**Please note this entire breakdown is via Kasey Brown via FB! **
Thursday July 17, 2025, Diarrha Ndiaye’s beauty brand, Ami Colé, valued at $3 million, announced it was closing its doors via Instagram.
Today, her personal brand is worth ten times that.
How? She executed one of the most brilliant, strategic PR moves we’ve seen in recent years — transforming what many would consider a failure into a full-fledged visibility masterclass. With the social media mentions, and press hits her team definitely executed this beautifully.
While some brands pull a disappearing act, Diarrha leaned in. Her team’s media rollout was strategic and she walked away with more credibility, visibility, and industry power than most “successful” founders ever attain.
The Power Play: A Timeline
Here’s how it unfolded — not by chance, but by calculated coordination:
- Morning: Diarrha shares a heartfelt “love letter” on Instagram — not a standard apology or PR spin, but a message grounded in gratitude, transparency, and purpose.
- Within an hour: The Cut publishes a 2,000-word essay penned by her, unpacking the realities of running an inclusive beauty brand in an unsupportive industry.
- Same day: Harper’s Bazaar calls her “beloved” and casts her as a voice of authority in the beauty space.
- Same day: TechCrunch revisits her as one of the first Black women to raise over $1 million in venture capital.
- Same day: Essence runs an exclusive interview, framing her as a truth-teller and thought leader.
This wasn’t a coincidence. It was a coordinated campaign — and a reminder of what happens when storytelling meets strategy.
What Made This a PR Masterclass?
- She launched her business closure like a product. Press statements, media exclusives, and narrative ownership — all deployed within hours.
- She became the protagonist, not the casualty. “I tried to fix a broken system” hits harder than “my business didn’t work out.”
- She used data to reframe the blame. By citing real stats on VC funding disparities, she highlighted systemic failure — not personal fault.
- She positioned the journey as market research. Her story is now evidence of what’s broken in the industry, making her voice indispensable.
The Shift: Business Value vs. Brand Value
What this moment teaches us is clear:
Your company’s value may fluctuate — but your personal brand, when nurtured intentionally, can become your most powerful asset.
Ami Colé may be closing, but Diarrha’s narrative is just beginning. And it’s a valuable one:
- Keynote speeches
- Brand consulting roles
- Strategic board appointments
- Investors eagerly awaiting her next move
She didn’t just close a company. She opened the door to her next level.
Final Thought: What Failure Are You Sitting On?
The most successful people aren’t immune to setbacks — they leverage them.
Diarrha Ndiaye didn’t hide her loss. She reframed it, repurposed it, and reintroduced herself as a thought leader who lived through what many only theorize.
So now, the question becomes:
What failure are you hiding that could actually be your foundation?
What story are you sitting on that, when shared strategically, could shift your entire future?
Because the truth is — it’s not about never falling.
It’s about how you rise, how you tell the story, and who you become because of it.
