This week, Joni Odum—Founder and CEO of Firstline, the first African American-owned hair accessory products company founded in 1986 by Joni’s late father, Robert A. Bowser—discusses her journey to CEO, limitless opportunities in life and her unwavering spirit for innovation that has created opportunities for Firstline to continue to flourish. Joni also shares the importance of filling in the gaps on the way to growth saying, “you also have to know when it’s time to shift gears a little bit and put processes around things.” She talks extensively about focusing on people, culture and internal company values She answers the question, how do you navigate continuing a family legacy while demonstrating that you also put in the hard work to be there? She hopes to continue her family legacy through advancing forward the hair care space. “We know it so well, and we’re always studying the hair textures, and just understanding better. It’s getting bigger and bigger. I anticipate us getting deeper and deeper into all of the styles and trends.”

 

Bio: Joni A. Odum, an enthusiastic Texas-bred entrepreneur, leads Firstline Inc., a personal products company based in Houston, TX. Founded in 1986, Firstline is the first African American-owned hair accessory products company with national distribution in top mass retailers such as Walmart and Target; top drug chains, including Walgreens and CVS; top beauty retailers such as Sally Beauty; and various other US-based and international retailers. Designed for consumers with textured hair, Firstline’s core product lines include Evolve®, WavEnforcer®, DriSweat®, Camryn’s BFF®, and Sleek®, 

 

Joni attributes much of her success to her values, cultural experiences, education, and hard work ethic. She was most inspired sitting in the boot-camp style classroom under the tutelage of her late father and founder of Firstline, Robert A. Bowser. With Robert’s direction, she spent summers as a child observing his leadership and packaging wrap caps in Firstline's manufacturing facilities to years later leading innovation efforts for the company. Throughout her childhood, Robert purposely cultivated an entrepreneurial spirit and energy in both of his daughters to prepare them for life’s opportunities and challenges. 

Joni’s gregarious nature fosters an appreciation of people and wanting them to do well and feel good about themselves. She is personally responsible for penetrating new markets for Firstline and innovating various new products in the company’s portfolio alongside others in the pipeline. Early in her career at Firstline, she quickly became the person in charge of culture-building, developing people, and motivating others to lead. Her core competencies are new product development, developing people, business partnering, and building strategies through an opportunistic, financial lens. Her leadership is vital in Firstline’s continued growth and expansion of product lines and placement across the country. 

 

Follow @firstlinebrands or visit https://www.firstlinebrands.com/!

 

Quote “You fit the profile of a CEO, and I said ‘okay, let’s go!’ My dad knew that I wanted to do it.”

 

Tune in to learn more from Joni Odum and Kendra! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.