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

Beauty, entrepreneurship, and the courage to stop letting fear make your decisions.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

What does it actually take to walk away from a corporate career — and build something that's entirely, unapologetically yours? In this episode of Get Authentic with Marques Ogden, Monica Walls, founder of lipstick brand Keca's Usna, answers that question with real stories and zero sugarcoating. You'll hear how a former Silicon Valley HR executive turned a grad-school idea into a thriving cosmetics company, why authenticity isn't just a mindset but a competitive advantage in the beauty industry, and what it actually felt like to ride the "crazy rollercoaster of fun and scary and rewarding" that is entrepreneurship. Monica also unpacks how building community — not just a customer base — became the most unexpected and most powerful outcome of her two-year journey. If you've had an idea you've been too scared to start, this episode is your permission.

Show Notes

[0:00] Welcome + Sponsor Spotlight: Carpa Dia Law Firm

Marques opens the episode and gives a shoutout to sponsor Carpa Dia Law Firm, founded by Ilona Anderson. Ilona helps entrepreneurs protect their brands through trademark registration, employee handbooks, and contracts that actually work in their favor. As Marques puts it directly: "Don't wait until someone steals your name or an employee sues you."

Whether you're bootstrapping your first startup or scaling a seven-figure company, Ilona serves clients nationwide.

🔗 Visit carpadiamlawfirm.com or connect with Ilona on LinkedIn.

[2:15] What Authenticity Actually Means — Monica's Definition

The first question Marques asks every guest on Get Authentic is simple but revealing: What does authenticity mean to you?

Monica's answer cuts straight to it:

"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."

Marques unpacks why this matters for everyone listening: authenticity isn't just a personal value — it's the foundation you build everything else on. If those concrete pillars are shaky, everything stacked on top of them is shaky too.

[5:40] From Silicon Valley HR Executive to Lipstick Founder — Monica's Origin Story

Monica spent years as an HR executive at tech companies in Silicon Valley. The last few weren't a great fit — "good people," she says, "but just didn't fuel my passion." That's when a childhood friend issued a challenge she couldn't ignore:

"You've had an idea for lipstick since grad school. If you don't do this now, you're never going to do it."

Monica gave every reason why she couldn't: single income, a mortgage, no obvious runway. Her friend's response? "Yeah, yeah, you'll figure it out."

That push led to the creation of Keca's Usna — a brand built entirely around who Monica is:

• Keca was her nickname as a teenager
• Usna is Croatian for lip — a nod to her Croatian heritage
• Her favorite color, purple, runs throughout the brand's visual identity
• Her shelf holds a collection of Tiggers — because the brand reflects the whole person, not just the entrepreneur

Marques pauses here to speak directly to anyone working a job that doesn't fuel them: "I couldn't imagine working a job that I did not like, that did not fuel my passion. That would be horrific." His point isn't to tell people to quit tomorrow — it's to remind them that if the passion is there, the way to pursue it has to be found, even if it starts on the side while you're doing whatever it takes to survive.

[14:10] Why Authenticity Is a Competitive Advantage in the Beauty Industry

This is a question Marques introduced for the first time in this episode — and Monica is his first guest to answer it:

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

Monica's answer connects to something bigger than beauty:

"People are looking for people that they can relate to. They're looking to be around people that resonate with them."

She draws an analogy to the farmer's market: you're there because something or someone connects with you. Their story resonates. In an industry often associated with manufactured image, Monica's willingness to show up as herself — Croatian heritage, Tigger collection, favorite church in Split, and all — is the product differentiator that no competitor can copy.

She also describes being on a panel where three women who had never met before were completely aligned: "Don't let fear be the reason why you don't do it." Women came up afterward and said the panel gave them the courage to start. Monica's take:

"If I get one person like that a year, I'm super happy."

Marques' framing for the industry angle: authenticity solves the problem of worrying about naysayers. "People are going to talk about you regardless of what you do. So you might as well live your life."

[21:30] The Real Challenges of Building Keca's Usna — Two Years In

Monica thought her corporate background would make startup life manageable. She was wrong — and she's honest about it:

"I thought, oh, this will be a cakewalk. Not even close, not even close."

What she learned instead:

• It's okay to ask for help. Corporate principles apply, but only if you're willing to adapt them to a new context.
• Cosmetics is technical. Learning about formulations, factory relationships, and production timelines is its own education.
• Social media is non-negotiable. As an HR executive, Monica kept her personal life off social platforms. As a founder, social media is "where I'm living." That required a mindset shift and the willingness to show more of herself.
• Community is everything. Monica has a slide in her presentations showing every person who's helped her — girlfriends who stood on concrete at trade show booths for long hours, people who came to pop-ups, people who helped assemble presentations.

She reaches back to something she used to tell her own employees:

"I'll let you skin your knees, but not break your legs."

And then she applied it to herself:

"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."

[29:45] Building a Community of Women Who Lift Each Other Up

Perhaps the most unexpected outcome of starting Keca's Usna wasn't a product line — it was a people network. Monica describes what she's built:

"I have now built this amazing community of women who lift each other up, genuine, supportive. 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."

This wasn't part of the original business plan. It emerged from showing up authentically, and it's become, in Monica's words, "far more than what I thought when I first started."

[35:00] Showing Your Authentic Self on Social Media as an Entrepreneur

Marques closes the episode with a direct observation for every listener building a brand:

Monica spent years in corporate environments hiding who she was on social media — because the job required it. Now, as a founder, she's doing the opposite. She's showing people her real, authentic self. And Marques calls that out as a pivotal shift:

The people who win as entrepreneurs on social media aren't the ones with the best production value. They're the ones willing to be real.

⬛ 3 Key Takeaways

1. "Being authentic means being your true self, regardless of what anybody else thinks, regardless of what is trending now, regardless of what is popular." — Monica Walls Your concrete pillars — your core values — don't change with trends. Build on those.

2. "Don't let fear be the reason why you don't do it." Monica heard this on a panel. She now says it from the stage herself. Fear is not a strategy. It's just a feeling you act through.

3. "I'll let you skin your knees, but not break your legs." Monica told this to her employees for years — and had to learn to tell it to herself. Mistakes are the mechanism of growth. Protect yourself from catastrophic risk, but don't protect yourself from the bruises that teach you.

Resources Mentioned

About Your Host

Marques Ogden played five seasons in the NFL with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills, and Tennessee Titans before building — and losing — a multi-million dollar construction company. From eight figures to $8.25 an hour. Bankruptcy. Rock bottom. And then the rebuild.

Today, Marques is a five-time bestselling author, sought-after keynote speaker, and the host of Get Authentic with Marques Ogden — a show dedicated to the one thing that separates people who win from people who wish they could: showing up as exactly who you are. He has spoken to over 750,000 people across 500+ events for organizations including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and PNC Bank.

"I teach what I learned the hard way — on the field, in the boardroom, and at rock bottom."

Ready to Take the Next Step?

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