ELON, N.C. – In the week leading up to one of the most important presentations of her life,
Diamond Monroe was as busy as she'd ever been.
With a once in a lifetime opportunity to pitch her skin and hair care products to Shark Tank star and renowned entrepreneur Daymond John on Sept. 29, Monroe spent the days before the presentation filling hundreds of orders, completing class work and getting early morning shots up in the gym with her Elon University women's basketball teammates.
Monroe practiced her pitch several times in her limited spare time between academic, business and basketball responsibilities, but was exhausted and nervous to present it in front of John and a room full of her Elon peers.
"I would stutter and start over. I would mess up so bad and I would get so nervous, like, oh my gosh, how am I going to do this?" Monroe said.
Monroe was one of four Elon students given the chance to pitch their business to John as part of an event sponsored by Elon's Doherty Center for Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Through their pitches, the students made their case to John for why their businesses or products were meeting a personal or societal need and bound for growth.
When Monroe walked into LaRose Digital Theater on the day of the pitch, she was unsure how she would handle the moment after such a hectic week.
"I was shaking out my shoes when I saw all those people in that room, including Daymond, John, who is like a 100 people in himself," Monroe said.
However, during her three-minute pitch, Monroe conquered her nerves and delivered a showstopping presentation that John said was "one of the best pitches I've heard in three minutes" and had the crowd of students and faculty going crazy.
"It was just an amazing feeling," Monroe said. "With all the hard work that I had put in the weeks prior to that, I thought it was going to be a wreck, but when it turned out the way it did, I was just blessed and happy."
The origin story of Monroe's business began in eighth grade. Monroe suffered heat damage to her hair that year and could not find a product on the market to help her. This sparked her curiosity in hair and skin care as she began developing her own recipes for products that could allow her to grow her hair back out and have it be healthy.
In 2019, Monroe blow dried her hair back out and was welcomed with an overwhelmingly positive reception online. After around 100 people reached out asking what products she used on her hair, Monroe had a revelation.
Believing she could create hair and skin care products to sell, Monroe began researching how to operate a business and looked into what products were on the market. With that, her company was born.
Monroe has operated the business for the last four years and has seen increasing success. After dealing with hair care problems herself, Monroe loves helping her customers deal with similar issues.
"As a female, your hair is the number one thing people see," Monroe said. "When they see it, it tells a story. When my hair wasn't where I wanted it to be, I was at my all time lowest. Being able to sell a product that helps other people, that's my purpose."
A marketing major, Monroe has been able to learn more about the business world as a student during her time at Elon, which has in turn helped her develop her business.
"I chose Elon because I felt it was the place where I could catapult my business where I desired for it to go," Monroe said. "I believe Elon to be one of the best business schools out there, hands down."
Monroe makes and packages her products at her home in Greensboro while also handling all social media, marketing, communication with customers and bookkeeping. When basketball is in-season, she caps her orders so she can prioritize her team.
Taking on so many responsibilities, especially those outside her comfort zone, has allowed Monroe to grow into a well-rounded business owner. She hopes to continue the business long after graduating from Elon.
"I'm driven to be a light in this world," Monroe said. "Making products for people is a privilege. It's like a heart feeling. Seeing people with their happy customer testimonials really drives me to keep going, even during the hard times because it's all for a bigger purpose to make oneself feel better."
'Rising Phoenix' is a new student-led initiative to cover Elon Athletics. Through innovative content creation and storytelling, Elon University students will have the opportunity to highlight the moments, people and events that make an impact, leveraging the athletic department's various web and social media platforms for distribution. Follow Rising Phoenix on Twitter (@EURisingPhoenix) and Instagram (@elonrisingphoenix). Interested in joining this initiative as a content creator (video, graphics, writing, storytelling, or more)? Contact Jacob Kisamore at jkisamore@elon.edu.
--ELON--
