Victoria Jackson

Having achieved success as a Hollywood makeup artist, cosmetics entrepreneur and TV infomercial pioneer, Victoria Jackson prefers to think of herself as “a goodwill ambassador for makeup.” When women embrace self-confidence, she says, they learn the key to success, and liking who they see in the mirror is a powerful first step in that transformative process.

“My personal philosophy has always been, ‘When you look better, you feel better. And when you feel better, you can change your life,’” says Jackson, who in the last dozen years has volunteered hundreds of hours at women’s correctional facilities, hospitals and youth support venues, teaching inner confidence through outer beauty.

A recognized trailblazer in the infomercial industry, Jackson has racked up eleven of them for her eponymous line Victoria Jackson Cosmetics, which has enjoyed an astounding half a billion dollars in sales, and continues to grow.

Jackson has also reached thousands of women through her two briskly selling books: Redefining Beauty: Discovering Your Individual Beauty, Enhancing Your Self-Esteem (Warner Books, 1993) and Make Up Your Life: Every Woman’s Guide to the Power of Makeup (HarperCollins, 2000), a deeply personal account of her experiences in the business which she calls one of her proudest achievements.

Married to husband Bill Guthy of infomercial giant Guthy-Renker, Victoria Jackson is a proud mom of three children and together they make their primary residence in Los Angeles. Jackson and Guthy also own several beach homes and an avocado farm near Santa Barbara as well as a brownstone in the heart of New York City.  

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Bill Guthy

A founding principal of Guthy-Renker - an infomercial studio that has since evolved into all forms of electronic retailing - Bill Guthy manages one of the world’s largest television response-driven marketing companies with sales of more than $1.5 Billion per year and an average annual growth rate of 25% over the last 10 years. Focused on finance and operations, Guthy is also personally responsible for sales and marketing efforts, ensuring that successful products promoted within the infomercial format broaden their reach into all channels of distribution. Along with his partners and executive management team, Guthy supervises the overall direction of the company, established in Palm Desert, California in 1988.

Raised by his mother above a New York City luncheonette, Guthy experienced a childhood of meager means. He excelled in high school-as editor of the paper, president of the Speech Club and student body vice president-conducting a successful landscaping business on the side. “I always had an entrepreneurial drive, a desire to do better,” Guthy recalls. In 1969, the family settled in Southern California where Guthy followed tradition and attended Ambassador College in the only major then offered, Theology. In his sophomore year, the school broadened its choices and he switched to Psychology, graduating with a B.S. in 1977.

While in college, Guthy served as senior class president and paid his tuition by duplicating audiotapes for the Blind Department of the church affiliated with Ambassador. He eventually secured permission to rent the equipment at night and took on independent jobs. Cassette Productions Unlimited (CPU), his own audiotape duplication and packaging firm, was thus born in 1977. Originally operating from his apartment, Guthy soon bought his own equipment and moved into a small office in Pasadena.

In 1981, Guthy purchased a home for weekend retreats in Indian Wells, California and began a friendship with Greg Renker, whose family owned the resort. Both men realized they shared a love of motivational books, in particular Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich.” Guthy himself was well on his way to financial success, his cassette duplication business flourishing.CPU, now owned by Guthy-Renker, has since grown to become one of the largest producers of audio and video cassettes with over 200,000 square feet of manufacturing space on both coasts and over 150 employees.

An explosion of growth occurred in 1984 when real estate mogul Paul Simon gave Guthy’s company an unusually large order-to duplicate 120,000 audio cassettes. The purpose sparked Guthy’s interest. Simon was running an infomercial on cable stations advertising cassettes of his real estate course. Guthy soon realized, “If I could start my own infomercial company, I could be my own best customer.”

In 1986, having stayed in touch with Renker by swapping ideas, Guthy recognized the time was ripe to enter the burgeoning infomercial business. It took little time to identify their first product, “Think and Grow Rich.” Acquiring the rights to the book and the author’s lectures for an audiotape series, they hired football star Fran Tarkenton as their first pitch man. “Think and Grow Rich” grossed nearly $10 million, leading Guthy and Renker to their next project with motivational speaker and best-selling author, Tony Robbins.

During the production of Robbins’ Personal Power, Guthy-Renker was spun off from CPU and officially formed on November 1, 1988. Following such early successes as Personal Power¨ and Principal Secret¨, a skin care program with partner Victoria Principal, Guthy-Renker produced such programs as the “Power Trainer¨ Exercise Machine” starring Bruce and Kris Jenner; Perfect Smile¨, a teeth whitening system with Vanna White; Proactiv¨ Solution acne treatment with Judith Light; and the Power Rider¨ exerciser with Fran Tarkenton.

Bill Guthy has been spotlighted by Fortune Magazine on its list of “America’s Smartest Young Entrepreneurs” and has been honored as one of Inc.’s “Entrepreneurs of the Year.”

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