40: Business with purpose: serving the multicultural community w/ Destini French
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DESTINI FRENCH: Serving the multicultural community, becoming a hair + makeup artist, navigating race in a predominately white town, and much more!
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MEET DESTINI FRENCH
“I am a Los Angeles, California native and moved to Bozeman, MT in 2011 to play basketball for the Bobcats. My career was cut short due to a career ending injury, but when one door closes, another one opens. I taught myself how to braid my own hair when I first moved here because I quickly realized that there was no where that could serve me. In 2018, I began embarking on my journey to open Cultured Roots and in 2020 decided to quit my full time job and go to Cosmetology school. In 2021, I became a licensed Cosmetologist and began booth renting out of Envious Salon.
I am proud to be the owner and operator of Cultured Roots. I love my job cause it found me. I have the opportunity to make every person that sits in my chair feel great about themselves. I also get to meet new people every day. Each and every one of them has a different story but they all just want to look and feel great. I am lucky enough to help them accomplish that! I am always taking courses to learn about hair care, and get the scoop on the the latest trends and styles to offer to my clients! I look forward to giving you a Cultured Roots Experience!”
DESTINI FRENCH
Helloooo and welcome back to the Montana Diaries Podcast, I’m Shayna and I’m so freaking stoked you’re here because today we have one of the most talented hair and makeup artists and my dear friend DESTNI, the owner of Cultured Roots in Bozeman, Montana. Destini serves the multicultural community in Montana and she has an incredible vision for how she intends to serve through her services and through textured hair education — this is a must listen, seriously.
Before we jump into the interview with Destini, here’s a kind review of my signature program Videography for Photographers by Lyndsey Bachmeir — fun fact about Lyndsey, she was a hugggeee cheerleader in the early days of the business when I was a couple of months out of college and a newlywed and completely clueless about everything in business. She was the owner of a beautiful venue that we lucked into working at during one of our first weddings — I was so green with videography but she recommended us to all of her couples and believed in us and basically financed my dream because of it. Eventually Lyndsey sold the venue, became a photographer, and freaking bought my course — here’s her review:
“I knew the minute Shayna announced she was offering an online course for photographers, I was the first in line. Her talent is like no other.. I first met Shayna as the owner of Montana Wildflower weddings. She was the first on our preferred venue list.. Her sweet and charismatic attitude, her attention to details and the emotions that come through with each film she produces is just magic. I went on to sale my venue and started a photography business. Although I don’t offer films now, I did take the tools I learned and made some videos. I couldn’t be more excited to implement what I learn to produce beautiful films. It truly is a gift Shayna is willing to share her knowledge and time with others. Her course is so well laid out, easy to understand and most importantly can be done on your own time. I had my first crazy busy photography season (and I thought weddings were intense Now that the madness has past, I’m so excited to jump back into the course. I know what I learn will be invaluable down the road in my connection with my clients.. She is always active and willing to help in her social platforms for continued education..”
Lyndsey, thank you so much for your kind words and for, well, everything. If you would like a shout out of your own, then write a review of the podcast on the Apple Podcasts app!! Now onto the interview with Destini!
A chat w/ Destini French, owner of Cultured Roots MT
Destini grew up in Los Angeles, California — she describes LA as a “melting pot,” but said she still had a weird relationship with her hair because she didn’t know how to do it. She was recruited to play basketball at MSU in Bozeman, MT — it wasn’t until her move to Montana that she learned how to do her hair. A teammate encouraged Destini to learn more about her hair, and she credits “YouTube University” for teaching her how to braid. She never imagined it would become her career.
A knee injury ended Destini’s college basketball career early, but she was able to stay at MSU thanks to her sports scholarship turning into an academic one due to hardship. She finished MSU with a degree in Family Consumer Sciences, and became a preschool teacher.
We chatted a ton about preschoolers and kids in general — how we both believe that structure and boundaries breed creativity, and then how that idea has translated to our adult lives and businesses. We also talked about inspiration vs. direct emulation along those same lines.
When talking about portfolio building to showcase more of the multicultural community in Montana, we go over how racially charged certain words and styles can be during this process. Destini is careful to point out that her experience as a black woman is not the experience of every black person.
Destini fell into side-hustling styling POC hair — she explained that the POC community in Bozeman is largely word-of-mouth when it comes to styling their hair, because so few salons do it. People would ask her where she got her hair done, she would say she did it herself, and then they would ask her if she could do their hair too. Eventually, she was doing enough people’s hair that she decided to go to cosmetology school to become licensed and make her side hustle her full time gig.
Today, Destini is a successful hair + makeup artist operating as Cultural Roots, and has a bigger vision for serving the multicultural community. Destini opened up about her dreams of opening up a space that includes a variety of services, but also education for teaching how to work with multi-cultural hair types.
Anndddd that was Destini — how incredible is she? I know conversations about race are tough but I so appreciate Destini’s openness and patience and humorrrr about it, and I couldn’t believe her insight into how they don’t teach textured hair in cosmetology school..that just blew me away. The education she’s providing is so necessary, and I’m so happy she’s serving Montana with her incredible talent. She is such a kind soul and so ridiculously intelligent and I could listen to her talk all day….I’d love to hear your thoughts on the topics we discussed here— head over to the Montana Diaries Podcast Facebook group and write a post to continue this discussion, or just introduce yourself over there. Don’t forget to leave your honest review on the Apple Podcasts app — it helps us get more amazing guests like Destini and I’ll give you a shout out on a future episode. Please go create something today, friends, and I’ll catch ya in the next episode.
hey, photog friend!
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