It all began with a heated eyelash curler. When Shelley Barrett, founder and CEO of ModelCo was working in her former role as a model agent, she noticed her talent coming in with red burns around their eyes. They’d been blow-drying their eyelash curlers for extra hold — essentially hot-curling their eyelashes! Spotting a gap in the market for an innovative new product, Shelley created the Turbo Lashwand Heated Eyelash Curler, and a cult beauty product was born. From this simple idea, Shelley established ModelCo and ever since, the hot pink brand has been a staple in beauty cabinets worldwide.
From the heated eyelash curler, Shelley’s business has gone from strength to strength, with the launch of the first ever aerosol spray self-tan, ModelCo’s Tan in a Can, winning over women worldwide.
Celebrity endorsements soon came flooding in, with Kylie Minogue, Victoria Beckham and Sienna Miller counting themselves as fans. ModelCo has developed a reputation for creating handy, innovative and time-saving products. From lip glosses with built in LED lights and side mirrors, foundations with concealer in the lid, and a sunscreen with wash-off bronzer, ModelCo have perfected the art of creating products that we didn’t know we needed — but now can’t live without!
The ambassadors for ModelCo read like a who’s-who of beauty icons. Danni Minogue, Elle Macpherson, Cheyenne Tozzi and Rosie-Huntington Whiteley make up this elite group, giving the brand further brownie points for always being spot-on when it comes to leading the rest of the pack. “They become part of the family,” says Shelley of this star lineup.
Shelley Barrett herself is the perfect ambassador for the brand, epitomising the strength it evokes through her own hard-working ethics and killer business smarts. She got her start as a receptionist in a model agency, and decided to create her own modelling company at the age of twenty-one, designed to provide a personalised service. After being in that business for eight years, overseeing a roster of 1200 talents, and constantly being on the lookout for the next big idea, Shelley spotted the gap in the beauty market and went for it. “I’m always looking towards the next thing, something to inspire me,” Shelley says. Over 1800 stores in 11 different countries now stock ModelCo products, proving that having a good idea really can spark a phenomenon.
Although she has enjoyed massive success, Shelley has also endured with grace the lows of the industry, almost losing her business during the GFC. Although Australia wasn’t hit as hard by the recession as most other countries, 80% of ModelCo sales were international — meaning Shelley lost almost 80% of her business as soon as the GFC hit. As with most successful business owners, Shelley kept her chin up and has continued to push her company further ever since, learning an important lesson along the way, “don’t ever let anyone else drive the ship for you and you’ll always pull through.”
ModelCo has grown larger than ever, and the announcement of stunning former Victoria’s Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley as ambassador for the Aussie brand has cemented it as one of the top beauty brands in the world. Even though it took eight months of grit and determination to get her on board, Rosie has joined the ModelCo family, giving the brand an international face. “Part of the success of our brand is the wow factor,” says Shelley — and what better way to get that wow factor than having a Victoria’s Secret model as ambassador…
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Watch our interview with Shelley Barrett below.
Complete Video Transcript
RESCU: Hi you’re on Rescu. TV and I’m here with Shelley Barrett, a one-woman band dynamo who has taken the Australian Beauty scene by storm with your wonderful brand ModelCo.
Shelley Barrett: Thank you, Bahar
RESCU: How many years are you celebrating with the brand?
Shelley Barrett: Twelve years
RESCU: Oh my goodness, I remember the heated lash curler!
Shelley Barrett: That’s where it all started!
RESCU: I still have one.
Shelley Barrett: Do you have the original?
RESCU: No I have a new fancy one. Today we’re talking to you because you’re one of the icons to a lot of women for your incredible tenacity in this cutthroat industry, which is the beauty industry. This is one of the toughest industries to make money and stay relevant, you have managed to do it internationally! I remember going to Henri Bendel and being so proud to see ModelCo.
Shelley Barrett: We certainly leave our mark with the hot pink.
RESCU: Tell me how it all started and your career story is really interesting, a lot of people love to follow you.
Shelley Barrett: It all started when I was 21 and working at a modeling agency as a receptionist. I was looking at the way this particular agent managed his talent, and I looked at myself and thought I could open my own agency and provide personalized service. I started my own modeling agency at 21 and started with one model that wasn’t even tall. She was about 5 ft. 5, but she was gorgeous! I figured for photography no one really knows how tall you are. We started with one model and over the duration of ten years we grew to twelve hundred talent, across four different categories; editorial, advertising, children’s models and actors. At about eight years into being a model agent I thought to myself I’m always looking towards the next thing, something to inspire me. I was continually listening to what my models wished they’d had in their beauty regime that all the luxury brands weren’t providing. I was also looking at the way they applied make up and tanning products and I was inspired to launch a heated eyelash curler. At the time I launched the heated eyelash curler it was a pet project, I had no idea it was going to become the phenomenon that it is or what it is today.
RESCU: I read somewhere that you went to Korea is that right?
Shelley Barrett: Eight years in I loved what I was doing but I really want to do something bigger and better. There was nothing innovative about the beauty brands out there and all my models use to come in with these red blow dryer burns on their eyes and I asked them what it was and they said they’re trying to curl their eyelashes. They were heating their old style eyelash curlers with their hairdryers and then applying hair spray! So I thought wouldn’t it be amazing if I could create this innovative blow dryer for the eyelashes.
RESCU: It’s like a hot roller for eyelashes
Shelley Barrett: I did a bit of research and discovered that South Korea was the best place at the time to create gadgets so off I jumped on a plane, I thought it was going to be easy, we were driving through the backstreets of Korea with chickens flying everywhere and ended up at this manufacturer. He thought I was insane, I came in with all of my drawings and said, “How do you create this?” And he said we can make these all from scratch, you need to buy a minimum of three thousand units. To me that was huge but I really believed in the concept. Having belief and knowing that it’s something that you know is going to sell is going to be the first thing. So we created this product and sold it into Myer. Basically the success of this product was something that was three fold: something that was innovative, celebrity endorsement – Kylie Minogue and Elle Macpherson said that they loved it, and we launched it in Fashion week and in beauty magazines which gave it credibility. When we launched it into Myer we sold about ten thousand in a month, it was huge. It was at that point that I didn’t look at the profit; I realized that there is a need in the beauty industry for innovative beauty products. It was after the success of the Lash Wand that if I could continue a whole list of products in the beauty, cosmetics and tanning category that women want then I knew we were onto something big.
RESCU: I want to take you outside of the mega success. I think one of the things people really admire about you is you are an archetypal woman in that you’re a mother of two beautiful girls, you’ve been a wife, you’ve divorced your ex husband yet you work together and remain best friends, and you seem to have taken the highs with amazing grace and the lows with a sense of humility and “it hasn’t killed me, I’m just stronger” attitude. Share with our audience what happens when you go from being the hottest thing in town from producing so many successes and the world changes, in 2009 the FC happens. What does Shelley Barrett do when the world changes?
Shelley Barrett: When I started the brand we were fortunate, I didn’t know anything but success when it started. Back then I thought I knew it all but I actually knew nothing back then compared to what I know now. I thank God for the hard times like the GFC. We had 80% of our sales internationally and 20% locally and I thought isn’t this great I’m just sitting back and everyone around the world is selling my product but that was probably the biggest mistake because by allowing other people to manage a business or allowing international success was probably the thing that nearly killed my business.
RESCU: And what did you do psychologically?
Shelley Barrett: Psychologically at that time I always looked at every negative and thanked God cause I knew there was a positive just around the corner. I knew at the time that when I lost virtually 80% of my business overnight, which was quite a large business at the time that there’s obviously a message there. It was a sign that I needed to take control of my business. Instead of looking at the negative and thinking “I’m going to lose my business” within days I switched my thoughts to how can I take control of my business, what is the lesson in this for me. The lesson in it for me was keep control of your business and don’t ever let anyone else drive the ship for you and you’ll always pull through.
RESCU: Now you’ve done something else that was quite renegade and you’ve always done this, you’ve surprised the heck out of people when you pull these rabbits out of the hat. Your ability to pick celebrity spokespeople who go beyond just being the face of ModelCo…
Shelley Barrett: They become part of the family
RESCU: You’ve worked with Elle Macpherson, Danni Minogue who seems to be the sister of ModelCo and Rosie Huntington Whiteley who is one of the most beautiful people in the world! Do you just wake up one day and put the most people woman in the world on your vision board and go after her.
Shelley Barrett: Again, I know you think I’m mad, but it comes down to a gut feel. I do have a vision board for business, personal and family. I often cut little pictures out and put them on and I had a photo and believe it or not I have no idea who she was. Two years ago I knew she was gorgeous, Victoria Secret model. This amazing girl kept popping up everywhere. I use to cut out photos of this girl and thought she’s incredible and she was actually on my business vision board. Obviously reading beaty and fashion magazines her name started to pop up and I began to know who she was. I was having a chat with my photographer one day and thought we’re ready for the next thing and he said “Rosie Huntington Whiteley” and I said “Yes! That’s the one.” He said there’s no way, she’s going to be millions of dollars.
RESCU: When I saw her for ModelCo I literally went “No way!!” It was amazing.
Shelley Barrett: A part of the success of our brand is the wow factor. We want customers to open a magazine and look at our product and think, “wow, how did they do that”. So with Rosie Huntington Whiteley, I had it in my mind that I was going to get her and wasn’t going to stop. It took about eight months. My relationship with models and my agency definitely helped in negotiating what they want to have and what they want. Negotiating with talent is probably the easiest thing.
RESCU: Well I just want to thank you so much for sharing your very inspirational expert advice and a little bit of your back-story. Whenever we do a feature of Australian brands ModelCo is such a favourite for Australian girls. Your tanning products are impeccable, your lipsticks and makeup products are truly innovative and we can’t wait to see what you’ll pull out of the hat next.
Shelley Barrett: Well there is a surprise for 2014 but you’ll need to stay tuned.
RESCU: We will, thank you so much.
