Women in Wellness: “Why you need to Forgive & Allow” With Stacy Blackman
Forgive & Allow — I am a recovering perfectionist and have a bad habit of reflecting on events or circumstances and beating myself up for fumbles. I now focus on allowing mishaps and experimentation and forgiving the hiccups that naturally occur with growth.
As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Stacy Blackman.
Stacy earned her BS in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and her MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.
After graduating from Wharton, Stacy began working in private equity at the Prudential Capital Group in San Francisco. Following business school, she founded and sold her first company, WebWisher.com. During this time, Fortune Magazine chronicled Stacy’s career for a span of nearly two years, running stories about her in several issues and featuring her on their cover in May of 2000. WebWisher is now part of The Knot, a publicly-traded company.
Following WebWisher, Stacy founded Stacy Blackman Consulting (SBC), the leading admissions consulting firm. SBC has now placed thousands of clients in every top MBA program in the world. The company also has a popular video series, runs workshops and has a publishing division. Stacy was elected for two terms to the Board of Directors of AIGAC, the Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants and has published a book, The MBA Application Roadmap.
In 2019, Stacy founded Stryke Club to fill a void in skincare and grooming for teenage boys. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and three children.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
I am a serial entrepreneur but it took me a while to figure that out! I launched my first venture in 7th grade when I made beaded bracelets that sold like wildfire within my all-girl middle school. Unfortunately, I was shut down by my headmaster. After college, I worked in private equity but itched to do something more creative. I wanted to actually have a hand in running companies rather than just analyzing the numbers behind them.
I went to business school to help transition into a marketing role at a consumer products company but after my summer internship decided that big company life was not for me. Now it was clear: I wanted to launch my own company, be more hands-on, take responsibility for creating something and be in charge of my own destiny. During my second year in business school at Northwestern, I partnered with two classmates and dear friends and launched an online registry called WebWisher. We sold that company within a year; it’s now part of theKnot.com. Next, I started an educational consulting company: Stacy Blackman Consulting, which is now the leader in its field.
I have a fantastic team in place running SBC and a few years ago started to contemplate building a consumer products company. I wanted to do something meaningful and just needed a great idea. My dear, a lifelong friend is a child psychologist and we both have sons. We were discussing the fact that our daughters have 20-step beauty routines but our boys didn’t take pride in self-care. When the boys started to sprout pimples we searched for products for them and came up empty. We saw an opportunity to create clean, effective, modern and cool products just for boys. We partnered with a pediatric dermatologist and Stryke Club was born.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
I’ve started businesses before, but when I thought about building a company that makes physical products, I became nervous and overwhelmed. I remember sitting in my living room talking to my friend who is in the CPG world about the idea for a skincare line for teenage boys. I was so excited and confident about the idea but became paralyzed when I even thought about what the first steps would be. She smiled at my nervousness and presented a plan on how to get this thing off the ground. She is now my partner and I can honestly say the butterflies still appear every once in a while, but the amount I’ve learned and have grown as an entrepreneur since sitting in my living room that grey day in December is mind-blowing.
My takeaway: nervousness often indicates that you are growing, and that’s a great thing. As we get older it’s easy to settle into a routine and not stretch or grow. Personally, I always want to push myself and expand, so the discomfort that accompanies nervousness will be part of my life forever.
Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Everything I have done with Stryke Club has been sprinkled with mistakes. I literally have messed up every step of the way. From stumbling through a search for the right manufacturer to promotional code fiascos and e-commerce glitches, it’s been full of ups and downs. With our first run of Stryke Club product, we decide to fulfill from home to save money. Next thing we knew, our manufacturer had sent enormous semi-trucks with pallets full or product to our little residential neighborhoods. After being unable to make it down the street, they turned away and somehow lost track of the product. The formula that we had worked on for over a year was floating around America on a truck and they could not track it down. It never crossed my mind to discuss and ask specific questions about shipping, shipping destinations, shipping methods, and tracking. Every move, every little detail requires planning, research, and thoughtfulness. I am learning as I go and thankfully, I have amazing partners, and we learn from each other and boost each other up.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I have three incredible partners in Stryke Club. We all have very different backgrounds and bring different expertise and perspectives. Darci has a long and impressive career in consumer products with brands such as OLLY, Method Home and Yes To. Sheilagh is a pediatric dermatologist with a thriving practice. Nicole is a child psychologist who really saw the need for boys to be more vulnerable and engage in self-care. Every day I lean on and learn from these women. I walked into this knowing zero about consumer products, fulfillment or the skincare industry. I now know quite a bit and it is thanks to the sharing and support in our partnership.
Ok perfect. Now let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
There are so many elements to wellness, and one is just a decision to care for ourselves and feel good in our own skin. But for boys, it has historically been almost shameful to admit to caring about appearance or to engage in grooming habits. We really want to open up that conversation and empower boys to put their best face forward and be proud. We are creating the very best products that we feel are locker-room worthy and will be a point of pride, not an embarrassing and medicinal zit cream.
Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.
Breathe — When I have a lot to do, I tend to get really amped up and agitated. Sometimes I will even be doing something simple like getting dressed in the morning and I realize I am rushing and tense. And then I just stop and take a breath. Breath is an amazing thing. It’s free, we all have it and it can work miracles!
Plan — I plan out my entire day the night before: work, admin, errands and even the fun stuff. I will schedule everything from a workout to going to the bank to museum visits. I find that it is even more important to schedule the leisure activities because those can slip through the cracks when you have work deliverables with deadlines that tend to take priority. When I put things on the calendar, they are more likely to happen. I can map everything out and make sure that I have a bit of time for everything. Otherwise I find I am just a free-flowing mess without direction.
Forgive & Allow — I am a recovering perfectionist and have a bad habit of reflecting on events or circumstances and beating myself up for fumbles. I now focus on allowing mishaps and experimentation and forgiving the hiccups that naturally occur with growth.
Outsource — Between building a business, raising three children, nurturing relationships and just enjoying life, I am juggling a lot. I cannot do it all and I don’t try to. Both professionally and personally, I have made very clear decisions about what I am willing to outsource and what I want to handle on my own. Showing up at my daughter’s soccer game — can’t be outsourced. Making dinner? Postmates can handle that in a pinch! There are many things that need to get done that I have no intention of doing. So if possible — I outsource.
Pamper: I need to take time for myself both physically, mentally, and emotionally. My life is full and I’m constantly doing things for my business and my family. I need to remember to take care of myself or I won’t be my best self to tackle everything else. Whether it’s starting my day with a hike or stopping for a tea while I run errands, I need to remember me.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
If I could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, it would be to make laughter more abundant. Laughter triggers healthy physical and emotional changes in the body. It strengthens the immune system, boosts mood and reduces stress. A good laugh brings your body back into balance, connects you to others and keeps you grounded and alert. It can also help you release anger. Laughter is great medicine.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
- Delegate — You just can’t do it all
- Listen to your gut — You can talk to all the people in the world, crunch the numbers but at the end of the day, intuition plays a big role
- It’s okay to fail — Don’t beat yourself up. Sometimes failing is just as important because you learn from your mistakes
- Always budget more — No matter how much money you have you can always spend more. You don’t want to run business always worrying about or being constrained by money
- Step away — It’s okay to step away from something and pick it up the next day. Not everything has to get done ASAP. Leaving something for tomorrow might give you more clarity.
Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?
Mental health is dearest to me as I have close friends and family that have struggled greatly with mental health. There is so much shame associated with mental health struggles and the victims feel very alone. I also feel there is blame placed on the individuals because it is an invisible ailment, and others think that people just need to “change their attitude” or “cheer up”. I dream of a world where people understand that depression and anxiety are real ailments like cancer and heart disease and they are nobody’s fault.
What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?
Instagram: @StrykeClub @StacyBlackman
Facebook: /shopStrykeClub
Twitter: @ClubStryke
Thank you for these fantastic insights!
