We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Viviana Valenzuela. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Viviana below.

Viviana , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to start by getting your thoughts on what you are seeing as some the biggest trends emerging in your industry

My industry is still new and is ever growing. Right now we are in a time where the community at least where im from is operating off of a scarcity mind set. By that I mean the entire city is slashing prices by 50%. I don’t know if I would call this a trend but I sure hope its short lived. As buisness owners fear can be our biggest enemy and it can stop our growth. I don’t think people think about how that can effect the buisness in the long term. If clients aren’t coming back then try to find out why they aren’t coming back. Is it your retention? is it your styling? Find that answer and find someone who you look up to in the industry and have them lead you. Get a mentor, take that course you’ve been eye balling. But don’t slash your prices and get little to no pay. Slashing prices is only going to bring in a lower end clientele that at the end of the day can’t already afford your luxury service. Focus heavily on the artistry and the experience of the client poke all the holes you can to elevate the service experience and that will be your super power.

Viviana , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hi Im Viviana Valenzuela, owner of The Lash Wonderland based in Tucson AZ. I started my journey about 6 years ago. I started lashing out of my house and what I thought was going to be a hobby has turned into the wonderland of my dreams. The wonderland is a place where we do it all service, product, training. I was a 21 year old lost soul looking for my way and lashes found me. And they also saved me in a time in my life where I found no structure or purpose lashes gave me my way. I didn’t know where it would take me I just believed in the power of lashes. I was able to become fully booked by the first year of lashing and I dove deep into taking whatever classes I could because I wanted to lash like the girls on instagram. I focused on my artistry my first year by the second year I had it down solid. My friends would ask me to teach them and I was able to start sharing my knowledge with those around me and somehow little by little I was teaching the whole city. Booking out my courses 6 months in advance. While I was on that journey I decided to come out with my own line of extensions, and here we are how……. Fully booked services, trainings, and a complete product line for the daily artist. I had always been the type of person to give my 100% on whatever project I was doing. And luckily I found this. This saved me this gave me purpose and guided my life. If we put our entire focus on to something then nothing can stop us. It takes a lot of discipline to put your personals on the side and be the boss or “lash dealer” as I like to call it. The lash dealer does what is needed on the daily to bring the business forward and it is non negotiable. If you have a vision how you move determines what’s going to come of it. I have had to make so many sacrifices to build this. and I would do it all over again. I think when people see a successful buisness they just see the glitz and the glamor but its loney. You have to constantly give to the buisness sometimes it can be draining but how bad do you want it and what are you willing to give up to get it? The game is going to test you slow weeks, long days, no days off. With all this take its important to give to yourself. So now im in a season where I give to myself first before I give to the wonderland. For everyone this form of self care can be different. For me I take time out of my day for daily meditations and journaling, and breath work. So that I can operate at a good frequency and my people feel nothing but goodness when I touch them. The operator has to be able to operate at the right frequency. Ultimately if you move like that and live sustaibly nothing can stop you.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Funny story I started the lash wonderland in my living room mid pandemic. I was hustling lash trays out of my trunk selling them through DMs because everyone was too afraid to post. The way I made my first investment was 5K worth of lashes. At the time I had a little saved up and then we got a little thing called a stimulus check. Although I wanted to go on a rampage and spend that money on myself and go on vacation like all my friends were. I took it and made my first lash order. The money made from those sales paid for my next project. I’ve never gotten any loans or anything I just took my lash money and invested it. And now here we are with a full line of products and no debt on the buisness.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I am one tiny wonderland in a large city. I knew that for me to stand out I had to do something different. I didn’t want to be like everyone else. Since day 1 all I did was focus on perfecting my artistry. I think that my whole city saw that because no-one was really lashing like that at the time. Locally my name grew and with that people from other places found me. Building my name locally through my artistry secured the clientele for me and gave me an audience that now is not just local. People trusted me to lash them, and then people trusted me to teach them, and now they trust me enough to use my products on the daily. It doesnt happen over night you have to find out how to get our audience to trust you, to believe in you. You just gotta keep creating, keep doing and don’t take anyones opinions but your own.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thelashwonderland.com
• Instagram: @thelashwonderland
• Facebook: the lash wonderland
• Other: thelashwonderland tiktoc

Image Credits
Rawesthetics agency Richard ins @ram.jpg