We were lucky to catch up with Courtnie Morre recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Courtnie , thanks for joining us today. Any advice for creating a more inclusive workplace?

I started offering silent appointments.

I did not know or realize I was not leaving room for my socially anxious of neurodivergent friends.

Courtnie , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started doing nails a year before the pandemic so in 2019.

I liked getting the press on nails from the drugstore (shhh don’t tell), but I started to get bored with the shapes and lengths and designs.

I started making my own, just to accommodate my style and make it more “me”.

I started getting people asking about them and complimenting me at work, and in stores, etc.

My friend told me that if one more person asked, she was going to tell them I made them, and I needed to turn it into a business right away!

I listened to her, and imPRESSionsbyx was born.

It has its ups and downs. There was a lot that I needed to learn, and I had many orders that I needed to fix or redo.

I went to school to get my nail tech license, practiced my fingers to the bone.

And now I am one of the highest reviewed nail techs in my area!

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

I had a client who ordered online.

She saw an ad I’d put out on Instagram. We hadn’t worker together before and I was so excited to have a new customer.

She asked for a specific design, and I told her that I could do it, but it won’t come out exactly the same, as the photos she found for comparison were made with different products than what I owned.

We did a few mock ups and she loved them. So I moved on to creating the product.

She ended up disliking them and wanted a refund.

I was so bummed. I worked so hard, and kept the client in the loop the whole way through and she ended up hating them.

I wanted to quit. I could not believe id spent hours pouring my creative soul into this set and they didn’t like them.

I had to push through that, I had to recognize where I may have erred and how I could improve my business, my customer practices and policies to get better at handling these kinds of complaints.

I haven’t had once since.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

I had an order that was placed 3 days before I was about to take a vacation.

What they don’t tell you about being a small online store owner, is you can’t leave! Haha.

If an order comes in when you aren’t home, it’s hard to stick to your delivery and shipping times. But I digress.

I thought I could surely pull off this 12 set order 3 days before my trip. I was wrong!

I had to not only make 12 sets of nails, but get them all shipped before I left.

All my items are hand made. And can take 3 days to MAKE let alone make, package, and ship!

I got it all done. I stayed up all night, and I was able to get the sets done the night before my trip.

I go to ship them and drop them off at the post office, you know the little blue box? It was out of service! It was closed for maintenance because someone has gunked it up with junk as a prank. I was in no mood for jokes.

The only solution was to take them with me on my trip and ship them from there.

Luckily the packages fit in a carryon bag I already had, and I was able to get to a post office straight from the airport to drop them off.

I used this story as good “day in the life of a nail tech” content for social media.

Contact Info:

• Website: ImPRESSionsbyx.com
• Instagram: Imoressinsbyx