Ep 174 | Alicia Yoon

Written By Yasmin Nouri

An Honest Conversation About Taking the Leap From Corporate & Creating Your Dream Business

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Alicia Yoon is the Founder and CEO of the leading Korean skincare brand, Peach & Lily. She joins us to share how her own skincare journey led her to study K-beauty alongside chemists in Korea and make innovative, gentle, and effective Korean-inspired beauty solutions available to all. Today, Peach & Lily is on track to become the number five skincare brand at Ulta Beauty, but it wasn’t always that way. Alicia gets candid about the highs and lows along the way, including a moment when she had $7 in her bank account due to self-funding the business’s growing needs.

In our episode together, she offers an honest insight into her experience of starting a self-funded business with no plan from her apartment. She also opens up about the first business she started in the fashion industry and the biggest mistakes and lessons she learned there. Alicia also talks about common myths about starting a business, including the characteristics you need to truly succeed as a business owner, and reveals what motivated her to take the leap from a full-time role in finance to starting Peach & Lily in 2012. 

We talk about some of the things she needed to unlearn from her corporate background to thrive as an entrepreneur, and Alicia equips listeners with some dos and don'ts for starting a business. We touch on cultural hurdles she has faced and how she turned them into her biggest advantage in the business world, along with the emotional journey behind the scenes. Alicia also touches on how becoming a parent has made her into a better entrepreneur and an expert at prioritizing what matters most in life and business.

Show Notes:

  • The qualities Alicia believes are necessary to successfully start a business. [03:00]

  • Why it’s necessary to build an effective business model before taking the leap into entrepreneurship. [05:03]

  • Two moments of culture shock that Alicia experienced growing up. [07:56]

  • Cultural hurdles Alicia faced in the working world. [11:01]

  • What she needed to unlearn from corporate finance to succeed as an entrepreneur. [15:22]

  • Alicia’s journey of caring for her own skin with severe eczema. [19:03]

  • The moment she first became passionate about helping others to take control of their skin. [23:03]

  • What pushed her to take the plunge and start her business. [26:30]

  • How Alicia approached planning for her business financially. [33:35]

  • Alicia’s emotional journey with the business. [39:21]

  • Hacks for building momentum. [44:30]

  • How having kids has impacted Alicia’s life. [52:27]

  • Advice Alicia would give to her younger self. [56:38]

This episode is brought to you by Beeya:

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Yasmin Nouri
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