We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nae Alicia. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nae below.

Nae, appreciate you joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

My sole purpose of wanting to be an esthetician was to get people excited about self-care! As women especially African American women, we take care of everyone from husbands, kids, co-workers, friends and even the fur babies. But we never can find time to take care of ourselves. We go, go, go neglecting ourselves and putting everyone else needs before our own needs! I started this journey to let women know that’s its okay and perfectly fine to choose YOU! If you’re no good you can’t be good for all of those people who depend on you. I want women to know that it’s not selfish to pamper yourself, to schedule time away from EVERYONE for your SELF-CARE. I think that especially now it’s so important to have a release, so you can relax, recharged and get refreshed. I want for women to start teaching their daughters at a young age and their mothers at an old age that self-care is the best care. It’s okay to put you first and indulge in taking care of yourself because if your mind is not right, you’ll always be in a state of chaos!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Born and raised in Atlanta, GA, I was a Medical Compliance Auditor for 20 years and I thought that I was going to retire from auditing. Then BOOM covid happened! Honestly, covid was the best thing that could have happened to me. It forced me to slow down and during that slowdown everything was so quiet, I talked to God every day, and it felt good to just sit still. I started meditating, journaling, I got into Reiki and I was just living my best life. At that time my youngest son acne started to get so bad. It made his confidence go down and he didn’t even want to go out anymore because of his skin. The dermatologist wanted to put him on Accutane and I just didn’t want him to be on any meds that require you to do as much as Accutane did. One day I was talking to my girlfriend Veronica and I said to her “I think I want to go to school to be an esthetician, her response was go for it!” So I started researching esthetics schools and honestly all of them was expensive. So I told myself I would take out $5,000 and finance the rest. Then I received a call about a school that had opened in NC, and to attend it was a little over $5,000. I immediately took that as a sign. I drove from Duluth, Ga to NC every weekend to attend class. Then after being in school three months, I had to have emergency surgery, then I had to be out of school for 6 weeks. I study, cried, study and cried. The day I came back to class we had finals my instructor asked me if I wanted to take it another day and I said no I know I’m ready. Well, I passed my exam with a 94 and I didn’t sit for the practicum that day because I wasn’t prepared. That week I stayed in NC to get my hours in and to practice my practicum. The following week I took my practicum and passed with a 91. Once I finished the school piece I went on to sit for my boards and passed! Once I passed my boards I started Divine Hands Esthetics and I’m located in Snellville Ga of To Each Is Om Yoga and Wellness Studio. I also have my product line Exquisitely Divine Skincare.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

So when I decided I wanted to start Divine Hands Esthetics, I picked up extra contracts as a Medical Auditor. I had 3 jobs at the time and I had a small saving because I knew that I couldn’t ask my family for help. I started seeing clients when I was student and I only accepted tips. That was one of the best things I could have done, once I got licensed all of those clients that came to me when I was a student kept coming when I became licensed so I had a pretty decent clientele when I started my business.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

So I got in to skincare because my son had very bad acne! He was my first client which was a blessing because he became a walking billboard for me. He was in high school and the kids at school started to notice his acne transformation. So my first wave of client was high school students with acne and when their skin started to transform and people would ask what they were doing they would give them my name. So honesty my best source was my son and word of mouth.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.divinehandsesthetics.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/divinehandsesthetics
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/divinehandsesthetics
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/divine-hands-esthetics-lawrenceville?osq=divine+hands+esthetics

Image Credits
Rodney Hinton Spunky Mae Charlotte Deloach