2 Grammy-Nominated Musicians Share What They Consider the Greatest Assets to Any Startup From music to skincare, learn the unconventional journey of Mike Einziger and Ann Marie Simpson-Einziger.
By Mark Klekas Edited by Mark Klekas
Key Takeaways
- Four things this couple attributes to their success at the beginning.
- What most people get wrong about the size of the team you need.
- An unconventional origin story can become one of your greatest assets.
We recently had an amazing conversation about the skincare brand Mother Science with the power couple behind it, Mike Einziger and Ann Marie Simpson-Einziger. They are both massively successful musicians — Mike is the lead guitarist of Incubus, and Ann Marie is a Grammy-nominated violinist — and they both have a deep passion for business. We sat down with the couple and picked their brains on how they could create a successful skincare business in a highly saturated market.
Their insights can easily be applied to any startup or aspiring entrepreneur looking for the next big idea. So here are four business lessons we learned from the brilliant minds behind Mother Science that you can use to your advantage.
1. Passion over everything
"If it's not authentic, you don't have a prayer," Mike said during the interview.
Mike and Ann Marie said that to find success, for any entrepreneur, you have to truly believe in what you are building. The two said that when they were focused on making music in the past, they had to make sure they loved the music they were putting out. They say that if you if you, yourself, don't like the product, you can't expect other people to love it too.
Related: Love Your Product But Don't Love It Too Much Where You Lose Objectivity
So, their first lesson for entrepreneurs is to fall in love with your own product first. Otherwise, your audience will pick up on your inauthenticity.
2. You don't need a big team, nor should you go at it alone
From all the success stories we've seen, there has been a common theme of going at it alone. Mike and Ann Marie never claimed to do this all on their own. Instead, they said they surrounded themselves with a small, very-capable team that helped put Mother Science on the map.
"Everybody on our team was an MVP from the beginning," Ann Marie told us. "Your team has to be a unicorn because that's how you can launch. And I really feel like we've achieved that with the team that we have. So, really you have to maximize everybody's strengths and come together."
Mike warned that it can be easy for aspiring entrepreneurs to think they must do it alone — they really don't have to do it that way, he says.
"I think it's easy for certain people, and this is human nature, to kind of self-aggrandize, like your own accomplishments. And it's easy to sort of feel like you did everything by yourself, but in startups, everyone needs to be running as fast as they can and firing on all cylinders," Mike explained.
3. Get a mentor who is actually helpful
Mike and Ann Marie agreed that mentorship is everything — and added you will learn more from a mentor than any school or degree.
But they say it's more than just having one; it's about nurturing a relationship that allows you to get quality feedback and consider strategy moves you may have overlooked. They said when you get a mentor, do these two things:
- Keep them close — Don't be afraid to call them often when you need something, they said. It can be easy to put your mentor on a pedestal or assume they are too busy for the small stuff. Mike and Ann Marie believe you need to have an open door with your mentor at all times if you truly want to collect their best business advice and apply it to your business.
- Be vulnerable with them — What's the point of a mentor if you can't share the ugly sides of starting a business? Mike and Ann Marie say it's better to be honest with your mentor about how you are doing rather than putting up a front that everything is okay.
4. If your brand story is unconventional, keep it that way
It can be easy to wash away the details of how your startup began to save time and keep it generalized. But as Mike and Ann Marie shared how Mother Science was created, you can tell they didn't dial down their story — they use it as a powerful marketing tool.
As they explained it, a weird skin patch developed on Mike's back that was brighter than the rest. Instead of just looking to cure the patch, they studied it and saw an opportunity to uncover the science behind it. As part of Mother Science, their big differentiating factor is the science behind it. They turned their discovery and curiosity into a brand story that sells. You should too.
