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In this episode of all about business, James Reed sits down with Sharmadean Reid MBE, the trailblazing entrepreneur behind brands such as WAH Nails, Beautystack and The Stack World.
They discuss her experiences navigating the fashion and tech industries, how the pandemic changed her outlook on business, and the inspiration behind her new luxury beauty brand, 39 BC.
About Sharmadean
Sharmadean Reid MBE is an entrepreneur, creative consultant and advocate for women’s empowerment. Her work focuses on women’s power, equity and ownership.
Sharmadean launched WAH Nails in 2009 as a place for women to hang out, form friendships and build communities while getting creative nail designs. She also founded beauty booking system, Beautystack in 2017, as well as The Stack World in 2021, a platform for women to learn and network.
In recognition of her contributions, Sharmadean received an MBE in 2015 from Queen Elizabeth II. She published her first book, New Methods for Women in 2024, and is currently working on her second book, along with a scripted TV show about female founders.
01:30 the birth of WAH Nails
05:54 from nail salon to global brand
10:09 the transition to tech and venture capital
12:08 building Beautystack
20:10 challenges and reflections during the pandemic
26:06 the pivot to The Stack World
30:38 corporate anarchy and women's independence
36:31 introducing 39 BC
49:25 future projects and vision
Check out The Stack World: https://www.thestack.world/
Read Sharmadean Reid’s book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Methods-Women-Perspective-Relationships/dp/0241461758
Subscribe to Shamadean Reid’s newsletter: https://www.newmethodsforwomen.com/
Follow Sharmadean Reid on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharmadeanreid/
Follow James Reed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chairmanjames/
James: [00:00:00] Welcome to All About Business with me, James Reed, the podcast that covers everything about business management and leadership. Every episode I sit down with different guests of bootstrap companies, masterminded investment models, or built a business empire. They're leaders in their field and they're here to give you top insights and actionable advice so that you can apply their ideas to your own career or business venture.
James: Most entrepreneurs dream of getting venture capital investment, but how can you be sure you are making the right deal for you and your business? Today's guest, Sharmaine Reed, MBE, claims that being a founder is all about developing your entrepreneurial intuition and how you tell the story. She started her business while nails, when she was just 24 and a few years later, raised over a million pounds for her tech company Beauty Stack.
James: In this [00:01:00] episode of All About Business, we discuss the truth behind trusting your gut, how to network like a pro, and how to develop an idea for an exciting new business venture. Well, today on all About business, I'm delighted to welcome Sharmaine Reed, who's come to see us from Wolver Hampton
Sharmadean: Woo Woo, and
James: is a entrepreneur, a creative consultant, an advocate for women's empowerment, and started several businesses and has also been awarded an MBE by her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.
James: And I'm really looking forward to talking to you, Sharmaine, 'cause I know you've got a fantastic story and quite a lot of exciting new ideas to talk about, which I think will be inspiring and motivational to our listeners. So I'd like to just start, I mentioned you came from Wamp today, your hometown. You started a business there in 2009.
James: What was it? Tell me about it.
Sharmadean: So, my first [00:02:00] business in 2009 was in London.
James: Oh, it wasn't in Walham. Sorry.
Sharmadean: Do you wanna say that again?
James: No, no. You put me right. Carry on. Oh, sorry. So it, sorry.
Sharmadean: So I moved to London from War Hampton in 2003. Yeah, I studied at Central St. Martin's. I did fashion communication, but I worked the whole way through my degree because I had no money, so I had no choice.
Sharmadean: Right. But I did also work for the fashion designers who I was really inspired by. So that really kickstarted my career. During that time, I started a magazine at university, so I think I was 20 or 21 when I started War Magazine. That was like a really fun project. You're gonna hear me say that over and over again.
Sharmadean: This was a fun project. It really was because I saw this gap in media for like women and hip hop. I sat in my bedroom for two months and made this little [00:03:00] magazine after university. So I'd go to classes, come home, make my magazine, and then when I published it I would give it away to Girls on the street or in clubs.
Sharmadean: And then that magazine when I graduated then became my first business, which was War Nails and that was in 2009 in Dalston. So the premise of it started for sure while I was at university. And I think a lot of people start different businesses at university, that things, yeah, we've had one or two people.
Sharmadean: Yeah, I can imagine. And then, you know, develop into the real thing. But yeah, 2009 I launched One Nails in Dalston and the vision was to just be a clubhouse for all of the readers of the magazine. And I thought, what's gonna. You know, make us have fun. I always used to get my nails done. It was like such a social experience, but it wasn't aesthetically what I thought was trending at the time.
Sharmadean: So I just made this very cool nail salon that looked like my teenage bedroom and girls from all over the world would come to get their nails done at war Nails. [00:04:00]
James: Why do you call it wa?
Sharmadean: Well, it stood for We Ain't Hoes.
James: Oh, okay. Right. So that's cool. Yeah, because,
Sharmadean: so this is actually quite important, I would say.
Sharmadean: That I don't think of myself as a business person. I think of myself as a founder who likes creating experiences, products that communicate what I think is the like collective mood and the collective mood of that era. 2000 7 0 8 9. Was there a lot of young girls who felt like they were being oversexualized in music?
Sharmadean: So if you take your mind back, it was like. 50 cent. It was the hiphop videos where girls would be half naked dancing. It was very women as objects in the music, like video industry. Yeah. But there were many women who loved DJing, love hiphop, loved graffiti, you know, loved all of the tenets of [00:05:00] hiphop, but didn't want be naked.
Sharmadean: So why stood for We Ain't Hoes as a Collective Energy to be like, actually we are here as women doing things in this world that don't involve taking our clothes off. You know,
James: that really resonated with people. From what you said, people came from all over the world,
Sharmadean: big time. It was huge success. It was like.
Sharmadean: I think we just tapped into multiple energies. So the idea of rising feminism, even if you didn't know what it was like, I didn't, the independence of women, again, you know, following on from like Girl Ladette culture of the nineties, there was a huge drive of street wear culture being mainstream fashion.
Sharmadean: So getting your nails done was seen as a quite hood thing to do. You either went to Brixton or Hackney, you know, not, you wouldn't get like a West London girl going to get palm trees on her nails. But we made it [00:06:00] called, so because of my background in high fashion, 'cause you gotta remember on one hand I was like working the shows in Paris Fashion Week and on the on the other, I was going to hiphop clubs and I would be this bridge between these two worlds.
Sharmadean: So even though I understood this hiphop. Downtown culture. I understood an uptown high fashion culture and I think that's why it was widely adopted. We did lots of things. When I look now in hindsight, so like for example, we didn't build a website, we built a Tumblr. Do you remember Tumblr? I do. So the difference between that, if you think of a website in 2009, this is pre-Instagram, pre everybody having iPhones, that would be a static page on the web.
Sharmadean: You could never really update it that much 'cause you'd have to call a developer. But Tumblr was this living, breathing thing that was then reposted millions of times. So instead of having a website, [00:07:00] we had a Tumblr for the salon, for the business. And every time we did an incredible nail design, 'cause our thing was anything you wanted on your nails, we would paint, we would post it on Tumblr and people would repost it.
Sharmadean: So. I would say we were like probably the first viral nail salon on the internet, which is how we got so famous and then before you know it, brands would be flying us all over the world to do pop-up nail bars and that's how we made the bulk of our money. So initially, you know, we were just one salon in Dalston ticking along, you know, getting 30 pound a nail.
Sharmadean: Then we opened up in Top Shop, which completely transformed our business overnight. We were like in the ground floor of Top Shop in Oxford Circus. So now we were like crazy busy and also if I went anywhere in the world and said. We were in Top Shop, Oxford Circus, they knew that brand name. So it made us important.
Sharmadean: And then companies would always come to Top Shop. You know, we miss it so much for knowing what was next in. Cool. [00:08:00] So for example, British Airways hired us to set up a now bar in New York to promote a new London to New York route, and we flew to Moscow and Abu Dhabi. We did Ferrari nails in the Grand Prix backstage.
Sharmadean: The highlight isn't amazing.
James: I mean, all from a nail bar in Ston.
Sharmadean: I know, right? I mean, that's a highlight to me because I was so influenced by Japanese nail design and Japanese culture is when we got flown to Tokyo, I always say it's like ice to Eskimos. When we were flown to Tokyo to do nails for opening ceremony in Tokyo, I was seven months pregnant.
Sharmadean: It was the last flight I could take, and I was like, this is a career highlight because I can't believe. Japanese girls want the nails that we do.
James: Right. And they did.
Sharmadean: And they did.
James: And it was a big success.
Sharmadean: Yeah, it was great.
James: How did that business develop from there? What did you do next?
Sharmadean: So in honesty, I was very overwhelmed because I had a really good career as a fashion stylist and [00:09:00] consultant and I opened the business to be a fun hangout spot for me and my friends.
Sharmadean: I knew it would be cool, but I didn't anticipate how big it would be, and I was only 25 then I had a baby at 26, so I was like a young working mom. Sometimes when I look back, I think, how did you do that? I don't even know how I did it. Like I said, I flew to Japan seven months pregnant as a 25-year-old.
Sharmadean: Can you believe like, it's kind of crazy when I look back a lot happening and I. Did not have a strategy for that business at all. I was just like saying yes to everything. So I would say I got very burnt out at about 28 years old and I decided to move back to my hometown the first time and kind of slow the business down a bit, which it didn't actually slow down.
Sharmadean: I just made a product line with Boots Walgreens. We launched a full nail polish line into Boots, and I traveled all over the UK doing training. You know, [00:10:00] again, with a little two, 3-year-old.
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Sharmadean: It just kept growing and growing and all of these opportunities kept coming and coming and I was thinking, I'm working like a mania, but I don't really know what the bigger picture is here. And that's when I. Thought, I'm gonna take a bit of time out. I moved back to Wamp, so this would've been 2013 to 15, and I started to reflect and pause, and I do this often throughout my life.
Sharmadean: I'm kind of like all or nothing, you know what I mean? So I started to think, what is the bigger picture here now? At the time, 2013, 1415 was when the idea of startups and Silicon Valley and tech companies was. Bubbling up in the [00:11:00] uk, it wasn't a huge thing like, you know, we didn't have the ecosystem for tech and startups and venture capital we have now, but it was bubbling and I thought, I kept hearing about all these people raising money for what I thought were really simple ideas and I thought I can raise some money.
Sharmadean: So I spent those two years in Wva Hampton learning everything to do with venture capital, everything to do with fundraising, everything to do with building software. So you're
James: reading this change from feminism to venture capital. Oh,
Sharmadean: big time. And like so
James: you switch? Yeah. Okay. How super.
Sharmadean: Switch and listen, I'm a Gemini, whether you wanna believe that or not.
Sharmadean: I get obsessive when I'm into something. I exhaust every bit of literature, podcast, film, music, everything to do with it. So for those two years, yes, I completely immersed myself in this world. And because I was sort of both healing and like taking it slow and healing while also kind of thinking about what the next move was.[00:12:00]
Sharmadean: So I thought, okay, you know, everyone comes into the now salon with screenshots of what they want on their nails. Tumblr, which we'd was an early user of, was huge for us. Instagram, which we were an early user of, was huge for us. People would screenshot Tumblr and Instagram and bring them in or email and say, how much is this?
Sharmadean: How long does it take? What is it? You know, is it acrylic? Is it gel? And I used to say to myself, it'd be so much easier if people could just book the picture. So I thought, aha, right. That's my business. So I created a plan to develop a visual booking system. It'd never been done before. And as far as I know, still nobody's done it.
Sharmadean: But I thought, how am I an unknown person in tech who has never built anything before going to enter this world of venture capital and actually raise money? So I thought, [00:13:00] okay, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna move back to London. I'm gonna open a brand new salon in soho. I'm going to create a few small technology projects to prove that I can build technology and I understand it, which I always did, by the way.
Sharmadean: 'cause I went to a very techie innovative school. It was like a school of the future. So I moved back in 2015 to London. Within six months, I'd found the location. Then I secured the lease, which was in soho next to Supreme. I built a booking chatbot. I found this, I read this article online of this, these two guys in New York who were building customer chatbots.
Sharmadean: So I emailed them. I said, Hey, we're in now Salon. Will you build it for free? Because we'll be the best case study you're ever gonna have. And then, then, okay, they built it for me for free. And [00:14:00] actually I'm still friends with them today. Actually, what was interesting about that chat bot, I said to them, and this is a really good example, if you are young business person who wants to get people on board with your ideas, I always try and think, what is it about this free project that will give them talking points for the next five years?
Sharmadean: So I said to him. You're building chatbots for salons right now, but all of the services are pretty standard. So manicure, pedicure, blow dry. I said, if you build one for us, we will give you the widest data set so it will be nails long, short graphic pink Valentine's Day. Do you get what I mean? So the data set will be much richer and then you can use that for your other clients.
Sharmadean: That's why I said I'm always trying to make it mutually beneficial with collaborations and partnerships. So I built the chat bot 2015. Then I worked with a friend who's like an internet artist to build a virtual reality nail [00:15:00] art system. It was insane. You can still find it on YouTube actually, if you search w vr.
Sharmadean: And then I basically opened the salon with the story of the salon of the future. So now we're in 2016, 17. And if you remember during that period everyone was obsessed with retail, future tech. So it was like, how many people are in the store at any one time? Let's build some computer vision technology to count it.
Sharmadean: You know, no one uses that shit now. No stuff. You know, it was a lot of that type of like what is frontier technology for consumer based businesses? And every company would put like a massive engineering team behind it. I remember, 'cause I was working with Boots at the time, they were trying to build like a boots, something as basic as a quiz to test your skincare would require a team of 10 people.
Sharmadean: And I would be like guys. I,
James: those were great days for it. Recruitment sadly gone, but they were great [00:16:00] days. But you remember it, right? Well, I do very fondly. Yeah. Oh my goodness. A lot of people were recruiting.
Sharmadean: Yeah. 10 engineers in a room to build a quiz. I would be like, guys, I guess I'm bad for you business.
Sharmadean: 'cause I would be like, right, I'm gonna figure out how to do it. I'm gonna learn how to code. I'm gonna quickly do it. I'm gonna figure it out. And I would just build it. So the fact that we built a virtual reality experience with like three people that cost less than 10 grand, but a company, you know, massive companies would spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on a virtual reality experience.
Sharmadean: I would always just be like, what can I do that would be quick dirty, get the point across, create a unique experience for a new audience, and let's do it.
James: Have
Sharmadean: a go,
James: sort of thing. Have a go.
Sharmadean: Yeah. And actually I ended up, um, a lot of businesses then hired me to consult, to tell them how I just did it in a gorilla.
Sharmadean: Right way. So then after I'd done that, I then did my pitch deck. So the salon was open for nine months. I did all the training, you know, all the [00:17:00] press, got everything in place. And then I said, bye guys. I'm going to work on my startup. I'd met a guy at an event, he worked at Facebook at the time, and he said, you can use our office for free.
Sharmadean: I was like, great. He's like, build your startup in, in our meeting room. So I went to this meeting room on Tottenham Court Road under the Facebook office that used to be there, and I started working on my startup. I met my co-founders, persuaded them to join with my persuasive skills, which I think is like a really underrated founder skill.
Sharmadean: You have to be able to tell a story and get people on board with whatever your big vision is. So then the three of us sat in this room and I did the pitch deck while they started coding the first version of the product. And then that's when I developed Beauty Stack. And once the pitch deck was ready, I took it out.
Sharmadean: And then raised our first round of capital.
James: And so from the customer point of view mm-hmm. Beauty Stack worked online. You could book.
Sharmadean: [00:18:00] Yeah. So the original vision for Beauty Stack was a Tumblr style web platform where you beauty professionals could design their own pages a bit like a Shopify Mm. And you could book from a picture.
Sharmadean: So rather than book a string of text, you would be booking a jpeg. Right? Which again, it sounds so basic, but it's completely innovative. Can you take a JPEG and attach it to a time-based booking rather than take the word manicure? And my vision for it was that we would have millions and millions of beauty images in our system that would all be tagged, would use computer vision to be able to see what the trends were.
Sharmadean: Suggest and recommend. If you are into this type of nails, you're probably gonna be into this type of braid because my human. Specialty of spotting trends, insights, and understanding people, we would code that in. So for example, [00:19:00] if you liked a metallic chrome nail art, it's highly likely that the girl who has that kind of nails to me, listens to a type of music, hangs out at a type of restaurant.
Sharmadean: Like I just, I can build a picture of her just by seeing one little thing. So then, because I can do that, I would say to the engineers, right, every girl who booked this now artist, let's send them a five pound voucher for this braider because the girl who likes this now is probably gonna like this. And that was really fun.
Sharmadean: And like I miss that business so much because it had so much potential and nobody was doing it. And it was very unique to what I. My skillset is, and I loved working 50% with the engineering team and 50% with the beauty team. It's like both sides of my brain together. I like building really small teams to get things done and inspiring and motivating and kind of having a plan to execute.
Sharmadean: I love hitting deadlines [00:20:00] on time, on budget. I'm, I'm always like, you're gonna get
James: hired by lots of people. We're releasing, we're
Sharmadean: releasing today. Like people would be like, the app's not ready to release. I'm like, it is you, we are releasing today. And I'd be like, if it's not, let's sort it out right now.
Sharmadean: And I do miss that. It's fun. So you say
James: you miss it because it, it came to an end.
Sharmadean: Yeah. So
James: what happened, Charmaine? What
Sharmadean: happened was in the pandemic, so we had built the first prototype we'd raised. Four. So we raised, I think it was a 600 k uh, pre-seed. Hmm. Then we raised 4 million seed. We built first version of the app.
Sharmadean: We had 20 active beauty professionals using it in beta, and we were about to launch it publicly so that anyone could sign up and then the pandemic hit. And in the pandemic nobody could book beauty and I didn't really know what to do. Like,
James: [00:21:00] no, that's, that's bad timing. You know, it was really
Sharmadean: bad timing.
Sharmadean: And it's funny because there's so many ti you know, and this I feel like, you know, obviously it wasn't just me. There were so many founders in the same position and I was just like, I have created the timeline so many times because I just want to postmortem on what went wrong. You know, the combination of.
Sharmadean: The pandemic hitting. You couldn't book beauty and then you could book barbers, but not beauty. Do you remember that whole era? Yes, I do. Yeah. You could book some things, but not others. People were scared to go to their beauticians. 'cause when you have a beauty treatment, you are in very close proximity to somebody.
Sharmadean: So even if you could book beauty, people were scared to book. So we effectively, for 14 months, couldn't operate at full capacity. And if you imagine, we're a startup with a burn rate, the times were good in 2018, 19, we took a huge [00:22:00] office. We were, in my head, I was gonna have a hundred staff members and raise a series A.
Sharmadean: Do you get what I mean? So, well, no one saw this coming. No one saw it coming. So
James: you can be blamed for this. Right. And then
Sharmadean: on top of that, you know, two months after the pandemic when George Floyd was murdered, I was one of three black founders that I knew in the industry. And it really affected me. It, you know, it was me.
Sharmadean: I. So of my two co-founders, one of them Ugandan, and then of the team, I'd say about 40, 50% of them were people of color as well. So when I look back at our stats for the whole of June, so George Floyd was murdered May 25th, I believe, for the whole of June. We didn't really do any work as a company.
Sharmadean: Everyone was just like, what is going on? We can't operate. Now. This whole thing has happened that has highlighted the discrepancies of people in color in various industries, and especially in tech. There weren't [00:23:00] many, if any, black women who had raised funding or had similar pressure at the time, had the same pressures that I felt from venture capital.
Sharmadean: So if I'm honest, it was a combination of like inexperience for my first. Macro world event. Yes. Because you know, one of my investors later on down the line said, well, why didn't you pivot quick enough? Because one of my other founders pivoted immediately. And I said, oh, that's really interesting. And this is like, you know, something I've written in my book about like asking questions.
Sharmadean: So I said, tell me about that founder. How old is he? Firstly, it's a he, right? How old? And he's white. How old is he? He went, oh, he is in his fifties. I went, oh, interesting. And what, how many software companies is he built? Oh, this is his third company. I was like, okay. If I was in my fifties, had been through several world [00:24:00] events, you know, several recessions.
Sharmadean: I was on my third startup, I would've pivoted too. Do you think I'll ever make this mistake again? I was like, I've never built tech. I've never had a big world event happen to me like this, and now I'll just know better.
James: But that individual could have called you and said, pivot. Wow. And didn't, interestingly,
Sharmadean: do you know something?
Sharmadean: I try not to think about that too much, but that was a huge part of it. Like since the pandemic over the last, you know, four years, I've really been questioning my place in business, my place in tech, and my place in a corporate world. Because at the time I was part of a YPO style group, me and five guys.
Sharmadean: And every month during the pandemic, we would meet every single one of the guys had investors who called them up and offered them money. And I was like, interesting. Nobody's done that for me. Do you know what I mean? And yes, they could have called me up. I think it's, I'm, I'm the kind, my personality [00:25:00] is like, where's my responsibility first?
Sharmadean: Like I always try and think the same way. I approach criticism like, where am I wrong? Then the second layer is how can I have compassion for myself in what I did wrong? And then the third layer is how is the system designed to not have supported me or supported me on that place and did I take the advice or did I not?
Sharmadean: So I remember someone did give me a piece of advice, a found a friend. She said If America is opening up beauty state by state as it was, 'cause the UK was blanket no beauty, but America different states, you could do beauty. She was like, why don't you just go and launch it in America? And I wish I did that.
Sharmadean: Because, but I couldn't, 'cause I have a child that I coparent in 50 50. Yeah. I don't
James: dunno. You wanna beat yourself up to, yeah.
Sharmadean: I don't wanna beat myself up, but I also think reflection's important for growth. Yeah. Big time.
James: But [00:26:00] I mean, it's not as if you're not doing stuff now, is it? I mean you, you've got, let's, let's move forward another to the next chapter because you've got so much happening now.
Sharmadean: Well I think it's really quite exciting,
James: isn't it?
Sharmadean: I think just talking quickly before we go into the next chapter Yeah. About what I did eventually pivot into, yeah, let's hear about that. I pivoted Beauty Stack into the stack world because I was thinking what can we do during the pandemic? And it was events and conversation and media and you know, there was a lot of feeling of mistrust of the press and that people weren't supporting women during the pandemic and that was really, really popular.
Sharmadean: But. Media is not an industry that VC acts in the UK anyway. So venture capital is not designed for media. And I pivoted into a media company without really thinking, well, how are we gonna make money from this? What's the fundraising cycle gonna look like? Is it a business that I can fundraise for?
Sharmadean: Because when you start on a venture backed [00:27:00] train, it's very hard to get off that train and evolve into a normal business. You know, whenever I see you, like with your titans of industry, British industry, I'm like, these are great, normal, interesting, straightforward businesses. They're not, you know, a dog washing startup or something like that.
Sharmadean: Do you get what I mean? That's raise millions in venture because you can book an Uber style person to come to your house and when you're in this world, it's kind of gets they like novelty more than. Predictable businesses. Does that make sense? So a media company was just not exciting enough for investors.
Sharmadean: Right. So then,
James: so they're looking for gimmicks. You're saying? What do you feel?
Sharmadean: I, I think they're looking for disruptive models for existing businesses. Right. But I actually believe now with my age and [00:28:00] wisdom that the original businesses are where I wanna be. Right. Not the disruption gimmick of it.
James: Okay.
James: Does that make
Sharmadean: sense, what I'm trying to say? Say, well, I think
James: so, yeah. I'd like, I'd like to understand Stack World a bit more because you said it was a pivot from your original. Endeavor Beauty Stack. Yeah. Stawell, just describe it. What does it do for its customers?
Sharmadean: So what the stack world does is it allows women to get the knowledge and network to build their power.
Sharmadean: So it's a women's network, so it's women's network with events and meetups, but also a lot of contents. So we interview a lot of women. I've interviewed so many hundreds of women about different things from fundraising to how to be A COO, and then we have that in a content library. And that content library is, I think, really interesting and hugely valuable for like, what would a women's media [00:29:00] company look like if it was somewhere between the business press, like a Financial Times, but a lifestyle press like Vogue, you know?
James: So where are you at with that now?
Sharmadean: So right now I'm trying to think about what the next evolution of the stack world is. I really care about telling women's stories, and I also am thinking, okay, this is a thought in process, but as I said to you, I spend a lot of time thinking about the thing before launching it.
Sharmadean: My feeling right now, which you are not gonna want to hear James
James: go on,
Sharmadean: is that I no longer want to tell women how to become leaders in business or how to find the corporate ladder or how to develop in their role. And the reason for that is. That the gender equity gap has not changed. The pay gap's not changed.
Sharmadean: The leadership gap's not changed. You know, still less than 10% of women are CEOs in public companies. [00:30:00] The gender funding gap stood at 2%, and these figures have held the same for like the last few decades, right? In some places they've got worse. So less women are being funded now for their businesses more than ever.
Sharmadean: So when I think about leadership, leadership is not something I want to talk to women about anymore. When I think about entrepreneurship, I'm no longer interested in telling women how to fundraise from venture capital. And my feeling about this is, do you remember I told you earlier about the layers of thought process?
Sharmadean: Where did I go wrong? You know, have compassion for myself, and where did the system not serve me? I don't believe in teaching women how to perform in a system that doesn't serve them. So why? Teach women how to become a C-suite leader at their company. Only for those women to then be ousted if they try and change or not have proper maternity leave or not be able to breastfeed at work.
Sharmadean: It doesn't serve anyone. So the things [00:31:00] that I'm thinking about more and more is a kind of corporate anarchy subversion. What does it mean to be independent and autonomous and have ownership, rather than think about how can I perform in this kind of working world that was not designed for women or families, you know?
Sharmadean: And it's a corporate
James: archy subversion. I'm interested. You got my attention. So, so what does that mean? I mean, so what are women gonna do in this, in this space?
Sharmadean: Own things.
James: Own things. Yeah. Start things own things. Start
Sharmadean: things and own things. So
James: more women entrepreneurs, more,
Sharmadean: more women entrepreneurs, self-employed
James: women,
Sharmadean: but women entrepreneurs with a clear picture of how to design a life that works for them and their families.
Sharmadean: I feel like. Women entrepreneurs today are preoccupied with raising money and being accepted by the corporate world, or receiving external validation from that corporate world. You know? And I think, [00:32:00] actually, there's no shame in saying, do you know something? I'm gonna be a YouTuber. I'm gonna be a YouTuber, I'm gonna make a millionaire.
Sharmadean: And that's gonna do me fine. That's it. I'm going to make greeting cards and I'm gonna make 200 grand a year. And that's fine because that's all I need. Do you get what I mean? I feel like we have had this picture. I say we as collective millennial women, we have this picture from such a young age. You can be whatever you wanna be.
Sharmadean: You can do whatever you wanna do. And we worked really hard to try. And then as we got older, we realized we can't be what we want to be. 'cause no one's gonna fund us and we can't be what we wanna be because if I make it to be CEO of a company, probably gonna get fired at the first hurdle. You know? So I just think this era that I grew up in, so I was born in 1984.
Sharmadean: It was a [00:33:00] very Thatcher Reagan, entrepreneurial working girl, eighties, big, big business power women, Oprah, Martha Stewart.
James: I remember it. I remember
Sharmadean: that was the era that I grew up in. And I believed I could do anything and be anybody. And then I moved to London and I realized I was black and I was poor, and I was a girl.
Sharmadean: And I was like, okay, so now what? And I, you know, I've, I'm very proud of the work I've done, but I would say that from an emotional level. I definitely was working to kind of be accepted by yeah, very corporate working world. And now I just think so differently about how I wanna build stuff. I, I'm calling this my season two.
Sharmadean: And what's also really boring is I feel like everyone goes through this when they turn 40, right? Like everyone comes of an age and then something unlocks in their head. And for me, the unlock was, I don't want to exhaust myself in order to have [00:34:00] financial security. I don't think you should have to burn out to be able to provide for yourself and your family.
Sharmadean: And I don't think being a mother and not just a mother, but being present in my friend and family unit should come at the cost of me being satisfied at work.
James: Well, I wish you well with this. I mean, I mean, it is obviously a, it is a journey you've been on and you've learned a lot and this is where you want to go next.
Sharmadean: And I feel like I'm gonna learn so much more because. I think if you're a founder or an entrepreneur, you really, your identity is so tied up in your work like you are your work. And I think every founder goes through their own hero's journey of, you know, untying themself and their self-worth to the success of a business.
Sharmadean: And I always think about, um, you know, we hold [00:35:00] these icons of business up and no one ever talks about their failures or the things that they got wrong. It's really funny 'cause this Love Mondays, I read Michael Bloomberg's biography and he's got a chapter called I Love Mondays. Oh good.
James: I'm an admirer of Michael Bloomberg.
James: I'm
Sharmadean: an admirer of Michael Bloomberg. And when I read his biography, I felt so relieved that he started Bloomberg age 39. Like people. Forget you are 39 and you start, you know, he had another business before.
James: Yeah, I know. People have started businesses much older
Sharmadean: than that. Yeah. Much older. And very successful.
Sharmadean: And very successful. And every business before failed, you know? So I think the success by, with which young people measure themselves right now because of their access to everyone on the internet is just the bar's too high for young people. And I think if you are a young entrepreneur, or even if you're just in your career working and you are young [00:36:00] and you think, I'm not where I wanna be, I just think, no, you're exactly where you should be.
Sharmadean: Like you've got to go through the motions and do the steps, and you've gotta do it all to discover the truest version of you, you know?
James: Yes. I have a sense of that. So you've got, so from where you are now though, the threshold of this LA landmark birthday, shaman ZI think your new business is actually called 39 bc.
James: Exactly. So am I onto something with that? So yeah, tell us about that. That sounds very exciting. So you've got a new venture. Yeah. That's sort live in development.
Sharmadean: Definitely. So during this period of reflection, I was really thinking about what is my unique skillset? What do I enjoy doing? What are the industries I'm already known for?
Sharmadean: How can I make it easy for myself to go out the starting gate really fast? And I am alarmed that people still associate me with the beauty [00:37:00] industry because I haven't been in it for so long. But that's what people love me for. And. Going back to this collective energy and mood I was feeling at 39 years old that everyone was exhausted after the pandemic.
Sharmadean: They wanted rest, they wanted slowness, they wanted pleasure, time to themselves. All of these like words were coming to me. And I was thinking about how I have used spas, massages, beauty treatments, ancient bathing rituals as part of my healing journey. And I was like, I wonder how many other people use these things as a almost tool to get back to themselves.
Sharmadean: So 39 BC is based on ancient bathing, modern cleansing, and I chose the name for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I was 39 when I thought about it. I wrote an essay called Call On Your Ancestors, which is in my book. And in that essay [00:38:00] I talk about how. We often as women forget our historical lineage, which helps us feel noble and walk with our head held high.
Sharmadean: I was like, if you go for me again as a black woman, most black people cannot trace more than four generations because of slavery. So I was like, okay, why don't I skip those four generations? Why? Why don't I skip like 400 years and go back to like the 12th century? 11th century? Let's go back really far.
Sharmadean: Let's go back to like the first century BC. I wonder what my ancestors were doing there and how can I channel that queen energy rather than think about the version of me that I see in the media today? So I wrote this essay call on your Ancestors, and I had a. Birthday party for my 39th birthday where I told everybody to dress as their ancestor goddess.
Sharmadean: All of these women came, Rosie came.
James: Yeah, that's my [00:39:00] daughter, Rosie.
Sharmadean: Yes. Rosie came and she created these Maltese goddess earrings. Yeah, she was very beautiful. And it was just an energetic moment and I was like, this is it. So 39 bc what happened? Well, according to the historians, nothing much because in 30,
James: in
Sharmadean: the year, 39 in the year 39 BC So you're really
James: visualizing this moment.
Sharmadean: Oh, big time. I told you I'm a Gemini ancestors. I'm, I've read like every, okay, so lemme say, so you know a lot
James: about 39 BC
Sharmadean: Ask me anything. So basically in 39 BC according to the historians, nothing much happened. And the reason is because history tends to record wars, buildings, you know, very masculine energy things.
Sharmadean: But if you know the story of Anthony and Cleopatra and Octavian, this, these three people, the drama of the 14 years of [00:40:00] their saga effectively determined so much about the world we live today. Because you wouldn't have the Roman Empire in the way is now. If that, you know, Cleopatra and Anthony weren't defeated.
Sharmadean: Sorry, I'm skipping over some stuff. No, no, no. You know more
James: about this than I, so come on. You better tell us. So tell you what, tell what's I, we all know who Cleopatra is and Anthony.
Sharmadean: Yeah. But you think, you know, right? Well, yeah. Well, we think we know it's,
James: it's a name we know. So come on in light. It's a name we
Sharmadean: know.
Sharmadean: So my middle name is Alexandria, right? So since I was a child, I've always known about Cleopatra, Alexandria, the great library of Alexandria. I've always been curious about this. Cleopatra's. A woman who's been misunderstood many times, you know, painted as this har seductress, but in effect, she was a scholar, a diplomat.
Sharmadean: She was just so clever. Her political skills were insane. So. In 40 bc. Mark Anthony gets her pregnant. They're in love. She's pregnant with [00:41:00] twins. He's a Roman. He's a Roman.
James: And she's an Egyptian.
Sharmadean: She is a Greek Macedonian queen. Oh, okay. So
James: she's not Egyptian.
Sharmadean: The Greeks ruled Egypt for about 300 years. She was the last Pharaoh.
Sharmadean: Right. So Mark Anthony's basically a middle class Roman soldier. Right. And he's coming to this queen Right. Needs with his begging bowl out because he needs their money to fight his wars. The Ian war, right? Can't believe I'm telling you needs. Yeah. This is good.
James: No, this is a new, a new chapter for us on the podcast, and we're learning a lot.
James: Come on. Look,
Sharmadean: the way that I see it is she is a queen goddess. She's ISIS incarnate, and this middle class Roman soldier comes to her with a begging bowl. But he's attractive, he's charming. They fall in love. You know, they have an affair. She gets pregnant, he leaves. Goes back to Athens to marry a Roman woman, Octavian sister for politics.
Sharmadean: She is gives birth to these twins [00:42:00] and in 39 BC she's a single mom of three children. Her first baby daddy is Julius Caesar. Can you imagine you two baby daddies being Julie Caesar and Mark Anthony? Know how Julius
James: Caesar described like that, but I like it. I like it. Yeah. I like where this is going, but
Sharmadean: this is not, I'm gonna tell it.
Sharmadean: So what do you do when you are a single, powerful single mother? Good question.
James: What do you do?
Sharmadean: You get to work.
James: You get to work. What
Sharmadean: does single moms do? You know something your father told me?
James: Yeah. Alec Reid,
Sharmadean: Alec. Yeah. He told me. When he started, he always hired women and mums because he knew the would work.
Sharmadean: When you are a mother, you get to work. When you have responsibility, you get to work. And if you have no one to rely on, you get to work. So Cleopatra spent those three years after 39 BC making Egypt one of the most wealthiest places in the world. Yeah. So this is really my process, my [00:43:00] business process, which people do not associate as a business process.
Sharmadean: But when I start a business, I think there are only so many differentiators you can have if you are not building true innovation. At the end of the day, it's soap and perfume. It's a body wash, it's a face wash, it's a body lotion. But where you stand out, where I believe I stand out is the storytelling.
Sharmadean: Like how. You create your unique point of view on the product you're trying to sell. So I am building a product line of bathing and perfume and ritual, you know, but what I'm really doing is retelling historical narratives in a way that I think empowers and en lifts women and people of color in a way they haven't been before.
Sharmadean: Does that make sense?
James: Yeah, I think it's more then. Mm, I think it's brilliant idea.
Sharmadean: So we launch later on this year, so these
James: are about to come [00:44:00] out
Sharmadean: for Christmas. Yeah.
James: Fantastic. I'm
Sharmadean: really excited. Yeah. And even now, just where will you be
James: able to buy them so people listening can go online? 30
Sharmadean: nine-bc.com.
James: 30 nine-bc.com.
Sharmadean: Yeah. And then hopefully I'll secure some wholesalers, some department stores and boutiques. And I, I just, I can't wait James, I'm so excited. The fun, the launching is the fun bit.
James: So when were, are you gonna do some event or something? What, how'd you, how'd you let the world know?
Sharmadean: Okay. So I mean,
James: you've obviously got a great story.
James: I can see that ship with the red sails.
Sharmadean: Can you see it in your head?
James: And I think I want some of these products. Yeah. Right. To
Sharmadean: feel,
James: yeah. So to feel
Sharmadean: immerse yourself. How
James: are you gonna get that message out there more widely? I mean, obviously you're talking to me, but
Sharmadean: Yeah, of course. So, and you are the first person I've told by the way.
James: Fantastic. So this is an exclusive. It's good. Fantastic.
Sharmadean: So. My launch strategy for my businesses tends to follow the [00:45:00] same sort of playbook. And what I would urge draw listeners to do is to think about what their playbook is to kind of launch and announce things. Because for everyone it's different based on the skills and resources and network that they have.
Sharmadean: I would say that in the early days of thinking about this new business, I had huge amounts of anxiety looking at the market and thinking, oh my goodness, I need to be a celebrity founder. And making content on Instagram and doing big events and having a giant lipstick in the middle of the room, you know, for Instagram mobile photos, and it was sending me into a complete TIS was, and I was like, actually, just breathe.
Sharmadean: Relax. What do you do that's unique to you? So a big part of my launch strategy is to bring customers on the journey with me. So I don't believe in wait lists or marketing gimmicks like that because I'm the kind of customer where if I want something and I [00:46:00] see it, I wanna bite there, and then I don't wanna be on a wait list.
Sharmadean: Uh, plus the algorithm won't show it me again, so I'll forget about it. So my plan is to launch the website for pre-order. So the minute, and my co-founder still questions this, but I tell him every time, the minute the website launches, you can shop it. The minute I announce it publicly, you can pay me for it.
Sharmadean: Why waste any air telling someone about my brand when they can't buy it yet? You know what I mean? Yes. So the way it will be is. I'll launch the website, you will be able to pay, put your credit card in and buy it and it will be delivered at Christmas, which is kind of crazy 'cause it's six months away.
Sharmadean: Right? During that six months, anyone who's paid and signed up, I'm gonna send them regular updates. Me the factory, you know, me working with the designers. So taking someone on the journey of your launch is [00:47:00] such an important way to get them invested. And I learned that with my now salon. So back before Instagram existed, I used to post on Facebook, got the keys, painting the floor, you know, the desks are coming in now, so be more on
James: the journey with you.
Sharmadean: They're fully on the journey and there's something about bringing people on the journey where they feel that they're invested in it.
James: You're creating a community again, in a
Sharmadean: way. Yeah.
James: I mean it's just something you've done Well,
Sharmadean: I wouldn't say it's a community 'cause it's still an audience and a lot of people call.
Sharmadean: Their audience a community, but it's not, to me, the definition of a community is they should be able to self-reference without you and they should be able to connect without you. Alright, so right now I'm just a megaphone with my email list and my audience. As it builds up, I will do gifting to people that I think represent the brand.
Sharmadean: Now, everyone's obsessed with influencer gifting, and of course that will be part of the strategy, but really the gifting, like I've made a list of ceramicists who [00:48:00] I think embody the spirit of that ancient world. Musicians, you know, artists, designers. It's all these people who I meet, like I met with Thomas Heatherwick the other day.
Sharmadean: Turns out he's very into bathing, right? Add him to the list. You get what I mean? He's not gonna post it on Instagram, but it's important for somebody like that to. Understand and feel connected to the brand journey. Then I'm gonna make a book, a journal of all of this research. So there'll be articles like, how do you Worship at the Temple of Isis today by a Egyptologist academic that I'm trying to secure for the, for the book.
Sharmadean: But there'll also be a comic strip. These are things, these are ideas I have that will be a journal to launch this first collection. And I made a playlist on Spotify, so I'm gonna print the record covers of the playlist. Yeah, that's great. And it just goes on and on and on and it's like, yeah. The way my mind works is the product is just the product.
Sharmadean: [00:49:00] Let me tell the story of what it evokes. You know, I, I
James: absolutely know that this brand, which I haven't seen, is called 39 bc. Yes. From everything you have said to me, there's no way I'm gonna forget that.
Sharmadean: Yes.
James: So, you know, and that will, I'm sure work for many, many other. Customers and potential customers, so I hope so.
James: So interesting. Well, I wish you huge success with that, but you told me earlier before you sat down that you had three other big projects going, but that was it. Do you want to tell me what they are because I, I suspect you might, I, you know, end up doing more, but let's hear about these two I'm
Sharmadean: not gonna do anymore.
Sharmadean: I think that diversifying your, not only revenue streams, but your interest is really important if you're a founder or someone who's just got a lot of energy, hyperactive, likes working, productive, because it means that I'm not emotionally putting all my eggs in one basket. You know what I mean? Yes. I think that's really important because.[00:50:00]
Sharmadean: With the beauty brand, for example, 39 bc once you've done the product, you have to wait. There's a lot of waiting around, you know, for samples and shipping and all of this. So my other projects are, so I have the stack world, I have 39 bc. I then am writing a TV show about female founders about what the experience is like to raise money and you know, be a woman of color in tech.
Sharmadean: So this
James: is, this is the next succession.
Sharmadean: I hope so. So,
James: so that's, so that is that sort of autobiographical, or
Sharmadean: I would say it's loosely based on me and my friends, but it's really me absorbing thousands of stories over close to 20 years of working with women and knowing all the various ways that we still have in equity when it comes to workplace situational finance.
Sharmadean: And I think that's what's. Really interesting to me. [00:51:00] It's like, what are the bigger themes that I'm trying to tell here? Yes, it's gonna look like Sex and the City meets Silicon Valley, but actually
James: I can see that working. So that's, but that's a big deal writing this group. Well, it is
Sharmadean: a, it is, but I love new challenges and it's been really hard and I've been working on it for a couple of years now, so, you know, it's, I've been thinking about it and talking about it and interviewing people about it.
Sharmadean: And then the final thing I'm working on is a new book proposal about some of the theories that I've been thinking about women and work. And that's it.
James: You also mentioned that you had a, a renewed interest in your home wamp and that you, you, you, you not
Sharmadean: renewed. It's always been there. It's always been there,
James: but, but you, but you wanted to do something about its current situation or if you could
Sharmadean: Yeah, I think, well what,
James: describe what your feelings are and what, what that is.
Sharmadean: I think. And I feel like you understand this and also live this, [00:52:00] that as entrepreneurs or business leaders, we have a responsibility to society with what we do. And designing a workplace or designing a culture around work is such a privilege, I think. And like, you know, in the small phrase that I've had with it, I've been like, wow, I can just write a paternity leave in, or I can change the times that people have got to work and have this power.
Sharmadean: And I've always been fascinated by industry and big business. And I'm a fan of history, if you can't tell. Yes. And I always think about all the various industrial revolutions and how they've impacted the world, and particularly like where I grew up. So w. Was a traditional, you know, it's been been around for a very long time.
Sharmadean: Um, Victorian times it really took off with the wall trade and all different types of trade came through all the Hampton [00:53:00] and then in the si, I can't remember what period, but our main factory, Goodyear factory was like, I remember the center of the town. It felt very Springfield, you know, like Mr. Burns's plans where everybody worked there.
Sharmadean: Like all my family worked at Goodyear factory. And then when Goodyear's factory closed down, I just remember this kind of loss to the city and a sadness, which I feel like so many cities and towns around the world can identify with, which is an industry closes, whether it's coal mining, whether it's a factory, you know, whether it's a ceramics plan and then all of a sudden no one knows what to do.
Sharmadean: And I've always. In the back of my mind though, what is the answer? What is the solution? 'cause I've seen it firsthand. Like I lived with my uncle at my grandparents' house who lost his job at Goodies and he literally didn't know what to do to, to retrain. I'm sure you've heard this time and time. Mm-hmm.
Sharmadean: It's like, what do I do now? So with more the Hampton, I've left [00:54:00] it and come back like several times over the last few decades and I'm there now and I love it. And I keep thinking we are in such a rapid era of industry right now with everyone going from talking about STEM to now specifically AI to like what is the future of work is always a conversation that people are having.
Sharmadean: And the way that I see it is that we don't, right now, the UK have a collective creative vision for what this country is. We. Don't have a thing that people feel that can be proud of in a way that I felt as a teenager I could immerse myself in brick pop, brick culture, brick film, brick fashion, Bri music.
Sharmadean: We just don't have it. And right now, you know, the higher ups are always obsessed with tech and ai, but they're forgetting. I feel [00:55:00] the creative industries on a massive scale. And the creative industries are what attracts money and talent, which then becomes the corporate industries. It's like any classic gentrification, you know, you have it from Dalston to Williamsburg.
Sharmadean: The artists live there first they make the place call, and then the big developers come in. And we don't even have that as a country. So I've been thinking if I was town planner of Wamp, what would I be trying to do to attract an industry? What would the industry be? How would you design the town to facilitate that industry?
Sharmadean: And that's what I go to bed thinking about James. Oh, that's a good
James: question. I mean, that, that, that's a, you make a a good case. I think. Think, I mean, that was interesting because for the country as a whole, and then for each city or town, for each
Sharmadean: city, it's almost like what I think the US has done so brilliantly is I.
Sharmadean: Certain geographical regions are branded for certain [00:56:00] industries. So if you wanna be in the entertainment industry, you go to Hollywood. And bear in mind it's called Hollywood. It's not called LA or just California. You go Hollywood and then LA and then California. If you wanna be in tech, you go to Silicon Valley.
Sharmadean: It's not a real place, you know, it's like a, it's a collection of streets, it's neighborhoods, and then it's the city of San Francisco. Do you get what I mean? And or the Bay Area. You'll, you'll hear these phrases. What's our version? We don't have that. If you wanted to work in tv, do you remember they have a media city?
James: Mm-hmm.
Sharmadean: One. Where
James: is that?
Sharmadean: See, I'm trying. I was saying no one knows where that, it used
James: to be, it used to be in Shepherd's Bush where the PBC was, but probably not anymore. Well, they tried to build
Sharmadean: a media city in Manchester in a, you know, I've been reading about it later.
James: Well, that's very interesting that that's the sort of clusters of expertise.
Sharmadean: Clusters of expertise. People forget that proximity is so important for [00:57:00] creativity. Creativity and movements happen throughout history with physical locations. Everything from, as I said before, the Library of Alexandria, you know, the Library of Alexandria was created in. Philosophers from all over the world lived there.
Sharmadean: They, they hung out there, they lived there. They learnt ideas were passed across. And I just feel like even when you think about modernism or futurism, you think about all those movements, they ha jazz. Jazz happens because you sit around jamming with people and I just feel like we're entering an era where people are forgetting creativity, number one.
Sharmadean: And its role in business, close proximity. Number two, coming to work, coming to the city, you know, being near people physically. And I think branding. How we brand a town, a city, a country has been completely left. I don't know what the brand of Britain is right now.
James: No, I think you may. That's a really good point.
James: [00:58:00] And I think someone should give you a call and get you involved because I think that's exactly what we should be trying to do. But I, when I think about Margate, you know Rosie, my daughter lives in Margate, which Tracy Emin and other artists have really put on the map now as an artist.
Sharmadean: Huge big time. You know, to me it's really successful.
Sharmadean: Margate is such an interesting and successful case study for cluster of expertise, branding a place, the types of institutions that need to be there, because I think the Tate being in Margate elevated it from being, you know, a cluster of artists who, where would they show? And it's a combination of like, I.
Sharmadean: Private public institutions with ground level organizations all working together to like decide what this place is like this place making is and what I feel right now. When you say you think someone should give me a call, I've been in those rooms. I.
James: Yes,
Sharmadean: I've gone, you've done [00:59:00]
James: and what happened? Nothing.
James: And
Sharmadean: no one cares. They, they, that's the trouble, isn't it? They want, they want quick fixes. They want sound bites, and they want things they can put in a press release. And that's it. And also the problem with politics is you never know how long someone's gonna be in their seat. So these projects take decades.
Sharmadean: Like
James: there've been nine prime ministers since I became CEO. No. Yeah, really to illustrate your point. Yeah.
Sharmadean: And it's like you, you think about placemaking, it can take 10 years, 20 years for a place to become a place.
James: So it's up to business to do that, isn't it? Up to us entrepreneurs, business leaders, the right
Sharmadean: kind of business there, James.
Sharmadean: Yeah, no, I ideas on that. Not the ones who are purely extractive. I always think how can you build profit with purpose? Like I do believe in building profitable companies and. Well,
James: I've got a book coming out later this year, which I'll give you with purpose. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I hope you like the ideas that it can take.
James: I'm sure I will. But I, but that, that sort of point about creative making places [01:00:00] into destination they're very good at, in Ireland, interestingly, where I like to go on holiday, a place called Dingle.
Sharmadean: Yeah,
James: it's fantastic. It's, it's only a small town where it's got masses of music and they have lots of different weekends that are theme food festival, arts festival, and people go in large numbers and people
Sharmadean: go,
James: yeah.
James: They enjoy it. And
Sharmadean: do people live and work there?
James: Yes.
Sharmadean: Because I think that's important. The right balance of tourism versus residence as well. Yes, because I see this in Jamaica, which is where I'm from. It's like, how do you make Jamaica a place where people want to live and work as well as want to holiday?
Sharmadean: Because otherwise it's still just extractive, you know? And then you have seasons where people have to. You know, they can't rely on steady income because it's a seasonal place. 'cause they're all
James: involved in tourism.
Sharmadean: Exactly.
James: So how's that situation now? Is that improving? Or is it? I
Sharmadean: haven't, I'm going next month birthday and I'll update you.
Sharmadean: Oh, that be nice. I can't wait. Nice. Oh,
James: happy birthday and
Sharmadean: yeah, I love it so [01:01:00] much. But I do, I just, I think that you run a business and you make money and there's only so many handbags you can buy. And then what do you do? Yeah. You know, there's only so many properties you can buy. There's only so many things you can buy.
Sharmadean: And then it starts to just, it's not, it doesn't make you feel good. You
James: gotta do something else. Yeah. You
gotta
Sharmadean: do something else. Something else. And I think doing with purpose, doing something with purpose, but doing something that genuinely impacts a community for more than one generation. Like I will be pleased with myself.
Sharmadean: If I do something that has a gen multi-generational impact, that would make me quite happy. I feel like in a weird way, my now salon has sort of done that because I still get girls, I get girls come up to me now who said, I came when I was 13 and now I'm in work in my [01:02:00] first job. And I was so inspired by what you did and that makes me, that's the best feedback I could get.
Sharmadean: Do you know what I mean? I made something and somebody saw it and it made them think differently about themselves and their place in the world. That to me, is my greatest satisfaction.
James: Well, multi-generational impact is a big, powerful ambition and and I think that's a good place to conclude our conversation, Sharmaine, which.
James: I have to say I've enjoyed hugely me too and learned a lot. So thank you so much for coming to talk to me. And I, I asked two questions at the end that I ask everybody, which I'm gonna ask you now. Um, the first one is what gets you up on a Monday morning?
Sharmadean: I have to play a Beyonce song to get me out of bed.
James: Which one?
Sharmadean: Church girl, it's called. So
James: that's what gets you up on a, so I play
Sharmadean: Beyonce Church Girl, and it gets me out of bed, but also the sun. I sleep with the curtains open and I'm very much a circadian rhythm [01:03:00] type of person. So the beautiful sunrise gets me outta bed. And then also if I'm really struggling competition, a line bed and I think someone's working and I'm not, I better go to work, honey.
Sharmadean: I.
James: So you don't want them to get ahead. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I remember the athlete Daily Thompson. Yeah. Brilliant, brilliant athlete. And he was decathlete and he won the gold medal and he had a great rival who I think was German and, and this chap said, I train every day of year apart from Christmas day and daily.
James: Thompson said, I train every day. Every day. Including Christmas. Including Christmas day, which was great. That's what I feel. So you remind me of him. It's a really good
Sharmadean: motivator, to be honest. I think someone else is working an nar. I can't let them get ahead. So again, so that,
James: yeah, that's good. And, and then my last question, which is a question from my interview book, why You is, where do you see yourself in five years time?
Sharmadean: 45 years old. I see myself with [01:04:00] a building that houses all of my different businesses and interests that is also open to the public, some kind of institution. Um. I working with my incredible CEO of my beauty brand doing global launches and my TV show is in production.
James: That's all very exciting. You'd be 45 years old, but being known for 39 bc so I look forward to seeing that.
Sharmadean: I feel really weird saying that out in public actually. That's so funny. But,
James: but as good is envisioning it and it sounds really exciting and inspiring. I'll get there. You're gonna
Sharmadean: have to play this back. Well, we'll come back and talk again in five years time.
James: You can tell me all about it.
Sharmadean: Exactly.
James: Hey, thanks for coming in.
James: Thank
Sharmadean: you for having me. This was so fun.
James: I enjoyed it too. Thanks, char.
Sharmadean: Thank you.
James: Thank you Sharmaine, for joining me on all about business. I'm your host, James Reed, chairman [01:05:00] and CEO of Reed, a family run recruitment and philanthropy company. If you'd like to find out more about Reed or Sharmaine, all links are in the show notes.
James: See you next time.
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