We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brianna Yauney a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Brianna, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?

I absolutely love that this is a question. I have had a unique experience with scaling up my business because I had to do it about every two years over the last decade. Each time I moved, it was so far that my clients weren’t able to follow me. I had a few travel 13 hours to see me since I moved to Colorado, but that is obviously not something that anyone would want to do regularly! As hard at it has been, each move has taught me something that has helped me to rebuild in the next place. My greatest weapon was learning how to do just about anything. No one wants to do kid’s cuts or men’s, but I was a single mom and couldn’t be picky. What seemed to be a curse turned into my greatest weapon. If the mom of the unruly child sees that you can wrangle them and give them a good haircut, guess who wants to come to you themselves. Oh yeah, and you can take care of her whole family, without her fearing that will hit on her husband! I realized that in the middle-of-nowhere Kansas, I had cracked the code. Clients were relieved to have someone that not only would take their kids, but they could trust with their own color too. I built relationships on trust. Once I gained the trust of these amazing mothers, my business began to thrive! These woman built my color portfolio on social media that allowed me to gain more and more color clients. That wasn’t the end, however. I began to see that more people were coming in with fear of so many things. Bad experiences had led them to not want to ever get their hair done, and I still needed more clients. I began to implement three things that my clients absolutely loved! They were given options based on their budget, not my need to hit a quota. I gave them the education to be able to replicate their style at home. Most importantly, I helped them to put their thoughts into words so they could have the hair that they wanted.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

To be honest, I never would have imagined that I would end up in this industry. I was religious growing up, and thought that self-care was equivalent to vanity. So, you can assume that Cosmetology was nowhere on my radar. The summer after my senior year, I was lucky enough to find out that I was pregnant. At the time, it didn’t feel lucky, but my son is obviously the coolest and most fun child ever. As a barely-legal adult, I began to panic. Sure, I could braid hair for volleyball, but what the heck was I going to do now that being a full-time student-athlete was off the table. Someone had suggested that maybe braiding hair for volleyball and helping friends with their prom hair a few times was a natural talent. I went to an open house and knew immediately that this was it. There were tears shed over something I thought I had lost, however I did eventually go back to school. I realized that I really wouldn’t have loved becoming a psychologist anyway. Turns out that my fallback wasn’t so bad after all. I have built a brand that I am proud of and that I truly hope my clients love! Being in a space now that allows for them to come in and just exist is the greatest thing to see. I feel as though I have been able to create a comfortable and inviting space that calls out to the right people!

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

There is such a crazy push to be something on social media. What I love about social media is that you can just be you. If you want to attract like-minded people, you get to just be yourself! There is a super amazing salon in Denver called Rave Babe Salon. They really showed me that I can niche-down. I don’t have to cater to everyone! I can just cater to the people that I truly want! Having a dark, comfy space has attracted clients that want a comfortable and judgement-free experience. All I have had to do is show that on my social media. You want more clients that like bright neon hair, ONLY POST BRIGHT NEON HAIR. Stop posting men’s cuts, when you hate them. If you can’t post that all the time because you don’t have many client that like that, then put your personality on there. Add some memes that match your aesthetic, but show your personality. If you like to cuss, don’t make your page wholesome and digestible for everyone. You have to attract people that you want. It may take some time to build your perfect clientele, but it’s worth it! Never be afraid to reach out to creators that you admire! I business coach on the side and have loved helping others grow! Most of us want to see others thrive just as much as we have!

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Don’t underestimate Google Reviews! I had no idea the impact that Google reviews could make until about 3 years ago. I was working in a salon full of other stylists and I just started mentioning Google reviews one day. I have the best clients and of course they all said they would be happy to leave me a review! The phone started to blow up and they wanted in with me. Out of our 53 reviews, 40 of them were clients praising me. As a salon owner now, I began immediately utilizing this tool. As of last week, I am one of the top results when you search for salons in my area! Do not sleep on the Google Reviews!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://velvetlanehairsociety.com/pages/final-home
• Instagram: https://Instagram.com/your.stylist.at.velvetlane
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@velvet.lane.hair.society?_t=ZT-8vyrOdIIdDy&_r=1