We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Denay Sky. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Denay below.
Alright, Denay thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?
I’ve tried to answer this question once. I accidentally deleted it and here I am writing it again. Success isn’t materialistic, it is a mindset. It is you believing your capable of doing something. No matter what you go through it’s you being able to know when you’re down you must come back up. Everybody goes through hardships, every single person struggles. What did you take away from the situation? What lesson did you learn? How are you going to thrive off it? How bad do you want it? Find the purpose and motivation if you want to be successful. The things I have gone through made me who I am. Every situation is meant to build you. It’s a game & it has levels to it. Put in the work, nobody is going to do it for you. Giving up is never a option for me, that’s how I AM successful. I may not have 1 million in my bank account just yet. But I will, because I’m determined. I have the drive, I want it so bad and I can taste it. I can see it, I know it’s meant for me. What is meant for you? Change your mindset. Change the game.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Denay. Im a 22 year old with 2 beautiful children. I am a entrepreneur. In 2021 I went to school to get my cosmo license to be a nail tech. I finished Dec 31 2021. 2022 I was pregnant with a 1 year old. I knew I didn’t want to be like my cousin who had no time to raise her kids working crazy hours. So I took a leap of faith in search to be able to work for myself to give me the opportunity to create my own schedule. NAILS FOR DAYZE was born, I started gaining clientele slowly. It was difficult but I was determined. In July 2022 I decided to take TikTok seriously. I wanted to help other beginner nail techs because I knew how difficult it was starting out. Fast forward June 2023 @denaysky is sitting at 60,000 followers and counting, I also retail nail supplies for beginner nail techs shopfordayze.com I started school July 13 2021 and in a little under 2 years I have been able to accomplish so many great things. I have been given opportunities, working with brands and other blessings. The leap of faith, was all it took. I am a mother, nail supplier, educator, baker, make up artist, nail & lash tech. I work the weekend only and have the whole week to spend with my children, I am forever grateful. Time is precious and working for myself made it possible.
How did you build your audience on social media?
Building my audience on TikTok @denaysky was difficult, for the longest time my account was sitting at 600. I’ve been consistently posting the past 7/8 months and am sitting at 60,000 followers. You have to find your niche, what and why are you posting. For example I knew I wanted to post for beginner nail techs, so the videos I needed to be making were informative. They needed to give my audience something, have value. So I knew what I struggled with as a beginner nail tech and started with those topics. Once I got that going people started commenting what they wanted to see so video ideas became easier. Hashtags are super important, they tell TikTok what your video is about. They get your video in-front of your ideal audience. SEO search engine optimization, that is the words you use in your caption I had to learn all of this basically TikTok wants to be like google. Able to search so I’d be sure to put exactly what I was teaching almost descriptive caption of the video. My account was growing ok, I was putting music over the videos with text on screen describing what I was doing. That’s the biggest mistake I did. All those videos I made without a voiceover was a waste of time. I promise you nobody cares what you sound like, I was scared to do them and people comment my voice is hot and soothing LOL. Do the voiceovers it makes people feel like ur on FaceTime and it’s going to 100% perform better. Once I started voiceovers I can go days without posting and my accounts still growing and videos still climbing. Trust me & thank me later.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
Instagram is the best place to gain clients. Posting your schedule everyday, booking link. Presentable & professional instagram layout with pictures of your work along with the correct hashtags. I’ve had so many clients say they just searched ‘ San Antonio Nail Tech ‘ and I come up. The hashtags I use for clients just change it to your city: #sanantonionailtech #sanantonionails #sanantonionailsalon #sanails . Use your hashtags with purpose.
Contact Info:
- Website: shopfordayze.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/nailsfordayze
- TikTok: @denaysky
- Instagram: @nailsfordayze