"Burn it straight or figure it out yourself."

That was the beauty industry's advice to Black women in the 1800s. Annie Turnbo Malone took on the industry singlehandedly — 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐭 𝐚 $𝟏𝟎𝟎𝐌 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞.

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐃𝐚𝐲 𝟒 𝐨𝐟 𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘: 𝟐𝟖 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐩𝐫𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐝 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫.

Born in 1869 to formerly enslaved parents in Metropolis, Illinois, Annie was orphaned young and raised by an older sister.

She never finished high school — but she was obsessed with chemistry and hair care, studying on her own.

At the time, the only products available for Black women's hair were lye-based straighteners that burned scalps and broke hair off at the root.

Annie didn't see a better way - so she created it.

She developed her own line of hair care products — called "Wonderful Hair Grower" — and started selling door to door in Lovejoy, Illinois.

She didn't chase "everyone."

She solved one painful problem for one overlooked market.

And it worked. Women saw results. Word spread. She relocated to St. Louis in 1902, and demand exploded.

Then she made the move most experts never do:

She stopped thinking like a salesperson and started thinking like a school.

Annie founded Poro College in 1918 — a full campus in St. Louis that included classrooms, a manufacturing facility, an auditorium, a bakery, a restaurant, and a chapel. It wasn't just a beauty school. It was an economic engine for the Black community.

She built a system:

→ A curriculum on hair science, sales, and professionalism

→ Thousands of trained Poro agents selling in their own communities across the country

→ A brand that lived in people, not just in products

She didn't just sell jars. She built sellers.

At its peak, Poro College had trained over 75,000 agents.

By the 1920s, her company was worth millions — over $100 million in today's dollars — and she was one of the wealthiest Black women in America.

And like the other women we've studied, Annie didn't just build for herself. She donated massive amounts to Black colleges, orphanages, and the YMCA. In a world that locked Black women out of opportunity, she built her own doors and handed other women keys.

Here's the framework to steal:

The Poro School Method™

1️⃣ Sell a solution to one non-negotiable problem

2️⃣ Turn your process into a teachable system

3️⃣ Build sellers, not just sales

4️⃣ Market the movement, not just the merchandise

Now ask yourself: What signature training could you build that quietly closes your highest-ticket offers? Could you implement a certification or "college" for your method.

If you're a Black woman expert: Comment "BLACK" and I'll send you the link to follow the full series.

Then go to https://lnkd.in/gNc6R-Pg and join the Black Women Sell Live 2026 waitlist. The only conference that teaches you how to sell like the women history tried to erase.

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