We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kierston Armstrong a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Kierston, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s easy to look at a business or industry as an outsider and assume it’s super profitable – but we’ve seen over and over again in our conversation with folks that most industries have factors that make profitability a challenge. What’s biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?
When starting a small business, you must be prepared for ups and downs—that goes for everyone. I have learned through experience that you really do put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into anything that becomes whatever the definition of success is for that person. For me, success is being proud of myself after a big day that was made worth it by the smiles, the “thanks”, that truly fill me to the brim! With all that being said, sometimes, it can begin to feel like it’s too much when it doesn’t go as planned. On the outside people just see the glitter, the cute faces, and the pretty designs. What a lot of people don’t know about how I started my body art business is that a lot of the times I have invested about $40-$250 to attend. The majority of the time, I have profited from these flea market type events hosted by people in the community. I meet several awesome people and connect on personal and business levels which is great. There are times that I make very little as well. The biggest challenge for me is when an event isn’t that great, or worse, it turns into a string of not-so-great events due to something like low traffic or bad weather, it hurts you and your pockets. Those instances can be back-to-back or far between even if you do everything right. Even with all the uncertainty, I still think it’s worth the risk.
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?
For the people who don’t know me, my name is Kierston, but you can find me online as Kierisma. While I wasn’t born in Hunstville AL, nor do I live there now, it’s where I say I’m from. I have lived in different parts of Tennessee for almost a decade, which seems so unreal to say! The years really do feel like they fly by the older that I get. Growing up, I have ALWAYS had a fascination with anything to do with art. During my childhood I was exposed to several different types of art and mediums like model clay, pastels, painting, sewing, and all different kinds of unique projects. With this developing skill, I made winning pieces of art at school and even won most creative at my 8th grade graduation. Unfortunately, I didn’t do anything with my interests in art because I went to school for Biology when I discovered I didn’t like science as much as I thought I did. I went on to change my major two times before I realized I wanted to do something different. It would still take me a little while to find my way back to my creative heart, but I did eventually.
I admit, I struggled quite a bit with motivation due to being so lost and uncertain about what I wanted to do. I worked several different jobs that I always grew too tired of too fast. I also can’t work just any job due to having extremely unpredictable eczema, so it was definitely a difficult time for me. I have always had to be very cautious because of my skin. Stress and contact allergies have broken me down several times in the past, but life had to truly break me to get to where I am now.
In 2021, my stepdad tragically passed away from liver cancer, and shortly after my mother got so sick I thought she was next. With my world crashing around me, I had to choose whether or not I was going to crash too. Thankfully, I had my mom’s full support when I came to her on a random afternoon and told her that I booked my very first face painting event. It was a few months away, but my mom was the one who really pushed me to go for it. She pushed me to do it all if I’m honest. Without her support there probably would not be a Keirismatic Design today so I’m very grateful to have her in my corner.
I really hit the ground zooming! I had paid for several events and got my socials started shortly after telling my mom. I tried to be booked every Saturday. During this time, I had found a job at the Nashville Zoo doing face paint and henna for a company named Kamans. This, plus the support from my mom and my partner really helped me ‘zoom’ even faster. I found myself getting much better at painting, making connections with customers, and handling my performance anxiety!
Since then, I truly feel like I have grown into a better painter, but I still have so much to learn from others in the business and skills to improve on. It can be a challenging field to get in to, but like anything else, you just have to work at it. My best tip is to practice and also to learn how to talk to people more. Being confident in your skills and confident in yourself always makes you stand out in the crowd. There were quite a few times when I have had something personal going on in my life that could make someone want to call it quits, but I had a big day ahead of me that required much more. It was amazing to see myself growing out of that because I was doing something I actually loved to do.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
My story, like many others, has its ups and downs. I used to struggle terribly with an overwhelming sense of doom and gloom that I’m so glad I grew out of. While I learned to not get so bent out of shape, life can start lifeing a little too much sometimes. The biggest knock down I’ve experienced by far was the loss of my step dad after his short yet brave fight with liver cancer. He came into my life and showed me real love and support that I hadn’t received from a father figure before. So, to have it taken away after a few short years, I was devastated. Though I was sad, there really wasn’t time for me to recover and grieve how I needed because my mother fell terribly ill from the heartbreak and ignoring her health during that time. You could only imagine how crazy and anxious I was feeling while simultaneously trying to keep it together for her. I remember trying to prepare myself mentally for another big hit and it would literally make me sick to my stomach. Life is so strange and I still think about that almost everyday. It really opened my eyes and showed me that I needed to get out of my funk and live my life!
Even if I was really sick, confused, having an eczema flare, sad, or anything else I would still try. 10% or 100% I would still try. My sadness from that loss motivated me a lot more than I realized at the time. I was determined to not slip into that dark funk I had set up shop in. Slowly but surely my mother got better and life felt slightly normal again, aside from this new huge hole we had in our family. During that odd time is when I booked my first face painting event and the rest is history. Without the support from my mom and my partner, who came to almost every single event to help, I’m not sure I would be in the same position.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Pivoting is honestly how I got into face painting. I used to mainly focus on science with the occasional art project I would do just for fun. I started at TTU in 2016 majoring in Biology with hopes to become a dentist one day because it’s what my mom wanted for me. We both learned the hard way that it wasn’t what I was meant to be doing and that’s okay. I tried going to a loser community college and changed me major twice, but I hated school. I pride myself on finishing all the classes I paid for, but that last semester drug by and I was miserable everyday. From there, I worked several different jobs like Starbucks, factories, Pharmacy tech, 2020 Census proctor, Tax specialist, receptionist and a few more less exciting roles. I always found myself becoming so unhappy at the start of my day and even then I knew I needed to find something for me.
I was so lucky to find a job at the Nashville Zoo doing face painting and henna while I worked on my own business. It helped me with my speed and confidence, which I definitely needed! I stayed with them for a full season, but found a new position with much better pay at the zoo that works with my schedule. I still get to see my friends at the face paint stand and Facepaint on my own time. It’s the best of both worlds for me because I absolutely love my job now.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kierston.paints?igsh=MXFpZ3ZwcHFqZTBjOQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082643746574
Image Credits
Junior Jumeau took the photo of me holding the brush with a butterfly on it.