner.
Trish McEvoy	Okay, you're not getting all of the above, you're only getting one thing. Okay, and lesson number two, you've gotta depend on other people to help you.
Jodi Katz	So our first question is by @Pelican2300, are you here? Renee.
Renee	Renee.
Jodi Katz	Okay, this is a good one. How did you come up with the idea of the planners?
Trish McEvoy	I was on vacation in this most fabulous place in Italy, but this most fabulous place in Italy had a beautiful view and small bathroom, and I had my stuff all over the place and my husband said, "There has to be a better way." At that time, I was using a planning system called the Filofax and that Filofax was really the beginning of my coming together with my team and thinking of the make up planner.
Jodi Katz	It's really such an incredible innovation and I feel like people wished they had that idea now, you know what I mean?
Trish McEvoy	Yeah, yeah, yeah, they've tried to copy it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jodi Katz	Are next question is by @IvyCohen. There's Ivy.
Ivy	Hi.
Jodi Katz	How do you see trending makeup style preferences differing between millennials and other generations?
Trish McEvoy	Oh, I think that the millennials are great and what I think is ... And I think we should all just learn from them. What they have done, which I think is fabulous, is that there used to be an idealized view of beauty. You had to be this height, this body type, and it changed with the generations. The millennials are like, "You know what, we don't want that. We want to be ourselves, and we want to accept ourselves. It doesn't matter if you're blond, dark, light, heavy, in between." I think we should all be like them in that way. But millennials you should save a little money.
Jodi Katz	And our last question is @LindseyTrop, makeup artist. Lindsey-
Trish McEvoy	Oh, Lindsey, I saw you at the counter. You're so cute.
Jodi Katz	Her question is, what's your advice for makeup artists starting out today?
Trish McEvoy	My advice would be, you have to work with someone that will mentor you. Be it that you go to beauty school and then become an assistant to a makeup artist that does photography or that you want to work in a retail environment, working with someone that's as fabulous as Michelle or Tamara; you've got to find a mentor. It's a very crowded arena, but there's always room for thousands more. You just have to know what you want to do, and in order to know what you want to do, you should try retail, you should try fashion shows, you should try photography. Because what you may fantasize it is may be very different than what it is.
Jodi Katz	Well, thank you so much to Trish.
Trish McEvoy	Thank you.
Jodi Katz	This is so incredible. And thank you to Saks and this beautiful space. So now we're gonna actually conclude the recording, so anyone listening at home you know that now we're gonna shut off the mics. But Trish will be available to greet you if you wanted to come and say hello, and thank you all for being here.
Trish McEvoy	Thank you, and thank you so much, Jodi. You're fabulous.
Jodi Katz	Thank you, thank you.
Announcer	Thanks for listening to WHERE BRAINS MEET BEAUTY® with Jodi Katz. Tune in again for more authentic conversations with beauty leaders.

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