How This Asian Immigrant Became The Definition Of Modern Day American Dream
Ann McFerran founded Glamnetic and became the definition of the American Dream. GLAMNETIC
Ann McFerran was born in Bangkok and immigrated with her single mother to America when she was 7 years old. Now at the tender age of 27, McFerran’s innovative and very much on-trend false lashes business, Glamnetic, has earned her a spot on the Forbes 30 under 30 list, and is hoping to double last year’s revenue and reach $100 million in sales in 2021. She’s now undoubtedly the poster child for the modern day American Dream.
How did she do it?
Despite having majored in Psychobiology at UCLA, McFerran decided to pursue her artistic passion by becoming a full-time fine artist. “While I enjoyed the creativity art provided, I was feeling isolated as a full-time artist.” McFerran’s charismatic energy transpires even through the video call as we link over Google Hangout — all whilst looking glamorous wearing her own products. “When I saw a gap in the beauty market for magnetic lashes that actually worked, I sought out to develop magnetic lashes in the styles that I would personally wear.”
Fast forward to one year later, in July of 2019, after McFerran taught herself everything from product development to marketing, Glamnetic was born. It was a tough journey, McFerran admits, but she is loving every second of it: “Despite the long hours and never-ending slew of problems to be solved, I have never loved anything more or felt more sense of purpose and belonging than I do now, having started Glamnetic.” McFerran is full of smiles when she talks about her business venture.
Fortunately for McFerran, as fate would have it, the pandemic which sees millions of businesses go bust actually saw Glamnetic’s industry grew exponentially, as anything below the eyes was no longer visible due to strict mask rules which meant more focus on the eyes. “This was enough to offset the lack of going out and therefore the need for wearing false lashes. We saw a big spike right when the lockdowns occurred and have seen a steady rise ever since.” McFerran says the brand is expecting even more growth towards the mid to end of year when everything fully opens up again.
Some may think she’s got lucky, but what does McFerran really consider as the key to her quick ascending to success?
“The clear product innovation and the problem-solution approach we took to marketing.” McFerran says without hesitation, referring to the “Can’t apply lashes due to messy lash glue? No problem!” slogan which hooked customers and made them want to try immediately. “And once they tried, the product actually delivers on its promise and prompts customers to buy more.” McFerran points out that Glamnetic has very strong consumer retention rate.
The brand also understands nowadays it is crucial to build a connection with their potential customers directly via social media. For someone so young (she’s only 27), McFerran is incredibly goal-oriented and driven, with her own idea on what works: “I brought my sense of creativity to our content and marketing, which allowed us to push the concept to millions of people through viral, organic or paid content.” Adding to Glamnetic’s authenticity and credibility, McFerran also became the face of the brand and demonstrated how to use her product on camera before the viewers’ eyes. “We did an amazing job along the entire way of building a community that really followed the brand’s every move.” McFerran says proudly.
But according to McFerran, the Forbes 30 under 30 nomination still came as “such a shock”, but is “an amazing feeling”. She made it no secret that “if it wasn’t for the team’s dedication and hard work, this achievement would not have been possible.”
With so many lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic and stagnating economy, what would be McFerran’s one advice be for those wishing to follow her footsteps?
“One mantra that I follow everyday and I’d like to share with everyone is: be a bulldozer, not a bystander.” McFerran says this piece of advice is something she holds close and embedded into her mindset when she first started Glamnetic. “I think a lot of people go with the flow by default, especially being female Asian American, we’re conditioned to be more submissive.” McFerran continues after a pause to collect her thoughts, “But to pursue something with pure determination, perseverance, and never take no for an answer (aka be a bulldozer) is ultimately what I think that allows you to attain anything and everything you want in life.”
When asked about whether there is anything people find surprising about her, McFerran says: “Many people don’t know that I was born in Bangkok, Thailand and grew up very poor. When I was 5-7 years old we didn’t even have enough money to afford real food, so my main diet consisted of mainly Lay’s potato chips and Jello.” McFerran visibly softens as we talk about her mother, who is immensely proud of her. The level of poverty was almost hard to fathom given how successful she is today, but McFerran sees the silver lining in her upbringing: “I understood the value of money at a young age, and any amount of money I made I always saved. This mentality forced me to be super frugal early on and gave me the do-it-yourself-always philosophy which allowed us to scale during the first year on very little overhead and few employees.” We can’t wait to see what’s next in store for McFerran and Glamnetic.