We were lucky to catch up with Ana Carolina Pinto Dillard recently and have shared our conversation below.
Ana Carolina , appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
I came from another country to try and begin a better life to myself, not knowing anything that was ahead of me and barely speaking the language. Today 4 years later, I find myself with a beautiful family, a business open and a mission to accomplish: to encourage another woman in the same position than me that with faith and hard work you can accomplish anything that you put your heart into.
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?
My name is Carolina Dillard, I’m 29 years old and I’m originally from Brazil. I started in the beauty industry since I was 17 years old, when I took my first class to manage an esthetic clinic. 3 years later I stopped working with beauty and went ahead to pursue my dream of becoming an actress- that’s where the name “Rayon” came from- I needed a better artistic name, so Rayon came to me as an inspiration from sun rays.
Formerly a ballet teacher, I went back to teach ballet and somehow manage to learn eyelashes 6 years ago, as an extra income. Soon what was mean to be an extra income became my main one, and I was able to save enough money to come to America for the first time, for vacation. I knew I wanted to come back, so I worked as hard as I could to save more money and take a class for Mega Volume in Tampa, two months later. I got here in September 2018, not knowing anything that was waiting for me. The person who taught me the class in Tampa, now my friend, also offered me a job to work with her. In the exact same day, another salon in Orlando saw my page on Instagram and asked me if I was interested in doing a job interview. One week later I was working in both cities, Monday through Sunday.
I knew deep down that God had promised me so much here in America. Not just a career but also a family! Walking in faith and trusting God’s power is what truly has been making my path.
Six months later I met my husband. We got married three months later, and in 2020 (only a year and a half of me being here) I was having my first son, and with a nice clientele established.
After having my son I started servicing my clients from home, this way I could be close to him while still making money.
My clients are very faithful and they stayed with me through it all. I believe that what really makes them stay is how much I care to deliver a perfect quality of my services and I care about their experience.
Now after two years of working from home I was able to inaugurate my shop, located 10 minutes south of downtown orlando. We are building a team and I’m able to offer more services besides eyelashes: eyebrows wax, permanent makeup, reflexology, facials, fibroblast skin tightening, and eyelashes classes.
Here in the new house of the Rayon Beauty Lounge we care about providing not just amazing services but our differential is the experience that our clients will have: from a salt bath for their feet when they first come in to a feet massage while they are getting their services done! It’s all made and thought in detail so they can have a truly pampered time while in the salon!
And I absolutely can’t wait to see where God will bring us in the next couple years!
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Absolutely! If you want to build a clientele there’s one thing that you list do: be available! Opening your schedule as much as you can and being available is key for you to build a clientele.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
You must be active in social media and utilize all the tools they have available.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://rayonbeauty.square.site/
- Instagram: rayonbeautylounge
- Facebook: Rayonbeauty