We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nickie Johnson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Nickie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?
To be successful it takes dedication, determination, focus, collaboration, and patience
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I got into the industry of doing hair at 8 years old doing my mom hair and her friends. I have two older cousins that were hairstylists so I watched everything they did from the way they would stand, the way they chewed gum, the nail polish they wore, the way they flicked the wrist with those marcels. I watched everything. The best thing one of them did was gave me a mannequin head to practice on and the other one stopped allowing me to watch her. All of that gave me confidence and the push I needed. I’ve been a hairstylist every since. 30 years now licensed for 11. I specialize in Weave Extensions and Locs. The last few years though I needed something different in my life so I just started praying for direction. Well three years later relocating from West Michigan to Chandler Arizona I ended up in Esthetician school not even knowing what a Esthetician actually was. I knew the services but didn’t know the title of the person performing the services. I closed my salon (Black Diamond Hair Studio) and enrolled in the Esthetics accelerated program. Five days a week eight hours a day cramming in info. I barely had time to do hair even if I really wanted to. But it all paid off because I took both state board test and passed before I even graduated school. I knew then I was where I needed to be. I specialize in Customized Facial Treatments, Body Contouring and will be adding on more services soon. I am Employed at Massage Envy in Chandler but be on the lookout for Black Diamond Beauty coming in the next few months
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
Well before moving to Arizona I was traveling everywhere assisting my mentor Terrence Davidson with styling celebrity hair, participating in hairshows, and being seen on tv more than a few times. People in my area started seeing how active I was in the industry and trusted coming to me. And it was the flick of the wrist lol. Then they started telling their friends, and their friends told their friends etc, etc
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
When I opened in 2017 it wasn’t planned at all. I prayed for one thing and ended up a year later opening my Salon so I was actually broke. My husband got a $1000 loan from his mom, won the lottery a few times, went on marketplace to buy things and had it professionally painted, bought things from a JC Penny Salon going out of business, and Amazon. All of this in one months time of me signing the lease
Contact Info:
- Website: https://blackdiamondd.as.me/
- Instagram: @Nickiethastylist @Blackdiamonddbeauty