Allison Kent'S Journey With Aspy Hair Extensions | Pure Bliss Podcast | Episode 7

All right guys what's up, this is johnny and hillary owners of purebliss and you're. Listening to the purebliss podcast, where we talk about business beauty and how to be a boss, we want to start this podcast to help anyone. That'S unsure about starting a business i'll, show you how we started ours. Tell you all the tips that we have learned and take you on our journey with us and inspire you along the way, all right getting right back into episode. Number seven. Already time is flying um, we have a special guest on another another special guest on this episode: allison kent owner of aspy hair extensions, the most special guest - yes, you're special. I love that i'm joking, so we will start this off with getting her to introduce herself and i'm wondering how long have you been in an industry and what got you into it yeah. So my name is allison kent and i am the owner of aspy hair extensions. I'Ve been a stylist and extension artist for about a decade now i've been really into hair. Ever since i was little, i taught myself how to braid in kindergarten during recess yeah cute. That'S kind of absurd and i'll start somewhere, yeah yeah, so i just always went into it um but yeah. I officially did hair school back in 2011, i moved to ontario and i did hair school just outside of toronto um. I graduated in 2012, moved back home and i've been in the industry since then awesome, yeah, yeah a long time, yep long time for sure yeah. So back then, when you got into this, did you ever see yourself where you are today? You know owning your own hair extension company, oh god, no! No! So when i moved home, so i moved home from ontario, i was working in a salon. I was doing the whole custom color thing behind the chair. Um. I didn't love it. I wasn't really really passionate about it. I'Ve always been really passionate about styling um, so yeah i worked at a couple salons, i realized like i'm just this is just not where my heart is my, where my passion is so. I actually went back to school. I was doing business school, full-time um through distance. I was waitressing full-time and i actually started my mobile hair business, which is a wedding business where i specialize in bridal hair, so that was back in 2015 and uh yeah. So i put my first ad, i think, was on kijiji for wedding hair. I love it yeah i just aged myself and uh. Yes, i put my first ad on like kijiji or something started, doing weddings and it just kind of took off what seemed overnight. But it was a lot of work, of course, and uh yeah, so i'm booked about four years in advance. Now, oh my god yeah. So you're still doing a lot of wedding hair yeah. I still do a lot of wedding here yeah, so i run that business as well. I was doing some extensions as well, which is kind of how i started um. I became ascension artist while i was in school back then: okay, cool, 2011, yeah yeah. So that's kind of how i got in the industry, but no, i did not expect myself to be here. No, that's cool! You never know where your journey's gon na take you yeah. No for sure it's awesome, yeah! Hmm! I have a few questions for you, so let me just see what i got next here. So how did you even know where to start like when it comes to opening your own, like hair extension business like with suppliers - and you know who do i choose what product am i going to go with right? You know: where do you start with that? Where do you start with it yeah for sure? So, basically what happened was. I was doing hair extension clients and i was constantly looking for a canadian brand to support and i was looking for high quality hair, modern color collections. I was wasting so much of my time. Most hair extension brands only carry like one tone here, so it's platinum blonde, whereas you know the modern day. Client now is a balayage or a highlighter whatever. So i was spending all this time. Coloring hair extensions, which was of course my time at a cost for the clients yeah, so it just kind of didn't exist in canada, so i was buying hair extensions from big companies in the states. By the time we got them here, uh the exchange rate, custom duties, all those things uh. You know it was a fortune for for the client. So it was something that someone was investing in once, but it wasn't something they could keep coming back in every you know, four to six weeks or six months or so i just started to think. Basically, i created us because i was looking for sb. So make sense: yeah um. How do you start? Oh god, sit down for this one, so i did like a ton of research um. I started reaching out to manufacturers all over the world. I started testing hair quality when it came to the color collection or yeah color collections i reached out to you, know hairstyle. Luckily we live in a time where social media you can just kind of reach out to people so yeah. I reach out to all these big name: hairstylist celebrity hairstylists and be like what are you doing here on what is up and coming? What'S the most popular colors yeah, so that's kind of how i narrowed down my color collection, so i created the color collections. Of course, did all these people actually write you back as well, most of them? Okay, that's cool, yeah, yeah, it's hard to get a hold of people these days it is yeah. I mean i didn't get ahold of like chris appleton, but i mean i don't know who that is sorry. J, lo's, hairstyle, okay, but i mean like most of them, did right back yeah and they say you know this is what's really common. It'S a number four on the root with a you know, whatever on the end, so that's kind of how i went into creating the collections on your homework, yeah of course yeah. So it took a long time. It'S you know it took a long time. Those years in the making yeah it was years in the making it had no name for a long time as well like it was a long process. Yeah, no one knew i was doing it no, so this is 2015. You said the story: oh gosh. This was when you first really started when i first really started was before i got pregnant with aspen, which was i don't even remember anymore, she's, two and a half so do the math. I don't know years ago, three or four years ago, yeah. Okay, that's interesting! I first heard of aspy um during her first lockdown. Actually did you yeah? Actually, you know what's really funny, so i had launched asp officially launched it in november of 2019. and then we shot down. Of course, the whole world shut down a couple months later, and here i was with this brand new business yeah um, which i was terrified of, but now like looking back. It gave me so much time to be in my house and work on the brand and yeah. You know yeah you capitalized on the situation totally the whole world was in their house. So if you reach out to someone on instagram, yeah you're, trying to find influencers and stuff like that chances are most times they entered you back because they were just home, they were doing anything they weren't doing anything yeah, so yeah. It was a really great opportunity to grow the brand during the lockdowns yeah. Definitely yeah yeah. Instead of like accepting that you couldn't do anything you, you made something happen yeah so basically i mean, i think any great product comes from meeting something that you're looking for to solve a problem. Yeah, you were solving the problem. I was solving a problem, so i knew i wasn't the only one out there with these issues uh, so i i created a brand that solved all the issues that i had as a stylist. That'S amazing! So how many like how many hair extension brands we'll say are like? Did you try before you got like different manufacturers and stuff, like that? Oh my gosh, so the hair market, of course, can be very sketchy uh, so of course trying to find something that was um ethically sourced and all those things was really important to me. So i would spend hours doing skype meetings, um literally doing a fact like looking through factories on skype meetings like stuff like that, watching how the hair is made, seeing how it's sourced all that stuff, i would say, 50 60 like a lot and then okay you're Happy with that now can they color? Can they get the colors that i want? Can they yeah? Can they give me the balayage that i want? Can they so yeah? It was a lot of work. It'S a lot yeah! It'S like overwhelming whoa yeah exciting, though yeah. Nothing comes easy right, no for sure yeah for sure yeah, that's awesome. So i had another question and i think i know the answer because you just mentioned your daughter's name yeah. I was gon na say: where did the name aspie come from yeah, so the company had no name um. It was just it's a hair extension brand. I was building so while i was building the you know the colors and all that kind of stuff. I also did all the website design myself. I still do all that myself, all the branding all the packaging design, all that stuff. Every every single bit of the company was built by me and still is done by me. That'S incredible! Yeah! They save a lot of money that way too. Oh, my god yeah, i didn't at the time, didn't hire any graphic designers. I just did everything myself, but that's the thing when you're starting out in any business, you don't have the money or the resources to like. You know sub all that out. So you got to do everything you can. If you don't know how to do it, you got to figure it out on youtube or online yeah like people, you know i i learned about you know, seo work and all this kind of stuff with website design. People are like. How did you figure that out? You just figured out on youtube. The answer is online yeah, you look it up if you're interested and you want to build something. You just look it up. Yeah, you want it right, but yeah. So then, i had aspen and we kind of color aspie sometimes, and i was like what a cute name that would be for the company. It'S so cute yeah. I love it yeah, it's it's pretty original. I, like it too yeah and i like companies as well that aren't named after, like the hair. You know you wouldn't know what asp is like. No, it's completely random. It'S just random right. I love that. I think that's really cool so yeah. It'S definitely um like no one else in the world. Probably has that used? No! No! It'S already. So that's really cool. Exactly yeah yeah yeah. Awesome! Yeah! That'S awesome! So did you expect your brand to grow this fast? No, certainly not um. I remember still getting my first sale, so i launched on instagram and my girlfriend. Allison bess is a makeup artist and i did a giveaway, so the website was getting some traction because of the giveaway. So i got my first order. That night i mean i expected to sell a bit here and there and i kind of expected my brides to purchase because you know they're always looking for things and stuff like that um. So no, i definitely did not, but i also know the way i am too i work really really hard and until you get where you want to be totally, you get what you put in yeah, absolutely yeah. So but it's still crazy. You were still shocked. It'S still shocking. Oh, it's still shocking, it's wild for sure yeah. Sometimes it's surreal! It'S so surreal. Yeah when like strangers are like i'm wearing aspies. Is this exciting? I'M like i'm at the grocery store? It'S cool. It'S really cool! The bottle is really in your court. Right totally, like you know, it's up to you where you want to go and how fast you want to get there yeah, i think that's the way. It is with anything everything really yeah. Absolutely totally so, do you have any tips and pointers for anyone starting out in any business in any business yeah? Oh god, don't do it? Okay, don't do it run no um! You got ta be passionate about what you're doing you got to really believe in what you're doing um it's going to be a lot of work. People often see the reward. They see it once it's taken off once things are happening and they say like oh you're, so lucky like that right and no luck overnight. Success, no there's! No overnight success. It'S you know it for me. It was building a website at four o'clock in the morning, while i was seven months pregnant with a baby kicking in my belly. People don't see that right. People don't see me working in my store until 10 o'clock in the night packaging and they don't see that stuff. So you got to be willing to put in the grunt work. There'S no you're not going to get rich overnight. That'S just not there's no easy way. There'S no easy way out, so i think you you got to be really passionate about. You really got to love what you're you're gon na love, what you're doing starting from scratch and like having no one to back you up. Nobody like yeah, yeah, literally you're, really gon na love. What you're doing it's like that iceberg, um that you ever see that meme, it's like the 90 percent, 10 kind of thing, literally yeah yeah the 90, like you, don't see! What'S going on the ten percent? Oh, it must be nice, yeah yeah, it must be nice, i'm like it is nice. I love that yeah, but you don't understand that every other waking hour is going into this. Yes, yeah, it's constant right, it's constant work and, of course it does pay off, but you've got to be willing. How do you balance it with your daughter, yeah, it's rough and your husband um? So when i started out when i started my bridal business in 2015, that was probably one of my biggest challenges was like time management because well, if people write me and i don't write them back, that could be me missing out on a client right. So i thought i had to be readily available constantly yeah, so i had notifications on my phone. I would answer right away all those things i quickly realized. What'S the point of working to build a big beautiful life if you can't even enjoy your life yeah because you're just working constantly yeah, so i don't have notifications on my phone? No okay! I took notifications interesting. The only thing i have is like text messages from like my friends and stuff anything business related. I don't have any notifications on so i said times that i work yeah, which is like, while my husband's working or while the baby's at daycare those things uh. When my husband and i go to dinner, i don't pick up my phone. I put my phone in my purse. We actually speak words to one another and have conversations i'm just thinking. I feel like it's something we have to work on. No, so yeah. I really put a conscious effort into it, yeah um, because it's really easy to get lost in your, oh, my god. Yes, i feel like even since john started with us yeah like it's we're more into it. Now, when i'm off like before, when i was off, i couldn't shut it down, but now, when i'm off it's like john's working, he wants to work. Yes, he doesn't shut off. He hasn't learned that yet you had to shut off it's hard to shut off when you have a goal and a dream, and you want to get there. No, i get it and especially if both you guys are in the same business. My husband obviously isn't in my business, so that's hard, that's definitely difficult, but yeah. No, i just i just make boundaries. I set boundaries like i did read a thing, or else this is hard yeah. It is hard. I was listening to a podcast one time or something was like if a client or a customer right you at two o'clock in the morning, it actually doesn't look good when you respond. That is true. It looks like why are you constantly working, and i mean people? Don'T call walmart at three o'clock in the morning expect to talk to the owner, so it's like i've just gotten used to the fact of like it's a business. People have to be okay with the fact that i don't work. 24 7. yeah yeah. You have like a nine to five or whatever yeah a human being yeah yeah, absolutely yeah. I think one other thing that uh, myself and hillary are lucky um because, like we're like we're, basically with each other all day, every every day, so like it's not like, you know like he fell at luck. I was like wow. How do you guys do that? Well, i'm just saying it's like: if i worked somewhere else and then i we both got home and then she was just on her phone all day, it would be like well, yes i'll beat this out, but like it's like we're just with each other. All the time and we're just constantly putting this energy into this, and you know so it's not like we're away from each other, so it's almost like we're spending time with each other all the time anyway. So that's one good thing, but when we do pick chloe from daycare, i do make sure till 7 30 when she goes to bed like yeah, oh yeah, that's when i play with her and i do stuff. I do yeah so from like 4 30 to 7 30. Every day you don't like. If you reach me you're lucky. No, that's true. I mean that's different, but after that then it's like okay, we'll get some work done, though yeah well, it's either that or we're just watching. Netflix anyways, it's true! It'S true! You know what i'm saying like so i started to once i got my actual retail location. I started to leave like my computer and everything over there. Yes, because i always have my computer home with me, because i was my office was home yeah, so i would just be on my computer until yeah like because you're like so much to do you just like you can't get done, and it's never not going to Be there you're always going to have to do it always going to have to do it, i'm like well, i could get packages done right now at 10 o'clock in the night i've been swatching hockey anyways, so i might as well, but like yeah. No, no! No, just like you know, watch tv read a book, do whatever yeah yeah. Absolutely you need to take more time for self-care. One thousand percent come to pure bliss. Come get blessed, get your ass bees up here. This is an ad and we've been really busy with aspie's lately yeah i put that video up of her hair and like we get so many messages and chris and meyer are booked and now brad brand is getting booked. That'S awesome! Yeah! It'S non-stop yeah, it's so cool. I love it yeah. Every time i get on my phone, it's like someone else, i'm like whoa, that's amazing. We probably have have many consults scheduled like at least one. Oh, my god, i lost track. I love that yeah. Well, it's exciting yeah cool. So what are your plans and goals moving forward as a company yeah, so i just opened a retail store on topsail road, so 653 topsail road uh. So you pop in check us out so right now. I am spending a lot of time there. Of course we do ship all over north america. We have salons down in the states down in the uk who use aspie, that's exciting yeah. So that's pretty cool, so yeah yeah, so we ship out all over north america. So right now, it's nice because we have a little shipping hub too right. So it's a retail store, slash! I ship out of there yeah um, so yeah continue to grow the brand in terms of i kind of wanted to be a household name across canada to begin with, where, if you walk into a salon, you know the same way if someone walks in right now, It says great lens: everyone knows where everyone else is yeah. I wanted to be that way with aspie, so yeah just continuing to work at it every single day to continue to watch it grow organically, but yeah more salons. I want our education platform to grow, we're hoping to do like an online education platform where people all over the world can access the education and stuff you like that online. I don't teach no um dominique. Actually she is a new shooter. She does a lot of our teaching. Okay, i knew she talked about when it comes to the pre-recorded videos, so dominique will probably do the keratin tip one, but with like the hand-tied wefts and stuff, i have um there's a stylist down in california. I have lined up to do it down there. I'M excited. Oh, that's, cool, yeah, she's, she's, amazing contacts all over the world just reach out to them on instagram and make connections. Yeah yeah, it's cool. Everyone says, do that right, i'm getting so inspired like. I can't even imagine anybody else. Well, the worst thing can happen. Is they don't reply? They don't reply yeah exactly and they might check it, but they might not. But you get this word, oh well, they don't reply or realize. Yeah they've probably never seen it because it goes into like the product messages right like it happens, a lot yeah yeah, i'm on a ton of like facebook groups and stuff too for stylists and extension artists and stuff like that. So i just network with people that way too. It'S all about networking, more people. You know the better yeah okay. So what has been the hardest part as a female business owner, mm-hmm right, um yeah, i think well, obviously being a mom as well definitely fits into that um. You know like, like you, said, trying to make separate time for it all right. How do you do it all? Also i find when i first had aspen. It was she's born june 3rd in 2019.. I was in the middle of my wedding season with my bridal business um i hadn't launched. They asked me yet. I didn't launch. Ask me until november, so i was just doing the bridal at that point and i had. I think it was like 80 weddings or something booked that year and i had a newborn baby um. So what was i going to do with all these 80 brides? So i went back to work like two weeks after i had aspen. Now, it's not you know 9-5 or 40 hours a week. It'S just like a saturday but we're like. But at that point it's like thursday, friday saturday and i had no idea - was like to stay up all night long with a screaming baby and not go to sleep and then and then go to work and a wedding is not something where you can kind of Just get through it, you got to be on you're on someone's wedding day yeah yeah yeah can't come in sick god, no yeah, so that was really difficult. Um! Sorry, no, my mom called she's, probably gon na call me. Oh, my mom is definitely counting like 15 tons like where are you sorry go ahead, uh yeah? Where was i so yeah? I was working weddings doing all that stuff um and then, when i did launch assby it was in november. So aspen was five months old. Then - and i would take this newborn baby with me - do shipments. She was at the post office with me constantly like the girls at the post office, love her um. It'S so sweet, it's sweet but like it's difficult too so yeah yeah, but i did find, like i always would say to my husband like because if he had a baby with him while working it would be like. Oh my god, super dive. You know whatever yeah. They would get more credit, they would get more credit, so um, you know you don't really get that as a woman. No, you don't it's very expected to do it you're expected, so they expect you to be an amazing mom, be an amazing business owner. I would be available for everyone, so that's it can be difficult for sure, um and yeah. We often don't get the credit. We deserve no um but yeah. I just make it work. I don't know how i have no idea. So the answer your question. I have no clue all you can do is get up every day and do your best just do my best yeah. That'S all you can absolutely yeah yeah, that's incredible! In five months from having a newborn yeah, she did 80 weddings and yeah instagram supermom. That is incredible. Hashtag supermom see these are things that nobody knows. No one knows no like my friends and family, i guess, but the general public exactly so. This is why i like we're super excited for this podcast to get everyone on and tell their story, and it might make everyone understand like what really goes into all this totally yeah inspire people yeah. I hope so yeah all right. That'S pretty much all the questions. I had there hillary. Can you think of anything that i missed? I think you covered it all. Do you have anything? Do you have anything that you might want to add? I don't think so anything possibly coming up soon, that no one knows about a little little preview, a little, not anything yeah, i'm like. No, i don't think so. Okay, we just restacked the store yesterday, or i did so there's that do you plan to have a bigger warehouse in newfoundland, yeah and like have a huge that yeah yeah i would love to so that is your goal. Yeah. Of course, i would love to have yeah just keep growing and have a massive warehouse where you know there's just shipment and handling, and then we still have a retail store and i would like to actually eventually have like asp stores all over canada and yeah things. Like that are all over north well, i find one it's more easily accessed, especially for like our clients, especially when i noticed like if it's here, that's, why i've been doing big work if it's here and they come in for a consult and the hair. Is there and they see it and you bring it out and they're like okay yeah, i'm gon na get it now absolutely yeah. We need to stand it's absolutely crazy, so, like i'm gon na get one, i was at the point where everything was in my house. So it was like a warehouse slash office. We had nowhere to eat supper because our table, my husband, was like. Why is there so much hair on my clothes, i'm like getting used to it, yeah yeah but yeah? So i was looking for an office space actually and then, when i seen this space that i'm in right now, it's like. I really should do a retail little retail, store and um. I think my trail, my sales have like tripled this month since the retail store it makes a big difference. Yeah incredible yeah, it's crazy! It'S absolutely crazy. It'S amazing all right guys, so that wraps up this episode with allison kent uh, we and she answered all the questions we had for her. If you have any other questions that we missed, leave some comments down below and also we're going to pick last week's winner of the giveaway just give me a second here, got the youtube random comment: picker! Oh, that's: cool, okay, okay, roger vardy, congratulations! This is actually you're my aunt yeah yeah. Congratulations! Heather! You won the gift card. Welcome today, yeah, okay, so we're going to do another giveaway this week, we're going to give away a 100 aspie gift card and free installation of aspyhair extensions. All you have to do is leave a comment down below like the video and share it with a friend that needs to see it and make sure you're subscribed. Yes, thank you allison. Thank you for having me all right. Thanks, guys see you in the next one. Bye peace, thumbnails are always funny as hell because you got ta make it like. Oh, you got ta be like interesting, like you can't just be like hi. I know. Okay, you just look at the camera and, like i don't know like do something yeah, it's perfect. I know that she's trying not to laugh and that's making me laugh. Oh it's wicked: okay, okay, okay,