We recently connected with Vaughnkerryah “Vonnie” Tatum and have shared our conversation below.

Vaughnkerryah “Vonnie”, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

Starting my business at the very beginning of the Covid pandemic, presented unique growth opportunities and major financial setbacks. For some background, I signed the lease for my first paint and sip location around late-January/early February right before the World Health Organization declared the Covid-19 outbreak a pandemic. At this point, I’m contractually bound to a one-year lease without any exit strategy. Although the world was shutdown, I knew I had to do something. Rent for this space was still due and there was no flexibility in my lease agreement to pause rent payments. Every week during the pandemic, I was working in our new space. No customers, no staff just aimlessly trying to keep some bit of hope alive. I was paying the rent from my personal account and knew something needed to change and quickly. We started with virtual paint and sip parties (wasn’t the biggest success—at all). We typically broke close to even with this strategy. But I kept pressing for the day we could safely and compliantly open up for business. Months and months and months later, we finally did. We sold out our first public session and private parties quickly turned into our bread and butter! We ran into a “good problem” we were always sold out and to capacity. We had to turn away so many customers because of it. Even when the Covid capacity restrictions were lifted, our little 1,500 sq. ft. space was not cutting it. We could only host one party at a time and couldn’t meet the demand within our small space. We were starting to lose money because of it. We continued to push marketing for our private parties and public sessions; opened up more times during the weekend to accommodate more guests; and started to revamp the interior and overall aesthetic of our paint and sip lounge to attract more customers; and strategically focused on creating more “customer-centric” moments for selfies and photo ops. Customers were loving it, but we had unfortunately reached our financial ceiling. We needed to expand like our competitors and be able to host more than one party at a time. Did I have all the money I needed to jump into a new, larger space right away? Nope! But looking back, it wasn’t long before I had it. I used to be embarrassed to admit it, but I ditched my comfort zone and decided to move back into my parent’s home. This is where the hustle and strategy peaked. I saved every paycheck. Everyday was a reminder that I wasn’t where I wanted to be, but I knew it was all temporary. I had a 6-figure, dare I say 7-figure, brand on my hands and I needed to move like I believed that. I silenced my pride, shook off the ego and stacked my money. Some months later, I was sitting across from the property owners of our new (almost 6,000 sq. ft.) building with a hefty deposit and first month’s rent in hand. Our new space is almost 5 times the size of our other space with 2.5 stories and enough room to host up to 5 painting sessions at a time! The vision was always there and the sacrifices were always worth it. We’re still scaling and pushing to reach our 7-figure goal! With the belief I have in my business and the relentless faith I have in God, I know those core strategies will get us across the finish line.

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 am an attorney and business owner! I like to say, “Full-time I’m a Corporate Attorney—ALL the time I am a Business Owner”. My professional career as an attorney and my life as a business owner couldn’t be more different; and I absolutely love it that way! My business allows me the freedom to do what I love which is curate fun, unique spaces for our community to enjoy. I love being creative and seeing something I conceived in my mind actualize in real life. I own the first of it’s kind Paint and Sip Lounge in Houston, Texas, ART AND VIBEZ. This concept was birthed in law school. I started to grow tired of the club and bar scene. I craved a space I could “chill”, socialize, but comfortably enjoy my kind of music and “vibez”. So I decided to merge the world of art entertainment with the nightlife vibez. Art and Vibez isn’t your typical paint and sip “studios”. Art and Vibez takes the art experience to new heights as the most instagrammable Paint and Sip Lounge™! We now offer art-inspired themed party rooms, photo-worthy selfie exhibits, art-themed hookah, fresh playlists, vibey paint and sip classes, and even free welcome shots for all visitors 21+ (for a limited time)!

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

At the start of the business, I was the “Social Media Manager” (which is not my life’s work by any means). I had to study our competitors who had mastered their market and identify what they were doing well. What I gathered from that market research was two things (1) consistency and (2) brand identity. No matter how many times I didn’t feel like capturing content or I felt like I needed to focus on other aspects of the business, I prioritized capturing content. Even if that meant going into the paint and sip lounge during the weekdays and stage content, I would. My goal was to post close to every day. I didn’t want current or perspective customers to forget about us. I also noticed the need to be consistent in how we communicated. I had to be mindful of our audience and present content that they would like. Our services were unique so I quickly realized that a single picture alone didn’t properly convey our services. I started to make sure any piece of content showed the “vibez” of Art and Vibez (i.e., what customers would see, hear and feel when they entered Art and Vibez). I had to be consistent with our brand colors and text fonts, Our captions needed to “sound” like the same voice which for us tends to lean into more pop culture references and millennial jargon. The strategy for marketing, if I had to put it simply, is know your audience and speak to them often. As the profit started to roll in, our brand identity was pretty set and when we were able to hire an official Social Media Manager she was able to scale our page and grow our Instagram and TikTok pages substantially.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Biggest lesson learned, especially on my path towards scaling my business, is to trust my team. I wanted oversight in everything. I wanted to run everything, but I started to burn out managing my need to be in control in my business and entering my career as a new attorney. The reality I had to face is if I want this business to be successful and run itself, I have to make room for it to do that. This was a new space for me and for most of my life, I believed I was in control of the outcomes. Interestingly enough, Covid was such a transformative period for me. I was out of control in my business and out of control in my career. The date I wanted to open my business was impossible. The company I wanted to work for out of law school rescinded my offer. At this most critical point in my life, I did not have control. I started to realize how crippling the perception of control actually was. How much of a time suck it can be and how much it stifled my ability to be creative and focus on growing my business instead of working in my business. A lot of lessons have been learned and a lot of control has been released. I currently live in Manhattan, New York with my business flourishing without me being in the same state as my business and without me having to be in control of the day to day operations!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.artnvibez.com
• Instagram: @artnvibez.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vonnietatum/