Podcast Summary: Leap Academy with Ilana Golan

Episode: Build-A-Bear CEO, Sharon Price John: The Mindset Behind a Billion-Dollar Comeback | E134

Date: November 18, 2025
Host: Ilana Golan
Guest: Sharon Price John (President & CEO, Build-A-Bear Workshop)

Overview

In this powerful and candid episode, Ilana Golan sits down with Sharon Price John, President and CEO of Build-A-Bear Workshop, to explore the mindset and strategies behind one of retail’s most astonishing corporate turnarounds. Sharon shares actionable lessons from her journey—growing up in Tennessee, taking bold “leaps” in life and business, reinventing herself after failure, and ultimately leading Build-A-Bear from a significant loss to record profitability and a nearly billion-dollar market cap. This conversation is packed with insights on resilience, leadership, storytelling, and what it really takes to leap forward in your career and life.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Power of Storytelling and Mindset

• Key Theme: The stories we tell ourselves shape our outcomes.

• Quote:

  "Whatever happens in your life, you're going to wrap a story around it. The game is to wrap an empowering story around it, because it's all made up anyway."
  — Sharon Price John (00:36)

• Sharon ties her life and leadership philosophy back to finding empowering meanings in every challenge—an idea deeply woven into her upbringing and detailed in her book, Stories and Heart.

• She explains how pivotal moments, such as a childhood struggle to climb (and then get down from) a tree, taught her the value of perseverance, improvisation, and seeing challenges as opportunities for unexpected fun and growth.

  "I found out that even the toughest challenges, even if it didn't work out like you thought, you can find a way to get out where it might be more fun than the journey itself." (06:13)

2. Early Bold Moves and Defining Personal Values

• Sharon’s tenacity and willingness to take risks were illustrated by her decision to move to New York to break into advertising without any connections.

• At a young age, she created her own framework for life decisions using her last name: PRICE—Perseverance, Respect, Intelligence, Creativity, Excellence.

  "I had core values from my parents... but I wanted to put words on these things... create filters that I would use to make decisions in life." (09:10)

• Her story about landing a job at a top ad agency demonstrates the value of boldness and reframing failure.

  "What's the worst thing that could happen? I don't get the job, and I have a fun trip to New York... Is it really that bad?" (10:39)

3. Turning Missteps and Setbacks into Fuel for Growth

• Sharon’s dogged follow-up with Mattel (after her resume landed in the wrong pile) highlights persistence and self-advocacy:

  "I want to find out what about my resume was not appealing... 'Oh, I found your resume. It's in the finance pile.'... 'I don't want a job in finance. I want a job in branding... Well, you're perfect for that.'" (17:55)

• She candidly shares the sting and lessons from a failed startup (Dawn Dolls/Checkerboard Toys) derailed by 9/11, and how she leveraged that experience into landing and accelerating at major toy companies.

  "I could have chosen to go back through everything that I could have done different ... but a national disaster changed the trajectory ... that's not the end of the game. That was just an inning." (26:00)

4. The Value of Being a “Generalist” and Taking Turnaround Opportunities

• Sharon pushes back on the idea that being a generalist is a weakness. Instead, her diverse experience became her superpower—she knew “the underbelly” of the toy business, making her a more well-rounded executive.
• Secret to Career Longevity:

  "If you can become a master at turnarounds, you will always have a job." (30:14)

• She encourages listeners to embrace “unsexy” assignments (e.g., turning around small brands/divisions) for big career leverage.

5. Sharon's Tactics for Corporate Turnarounds

• Her two-pronged strategy:
  SDSs times two:
  • Stop Doing Stupid Stuff
  • Start Doing Smart Stuff—in that order
• Reasoning:

  "If you don't stop first, you can't start doing the smart stuff... You're hiring people to undo what these people keep doing every single day." (34:47)

• Practical advice for companies and individuals: Identify what’s draining value and simply stop—before piling on new initiatives. This applies to both business and personal habits.

6. Landing the Build-A-Bear CEO Role & Early Challenges

• Sharon’s name came up for the Build-A-Bear CEO role due to her reputation as an effective turnaround leader. A genuine earlier connection with the founder, Maxine Clark, also helped.

  "I had met Maxine at one point... went out of my way to go over, shake her hand and congratulate her... She remembered that." (38:41)

• Build-A-Bear was facing store losses, declining mall traffic, and shrinking performance, but had a clean balance sheet and a powerful, under-leveraged brand.

• Approach upon starting (45:44):

  • Return to profitability first, then invest for growth.
  • Preserve company culture and mission while enforcing the reality of financial discipline.
  • Get the team emotionally and intellectually aligned:

    "If we can't be profitable, we'll never be here for the next generation... If you're grounded in the fact that you want to work here and you love this place because of what we stand for, you have to be willing to fight for its existence." (48:31)

7. Crisis Leadership During Covid-19

• Sharon describes the chaos and intense clarity Covid forced on her team.

  "Crisis creates clarity or not. The not puts you out of business." (53:17)

  • The pandemic forced ruthless prioritization, adaptability, and agile teamwork.
  • Sharon relied on her trusted team and her husband for support during the darkest hours.
  • Miraculous “luck” played a role (e.g., timely IT upgrades, right inventory decisions for Baby Yoda/Mandalorian launches) but came from a culture of readiness and open communication.

8. Expanding Build-A-Bear Beyond the Store & Shaping Play Industry

• Articulating Build-A-Bear as a brand rooted not just in product but in emotion—hugs, moments, and connections—has unlocked new markets (teens/adults now 40% of sales!), digital channels, and licensing opportunities.
• As the first Chairwoman of the Toy Association, Sharon is focused on advocacy, industry evolution, and the societal importance of play:

  "We're more collaborative than competitive... We hold dearly the importance of play for children... teaching a child to read is not a one time thing that... changes their life." (61:32–65:44)

  • She is also deeply involved in First Book, highlighting the transformational power of childhood literacy.

9. The Power and Practice of Storytelling (and Her Book)

• Sharon’s book, Stories and Heart, is not just memoir, but a workbook for readers to construct their own empowering stories and reframe adversity.
  • Addresses overcoming perfectionism, negative self-talk, and granting oneself permission to keep leaping.

  "Whatever happens in your life, you're gonna wrap a story around it... The game is to wrap an empowering story around it." (66:21)

  • She urges listeners not to delay action “for tomorrow.”

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On comparison and introductions:

  "Every introduction makes everything sound easy. That’s the point of an introduction... Hardly any introduction captures the real journey."
  (03:12)

• On failing boldly:

  "You have to do stuff like this before you know better... God bless. We should never be the old humans that say, 'Do you know the odds of that?' Just shut it."
  (12:01)

• On lessons from failure:

  "That was not the end. If anything, I’m better suited to be a manager... than I was before. Not anybody at that company... had ever taken a product by themselves ... from concept to on shelf on their own."
  (26:08)

• On being a turnaround expert:

  "If you fix it, you write your ticket. And if you don’t, nobody cares."
  (30:43)

• On leadership and team building:

  "Everything takes a team. And the more you bring people with you, both intellectually but more importantly emotionally, the higher the degree of potential success."
  (48:31)

• On fear and risk:

  "The fear did not overtake me. I always think if I'm put in it, I can get out. And even if I don't, it's still not the end of the road."
  (43:08)

• On crisis as a clarifier:

  "Crisis creates clarity or not. The not puts you out of business."
  (53:17)

• On what keeps people from acting:

  "Killer of dreams, it's not even fear, it's delay. It's the tomorrow. I'll start tomorrow... It's that constant like not taking action." (Ilana, 68:27)

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|---------| | 00:36 | Empowering storytelling as leadership & self-management | | 04:48 | Lessons from childhood adversity (the climbing tree story) | | 09:10 | Defining personal values and early career moves | | 13:57 | Boldness in job interviews and early advertising career | | 17:55 | The mishap and recovery with Mattel job application | | 21:29 | Startup failure, entrepreneurship lessons, and pivot to Hasbro | | 26:00 | Reframing setbacks and the necessity of empowering stories | | 31:52 | Sharon’s turnaround playbook: SDSs times two | | 38:41 | How Sharon landed the Build-A-Bear CEO role (hidden market, connections) | | 45:44 | “Stop the bleeding” approach on joining Build-A-Bear | | 48:31 | Building emotional buy-in and culture while enforcing financial discipline | | 53:17 | Covid-19 response, crisis creates clarity | | 59:35 | Evolving Build-A-Bear into a brand of emotional meaning and their product expansion | | 61:32 | First Chairwoman of the Toy Association—shaping a collaborative industry | | 65:44 | First Book & the lifelong impact of childhood literacy | | 66:21 | Importance and practice of storytelling in personal growth & leadership |

Tone and Language

This episode blends Sharon’s forthright, often humorous southern charm with deep candor and gritty truthfulness. Ilana’s enthusiasm and curiosity guide the discussion, frequently interjecting with personal analogies and affirmations familiar to Leap Academy listeners (“chutzpah,” "playing in the hidden market," etc.). The conversation is full of encouragement, practical wisdom, and a sense of vulnerability as strength.

Summary for New Listeners

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in:

• Corporate transformation and leadership
• Resilience after career setbacks
• Navigating executive “leaps” and reinventions
• Women at the helm of major brands
• The real emotional and strategic work behind visible successes

Sharon Price John's journey is a case study in how to “wrap empowering stories” around even the toughest circumstances—and how that practice, combined with operational rigor and emotional honesty, can drive enduring, billion-dollar results.