We recently connected with Lakeshia Grays and have shared our conversation below.
Lakeshia, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.
Our goal was to create a pipeline for cosmetology students and women to get in-field experience as they service the beauty industry. We partner with beauty professionals, vendors and stores that align with our SAFETY and HEALTHY motto with purpose areas that provides value for all parties and the local communities we serve. We serve by equipping individuals with the tools and mindset to access BEAUTY ON-DEMAND. During the process of scaling our brand we realized there was a huge gap in education post cosmetology school. We now have partnered with Miami Dade College for the 1st advanced beauty program for all cosmetology graduates and professionals. Beauty Runs Deep is a global initiative aimed to help reshape the mindset of the way define Beauty, Resilience and Wellness. The industry struggles with branding beyond their skillsets. Bsexpress will be offering this program this November 2022. The class requires a completion of cosmetology or a specialty program prior to registering at Miami Dade College. The class will be 6weeks and upon completion graduates will receive a certificate of completion for mobile specialist. Scholarships will be available as well on a first come basis. To pre-register and find out more details please visit our website www.bsexpress.co
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
Our mission is to bridge the gap between what’s taught in cosmetology school vs the actual business of beauty itself. Many students leave school lacking the actual skillsets and mindset needed to thrive in this industry. We decided to show up more than just a delivery company. We are “bringing beauty home” and are proud partners with licensed professionals. By joining our platform techs get the opportunity to earn money doing “Beauty Runs” as well as mobile appointments. As an artist you have to market to get customers, so we created our platform www.bsexpress.co to serve as an education and marketing platform for students and women needed more training after cosmetology with building clients and their brands. I’m a single mom of two boys; my youngest has autism and there never seems to be enough time in the day for self-care. I found that I wasn’t alone when needing last minute beauty runs and nail emergencies at home to take back control of my time. There’s no reward for being resilient. Through my journey I hope to inspire those suffering from domestic violence relations, substance abuse and depression in life that only if you add value to your true self, you will then find how beautiful life is when you unmask the person you’re hiding. Beauty Runs Deep is what I’m most proud of. It’s our commitment to the community to assist women and children in identity awareness and entrepreneurship in beauty. I’m even more proud of our collegiate program for beauty now being offered at Miami Dade College. As we continue to scale, I look forward to putting others in position to win as win. Most companies look to build teams, here at Bsexpress we build tribes.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Rebranding in 2020, I found myself alone still broken and trying to build my company. The pressure of the news exposure also was the reason why I kept working, sometimes in life those traveling with you don’t always get off at your destination. I went from being my only employee to having 12 partnered professionals within a year. There are definitely days where I’m exhausted just being a parent. Raising my youngest son can be challenging because of his autism and the therapy alone is time consuming, I made no excuses for weekly strategy meetings, advisory meetings or development calls with my coder. I saw my entire circle align when I just stayed focused on completing my daily goals.
We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.
My co-founder as of 2021 is Travis Corley. I met Travis in high school. We both oddly attended the same college as well. I didn’t finish and came back home locally to a community college. Travis is a great asset to the team. He’s definitely brilliant at strategy and speaking. It was a no brainer to add his as my co-founder when from Oklahoma City he worked with me for always two years because he believed in my vision
Contact Info:
- Website: www.bsexpress.co
- Instagram: @bsexpressdelivery