S1 E8: Jo Malone: From a London council estate to fragrance pioneer
Jo Malone’s name is synonymous with luxury, but Jo didn’t grow up with wealth. She was raised on a council estate in South East London and left school without any qualifications. Jo built the luxury fragrance brand Jo Malone London with her husband, Gary, and sold the company in 1999 to Estee Lauder. She left the business a few years later, after she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer and was given only 9 months to live. As part of the Lauder deal, she wasn’t allowed to enter the industry for 5 years. Jo felt utterly lost, so she started a new brand, Jo Loves. Jo is so honest in this episode and tells me about the mistakes she made building her second company, after the huge success of the first.