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

Whitney, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Over the course of your career, have you seen or experienced your field completely flip-flop or change course on something?

This year makes 7 years in the beauty industry as a service provider, instructor and retailer. When I first began in the beauty industry there seemed to be so much unmarked territory and endless possibilities in this multi billion dollar industry. I entered with a eye of dominating specifically the lash industry from the retail of strip lashes in 2015 to lash extensions, training courses, esthetician licensing, permanent makeup, lip fillers, skin care services and products, to becoming a laser practitioner. Over the last 7 years Ive proudly gained 3 licenses, 37 certifications, trained over 1,500 students and traveled to 32 states and became an international brand. Everything seemed to be indescribable, until the unexpected happened. The industry changed with saturation, a global pandemic, recession, and untimely deactivation of all my social media handles. I began to think wow, when you’re winning you forget what it is like to build everyday, things were on such autopilot I was immediately shocked. It still hard to describe the exact feeling I felt when things changed but it completely changed my perspective as business owner. My faith, support system, and passion was the ONLY thing that kept me going,

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My name is Whitney Alexandria, I am originally from a small town the small state of Delaware. I took a leap of faith and briefly attended Spelman College, after leaving for personal reasons I decided to relocate permanently a few years later back to Atlanta in 2016 with $300 and the dream of building my brand The Artistry Vault from scratch. Over the last 7 years I was able to produce a 7 figure business and create several additional businesses.

The most common question I get is “How did you do that? What advice do you have? What did you do?” And my answer is ALWAYS the same, I sacrificed, I prayed, and I worked. Resilience is needed. I refused to let someone out work me, I refused to let my dream stay a dream.

I am proud of the tenacity and strength I had and continue to have on this journey regardless to what is going on in the world, my personal life or business.

I built my brand with everything I had monetarily and emotionally. I now love being able to teach, mentor and shed light on the struggles, the sacrifices, and insight that I learned over the years. Regardless of your field of business “it” has to be in “you”. You cannot buy the hustle or drive you can’t rent it or pay someone to preach it into you, you have to find it within yourself and use whatever it is to keep that fire in you going.

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

Remain Creative. Creativity is one thing that will always set any business or brand apart from the next. When it comes to how it is marketed, advertising, aesthetic or the ideology. I had to continue to be innovative In a multi billion dollar market that is constantly growing and becoming more and more saturated. Staying current is always a challenge when you are constantly working on building your brand. I took full advantage of social media marketing on a FREE platform to produce a return, and then I invested into my business when it came to marketing, building relationships and partnerships with other influencers, schools, and companies.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I had to unlearn the lesson of expecting others to respect my business and support my business based off of the personal relationship they may have with me or the fact that they see the growth and impact of my brand. For a while it was super uncomfortable to swallow the facts of “hey, this is my friend/associate/family member” and they don’t repost, share, like, engage, or purchase ANY thing from my business. These were even sometimes the same people who expected discounted and free services, and insights. I learned the business will forever be that, BUSINESS. Anything outside of business cannot effect what I’ve built and what it is I am still consistently working on building. With that being said, complaining doesn’t fix anything and excuses will never pay my bills. I lost a few relationships because of this and it also showed me in the same breath that In fact didn’t lose anything.. If anything I gained another way to weed out my garden from snakes and those who didn’t need to be around me. New levels come with new devils and not everyone can come with you to the next level and its actually better that way..

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theartistryvault.com
• Instagram: iamwhitneyalexandria
• Facebook: The Artistry Vault Training Academy & MedSpa
• Twitter: iamwhitneya
• Youtube: Whitney Alexandria