Business Desk: How to Advocate for Yourself with Dana Capone, The Beauty Lawyer NYC

Jessica Matlin (0:06)

Hey, everyone, welcome to Fat Mascara. We have a very special Business Desk episode. I have the Dana Capone, also known as the Beauty Lawyer NYC. Check her out. Okay, Dana has such a unique, I don't think there is anyone with her type of experience. She comes to beauty with such a unique perspective. She has been in communications, PR, she was working for a brand, she was general counsel, she was an operator, she was dealing with the bottom line, and then as you probably gathered, she's also a lawyer. I guess that's what general counsel means, but you get what I'm saying. Okay, she brings together all of those skills and is able to help people in the beauty industry get their ideas protected, get their deals over the line, and she looks at it through this 360 lens that is just, I don't know, I think it's so smart and I love that she is doubled down in this niche, which honestly, beauty is not really a niche anymore, is it? Dana gives such great advice. I think whether you're in beauty, whether you are in business, it doesn't matter. She's talking about how to advocate for yourself, how to ask for what you want without being perceived as difficult, and how to also know when something's a little bit like I don't like this, and also how to work with friends. Who doesn't want to work with their friends, but we also still want to stay friends, right? Lots of great free advice in here. Let me know what you think of the episode. Dana, take it away.

Dana, Dana, Dana, okay. It is so good to see you, always good to talk to you. Listen, I've known Dana forever guys, but I've known her through various iterations of her life. I've known her for a very long time in PR and communications, but she is also known as, and this is kind of recent or it's kind of recent, the Beauty Lawyer NYC.

Dana, what is, who is the Beauty Lawyer NYC? What does she do?

Dana Capone (2:07)

Hi Jess, it's so nice to be here. Thanks for having me. Yes, thank you for asking, very excited. The Beauty Lawyer NYC, how I would define it is, it's legal and strategic advisory that is informed by my unique blend of beauty industry, general counsel, operations, and strategic communications expertise.

Jessica Matlin (2:30)

That is a lot, but that honestly describes, if that were like a LinkedIn bio, I'd be like, wait, this girl's got everything. Like I said, I've known you in PR for a long time.

You have the PR experience. Before I knew you, you were in music, right?

Dana Capone (2:45)

Yes, exactly.

Jessica Matlin (2:46)

We'll get to the law part in the second because I'm like, you're in music and now you're a lawyer. But you were in music for a minute, right?

Dana Capone (2:50)

I was. That was probably right before I knew you. I started in the music business. I wanted to be a music writer, started working as an intern at Rolling Stone, ended up getting a job in the PR department. That took me on the PR track, which I loved. It really suited me, so I stuck with it.

I worked with a lot of different bands and artists on the agency side, and with my own agency that I was able to form at a very young age through some interesting situation, and just loved advocating and working for these incredible artists.

Jessica Matlin (3:24)

That's an industry, I feel like, where that sounds like IP. But if you're writing your music, you're writing your songs, you're probably not doing it just to get rich. It's because you feel what you're doing.

You believe in yourself, your craft. That is an industry that is probably, maybe I'm being a little romantic about it, but it's all hard.

Dana Capone (3:45)

No, you're absolutely right. That's why advocating for some of those artists as a PR person, and now I do work with some artists as a lawyer, is so meaningful because you want to help them protect what is so meaningful to them and what they're sharing with the world.

Jessica Matlin (3:59)

I love that, and that's what I really love about you because you really understand the artists and I've said this to you before.

When I say artists, just to anyone listening, it sounds like I'm talking about somebody in a big smock with the beret and the painter's palette. It sounds a little precious, but I'm talking about if you listening to this have an idea, if you have anything that you care about, that you put into the world, whether you're a Fortune 500 executive or you're somebody that's thinking about maybe writing a novel or thinking about making a few Instagram reels under some goofy name, you're putting something out that is yours, right?