IAM1405 – CEO Runs Beauty Bar that Caters Lash Extensions

A mother 365 days out the year and an entrepreneur 24/7. What started out as a dream eventually turned into reality after consistent hard work to build her own business. Like most, She started out with no direction on how to get started. Multitasking her everyday IT job, providing for her son, and finding time to create takes more than saying you want it to work. She had to endure failure during the process, She had to learn patience, and had to stay consistent with a focused mindset. It’s easier said than done.

She did her research on the industry she wanted to be a part of which was the beauty world. And she will continue to learn more and expand as she grows.

• CEO Story: It started as an idea of putting up her own beauty bar. Despite being advised to take a different route, Latoya made her own way and opened her dream business!
• Business Service: Lash extensions and customs strips. Body contouring that is not invasive.
• Secret Sauce: Putting all the creative process. Doing things outside of the box.
• CEO Hack: App mention; Canva – making creative content.
• CEO Nugget: You are almost there, don’t quit keep going.
• CEO Defined: Somebody who is determined to go get it. Finding a way, making a way, finding a solution.

Website: happyhourbeautybar

Instagram: LatoyaB

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Transcription

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00:16 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEO's without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkness values your time and is ready to share precisely the information you're searching for. This is to I AM CEO podcast.

00:43 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Latoya Buckmon of Styleseat.com. Latoya, super excited to have you on the show.

00:53 – Latoya Buckmon

Hi, thank you for having me.

00:55 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, excited to have you on and talk about all the awesome things that you're doing. Course, before we do that, I want to read a little bit, a little bit more about Latoya so you can hear about some of those awesome things. And Latoya is a mother 365 days out of the year and an entrepreneur 24/7 what started out as a dream eventually turned into her reality after consistent hard work to build her business. Like most, she started out with no direction on how to get started.

Multitasking her everyday job, providing for her son, and finding time to create takes more than saying you want it to work. She had to endure failure during her process. She had to learn patience and she had to stay consistent with a focused mindset. It's easier said than done. When she did research on the industry she wanted to be a part of, which was the beauty world. And she will continue to learn more and expand as she grows. Latoya, excited again to have you on the show and talk about all the awesome things you're working on here. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:52 – Latoya Buckmon

Yes, I am. Let's get to it.

01:55 – Gresham Harkless

Let's make it happen then. So to kind of kick everything off, I know I touched on it when I read your bio. I wanted to rewind the clock and hear a little bit more about how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

02:06 – Latoya Buckmon

Basically, about two years ago I had this idea of opening a beauty bar. I did not have any direction like I stated, it was just all an idea in my head. I expressed it to someone, and they told me, like, different routes to take, but I just made my own way. Eventually, I started to get more into the industry, and I wanted to see what I wanted to tap into with beauty.

Beauty, you have different options with cosmetics and skincare and things. I got a little bit into both kinds of. I do lash extension services and noninvasive body contouring. So to build that, I just looked into both of those industries and see, you know, what they offered, and then I started looking into how to legalize a business and own a business. And now I'm here. Eventually, I'm about to open for my grand opening tomorrow, May 28.

03:10 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I love that. Especially, like, how you just, like, continue to kind of go with the vision that you had. I think so many times in life, you can feel like you don't have everything in place, so you never, ever want to get started. But it sounds like you didn't do that. Sounds like you just kind of took one step in front of the other and kept going.

03:30 – Latoya Buckmon

Right. Sometimes I feel like I don't have the second option to just not, you know, complete my goals. Like, I have to get it done. It can't be any other way.

03:43 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that makes sense. And, you know, they say necessity is the mother of invention. And a lot of times, that is the fire that you have to kind of keep you going. I myself have been laid off, and sometimes when you go through those experiences, it forces you to really say, like, there is no other option other than the option that I take. So you kind of have the ability to kind of, you know, get past all those fears and just kind of put the pedal to the metal, so to speak.

04:09 – Latoya Buckmon

Right, exactly. That's exactly, exactly what it was. I actually did. I lost my job during COVID So that definitely had a big impact on me. And, like, the only thing that I could think of was, okay, I gotta get back up. I gotta find a way, you know, so I have to provide for my baby, so just gotta keep going and pushing the whole way.

04:31 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, faith, I think they say, is sometimes taking the steps before you even know if there are steps in front of you. And a lot of times, great things happen as a result of, you know, doing that. So I wanted to drill down a little bit more. I know you touched a little bit upon, like, how you're working with and serving your clients. Could you take us through a little bit more on your services, and how you're making that impact and serving the clients you work with?

04:56 – Latoya Buckmon

So what services do I provide? It's the lash extensions where you basically place a longer length lash onto your natural lash and you make the look. Enhance your eyelashes. It makes it look full. It can be. It can be a natural look. It depends on the person and what they're into. My beauty bar is going to consist of lash extensions and custom strips as well, which clients can come in and request or even go online and request.

And then I also do body contouring. It is non-invasive, and it's basically to carve the body and perfect it a little bit quicker than you would go into the gym. The gym also is a part of it. You have to maintain your luck. We just enhance it. So that is what I offer currently. Eventually, I plan on expanding my business to add more services.

05:57 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I appreciate you kind of sharing that and the work that you do. And it sounds like it complements a lot of things around, like the health and wellness space, and kind of maybe even accentuates them even more so that at the end of the day, people can have that, I guess, that health that they want in the way that they look, but also in the way that they feel and everything else in between.

06:17 – Latoya Buckmon

Right.

06:18 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So what would you consider to be what I like to call your secret sauce? And this could be for yourself, the business, or a combination of both. But what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

06:28 – Latoya Buckmon

What makes me unique is my creative process. Like, I know I don't know how other people, you know, think and build their vision, but I really put my all into my ideas and, like, everything that I've ever liked, it can be from swimsuits, it can be from makeup, it can be from lashes, whatever. I just. I always put everything that I've ever experienced in life together, and that's how I create, that's where my vision comes from. And I like to step out of the box. I like to do things that a lot of people aren't doing. I like to be my own trendsetter. So I think that's my sauce.

07:09 – Gresham Harkless

That makes sense. And do you feel like? Because it kind of even sounds like, and I want to put words in your mouth, but, like, from how you built the business, like you said, you know, I think you said you had a friend that told you you should do x, Y and z, a, B and C, but you're like, hey, I'm going to do it this way because you felt like, I guess that might have aligned with you. But also, you probably saw, like, a gap or an opportunity. Is that correct?

07:29 – Latoya Buckmon

Yes, sir. Yeah, I did. I expressed my interest in opening a beauty bar, and they kind of advised me, like, to maybe go another route, like, maybe working under them. And I just decided, you know, I want to be my own boss. I want to run my own business. I want to be able to say and don't do it on my own terms. So I just stuck to that, and I pushed and made it here now.

07:54 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And I think so many times in life, like every. Well, I won't say everybody. A lot of people are going the same route that everybody's doing. They're always, like, kind of following the trail. But it's ultimately those people that decide that I'm gonna blaze my own trail, and I'm gonna set the pace, I'm gonna create my own lane. And then you start to look around and you're by yourself, quote-unquote, in the beginning, but you start to blaze that trail. You start to make an impact, and you start to look behind you, and there are more and more people that are starting to follow you, and you become that pace car, so to speak.

08:25 – Latoya Buckmon

Right. That's my whole goal. I want my business, when I open, to just be, like, something that inspires other women, younger, older, I don't care how old, as long as it inspires you and motivates you, you know, to do something. They may want to follow in my footsteps, to open a business just like me, or they may have a different vision, but, you know, just finding your purpose and trying to make it happen for yourself, don't give up on it.

08:54 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. Yeah. Finding your purpose is so key because I think I often say, like, if you run your own race, you can't lose because so many times people are looking at somebody else's race and like, oh, that looks cool. I want to run that. But it's unique to them. When you're doing your thing and the way that you can do it in a way that you've been purposeful and I would say even blessed to do, no one can do it like you. One and two, like, by doing it in your way, you're also kind of giving permission to other people to also run their race, to stay true to who they are, straight true to their purpose, and lean more into that.

09:27 – Latoya Buckmon

Yeah, I actually agree. I think that's the whole idea. I've never been a person to follow other people's trail. Like, I know it's a million people probably doing what I'm doing. But I've always thought, you know, Toya, stay in your own lane. Like, what somebody else is doing may work for them and it may not work for you. So when it's your time, you know, it'll happen. Just keep doing what you're doing. Eventually, everything will fall apart, you know? So I just try to stick to what I do, what I know, and sometimes I step out of the box to try little different things, you know, from what other people haven't tried. So.

10:06 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And that speaks, you know, to your secret sauce and to be able to come up with new and creative ideas and, you know, to be able to kind of impact. And you're serving the DC, Maryland, and Virginia area? That's correct.

10:17 – Latoya Buckmon

Yeah, I'm over in Old Branch Avenue, Temple Hills, Maryland.

10:21 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. Perfect. And we'll have that information definitely in the show notes, too. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have. But what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

10:37 – Latoya Buckmon

Something that makes me effective and efficient. You know what? I'm actually on canvas a lot. That is probably the most. It keeps me creative. I like to see what they offer, making videos, trying to make new content so I can have marketing, you know, when I drop my, or have my grand opening. Yeah. So I can say that's something that I'm consistently on.

10:58 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that's a great, you know, piece of software. And it's, you know, I always say, I think when I first was introduced to it, it was kind of, someone explained it was kind of like Photoshop. Drop and drag Photoshop. So it made it, like, easier where you didn't have to learn how to do all these things. You could set it up to your brand and your colors and your fonts and all that stuff and create a brand guide, and you can create images that are in alignment with that. Or videos, like you said, too, right?

11:22 – Latoya Buckmon

Yeah, you can do more on there. You can make videos, you can drop t-shirts, whatever you can think of literally on there, you know, so I'm addicted to it, kind of.

11:32 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, it's crazy to see just the amount of things that you could do and the amount of things that they keep adding on. So pretty much, I would say, most creative things that you could do, you could probably find a way to do it through there.

11:42 – Latoya Buckmon

Yeah, that's true. That's very true.

11:47 – Gresham Harkless

So I wanted to ask you now for what I call CEO nugget. So this is a little bit more of a word of wisdom or piece of advice. I like to say it might be something you would tell your younger business self if you happened to be a time machine.

11:59 – Latoya Buckmon

I would tell my younger business self, you're almost there. Literally, keep going. Like, literally, don't, don't quit. Don't give up. Just keep going because you're almost done and you're almost at the finish line. I think my younger self, as I always was, put pressure on myself. So I always thought, like, oh, my God, it's never going to happen. This is not going to work out the way, you know, that I planned or seen it. So. But now that I'm here, I would, yeah, I would definitely tell myself, keep your head in the game. Almost there.

12:28 – Gresham Harkless

I love that just because so many times we are our worst critics, and especially around time, I think that's the biggest thing. We have our time on it when we want to get something done. And if it's not in alignment with that, we could really beat ourselves up. But I think one of the things that are right in line with what you said that really kind of resonates with me is that, like, we were talking about our race and our journey and the steps that we're taking, they're unique to you.

So even if you're looking and saying, I think this should take this long because of this person. It took them that long. It's not true to your race, it's not true to who you are. And a lot of times we might make pivot changes or experiment with certain things that create something bigger, better, or completely different than somebody else. And that's why it's easier said than done. But I think it's something that we all kind of lean on.

13:16 – Latoya Buckmon

Yeah, for sure. It really is. I would give that advice to anybody, even older or younger. I tell you, keep your head in the game. No matter what you're going through, just keep, keep going.

13:32 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. And we're often a lot closer than we think that we are, and sometimes we give ourselves credit for. And the only way you truly fail is if you stop. So if you keep going, then you can see that success.

13:43 – Latoya Buckmon

You definitely can. You can see that turnaround quicker than you thought.

13:48 – Gresham Harkless

Exactly, exactly. And it starts to build up from there. So love that. And so I want to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote-unquote CEO's on the show. So Latoya what does being a CEO mean to you?

14:03 – Latoya Buckmon

A CEO to me is somebody who is determined, like, no matter what it costs to be the boss, literally, they're determined to go get it. Nothing gets in their way. Nothing stops them. They find every route to take. When something fails, they continue to go. They are consistent. That's why I feel like a boss is finding a way, making a way. It says, always have a person that has a solution to the problem. Or, you know, that's what I feel like a CEO is. That's me.

14:40 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, Latoya, truly appreciate that definition. And of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I wanted to do now was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know and of course, how best people can get a hold of you. Find about all the else, some things.

14:58 – Latoya Buckmon

That you're working on, guys. So you can find me on Instagram at the official HHB. That is my business page for the happy hour beauty bar. You can also make your bookings there. They'll be available for anyone interested in any services starting May 28, 2022, which is tomorrow, Saturday, the grand opening day. You can reach out to me by email. Everything's in my bio, link there for you guys to contact me and I'm always available. And I can't wait to hear this interview. It was really fun. I had fun. Thank you for having me.

15:38 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate you taking time out, of course, to share us with your experience and all the awesome things that you've learned. Congratulations on the grand opening and super excited to have you back to talk more about the progress and things that you learned after that too. So have a phenomenal rest of the day and take care.

15:56 – Latoya Buckmon

Thank you. You have a great day too.

15:58 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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