Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Stephanie Humphries. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Stephanie, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The most meaningful project I worked on was my first fashion show. I did not know what to expect and it was very intimidating in the beginning since I was new to the fashion industry. I wasn’t sure what designs I wanted create. After looking through my journal of business ideas I came across a chakra photoshoot I wanted to do and that was it. I was going to base my design off the seven chakras. This was very important to me because a lot of people are not familiar with the importance of chakras and the benefits of aligning them. When I was working with the group of beautiful models I met. I made sure to get to know each of them personally so I’d know which chakra design was right for them and why. I explained to them what the chakras are, how to align each chakra, and why I chose the specific design and chakra for them. Even though I was creating an outfit to showcase it was deeper than that I wanted the each model to understand the importance of their outfit, what it meant and how it could help them in the future. This is how my clothing line “Chakra Lotus” came to fruition. I am grateful for that opportunity because I had the chance to not only learn from the experience but also teach and share my creative visions with others outside of my “Business Idea Journal.”

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?

My name is Mlyka. Mlyka means Queen in Arabic and Angel in Swahili. During my adolescent years I knew I wanted to have my own business. I would often find myself learning a new skill, and since I was able to quickly grasp new concepts and other people liked my work I would start charging people. However, in the beginning I would do things for free, but since I was in foster care and I knew I wanted things that my foster parents wouldn’t buy I had to charge people so that I could get the things I needed. I started doing hair at 13, I had my first real job at 16 working at a hotel doing coat check. That was the best pay ever for 16 year old and the tips were a plus. My little black purse used to be stuffed with money. Then I had my second job at 17 I was working two jobs plus I had a side hustle doing hair. After awhile I grew tired of doing hair and during this time I was also in school. I had 4 jobs before I even graduated high school and during my junior year I went to a tech school were I was going to get my cosmetology license so I could work in a shop but I found out I was pregnant and I couldn’t complete the program. While experiencing being a young mother while in high school, still in foster care, and working I had to keep making money because now I had two mouths to feed. Although, I was embarrassed because I was only 17 I still had to make ends meet. When I was 18 I had my first apartment and I remember I was still braiding hair but I wanted to do something different plus I wasn’t able to work in a shop and my son wasn’t in daycare so I started selling lashes and for awhile I did not have a car so someone gave me rides to drop the lashes off to people, or I would use Uber and take public transportation. One day I was walking around the mall and I seen a sign. It was a beauty parlor. Lash extensions was one of the services they offered, they charged people almost $300 for lashes and I couldn’t believe people payed that much money just for fake eyelashes. For about a year and a half I kept saying I was going to become a certified lash technician. One day I had enough money to pay for a class, $299, and then I was certified and I began doing lashes. I’d still do hair here and there if I needed the extra income. I kept a job and side hustle because I knew I what I was working towards was bigger than me and I wanted to give up so many times but I couldn’t afford to. Plus the life I envisioned for me and my son would not allow me to. Being a single mother was challenging for me but I realized my most difficult challenge was not being able to manage my money I made over thirty thousand dollars before the age of 21, maybe more but I did not know how to save money. No one ever taught me anything about money management and I never took the time to learn. After awhile I had no choice but to save money because I had so money responsibilities and I couldn’t ask anyone for help due to lack of support from friends or relatives. I started Mlykas Collection after transitioning from being a lash technician to a clothing designer. During my transition I took the time to learn about budgeting, investing, and financial literacy. This was very helpful and informative. I think all young entrepreneurs should take the time to learn the importance of financial literacy, and everything there is to know about starting a business so they won’t go in blindly and find themselves not making any profit as I once did before. However, I learned a lot along the way, I always tried something new, and I had the opportunity to network with so many like minded individuals who spoke life into me, gave me great advice and support when I did not have any. There is more to my story and I plan to share more one day. I’m currently in college working towards getting my associates degree. I am now 22 years old designing clothes and improving as a black female entrepreneur. Lastly, I will say I always challenge myself and take risk on myself. I never take no for an answer. If I want to do something I do it and I do not give up because I know that I can do anything I put my mind to. Poor self-efficacy will never be apart of my vocabulary because I am confident in achieving my goals no matter the obstacles that come my way. I make a way out of no way.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

As a young entrepreneur when seeking direction for my business when I did not have anyone to look up to or immediately family of friends to help me. I had to learn to advocate for myself at an early age. When I was looking to start a business YouTube was my best friend. I went to YouTube for everything. Eventually I had to come out of my comfort zone and start networking with people so when I could I’d pay to be a vendor at a pop up shop and sell some of my items. Whenever I was at a pop up shop I took time to walk around and meet other business owners and introduce myself and my business. Eventually this would spark other conversations like how they got started, what route they took, and I met a lot of people who offered me free information that some people charged money for so I made sure to take notes, names, social media tags, numbers and business cards. I had to build relationships with people and this led to other opportunities and a great number of resources and long term business relationships but even if it was short term I still learned something. Another thing I did was scroll through other social media business pages, you’ll find that a lot of business owners drop gems all over their platforms people just have be willing to do the research and take the time to read. If you don’t like to read then you may not get very far on your entrepreneurial career. Which leads me to another topic I had to learn patience and understand that everything was not going to come as fast as I wanted it to. Whenever my business was not thriving I began to learn about networking and I would look through successful business pages and compare my page and work ethic to theirs and figure out what I could do more of which led to me learning about my audience and so much more. Building a community is another important part of entrepreneurship. I had to learn how to communicate with people and conduct myself while running a business. If I am a negative person that will show up in my business and my that will also push people away from your business. Remember you can not run a business alone you are going to need a team, it’s okay to ask for help you will feel relieved once you ask for help and it won’t be as stressful.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Being a business owner and single mom meant I had to constantly make sacrifices. When I started doing lashes I was working from home and I still did not fully understand professionalism and keeping my business separate from my home life. My safety started to become very important especially because I had a child and I was gaining more clientele which meant more people had access to address. I had some people showing up to my home unexpectedly, expecting walk-in appointments and I had to learn to set boundaries within my home because that started to make me feel uncomfortable. Around this time I did not have the greatest income but I had to work in a shop because I was losing potential clients since I was working from home and I wanted to keep me and my child safe. Another thing that started happening was I didn’t feel like I ever got a break from work and home was no longer home and I didn’t feel at peace so I would constantly leave my house just to find peace. Working in a shop meant putting my son in daycare, and finding reliable transportation I knew it would be expensive but it was something I had to do in order to keep my child safe and not give up on my business. This experience taught me the importance of professional and not bringing work home. I feel that balance and those boundaries are needed plus people respect your business more and strangers don’t know so much about your personal life.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/mlyka.lecher?igshid=YjNmNGQ3MDY=
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stephanie.figueroara?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@Mlykasjourney