Today we’d like to introduce you to Kim Layton.
Kim, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I often joke that I accidentally found my career, but looking back, I realize every step prepared me for exactly where I was meant to be.
I started in the beauty industry at 15 years old as a shampoo assistant after school. My family didn’t have many luxuries, but getting our hair done was something we valued. That first salon job taught me something I still believe today: this industry is about serving people and helping them feel their best.
After high school, I briefly attended college, but I quickly realized that path wasn’t for me. I enrolled in cosmetology school, earned my license at 19, and began working behind the chair. Before long, I discovered something that would ultimately shape my entire career. While I enjoyed doing hair, what energized me even more was helping people discover what was possible for themselves. Every opportunity to coach a new stylist, train a manager, or develop a team became more rewarding than the last. Looking back, I didn’t build a career simply because I loved the beauty industry. I built it because I discovered I loved developing people.
That passion led me into salon management, multi unit operations, technical education and training, curriculum development, and eventually executive leadership. My career took me through leadership roles with national salon organizations before I eventually started my own business. Later, I relocated my family to Texas for new career opportunities and continued investing in my own growth by earning my MBA and, later, my Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.
When Ogle School first approached me, I honestly wasn’t planning to join another beauty school. I accepted the meeting out of courtesy, but the more I learned about the culture, the mission, and the people, the more I realized this was where I was meant to be.
Today, I serve as Vice President of Education and Campus Operations for Ogle School, where I have the privilege of helping lead 11 locations across Texas and Georgia. My role allows me to combine everything I love: developing people, improving systems, embracing innovation, and helping students build careers that can truly change their lives.
At the end of the day, my job isn’t really about running campuses. It’s about helping people discover what’s possible for their lives and giving them the confidence to pursue it. That’s what still excites me every morning.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Not at all. Every meaningful opportunity came with uncertainty.
One of my earliest struggles was simply figuring out where I fit. I wasn’t the student who excelled academically, and for a while I questioned what my future looked like. Beauty school gave me a place where I could combine creativity, people skills, and hard work.
Throughout my career, I’ve also learned that leadership isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about being willing to keep learning, admitting when you don’t know something, and surrounding yourself with talented people. I’ve changed industries within the beauty profession, started a business, relocated across the country, navigated organizational change, and helped lead through challenges like the COVID pandemic.
Those experiences taught me resilience. They also reinforced one of my favorite leadership principles: our job as leaders is to remove obstacles so others can succeed.
Ironically, I thought my career would always revolve around doing hair. Instead, it evolved into helping thousands of other people build careers of their own. That wasn’t part of my original plan, but it turned out to be exactly where I was meant to be.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Ogle School has been preparing future beauty professionals for more than 50 years, offering career focused education in cosmetology and esthetics. What sets us apart is that we don’t simply teach technical skills. We prepare students for long term careers by combining hands-on education with professionalism, business development, client experience, and personal growth.
In my role, I oversee Education and Campus Operations while partnering closely with our admissions, student support, and leadership teams to continuously improve the student experience across all of our locations.
What makes me most proud isn’t our growth, although expanding to 11 locations is certainly exciting. It’s seeing students who once doubted themselves graduate with confidence, earn their licenses, and begin careers they genuinely love.
The beauty industry offers incredible opportunities. Whether someone dreams of working behind the chair, owning a salon, becoming an educator, working for a product manufacturer, creating content, or building their own brand, there are countless paths to success.
At Ogle School, our purpose is to help students discover what’s possible and equip them with the skills and confidence to achieve it. I truly believe education has the power to change lives, and I feel fortunate to be part of an organization that gets to witness those transformations every day.
Whether I’m working with a student taking their first step into the industry or with a leader developing their team, my goal is the same: to help people see more potential in themselves than they see today.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ogleschool.edu/
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/kimlayton
