This year at SXSW, Amy Errett joined us in The Chief Suite for a conversation with Trey Boynton, Chief's Chief People & Diversity Officer. The Founder and CEO of the industry-disrupting hair color giant Madison Reed opened up about her unexpected leap from finance and venture capital into beauty, and what it takes to lead with purpose and gratitude. Her daily mantra? “I get to do this.”
On turning setbacks into launchpads
Errett believes the worst moments often contain the seeds of the best ones, if you pay attention. “I got fired in a hotel lobby not knowing it was going to happen,” she says. “When I got home. I was so full of shame. And then a beautiful thing happened. My wife told my daughter, Madison, ‘Guess what? Mommy works at home now. Aren't we excited?’ Madison took me by the hand and took me into my home office and said, ‘Mommy, welcome.’ That's part of the reason why the company is called Madison Reed.
On building a board that believes
Money matters when you're building a company, but the people around you matter more. As she explains to her fellow entrepreneurs: You don't just need funding. You need a community, too.
"This company wouldn't be where we are if I hadn't had a group of people who believed in Madison Reed when it was hard," Errett says.
Fear, she says, is normal. But she's learned that fear is a creativity killer — it blinds you to solutions that are right ahead of you. To face it, she writes down what she’s scared of and why, which helps her recognize that there’s an answer for everything, along with people who can help. “By facing a fear and breaking it down, you can move through it to tackle whatever is in front of you.”
On finding your genius
Errett says her leadership evolved when she stopped trying to be good at everything and started leaning into what came naturally. She calls it "finding your genius:" identifying the handful of things that flow through you effortlessly”
For her, that genius is taking hard problems, breaking them down, and building teams to solve them in ways that create a positive impact for both the team and the people they serve.
"Leadership is a personal journey," she says. "The more vulnerable you let yourself be to that journey, the better your life gets. That doesn't mean you don't have to make hard choices, and it doesn't mean it's all good news. But what you do in your career — if you find that sweet spot — that's when the magic can really start.”
On leading with love and gratitude
Before Madison Reed sold a single tube of hair color, Errett established five company values, love, joy, courage, trust, and responsibility, and they're still the same today.
Having love as a company value might sound surprising for a business built on competitive retail and complex supply chains, but for Errett it’s simple: “If you don't love what you do, what’s your motivation to waste the preciousness of every day? The amount of gratitude that we have equals the amount of happiness. Full stop.”
Love shows up at Madison Reed in concrete ways. Every Wednesday at 12:15 PT, Amy has lunch with the entire company. New hires introduce themselves with two truths and a lie. When people leave Madison Reed, she announces their departure wishing them the best and thanking them for everything they did for the company.
"When people decide to leave, I say: 'You go out and slay it,” Errett says, “That's what I want for them."
"We stand on the shoulders of every person at Madison Reed who's come before us, whether we know each other or not. We're setting an example for each other and for the next generation of women who have the ability to do some things that maybe we didn't, or our moms didn't. We owe that to each other."
