What It Means To Be a Cultural Entrepreneur with Sharmadean Reid
For years I've heard Sharmadean Reid's name thrown around by mutual friends. “You need to know Sharmadean. You need to meet her. She's amazing." I had been following her on Instagram for a while, and knew her as the founder of WAH Nails, a salon focused on intricate nail art. While that business shut down in 2019, you can still search #wahnails on Instagram and see the chokehold it had on the nail art girlies with over 37k posts.
It wasn't until I actually sat down with Sharmadean last summer that I came to understand the full breadth of all she's created. Sharmadean is a true businesswoman—and her impact goes far beyond nail art, even though her nail business did earn her an MBE. But she actually got her start in fashion, having graduated from the prestigious Central St. Martins in London, she then traveled all over the world styling and trend forecasting for Nike. Now, she's fully focused on empowering women and harnessing the power of community through her latest venture, The Stack, which brings women together all across London for networking, friendship-building, and mission-driven initiatives both online and in real life.
Sharmadean launched The Stack app in March 2021 as an editorial meets community networking platform. You can find articles on everything from recipes to an interview with Paloma Elsesser about turning 30 to financial advice. There are also clubs to join for business founders, angel investors, women who golf, spontaneous meetups, or cinema dates. The app is such an incredible resource, and I can't help but think of how much women could benefit from this kind of network all across the globe.
I'm so glad I had the opportunity to chat with Sharmadean and share our conversation with all of you today—I'm truly so inspired by her! Below, we talk about the royal family, reconnecting with our Jamaican heritage, how she taught herself to make a magazine, and pivoting and launching a business in a global pandemic. I could listen to her talk for hours so I highly recommend listening to this conversation if you can.
Can we first talk about you having an MBE on your name— what does that mean?
MBE is very controversial for some people because it actually means member of the British Empire, and it's what they give people who do good for the community, business, or for charity. Anyone can nominate anyone for an MBE. I don't actually know who or how I was nominated. The nominations go to a committee and then several times a year the royal family give out these MBEs in quite a very long and sweet ceremony. Yeah, I guess it just means that I did a lot for women, and community, and beauty back when I had my salon.
I assume you wouldn't consider yourself a royalist, though.
Do you know something? On these types of things, I can be annoyingly neutral or be able to hold both opinions at the same time. I do agree with those who want a British Republic, whereby they're like, "It's a waste of money, and it's pageantry, and all of this." But at the same time, I do understand the history and having a figurehead. So when people get really stressed out about it, my emotions are just ebbing and flowing.
Yeah, of course, well, I didn't invite you for a deep dive on the royal family—but I couldn't resist. Tell me what you were like as a kid?
I loved being a kid. I was very happy, optimistic, I really tried hard, I was really competitive, and experimental. I wrote two school plays when I was in primary school before the age of 11. I wrote a school play, I performed the lead in two school plays as well, the Christmas one, which I was glad about because I get loads of time off school, and I got to network with the other classes. I just really liked learning— I wanted to know stuff all the time.
I love how you said, "I love networking with the other classes," and that is a big part of what you do now as an adult.
How I was as a child is exactly as I am now. I've got this deck, a guide to working with me, which is all about me, that I'll send you. Basically, it's got some of my school reports in there, and it's hilarious because you read those school reports, and I'm exactly the same. It'd say stuff like, "Very inquiring mind, very enthusiastic, very competitive. Good general knowledge, taking an active part in discussions." And I believe really strongly in practicing memory saving.
What does that mean?
I know this sounds crazy—so say I'm going to bed, I will actually be like, "I'm going to think about my granddad and grandma, because I want to preserve the memory. So I'm going to treat my memory as a muscle and I'm going to exercise it." So I definitely have a lot of daydreaming, and memory, and fantasizing a lot. So all of my childhood memories are very strong.
I just saw on your deck that you're a Gemini, and I feel like you're giving big, big-
Big Gemini energy, big time. Yeah.
And so you were born and raised in England, but you're also Jamaican. Were your parents born in Jamaica?
So my mom was born in England, and my dad is actually Indian, but I don't know him at all. I would say that I definitely had a British identity and a Jamaican identity, which came out later. In terms of the Indian, I don't feel Indian really, apart from maybe just genetically. Typically I would say I was British first. As I got older, I got more in touch with understanding what it means to be Jamaican.
How much do you feel like the Jamaican culture influenced your upbringing? Because I was born in New York, but my parents were both born in Jamaica. So I'm first generation, and when I think back on my upbringing, yes, I'm American— but I was really raised in a Jamaican household. Jamaican food, Jamaican sayings, Jamaican music. It took me until I got out of school, and I wasn't so trapped in whiteness, that I was able to appreciate how special my background is, and how much it made me who I am.
100%. So my mom would've been the first generation—she was born here. My grandparents were born in Jamaica. I think she struggled with understanding and sharing her culture. One of the things that very much is a source of consternation for me today is the fact that she didn't really cook Jamaican food in the household. So I don't know how to make curry goat.
Girl, I don't know how to make it either.
I don't know how to cornrow hair and little things like that. She was a 16-year-old mom figuring out how to just keep a child alive. Actually, I was born in my grandma's house. My mom kicked me out when I was 15, and I moved back in with my grandparents from age 15 to 19, and I absolutely loved it. I loved coming home, going to the pots, seeing what was cooking. Me and my granddad were really close because no one could understand him, his accent was so thick.
Not many people could understand him, but I could, of course. So we just had a very, very close relationship. So I would say that I definitely got more Jamaican in those last four years of teenagedom. However, I really dove into my heritage when I had a baby because one of the things that I was really stressed about was like, "Oh, I don't want to bring Roman back to Wolverhampton, and then he's turning his nose up at certain foods." And it's just very Anglicized in the house. So when he was one and a half, we both went to Jamaica for the first time together. And then we've been back probably eight times in his lifetime. And it's been wonderful because he's very Jamaican now. He eats oxtail. I don't even eat oxtail, I don't even think it's nice. He will eat it and be like, "It's the best taste ever, mom." But his dad makes oxtail all the time. He's always asking me for a patty. If there's Jamaican music on, he'll just vibe to it. He's very, very integrated, which makes me super happy.
I think to a certain extent, my parents were very focused on assimilating and being in American culture. My mom has not been back to Jamaica since before I was born. I think it is a source of trauma for her to an extent. So I do think there is a part of her that is kind of scared to go back.
Could you take her on a trip? Do you know what I mean? Could you take her on a semi-fancy trip?
I definitely think about that, and I will probably do it in the near future. I've only gone back with my dad, and I was doing that once a year prior to the pandemic. My dad will go once or twice a year. He has more family and friends down there than my mom does.
Where were they from?
My mom's from Kingston, and my dad is from St. Mary. It's so interesting the first time I went back as an adult to step foot in this place that I wasn't born in, but you instantly feel so connected to it. I feel at home. Weirdly, I also have that feeling when I'm in London. I think also because obviously we are Jamaican, our lineage does go back to the UK—
That's true. Or I say with the UK, "All roads lead to Jamaica." Especially when it comes to music and culture.
To shift gears, when did you first get the inclination to start your own business? Because you've dabbled in multiple things. You started a magazine way back when, and then you went into the nail business. So take me through a bit of that.
When I was at university, I really wanted to create a magazine early for two reasons. Firstly, I knew that in year four of my degree I would have to make a magazine. So I thought, "Let me make one in year two and get ahead of myself, so I could learn the computer programs." The second reason was because I'd just moved to London, and I felt very passionate about this hip-hop culture that was very, very misogynistic and masculine. I was like, "There are amazing women in this culture, if only people knew about them." So I was like 20, and I started making WAH Magazine in my bedroom on a little Mac mini. It was very hard to make a magazine, so I have massive respect for anyone who does it. It was such a slog.
I learned In Design and Photoshop— that changed my life because then I could create anything I wanted and not have to ask anyone to help me. When I graduated, I traveled around the world for Nike doing lots of styling jobs. Basically, I went to Central St. Martins. I did fashion communication. My degree project was a menswear magazine for guys who'd grown up skating but now wanted to wear normal clothes, which is way ahead of its time, because there was no such thing as Porter or anything. You know how streetwear is normal clothing now? It wasn't in 2006/2007, everyone was wearing indie, skinny jeans-type vibe. There was no Drake in the top charts. There were no hip-hop clubs apart from really niche ones.There was no Instagram.
So it was such a different world then. This magazine I made had Comme des Garçons, Supreme, and Issey Miyake—it was just way ahead of its time. So I made this student magazine and got a first-class degree because it was fab. When I graduated, I immediately started working for Nike, because that point of view of high fashion, and sport and streetwear wasn't being done by everybody. There were a handful of people doing it. So when I started working with them, I had a very, very unique point of view—and they flew me all around the world doing styling, consulting, trend reports, all kinds of different things.
Then I went to Shanghai and Japan, and there were nail salons everywhere. And those nail salons were really cool and they weren't like our nail salons in London. In Japan, I would get the Japanese nail magazines. In America, there were a handful of people, I can literally think of one right now, she was in Chicago called Astro Wifey, a handful of people doing hand-painted nail art. There was no big brand that anyone knew. So I was earning a lot of money at the time at Nike, and I didn't really know what to do with it, because I just graduated and I had no financial literacy. So I was like, "I'm going to open a nail salon, so I can get my nails done for free", basically. I was always getting my nails done as part of what it meant to be a hip-hop girl—and I opened this nail salon in 2009, and it just blew up. The New York Times came and did a story about it, which was crazy.
And this was a physical nail salon?
Yeah, it was 2009. It was in Daltson. Before Dalston had an overground line, there were no flat whites, there was no avocado on toast. There were no coffee shops basically because we lived off the kebab shop next door, and the fish and chip shop on the other side. It just blew up, because it felt like coming into my living room. It looked like an artist's studio. You'd come in, and you could get anything you want painted on your nails. When I look back at how basic some of the designs were, I laugh, but people were blown away. So, I was 24 when I started working on it. Then after about a couple of months, I was like, "This is terrible. I never want to be a businesswoman. This is horrible. It's stressful. Who would want to do this?" And I really didn't want to do it.
What was stressful about it?
I never had to manage loads of people before. Every Sunday I was doing a bloody rota, trying to accommodate everybody's schedule
How did you find people who could do that kind of nail art, since no one was really doing it then?
Very good question. I actually hired fine artists and taught them how to do nails.
Oh my god. You're wild.
The nail artists couldn't do it. We had one legendary nail artist—she could do anything, and her finish was banging. Then the thing catches on, and then people go home and experiment, and they buy the pens and they're trying things out. I'm almost certain you would've bought a nail pen at some point and tried to do a dot on your nail or something. Some people just really take to it, and then they get better, and then they get qualified. So it took a while, and staffing was always an issue. It lasted for 10 years.
And it was legendary, everybody loved it. People still talk about it today
It is actually insane how ahead of the time it was. I feel like nail art started blowing up maybe around 2015, 2016? But not even to the level that it's at today.
Do you know you can directly correlate the growth of nail polish sales with the opening of our salon? I saw some government data about it. I got my MBE in 2015 because basically from 2009, the sales of nail polish just increased and increased, and then took over lipstick for a period, only for a short period. This is when I started to think about what it means to be a cultural entrepreneur. The idea that you aren't creating this massive scalable business but what your business does has almost a butterfly effect on other things. For example, there are many girls who started businesses, not even in beauty and [in] other things, just because they saw me do it, they saw I had a shop. They were like, "Well, I can have a shop."
There are many people who started different beauty tech because we were always doing really innovative stuff in the salon. It was a hive of activity all the time. And then the nail polish thing, the trickle effect down on that. Even to the fact that we were the first big nail salon on Instagram because I had Instagram really early—my first pictures were of my baby belly. Then we went to New York for a job because we got hired by British Airways to do a pop-up nail salon. I was in the airport with the team checking in, and I said, "Oh, why don't we start an Instagram for the now salon?"
I started it, took a picture of the team, and by the time we got back four days later, we had 4,000 followers. We were always on the popular page. So I think cultural entrepreneurship is not to be sniffed at. People like to say, "Small business" or small enterprise—but I think actually there's something to be said about supporting businesses that change culture or that send culture in a different trajectory because I definitely feel that that's what WAH Nails was. It was cultural entrepreneurship. We never made a massive amount of money, but we always kept pushing things forward. I know we inspired a lot of people, and that's the biggest legacy of WAH Nails.
I'm so passionate about helping young women in business now. I got screwed over quite a few times in bad deals when I just didn't know what I was doing. We didn't launch our own polish quick enough. I didn't really know how to do it. I didn't scale it. We had four salons at the peak. We had investors every five minutes asking to franchise or buy. I didn't really know how to do that. It was a very stressful, traumatic time for me, actually.
I was in my twenties, and I was having a baby. I'd planned an entire career around fashion, then I had to move to this business and beauty. My whole life was fashion. And having a baby two years after I opened the salon and then having a separation, it just wasn't really a fun time. I don't feel like I was fully operating at my maximum. If I was redoing it now, I'd do it more like a co-working space with nails, or a coffee shop, because they always make money. I still don't see any nail salons now that blow my mind.
So you closed down all the salons in 2019?
Do you know what it was? I felt like we had been completely innovative in the way we'd used technology to scale our brand. So first I used Tumblr, then I used Instagram. People would screenshot Tumblr and Instagram and say, "How much was this? How long did it take?" All of that jazz. And I was like, "I want to build tech to make this booking process visual." And that was it. I was like, "I want to build a visual booking system." So I tried to do both for a year and a bit, and then I just couldn't run both businesses.
I raised 4 million for this beauty booking system, BeautyStack, we built it, and it was going really well—and then the pandemic hit. So when I closed WAH, it was the 10-year anniversary of pursuing a tech company. Then with the tech company, the pandemic affected us because in the UK, we were closed for fourteen months, which is a really long time if you have a vc-backed business especially. Then I was like, “We're going to have to pivot because otherwise, we're going to run out of money and die."
So that's when I thought, "Well, what have I always done?" And I was like, "I've always done women's network in a women's community, always." The salon was special because the girls who came there were cool, and we were creating almost like a Paris salon vibe, 100 years ago where people would be chatting and connecting, and people would say, "Oh, I met my co-founder at WAH." Or, "We met in WAH getting our nails done." Because think about it, you are there for hours sometimes, like hours chatting to people. So then I thought, "Right. We're going to pivot to The Stack. I don't know what it's going to be, and it's going to be stressful, but let's just do it." And the team was absolutely amazing. They built a brand new system, and we created a new brand, and it was all around this intersection of editorial and community and events.
I was like, "How do you build a system where you can do journalism, embed the event in the article, and instead of it being a complicated system, you can do it in one click?" So if you go on any media platform, they always have events, cooking classes or workshops, or whatever, but they're usually hosted on a separate platform and the data's not shared across easily. So I was like, 'Wouldn't it be cool if you could just read an article about leadership and go to an event where you hear from a CEO about leadership, and then you are instantly put into a community of female founders where you can all connect together?"
And that's really how the Stack was born. We launched it on International Women's Day in 2021. The first year we grew, it was all about growing membership. The second year, 2022, we wanted to work with corporate, some big brand partners to support their women's communities. This year we are really focused on scaling the membership, and getting the most interesting mission-driven women who can connect for work, or friendship, or support whatever it is you need. I really love it. I'm really happy.
I think it is truly such a brilliant app. I was following the Instagram before I actually got to sit down with you but I wasn't really tracking what it was exactly. When you told me about this app's purpose, I'm like, "This is so brilliant." I think one of the things I get asked the most, whether on Instagram or through my newsletter is, "How to make friends as an adult?" I think people are really, really struggling with that right now—especially because of the pandemic. And The Stack isn't even just about making friends, you can network, and you can just connect with other women over a myriad of different things.
Even when I think back on when I first got to London last year, I wish I had used it– because I have friends and I have a good network in London. But still, the way that London functions is still very different from New York, and I don't have the size of the network that I have in New York in London, and there were many nights where I just was like, "I want to go out to dinner and go dancing." A lot of my friends just don't really do that. So it would've been so nice to cultivate more friendships through that, but I'm definitely going to do it when I come back. I just think it's so, so brilliant. You need to bring it worldwide, because right now it's only available in London, correct?
It's in London. It's in a few different countries, and we've actually got members in around 20 countries, but we don't have activities in those countries, which is something that I really want to work on this year. I really want to do the Stack Conference in New York. It's our marquee event. I think doing it in New York could be a really good way to introduce us to that US community. But for you in particular because you have such an amazing community already, the best way to use the app would be to schedule regular meetups for the rest of the year. I'm a big believer in consistency when it comes to community building, as you all know from doing your newsletter.
So just finding a coffee shop and being like, "Okay. So every two months, I'm going to host an AMA in person." And then you list it on the app, and you send everyone the link, and they don't have to pay to come, they don't have to be a member. And I think that's one way that I feel like, because they're fans of you, but really, if they're into you, they've also got shared interests, so how can you basically get them to make friends with themselves? That's what I love about it.
Yeah. Absolutely. I did two meetups while I was in London, and it's so cool to actually see your community come to life. To see even though you may have grown up differently and you live in different parts of the world—there's still so many ways that you overlap, and there's so many shared interests, and I'm just always kind of shocked by just seeing them and how like-minded they are.
But I also want to bring up something you told me when we met, and I don't know how you phrased it—but something along the lines of, "I'm really good at launching businesses, but maybe not up to the point where they get sold or whatever your end goal is."
Yeah. I think that over the last few months especially, I've been really rethinking, "What does that end goal look like?" The thing is, The Stack is the purest execution of what I'm into. I really care deeply about gender equity, about the fact that women are getting murdered every single day, or that they have no money, or there are laws against them, or they're being executed. You know what I mean? Literally being executed for not wearing your hijab properly. I feel very strongly that the world treats us second-class citizens, and the result is that we act like second-class citizens because that's what happens.
You believe how you are treated, right? It's a vicious cycle, isn't it? So I really, really care about the fact that with community comes power. And we've seen that by many, many protests that have been happening all over the world in relation to either gender or social issues, that when you have a community, there is a combined and collective voice, but even on a smaller scale, when you're in the office, and someone touches you in a way that you feel uncomfortable, you might be scared to speak out, but you're less scared when you know that there's like four people who are definitely going to back you up and not question your sanity. You know what I'm saying? So it's really about getting those connections together. So to your point on seeing a business through, I feel like there is no end to this really, for me anyway.
I don't know what that exit liquidation event might look like, but it's definitely not the thing that's driving me right now. The thing that's driving me right now is, "How do I build the biggest network of future global leaders?" The women right now who are mission-driven. The women who are on student campuses rallying and organizing, they're going to be the ones who are going to be in Houses of Parliament doing shit. Or they're going to be the ones designing policy. So I'm really interested in capturing those women together because when you are that woman, you will tend to feel lonely. Actually, so many reports say that the women who are in leadership positions tend to be the only people. So you're the only Black woman in the boardroom, or you're the only female CEO, and it's incredibly lonely. And I'm just like, "Why do we have to compromise our happiness and our sanity for doing good work?"
I love that so much. Obviously, you're very good at what you do. Do you ever face self-doubt about what you are doing? Or do you feel like you see your path very clearly?
I think it's human to feel self-doubt. I would say that when I have these moments, I try to do the very basics of sorting out my physical health first, because those feelings of sadness or loneliness almost always come from poor eating, no exercise, no sleep, simple as that, and not seeing my friends. So I try to surround myself with the people who make me feel good. I listen to very motivational things, like I'll just be getting dressed, listening to Oprah in the background do some speech. You know what I mean?
Absolutely. I do that as well.
And then I always think, "Well, I've gotten this far. Did all right to here." But you know what? I just keep thinking that there's so many average people who just make above-average decisions. And I think if I can just increase shots on goal, if I can increase the chances of success through working hard, being nice, building my network, then it will all be all right in the end. I love that phrase. I've never heard it before, watching that TV show, "It'll all be okay in the end, and if it's not okay, it's not the end." I thought that was really nice.
I absolutely agree with that. What advice do you have for female entrepreneurs, or women who are thinking about starting their own business?
I would say really, really trying to understand your risk appetite and your work ethic. The truth of the matter is that to create something that is game changing requires the level of work that most people are not comfortable with. The school I went to was from 8:30 AM till 4:30 PM from aged 11, and it was 20 miles away. I feel like I was doing a crazy amount of hours of work before I was even a teenager. So it cultivated my work ethic. I have no qualms about working late or working on weekends, even though I don't always enjoy it. There are times I actually like it, and it's totally fine. I'm doing the things that I'm meant to be doing. So a lot of people want to start businesses but don't necessarily want to contribute that amount of hours.
I know there was this massive backlash with Kim Kardashian being like, "You know. You got to do the work." Everyone was cussing her, but I was like—”she's kind of right. You know? You have to do the work."
She is right. I think because people don't like her, they just wanted to see that in a negative light. But I think we know what she was trying to say, she was saying that you have to do the work if you want to be successful. It's fucking true. I watched the episode of the Kardashians about that incident, and I think Khloe said to her, "It was the right message, but it was the wrong messenger."
Yeah. Also, I think people don't realize how hard she works.
I agree.
She is a workaholic! Let's be real. So yeah. The risk appetite and the work ethic, do you really want to give it potentially lose everything? I've had times when I've had no money, I've been eating poor, I've been sleeping on people's sofas. These last 15 years have not been easy. And if I was so inclined to basically get a job, I would. But I don't know how employable I am, how well I do in the corporate environment, you know?
But also, now there's so much discussion around the toxic hustle culture and more people wanting to cultivate work-life balance. But I think especially when you're doing your own thing, and trying to start your own business, like—I don't have work-life balance. I love the work that I do, so I'm down to do it all the time. When I'm bored, I'm like, "Okay. I guess I'm going to just go through my emails or do some research or whatever." But at the same time, when I know I need a break, trust me, I'm going to take a break.
Yeah. Same. And I think I've always been quite good at that. I've always been quite good at listening to what's going on in me.
I guess my last thoughts are really that it's about figuring out the most appropriate ways to create the change you want to see in the world. So it might not be about starting a new company, it might be about working at one of the biggest corporations and trying to change the system there. It might be about writing a paper, doing something academic, writing a book, making a film. I think for those who want to be entrepreneurs, it's really about, "What is it you actually enjoy doing, and what is the mission and the change you are trying to create?" One of the things I teach in my vision, mission, principles workshop is, you have your vision, and there's so many different methods of execution, and all of them could achieve your vision. So, if you want to make a sustainable financial future for old people, yeah, you could work for the government and design the pension. You could write a book on it, you could do a film, you could start a business.
There are all these different ways of actually achieving that. So sometimes people think, oh, I want to start a company when really they want to do a project, and maybe the project is just as worthy and valuable of your time as anything else.
Sharmadean's Most Recommended Reads
This is a business book for when you are think you're the only one failing. Growing a business and getting to scale is never a linear journey. Scott Belsky makes you feel like you're not alone and gives you very simple solutions for how to get back on track with your business growth.
Love's Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy
I'm a big fan of anything to do with the human condition, psychology, sociology, anthropology et cetera. Loves executioner is a beautiful book for understanding the basics of human shame, desires, and thoughts from the point of view of the therapist.
I always avoid bestsellers, it's the ego in me not wanting to read the same because everybody else on the tube. I read this on a holiday and devoured it in two days I was just crying and sobbing by the last chapter. It's a beautiful rendition of all facets of what it's like to be a woman. It's multigenerational multi-racial and just beautifully written.
Whenever I am in Port Antonio, Jamaica I think of this book which I read about a girl Who is Caught between many worlds from rich to poor, black to white, slavery and freedom. It's beautifully written, dreamlike and mysterious.
For anyone who wants to connect the dots as to how laws and policies have been created to literally suppress our economic power, I highly recommend this book on the economics of gender globally.
Women's History of the Modern World
This book is truly eye-opening. I mean literally the scales fell from my eyes when I think about how ideology and mythology has continually put the woman as a second class citizen. This book is quite harrowing to read as it goes through the history of women— by the end of it I was quite angry.