Entreprenista

Anastasia Soare, Anastasia Beverly Hills: The Eyebrow Empire Built on Passion, Precision & a Dream

October 27, 2025

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  • Passion surpasses every single key to doing business, driving continuous work even when retirement is possible. 
  • Authenticity, mastering your craft (like Anastasia's foundation in the Golden Ratio), and genuinely wanting to help the customer build trust are crucial for long-lasting brand success. 
  • Early social media adoption, specifically leveraging Instagram organically by sending products and reposting users, became the vehicle for exponential growth after the Oprah Winfrey Show appearance. 

Segments

Host Welcome and Awards Plug
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(00:00:04)
  • Key Takeaway: The Entreprenista 100 awards application deadline is November 6th, requiring founders to apply at entreprenista.com/100.
  • Summary: The host announces the closing deadline for the Entreprenista 100 awards, urging founders to apply for recognition. The final deadline for submission is November 6th. Founders can submit applications via entreprenista.com/100.
Anastasia’s Passion and Work Ethic
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(00:00:57)
  • Key Takeaway: Anastasia Soare maintains a rigorous work ethic, stating her passion surpasses all other keys to doing business, and she continues working despite being able to retire.
  • Summary: Anastasia emphasizes that her passion is the most critical element in her business approach. She works daily as if she needs to pay next month’s rent, even though she is financially able to retire. This dedication stems from her deep passion for her work.
Immigration and Early Struggles
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(00:03:10)
  • Key Takeaway: Anastasia immigrated from communist Romania in 1989 to Los Angeles with no money or English, driven by a dream to be significant, as opportunities for women entrepreneurs were nearly impossible in her home country.
  • Summary: Arriving in the U.S. in 1989, Anastasia spent the first six months crying due to the language barrier and lack of connections. She overcame this by taking a part-time job as an aesthetician to learn about the country and financial systems.
Discovery of Eyebrow Artistry
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(00:05:18)
  • Key Takeaway: Inspired by an art teacher’s advice on changing emotion via eyebrow shape and Leonardo da Vinci’s Golden Ratio, Anastasia began self-experimenting to correct her own ’70s and ’80s brow shape.
  • Summary: Anastasia realized the impact of her self-created brow shape when clients noticed she looked rested and different, even though they couldn’t pinpoint the change. She started doing her clients’ eyebrows for free in the early ’90s because eyebrow shaping was not yet considered a chargeable service.
Transition to Independent Business
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(00:07:43)
  • Key Takeaway: Due to salon owners not seeing financial sense in charging for the time-intensive eyebrow service, Anastasia rented her own room in Beverly Hills in 1992 to focus solely on eyebrows.
  • Summary: By 1996, Anastasia was busy shaping the eyebrows of Hollywood celebrities, becoming a ‘best kept secret’ in Hollywood as noted by a 1994 Vogue article. In 1997, she opened her own salon to focus exclusively on eyebrows while others handled facials and waxing.
The Oprah Winfrey Show Impact
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(00:10:27)
  • Key Takeaway: Appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1998 to shape Oprah’s eyebrows live initiated an ‘avalanche’ of demand that her business was fortunately prepared for due to a recent warehouse expansion.
  • Summary: Just before the Oprah appearance, Anastasia proactively opened a 16,000 square foot warehouse in Los Angeles to control shipping logistics, as her previous distributor caused delays. When the demand hit, the entire company went to the warehouse to fulfill orders, which were non-stop for six months.
Product Line Development and Scaling
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(00:11:48)
  • Key Takeaway: Clients requested the homemade brow mixture Anastasia used, prompting her to develop the seven-step brow kit which she presented on Oprah, leading to product demand.
  • Summary: Anastasia decided to launch a product line after clients insisted on taking home the mixture she used on their brows. She presented her seven-step brow kit during her 1998 appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
Daughter’s Role and Nordstrom Expansion
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(00:14:05)
  • Key Takeaway: Anastasia convinced Nordstrom to open brow studios in their stores around 2000 by emphasizing the need for client education on using products like brow powder, requiring seven-day work weeks for promotion.
  • Summary: Anastasia’s daughter became more involved around 2010/2011, traveling with her to promote the line in Nordstrom stores on weekends. The book details the entrepreneurial story of persistence required to convince Nordstrom, a retail store, to adopt a service model.
Leveraging Early Instagram Strategy
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(00:15:49)
  • Key Takeaway: Instagram became the company’s primary vehicle for exponential growth because it offered global reach, leading them to organically send products to early makeup enthusiasts and repost their content.
  • Summary: The company started by scrolling through followers, sending them products without asking for posts, fostering a genuine, organic community. They supported users by reposting, which helped those users gain followers in a true give-and-take relationship.
Authenticity and Craft Mastery Advice
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(00:20:04)
  • Key Takeaway: Founders must love what they do, master their craft (like Anastasia mastering the Golden Ratio application), and remain authentic to earn customer trust.
  • Summary: Anastasia built her brand foundation on the mathematical formula of the Golden Ratio, which she applied to eyebrows and subsequently to product creation like contour kits. She created products to solve specific challenges her clients faced, ensuring she knew her niche better than anyone.
Motivation for Writing ‘Raising Brows’
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(00:22:23)
  • Key Takeaway: Anastasia wrote ‘Raising Brows’ after COVID because she felt people needed to hear a real success story to believe that dreams are still possible through determination and focus.
  • Summary: The book shares real-life challenges, winning strategies, and the importance of monitoring cash flow, advising founders not to be afraid to ask for help. She emphasizes that the support from clients and celebrities validated her work.
Life as a Bank Account
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(00:25:45)
  • Key Takeaway: Anastasia believes life is like a bank account: whatever you put in—support, genuine desire to help others feel good—you expect to get back in return.
  • Summary: She credits the support from everyday clients and top-tier celebrities for her success, noting that people are willing to help if you genuinely want to make them feel special. This principle of giving back is central to her philosophy.
Business Flexibility and Resilience
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(00:26:15)
  • Key Takeaway: Business requires constant learning, flexibility to pivot when initial ideas fail, and resilience to find another way to reach the goal, viewing mistakes as learning lessons.
  • Summary: Anastasia shared that she made many mistakes and spent money, but these are necessary learning lessons in business. Founders must be flexible, ask ‘why’ when something isn’t working, and pivot their strategy accordingly.
Community Support and Competition
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(00:28:09)
  • Key Takeaway: Supporting other brands, even competitors in the beauty space, is beneficial because customers use multiple products, meaning sharing audiences leads to everyone winning.
  • Summary: Anastasia supported other brands because she recognized that a similar audience sharing different products creates a win-win scenario. In the beauty industry, no customer uses only one product, making collaboration advantageous.
Final Advice and Business Tools
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(00:28:48)
  • Key Takeaway: The ultimate business secret is passion, and successful scaling involves utilizing tools like Shopify, Amazon, and knowing where your customer demographic spends time (e.g., Instagram vs. TikTok).
  • Summary: Anastasia advises that entrepreneurs should be happy wherever they are in life, whether they are a housewife or a business owner, as long as they are happy. Key business tools mentioned include Shopify, Amazon for repeat sales, and recognizing that strategy must follow the customer across platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
Defining Entrepreneurship and Wrap-up
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(00:33:03)
  • Key Takeaway: Being a great entrepreneur means setting an example through work ethic, passion, and a willingness to listen and learn from everyone around you.
  • Summary: Anastasia encourages listeners to buy her book, ‘Raising Brows,’ available everywhere books are sold, and to follow her business and personal social media accounts. She reiterates that her greatest business secret remains unwavering passion.