Today we’d like to introduce you to Sade Lee.
Hi Sade, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was born in Hampton, Virginia during Hurricane Floyd on September 15, 1999 on Langley Air Force Base, coming in the world with a bang! My dad was in the Air Force and with that it granted me the opportunity to move around when I was growing up. Living in Virginia then Arizona in the earliest parts of my childhood to then moving to England at age ten and moved once more to Japan at age 14 until I was 19. Living overseas was a blessing within itself; being fully immersed in different cultures, traveling the world, and experiencing different walks of life led me to appreciate all that the world has to offer besides tangible items. But like anything growing up as a military kid had its pros and cons. I never lived anywhere longer than five years, living overseas for nearly 10 years I missed out on family reunions, growing up with the same friends throughout high school, and different classes/sports that are easily accessible here in the States and the opportunities you had from that. I went to high school in Misawa, Japan which is a very small town way up north of Japan to put into perspective it’s a 10-hour bus ride from Tokyo aka I was in the country. Surrounded by nothing but rice fields and trees it was a beautiful city to say the least but not many opportunities. I didn’t go to a Japanese high school but instead, I went to a DOD high school on base which again was very small my graduating class was only 42 people. So this made it easy for everyone to know everyone.
When I wasn’t in school or playing sports my free time was just spent on watching YouTube videos on everything makeup-related. I loved watching the process of my mom getting ready and doing her makeup for any event, but I wasn’t allowed to wear it unless it was a special occasion or until I turned 16. But one thing about it I would still spend my babysitting money on makeup and practice doing different looks at home. Once my first homecoming came around I had asked my mom if I could get my makeup done and she told me no and that I could do it myself. This really motivated me to make sure I practiced my look so I wasn’t going to be looking crazy to my first school dance. Once homecoming came around I did my makeup I got so many compliments on how everything turned out that girls started asking me to do their makeup. Initially just started off with doing some of my friend’s makeup in school here and there but nothing serious so I thought. Once I graduated high school I thought I wanted to be a nutritionist and my mom was nervous about me moving to the States by myself to start college so she convinced me to stay and start online my first year. Realized very quickly online schooling is not for me but also too I didn’t think the field was really for me. I had a friend that had sat me down and was being real and had told me “Sadé I really don’t see you being a nutritionist I mean you eat good, but that’s not your passion. The only thing I see you get excited about is makeup. I think you should be a makeup artist.” This conversation really had me thinking cause I loved doing makeup on others but thought there’s so many makeup artists in the world but not many where I was at. So my friend let me use her as practice and every Saturday night for three months straight I would do a different type of makeup look on her and took pictures of every look.
Once I started looking back and seeing how much progress I was making I went all in. I had some money from graduation gifts saved up and used that to order my whole makeup kit. Sadly where I lived we didn’t have any Ulta, Sephora, and definitely not a beauty supply store. Nonetheless got my kit together and was brainstorming what my brand name would be then Slay by Sadé was born in 2018. I started advertising my services on base and was getting bookings for major events like prom, Christmas parties, Air Force ball, weddings, etc. It was a huge blessing for me and had me excited to see what else entrepreneurship had to offer.
In 2019 my dad decided he was going to retire after 20 years in the military and that we were going to move back home (aka where my dad is from) to Atlanta, Georgia. It was very nerve recking moving back to the States after being gone for 10 years and to move to a big city from being in the country was a super culture shock. I ended up getting a job at Kohls but was wanting to start my business back up but didn’t know where exactly I should start. So I decided, why not go to school to be an esthetician if I know more about the skin, I can be an even better makeup artist, and it’s new skills I can add to my repertoire. So I enrolled at Atlanta Beauty and Barber Academy which was quite the experience to say the least. Having teachers quit a couple weeks at a time to then the last four months was filled with us teaching ourselves as a class and coming in extra days to hurry and finish our hours to be done with the bs the school offered. Finished, then passed my exams, and ended up with a job at Stonecrest Mall at a makeup bar doing makeup while still working at Kohls part time. This was a different experience for me since the mall you have all different types of people coming in wanting different looks or different events going on and having to work in a fast-paced environment, but ya girl was keeping up. I only worked there a few months before I got the opportunity that would change my whole journey around. I had a friend that referred me to their roommate who was hiring for this new plastic surgery office that had just opened. She hired me on initially to be a receptionist until they got their esthetics department together, then they’d transfer me over to that side. I was just excited for the opportunity, but I knew nothing about surgery and didn’t even know what all even goes into it but hey ya girl is a fast learner.
So I really only worked the front desk maybe 2/3 weeks before being asked “Hey can we train you in post-op because we’re short-staffed and need more therapists?” I told them sure, but I honestly didn’t know how I was going to feel about being around blood. Once actually working with the patients, I completely fell in love with everything about the job. The fact that I was in the position of taking care of people was beyond rewarding but truly fulfilling. I went from patients not knowing me to having patients requesting to see me. It was an amazing job, I’m seeing clients at different stages of their healing process, doing manual drainages, re-bandaging their incisions, and performing their massages. I loved taking care of the clients but slowly but surely started falling out of love for where I was working at. I was working six days a week from open to close, I had lost a lot of weight because I was running off of one meal, a smoothie, and some snacks every day since they were overbooking us. Rules started to change after having a couple of times of a whole waiting room of clients saying they’re waiting only just to see me, and mind you we get paid per person. When they said you can no longer request a therapist my clients were not having it I’m talking about cussing out the manager and all. This was really the first time I saw I have people who really trust me and believe in me to be the only one to take care of them which made me feel good but put me in a conflicting place on where do I go from here. Many of my clients were encouraging me that I could run a mobile post-op business that I didn’t need to stay at the surgery office and didn’t need to work not nearly as hard. The idea of this was intriguing but also nerve-wracking at the same time I was only 21, just finally moved out of the house, and bought a new car. But one day I had told my coworker that the job was starting to get too much and that I was thinking about leaving didn’t know when but just thinking about it.
Little did I know that she was going to tell my manager this, and then one day, I came into work and my manager called me in the office and said, “I heard you were putting your two-week notice in is this true?” I had never even said those words at all, but in that moment I took it as a sign from God as confirmation that it was my time to go and that I can do it on my own. So I told her I never said that but ya I’ll put my two-week notice in, and in those two weeks, I told all my clients, got their information, ordered my table and machine to travel with so that by the time the two weeks was up I celebrated me leaving, and the next week I had a full schedule of clients I was traveling to! This was the first time me working solely for myself no side jobs just my business and it felt so rewarding. I worked mobile for about nine months before getting my suite so that I could officially offer all of my services in one space makeup, esthetics, and post-op care. My journey is far from over but has been such a blessing; every time people ask me what made me choose this field, I let it be known it chose me, and I’ve done nothing but put my faith in God for him to just show me my purpose I bring here in this thing we call life.
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?
Being an entrepreneur is definitely not easy nor for the weak. Especially being in a service-based industry there was so much I didn’t know until experiencing it firsthand. Initially, I didn’t realize you got to be on top of your scheduling or else you can accidentally double-book or make simple mistakes. You’re the one in charge of your marketing, finances, inventory, and all while also performing the services too. Initially, my clients were all mobile and once I got my suite they still wanted to be mobile so my first two months was me paying weekly rent out of my pockets aka an expense that you’re paying and I’m losing money cause of it. I knew but didn’t fully understand the importance of keeping up with all of your receipts, even on gas for when tax season comes, it’ll make it easier on yourself. But with every obstacle came with learning lessons to grow from and to share with others so they don’t have to make the same mistakes. In my eyes, every challenge was worth it.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I am a Post-Op Specialist, licensed esthetician and massage therapist, and makeup artist. I specialize and am known for offering everything post-op related. My experience working in the surgery office, I’ve seen a little bit of everything; I got to work with the doctors one on one to fully understand all that goes into the surgery, why patients experience different things in their postoperative journey, and what all they should do to maximize their results. Not only did I get the experience and training at the surgery office I just recently got back from a training in Colombia, and I am now also Colombian certified in Post-Op & Wood therapy. I’m proud of my journey so far but I’m excited to take you all with me to where I am going because trust and believe there’s a lot more in store of what’s to come! I offer a variety of services from lymphatic drainage massage, wood therapy, facials, a variety of massages, makeup services, and more. My motto is Self-care isn’t selfish; it’s how we Slay! Self-care is essential if you are not going to take care of you how do you expect someone else to even know how to take care of you?
How do you think about luck?
I don’t necessarily believe in luck. Since I was young I always believed and understood that everything happens for a reason which includes all the good and bad things that happen in life. Once faced with different traumas in my childhood that made me truly question not only my core belief of everything happens for a reason but even God on why did you put me through these things? It wasn’t until I got older and could really sit and ask God for clarity and understanding that I now see why I had to experience all the good and bad in my life. Even making the conscious decision of shifting my mindset from thinking these things happened to me, but that it actually happened for me. Just this mental shift alone brought so much more peace to my mind but changed my outlook of the present moment of even when things aren’t going right there’s always a deeper purpose that I just might not see in that very moment. With this, I take this same concept in all aspects of my life including my business. I’ve had certain opportunities arise that put me in different rooms around like-minded people that blessed me with more opportunities. I’ve also had some opportunities fall through and instead of being bummed about it I just know and understand that all that is for me will be and all that isn’t for me won’t happen because it wasn’t supposed to. So to fully answer the question all the good and bad that has happened has been more than worth it and I wouldn’t change anything.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.slaybysadellc.com
- Instagram: _slaybysade
- Facebook: Slay by Sade
- Youtube: Sade The Certified Boss
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@sadethecertifiedboss?_t=8gZYfRbPM1i&_r=1
