We’re looking forward to introducing you to Kimra Kai Beechly. Check out our conversation below.
Kimra Kai, really appreciate you sharing your stories and insights with us. The world would have so much more understanding and empathy if we all were a bit more open about our stories and how they have helped shaped our journey and worldview. Let’s jump in with a fun one: What are you being called to do now, that you may have been afraid of before?
I have worked in my chosen industry for more than 30 years and I’m about to make the change I’ve always feared. I’m quitting my cushy job and writing my book. I. Am. Terrified. But, I guess it’s my dare to be great moment. Do this, or die trying. Wish me luck.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Kimra Kai Beechly and I have been a hairdresser for 30 years and working in the post secondary private education world teaching students and instructors the basics of the cosmetology, esthetics, nail technology, and wellness industry. As the adult product of a difficult childhood, my clients and later the students who crossed my path taught me (and continue to teach me) each day to be grateful of all the lessons I learned and the people who taught them to me. I learned the lessons I should have learned as a child. Learning to play well with others, share, be open-minded, and that all important gratitude are things I learned too late, but learned eventually thanks to those who came before me.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What part of you has served its purpose and must now be released?
I will be 51 this year and checked all the boxes I was supposed to have checked. Career, check. Marriage (and divorce), check. Children, check. Comfortable in my skin (took a little longer than expected, but)…check. Meaningful relationships, check. I should be done right? That woman who checks all the boxes and does what is expected served me well, and I will always appreciate her for getting me where I am. She did the best she could with the tools she had available to her at the time and raised children, learned the lessons, and fit the mold as was prudent at the time, but it is time for that part of me to be released. If I don’t do this now I never will, and I can’t do it with her in the back of my mind telling me to keep my head down and don’t make any waves, to be comfortable, safe. No one lays in the death bed and says “I should have worked more” or “I’m so glad I never did that thing, went to that place…or wrote that book”. One of us has to go and it’s got to be her.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
I am a migraine sufferer and once when I was driving my two young daughters from Fort Worth, Texas back to Austin I got sick and landed in a gas station bathroom. For hours and hours. The girls, god bless them, played with their toys while mama threw up and laid on the bacteria ridden gas station bathroom stall floor. Did it suck? Absolutely. But I knew I would not die (though it felt like I might have in the moment) because I had been through worse and faced harder. This is the benefit of learning through suffering. If I had grown up in a nuclear family with the smell of warm cookies when I got home from school and playdates and big wheels and noses in the corner instead of hunger and bruises and fear then I would have never had the strength to get through that migraine or the divorce or the death of my mother. I would never have the courage to do what I’m about to do, come what may.
Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?
I want to remind the world that it’s okay if you are not done once you check all the boxes. If you have had the career, the family, the whatever is expected of you and you still want to become a tree trimmer, or a dog walker, or hike PCH or even better the Triple Crown, or learn origami, or Vietnamese, or go to the place, or in my case…quit my job and write the book. Who on earth would listen to me when I scream to do the thing, to try, to go be awesome if I don’t do it first. I am currently living in the days that the foundation of everything I want to say will be built on. Poo or get off the pot, classy I know.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. Have you ever gotten what you wanted, and found it did not satisfy you?
Oof, yes. I am not college educated, long story. So once I left the business of actually standing behind the chair and moved on to teaching it at a school I found that that wasn’t quite enough for me and I set my sights on being the school Director. They took a chance on me after a few years and let me direct a small school, then later the flagship location. I got too big for my britches and left to direct another school. It was there that I sat back, and imagined Mufasa saying to me “Everything the light touches is yours, Kimra” and reveled in all I had accomplished and getting that coveted seat at the table. You can imagine my surprise then, when I realized that I am not a good Director. It still hurts to say. I get too wrapped up in the relationships and the people to give the necessary attention to the numbers and consistency needed to successfully run a school full of people and personalities. I had finally gotten that seat at the table, then realized I didn’t want to sit there after all. I would like to think I could buckle down and become what was needed, but I would also like to think that I would make the wiser choice of walking away and find my calling…even after checking the box.
