Celebrating Women's Future Month

To celebrate Women’s History Month, or what I prefer to call, Women’s Future month, e.l.f. Beauty hosted a special Townhall Masterclass. A moment we e.l.f.z are privileged to learn together from incredible leaders of leaders who are also incredible human beings.

When I reached out to our guest speakers, they were both flattered and inspired. Flattered that they were chosen and inspired by e.l.f. Beauty's commitment to employee growth through these Masterclasses. They were so inspired they invited their own team members to join in this special moment with us. We were delighted by their enthusiasm and happy to welcome them to the fam.

Upon learning of our guest speakers, one of our employees wrote me saying “It's amazing to see e.l.f. invite powerful females outside of the company to share their inspirational stories.” To that I responded with Melanie Benders powerful words “We all gain by being close to the people that inspire us."

Melanie Bender, Susan Kim and Conor Begley are all forces in beauty and beyond who inspire everyone in their orbit to recalibrate what’s possible; what’s possible in beauty, what’s possible as a founder, entrepreneur, business leader, what’s possible in advancing purpose and fighting for causes you truly believe in.

Melanie and Susan are superwomen. Periodt. They are filled with greatness. More importantly, they inspire greatness in others. They help me be a better brand builder, a better leader and a better human.

Conor is a superman who has two superpowers in particular that I admire most. The first is connection. He is masterful at connecting people who can magnify each others power. His second superpower is championing. Conor uses his platform to champion, advocate and elevate women in order to pay it forward. Conor redefines what it means to be an ally.

Bringing these three superheroes together was an exceptional moment of education, motivation and inspiration. The dialog was so deep, so real, so genuine, it is worth sharing with a wider audience so that you too can draw from its richness. It is my privilege to share the sage advice and golden nuggets from our Masterclass with Melanie Bender, Founder of Versed and fearless leader of Planet A, Susan Kim, CEO of Kopari and Conor Begley, Co-Founder of Tribe Dynamics.

BE PROUD OF BEING DIFFERENT

• Be comfortable with being different
• Your differences are your strength, not your liability
• Your unique background is your competitive advantage
• Your unique set of experiences has brought you something and led you to where you are now
• Embrace who you are and embrace the differences in others
• Understand your differences and seek commonalities
• Diversity of vision and point of view is fundamental to success
• Winning in any competitive environment is about finding the opportunities that everyone else is missing

 BE CURIOUS

• Curiosity will serve your consumers
• Curiosity will serve your career
• Exercise and feed your curiosity and it will lead you to the exciting next place

 BE PURPOSEFUL

• Be what you stand for
• Take inventory with yourself and check in that you are fulfilling your own purpose; Am I bringing my best? Am I adding value? Am I contributing to growth for my company and teams?

BE UNSTOPPABLE

• Seek what it is you can be unstoppable at
• Find something you can excel in
• No one invites you into the perfect role for you, seek it and create it for yourself

 BE POWERFUL

• Make things happen
• We all have things that are important to us and driving us
• When we give up our hope, we give up our power
• We always have power, we always have a voice and we can use it

 BE THE CHANGE

• Nothing changes unless you take the steps to change them
• When things are important to you, you can’t do everything, but you can always do something
• Stand up for what you believe in, while not closing the conversation
• Call people in, don’t call them out

 BE A LEADER

• Leadership is not about you, it is about others
• Leadership is how you impact people in your absence
• Leadership is about leaving the room a better place than when you entered

 BE A MIRROR

• Reflect what your consumer base looks like
• Operate as a mirror image of your values

 BUILD A COMMUNITY

• We all gain by being close to the people that inspire us
• Be in the business of collecting friends
• Actively opt into community
• We all face similar challenges, don’t face them alone
• Focus on the net gain, benefit the collective whole
• Focus on collaboration versus competition

 BE KIND TO YOURSELF

• Imposter syndrome is a barrier, actively overcome it
• Give yourself the benefit of "I belong here"
• Give yourself grace and compassion
• Trust when people want to be around you and with you

BE PATIENT

• People tend to overestimate what they can do in a year and underestimate what they can do in a decade

BE BEAUTIFUL

• Beauty is self-expression
• Beauty is self-care
• Beauty is intimate
• Beauty is human