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

Alright, Tamra thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

My biggest risk I’ve taken would probably be when I decided to leave my corporate career to pursue my passion in the beauty industry. For a while, I was only doing makeup for family and friends as a hobby, but I decided to take a risk and started taking it more seriously. This was a huge commitment that required a lot of time, mastering techniques/skill, and it also was a huge financial investment. Starting a business is a lot of hard work, frustration, and many times I wanted to give up but you have to remain strong and committed to your work. Every day is a learning experience for me, some days are better than others but at the end of the day I would not want it any other way and you cannot give up. Especially if it is something that you are passionate about. I’m glad that I was willing to take the risk since I get to do what I love every day.

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?

I have always had a passion for cosmetics but never really thought that it would be anything more than just a hobby. If you would have asked me what my dream job was growing up, it would without hesitation, be to become a nurse. So much so that I went on to college to pursue a degree in nursing but after three years, I realized that this was just not what I really wanted to do. After a couple of different job transitions, I really started to examine what I was putting my energy into and wanted to do something that not only excited me but was also fulfilling as well. After four years, I knew that it was time for me to go after my love of helping people in the way I was most passionate about which is when I decided to start my career in the beauty industry. At the time, there was a new semi-permanent cosmetic procedure that was becoming extremely popular in the beauty world therefore I decided to learn more about it by research and speaking with other artists who were already providing this type of service. I became fascinated with it and from there, I went on to take the necessary trainings to become a certified PMU artist for those who wanted to enhance their facial features such as their eyebrows and lips with procedures called lip blushing and microblading.

Once I began doing that, I knew that I did not want to stop there and that is when I started to expand my services. It was then that I decided to pursue becoming a makeup artist. Not knowing where or how to start in that industry, I knew that the best place to start was with weddings. At the time my mom was planning weddings so I decided to start helping her and that is when I saw the need for my services in the world of weddings. This was a great opportunity to help brides-to-be feel great about themselves on one of the most important days of their lives. We all know that on these occasions, women want to look their best.

My first experience working with brides and bridesmaids was at both of my sisters’ weddings, which were months apart. I was actually supposed to just be there as a bridesmaid but ended being the makeup artist for both of them. The MUA at the first wedding did such a horrible job that the bride and her bridesmaids were upset with the outcome therefore I stepped in to correct their makeup and make the bride, bridesmaids, and mother of the bride feel much better about how they looked. At the second wedding, the MUA had to cancel a couple of days before the wedding due to becoming ill, so I volunteered to serve as the MUA for the wedding. It was then that I saw the need for a capable, dependable MUA to help ease the burden for brides, bridal parties, and families. I also realized how much I enjoyed the experience and felt that I had found my niche. From there I knew I did not want to stop at just doing makeup, that is when I decided to learn how to do wedding hairstyles so that I could offer those services as well to clients. That is when The Glam Studio was born and I started providing multiple cosmetic services for women to enhance their beauty as well as bring out their confidence.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I am always finding ways to build my audience on social media. Building your audience requires time and consistency. When I first created my social media for my business I quickly realized the time that it took to post, create eye catching captions, content, hashtags, etc. You have to be consistent with posting your work so that your posts are constantly visible to viewers. For me, I did a lot of marketing on all my other social media platforms with content displaying my work. I also make sure that my content is catching viewers attention by creating creative videos, photos, and reels. My advice for those that are just starting to build their audience on social media would be to be consistent, constantly promote/market your work, create content that is going to stand out, and to make sure that you are scheduling time to do all this.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Honestly, the most effective strategy for growing my clientele has been word of mouth as well as client referral. Social media and website marketing are also some effective ways. When using these tools as your strategy, make sure that your website and social media pages convey your brand identity and personality. You want to make sure that these platforms are updated regularly as well.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.browsbytamra.com
• Instagram: glam_studio_by_tamra
• Facebook: Tamra Tipton
• Other: Instagram.com/_tamratipton_

Image Credits
Photographer: Darryl Sampson