How To Find Your True, Authentic Beauty — With Keca's Usna Founder Monica Walls | Get Authentic with Marques Ogden

Beauty, entrepreneurship, and the real cost of building something you actually love

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What You'll Learn in This Episode

Most people wait until everything is "perfect" before they bet on themselves. Monica Walls waited until a childhood friend told her the truth: "If you don't do this now, you're never going to do it." Two years later, she's the founder of Keca's Usna — a lipstick company built entirely around who she actually is — and leading a community of women who lift each other up instead of tearing each other down.

In this episode, Marques and Monica break down what authentic beauty really means, why being unapologetically yourself is a competitive advantage in the cosmetics industry, and what it actually looks like to leave a Silicon Valley HR career and build something from scratch. No clichés. No highlight reel. Just the real story — the rollercoaster, the skinned knees, and the community that made it worth it.

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Timestamps

• [0:00] Welcome + sponsor spotlight: Carpa Dia Law Firm with Ilona Anderson
• [2:15] Marques opens the show and introduces Monica Walls
• [3:10] What does "authentic" actually mean? Monica's definition — and why your core values are your concrete pillars
• [5:45] From Silicon Valley HR executive to lipstick founder: Monica's origin story
• [8:20] Why the name "Keca's Usna" is deeply personal — and what Croatian heritage has to do with it
• [11:00] The community Monica didn't expect to build: "There's enough room on the stage"
• [13:30] Marques reflects: what happens when your job doesn't fuel your passion
• [16:00] New question: Why does authenticity give you a competitive advantage in your specific industry?
• [19:45] The farmer's market analogy — why people buy from people whose stories resonate
• [22:10] The panel moment that changed everything: "You gave me the courage. I'm going to do it."
• [25:00] Two years in — the honest good and hard of building Keca's Usna
• [28:30] "I thought this would be a cakewalk. Not even close." — What Monica learned about cosmetic formulations, factory relationships, and social media
• [32:00] Applying corporate principles to entrepreneurship: when to ask for help and how to build your team
• [35:15] "I'll let you skin your knees, but not break your legs" — taking your own advice
• [38:00] Monica shows the Keca's Usna product line and shares what makes it different
• [42:30] The authentic version of yourself on social media — why showing up as you is the whole strategy

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Episode Breakdown

What "Authentic" Really Means — Beyond the Buzzword

Marques opens every episode by asking guests to define authenticity on their own terms. Monica's answer is one of the clearest he's heard:

> "Being authentic means being your true self, regardless of what anybody else thinks, regardless of what is trending now, regardless of what is popular. Your core values are intact — those concrete pillars of who make you what you are."

It's not a soft answer. It's structural. She's not talking about a feeling — she's talking about architecture. And that framing sets the tone for everything that follows in this episode.

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From HR Executive to Lipstick Founder: The Origin Story

Monica spent years as an HR executive in Silicon Valley. The work was professional. The people were good. But, as she puts it directly, the companies "didn't fuel my passion." It took a childhood friend calling her out — reminding her she'd had the idea for a lipstick line since grad school — to force the decision.

Her response? All the reasons it couldn't work: "I'm a single income me, and I have a mortgage."

His response: "Yeah, yeah, you'll figure it out. You need to do it."

That push led to the creation of Keca's Usna — a company woven from personal identity at every seam. Keca was her nickname as a teenager. Usna is the Croatian word for lip. Purple, her favorite color, runs through the brand's visual identity. Her favorite church in Croatia hangs on the wall behind her. She collects Tiggers.

"I get to do it honoring all the different pieces and parts of me," she says.

Marques doesn't let that moment pass quietly. He's direct with listeners: "A lot of people will work a job that doesn't fuel their passion. I couldn't imagine doing it. That would be horrific." His point isn't to tell anyone to quit their job without a plan — it's to say that if you have a passion, you have to find a way. He did it while working as a football trainer, a janitor, selling gold. Monica did it by finally listening to someone who believed in her before she believed in herself.

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Why Authenticity Is a Competitive Advantage in the Beauty Industry

This is one of the sharpest moments in the episode. Marques introduces a new question — one he says he pulled from an article the weekend before recording — and makes Monica the first guest he's ever asked it to:

Why does being authentic give you an advantage in your specific industry?

Monica's answer moves through the current cultural moment with precision:

> "People are looking for people that they can relate to. They're looking to be around people that resonates with them. Think about when you go to a farmer's market — you're supporting your locals. Someone's story resonates with you."

In beauty and cosmetics — an industry drowning in curated perfection and heavily filtered content — being visibly, undeniably yourself is a differentiator. Monica isn't selling a persona. She's selling Keca. The gap between what's being sold and who's selling it is zero.

That authenticity has also opened doors. On a panel a few weeks before this recording, Monica found herself alongside two women she'd never met who were perfectly aligned: "Don't let fear be the reason why you don't do it. Do what fuels your soul." Women came up afterward and told them that the conversation gave them the courage to finally start. For Monica, that's the ROI that matters most.

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The Real Work of Building Something from Scratch

Two years in, Monica is clear-eyed about the gap between expectation and reality:

> "I thought it would be a little bit simpler. I thought, oh, this will be a cakewalk. Not even close, not even close."

She breaks it down without sugarcoating:

• The learning curve was steep. Cosmetic formulations, factory relationships, quality control — none of it was in her HR playbook.
• Social media was foreign territory. As an HR executive, she kept herself off social media deliberately. Now it's where she lives. "Finding someone who can say, 'Hey, you know what? This could be really good for you, and show more of yourself' — that mattered."
• Asking for help was a skill she had to relearn for herself. She used to tell employees, "I'll let you skin your knees, but not break your legs." She had to turn that advice inward. "I'm going to skin my knees and I'm going to get bruises and it's okay. This is how you learn."

She also talks about building the human infrastructure of her business — not a corporate org chart, but a network of women who showed up: friends working expo booths on concrete floors for long hours, people helping set up pop-ups, others contributing to presentations. Her slide deck, when she speaks, includes a slide dedicated entirely to the people who have worked alongside her.

> "There's enough room on the stage. Come on, we're going to pull you with us. Let's go."

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Showing Up as Yourself on Social Media

Marques closes out the episode with a point he wants the audience to sit with. Monica spent her corporate career carefully managing her professional image — keeping personal off the platforms, staying in lane. Now, as a founder, the entire strategy is the opposite. The authentic version of herself is the brand.

"She is now showing people her real authentic side," Marques says. "And that I feel is huge."

It's a direct line back to the episode's opening question about authenticity. The full-circle isn't accidental — it's the point. You can't build Keca's Usna by hiding Keca.

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⭐ 3 Key Takeaways

> 1. Your core values are your concrete pillars. > Authenticity isn't a vibe — it's structural. As Monica puts it: "Your concrete pillars of who make you what you are — if you can really honor those and be authentic to yourself, that's my definition of authentic." Build from those pillars, not from trends.

> 2. You don't have to sell your soul to do what you love. > Monica's community operates on a simple truth she named directly: "You don't have to sell your soul to do what you love. And a lot of those things aren't for sale." In beauty, in business, in life — the best thing you can offer is the one thing nobody else has. You.

> 3. Don't let fear be the reason you don't do it. > Whether it's a mortgage, a stable paycheck, or the fear of looking foolish — fear is not a strategy. Monica's turn came when someone who believed in her told her: "You'll figure it out." If you're waiting for perfect conditions, Marques and Monica are telling you plainly: they're not coming. Start.

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Resources Mentioned

| Resource | Details | |---|---| | Keca's Usna | Monica Walls' lipstick company — explore the product line at kecasusna.com (verify current URL) | | Carpa Dia Law Firm | Trademark registration, employee handbooks, and business contracts — carpadiamlawfirm.com | | Ilona Anderson on LinkedIn | Connect with the founder of Carpa Dia Law Firm for legal protection for your brand and business | | Get Authentic with Marques Ogden | The full podcast — available on all major streaming platforms | | Monica Walls on Social Media | Search Keca's Usna across Instagram and LinkedIn for the community and product updates |

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About Your Host: Marques Ogden

Marques Ogden played five seasons in the NFL with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills, and Tennessee Titans. After football, he built a multi-million dollar construction company — and then lost it all. From eight figures to $8.25 an hour. Bankruptcy. Rock bottom.

He came back. And he turned everything he learned the hard way — on the field, in the boardroom, and at rock bottom — into a framework that Fortune 500 companies now use to build winning teams, develop resilient leaders, and drive real execution.

Today, Marques is a five-time bestselling author, a sought-after keynote speaker who has reached 750,000+ people across 500+ events, and the host of Get Authentic with Marques Ogden — a show dedicated to the kind of conversations that actually move people forward.

His programs don't just motivate. They equip.

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Ready to Go Further?

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