We recently connected with Danyelle Gamch and have shared our conversation below.
Danyelle, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?
To be successful is to never give up. Every journey has it challenges it’s how you face those challenges which change everything. There is a season for the highs and the lows. The lows help us to learn, build character and grow. Nothings good comes easy. You have to wake up and try your best everyday and realize that sometimes your best is just simply showing up for yourself. Success looks different for everyone. Best advice is do not compare yourself to those around you. Your journey is yours alone, have an open heart, integrity in your work and stay true to your authentic self.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Danyelle Gamch. I am a small business owner in the Silicon Valley. When I was young I always loved anything related to beauty. Styling my friends hair and doing their makeup. When I was 16 years old, I got pregnant with my first born daughter, Aliyah. I struggled in the school setting but my parents pushed to me figure out a path for myself so when I graduated, I didn’t end up taking a break from school because they knew it would be hard for me to want to go back. I started to research the cosmetology programs in my area. I toured a well known school, from the moment I walked in , I knew that’s where my heart was. I signed up to do the part time night program. I was a mom during the day and a cosmetology student from 5:30-10:30 monday through Friday. I was able to finish the program in 16 months and got licensed right after completing my hours. It took me a few years to finally be able to focus on my career because I ended up having another child, my son. I was fearful that stepping into my work full time would take away from being able to raise my kids. Once they hit school age. I took the risk and never looked back. I started my hair journey being a bridal hair stylist with a friend of mine. I love to be creative, I love recreating looks and being given the artistic freedom to created my own. That then motivated me to step into cutting and coloring. That came very natural to me. I am a hands on learner and I am never scared to take risk when it comes to trying and learning new things. I soon realized the only way I would be able to become fully successful to live the life of my dreams was so venture out on my own. To be able to make my own schedule and focus and doing what I love to do. So in 2018 I did just that. I started my own business in a salon studio. I am a color and cut specialist and my specialty is Bridal hair and makeup styling. Doing bridal work gives me the freedom to travel around to new places and be apart of the most important day in people’s life. The energy surrounding Bridal styling is unmatched. People are so happy and excited and the hair and makeup is so important! I am so proud of my work. I love what I do. It’s the best feeling to be able to show up as myself everyday. My studio is a reflection of me.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
One thing I had to unlearn was what worked in the beginning won’t always work as you grow. When I first started my business I was paying for ads on so many different platforms. Yelp, weddings wire, instagram, google ect. I was trying to fill my books to have a steady clientele and it did work in the beginning. As I began to settle into who I was as a stylist and what my specialties was, I realized that I was not attracting a clientele that was here to stay, just some that were there to fill the spots.I cut back on a lot of the ad campaigns and saved lots of money. I decided to focus more on the things that I enjoy doing bridal hair styling and lower maintenance color services. Once I started posting more of that on my social medias, I started to attract those type of clients. I then had returning clients that are my dream client’s and matched my energy, they then began to refer their friends and family, which is what I have built my business around. As your business grows, you will have to make lots of changes along the way. Especially in an industry where trends are always changing and social media as well. I find I get most of my newer clients from instagram
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
In 2020 I was faced with one of the biggest challenges of my career, the Pandemic. During that time I was not allowed to work at all because I was not an “essential worker” this deeply effected my mental health and my financial stability. I was not allowed behind the chair for a solid 7 months. During this time I tried really hard to keep a presence online, taking classes online to keep up with my skills, posting my work and updates on life to keep the interaction with my clients alive. Right before we went into lock down I had just signed a new lease at a new location for my salon studio. I was terrified it wasn’t going to work out, that the move during the pandemic was going to kill my business. Designing my business while in quarantine kept me inspired. Once the doors opened in 2021 I was overwhelmed with the overflow of clients that came back to support me. I was very busy in the beginning then it slowed down a bit behind the chair. Once weddings were able to resume the Bridal business took off. There was lots of rescheduled weddings to catch up on. Though I did struggle a lot, I was always hopeful and confident that the bond I had with my clients was strong enough that they would chose to continue to support my business. I came back stronger then before, with more knowledge and flexibility for whatever challenges lie ahead.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.glamourbydee.com/
- Instagram: GlamourbyD
- Yelp: https://yelp.to/Dc5lrIX46xb
- Other: Danyellegamch.GlossGenius.com Instagram – @glamourbydbridal
Image Credits
Instagram @brittanyrenee.photography Instagram @kristinaaliciaphoto @rebeccajayphotography