What happened when Gabrielle Union stopped letting fear guide her work

If you know Gabrielle Union only as the cheerleader from “Bring it On” — her breakout role — Gabrielle as business-truth-teller might be something of a surprise.

In the last few years, she’s established herself as a health-and-beauty entrepreneur, a best-selling author, and a leading voice for Black businesses and women in Hollywood. Her companies, a natural hair care line called Flawless and a children's skincare line called Proudly, are both geared to serve Black consumers in ways that big companies haven’t. Her Lift as We Climb initiative leverages her social media star power to draw attention to select Black-owned businesses and her lessons to help them learn from her and from each other. And every time she talks, she shines a light on the bad practices of people in power — as well as the bad habits entrepreneurs and career-builders have adopted on their own.?

The two threads that ties all of her work together are the desire to help minority-owned businesses and consumers, and Gabrielle's whole-hearted belief in the power of vulnerability. As she says in second book, You Got Anything Stronger?, she had come to realize that she was so scared of losing and losing face that she hadn't learned how to be strategic —?or even how to just be:

“Four years ago… I realized that I had been led to where I was by fear. Not just led—fear had motivated, inspired, and controlled my life for decades. Fear is a tool that has its place: it will keep you alive if you are in real danger, but if you live with it day to day it will eventually deaden your soul. Instead of moving from fear, I began, slowly, to extend myself grace... ”

When we talked to open the latest season of This is Working, Gabrielle’s acceptance of grace and vulnerability was woven through all of her answers. She is someone who is just as eager to show her journey as the outcome. That kind of willingness to name names and show your work is always welcome; it's especially important now as so many in the #GreatReshuffle are rethinking how they work, what they want out of work, and what success means to them.

You can find the episode on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Or just click here:

Some highlights:

On her early career

“I was saying yes to most things. I mean, at the end of the day, Black actresses were not getting the same opportunities. We didn't even know about these investments. We definitely weren't asked to be consultants or on the board or literally anything. So anytime you've got any opportunity, you're saying yes because you're so used to crumbs. So anything they'd throw your way you're like, 'Yes, I better take it. And if they ask me today, they probably will never ask again. So I got to strike while the iron's hot.' And that really has boiled down for me into just being terribly afraid of failing, being terribly afraid of, there wouldn't be enough for everyone. So I have to say yes, no matter what."

What Gabrielle learned from that

"Scared money don't make any money.”

On Flawless, which she rebooted and took more control over

“So Flawless was an idea that we had come up with because I really wanted to be in the hair space. I thought I had something to offer and years ago now … this group brought to me this idea of doing a hair care company and that it would be my company. And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, yeah.’ But I didn't ask the proper follow up questions. I should have asked, ‘What does being Black-owned mean to you?’ And they would've told me, ‘Oh we actually have no plans on being Black-owned. We're just going to use you for your name and likeness. And we're just going to slap it on whatever we think it should go on.’

“Even though we were a success I did not want to be a Black shield for people looking to exploit the Black community. I have an actual love of all things hair care and Black hair care specifically. So once I was able to get out of that deal. I was like, ‘We're going to do this over.’ … I want this company to be Black-owned. Black-owned, operated, fronted, invested… I never want to be put in a position where I'm being used for my name or used because people trust me or be used as a Black shield ever.

“So I took back control of the company. I made sure that it's — what's the point if we find all these amazing solutions for folks but we've priced people out of this solution? So let's lower the prices, nothing over $10. Let's make sure that they're actually in beauty supply stores that Black people go to and feel comfortable in, where they're not racially profiled for undoing a top or smelling or feeling the texture of something. And let's narrow our profit margins. If this is not about exploitation let's narrow the profit margins, find partners, distribution partners that agree with us, which was a little bit more of a challenge than I thought, and let's hope for the best. And what I was not prepared for is with the relaunch to come out of the gate with so much success, that we were not prepared at all for that kind of success.”

On what she learned from her Flawless:

Listen, it's kind of like my first marriage. A lot of people would like to forget it entirely but I'm still learning lessons from that marriage and how I failed and where I went wrong. Because I think it's easy when things go wrong to blame everyone else, you know it's easy to point out where somebody else dropped the ball, but it made me look inward. And knowing that I made that initial deal out of fear that no one would ever want me to do anything and I have to take every deal as it's presented, don't fight back too much because they'll take it away and I'll lose everything. That I can't move through the world with that kind of fear and I have to approach business differently. I've never slept better. My soul is singing.”

On the importance of entrepreneurs giving back, no matter how early they are in their business

“There has to be a give-back component. A lot of people feel like, ‘Well, I don't make enough’ or, ‘I don't have a big enough platform to give back. What am I giving back?’ A lot of times it's just time, it's resources. And we talk about resources, a lot of people assume it's money. But a lot of it is just time. You know, it's just taking the time and saying, ‘Look this is where we messed up. These are some of the challenges that we had with this warehouse or this distributor or who did you talk to over there? 'Cause I'm running into some problems or, you know how did how did you troubleshoot with Amazon or who did you use for your website?’

“Even if you, or you've only taken the smallest of steps, that's still a little bit further than someone else has made it. It is to me, a requirement to reach your hand back and make sure that as you climbing, you're showing other people the way, as well.”

On her advice to people getting into show business:

“I always say, ‘Do you want to be famous or do you want to act?’ Because those are two different things and you can get famous doing all sorts of things and, and it may or may not bring you joy or happiness or financial freedom. And if you love acting, there's a solid chance you'll be broke indefinitely. So you have to figure out: ‘Do you really love the art of this business? Do you really love acting or do we have some attention challenges that you should probably work out with your therapist’ You know, this desire to have to be validated publicly over and over and over again?

“There's so many routes? to fame. There's being an influencer. There's, you know, dating someone, there's breaking up with someone. There's a host of things you could do to get famous.

"But if you want respect, if you want to be able to respect yourself and be respected, you need to know where your line in the sand is, what you will and won’t do, what you will take and what you won't take.”

A couple of non-Gabrielle updates:

1. I'm super excited that This is Working is now part of the LinkedIn Podcast Network, with podcast hosts covering everything from Big Tech to Big Ideas. You can learn more in this post about the network and what we're hoping to achieve. TL;DR: There's incredible knowledge being shared by these hosts and great things happen if you can help move the medium from a one-way street to a community that learns from each other.
2. Want all posts from me —?or any other creator — at the top of your feed? Click that little bell icon on the profile page of the favorite people you're following and never miss an update again.