We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Aaliyah Monroe a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Aaliyah, thanks for joining us today. The first dollar your firm earns is always special. We’d love to hear about how you got your first client that wasn’t a friend or family.
The first client I ever had was unexpected . I had just became a little comfortable with doing nails for the public . My friends kept telling me “open your books”,”you’re good at this.” Whole time I felt I wasn’t ready . My first client I did a basic set with butterflies. The whole time I was so nervous and I’m thinking “I done messed this girl nails up.” She was so sweet and relaxed the whole time. After I was done her nails she actually “loved” them . And in my head I’m like girl you don’t got to lie lol, but she actually tipped me on top of her services and she is still a loyal client until this day.
Aaliyah, 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?
Before I became a nail artist I had a 9-5 job . When I was in college I did lashes . I just always knew I didn’t want to work for anyone but myself . I never liked listening to a “boss” or following “the rules.” One day I was talking to a friend and saying “what am I going to do next.” I was actually scrolling through my Instagram saved posts and I use to always save mail designs . I use to go to this guy who did my nails and I would show him designs and he act like he couldn’t do them or try to get them as similar as he can. When I was looking at the pictures I was like “hmmmmm ima try to do nails.” I started watching a lot of YouTube videos and just doing research on my own. I begin to order a lot of products and had to just get a feel of what worked for me . There were products that didn’t work for me that made me frustrated but made me want to keep looking for what worked best for me. What sets me apart from others is a client can show me something and I’m not the type to be like “nahhhhh I can’t do that.” I know I can and I execute the look everytime. The most thing that I’m proud of is that I did this on my own ! No paid promo , no buying my followers just hard work ! I want people to know that it just doesn’t stop with me doing nails . My brand is way bigger than me being a nail tech and I’ll show that to everyone very soon.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
What helped me build my reputation is in the market is my creativity . Don’t get me wrong sometimes I am lost when it comes to being creative but I always bounce back.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
When I first stated of course it took a minute for people to follow me and actually be attracted to my work. There was this one set that went viral I did with over 85k likes , once that was done my following just sky rocket and I maintained it since then. I would tell people to keep using hashtags , interact with other entrepreneurs in your business category , and to always have faith in yourself .
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thenailsnobb.as.me/schedule.php
- Instagram: @TheNailSnobb_
- Twitter: Shesmonroee
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/c/AaliyahMonroe
- Other: TikTok @ShesMonroe