We were lucky to catch up with Lalitha Arnold recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Lalitha thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Often the greatest growth and the biggest wins come right after a defeat. Other times the failure serves as a lesson that’s helpful later in your journey. We’d appreciate if you could open up about a time you’ve failed.

I failed when I didn’t go with my first mind. When I was coming up my grandmother taught me how to listen to my first mind. And just like when I was younger I still find myself being hard headed. And what comes with that? Hard times and that’s what I experienced when not listening to my first mind. The thing I should have listened to was to let some of my stylist go. But I told myself it would get better even after my gut said it wouldn’t. Even after they showed their hand. Even after they showed me who they really were. And I still was like everything will be ok. I was right about that because everything is ok, now! Because I decided to go against my better judgement some of them left on their own and some I had to let go. But not before some decided to turn to social media. I let them go because of their doing. Nothing that the business id wrong. Nothing that I did wrong. But unfortunately whomever tell the story first on social media is “telling the truth”. But in real life they were lying and was also hurting. And hurt people hurt people. Some would say why were they hurting. They were hurting because they tried to get over on me an dit didn’t work. Their plan fell through and they had to start over. On a positive note in my heart of heart I knew they would do ok because there were. trained by me. The business end goal is to make sure that everyone that is hired at EnvyMe will be even more amazing then when they started. So most leave knowing how to start over and rebuild if need be.So it shows that I know what I am doing and did a great job with training them. The down side to it all is that even in business you stilled to. listen to your first mind or you will have to pay for it. The pain I endured during this process is something I don’t wish on any business owner. But because social media is here to stay. I am sure some will experience it if they haven’t already.

Lalitha, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a now grown woman who use to think that what I am doing now was not possible. Burn and raised in Englewood in Chicago IL. The last thing I ever thought was that I would start and grow such a beautiful business. That helps so many. As I got older I knew this was something I wanted to do was start a business helping other in the industry. Because that I snot what I experienced when I was coming up. The stylist would see you struggling and still didn’t want to help because they seen me as competition. I teach my team not to see each other as that. We see each other as a team. So we work, grow and train together while servicing clients.The clients were far from use to this type of structure. And I knew what I was creating wasn’t;’t for every one. But those that love to work with other or see people working together. They love and appreciate the business and the team. They also appreciate how we respect their time. And In return we give the best when serving them. Time being respected in this industry is far from the norm. This is the reason most started doing their own hair or watching YouTube. This is one of the things I pride myself on is getting a group of women to believe in my vision for the clients but also for themselves. At the end of the day they are learning how to be efficient too. Outside of this the salon is beautiful, clean and we serve or clients from the moment they walk through the door. Not only do they get treated with smiles and hello’s but we offer them coffee water and tea. We even have snacks for those who need something to snack on. We have 3 phones that help with running the back end of the business. While some don’t mind going through a booking system some don’t. So we have phones for those that prefer to call to book. Our clients are also ok with going to any stylist that is available and will get the same respect regardless.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

When I was a booth renter I would work when I wanted to work because the demand was there. I would book several people at one time. Because in my arrogant brain I was like who else are they going to go to. Well one day one of my friends at the time was one o those people that were over booked and she was not happy with it. She told me I was wrong for controlling her time as if she didn’t have anything else to do. In that moment I knew I was wrong and needed to fix that way of doing business. So I went and got my hair done at a place that was known for getting clients in and out. They were also known for burning people hair out. I knew this but decided to take one for the team. Yes my hair did get burned out but my business flourished when I went from over booking to selling time.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

There was a time when I would be in my business from sun up to sun down. The main reason was because I wanted to figure out how to be in the 1% in my business. One night I was there until like 11pm and my first mind told me enough is enough. You have to go home. My grandmother taught me how to listen to my first my so I did just that. I got up closed “shop” no pun intended and went home. The next morning I got a call that someone had broken into my salon the night before and robed the place. Thank God for the gentle reminder to go home.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://envymehairstudio.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sheislalitha/profilecard/?igsh=MTliNXd1Z3I3Ymo3bg==
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/p/DGuNeXtMHOh/?igsh=MWtsMnNmbDUwaHR3OQ== Salon IG page