Mona Kattan - How Eastern & Western Values Made One Of The Most Successful Women In Dubai

Slo Mo: A Podcast with Mo Gawdat

I started a mini-series at the start of this year called 'Remarkable Women Of The Middle East', and that surprisingly got massive appreciation. So I thought I could do a bit more on this, and bring you the most remarkable of them all. So today my guest is Mona Kattan. Mona is the Global President of Huda Beauty, HB Investment and Kayali and has millions of social media followers, she is very loved by the Middle East community. All of that doesn't matter to me, because when the camera is off and I sit with her as a human she is the most wonderful soul ever. What you see on camera, all the fashion and beauty and elegance, when you really look inside and find such a humble soul, that is what is remarkable.
Mona Kattan is the Global President of Huda Beauty, which she co-founded alongside her sisters Huda and Alya Kattan. A driving force behind the launch of Huda Beauty, Mona saw potential when her sister Huda, a makeup artist, started designing her own faux lashes and encouraged her to create a product line.

Together in 2013, they launched a line of faux eyelashes at Sephora, and the debut collection sold out almost immediately. Today, they have grown the company to a valuation of $1B with a line of groundbreaking products that include everything from body foundation to lip contouring pencils, melted eyeshadow to 3D highlighters, all of which are globally distributed at leading retailers including Sephora, Harrods, Net-a-Porter and others .

In 2018, Huda Beauty launched their fragrance line, Kayali, with a collection of four scents designed by Mona. She has built a global social media audience with more than 2.5 million Instagram followers, who engage with her inspiring beauty content, fun-loving attitude and positive energy. She has appeared on the cover of Entrepreneur Middle East and Cosmopolitan Middle East. Born and raised in the United States, she resides in Dubai.

Listen as we discuss:

• 03:00 - Overprotective dads
• 10:00 - The husband and marriage
• 19:00 - Coffee and pie
• 21:00 - The joyful mindset
• 24:30 - Religion and spirituality
• 26:00 - Beauty and perfumes
• 36:00 - East and West
• 40:00 - Finding a partner
• 46:00 - Redefinition of purpose
• 49:00 - The journey to success
• 56:00 - Is there even a finish line?
• 60:00 - Fitting in
• 01:06:00 - Masculine and feminine
• 01:11:30 - Video game champion
• 01:15:00 - Feeling the feels
• 01:19:30 - Blink
• 01:21:00 - It’s ok to play

Connect with Mona Kattan on Instagram: @monakattan, YouTube: Mona Kattan and TikTok: Mona Kattan

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Instagram: @mo_gawdat
Facebook: @mo.gawdat.official
LinkedIn: /in/mogawdat
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Website: mogawdat.com
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