Lash Anarchist Podcast
@lashanarchist
@lashanarchistpod
Lash Anarchist Podcast
Navigating the Lash Industry: Personal Branding, Evolution, and Future Trends
🍌Not gonna lie, Ai wrote this entire note section, and I have to say I AM VERY IMPRESSED..
😜Please feel free to reach out to me about your lash industry predictions, I'd love to hear them and share on my next episode!
💕Enjoy!!
Ever wondered why some lash artists always seem to have the perfect tools for the job while others struggle? I'll take you on a thrilling journey of personal branding, revealing how to navigate the intricate lash industry, and beyond. From my personal evolution from a salon owner to a force in lash artistry, I share how I've danced with the tides of change while continuously learning and rebranding, including a riveting comparison of my product line, Lash Anarchist, with my mom's line, Lash Bomb.
Do you yearn for a crystal ball to glimpse into the future of the lash industry and the evolving beauty trends? I'll share my insights, predictions, and vision for what lies on the horizon. Discussing the revolutionary wave of white label companies, the dynamic nail industry, and manufacturers in China and South Korea, I offer a sneak peek into the future. As a bonus, I'll share my plans for an exciting collaboration with Lash Bomb at the upcoming Lash Con, alongside my thoughts on the transformation of Lash Con seminars.
There's no denying the power of integrity and authenticity in what we do. I'll be discussing the importance of karma, the energy we radiate, and the significance of being passionate about our work for sustained motivation. Join me as I reveal my transition from owning a product line to selling products I love and fostering collaborations. This raw, unfiltered conversation is an invitation for you to enter the world of the lash industry, with its highs, lows, and everything in between. Get ready for a big change in the lash industry!
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insta and tiktok @lashanarchist
www.lashanarchist.com
email me at ali@lashanarchist.com
Good morning guys. Welcome to Lash Anarchist podcast. I have some news that won't really affect you but affected me. I had a whole podcast episode where I had given my psychic predictions for the Lasha industry and when I uploaded it to my computer, the file corrupted and now I can't figure out how I got it off my phone. Whatever, I can't, it's gone. Whatever, fuck it. We're just redoing it. So welcome to Lash Anarchist podcast. I have changed the name of the podcast for the second time because, you know, I don't even know if you're going to be a listener of mine. I guess you're just going to have to endure my name changes. Hopefully this will be the last.
Speaker 1:I really do think that I have been trying to reinvent the wheel when really remember from math class in elementary school, your teacher would say kiss, keep it simple, stupid. We can't say that in school anymore because stupid is a bad word, but it's a really good saying and it's really great advice with my Lashes and Bullshit podcast, which I love I still love that name, by the way, but my whole thing that I'm very unfortunately realizing over and over again is when you use profanity in anything, you get a lot of censorship, and when I say censorship, I sound like a fucking conspiracy theorist which I am, but like I'm not like a Q and on freak, okay, and if you are like cool, do your thing. But that's not the way I'm saying it. I'm saying it like legitimately. If you use a bad word in a product or a podcast or like anything that you're doing to personally brand yourself or your business it is, it's not going to get shared as much organically or non organically. You cannot run ads on products that have bad words. I know our best selling tweezers is called the Boo, you whore, and I can't advertise it. I also have a fuck boy tweezers great seller also cannot advertise that. So just keep that in mind, you know anyway. And then I changed it to Ali applesauce because I really was trying to take the lash out of it, and then I realized what a bad idea that was. It was such a mistake I think.
Speaker 1:I've been trying for a very long time to personally brand myself. Meanwhile, this whole time where I thought I was really just branding my company lash anarchist, I had no idea that I really, truly am a personal brand and I am the lash anarchist. That is how people perceive me. That's how I've been putting myself out there in the world and honestly, you know, just take it from me like nobody knows what the fuck they're doing, including myself. People will come up to me and be so fucking sweet and they're like, oh, how do you do it? You have so much, you have everything together. You're killing it. I'm like I have no fucking idea what I'm doing, what my future is, what my business model even is. I have I've hired so many business coaches like trying to just figure out honestly, to put some structure into my business and figure out what the plan is. But I think what I'm realizing is that there doesn't need to be a total structure. That is not necessarily what my business is. It's weird saying that out loud right now because I'm it's almost like I'm realizing it in this moment as well. But there's going to be some changes happening to lash anarchists. I really wanted to put that out there. I need to start telling the world, screaming it from the rooftop so that it's not confusing when this minor change happens. But basically, what I am going to do is I'm going to move all of my products from Florida back to Arizona, but to the lash bomb warehouse. So lash bomb is a product line that my mother owns Jill Kindle and it's a big product line. It's so much bigger than mine. It is it's literally wait, hold on, I think I can actually do the math of this it's like 16 times bigger than my product line.
Speaker 1:I like to say that I have a little boutique product line. I sell tweezers, 03s, 06s, mega volume lashes only and adhesive. I have a few other little things I and honestly it's more about like the personal branding. I do love selling my tweezers though, like they're very, very important to me. Oh, if you couldn't tell, I'm in my car driving, which is usually where I do some a lot of my podcasts, but tweezers are super important to me because I really feel like if you don't have the correct tools, you will not be able to do lashes as easily, and so my tweezers are hand tested by me.
Speaker 1:They pick up my tiny, tiny 03s, which could be considered 02s. I've seen other people or other companies with the same diameter put a 02 label on them. Every company is different. Everybody knows that. Hopefully, everyone knows that, but every company's different, every product is different, but my 03s are teeny, teeny tiny, and if my tweezers cannot pick up a mega volume fan off the strip of my 03s. That bitch does not get sold. So my tweezers are expensive they're $59,. They come in a beautiful box and they are I mean, they're my best selling product.
Speaker 1:That besides my 03s, my 0.03s are also. I'd say they compete with each other for best selling product and you know, what's coming up in my product line as best seller is my shady glue, which is interesting because Ghosted is my favorite, but I love a clear glue. I am realizing not a lot of people agree with me on that, which is just like the industry, isn't it like? Everybody just likes what they like. Just because you love something doesn't mean it's the best thing for everybody, and that's why there's so many different methods, techniques, trainers, products, and we're all unique individuals and we get a variety of things to choose from which I love.
Speaker 1:So what I will be doing because I'm going to be honest about owning a product line right now I don't want to own a product line. I've never wanted a giant product line that is all-encompassing. I don't do 0.07s, I don't do classics. Why would I sell them? You know, I am just not that type of a person and I'm learning so much about myself, the way that I work, my strengths, my weaknesses and I mean, let's see, it's 2023, this is my 10th year in the industry. That is, first of all, insane. No, this is my 11th year in the industry. That's insane. Proud of me, I have learned so much over the past decade about business again, what makes me happy, what doesens strengths and weaknesses all that crap but what I'm realizing is just on a general or slash, spiritual level.
Speaker 1:I believe that it's more important for me to be happy in my lifestyle than in my bank account. I hope that makes sense. I would rather make less and have more time and freedom than work really hard at something I don't care about and have more money. Not that I don't care about lashes, but I don't care about 0.07s, I don't care about brow lifts, so I'm not going to include them. You know what I mean and over the years, you know if you've been listening to me forever or if you're just getting to know me again. I guess I'll introduce myself for people that are new. I am Allie Lilly. I am Lash Anarchist on Instagram, on social media, as you know. Her and I have been a Lash Artist for 11 years now.
Speaker 1:I started out as a classic Lash Artist. Obviously, that's all that existed back then. I went and I worked in a room my mom was renting. I rented a bed from her and I didn't love that. We fought a lot. We used to fight a lot. We don't anymore. Thank god for grandkids I was going to say grandkids and then I said children and I almost said grandkildren. Anyway, we've fought a lot. I blame a lot of that on the fact that I was highly immature and I don't know, maybe you just shouldn't work that closely with your mom. So I decided to get my own space in the same little building and that was actually a great move. I got my own little room and we lashed independently out of our rooms and then eventually we decided you know, it went so well sharing a tidy room together. Why don't we go in on a giant salon and own a salon together, mother daughter? Like a bunch of idiots we did that and of course, after a couple years it didn't work out.
Speaker 1:I got pregnant and I really do think this was a turning point for me, when I was like, okay, I'm pregnant, I don't want to be working these hours. I worked so much, y'all, I worked so f***ing much, oh my god, and I was at that salon 10 hours a day, 6 days a week, and I actually did love it for a very long time, like there were times when I was like, oh, I'm not going in, and then I would go in, like it was my place, that was my community, you know, and I loved everybody I worked with and it was honestly a very good time. My mom and I do not work well as like I don't know like equal business owners. We very much need to have our place, we need to be put in our place as individuals, and that's so. Anyway, I just kind of wanted to not be in business with the grandmother of my son and when I was about six months pregnant, I was like, listen, I'm sick of fighting, I really I'm just gonna start a small salon by my house, because I also lived like 30 minutes away from there and I was like I'm just gonna start a small salon by my house, something easy and closer, and I just I want you to be grandma and I want I don't want you to be my business partner that I'm complaining about all the time. And my mom was so cool about it, she was very understanding and she let me go. And so then I ran that salon for a while with my friend. I opened that with my friend, which, again, like opening a salon with a friend I don't recommend, but this friend I knew would work for some reason Sometimes. I just know what you might get. Anyway, we own that salon for a while it was. We worked really great together.
Speaker 1:But then I got restless. I realized I didn't want to be a salon owner. I moved to Arizona and I sold my salon for four grand. One of my employees, so I sold my half of my salon. So then I'm out, I'm working on my own again.
Speaker 1:Okay, and this is where I really started flourishing. This is when I found myself. I moved to a new place. I reinvented myself. At first it was Lash Lily and then I reinvented myself as Lash Anarchist. God, this story is long if I go into every detail of it, but basically what I'm telling you is I have gone from lash artists, you know, in my own little room to salon owner, to different type of salon owner, to lash artists back in my room, now you know.
Speaker 1:And then I got into education. I was teaching a ton. So fucking much I have been teaching and traveling, and teaching and traveling for the past five, six years so fucking heavily that now I'm over that too, like I don't want to do it anymore and I'm just getting. So I'm getting to the point and what I'm realizing okay, as I'm telling you this as well, what I'm realizing in my life is that I do things to experience them. I want to be an educator, so I will do that and experience it. Now that it's not what I want to do anymore, I feel like that's my soul's way of saying cool, we did this thing, now it's time to find something else that you're interested in and do that thing. And I don't know if I will ever settle on a specific type of career, like a lot of people will open a salon and then will love it and they'll be so fucking good at it and that's what they'll do for 30 years. I just don't know if I'm that person. I don't think that I am.
Speaker 1:But what I am realizing with over the past three, four years, working on my own not in a salon anymore and training and just doing my product line I'm realizing that I really love a community. I miss working with people. So I have started working for a salon here at a 50% commission rate. And I am doing lashes again on clients, but only two days a week this time, and I'm doing it for friends. Oh shit, I just realized I was gonna go over there and grab something and I didn't. I got in my car and started my podcast and didn't go pick up the thing. Are you gonna walk, sir? Okay, sorry, there is a lot of lost people when you drive near the beach. They just kind of like saunter in the road so you have to be careful not to hit them with your vehicle and go to jail.
Speaker 1:So moral of the story is I am taking my product line. So what I've been doing for the past few years is I have all my products in a warehouse. I go there, I do customer service, I package the products and then I ship them to the people every day. I do inventory, I do ordering, I do the testing of the products, I do the creation, the product development, the design. All of that part I love, love the design and development part. But I am trying to outsource the rest. So what I'm gonna do is I'm going to hand my products over to Lash Bomb and they are going to basically be my shippers customer service, all that. They're going to have Lash Anarchist as a collection in Lash Bomb. So when you go to lashanarchistcom, my stuff will still be there. You can still come train with me privately.
Speaker 1:I don't know if I'm gonna be doing group classes anymore. Y'all I don't know. This is something that I cannot tell you right now. I just know right now it's not making me happy anymore, so I have to stop. And, by the way, have you ever done my Human Design on yourself? If you haven't, I highly encourage you to download the app my Human Design. And this is not an advertisement. I just realized I kind of sound like I'm talking like an advertisement, but it is like it's kind of like astrology and then it adds in some other things and I actually really love it.
Speaker 1:Like when I read my Human Design, I was like, damn, this is literally me and I've never felt that way about astrology, by the way, because I'm a Virgo and that never makes sense, except for to my astrology girly friends or boyfriends that love astrology. And then they're like well, what's your rising? My rising is a Libra. And then everyone's like oh, that makes sense. I totally. I'm starting to understand astrology and why that makes sense? Because, apparently, like your rising is like will you present yourself to the world, like that's how other people see you. So other people see me as a Libra and not as a Virgo, which Libras are like, fun and outgoing, charismatic, loved to play. That's very much me. So I feel like I identify more with that than I do, as my Virgo sign, which is, I guess, like your sun sign, is more of like your ego, like it's how you are inside, like to yourself, which makes sense, because I am very critical of type A of myself, but in my world I'm not type A.
Speaker 1:I'm not critical of other people necessarily. I can't, I can. I can very much have Virgo tendencies, though. Like if somebody fucks with me, I'm like mm. Okay, I'll let that one go, I'll come up with some excuse. I'll be like they were hangry, they misunderstood, they're young, whatever. But if it happens again, I can ice you the fuck out forever. I can very Virgo that situation. But yeah, other than that, like I think it's a huge myth that messes, that Virgos are not messy. All the Virgos I know are the messiest people in the world. Tidy, no, I'm sorry, my mom is also a Virgo. Have we ever had a tidy house? Never. So yeah, I don't know. I don't know what to think about it.
Speaker 1:But back to human design, my human design. I am a generator and they give you like a life path too, which I think is so cool. And my life path is a three five for all you, my human design. People are like oh my God, this makes total sense. I'm a three five and that is a. It's a heretic martyr or maybe it's a martyr heretic. It's like one of it goes. Whatever way, it's those two, but basically it just means like the three in me pretty sure I could have these mixed up, but it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:One of the numbers in me is basically saying that I am somebody who will go out and try it all, like I am going to try to experience everything. So like how I'm like okay, I want to be a solo lash artist, I'm gonna try that, and then I'm gonna move on to the next thing, and then I'm gonna try being a salon owner, and then I'm gonna try having a product line, and then I'm gonna try going on the road and educating, and then I'm gonna try working for somebody else. And that's where I'm at in my life working for somebody else, and now I'm also going to try having just a personal brand where I'm gonna kind of use my strengths that I have not. I have been using without intentionally using my strengths, but I'm gonna. The one thing that I am gonna try to do now is take my weaknesses and stop trying to strengthen my weaknesses. Yeah, so it's like what else I have tried all these different things. It's like why wouldn't I try this new approach? So the new approach is use your strengths and leave your weaknesses behind. So what I'm going to do is finally outsource the weakness.
Speaker 1:The weakness for me is inventory orders, counting shit, keeping track of sales. I'm okay at customer service if I don't have to like do anything else, because when I get overwhelmed, I'm bad at customer service. And then I want to tell people to fuck off if they have problems. They're like my tweezer doesn't work and I want to be like I hand tested that mother fucking tweezer, don't you dare tell me it doesn't work. And then in the email I'm like oh okay, I'm so sorry about like I have a hard time putting on a fake voice and covering shit up. So that's why I would prefer to not do my own customer service.
Speaker 1:I don't actually mind packaging and shipping, but it's like you kind of have to be the inventory, orderer and house of all of the products if you are going to be like your own packaging and shipping person. So I'm not, I'm going to be putting that in the hands of lash bomb. So, basically, when you want to order my products, so you're still going to go to lashanarchistcom or my Instagram, wherever it is that you go order lash anarchist products, and you are going to go to lashanarchistcom and it's going to have all my stuff, like all, like I was saying earlier, like my train with Ali. That's all going to be there. But when you click shop now or you click on lashes tweezers, it's going to pop over to the lash bomb website where you will be ordering directly from lash bomb, which is cool because then you can also order lash bomb products and we and they'll all come together. It'll be wonderful. So if you are a lash bomb avid, lash bomb orderer, you can also throw some lash anarchist stuff in there. So it'll be great.
Speaker 1:I'm very excited about this transition and I am looking forward to kind of building my personal brand and focusing on things that I truly love, that I feel like I put off because they don't seem like the things I should be doing for my business. You know what I mean. So like, one of those things, for example, is podcasting. I love podcasting and I love talking to people. I believe it is one of my strengths. I love having conversations with people and exploring, you know, thoughts, ideas, theories and just getting to know people a little bit more. But when it isn't something that directly grows the sales of my business, it is something that I will put off and I will get so burnt out doing these other things that I don't enjoy that I don't leave time to do the things that I do enjoy and that ends up a lot of the time being podcasting, making video for social media. I really want to start kind of exploring the world of I don't even know how to.
Speaker 1:I guess highlighting the products that I actually truly love from other companies that's another thing is like. I feel like having my own product line has really pigeonholed me into only being able to highlight my own product line, Whereas I use so many different people's products and I love their products, but I don't. I can't talk about them because it is confusing for you know my audience, I guess, or I've felt that in the past and I'm over it. I don't want to do that anymore. I love Lashbox LA. I love their Laced Up Lash extensions right now. I love Lost Artistry Lash. I love a bunch of their products but I love their videos. I love their. They just came out with a line of the temporary lashes called Citizen Lash. I love them.
Speaker 1:I oh I need to mention, since I got my eye surgery, my eyelash line has been a little funky and then my lashes are extra curly and I just am not going to put anybody through the stress or the turmoil of doing my eyelash extensions. So I have been doing temporary lashes and I am. I'm here to tell you I'm obsessed with them. I don't want to like take clients away from the lash industry, but I do feel like they have a place in the industry and I truly love these temporary lash extensions.
Speaker 1:I've never loved a strip lash either, because my lashes are so curly I can't get the strip behind my lashes. I also have lashes like up on different, like layers, way above my lash line and it's. I just don't have a good lash line for strip lashes, but these temporary strip lashes that go underneath, like on the bottom of the lash line. I am literally so fucking obsessed with them you have no idea Like I have become a pro. I am learning all these different ways to style them and create different looks and honestly, I really want to get into that Like. I really want to go hard into that. We are coming out with our own line. Me lash anarchist and lash bomb are collaborating on. Lash anarchy are temporary little strip lashes and they're not strips but they're the little, the little chunks, the little like. I don't even know what technically they're called, but DIY lashes and I I'm really excited for that adventure honestly.
Speaker 1:But I am still a lash artist and I want to talk about other lash products and things that I love using. I also love Maven artistries shit, like I love her products. That rosewater to spray on your face. I am obsessed with the mist is so fine. It resets my makeup, it makes me glowy, it makes me feel hydrated. I'm obsessed. I also love her little oil blotting papers. I remember those used to be like a thing back in the day and I love them when I was a teenager and I never needed to use them when I lived in like Utah and Arizona because my skin is very dry, but now that I live in beautiful Florida with all of the humidity, my skin needs a little blotting and I I just love that stuff.
Speaker 1:So I want to be able to be an affiliate for the products that I love. I want to highlight other companies. One of my strengths is networking and collaborating, and that is something I want to do a lot more of and I plan to do a lot more of. So I do feel like kind of giving up this control over my product line and, honestly, I was putting myself in a box, thinking like I have to be a product line. It's like no, you don't have to be a product line. You can be a person who sells products and you can still highlight other people's products and that can be a part of your personal branding, and that's where I'm at people, okay.
Speaker 1:So as far as my predictions for the last future, the future of the lash world, I am, first of all, a psychic and if you don't believe me, just watch. But what I predict, okay, I have been talking to so many people over the past six months. I'd say I'm going to give it eight months. Over the past eight months, we have seen a major shift in the lash industry and every product line that is bigger than a tiny little bigger than mine, something that you can keep in your home If you're selling lashes to your students and you sell tweezers on the side or you have a glue whatever, something small like that and it is manageable out of your guest room, all right, I'm going to predict that you might be safe from this because you're small, you're building a community and you have a personal brand type thing going on. This is more along the lines of where my product line came from, but this is also to say that you have realistic expectations about what it's going to be. I'm not saying that these little brands cannot blow up into a large company eventually, if that's what you want it to be, but I am saying that most likely won't happen anymore.
Speaker 1:In this industry. I think we have reached a breaking point, and the breaking point is that so many people have started their product lines and there's so much competition now. The market people always say the market's not saturated, the market's a little saturated, it's okay. I think this is normal. This is the normal progression of any market. I believe that what we're going to start to see is big brands with money are going to start to do things very differently that are going to change the entire landscape of the lash industry as we know it. I've already started to see it. One of the things is going to be that these large companies are going to own a manufacturing company. They're either going to own be a manufacturing company, or they're going to buy one up, or they're going to make a deal with one where they have a manufacturing company who doesn't manufacture for anyone other than their brand. The reason why I do think that this will be a thing is because, in order to compete with the pricing of some of these companies that own a manufacturing company I mean, that's just how you're going to have to do it You're not going to be able to compete price-wise price point-wise If you don't have those larger margins, if you're not getting your product for a very low price because you have a manufacturing company. I do think that that is going to be something that brands will figure out. I don't know how it's gonna happen.
Speaker 1:This is just my spidey senses, and also I'm only a psychic, really, because I have pretty good intuition based off of everything that I hear Like I hear a lot of gossip. I hear a lot of behind-the-scenes whispering. I hear a lot of people like growing down. This is why you hang out after Lash Conferences. Okay, I don't care if you don't drink, you hang out. You fucking get the scoop. This is how you get a beat on what's going on. You don't get the truth on Instagram. You don't get the truth on TikTok.
Speaker 1:When people are showing you their Shopify sales, you better best fucking believe that they are showing you their best month that they had last year and they ran a sale that month. They launched a new product or a new e-book that month and they're like my sales were $200,000 that month and it's like cool, what were your sales last month? This month, give me your average. And I'd also like to see how much you're spending on ads and honestly, I'm not saying that they're telling you something that's way off. When people show their Shopify sales, they are, I'm sure, doing great, but my whole thing is like is it sustainable? How long has your business been open? Yeah, maybe you opened in 2020, but like do you have the staying power to be around in 2030? Because that's when I would like to learn from you. Also, I'm kind of going into the realm of like people, people that show you their Shopify sales. They want to coach you and it's like do I want to pay you to coach me where your Shopify sales based off of you actually selling products and trainings, or is it based off of you selling coaching on how to sell products and training? I just I'm not even gonna go there. We'll go there on a different episode.
Speaker 1:I don't give a fuck about coaching right now. I have completely quit my beauty educators blueprint. I haven't even been really putting my own layers layer training out there, like my workshop, my online workshop. I do have online and I do sell, probably still. I'd say I sell an average of like three or four a month. I have not been pushing it. I don't. I feel sleazy about it because of the landscape, because of the way people are selling right now. I don't love it. I think it's weird and sleazy and I need to figure out my own way of selling that feels right for me. So that's just. That's a whole other story, like I said. But I'm just. I just see, with these lash companies, these biggies, these big dogs, I think we're gonna see a bunch of very trendy and I'm saying a bunch like I'm not kidding you some brands that you thought were big and successful and killing it.
Speaker 1:I predict they fall pretty hard and I predict that will happen kind of behind the scenes. I don't think anyone's gonna come out and be like, hey, we're going under, pay attention to this. I think you're gonna just notice like you're. One day you're gonna wake up and you're gonna be like what happened to that lash company? You're gonna be talking to somebody. We like whatever happened to them? Are they even still in existence? And then you're gonna look it up and they will be there, kind of, or they won't be there. I really I'm telling you keep your eye out over the next one to three years. Shit's going down, okay. Next up. I think that also. I've already seen people talking about this and it hasn't been super big, okay.
Speaker 1:But the next trend that I see is these big lash companies who do own a manufacturing company. They are going to do white label, so they're gonna be the middle middleman there's already a middleman, but they're gonna be the middle middleman to you for your salon to start your own product line and slap your name on their products and they're going to be the middleman for you. I think this will work for about two years and then it'll not work anymore because they can't give you as big of a profit margin as going direct to source. So if you are going to go get some lashes made for you with your name on them and you're going to buy big right from a lash manufacturer in China or South Korea, I'm trying to think of like where else I know lashes come from. Anyway, wait, where's that one country with all of the really colorful homes that I, whatever, I can't think right now.
Speaker 1:But basically, if you go direct to source, to manufacture, you're gonna get lashes. I mean you're gonna have to buy in bulk. Obviously you can't put in like five trade order, you can't even put in like a 200 trade order, but you're gonna get lashes for around four dollars. You're gonna put on your label, then you're gonna have your shipping costs and then once you get it I don't know, maybe you're around like five or six dollars. So you're gonna get that. But if you're gonna go to a company who does in-house like so in-house, meaning in the United States manufacturing for you, you're not gonna be paying anything less than like ten dollars a tray, which is absolutely fine. That's a great deal. I mean maybe even twelve.
Speaker 1:I'd like to see how they do come up with this and how this works. But I think it'll be a trend that will boom at first and then I think then it'll level off. I don't think it'll be a trend forever. I don't think it'll like change the lash industry forever. I just think it'll. It's kind of like another phase we have to go through and honestly, I'm basing this off of my own intuition that knows nothing about economics, but it does know a little bit about the hair industry, the nail industry and, oh my god, I have predictions for the nail industry. Y'all.
Speaker 1:I don't know why, but I have a beat on the nail industry and I think it's because I've always wanted to be a nail artist and if lashes didn't work out for me, I think that's the next thing I would have tried, because I just I love shaping, I love tiny little details. I would love to like learn how to do nail art. You know what? Maybe next I'll be a nail artist. Nobody fucking knows. Okay, I don't even know, but the nail industry is behind the lash industry right now and I think the thing that's been holding it back for so long is the, the pricing and the structure of nail salon. So far, everybody thought that it had to be the walk-in nail salon where you go in and you get your manicure and pedicure by anybody and it's very generic. But now I'm seeing all these artists come up and they're doing amazing work and it is more trendy to get like crazy amazing decorations on your nails. So I I have seen a couple of little nail companies come out with their own polishes, their own gels, their own like tools and stuff and have been doing really great, and there's a couple right now that I've got my eye on here, even in Florida, that I see just booming, exploding.
Speaker 1:But and I always say this and I have learned from experience you don't want to be a pioneer, you want to be a settler. But unfortunately for pioneers, you're never a settler, you're always a fucking pioneer. And what I mean by that is like you don't want to be the first person to come in and blast through and do like a new thing in the industry, because as soon as you do it, you're gonna work so fucking hard doing that and being the change and being different and you know being working so hard to like show everybody that there's this new way of doing things and look how great this is. And everyone's gonna be like, oh my god, what an icon, you've changed the game. And then somebody else is gonna come up and do it just like you, except for better, because they're not gonna make all the same mistakes that you made. And they're gonna be like thanks for paving the way. I just did it a thousand times better than you and you're gonna be like fuck me. But that's okay. We need pioneers in the world and if I was to get very philosophical, philosophical on this, everybody kind of has their role in life and in business. It's the type of entrepreneur you are. I think like there are like pioneers who come in and change the game forever and they keep their crown. You know what I mean? There's fucking Bezos, there's fucking Oprah, there I don't I'm not gonna name more because boring, but there are people like that that you're forever like amazing.
Speaker 1:But if you look at like artists in the past, the person who started the trend of like a certain style of art, that artist is always forgotten, and somebody else who did it that was inspired by the original is the one that becomes famous. And there's actually a quote about that too, but it's the quote goes good artists borrow, great artists steal. And it's so true that literally just gave me chills. It's so true, like so many people like fucking hate Salvador, salvador, dolly, van Gogh, like all these, like, like people you would think, or like the creators of a certain style of art, like let's just talk about Dolly, because I just went to the Dolly Museum, but basically, like I mean he was a very great artist, very influential. He did a, he made surrealism famous, but was he inspired by surrealism and he made it famous or did he invent surrealism? He's inspired by somebody else's art and his style of work is very close to a lot of other artists who are like originally started painting in this way and and it inspired a movement and then he kind of ran with it and it. You know what. It's the same with Banksy. Like he is inspired by all these other artists who, you know like, use that style of art, like the stencil work, using rats in their art.
Speaker 1:I'm not gonna go on about this because I, honestly, I would have to like Google and look up the names of the people that they're inspired by or that people say that they're inspired by, because nobody knows who the fuck Banksy is, but they, they emulate other people's art and then they become famous for it. So it's like that's a just an example of like don't be the pioneer, be the settler. And honestly, with these DIY lashes I am. This girl is trying to be a settler. Like I just Want to be a settler. I don't want to work as hard, I want to stop pioneering for a minute, if that's cool. Like there's so many like influencers out in the in other industries. Like maybe I just want to settle back into like an influencer life and just really use my own natural talents, which is networking and collaborating and Talking and getting to know each other and having conversations. I want to lean into those and kind of like Leave the rest behind. Like I know I I love designing too. I would love to continue designing. Like.
Speaker 1:So, as far as I Am going to be sharing a booth with lash bomb at lash con, which I'm so excited about, but what I'm most excited about is that my mom's CEO her name is Anne. She's my new bestie, so everyone can just like remember that name. Anne is my girl. So I'm talking to Anne and she's like how do you want to do this? Like, how could we do this together in a way that's collaborative and, you know, represents both of our brands really well?
Speaker 1:And I was like, okay, I have this whole idea and like I see things in my mind very visually. So when I have an idea, I I don't know exactly how to execute it, but I can give you the idea and show you what it is. I can kind of draw it out, show you pictures and get you to understand. And then Anne is the person. She is my girl, she's my dog. She will take that idea and Actually execute it. She knows how to turn something into reality. And that is not my strong suit. My strong suit is the imagery and the ideas. Her strong suit is turning the ideas into reality.
Speaker 1:So our booth is going to be my imagery and Dream. It's going to be my Design, an idea, and then it's gonna be her creating it, putting it into real life and Putting her own spin on it, of course. So it's I don't know. I'm super psyched. It's gonna be very avant-garde. It's going to be a A little bit futuristic AI. It's gonna be cute. It's gonna be so fun.
Speaker 1:I can't wait for lash con. It's gonna be great. Also, I just talked to Paul yesterday and we decided for pajama party. We're going Halloween theme. This Lash con is going to be right before Halloween, like two weeks before. So I think it's a great opportunity to just like Halloween it up. You can wear whatever the fuck. You can wear a costume, you can wear your PJs, you can wear Halloween PJs, you could wear your swimsuit, it doesn't even fucking matter. Just come to the party, be comfortable, get ready to dance I am stoked on that and then Like with our DIY lashes that we're doing our lash anarchy, diy lashes.
Speaker 1:That is something that I will be Designing. Like I'm gonna be designing the, the product, with the help of my mom and Anne, obviously. Like we're gonna agree on like the product and how. That's gonna be all laid out, but I get to do the branding, the design of the box. I'm so excited. And then I'm also gonna be doing a lot of the marketing of like, showing people how to use them and style them differently and for what I shapes, to do what. And if your face is, why to do this? If your face is narrow, do this. If you have deep set eyes, if you have, if you have upturned eyes. Whatever it is, I'm gonna teach you different styling, which is very much my layers layer workshop. Who knows, maybe God sent me on this journey if God exists To teach layers layer workshop for all these years so that I could teach everybody how to do DIY lashes the best for their face shape. Nobody knows, we'll see, but those are my predictions for the lash industry. Oh, I also think that lash conferences that is something that I I've gone to so many lash conferences and I'm gonna keep this short Gone to so many this year.
Speaker 1:I think they were very trendy this year. Everybody was like this is such a great idea. I think this is gonna be helpful. I'm gonna do one in my town and I think that they are great. I think they're gonna keep evolving. I think this is just the beginning of the lash Conference seminar experience summit world and it's going to keep evolving over time. But I do believe that Everyone who does it is gonna have to step their pussy up. There's gonna be like a low-grade seminar when you pay, not a low-grade. That's fucked up. I didn't mean that.
Speaker 1:There's going to be a Like a tier one seminar where you are going to do something locally with people in your area. It's gonna be around a hundred dollars like a lash bash situation, but possibly with education, I'm going to two of those next month here in in Florida and I'm very excited about those. I am, I'm I love this idea. I'm very excited to see where it goes. I do think that people are just kind of like Dipping their toes in the water with this one and they're going to find that pricing might need to be adjusted. You might need to charge like a hundred and fifty dollars or you need to get some sponsors who are paying to be in your Goodie bag, some shit like that. But that's going to stick around. And I love those conferences. I think those are great because people will take a lot of time to get to the bottom of that. I think those are great because people will take responsibility for them and they will. They will make them great. I just know it because that's what their reputation is going to be based on.
Speaker 1:Tier two there will be seminars, like the wicked business experience that I just went to. It was a one day Wednesday, the last year, put it on one day. There was like five speakers, maybe four Shorter speaking, and then like shorter speaking times. There was breakfast and like, oh my god, they got hooked up with the swag bag. I know I said I hate swag bags, I hate junk swag bags. This swag bag was sick and everybody who put something in there, she made sure to talk to them and be like don't just put lash crap in there, because A lot of people at this seminar or this experience are not lash artists. So do it for the common man. So, woman, I should say, there was not a single guy, except for the fucking camera guy, who was hot, by the way, but Married anyway. So he, this swag bag ended up being like so great, so like full of things that you could use in your everyday life, and that's what I mean by like everybody's gonna have to step their pussy up Because you can't just throw an event willy-nilly and people are gonna be psyched to be there just because they're networking. You can't charge for that. I'm sorry you have to provide so much value.
Speaker 1:I'm like one of the things that I really loved about Wednesday's event I'm not kidding, this seems so basic, but it was the variety of drinks that were offered. There was Sparkling water, which I'm addicted to. There was all these different types of sodas in bottles cans, there was tea, there was coffee, there was decaf and then there was a bar at the end. So there was time to network. And what I appreciated about that is not everybody drinks, not everybody drinks coffee, not everybody drinks caffeine, not everybody wants to just drink water. She covered all the fucking bases. There was lemonade, like it was. I I just really appreciated that. But what else I appreciated was breakfast. It was a light breakfast. There was like yogurt and fruit and then there was bagels, which I fucking went to town on a bagel, and then there was a snack time so there was a little break in between speakers.
Speaker 1:I've gone to conferences, that is, speaker nonstop for five hours. I cannot stand that shit. I'm sorry, I'm a little kid. I could barely go to church because I can't sit there. Yes, grew up Mormon. I cannot sit there for three fucking hours. That is too long, jesus Christ, let alone five hours.
Speaker 1:I went to a conference earlier this year and we were there. Speakers started at 9, but we got there at like 8 or 8 30 for breakfast, which I do appreciate, the breakfast, that is legit. And then there was speakers from 9 or 9 30. I'm not kidding you. We had one lunch break and we were there until 7 30 at night Taking photos till 8 pm. I cannot, that's too long. It needs to be two days at that point or you need to cut some speakers out. It's too much information.
Speaker 1:People's brains shut off at a certain time. And what I loved about Wednesdays is she had everybody speaking for 30 minutes. Everybody did go over. So she was like next year maybe I'll have 40 minute speakers. But it was like it was a new subject so people could like readjust and your brain can reset and you can actually listen to the speakers. Yeah, but then there was a snack break and then there was lunch break and then at the end it was over by like 3 30 and it was networking time.
Speaker 1:So it was like the bar was open. You could just get like another like I wasn't drinking. So I got a little bit of a Red Bull and pretended like I was holding a drink, because I'm still like not, I'm not drinking, but I am not in the the I don't know what you would call it like the stage of my sobriety. I guess I don't. I don't know if I'm trying to be sober. Nobody knows yet, I don't even know, but I'm not in that stage where I can just comfortably talk to people without a drink in my hand, so I just, you know, I have my little fake drink. They had all the ingredients for like cocktail mocktails. It was great. Anyway, loved that, love that whole experience. It was so fun and then afterward it was like you could continue hanging out if you wanted. A lot of people still had hotel rooms for the night and they stayed, so that was great.
Speaker 1:I went to another conference this year. I oh my god, lash Boss Summit was also such an amazing summit. It was different because it was two days and they had booths and like in a you know separate room just around the corner and you could shop. So it gave like a whole different experience to it. We were all staying in the same hotel. It was like a little lash camp. It was a little lash con, but it was different. It was. It was more relaxed. They didn't have breakout sessions. It was good, though. I loved, I appreciated every detail that went into that as well and like, if you know Shelby like Shelby Lash Boss Radio, she a fucking or Pink Lady Lash in Austin, she also has a school like she is slaying it. I love her, but she thinks of every little detail and she cares.
Speaker 1:I've gone to, you know, a couple other conferences. One of them was, like I will just say, extremely disappointing. You could tell that there was no care. Whoever put it on didn't invest in the experience of the attendees or the sponsors in a way that I can't imagine any of the sponsors ever coming back. I actually think that this Lash event is dead on arrival. I don't think that it will ever happen again, because it was it it fell.
Speaker 1:You can tell when somebody puts their all into something because they are building a reputation and they know that their integrity and their name is on the line and they want it to be good. They want people to have a great experience because they actually care about the industry and they want everyone to leave with something more than what they came with. And then you can tell when somebody has done something and they're like all I got to do is get people together and it'll be great, and then they don't put much else into it and they don't really worry about the experience of anybody else and it it comes off as a money grab. It comes off as I'm going to skimp on the details and cut corners so I can put more in my bank, and that's very much how. I wouldn't suggest you run a conference, seminar, business, whatever event. I would highly recommend not doing that. I highly recommend in investing in the experience of your attendees and your sponsors if you have sponsors, this, the tier 2, tier 3 and making sure that everybody is feeling like they're getting out of it what they're putting into it.
Speaker 1:If you want to continue doing it over the years and you don't want to create a terrible name for yourself in the industry because I will tell you people fucking talk and if you think you can get away with shit in this industry, you can't. You can't Maybe for a year or two, but you can't get away with it for much longer. I can tell you. I have just seen so many people who come into the industry for the money, to get big, for the attention, for the popularity contest and guess what? It doesn't matter. If you don't provide value, you don't provide a great experience, you don't make people feel seen, heard and wanted. You're done, you are done. You can piss people off, you can ruffle feathers, you can have a difference of opinion, you can be a little bitch, but if you aren't a real person and you don't take responsibility for the shit that you do, the shit that you fuck up, I mean you're screwed and I don't know.
Speaker 1:Let's just all take this time to decide that we will have integrity in anything that we do and, honestly, like I believe in karma, because I just think that that's how humans work naturally like I don't believe in karma is like oh, you put out these negative vibes into the universe. And if you're like a vibe girly, you're like shut the fuck up, ali, this is how it works. But for real, like I don't know. If that's true, I'll say I don't know. But I do know that when you are a certain way, people can feel it. They can feel your bullshit, they can smell your bullshit.
Speaker 1:If you're not authentically here to serve and make a better world for everybody around you, not just yourself and your own bank account, I'm telling you you won't last. You have to love what you're doing and you have to put all your efforts and your good feelings and thoughts and energy into it. And if you don't love it, you're not gonna keep getting that same energy. You're not gonna be motivated, like motivation is something you can pull out of your butthole for like an hour and be motivated to do something you know, but to do it year after year after year, event after event after event, you have to love what you're doing, what you're talking about, what you're saying, the message, the effort, and I'm just saying I don't know to like kind of bring it all back to the beginning.
Speaker 1:That's exactly the energy that I'm trying to bring to the lash world, to this industry, and that's why I'm kind of changing my business model at this point, because I didn't love the direction it was going. I didn't love the direction that coaching and even education at this point, I hate to say it, I don't know what I'm gonna do to do it differently I didn't love the direction. I don't love the direction it's going in the industry, and I think it's gonna change a lot, which I'm very happy. I think I'm inviting a big change. I think it's gonna be really good for us. So I'm excited to see where the next few years take us all. Those are my predictions, though, and, yeah, good day and God bless. If you believe in God, love you.