Today we’d like to introduce you to Lavera Johnson
Hi LaVera, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I grew up in a beauty shop. Watching my mom and my grandmother do hair. I remember as a child swinging around in the hydraulic chairs and playing with rollers. I would look through the Jet magazine weekly and go straight to the beauty of the week section and imagine i was the pretty lady posing in the bikini. lol Doing hair was always in my DNA so i just knew that in high school (Dwight D Eisenhower) that I would get into the cosmetology program and get my license and do hair after graduation. But it didn’t quite work out that way. I didn’t get selected for the program. So, at this point i was lost. I signed up for nursing school at the local community college only bc all my other classmates were going to college. I just assumed that’s what you did after high school. But i didn’t like blood or needles. Or biology. so, the moment they asked me to dissect a frog i dropped out. I went to a cosmo school part time and i worked full time. I didn’t have the drive or the passion to make it through to the finish line with all the stresses of being a young adult. So, i dropped out of beauty school too. Officially a beauty school dropout. I worked different jobs. all lacking passion. my gift was going to waste. And then i ran into some legal troubles and my whole entire world as i knew it turned upside down. I lost everything. I literally had to start my whole life over from day one. i remember being at my lowest and reading a book by Steve Harvey. “Act like a success. Think like a success” i still have it, Its marked all up. Highlights and underlines. But this book literally changed my life. It awakened my passion. it made me remember that God had given me a gift that no matter what i lost, the world couldn’t take my gift. And in the book, he talked about using your gift to be successful. After reading that book i went to work putting a plan into action. I started writing down my goals. And checking them off one by one. I was blessed with a very kind and supportive husband. He believed in my goals and allowed me to go to school fulltime without having to work. I signed up for cosmetology at Paul Mitchell. when i walked through the door i just knew i had found “my place”. I loved school. therefore, i gave it all i had to give. My plan was to get my operators licenses and then return fr my instructor’s license. So after i got my cosmo license, i wnt to sign u for the instructors program. all kind of things were going wrong with my paperwork. I wouldn’t make it in time to start the instructors program. I was crushed. i actually cried real tears. so i started on my next goal. Start a business. I opened a small little suite where i did Permanent makeup. It was literally the size oof my closet. But man, was I proud!! Posh Looks LLC!! I worked and built my clientele. One beautiful guest at a time. FastForward, i received a phone call from a instructor at Paul Mitchell. she asked me if i was still interested in teaching. She explained to me that the law had changed in TX. You would no longer even need an instructors license to teach cosmetology as long as you held a cosmetology license. So i was basically handed my dream job. But i made a promise to myself that no matter what i would not slack on my business. It was my passion and my baby. I ended up leaving Paul Mitchell eventually. It was too much being a new mom, wife, and entrepreneur. Literally something had to give. Since then my business has soared and opened the door to even another business. M. Blue Construction. buying and flipping real estate
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
One of the biggest struggles during my career was right before i graduated cosmetology school. the Covid 19 pandemic started. so the school was shut down for a minute, i had to finish online a couldnt find a job after school because the salons were shut down
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I love doing all hair types. but i specialize in hair extensions. I sell hair and install luxurious hair extensions, i also love to do wild vivid colors.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
to use your gift! if you do what you love and what you are passionate about,, work wont feel like work. you can hardly fail when you are doing something that was placed on the inside of you
Contact Info:
- Website: https://poshlooksllc.as.me
- Instagram: @posh_looks_beautybar
- Facebook: Poshlooksllc
