Ulta Beauty announced the launch of The Joy Project, a long-term initiative created to help beauty enthusiasts and consumers find, embrace, and experience joy. In partnership with best-selling author, motivational speaker, and award-winning podcast host Mel Robbins, Ulta Beauty ULTA is on a critical mission to combat what research found to be the number one obstacle to experiencing joy: our inner critic. In interviews, Mel Robbins and Michelle Crossan-Matos, chief marketing officer of Ulta Beauty, discussed the project’s importance to the company and the industry.

"We want to spark a movement with the Joy Project, a grassroots program coming from the people at Ulta Beauty. We can touch three generations of shoppers in our stores, and with more than 50,000 associates, if one associate spoke to one customer, think of the impact we can have," said Crossan-Matos. After listening to feedback from associates who regularly witness guests struggle with negative self-talk, Ulta Beauty was inspired to understand how the inner critic could affect people’s ability to experience joy and overall well-being.

Crossan-Matos discussed the early days of her role as CMO when she spent time visiting stores and talking to associates. "What struck me was how the associates had a sense of purpose and mission to help our guests live their best lives." She explained that many associates discussed how they feel like therapists when talking with customers and how numerous shoppers would say, "I’m not sure I can pull this off," referring to a new shade of lipstick or makeup solution. The associates in the stores were hearing more and more shoppers being self-critical. Crossan-Matos stated, "I knew that this issue of our self-criticism preventing us from experiencing joy was a real thing, and I wanted to scale up this helpfulness on the part of our associates to make a significant positive impact on our guests and the industry."

As a result of Crossan-Matos’ experience in stores with associates, she wanted to understand better the issue, which led to Ulta Beauty commissioning a third-party study using the YouGov Panel. The Joy Study aimed to examine how adults and teens experience joy and to find out the common barriers to experiencing joy daily.

The research revealed that 73% of those surveyed experience negative self-talk, and 70% don’t even recognize negative self-talk when actively doing it. In addition, 91% identify negative self-talk as a primary obstacle to their ability to experience joy. The Joy Study confirmed associates’ hypothesis and gave Ulta Beauty the unique opportunity to develop a roadmap to combat these barriers and provide support to help consumers experience more joy in their everyday lives.

As one of the world’s foremost experts on change and motivation, Robbins’ deep expertise in recognizing and flipping negative mindsets is the cornerstone of Ulta Beauty’s new training curriculum for store associates. "I am proud to work with Ulta Beauty to address what they were seeing in stores and to help associates bring joy to their lives." Robbins discussed how the training developed for store associates helped them better work with customers in the micro-moment encounter of a shopper's journey. "We created a training program that provided guidance with a new set of tools to help associates with an inspiring message centered around joy when the self-critic emerges in them or a guest."

The bespoke associate training curriculum was crafted by Robbins to positively transform how Ulta Beauty’s 53,000 associates think about themselves and ultimately empower guests to do the same. The eight-part program, dubbed ‘A Toolkit for Joy,’ is a series of mini-courses taught by Robbins that will provide associates nationwide the strategies and tangible tools needed to help flip negative mindsets and ultimately spread that joy to those around them, turning each store into a space for joy.

Once armed with this roadmap to joy, associates are encouraged to share those same practices with guests, ultimately sparking a movement that can reach far beyond Ulta Beauty stores. “The beauty industry is about covering up imperfections instead of amplifying the beauty within each person,” explained Robbins. "Small exchanges flip how people see themselves; the flip in the mood can change the interaction and make the shopping experience more joyful."

Crossan-Matos stated, “As industry leaders who care deeply about how people experience beauty and show up in the world, we believe it’s our responsibility to help change this. By taking an inside-out approach, helping our associates unlock their own barriers to joy, and using our platforms to positively influence the communities we serve, we know we can ignite a movement that will help people everywhere live more authentic and joyful lives.” The Joy Study surveyed 5,007 U.S. teens and adults ages 13 and up. The online survey was conducted from August 2 through August 11, 2023.