In this episode, meet the founder you don’t know, behind the brand you already love.

Dr. Julie Chung, Co-Founder of T3 Micro, gives the advice every ambitious woman wants to hear about building a brand, looking your best, and choosing the right life co-founder when she opens up about:

How to use color theory analysis to look your best
The lessons from building a top-selling beauty brand at Sephora for over 20 years
How to use being a multi-hyphenate to your advantage
The new standard to make your boyfriend, your husband
What’s really going on with 12-year-olds running around Sephora
Why exercising soft power always wins over hard power
How to build a business with your family—and not lose your sanity

Chapters

00:00 – Meet Dr. Julie Chung: From Surgeon to Beauty Founder0:32 – How to Shop Smart: The Secrets Behind Everyday vs. Expensive Purchases1:38 – How to Use Color Theory to Reinvent Your Look (and Confidence)3:40 – How to Turn Two Worlds Into One: From Medicine to Sephora Icon6:49 – What It Really Means to Balance Being a Doctor and Entrepreneur7:57 – How to Keep Your Two Worlds Separate (When People Find Out Who You Really Are)9:52 – What’s Harder: Running a Business or Saving Someone’s Vision?10:04 – The Surprising Similarities Between Surgery and Startups11:28 – How to Build a Beauty Brand Without Raising a Dollar12:55 – When to Pay Yourself vs. Reinvest in the Business13:36 – Should You Start a Company With Your Partner? The Truth After 20 Years15:39 – What’s Wrong With the Beauty Industry Today (and Why It Matters)17:29 – How to Step Into the Founder Role After 20 Years in the Shadows20:04 – How Much Vulnerability Do Female Founders Owe the World?22:47 – How to Survive a Hard Fertility Journey (and What It Teaches You About Control)25:11 – Why Teen Girls Are Obsessed With Sephora (And What Founders Should Know)28:27 – How to Capture the Most Valuable Consumer of the Future29:17 – What Success Looks Like Through Your Kids’ Eyes31:54 – How Money Trauma Follows You Into Adulthood (and Business)33:29 – The Most Unhinged Ways Founders Save Money in the Early Days35:14 – How Your Relationship With Money Evolves After Success36:24 – What People Get Wrong About Female Founders (And What It’s Really Like)40:15 – Why Timing Matters: The Right Moment to Step Into the Spotlight41:55 – The One Female Founder She Dreams of Meeting (and Why It Made Her Cry)42:48 – Rapid Fire: Beauty, Family, and Success Hot Takes

⸻

Become an HSR Angel in the ⁠⁠Global HSR WhatsApp channel⁠⁠!

⸻

This episode is sponsored by:

⁠⁠⁠⁠Pique⁠⁠⁠⁠ - Use this link for 20% off.

⁠⁠Frate Returns⁠⁠ - Tell them HSR sent you and learn more here

⸻

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

If you like what you hear, rate, review, and subscribe to Hot Smart Rich, the podcast supporting women who own their worth — in business, wealth, and life.

⁠⁠Subscribe on YouTube⁠⁠

⸻

💌

Own your worth — and build the life you want. Subscribe to the Hot Smart Rich newsletter, the no-BS guide to startup life, consumer brands, and becoming your hottest, smartest, richest self, written by Maggie Sellers. Join 250,000+ women building wealth, confidence, and community on their own terms.

⁠⁠Subscribe here⁠⁠

⸻

Follow Maggie:

⸻

Follow Dr. Julie & T3:

⁠Instagram⁠

⁠LinkedIn⁠

T3 Micro Instagram⁠

⁠Website⁠

⸻

More from Hot Smart Rich:

⁠⁠The Hot Smart Rich Money Mindset ⁠⁠

⁠⁠Merch⁠⁠

⸻

This episode is produced by HSR Media, a division of Creative MES LLC, with support from Vandana Ravi.

⸻

Hot Smart Rich is your place to hear unfiltered conversations with the people shaping the future of culture, creators, startups and community. Hosted by Maggie Sellers, investor and media powerhouse, and guests breaking the mold, you’ll get the real deal as it relates to navigating the startup fast lane, leveling up your life or becoming your hottest, smartest, richest self. New episodes weekly on Wednesdays.

Tricia Huffman | F the Shoulds. Do the Wants. (Audiobook Excerpt)