Sharmadean Reid founded WAH Nails as a side project in 2009 – now it is a huge global well-known business.
In this episode I chat to Sharmadean about productivity and distraction. She has a brilliant Guardian column called Bossing It where she answers modern work questions.
She wrote two WAH nails books, delivered global pop up nail salons for 100s of brands, created a product line with Walgreen Boots Alliance and was awarded an MBE for services to Beauty.
So now she is building a new way to book beauty online with her new company Beauty Stack.
We talk about what she’d learned from starting businesses. Sharmadean’s also working on a new campaign with NatWest which is all about helping small businesses be the best they can be. A big focus is on helping small businesses do more with less and improve their productivity through the NatWest Productivity Blueprint.
The medium article I reference in the opening section of the interview is called “Growing Up Too Fast — Or Why I Closed WAH Nails Topshop”.
Soundbites I love from this episode:
“Why not write a completely new rule for how we determine success?”
“Create your own pic ‘n’ mix from other people’s successful bios”
“You can’t copy someone else’s path”
“Being productive doesn’t mean being chained your desk the whole time.”
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#221 Susan Wokoma: Life On and Off Stage
#220 JP Watson: The Art of Crowdfunding A Book
#219 Emma Barnett: The Politics of Periods
#218 Lotte Jeffs: The Art of Soft Power In A Harsh World
#217 Alain de Botton: Life As A Process
#216 Rhik Samadder: Life Writing & Truth Telling
#215 Chelsea Kwakye: On Taking Up Space
#214 Sofie Hagen: Comedy + Boundaries
#213 Leah Hazard: Burnout In The NHS
#212 Lauren Mahon: The Story Of Girl Vs Cancer
#211 Otegha Uwagba & Polly MacKenzie on Self-Employment, Managing Your Money & Mental Health (Recorded LIVE with NatWest)
#210 Liz Ward: Do You Want To PIVOT?
#209 Jehane Noujaim: On Her Netflix Exposé of the Cambridge Analytica Scandal
#208 From The Archives! Lucy Sheridan: On Social Media Comparison
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#206 Elizabeth Gilbert: The Weather Forecast In Our Minds
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