We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ashley Toache. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ashley below.
Alright, Ashley thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you share a story with us from back when you were an intern or apprentice? Maybe it’s a story that illustrates an important lesson you learned or maybe it’s a just a story that makes you laugh (or cry)? Looking back at internships and apprenticeships can be interesting, because there is so much variety in people’s experiences – and often those experiences inform our own leadership style.
Flashing back to senior year in highschool, before we could graduate we were required to complete one last project to be graded on. We were required to pick a profession, study that profession, build a business plan around that profession, and present our business plan to our assigned groups. Many students chose professions such as, a Firefighter, Dentist, Event planner, Boeing operations manager, etc. For some desirable reason at my age of 17, I chose a profession that I don’t think many people thought could be a profession around then, a Sunless beauty business owner.
At that time back in 2009, there weren’t many artists that existed, publically anyway, most spray businesses were side hustles. Spray tanning was always a huge concept but the thought of it being a career was not discovered yet. After hours of research I had found a woman I felt a natural pull towards, who ran a spray tan business in Seattle on her own. I decided I needed to contact her and only her. I said a prayer, took a deep breathe, picked up the phone, and mustered up the courage to ask this highly respected woman if she would be my mentor. She kindly and welcomingly took on the role, probably sensing the nervousness and angst in my voice for her response, and she would go on to show me the ropes of the industry.
I worked with her for about 1 month shadowing her each week as she showed me her spaces, the tools and supplies she equipped them with, how the machines worked, her client relations as well as her staff. She gave me my first custom airbrush, and answered all of my, now looking back on it, outlandish and silly questions. I was so eager to learn and she was grateful to teach, we had that beautiful connection and understanding between us. Her name is Sequoia and she currently runs Flawless Beauty Bars in Kirkland, WA. I will forever be grateful to her for her mentorship because that changed the trajectory of deepest desire for my future, one that I made a current reality.
I created my business plan and presented it to my class, I had everyone locked in on this very scarce profession and untapped industry. Little did I know I had manifested my future in that classroom. I am proud to say I now have a sunless airbrush tanning business by the name of “Bronzed Bunz” in Houston, TX. We are going on our 6th year in business, with a salon location, mobile options, and a team of 4. If I told you that just manifesting my dream got me to where I am today I would be lying to you. The truth is that without mentors in my life like Sequoia, Carina, Sarah, etc, I would not have the knowledge, tools, education, or EXPERIENCE as I do today that helps me stand out from the rest of the industry.
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.
My rise to success in the sunless industry is an inspiring journey of transformation from insecurity to triumph. Starting with my own struggles with self-confidence, I saw an opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives by providing a safe and empowering alternative to traditional tanning methods. Despite initial insecurities and doubts, I immersed myself in learning and honed my skills, building a foundation of expertise and knowledge. Through unwavering determination, I overcame my own insecurities and fear of failure, and my sunless tanning studio became a haven where clients could embrace their natural beauty. Today, I stand tall as a successful entrepreneur, having turned my personal journey of insecurity into a source of inspiration, empowering my community to feel confident and beautiful in their own skin and in their own professional ventures. It’s a gift that keeps on giving.
We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.
Since the moment I entered the sunless industry doing custom airbrushing something about it felt like second nature to me, it felt so right. From the artistic craft, to the human connection, and the rewarding feeling of seeing your clients so happy and confident. I started out by working at other salons, and I was pushing out those tans like I was a barista handing out coffees through morning rush at Starbucks. Most people couldn’t fathom performing a spray tan every 15 min for 4 hours straight but that was the world I was in starting out, living in Los Angeles, and spraying high end clients.
When I was working for another salon in Houston there were some major changes happening at that time in 2018, the company switched ownership and I lost my mom unexpectedly at her age of 45. There is nothing like the loss of someone major in your life to wake you to things you had been neglecting for so long, and for me that was desire and purpose. After my mom died I knew it was time for me to go towards that next thing that invoked the most fear. The one thing she always wanted for me, and encouraged me to do, start my own sunless beauty business “Bronzed Bunz,LLC”. What if I fail? What if I start my business and no one wants to use my services? What happens when I can’t pay my bills? All of the parasitic, survival mode, fear based thoughts and mentality would come up for me to convince me that this dream may be too far out of reach. That even though I spent so much of my time learning and providing this service somehow I doubted that I was good enough to own my OWN business.
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”, to say this was purely luck wouldn’t be the honest truth but I will say when your mentality shifts and you take a risk, the empowerment that comes with that along with adrenaline completely shifts your reality in a way that requires you to shift into a new version of yourself. I had a family member who believed in me and my dream enough to help me get started. Once I had shifted into “Bronzed Bunz” the amount of support from clients and their friends, those friend’s neighbors, and the amount of blessings being sent my way, God is good. The first two years with referrals systems and getting connected with my community, I was able to scale my mobile business, at the time, to 6 figures in the first year and a half in business.
I ran my mobile business for a total of 4 years before I found my current salon space that is shared with a pilates studio by the name of Trek House in Houston, TX. Since we opened in Oct of 2022 we have grown the salon by 70% in the last year. One thing I have truly come to realize is that you can’t do it alone. In order to grow a dream bigger than yourself you need to find your team that believes in your dream just as much if not more to help carry some of the weight that it takes to grow the dream. I have actively been focused on scaling by growing my team. Within my team I have found purpose, watching them grow into the ambitious, compassionate, leaders they are born to be.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
ALLOW YOURSELF TO BE SEEN! This is such a major challenge when you are starting out, or just a challenge you could be avoiding. I am not saying that you need to be the top sunless influencer with over 10k followers to be successful. You just need to let yourself be seen, online, with your clients, and let your work do the talking. Once I slowly started to allow myself to be seen and my work to be seen, it allowed my clients to see me and connect with me on a deeper level that it takes for them to feel comfortable and to trust me with their beauty needs. This industry is filled with vulnerability, body shaming, and comparison. You just have to remember that if you are in the beauty industry that it takes a certain energy and personality to be in this space. One that requires confidence, compassion, education, connection, and remembering who YOU are. There isn’t anyone out there like YOU and your clients are loyal to you for a reason. They see your magic and what makes you open to receiving more clients is seeing your own magic too. Knowing what you offer is different from everyone else because more than likely YOU are what they are investing in.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://bronzed-bunz.square.site/
- Instagram: Bronzedbunzhouston
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Bronzedbunzmobiletan/
- Linkedin: Ashley Toache
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/bronzed-bunz-houston-2
- Other: https://bio.site/Bronzedbunz
Image Credits
they are my photos