#162 When a Pandemic Trashes Your Business (Paula Floyd)

Paula Floyd is no stranger to transition. After seventeen years working with giants of the beauty industry such as MAC, Benefit, and Urban Decay, she felt the need for a shift. In her 50s, she was making $500,000 a year with an incredible title, but something didn’t feel right. She decided to look at what stood to be changed within the industry, and she found self-reinvention along the way. Leaving her six-figure job and selling her house, she founded HeadKount, a retail education service for small beauty brands looking to get their products into big retail stores. Things were going well...until the global pandemic. “Part of my business model was planning for the worst,” Paula says. Worried she might have to lay off the team-members who were relying on her, she stepped back and figured out how to shift her approach during a once-in-a-lifetime disruption. “How do you sell a skincare item you can’t open up and smell or touch on your hand?” she asks. In this conversation with Covey Club’s Lesley Jane Seymour, Paula explains how the many transitions in her professional life have impacted how she lives and thinks. “Follow what you love,” she advises us. “It’s really true: you’re worth it.”

Time Stamps:

[00:03:16.00] Introduction to makeup and start of career

[00:06:38.00] Meeting the ‘big guys’ of makeup and maturity

[00:11:44.00] Dealing with loss and insecurity 

[00:16:10.00] Beauty industry secrets you should know

[00:21:35:00] The pandemic and starting a company  

[00:27:55.00] Money, consumerism, and storytelling

FREE GIFT! Don’t start your reinvention without downloading CoveyClub’s starter guide called “31 Badass Tips for Launching Your Reinvention Without Fear!”