Start Right Here! Podcast

Jessica Pritchett, founder of Ooli Beauty knew that she wanted to be an entrepreneur. As a child, she watched her father, a pharmacist, make that decision after the only position he was offered was a janitor. Instead, he spent 16 hour days running his own pharmacy doing every job that was needed. Jessica started working in music and later cable television knowing that the loops that she had to jump through daily as a Black woman weren't for her long-term. She had several ideas for businesses, some she launched, others she didn't, but each experience helped her use failure as fuel to move forward. It took fifteen years for Jessica to discover that the best idea was right on top of her head.

For nearly twenty years, Jessica had worn locs and had experienced frustration with the product offerings that resulted in a graveyard of things that didn't work. She took some of the lessons from her failed experiences and decided to hire a product developer to help her tackle what she didn't know. The result, a six SKU plant-based line, designed especially for loc wearers. She explains the challenges that she has faced during the pandemic from manufacturing issues to delivery snafus caused by changes in the post office. Jessica expresses her thoughts on how the beauty industry has responded to the social justice movement and some of the ways that it has benefited her brand, such as the inclusion of her Magic 17 Hair & Scalp Oil and Loc'd and Love Hair Fragrance on Macys.com. And she explains why it is important for every entrepreneur to have outside interests beyond their business. And she advocates for entrepreneurs to explore therapy as an option.

Follow Ooli on: Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram

It's been a little over six months since I launched the Start Right Here Podcast and I have had 27 guests who have dropped gem after gem. So to celebrate this milestone, I have gathered some key insights on breaking into the business, using transferrable skills, lateral moves, counteroffers, accessing opportunities, flexibility, advocacy, and knowing when it is time to leave a job. All this advice from accomplished Black women who work in beauty or related industries.

Check out this show and you may want to explore each of their full episodes!

When Shekela Joseph got her first job as a cashier at Sephora, she was excited; however, hair had always been her thing. But her colleagues saw something different, they saw Shekela's face as a canvas, and they wanted to use her as their model time and time again. Along the way, she picked up the skills and moved to a beauty advisor role and was so proficient that she was recruited as a beauty educator for Too Faced Cosmetics.

In this role, Shekela traveled to more than a dozen stores in the NY metro area, teaching her team about new products and techniques. She moved from the boutique brand to luxury beauty as a Runway Makeup artist for Burberry Beauty. Always willing to up-level her skills, Shekela talks about how she became a Business Manager at Saks Fifth Avenue for Decorté Beauty, a Japanese skincare brand, which has been well-known in Asia for more than 50 years. She shares what it is like to recruit, hire and develop her team and how she encourages them to meet their sales goals.

Shekela talks about the impact Covid-19 has had on how she does business, particularly when it comes to virtual events and Zoom consultations and the challenges that come with them.

She shares how she thinks beauty companies need to advance their efforts in creating a more equitable industry, noting that while there have been great strides, more needs to be done.

Marti Moore really wanted to be a painter, but as she graduated college, her mother told her she needed a job. She landed a position in the management program at Macy's and moved up from department manager to the buying department, and her connection with beauty took off. Marti's fondly remembers her early days, where she bought legacy lines that included Flori Roberts, Lancōme, and Fashion Fair. She quickly realized her next position as a buyer for a chain drug retailer was not for her and worked her network to land another major retailer position. She's held major beauty buying and marketing positions at Filene's, Macy's, and Lord & Taylor and shares what it is like to go back to a company at which she had worked previously and offers advice to anyone considering a counteroffer or revisiting a previous employer. (She had three different stints at Macy's). Marti provides insight into the diversity of product offerings both as someone in the room where decisions were being made and a customer. She explains why the path to becoming a buyer is still challenging for those with BIPOC backgrounds. And also shares how these experiences led her to beauty entrepreneurship and the launch of her own company, Melanin Grace. Marti shares the challenges of launching a new retail concept focused on Black and Brown women during a pandemic. It forced her to shift from starting with a physical location to a direct to consumer model. She also shares how she sources the brands she showcases and how she hasn't given up creating a unique retail experience when it makes sense for her business. Finally, she offers insights for anyone interested in following her career path.

Eunice Cofie-Obeng wasn't thinking about a career in beauty until she had a chemistry class in college in which the professor taught her and her classmates to formulate a chemical relaxer and other beauty products. With her interests piqued, she wanted to know and do more. And skincare became her focus. In fact, Eunice had the idea for the Nuekie product line more than a decade ago.

While she honed her skills as a cosmetic chemist and entrepreneur, Eunice took on jobs that helped her further her mission as well as returned to school to get a master's degree in cosmetic chemistry. As she continued to build the Nuekie brand, Eunice also discovered the knowledge gap that existing among dermatologists and aestheticians in treating skin of color effectively and began creating educational programs that filled the gap. She also saw the value of mixing ingredients used in traditional African medicine with modern technology to create efficacious products. And she explains why African medicine should be just as valued as Chinese medicine.

After launching the first two products for Nuekie, Eunice recently released eight new products, in two collections targeting acne and hyperpigmentation which sold out quickly.

Eunice also talks about the challenges of being a Black entrepreneur, why she isn't interested in attending another accelerator, and what those running these programs need to understand. She also explains what the pandemic impacted her ability to do business and how connecting with other Black female beauty entrepreneurs gave her a community at a critical time, telling us how they banded together to source ingredients and share information that would help them sustain their businesses.

And we congratulate Eunice on being a recipient of a BeyGood Grant!

Follow and shop Nuekie:

https://www.nuekie.com/

https://www.instagram.com/nuekie/

Monae Everett initially became a hairstylist because she didn't believe in being broke in college. But afterward, she set her sights on becoming a celebrity hairstylist before she understood what would be required of her. Once she discovered that she needed to learn more about hair and the industry, she secured a salon at a chain salon in Virginia, where she mastered the art of doing every hair texture. Later she moved to another salon where she became its manager. Along the way, she also became a hair color educator.

But Monae still had her eye on being a celebrity hairstylist. She spent her days off doing test shoots and small jobs to develop her on set skills and portfolio. When she got laid off, she took that as a signal to move to New York City and never looked back.

She has not only achieved her dream of working with celebrities but also realized that there were so many people who wanted to do the same. So she decided to create a course and later pen a book, "Get Out of Your Own Way: 25 Tips for Booking Celebrity Clients."

Learn about the skills she looks for in other hair pros when she is assembling a team, why communication is a critical component, and why ending on time is paramount when working when celebrities and so much more on this week's episode.

On our second special Men's Edition, Corynne Corbett welcomes Mezei Jefferson, Assistant Vice President, Education Curriculum, ACCESS, and Digital Content for L'Oréal's Professional division. Although Mezei grew up around the industry because his grandparents owned a salon, being a hairstylist wasn't his initial career ambition. Mezei wanted to be a rock star (although he neither sang nor played an instrument). After his father convinced him of the impracticality of that goal, Mezei enrolled in beauty school. He shares his journey from a local salon in Maryland to a chain salon, where he first had the opportunity to join an education team. He fell in love with the theatrics of hair after attending one of his first hair shows, and he never looked back! Initially reluctant, Mezei also learned the value of being a hair color specialist and added that skill to his wheelhouse. His abilities as a colorist and Redken educator led to a role at Ulta, where he grew the education team nearly eight-fold during his eight-year tenure. At the same time, he also oversaw the curriculum for over 800 salons.

Mezei explains how his first role at L'Oréal had him thinking about hair education differently since it was focused on consumers and how his position expanded to encompass Optimum Professional and later Carol's Daughter when it became part of the multicultural division of the company. He points out how social media and influencers shifted education.

Finally, Mezei talks about his new role in the professional division, how Covid-19 accelerated the need for digital education, why he gets excited about new challenges, and why he feels like he's achieved his ambition of being a rock star.

If you asked Kimberly Smith, founder of Marjani and co-founder of the Brown Girl Beauty Co-op in Washington D.C., about pursuing a career in beauty, she might have once told you that wasn't in the cards. However, a local Sephora trip, where she found not one contour product suitable for her medium brown skin tone, changed her perspective.

Before that trip, Kimberly was firmly ensconced in her career as a lawyer, focused on healthcare compliance. But that visit set her out on a new path, where she developed not just one but two businesses. She points out that she considers herself risk-averse but still moved forward in this new area because she was determined to give Black and Brown women makeup choices.

She started her e-commerce business, Marjani, with 12 brands (including A.J. Crimson and Hue Noir) and has expanded to over 40 brands, including skincare and body products. But Kimberly still believed that a physical location was essential. She discussed her dreams with her best friend, Amaya, the founder of Product Junkie, a natural hair care company. In 2018, they embarked on a new entrepreneurial adventure, The Brown Beauty Co-op, that allowed them to run their individual businesses in a physical space while also incubating new brands started by other Black and Brown beauty entrepreneurs and creating a vibrant community.

Kimberly chats about the challenges that BIPOC beauty entrepreneurs face with getting ready for retail, what kind of support she is looking for from mainstream sources who claim to want to uplift indie beauty entrepreneurs of color, how Covid-19 has impacted their business, and how small failures play a role in her quest to build her businesses. Plus, so much more!

Visit the Brown Beauty Co-op: 1365 Connecticut Ave, NW, Suite 100 Washington, DC ([email protected])

Beauty wasn't on Dorian Morris' mind as a career but she got a taste of the industry early when she worked with the fragrance buyer at Robinson-May. But she didn't think about it again until she'd already worked as a planner at Macy's, obtained an MBA from Harvard Business School, and done a stint working in brand management at CPG behemoth General Mills. Dorian chats with us about how she found similarities between working in food and beauty when she landed a job at Kendo, the brand incubator for Sephora, and why the scrappy environment allowed her to thrive. She points out that her next job, at Sundial Brands, where she was responsible for relaunching the Madame CJ Walker Beauty Culture brand was even scrappier. Dorian shares how a short stint at CoverGirl helped her realize that she does better in smaller environments that huge brands. After quitting that job, Dorian started exploring her next act and founded Undefined Beauty Inc. She shares why she took the leap and launched her company at the Indie Beauty Exo two years ago, why she wants to make quality CBD beauty and wellness products that are affordable, the challenges of working in the CBD space, why her supply change is built on conscious capitalism and why adaptogens are her next move. Dorian shares invaluable advice to new entrepreneurs and so much more on this episode.

Plus, find out about the special discount code available for our listeners. You might want to use it to get the newest offerings: Glow Bars, adaptogen-based (CBD) chocolate bars designed for creativity, pleasure or sleep.

Tasha Turner thought that she would have a career in fashion, especially after she landed her first job as a booker at Elite Runway. But editorial came calling. She was the first Black editorial hire at Town & Country, working as an assistant in the beauty and accessories departments, but while she learned to be an editor there she knew that it wasn't her long-term home. It was at her next job, at Vibe where she again worked in beauty and accessories that she found her happy place. There she could create stories and images that represented the urban Black girl, who pushed style boundaries. Tasha shares how she has always represented Black girls/women even when it isn't popular and how she brought her full self to work not only at Vibe but in her later roles at Essence and In Style. She shares that aha moment that led her to entrepreneurship and the formation of her company, Beauty Beat NYC.

Tasha talks about why she created her College program, where she partners with a number of top HBCUs, why beauty brands need to understand younger Black Millennials as well as Gen-Zs, and how she evolving her business model to meet the current times by creating a virtual mentorship program.

She also shares how fighting for the beauty needs of Black women has changed and talks fight those creating content today are currently undertaking.