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

Alright, Lisa thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. So, we’d appreciate if you could open up about your growth story and the nitty, gritty details that went into scaling up.

Honestly, when I think about how fast I scaled-like pretty much in a matter of 5 years. It feels like such a blur because everything moved really fast. However, I think it feels like such a blur because I really worked my butt off. When you start a business from no formal education, no experience, no anything -you turn to google, and honestly you do not want to know the amount of hours I logged just googling things. I knew that I wanted my end goal in life was to be able to have control over my time, and because I left my full time career for this beauty entrepreneurship -it really lit a fire inside of me to prove to people and myself that I can do this.

There were many days/nights in the beginning where I probably spent 2 weeks straight on just learning how to build a website. I have no coding background, other than making my MySpace page cute back in the day. Then you throw in learning how to use social media and what it’s algorithm is that month (because this changed monthly -at least thats what it seemed like). Not to mention the random nights I would wake up dead from my sleep to jot a note down in my phone. Oh, and don’t get me started on the financial part of it either. My brain was (and still is) consistently running a million thoughts a minute because of all the things I need to keep track of. So when you hear that a business owner wears so many hats -it’s because we do! We had to learn everything in the beginning, because there’s no money to pay someone else to do it for you!!

In the beginning, I did a crap ton of work for free. In our industry it’s known as TFP (or time for photos), where you put in time and get paid with professional photos. I knew this was something I had to do not only for my portfolio, but it was a great way to meet other vendors in the wedding industry. It really did pay off as I eventually got a ton of referrals from the same vendors I worked with on photoshoots. Today, I am very selective with what type of TFPs I work on now because I can be. I don’t think I made any actual money from my company until later because once you factor in all the free work I did, then my reinvestments back into my business, I pretty much broke even the first couple of years. And boy, was that a scary time in my life. Simply because I had bills to pay, I had to survive somehow right? So yeah, it was a pretty stressful period but I continued on and I’m thankful that I did.

As I grew, something that caught me off guard was the amount of admin work I had to do (and still have to do!). As a creative, when you start a business it usually is born out of a passion for an art. So it was a real eye-opener for me to learn how to maintain a successful business and how much work that entailed. Now, I understand that sounds so silly but at the time I was like, “what do you mean it’s more than me just doing makeup on people??!!” But now I understand that even though -yes I am a makeup artist, it’s so much more than that. It’s about maintaining relationships, and being organized and helpful… It’s about creating an experience that people can remember forever.

While I built the backend of my business rather fast -I also built my team very fast. Mind you, this all was happening at the same time so you can imagine my brain was in overdrive. You absolutely knew, I was googling things like “how to be a leader” or “how to be a good boss.” I’m fortunate enough to say that I built my team very organically from one artist referral to another. I’m incredibly grateful and sometimes can’t figure out how I got so lucky with such a great group of women that has been so patient with me and just amazing humans in general. Building a team was a struggle in itself because I obviously had no idea how to lead a team, let alone how to be a “boss” to anyone. I think I will continue to learn how to be a leader my whole career and I’m perfectly ok with that.

When I sit here and contemplate on what I did for my business, I sacrificed a lot of my personal time and my well being honestly. Instead of going to a birthday party, I worked. Instead of going to the gym and working out, I worked. Instead of taking time to make a healthy meal, I got fast food -so I could work more. Do I regret the decisions I’ve made? No, but if I could go back in time, I would still work as hard as I did -but remembering that there is a balance to life and it’s important to maintain that balance. I also don’t necessarily regret my decisions to choose work over play because now I’m very protective of my time, my mental health, and my happiness. And that’s just something you have to learn the hard way I feel like.

So fast forward to today, LHNBEAUTY is in its 4th official year in business. I now have 10 hair and makeup artists that work for me. I also have an executive admin assistant! We have served hundreds of brides for their wedding day, and hundreds more with senior photos, engagement sessions, maternity photos, headshots, lessons, and so much more! I’ve even been featured on tv for segments!! I’m happy to be past the “growing pains’ of the business lifecycle, where I am now maintaining the business. I can confidently say that I’m very proud of how far I’ve come, and I’m thankful for the support and love from my husband Eric and my friends. Being a business owner never stops and there’s plenty more I can still learn as LHNBEAUTY continues to grow.

Lisa, 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?

My name is Lisa Seppelt (formally Nghiem) and LHNBEAUTY was born from a mid-twenties crises. I had a dream of owning my own business because I knew I wanted to have control over my time. I wanted to be able to freely choose to spend time with my family when I wanted, as opposed feeling like I had to work. I took that dream and dove head first into the world of entrepreneurship.

LHNBEAUTY is now 4.5 years old and has a team of 11 stylists, including myself! We are a team that provides on location hair and makeup to whatever your event is! We specialize in effortless and timeless looks. We truly love bringing that inner confidence out and are passionate individuals that live for that “oh wow!” moment while still making you feel like you! It’s important for us to make sure you genuinely feel beautiful so that when you look at that photo 10-30 years later, you still love your hair and makeup and remember how beautiful and happy you felt.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My big WHY of me doing all the things for my business it to have control over my time. I never want to have to feel like I cannot choose to be with my family because I have work. I know that sounds redundant as I’m working so much now, but I think it’s more of the big WHY for the future. I’m putting so much time and effort in my business now because the hopes is that in a year if I step away from my business for a week, or a month -the business does not stop. It can keep moving along and I do not necessarily have to be present every day for the business to continue.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The relationships I make everyday. It’s already so amazing to be in a fun industry (weddings), but to be a small part of a large chapter in someone else’s life is very humbling. Not only do I get to be there when people get married, a lot of times I get to see them when they start a family, and every so often after that. It’s truly incredible to share such happy moments with basically strangers. I am genuinely so happy when I get to see a past client and we catch up with all the things life has to offer.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lhnbeauty.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/lhnbeauty
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/lhnbeauty

Image Credits
Katie Maes Photographs Laura Banken Photography Simple Escape Photography Andrea Wagner Photography Eden DeMell Photography Tessa June Photography