Leadership Lessons in Brand Building

Danessa Myricks, founder of Danessa Myricks Beauty, started out her career in nursing before parlaying a chance meeting with a media executive into a job at a hair-and-beauty magazine publisher. When the magazine she worked for abruptly closed, she pivoted again, teaching herself to be a makeup artist. She built up her experience and expertise and, within a few years, was an in-demand artist teaching at trade shows and selling DVDs of her master classes. She then went on to work at Kiss and Benefit, where she led product development and innovation on projects such as Benefit’s brow collection. In 2015, she launched her eponymous brand, which made a splash in the beauty world with its imaginative, multiuse products. The brand launched in Sephora in 2021 and has seen huge year-on-year growth, all while creating entirely new formulas and offering programs like the Danessa Myricks Angels, which provides mentorship opportunities to up-and-coming artists.