"Empathy is one of the most important leadership qualities these days — which is essential to creating a supportive and inclusive culture"
Lynn Power spent much of her 30-year career running and transforming agency brands. Lynn has expertise in transforming organizations from top to bottom – including capabilities, organizational structure, talent, and culture. She recently left the big agency world to launch two brands: MASAMI, a premium clean haircare brand that launched in February 2020, and Isle de Nature, bee-powered home fragrance which launched in September 2020. Prior to her entrepreneurial move, Lynn was CEO of J. Walter Thompson NY, responsible for the flagship office of WPP’s $1.5B iconic agency (the oldest advertising agency in the world).
Throughout her career, Lynn has had the great fortune of working on some of the world’s most well-known brands including: LISTERINE, American Express, Clinique, Hershey’s, Pizza Hut, and Wild Turkey. Lynn believes in moving at the speed of culture, eliminating barriers, and helping women find their voices.
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Table of Contents
Thank you so much for giving us your time! Before we begin, could you introduce yourself to our readers and take us through what exactly your company does and what your vision is for its future?
Lynn Power: I’m the Co-Founder of two businesses — both launched in 2020 and both are about creating high-performing products that are good for you and good for the environment. MASAMI is clean premium haircare with a Japanese ocean botanical that’s all about weightless hydration. Isle de Nature is a luxury bee-powered home fragrance inspired by the Caribbean island of Dominica. We are sustainability advocates and believe that we should replenish what we take from the earth.
NO child ever says I want to be a CEO/entrepreneur when I grow up. What did you want to be and how did you get where you are today?
Lynn Power: I wanted to be an FBI agent but when there was a hiring freeze in 1989, I ended up “falling” into advertising. I loved it and spent 30 years working on amazing brands like American Express, Hershey’s, and Clinique. Ultimately, my entrepreneurial genes gave in (both of my parents were entrepreneurs) and I left the corporate world in 2018 to launch my own business.
Tell us something about yourself that others in your organization might be surprised to know.
Lynn Power: I’m actually an introvert.
Many readers may wonder how to become an entrepreneur but what is an entrepreneur? How would you define it?
Lynn Power: To me, an entrepreneur is someone who makes their own opportunities. It’s about having a passion and finding a way to bring your passion to life as a business.
What is the importance of having a supportive and inclusive culture?
Lynn Power: Empathy is one of the most important leadership qualities these days — which is essential to creating a supportive and inclusive culture. It’s impossible to build a high-performing team if people are feeling left out. Collaboration, curiosity, and generosity are also qualities that can help support a positive environment where anyone can learn and thrive.
How can a leader be disruptive in the post covid world?
Lynn Power: Leadership in a post-Covid world is about creating deeper connections with your audience — your customers, your employees, your peers, and your partners. That will lead to a deeper understanding which can fuel disruption. There is also a lot of room still for disruption around sustainability — packaging, supply chain, and more.
If a 5-year-old asked you to describe your job, what would you tell them?
Lynn Power: I make shampoo and conditioner that people love!
Share with us one of the most difficult decisions you had to make for your company that benefited your employees or customers. What made this decision so difficult and what were the positive impacts?
Lynn Power: One of the hardest things about being an entrepreneur is figuring out financing. Do you take investment money? Or bootstrap. We have decided to bootstrap our business (for now) which is hard but has been motivating for our employees as they are equity partners in the business and have a stake in seeing it succeed.
Leaders are usually asked about their most useful qualities but let’s change things up a bit. What is your most useless talent?
Lynn Power: Hmmm. I learned how to take dictation in high school. That’s pretty useless now.
Thank you so much for your time but before we finish things off, we do have one more question. If you wrote a book about your life until today, what would the title be?
Lynn Power: “Never Too Old to Find your Passion.”
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Lynn Power for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Lynn Power or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
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