Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Tia Harrison. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Tia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

During the Pandemic, I began to fear many things- one of the biggest things I feared was losing my income due to the results of Covid-19. I realized I needed to find a second stream of income to continue my lifestyle and better my financial future as I chart through adulthood. I went through tons of ideas but none felt like “me” until I really started to pay more attention to the things I truly loved and admired. One day it just clicked. As a woman, we have many beauty routines to keep us feeling confident and my particular favorite is getting my nails done. Replaying my nail salon visits in my head, I discovered my favorite part about going every 2-3 weeks was choosing my color(s). It would take me a long time to decide. I would go through every swatch board a few times, checking to see which color felt good to me, and which color was going to set the tone for the next few weeks.
Once I discovered my excitement about charting this new path, I began to do lots of research on nail polish- different types, where it was made, how it was made, etc. It became fun to me, which is how I knew for sure I was heading in the right direction.
Once I narrowed down the direction I wanted to go in with a polish, I started to reach out to manufacturers to learn more and try out a few samples to see if they were up to par with my vision.
Next was the toughest part- naming my business.
I would be at work doodling different name combinations to see what sounded catchy or memorable. Nothing was sticking. This began to hold up my process as I spent weeks trying to develop a name. I went back to channeling my nail salon visits and my process of choosing a color and how I ultimately decided on which one to choose. It all depended on my mood. What mood I was in and what mood I wanted to have for the coming weeks.
I liked it but “Mood” still just wasn’t enough for me. I wanted people to remember my polish, I wanted it to feel unique and stand out amongst the popular brands. Randomly stumbled across a post on social media that talked about the symbolization of numbers and 22 stood out to me. 22 symbolizes power, success, and turning dreams into reality. That was everything I was aiming for – the power to be creative, the success that would lead to financial gain and endless opportunities, and a dream that I now was turning into reality. There it was, Mood 22.
I can recall visiting a friend and getting their opinion. He said it over and over out loud and in different voices and by the end, I really liked it.
That day, Mood 22 was born and I was cleared for take off.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a black woman raised by a single black woman who wants nothing more than to be the best version of myself that I can be. Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, I came from humble beginnings. I’ve always been creative and innovative in my ways of thinking. As a child, I loved to be artistic whether it be through drawings/doodles, dance, or writing. I never saw myself as a business owner until I realized how good of a leader I was working over the years as a supervisor in various roles and successfully leading teams and projects throughout the years. Getting into the beauty industry was a bit intimidating at first because of all the “standards”. As always, I wanted to veer from the cliche and create a brand, more than just a business. My want is for my customers to feel good about themselves after they get a fresh coat of my polish on their nails, I want them to feel something and for it to be good.
What sets me apart from my competitors is my idea of connecting my “moods” to music and culture. To me, You can always get an idea of what kind of mood someone is in based on what they may be listening to or their social media postings. I came up with the idea to name my polishes after songs, words, or phrases that were influenced by those very things to give my customers something to relate to and also be inspired by.
I am proud of the outcome so far. The process has become so fun. I can be in the car and a song will come on or someone will say something catchy and I’m instantly in awe thinking of the perfect shade that will match the feeling/mood it gives. I feel connected to my customers when they repost polish swatches and include the very song or culture reference I was thinking when in my creative process. It’s like they get me, and if they relate to me then that means I’m relating to them which is a win!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson that I had to unlearn was that success is the opposite of failure. When I dropped my first collection, I had high expectations of it to do well. Long story short, it did not do as well as I anticipated. I felt like a failure because I had a goal that I wanted to meet when it came to sales and engagement and I had failed to reach that goal. It made me feel defeated, like a failure. After talks with other small business owners and mentors, I quickly learned that I didn’t fail at all. I just needed to tweak some things, be more intentional with my postings, engage more, and target the right audience. My failure became my foundation for success. After improvement, my next collection did 2x better as the first and I felt the feeling of success. Not because I made more money, and got more followers and like but because I kept going and allowed my thought of failure to really be my motivation to keep pushing through. The new lesson learned was a success is created by failure.

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

The most effective strategy for growing my clientele has been marketing to the right audience. So often, I feel we rely on friends and family to be our best customers and brand ambassadors when in reality they either don’t use or really care for the product itself. I’ve learned to visit nail salons and talk to nail artists, leaving them with samples and business cards. I’m also very active on social media following and engaging on nail focus material from nail artists to beauty influencers. It’s important to stay within the community of your product so that you can reach the right clients and even better- potential clients. Marketing nail polish to people who don’t even bother to clip their nails respectfully will get you nowhere.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mood22.com
• Instagram: @mood.twentytwo
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mood.twentytwo/
• Youtube: Mood22

Image Credits
Photography by Aisha Siddiqi and Tia Harrison