We saw a brave post by Ashlee Rouge of Lashout Xpress last year where she shared about how she and a friend don't see a lot of black lash artists being represented in our industry by lash brands. From there she explained how she has had doubts about her ability to run her own business because some clients won't want to see her because she's black. It was a brutally honest post that shows how racism affects black lash artists in our industry. Ashlee decided to repost this IGTV this week in light of the George Floyd murder and the ensuing protests (Go to @lashoutxpress to see it). When we saw it again, we felt that it was time to sit down and talk about race, and these issues Ashlee brought up on her Instagram page. We were blown away with how loving and understanding Ashlee is even when faced with racism and bigotry. She is an amazing woman who we are so grateful to have on our show and bring light to things many of us probably didn't even know about. We learned a lot from Ashlee, and we are sure you will too. In this podcast, we don't try to solve the world's problems but we do feel a responsibility to improve our lash industry. Racism is a sensitive but important topic, and we hope you'll see we just want to see our industry grow in a way where it becomes more inclusive and more loving. Please let us know your thoughts on this episode by emailing (paul@lashcastpodcast) or DMing us. Your opinions matter to us!Follow Ashlee @lashoutxpressANNOUNCEMENTS:GIVING AWAY OVER $200 IN SPONSOR SWAGWe need your review on iTunes and to encourage you to do it, we are giving away over $200 in swag from our some of our sponsors from the LashCrusie and the LashConference. All you need to do is give us a review on iTunes, screenshot it and email it to [email protected]. That's it! We will be drawing a winner on June 11, 2020WE WANT TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS ON THE PODCASTIf you have a question and you want us to answer it, please email it to [email protected] or DM us at @lashcastpodcast. We will try to answer one question during each episode so please send us your questions. BTW...you can ask us about pretty much anything...lashes, customer service, business, life...it's your call.WE NEED GUEST ANNOUNCERS! THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO PROMOTE YOURSELF TO OUR LISTENERS!If you want to be a guest announcer on our show and promote yourself, please record the script listed below. Then email the recording to [email protected]. We can't promise to use it (being excited and making a good sounding recording will help), but we'll do our best to use the submissions sent into us.LASCAST OPENING SCRIPTHere is our script that you can use to record the opening to our show:"Hi I’m (name) and I work at (name of biz) in (city, state) and I’m today’s guest announcer. You can find me on Instagram at (IG handle)! Cue the music…In an industry where most of us spend the majority of our time working alone in a room, this podcast was created so you can learn, be encouraged and find a connection with other lash and beauty professionals. This is the LashCast Podcast and here’s your host, Paul Luebbers."PLEASE FOLLOW US!IG: @[email protected]: www.facebook.com/groups/lashcastpodcast/Contact Paul Luebbers: [email protected]