We were lucky to catch up with Melissa Perez recently and have shared our conversation below.
Melissa, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?
Your mind has to be set up as strong as ever. You must be willing to work hard and keep going forward NO MATTER WHAT! You will have to jump over obstacles, jump over bridges, probably do some front flips and back flips while you’re at it… as long as YOU KEEP GOING, that’s all that matters. Surround yourself with those who have goals and ambition. You must learn to normalize bad days & good days. You must learn to lose fear, scary money don’t make money! It takes many mistakes and many failures, but as long as you learn to pick yourself up again and learn from your mistakes, you will be successful at everything in life. Stay loyal to your business, and most importantly BELIEVE IN YOURSELF.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Hi friends! My name is Meliy, aka GLAMBYMELIY !! I heal, create & formulate all day long!! I am an amazing Houston Hair Artist who loves and enjoys transforming hair & lifes!! I professionally joined the beauty industry back in 2015, but it’s been a passion since I was a little girl. I was always that child to rub red lipstick on my lips & to do my hair then grab the TV remote and pretend to be on stage. I always enjoyed role playing the beauty in many celebrities growing up. As I got older, i’d say in my mid teens, I started getting hired to do makeup looks and hairstyles for many girls attending special events. My close friends and family complimented my art all the time. It was something I was naturally good at. I didn’t think it could be much bigger than just doing it on weekends as my hobby until I was 20 years old and I realized success can be what you love doing, it can be creating your own sauce! Working behind a desk or going to college for 2+ years wasn’t for me. That’s when I decided to drop everything I was doing at the time and I finally started beauty school. I was working a full time salon job while attending school, running on 3-4 hours of sleep everyday to follow my dreams. I almost gave up about a million times but i kept going! I graduated from Paul Mitchell The School Houston in 2017 and immediately started booth renting a few months after graduating. I still remember the whole world telling me booth renting right after beauty school wasn’t the best idea and that most likely i’ll be a failure. I don’t think anyone believed in myself as much as I did. I was in a tunnel and I could see a light at the end of that tunnel that no one else could see. I was making many mistakes, but always lessons learned. I booth rented for about 4 years and finally decided to get my own salon in the beginning of 2022 with my coworker. My passion was my healing treatment and true happiness. We love woman empowerment, appreciating one another, supporting one another and creating one another. Realizing how much love and support we got from all our beautiful clients made us go bigger, we wanted to offer more! My coworker and I decided to find something bigger at the end of 2022 to show appreciation back & do more for our clients to keep pampering them. We opened up Thee Sauce Lab on Jan 1, 2023 and we are now expanding services and having more beautiful ladies in the industry join our team! We are only here to go bigger and get better!
How’d you meet your business partner?
Gabbie & I met in beauty school back in 2015. We would be sitting with the same group of friends at all times but never really got close until we started working together a few weeks after school started. She helped me get a job when i was ready to start my career. We were both assistants for a few hairstylist and literally became inseparable. Her vision and goals matched mine so we started being each others back bone and pushed each other through work and school every single day. Life was beating us up but we laughed and cried our way through it. We graduated school together & we both left the salon the same day. We realized our dreams were bigger than that and decided to booth rent at the same barbershop. We were each others model when we had 0 clients, we were each other’s support when we had no money coming in and had no idea what we were doing. We were each other’s backbone when we wanted to give up. We were each other’s investment… mentally, emotionally and financially. She isn’t just a business partner, she’s family! I wouldn’t be in the position i’m in if it wasn’t without her help!
How did you build your audience on social media?
EVERYTHING IS CONTENT! Post before and after pictures. Talk about your work, stay informative. Marketing your art, your hobby, your work is great!! But they also want to learn your workspace, they want to meet the creator! They want to see who you are. Always introduce yourself and engage w your followers. Make them feel like you’re having a one on one conversation w them. Last but not least, stay consistent. Consistency is key to success!!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://theesaucelabdrip.bigcartel.com/?fbclid=PAAaZghq42joKg9locOpe3ykgGA2uG8bQv9Hl3rnSdJhWhwSiQbewot271t0Y
- Instagram: Glambymeliy
- Other: TikTok: @Glambymeliy