Pooneh Mohajer
Sharon Fiehler:
Hello, everyone. I'm Sharon Fiehler with ABC to CEO. Thank you for joining us today. I have a wonderful guest I've been so excited about. Pooneh Mohajer is what I call a renaissance businesswoman. She has done so many things in many ways. Right now, Pooneh, you're the CEO and co-founder of tokidoki. You're a serial entrepreneur at heart. You do everything ranging from strategic marketing to product and brand development to corporate strategy, high-level contract negotiations, corporate structuring, financial operations, plus all of the creativity that goes into each of these things. Women around the world will love hearing what you have to say. Just a little bit about your background: I know you've moved around in several different businesses. It might be fun if you could tell us a little bit about how you got started in business, the things you've done and where they have taken you to get to today.
Pooneh Mohajer:
Thank you so much for that kind introduction. It's really a pleasure to be here. Part of what I love is inspiring others and younger women and men, but mostly women, because I am a woman. I cherish the opportunity to model for younger ladies. I knew some women when I was growing up that were pretty much powerhouse businesswomen. In the back of my mind, I always thought, well, if that lady can do it, why not? I can do it too. It's always nice to have a reference point in someone you can identify with.
Early on in my career, I had my ten-year plan all laid out: I got my law degree, was going to practice entertainment law and eventually segue into business affairs and ultimately produce. That was my ten-year plan of getting into the entertainment business. My sister was pre-med at USC, and this will segue into my first company. She had been training to go to medical school since high school, and she had sliced and diced DNA with my dad and published papers with him. He's a medical device inventor, physician, surgeon, and professor of medicine. Fast forward: I had just graduated from law school. She was right about to take her MCAT as a biochemistry major at USC. She has always been very fashion forward, started mixing fun nail polish colors in her bathroom and started to get massive compliments from friends when she would go out with these fun colors. Fast forward: we decided to start our little company called Hard Candy Cosmetics, which pretty much exploded in our faces. We ended up revolutionizing the nail enamel industry and pushing color cosmetics into a whole new realm. This was back in the late 90s. We ended up selling our company to Louis Vuitton. That was a very interesting wild ride for both of us because we had other plans. We ended up becoming entrepreneurs, not really knowing that was what we were at heart. That was Hard Candy, my first business, where I met my former husband who ended up being my co-founder in my second and third businesses.
After Hard Candy, I took some time off. I was exhausted and then jumped back into starting a company with my ex that was a one-stop shop for fashion and lifestyle brands. That was his area of expertise. I really love product development. He had an idea, and this will segue into how I ended up with tokidoki, which is my current company. We are in our 16th year of building our brand. We stumbled upon Simone Legno, who is my business partner at tokidoki and does all our art. He is a world-renowned graphic artist and fine artist as well. I've been on a journey with him building tokidoki into an international brand. At first, people thought I was a little crazy when I showed them tokidoki and Simone's art, and I thought, oh well, you just don't understand; this is going to be huge. And so, lo and behold, all these years later... But going back to when we first met: We discovered Simone online as we were looking for some design talent to start another company in the health and beauty space. I really wanted to get back into product development instead of being in the service business. We stumbled upon his website, and I literally started to scream like a lunatic.
Sharon Fiehler:
Immediately, you just loved it.
Pooneh Mohajer:
I just fell in love with his art. He had animation on his website, and he had games that he had developed. At that point, he was one of the best flash animators in the world. The juxtaposition of these gorgeous, sophisticated, beautiful Asian ladies with these cute, adorable kawaii, which is part of Japanese cute character culture, really resonated with me. I had never seen anything like it, and I just thought it was stunning. At first, he told us to go away like we were some stalkers. Then my ex said, well, my wife started Hard Candy and sold it to LVMH. Are you sure you don't want to come and meet with us? He said, okay, I'll come meet with you. After a few meetings, we were able to convince him to move. He was 26 and moved to Los Angeles. Now he's 41 years old, he has two kids and a beautiful Japanese wife. We've been on this amazing journey of building this brand together.
tokidoki is really a phenomenon. tokidoki means 'sometimes' in Japanese. He has philosophized that word in that we all wait for those moments sometimes in life to happen. We never know when we're going to meet somebody or will be in an interesting circumstance that's going to completely shift our trajectory. It's a very hopeful way of looking at your life. There are all these tokidoki moments that we've had as entrepreneurs and co-founders of this company, and we continue to be blessed with those moments. It's an absolute honor to work with Simone and continue to build this journey, his life's work, his art, and the contributions to society. It's just amazing. We have a slew of cute character families with fun backstories. They're very inspiring. tokidoki is an inclusive, non-discriminating world, and there's something in Simone's art, in our character worlds and in the fine art that resonates with everybody. It's a very dynamic brand that brings a lot of joy to many people. I love that it inspires young people, it inspires older people, it inspires everyone to be creative and use their imagination. It brings out the child in adults, and it resonates with children as well. It's just really incredible.
Sharon Fiehler:
That's a good segue to the 'inspire' part of ABC to CEO and how we are trying to inspire young women to consider the possibility of maybe being a CEO someday. When you were young, was that on your mind, or is it something that just evolved?
Pooneh Mohajer:
That's a great question. No, I don't think that I ever thought about it. There weren't many women when I was growing up to model that for me. There were some female entrepreneurs who were very successful in their businesses, and I always looked up to them. But CEO, or C suite was never something I thought of as an aspiration. I think it's amazing that today, it can be an aspiration for young women, and they can set their sights on it. Some of the things that are important to keep in mind, as you're coming up as a professional, are to create a network of professionals and people in your industry, whatever that may be. Just continue to build those relationships. And it's not just building them with women–although women need to support each other and not be afraid, because historically, it hasn't been a thing for women to be CEOs. But in this generation, and in our age, that's a possibility. I think building allyship and building out your network and bragging about your colleagues and people in your professional network goes a long way. We have to elevate each other; we have to support each other. That's important and goes a long way. On whatever path that you take professionally, it's important to develop your emotional intelligence. There's so much literature out there and guidance on how to develop that. We live in an amazing world where information has become democratized. We're in a different era where you can tap into so many resources just from your laptop, it's incredible. You can go to public library and get access. Continuing on the path of learning and improving your professional skill set is also important.
Sharon Fiehler:
I think being able to listen to people like you and other podcasts we've done is great. It’s something most of us didn't have when we were forming our careers. You have this opportunity now to take this knowledge that's at your fingertips, and you decide what to do with it. There's not just one path for everybody. You went a very entrepreneurial route, some women go a very corporate business route, and there are many ways to look at becoming a leader. You've obviously worked with a lot of women. What do you see as characteristics women should emulate, and what might not be as helpful to them?
Pooneh Mohajer:
As you're progressing and you're on your professional path, keep in mind to think before you speak. Really think about things because once you say something and put it out there, you can't take it back. It's very difficult to do. I think it's important to be a team player and really get your hands dirty. Put in the work. I put in the work on my path to becoming a CEO. Even though I founded my own companies, I wasn't the CEO right away. My ex-husband was the CEO when we launched our brand in 2005. He resigned in 2012, but even when he resigned, I didn't take the title of CEO. I was the COO. I was still C, but I had to get buy-in from my management and from my business partners before I took on that title. I had to earn it. You must earn your way into the C-suite. Part of that is getting your hands dirty, doing the hard work, showing up when you don't feel like showing up, which happens a lot.
Sharon Fiehler:
Sometimes you just have to pretend. Even though you don't feel like doing this, you must push yourself, and then it becomes real because you can take on these kinds of responsibilities. One of the things that I hear is that you took a lot of risks compared to somebody like me who went more of a traditional route. I was guaranteed a paycheck as long as I showed up for work. You took a lot of risk with your career. Can you speak to that?
Pooneh Mohajer:
It's important to take risks. You have to push yourself outside of your comfort zone. It's the only way you're going to grow. We grow through adversity. I think it was in 2017 when it dawned on me that this year, I'm going to do everything that scares me. Just do it.
Sharon Fiehler:
That's a great theme for a New Year's resolution: I'm going to do everything that scares me.
Pooneh Mohajer:
It's the only way that you're going to push yourself to that next level. It's important to take risks. There's the adage of no risk, no reward. That's true for young professionals. You must take risks. You have to push yourself to have the difficult conversations with your superiors or your colleagues or whatever the situation might require. Build your confidence and your resilience through that.
Sharon Fiehler:
That's true. Too many times you take something personally when you should be looking at it as an opportunity to better yourself in whatever your pursuits are. Let's talk a little bit about confidence. You're obviously a confident person. Do you think you were born with confidence? Do you think you developed it? Do you think your parents had a role in shaping your confidence?
Pooneh Mohajer:
I think my parents had everything to do with shaping all of me. My parents immigrated to the United States in the early 60s and were naturalized in 1974. I remember when they were studying for their exam. It was just adorable to watch them. They are hardworking immigrants to this country and very proud to be citizens of the United States, proud to have contributed, and continue to contribute. Part of your competence comes from your upbringing, of course. Not everybody is blessed with that, so you have to look within. You have to mother yourself sometimes, or father yourself, and be that source of strength, and tap into whatever is your higher energy–be it God, or your spirituality, whatever that may be for you, and really nurture yourself. That's important. While you're nurturing those around you, don't forget about your colleagues.
Sharon Fiehler:
If you're going to be a leader, look behind to see who's following. If people know that the leader is aware of them, is going to take care of them and help them on their journey, it's a lot easier to follow somebody who you trust. When you're looking at hiring people, what traits do you look for in an individual? You're a creative company, but there are things in addition to creativity, I'm sure. Can you speak to that?
Pooneh Mohajer:
We look for people who are super passionate about what we're doing, excited to contribute to the company, to help us grow, and just thrilled to be part of the journey. It's important to bring on people that really show strength and character and show that they really care about others and have a sense of loyalty and integrity. That's almost more important than having a specific skill set because you can't teach somebody those things. That's kind of innate. We want people who learn and contribute and are aligned with our values. It's so important to have alignment, first and foremost, because if there's a mismatch there, ultimately it doesn't work out.
Sharon Fiehler:
A lot of our listeners are in the very early stages of their careers, probably in their 20s. Do you want to give them just a couple of little nuggets of advice? If you're in the corporate world, or you're trying to do entrepreneurial things, are there things you feel you did right, or things you would have done differently that you'd like to pass on to young women today? We talked a little bit about getting P&L responsibility. You have to understand the numbers to truly run a business. You have to have good customer relationships. What comes to your mind for young women trying to shape their careers right now?
Pooneh Mohajer:
I recall a time when I was in my 20s, after law school. I was working my way into the entertainment industry through the backdoor. I wasn't very connected in that world, so I really had to show myself. I was in on a Sunday, and I wasn't putting my hours down. My boss came in asking, what are you doing here? I said, don't worry, I'm not going to put it on my timecard. I just want to get a jumpstart on the week and be prepared. It's not on you, it's on me. I'm here for myself to put in the extra time so that I can perform well next week. I'm not saying you have to work every Sunday right away, but it's going a little bit above and beyond the basic requirements of what your job is, or whatever is that you're working on. It's taking your passion to another level and showing up for yourself. Others will notice, and it's not just for yourself: You're really showing up for the greater good, the organization, whatever team you're on. You're showing up for your colleagues.
Sharon Fiehler:
I always feel that you need to differentiate yourself. Back when I was starting in business, there weren't a lot of women getting MBAs. Getting an MBA differentiated me from a lot of other people, men or women. Granted, it's not the key, but let's just say you get a little star next to your name, and people take notice. Now, what can you do because of that?
Pooneh Mohajer:
Exactly. It’s great that you have the degree, now show me what you can do.
Sharon Fiehler:
That's right, you can get noticed, but then you still got to prove that there's something you have to offer that's going to help the whole organization.
Pooneh Mohajer:
It's so important. And that's how you show yourself. You show up when you're showing up for everybody else and yourself. I had a young person who was working for me say to me, I have to think about mine..., me..., me…, me…, and I was thinking, oh my God, what about us?
Sharon Fiehler:
A leader has to have followers. You get so much accomplished when you're all in this together. Do you have any final thoughts that we didn't touch upon that you would like to add for young women or for parents who are raising young girls?
Pooneh Mohajer:
I didn't get to be successful without failing. Failing is part of the formula. You can be sad for a second and then get up and figure out your next steps. Do not wallow in that. That one moment will not define you for the rest of your life. Remember that. That goes back to building your confidence. You don't necessarily learn without adversity. Part of adversity is having those moments where you feel like you're failing. I still feel like I'm failing at certain things, and I just have to think: It's okay. Let's go, let's get busy!
Sharon Fiehler:
It's always about self-reflection: What can I do differently that will feel like I'm making a step forward? You just can't stand still. You have to always be grasping for something, and sometimes you can't reach it, but that doesn't keep you from grasping again.
Pooneh Mohajer:
Absolutely, or grasping in a different way. One of my favorite books is Who Moved My Cheese? Everyone needs to read that book.
Sharon Fiehler:
I have it on nightstands of my guest bedrooms because you can't read it too many times. It's great to get the reinforcement again. Change is going to happen, and what do I do about it?
Pooneh Mohajer:
Exactly. I love that book. I still pick it up and read it sometimes. It's just so good.
Sharon Fiehler:
Thank you so much for your time. Thank you for sharing your wonderful morsels of knowledge with us. There are many women who didn't have the chance to see women like you when they were shaping their careers. Role models are such a key to believing you can do something. So, thank you for helping us believe that for women, if they so choose, there is the possibility of becoming a CEO.
Pooneh Mohajer, CEO and Co-Founder of tokidoki, is a serial entrepreneur at heart. Tokidoki is her third company to date. Since debuting in 2005, tokidoki has amassed a cult-like following for its larger-than-life characters and emerged as a sought-after global lifestyle brand. This innovative company is known not only for its eye-popping aesthetic and criminally cute characters, but also its megawatt partnerships with evergreen brands such as Hello Kitty, Karl Lagerfeld, LeSportsac, Barbie, Sephora, Marvel, and others.
Pooneh loves entrepreneurship and all the challenges of running a business. She also co-founded Hard Candy Inc., a color cosmetics company that revolutionized the nail enamel and cosmetic industries worldwide with innovative products. In 1999, Pooneh sold Hard Candy Inc. to LVMH, Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, an international luxury goods conglomerate. Her abilities are multifaceted, ranging from strategic marketing to product and brand development to overall corporate strategy, including high-level contract negotiation, corporate structuring, and financial operations.
After Hard Candy and before tokidoki, Pooneh co-founded Creative Branding & Design, LLC dba damnBRAND, a full-service ecommerce management firm focused on partnering with fashion, beauty, and lifestyle brands. Client-partners included Oliver Peoples, Smashbox Cosmetics, Trina Turk, Bisou Bisou, Hot Kiss, Philip B, ABS by Allen Schwartz, and Black Eyed Peas. damnBRAND provided a complete outsourced solution for its clients’ online operations including design and development of online stores, hosting, merchandise selection, digital imaging, online merchandising, secure order transactions, inventory management, order fulfillment, returns processing, and customer service.
Pooneh received her Juris Doctor from California Western School of Law in 1994, as well as a BA from Vanderbilt University in 1987. She has been a member of Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) since 1996 after serving on its LA Chapter Board. EO is a premier peer-to-peer network of entrepreneurs with over 15,600 members around the world. In 2013, Pooneh was honored with the National Association of Women Business Owners Los Angeles Trailblazer of the Year Award. In 2014, she received the Deborah Award from the Anti-Defamation League, which supports a world without hate, bullying, and bigotry.
Pooneh sits on the Board of Directors of Children Mending Hearts, a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering disadvantaged youth by providing arts-driven educational programs to foster empathy and solid global citizenry. Since 2016, Pooneh has served as a founding member of Inc. Magazine’s Board of Advisors. Pooneh is a proud member of Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches Program.