1. WHAT IS YOUR STORY?

I dropped out of high school at 16 and started working full time. I got my GED and was trained on the job as a dental assistant, as well as started working towards my Associate’s degree through Chandler Gilbert Community College. I wanted to be a dentist, but after about six months I realized, though I loved assisting, I could never handle the responsibility or liability of being a dentist.

In 2013, the wonderful doctors I worked for took their entire staff on a trip to Hawaii as a thank you. My mom, who had been wearing lash extensions for several years, convinced me to go see her gal Kendra (Owner of Wildflower Beauty Bar) for before the Hawaii trip. I took the plunge and was immediately OBSESSED! Over the next year, I pestered Kendra with questions about everything esthetics-related and she really planted the seed that I should look into becoming an esthetician and learning how to do lashes myself. 

At this point, I was 19, a little more than halfway to earning my Associate’s degree, and had no idea where to go from there. I loved being a dental assistant, but I knew that would be as far as I would go in that industry.  I started school for esthetics in September 2014. I worked full time during the day and went to school at night Monday-Friday. Seven long months later, I graduated! I opened a little esthetics studio in one of the bedrooms in my Gilbert home, continued working as a dental assistant during the day while lashing on evenings and weekends. I called myself Ethereal Esthetics and was stoked at the idea of becoming my own boss. 

Within a few months of graduating, the company through which I received my lash certification offered me a job as a full-time lash artist. It was such a great offer I decided to put my business on hold though I was terrified to make the jump from the stable assisting job I’d been at for five years into the “unsteady” commission industry. 

I spent 12 months lashing full time, building a clientele, and hustling 5-6 days a week for 10 hours a day. After a year, the owner offered me a promotion to teach the monthly lash classes and eventually become her regional manager as well as the director of education. I excitedly accepted her offer and slowly began transferring all my beloved clients to the other girls working in the salon. I was so sad to leave my clients but thrilled for an opportunity to grow with the business. 

I was teaching lash classes, interviewing, hiring, training, checking in on the stores, managing the staff, and (in my free time, LOL) writing the company’s new education training manuals and website content. At this time, I was also recently separated from my husband and we were filing for a divorce while also selling our home in Gilbert. It was at this point my life came harshly into focus. I was working 60+ hour weeks (on salary) for a woman who was emotionally and mentally abusive, barely saw my family, and was so stressed out I became physically ill. The day I arrived late for my own birthday dinner, I knew I had to leave.

With no plan for a job, my roommate covering my rent for two months, and my mom buying groceries, (thanks mom!) I was feverishly applying for any customer service job I could find. I felt like I wasn’t a fit for the beauty industry with its mean girls and high stress.

Within a few weeks, however, the word was out to former clients that I had left the company. Suddenly Facebook and Instagram messages starting trickling in—“Hi, I heard you left! So, how can I book with you!?” I threw together an at home studio with just basics and started lashing from home again. One of my former coworkers offered me a job at her studio, and I decided to give lashing another go. And while working for her was wonderful, I started to see I needed to start my own business to make it in this industry.

Want to see more beautiful work from Alanna? Connect with her on Instagram: @lotusestheticsinc