4 Biz Tips We Can Learn from Selena Gomez
What’s the value of “celebrity?” Twenty years ago, being a celebrity meant you could snag a table at a coveted restaurant without notice. It meant you could walk the red carpet into swanky award show after-parties. And it meant that people asked for your autograph – not a selfie – wherever you went.
But recently, a combination of social media tools and a universal “aha” have celebrities turning their famous faces and names into big brands. Over the next few months, we’ll walk through some of their entrepreneurial journeys.
First up: former Disney Channel staple Selena Gomez. While you may not have the same opportunity to flip fame into fortune like Selena, there are four key lessons found in her entrepreneurial journey that we can all learn from.
Lesson 1: Diversification is your friend.
Glance at a list of Selena Gomez's entrepreneurial ventures – makeup, ice cream, music, mental health, and a cooking show – and the range of her brands is immediately apparent.
Rather than specialize in a single industry (like beauty), Selena Gomez took a page from the investing playbook: diversification. If ice cream goes out of fashion, her Rare Beauty line is unlikely to be impacted. Starting multiple businesses in multiple categories is a brilliant defensive move against risk.
Lesson 2: 1+1=5 (sometimes).
Some of the businesses Selena puts her name on weren’t her creations entirely. Instead, she’s formalized her love for certain brands (like Serendipity Brands) by way of partnerships. That way, a company that makes, say, ice cream, can do what they do best, while Selena offers her spin on a product in exchange for a piece of the business. The brand gets Selena’s marketing machine, and Selena gets a piece of a business without any major risk. Win, win. The lesson? A strategic partnership can bring more to the table for both parties than each could achieve on their own.
Lesson 3: Ideas are hiding in your personal life experience.
Rare Beauty launched in 2020 with two objectives: individuality and authenticity. Selena’s own experience with the makeup industry revealed a hole in the marketplace. Leaning into direct-to-consumer sales, Selena’s brand markets to women who have felt similarly left out of the beauty industry’s “target customer” mood boards.
Lesson 4: True impact is more than money.
Selena has used her public platform for more than just pushing product. Her personal experience with mental health led her to co-found Wondermind in 2021. The mental health platform is more than just a brand or business. “The World First Mental Health Fitness Ecosystem.” Word about its profitability is mum, but one thing is clear: this is a project the tycoon started for purpose, not just profit.
