We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rickia Taylor a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Rickia , appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
I get my resilience by always staying focused on the bigger picture. I understand that failures may come, but I choose to change my perspective by; knowing it was a lesson that I needed to get me to where I am going. Focusing on the end goal allows me to keep going even when the going gets tough.
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 doing hair for as long as I can remember. As a small child I always knew I wanted to be a hairstylist. My mom was also a hairstylist and I would sit and watch for hours as she serviced her clients. I loved everything about it. I even loved the smell of the (back then) curling irons on the stove. What a dream has it been to do something that was once upon a time “just a dream”. I love to do hair, but most importantly I love to make people feel good. I like to say, “I make people feel good from the outside IN”. Something about getting your hair done just changes your whole mood. When you look good, you feel good. It is an act of self-care and I love to be the provider of acts of self care.
As if something else couldn’t make what I do more rewarding… I am now a medical wig provider. I provide “cranial prosthetics” aka “wigs” for clients that suffer from hair loss due to medical conditions such as cancer, lupus, alopecia, etc. Being able to empower women through beauty has all the purpose I could ever ask for. Seeing women cry, smile, and fill with so much joy in my custom made wigs is a feeling I can not even begin to describe. Losing hair can take an emotional toll on a person. Providing those going through these emotional changes with beautiful wigs gives me so much purpose. I immediately see my clients confidence restored as soon as I put their wigs on their head. It’s bigger than hair when you are changing lives of others.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
1. Always do your best and give yourself grace
By that I mean, don’t beat yourself up when you don’t get the results you expected. In practicing “doing your best”- you will understand that there is a peace that comes with knowing you did your best. Your best today may look different from your best tomorrow and that’s ok, as long as you gave both days your all.
2. Be of good character
It is important to be good to others and to be a nice person. One lesson I have learned as a hairstylist is; if you are a good person but not the best stylist, people will wait for you to get good. Character will take you further than any skill sets.
3. Enjoy the journey
There is joy in the journey of getting to your goals. Enjoying the journey simply put is to bask in the moments of working on your goals. It is all a learning and growing process. Most importantly the journey is about who you become during the process. The road to becoming better, smarter, and wiser is most appreciated when you can look back and see how far you have come.
Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?
The Secret- I have read this book and watched the movie on a regular basis. This book talks about the power of our thoughts and our beliefs; and how we can have anything we want in life no matter how big or small. Everything that I have was once something I believed I could and I simply worked towards that thing. I love vision boards and I love to write out my goals- I notice when I do this my goals and dreams always come to fruition. There is power in “writing IT DOWN”.
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