Sharon Price John: CEO of Build-A-Bear

Episode 629

In this episode of The Kara Goldin Show, we sit down with Sharon Price John, the visionary CEO of Build-A-Bear Workshop. Since taking the helm in 2013, Sharon has transformed Build-A-Bear from a beloved retail brand into a global powerhouse, expanding into e-commerce, entertainment, and licensing—all while keeping its core mission to "add a little more heart to life" at the forefront.
Sharon shares her insights on leading through challenges like the retail apocalypse and the pandemic, the power of storytelling in building emotional connections with customers, and how she has kept the magic of Build-A-Bear alive for new generations. We also explore highlights from her Amazon #1 Best Seller, Stories & Heart: Unlock the Power of Personal Stories to Create a Life You Love, and discuss how personal narratives can inspire meaningful change in both life and leadership.
Whether you’re a fan of Build-A-Bear, an aspiring entrepreneur, or simply someone looking for inspiration, this episode is packed with wisdom and heart. Don’t miss it! Tune in now on The Kara Goldin Show!

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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. 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 incredible leader, a visionary leader, Sharon Price John, who is the CEO of a brand that unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you have definitely seen and hopefully experienced as well Build-A-Bear Workshop, and Sharon has been at the helm of Build-A-Bear Since 2013 she and I actually met a few years back at a conference, and I just absolutely loved everything that she represents and talked about, she actually turned a lot of what I had heard at that conference into an incredible book, which we’re also going to get to talk about a bit but transformative growth. They are a public company, and under her leadership, Build-A-Bear has expanded its consumer base, embraced e commerce and diversified its content and entertainment, all while navigating major challenges, including the retail landscape and the pandemic. So I cannot wait to hear more from this incredible, incredible leader and dive into not only her journey, but also all kinds of insights that I’m sure she has in being at the helm of Build-A-Bear Workshop. So welcome Sharon,

Sharon Price John 2:10
thank you so much fun to be here and good to see you again. Kara,

Kara Goldin 2:13
thank you so much for coming on. So beyond just being this incredible brand and company. How would you describe the essence of Build-A-Bear to someone who is not familiar with the company?

Sharon Price John 2:28
So I’m so lucky to have joined a company like Build-A-Bear in 2013 even though it was struggling a little bit from a financial perspective, the power of the brand was still so resilient and so alone. And the reason is because people come in and they make indelible memories, and you walk away with a furry friend for life, and going through that process, particularly when you’re a child, is almost magic. I’ve not ever met someone this is true that does not just feel compelled to tell me their Build-A-Bear story as soon as they find out, you know what I do. And sometimes, you know I’ll be out and about, and they’ll go, Where do you work at? Build a pair. They’ll go, which one? Like they think I’m working at a store. They still want to and I’m like, oh, you know the one? And say, look like I don’t tell them. And they’ll still want to tell me this fabulous story about the first time they went to Build-A-Bear. So it’s not about the title, it’s just the emotion that this brand brings up. So we, we created, this is a long answer, but I’m going to get to it. We created the mission statement that we think really captures what this brand is about. To your question, and it’s to add a little more heart symbol to life. And it’s not to add all the heart to life like we’re just trying to make every day a little bit better, you know. And so if it’s your best day in the world for a kid their birthday, or sometimes some rough days, you know, people come to Build-A-Bear, and we make that day a little bit better. And you know, that’s one heart ceremony at a time. You know, we’re making a difference in the world. I

Kara Goldin 4:07
bet, when you talk to people, I think it’s hard for them when they’re telling you their stories, to not smile. And you know, it’s a, it is a, it’s a happy brand, right? And when you to be able to lead that adventure for people, I’m sure, must be incredible,

Sharon Price John 4:26
yeah, and it’s sometimes they’re sad stories. Sometimes they’re stories where they’re capturing memories. Sometimes the last recording of a maybe a parent’s voice from their phone, and they’ll put it in the teddy bear or it, you know, you know it for grown people, you know, it’s really, it’s really very, very special and and we serve so many purposes for so many people, of marking those moments in time, and we’re woven into sort of the fabric of families. Yeah. Well, I think

Kara Goldin 5:00
you touched on this too, that it’s not just teddy bears. I think many people think about that and think, Okay, this is about children, and maybe children’s parties and things like that, but it’s more than that. And to your point, it’s been, you know, a great place for families to to join each other. So why do you think that is like? Why? Why do you think people have chosen this experience beyond kids, right? It really is something that kind of sticks for the entire family. I

Sharon Price John 5:32
think stuffed animals have had a long standing place in people’s hearts. I’m not sure that we’ve talked about it as much as recently, but I can speak, you know, from my own personal experience that I have not thrown away my favorite stuffies. They’re still, you know, tucked away in a storage unit in my hometown. You know, when my when my parents died, and I, you know, had to clean out my childhood home. The among the things that I kept it was those and so now Build-A-Bear is multi generational. So we’re so attached to some of those early childhood memories and moments of happiness that one, of course, when you have your own children, you want to bring them back to Build-A-Bear, but two, particularly in the post COVID environment, a lot of people, and there’s been tremendous trends about this, want to relive some of the simple moments. And that’s where you’re seeing this trend called kiddo thing start to emerge, where people are buying nostalgic products, toys included are playing, wanting to play board games together, or, you know, just relive some of those memories of of easier times. And we’ve been through a lot together. We’ve been through a collective trauma. So there’s nothing wrong with that. And there’s been some data about, you know, people to people still sleeping with with, you know, their their teddy bears are getting the new teddy bear to sleep with. You know, so and, and, look, I have no issue with that either.

Kara Goldin 7:12
I love it. So the brand started in 1997 and you joined as CEO and 2013 you and I were chatting briefly about this. This was your first CEO role, and a public company CEO role as well. What was probably the most surprising shift you had to make to ensure the brand you know was able to stay relevant, continue to scale. What was it that you saw in that moment when, when you joined, well, I

Sharon Price John 7:48
joined the company when it was in need of a financial turnaround. The company had been contracting for eight years in a row, and it was not profitable. And so it really the first level of focus, of course, was to return to profitability. I mean, you don’t have too much rope under those circumstances when you’re in a publicly traded environment. And I run divisions as big and bigger than the entire company of Build-A-Bear, so the scale was not scary to me. You know, switching to that public traded piece was something new. But I do when people are making choices about their career, usually you’re trying to look for something where it’s at least one foot in something you’re familiar with, but maybe one foot in something that you’re not. So it’s definitely familiar with the toy industry, definitely familiar with vertical retailing, definitely familiar with turnaround situations, just not familiar with the publicly traded company. Piece. In fact, I created a career out of turning around brands business and business units. So and that’s an entirely separate story into itself, like if you have any ambition of being a CEO, that’s a wonderful skill set to learn, because usually this, the seat doesn’t open up with unless something’s wrong. So if you can make yourself an expert at that, then then you have better odds. But so that was a specific objective of pulling some of the familiar levers that I knew on how to return this vertical retailer to profitability, because I had just done that at stride, right? And we went through a very distinct process of that involved, you know, renegotiating almost every contract, including all of your leases, relooking at where there were middlemen in the process, renegotiating and doing Value Engineering across the organization. It’s a very classic approach, and we did return to profitability. D that year, I started in the middle of the year, and we were $6 million in the hole, and we there would, there have been an objective from the board to just make $1 in that year, and you would get, everyone would get a bonus, and I use that to the organs for the organization, but which brings me to get point number two is you can have all the best plans in the world, and if you can’t bring the team with you, it really doesn’t matter. So you know. So so here I am coming into this beloved company where the brand was so much bigger than the revenue that was being represented, but the organization was trying to return to what was trying to keep doing. What had they were doing well in the past to be successful, and there was a moment in time where there was a really had to be a heartfelt meeting with the entire company to say, I think you need to understand that if we continue to do what we’re doing exactly the way we’re doing it, this company is not going to exist. So although Change is hard, and I know you’re probably fearful that, you know, I’m in here to, like, change this company. That’s true, but I’m not in here to change the heart of the company. You can change the business without changing the heart. I don’t. I’m not trying to rip the heart out of this organization, but we do have to change the way we operate, and that provided me with some latitude to get people to move forward facing it, basically in unleashing the power of the brand, the thing that they had built, it was the operational and the functional pieces that we had To change, and we needed to get people to come with me to do that. So

Kara Goldin 12:04
you touched on the retail and and obviously the contracts and all of those things associated with it, we’ve seen over easily the past 10 years, but in particular the last few years where retail has really struggled. I mean, malls, all of the different places across the US where maybe Build-A-Bear is relying on traffic to basically keep their business growing. How have you thought about retail overall?

Sharon Price John 12:36
Well, Kara, that’s a really obviously a poignant question. When so much of the early days of Build-A-Bear were the classic approach of rolling out where the next big mall is, sort of this cookie cutter approach which many, many companies were very successful at. But after there had been the recession in 2008 910, Build-A-Bear had not ever really entirely recovered. And what was fascinating about that, again, this kind of concept of wanting to continue to do what had brought success in the past, which isn’t unusual, by the way, but when we started to analyze the retail footprint, I wanted to do, it’s a classic thing, quadrant analysis, to try to understand, you know, where our best stores were, and then analyze what, what is it about these stores that are successful? And let the data lead you to that answer. Don’t make the assumption and then kind of jam it into a preconceived idea. What emerged was something that we never really identified specifically, was that we were over indexing on almost every key metric in something we eventually call the tourist location, or hospitality location, and the reason it was hard to see is they’re not always called that. Sometimes they’re in a mall, sometimes they’re standalones, and like our Mall of America, is a tourist location. And we tried to find the metric that would hold this together, and it was when 50% or more the business is from from 50 or more miles away. And we could tell by credit card data so that, that, you know, people had a little more of a open approach. So it was like the best souvenir in the world, you know, like, so we would add procured product at these particular locations, and that shifted our retail strategy and gave us options versus the mall. And what was so interesting about it at the end of the day, though, is when we started to communicate this to the organization, like, oh, we can’t change our strategy. I’m like. We’re not changing our strategy. We’re not changing our strategy. The original insight was that Build-A-Bear should be where people go for fun and entertainment. That’s changed. That was a mall, and now, by the way, it’s starting to be a mall again. But now that’s evolved. So we have to evolve. It’s not that we’re changing. We just translated that into Build-A-Bear goes where malls are. But the truth is, is Build-A-Bear thrives where people go for fun and entertainment. So sometimes there’s also this in this leadership role. And I know you know this, it’s, you know, it’s not what you say, it’s kind of how you say it it’s how you serve it up, is what packages this in, so that people can understand. And so we started to break apart the retail and not just where we could be, but how we could show up. What’s our footprint? You know, how efficient and efficient and effective we could be, like, how small of a footprint could we get it? And then it, it loosened up so many opportunities for us by not being so pedantic in the way we we interpreted the history about what was necessary for success. And we now have it’s numerous approaches to how we can show up in different types of locations, and we’ve gone from the 9% for wall profitability to 24% 25% for wall profitability, and from what was 20% of our stores being unprofitable to 100% of our stores being profitable. By kind of rethinking what’s possible. So that was the number one strategy is to we had to completely evolve our retail footprint and approach to what what is a Build-A-Bear and also allow international partners to do the same. So that was a great journey for us and and I think it’s proven to be very successful to have all these different kinds of stuffers and all these different kinds of fixtures. And now it’s more like with our real estate guys and our build out guys. It’s like, oh, here’s a footprint. You guys figure it out. It’s not, this is what we do. Somebody find this excise retail box for us. And now we’re pop up shops, and we’re in, you know, Girl Scouts, and we have third party, you know, retail relationships with like, Great Wolf Lodge. We’re on Carnival Cruise Lines. I mean, you just think about how that opens up your opportunities. Yeah, that’s

Kara Goldin 17:45
That’s amazing. So International, what’s the split between international and us?

Sharon Price John 17:52
Well, it’s a little bit difficult to say it like that. I can say it in from a store count perspective. You know, 25% outside the US, 30% outside the US. But because in the retail that’s calculated differently. So where I own and operate a stores, I’m counting retail dollars and where it’s franchised, or it’s a different, you know, a partner operated store we’re counting sometimes royalty dollars, so it doesn’t equate correctly, right, right.

Kara Goldin 18:28
So interesting. So did you actually launch the franchise model as well? No,

Sharon Price John 18:35
oh no, no. That was yes. Uh huh. That had existed, but it went through a very tumultuous evolution as well with particularly in COVID.

Kara Goldin 18:46
Yeah, I can, I can only imagine. So getting back to sort of another aspect to your business, e commerce, can you share a little bit more about how that portion of the business really kind of thrived, especially during COVID, but just overall, you know how that’s been adapting to the Build-A-Bear model and and how that’s become important.

Sharon Price John 19:10
Yeah, so another kind of a crazy and interesting story is Build-A-Bear.com existed, but it was not a critical piece of this, less than 5% of the total sales, right? And again, as a sort of one of those leadership tools, one, it’s, how can you reconfigure, you know, the way you you ask people what to do, and allow people to see things in a different way. But sometimes it’s also the question that you ask. It’s the the mastery of asking the intriguing question. And it we when you’re looking at a world where there’s a lot of uncertainty in what had been your primary source. Of revenue, which is, you know, mall based retail, you’ve got to, like, rethink it, and then when you’re at that simultaneously, that world also has an entirely new retail rev stream called the digital economy, which is the, by far and away, the fastest growing part of retail at that juncture, you can’t ignore it. So even if your entire team is like, yes, but we’re built on experiential retail, where we’re given credit for being a founder of a creator of, you know, retail tainment, how will we ever replicate that online? Like I am not asked. That’s not my question. My question is not, how do you do exactly what you’re doing in stores online? I’m asking you, I’m telling you, we must participate in the digital economy. So my question to you is, what’s the answer on how we participate in the digital economy, not, how do you replicate what we do in stores in the digital economy? Those are two completely different questions. So that set us off on a different journey. Again, that that the kind the question that you ask sends people down different paths of curiosity and what we identified was, wow, we’re right on the precipice of becoming multi generational in the toy industry. And I happen to have lived through this at Hasbro with transformers going through its digits, sort of its transformation. That no pun intended to be a much broader I was the I was running the US toy division when the when the first film came out, or the reinvention of My Little Pony with for the older being appropriate for some older consumers. So it’s that you’re either going to stretch that brand at that moment, or it’s usually the beginning of the end for a toy brand. So Right? I mean, it’s been played out over decades in the industry, and so we’re like, wow. So this is our moment, and what we started to do was understand that that might be the unlock for E COMM At the same time, because it’s not as much about the experience they’ve already had, the experience they had it as a child. And that halo effect is still that goes with the brand. So we started to mash up the brand with really interesting licenses. And some of them were, like, licenses. People like, what are you doing? Like matrix bear, or dead pool bear, you know, like how the Pokemon collectibles, or all of these crazy stuff that people like, I don’t, I don’t understand where you’re going with this. And then we created a micro site called the bear cave, where you even have to be age gated to get in, because some of these films, you know, even though the bear itself, there’s nothing inappropriate about that, but the film might have something inappropriate in it for a little bitty kid. So we created this kind of safe zone where it’s a little bit darker and a little bit cooler, just like a cave. So the bear cave, and now 40% of our sales are to teens and adults. Oh, I love it. I love it. Yeah, licenses and trend and gifting and all of these kinds of things, and that nostalgia piece and that the majority of that business is done online, and the majority of our traditional kids and family business is done in the store,

Kara Goldin 23:39
so outside of Build-A-Bear, you also wrote a book called stories and heart unlock the power of personal stories to create a life you love. You’re such a amazing leader and also a storyteller and Brand Builder. So I would imagine that being a storyteller is definitely part of your capabilities. But can you touch on this, like, what? What really have you seen about storytelling that’s helped you to be a better leader, and definitely

Sharon Price John 24:13
a storyteller and and I think that’s been a like a secret sauce for being a marketer and a Brander that put me in a position to become a CEO. And then what’s interesting is that that skill set is almost surprisingly been one of the best, best kept secrets, at least for me to get, because I needed to bring people along with me in a change environment, and being able to craft that story, to bring people along, was a massive unlock. And you know that that piece of this job, I think, is underrated, and probably. Should be a little more focused on, but the book is, it really isn’t even it’s not. It was never meant to be, quote, unquote, about me. Forbes reached out and asked me to write a business book. I’m like, There’s nothing I can say that nobody’s ever heard. I mean, if I know her and I’m not going to write a book about me, but I do end up using just these moments in time and what was going on in my mind, and like, what it was like all of these moments of like, insight or struggle, or, you know, now the now what’s of your life and your career. And in each case, I say it’s like this little story. And then the second piece is a section about sort of the statistical and researched background of things that I might have been struggling with, so like how to set goals or how to get over perfectionism or how to communicate effectively with people, or how to convince yourself, you know, like, convince yourself to give things a try, like, you know, sort of like the what’s the worst thing that can happen, or the act as if, and all of the power behind that, and then, In the biggest ways, learning to manage your narrative and not everybody else to yourself. That is the key. Like, what are you replaying in your head about what just happened? Are you replaying that in a way where, oh, I was so stupid. I’m that’s such a failure. I can’t look these. The ups and downs are just going to be there. And there’s also an entire section about even if you do something wrong, which we all do, by the way, it’s Be careful with your self talk. It’s not that I’m such a failure, just, oh, that failed, or Oh, I’m so stupid. Like, no, that was stupid. And even that self talk about how you again this, this constant narrative, which is what that’s about, the unlocking the power of personal stories to create a life you love. All of that informs your next step, and you have to be careful what you’re allowing yourself to think and what portions of the story of your life you keep replaying and how you play that forward is more aligned with and predictive of your success than almost anything else.

Kara Goldin 27:34
I totally, totally agree. And I think also to your point. I mean, if you’re leading teams, you know that that is having that mindset as well, and and being that reminder to your team is critical, because they’ll mimic what you’re what you’re doing

Sharon Price John 27:54
all the time. Kara, that is such a great point, and you have to be aware of even like your facial expressions are the way you walk around in the building, because you’re there’s a responsibility of this role where your your tone, your manner, is interpreted somehow and just that, that There’s a lot that’s read into your responses, and you just have to bring that awareness. And in the last piece of there’s always a piece in these it goes through sort of these sections of each chapter. It’s the story. And then this interpretation of the story from a more you know, scientific way, if you will, with a lot of research and data backing it up. And then there’s a the tell your story piece, where I’m asking you to think about it from your point of view. And then there’s always this the rest of the story, and there’s usually a twist at the end. So it’s kind of funny, because my life’s hilarious, little bit of a sitcom. Well, I

Kara Goldin 29:01
think you know, what you’re also touching on is authentic leadership, and I think that that is something that people want more and more of when they’re showing up for work, whether they’re working virtually or or in person. I mean, they really want to be led by people that they can relate to. So I think that that clearly is, is you, you know, and everything that that you represent. So I love that. So going back to Build-A-Bear. So consumer stories, I always say Are, are the things that let us know as leaders and as companies that we’re doing right, right, and some of them are heartfelt, hopefully, most of them are stories that you know were really loving the experience with the brand. But is there any story in particular that really has. Has touched you as one that you’ve remembered, where you’ve really helped people in some way

Sharon Price John 30:07
look 200 and almost 250 million furry friends Build-A-Bear has sold. And every single one of them is a story. Every single one of them is touch somebody’s life was touched with that teddy bear, whether it was gifted to them, or they made it themselves, or it’s in memory of someone, or it’s their sixth birthday party. I mean, I could sit here, even as a consumer, and tell you what a wonderful experience build a barrier was for me when I took my now 26 year old daughter for her sixth birthday, or my son got his puppy dog, or my daughter got her unicorn, who’s now, you know, she’s 19 and he’s 22 and and that she chewed on that little unicorn horn till she went to sleep every single night On pink stars, you know. So that was already in our family when I got that call, and of course, that, you know, impacts the way you think about this brand. And you you have a responsibility to this company, because this company has a responsibility to its guests, but it’s these store every day. In fact. Kara, you’ll love this. Our bear builders out in the field are so good, and they truly, it’s so genuine. I that, you know, we they send in different events and things that happen in their stores to our marketing team, and they put together a news sheet every week and publish it about something miraculous that has happened in our stores. It really, you really do feel like you’re making a difference. I

Kara Goldin 31:56
love it. So last question, looking ahead, what excites you most about build the bear workshops future and its place in people’s lives.

Sharon Price John 32:08
Look, we are so excited about really going global for the first time. We have we are opening so many stores right now outside of the United States. We’re now in 20 countries. We entered six countries in the last quarter, in third quarter of 2024, and and where we have gone. It’s amazing. The people in those countries. Our bear builders there. They take photos, they send them all back, and the joy on their faces is just it really and it’s such an important time. It just reminds you how much more alike we are than different, and if we, if that’s all we got done, I remind people and kids are kids, are kids. And, you know, and sharing good times and joy and teddy bear hugs, you know it matters, and it’s just good to see that. And I’d love to see us continue on that journey of becoming a global brand. Clearly, the sun doesn’t set on Build-A-Bear now, but we have a long way to go.

Kara Goldin 33:20
Sharon, thank you so much for sharing your incredible journey and insights with us all about the the Build-A-Bear Workshop, and also, we’ll have all the info in the show notes. I hope everybody gets to a Build-A-Bear and enjoys time with their family over the holidays, hopefully bringing Build-A-Bear as part of that experience, as I mentioned, the book, stories and heart that Sharon wrote is absolutely incredible, definitely worth reading and picking up and gifting to people too. So thank you again, Sharon, for all of your time today. And also thanks everyone for tuning in. Really, really appreciate it.

Sharon Price John 34:09
Thanks, Kara Happy Holidays. Thanks

Kara Goldin 34:12
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. You.

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