We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jennie Lasater a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jennie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?
I think that in order to be successful, people cannot be afraid to make mistakes. Mistakes do not equal failure. Mistakes are opportunities to learn, change what went wrong and grow. I have made plenty of mistakes. However, failure was not an option for me. I had to learn to accept my mistakes and realize they were making me better at my craft. I was LEARNING. Another important aspect of success is to trust experts in fields that you are NOT an expert. Let me be blunt in my examples. I am TERRIBLE at computer savvy things, marketing, etc… There is no way that I can do what my marketing team does. I have to trust in their expertise. Also, my business attorney has put me in my place and stopped me from making stupid mistakes. I trust in the expert’s expertise! I do know that I am the expert in my craft and that it is where it is my responsibility to continuously learn, grow and improve. When people might have misinformation, it is my job to professionally and tactfully, show them what is actually correct. I have to have confidence in the things that I am good at and the drive to always know that I have room for improvement. I also think that it is important to not become desensitized to people. It is my job to not only the expert but be KIND.

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
I am Jennie Lasater and I founded the Lice Ladies companies. We have 3 corporate locations in metro Atlanta where myself and my co-owner and longtime bestie, Molly Brandenberger, treat kids and parents for human head lice. Molly and I, along with our other best friend, used to be in a girl’s pop r&b group back in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. I knew that if Molly and I could survive the music business together, we could be business partners! We franchised the business, and we have franchises in Dallas, Texas (Rachel Prusan, owner) and Athens, GA (Jennifer Lancaster, owner). I also helped to develop our product line. We use a non-toxic, enzyme-based product called Lice Ladies Evict along with our professional comb, Lice Ladies Evict Comb. We also have a daily Preventative Spray, Lice Ladies Prevent Spray and our daily shampoo and conditioner, Lice Ladies Defend Shampoo and Lice Ladies Defend Conditioner. We are proud of our brand standard at Lice Ladies. Lice Ladies was established with one mission: To eliminate lice and nits safely and effectively from our client’s hair. The Lice Ladies take a very serious approach to business. We offer professional services by technicians that are trained extensively to be experts at our craft, while maintaining the strictest levels of integrity and privacy. While we have enjoyed seeing things like our Tik Tok go viral, we want to educate people on how common this issue is, that is it nothing to be ashamed of, the increasing resistance to pesticides and dispel the many myths about human head lice.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
COVID-19. We watched so many small businesses go out of business during 2020. It was devastating around the world. Many in our field could not find a way to stay open. Molly and I were terrified. We knew that we had to do something but that for us, FAILURE WAS NOT AN OPTION. So, we opted to not pay ourselves for more than a year. I have to give props to our very supportive husbands. Life was NOT easy for us as we both have kids, a home mortgage cars, etc… We survived. By the skin of our teeth. But we survived. Our core staff was saved since they were able to be paid. We learned a lot from this experience. We have learned to monitor our budget in a smarter and more economical way. We learned to work harder and smarter. We are seeing the business really pick up. We have learned to really be grateful for what we have. We are not afraid to work hard and are so grateful that our business survived and is starting to thrive again.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
Molly, my co-owner, and I used to be in a POP R&B girl’s group back in the very late 90’s and early 2000’s along with our other best friend. We had SO MUCH FUN and learned quite a bit about business. When I started Lice Ladies, it got busy quickly. I was also developing the product line. I knew I needed a partner. I knew Molly would be great because we had survived the music industry together. I called her up on day at work and said, “Hey Dude! So, do you want to come pick some lice with me?” She said, “Sure, Dude!” The partnership was born!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.liceladies.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liceladies
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/liceladies/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/realliceladies
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@liceladiesatlanta