Meet Pamela Kempf of Nailsbypamkempf in Mesa

Today we’d like to introduce you to Pamela Kempf.

Pamela, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I moved to Mesa Arizona when I was 20 years old. I was practicing to be a student to be a licensed practical nurse in a small town in Colorado but when I moved here my credits didn’t follow so I became a CNA. I worked in a nursing home, while my husband went to school to become a heavy equipment operator. After he graduated, we moved over to Phoenix where I begin to work for several nursing companies doing home health. One of my patients brought my contracts from a nursing company and I became a private home health CNA for them my client bought me my first set of acrylics for my birthday and I was hooked, the problem was I’m a nail biter my whole life. When a nail would break I would bite the whole set off so then I would have to go pay $65 to have a new set put on and they looked horrible.

They were thick wide and ugly so I would go home and file them until they look the way I liked. After paying a couple of times I decided that I could do this, I really could do this on my own. So, I started practicing on myself and it took about a year before I became really good at it. My friends and neighbors wanted me to do their nails and by this time I was working in the business office of the Home Health Department at St Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix doing data entry. My sister came to visit and we decided we were going to go to nail school to learn how to do nails properly, but in the end, she backed out and went home, but my husband convinced me to go ahead and go to school and he was very supportive. So, I would work all day and went to school at night. It took a few months to get all my hours in and a few extra, the required number of hours for nail technician in the state of Arizona is 300 hours I have 305. After I passed my state boards, my husband tried to talk me into putting my job in the business office and going into a salon he had more faith in me than I did at the time. I was scared and I had a student loan not just for nursing but also for nail school and I just didn’t think I could pay for them both, but he knew that I could. After about 6 months I decided to go ahead and give it a try. So, my husband gave me the money to get started in a salon that was horrible, but then went to work at the Nail Salon for 6 years with my son sitting right beside me, he grew up in the salon and at this time him being 30 he knows just as much about Nails as any man should as well as my husband. Nails became such a passion for me and I loved it so much and I was so good at it that unfortunately it became the biggest part of my life more so than being a Wife or Mom because I felt I was better at it than being a mom or Wife and so I would work 15 plus hours a day with a client every hour on the hour and clients sitting in between for repairs or polish change and I would do this 6 days a week and in some ways this validated who I was because I grew up being told that I would never amount to anything, but my husband who was my biggest fan my biggest supporter and my biggest critic was right there beside me the whole way. He understood somehow. In my first year of doing nails I paid off both student loans. I was addicted I bought every polish that came out, every product I had to try. One of my clients even bet me that I couldn’t go a month without buying a Polish and that meant my husband and son to. My Distributors felt so bad for me they would give me a Polish because they knew how much I was addicted to it.

I had over 300 and I knew everyone by name, I knew every client by name, I knew their family history it was like a Rolodex in my head and I knew more about them than my own family. I had a wonderful clientele. They came to me because they felt safe, they knew that I practiced proper sanitation, I cared about their well-being, I listen to their needs, I talked with them and I heard what they were saying. I did Nails that’s all I did. I just did nails. After 6 years my husband and my clients and Ms. Vickie Peters talked me into building my own salon, they felt it if I was going to take care of somebody else’s Salon I should have my own, so began the creation of Kreated Nail Envy, Inc. I loved my salon, I didn’t l Like the business part of it but I love doing the nails, a few of my clients talked me into going back to school and becoming a student instructor so that they could become nail techs and work in the salon with me. My niece was one of those. During this time, I was training with Vicki Peters who was helping learn and convincing me to compete. I competed in the first Nail Olympics in Las Vegas in 2001 and took 3rd place in Gels. I had left because my son was sick and truthfully you never really expect to win, but I’ll never forget that phone call from Vicki telling me I had won. My husband went to every show as well as my clients who became my models, we we’re all so excited and proud, it was as much their win as mine. In the Christy and our clients, they would answer the phones when I was too busy or help clean the tanning beds. They would just come and hang out, we were like one big happy family. We had parties, we had cookouts, it was just fun, but in the end, I wore myself out it became too much for me to carry on. So, my husband decided it was time for us to move to Texas to help take care of his parents and by then I was ready the salon was taking a toll on my health. We tried to sell the salon but we couldn’t find a buyer because my clients Knew Too Much. When you sell the salon like mine that was so big your client book was a part of the purchase, but my clients were well-educated and they would know if something was not done properly or if the sanitation wasn’t followed, so in the end that was a bust the salon closed. I worked all the way up until the moment my last client was done and my desk was the last thing on the truck. What I didn’t know was that my husband had already talked to a salon in Richmond Texas. He told them that his wife was an award-winning Nail Tech and that they would be grateful to have her have her. So, when I got there I had a job waiting for me at the Best Little Hair House in Richmond and I worked there for 3 years with some of the best women in the business, God had taken me to a really good place. After 3 years it was time for me to quit and take care of my parents I was fortunate enough to take care of my mother until she was no longer with us after she passed. My niece moved her and her husband and their little girl there to Texas to help take care of daddy because she knew I was wore out, it had been 4 years of 24/7 care with my mom I went through a depression and after 6 months my husband and her decided it was time for me to go back to work. I tried a salon doing Commission but the woman was crazy and I couldn’t do it so once again my wonderful husband built me another salon and that Salon was there until we move to Colorado and I left it in good hands with one of the women I had worked with. I went to work in Colorado and I became known for doing things that nobody else in the valley had done.

I was known for doing custom colored acrylics ,custom blending double and triple tipping .things that nobody else has dared to try, but again my body could not handle the toll it was taking .three of my disc collapse in my neck cutting off the nerves in my left arm so I had to have surgery which left My fingers numb. In my left hand, the doctor said that I might never be able to do nails again which sent me into a depression knowing that I might not be able to do something that I loved more than anything in this world something that I had built my life on and made myself so proud and something that my husband truly believed in me that I was letting him down and my clients down so I had to stop again, but I didn’t really stop I just kind of did clients here and there one or two, but it was very hard because I couldn’t bend my neck the way I wanted to and it took longer than normal when you’re used to doing a 45-minute set and it takes you over an hour it wears on your confidence. After 4 years we decided to move back here to Arizona, 30 years to the date we moved back to Mesa. My niece Christy had moved back a few years before and because I had asked her to trade mark the name of Kreated she decided to open her own salon and that’s the name she used. When we moved here, I decided I was going to go to work with her she offered me the name back, but by then I was well known as Nails by Pam and that’s the name I wanted to keep it as, I had developed a good reputation and was known by my work and by my clients. Now I work only on a part-time basis and do the clients that I want to do and they’re wonderful. I don’t just do nails, I get to play with nails, I get to do things with nails that other people have been doing for a long time and it’s fun I’m getting to show things on the web and I’m getting to do things like this interview which is really exciting so now I’m known as Nails by Pam at Kreated Nail Envy and I get to work with my best friend. Oh, and my husband Randy and her husband Gary built us the very first mobile tiny house salon.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
No, it’s not been smooth. In each state, it has been learning to do the nails that popular in Texas it was short nails pink and white in Colorado it was custom colored blends and then moving back to Arizona its learning gels but then again that’s exciting. It’s overcoming obstacles of my health my family’s health. Changing the minds of clients that have listened to or learn things on the internet that aren’t true educating them to what is proper and the difference between products and teaching them that it’s okay to ask or demand what they want and be happy with what they get because we work for them and we should be grateful that they come to us and not that they are grateful because they get to come to us.

Nailsbypamkempf – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We do acrylics. We do custom colored acrylics we do jails we do custom color gels, we do manicures, gel manicures, pedicures, double and triple tipping which is designer tips, in January I will be one of among 10 in this area that will be certified in schwartzki it crystals. I specialize in giving the client what they want or what I try to give them what they want I try to make them happy if they bring me a picture I get as close to it as I can but I also let them know that they need to make it their own. What sets me apart, is I think that I try to make the client aware that they have the right to know what is going on with their nails that they have the right to ask questions and be educated about their nails they need to know what is going on their nails such as product they need to know why we’re doing what we’re doing to their nails and just listen to what they need even if it’s just to hear their problems and take our time with them cuz sometimes that’s all they need is someone to listen to them and know that they’re safe and what they’re saying.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I don’t know how to personally define success and I don’t know what the criteria or the markers are to tell you the truth I did find my success AZ making a client happy knowing that I did the best that I could do I know a lot of people Define it by how much money you make or how well you did that week what to bring home. It took me a long time to learn what my value was worth as a nail tech. I am an award-winning Nail Tech but I also know that there are people out there who can’t afford to go and pay $65 for a set of nails even though I know that I could get that I know that I want to make people happy and it’s never been about money for me the one piece of advice my dad gave me is when you get when you do something you love and you have to make money at it becomes a job and I never wanted what I had such a passion about to become a job.

Contact Info:

• Address: Nailsbypamkempf
  3535 Dragoon Avenue
  Mesa, Az 85204
• Phone: 719-588-7591
• Email: nailsbypamkempf@gmail.com
• Instagram: nailsbypamkempf
• Facebook: Nailsbypamkempf
• Twitter: @Pamk66
• Other: Tumblr: Pamk66

Image Credits:
Pam Kempf

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