We recently connected with Jessia Martin and have shared our conversation below.

Jessia , appreciate you joining us today. Looking back, do you think you started your business at the right time? Do you wish you had started sooner or later

If I could back in time I wish I would’ve started my business sooner. I wish I believed in myself enough to step out on faith. I started my business in 2019. I had been braiding hair since high school but I was always told or led to believe that braiding hair is a side hustle and could not be considered a career. Prior to 2019 I worked in health care. I started in a few hospital in Detroit and I eventually moved to Atlanta to work at Grady Hospital for a few months. I had every intention on braiding hair there as well but I was afraid and not willing to step out on faith. I moved back to Detroit in 2018 and hit the ground running with braiding and I never looked back! I knew that I could no longer work for another company again. I know if I had more knowledge about starting a business and I wish I had more support along the journey. I believe that would’ve played a major role in starting a lot sooner and I’d be a lot further in my business. I truly believe that God has plan for me though so I live with no regrets. My mindset is different now and I know I needed all of those hurdles in order to appreciate where I am today!

Jessia , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Im Jessia! Owner is Jessia Does It LLC. I’m very creative so I decided to name my business “Jessia Does It” because I do it all! Right now, Ive decided to focus on hair braiding and content creating! I’ve been braiding hair for over 17 years. My passion is to help women feel great about them self and what better way than to do their hair! Each of my appointments are personally tailored to my client, from the type of music to what we watch on TV. Over the years I can honestly say that my outlook on why I love doing hair has changed. First, it was driven by money and profit. Don’t get me wrong I still want to get paid lol. But, My “why” is driven by passion. I truly want to do my part in reaching as many women as I can and if braiding hair will do that for me then that’s it!

I started taking content creating serious about a year ago. I needed to figure out another way I could reach women across the world and the world wide web was my outlet! I posted a video about my struggle with childcare and coparenting and I went viral , Im talking 5 million views viral and that was it! I didnt realize that I wasn’t the only mom in these situations and although it wasn’t the best situation, I utilized this to reach other mothers. It took a while for me to grasp the concept of social media and I wanted followers in the beginning. Now I understand that it’s about building a community and everything else will come naturally. This is a new journey for me and I love it!!! I cannot express how great it is to reach women and inspire them to get up , get out and find their individuality with in motherhood.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I have 2 kids, they’re years apart. I had my son in 2020 and as you can probably imagine, that was a different experience for me. During this time I had just taken off full force with just braiding hair and this being my only source of income. I needed to figure how I would make money and survive with a new born baby! I invested in hair products and started to market them everywhere. The first an most important product was my hair growth oil because I suffered from postpartum hair loss. I documented my journey which helped so much with selling my products. I knew that for the first years of my son’s life, he’d be with me so coming up with this idea was amazing. Becoming a mother will definitely have you thinking of so many ways to create a cushion for you and your children to live a comfortable life.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Everything was money. money, money and more money for me. When it should have been God and my passion to serve. I’ve realized that the foundation of my businesses will not succeed without taking God with me. Believe I’ve done that and it did not end very well. All I wanted was to receive and the thought of giving back was no where in sight. I’m just so happy to have an elevated mindset when it comes to my business because it has played a major role in my success. This is not about me, this is about the people I touch and interact with.

Contact Info:

• Website: myjessiadoesit.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessiadoesit
• Other: Motherhood Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/_jessia.m Motherhood Tik Tok – @jessiadoesit