We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Monique Garcia. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Monique below.

Monique, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

How we each define success is deeply personal. For me success is having the following things – physical and mental well-being, fulfillment, financial security, and the freedom to live my day to day life the way I wish to live it. In order for me to feel like I had reached success, I had to have peace. Peace is a mindset, similar to how happiness is an emotion, that we can create, I’ve created my own peace and happiness. For me, this is success. It took a lot of work to get here, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. To have success, I actually had to embrace failure. Most people give up when their idea doesn’t work right away. This is why about 1 in 5 businesses fail within their first year. They give up on the concept easily and don’t adapt. Giving up was never an option for me. I’ve lost count of how many times people have told me “No.” or “What you want to do is not possible.” I never listened to them and I don’t take “no” for an answer – I just find another way. Persistence is one of the most important traits you can have in business. You have to have a high tolerance and continue pushing forward with a relentless attitude.

Monique, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I had been working corporate for years and felt very unfulfilled. I have a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, that I don’t use now. Did I learn some useful things? Yes, of course but what I learned isn’t worth the debt that I took on. Even though I was obsessed with beauty, I never viewed the beauty industry as a place where I would I work. I felt like in order to reach success, I had to have a traditional corporate job and climb up that ladder. When I realized that that path was not my path, I felt like a failure by society’s standards. I began to let go of that notion and started to finally explore eyebrow microblading. I saved up $2,000 and my step-dad paid for the other half of the course. I took the course and never looked back. Today, almost 6 years later, I have serviced thousands of clients and trained hundreds of students through my academy. I fell in love with enhancing the natural features of my clients and I’ve been blessed to be busy ever since. I started from nothing and built my business by being authentic and practicing with integrity. Most recently I’ve been nominated for “Best Microblading in Boston” by Boston Business Women and it’s been a highlight for my career.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

Most people start their businesses as a “side hustle”. I am so passionate about what I do, I never called my business my side hustle. Instead I called my corporate 9 to 5 job, my side hustle and my eyebrow microblading business was my main job. I did this even though I was only working on my business on the weekends and after my regular job. It’s all about your mindset. I knew that my regular job was temporary and I made sure that I always had that at the forefront of my mind. Any extra money that I had, I pumped into my marketing. I worked 7 days a week while building my business and when it grew – I quickly wanted to quit my job. After a conversation with my accountant, he advised me not to quit my job prematurely. I was so upset because I so badly wanted to leave – but I am so glad I listened. His advice was to leave my job when my business could fully replace my my salary and entire compensation package including health care. I continued to work and left when I hit that goal and I am so glad I did because it was such a smooth and stress free transition. I never encourage people to quit their jobs and take a leap of faith. I know that it makes for a great story but it’s irresponsible for most of us to do that. I had rent and bills to pay that I couldn’t go without so I had to make my transition strategic. When entrepreneurs quit prematurely they can become desperate and desperation is not always a good thing especially when it comes to making wise decisions.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

High-quality that you can trust. I have based my entire brand on high-quality results. When customers receive products or services that meet or exceed their expectations, they are more likely to be satisfied and loyal to the business. Satisfied customers are also more likely to recommend the business to others, leading to positive word-of-mouth marketing. This leads to a consistent flow of referrals which is the best way to gain business.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.browstetics.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/browstetics
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/browstetics