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How Leaders Lead with David Novak

#259: Sarah Gibson Tuttle, Founder and CEO of Olive & June – Work on yourself

How Leaders Lead with David Novak

David Novak Leadership

Entrepreneurship, Business, Management

4.8596 Ratings

🗓️ 2 October 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As a kid, she had to hide her favorite red nail polish from her parents. Today, she’s the founder and CEO of Olive & June, a $100 million nail polish brand. But in between, Sarah Gibson Tuttle had to navigate a career she wasn’t really passionate about … and find the courage to chase a big idea.  In this episode, she shares: The untold stories behind the brand’s rise How she turned frustration into innovation Why her ability to work on herself has helped her build a more collaborative, company Take your learning further. Get proven leadership advice from these (free!) resources: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The How Leaders Lead App⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: A vast library of 90-second leadership lessons to stay sharp on the go  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daily Insight Emails⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: One small (but powerful!) leadership principle to focus on each day Whichever you choose, you can be sure you’ll get the trusted leadership advice you need to advance your career, develop your team, and grow your business.

Transcript

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0:00.0

So at some point, I turned around and I said, as much as I love my clients, do I really love this life?

0:05.3

Is this really what I was destined to do?

0:07.5

I wasn't thinking about disruption.

0:09.2

I was thinking, what am I going to do with the rest of my life?

0:12.1

I love this.

0:12.9

It's like a therapy session.

0:20.0

So here you are. You're running this wildly successful brand.

0:23.9

Olive in June, that's pulling in close to $100 million in revenue a year.

0:29.7

But as I understand it, you weren't allowed to even paint your nails as a kid.

0:35.1

You know, what do your parents think of all this now?

0:40.5

I'm sure it's wild because my dad did not let me paint my nails as a kid. You're right. And I used to have a

0:46.6

box of nail polish under my beds, you know, secretly hidden. And I would paint my nails

0:52.4

when he was away on business trips. And so,

0:54.9

and red was especially his least favorite color. So that was my go-to and continues to be my go-to.

1:01.6

So, you know, I think it's been a wild journey. They now talk about nails as if, you know,

1:08.1

this was, this was something they've always loved about me, but we all know the truth.

1:12.4

And I keep telling the, I keep telling the truth as much as people will listen.

1:17.6

I guess that's when they say success has many fathers or many mothers or however you want to

1:22.2

think about it, you know.

1:23.6

Exactly. Exactly.

1:25.3

As we're doing this podcast, you know, Halloween's coming up, what's the most

1:29.7

popular nail polish color for the October season? You know what's so funny is that the seasons

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