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Masters of ScaleTracee Ellis Ross talks Pattern Beauty, advocacy & joy, w/ Samira Nasr | Masters of Scale Summit '24
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Opening banter and a 30-year friendship on stage
Tracee Ellis Ross and Samira Nasr greet the audience and remark on the stage décor. Samira lists the roles Tracee fills, and Tracee explains they have been best friends for 30 years and have never done a public conversation together.
- •Samira names Tracee as an auntie, sister and bestie who brings all of that to her work
- •Tracee says they have been best friends for 30 years and call each other barnacles
- •Their relationship is private, so this is a first public conversation
- •Tracee wants to ground the audience in the reality of their connection
Why Tracee launched Pattern Beauty: a market problem, not a hair problem
Samira opens with a quote from Tracee about marketing that frames customers as having a problem, and asks about her journey with Pattern. Tracee describes starting as a consumer who did not see herself reflected in the beauty industry and questioning marketing built on making people feel bad.
- •Tracee called the company Pattern Beauty, not Pattern Hair, to leave room to expand beyond hair
- •She came to entrepreneurship as a consumer who wasn't seeing what she wanted, not to make money
- •She never understood marketing based on making people feel bad in order to sell
- •Ten years passed between the idea and the company being born
Products that work and a mission centered on Black beauty
Tracee explains how her mission evolved from wanting products that work to a statement about meeting the needs of the curly, coily and tight-textured community. She also explains that the brand is centered on celebrating Black beauty in its content, hiring and team.
- •She dreamed of a full line of products that work together, look good, refill, and have durable brushes and holdable bottles
- •Pattern exceeds the needs of the curly, coily and tight-textured community
- •She doesn't believe hair has a gender or race, and anyone needing high hydration can use the products
- •Content, hiring and team are centered on celebrating Black beauty
Centering Pattern around joy
Samira asks why joy is so essential to the brand. Tracee traces it to her middle name and her mother, calls joy a superpower, and describes the brand's "juicy and joyful" tagline and its promise of celebrating people rather than shaming them.
- •Tracee was born Tracee Joy Silverstein, and her mother said joy was her natural state
- •Her mother told her she had embodied Joy even after she dropped it from her professional name
- •Her mission with Pattern is to dispel the myth that Black haircare is a niche market
- •"Juicy and joyful" is a tagline, and the brand's promise is celebrating and empowering people
Who holds the success of any human? Tracee turns the question on Samira
Tracee asks Samira a question, criticizing the phrase about a great woman behind every great man. She asks what holds a person's success and what their friendship has made space for in Samira's career, noting they are both single women anchored by their friend group.
- •Tracee says the "behind every great man" phrase makes her want to barf
- •She asks who holds the success of any human
- •Tracee says 30 years of private support lets her do scary things in public
- •Both women are single and anchored by their friendships
Friendship as a safe place in lonely leadership roles
Samira says Tracee held dreams for her that she wouldn't have dared to hold, including her current editor-in-chief job, and that their friendship is a safe sounding board in isolating roles. Tracee shares the unsolicited letter she wrote on Samira's behalf and how Samira helped her with a marketing frustration.
- •Samira says there is no blueprint for being the first, and the friendship offers a place without shame
- •Tracee wrote an unsolicited letter to Anna Wintour recommending Samira for the Glamour editor-in-chief role; Samira did not get that job
- •Tracee says leadership is lonely and you can't always go to colleagues with fears or HR issues
- •Samira helped her work through a holiday campaign frustration by suggesting a 360 digital meeting
- •Tracee says the biggest learning curve is surrounding yourself with people whose integrity and reasoning you trust
The lesson Tracee is glad she didn't know before starting Pattern
Samira poses a question for the audience and Tracee: what lesson from the last five years are you glad you didn't know before starting? Tracee answers that she is glad she didn't know the stakes that now exist, citing the company's growth and the responsibility to employees.
- •Tracee says she never doubted her idea was valid and worthy
- •Pattern grew from 7 SKUs to over 57, with 11 retail partners and 49 designated employees
- •Other people's livelihoods are now involved, which changes how decisions are made
- •She is comfortable with a high-stakes life but needs to remind herself of these stakes
Dreaming bigger for young girls
Tracee reflects on how culture shapes the dreams of young girls and children, using the example of not being married at 52. She says people should dream about their lives, what they contribute, and what experience they want others to have.
- •She says at 25 she would have been alarmed to learn she wouldn't be married at 52, but it doesn't matter
- •She wishes culture did better at supporting young girls in dreaming in different ways
- •Children are taught narrow dreams like firefighter or wedding
- •She asks what you want people to feel and take away beyond buying something
The value of people and the world being run by people
Samira answers the same question, saying she has a deeper appreciation for the value of people, rooted in being othered and wanting to create belonging. Tracee closes by saying she learned that the world is run by people, which changes her relationship to everything, and the two thank the audience.
- •Samira says the value of people is essential to meaningful success and a good day
- •She ties that appreciation to having been othered and wanting to create belonging
- •Tracee says as a child institutions like The White House and Nike didn't seem made of people
- •Learning that the world is run by people changes her relationship to everything she does
