All right, how many of you got a healthy bump out there in the campus? Woo! Hi Mom, can you see me on the TV?
Good evening everybody and welcome to the Berkeley Forum. My name is Sydney. I'm an undergraduate student studying political science and astrophysics and I'm excited to moderate this conversation with Kory Marchisotto, president of Keys Soulcare. Kory graduated from Pace University as a first generation college student with a degree in business administration. She began her career in finance before pivoting into marketing. Tonight we will be discussing Kory's journey with e.l.f. She has championed e.l.f.'s award-winning Change the World initiative to encourage more diverse representation in the highest seats of power in publicly traded companies. With that being said, thank you everyone for joining us and thank you Kory. It's been a great pleasure to have you here at the Berkeley Forum.
In every which way, shape and form. When I think about the journey to university, it wasn't obvious in my family. I don't know in the families we came from if your parents had gone to university or if you had other siblings. In my family it wasn't a given. It was actually a question mark and it was a moment in which I had to decide to take a different path. And to give you a little funny story, when I was trying to figure out what I should major in, I didn't really have anybody to talk to or to turn to. And I was sitting in the kitchen, sweating, and my dad's like, 'What are you going to do? You know, you look anxious.' And I said, 'I'm trying to figure out what to major in. It feels like a pretty big decision, and I don't know how to make this decision.' And he's like, 'Well, I don't know how to help you, but let's call somebody who does.' So, he called Cousin Polly. He knew my cousin Polly had gone to college, so he said, 'Let's give Cousin Polly a call.' So, he called her on an old phone that has all the, you know, twirly cord, and he gets Cousin Polly on the phone, and he says, 'My daughter is trying to figure out what to major in in school. What do you think?' Cousin Polly said verbatim, and I will never forget this in my entire life, 'She should do marketing. Chicks do marketing.'
And I have to say, as much as today that may sound, you know, a little bit of a different way for you, it was a really important moment to understand, when you don't know something, call people who do. When you're in a situation where I can guarantee you any problem you're ever going to face in your life, somebody else has faced it. And raising your hand and asking for help is a tremendous advantage in your court. So, I decided to major in marketing. And the opportunity at this university was really to be in the financial district. I wanted to work for a large financial institution. Proximity matters, so I put myself in the heart of Wall Street to make sure that I had close access to the organizations that I wanted to work for. And as it turned out, all of the financial institutions that I interviewed with were not setting off my antenna in the way that I had hoped. I didn't have a really really long antenna when you're trying to find the right frequency, and my frequency was wildly off.
And then one day I got a call to go on an interview at a company called LVMH. If you don't know what that is, it's Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, and Hennessy. And yeah, and booze. You're like, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I go from these large financial institutions, which felt cold and transactional, and I walked into an environment that was black leather, mirrors, and it was sexy AF. And I was like, 'Woah, what is going on in this place?' And I was really introduced to the emotional side of marketing, the fact that there are products and places and people out there that are going to help support your journey in ways you didn't imagine. What does it mean to put on the bold red lip before you walk into a conference room to feel your best self and to be the most confident that you can, no matter what environment you're going to face in life. And that was the beginning of my journey in the corporate world. And then eventually I went back to school, to FIT. And another key learning here for me is get your master's when you already have work experience. That was absolutely critical instead of just going straight from the BA into a master's, because it would be too theoretical if you don't have boots on the ground experience. So being able to mix the practical with the academic was absolutely key for that. And probably the biggest takeaway from both of my academic environments was opening your eyes to new horizons and always being curious.
