Jennifer Labit started out as a young mother who had to choose between diapers or food for her newborn. Now, as the President & CEO of Cotton Babies, she has received numerous distinctions such as “Most Influential Business Woman” and “40 under 40.” When describing her journey as an accidental entrepreneur, Jennifer says it best: “As leaders, we rarely give ourselves permission to disrupt ourselves, which is essential to personal growth.” Listen and grow today.
Bio: Jenn is a leading executive in the baby industry. She made her mark on the world by conceptualizing, developing, patenting, manufacturing, marketing, distributing, and retailing new brands within the mom and baby space, propelling her most recent cloth diaper brand onto disposable diaper shelves in Walmart stores.
Her privately held company developed out of a $100 investment and is now a multi-million dollar concept-to-consumer operation representing seven, on-shelf consumer brands that are manufactured and shipped to businesses and consumers all over the world.
bumGenius, Flip, Econobum, Elemental Joy, MilkDaze, and Elemum collectively have many world-wide patents and serve the baby diapering, breastfeeding, adult incontinence, and menstrual care categories.
In 2008-2009, Jenn led the effort to form and served as the founding chair of the Real Diaper Industry Association, a 501(c)6 trade association for members of the cloth diaper industry.
Several years later, she founded Share the Love, a national cloth diaper bank providing essential diapers to underprivileged families living in cities across the United States.
Over the last few years, Jenn has also served as a private advisor to some of the largest retailers in the world, assisting their buying teams through transitions into the cloth diaper space. She is an active voice in Congress on poverty related issues. She has served on several non-profit Boards of Directors. She has taught about various topics including entrepreneurship, platform economics, corporate social responsibility, big data analytics, and strategy at Washington University in St. Louis, Columbia University, and Virginia Tech.
Notable media mentions include Time Magazine, Mothering Magazine, Parents Magazine, Pregnancy Magazine, Consumer Reports, the Washington Post and the New York Times.
Jenn’s Something Extra: “To pick happy and to accomplish our goals, but to perhaps arrive at them differently than we set out to initially. As leaders, we rarely give ourselves permission to disrupt ourselves, which is essential to personal growth.”
Guest Links:
Credits:
– Lisa Nichols, Host
– Scott Crosby, Executive Producer
– Jenny Heal, Podcast Coordinator
– Joe Szynkowski, Marketing Support
– Kendall Brewer, Director of Leadership Programs
