Kahh Spence: Founder & CEO of Samir Grey

Episode 823

On today’s episode, we welcome Kahh Spence, Founder and CEO of Samir Grey — a luxury fragrance and personal care brand rooted in family, legacy, and emotional connection. After more than a decade shaping culture as a celebrity hairstylist and image architect for artists including Cardi B, Kelly Rowland, Normani, and Victoria Monét, Kahh stepped into a new chapter: building a brand of his own grounded in storytelling, representation, and self-expression.
Samir Grey was born from something deeply personal. Inspired by the women who raised him, the brand redefines modern luxury as an accessible act of self-love — offering clean, vegan, cruelty-free fragrance and essentials designed to feel intimate, grounding, and enduring. What began as a creative vision evolved into a mission-driven company that uses scent as a tool for memory, identity, and empowerment — expanding beauty beyond aesthetics into emotional ritual.
In this episode, Kahh shares what it takes to move from creative collaborator to founder and CEO, how to translate personal legacy into product, and why leading with authenticity matters more than ever in today’s beauty landscape. We discuss representation, building inclusive brands without performative messaging, navigating doubt as a first-time founder, and redefining success through impact and cultural resonance. A powerful conversation for creatives, entrepreneurs, and anyone ready to build boldly from their own story.

Resources from
this episode:

Transcript

Kara Goldin 0:00
I am unwilling to give up that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be. I want to be you. Just want to make sure you will get knocked down. But just make sure you don’t get knocked out, knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control. Control. Control. Hi everyone, and welcome to the Kara Goldin show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs and really, some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go. Let’s go. Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Kara Goldin show. I am so excited to have my next guest with us here today, we have Kahh Spence, who is the creative entrepreneur, celebrity hairstylist and founder and CEO of an amazing brand new luxury fragrance brand called Samir Grey woo hoo, not just luxury fragrance, but also personal care brand rooted in family legacy and emotional connection. So for over a decade, Kahh has has shaped culture behind the scenes, crafting red carpet and editorial moments for artists like Cardi B Kelly Rowland, you name it, but what I love most about his journey is that he didn’t stop at building other people’s brands. He stepped into building his own. So Samir Grey is deeply personal. I cannot wait to get into everything behind the brand. It is super, super terrific. If you haven’t tried it yet, you must. And I’m excited to talk with Kahh about what he’s done, why he did it, and overall, what it’s like to lead and build a brand that he cares so deeply about. So Kahh, welcome to the show. Super excited to have you here. Thank you so much

Kahh Spence 2:05
for having me. This is such a delight. Yeah, I’ve been looking forward to

Kara Goldin 2:09
this all day. Awesome. So for listeners just discovering the brand that you launched, Samir Grey, how do you describe the brand and what makes it fundamentally different in today’s fragrance landscape.

Kahh Spence 2:22
Samir Grey, to me, was built on the foundation that we all deserve to pause and sit still in a world that’s often so fast or so rooted in this hustle culture or this hustle mentality, and in the fragrance landscape and the personal care landscape, I think a lot of marketing efforts are so geared to high functioning individuals, individuals who want something fast and on the go and for the travel in person. And we’re really honing in on No, this is for you to relax with. This is for you to pause with. This is for you to take with you wherever you go and had that moment of just saying, Ah, I can soak in the moment for a second.

Kara Goldin 3:04
I love it. So you decided to launch your own brand after working with so many people on a brand. How did you come up with the name Samir Grey?

Kahh Spence 3:16
Well, my middle name is Chemin air with an H in the middle of the s and the A, and that’s my mom used to call me. And I wanted something that was closely connected to me, but not exactly my name, just in case the brand takes on a life of its own. And then gray is one of my favorite colors. So it was pretty easy for me to come up with that little concoction.

Kara Goldin 3:37
I love it. So you’re building your first brand. After working with so many people on their brand, how different is it than maybe what you thought it was going to be? I mean, there’s so many aspects of building not just a brand, but also a company, and making sure that you’re delivering and again, your name is behind this. So you don’t want to fail, right? You want to be successful at this. But How different is it in actually launching a brand, a company, than maybe what you thought?

Kahh Spence 4:15
Funny enough, this is actually my second brand. We built a fragrance brand in 2019 and we shuttered that in 2022 reason being because just some operational things that I think needed to be honed in more on in order to build a successful and sustainable business. But if I’m being really honest, I think while we were while I was supporting all of the fabulous talent I was working with. We were simultaneously building the brand of cost Spence throughout those years as well. And so we were learning in tandem with building, helping build and shape their brands. And I think I was taking small bits and pieces back to the table, what I enjoyed, what I did. Enjoy what I think I needed to kind of hone in on. I think the biggest key lesson that I learned is building a brand centered around a human is so different than building a brand that’s a business. You know, I think both are businesses and can be businesses, but I think they just require such different skill sets and different muscles. And I think that really, that was the biggest difference in this process and in my learnings over the years.

Kara Goldin 5:30
And when you say around a person, not just around storytelling, but actually having, you know, influencer, right per se, that’s what you’re talking about. And so in

Kahh Spence 5:43
what way? Because I think marketing and storytelling for a singular individual is so so much different than marketing and storytelling for a group of individuals. When you’re trying to sell a product, you know, selling a product, you kind of want to build a world around the life of the product and how that can fit into people’s lives. When you’re selling an individual, you’re more so selling their world, and how people can kind of adapt to their world that’s here already, and what avenues we can kind of build around that. So those, to me, are the key differences, and I think we’re doing a great job at being able to differentiate the two, as I’m building Samia gray and really focusing on how we’re able to world build and help people see how this product and the products to come are fitting into their everyday lives, the consumers everyday lives.

Kara Goldin 6:31
What are you doing differently with this startup than maybe you were doing with your other one? Oh, what

Kahh Spence 6:39
am I doing differently? I’m taking my time. Yeah, I think before we were we were beating to the drum of what the market wanted. And I think this go round, it’s more so about really taking it one day at a time, listening to the consumer and the feedback that they’re giving us, but also continually going back to why this brand even started, and never losing sight of that messaging.

Kara Goldin 7:08
Yeah, I think that’s that’s so, so important. So Samir Grey is rooted in family and legacy, and how did your upbringing influence the kind of the emotional core of what Samir Grey is.

Kahh Spence 7:24
I grew up around a ton of women, a ton of women who sacrificed so much of their time and their well being to take care of their loved ones, and I wanted this to be an ode to them and an ode to women and men out there who have done such a great job at being as selfless as possible and never getting a pat on their back for the work that they do in the home and outside of the home, and that support didn’t and doesn’t go unnoticed. And I wanted to make sure with this business, we were able to tell and are able to tell that story on how important community is, how important slowing down and actually smelling the roses is and so in my upbringing, I watched women who didn’t get a chance to do that. And you know, after my mom had passed in 2017 from cancer, and most recently, my grandmother had passed, it was clear that I’m on the right path to setting that message and cementing that message a bit more around it’s time for you to stop and smell your roses before it’s a bit too late.

Kara Goldin 8:26
I love it. So fragrance is so intimate and invisible. What drew you specifically to the scent that you decided to launch with? So one

Kahh Spence 8:36
was really inspired by an experience that didn’t happen after my mom had passed. Well, right before she passed, I was working with an artist, and we were in Hawaii at the time, and we’d wanted to bring my mom out there with us to experience the city of Hawaii, and we didn’t get a chance to because it was really close to the time that they predicted she’d pass. And after she passed, I kept having these dreams around us, sitting on the beach and, you know, listening to the waters and playing with the sand, and it was just us two, and it was like this one singular moment in time. And I wanted to take that feeling and bottle it up with a few other experiences. You know, I kept seeing us on this boat in the middle of the ocean and just hugged up together, laughing, having a good time. And I wanted to bring that energy forth in this bottle to really send the message that those singular moments, those one moments, those experiences, they don’t have to go away, they can still be here. And this scent kind of reminds me of that thing that you always want to go back to. I always find myself wanting to go dream that dream again. And so when I smell this fragrance, kind of takes me back to that place again and again.

Kara Goldin 9:50
So you’ve created a fragrance that is really unisex as well. I mean, it’s not something that just women or men. Choose it, but it’s a unisex product. How did you decide to do that? I mean, that’s really I think that not every fragrance is meant to be like that, so I love that about it. Oh, thank you

Kahh Spence 10:13
understanding the history of fragrance and reading about it all and speaking to the perfumer that I work with, Cecile fragrance, technically, is unisex, it’s the marketing that shifts what that story is, and of course, it’s some other, you know, cool things on the back in a fragrance that change what that story is about in the juice. But I think with this, I knew I wanted it to appeal to everyone, because everyone needs a chance to go back to those singular moments. Everyone deserves to sit still and pause, and while it’s reminiscent of a memory of my mother and I, anyone in the world can experience the same memory too for themselves,

Kara Goldin 10:54
what has been the most difficult part of launching Samir Grey to date? I mean, you’ve definitely been around marketing and doing things one way, and maybe having challenges along the way, shutting down companies. You’ve done a lot of really unique things, but what would you say has been kind of one of the harder decisions that you’ve had to make around Samir Grey.

Kahh Spence 11:21
It’s funny. I just had a phone call earlier today. I think it’s coming to terms with the fact that I don’t have anything to lean on. I think when I had my first business, my career as a celebrity hairstylist was my crutch, and I could go back to that and rely on that and kind of hide in a corner this business, it requires so much of me to show up in ways that I didn’t necessarily practice before, and so I’m just being stretched in new ways. It’s exciting, but it’s so new. I think that’s why it’s exciting too, but it’s so new, you know, leaving something that I’ve done for eight years behind in 2023 stepping away from celebrity hairstyling, it gave me a chance to sit back and think about what I would want to do right now and what skill sets I would need. So I think it’s the understanding that, like you’re in 100% Yeah, I think that’s definitely the number one thing

Kara Goldin 12:21
for me. So every founder faces doubt, you know, and and what they’re doing. At should I be doing this? Like, maybe I should go back to being a celebrity stylist? It was, you know, so much easier, even though it probably wasn’t. But you were, you have sort of a memory of, you know, what am I doing? What would you say to anyone who’s kind of having those doubts? I mean, how do you personally get through those doubts as well?

Kahh Spence 12:53
A few things, a journal to write out what I’m feeling. The past few weeks, I’ve had some big feelings. In order for me to process them, I’ve had to write them out and sit with myself and say to myself, You do deserve to be here. You do deserve to be doing this. You need to pause and be a little softer with yourself and then being in community with others. You know, there’s moments when I’m working in and on the business, and then there are moments when I’m in real life and hanging with friends or hanging with family and experiencing and enjoying this beautiful thing called life. I don’t ever want to get too caught up, and don’t think people should get too caught up in chasing a level of success, whatever that might look like for them, without realizing that life still has to be lived. And so I would say really, just taking a breath and taking a moment to understand that we’ve got to live these well rounded lives, you know, the doubts gonna creep in, you know, especially if you’re doing it as a solo founder, you are gonna feel these moments of, Oh, my God, should I have done something else? Should I go back to the corporate job? Or, for me, should I go back to celebrity hairstyling? And it comes up some days, you know, I see online and I’m like, Oh, I kind of missed this. And then I sit back and I’m like, No, I love what I’m doing now. I love the messaging behind what I’m doing. I love this new space that I’m in, and it feels good. And I need to sit here and try my best to block and weed out any of the negative thoughts as best as possible.

Kara Goldin 14:21
So in today’s beauty landscape, what do you think truly earns customer trust? I guess is, is the best way to think about it. I mean, what? What are consumers really looking for?

Kahh Spence 14:35
Consumers are really looking for good storytelling, you know, something that they can really, really resonate with on a deep level, but also good product. You know, we’ve done really great for six months on the market. We’re about to be sold out, and the common denominator has been a hybrid of both, which I think has been exceptional. You know, our repeat purchase rate is. Is pretty good, and I think it’s been beautiful to see that those are the two things that people are really honing in on. You know, one of the things that I I took, or I don’t want to say, got advice from, because these are people I’ve never met before, but I was listening to so many podcasts as I was building this brand, and the founders of Edam really talked about leaning in on brand and storytelling in the earlier days, because that’s how you cement that loyal consumer base, and that’s something that we are focusing heavy on building and locking in that loyal consumer base. You know, I see folks talking on Facebook groups or threads or these platforms, and they’re going really hard for this brand really early on. And that means the world to me. It means we’re doing something right.

Kara Goldin 15:47
What social channel has really maybe surprised you the most, that maybe you didn’t think that your consumer was necessarily there, but it’s really gotten the word out about your brand,

Kahh Spence 16:02
for sure, like the Tiktok fragrance community has been riding so hard for this business, and I am so incredibly thankful for all of the amazing creators that have shown up and that have talked about this brand organically, and that, have you know, spread the message Over and over and over again. It’s been so beautiful to see. I personally didn’t walk into this with any expectations, and I knew I didn’t want to lean on my prior laurels of the connections and my celebrity friends and peers, so I didn’t lean on that at all. And so to see how much the fragrance community has shown up, it means the world, like, seriously, that’s awesome.

Kara Goldin 16:43
And when you touched on this, but, you know, people will say, Oh, well, you know your buddies, who are the celebrities we’re all buying the product it. I think it’s such a interesting piece, because I remember when I launched, you know, Kent, we got it into Google, yeah? And people were like, Oh, you had been intact. You knew all those people at Google, so they were all buying your product. And I was like, actually, a lot of those people didn’t even know I launched the beverage. They just started drinking it. And they were shocked to hear that I was the one behind the brand, right? And and then they actually liked it. And it sort of happened in reverse, by accident. I’m so curious if that’s very similar, that here they are hearing about this brand. Maybe they see you every once in a while associated with the brand, but they’re like, Wait, holy smokes. Huh? You’re, you’ve, like, done a brand yourself, and you’ve launched this. Are people surprised about it, and sort of what has been your experience? I don’t want to say

Kahh Spence 17:49
they’re surprised. I think all of my celebrity clients and friends knew that I’ve always had this entrepreneurial bug inside of me. But I think the way and the route that we took the branding this go round. I don’t know if they knew right away that this was my brand. Kelly rollin reached out, I want to say, maybe three weeks ago, and said, Oh my God, I’ve been seeing your brand everywhere. I’m so proud of you. I need to try this product. And we had a little chit chat about it, but I strategically didn’t gift any of my celebrity clientele, my previous celebrity clientele or friends, because I wanted to build some legitimacy first, and I think it’s worked out really well. We did give Savannah James, who has her brand, and I love what she’s doing in the beauty space. We did gift her, if I’m thinking of like the celebrity in the beauty space, but that’s in that realm. But oh, and we did get Charlie Ralph, the Emmy award winning actors, actress, but that was it. Yeah, that was it. And I’m connected to so many people, and I strategically said, yeah, no, no, thank you. Not yet,

Kara Goldin 18:56
not yet, until it gets out there. Are you on Tiktok shop, is that been you have not done Tiktok shop yet? No, we haven’t been Tiktok that’s so interesting. But you’re still building so much buzz around, around using, using Tiktok. And so today, when you think about the go to market strategy, are you only available in direct to consumer, where people come on to your site, or how else can people purchase Samir Grey,

Kahh Spence 19:27
at the moment, we are just direct to consumer and thinking through what the next channels of distribution will look like, taking it one day at a time and not rushing anywhere. You know, I know how brutal the retail landscape can be. I’ve noticed how so many other founders, especially black and bipoc founders, have been affected like a good friend of mine, Jada that formerly had ami colay, and what the story that happened her brand and so many other founders that are just experiencing such difficult times when it comes to the. Retail and just what that entire experience can feel like. So really, just taking it one day at a time and crawling before we walk, for sure.

Kara Goldin 20:08
Yeah, definitely. Have you seen that, even though your product is unisex, where do you see more of your audience? Or who do you see buying this product? Is it more men, or is it more women? I’m so curious.

Kahh Spence 20:23
It’s definitely more women. For sure. There’s a good that’s so interesting, but it’s definitely more women. I hands down, hands down, hands down, hands down. I think part of it is because for so long we’ve been trained in this country, I think globally, that women are at the forefront of what personal care and self care look like. And not that men are late to the training, but I think men are now getting more accustomed to being open to new formats as it relates to what their personal care routines look like, and so we’re doing a good job, and are gearing up to do an even better job as speaking to the male consumer, because we are unisex. And we don’t just want women to feel like this is the brand for them. We want both. We want everybody to feel like they can shop this brand Absolutely.

Kara Goldin 21:08
Yeah, definitely. When you look at maybe the future for Samir Grey and kind of like when you look at measuring success, how do you measure success within Samir Grey? Like, how do you look at it? As, you know, I’m killing it, you know, this is, this is like, cos doing it and like, is it people talking about it? Obviously, you want to sell lots of product. But what is success to you?

Kahh Spence 21:39
I think it’s a two fold. I think on one side, it’s like, I’m going outside and I’m seeing us on the sides of busses, and I’m seeing billboards, and I’m seeing, you know, I’m walking by people and they’re looking at it in their phones. I can smell people as I’m walking into spaces like that is one version of success. But also, on the other side, I’m seeing people that are really honing in on the message of pausing and being still and being a bit more grounded in who they are and where they are, I think really spreading that message more is really going to let me know that we’ve done a great job, because that’s what the core mission of this brand is, for sure.

Kara Goldin 22:15
Yeah, definitely. And finally, for anyone who is thinking about going and founding their own brand, creating something. What advice would you give them before they take that leap? I mean, what did they really need to know about launching a company? Maybe they’re a celebrity stylist, or they’ve done something totally different than what they want to launch. What would you say is kind of the first thing. Maybe you would tell a good friend of yours, make

Kahh Spence 22:44
sure it’s something that you actually want to do, you know, make sure it’s something you believe in, because if you don’t believe in it, it’s going to be really hard for you to sell it. As I was building this, there were so many ideas that had been thrown my way, and they didn’t feel natural to me, so I knew it would be a really hard sell, so definitely making sure it’s something you can believe in, but then also leaning heavily on your peers and your community, looking next to you, not just above you and people who you admire, but your friends that are sitting right beside you that might have some valuable information that could be helpful to You. You know, the one thing I do daily is lean so much on community, especially when it comes to other founders and other peers in business and in beauty, or maybe even not in beauty, but just in business as well, because there’s so much that I don’t know. And I think sometimes we walk into these new spaces, and, you know, our ego can get in the way. That has to be completely left at the door, like completely outside of the door. And when I left celebrity hair in 2023 I had to leave the ego with that.

Kara Goldin 23:54
Yeah, definitely. It’s, it’s, I mean, what you’re doing is also starting an entirely new industry, right? Even though you’ve seen other it is totally new to to you, and you’ve got to, you know, kind of start at the bottom and and grow it again, which is exciting. But it’s also, like, it’s a lot of work. It’s to do

Kahh Spence 24:16
that, oh my god, it, is it, and it’s so humbling. I think that’s the key piece of it that no one talks about, at least for me, you know, I’ve experienced a level of success that I think is unimaginable, and I don’t talk about it a lot. So to be here and to feel this way, it’s very humbling. Some days, I love it, because it allows me to pause and slow down and take a deep breath. But on the flip side, I’m like, okay, okay, we’re doing this thing.

Kara Goldin 24:47
I love it. Well, Kahh, thank you so much for joining me today. Your journey is a powerful reminder that the most meaningful brands are born where personal truth meets creative courage. So. So I love the whole backstory of why you started it. And for everyone listening, be sure to check out Samir Grey, such an incredible fragrance brand. And I love everything you’re doing on social too. So really, really awesome. And definitely purchase the product. Everyone support Samir and thank you again. So nice to meet you, Kara, and I’ll see you and everyone else next time on the Kara Goldin show. Yay. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks again for listening to the Kara Goldin show, if you would please give us a review and feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit. And of course, feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode of our podcast. Just a reminder that I can be found on all platforms. At Kara Goldin, I would love to hear from you too. So feel free to DM me, and if you want to hear more about my journey, I hope you will have a listen or pick up a copy of my Wall Street Journal, best selling book, undaunted, where I share more about my journey, including founding and building. Hint, we are here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, thanks for listening, and goodbye for now.

Click to subscribe:

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Listen OnApple Podcasts
Listen on Spotify
Listen OnSpotify
Listen on Overcast
Listen OnOvercast
Listen on PlayerFM
Listen OnPlayerFM

People Also Liked

826

Jash Mehta: Co-Founder & CEO of Pop & Bottle

825

Robbie Salter: Co-Founder of Jupiter

824

David Rabie: Founder & CEO of Tovala

822

Meredith Mills-Merritt: Founder & CEO of The Original Southside

821

Lauren Stephens: Co-Founder of Dudley Stephens