Crystal Assad

I would say resilience has been essential. It's been the thing that has gotten me going. There were lots of obstacles along the way. Our unit was the first to open in two buildings that were held up with red tape with the city, and I don't think that's a coincidence. I think it was a lot of persistence and resilience to ensure that we opened up. I don't take it lightly leading the team. We've had ladies hired since October, so it wasn't just for me and my family, but for them as well, to get us open as soon as possible, and that became the charge. My faith is a real thing, and then just a strong support system. In times like this, you kind of realize all the resources that are there, and I really appreciate my support system for pushing me on and keeping me going on days when I'm like, maybe it's just me. They're saying, no, you gotta keep going, you're so close, you're doing great. Without that, I would have quit.

I think one of the biggest challenges for me in this role is that I don't have any business partners, which is very unusual. I haven't met anybody that's doing this alone in the way that I'm doing it. And to be transparent, I'm a single mom, so by definition, I'm not supposed to be doing this. It took a really, really long time to get going. When I signed the lease, it was grass. There was no sign of a building except for a lease sign. I had to wait for the whole build-out of the building, and then that had delays, and then my own build-out, and then even when we finished building out, there were hiccups with the city. You have a plan A, B, C, but then when you have to pull out plan V by yourself, it makes things challenging. I'm self-funded, and that was how I set out, but I had to later on in the process reach out for capital, which is not how the process is supposed to work. Investors want to get involved before you make decisions, not after. Managing people and keeping the team motivated and engaged in the vision when there were so many delays was another challenge. We had 2 weeks of training where people had to be here 8 to 5, and for some people, this is not their only job, so they're taking off work for 2 weeks, and then it's moving, and then it's moving again. Finding the words to keep the team engaged and saying please don't quit, I'm serious this time, we're really gonna open - that was a challenge. We did lose a few that just couldn't take off from their job again. We're rebuilding now, now that we're open and we can do it on our own, in our own way, training and recruiting. Hopefully we'll be in a strong place as we get all of this traffic for FIFA and summer.

My first thought is to separate professional and personal values, but I don't even know that I can. I really consider it an honor and make it a purpose when I'm managing a team of people. Even as a young analyst in corporate America, it was always so essential to be a good leader and learn how to be a good leader even before I got there. I think we all are where we are for a reason. It's not beyond selling lashes, right? When you're in this position, you're impacting lives, you're living day-to-day with a group of people, so it's always an opportunity to impact someone's life. I never took that for granted. I once did a presentation when I was at Coke just going through my career and all the people that impacted along the way, and it was just a good moment to think back to those moments. But not just the people that poured into you - you have the opportunity to pour into someone, to say something kind, or do the thing in the right way. That could be a pivotal moment for someone else. So that's super important, and that kind of leads to my faith, which is personal, but again, I believe in being where you are for a reason. Even all of the little things along the way build so that you can have that impact that you're intended to have when you're next to someone. I have a financial background and a business background, so I bring that lens and natural curiosity. I've worked on a lot of projects that had an entrepreneurial spirit, so I bring a lot of that with me. Process is important to me, so even here, it may seem silly to some, but I try to map out our processes - on this day, we focus on social, on this day, we focus on inventory, scheduling, clients, promotional calendars. All of that background kind of funnels through and shows up even here.