Meet Guirdwine Jean Baptiste: Hair dresser

We had the good fortune of connecting with Guirdwine Jean Baptiste and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Guirdwine, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking

with risk comes with trusting yourself , most importantly you have to trust god. that’s the first thing, before you make any more , take any risk , you have to pray about it . before I do anything I pray , because I know there will be a lot of people who don’t see the same vision that I see. so outside looking they will think im crazy , or making the wrong choice . but I believe when you put your trust in god and trust yourself, you will learn to tune all that noise out . a lot of the times people will choose comfort over risk , because being comfortable is safe , and being risky is uncomfortable. when you take a risk I believe the reward is usually greater then being safe , and if it doesn’t turn out the way you want , you can always know fear didn’t stop you from trying to go for what you want . fear is usually the main factor stopping people from doing the things that they love , because they are comfortable with the job that they have, and they are comfortable with the money but they aren’t really happy. they are scared that if they follow their passion, and they can’t work the job they have anymore , how will the bills and other obligations going to be secure. but I feel like if you trust yourself , pray about it , there is no way that your going to fail. with that mentality , you will never fail , you will have to make it work. there are people who have done a lot more , with a lot less then what you have .

in my life/ career, taking risk has been a big part of that . I opened my first salon by myself , using all the money that I had to my name. outside looking in people could think ” what if I don’t get business?”, ” what if you don’t get clientele? “, ” what if you can’t pay the rent?” I had to tune all of that out , and trust myself. now I have a salon with 5 employees working for me . 6 months after opening my salon , I moved across the country by myself , while still keeping my salon running . my parents were very concerned because of this big move , especially because I just opened the salon . outside looking in , it looked as if I was making the wrong choice with the move. but this is a risk ive prayed about , and a move I needed to make. there have been people filling my head with doubt but that’s the greatest thing about risks, there will be doubt but after you take it and everything falls into place , you will see that you’ve made the right choice. im currently living in Houston and ive hired a team of people to run my salon while I currently work here on opening another salon

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
so I am a professional hairstylist , I specialize in braiding and other natural hair services. I believe what sets me apart from others is my personality. when im doing someones hair, its not just the service for me . I am your friend and your hairapist ( hair therapist). a lot of the styles I do take about 5 hours so by the end I become super close to some of my clients. I believe that’s what sets me apart from everyone else. I got to where I am today because of god forcing me to be uncomfortable in order for me to grow. I used to work from home and I started having issues with working at home , and having problems with my family to the point where I wasn’t able to work from home anymore. and during that time it. was dark for me , I was depressed, and sad . but that’s when my mentality changed. I could choose to be sad , cry about it and stay in the same place or, I can cry about it then boss up right after. I choose to boss up . I opened my own salon by myself . during this time I learned that I can do anything that I put my mind to , when your forced to be uncomfortable you have to grow . when you fall down the only way to go is up . ive learned to trust god in the whole process. a lot have changed for me in my life physically and mentally . I have a whole new mind set now. I used to bee the girl in the back ground , and now im the main character, you can choose to change the narrative

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
first of all God is the main reason for everything in my life.i can’t even credit myself without crediting God. he has brought me through a lot and made me mentally stronger. another group of people I think deserved recognition is some of my closest friends , a lot of my close friends are entrepreneurs and we often bounce ideas off of each other. being around like minded people, just makes me think so much bigger. there was a time in my life where I felt so small, and I thought so small as well. im such a different person now then I was even 5 years ago. 5 Mars ago I thought small of myself and didn’t know my worth. there were so many big ideas, that I couldn’t even imagine myself even doing it. I would self doubt often and would seek to others for shelter , because I was used to being small. but now I have a circle of friends that are super encouraging. just in the past year I realized that there is NOTHING that’s too big or out of reach for you. the only thing stopping you, is YOU, literally. you can blame it on your job , or your kids , or money , because that’s what’s comfortable for you. that is what validates you not doing what you want to do , or what would make you happy. one of my favorite movie to watch is The pursuit of happiness , this man literals had nothing , and did so well for himself. a lot of times we just make excuses for ourselves. making excuses just keeps us comfortable. there are is many people that are successful that started with much less then what you have right now. so you already have a leg up on them . so what’s your excuse. I love being around people who are successful and doing better then me , because it makes me want to elevate myself. so im glad to say I have a support system with friends who are like that

Website: styleseat.com/geebraids

Instagram: @made2braidstudio