Risk Free Assessment
Mike Iannelli: Welcome to Access Granted, the podcast powered by Ablr that delves into disability, inclusion, equity, and accessibility. I’m your host, Mike Iannelli. Today, we’re thrilled to welcome two special guests, John Samuel, CEO of Ablr, and Courtney Henderson, Senior Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Ulta Beauty.
Courtney will share insights on Ulta’s groundbreaking partnership with Ablr to launch company wide disability inclusion training. Tune in to discover how Ulta Beauty is leading the way toward a more accessible future in the beauty industry.
I want to first say, thank you for being here. You know, Ulta Beauty is a huge brand. And obviously, as you know, we’re a small organization, but we’re thrilled to work with you all. And more importantly, the impact. You said 55,000 associates who are going to be educating themselves on etiquette and inclusive language. And it really is such an amazing feeling because the first time we spoke, as an organization that’s mission driven, you can’t accomplish all the things you want to accomplish without amazing people and amazing organizations, and that is just a fact. And we are only here because of the amazing companies we work with. Before, you know, we’re jumping in, I want to hear a little bit about you and I know our audience does, and everybody at Ulta does. Talk about your journey into Ulta and what got you into the DEI realm.
Courtney Henderson: Yeah, yeah. Well, first I want to say thank you for just inviting me and being open to a partnership. I’m really excited about it in a similar feeling in how you stated that it takes companies to want to partner with you. It takes experts like you to wanna partner with us, to help educate us. We couldn’t do it alone. So I’m really grateful to be here.
So my name’s Courtney Henderson. I have the pleasure of serving as the Senior Director of DEI at Ulta Beauty and I’ve been there for about four years now. And so I started in summer of 2020. Ulta Beauty at the time had a DEI team. I was looking for a change. Before joining Ulta Beauty, I had started my career in the advertising industry. So I started off in account management, worked on KFC as a brand. You know, I started off with that and it was just one of those things where I wasn’t really actively thinking about DEI, but when I looked around at who else was present around a table in meetings that I was in, I really didn’t see the representation of myself.
So I tried to gather different communities together to help support each other on our career journeys. And I would go to our HR department at the time and talk about expanding our recruiting efforts. I was super junior, but they listened. At one point I kind of fell into HR. They invited me to join the recruiting team and I did. And the office at the time didn’t have a DEI department. And so I was working in recruiting, but also kind of had this side hustle, of doing DEI for my company and trying to figure out, you know, what we needed to do to ensure that people’s voices were represented.
And so that kind of led me into really doing DEI work. And I loved it. I love the company. I love the start that I had, but I was really looking for a bigger impact. And as you mentioned, Mike, earlier, like, Ulta beauty is a huge brand and, the impact that you can have not only on our 55,000 plus associates, but also the guests that walk into our store every day and ensuring that they have an inclusive experience and that beauty we like to say is inherently diverse.
So making sure that they have a way to self express their beauty of choice is really important. So that’s kind of what led me to Ulta Beauty.
Mike Iannelli: Ulta stands for so much more than just selling products.
Courtney Henderson: We actually made champion diversity as a value. We have about seven values at Ulta Beauty that we live and breathe by. And so champion diversity is one of ours. I started about four years ago. We had an existing DEI team. I think it wasn’t too long after the introduction to the value that we actually started a team that was a hundred percent committed and focused on DEI and really building. The thing that I love about Ulta Beauty and was frankly, a little like pleasantly surprised about is how passionate our associates. Associates is what we call our employees. But how passionate our associates were about DEI and how much they leaned in to create and to help push our journey forward.
It’s been a really great journey for me. And I’ve just been trying to find ways that we can continue to tap into that passion that our associates have. I tell people at Ulta Beauty always is you know, DEI is it takes a village. DEI teams typically at companies are smaller and I can’t do the work on my own. So I use a lot of partners.
So I’m not an expert in marketing. I’m not an expert in merchandising. And so, we have a governance. So I invite leaders from these different departments at Ulta Beauty and they all have different DEI goals and I help, you know push them or ask them questions or help them think of those goals. And then they’re responsible for that part of our DEI strategy to help push us forward.
So it’s not just a team of four people, but it’s actually a team of like hundreds.
Mike Iannelli: Sort of like an ERG kind of situation.
Courtney Henderson: Yeah. Well and we do have, we call them BRGs at Ulta Beauty, but we do have those as well. And so they’re all kind of like working together.
Mike Iannelli: That’s incredible.
Courtney Henderson: Yeah. We call them DEI champions, is kind of like how I group everybody together. But we couldn’t do the work that we do without them and do it in such a big way.
John Samuel: You know, I think it’s pretty amazing how the leadership has been listening to the associates, right? And what do you think is about the culture at Ulta that the leaders are listening?
Courtney Henderson: So one of the sayings that we have, or it’s not even a saying it’s a practice, is we lead with heart. So we have a leadership model, and that’s at the center of it.
And I think that is really one of the reasons why our leaders do listen is because it’s really how we practice leadership. We do have a lot of listening sessions. We do have a lot of like feedback surveys, so that we can hear what our associates need. And honestly some of our best ideas and innovations come from our associates.
They’re closest, a lot of the time, on the ground floor talking to our guests in hearing what our guests needs are, hearing what kind of products they would like to see in our store. So it really is beneficial for us to make sure that we’re listening to our associates.
John Samuel: That’s amazing.
Mike Iannelli: That is amazing.
It’s so funny. I was going to ask the same question. Everything that I’ve seen and heard is that Ulta is not only leading the way in cosmetics, but they’re leading the way in culture. And do you find that to be a true statement?
Courtney Henderson: I do. It’s the best culture that I’ve ever worked at.
There’s something to say when you interview with a company and you get a good vibe. You never know if it’s really how it’s going to be when you start working. And so, I mean, I interviewed at Ulta and I like felt like I had found a new best friend. But I was like, well that’s just how they outwardly face, it for sure isn’t going to be like this when I come into the office. And when I started, I started in 2020, so it was a remote environment. And even then, like you feel the culture and just the people are so genuine. They bring so much joy with them.
Yes, it’s like beauty products, and hair care, and things like that. But it all centers around this idea of self care. And so that also is a part of the conversations that we have. And I think if we are taking care of our own needs, then it helps us show up better, then gives us a better culture in general.
John Samuel: When you talk about the culture, I can experience it with Nicko.
Courtney Henderson: Yeah.
John Samuel: When I first met Nicko, who actually, you know Mike you were talking about how Ablr’s grown because of our clients, but I also think it’s our partners in the community. And so I was introduced to Nicko by one of our partners over at East Texas Lighthouse. She met Nicko, and Nicko, he was so intentional about wanting to have people with lived experiences on the accessibility team. And that’s what drove him to be connected to me. And we had this like, this conversation in that very first time talking to Nicko, you could feel that culture you’re talking about. The way he talked about Ulta and how much he’s grown with the company. And I think that’s one of the things, it’s a company invested in him, and he’s investing in the company.
And I think when you look at Ulta’s growth over the last several years, it’s one of the fastest growing companies in the world. And I think it really does come to the culture. And so, what’s one thing that you’ve been so proud of that Ulta has done in the DEI space in the last four years?
Courtney Henderson: Ooh, that is, that’s a tough question. Oh my gosh, that was amazing. I will have to say, first Nicko is one of my favorites. And he is so passionate. And he’s passionate, but he also knows how to drive growth, and be disruptive, and ask the right questions, and meet the right people in order to make things happen. And so I’m like super appreciative of him.
A, just getting to know you John. And then I think if I had to choose one thing that I’m most proud of. We launched business resource groups or BRGs. And that we launched that, they’re about two years old. Before that we had a different structure. It wasn’t exactly BRGs. We called it our champions network, so if you kind of mushed all the BRGs together and had a group of people, that’s kind of what we had. So it worked really well, but there were certain aspects that a structure of having a BRG gives you, career development and those sorts of things that you get to focus on in a BRG that we didn’t necessarily have come through with our champions network.
So one of the things I’m probably most proud of is the launch of our BRGs and how much impact that they’ve had since they have started. Yes, they’re doing, we celebrate different key moments in time and they’re producing wonderful educational events and toolkits for those. But they’re also looking at our brand founders.
We have a lot of brand founders at Ulta Beauty. We have a lot of like products that are sold in our stores. Not everybody is equal, right? Like some brands might have a plethora of different products in our stores. Some might only have like one or two. And maybe that’s all that they produce, but we have brand partners that kind of align with the different communities within our BRGs. They’ve taken it upon themselves to make sure that they’re getting more representation so that guests know about them. As well as associates so that they can better represent them when they’re on the floor with our guests. And so it’s some of those like business areas that they’re also impacting that probably makes me really the most proud and they’re just, they’re influencing our culture.
John Samuel: What do you think makes the Ulta experience? So that everybody wants to be part of it? Because it’s amazing.
Courtney Henderson: I think just our people that we have that work at our stores are really passionate about beauty and self care. And they want to share that with the guests that come into our stores.
So Ulta Beauty is also unique in the fact that that we have a salon in our stores, and we also have estheticians so you can get facials too. So I go to Ulta Beauty to get my hair done. And that is something that makes Ulta Beauty unique I think for our guests. And I mean, even the trust that my stylist has built with me over the years that I’m going in there. I mean, if she tells me about a certain product, you know whether or not it has to do with hair care, I’m going to buy it.
And she truly is mentioning that because she knows me, she knows what I like, what I need, and she cares. I think it’s that element of just genuinely caring about other people while also being passionate about the brand and the products that you’re representing.
Mike Iannelli: Yeah. I think that’s, it’s funny when you say that, I kept, I kept thinking of our team.
John Samuel: Yeah, caring and passion. Yeah.
Mike Iannelli: You can brand Ulta all day long, you can hire all the best people in the world. But if they don’t carry it through, that passion, that empathy, that desire to do really good work at no matter what they do. That is culture, that gets people jazzed about what they’re doing.
And I love that. I absolutely love that about your brand. And last night I was thinking about what am I going to ask you? And then I was like, explain the Ultafication process, because I want a Ablrfication process. But I remember the first time you’re like, we like to Ulta-fy. And we’ve jumped on that John.
We’re like Ulta-fy, you know? But like okay, so and you’re going to Ulta-fy Ablr’s training.
Courtney Henderson: Mm-Hmm.
Mike Iannelli: Take us through that.
Courtney Henderson: Yeah. It’s such a Ulta Beauty word.
Mike Iannelli: And we’re gonna take it. We’re gonna Ablr-fy things.
Courtney Henderson: You should yeah. Absolutely you should.
I think when you have a company that has such a strong brand that you want to be able to take different content or different pieces and make sure that your brand is still represented so that you have brand consistency throughout.
So we use that word of like, oh we need to Ulta-fy this with partners, just make sure we’re using our pink and orange. And we’re using even down to sometimes our music is just. I mean I think Mike you alluded to this, like we’re kind of bubbly people. Like we’re very joyful.
And so whether it’s just internal or external. But everything that we produce has like our culture that rings through it. And it’s one of the things that I’m so grateful about our partnership that you all gave us the ability and you were flexible with us so that we could Ulta-fy it. Obviously showcasing the fact that we are partnering with Ablr, we want to be upfront about that, within the training. But just being able to make sure that people see our brand , and has like our brand stamp of approval through the Ulta-fication process.
John Samuel: I get why Ablr and Ulta are partnering. Because that’s us. We’re huggy people. We hug, we love. And, you know in terms of the Ulta-fying, you have a great team supporting you in doing that. Can you share about that team who’s doing this?
Courtney Henderson: Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. It takes a village. So I have an amazing team at Ulta Beauty that works just within like the DEI team. But also this is a lot of the people you all met when we’ve been on calls are people that we partner with that aren’t technically on our DEI team. Like that’s how passionate people are. Jessica is on our learning and development team. She’s incredibly passionate about DEI and kind of like raised her hand about a year or so ago and helped rebrand our DEI training that we do. She I think even on the call shared just like some of her personal like sentiments and stories too with the team and is really excited about this partnership in the same way that Nicko is.
She’s really the one that does like the heavy lifting of like Ulta-fying things. But she in a way like really does help carry our brand through within our training and she doesn’t do just DEI training but, she helps produce leadership training within Ulta Beauty as well
and is really the one that helps give that voice to our brand and the Ulta-fication process. But yeah she’s a genius in how she put’s everything together.
Mike Iannelli: Execution is key, but it’s hard right? You got this new course, you got to Ulta-fy it. Now you got to get it out there. Now you got to get out there and make sure it’s a follow through, followed by all. Right, concept. And I know a lot of times traditional corporate training, kind of blah. I mean, I remember when I was forced to take it. There you go. Forced to take it.
I mean, truthfully, it’s terrible.
Yeah. It is. But I just have this belief that our content, it’s just so good you know. And it’s done by people that have lived the experience and it’s like authentic, it’s genuine. And it’s like hours of just interviews and discussions. And the components are short. They get you in, they get you out, and we get you learning. And so like, what was it, like what was it that said, hey you know this is different, this is unique. Or was it just because you like John? I just can’t figure out.
Courtney Henderson: So much of what you said is true, but I can tell you. So we, I think Nicko introduced us. And then we wanted to just see the training, just to get like a feel of it before we made a decision of like, okay do we continue maybe down this path? We knew that we wanted to educate our associates on disability inclusion, but we just didn’t know like the best route to take yet.
And so I remember when I was going through the training that you all produced, I mean I don’t even think I was a quarter of the way in and I was like, yeah this is it. This is going to work for us. There is so much synergy. I think John, you were mentioning just the team that you all have is, you know, bubbly is energetic and passionate. And that comes through within the training.
But for our associates, what they respond really well to so that they’re not just like clicking through the training on the screen. It’s personal stories and being able to live through an experience. And that is one thing that I thought was so beautiful about the Ablr training is you have people from the community that are representing and teaching. And what better way is there to learn other than that?
John Samuel: This makes me so happy to hear.
Mike Iannelli: Yeah, I’m waiting for your tears bro. I’m watching you. Do we have tissues in the office?
John Samuel: I know, I know.
Mike Iannelli: But it’s authentic because… it is John. Say why you feel the way you feel.
John Samuel: We’re very intentional about “nothing about us without us.” And so, you know when you go through that course, it was written, designed, produced, everything. People with disabilities were in every aspect of that. And we were so intentional about wanting to share the stories of people, right? So you’re right.
It’s these stories. It’s not just about talking at. We’re talking with you, we’re having a conversation. And it makes me so happy to hear that you enjoyed that and that was one of the things that brought you in, because we were so intentional. I was like this will work, this will work. I promise, I promise. This is a good way of doing it. Cause it’s a little bit different.
Mike Iannelli: It’s the right way of doing it.
John Samuel: That’s right. And it’s a little bit different than other trainings. So thank you. It makes me, and I am a crier. So then Mike knows.
Courtney Henderson: We’re going to both be here crying together.
Mike Iannelli: I cry all the time, every day, four or five times. This is so nice to talk to people that really want to do good in life and to do good for others in life and to have conviction to follow through. We believe that this is just the beginning.
Courtney Henderson: Yeah.
Mike Iannelli: When you look out on the horizon from an inclusion perspective. What do you see? What’s the future look like?
Courtney Henderson: That’s a big question.
Mike Iannelli: It is a big question, but just in your heart, like what’s your appetite for the continuing of staffing diverse employees, and opening your mindsets up to what the capabilities of folks with disabilities can do at a company like Ulta.
Courtney Henderson: We’ve been on this journey, looking at disability inclusion for a couple of years. And I believe in taking small steps, like small steps matter. Cause a lot of people think of DEI and they’re like, I want big change now. And it always takes time, but if you’re consistently taking the steps forward that are needed, you can get to the big change.
So we started with, recognizing key moments and doing small educational pieces there. There are some nonprofits that we partner with or started to partner with. And so I think this training, it’s a pivotal moment where we’re training all 55,000 plus associates about disability inclusion. Because the thought is, we have these wonderful BRGs, we have six of them right now, we want to introduce one for the disability inclusion community. But before we can do that, there’s just some groundwork that we needed to make sure that we were doing to be responsible. We’ll have this training. We’re hoping that we have some people that we’ve identified that are highly passionate about this community, want to do work in it. Because our BRG is truly, they were intentionally named as business resource groups because we want them to impact our business.
Then it’s looking at, what’s the road map? What do we need to work on? One of the things is actually when I was interviewing at Ulta Beauty, they were talking about their values. And one of the values that they shared was “improve always.”
And it’s one that I really like because it’s something that I have as a personal value. And I think at Ulta Beauty, we were for our DEI team, especially, we’re pretty open to getting feedback and understanding where we might be misstepping or where we have gaps at. And so I think that that’s going to be a really important part of this journey is understanding where are the gaps and then working with this BRG to help us fill in those gaps so that we can change lives.
I also believe in for DEI work, we need to take care of home first and then we go out and talk about it. And then we go out and like start taking care of other people. But if our people don’t feel taken care of, then like they’re not going to want to take care of other people, in our name.
And so I think that there are some things that we need to make sure that this community feels like seen, heard, valued, and taken care of. And then we can start doing some more work with maybe like our guests and further into our communities.
John Samuel: One of the things at Ablr that we’re doing is, we have a workforce development program to train individuals who are blind, to get into upward mobility in their employment. And so now with a lot of interviews being virtual. I mean we’ve been talking with Estee Lauder for a good while now. And they actually have a very interesting application called the Virtual Makeup Assistant, the VMA. And it’s using AI to help people who are blind put on makeup. But if you had one beauty tip for us, because the majority of our candidates are women. What makeup tip would you give or beauty routine tip would you give for our candidates as they’re preparing for virtual interviews?
Courtney Henderson: Mmm, that’s a good one.
Mike Iannelli: Great question.
Courtney Henderson: Here’s like my overarching tip. I think it like you have to be comfortable with whatever your choosing to represent your self expression of yourself and you have to like be authentic in who that is. I think as long as you’re showing up as your authentic self, and you’re showing up in a way that you’re comfortable, and you feel like represent yourself, like that’s what I would say. So it’s not like one specific tip, but it’s more about like, just being comfortable with who you are. Because then when you feel good at how you’re representing or self expressing yourself, then I feel like you can really shine in your interview.
John Samuel: That’s really good. Right? Because I think that’s what our team is trying to do is build that confidence, help our candidates feel good. Because you’re right. The better you feel going into that interview, the better you’re going to do.
Mike Iannelli: Yeah. That’s a really good question. Very good advice.
John Samuel: You asked us, what’s your favorite beauty routine?
Courtney Henderson: Oh, yeah so.
John Samuel: He’s coming right at you.
Courtney Henderson: My husband calls it my uniform, which is like sweats. And so I like get into my uniform at home and I like take off my makeup. And so, Alicia Keys has a skincare line called, I think it’s Key Soul Care, or something like that. On her product, she actually has some affirmations that you can like say as you’re. And so as you’re like taking off your makeup and taking care of yourself through that process, you can look at her affirmations that she has. And so that’s like one of my favorite beauty routines is just being able to like at the end of the day, like take that breath, that sigh and consider all of the things that I accomplished within the day, and just kind of be able to relax.
John Samuel: Well, when you’re doing that and you want some more affirmations. My son Eli, his favorite song is a Snoop Dogg affirmation song.
Courtney Henderson: Oh yeah! Yes I am familiar.
Mike Iannelli: Alright, can we get that playing right now?
John Samuel: I think if we play a little clip of that.
Mike Iannelli: Yeah we’ll clip that. So basically, would you call what you just expressed de-Ultafication?
Courtney Henderson: Oh! I love it. I should introduce it to Ulta Beauty.
Mike Iannelli: Yeah, yeah. We come in, we Ulta-fy at the end of the day. Woo!
Courtney Henderson: De-Ultafy that.
Mike Iannelli: We’re de-Ultafying. You just want to know at the day. I’m good enough. I’m smart enough, and gosh darn it people like me.
I find I age myself a lot these days and this is really more selfishly for us. But what was your first impression of Ablr and the team?
Courtney Henderson: Oh, gosh. It’s so funny because I think when we first got on a call, it just felt like I was having a meeting with just Ulta Beauty associates. Like I do feel like there’s so much synergy and so much similarity to how our cultures are.
We had like an hour long meeting. And the first half hour was just like sharing our stories and why we were passionate about this partnership and what we were about to embark on. And I mean, there might’ve been some tears from some people on the call, which I think is just so special.
Cause I mean, I think you all talk about vulnerability and the importance of it, and that builds so much connection. And I feel like coming out of that meeting, even though it was our first time really getting to know each other. I felt like I knew you all so well and connected with you. And that just doesn’t happen a lot in the business world.
So I had an incredible first impression and every single time that we have met since I’ve been excited to like meet with you all excited to email with you all. It feels like you all are a part of our team.
John Samuel: Oh, that’s so sweet.
Mike Iannelli: I completely agree. And that is very, that is very kind of you to say. And we absolutely were so excited when we get off the phone, we’re like I just feel like this is family, and it is rare. So thank you for that. Thank you for being vulnerable to welcome us in.
Courtney Henderson: I’ve really enjoyed this journey with you all. It’s been great.
Mike Iannelli: My last question for you would be, what advice could you give to other organizations and people sitting in a similar seat that you’re sitting in about how to have that conviction and how to follow through with what you believe in your heart that’s right?
Courtney Henderson: I think sometimes what we try to do as humans, we try to have all of the answers or we expect that of ourselves, which is an unkind thing to do to ourselves. And so I think it’s really important to reach out to other people that might represent different communities and ask them to help support you. And I think that even if you’re sitting in a room and people are telling you no, and they might have a higher title or whatever have you, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re right. And I think reminding yourself of that in the room when you are trying to like find a yes.
Everybody is in a different part within their DEI journey. Meet them where they are, understand what’s important to them.
Mike Iannelli: Yeah, absolutely. And I just, I will just say thank you again for being here. We are humbled every day, grateful every day and we’ll continue to do what we do. But from the bottom of my heart, thank you for being here. Thank you for representing Ulta Beauty and thanks for doing what you do.
Thanks for tuning in to Access Granted and a big thank you to Courtney Henderson for sharing Ulta Beauty’s diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.