We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Calandria Dennis a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Calandria, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today

If I could start over knowing what I know now, I would definitely start with creating a strategy and checking off as I go. Then I would utilize social media to the best of my ability to build an audience and pull in clientele. If I would have took social media more serious early on I would be much farther .

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 got into braiding by practicing on my Barbie dolls early on. It was the age of 9 that I started actually doing hair on family members friends & people in my hometown. I didn’t actually think I would be able to make a living off doing growing up, it was just something I did effortlessly. I’ve always been an over achiever, hard worker and dedicated individual. It wasn’t until I took a leap of faith to move to Atlanta Ga , when things didn’t go as planned that I started doing hair full time and it actually took off for me. I was stuck on trying to get a job and finish school . My mom said to me, you’ve been doing hair all your life why not do hair. It may not be meant for you to get a job. I’ve been pushing ever since that moment of 2020. I offer various types of braids . Knotless braids is my #1 selling set. I think a lot of people are authentically drawn to me for various reasons: consistency and neatness of my work, the size of my braids , my story and just who I am as a person. I’m so proud to know that I’ve built a solid clientele not only locally but globally. I’ve traveled to 5+ states to work and also have clients come from all over the world to be serviced by me. What sets me apart is my authenticity, care for clients hair and creating a experience for clients where they feel safe and beautiful and confident while being serviced.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Moving to Atlanta because I wanted more for myself really showed me the resilience inside of me. It took 6+ months for things to turn around for me. I was told no at just about every job I applied for, got dropped from school, my car was repossessed, I was trying to build clientele and so much more . I didn’t give up though, I kept trying and fighting telling myself something will eventually work out just for me and it did.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Yes, so when I created my brand”thelanway” that was a huge pivot for me. I basically started over and trusted the process. While building clientele in Atlanta, I had not brand name identity or goals. Although I was getting clients , I feel like I wasn’t being taken seriously because I was just working out of house and doing hair. So, I eventually with a strategy to create a whole brand, new social media , basically a new business. I realized the old strategies wasn’t working so I had to pivot and do something different .

Contact Info:

• Website: https://calanlan.as.me/
• Instagram: thelanway
• Facebook: thelanway
• Youtube: thelanway
• Other: TikTok :thelanway