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

Tosha, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

One of the biggest risks I have taken was working for myself.

After graduating from college, I held a job that did not suit me. I decided to attend cosmetology school, and once I completed my certification and became licensed, I was too afraid to start working. I didn’t feel well-prepared to work in a salon at the time and didn’t work in one for two years.

I ended up without a job for almost a year and fell on hard times. I was able to work a retail job, and while working that, I took on several other jobs to try to catch up on my bills, which were well past due.

I eventually met my coworker and mentor for the first salon where I would work. I continued to bounce around with my outside jobs until she told me to become an instructor.

As an instructor, I gained extensive knowledge on how to manage a salon and perform other administrative tasks. I taught for 10 years before stepping out on faith and working full-time in a suite salon.

Since then, I’ve scaled up and offered in-person and online training for individuals in the beauty and grooming industry.

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 am Tosha Holmes from Augusta, GA. My friends call me Tot, and I have always been interested in braiding since a young age. I purchased hair magazines monthly and kept up with as many people in the industry (pre-social media) as I could.

I had the opportunity to pursue cosmetology in high school, but was not allowed to do so at the time. I believe it stayed with me even after I received my Bachelor’s degree in Business from Howard University.

I had always enjoyed the stylists I had growing up, and they were highly passionate about the industry, and it showed in their work. I remember telling people I was going to be like them, and many would say, “Why did you go to school and pursue a business career just to do hair?” My reply was always the same: “It’s a business!”

When I was trying to decide on a name for my business, I didn’t want to name the salon ‘Tosha’s’ or ‘Hair by Tosha’ because there were already several ‘Tashas’ in my area. I was not trying to be confused with anyone else or some of the negative stories associated with them. I needed it to stand out. I came up with A Taste of T Salon (ATotSalon), and at my salon, I would provide my clients with professional services and healthy hair. I specialize in locs, color, and hair restoration.

As I invested in continuing education and professional development training, I have scaled my business to in-person and online academy, A Taste of T Academy, where I teach beauty and grooming professionals (licensed and non-licensed) various certification hands-on classes in locs, natural hair and braiding, and hair restoration and an online mentorship program where mentees can get 1-on-1 training on how to grow and scale their business with fewer services and smarter strategies.

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

I take pride in my career and have great respect for anyone who works directly with the public. I had to realize that the people I meet may not respect my business, and I had to stop allowing their circumstances to affect my profits, overhead, and time off. Because we work with the public and some of them become family, we allow our personal feelings to influence business decisions. As I recently told one of my mentees, “Your business has no emotions.”

I had to unlearn to apply my emotions.

Over the last 17 years, I’ve learned how to limit access to me and how I want to be communicated with. I have learned how to express myself without allowing situations to escalate. I experienced a problem that occurred around my fifth year of working in the salon that almost cost me my career and permanently changed my life.

Although I handled the problem very well (until I didn’t), it made me anxious for my first 3 years on my own. Over time, I became even more vigilant and implemented policies that not only protected my brand but also identified and weeded out potentially problematic individuals.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

My audience was built the good old-fashioned way: word of mouth. As the internet began to grow, reviews and pictures of my work helped build my audience. I used hashtags and asked my clients to share my work.

One of my most memorable moments in my career, which I often recount, is the second time I received a bad review. My first one was 4 stars (I always had received 5-star reviews), and my mom told me, “There’s always room for improvement.” It stuck with me, so when I received a one-star review, it didn’t bother me.

The individual had left, what I felt was a vague review that could have been misconstrued. I had decided that I would not reply negatively or engage in a tit-for-tat spat on the internet, and I replied with welcoming arms if services were needed in the future.

I always ask new clients how they heard about me, and I received 4 new clients within a short time, because of how I responded.

One of the things I teach in my mentorship is not to overwhelm yourself trying to be on all the popular platforms. It’s exhausting! Stick to one or two, and then as you begin to plateau, add another and another and so forth.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.atotacademy.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atotacademy
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/atotacademy
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tholmes83?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=android_app
• Other: My salon handle is @atotsalon on the same platforms. The salon website is www.atotsalon.com