Today I am talking with Sarah Ordo. Sarah is your not so typical millennial girl just craving to make moves and leave her mark on the world! She's a bit of a do-it-all kind of girl and seriously do ALL the things. She is an entrepreneur and the owner of 24Luxe Hair & Makeup in Detroit, an on-location hair and makeup team for weddings and events. Sarah is also a licensed makeup artist, self-published author, podcast host, YouTuber, life coach, workshop creator, and most recently has begun organizing live local events!
*Please note, this is an automated transcription please excuse any typos or errors
[00:00:00] In this episode, I speak with entrepreneur, author and owner of 24 Lux Hair and Makeup in Detroit, Michigan sarah Ordo. Key points addressed where Sarah's book writing regarding her personal journey through sobriety and launching of her businesses through self-awareness and unapologetic truth. We also discussed her new endeavor with her brick and mortar beauty bar that will augment her already established mobile business and the differences between these two endeavors. Stay tuned for my unabashedly honest chat with Sarah Ordo.
[00:00:35] Hi, my name is Patricia Kathleen, and this podcast series contains interviews I conduct with women. Female identified and non binary individuals regarding their professional stories and personal narrative. This podcast is designed to hold a space for all individuals to learn from their counterparts regardless of age status for industry. We aim to contribute to the evolving global dialog surrounding underrepresented figures in all industries across the USA and abroad. If you're enjoying this podcast, be sure to check out our subsequent series that dove deep into specific areas such as Vegan life, fasting and roundtable topics. They can be found via our Web site. Patricia Kathleen ARCOM, where you can also join our newsletter. You can also subscribe to all of our series on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Pod Bean and YouTube. Thanks for listening. Now let's start the conversation. Hi, everyone. Welcome back. I'm your host, Patricia.
[00:01:35] And today, I am so excited to be sitting down with Sarah Ordo. Sarah is an entrepreneur and owner of 24 Lux Hair and makeup in Detroit. You can find out more about all of her services and her books that we will be discussing today at W w w dot, Sarah or Dotcom. That is as a r h o r d o dot com. Welcome, Sarah.
[00:01:56] Hello. Thank you so much for having me on today.
[00:01:58] Absolutely. We're just talking before we started recording, and I'm really excited to claim to both your books as well as a lot of the industries that you're servicing and with your hair and makeup and Darrah's. So for everyone listening, I'll give you a bio on Sarah. But prior to doing that quick roadmap for today's podcast, you first look at unpacking Sarah's academic and professional life, and then we'll turn straight into kind of looking at her books. I'm going to have Sarah describe each of those and like the synopsis and as well as the ethos and the philosophy, what she was trying to communicate, who her target readership was, things of that nature. And then we'll unpack. Twenty four Lux hair and makeup and we'll get into the populations and the clientele that they have had in the past as well as their endeavors right now. They were a mobile company. And Sarah just let me know that it was a brick and mortar endeavor that's recently taken change, which is just opposite of everyone else. And I'm excited to find out about that. I like people doing things differently. And then we will kind of unpack everything that's going on within all of those endeavors before looking at Sarah's goals and advice that she has. For those of you who are looking to emulate some of her success or get involved in her efforts. A quick bio, as promised, Sarah is not yours. So typical millennial girl, just Hepp craving to make moves and leave her mark on the world. She's a bit of a do it all kind of woman. And seriously, to do all things. She's an entrepreneur and the owner of twenty four Lux hair and makeup in Detroit and on location, hair and makeup team for weddings and events. She is also a licensed makeup artist, self published author, post podcast host, YouTube, her life coach, workshop creator and most recently has begun organizing live local events. And Sarah, I will say that as I was kind of reading through one of your books, I got the feel of that. I had the I in the sense that it was written by someone who's an adviser and a coach. And I really love that. But before we start unpacking your books and kind of your authorship right there, I'm hoping that you can kind of carve out your early academic and professional life so that people get a sense of the platform that you came to writing the books and launching 24 Lux hair and makeup.
[00:04:08] Yeah, absolutely. So I definitely didn't start out with what I'm doing now, which I feel is the case for most entrepreneurs. I actually started I went to University of Michigan, Dearborn. I started as a psych major, shifted into early childhood and also started teaching preschool right after that. And then at some point during college, I decided I wanted to get my cosmetology license and my parents weren't exactly supportive of it. We're like, no, we're not paying for that. So, yeah, I have always been kind of a like, tell me I can't do something and I got to figure out how to do it. Person, though, I was actually taking night classes. Check out this other loan to go to beauty school at the same time as I was finishing college. So I actually was teaching preschool and then working at a salon on the weekends because I really wanted to do that. And I felt like I had to do both. Like I couldn't just do one. So around the time I was like a year into teaching, though, I was just like, I'm not coming back like. I made the decision. I loved the children. I loved that aspect of it. But I wanted to do something on my own. I wanted to be more creative. And I was not a sit at a desk and write lesson plans everyday kind of person. That just really wasn't me. So I left teaching. I started twenty four Lux hair and makeup in 2013 and it started in my one bedroom apartment at my dining room table and I would literally do people's makeup for forty dollars, anyone that would love me. And that was kind of how. By like Entrepreneurial Beast came to be. I kinda like to say like that's where it all started. I started this like, oh, I'm gonna hustle, I'm going to build this business. Yeah. And I started that 24 luck started to build. We've won awards like everything there just had continuous momentum and we started to build our team and everything. And then around 2015 was when I actually got sober. So I am five years sober now. And graduation's you know, around that time, I just kind of thought the beauty industry was what I was gonna do and that was it. And I got sober, started seeing a therapist, had a dream one day that I found a book on the floor and it was pictures of me in the book and it was me drunk. And it was my story in the book that I literally went to therapy and I was like, if I just write a book, is this a. Like, what do I do? And so I give my therapist was like very supportive about it. She was like, you know, if anything, maybe it'll be therapeutic for you. Like, maybe just process everything, go through all the feelings, the emotions journal about it. And I had created a YouTube channel because I want to be like a beauty blogger at some point. And I had that going. And it it wasn't big. Like not a lot of people were watching it. And one day I just sat down with my phone and I recorded a video called My Sober Story Why I Got Sober. And the video just kind of like blew up. Yeah. And all of a sudden, I was kind of like brought into this new world where there were all these women in the online space and in the online community kind of looking for help, looking for personal development, looking for support, especially in sobriety, because at the time I was twenty six years old, there weren't a lot of women talking about being sober at twenty six. Yeah. So instantly I had all these women reaching out to me like, oh my God, how do we. I was just like you. Like what did you do. What worked for you. Like asking me questions. And that was honestly what kind of opened my eyes to this whole other world I'm in now. Where I started, I self published my first book in 2017. I started my podcast. I started doing online courses and coaching. I started doing events and speaking from all my experiences. So I really didn't have to be like, you know, formal academic background for any of these other things that I'm doing now. You know, I have my cosmetology license and I have a degree, but something completely unrelated. So it's very it's very interesting where people are like, oh, did you go to school? Like, what would you do? And I'm like, oh, there's all this stuff. I just kind of like self learned along the way and taught myself.
[00:08:18] Well, I think 90 percent of it's like that, though, you know, and this is a whole nother podcast. But academia for me is about life of the higher mind. It's not really about applicable knowledge or on the job training. And so for me, it's incredibly valid for those that know me. I'm a passionate academic and I support the institution because I like the idea of it. But as far as like it honing a career that's trade school, that's totally different. You know, it's a completely different thing. And so it's funny for me when I think about jobs that require bachelor's degree and like, really? So are you hoping that they analyze that through that, you know, Confucius knowledge lens, then?
[00:08:57] It's like, no, why are you a five for it?
[00:08:59] But I think it shows other skills naturally. But I do agree with what you're saying. And there's no school anyway. Even if you had gone to school for there's no class called entrepreneurship, you know, build your own business. Those all of those things are self-taught as you have along the way. You could have dropped in that you in 2017. You wrote your first book. I have a down his inner bloom, finding the true inner happiness and creative and creating your best life.
[00:09:24] So sober as fuck was actually my first book, OK.
[00:09:27] Enter Bloom with second. So everything was in there. It was right in the beginning. Yeah. So it was the same year was it 2017.
[00:09:35] It was I want to say it was because I was a psycho, I have nine self publish pieces of Amazon now.
[00:09:42] Yeah, excellent. I have great.
[00:09:45] I mean, they're not awful like the books. I have workbooks. I have journals. Like, I have a couple of different. Some more like quick read books. But after I wrote over as spoke, I became so addicted to the process that I literally started writing interleave immediately because I was like, oh my God, I wrote a book like, I have so much more to say now. Like now I'm in it. I'm in a new place. Like I have different things to say after I'm past, you know, the beginning of my sobriety. So that was kind of what led to writing in bloom.
[00:10:11] So as sober as fuck your sobriety story and why and what it offer you. So if that's the case, does it begin with your bottom and then end with your final acceptance of sober life? And if so, what can you kind of draw us through like in ten sentences or less like what you kind of go through in that journey and when you choose to share as opposed to what you choose to exclude.
[00:10:34] Yes. So I'm pretty I'm pretty candid at it. Like it's a pretty, pretty open book, literally. It starts kind of talking about a little bit touching on my background, but it pretty quickly dives into my rock bottom. I was hospitalized. I had to be taken to the emergency room. I drink such a large amount and I took drugs, a lethal combination on top of it, and my body just started shutting down. So I did have a, you know, life threatening experience where I almost didn't walk out of it alive. So I walk everyone through that. And then also, you know, I decided to get sober and I was like, OK, I'm going to do this. I got to get sober, like, kind of naively thinking it was going to be easy and sober as fuck really dives deeper into the first two years of my sobriety, because the first I would say, like between six months to a year were horrible. Like I went into deep depressions. I got to the lowest lows I've ever been in. And it was because I was fighting the help. I wasn't open to accepting all the help and resources that were out there. I was trying to just do it on my own. After I opened up to that, it kind of follows the journey of going through my second year in sobriety where I really did come to accept everything and start this new life, which was ultimately so much better than what I left behind.
[00:11:46] Absolutely. Was that it? Was it inspirational for inner blue, like as you started to kind of come out of that difficult selves to a year? Absolutely.
[00:11:54] Because after that, I was like at the end of that book, like after two years, it became kind of like my relentless thing in life that I was like, I want to create my best life possible. Like, I'm here now. I did this. I have the second chance and I don't wanna take it for granted. So, like, how do I make it my best life possible? How do I make every day the best day? And that's what Inner Bloom really is about. It was how I started changing things in my life. What I started practicing in my everyday life that really gave me, like, true inner happiness. Aside from all the external factors.
[00:12:24] Yeah, I see the trend, the trajectory now. Like, especially between the books, because sober as fuck and enter bloom from what you just described. Those both are like the stepping stones up to. Not sorry.
[00:12:37] Which I'm hoping is, you know, somewhere around your third, because that's what I have in my notes as it's my rose. Recent one. So. Yeah. OK.
[00:12:43] Your most recent I looked at I looked through that and. Yeah. Yeah. And you and I talked before we got on and I want you to walk people through it, but it does have kind of the notes. So it's not sorry. Living your most confident, vibrant and unapologetic life. And you do have this. This. The rhetoric to me is so constant and powerful about like it's this is you know, this is your time now. Like, you need to tap into who you are and make sure that you stay very transparently, not only honest to yourself, but to your environment, like those around you, like keeping everyone on the exact same line and page. And so it makes sense that you start off, you know, with your sober journey and then climb into the inner bloom and really finding out you because it feels like not sorry is about putting it out there in front of your reality after you've come until the mental awareness. But I want you can describe for everyone listening. What inspired you to write? Not sorry, especially because you have such a body of work before it. And who is the reader? Who were you writing for or to in describing it? And what is like the shape and the body of the book.
[00:13:51] Yeah. So I went obviously from sobriety. I have a few books in between that are a little bit more like personal development still. But once I don't know what it was, once I got into my thirties, it was like. I don't know if it was age. I don't know. It just fully accepting myself finally. But I started to notice in myself and then it was ultimately who I wrote the book for was that there were so many women, myself included, that we were like, oh, I'm living my best life. And we're like sharing all the quotes. I'm like, Oh, I'm happy. You look at me. I'm doing all the things like, you know, if we're single, we're acting like we're happy, single. We don't need anybody. Like we're always posting and sharing all these things, talking about how great we are. But then I would catch myself at the same time, you know, having someone criticize something I did and I was internalizing it and being like, oh, my God, maybe I shouldn't do that. Maybe I should change that. Maybe I should do this differently. Like, why is this person upset about it? And just taking on a lot of outside things? Again, whether it was criticism of people's opinions, whether it was trolls on the Internet. And I saw so many women out there that we were like acting like we were fully authentic, acting like we were unapologetic and we didn't care what anyone else was saying. But then at the same time, still internalizing those things and not fully stepping into that woman that we were wanting to be. And so that was what really inspired me to write the book. It was finally like I had no criticism. I had things happening in my life. I had boundaries that were getting crossed in my life that I didn't want to get cross. And it was finally like, you know what? Like I'm not fucking sorry. Like I'm going to live my life the way that I want to live it, the way that I feel confident, as vibrant as I want to be, if I want to be, you know, quote, extra, if that makes me happy, if I'm not hurting or harming anyone else, why does anyone get to have a problem with it? And why do I need to apologize for what that authentic version of me really looks like? And so it really did just become this book of like preach mode to, like, be yourself. Stop giving a shit about what everyone else thinks. Stop internalizing the things that don't really matter. Stop watering yourself down. Stop whispering when you want to scream and say things out loud and really just not apologizing for who you want to be in your life anymore.
[00:16:05] Absolutely. And it felt a lot to me. Like what, Deena? There is a stereotypical and it's a good stereotype that in your 30s you genuinely start to begin to live life for you, you know, and prior to that, we're just inundated and for good reason.
[00:16:19] You know, when you're five, you need to heed to all the advice around you so you don't get hit by a car. Like there's different things of that that are a good reason. In our twenties, we're still paying a lot of heed to social cues so that we can become valuable members of society and hopefully compassionate and things of that nature. But I think that it's I did get that kind of like, listen, you know, take stock in all of the lessons you've learned, but for certain, start to live life for yourself. And however that makes you happy. And the emphasis on, you know, making sure that it's it's good for you and your environment and stuff like that, I think that that's so crucial.
[00:16:53] And I encourage everyone to jump on and check it out. It sounds like you have an entire library I haven't looked at. Yes, I do. That's awesome. I love that. I think it's so rad to be self published.
[00:17:03] I think to have a prolific experience with it like you have is rare. And it means that you're probably meant to do more of it. You know, when people do things that such a prolific nature, it seems to be part of their DNA for the like zone of genius. I kind of want to get into 24 hour or twenty four Lux hair and makeup now because we were talking before we started. And a lot of people who know me or listen to the podcast knows that I have a history of fashion photography. So I run deep, you know, decades with makeup and hair stylist and makeup artists and cosmetologists, people all in that field as they approach fashion. And I was telling you, I haven't spoken to anyone in the industry that you have largely served, which has Freital.
[00:17:49] Yes. So I'll answer it, though. OK.
[00:17:53] Honestly, I've never been on a photography set that wasn't filled with enough frenetic energy, especially mine. People would call them like stressful, but like I like that energy. So that's exciting for me. I can handle that. I am actually productive. I ride that wave, but me too. I thrive on chaos. I always say that. I've got. That's right. Yes. But is your chaos, that actually freaks me out. And it's because your client is stressed and my client was usually never there.
[00:18:22] And if they were, it was a controlled environment. I had ways of dealing with the client. You know, I was gonna do my work. I was going to capture my artistry. I was going to capture all of my buddy's artistry with the makeup and hair, the models, artistry with their, you know, their dynamic and posing and things like that.
[00:18:37] But the client and being around was never my favorite and let alone the client being the receiver of the product. And on one of the world's most stressful days, my most favorite thing to say about brides is that the most innocent like Gandhi, Buddha like figure, we'll see for some reason try to mess with a bride or groom on their wedding day. It's the weirdest phenomena of life, but I promise you, someone's. Ram mother, who is normally a seat, her grandfather will just slide a little bit like something weird, like a comment.
[00:19:12] Yeah, a little common or like, hey, did you take out your trash? I think you need to re park your car and you're like homegirls getting married in two hours. And why are you doing this to them? So you have a very fragile creature already stressed out, usually underfed and under slept maybe a little a drinking thing or coffee. Take us what the other. And then you have all of these and then you're saying, now let me satisfy you. I'm like, I don't think you can create a more perfect storm of someone harder to satisfy. And that gives me hives thinking about it. I'm like, I can't. Like, I don't know how you perform in those environments.
[00:19:49] I want to get into why you chose that industry and some of the techniques that you use. And I'm like how your response has been. What are the pitfalls like? It's it's an area that everybody wants to tee off. So, yeah. Walk us through some of that.
[00:20:04] Yeah. So I first got into weddings because I started I have a cosmetology license. I was doing hair. To be honest, I like doing here. I still like doing some hair. I just didn't like being in like in a hair salon. I really liked the makeup side of things. I really liked the artistry side of makeup more. And I remember I was at a salon and I asked them, like, could I do makeup here? And they were like, oh, we are to have one that does it. And like, she was older and they were like, you don't want to hurt her feelings. And I was like, OK. So I kind of just started, you know, like I mentioned earlier, like doing girls for prom, doing things for events. And, you know, eventually someone asked me if I would do their makeup for their wedding. And I was like, oh, sure. Like, OK. And then someone literally asked me, they're like, why don't you do this? Like, why don't you just do this? And I was like, why don't I do this? Like, this is so true. And it was interesting because when I started the business in 2013, there weren't as many mobile teams. Now there's a ton. Everybody's got a bridal team now, like everybody has either a team from a salon that'll come on location or they're a strictly mobile teams. And the reason I honestly started the business was, I mean, No. One, I just loved doing makeup. But in the Detroit area, it's not like New York. It's not like L.A. It's not like Chicago where people have these glamorous events and they're not paying to get their makeup done for photo shoots all the time. There's not as much of a constant as far as just doing like everyday makeup for people. You know, there's people that don't get it for, you know, family photos, you know, for their weddings, whatever. But I learned very quickly that if I wanted some sort of consistent income doing makeup, I kind of had to get into a specific area of it. It was either going to be commercial. I was gonna work at a counter or then wedding popped up and it was like, oh, people are always getting married. There's lots of weddings every year. So that was what kind of got me into it. And to speak on what you said about brides and everything. It's really funny because we've definitely had the meltdowns. We've definitely had those people. For some reason, we always laugh. I, for some reason can handle really crazy people. I don't know what it is. I have a tendency to just, like, be very nice, like, OK, you know what? We're going to fix it. Everything's fine. Let's do this. Sit down, girl. Chill. We got it. Like, I'm just very good at diffusing things. But I will also say we always have everyone ask and be like, oh my God. Like, what's your bride zilla stories like tell us. You probably have so many bride zilla stories and we always laugh because we're like ninety five percent of the time. It's not a bride. It's like you mentioned, it's like an aunt that feels really over titled or like a random bridesmaid that's like, you know, maybe not feeling so great that day and doesn't like how our dress fits.
[00:22:47] And so she's like nit picking everything about herself and she doesn't like her makeup, just like her hair. And she feels like her face looks big, you know, just kinda like tearing yourself apart or, you know, sometimes there's a mom that's saying things that are not supportive on a wedding day. And, you know, brides start crying like there's so many dynamics because there's so many people and family members and emotions, which I mean, like you throw in a female family members in a room, you're bound to have some, you know, hormones going crazy. They're already and then throw in a wedding day.
[00:23:18] But, yeah, we always laugh because most the time it's not the bride, it's someone else that's either being overdramatic or feels over tight. Old adage kinda like blows up a situation, but I really do love weddings. I like fast pace. It's always somewhere different. It's always different people. It's change of scenery. We get to go to different hotels, then use downtown balms like we're literally always in different places, which I really love and you know. Ninety nine percent of the time the rides are really excited and they're really happy. And it's just it's a really cool experience to be there with them on such an important day of their life and to be in such an intimate position with them where, you know, you're doing something like putting on their makeup, where it's going to make them feel even more. Beautiful on their special day. And you get to be a part of that.
[00:24:07] Absolutely. And that's a good way of looking at it. You are bringing out a beauty and joy to someone's important day window.
[00:24:13] So I want to get into some of the logistics. I forgot to do that in my hyper activity to jump straight into the teeth. When was when was it founded? Like, did you have a year? Did you take any funding? And no. No funding. OK. And when was your first hire? When did you first kind of start. OK.
[00:24:31] So I this is totally not what I would recommend to anyone. But in the beginning when it was just me, I would call my friends. I knew that did hair and be like, hey, do you I do this wedding with me. I'll just give you cash. So it was very not legit for a very long time. Yeah. So obviously, as we got bigger, we had a little bit more legitimate. But because we were a mobile team, we didn't have any overhead in the beginning. So I didn't have to borrow any funding. We didn't have a location. We didn't have I mean, we literally had nothing. I had my makeup kit already. People at hair survive, like we literally didn't have to buy things started. So it was very low cost to start. I can say now that we've expanded and brought on more people within the last year or so and now we have more than one team that will go out on any given day. So we can do more weddings. And with this new chapter, with our beauty bar opening now in 2020. That was a whole nother monster. That was a whole nother beast for me to tackle because I had never had a brick and mortar. I had never had any experience with anything like that. And I just kind of being my go get herself like Dover. Like, yeah, we're gonna do this. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So, yeah, he's open to that. That was definitely a lot more expensive, a lot more moving pieces, a lot more legal.
[00:25:50] Signed the lease for this like just as Kofod set in.
[00:25:54] Yes. Huh. Like a couple of weeks before it started. Welcome. Yeah, I cried.
[00:26:00] Was it bare bones? Did you have to build out? Spaces can vary. You can get into it like an already outfitted space. You can take over a former beauty bar, which already has a lot of things tricked out. What was your space like? How much like did you have to do to deal with that?
[00:26:13] Yeah. So the. We found one space originally that we really, really liked and it was actually funny enough, like now looking back like it doesn't make sense. It was hundreds of dollars more per month than the one we ended up in. And it was literally bare bones. They were kind of like arguing with us every time we were talking about things we would want to change because he had done the renovations himself. It was like an older gentleman and you just start to get the vibe. He didn't really want you to change what he did because he felt like he did it and it was good enough. So he was kind of like beating down all these, like build out things we were proposing. And then ultimately, they just rejected our offer. And I was heartbroken because I loved the location initially. But within a few days, we found this new location and it was less per month. It's actually an old fire station. So it has original exposed brick. It has like these white beautiful pillars. It's got huge windows. It's in a downtown historic area. It's got the original wood like ship lap walling where they used to pin up like the papers and stuff. So it had so much character.
[00:27:20] You'd already had rooms built in it, wood floors, like it was like, oh, good thing this didn't work out for a reason because this was so much better. So we didn't have to do too much build out. We had to build one room because we are going to offer micro bleeding, which is very, very strict because it's considered tattooing. So you have to have the health department come out and inspect and license your facility. So that was the only thing we actually had to create a room for that. But other than that, all we had to do was we replaced some flooring and one of the rooms just really like had to furnish the whole place and decorate it and do all that stuff.
[00:27:58] So when you say a beauty bar, what kind of that's a blanket term? It can be a lot of different things. So what services do you offer? And how did you curate what services you were going to offer or not offer? Like you just mentioned, micro blading. I was thinking men's bar was stuck like that. So how did you kind of curious what services and what services do you offer?
[00:28:17] Yes. So I personally worked for a benefit cosmetics part time for seven years. I sold their cosmetics and then I also worked. They have a brow bar. They have a waxing counter. So I literally was doing eyebrow waxing and tending for seven years straight.
[00:28:31] Just part time as I was building all my other businesses as kind of like my safety money. So I had all this experience and I had all these clients. And when I left there, all these people were like, can we come in your house and get our eyebrows started? And I was like, no, I don't know what to do. That's weird. Yeah. And I but at the same time, like, I've always loved that client relationship and those people were like regular clients, like I knew them, like they knew me back before I even met my husband when I was working there. So I, I kind of had this thought of like I like I kind of want to keep these clients. So I definitely right off the bat was like, OK, we'll do a brow bar. We can do brow waxing and tinting there for sure. So that was gonna be like my component of it. And then obviously the makeup was going to come in there as well, because we're all and a couple of my girlfriends, like we all do makeup and we added spray tanning. One of my girls just got certified and spray tanning and then we have eyelash extensions. It's actually the girl that's been doing my eyelash extensions for almost two years. I've been telling her for at least the past year that it was my goal in life to get her to work for me. So that came through. I came there. Yeah. So, yeah, we have healthy brown our makeup tanning extensions. We have two. The microblogging process is taking a little bit longer just because it's so much health department regulation. So we go through a couple more in-depth inspections still and then we're also probably gonna offer facials in that room just because it's already going to be kind of set up for it. Yeah, and we kind of like the way I kind of decide what we going to do there. Like, I knew what I was going to do, but I took on this. I've always loved helping other women, like, build and expand. So I had, you know, these several girls I knew also in the industry, they're all a little bit younger than me. They're all in their 20s, very eager, very excited, very talented. And I was like, hey. We all want to come to this, if you like. I would love to help you build your business like you asked me in the face with me, like it'll be so much fun together. So that was kind of how we factored in who was going to be working there and what services we were going to offer. I definitely didn't want to get into the hair department. There is a whole other level of licensing that I was just like, I'm not I'm not a hair stylist anymore. Like, what are you doing here?
[00:30:45] So we unida here if it's just me, but I don't really like I don't like the mixture and maybe I'm just old, like, I don't know what it is, but like I don't intend to get. And yeah, the, the eyebrows or the eyelash extensions or at the hair salon, it's like waxing at the nail salon. I think a lot of people do, but I like different stories.
[00:31:09] Oh I hear that all the time.
[00:31:11] I would have so many clients that came to me at the Rahbar and they were like, can you fix my eyebrows? I got done at the nail place and I'm like, girl. Like when you pay for a seven dollar eyebrow wax, like you're gonna get a seven dollar eyebrow.
[00:31:22] Yeah, exactly. So you definitely have kind of like that.
[00:31:26] You should do it like it's more of like the beauty like pampering enhancement side then like hair maintenance kind of thing.
[00:31:33] Nice. What did you. How did you decide your business model? Does that something you learned along the way or did you like. I mean, that's all varies. That whole industry is like the Wild West and really rent space. You can do a salary. You can do an hourly. There's so many different things. How did you decide?
[00:31:50] So I literally clueless going into it. Didn't have too much business background about how to do this. I honestly just started researching.
[00:31:58] I looked at our costs, our expenses, talked to the girls about what would work best for them because, you know, if they don't have a full clientele, it doesn't really make sense for them to do booth rent because then they're losing money. So we all kind of just like power out on numbers. My husband is way more good on money stuff than I am. So he helped me with a lot of that, too.
[00:32:17] But we've actually gotten it set up to a place where we can cover a portion of our rent with our booth rent girls that are in there, which is really nice because a lot of places, you know, in the beginning, you're just struggling to like get to profit where it kind of gives us a leg up on that from the get go.
[00:32:34] Absolutely. That's really cool. It sounds like you've done it right, too. I'm curious with, like, the micro blending, it sounds like you already have like some future plans planned out.
[00:32:42] Have you looked forward to even just like daydreaming about the next one to three years, particularly in the brick and mortar, because it's your latest scene and baby, but also speaking to, you know, the and the hair and makeup with the bridal. Do you have future plans for the next one to three years? I think post covered, you know, with these restrained open backup buds as they start to do even more so in the winter and spring when we get a vaccination. What are your future plans with both endeavors?
[00:33:11] So right now, we were just talking about it today, were like were busy, we're busier than we. I mean, like I knew we were going to be busy, but like, it's becoming very quickly. Like it's catching speed quicker than we thought it was going to. So, like, we're in a point where people are literally already contacting me, like I want to get eyelashes and I can't get until the end of July. And I'm like.
[00:33:34] That is all we have right now. I mean, we just opened.
[00:33:37] But like, so weird. It's funny. We were literally just sitting outside this morning having your conversation about it. We have the potential. One day there's a way you can sign these things with leases. Unstuff where it's a our building is conjoined with a second business. So we we actually signed something saying that if the other person was to leave, that we would have first opportunity if we wanted the business next door. So my husband is already reeling with the ideas. He's like, oh my God, we could open this up and then you going to have a whole other thing here. You could hire like four more last. So he's already like ten steps ahead. So that's something we definitely have in thinking about how we could expand that even more. The bridal teams, honestly, we I feel like we're just gonna keep growing that every year. I feel like at some point I'm gonna max out how many people I want to be on TV just because it's so many moving pieces with that and so many people traveling and scheduling it. It's a whole nother ballgame with that one. But I'm excited because, I mean, it's really it's taken speed a lot quicker than I thought it was going to as far as the beauty bar or so. It'll be interesting to kind of see how it goes from here.
[00:34:49] Yeah, it's a different beast and it should impact. You know, it's not like it's like having one child and keeping it separate from the other one you had. They're both going to have communication and conversation and movement between the two. It'll be interesting to see. So I'm curious, we're kind of at the point now and our podcast, that is my favorite part for this, if everyone who listens. But I wanted to when I designed this question, it was long before Cauvin and it was awesome to kind of show people amea back in their face and to give people that like your top three Bible pieces.
[00:35:22] But I'm curious if you were in a park in beautiful Detroit tomorrow and so save social distance and a woman or a female identified non binary individual. Anyone other than a straight cis gendered white man walked up to you and said, listen, I have you know, I have degrees in areas that don't pertain to what I'm doing now. I've kind of bounced all over. I have this incredibly prolific writing career that came out of like an original journey of getting sober and moving forward and launching businesses. I'm getting ready to do brick and mortar for the first time. What are the top three pieces of advice you would give that individual? Knowing what you know now after everything you've gone through.
[00:36:03] Yeah. Chase your big dreams because they're not too big. Because I thought they were scary. I did it so I could do what anybody else. Definitely be open to help. Because I'm the one that tries to do all the things and think I can do it on my own and sometimes I can't. And I need to be open to people helping me.
[00:36:22] And to be daring but safe.
[00:36:28] Very contradictory. Yeah. But definitely, like, I just to like, unpack that a little bit. Like I am someone who is always daring. I jump in, I'm like, I want to try this. I'm going to try to do it. Here we go. Like I jump all in. But I also am financially not stupid about it, if that makes sense. Yeah. I'm not going to drain my bank accounts and be like, let's see if this works. Like, I would never put us in that situation. I'll figure out a way to make it work. But I'm not going to be overly risky when I do it absent like some people do.
[00:37:01] And I think it's the only piece of people really regret, you know, is when they lose the house. It's like it's everything else you're like. You know, I lost a lot of sleep that year. This that the other I had to bike to work, whatever it is. But where are you when you go financially to a place where you've kind of changed your quality of life, everything goes downhill. Even wanted to success story after that, they're like, oh, that was awful. Yes. No, I've got chase your big dreams. You're not as big and and obtainable as you think. Open. Stay open to help.
[00:37:34] And it sounds like tied into that is also like getting ready to outsource the. Jill. Of all trades, even though you can be and be daring but safe and be financially safe but emotionally daring.
[00:37:46] Yeah, I love that. That's awesome. Thank you so much for your time today, Sara. I loved learning about everything that you're doing with 24 hour le sorry, 24 hour 24 leks hair and makeup as well as the beauty bar. What is the name of the beauty bar?
[00:38:00] The same 24 hour Lux beauty, right? Yep. Oh, cool.
[00:38:03] I love that. I love hearing about all of that and your books as well. I encourage everyone to get on and check out at least the one I read.
[00:38:09] Not sorry. Living your most confident, vibrant and unapologetic life. Who's awesome. And I appreciate you talking to us.
[00:38:16] Thank you so much for having me on today.
[00:38:17] Yeah. And for everyone listening, I appreciate your time. We've been speaking with Sarah Ordo. She's an entrepreneur and owner and author. You can find out more about everything we've talked about today on her website. W w w dot Sarah or dot dot com.
[00:38:32] And until we speak again next time, remember to stay safe and always bet on yourself, Slainte.
