SharkNinja’s CCO Jane Carpenter on building brands, taking risks and leading with impact

SharkNinja‘s CCO Jane Carpenter knows what it takes to build a brand from the ground up. With more than 20 years of experience, she’s led communications through startups, high-growth moments, and the challenges of scaling global brands. From helping take Wayfair from an unknown name to a $14 billion public company to shaping Veho’s voice as a disruptor in retail logistics, Carpenter has built and led teams that drive impact. At SharkNinja, the CCO leads corporate communications, CEO strategy, internal engagement, and global reputation management.

Outside of work, she’s passionate about mentorship, serving on the board of the Big Sister Association of Greater Boston, and recharging through yoga.

What excites you most about establishing communications at the C-suite level, and what do you think it says about how companies are looking at the importance of communications today? 

I think it’s a very exciting time to be in communications. The news cycle is moving at an unprecedented pace and it is hard to think of a topic or issue that is not politically charged in some way.  These are challenging circumstances for all companies and the role of communications is more critical than ever before. Companies recognize the strategic value of communications and the need to have communications involved from the get-go. This is even more essential for consumer brands who are deeply invested in building meaningful and sustainable connections with consumers. Communications leaders need a seat at the table as they are responsible for maintaining a holistic view of the business, all of its stakeholders and the issues that intersect the business. Increasingly, communications leaders find themselves having to navigate very complex situations and decisions making access to information and involvement in key decision-making very important.

You had an impressive journey at Wayfair,  taking communications from startup through IPO. What surprised you most about scaling a communications team during that time, and how might those lessons shape what you do now?

I was at Wayfair for over a decade. It was an incredible part of my career. I think it was a unique sort of point in time and opportunity to be with a company, to take it from that stage of being a newly created brand, where I would call reporters and they would say, “What’s Wayfair, who’s Wayfair? We’ve never heard of this.” I was there for 10 years. It was very fast-paced. I think it was being able to know that it’s okay to take risks and it’s okay to fail. Because the whole time you’re learning and getting stronger and better as a team, and so I think as a team, I built an incredible team there. That’s probably the thing I’m most proud of, is the team of comms professionals that I’ve worked with over that decade, folks who have gone on to have other amazing careers, whether they’re, CEOs of PR agencies now, or entrepreneurs or content creators, or VPs of comms and other companies that journey working with those folks, and having a team where we were allowed to experiment, and we were allowed to take risks, calculated risks, and then we when we failed, if something didn’t work, we learned from that, and we refined that, and we honed it, and we took it to the next level and tried again. And so I think being in that sort of fast-paced startup environment allowed us to take risks and learn and not feel like we had to between the lines all the time, and that was so big. I learned that it’s okay to fail, as long as you’re taking something from it and getting stronger and learning. 

How do you think about bringing a dual perspective together from startups and the corporate environment?

What’s interesting is, I think most of the big enterprises, established companies all sort of strive to bring back that startup entrepreneurial spirit and culture. You hear that all the time, like some of the most established, biggest companies and brands, in our country, they’ll be looking for folks to join and who are bringing that sort of energy and risk-taking and all the things that come with a startup kind of mentality. I think that all companies want to keep that and have that. When you’re in a company going from startup to becoming this bigger corporate entity, it’s a big focus to preserve that piece as you move through that. And it’s not easily done. It’s something that can be pretty challenging. At SharkNinja, we have a unique and deep-rooted cultural ethos around something that we call outrageously extraordinary, where the team’s always striving to drive extraordinary impact and outcomes. And that takes a lot of different traits. It’s things like having a relentless desire to know more, forging through uncharted territories and paths and learning and getting smarter every day. The mindset is how do I drive the most impact and do it in a way that is not about just doing it the way that it’s always been done, or the way people expect you to be doing it, or the best practice, right? If it’s a best practice, that means everyone is doing it. And do you want to be doing what everyone is doing? You need an edge. You need to do things differently. And that’s a thing that I think startups always have to do because they’re small and they’re trying to get attention, they have to do things that kind of stick their head up from the crowd or differentiate them. 

You’ve worked with everything from sofas at Wayfair to shipping boxes at Veho — what’s the most unexpected thing you’ve had to craft a communications strategy around? Any funny stories there? 

There was a social media conspiracy theory that the company (Wayfair) was trafficking individuals with furniture purchases. So that was a very like out of left field and completely crazy. You read a tweet, the first tweet about, and you think, well, no one’s gonna believe that and the next thing you know, it’s trending on Twitter (X) for three days. And every news outlet, not only in  North America but even globally, is reaching out, trying to get a comment. What I kind of learned, is how you can’t dismiss things in today’s day and age, you can’t dismiss things, even the things that seem the wackiest, the craziest, the out of left field. You have to pay attention to that because they can gain traction. They can get to a point where it becomes a crisis for your company, a huge distraction to your business and I think that’s one of the big things I’ve learned in my career, that even the craziest stuff, that you think, Oh, this would never amount to anything, or we don’t have to worry about that. Well, that’s not true. You have to keep your eyes and ears open, monitoring everything, watching everything at the same time. You can’t react to everything because that’s not the right approach. It’s a very careful balance of watching and kind of trying to make the call of when you need to address something or engage with something, and when you kind of let it fizzle out.

What’s a book or song that changed how you think about your career?

I just finished “The Let Them Theory” by Mel Robbins and love her advice on how to deal with the many uncontrollables in life and the importance of focusing your energy and mindshare on your personal goals and what you can control.  Working in the corporate communications field, it’s critical to stay focused on the right priorities and to know where to invest your time and effort for maximum impact, particularly in challenging circumstances. The Let Them Theory provides valuable guidance and techniques for staying calm, grounded and effective even in the face of external factors that may be completely out of your control.

What’s your favorite way to unwind and recharge? 

Hanging out with family, friends and my children, enjoying their company. Also, yoga. I swear by yoga. I think it’s the best thing in the world, and it’s an amazing way to clear your mind. And that can be a hard thing to do in our field. I think these jobs can eat you alive, and your mind’s always going, and it’s hard to take that true break. Yoga is a place where I can clear my mind, whether it’s for 45 minutes or an hour. I find it’s a regenerative experience. 

Isis Simpson-Mersha is a conference producer/ reporter for Ragan. Follow her on LinkedIn.