We were lucky to catch up with MonaLisa Miguel recently and have shared our conversation below.

MonaLisa, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

I think it’s so important to talk about the stories behind any mission. Inglewood, California, a place known now as a thriving city, where concerts, basketball, and football arenas are built, however in the 90’s it was very different.

At my young age, I never knew there was anything that really existed outside of the city. Life was about staying out of trouble (when you could), getting educated if you could, and finding a job however you could. I can’t remember a time, when my parents talked about owning your own business, creating self-wealth, or carving your own path for yourself vs someone else’s vision of what you should do or where you could go.

I only witnessed a constant need to stay afloat. My mother worked 2 jobs at times to ensure both myself and my brother were fed, clothed, and safe as best as she could. Unfortunately, our surroundings told him and me a different story. I never knew anything outside the city; down the street is as far as I thought I could go.

It’s not until my late twenties, I understood the need to have a mark in the world. When I had my first son, I knew that I was meant for something. I didn’t quite know what it was but I knew God put me on the earth for something more important, something bigger.

I got my first real job in my late 20’s, in corporate America. I worked extremely hard. Always the first to raise her hand, willing to do what others wouldn’t. Constantly trying to prove my value and worth. I wanted them to know, why I was being paid what I was. I innovated, I implemented, I strategized and nothing was ever enough. I attempted to adapt to the environment; moved a certain way, talked a certain way, and dressed how they thought I should. None of it worked. Still they questioned my nails, my braids, and my attitude. There was just a point, where I said, “This isn’t what I’m supposed to be doing” I didn’t feel comfortable in my own skin there. I didn’t feel good about myself, I didn’t feel my sacrifice and hard work was being supported and appreciated.

Many times,I was the one laying on the lash bed. And my artist would always say, “You should do this”, “When you going to do this?” “Just go to school.” And one day, I said “Ok”, I trained, I was certified, and received my California license and never looked back. I loved how I felt just by putting on a set of lashes. My shoulders got stronger and higher. Now I could give that feeling to someone else. I could assist and be a tool to help someone feel good about themself. How powerful is that? How rewarding is that? Now that was the calling, how I could empower a person to empower themselves.

It was my son, who said “Mom you got this.” that motivated me to work even harder. I didn’t just want to do lashes. I spent all my career finding gaps and bridging solutions for someone else’s business. It was time to put that experience to work for me. I wanted to pull out a magnifying glass and infiltrate this industry. That’s exactly what I did and have been doing since.

MonaLisa, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Whipped Studios–Lash Bar is a growing national lash extension brand. Not only do we service lash artists around the country but service clients who come in looking to have eyelash extensions properly applied by trained, certified, and licensed experts along with the access to experience many of our other beauty services. I’ve had the ability to take my 14+ years of corporate experience and travel across the country to train and coach businesses, entrepreneurs, and upcoming creators, and let’s make no mistake, beauticians whether Esti’s, Cosmo’s, MU artists, etc., are creators.

One of our many goals is to educate lash artists around the country about the proper application, product quality, proper customer etiquette, and more importantly, how to succeed in their own businesses.

I would like to say one of our prouder achievements is to be recognized in our community as a place of empowering women! You walk in our doors and it’s the little luxuries that give you not just a beautification boost, but an emotional lift. Being different for us is easy because of our old fashion work ethic; customer service is everything. Regardless if it’s an artist buying extension adhesive online or a client coming in to get one of our many beautification services, we ensure you have world-class service every single time, regardless of what you’re doing.

Another star attribute that I think we all can appreciate is that we ensure our products are quality-checked before every shipment. We have partnered with American manufacturers, who provide some of the best products on the market. We are extremely excited to bring those products to the world. One of our biggest partnerships to date is with Oil of Bergamot®, we have combined our Complete Care Eyelash Extension Cleanser with their groundbreaking All Natural Lash & Brow Rejuvenator. I am so proud of this accomplishment, it’s every black girl’s dream; to stand alongside a national brand that allows your own to shine.

We want to be the first of many things and I know we can do it. To be the first black woman to innovate in this arena is an amazing accomplishment and I look forward to the success in front of us. I have an amazing team of people who have been willing to fight the good fight. Turning a start-up into an industry leader.

Lastly, I want any person who reads this to know, I’m a girl from Inglewood, California, it wasn’t easy, and being an African American woman was even harder. There were no shortcuts, there was no help, there was no hand that reached back. It’s always been about trying, falling, failing, and trying again. It’s been about attempting to understand the business behind the business. I’ll tell you this, all my life it’s been a journey of not just playing the game but understanding how to coach and come up with winning plays; not as a player, but the game creator. And here I am, I didn’t create this particular game but I’ve darn sure re-created it! Anyone, can, it’s never about making new things but making old things better, greater, and your own.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

I think the most important thing we can give to our clients, customers, and readers is the truth. We’re in a world of hashtags, filters, and editing. We’ve forgotten that our clients and customers potential feedback is based on the expectations we set. Here are a couple of things we ensure at Whipped Studios Lash Bar.

1. Giving clear expectations. When a client comes into our salon, we educate them on the services we provide. We give real consultations regardless if we gain or lose the potential client. We want our clients and customers to come back and tell a friend. So being honest and upfront respectfully goes a long way.

2. Being knowledgeable is extremely important for our clients and customers. As the industry changes, it’s important for them to know what’s happening. Consistently tell the story, rather through social media platforms, blogs on your own website. Keeping your audience engaged and educated, means keeping your customers/clients in a long term relationship because now they respect your knowledge, know you as an industry authority and will come back for more.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

COVID-19 took it’s toll on everyone. I never expected months after I no longer would be employed and my world would change so dramatically and tragically.

When opening a business, planning is everything. Ensuring that you’ve tested the market and it’s ready for your business to enter it. You’ve built a following, clientele, and have the groundwork laid out. Check, check, and check for me. Then the world stopped. I had saved in order to help with overhead while the business was growing. I knew, I possibly wouldn’t see a profit in the first 6 months to even a year. My industry is a niche industry and I knew it would take time for the business to strive, but COVID hit and there was no business to open.

I also suffered a personal tragedy during the first quarter of the year. Something I wasn’t expecting which devastated me. I went through denial for months, then depression for more months, and just gave up. Some things you just never are ready for and I wasn’t.

It took 2 years to figure things out. Even though I came into 2020 with a well-strategized plan, nothing went as it was written. No business, no income. The savings that was to start the busimess went 100% to overhead for two years. WSLB finally opened in 2022. But wait… now we’ve been hit again with rising costs better known as inflation and possibly a recession. How much more could a new business take?

Luckily for me, I did much of the groundwork. There was clientele and the goal was simply to grow it. Many other things took a back seat for the business, such as signage, and brochures; the smaller things that I knew I could do electronically, I did. I cut cost where I could by taking content, editing, and seo all in-house. It was now about making sure the important things took a front seat and use the experience I gained in corporate America to come full center which allowed me to do all the backend lifting myself.

We stand today as the #1 Rated Beauty Bar in our city. We’ve partnered with amazing national products, and have expanded our product line-up on a larger national scale. I’m thinking that’s a win!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.whippedstudios.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/whippedstudiios
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/whippedstudios
• Twitter: whippedstudios
• Other: www.poplme.co/whippedstudios

Image Credits
Whipped Studios Lash Bar