We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dashia Golden. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dashia below.

Dashia, appreciate you joining us today. Crazy stuff happening is almost as certain as death and taxes – it’s technically “unexpected” but something unexpected happening is to be expected and so can you share a crazy story with our readers

I had been doing nails for about 5 years and although I had always been an artist for many years prior I hadn’t really explored my art outside of my usual clients who would request designs on their nails. When my son turned 4 for his birthday I was gifting him a Spiderman room aka his big boy room. I had a vision and idea that I wanted for it and was looking for wallpaper to really bring the concept together. As I was looking, the prices just seemed so high for something that I felt I could easily do myself. So I took it upon myself to pull out the brushes and paint and get to work. As I am painting his room my husband is standing there in awe like wow you’re really painting his room like Spiderman! He said he wished he had a room like that when he was a little boy and proceeds to not only start taking pictures of me but he posted it to his social media! I’m here thinking it’s really not that big of a deal, but from his post people started messaging him asking for my services from schools to residential homes to community centers. My mind was blown, I mean I knew I could get the job done for my son’s room but never had I imagined that this could be an extension of my business as an artist. So ultimately that’s how I started painting murals and I love that I am able to take my artistic talents and scale them from canvases as small as nails to canvases as large as walls.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I started doing natural nails 7 years ago with a few breaks in between for the both of my two kids. When I decided I wanted my own space to create nail art for clients and help them to grow out their nails in a healthy manner using only top quality gel. It took some convincing on a lot of people as acrylic was very popular and people told me no one wants to wear their natural nails. I knew that couldn’t be true because I loved wearing my natural nails with no extensions just as I loved wearing my natural hair. And I figured if natural hair can take off and become one of the most popular trends in the beauty industry why can’t nails. At this point I had something to prove, so I did. I booked clients here and there but at that point I was just testing and learning what gels work and don’t and honed in on skills to make my manicures last. My manicures now last an impressively long time 3-6 weeks with no lifting. I knew my art was one of a kind because anytime a client would request something I would easily execute, so there were a few clients who would start challenging me just to see if I could deliver, and once I kept delivering I knew I had something special. I was building clients based off of word of mouth and I was quickly becoming the nail artist that specialized in natural nails in CLT. So when clients book with me they know they can effectively grow their natural nails and get one of kind nail art designs. When the pandemic hit I was already on a search for how to incorporate press on nails for people who weren’t able to experience my services but still loved my work. I had a good amount of materials in place and when the pandemic hit it was just time and set it up perfectly for me and potential customers. I was getting orders back to back which was excellent. Then I noticed from my own experience that press ons if not applied properly could cause damage to the natural nail. Which goes against what I built my business on so I had the idea of incorporating a way clients could experience one of a kind designs convenient like press ons but without causing damage to the nail and allowing people to keep their natural length. So I found nail wraps that I add to my business and helped design beautiful designs representative of popular designs I have created in the past and that’s another product I offer that people love. They are easy to apply last for weeks and beautiful designs similar to my services at a fraction of the time. I am now evolving as an artist in my city and exploring offering art on other mediums for clients including canvas art and murals.

Have you ever had to pivot?

The biggest pivots in my business and my life happened when I had both of my babies. When I had my son 5 years ago and had to go out for maternity leave, I was still building a clientele. When it was time for me to go back to work after having him my husband and I had a hard conversation about how if this time I wasn’t able to fill up my books and bring in more income I would have to go back and work for corporate America. I felt crushed but determined to make it work, as I worked a part time job tutoring at a local school for a steady income. I did everything possible to build my clientele from influence marketing to working extra long hours to fit the demand I was stating to get. It didn’t take long, I’d say 5 months and I was able to stop tutoring and had a book filled with clients that turned into regulars. This was a time I knew that in hard times I could do hard things and the hard things would be good for me because it built so much character within me.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

With business booming and books filled I was pregnant with my daughter 2 years later. I had no doubt in my mind that I would have the same experience going back to work after my maternity leave with her, afterall I had loyal clients who had been coming to me for years. They certainly understood that I needed time with my new little and I’d get back to business. When I went back to work I moved from my studio space to join spaces with a friend to help save a little on my overhead because I was coming back part time because I didn’t have childcare for my daughter until she turned 1. A week after I moved studios my space was robbed, they took everything from the gels I had worked years to collect, my implements, Uv light, electronics, everything. Needless to say this was the biggest gut punch I had experienced in my entire career. I kept thinking who would do something like this to me. I felt violated and defeated not to mention my postpartum emotions, I was devastated and felt like maybe there was a lesson I was missing. I packed the rest of what was left in that small studio space and took a break. I decided along with my husband that it would be best for me to take time off to be with my newborn baby and see if this is still what I wanted to do. So I did just that the next 9 months I was home with my daughter and we bonded there of course there were moments I had where I felt like I was loosing myself but ultimately it reset something in me. Once the daycare was able to take my girl when she turned 1 I started looking for studio spaces right away. The best thing I could find was about 30 minutes away from where I lived and I decided that didn’t matter my clients missed me and I had missed them and the distance wouldn’t make a difference. I got my space up and ready and let my clients know I was back in business and there were a handful of day ones that returned but other than that my books looked scarce like how they used to look when I first started. For months my books looked this way and I couldn’t believe this was happening again, I didn’t even think this would be an issue upon my return. So this taught me 3 valuable lessons in business 1. Location matters! 2. i hadn’t nurtured my audience or clientele in my absence, so most of them had found other places to patronize. 3. It’s okay to pivot while you build because it helps you grow. These lessons helped me to get to the place where I am now in my business where I can offer the services I love but explore and build the part of my talent that people didn’t get to experience from murals to artwork and they can all hold space harmoniously.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.beautifullygolden.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/beautifullygolden

Image Credits
Gabrielle Beliveau Baiwy @gabiliciousxsx