Welcome to The Strategy Files—a newsletter about history's most ambitious people in fashion, beauty, and culture. I study the icons, you apply their strategies; you win.

This post is sponsored by me, myself, and I. I’m building NoteLoft AI: an AI-first tech consultancy.

We work with founders and teams who want clear technical direction, calm execution, and software that’s built right the first time. Our team of senior software engineers has worked together for years — which means fewer surprises and faster progress.

If you want a technical partner who treats your product like a business, not an experiment, get in touch!

Let’s get into it.

This month’s deep dive comes from the book Matriarch: A Memoir.

Beyonce was about three months old when her mother, Tina Knowles, came to the conclusion that she could no longer depend on her husband, and needed to make her own money.

You see, Matthew Knowles loved to cheat. And Tina made a mistake that many of our mothers did: she left the workforce to start a family.

From chapter 17:

“I knew what protected us: money. Pure and simple. But none of it was mine. What kept me and my daughter safe depended on a marriage I did not have faith in lasting. A man I was not sure of.”

So when Beyonce was four and Tina was thirty-one, she signed up for beauty school. Unfortunately that didn’t last; Beyonce was getting bullied at school, so Tina dropped out to spend more time with her daughter.

A few months later, Tina offered to do her friends hair; a woman named Cheryl Creuzot. Today, Cheryl is the president Wealth Development Strategies, LLC in Houston, Texas. But back then, she was a financial planner with a problem: the salons she went to weren’t built for professional, busy women.

The salon Cheryl visited typically took five or six hours to do what Tina could do in one or two. And the owners were big fans of gossip. So not only did Cheryl lose the equivalent of a workday at the salon, she also couldn’t trust the people running it.

And in business, if you don’t have trust, you don’t have anything.

Cheryl asked Tina to start her own salon, but Tina didn’t take the idea seriously. She was too focused on trying to fix something that was never going to be fixed: her marriage.

Matthew was in no way focused on being a better husband.

At this point in the story, Tina finds out she’s pregnant with Solange. And for some reason, Matthew is focused on frivolously spending money; he booked an expensive international trip and bought a Jaguar. He and claimed the car was a surprise for Tina. But let’s be real - he bought it for himself; what is a mother of two going to do with a sports car?

It’s unfortunate that Tina wanted to delay her independence because his cheating only got worse. The crazy thing is that now that she was visibly pregnant, he didn’t try to hide it. He flaunted it! It was incredibly public; in chapter 17 she says his cheating was “out there for all to see“.

And this treatment, this lack of respect, was the thing that lit a fire under Tina Knowles.

See you soon for part three,

LaToya

Welcome to The Strategy Files—a newsletter about history's most ambitious people in fashion, beauty, and culture. I study the icons, you apply their strategies; you win.

Before we get started, I wanted to let you know that I’m building an AI first tech consultancy called NoteLoft AI. I have 13 years of experience building software, and I’m sick of seeing founders get taken advantage of by scammy tech agencies. So I’ve put together a team of my favorite AI engineers, full stack engineers, infrastructure engineers and designers. Our goal is to give you the best service you’ve ever had, and truly make building your product a delightful experience.

If you’re interested in hiring a group of people who have worked together on and off for a decade, get in touch!

We’re taking on one new client in November and would love the chance to impress you.

Let’s get into it.

This month’s deep dive comes from the book Matriarch: A Memoir.

10 Lessons From Founder Tina Knowles:

1. As a woman, you need to have your own money. Tina knew very early in her marriage to Matthew that his ability to cheat was a threat to her marriage. And she also knew that every cent their family had was his, so she decided to do something about it.

2. Do not leave the workforce to start a family. It will be harder to jump back in when you need the money.

3. The key to starting over later in life? Upskill.

4. When people offer to pay you for something you’d do for free, you might have a business on your hands. Test it!

5. If you need a business idea, look at businesses that are inefficient. Get the job done at the same quality, but faster. You’ll make money!

6. Being around ambitious people will make you more ambitious. And people who want to be widely successful know this.

7. Sometimes you don’t need to give your customers an elevated experience to beat the competition. Sometimes you have to just nail the basics, like delivering on time.

8. It's all risky. Just make sure you pick the risk that has the bigger reward. 

9. You have to care deeply about the quality of your product. If somebody can beat you in quality, they can beat you in anything.

10. When it’s time to stretch your budget, get creative. Too many people give up when the money isn’t there.

Before anyone knew her as the mother of Beyonce and Solange, Tina Knowles was a founder. She was building in the industries people underestimate most — beauty, fashion, and the everyday work women have been doing for generations. She ran a salon in Houston, designed clothes at her kitchen table, and quietly turned “soft” skills into real profit long before the rest of the world caught on.

When her neighbors and friends needed an elevated salon where they could sit back and relax, Tina opened one. Back in the 2010s, when Destiny’s Child needed a look to walk the red carpet, she didn’t hire a fashion designer — she became one.

And this is really where we need to tap into the genius of Tina Knowles. She understood that overlooked markets are the purest form of opportunity. Where others saw soft industries — beauty, fashion, family — she saw revenue streams hiding in plain sight.

Honestly, Tina doesn’t always get the credit she deserves. But I want to focus on the things she did — the mindset, the strategy, the quiet empire-building — that every ambitious founder can learn from.

See you next week for part two,

LaToya

p.s. while you wait, here is an interview Tina did on the Naked Beauty Podcast. I haven’t watched it yet; but I’ll be watching it on my flight to DC next week.

Welcome to The Strategy Files—a newsletter about history's most ambitious people in fashion, beauty, and culture. I study the icons, you apply their strategies; you win.

As some of you know, I recently started a tech consultancy called NoteLoft AI. I have 13 years of engineering experience, and I’m excited to use that experience to build products for people I enjoy working with. So if you’re building a tech product, and would rather be reading in your garden instead of managing a chaotic dev team, please get in touch. I’d love to talk.

Let’s get into it!

If you missed part one, go back and read that first. For the rest of us, let’s dive into part two.

John Jacob Astor was born in Walldorf, Germany, in 1763. And just in case you aren’t putting it together ( I didn’t at first ), that’s Astor as in the Waldorf-Astoria, Astoria New York, and my favorite over-the-top character from The Gilded Age: Mrs. Astor.

When John was 14, his education came to a halt; he started working for his father, a butcher. Now, being forced to stop attending school at such a young age sounds terrible to us today. However, if John had stayed in school, he would never have learned how to cut and cure animal hides. And being able to cut and cure animal hides was a rare skill that he could successfully apply to a growing market: the fur trade.

Because back then, fur trading was one of the most lucrative industries in the world. Beaver pelts were in such high demand that the poor little rodents almost went extinct in Europe in the late 1700s.

And that brings us to lesson number one: it’s not enough to acquire a skill that’s aligned with an exploding market. It’s important, but it’s not enough. You have to be willing to go where those skills matter most.

But how did John figure out where that was?

He left Germany.

His first stop was London, where sixteen-year-old John got a job working for his uncle selling pianos and flutes. Then September 1783 rolled around, marking the end of the American Revolutionary War. A month later, John boarded a ship to New York.

And that’s when his fate changed. It was on that ship is that he met a man who understood how valuable John’s skill was to the fur trade.

From the book:

“Over the course of his long voyage, the young fortune hunter befriended a fellow German traveler who worked trading furs and learned that there was serious money to be made in the buying and selling of pelts and that it didn’t require much capital up-front.”

Sometimes people have information about markets that you don't. They can see how your skill set aligns with that market before you can. But in order to make that happen you have to be out it the world, meeting people, having real conversations, putting yourself in rooms where new information flows.

Which is why I’m FORCING myself to attend two tech events in DC next week. Do I want to. I guess? I want to meet more people in DC and I want to get a better feel for the tech scene here.

But I also want to doom scroll on TikTok in my pajamas while wearing a face mask and eating overpriced snacks from Whole Foods.

So I guess that means I’ going.

Anyway, back to Astor.

In New York, John took a very low level job working for a man selling furs, just so he could learn about the fur trade. About a year later, he acquired enough furs to sell where there was a lot of pent up demand: Europe.

See you next week,

LaToya

Welcome to The Strategy Files—a newsletter about history's most ambitious people in fashion, beauty, and culture. I study the icons, you apply their strategies; you win.

Before we get started, I wanted to let you know that I’m building an AI first tech consultancy called NoteLoft AI. I have 13 years of experience building software, and I’m sick of seeing founders get taken advantage of by scammy tech agencies. So I’ve put together a team of my favorite AI engineers, full stack engineers, infrastructure engineers and designers. Our goal is to give you the best service you’ve ever had, and truly make building your product a delightful experience.

If you’re interested in hiring a group of people who have worked together on and off for a decade, get in touch!

We’re taking on one new client in November and would love the chance to impress you.

Let’s get into it.

This month’s deep dive comes from the book Astor: The Rise And Fall of An American Fortune.

14 Lessons From This Month’s Deep Dive:

1. Change your location, change your life. Astor moved from Europe to New York and accomplished things that could only happen in New York.

2. Success comes to those who are willing to sacrifice comfort.

3. If you have to get married, make sure you marry the right person. Astor’s wife Sara was a critical component to his early success.

4. If you’re a founder, you’re going to have to get great at sales. Astor worked for his uncle selling flutes and pianos, which has nothing to do with what he ended up selling. But it made him a better salesman.

5. Work like the version of you who's already built an empire. Astor’s work ethic, even in the beginning, was intense.

6. Sometimes the best businesses just copy products that already work.

7. Being realistic is a cage. Don’t put yourself in that cage. Astor imagined a new way for entire countries to do business. And what he imagined eventually became reality. That would have never happened if he was stuck on the idea that he should be ‘realistic’.

8. Hot take: when people say “start small”, their version of “small” is a lot bigger than you think.

9. Collaborating with people increases your chances of success.  Because instead of relying solely on your network, you can now rely on theirs, too.

10. You want to find a market that’s moving like a jet, where momentum is already built it. Astor did this with the fur trade, and I’m doing it with AI.

11. Connect with people who know more about those “jet” industries than you do. They’ll know exactly how your skills can be monetized within the industry.

12. Sometimes the best way to create the competitive advantage you need over your competitors is to take a shitty job. Or an okay job. Any job where you can up-skill.

13. Find ways to increase your profits. Low profits === more work. And more work means you don’t have time to think about better solutions, to connect with potential clients, or to find opportunities in existing markets.

14. Delegate, Delegate, Delegate. When he made enough money, Astor was able to outsource the labor of trader furs so he could focus on expanding the business.

Image: wikipedia

Like many New York transplants, Astor showed up in my favorite city with hardly any cash and zero connections. But somehow, he made it work. The difference between Astor and the average New York City transplant that makes it? He built an empire that would be worth billions today.

By the 1790s, he reached the top of the fur trade by turning beaver pelts into a global luxury business. He financed America’s first expedition to the Pacific Northwest, built the first luxury hotel in America, and even had a New York neighborhood — Astoria, Queens — named after him.

His wealth was so vast that his descendants, The Astors, became fixtures of Gilded Age high society whose drama is one of the main plot lines in the HBO show of the same name.

Honestly, Astor was a terrible person, who did terrible things to accumulate much of his wealth. However, I want to focus on the things he did that we, as ambitious people with event the slightest of moral compass, can learn from.

See you next week for part two,

LaToya

References && Further Reading

Astor: The Rise And Fall of An American Fortune.

Welcome to The Strategy Files—a newsletter about history's most ambitious people in fashion, beauty, and culture. I study the icons, you apply their strategies; you win.

Before we get started, I want to give a shout out to my friend, Matt Gira for creating something so valuable that I wish I had access to it sooner. Matt created a free resource for founders called The 2025 Bootstrapped Report. The report has data behind 64 founders who built their businesses to $250k+ in annual revenue without venture capital.

WITOUT VENTURE CAPITAL.

Grab the report here, and once you’ve checked it out, tell me what you think!

Let’s get into it.

This month’s deep dive comes from the book The Widow Clicquot: The Story Of A Champagne Empire And The Woman Who Ruled It.

France, early 1805.

Last we spoke, Barbe-Nicole’s husband died a mysterious death, making her a 26-year-old single mother and widow. He’d spent the last decade of his life failing in the wine business. 

Even though she watched him fail, and knew how difficult it was to succeed in the wine businesses, The Widow was determined to take over the family business.

But this was France in the early 1800s, and she was a woman. So, even though she was the most qualified to oversee the family business, she had to ask her father-in-law for permission.

He said yes, but under one condition: She’d have to partner with someone who was experienced in the wine business. And he had the perfect partner in mind: Alexandre Jerome Fourneaux, a family friend and local winemaker.  So together, The Widow and Alexandre started a new company called Veuve Clicquot Fourneau And Company. 

While Alexandre was there to make her life easier, there was one man who would spend years making her life more difficult: Napoleon.

Image Credit: CEO Magazine

War, Blockades, and Spoiled Champagne

In 1806, just 1 year after her husband's death, Napoleon did something that all business owners dread: he started a trade war.  It was called The War of The Fourth Coalition. France was fighting against a "coalition" of countries: Prussia, Russia, Sweden, and Great Britain. 

Napoleon created a set of rules and regulations that were meant to have a negative economic impact on the coalition. So, they retaliated by cutting off France's trade opportunities.

The Widow didn't scale back her operations. She didn't wait for times to get better.  Instead, The Widow and Alexandre doubled down and planned on sending millions of dollars of product across Europe.

From the book:

"In the first flush of success, she and Alexandre negotiated the delivery of over 50,000 bottles of champagne M – an amazing $3 million worth of product – to be taken through the military blockades that constricted trade routes across Europe…"

Her bravery. Her ability to take risks! Truly inspiring. 

Unfortunately, the risk didn’t pay off.

Alexandre found a route to Amsterdam, but couldn't ship their wines any further. So the wine sat in Amsterdam, and went bad.  

Neither of them had the skill set or the connections to pull off shipping international products during a trade war. So they kept failing, and Alexandre left the company after a few years.

This was a blessing in disguise.

From Veuve Clicquot on Pinterest

This gave her 100% control over the business; she’s in charge of everything from the soil to the salespeople. This allows her to make key decisions that will set the company up for long-term success:

Businesses with one clear leader seem to have a better chance of winning. I don’t have the stats, but it’s a common theme that shows up in every biography I’ve read. Nobu was run by Nobu. Everyone knew Steve Jobs was the leader at Apple. Larry Ellison, Madam CJ Walker, Martha Stewart, and Anna Wintour.

They were all successful because they set clear visions for what their companies should be doing.

So, The Widow made two key calls:

1. Step away from the international luxury market and focus solely on the French market. It's expensive and risky to try to sell internationally during a trade war.

2. Wars don’t last forever. So she sent her salespeople to other countries to make connections.

She got in sacrifice mode: it’s that time when you realize that everything is negotiable except the mission, and you act on it.

She needed more money, so she sold her jewelry. She needed more time to focus on the business, so she sent her daughter off to boarding school.

In 1813, Napoleon lost a crucial battle in Russia and went into hiding. The Russians came looking for him in her town.

And when war comes to town, foreign troops are going to take whatever supplies they want - including wine and champagne.

This is just one of those weird moments where hard work and luck collide. Because usually occupying troops take whatever they want, food, wine, peoples homes, peoples art. But this time the Russians did something that she was not expecting; they started to buy her wine.

Did she sell them the good stuff? No. They were far from home and at war; she knew they didn’t care about quality; they just wanted to get drunk. 

So instead of wasting the good stuff on them, The Widow sold them a bunch of wine that she was unable to sell during the war. 

Eventually, the French army captured the city back from the Russians. And this went back-and-forth for a while, the Russians taking over the city getting drunk on her wine and then the French coming in taking over the city getting drunk on her wine.

Seeing all this back and forth up close led her to one conclusion: Napoleon was going to lose. He was going to give up the throne, which meant the end of the war.

Now, most people would receive news like this, and sit back and celebrate. But not The Widow. Her only goal was to use this information

So even though the blockades were still up all over Europe, she decided to ship her product, knowing that the black aids would be down soon.

Where others saw "we can't sell," her mindset was "we'll be first when this ends." Temporary restrictions can create permanent opportunities.

Napoleon abdicated the throne on April 11 of 1814 and her team was ready. She sent Louis, the salesman who had previously been accused of being a spy, back to Russia in May.

By the time Louis went back to Russia, people were BEGGING to buy her product.

In fact, he and his team didn't have time to get all the champagne off of the boats before people were asking him. People are going to his hotel, begging to buy wine from him.

And they were willing to overpay.

References && Further Reading

The Widow Clicquot: The Story Of A Champagne Empire And The Woman Who Ruled It.

Polo Classic by Veuve Clicquot

Four Seasons Hotel Denver Presents Clicquot in the Snow on March 22, 2025 

Veuve Clicquot: How one widow established a French Champagne empire 

Which Champagne is Best? A Taste Test of Veuve Cliquot, Bollinger, Moét, and More | Bon Appétit 

Clicquot Courtyard Returns to Waldorf Astoria Chicago | Luxury Travel Advisor 

Veuve Clicquot unveils La Grande Dame 2018, an exc... - LVMH 

Veuve Clicquot announces winners of 52nd Bold Woma... - LVMH 

https://www.veuveclicquot.com/en-us/sunclub.html 

The Clicquot Champagne Empire in France – Le vin, c’est moi 

Hey founders and creatives,

I’m sitting in a cafe in Mexico City, enjoying the hot sun and a iced cold latte, reading American Hotel : The Waldorf-Astoria and the Making of a Century.

I’m surprised at how good the book is; the history made at hotel is fascinating. And there are so many great lessons for us to learn from it. I need to write about The Waldorf-Astoria next.

Can you help me pick a title?

See you next week,

LaToya

Welcome to The Strategy Files—a newsletter about history's most ambitious people in fashion, beauty, and culture. I study the icons, you apply their strategies; you win.

Before we get started, I want to say thank you to everyone whose given me feedback of The Strategy Files AI! 

I built if from scratch 🙂 If you’d like one for your newsletter, or other written content, just reply to this email. It’s totally free!

Let’s get into it.

This month’s deep dive comes from the book The Widow Clicquot: The Story Of A Champagne Empire And The Woman Who Ruled It.

France, early 1800s

Barbe–Nicole and her soon-to-be-dead husband, François, did not make the best wine in France.  They didn’t make wine at all; they were small-time local wine distributors who also owned a textile company.

And neither business was doing well.

François, being an incredibly ambitious man, wanted to go all in on the wine business. The first step of his plan: stop being a local distributor and start being an international one.

And to that I say 🚩🚩🚩

Image Credit: CEO Magazine

What do you mean you have two failing businesses, and you’re just gonna start another one ?!?

Now, we have to give him a bit of a break. It was the early 1800s, and the first business school hadn't been invented yet.  If you couldn’t learn from someone who’d run a successful business, your only choice was to learn through failure.

And this is what I find so interesting about the mindset of Barbe–Nicole; while her husband was failing, she was incredibly intentional about learning everything she could about his failures. 

And François certainly gave her a lot to learn from. A partial list: 

From Veuve Clicquot on Pinterest

1. He brought on a business partner, Louis, a friend he met on the road. Louis had about the same amount of experience as he did. Between the two, there was no expert.

2. They had no connections. Their biggest competitor, Jean-Remy Moet, was best friends with Napoleon. And Napoleon just happened to be the ruler of France. So, everybody who was anybody wanted to drink Moet. 

3. They traveled to Britain to sell their sparkling wine. British people wanted nothing to do with sparkling wine; they preferred red wine.

Instead of learning from those mistakes and figuring out how to improve them within his business, François decided to start another business.  He no longer wanted to be a distributor; he wanted to become a winemaker. But winemaking is a craft that was, back then, passed on through generations of families. So, there was a lot of trial and error, and more failure.

Unfortunately, died a mysterious death in 1805, before he could find the success he was looking for.

And Barbe-Nicole, who was only 26 years old, became a widow and a single mother. 

Now, between the tragedy of her husband dying, having to figure out how to raise a child alone, and the fact that it’s the 1800s and she had no rights, one would expect The Widow to just lie back and take it easy. 

And yet her priority was taking over the family business.

There was just one problem: she had to ask her father-in-law for permission to do it.

See you next week for part 3,

LaToya

References && Further Reading

The Widow Clicquot: The Story Of A Champagne Empire And The Woman Who Ruled It.

Polo Classic by Veuve Clicquot

Four Seasons Hotel Denver Presents Clicquot in the Snow on March 22, 2025 

Veuve Clicquot: How one widow established a French Champagne empire 

Which Champagne is Best? A Taste Test of Veuve Cliquot, Bollinger, Moét, and More | Bon Appétit 

Clicquot Courtyard Returns to Waldorf Astoria Chicago | Luxury Travel Advisor 

Veuve Clicquot unveils La Grande Dame 2018, an exc... - LVMH 

Veuve Clicquot announces winners of 52nd Bold Woma... - LVMH 

https://www.veuveclicquot.com/en-us/sunclub.html 

The Clicquot Champagne Empire in France – Le vin, c’est moi 

Welcome to The Strategy Files—a newsletter about history's most ambitious people in fashion, beauty, and culture. I study the icons, you apply their strategies; you win.

This month’s deep dive comes from the book The Widow Clicquot: The Story Of A Champagne Empire And The Woman Who Ruled It.

Before we get started, I’m building out an AI Agent that allows you to ask business questions, and then give’s you back answers based on the deep dives I’ve written in the newsletter!

Give it a try, and lmk what you think!

Let’s get into it.

14 Lessons From This Month’s Deep Dive:

14 Lessons From This Month’s Deep Dive:

1. Don’t quit; keep going. Too many people quit after a few bad months or years.  But sometimes it takes a decade of losing to win.

2. You have to care deeply about the quality of your product. If somebody can beat you in quality, they can beat you in anything.

3. If you wanna win, you have to develop the mindset of someone who is going to sacrifice the things they want now for the future they want later.

4. Second-time founders are often the biggest winners because they learn from the mistakes they made in their first business. 

5. Focus on one thing at a time. If your business has too many arms, or too many features, you’re gonna fail. 

6. Pay attention to the competition. The Widow had Jean-Rémy Moët. Who is your competition? And how can you start doing the thing that they will have to do in the future, but haven’t considered doing yet?

7. Sometimes the underdog wins. 

8. It's all risky. Just make sure you pick the risk that has the bigger reward. 

9. You always have to act like the game has just begun. You can’t sit around wallowing in yesterday's failure.

10. Hire experts, not friends. Unless your friend also happens to be an expert. Then lock them down before the competition does.

11. Starting a business in a bad economy is a blessing.  You get to fail while everybody else is failing too.

12. Success is when hard work meets luck. 

13. Too many people pretend that they’re competing against themselves.  Then they are surprised when the competition wipes the floor with them. 

14. You have to care deeply about the quality of your product. If somebody can beat you in quality, they can beat you in anything.

Photo Credit: WIKIPEDIA

In 1805, after her husband's mysterious death, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot took over the family’s failing business.

Five years later, the business shut down. The Widow launched a new one: Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin. 

Since then, The Widow has accomplished things that only a person with a talent for business could do. She disrupted the wine industry by creating the first known vintage champagne. She innovated it by inventing riddling, a process still used today. 

But most importantly, she bounced back from failure over and over again.

And it worked, because 200 years later, Veuve Clicquot is a household name.  It’s owned and operated by LVMH. Netflix made a movie about her, which I will watch as soon as I finish writing the deep dive. The brand collaborates with luxury brands like  The Four Seasons, The Waldorf Astoria, and Polo Classic. If you want, you can book a Veuve Clicquot tour.But the real question is, what did she do to create such long-lasting success? 

She did many things we can replicate.  But the first thing on her to-do list? Bounce back from failure over and over again.

And that requires a killer mindset.

See you next week for part two,

LaToya

References && Further Reading

The Widow Clicquot: The Story Of A Champagne Empire And The Woman Who Ruled It.

Polo Classic by Veuve Clicquot

Four Seasons Hotel Denver Presents Clicquot in the Snow on March 22, 2025 

Veuve Clicquot: How one widow established a French Champagne empire 

Which Champagne is Best? A Taste Test of Veuve Cliquot, Bollinger, Moét, and More | Bon Appétit 

Clicquot Courtyard Returns to Waldorf Astoria Chicago | Luxury Travel Advisor 

Veuve Clicquot unveils La Grande Dame 2018, an exc... - LVMH 

Veuve Clicquot announces winners of 52nd Bold Woma... - LVMH 

https://www.veuveclicquot.com/en-us/sunclub.html 

The Clicquot Champagne Empire in France – Le vin, c’est moi 

Hey founders and creatives,

I’m currently sitting in a cafe in Bogota, enjoying the best brunch I’ve had in a while. I’d take a picture and show you, but I don’t want to be that weird tourist who awkwardly takes photos of her food.

Anyway, I need your help! I have written three different versions of this month’s deep dive, and I’d love to know which you think I should use.

So let’s vote!

And while you’re here, please consider supporting my book habit by becoming a paying contributor.

See you next week,

LaToya

Welcome to The Strategy Files—a newsletter about history's most ambitious people in fashion, beauty, and culture. I study the icons, you apply their strategies; you win.

This month’s deep dive comes from the book My Life For Beauty by Helena Rubinstein.

Support my book habit by becoming a paying contributor.

Here’s what you missed in part one.

Helena Rubinstein dropped out of med school in the late 1800s. As a result, her parents ordered to marry a rich man. They found one and arranged a marriage. This presented a series of problems: Helena wanted to leave Poland, she didn’t want to get married, and she didn’t want to start a family. Helena wanted something that wasn’t in that small town: opportunity. 

So, she started plotting and planning to move out of Poland.

This brings us to our first lesson of the day: change your location, you change your life. 

I love this lesson because it keeps popping up in the biographies we read. For example, remember when we talked about Nobu. Nobu Hospitality, LLC owns and operates 36 hotels and 56 restaurants across four continents.  But his empire started out with just one fusion Japanese restaurant in LA.  And how did he build the skill set needed to own and operate his first successful restaurant? By working and studying in places like Peru and Argentina and relocating to LA. If he had never left Japan, there wouldn’t be 36 restaurants and 56 hotels for his business to own and operate.

But back to Helena. She packed her bags and headed to Australia to live with her uncle.  She didn’t take much with her, but she brought all the right things: a killer wardrobe, a great complexion, and 12 bottles of her family’s secret face cream.

I say “all the right things” because the wardrobe and the clear skin helped shape the way people saw Helena.  They didn’t see someone who needed to be married off; they saw a glamorous, aspirational woman who had something they wanted: soft, clear, and radiant skin.

They didn’t have skin like hers because the sun was intense where they were, they didn’t cover their skin, sunscreen hadn't been invented yet and they weren’t using any products to repair the damage done to their skin. 

So naturally, they loved Helena’s face cream so much that they bought it all. And she had to get her mother in Poland to make more. On page 24, She says:

“I longed to be able to help them. It was this experience, I believe, which first made me aware of other women’s beauty problems.”

I find it incredibly funny that she suddenly realized that every woman in the world isn’t as beautiful as she was. And felt the need to publish that realization in a book for the world to see.

Anyway, Helena realized that she had an excellent product to sell. But if she wanted to get that product in front of more people, she’d have to move to a bigger city. 

So she relocated again; this time to Melbourne. 

The move to Melbourne and the success that followed would not have been possible if she wasn’t great at building relationships. When Helena was on the ship from Poland to Australia, she met two women. And they both played a part in helping her get to the next level.

The first gave her room and board in Melbourne in exchange for teaching her children German.  But there was an added benefit: this woman was part of “society”, which meant that Helena got to go to all the right parties and meet all the right people. Helena loved it, and wanted to make this new world part of her own. But she knew her position in society was not permanent because she was just staying with a friend who lived that life. Without the resources of that friend, Helena had no part in society.

So, she decided to take her business seriously so she could be part of society. 

And this is where the second woman comes in; the second woman she met on the ship gave Helena her first and only business loan. 

Now, I want to stop for a moment. Ask yourself: when was the last time you built an authentic relationship with a new person? Helena didn’t go into these relationships expecting anything in return; she wasn’t expecting room and board an investment.  But, when she needed those things, she looked to the women she was in community with, and they helped her. So I want to challenge you to build an authentic relationship with someone.  Anyone! And if you can’t think of anyone, email me, and I’ll introduce you to someone new.

Now, back to Helena.

She spent the loan she got on two things.  She used part of the money to create a large enough batch of an excellent product to support sales. The rest of the money was used to rent a space that would allow her to connect with would-be buyers: a beauty salon.

I want to sit with this for a moment. You can have the best product in the world, but if you don’t have a way to get it in front of the right customers, see if it solves a problem they have, and provide them with an amazing service, then the product means nothing.

Image: Vogue Singapore

The beauty salon had everything she needed: three well decorated rooms where she could talk to clients and a kitchen she could experiment in. She was early; salons weren’t a big thing back then. Some people would often come in out of curiosity. Others would come in to ask her for advice.  Both resulted in sales. 

The salon wasn’t just a way for her to sell to potential clients. It allowed Helena to gather user feedback, use it as data, and make data based decisions in her business. 

On page 27, she says

“Examining for the first time so many skins at close quarters and discussing with clients they’re different problems, I began to realize how much one skin differs from another. And it dawned on me that, wonderful as my cream undoubtedly was (and still is), it would not solve every irregularity and could itself be improved. I would have to learn how to adjust the formulation of the cream and create new creams and lotions to suit different skin types. There was only one thing to do. At the end of the working day, I would close up shop and spend long evenings experimenting in my kitchen.”

She classified skin types in ways we still use today: oily, dry, combinations, and normal.  And she gave her customers demonstrations on how to properly apply the cream depending on their skin type.

And she just keeps doing this loop over and over again: providing customers with an excellent product, getting their feedback, and iterating on it.

Best,

LaToya

References && Further Reading

FIT Library, SPARC unit

War Paint: Madame Helena Rubinstein and Miss Elizabeth Arden: Their Lives, Their Times, Their Rivalry 

Helena Rubinstein - The Metropolitan Museum of Art 

Helena Rubinstein | Harrods US 

Helena Rubinstein : ses bijoux de beauté - The French Jewelry Post 

Helena Rubinstein: Beauty Is Power - The Jewish Museum

Helena Rubinstein - The Metropolitan Museum of Art 

Helena Rubinstein | Harrods US 

Helena Rubinstein: A Pioneer of the Modern Beauty Industry

Welcome to The Strategy Files—a newsletter about history's most ambitious people in fashion, beauty, and culture. I study the icons, you apply their strategies; you win.

This month’s deep dive comes from the book My Life For Beauty by Helena Rubinstein.

Support my book habit by becoming a paying contributor.

14 Lessons From This Month’s Deep Dive:

1. Work like the version of you who's already built an empire. Helena’s work ethic, even in the beginning, was intense.

2. Curiosity creates success.  Helena was endlessly curious about the things that made women look and feel beautiful. She asked them questions and embedded the answers into every part of her business. 

3. Take bigger risks. Helena’s life would have been different if she hadn't dropped out of medical school, refused a marriage proposal, and moved to another country. 

4. The path to building an empire is paved with persistence. For 70 years, whenever an obstacle got in her way, Helena either found a way around it or turned it into an opportunity.

5. Build in public.  Helena wrote it in her 90s. She was still building her empire, and this book was her way of building in public. Imagine what she would have done with social media.

6. Collaboration keeps you ahead.  Helena collaborated with chemists and doctors to develop her products, which other beauty founders didn't do at the time. 

7. Study the businesses in your industry.  Helena went to Europe to study rare beauty treatments so she could incorporate them into her business.

8. Reinvest your profits. She took the earnings from her first face cream (Valaze cream) and used profits to open a beauty salon. 

9. Winners validate their ideas by talking to potential customers before going all in on their big ideas. Helena is no exception to that rule; she built an entire salon so she could do it.

10. Better to sell a product that you know and understand.  That’s why the Lehman brothers lost millions of dollars after buying her business - and why she made after buying it back.

11. You have to develop the skill to outwork the competition, even if you’re only competing against yourself.

12. Change your location, change your life.  Helena moved from Poland to Australia, where there was a bigger demand for beauty products. If she’d stayed in Poland, Helena never would have been successful enough to write the book we are reading today. 

13. Always be selling. Three pages in, she tells us that she still looks great for her age because she uses the Helena Rubinstein Color In A Bottle. I wonder how many bottles she sold just from mentioning it!

14. Being realistic as a cage. Don’t put yourself in that cage. Helena didn’t have the right to vote or to open a bank account; starting a business wasn’t realistic.  But she did it anyway.

Helena Rubinstein was a woman who always made the bold move.

In 1896, at the age of 24, she moved to Australia from Poland with nothing but a killer wardrobe, a clear complexion, and 12 bottles of face cream. She opened her first beauty salon in 1902 and turned her venture into a global beauty empire worth over $100 million at the time of her death in 1965. 

That would be worth over a billion dollars today.

Her business survived two World Wars, the Great Depression, and a rivalry with Elizabeth Arden that was so toxic that someone wrote a book about it called War Paint. 

WAR PAINT.

But the real question is, what did she do to create such long-lasting success? 

She did many things we can replicate.  But the first thing on her to-do list? Refuse an arranged marriage and move to a country with more opportunities than the one she was born in.

See you next week for part two,

LaToya

References && Further Reading

FIT Library, SPARC unit

War Paint: Madame Helena Rubinstein and Miss Elizabeth Arden: Their Lives, Their Times, Their Rivalry 

Helena Rubinstein - The Metropolitan Museum of Art 

Helena Rubinstein | Harrods US 

Helena Rubinstein : ses bijoux de beauté - The French Jewelry Post 

Helena Rubinstein: Beauty Is Power - The Jewish Museum

Helena Rubinstein - The Metropolitan Museum of Art 

Helena Rubinstein | Harrods US 

Helena Rubinstein: A Pioneer of the Modern Beauty Industry

Hey founders and creatives,

I’m currently on a relaxing flight to San Francisco to visit friends. I’m stuck between writing about two incredible fashion designers whose books I’ve had for a long time, but haven’t read yet: Yves Saint Laurent and Salvatore Ferragamo.

So let’s vote!

And while you’re here, please consider supporting my book habit by becoming a paying contributor.

See you next week,

LaToya

Welcome to The Strategy Files—a newsletter about history's most ambitious people in fashion, beauty, and culture. I study the icons, you apply their strategies; you win.

This month’s deep dive comes from the book Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem.

Support my book habit by becoming a paying contributor.

Before he started what has to be one of the most fascinating careers in fashion, Dapper Dan worked in what he calls “the underground.” He made a living doing things that weren’t particularly legal, like gambling and running international credit card scams.

He was so good at it that he was able to save over a hundred thousand dollars, cover the cost of his children’s private school tuition, and create a custom-made clothing shop that would eventually get raided by Fendi’s corporate lawyers. 

But the question is, how was he able to make that transition from the underground to the world of fashion?

Hey founders and creatives,

I’m currently in the middle of a last minute move. I’m also putting together a portfolio of my work as a software engineer with 11 years of experience, so I can start taking freelance clients.

If you’re looking for an engineer, let me know!

In the meantime, if you missed last weeks post, this is the time to catch up before part two goes out.

See you next week,

LaToya

Welcome to The Strategy Files—a newsletter about history's most ambitious people in fashion, beauty, and culture. I study the icons, you apply their strategies; you win.

This month’s deep dive comes from the book Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem.

Support my book habit by becoming a paying contributor.

12 Lessons From This Month’s Deep Dive:

1. Think in frameworks.  Dan has a framework for picking your next big idea and another for building a team. This saves him time and energy.

2. Validate your idea by talking to potential customers.

3. Not everyone can come with you. Even when you want them to.

4. Know more than the competition. Even if you’re only competing against yourself.

5. Build your network before you need it. 

Welcome to The Strategy Files—a newsletter about history's most ambitious people in fashion, beauty, and culture. This month’s deep dive comes from the book Diana Ross: Secrets of A Sparrow.

14 Lessons From This Month's Deep Dive can be found in part one.

Support my book habit by becoming a paying contributor.

In 1958, Diana was a typical 14 year old girl; when she wasn’t in school she was dancing or swimming, or headed to her friend Sharon’s house for sleepovers.  

But these were not your typical sleepovers.  

I mean, yes; they stayed up later than they should have. But they weren’t braiding each other‘s hair or painting each other‘s nails. The girls used the sleepovers to watch Sharon’s uncle Smokey, and his band The Miracles, practice all night.

(If you don’t know who that is, I need you to close this email, open the door, go outside, and RUN to your local record store.)

Screenshot: YouTube. Smokey Robinson & The Miracles live - You really got a hold on me.

Imagine how much she was learning watching them. What does a team that works well together look like? How do you manage conflict within a group? How do you lead a team? How do you effectively blend business with creativity? The list goes on.

Eventually, their practice paid off, because in 1958, on Smokey’s 18th birthday, all of Detroit heard his first record on the radio: Got A Job – Smokey Robinson and the Miracles

The moment Diana heard it on the radio, something inside of her changed. On page 91 she says:

“I knew that if he could do it, I could do it, too.  It made me feel like nothing was impossible.”  

That was a massive goal for a black girl growing up in America in the 1950s. I mean, think about it. Jim Crow was ravaging The South.  Black folks were migrating to New York, LA, Detroit, and Chicago in record numbers, only to find that they were second-class citizens everywhere they went. 

It almost feels like a smarter would have been to pull a Josephine Baker and move to Paris to pursue her dreams. 

But Diana’s family didn’t move to Paris; they moved to The Brewster Projects. This feels like fate because this is where Diana meets Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson, the girls that would eventually make up The Supremes. And yes; there were a couple other girls who came in and out of the group.  But they didn’t make it all the way to the end.

The future Supremes had one goal: get a record on the radio.  On page 93, Diana says:

“We loved to sing more than anything, and we used to get together and rehearse as often as we could, with no idea how to get to the next step. When you want something bad enough, somehow it happens.”

Not knowing the next step should not stop you.  If anything, it should make you want to do what they did: lock-in. Improve.  Keep the momentum going. Move forward until you figure out what the next step is.

Gif by recordingacademy on Giphy

It's so easy to stall progress because you don’t know the next step you should take. You might have that problem, or your friend who says she’s gonna start that business but never actually does might have that problem.  But this group of teenage girls did not have that problem.

And I love that for them.

Florence’s sister was dating a guy who managed a boy group called The Primes.  The Primes were looking for a girl group to practice with. So Diana and the girls jumped on the opportunity; they named themselves The Primettes and got to work. They learned how to work with management, how to practice with other groups, and how to collaborate with other groups. 

This also helped build their network. Because The Primes go on to become The Temptations.

So The Primettes continue singing and rehearsing for years.  It really feels like they’ve fallen in love with the work.  In the book Diana says “Singing became my life.  I lived, ate, drank, and breathed it.  It was all that I cared about.  I had a dream, and I was completely determined to make it real.  Nothing could deter me or discourage me for very long.” 

Source

Their love for the work paid off, because they eventually started performing at neighborhood parties.  And when they start performing at bigger events, their name, The Primettes, gets a shout out on the radio.

Finally, they feel ready to audition for a record label. So one day, the girls asked Smokey to set them up with an audition at Motown Records. Smokey says yes, and they end up auditioning for Berry Gordy.

Unfortunately, the girls didn’t get the satisfying conclusion they were looking for; Barry didn't give them a record deal. He felt they were too young, and needed to finish high school before getting a record deal.

Gif by edsullivanshow on Giphy

But they wanted a record deal.  And they wanted it from him. So they kept going.

Here’s what Berry said about the situation on page 146 of his autobiography:

“Despite their disappointment, almost every day after school they showed up at Hitsville. The girls were making friends with producers, trying to get gig singing backgrounds for other artists, their determination paid off in January 1961 they were signed to Motown.”

Source

For me, this paints a crystal clear picture of what someone destined for success looks like.  Because when they go after a goal, and face an obstacle, what do they do? They turn the obstacle into opportunity.

Diana’s ambition feels so effortless.  She’s not hustling, grinding, losing sleep, ruining her personal life, putting her education on the backburner. 

But she gets everything she wants. Because she’s always around people who are just like her. She was always around people who are wildly ambitious.

Til next,

LaToya

References && Further Reading

Diana Ross: Secrets of A Sparrow

Diana Ross is the Unexpected Muse of Saint Laurent's Spring 2024 Campaign - Fashionista

Lady Sings the Blues (1972) - IMDb

DIANA ROSS RETURNS TO MOTOWN - AS PART-OWNER – Deseret News

The Miracles - Wikipedia

My Girl (The Temptations song) - Wikipedia 

To Be Loved: The Music, the Magic, the... book by Berry Gordy 

Collaborative Communication: Building Stronger Teams

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson: 9780679763888 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books 

Solange & Jurnee Smollet Rumored to Star in Florence Ballard Biopic - Essence 

Mary Wilson, Founding Member Of The Supremes, Dies At 76 : NPR 

Nobody Did Glamour Like Mary Wilson and the Supremes | Vogue

Welcome to The Strategy Files—a newsletter about history's most ambitious people in fashion, beauty, and culture. I study the icons, you apply their strategies; you win.

This month’s deep dive comes from the book Diana Ross: Secrets of A Sparrow.

Support my book habit by becoming a paying contributor.

14 Lessons From This Month’s Deep Dive 

1. You don’t need to know what the next step is. You just need to move forward.

2. Being around ambitious people will make you more ambitious. They won’t quit when they hit a roadblock.  You won’t either.

3. They say if you work hard and don’t quit, you’ll eventually succeed. But this only works if you’re improving, iterating, experimenting, practicing. Because Longevity + Improvement = success.

4. Start small. Too many people never start.

5. Hot take: when people say “start small”, their version of “small” is a lot bigger than you think.

6. You have to figure out how to turn obstacles into opportunity.

7. Force yourself to fall in love with the work. Your love will get you through those long stretches where you’re not accomplishing your goal, but you are improving your skill set.

8. Practice, Practice, Practice.

9. Closed mouths don’t get fed. Neither do those who lack clarity. You have to ask for the opportunities you want in a straightforward, clear, obvious way. 

10. In order for a group of people to succeed as a unit, you have to do what’s best for the unit.  Sometimes, that means letting people go.

11. Sometimes, a no is just a delayed yes. 

12. Unpopular opinion: Failure is a figment of your imagination.

13. Change your location, change your life.

14. Collaborating with people increases your chances of success.  Because instead of relying solely on your network, you can now rely on theirs too.

Diana Ross has always been wildly ambitious.

In 1961, at the age of 17, Diana Ross and The Supremes signed their first record deal with Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown Records. In 1965, the group was nominated for their first Grammy. By the time 1969 rolled around, The Supremes had 12 number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100, including some of my personal favorites: "Where Did Our Love Go," "Baby Love," "Come See About Me," "Stop! In the Name of Love," and "Someday We'll Be Together."

Diana released 26 solo albums, won an Academy Award for playing Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues, and eventually became a part-owner of Motown Records, the company she helped put on the map as a teenager.

Last year, Diana modeled for Saint Laurent in their spring 2024 campaign.  Today, she still sells out arenas all over the world.

Source

But not all ambitious people get to her level, and most don’t tap into their ambition until later in life. They aren’t accomplishing great things at the age of 17.

What was different for Diana?

I have a theory. The world would have been robbed of Diana’s talents if she didn't spend her early teenage years surrounded by wildly ambitious people.

See you next week for part 2,

LaToya

References && Further Reading

Diana Ross: Secrets of A Sparrow

Diana Ross is the Unexpected Muse of Saint Laurent's Spring 2024 Campaign - Fashionista

Lady Sings the Blues (1972) - IMDb

DIANA ROSS RETURNS TO MOTOWN - AS PART-OWNER – Deseret News

Welcome to The Strategy Files—a newsletter about history's most ambitious people in fashion, beauty, and culture. I study the icons, you apply their strategies; you win.

This week’s Subscriber Shoutout goes to Shelly, founder of Ne Plus Ultra Atelier. From Shelly:

“Ne Plus Ultra Atelier is a styling and interior curation company shaped by a background in clinical care and fine arts. I curate wardrobes and spaces that align with how people live and what they value. Each project is personal. Nothing is rushed or templated. All human-made!

I also co-curate small gatherings that make space for real connection. These events are designed with care and intention, offering people a place to show up fully and feel part of something real. Over time, they’ve become a quiet way to strengthen community in a world that often feels disconnected.”

Now let’s jump into the lessons we learned from reading Built To Fail: Inside Blockbuster’s Inevitable Bust.

There was a time when everyone loved Blockbuster.

We loved it so much that a new location opened every 17 HOURS in the '90s. Not days. HOURS. In the time it took you to decide between renting Clueless for the 20th time or finally giving The Long Kiss Goodnight a chance, another Blockbuster had materialized in an American suburb. 

Source

At its peak, Blockbuster had 9,094 stores globally, employed over 84,000 people, and served a staggering 65 million committed customers. 

Blockbuster was making $800 MILLION annually just from late fees — profiting from our collective inability to return Titanic on time.

But we didn’t care about late fees—because we loved Blockbuster. 

Giphy

Today’s Lessons

Welcome to The Strategy Files—a newsletter about history's most ambitious people in fashion, beauty, and culture. I study the icons, you apply their strategies; you win.

Link to Martha’s book, Martha Rules

Martha Stewart is proof that you can start a business doing something you love and make it a huge success.

Gif by fallontonight on Giphy

When Martha left the cut-throat world of Wall Street in 1976, she had no idea that her love for homemaking, cooking, and entertaining would turn into a global empire. In 1992, she released her first book, Entertaining. In 1991, she launched the magazine Martha Stewart Living, and a year later, she launched a TV show version of the magazine. By 1999, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia went public, making her $1.2 BILLION in a single day. By 2001, Martha Stewart Living magazine was pulling in $296 million in revenue annually. 

In 2004/2005, Martha spent 5 months in federal prison—but she bounced back.  Since then, Martha has released her 100th book, a podcast, multiple TV shows, and a line of CBD fruit gummies.

I don’t think she’ll stop anytime soon; Martha just keeps building.  And everything she makes, people seem to love. 

Today’s Lessons

Welcome to The Strategy Files—a newsletter about history's most ambitious people in fashion, beauty, and culture. I study the icons, you apply their strategies; you win.

If you want to read his autobiography, you can grab it here.

Source

Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown Records,  launched careers of 45+ legendary artists, like  Diana Ross and The Supremes, The Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and The Temptations.  Motown produced 79 records that reached the Top Ten between 1960-1969, and generated over 180 #1 hits globally.

Without Motown, we’d never have gotten songs like What's Going On, Let’s Get It On, My Girl, and Can’t Hurry Love, and I Want You Back.

Today’s Lessons