Hey Lash Hey Podcast
Welcome to Hey Lash Hey, the podcast where lash education, industry tea, business growth, and real life all meet in one place.
Hosted by Tee, a licensed esthetician, award winning lash artist, educator, solo salon owner, and founder of the Lash Education & Empowerment Foundation, this show was created for lash artists who want honest conversations, practical education, and a community that truly gets it.
Each episode covers everything from lash techniques, client experience, products, pricing, and industry trends to entrepreneurship, personal growth, faith, family, and the behind the scenes reality of building a beauty business.
No gatekeeping. No fake perfection. Just education, transparency, encouragement, and a little tea along the way.
Whether you are brand new to lashes or years into the game, pull up, best friend. There is always room for you here.
Hey Lash Hey Podcast
Episode 12: Checking My Rearview
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In this episode of Hey Lash Hey, Tee gets real about growth, creativity, community, and the journey from employee to entrepreneur. She shares personal updates, including her new car, family beach adventures, upcoming events, and exciting initiatives happening within the lash community.
Tee also breaks down the art of creating beautiful wispy lash sets, sharing techniques, tips, and creative approaches that lash artists can use to elevate their work. She discusses the value of education, networking, competitions, and giveaways, and how each one can create new opportunities for artists within the industry.
Throughout the episode, Tee reflects on the challenges that shaped her journey, from organizing a protest and losing her job to building a successful business and finding support through her community. She opens up about how her goals and dreams have evolved, the importance of self reflection, and learning to make sure the life you are building still aligns with what you truly want.
Tee also speaks honestly about brand loyalty, transparency, and maintaining integrity within business relationships. She encourages listeners to stay true to themselves, trust God’s direction, and keep moving forward, even when the journey looks different from what they originally imagined.
LEEF Skool Community Link (Loupes Giveaway): https://www.skool.com/we-are-leef-2503/about
Beauty Ceo Summit 2026 Dallas: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2026-beauty-ceo-summit-the-authority-era-tickets-1992958807442?utm_experiment=test_share_listing&aff=ebdsshios&utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQPOTM2NjE5NzQzMzkyNDU5AAGnKl5SamKzx--269Yy-aQDG3zZJCIJy9XSoUnom4gqFkS62yhmnuGb25d9t_4_aem_t03_7t0W0wCFFLWnHpZCRw
Hey, welcome to the podcast where lashes, life, and good vibes collide. Whether you're here for insider tips, beauty biz advice, or just need some feel-good energy, you've come to the right place. We're spilling tea, diving into all things lashes, vibing out with music and TV, and of course growing closer to God in our prayer corner. So hit that follow button, grab your drink, and let's lash it out, bestie. This is hey lash hey, the show you didn't know you needed. Here's your host T.
SPEAKER_00Hey Lash Hey, it's me, T, the Estie, and your lash bestie. And I want to welcome you to another episode of Hey Lash Hey. Can you believe it is July? And it's halfway through July at that, and halfway through the year. This is crazy. Like this year has been full of competitions, as you know, traveling, chasing my dreams, and everything in between. And this episode is gonna be a little bit differently because I usually give you advice on what you should be doing and how to grow your business. But sometimes you have to take a step back and be honest with yourself and just reflect on where you've been. When you're trying to achieve your goals, growth looks differently. And sometimes taking a step back and looking at the steps that got you where you are can actually help you grow and get to your goals faster. I think. Well, that's just my personal opinion. But let's talk about it. So grab your drinks, get comfy, and let's get into tea time. It's tea time. All right, besties. Let's catch up because there's been a lot happening behind the scenes and your girl has been working in a good way. I'm excited to uh have opportunities uh fall into my lap and things that I've been praying and working for, they are coming into fruition. So I don't even know if that's the right word, but I'm so excited. Like, okay, so um the first thing is August the 16th. I will be speaking at the beauty CEO Summit in Dallas, Texas, and I am so excited about the opportunity. I am going to be on a panel, so I'm a panelist, and we're just gonna be talking about business and what it takes to be a beauty boss. I'm excited to see like what questions we get asked so that we can talk about it. And I'm gonna come back and obviously report everything to you guys. I want to pull up the information so that I can tell you guys all the information about the event. It is in Dallas, Texas. It's called the Beauty CEO Summit. You can get your tickets on Eventbrite. I think I'm saying that right. And it is $87 for you to come and hang out. It's from 12 to 5, and then there is like a little after party mingle session after that, I think from like six to nine where you can talk and mingle and have a blast. So those tickets are on sale right now. I will put a link in my bio and also in the description because if you are in the Dallas area, babes, come and see me. It's gonna be Sunday, this August the 16th. So you have, I'm releasing this probably on the 17th. So you have like a whole month to get your ticket. So come and see me, support me. Support some of my trainer sisters are actually going to be there as well. Um, so it's gonna be a really, really good time. The next thing is LashCon is right around the corner. I am a little bit sad that they haven't released the party themes yet because you know me, I like to go all out with my costumes. And right now, I kind of just don't know what vibe to go for because there's no party themes. Now, their overall theme is the pivot and thrive, and it's like the um beach, lemon, flowy dresses type vibes there. But the parties all are always themed one theme, but differently than the entire event. And that's when all of the costumes and everything comes into play. So, especially the karaoke party. There's a whole, I don't know if they're doing it this year, but there's a costume um competition. There's the karaoke competition. So I'm already getting my karaoke song down, and then I am going to be working on my outfits as soon as they come out with the party theme. So, LashCon, if you're listening, please, please, can you release the um themes? Any of the ambassadors, if you guys know, can you just like whisper it in my ear and tell me because your girl got stuff to do. But that's not it. Leaf will actually be having a table at LashCon so that we can sign people up for the fine lashes near me lash directory. That is our main goal right now, is to fill up the lash directory. We're gonna be really pushing the lash directory so that we can get that filled up and it's gonna be used as a tool for lash artists all around. And then it's gonna be important that you sign up so that you can get future giveaways and resources and everything. And speaking of resources, we're going to be having our first leaf meeting, like meetup type of vibe, where it's gonna be heavy on education, heavy on connection. It's all gonna be online in our school community. So make sure that you're joining our school community. I'll also put that link in the description notes so that you have access to that. Everything is free 99 over here. So you don't have to worry about being able to afford um getting into school or anything like that. Maybe down the line, there will be a couple of things that you would have to pay for. Um, but it would be super affordable, like $5 for a training course or uh things like that. Because as a nonprofit, we still have to make money at the end of the day so that we can help you guys. Because we're new, a lot of companies have been willing to pour into us and give us things for free so that we can give them to you guys. But all of these businesses are e-commerce and they want their money too. So I would love to be able to pay for things so that I can give them to you guys for free. If you see stuff on there for like $5, just know that all of that is going towards the giveaways. I'm not pocketing any of it. I have a board and we all get together and we talk about the different things that we are going to be doing and we vote on them, uh, whether they are aligned with our mission and our goals, and then you guys see them. But speaking of companies who are giving us stuff for free, I have been shooting my shot with all of these companies. And I've been told yes a lot, but I've also been told no a lot. And just a little backstory: I am adopted and I am extremely spoiled. I'm the only girl in my immediate family on my adopted side and spoil rotten. My kids are spoiled rotten. It's just who we are. So I don't like to be told no. So sometimes when these companies are saying no, it makes me so sad because it's like, I know you can help. Come on. If I can help, I'm donating. I know you can help, and you're a multimillion dollar company. But you know, you can't shame anybody and you thank the people who are willing to invest in the lash community and invest in beginner lash artists and everyone on their journey in the lash industry. And with that being said, designs for vision, donated leaf, a pair of loops that we can give away. And I am so excited about this because access to better visibility while you're lashing can change somebody's career. I personally do not have loops. I would love to have loops. They are a huge investment. Um, most loops are about $800 to $1,500. Um, so you know, that's a big expense. But I would love to join this giveaway. Even though I can't, because I am the founder of Leaf and the executive director, I can't enter my own giveaways because that's just not fair and it's giving off scammy. So I'm not gonna do that. I love corn into you guys. And if that means that I don't get to have them, but somebody else does, I am totally fine with that. I'm 1000% fine with it. But just know that it's okay to enter giveaways and you're not judged as being a brokey or somebody who's just not making enough. We don't know what's going on in others' lives. And for me personally, I'm not broke, but I'm not rich either. I have a horrible relationship with money. I've always had a horrible relationship with money, and that's something that I am working on, and I might not have it all the time because of the poor decisions that I've made. It doesn't mean that my business isn't lucrative and making money. It doesn't mean that I'm not working. Well, I don't work every day, but it doesn't mean that I'm not like fully booked the way that I want to be fully booked. And it doesn't mean that I'm poor. It just means that I have a horrible relationship with money, and maybe you do too. And maybe you need the loops, and it's okay. Enter the giveaway. Nobody's too good for free. Come on now. The the millionaires and billionaires, you think they use their own money to invest in their businesses? No, they take free money and loans and other and grants and stuff from other people so that they can make the dreams happen. So invest in yourself. Don't worry about the outside noise saying, look at her entering a giveaway. So, and I've entered so many giveaways and it changed the trajectory of my career. Come on, guys. This is why I'm doing it. I'm doing it to help uplift you. And if you are struggling right now, like for real, if you're really, really struggling and you don't want anybody to know that you entered this giveaway, babe, enter under Jondo. Create a fenster and enter that way. If it's that serious, do it. I want you to win. So do whatever you gotta do. There's no judgment over here. We at Leaf will have a table at LashCon so that we can sign you up for the fine lashes near me lash directory, and there will be like a QR scan code or something so that you can fill out the application um to enter the giveaway for the loops. Um, mostly just going through the school app and joining our community. Now, in the school community, again, I mentioned that we're gonna have our first meeting through school community at the end of August. And I'm so excited to tell you guys what it's all about and all the behind the scenes. So I've been working on this customer experience script book, and I've been working on it for like months. Like, I don't play about customer service, and you know, I worked for the chiropractor, and they heavily used scripts when I first started. They were in a group called TLC, and um throughout that journey, they had scripts to ensure that each customer had their own experience, but the same experience. And I decided that we needed a script book in the lash industry that is tailored to customer service and making sure that all of the information that the clients need, they receive it on their first initial consultation. Because if you don't have steps to guide you or a SOP or anything like that, it can get really messy and things can fall through the cracks. And you want to make sure that all of your clients are having a quality experience when it comes to um coming to your space and receiving services from you. So again, I've been working on this for literally like a month. I was about to say a month. No girl, it's been multiple months. Every consultation to difficult clients to luxury client experiences, I've been literally pouring into this project and walking through step by step all of my SOPs and the things that I tend to do on the fly and adding them into the script to make sure that nothing gets missed in the cracks. There's gonna be a bed setup, how to sanitize your tools. So it's basically like a guide. Even though it's the customer experience script book, it's way more than that. There's gonna be mapping in there and there's gonna be a secret surprise in there that I'm gonna talk about in the August meeting. So definitely join. It's not really invite only because anybody in the school group will have access to the meeting and the education, and it's gonna be recorded, so it'll be like in a hub where you have access to it. Now, let's talk about Elevate. Do you know what Elevate is? Probably not. Elevate is a special lash event that uh PLA hosts for their trainers and it's invite only. And the first one that they had was last year in August, and I had so much fun being at the PLA warehouse is literally a vibe. I love it there. They're having their second elevate in October, and since I got invited to the first one, I didn't get invited to the second one because they kind of want to rotate everybody out. But they said if people didn't RSVP and confirmed that they wanted to come, then they'll open up the invites to uh more people, which are people who have already gone before. So I am gonna be slightly delusional and I've already booked my place that I'm gonna stay, and I've also uh booked my car rental. I haven't booked my flight yet because I don't do the cancel anytime I'm due to non-refundable flights because if I'm going, I'm going. And so hopefully I get an invite. If not, I'll just cancel my Airbnb and my rental. But at least I have everything in set and ready to go just in case I do get the invite. I don't care if it's a week before, babe. I'm there. So possibly you might hear me talking about that after October if I get invited. If not, it's okay. I've just, I'm just happy my sisters get to go and hang out with each other. Yes, I wish I was there. Yes, I might crash. Probably not. I'm not gonna crash because that's rude. That's like showing up to somebody's house when you weren't invited to the party and you're just like, hey. And that's not my vibe. But listen, I'm really I'm holding hope that everybody who got invited gets to respond and they'll open up some additional seats. A girl can dream. Uh, so I just let me live in my delusion, okay, best friend. Don't judge me. Because I know you're probably thinking, like, if I get invited to PLA, I'm going. And that's how I am. I didn't get invited, and I still think I'm going in my head. So just be delusional with me. No judging, okay? We listen and we don't judge. Say it with me. We listen and we don't judge. Good job, best friend. I'm clapping for you. Okay. So the next thing is the lash ritual is having a color class. Oh, color class, sound crazy. A color lash class in Indiana. And I'm gonna pull up the information for that. Please hold. I should already have all of this in my show notes, but I don't, so mind your business. But the uh vivid lash masterclass is going to be in Anderson, Indiana, and it's on September the 20th. Ooh, that's cutting it close to LashCon, but we'll be back before then because we're doing lash con from the 11th to the 15th. So we have a couple of days in between there, and Indiana is like literally right down the corner for me. So hopefully I can go. There's a maximum of 10 students, so tickets are limited, and the class cost is $695. So uh some classes are like thousands of dollars, so I guess that's not bad. It's a pretty decent price. It's not free $99, which I wish it was, but that's okay. They also have some other dates in Boston, which are sold out, and then there's two spots in Dallas. I'm not for sure of those dates. So go to the lash ritual on Instagram, and um, there's more information about that. But oh my god, I really want to go and learn from the Lash Ritual girlies. I had the honor of connecting with some of them at Lash Boss Summit after uh lash battle, and I follow them on Instagram, and I'm a fan, and I love their vibe. Like, I don't judge, and I like when people do their own thing and you can see the creative weirdness gushing out of them, and that just that excites my creativity. Um, they have truly inspired me to step out of my shell and try more color. And I did this pink set about a month ago, and it was so cute. I was like, oh my gosh, I'm about to fire all of my basic clients, and I only want to do color lashes, but that's not gonna work. It's unrealistic because most of my clients are older and they like to keep it cute and clean and black. And I'm totally fine with that. As long as the money cha-ching, cha-ching, how it's supposed to, do you boo-boo. Just lay down and I got you. So um, yeah, I am really, really, really thinking about taking that class. Yes, it's cutting it close to LashCon. I would be traveling back to back. So August is the um beauty CEO summit, and then uh we have LashCon. And then if we do the Indiana Lash Ritual class, that's in September too. And then we have um Elevate, if I get invited, in October. So that's like four events in three months, which is fun. But yeah, that's kind of it for like where I want to go as far as lashing. That's like we're 20 minutes in now. Okay, so um personal update. I got a new car. Yes, my car was hanging on by a thread. I have this 2014 Buick Verano and girl, right after I finished paying it off, like I own the car now and now it's broken down. Like the engine is leaking, and that's one mainly because I'm a girl and I neglect my car. And I just got into the phase where I'm like wanting to work on cars and like I want to change the oil by myself and everything. But so yeah, the car is leaking oil, and we had been having to pour oil into uh the engine like every three days because it was leaking hella bad. And we took it to the car dealership to have them look at it and tell me why they charged us like $400 just to look at the engine. They didn't give us an itemized report saying like what was wrong with it and everything. They just called and was like, hey, you need to pick your car up. It's leaking oil, it's not worth being fixed, and there's metal shards in the oil. I'm like, what the heck? What do you mean, metal shards? So, of course, we get it home, we open it up, we look at it, and the time chain belt or whatever, it was like grinding against like a metal piece. So that's where the metal was coming from. We had to do some um some jerry-rigging up to it, uh, where we uh took this liquid like cream stuff, and it's called something welding, AD welding or something. We put it over the hole and it patched it up to where there's no more char just not doing any of that. And then we were doing the oil packet. So the leaking from underneath, we couldn't find that leaking, so we just was putting oil packs in it and it was running okay, but babe, it was time, it was time, and I did not want a car note. I refuse to get a car note, I don't want to owe anybody anything, so I don't want a car note, so we opted to go to the auction. We took $2,500, well, basically $3,000 with like all of the taxes and all of that, but we spent about $28, $2,800, and we got a oh my god, I don't even know what the car is, but we got an SUV. We were tired of a car, we got an SUV. We don't have a car note, we own the car, and when I tell you the car runs beautifully, it has a little bit of rust on the back of it, but that's okay. Because I'm in my fix a car by the builder era where I'm going to um either take off the entire um like what is that called the trunk of the car and replace it with the new one, or uh we're going to do some like rust repair. But everything else on the car works perfectly. And there's this beautiful, gigantic sun moon roof on it. Doing an auction is so much fun. My kids got in on it. Like I was explaining them what the auction was and that we might get a new car if we won the auction. And when I tell you they were so excited, they were along for the entire journey. Fun. Also in Michigan, they have auctions where you can buy uh, like if people are three years behind on their taxes on a property, um, the government, which sucks, the government takes it and then they sell it um in auction. And it's really cool around here because there's a lot of abandoned places. I try to avoid the ones that have people in them because that really sucks. Like you never know what people are going through. And I don't want to have to evict someone out of their home that they had for years and they maybe came across hard times and can't afford it. Um, but I am looking at land, like raw land, because like I said, Bob the Builder, T the Builder here. I am going to build me a house. Me and my husband will build a house. He doesn't want to, but I want to. So it's gonna happen. He may not know it. He knows it. You know it, babe. It's gonna happen. So yeah, we uh bought a car at auction and we're looking to buy some land within the next couple of months uh so that we can start building our home. And that's gonna also tie into some of the stuff we talk about later about where we've been and where we're going and where we thought we wanted to go, because you wouldn't have heard me say this probably a year ago, um, where I was saying I wanted to move certain places, which is probably not gonna happen. I mean, it could happen, but I don't think I want it to happen. And I thought that I did want it to happen, but I don't think I do. Um, but yeah, so other personal, I've been learning a lot about my family this summer. We really thrive at the beach. The beach is like literally, I don't know what it is. The kids are happier, I'm happier, everybody sleeps probably because we're tired, but we do the whole shebang. Like you would think we live at the beach. We do the tents, we have chairs, we have a sled to help push everything, beach toys, beach towels, uh, beach floaties. We got it all. Like back when I used to go to the beach, we had a beach towel, we laid it down, and my mom was like, Go play in the water. Girl, my kids have it set. When I say set, we don't play about the beach. I even took my Jackery box, it's like a little power box in it. I have a cute solar panel that I can take around with me and it plugs up to the box. So, like if it's sunny, which it is at the beach, um, we have power. Like, we can charge our cell phones, we can um, I took a George. This is so extra, don't judge me. Uh, we took a George Foreman grill and set it up in our tent, hooked it up to the power box. Turned out the George Foreman pulled way too much electricity, so it did not work. But we are coming down with another plan because you can't have grills on the beach, but we take our cooler and we have snacks. We eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the beach. So we don't come to play. When we're at the beach, it's all day. We uh most of the time leave out around 11, 12 o'clock, one o'clock, and we stay until like seven or eight. And oh, that is so much fun. This last time we went, there were waves, there were so many waves, and like we're not in the ocean, we're in the lake, so we don't get a lot of waves often, and sometimes those waves can get scary. But oh my gosh, my kids had so much fun. It was so exciting. At this point, we are one purchase away from owning a beachfront property because I love the beach. And Antonio didn't like the beach either, and now he loves the beach. He's like on his off days. You want to go to the beach? Yes, we do want to go to the beach. Thanks for asking. Um, but yeah, so that's that's really all I have for tea time today. I love the beach. I will be at LashCon um as an attendee, and we'll also have a table set up for the Lash Directory. So make sure that you come and connect with us and just know that this can be an opportunity created where you can discover something that you love about the industry, which is community. Who doesn't love community? Let's move on to Lash Mail.
SPEAKER_02Hey, Lash Besties. If you're looking for more opportunities to learn, grow, and invest in your career, you'll definitely want to check out the Lash Education and Empowerment Foundation, also known as Leaf. Leaf is a nonprofit organization created to support Lash artists through education, mentorship, scholarships, giveaways, and career development opportunities. Because success in this industry shouldn't depend on who you know or what you can afford. And speaking of opportunities, Leaf has partnered with Designs for Vision to give away a pair of professional loops to one lucky lash artist. Whether you're looking to improve your visibility, precision, or overall comfort while lashing, this is an opportunity you don't want to miss. To learn more about the loops giveaway and other upcoming opportunities, join the Leaf School community. Or follow on Instagram at WeAreLeaf. That's W-E-A-R-E-L-E-E-F. Because when one lash artist grows, our entire industry grows. Now let's get back to the show.
SPEAKER_00You've got mail. Lash mail. Today in Lash Mail, I kind of wanted to talk about like a couple of different things, but Wispy has been on my mind heavy. When I first started, I didn't know what wispy was, but that was the look that I was trying to achieve. And when I figured out the name of it, I was able to deep dive and figure out a technique that worked best for me. And this is back when YouTube University, I mean it still is a thing, but YouTube University was heavy, but people were still kind of gatekeepy on like the specifics of their um techniques. So what I did was I scrolled through videos and I would look at the beginning of the video, but I would go all the way to the end to see what the end result looked like. And if it was just like a basic cat eye or something that wasn't wispy, I moved on to the next until I found those thick spikes and predominant wispiness that I was looking for. And I analyzed that technique to the point where I figured out how to make a wispy set. And hearing so many people talk about how they create their wispy set, I think that it's definitely being overcomplicated. Wispy does not have to be super complicated. It's not magic, it's more like strategy and finding a strategy that works best for you. And there are many ways that you can create a wispy set. There's different types of wispy sets also. So you have to know which style you're trying to achieve in order to know which technique you need to apply. Now, there's like three different methods that I go with whenever I'm doing a wispy set. So I'm gonna break those down to you. There's the three-layer method where you strictly put your spikes on the top layer, you do wide fans on your middle layer, and then you do narrow fans on your bottom layer. And that's gonna create a dimensional wispy set. Now, when you're doing this method, it's super important that you pay attention to the lengths that you're using because you can still lose your spikes in this technique. If you are using the same length spikes that you're using for your wide fans and your narrow fans, it's just gonna look like a little bit of a texture set right at the tip, but it's gonna look like a basic uh volume set or hybrid set or whatever set you're trying to achieve, but it's not gonna give wispy. And we'll talk about the things that never change. But within this one, you wanna keep your spikes longer than your middle row. You wanna keep your middle row um wide fans, and then your bottom row should be super short lashes, like six millimeter to eight millimeter, because the bottom row is gonna help fill in and create a darker lash line to make the set look complete. You know, when you're looking at a wispy set, sometimes you can kind of see this the upper eyelid skin through the lashes. If you're having problems with that, bottom row, narrow fans is going to clear that up. Because if you think about it, I want you to hold five fingers up and I want you to spread your fingers as far as you can apart. You can see through them, right? Yes. So then I want you to take your fingers, keep the five fingers up, but move your hands closer together. You can see way less through that. So you can barely see through. Now I want you to take your other hand, open it up, spread it wide, and kind of overlap them. You see how you can still see through um the lashes? And now I want you to close your fingers up some. You see how you can barely see through your fingers when you do that. I want you to think about that when you're looking at narrow fans versus wide fans. Um, sometimes using wide fans and a bigger fan, like a like a 10D versus a 5D, that'll make a huge difference also. But if you're working with somebody with thinner lashes, maybe can't handle the weight of a 10D or 12D fan, you can go in with some narrow fans at like maybe 5D to 8D, and it's gonna fill that lash line in some more. Um, now method two is the two-row method. And with two rows, you start off with your top layer. So you'll tape down all of the lashes, and then you'll pick out what you think would be your top layer, and then you're gonna place your uh spikes first on that top row. Then once all of your spikes are done on that top row, you'll tape those up, and then you'll lash the middle and the bottom row like a basic set. Um, you would you can still play around with the three rows if you want to, or you can just do all the way through just a full set from there. And then you release the top layer of spikes, and then you brush it out, and it should all come together. Um, this is a very easy beginner-friendly uh way to achieve a wispy set, and it takes a lot of the stress out of it. Now, the third method is my absolute favorite, and it's probably my go-to that I use majority of the time. I place all of my spikes first. I don't tape anything, I don't remove anything because I put spikes on the top layer, the middle, and the bottom layer so they can shine through the entire set. After that, after I got all of my spikes placed, then I tape them upward and then I lash. So it's almost like the two-step, but this one I'm not taping anything up first. I'm just placing all my spikes so I get the pick of the litter of all of the lashes in the section where my spikes are gonna be, and I'm able to pick out the lashes that I really, really, really think would hold up nice with a spike on it. Once the spikes are complete, I just again style the rest of the set, and I actually do a mixture of wide and narrow fans when it comes to lashing the rest of the lashes. And say I'm doing a cat eye, I'm just doing a cat eye after that. The spikes are taped away, so I don't even see them, or you don't even have to tape them. You can just leave them, and that way, as you're going through the set, you can look in your mirror and see how the style is looking. That's another, that's a big mistake that a lot of people make when they're doing wispy sets is check in your mirror as you're going. After you've placed your spikes and you did maybe one row of fans, look in the mirror because your spikes are either gonna start disappearing at that moment, or maybe it's too spiky. Maybe you've put way too many spikes and now it just looks crazy. So then you can alter it and play around with it from there before you fill up all the remaining lashes, and you can't, it'll be harder because then you have to remove lashes to replace them. You can play around with it a little bit more. So, my favorite method is method three, but use any of these. Try all three methods and see which one you get the best results with. Now, before you try this, you need to know that there are some rules that never changes. And you know, I don't play about rules, I don't like to mention rules because I feel like rules are limiting and it can cause you to cloud your creativity. Um, but with wispy lashes, it's super specific because you don't want to lose your spikes. Now, with spikes, I typically go about four to five millimeters longer than my base. So when I say my base, that's my middle and bottom row. Regardless of which style you're using, your spikes are always gonna be four to five millimeters longer. If you don't do that and you do them at the same length, your spikes are gonna disappear. They're gone, they're lost, invisible. They're not there. It's just a basic set now. So when you are saying, Oh, my spikes usually don't look spiky, my wispy not wispy in the way that it should, it's typically because your spikes aren't long enough. And also, I typically add about five to seven spikes per section. So if you're looking at a map, I like to draw lines where I want all of my spikes to go so I'm not guessing. And everywhere I see a line, I know that there's gonna be at least five to seven spikes that are all gonna kind of come together to form the spike peak. Now, the way that you approach this is there's a couple of different ways you can do it. You can do all your spikes the same length, or you can go longest spike in the middle of the line, and then on both sides of the spike, you'll go down one millimeter on both sides, and then you'll do that again. You'll go down one millimeter and go on both sides again, and keep doing that until you have about five to seven spikes in that area. If you do it that way, that's called, well, I like to call it the pyramid method, where you are essentially creating a triangle or a pyramid with your spikes based off of the lengths that you're using side by side. You know, a triangle, the ta the peak is the tallest, and then it goes down at an angle from there. You're essentially creating that. Um, and then you're also going to, as you're placing them, instead of placing them straight up like how you would with a regular set, you're gonna angle them inward towards that longest spike. That's gonna keep your spike controlled and contained in its area to where the spikes aren't just going all over the place. Um, if you want spikes that go all over the place, play around with your direction. But in experiment and playing around with placement and direction, there's there isn't just one way. It's not a cookie cutter set in stone way on how to get your wispies set. So make sure that you're taking your time. You're using at least five to seven spikes per spike section, four to five millimeters longer than your base. And try out the three different methods. So that is it for like how to get your wispy sets to pop in, how to actually achieve a wispy set without overthinking what you're doing. Remember, you got this, take it one step at a time and continue to practice. Like, practice is going to make you better in the long run. And remember, don't hold yourself to any restrictions. Play around with it. Lashes are art. Be an artist, be a lash artist. Okay. Now that we've covered wispy lashes and how to achieve those perfect wispy sets, let's talk about goals because goals are how we grow. Let's get into lash talk.
SPEAKER_01Lash talk, lash talk. Lash talk about it.
SPEAKER_00So I've always been a super competitive person and I really want to have a real conversation with you guys today because I think a lot of us set goals and then we feel guilty when our goals change. And I really want to talk about it. So, like I said, I'm like hella competitive. Um, I thrive at competitions and battles and anything that allows me to uh push the boundaries and create something that I haven't seen in the industry before. That's why I was telling you guys about the lash ritual and barbelletta competition. Um, that is from July the. Oh, I didn't tell you guys about that. Oh my gosh, I am getting ahead of myself. Okay, so the lash ritual and barbelletta is hosting a competition. It's from July the 6th through August the 6th, and then the winner will be announced on the 15th. Um, this is for the Lash Hoween competition, and there's like a big Lashoween event um that happens. I never heard of it, but I'm excited about it. The theme is Cosmo and Beyond, and I have the best idea that I don't think anybody is going to do, and I'm so excited about it because whenever my brain conjures up this like crazy idea, I'm like, oh, I can't wait to see the vision come to life because it lives in my head. So sometimes my head isn't able to communicate with my hands and actually do it. So then I have to pivot. So I I get excited to see the end result to see where the vision actually was able to like be portrayed, I guess, if that's the right word. But yeah, uh check out the lash rituals Instagram page or barbelletta's page um for the information on that. But I want you to know if you're gonna compete, you better bring it. Don't come with no basic lash sets because I'm here and I'm competing. And babe, you saw my lash battle. I don't do basic. So let's bring it. I'm so competitive. I say this with love too, because y'all are my besties and there's nothing like a good healthy competition that keeps us all alive. Girl, come on, join. I'm ready. I want you to compete against me so I can beat you. I'm just kidding. Not kidding though. Um, also, the last year awards, um, they announced they're a finalist, and your girl is a finalist in three categories. I was originally going to submit for eight, but your girl's a procrastinator, and that's okay. Um, I only had an opportunity to uh fill out for six categories, and I became a finalist for three of the categories: best use of technology, best customer service, and editorial. I'm so excited. I'm so grateful and I'm so thankful that God gave me the courage to even take the chance on myself again, and we were able to bless um four people to enter the last year wards for free. I need to go back and check to see if anyone who won a free one actually got a finalist position. I'm not for sure, but I'm gonna have to go back and I'll check and I will report that back to you. Not in this video, because that's a little bit of research because I have to figure out who the winners were. Um, and then I have to go through each category to see if they place. So I'll have to do my homework on that and I will report back. So clock it and know that I will come back to that. But it's honestly an honor to be considered, and I feel like it brings me closer to why I love what I do, which is creating, helping, connecting, uplifting, and loving on each other while also being competitive, you know? Uh but it brings me to the bigger picture of it, which is the goals. When I started in the industry, my goal was to simply never work for anyone ever again. You all know I worked for a chiropractor and I organized a Black Lives Matter protest. Um, and I had just had my baby in March, and this happened in like June. And so I had just got back from maternity leave and I handled the social medias for um the chiropractor that I worked for. So I scheduled out posts and connected with people. I was the front desk person. I did x rays for clients. I went over patient expectations and um basically held their hand throughout their entire journey, throughout the office, so that uh they I made sure they got all of the information they needed, set it them up. For their appointments, laid them down on the beds, got everything ready, did the doctor's notes. I damn near ran the chiropractic office. It was crazy. There were three of us on the team. I loved my job. I loved connecting with my patients. I when the pandemic happened, I even told my boss that I would literally work for free. I had just had a baby, but I loved my business so much. And she was a small business. So I was just like, you know what? Like, don't even worry about it. Like, um, like I'll do it for free. And she was like, no, that's unnecessary. While I was on maternity leave, I was still um working. And this is around the time that George Floyd had gotten murdered by the police officer, and um a whole bunch of other people like were getting murdered. And I was looking at this new black baby that I just had, and I was just like, I'm raising young black men in my household. And if I don't use my voice to stand up for, this could be them. So I decided that I was going to organize a Black Lives Matter protest um in my area. We are not really segregated, but we are kind of separated by a bridge. There's a bridge between the lake that separates Benton Harbor from St. Joe. And in St. Joe, there's mostly white people and higher up, they make lots of money. Whirlpool, the people who make the washers and the dryers and stuff, their um headquarters is in Benton Harbor. So a lot of people, a lot of corporate, big corporate people will come here and live here uh because they work for Whirlpool. And so they typically all go to the St. Joe side. And um, you know, just the black and white side of it. And I was just like, I feel like we should all have this conversation because there has been some police brutality uh skepticism here, also, as it is in most black cities, um, where the police were just doing too much. And I'm just like, no, we need to organize something, something peaceful. I'm not with all the drama and stuff. And I was telling my cousin about it. I just had the idea. And when I have an idea, babe, you can't stop. So it was happening. So I talked to my cousin. She's just like me, we'll go get her for real. And uh, she was just like, hey, I know there's a lady, she has a nonprofit, and uh, she was just talking about a march. Maybe y'all should get together. And I was like, I don't really want to do this with anybody else. But I was like, sure, the more the merrier. And I connected with her and I connected with the guy who was running for uh office around here locally, and um we all connected and I did a lot of the groundwork. You think that you would just organize a protest and you just, you know, just everybody get up at this time and we're gonna start marching. No, you have to close down streets, um, like for traffic control and have a place for like organized meetup, uh, make sure that it doesn't get unruly and all of that. So all the behind-the-scenes work fell in love with it. I love organizing things. Organizing things is like literally where I thrive. And I um organized this protest, and so many people showed up. Like I shared it on Facebook, and of course, I made the flyers and everything for it. So we went around, hung up flyers, did a lot of Facebook advertising for it. Um, I know one of the other people reached out to some companies to get like food provided for afterwards, and we reached out for people for entertainment, like afterwards. I had a saxophone player who came and played like just some vibey music while we had like our moment of silence, and all it was super cute. So many people showed up. Oh my god, it was crazy. Was not expecting this at all. Like, I was expecting maybe a cute group of like 30, 40. There were thousands of people in our little cities that came together: black, white, Mexican, Asian, all everybody, kids, old people. Some of them people was walking. I was like, you probably should go sit down because you're about to pass out. Like the police joined into our march. And like some of the police were walking up to me and were like, hey, can we join in or is it okay if we're here? I'm like, of course. Like, not all police are bad, you know? It's just we're doing this to uh raise the awareness and hold each other accountable to know that we're better together than apart. And throughout that experience, this kind of off the subject, but since I'm talking about it, throughout the experience, I noticed that there is so much shit that goes on behind the scenes with organizing events, working with people in general. And I am like a to myself, I'm a I'm a community person. I love helping people, but I'm more so like I kind of like to work on my own and make the vision come to life so that I don't have to deal with all of the personalities because too many chefs in the kitchen, everything is gonna burn to the ground, you know? So it just got super messy at the end, like where the other two people that I was partnering with, they were arguing with each other because this person had this idea in the newspaper, pulled this person aside, and they didn't think that that was right because I organized the whole thing, and I was like, I don't care about the uh recognition of it. I'm just excited that it all came together and everybody is showing peace, love, and happiness. Like it made me so happy. And so at that point, I was just like, oh my gosh, I'm never organizing one of these events again. And I'm not interested in the politics of it all. After the event, I got offered like seats on board in the area, and I was like, you know what? No, thank you. And the reason why I said no, thank you is because I had a job that I love. And me and my boss and my other coworker, we were all pretty cool where we would go to her house, do yoga, we would um like travel all together for work and sleep in the same rooms and everything. We would support each other. Like I would always text my boss because we did these things called community talks, where we'd have to go out and talk to businesses, talk to people or groups of people about chiropractic care and how it's important. And anytime my boss had anything coming up, I would text her and be like, You are a boss bitch and you're gonna kill this. Like that was her nickname. She, when I when she hired me, she was like, I'm the boss bitch and y'all are my bitches. And I was like, Oh, okay, cool. I mean, that's kind of weird, but whatever. So, you know, I would hype her up and I'll be like, You got this, you're gonna kill it and everything. And my feelings were a little bit hurt because whenever she has something, I will text her. And whenever um my other coworker has something, I would text her. And when I had my event, mind you, both of them are white. When I had my event, both of them silent, quiet, nothing. No, oh, good luck today or anything like that. Now, mind you, her brother was a police officer. But you remember, I said, not all police are bad. And I knew her brother, her brother was cool. So, um, long story short, I was running our Facebook page from um from home because I had just had my baby. And one day I went in to uh like do some posts and I didn't have access. And I'm like, what the heck? Maybe the password expired and she forgot to tell me. And she texted me and was like, hey, can you come in for a meeting? We need to talk. Crap, I skipped the part. So, you know, I text them when they all have stuff going on. I didn't hear anything from them. So I text them both that evening. I was like, I know you guys didn't like might not have been able to come, but it really sucks that you guys didn't reach out and say, you know, have a good March or happy March Day or anything like that. And I was talking to them as friends because we were all pretty cool. And I was like, that's crazy. Um I was talking to the boss at this point. I'm like, you put me at as the face of your company and then not show up for things like this is crazy. But you know, people have their own opinion, so whatever. So then the next day I went to do some work. I didn't have access to the um the thing anymore, the website or uh social media. And I'm like, what the heck? So then she texted me and was like, Hey, um, can you come in for a meeting? I came in for the meeting. She said, and mind you, I had literally just sent that text. That's it. I hadn't said anything, I hadn't blast anything, nothing. I kept it to myself because you know, at the end of the day, I love my job. We're all professional, whatever. She said that I created a hostile work environment and that she had to let me go. Girl, I still have the recording to this day of that conversation. And maybe one day I'll put it out there. I probably won't because uh I'm still kind of traumatized from it if you can't hear it in my voice. But um, that conversation, I realized at that point I had just had a baby. I had organized this amazing event. I knew I ran her business, and I just decided I didn't want to work for anybody else ever again. I had, mind you, where I was in the business, I had just gotten a promotion and a raise. So if there was anything that I was doing wrong, I wouldn't have gotten a promotion or a raise. We have reviews every six months, and I had just landed on my six months, like a couple of weeks before that. So I had started getting my lashes done as a gift to myself for getting promoted. And tell me why I got fired. So I'm at my lash appointment. I'm like dead on the inside now. I'm like hella depressed. I was going through postpartum depression after that. It really pushed me over the edge. And um, I was telling my lash artist, I was just telling her exactly what had happened, and she was just like, oh no, no, I'm gonna teach you how to do lashes and you're about to make this money. And mind you, I had already knew what lash extensions were before I had my first appointment. Back in 2011, I remember seeing uh lash extension processes on um YouTube university because I was in the cluster lashes and I was like, I need something that's like gonna pop a little bit better. And um, I found lash extensions. I was like, oh, that's so cool. But you know, blowing it off as a kid, I can't, I ain't got time to be doing all of that on myself. So I pocketed it in the back, stored it in the back of my mind. And when she was like, I'll teach you how to do lashes and this how much I make, and all of that, I was like, okay, I mean, I'm I need some money. I just had a baby and it's during the pandemic. So um I took her course. I mean, it was a simple course, very, very simple with limited information. Um, just like literally the basics Amazon kit, like all of the things that you don't want in a class. This is what I got. And not to shade her, I don't even know if she's still teaching. Um, but but I was thankful for her because she actually invited me to the class for free. So I didn't have to pay for that. Um, and I learned that okay, I could do this because when we were lashing in the class, we got to practice on a practice on a sponge, practice on a mannequin, and then we practiced on a live model that same day. And while everybody else was taking their pictures, I was like, can I finish the model set? And so she was like, Yeah, go ahead. So I'm like lashing the model as everybody else is still like learning. Well, I can connect with the model and get her a number, and I was like, girl, I am not finished at all. If you're open to it, I would love to lash you. Um, just call me and we'll set up a day this week and I can finish your lashes. So I actually ended up removing the lashes that I did at practice because it was a whole bunch of people's work, and um did a full set on her and it went pretty good. It wasn't a full set. Oh my gosh, it looked more like a raggedy three-week classic feel on somebody who just begun. It was horrible. But I had got the concept down and I was like, okay, I'm all in. When I decide that I'm all in and I'll never work for somebody else again, that's where my head was. So the goal was to create a path of freedom through lashes and never work for anybody else again. That was the overall goal. I did not know that there was a lash community, I didn't know any of it. And um then I with my little certification, I started calling around to different uh salons, like, hey, I offer I do lash extensions. I have this certification. And they were like a lot of them were just like, oh, okay, fill out the application. And I called this one company, and the lady was like, Hey, I'm actually the owner, and I would love to have a lash artist in the salon, but are you licensed? And I was like, No, I got this certification. And she was like, No, you need a license. You need an esthetician or cosmetology license. And I was like, uh Esther, who? What is an Esther? What? And so I looked at what an esthetician was, and I was looking and I knew I did not want to do hair. I had already done hair before, like on myself, and that's the only satisfaction I get from hair is when I do it on myself. Um, other people, no, people don't play about their hair, especially black women, so you can miss me. So um I enrolled in the school, and throughout my journey, I have been like fully transparent. When I was fired, I went live and I talked about it. Um, and we actually, oh, to to wrap that story up, uh, when I was fired, we went to the same church. So we actually had a uh uh like a what a mediator meeting with our pastor and one of his uh members, her and me. We were all sitting in a room, we talked out our grievances, and they were like, What do you want? And I was like, I don't want anything. Like, I don't wish ill will on her practice. Um, she's an amazing doctor. I still tell people to this day. I still refer people to her to this day. I didn't wish any bad onto her company. I just didn't want to work for her anymore because it was real crazy how she fired me. And people are like, wait, isn't that like a wrongful termination type of thing? And yes, it is. I it's it's blurry in Michigan. I filled out a thing, but I don't think I completed it because I was hella depressed and I could barely get out of bed most days. And then when I would think about it, I was like super triggered and I would get like uh like nervous and shaky and I would just cry because I had never been um treated like that before, where I had just done something so good. And um, so I kind of just let it go. I prayed to God and He was just like, Look, babe, I got something around the corner for you. Don't even worry about it. Like, you're good. Just move on, take your rearview mirror down, stop looking in the past. And that's what I did. After um, I found out that I had to take a certification and everything. I mean, to go get my license and everything, I was like, okay, it's time to move forward. I need to move on with my life. The world is shutting down. Um, I need to figure this out. So I obviously don't have a job anymore. So I called to the school, I picked the school that I wanted, and um, from there, I was just documenting my journey online. I had um talked about me being fired online as it was happening. Um, I talked about the protests. Of course, I had more ears and eyes on me from the protest, and then after being fired, the way that I did, it kind of was just like people was ready to rally. And I'm like, no, it's not that serious. God said he got me, so don't even worry about it. And um, I just started sharing my journey, and that's where the transparency really started to show um in how I connected with my audience and the people who um were listening to me. Um, so I went to school and um halfway through, like a quarter of the way through, um, I had took out a personal loan to help cover, and it still wasn't enough to cover the entire uh school tuition because it was $15,000 and I definitely didn't have that. So I um went on Facebook and I was just like, yo, I'm in school. Um, I'm so excited about it. I have to drive two hours away for school because it's the only program that was in my area, and I'll I'll have to pay for gas. Y'all know I lost my job. I don't have anything. I don't know how I'm gonna do this, but I'm just gonna keep coming until they tell me not to come no more. Um and I would just make my little $100 payments here and there when I could. Tell me why I get to school one day after lunch, after creating this video, um, and somebody paid my school tuition. The whole thing. Oh, geez, okay, get it together. Somebody paid for my whole schooling, the whole $15,000 was paid. Like, what? And they paid it anonymously, so I didn't know who actually like did the payment and everything, but I just went onto Facebook and I just cried. My husband was like, before he knew this, somebody had paid for it. He was like, I don't think that you should be on Facebook um telling people like how you're struggling and everything. And I was just like, I've always talked about me struggling, I've always talked about like I've always been transparent. And um, so let me get my life together. Okay. So I did that and somebody paid for my tuition, and I was just like on there, like, if you did it, like you can DM me and tell me that it was you. I really appreciate it. I would love to like give you free lashes for life or whatever. The person never came forward, so I don't know who did that, but at that moment, that was literally God, like saying, I told you, I got you. You don't have to sue somebody to get your happiness. So yeah, okay, give me a minute. I need to recollect myself so I don't sound like a stuffed turtle when I'm talking. I hate how I sound when I cry, it's horrible. Hold on, give me one second, please hold. Okay, so I'm I recollecting myself. Okay. So that was just God, like, you know, saying, I got you. You don't even gotta worry about this. And from that point on, when I tell you, I just walk in faith and just be like, okay, you got this. Because remember, I didn't have a job. So, and Antonio was covering like most of the bills at the house, but he was barely working also because of COVID, and he has asthma and stuff, so he was considered like high risk or whatever. So, like I had to drive two hours. I had a car note, I had all of the bills to pay, my kids to feed, everything, and every single month, you know how like the stimulus checks used to come. It was the exact dollar amount that I needed to cover all of my bills, get to and from school, cover food, and cover the bills. What? You cannot tell me that God did not have favor over my life. Okay, so back to the goals of it. After I finished school, I went ahead, I didn't want to work for anybody. That's that was the goal. So I found a uh business center that had suites that were open, no sinks or anything. I got me one of those, opened it up, opened up shop. Who wants lashes? Come get them. They were getting traction from me, posting a lot, being just completely transparent online. A lot of them came and they were like, I came in because I know your story. I came in because I see the full transparency that you have and I appreciate it. It made me connect with you more and stuff. And so people were like coming in just to support me. Jesus Christ. I tried to avoid this conversation for so long because it's so hard. So business took off, doing really good, so excited. I um on the way to school every day, I would listen to Lashcast. And that's when I found out about LashCon. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I want to go. Fell in love with Tusney. And of course, I had a horrible training. So I didn't know about any of the stuff that Tusney was talking about on her podcast. So she literally poured into my career for free. And I did not take a class for my first four years of lashing. So up until 2024, I hadn't taken a lash class. I had literally learned everything on my own. And then I had started teaching other people because people loved my style and was like, I want to do this too. So then I started teaching other people. But throughout those years, I was listening to Lashcast and they kept me afloat in YouTube university and just being in Facebook groups. As I continue to grow and I stored all the information that I learned, I um was like, okay, this next year I'm going to LashCon. So 2024, I went to LashCon. My goal was still, I literally don't want to work for anybody, but it was slowly starting to fade because I started. To follow PLA back in 2021 is when I started following PLA and their journey. And I was just like, oh my God, I love PLA. I started getting their products. Actually, my lash artist, I had switched lash artists by this point. My lash artist was using Halo. And I had told her I was using Stacy Lash. And she was like, no, girl, use it. Gave me a bottle for free. It was like, use this. So I used it, fell in love, my retention jumped, like crazy jumped. I was like, oh my gosh, I'm never using Stacy Lash again. I'm switching over to PLA. Then I went on their website and I found Promate and I was just like, oh, this is it. I'm in. So from that point on, I loved PLA. And then they would start doing their lives where they were doing giveaways. I would enter the giveaways all of 2022 and 2023. I think it was 2023. I was on all of the lives. I knew everybody's names and I was excited. And but I would never win the lives. I would never win the giveaways. So I thought that they were um, what is that called? Staged and fake, like most giveaways I feel like are, but they're not. Um and so then the one time I actually started winning. And then from there, I won so many times. I was like, oh my God, this is crazy. And I just fell in love with PLA. I had already loved them, but once I started winning and I got the free inventory for an entire year, I was like, oh, I'm on. And so then at LashCon 2024, I actually won a ticket to LashCon that year. And um, I think through PLA. Yeah, I won the ticket through PLA. And I had just won the inventory for the year. So I was set. I had, I just had to pay to get to LashCon. So I said, okay, I obviously love PLA. I would love to work with them. I want to be an ambassador, but I filled out the application a couple of times and they told me no. And I had been um working in the uh Facebook groups, Lash Queens, where I was just like giving out advice whenever people asked or whatever. I saw something that I could help with, I would just help because that's where I got my education from for free. I was just like, you know what? I'm just gonna hang out with PLA. I'm gonna follow them around. And that's when they have the breakout sessions. So I would go to the PLA headquarters and everything and just connect with everybody and show them that, hey, I'm here. I'm T. I love you guys. Like, yeah. So I did that and I already told you guys that I went to everything. And uh the last class that they had, Michelle and Caitlin were uh presenting and talking about social media and everything. And I waited till everybody left. And as they were walking out, I tried to talk to Michelle, but she was kind of busy. So I was like, Caitlin, how do I become an ambassador? I want to be an ambassador so bad. I filled out the application, I got denied, and she was just like, I don't think you should be an ambassador. And I was like, Well, damn. And she was like, I think you would actually be better as an advisor. And I was like, Oh my God, yeah, sign me up. But like, whatever you have for me, I will take it. And so I entered the group as an advisor in 2024 and I left LashCon with a connection to PLA. And from there it grew to the point, and I was taught Blanca was over the um advisors at that point. She was like, I started off as an ambassador and now I work at PLA. Like, this could be you guys later down the line and everything. And after she said that, I was like, oh my gosh, that's the goal. Like the next best thing is to work at the headquarters. Like, what else could I ask for? I'm gonna move to Reno, I'm gonna work for somebody else. And I completely neglected my goal in never working for anybody else because I saw all of the goodness that God had for me throughout the years. And I had taken down my review mirror like he told me to. So that goal was in the past, like way in the past. And as I continue to push towards that dream, and I see a lot of the behind the scenes stuff, not just with PLA, but just working for different companies and seeing how the company still moves on. Even if you um remove yourself or you are removed from the equation, the company still grows, just like the chiropractor. She is still in business, she's still working, which I'm happy for her. Um, but they move on. No matter how much of an asset you think you are, it at the end of the day, a business is a business and it doesn't matter. It's going to keep going without you. Y'all saw my post on Instagram where I had talked about like the Black Lives Matter protest and everything. And I low key put my rearview mirror back up. And I was like, wow, in order to get to this next step, I need to reflect on where I've been to know where I want to go. And in saying that, and in doing that, I might have reopened trauma to where I don't want to work for anybody. And there's this is no hate to PLA. There's no nothing here, no anything but love for Michelle and the company that she's grown. But I don't want to work for anybody. I'm not a work for anybody type of girl. I am a you have a vision, less executed type of girl. And um, and I'm okay with that. And you have to be okay with that also to know that it's okay to pivot on your dreams and it's okay to um like maybe change your dreams or your goals. But sometimes that first goal that you set is probably the goal that you originally and actually mean. And I think with my personality, with the way that I work and everything, being on my own is better. Like I love having a team with the foundation. I have uh uh um board members that I can bounce ideas off of. I love being a PLA power trainer. I don't officially work for PLA, I still have creativity and freedom to say and do things. Now there is a little bit of limitations on some of the things that I really want to speak my mind on, but I can't um because of being associated with the brand, which that part can be hard. And I literally realized that maybe I don't want to move to Reno. And sometimes you start to realize when you get closer to your dreams or your goals, it isn't your dream anymore. I came up with that on a whim. Like, oh, after Blanca said it, it was like, oh, that's gonna be my reality. And I was saying it and I was um manifesting it and everything, but I was the one thing I wasn't doing was talking to God about it. When he then showed me back from 2020 to 2024 that he had my back, why am I abandoning my goals and dreams and his goals and dreams for me to please the satisfaction that I had in my head, I guess. And over the time, I just realized and learning about myself that that's not what I wanted. And I needed to look back in my rearview mirror to see where I had come from. Um, I have too many ideas, I have too many projects and too many visions. I need my freedom. I'm not knocking um working for somebody because there is that stability, the consistent paycheck, benefits, team environment, all of that, but there is a trade-off. And sometimes when I use other brands, I feel like I'm cheating. And that's how I've been for so long. But when trying to build a foundation, I have found that it's really hard to just be loyal to one brand because that one brand is gonna be tired of giving you things. So you have to ask other brands for things. And there are quality brands out there, there's tons of them. And I'm excited to like partner with brands and stuff. Me personally, as hey lash, hey, my business, I'm a PLA girly. But Leaf, I am a quality lash product, quality lash artist girly. It doesn't have to have a name to it. So whether you're a small brand or a large brand, lashes are lashes. Yeah, there's some crappy products out there, but most of them are actually really good. It just doesn't have the large name on it. The one thing that like I was noticing, not in my rear view, but kind of in my rear view, but still like giving a glance into the future is that sometimes these influencers, ambassadors, educators, employees, they leave these companies and they never give any explanation on why every single time. And I be sitting here like, wait a minute now. You have told me that I'ma use me for example. Say I worked for PLA. Say I just decided tomorrow I don't want to be a PLA trainer, I don't want to be a tie to PLA anymore, I'm done. And I just was like, hey guys, what is the best products out there? And I'm asking y'all questions about what the best products are. But the last three years, I've been telling y'all, PLA got the best products. This is what I use. I'm obsessed with PLA. I'm a PLA rider die. And all of a sudden, you're gone and you're looking for new brands. This comes back to companies will discard you and move on. And also, it comes back to my transparency and how I've been transparent throughout my entire journey from being fired up until now. Everything is on Facebook, everything is on Instagram, nothing has been deleted, everything is there. Well, actually, I take that back because the um Facebook did this thing. I thought it was fake where they were like, hey, if you don't confirm this, you'll lose all of your um old stuff. You know how people were scamming like that and they had everybody all scared. It was real. I lost all of my lives from like high school and everything. I was so sad. Luckily, I documented some of it on YouTube. And I also have that uh voice note from when me and my boss talked um back when I was working for the chiropractor when I got fired. But yeah, I feel like brands move on, you're replaceable. And then we don't, as the audience that you've built, because we don't, we also fall in love with the the ambassadors and the people that we see on the screen who are attached to the company. So then we don't get that closure on, oh, why did what's going on? I haven't seen you in a while. And then it's like, oh, I'm starting my own thing up and I'm coming back into just lashing. I don't work for the company anymore. And we don't get any type of transparency or closure, no tea, no drama. Like, I just want honesty. I'ma tell y'all this, and this might piss some people off. But if I ever left PLA, y'all gonna get a whole episode, probably two episodes, because transparency mattered. And if you guys are trusting me to be 100% honest about products, about how I feel about the industry, about what's going on, baby. I take this to heart because God put me in this phase where I didn't have a direction on where I was going. So I don't care how big you are in a company, I don't care about none of that. All I care about is helping the lash industry grow, keeping everybody in the loop on what's happening. And that's why some of my stories sometimes it seems a little bit like dang, it's Tierra, okay? Because some of the stuff going on behind the scenes, not just with BLA, but with other companies too, there's a lot going on. And it's a lot that we need to all talk about. But right now I can't talk about it because I don't work for a brand. I don't work for anybody, but I'm associated with a brand. But yeah, that is my last talk for today. Um, I just know your girl is transparent. I will always be transparent. I will always tell you how I'm feeling. I will always, if something changes or shifts in my life, if I'm going in a different direction, I'm gonna be honest. I'm gonna talk about it. So you know my story now, so you know where I'm coming from. And you know, I mean all love in this business because I didn't have anything and God invested in me and he used others to invest in me. And I don't know what y'all have, but I'm just gonna assume that y'all have nothing too. And if I can help you, I'm gonna try to. That's why Leaf was born. I know it's unrealistic, and some of y'all are like, geez, how is she gonna do this? And is she trying to offer the world for free? And I am, and I'm gonna try. And if I can't do it offer free, it's gonna be super duper affordable. And I might piss off brands and I might piss off educators who are charging thousands of dollars for education and flashing their Bugattis and their Ferraris and their yachts and stuff. I never cared about any of that. I Antonio says all the time, God didn't make you a millionaire because you would be a zero heir, because you would give it all away. And I would. Like, I only need enough to make sure that my family is good, to have the things that we need and maybe some of the things that we want. But the rest of it, we don't need it. Go ahead and help somebody else out. Because if everybody thought me, me, me, me, me, all the time, what do we have? Nothing. A whole bunch of people that self-centered. So I know I got a little bit emotional there. And I just want you to take some time to reflect and maybe write down your goals. And then maybe a year from now, write down your goals again and go back to the old goals to see if anything has shifted. Do you still want these goals or are you chasing a vision of yourself that is no longer existent? And those are the deep-rooted questions that you have to ask yourself in order to move forward and grow in the right direction. So do that for yourself because I did it and it opened my world up to questioning everything again. And when you question things, you grow. And when you question things, you open doors and alleys that you didn't even know existed. But yeah, okay, let's shake off all the seriousness and let's get into buzz and beat.
SPEAKER_03Hey, Lash Hey Tribe is all about feeling plugged in and supported. And Paris Lash Academy, that's the one-stop shop for everything lashes. Handmade, pro-made, even 3D printed TAD clusters. Plus, they've got reliable adhesives, nail supplies, and even client aftercare products. Literally everything you need in one place because you're part of the Hey Lash Hey Tribe. There's a little something just for you. Use the code T-I-E-R-A-W at checkout to save 15% off your order. Consider it a thank you for being here and pouring into this community. Now let's get back into the episode.
SPEAKER_00Buzz and beats. I'm gonna try to play some funeral music right here because it is a very sad, sad day. Like, did you guys know that the 100 was removed from Netflix? Like, uh as soon as I feel deep down in my soul, I want to start over and watch from the beginning all eight episodes, all eight seasons again, and here we are, it's gone. I'm like devastated and heartbroken and offended because who do you think you are? I pay for Netflix, so I should be able to have a vote on what leaves and what stays, you know? Like, have you ever fell in love with the show and then it's just gone? And then I look it up. I have Xfinity. I look it up to see if it's available anywhere else. Like, I'll even settle for Peacock at this point. But no, the only place it is is on Amazon, and I have to pay for it. It's not even with Prime. Like, how rude are you? So I'm gonna vote to start a petition to bring it back immediately because I need Clark in my life, and I need Shade Hata, and I need Prime Fire and the Commander, and I need Nightbloods. If you don't know what any of that means, you need to sign my petition so that you can be opened up to a new world. Because hello, this world sucks. Why not go into another world where they changed the world a million times? And also, while I'm on my rant on the 100, I was scrolling on TikTok and saw that they had a meet and greet panel thing because they haven't been. Let me see. The 100 hasn't aired since I think 2024. Okay, so the last episode of the 100 aired on September 30th, 2020. It's been six years now. Like, they had a panel of all of them, not all of them, but some of them, most of the main characters, in some random like North Dakota or something at a conference, and I would have paid to be there. I cried when I was scrolling on TikTok, minding my good old business, and saw Clark and Bellamy sitting on a couch answering questions. And you know what broke my heart the worst is that it happened a week before I saw it. Like, what? I literally cried, I cried tears, real tears. And Antonio was like, I am so sorry, I did not know that. And I was like, I didn't know either. So I was upset, but I'm over it now, I guess. I just want to be able to have access to my show. Like, don't be rude. That's that Kim Kardashian. Uh, there were seven seasons, not eight, my bad. But you know that Kim Kardashian sound. Don't be rude. I'm gonna try to put it in here. So don't be rude. But yeah, so uh we need to petition to bring back the 100. Maybe I will have that petition sign up at the Leaf Table at LashCon. Be like, oh yeah, by the way, Leaf has this petition to sign to bring my favorite show back to Netflix because they be tripping. Um, but speaking of Netflix, I have also started watching again the new season of Survival of the Thickest. It's about a lady. Her name is Mavis, and she is so creative. It's a plus size show where it's really all about embracing big girls, big beauty, trans, and um everyone, just supporting all bodies and all of the boundaries that come with being plus size. It's funniest, messiest, relatable. I love the show. And anytime I am in a competition hit space where I have a competition coming up, I always watch creative videos and creative um shows, like designer shows or makeup shows or anything that really sparks people's creativity so that I can be reminded of the struggles that creative people struggle with, which is imposter syndrome, self-doubt, fear, um, comparison, lack of creativity at the moment, like writer's block almost. And just also in seeing how other people push through their struggles and how they become inspired by some of the things you wouldn't think they get inspired by. It helps expand my creativity. Though these people are fake and they're actresses and actors, it still sparks something in me. I don't know what it is. Like before I did the lash battle, I watched glow up all the seasons. That's the makeup um competition show on Netflix. And I watched all the seasons again. I listened to the feedback, and I was just like, look, either you win or you lose. But you're gonna be creative throughout the entire thing. Just remember, just be creative and watch shows, you know. Uh, and beats Beyonce did not release her rock album, but she did release a song called Morning Dew. And yes, I've known about it forever. It was a song that was actually released on YouTube a couple of years ago, and the only way you could listen to it was on YouTube. So she remastered it, um, like changed it up a little bit, changed the chorus, and um now is actually available to be streamed on like Apple and Spotify and all of that now. And my kids are like obsessed. They love the song. I'm obviously not gonna play it because they're gonna take my uh my podcast down if I do that for copyright stuff, which is so ghetto, but whatever. Um, but honestly, it's a vibe. I was expecting her to release something new and something rock, but until she's ready, I'll hold off and this will suffice. Um, another thing my kids is obsessed with I've been practicing my song for LashCon, and I'm gonna do Spin That by Young Miami. You don't know what it is, look it up. After you look it up, come back. Are you back? I'm just kidding. I'm not doing that. But it's such a funny song to me and it's so catchy, but it's definitely not my vibe. I actually jokingly put it on Instagram that I was going to do that as my karaoke song for LashCon. And I'm definitely joking. Like, I'm not doing that. But it would be so much fun if I did. But I'm not. I have another song that's very happy, uplifting, and I think it has the message that everybody in the lash industry needs right now. Plus, I'm coming with a little surprise, you know? So be prepared for that. If you're gonna be at LashCon on Friday night at the karaoke party, we don't know the theme yet, but we do know that it's gonna be a karaoke party because there's always been a karaoke party. It would be crazy if they canceled the karaoke party. Like, what do not? We need our karaoke because you get some drinks in people and put a mic and some music out, we're gonna have fun. It's definitely a vibe. But yeah, um, that's it. That's it for Buzz and Beats. I'm still waiting for Beyonce's rock album. Some of the beehive is saying that we're not getting an actual like rock album. We're getting a Beyonce rock album, Jay-Z rock album, because you know he's rock nation um as his thing, which means on the run tour three, which is like the Bonnie and Clyde vibe, which is not what we want here in the Beehive. We're not interested in, we don't want it. Send it back to Receiver, do not pass go, do not collect $200. We don't want it be. We want this rock, heart, metal, hardcore, Prince, uh, Tina Turner vibe album. Because I already have my black leather ready to go. Okay. So keep that little rock nation stub. We don't want that. We want the actual album. Let's wrap things up with a little encouragement and get into our prayer corner. The prayer corner, where faith and lashes meet. Today in our prayer corner, we're gonna be reading from Proverbs chapter three, verse five through six. The chapter reads, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways, acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path. Again, that's Proverbs 3, verse 5 through 6. To me, I'm familiar with this scripture because it's actually one of my grandma's favorites. And this scripture just hits a little different when we're talking about our goals, because sometimes it's really not about like exactly where you're supposed to go and when you're supposed to get there, and all the steps that happen in between. It's really about life shifting and God redirecting us. And that is basically saying, stop trying to control every step. Like you don't need the entire roadmap. You need to take down that rear view mirror and just know to follow God in your next step, and he'll lead you exactly where you're meant to be. There's been so many times when I looked back in my rearview mirror and thought, this is exactly where I want to be. Like with the chiropractor, I loved my job. This is exactly where I wanted to be. And as I started following God in his footsteps on what I needed to do next, which was organize that protest, I then was forced out of that and realized maybe that's not where I needed to be. And then a lot of the things that I learned was to lead me in the direction where God has something way better for me. Better doesn't always mean easier, but it does mean better. And sometimes your goals evolve because you evolve and God sees your growth and he sees that he can use you in different ways. Yes, we do make our own decisions, and God is not an aggressive or abrasive person where he's just gonna be like, I have this plan for you, and this is what you're gonna do, and this is how it's gonna go. That's not how he is. He is patient, he is love. Sometimes God will be like, I see you, and he sees where it's going down the line, but it's not about you, it's about him. So, what I want you to do is ask yourself, am I chasing this because I truly want it? Or am I chasing this dream or this goal because it sounds impressive? There is a big difference here. Again, I want you to write down your top five goals. And next to each of them, I want you to write why. Keep asking yourself why until you get the real answer. Now, this is not, I'm not looking for cookie-cutter answers. I'm looking for you to be fully transparent and 100% honest and raw with yourself because this is where clarity lives. When you stop trying to look for the picture perfect answer, you start to get real results. Um, maybe sometimes success isn't becoming someone else, it's becoming more of who God created you to be. So you don't have to try to people please and look at other people's goals and try to make them your own or compete or compare or any of it. Remember that you got this and God got you. All right, best friends, that is it for today's episode. Whether you're entering competitions, building your business, working for somebody else, changing your goals or trying to figure it all out, just remember to keep going. At the end of the day, as long as you keep going, the path may change, but your purpose does not change because God put that within you before you were even born. Until next time, stay creative, stay curious, stay asking them questions, stay choosing yourself, and keep trusting the process. I love you. I'll see you next time.
SPEAKER_01Hey, lash hey.
SPEAKER_03Thanks for listening to Haylash Hay. If you love the vibes, don't keep it to yourself. Share this episode with someone who needs to hear it. Make sure to subscribe and leave a review. It helps more Lash Besties find the show. You can listen to Haylash Hay on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Stay connected and join the conversation. Follow T on TikTok at haylash hey, and on Instagram and YouTube at haylash hey podcast. Tag the show and let us know what you're loving. See you next time on Haylash Hay.
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