You may think you have fear but what you actually may be suffering with is overthinking. Sometimes we overthink things. We think things to death and we just don’t do it; no forward movement. When I started my business many years ago, I just thought one thing; I just thought I want success! So when I thought about success, I just moved forward. I just did what I needed to do. I started going out to different networking events even though I was the only person who looked like I looked. In the area I am located, it is not extremely diverse so there was not a lot of people who do what I do that looked like I look. I’m a licensed Esthetician and I am a Master lash artist so when I went to a lot of these events, I did not think a lot about who was there, who was going to be there, who was going to say what, I didn’t care about that. I just knew what my end game was and that’s to achieve success. SO when I continued to do what I was doing, I did not think about fear. I did not think about procrastination. I just believed that I was able to do what I wanted to do and I moved forward.
A lot of you may be suffering from fear thoughts. I’ll be honest with you, in the age of social media, live videos are a pretty popular thing to do. I do not go live often, and not because I have fear about it. A lot of times I was overthinking and I felt that I have to be overly prepared. I looked at other people’s periscopes and Facebook Live videos and I see a list of “Ten things you need to do”, “Three things you need to have”, “15 things you need to discover” and look, I am a “virgo perfectionist”, but I just don’t have the time to do all that just to do a live broadcast.
Just to share with you guys, some nuggets of the things that I have learned because I have an extremely successful beauty business, Thank God, because I didn’t stop is what I strive to do. I continued to move forward because I knew I wanted to achieve success. And when I thought about opening up a second location, I did not think about it. I said I want to do it. And what inspired me to do it was when my grandmother passed away in 2013, she actually passed away on Valentine’s Day in 2013. She is from and lived in downtown Charleston, SC which is extremely bustling area AND ever growing expensive area. SO when I thought about opening the second location in that area, I thought for a moment I want to have a business in this location. The second thought was, it’s extremely expensive down there. If I continued to stay with my second thought, I would have not moved forward and opened a second location. And I’ve had my second location since late 2013 and it has been extremely successful. When I look at the paycheck stubs of the girls that work in that location I say “wow, you girls are killing it!”
I just thought for a moment, I want a location there and I believe I can have success ,and I move forward and forward with THAT thought. Don’t get caught up on those thoughts that hold you back, those thoughts that make you sit in one place, you’ll never know if you can unless you do it. You may really not have fear, you may just be suffering from over-thinking. Sometimes, you just have to let these thoughts go and just move forward. Don’t get caught up in “Oh, I have fear, I better stay put.” There’s so many people in this Earth for others to help and affect. But some of these people are for YOU to reach. I believe that we all have a designated number of people that we need to touch and reach In this world. It’s not always about preaching a gospel, it’s about reaching somebody and share things that you have experienced and changed in your life that they are trying to. It takes somebody like you to help them move out from the state that they are in. Did you ever think about that?
It’s important to know where you’ve come from and how far you’ve come. Even though I have already experienced success in my beauty business, I have so much further to go. We all have that something that’s screaming to come out. Let it come out, do not just try to push that fire down. Let it out because somebody needs to feel that fire. Somebody needs to feel that fire burning inside of you. Remember things that gold is refined in the fire.
So I realized all this time I did not have fear. I was only overthinking some things and in my other areas of business that I have been working on. I have books that I have been working on, and I’m getting them done now. You have got to get IT done, whatever that IT may be, only you know that. You never know who is out there you’re supposed to be reaching, who you’re supposed to be touching, and the longer you sit on that gift, the more they’re going to hurt, the more they’re going through it, the more they’re going to experience it because you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing.
Look, if I can get somebody to pay $500 for a set of eyelash extensions, you can write that book, you can start that business. You can do amazing things. I thought for a moment when I started doing eyelash extensions that this may be crazy, but I threw that momentary doubt and fear behind me and moved forward. I even had some people in my life that told me “who’s going to pay for eyelashes, who’s going to get their eyelashes done, you’re going to start a business doing eyelash extensions?” “You’re damn right!” was the action I took, didn’t have to speak the words to anyone else. I spoke the words to myself. And I did it! And I am killing it! And it’s all because of that; not overthinking.
So don’t let people put those doubts in your mind because honestly a lot of the fear that people experience is because of the speech that other people have spoken to them. It absolutely is a blessing, I did not allow my own husband to stop me because he thought I was crazy. He thought I was comfortable while sitting in a law firm, sitting in my own office, sitting at my desk. He thought I was comfortable getting a steady paycheck every two weeks but honestly I was underpaid because I was doing the work of about three legal assistants at times, making the income of one and honestly. That income sucks because I was extremely stressed out, I was doing so much work while the attorney I was working for, was out on golf tours and I was doing everything he wanted me to do. If he needed me to go pick up his dry cleaning, I couldn’t tell him no even when I didn’t want to do it because I didn’t want to get fired. But when I said, enough was enough, I was out of there.
And a lot of them would not believe it if they saw me now, but I didn’t allow the speech that people have spoken to me in my life to stop me from doing what I was doing. NOW my husband is so proud of me. And it’s okay, because he didn’t know what I needed to do in order to live my best self, because it is my life! So now that he sees the vision come to fruition, it makes sense. Not everybody’s faith is your faith. What I am saying is, I did not allow it to stop me. And you can’t expect any and everyone to understand the passion you have for making a change in your life. You just have to walk it out.
I started as a massage therapist while I was still working in a law firm. I went to school for massage therapy in 2006 and left the law firm in 2007. I transitioned from massage therapy into becoming a certified eyelash extension stylist and licensed esthetician. So when I got my license for massage therapy, after a period of time, I stepped out from the law firm. I didn’t step out right away.
If any of you are in the beauty industry, aspiring to be in the beauty industry or if you know someone that is or even if you’re not, I’d like to give you a free gift. You can go to bit.ly/beautypros17 and these are just some of the things that I have learned in the beauty industry that has helped me become a prosperous beauty business professional and I’m extremely blessed to be here. I am thankful to be here.