UT MBA student, Diamond Monroe is in the running for the ‘Entrepreneur of Impact’ award
The winner receives a one-on-one mentoring session from Shark Tank’s Daymond John, an advertorial in Forbes, and a $25,000 cash prize.
Diamond Monroe is no stranger to setting big goals and achieving them. As the founder of Diamond Monroe Organics, a company dedicated to helping women across the United States feel more confident, Monroe has already fulfilled thousands of orders for her self-care products, made significant profits, and built a loyal customer base—all through online orders and TikTok Shop.
Monroe is currently an MBA candidate at the Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Her area of focus is on logistics, materials, and supply chain management.
“That decision was strategic, to help me learn the full process around how my products can be made and distributed,” Monroe shared.
Her journey with self-care products began back in middle school. She endured awful heat damage to her hair, which in turn affected her levels of confidence.
“It hurt my confidence, and no products on the market were working, so I took the chemistry into my own hands,” she explained. “Most of the products on the market are filled with hundreds of ingredients, all containing scientific names that nobody knows what’s actually in it.”
Her experiments paid off—Monroe restored her hair’s health and realized she had created a powerful product. From this discovery, Diamond Monroe Organics was born, producing hair and skin care products.
Monroe’s business didn’t just grow quietly; it exploded online. While completing her undergraduate studies at Elon University in North Carolina—where she played women’s basketball—Monroe listed her products on TikTok Shop.
She said the video-based social media app has been a really effective, free way to market her products. Additionally, she added that the exposure was so much higher than what she would get with a paid advertisement on Instagram or Facebook.
One week, one of her Tik Tok videos went viral, generating $25,000 in orders.
“I was freaking out, wondering how I was going to produce this much product fast enough to deliver it on time,” she recalled.
Balancing her time as a student-athlete and entrepreneur was a challenge. Monroe’s days were packed with shooting hoops, attending classes, completing schoolwork, and practicing with her team. In the late hours of the night, she would make products and pack shipments, often burning the candle until 3 a.m.
“Tears, tears, tears,” she laughed, with a hint of truth. “It was hard, but I felt really passionate about basketball, and I felt really passionate about my products.”
An ACL tear in her senior year of college forced Monroe to eventually end her basketball career, but it also opened a new door.
“I was devastated, but at the same time, I knew I was created to be creative,” she said. The injury allowed her to focus full-time on her rapidly growing business.
Now, five years into the business, Monroe has even bigger goals in sight. She envisions Diamond Monroe Organics becoming a one-stop shop for women’s self-care products, with aspirations of her products being sold at major retailers like Target, Ulta, and Sephora.
“Even bigger than that, I want to open a spa where people can come and get full service of our products, and leave with a new sense of confidence,” she shared.
Monroe’s attention to customer needs is one of the driving forces behind her success. She constantly seeks feedback and integrates it into her products, which has earned her a large base of repeat customers.
In addition to her business growth, Monroe is in the running for the Entrepreneur of Impact Award, a competition that offers the winner mentoring from Shark Tank’s Daymond John, an advertorial in Forbes, and a $25,000 cash prize.
Currently, Monroe holds the first place spot in her category, with voting open until March 27.
“I would use the $25,000 to enhance marketing, meet supply and demand, and hire my first marketing employee,” she said.
If she wins, it wouldn’t be her first time meeting Daymond John. In September 2023, Monroe was one of four Elon University students selected to pitch their business ideas to John as part of an event sponsored by the Doherty Center for Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship.
Monrow recalls John calling her pitch “one of the best pitches I’ve heard in three minutes.”
“It was one of the best moments of my life. Meeting him was so great,” she said.
As Monroe looks to the future, her ambition, strategic thinking, and passion for helping others find confidence through self care remain at the forefront of her mission.
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