We were lucky to catch up with Jessica Winters recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jessica , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Obviously it takes hard work and consistency but the fastest way to success is getting comfortable with the uncomfortable. If we never go outside of that natural comfort zone you create for yourself, and everybody has them whether you think you do or not, we never experience life any differently than our current situation. If you have a goal or a dream you aren’t currently reaching it’s because you are staying in your comfort zone. A goal or a dream is something you haven’t achieved yet and you never will by staying in the comfort zone. Continue pushing yourself and going for it. Even when it feels like you are all alone and no one thinks the way you do or no one lives life this way, do it. Your dreams aren’t everyone else’s and you aren’t everyone else. You are creating the life YOU want, not what your neighbor or high school friend want. If you continuing living your life the way everyone else does that is exactly what you will get. A mediocre life with normal results. If something feels uncomfortable it’s only because you have never experienced it before. Don’t push those feelings aside. That is the path to success. Doing the same thing you’re doing right now will only give you the same results you are already seeing.

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

Hi my name is Jessica and I lovingly go by Jess or even WinkClique by our customers. Our Clique is an incredible community and I could not be more proud to have found such a beautiful life. Back in 2019 I had my last child, I have 4 and they were all two years apart. I was in the trenches for a long time doing much of the parenting alone because my husband was gone working. He was in sales and everything was commission based so the more effort you put in the more results you should potentially see. But earning a living for a young man, at the time he was 29 with 4 children, can be challenging. We always had enough but extra was not in our vocabulary. Doing motherhood alone most of the time took its toll on me but I was also experiencing high levels of postpartum depression that I was not making a connection to get help for. I sunk deeper and deeper into my depressive state and rarely left the house or enjoyed myself throughout the day. Mind you I also did not have family nearby and as an introvert by nature I preferred to be alone but my loneliness was plaguing me. My husband is my very best friend and our life now is so incredible but during this time I turned to him often for help. He did everything in his power to help but my depression stayed. In 2019 for my birthday he asked what I wanted and I didn’t have any clue. There wasn’t a lot that was lighting my fire at the moment so I asked him what we should do for the day. He suggested that I do something to make me feel good and pretty. Fashion, beauty, makeup, and hair have always been my interests and while I didn’t just ‘let myself go’ when I had kids, I never wanted to take time away from them to go to appointments or live luxuriously. Plus we didn’t exactly have a ton of funds to do these things. But I decided I wanted lashes for my birthday. I had always wanted lash extensions but the cost and time were not an option so I bought a magnetic pair to try. When they arrived in the mail I loved them! I was glammed up for the day and felt so amazing. As I continued to wear them they became more and more irritating due to design flaws. During this time I also dove into my beauty routine and mastered dying my hair roots, nails, eyebrows, skin care, you name it. I found a way to do everything, feel amazing, not take too much time away from my family, and not break the bank but the one thing I could not nail was my lashes. I wanted an extension look and I just wasn’t achieving it. So again I bought products on the market that promised to do just the thing. I had no such luck and finally my husband Donovan said, “Why don’t we just make our own?” Donovan is a big time DIY guy. He can build literally anything he sets his mind to and there’s nothing in our home he can’t fix. So this statement to him was very common. For me I felt like, “Well that’s not something you do. You can’t just make them.” But he was serious. His desire to be an entrepreneur was always there and we had always wanted to work together. Our marriage is one where we never grow tired of each other. Fast forward to now we spend nearly every waking moment together and it is heaven. But now back to 2019. Donovan’s idea spread like wild fire for him and had it not been for him, WC wouldn’t be here today. He pushed me to reach outside my comfort zone and past the, what if’s. There were so many what if’s and there still are but now I can navigate the waters more easily. So we found a manufacturer that could do what we were asking and WC was born. During this process I completely found myself. Lashes saved me from depression. As odd as that may sound creating this business to serve other women that may be experiencing the same thing was life changing for me. Now we have been open for almost two years and we have received countless messages from our Clique members about having a baby while wearing lashes and the confidence it gave them or dealing with depression or postpartum, whatever it may be, lashes are saving them. Can you even imagine such a beautiful thing? I am so grateful to be part of WinkClique and to our team that makes all of it keep going and growing. We love welcoming new members into our Clique and I cannot wait to get to know more and more. It’s not just lashes, it never has been.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Social media is absolutely huge in the marketing world right now. If you are not utilizing social platforms then you are not getting your name and brand in front of enough faces. When you are just starting out on social pages you can do everything for free. You do not need to do paid advertisements if it’s not in your budget. When WinkClique started we didn’t run our first paid ad until September of this year. Believe it or not we just now started advertising and before that we grew our 21,000 followers count on Instagram, completely organically. It was all done by word-of-mouth, consistent posting, and gifting product to Influencers.

The absolute best thing you can do is get your product in front of as many people as you possibly can and nowadays that’s going to be social media. If you have a product that you can send to someone that will be able to influence their audience, do it. In the beginning we sent out so much free product just to spread the word and that was the best thing we could’ve ever done because our name spread like wildfire. We receive dozens and dozens of tags every single day on Instagram and it has been consistent from the very beginning.

If running social media isn’t your thing hire a company to do it. There are so many ways to make social media work for you and to get your brand out there you just have to be willing to do it. Social media will change your business and take it from obscurity to a house hold name.

Any advice for managing a team?

Having a team behind you is going to be one of the greatest accomplishments you’ve ever achieved. When you have a team your main job is caring for them and making sure they have what they need to keep the work going for your customers.

The best way to keep your team happy is to know them personally. If you know a persons love language you know how to express gratitude towards them and gratitude for the work that they are doing for your company. You also want make sure all of your employees feel like they are contributing to the building of the company rather than just feeling like a work slave that does all of the behind-the-scenes work. The best way, again to do this is by knowing how that person feels valued. Have your employees take a personality test, enneagram test, or love language test. Anything that tells you more about them. Spend time together as a team doing team building games and activities. Remember small things like their birthdays, their likes, their dislikes, always use their name, buy lunch, etc. Small things lead to great results.

Another important aspect of being a leader is knowing yourself. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses will help you create a dream team. Higher your weaknesses first and make sure you’re employees know that you value knowing yourself and so should they. They may be hired to do a job that is not in their natural abilities. Moving people around within the company is a good thing. Fine tuning and growing are never signs of failure. If someone is a good employee but you’re not seeing the results you would like, dive into their personality and figure out what their talents can do to most benefit the company as a whole. This will help your employee feel valued and not replaceable. Everyone wants to feel important and it is your job to help them grow this type of confidence. Your company cannot succeed if your team does not succeed.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.winkclique.com
• Instagram: WinkClique
• Facebook: WinkClique

Image Credits
Melissa Hill Photography