Today we’d like to introduce you to Cassandra Murray
Hi Cassandra, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
As a person who has an attitude of servitude and always looking for ways to be of service to people, my journey started when I was younger. I have always been ambitious and always looked out for ways to outdo myself and constantly raise my expectations. I graduated high school 1 month into my junior year. During that month I also began attending my first attempt at cosmetology school. Unfortunately life took me in a different direction after becoming ill and almost hospitalized and I was unable to continue with my path of doing hair.
For the remainder of what has been my life until recently, I searched for ways to feel that same passion in things that I had felt being in hair school. I have had many walks of life, many experiences, many positions, names and titles. I have owned my own businesses in marketing and house keeping. I have been a real estate sales agent, closing 2nd place in my office within first year of getting licensed.
I juggled full time employment, school for my bachelors degree and being a mom and became an expert in Human Resource and business management reaching for a goal of obtaining my SHRM certification.
All of these achievements and goals met, have led to where I am at now, soon to be graduating from Cosmetology school and opening my own salon, using the marketing and business skills I obtained through prior education and experience, best practices and fair employment for other stylists I will hire in my salon learned through my career in Human Resources and so many other walks of life and experiences leading to me finally living my dream combining my love for business and hair through owning and operating my salon.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
My journey has been anything but smooth. I have never had the luxury of just focusing on one thing. I had to begin working at a very young age and balance school and work as a teen. Into early adulthood, I began my current relationship with my husband who has a son and became a step parent at the age of 21 having to juggle that and work then at the age of 24, having our daughter and a total of 2 kids before I even knew where I wanted to go in my career.
I have always strived to own my own business in some capacity but have never been able to just solely focus on that passion so I have always had to expand my education and experience while working full time and taking care of kids. But it is possible as I graduated college with a 4.0 GPA, am 4 months away from graduating hair school and have 2 beautiful and healthy children and a loving husband of 10 years that have helped support me every step of the way.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I have been a strategic color specialist with hair for about 15 years now with a high aptitude in fashion color, vivid color and alternative styling. I also specialize in hair extensions with various installation methods from sew in wefts, tape in, K-tips, clip in and becoming certified in uv light extensions.
What sets me apart from others is my ability to truly connect with my clients. In any position or path I have been on, I have always had a keen interest in learning peoples personalities, desires, strengths and goals and have always possessed jobs that helped fill that cup. From working in HR and helping people align their goals with company visions, real estate clients trying to find their dream homes or first time homes that met more needs then they even realized, cleaning residential properties for various clients and always leaving them in their home feeling as if they just bought it for the first time or any other walk in life, I have always been able to connect with my clients and peers and truly listen to them, making them feel heard and connected and being their own personal genie bringing their dreams to life.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I do not think luck has had anything to do with where I am at. I am a person who believes that every thing that happens to you in life, is your fault. Good or bad, it is due to something you chose or did not chose to do.
I have not lived an easy life and often times would find myself blaming bad luck or karma or some external source for those bad things but I have always tried to live life as a good person so it never made sense why I would have bad luck influence those situations.
Same with what some might consider good luck. Being a new, first year agent and closing second place in transactions sold and number of sales in a year when I was in real estate. Some would say it was luck, but they didnt see the 14-16 hour days I was working. The multiple hours spent showing clients several homes, the countless hours spent writing contracts and offers.
Just the same as getting through hair school and showing my skill set with hair. Some say I am lucky that I understand things so well and that it seems like everything just comes so easy to me, but they dont see my social media feeds filled with educational content and the countless continuing education hours I have put in to my education.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cassaphraass/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/casssandra-murray/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@cassaphrasss?lang=en
