We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kandra Jones a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Kandra, thank you for being such a positive, uplifting person. We’ve noticed that so many of the successful folks we’ve had the good fortune of connecting with have high levels of optimism and so we’d love to hear about your optimism and where you think it comes from.
My optimism came from a place of healing childhood wounds and practicing positive self talk to overcome all the negative thoughts I had about myself. With some good therapy, hard emotional work and help from God, I began a road of healing. I created a practice, which has now become a habit, to see the good. When I feel jealous of someone else, I stop, take a breath and tell myself 3 positive things about me.
The negative – “Oh my goodness, she has such long legs and is so tall. I wish I was taller.”
The positive – “I’m not tall, but I do have pretty eyes. I really like my hair and being short is so cute next to my 6’4″ hubby.”
Practicing seeing the positive in myself has spilled over to seeing positive all around. When I see someone walk by I am always complimenting them in my head. Every person has something good even if they are annoying or not as attractive as someone else.
Seeing the positive builds an optimistic outlook on all aspects of life. So instead of the glass being half empty it’s mostly full! I live with an abundance mindset. Instead of seeing others as competition, I see them a peers and we’re all here to support and encourage one another. What is meant for me will come my way and there is always enough to go around.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I have been in the beauty/wedding industry for over 20 years. I have learned a lot and I have seen it all! I had a passion to create a bridal beauty team so that I could serve my brides better. Kind of creating a one stop shop for them so they didn’t have to find a makeup artist and a separate hair stylist and if she needed additional stylists on her wedding day I could accommodate that as well and take the stress off her to find more stylists/artists. My business brand vision was to emulate femininity, a bit of whimsy/fun, beauty and confidence. My mission statement is “Creating beauty and confidence on your special day.” The process to create the model for my ideal team took a couple years, but after the hard work, Twirly Shears was born! I now have a wonderful team with loyal stylists and artists that I can always count on. I hand pick stylists and makeup artists who have the work ethic, cohesive styling and personality that represent the brand and expectation that Twirly Shears has become known for. We just celebrated our second birthday! And in the past two years we have styled and glammed over 120 weddings!
We provide hair styling and makeup services focusing on the natural glam. We love boho styles, that is my personal specialty, but we can truly do it all. We have been creating a lot of classic styles lately as well. Our makeup style is definitely very natural. We are here to enhance the beauty that already exists, not to create a whole new person.
The most special part of being part of the getting ready portion of the wedding day is being in the most intimate, raw, special part of the day. We get an inside peek at the connections between the bride and her friends, cousins, sisters, in-laws and mom. We get to hear the stories and the inside jokes. We get to see mom tear up as she sees her baby girl glammed and ready to get into her wedding dress. We get to see the sentimental gifts the bride gives to her bridal party and we get to see her open the gift from her groom. All these moments are missed by the wedding guests, the planners, and the other vendors, but we get to see them.
We get to see the bride blossom from rolling out of bed in pajamas to her transformation into a beautiful, confident, princess in a wedding dress. We always leave feeling fulfilled and happy. We truly have the best job ever!
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Oooh, this is a good question. These are in no particular order but I feel three valuable things that are the most impactful in my journey are networking, tenacity and practicing my craft.
Networking was very important in helping me meet new people in the industry. It also helped me make connections with other women entrepreneurs. I was able to reach out and ask several of them specific business questions. Learning from those who built a business before me was so helpful in guiding me how to run and operate my business. I have been told since I was young that I was tenacious.
Tenacity means to persevere, to never give up. There were some major hurdles that have come my way and I just figured out a way to work around them. A friend of mine once said (after both my hair and makeup kits were stolen from my car) that she would have taken that as a sign to quit. I, however, just thought this is not going to slow me down!
Practicing my craft; hair styling and makeup is imperative to staying relevant. Trends and bridal looks are always changing. If I want to be the best I can be and offer luxury services, I need to stay on top of what’s trending and practice to make sure I can confidently deliver what my brides are dreaming of.
Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?
Being a business owner is so fun and a great achievement but it also comes with so much responsibility, decision making and putting out small fires. Feeling overwhelmed definitely comes with the territory! I do several things when I feel overwhelmed. I will take a bubble bath and read a book. I will take myself to get a coffee (I love driving. It’s really calming for me). But the best thing that unburdens my brain is making a list. Sometimes things feel more overwhelming because we are trying to remember all the things we need to do. So I will make a list and write out all the things that I have to do or that are stressing me out. I do this with pen and paper because that process makes the list making easier for me. Once it’s all listed out, it feels less overwhelming and I see that the list isn’t as long as I thought. From time to time, I also just do a brain dump where I literally write down everything in my brain. It’s just randomly written all over the paper, no neat and tidy list. This is so freeing for me. Just getting things down on paper can completely give a sense of relief. It’s also good to note that moments of overwhelm are normal. These moments won’t last forever and being overwhelmed does not mean you are failing. It just means you need to take a little break, make a list and grab a coffee (decaf if you’re feeling anxious).
Contact Info:
- Website: https://twirlyshears.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/twirlyshears/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/twirlyshears
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/twirly-shears-bridal-lakeside-2
- Other: Zola: https://www.zola.com/wedding-vendors/wedding-hair-makeup/twirly-shears
Image Credits
Cali Cho Photography Water and Gems Photography The Justin Jay
