The Pure Passions of Laura Watkins

How many of you have dreamed of walking away from your daily job and starting your own business? Meet Laura Watkins, a woman who did just that. Upon earning her bachelor's degree in Marketing and a Master of Business Administration at the University of Louisville, she entered the corporate workforce. However, her true goal had always been to open her own business. When a co-worker asked her, "If you could do absolutely anything, what would it be?" the answer seemed to fall out of Laura's mouth: "I would quit my job, go to hair school and open an Aveda salon." And within a year, that's exactly what she did. At age 30 Laura resigned her corporate job and began the journey to get her cosmetology license. Fast forward to 2021 and Laura's salon, Pure Salon Spa, an Aveda salon and spa on Bardstown Road in Fern Creek, which will celebrate its 13th year in business and has been ranked among the top 200 salons in North America by Salon Today Magazine for the past 10 years. Married for 18 years with two daughters, her other passions include empowering women, garnering more respect for careers in the beauty industry, and very importantly for Laura from a personal standpoint, ending the stigma associated with mental illness. Her passion around ending the mental illness stigma comes from her own struggles with severe depression, with which she was first diagnosed in 2015 and continues to seek treatment to stay mentally well to this day. Laura had many misconceptions about mental illness until it happened to her, and she firmly believes there is still a long way to go with ending those preconceived notions, which means talking more and more about it to raise awareness. One in four people struggle with mental illness in her/his lifetime and that means there are a LOT of people out there struggling alone. Laura wants to change that! I recently had the opportunity to discuss all of her passions on this week’s Not So Darlin podcast. Please listen in on our conversation and visit the Pure Salon Spa website at puresalon-spa.com (link https://puresalon-spa.com/), on Instagram at @puresalonlou (link https://www.instagram.com/puresalonlou/) and Facebook at facebook.com/puresalonspalou (link https://www.facebook.com/puresalonspalou).

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