Renee Plato of MDSolarSciences: Five Things You Need To Know To Succeed In The Modern Beauty Industry

Be determined, Use common sense, Know your target audience, Accept that time is not on your side, and Competition is fierce.

As a part of our series about “Five Things You Need To Know To Succeed In The Modern Beauty Industry”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Renee Plato.

Renee Plato is the CEO of MDSolarSciences where she is responsible for the growth, business strategy and leadership of all corporate functions. Prior to her current position, Renne held positions at The Walt Disney Company, NBCU, Sony, VIZIO’s viewership analytics, DSTV in Africa, and a number of digital start-ups.

MDSolarSciences is a clean skincare and SPF brand. They create and distribute SPF skincare products that are safe for the environment and all skin types for ages 6 months and older. All MDSolarSciences formulas are dermatologist developed, reef safe, made with sustainably sourced ingredients and packaged with fully recyclable materials — good for you, good for the planet!

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Like most interesting stories, my career path is filled with several twists and turns. I started my career in consumer-packaged goods then moved into media technologies when websites and portable music were just arising. After being on the business development side and emerging technologies at major media companies such as Sony and The Walt Disney Company, I jumped into media data, really gaining a deep understanding of why consumers make the decisions they do surrounding content, products sold via advertising, and how data can help better monetize media and the value of brand exposures. All my media, technology and advertising experience has played an invaluable role in my current position as CEO of MDSolarSciences, a leading dermatologist developed, sun and skincare brand.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

During my time at The Walt Disney Company, my team was charged with harnessing digital devices to drive new ways for viewers/fans to consume video content. It was such an interesting and exciting time in the media. The iPhone was just being launched on the heels of the iPod. It was a crossroad between commerce (shopping apps), mobility and web media and content. Steve Jobs was on the Disney board, so we had a lot of insight on technology capabilities. It was an innovative time to be in the media. We were responsible for tackling these new technologies and forging new business models and partnerships for distribution; licensing the Walt Disney portfolio of content across new and emerging platforms such as Netflix and devices, while ensuring we weren’t undermining the lucrative traditional cable and advertising business models. I was fortunate enough to work Netflix, and when we launched Hulu within the Walt Disney Company, I was on the front line of the unveiling of the Roku device and helped license content to the Xbox. To be at the forefront of such radical change driven by technology was a highlight of my career. To see an entire industry pivot in just a few years was very exciting and interesting. Media has constantly evolved, but this was a seismic shift in a short amount of time. The consumer options and the level of viewing convenience made over-the-top services a game changer. That’s when I learned the power and value of making something convenient for the consumer. Convenience became a currency and drove consumer loyalty, and continues to do so today. Being able to move outside of the living room and watch your favorite programs any time of day was revolutionary.

Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Are there takeaways or lessons that others can learn from that?

I don’t know if you ever really feel or acknowledge a “tipping point” of success. Success is cumulative and presents itself in both micro and macro ways, while simultaneously ebbing and flowing. I’ve had successful moments early in my career, and some not so successful moments later in my career. Success is not an arch, it’s a constant dance — forward, backward, side stepping. The landscape for success changes and so, to some extent, your ability to be fluid and grounded becomes your compass for being successful. The further I go into my career, the stronger my perspective is that success is about how you engage with the people around you and the confidence you’ve earned approaching a situation. When you have confidence, you begin to relax and rely more on experience and the support of your team, and you become more open minded. Confidence is a tipping point to success.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person to whom you are grateful who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I’ve been fortunate to have several wonderfully supportive influences in my life and across my career. The greatest force for helping me to achieve success in my career is my mother. While there have been various people that have materially helped me achieve my goals, it’s my mother who gave me the foundational skills necessary to lead, think strategically and provide the organizational skills to get things done. As a kid, it wasn’t easy having to grow up with such a high bar of discipline and always striving to do my best. However, I would not be where I am today without her. A working mother herself, she taught me that you must be strong, focused, determined and to finish what you start. She gave me so many skills and an education that’s invaluable, and I apply these lessons in most things I face every day in my career.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. The global beauty industry today has grown to more than a half a trillion dollar business. Can you tell us about the innovations that you are bringing to the industry? How do you think that will help people?

I’ve spent most of my career driving media innovations. Crossing over into beauty innovation has been a fun and unique experience. My role now is more centered on maintaining beauty through high quality, innovative SPF formulas. Most don’t realize that 90% of all skin damage and premature aging comes from the sun. If you’re not addressing sun protection, you’re not helping to preserve the skin’s natural aging process. Not only does SPF slow the aging of skin, but it is a necessity to keep it healthy. Skin is our largest organ and we often overlook how important its role is in our overall health. With today’s environmental factors, a high-quality SPF is an absolute necessity and non-negotiable. Not only does the sun and environmental factors age us, it harms us. One in six people will develop skin cancer — a shocking statistic — and skin cancer is growing across younger adults in greater numbers versus past years. The MDSolarSciences portfolio provides the most wearable, fast-absorbing, efficacious formula innovations with the highest levels of sun protection. Every formula has healing complexes in order to perform double-duty skin protection.

What is interesting is that MDSolarSciences was developed by Dr. Friedman, a leading dermatologist and oncologist who was an adjunct professor of dermatology at NYU and an honorary chair of the Skin Cancer Foundation. He dedicated his life to eradicating skin cancer and leveraging scientific innovations in mineral based formulas to provide the best everyday SPF formulas that protect, prevent, and repair the skin over time. He did this because his patients were not keen on wearing sunscreen that, at the time, provided no benefits to the skin and felt greasy and uncomfortable.

We help people stay healthy. That’s our commitment to the beauty industry.

Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the modern beauty industry?

We all recognize the importance of being and acting more environmentally conscious. Now more than ever we need to be cognizant of the impact the beauty industry has on contributing to environmental pollution. While there is still a significant amount of work to be done to mitigate the environmental impact, I celebrate brands that have put environmental health over cosmetic charm. Fully recyclable, multi-use packaging and sustainable ingredients are just a few examples. It’s a starting point and I’m excited to see many more efforts being made and embraced by the consumer.

Another aspect of the modern beauty industry that’s exciting is a more thoughtful approach to inclusion. What I mean by inclusion is a recognition of different ages, skin types, skin tones and approaches to beauty. When I was younger and being introduced to beauty products, it was considerably less diverse and brands only appealed to certain target age groups. They were represented by 20-something models that had perfect skin and were usually Caucasian. Now, I see such a diverse representation of brands addressing various ethnicities with differing skin tones and types. It’s a more accurate reflection of beauty and how brands are interpreting their consumers.

Lastly, I’m excited to see a broader emergence of solution-based formulas; ones designed to target specific skin concerns through unique ingredients, complexes and advanced technologies. The recognition that we as consumers are not one-size-fits-all is both exciting and long overdue. I appreciate that brands are developing products to target very specific concerns (i.e. changing texture due to aging, hormonal breakouts, etc). I have more confidence that modern beauty seeks to understand my needs and meet them.

Can you share 3 things that most concern you about the industry? If you had the ability to implement 3 ways to improve the industry, what would you suggest?

My perspective is not going to be very popular with some retailers, but I find accessibility a concern and a challenge, particularly when dealing with beauty products that provide skin health and wellness. I understand the need for a strategic differentiation between retailers, but consumers deserve ease of accessibility to brands and products that contribute to overall skin health. Everyday SPF products should have broader accessibility across beauty channels and be considered under a different set of criteria.

Another concern is ingredient transparency. There are many ingredients that fall outside of FDA regulations and can cause environmental harm or harm to humans if absorbed over extended periods of time. There are more allergy issues than ever before and we need a formalized system for having a better understanding of ingredients and their impact. Various chemicals or synthetics can be very disruptive and we need a solution to give consumers a deeper knowledge database of what they are putting on their skin or ingesting.

Lastly, I’m concerned about the longevity of new brands that are emerging. There are more beauty brands than ever before, which provides great consumer options, but if the brands don’t have staying power or invest in long term growth, it provides a negative consumer experience. Customers fall in love with certain products and we want to ensure those beauty products have a solid footing and foundation to retain customer trust over time by meeting both expectations and demand.

You are an expert about beauty. Can you share a few ideas that anyone can use “to feel beautiful”?

There are many days I don’t feel so beautiful, but when I do, it’s usually when I’m calm, focused, hydrated and have executed a solid morning workout. I feel beautiful when I’m confident and have control over my workload, invest in quality time with my family, and have dinner with friends. That’s when I’m at my most beautiful!

Here is the main question for our discussion. Based on your experience and success, Can you please share “Five Things You Need To Know To Succeed In The Modern Beauty Industry”. Please share a story or an example, for each.

The key five things that have been the major contributors to my success in the beauty industry are: be determined, use common sense, know your target audience, accept that time is not on your side, and competition is fierce.

In today’s beauty landscape it’s imperative to have a 360-degree perspective on the competition as well as your own brand’s strategic path. Have a vision for how those paths meet, converge or compete. If you don’t, you’re not going to realize the heights of your success. And once you do have that vision, drive it…hard. You must execute, retool, learn and execute again. Beauty is fast paced. There is fierce competition in every channel and brands must have an excellent grasp of how their consumer interacts or follows them across every channel they are in. It’s not enough anymore to accept fate defined by other brands or retail partners. Brands must understand the value they bring through their product offerings, brand position, the consumer’s voice and the presence they have in each domain. And that’s just the beginning…

Brands must pour over the data and know the narrative they’re delivering. They need to define the white space in the market and own it in order to deliver something unique that the competition can’t. Once that is established (again), it’s time to execute with speed and put a stake in the ground. Then, protect it. The modern beauty industry today is extremely fluid.

Five years ago, TikTok was not a viable channel. Now it is. There will always be new and emerging channels. Fortunately, coming from a technology and media background, I’ve seen the rise and fall of several platforms, apps and products. Evolution is the fun part of success. We have to be nimble. It’s never dull and there is a constant learning curve.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

Wow, great question. The movement would be to spend more time in each other’s company, to listen and express ideas in-person. The fulfillment that comes from simply sharing ideas, seeding innovation or just having a healthy debate with others is powerful. How many times have you not wanted to go to a meeting or gathering, and walked away and thought, “I am so happy I went. It was great to connect with XYZ”?

These are interesting times to be a leader. I see a lot of challenges, division, and frustration around me. Sometimes it feels like we’re living in a fragmented world that’s growing farther and farther apart because we’re so wrapped up in the “me” and forgetting the value of the “we”. Emotional connection is a beautiful thing and powerful. Hopefully, that power is harnessed for good. Being in someone’s physical presence has a different degree of compassion and patience, and we need a lot more of that. It’s such a simple thing, and oftentimes great movements come from simple necessity.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Are you busy listening, or are you busy trying to be heard?”

When I was a young executive, I had a bad habit of always piping up to say something, to make my point before the last speaker had time to take a breath. Once he stated this quote, it immediately stuck with me. As a leader and a contributor to any discussion, I recognize how frequently people in the room aren’t truly taking the time to listen. They are spending more time trying to get their point across and to be heard. Because of this life lesson quote, I now think I have honed my listening skills to really observe what’s being said and use it to glean insights, and frame a discussion or a presentation. By listening, you are able to be far more effective in reaching your goals rather than wasting time trying to be heard. Trust me, you’ll be heard when you’re winning!

How can our readers follow you online?

Readers can follow MDSolarSciences on: Facebook, Instagram, TikTik, YouTube, Twitter and Pinterest. The MDSolarSciences website also has a wonderful and informative blog, and I encourage your readers to check it out.

Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.

About the Interviewer: Jilea Hemmings is a staunch believer in the power of entrepreneurship. A successful career revamping Fortune 500 companies was not enough for her entrepreneurial spirit, so Jilea began focusing her passion in startups. She has successfully built 6 startups to date. Her passion for entrepreneurship continues to flourish with the development of Stretchy Hair Care, focusing on relieving the pain associated with detangling and styling natural black hair. For far too long, people with tender heads have suffered in pain. Until now.