We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Chalcia Nicholas. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Chalcia below.
Chalcia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?
Am I happier as a business owner? Absolutely! I love it here lol. & I do sometimes think about what it would be like to have a regular job & it’s a no for me. Been there, tried that, didn’t like it. 0/10!
I am my happiest when I’m doing exactly what I want to do, on my time and on my terms. Making my own rules, setting my own schedule and being my own boss has also done wonders for my mental health. Doing what I enjoy for a living, successfully is as gratifying as it sounds.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?
My name is Chalcia, but I go by “Litaa” & I am the owner of HairTherapyVI LLC. I am a licensed cosmetologist who specializes in all things locs and a life coach with a mental health background. After graduating with my masters in counseling in 2017, I did something I’ve always wanted to do and went to cosmetology school to learn about hair. At one point I was working on becoming a licensed therapist while working as a hairstylist at the same time. One day during the pandemic I realized doing hair was my happy place and quit my full time job as a substance abuse counselor and put my counseling licensure journey on hold.
Now I am a full time loctitian ( aka The Loc Magician) and part time life coach. Life coaching allows me to use my background in therapy, while giving practical and useful advice to my clients. I am so full of knowledge and I love to do whatever I can to help my clients. My next goal is to become a certified trichologist so that I can cater to the loc community that suffer from different types of hair loss, and scalp ailments. I promote having healthy hair and minds, taking care of you from the inside out. I can’t wait to be able to help restore my future clients hair, scalps and confidence.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
The most effective strategy for growing my clientele has been to strive to be an outstanding professional. Word of mouth goes a LONG WAY in my industry and it’s so important to me that my brand has a good reputation. I used to think I HAD to use social media to get clients by posting all the time and using a bunch of hashtags, but now I mostly use my social media pages as portfolios rather than a marketing tool.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
True story, this girl i used to work with at a big salon attacked me at work and i ended up leaving that shop the next day because of it. Although i has worked there for a while, nobody stood up for me or checked on me and all this happened weeks before my wedding. After basically starting over and working at a different salon for 6 months i decided that it was time to branch out on my own. July made 1yr since i opened my studio and I’ve been loving every minute of it. I say all this to say, sometimes negative things happen and we have to adjust, quickly. As frustrating and hard as it can be, always welcome change.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @hairtherapyvi