July 28, 2025 • 41 mins
Lisa Price, founder of ‘Carol’s Daughter’ hair and beauty company gives us gems about business, family, and mental health. Nancy Redd and Lisa dig into everything from adoption to acquisitions in this special episode.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey to girl, Nancy Read and this is season four
of Mompreneurs, where we celebrate beautiful black entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Who are also amazing moms.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Now every week I'm chatting with my guests about how
they're killing it simultaneously as a business mogul and as
a mom, and we're listening to their inspiring journeys and
incredible advice. I'm so excited about this week because we
are diving into the incredible journey of a mom who,
over three decades ago, with the encouragement of her mama,
turned her kitchen experiments into a national empire.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Lisa Price is the founder of Carol's Daughter, which.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Started with a lot of love, very little kitchen space,
and just a few homemade products that she sold at
flea markets and went on to build a brand that
is changing and has changed the face of hair and
beauty for women of color. Then she sold the company
with great success, still continue to run it, and now
a decade later, she is back at the Helm and
(00:56):
we cannot wait to hear more because from mom to
Lisa's story is one of vision, hustle, and heart. Welcome
to Mompreneurs is.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Thank you, thank you for having me, it's nice to
hear mompreneur as opposed to entrepreneur.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Well, that's what's so fun about this show, because how
old were your kids when you started Carol's Daughter.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
When I started Carol's Daughter, I didn't have any children yet,
so I started in nineteen ninety three, and then my
first child was born in nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Wow, so your very first baby. Yeah, yeah, it's Carol's My.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Very first baby is Carol's Daughter.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Yes, So that what's so funny about that is you
talk a lot about the importance of the name, as
it's your mother, and she passed away twenty years ago
and you always see her mother.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
It's interesting when you think about the legacy of a mother.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
It's often not necessarily tied to monetary value, but emotional value.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
And what is it like to have a billion dollar.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Brand with the f of the woman who through thicken them,
like you said, always was glass half full, always by
your side. What is it like to have this legacy
with turning on the label but also your first title,
which was daughter.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
When I named the company Carol's Daughter, I got like
that butterfly feeling, that goosebump kind of feeling. And until
you're an entrepreneur for a while, you don't recognize that
as that gut instinct. So that was sort of the
first time that I recognized that feeling, and then could
(02:39):
recognize it more and more each time that I had it,
and then grateful that I trusted that gut feeling, because I,
of course did not know that in nineteen ninety three
I would lose my mom in two thousand and three.
(03:00):
You know, you think in your head they're going to
live on forever, and it was sometimes difficult, but for
the most part, very comforting to go to work every day,
to look at.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
Her name on packaging, to look at.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Her name on your computer screen on the website, and
to have that very tangible feeling of she's still with.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Me every day, she's watching me every day.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
And because she was the type of person that didn't
want you grieving and sad and sorrowful, it was also
a reminder to remember the good things.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
I always allowed myself space to cry.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
But I didn't walk around with gloom and doom. So
for so many different reasons, I'm so grateful that I
named the company after her, because I also get to
share how great she was, what a great mom. She
was when I do things like this and people asked, so, who.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
Is Carol did? She used to make body care.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Productsta and she was also a wonderful text subject. She
was always very appreciative of goodies to sample and try
out and give me feedback.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
I love that because raising the show is called moentrepreneurs
is generally speaking, in our families, it's the moms holding
it down. Often we have a lot of side hustles
where moms or business ladies, you know, we have actual jobs.
When you first started Carol's Daughter, you were not an entrepreneur.
You were working in film and TV.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
Yes, I worked in television and film production.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
It was a great career for me because it never
really got boring. Things changed up once I got accustomed
to the disruption of income, you know, because you work
on a show, and you could be on a show
for three years and then you could be on a
commercial for three days.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
You know, it's very ran.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
But we're in the entertainment industry.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
And there's a phrase that one of our favorite mentors says,
it's kind of difficult to make a living, but you
can make a killing.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
That's very good. That's very good.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
And I didn't realize that it was training for being
an entrepreneur. So I got accustomed to not having that regular,
regular paycheck, if you will, being more crugal, and then
also working long hours, working weekends. You know, there were
a lot of saturdays that I was working on television
(05:35):
or film gigs.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
So when I had to work for my business, it
wasn't a new thing. You know, I had already honed
those skills quite well.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
So when you look at this, your mother encouraged you
to start this business. You started small, just one hundred
dollars out of flea market.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
At what point did.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
You realize What was the moment where you realized this
was more than just a side hustle.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
This was an empire in the making.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
It probably took me a while to get to empire
because that just seemed you know, out of it didn't
look like what I was doing at the time. But
I was able to see, oh, maybe this can actually
be my main job. Maybe it will earn enough that
(06:22):
I can contribute towards the household. And when I did
end up having children, you know, I thought, oh, I
won't have to.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
Worry about a babysitter.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Well, I definitely had to worry about babysitter because I
couldn't be mom full time and work a business as well.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
But those were the things that I was thinking initially.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
And there were several moments of oh wow, maybe we
can do this. Oh wow, maybe we can do that.
And I think that happens when you start very tiny.
You know, you start out at a desk, you know,
you start out in your kitchen, and then you get
another report and you're like, well, maybe I could dedicate
this room to production and my office and a shipping center, you.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
Know, and then you move into another place and then
it's like, Okay.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
The basement can be this, and you know, because you
just keep you know, expanding. So there were many phases
of oh, this is becoming more you know, Oh now
I need employees, you know that. That was another phase,
like I can't do all of this by myself. I
need help to do this.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Yes, And so your first help were your family members.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
And before we get too far into the business side
of things, let's go back and let's talk about who
in your life pushed the mom and mom noor. Who's
in your beautiful household? You mentioned your husband. You've got
three kids.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
I do have three offspring, let's put it that way,
but they're no longer kids, so now.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Become times their kids are you consider them to be
grown adults who fully functioning in the world.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Well, okay, fully functioning, we're not there yet in the
house currently, my second born, Endi, my daughter, still lives
with us, and that it's a great thing. Not because
you know her other siblings or whatever. She's just a
(08:24):
different personality. So she was the kid when she was
a kid where you had to ask everybody, is Endy home?
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Is she here?
Speaker 1 (08:33):
And day?
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Are you out there?
Speaker 3 (08:34):
You know, like you had to check and make sure
that she was present because she was very to you know,
to herself.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
So Endy still lives in the house with us.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
We also have a dog, which is technically my eldest dog.
So my eldest who's my son. He lives in Atlanta,
and when he moved to Atlanta for work, he left
Roscoe here. So yeah, so Roscoe's the grand dog. That
that's the only baby in this house is Roscoe and
(09:04):
the youngest child is Becca, and Becca will be nineteen
in about a month, oh actually a month from today
she'll be She'll be nineteen a month from today, and
she just moved out in May.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
But she's only a block away.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
She's she's very she's very close by, but you know,
wanting to be independent and all of that. So still
a mompreneur because there is a thing with being a
mom and a dad to adult kids. You know that
that's the thing that they don't tell us about. They
kind of tell us about the when they're babies and
(09:41):
toddlers and when they're in school and the projects, and
nobody tells you what it's like.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
When they're twenty five and you're There are no books there.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Someone needs to write a book about because everyone talks
about the first few years. How does I have a
tween and a teen and I'm trying to figure out
how do I get them to launch successfully at the
same time trying to.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Work on my businesses right.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Interestingly enough, you started Carol's Daughter before you became a mother.
But you became a mother pretty soon in this journey.
This journey's over thirty years old. You've got you've become
a mom three years in. How did motherhood shape your journey?
Like you said you wanted to, You thought, okay, well,
this will be a great little mom hustle not so much.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
This ended up being its own, its own, its own universe.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Definitely for me, it shaped my journey as a mom
in teaching me to sit still, surprisingly like you wouldn't
think about that with children. But I was very driven
and a workaholic and strived for perfection and always tried
(10:51):
to get everything on the list done.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
And I could kind of achieve.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
That before Forrest was born, the first one. And then
Forrest comes along and I'm nursing Forrest, and I'm nursing
on demand. So there's these times of day, whether there's
a sitter there or not, where you have to stop
what you're doing and feed your baby.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
And I often would reflect on this.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
That if I wasn't a nursing mom, how many times
would I have kept working and prepared the bottle and
given somebody else the bottle to give to Forrest.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
That might have happened a couple of times throughout a day.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
And I'm grateful that I didn't do that, and that
I got those moments to be still, because it reminded
me later when Forrest is in daycare and Envy is,
you know, at nursery school or whatever, that I could
take a minute and drink a cup of tea. I
could take a minute and just look out the window.
(11:54):
So they taught me how to slow down. And for context,
Forest and Endy, the first two are only nineteen months apart,
so that was kind of bam bam, you know, And
it was a bit like having twins, and it was
very much these times where you just learn how to
(12:18):
go with the flow. And then the youngest one came
into the mix about ten years in, so Forrest was
nine or.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Ten and Andy was seven eight and she was adopted,
so she wasn't a surprise.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
There was definitely choice and plan and all of that
because at this point I'm more of an entrepreneur and
I'm traveling for the business and I'm teaching and all
of the things. And so when I would speak at
different events, people would.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
Always ask how do you juggle it all?
Speaker 3 (12:50):
How do you manage being a bomb and you know,
running a business, A question, by the way, that men
are never asked. So I would notice I would notice
the difference when I was at an event that was
majority women versus events that were majority men.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
No one ever asked men that question.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
And so what I would usually tell people is that
you don't get everything done. It's not so much about balance,
it's a bit more juggling. And at that time, I had,
you know, a nine year old and an eight year old,
and then I had a baby. If the nine year
(13:30):
old falls down, he's going to be okay. If the
eight year old, you know, trips, she's gonna be okay.
But if I dropped the baby, that that's a problem
and the right. So that's that's how I prioritized making
that analogy.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
You have to worry about the things that you have
to worry about.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
And then there's other stuff that you just have to
let go because you can't get everything done.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
You just can't.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
You can't, you absolutely can't.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
And I just, first and foremost, I'm very excited to
hear that your that your baby is adopted, that you're
youngest child's adopted, it's no longer baby nineteen years old.
Because it's such a big issue in the black community.
Can you share a little bit about how her adoption
came to be sure?
Speaker 3 (14:19):
So, my husband and I coincidentally, you know, we grew
up in households with foster care and adoption. My mother
fostered and adopted six children, and his mother fostered maybe
more than six, but about the same number. And of
the six, she was able to adopt two of them.
(14:42):
We you know, had the first two. I had a
miscarriage after the first two, and I didn't want to
go through extra efforts to conceive. I felt like I
was already blessed with having conceived the two.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
That we did, and I didn't feel the need to, you.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Know, spend money and time trying to do something else.
Maybe it meant we just open up the family in
a different way. So we explored adoption, and we adopted
her through the New York Force the care system, and
it was great.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
It was great. She she fit right in.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
She came into our home at just about four months
old and was a spitfire even at four months old.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
And you know, a lot of people listening to this,
all of us, I have I have a rainbow baby myself,
which is the colloquial term for when you had a
miscarriage and then you.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Have another child. Uh.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
And it's a it's a very underdiscussed topic. If you
have any words of wisdom for anyone who is busy,
who's out there, who's who's trying to figure out her fertility,
her motherhood journey, and her mompreneurship, her entrepreneurship. Any any
words of wisdom for people considering adoption.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
Do your research for sure.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
There's different ways to adopt, and private adoption is very
different from adopting.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Within the foster care system, and.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
It's important to get as much information as you can
about birth parents. But the other thing that is super
important to remember, especially if you've already been a parent,
there's a belief within the adoption circles that if you
(16:37):
adopt a child at a very young age, that nurture
is going to trump nature. So you adopt a baby,
the baby is three months old, four months old, five
months old, they're not verbal yet, They're not going to
remember anything about their past. They're four months old, they
don't know who mom is, your mom, your dad.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
You don't have to worry about that. And it's just
not true.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Nature trump's nurture, and you can't ignore nature. You can't
ignore their past. And together with their doctors and if
you have, you know, a family therapist, you have to
know the right time to tell them who they are
and how they came into your life. And you have
to allow space and grace for their confusion, for their anger,
(17:28):
for them to maybe not feel welcomed because at the
end of the day, they grew inside of someone else's
body and perhaps never made connection with that person.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
And having been.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
A mother, we know what that feels like when we
carry someone and then we make a connection with them.
And just imagine if you carried someone and never made
the connection, like you never met each other, you would
think about that person out in the world, you know, prayerfully,
out in the world. You would wonder what it would
(18:01):
be like if you had met them. And it's the
same for the baby. Even though they make you think
when you're adopting them, oh, it's an infant, you'll be fine.
They're not going to remember anything about the past. Now
they remember those.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
Voices that they never get got to say hello too.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
That's so important.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
And I think so much of what you're saying is
just the basis of being a good mother in general,
a good parent for your child.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Like everyone's nature is their nature.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
And I even think sometimes you hear you should tell
them about their grandparents, should tell them about their uncles.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
You know, you should you should read whether or not a.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Birth child, or not helping people understand themselves and instead
of just trying to fit them in the little box.
Because we're all guilty of that. But I think that's
one of the beautiful things. You and your husband came
from giant families of birth origin, of not birth origin,
and you've evolved more than most of us to understand
(18:59):
the importance of respecting humanity. How has that served you
with Carol's daughter, because I think one of the things
that you've been really good at is pivoting, rolling with
the punches.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Those are things you learn when you're not a single child.
Those things you learn when you are sharing with a
lot of people.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Absolutely, And I always learned from my mom that the
glass is half full, it's not half empty. So even
when something is difficult, I'm looking for, well, what is
the positive within it? And then, more recently, like within
the last five years or so, since I've been in therapy, learning.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
That I can't completely ignore the difficulty because.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
I used to just say, oh, it's not half empty,
it's only half full. But two things can exist at
the same time. It is half empty, but it's also
half full, and we can choose to focus on the
positive side of it, while still acknowledging that there's a challenge,
that it's.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
Difficult, that there's a deficit.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
And I think that's important to acknowledge how you feel
about something, to acknowledge that maybe something is hard, but
then finding a way through it and finding a way
to pivot.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Carol, you are a general model, not just as a mogul,
but as like a human being, because you're hitting all
the things that are my passions being a good parent.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Like you, you understand it's the business and the family.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
You've always haid Carol Star as a family first business,
but it wasn't a mom first business. So I love
to hear that in these years after the acquisition, which
comes with pros and cons. We'll talk about it a
little bit later. You took a little time for yourself.
Was five years ago when you started therapy. Was that
your first foray into self discovery?
Speaker 3 (20:45):
It was my first foray into therapy that was just
about me. I had been in couples therapy at one
point with my husband years ago, and that we were
in family therapy be with different issues with the children.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
Here and there. But I had never sat down and.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Talked to a therapist just about myself, and so I
started to learn about things from my childhood that were
still playing out decades later. It's remarkable and I'm very
blessed that I can have that in my life, and
I can't imagine my life without it.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Out of curiosity, do you think going to therapy encouraged
you to buy your business?
Speaker 3 (21:33):
I wouldn't say that it encouraged me to buy my
business back. But what it did do was teach me
when I needed to step back from something and not
try to control it. A phrase that my therapist used
once was you're trying to make everything look pretty.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
And at first when she.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Said it, I was like, well, that's kind of superficial.
You know, I don't just want to make things look pretty.
And she said no, she said, hear me out. You
have actually made a living, a good living, off of
making things look pretty. People are going to go and
do their hair. You have products that help their hair
look pretty. It helps it smell good, It helps them
(22:22):
to feel good. Learning how to not try to fix
things that I thought I could fix helped me operate.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
Within my business in a different way when I was
in the corporate space.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
And then when the opportunity presented itself that I could
be an owner again.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
I was in a better place to understand.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
I know who I was as an entrepreneur before, I
know who I was as an employee, and now I
get to be an entrepreneur again. But I know so
much more than she did back then. This could be
fantastic because I've figured out this. I've figured out this,
I know how to manage this.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
This doesn't trigger me in the same way. Not that
I'm perfect, but I just I.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Have so much more information now. I have so much
more confidence now. And if I.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Did all that I did back then with all of
the things that she was dealing with, God only knows
what I could do today. But I wouldn't.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
I don't think I would have been able to see
that clearly had I not gone through the five years
of therapy and then within that taking a mental health break,
stepping away from work for the first time in my life.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Five You took a five month sabbatical, right, yes, no.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Which okay, so this is very important, like and this
was very recent, this is towards the end of the
Laoreal years. You took a five month sabbatical, which sounds impossible.
To many of us, right, especially because black woman's kryptonite
is the C word that you said, control suffer from it.
Your therapist sounds like my therapist. We were very lucky
to have the privilege to unpack a lot of these
(24:07):
things that come from a lot of social issues. I
encourage everyone listening to this to do, like Linson bee is,
is you a therapist. It's going to help you unpack
this control stuff because before therapy, could you have imagine
taking five months for yourself? Now would the world fall
apart if you took five days?
Speaker 4 (24:24):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Yes, And I had had leave prior because I had
foot surgery a couple of times where I couldn't I
couldn't walk on my foot for months. But I was
taking meetings from my phone in bed. I was emails,
packages being shipped to.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
My house, given approvals on stuff.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
This time, because things were so tense and there was
so much going on. I remember having the conversation with
my therapist and she said, you're having issues and stress
at work, You're having issues with your youngest child, and
then the issues with your youngest child are spilling over
(25:07):
into your home life. And she said, which one of
those things can you actually turn off. And the only
one that I could turn off was work, because work
there was a whole team there running things and doing things,
and technically I could step away.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
And initially I was so stressed out that.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
I was wondering, am I supposed to retire now? Is
that what the universe is telling me? That it's time
for me to just walk away because this is all
just too hard? And she said, you can't make a
decision like that now, you're under too much stress. If
you weren't going through everything that you're going through with
your youngest, would you even ask that question? And I said,
I don't think so. She said, so then you can't
(25:53):
make a decision like that, she said, but you can
step away and breathe. And I set up the with
HR to ask for the break, and just being on
the call and asking, I started sobbing. I probably scared
the person half to death. And they basically said, okay,
(26:14):
so your leave starts right now. I'll send you the.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
Email link for the paperwork. And I was like, okay,
so much.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
A basket cake, But I think I just needed to
say the words out.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Loud, and those tears talked about what those tears are
There were not tears of regret, pent up tears.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Carol's damer didn't just happen out of nowhere. You had investor.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
You have been living your life for thousands of people. Yeah,
from birth technically, but that's a whole other can of words.
But definitely from your.
Speaker 4 (26:46):
Mid thirties, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
And that's thirty years of leave, some being second banana.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
And it was the I guess, the level of emotion
that made me look at this and say, I can't
do this the way that I did before.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
I really do have to turn off.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
I have to trust that my thirty something year old
firstborn will be fine with these other people, but her
mother has to take care of herself because.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
I'm not good to anybody like this. And it made
it easier for me to pull away.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
And then it was remarkable to come back and realize
that the house didn't burn down. Now, were there some
decisions made that maybe I wouldn't have coside? Yeah, but
nothing earth shattering, life threatening, nothing that was insurmountable.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
And I came back with a.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Different energy, a different way of approaching things that everything
wasn't so dire. I felt like I could be more,
not more collaborative because it was already a collaborative to situation.
But I could eat in an easier way, let certain
things go, like, you know what, that's.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
Not really worth my energy. I'm going to focus on that.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
I didn't have this desire to be in every single meeting,
you know, Like I left with a stack of meetings
every day. I came back and I was like, no,
I only need to do three of these today, and
then I can spend time writing, and then I can
spend time ideating, and then tomorrow I'll.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
Do another two.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
You know, I couldn't do that before. I felt like
I had to show up for everything.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
I have to be present.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
They have to know that I'm here, And so the
work became more efficient and less rote.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Taking the step back made you realize how much control
that you seeded actually gave you more control. I think
that's the thing that I have had to realize is
that I think by touching everything, I'm doing everybody's service.
But touched and everything means that not every the things
that really deserve your touch, deserve your creativity, deserve what
(29:06):
makes you special, what made Carol's daughter. That means they
get the short end of the staff of the stick.
So now you are independent, which is a whole other
can of worms. You were with the company all this time,
except for the five months sabbatical.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
That was an excellent thing to take.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
What does independence mean for the mission of Carrol's Daughter,
for what you do, especially as one of those few
black owned national beauty brands, like, how will you continue?
How will you execute upon this new enlightened version of
Lisa Price, founder and CEO of Carol's Daughter.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Well, I think the best part is being able to
be more nimble making those changes within a large corporation
that must operate with process, so.
Speaker 4 (29:53):
That everybody within that.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
Corporation, all the brands operate smoothly and everything works.
Speaker 4 (29:59):
You know, spinning and greave grooves.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
If you will, it means that you plan two years
out and if the industry shifts within that two years,
you still got to make it work. You can't flip
the script and change your launch. When you're independent and
it's just your company and you're not woven into this
(30:23):
big process, you can be more nimble and you can
act a bit quicker and experiment with a bit more creativity.
And then to couple that with being someone who is
more knowledgeable, more confident, smarter.
Speaker 4 (30:42):
About how I work. I don't feel as fearful as
I felt when I was independent before.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
And when you live through the nightmare and the sun
still comes up the next day and your kids are
healthy and your husband is good and you know you
still living your life, you realize that it wasn't that deep.
And like you said, it's not really your fault. So
that's the person that sits here today.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
And now, if I when I look at it looks
like you're building a legacy this period.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Is you building a legacy?
Speaker 1 (31:19):
And how would you define the legacy you're trying to
build as a mother, as a morepreneur, as a cultural leader.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
I believe that and I hope this to be true,
that my children have been able to see that there
are options to how you can work and how you
can live.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
My oldest is a He's an old soul for someone
who's only twenty nine. He's a lot like his dad.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
He feeds off of other people's energy and loves to
engage people in conversation, but he's also very ad add
and can't sit still with never thrive in an office space.
Speaker 4 (32:03):
And he's an assistant.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Manager at an auto parts chain in Georgia and is
the happiest that he has been in years because he
loves cars and he has loved cars since before he
could spell car, and he loves to geek out and
be a nerd about cars. And he gets to do
(32:24):
that at work with customers, with clients, with staff, but
then also gets to earn.
Speaker 4 (32:29):
A living and he's not miserable.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
So I think that he learned you might have to
sacrifice some income, some luxuries, things like that, but it's
important to be happy at the work that you do.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
It's important to have a passion for what you do.
And if you can work the passion into your hobby
and get the ballance there, great, But if you can
work it into how you make a living, even better,
and I think that's an important legacy. And then there's
the legacy for other.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
Entrepreneurs, for other entrepreneurs to see that the story doesn't
have to end with an acquisition. Because the first person
that I thought of when this opportunity presented itself, I
thought about Bobby Brown. Bobby Brown went from Bobby Brown
Cosmetics to Jones Road Beauty. Bobby is in her sixties
(33:28):
and she has a bed and breakfast hotel. You know,
she has other businesses in Montclair, New Jersey that she
and her husband have invested in, and now she started
a new beauty company.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
With Jones Road. And then being the person that I.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
Am where I was one of the first to start
a brand based.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
On natural hair, you know, the only one.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
That's been around for thirty two years, the first company
to get equity from you know, equity partners, to acquisition
to reclaiming the brand.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
I end up.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
Being that auntie that people track down and reach out,
whether it's over DM or they get my email.
Speaker 4 (34:12):
From someone on my phone number, and.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
They don't have anybody else to talk to because there
aren't that many of us that look like us in
this space, and they need help.
Speaker 4 (34:24):
And now I'm sure that you know, there's other women.
Speaker 3 (34:29):
As successful as me, if not more, that maybe there's
other people that can be called.
Speaker 4 (34:34):
But in thirty two years.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
I've definitely gotten you know, those messages like I need help,
I don't know how.
Speaker 4 (34:40):
To do this, you know.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
So that's also part of the need for the therapy
because we were the only I remember I was in
college and I did something and I was like really
proud of myself. I think I was one who wants
a millionaire, and I'd won a quarter of a million dollars.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
I was a college dude. It was really fun. It's
very exciting. I hit this.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Call and they're just like, it's great that you were
the first black person to win so much money, but
make sure you're not the only I'm.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Like twenty years old.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
I'm like, oh my god.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
But I mean it was very important.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
But there's a lot of pressure on you. That's not
a different echelon. There's all this pressure.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
We make sure and that's really great, but you do that.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
This is very important. What's so great about Lisa, everyone listening,
is she sent the elevator back. Now, she walked down
the stairs and up the stairs. It's an easy lift.
It's a heavy lift.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
And one of the things I'm really proud of.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
You for is the fact that in twenty twenty one,
you actually partnered with another one of our mompreneurs, leith
On Thomas, and her foundation, the Mom Would Go Foundation.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
I wanted to want to hear this story because this
is a great example.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Okay, obviously you're a very busy lady, got a lot
going on, You got a husband, you got three kids,
you got this whole business you got going on, but
you still made time to reach out on under auspices
that might not necessarily that are that are important to you.
Speaker 4 (35:55):
Talk to us.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
About how how love delivered, which is what you partnered
with Latham to create as a company.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
We were looking for what our philanthropic effort was going
to be, and there are a number of things that
I care about, and black maternal health.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
Was definitely one of them.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
You know, in your life, when you're really busy, you'll
say something like, I just want to get off the
Merry go.
Speaker 4 (36:20):
Round for a little while.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
I just needed to stop. And I felt like during
the pandemic, the Merry go Round stopped and I got
to get off. And during that time, I thought about
Latham and I said, you know, I bet she knows
of an organization that maybe we can work with because
she's a doula and this is, you know, her world.
(36:43):
And so I reached out to her and then she
came back to me and she said, you're not going
to believe this, but I'm completing my paperwork now for
Mama Glow Foundation to be a five ZHO one to
three c and I was like, what you know, So
that started it with audio notes, and then when we
could go outside, we went for walks and we just
(37:06):
talked about what this could look like and what it
could be.
Speaker 4 (37:09):
And when I brought it to the team from day one,
they were like, oh my god, this is perfect, this
is amazing, this is exactly what we needed.
Speaker 3 (37:18):
And then we had to take it through the corporate process,
you know, and get it approved and set up.
Speaker 4 (37:24):
But from the very beginning.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
It was that thing that you start talking about it
and it just makes you feel all mushy and warm
and great inside.
Speaker 4 (37:34):
When you had to do work for it, whether.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
It was events or shoots, no one showed up like,
oh gosh, gotta get this stuff done. Everybody showed up
like isn't this great? I'm so glad we get to
do this. And everybody had their own, whether it was
their personal or of a friend, a birth story not
necessarily tragic, but not really what they wanted, you know,
(38:01):
that feeling of not being heard that you know, sometimes disrespected,
And if we could change one birth, it meant the world.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
And some of those babies that you help to have
good birth stories will hopefully grow up and in three decades,
they will be seeing Carrol's daughter on the shelf themselves,
because that's the goal of this new chapter. And so
you know, our time is almost up, but I can't
let you leave without participating in my favorite segment, which
is called Mompreneur's manifestation. And I always ask all of
(38:34):
our guests, what are they trying to make happen right
now with their companies, and how can we help to
bring it into the universe for you?
Speaker 3 (38:41):
What I am manifesting now and what I ask for
every day when when I say my prayers for the company,
is that the customer is patient with us, because you know,
we announced in March that I'm an owner again and
it's independent, so people expect that by May.
Speaker 4 (39:04):
Where's the new products? Where's it? You know?
Speaker 3 (39:07):
And we can't really bring you the new products until
back half twenty six, early twenty seven, because development, testing, all.
Speaker 4 (39:16):
Of that stuff takes time, and you also have.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
To unravel yourself from this very complex corporate structure. So
I have been praying for everyone to have patience and
grace with us and be ready for twenty twenty six
when the newness will start to flow and show up
and show.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Out when we read a girl And you know what's
really what makes me have You're ready.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
You're in such a great place you have. It's so hard.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
It's so hard for those of you who have smaller
children right now, like nothing prepares you. As these kids
get older. You everyone says, oh, it gets easier. I
personally think it's harder. But that's a whole other conversation. Lisa,
I need to have you back all to talk about.
And you're doing a great job. You're a wonderful role
model for holistically and wholeheartedly growing your business as well
(40:07):
as yourself.
Speaker 4 (40:08):
Thank you, Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
Can you tell everyone where they can find you on
the internet.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
I am mostly an Instagram person, but I do have
a presence on TikTok and I am I am Lisa
Price on both and I you know, we have our website, Carolsdaughter.
Speaker 4 (40:30):
Dot com right now.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
Carolsdaughter dot com is information and when you click to shop,
it takes you to our Amazon store. By the end
of the summer, you will be able to shop on
Carol's Daughter. You'll still be able to shop on Amazon,
but our site will be D two C once again.
Speaker 4 (40:50):
Amazing. Yeah, that's where you can find me.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
I love that so much and I'm so proud of you.
This is incredible. Thank you, Auntie, thank you.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
Mama for just being a light in our life, and
thank you to all of our listeners and our watchers.
As a reminder, a brand new episode of Entrepreneurs goes
live every Monday on Urban one podcast Network, Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
or wherever you get your podcasts. Visit urbanwepodcast dot com
to learn more. That's Urban the number one podcast dot com.
Hey to girl, Nancy Read and this is season four
of Mompreneurs, where we celebrate beautiful black entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Who are also amazing moms.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Now every week I'm chatting with my guests about how
they're killing it simultaneously as a business mogul and as
a mom, and we're listening to their inspiring journeys and
incredible advice. I'm so excited about this week because we
are diving into the incredible journey of a mom who,
over three decades ago, with the encouragement of her mama,
turned her kitchen experiments into a national empire.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Lisa Price is the founder of Carol's Daughter, which.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Started with a lot of love, very little kitchen space,
and just a few homemade products that she sold at
flea markets and went on to build a brand that
is changing and has changed the face of hair and
beauty for women of color. Then she sold the company
with great success, still continue to run it, and now
a decade later, she is back at the Helm and
(00:56):
we cannot wait to hear more because from mom to
Lisa's story is one of vision, hustle, and heart. Welcome
to Mompreneurs is.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Thank you, thank you for having me, it's nice to
hear mompreneur as opposed to entrepreneur.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Well, that's what's so fun about this show, because how
old were your kids when you started Carol's Daughter.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
When I started Carol's Daughter, I didn't have any children yet,
so I started in nineteen ninety three, and then my
first child was born in nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Wow, so your very first baby. Yeah, yeah, it's Carol's My.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Very first baby is Carol's Daughter.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Yes, So that what's so funny about that is you
talk a lot about the importance of the name, as
it's your mother, and she passed away twenty years ago
and you always see her mother.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
It's interesting when you think about the legacy of a mother.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
It's often not necessarily tied to monetary value, but emotional value.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
And what is it like to have a billion dollar.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Brand with the f of the woman who through thicken them,
like you said, always was glass half full, always by
your side. What is it like to have this legacy
with turning on the label but also your first title,
which was daughter.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
When I named the company Carol's Daughter, I got like
that butterfly feeling, that goosebump kind of feeling. And until
you're an entrepreneur for a while, you don't recognize that
as that gut instinct. So that was sort of the
first time that I recognized that feeling, and then could
(02:39):
recognize it more and more each time that I had it,
and then grateful that I trusted that gut feeling, because I,
of course did not know that in nineteen ninety three
I would lose my mom in two thousand and three.
(03:00):
You know, you think in your head they're going to
live on forever, and it was sometimes difficult, but for
the most part, very comforting to go to work every day,
to look at.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
Her name on packaging, to look at.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Her name on your computer screen on the website, and
to have that very tangible feeling of she's still with.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Me every day, she's watching me every day.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
And because she was the type of person that didn't
want you grieving and sad and sorrowful, it was also
a reminder to remember the good things.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
I always allowed myself space to cry.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
But I didn't walk around with gloom and doom. So
for so many different reasons, I'm so grateful that I
named the company after her, because I also get to
share how great she was, what a great mom. She
was when I do things like this and people asked, so, who.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
Is Carol did? She used to make body care.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Productsta and she was also a wonderful text subject. She
was always very appreciative of goodies to sample and try
out and give me feedback.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
I love that because raising the show is called moentrepreneurs
is generally speaking, in our families, it's the moms holding
it down. Often we have a lot of side hustles
where moms or business ladies, you know, we have actual jobs.
When you first started Carol's Daughter, you were not an entrepreneur.
You were working in film and TV.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
Yes, I worked in television and film production.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
It was a great career for me because it never
really got boring. Things changed up once I got accustomed
to the disruption of income, you know, because you work
on a show, and you could be on a show
for three years and then you could be on a
commercial for three days.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
You know, it's very ran.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
But we're in the entertainment industry.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
And there's a phrase that one of our favorite mentors says,
it's kind of difficult to make a living, but you
can make a killing.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
That's very good. That's very good.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
And I didn't realize that it was training for being
an entrepreneur. So I got accustomed to not having that regular,
regular paycheck, if you will, being more crugal, and then
also working long hours, working weekends. You know, there were
a lot of saturdays that I was working on television
(05:35):
or film gigs.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
So when I had to work for my business, it
wasn't a new thing. You know, I had already honed
those skills quite well.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
So when you look at this, your mother encouraged you
to start this business. You started small, just one hundred
dollars out of flea market.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
At what point did.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
You realize What was the moment where you realized this
was more than just a side hustle.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
This was an empire in the making.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
It probably took me a while to get to empire
because that just seemed you know, out of it didn't
look like what I was doing at the time. But
I was able to see, oh, maybe this can actually
be my main job. Maybe it will earn enough that
(06:22):
I can contribute towards the household. And when I did
end up having children, you know, I thought, oh, I
won't have to.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
Worry about a babysitter.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Well, I definitely had to worry about babysitter because I
couldn't be mom full time and work a business as well.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
But those were the things that I was thinking initially.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
And there were several moments of oh wow, maybe we
can do this. Oh wow, maybe we can do that.
And I think that happens when you start very tiny.
You know, you start out at a desk, you know,
you start out in your kitchen, and then you get
another report and you're like, well, maybe I could dedicate
this room to production and my office and a shipping center, you.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
Know, and then you move into another place and then
it's like, Okay.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
The basement can be this, and you know, because you
just keep you know, expanding. So there were many phases
of oh, this is becoming more you know, Oh now
I need employees, you know that. That was another phase,
like I can't do all of this by myself. I
need help to do this.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Yes, And so your first help were your family members.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
And before we get too far into the business side
of things, let's go back and let's talk about who
in your life pushed the mom and mom noor. Who's
in your beautiful household? You mentioned your husband. You've got
three kids.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
I do have three offspring, let's put it that way,
but they're no longer kids, so now.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Become times their kids are you consider them to be
grown adults who fully functioning in the world.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Well, okay, fully functioning, we're not there yet in the
house currently, my second born, Endi, my daughter, still lives
with us, and that it's a great thing. Not because
you know her other siblings or whatever. She's just a
(08:24):
different personality. So she was the kid when she was
a kid where you had to ask everybody, is Endy home?
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Is she here?
Speaker 1 (08:33):
And day?
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Are you out there?
Speaker 3 (08:34):
You know, like you had to check and make sure
that she was present because she was very to you know,
to herself.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
So Endy still lives in the house with us.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
We also have a dog, which is technically my eldest dog.
So my eldest who's my son. He lives in Atlanta,
and when he moved to Atlanta for work, he left
Roscoe here. So yeah, so Roscoe's the grand dog. That
that's the only baby in this house is Roscoe and
(09:04):
the youngest child is Becca, and Becca will be nineteen
in about a month, oh actually a month from today
she'll be She'll be nineteen a month from today, and
she just moved out in May.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
But she's only a block away.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
She's she's very she's very close by, but you know,
wanting to be independent and all of that. So still
a mompreneur because there is a thing with being a
mom and a dad to adult kids. You know that
that's the thing that they don't tell us about. They
kind of tell us about the when they're babies and
(09:41):
toddlers and when they're in school and the projects, and
nobody tells you what it's like.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
When they're twenty five and you're There are no books there.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Someone needs to write a book about because everyone talks
about the first few years. How does I have a
tween and a teen and I'm trying to figure out
how do I get them to launch successfully at the
same time trying to.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Work on my businesses right.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Interestingly enough, you started Carol's Daughter before you became a mother.
But you became a mother pretty soon in this journey.
This journey's over thirty years old. You've got you've become
a mom three years in. How did motherhood shape your journey?
Like you said you wanted to, You thought, okay, well,
this will be a great little mom hustle not so much.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
This ended up being its own, its own, its own universe.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Definitely for me, it shaped my journey as a mom
in teaching me to sit still, surprisingly like you wouldn't
think about that with children. But I was very driven
and a workaholic and strived for perfection and always tried
(10:51):
to get everything on the list done.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
And I could kind of achieve.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
That before Forrest was born, the first one. And then
Forrest comes along and I'm nursing Forrest, and I'm nursing
on demand. So there's these times of day, whether there's
a sitter there or not, where you have to stop
what you're doing and feed your baby.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
And I often would reflect on this.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
That if I wasn't a nursing mom, how many times
would I have kept working and prepared the bottle and
given somebody else the bottle to give to Forrest.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
That might have happened a couple of times throughout a day.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
And I'm grateful that I didn't do that, and that
I got those moments to be still, because it reminded
me later when Forrest is in daycare and Envy is,
you know, at nursery school or whatever, that I could
take a minute and drink a cup of tea. I
could take a minute and just look out the window.
(11:54):
So they taught me how to slow down. And for context,
Forest and Endy, the first two are only nineteen months apart,
so that was kind of bam bam, you know, And
it was a bit like having twins, and it was
very much these times where you just learn how to
(12:18):
go with the flow. And then the youngest one came
into the mix about ten years in, so Forrest was
nine or.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Ten and Andy was seven eight and she was adopted,
so she wasn't a surprise.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
There was definitely choice and plan and all of that
because at this point I'm more of an entrepreneur and
I'm traveling for the business and I'm teaching and all
of the things. And so when I would speak at
different events, people would.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
Always ask how do you juggle it all?
Speaker 3 (12:50):
How do you manage being a bomb and you know,
running a business, A question, by the way, that men
are never asked. So I would notice I would notice
the difference when I was at an event that was
majority women versus events that were majority men.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
No one ever asked men that question.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
And so what I would usually tell people is that
you don't get everything done. It's not so much about balance,
it's a bit more juggling. And at that time, I had,
you know, a nine year old and an eight year old,
and then I had a baby. If the nine year
(13:30):
old falls down, he's going to be okay. If the
eight year old, you know, trips, she's gonna be okay.
But if I dropped the baby, that that's a problem
and the right. So that's that's how I prioritized making
that analogy.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
You have to worry about the things that you have
to worry about.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
And then there's other stuff that you just have to
let go because you can't get everything done.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
You just can't.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
You can't, you absolutely can't.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
And I just, first and foremost, I'm very excited to
hear that your that your baby is adopted, that you're
youngest child's adopted, it's no longer baby nineteen years old.
Because it's such a big issue in the black community.
Can you share a little bit about how her adoption
came to be sure?
Speaker 3 (14:19):
So, my husband and I coincidentally, you know, we grew
up in households with foster care and adoption. My mother
fostered and adopted six children, and his mother fostered maybe
more than six, but about the same number. And of
the six, she was able to adopt two of them.
(14:42):
We you know, had the first two. I had a
miscarriage after the first two, and I didn't want to
go through extra efforts to conceive. I felt like I
was already blessed with having conceived the two.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
That we did, and I didn't feel the need to, you.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Know, spend money and time trying to do something else.
Maybe it meant we just open up the family in
a different way. So we explored adoption, and we adopted
her through the New York Force the care system, and
it was great.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
It was great. She she fit right in.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
She came into our home at just about four months
old and was a spitfire even at four months old.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
And you know, a lot of people listening to this,
all of us, I have I have a rainbow baby myself,
which is the colloquial term for when you had a
miscarriage and then you.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Have another child. Uh.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
And it's a it's a very underdiscussed topic. If you
have any words of wisdom for anyone who is busy,
who's out there, who's who's trying to figure out her fertility,
her motherhood journey, and her mompreneurship, her entrepreneurship. Any any
words of wisdom for people considering adoption.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
Do your research for sure.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
There's different ways to adopt, and private adoption is very
different from adopting.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Within the foster care system, and.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
It's important to get as much information as you can
about birth parents. But the other thing that is super
important to remember, especially if you've already been a parent,
there's a belief within the adoption circles that if you
(16:37):
adopt a child at a very young age, that nurture
is going to trump nature. So you adopt a baby,
the baby is three months old, four months old, five
months old, they're not verbal yet, They're not going to
remember anything about their past. They're four months old, they
don't know who mom is, your mom, your dad.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
You don't have to worry about that. And it's just
not true.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Nature trump's nurture, and you can't ignore nature. You can't
ignore their past. And together with their doctors and if
you have, you know, a family therapist, you have to
know the right time to tell them who they are
and how they came into your life. And you have
to allow space and grace for their confusion, for their anger,
(17:28):
for them to maybe not feel welcomed because at the
end of the day, they grew inside of someone else's
body and perhaps never made connection with that person.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
And having been.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
A mother, we know what that feels like when we
carry someone and then we make a connection with them.
And just imagine if you carried someone and never made
the connection, like you never met each other, you would
think about that person out in the world, you know, prayerfully,
out in the world. You would wonder what it would
(18:01):
be like if you had met them. And it's the
same for the baby. Even though they make you think
when you're adopting them, oh, it's an infant, you'll be fine.
They're not going to remember anything about the past. Now
they remember those.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
Voices that they never get got to say hello too.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
That's so important.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
And I think so much of what you're saying is
just the basis of being a good mother in general,
a good parent for your child.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Like everyone's nature is their nature.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
And I even think sometimes you hear you should tell
them about their grandparents, should tell them about their uncles.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
You know, you should you should read whether or not a.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Birth child, or not helping people understand themselves and instead
of just trying to fit them in the little box.
Because we're all guilty of that. But I think that's
one of the beautiful things. You and your husband came
from giant families of birth origin, of not birth origin,
and you've evolved more than most of us to understand
(18:59):
the importance of respecting humanity. How has that served you
with Carol's daughter, because I think one of the things
that you've been really good at is pivoting, rolling with
the punches.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Those are things you learn when you're not a single child.
Those things you learn when you are sharing with a
lot of people.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Absolutely, And I always learned from my mom that the
glass is half full, it's not half empty. So even
when something is difficult, I'm looking for, well, what is
the positive within it? And then, more recently, like within
the last five years or so, since I've been in therapy, learning.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
That I can't completely ignore the difficulty because.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
I used to just say, oh, it's not half empty,
it's only half full. But two things can exist at
the same time. It is half empty, but it's also
half full, and we can choose to focus on the
positive side of it, while still acknowledging that there's a challenge,
that it's.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
Difficult, that there's a deficit.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
And I think that's important to acknowledge how you feel
about something, to acknowledge that maybe something is hard, but
then finding a way through it and finding a way
to pivot.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Carol, you are a general model, not just as a mogul,
but as like a human being, because you're hitting all
the things that are my passions being a good parent.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Like you, you understand it's the business and the family.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
You've always haid Carol Star as a family first business,
but it wasn't a mom first business. So I love
to hear that in these years after the acquisition, which
comes with pros and cons. We'll talk about it a
little bit later. You took a little time for yourself.
Was five years ago when you started therapy. Was that
your first foray into self discovery?
Speaker 3 (20:45):
It was my first foray into therapy that was just
about me. I had been in couples therapy at one
point with my husband years ago, and that we were
in family therapy be with different issues with the children.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
Here and there. But I had never sat down and.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Talked to a therapist just about myself, and so I
started to learn about things from my childhood that were
still playing out decades later. It's remarkable and I'm very
blessed that I can have that in my life, and
I can't imagine my life without it.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Out of curiosity, do you think going to therapy encouraged
you to buy your business?
Speaker 3 (21:33):
I wouldn't say that it encouraged me to buy my
business back. But what it did do was teach me
when I needed to step back from something and not
try to control it. A phrase that my therapist used
once was you're trying to make everything look pretty.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
And at first when she.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Said it, I was like, well, that's kind of superficial.
You know, I don't just want to make things look pretty.
And she said no, she said, hear me out. You
have actually made a living, a good living, off of
making things look pretty. People are going to go and
do their hair. You have products that help their hair
look pretty. It helps it smell good, It helps them
(22:22):
to feel good. Learning how to not try to fix
things that I thought I could fix helped me operate.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
Within my business in a different way when I was
in the corporate space.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
And then when the opportunity presented itself that I could
be an owner again.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
I was in a better place to understand.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
I know who I was as an entrepreneur before, I
know who I was as an employee, and now I
get to be an entrepreneur again. But I know so
much more than she did back then. This could be
fantastic because I've figured out this. I've figured out this,
I know how to manage this.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
This doesn't trigger me in the same way. Not that
I'm perfect, but I just I.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Have so much more information now. I have so much
more confidence now. And if I.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Did all that I did back then with all of
the things that she was dealing with, God only knows
what I could do today. But I wouldn't.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
I don't think I would have been able to see
that clearly had I not gone through the five years
of therapy and then within that taking a mental health break,
stepping away from work for the first time in my life.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Five You took a five month sabbatical, right, yes, no.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Which okay, so this is very important, like and this
was very recent, this is towards the end of the
Laoreal years. You took a five month sabbatical, which sounds impossible.
To many of us, right, especially because black woman's kryptonite
is the C word that you said, control suffer from it.
Your therapist sounds like my therapist. We were very lucky
to have the privilege to unpack a lot of these
(24:07):
things that come from a lot of social issues. I
encourage everyone listening to this to do, like Linson bee is,
is you a therapist. It's going to help you unpack
this control stuff because before therapy, could you have imagine
taking five months for yourself? Now would the world fall
apart if you took five days?
Speaker 4 (24:24):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Yes, And I had had leave prior because I had
foot surgery a couple of times where I couldn't I
couldn't walk on my foot for months. But I was
taking meetings from my phone in bed. I was emails,
packages being shipped to.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
My house, given approvals on stuff.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
This time, because things were so tense and there was
so much going on. I remember having the conversation with
my therapist and she said, you're having issues and stress
at work, You're having issues with your youngest child, and
then the issues with your youngest child are spilling over
(25:07):
into your home life. And she said, which one of
those things can you actually turn off. And the only
one that I could turn off was work, because work
there was a whole team there running things and doing things,
and technically I could step away.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
And initially I was so stressed out that.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
I was wondering, am I supposed to retire now? Is
that what the universe is telling me? That it's time
for me to just walk away because this is all
just too hard? And she said, you can't make a
decision like that now, you're under too much stress. If
you weren't going through everything that you're going through with
your youngest, would you even ask that question? And I said,
I don't think so. She said, so then you can't
(25:53):
make a decision like that, she said, but you can
step away and breathe. And I set up the with
HR to ask for the break, and just being on
the call and asking, I started sobbing. I probably scared
the person half to death. And they basically said, okay,
(26:14):
so your leave starts right now. I'll send you the.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
Email link for the paperwork. And I was like, okay,
so much.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
A basket cake, But I think I just needed to
say the words out.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Loud, and those tears talked about what those tears are
There were not tears of regret, pent up tears.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Carol's damer didn't just happen out of nowhere. You had investor.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
You have been living your life for thousands of people. Yeah,
from birth technically, but that's a whole other can of words.
But definitely from your.
Speaker 4 (26:46):
Mid thirties, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
And that's thirty years of leave, some being second banana.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
And it was the I guess, the level of emotion
that made me look at this and say, I can't
do this the way that I did before.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
I really do have to turn off.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
I have to trust that my thirty something year old
firstborn will be fine with these other people, but her
mother has to take care of herself because.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
I'm not good to anybody like this. And it made
it easier for me to pull away.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
And then it was remarkable to come back and realize
that the house didn't burn down. Now, were there some
decisions made that maybe I wouldn't have coside? Yeah, but
nothing earth shattering, life threatening, nothing that was insurmountable.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
And I came back with a.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Different energy, a different way of approaching things that everything
wasn't so dire. I felt like I could be more,
not more collaborative because it was already a collaborative to situation.
But I could eat in an easier way, let certain
things go, like, you know what, that's.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
Not really worth my energy. I'm going to focus on that.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
I didn't have this desire to be in every single meeting,
you know, Like I left with a stack of meetings
every day. I came back and I was like, no,
I only need to do three of these today, and
then I can spend time writing, and then I can
spend time ideating, and then tomorrow I'll.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
Do another two.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
You know, I couldn't do that before. I felt like
I had to show up for everything.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
I have to be present.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
They have to know that I'm here, And so the
work became more efficient and less rote.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Taking the step back made you realize how much control
that you seeded actually gave you more control. I think
that's the thing that I have had to realize is
that I think by touching everything, I'm doing everybody's service.
But touched and everything means that not every the things
that really deserve your touch, deserve your creativity, deserve what
(29:06):
makes you special, what made Carol's daughter. That means they
get the short end of the staff of the stick.
So now you are independent, which is a whole other
can of worms. You were with the company all this time,
except for the five months sabbatical.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
That was an excellent thing to take.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
What does independence mean for the mission of Carrol's Daughter,
for what you do, especially as one of those few
black owned national beauty brands, like, how will you continue?
How will you execute upon this new enlightened version of
Lisa Price, founder and CEO of Carol's Daughter.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Well, I think the best part is being able to
be more nimble making those changes within a large corporation
that must operate with process, so.
Speaker 4 (29:53):
That everybody within that.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
Corporation, all the brands operate smoothly and everything works.
Speaker 4 (29:59):
You know, spinning and greave grooves.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
If you will, it means that you plan two years
out and if the industry shifts within that two years,
you still got to make it work. You can't flip
the script and change your launch. When you're independent and
it's just your company and you're not woven into this
(30:23):
big process, you can be more nimble and you can
act a bit quicker and experiment with a bit more creativity.
And then to couple that with being someone who is
more knowledgeable, more confident, smarter.
Speaker 4 (30:42):
About how I work. I don't feel as fearful as
I felt when I was independent before.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
And when you live through the nightmare and the sun
still comes up the next day and your kids are
healthy and your husband is good and you know you
still living your life, you realize that it wasn't that deep.
And like you said, it's not really your fault. So
that's the person that sits here today.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
And now, if I when I look at it looks
like you're building a legacy this period.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Is you building a legacy?
Speaker 1 (31:19):
And how would you define the legacy you're trying to
build as a mother, as a morepreneur, as a cultural leader.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
I believe that and I hope this to be true,
that my children have been able to see that there
are options to how you can work and how you
can live.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
My oldest is a He's an old soul for someone
who's only twenty nine. He's a lot like his dad.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
He feeds off of other people's energy and loves to
engage people in conversation, but he's also very ad add
and can't sit still with never thrive in an office space.
Speaker 4 (32:03):
And he's an assistant.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Manager at an auto parts chain in Georgia and is
the happiest that he has been in years because he
loves cars and he has loved cars since before he
could spell car, and he loves to geek out and
be a nerd about cars. And he gets to do
(32:24):
that at work with customers, with clients, with staff, but
then also gets to earn.
Speaker 4 (32:29):
A living and he's not miserable.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
So I think that he learned you might have to
sacrifice some income, some luxuries, things like that, but it's
important to be happy at the work that you do.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
It's important to have a passion for what you do.
And if you can work the passion into your hobby
and get the ballance there, great, But if you can
work it into how you make a living, even better,
and I think that's an important legacy. And then there's
the legacy for other.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
Entrepreneurs, for other entrepreneurs to see that the story doesn't
have to end with an acquisition. Because the first person
that I thought of when this opportunity presented itself, I
thought about Bobby Brown. Bobby Brown went from Bobby Brown
Cosmetics to Jones Road Beauty. Bobby is in her sixties
(33:28):
and she has a bed and breakfast hotel. You know,
she has other businesses in Montclair, New Jersey that she
and her husband have invested in, and now she started
a new beauty company.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
With Jones Road. And then being the person that I.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
Am where I was one of the first to start
a brand based.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
On natural hair, you know, the only one.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
That's been around for thirty two years, the first company
to get equity from you know, equity partners, to acquisition
to reclaiming the brand.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
I end up.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
Being that auntie that people track down and reach out,
whether it's over DM or they get my email.
Speaker 4 (34:12):
From someone on my phone number, and.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
They don't have anybody else to talk to because there
aren't that many of us that look like us in
this space, and they need help.
Speaker 4 (34:24):
And now I'm sure that you know, there's other women.
Speaker 3 (34:29):
As successful as me, if not more, that maybe there's
other people that can be called.
Speaker 4 (34:34):
But in thirty two years.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
I've definitely gotten you know, those messages like I need help,
I don't know how.
Speaker 4 (34:40):
To do this, you know.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
So that's also part of the need for the therapy
because we were the only I remember I was in
college and I did something and I was like really
proud of myself. I think I was one who wants
a millionaire, and I'd won a quarter of a million dollars.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
I was a college dude. It was really fun. It's
very exciting. I hit this.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Call and they're just like, it's great that you were
the first black person to win so much money, but
make sure you're not the only I'm.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Like twenty years old.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
I'm like, oh my god.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
But I mean it was very important.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
But there's a lot of pressure on you. That's not
a different echelon. There's all this pressure.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
We make sure and that's really great, but you do that.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
This is very important. What's so great about Lisa, everyone listening,
is she sent the elevator back. Now, she walked down
the stairs and up the stairs. It's an easy lift.
It's a heavy lift.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
And one of the things I'm really proud of.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
You for is the fact that in twenty twenty one,
you actually partnered with another one of our mompreneurs, leith
On Thomas, and her foundation, the Mom Would Go Foundation.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
I wanted to want to hear this story because this
is a great example.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Okay, obviously you're a very busy lady, got a lot
going on, You got a husband, you got three kids,
you got this whole business you got going on, but
you still made time to reach out on under auspices
that might not necessarily that are that are important to you.
Speaker 4 (35:55):
Talk to us.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
About how how love delivered, which is what you partnered
with Latham to create as a company.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
We were looking for what our philanthropic effort was going
to be, and there are a number of things that
I care about, and black maternal health.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
Was definitely one of them.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
You know, in your life, when you're really busy, you'll
say something like, I just want to get off the
Merry go.
Speaker 4 (36:20):
Round for a little while.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
I just needed to stop. And I felt like during
the pandemic, the Merry go Round stopped and I got
to get off. And during that time, I thought about
Latham and I said, you know, I bet she knows
of an organization that maybe we can work with because
she's a doula and this is, you know, her world.
(36:43):
And so I reached out to her and then she
came back to me and she said, you're not going
to believe this, but I'm completing my paperwork now for
Mama Glow Foundation to be a five ZHO one to
three c and I was like, what you know, So
that started it with audio notes, and then when we
could go outside, we went for walks and we just
(37:06):
talked about what this could look like and what it
could be.
Speaker 4 (37:09):
And when I brought it to the team from day one,
they were like, oh my god, this is perfect, this
is amazing, this is exactly what we needed.
Speaker 3 (37:18):
And then we had to take it through the corporate process,
you know, and get it approved and set up.
Speaker 4 (37:24):
But from the very beginning.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
It was that thing that you start talking about it
and it just makes you feel all mushy and warm
and great inside.
Speaker 4 (37:34):
When you had to do work for it, whether.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
It was events or shoots, no one showed up like,
oh gosh, gotta get this stuff done. Everybody showed up
like isn't this great? I'm so glad we get to
do this. And everybody had their own, whether it was
their personal or of a friend, a birth story not
necessarily tragic, but not really what they wanted, you know,
(38:01):
that feeling of not being heard that you know, sometimes disrespected,
And if we could change one birth, it meant the world.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
And some of those babies that you help to have
good birth stories will hopefully grow up and in three decades,
they will be seeing Carrol's daughter on the shelf themselves,
because that's the goal of this new chapter. And so
you know, our time is almost up, but I can't
let you leave without participating in my favorite segment, which
is called Mompreneur's manifestation. And I always ask all of
(38:34):
our guests, what are they trying to make happen right
now with their companies, and how can we help to
bring it into the universe for you?
Speaker 3 (38:41):
What I am manifesting now and what I ask for
every day when when I say my prayers for the company,
is that the customer is patient with us, because you know,
we announced in March that I'm an owner again and
it's independent, so people expect that by May.
Speaker 4 (39:04):
Where's the new products? Where's it? You know?
Speaker 3 (39:07):
And we can't really bring you the new products until
back half twenty six, early twenty seven, because development, testing, all.
Speaker 4 (39:16):
Of that stuff takes time, and you also have.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
To unravel yourself from this very complex corporate structure. So
I have been praying for everyone to have patience and
grace with us and be ready for twenty twenty six
when the newness will start to flow and show up
and show.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Out when we read a girl And you know what's
really what makes me have You're ready.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
You're in such a great place you have. It's so hard.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
It's so hard for those of you who have smaller
children right now, like nothing prepares you. As these kids
get older. You everyone says, oh, it gets easier. I
personally think it's harder. But that's a whole other conversation. Lisa,
I need to have you back all to talk about.
And you're doing a great job. You're a wonderful role
model for holistically and wholeheartedly growing your business as well
(40:07):
as yourself.
Speaker 4 (40:08):
Thank you, Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
Can you tell everyone where they can find you on
the internet.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
I am mostly an Instagram person, but I do have
a presence on TikTok and I am I am Lisa
Price on both and I you know, we have our website, Carolsdaughter.
Speaker 4 (40:30):
Dot com right now.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
Carolsdaughter dot com is information and when you click to shop,
it takes you to our Amazon store. By the end
of the summer, you will be able to shop on
Carol's Daughter. You'll still be able to shop on Amazon,
but our site will be D two C once again.
Speaker 4 (40:50):
Amazing. Yeah, that's where you can find me.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
I love that so much and I'm so proud of you.
This is incredible. Thank you, Auntie, thank you.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
Mama for just being a light in our life, and
thank you to all of our listeners and our watchers.
As a reminder, a brand new episode of Entrepreneurs goes
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Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
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The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.