---
What You'll Learn in This Episode
You don't have to sell your soul to do what you love. In this episode of Get Authentic with Marques Ogden, Marques sits down with Monica Walls — former Silicon Valley HR executive turned cosmetics entrepreneur and founder of Keca's Usna, a lipstick brand built on heritage, community, and radical authenticity. Monica breaks down how a childhood friend's challenge pushed her to stop waiting and start building. She shares the real behind starting a beauty company from scratch — the factory negotiations, the social media learning curve, the moments of "oh my God, what have I done?" — and exactly how she came out the other side with a thriving product line and a community of women who lift each other up. If you've been sitting on an idea because the timing isn't perfect or the fear is too loud, this episode will give you the honest, practical push you need to move.
---
Episode Timestamps
- [0:00] Introduction and sponsor message — Carpa Dia Law Firm and trademark protection for entrepreneurs
- [2:45] What does "authentic" actually mean? Monica's definition: honoring your concrete pillars, regardless of what's trending
- [6:10] From Silicon Valley HR executive to lipstick founder — Monica's origin story and the childhood friend who called her out
- [12:30] The meaning behind Keca's Usna — Croatian heritage, a teenage nickname, purple, and Tigger
- [16:00] Why authenticity is a competitive advantage in the beauty and cosmetics industry
- [21:15] "Don't let fear be the reason why you don't do it" — what happened when Monica got on a panel with two strangers who were completely aligned
- [26:40] The real challenges of starting a cosmetics company: factory relationships, formulations, and learning social media from scratch
- [33:00] Building a team around you — why asking for help isn't weakness, it's the framework
- [38:20] "I'll let you skin your knees, but not break your legs" — Monica's HR philosophy applied to her own entrepreneurial journey
- [43:00] Showing the Keca's Usna product line — what makes these lipsticks different
- [47:30] The community Monica didn't expect to build — women supporting women, no dead bodies required
---
Monica's Definition of Authentic: Honoring Your Core Pillars
The episode opens where every episode of Get Authentic should — with the question itself. When Marques asks Monica what authenticity means to her, she doesn't reach for a quote or a trend. She says it plainly:
> "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 — your concrete pillars of who make you what you are."
That framing — concrete pillars — becomes the backbone of everything Monica shares in this conversation. For her, authenticity isn't a feeling. It's a structural commitment. Either your actions are built on those pillars or they aren't.
Marques echoes this directly: working a job that doesn't fuel your passion isn't just uncomfortable — it's a failure to honor who you actually are. He's lived both sides of that equation.
---
From HR Executive to Lipstick Founder: Monica's Origin Story
Monica spent years as an HR executive in Silicon Valley — rolling up her sleeves inside startups, scaling organizations, and navigating the complexity of global companies. The last few roles, she says, just weren't right:
> "The last couple of companies I worked for weren't perfect fits for me. Good people, but just didn't fuel my passion."
It took a childhood friend to make her move. She'd had an idea for a lipstick company since graduate school. His message was simple: if you don't do this now, you're never going to do it. She gave him every reason it couldn't work — single income, a mortgage, the timing. He said: "Yeah, yeah, you'll figure it out. You need to do it."
So she did.
What she built is Keca's Usna — a brand that's personal down to the syllables. "Keca" was her nickname as a teenager. "Usna" is Croatian for lip, a nod to her heritage. Her favorite color is purple. She collects Tiggers. Every element of the brand reflects a real piece of her identity, and that wasn't accidental.
> "I get to do it honoring all the different pieces and parts of me."
Marques points out what so many people miss in this story: Monica didn't quit her job on a whim and hope for the best. She recognized an opening, she honored her passion, and she built. The message to the audience is direct — not "walk away from your paycheck," but "find a way to get it done," the same way Marques himself trained athletes, worked as a janitor, and sold gold while building his speaking career on the side.
---
Why Authenticity Is a Competitive Advantage in the Beauty Industry
Marques introduces a new question in this episode — one he says he's starting fresh after reading an article that inspired it: What does being authentic allow you to do better in your specific industry?
Monica's answer cuts right to what's happening in the market right now:
> "People are looking for people that they can relate to. They're looking to be around people that resonates with them."
She uses the farmer's market as her analogy. When you shop local, you're not just buying a product — you're buying a story, a connection, a person you can touch and trust. That's exactly what Keca's Usna gives her customers.
Being authentically herself also gave her access to rooms and relationships she couldn't have manufactured. A few weeks before this recording, she was on a panel with two other women she'd never met. They were perfectly aligned — all three sharing the same message: don't let fear be the reason. Women in the audience came up afterward and said it gave them the courage to finally start what they'd been holding back.
> "If I get one person like that a year, I'm super happy."
And she lands the bottom line clearly:
> "You don't have to sell your soul to do what you love. And a lot of those things aren't for sale."
---
The Real Work: Two Years In, What Nobody Told Her
Monica is refreshingly honest about the gap between expectation and reality. She went in thinking her corporate experience would make launching a cosmetics brand manageable. She was wrong.
> "I thought it would be a little bit simpler… I thought, oh, this will be a cakewalk. Not even close, not even close."
What followed was what she describes as "a crazy rollercoaster of fun and scary and rewarding." The wins were real. So were the moments of oh my God, what have I done?
Here's what she actually had to learn from scratch:
- Cosmetic formulations and factory relationships — a world completely outside her HR expertise
- Social media as a business tool — as a corporate HR professional, she'd deliberately kept herself off social platforms; now it's where she lives and builds community
- Asking for help and building a small team — friends who worked expo booths on concrete floors for long hours, helped with pop-ups, put together presentations
She keeps a slide in her speaking deck showing every single person who has helped her. It's not decorative. It's a value statement.
The lesson she had to give herself — the same advice she used to give her own employees:
> "I'll let you skin your knees, but not break your legs. And I had to take that on for myself too. I'm going to skin my knees and I'm going to get bruises and it's okay. This is how you learn. This is what you do. This is how you get better."
---
The Community Nobody Expected
Monica set out to build a lipstick company. What she built alongside it was something she didn't see coming — a genuine community of women who operate without the zero-sum thinking that poisons so many industries.
> "Nobody's creating a dead body to stand on, to get taller than the next person. We're all saying, there's enough room on the stage. Come on, we're gonna pull you with us. Let's go, we can do this together."
That community is now one of the defining features of what Keca's Usna actually is. The product is the entry point. The connection is the value.
---
3 Key Takeaways from This Episode
> 1. "Being authentic means being your true self, regardless of what anybody else thinks, regardless of what is trending now." > — Monica Walls. Your core values aren't a branding choice. They're the structure everything else has to be built on.
> 2. "You don't have to sell your soul to do what you love. And a lot of those things aren't for sale." > — Monica Walls. Authenticity in business isn't soft — it's the competitive edge that lets you connect with real people who actually trust you.
> 3. "Don't be afraid to ask. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. This is how you learn." > — Monica Walls. The idea that you have to have it figured out before you start is the lie that keeps most people stuck. Skin your knees. Keep moving.
---
Resources Mentioned in This Episode
- Keca's Usna — Monica's lipstick brand built on Croatian heritage and authentic identity. Find the product line and community at kecasusna.com (verify current URL with Monica's team)
- Carpa Dia Law Firm — Trademark registration, employee handbooks, and contracts for entrepreneurs and scaling companies. Visit carpadialawfirm.com
- Ilona Anderson on LinkedIn — Connect directly with the founder of Carpa Dia Law Firm for brand protection consulting
- Monica Walls on LinkedIn — Connect with Monica and follow the Keca's Usna journey (search Monica Walls / Keca's Usna)
- Monica Walls on Social Media — Follow her product launches, community events, and expo appearances (confirm handles with Monica's team)
- Get Authentic with Marques Ogden — Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube for new episodes every Monday
---
About Your Host
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 from all of it, and he turned every hard lesson into a framework that Fortune 500 companies, sales teams, and leaders across the country now use to win. Marques is a five-time bestselling author, a keynote speaker who has addressed more than 750,000 people across 500+ events, and the host of Get Authentic with Marques Ogden. He doesn't teach theory. He teaches what he learned the hard way — on the field, in the boardroom, and at rock bottom.
---
Work With Marques
Bring Marques to your next event. If this episode gave your team something real to work with, imagine what Marques can do in the room with them. He delivers keynotes on leadership, resilience, team performance, and sales execution for Fortune 500 companies, sales organizations, and leadership conferences nationwide.
👉 Book Marques to speak at your next event
Ready to do the deeper work? Marques works with a select group of executives and entrepreneurs one-on-one to build the frameworks, accountability, and mindset that actually move the needle.
Ready to build a team that wins?
Whether you need a keynote for your next conference, a sales OS that tracks real KPIs, or a coaching program for your leaders — Marques has built it.