This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jackie Aina, the 38-year-old founder and CEO of Forvr Mood, a fragrance brand known for its candles and perfumes. She’s also a content creator and is based in Los Angeles. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
I’m a founder and a content creator, so no two days are the same.
Some days are layered and stacked with meetings and events related to my fragrance brand, Forvr Mood. Other days, I start my workout at noon, get into the sauna right after, and work from home.
An average workday doesn’t really exist for me, but I have routines I like to keep. Here’s what a day in my life can be like.
I start my day with prayer
This morning, I was so grateful to get a full night’s sleep while flying [to New York City] on a red-eye. In this city, being tired is not productive at all.
Then I went straight into skincare and ordered breakfast. I love egg whites and smoked salmon. I also had this green juice with lemon, green apple, and kale. It’s the most LA-coded drink ever, but in New York City. It was so good.
Lanna Apisukh for BI
I would’ve loved to do a workout — and I do work out almost every day — but I knew I was cutting it a little close on time. Instead, I did my makeup and hair.
I always watch YouTube while getting ready
I have the most random YouTube watch history. One day, I’ll watch a Vogue get-ready-with-me video, and the next day, I’ll watch a video about the history of redlining in the United States. This morning, I watched a documentary about fascism. I like to learn. Give me a 15-minute banger, and I’m sat.
The average social media user participates in what we call doomscrolling, but for me, that’s market research. I’m tapped in and looking at what’s trending. I think it’s important to know what people are posting and talking about, the editing styles they’re using, etc. I like studying what makes a video successful on a platform.
It was always my dream to have a fragrance line
Many celebrities now have a skincare or makeup line, but I grew up in an era when every celebrity had a perfume, so I always wanted to have a fragrance, too.
In 2020, I launched Forvr Mood with candles as target practice to see if people liked our point of view on scent. In a way, I inadvertently created a demand for perfume.
Lanna Apisukh for BI
Customers loved our candles and room sprays and said they wanted matching scents to wear. It was all part of my master plan. It looked like we were responding to demand, but we were actually working on perfume as soon as we created the brand. We just didn’t launch it until 2024, four years later.
I don’t balance being a founder and a content creator — I pick and choose
When you’re focused on directing your attention, time, and energy into one area, something else will be sacrificed. I have to be really honest with my audience. I tell the girls who watch me: “You want new perfumes every year? OK, well, YouTube’s going to suffer.”
You cannot be everywhere at once, and if you are, you’re not going to be good at everything — point blank period. I’d rather be exceptional at a few things than spread thin everywhere else.
It sounds counterintuitive, but I don’t always listen to comments
This is incredibly difficult to do, but I have to pick which noise and which criticism are meaningful.
When we first launched our fine fragrance, so many people hated our bottles and said they looked cheap, like something from the dollar store.
Lanna Apisukh for BI
If I hadn’t been wise and believed in my product, I could’ve easily folded, but I knew they hadn’t seen it in person yet. I said, “When you see it up close, you’re absolutely not going to think that.”
I ended up being right. Once it launched, the cheap allegations were gone. It was one of those times where we had to lock in, stay focused, and continue to believe in the product.
I’ve learned that one of the biggest challenges for brand founders is scaling
When we first launched Forvr Mood, we were so successful. We had what we thought was six months’ worth of inventory, but it was bought up in three or four hours.
It was our first launch, so we had no way of measuring anything. Was that average? Was that just initial hype? Our manufacturing partner at the time predicted we would need far more candles for our next launch. Like way more.
Lanna Apisukh for BI
We said go for it, and that turned out to be a very costly mistake. We had product sitting on shelves — and people were still buying it — but it wasn’t scaling the way that it was when we first launched. Fragrance expires, so we had to get rid of a lot of the product at a loss, but I’m glad we learned that in the brand’s infancy.
I end my workday by 7 p.m.
The lesson that I’m learning now, especially regarding Forvr Mood, is to create literal work hours.
After 6 or 7 p.m., there’s no more engaging with the phone, no more answering emails, and no more responding to things. Don’t ask me what I think about a fragrance; absolutely not. Whatever it is, it can wait until tomorrow.
