Leslie Onley on Entreprenuership, Competition, and Purpose
I
had the pleasure of sitting down with the one and only, Leslie O. I
don't even want to say it was an interview, because it felt like I was
sitting down with my big sister. We sat down together and let me tell
you, Leslie dropped some much knowledge and gems! She opened up about
how she got started doing hair, being a mother all while running a
business, her future business ventures and walking into her purpose. I
met Leslie back in 2012 and I watched her first hand go from doing hair
out of her living room apartment to now having a store front and many
other ventures under her belt. She is the epitome of class,
authenticity, inspiration and now she's using her platform and voice to
catapult others to their purpose as well. Read on to hear what Leslie
had to say.
L.J: How did you get started doing hair?
Leslie: When I went to 6th grade summer camp, I used to braid the girls hair and when it was finally time to go back to school one of the girls' mom asked who was doing their hair and they was like, "our friend," and the mom told them to call me so I could do their hair for school and she would pay me. Me being so young at the time was like, "what?! I could get paid for that?!" I didn't know how much to charge, but she paid me for both of their heads. I still remember their names, Kimberly and Alesha Reeves and I'll never forget it because they were my very first clients and that was the start of what it is now. Although I didn't know that would come to this.
L.J: What made you decide to bet on your yourself and your business?
Leslie: I got tired, I got tired of being tired. I started to hate my job, it was draining and I didn't feel fulfilled. I knew I didn't want that life anymore, I wasn't in a high paying position so I knew that if I could make it work with a paycheck, I could do it. I prayed and I asked God, "just give me one head a day." At that time what I was charging for a sew-in; I just knew I could make it. I also became intentional with what I wanted and I started writing down the things that I wanted and how I wanted it to be done.
On how she motivates herself in the entrepreneurship business
Leslie: There's
never not a day where you don't feel tired or like you want to give up.
I don't care where a person is in life, you get tired at some point.
But, I have too much to prove to myself. If I'm going to hurt and
struggle right now, it's too easy to give up so I might as well keep
going. Plus what am I going to do?! I've come too far, I haven't been on
someone's job in such a long time. If I go back now they're going to
start me at the lowest, there's nothing I can do but to keep pushing
forward. It sounds cliche but you don't know how many people are
watching or how many people you're motivating. When those people come
and speak to me, it pours into me and allows me to keep going. I can't
give up because I'm giving them hope.
On how she balances being a mother, a hairstylist and a business owner
Leslie: Honestly, I haven't mastered balancing them yet. It's hard because I have to take a little bit from there in order to give a little bit over here. I'm learning that if it's for you, it's going to be there. So, I have to take care of me, I have to find time for my kids and my business. Lately, I've been writing down my ideal schedule of what I want my day to look like and what I don't want it to look like. I pray and I ask God to give me balance as well but, I also have to know what I want it to look like.
L.J: Have you always been this spiritual?
Leslie: No, because every achievement weighs just the same as every failure, so it builds that faith.
On supporting women in the same business as her and women empowerment
Leslie: At the end of the day, you can't do what I do even if we're doing the same thing and I can't do what you do. What's for you is for and what's for me is for me and there's enough money for all of us to eat. There's nothing another woman can do that will make me feel inferior to my work. If you do great work, I'll take a class with you, I'll invest. I've never had to be jealous of anyone else because I always know that there's something for me. Me being jealous of you is not going to get me whatever you have, unless I put in the work. But, a lot of the woman that I've been running into in the hair game, I feel good about. A lot of us are growing but it's getting better. A lot of us will comment under another hairstylists post; I love to see stuff like that, that's dope.
L.J: How do you remain relevant in a business that's so lucrative?
Leslie: Honestly,
I don't pay attention to that. That's not important to me, I just put
my time into me. I feel like, what's for me is for me; I don't try to be
anything that I'm not. I don't feel like I do anything extra, I'm just
me. I try to slay to the best of my abilities and I try to stay focused
on what I want. So, as far as relevancy goes, the only relevancy that
matters is staying relevant to myself and the ones that do support me. I
don't have time to worry about staying relevant, I mean you do want to
stay current as far as trends go. For example, there's some stylist that
don't do frontals but they're still relevant because they're a beast at
what they do and they focus on their craft.
L.J: You do hair, you own a business, you provide classes, you have an online and physical store and you're a motivational speaker. Where do you see your brand in the next 2 years?
Leslie: In the next 2 years, I'll be walking more into my purpose and doing more of motivational speaking. As far as my business, in the next 2 years I want to be less behind the chair because I would rather help people grow. There's so much hidden talent out here but so many of them don't believe in themselves so I want to help in that aspect. As far as my online and physical store, both will take care of themselves. I plan on being an author soon, I just plan on walking more into my purpose and using my talent as the gateway to that.
L.J: What advice would you give to a young entrepreneur that doesn't believe in their self or their craft?
Leslie: First off, we need to figure out why this person feels that way so we can understand. Secondly, at some point they had this idea in their mind and they wanted to do it, so now why did you have that thought in the first place? We need to asks those questions so we can figure out their "why," kill their doubt and work on their first thought. Then we can grow and feed off of that, you can't feed off of the negativity because at the end of the day, there's so many people that cook food, there's so many restaurants but no matter what there's going to be somebody that likes what you do.
Leslie dropped so much gems in this interview. I had to go back to listen a few times and jot them down in my journal. Here are some of the key advice that I took from her.
-
"If you can't motivate yourself you might as well not even get into it
because you won't always have that person that you can call. Sometimes
you have to get in front of the mirror and you gotta face you."- Leslie
O.
- "Even if times are hard, I always try to find the positive in that moment because it could've been worse. I probably had a bad month but my door is still open, my kids are still fed, I still have a roof over my head. I always try to be grateful for even the little stuff because I never want God to feel like I'm ungrateful."- Leslie O.
- "Right when you gave up, that could've been you're breakthrough. So, it's all about the "what if?"- Leslie O.
- "I'm my own mirror. I gotta look at me and I gotta know that I can make it."- Leslie O.
- "Whatever my purpose is, I feel like my purpose is greater than me so it's not just for me."- Leslie O.
https://www.instagram.com/soladylikebeauty/
L.J: How did you get started doing hair?
Leslie: When I went to 6th grade summer camp, I used to braid the girls hair and when it was finally time to go back to school one of the girls' mom asked who was doing their hair and they was like, "our friend," and the mom told them to call me so I could do their hair for school and she would pay me. Me being so young at the time was like, "what?! I could get paid for that?!" I didn't know how much to charge, but she paid me for both of their heads. I still remember their names, Kimberly and Alesha Reeves and I'll never forget it because they were my very first clients and that was the start of what it is now. Although I didn't know that would come to this.
L.J: What made you decide to bet on your yourself and your business?
Leslie: I got tired, I got tired of being tired. I started to hate my job, it was draining and I didn't feel fulfilled. I knew I didn't want that life anymore, I wasn't in a high paying position so I knew that if I could make it work with a paycheck, I could do it. I prayed and I asked God, "just give me one head a day." At that time what I was charging for a sew-in; I just knew I could make it. I also became intentional with what I wanted and I started writing down the things that I wanted and how I wanted it to be done.
On how she motivates herself in the entrepreneurship business
Leslie: There's
never not a day where you don't feel tired or like you want to give up.
I don't care where a person is in life, you get tired at some point.
But, I have too much to prove to myself. If I'm going to hurt and
struggle right now, it's too easy to give up so I might as well keep
going. Plus what am I going to do?! I've come too far, I haven't been on
someone's job in such a long time. If I go back now they're going to
start me at the lowest, there's nothing I can do but to keep pushing
forward. It sounds cliche but you don't know how many people are
watching or how many people you're motivating. When those people come
and speak to me, it pours into me and allows me to keep going. I can't
give up because I'm giving them hope.On how she balances being a mother, a hairstylist and a business owner
Leslie: Honestly, I haven't mastered balancing them yet. It's hard because I have to take a little bit from there in order to give a little bit over here. I'm learning that if it's for you, it's going to be there. So, I have to take care of me, I have to find time for my kids and my business. Lately, I've been writing down my ideal schedule of what I want my day to look like and what I don't want it to look like. I pray and I ask God to give me balance as well but, I also have to know what I want it to look like.
L.J: Have you always been this spiritual?
Leslie: No, because every achievement weighs just the same as every failure, so it builds that faith.
On supporting women in the same business as her and women empowermentLeslie: At the end of the day, you can't do what I do even if we're doing the same thing and I can't do what you do. What's for you is for and what's for me is for me and there's enough money for all of us to eat. There's nothing another woman can do that will make me feel inferior to my work. If you do great work, I'll take a class with you, I'll invest. I've never had to be jealous of anyone else because I always know that there's something for me. Me being jealous of you is not going to get me whatever you have, unless I put in the work. But, a lot of the woman that I've been running into in the hair game, I feel good about. A lot of us are growing but it's getting better. A lot of us will comment under another hairstylists post; I love to see stuff like that, that's dope.
L.J: How do you remain relevant in a business that's so lucrative?
Leslie: Honestly,
I don't pay attention to that. That's not important to me, I just put
my time into me. I feel like, what's for me is for me; I don't try to be
anything that I'm not. I don't feel like I do anything extra, I'm just
me. I try to slay to the best of my abilities and I try to stay focused
on what I want. So, as far as relevancy goes, the only relevancy that
matters is staying relevant to myself and the ones that do support me. I
don't have time to worry about staying relevant, I mean you do want to
stay current as far as trends go. For example, there's some stylist that
don't do frontals but they're still relevant because they're a beast at
what they do and they focus on their craft.L.J: You do hair, you own a business, you provide classes, you have an online and physical store and you're a motivational speaker. Where do you see your brand in the next 2 years?
Leslie: In the next 2 years, I'll be walking more into my purpose and doing more of motivational speaking. As far as my business, in the next 2 years I want to be less behind the chair because I would rather help people grow. There's so much hidden talent out here but so many of them don't believe in themselves so I want to help in that aspect. As far as my online and physical store, both will take care of themselves. I plan on being an author soon, I just plan on walking more into my purpose and using my talent as the gateway to that.
L.J: What advice would you give to a young entrepreneur that doesn't believe in their self or their craft?
Leslie: First off, we need to figure out why this person feels that way so we can understand. Secondly, at some point they had this idea in their mind and they wanted to do it, so now why did you have that thought in the first place? We need to asks those questions so we can figure out their "why," kill their doubt and work on their first thought. Then we can grow and feed off of that, you can't feed off of the negativity because at the end of the day, there's so many people that cook food, there's so many restaurants but no matter what there's going to be somebody that likes what you do.
Leslie dropped so much gems in this interview. I had to go back to listen a few times and jot them down in my journal. Here are some of the key advice that I took from her.
-
"If you can't motivate yourself you might as well not even get into it
because you won't always have that person that you can call. Sometimes
you have to get in front of the mirror and you gotta face you."- Leslie
O.- "Even if times are hard, I always try to find the positive in that moment because it could've been worse. I probably had a bad month but my door is still open, my kids are still fed, I still have a roof over my head. I always try to be grateful for even the little stuff because I never want God to feel like I'm ungrateful."- Leslie O.
- "Right when you gave up, that could've been you're breakthrough. So, it's all about the "what if?"- Leslie O.
- "I'm my own mirror. I gotta look at me and I gotta know that I can make it."- Leslie O.
- "Whatever my purpose is, I feel like my purpose is greater than me so it's not just for me."- Leslie O.
https://www.instagram.com/soladylikebeauty/
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