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Sept. 7, 2022

Hairstylist Career Chat with Lenise and Star of Parlour Republic

We're giving you The Keys to The Office, and all you need to do is show up ready to unlock the door. In this episode, you will learn: 1. How Lenise Robinson and Star Davis met and started working together 2. The importance of formal and informal education in the hair industry 3. How the transition from working alone to working in partnership can be successful

In this episode we cover:
-How to find a mentor in the hair industry
-How to be a mentor to other stylists
-The importance of being open and honest
-The importance of formal and informal mentorship
-The importance of being intentional with your money

Timestamps:

[00:00:02] - The Keys to the Office
[00:02:18] - Introducing Lenise & Star
[00:06:07] - Switching from corporate to hairstylist career
[00:08:29] - What did you study in college
[00:09:39] - The importance of formal education
[00:14:09] - Be intentional about your coins
[00:15:12] - From solo to business partners
[00:22:23] - The Keys to Success
[00:25:11] - Finding a mentor
[00:27:40] - Mentoring other stylists
[00:32:49] - What is Parlor Republic's Shadow Day
[00:37:05] - Bye until next episode

Lenise Robinson is a mom, veteran, and educator with 14 years of experience in the hair industry. She is passionate about healthy hair and loves to share her knowledge with her clients. Star Davis is a dog mom and college graduate with 14 years of experience in the hair industry. She is the owner of Healthy Hair Republican in Richmond, Virginia and loves to help her clients embrace their natural hair.

This is Lenise Robinson and Star Davis's story...

Lenise Robinson and Star Davis are two black female hairstylists who have been in the industry for 14 years. They met while working at the same salon and quickly realized they had a lot in common. Both women are passionate about hair and education, and they decided to start a business together. Their business is based in Richmond, Virginia and provides hair services and products to their clients. They also offer classes and education on hair care to their clients and to other stylists. Their business has been successful due to their shared passion for hair and their commitment to education.

In this episode, you will learn the following:
1. How Lenise Robinson and Star Davis met and started working together
2. The importance of formal and informal education in the hair industry
3. How the transition from working alone to working in partnership can be successful

Guest Info

Lenise Robinson - Owner of ParlourRVA in Richmond, VA. 14-year industry professional, a mom, military veteran, and educator for Mizani.
https://www.instagram.com/parlourrva/
linktr.ee/parlourrva

Star Davis - Owner of Healthy Hair Republic in Richmond, VA. She as been doing hair since childhood and spent time as a successful celebrity hairstylist in her 14-year career in the hair industry.
https://www.instagram.com/thehairmogul/
parlourrepublicshadowday.eventbrite.com


Join Star and Lenise for a day full of business structure tips + technical skills that are sure to fill your professional cup. We love to keep it light and fun so expect to have some laughs!
 
parlourrepublicshadowday.eventbrite.com


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CONTACT
For all business inquiries, please email: thekeystotheoffice@gmail.com
Phone Number: (804) 766-5768

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Transcript

Announcer
Hey, future Black and Latinx leaders. You are listening to the Keys to The Office podcast, where we interview amazing professionals who share their individual career paths to set you up for success. We're giving you The Keys to The Office, and all you need to do is show up ready to unlock the door. Let's jump into today's episode.

Kristina
All right, ladies and gentlemen, boys and, girls, Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. I am so excited to have these two ladies with me today. They've been life changing, and my interactions with them kind of goofballish, but also, like, bosses and just killing it in their industry, which is all things hair and healthy hair, specifically. And so welcome to the Keys to the Office podcast. Lenise and star. I'm so excited. So Lenise is my hairstylist and Star is her partner in crime for all things hair. And I asked them to join us today because you I was going to share the rest, but let's dive in, and it's okay.

I've learned so much from Lenise, specifically, I'll share with you all. And I know you've noticed I literally just had her cut and color my hair, and part of it was her advisement, right? And then the healthiness of my hair since then and even before then, because she's been doing my hair for years. Phenomenal. You sit in the chair, and you get a lesson. And I hear the same thing with Star and her clients. You get a lesson on how to embrace your hair, how to take care of it. They're not about just, you know, sending you out, looking good if your hair is not healthy. I'll even tell you all if y'all don't follow Lenise. She just posted something the other day about a Labor Day barbecue and not eating the bad stuff and yada, yada, yada. But we'll get into all that. So I'll pause here.

Star
Can you tell?

[Kristina]
The excitement, it's just like, bubbling. Lenise and Star, please introduce yourselves to the Keys to The Office family.

Lenise
Go ahead, dad. Okay. I guess she's my daughter today.

Star
We don't know.

Lenise
It depends on the day. So I am Lenise of the Lenise and Star duo. Lenise Robinson, to be exact. Been in the industry for about 14 years now, and this is a second career for me. So I'm having a great time. It's my passion, and I absolutely love what I do.

Star
I'm a mom.

Lenise
I have a 21 year old broke best friend, and I love him.

Star
Love him dearly.

Lenise
I'm a veteran, and I'm also an educator for Mizani. So this is my virtual classroom, my virtual setup, but I love what I do. So thank you for having me.

[Kristina]
Thank you for saying yes. And, Ms. Star, thank you for saying.

Star
Yes to tell us who you are. So I'm Star Davis, owner of healthy hair republican, Richmond, Virginia. I've been doing hair for really since I was fast, if I'm being honest. But officially on the book for 14 years. Yup. And I don't know, I've always wanted to do hair, like, literally since I was five. It's one of those things. It's like you have a dream and then you end up living out your dream. So this is all I've pretty much done. I am a college graduate on the left, and I do have one son. His name is James, and I am so proud of him. He just started a new daycare, and he didn't get kicked out yet.

Lenise
Can we just clarify that James is a dog? Because I'm really going to think that this is a whole human being and it's an actual dog.

Star
Wow. I did not interrupt you during your statement.

Lenise
I let you finish before I interjected that back.

[Kristina]
I think the clarification was needed for the people.

Star
Okay, fine. Yes, he is a canine. Technically. Yes. That's my source.

[Kristina]
Yes. How did you two meet?

Lenise
We started working on a site.

[Kristina]
Or is it something we can talk about?

Lenise
Yeah, we actually just started working in the same salon here in Richmond. Shout out to Image Enhancement Center owned by Beyond Hughes. Actually, we met she had a birthday bowling thing. Bowling party. And that's with Sand, I met right before we both started.

Star
Yes.

[Kristina]
Was it loving for a sight?

Star
No, the girl was strict. Mama was strict, you all. And it wasn't even that she was sick at that time. I'm 18, and it was a mess. I was a beautiful caterpillar trying to block me.

Lenise
That's one way of putting it.

Star
When I saw her, I was like, she's not but she was too professional for me. I was in the hood and I was like, no. And then we started working together. I found out that all of that, I assume, was true. She was very professional. She kind of rang me in slowly.

Lenise
There was something else. But, you know, on the flip side of that, I could not do hair. Like, to save my life, I couldn't do a lick of hair. She was always an amazing stylist. So while Star was kind of all over the place in terms of her professionalism, I helped her in that arena, and then she just helped me, technically. So it was a really good partnership from the beginning.

[Kristina]
Mutually beneficial. I love it. I love it. So you wanted to do this from the time you were like, yay hi to a grasshopper. And, Lenise, you chose a different first career. Talk to me about the transition from career one to career two. Kind of what led to that and how difficult was it?

Lenise
So the thing that led to it was really being deployed. So, like I said, I'm a veteran, and when you sit overseas in the middle of Baghdad and you hear rockets going back, it changes your perspective really quickly. So I started my bucket list, and I wanted to go to Africa. So I went to Africa, I wanted to shave my hair off and I always wanted to go to cosmetology school because I just enjoyed it. Although I did not like getting my hair done growing up, I'm very tender headed. I always enjoyed the relationship between stylist and clients. So it was on my bucket list and I was like, you know what, I'm going to go. I was 27, so I was a little older than the students in my class, but I went. And then even after going to college school, I still was fearful of leaving my corporate job, my good corporate job. I was in it. I was traveling. It was a very secure job, but my heart just wasn't in it. So I just kept telling myself that I was going to be an entrepreneur by 35. Actually I put it on Facebook so the memory comes up quite often and I just saved and saved and saved and with the final straw, the catalyst was my coworker passed away and she passed away kind of swiftly like we learned she had cancer maybe in September and I'll say by April she was on and I was like, no, that cannot be me. So her whole life was work. I decided to leave and that was it. I had been doing here part time and I was already burnt out just because between juggling a fulltime job, my son and his sport schedule and salon life, it was just a lot. So at 35, I left and haven't looked back. No, I haven't paid you to go.

[Kristina]
Back to corporate Kobe.

Lenise
Absolutely not. Absolutely not.

[Kristina]
I love it. So question for you, star, you wanted to do here. You mentioned going to college. What did you study?

Star
So originally I went in to be a OBGYN. A lot of people don't know that, but I was premed and I quickly realized that that was not going to happen. I was like, you're doing more hair in the dorms than you are going to class and so you probably get an exam. It was a lot, actually. And so then I ended up just getting my associates of education at Reynolds and with the concentration on science, but I still always wanted to do hair. That was just kind of one of those your parents were saying you probably should just go to college. Yeah, a complete waste of my time. Not anyone else's time but mine because I still went back to my first.

[Kristina]
Love and I think that's important when we start talking about formal college brick and mortar education, right, standard general curriculum, general classes and then maybe pursuing some major based on what someone else thinks you should do. So my thought around this podcast is that we're going to save people time and money when we talk about, and this is for both of you, the education piece and how you learned to perfect your craft. So you transitioned from it according to star you didn't really know how to do here.

Star
I feel like I heard that. No.

[Kristina]
So you made that transition from one career to the other. Star. You were pursuing the premed track and then decided to shift gears. Talk to me about how formal education, specifically in the hairspace, has played a role in your success.

Lenise
I will say that, and I think this is probably true for a lot of stylists starting out. You kind of shy away from education because you can't afford it. But one of the things that somebody who helped mentor me along the way, she said, I've learned to apply this in my life, but you have to stop thinking yourself out of how to do a thing and think of ways to make it happen. So instead of me saying that I couldn't afford a cutting class, I had to say, all right, if I put $15 away from each client, from each ticket that I make, I'll be able to take this class in two months. You know what I mean? So I had to start getting creative with how I was going to be able to afford education. And so once you start taking education, and then you go from taking a look and learn class to like a hands on class, and you at that point, then you just don't want to go back. It was key because not only do you acquire a new skill, but you're then able to go back to the salon, one, raise your prices, but also find people where you can now put that new tool in practice. So it's been very beneficial for me because, like I said, I couldn't do anything. I would watch the other girls in the salon. But the thing is, you could be watching someone, but you can't necessarily say, well, why would you use this versus that? You can't always do that in a salon space. We do that in our space, but that's not always the case in every salon. So it was really helpful for me to understand that.

Star
My situation, of course, is going to be completely different from the Nissan, because I didn't have the responsibility of life at that point. It was really just me. I was living with my grandparents, I believe. And to be honest, I looked up to a lot of the stylist at the salon, and I was at Lance being one of those people, and I would look at them and they would be going to classes and they would be doing things, and I want to do that too. And I think we kind of always had a serious promo thing going on, right? It's so bad. It's probably really got excited. But then I was like, you know what? This is fun. And after your first, like, big show my first big show actually was with Lenise. I'm now thinking about it. We went to Premiere Beauty in New York, and I just was like, oh, my God. People literally do this. They get to do this all day every day and do classes and go to classes. And so it really wasn't a saving thing. It was more of a, I can't miss out on what's going on. But also I want to be where these people who I look up to are, so let me see what they do.

Lenise
And we had a lot of fun. And the other thing I will share is that kind of exposure. That is what actually put me on the path of becoming an educator from Mizani. So that's when I first saw somebody on the stage teaching, and I was like, do that. So it exposes you to more than just learning a new skill or having fun with your other peers, but you see other opportunities, and there's so many different ways you can take in the beauty industry, so it just kind of exposes you to all of that as well.

[Kristina]
So I'm hearing a couple of things. One being maybe formal and informal mentorship, right? So these are people who you've either said, let me shadow you, and we'll get into shadow day, let me shadow you for a minute and see what you're doing and learn from you. And then there are others you just kind of watch, and you start to pick up tidbits from along the way. I'm also hearing the intentional about your coins, right? Like, you have to budget for the things you want. I know you're a mother star, but Lenise, you have a human child.

Star
Thank you.

[Kristina]
You have a human child, and there are expenses associated with both. But now your human child is an adult, and he probably costs a few extra dollars to be around you and be whatever purpose he serves. I don't know. We could talk about our kids all day, but sending love to him. But you had that extra mouth to feed, and so you had to be intentional about how you spent your money if you were going to grow in that space, right? So I'm sure you have mentors along the way as well, people who are educating you, but you had to come out of pocket with some money to make that happen, and so you started working in the space and then set aside money to continue to grow and then raise your price. So now I have another question, because you two are business partners. Talk to me about that leap from kind of doing something solo as a stylist to then shifting into, let's say out of your house, into a salon, out of your house, into partnership with someone. Talk to me about what that path potentially looks like or look like for you too, and how you ensure it's successful. Because not everyone can go into business with someone else. Some of us can't even live with someone else, much less going we slid off. It went that way. Talk to us a little bit about how that transition occurred and sort of the keys to that success, being successful business owners together.

Star
I just went off because Lenny's got a lot more chat. And I know, to be quite honest, I think that when you find this is going to be real work with me rolling into doing it by yourself for me. Came it was an automaton kind of someone asked me a question about, are you sure that you want to do one thing that I thought I had my heart dead set on, which is going to work in a salon with other people and doing that thing, and then versus me going into a single studio by myself. And when they asked me that question at the time, I had already conquered being a celebrity stylist. I had traveled and did hair. I had moved to another state and did hair. I had done it all. So I was like, well, I've done all these things. Let me try this single thing by myself and see if I like it. And I did. And then fast forwarding into business partnership. Me and Lenise in particular, have always followed each other wherever we went. So the first one we came, we didn't know each other. Right. The next place I followed her okay. The next place she followed me, and then the next place well, the next place she followed me, technically, but I really was, like, posting her to Come, so I'll say that was me that time. And I think that we kind of just have always understood each other. We respected each other. We really do meet each other where we're at. Definitely. I can be very spoiled, and Lenise has her rigid moment, but we both understand that about each other. And so not taking things personal and being able to separate the business from the friendship, like I tell people all the time, well, Lenise was my boss. She wrote me up, and we carried on like it was nothing at our normal cocktail hour, because she up. Oh, yeah, I was back.

Lenise
Listen, that was problematic. She's had a wonderful journey.

Star
She wrote me up. But you know what? She did it. And I was like, you know, you're right. I shouldn't have that. But we moved on, and I think a lot of business parties, unfortunately, can't move on. And as we started growing our businesses together, we realized that we need other things, like separation agreements, or if we do decide to part ways just so we can, number one, preserve our friendship, but also preserve our business at the end of the day. So, yeah, I mean, I just found my person messed up with them. I love it.

Lenise
It's very codependent.

[Kristina]
That's what it's giving.

Star
It's giving.

[Kristina]
Toxic.

Lenise
Is very toxic. She is the love of my life. No, just like me.

Star
It might be, but, yeah, pretty much.

Lenise
Everything Star said is true. My journey was a little different because I had had a partnership before Star, and it was just not good. It was not good. And it scarred me, to be honest. It scarred me deeply because not only did I lose a partnership and a business that I had named, I lost a friend. So it was very traumatic. I was in a lot of therapy. I've made it out on the other side. So with Star just going back to the journey that she described when she moved to her suite, and then I moved to my suite in the same building, then she left to go open her salon, her brick and mortar salon. And first of all, all of our clients were like, so when are you moving? When is Lindy moving? It's just a matter of time.

Star
We didn't know, but we did not know.

Lenise
And she did want me to move, but I just felt strongly about, number one, I was still very scarred from being in a partnership before.

Star
Yeah.

Lenise
And number two, Star really had not been an owner. She was owning her suite. Absolutely. But a full brick and mortar salon where there were other styles. She had not had that experience by herself. And I really felt strongly about allowing her that time to grow herself and get her footing as a leader without me, without my influence. So she was graphic in the long run. She was grateful for that. She had some.

Star
Learning curves and covet hit.

Lenise
It was time, and we wanted to work on things together, like, some additional things together. So we decided to just partner up, move into the same space and just see where things go.

Star
Yeah, it's been great.

Lenise
But like she said, to be honest, just coming from a bad situation to the partnership start I have the underlying thing that really allows us to thrive is that mutual respect. If that mutual respect does not exist, it is literally like a marriage. So if you go into a marriage and you don't really respect your husband, you're going to be talking to him crazy, doing all this weird stuff. If that does not exist in a partnership, it is the same dynamic.

[Kristina]
It is the same thing.

Star
Yeah, that's good.

[Kristina]
That mutual respect piece. And there's clearly loves between the two of you.

Star
Very deep love.

[Kristina]
Can make your clients absolutely love it. Listen, I speak for myself. I love it.

Star
I get to, like, cut up first.

[Kristina]
I kind of felt you all out.

Star
You don't really get to cut up.

[Kristina]
Even if it's just me on my way out the door, some fool in the mirror, because I'm feeling myself like there's an energy that you all bring to the salon. That's much needed at a time when we're all dealing with stuff. Let me ask you, all this recognizing that we call this the keys to the office, right, where we talk about that pathway to success for corporate, for entrepreneurs. As you think about that young woman or a man who's maybe in their 20s, give or take, or even in their teens, and thinking about going into this industry, what's one bit of advice that each of you could share one major key that you'd say leads to being successful, even independent stylists, but then beyond that, successful business partners. And we talked about the mutual respect. So I know that's definitely in there. But what do you think in Lenise and Star in terms of that major key to being successful?

Lenise
I think first and foremost, finding a mentor so you can avoid the pitfalls. And what will be beneficial is if that mentor is also an accountability partner. So Star and I do a lot of that, like checks and balancing. Girl, I'm doing this, which you think.

Star
Is a good idea.

Lenise
Well, I'm doing the same thing. And people know when Star does something, I'm typically right behind her. If I do something, she's typically right behind me. So having that partnership.

Star
You know.

Lenise
Not even a business partnership. But just someone who you can be accountable to and who will hold you accountable to what you've committed to and somebody who can mentor you and kind of guide you on the right path because you can just be out here lost. Trying to make decisions and make a really bad decision that cost you a whole lot of money when you could have just avoided it based on a mentor with a share. So that's my biggest takeaway or piece of advice.

Star
I would say figure out what your why is. What's your end goal? Let me be very clear. The end goal changes all the time.

[Kristina]
It does change.

Star
It does change.

Lenise
So figure out sure why like, at.

Star
The core of it all, why do you want to do this and what about it makes you so happy? And then I'm going to probably that into going into the business partnership Lenise, mentioned this. I was very grateful for that time on my own. And that literally was the best time. It was a very hard time. It was the hardest time. I would say probably I'm not, but it was the best time because it really got I was able to see what kind of leader I did not want to be, to be honest, working the type of lead that I did want to be. And at that time, my wife had shifted so much, I was like all over the place. But at the core of it all, what do you love about it? And that's what kind of kept me grounded. So figuring out your why I love it.

[Kristina]
Let me ask you this, because the word mentorship has come up a lot. How does someone find a mentor in this space? Next step to do that? Like, I want to learn, I want to grow. How do I find my person?

Star
To be honest, I think, say you're not all the way there. For example, like me, I wasn't all the way there. I wasn't the most professional. I wasn't this. But I went somewhere that, to me, was the most professional, was the cream of the crop. I went somewhere that I knew that I could become a better stylist. And that's how I found my first mentor, which was Deion Hughes of Image Enhancement Center. And, well, she was not into it since I was five. Okay. Going into a place that you want to be is a good example. I mean, a good way to do it as a hairstylist. Another one is being open and honest, sitting down, having conversations with stylists, and talking to them.

[Kristina]
Open your mouth and ask.

Lenise
Right.

[Kristina]
Because close mouths don't get fat.

Star
Yeah.

Lenise
And I think it was a little easier for us because we're in Richmond. In Richmond is a pretty small city, which means that our industry within the city is even smaller. So our network was pretty full. Like, we knew other stylists. And so knowing that you've seen these other styles, you know what they're about. Just look at them and see who you want to be like, you know, and reach out to them. Like you said, closed mouths don't get fed. So be putting yourself in the spaces where they are going to be watching them and just asking questions. And I think this really not even just for finding a mentor, but just being your authentic self so that you show up as yourself, and people can appreciate that. If you show up trying to look like and act like somebody else, it's not going to work. So just being your true, authentic self, like Sara says, she can be super spoiled sometimes.

Star
That's it.

Lenise
I can be very rigid and very structured, and that's what I need. But I know I am. I know my limitations and I know my challenges, and I'm just honest about that. But I need Star for that kind of stuff. Like, she's the big thinker. And I'm like, okay, well, how do we get that done?

[Kristina]
Yeah.

Star
And that's what I need. I need the how do we get it done? Right? Yes.

[Kristina]
So kind of shifting and staying along the same lines as mentorship. Talk to me a little bit about how you two mentor and teach other stylists. Right. I know you have Shadow Day, which you all are so cute. I love everything about the way you all do business.

Lenise
Right.

[Kristina]
Like, it's energizing. And I actually thought about you, too, when I made the decision to leave corporate lunish. You know, I've been talking about a little bit in the chair. Talk to me a little bit about Shadow Day right. And how you all are empowering and educating other stylists.

Lenise
So we've kind of been in that space for a while. When I transitioned into my first partnership and Star came over, we actually started as mentors with one of the tech centers here. And so we started working directly with students then. So that was kind of the first time that I think I don't know if that's true for you, Star, but that was kind of the first time where I was in a mentorship role, working directly with students, and then from there, because they would come and work with us. I did these classes for teens, so for girl groups, summer camps, things like that, I would do little classes. And so it kind of put my name out there as someone who can mentor young girls, particularly girls who wanted to be in the beauty industry. And so people would kind of seek us out. So we had kind of been in that space for a while. And I think that, again, for me, mentorship is really about being my authentic self and allowing people to see something beyond just being behind the chair. Because a lot of times mentors in our space will show you how to do hair and they'll show you how to cut, but they don't show you how to go and do your color inventory so you can figure out what you need for the next week, how to put systems in place in your business. They don't show you those things. So it's just very important to me that we expose people to those kinds of things, which is how Shadow Day came about.

Star
Let me just add a little piece to that, because everything she said is following. Like we said, our situations have mirrored each other. So, yes, all of that is true for me and something that I wanted to see when I was misty, which I actually did get an opportunity to see. And I won't name her because what I'm about to say is a little but it's a compliment of the most compliment. I watched someone go from very rough to very a semi refined style. And at the time, me being rough, I needed someone that looked like me. Right? Not someone who had it all together, not someone who had so she ended up being a mentor later on to me, because I watched her grow from this to this. And I think it's important that we don't forget where we came from and we don't forget, like, you don't have to have it all together as a stylist to end up winning in the end. Right? I was a mess. Showing up late with a bonnet on my head, all the things yeah, I.

[Kristina]
Got the visual there.

Star
So I think that people with the bonnet and showing up late and you coming in, walking in with your client like, hey, girl, give me 20 minutes, I need to get myself settled. I think that's the real thing. Okay. You need to hear from someone who's had that experience, who was able to come out on the other side. So seeing someone like you, I. Think is just very important. That propelled me into wanting to be a mentor. And also we had a wonderful we've had several mentees, right? But we had one in particular.

[Kristina]
Tell her story.

Star
Alexis. I love her. I love her. We love her. We're obsessed with her, whatever, right. So we saw her go from she was always the sweetest anyway, right. We saw her go from this sweet, quiet junior high school to now a full-time stylist college grad woman, did her four year degree, came back and said, no, I want to do hair like this is actually what I want to do. I did that, but I want to do this. And who knows, that could change. Just watching being able to mentor her into now her full self or her full self today, it was so rewarding. It's something that I want to keep doing.

Lenise
I want to add to that too, because I think it's key. What starts that is key. Like being able to have someone who look like you and just to not forget where you came from. But the challenge in that now that we're experiencing as mentors is accepting that we can't save everybody cool. Everybody doesn't want to go where we're trying to go. So that's something that we're trying to work through now. Because when you want to see people win, when you genuinely want to see people win, it's a hard pill to swallow. When they don't really see it in themselves, it's a really hard pill to swallow.

[Kristina]
Yeah.

Lenise
Just learning to accept that and again, try to meet them where they are and just leave it there.

[Kristina]
Tell me what Shadow Day looks like.

Lenise
Well, Shadow Day. Parlor Republic shadow Day I don't think they said the name of our salon, so I know. And star is healthy hair Republic. So we just combine those. Star actually came up with this title, parlor Republic Shadow Day. And so it's a two part day where we invite Stylists in and really, it could be anybody in the beauty industry. We will eventually open this up to any self-employed people, really. But the first part of the day, we're going to talk about business. Because again, especially in our industry, we don't always learn about the business of beauty. So how to pay yourself, how to set your prices, how to develop systems in your business, how to find a team of like-minded people. We don't learn those things. We just really learn how to do hair. And so we're sharing those things. Part of that is also how to build your ticket. And so we just decided to do live models. So we'll be doing two live models where we talk through our process and then how do we build that ticket price so that you are making what you want to make. But it's going to be fun. I'm so excited. This is our first time doing this. I'm beyond excited.

Star
I'm nervous because the Nissan knows this. I am not a teacher, per se. I am a great wingman when it comes to teaching, but in terms of doing the full facilitation, my nerves get me. So I'm happy to be doing it, but I am nervous, if I'm being honest.

Lenise
It's okay. And to be honest, just from being a facilitator, the nerves for me come when I'm not 100% certain about the content. Once I know the content and say, we've done this two or three times, it's going to be easier. Yeah.

[Kristina]
And you all have each other, so you all will be great. This was so awesome. Like, grinning ear to ear. This was everything I imagined it would be. And then some. Like, just a really good conversation full of nuggets for those not just in the beauty industry, because I think about individuals who are going into other industries who don't take the time to invest in learning their craft, but also don't know the business side of doing business, because doing hair cute, but actually having a business. There's so much more to it than that. I'm happy to have you ladies as part of my circle of entrepreneurs, to continue to pour into me when I'm in the shop or when I'm sitting in the chair and I'm like, Girl, I can't sleep at night. I'm up at 03:00 A.m. Thinking about this and that. I love it. I love y'all. I'm done being sappy. So tell the people. Tell the people how they can find you, how they can follow you, and how they can sign up for Shadow Day.

Star
You can follow me at the hair mobile on Instagram. And you can sign up for Shadow Day by clicking the link in my Bio. Yes.

Lenise
You can follow me on Facebook as well as Instagram at Parlour RVA. That's Parlour RVA. And then also the link in my Bio is a lead tree, so it has the link to Shadow Day there. But I post all kinds of stuff, tips, whatever personal life stuff I try to keep to my stories. But please definitely follow us. We need more followers. I do.

Star
Yes, we do. We really do. Will we see the dog?

[Kristina]
The little human?

Star
No, because Lenise said I had to put them away for this.

Lenise
Thank you.

[Kristina]
Ridge is Lance.

Star
Mama, sign.

[Kristina]
All right, ladies, thank you so much. I know this will help so many. I'm beyond grateful for the time you all carved out on this Saturday morning to chat with us. So thank you and I'll see you later.

Lenise
Bye bye.

Announcer
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Lenise RobinsonProfile Photo

Lenise Robinson

Hairstylist/Salon Owner

Lenise is the owner of Parlour Salon in Richmond, VA, and a 14-yr veteran in the beauty industry where she has served as a cosmetology program mentor, brand ambassador, textured hair educator, and a Mizani artist since early 2020. Her thirst for education and excellence continues to fuel her success in the industry.

Star DavisProfile Photo

Star Davis

CEO

Star began her career as a hairstylist at the tender age of 5 and knew then that being a hair artist was her calling. After graduating from Highland Springs Technical School in 2008 she began building her career as a healthy hair artist. She has also been a hairstylist to an elite celebrity clientele since 2015 and believes that everyone has the potential to have the healthiest hair possible, thus Healthy Hair Republic was born in 2016.

Through her time cultivating Healthy Hair Republic she has been able to service women of all backgrounds and truly believes that healthy Hair starts from within and we are all able to obtain healthy beautiful hair. Star specializes in Microlinks and other flawless hair extension techniques. Whether you're Natural, Relaxed, or color treated Star welcomes you with open arms.