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Lisa Latimer 0:02

Welcome to personal growth, lifestyle, real talk real results. I’m your host, Lisa Latimer, self-awareness coach helping ambitious women stop running on autopilot, break free from their limiting belief systems so they can create the fulfillment they crave in life and business. So today I have a very special guest on I have none other than my own cousin. She knew me when my mother used to cut my hair up to my neck and my father used to pick it out with a pic and I had a little Afro running around. So please welcome my cousin Tasha Thompson Vassar, who is talking about trusting God’s timing In business. How are you my dear?

Tysha Thomason-Vassor 1:02

I’m doing good. How are you?

Lisa Latimer 1:05

Oh, I am doing so well. And the reason I have you on today is because, you know, as I’ve started, really going more in-depth with my faith journey and getting into the Bible.  I know that trusting in God’s timing can be difficult. And you know, you starting your business, you’ve done some things that I find incredibly inspiring. Your faith has been an inspiration to me, your entrepreneurship, and your faith, not only in God but in yourself is also really inspirational to me. And I know that right now, with COVID going on. And with so many businesses that we hear, having gone under or just facing incredible hardships, your story is incredibly inspirational right now. And yeah, and we’re gonna discuss some of the things that you’ve gone through that your faith is getting you through, as well as the concept of work-life balance because you’re, you’re being tested right now, just like myself and so many other moms out there with businesses and children, and either homeschooling or distance learning. So we’re gonna get into all of that today.

So let me just start this off by saying, you did something that not triggered me, it triggered a bit of like, fear in me, but then a lot of Wow, a lot of all me, and that is that you have been doing hair for years going to client’s homes. And you’ve created a wonderful business for yourself. Yes, you decided to open a brick-and-mortar salon, in the middle of the COVID pandemic, when people are talking tale or just financially forced to have to shut their doors. And here you are going right in. Tell us a little bit about how you came to the decision to open your salon. And timing and the time.

Tysha Thomason-Vassor 2:57

Okay, well, um, I wanted to open a salon, I’ve been wanting to open one, it just was never, in my mind the perfect timing. And so I actually started working for a dental company back in, I want to say 2019. And when I did, I was there and I was like, You know what, I’m going to save up every little penny that I got. And I’m going to open a salon and 2020 That’s the goal. And you know, God works in mysterious ways. This company started doing massive layoffs. And I got laid off, right, the week of Thanksgiving, I got laid off, right. And I was not sure what I wanted to do. But I was like, You know what, I’m not looking for another job. Because if I do, then I’m at their mercy when they want to get rid of me when they want to downsize the company or when they want to pay me less and pay some, you know, they’ll get they’ll just terminate me

I win. And I was actually in the process of finishing a book that I was writing. And I went to the beach, and I just sat there. And I was like, You know what, I’m going to open a salon, I’m going to look for the salon. And even that I had my own distinct area where I wanted to look and I’m riding around looking. And my best friend who went with me, she sent me the list of numbers of places that I was looking to rent. And the next day, she’s like, well, where are you going to go? I said, I’m getting dressed. And I’m going to go down to Linden hearse by the lawyers’ office. And she’s like, what, why are you going there?

I’m like, I just feel led to go down there. Right, right. So I got dressed and I drove and I’m driving and I’m like, Okay, okay, Lord, where am I going? Where am I going? I’m still driving. And finally, I come to the underpass. And I see for rent signs on this dis building, and I’m like, Oh, I’m gonna take the number down. Right. And I took the number down and I was instacart.

And at the time as well, so to bring in some income because I didn’t have an income anymore. So I was instacart ing. So I clicked on my phone for instacart. And then I called the landlord. And he was like, Yes, it’s still for rent. And he told me the price that it was I thought he said something else. And I said, Are you serious? And he said, but don’t worry, it includes everything. And I was like, okay, but what did you say it was? And when he told me the rent immediately, I was like, I think I want this place. I want it. But I want it to be God-led, you know, Spirit-led? Yes. And actually, that’s when I was like, Okay, I want to go look, me and my husband went and looked at it. And he’s like, we got to take it. We have to take it. I was like, well, we’re taking nothing if God don’t tell me we not taking it, no matter how good it sounds, right. But I knew it was mine. I knew I knew automatically that this shop was mine. Hence now we’re in 2020. You know, we signed the lease in February 2020. I’m like, Okay, I’m going to do my grand opening in April that give us time to organize and fix up the shop and boom, the pandemic happens. Yes, yes.

We’re responsible for, you know, a mortgage we’re responsible for. ran at a shop because Mind you, I signed the lease in February, everything shuts down, and March, yes. And it’s just like, Okay, now we’re out of work. Everybody’s out. My husband gets put out of work. I’m like, Okay, what am I going to do now, because I’m not instant carding as much even though instant carding was major. I’m not doing it now. Because it’s like, okay, you get the risk of getting COVID. Right, which, which my family does get in March, we, we all con Well, I contracted my husband. They told him it was the flu, but I contracted COVID. And now we’re just, you know, I’m like, Okay, well, we still have a shop, we still have to open. Right. And I don’t want to say it was a blessing in disguise, because so many people lost their lives, right, with the extra money that we were able to bring in from unemployment, and I was able to furnish the shop the way we want, we were gonna furnish it anyway.

Right. But we didn’t have to pull, you know, from other areas, we were able to furnish the shop the way I desired to. And our landlord was phenomenal. He was like, pay me what you can if you can pay me if you can’t pay me, don’t worry about it. The building is still it’s still yours. Wow, he understands. And then finally, when it was time for everything to reopen, I was like, oh, we’re just gonna open. We’re, we’re gonna open in July, we’re gonna open up. Right, right. And that’s what, that’s what we did. We opened up in July, when everything was starting to reopen. I was like, we’re gonna, we’re just gonna move forward. But it was it was very scary.

Lisa Latimer 7:48

Were there any moments where you where you said to yourself, there’s this funny meme? And it kind of reminded me of you because it’s like a little kid going down a slide. And he’s like, bracing himself and trying to stop. And it says, what, when some something to the effect of when God is telling you to go a certain way. You’re like, I don’t know about. Did you have one of those moments,

Tysha Thomason-Vassor 8:10

Absolutely. I from the moment I signed the lease, I had those moments. For one, I had to say, God, me a business owner. You know, we come from a family of workers. We’re hard workers, you know, not that we don’t have entrepreneur in our entrepreneurship in our blood, right? But

we’re hard workers we know to secure a job that has good benefits, that’s going to pay the bills, not really pushed to follow your purpose and your dreams. It’s kind of, you know, do what you know, to do, not what you desire to do. Right. And so I was fearful the whole time, especially when it was time to open because I’m like, What am I doing? There’s, there’s a barbershop. That’s next door to me. That was seven days a week and now he’s closed. I can walk past all the stores that was in my little Plaza. They’re all closed, but I’m gonna open up along with my landlord.

We’re gonna we’re gonna open right? I was like, God, no, and then no fear came in of oh my goodness, Lord, am I gonna? Am I gonna make enough money to cover the full amount of the rent now? Because before like I said, My landlords like, pay me what you can so you get accustomed to that, you know, now it’s like, No, you got to pay this full amount. And I’m like, Lord, am I gonna? What if because people are scared people don’t want to go out people don’t want to come in. Right? Though we desire these services. People don’t want that. So I What am I doing? This is not the right thing to do.

Lisa Latimer 9:44

But you did it anyway. Yes. What do you think if you could sometimes, you know, something motivates us and we can’t quite put it into words. Maybe we haven’t even fully tapped into it yet. But if you had to, to say like, well, this is what It kept me going even in those moments of being scared. What do you think one or maybe even a few things that it boiled down to that you were like, I’m scared. This is crazy. But okay, I’m gonna do it anywa