by Elizabeth Jennings | Jun 5, 2019 | BUSINESS
I wanted to discuss having a business conscience. And what that means is someone who respects those who are in business for themselves, who respects the amazing businesses, whether it’s their franchise or you know, a mom and pop business or whatever type of business that it is. Even if it’s an apple, you are respected. Do you have a business conscience? And you’re not an employee of this business and you’re complaining about the owner. .You’re complaining about the way things operate there. .You’re complaining about the owner being successful and being rich. .You’re stealing from the business. .You’re not respecting everything that this business has supplied and paid for that’s giving you an opportunity to be an employee at their business so that you can make money. A lot of people speak negatively about jobs these days and sometimes I feel like we’re on a downward spiral when it comes to people in businesses needing employees for your business support because a lot of people just don’t want to work anymore. They want all of the trappings of success, but they don’t want to work for it in order to achieve it and obtain it for themselves. They rather get it the fast way; they want to steal from the business. They don’t respect this business and what it has provided, and it’s not to get into the topics of people who are unscrupulous in business that are multimillionaires and have money to just wipe their butt with. I’m not talking about those people. What I’m talking about is honestly, people like myself.
I’ve had people that have worked in my business claiming that they want to have their own business, but they don’t even know how to treat my business. You treat the products and supplies as if it’s nothing, but these are things that I spend so much money on. You don’t respect the way that I have set the rules and regulations up in the employee handbook because you want to do things your way and yeah, you want to have your own business. If you don’t know how to treat someone else’s business and be a great employee in theirs, how do you really expect to have a successful business of your own? Again, like I say all the time, being in business is not all about you. It’s about everyone else and you are on the receiving end of it with gaining the success and the wealth and the money and the prestige and the other things that come along with that, but it doesn’t negate the work that you have to do and a lot of people don’t want to work.
I went to one of my beauty business locations not long ago and I was doing some things after I had some former staff leave that I needed to get rid of and, you know, clean some things up to get some new people in and it was just amazing to me how some of the simplest things that they should know how to operate products and tools and supplies. They were so sloppy with that. It was just money for me in the garbage because they weren’t taking care of things the way that they needed to take care of. And it was just a joke to me because I’m thinking, okay, you say you want to have your own business. You say, you eventually want to be an entrepreneur, but yet you can’t treat the things that I have provided for you to work with to be taken care of and you want to have your own business.
Like you can’t even take the trash out. I’m just saying it starts with the simple things. When I worked in other people’s businesses, I always respected their stuff and I can honestly say that it has a lot to do with how far I’ve gotten in life and business because I’ve treated people at other people’s businesses and things with honor and respect, whether I care for them that much or not. And that just really didn’t have anything to do with it. Even back when I was a legal assistant, I didn’t get upset when the attorneys would take time off and go golfing and they didn’t come in until noon, you know, on a Friday or they may not have come in at all. I said one of these days that’s going to be me, not saying I want it to be an attorney or be out on a golf course, but I’m saying having a more flexible schedule.
But while I was there, I respected and honored what was going on there and I did my job and I didn’t steal from anyone. I didn’t destroy their property, I didn’t disrespect them. So it makes a big difference. How you start is how you will end app. Are you an entrepreneur that has employees and your business and you don’t feel that they have a business conscience because they don’t respect your business? Are you an employee now and are you aware of the business and what they are giving you an opportunity to do?
Beauty, Blessings & Prosperity,
by Elizabeth Jennings | May 22, 2019 | LIFE
Okay. Just want to share a few things you may not know about me. I meet new people and they ask me certain things and then when I share some of the things with them that they’ve asked me questions about, they’re like, oh my God. Wow. Really? I’m not that spectacular. But at any rate, I just thought I would just kind of put some of these things in this blog to share it with the new readers.
One of the things you may not know about me is I was a teen mom. I know it’s a popular show that’s on and TV has been for many years. It’s doing very well for them. But I don’t really recommend being a teen mom, but I was a teen mom. I had a baby at 15 and I didn’t plan to have that happen, but I don’t regret it. So that’s something you may not know about me. I don’t regret having a child young because I got it done and it’s over with and I did not continue the cycle. I never really had that mom bug where I said I wanted to have two or three kids and you know, that just never was the life that I saw for myself. So I’m grateful that I had my healthy child. I did not go through with it again because it wasn’t something that I wanted to do again.
Another thing you may not know about me is I’m married to my child’s father. We met in high school and we got married when our son was four years old, so we didn’t rush into getting married just because we had a child together and it wasn’t a huge thing for me to get married. I didn’t pressure him to do it. It would have been nice if it did happen and it did, but it wasn’t something that I pressured him to do and he didn’t pressure me into it either. It wasn’t the easiest. We were still kids when we got married. I was 20 years old when I got married and my husband was 23 I was a freshman in high school when I met my husband and he was a senior. So that’s something that you may not know about me. Another thing you may not know about me as I went into the legal field, fresh out of high school. I actually started while I was in my senior year of high school and I continued in that field and I stayed in the legal field in working in different law firms for 12 years.
Something else you may not know about me. I became a licensed massage therapist in 2006 and I started my business straight thereafter while continuing to work in the legal field. Another thing you may not know about me is from there I continued my education in aesthetics and eyelash extensions. And I became, well I am now and I have been for many years, a master lash artist and a beauty business entrepreneur since 2008.
Another thing you may not know about me is I don’t come from a very close-knit family. I’m close with my mom now, but we didn’t really have an understanding of each other growing up. And she hid a lot of things from me and my brother over the years with regards to my dad. So yeah, my dad was a drug addict for many years and we didn’t really know it until, well I should say I didn’t really know it until I was in late years of middle school. So there was a lot that was hidden from me. So I had held some resentment towards her for that. But yeah, I grew up in a household where it was not the best, but she did her best to try to make it seem as if it was the best, but my lifestyle over the years it started out Okay. And it continuously declined. So I don’t have a close-knit family.
But the other thing you may not know about me is, to be honest, I really don’t care. That may sound harsh coming from someone saying they don’t really care if they don’t have a close-knit family. But what I’ve learned is that society, and especially television puts this impression out there that if you don’t have a full family, then something’s wrong with you. But that just isn’t everyone’s reality. And when I came to the realization that that wasn’t my life, I was okay with it. As long as I have my health and I had a strong mindset, I knew that I could achieve anything. And it didn’t matter what my background was or who my family was, that just didn’t matter to me anymore.
And another thing you may not know about me, I am the big 4-0! I turned 40 in August of 2018 and I still can’t believe it. And in spite of all of the things that I’ve gone through, I’m still getting carded. So that is a blessing when I go to buy a bottle of wine or if I go out to dinner and I’m getting, you know, a glass of wine or champagne every single time they ask me for my driver’s license.
So it’s not to Brag, I’m just saying it’s something you may not know about me. And another thing you may not know about me is I am an extroverted introvert. I am introvert around people I don’t know well. But I’ve learned to be an extroverted introvert. And what that means is that around people that I know and trust, I just let loose. And I’m not saying I’m wild and crazy, but I’m not as reserved as I am when I’m around people that I don’t really know. In my brick and mortar business, I have to be an extroverted introvert because I have to converse with my beauty guests. And on video, I have to converse with you all that are watching me on youtube or wherever, so I can’t sit on this camera and be silent. I have to kind of let myself loose and just be me as an extroverted introvert and being an introvert just means that we’re uncomfortable around people that we don’t really know and it’s not so much that we’re afraid of them. We’re just afraid and thinking that we don’t want to say anything that may hurt or fan other people because we care about other people sometimes more than we care about ourselves.
Somebody who was just extroverted, they just say what’s on their mind at all times for the most part, and they don’t really think about other people’s feelings. As an introvert, I’m always thinking about other people’s feelings, so I’m always saying sorry or excuse me like it’s just common for me to do that because it’s just my introverted nature. So that’s something that you may not know about me. Some of you may have guessed it.
Beauty, Blessings & Prosperity,
by Elizabeth Jennings | May 8, 2019 | INSPIRATION
Yesterday I went to a thrift store I hadn’t been to in a long time. I actually went in to get some old scrubs because I just wanted to get some things that I could wear when I’m working with the dogs and when I’m doing things with the dogs in the backyard because my husband has Staffordshire bull terriers, so they like to jump on me and things and they always get my clothes all messed up. So I said, you know what, let me run into the store and see if I could just get some old scrubs.
Anyway, the girl behind the counter, she looked a little familiar to me, but I wasn’t sure if I knew who she was or not, but I just kept it moving. So when I found what I needed and I went up to the counter, she greeted, you know, she made sure I heard her say hello. I greeted her back. But anyway, she was very friendly. She was ringing up my stuff and then, you know, she was like, I really want to put the scrubs together. It’s nice that you found some sets because they don’t allow us to put the tops and the bottoms together. But she asked me what I did for a living and I told her what I do.
I said I’m an esthetician. And she said, Oh wow, okay. She said, well, where do you work? So I told her the name of the business that I work in and then she proceeded to ask me, Oh, do you just work there or do you own the business? That’s not a normal question for somebody to ask someone when they say they worked somewhere. But I thought she was just kind of fishing because she might have recognized me or something.
Well, when I told her, I said, well yeah, I work there, but I do also own the business. And then she started telling me how she’s like, I don’t know if you remember me, but I used to work at a salon and spa years ago. She said the name of it. And she said, you know, it was a very long time ago. I’m not sure if you remember the place.
And I said, yeah, I remember it. I used to work there. I rented a space in the building. And so she said, okay, yeah, I thought you seemed familiar. But she said, wow, I hear so many good things about your business. And you know, and I had heard years ago that a girl who used to work at that salon and spa opened up the business and that it was doing really. So I just thought I would ask you and see if you remembered the place that we used to work at. And I said, yeah, I do. I remember it was a long time ago, but I definitely remember it and she said, well that’s great. Like congratulations. And she was very nice and just said a lot of Nice things about the business that she has heard over the years.
So she said, you have a really great reputation. I hear nothing but good things about it. Well, I’m saying all that to say that this girl, she was very friendly in the store, but it turns out she was someone that was not very nice to me back in the day. I’m not sure if it was just me or it was because she just didn’t know who I was, and didn’t know me at all. So she was not, she wasn’t friendly at all. Whenever I would walk in, if she was there, when I would greet her, she would just look very stone cold, just right at me and not greet back. And I didn’t understand it. It was like, Whoa, what’s that about? Like why is she like that? Is it, you know, it wasn’t something that I did. Is She just like that with me? I don’t know.
It didn’t really matter a whole lot. I continued to do what I was doing with my business. Starting very small, starting as a solo practitioner, working in the salon and spa amongst a lot of other people. But she was just not nice at all. And to see the same person today who didn’t even acknowledge my presence back in the day was so friendly to me on yesterday and not only friendly to me in terms of complimenting me and the good things that she’s heard about my business, but also saying, you know, I’m going to give you our employee discount and you know, things I didn’t ask for that was like, you know, a kind gesture that she gave me. But I was like, wow. And I talked to one of my employees about it and I even told my mom about it and I said, you know, it’s just funny because the same person who was not nice to me years ago was so congratulatory with me on yesterday, was super friendly.
I just wanted to encourage somebody, if you don’t quit the same people who counted you out years ago, will be congratulating you later. It is not a big thing. I don’t sweat stuff like that. I wasn’t like, Oh wow, okay. Back in the day you didn’t like me, didn’t acknowledge me. You wouldn’t even say hello to me, but now you’re super friendly and you know, you’re congratulating me and you’re offering me, you know, discounts and stuff like that. Like I took it humbly. I didn’t gloat about it and I didn’t remind her of how I thought she wasn’t very nice to me back in the day. That’s water under the bridge for me, I do know how to move on. I really don’t hold grudges, but it’s just something to think about as something to realize and know that you’re going to come against a lot of obstacles in your business journey and in your life.
A lot of people are going to count you out. They’re going to make you seem as if you’re nobody. You’re nothing. You can’t do what you want to do and you know, and they won’t even acknowledge your presence, but then you continue to go at it and you continue to do what you’re doing and then you reach levels of success, some greater than others, but you reached the levels of success that other people will be able to witness it and knowledge and they cannot deny you. They cannot doubt you even if they tried to. People who counted you out before, they will be congratulating you later. So that’s just a quick moment of inspiration for you all from me, The Minister Of Beauty. If you have been counted out and now you’re winning and people are congratulating you now, let me know. Hey, I’m not really seeing the success that I want to see Yet, but I’m not going to quit because those same people that counted me out, they will be congratulating later.
Beauty, Blessings & Prosperity,
by Elizabeth Jennings | May 1, 2019 | BUSINESS
Wanting to share something that was on my heart as the minister of beauty. This is not just a business, it’s a calling for me. A lot of people see the term, the phrase or the word “minister” and they acquaint it to somebody who is the minister of a church or you know, a preacher or something like that. I’m neither of those. I don’t have a church. I’m not in anyone’s pulpit and I’m not here to preach to anyone. I’m just here to serve and that’s what a minister does, a minister serves. But I’m a beauty business entrepreneur. I’ve been an entrepreneur since 2006 and I’ve been a beauty business entrepreneur since 2008.
I am blessed to be in the position that I am in, but I’ve been like I said, a beauty business entrepreneur since 2008 so it’s been a little over 10 years now. And it’s something we see a whole lot of in social media is people saying things like “all I do is win”, “it’s winning season”, win, win, win, and yet those things may be true, but not a lot of people are talking about the losses. It’s like this phrase in a song that I love called a sweet victory. One of the lines in the song is “ I hear you talking wins, but I see your losses”, not a lot of people see the losses. Not a lot of people like to share the losses because it makes them feel like they’re defeated or they’re losing. My business has been blessed to continuously grow over the years and I’ve doubled my businesses income pretty much every year . . . except for 2018.
And here’s one of the reasons why. It wasn’t because of anything that I did wrong. And if I did something wrong, I would definitely share that. But I had to start letting some people and some things go. Sometimes you have people in your camp, you have people in your space and your surroundings or in your business that are not helping you grow. Even though it may seem like they are. But I had to start letting some people and some things go. And when you start doing that, you experience some losses. But these things are temporary. They’re momentary. It’s not forever. It’s just for a season. So right now, at this very moment, I don’t have as many people working with me as I did before. And I’m okay with that. I started just saying, you know what? I don’t really want this person or that person around me.
So I started to do some things to release some people from my life and release some people from my business. And for those reasons, I’m kind of starting over. I’m in a stage of bringing in new blood. Some of the people that are with me now have been so tremendously helpful in my life and in my business that I couldn’t imagine having the stress of some of the people that used to work with me still on my own team, so to speak. And they weren’t on my team. They were just here to make really great money. And I’ve helped a lot of people make really great money. Some of them straight out of the cosmetology and beauty schools never having a job where they made as much money as they did. And they did with me because I gave them the tools and I gave them the strategies, but not only that, I did a lot and do a lot in my business to help them to earn those incomes. Something a lot of businesses won’t do.
But at any rate, I am in this transition period right now and I’m really thankful that I’m learning that sometimes in order to see prosperity you have to purge and sometimes you have to purge people. It’s not just things, it’s not just stuff. And when you are going to a level of prosperity and growth, you’re going to experience losses before you see those gains. That’s just the way life happens. Ok, I’m no Warren Buffet. But recently I read a little snippet of a story he was talking about how this 2018 he experienced the highest level of losses that he has ever experienced in his business. So a lot of people are going through that, but he’s not defeated. He’s not calling it quits or allowing that to stop him and neither am I and I’m here to say neither should you.
Don’t allow the things that you have experienced and the things that you’re going through right now currently to stop you see it for what it is. Take inventory, put it on paper and decide what you need to do for yourself, for your life, for your business, your life depends on it and you have to save yourself before you can save anyone else. And you know the rates of pay that I was paying to some people is just really ridiculous. I’m not saying that people aren’t worthy of a good wage. I truly believe in that. But I believe that you have to work for that and it should be earned and not given. And I was giving a lot and I wasn’t receiving a lot in return. So I’m making some changes. I’ve changed some things around, even move some furniture around in my business. 😂
Don’t be discouraged if you’re going through a season of changes or you have people that used to be in your life that isn’t there anymore and you’re wondering why or you had to cut some people off. 2018 was a year I cut a lot of people out and, a lot of things out of my atmosphere that was not doing me any good, even though it felt like it was doing me good, it really wasn’t. 2019 my journey continues as I am still purging; some by my own choice and some by others choice but still for my good. I have a lot of great things are coming, I’m really excited about.
And again, it’s not about me, it’s to help other people. I believe that my experiences in the world of entrepreneurship have not just been for myself and for me to learn some things as to help other people so that they can avoid some of the things that I went through. That’s what the experiences that we go through in life should be. It should be to help other people to prevent them from tripping up and making the mistakes or you know, stepping into the holes or the pitfalls that you may have experienced in your life. It’s to help somebody else. So that’s who I am as the minister of beauty. I’m here to share the Bible that stands for business inspiration, beauty, life, and enjoyment.
Beauty, Blessings & Prosperity,
by Elizabeth Jennings | Apr 24, 2019 | LIFE
Okay. I’m no clinical specialist when it comes to depression, but I know what I know when it comes to me and what I’ve experienced and yeah, guys I was going through it with depression. It’s got so many different levels. Depression is real and just because someone is successful doesn’t mean that they don’t have hard times that they go through in their mind and their heart and their spirit, and other things that are outside of who we are that can affect us. 2018 was a very hard year for me. Well, I’ve been hurt by so many people, but in 2018 I experienced it on a very huge level which affected me mentally.
It affected me emotionally and it even affected me financially because I had people that did things that caused my business to suffer financially for a little while because they made decisions that were very selfish and I had to do what I had to do for my business. When I tell you that I had my moments where I felt like, is this even worth it anymore? You know, I started to think about people that you hear of that have been super amazing on-screen or in business. People like Robin Williams, the comedian who committed suicide. I’m like, he overdosed on some prescription drugs and maybe hung himself. I don’t remember all of the full details on that. Kate spade, super successful handbag designer and um, has an amazing brand and she killed herself because she was going through some, some personal things and a number of other people.
I’m not saying that I came to the point where I was thinking about taking myself out of here, but I understood more. But depression is real and it has a lot of different levels. But how someone in business can deal with depression or have depression and suffer in Silence is because when you are a businesswoman, a businessman, an entrepreneur or someone that’s in business, it’s not just you, you work for everyone else.
I tell people this all the time. When you are in business, it’s not about you anymore. It is about everyone else. It’s about your customers. It’s about your clients. It’s about your employees and staff if you have them. It’s about the people that you owe money to that are providing services for you so that you can conduct business. It’s not about you anymore, it’s about your family that’s depending on you. So there’s so much pressure that’s on you as an individual entrepreneur that you can’t really allow anyone around you to see you breaking down. So you have to come in, put a smile on your face, continue to conduct yourself as if everything is okay and it’s really not. I even shared some things with one of my employees the end of 2018 not because I wanted to share, divulge my own business information, but she’s one of the people that’s been rocking with me from the very beginning of me even having staff.
And I shared, you know, a few things with her and she said, wow, I didn’t even know you were going through all of that. I’d never would have known if you didn’t tell me. And I said, yeah. I said I couldn’t. I had to come in and continue to be the Elizabeth that you know, to be here because I can’t have you guys thinking that I’m breaking down or that the business is, you know, not going to be around or you know, whatever types of thoughts might come to your mind if you feel like I’m losing it so to speak. And so yeah, I was like, yeah, I had to continue to operate in spite of what I was going through so I could not let you see me sweat. I could not let you see me feel discouragement or look like I’m defeated.
I had to keep moving forward, but it really was not easy. It was very hard and there’s so much pressure on me that I didn’t know how much longer I could do it without breaking. So yeah, we have to keep up appearances for the sake of people not thinking that we’re crazy. And unfortunately, when Kate spade committed suicide, you started seeing all these different memes and Facebook posts where people were talking about “I’m here for you. If you need me, all you have to do is reach out.” But to be honest with you, most people don’t want to hear about the hard struggles that you’re going through. It’s just the truth. That’s why on social media, people, for the most part, want to see happiness. See you winning, see amazing, great things happening. They don’t want to see people that are going through hard times and struggling or you know, whatever they’re going through.
People don’t really want to see that. And I understand why; because it’s kind of an escape. No one wants to be going through their own issues and struggles and then they go to social media and then they see someone on there talking about the hard things that they’re going through or complaining about, you know, talking about how hard things are. Nobody really wants to hear that!
So a lot of times that stuff is just talk for the moment, but it’s not genuine. But yeah, you know, I was depressed and there were a number of times where I thought about just hopping in my coupe and just hitting the road and driving and just going wherever. No, no plan in place. Just get the heck up outta here because it was just that heavy. And I was like, is this even worth it? And honestly, those moments come to a lot of people on a number of occasions.
It’s just if you choose to stay there. So I made the decision that I wasn’t going to stay in that space. I knew it wasn’t healthy, I just knew that it was going to get better. It can’t stay bad forever. It has to get better at some point. So, you know, I dived into content that was super uplifting and inspirational to lift my spirits and to lift my heart, remind myself of who I am, go back to my affirmations that I had written about myself and continue to speak it even when I didn’t feel it. But just saying it is psyching myself up to get to a better headspace because I knew that space wasn’t healthy for me and I had to get out of there. I couldn’t stay there.
You can have depressing moments as well. It’s not always just about because you’ve had some financial, health or familial depressing moments that bring you down. But sometimes it’s just because you’re so lonely and nobody that you are around with really understand your journey. I’m not an only child. I do have another sibling, but we don’t have a relationship. And I don’t know if we ever will, but you know, some things were done to me by him that was super hurtful and it, you know, it caused some depressing moments as well, but I have to remind myself that I was created for greatness. I had to really dig deep, shut out those voices that were shouting in my head that you don’t deserve success. You’re not worthy. You are going to fail. All of those negative words that were being, set in my head that was not true.
I had to dismiss those thoughts and I had to speak out positive affirmations and it did help overtime to help lift my spirits. And again, being around other people I had to put on a brave face and that smile and show my teeth and say all is well when people would ask me how things are because I couldn’t break down as an entrepreneur battling depression in silence.
So when you see someone that’s super successful and then you hear a story about how they took themselves out of here, don’t question that anymore. You have to know that people are going through some really hard struggles, and it’s not always because they’ve got a lot of money in the bank, and their business is doing well. There are so many other factors that are involved, so just remember that.
Beauty, Blessings & Prosperity
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