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Winning with Purpose: Yadi’s Journey from Student to Beauty Blitz Champion

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Description

In this uplifting episode of The DayMakers podcast, host Daved Dolce speaks with Yadi — a proud Tricoci University alumna and winner of the prestigious Beauty Blitz competition. Yadi reflects on her early days as a student, what drew her to Tricoci, and how her vision for her future shaped every decision she made. From finding a school that matched her lifestyle to rising as a standout talent among her peers, Yadi’s story is one of intention, ambition, and inspiration. Whether you’re a future beauty pro or just love hearing stories of determination and success, this episode delivers heart and drive.

 

Find Yadi on Social Media

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/msyadiyadi/

Show Notes

– Yadi introduces herself as a Tricoci University alumna and shares her excitement about being on the podcast.

– Host Daved Dolce reminisces about first meeting Yadi during his early days as a director at the CNW campus.

– Yadi shares how she chose Tricoci after evaluating her career goals, lifestyle, and other beauty schools.

– She discusses the importance of flexibility in education and how Tricoci’s offerings aligned perfectly with her needs.

– As a Beauty Blitz winner, Yadi recounts her experience navigating the three rounds of the competition and what it meant to her.

– A conversation filled with pride, perseverance, and purpose — highlighting how vision and effort can lead to incredible accomplishments in the beauty industry.

 

Links:

YouTube: https://youtu.be/cHy9YyxjjXw

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/164S7JGSV137grJLkEZou2?si=Hn8pWMfCQ2GdnbTAxENrDQ

 

Transcript 

We are here to make people

feel good about themselves.

We really have to feel like we

are a day maker for the guest.

You’ve made my day.

How great is that when you hear

those words from your guest.

Hey, everybody, I’m David Dolce,

and this is the Day Makers podcast.

Today we are interviewing

one of our alumni and Beauty

Blitz winners, Yadi.

Yadi, welcome.

Welcome.

I love being here.

I’m excited.

I’m so happy to have you here.

When I found out that you were part

of this, usually I kind

of know ahead of time who’s coming.

And then I heard Yadi, I’m like, I

only know one person named Yadi.

I was like, yachty.

Yay.

Yes.

That’s exciting.

I love that.

So I got the opportunity

to be a director at your campus,

as my first directing job

ever was at the CDC campus.

Yeah.

And you were there from my beginning.

I was there for the beginning.

I didn’t realize it.

No.

I think shortly after I got

there, you were transferred over

or a couple of months in.

Yeah.

You were already there when I got.

Right, right, right.

Okay.

Yeah.

Oh, that’s exciting.

Yeah.

Thank you.

So tell me about your coaching.

Why Tricoci?

And a little bit about your

journey with the campus.

Tricoci.

I think, honestly, I just kind of

envisioned how I wanted my career to

go, and I just felt like there’s so

many schools out there, so looking

at schedules, what worked best for

my lifestyle and what I wanted to

accomplish.

And Tracochi was basically the only

campus that I thought or the only

school that I thought fit what my

lifestyle was in current time.

Very cool.

Did you look at other schools then?

I did.

I looked at Truman.

Oh, okay.

Like, night and day.

Right, Right, Absolutely.

So you’re special because you’re

the first Beauty Blitz winner that

we have that we’re interviewing.

So I want you to start.

Well, we had two rounds.

Right.

Preliminaries.

And then we had the big, big.

Was it three?

It was three rounds.

The three, three round.

It was round one.

It was round two and round three.

So take me back to round one.

Okay.

How did signing up go?

I actually did not sign myself up.

A friend signed me up.

I was actually going through,

I guess, creative frustration.

And then my.

My very dear friend Destiny was like,

I think you just need an outlet.

I’m going to sign you up

for the competition.

And so thank God.

To Destiny Miles.

She signed me up because

I found my new passion.

That’s crazy.

Crazy.

It wasn’t even me.

It wasn’t even me.

So round one comes around.

Do you remember what

the category was?

What was the category?

It was Winter Wonderland.

Yes, Winter Wonderland.

So round one comes and goes,

comes and goes.

Round two.

Round two.

We had to do the video.

So that was a little nerve wracking

because I wasn’t necessarily sure

if I was putting enough content in.

Not.

I was new to content creating.

So it was kind of that weird

space of, okay, is it too

much too what not to do?

And so that was a little

more nerve wracking.

But it worked out perfectly.

I think I did have just enough in,

but I did like the reindeers outer.

So that’s what pushed me over

to texture because at first

I think I was under color.

Oh, for real?

And you switched your category?

They switched my category to texture.

I didn’t even know that.

Yeah, it was kind of exciting though,

when it came back and they

were like, yeah, you’re.

You’re in for texture.

I was like, what?

It was.

It was actually better.

So did you not even think about it

entering the first round at all?

Like you heard of it, you

didn’t think about it.

Did you kind of think about it

and somebody gave you that.

That little extra push

that you needed?

Yeah, well, no.

I actually at the time wasn’t.

I didn’t even know it was out.

I didn’t know it was a thing.

So I guess it wasn’t.

It was in the cards.

My friend signed me up and then

we were trying to do a group

effort because I think you guys

had like group categories.

And then she ended up getting sick,

so then she was out,

which then last minute, I came

in as a single person.

It’s absolutely nuts.

It’s nuts.

The whole journey was nuts.

So we got round three.

Round three, that you’re basically

in the finals now I’m in the finals.

Was this a little bit different

because now you actually see what

you’re competing against, Right.

You see all the different

schools, what they’ve done.

Did that feel any differently

than maybe doing the video?

And you had absolutely no

clue what your competition.

I had no.

Even then I didn’t see what

anybody else submitted.

I didn’t.

I was kind of just like.

I just knew I progressed.

So I was like, all right, great.

So you still didn’t see.

I didn’t see anything.

So then when I got there the day

of and seen all the blitz

and the glitz and the glam, I was

like, oh, this is a real thing.

So I was a little nervous about it

once I entered the doors and seen

all the balloons and seen how

beautiful the place was set up.

And then I, I think you guys had

us separated where one side was

your competition, who you were

up against, and then the other

side, like it was split in sides.

And when I walked up,

my side was packed.

Like everyone over there brought it.

So I wasn’t sure if

I was bringing it.

I was nervous about

that part, actually.

I was like, did you do enough?

Are you doing enough?

You know, so that was a little bit

more nerve wracking for me because

I was literally the whole time

sitting next to like a monster

looking thing and I was like, oh,

this is great.

This is great.

Everyone is bringing their A game.

So that made it exciting for me.

It was so cool to even watch

because you’re at the campus every

single day and it gets monotonous

sometimes and some people have

different attitudes and whatever.

Do you know what I mean?

And you tell them like,

please just work on this.

They don’t want to.

And then you show up at these

events, events, and you’re

like, oh my God, the things

that these people pull out.

Pull out.

Yeah, I was feeling that way.

And I.

I guess I was considered

one of the people that’s

pulling something out.

Right.

And I literally was just like

looking at everyone in my

little area and was like, wow.

So I didn’t even know so much talent

like that in this industry,

which was great to see, actually.

So.

And Tricoci.

Tricoci.

So it was great to see that everyone

was bringing out their best,

like their A game that day.

What did prepping for

this event look like?

What kind of preparation did you

do leading up to your big win?

Oh, man, my preparation was not good.

It was.

I was stressed literally.

I think the day before, the hair

that I was originally going

to use did not work out.

So like 12th hour, I’m

in the store trying to find hair.

Really?

Oh, yeah.

It was very stressful and trying

to make sure I packed everything.

Trying to build the look in real

time, trying to make sure there’s

enough texture and yeah, even when I

pulled up and unloaded all my

things, I still didn’t know if I had

everything.

So, yeah, it was.

It was a lot of stress.

Well, you had a lot of support.

Yes, I did.

From your campus.

Absolutely.

Classmates, Everybody was screaming

for you, I remember.

Yeah.

And I think by that time

of the beauty blitz, I moved on.

I ended up going to a different

campus, but I was rooting

for you because you’re one

of my original students too.

So I felt like I had the best

of both worlds.

That’s good.

So you’re standing there.

They are about to, like,

let you know who won.

They’re going, what?

They did like, third,

second into first.

So they call third.

You didn’t hear your name?

I did not.

What did you think?

I think at that moment,

I was not thinking.

I think at that actual moment,

my daughter is in frame.

So I think I was kind of, like,

saying something like, move

out the way or something.

I was in my mode, so I was kind

of, like, trying to redirect her.

And then I heard second.

And then you didn’t hear your

name, and I didn’t hear my name.

Did it start to get discouraging?

No.

Somewhere, like, you

see, it will hit me.

Like, if you pull the video

back, you see, it hits me kind

of, like, late, but not really.

When I seen the person pass me going

for a second, I do like, a squeal.

Because then it hit me, oh,

this might mean you got it.

All right.

I kind of just like, do like a.

Oh.

And then I think while that person

was grabbing their stuff, I was,

like, looking around like, okay, is

there anyone else for texture?

So I was kind of nervous.

But then I think that’s

at that point is when Ashley started

announcing first place.

And you hear your name and I hear

my name, and then now it’s like,

it hits me, oh, my God, you won.

Your look was good enough.

Whole time, I didn’t think my

look was good enough, which is

crazy, because I think at one

point you came up to me and was

like, you really didn’t know?

I was like, I really had no clue.

Like, zero.

You had the tears.

I had the tears.

It was so dang well, because, like,

the lead up to this was very

stressful for me because I didn’t

know what I was going to create.

I’m my biggest critique.

So, like, the whole time, while

everybody else is like, oh,

my God, that’s so pretty.

I was like, you could have done this.

You could have done that.

To hear that other people thought

that my work was great, even in

a moment that I didn’t necessarily

feel it was good, I think was

what caused the tears, of course.

Right?

It was like.

Cause it was like, oh,

my God, it was good.

So it goes back to life.

Like, just how you felt coming

into life and what you’re going

through to even get to school,

to get to here, to get to there.

And it’s like a full circle moment,

and it just all comes down.

And then I came down, and then

Now I’m all embarrassed because

everyone’s looking at me crying.

No, it was so genuine.

It was beautiful.

I would have cried for sure.

I.

I definitely was excited.

And at the same time, something

happened in that moment,

though, that let me know that

this is what I want to do.

Creating looks like that

is what I want to do.

So you could say this changed

the whole trajectory.

Oh, it changed my whole career.

It changed my whole career.

Like, my whole focus, all of it.

It just was like, well, that

feeling, whatever that feeling was,

I need to chase that.

Oh, that’s cool.

Which is, like, passion.

Yes.

So that’s how it was.

So I was just like, okay.

Well, I don’t even know if

there’s a thing like, what.

What lane does this fall in?

Right?

Because when we’re in school, we hear

like, oh, you could be a colorist.

You can cut.

You could specialize

in all these things.

But I never knew that this could be

a category that you could specialize

in, or this can be something

that you can really follow.

So then after that, I started

researching, of course.

And then what happened after that?

I’ve been working towards many

things to just create what.

I mean, I don’t necessarily know

what lane it falls under,

but I’ve done some editorial stuff.

So cool.

I’ve done some just regular

competition stuff that’s

been just trying to chase whatever

that falls under.

Oh, that’s so cool.

Sound excited about that stuff.

I love it.

So you brought your

trophy with, right?

I did.

Let’s see that trophy.

Wait.

Yes.

Number one.

Is this the same year that you guys

won the school spirit award, too?

We did, yeah.

Crazy.

And again, it wasn’t my campus.

And I’m jumping up and down.

I’m like, yeah, but it

is your campus.

It was.

You started there, and now

full circle it is again.

It’s part of my region.

Yeah, but Ms.

Nolita out there just showing off.

That was a big thing.

It was a big event.

So we’re getting geared up for

the next event, right?

Yes.

We’re going to be taking

our preliminary rounds.

We’re trying to pitch this

to the students.

And what’s unique is

you guys graduate.

So when the next Beauty Blitz

rolls up, there’s very few people

that saw the one before, so it’s

almost like starting all over.

Like, you guys understand

this is this.

This is this.

What advice do you have

to these students that are maybe

thinking about it or don’t even

know what this event is?

What advice do you have them

about entering the Beauty Blitz?

Competition.

I think you have to have, like,

a genuine passion for hair.

Like, if you’re.

Some people just have a natural skill

set, then there’s those people that,

like, they live, breathe, eat hair.

You know what I mean?

I feel like if you have that natural

passion for hair and you should try

the blitz, because it might

pull something out of you that

you didn’t even know you had.

Like, you.

I did not know I had it.

So, to me, it was like.

But I knew I was very

passionate about hair.

Like, I knew I wanted to learn

everything there is to learn about

hair because I was so passionate,

down to even the skin

diseases, because it’s important.

But that passion that I had

about the hair, I think was really,

like, a segue to what this is.

You get what I’m saying?

Yeah.

So it’s like.

It’s that.

So if you have the passion,

I say try it.

Try it, because it can literally

change your life, career.

Yes.

You’re the best example

to bring on for this.

It’s fantastic.

And you have not been back

to the Beauty Blitzes, have you?

I have.

I support.

I’m telling you, I.

I am so grateful for the blitz.

So you’ve seen how much it’s grown.

I’ve seen how much it’s.

That year.

Even this last one was amazing.

Yes.

I loved it.

Absolutely.

I loved it, too.

Like, oh, my gosh.

I got to be on stage,

and it was just.

It’s the incredible feeling.

I think I rode that

high for, like, weeks.

Yes.

Yeah.

Right?

The pictures over and over.

I remember I was

on the inside of the door.

Yeah.

And everyone’s rowdy.

We’re about ready to let

everybody in, and I just hear

just rumbling and the horns blowing

and all this craziness,

and we’re like, oh, my God.

Okay, let’s open the door.

We open the door.

I’m like, And I just.

Tears started rolling out of my eyes.

Seeing all the passion, seeing

all the team spirit, and all

these students united

together, rushing in, so happy.

It, like, really touched my heart.

And I’m like, this is

why I do what I do.

Absolutely.

It was.

It’s so.

And even me just watching it was

giving me, like, a burst of,

like, yes, I want to do it.

I want to.

I want to be back on this stage.

Yes.

You know what I mean?

To kind of, like,

bring it full circle.

I want to do an alumni showcase.

We keep thinking about it back.

I think you guys should do it.

We should bring, like, winners.

Absolutely.

Compete against each other.

So this is The Day Makers podcast.

You’ve obviously made some

people’s days in your career.

When was the moment that you

did realize that you have

the opportunity to actually

make somebody else’s day?

I think I’ve always kind

of known early on with

the industry in general.

Like, I’ve had days where, like,

life, life kicks your butt.

And then I will notice that

when I would go get my hair done,

I felt like a new woman.

So I knew early on that I wanted

to be a person that changes

people’s lives in that kind of way.

Like, if something bad is happening

to you, if you get your

hair done, you feel better.

And so I think for me, I knew early

on that that’s the role I wanted

to play behind the chair.

So every day I wanted

to change someone’s life.

So how do you think making somebody

else’s day, how that actually

carries out from beyond the chair,

like, into the real life as far as.

Like, I think everyone should try

to make an impact, especially now.

Like, I think it’s so important to

just even acknowledging people by

saying good morning, or just the

simplest things can really change

people’s lives, especially with

everything that’s happening right

now in the world.

I think it’s just a lot of people

that just look heavy in the world

right now and just simply.

Just whatever little thing you can do

to make a person’s day

should be, like, in the forefront

of everyone’s mind right now.

I think it would change so much.

Oh, I love that.

That is true.

It’s true.

It goes way beyond just

doing their hair.

This confidence to walk through this

crazy world that we’re living in.

Absolutely.

To feel better.

It’s not just for a day.

It’s for days until they

get to see you again.

And it’s even getting excited

to go see your stylist,

because I’m sure all your clients

get excited to see you.

How did this customer service

and this daymaker mentality help

you retain and keep your clients?

I try to treat my clients

like they are family.

Yes.

So I think everybody that genuinely

knows me knows that I really care.

Like, I care about this industry.

I care about their hair.

I care about them as people.

And those are my return clients.

And I noticed that I have

a great amount of return

clients because of that.

I bet you do.

You got the personality.

You’re sweet.

You got the whole thing.

Yeah, you are.

I just adore you.

I’m a huge fan of you.

I mean, I had tears watching you win.

It wasn’t just you really oh, my God.

I didn’t look up, so I didn’t.

I know about you.

I know about your story.

I know you’re a mom.

It’s hard to go to school, take care

of kids, enter the this competition.

Just to see you get that

for yourself, like, it

was just well deserved.

Oh, thank you.

You’re very welcome.

I want to thank you again

so much for being here with me.

It’s my pleasure to have

interviewed you today.

Full circle moments.

Just loving all these full

circle moments I’m getting

with this podcast I love.

So, again, thank you so much.

I love you, too.

We have a real good day today.

Okay.

You too.

All right.

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