September 13, 2024 • 57 mins
Join us on this inspiring episode of 'The Q-Chat' as we sit down with Melissa Odum, a remarkable entrepreneur whose journey from teen mom to million-dollar mogul exemplifies the power of resilience and determination. Discover how Melissa navigated the challenges of early motherhood, an incarcerated mother, and societal barriers to build Queendom Aesthetics, a thriving skincare empire.
Melissa shares her secrets to overcoming adversity, her insights into the beauty industry, and her passion for empowering other women. Tune in to hear Melissa's powerful story of transformation and triumph, providing motivation and actionable advice for anyone looking to redefine their own path to success. Record Date: [Aug 13] Release Date: [Sept 13] www.geauxqueen.com Connect with Geaux Queen: https://linktr.ee/geauxqueen Check out our Magazine: https://publuu.com/flip-book/109160/5... Instagram: www.instagram.com/iam_geauxqueen TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@geaux_queen?_... LinkedIn: / shronda-ann-a-0a7683203 Facebook: / thegeauxqueenbrand #selfimprovement #mentalhealth #mentalhealthawareness #mentalhealthawareness #blackwomenpodcasters #selfimprovement #selflovepodcast#Empowerment #Entrepreneurship #BeautyIndustry
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Grab your print or digital copy of Go Queen magazine today.
Stay inspired by the incredible stories and features inside.
Visit our website to grab your copy now.
Hey Queen, welcome to another episode of the Q Chat.
Today, we're honored to have Melissa Odom, a true trailblazer
who has turned adversity in the triumph.
(00:21):
As the founder of Queen of Aesthetics, Melissa's journey
from a teen mother with an incarcerated mother to a top
beauty industry mogul is nothingshort of inspiring.
Her story is one of resilience, determination, and the
unwavering belief that you can create your own destiny.
Join us as we discuss her rise in the beauty industry, her
(00:41):
passion for empowering women, and the lesson she's learned
along the way. Stay tuned for this empowering
episode of recognizing your own greatness she's bringing.
About a business working hard ona mission.
Had high purpose driven crown onnever tilted.
(01:02):
Go queen go queen go. Queen, thank you guys for
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joining another episode of the QChat today.
I have a very special guest and her name is Miss Melissa Odom.
And Melissa is a skin spa care owner.
She has Queen of Aesthetics based out of New Orleans, my
hometown. And Melissa has a very powerful
story of all the things that she's overcome as a young teen
mother. She also had a mother who was
incarcerated. And she's a story of surviving
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and resilience. So we're going to have a great
time conversation about her early beginnings, of course of
being an amazing entrepreneur, and of course our favorite
topic, self love. How are you doing today?
I'm doing well. How are you?
I'm doing good. I'm so happy to meet with you.
And like I was saying in your intro, we all know you in New
Orleans of course is only queen of aesthetics, but you really do
have a true testimony and a story of all things that you've
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overcome and a true example of resilience.
So I wanted to get started and asking about your early
beginnings and just how was yourexperience?
I know like you said, if your mother was incarcerated with a
28 year prison sentence, so I know you've got a lot of things
that you've overcome first. I want to get your early
background first. Yeah, absolutely.
So I was born and raised in New Orleans, Uptown.
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I went to elementary, middle school and high school in New
Orleans. My grandmother actually raised
me. So you are correct.
My mother has done a total of 28years of my life in prison and
I'm 35. So as I can just dig back to
growing up, my mother had a total of it's four of us.
I'm the oldest of three boys. And so my mother had me at about
(02:57):
the age of 26 or 27. And then she had my little
brother. We are about a year apart.
And so I I believe, you know, from what I'm told, you know,
she had me and then she had my brother.
She, you know, ended up incarcerated, wound up coming
home, got pregnant with another brother, went back to prison,
hadn't and then had another brother.
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But I guess my grandmother had just got to a point to where it
was like, OK, you didn't came home with two of these children.
This is all that I can take. So two of my other brothers had
been adopted by their parents. And so my grandmother, my
grandmother continues to raise me and my brother Clinton.
And so just growing up in New Orleans, Uptown, I think that
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I've always felt a little different.
I've always, I was a challengingteenager.
So I tell people all the time, Iwish that now.
And, you know, I wish the now inmental health and those
conversations would have been spoken of.
I say, let's date back to 20 years ago when I was eight years
old or, you know, when I was a young woman dealing with the
(04:01):
challenges and stuff that I was experiencing.
I was always told that I was just bad.
Never was asked like, hey, well,what's wrong?
And I think that my family didn't consider the fact that
like, hey, this child is being raised by her grandmother in a
house full of cousins. Her mother is in fact
incarcerated. Her father has passed away when
she is, as she's 12 years old, something she needs therapy, not
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anger management, you know, And so I spent a lot of time going
to juvenile detention centers. I spent a lot of time in anger
management. I was very tempermatic.
And of course, as a child, I couldn't process what that
looked like for me. But I allowed my adversity to
become my norm. And so I would, you know, fuzz
fight with everybody. I became disrespectful to my
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family only because I just felt like maybe there should have
been a little bit more love and care to me as a kid, but I
didn't have those experiences. So I just I grew up very tough
knit. My all of my cousins were boys.
So I grew up in a house full of boys.
So that aggression and that masculinity in me as a young
girl, it was just supernatural to me.
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So as I am older as a woman, I look back and I'm like, Dang,
that was really unnormal, right?But you know, I was a
challenging kid. You know, I don't take away from
that, but I think that I needed,like I said, therapy over, you
know, anger management. So as I, you know, I got to a
point where as I got older, thiswas the last and final time that
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I went to juvenile. My grandmother, they brought me
from juvenile to go to court. And I remember just being in
shackles as a kid. And I just remember being so
embarrassed, you know, and I, I vowed that that was my very last
time. I was probably about 14 or 15
years old and I just say, you know, this is embarrassing and
I've always knew I was greater, but unfortunately I just had a
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lot of anger as a kid just basedoff of my circumstances and I
didn't know how to speak to thatand express myself.
So like I said, that was my lasttime in juvenile and it was it
was a lot. So by the age of 16 and I was in
fact pregnant with my oldest daughter, Ziya, who is 18 years
old. And all I could just remember
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is, you know, 16 pregnant Hurricane Katrina hit.
And so I moved to Las Vegas. And I think that moving to Las
Vegas is the reason why I am. So I'm a, I'm a little, I'm on
average because I was able to beexposed to a little different
than New Orleans at a young age.So I understand what it's like
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to just be around a diverse group, you know, how to handle
myself in certain circumstances with a different diverse group,
right? But as I got older, you know,
1818, I was pregnant again. I had my daughter when I was 19.
So now this is 19 with two children.
By the age of 20, I was pregnantwith my third child.
This is my son. And this was with someone that I
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went to high school with. So I had my first three children
by my 20th birthday, and I was just a young mother.
And so, you know, it's definitely been some trying
times, but those are my very, very humble beginnings.
Wow, that is such a story. I mean, that's so much if you've
gone through and then I don't see it.
Some of the things you've been through, like you said, so many
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other children have gone throughthe same things, maybe not
exactly in the same timeline, but they've been misunderstood
children. They've been kids.
A lot of children are being raised by grandparents.
A lot of children, they have things that are not being
addressed properly. Like you mentioned, you needed
therapy. And you know, from our
upbringing, therapy is just something that is really not a
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conversation. Unfortunately, that happens in
our household. You know, that's just, that's
not it. Like even you go to church, you
pray, that's it. But what is therapy?
So especially for the youth, what you said is something else
because there's so many young children that just needed
somebody to pour into into them.And like you also said, you knew
you had greatness inside of you.But the scary part is there's so
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many young people who have so much potential and they deserve
a chance. Every young child deserves a
chance. But sometimes you don't have
somebody to pour into you to sayyou have greatness in you.
Like you said, you knew it, but imagine there's so many young
people, they have so much potential.
They really do have greatness inthem.
And unfortunately they don't even see it in themselves.
So I just in the fact that you could acknowledge that you had
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greatness in you. And a lot of times too, we think
our past is something that's supposed to be a hindrance, but
that past is a motivation. Like you said, a situation, you
said I'm embarrassed and you usethat as a drive.
So it also shows too, we can take the bricks that was thrown
at us and we really can truly build a mansion.
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So I want to ask you to just from your upbringing to when
you, like you said, you knew youhad greatness inside of you.
So what was the shift from your upbringing and then being a teen
mother? And I know that was a lot of
work and you went to Vegas and like you said, you were able to
see a different point of view oflife from your regular
environment, which is also something that I know helped
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motivate you. So what was the shift like when
you were like, OK, I know I havegreatness in need.
How was it finding your purpose?Because where you're at now, you
know you have a skill, you have a trade, you have something, you
build something great, a business.
So how did you find your purposeafter that when you were in your
early 20s? Oh, so purpose.
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I think it took me a long time to find the purpose that I
needed to be in the last nine years, because that's how long
I've been in business. I've always just wanted to fight
the odds. So, you know, growing up, I was
told that I would be exactly like my mother.
And so for me, that was my driveto be the total opposite.
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Like everything that I did was to be the total opposite and
certain things because, you know, it's enough not on us.
You know, I was still, I still hate some of these attributes as
my mother, but I always wanted to be different.
And so as I gotten older and I, I started to just feel like,
hey, I, I deserve more out of life.
(10:12):
I can have more. And I actually had a friend who
I was working at Walmart. I was 18 years old and my friend
said to me, she was like, you need to go back to school.
Like you're so smart. Like you need to go, you know,
do something with yourself. And it's so funny because I was
actually just in her wedding a few months ago.
And this was, I mean, it was, itwas phenomenal for my growth
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because she was actually like the first person that I would
say that was like, girl, you need to go back to school.
You, you know, you're, you're smart and you know, and I always
wanted, I knew I've always been a great leader.
So my goal was always to be in lead.
I've always been in leadership no matter where I worked.
So I've always maintained the job.
I've always wanted to have a good job.
And so once I was done with my phase in Walmart, you know, like
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I said, my friend took me back to school and was like, girl,
you need to be. She helped me get my
transcripts, brought me to Delgado and was like, girl, like
I didn't have a car. I was on the bus and she was
like, you need to be in somebodyschool.
So that being in that school environment.
So I enrolled that Delgado for business management.
And so being in school, it just,it just gave me a different
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train of thought, like just being around a bunch of people
who it wasn't weird like they were there to get an education.
They, they were from neighborhoods and environments
just like me, but they, their goal was the soar.
And so for me, I, I adapt. So if I'm looking at you and you
look like me and you have similar background as me, I use
that as my motivation. Like, OK, well, I know for sure
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if you can do it. I definitely can't.
If you have this mindset with all the shoes I've been through,
I can as well. So over time, I, you know, I
just always just kind of wanted to be more and have more.
But like I said, I went to school back at 18 years old, 19
years old, and then I had, you know, all these children.
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I had three children and it was just, it was just so different
for me. But every time I would enroll
into a new program, I decided totry to go to school for surgical
technology. I didn't like it.
I tried to go to school for medical assistant.
It didn't work for me and I was just like I, I have to be
something. And so I just tried and I tried
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and I tried. I ended up one of the saddest
times. I tell people all the time.
One of the saddest jobs that I had was I was a housekeeper and
I never forget I lost my job at Walmart.
So back story my my son, which is my third child, he passed
away of 6 which is sudden infantdeath syndrome.
So me as a 20 year old, 21 year old woman experienced and I have
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a 2 little babies, five and six years old.
And then now my son has passed away.
I'm like Laura, what am I going to do?
So I ended up losing my job at Walmart and I ended up going on
to like indeed. And I seen this job that said
room attendant. So I didn't know what a woman
attendant was. I just thought I would be
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attending to something out of a room, but I didn't know exactly
what that meant. So I go to this job interview,
get the job and I go to work thefirst the the next day, you
know, they gave me the offer getting paid $10.00 an hour.
And so they come pushing a cart in front of me with like
betting. And I was just like, but here I
am. I was unemployed.
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So I had to eat that and take that job and do that job and I
did it for about 6 months. But I remember walking around
every day. All my coworkers thought I was
insane. I used to be like this is I have
an education like I cannot be working here.
This is this, I will never work a job like this.
And so it was just like, I just,I just, I knew my purpose was
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just bigger than my environment and I'm just like, absolutely
not. So, but I did what I had to do.
And I tell you that job definitely build character in
me. From there I was like, I need a
better job. And so I started applying that
big job. I was like, I'm trying to work
at a bank. You know, I've always loved
money. I've always my goal has always
just a meant to be financial illiterate.
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And so I remember a girl that I used to work at Walmart.
She wrote me on Facebook. She was like, I was like, I need
help with a resume. So she helped me make my resume
and I applied to, to Capital Onebank.
And I just remember going into that interview was like a panel
interview and they were just asking me why, why should we
hire you? And I, I told them a million
reasons as to why. And I remember just by time I
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got home that same day, they told me that I was offered the
job and I was just like, OK, youknow, I'm here for it.
I was so excited because I was just like, oh, this is a
stepping stone to go from like Walmart and then a housekeeper,
you know, and then now in banking.
And so when I got into banking, I knew that my purpose was
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financial literacy. I went to always the bank.
The guys will come to the collarand get $100,000 cashier checks.
And I used to, I've never been afraid to say, well, what do you
do for a living? You know, you know, and they and
I feel like they would tell me everything, right, Because they
didn't see me as a threat or somebody that would go and do
these things that and half of the time they were probably
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just, you know, flossing and, you know, just, you know, being
proud of their accomplishments. And so from that moment on, I
was just like, I definitely can't be more.
I can have more. My customers will come in and
just talk to me. I was getting promoted in
Capital One and I was just like,you know what, I am going to be
great. I don't know when greater does
come later and I just knew I hada purpose.
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So I tell people all the time atthat job at Capital One was when
I knew that I was because that that was great for myself esteem
knowing that I could get that job.
I went from cleaning beds and toilets.
So working in a bank was just insane at that time.
And so I, that was in 2012, 2013.
And so from that moment on it on, on my mindset shift and I
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was just like, I just seen so much money.
I remember counting so much money.
And I was like, I'm going to have money one day.
Like I'm going to have what theyhave.
I'm going to be able to invest. And I started to just really
speak that into my life. And so no matter what people
told me, because, you know, I was considered like the hood
girl, but I just got to a point before social media was a thing,
I was telling my home girls and people in my neighborhood and
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people on Facebook like girl, you need to come open up a bank
account and open up a credit card.
And this is the why. And I thought it just to explain
the whys and educate my community.
Now I knew God wanted me to educate.
I feel like deep down inside I am an educator, but I just
couldn't figure out where. What realm would I be educating
in? But God truly bless me.
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You know, after that job, my mind set shift.
So I like to say 2012 at CapitalOne Bank.
That's when I knew that I for sure had purpose.
Wow. And you know, so many things you
said, I love how you said greater comes later because
sometimes, you know, we are going through a period in our
lives we'll start beating ourselves down because we want
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the money now. You know, we want to instantly,
we want to pop it in the microwave and get it, you know,
But then but like you said, greater comes later and it's
hard to process at the time. You know, sometimes you're going
through something because you'relike, OK, like you said, you
knew that you were better than what you were doing.
And I think also sometimes people have a hard time, I'm
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saying, OK, this is beneath me. There's nothing wrong with
saying something is beneath you.It is not.
You're not trying to assault thenext person because what God
gives you is for you mean, and the other person don't have to
understand why you think something's beneath you.
And I think that's one of the things that maybe hold people
back sometimes because they really struggle with saying,
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Hey, I really don't want to do this.
This job is not me, you know, but sometimes you struggle with
it because maybe if you may be working a job that you
absolutely hate and you know, it's not for you, but that next
person, Hey, they, they cool with it.
That's why. And there's nothing wrong with
that. There's nothing wrong with them
and there's nothing wrong with you.
So I do like how you said, great, it comes later.
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But another important thing thatI think you touched on, it's
mindset is what we think our mindset is what really can drive
us. And also when you see someone
who is in a stage that you want to be in, mindset says, hey, I
know I'll be in that place one day, I'll probably exceed what
they're doing. It's all about your mindset and
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pouring into yourself and talking into yourself.
So that's extremely important. So of course I want to ask you,
I know it being aesthetician that you had eczema, you know,
just reading on your history andyour children had eczema.
So that started your journey. So I definitely want to know
what started your journey into skin care?
Yeah, absolutely. So my journey into skin care, I
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will say in 2014, I had my youngest daughter, Carly.
So that story, I've always had eczema.
I tell this story. I remember when I was 12 years
old and my mother came home fromprison one of those many times
and she looked at me and she said, well, what's going on with
your skin? And I'm like, girl, I don't, you
know, you know, I'm 12. I'm like, I don't know, you
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know, that wasn't a skin care routine that I was privileged to
see or hear or know about. And so This is why I will say I,
you know, I'm so grateful that my mother said that to me
because I ultimately, when I wasa kid, I used to always want her
to like just, I used to be like,well, damn it, am I not good
enough for her to want to be home?
So with her saying that, I'm like, oh, I got to get my skin
together, You know, maybe she'llthink I'm pretty, whatever,
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whatever. But growing up, I always had
eczema. I was called alligator skin.
It had been a time. I remember like you know how the
kids now wear like sweat suits in the summertime, like jackets
and all of that. I was that girl.
Like I was that girl. I remember just being 1011 years
old wearing jackets in the summertime.
I Remember Remember playing basketball and wearing long
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sleeve shirts underneath my jersey because I didn't want you
to see my eczema in my arms. So overtime I just, it was, it
was normalized for me. That was my skin condition.
It was what it was. It didn't.
And as I got gotten older and myself esteem was built up on and
I was just feeling like the bestversion of myself, my eczema
didn't faze me anymore. So it just was what it was.
Girl, you put a little moisturizer on it.
(20:14):
Go on about your weight. And so I had my first daughter
Zyelle, she had eczema. Had my second daughter Amira.
She had eczema. I didn't get to experience my
son, but I'm more than sure he would have had eczema as well.
But when I had my youngest daughter, Carly, she had eczema
and it was just the worst I had ever seen.
And so we used to bring her to the her pediatrician and the
(20:35):
pediatrician would write off a steroid cream, you know,
prescription. And so we would apply it to her.
It would definitely clear her up.
But ultimately what happened wasshe was so light skinned and my
baby was a chocolate baby, but it would like just bleach and
lighten her skin. So I, I feel like God definitely
put me in that transition to where I no longer could use
(20:57):
dermatology or prescriptions because I wound up working at
AT&T and I was cut off a Medicaid.
And from that moment on, I couldn't get those prescriptions
anymore, right? I couldn't do anything to manage
her eczema anymore. And so I think I was like, I
need to figure out a solution. And so I started doing just like
research like on lotions and creams and all type of things.
(21:18):
And soap was one of them, you know, And so I remember just
doing some research on soap and I was like, let me just try to
make soap. And I remember one of my
friends, she was very holistic at the time.
I reached out to her and I askedher how could I make it?
And she was like, oh, girl, I'm gonna come over there and show
you. She ended up never coming.
So I just got one YouTube University, and I learned how to
formulate soap. So I never forget.
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I started making this one batch of soap.
It was amazing. It's my original beauty bar that
I formulated back in 2014. Anyways, I started making the
soap from my kitchen and one of my friends used the soap and she
was like, Melissa, you need to be selling this soap.
And I was like, girl, please, like nobody is going to be
buying soap from me. You know, we knew about the the
(22:02):
kitchen beauticians. So to me and my mind, girl, me
making soap was already different.
I've always been a little different.
So people used to think I was a little weird and I'm like,
nobody's going to buy soap from me.
And so I'll never forget 2015 French Quarter Festival.
I remember just making a soap and cutting it up into little
bitty samples. And I went on a Saturday and I
(22:22):
just passed out, girl. I had the little pictures.
I wrote the little name of my business, which was I called
myself calling it real Black Beauties.
And I was just like, you know what?
And people used to call me real,used to call me Black Beauty.
That was like my nickname back then.
So I was like, I'm a name. I'm a call this real Black
beauty for whatever reason. So anyways, I passed out this
soap on a Saturday. All of my little samples by
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Monday people were calling me like, hey, Melissa, no, they
didn't know my name. But I just remember getting
calls like, hey, I got some soapfrom you at French Quarter
festival. I would like to purchase more.
Now, this was just Saturday, youknow, and that Monday people
were calling for me to make fullsize bars and I was just like,
uh, oh, OK, I guess I got to make more.
And so I started making more. At the time I was working at
(23:07):
AT&T. People started to come to my job
to pick up the soap, buy the soap.
I was selling it for $5. I will ride my bike to meet you
for, to get you some soap. And it just became very popular
in the city of New Orleans. So like anybody that I went to
school with, people that I knew,I started just making videos on
Facebook talking about it and like I just started selling my
(23:29):
soap. So the $5 beauty bars is where I
started in 2015 making soap right from my kitchen and it
started to transition and help so many people.
So like I said, it was only for eczema at the time, and people
started using it on their face and was helping it, saying it
was helping them fade their darkmarks.
And I'm just like, now y'all exaggerating.
And so I didn't know the power of what I had created, but God
(23:51):
knew. He made sure that he, you know,
increased my territory. He brought people to me, people
like my managers at AT&T used tobe like, Melissa, you can't do
this here. I was like, OK, but that that's
my humble beginnings to startingout making soap because of a
problem with eczema for my children.
So I had already accepted this is my normal, but to see my baby
(24:12):
suffer the way that she did, I was like, absolutely not.
So I created a solution. So like I said, I just love it.
And that's just how people startoff, you know, they'll come up
with a yeah, you got to have that hustle spirit #1 you know,
to get yourself out there. So of course I got to ask you.
So how did it transition for you?
Like first you like you said youmade the soap and again, I think
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you have you are good because you have good people that have
poured into you whether like youknow, whether they just said and
didn't even know where was goingto go with it.
You know, so you definitely havepeople just pour something into
you. Like I said, they may not even
realize what they were doing at the time when they said it.
But So what transition from you you So like you said, you cut it
up. You started at the French
Quarter Festival and now you have this empire.
(24:53):
So how did you get to that to where you at now?
Like where did you think? Where you still at AT&T, You
know, you hustling you sell on the soap.
What made you think, hey, hey, you know what, I can take it
further now and I can really become a licensed esthetician
and have a brick and mortar. How did that transition start?
Oh, so that transition started. So during my time at AT and TI
(25:14):
was making lucrative money like my income was it was everything
that I needed it to be. I was like the number one sales
girl at AT&T on Saint Charles St. and I was just doing the
thing, but I just with the feeling.
So they did a pay cut. I will say that they did a pay
cut where they were cutting 50% of our, our income.
And at the time I was just like,girl, wait a minute, 50% of my
(25:36):
income, girl, I can work for myself.
So now I'm into like, I'm on my problem for the people stuff.
I'm like, Oh no, I can work for myself.
I can sell my own product. And at the time, girl, I was
only making about $500 a month. But I was just like, I knew I
had something great, but I, and I quit myself.
I put in my two week notice at AT&T and I did this prematurely.
(26:00):
I really didn't have a plan. I just knew I was going to be
selling my $5.00. So and so I quit that job.
I resigned from that job and things started to make a shift.
It was just like, oh Lord, the sales wasn't selling.
Like, you know, it just didn't. I didn't see that increase and
so I had had about three to fourmonths taste of entrepreneurship
(26:22):
and I hit rock bottom. I remember right before
Christmas I didn't have enough money to buy my kids anything.
My life were about to get cut off December 8th.
I just never forget all of thesethings and feeling like them.
I'm about to fail my children. I'm going to have to go back and
get a job. So once again, Andy, you know,
that's my little place to go looking for me.
Some employment. I applied to Verizon Wireless
(26:43):
and they hired me. I remember starting that job in
January and so I and though I was making good money, I was so
miserable. I was not happy.
I was just like, I just cannot work here.
Like I, this is not for me. And every day I would just say,
you know what? I can't do this, I can't do
this, I cannot do this. No, no, I just, I and I would
(27:03):
tell my, my coworkers all the time and they used to be like, I
know everybody just thought I was crazy.
So I never forget in May, I can't remember the day exactly,
but I know it was before my birthday because my birthday is
May the 16th. And so in May, I was like, I, I
woke up one day and I got 99 orders online.
(27:24):
And so that was my first day getting that many orders in one
day. And so I said to myself, if I
can do it in one day, I could doit again.
And so from that moment on, and by that time, there was a local
esthetician in New Orleans. She had did my daughter's spy
party like right after I quit. So I quit that job in me and I
(27:45):
just started, you know, just selling online.
It just started to really grow and it was doing good.
And so a girl came and did a spyparty for my daughter and she
was like you should go to she was an esthetician and she was
like, well, Melissa, you know, you already got your products
going. People love your products.
Your skin is beautiful. You should go to school event
esthetician too. And I was just like, OK, but I
(28:05):
had already started doing research and it was kind of to
me out of my budget. And I was like, Oh no, that's
too expensive. I can't afford that.
But nothing but the grace of God.
I still just went and took some tours at the schools and I
applied and I was like, you knowwhat, I'm going to school to be
an esthetician. And so I remember just like, you
know what, I'm just going to do it.
(28:26):
So I applied that July. I didn't have all my documents.
And so I was able to start in November once I got to school
and I thought I knew it all right, because now I'm making
soap, I'm making money already. I'm like, girl, I know it all.
I know skin. And so I get there and I'm like,
OK, the anatomy of the skin, Oh wow, we have that many layers of
(28:46):
the skin. Oh wow, there's grade 4-5 of
acne. Oh wow, This is beyond my scope
of practice. And so now the terminology
started to come to me and I was just like, you know what?
I'm serious about this. I love this.
I started doing facials. I remember just getting a little
room on LaSalle and Louisiana, Louisiana LaSalle.
I think it was 2317 Louisiana Ave.
(29:09):
Don't poke me, but I remember getting this little room in the
back of this girl boutique and Istarted practicing doing facials
and I just fell in love with skin And I started just reading
books and then I started to study plants and I just got so
just I fell in love with it. I just fell in love with
everything of skin, everything about it, so many ways to heal
it. I became privileged to
(29:29):
ingredients and learning a little bit more and how they
work with the anatomy of the skin and I fell in love with
with skin. And so I tell people all the
time, I graduated from esthetician school in 2017.
I did, in fact, try to apply forjobs.
But I'm telling you, God say, girl, you got to create your own
job. He did not want me with working
for somebody else. I don't think it's, it's never
(29:51):
been in me. But I did what I had to do.
And so I remember being on Craigslist when I was in class
one day and I was just like, youknow what, I'm gonna open up my
own spa. And so I go on Craigslist and I,
I see this space and they had like this little thing where you
can put your billboard, your sign in it.
And I was like, I just always thought big.
I just never thought small. And so I was like, I want this
(30:13):
building. So I remember reaching out to a
realtor that I knew. We did the application, did the
tour of the building and by I graduated on May the 19 or
something like that. In May, July the 1st of 2017, I
opened up my first spot. So that was Essence Weekend.
I it was like a block party. So many people came out and they
(30:36):
celebrated me. They were so happy for me and,
and from that moment on, I was like, after seeing all those
people in my grand opening, I said, I got me something.
I definitely this is not where I'm not mom and pop, I'm big,
I'm international. And you know how that that
little saying like you supposed to be thinking big?
You know, back a few years ago or last year sometime and I was
(30:58):
like, you know what, I'm thinking big.
So I thought big. I opened up my first location
and started to thrive beyond my beliefs.
It was just too small for me. And then in 2018, I was like,
you know what, I got to find me something bigger.
I was coming to the end of my lease, 2019.
The beginning of that year came and I found me my headquarters,
(31:19):
which was at 5800 Bullet Ave. inNew Orleans East, 5000 square
feet. It was huge.
It was everything that I needed because at the time I was
running my spa location in Mid City, the first location, but I
was making my products from homeand so I was exhausted.
I burned myself out, girl. I was working 6-7 days a week
just trying to stretching myselftoo thin of course, because I
(31:41):
wanted to serve everybody in thecommunity.
If I could have served every face in New Orleans, I would
have. I would have made it happen.
But today I've serviced over 12,000 clients since 2017.
I am grateful. The New Orleans location did
great. It did amazing.
And then last year I had to close that location because just
I seen what the economy was going and I just, I didn't want
(32:04):
any parts. But I opened up that location in
2022. I opened up the Slidell office
that I'm in now and I just continued to grow.
And when I took that break, a part of me felt like I failed,
but I knew I did the right thing.
I made a boss move by closing that location, but I just opened
up a new location back in New Orleans at 1125 N Rampart St.
(32:27):
It's phenomenal. The city of New Orleans is so
happy that I'm back. And so my community has uprooted
me and they have built up my empower, my empire.
I cannot say that I've done it alone.
I've hired amazing people so work with me to help me grow and
scale my business. So I'm just grateful.
But it's definitely it. It has surpassed my limited
(32:47):
beliefs for sure. Wow.
That is a testimony I wanted to ask you just and I'm happy that
like you were so transparent because I think a lot of times
with entrepreneurship, again, like I said, a lot of times
people want the microwave results.
But yeah, unfortunately with entrepreneurship, that's not how
it goes, especially when you're first starting out.
I think a lot of people because and you know, we live in a
(33:08):
social media age, so we click onsocial media, we see people than
bosses, you know, they got the expensive car, all this stuff.
They never show the part where, hey, what part of that?
And you really was like, OK, Laura, how pay this bill?
Because you told me, Lord, to quit this job now.
Like I think everybody experienced that at one point or
(33:29):
another. And a lot of people are just not
transparent about that because you think, oh, well, if I tell
people I quit this job and now I'm struggling, I'm a failure.
But no, like you're not a failure.
This is just part of the stages.But I think sometimes people
don't understand that. And just like you mentioned,
they may go through that, that period where it's like, OK, this
is not popping like I thought I can't pay the should I do?
(33:51):
Because a lot of us are not cut off for 9:00 to 5:00.
And there's nothing wrong with that.
Again, So there's nothing wrong with people who 9 to 5 is that
thing and people aren't. I just think this is big battle.
Like, oh, why you think you can't do a nine to five?
Like, you know, you think he's better than me.
But it's not. About that vision that that
person has. So like what inspiration,
(34:13):
motivation that you have for entrepreneurs?
Because some people just they can't deal with that part where
it's like, how am I going to paythis?
Or you know, they may give up too soon.
So what would you say to motivate that person?
What I would say to motivate that person is I would say I
said keep your job. I tell people all the time, AT&T
was my investor. So you have to shift your
(34:34):
mindset and you when you go to that job, you feel like, girl,
these people just my investor, like I don't work for these
people. These people investing into me
like I'm showing up, you know, to get my coins.
So you have to shift the mindset.
You know, it's like I get to work, I get to work at this job
like I get to get paid so I can take my money and this be my
funding option, right? Because now you you debt free
(34:56):
because you let your investor yeah, you got to show off the
work. You know yet no, we don't want
to do it yet. We feel like it's beyond us.
But I tell people all the time if I had to go back to AT&T
today, I would with a smile on my face being the number one,
you know, salesperson. That's what I would do, but I
just, I would say to any entrepreneur, shift your
mindset. Don't quit your job prematurely
(35:17):
because there was so, so many dark days and so many dark times
when I quit my job, my friends didn't even know.
I was so shamed. I'm one of those people.
I hold shame, girl. I'm like, oh Lord, and I'll talk
about it later. But I and I learned over time
that transparency was key because being transparent, you
don't know who God is going to send to save you and help you.
So now I tell if I'm having a, if I got a $0.00 day, I'm going
(35:40):
online and say I, I had a $0.00 day.
Guess what? God going to send me about 5-6
people to come and order something from me.
You know, because they, they know the product is good.
They know what I have is amazing.
They know that I'm transparent. They know I don't have to share
these things, right? I think I over share, but it's
OK to over to share what you're comfortable with and let people
know because God sends you the people that you need.
(36:02):
But don't quit your job prematurely.
Create a plan. I love it.
I created a business playing master class year before last
and it just really helps entrepreneurs understand how to
get so how to not. I don't like the delulu.
You know how they say be delulu?Oh no, I can't be delusional.
No, I need to be serious becausethese bills, the light bill man
(36:23):
want his money. He seriously want it.
The rent man seriously wants it.So create a plan, you know,
write it down, be clear, put a date on it.
You know, set realistic expectations.
Nobody is bigger or better than you.
Nobody gets better. Nobody's life is better than
yours on social media. They are not showing you the
hard times. Like I said, they'll tell you
about it after the fact, but youwouldn't know what they were
(36:45):
going through. So we all have our seasons, we
all go through things. So #1 don't prematurely quit
your job. Number 2, be transparent.
Tell people what you need. Yes, there will be some people
that will laugh at you, they will mock you, they will talk
about you. But guess what?
I have a community for you that will come in and help you build
brick by brick because that's all the city of New Orleans and
(37:05):
my clients did. I told them what I wanted to do
and they came and helped me build, build my empire empire.
So just believe in yourself, Build community, you know, build
community. That is really the key.
Because I'm telling you there isso many times where I've just
said what I needed and I I don'task.
I just kind of just say what I need, what I'm going through and
(37:27):
people are like, Melissa, I'll come over there and help you
make. So Melissa, I'll come and help
you pack all this. I'll help you with this.
You know, people, be a good person because people will come
and help you if you are good. So showcase, you're good and we
all have some bad, but showcase you're good and God is going to
send you the community. That's for you.
Don't worry about what people say or what they think because
we all have our hard times. Just some of us just don't share
(37:49):
them. Right, right, you definitely
right. That's a word for sure.
Now I want to ask you because I know you said like you also went
to a period, but you were burnt out you were, you know, burning
the candle at both ends. So I want to ask you, because
just in life in general, whetheryou have your own business,
whether you or a mother, whetheryou work a nine or five, we have
to take care of ourselves. self-care of course, is
(38:11):
extremely important. Just point to ourselves
physically, mentally. So what are just some of the
things that you do to balance? Because I mean, you're a mother,
you have a business. So what are the things that you
do to balance so that you can take care of yourself?
Oh, absolutely. Great question.
So a few things that I do to to balance myself.
I definitely take all the time that I need for myself.
(38:35):
Now I am in a, a better financial situation.
So of course I, I get massages every single month.
You know, I go to therapy. I maybe I go to therapy every
two weeks. That's how it is for me.
I got to talk to my therapist every two weeks because this is
not easy. It's not easy at all.
It requires a listening ear, someone who can help you dissect
(38:56):
what you are feeling. So my, my best investments right
now are massages. It is therapy.
It is working out. I, I work out every single day
now. It really helps to release those
dopamines of that stress and anxiety that you feel.
So I'm working out every single day.
I'm being intentional about whatI'm putting into my body.
(39:17):
I'm eating better. I journal, I write down
everything that I'm thinking because it's a lot of times I
want to tell a few people some dirty things, but I don't tell
it so long. I write it down.
So it just helps me to release. So working on ways to release,
you know, mentally, physically and emotionally.
Those are the things that I do most like most often now.
So I'm in Pilates, but I'm in all the things that like I'm in
(39:39):
that era so where I can afford those things.
But when I couldn't, I was baby doing my 4 miles at all have
been parked, I was stretching, Iwas eating better.
I was still going to therapy because my mental health has
always been a thing for me and and that's just what I do to
really pour into myself. So therapy is key, Y'all.
I know that sometimes I don't. I think that we have, we, we've
(40:01):
worked pretty hard to normalize it in 2024.
I think it's definitely a thing.Reach out to find out what
resources are available to you, because they are.
They are out there. You may have to pay a little
coin, so you may not be able to buy that bundle, but you may
have to pay your therapist. But guess what?
Your therapist can help you dissect some things.
So what you're probably able to get out of the bed the next day
when you wouldn't have if you didn't talk to her.
(40:23):
And now if you're able to get out that bed, now you can go and
work and work towards the thingsthat you want.
But therapy is key. I spend my last dollar on it.
Thank you for saying that because that's one thing that's
really big on my platform. I'm speaking as a person that
has PTSD and that's gone throughtrauma.
Therapy is extremely important. And you're right, I think it's
2024. We can have better conversations
(40:45):
that we may have had, you know, in 1995, you know, we can talk
more about therapy. You know, there's still some
stigmas behind it, unfortunately.
That definitely exists in our community because I think
sometimes people don't realize you can have God and you can
also have therapy. You can have prayer and you can
also have therapy. You can talk about your mental
stress and still have that therapy.
(41:06):
Please. You know, it's important to just
work on our trauma because a lotof us have a lot of trauma and
that trauma will control your life.
Just like we talked a lot about,you know, a lot of us
experienced triggers. We all have triggers.
None of us have had perfect lives, you know, so a lot of
times we carry that weight and if we carry that weight for so
long, it can be so detrimental. What you don't realize your full
(41:30):
potential, what you don't find your perfect?
Well, you don't take care of yourself, but you can't even
pour into your community or yourfamily or your friends because
you're holding on to so much trauma.
So I wanted to expound on that because I know just you've been
very transparent about the things that you experienced.
So and I know, and I'm so happy you mentioned therapy.
So I know, like you said, you dogo to therapy.
(41:52):
How do you cater to your mental health and Wellness?
Because that is something I wantto ask, you know, we already
talked about therapy. So just how do you handle, you
know, like I said, of course youdo the therapy, just dealing
with your mental health, taking care of it in addition to the
therapy, any other practices that you do to just have that
moment where you can just shut off everything so that you're
not letting that trauma guide you.
(42:14):
So I guess a better question is what can you give to advise
other people who they don't haveto let their trauma guide them?
You know what I'm saying? Like you experience your dreams
in spite of, and I think that's the thing, some of us, we're
struggling on how to accomplish life and purpose in spite of the
past, in spite of being a singlemother, in spite of having
(42:35):
trauma. There is greater in all of us.
So how are you able to just manage so that you know you can
take care of your mental health and still be who you are today?
One of the biggest things that Ido now is I ask for help.
You know, a lot of times I was one of those people, girl, I was
like, I don't need nobody woman.But now I asked for the things
(42:57):
that I need. I'm telling I tell people all
the time it's this is true in all walks of life.
A closed mouth does not get fed.And so I asked for help.
I tell people what I am feeling one of my best practices right
now because I'm a mother of three daughters.
And so I, I, you know, I, when Iremember just being like them
being small and I would just lock myself in a room and I just
(43:20):
remember them knocking and I would just ignore them.
One of the best practices that Istarted to do was to let them
know that mommy wasn't feeling her best today.
And I did need some time and I would ask for permission from
them. Can I have some time to myself?
About an hour and I will come out and talk to you guys or we
can go, you know, take that drive and go do the things that
you want to do. But I, I do need some time.
(43:41):
And so it's just really about opening our mouths and saying
and exactly what we need. And so because my children and
my initial family are the closest people to me, they are
the people who have seen the worst sides of me.
So I let them know exactly what I need.
Like I said, I'm in my room, I'mjournaling, I'm expressing
myself on paper just to get it out because a lot of us, we hold
(44:04):
it all in. And This is why I feel like 90%
of the people are just exhaustedand stressed and, and really
projecting because they don't have a safe place, right?
So finding your community is very important.
And, you know, fortunately, my, my children and my man are those
people. So I let them know exactly what
I need. And sometimes I used to hear
(44:25):
this conversation like you don'twant to tell your kids what
you're going through. You don't want them to feel like
a burden. No, Learn how to articulate to
your children what you are experiencing.
Because at some form or another,some of these mental health
challenges that we're experiencing, maybe genetics,
sometimes what we are experiencing, they may have
exposed, we may have exposed ourchildren to So what we might be
(44:46):
creating a life our children need therapy from.
So it's always very important toarticulate to your your people
who are closest to you, exactly what you're feeling.
Find a way. And I what I used to do is
another thing that I do a best practice is I'll record it.
I'll put pick up my phone and I'll say, Lord, I don't know
what I'm feeling today. I might cause first cry.
(45:06):
I might just, and I feel those emotions and sometimes I'll go
back and be like, damn, that wasn't one of my best days.
Why? But I feel so great today.
Damn, August 2019, I was so sad,but look at me August 2024
feeling amazing, you know? So you have to find different
coping mechanisms that work for you.
(45:27):
I say try it all and figure out what works best for you.
But right now those are the things that work for me.
So when I am speaking, so you know, some of my family members
and friends, a lot of people definitely come to me for, for
whatever reason, I am the ear, right?
But, and these are the things that I tell them to do, you
know, So from my mouth to your ears, you know, let people know
what you're experiencing. You don't have to, you know,
(45:48):
over share, but just in, in layman's terms, just like, hey,
today is just not my day. You know it, it's just not the
best day for me. Can you come back tomorrow?
Can we speak tomorrow? Can we chat about it later in
the midst of, you know, maybe confrontation or it's OK to walk
away. I will go in the middle of an
argument. I will walk clean away from you,
girl, because I'm not I'm not. Give me some time.
(46:11):
You know, don't don't act off ofyour emotions.
Practice emotional intelligence.But they can't really just find
in your community. I've learned that there are a
lot of resources out here. There are a lot of people who
truly care about your mental health and we got to put that
guard down. That's number that's number one,
putting that guard down because we're so guarded, we where we
are suffering in silence becausewe refuse to put that guard down
(46:33):
and let people know what we are feeling and what we're
experiencing, right? And you know, I think it's
because that whole fall strong black woman thing.
And don't get me wrong, like a lot of us are strong because we
didn't have a choice. It's not like, you know, we want
to be strong or have any type ofmasculine energy.
But some of us are put in positions where, like they said,
(46:53):
you don't have any option but tobe strong and being strong and
you're helping everybody else and nobody's asking you, well,
how are you doing? You know, and it also also, like
you mentioned, having boundaries.
You know, when I feel like when you have a lot put on you,
sometimes like we overcompensatefor just some of the
deficiencies we have. So we have maybe if you had a
(47:15):
mother wound or any type of poverty experience that we went
through. Once you're healing from that,
you start to overcompensate sometimes for the life that you
wish you had Once Upon a time. And then you start overexerting
yourself because you want to puton this fake superhero cake.
And it's mentally and physicallydraining and exhausting.
So again, like when you're working on your healing, you
(47:38):
Start learning to have those boundaries.
Like you said, you can say no and whether that person doesn't
want to hear the note is completely irrelevant because
you have to put yourself care and your mental health first.
So speaking up, I want to ask you on our platform, self love
is extremely important. Self love really is the fuel to
know that you're valuable, to know that you're worthy.
And like you said, you knew in spite of everything that great
(48:02):
was inside of you. And that's from coming to a
place where you really love yourself and you like you know
what I do deserve a better life.I know that I can achieve
everything that I've, so I want to ask you, how do you define
self love and what role has it played in your life?
How do I define self love? So I define self love in just
(48:27):
being able to internalize that knowing, working on the
interview. So I said beauty is the in the
eye of the beholder, but how youfeel about yourself on the
inside matters. And so self love is just really
those day-to-day things that youdo for yourself.
It's the little things. I think that ultimately we feel
(48:48):
like we have to live this lavishlife, right?
Like I said earlier when I said things that I do to help with
myself care, those are things inmy era now because I am more
financially stable, but I didn'tfeel any less than when I was
not financially stable. So just being able to break down
(49:08):
the, the, the, the fact that youare still amazing, You're still
beautiful. You are still great in spite of
your financial situation, in spite of your mental situation,
in spite of your emotional situation situation.
So really just self love to me is just truly wanting to to just
be more and have more. And so saying to yourself every
(49:29):
single day, I want more and I'm going to have more.
Not just saying I want more, I'mgoing, I'm going to have more
affirming that hey, I want more and I'm going to have more.
And so self love to me is just really truly believing in who
you are and all the things that you said you are going to be in
spite of. Yes, yes, believing in yourself.
And I know it sounds cliche, butyou have to believe in yourself.
(49:51):
You have to nobody else will believe in you and what you have
going on if you are not walking and and people believe.
Let me tell you people, I have men walk up to me all the time
and say you're so confident. And it's just I will walk up to
a food truck and somebody will spot me and say, Oh my God,
you're just so confident the wayyou walk.
Pick your head up since I hate to see people walking with it
(50:14):
when they're with their heads down.
Like I'm going through stuff right now but guess what my head
is still high. So pick your head up.
I promise you it's going to be OK.
It does get greater later. I, I know this for a fact.
And you're talking to somebody who has experienced every form
of adversity. I just told these people, my
mother has done 28 years of my life in prison and I'm 35.
(50:35):
My son passed away. I was 21 years old and woke up
to a child who was deceased and did not know how to internalize
that. You know, I have went through
lights, cut off. I've had addictions.
I've been in horrible relationships, I've been through
it all, I've been lied on, I've been stolen from, I've been
through it all. But I you will not know that I
have been through it and I tell people I don't keep it back.
(50:57):
I want you to know that I have been through it all and now I am
still walking with my head high.I'm going through a storm right
now. Here I am with my crown on.
So you have to walk with your head held.
How high in spite of? You know, it's really like the
old people say, like I know we've all heard it in church.
I don't look like what I've beenthrough, you know, and like you
said, when you and you embrace the things you've gone through,
(51:20):
because a lot of us have been through some stuff that is
unimaginable, you know, but likeyou said, it's just a whole just
some mindset of like, in spite of like, I'm not going to let
the devil win. I'm not going to let the past
win. I'm not going to let adversity
win. I'm not going to let the people
who did me dirty win. Like, I'm not going to let
anything win, you know, because.I win.
(51:41):
Exactly. So I love it so much.
This has been an amazing conversation.
I feel like I don't know if I'm going through some emotional
stuff. I feel like I want to fight back
tears. Like this has been an amazing
conversation. Listen, me too, girl.
I've been holding them back because it it has truly.
I, I love to speak it now. Like now I'm so confident and
just insane and insane with my chest out.
(52:03):
I remember, you know, just telling my story.
Like, yeah, but a lot of times Igot to a point where I didn't
want to tell people all that I've been through.
I stopped talking about it because I don't want to be.
I don't want to be the victim. I'm not the victim anymore.
I'm victorious. And so this is my story and I
share it. I remember I did the news
interview on Fox 8 a few weeks ago and I was on the phone with
my boyfriend and he said I was like, oh Lord, I'm nervous.
(52:26):
He was like, what? You telling your story?
Like you making up nothing. So it should be easy, you know?
Do you so, and that's what's important, so thy own self be
true. And so it feels so good to be
able to verbally say it out of my mouth and be proud of what I
have been through. So I am so grateful to be on
your platform to share it and I hope that it helps somebody.
If it's just one person, that's more than enough for me.
(52:49):
And that's all that matters. If you just help one person, you
save the life and that's nothinglikely.
Before we do and everything, canyou please leave our audience
with an affirmation? Oh yes, absolutely.
My affirmation to you is I affirm that I will be everything
(53:10):
that I say I will be. Everything that I say I will be,
I will be. I affirm that.
And so you say that in the mirror every single day to
yourself. I affirm that I will be
everything I say I will be. Not will what they said, not
what he said, not what she said,what I say.
That's exactly who I will be. I love it, I love it.
Thank you for your time and thatyou are very good about dates.
(53:34):
Like you had like exact dates. I'm claiming that you need to
put all this in a book because you're way too detailed to not
write this down like you have exact dates.
So like I'm saying like the story needs to go in a book.
So I'm just pouring that into you.
But perfect, so much for this conversation.
Like I said, this has just been just a beautiful transparency or
(53:57):
your living testimony. And I know it's going to help
somebody because like you said, I can't stress it enough.
I've met so many people, they are walking living testimonies.
Every single person on this earth.
We were not here by mistake. God has a plan for everybody.
And that plan doesn't have to beextravagant.
That plan doesn't have to be on TV.
(54:18):
That plan could just be to save one person just by sharing their
story about sharing their pain or sharing, hey, this is how I
get out of bed every morning. You know, whether it's to get
out of bed every morning and do what you think is nothing, the
fact that you were able to wake up every morning and put on that
face and still live. We all have a purpose.
We all have a mission in life. So I definitely, I can't stress
(54:41):
enough, every single person has a greater inside of them.
And it may be hard to see because life will life, you
know, and sometimes it's hard tosee like God, why am I here?
Why am I going through these things?
You know, and in a perfect world, we'll sit there and say,
oh, well, you know what? Oh, you know, God gives you
these things. You can overcome it.
Yeah, of course we know that. But when you're going through
(55:01):
something at the time, a lot of times it's really hard to
process, like why? Why me?
But, you know, like I said, there's greater than everyone.
So I definitely truly feel like this conversation will save
somebody and they'll be like, you know what?
She did it, I can do it. That's all that matters at the
end of the day. And like I said, your dream does
not have to be elaborate or extravagant.
(55:22):
Whatever God put in you is for you is not for them, and you owe
it to him to be all that you canbe.
So thank you guys. Again, this is Miss Melissa
Oldham from Queen of Aesthetics.Tell everybody how they can find
you on social media. And also if you're still doing
your classes, tell them like howthey can connect with you.
Yeah, absolutely. So our business page is Queendom
Aesthetics. That's QUENDOM under Score
(55:46):
AESTHETICS. That's for all things skin care.
My personal brand is $1,000,000 Melissa and $1,000,000 Melissa
is based off of my $1,000,000 mindset.
Don't worry, I'm not a millionaire.
So $1,000,000 is MILLIONDOLLAR under score Melissa, Melissa,
(56:09):
you can follow me there. I have a bunch of different
courses. Like I said, I have a I pay
yourself master class Why? I teach entrepreneurs how to pay
themselves. I have a business plan master
class. I have a soap making class.
This is how my claims to fame was soap making.
I teach others how to start their own soap making
businesses. I mentor, I do private trainings
(56:29):
and coaching sessions all and you can find all of those
platforms on $1,000,000 Melissa's page or you can go to
$1,000,000 melissa.com if you'relooking for skin care.
Queen of aesthetics.com if you are a entrepreneur, a sister in
business who just needs some some help me, some leadership,
some mentorship, needs community$1,000,000 melissa.com is a
(56:49):
great website where you can get one of my many classes, private
coaching training with me as well.
Awesome, thank you so much for this conversation.
This has been amazing and like Isaid, I just appreciate how you
pour into others because like I said, everybody has greatness in
them. So thank you guys again for
tuning into this episode. You can catch more episodes just
(57:12):
like this with some amazing women www.goclean.com.
So just remember there is a winner in you.
All you have to do is to take that step forward.
If you make one step, as we know, God will make 2, He'll
make 10, he'll make 20. We just have to make that step
first. So thank you guys again for
tuning in. Make sure you be safe and of
course, go love yourself.
Grab your print or digital copy of Go Queen magazine today.
Stay inspired by the incredible stories and features inside.
Visit our website to grab your copy now.
Hey Queen, welcome to another episode of the Q Chat.
Today, we're honored to have Melissa Odom, a true trailblazer
who has turned adversity in the triumph.
(00:21):
As the founder of Queen of Aesthetics, Melissa's journey
from a teen mother with an incarcerated mother to a top
beauty industry mogul is nothingshort of inspiring.
Her story is one of resilience, determination, and the
unwavering belief that you can create your own destiny.
Join us as we discuss her rise in the beauty industry, her
(00:41):
passion for empowering women, and the lesson she's learned
along the way. Stay tuned for this empowering
episode of recognizing your own greatness she's bringing.
About a business working hard ona mission.
Had high purpose driven crown onnever tilted.
(01:02):
Go queen go queen go. Queen, thank you guys for
(01:26):
joining another episode of the QChat today.
I have a very special guest and her name is Miss Melissa Odom.
And Melissa is a skin spa care owner.
She has Queen of Aesthetics based out of New Orleans, my
hometown. And Melissa has a very powerful
story of all the things that she's overcome as a young teen
mother. She also had a mother who was
incarcerated. And she's a story of surviving
(01:47):
and resilience. So we're going to have a great
time conversation about her early beginnings, of course of
being an amazing entrepreneur, and of course our favorite
topic, self love. How are you doing today?
I'm doing well. How are you?
I'm doing good. I'm so happy to meet with you.
And like I was saying in your intro, we all know you in New
Orleans of course is only queen of aesthetics, but you really do
have a true testimony and a story of all things that you've
(02:11):
overcome and a true example of resilience.
So I wanted to get started and asking about your early
beginnings and just how was yourexperience?
I know like you said, if your mother was incarcerated with a
28 year prison sentence, so I know you've got a lot of things
that you've overcome first. I want to get your early
background first. Yeah, absolutely.
So I was born and raised in New Orleans, Uptown.
(02:33):
I went to elementary, middle school and high school in New
Orleans. My grandmother actually raised
me. So you are correct.
My mother has done a total of 28years of my life in prison and
I'm 35. So as I can just dig back to
growing up, my mother had a total of it's four of us.
I'm the oldest of three boys. And so my mother had me at about
(02:57):
the age of 26 or 27. And then she had my little
brother. We are about a year apart.
And so I I believe, you know, from what I'm told, you know,
she had me and then she had my brother.
She, you know, ended up incarcerated, wound up coming
home, got pregnant with another brother, went back to prison,
hadn't and then had another brother.
(03:17):
But I guess my grandmother had just got to a point to where it
was like, OK, you didn't came home with two of these children.
This is all that I can take. So two of my other brothers had
been adopted by their parents. And so my grandmother, my
grandmother continues to raise me and my brother Clinton.
And so just growing up in New Orleans, Uptown, I think that
(03:39):
I've always felt a little different.
I've always, I was a challengingteenager.
So I tell people all the time, Iwish that now.
And, you know, I wish the now inmental health and those
conversations would have been spoken of.
I say, let's date back to 20 years ago when I was eight years
old or, you know, when I was a young woman dealing with the
(04:01):
challenges and stuff that I was experiencing.
I was always told that I was just bad.
Never was asked like, hey, well,what's wrong?
And I think that my family didn't consider the fact that
like, hey, this child is being raised by her grandmother in a
house full of cousins. Her mother is in fact
incarcerated. Her father has passed away when
she is, as she's 12 years old, something she needs therapy, not
(04:25):
anger management, you know, And so I spent a lot of time going
to juvenile detention centers. I spent a lot of time in anger
management. I was very tempermatic.
And of course, as a child, I couldn't process what that
looked like for me. But I allowed my adversity to
become my norm. And so I would, you know, fuzz
fight with everybody. I became disrespectful to my
(04:48):
family only because I just felt like maybe there should have
been a little bit more love and care to me as a kid, but I
didn't have those experiences. So I just I grew up very tough
knit. My all of my cousins were boys.
So I grew up in a house full of boys.
So that aggression and that masculinity in me as a young
girl, it was just supernatural to me.
(05:08):
So as I am older as a woman, I look back and I'm like, Dang,
that was really unnormal, right?But you know, I was a
challenging kid. You know, I don't take away from
that, but I think that I needed,like I said, therapy over, you
know, anger management. So as I, you know, I got to a
point where as I got older, thiswas the last and final time that
(05:30):
I went to juvenile. My grandmother, they brought me
from juvenile to go to court. And I remember just being in
shackles as a kid. And I just remember being so
embarrassed, you know, and I, I vowed that that was my very last
time. I was probably about 14 or 15
years old and I just say, you know, this is embarrassing and
I've always knew I was greater, but unfortunately I just had a
(05:52):
lot of anger as a kid just basedoff of my circumstances and I
didn't know how to speak to thatand express myself.
So like I said, that was my lasttime in juvenile and it was it
was a lot. So by the age of 16 and I was in
fact pregnant with my oldest daughter, Ziya, who is 18 years
old. And all I could just remember
(06:13):
is, you know, 16 pregnant Hurricane Katrina hit.
And so I moved to Las Vegas. And I think that moving to Las
Vegas is the reason why I am. So I'm a, I'm a little, I'm on
average because I was able to beexposed to a little different
than New Orleans at a young age.So I understand what it's like
(06:34):
to just be around a diverse group, you know, how to handle
myself in certain circumstances with a different diverse group,
right? But as I got older, you know,
1818, I was pregnant again. I had my daughter when I was 19.
So now this is 19 with two children.
By the age of 20, I was pregnantwith my third child.
This is my son. And this was with someone that I
(06:57):
went to high school with. So I had my first three children
by my 20th birthday, and I was just a young mother.
And so, you know, it's definitely been some trying
times, but those are my very, very humble beginnings.
Wow, that is such a story. I mean, that's so much if you've
gone through and then I don't see it.
Some of the things you've been through, like you said, so many
(07:18):
other children have gone throughthe same things, maybe not
exactly in the same timeline, but they've been misunderstood
children. They've been kids.
A lot of children are being raised by grandparents.
A lot of children, they have things that are not being
addressed properly. Like you mentioned, you needed
therapy. And you know, from our
upbringing, therapy is just something that is really not a
(07:40):
conversation. Unfortunately, that happens in
our household. You know, that's just, that's
not it. Like even you go to church, you
pray, that's it. But what is therapy?
So especially for the youth, what you said is something else
because there's so many young children that just needed
somebody to pour into into them.And like you also said, you knew
you had greatness inside of you.But the scary part is there's so
(08:02):
many young people who have so much potential and they deserve
a chance. Every young child deserves a
chance. But sometimes you don't have
somebody to pour into you to sayyou have greatness in you.
Like you said, you knew it, but imagine there's so many young
people, they have so much potential.
They really do have greatness inthem.
And unfortunately they don't even see it in themselves.
So I just in the fact that you could acknowledge that you had
(08:26):
greatness in you. And a lot of times too, we think
our past is something that's supposed to be a hindrance, but
that past is a motivation. Like you said, a situation, you
said I'm embarrassed and you usethat as a drive.
So it also shows too, we can take the bricks that was thrown
at us and we really can truly build a mansion.
(08:47):
So I want to ask you to just from your upbringing to when
you, like you said, you knew youhad greatness inside of you.
So what was the shift from your upbringing and then being a teen
mother? And I know that was a lot of
work and you went to Vegas and like you said, you were able to
see a different point of view oflife from your regular
environment, which is also something that I know helped
(09:09):
motivate you. So what was the shift like when
you were like, OK, I know I havegreatness in need.
How was it finding your purpose?Because where you're at now, you
know you have a skill, you have a trade, you have something, you
build something great, a business.
So how did you find your purposeafter that when you were in your
early 20s? Oh, so purpose.
(09:29):
I think it took me a long time to find the purpose that I
needed to be in the last nine years, because that's how long
I've been in business. I've always just wanted to fight
the odds. So, you know, growing up, I was
told that I would be exactly like my mother.
And so for me, that was my driveto be the total opposite.
(09:50):
Like everything that I did was to be the total opposite and
certain things because, you know, it's enough not on us.
You know, I was still, I still hate some of these attributes as
my mother, but I always wanted to be different.
And so as I gotten older and I, I started to just feel like,
hey, I, I deserve more out of life.
(10:12):
I can have more. And I actually had a friend who
I was working at Walmart. I was 18 years old and my friend
said to me, she was like, you need to go back to school.
Like you're so smart. Like you need to go, you know,
do something with yourself. And it's so funny because I was
actually just in her wedding a few months ago.
And this was, I mean, it was, itwas phenomenal for my growth
(10:33):
because she was actually like the first person that I would
say that was like, girl, you need to go back to school.
You, you know, you're, you're smart and you know, and I always
wanted, I knew I've always been a great leader.
So my goal was always to be in lead.
I've always been in leadership no matter where I worked.
So I've always maintained the job.
I've always wanted to have a good job.
And so once I was done with my phase in Walmart, you know, like
(10:58):
I said, my friend took me back to school and was like, girl,
you need to be. She helped me get my
transcripts, brought me to Delgado and was like, girl, like
I didn't have a car. I was on the bus and she was
like, you need to be in somebodyschool.
So that being in that school environment.
So I enrolled that Delgado for business management.
And so being in school, it just,it just gave me a different
(11:19):
train of thought, like just being around a bunch of people
who it wasn't weird like they were there to get an education.
They, they were from neighborhoods and environments
just like me, but they, their goal was the soar.
And so for me, I, I adapt. So if I'm looking at you and you
look like me and you have similar background as me, I use
that as my motivation. Like, OK, well, I know for sure
(11:42):
if you can do it. I definitely can't.
If you have this mindset with all the shoes I've been through,
I can as well. So over time, I, you know, I
just always just kind of wanted to be more and have more.
But like I said, I went to school back at 18 years old, 19
years old, and then I had, you know, all these children.
(12:02):
I had three children and it was just, it was just so different
for me. But every time I would enroll
into a new program, I decided totry to go to school for surgical
technology. I didn't like it.
I tried to go to school for medical assistant.
It didn't work for me and I was just like I, I have to be
something. And so I just tried and I tried
(12:22):
and I tried. I ended up one of the saddest
times. I tell people all the time.
One of the saddest jobs that I had was I was a housekeeper and
I never forget I lost my job at Walmart.
So back story my my son, which is my third child, he passed
away of 6 which is sudden infantdeath syndrome.
So me as a 20 year old, 21 year old woman experienced and I have
(12:45):
a 2 little babies, five and six years old.
And then now my son has passed away.
I'm like Laura, what am I going to do?
So I ended up losing my job at Walmart and I ended up going on
to like indeed. And I seen this job that said
room attendant. So I didn't know what a woman
attendant was. I just thought I would be
(13:05):
attending to something out of a room, but I didn't know exactly
what that meant. So I go to this job interview,
get the job and I go to work thefirst the the next day, you
know, they gave me the offer getting paid $10.00 an hour.
And so they come pushing a cart in front of me with like
betting. And I was just like, but here I
am. I was unemployed.
(13:26):
So I had to eat that and take that job and do that job and I
did it for about 6 months. But I remember walking around
every day. All my coworkers thought I was
insane. I used to be like this is I have
an education like I cannot be working here.
This is this, I will never work a job like this.
And so it was just like, I just,I just, I knew my purpose was
(13:47):
just bigger than my environment and I'm just like, absolutely
not. So, but I did what I had to do.
And I tell you that job definitely build character in
me. From there I was like, I need a
better job. And so I started applying that
big job. I was like, I'm trying to work
at a bank. You know, I've always loved
money. I've always my goal has always
just a meant to be financial illiterate.
(14:08):
And so I remember a girl that I used to work at Walmart.
She wrote me on Facebook. She was like, I was like, I need
help with a resume. So she helped me make my resume
and I applied to, to Capital Onebank.
And I just remember going into that interview was like a panel
interview and they were just asking me why, why should we
hire you? And I, I told them a million
reasons as to why. And I remember just by time I
(14:31):
got home that same day, they told me that I was offered the
job and I was just like, OK, youknow, I'm here for it.
I was so excited because I was just like, oh, this is a
stepping stone to go from like Walmart and then a housekeeper,
you know, and then now in banking.
And so when I got into banking, I knew that my purpose was
(14:51):
financial literacy. I went to always the bank.
The guys will come to the collarand get $100,000 cashier checks.
And I used to, I've never been afraid to say, well, what do you
do for a living? You know, you know, and they and
I feel like they would tell me everything, right, Because they
didn't see me as a threat or somebody that would go and do
these things that and half of the time they were probably
(15:13):
just, you know, flossing and, you know, just, you know, being
proud of their accomplishments. And so from that moment on, I
was just like, I definitely can't be more.
I can have more. My customers will come in and
just talk to me. I was getting promoted in
Capital One and I was just like,you know what, I am going to be
great. I don't know when greater does
come later and I just knew I hada purpose.
(15:35):
So I tell people all the time atthat job at Capital One was when
I knew that I was because that that was great for myself esteem
knowing that I could get that job.
I went from cleaning beds and toilets.
So working in a bank was just insane at that time.
And so I, that was in 2012, 2013.
And so from that moment on it on, on my mindset shift and I
(15:59):
was just like, I just seen so much money.
I remember counting so much money.
And I was like, I'm going to have money one day.
Like I'm going to have what theyhave.
I'm going to be able to invest. And I started to just really
speak that into my life. And so no matter what people
told me, because, you know, I was considered like the hood
girl, but I just got to a point before social media was a thing,
I was telling my home girls and people in my neighborhood and
(16:20):
people on Facebook like girl, you need to come open up a bank
account and open up a credit card.
And this is the why. And I thought it just to explain
the whys and educate my community.
Now I knew God wanted me to educate.
I feel like deep down inside I am an educator, but I just
couldn't figure out where. What realm would I be educating
in? But God truly bless me.
(16:41):
You know, after that job, my mind set shift.
So I like to say 2012 at CapitalOne Bank.
That's when I knew that I for sure had purpose.
Wow. And you know, so many things you
said, I love how you said greater comes later because
sometimes, you know, we are going through a period in our
lives we'll start beating ourselves down because we want
(17:01):
the money now. You know, we want to instantly,
we want to pop it in the microwave and get it, you know,
But then but like you said, greater comes later and it's
hard to process at the time. You know, sometimes you're going
through something because you'relike, OK, like you said, you
knew that you were better than what you were doing.
And I think also sometimes people have a hard time, I'm
(17:22):
saying, OK, this is beneath me. There's nothing wrong with
saying something is beneath you.It is not.
You're not trying to assault thenext person because what God
gives you is for you mean, and the other person don't have to
understand why you think something's beneath you.
And I think that's one of the things that maybe hold people
back sometimes because they really struggle with saying,
(17:42):
Hey, I really don't want to do this.
This job is not me, you know, but sometimes you struggle with
it because maybe if you may be working a job that you
absolutely hate and you know, it's not for you, but that next
person, Hey, they, they cool with it.
That's why. And there's nothing wrong with
that. There's nothing wrong with them
and there's nothing wrong with you.
So I do like how you said, great, it comes later.
(18:04):
But another important thing thatI think you touched on, it's
mindset is what we think our mindset is what really can drive
us. And also when you see someone
who is in a stage that you want to be in, mindset says, hey, I
know I'll be in that place one day, I'll probably exceed what
they're doing. It's all about your mindset and
(18:25):
pouring into yourself and talking into yourself.
So that's extremely important. So of course I want to ask you,
I know it being aesthetician that you had eczema, you know,
just reading on your history andyour children had eczema.
So that started your journey. So I definitely want to know
what started your journey into skin care?
Yeah, absolutely. So my journey into skin care, I
(18:46):
will say in 2014, I had my youngest daughter, Carly.
So that story, I've always had eczema.
I tell this story. I remember when I was 12 years
old and my mother came home fromprison one of those many times
and she looked at me and she said, well, what's going on with
your skin? And I'm like, girl, I don't, you
know, you know, I'm 12. I'm like, I don't know, you
(19:08):
know, that wasn't a skin care routine that I was privileged to
see or hear or know about. And so This is why I will say I,
you know, I'm so grateful that my mother said that to me
because I ultimately, when I wasa kid, I used to always want her
to like just, I used to be like,well, damn it, am I not good
enough for her to want to be home?
So with her saying that, I'm like, oh, I got to get my skin
together, You know, maybe she'llthink I'm pretty, whatever,
(19:31):
whatever. But growing up, I always had
eczema. I was called alligator skin.
It had been a time. I remember like you know how the
kids now wear like sweat suits in the summertime, like jackets
and all of that. I was that girl.
Like I was that girl. I remember just being 1011 years
old wearing jackets in the summertime.
I Remember Remember playing basketball and wearing long
(19:53):
sleeve shirts underneath my jersey because I didn't want you
to see my eczema in my arms. So overtime I just, it was, it
was normalized for me. That was my skin condition.
It was what it was. It didn't.
And as I got gotten older and myself esteem was built up on and
I was just feeling like the bestversion of myself, my eczema
didn't faze me anymore. So it just was what it was.
Girl, you put a little moisturizer on it.
(20:14):
Go on about your weight. And so I had my first daughter
Zyelle, she had eczema. Had my second daughter Amira.
She had eczema. I didn't get to experience my
son, but I'm more than sure he would have had eczema as well.
But when I had my youngest daughter, Carly, she had eczema
and it was just the worst I had ever seen.
And so we used to bring her to the her pediatrician and the
(20:35):
pediatrician would write off a steroid cream, you know,
prescription. And so we would apply it to her.
It would definitely clear her up.
But ultimately what happened wasshe was so light skinned and my
baby was a chocolate baby, but it would like just bleach and
lighten her skin. So I, I feel like God definitely
put me in that transition to where I no longer could use
(20:57):
dermatology or prescriptions because I wound up working at
AT&T and I was cut off a Medicaid.
And from that moment on, I couldn't get those prescriptions
anymore, right? I couldn't do anything to manage
her eczema anymore. And so I think I was like, I
need to figure out a solution. And so I started doing just like
research like on lotions and creams and all type of things.
(21:18):
And soap was one of them, you know, And so I remember just
doing some research on soap and I was like, let me just try to
make soap. And I remember one of my
friends, she was very holistic at the time.
I reached out to her and I askedher how could I make it?
And she was like, oh, girl, I'm gonna come over there and show
you. She ended up never coming.
So I just got one YouTube University, and I learned how to
formulate soap. So I never forget.
(21:40):
I started making this one batch of soap.
It was amazing. It's my original beauty bar that
I formulated back in 2014. Anyways, I started making the
soap from my kitchen and one of my friends used the soap and she
was like, Melissa, you need to be selling this soap.
And I was like, girl, please, like nobody is going to be
buying soap from me. You know, we knew about the the
(22:02):
kitchen beauticians. So to me and my mind, girl, me
making soap was already different.
I've always been a little different.
So people used to think I was a little weird and I'm like,
nobody's going to buy soap from me.
And so I'll never forget 2015 French Quarter Festival.
I remember just making a soap and cutting it up into little
bitty samples. And I went on a Saturday and I
(22:22):
just passed out, girl. I had the little pictures.
I wrote the little name of my business, which was I called
myself calling it real Black Beauties.
And I was just like, you know what?
And people used to call me real,used to call me Black Beauty.
That was like my nickname back then.
So I was like, I'm a name. I'm a call this real Black
beauty for whatever reason. So anyways, I passed out this
soap on a Saturday. All of my little samples by
(22:43):
Monday people were calling me like, hey, Melissa, no, they
didn't know my name. But I just remember getting
calls like, hey, I got some soapfrom you at French Quarter
festival. I would like to purchase more.
Now, this was just Saturday, youknow, and that Monday people
were calling for me to make fullsize bars and I was just like,
uh, oh, OK, I guess I got to make more.
And so I started making more. At the time I was working at
(23:07):
AT&T. People started to come to my job
to pick up the soap, buy the soap.
I was selling it for $5. I will ride my bike to meet you
for, to get you some soap. And it just became very popular
in the city of New Orleans. So like anybody that I went to
school with, people that I knew,I started just making videos on
Facebook talking about it and like I just started selling my
(23:29):
soap. So the $5 beauty bars is where I
started in 2015 making soap right from my kitchen and it
started to transition and help so many people.
So like I said, it was only for eczema at the time, and people
started using it on their face and was helping it, saying it
was helping them fade their darkmarks.
And I'm just like, now y'all exaggerating.
And so I didn't know the power of what I had created, but God
(23:51):
knew. He made sure that he, you know,
increased my territory. He brought people to me, people
like my managers at AT&T used tobe like, Melissa, you can't do
this here. I was like, OK, but that that's
my humble beginnings to startingout making soap because of a
problem with eczema for my children.
So I had already accepted this is my normal, but to see my baby
(24:12):
suffer the way that she did, I was like, absolutely not.
So I created a solution. So like I said, I just love it.
And that's just how people startoff, you know, they'll come up
with a yeah, you got to have that hustle spirit #1 you know,
to get yourself out there. So of course I got to ask you.
So how did it transition for you?
Like first you like you said youmade the soap and again, I think
(24:32):
you have you are good because you have good people that have
poured into you whether like youknow, whether they just said and
didn't even know where was goingto go with it.
You know, so you definitely havepeople just pour something into
you. Like I said, they may not even
realize what they were doing at the time when they said it.
But So what transition from you you So like you said, you cut it
up. You started at the French
Quarter Festival and now you have this empire.
(24:53):
So how did you get to that to where you at now?
Like where did you think? Where you still at AT&T, You
know, you hustling you sell on the soap.
What made you think, hey, hey, you know what, I can take it
further now and I can really become a licensed esthetician
and have a brick and mortar. How did that transition start?
Oh, so that transition started. So during my time at AT and TI
(25:14):
was making lucrative money like my income was it was everything
that I needed it to be. I was like the number one sales
girl at AT&T on Saint Charles St. and I was just doing the
thing, but I just with the feeling.
So they did a pay cut. I will say that they did a pay
cut where they were cutting 50% of our, our income.
And at the time I was just like,girl, wait a minute, 50% of my
(25:36):
income, girl, I can work for myself.
So now I'm into like, I'm on my problem for the people stuff.
I'm like, Oh no, I can work for myself.
I can sell my own product. And at the time, girl, I was
only making about $500 a month. But I was just like, I knew I
had something great, but I, and I quit myself.
I put in my two week notice at AT&T and I did this prematurely.
(26:00):
I really didn't have a plan. I just knew I was going to be
selling my $5.00. So and so I quit that job.
I resigned from that job and things started to make a shift.
It was just like, oh Lord, the sales wasn't selling.
Like, you know, it just didn't. I didn't see that increase and
so I had had about three to fourmonths taste of entrepreneurship
(26:22):
and I hit rock bottom. I remember right before
Christmas I didn't have enough money to buy my kids anything.
My life were about to get cut off December 8th.
I just never forget all of thesethings and feeling like them.
I'm about to fail my children. I'm going to have to go back and
get a job. So once again, Andy, you know,
that's my little place to go looking for me.
Some employment. I applied to Verizon Wireless
(26:43):
and they hired me. I remember starting that job in
January and so I and though I was making good money, I was so
miserable. I was not happy.
I was just like, I just cannot work here.
Like I, this is not for me. And every day I would just say,
you know what? I can't do this, I can't do
this, I cannot do this. No, no, I just, I and I would
(27:03):
tell my, my coworkers all the time and they used to be like, I
know everybody just thought I was crazy.
So I never forget in May, I can't remember the day exactly,
but I know it was before my birthday because my birthday is
May the 16th. And so in May, I was like, I, I
woke up one day and I got 99 orders online.
(27:24):
And so that was my first day getting that many orders in one
day. And so I said to myself, if I
can do it in one day, I could doit again.
And so from that moment on, and by that time, there was a local
esthetician in New Orleans. She had did my daughter's spy
party like right after I quit. So I quit that job in me and I
(27:45):
just started, you know, just selling online.
It just started to really grow and it was doing good.
And so a girl came and did a spyparty for my daughter and she
was like you should go to she was an esthetician and she was
like, well, Melissa, you know, you already got your products
going. People love your products.
Your skin is beautiful. You should go to school event
esthetician too. And I was just like, OK, but I
(28:05):
had already started doing research and it was kind of to
me out of my budget. And I was like, Oh no, that's
too expensive. I can't afford that.
But nothing but the grace of God.
I still just went and took some tours at the schools and I
applied and I was like, you knowwhat, I'm going to school to be
an esthetician. And so I remember just like, you
know what, I'm just going to do it.
(28:26):
So I applied that July. I didn't have all my documents.
And so I was able to start in November once I got to school
and I thought I knew it all right, because now I'm making
soap, I'm making money already. I'm like, girl, I know it all.
I know skin. And so I get there and I'm like,
OK, the anatomy of the skin, Oh wow, we have that many layers of
(28:46):
the skin. Oh wow, there's grade 4-5 of
acne. Oh wow, This is beyond my scope
of practice. And so now the terminology
started to come to me and I was just like, you know what?
I'm serious about this. I love this.
I started doing facials. I remember just getting a little
room on LaSalle and Louisiana, Louisiana LaSalle.
I think it was 2317 Louisiana Ave.
(29:09):
Don't poke me, but I remember getting this little room in the
back of this girl boutique and Istarted practicing doing facials
and I just fell in love with skin And I started just reading
books and then I started to study plants and I just got so
just I fell in love with it. I just fell in love with
everything of skin, everything about it, so many ways to heal
it. I became privileged to
(29:29):
ingredients and learning a little bit more and how they
work with the anatomy of the skin and I fell in love with
with skin. And so I tell people all the
time, I graduated from esthetician school in 2017.
I did, in fact, try to apply forjobs.
But I'm telling you, God say, girl, you got to create your own
job. He did not want me with working
for somebody else. I don't think it's, it's never
(29:51):
been in me. But I did what I had to do.
And so I remember being on Craigslist when I was in class
one day and I was just like, youknow what, I'm gonna open up my
own spa. And so I go on Craigslist and I,
I see this space and they had like this little thing where you
can put your billboard, your sign in it.
And I was like, I just always thought big.
I just never thought small. And so I was like, I want this
(30:13):
building. So I remember reaching out to a
realtor that I knew. We did the application, did the
tour of the building and by I graduated on May the 19 or
something like that. In May, July the 1st of 2017, I
opened up my first spot. So that was Essence Weekend.
I it was like a block party. So many people came out and they
(30:36):
celebrated me. They were so happy for me and,
and from that moment on, I was like, after seeing all those
people in my grand opening, I said, I got me something.
I definitely this is not where I'm not mom and pop, I'm big,
I'm international. And you know how that that
little saying like you supposed to be thinking big?
You know, back a few years ago or last year sometime and I was
(30:58):
like, you know what, I'm thinking big.
So I thought big. I opened up my first location
and started to thrive beyond my beliefs.
It was just too small for me. And then in 2018, I was like,
you know what, I got to find me something bigger.
I was coming to the end of my lease, 2019.
The beginning of that year came and I found me my headquarters,
(31:19):
which was at 5800 Bullet Ave. inNew Orleans East, 5000 square
feet. It was huge.
It was everything that I needed because at the time I was
running my spa location in Mid City, the first location, but I
was making my products from homeand so I was exhausted.
I burned myself out, girl. I was working 6-7 days a week
just trying to stretching myselftoo thin of course, because I
(31:41):
wanted to serve everybody in thecommunity.
If I could have served every face in New Orleans, I would
have. I would have made it happen.
But today I've serviced over 12,000 clients since 2017.
I am grateful. The New Orleans location did
great. It did amazing.
And then last year I had to close that location because just
I seen what the economy was going and I just, I didn't want
(32:04):
any parts. But I opened up that location in
2022. I opened up the Slidell office
that I'm in now and I just continued to grow.
And when I took that break, a part of me felt like I failed,
but I knew I did the right thing.
I made a boss move by closing that location, but I just opened
up a new location back in New Orleans at 1125 N Rampart St.
(32:27):
It's phenomenal. The city of New Orleans is so
happy that I'm back. And so my community has uprooted
me and they have built up my empower, my empire.
I cannot say that I've done it alone.
I've hired amazing people so work with me to help me grow and
scale my business. So I'm just grateful.
But it's definitely it. It has surpassed my limited
(32:47):
beliefs for sure. Wow.
That is a testimony I wanted to ask you just and I'm happy that
like you were so transparent because I think a lot of times
with entrepreneurship, again, like I said, a lot of times
people want the microwave results.
But yeah, unfortunately with entrepreneurship, that's not how
it goes, especially when you're first starting out.
I think a lot of people because and you know, we live in a
(33:08):
social media age, so we click onsocial media, we see people than
bosses, you know, they got the expensive car, all this stuff.
They never show the part where, hey, what part of that?
And you really was like, OK, Laura, how pay this bill?
Because you told me, Lord, to quit this job now.
Like I think everybody experienced that at one point or
(33:29):
another. And a lot of people are just not
transparent about that because you think, oh, well, if I tell
people I quit this job and now I'm struggling, I'm a failure.
But no, like you're not a failure.
This is just part of the stages.But I think sometimes people
don't understand that. And just like you mentioned,
they may go through that, that period where it's like, OK, this
is not popping like I thought I can't pay the should I do?
(33:51):
Because a lot of us are not cut off for 9:00 to 5:00.
And there's nothing wrong with that.
Again, So there's nothing wrong with people who 9 to 5 is that
thing and people aren't. I just think this is big battle.
Like, oh, why you think you can't do a nine to five?
Like, you know, you think he's better than me.
But it's not. About that vision that that
person has. So like what inspiration,
(34:13):
motivation that you have for entrepreneurs?
Because some people just they can't deal with that part where
it's like, how am I going to paythis?
Or you know, they may give up too soon.
So what would you say to motivate that person?
What I would say to motivate that person is I would say I
said keep your job. I tell people all the time, AT&T
was my investor. So you have to shift your
(34:34):
mindset and you when you go to that job, you feel like, girl,
these people just my investor, like I don't work for these
people. These people investing into me
like I'm showing up, you know, to get my coins.
So you have to shift the mindset.
You know, it's like I get to work, I get to work at this job
like I get to get paid so I can take my money and this be my
funding option, right? Because now you you debt free
(34:56):
because you let your investor yeah, you got to show off the
work. You know yet no, we don't want
to do it yet. We feel like it's beyond us.
But I tell people all the time if I had to go back to AT&T
today, I would with a smile on my face being the number one,
you know, salesperson. That's what I would do, but I
just, I would say to any entrepreneur, shift your
mindset. Don't quit your job prematurely
(35:17):
because there was so, so many dark days and so many dark times
when I quit my job, my friends didn't even know.
I was so shamed. I'm one of those people.
I hold shame, girl. I'm like, oh Lord, and I'll talk
about it later. But I and I learned over time
that transparency was key because being transparent, you
don't know who God is going to send to save you and help you.
So now I tell if I'm having a, if I got a $0.00 day, I'm going
(35:40):
online and say I, I had a $0.00 day.
Guess what? God going to send me about 5-6
people to come and order something from me.
You know, because they, they know the product is good.
They know what I have is amazing.
They know that I'm transparent. They know I don't have to share
these things, right? I think I over share, but it's
OK to over to share what you're comfortable with and let people
know because God sends you the people that you need.
(36:02):
But don't quit your job prematurely.
Create a plan. I love it.
I created a business playing master class year before last
and it just really helps entrepreneurs understand how to
get so how to not. I don't like the delulu.
You know how they say be delulu?Oh no, I can't be delusional.
No, I need to be serious becausethese bills, the light bill man
(36:23):
want his money. He seriously want it.
The rent man seriously wants it.So create a plan, you know,
write it down, be clear, put a date on it.
You know, set realistic expectations.
Nobody is bigger or better than you.
Nobody gets better. Nobody's life is better than
yours on social media. They are not showing you the
hard times. Like I said, they'll tell you
about it after the fact, but youwouldn't know what they were
(36:45):
going through. So we all have our seasons, we
all go through things. So #1 don't prematurely quit
your job. Number 2, be transparent.
Tell people what you need. Yes, there will be some people
that will laugh at you, they will mock you, they will talk
about you. But guess what?
I have a community for you that will come in and help you build
brick by brick because that's all the city of New Orleans and
(37:05):
my clients did. I told them what I wanted to do
and they came and helped me build, build my empire empire.
So just believe in yourself, Build community, you know, build
community. That is really the key.
Because I'm telling you there isso many times where I've just
said what I needed and I I don'task.
I just kind of just say what I need, what I'm going through and
(37:27):
people are like, Melissa, I'll come over there and help you
make. So Melissa, I'll come and help
you pack all this. I'll help you with this.
You know, people, be a good person because people will come
and help you if you are good. So showcase, you're good and we
all have some bad, but showcase you're good and God is going to
send you the community. That's for you.
Don't worry about what people say or what they think because
we all have our hard times. Just some of us just don't share
(37:49):
them. Right, right, you definitely
right. That's a word for sure.
Now I want to ask you because I know you said like you also went
to a period, but you were burnt out you were, you know, burning
the candle at both ends. So I want to ask you, because
just in life in general, whetheryou have your own business,
whether you or a mother, whetheryou work a nine or five, we have
to take care of ourselves. self-care of course, is
(38:11):
extremely important. Just point to ourselves
physically, mentally. So what are just some of the
things that you do to balance? Because I mean, you're a mother,
you have a business. So what are the things that you
do to balance so that you can take care of yourself?
Oh, absolutely. Great question.
So a few things that I do to to balance myself.
I definitely take all the time that I need for myself.
(38:35):
Now I am in a, a better financial situation.
So of course I, I get massages every single month.
You know, I go to therapy. I maybe I go to therapy every
two weeks. That's how it is for me.
I got to talk to my therapist every two weeks because this is
not easy. It's not easy at all.
It requires a listening ear, someone who can help you dissect
(38:56):
what you are feeling. So my, my best investments right
now are massages. It is therapy.
It is working out. I, I work out every single day
now. It really helps to release those
dopamines of that stress and anxiety that you feel.
So I'm working out every single day.
I'm being intentional about whatI'm putting into my body.
(39:17):
I'm eating better. I journal, I write down
everything that I'm thinking because it's a lot of times I
want to tell a few people some dirty things, but I don't tell
it so long. I write it down.
So it just helps me to release. So working on ways to release,
you know, mentally, physically and emotionally.
Those are the things that I do most like most often now.
So I'm in Pilates, but I'm in all the things that like I'm in
(39:39):
that era so where I can afford those things.
But when I couldn't, I was baby doing my 4 miles at all have
been parked, I was stretching, Iwas eating better.
I was still going to therapy because my mental health has
always been a thing for me and and that's just what I do to
really pour into myself. So therapy is key, Y'all.
I know that sometimes I don't. I think that we have, we, we've
(40:01):
worked pretty hard to normalize it in 2024.
I think it's definitely a thing.Reach out to find out what
resources are available to you, because they are.
They are out there. You may have to pay a little
coin, so you may not be able to buy that bundle, but you may
have to pay your therapist. But guess what?
Your therapist can help you dissect some things.
So what you're probably able to get out of the bed the next day
when you wouldn't have if you didn't talk to her.
(40:23):
And now if you're able to get out that bed, now you can go and
work and work towards the thingsthat you want.
But therapy is key. I spend my last dollar on it.
Thank you for saying that because that's one thing that's
really big on my platform. I'm speaking as a person that
has PTSD and that's gone throughtrauma.
Therapy is extremely important. And you're right, I think it's
2024. We can have better conversations
(40:45):
that we may have had, you know, in 1995, you know, we can talk
more about therapy. You know, there's still some
stigmas behind it, unfortunately.
That definitely exists in our community because I think
sometimes people don't realize you can have God and you can
also have therapy. You can have prayer and you can
also have therapy. You can talk about your mental
stress and still have that therapy.
(41:06):
Please. You know, it's important to just
work on our trauma because a lotof us have a lot of trauma and
that trauma will control your life.
Just like we talked a lot about,you know, a lot of us
experienced triggers. We all have triggers.
None of us have had perfect lives, you know, so a lot of
times we carry that weight and if we carry that weight for so
long, it can be so detrimental. What you don't realize your full
(41:30):
potential, what you don't find your perfect?
Well, you don't take care of yourself, but you can't even
pour into your community or yourfamily or your friends because
you're holding on to so much trauma.
So I wanted to expound on that because I know just you've been
very transparent about the things that you experienced.
So and I know, and I'm so happy you mentioned therapy.
So I know, like you said, you dogo to therapy.
(41:52):
How do you cater to your mental health and Wellness?
Because that is something I wantto ask, you know, we already
talked about therapy. So just how do you handle, you
know, like I said, of course youdo the therapy, just dealing
with your mental health, taking care of it in addition to the
therapy, any other practices that you do to just have that
moment where you can just shut off everything so that you're
not letting that trauma guide you.
(42:14):
So I guess a better question is what can you give to advise
other people who they don't haveto let their trauma guide them?
You know what I'm saying? Like you experience your dreams
in spite of, and I think that's the thing, some of us, we're
struggling on how to accomplish life and purpose in spite of the
past, in spite of being a singlemother, in spite of having
(42:35):
trauma. There is greater in all of us.
So how are you able to just manage so that you know you can
take care of your mental health and still be who you are today?
One of the biggest things that Ido now is I ask for help.
You know, a lot of times I was one of those people, girl, I was
like, I don't need nobody woman.But now I asked for the things
(42:57):
that I need. I'm telling I tell people all
the time it's this is true in all walks of life.
A closed mouth does not get fed.And so I asked for help.
I tell people what I am feeling one of my best practices right
now because I'm a mother of three daughters.
And so I, I, you know, I, when Iremember just being like them
being small and I would just lock myself in a room and I just
(43:20):
remember them knocking and I would just ignore them.
One of the best practices that Istarted to do was to let them
know that mommy wasn't feeling her best today.
And I did need some time and I would ask for permission from
them. Can I have some time to myself?
About an hour and I will come out and talk to you guys or we
can go, you know, take that drive and go do the things that
you want to do. But I, I do need some time.
(43:41):
And so it's just really about opening our mouths and saying
and exactly what we need. And so because my children and
my initial family are the closest people to me, they are
the people who have seen the worst sides of me.
So I let them know exactly what I need.
Like I said, I'm in my room, I'mjournaling, I'm expressing
myself on paper just to get it out because a lot of us, we hold
(44:04):
it all in. And This is why I feel like 90%
of the people are just exhaustedand stressed and, and really
projecting because they don't have a safe place, right?
So finding your community is very important.
And, you know, fortunately, my, my children and my man are those
people. So I let them know exactly what
I need. And sometimes I used to hear
(44:25):
this conversation like you don'twant to tell your kids what
you're going through. You don't want them to feel like
a burden. No, Learn how to articulate to
your children what you are experiencing.
Because at some form or another,some of these mental health
challenges that we're experiencing, maybe genetics,
sometimes what we are experiencing, they may have
exposed, we may have exposed ourchildren to So what we might be
(44:46):
creating a life our children need therapy from.
So it's always very important toarticulate to your your people
who are closest to you, exactly what you're feeling.
Find a way. And I what I used to do is
another thing that I do a best practice is I'll record it.
I'll put pick up my phone and I'll say, Lord, I don't know
what I'm feeling today. I might cause first cry.
(45:06):
I might just, and I feel those emotions and sometimes I'll go
back and be like, damn, that wasn't one of my best days.
Why? But I feel so great today.
Damn, August 2019, I was so sad,but look at me August 2024
feeling amazing, you know? So you have to find different
coping mechanisms that work for you.
(45:27):
I say try it all and figure out what works best for you.
But right now those are the things that work for me.
So when I am speaking, so you know, some of my family members
and friends, a lot of people definitely come to me for, for
whatever reason, I am the ear, right?
But, and these are the things that I tell them to do, you
know, So from my mouth to your ears, you know, let people know
what you're experiencing. You don't have to, you know,
(45:48):
over share, but just in, in layman's terms, just like, hey,
today is just not my day. You know it, it's just not the
best day for me. Can you come back tomorrow?
Can we speak tomorrow? Can we chat about it later in
the midst of, you know, maybe confrontation or it's OK to walk
away. I will go in the middle of an
argument. I will walk clean away from you,
girl, because I'm not I'm not. Give me some time.
(46:11):
You know, don't don't act off ofyour emotions.
Practice emotional intelligence.But they can't really just find
in your community. I've learned that there are a
lot of resources out here. There are a lot of people who
truly care about your mental health and we got to put that
guard down. That's number that's number one,
putting that guard down because we're so guarded, we where we
are suffering in silence becausewe refuse to put that guard down
(46:33):
and let people know what we are feeling and what we're
experiencing, right? And you know, I think it's
because that whole fall strong black woman thing.
And don't get me wrong, like a lot of us are strong because we
didn't have a choice. It's not like, you know, we want
to be strong or have any type ofmasculine energy.
But some of us are put in positions where, like they said,
(46:53):
you don't have any option but tobe strong and being strong and
you're helping everybody else and nobody's asking you, well,
how are you doing? You know, and it also also, like
you mentioned, having boundaries.
You know, when I feel like when you have a lot put on you,
sometimes like we overcompensatefor just some of the
deficiencies we have. So we have maybe if you had a
(47:15):
mother wound or any type of poverty experience that we went
through. Once you're healing from that,
you start to overcompensate sometimes for the life that you
wish you had Once Upon a time. And then you start overexerting
yourself because you want to puton this fake superhero cake.
And it's mentally and physicallydraining and exhausting.
So again, like when you're working on your healing, you
(47:38):
Start learning to have those boundaries.
Like you said, you can say no and whether that person doesn't
want to hear the note is completely irrelevant because
you have to put yourself care and your mental health first.
So speaking up, I want to ask you on our platform, self love
is extremely important. Self love really is the fuel to
know that you're valuable, to know that you're worthy.
And like you said, you knew in spite of everything that great
(48:02):
was inside of you. And that's from coming to a
place where you really love yourself and you like you know
what I do deserve a better life.I know that I can achieve
everything that I've, so I want to ask you, how do you define
self love and what role has it played in your life?
How do I define self love? So I define self love in just
(48:27):
being able to internalize that knowing, working on the
interview. So I said beauty is the in the
eye of the beholder, but how youfeel about yourself on the
inside matters. And so self love is just really
those day-to-day things that youdo for yourself.
It's the little things. I think that ultimately we feel
(48:48):
like we have to live this lavishlife, right?
Like I said earlier when I said things that I do to help with
myself care, those are things inmy era now because I am more
financially stable, but I didn'tfeel any less than when I was
not financially stable. So just being able to break down
(49:08):
the, the, the, the fact that youare still amazing, You're still
beautiful. You are still great in spite of
your financial situation, in spite of your mental situation,
in spite of your emotional situation situation.
So really just self love to me is just truly wanting to to just
be more and have more. And so saying to yourself every
(49:29):
single day, I want more and I'm going to have more.
Not just saying I want more, I'mgoing, I'm going to have more
affirming that hey, I want more and I'm going to have more.
And so self love to me is just really truly believing in who
you are and all the things that you said you are going to be in
spite of. Yes, yes, believing in yourself.
And I know it sounds cliche, butyou have to believe in yourself.
(49:51):
You have to nobody else will believe in you and what you have
going on if you are not walking and and people believe.
Let me tell you people, I have men walk up to me all the time
and say you're so confident. And it's just I will walk up to
a food truck and somebody will spot me and say, Oh my God,
you're just so confident the wayyou walk.
Pick your head up since I hate to see people walking with it
(50:14):
when they're with their heads down.
Like I'm going through stuff right now but guess what my head
is still high. So pick your head up.
I promise you it's going to be OK.
It does get greater later. I, I know this for a fact.
And you're talking to somebody who has experienced every form
of adversity. I just told these people, my
mother has done 28 years of my life in prison and I'm 35.
(50:35):
My son passed away. I was 21 years old and woke up
to a child who was deceased and did not know how to internalize
that. You know, I have went through
lights, cut off. I've had addictions.
I've been in horrible relationships, I've been through
it all, I've been lied on, I've been stolen from, I've been
through it all. But I you will not know that I
have been through it and I tell people I don't keep it back.
(50:57):
I want you to know that I have been through it all and now I am
still walking with my head high.I'm going through a storm right
now. Here I am with my crown on.
So you have to walk with your head held.
How high in spite of? You know, it's really like the
old people say, like I know we've all heard it in church.
I don't look like what I've beenthrough, you know, and like you
said, when you and you embrace the things you've gone through,
(51:20):
because a lot of us have been through some stuff that is
unimaginable, you know, but likeyou said, it's just a whole just
some mindset of like, in spite of like, I'm not going to let
the devil win. I'm not going to let the past
win. I'm not going to let adversity
win. I'm not going to let the people
who did me dirty win. Like, I'm not going to let
anything win, you know, because.I win.
(51:41):
Exactly. So I love it so much.
This has been an amazing conversation.
I feel like I don't know if I'm going through some emotional
stuff. I feel like I want to fight back
tears. Like this has been an amazing
conversation. Listen, me too, girl.
I've been holding them back because it it has truly.
I, I love to speak it now. Like now I'm so confident and
just insane and insane with my chest out.
(52:03):
I remember, you know, just telling my story.
Like, yeah, but a lot of times Igot to a point where I didn't
want to tell people all that I've been through.
I stopped talking about it because I don't want to be.
I don't want to be the victim. I'm not the victim anymore.
I'm victorious. And so this is my story and I
share it. I remember I did the news
interview on Fox 8 a few weeks ago and I was on the phone with
my boyfriend and he said I was like, oh Lord, I'm nervous.
(52:26):
He was like, what? You telling your story?
Like you making up nothing. So it should be easy, you know?
Do you so, and that's what's important, so thy own self be
true. And so it feels so good to be
able to verbally say it out of my mouth and be proud of what I
have been through. So I am so grateful to be on
your platform to share it and I hope that it helps somebody.
If it's just one person, that's more than enough for me.
(52:49):
And that's all that matters. If you just help one person, you
save the life and that's nothinglikely.
Before we do and everything, canyou please leave our audience
with an affirmation? Oh yes, absolutely.
My affirmation to you is I affirm that I will be everything
(53:10):
that I say I will be. Everything that I say I will be,
I will be. I affirm that.
And so you say that in the mirror every single day to
yourself. I affirm that I will be
everything I say I will be. Not will what they said, not
what he said, not what she said,what I say.
That's exactly who I will be. I love it, I love it.
Thank you for your time and thatyou are very good about dates.
(53:34):
Like you had like exact dates. I'm claiming that you need to
put all this in a book because you're way too detailed to not
write this down like you have exact dates.
So like I'm saying like the story needs to go in a book.
So I'm just pouring that into you.
But perfect, so much for this conversation.
Like I said, this has just been just a beautiful transparency or
(53:57):
your living testimony. And I know it's going to help
somebody because like you said, I can't stress it enough.
I've met so many people, they are walking living testimonies.
Every single person on this earth.
We were not here by mistake. God has a plan for everybody.
And that plan doesn't have to beextravagant.
That plan doesn't have to be on TV.
(54:18):
That plan could just be to save one person just by sharing their
story about sharing their pain or sharing, hey, this is how I
get out of bed every morning. You know, whether it's to get
out of bed every morning and do what you think is nothing, the
fact that you were able to wake up every morning and put on that
face and still live. We all have a purpose.
We all have a mission in life. So I definitely, I can't stress
(54:41):
enough, every single person has a greater inside of them.
And it may be hard to see because life will life, you
know, and sometimes it's hard tosee like God, why am I here?
Why am I going through these things?
You know, and in a perfect world, we'll sit there and say,
oh, well, you know what? Oh, you know, God gives you
these things. You can overcome it.
Yeah, of course we know that. But when you're going through
(55:01):
something at the time, a lot of times it's really hard to
process, like why? Why me?
But, you know, like I said, there's greater than everyone.
So I definitely truly feel like this conversation will save
somebody and they'll be like, you know what?
She did it, I can do it. That's all that matters at the
end of the day. And like I said, your dream does
not have to be elaborate or extravagant.
(55:22):
Whatever God put in you is for you is not for them, and you owe
it to him to be all that you canbe.
So thank you guys. Again, this is Miss Melissa
Oldham from Queen of Aesthetics.Tell everybody how they can find
you on social media. And also if you're still doing
your classes, tell them like howthey can connect with you.
Yeah, absolutely. So our business page is Queendom
Aesthetics. That's QUENDOM under Score
(55:46):
AESTHETICS. That's for all things skin care.
My personal brand is $1,000,000 Melissa and $1,000,000 Melissa
is based off of my $1,000,000 mindset.
Don't worry, I'm not a millionaire.
So $1,000,000 is MILLIONDOLLAR under score Melissa, Melissa,
(56:09):
you can follow me there. I have a bunch of different
courses. Like I said, I have a I pay
yourself master class Why? I teach entrepreneurs how to pay
themselves. I have a business plan master
class. I have a soap making class.
This is how my claims to fame was soap making.
I teach others how to start their own soap making
businesses. I mentor, I do private trainings
(56:29):
and coaching sessions all and you can find all of those
platforms on $1,000,000 Melissa's page or you can go to
$1,000,000 melissa.com if you'relooking for skin care.
Queen of aesthetics.com if you are a entrepreneur, a sister in
business who just needs some some help me, some leadership,
some mentorship, needs community$1,000,000 melissa.com is a
(56:49):
great website where you can get one of my many classes, private
coaching training with me as well.
Awesome, thank you so much for this conversation.
This has been amazing and like Isaid, I just appreciate how you
pour into others because like I said, everybody has greatness in
them. So thank you guys again for
tuning into this episode. You can catch more episodes just
(57:12):
like this with some amazing women www.goclean.com.
So just remember there is a winner in you.
All you have to do is to take that step forward.
If you make one step, as we know, God will make 2, He'll
make 10, he'll make 20. We just have to make that step
first. So thank you guys again for
tuning in. Make sure you be safe and of
course, go love yourself.
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