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Speaker 1: Hi guys, it's your friend Kate Max and welcome back

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Speaker 1: to post ran High. I think we all remember our

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Speaker 1: first Buildbear moment or moments. Maybe you had a few,

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Speaker 1: but I remember so clearly walking into the Build a

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Speaker 1: Bear store, standing at that little station, picking out my bear,

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Speaker 1: choosing its outfit, giving it a name. And it wasn't

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Speaker 1: just about the stuffed animal. It was about that feeling

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Speaker 1: of creating something that was completely yours. And what's really

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Speaker 1: special is that the woman leading Bildebert today has carried

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Speaker 1: that same sense of creativity and joy into everything she's

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Speaker 1: done throughout her career. Today's episode is with Sharon Price John,

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Speaker 1: the CEO of Bhildebear. Before sitting down for this conversation,

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Speaker 1: we went for a long walk in the Brooklyn Bridge Park,

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Speaker 1: so we had a post walk high going and we

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Speaker 1: were feeling good heading into this chat. Sharon has spent

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Speaker 1: decades in the toy in kids brand world, from working

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Speaker 1: on Barbie fashion at Mattel to leading major divisions at

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Speaker 1: Hasbro and then running stride Right before becoming the CEO

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Speaker 1: of Buildebear back in twenty thirteen. She's led through high

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Speaker 1: pressure moments, creative pivots, and cultural shifts. In today's episode,

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Speaker 1: you'll learn what it means to lead with purpose, navigate

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Speaker 1: change with confidence, and stay grounded in who you are

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Speaker 1: no matter how big the job gets. This is Sharon

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Speaker 1: Price John, the CEO of Bildebear, on Post Run High.

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Speaker 1: Sharon John, Welcome to Post Run High.

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Speaker 2: Thank you so excited to be here.

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Speaker 1: I'm so excited to have you.

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Speaker 3: So.

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Speaker 1: Sharon and I are currently in my studio in Brooklyn.

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Speaker 1: We just went for a little over a mile walk

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Speaker 1: here in the Brooklyn Bridge Park. It was beautiful fall

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Speaker 1: weather finally here in New York.

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Speaker 3: Chilly this morning. But take it up every morning and

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Speaker 3: walk about a mile.

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Speaker 1: So, I mean, I love knowing that I've actually been

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Speaker 1: leaning into walks in the morning too. I know before

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Speaker 1: we started filming, you mentioned that you used to be

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Speaker 1: a runner. Yes, now you're transitioning into walking. Yes, let's

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Speaker 1: talk about fitness in your life, Like, how does it

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Speaker 1: play a role into everything you do? Well.

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Speaker 3: I think it's really important for people, first of all,

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Speaker 3: obviously to find some sort of routine that helps them.

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Speaker 3: And it's not just for the physical aspect of that,

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Speaker 3: it's for the mental aspect. But I was an athlete

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Speaker 3: as a kid, and I do sort of believe that's

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Speaker 3: in your DNA. If you did a lot when you

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Speaker 3: were young, there's a certain feeling that you have about

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Speaker 3: fitness that sticks with you. So I did transition to

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Speaker 3: running mostly because I just didn't want to walking from running,

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Speaker 3: I didn't want the pounding. And I log quite a

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Speaker 3: few miles through the week, a mile every day, and

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Speaker 3: then on the weekends I'll probably get six in on

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Speaker 3: both six miles on the Saturday and the Sunday. But

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Speaker 3: I also do strength training and sit ups, push ups, yoga.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Good to know.

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Speaker 1: I mean so for context, guys, Sharon is the CEO

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Speaker 1: of Builds Bear. So I love knowing when CEOs and

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Speaker 1: people that are running massive organizations find time for fitness

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Speaker 1: in their life because for me, I found that when

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Speaker 1: I am on top of my fitness, everything else comes

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Speaker 1: easier in my life, Like I feel like I'm more

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Speaker 1: productive and all the things that they say about being

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Speaker 1: physically fit. So I love knowing that you weave it

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Speaker 1: into your life on a weekly basis. What sports did

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Speaker 1: you play growing up?

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Speaker 3: I was a gymnast, cheerleader, and dancer.

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Speaker 2: Wow yeah, okay, yeah.

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Speaker 1: It's so funny. I so I grew up in North Jersey.

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Speaker 1: I played lacrosse, I did cross country, volleyball, basketball, But

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Speaker 1: I love meeting people that did like the more dancy

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Speaker 1: kind of sports.

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Speaker 2: Yeah right, it's a Southeastern thing.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, because Okay, Sharon grew up in Tennessee. Yeah, all right,

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Speaker 1: what was your life like growing up in Tennessee?

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Speaker 2: It was awesome.

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Speaker 3: I mean, you know, being in a from a small

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Speaker 3: town and full generations in this small town so people

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Speaker 3: know you. And and my grandmother had this fabulous house

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Speaker 3: a little you know, about ten miles away from my home,

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Speaker 3: and it's a big wrap around porch, and you know,

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Speaker 3: all sorts of places to explore. And we had even

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Speaker 3: close to my home something was called the Pine.

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Speaker 2: Woods and at a big park.

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Speaker 3: And it's just, you know, everything they say about growing

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Speaker 3: up in the seventies, it's true. You're just out roaming

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Speaker 3: around getting in trouble all day. Yeah, it's like, oh

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Speaker 3: it's dark, I should go home, you know, in the

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Speaker 3: creek or climbing a tree, or you know, playing with

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Speaker 3: friends or riding your bike.

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Speaker 2: It was really really open ended.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, in the creek, climbing a tree, I mean it's

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Speaker 1: so true. I feel like now it's like we're sitting

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Speaker 1: on our iPhones iPads, different childhood. No, but it is.

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Speaker 1: It is so true. And I love knowing that you're

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Speaker 1: from Tennessee. I'm actually going to Nashville the first for

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Speaker 1: the first time in a few weeks our friend's wedding.

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Speaker 3: Oh you're going to have a blast. And it's nothing

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Speaker 3: like it was when I was a kid. But but

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Speaker 3: it's still is a great town.

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Speaker 1: No, it's a great town. And I've been interviewing a

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Speaker 1: lot of country music artists.

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Speaker 2: Oh wow, so that's super cool. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Now I'm like, okay, I'm finally going to see

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Speaker 1: and be able to like understand where they all are

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Speaker 1: building their careers. And you know monkey tonks and are

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Speaker 1: you a country music fan? Like did you grow up

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Speaker 1: listening to that genre of music?

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Speaker 3: Well, I mean you can't escape it. We had two

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Speaker 3: radio stations, one AM and one FM, and the AM

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Speaker 3: played country all day long after doing the Farm Report,

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Speaker 3: but the FM played country until noon and then it

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Speaker 3: would play pop and I couldn't wait until it would start.

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Speaker 1: I was like, come on, you're like enough of this

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Speaker 1: country music to.

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Speaker 3: Hear the countdown, you know, that's fair.

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Speaker 1: I'm definitely a pop country girl when I'm listening to

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Speaker 1: country music.

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Speaker 3: And then yeah, but I appreciate it, and I love

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Speaker 3: a lot of the artists and and and you know,

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Speaker 3: it's just a part of the culture as well as bluegrass.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Well, we learned on our walk that you have had

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Speaker 1: quite the impressive career from working at Mars before going

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Speaker 1: to Columbia for business school to working at Mattel has

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Speaker 1: Bro and you know now you're the CEO of Build

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Speaker 1: a Bear. Growing up in Nashville, Like, were there any

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Speaker 1: early signs that you may be wanted to go into

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Speaker 1: this industry of children's toys also adults toys. We'll get

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Speaker 1: to that, but.

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Speaker 2: That's a whole different thing. Yeah, we don't make adult toys.

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Speaker 1: Okay, well, sorry.

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Speaker 2: To clarify. Carry on, okay, I.

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Speaker 1: Know you're right, that's the wrong that's the wrong terminology. Okay, well, children's.

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Speaker 2: Toys, yes that sometimes adults will buy.

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Speaker 1: That, sometimes adults wile buy Oh no, okay, sorry that okay,

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Speaker 1: to clarify, Build a Bear is not making adults toys.

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Speaker 1: We're keeping this bege.

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Speaker 2: What was the question.

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Speaker 3: When I was a good Okay, right there, okay, okay.

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Speaker 3: When I was yes, at first, I wasn't an artist,

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Speaker 3: and and my mom taught me to sew, and you know,

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Speaker 3: my grandma and we did all sorts of arts and

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Speaker 3: crafts and stuff. And I loved, you know, I loved

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Speaker 3: my barbies and my stuffed animals and my toys and

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Speaker 3: things like that. So also, really, and I hope that

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Speaker 3: I've held onto this kind of just I really enjoy

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Speaker 3: just having a fun like I'd rather not be serious

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Speaker 3: most of the time, so a little bit gregarious. And

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Speaker 3: I never wanted to work somewhere. I used to say this,

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Speaker 3: I don't want to work anywhere where I can't ride

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Speaker 3: a skateboard down the hallway and that just knocks out,

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Speaker 3: you know, banks and stuff. So I had to find

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Speaker 3: a place that would put up with me, or an

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Speaker 3: industry that would put up with me. So it worked

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Speaker 3: out advertising and the toy industry and even children's footwear

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Speaker 3: where I worked for a while with Stride Right. You know,

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Speaker 3: they tolerated my craziness, so it helped.

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Speaker 1: Well, it's fun that when you're able to combine your

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Speaker 1: business acumen with being creative and keeping your job lighthearted

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Speaker 1: and fun. And I feel like, that's exactly the type

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Speaker 1: of career that you have built.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it was the magic sauce.

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Speaker 3: Actually, I started out on the creative side, even in advertising.

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Speaker 3: I didn't start out on the business side. And I

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Speaker 3: then had an opportunity to go to work at DDB

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Speaker 3: Needham in their training program, and it's an account executive

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Speaker 3: training program, So I had already had all of this

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Speaker 3: creative background and that was extremely beneficial for me because

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Speaker 3: I can speak to both sides of the industry. Like

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Speaker 3: I can speak to the client about their business, and

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Speaker 3: I can speak to the creative about why the logo

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Speaker 3: does need to be bigger, right or whatever, or I

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Speaker 3: guess beak to the client about why it doesn't need

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Speaker 3: to be bigger, you know. And that two sided kind

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Speaker 3: of left brain right your brain approach has been a

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Speaker 3: big unlock. That's a bit of my magic sauce.

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Speaker 1: I think, I mean absolutely like to be able to

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Speaker 1: have that creative eye and then that strategic kind of

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Speaker 1: thought process is such a secret sauce. And you know,

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Speaker 1: because a lot of people kind of have either or

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Speaker 1: and it's so fun, you know, I can relate to

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Speaker 1: that in a big way, Like I love working both

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Speaker 1: creatively but then also kind of business y and on

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Speaker 1: the strategy side of things. So I can definitely relate

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Speaker 1: to that. And I love knowing that that's how your

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Speaker 1: brain works and it makes so much sense.

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Speaker 3: Yes, And it was a big discovery for me when

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Speaker 3: I went to Columbia, because that's in business school.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 3: You sometimes you pick more of a marketing business school,

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Speaker 3: but Colombia is a very finance driven business school, very

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Speaker 3: quantitative business school, and I wanted to do that because

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Speaker 3: I wanted to get a more rounded out background.

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Speaker 4: Right.

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Speaker 3: I wasn't even sure that I wanted to even leave

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Speaker 3: the advertising industry or leave a creative industry at all.

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Speaker 3: But what I found out inside of Columbia is that

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Speaker 3: that skill set.

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Speaker 2: Is really valued.

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Speaker 3: And so when we would do case studies or we

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Speaker 3: had to do group projects, I ended up being like

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Speaker 3: the hot commodity because most everyone else could do the spreadstreet,

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Speaker 3: do the business side, get to the financial plan, but

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Speaker 3: the angle on this edge of the strategy, or this

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Speaker 3: consumer inside, or the person that had to get up

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Speaker 3: and present it was always me.

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Speaker 2: And it was good to know that that's not that's

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Speaker 2: not the norm.

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Speaker 3: And if I could mash these things up because I

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Speaker 3: am quantitative as well. Maybe there is an unlock here

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Speaker 3: for a really fun career.

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Speaker 1: You went from the University of Tennessee to then working

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Speaker 1: at advertising agency and supporting Mars specifically on the Snickers account, right,

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Speaker 1: which is iconic because when you think of Mars totally,

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Speaker 1: that was.

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Speaker 3: A great experience and learned so much. And some of

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Speaker 3: the things that I learned was to think about your

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Speaker 3: competitive realm in different ways. Snickers thought of their competitive

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Speaker 3: realm as share of stomach, Like just think about that,

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Speaker 3: because in how you define who you are. This is

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Speaker 3: in person, personal life as well as in business. Sometimes

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Speaker 3: creates limitations on what you can be because you don't

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Speaker 3: think outside the box. When Snickers thought about that as

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Speaker 3: share of stomach, that led to development of Snickers Minis

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Speaker 3: or Snickers ice cream bars or Snikers peanut butter bar,

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Speaker 3: and all of a sudden, you're thinking about the different

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Speaker 3: reasons why or the evolution of the positioning of the

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Speaker 3: brand to be an alternative like a snack like when

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Speaker 3: you were really hungry, Snickers really satisfies, not a candy.

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Speaker 3: And that is exactly what I took to even Barbie

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Speaker 3: fashions because When I went in, I said, so what's

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Speaker 3: the deal and they're like, well, we're ninety eight percent

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Speaker 3: of eleven and a half inch doll fashion, so there's

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Speaker 3: really not anywhere to grow. And I'm like, well, you

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Speaker 3: have the wrong competitive realm. What are you of discretionary

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Speaker 3: income for little girls of products under five dollars?

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Speaker 2: Nothing?

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Speaker 3: So we ended up creating Barbie Fashion, greeting cards and

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Speaker 3: you know, and different kinds of like takeaway, like a

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Speaker 3: whole different approach to it. But it's the asking of

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Speaker 3: the question, the pushing of the envelope. And I encourage

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Speaker 3: you to think about it in business, but I mostly

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Speaker 3: encourage you to think about it in life because your

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Speaker 3: own self definition is the key, and you have to

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Speaker 3: unlock that definition because you really don't know what you

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Speaker 3: can become until you think about it in a broader sense.

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Speaker 2: Be careful about your.

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Speaker 3: Ims, like I am this or I am that, as

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Speaker 3: you might be limiting your opportunities.

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Speaker 1: When you went from working on that agency and supporting Mars,

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Speaker 1: what ultimately drove you to saying, Okay, I want to

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Speaker 1: go to Columbia, I want to get this higher degree,

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Speaker 1: and what do you think about going to Columbia helped

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Speaker 1: you kind of later on in your career.

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Speaker 2: Well, this might be disappointing for people. That's fine, She's.

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Speaker 1: Like, you don't need to go to business school.

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Speaker 3: I had no intention of ever going to business school. Okay,

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Speaker 3: so that was not a part. I mean, I really

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Speaker 3: thought I was going to be a creative, you know,

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Speaker 3: and I think for a long long time, if you'd

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Speaker 3: asked anybody in high.

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Speaker 2: School, what is likely Sharon doing.

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Speaker 3: Right now, she's probably an art or architecture or something

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Speaker 3: like that.

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Speaker 1: So literally designing.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, I'm literally an artist. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: So, and I had in it Emmin in Mars and

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Speaker 3: we were it was just such a great ride. It

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Speaker 3: was the I believe I'm going to get this year right,

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Speaker 3: nineteen ninety four Olympics maybe so Snickers was a sponsor

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Speaker 3: and so we got to do so many cool things

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Speaker 3: that year.

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Speaker 2: It was awesome.

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Speaker 1: And what was the coolest thing you guys got to do?

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Speaker 1: I went to the Olympic trials, I mean, like, where

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Speaker 1: were where were the Olympics.

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Speaker 2: Now in Barcelona? Yeah.

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Speaker 3: So, but at the end of all of that, one

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Speaker 3: of the guys that ran the brand at Emine Mars said, hey,

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Speaker 3: you know, have you ever thought about getting an NBA.

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Speaker 2: And I'm like, I'm not sure what that is. So

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Speaker 2: I was like no, and then you know, and He's like,

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Speaker 2: you really should. I don't think you realize.

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Speaker 3: You know that you have, you know, these two sides

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Speaker 3: of your brain that you can you're not going to optimize.

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Speaker 3: And I think it would be an amazing experience for

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Speaker 3: you and it could open up so many doors. And

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Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, so you're telling me to move back

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Speaker 3: to Tennessee. He goes, no, I'm telling you to go

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Speaker 3: anywhere you want. You can get into any school. I'm like,

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Speaker 3: that's crazy. He goes, just apply to Columbia. Just apply

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Speaker 3: you live in New York. I'm like, I can't.

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Speaker 2: See this, you know.

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Speaker 3: And I was defining myself back to that story, right,

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Speaker 3: And it was a process of what's the worst thing

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Speaker 3: that can happen, right, I mean, I don't get in.

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Speaker 3: But I sat on that application for months. I waited

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Speaker 3: to the last day of the last round to apply

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Speaker 3: because I was scared to death. And I finally had

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Speaker 3: it walked down there right said it, gave it to them,

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Speaker 3: and I got in on the last day of the

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Speaker 3: last round. I've looked back on that many times because

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Speaker 3: somebody said to me once, Oh, you were just so

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Speaker 3: confident you were going to get in. I'm like, Oh,

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Speaker 3: that's the pole or opposite, and it made me think,

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Speaker 3: why did I do that, because that was not the reason.

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Speaker 2: I think I was preparing for an excuse.

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Speaker 3: So oh, of course I didn't get in because I

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Speaker 3: applied on the last day of the last round, like

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Speaker 3: I was creating in advance.

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Speaker 2: My own excuse for failure. Is that terrible? And so

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Speaker 2: all these people that are listened, don't do that, don't

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Speaker 2: do that.

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Speaker 1: But I think it's so human and it's kind of

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Speaker 1: like you protecting yourself, and I think it's something that

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Speaker 1: a lot of young people do. How do you think

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Speaker 1: going to Columbia and getting your MBA changed your career trajectory?

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Speaker 2: Do you think there's no doubt?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it was not only was it important because I

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Speaker 3: learned the language of business and how to do things

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Speaker 3: that you know are actually fundamental to running a company

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Speaker 3: or running a brand or running a business unit. You know,

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Speaker 3: some of the things you just don't do in marketing

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Speaker 3: and advertising.

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Speaker 2: That's just a slice of this bigger pie.

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Speaker 3: Of business, and you learn all about the pieces of

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Speaker 3: the pie, not just these couple of slices, and not

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Speaker 3: only that though, but that piece that was telling you

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Speaker 3: about earlier of Oh, I can hang with these people.

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Speaker 3: You know, you again this whole self definition of I'm

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Speaker 3: in this kind of person, but I create so much

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Speaker 3: value that they don't have. See, I connect dots that

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Speaker 3: they're not connecting. I can do things they can't do,

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Speaker 3: and I can learn how to do what they're doing.

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Speaker 3: And that has been a really big game changer for me.

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Speaker 2: And you.

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Speaker 3: Finally, and I think it was important, and I want

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Speaker 3: to say this with a lot of caution in that

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Speaker 3: I mean this in the most humble way, that it

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Speaker 3: was valuable for me to know that I was still

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Speaker 3: smart in a smart environment, because although I've never not

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Speaker 3: thought of myself as smart, I was smart enough to

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Speaker 3: know that I wasn't in the smartest environment. Sometimes so

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Speaker 3: being the smartest kid and you know your small town

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Speaker 3: and I wasn't the smartest kid, mind you, but you

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Speaker 3: know smart in this small town. You're like, that's great,

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Speaker 3: but does that really matter in the whole big scheme

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Speaker 3: of things. By the time you get to New York

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Speaker 3: and you're at a top you know, school, and you're

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Speaker 3: still doing all right. You're like, I got this, I

351
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Speaker 3: can try, I can go for things, I can apply

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Speaker 3: for that.

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Speaker 2: I can do that.

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Speaker 3: And that was I'm not sure that would have happened

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Speaker 3: in some cases. I think it was like a sixty

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Speaker 3: thousand dollars confidence pill.

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Speaker 1: I was literally going to say that it seems like

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Speaker 1: it boosted confidence in a big way because I can

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Speaker 1: imagine like when I first graduated college, I was working

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Speaker 1: in advertising on the creative side, and that is all

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Speaker 1: I knew. And when I then kind of went on

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Speaker 1: to venturing off and doing my own thing and having

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Speaker 1: to learn how to run a business and manage a

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Speaker 1: team of people, like my eyes opened in such a

365
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Speaker 1: big way to how the world works and how brand

366
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Speaker 1: deals work, and you know that really relationships or everything whatever.

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Speaker 1: You just you get a better sense of business acumen.

368
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Speaker 1: But yeah, like when you I like how you said,

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Speaker 1: it's just one small piece of the pie. When you

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Speaker 1: kind of graduate and you're in this one job and

371
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Speaker 1: then yeah, you go to a business school where you're

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00:19:14,080 --> 00:19:17,199
Speaker 1: learning kind of business acumen and you're networking with all

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Speaker 1: these people and then all of a sudden, you start

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Speaker 1: seeing things more holistically.

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Speaker 3: Yes, an international business, Yeah, just to you know, your

376
00:19:23,520 --> 00:19:26,840
Speaker 3: eyes just start to open. And in many ways it

377
00:19:27,480 --> 00:19:34,560
Speaker 3: demystified all of that side of business that for no

378
00:19:34,720 --> 00:19:40,360
Speaker 3: reason that I had created all sorts of mythology around

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Speaker 3: about how impossible that must be to learn.

380
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Speaker 1: Well, it's true, not true, No, it's not true, And

381
00:19:45,200 --> 00:19:46,920
Speaker 1: it's so funny. It's like I've had I had somebody

382
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Speaker 1: say something to me once that things are a lot

383
00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:52,399
Speaker 1: easier than you think, like until you try to do them.

384
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Speaker 1: I don't know if that I'm not saying it perfectly.

385
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Speaker 2: Right, but it's like break it down in a little

386
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Speaker 2: pace exactly like private everything.

387
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Speaker 1: Working in finance, like I feel like for creative people,

388
00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:01,960
Speaker 1: all that working guy worked in advertising. My brother's work

389
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Speaker 1: in finance, And I used to think to myself, oh,

390
00:20:03,680 --> 00:20:05,480
Speaker 1: I could never do that, you know, But then they

391
00:20:05,480 --> 00:20:07,159
Speaker 1: would say the same thing to me, like, well what

392
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Speaker 1: you do, I could never do?

393
00:20:08,720 --> 00:20:10,520
Speaker 3: That's the thing, you know, And you don't ever think

394
00:20:10,560 --> 00:20:12,240
Speaker 3: about the other person saying.

395
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Speaker 2: That this way right, right, that's exactly right.

396
00:20:14,400 --> 00:20:16,760
Speaker 1: So did you graduate from business school and immediately start

397
00:20:16,760 --> 00:20:17,399
Speaker 1: working at MATEL?

398
00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:18,639
Speaker 2: Was that at your job, Yeah, I did.

399
00:20:18,760 --> 00:20:20,679
Speaker 1: And what was it about Mattel that you were drawn to?

400
00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:26,359
Speaker 3: Well, I had to pick my own application process. So

401
00:20:26,440 --> 00:20:31,080
Speaker 3: I picked about five companies that were very consumer centric,

402
00:20:31,320 --> 00:20:37,040
Speaker 3: very brand driven driven, famous famous companies, quite drawn to that,

403
00:20:37,760 --> 00:20:38,800
Speaker 3: uh and.

404
00:20:39,359 --> 00:20:40,360
Speaker 2: Mattel was one of them.

405
00:20:40,920 --> 00:20:45,400
Speaker 3: And I used sort of a playbook that I'd already

406
00:20:45,400 --> 00:20:48,600
Speaker 3: done to even get the job in market and advertising.

407
00:20:49,080 --> 00:20:52,680
Speaker 3: I went ahead and got my flight to New York,

408
00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:55,600
Speaker 3: and then I called all these agencies and said, Hey,

409
00:20:55,880 --> 00:20:57,439
Speaker 3: I'm going to be in New York and such and

410
00:20:57,520 --> 00:20:58,200
Speaker 3: such week.

411
00:20:58,560 --> 00:20:59,920
Speaker 2: Can I come by have a cup of cough?

412
00:21:00,320 --> 00:21:02,760
Speaker 3: Do this. I'm just gonna just want to learn, you know,

413
00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:07,200
Speaker 3: like interested in breaking in the New York advertising And

414
00:21:07,359 --> 00:21:09,800
Speaker 3: as I would still back in the day, I'm typing

415
00:21:09,880 --> 00:21:10,880
Speaker 3: resume wide out.

416
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Speaker 2: You know.

417
00:21:12,359 --> 00:21:13,439
Speaker 1: No, there's no.

418
00:21:13,680 --> 00:21:15,119
Speaker 2: Phones, there's no anything like.

419
00:21:15,160 --> 00:21:19,320
Speaker 3: I've got this big like daytimer with all my addresses

420
00:21:19,359 --> 00:21:19,680
Speaker 3: in this.

421
00:21:20,280 --> 00:21:24,399
Speaker 2: To chomping around in fifteen interviews in one week. And

422
00:21:24,760 --> 00:21:27,440
Speaker 2: my goal was to get a job in a top.

423
00:21:27,280 --> 00:21:32,720
Speaker 3: Ten global agency in one week, which is crazy, but

424
00:21:32,880 --> 00:21:35,560
Speaker 3: that idea of you sometimes you do better when you

425
00:21:35,600 --> 00:21:39,440
Speaker 3: don't know better, yep, And that's that's right. A nurse

426
00:21:39,560 --> 00:21:42,360
Speaker 3: was totally and I ended up getting a job on Friday,

427
00:21:42,720 --> 00:21:45,359
Speaker 3: and so I took that same playbook and got a

428
00:21:45,400 --> 00:21:48,120
Speaker 3: flight to Los Angeles. Three of these companies were in

429
00:21:48,280 --> 00:21:50,760
Speaker 3: LA that I was looking at of the five, and

430
00:21:51,680 --> 00:21:53,960
Speaker 3: I said that to them, and Montel did not call

431
00:21:54,040 --> 00:21:59,200
Speaker 3: me back. I'm like, that's crazy, a perfect perfect for Motel.

432
00:21:59,760 --> 00:22:01,680
Speaker 2: And I finally said, you know, I'm just gonna call them.

433
00:22:01,800 --> 00:22:04,439
Speaker 3: I'm just calling them, I mean, and that's again in

434
00:22:04,440 --> 00:22:06,640
Speaker 3: that whole genre of what's the worst thing could happen?

435
00:22:06,680 --> 00:22:08,160
Speaker 2: I mean, what's the worst thing that could happen?

436
00:22:08,480 --> 00:22:09,840
Speaker 3: So I'm going to call them, and I'm just going

437
00:22:09,880 --> 00:22:12,600
Speaker 3: to ask them why, Like what's wrong with my resume?

438
00:22:12,760 --> 00:22:14,159
Speaker 2: Like what could I do better? Like what am I

439
00:22:14,200 --> 00:22:14,760
Speaker 2: missing here?

440
00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:17,879
Speaker 3: And I you know, I'm on the phone and I

441
00:22:17,880 --> 00:22:20,080
Speaker 3: can hear them shuffling all these papers around.

442
00:22:19,880 --> 00:22:22,120
Speaker 2: Like oh my god, like what's going on in there?

443
00:22:22,400 --> 00:22:24,240
Speaker 3: They come back and then said we found your resume.

444
00:22:24,320 --> 00:22:28,119
Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, well, you know, I was interested in

445
00:22:28,200 --> 00:22:30,920
Speaker 3: working on marketing, maybe on the Barbie brand. You know,

446
00:22:30,960 --> 00:22:33,480
Speaker 3: I think I'd be really good for that. And they said, oh, well,

447
00:22:33,560 --> 00:22:38,240
Speaker 3: your resume was in the finance pile and I'm like, well,

448
00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:40,000
Speaker 3: I don't want to work in finance. So once you

449
00:22:40,040 --> 00:22:41,760
Speaker 3: went to Columbia, I'm like, I know, I know where

450
00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:44,600
Speaker 3: I got that, but I want to work in marketing.

451
00:22:44,600 --> 00:22:46,399
Speaker 3: And the person sat there for a second and then

452
00:22:46,440 --> 00:22:48,160
Speaker 3: they go, oh, you'd be perfect for that.

453
00:22:48,440 --> 00:22:49,280
Speaker 2: Why don't you come in?

454
00:22:50,080 --> 00:22:54,520
Speaker 3: And it was just the call, and you think about

455
00:22:54,680 --> 00:22:58,719
Speaker 3: how many times you may be going through life just

456
00:22:58,800 --> 00:23:04,879
Speaker 3: in the wrong pile and you didn't ask, And what

457
00:23:04,920 --> 00:23:06,480
Speaker 3: would have been the worst thing that could happen.

458
00:23:07,400 --> 00:23:10,080
Speaker 2: Nothing. They would have said, oh.

459
00:23:09,960 --> 00:23:12,399
Speaker 3: You know, we were looking more for this, or we

460
00:23:12,400 --> 00:23:15,720
Speaker 3: would have preferred that, Okay, great, perfect, Or you had

461
00:23:15,720 --> 00:23:19,000
Speaker 3: a typo on the third line, you should fix that

462
00:23:19,080 --> 00:23:21,840
Speaker 3: because we don't hire people with typos, you know, or whatever.

463
00:23:22,800 --> 00:23:25,560
Speaker 2: And you have to learn to lean in on things

464
00:23:25,600 --> 00:23:25,800
Speaker 2: like that.

465
00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:28,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, and also think outside of the box a little

466
00:23:28,520 --> 00:23:30,399
Speaker 1: bit sometimes, Like I love knowing that you picked up

467
00:23:30,400 --> 00:23:32,720
Speaker 1: the phone and you called them, because you know, when

468
00:23:32,720 --> 00:23:34,959
Speaker 1: I'm giving career advice to some of my younger friends

469
00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:37,160
Speaker 1: and they're like, oh, I submitted my resume. I'm waiting

470
00:23:37,160 --> 00:23:39,080
Speaker 1: to hear back. I'm like, have you reached out to

471
00:23:39,080 --> 00:23:42,199
Speaker 1: people that work at the company on LinkedIn, Have you

472
00:23:42,240 --> 00:23:45,240
Speaker 1: DM them on Instagram? Because a simple message goes a

473
00:23:45,280 --> 00:23:48,480
Speaker 1: long way and people do see the outreach. You know,

474
00:23:48,760 --> 00:23:50,919
Speaker 1: if you get a notification like I'm sure you're getting

475
00:23:50,960 --> 00:23:54,000
Speaker 1: messages all the time on LinkedIn. Obviously you can't respond

476
00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:56,560
Speaker 1: to every single one, but you notice it, yeah, right.

477
00:23:56,440 --> 00:23:58,280
Speaker 2: And it matters as it shows it.

478
00:23:58,600 --> 00:24:01,320
Speaker 3: So she really really want this, you really care, You're

479
00:24:01,440 --> 00:24:06,440
Speaker 3: intellectually curious, and there's again that there's nothing wrong.

480
00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:09,280
Speaker 1: With that, absolutely all right. So you worked at Mattel,

481
00:24:09,359 --> 00:24:11,720
Speaker 1: You got onto the Barbie fashion account, which is so

482
00:24:11,960 --> 00:24:14,840
Speaker 1: iconic guys to be working on any Barbie account at

483
00:24:14,840 --> 00:24:17,000
Speaker 1: Mattel in the nineties, and for people that don't know,

484
00:24:17,080 --> 00:24:19,560
Speaker 1: Mattel is the brand, it is the business, the company

485
00:24:19,880 --> 00:24:23,480
Speaker 1: behind Barbie. I mean, how iconic was it to be

486
00:24:23,520 --> 00:24:24,960
Speaker 1: working on Barbie in the nineties.

487
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:26,640
Speaker 2: It was really awesome, and it was.

488
00:24:28,040 --> 00:24:33,199
Speaker 3: Barbie was in a real resurgence at that time. Barbie

489
00:24:33,240 --> 00:24:36,800
Speaker 3: was actually launched in nineteen fifty nine and it was

490
00:24:36,840 --> 00:24:39,520
Speaker 3: a huge success, and then it had some struggles and

491
00:24:39,560 --> 00:24:43,159
Speaker 3: then this was in its second like it's renaissance, and

492
00:24:43,200 --> 00:24:47,480
Speaker 3: it was under the oversight of Jill Barrard who eventually

493
00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:52,639
Speaker 3: became the CEO of Mattel and was the one of

494
00:24:52,680 --> 00:24:56,199
Speaker 3: the youngest women CEOs of a fortune five hundred company

495
00:24:56,520 --> 00:24:59,040
Speaker 3: when she rose to the top. And I still know

496
00:24:59,119 --> 00:25:05,040
Speaker 3: Jill to this day special. But it was so impactful

497
00:25:05,520 --> 00:25:09,520
Speaker 3: to be on that brand that was growing and an

498
00:25:09,560 --> 00:25:14,520
Speaker 3: important like important, you know, like culturally important, and then

499
00:25:14,560 --> 00:25:21,680
Speaker 3: be surrounded by these powerful, amazing women. There's also extremely intimidating.

500
00:25:22,640 --> 00:25:25,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you know, I mean the thing about Barbie

501
00:25:25,800 --> 00:25:28,440
Speaker 1: that is so cool and it's so culturally significant because

502
00:25:28,480 --> 00:25:32,520
Speaker 1: Barbie was a brand that for young women mirrored real life, right,

503
00:25:32,600 --> 00:25:33,400
Speaker 1: I mean, you have it.

504
00:25:33,359 --> 00:25:36,160
Speaker 3: Was it was just a conduit of your own stories,

505
00:25:36,240 --> 00:25:38,679
Speaker 3: you know, and that's what she was intended to be.

506
00:25:39,840 --> 00:25:42,800
Speaker 3: And you know, and they really looked into this and

507
00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:46,480
Speaker 3: kind of explored this whole concept with the film, you know,

508
00:25:46,680 --> 00:25:51,479
Speaker 3: of what sort of other attributes that we play some Barbie,

509
00:25:51,560 --> 00:25:56,960
Speaker 3: but it really is intended to be something for young

510
00:25:57,040 --> 00:25:59,080
Speaker 3: you know, young people to be able to kind of

511
00:25:59,119 --> 00:26:02,080
Speaker 3: live out things through and see themselves doing going through

512
00:26:02,119 --> 00:26:05,240
Speaker 3: things or seeing themselves in this thing in this particular

513
00:26:05,280 --> 00:26:06,080
Speaker 3: product or toy.

514
00:26:06,359 --> 00:26:09,119
Speaker 1: What was the hardest part about working on Barbie?

515
00:26:09,320 --> 00:26:10,679
Speaker 2: It was what I'm telling you. It was.

516
00:26:10,760 --> 00:26:14,920
Speaker 3: It was the two sided coin of learning and being

517
00:26:14,960 --> 00:26:20,440
Speaker 3: around all these remarkably successful, amazing women that dressed.

518
00:26:20,320 --> 00:26:23,240
Speaker 2: Really, really well. You have to step up.

519
00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:26,879
Speaker 3: And I'm paying student loans and I'm like, okay, I

520
00:26:27,520 --> 00:26:31,720
Speaker 3: work it out, you know. And but but I had

521
00:26:31,720 --> 00:26:35,639
Speaker 3: to really work through some perfectionist issues in that time period.

522
00:26:35,720 --> 00:26:38,280
Speaker 3: And again, if it being a gymnast and a dancer

523
00:26:38,359 --> 00:26:40,119
Speaker 3: and a cheerleader, you're going to have some of that

524
00:26:40,640 --> 00:26:45,600
Speaker 3: probably stuck in your DNA. And I'm like, I, you know,

525
00:26:45,680 --> 00:26:47,239
Speaker 3: I don't know if I can. I don't know if

526
00:26:47,240 --> 00:26:50,159
Speaker 3: I can hang in this. I really, you know, you

527
00:26:50,320 --> 00:26:52,760
Speaker 3: just kind of like self reflect every day.

528
00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:53,320
Speaker 2: And I was.

529
00:26:54,119 --> 00:26:58,080
Speaker 3: Unusually quiet for the first few months, and one of

530
00:26:58,160 --> 00:27:02,760
Speaker 3: the vps at the time came over and spoke with

531
00:27:02,800 --> 00:27:04,320
Speaker 3: me about it, and she said, you know, I know

532
00:27:04,359 --> 00:27:06,720
Speaker 3: your your wheels are turning, you know, but you're not

533
00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:10,320
Speaker 3: saying anything. We don't pay you to not say anything.

534
00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:14,480
Speaker 3: You're going to have to contribute. And I'm like, well,

535
00:27:14,520 --> 00:27:18,399
Speaker 3: I don't want to say something's obviously wrong, or I

536
00:27:18,440 --> 00:27:20,719
Speaker 3: want to learn all this. And there's there was a

537
00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:23,879
Speaker 3: pecking ord, you know. It's like and in the creative realm.

538
00:27:24,280 --> 00:27:27,399
Speaker 3: So much of that's opinion, not fact, you know, but

539
00:27:27,520 --> 00:27:31,000
Speaker 3: you're learning the brand. And I just just like felt

540
00:27:31,119 --> 00:27:34,119
Speaker 3: way out of place, just like blurting something out. And

541
00:27:34,119 --> 00:27:37,400
Speaker 3: she's like, Oh, that's why we're paying you to get

542
00:27:37,400 --> 00:27:40,520
Speaker 3: your opinion. We hire smart people because we want smart

543
00:27:40,520 --> 00:27:41,920
Speaker 3: people to add value.

544
00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:43,439
Speaker 2: You need to add value.

545
00:27:44,040 --> 00:27:46,760
Speaker 3: And I thought about it a lot, and I'm like, gee,

546
00:27:46,760 --> 00:27:49,600
Speaker 3: that's not really My persona is not to be quiet.

547
00:27:50,760 --> 00:27:57,080
Speaker 3: But she unleashed something, she gave me permission, and yeah,

548
00:27:57,160 --> 00:28:01,160
Speaker 3: it was great, and then my career just took off.

549
00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:05,560
Speaker 3: I ended up starting as an assistant product manager on

550
00:28:05,600 --> 00:28:09,960
Speaker 3: Barbie Fashions, and I actually ended my career at Mattel

551
00:28:10,080 --> 00:28:13,040
Speaker 3: as the vice president of international for the Disney business unit.

552
00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:15,440
Speaker 2: What do you think five years later?

553
00:28:15,640 --> 00:28:19,359
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it's so important because I've worked in

554
00:28:19,520 --> 00:28:21,919
Speaker 1: I worked again, I worked in advertising before doing what

555
00:28:21,960 --> 00:28:25,200
Speaker 1: I do now. I've worked for bosses that weren't as supportive,

556
00:28:25,240 --> 00:28:26,800
Speaker 1: you know, where maybe I was in a role and

557
00:28:26,840 --> 00:28:29,560
Speaker 1: I was also chasing a perfectionist kind of complex and

558
00:28:29,600 --> 00:28:32,199
Speaker 1: I couldn't speak up for myself. And I think so

559
00:28:32,240 --> 00:28:34,240
Speaker 1: many people can relate to that, And I'm sure there's

560
00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:36,919
Speaker 1: so many people listening that are in jobs where they

561
00:28:36,920 --> 00:28:39,200
Speaker 1: don't feel like they can use their strong voice. And

562
00:28:39,240 --> 00:28:41,480
Speaker 1: as a woman, it's so important to find that strong voice,

563
00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:43,880
Speaker 1: whatever it is, and be able to use it. So

564
00:28:44,080 --> 00:28:47,160
Speaker 1: when you talk about perfectionism and how you had you

565
00:28:47,240 --> 00:28:49,840
Speaker 1: were struggling with it in your early, you know, months

566
00:28:49,840 --> 00:28:52,560
Speaker 1: at Mattel, can you, like in detail, describe that to

567
00:28:52,680 --> 00:28:54,920
Speaker 1: us and then kind of talk us through how you

568
00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:57,840
Speaker 1: broke out of that cycle because it is so common.

569
00:28:58,840 --> 00:29:01,320
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it's everything that you think it's going

570
00:29:01,360 --> 00:29:04,680
Speaker 3: to be. You think, you know, oh, well, this outfit

571
00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:06,880
Speaker 3: isn't good enough for I'm not this enough, or my

572
00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:09,160
Speaker 3: hair's not done the right way, or you know, I

573
00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:13,120
Speaker 3: don't have that kind of jewelry or or whatever it is.

574
00:29:13,200 --> 00:29:15,440
Speaker 3: I certainly didn't drive the kind of car I should

575
00:29:15,480 --> 00:29:17,640
Speaker 3: be driving. I was still driving a car that had

576
00:29:17,640 --> 00:29:20,840
Speaker 3: been in storage since I moved to New York, right.

577
00:29:21,880 --> 00:29:27,080
Speaker 3: But it was the fact that she came up to

578
00:29:27,160 --> 00:29:30,720
Speaker 3: me and said, you're focused on the wrong things. That's

579
00:29:30,720 --> 00:29:33,840
Speaker 3: not who we are. And I'm sure I could have

580
00:29:33,880 --> 00:29:36,440
Speaker 3: otherwise been in a situation where sometimes it may be

581
00:29:36,480 --> 00:29:38,960
Speaker 3: it's who they are. I don't know, but that was

582
00:29:39,160 --> 00:29:44,640
Speaker 3: not I was. I was projecting this onto that environment.

583
00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:46,040
Speaker 3: They weren't doing that.

584
00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:47,080
Speaker 4: I was.

585
00:29:47,480 --> 00:29:48,080
Speaker 2: I had this.

586
00:29:48,080 --> 00:29:50,560
Speaker 3: This was all twisted up in my mind like like

587
00:29:50,640 --> 00:29:52,120
Speaker 3: it is most of the time.

588
00:29:52,280 --> 00:29:53,840
Speaker 2: Mind you, at least what I have found.

589
00:29:55,080 --> 00:29:59,560
Speaker 3: And you know, I believed her and we're still friends

590
00:29:59,560 --> 00:30:02,200
Speaker 3: to this day as well. And I so cherish all

591
00:30:02,240 --> 00:30:04,520
Speaker 3: of these relationships that I've been able to hold on.

592
00:30:04,440 --> 00:30:09,840
Speaker 2: To through these years. That you are in.

593
00:30:09,920 --> 00:30:13,600
Speaker 3: Every situation that you're in when you have been hired,

594
00:30:14,080 --> 00:30:18,120
Speaker 3: they hired you for a reason, and that's on them, right.

595
00:30:18,600 --> 00:30:23,000
Speaker 3: They made a decision to hire you out of other people.

596
00:30:23,160 --> 00:30:26,000
Speaker 3: You weren't the only person they could have chosen. So

597
00:30:26,160 --> 00:30:31,680
Speaker 3: you are expected to create value and.

598
00:30:31,120 --> 00:30:32,120
Speaker 2: They want you to.

599
00:30:32,680 --> 00:30:36,000
Speaker 3: They want you to do that, and they hired you

600
00:30:36,040 --> 00:30:39,440
Speaker 3: because guess what, they thought you were perfect for the job.

601
00:30:40,840 --> 00:30:41,600
Speaker 2: So get over it.

602
00:30:43,360 --> 00:30:45,440
Speaker 1: No, it's so true. It's so true. And again I

603
00:30:45,480 --> 00:30:47,080
Speaker 1: love knowing that you know, you have such a good

604
00:30:47,080 --> 00:30:49,760
Speaker 1: relationship with her, and it's it's so important to have people.

605
00:30:49,760 --> 00:30:51,280
Speaker 1: And then it's like, okay, if you are in a

606
00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:53,400
Speaker 1: leadership role at your company, it's so important to be

607
00:30:53,480 --> 00:30:56,040
Speaker 1: the type of manager that lifts somebody up and maybe

608
00:30:56,080 --> 00:30:58,080
Speaker 1: sees what they're going through and says, oh, okay, I've

609
00:30:58,080 --> 00:30:59,840
Speaker 1: been there before. Let's figure out a way.

610
00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:02,520
Speaker 3: To actually had that very conversation with people. Yeah, I'm like,

611
00:31:02,560 --> 00:31:04,240
Speaker 3: why do you think we hired you? Why do you

612
00:31:04,280 --> 00:31:07,480
Speaker 3: think just reason? Don't you tell me? I mean because

613
00:31:07,520 --> 00:31:11,080
Speaker 3: we couldn't, like help me, because you were perfect for

614
00:31:11,120 --> 00:31:14,680
Speaker 3: the job. That's why of one hundred candidates we picked you.

615
00:31:16,240 --> 00:31:19,040
Speaker 1: So start like it, yeah, start acting like it, start

616
00:31:19,080 --> 00:31:21,920
Speaker 1: acting late it. Yeah, no, it's it's incredible. So you

617
00:31:21,960 --> 00:31:25,520
Speaker 1: went from Mattel to Hasbro to Stride, right, what did

618
00:31:25,520 --> 00:31:28,200
Speaker 1: each chapter teach you about leadership and yourself?

619
00:31:28,520 --> 00:31:29,720
Speaker 2: Oh, that's a big one.

620
00:31:29,920 --> 00:31:33,760
Speaker 3: So you know, at the probably the biggest thing that

621
00:31:33,800 --> 00:31:35,880
Speaker 3: I learned at Mattel other than just moving through this

622
00:31:35,960 --> 00:31:40,560
Speaker 3: perfectionist thing, is they asked me to UH. When I

623
00:31:40,560 --> 00:31:43,600
Speaker 3: went to the Disney Business Unit, they sent me to

624
00:31:43,640 --> 00:31:47,320
Speaker 3: Paris for a year and I was the director of

625
00:31:47,840 --> 00:31:53,640
Speaker 3: UH European Business for the Disney Business Unit because the

626
00:31:53,680 --> 00:31:58,360
Speaker 3: Mattel had a Disney strategic alliance at the time. But

627
00:31:58,400 --> 00:32:01,640
Speaker 3: they they wanted me to work out of the Disney offices,

628
00:32:02,440 --> 00:32:06,360
Speaker 3: so in Paris, downtown Parish and on a big fashion

629
00:32:06,400 --> 00:32:10,920
Speaker 3: Street absolutely gorgeous. But I learned and I had nobody like.

630
00:32:11,040 --> 00:32:15,200
Speaker 3: It was about creating relationships and helping all the international

631
00:32:15,280 --> 00:32:18,960
Speaker 3: affiliates in each country market, each market uh to work

632
00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:22,000
Speaker 3: together to lift the sales of those those co products.

633
00:32:22,040 --> 00:32:26,360
Speaker 3: So I learned how to really lift yourself up by

634
00:32:26,400 --> 00:32:31,360
Speaker 3: your bootsteps with like no counsel, no guidance. Your boss

635
00:32:31,480 --> 00:32:34,920
Speaker 3: is multiple you know, an ocean and multiple time zones away.

636
00:32:36,120 --> 00:32:39,040
Speaker 3: You're going to have to figure this out, right, And

637
00:32:40,640 --> 00:32:45,880
Speaker 3: I actually had to. I was like, looked at my

638
00:32:45,960 --> 00:32:47,920
Speaker 3: calendar one day and I'm like, you know, the thing

639
00:32:47,960 --> 00:32:52,000
Speaker 3: that executives hate is nothing on there. Right, I'm like,

640
00:32:52,080 --> 00:32:53,760
Speaker 3: what am I going to do? What am I going

641
00:32:53,840 --> 00:32:57,080
Speaker 3: to do? Nobody knows who I am, nobody knows why

642
00:32:57,080 --> 00:32:59,720
Speaker 3: I'm here. It's something that these two guys at the

643
00:32:59,800 --> 00:33:02,640
Speaker 3: very top decided, you know, you should put mantel, should

644
00:33:02,640 --> 00:33:04,480
Speaker 3: put somebody over here and help us figure this out.

645
00:33:04,560 --> 00:33:06,440
Speaker 3: And I'm they're like you and I go over there,

646
00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:09,040
Speaker 3: and they like, fix it. That's that's my that's my goal.

647
00:33:09,720 --> 00:33:11,840
Speaker 2: And it was. Uh.

648
00:33:12,320 --> 00:33:16,840
Speaker 3: I woke up and I was like, well, yay, nobody

649
00:33:16,880 --> 00:33:19,280
Speaker 3: knows who I am and nobody knows why I'm here.

650
00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:20,840
Speaker 2: So I just I did like.

651
00:33:20,800 --> 00:33:25,520
Speaker 3: A boss, right, I just like I literally call like

652
00:33:25,680 --> 00:33:29,720
Speaker 3: the German affiliate. I'm hello, I'm Sharon John. I'm you know,

653
00:33:29,840 --> 00:33:32,520
Speaker 3: I was recently married. I'm the new director of Dah

654
00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:34,680
Speaker 3: Dah da Da and I'm coming on this and such

655
00:33:34,760 --> 00:33:37,520
Speaker 3: day and I'm going to send you a template for

656
00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:39,240
Speaker 3: you to fill out and we're going to have a

657
00:33:39,280 --> 00:33:42,800
Speaker 3: meeting about what's going on. And I'm like, they're like, okay,

658
00:33:42,960 --> 00:33:45,280
Speaker 3: I'm like, car.

659
00:33:46,840 --> 00:33:47,720
Speaker 1: Tell my god nobody.

660
00:33:50,120 --> 00:33:52,120
Speaker 2: So yeah, So I was just making myself a boss.

661
00:33:52,200 --> 00:33:54,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, make yourself a boss, serve your own path. And

662
00:33:54,320 --> 00:33:56,680
Speaker 1: it's that's kind of a perfect situation for you because

663
00:33:56,720 --> 00:33:59,760
Speaker 1: you get to create your own role in a way exactly,

664
00:33:59,880 --> 00:34:01,840
Speaker 1: and that sets you up perfectly for being a CEO

665
00:34:01,880 --> 00:34:03,920
Speaker 1: when you have to run an organization and figure out

666
00:34:03,920 --> 00:34:05,440
Speaker 1: what everybody should be working on, right.

667
00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:07,320
Speaker 3: You had to grab it, you know, And that was

668
00:34:07,360 --> 00:34:09,680
Speaker 3: my moment to grab it and figure it out. And

669
00:34:09,719 --> 00:34:12,160
Speaker 3: then it has bro was a whole different a whole

670
00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:14,759
Speaker 3: different animal of things that I learned. But I ended

671
00:34:14,800 --> 00:34:17,600
Speaker 3: up starting out as the vice president of Tiger Electronics,

672
00:34:17,600 --> 00:34:21,160
Speaker 3: like the famous for Ferby, and then ended up running

673
00:34:21,200 --> 00:34:25,040
Speaker 3: the US toy division, which was a crazy trip.

674
00:34:25,480 --> 00:34:28,000
Speaker 1: Why was it so crazy? Like what is crazy about

675
00:34:28,040 --> 00:34:28,880
Speaker 1: running the toy division?

676
00:34:29,080 --> 00:34:34,200
Speaker 3: Well, in this case, I kept as I grew, like

677
00:34:34,360 --> 00:34:39,040
Speaker 3: my scope. I went from Tiger to like the sports

678
00:34:39,040 --> 00:34:42,280
Speaker 3: action business, which is NERF. I got to totally reinvent NERF.

679
00:34:42,360 --> 00:34:45,680
Speaker 3: It was it was a waning brand at the time.

680
00:34:45,760 --> 00:34:47,960
Speaker 3: And I again we talked a little bit about this

681
00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:51,120
Speaker 3: on the run, about learning to be a change agent a.

682
00:34:51,080 --> 00:34:54,080
Speaker 2: Transformer not a transformer. That's a whole different thing.

683
00:34:54,360 --> 00:34:57,520
Speaker 3: I worked on transformers, and I yes, and I was

684
00:34:57,560 --> 00:35:00,400
Speaker 3: on Transformers during the film, which was a my blowing

685
00:35:00,440 --> 00:35:04,520
Speaker 3: experience as well. But we reinvented NERF and then got

686
00:35:04,600 --> 00:35:07,920
Speaker 3: all the girls business, so Littlest Pet Shop, my Little Pony,

687
00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:11,040
Speaker 3: all of that stuff. And then we're also able to

688
00:35:11,160 --> 00:35:16,080
Speaker 3: run play school with Plato and h and mister Potato Head.

689
00:35:16,239 --> 00:35:19,240
Speaker 3: And then the boys business came, which is the Crown Jewels.

690
00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:22,840
Speaker 3: So you know that's Hasbro is the company that g I.

691
00:35:22,960 --> 00:35:26,360
Speaker 3: Joe built, and it tells the company that Barbie built,

692
00:35:26,800 --> 00:35:29,000
Speaker 3: and they still have some remnants of that in their

693
00:35:29,040 --> 00:35:29,960
Speaker 3: cultures as well.

694
00:35:30,360 --> 00:35:32,160
Speaker 2: So a whole different cultural thing.

695
00:35:32,440 --> 00:35:36,399
Speaker 1: And one so when a brand like Nerve comes out

696
00:35:36,440 --> 00:35:39,440
Speaker 1: within Hasbro. Is that a company, is that like a

697
00:35:39,640 --> 00:35:42,239
Speaker 1: game or whatever you want to call it, toy that

698
00:35:42,680 --> 00:35:44,719
Speaker 1: Hasbro is inventing or.

699
00:35:44,680 --> 00:35:47,719
Speaker 3: Do you Sometimes not in that particular case, not in

700
00:35:47,719 --> 00:35:52,080
Speaker 3: that particular case. So sometimes you buy inventions or buy

701
00:35:52,120 --> 00:35:56,320
Speaker 3: companies that are already successful because they've launched a specific product,

702
00:35:56,360 --> 00:36:00,480
Speaker 3: but and not not in the case of Nerve, but

703
00:36:00,480 --> 00:36:01,799
Speaker 3: a lot of times you are inventing them.

704
00:36:01,880 --> 00:36:04,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, because like Mattel, Barbie.

705
00:36:04,440 --> 00:36:07,560
Speaker 2: Was invented, was created by and then I came as everything.

706
00:36:17,480 --> 00:36:19,160
Speaker 1: So one of the things that we talked about around

707
00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:20,759
Speaker 1: that I just want to ask again here because we

708
00:36:20,760 --> 00:36:23,799
Speaker 1: can kind of elaborate on it, is I've seen you

709
00:36:23,840 --> 00:36:26,400
Speaker 1: say that growing up, you were able to watch a

710
00:36:26,400 --> 00:36:29,759
Speaker 1: matel commercial or a Hasbro commercial and you'd be able

711
00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:31,640
Speaker 1: to tell, Okay, this is a Hasbro toy, this is

712
00:36:31,680 --> 00:36:34,839
Speaker 1: a Metel toy. Is there a reason why, like you

713
00:36:34,880 --> 00:36:36,080
Speaker 1: were able to tell that, you.

714
00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:38,560
Speaker 3: Know, well, I mean the best, the most giveaway thing,

715
00:36:38,600 --> 00:36:40,960
Speaker 3: and that is that back in the day they would

716
00:36:41,040 --> 00:36:43,680
Speaker 3: talk about their brands like the brand it would always

717
00:36:43,800 --> 00:36:46,640
Speaker 3: have like the tag or the bug at the end.

718
00:36:47,680 --> 00:36:50,120
Speaker 3: And I can with speaking of it, right, now I

719
00:36:50,120 --> 00:36:52,560
Speaker 3: can see the way those logos would come on to

720
00:36:52,880 --> 00:36:57,480
Speaker 3: the commercial and Mattel's is still the same. It's the

721
00:36:57,520 --> 00:37:00,279
Speaker 3: red gear with the Mattel in the center, and they

722
00:37:00,280 --> 00:37:02,480
Speaker 3: would pop on at the very end. And then Hasbro

723
00:37:02,600 --> 00:37:05,320
Speaker 3: was this little guy and I don't really use him anymore.

724
00:37:05,600 --> 00:37:07,319
Speaker 2: But I could see that.

725
00:37:07,400 --> 00:37:10,160
Speaker 3: But they also had the same tone and manner like

726
00:37:10,440 --> 00:37:12,920
Speaker 3: and just like you could pick that up in maybe

727
00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:14,440
Speaker 3: a coke and PEPSI kind of ad.

728
00:37:14,960 --> 00:37:15,919
Speaker 2: You start to see that.

729
00:37:15,840 --> 00:37:20,400
Speaker 3: Tone and manner about the way brands are presented to

730
00:37:20,480 --> 00:37:24,959
Speaker 3: consumers and it's important because that consistency matters, right, And

731
00:37:25,080 --> 00:37:28,640
Speaker 3: that was an influencer for me. I think sometimes though

732
00:37:28,800 --> 00:37:32,279
Speaker 3: kind of sidebar, sometimes I think that I wanted to

733
00:37:32,360 --> 00:37:34,279
Speaker 3: be in advertising because of Bewitched.

734
00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:36,240
Speaker 2: Do you know the show Bewitched?

735
00:37:36,320 --> 00:37:39,480
Speaker 1: No, we come on, I know, I'm so bad.

736
00:37:39,520 --> 00:37:43,920
Speaker 2: This is where Elizabeth Montgomery she's like a witch, and

737
00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:47,680
Speaker 2: Darren Stevens her husband, he was in the advertising industry,

738
00:37:47,760 --> 00:37:50,880
Speaker 2: and I love that. I'm like, what he does is

739
00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:53,239
Speaker 2: super cool. I'd rather do what he's doing than be

740
00:37:53,280 --> 00:37:53,680
Speaker 2: a witch.

741
00:37:55,040 --> 00:37:58,160
Speaker 1: For me, it was mad men, like, oh see, oh

742
00:37:58,239 --> 00:38:02,680
Speaker 1: my god, yes, And I literally wrote it's so funny

743
00:38:02,719 --> 00:38:05,719
Speaker 1: because I grew up art and design and I'm not

744
00:38:05,719 --> 00:38:07,680
Speaker 1: so much an artist anymore, but I did grow up

745
00:38:07,719 --> 00:38:10,480
Speaker 1: like and when I applied to colleges, it was Parsons Pratt,

746
00:38:10,840 --> 00:38:13,680
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, Boston University as a program. I ended up

747
00:38:13,760 --> 00:38:15,680
Speaker 1: choosing Fordham just because I really wanted to be in

748
00:38:15,680 --> 00:38:18,120
Speaker 1: New City and my parents were like, You're absolutely not

749
00:38:18,160 --> 00:38:20,920
Speaker 1: going to art school. But when I saw mad Men,

750
00:38:21,040 --> 00:38:24,720
Speaker 1: my eyes like opened up, yes, and I was like, oh, wow,

751
00:38:24,960 --> 00:38:27,280
Speaker 1: like to be a creative director is the dream.

752
00:38:27,520 --> 00:38:29,760
Speaker 2: I was with you on that, Oh totally.

753
00:38:29,360 --> 00:38:31,880
Speaker 1: I mean. But then I ended up studying marketing and

754
00:38:31,920 --> 00:38:33,239
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, well it would be cool to

755
00:38:33,239 --> 00:38:35,000
Speaker 1: be on the business side anyways.

756
00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:36,440
Speaker 2: But I componed.

757
00:38:36,680 --> 00:38:40,120
Speaker 3: Really, when I started in nineteen eighty nine in the

758
00:38:40,120 --> 00:38:45,160
Speaker 3: advertising industry, the last remnants ad of mad Men were

759
00:38:45,200 --> 00:38:46,440
Speaker 3: still roaming those.

760
00:38:46,320 --> 00:38:48,680
Speaker 1: Halls really, yes, which kinds.

761
00:38:48,400 --> 00:38:51,080
Speaker 3: Of like for d dB Needham, Keith rein Hart would

762
00:38:51,120 --> 00:38:54,959
Speaker 3: still come in and walk around, or at Backer spill

763
00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:58,480
Speaker 3: Vogel Baits, Carl Spilvogel would occasionally come in. I've met

764
00:38:58,560 --> 00:39:04,480
Speaker 3: these gentlemen, and that was still kind of in the system.

765
00:39:05,239 --> 00:39:09,080
Speaker 3: And because we were still on Madison Avenue, and you

766
00:39:09,120 --> 00:39:12,759
Speaker 3: know it's not the same anymore, right, but you still

767
00:39:12,840 --> 00:39:16,320
Speaker 3: that some of that spirit was still in these companies.

768
00:39:16,400 --> 00:39:19,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, so so good. Well, what I like knowing is

769
00:39:19,440 --> 00:39:21,560
Speaker 1: that when we were on our run, we talked about how,

770
00:39:21,640 --> 00:39:23,719
Speaker 1: you know, you're obviously now you're now at Built a Bear.

771
00:39:23,960 --> 00:39:27,080
Speaker 1: You became the CEO in twenty thirteen, and you were

772
00:39:27,120 --> 00:39:29,560
Speaker 1: talking about how you guys have done studies of like

773
00:39:29,680 --> 00:39:34,120
Speaker 1: children's bedrooms and how they you know, organize their their

774
00:39:34,120 --> 00:39:36,000
Speaker 1: bears and which ones are important to them. Right, you

775
00:39:36,040 --> 00:39:40,560
Speaker 1: have to kind of study the psychology of children and anyways,

776
00:39:40,560 --> 00:39:42,440
Speaker 1: And there was so much of that in Mad Men.

777
00:39:42,440 --> 00:39:44,719
Speaker 1: And there's actually this really famous book called The Power

778
00:39:44,760 --> 00:39:46,640
Speaker 1: of Habit. I don't know if you've read it, and

779
00:39:46,680 --> 00:39:48,480
Speaker 1: the beginning of the book is it ut really the

780
00:39:48,520 --> 00:39:51,960
Speaker 1: whole book is all about advertising, and they talk about

781
00:39:51,960 --> 00:39:53,880
Speaker 1: how for Breeze came to be and they would study

782
00:39:53,920 --> 00:39:56,560
Speaker 1: like housewives and their houses and how they would clean.

783
00:39:56,640 --> 00:39:57,360
Speaker 2: And that's right.

784
00:39:57,400 --> 00:40:03,440
Speaker 3: Sometimes just those little tweaks in the marketing insight is

785
00:40:03,480 --> 00:40:05,839
Speaker 3: such a big unlock. Just like we were talking about

786
00:40:05,880 --> 00:40:10,080
Speaker 3: of redefining your competitive realm. One of my favorite stories

787
00:40:10,080 --> 00:40:14,400
Speaker 3: on that front is actually a story about Crest, Yeah,

788
00:40:14,480 --> 00:40:21,120
Speaker 3: where they shifted their positioning from being all about all

789
00:40:21,160 --> 00:40:30,800
Speaker 3: about healthy dental care too beautiful smiles, and that opened

790
00:40:30,880 --> 00:40:36,080
Speaker 3: up the whole business for white strips. Oh and they

791
00:40:36,120 --> 00:40:40,839
Speaker 3: would not have done that in a strict interpretation of

792
00:40:41,160 --> 00:40:43,440
Speaker 3: you know healthy, you know dental hygiene.

793
00:40:44,400 --> 00:40:46,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, yeah, it makes so much sense. Yeah,

794
00:40:46,640 --> 00:40:48,359
Speaker 1: because white trips technically are not that good.

795
00:40:50,400 --> 00:40:54,200
Speaker 3: Like yeah, so, but it's just when you you're thinking

796
00:40:54,239 --> 00:41:00,759
Speaker 3: about things in a box, that box will often define

797
00:41:02,040 --> 00:41:05,600
Speaker 3: or limit what you think you can become, or what

798
00:41:05,680 --> 00:41:08,160
Speaker 3: your brand can become or what it should become. Even

799
00:41:08,160 --> 00:41:10,880
Speaker 3: if the consumer has a different idea, you might be

800
00:41:10,920 --> 00:41:12,080
Speaker 3: limiting your own potential.

801
00:41:12,160 --> 00:41:15,279
Speaker 1: Absolutely. I mean it's about finding the right fit with

802
00:41:15,360 --> 00:41:17,279
Speaker 1: because it's all about habits, right, It's like, how can

803
00:41:17,320 --> 00:41:20,960
Speaker 1: I break into this person's daily ritual in a valuable

804
00:41:20,960 --> 00:41:21,439
Speaker 1: way to them?

805
00:41:21,960 --> 00:41:27,000
Speaker 3: Also, really, really a handy way to think about opportunities

806
00:41:27,040 --> 00:41:30,359
Speaker 3: with brands is kind of go around the clock. And

807
00:41:30,400 --> 00:41:32,880
Speaker 3: we've done that with Buildebert, you know, kind of thinking

808
00:41:32,920 --> 00:41:36,799
Speaker 3: through where these opportunities where we can engage not necessarily

809
00:41:36,840 --> 00:41:39,560
Speaker 3: sell something. I don't mean that way in that particular, say,

810
00:41:39,600 --> 00:41:42,640
Speaker 3: but where can we engage. So you know, teddy bears

811
00:41:42,800 --> 00:41:47,160
Speaker 3: are certainly an important part of bedtime, but also you

812
00:41:47,160 --> 00:41:50,440
Speaker 3: know the daily you know, travel or whatever you're doing

813
00:41:50,440 --> 00:41:53,120
Speaker 3: to have that teddy bear with you or playtime. And

814
00:41:53,160 --> 00:41:55,440
Speaker 3: we make sure that we have products even for reading,

815
00:41:55,800 --> 00:41:59,680
Speaker 3: because there's been so much research on that kids do

816
00:41:59,719 --> 00:42:01,719
Speaker 3: better when they read out loud, and they don't want

817
00:42:01,719 --> 00:42:03,520
Speaker 3: to read out loud to someone else because they think

818
00:42:03,520 --> 00:42:06,239
Speaker 3: they'll they'll mess up and stumble, but they love to

819
00:42:06,280 --> 00:42:07,960
Speaker 3: read to their teddy bear, and the teddy bear so

820
00:42:08,040 --> 00:42:10,319
Speaker 3: non judgmental. It's one of the best things about a

821
00:42:10,360 --> 00:42:14,680
Speaker 3: teddy bear. And so we provide reading bears for people.

822
00:42:14,840 --> 00:42:18,080
Speaker 1: That's so cute, that makes so much sense. Okay, well

823
00:42:18,160 --> 00:42:21,040
Speaker 1: let's talk about this. So twenty thirteen, you take over

824
00:42:21,120 --> 00:42:23,800
Speaker 1: Build a Bear, and the brand is in an interesting

825
00:42:23,800 --> 00:42:27,000
Speaker 1: spot right because there was a lot of brand value.

826
00:42:27,080 --> 00:42:29,160
Speaker 1: The brand value is strong with Build a Bear. People

827
00:42:29,200 --> 00:42:32,920
Speaker 1: love it, people know it, and it's very nostalgic.

828
00:42:32,640 --> 00:42:35,040
Speaker 2: Ninety six percent aided brand awareness.

829
00:42:35,280 --> 00:42:37,440
Speaker 1: But the workshop was not what it used to be

830
00:42:37,520 --> 00:42:40,520
Speaker 1: right when you joined, So paint that moment for us.

831
00:42:40,560 --> 00:42:43,239
Speaker 1: What did the company look and feel like when you

832
00:42:43,600 --> 00:42:45,080
Speaker 1: became the CEO in twenty fifteen.

833
00:42:45,200 --> 00:42:48,360
Speaker 3: So Build a Bear had been through about eight years

834
00:42:48,400 --> 00:42:54,640
Speaker 3: of struggle and contraction after the recession. And it's not

835
00:42:54,840 --> 00:42:58,600
Speaker 3: unusual for companies, particularly super successful companies, which Build a

836
00:42:58,600 --> 00:43:00,680
Speaker 3: Bear had been. This was launched in nineteen ninety seven,

837
00:43:01,200 --> 00:43:03,480
Speaker 3: had an IPO and was like a little bit of

838
00:43:03,520 --> 00:43:04,760
Speaker 3: a Wall Street darling there.

839
00:43:04,640 --> 00:43:05,480
Speaker 2: For a little while.

840
00:43:06,840 --> 00:43:11,600
Speaker 3: But when mall traffic started to decline and shopping habits changed,

841
00:43:11,640 --> 00:43:14,600
Speaker 3: and the rise of e commerce really took a toll

842
00:43:14,760 --> 00:43:18,280
Speaker 3: on the company. And when you don't when you lose

843
00:43:18,320 --> 00:43:22,000
Speaker 3: about you know, ten percent, twenty percent of the mall traffic,

844
00:43:22,400 --> 00:43:25,600
Speaker 3: that's going to impact every single retailer in the mall.

845
00:43:25,680 --> 00:43:27,320
Speaker 2: And it impacted Build a Bear as well.

846
00:43:27,800 --> 00:43:31,520
Speaker 3: And additionally, the rent structures were based on at the

847
00:43:31,600 --> 00:43:34,959
Speaker 3: time what had happened for the last twenty years, which

848
00:43:35,000 --> 00:43:38,759
Speaker 3: is a standard increase, you know, because the sales in

849
00:43:38,800 --> 00:43:41,319
Speaker 3: the traffic had just kept kept increasing. So that makes sense,

850
00:43:41,320 --> 00:43:44,600
Speaker 3: but you're trapped in these lease structures that are not

851
00:43:44,760 --> 00:43:49,400
Speaker 3: working in a declining mall traffic environment. You're based on

852
00:43:50,760 --> 00:43:55,760
Speaker 3: experiential retail, which Maxine the founder of Build Bear, Maxine Clark,

853
00:43:56,239 --> 00:43:58,680
Speaker 3: is credited for being a pioneer in this space as

854
00:43:58,719 --> 00:44:01,840
Speaker 3: well as she should be. It's this visionary concept, but

855
00:44:01,920 --> 00:44:03,640
Speaker 3: it was hard to see how you were going to

856
00:44:03,680 --> 00:44:08,680
Speaker 3: translate that into the digital arena, right, what are you

857
00:44:08,680 --> 00:44:11,000
Speaker 3: going to do with eCOM right the hats, if that

858
00:44:11,000 --> 00:44:14,920
Speaker 3: make any sense. And so the company was struggling financially.

859
00:44:15,239 --> 00:44:19,360
Speaker 3: It was losing money and what's called the four wall profitability,

860
00:44:19,400 --> 00:44:21,719
Speaker 3: which is the profit in each one of the stores,

861
00:44:22,280 --> 00:44:25,880
Speaker 3: was only about nine percent, which is well below standard,

862
00:44:26,400 --> 00:44:29,960
Speaker 3: and about twenty percent of the stores were just totally unprofitable.

863
00:44:30,440 --> 00:44:34,440
Speaker 3: So we had to make a lot of business operations

864
00:44:34,760 --> 00:44:39,640
Speaker 3: changes and to first to return to profitability. But as

865
00:44:39,640 --> 00:44:44,040
Speaker 3: you were stating, the brand was extremely strong, and part

866
00:44:44,120 --> 00:44:47,120
Speaker 3: of that was an unlock of there's the difference between

867
00:44:47,200 --> 00:44:49,200
Speaker 3: build a bear workshop the place and build a bear.

868
00:44:49,360 --> 00:44:52,440
Speaker 3: The brand and the place is one thing, and the

869
00:44:52,480 --> 00:44:55,719
Speaker 3: place is important. It's a critical part of creating this

870
00:44:55,840 --> 00:45:00,680
Speaker 3: extraordinary memory and emotion and the heart ceremony, the making

871
00:45:00,719 --> 00:45:04,560
Speaker 3: of the bear one of a kind type of you know,

872
00:45:05,400 --> 00:45:10,160
Speaker 3: curated personal experience that's so.

873
00:45:10,320 --> 00:45:13,600
Speaker 2: Valuable for us. But there was more that we could do.

874
00:45:13,640 --> 00:45:16,560
Speaker 3: We actually called it the more strategy, more people, more places,

875
00:45:16,560 --> 00:45:20,280
Speaker 3: more reasons, more purposes, right, So expanded the addressable market.

876
00:45:20,560 --> 00:45:25,120
Speaker 3: That helped us unlock e commerce because that helped us

877
00:45:25,120 --> 00:45:30,080
Speaker 3: with gifting and collectibles. More places got out of malls.

878
00:45:30,360 --> 00:45:32,400
Speaker 3: Still in malls, about thirty five percent of our sources

879
00:45:32,400 --> 00:45:32,959
Speaker 3: still in malls.

880
00:45:32,960 --> 00:45:34,719
Speaker 2: But we got down to.

881
00:45:34,680 --> 00:45:39,200
Speaker 3: The core of what Maxine wrote in her business plan,

882
00:45:39,960 --> 00:45:43,280
Speaker 3: even though she wrote it as malls, malls were really

883
00:45:43,440 --> 00:45:46,719
Speaker 3: just a stand in for places where people go for

884
00:45:46,760 --> 00:45:51,480
Speaker 3: fun and entertainment, right, So again, dig, dig, dig, what do.

885
00:45:51,480 --> 00:45:52,680
Speaker 2: We really mean here?

886
00:45:53,239 --> 00:45:55,399
Speaker 3: And when you think about it that way, you're like, well,

887
00:45:55,400 --> 00:45:58,400
Speaker 3: where do people go for fun and entertainment now? And

888
00:45:58,440 --> 00:46:01,719
Speaker 3: there's certain echelon of malls that still is true all

889
00:46:01,760 --> 00:46:06,440
Speaker 3: of America or things like that, but tourist locations.

890
00:46:06,680 --> 00:46:11,799
Speaker 2: You know, and then we would We went to amusement.

891
00:46:11,280 --> 00:46:14,839
Speaker 3: Parks, we went to hospitality locations that deals with Great

892
00:46:14,840 --> 00:46:17,920
Speaker 3: Wolf flage, deals with carnival cruise lines, and all of

893
00:46:17,960 --> 00:46:22,120
Speaker 3: a sudden you're starting to unlock The truth is people

894
00:46:22,160 --> 00:46:23,200
Speaker 3: aren't tired of Build a Bear.

895
00:46:23,280 --> 00:46:25,160
Speaker 2: Build a Bear is no less relevant than it was

896
00:46:25,160 --> 00:46:27,320
Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety seven. We're just in the wrong.

897
00:46:27,120 --> 00:46:32,080
Speaker 3: Place, right, and we're not We're not expanding to the

898
00:46:32,120 --> 00:46:36,960
Speaker 3: consumer where we have become multi generational. So those all

899
00:46:37,040 --> 00:46:41,359
Speaker 3: of those things, those puzzle pieces almost not even I'd

900
00:46:41,360 --> 00:46:44,200
Speaker 3: say it's more like a tetris, you know of how

901
00:46:44,320 --> 00:46:47,160
Speaker 3: it all like started locking together, maybe in the jingle

902
00:46:47,200 --> 00:46:49,920
Speaker 3: blocks since we're staying in the toy industry here, so

903
00:46:50,520 --> 00:46:55,000
Speaker 3: it started unlocking value and that also started to unlow. Well,

904
00:46:55,000 --> 00:46:58,239
Speaker 3: well we should go back internationally, and so all of

905
00:46:58,280 --> 00:47:03,919
Speaker 3: a sudden we start openings and with partnerships and all

906
00:47:03,960 --> 00:47:08,800
Speaker 3: of those things started working together while correcting the operational

907
00:47:09,320 --> 00:47:12,520
Speaker 3: challenges with every link of the value chain. You take

908
00:47:12,600 --> 00:47:15,640
Speaker 3: all of that work that we were doing, which has

909
00:47:15,680 --> 00:47:21,040
Speaker 3: been the team has been remarkable through that, even though

910
00:47:21,080 --> 00:47:25,960
Speaker 3: we went through the retail apocalypse, Brexit, COVID, and now tariffs.

911
00:47:26,560 --> 00:47:28,359
Speaker 2: We're just really good.

912
00:47:28,640 --> 00:47:32,200
Speaker 3: At evolving right at this point. But then combine that

913
00:47:33,080 --> 00:47:39,239
Speaker 3: with this rise of the nostalgic economy, the condulting, which

914
00:47:39,280 --> 00:47:45,840
Speaker 3: is a big trend DIY customization and personalization and things

915
00:47:45,880 --> 00:47:51,040
Speaker 3: that people want to do where it's social media leans

916
00:47:51,080 --> 00:47:55,239
Speaker 3: into social media like experiences, the return of experiences all

917
00:47:55,239 --> 00:48:01,879
Speaker 3: post COVID. That's like magic right now and very exciting time.

918
00:48:02,280 --> 00:48:03,920
Speaker 1: Definitely. I mean, there just seems like there are so

919
00:48:04,040 --> 00:48:06,920
Speaker 1: many touch points that just make so much sense for Bildebear.

920
00:48:07,320 --> 00:48:09,960
Speaker 1: And you're credited really with going from like a lot

921
00:48:10,000 --> 00:48:11,720
Speaker 1: of people when they talk about you know what Sharon

922
00:48:11,800 --> 00:48:13,520
Speaker 1: came in and did, is like you went from this

923
00:48:13,719 --> 00:48:16,839
Speaker 1: mall centric approach to an omni channel approach, right, that's

924
00:48:16,880 --> 00:48:19,359
Speaker 1: the word. Yes, Were there any tough decisions that you

925
00:48:19,400 --> 00:48:21,719
Speaker 1: had to make early on because you came in for

926
00:48:21,760 --> 00:48:25,200
Speaker 1: the founder, right, like you became the CEO as the founder. Correct,

927
00:48:25,360 --> 00:48:27,839
Speaker 1: So that's those are big shoes to fill us.

928
00:48:27,840 --> 00:48:30,320
Speaker 2: So she has tiny little she's a tiny little person,

929
00:48:30,440 --> 00:48:33,840
Speaker 2: tiny shoes, and I have a big, big personality to

930
00:48:33,880 --> 00:48:34,319
Speaker 2: fill for.

931
00:48:34,480 --> 00:48:36,760
Speaker 1: I mean, what is that like stepping into a CEO

932
00:48:36,960 --> 00:48:40,080
Speaker 1: role when you're taking over for the founder of the brand.

933
00:48:40,080 --> 00:48:44,440
Speaker 3: Look, any founder, any takeover from a founder led organization

934
00:48:44,640 --> 00:48:48,800
Speaker 3: is going to be difficult. And Maxine is a big personality,

935
00:48:48,960 --> 00:48:51,239
Speaker 3: force of nature, brilliant visionary.

936
00:48:51,440 --> 00:48:53,200
Speaker 1: You know, I need to see how tiny she is.

937
00:48:53,239 --> 00:48:56,600
Speaker 3: She's about four to eleven. Yeah, So I'm not that

938
00:48:56,640 --> 00:48:58,279
Speaker 3: big of a person and I feel like a big

939
00:48:58,320 --> 00:49:04,759
Speaker 3: person around around the vaccine and she had but she

940
00:49:04,840 --> 00:49:08,000
Speaker 3: houses you know, like a lot of energy and I

941
00:49:08,000 --> 00:49:13,680
Speaker 3: mean she's a visionary with and she was so supportive

942
00:49:13,960 --> 00:49:16,240
Speaker 3: of me and was a big part of the reason

943
00:49:16,440 --> 00:49:21,600
Speaker 3: I chose to come And uh, but that but that's

944
00:49:21,640 --> 00:49:28,400
Speaker 3: hard because she she houses the culture of the company,

945
00:49:29,280 --> 00:49:33,080
Speaker 3: and I needed to find a way to bring that

946
00:49:33,200 --> 00:49:38,520
Speaker 3: culture along for the ride, or I would have met

947
00:49:38,560 --> 00:49:41,880
Speaker 3: with a lot of resistance. And rightly so, there's nothing

948
00:49:41,960 --> 00:49:45,160
Speaker 3: wrong with the culture of Build a Bear, other than

949
00:49:45,200 --> 00:49:49,759
Speaker 3: we had to learn to operate more efficiently and and

950
00:49:49,800 --> 00:49:51,520
Speaker 3: we managed to find that path.

951
00:49:51,880 --> 00:49:53,960
Speaker 1: How do you decide when to stay true to the

952
00:49:53,960 --> 00:49:56,879
Speaker 1: heart of a brand, like you're talking about, versus when

953
00:49:56,920 --> 00:49:57,759
Speaker 1: to reinvent it?

954
00:49:58,040 --> 00:50:05,960
Speaker 3: Well, I wouldn't reinvent a brand that wasn't broken, and

955
00:50:06,000 --> 00:50:12,160
Speaker 3: Build a Bear wasn't broken, It wasn't optimizing itself. It

956
00:50:12,280 --> 00:50:17,160
Speaker 3: had more equity than it was monetizing, and we had

957
00:50:17,160 --> 00:50:20,600
Speaker 3: to go through a very systematic process first to return

958
00:50:20,640 --> 00:50:24,680
Speaker 3: to profitability, but then to pivot the brand from its

959
00:50:24,840 --> 00:50:32,560
Speaker 3: narrow self of a vertical mall based kid's toy company,

960
00:50:33,239 --> 00:50:37,960
Speaker 3: right that almost accidentally built a brand one heart ceremony

961
00:50:38,000 --> 00:50:42,799
Speaker 3: at a time, to a branded intellectual property company that

962
00:50:42,960 --> 00:50:47,239
Speaker 3: if we could run profitable vertical retail. It's one of

963
00:50:47,280 --> 00:50:50,800
Speaker 3: the biggest cash machines that exist. A sype buys retailers

964
00:50:50,840 --> 00:50:54,760
Speaker 3: all the time, and then take that money and invest

965
00:50:54,800 --> 00:51:01,200
Speaker 3: it in other revenue streams to optimize the brand. Then

966
00:51:01,239 --> 00:51:03,480
Speaker 3: you would have a really successful organization.

967
00:51:04,120 --> 00:51:04,919
Speaker 2: And that's what we did.

968
00:51:05,120 --> 00:51:09,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's incredible. Were you guys, were you

969
00:51:09,239 --> 00:51:11,400
Speaker 1: surprised by the rise of kid alting?

970
00:51:11,880 --> 00:51:13,479
Speaker 2: No, it had been happening for years.

971
00:51:13,560 --> 00:51:14,440
Speaker 1: It had been happening for years.

972
00:51:14,520 --> 00:51:16,600
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, yeah, in fact, it happened. It had started

973
00:51:16,600 --> 00:51:18,399
Speaker 3: happening all the way back to my time. It has

974
00:51:18,440 --> 00:51:23,560
Speaker 3: broke for sure. That's what Transformers was all about.

975
00:51:24,200 --> 00:51:27,520
Speaker 2: Just think about it. The Transformers first Transformers film, record

976
00:51:27,520 --> 00:51:33,080
Speaker 2: breaking film, extraordinary film, you know, Michael Bay amazing. That

977
00:51:33,160 --> 00:51:34,080
Speaker 2: was not for kids.

978
00:51:35,080 --> 00:51:38,200
Speaker 3: That was for kids adults that played with Transformers when

979
00:51:38,239 --> 00:51:42,360
Speaker 3: they were little, and it reignited the entire business.

980
00:51:42,719 --> 00:51:45,240
Speaker 1: Can you break down what kid alting is and guys,

981
00:51:45,239 --> 00:51:49,480
Speaker 1: that's kid alting like kids and adulting combine.

982
00:51:49,520 --> 00:51:53,479
Speaker 3: Just to be clear, it's grown ups, teens and grown

983
00:51:53,560 --> 00:51:58,560
Speaker 3: ups that buy toys and games and are engaged in

984
00:51:59,440 --> 00:52:01,840
Speaker 3: buying things that remind them of their childhood or collecting

985
00:52:01,880 --> 00:52:03,960
Speaker 3: things that remind them of their childhood, or even some

986
00:52:04,040 --> 00:52:08,080
Speaker 3: things that don't like the collecting, you know, miniature vinyls,

987
00:52:08,160 --> 00:52:11,239
Speaker 3: or they still play with Lego, or they want to

988
00:52:11,280 --> 00:52:13,040
Speaker 3: come back to Build a Bear, or they like the

989
00:52:13,040 --> 00:52:17,520
Speaker 3: mashup brands. So maybe they loved Pokemon when they were

990
00:52:17,520 --> 00:52:19,279
Speaker 3: a kid and now and they love Build a Bear

991
00:52:19,280 --> 00:52:20,680
Speaker 3: where they were a kid, and now they can come

992
00:52:20,719 --> 00:52:22,480
Speaker 3: in and get their Pokemon build a Bear.

993
00:52:22,840 --> 00:52:25,200
Speaker 1: You know, that's like the best well I and I do.

994
00:52:25,239 --> 00:52:27,319
Speaker 1: I love seeing all the collaborations that you guys do.

995
00:52:27,400 --> 00:52:29,000
Speaker 1: Like as you go to the Build a Bear website

996
00:52:29,040 --> 00:52:31,000
Speaker 1: and there's just so many different you can There's Harry

997
00:52:31,000 --> 00:52:33,440
Speaker 1: Potter Build a Bear, right, There's the If movie that

998
00:52:33,480 --> 00:52:36,279
Speaker 1: came out a couple of years ago, the Big Purple Monster. Like,

999
00:52:36,560 --> 00:52:38,440
Speaker 1: there's so many different types of collapse that you can

1000
00:52:38,440 --> 00:52:40,879
Speaker 1: buy in Build a Bear form. What I would love

1001
00:52:40,960 --> 00:52:43,560
Speaker 1: to see is have you seen La Boo boos? Yes,

1002
00:52:43,600 --> 00:52:45,920
Speaker 1: of course I would love to see a build a

1003
00:52:45,920 --> 00:52:49,279
Speaker 1: Bear La Boo Boo. Well, you know, like maybe a

1004
00:52:49,320 --> 00:52:55,360
Speaker 1: collaboration between some sort of like Japanese artists times times

1005
00:52:55,360 --> 00:52:57,239
Speaker 1: Build a Bear and that, and to have a build

1006
00:52:57,239 --> 00:52:59,480
Speaker 1: a Bear that can hang on your bag.

1007
00:52:59,480 --> 00:53:01,400
Speaker 2: Well that you may get to do that.

1008
00:53:01,480 --> 00:53:04,080
Speaker 1: Really are we choosing something.

1009
00:53:05,080 --> 00:53:07,880
Speaker 3: On the hanging part possibly you guys, are are you

1010
00:53:07,920 --> 00:53:08,800
Speaker 3: going to do that surprise?

1011
00:53:08,920 --> 00:53:11,480
Speaker 1: Oh my god, Okay, that would go crazy.

1012
00:53:11,520 --> 00:53:12,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, hopefully.

1013
00:53:13,320 --> 00:53:16,120
Speaker 3: But we also brought out many beans just recently, like

1014
00:53:16,200 --> 00:53:23,480
Speaker 3: in uh February of last year, millions tiny little beanie guys,

1015
00:53:23,760 --> 00:53:26,400
Speaker 3: many beans that look like build a Bear's. Oh my god,

1016
00:53:26,680 --> 00:53:28,239
Speaker 3: I love them. I love them.

1017
00:53:28,440 --> 00:53:31,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, well I think they're such a fun with

1018
00:53:31,239 --> 00:53:33,279
Speaker 1: the lububus. There such a fun like so there's such

1019
00:53:33,280 --> 00:53:35,960
Speaker 1: an easy virality thing to it because everybody gets surprised

1020
00:53:35,960 --> 00:53:37,680
Speaker 1: with what they get when they open up the pal.

1021
00:53:37,920 --> 00:53:40,680
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, sure, well there's that that whole like, you know,

1022
00:53:41,160 --> 00:53:46,080
Speaker 3: that whole surprise element. But that's a perfect example of

1023
00:53:46,440 --> 00:53:50,919
Speaker 3: a adulting trend that that's really not an nostalgic thing.

1024
00:53:51,360 --> 00:53:52,439
Speaker 2: You know, that's a new thing.

1025
00:53:52,680 --> 00:53:56,960
Speaker 3: But but not so long ago, that would have been

1026
00:53:56,960 --> 00:54:00,200
Speaker 3: something that you would think only kids would buy, right, yeah, right, no.

1027
00:54:00,400 --> 00:54:03,279
Speaker 1: It's so true because yeah, it's it's these those are

1028
00:54:03,600 --> 00:54:06,719
Speaker 1: new designs, right of these little creatures or whatever you

1029
00:54:06,800 --> 00:54:09,399
Speaker 1: want to call them. So it is interesting to see

1030
00:54:09,480 --> 00:54:11,880
Speaker 1: kind of the consumer trends right now. And then I

1031
00:54:11,880 --> 00:54:14,680
Speaker 1: always love throwing it back to those nostalgic pieces. We

1032
00:54:14,760 --> 00:54:17,360
Speaker 1: have to talk about Bearville because I was on Reddit

1033
00:54:17,400 --> 00:54:20,880
Speaker 1: this morning reading through threads and threads about Bearville, and

1034
00:54:20,920 --> 00:54:23,040
Speaker 1: I know that you guys have kind of made a

1035
00:54:23,080 --> 00:54:27,640
Speaker 1: new game called Bildebert Tycoon right on roadblocks. So let's

1036
00:54:27,680 --> 00:54:30,120
Speaker 1: talk about like all of the ways that Bill de

1037
00:54:30,200 --> 00:54:33,040
Speaker 1: Bearer has transformed into the digital space.

1038
00:54:33,200 --> 00:54:38,399
Speaker 3: Yes, oh well, well, first of all, that's we had

1039
00:54:38,600 --> 00:54:41,480
Speaker 3: a number of tenants that we were working on to

1040
00:54:41,560 --> 00:54:44,080
Speaker 3: be able to evolve the brand. The first was the

1041
00:54:44,080 --> 00:54:47,920
Speaker 3: evolution of the of the entire real estate and store

1042
00:54:47,960 --> 00:54:51,520
Speaker 3: portfolio experience portfolio, which we talked a lot about. The

1043
00:54:51,560 --> 00:54:55,320
Speaker 3: second was the digital transformation, and the third was investment

1044
00:54:55,400 --> 00:54:57,640
Speaker 3: in things to grow the business outside of its core

1045
00:54:58,000 --> 00:55:01,560
Speaker 3: business while returning capital to shareholders. But that entire digital

1046
00:55:01,600 --> 00:55:04,319
Speaker 3: transformation had to start from the bottom up, Like we

1047
00:55:04,360 --> 00:55:07,840
Speaker 3: had to rebuild everything so we wouldn't be able to

1048
00:55:07,880 --> 00:55:09,920
Speaker 3: run the website that we run today if we didn't.

1049
00:55:10,239 --> 00:55:11,440
Speaker 2: We literally called.

1050
00:55:11,280 --> 00:55:15,800
Speaker 3: It Project Bedrock, and it's across everything from an accounting

1051
00:55:15,840 --> 00:55:18,520
Speaker 3: system to a warehouse management system, to a new website

1052
00:55:19,080 --> 00:55:23,360
Speaker 3: to digital you know, all of our digital efforts and

1053
00:55:23,560 --> 00:55:27,240
Speaker 3: as well as becoming much more focused from a media

1054
00:55:27,280 --> 00:55:32,719
Speaker 3: perspective in social media, because the evolution even of marketing

1055
00:55:33,239 --> 00:55:37,439
Speaker 3: in the last ten years has been dramatic. Like when

1056
00:55:37,480 --> 00:55:40,200
Speaker 3: I started in advertising and then when I was at

1057
00:55:40,360 --> 00:55:44,799
Speaker 3: Mattel or even at Hasbro, the whole business model was

1058
00:55:44,880 --> 00:55:48,080
Speaker 3: about commercials fifteen second thirty second commercials that gin you

1059
00:55:48,080 --> 00:55:51,920
Speaker 3: would buy you know, media time in the upfronts for

1060
00:55:52,280 --> 00:55:54,880
Speaker 3: you know, on about three or four channels, and that

1061
00:55:55,000 --> 00:55:59,000
Speaker 3: was it. But you could really you've had the right

1062
00:55:59,239 --> 00:56:01,960
Speaker 3: algorithm to know, if I have this must reach in

1063
00:56:02,040 --> 00:56:05,520
Speaker 3: this most frequency during this time of the year, I'll

1064
00:56:05,520 --> 00:56:07,040
Speaker 3: probably cell about this many products.

1065
00:56:07,080 --> 00:56:09,800
Speaker 2: Right, that's just gone, it doesn't exist.

1066
00:56:10,280 --> 00:56:12,800
Speaker 3: So we had to learn to create short form content

1067
00:56:13,239 --> 00:56:16,080
Speaker 3: and talk to those teens and adults and find other

1068
00:56:16,120 --> 00:56:20,440
Speaker 3: ways to communicate, you know, and like very creative approach

1069
00:56:20,480 --> 00:56:23,279
Speaker 3: to what we do. One of those ways is to

1070
00:56:23,360 --> 00:56:26,080
Speaker 3: get engaged. Is I was talking about where all of

1071
00:56:26,120 --> 00:56:30,799
Speaker 3: these points of engagement content is a point of engagement, right,

1072
00:56:31,320 --> 00:56:34,880
Speaker 3: and that includes things like roadblocks for you know, so

1073
00:56:35,239 --> 00:56:36,759
Speaker 3: you know, if you like build a bear, you come

1074
00:56:36,760 --> 00:56:38,600
Speaker 3: to build a bear roadblocks and you get to run

1075
00:56:38,640 --> 00:56:42,600
Speaker 3: your little bears around and that is a way of

1076
00:56:43,800 --> 00:56:48,719
Speaker 3: increasing brand awareness but also top of mind awareness, right,

1077
00:56:49,160 --> 00:56:51,880
Speaker 3: remind you about build a Bear that's a good thing.

1078
00:56:51,760 --> 00:56:53,600
Speaker 1: And also meeting people where they are. It's like if

1079
00:56:53,640 --> 00:56:55,960
Speaker 1: a lot of these young younger kids are like from

1080
00:56:56,000 --> 00:56:58,480
Speaker 1: a all ages, really a lot of us are on

1081
00:56:58,520 --> 00:57:00,960
Speaker 1: our phones where a lot of people play roadblocks. Like

1082
00:57:01,040 --> 00:57:03,239
Speaker 1: I always think about the game Dress to Impress when

1083
00:57:03,239 --> 00:57:05,319
Speaker 1: I rum with my nieces or nephews. I'm like, let's

1084
00:57:05,320 --> 00:57:07,239
Speaker 1: play Dress to Impress because I have so much fun

1085
00:57:07,239 --> 00:57:09,080
Speaker 1: with it. Yeah, but it makes so much sense to

1086
00:57:09,120 --> 00:57:11,480
Speaker 1: me that builds a Bear is a game now that's

1087
00:57:11,480 --> 00:57:13,799
Speaker 1: on roadblocks because I could imagine people have so much

1088
00:57:13,800 --> 00:57:14,480
Speaker 1: fun playing it.

1089
00:57:14,560 --> 00:57:16,760
Speaker 3: Oh totally, and it is fun. I had to learn

1090
00:57:16,840 --> 00:57:18,400
Speaker 3: how to do it. I'd never done it before, but

1091
00:57:18,440 --> 00:57:24,520
Speaker 3: now I know how. My son particularly, they want to

1092
00:57:24,560 --> 00:57:28,120
Speaker 3: watch me play it because I'm so bad. They roll,

1093
00:57:28,480 --> 00:57:31,920
Speaker 3: they roll laughing. They're twenty somethings and they just roll.

1094
00:57:32,160 --> 00:57:34,960
Speaker 3: My mom, Oh my god, just push that fun and

1095
00:57:35,040 --> 00:57:36,040
Speaker 3: I'm like running into a.

1096
00:57:36,000 --> 00:57:39,520
Speaker 2: Wall like seven days, but I try anyway.

1097
00:57:39,560 --> 00:57:41,400
Speaker 3: The other thing that we wanted to do is create

1098
00:57:41,400 --> 00:57:43,960
Speaker 3: our own intellectual property, which we did did do with

1099
00:57:44,080 --> 00:57:47,240
Speaker 3: like Honey Girls and Mary Mission, and then we created

1100
00:57:47,280 --> 00:57:52,680
Speaker 3: content for the Honey Girls and Mary Mission, and so

1101
00:57:52,840 --> 00:58:00,120
Speaker 3: the creation of your own intellectual property, sub brands and content, music, content, videos,

1102
00:58:00,200 --> 00:58:03,120
Speaker 3: and a feature film with Sony was our partner on that.

1103
00:58:04,280 --> 00:58:05,640
Speaker 1: And the Build a Bear universe.

1104
00:58:05,800 --> 00:58:07,400
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a hull Bildeberg universe.

1105
00:58:07,560 --> 00:58:10,320
Speaker 1: So some of those you were just mentioning someone like

1106
00:58:10,320 --> 00:58:12,200
Speaker 1: the TV kind of series that you guys did, film

1107
00:58:12,200 --> 00:58:15,600
Speaker 1: like movies, animated feature What is that?

1108
00:58:15,800 --> 00:58:16,280
Speaker 2: Live action?

1109
00:58:16,440 --> 00:58:17,120
Speaker 1: Oh? Live action?

1110
00:58:17,280 --> 00:58:18,360
Speaker 2: Yes, with a chante.

1111
00:58:18,600 --> 00:58:19,240
Speaker 1: I didn't know that.

1112
00:58:19,360 --> 00:58:20,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, you gotta watch the film.

1113
00:58:20,760 --> 00:58:22,880
Speaker 1: I have to watch it. Wait, what is the vision

1114
00:58:23,040 --> 00:58:25,440
Speaker 1: for Buildeber? Like, where do you want to see bilde

1115
00:58:25,480 --> 00:58:27,080
Speaker 1: Beer going in the next I can't even say ten

1116
00:58:27,120 --> 00:58:29,640
Speaker 1: years because things are moving so qui funny, but like

1117
00:58:29,720 --> 00:58:32,480
Speaker 1: in the next year, two years, like up to five years, Like,

1118
00:58:32,600 --> 00:58:34,960
Speaker 1: where where are we going to see bilde Beer Buildebert

1119
00:58:34,960 --> 00:58:35,960
Speaker 1: being taken?

1120
00:58:36,240 --> 00:58:36,479
Speaker 2: Yeah?

1121
00:58:36,520 --> 00:58:39,120
Speaker 3: Well, I think that we have a lot of the

1122
00:58:39,200 --> 00:58:43,520
Speaker 3: verticals identified. It's really a matter of optimizing all of

1123
00:58:43,560 --> 00:58:45,160
Speaker 3: those concepts, right.

1124
00:58:46,000 --> 00:58:47,680
Speaker 2: I think we could be much more global.

1125
00:58:47,760 --> 00:58:50,400
Speaker 3: I think we have a you know already I've shared

1126
00:58:50,400 --> 00:58:54,240
Speaker 3: that we have a flagship store coming to Orlando with

1127
00:58:54,520 --> 00:58:57,400
Speaker 3: Icon in the Icon Park, which is right next to

1128
00:58:57,720 --> 00:59:00,880
Speaker 3: the new Warners Park. So you know, I think we

1129
00:59:01,000 --> 00:59:06,080
Speaker 3: have some big footprint next level experienced type of things.

1130
00:59:06,440 --> 00:59:09,560
Speaker 3: I think we can build out additional sub brands and

1131
00:59:09,600 --> 00:59:13,960
Speaker 3: intellectual property in that whole content space and we can

1132
00:59:14,000 --> 00:59:14,920
Speaker 3: be much more global.

1133
00:59:15,840 --> 00:59:18,000
Speaker 1: All right, Well, I want to ask you some questions

1134
00:59:18,000 --> 00:59:20,440
Speaker 1: that came in from our audience. So oh, questions that

1135
00:59:20,480 --> 00:59:24,520
Speaker 1: people have. Okay, so the first question is you wrote

1136
00:59:24,560 --> 00:59:28,160
Speaker 1: Stories in Heart and talk about authenticity as strategy. Why

1137
00:59:28,240 --> 00:59:31,720
Speaker 1: is storytelling such an underrated leadership tool? Wow?

1138
00:59:31,800 --> 00:59:33,320
Speaker 2: That's such Are you sure good?

1139
00:59:33,480 --> 00:59:37,720
Speaker 1: Question? That? Questions we have? We have some really good questions.

1140
00:59:37,800 --> 00:59:39,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's fantastic. Yeah.

1141
00:59:39,200 --> 00:59:42,640
Speaker 3: I did write the book Stories in Heart, and I

1142
00:59:42,760 --> 00:59:48,160
Speaker 3: really wanted to write it because well, actually Forbes contacted

1143
00:59:48,200 --> 00:59:50,160
Speaker 3: me to write a business book and I'm like, I'm

1144
00:59:50,200 --> 00:59:52,479
Speaker 3: not writing a business book. And then like, we'll write

1145
00:59:52,480 --> 00:59:54,000
Speaker 3: the story of the brand. Like I'm not writing the

1146
00:59:54,000 --> 00:59:56,160
Speaker 3: story of the brand. They're like, well, just write whatever

1147
00:59:56,200 --> 00:59:59,480
Speaker 3: you want. Like, well, I think that the biggest benefit

1148
00:59:59,560 --> 01:00:02,000
Speaker 3: of something that I could write would be just to

1149
01:00:02,040 --> 01:00:05,080
Speaker 3: pull a little stories out of my life and more

1150
01:00:05,560 --> 01:00:09,520
Speaker 3: about not that story, it was just the context. And

1151
01:00:09,560 --> 01:00:15,280
Speaker 3: then there's a ton of information, data, backstories, you know,

1152
01:00:15,360 --> 01:00:20,240
Speaker 3: science behind what I did or what I thought that

1153
01:00:20,360 --> 01:00:24,080
Speaker 3: helped me in my career or life. Right, So the

1154
01:00:24,120 --> 01:00:29,520
Speaker 3: first one is all about the creation of goals, like

1155
01:00:29,560 --> 01:00:32,760
Speaker 3: what are your goals? And the next is there's a

1156
01:00:32,760 --> 01:00:36,640
Speaker 3: whole that the whole chapter on Barbie and Mattel is

1157
01:00:36,680 --> 01:00:40,080
Speaker 3: really about that perfectionism question and how to tackle that

1158
01:00:40,520 --> 01:00:44,320
Speaker 3: for yourself, or how to dream big, redefining your competitive realm.

1159
01:00:44,400 --> 01:00:47,640
Speaker 3: All of that is in this book. But the storytelling

1160
01:00:47,680 --> 01:00:51,439
Speaker 3: piece and the sub really the subtitle of the book

1161
01:00:51,640 --> 01:00:55,080
Speaker 3: is all about that the stories that you're telling yourself

1162
01:00:55,920 --> 01:00:59,880
Speaker 3: are not only going to define you're defining your past.

1163
01:01:01,040 --> 01:01:05,600
Speaker 3: Be careful how you're defining that past, because we can't

1164
01:01:05,720 --> 01:01:09,560
Speaker 3: help it. It's human nature to run a narrative, run

1165
01:01:09,600 --> 01:01:14,880
Speaker 3: an empowering narrative. The danger of a disempowering narrative does

1166
01:01:14,920 --> 01:01:19,200
Speaker 3: not only misinterpret your past, it creates your future.

1167
01:01:19,320 --> 01:01:21,160
Speaker 1: You are what you tell yourself.

1168
01:01:21,960 --> 01:01:24,320
Speaker 3: And then you will make choices and things will happen,

1169
01:01:24,360 --> 01:01:28,520
Speaker 3: and you will limit yourself. You are literally defining not

1170
01:01:28,680 --> 01:01:31,400
Speaker 3: your past, but your future by the narrative that you

1171
01:01:31,480 --> 01:01:32,640
Speaker 3: allowed to run in your head.

1172
01:01:32,800 --> 01:01:34,560
Speaker 2: And that's why storytelling.

1173
01:01:43,640 --> 01:01:46,360
Speaker 1: All right, What is your advice to women trying to

1174
01:01:46,720 --> 01:01:49,680
Speaker 1: balance self belief when they feel behind.

1175
01:01:51,120 --> 01:01:54,959
Speaker 3: You're probably not as behind as you think. Data will

1176
01:01:55,040 --> 01:02:01,600
Speaker 3: tell you that for any given position, there's ten different

1177
01:02:01,640 --> 01:02:05,800
Speaker 3: things that an employer is looking for. Women believe that

1178
01:02:05,840 --> 01:02:07,760
Speaker 3: they need to have nine or ten of them, and

1179
01:02:07,800 --> 01:02:08,800
Speaker 3: guys think they need.

1180
01:02:08,680 --> 01:02:11,160
Speaker 2: To have five or six of them. So apply to

1181
01:02:11,160 --> 01:02:11,520
Speaker 2: the job.

1182
01:02:11,960 --> 01:02:15,480
Speaker 1: What's something you wish more women in business stopped apologizing for.

1183
01:02:16,720 --> 01:02:20,000
Speaker 3: I actually decided this was years ago. I think I

1184
01:02:20,080 --> 01:02:22,080
Speaker 3: was at Hasbro when I did this. It's like I'm

1185
01:02:22,080 --> 01:02:24,880
Speaker 3: going to go a year and not say I'm sorry.

1186
01:02:25,080 --> 01:02:26,600
Speaker 1: It's so easy to say I'm sorry.

1187
01:02:26,880 --> 01:02:29,040
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm sorry, And I don't mean to my kids

1188
01:02:29,320 --> 01:02:32,240
Speaker 3: like you know, like I, you know, accidentally stepped on

1189
01:02:32,280 --> 01:02:34,280
Speaker 3: their toe or something. I'm not gonna I don't mean that.

1190
01:02:34,280 --> 01:02:37,880
Speaker 3: I don't mean personal life. I mean just the habit,

1191
01:02:39,040 --> 01:02:43,320
Speaker 3: the overwhelming habit of saying I'm sorry. Like you walk

1192
01:02:43,360 --> 01:02:45,479
Speaker 3: into the meeting, Oh God, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Oh

1193
01:02:45,600 --> 01:02:47,240
Speaker 3: you know you bumped some Oh I'm so sorry, I

1194
01:02:47,240 --> 01:02:49,680
Speaker 3: didn't mean to do that, or or there was a

1195
01:02:49,840 --> 01:02:51,400
Speaker 3: typo and the oh I'm so.

1196
01:02:51,400 --> 01:02:56,840
Speaker 2: Sorry, No, no, you know what you again? That I am.

1197
01:02:56,840 --> 01:03:01,400
Speaker 2: What does sorry mean if you have to say something

1198
01:03:01,440 --> 01:03:05,600
Speaker 2: to say, I apologize for that, you're defining yourself as

1199
01:03:05,800 --> 01:03:08,760
Speaker 2: sorry when you say I'm sorry.

1200
01:03:09,560 --> 01:03:12,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a really good perspective. It's so true. Yeah,

1201
01:03:12,240 --> 01:03:14,200
Speaker 1: just apologize for making a mistake. If you made one,

1202
01:03:14,320 --> 01:03:15,000
Speaker 1: just apologize.

1203
01:03:15,760 --> 01:03:19,360
Speaker 3: Do not ruminate on it. Don't ruminate it. Don't let

1204
01:03:19,400 --> 01:03:24,080
Speaker 3: that go. You have to let it go and give

1205
01:03:24,120 --> 01:03:27,080
Speaker 3: yourself at least the grace you would give your best friend.

1206
01:03:27,320 --> 01:03:30,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. What's a leadership lesson? You had to

1207
01:03:30,680 --> 01:03:31,400
Speaker 1: learn the hard way.

1208
01:03:31,760 --> 01:03:38,200
Speaker 3: Oh, that's a good one. Don't assume that you know

1209
01:03:38,400 --> 01:03:43,320
Speaker 3: everything about, like all all the edges of why a

1210
01:03:43,400 --> 01:03:49,320
Speaker 3: decision was made. Sometimes it's really easy, from the vantage

1211
01:03:49,320 --> 01:03:54,240
Speaker 3: point of the future right to say that was the

1212
01:03:54,320 --> 01:03:56,560
Speaker 3: dumbest deal I've ever seen in my life. Why in

1213
01:03:56,600 --> 01:03:59,600
Speaker 3: the world did they agree to that ridiculous you know,

1214
01:04:00,480 --> 01:04:03,640
Speaker 3: minimum guarantee on that licensing deal? Oh my god, I

1215
01:04:03,640 --> 01:04:06,760
Speaker 3: can't and I got it one of my bosses. Still,

1216
01:04:07,040 --> 01:04:09,320
Speaker 3: I guess this is an ongoing theme. Maybe there's something

1217
01:04:09,320 --> 01:04:12,680
Speaker 3: you're still a good friend of mine, said Sharon. I

1218
01:04:12,760 --> 01:04:15,000
Speaker 3: happen to know what happened in that and this was

1219
01:04:15,000 --> 01:04:17,640
Speaker 3: the compromise because of seven other things that were happening.

1220
01:04:17,880 --> 01:04:18,920
Speaker 2: And I know, now on the.

1221
01:04:18,840 --> 01:04:22,080
Speaker 3: Surfaces looks bad, but you cannot assume that you understand

1222
01:04:22,120 --> 01:04:24,560
Speaker 3: all the reasons why decisions are made. And now I

1223
01:04:24,640 --> 01:04:28,240
Speaker 3: have the respect of at least asking of at least

1224
01:04:28,240 --> 01:04:32,720
Speaker 3: digging in to understand the context of why certain choices

1225
01:04:32,760 --> 01:04:34,040
Speaker 3: were made before.

1226
01:04:33,720 --> 01:04:35,680
Speaker 2: I make a have an opinion about it.

1227
01:04:36,240 --> 01:04:39,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's important to yeah, speak to talk to people

1228
01:04:39,840 --> 01:04:42,800
Speaker 1: and really form your opinion before you like confidently say something.

1229
01:04:42,800 --> 01:04:45,560
Speaker 1: And that exactly backtrack. I just want to call out too.

1230
01:04:45,880 --> 01:04:48,160
Speaker 1: I love knowing that you're still such good friends with

1231
01:04:48,200 --> 01:04:49,960
Speaker 1: so many of the people that you've worked under and

1232
01:04:50,000 --> 01:04:52,000
Speaker 1: worked with, because I do think that is a really

1233
01:04:52,080 --> 01:04:55,840
Speaker 1: important thing to call out in business. Don't burn any bridges.

1234
01:04:56,320 --> 01:04:59,080
Speaker 2: Do your best. You know it's not always going to

1235
01:04:59,120 --> 01:05:00,680
Speaker 2: work out, but do you right?

1236
01:05:00,720 --> 01:05:02,120
Speaker 1: It's so true And I've never.

1237
01:05:01,960 --> 01:05:04,720
Speaker 2: Burned the bridge. People have thrown a Molotov cocktail on

1238
01:05:04,760 --> 01:05:05,640
Speaker 2: my bridge.

1239
01:05:05,360 --> 01:05:12,560
Speaker 3: But yeah, it happens, and I'm like, okay, yeah time,

1240
01:05:13,160 --> 01:05:13,960
Speaker 3: But it is so true.

1241
01:05:14,000 --> 01:05:16,280
Speaker 1: It's like there's not like there's so many like cheesy

1242
01:05:16,360 --> 01:05:19,000
Speaker 1: quotes about it. But your network is your net worth.

1243
01:05:19,000 --> 01:05:20,360
Speaker 1: And I think it is so true, like it's so

1244
01:05:20,400 --> 01:05:22,800
Speaker 1: important to they say, you know, be just as kind

1245
01:05:22,840 --> 01:05:24,400
Speaker 1: to the people on the way up, because you'll see

1246
01:05:24,440 --> 01:05:26,840
Speaker 1: them on the way down. And I just I think it.

1247
01:05:26,800 --> 01:05:30,160
Speaker 3: Can then help people and you be open and honest.

1248
01:05:30,240 --> 01:05:32,160
Speaker 3: And one of the things too, the reason why I

1249
01:05:32,200 --> 01:05:34,760
Speaker 3: wanted to write that book is it's not a scrubbed

1250
01:05:34,840 --> 01:05:37,080
Speaker 3: up version of the history.

1251
01:05:37,200 --> 01:05:37,520
Speaker 2: I mean.

1252
01:05:37,800 --> 01:05:39,800
Speaker 3: And so when I say, you know, the narrative that

1253
01:05:39,840 --> 01:05:41,840
Speaker 3: you're building, it doesn't mean it has to be filled

1254
01:05:41,840 --> 01:05:44,439
Speaker 3: with lies. It's what you think things mean. Nothing means

1255
01:05:44,480 --> 01:05:47,720
Speaker 3: anything until you give it a meaning, right, that's up

1256
01:05:47,800 --> 01:05:50,480
Speaker 3: to you. But I also don't want it to sound

1257
01:05:50,600 --> 01:05:54,360
Speaker 3: all like you know all this, you know, steps to

1258
01:05:54,400 --> 01:05:57,280
Speaker 3: the top, and you know, like the latter thing is

1259
01:05:57,320 --> 01:06:02,280
Speaker 3: a joke, like there's no there's no corporate ladder. What

1260
01:06:02,320 --> 01:06:07,840
Speaker 3: that implies is that these are equally spaced rungs. I mean,

1261
01:06:08,080 --> 01:06:13,040
Speaker 3: that's not what's going to happen. It's a hike, it's

1262
01:06:13,120 --> 01:06:16,640
Speaker 3: up and down. It's a mountain trail, you know, And

1263
01:06:17,280 --> 01:06:19,760
Speaker 3: I think we have to share that as women, that

1264
01:06:19,840 --> 01:06:22,240
Speaker 3: it might be on a little further up the mountain

1265
01:06:22,440 --> 01:06:25,360
Speaker 3: than to other folks. Is that it's not all pretty.

1266
01:06:26,040 --> 01:06:30,080
Speaker 3: And when people write their cvs, I get it. But

1267
01:06:30,320 --> 01:06:33,480
Speaker 3: if you're not going to be honest about some of

1268
01:06:33,520 --> 01:06:35,560
Speaker 3: the ups and downs, I think that can be very

1269
01:06:35,560 --> 01:06:39,320
Speaker 3: disheartening to people who look at you, because I do

1270
01:06:39,360 --> 01:06:43,640
Speaker 3: not want people to say, oh, well she's gotten that

1271
01:06:43,760 --> 01:06:46,720
Speaker 3: because and then least out all these things about why

1272
01:06:46,800 --> 01:06:50,280
Speaker 3: it was so easy, because right almost the same thing

1273
01:06:50,280 --> 01:06:52,680
Speaker 3: that I was talking about with what did I learn

1274
01:06:52,160 --> 01:06:57,240
Speaker 3: as a leader? Don't assume sometimes they're not sharing it.

1275
01:06:57,640 --> 01:06:59,960
Speaker 3: But what I'm trying to break down is the wall

1276
01:07:00,080 --> 01:07:04,560
Speaker 3: between the folks that have quote unquote whatever made it

1277
01:07:04,920 --> 01:07:09,680
Speaker 3: tell the real story, because that gives other people a

1278
01:07:10,000 --> 01:07:13,320
Speaker 3: better sense about what the journey's going to be. And

1279
01:07:13,320 --> 01:07:15,480
Speaker 3: then one thing happens, it doesn't go right, or this

1280
01:07:15,520 --> 01:07:17,120
Speaker 3: episode get turned down for the job.

1281
01:07:18,440 --> 01:07:20,800
Speaker 2: Just keep going. That's happened to all of us.

1282
01:07:21,000 --> 01:07:23,200
Speaker 1: Yep, Well that's the ethos of our show is just

1283
01:07:23,280 --> 01:07:26,600
Speaker 1: keep moving. Seriously. Ah right now, there's going to be highs,

1284
01:07:26,600 --> 01:07:28,640
Speaker 1: there's going to be lows.

1285
01:07:27,760 --> 01:07:29,520
Speaker 2: It just keep.

1286
01:07:29,360 --> 01:07:32,240
Speaker 1: Swimming, Just keep swimming, Just keep moving seriously, it is

1287
01:07:32,280 --> 01:07:34,440
Speaker 1: it's just keep going. You've been in the room with

1288
01:07:34,520 --> 01:07:37,120
Speaker 1: so many successful people. You are such a successful person

1289
01:07:37,160 --> 01:07:41,320
Speaker 1: yourself obviously guys CEO of Fieldbear, what is a common

1290
01:07:41,480 --> 01:07:44,160
Speaker 1: thread that you've noticed among successful people?

1291
01:07:44,600 --> 01:07:49,880
Speaker 2: This is maybe an odd answer. Well, this part's not odd.

1292
01:07:50,400 --> 01:07:52,720
Speaker 3: You do have to have a certain level of expertise

1293
01:07:52,720 --> 01:07:56,160
Speaker 3: of whatever area, whatever you're doing.

1294
01:07:56,240 --> 01:07:57,400
Speaker 2: You know that would be helpful.

1295
01:07:57,840 --> 01:08:02,160
Speaker 3: It's not all luck, and a work ethic that probably

1296
01:08:02,440 --> 01:08:05,240
Speaker 3: goes hand in hand with that expertise. If you can

1297
01:08:05,560 --> 01:08:09,920
Speaker 3: combine that work ethic with an area a level of expertise,

1298
01:08:10,800 --> 01:08:15,520
Speaker 3: oftentimes that's very helpful. You've got to sprinkle in some luck.

1299
01:08:15,880 --> 01:08:19,200
Speaker 3: Not going to pretend that's not true. But the other

1300
01:08:19,280 --> 01:08:27,800
Speaker 3: piece is a level of self confidence because if you

1301
01:08:27,880 --> 01:08:31,280
Speaker 3: don't have that, and it doesn't have to be hubris,

1302
01:08:31,640 --> 01:08:35,400
Speaker 3: but you do have to have a gut feeling about

1303
01:08:35,439 --> 01:08:39,080
Speaker 3: things because you're going to if you rise up in

1304
01:08:39,160 --> 01:08:42,120
Speaker 3: the ranks, you're going to be put in more and

1305
01:08:42,200 --> 01:08:47,640
Speaker 3: more precarious situations where you're going to be asked to

1306
01:08:47,720 --> 01:08:52,040
Speaker 3: make a decision that could affect millions of dollars, thousands

1307
01:08:52,120 --> 01:08:56,479
Speaker 3: of people, millions of customers right and you're going to

1308
01:08:56,520 --> 01:09:02,360
Speaker 3: be asked to do that with wildly imperfon information on

1309
01:09:02,439 --> 01:09:05,800
Speaker 3: a very fast timetable and then convince people to come

1310
01:09:05,840 --> 01:09:09,400
Speaker 3: with you on this decision that if it's bad, it's

1311
01:09:09,439 --> 01:09:11,919
Speaker 3: on you, and if it's good, everybody else gets to celebrate.

1312
01:09:13,040 --> 01:09:18,120
Speaker 3: Those are lonely places and if that's not for you,

1313
01:09:19,800 --> 01:09:24,160
Speaker 3: leadership's not for you. And that's the hard part, right.

1314
01:09:24,680 --> 01:09:26,839
Speaker 1: You know. I like that you said, you know, sprinkle

1315
01:09:26,840 --> 01:09:29,280
Speaker 1: in a little bit of luck, and I think they're

1316
01:09:29,360 --> 01:09:31,360
Speaker 1: and then also have a good gut instinct and gut

1317
01:09:31,360 --> 01:09:34,200
Speaker 1: intuition on certain things, because I think there's times in

1318
01:09:34,240 --> 01:09:37,040
Speaker 1: life where there's almost like Matthew McConaughey wrote a book

1319
01:09:37,080 --> 01:09:38,719
Speaker 1: on it, right where it's like the green lights theory,

1320
01:09:39,320 --> 01:09:41,320
Speaker 1: What were the green lights in your life if you

1321
01:09:41,320 --> 01:09:43,559
Speaker 1: could identify them that kind of led you to where

1322
01:09:43,560 --> 01:09:44,080
Speaker 1: you are now.

1323
01:09:44,720 --> 01:09:45,439
Speaker 2: Yeah, So.

1324
01:09:47,160 --> 01:09:49,640
Speaker 3: This is Steve Jobs quote that you can't see the

1325
01:09:49,680 --> 01:09:54,639
Speaker 3: dots connecting when you're going through them, but you can

1326
01:09:54,680 --> 01:09:59,000
Speaker 3: see them all so clearly when you look back on it.

1327
01:10:00,200 --> 01:10:06,400
Speaker 2: I just think about just the sheer odds.

1328
01:10:04,600 --> 01:10:09,559
Speaker 3: Of small town Tennessee. Go to the university. Oh, I'm

1329
01:10:09,560 --> 01:10:11,400
Speaker 3: going to get a job in New York and I'm

1330
01:10:11,400 --> 01:10:12,760
Speaker 3: going to get a job at a week and I

1331
01:10:12,800 --> 01:10:16,000
Speaker 3: get this job and end up on confection. This guy

1332
01:10:16,040 --> 01:10:18,960
Speaker 3: who just says, go get an MBA. I'm like, where,

1333
01:10:19,400 --> 01:10:21,920
Speaker 3: I'm scared to go to Columbia ended up get this.

1334
01:10:22,000 --> 01:10:26,639
Speaker 3: You know roundabout big, you know the business side and

1335
01:10:26,720 --> 01:10:31,200
Speaker 3: the creative side. Then I spent you know, ten years,

1336
01:10:31,240 --> 01:10:35,160
Speaker 3: fifteen years, twenty in the toy industry. I get recruited

1337
01:10:35,240 --> 01:10:38,920
Speaker 3: out of that to go to Strive Right Children's group

1338
01:10:39,120 --> 01:10:40,599
Speaker 3: to learn vertical retail.

1339
01:10:41,560 --> 01:10:41,720
Speaker 1: Right.

1340
01:10:41,840 --> 01:10:44,639
Speaker 3: I didn't know anything about how to run retail till

1341
01:10:44,680 --> 01:10:47,760
Speaker 3: I went to Strive Right Children's group. That was a turnaround.

1342
01:10:48,560 --> 01:10:52,400
Speaker 3: The Matt Rebel, famous guy. I love him dearly again

1343
01:10:52,560 --> 01:10:55,360
Speaker 3: to this day. He's like, I said, why are you

1344
01:10:55,520 --> 01:11:00,720
Speaker 3: Why are you recruiting me from Hasbro? I don't know

1345
01:11:00,760 --> 01:11:03,519
Speaker 3: anything about shoes? He goes, because you know about China sourcing.

1346
01:11:04,000 --> 01:11:06,559
Speaker 3: I'm like, well, I don't know anything about retail. He goes, yeah,

1347
01:11:06,600 --> 01:11:09,040
Speaker 3: you do. You sell stuff to Walmart. I'm like, well,

1348
01:11:09,200 --> 01:11:13,280
Speaker 3: I don't know anything. I was arguing against him hiring me.

1349
01:11:13,640 --> 01:11:15,719
Speaker 3: He goes, I need you to stop this right now,

1350
01:11:16,120 --> 01:11:19,360
Speaker 3: because I am. I want you to come to work

1351
01:11:19,400 --> 01:11:22,200
Speaker 3: to us with us, because you are an expert.

1352
01:11:22,120 --> 01:11:26,959
Speaker 2: In kids and moms. You're a consumer expert.

1353
01:11:27,200 --> 01:11:29,800
Speaker 3: And what is in this was in twenty ten and

1354
01:11:29,840 --> 01:11:33,360
Speaker 3: what is happening right now in retail is an absolutely

1355
01:11:33,520 --> 01:11:36,639
Speaker 3: disaster and it's not going to be fixed by somebody

1356
01:11:36,680 --> 01:11:40,639
Speaker 3: that grew up in retail. I want you to come

1357
01:11:40,640 --> 01:11:43,120
Speaker 3: in and figure it out from scratch and I will

1358
01:11:43,120 --> 01:11:46,120
Speaker 3: help you do that. And in three years I was

1359
01:11:46,160 --> 01:11:47,240
Speaker 3: recruited to build a bear.

1360
01:11:50,080 --> 01:11:51,000
Speaker 2: What are the odds?

1361
01:11:51,240 --> 01:11:52,640
Speaker 1: And that changed your life.

1362
01:11:52,720 --> 01:11:53,639
Speaker 2: One hundred percent.

1363
01:11:53,960 --> 01:11:58,960
Speaker 3: And without that last little piece, I would not have

1364
01:11:59,040 --> 01:12:02,519
Speaker 3: been the perfect candidate, right.

1365
01:12:02,800 --> 01:12:05,280
Speaker 1: So what would be your advice on that? Don't go

1366
01:12:05,320 --> 01:12:06,000
Speaker 1: against the current.

1367
01:12:06,080 --> 01:12:09,880
Speaker 2: Sometimes you've got to believe in the universe. Man.

1368
01:12:10,880 --> 01:12:13,919
Speaker 1: Last question, if you could give one piece of advice

1369
01:12:14,040 --> 01:12:16,400
Speaker 1: to your twenty five year old self, what would it be?

1370
01:12:16,479 --> 01:12:19,000
Speaker 3: Oh, do same thing I tell my twenty six year

1371
01:12:19,040 --> 01:12:21,880
Speaker 3: old daughter, my twenty three year old son, and my

1372
01:12:21,880 --> 01:12:28,760
Speaker 3: twenty year old daughter. You know, it really is no

1373
01:12:29,520 --> 01:12:32,599
Speaker 3: learn You have to know yourself. I mean I'm going

1374
01:12:32,640 --> 01:12:38,960
Speaker 3: with this is ancient wisdom. Ill you know, you got

1375
01:12:38,960 --> 01:12:42,040
Speaker 3: to know yourself and it takes a lot of work

1376
01:12:42,479 --> 01:12:45,280
Speaker 3: and nobody's going to help you, but you to really

1377
01:12:45,360 --> 01:12:47,960
Speaker 3: understand what makes you tick, what's going to make you happy,

1378
01:12:48,320 --> 01:12:53,880
Speaker 3: and then be willing to go for those things, and

1379
01:12:55,000 --> 01:13:01,920
Speaker 3: that is a frightening journey. It's usual. This is a

1380
01:13:02,040 --> 01:13:06,120
Speaker 3: Nelson Mandela thought. It's not your darkness that's scared that

1381
01:13:06,200 --> 01:13:10,439
Speaker 3: scares you, it's your light. If you're able to find

1382
01:13:10,439 --> 01:13:14,479
Speaker 3: that light and go toward it, things just start to unfold.

1383
01:13:14,520 --> 01:13:16,200
Speaker 3: But you've got to believe. And it's not going to

1384
01:13:16,280 --> 01:13:19,280
Speaker 3: be that obvious in the moment, but once you start

1385
01:13:19,360 --> 01:13:27,360
Speaker 3: to see that, it's remarkable, truly, and I I can't

1386
01:13:27,400 --> 01:13:29,719
Speaker 3: I mean, I can't speak about that enough. It doesn't

1387
01:13:29,800 --> 01:13:31,800
Speaker 3: Sometimes I look back in my life and it just

1388
01:13:32,320 --> 01:13:34,320
Speaker 3: literally makes no sense.

1389
01:13:35,920 --> 01:13:38,479
Speaker 1: But at the same time means it's the same time.

1390
01:13:39,080 --> 01:13:40,920
Speaker 2: That's the dichotomy at all.

1391
01:13:40,960 --> 01:13:43,880
Speaker 1: All right, Yeah, it's so true. It's like when you

1392
01:13:44,040 --> 01:13:46,559
Speaker 1: just keep going and you're consistent and you keep showing

1393
01:13:46,640 --> 01:13:48,280
Speaker 1: up and you keep working hard.

1394
01:13:48,680 --> 01:13:49,559
Speaker 2: It's gotta give.

1395
01:13:49,880 --> 01:13:52,200
Speaker 1: Things do pan out. It does, Yeah, and maybe you

1396
01:13:52,200 --> 01:13:54,960
Speaker 1: don't end up becoming the CEO of a big company, but.

1397
01:13:54,960 --> 01:13:57,760
Speaker 3: I'm say that's always the thing anybody wants to be.

1398
01:13:57,840 --> 01:14:01,559
Speaker 4: But I'm sure you're doing something cool. Yeah, So exactly that.

1399
01:14:01,760 --> 01:14:03,760
Speaker 4: And that's the other piece of advice. And I'm not

1400
01:14:03,760 --> 01:14:05,120
Speaker 4: sure I want to give this to my kids, but

1401
01:14:05,160 --> 01:14:08,599
Speaker 4: I'll give it to you. If I was really sitting

1402
01:14:08,640 --> 01:14:13,960
Speaker 4: down with her, I'd be like, don't worry so much.

1403
01:14:15,840 --> 01:14:20,280
Speaker 3: You know, you're just you're giving yourself, you know, stomach ulcers,

1404
01:14:20,400 --> 01:14:23,320
Speaker 3: and you know you're so freaked out about like this

1405
01:14:23,360 --> 01:14:25,840
Speaker 3: step and that step and this step. You got to

1406
01:14:25,920 --> 01:14:28,800
Speaker 3: have a longer arc here. It's going to be amazing.

1407
01:14:29,280 --> 01:14:31,800
Speaker 3: And I do believe now looking back at it, even

1408
01:14:31,800 --> 01:14:34,800
Speaker 3: if I hadn't left the advertising industry, probably even if

1409
01:14:34,800 --> 01:14:36,920
Speaker 3: I hadn't gone to Columbia, if I'd done that, if

1410
01:14:36,920 --> 01:14:39,200
Speaker 3: I'd stay to Matel because sometimes you go back and

1411
01:14:39,200 --> 01:14:41,200
Speaker 3: you ruminate about all these things and the what ifs

1412
01:14:41,200 --> 01:14:42,599
Speaker 3: and the what ifs, and if it would have been better.

1413
01:14:42,640 --> 01:14:45,160
Speaker 3: If I did, everything would have been fine. It would

1414
01:14:45,240 --> 01:14:47,080
Speaker 3: not have mattered what path I took. It was all

1415
01:14:47,160 --> 01:14:47,800
Speaker 3: gonna be okay.

1416
01:14:48,320 --> 01:14:50,720
Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much for walking and talking with

1417
01:14:50,720 --> 01:14:51,200
Speaker 1: me today.

1418
01:14:51,320 --> 01:14:52,960
Speaker 2: Thank you. It is delightful.

1419
01:14:53,120 --> 01:14:55,640
Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you guys so much for listening to

1420
01:14:55,640 --> 01:14:58,880
Speaker 1: today's conversation with Sharon. If you enjoyed our episode and

1421
01:14:58,880 --> 01:15:02,000
Speaker 1: you're enjoying post run high, please remember to rate and

1422
01:15:02,080 --> 01:15:06,480
Speaker 1: review the show. It helps us continue bringing you inspiring conversations.

1423
01:15:06,800 --> 01:15:08,400
Speaker 1: All right, I'll see you guys next week.