????本文為與《創業者》雜志的合作內容。原文最初發表于Entrepreneur.com。

????在米歇爾?潘大獲成功的YouTube頻道中，她展現了化妝的力量，讓自己化身為白雪公主、茉莉公主、花木蘭等形象。不過，比起這位27歲的現實版灰姑娘的故事，這些造型上的改變就相形見絀了。

????在設計學院上大一時，潘在當地一個蘭蔻化妝品柜臺申請了一份臨時工作。作為一名很有天賦的說明者，潘以出色成績通過了化妝演示測試，但最終由于沒有相關工作經驗而被認為不適合這個崗位。

????她說：“我相信那次被拒是個好事，這種經歷往往會讓你知道，其他地方還有更好的機會。這個更好的機會就是我的筆記本電腦和照相機?！?/p>

????兩年后，當潘的化妝教學視頻在YouTube上迅速瘋傳時，一名蘭蔻的高管偶然發現了她的教程。為了讓這個受人尊敬的品牌緊跟數字前沿，這名高管聯系了潘，并最終簽約讓她成為蘭蔻第一位官方的視頻化妝師。

????潘笑著說：“遲來的喜悅。就像上天在對你說：‘看到了吧，我告訴過你。’”

????如果說YouTube排名迅速躥升，進而成為該平臺最成功的頻道之一，已經是不太可能實現的創舉，那么利用這股勢頭創立一家預估年收入1.2億美元的公司則是更為罕見的成就。但這正是潘利用Ipsy公司實現的壯舉。這是一項美妝樣品訂購服務，擁有100名員工，目前已成為她最賺錢的業務。

????該公司首席執行官馬塞洛?坎貝羅斯表示，Ipsy向用戶收取每月10美元的費用，向他們提供“Glam Bag”美妝包，內含五種美妝樣品，該服務的訂購者已經突破了100萬人大關。馬塞洛曾是搞笑網站Funny or Die的高管，在2011年與潘共同創立了這家公司。

????與募資近7200萬美元，采用傳統電視廣告宣傳和實體店銷售的競爭對手Birchbox不同，Ipsy表示自己的訂購者主要來自潘廣泛的社交覆蓋面。

????坎貝羅斯說：“我們每個月都有超過10萬名新的訂購者，這一增長完全是內生的，沒有任何營銷和公關費用。”他說，Ipsy會在今年成為樣品市場最大的一家公司。

????Birchbox對此拒絕發表評論。不過在去年4月，他們宣布訂購者的數量達到80萬。然而，與Ipsy不同，Birchbox還在它的在線商店出售全尺寸的美顏產品，這部分收入當時占該公司1.25億美元總營收的30%。

????盡管Birchbox早期的發展也來自社交媒體的造勢，比如2010年成立時在YouTube傳播的所謂“開箱視頻”，但Ipsy將網絡公眾人物置于其商業模式的核心部分。如今，Ipsy與超過500名與美妝領域相關的YouTube和Instagram紅人展開合作，其中包括貝瑟尼?莫塔這樣的大牌。該公司還給其中一些人支付報酬，邀請他們在自己的社交媒體頻道討論相關品牌。

????潘表示：“這些視頻的拍攝顯得十分真實，感覺不像是商業廣告。他們當中有許多都是精力旺盛的YouTube紅人。這是一種很棒的品牌發展方式。”

????與此同時，美妝品牌也很需要這種方式。Ipsy公司總裁詹妮弗?戈德法布表示，盡管Ipsy每個月都會收到70萬種毛遂自薦的美妝產品，但美妝品牌無法通過付費方式獲得Glam Bag的推薦。當然，為了營銷展示，他們會提供存貨——只要造型師決定推薦。

????戈德法布解釋道：Ipsy的造型師也會受益于這一安排中得利。由于公司投入巨資打造自己的創造者生態圈，化妝師在加入后，會發現自己頻道的粉絲迅速增長。

????比如說，Ipsy沒有涉足實體銷售，也沒有在營銷上投入大量財力，而是去年在洛杉磯建立了2500平方英尺的基地，作為視頻拍攝和剪輯中心。

????此外，該公司每年會在洛杉磯舉辦“一代佳人”大會（Generation Beauty）。每年都有大批參會者涌向自己最喜歡的網絡名人那里，與美妝和數字媒體行業的重量級人物親密接觸。這項盛會計劃在今年晚些時候首次移至紐約。

????盡管Ipsy是潘目前最大的搖錢樹，但她還打算進軍更廣闊的天地。今年夏天，潘將發布一款帶有照片和視頻編輯軟件的移動應用——這將幫助她實現自己的另一項大抱負：讓年輕的追隨者掌握熟練的技術和其他具備市場價值的技能。

????她表示：“有許多關注我的人剛剛畢業，找不到工作，他們負債了幾十萬美元，不知道如何是好。我的夢想是看到新一代企業家不斷涌現，創造并擁有更多有意義的工作，而不是從事日復一日的苦差事?！?/p>

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????This post is in partnership with Entrepreneur. The article below was originally published at entrepreneur.com.

????On her wildly successful YouTube channel, Michelle Phan has harnessed the power of makeup to transform herself into Snow White, Princess Jasmine, Mulan and more. But these conversions pale in comparison to the 27-year-old’s real-life Cinderella story.

????Once upon a time, during her freshman year of design college, Phan applied for a gig at a local Lanc?me counter. A gifted illustrator, Phan passed the makeup demo test with flying colors, but was ultimately deemed unfit for the position due to a lack of previous experience.

????“I believe that rejection is a blessing because it’s the universe’s way of telling you that there’s something better out there,” she says. “And that something better was my laptop and my camera.”

????Two years later, as Phan’s videos began to spread across YouTube like wildfire, a Lanc?me executive stumbled upon one of her tutorials. In a bid to imbue the venerable brand with a digital edge, she reached out to Phan and ultimately signed her as Lanc?me’s first official video makeup artist.

????“Delayed gratification,” Phan says with a laugh. “That was the universe saying, ‘See, I told you so.’”

????If rising through YouTube’s ranks to create one of the platform’s most successful channels is an unlikely feat, spinning that momentum into a company with a $120 million annual sales run-rate is a rarer accomplishment still. But that is precisely what Phan has done with Ipsy, a beauty sampling service that counts 100 employees and marks her most lucrative venture yet.

????Ipsy, which charges users $10 per month for a ‘Glam Bag’ full of five sample-sized beauty products, just crossed the 1 million subscriber milestone, says CEO Marcelo Camberos — a former Funny or Die exec who co-founded the company with Phan in 2011.

????And unlike rival Birchbox, which has raised almost $72 million in funding, and which has forayed into traditionalTV advertising as well as brick-and-mortar retail, Ipsy says that its subscribers are predominantly a product of Phan’s massive social reach.

????“We have over 100,000 new Glam Bag subscribers joining every month,” Camberos said, “and this growth has been completely organic with no marketing or PR spend.” This year, Ipsy will become the biggest company in the sampling space, he says.

????Birchbox declined to comment for this story. But last April, the company pegged its subscriber count at 800,000. Unlike Ipsy, however, Birchbox also vends full-sized products on its online shop, which at the time accounted for 30 percent of annual revenues of $125 million.

????While much of Birchbox’s early growth came care of social media buzz, including a proliferation of so-called ‘unboxing videos’ on YouTube amid its founding in 2010, Ipsy has made online influencers the centerpiece of its business model. Today, the company works with over 500 YouTubers and Instagrammers in the beauty realm — including bold-faced names like Bethany Mota — some of whom are paid to discuss participating brands on their social media channels.

????“The videos are done in a very authentic way, where it doesn’t feel like a commercial,” says Phan. “A lot of these people are up ‘n’ coming YouTubers. It’s a great way to incubate your brand.”

????And brands are clamoring for a piece of the action. While 700,000 beauty products are submitted to Ipsy for consideration each month, brands cannot pay to appear in boxes, explains Ipsy president Jennifer Goldfarb. Rather, they furnish inventory in exchange for the marketing exposure — only if the stylists choose to recommend them.

????Ipsy’s stylists stand to gain from this arrangement as well, Goldfarb explains. Because the company invests so heavily in its own creator ecosphere, stylists tend to see their followings skyrocket after coming onboard.

????For instance, as opposed to foraying into physical retail or spending costly marketing dollars, Ipsy unveiled last year a 2,500-square-foot production facility in Los Angeles, which serves as a filming and editing hub.

????Additionally, the company hosts an annual convention called Generation Beauty in Los Angeles, where attendees flock to meet their favorite digital celebrities and rub elbows with major players from the beauty and digital media industries. The event is slated to debut in New York later this year.

????While Ipsy is Phan’s biggest money-maker to date, future endeavors are also sweeping in scope. This summer, Phan will launch a mobile app packed with photo and video editing software — dovetailing with another one of her larger aspirations: to equip young followers with tech proficiencies and other marketable skills.

????“So many of my followers who just graduated can’t get jobs, they’re hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and they don’t know what to do,” she says. “My dream is to see a new generation of entrepreneurs who are creating and having more meaningful jobs than the day-to-day grind.”