Every young girl dreams about what she wants to be when she grows up. Not many have achieved those dreams by the age of 23. Emily Potter has. With perseverance and a will to achieve, she has found success in doing what she loves at an early age. As a little girl in Memphis, TN, Emily had always loved to play dress up. She would spend hours fussing with her hair and applying makeup. It seemed she was destined for the world of beauty from the start. In high school she enrolled in the cosmetology courses offered at her school. By graduation she was well on her way, with half the credits completed, to becoming a Licensed Cosmetologist. She completed the remainder of her courses at Plaza Beauty in 2004 and headed straight to work at the local salon, Richard and Company. Four months later she had moved on to Daniel Shay’s, where she found a home, a future and, shortly after, created a niche of her very own.

In the beginning, her services at Daniel Shay’s primarily revolved around hair. She did cuts, colors and hair extensions for the better part of her days. On occasion she would have a client request tab lashes which she included in her offerings. When these occasions arrived, she says she always wished for an option that would provide more longevity for these clients. She found one in late 2006 when a friend from MAC cosmetics told her about a client she had worked on who had “amazing lashes”. The client had said they were Xtreme Lashes®, eyelash extensions. Emily was quick to see the potential in offering a new service like this at Daniel Shay’s. She and a friend quickly enrolled in a December 2006 workshop with Xtreme. “I looked at other companies but none were as big as Xtreme Lashes®. Plus, we wanted to have training and an actual Certification, not just a kit. None of the other companies I’d seen were doing that,” she says.

Initially, she confesses, applying eyelash extensions was frustrating for Emily. It took her a long time to do a full procedure and was hard for her to get the hang of. “I really enjoyed the end result and my clients really enjoyed it, so I didn’t give up,” she says. When Xtreme started offering the Xtended Education course, Emily jumped at the opportunity to improve her skills and signed up for an April 2008 workshop. “Once I went back and took the business class, I really started to enjoy it and build a clientele base. It also helped me to promote myself better.” She continued on to the Advanced class in August of that year. “I really wanted to learn more and to do more with colors.”

Today, Emily is the only Advanced Certified Stylist in the Memphis area. She still does hair but really loves her lash business. Her success has led Daniel Shay’s to send a total of 6 ladies to train with Xtreme, including Emily. She’s been featured by Commercial Appeal, a Memphis area paper, and worked with professional photographer Jonthan Postal, who included images of Emily’s lashes in his photography show.

Emily says the majority of her clients are repeat clients and she has quite a few! She brings them in through multiple advertising strategies, including a large referral base. “People see the lashes on someone else and then they want them.” To build referrals, she tries to keep her friends and colleagues in lashes as much as she can. She has also set up her own website and MySpace page and signed up for advertising with The Knot to further promote her Xtreme Lashes® offerings.

When she’s off the lash clock, Emily, an avid animal lover, spends time with her kitty, Cupcake and donates time and money to local animal shelters. She winds down the day with a good book and looks forward to the next day, working at a job she loves.

“I enjoy making people feel and look great. I love the afterwards… the change… making someone feel better about themselves. There’s so much pressure on women to look good and just making someone feel better a little bit is rewarding. Lashes open up the face and can make such a difference.”

Here’s a comment from one of Emily’s clients who certainly agrees: