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

Tracy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

What do I believe it takes to be successful in this business. I believe it takes a good worth ethic, it takes the willingness to listen and learn, it also takes patience. Having a good worth ethic. Would show that you have consistency in your business I know a lot of people think that in the make up artist business it’s easy, it’s on our own time, and you can come and go as you please. But without a good worth ethic and consistency with your customers and services, you will not last. I know that from personal experience. Some years, my business has thrived because I constantly put in the work on a daily basis to elevate my business to bring in more clients and to also keep the client retention that I have. After Covid, it was harder to get people into the chair, it was harder to get people to see the value in the service. So we have to outsource other jobs. Some of us had to go into the workforce full-time again just to make ends meet so now we don’t have that consistency in our business and our clients have fallen off. We’ve lost contact with a lot of clients . That’s where patients comes into play. That’s when you have to decide if you’re gonna take that same energy that you give this 40 hour job and give it to your business. Now you have to be patient enough to build that clientele back up. You have to be patient enough to know that you’re gonna have a good days. You’re gonna have bad days. You’re gonna have slow days you’re gonna have book days. You have to put in the work to get the outcome that you want out of your business. It doesn’t happen overnight. I’ve been in this business for over 12 years.

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?

Hi, my name is Tracy Pickney. I am the owner of facial impressions makeup artistry. I have been a makeup artist for over 12 years. I have been in business for over 12 years. I am well diverse in all makeup styles. This business was started as a class project. I was in college for aesthetics and our end of the year project before graduation was to come up with a business name, a business plan and also how we would decorate and structure our business in our salon. so that’s how facial impressions came to be. It was a play on facial expressions and first impressions. My dream was to have a beauty bar catering to all. With a separate hair salon.. I wanted it structured like almost a day party brunch kind of vibe so you can either come in and get pampered for a day or you can schedule a girls day in for a group. You would basically come in and you can get your hair, your nails massage and your makeup done and walk out a brand new woman. i’m most proud of keeping with my business business name. A lot of people going to this business and they changed their name 345 times just to see which one sticks or just to see you know which one gets recognized I’ve stayed with my name because that will be the name of my salon eventually. I love working with people my love for makeup and beauty and all things girly started at a young age. My mom‘s friends gave me the nickname. Lee press on coming from an old brand of Lee Preston nails because I’ve always had my nails had to be done . So when you book with facial impressions, I want you to feel welcome. I want you to feel at home. I want you to feel comfortable and I want you to have the confidence in me that I will execute a cohesive, beautiful elegant look for you.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Story of when I had to pivot in my business and life. I guess we can take Covid in for a minute. Covid changed a lot of people’s lives. It changed a lot of peoples businesses and incomes. So when Covid hit, I was still working part-time job but also working my business. I was at work maybe 50% of the time and I was at my shop 50% of the time. But once Covid hit and we all had to be on quarantine. Both of those incomes dried up. My part-time job did pay us for a minute, but not for the full duration of quarantine , I had to use that time to reflect on my business reflect on how I could have positioned myself to still have an income while not being able to physically touch someone. So in that time that’s when I created impressive lashes and facial impressions beauty. Which consisted of , selling false lashes also adding small items to my business such as lip, glosses lip, scrubs, facial mask and lipsticks.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I built my business on social media, just by posting asking friends and family to repost my stories and videos and pictures. Asking clients to post their finish looks and tagging me in them. I learned to use Canva and make my own flyers and business cards. I had to basically be my own billboard so T-shirts with my name and business name on them. My makeup case had my business name and brought it on it. My make up chair had my business name and brought it on it so if anyone took a picture in my chair in my shop, it had my name somewhere in the picture. I’m on every social media platform. If you type in facial impressions, you will find me , I tried to have a mixture of different looks different occasions. Some funny makeup humor in there. And then I have other things that will make people interact with my page so say you ask a question and see if anyone responds you can create a poll about different make up issues or make up services . Just getting the people on your page engaged and wanted to come back to your page and getting the dialogue started between you and the consumer.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://facialimpressionsmua.glossgenius.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/facial_impressionsmua?igsh=Mm91YXRqajIxMml3
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/facialimpressionsMUA?mibextid=2JQ9oc