We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nicole Nemiroff a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Nicole, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
To start off, I grew up obsessed with looking good. I gained a love for makeup, skin, and nails. I began putting lashes on some of my classmates in High School. Then I was able to do the makeup of the girls going to Homecoming and Prom.
After beauty school, I worked for numerous companies. In doing so, I learned the ins and outs of the actual business aspect. I witnessed, what to do and what not to do. It woke me up and I realized how much further I had to push myself. So I was selling products on Avon. I picked up hours at a beauty school as a Nail Tech. I participated in Freelance Make-Up, and taught classes at an after school program for middle schoolers. During this time it allowed me to develop patience and enhance my customer service skills.
Beauty has always been a true passion of mine. Working in the salon brings so much fulfillment to my life. Being around women all day, everyone coming in has a different story to tell. We laugh, we cry, we smile, listen to music, and it’s a great vibe. The salon is space for everyone to come to and get away from their reality.
When I was 18, I visited Atlanta, Georgia for the first time and it changed my life forever. You can’t go anywhere in Atlanta without someone promoting or selling something. The people make their presence known and their confidence spills out onto you, so I went back to my hometown with so much ambition but most importantly a plan.
I sat down one day and I wrote down my goals. I saw the vision and where I wanted to be years before it happened. I mean in great detail at that. From the way I wanted my logo to look, the inside setup of the salon, even the color scheme of teal taking over the rooms. I manifested this and it came to fruition from just simply writing everything down.
My purpose in creating Nicole’s Beauty Lounge is to make people feel beautiful inside and out and that is a dream come true.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
At Nicole’s Beauty Lounge, we provide our organic skin-care products (NBL Cosmetics) to take home, as well as using our products for our facial services. We also just came out with our own brow tint! You can DIY at home to touch up your brows in between waxes, or salon professionals can use it on their clients.
NBL services provide; brow waxing/tinting, lamination, lashes, and a variety of facial services.
I continue to teach educational classes because I am an open book. I teach brow classes for licensed professionals. I also share my knowledge with a business course, discussing – permits for salons, marketing, and branding. I want to be viewed as a mentor. I want to reveal as much information as possible. I want people to grow. I want to be the one pointing people into the right direction.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I think social media allows people to create an illusion. Which allows some to believe that the success stories come over night. One thing I noticed working for others, is that I always wanted to be the opposite of them. I would tell myself that once I get going, I would treat my employees with the upmost respect and empathy. During the course of my journey, I have come across some genuine people. The ones who actually want to learn and grow in this field and work hard to get to a point of reaching their goals. I have also come across a few bumps in the road. It is a bit of a struggle to build a team. To keep me going, I reflect on how far I have come and where I want to be. I roll with the people who want to work with me and we get the job done. I think in order to have resilience, you must always check your attitude and your perception of the moment. As cliche as it might sound, you just have to always remember your WHY.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I have learned to control what I can control. I understand now that I am going to have some bad days. Everyday will not be perfect, everyone including the people around you will have rough moments. The key is how you respond and overcome them. I think it is important to keep the same level of professionalism. I preach consistency, customer service, and overall quality, so I always keep that in mind. The difficult times whether it be personal or within your career field are temporary. Struggles will always come about but they do not last long.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.nicolesbeautylounge.com
- Instagram: @nicolesbeautylounge
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nicolesbeautyloungeatl/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/nblatl/media
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/nicoles-beauty-lounge-atlanta
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