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

Brittany, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

Life is truly about taking risks. You never know what opportunities arise when you are willing to put aside your fears, worries, and SOAR: soar into your future filled with an abundance of success and happiness. We get so focused on “what if we FAIL”, but the thing is, how would you ever know if you never try for yourself? Are you willing to live your life on a “should of, could of, would of”, or are you ready to actually do what it takes to succeed? Once I realized all of that, on top of understanding that ultimately, we as individuals choose our own future with the decisions we make (not including things that are out of our control in life), it was like instant tunnel vision to succeeding in life. Trial and errors will come. Days where you feel overwhelmed will come. Appreciate the process, and always remember: it will ALWAYS BE WORTH IT!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have been a licensed cosmetologist for 8 years now, however, hair was always a passion for me. Growing up since the age of 6, hair was self-taught for me. I always knew that the hair industry was a place of “peace of mind” for me; a place where I could forever be happy, satisfied, and always financially stable, whether the economy was good or bad at the time. Although I knew and felt such a strong way about the hair industry, upon my freshman year in high school, I felt that “doing hair” wasn’t something that I wanted to do in the long run, and from there, instead of taking cosmetology courses in high school, I focused more on my Advanced Placement courses, so that I could graduate with Honors, and go to a really good college, focusing on psychology, with an emphasis on criminal justice. Upon graduating high school with not only honors, I graduated with a 3.9 GPA, being in the top 10% of my class to graduate, and headed off to Lander University from there.
At Lander University, I lost track of what I was there for. I felt unhappy, I felt out of place. I felt as though I had made the wrong decision for my future, and just fell downhill from there. At that point in my life, I knew for sure that there was something missing, and that no matter how hard I tried to denied it, I could never be as happy in any field of career in my life besides cosmetology.
I ended up attending Virginia College for cosmetology in 2014, and I was in instant LOVE. I felt overjoyed; I felt like I was finally home. From then, I took the advantage of being a student at this school. I was involved in events that other students did not feel confident in, such as STUDENT FASHION SHOW competitions, in which one other student assisted me with, and we won 2nd place. I also took it upon myself to create and coordinate Virginia College’s first ever HALLOWEEN FASHION SHOW and HAUNTED HALLWAY, in which the President of the school was so intrigued that one student would put this whole event together, he created his own segment with some teachers of the school to do a “Thriller” segment for people who were walking into the school. I could not believe that so many people truly supported my craft, my love for the hair industry, and I felt so blessed and honored that people were by my side to help assist all that they could.
I gave the snippet of my life so that I could say this: my drive, my determination, and my FAITH, is what continues to The fact that I did not rush right into owning my own salon right after graduation, sets me aside from everyone else. I wanted to start my salon off the right way; when I open my salon, I want it to REMAIN OPEN. I want to operate and build the foundation of my salon the right way, so that I have no issues at all keeping my door open. I want my booth renters of the salon to feel at home, to come into the salon and feel as though they are not at work, but at a place where they can service and beautify their clients, and feel that they have made the right decision in career choice, as well as salon choice. I want us to be a TEAM, a family. I want to introduce new techniques and invent new ways of services to booth renters, as well as to the community that we will service in. The money that I would get from you all, would be invested solely into my business only, making sure that I get everything that I NEED to create my salon the RIGHT WAY, the FIRST TIME.

The purpose of becoming a business owner, was to structure a business beyond surface level foundation. What I mean by that is: aside from providing remarkable beauty services to clients, I dedicate the rest of my time to building proficient professionalism, customer service, and overall exceeding clients’ expectations. I have broken down and structured my business in such a strategic way, that I know for a fact, this same system can work for many others, leading back to why I opened MagicHands Salon in 2018 and NYCE Barbershop in 2020. The goal for operators is to build a structured, stabled, foundation for their own business, so that when elevation comes, they are more than ready to partake into their next journey.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

The key to building your social media platform is consistency, creativity, and clear content. I start building on my social media in 2016. I went viral on Facebook for the first time in 2017, with posts of my work reaching over 1-2 million views. I then went onto YouTube and began the partner program in 2018, thus going on viral on there as well with over 74,000 subscribers. I tripled my following on Instagram from 2022-2023 from 7,000 to almost 30,000 followers. I even went on Tiktok and went into a totally different niche from my other platforms, and went viral on there reaching over 2-3 million views on videos with 60,000 followers. Once I also realized what my audience liked specifically with my content, I would do more of that specific content. Be yourself, enjoy creating the content, and be consistent.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

When it comes to managing a team, always remember to communicate honestly and respectfully with team members. Remain stern so they understand the importance of professionalism, however, still with an at ease energy so they feel that they can exhale and feel comfortable with not only working alongside you, but be able to effectively communicate any issues/concerns.      

Contact Info:

• Instagram: onlyone_divaa
• Youtube: divaaBee.