STARTED A BUSINESS A WEEK AFTER HER HUSBAND LEFT || ENTREPRENEUR MOTIVATION VIDEO || Deanna Johnson
the full-time boss cast to the full-time boss cast navigating the journey from a 9-5 to full-time entrepreneurship with your hosts ryan the boss and lady shea presented by morningstar printing where we print pretty much everything hello hello hello welcome to another episode of the full-time boss cast sponsored by morningstar printing where we print everything i am your host ryan the boss and i am here with lady shay how are you miss shea i'm doing well i'm great here you know chilling doing my best trying to bring that energy doing what it do yeah we are here still in the depths of winter here in toronto but we're warm inside here at the photo video spot studio um but yeah so i mean we got our first episode out the way it was a journey it was it was a journey it was a it was a learning experience to say the least it was a learning experience fun it was very happy but we learned a lot yes doing that first episode yes so as i said in the intro from a couple videos back if you want to go back and watch it i said we're not professional we're not i mean i'm a professional printer but professional at what i do exactly but we're not professional podcasters but we're getting there so keep on watching keep on following us for this ride uh thank you for for watching thank you for your comments thank you for your shares your likes and everything you know we're not here without the people you know what i mean right so we have a great episode here for you today so i am not gonna hold things any longer we're gonna get right into it here we go okay okay okay it is my pleasure to introduce our guest for the day um deanna johnson of braids made perfect how are you deanna hey everyone i am good like you said my name is deanna johnson and i am a protective hair stylist of braids made perfect braids made perfect okay so as the new tradition here now we're going to keep going i don't i don't get into what you do i'm not going to give you a bio you're going to tell us what you do so talk to me talk to shea talk to the people can you give a little like run down of what you do what you're about give me a little detail stuff like that so i specialize in protective hairstyles also known as just braiding hair so i braid box braids cornrows all with extensions and i'm well known for my signature style which is called wholesome locks they are 100 human hair locks that i started last year and that's that's my so that's that's your trademark yeah that's your thing that's good that's good you got that brand so you just like the break you're like the braid boss yes oh i'm the braid boss i i um loxes is my thing but not with uh i i don't do interlocking with regular hair it's just with uh it's faux locs done with human hair right right right right right okay all right so how long how long you've been doing this for so i started in 2018 um september of 2018. september 23 i'm in my third year three years three years how's it been going so far it's it's been a ride it's been right it's been a ride it's been arriving ebbs and flows mountain highs volley levels oh man every week is something different in the beginning though there was a lot of lows right um because like this podcast you guys are trying to figure out like you said you're not a professional um i wasn't a business person i was just you know it was my side hustle for a long time so i had to turn it into a full-time job and so that's what made it really challenging while being a full-time mom i got you so so with that being said you mentioned it was your side hustle which is what a lot of people watching this myself included came from a business initially being a side hustle are probably still in the midst of it being a side hustle so what made you or what motivated you to make that transition from the side hustle to taking that chance to go doing it full time so it was a side hustle for years i started braiding when i was 10. my mom said my hairdresser i worked in the salon um in high school i learned how to do extensions and since then it was something that you know people would ask me to braid their hair and i would charge a little fifty dollars for a style that's probably worth now 300 or more um and so it was always something that i was doing on the side you know when people find someone that they like they want to keep going to them so even when i branched off into other things i went to school for early childhood education i ventured off into like social work and working with kids in foster care and other things i always had braiding on the side and it was always something that i picked up around christmas time because we always need to make extra money right right so in 2018 i went through um a separation with my husband who was married to for 10 years oh wow and that was pretty much where 10 years yeah oh wow okay yeah that's where everything just went downhill for me mentally right but i had to figure out okay what can i do to make money that will help me to provide for my kids but not only that also help me to be present so i don't know if you touched on this already maybe i missed it but how many kids do you have right now i have three so i have one who i i didn't give birth to him but he's 20. um and he lives on his own now and then i have a seven-year-old and a twelve-year-old two girls right um so it was really important at the time like my 20 year old was 16. so it was important for me to be present and help them emotionally deal with you know dad no longer being in the house which was that's a big transition my daddy wasn't around either yeah but that's another story for another day another day it was hard and again i'm i'm someone coming from my father not being around so i know especially with girls right how you know of an impact that is so uh doing this full-time was what i decided to do and i remember sitting down one day and i'm like god how i need to replace this amount right how am i gonna do that and it was like use what you have i've given you your hands i've given you this gift that you've been doing since 10 years old i could do with my eyes closed and it's like use it and it's like but how like i don't know nobody who does this and it's they make it you know it's a living so i started that in 2018 and i adventured off into other things um so i speak as well as teach wow how to braid okay so because that's that's what i feel is like you know on a business tip that's where some good money is at is the team yeah i mean you could do the break you know a lot of people do you know the actual service but teaching it is where it you know it's where it's you know where it's at right so you know in this process um whether other than what you mentioned to me just didn't go in a little detail you mentioned you had the kids the foster kids the um the uh the husband leaving the um you know is there how did this affect you and your business mind like were you going were you transitioning to the business while dealing with this or was this after was it during like no so literally like um i started the business the week after like two weeks after he left and so i was transitioning from being a side hustle it being a side hustle to it being a full-time job so he gave you the kick that you needed then were you thinking of this being a business before no really so that was nice i actually i actually tried in 2017 while we were married and my youngest was two at the time and it just it wasn't working um and i had people leave and not pay and say they're gonna send an e-transfer and you know home girls that care banana full-out costume and i'm like i'm still waiting for my money yeah but i didn't see that when they when they're on when they're online flexing with the most and they owe you money and they say i ain't got it no no i hate that anyways and so for me um i i didn't have a backbone i was too afraid to address people like yeah she has my money but i wasn't like hey yeah i need my money i didn't have that but then this like i had no choice because i need to feed my kids so you don't eat i'm worried so it hits different it hits when it's when it's when it's when it's your everything yeah and because of that i think that's why i've gotten to the level that i'm at because it's like if i don't do this yeah we're not eating we're not eating or we could never move from here motivation yeah like before it was like you didn't have that like no hard-line motivation because you had you know your husband's income yeah assuming yeah okay so with that with that there now um i guess now that we're going on with the process where is there any fears diving into the full-time world now where it's like do you have any fears any self-doubts anything um yeah anything like that that that you know for those watching that may be going through the same thing um because i'm one thing i'm sure of there's a lot of graders out there and to stand out you got to be doing i see you online you're very heavy with your social media which is good um but i'll get back to that later yeah but um yeah so were there any fears or you know that you had to conquer going forward yeah the big one was knowing my worth telling people my price say oh that was hard yes but you know what helped me when i i raised my price and someone so i created a booking app because again still learning how to use my voice too afraid to tell people when they asked me oh so how much is it for that and i'm like i don't know if i say 300 she's gonna take it and i'm at the in the beginning i was desperate i'm like i need right right money right but i had to learn to turn people down and say well this is my price and if you take it a little bit you can't afford it i was like god you're my provider so yeah and you knew your worth i knew my birth and that and that's where you know i guess the whole thing with my marriage taught me is to know my worth so when i put a price tag on it created the booking app put that out there and i think my confidence i gained confidence when i had people that like paid for the highest service i remember the first time i was like 450. gosh i would call my sister because she's like my cheerleader i'm like guess what so like someone just bought the most expensive style nice and they trusted me with it yeah did you have to do it like this where like you you call the sister but then when you call back the client you're like okay well thank you for um thank you for your order because you gotta be professional and like with that it's like i don't hair is not included right so that's an additional sometimes hundred dollars so this person just worked out 550. i was like wow wow because they see and they
see what you're doing and you know your confidence now your confidence is it kind of reflects to others to say listen this is what i'm doing this is what you're getting you know my work you've heard about me ask about me if you don't know and and yeah that's your money now and that's good and i think that's something that a lot of people need to especially those who are just getting into it yeah you know what i mean because it's easy sorry it's easy to just take any order boom boom boom boom but you're you're there is a point in time where you're doing a disservice to yourself right yeah your ability yeah and it's a price versus value thing right right charge what you're worth because that's what the value is if people value your work right right and if they don't they're not your family right and i had to learn that and learn it's okay to tell people no right some people come to me with styles especially in the beginning there's a new style every day i had to where i'm at now is i only do these these three things yeah and that's it i'm not i'm not doing the other stuff because what ends up happening is when i'm trying something new it doesn't reflect my work right right right so i'll do you do what you do you stay in your lane and do what you do properly to the best of what you do or i have like models and i've had in the beginning i had a lot of people that i got to come and get their hair done for free mm-hmm but instagram didn't know it was for free yeah yeah and they promoted it then he said you gotta fake it till you make it yeah and i'm i'm still there some days cause i need to put some stuff out there right right and uh yeah well if anything like we were talking about before if you have the glue wig i can come through you know what i mean you know i'll bring it down and there's and there's things that i refuse to do and i've learned to like there's because i'm big on protective hairstyles i don't want people to leave my hair myself i have a hairline you know these are important it is we live in a whole different world back in the day we didn't care about that it's a different it's a different time now these are important to the black female it is i wouldn't i wouldn't know sorry um sorry okay i could i could glue something we can try something out well afterwards tattooing edges on now it's a whole mess tattooing yeah yeah it's a thing yeah and the price of beauty yeah geez all right so now that we're moving on with this now um one thing that you know another question that some people had or something opposed to me is how do we tran how did you uh make the transition financially because there is a point where you know you're not doing your full time you're not doing your job or whatever you're doing before you know and now you're doing this business so there is that gap where money is probably not you know rolling in what what did you do had to pivot and figure out okay like i learned january and february is slow oh yeah i know that yeah yeah yeah and if i don't grind in december then i won't have enough to carry over to january and maybe february but i also learned that this wasn't enough right like it wasn't enough for me to provide for my kids right i had to add something so that's where i added teaching okay yeah okay then this year i'm adding um speaking but i added teaching and what teaching allowed me to do is get a huge lump sum all at once oh nice yes and then before they come you got that money and i was shocked last year or 2020 i did a hands-on class charged 950 per person the kit was like 150. i had five people purchase it and i'm assuming they were all satisfied and it was scary to put myself out there because you put yourself out there and people don't always comment or like or but there's people behind the scenes watching comment they're just sending you dms so okay but that was what i learned i had to i had to add more and then i also when you're an entrepreneur your full time is 24 7. it's not nine to five no yes so i could work you know caribbean a weekend i or christmas i would start at like 6 a.m and and there's no doubt
i'll take a little break but i realize mentally that's my body can't take right right right right so so so this is from the beginning you were teaching like what about like from when you first started financially like how did you um when i first started it was just like did you save up any money before or were you just like he listen i'm gonna go with god and god gonna deal with it it's really i'ma go with god i mean i was um i was still fostering right um and you know that they do the government does help out with that as well right yeah that wasn't it still wasn't it's not like enough no but it's enough to like keep you afloat obviously right and then there came a time after like that that summer when i started it was like okay we're done with this now right so i really had to dive in full time and it was all really just faith right right right once i had nothing yeah say i was i was a stay-at-home mom before never really had i didn't have income i didn't have anything so i just realized you had to do something different yeah there was like something burning inside so you were building it as a side hustle you tried it in 2017 you decided it didn't work what did you do differently the next time that made it work i had to look at it as a as a business and not a side hustle got you and so my mindset the perspective was different meaning my hours i'm not taking people can't just come to me and say oh i need my hair done right now can you get yeah no you don't work like that right right right a salon doesn't work like they don't do it no they don't do it you come into your appointment we do a consultation sometimes because i need to see what i'm working with um and and you know i've been okay with people saying okay no i'm not going to do it but that's what helped me right that's changing my mindset and knowing my worth and knowing your worth that's that's big that's big that's big so like is there anything for lack of better term personal that like that that you had to overcome like that you had to deal with you know i know we touched on some things here but is there anything that you know you may want someone to hear like anything that you want to touch on on that aspect i think my for me what was hard is that i'm going through the process of someone who was always there no longer being there and dealing with clients and i'm sorry to all my clients out there y'all heard my story because i just it was healing for me i needed to get it out there were days where clients would come in and i would be dealing with like you know a horrible message or something that just threw me off mentally and so i i wasn't doing well mentally but what braiding hair helped me to to to do was to trust the process you have a client come in and you know what it's like because you just did system yeah it takes a long time and there were nights where i'm like i'm tired i'm done and like my my younger one is like i want my mommy she'll sit on the stairs and wait for me and it's like i just want to be done with this and it's through that i would pray and i'm like god help me because like the client can't leave with half her head yeah yeah yeah plus i have someone else tomorrow it's not like i could tell her to come back right so i had to trust the process and so you sorry certain interpreter you're going through this along with your the husband probably sending message you and him going back because i don't know most breakups they're not clean especially when there's kids involved that's when there's trauma involved it's not clean so you're dealing with all of that while people are coming to you i see you're probably braiding hairs and tears going on in their hair and stuff and they're like i had one why is there water in my head one client was like she left and she was like what do you need is there anything you need like you felt so sorry for me because at the time that's all i was doing and i was trying to figure out how am i going to replace this other income now the income of fostering being gone and to her it looked impossible and i'm like okay god yes i'm going to teach i'm going to teach you i don't know how it's going to go i'm going to teach but it was it was difficult and mentally i wasn't doing well so when people come to my my instagram page i'm an advocate for mental health because i know that i wasn't doing well and i was in a really dark place but braiding hair was therapeutic right it's like knitting especially in the black communities when it comes to mental health yeah we're not well i can't speak for everybody but i'm talking like the west indian community like where oh if you're feeling not deal with it you know what i mean go drink some tea or something yeah right maybe not you know what i'm saying but like we're not we're not taught to address it right you know like what you're going through is not right cool like right you know you know and um and as a black woman i know doing hair is therapy right it is like there's so many things and you know jokes about it and whatever like girls will go to the salon or they're getting their hair done yeah but it's a real thing like it's a very intimate experience though very intimate like we're very very like especially now like our hair is so celebrated now in our community our natural hair you know like so doing protective styles and doing that and preserving the natural hair of you know people i could imagine had to be very therapeutic and and then talking about things but oh yeah so how did you did you have any like self-care or anything that you intentionally did to nurture your mental health because you were aware obviously that you were in a dark place and you're going through the most while doing business and unfortunately i can relate so you know um what did you do anything to to keep you going because a lot of people can't keep going you know a lot of people can't keep going a lot of people there may be somebody watching right now that might be ready to you know throw it all away and you know the topic of mental health is very important so did you have anything that you did and like yeah yeah um my faith um community good people around you good people around me um lots of shout out all the good people around here yes lots of support um and for me the thing that pushed me the most is that i don't want this to continue like i want it to end with me right the trauma the stuff that i've experienced the quitting when things get hard i wanted my kids to see what it looks like right right right which go through it to see the yeah see the result my and my eldest daughter is just i'm just yeah she's so proud of me but she's saying that more now that's good and it's like yeah and i'm like she's like well mama do you think you would have ever been here if you were still there and i'm like yes and it's it's just like you know like she can't wait for me to teach at school and do workshops and stuff like that isn't that amazing when your kids like it's one thing to do your thing but when your kids are looking up and they're cheering me on and you know but i i looked at them and i remember some mornings waking up and just crying and just like i was crying a lot crying and looking at them they're girls i repeated a cycle that my mom didn't tell me this is how i want you to live it was just what i saw right and i said it's gonna end with you you're breaking that hey i don't want this to continue this ends today amen so that was my push um to remember you know them they're watching my son is watching and that nothing comes nothing good comes easy so what i'm reaping now those tears were real tears that's true put in work yeah discipline breed success so i got that on the wall right so you got to stay disciplined yeah throw it to the wall right okay so i'm going to wrap this up but i do have one more question before you go um what advice um would you give you know bosses and upcoming bosses and people coming up um look in the beginning of work like starting your own business like what what advice would you give somebody so know your worth um whatever do your research yeah i priced stuff based off of what other braiders that um provided the same kind of quality of service i did i looked at what their prices were so that it wasn't like my prices were high but no you know do your research know what the prices are for whatever it is that you want to sell um use instagram is where i get everybody 99.9 of my clients are from instagram yeah mainly because what i do is they need to see it yeah i mean facebook might be different for like a podcast you know but it's a visual thing so i've used use that use all the social media tools you have every single one of them i know there's linkedin i'm not here yet but i tried it i tried it i'm just like i can't experience i can't deal with this before we um before we start the interview you mentioned something i just want to make sure we brought up as far as registering your business oh yeah so i don't know if you want to touch on that before we go so again when i said i had to change my mindset and look at it as a let me just be real with you guys my nail came off and so for the longest while i've been trying to like hide it but i need to use okay so um i had to change my mindset and not see it as a side hustle but see it as a full-time a business right this is something that i want to establish i want you know you got to pay your taxes yes so i registered my business and the best thing i could have done for myself was register my business in 2019. i didn't register it in 2018 because i had just started in september you know it was only two months so 2019 registered the business and then covet hit and what was supposed to be the worst time of my life turned out to be the best because i was able to get government support yeah i got the server trudeau was just throwing out money yeah he's like oprah we opened up access to yeah things yeah just doing your business right exactly yes yeah so people access those things yes so those are you who are looking to get into business register your business you know you may want to say nah man i'm trying to deal with the government no like do it there's stuff that you can unlock yeah um there's stuff that they have to offer they're especially the black businesses yeah like right now they really are throwing out a lot of money and i was so blessed to have gotten the small business grant it was a lot and a lot of people didn't get it but for some reason i don't know i i i got it but they ask a lot of questions and the big one is is your business registered after that open a business account which i didn't have but because of covid and how things worked out they knew yeah as long as i opened it so know your worth and treat it as a business um and get it registered get it registered and yeah trust the process trust the process thank you wow that was uh i got i got some gems she was dropping bars she was dropping some gems so when we're cutting this up and putting it online we're going to be dropping some click baits yo so no but thank you yeah thank you thank you thank you um for everything you know and i and i hope that you know all the best to you and your business and your family going forward and yeah we're here to support in any way we can as well too um we'll revisit the whole um wig glue thing uh later on and we'll stick to the yeah thank you thank you so much for being so transparent like these are this is why we do this like to actually hear some of the struggles you went through like i know there's a lot of people out there struggling and it helps to see somebody that's on the other side right so thank you for your openness and transparency um i personally appreciate it very much i know lots of people will look at that look at that wow so before you go just tell the people real quick how they can contact you i'll probably put it under your okay screen as well too but so you can find me on instagram at braids made perfect you can also go to www and if you have a child who is looking to learn how to braid i will be introducing something this month where every month i'll be teaching a virtual course so look at that the money the money is just money on money right there anyways thank you very much deanna and um yeah have a great one thank you everybody for watching have a great week have a great day all that stuff stay warm stay safe
2022-02-21 06:09
