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.”
#120 Trinny Woodall: Fashion, Instagram & Career Chapters
#119: Charly Cox, Serena Guen, Lucia Wood: How To Survive & Thrive In The Creative Industry (Recorded Live in Jigsaw's Piccadilly Store)
#118: Ava Duvernay: It's Never Too Late To Change Career
#117: Jerico Mandybur: On Working At Girlboss Media, Imposter Syndrome & Astrology
#116 Dawn O'Porter: On Not Following The Herd
#114 Gina Martin: On Changing The Law On Upskirting
#113: Greta Gerwig: On Being a Multi-Hyphenate
#112 Emily Hill: Anti-Valentine's Episode: On Being Single & Crowdfunding
#111 Kate Leaver: Moving Cities & Moving On (LIVE Episode at Soho Hotel)
#110 Jayne Hardy: Self-Care, Depression & Recovery
#109: Jojo Moyes: How To Respond To Failure and Feedback
#108 Anna Hart: On Travel, Writing & Self-Discovery
#107: Lucy Sheridan: How To Stop Comparing And Despairing Online
#105: Tom Chatfield: How To Spot Bullsh*t
#104 Lauren Laverne: On The Joy & Intimacy Of Audio
#103 Why Is Talking About Money So Awkward? (Live Podcast at Starling Bank)
#102 June Sarpong: How To Diversify Your Life
#101 Hannah Jewell: A Nasty Woman Special
#100: A Special 100th Episode Rewind
#99 Will Storr: Selfies, Self-esteem & Our Environment
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