Business
Nine years ago, Jesse Reese McKinney and her co-founders launched Red Aspen out of a sister's apartment with no money and no exact plan, just a mission to inspire women to stand up, stand out, and stand together. Today, Red Aspen operates from a 30,000 square foot warehouse in Idaho, supported by 14,000 brand ambassadors across the country.
In this episode, our host Austin Willman sits down with the CEO, Jesse and the Director of Digital Marketing & Sales, Caitlin Gray, to unpack how a bootstrapped beauty brand built around false lashes and press-on nails turned into a data-driven, mission-led company. They cover the 850% growth spike during COVID, why Red Aspen commits 39% of every dollar back to its brand ambassadors, and how the company balances performance marketing with community and purpose.
Caitlin breaks down how she brings performance marketing discipline into a purpose-led brand without making it feel transactional, why customer retention and brand ambassador loyalty are treated as connected systems, and how Red Aspen approaches attribution across a distributed sales force. They also dig into Red Aspen's early TikTok Shop results, weekly product launch strategy, and how the team is thinking about AI, both for internal efficiency and for content creation, while drawing a clear line on keeping their brand ambassadors as the sales force.
This conversation is a real look at how mission, data, and community can work together to scale a direct-to-consumer beauty brand.
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In this episode, we discuss:
00:00 - 01:30: Introduction to Jesse, Caitlin, and Red Aspen
01:30 - 03:15: The Origin Story, Launching With No Money
03:15 - 07:30: Caitlin's Journey Into Red Aspen's Marketing
07:30 - 08:30: Inside the Red Aspen "Treehouse" Culture
08:30 - 10:15: The COVID Inflection Point and 850% Growth
10:15 - 13:00: Faith, Risk, and Scaling With Purpose
13:00 - 17:30: Bringing Performance Marketing Into a Mission-Led Brand
17:30 - 20:30: Building Loyalty and Retention at Scale
20:30 - 23:30: Weekly Product Launches and Brand Ambassador Lifecycle
23:30 - 26:30: Solving Attribution for 14,000 Brand Ambassadors
26:30 - 30:30: Cracking TikTok Shop and New Channels
30:30 - 34:45: Earned vs Owned Media and Brand Discoverability
34:45 - 37:15: The 39% Commission Pledge Explained
37:15 - 41:00: AI, Content Creation, and Where They Draw the Line
41:00 - 42:10: Closing Thoughts and Where to Find Red Aspen
Connect with Jesse Reese McKinney & Caitlin Gray
Jesse Reese McKinney: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessereesemckinney/
Caitlin Gray: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caitlin-gray-251997b/
Red Aspen: redaspenlove.com
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