Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Bria Allure. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Bria, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today 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?

A lot of people on the outside looking in think that having your own business is consistent in the beginning. There are some days where you’ll make a large amount of money, then the next day you could make zero dollars. In the beginning those days would discourage me! When I first started my business I had my one small box of inventory, my box of small mailers, and my mini printer. I would try to get as many orders as I could finished while still working my full time night shift job. It was very exhausting and at times I felt like I could not do both. I spent a lot of my work day promoting myself on social media, by word of mouth, and by formulating witty emails to share with my customers and family and friends. My twitter followers have made me very successful business wise because of the way I marketed my business to my followers over the years. I would do giveaways, randomly select followers to send things to in exchange for posts, post at least 3-4x a day, and consistently try to engage in my comments and dms. There were a lot of days where I could not sleep until I knew I had something to post or share to my followers the next day.

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

I have always been obsessed with dainty jewelry and the color pink. My whole life I’ve wanted to wear as much jewelry as I saw my mother and grandmother wearing. As a teenager I would save my money and shop at beauty supply stores to try to mimic them! I decided to start my brand and make it as affordable as possible for other people who enjoy it as much as I do.

I try To have a very personal and close relationship with anyone who shops with me. I kind of make it a fun place to shop by talking to my followers as if I’ve known them my whole life. We laugh with each other, and I’ve even given some of them advice via dm. I think that’s what sets my business apart.. I want everyone to feel “at home” and “safe” while shopping with me. I know some people don’t have something as simple as someone asking them how their day was. I try to make that a point when posting on my social media for my followers.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Honestly by just being myself. I try not to act like a robot because I know what’s what most people are used to. I’ve been on social media since I was 12 and actually started as a Justin Bieber fan account haha. I learned promotion and marketing from that, because I used to promote and market Justin Bieber as if I was on his team. Embarrassing, but it worked! I learned how to calculate how many people could actually be watching you, I learned marketing percentages, I learned what people dislike and what people love. After I got over that phase I started to market myself the same way. I knew I could make people laugh and I knew people liked my content, so I kept it going and accumulated my followers over the years. Twitter is probably my most active and most popular form of social media.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn discouragement and being so hard on myself. When I first started the up and down days would have me very upset because I always wanted an up day. I didn’t want to go days without making as much as I made the day before, or not having any activity in my comments or likes. Once I realized that everyday isn’t going to be perfect, I completely changed my attitude.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: thebriaallure
• Youtube: YouTube.com/c/briaallurexo
• Other: twitch.tv/itgirlbarbie