After eight years leading the integrated marketing communications and media team at premiere beauty brand Ulta, Karla Evans-Davis made a radical decision to rest.
In a beauty industry where Black executives and upper-level management remain glaringly absent, she had ascended to exemplary career heights
Still, the marketing leader unselfishly acknowledged that her mental health and physical wellness needed to be prioritized. She made the decision to step down from her role and provide herself with the necessary break to recharge.
“Rest is resistance. [Black women] have been fighting the good fight for so long that to get to this next, whatever it is, I definitely think that [rest] is gonna be the secret. It is secret weapon that nobody wants us to have,” Evans-Davis said. “Whatever it looks like for you will not only give you what you need to keep going, but it will create space for you. Recognizing that it is a non-negotiable versus a nice-to-do creates more strength than weakness”
She encapsulated her decision to pivot away from a decades-long beauty career into a post she shared on her Instagram and LinkedIn accounts. The post — which went viral on LinkedIn — tracked several highlights from her time at Ulta. It also succinctly detailed the thoughtful introspection that ultimately led her to choose her personal rest over career reward.
The Road to Rest
Evans-Davis’ dream of working in the beauty industry was first sparked in high school after watching 1992 film Boomerang. The hit movie starred Halle Berry, Eddie Murphy, and Robin Givens as employees at an advertising agency working on a variety of beauty campaigns.
“It was that movie and what they were doing for work that made me say, ‘Oh I wanna, I wanna do that,’” Evans-Davis said.
After graduating from Hampton University with a Bachelor’s degree in mass media arts and advertising, Evans-Davis moved on to the Illinois Institute of Technology, where she received her master’s in design strategy.
Her break into the beauty industry following graduate school came with a job at Fashion Fair Cosmetics. She eventually moved up the ranks at companies like PepsiCo, Johnson & Johnson, and Kraft Foods before landing at Ulta Beauty. Evans-Davis joined Ulta as the director of integrated marketing communications, eventually being promoted to vice president of integrated marketing and media .
At Ulta Beauty, she managed numerous aspects of the brand’s marketing and media strategy. Her responsiblities included overseeing social strategy, the development of brand partnerships, and even launching Ulta’s first national advertising campaign.
But Evans-Davis admits the continuous grind of the fast-paced beauty industry and the mental weight of her creative-driven role eventually took its toll.
“It’s an industry that takes heart and passion. So I think that’s something that I always put into my work,” Evans-Davis said in an exclusive interview with 21Nintey. “But you can’t take for granted the toll that that can have on you when you don’t rest well and are putting your all into that job.”
The issue of rest is one she says can be especially complicated for Black people.
“That’s something we definitely don’t learn well, is how to rest. Rest, especially in [the Black community], can be considered lazy or not being productive. So that just had never really been my bent, and I started feeling it,” Evans-Davis said.
Then toward her final year at Ulta, Evans-Davis’ boss died after battling advanced cancer. The loss brought on some additional revelations for as she grieved.
“It was like trying to do a job while grieving. Nobody teaches you how to do that either,” Evans-Davis said. “It was just a lot of those moments of realization that life is short and it is not guaranteed.”
Preparing For Something New
For Evans-Davis, the decision to part ways with her beauty industry career was a multistep process she strategized over time.
“I had to really be honest with how I was showing up,” Evans-Davis said. “Did I feel like this was reflecting the best that I could be or not. I had to be honest with myself with that.”
Evans-Davis’ process included working with an executive coach and therapist to help her reframe her viewpoint on her relationship with her work.
“I had an executive coach that really had helped me even a couple of years ago build this framework around the three gets and the three gives that you should get out of any moment in your career,” Evans-Davis said. “It’s being reflective on what are the main things you wanna [give to] a role and what are the main things that you wanna get out of this role or out of this moment and hold yourself accountable to those.
When Evans-Davis realized her gets and gives may have been met she started accepting that she was in an ideal position for change.
“Once you’ve gotten what you came for and once you gave all you wanted or needed to give, then you are at a good place to say it’s time to move on,” she said.
Beyond the mental work, Evans-Davis also relied heavily on the support of her family and her spirituality to guide her through her final decision to leave her role. The financial element of her prep was also key. Evans-Davis is married with one child. She detailed that enacting a years-long savings strategy with her husband was vital to her feeling an exit from her job was realistic.
“A lot of it came from over multiple years just being a bit more mindful. We just lived our lives trying to be a bit under our means,” she said. “Sometimes you take for granted some of those small things that can help prepare you into the future.”
The Next Best Thing
For Evans-Davis, the decision to listen to her body and trade her beauty career for a break was a necessary choice she hopes other Black women will be empowered by.
“It’s a road not often traveled. You don’t even often know it’s an option or even how to approach it,” Evans-Davis said. “That totally became the faith walk. That one, God is in control of this. And that two, what I have seen him do for me shows me what I am capable.”
The response to her social media posts sharing her decision moved her. She’s thankful she’s had the opportunity to remind Black women that taking a career break is valid and often necessary.
“I will definitely say you can’t talk to everybody about doing something like this because not everybody’s going to understand,” she said. “People mean very well. But we live in often a fear-based kind of culture and keeping the status quo kind of culture. people can mean well, but be pushing you into a direction that is not right for you because it’s the one that is comfortable.”
She hopes that stepping away from a job many would consider a career pinnacle stands as a reminder that we aren’t defined by our careers. As she plots out her next life journey in realtime, Evans-Davis is grateful for the opportunity to pivot her beauty dream into a still unknown new vision.
“The next dream does not necessarily have to be grandiose. It just needs to be what I need now. That’s been my latest prayer. What do I need now. That might look different. That might look the same. It might look fantastical. I don’t know. But I’m just trying to be mindful to say what is it I need now and to create the space to like, listen and inspire.”