709 Jiajia Sollers: Founder & CEO of Matter of Monday
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I am unwilling to give up, that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be. You just want to make sure you will get knocked down, but just make sure you don't get knocked out. So your only choice should be, go focus on what you can control. Hi everyone and welcome to the Kara Golden Show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world's greatest leaders,

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Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the Kara Golden Show. Today's guest is someone who has made a bold move, and I mean bold. She walked away from a very high-powered career in finance, working with billions of dollars to launch her own skincare company built for people who don't slow down.

Jaja Solars is the founder and CEO of Matter of Monday. And if you have not heard of this brand, it's a fairly new brand, but you will definitely be hearing about it. It's a brand designed for the modern professional dealing with stress, screen time, and nonstop schedules.

And she's taking everything she learned in her previous life, structure, discipline, performance, and applying it to building her own company. I can't wait to get into it.

how she sees the transition and more than anything, the creation of this incredible no fuss product line for people who expect results, but didn't know that they could get the results without paying some crazy, crazy high price for it. So more than anything, welcome Jaja.

Very excited to have you here. Thank you so much. It's very nice to be here. Awesome. So Matter of Monday, can you share with us the origin story? How did Matter of Monday begin and what was the spark that made you commit to building it? Yeah, so Matter of Monday is a skincare brand. The name Monday means a lot because in my previous career in the finance, Monday is the busiest day for me in the week.

So when I have been working so hard, and I remember one time, it's actually on Friday, I came to work at 8 a.m. in the morning and work until 11 p.m. at night. Next day on Saturday, went straight back to work. This episode of The Kara Golden Show is brought to you by Range Rover Sport.

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So that kind of intensity really took a toll on my skin. My skin looks really bad. So I remember actually when I was on vacation, my skin always looked this bad. So that made me suspect that stress, fatigue, and exposure to computers really have a big negative impact on your skin. So I did a research and study and just confirmed that the chronic exposure to blue light and the stress

cause premature aging. And, you know, I look at all the products in the market and realize lots of products are just fixing signs of damage after they appear. We try to fix wrinkles and dark spots, but I think it's important to target the root cause and prevent the damage from permeating the skin in the first place and preventing the signs from showing up.

So with that, I thought it would be nice if I have some skincare brand that protects us from stress, fatigue, and blue light. And those big culprits of premature aging that most of us working people are subject to every day.

So with that, I just feel like there's opportunity for me to do something creative and interesting and bring a solution. And look, I've been financed in the hedge fund forever. So I think it's time to do something different. And deep inside, I just love to be creative and I love to connect with people and doing something interpersonally meaningful. So I thought that was a perfect opportunity for me to transition to this skincare industry.

Did you have experience? Obviously, you were working in finance in the hedge fund, but did you have any type of connection? Had your family been in this business or how did you know where to start? So when I'm growing up, right, skincare in the Asian culture is a huge part of our culture. So since I was young, I just learned a lot of skincare tips from my mom. I did lots of experiment at home with the natural ingredients from the kitchen and

So I always have some basic knowledge and tips and insight about skincare. And in terms of starting the business, and I think working all this time in finance, even though it's a very different world, it's a quantitative world, and now I'm transitioning to a creative world, but still a lot of things I can bring along with, like strategic thinking, how to manage the projects, how to collaborate with people and finding the talents,

And look, you cannot know everything, right? You just have to go for it and you learn as you go. I think a lot of tools available for you to learn. Like for me, as soon as I decide to go to this skincare industry, I immediately sign up for the Cosmo Proof.

So I went there, I took the classes, and really it's eye-opening for me. I learned so much about the landscape in the beauty industry. And I met people, and from them I got introduced to more people. So I got lots of insight tips and advice. It helps a lot. And as I was starting to collaborate with service providers and collaborators, I just kept learning from every one of them.

And there's also a book called The Art of Start. It's a great book to read. It really has a lot of knowledge and information to offer in terms of how to build a framework and foundation of a startup. What is it called? The Art of Start. I've heard of that book. Very interesting, very funny book, too.

That's a great, great tip. So how did you come up with the name Matter of Monday? Yeah, so Monday, I mean, it's always a busy day for me, right? And I think Monday is a very important day of the week. And how your Monday goes, a lot of times, sets the tone for your entire week. And, you know, but at the same time, Monday, you hit with a lot of tasks and email right after coming out the weekend. So it could be demanding and stressful.

So I name it Matter of Mind as a reminder of intentional self-care at the kickstart of the week. So you incorporate the preventative skincare in your routine as your week begins. You're not just protecting your skin from damage, but you're also establishing a mindset of self-preservation amid all this intensity and work demand.

What do you think was the biggest shock when you were going through this process of, you know, ingredients and trying to formulate your own products? And I think you had mentioned somewhere in the research that as a consumer, you had been thinking that you have to spend a lot of money in order to get incredible products. But what else did you learn?

Yeah. So one big thing I learned is by talking to people, I was really shocked that a lot of people don't even do skincare. One big reason is that they said they have a sensitive skin. A lot of products cause them breakout. So they just avoid doing it altogether. They probably put some very basic stuff. Like some people even tell me they don't do it, just avoid any problem. So that really makes me

to make sure my formulation is clean, especially good for people with sensitive skin. And so this whole formulation has no fragrance at all. And I deliberately make sure there's no harmful chemicals, silicone, essential oil, parabens, all the chemicals, and make sure they are excluded so the formulation is clean.

suitable for people with sensitive skin. And I follow up with the people who I talk to who have sensitive skin, who refuse to use skincare. I actually send them the samples and ask them to report back to me. And they all say, wow, it's amazing. Like, I don't have any breakouts. So it's very good validation. It was so good to hear.

Yeah, it's an incredible, incredible product line. So let's talk about the SKUs. So how many SKUs did you launch with? And is there one that's kind of a runaway bestseller? So I launched with the four essential products and just focused on the core functionalities without multiple products, lots of complications. We just offer four products to start with, right?

So the facial cleanser, the anti-blue light brightening serum, the anti-stress renewal moisturizer, and anti-fatigue restorative eye cream. Each product is very unique and offers its own functionality in terms of protection and restoration. I think blue light is one of our hero products because it's

how many times everybody is subject to blue light every day. You're on your computers and right after you get off work from your computer, you immediately hop on social media on your cell phones and checking emails. So I think our Hero products and the Blue Light Brightening Serum really offer this very much needed protection for everybody.

Dealing with a physical product and a brand new industry, I'm sure had its challenges. There were days where you were asking yourself, what am I doing, doing this company? What was probably one of the harder moments in those early days? Did you have any kind of challenging days where it was not as fun and not what you sort of thought you were going to be doing?

Yeah, I think the biggest part is just really get the product in people's hands and help to spread awareness. Once people try it, they always have a very good feedback, but it just seems to get people to get the product and try it and see how good it is.

And I think a lot of time people still have this mindset of reactive, right? They don't see the immediate damage. They don't feel the need to have the skin protection. They see the signs of aging, then they panic, try to buy something to fix. So I think it's really an educational process to get people to understand how important it is to put on protective skincare against the stress and blue light and repair your skin when you feel fatigue, right? Get them,

through this mindset and started adopting this blue light and stress protection protocol. I mean, it's just very much like a sunscreen, right? I think about old days, people don't feel the need of using sunscreen, even they go sunbathing. But today, everybody, almost everybody have to use SPF. So I think it's just a matter of time when this blue light protection goes to mainstream.

Definitely. So with your four products, what's the process that you recommend as the founder for putting those products on before you start your day?

Yes, for myself. So in the morning, I just wash my face with warm water because at night there's no pollutants, there's no makeup, so just some natural sweats and oil. So warm water is sufficient to get rid of the oil. And so after that, I put on anti-blue light brightening serum, Arganine.

After that, I put on SPF sunscreen. So middle of the day, I always refresh my skin with the anti-stress renewal moisturizer because as you go through the day, you work and you feel stressed, tired, and that's when your skin needs the care more than ever.

So a little bit anti-stress radio moisturizer, it calms your skin down and rehydrates your skin. It makes a huge difference. At night, I wash my face with a facial cleanser, the Pore Refining Exfoliating Cleanser. It's really effective in terms of removing the dirt, oil, even makeup. So after that, I put on the anti-bullying.

blue light brightening serum for overnight brightening and repair. And after that, I put on the anti-stress renewal moisturizer to keep my skin hydrated and nourished overnight.

And last but not least, I put on the anti-fatigue restorative eye cream. It has so many good peptide, patented peptides and proteins to help you build collagen overnight and help to erase wrinkles and puffiness. So it's a must step that I have every night.

That's incredible. Well, your packaging, in addition to what's inside, is really incredible. How did you know what to do around packaging?

I actually designed the package myself. I think this is my brand. I didn't want to have anybody else to design the package. Initially, these products, I have my office professionals in mind, right? So when I design the package, I want to make it look like an office memo, clean, simple, just highlight what I want to highlight for each different name and products. And I also wanted to keep it

travel-friendly, portable, and user-friendly. So people can just take it out from the bag and just use it middle of the day anytime. And you can take them on the plane because I deliberately make sure the size fits on the travel. So on the plane, you can even just put a little bit moisturizer or eye cream on. So yeah, that's the whole idea behind the package design.

Now, did you quit your J job when you were starting this company or were you working on it on weekends before you actually said, OK, it's time?

Yeah, I give a lot of thoughts, right? I mean, I design just doodling on papers and think about the name. So that doesn't take a lot of my work time from my job. So I can totally just play around on the weekend as this idea become more shapes and size. And I just, you know, think it's time to just, you know, moving on to the full time.

So you started the brand on a website, direct to consumer, and you're not available in retail yet. And when you and I were talking right before, that was very purposeful. Can you talk to me about how you decided to do that?

Yeah, so I think start on website before going to retail. It's important because I want to connect with my customers and we're building social media. I want to help them to get this mindset of protective self-care. I want to empower them through the busy working day. I mean, all of us, where I can go through the busy time in work and life. So I want to just...

connect with my audience first before just pushing to retail sell. So I think the website, social media goes hand-in-hand and let us build a community first.

That's terrific. So social media, especially in the beauty industry, is just so, so key. So what have you seen with social media that has been really helpful in deciding maybe to keep going or to which products are people talking about the most? Or what have you seen on social media that has been really helpful?

We just started, right? So it's been two months still, so much to learn. I think that being on social media, it's important to be consistent and you just form trial and errors. And so I think the one, the biggest challenge for me is that just make a lot of founders videos. Because for me personally, I don't use social media as much and I'm pretty lazy.

private but now you have to push myself to the public and uh you just have me especially in my old job we we work in front of the computers we don't go around to sell but now i have to sell this concept right help people to adapt this new mindset so it's a big shift in in this um

work style and habits. And so, yeah, I just have to get used to it. But now I really enjoy what I'm doing. And every week, I'm just so excited. I cannot wait to make more content and share to my followers and educate them and encourage them and inspire them.

So how did you know that this was more than just a passion project? Because I think so often when entrepreneurs are getting started, they have what they think is a good idea. Maybe they'll ask a few of their friends. But where, I guess, where...

What is that moment that you switch and you say, I need to go try? And I guess have you always been that person that just said, I'm going to go try knowing that this may or may not work, but I'm going to go and learn because I really want to do this.

Yeah. So once I decided to do something, I put 100% efforts there. There's no plan B. So for me, it's not just let's just take it as a passion project and play with it. For me, once I decided I'm going to do it, I'll give 100% effort and commitment. So you've lived in other parts of the world. You're primarily building in the US right now. Can you see a time when maybe this is a global company?

I think it's too early to tell. So I think right now I just want to focus on building my brand and serving our U.S. customers. And then from there, we'll see how the future goes.

So you're building a company and a category. So often founders, you know, find themselves in this position where it's different than what they were doing before. What do you wish more founders would talk about as it relates to launching a brand?

I think it's just, I mean, I listen to how I build this. I listen to a lot of founder stories, which are very inspirational. You know, I think that there's still lots of nuance of details, right, in terms of, you know, skincare industry, beauty industry, e-commerce. And for example, nobody's talking about SEO is not as helpful anymore. So, you know, nobody talks about this kind of technical details and insight tips. So,

I didn't know, but I very glad quickly realized that with AI, the landscape is changing, so don't put money in SEO. So that's something I find out later myself. That's so interesting. So what have you heard about that in particular? Well, they give you the answer right away, right? So there's ChatGPT, and we've been talking about where...

the product's going to show up in the chat GTP and instead of on the Google search. So just so many different changes with the technology involvement. What's been your most surprising feedback from consumers so far? I'm sure you're reading all of those customer emails and you're hearing how much people are enjoying the product, but is there anything that has been kind of surprising to you?

Yeah, so I have one customer and so she bought this product. And next month, she bought it again. And then she turned into a subscriber. So I was very surprised to see that kind of positive reaction. So I reached out to her and to ask if she likes it. She said she loved it since day one. So it's just so positive and validating to see that. So I was pretty surprised. And I have another customer who...

who is an esthetician and she bought the products and then she called me, she reached out, she said she loved it. She loved to recommend these products to her patients. So that's also out of surprise for me. That's incredible. How are most people finding out about the products and just overall what you're doing?

Yeah, so because it's e-commerce, right? And we rely a lot on the ads and social media push and influencer marketing. So we like all these people to push the words out. That's incredible. So last question. So what's the one thing you want listeners to walk away remembering about Jaja's journey, but also the brand?

I think one thing about the brand is that we're taking this preventative approach. I want to just let all the people who are working hard out there to know how important it is for self-preservation. And it's fine to bring wellness to work practice and to have a work-life balance. And it's fine to put a skincare product on your desk.

And as you work through the day, you get tired, take care of yourself, take care of your skin. And it goes a long way. And another message is that you can do anything. Like for me to make this career change, there's a lot of unknown, but anything is possible and you just have to believe in yourself.

I love that. So, Jaja, thank you so much for joining us today. I loved hearing how you went from a totally different industry in finance to become a beauty products founder and how Matter of Monday is solving real problems with intention, innovation, and care. Excellent products. Great job. I know you guys are brand new, but I know that

Matter of Monday is really going to take off. So definitely everyone will remember your story, I'm sure. And to everyone listening, go check out Matter of Monday. And it's on the website, matterofmonday.com. And as always, if you loved this episode, share it with a friend, leave a quick review, and don't forget to hit subscribe. So thank you so much, Jaja. I really loved hearing all about this. Thank you so much.

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