{"id":53048,"date":"2019-06-27T09:34:17","date_gmt":"2019-06-27T13:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/?p=53048"},"modified":"2020-02-26T14:25:01","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T19:25:01","slug":"a-pioneer-of-the-natural-hair-care-movement-on-selling-your-company-without-selling-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/management-leadership\/a-pioneer-of-the-natural-hair-care-movement-on-selling-your-company-without-selling-out","title":{"rendered":"A pioneer of the natural hair-care movement on selling your company\u2014without selling out"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“I feel like the accidental entrepreneur,” says the calm and confident woman seated before a packed house eager to hear her thoughts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To this group, nothing could appear further from the truth, because the woman speaking at a recent event at WeWork Now<\/a> in New York City happens to be Lisa Price, founder of Carol’s Daughter\u2014you know, the ridiculously popular natural hair-care and beauty brand so beloved it has a place in the Smithsonian<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Price’s ascent to full-time businesswoman was something of a surprise, and her origin story is lore: She got her start 26 years ago creating products in her Brooklyn kitchen and selling them at the flea market of her mother’s church\u2014eventually creating a multimillion-dollar business that sold to L\u2019Oreal in 2014. (\u201cWhen you start that small, there\u2019s lots and lots of mistakes,\u201d she says.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a frank conversation with Tiffany Hardin, founder of Gild Creative Group, Price, 57, shared the lessons she’s learned along the way, from leading a company as an introvert to managing investments from Jay-Z.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recognizing your customers<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Flashback a few decades, and you’ll find a Lisa Price who didn’t come from the hair-care industry\u2014in fact, she first started selling body butter. But customers would stop by, smell a few things, and have one question: Do you have anything for hair?<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So she got to work. Her early success was fuel in the fire to keep going. Price wasn’t raised during an era that rewarded starting a business from scratch\u2014her family would rather she was a doctor or lawyer. “You didn’t get to be an entrepreneur or explore,” she says, so she needed her product to be successful as a means of validation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same lesson held true years later when Carol’s Daughter was carried on HSN through a partnership with Sephora. HSN has wide viewership among African-American consumers, says Price, but when she was on the air, she talked about the product and its efficacy in inclusive terms\u2014and Caucasian women ended up representing 57 percent of their customer base on the network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Calling all investors<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One question founders are faced with: When have I taken my business as far I can go<\/a>? Price had this realization in 2002 after sales had gone, in her words, from \u201c$10 to $2 million.\u201d Sounds great, right? Not quite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEverything was very fragile,\u201d she says. \u201cOne little hiccup and it could all fall apart.\u201d There wasn\u2019t enough money to upgrade their website or change labels. \u201cI knew I needed help, but I wasn\u2019t desperate,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m a firm believer that the universe brings things to you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She decided to take on outside help\u2014and the fame of the investors doesn’t feel real to her even now: Jay-Z, Tommy Mottola, Jada Pinkett Smith. \u201cI think I\u2019m grateful for the fact that I was so naive in this world I didn\u2019t get caught up,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was more about that people believed in what I was doing enough to write a check,\u201d she says\u2014a long way from her earlier days when \u201cI used to have to do a PowerPoint presentation to ask my dad for $20,\u201d she laughs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI think I\u2019m grateful for the fact that I was so naive in this world I didn\u2019t get caught up,\u201d Price says of her all-star investors.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Being mindful of cultural moments<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Price has a secret for spotting innovation: Have an experience, take insight from it, and then create something<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s what happened in 2009 when the documentary Good Hair<\/em> was released, produced, and narrated by Chris Rock. The film explored African-American women’s relationship to hair and the hair-care industry\u2014and showed a can of Coca-Cola dissolving in a chemical relaxer, sparking a conversation among women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The timing coincided with the rise of YouTube, notes Price. As young people went off to college and moved away from their hairdressers at home, they could now watch video tutorials about how to go natural\u2014and began to ditch more expensive products in favor of more accessible and affordable alternatives. The percentage of African-American women who use relaxers on their hair dropped to 36 percent from 89 percent in just two years, according to Price. “The internet makes everything democratic,” says Price. “Larger companies got left behind.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where to go now? Price says she’s been in meetings where people assumed this was a trend, with Price explaining that once women go natural with their hair, they aren’t likely to go back because of the amount of time involved. “That would be like wasting five years of your life,” she says. But now she\u2019s looking forward to a more inclusive time when marketers aren\u2019t solely talking about the \u201cproblems\u201d with hair. \u201cThere has to come a time when we don\u2019t buy our shampoo in our own section,\u201d she says. \u201cI don\u2019t have to go to a separate aisle for my jeans; why do I have to for my hair?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning to lead as an introvert<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A self-described introvert<\/a>, Price wants to encourage others to explore entrepreneurial pursuits. \u201cIt\u2019s not worth it to be afraid,\u201d she says. After years as the face of the company, Price says she knows how to turn on the extrovert charm and pull up the energy to do it\u2014but learned she doesn\u2019t have to become <\/em>an extrovert. She can do an event, then go to a quiet place afterward to recharge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Selling your company\u2014without selling out<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When the time came to sell her company in 2014, Price says that outside of her marriage and children, this was the proudest moment of her life \u201cbecause of the work I had to do on myself as a person\u201d to get there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet \u2026 not everyone saw it that way. “The community saw it as selling out and raked me over the coals,” she says. “I didn’t know what to do.” Then, a solution: “I felt bad for 48 hours and then went, Wait a second. Do you know what I just did?!” <\/em>People had written a whole other story for me, she says, and didn’t like that she was writing a different chapter. So she made sure to prop up and remind her team of their joint accomplishment. Price now focuses on changing the mind-set to recognize the value of creating generational wealth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowing your worth<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Here’s her tip for anyone in the middle of negotiating a raise or salary for a new job: Get comfortable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Price shared advice she received during the acquisition when the initial salary wasn\u2019t what she expected or wanted. Her script went something like this: \u201cI appreciate everything about this deal and am so excited, but if I have to live with this particular offer, it might be hard for me to be fully there and present. I don’t want to be distracted and thinking about other opportunities.\u201d Then lean in to the ask. (It worked; she got more money.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An audience member asked about the pressure of often being the only African-American woman in the room. \u201cIt\u2019s incredibly important to be the voice in that room, because not every junior marketer can do that, but I can,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cultivating your list of mentors<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You can have lots of mentors every day if you follow the right people on social media, she says. Her mentors while growing her business were Martha Stewart, Oprah, and Goldie Hawn; she watched what they did and how they built their careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Don’t try to be them; just watch how they move,” she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Better yet, just watch how Price moves\u2014she knows exactly what to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WeWork offers companies of all sizes space solutions that help solve their biggest business challenges.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n