We live in a world that has made being a founder a whole personality: move fast, be visible, build in public, become the brand, and make sure everyone sees how hard you're working. Dianna Cohen built Crown Affair by doing almost the exact opposite.
Crown Affair is at Sephora and Goop, with Gwyneth Paltrow as one of its earliest investors. But this conversation isn't really about beauty. Dianna built her company around three words: "take your time". And a few years into building it, she made a decision most founders would struggle to make: she stepped down as CEO after realizing her nervous system wasn't built for the way she'd been leading.
We talk about why slowness can be a strategy, what it means to lead from feminine energy, the difference between being an operator and a creator, and why creativity and intuition deserve a place in leadership conversations. Dianna also shares what burnout taught her, why our bodies often know things before our brains do, and the line I haven't stopped thinking about: when everything in you says push harder, sometimes the answer is to do the opposite.
This episode is for anyone tired of moving at everyone else's pace, and wondering whether success really has to cost you your sanity.
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Follow Dianna:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/diannacohen
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@diannacohen
Crown Affair: https://crownaffair.com/
Take Your Time Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/take-your-time/id1896516883
Substack: https://dianna.substack.com/
Follow Valeria:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/valerialipovetsky
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@valeria.lipovetsky
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/valerialipovetskyblog
Follow Not Alone:
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TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@notalone.pod
Podcast: https://www.notalonepod.com/
Amazon Storefront: https://www.amazon.com/shop/valerialipovetsky
What we talked about:
2:02 Meeting in Miami four years ago
3:31 Building a world around taking your time
5:13 Time is the ultimate luxury
6:25 It started from a Google Doc
9:02 Getting into beauty and why ignorance is bliss
10:39 Two years of nights and weekends before going all in
12:45 The bathroom as a sacred space
14:11 Is slowness actually a strategy?
16:48 What she gained by going slow
17:43 Stepping down as CEO
19:27 Couples therapy for a founder and operator
20:04 The nervous system that wasn't built for the way she was leading
20:32 Do the opposite of what your brain is telling you
20:52 “Happy people don't start companies”
22:36 Gary and Valeria's own sabotage
26:33 Operator vs. creator
27:44 The fear of being seen
30:35 Why the CMO should be the last hire
32:46 Creativity and feminine energy in a masculine industry
35:23 What feminine energy looks like in practice
36:04 Intuition is a hard skill
39:30 Playing in the sandbox again
42:28 Why isn't creativity in leadership books?
45:15 The Artist's Way
48:53 Trust vs. faith
52:04 Why we don't talk enough about the nervous system
52:55 Our bodies speak a different language than our brains
55:36 Growing up in a household that didn't allow crying
58:14 Scarcity and learning to receive abundance
1:00:22 Success with emptiness inside
1:03:03 Lessons from iconic women she worked for
1:05:40 Founder culture and cosplaying CEO
1:07:18 Expert, creator, celebrity and product brands
1:08:57 The triangle of delusion
1:11:37 How many people you move—not how many you reach
1:12:00 Why she'll never build in public
1:16:33 The two-phone trick for Instagram addiction
1:19:37 What women should understand about creativity
1:21:30 Rapid fire
1:25:30 What women aren't saying out loud
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