Colette Laxton , co-founder of The Inkey List, never set out to start a brand. She started her career making cups of tea at Boots, once dreamed of earning £30,000 a year, and went on to launch one of the biggest British beauty success stories of the last decade.

But this conversation isn’t about scale.

Colette and I talk about what happens when your life becomes bigger than anything you grew up imagining, starting a business with almost no money, the pressure of having more than 100 livelihoods depending on you, burnout, 300% growth still not feeling like enough, and why financial success doesn’t automatically change the beliefs you have about money.

Colette is brilliantly candid about still feeling uncomfortable with money, feeling like a fraud, learning to accept support and questioning what success actually looks like when you’ve spent years constantly chasing the next thing.

And, perhaps most importantly, what it feels like to finally say, “I feel full to the brim.”

We talk about:

• Starting The Inkey List with almost no money
• Going from Boots to building a global beauty brand
• Why founder life is far less glamorous than it looks
• The pressure of leading a team of 120+ people
• Burnout and the addiction of always wanting more
• Why 300% growth still didn’t feel like enough
• Women, support and the “I’m fine” mentality
• Growing up without wealth and how that shapes your relationship with money
• Feeling like you don’t belong in financial spaces — even after becoming successful
• Redefining success, fulfilment and what “enough” actually means

WHERE TO FIND COLETTE

https://www.instagram.com/colette.theinkeylist

WHERE TO FIND RHEA

https://www.instagram.com/its_rhea/

At Face Value is a podcast about the women behind the work – the ambition, money, identity, relationships, choices and contradictions that shape how we build our lives.

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