Unique Selling Proposition |
Why Your Story Matters Most
What is a unique selling proposition?
A unique selling proposition is the best signal of why your business exists, who it’s for, and why it matters—
It helps people instantly understand what makes you different and relevant. The strongest USPs feel authentic and serve real needs.
If you’ve ever tried to define what makes you different in business but got stuck, this episode is all about how do you clearly and confidently share the story behind your business. We go deep into unique selling proposition and creating a business of impact with the founder of Hair Loving, Nadia Hussain.
Because most founders end up becoming more and more cookie-cutter as they learn and copy from competitors or fall into the trap of trying to be for “everyone.” That’s why Nadia’s story is so important. You’ll see how she went beyond Marketing 101 to build a brand that not only honors her story but also that of her customers.
Basically, your unique selling proposition, as Nadia shares, is where your story lives.
For many entrepreneurs—especially women building businesses in deeply personal spaces like wellness, beauty, or care—the real challenge isn’t standing out.
It’s trusting that what you’ve lived is already enough and that you CAN help others.
That’s where Nadia’s message is even more powerful. You’ll love her brand and admire how she’s positioned herself in a very crowded beauty market.
Listen for lots of inspiration!
Key Moments
00:00 – Why a unique selling proposition starts with lived experience
02:50 – Marketing to women often overlooked
05:25 – Launching a haircare business: what no one tells you
10:30 – Mentorship and ignoring advice that isn’t meant for you
15:00 – Going Beyond Marketing 101
LISTEN TO NEXT:
How to Attract Loyal Customers
RESOURCES
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MORE ABOUT THIS SMALL BUSINESS PODCAST EPISODE
“I wanted to go out there and really market our product only to those who are underserved… so when you look at our website, you’ll see people that actually look like you.” – Nadia Hussain, founder of Hair Loving
Connect with Hair Loving
Website: https://www.hairloving.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hairlovingco_/
- Your story is your unique selling proposition—own it fully
- Launching a haircare business with impact
- Go beyond Marketing 101 to stand out
- Growth happens when you stop chasing trends and start thinking of impact
When the Business Starts Long Before the Brand
Nadia didn’t set out to build a “differentiated” haircare brand.
Her journey started much earlier—inside her own body.
“Throughout my life, I went through different stages of hormonal changes… hair loss, perimenopausal symptoms as a teenager due to a medical condition that I suffer with.”
Long before she was a founder, she was navigating experiences most beauty brands don’t acknowledge—let alone design for. Later, as a professional hairstylist and makeup artist, the same patterns kept showing up in her clients.
“People kept asking me what to do about hair loss… post-cancer treatment, hormonal changes, postpartum hair loss, perimenopause.”
This is the part Marketing 101 doesn’t teach you:
A unique selling proposition often reveals itself through repetition.
Not repetition in trends—but repetition in who keeps coming to you and why.
The Moment It Became Impossible to Ignore
Every founder has a moment they don’t forget.
The one that turns discomfort into decision.
For Nadia, it happened during a wedding.
She had prepared carefully for the bride’s mother, who had very little hair after chemotherapy. When the woman looked in the mirror, the transformation was overwhelming—in the best way.
Then she asked a question Nadia still carries with her.
“When you’ve gone, how am I going to look like this afterwards?”
That moment wasn’t about beauty.
It was about dignity. Continuity. Being seen beyond a single day.
And it exposed a gap no amount of branding theory could solve.
This is where a real unique selling proposition begins—not with “how do I stand out?” but with “why does this matter so much to me that I can’t walk away?”
Why Representation Became Strategy (Not a Trend)
When Nadia later built her brand, representation wasn’t an aesthetic choice. It was a values decision.
“When you look at our website or social media, you’ll see people that actually look like you. Women with disabilities, women of all different nationalities and backgrounds.”
She had seen the emotional cost of traditional beauty marketing firsthand.
“You search online and see picture-perfect models… and that potentially can make you feel even more insecure.”
This is a critical lesson for early-stage founders:
Your unique selling proposition isn’t only what you sell—it’s who you center.
In crowded industries, empathy becomes differentiation.
Not because it’s soft—but because it’s rare.
Launching a Haircare Business Without Waiting for Permission
Nadia launched her first product just before the UK’s first COVID lockdown—against advice.
Everything was ready. The world wasn’t.
Still, she trusted what she was hearing from real women.
“There was a knock on the door… a school mum said, ‘I’m going to focus on myself now.’ That was the deciding factor.”
That moment matters because it highlights something many founders forget:
Clarity doesn’t always come from experts.
Sometimes it comes from your customer, casually reflecting their truth back to you.
Launching a haircare business—or any product-based business—rarely feels tidy. Nadia’s path included years of formulation, legal learning, testing, and iteration.
“From the idea to starting, it was pretty much immediate. But the last five years? A lot of changes. A lot of new formulas.”
A unique selling proposition isn’t finalized at launch.
It’s sharpened through commitment.
The Myth of “Getting It Right” in Marketing 101
One of the most grounding parts of Nadia’s story is how she talks about growth.
Not as a straight line—but as a cycle of refinement.
“By the time you’ve got it right, there’s always a new fad and new transition in the market.”
Instead of chasing everything, she learned to observe.
“If something isn’t working, you’d be crazy to keep trying it again and again.”
This is where Marketing 101 often oversimplifies reality.
Founders don’t fail because they lack tactics. They burn out because they stop trusting their discernment.
Your unique selling proposition isn’t strengthened by doing more.
It’s strengthened by doing what works for you—consistently.
Mentorship as a Mirror, Not a Blueprint
Another defining theme in Nadia’s journey is mentorship—but not in the performative sense.
“You don’t need everything people tell you that you need. What you do need is a mentor—someone well ahead of you.”
She’s clear about one thing: relevance matters.
“Always pick someone from the same background as you… who’s already cracked the channels you want to crack.”
Mentorship doesn’t replace your intuition.
It helps you hear it more clearly.
For early-stage entrepreneurs, this is a crucial reframe. The right guidance doesn’t give you a USP. It helps you stop ignoring the one that’s already there.
Competition, Calmly Reconsidered
One of the quiet fears many founders carry is that someone else is already doing what they want to do.
Nadia’s response is refreshingly grounded.
“There’s a massive market. People are always chopping and changing.”
Her confidence doesn’t come from being the only option—but from being a specific one.
“The key thing is have a good USP… and if you don’t, keep going as long as you can foresee profit. Otherwise, change things up.”
Competition doesn’t erase relevance.
Lack of clarity does.
When your unique selling proposition is rooted in lived experience, it becomes hard to replicate—because it isn’t manufactured.
What Changes When You Stop Forcing Your USP
Here’s the shift this episode invites:
You stop trying to sound impressive.
You start sounding like yourself.
Marketing becomes less performative and more conversational. Decisions feel simpler. Content stops feeling like a reach.
That’s not accidental.
That’s alignment.
And alignment is what allows a business to grow without constantly draining its founder.
Listen to the Full Conversation
If you’re in your first few years of business and quietly questioning whether your story is “strategic enough,” this episode will land deeply.
It explores:
- What a unique selling proposition really looks like in practice
- Why Marketing 101 often needs translation for real life
- What launching a haircare business teaches us about empathy, impact, and sustainability
You’ll find the full episode on Her First Three Years—and it’s one worth listening to slowly.
FAQ
What makes a unique selling proposition strong?
A strong USP is specific, emotionally grounded, and rooted in real experience—not just market positioning.
Can lived experience really be a strategy?
Yes. Especially when launching a haircare business or service-based brand, lived experience builds trust faster than abstract differentiation.
Is Marketing 101 still useful?
Absolutely—but it works best when paired with self-awareness, discernment, and alignment.
TRANSCRIPT OF PODCAST WITH NADIA HUSSAIN (HAIR LOVING)
Chardét Ryel (00:00)
Imagine your business not just bringing you profit and customers, but also impact and being able to help people that are often underserved, those people that don’t have solutions that get neglected. That is the inspirational story today. I’m speaking to Nadia Hussain, who has been a professional hairstylist and makeup artist for more than 10 years. She created this amazing product, VeganLine.
And one of the best features is that so many people going through hair loss for different hormonal reasons, be it postpartum, be it because they’re going through perimenopause, can find a solution. She has a lovely way of doing marketing as well. If you go to her site afterwards, you’ll see that she has all kinds of different women represented. We’re going to be talking about her journey, mentorship, all the different things that you yourself are probably going through. I’ll see you inside.
Welcome to her first three years. From breakdowns to blunders, learn what worked and what didn’t. I’m your host Charday and whether you’re a new entrepreneur or you’re just starting something new, this is your space to learn and feel little less alone.
Nadia Hussain (01:16)
So my mission started when I, throughout my life, went through different stages of hormonal changes, my hair loss, my perimenopausal symptoms as a teenager due to a medical condition that I suffer with, which is chronic. It’s not curable. I later went on to becoming a hair and makeup artist. And again, the same thing kept striking me. People asking me what to do about their hair loss, about post-cancer treatment, hormonal changes.
postpartum hair loss and of course perimenopause that I’d been through myself. I formulated my first oil which literally sold just through Instagram. So that’s really where the journey began.
Chardét Ryel (01:55)
The thing that sticks out for me is that you had to deal with hair loss and hair issues so young, where I think most of us, maybe it comes right after postpartum or later on when you have menopause, when it’s more like you expect it coming, right? But not when you’re a teenager. So how did you, what was that like? I mean, how do you feel that that experience has created this interest in hair, in makeup?
Nadia Hussain (02:24)
I’ll
be honest with you, I kind of fell into hair and makeup, but then the link came afterwards when I kind of amalgamated and thought about everything together.
Chardét Ryel (02:33)
and you started to see these issues pop up with clients, I’m sure, coming to you that are really struggling. know especially, I have so many friends that have gone through the postpartum hair loss and the kind of, the feeling of, I mean, it really does impact your self-esteem, doesn’t it?
Nadia Hussain (02:51)
Yeah, I think with the postpartum hair loss, it’s a different emotional roller coaster because you’ve got so much going on at the time and you have a completely different mental and hormonal reasoning for feeling that way and feeling really low, insecure, lack of sleep. All of that triggers it. So there’s so many things that I’ve found that women are juggling. And then of course, when they are searching on TikTok, Amazon,
websites, Google, whatever you’re searching on, you see these images of these picture perfect models and these beautiful women. And that potentially can make you feel even more insecure. So I wanted to go out there and really market our product only to those who are underserved. So when you have a look at our website, when you have a look at our social media,
you’ll see people that actually look like you. Women with disabilities, women of all different nationalities and backgrounds.
Chardét Ryel (03:51)
That’s the first thing I noticed when I went to your website is that there’s a more natural look and there’s actually diversity of hair, face. It’s kind of funny because you don’t notice what an impact that has on you until you go there and you see someone who looks like you. It just creates a different kind of connection already to the brand that you have. It’s smart marketing. How did you think about because you’ve had this career for so long, like you’ve had many achievements with it.
What was it made that made you say, I’m gonna create products and a big part of my market, my segment is going to be people going through these hormonal shifts, these life’s transitions.
Nadia Hussain (04:31)
I am that person, I was that person and my clients are those people and they will be those people. As my following grew on Instagram, I would get the whole, we want to book you because you could do different types of hair and makeup and so I was not like other makeup artists posting images of women that look the typical beauty, know, slim and fair skinned and whatever.
but they were all different types of women with different types of makeup.
Chardét Ryel (05:02)
don’t have just one standard way of doing stuff or one kind of client. You’re able to really think about what each of them needs and that makes complete sense why you then thought of your own journey but then also the skill set that you have in this unique differentiation. What was the moment that you decided I’m gonna go ahead and create my own products?
Nadia Hussain (05:25)
So the moment was actually before COVID. We’d launched literally before the first lockdown in the UK. ⁓ And I was advised not to actually launch, but everything was ready and it was best thing I’ve ever done. I think the biggest trigger point was actually really sad. I had a bride. I did the bride’s hair and makeup. I did the ⁓ mum. I’d already been pre-warned that mum had very little hair due to chemo ⁓ and radiotherapy.
As I’d gone in, I was well prepared. I had the hair piece. I had different types of hair pieces so as not to, you know, irritate the scalp. And when she saw herself in the mirror, that was extremely overwhelming. And she actually said, when you’ve gone, how am I going to look like this afterwards? And that was just like, wow, I’ll never forget that moment ever. I don’t think I’ve even spoken much about that on any podcast.
Chardét Ryel (06:22)
when you were telling the story, it’s so powerful to think because you had to see yourself in the mirror and feel finally very comfortable with how it looks after probably a long time not. And then wondering how are you going to do it again? I can see how that would feel. Yeah. Like how that would make you want to create something to help people. Where did it go from there then once you, if you think back to that moment,
because it’s quite a big venture to decide that I’m going to create my own products. It’s not an easy thing. There’s a lot involved, lot of testing ingredients, et cetera. So if you can share a little bit what that part was like once you started having this, I’m going to create it.
Nadia Hussain (07:03)
So once I created my first hair oil and it was selling, I thought, wow, like, what do I do? This can’t be legal. I did a formulation diploma, learned about obviously the formulas themselves anyway, but then on top of that, the legalities, the labeling, and now we have a chief formulator who actually manages that side of things. So it’s almost like we wave magic wand together. She passes it all through legally and
It’s not as easy as that though, shall we? Just in my dreams, but…
Chardét Ryel (07:36)
We all want that one.
Well, what’s impressive to me is that you took it upon yourself to actually learn some of this. The drive though to learn that is I imagine that must have been a whole new thing to learn and look at. must have been, I can’t even imagine. Science was not my strength.
Nadia Hussain (08:00)
Same here. mean, I did struggle and the amount of products and well, components and things you have to buy just to study is incredible. So there was always deliveries and my mum was, I was staying at my mum’s at the time and she was like, what are you doing now? Like, what are you studying now? Like, what are you doing?
Chardét Ryel (08:18)
When was it? how long was the time from, have this idea, to I’m gonna release the first batch. How long did that take you?
Nadia Hussain (08:27)
That was a number of years chopping and changing, getting trademarks, getting the logo right, getting the artwork right. It’s never ending. Every two minutes there’s a message, a positive or a negative message from the team about different things. ⁓ It’s just a constant thing. So from conception or the idea to starting, it was pretty much immediate. It wasn’t something that I dwelled on. However, the last five years,
There’s been a lot of changes, lot of toing and froing, a lot of new formulas.
Chardét Ryel (09:02)
This whole process was for everything’s still ongoing, but like you said, a couple years to get all the pieces more the way you wanted it. What was the transition like from hair and makeup artist? I know you still do classes, you’re still very much in that world and helping people. What was the transition like that when you added to that founder entrepreneur? Did you notice a difference? Was life different? Was your mindset different?
Nadia Hussain (09:29)
Completely, absolutely, 100%. I don’t know what I would be doing if I wasn’t doing this. And I’ve not given up on it. Yes, it’s your baby. Yes, you’ve got to be mindful of, it making any profit? But it takes a long time to get it right and absolute forever to get things right. And by the time you’ve got it right, then there’s always a new fad and new transition in the market.
So it’s never ending. It definitely keeps me awake at night, keeps me on my toes. In terms of business, when it’s good, it’s great, but you must always keep your feet firmly on the ground and you must always remember where you came from and also not become complacent in anything.
Chardét Ryel (10:13)
It’s the biggest roller coaster that exists in some of its careers. It really is a lot. Did you, so when you think about like that transition, becoming the entrepreneur, really being on it all the time, what was a difficult moment for you that you remember and what was something that you feel really proud of in the early days?
Nadia Hussain (10:36)
When things plateau, that’s really, really mind-numbingly scary. Biggest thing is like winning awards for the brand. And you know, one danger zone that a lot of entrepreneurs can go into is actually missing out can be very triggering. So salespeople can trigger the FOMO in you as a entrepreneur, whether you’re a well-established one or not. And that is the biggest advice I would give. Really do not give into what
people are telling you about things, about you need this, you need that, you don’t. What you do need is you need a mentor, preferably someone going through that journey but is well ahead of you.
Chardét Ryel (11:16)
could get all the things. There’s always some explanation for why you need to get this or that. But I think to your point of finding someone who actually is going to be a mentor with you and has done what you want to do, because just because someone has been successful in another space doesn’t mean that they actually understand what you are trying to achieve. And I think that’s such good advice.
Nadia Hussain (11:42)
And then you’ve got those that might be great at what they do, but they have no idea about being a product entrepreneur or whatever you particularly sell or, you know, if you’re, you’re manufacturing tents, I don’t know whatever you’re doing. They don’t from that background cause they don’t know anything about camping, right? I mean, I wouldn’t be able to. So always pick someone from the same background as you that’s way ahead. And they’ve already cracked the channels you want to crack.
So if you want to sort of go onto Amazon, go international for example, you want to then put a product on the market in the UK or Europe, picking a mentor who is actually well-versed in that and they’re successful in that field within their product business or their camping equipment business or setting up a gym, I don’t know what you’re doing, they would be your mentor. But again, don’t turn down any help.
Chardét Ryel (12:40)
Help is help, especially when it’s freely offered. I was going to say that. Last question about mentorship before we kind of pivot a little bit, because I am curious about this. How did you approach your formal mentor or did they approach you? Like how did that occur? Because I know a lot of women listening would love to have mentorship, but they don’t actually know how to find it.
Nadia Hussain (12:44)
Get that.
So you could either go directly to someone that you look up to or someone whose journey you’ve learnt about. Maybe don’t call it mentoring, maybe call it a little bit of advice on something. Build that relationship with them first. If they don’t already offer mentoring, that’s what I’m talking about.
Chardét Ryel (13:20)
Pivoting slightly because I love the idea about mentorship and getting that input and guidance because that’s a struggle area. think another big struggle area that you seem to be doing really well is the marketing part. It seems like for marketing then that you’ve really done a good job of creating partnerships and distribution.
Nadia Hussain (13:38)
We are also on QBC. So sometimes you might see me on TV if you have QBC UK. ⁓
Chardét Ryel (13:49)
Like
for you doing that, because that’s like where you always, I could be on TV and talk all day.
Nadia Hussain (13:56)
My God, it’s like, it’s always been different every time I’ve been. It’s really weird. I don’t know why. I think one of the times I was very complacent and it kind of went a bit wrong and you know, the earpiece was just, I don’t know, it wasn’t working, I believe. The earpiece wasn’t even in my ear and I completely lost it. Like completely lost it.
The one after that, I was just like, right, I need to get my stuff together. I need to have my lines. Let’s take a different approach altogether. How about this time we don’t talk about me. We just talk about the product, the minute we go in, that’s it. And then pivot it to a bit about Nadia because they want to hear about that because then they resonate with, you know, the random lady that’s trying to sell her hair products on the screen because that’s kind of what it’s like. Literally.
So every time you go on and you have a different, slightly different pitch, you kind of figure out what works and what doesn’t as a result of the sales that come in after that airing. So it’s all fun and games.
Chardét Ryel (15:06)
You start to really learn as you go, right? Like you start refining what is the messaging people need to hear.
Nadia Hussain (15:12)
Yeah, absolutely.
Chardét Ryel (15:14)
Are there any other organic ways that you get the word out about the products? think, I know you socials quite a bit. If there’s anything else that you kind of try creatively to see.
Nadia Hussain (15:27)
So organically, you when I’m doing hair and makeup classes, obviously we’ll have our stands up. We also do events. Over the years, we’ve done a lot of events, exhibitions. They can be from very small to menopause events, for example, and then all the way through to Salon International here in London, and Professional Beauty Show, which are massive shows in huge ⁓ exhibition centers here. So, you know, again, with that, we’ve kind of refined what works and what doesn’t work.
and asked what doesn’t work and only booked in again for what does work. I always believe if something isn’t working, then you’ll be crazy to keep trying that again and again and again.
Chardét Ryel (16:13)
even things that aren’t working. Maybe they worked for other people or different brands, but if they’re not working for you to not stay wed to them, thinking the FOMO, right? Like you said, like, but I’m missing out on this chance because XYZ brand did it.
Nadia Hussain (16:29)
Yeah, I’ve actually, funnily enough, I always bump into a competitor and, you know, it’s a very sweet relationship we have because we will just whisper in the background when there’s something going, when there’s a panel discussion, me and her are like, my God, this didn’t work. They conned us. she was literally, these are our conversations very, very much like in the playground.
Chardét Ryel (16:54)
I really think especially now these days there’s so much to be said about having okay at least relationships with your competitors. How do you think about competition? Because now you have several years of being even before you launch these products, you’re working for yourself. So you’ve always been in the space of other people are doing similar things.
Nadia Hussain (17:16)
Yes, I mean, we have a fairly stringent USP because my background, I’m a British Asian person. So I’m already a little bit unique in that as well. So that’s a USP. My story is definitely unique, unfortunate, but unique. But fortunate, I’ve got my son. And then further to that, I’ve got friends that are in certain businesses, nothing to do with my business. And they have massive competition, but you know what? There’s a massive market for them as well.
You know, there’s people that are going to be trying out new products all the time. Okay, there’s about two or three skincare moisturisers that I will always go back to, but generally I’m not loyal anyway to anyone. So you’re always going to find that your customer will always be chopping and changing or your potential customer or your competitor’s customer may always chop and change. There’ll be certain things that they won’t like shampoo and conditioner, possibly not, you know, we’re divided in that, but there’s
A whole lot of people out there, there’s different ages and age categories out there that will want to buy your candle or your perfume or whatever it is. And once you’ve gone in with one product, you diversify. So the key thing is have a good USP and even if you don’t have one, just keep going as long as you’re profitable or you can foresee profit. Otherwise change things up and try something else.
Chardét Ryel (18:40)
what you said about your USP and your story and your identity, I think is a really strong one. That you, because of who you are and what you represent and the story behind the products is something that people can chop and change, sure, but they can’t really get that same exact story somewhere else. And that’s extremely valuable. We always talk on here about understanding what is your USP? What is your story?
Nadia Hussain (19:07)
Yeah, 100%.
Chardét Ryel (19:08)
Last question for you kind of related to the entire journey that you’ve talked about. You’ve shared so much about the different experiences and the learnings and the lessons. What do you think is the best part or the most memorable part for you about this whole journey?
Nadia Hussain (19:25)
really bizarre one actually and it’s a very tiny little simple one but I think it was a trigger point for starting off the business. So remember I told you we launched before Covid’s first lockdown, everything was done, I’d done the course and there was a knock on the door before the lockdown and we were like two weeks from it but they’d already announced, the government had announced that other countries had gone into it. The knock on the door was a school mum who came to drop off.
my son and said, my God, we’re going to go into COVID, into lockdown and now I’m going to focus on myself. And that was the decision maker. You know, if she was going to go and look after her hair, her skin, her makeup, well, her whatever routines, that made me think, no, we’re going to go ahead with this and we are going to launch, we are going to properly continue with this. That deciding factor, because if it wasn’t for her and she doesn’t know it,
I would probably have listened to my other mentor and pulled the launch. Do your research with people that are your customer or like you yourself.
Chardét Ryel (20:28)
I love that story because yeah, you could have been scared away and not done it and paused and maybe who knows if you would have waited even longer because things took forever to come back. Where can people connect with you and where can they find out more about your products?
Nadia Hussain (20:36)
Exactly.
So you can find out more about us and connect with us on hairloving.com and you can also find us on Amazon, on superdrug.com and also on QVC’s website as well. So you’ll see different snippets of information on each of those channels.
Chardét Ryel (21:00)
And these will include links to everything so people can connect, they can see the products, try the products, they can also see you on QVC maybe. And I wanna thank you so much for sharing your journey and for the impact you’re having and the way that you are changing so many people’s lives. And thank you so much for listening. If you’re interested in this brand story, go check out HairLoving.com. Also follow Nadia because she has so much interesting.
things that she’s doing to promote her brand. learn quite a lot there. And I will see you in the next one. Your story is your SEO. It is as powerful as those words people are searching for. Go to the Her First Three Years website or go to my Instagram, Sharderoyale. Both of those links are in the show notes and get the private podcast series, How to Stand Out Online. You will listen to that series. You will probably binge it and you will find your way.
Thank you so much for listening. Share this with someone who needs it. If you enjoyed it, please leave a review. Share this energy. You know, it’s all about spreading, receiving. If you feel like it’s made a difference, made you think. Please, please, please share your thoughts.
