She said she sucked at doing brows. She said that she messed up people's shapes. She says that she went too deep. She says that her career wasn't fun. But look at her now.

You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you we were talking about Brow Boss Babe Lexi Bowler. Yeah, The Lexi Bowler. microblading artist, manufacturer, and educator. The one and only.

Listen, we all have to start somewhere. Everyone starts out their beauty business and basically the same place. We're all scared, we're all intimidated, we don't really know what to do, and we're worried we're gonna fail every step of the way. But if you keep going you eventually reach success. And then you just keep reaching.

In this episode, Lexi and I talk all about the start of her business. How she started from the bottom and built up her beauty empire to the 30k followers on Instagram she has right now as well as her uber-successful PMU product and education business. There's so much that you can...

You know, more than anybody, that real entrepreneurship is an internal process of constant innovation. You're like a little beauty business ninja. Hopefully your outfit's pink. Mine would be.

I can't tell you enough how painful it can be when someone just copies your business, any aspect of it. Anything that you put your hard effort and passion into that just gets nabbed by another person to use for their own benefit? I mean, if you've gone through it you know, it sucks. But it's not the end of the world. Take it from me, I've been there countless times. I've been hurt but people I barely knew and people that were really close to me. I've been hurt by people I thought I could trust. It all sucks.

But I, and my business, have survived! And I guarantee that there are people reading this that are nodding their heads along like "Yup, Sheila's right again. Been there, done that. But I made it out." So, in this episode, I'm going to talk all about what you...

"And like you said, I love it, you don't have to send them snail mail."

"No."

"Dear so and so..."

"You don't have to send a stork over, drop off..."

"Now you moved to a stork."

If you've heard any of my podcasts with Anthea before, you know it can be a real mixed bag of an episode. It's a wild card! You never know what you're gonna get! And it's fun.

Anthea is a great friend of mine. She's hilarious, gorgeous, a great actor, and just an all-around inspiration. Whenever we get together to do a podcast I know it's going to be a great time! In this episode, Anthea and I do a Q&A. We talk about a wide variety of things from toxic friendships and relationships to content creation. I know you'll enjoy this one!

Here are the episode highlights:

‣‣  [06:43]  Have you ever decided to cut people out of your life who were negative?

‣‣  [10:20]  How do you deal with negative/poor work ethic?

‣‣  [13:28]  How do you come...

"I was in my midriff-baring sports bra and boy shorts. I was with my kids who were three, two, and eight months at the time.  It said 'What's your excuse?' on the top. It was really, for me, a way of saying, if I can do it, you can do it."

If you were anywhere on the internet in 2012 you probably remember No Excuse Mom. If you don't, I'll insert the image down below to refresh your memory. If you don't know the woman behind No Excuse Mom is an amazing badass boss mom, business owner, fitness advocate, blogger, and founder of the No Excuse Mom movement. She raised a lot of controversy with her initial post back in 2012 but she hasn't slowed down one bit since.

This year Maria revealed via the internet that she had had explant surgery. She had been experiencing breast plant illness and made the decision to get her implants removed and not replace them. If you're familiar with my story, you'll know I recently found out one of my implants has ruptured, so...

Making the shift from a solo practice where you're doing all of the artistry to hiring employees where you become more of a manager can be huge for your business. It's a lot of responsibility to take on and there's a lot you have to learn to make sure you don't burn out.

Tussanee and Paul Leubbers ran their business, Lash Integrity, for 13 years before they had to close up the salon. They're still in the business, hosting the podcast Lash Cast Podcast and their new event, LashCon, as well as some other exciting, secret ventures, but things haven't been easy for them.

In this episode, Tussanee and Paul open up about the difficulties they faced opening their salon and attempting to grow their business. They dish out all of their advice for managing employees and preventing your business from burning out. 

Here are the episode highlights:

‣‣  [11:35]  We talk first about Paul and Tussanee's upcoming event, LashCon.

‣‣  [19:53] ...

Did you just get into PMU, just started your beauty business, and you're struggling to fill your books, wishing you could make this work full-time? Or have you been in the business for a while and you're just not where you want to be?

Girl, I've got you! In this episode, I teamed up with beauty business and marketing power duo Shay Danielle of Shay Danielle Academy and Alex Dietrich of PMU Society to bring you an INCREDIBLE resource. In this podcast, we give you ALL of the tips to make your beauty business an ultimate success.

I really can't stress how helpful this episode is going to be with you. We're pairing marketing expertise with beauty business experience to give you the top 8 steps to PMU marketing that you simply cannot skip. You can't! They're essential.

We'll break each of these tips down below and give you all of the actionable steps you can take to make your PMU business an ultimate success story:

1. Find what makes your brand unique

...

"I got this" doesn't have to mean you have a solution. "I got this" means that you're the driver in the car. You have a say. You've gone through worse and you will persevere to make it work just like you always have.

Christine Di'Amore had to turn her life around when she became pregnant with her son, Lex, in high school. She picked up her grades, got a life-changing job as a waitress at Hooter's, and became determined to build a better life for her family. Now she's a super successful YouTuber and an inspiration.

In this episode, I connect a lot with Christine as someone who felt extremely lost after high school and ended up not getting any degree. We talk about rocky starts, taking risks, and becoming your own boss. For those of you who feel like doors just keep getting shut in your face, this is for you.

Here are the episode highlights:

‣‣  [08:10]  Christine talks about her experience getting pregnant in high school and having no one to look to for...

Do you want to have a successful beauty business? Do you think you can do that while being basic? Absolutely not.

But don't worry! My good friend microblader and educator, Sandi Jones of Couture Brows, and I are here to teach you how you can not be basic and help you become the beauty business boss of your dreams. 

Creating a successful beauty business is hard but it's even harder when you're just doing the same thing as everybody else. There are a lot of us out there, right? You need to help yourself stand out. You need to be, well, not basic.

That's why Sandi and I teamed up for this episode. 

In this podcast, we're gonna break down all the tips for not being basic:

1. Finding your specific 'why' - what keeps you motivated?

2. Pouring passion into all you do

3. Keep the haters hating

4. Collaboration over competition 

So, are you ready to take your beauty business to the next level and learn how to be not basic? We've got your...

Where did this come from? Where did this concept of "too much" come from? And what happened in my life that I feel like I have to respond to it like this?

Have you ever been accused of being too much? Have you had people tell you that you need to tone it down or be quiet? It hurts doesn't it? It's really painful.

Maybe you're not entirely sure where that feeling comes from. I know, personally, I've had to do a lot of digging to figure out where it all started. For a lot of us, especially as women, it's super common to be told that you're taking up too much space, that you're too loud, that you're too emotional, that you're too much. So we shrink in on ourselves, right? We start to make ourselves small.

Here's the thing, you have to unpack that feeling and you have to start to unshrink yourself. You're trying to be a successful boss babe, right? You can't do that when you're feeling small. When you're afraid to be loud and proud and assert...

Are you trying to achieve success but you're struggling? Are the people around you being kind of judgemental about your success? Are they starting to miss "the old you"? Are you feeling alone in your journey?

Don't worry, babe. You're not alone. People don't often talk about the painful side of achieving success, of that journey to your dreams. It's a hard journey, no doubt, and it doesn't ever really end. You're always reaching for something new, you know? If you're an entrepreneur, you're probably never satisfied with staying in one place. So it's a constant painful journey.

Yes, it's worth it. Yes, success is sweet. But that doesn't mean the path there isn't tough. And today we're really going to get into that. Other people might not be comfortable talking about their struggles to success, they might just want to put out the perfect image of where they are now, but you guys know I'm not about that. Definitely not here on Pretty Rich Podcast. We get into...