Meet Tamia Williams of SlayedByTamia

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tamia Williams.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I came from a VERY SMALL town in North GA called Summerville GA, thats where I was raised, I have three older siblings (two sisters – same dad and a brother – same dad and mom). I feel like I had a good childhood my mom was a single mom who worked hard to take care of me and my brother and I will always love her for sacrifice that she made for us. One thing that was instilled in me as a child was the power of God, How to Pray, and how to always trust in him, and even today I still have that mindset. One of the Huge things that happened while I was younger that I would say helped me with discovering who I was and helped with building my self-esteem was when I was diagnosed with bell’s palsy, it literally looked like I had a stroke. During that time I was in 9th grade, and of course beauty was everything, looking fly for school was what everyone wanted to do but for me, it was different because I could look cute but my face was shifted, and it was hard for me to explain to people why my face looked the way it looked, I cried a lot because of that and then one day a girl told me that I needed to fix my face… I refused to let what she or anyone said effect me and from then on I promised myself to rock whatever my face looked like, yes it hurt my feeling but it also taught me that my looks didn’t define who I was, and as long as I know and believe that I was beautiful inside and out thats all that matter.

I feel like that made me mature a lot, I stopped worrying about what others had to say, I walked with my head held high because God wouldn’t put anything on me that I couldn’t bare, eventually it did go away after about a month and a half, my Dr. wasn’t sure if it would go away but that situation is what help build my confidence, before that since I was maybe in 4th or 5th grade I ALWAYS loved to do hair, that was something I was always interested in. I started off by greasing my cousin’s hair, then from there I learn how to apply relaxers and I would relax my own hair, then by like 8th grade I learned to sew by making a pillow in home economic class and I thought sewing weaves can’t be that hard if I could sew a pillow I should be able to sew in weave so that when I started to do sew ins for me and my friends, I had a mini clientele when my senior year came I didn’t know what I should do, go too nursing school or go to hair school. I was working at a nursing as a CNA my senior year and I remember asking my self why I wanted to be a nurse and it was because of the money… thats all and I really really loved to do hair, I remember this patient told me that I shouldn’t go to school to do hair Because I wasn’t going to make any money, that was what made me say I’m going to do this, I’m going to step out on faith and do what I love so I went to school to go hair, I had an older cousin that lived in Carrolton GA, she had always told me that I could come and live with her after I graduated so I hit her up on that offer, she said yes, I applied for West GA tech for cosmetology, I ended up gaining clients there, working while I finished cosmetology school, I was determined to make it.

I also started back YouTube while living with her which is something else I loved to do, I loved doing hair tutorials! After cosmetology school me and my boyfriend that I had met during college had decided to move to Atlanta, so we moved to southwest Atlanta where I worked at a lot of salons, I say maybe 4 or 5 salons, working in salons can be tricky, dealing with different personalities and stuff, I love to do things professional, classy and nice, some places that I worked was total opposite they would play with your money and not pay you right and all kind of stuff, so once I had a pretty steady clientele I went mobile, and I been a mobile stylist ever since and continuing to build my YouTube following (Tamia Lea). I found that being mobile I was able to build my brand, because of the world that we live in today, with all the crazy people I only take clients that are recommended by other clients that I have and its been going great. Now I’m 24, I just had my 1st child, a son seven months ago his name is KAI and O LOVE MOTHERHOOD. I’m engaged to the same guy that I was with when I moved to Atlanta, we’ve been together five years and I’m enjoying having a family and growing my YouTube and my mobile business

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
When I was in school I had ADD (Attention deficit disorder) I had an issue understanding somethings, school wise so I sometimes needed extra help, I struggle in school, as a teen I felt like because of the ADD, life would be harder for me, I felt like I would struggle, but I knew I could do it, once I left high school everything literally got easier, it wasn’t as hard as I thought, I was able to I feel like grow into me, during college some of the pre-work that we had to do was hard, but when applying to college I didn’t put that I had ADD, for a reason so when I had trouble understanding I used Google, I researched words to help me understand and doing that definitely helped me out in life, it wasn’t the worldly things I didn’t understand it was just the schooling, thats how I overcame my ADD struggles.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about SlayedByTamia – what should we know?
I do hair, I specialize in Weaves, I do A LOT of sewins with lace closures, about 90% of my clients get lace closure sewins, so I would say thats what I’m known for, I’m most proud my growth, I’ve come ALONG way just from being in a small town where most of the people work in mill, if I would have stayed in Summerville my clientele would be what it is now, I wouldn’t have had the opportunities that I’ve had, and I definitely wouldn’t have been able to grow my business like I have. What sets me apart from others is the way I do business, I’m very professional, I’m more realistic with my clients, I put what’s best for them and their hair first, ex. If a client wants a style, but due to the shape that their hair is in if I don’t think that style will be the best I will speak with my client and talk about different options, different styles even if the style recommended is cheaper, I’m all for healthy hair.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
My personality!

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @SlayedByTamia
• Facebook: Slayed By Tamia
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgHy3MYINqaxOLzW58IwkQw

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