Get a "Real Job" They Told Me...

It was shadow day. You know the butterflies in the pit of your stomach, can't sleep the night before type of moment? It was my senior year of high school and I was going full time at the local vocational school in the Cosmetology program. My aunt, or at least my self-proclaimed aunt aka my mom's best-friend, was a hairstylist. I showed up at her salon bright and early on shadow day to see what really went on behind the scenes and what it would be like to work at a real salon. I originally decided to enroll in the Cosmetology program because it just made sense. I wanted to get out of my high school that was full of judgmental, stereotypical, teenage peers and possibly get some better grades because I just wasn't hacking it there. Like, algebra; I could never understand why you would put letters with numbers? My brain just doesn't work like that! No worries, I now understand and needless to say my children don't ask me for help with math homework! Below: Senior year Cosmetology school 2004

I'll never forget what my aunt said to me on shadow day: "You don't want to do this your whole life, go to college and get a real job" I was crushed. The sad part is that I believed her. I graduated from the program, got my license and did find a job in a salon but I also enrolled in the local community college to take nursing classes. I saw the dollar signs that came with the working wages of a nurse and didn't really care about anything else. To this day, 15 years later after graduating from a medical assisting program I am ALMOST done paying off my student loan in which I used the education for maybe a millisecond.

A few years after chasing dollar signs and taking classes in college I decided I was going to make this hairstylist thing work. The beauty industry is where my passion lies and I decided that I would make a liar out of my aunt and everyone else that has said those words, "get a real job" , my entire career. That's when I found a program called "Thrivers Society" by Britt Seva (I met her in Jan of 2020 pictured below) that was a huge business building program broke down into bite size pieces that I worked on for a few years. I credit that program to me finding the success that I've achieved thus far and lighting the fire for my career right before I was about to give up. I learned that I had quite the interest in marketing, I could totally see myself working in that field if I wasn't a hairstylist!

Today I own a growing and thriving salon and spa with two partners, run a successful business behind my chair with a full clientele, work a dream schedule that allows me to be with my family, and now I'm working towards building an education business. By the end of 2021 I will be a certified Sunlights Artisan Educator, teaching hairstylists how to balayage and how to build a successful business. My mission in all of this: Bust the stigma of being "just a hairstylist" for beauty professionals everywhere. When I'm done, my legacy will be that Lindsey Holcomb was one of the pioneers that renamed what success looks like for hairstylists everywhere. Cosmetology students will stand proudly when asked; "what do you want to be when you grow up?" and answer 'I'm going to be a hairstylist" as if they were accepted into Yale University. That's my mission and what I want to see happen for beauty professionals.

If you've just enrolled in beauty school, thinking of quitting, or you're at the crossroads of cashing out on your dream job and getting a desk job, I'm here for you and I'm asking you to give it one more go. The beauty of this job is that it can be ANYTHING you want it to be! Dig deep and find the drive that got you to where you are and build on that. Let's chat before you throw in the towel! Email me RIGHT NOW and tell me all of your struggles and let's see if we can't find a solution!

You've got this, don't give up before the miracle happens.