We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shaniyah Wiggins a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Shaniyah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One of the toughest things about entrepreneurship is that there is almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?

The most unexpected “problem” I’ve faced in business was waiting to file for my trademark. i had only been in business for one year going on year two when i received the worst news from my lawyer. during her trademark search someone had filed for my business name! can you say devasted!? This made me really sit down and think about my brand long term and after deep thought “IkonAlign” my new business name was born. This entire problem expanded my mind from thinking small about my business to BIG because you never know whose watching. Even though I’ve had to rebrand everything I’m loving this chance to start fresh with my brand. My new name has opened up sooo many opportunities for my business since this whole ” unexpected problem” looking back it was a huge blessing to my brand. We are expanding to serve our audience in ways most skincare brands wouldn’t!

Shaniyah, 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?

Hello everyone, I am Sha’Niyah the owner and founder of IkonAlign. I’ve been an entrepreneur since my freshman year of high school. I started out selling the latest fashion accessories & then I moved on to eyelashes. Shortly after dabbing in accessories, I got into product formulating & after trying a few recipes my signature scrub “Suga Mama” was born. I started gifting jars to my friends & family for feedback and everyone loved my creation! That was all the Inspiration I needed to learn more about skincare. At the time, I was enrolled to become a dental assistant at TCAT Nashville. But then, I found out that my school had an esthetics technology program, and I added my name to the waiting list!

While waiting to be accepted into school, I started to educate myself on ingredients and how they work for the skin. This sparked my creativity so much that I reformulated my signature scrub, & then i gratuated to more targeting skincare products like serums to target my hyperpigmentation on acne prone skin.This became what I specialize in today.

When I started school, my face began to break out really bad & I started to lose my confidence as an upcoming esthetician. I was determined to graduate with clear skin, so I did everything possible to manage my acne. While on this journey, I realized there was a gap with some of the big skincare companies that we were learning about in class. The gap came into play when I realized none of the products were tailored for my acne-prone beautiful brown skin. So, I made it my mission to fill that gap. I started researching how I could produce natural result-driven products that were effective for all Fitzpatrick’s (all skin tones). Of course, this wasn’t an overnight process, but I focused my energy on finding the best-advanced product formulators & from there I launched my result-driven holistic skincare line. My skin struggles became one of my biggest assets. I am not just another esthetician with perfect skin, I know what it feels like to struggle with acne & other skin conditions.

Growing and glowing on this journey has molded into the Ikon I am today. Follow me on this journey @thatskincareguh on all socials.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

The most effective way for growing my clientele was staying consistent with educating my audience about their skin struggles and the solution is what I have to offer. Sharing my knowledge allowed me to help my audience solve their skin struggles without having to touch them. This positioned me as their expert and eventually they began to book me.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

A time when I literally had to pivot for my career and life was a couple of months before I started college. I had been evicted from my grandma’s home and had nowhere to live. I was overwhelmed and stressed staying house to house with friends and then my uncle Corey gave a place to stay while I was in college. This pushed me to save and plan for my future after school was up and I did just that. While in school I worked two jobs and saved all of my earnings for my first apartment and to fund my business. This taught me to always be prepared for life’s curve balls and not to shut down when it happens. if I had stopped going, I probably wouldn’t be the Ikon I am today.

Contact Info:

• Website: Linktr.ee/ibnsc1
• Instagram: @thatskincareguh
• Youtube: @thatskincareguh

Image Credits
the headshot of me is by @motelewa