We were lucky to catch up with Ann Mosley recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Ann, thanks for joining us today. How do you feel about asking friends and family to support your business? What’s appropriate, what’s not? Where do you draw the line?

Wow, that’s a great question. I speak about this often to my mentees during my coaching sessions. We always look for our friends and family to be the first people to support us, but the reality is, it’s the complete opposite. Friends and family can tend to automatically think that they deserve a discount, when in reality you need all the revenue made for your supplies, marketing, and resources to fund your business. With that being said I can count how many friends and family who have supported me over the years. In recent years, I have developed a strong social media presence, which has created opportunities for my clientel to now be called family. For example, every year I have an Annual Breast Cancer Awareness Giveaway where I donate one of my brow services to a Cancer Survivor. One of my winners whom I have never met brought me a gift, while I was being a blessing for her, she was being a blessing for me.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have been a licensed esthetician, celebrity makeup artist, and educator for over 25 years. I was raised in the beauty industry. My mother Doris Mosley has been a known hairstylist and educator in the Los Angeles area for over 40 years. Since the age of 5, I grew up in the salon answering phones, playing with doll heads, and shampooing family member’s hair. I can say by the age of 18 I knew how to run a salon on my own.

My sister Lillie took after my mother and became a hairstylist, as she was the key hairstylist on the 1996 sitcom “The Steve Harvey Show.” She Invited me down to the set one day and instantly knew what I wanted to do. I remember going home and waking up in the middle of the night thinking “I want to be a makeup artist”.

I knew then that I wanted to be in the industry and my sister mentioned that the lead makeup artist was an esthetician. So I decided to enroll in a Cosmetology Esthetician program. Over time the other departments started asking me to do their model’s makeup for their competitions this then led to them sending me clients for all their makeup and skin care needs. Although I never got to enroll in makeup school, I am a self-taught makeup artist, and in 1996 I became a licensed esthetician.

Things have not always been easy for me, the journey has been a struggle but one that I can say has made me stronger. 2007 was a tough year for me, the financial crisis caused me to close my studio in the corporate world for a while and that humbled me. That was the most devastating time in my life, however, it has made the journey as a business owner that much more real and personable.

I created Basic and Beyond Brows specializing in Brow transformations, semi-permanent, and ombré microblading. I also specialize in facials, body sculpting, and running my own Brow Academy that teaches students how to perform tattoo brows. They also call me your BeautyPreneur Coach where I mentor entrepreneurs who are looking to gain business knowledge of social media, marketing & branding, funding, and networking.

In my many years of being in this industry, I am most proud of the relationships I’ve created with other beauty professionals in the industry. As well as being a mentor. I enjoy helping and guiding young business owners who are looking to achieve their goals and get them to where they would like to be in the beauty indusrty.

What I want my clients, followers, and supporters to know about me is that the road to success for me has not been easy. It has been many nights where tears were shed, and conversations with God on what direction to take. I have a strong Faith and without that, my business would not have succeeded or gotten where I am today. This is one of the reasons why I decided to go into coaching and mentoring other professionals.

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

Again like I tell my mentees who I coach, social media is tricky. It can help aid in breaking you down or help in building you and your business up. However, Social media has been a blessing for me. When I added the new Microblading service back in 2015 to my menu, I started doing what others weren’t doing at the time on Instagram and that was instead of jtaking still photos of my client’s brows, I started recording the process and my client’s reactions. In doing this I was able to show my followers that may be apprehensive because it was a tattoo that allowed them to see the real experience and in-person reviews. That was the start of my social media success, it was the real-life experience that my followers started to notice, and about 70% of my clients have come from social media.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

Keeping up with clients has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my business. Since we have gone to online booking we have been able to better track our clients giving us access to keep them in the loop of promotions, giveaways, classes, monthly birthday blasts, as well as exciting news that myself has going on. We call it “Keeping Up with Basic and Beyond Brows.” Since starting the monthly email blast it has been exciting to see the growth and interaction with my clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.basicandbeyondbrows.com
• Instagram: Basic and Beyond Brows
• Facebook: Basic and Beyond Brows