Paula Floyd

A sales and education executive with over 25 years of experience at beauty brands such as MAC, Benefit, and more, Paula Floyd is a leading authority on beauty at retail. Having spent her career driving sales growth for companies with revenues spanning from $1M to $1.5B, Paula has inspired and led sales organizations ranging from small to as large as 7500+ people under her leadership for world-renowned prestige brands.

Paula was first introduced to the beauty industry early on as a young consumer, a beauty junkie, and after many visits to the department store to see the latest products, Paula quickly knew she had found her calling. Her impressive background and roles range from Chief Commercial Officer, SVP of Retail, and VP of Sales and Education, where she partnered with powerhouse retailers like Sephora, Nordstrom, Ulta, and Macy’s, as well as forged relationships in free-standing retail stores.

After an extensive career, many industry executives would have maintained a comfortable in-office job and simply continued to climb the ladder until retirement, but Paula’s favorite part of working in beauty was always in the field being hands-on with her sales team and customers, whether at her first counter job or her last senior-level appointment. Though there’s been a current emphasis on growth in the DTC channel for most brands, Paula saw the desire from consumers to still experience a brand in person and the need to elevate the brick-and-mortar relationships that brands have with their retail partners. One hundred percent of the top 20 prestige beauty brands invest in a field sales team. Yet with the recent influx of indie brands, how can startups, even those that are on a hot streak and poised for greatness, afford the massive overhead associated with that oh-so-necessary team? Armed with her vast knowledge of the beauty industry, running large field education and sales organizations, and known for staying connected to the front line no matter what title she held, Paula realized she had the formula that would benefit so many companies. She put her passion for beauty and her love and respect for people to work and launched Headkount.

Headkount allows brands to scale nationally and quickly without the overhead that comes with an in-house field team. Most importantly, Headkount’s team of dedicated beauty educators cements invaluable relationships with their customers and retail partners, and eliminates the need to continually scout, hire, and train new in-house staff for a position with a notoriously high turnover rate. Headkount’s clients, which currently include editorial and industry darlings Kosas, Lawless, Saint Jane Beauty, Merit, True Botanicals, and more.

Less than 18 months after launch and pausing through COVID-19, Headkount has grown well beyond first-year predictions, and Paula is sought out by high-profile beauty executives and founders across the country.