Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Cecilia Findley. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Cecilia, so excited to talk about all sorts of important topics with you today. The first one we want to jump into is about being the only one in the room – for some that’s being the only person of color or the only non-native English speaker or the only non-MBA, etc Can you talk to us about how you have managed to be successful even when you were the only one in the room that looked like you?
This is something I am learning to navigate and still have a challenging time with. I definitely embrace my individuality because I am, more often than not, the one that is different from most. I am the one who “over dresses” when there’s an event, let alone a theme to anything, because I have a spectrum of various styles/looks. Haha. I have learned to embrace myself a little more with self confidence, but struggle with getting out of my own head, especially in business related environments. Something that absolutely has been helping me with this challenge is taking a mental pause and asking myself “If you can read other people’s thoughts, could you actually control them?” OR “If even one of these beauties never saw my POV on something, wouldn’t you essentially be preventing someone from potentially learning something new?”. These questions have completely given me that reality check I need to see things for what IS happening and out of my head with a scenario that is only created in my own head.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am a hair and makeup artist, servicing my clients in my enhancing studio with some salon services as well as enhancing special events (in studio or on-location). I call myself a Beauty Enhancer because I honestly believe that I enhance people’s natural beauty/awesome. Every individual has their own unique beauty, lifestyle, or way of highlighting their personality “out loud” and although I have plenty of gifts & skills, I cannot create something on a blank canvas. I see each individual like the specific canvas they are and create based on that foundation, therefore collaborating with them on what I’m actually enhancing. To me, what I do has nothing to do with what people look like, it’s showcasing WHO they are externally and allowing that to hopefully help them see their genuine beauty in themselves. One of my biggest goals is to help other’s embrace their own reflections rather than avoiding their reflections. For example, (I am guilty of this as well) when we pass by something that allows us to see our reflection, we become so mean to ourselves by focusing/naming the flaws we see in ourselves, but if I can help enhance your beauty/awesome, we genuinely feel a bit more true to ourselves and start liking what we see a heck of a lot more. This is generally the place I am coming from when it comes to a lot of things, whether it’s with other individuals, creators, artists, etc. and can also support my natural curious nature, this is my biggest goal. I become fascinated with other’s lives, experiences, passions, etc. because I see and learn about life through YOUR eyes. I have received some feedback from clients and get the full body goosebumps with so much love and gratitude because it’s such a genuine & honest validation to keep doing what I’m doing. I’ll share one of my favorite reviews I’ve gotten from google. “Ceci did an absolutely INCREDIBLE job! I have never had a haircut experience quite like this, where my hair care habits, needs, and wants were thoroughly gauged to find a new hairstyle that is honestly just perfect. Ceci’s studio is immediately welcoming and calm—characteristics only complimented by Ceci herself! She has such a warm and soothing presence and truly makes you feel so special. She’s revitalized my curls, offered an ear to listen, and made for such a fabulous time—I’m so excited to continue cultivating my hair care practice with her! And I’ll definitely be back soon :)”-Allyson Mancz. Regardless of what your lifestyle is, THIS is why I love learning about YOU and also get to “play” with your hair/face at the same time and utilizing my gifts, skills and talent. For now, this has been the world I officially started creating 3 years ago when I opened the studio, but I feel like sharing this love of enhancing ourselves, might start growing in other platforms outside of my studio. My love of collaborating with other’s is where I’m planning on branching out with other fellow entrepreneurs, creators and various platforms, not just in one place either because why not?
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Three key things that /i feel helped me grow, learn, and understand my passion: strengthening my education, mastering new techniques, and learning to be graceful with myself. Let me share a quick backstory to this journey: I got my license in 2004 and dove straight into cosmetology, learning everything I could hands-on. I based my approach on what others in the field were doing. However, when I moved from CA to AZ, I realized this unstable approach wouldn’t work—I needed more stability. This led to a decade-long break from the industry. It wasn’t until 2018 that everything changed, and these three impactful elements came into play.
Being away from the industry for that long, the main thing I knew I wanted to do was find a way to understand the industry in a way that made sense to ME and not in a blind faith like I had before where I was just TOLD and how it “should” be done and therefore started growing my education. I started finding free educators on YouTube, then found educators on social media and went from not having a real clue, to having a large library of major resources. I learned multiple ways to grow your business in how you want to serve, the financial fundamental needs you need awareness around, strategies on dealing with good or bad reactions to your work, building boundaries to help your growth and the biggest one was how to manage your mental and emotional health during your growth because of how important it is to have a strong mental and emotional mindset as you evolve in this journey.
I realized I needed dedicated time to master new techniques, styles, and tools I had never encountered before. The importance of this only became clear later. When returning to the industry, I saw how much had changed—from special occasion styles to haircuts to chemical treatments—and knew I had to learn what was out there. There were so many new techniques and specialized tools to understand: how to use them, how they worked with different hair and skin types, and how to create various styles. This applied to both hair AND makeup. I spent time learning which techniques I could adapt to my own style and comfort level. Through trial and error on mannequins and myself, I figured out how to incorporate these new elements in ways that made sense to me. I strongly recommend exploring what’s new in your field and adapting it to fit your unique gifts and skills—make it your own.
Lastly, giving myself grace has been the most impactful area that is now one of my most challenging, as well as the most rewarding throughout this entire journey. I have always been a people pleaser and push myself to be one to show “praise worthy” behaviors and realized that unless they bring fulfillment into my life and flow in a way that FEELS easy to me, I would never feel like I was “good enough” with any of it. Don’t get me wrong, I love getting praise, acknowledgments and be given high regards, but they were never as rewarding because I was constantly feeling burnt out and kept forcing myself to excel in other people’s version of what that needed to look like. I started learning to find my purpose in why I did things in a certain way. How I got joy and passion with the way I execute things, or the approach that made more sense to me, those were some of the things that started bringing me more joy. I started being more forgiving to myself as far as embracing my individual gifts, skills and talents and realize that there is no “guide” to execute Ceci’s version of being successful. I am the only one that will ever determine that and being graceful with my trial and errors is how I will continue to grow while enjoying this journey. I feel like we are consistently overanalyzing and judging ourselves so hard that we forget that we are the people that need the most compassion from ourselves rather than scrutinizing everything we are doing “wrong” because really, who’s version of “wrong” are you fulfilling?
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
I love this question for so many reasons, but I won’t limit this to just my parents. I have an older brother who absolutely helped in creating impactful moments for me. Realistically, let’s just start here. My brother has always been so good at showing focus, confidence, self awareness and impeccable talent. As the younger sibling though, that’s really not how I digested things growing up and created a world in my head that made me think I wasn’t as good/focused/talented/etc. enough or as much as he was. I turned that into an emotional and mental weight that kept me feeling limited, when it was absolutely not the case. I’ve learned from him that if you have a goal or desire for something, why do you need someone’s permission to execute? Or if you have the skill or talent, why would you feel the need to apologize for a natural gift you were gifted with? Or just the mere fact that if you are self-aware of your own behaviors, you are literally the only one who can DO anything about the result your are getting. I have a lot to thank him for and this is just one small observation and impact he’s had on my life.
Then there’s my Dad. He’s always been such an inspiration when it comes to addressing details outside the box. He’s a natural engineer. He’s always been so involved with his hands and dissects so many things with that engineering brain. I mean, of course, unless you are an engineer, there is so much a lot of people will always struggle understanding about this way of thinking and I potentially picked up on these traits. I myself have worked with engineers in my lifetime and recognize how challenging as well as inspiring that is! Growing up helping him take things apart and help put them back together, his taking the time to explain certain processes and watch him execute them or just embracing the challenge of figuring out how things worked, has allowed me to make things work with what I have. Not to mention how his work ethic supported that because of how involved those projects were to him. It kind of highlighted his “stubborn” behavior of not giving up or settling for a “lesser” result and I am ABSOLUTELY a stubborn human about a lot of things, but when it comes to being passionate about anything, I will push past those things to give it my all until I know for sure it was all I could do, pivot my approach in general or know it isn’t something I can really address.
My mom though, she’s my absolute best friend, mentor, guide, example and motivation for everything I do! I don’t even know where to start, I mean she’s the biggest supporter I always have when I pursue anything. If I wanted to play music, dance, sing, she would encourage me to try it. If I wanted to create something, she would show me what she knew about creating it and figure it out along the way. Literally anything I did she would be supper supportive, help me think past what “stumped” me and be so much of what nurturing ourselves should look and feel like. To say I am the most blessed human is a huge understatement when it comes to her. I mean, in this instance of focusing on my career, she actually started cosmetology school months before I did and as she was learning specifics, she would share all of it with me. Once I decided to go to school with her we were unstoppable, creative on another level and eccentric with everything we did together. She is the one who showed me how to love passionately, how to be considerate of others, how to support everyone around me and how blessed we are with the talents, gifts and skills we were gifted with when we came into this world/life.
– My immediate family is a huge reason I have become the individual beaty I am and hope to continue helping my kids grow into their essence and be proud of who they are becoming!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cessified.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ceci.cessified/
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ceci.cessified
Image Credits
The R2 Studio
Odd Fox Photography
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
