On the cusp of 60, Sharon Price John has been at the helm of Build-A-Bear Workshop for nearly a decade.
During that time, she revitalized the brand, navigated economic uncertainty during the global pandemic, and managed to emerge from the “retail apocalypse” with the company’s two most profitable years to date, in 2021 and 2022.
Last month, she announced the retailer is on track to have another record-breaking year, reporting their highest-ever quarterly earnings in the fiscal 2023 first quarter.
Now, the industry veteran reflects on her nearly 40-year career to becoming the president and CEO of a multimillion-dollar publicly-traded company. It’s been journey with many ups and downs – starting in her 20s when she admittedly struggled with self-doubt and the need to achieve perfection.
As one of Fortune’s top CEOs and Most Powerful Women in Business, John has shattered barriers and paved the way for the next generation of women leaders. In her debut book, “Stories and Heart: Unlock the Power of Personal Stories to Create a Life You Love,” John shares the lessons from her personal experience on resilience, learning from failure, pivoting professionally and achieving success at any age.
John recently chatted with Know Your Value about her new book, dismantling the myth of perfection and the advice she would give her younger self.
The conversation is below and has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Know Your Value: In the book, you highlight what you learned in some big roles at Mattel, Stride Rite Children’s Group and as CEO at Build-A-Bear Workshop. What is your most important lesson for readers?
John: There is a theme that keeps coming back in the book to being true to yourself – your authentic self. It’s also not necessarily who you are now, but who you want to become. It starts with recognizing what values are important to you. If you keep your values and goals in mind, it’s remarkable how things can work out.
One of the reasons why I wrote the book was to help people understand that there are a lot of challenges in life. But it’s not about what challenges you face, but how you handle and label those challenges. If you label them empowering, or if you label them disempowering.
You should always ask yourself: “Do you feel empowered by the challenge or frightened by the challenge?”
And that is the big unlock because the minute you learn something, you’re empowered again. It is about redefining your own stories to create a life you love.
Know Your Value: You write about the concept of “perfectionism.” Many women believe they need to be perfect and avoid mistakes in order to be successful. What would you say to them?
John: I write about perfectionism in reference to my time at Mattel [with the Barbie line] when I was working on a brand that is known for perfectionism. The women that led the brand at the time also seemed very perfect to me. I looked up to them and still do. But they weren’t perfect – no one is – and they were willing to talk about mistakes and areas that needed improvement.
In that openness and camaraderie, it helped me to understand that you can be successful without being perfect. Many women believe that perfectionism is the way to be successful when it is exactly the thing that’s keeping them from trying, which ultimately keeps them from being successful.
The purpose of life is not to be perfect but to try, fail, learn; try, fail, learn.
Know Your Value: Before joining Build-A-Bear in 2013, you served as president of the Stride Rite Children’s Group. Tell us about that transition and your advice for women who are looking to make a career pivot.
John: I’ve done that pivot a few times. You never know what you’re learning and what boxes you’re checking for a future opportunity. You have to think about which skill sets are transferable. There’s often a lot more that’s transferable than you might have imagined, but when you start to dig into it you realize the similarities. It’s also important to realize that you must be willing to learn a whole new category and business.
I was able to move into this position as the CEO of Build-a-Bear Workshop – and even in this role I have pivoted multiple times. The job that I had when I started here is not the job I do now. I focus on learning something new every single day while using the skills I’ve gained from previous roles.
Know Your Value: At Build-A-Bear, you delivered the most profitable years in the company’s history – in the middle of a pandemic no less. How did you pull that off amid all the economic uncertainty and what did you learn as a leader?
John: Retail was over 90 percent of our revenue [before the Covid-19 pandemic]. One day, I woke up and realized we had to shut down all of our retail locations within 48 hours. We’re a very collaborative company, but in that moment there needed to be more command-and-control leadership. I realized we had to drive our e-commerce business in a way that we never had. I turned what seemed to be a terrible moment into a positive opportunity. I said to my team, “Imagine if, for once in our entire careers, we can be full, hands-on-deck in e-commerce. All of our energy, effort, time, talent, can be focused on driving e-comm because we have the ‘luxury’ of not worrying about retail.” The pandemic created a moment where we could take every ounce of our ingenuity and initiative and drive it toward something that we’ve been saying we wanted to do for a long time, which was taking this truly experience-based retailer and turning it into a serious contender in e-commerce and the digital world. And that has been a huge part of the unlock for us in the post-Covid environment. Know Your Value: Build-a-Bear recently sent their first bear into outer space! What was the purpose behind that partnership and what do you hope to accomplish from that collaboration? John: We’re all about trying to provide ways for kids to self-express. We wanted to use a Build-A-Bear because of its iconic status. We made our space bear a girl and named her Gigi. Sending Gigi into space was to get to the interest of kids so they see her and say, “Wow! There’s a teddy bear floating in space!” Or “There’s a woman Build-A-Bear astronaut, maybe I could do that!” It’s the teaching of the curiosity that often is the beginning of a lifelong learning journey. There are so few girls that do get into STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). We’re happy to be a part of a mission to get more young girls into STEM. Know Your Value: You are about to begin your sixth decade! Looking back, did you ever imagine your career at this stage when you were younger? John: In my 20s I was just starting to get a bit of ambition and figure out what could be possible, but I never would have even put on a big list of wishes that I’d be the CEO of a publicly-traded company. I had to work through some self-doubt: “Can I do this? Am I able to do this?” I eventually faced my self-doubt, took on challenges and stepped into the fear I had. Redefining fear to the point that … it’s a trigger – a flashing light of opportunity – not impending failure. There was a moment where I paused and asked myself, “Would the me in my 20s have enjoyed having a conversation with me now?” My guess is that it would be a resounding yes, and what a gift it would have been! I now pose that question to a lot of women. Know Your Value: And in that conversation with your younger self, what would be your advice? John: My 25-year-old self was very driven. She worked very hard. Just a few years earlier she had gotten up and moved to Manhattan, having been from a small town in Tennessee. She didn’t know anybody and was absolutely focused on getting a job in advertising and working her way up. But she also had a lot of self-doubt to work through. I would have said to her, “It’s going to work out. It’s all going to be OK. Continue to be passionate and focused but know that you can take a break every now and then. You are smart enough and you are able. You’re doing a good job. Give yourself a hug every now and then.”
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