Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jess Tiel. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Jess thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.
I think one of the biggest risks I’ve ever taken was hiring my best friend. She’s my soul-sister, and I love her with ever fiber of my being. But going into business with a friend can more often than not be the kiss of death to the friendship. We discussed that risk, and set very clear and realistic expectations. We created a special contract that had clear terms of how to dissolve the business relationship if one or both parties decided they wanted out. We negotiated those terms from a loving place, and really talked it out about what it would actually look like to walk away.
In an ideal world, I’d love to work with her forever. But people grow and change, or move away, or want to embark on a completely new and different path. You can’t hold things like that against people. And I think because I will always want what’s best for her, and I will support any decision that she feels is true to herself, I knew that we could navigate this and that our time together could be really special… and boy was I right.
The years I got to work alongside my bestie were literally the best years of my life. It brought us so much closer, and she always pushed me to be a better boss, mentor, business owner, and friend. She’s a Virgo, and I’m a Cancer. So she helps me find my backbone and encourages me to have the hard conversations and hold people accountable. She’s not afraid to call me out when tough love is needed. And even if in the moment it’s hard to hear, I know that she’s coming from a place of love. She truly is the Yin to my Yang, and helped fill in where my shortcomings were.
The energy, light, and laughter she brought to Boulder Brows was everything. I can’t tell you how many times she would add a zinger to my conversation with my client, and collectively we all would just lose ourselves in absolute hysteria. It was the best. I feel so lucky I got to mentor her and watch her grow into the talented artist she is today. And it was a no brainer when I relocated to Fort Collins that I could trust her to run a Boulder Brows franchise back in Louisville completely on her own.
We did it. We’re doing it. And I couldn’t be prouder of everything we’ve accomplished together.
Jess, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I’m a cosmetic tattoo artist, specializing in eyebrows and eyeliner, as well as corrective work. I pride myself on being a very versatile tattoo artist. While I do feel that I have a signature style that I love to get to do often, that doesn’t mean I’m going to push my clients into getting something that they don’t feel comfortable with. I really take the time to listen to what my client wants, by identifying very specific elements of a brow that they like and don’t like. So together we create an end result that brings their vision/preferences to life. I’m happy to make recommendations, or guide people towards a more aesthetically pleasing shape/style. But ultimately it’s their face, so I make bringing their vision to life my priority. I feel that this is why my portfolio is so diverse, with a wide range of different shapes and styles. I love to be challenged, because it forces me to not become complacent. I find corrective work really exciting for this reason. It’s like being a brow detective. It’s my job to try and figure out what a previous artist did that resulted in a less than desirable outcome, and then to develop a plan to correct their work so my client leaves with a beautiful result.
How I got my start in the industry? Well, after graduating college, I was on a completely different career path that did not pertain to beauty at all. But during that time, I decided that I wanted to get my eyebrows tattooed. I really struggled to find a local artist that I felt like I could trust with my face. There were certainly a few artists performing this service, but none of them felt like they were the right fit for me. After expanding my search, I finally found an artist out of state that was tattooing brows in a way that looked more modern and natural, and was exactly what I was looking for. So I flew all the way to Salt Lake City, twice, to get my brows done (once for the initial session, and once for the touchup 6 weeks later).
That’s when it dawned on me – there’s clearly a need for this in Colorado. I can’t be the only person interested in the convenience of permanent makeup, so I’m surely not the only person experiencing the same frustration at the lack of artists here. While I don’t have a background in art, I do have an appreciation for it and would consider myself more artistic. So I looked into the rules and regulations for becoming a permanent makeup artist and made the decision to quit my job and enroll in school. While in school, I tried to consider every possible option of where I could work after I graduate. Do I work in a med spa, a traditional tattoo shop, a hair salon, or maybe a nail salon? Nothing really felt right, and there weren’t any brow specialty salons at that time. So ultimately, I decided to start my own business, which would be just that – a brow salon. I had no idea what I was doing, because there was no existing business in Colorado that embodied what I was envisioning that I could model my business after. It felt like the wild west, but for brows.
My business has gone through many different phases. I started solo, in a tiny room with no windows in the basement of a building. And soon after, the demand was so great, and I was booking so far out that I felt like I needed to expand and grow my team. I moved to a bigger location and hired 2 other artists who were equally as passionate about brows as I was, and we continued to grow from there. Boulder Brows now has two locations, one in Louisville run by Isela, my right hand woman, and one in Fort Collins which is where I am now. Together we offer all things brows, lashes, and permanent cosmetics.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
I’m actually really fortunate in how I was able to fund starting a business, and it’s not what you’d likely expect. When I was in college, I got into road cycling. During my senior year, I was out on a solo ride around Boulder and was hit by a car in a pretty bad accident. A driver made a left turn into me, knocking me off my bike, running it over, and then dragging me several feet down the road. It’s unbelievable I didn’t die. Thankfully I fully recovered and still ride today. But the silver lining definitely was getting a settlement which I then used to pay for my medical bills, and then used the rest to invest in starting my business.
Any advice for managing a team?
My advice to any newbie business owners is to really consider if you’re meant to be a boss and manage a team. I’ve realized after 8 years that my calling was never management. I’m an artist. And unfortunately it took growing my team to realize that I actually hate holding people accountable, having the hard conversations, or managing other people in any capacity. I thrive when I can come to work, do what I love, and leave everything at the door. Now that I’ve downsized and am working solo in Fort Collins, I couldn’t be happier. Isela is running the Louisville location on her own, and I have every confidence that she’s got it under control. Of course I’m here if she needs anything. But this level of oversight is so much more manageable than what I was doing before. I’m just responsible for me, and my clients, and it’s glorious.
I think it’s easy to get swept up in “the dream” of running your own full service salon with a large team working under you. Clients often assume that’s the next natural step as we grow our business. But not everyone is meant to be a boss. And I can tell you, I’ve had a lot of heartache from having employees. From embezzling thousands of dollars from me, robbing me, abandoning their job with months of clients pre-booked, screaming at me in front of my clients, the list goes on. Don’t get me wrong – it can come with a lot of positives and fun. But you have to be prepared for the negatives and be hyper-vigilant in mitigating those risks.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.boulderbrows.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/boulderbrows/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/boulderbrows/
- Twitter: https://x.com/BoulderBrows/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/boulder-brows-fort-collins?uid=Qqj6KmNRarkJ_3N0r1YIQw&utm_campaign=www_business_share_popup&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=(direct)
Image Credits
Anna Salzer of Smiling Eyes Photography (Prairie Rose Ranch Photography)