How Barbara Sturm Built a Billion Dollar Beauty Brand with Zero Training

Summary

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Aspire with Emma Grede

Episode: How Barbara Sturm Built a Billion Dollar Beauty Brand with Zero Training

Date: December 30, 2025
Host: Emma Grede
Guest: Dr. Barbara Sturm

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Episode Overview

In this candid and inspiring conversation, Emma Grede sits down with Dr. Barbara Sturm, the founder of a leading global skincare brand, to discuss how she created a billion-dollar business without traditional industry training. Dr. Sturm shares her unconventional path from orthopedic medicine to skincare innovator, the power of trusting her instincts, navigating setbacks, her anti-inflammatory philosophy, and building a family-like business culture. Listeners get a behind-the-scenes look at the sacrifices, values, and strategies that drive her continued success—and concrete advice for would-be founders.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Unconventional Beginnings and Scientific Foundation

• From Orthopedics to Aesthetics:
  • Dr. Sturm's career started in orthopedic science, focusing on anti-inflammatory treatments for joints (03:33).
  • She innovated by translating orthopedic insights about cellular aging and inflammation into skin care.
  • "I'm an anti-inflammatory doctor." (03:43, Dr. Sturm)
• The “Vampire Facial” Origin:
  • Developed her signature blood facial (popularly known as the "vampire facial") in 2002—a decade before it became a sensation (04:37–05:04).
  • Early on, she was protective, preferring to treat patients herself rather than sharing her method with other doctors (05:07).

2. Solving Personal Problems and Launching Products

• Personal Skin Struggles Spur Innovation:
  • Unimpressed with existing products for her dry skin, Dr. Sturm leaned on family expertise (her grandmother was a pharmacist) to create new formulations (05:54–06:51).
  • "I went to my grandma… mixing creams… what are the biggest and best hydrators in the world? …I added the proteins of my blood." (06:23, Dr. Sturm)
• From Bespoke to Brand:
  • Initial products were bespoke, addressing specific client needs, not mass-market ambitions (08:31–09:23).
  • Financed her first run with a €350,000 bank loan—no business plan, just belief and drive (09:54–10:14).

3. Word-of-Mouth, Hollywood & Going Global

• Celebrity & Patient Endorsements:
  • Hollywood patients, word-of-mouth, and personal results spread the brand’s reputation (07:39–08:13).
• Breakthrough Distribution:
  • Struggled with traditional retail, realizing she wasn’t "a salesperson" (16:08–17:07).
  • Landmark moment: Gained placement on Net-a-Porter after impressing buyers with bespoke blood creams (17:28–19:15).
  • "I went home, took a shower and started sobbing. I was like, oh my God, this is huge." (18:56, Dr. Sturm)
• Signature Approach:
  • Focused on products that “do everything”—hydrating, anti-inflammatory, anti-aging—before considering the business’s global ambitions (20:09–20:27).

4. Building the Team & Company Culture

• People Over Industry Credentials:
  • Early hires were friends, assistants and those who shared her ethos, not necessarily beauty industry experts (11:19–12:01).
  • "We went in the car… sat with the person… told them what we want… he said, 'why don’t you just put your name on this batch?'—No, no, no…" (12:01, Dr. Sturm)
• Intuitive Leadership:
  • Strong emphasis on gut feeling and chemistry in selecting business partners and vendors (13:01–13:41).
  • "Every time I don’t listen to [my gut], it’s always catastrophic." (13:01, Dr. Sturm)
• Learning from Mistakes:
  • "You cannot teach someone… you have to make your experiences." (13:53, Dr. Sturm)
  • Being pushed out of her orthopedic clinic—considered her “best thing ever”—forced her to open her own practice (14:12–14:47).

5. Financing & Investors

• Raising Capital at the Right Time:
  • First raised outside capital at $15M in sales, choosing investors she trusted and liked (21:01–22:18).
  • Notable early investors included Stella McCartney and Oprah Winfrey—who were “hands on” supporters (23:09–23:44).
• Advice for Founders:
  • “Do your business yourself as long as you can without investors… there’s always a lot of greed behind.” (28:36, Dr. Sturm)
  • "If you have a belief that something works… do it yourself… if you don’t 100% believe, then don’t do it." (29:18, Dr. Sturm)
  • Early days meant real risk: "With my 350 I was right in the minus." (29:52, Dr. Sturm)

6. Challenges & Personal Resilience

• Facing Industry Doubts & Bias:
  • Overcame skepticism as a non-dermatologist woman in a male-dominated field (30:18–30:53).
  • Faced jealousy, copycats, and regulatory complaints from competitors.
• Discipline & Work Ethic:
  • "I have a big self-discipline. I’m a workaholic, too. I love working. I’m obsessed with creating..." (31:44, Dr. Sturm)
  • No weekends; finds joy in working, but also takes time to ski or recharge (31:55–32:01).

7. Family, Legacy, and Values

• “A Big Family” Business:
  • Daughter Charlie works in the business, bringing new generation ideas (34:44).
  • "I trust Charlie to everything. I trust her opinion, her taste..." (34:35, Dr. Sturm)
• Teaching Values:
  • Emphasizes kindness, humility, and supporting children’s dreams (35:40–36:20).
  • Credits her own mother (a biochemist/lab doctor) for resilience and managerial skills (36:36–37:20).

8. Product Philosophy & the Science of Skin

• Minimalism vs. Marketing:
  • Contrarian to over-complicated routines: “We need to be fast. We have shit to do.” (50:19, Dr. Sturm)
  • Core essentials: foam cleanser, hyaluronic serum, face cream, and occasional gentle exfoliation (50:36–51:03).
• Skepticism About Retinol and Scrubs:
  • Critiques harsh skincare ingredients; advocates anti-inflammatory, barrier-support approach (43:00–44:49).
  • “Would you put an acid peel or retinol on your heart or your liver? …We need to respect the organ skin the same.” (42:53, Dr. Sturm)
• Diversity, Science & Inclusivity:
  • Created specialized products for melanin-rich skin after Angela Bassett’s request (45:09–45:36).
• Hydration and Longevity:
  • Key to anti-aging is hydration and anti-inflammatory routines (51:56–52:23).
  • “Compare grapes with raisins. The grapes are the hydrated skin cells, the raisins, the dehydrated ones.” (51:56, Dr. Sturm)

9. Lifestyle and Longevity Routine

• 360-degree Approach:
  • Skincare, nutrition, exercise, mental health, and sleep are all critical.
  • "Whatever you put on your skin with endocrine disruptors… has an impact on our entire hormone situation." (53:17, Dr. Sturm)
• Longevity Hacks:
  • Shares specific routines: lemon water, breathing techniques, peptides after knee surgery, weight training, red light, yoga/Pilates, and more (61:14–66:00).
  • "All [longevity] treatments come down to one thing: reducing inflammation." (66:00, Dr. Sturm)

10. Business Transitions & the Future

• Sale to Puig and Scaling Up:
  • Post-acquisition, enjoys creative freedom while Puig handles expansion (57:13–58:06).
  • “All the things I didn’t like doing in the business is on them.” (57:43, Dr. Sturm)
  • Staunchly controls product development: “There’s nothing that will change… these products are my babies.” (58:25)
• Vision of World Domination:
  • Aspires for global, but rooted, impact: "The message has never changed. The philosophy was always the philosophy." (59:45, Dr. Sturm)
• Consistency is Key:
  • "Don’t change with trends. Stay to your belief and stay really, really consistent." (59:45)

11. Advice & Reflections

• For Aspiring Founders:
  • "Do what you love. Follow your dreams. You can fulfill your dreams… you can do anything." (67:17, Dr. Sturm)
• On Success and Staying True:
  • “I want to not have changed in my personality… I still have the same values… great food, great people, friendship, happiness, health.” (72:00–72:31)
• Rapid Fire Questions:
  • First and last thing each day: “I cuddle my kid.” (68:33–68:49)
  • Current aspiration: “Having the best people around me… I want to scale and scale and scale.” (69:19)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Gut Instincts & Teams:

“First of all, I think we need to listen a lot to our gut feeling… Every time I don’t listen to it, it’s always catastrophic.” (13:01, Dr. Barbara Sturm)

On Early Risk:

“With my 350 I was right in the minus.” (29:52, Dr. Barbara Sturm)

On Being an Outlier:

“I brought the science to skincare and went away from all this marketing… nobody really looked into efficacy.” (26:46, Dr. Barbara Sturm)

On Living Your Brand:

“Whatever I do, I need to be… so convinced about what my life is, how I create the products, how I believe in my brand. If you don’t believe in what you’re doing, how do you talk to your patients, your clients?” (55:05, Dr. Barbara Sturm)

On Parenting and Legacy:

“I trust Charlie to everything. I trust her opinion, her taste, her style, everything.” (34:35, Dr. Barbara Sturm)
“These kids need to grow up with so much love… The relationship of the trust of the kid in you is unbreakable. And it’s so important.” (68:49, Dr. Barbara Sturm)

On Trends and Consistency:

“Don’t change with trends. Stay to your belief and stay really, really consistent.” (59:45, Dr. Barbara Sturm)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Barbara’s Unlikely Path to Skincare: 03:33–05:04
• Launching Her First Products: 05:54–07:39
• From Word of Mouth to Net-a-Porter: 08:13–19:15
• Forming Her Team & Gut-Driven Leadership: 11:19–13:41
• Big Break and Going Global: 17:28–20:27
• On Taking Investment and Growth: 21:01–23:44
• Challenges, Resilience & Industry Bias: 30:18–31:44
• Building a Family Business/Legacy: 34:35–36:20
• Product Philosophy & Routine: 43:00–52:23
• Longevity & Lifestyle: 61:14–66:00
• After Selling to Puig / The Future: 57:13–59:08
• Advice for New Entrepreneurs: 67:17–68:26
• Rapid Fire & Reflections: 68:33–72:38

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Practical Takeaways

• Follow Your Instincts: Trust your gut in business and hiring.
• Believe in What You Build: Passion for your products and consistency in philosophy matter more than trends.
• Start Small, Dream Big: Fund your business yourself if you can; only take on investors when necessary and when you find values-aligned partners.
• Keep It Simple: Skincare and business don’t need to be overcomplicated; essentials often outperform excess.
• Balance Risks with Optimism: Take calculated risks and maintain optimism, even in adversity.
• Prioritize Relationships: Whether investors, team, or customers—people and word-of-mouth drive success.
• Be Disciplined, Be You: Work hard, stick to your values, and remain authentic as you grow.

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This episode is a must-listen for anyone curious about building an authentic global brand, disrupting an industry, or living—and working—with purpose.

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Transcript

[Podcast Host/Advertiser]

She was an outsider. She didn't have training. Yet she built one of the most influential skincare brands on Earth. Dr. Barbara Sturm's path into beauty is unlike anything I've ever heard before. She built an empire by trusting her instincts over industry rules. And if she can do it, so can you. When demand exploded, Barbara was forced to build faster than her life could keep up. And it came at a cost. From betting everything she had to fighting her way through an industry that didn't believe she belonged, Dr. Barbara uncovered the one truth every founder needs to hear. And over the next hour, she's letting us in on that secret.

[Advertiser]

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[Emma Greed]

Barbara. Welcome to Aspire. Emma, I'm so happy to see you.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

I'm so happy to be here.

[Emma Greed]

I feel like we're just gonna have a really good chat today and forget that anybody's watching. So I wanna really get into this today because you are indeed such a badass of a businesswoman. We all know and love the brand that you've built, but the way you got into skincare was kind of quite fascinating because you're not a dermatologist and you essentially just were like, I see a gap. I want to do something and I'm going to do it. So I want you to just talk to me about how you even decided to start your own brand. Because I know so many people watching this podcast are dying to start their own brands. And so what made you just take that leap?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

So definitely I didn't think I would end up in the beauty industry because I'm a tomboy. I'm like, not into any, like, makeup. And growing up in the orthopedic science.

[Emma Greed]

You are a doctor?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

I'm a doctor. I came together with orthopedic scientists from Harvard, Pittsburgh and a group of orthopedic doctors from and I help pioneering a treatment where you take the blood of a patient, create anti inflammatory proteins and growth factors and re inject those into the joints to bring down inflammation and stop the ongoing aging process of the joints called osteoarthritis. So inflammation and aging goes very, very close together. So this anti inflammatory science was always at the forefront of everything I was doing. So sometimes I say I'm an anti inflammatory doctor. And when I was in the orthopedics, I was also intrigued with aesthetics. So I started injecting Botox fillers. I went to the best doctors in the world, learned how to do it, and then I thought, I actually want to do something on a cellular level, effectively on the cells, because I feel.

[Emma Greed]

Like that's how we all came to know you. You were like the vampire facial lady.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

So I translated the knowledge from the orthopedics into the skin in 2002 and I created the blood facial, Vampire facial. Because I wanted to do something that has long, better, immediate results. And it worked. It was fantastic.

[Emma Greed]

I mean that was like a viral sensation. Yeah.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

But Kim's face, you know, that was only 2011. So I did this nine years before it really became crazy big.

[Emma Greed]

Oh, wow. Really? It was that long before?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yes. And so lots of doctors were asking me, can you share? Can you share? Can you share? And I was like, no, I really want to be careful because there's a lot of responsibility working with patients blood and say, I want to do it and I want to be the only one so I can be in charge of every patient, patient, myself. So that was not very entrepreneurial.

[Emma Greed]

I was just gonna say, not at all. You were like, I'm not sharing and I need to be in charge. And the world just ran away with it. Right. Because it really did become like the thing in skincare and everyone was doing it and perhaps not Doctors.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

I was 29 or 28. I was so young.

[Emma Greed]

That's crazy. So I know that for you pursuing this business was kind of very personal and you decided that there really was a gap and you wanted to do things completely differently. So how did you land on actually creating your own set products?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

So around the time when I created the vampire facial, I was very, very dry. My skin was dry blackheads. I had to go and see my facialist every three weeks. It was super annoying because also she sent me home with a bunch of products. I spent all my money and nothing would work. And then I said to my friend who was the first one who got ever the blood facial, I said, we do it ourselves. We do the jean cream. So I went to my grandma, who was a pharmacist, and I saw always mixing creams.

[Emma Greed]

And I said, so you had that in the family?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah, I had this in the family. And I said, what are the biggest and best hydrators in the world? Because I couldn't believe that every cream I tried couldn't hydrate my skin. It was so weird. And I went to my grandmother for advice and I went to my pharmacist and he in the lab, we were mixing the creams with all the ingredients, my grandmother said, and we were tweaking, et cetera. And then I. I added the blood, the proteins of my blood. So the anti inflammatory proteins I added on top into this cream.

[Emma Greed]

No, you didn't.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

And it fixed my sk. Yes, it fixed my skin overnight. I swear, my. My crew, my skin was amazing. I never went back to my facial list, so I didn't have to be cleaned out. Because when you have dry skin, you also have a lot of blackheads. So dry skin Is never an option. By the way, if you have dry skin, you need to fix it, because dryness is causing a lot of problems. And it's making you age.

[Emma Greed]

Yeah, of course it's making you age so much. Hydration is key, and we all know that. All right, so you're there, and you have this one cream, the gin cream, but that's with your blood. So then how do you pivot into getting a product that ends up in the marketplace or suite of products? Because I think when I first came across your brand, it was like a clear system. Like, to me, there were, like, six amazing products. So how did you go from grandma and the pharmacist to the brand that we all know and love?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

So, because I was also still working in orthopedic and had my own little thing going on with aesthetics and the blood facial. We had a lot of patients coming from Hollywood, a lot. And they were not only interested in orthopedic things. All of a sudden, they were interested in my creams and what I was doing. Blood facial, becoming marketing.

[Emma Greed]

At this point, it was just word of mouth.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Word of mouth.

[Emma Greed]

So you were doing something great. You were having results, and people started finding out about it.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah. And they loved it. So they came for orthopedics and they came for the skin. And this is how it got transported into Hollywood, which is very powerful.

[Emma Greed]

You spent much time in America at that point?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah, I started coming to Hollywood on a regular basis. 2003, the first time, and then probably four or five times a year. So I saw a lot of patients. They all also came to Dusseldorf to see me there.

[Emma Greed]

And you would be treating people's skin conditions at this point?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah, but also, I did Botox, I did fillers, I did orthopedic treatments. I did all kinds of treatments.

[Emma Greed]

And you would leave people with some products that you'd mixed up.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah, until then was only my face cream. And then people ask me, Dr. Stone, what's your regimen? And I really. I just was happy I had my cream. It's like, that's your cream.

[Emma Greed]

What cleanser? What?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

You know, do you have anything else? What's the full routine? I say, wait a minute. I cannot just send them to the store to buy, like, all these creams I didn't like. I have to create a few products for them. So I started creating products because they also wanted to take products home for their friends. And, you know, a blood cream is your personal blood cream. You cannot take them home to your friends. So I started developing products for my Patients.

[Emma Greed]

And at this point, did you go, there's a brand in this, or was it just to satisfy the needs of your patients?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

It's just. It was just to satisfy the needs of my patients that, you know, as a doctor, you just want to solve problems for them. You know, I have this skin condition. I have redness. Okay. I make you calming serum. I have breakouts. Okay, Creative clarifying line for you. It wasn't like, oh, my God, this is a business. Also, I wasn't like, oh, soon I would be selling inherits or Saks or. No, I never thought that would even be possible.

[Emma Greed]

So you were making the products, and how did you pay for the products? You paying from your own money?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

I went to the bank. I told them exactly what I wanted to do, and I swear, I didn't have a business plan. I didn't have anything. I just explained them what I was doing, and they gave me the money. And what I was thinking.

[Emma Greed]

Do you remember how much it was at that point?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

It was like maybe 350,000. Okay.

[Emma Greed]

But for you, at that point, was that a lot of money? I mean, you obviously did a lot it or you wouldn't have to go to the bank.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

It's a. It's a lot of money. And I, you know, I was a single mother. Charlie was in school. I was bringing Charlie to a private school. I was a young doctor that didn't pay me all that much. And it wasn't like. But. But I knew that I could pay the credit line back with the work I did on my patients. So I was like, you know, if this feels.

[Emma Greed]

Doesn't work €350,000 safe for me. It feels safe enough.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah. And I didn't want to take any money from anybody. I was just like, I do this myself.

[Emma Greed]

So you actually took that 350,000 and you create the first suite of products?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yes.

[Emma Greed]

At that point in time, what did your team look like?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Oh, is one of my best friends. And we met when. When we were. When I was 19 years old. Uli, meanwhile, is 70. She looks like 50. Unbelievable. She was the first one who ever got the vampire face. She was my guinea pig and my advisor and my.

[Emma Greed]

We all had a friend like that. I had a friend like that who tried every pair of good American jeans before they had labels, before they actually functioned as a pair of je. You have to have a good friend like that.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

And then I hired a. I hired an assistant who also. It's amazing. She's still with me. She's head of product development. Now, and it's also quite interesting because the people I hired weren't necessarily coming from beauty, they were coming from everywhere. And you become, like, the expert on the go. And if you have, like, a mindset. Claudia, for example, she's very, like, into everything healthy, everything good for the planet. It's just so. She's so persistent in ingredients, ingredient science, and it's. It's the most amazing person for that job.

[Emma Greed]

So you essentially assembled a team of people that cared about the same things you cared about, not necessarily experts from the skincare space.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah. Also, we, Oli, Claudia and myself, we went in the car and we went to a factory somewhere north in Germany, and we sat with the person who was supposed to develop the product for us, and we told them what we want. And he's like, no, why don't you just take this badge I have here and put your name on it? No, no, no. I mean, we were so offended. And he would just tell us things that wouldn't be able. Wouldn't be possible to do. And we said, you know what? Forget it. We go somewhere else.

[Emma Greed]

It's not my guy.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

So, yeah, it's even hard to find the people who have the same mindset.

[Emma Greed]

And how did you land on those people? When did you know that you'd found the right partner? Because I feel like for every one of us that starts a business, those initial relationships you make with vendors, with factories, with even, you know, your PRs, your marketing partners, they either work or they don't work, and they can be the make or break of any business. So how did you know when you found the right vendor that that was the person you were going to work with?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

First of all, I think we need to listen a lot to our gut feeling. And I get told this so many times that I have very strong gut feeling, and every time I don't listen to it, it's always catastrophic. But I learned really to make choices also. And the feeling I have the chemistry. And, you know, if somebody doesn't agree with your mindset and wants to tell you something different, you need to stick to your belief. You need to stick to what you think is right, and then go and find someone else. Also networking, being a people person, I. I like to be with people, with interesting people, and you ask around and you get recommendations and you listen to the people you think are competent, and this is how you find your way to.

[Emma Greed]

Did you always land on the right people? I think that's the answer.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Oh, my goodness. It's a. It's A learning curve, right? Yeah.

[Emma Greed]

It's always a learning. It's always a learning curve.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

And that you cannot really. You cannot teach someone. You cannot learn. You have to make your experiences. It's just what it is in life.

[Emma Greed]

Well, the mistakes are all part of it. And I feel like. Were there mistakes that you made early on that you. You think about now and you're like, oh, my God. That. You know, it could have gone completely wrong. Were there any moments like that for you?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah, sure. But I think the mistakes you do also shape you. You know, I got thrown out of my orthopedic clinic because I made too much money for them, and there was a lot of, like, ego involved, and I got so many patients into the clinic, and they just didn't like me being successful for them. I didn't make any money. But anyway, they bullied me out of the clinic, and I was so disappointed and so shocked, and that made me open my own clinic. Listen, if I wouldn't have been thrown out, I wouldn't have done it and all be different today.

[Emma Greed]

So you didn't leave because the business was taking off. You left because you got kicked out.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah.

[Emma Greed]

It's amazing.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

And Oli came with me.

[Emma Greed]

Thing that ever happened to you?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

And my friend only came with me, and they tried to convince her to stay with them. Yeah. And, oh, this won't work. What she's doing won't work. And only it's like, of course this would work. I know her. Everything will work. She does.

[Emma Greed]

But that's so interesting to me because I often feel. And again, for so many founders and entrepreneurs, knowing when to leave your safety net is a really tricky thing. Right. Everyone's got bills to pay. You were a single mother at the time with a daughter in private school, so it's very difficult to know. All right, this is working enough that I can take that risk. And in your instance, you were actually pushed. Do you remember how that felt?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

But you have to have. I always say I have, like, somewhat of a naive optimism. I don't think much about what can go wrong. I think how it will be amazing. So I kind of calculated, you know, I only need to have X, Y, Z patients a day. But, you know, sometimes we're standing there all day, not one patient. I mean, it's like you have to grow and you have to go through lows and highs. But we made it and we figured it out, and it was great. You know, once I left my clinic, you know, there were no appointments for three months, you know, so you had.

[Emma Greed]

Some time on your hands.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah.

[Emma Greed]

And how did you start to distribute the products then? So explain to me what happened.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

I think that was. That was quite the move. And this is the one where I think a key moment in the business. So when I had the products, you know, you cannot just produce like 500 each. You have to produce like two and a half or 5,000 each. And I didn't have so many patients I could sell them to. So I was like, oh, I have the storage full of these products. What do I do? So there was a shop in Berlin who took us right away. And then I thought, only, let's go to Frankfurt. There's this.

[Emma Greed]

Did you go and find that store? That first store that took you?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah. Then I went to Frankfurt.

[Emma Greed]

Hi.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

That was from store. And they really didn't care. But I went to Frankfurt to the store. And that was mind open, eyes opening for me. Because I went there and I said, you know, these products are really great. I could fit in your store, blah, blah. They were not interested. And I was like, you know what? This is not who I am. I'm used to having people come to me wanting something from me and I can give solutions, but I'm not doing this.

[Emma Greed]

Meaning that you're not the salesperson.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

No, I'm not going out and push my product. I still don't push my products on anybody. I explain things, but I'm not saying, oh, you have to buy this.

[Emma Greed]

And, oh, you're like the total opposite to me. I mean, I'm still trying to sell jeans to my grandma. Do you know what I mean? Like, whoever I meet, I'm like, well, what do you want? Like, what do you need? Even if you don't want something? But I love that that's not who you are. And you knew that. You were like, that's just not where my strengths are.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

And I, at the time, Nathalie Massenet had started Net A Porter. And I said to my friends, you know, I think I need to be on Net A Porter. Because also in my clinic, I was sending out products with FedEx everywhere. And it's like my team was now working on shipments and stuff.

[Emma Greed]

And I become like a logistics center.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yes. And I was like, maybe it's better and easier if we're just on netaporte. And everybody was saying, you cannot sell beauty online.

[Emma Greed]

I was just going to say, did they even sell beauty on there?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

They just started. They just started. And I was like, you know, I need to be on there. I was so hard to get an appointment so hard. But then I took everybody's blood and made everybody, like, feel really excited about the blood cream.

[Emma Greed]

And wait a minute. That was how you got the appointment with Net A positive? Yeah, you did like a bespoke situation. Because when you say I took everybody's blood, it can sound really strange. But this for you was like, I'm creating bespoke product that each in every one of the buyers.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Exactly.

[Emma Greed]

What a move.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Made people intrigued. So we had an appointment at the headquarters in New York with David Olson.

[Emma Greed]

I remember David.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

And David was cool. You know, he was.

[Emma Greed]

David was bought in, though, right? To build the beauty side of the business and to say, okay, the world needs to take Net A Porter seriously in beauty. And he was very respected. And I remember the curation of brands in the early days was like. I mean, you had to be like treble, treble a to get on Net a port. Just like a fashion brand. In fact, it was the same for beauty.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Exactly.

[Emma Greed]

They were keeping the same.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Very selective. Very selective. So they came to the meeting. I think they forgot that we were meeting and they weren't very interested. But once I started talking and telling everything, they were like, oh, wow. So I took David's blood and then they took us. And I was so overwhelmed, I. I went home, took a shower and started sobbing. I was like, oh, my God, this is huge.

[Emma Greed]

Do you remember how huge it was? Like, was it like here?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Oh, Nether Putti was God, for me, this was like, wow, Net a porter.

[Emma Greed]

Did they do a big order?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Me?

[Emma Greed]

Yeah.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

It was not even so much about the big order. I was never about money. I was always about, you know, I got my babies.

[Emma Greed]

Yeah, the prestige of the whole thing.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah, it was like a total personal success for me.

[Emma Greed]

But it's also a signal to the rest of the market, right? Because once you are on Net a porter. I imagined everybody called me, started ringing.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

You know, I missed so many emails.

[Emma Greed]

Because it was working.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

You know, they were emailing me twice, three, four times until we even replied. So, yeah, Harrods called like space and K and everybody wanted our products. And imagine, now I had to go get into production. So this is how it grew. This is what. What happened. Netaupete was the multiplier that was.

[Emma Greed]

Yeah, that was the multiplier. That was your moment of lift.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

I never expected my products to be seen in the entire world. But then I thought, you know, if these products work for me, they work for my patients. Everybody's excited about them. Why wouldn't they work for the people in Australia. Why wouldn't they work for everybody if they work for me?

[Emma Greed]

And that's the first time you started thinking about yourself as a truly. Like, it's a global brand now.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah, I just thought the products are really amazing. I was like, I was thinking actively, yeah, of course I care. These products are just. They do everything. They're anti inflammatory, they're hydrating, they're anti aging. They do everything. They're amazing.

[Emma Greed]

So I want to go back to the investment piece because I think for so many people, it's an area that's shrouded in so much mystery. So you're at $15 million in sales, and you decide to go and rise raise outside finances. Did you know anyone? Like, who did you call?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah, I think that also went through relationships. Like, it wasn't. It also was a little bit last minute. And we met with a few. We met with a few of the big ones. But then we met Damian, and he was like, okay, we are super interested. And I like to our delicious friend Damien, you know, and I don't like corporate, you know, and when these big hedge funds come and they. No, thanks. You know, they don't understand me. It was just, oh, my God, we had the funniest conversations on the phone, you know, because they're talking, talking, talking, and, you know, people talk, talk, talk. I'm not listening. I'm just like, I'm doing something else.

[Emma Greed]

Yeah, Yeah. I need someone who fits, you know? But I often say, you know, when you. When you sit down and you start meeting investors, there has to be more than just the money. Right. You have to look at them and say, this is someone I like, respect, admire the work. This is somebody that I could sit down and either have a drink or a dinner with. Because what you don't understand is you take the money, then you're in business together. You have to work with these people. And I imagine that with Damien, I mean, I've been friends with Damian for a very, very long time. Since, you know, I was a little runt running around London, like, trying to do deals here, there, and everywhere when he had Slice pr. And so it was before he was an investor. That's awesome. And he is awesome, and he was always awesome. But I imagine that first meeting was something you were like, I can work with these guys.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

By what you said. I said, oh, he knows how to order really good wine.

[Emma Greed]

You're like, that's something I care about. That's gonna matter down the line. We're gonna be popping Some bottles.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

But also, I mean, like, he has amazing relationships. They're relationship guys.

[Emma Greed]

But I feel like you were one of the first in their portfolio. Right. Because I feel like they went round and did a lot of great things, like Pat McGrath. But you were like, early in that portfolio, it was always like, we're the guys that have invested in Strom. So it was a, a calling card all round. But of course, I mean, in your space, in the beauty space, the multiples are known to be so great and so amazing. Did you have all of the big beauty companies also trying to get in?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah, not at the time. We weren't really looking for that. I was more like, you know, Stella McCartney was investing, which I thought, you.

[Emma Greed]

Know, I mean, you have a pretty amazing group of investors. Felt very starry in the beginning. And Stella, did Oprah invest?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah, Oprah invested and they were all hands on. They were so, you know, Stella would just send the products to everybody. It was so, so sweet. It was just like a group of family members and we were just, you know, brainstorming together and everybody was excited. And Oprah was so sweet and excited. And it, it comes through the quality of the products. Not, you know, Oprah is not looking for, you know, more investments unless she loves something.

[Emma Greed]

Absolutely.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

She truly loves the products.

[Emma Greed]

And when you. So when you took that investment, what changed?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

It just changed in a way that all of a sudden, you know, my relationships got multiplied with their relationships. And I always say this is a relationship business. It's like great if you have great products, but you also have to be a people person. You need to be able to create value also through your relationships and through network. Sounds like, sounds a little cheesy, but, but I think this is how you bring especially, you know, when I started, there wasn't Instagram, there wasn't like I didn't have the money to buy book pages. Now it's becoming a little easier. Much easier actually. But, but at the time it was just word of mouth and I needed to bring the news to everybody and it's kind of fun as well. I think what we're doing, we meet the best people of our generation. It's a big plus for, for your own growth as well.

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[Emma Greed]

Did you ever feel any pressure? Like once you'd taken that money, did you start to feel the pressure of everybody else thinking about what this brand should be, what it should become? Was there any of that?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

No. I just had so much fun creating and doing more things that are cool for the brand and, you know, running with my instincts and doing things differently than the industry and kind of shaping a little bit what was out there. I mean, I brought the science to skincare and went away from all this marketing, empty marketing promises. And there was so much noise in skincare, but nobody really looked into efficacy. Do the products really work? What are the ingredients? What do the ingredients do? It's a lot of marketing in that.

[Emma Greed]

Space, a lot of marketing. I want to talk to you about that because I think that your ethos is what makes you so much of an outlier and so successful. But I wonder. I want to understand A bit about what really changed in the company. Do you feel like, did you have to professionalize? Did you have to. Did anything shift? Because I do feel like there is this idea that you can sort of take money off the table and go about business as usual. And my experience has always been that even with the best and the nicest and the kindest of investors, something does change in the company once you take money from somewhere else. It's not the same thing. And there is an expectation, and there are board meetings and things get more formal. Did that happen to you?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

They were quite cool about it. They really trusted me.

[Emma Greed]

Goodness.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

But they. They brought a great cmo, and they brought then a cfo, and they brought, like, a couple of people I never knew there was.

[Emma Greed]

You were like, okay, okay, we're doing this, but great. If someone else can do it, someone who's actually done it before, that's gonna be amazing.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

So hiring people was part of what they were doing. And, yeah, they were overlooking. There were, but they were mostly also helping. And it was great to have some great partners.

[Emma Greed]

And have they still been great partners for you?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Next question.

[Emma Greed]

I love that you say that. We'll have a big conversation. Well, it's true, though, isn't it?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

My advice really is, you know, do your business yourself as long as you can without investors. Because as you say, as soon as you have investors and there are some good things, there are some bad things there also. It's always a lot of greed behind, you know.

[Emma Greed]

Yes. They're called investors for a reason. Right. But I think that is really sound, really great advice. And I feel like there's such a. You know, there's so much amazing stuff happening, especially in this country, around founders and starting businesses, and there becomes all of these myths that you should go out and immediately raise money. And I love the advice that you give to keep it your own for as long as you can.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

But what I think about that, I want to say, if you have a belief that something works, why I always tell everybody, do it yourself. Get money from the bank. And if you don't 100% believe, then you don't do it because you don't really believe in it. You just want to be a CEO and you just want to have, like, you know, a business and be a business owner, entrepreneur, whatever everybody calls themselves. But I think it's very important that you believe and that you have the guts to really go into the minus to build.

[Emma Greed]

Yeah. And have you been in the minus?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Oh, yeah. Yeah. With my 350 I was right in the minus.

[Emma Greed]

How hard is it like, when you. Because I feel like looking at you, looking at your life, looking at your beautiful family, and looking at you at the helm of this incredible empire that you've built, it all seemingly looks so easy, but I've never had that experience myself. What have been like your hard or your hardest moments that you've had in the brand?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

I mean, even before the brand, you know, I was working with just men and, you know, get bullied out, unbelievable things happen. But it never really took me down. I always was like, moving forward. And, you know, when you have children and especially when you're a single mother, you just like, you don't have a choice. And you need to stay positive and optimistic. And there are so many challenges. There's so much jealousy around in Germany. It was unbearable. People like, yeah, she's not a dermatologist. She's not that. And she's like, I am the big dermatologist. I mean, and then they copy everything you do.

[Emma Greed]

You're like, but I did it. I'm the one with the cream.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Oh, it's crazy. They even went to the authority and complained to authority about me. I mean, like, I don't know what I had to face. And then, yeah, later on, you know, from dealing with investors, dealing with your people who are working for you, you know, it's. It's like, it's hard to overlook everything.

[Emma Greed]

Yes, it's really hard.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

It's one thing if you juggle with a few million. It's a different thing if you juggle with more millions. You know, your head is on the line.

[Emma Greed]

Yeah. You know, the stakes become really high. And it is your name. It's your name. And you have everything to lose, essentially. How much of your. I mean, you kind of strike me as such a disciplined person. And I wonder how much of that comes from your German heritage.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Oh, yeah, I have a big self discipline. I'm a workaholic, too. I love working. I'm obsessed with creating and I have discipline. If I need to do something, I do it.

[Emma Greed]

How much do you work, Barbara? Be honest.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Every day, every night, I think about things.

[Emma Greed]

Every day. Monday to Friday or every day? Seven days a week?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

No, seven days a week? No, no, no. There is no weekend. But, you know, I take time off for skiing. I take time off, but even while I'm skiing, I'm thinking and, you know, I'm creating new things right now. I'm so. I so love it. And I love the challenges. I love to do new things and 10 things at a time. And yeah, you have to be on everything.

[Emma Greed]

You have to be on every.

[Podcast Host/Advertiser]

I mean, I just feel like wherever.

[Emma Greed]

I go in the world, whatever, you know, if it's an incredible hotel or it's an incredible store, like your brand is there sitting with the best of the best brand. But you've kind of done that and created something that's so true to yourself, and you've kind of weaved it in with your family because your daughter works for you. I love the idea that, like, some of these first people that are in the business still work with you. How does that work?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

It's like it's a big family and that's the core team and where it's really like, we talk night and day and there's no. There's no boundaries. We are all, like, in this together and so dedicated. And, yeah, I'm. I'm also very competitive in a way. I want to be in the best hotels. I want to be in the. On the front. I want to be the inventor of everything. And I am, you know, I bring things to the skincare industry. Like, five years ago, I brought the exosomes out. Now it's like the thing on the market. Yeah, but it comes from the orthopedics, you know, now, like, again, dermatology, orthopedics. The exosomes. Fifteen years ago, I treated rheumatoid arthritis with exosomes, and it was amazing, the results. And I wanted to bring it into the skincare world, you know?

[Emma Greed]

Do you think that your daughter will take over the business one day?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

I. Whatever they want to do, whatever makes them happy, you know, we. We only want these kids to be happy and, and, and, and being also confident. I was just. We were just doing, like, a big press trip and Charlie was doing the speech. I mean, the way she speaks, she expresses herself. And this is not like, oh, you.

[Podcast Host/Advertiser]

Know, I mean, she is like your.

[Emma Greed]

Greatest brand ambassador, isn't she? After you. She's your greatest brand ambassador, but also.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

She is friends with everybody, but next generation. Yeah. You know, how many hotels she sources, how many opportunity, business opportunity she brings. It's unbelievable.

[Emma Greed]

I feel like so many people, like, warn about the dangers of mixing business and family, but, I mean, I've seen it. I work with my husband. My sister worked with us for a really long time. And I feel like I just wonder how you've managed to avoid some of the pitfalls of that.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

I trust Charlie to everything. I trust her opinion, her taste, your style, everything. And whatever she Does.

[Emma Greed]

And Charli is your oldest daughter, your eldest daughter.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

She's 29 now, and if she makes a decision I trust and we go with it. It's like for me, no question. And she also started bringing in new products. I wouldn't have brought in eye patches. And they're amazing.

[Emma Greed]

I'm obsessed. No, we're all obsess. I mean, I would say I start three days a week with your eye patches. I'm obsessed with them.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Put them on the flight, and we.

[Emma Greed]

Put them in the fridge, and it's like the best.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

I went on a day flight, 12 hours. I purchased. I changed them two, three times.

[Emma Greed]

And you would never have done that. That was Charlie's idea.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah. I love that you give her credit to her.

[Emma Greed]

Yeah, you have to listen to her, because like you said, she's a different generation, the different needs. And, you know, they just. I mean, who knew that we would buy so many eye patches? I certainly didn't. I never had eye patches until, like, three years ago. Now I can't live without them.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Those really work. I'm obsessed with.

[Emma Greed]

No, they do. They really, really work. What are you teaching? So Charlie's 29, Pepper's 10 years old, your second daughter. What are you teaching them about leadership and about business more generally.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

I think I bring down to them the values I learned from my mom, from my parents. Keeping both feet on the ground, being kind and respectful to everybody. You know, only spend what you got. And, like, those values and being kind and respectful to me is super important. So. So for me, everybody around us, if I would see my kids being not kind, that would really hurt me. So that, to me, is super important. And, yeah, they should fulfill their dreams, and I will support them with whatever they want to do. Peppa wants to be a ski racer. Okay, we go for it. You know, it's like, whatever it is.

[Emma Greed]

Knowing that kid since she was about three, that just doesn't surprise me whatsoever.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

She's a ski racer and an actress.

[Emma Greed]

She was always, like, an absolute spitfire little girl, just, like, running through walls. She's unbelievable.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

She will do whatever she wants to do, no question.

[Emma Greed]

Do you. I mean, I know that your mother was a biochemist, lab doctor. And I wonder what she taught you about leadership and forging a path. Because she had three children, Right. And I just wonder, what did you learn from her?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

I mean, she was such a manager. She had three children, no nanny. She was starting to work in the. In the lab, like, 6:30. She had to bring us to the kindergarten before, like, to the it was even for smaller children. It was unbelievable how she ran this whole thing. My dad was fully working architect, being away teaching on universities as well. So she was running everything and still also fed us. And amazing.

[Emma Greed]

So just amazing.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Lead by example. No, we have to become our own managers because sometimes people say, yeah, how do you do this? And how can you get everything, Everything down? You just do it. Just do one, the next, the next, the next, and just get it done.

[Emma Greed]

Did anyone ever deter you? Did anyone ever say, you're a doctor? Why would you try to do this brand?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

No, I don't.

[Emma Greed]

Amazing. Lucky you.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah, I don't. I mean, people tell you you can't do things, but.

[Emma Greed]

But that doesn't mean you were listening.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

But no, because I was always a doctor anyways.

[Emma Greed]

Yes.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

And I stayed at the service to the patients, even in the brand. So we do a lot of education. And for example, when Covid hit, I started really talking to everybody out there, giving advice, listening, learning, and doing all these, like, master classes and, you know, online classes. It was. Was great because it brought me back to being a doctor. Yeah.

[Emma Greed]

No, I really feel that. And I. It's a. It's an interesting segue because I feel like the beauty landscape has been completely transformed by TikTok. And now we see like kids younger and younger. I mean, my kids, who's 8 years old loves nothing more than an hour in Sephora. Like, that is her favorite thing to do. And I'm like, but where do you even get that? You know, she sees it on YouTube. She sees it on TikTok. What do you think about the ever growing complexity around people's beauty routines? And not just women, but also like so many men, you know, that that's sleeping with mouth tape and they're talking about longevity and then they have these like 17 step routines. And I feel like that's really like the opposite of what you're all about. But what do you think about it? Cause I guess there must have been parts of that that have been really additive to your business.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

So first of all, I think it's great that people get the mindset of staying healthy, doing prevention, and looking after themselves. Looking after themselves. I think that's a good trend. The trend which is worrisome is that that these kids, you know, have access to so many information that not necessarily keeps them safe.

[Emma Greed]

Well, Barbara, tell us, what is that? What is the information that we're getting?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

This is like a big topic for me because Pepper's 10, her and her friends. Yeah, I'm going to Sephora and, you know, she's collecting these creams she's not allowed to use.

[Emma Greed]

And I'm like, so you tell her that. You're like, you can't use that.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah, of course, of course. And I tell her ingredients. That's what it does. This is what happens to your skin. And so she uses Sturm on her skin. Sometimes she's allowed to put a cream on her leg and then she likes fragrances.

[Emma Greed]

Really? Are you that strict? You're like, no. You can't just put any random thing on your face.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yes. No. It's so dangerous. They have access to everything. And not every mother knows about ingredients and sees the danger because so many ingredients disturb your microbiome, your skin barrier function. They get so many issues. Eczema. I have phone calls every day from mothers. Oh, my kid used xyz. What can I do? And yeah, obviously they cannot run to Sephora and buy old storms. It's, you know, it's expensive. It's expensive.

[Emma Greed]

It's expensive as fuck. I mean, I love it, but it's not for everybody.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah, they want like 10 step routines and Pepper's doing the roller and, like the ice thingies. And like, she puts her headband on and then she does like, what the face mist and the calming serum the better be and like, it's like a whole thing.

[Emma Greed]

But I feel like we're all like that. And you're quite contrarian because you're saying, okay, ladies, that you shouldn't be using all these harsh ingredients. You shouldn't be using retinol. I mean, I read somewhere you don't even like sunscreen.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Oh, no, no. It's not that I don't like sunscreen.

[Emma Greed]

Okay, tell me, what is the choice?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

You know, But I.

[Emma Greed]

But you have been quite vocal about.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah, but I want to say we need the sun. We need the sun. The sun is our source for vitamin D production. It's important for our immune system, for our mental health, for our respiratory tract, for our perfusion of our arteries and our veins. There's so much coming from the sun. It's important for our bones.

[Emma Greed]

And so you don't want me in sunscreen every day?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

No, no, no, no, no. I'm not saying that.

[Emma Greed]

I mean, I use sundrops, by the way.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

I use sundrops. You see, I have a sunscreen. If I was against sunscreen, I wouldn't be doing sunscreen. But what I want to say is that we also need the sun. And that rather than putting on sunscreen, 24 7, which you have to do. If you use ingredients that damage your skin barrier, like retinol, glycolic laser treatments, acid pierce.

[Emma Greed]

So you don't advocate for those things.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Even fragrances in skincare, you know, destroys your microbiome and makes your skin barrier dysfunctional. And you know, there's another trend, barrier, cream, barrier support, strengthen barrier. But then, you know, it's like nobody brings it together. Because if you want to, if you want to save your skin barrier and your microbiome, you don't use harsh ingredients. You don't do that because you scrub off your skin, you get red, you get inflamed inflammation, you cause a lot of inflammation. You're bringing down your skin barrier, destroyed healthy skin cells.

[Emma Greed]

So give it to me. What should I be avoiding at all costs? What are the things that like we just should not, you know, in Europe.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

They'Re taking retinol down off the market.

[Emma Greed]

No.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yes.

[Emma Greed]

But I just started with the retinol. I thought, I'm 42. Am I not supposed to be using that three days a week?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

I would never use it. You see, there are two ways of looking at anti aging and I'm an anti inflammatory doctor. So I wouldn't cause inflammation on my skin. So I would not do retinol or glycolic or acetate acid peels or resurfacing products because causes inflammation, destroys your microbiome, your skin barrier. Look, would you put an acid peel or retinol on your heart or your liver?

[Emma Greed]

No, because I feel like it would be gone.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

So we need to respect the organ skin the same like we respect the heart or the liver because the skin is one of our most important.

[Emma Greed]

What are we doing for anti aging, Barbara?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Hydration, anti inflammation, exosomes, telomerase, activating nutrition, all heal and repair. You take what you got and make it the best possible instead of destroying what you got and bringing the future closer to you.

[Emma Greed]

I mean, what it sounds like it makes sense.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Oh, it absolutely makes sense. It absolutely makes sense. And there are so many people who also have sensitive skin. If they use retinol, they get redness right away. And by the way, if you destroy your skin barrier function with melanin rich skin, you get hyperpigmentation so easily. So people who use lasers as appears all the time, they get this body skin. And then you need to use hardcore sunscreen. And now sunscreen is also seen as cancer causing, you know, it's not the.

[Emma Greed]

Best ingredients and we all know that. Well, also I think that sunscreen Is very different in Europe than it is here in America. I always buy everything because, you know, I'm English. But it's like there are so many things that are banned in Europe that we use so readily in America that I'm like, forget about the laws for sunscreen.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Filter haven't changed since over 20 years in America.

[Emma Greed]

But it's so crazy.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

But even in Europe, I mean, like chemical filters and I use the sundrops. And obviously when you go out and play tennis and TLA is also a whole different story than maybe in Europe, but also in the mountains. You need sunscreen, but I don't think you should use sunscreen 24, 7.

[Emma Greed]

And you don't think you should use sunscreen every day.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

You have to. Yeah. If you're sitting here in the office. No, if you have strong barrier function. If you use retinol. Yes, 24, 7. But you also should have a pollution filter because pollution and HEV light coming from the computer sitting in front of screens 24 7. You needed like a HEV filter too.

[Emma Greed]

So everyone that sits in front of a screen 24. 7 should actually be using a filter.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Anti pollution drops.

[Emma Greed]

I mean, I love those anti pollution drops.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

They're amazing. And you need to reapply.

[Emma Greed]

That was one of the reasons that I gravitated towards your brand. And I always wanted to ask you why you did this. I can't believe we haven't spoken about it before, but the darker skin products, I mean, you were one of the first. And I just wonder like, why did you. Why did you do that?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

That's actually Angela Bassett who said, you know, there is like clients. Yeah, nothing for us. She said, there's nothing for us. You need to do something. And I was looking into the science and I found that melanin rich skin actually is prone to way more inflammation. And not just, you know, inflammation goes all the way all around. If you have like a breakout and you squeeze it, inflammation is not just there.

[Emma Greed]

It's not skulls. And it's like, yes. And then it becomes hyperpigmentation. Exactly.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Because you break through the skin barrier. Sun pollution, HEV light.

[Emma Greed]

Well, I feel all of us know that, but we don't know the science behind it. And then what we should do to prevent it. And all I know is when. I mean, I've never wanted to use exfoliators on my skin because I always thought they were too harsh. And when I started to use. Use your enzyme cleanser, but specifically the one for darker skin, I mean, I use it three days a week. That is my facial.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

And look, this is your exfoliant. You shouldn't be using retinol on top because so there are three forms of exfoliation. One is facial scrub, mechanical exfoliation. The second one is enzyme cleanser, Enzymatic, but very, very gentle, only takes off dead skin cells. And the third form is like a acid peel or retinol, like a resurfacing or this tells that resurfacing not only takes off dead skin cells but also healthy skin cells, meaning destroying your skin barrier.

[Podcast Host/Advertiser]

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[Emma Greed]

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[Emma Greed]

So if there's three things that you think pretty much everyone doesn't matter. If you're 20s, 30s, 40s, fifth 50s, 60s, like what are the three things that we should all be doing? And then I'm gonna ask you what I should avoid.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Okay.

[Emma Greed]

Make it easy for me. Cause I'm a simpleton and I don't have time for like a 20 step routine.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah, but that, you know, I'm traveling with my hyaluronic serum, my face cream, and maybe like two more serums. But I'm also very like. Because we need to be fast. You know, we have shit to do.

[Emma Greed]

We have shit to do. We don't have time for 20 steps. Yeah, Clint, we'd all love to be like that man with the, you know, like open the blue bottle of water. I had like two hours in the morning. But it's like, are you kidding me? Can you Im out of a line of kids. Like they're going like, what? What are you doing, Mom?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Exactly. So yeah, so we don't do that.

[Emma Greed]

Three things that we have to do. Non negotiables Cleanser.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Our foam cleanser. Non negotiable is amazing. You use that after your day, whatever. Then you use a hyaluronic serum and a face cream. If you do these three steps and maybe add the enzyme Cleanser for twice a week. You're so good, you will have a strong.

[Emma Greed]

Okay, so I'm doing a cleanser, hyaluronic serum, serum, a simple moisturizer. And then maybe using the enzyme cleanser a couple of days a week for exfoliation.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Healthy, dewy, glowy skin. You get hydration, you get the balance. You have the purslane for the telomerase activation. Most proven anti aging theory ever, Harvard studies.

[Emma Greed]

Really?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Telomerase activation? Yeah, telomerase.

[Emma Greed]

You know, telomeres. I know.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

You know.

[Emma Greed]

Absolutely.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

The caps of the chromosomes, each cell division.

[Emma Greed]

That's why we're starting over here.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Exactly. Until the cell mutates or dies. And the telomerase keeps those telomeres from shortening. Because we're very dependent on our 40 to 60 cell divisions, which gives us our age. But turtles, for example, have 110 cell divisions. They get to live over 200 years. So you see how important it is to keep our cells dividing, healthy and throughout their 40 to 60 cell divisions. And you know what is one more of the killer of this cell division? Dehydration or dryness.

[Emma Greed]

So staying hydrated is that important.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

The key, the key, you have to compare grapes with raisins. The grapes are the hydrated skin cells, the raisins, the dehydrated ones. And the grapes have these osmosis channels to bring on active ingredients and obviously look better on the skin. So you want the grapes. That's why you need hydrates. And that's why you need the hyaluronic serum or the super anti aging serum to bring really deep, deep hydration, but also superficial, instant hydration.

[Emma Greed]

Okay, so I'm staying away from retinol.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Because retinol breaks your skin barrier, your microbiome. What's happening now is trans epidermal water loss. Water leaves the skin.

[Emma Greed]

So that hydration that I'm putting in is just leaving. Gosh, it's so complicated, isn't it?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

I know it's complicated, but I know.

[Emma Greed]

That your whole, your whole thesis is. It's about so much more than just skincare. Right. Because you are a lifestyle person. I feel like you are the walking, talking embodiment of what it is that you talk about in this lifestyle. Because you speak to me so much about, about sleep and exercise and nutrition. Like, do I really need to be doing all of those things? Because I feel like we've been told that some of that stuff can go by the wayside if you've got the right products and you have the right skincare routine.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

I 100% believe in a 360 approach. And also makes sense, you know, what we eat translates into our system. What we put on our skin translates.

[Emma Greed]

So you need anti inflammatory foods as well.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

And, but also endocrine disruptors. Whatever you put on your skin with endocrine disruptors or, you know, getting something in a supermarket wrapped in plastic endocrine disruptors has an impact on our entire hormone situation. So you have to think about how do you stay healthy, how you prevent from getting diseases. When I was 16, way before I did anything, I became a total healthy eater. I love healthy food. And the more you're used to healthy food, you're obsessed with healthy food. And you don't like anything, fries or burgers.

[Emma Greed]

You don't never eat a fry bar.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

No, I don't like it. I really do not like it.

[Emma Greed]

What about wine? Yeah, okay, fine. Not that much, but yes, thanks, but not very much.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

No, you know what? But I also don't tolerate. I don't tolerate it anymore, you know?

[Emma Greed]

No, but I understand. I mean, honestly, I tried this with Gwyneth Paltrow and I was like, just give me the secret. And she's like, it's the diet and the exercise and nutrition. There are no shortcuts.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

And there it comes back to self discipline.

[Emma Greed]

Yes.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

You have to have the discipline. And look, I moved into the mountains when I was 50 and it was because of mental health. But I wanted you left.

[Emma Greed]

L. A right.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yes. And I wanted to have a lifestyle where I don't just sit in the office 24 7. Because you. We love working. You know, we love working, but you can be on the phone on a hike, you can do different things. Or I'm calling my team from the red light bed. Or I call my team with the oxygen mask on.

[Emma Greed]

What do you think the importance of walking and talking, the lifestyle of your brand are like, how important is that to your brand and doing as well as you've done.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Whatever I do, I need to be. I'm so convinced about what my life is, how, how I create the products, how I believe in my brand. And this all needs to be together. If you don't believe in what you're doing, how do you talk? How do you talk to your patients, to your clients? How do you sell your jeans if you're not, if you don't think they're the coolest jeans on that planet? No, no, you have to, you have to live what you. I'm not preaching, but what you, what you bring into the world, you have to live that. Otherwise, nobody believes you. And I like to be authentic. I don't want to be anybody. I'm not. I'm a scientist. Scientist. And I always been. And I always loved it. And I always. I. I love to do something that works and not. I don't want to throw a marketing slogan at you, you know, it's not me. Although we have a really good marketing slogan now. The doctor that slogan. Skin Aging.

[Emma Greed]

Yes. Let's go. And it's working.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah, it's proven. So it's proven. We've got, you know, I sold part of the business to Pooch, and they're.

[Emma Greed]

Doing all these, like, Good for you, Barbara.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

All these, like, you know, testing and chopping. And now we can claim this thing. What I knew before that this slows down aging, but. But obviously I couldn't say it. Now we can say it.

[Emma Greed]

Now you can actually say it. Try to test it. Barbara, how was it working with your husband all of those years?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

You know, it's like in every marriage, you help each other, you support each other, and you're building life together, you know, so it's nice to have someone who supports you and believes in you and helps you with everything, you know?

[Emma Greed]

Yeah, it is. It's just a total game changer.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Didn't work out that well for us.

[Emma Greed]

Well, sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't work. It can for a minute and then not at another time. I mean, not everything is great for, you know, forever.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

For a certain time in your life, things are a great thing. And then you change, and then it's so exciting what comes next. And I'm so happy. I'm so full of life. I'm so full of creativity. There are so many projects I'm working on, which is fun. Love it.

[Emma Greed]

Which is so fun. I'm really interested now that you've sold the business or a piece of the business to Pooch.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Right.

[Emma Greed]

And so did anything change after you did that sale? Did you make loads of money, Barbara?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Oh, my God, yeah. For me? Yeah. It's. It's nice to not having to worry anything.

[Emma Greed]

Yeah.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

You know, that's also nice.

[Emma Greed]

So you're at that point now where you don't have to worry.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

No, you just really do the things and, and, and, and create things and you have, like, the freedom for everything. It's. It's. It's mind blowing how great that feels.

[Emma Greed]

No. And you have an amazing partner in Pooch because they're like, they're great. One Them of one.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

They're great. And. Yeah. All the things I didn't like doing in the business is on them. And I have much more power and time to do what I like. And then the only thing I want to say, there are, you know, more eyeballs watching over what you do. And then sometimes I feel like I push the wagon up the hill because, you know, I just want to go ahead and do it. And I'm like, oh, let's see, you know.

[Emma Greed]

Yeah, there's checks and balances and things that change. But again, I think that that's. That's very honest from you, because things do change when you sell, and you have to be aware of that. I mean, I feel like I've been around so many founders who are like, oh, this person bought my business, and now everything's changed. I'm like, what do you expect? You took a check. Like, that's what happens, right?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

It's like, no, but it's also an opportunity. And to scale a business, you need a totally different set of people. You need, like, the best people, and they have the best people in their company. You know, I have the best for travel retail. I have the best of, you know, retail. I have the best lab there. By the way, products are all under my supervision. There's nothing that will change or these products are my babies. And that's what I said upfront. I don't care about your margin. I'm the boss of every single product living in the factory.

[Emma Greed]

No, and I imagine that they want that because that's what's made this brand so successful all these years that we had amazing product, actually works, and now we know it because it's tested.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yes, exactly. Exactly. No, they are totally excited about the products, and they understand it, and they understand me completely. So they're actually super good in following, following my lead.

[Emma Greed]

What's the future of the brand for you now?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Hopefully, world domination. What I always want is, what does.

[Emma Greed]

That look like to you? What is world domination? When you're in all of the best stores all over the world, you have this incredible brand that really, to me, seemingly feels so pure. There is like, the brand is so pure. You've never sold out. I don't feel like you've ever done anything that's taken away from what it is that you mean to your customers. Like, what does world domination look like?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah, you're right. The message has never changed. The philosophy was always the philosophy. That's another thing which I think is very important for creating a business. Don't change with trends. Stay to your belief and stay really, really consistent.

[Emma Greed]

How have you managed to do that given how much is happening in your life?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

I believe the thing and I say it, I say it, I say it and I said so many times, don't use retinol. And I got attacked by so many people.

[Emma Greed]

Oh yeah, I remember.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

She's not a real doctor and she's not this, it's just my opinion. I'm not telling people what to do. Everybod can use whatever they want on their skin. I just have this anti inflammatory approach and I stick to it, you know. And I think with the mindset of people today wanting to live healthy, wanting to be educated about health and prevention, not getting sick, they understand, oh, fragrances and products do this to me. Or retinol on my skin does that. Maybe I shouldn't do it. Maybe I should eat more, more healthy anti inflammatory diet. Maybe I should drink more water. Maybe. So while people learning this, they will understand more and more and more that this anti inflammatory theory. Because if you look at longevity treatments they all come down to one thing, reducing inflammation and this mindset and this philosophy will break through and then I think our brand should be the leading brand.

[Emma Greed]

What is your longevity routine? Because I know you're in Staad and I know that like being in that, being in Staad last year I thought that being in LA I had a longevity routine and I was like, oh no you don't girl. This is like on a whole different level. What are you doing?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

But you can spend hours and hours. I know if you do this every day consistently.

[Emma Greed]

Are you spending hours and hours and.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Hours I spend but I do things in between and I don't do it every day. But I try to work while I'm doing certain things in my routine. But what I do, I drink first. I drink already a little water when I get up with lemon and warm water with lemon. But that you need to get in in the morning right away. Otherwise I don't drink enough water throughout the day. And then I do my breathing techniques to make sure you get the oxygen.

[Emma Greed]

In your system with a machine or just unaided.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

You do your, you can do a breathing technique cost like six minutes or something. And yeah, I bring pepper to school. I you know, do all my errands. I also have five dogs. It's, it's quite a lot of things to do. But then I'm, I'm doing a few peptides because I also had a knee injury and a knee surgery.

[Emma Greed]

So you injecting or you just take.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

I inject I inject some peptides ever since my knee surgery. And that's also quite interesting because I. I wanted to. I. I thought, how could I have had this accident? So stupid. What did I do? How stupid am I?

[Podcast Host/Advertiser]

Do you get it? Tennis?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

No, I was. I wasn't even skiing, you know, I wasn't even skiing. I was standing with my skis with pepper and pepper and my skis kind of like, you know, and we slowly went down and I was. I have to get down. And I just, you know, it was just wasn't. Wasn't cool. And I was so upset about it. And then I said, you know, know what? Do the surgery. I would be skiing next season. I do the surgery, and I would just get the fittest myself. And from the day of surgery, next day, I started working out everything. And then I had the speediest recovery ever because I was so dedicated.

[Emma Greed]

Are you lifting weights?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah, I do it all. And I wasn't so good about this before I really started with this injury. So the biggest challenges are the greatest opportunities. And I became so good about everything. And. And yeah, I'm doing for longevity. I have like the most amazing physio who is also like a guru kind of person, but he made me fit, like, everything. And I do pool workout. Sounds super lame, but it's so effective.

[Emma Greed]

Really?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah, I do everything and then I.

[Emma Greed]

In the water.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

In the water. Yeah, it's super effective. And it's so great for your body and for your lymph system and everything. And then I have a red light back. I use every day for 20 minutes.

[Emma Greed]

Every day if I can.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah. But I do phone calls on it. So I just go on and like.

[Emma Greed]

I'm always, like, weird about phone calls on the red light bed, but that's fine. You're just like on the phone. All right, fine. I'm just on the phone 20 minutes every day.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

And then people say, are you on a red light?

[Emma Greed]

But I say, yeah, yep, quite a little hum there.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

But I also do pmf. Mat alkalining your body.

[Emma Greed]

Yes, yes. I did that at the hotel in Staad last year.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

So you do first PMF, then you do 10 minutes on oxygen. You put the oxygen mask on and you ride the bike. So you get a lot of oxygen in your system and then you go onto the red light, and then the oxygen through the red light gets pressed into your mitochondria. The power machines of our cells. So this is the idea, and I love it.

[Emma Greed]

And you're doing all of that every day?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

No, not Every day, a few times a week also I travel. Yeah. Yeah. I try to do it as much, much as I can. And then I have the most amazing yoga person in in. And I don't like yoga. I really. It's not my thing.

[Emma Greed]

I've never been a yoga person.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

No, it's not.

[Emma Greed]

I do perform a Pilates, but it's like I wish I was a yoga person. I know it's the best thing for the posture, for old age, for our job. I mean it's just the best.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

But I mostly do.

[Emma Greed]

I mean you really are doing the most. Yeah, it's a fair amount.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah. You know I, I do. Then this yoga we could be on.

[Emma Greed]

Like, you know, I don't know Huberman or like one of these.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

When you come in August, we do it together.

[Emma Greed]

No, I'm doing. That's the end of my vacation. Because I go and it's like after all the talks I detox. I don't know if it's steeping red wine out of my veins.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Busy socially. It's like, it's like funny there is like.

[Emma Greed]

Do you feel like it's made a big difference like all of this longevity because we hear so much about all this longevity stuff. You who is a doctor who has has a clear view of your medical levels before and after. You feel like it makes a huge difference.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

100%. And I see my inflammation levels going down because my inflammation was quite high from all the stress and traveling and I had so much stress. I was like, it's, you know, the stress rises to your cortisol and you get so much inflammation and it all went down. I have like the lowest inflammation levels and, and again the longevity treatments all bring down inflammation. Breathing techniques brings down inflammation. Workout breathing oxygens brings down inflammation. It's so good for you. And if you feel it necessarily, it's with every anti aging treatment. You don't know how it would be if you didn't do it. So it's like what do you want to compare it to but to just sitting in the office and before. And I have a strong back. I have like there's so many things coming together. It's a game changer and I really want. And Louisiana is so good about it by the way. You know, everybody's so healthy and, and, and no, I'm doing so healthy here.

[Emma Greed]

Than I would ever be living in England. That's for sure.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah, for sure.

[Emma Greed]

That's for sure. What do you think for people that are starting their careers now because there's just like, so much out there, so much opportunity for people, so much choice. When you look back on the career that you've had, what would you say to people starting out, do the things you love?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

For example, skincare is such a big, big thing, and everybody loves skincare. And I'm taking on interns, you know, the daughters of my friends, and they're all coming and come and learn. We're doing college ambassador programs, school activations. It's so cute. I love mentoring. I love supporting people who are trying to figure out. I'm still. I'm with Peppa and her friends. We have little brainstormings. We do, like, little education. I'm going to their school. So it's just nice to see the next generation come and coming with their ideas and such an amazing generation. By the way, I love Pepper's Ayu kids. They have such an amazing way of thinking. They're so fair. They want to do everything right, and they're genuine. I love them and I like to spend time with the kids and help them and. Yeah, do what you love. Follow your dreams. You can fulfill your dreams. There's no one who can stop you. If you just. Just believe in it and believe in passion and work for it and work your ass off and take risks and go for it, you can, you can do anything.

[Emma Greed]

It's really true. I love that advice.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah.

[Emma Greed]

All right, we're going to move into some rapid fire. What is the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

I cuddle my kid. Oh, you know, she's sleeping with me. Not always, but sometimes. And I love it. And I kiss her and cuddle her, and it's the best.

[Emma Greed]

So lovely. And the last thing you do before you go to bed at night.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Same. Literally the same.

[Emma Greed]

Kissing, a cuddle.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah.

[Emma Greed]

So good.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

I think these kids, they need to grow up with so much love. They need to listen to how much we love them every day, how special they are, how proud we are of them, and they need that. Especially when you work so much, you're gone all day or overnight or whatever. It's the one thing, the relationship of the trust of the kid in you I think is unbreakable. And it's so important.

[Emma Greed]

It's absolutely true. What are you currently aspiring for in your business life?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Having the best people around me, it's still something I am looking to optimize because I want to scale and scale and scale. I really, I'm driven and I want to find the very best people for the. The level of growth in My business.

[Emma Greed]

Yeah. It's not easy.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

No, it's not easy. If you have any recommendations.

[Emma Greed]

I'm like a part time recruitment consultant. What do you need?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

I can't imagine it's true.

[Emma Greed]

Well, I spend, I do think, and I say this all the time. I reckon it is 25% of my time I actually spend bringing the right people into the business. Because when you have the right people, well, it just, it makes your life easier. It stops you from stressing. You learn so much. It's like a. At this point, how can I know so much about everything? I don't actually.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Very good. You need to find the people who are better than you. If you think someone is better, you listen to them, you learn from them. Quite interesting as well. I also always need a sparing partner. I need to talk to someone who I get excited and I like that.

[Emma Greed]

Within the interview process. Because when I interview I also am like, this takes so much time. But it's like I'm learning in every single interview. Because you understand how other companies do it, what you might want to avoid, what you might want to start doing. And so I take that whole process.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

As a very big learning. Never. Don't think you know everything, then you're in trouble. Barbara. Yeah.

[Emma Greed]

What are you currently aspiring for in your personal life?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

I just love my life. I move to a place where I have the work, but life, I'm just joking. Where I do my sport, where I have the most amazing community and friends, where my kid is safe and can go to school in a normal way, where I breathe oxygen, actually real oxygen every day. And where I can do my longevity program because, you know, I'm a little older than you, so at one point you really have to take care of yourself. And I started really religiously doing that. And I love it. It's. And I learned so much. I have great people around me, people who are smart and interesting. Love it.

[Emma Greed]

I love that. What is the book that changed your life?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Krishnamurti. Actually, I love his philosophy. And you can learn so much by just reading a page here and there so you don't have to read like you notice. Yeah.

[Emma Greed]

You can just take this. I love that. That's my favorite. When you can have a book on the bedside and just pick it up to any page and then you fall asleep.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

But you had like this one page.

[Emma Greed]

The best. The best. You're like that. I felt that. Yeah. All right. What is something that you valued when you were starting out that you no longer value?

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

That's kind of a bad thing that I don't value what I used to value.

[Emma Greed]

Maybe it's a bad thing.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

I want to not have changed in my personality. I don't want to think of myself, oh, I'm this amazing or I want to be exactly who I was. And I think for me, this hasn't changed. I still have the same values. And I value great food, I value great people. I value friendship, I value happiness. Help.

[Emma Greed]

Barbara, that might be the best answer we've had to this question.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Really?

[Emma Greed]

Yeah. You're just you.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

I'm just you.

[Emma Greed]

And you haven't changed.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

But you know, some people when they're success become asshole.

[Emma Greed]

Yes, a lot of them.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Yeah. And they're not like, you know, and. But this is keep your feet on the ground. And my best friends are still my best friends. And it's just the core things you have around you, they should stay.

[Emma Greed]

Barbara, thank you so much. I love speaking to you.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Thank you. I'm so happy to see you.

[Emma Greed]

Congratulations for all your success. You are.

[Dr. Barbara Sturm]

Thank you. And by the way, you're incredible. I'm so in awe of everything you do. You're a good, good testimonial and idol for all our kids to watch.

[Emma Greed]

No, I love you for saying that. And the same to you, my love. Thanks again.

[Podcast Host/Advertiser]

If you're loving this podcast, be sure to click Follow on your favorite listening platform. While you're there, give us a review and a five star rating and share an episode you loved with a friend. You'll be so grateful. Aspire with Emma Greed is presented by Audacy.

[Emma Greed]

I'm your host, Emma Greed.

[Podcast Host/Advertiser]

Our executive producers are Corrine Gilliatt Fisher, Derek Brown and me. Our executive producers from Audacy are Maddie Sprung Keyser, Leah Reese Dennis, Asha Salouja and Jenna Weiss Berman.

[Emma Greed]

Stephen Key is our senior producer.

[Podcast Host/Advertiser]

Sound design and engineering by Bill Schultz. Angela Bella Peluso is our booker. Original music by Charles Black. Video production by Evan Cox, Kirk Courtney.

[Emma Greed]

Andrew Steele, Carlos Delgado and Arnie Agassiz.

[Podcast Host/Advertiser]

Social media by Olivia Homan. Special thanks to Brittany Smith, Sydney Ford, My teams at the lead company and wme. Maura Curran, Josephina Francis, Hilary Schuff, Eric Donnelly, Kate Hutchinson, Rose, Tim Meecoff, Sean Cherry and Lauren Vieira.

[Advertiser]

If you have questions for me, you.

[Podcast Host/Advertiser]

Can DM me at Aspire with Emma Greed. Greed is spelled G R E D e. That's Aspire A S P I R E with Emma Greed. Or you can submit a question to.

[Emma Greed]

Me on my website.

[Podcast Host/Advertiser]

Emagreed me.

[Advertiser]

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