ULTA CEO Kecia Steelman: From An Hourly Job To Leading The Largest Beauty Retailer in the U.S.

I was a single mom living in the government housing projects and I needed a job. I was too proud to take food stamps. So, I was kind of hungry and I remember standing in this bathroom mirror and thinking the only person that can get me out of this situation is looking right back at me. And what was I going to do about it? And I just prayed if I just can work somewhere where they give me an opportunity to learn and grow, I'm going to do everything I can to be successful. And Target gave me that opportunity. Now, did I think I was going to end up being the CEO of the largest specialty beauty retailer at that point in time? No. But I did believe in myself that if I was just given an opportunity, I felt like I could do much more. I could get myself out of that situation. And I did.

Oh, thank you so much for having me. I'm looking forward to our conversation.

Well, it feels pretty darn good is what I would say. I feel like I've been preparing really for the CEO job my entire career in retail. Been in retail for over 30 years. But, you know, the last three years before I took over the role, when I was the COO and president, I really felt like it was giving me the opportunity to kind of fine-tune how I wanted to really step into the job and I hit the ground running.

Well, I feel like we're very well positioned. In the last year, we've hit 1500 stores. We went from being a US-based only company to more of an international company. We acquired SpaceNK which is in the UK. We launched a joint venture in Mexico with group Oaxo. We have a licensed franchise agreement with Alshaya in the Middle East and I've made it very clear that I want to continue to grow our international footprint. We've also said at the same time I feel like there's opportunity for us to grow in the United States. We opened up our first marketplace. We launched with over 100 brands and those brands are continuing to grow. It just continues to help us elevate our e-commerce business. We've continued to invest in our e-commerce platforms with new technology that makes it easier to shop for our guests. So, our e-commerce business in light of all this conversation around ecom struggling. You know, I announced in Q3 that we have double digit comps in our ecom, yet at the same time, our stores are growing and we are continuing to take share in beauty in all categories. So, I would say that we've had a lot going on and I'm looking forward to sharing even more in 2026 of what we're going to be doing for Ulta Beauty.

I'm sure. No, there's no rest. Onward. Yes.

Well, I think the biggest thing when you step into a role as the CEO with a strategy is to have a strategy first and foremost and one that really everyone understands. Everyone from the backroom of a store to the boardroom to the investment community understands exactly what it is that we're trying to achieve and the role that they play in that strategy in of itself. I'm also a big believer and sometimes less is more, although it seems like we've been doing a lot of things in a short period of time, but to be really laser focused on what are really the business objectives that are going to be the right investments for not only short-term but long-term for the organization and also have great shareholder return. I made a lot of changes at the leadership team to have a team that's aligned with an enterprise first mindset that are all collectively working together. While we've grown into a larger company, we still really perform like a much smaller company because we're really agile in the ways of working. And that communication, that partnership, that teamwork is really real. Culture to me is everything. And when you have a clear strategy, everyone understands their role, they're playing well together, and we're having fun while we're doing it, that's the best place you can ever be, I believe, as a leader.

Yes.

Well, I needed a job. Number one, I took it as a job. I was making $8 an hour. I was a ready-to-wear admin's team leader is what they called it and I just loved what I did and I think they saw something in me and they promoted me to a salaried position. Now when I do the math now I probably was making less because I was working a lot of overtime in that hourly position. That was my first time of really taking a leadership role and I loved it. I did. Retail got into my blood and I had a great successful 12-year career at Target. I'm very thankful that my first career in retail was there. Those were the early days where they really invested a lot in soft leadership and management skills. I left there went to Home Depot for about four years and then Family Dollar for four years and then I've been at Ulta Beauty now for just under 12. So I've been in all realms of retail, but it does really get in your blood and I love what I do.

No. No. I mean, I would call myself poor, hungry, and determined. I was a single mom living in the government housing projects, and I needed a job.

I just turned 20. And it was a pivotal moment for me. I'll never forget. I was in this housing project. I was too proud to take food stamps, so I was kind of hungry. But I did have assistance with the housing. And I remember standing in this bathroom mirror and thinking, the only person that can get me out of this situation is looking right back at me. And what was I going to do about it? And I just prayed, if I just can work somewhere where they give me an opportunity to learn and grow, I'm going to do everything I can to be successful. And Target gave me that opportunity. Now, did I think I was going to end up being the CEO of the largest specialty beauty retailer at that point in time? No. But I did believe in myself that if I was just given an opportunity, I felt like I could do much more and I could get myself out of that situation. And I did.

Yeah. It started maybe in that first management position that I had, as I mentioned earlier, with Target where I learned that it wasn't just about me. It was about surrounding yourself with the right people that were even better than I was and then I could really learn from them. I learned just as much for the people who worked for me as the people that I worked for. I love having a really diverse team that has a different thought process than I do. And I think that's how I really learned and grown and have gotten even stronger and better as a leader myself. So, I think I was pretty fortunate that I figured that out early in my career. I give that coaching all the time. Like if you hire a C player, you're only going to be a C team. Go hire people that are better than you are and learn and grow from them. Don't be intimidated by that. Bring really good people on your team and then my career kept moving forward and I brought them along with me. I loved supporting and growing other talent along with me because somebody gave me an opportunity too at one point in time.

I don't know. That's a really good question. I'm a very humble leader even today and I often say even as a CEO, there's no finish line for learning and growing. It's not like you finally achieve something and you're like, I'm here and I've arrived. I feel like in many ways I have even more to learn as I've stepped into this role and that thirst and hunger for knowledge has only grown. So, I still feel like that same person that I was maybe back then. And that it's probably what continues to drive me is it's like I don't feel like I've arrived. I feel like I still have so much to learn.

Yeah. You know, I hear a lot of people name a specific leader. I have to say it was my mom. My mom got divorced when I was a teenager and my dad was the main bread winner and my mom had to reinvent herself at that point in time. And you know, I had to actually go to work full-time when I was in high school to help pay the bills with my mom. And so I learned that work ethic and that value of family, not in the easiest of ways. And my mom ended up owning her own business. My sister ended up working for her. And to me to just see how she reinvented herself and she continued to push herself and she just retired just a few years ago because she loved what she did for so many years. She did interior painting and woodworking. Really tough job. But she had a wait list. She never advertised. She had a wait list for people that wanted to come and work with her because she was so good at what she did and she was just so personable at the same time that I really learned that you can really reinvent yourself and I respect her so much for that.

Oh yeah, she is. She is. She's one of my biggest cheerleaders. And she watches the stock and every once in a while I'll get a nice message from her saying, 'You're doing great. You're doing great.' So Oh, yeah. She's very proud of me.

Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.

I'm a big one on I don't buy things, I buy experiences. In fact, my dad just passed away a few months ago and I took my mom and my sister on a trip. I'm like, there's no reason I've got your airfare. We're going, it's all the way paid. I just believe experiences are things that no one can ever take away from you. So, I do gift my family experiences versus things.

There's a couple. One is Carol Tomé. So, when I was at Home Depot, Carol was the CFO. And I had a lot of respect for her. It was not a very easy industry, especially as a female leader. And, you know, she subsequently didn't get the CEO job, but then she went off to be the CEO of UPS. And I've since had the opportunity to talk to her a couple times and I just think she's done a fantastic job in a really tough industry and I have a lot of respect for her. There's life lessons even from a financial perspective when I was at Home Depot where I had to go ask her for some money and she was a tough cookie. You didn't get the money so easily. And I use those same disciplines now even in business today of like the ROI and what's that investment and how's that going to look. And then another one that I would say is Mary Barra. I just think that she has been a trailblazer for women and for her to have come through the ranks with a long tenure career in the automotive industry. I think she's a trailblazer too. So those are two that I really kind of hold a high regard for.

Oh, the best day is when I've seen someone where just kind of all of a sudden you can see that it clicks for them. So, somebody on my team like I've been coaching and to see them rise to a level of leadership and for me to be able to sit back and watch how they're really leading their people, it's the best day for me. I've had a couple of those experiences even recently with my new team. I feel like we've cracked the code between merchandising, marketing, and retail where collectively this team of strong female leaders are coming together and I watch them in interaction with brands and to just see how they're collaborating and they're riffing off each other and they're challenging each other and the brands are just like, whoa, if we go into your ecosystem, this is going to be really good for us. That's awesome for me as a leader to just sit back and just be able to watch that happen. The worst days are, you know, I've always said like the day that when I let somebody go that it doesn't bother me, even if they kind of have deserved it and earned it, that's the day that I need to quit because it means that I have lost my heart. I feel like I'm a true heart leader and we have to make those tough decisions and I always put the team first. So the toughest days for me are when I've had to let somebody on my team go.

Grit.

I appreciate and value people who have grit. I often talk about three things. I think that you have to have three to be really successful. IQ, EQ, and AQ. So, IQ, you got to have a certain level of intelligence to do the job. EQ, you have to have emotional intelligence on how you interact with people. And then AQ. Those are the ones that can overcome adversity. So, it's the adversity quotient. I see so many successful people that hit a plateau because when they hit a bump in a road, they can't figure out how to go over it or through it or around it. And those that really excel know how to do that. And not only know how to do it, but then pay it forward to others and are humble enough that they share their experiences. So, IQ, EQ, and AQ are what I'm really looking for. And that grit, that drive.

You know, I wouldn't necessarily say that I've questioned those three things. You know, there's a lot of talk that you hear about like impostor syndrome and I'm human and at the end of the day, yeah, there's every once like, whoa, whoa, can I do this? Yeah, can I do this? And I'd say there's two things. Number one, I do a lot of coaching with my female leaders. Like when you hear that voice creeping in your head, that is an energy sucker. So you've got to stop that negative self-talk. So I try to remind myself of that. But I'm also really blessed that I have a fantastic husband who he can tell he reads me pretty well. He will say to me, you're the best at what you do. Never forget that you're the best at what you do. But it sounds like such a, you know, an easy thing to say, but just a reminder of that to kind of get your head set on the right direction. Means everything to me.

I think one of the biggest lessons I had is you can have a choice when you get passed over. You can either be bitter or you can be better. You can be bitter and that's negative. That's not going to help you get to where you need to be. Or you can take that opportunity to have a reset for yourself and be like, you know what, I'm going to take this opportunity to get even better. So next time that opportunity comes along, I can be really well prepared. And it's happened a few times in my career and I'm a big believer in a glass half full versus half empty. It's like this happened. There's a reason why this happened. What can I learn from it? And how can I be even stronger in the future? And I just think that that's the right mentality to have and it's helped me get to where I am today. So clearly it's worked.

Well, I think it's the center of everything. I mean, especially in retail, I often say when I go into a store, one of the most important people in that store is the cashier because that's the last experience. You can have a great shopping experience, but if you have a bad checkout experience and that person isn't friendly, it totally tarnishes the entire experience. Every single person in a store and behind the scenes to make our products come to life in a store is what separates an exceptional retailer from somebody that's operating so well. I do feel blessed that I grew up through the organization. So I get that and I understand that and I think it gives me a really unique perspective. So if that associate feels valued, appreciated and understands the role they play and how they plug back in. I remember being on the front lines and being like I work really hard every day, but I don't understand what I'm doing, why I'm doing it. So I work really hard to make sure that that message is getting all the way to the front lines in Ulta Beauty here now today because they are the representation of the brand. They're more important to that guest interaction than I am as the CEO. So that's why I think it's really important to have them at the center of all the decisions that we're making. We do the right things for the associate, they're going to help do the right things for the guest. And then of course putting the guest front and center. You know, we not only sell products, but we sell how people feel. And this is such a great category between beauty and wellness. We're not just a place that sells things. We're the place that people go to to feel their best versions of themselves. And then you put our services components in it, too. Like people walk out with a little bit of a pep in their step. And the world is so heavy right now that if we can bring a little bit of joy and happiness to our guests that are coming in our stores, I feel like we're doing the jobs that we need to be doing.

Yep.

Yeah. I don't do an undercover boss very well because even when I try to put the baseball cap on and go incognito, I usually get spotted pretty quickly. And I miss sometimes the experience of going in and walking up and down the aisles. But you know what's the best part to me is when I started at Ulta Beauty almost 12 years ago and I would go into stores, people would get really nervous and they would get kind of scared. And I have worked really hard like, 'Hey, listen. I'm here to hear from you what's working and what's not working and asking questions and I want you to be really honest with me. If I'm walking a store and telling everybody what they need to be doing, something is definitely broken. I'm there to hear from them what they need from me. I feel like I'm a very servant leader.' And I think they get excited now. It's so great when I'm in a store and I pop in unannounced, they're excited to share with me what's going on and what are their challenges and what can I help them with. That's always like what can I do for you? That's always a question I ask in every store that I'm in. And it could be their air conditioning unit's not working and I make an immediate phone call and we're on it right away because that is my responsibility as a CEO is to do the right things by my associates.

Oh, I want to hear all that. I want to hear all of it. I want to hear what's not working because if I can help get things back on the right track, that's even better. And you know, I do try to stop into a few stores in a market because you can quickly see trends. So, is it a one-off situation or is it a trend? And you know, we've got 1500 stores and every once in a while you can pop into a store and it might not look as sharp as I would like. You need to seek to understand versus jumping to conclusions because you don't know what's happened. Did they have the flu pandemic that broke out in their store? Did somebody call in sick? Did they have something that was a crisis situation? So, I ask lots of questions versus jumping to conclusions. I would always rather see a store that maybe didn't look as sharp because we can fix that quickly versus a store that didn't feel good. Culture is everything. The store feels good. The associates like working in the stores. That's great. We can fix everything else.

Best perks. Products. I love products and you know, the brands are so generous with products and I test everything. Now, my husband would say, 'Why are you still spending so much money at Ulta Beauty?' Because I do have a lot of products. I love this category and I love learning and that's one of the big perks. And the people that I get to meet, I walk into a store and I kind of can tell when somebody has that what I call the it factor where they've taken it as a job, but I'm like, I see so much more. I see opportunity in you. And I try to give as much coaching and positive reinforcement. In the last couple years, we've created 6,000 management positions for females in our company. So to turn somebody that's like how I was when I started where I took it as a job and then it became a career. I see opportunities like that out there for all these associates that are in our stores. So I love that. And then I love meeting our brand founders. So there are so many entrepreneurs in this business that have started because they found whitespace and they put their heart, their sweat, their tears into their products and to be able to help them bring their products to life and help them be successful that is just super rewarding in the role that I'm in today.

Absolutely.

You know, I don't like to show who I am as much as I can. But you got to go into your competitors and you need to see what they're doing. And you got to learn just as much of like what they're doing, right? I'm always walking into stores that are what could be viewed as our competition, whether it's department stores, drugstores, Sephora, you name it. I think it's important as a retailer to understand what's out there in the environment and how can I continue to get better as a retailer myself. You can learn just as much from them.

Well, what I will say is that all of the celebrity brands that we have, the brand founders have really great products. They're and they're very engaged in their brands. So, it's not like they've just put their name on the products. They're really engaged really from beginning to end. And that's really important to us at Ulta Beauty is that the products themselves are really great products. They've all been really a joy to work with. We just had our more recent advertising campaign for the holidays and to see them all kind of collectively come together and having fun together was really really a great experience. But I couldn't be more pleased with the celebrities that we have as partners with the Ulta Beauty brand.