We were lucky to catch up with Angela Knight recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Angela thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What do you think it takes to be successful?
Taking accountability is key for success. People with money have range, people with creativity have just as much range. Competing with people who have one but missing other factors gives you an advantage to be ahead and be the first, to be successful. Knowing what you want and recognizing what people want, made me change a lot to be seek the flaws in the system and make it my own recipe to fulfill want people want but don’t have. Being a creature of habit have never gotten me far in business and I have gotten comfortable with being uncomfortable. I know anything I don’t like will always come back to bite me in the butt. So I make sure to cross my T’s and dot my I’s
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 grew up in poverty, my family have always had nail salons but none where we felt safe or happy with. It was always enough to pay rent and a little left over to pay for other expenses. During COVID I experience what I felt was an awakening, where I quit the family salon because I just didn’t see eye to eye with my family. I had this idea of putting the salon in an area where it could thrive, and we could be safe but being that I am in a generation where aesthetics means more than anything I really wanted to put that into reality. My family said I should be happy with what we already had but I knew there was room to grow and be successful. Most salons are lacking English speaking workers, cleanliness, harmony, and value. I’ve noticed it for a long time, and I pitched the idea to my family where they turned me down, so I decided with a partner who had full faith in me to have creative control. I believe people will pay just for mediocre service, but to grow and thrive I made sure Ocean Nails was in a prime real estate location, had high ceilings, large windows where there would be sun shining in for daily serotonin, and the colors are deep purple with moss green accents. A kid free, peaceful environment where you could get away from your responsibilities. Everyone working here is trained by me to ensure that we all have the same quality of work. Im really proud the salon it has broken generation cycles to create a new outlook on business that people will pay for good service and good atmosphere.
All while it was thriving at the salon, I finally had time to pursue podcasting. I spent my nights and one day off turning my living room into a studio to record biweekly episodes where I could interview and bring awareness mental health, social issues, dark humor and relationship pointers that I personally experienced. The podcast is called PYNK Poddy, and each episode introduce a product called PYNK salt. Its the perfect combination to reach out to the audience personally while introducing the family product I took and revived it to what it is today. Im proud that I was able to get the salt into all the liquor stores like Amazon Prime, Lueken’s, Whiskey Willies, ABC, and more. I wanted to reach out to restaurants and expand my horizon to hopefully reach out to distributors with the platform the podcast has given me. The nail salon has created a financial nest for me to have the freedom to invest into PYNK salt, I can see it being the next Siracha, PYNK Poddy has given me a platform to voice my journey and help others relate. Although the salon is doing really good, my passion isn’t working there for long because Ive spent the last 10 years in the environment. Im thankful to be able to create this as a form of consistent income for myself and my family but my true passion strives with growing the salt company and creating content for my podcast so I’m putting all my efforts into these two things for the next couple of years. I’m really proud of projects I’ve started, and I hope to inspire others and open up more doors.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
When it comes to the salon, I’ve noticed my favorite source of new traffic is word of the mouth. I don’t like to do coupons and heavy discounts because I’ve noticed its caused people to expect cheaper prices. The quality of work will speak for itself, and I like customers who come whether it rain or shines, not because it’s a Black Friday discount. I don’t like short thrills I prefer long term business; my employees work hard to do a good job and it makes me happy to see referrals from other customers. I’ve never seen Tesla do discounts to reel in new customers so I think the tactic of good business ethic travels by word of the mouth and lead by example. Im known for being blunt and wide perspective on my podcast and Ive heard from many that a friend of a friend shared them my content. I would rather please my 20 loyal followers than have 3k followers with no real interaction and as far as PYNK Salt, the content of pink Himalayan salt attracts people who like health and spice. I love the foundation of product because I don’t feel like I have to oversell anything.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I’ve learned recently when doing anything new, it is actually scary, and you will fail before you do better. You hear people say it all the time, but the pressure is different when people are watching you. Most people who see you trying, will question your curiosity for wanting more and wanting to try a different method. The scary part is trying, failing and giving up because then you will feel like that’s what everyone who tried and judged did. People often project their experiences and outcomes on to you, that was a perspective I came to resonate with. To launch AND be successful is hard because you WILL fail, but it is your will and duty to try again with the mistakes you made prior to beat the system. I’ve honestly failed so many times behind closed doors, but because it was behind the scenes there was no pressure to explain myself to anyone. Im thankful for the failures because it taught me to be resilient and not fear anything. Mistakes usually cost some money and some time, now I cross my T’s and dot my I’s with the reality that I might fail from time to time instead of holding on to hope that I only have one chance. Its been a beneficial to accept the truth and not be so scared of new ventures.
Contact Info:
- Website: pynkpoddy.com
- Instagram: angelaknight_
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-aypCwRZElPsSj6CVTb8DA
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/ocean-nails-tampa-2
Image Credits
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