.jpg)
3 Keys for Your Journey
Business and Community Leaders sharing key principles.
3 Keys for Your Journey
Unlocking Entrepreneurial Potential through Faith and Collaboration with Roshonda Coleman
Meet Roshonda Coleman, the trailblazing owner of Anointed Hands Express Blowout Boutique, as she joins us to share her unique approach to beauty and empowerment in Oklahoma City. Roshonda's salon is more than just a place for hair; it's a sanctuary of encouragement and renewal, where clients experience a transformative atmosphere filled with gospel music and camaraderie. Discover how Rashonda's textured blow-dry bar, the first and only of its kind in the area, creates an intentional space for women to leave feeling better than they arrived.
In our engaging conversation, Roshonda reveals the three core values that underpin her entrepreneurial journey: God, unity, and collaboration. She opens up about the vital role her faith plays in steering her business through challenges, such as successfully establishing her salon in a bustling mall. From building community to fostering teamwork, Roshonda offers valuable insights that resonate with fellow entrepreneurs and community leaders. Join us to learn from Roshonda's wisdom and experiences, as she imparts lessons on unlocking potential and achieving success in both personal and professional realms.
Thank you for listening! YouTube - @3KeysforYourJourney -Tune in for a new episode every Sunday. Connect with us at www.ocfo.info
Are you ready to unlock your potential? Tune in to Three Keys for your Journey podcast, where business owners share invaluable insights and empowering strategies to guide you towards success. Based in Oklahoma City, our host, Greg T Jones, will inspire and motivate you every week. Get ready to join our conversation as we build community together.
Speaker 2:Good afternoon Rashonda. How are you today? I'm well, thank you.
Speaker 3:All right.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you for joining our podcast today. Thank you for having me. Rashonda. Now come on. You're a special lady now. We've been knowing each other for a few years now, so it is believed it is my honor to have you on to the podcast today. So I mean, for our listening audience, tell us a little bit about you, who you are, your business, give us a little bit about you who you are, your business?
Speaker 3:Give us a little information, okay, well, I'm Rashonda Coleman. I'm owner and founder of Anointed Hands Express Blowout Boutique. We are Oklahoma's first and only textured blow-dry bar. We are located inside of Penn Square Mall. We specialize in the 90-minute or less silk press. We've just added a new component, the wash-and and go component. There are some things in the pipeline which I don't want to share too soon, but basically still in the arena of beauty, community and just, I guess, building women.
Speaker 2:Okay Now you mentioned building women. You got to tell us a little bit more about that.
Speaker 3:I think ever since I got into doing hair, when I first knew this is something that I wanted to do, the thing that stuck out to me is when women sit in my chair. I mean nothing towards me, but I just love the fact that I had the opportunity to let them leave better than when they came in, love the fact that I had the opportunity to let them leave better than when they came in, not just on the natural sense, but people go through things and they sit in that chair and they just kind of let it all hang out and I think by nature God has made me an encourager, so I can't see someone going through something and then they leave in that state. So the best that I can, I'd love to encourage people so that when they leave they feel restored, whole and, in a sense, like they're built.
Speaker 2:Now, a lot of people don't know this, but I've been to your shop a few times. You walk in, there's music playing, there's an atmosphere that you try to create.
Speaker 3:Tell us about the atmosphere you try to create in your salon Absolutely Pretty much the same. It's again like the church says you don't want to leave the same way you came, and so women come. They think they're coming to get their hair done. But it is our goal that something, they leave with something, whether it is something from the gospel music that's playing or just sensing the camaraderie and the unity amongst the ladies there. Yeah, we don't want to stress you out and pull from you. We want to give to you.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, this podcast obviously was created with one really mission in mind. It was to interview community leaders like yourself, business owners like yourself, people that are our inspiration in our local community and really share with us. I call them keys, but three keys values, things that you have learned over your life that you've experienced. Values, things that you have learned over your life that you've experienced. I'd love to ask you that question what are three things that you can share in our listening audience, that you can impart with them?
Speaker 3:Yeah. Well, on this journey, one thing that I've learned well, three things that I've learned that are important is, first of all, god, second, unity and third, collaboration.
Speaker 2:Okay, Now I feel like the church is about to say amen here. So you said number one is God. You have to elaborate what do you mean by that.
Speaker 3:I can't do anything without him and I'm learning that more and more. We know from the general sense that we need him, but this journey of entrepreneurship has taught me how much more I need him. I leaked out on nothing for us to be in the mall and it has taken everything that he has provided for us to be there and that way he can get the total glory. It's also I don't know, it's a reflective tool. It's growing me as a leader of women. It's growing me in the sense of learning how to be wise in certain situations, things that I know that God is doing. And, yeah, every day I feel like every day here lately, I'm like Lord, I don't know what I'm doing, but it's not a bad thing Like, show me how to do this, show me how to walk this out, show me how to encourage, show me how to lead, show me how to do the money, show me how to market everything. There's no area that I feel that I can be trusted to do on my own. And even if there's a natural talent, if you will, it still came from God and if I move in that natural talent without realizing that God has been the one who gives. I've seen where you know because you can get in a rhythm. You can get in a rhythm where you're like, oh, I got this.
Speaker 3:This part is easy and it's more like a secondary arrogance. It's not good, but you know, when you get the things seem like they're easy to do, you do them. And God has reminded me in this journey. That girl you know you need me, right has reminded me in this journey. That girl you know you need me, right. You know you have to ask me to help you. I don't care how easy I've allowed it to be, he will gently remind me or us that we need him. So that's what I mean by God is the first principle. It starts and begins and ends with him.
Speaker 2:Wow, and it's sustained by him. Wow, I told you the church was going to say amen. Thank you for sharing that. It's interesting how you listed that Number one. It seems like I'm sure everything else outside of that follows after that.
Speaker 3:What was the second?
Speaker 3:thing, the second is unity as it pertains to the salon. It's one thing I tell the girls is there are no superstars at the salon. We move as a unit. We are our sister's keeper. If somebody comes in and they have somebody sitting, it is an expectation that we help our sister out. We have a promise to our clients that we need to get them in and out and that's what we told them.
Speaker 3:So if someone's behind, we don't look at the fact that, well, that's not my client, that's yours, that is our client. It is our commitment to the community and to the women that we serve. It is our commitment to come with a pleasant attitude. It is our commitment, yeah, to serve, and so we can't serve being selfish, because if you serve yourself, then nobody else is touched. So unity is so important to me. If something is out of rhythm, you'll see it. I mean, it just breaks up, it breaks up the power. So, yeah, I'm beginning to see how important it is, and even in my personal life I'm an only child, so naturally it's easy for me to think selfishly. I'm an only child, so naturally it's easy for me to think selfishly. And so I'm starting to see, even also in my personal life, like you weren't thinking about nobody but you right here, and being able to see how it can affect the units and the bodies that I'm a part of. And so, yeah, I'm learning that unity is so powerful.
Speaker 2:Wow, and it sounds like you know, just as you're communicating, that what comes to my mind is you're setting were all in a canoe and we were trying to row across the lake. We all can't be paddling in different directions, so it sounds like what you've created and what you've instilled and what you've demonstrated as an example is, if we are all moving in that same unison ie unity we can achieve so much more.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Wow, what's the third thing?
Speaker 3:The third thing is collaboration. When I first well, I've been doing hair for about 24 years now, but when we first got this actual concept, I had someone in the community tell me about how important it is to collaborate with other businesses and I mean that just kind of woke me up. I mean I had never thought about that because I was just a stylist in a suite and it was just me. So being in this place where now I have women who are depending on the salon to pay their bills and things like that, it caused me again to go back to you know that not being selfish mindset. And then, when we were in such the couple of times that you know we came close to closing, you know you cannot, you cannot be powerful unless you. When I say powerful, I mean you cannot be potent and be used by God unless you have been in the place to create a connection with people that you want to connect with. And so the fact that we almost lost the shop twice, I can identify better with people. I can connect better with people because I can feel the pain. I know what it feels like as a business owner. A lot of times family can't really understand. You know they want to help, but they don't know. They just don't know how to help. And so being in that place, that we were in it helped me to understand that it's not just us that's going through, or me going through as an entrepreneur, me going through as an entrepreneur we're not alone. And so that gave me this sense of again, outside of myself, how can I help someone else? It might not be a whole bunch that we can do, but whatever we can do, so we intentionally do, like the collaborations, like pop-ups at the shop Okay, you don't have a lease at the mall, we do. So come to the mall, no charge. Come, let's share our platform. And then also, when you come, I'm encouraging our platform please patronize these individuals, because this is how they're feeding their families, and I know how it felt when people helped us.
Speaker 3:You feel seen because, again, you can feel so alone, and so it could just touch your heart to know that someone understands, like I want my product to get out here, I want my service to get out here, but I feel like I'm screaming into nothing and nobody can see me, or everybody's screaming, because you know we've got a lot of businesses, especially since COVID, that have shown up. So it's a sea of things out there. So how do I get my voice heard? And so I don't know.
Speaker 3:God just kind of makes people apparent to me like, oh, do you want to come to the shop? You know just. However, we can help, come to the shop and do a pop up. Or sometimes other founders will come and call and say have you ever been through this? And that feels good because, yeah, when you're going through something you feel so alone and you feel like sometimes a failure. But when God brings you out it's oh, that was a purpose, there was a purpose for that. And so you feel good about the purpose, because then you can go take that, you understand the pain and you can tell them it won't stay that way. And then you can encourage someone else and say listen, hold on, hold on, hold on, so that collaboration well, I will, I will, I will attest for our listening audience.
Speaker 2:this is one thing you do a great job of. Um, I seem like I see something almost all the time on your social media channels where you are publicizing or you attend some event or some other businesses there at your shop and you're putting their information out there. And I love that philosophy, roshanda, because it lets us know that you know, together we can really achieve more. And I love what you said about our platform, using our platform to be able to uplift, to encourage, and thank you for describing that the way you did describe that. So thank you for those three things. Now, there's always something I always ask all of our folks to come on to the show. One question so recently you were at a pop-up with my wife and y'all were at a flower tell, tell us about what that was. I just know she came home with a bouquet of flowers it was called taste and bloom by christy penalty.
Speaker 3:Am I pronouncing that last night, correct? Um and oh man, it was such a wonderful experience. I really enjoyed that. So what she did is she brought together the experience really of the senses, the taste and the smell and the touch. So she had a charcuterie board that has influence, that had influences of floral, like floral influences. So there were almonds that were infused with rosemary or things like that, so it's joining flour. I guess arranging with you know the taste and the palate and it's something dainty that women like to do, you know.
Speaker 3:And we had fun and it was more than the fun, the fellowship. We sat there and just I feel like I know your wife better because of that fellowship time. And it's just good to come together, especially for women, because naturally women have the. I guess, when you think about it, a lot of women have a catty mindset, they can't really come together. So I enjoy coming to places where we can identify together as women and come together and support and uplift each other and I think what Christy has going is so superb. So the next time she has that, whoever's listening, please support. It was beautiful.
Speaker 2:Wow, we'll make sure we have to have her on one of our guests on the show. So to end our time together, this has been absolutely wonderful. I'd love for you if you would just kind of come back around to your business. How can people get in contact with you? How can they reach you? How can they support you? Can you just provide us with a little bit of that information?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Thank you for the opportunity On social media Anointed Hands Express Blowout Boutique on Facebook, on Instagram and TikTok. We are anointedhands underscore products. The way you can support us is come to the shop. If you can't come, share one of our posts, let people know that we're here and just visit the page see what we're talking about. And yeah, that's the best way.
Speaker 2:So for our listening audience, you might be listening to us around the world. If you're ever in Oklahoma City, you want to look up Anointed Hands. Rashonda Coleman, Thank you so much for being here on our show today. It's been a pleasure to get a chance to visit with you and thank you for sharing your wisdom.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Thank you, Greg, for having me.
Speaker 1:Thanks for joining Three Keys for your Journey. Tune in next time for another episode.
