Ep. 72: How To Rise Above The BS In The CUT THROAT World of PMU With Tina Davies
Do YOU have what it takes to make it in PMU? I mean...we should probably find out right?
Tina Davies is a close friend of mine as well as my teacher and mentor. She is the OG PMU Boss Babe who you may remember from Episode 32 of the Pretty Rich Podcast. Well, my first interview with Tina went so well that I just couldn't help but invite her on the show to talk again. Yes - I love her that much! And you should too!
Tina's been working in PMU for 20 years. Yeah. 20 years. So she knows her stuff! In this episode, we talk all about her career and Tina dishes out some great advice for those of you who might just be getting started in PMU or you're feeling lost in this cut-throat world and want to know how to just rise above all of the BS and build a successful beauty business.
Here are the episode highlights:
‣‣ [12:39] Tina and I start off by describing the start of her career in PMU 20 years ago
‣‣ [17:37] We talk about her childhood; what she was like as a kid, what growing up was like, how her interests as a child lead to a career in PMU.
‣‣ [24:13] Tina walks us through some of the struggles she faced on her journey to becoming the PMU artist and product designer that she is today.
‣‣ [31:58] Over the years since Tina did her training for PMU, you'd expect some changes in the training. But maybe things haven't changed as you'd expect. Here Tina talks about what her training was like 20 years ago.
‣‣ [34:08] A lot of us start our PMU work as side-hustles. At what point do you start to feel like this can be your full-time job?
‣‣ [41:11] How do you go from a PMU artist to creating products for other PMU artists? What new challenges come with that venture?
‣‣ [46:02] Tina and I dive into issues aspiring PMU artists seem to run into that drives them to give up the practice when they feel it's not working.
‣‣ [58:17] Meeting people and making connections is essential to starting any business. Here TIna and I talk about the importance of forming connections with people whether that be at events or courses. Take those opportunities.
SHOW ME HOW TO RISE ABOVE THE BS AND BE SUCCESSFUL IN PMU NOW! (Listen Here)
Wasn't Tina amazing? Yeah, I know. You can keep up with her and find all of your PMU essentials on her website right here!
You can follow me, Sheila Bella, on Instagram @realsheilabella!
Here are the links that were mentioned in the podcast!
Grow Your Gram
Online Course Workshop
FOR MY LISTENER BOSS BABES
You can enjoy this podcast by downloading it on iTunes here.
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FOR MY READER BOSS BABES
You can enjoy a transcript of the podcast here.
Sheila Bella:
Do you have what it takes to make it in permanent makeup? We should find out, right? I mean, if you invested in this you have all of your certificates, and you're spending money on the supplies and everything, you should probably know whether or not you have what it takes. Today, I have the one and only Queen of PMU herself, Tina Davies, on here to help you figure that out before it's too late, or figure it out so that you know what to change, right? So you got to listen to this whole episode because there's a lot of nuggets here that you can apply directly to your business. The year is coming to an end, you want to uplevel, and this podcast, this free podcast, 100% free podcast is going to help you do that, so stay tuned.
Hey Richies, hold your tits, uh-hmm (affirmative), my new favorite way to stay in touch with you guys is finally here, texting. Yeah, let's be text buddies. I text my best friends all day long. Let's text each other. Stay in the know. I want to text you inspiration, updates on the Pretty Ambitious Summit, quotes that fill my soul, new podcast, and all of the things I use and believe in to uplevel my own business, and life experience. I teach, and share nothing that I haven't done or have used myself. So text Sheila, S-H-E-I-L-A, S-H-E-I-L-A to 3-1-9-9-6, and we'll be connected. You know the coolest thing? You can actually text me back. That is so cool. So homey, I don't want you to be left out, stay in the know, text SHEILA to 3-1-9-9-6 right now, and if you already did, high five, sister friend.
Welcome to the Pretty Rich Podcast, where every woman is the heroine of her own story. I'm your host, Sheila Bella, and I built a million dollar beauty business from nothing, so maybe if you listen enough you'll start to believe that you can do it too, because if the perfect job doesn't exist, well, you can create it. If the job you want isn't hiring you, you can unapologetically hire yourself. Each episode will equip you with empowering conversations on how to grow a lifestyle that's pretty rich in love, beauty, wellness, and financial wealth. I'm Sheila Bella, beauty business coach, celebrity brow artist, global success speaker, author, serial entrepreneur, wife, mother, friend, and daughter, and your forever positive beauty biz sales guru. Let's go.
Intro over, awesome, okay. Let's get back to today's episode with the one and only Ms. Tina Davies of Tina Davies Professional. Everybody I know uses her blades, yeah. I would say, I don't know, out of just my friends I'd say like 90% of people use I Love Ink for their pigments because they're so freaking awesome, and her blades as well. I'm proud to say that I was in the very first class she held here in the USA, which is the Brow Masters Class, and that was years ago, and it literally changed my life. Have you ever have one of those experiences where you're like, "Holy crap, that thing, or this thing that I just witnessed right now is going to change my life," it hasn't yet, but you know that, "Oh, my gosh, everything just changed for me right now." That's how I felt sitting in that chair.
I don't care if I've told the story before, but I'm telling it because it's meaningful to me. I sat in that Brow Masters Class, I was like five months pregnant or something like that, nauseous half the time I was sitting there, didn't know what to expect, I was trying to be super low key. I didn't want people to pay attention to me, I just wanted to learn what I needed to learn from this awesome woman Tina Davies, and leave. I remember the first time she demonstrated microblading. She demonstrated microblading, and she showed us the pattern. She showed us the rainbow. I remember that. She showed us the decorate, all the steps to microblading, and I was getting teary-eyed, it was so much better than what I was doing.
I will never forget that I was sitting in that class, even though you weren't supposed to be on your phones, it didn't matter, I was sitting in that class, I had to text my husband right away and I said, "We're going to be okay." I said, "This is amazing. Guess what? We're going to be okay. This baby that I'm carrying is going to be okay." When somebody gives you the gift of skill it opens doors for you. Microblading has opened so many doors in my life that used to be closed shut, and not only did she teach me, and forget about me, she kept reaching out. She always makes sure that I'm okay. She also challenged me to do things out of my comfort zone like attend a conference in Europe, and I had never been to Europe. I spent thousands of dollars on this conference that she just told me to go to, and I just said, "Yes." That also changed everything for me, but I think the biggest gift that Tina Davies has given me, is the gift of seeing me. That's it.
She saw me, and she continues to see me, and witness me everyday. She knows I'm alive, and I think that's such an amazing gift that I think we overlook, the gift of being witnessed, and then on top of just being witnessed she says, "I believe in you." Now that's next level. Somebody seeing you, and believing in you, the gift of belief, man, I'm so, so grateful for her. I can honestly say I would not be here, at this podcast mike, saying all of these to you guys, if it wasn't for this woman. I learned from her just from watching her. She is a bad ass. She is. There are parts of me that wish I were more like her, I'm like, "Uh, yeah, okay, I got to channel that more," that thing Tina has, that je ne sais quoi, that X factor I can't really explain.
I want to encourage you guys to keep searching, keep hanging out with people who challenge you. Be grateful for the people that see you, that witness you, and don't underestimate your power to do that for somebody else. Just a simple, "Wow, that was really cool. I see you, and I believe in you," makes a huge difference with the right people, but before we get to Tina I want to switch gears here for a little bit, and yeah, it's related to Tina. I want to talk about these new pigments she just dropped, the Sunset Collection. Now if you already use I Love Ink, the same way I do, you know how awesome it is, it's the first time that I've had clients come back and peel through to the bottle.
Trust me, I'm just telling you guys this because this is my honest experience. I've used other brands before, and my clients would come back, and they would come back blue, mostly blue, sometimes red, sometimes red which was really frustrating. I'm not going to talk to you guys about anything that I don't believe in genuinely. I remember one time there was this woman that complained, and she threatened to sue me, and she said that her dad was a lawyer, and I was young in the industry, I was so scared. Geez, when she came in for her look-see appointment I got to say they were blue, but the pigment that I was using was brown. I was like, "What? What? It was brown." So I was thinking maybe it was me, did I go too deep? Because it can happen sometimes, but I really didn't think that I went too deep. I had already been in the industry for maybe around two years, around two years, and my depth was already good. It was shallow. It wasn't too deep like it was at first.
I was thinking that it probably has to do something with the pigment that I was using. Holy cow, it's true, because when I switched to I Love Ink by Tina Davies no more blue, no more red, no more funky colors anymore. Oh, and that girl that I was scared of, that threatened to sue me, I talked her into a correction years later, and we did it with I Love Ink, and she's happy now. Oh, my gosh, the relief, the relief when she came back because I Love Ink also corrects colors. This the line that everybody has been waiting for, and things just got even better with the new Sunset Collection that's specifically for redheads, because the original I Love Ink Collection had one color for redheads, which was medium brown. Now she has three more colors specifically for redhead, and what's great is, you can even add a drop of these warmer colors to the original I Love Ink Collection in case you want to [inaudible 00:10:25] something up a little bit.
I've used it in a couple of clients already, and I have to say I freaking love it, and it's so hard to trust another pigment line, you guys. It is, because they all look good at first. They all look good at first. In order for you to really understand how these colors heals it takes like two years, it's like two years of seeing people come back, seeing how it heals, seeing if it does last, seeing if it turns funky even after a few years. I've been using I Love Ink now since the very beginning when it first launched, and it's been a few years, and my clients had never been happier. I have rave reviews, and unfortunately any bad reviews I have, because they exist, were from the old pigment line that I used to use. But now we all know, live and learn.
So yeah, if you want to score these Sunset pigments, of if you want to try I Love Ink, and you've never tried it before, go to tinadavies.com, and type in the code Sheila Bella. So simple, tinadavies.com, and type in the code Sheila Bella, because it's going to get you 15% off. Yeah, and you don't want to miss out on that now, do you? Now these pigments are awesome by the way, even for machine work. I just want to mention that, that it's not just for microblading, they're also amazing for machine work. Without further ado, here we go, Tina Davies, [inaudible 00:12:02].
Hi everyone, welcome to Pretty Rich Podcast. Today I have the one and only Tina Davies. Tina, welcome.
Tina Davies:
Hello, everybody.
Sheila Bella:
So excited to have you here. This is your second time on Pretty Rich Podcast, right?
Tina Davies:
Thank you for inviting me back again. I love talking to you, love, love, love.
Sheila Bella:
As always. You know, your first episode was one of the most highly downloaded episodes I've ever had.
Tina Davies:
Really?
Sheila Bella:
Yeah.
Tina Davies:
Maybe because it was early.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah, it was really ... People love you, so I'm excited to bring her back on. Today I wanted to do maybe like a mini biography, if you're okay with that.
Tina Davies:
Thank you. Yeah, go ahead.
Sheila Bella:
Okay. I just think it's really amazing how what you've accomplished in your time in the industry, and what you've done for our industry as a whole. So to start off, can you describe some career highlights you've had? I don't want you to be shy, list as many as you can, and then ... before we go into the hard stuff. What are you most proudest of?
Tina Davies:
Oh, gosh. Well, let me just preface this by saying that I've been doing this for 20 years so it's not like, "Hey, I'm here because all of a sudden I showed up." This is ... You're getting the best of me after all those struggles, that's why I'm here because I've done everything that you guys done, but the hard way, when nobody was around. So some highlights, let's see, well, when I first started I called my technique the Feathering technique because I like to draw the hairs one by one, and at that time nobody was doing that. It was more kind of like that solid eyebrow look, the one that your mother had, your grandmother had, so I was first known to do this Feathering technique that was extremely popular in Canada, in Toronto, I would say. I had a lot of features in magazines, and magazines back then were PR. I mean, now it's like PR everyday in the sense we're on social media, being our own PR managers. That was a big deal in the beginning there.
Sheila Bella:
I remember your logo had a feather on it.
Tina Davies:
Yeah.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah, that was really cool. I thought that was really accurate too, because your technique was the softest one I had ever seen at that time. Yeah, so cool.
Tina Davies:
You know what's so funny, Sheila? Now, feathering is out, and guess what's back in?
Sheila Bella:
What's in?
Tina Davies:
Solid eyebrow. It's like we went all the way back to bell-bottoms again.
Sheila Bella:
I was just going to say bell-bottoms again. You know what else is back? Are the 80s puffy sleeves.
Tina Davies:
Oh, my God, the shoulder pads.
Sheila Bella:
I don't know if that's going to ... I don't know.
Tina Davies:
I hope not.
Sheila Bella:
Shoulder pads.
Tina Davies:
Yes, [inaudible 00:14:56].
Sheila Bella:
The puffy sleeves though are back in, and I'm rocking it.
Tina Davies:
I love the puffy sleeves. So let's see what other career highlights.
Sheila Bella:
What else? What else?
Tina Davies:
I was really proud of myself I've moved from working for myself at a studio into working at a plastic surgeon's office, that got me lots of exposure, and that really just put me on where I was nearly booked up every single day, 8 to 10 clients a day. Then after that, what did I do? I grind it out, I worked really, really a lot, I worked a lot. I would say in a week it was really easy for me to cashflow anywhere, just by myself, solo operator, $10,000 three days a week, $10,000 three days a week, and I could have done more, but I have a family, right? Then from there of course I started Tina Davies Professional, literally just me and my husband, that was it. We've grown it, we've expanded a lot, we've hired awesome people.
Last year we were named number five in Canada's Tope Startups, and then this year we were number eight in Canada's Fastest Growing Companies. I would say those are some of my career highlights, but they've definitely been two different courses. The first part as artist, and the second part as servant to artists, I help you guys do better, so you guys hopefully can copy my path, which has been ... basically has set me up, I had no money, zero, I had nothing to start with. Everything was just for myself like most of you guys. No one's handed like trust funds or anything, or had a roadmap, but now we're so lucky we have lots of roadmaps, maybe too many roadmaps as you know.
Sheila Bella:
That's true. I love how you broke that up for us. That yeah, you had two separate journeys or separate chapters, as artist, and then as servant to artists. Yeah, [inaudible 00:16:57], and I can totally relate to that. When people look at you now, people look at your social media, and then they see you on YouTube, and see all the amazing products that you're putting out it looks so freaking easy like, "Oh, this is just happening. Look at how perfect the branding is. Look at how beautiful the lighting, and everything is." But unless you know better, unless you attempted it yourself, you know how effing hard it is to make all that happen, and also the journey into getting here, just even getting to this point where you do have this massive audience, and this massive influence. I wanted to go back to Tina Davies as a child. Name some of the hardest things you've had to overcome as a child. What was early life like for you?
Tina Davies:
A big part of what you see today is Tina doing all this stuff, Tina being very capable, or Tina coming out with all these products, and that has a backstory, and it's because as a child I really was a latchkey child. My mom was an immigrant, my parents were immigrants, what do immigrants do? They work. They work like crazy.
Sheila Bella:
No, we don't take vacations.
Tina Davies:
No, I'd never been on a family vacation before with my family. Never. Never. I had one that would last like three days, we went to Hawaii, but I wouldn't count that anyways. So the biggest hardship was definitely just growing up as a latchkey child because you're kind of left on your own, you've got to figure out what ... just going back and forth to school, homework, assignments, just there's not that much there for you even meals. I'm not saying my family didn't feed me, but it's kind of like, "It's in the microwave. Figure it out." I was an only child so it's not like I had siblings either, but because of that, and we know this to be true, is so much of what you are today is what you want through in the past.
I'm so grateful that if I was provided so well for, and looked after for, and had things done for me, like helicopter parents of today, I wouldn't be able to be like, "You know what, I see a problem, I'm going to figure it out." I don't see a barrier. I never knew to see barriers because it's either solve the problem or ... not die, but literally if there's no other solution, so that was my ... I didn't have time for anything else, as far as I wouldn't be able to take crap. I wasn't bullied because it's like ... People weren't putting me down just because I didn't have that option, it was just like, "Okay, look, I just got to go." You know?
Sheila Bella:
Were you a serious kid, you think?
Tina Davies:
I wasn't a serious kid, but I was always a no bullshit person. Other people wouldn't get me down because I was just like, "Whatever," I don't really mind too much about them because I was just doing my thing. I had to do my thing.
Sheila Bella:
What were your dreams as a child? What did you want to be? What was your thing that you were so focused on? It wasn't this.
Tina Davies:
You know what, okay, let me tell you, this is really funny because I didn't have a thing. I never had a thing because ... You know how some people are like, "You know what, I want to be X. I want to be a piano player. I want to be a singer. I want to be a fireman." I never had that because I didn't really have the role model of that. The only role model that I knew was my parents that worked hard. I had the work ethic, every weekend is like going to work with my family. Summer vacation, there is no summer vacation, I just go to work with my family so I'm not home by myself.
Sheila Bella:
What does your parents do?
Tina Davies:
But I'll tell you this, because like I said I was a latchkey child, we were immigrants, we didn't have money, everything we did we had to do ourselves. We had to make our own everything. We didn't just buy something. We made our own ... everything from scratch, even my mom wrote her menus by hand, her restaurant. She was the ultimate art and crafter. We would ... from young age, we built things, we built furniture, so for me, early on I built everything, anything and everything we built. We tinkered with things. My mom's business is, for some people that probably don't know this, is she has a jewelry business, and in her jewelry business she makes her own custom pieces. So I had so many years of building things.
So for me building things is second nature, it came since I was three years old, and again, so when I see a problem say, "Oh, this little tool is not efficient," I'm like, "Okay, I'm just going to fix it or make a better solution," and that again, was one of the things that helps me build problems overcome ... tackle a career challenge, if I want to be something I'm like, "Let me just figure it out. Let me see how I can do this."
Sheila Bella:
Right. How old were you when you came here to the ... well, to Canada? You went to the States, you went to the States first, right?
Tina Davies:
Well, my mom was an immigrant, but I was born in San Francisco.
Sheila Bella:
Oh, okay, that's right.
Tina Davies:
Yeah, I was born in San Francisco, and then I was there for about 26 years, so I was born and raised there. Then I moved to Canada after because my husband is from Toronto, and then we moved to Toronto together. Yeah, we love Canada. Canada is great, but it's cold half of the year. I feel jealous of you.
Sheila Bella:
Wow. Yeah, I know, look at this, my sweater isn't really a sweater, it has holes.
Tina Davies:
So to answer your question I never had career aspirations, I just ... I've always liked to work for myself, do my own things.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah. Yeah.
Tina Davies:
If that makes sense to you.
Sheila Bella:
Interesting, okay. What motivated you though as child? Was it the approval? Was it a degree? What motivated you as a child where you're like, "You know what, I don't care," because I know what motivated me, it was like, "Oh, it's okay, I'm going to be Debbie Gibson, and Madonna. So I don't care what you say, I'm going to be on the American Music Awards one day." But what motivated you as a child to not give into the bullshit?
Tina Davies:
I like to win. I like to be number one. I just like to be the best at something. I don't say that like, "Hey, girl," or, "Hey, you, I want to outsell you," or, "I [inaudible 00:23:50] you." But I want to be like, "If Tina is doing X, I want to be the top," let's say, "salesperson." I want to be the best artist, or I want to be the best, whatever it is I want to be ... but it's not sports, sports, not me.
Sheila Bella:
I love your honesty, and I can absolutely relate, who doesn't want to be the best at something? It's fun, right? Now let's jump into your journey getting here, your journey as an artist. What were some of the biggest career hurdles, artist-wise, that you had to jump through to get here? Then I want to talk about the product stuff too, the second chapter.
Tina Davies:
You know what, it's literally technique, technique is so hard because there are so many freaking variables. You could be taught one technique, but you hit a different kind of skin, and wooh, you got to change gears fast. That's why you cannot teach until you have experienced all those, literally most of those situations, and scenarios, so then you could say, "On this kind of skin in this kind of situation, with this kind of correction this is what you do. You take out tool one, two, three, and you implement coverup. You implement a correction. You try to hide something, that they will have old tattoos that they're not going to laser off." So definitely technique, but that's something that comes with experience.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah, so you learn from experience. Was there ever a time where you were like, "Oh, my gosh, I don't know what I'm doing, why am I even ... How did you even get to be doing permanent makeup? How did it come about?
Tina Davies:
It was so funny. So I stumbled across my career by accident, [crosstalk 00:25:35] by accident.
Sheila Bella:
You got yours done with a friend, right?
Tina Davies:
Exactly, because, you know ... Okay, I'm being really honest, I find as a woman you could ... for a lot of people, I know some people already know what they want to do, they want to be Debbie Gibson or whatever. I think I was going to high school, going to college, I have no idea what I want to do, nothing. I'm taking marketing courses or I'm taking psychology classes, I'm, "Do I want to be this?" I don't freaking know, and how much does that pay? So I didn't know what I wanted to do, and I'm bouncing around saying, "Okay, what are you doing? What are you doing? Maybe I'll switch over to that major. Maybe I'll do that major." But literally it was a situation where my girl friend said, "Hey, let's go get our permanent eyeliner done," this thing, I'm like, "Okay, fine. Let's just go. I'm not doing anything." She laid down, she had hers done.
Tina Davies:
Let me back up, okay. We walked into this studio. It's literally like a little door, with a shitty sign, and then you walk in, and there's about 20 women sitting in this mediocre-looking, sad-looking dental office, or something like this medical office with lots of chairs. I'm like, "Why are all these people here?" You would never think on the street, and this door that doesn't look like anything special on the outside, they were all there to get their permanent makeup done. Holy shit, [crosstalk 00:27:00]-
Sheila Bella:
You were a teenager?
Tina Davies:
I was 19.
Sheila Bella:
Okay, barely legal for [crosstalk 00:27:06].
Tina Davies:
Yeah, I'm like, "What is this place that has so much demand?" Anyways, we walked in, and she, my girl friend goes up to receptionist, they make some kind of talk about something, and the lady goes, "Pay me the money." So she pays the, I think it was a $150, then she goes, "Okay, go sit down over there. Join these other 20 women, sit down." Then me, I'm like, "Okay, so I guess I pay?" She's like, "Yeah, pay cash. Cash only. Okay, $150, now you sit down." So we sit there, and we wait, and she goes in to get her eyeliner done. She comes out literally 15 minutes later, eyeliner flawless, she's crying, she's got tissues in her hand. She's like, "Oh, my God, it hurts so bad." I'm like, "Okay, great, it's my turn."
Then I get it done, and it literally ... The lady goes, "Lay down." I go, "Okay." She goes, "Close your eyes," so I closed my eyes, and she was, "Don't move." Then she starts stabbing you these little needles in, but it just feels like a [inaudible 00:28:01] on your eyelids, 15 minutes she was done, and I was like, "I love it." I left going, "Okay, I totally got this great eyeliner done. I never have to put it on," and this lady was busy, so I would love to do that. She did a beauty service, she's a boss, and solving problems for women.
Sheila Bella:
So it was that immediate for you, you got it done-
Tina Davies:
That immediate.
Sheila Bella:
Wow.
Tina Davies:
Well, the thing is I didn't realize it was right up my alley because I like to make things, I'm a crafter, people go, "Are you a painter?" No, I'm not a painter, but if you put something in front of me I like to fix it, a puzzle, IKEA furniture, I like to fix things. You put raw materials in front of me I'll make something out of it, and so I was like, "Wow, this is a craft. This is makeup service, and this actually I can now make this into a career."
No one's going to pay me to make IKEA furniture, but I was just like, "What do I do?" I took some courses at the school, and I'm doing this, and I don't know what to do, so then I went back to my mom I said, "Mom, I know what I want to do. I want to do this tattoo thing. I just had it done, look." She is like, boom, shoot me down, she was, "No freaking way. You go get your education. You don't want to end up like me. Basically not enough education in the US, having to pedal something, having to sell something." Our parents, their greatest fears as immigrants is they always want us to get a higher education, right?
Sheila Bella:
Yeah.
Tina Davies:
Get the job. Get the education. Get the degree. Your cousin's a lawyer, your other cousin's a doctor, so you have to up your game.
Sheila Bella:
Stability. Stability.
Tina Davies:
Stability.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah.
Tina Davies:
Also, it's like for them they want to brag to their friends, "Oh, my child is a doctor or a lawyer." It's a very Asian thing, which is straight A's, "I need to tell my friends you got straight A's."
Sheila Bella:
"I need to tell my friends your," yes, "I need to tell my friends," that's so true.
Tina Davies:
They'll guilt you. They'll either guilt you directly or indirectly, kind of like, "Well, you know, my friend's daughter is a doctor. Why don't you go over there and hang out with them?" You're like, "Okay, fine."
Sheila Bella:
Yeah, hang out with them, because they think it rubs off.
Tina Davies:
Yeah, right, like that's going to make me be a doctor, right?
Sheila Bella:
Yeah, that was also a heavy theme growing up for me. It's like hanging out with the right people, hanging out with the right people for sure. Wow, that's crazy. So wait a second, so you took a class from that lady, or did you find ... How did you begin? You got your degree first.
Tina Davies:
Yeah, because after that she was, "No, you go get your degree," [inaudible 00:30:52] that's a good backup plan. Okay, so get my degree, finish that, then I went to get my eyebrows done, and then I was like, "I still love this. I got my degree. I have my desk job, I don't love it. Let me do this." She's like, "Oh, my God, I'm so embarrassed. What am I going to tell my friends?" I'm like, "Well, you know what, now I ... You're not under their thumb as much anymore.
Sheila Bella:
What are you going to tell your friends?
Tina Davies:
Exactly, "What? You're like an aesthetician? Will you like put cream on people's faces?" That's what she thought it was, I'm like, "No, I'm not." I don't like putting cream on people's faces, but I would like to craft tattoos, craft makeup on.
Sheila Bella:
Wow. Are you and your mom similar?
Tina Davies:
Very similar.
Sheila Bella:
I would love to meet her one day.
Tina Davies:
She is extremely handy, can-do attitude all the way.
Sheila Bella:
Love it. Love it. I'm sure Brook will be the same.
Tina Davies:
Oh, gosh, I hope so it rubs off on her.
Sheila Bella:
Oh, my gosh, that's amazing. Okay, what ... That's scary. So when you first got into permanent makeup, what was your training like way back then?
Tina Davies:
It was actually not bad. I did some Google searching, and back then the choices were very limited, and a lot of the trainers that taught didn't do. They were kind of like the ones that weren't that busy so they would train, nowadays people train, they do, they do it all. The options weren't that ... they weren't that vast, but the nice thing about the trainer is that she taught me one to one. She basically babysat me, she sat by me the whole time. She taught me the fundamentals, basically what a new person could absorb, and she taught me the hand method, the manual method. What's good about learning something manually, it's like driving a stick shift, you feel everything. You're depending on your own pressure. I picked up the manual method, I loved it, I just ... it was like a duck in water, and I did the manual method for a good five years. I built my whole career on the manual method. I just did tons of models in the beginning.
Sheila Bella:
Wow, okay.
Tina Davies:
Models built my portfolio.
Sheila Bella:
Was that ever nerve-wracking for you doing those models? Well, you had good training.
Tina Davies:
It is. It is. Also, too, because back then, so I did my training, and then it's like, "Okay," then you know how you have to go back and ask a million questions, right?
Sheila Bella:
Yeah.
Tina Davies:
So you ask your, let's say Top 20 or 30 questions, they answer you like, "Oh, you know, slow down. Don't go too deep." It's literally the same answers that we hear today. It's all the same, "Don't overwork the skin." So I did all those things, but you still don't know your outcome, because really it's just experience and time that's going to tell you what was the outcome of that kind of pressure on that kind of skin, right?
Sheila Bella:
Yes, it is definitely time.
Tina Davies:
It's a lot of ... literally I spent a lot of time just, and people do now monitoring their result based on their technique, adjusting and fine-tuning their technique as they go.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah. What about financially, did you make money in the beginning or were you doing models first? Was there ever a time where you're like, "Uh," because you had your desk job, right? So did you transition slowly until you built up your clientele, or did you quit-
Tina Davies:
It was a slow transition, it took me three years before I became like, "Okay, I can make a job out of this." Where in the beginning it was kind of like maybe I get a client every two weeks, then it became a client a week, then it became two clients a week, but it's a slow build because no one likes to trust a new person.
Sheila Bella:
Right. Right. Did you [inaudible 00:34:47]? Did you hear that? It's the same.
Tina Davies:
Same. It doesn't matter if it was 20 years ago or 30 years ago, it's like nobody wants to trust a new person, and so the only way I can get business was working on ... it's like student's haircuts, right? Some people don't have the budget, so then they take $50 bucks to get your eyebrows done, $50 bucks to get your eyeliner done. So while I was doing that, that's like the best job ever because people are paying me to basically practice on them.
Sheila Bella:
Agree. Agree. Being grateful you take that job, that's a learning experience for you. I tell people that too.
Tina Davies:
You know, that is the biggest problem that I see today, is people are promised that, "Take this class, earn $3,000 a week, to people that's $500 are pop." It's not like that at all. It's not the reality of it. It's not. You're going to go through some friends and family, and after that you're going to be pretty dry, unless you want to ... you're going to be participating in the marketing, the Instagram hustle, and people are just going to DM you, "How much? How much? How much?" So you really need to know how to set yourself apart. Correct?
Sheila Bella:
Yeah.
Tina Davies:
Right? How much? All the time.
Sheila Bella:
All the time, yeah.
Tina Davies:
They just weren't shopping.
Sheila Bella:
That is, they're just, "How much?" Not even a, "Hi, hello, how are you? My name is," no, just, "How much?" I'm sorry, did you just sneeze, how much? I can totally relate to that. The first three, maybe even four years of my career I did a lot of free work, at least one, sometimes two clients a week that I did for free.
Tina Davies:
Absolutely, and you're so smart about it because you do a lot of celebrities, models, and they get you so much business.
Sheila Bella:
They do, yeah. I started out with ... I think my first "influencer" was a girl that I worked with at Dillon's Irish Pub. She was pretty, and I wanted her face in my portfolio, and she had 3,000 followers, and I was like, "Oh, Marcela, she is going to let me do her." Then that's when I got the bug for doing people for free, and yeah, it did work. It was great for me because it was time on skin, so it worked.
Hey, have you ever been to a permanent makeup conference and thought, "Oh, my gosh, I'm kind of falling asleep. Oh, no." Have you ever looked at the speakers up there and thought, "Wow, I wonder how they did it? How are they up there? How did they build such influence, and how do they build their businesses? How are they always booked out with students, and clients for months and months?" Ever wonder how she built that online course and thought, "I wish I could do that," or think, "Oh, my goodness, how did she developed such amazing products, and become profitable doing so? What are the steps I need to take in order to do the same?" Well, you can find out at the Pretty Ambitious Summit, March 13th through 15th, 2020 in Santa Monica, California.
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This is an opportunity for you to build your own table, the same way I did, the same way we all had to do in this industry, so quit trying to do it alone because beauty bossing is hard, it's so hard, and it can be such a lonely road. We know that, you know that, and here you will find like-minded, ambitious, and kind women who get it, who get you the way nobody else does. In your own circle at home they don't know, they don't do PMU, they're not trying to do big things, right? My friends in this industry have been so valuable to my growth and my business, and seriously, I want to meet you. I want to see you guys face to face. I want to hear your stories, and get to know what you're all about, so if you crave inspiration, genuine connection, and you're ready to level up your personal, and professional game, you need to be there. Tickets are selling out fast, VIP tickets are already sold out, so you got to get them before they're all gone.
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Okay, so what about the challenges with manufacturing, and inventing your own product? It looks so easy. I Love Ink is just the bees knees right now, especially I just got your new Sunset Collection, and your lip samples, I'm so excited. So what are the challenges that are involved in creating your own product?
Tina Davies:
Well, for me the most obvious is when I was working as an artist my responsibility was to my client. That was just one responsibility, that's it, that client in my chair at that moment, and maybe five for the rest of the day, or something like this, but now my responsibility is to everybody that buys my product. So say microblade is one thing, okay, they use it, they throw it away, that's it, I'm only responsible at that end, but then with inks that was a really, really hard decision for me because it lives in that skin so I'm responsible to you, let's say you Sheila, and your celebrity client, her face, her most precious asset. That is a big responsibility, and something I don't take lightly.
That's why I obsess over everything I do, I test it. I flip it upside down, backwards, forwards, every which way, and I run it by, first, my own family, [inaudible 00:42:45] my clients, I see what happens here because with ink, for example, something goes in our body we have to test it over time. This is beyond, let's say FDA testing or safety, or MSDS stuff, this is results in the skin, what you can see, so that is something on a totally different level now.
Sheila Bella:
I'll bet.
Tina Davies:
Yes, and the messaging too, because people, we are more kind of like ... I don't want to say this in a way that sounds boastful, but we're in industry leaders, we have an obligation. We have a fiduciary duty to the artists that follow us, we can't just be like spilling out some, "Oh, I learned this yesterday, I'm teaching it tomorrow." You know what I mean?
Sheila Bella:
Uh-hmm (affirmative). Uh-hmm (affirmative).
Tina Davies:
I don't want to hurt anybody. I want them to do good. I don't want them to do something even they didn't know, that they're not purposely trying to hurt somebody, but what if I have a product that causes someone to have a reaction or just a bad result.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah.
Tina Davies:
You know, and the artist didn't know, they thought, "I thought this was good. I thought this was going to ... this is what you told me, it's going to be brown, or it's going to be black, and now I've got a migration. I've got this issue, or I've got allergic reaction. I've got herpes." So I fret about those things, and so ...
Sheila Bella:
That keeps you up at night.
Tina Davies:
It does, so that's why it's so important that when you develop a product that you have to trust your ... like you would put your children on that, you know?
Sheila Bella:
Absolutely.
Tina Davies:
Yeah.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah, that's a big deal. I didn't think about it that way, maybe that's why I'm not doing inks. It's like, "Oh, yeah, that is really scary." You're famous. You're famous, like your cover. There's people that I do are celebrities who are doing movies, and they're A-listers, and yeah, your inks are on them, right? [Crosstalk 00:44:52].
Tina Davies:
All the stuff that I make I literally developed for my clients, because I love my profession, I love my clients, they're trusting me with their face to do a service. I owe them the best, so I owe them the best to use good tools, to use good inks, and that was always the biggest challenge. I literally have clients that I have seen get married, have babies, many have divorces, I see them year after year, and they are so loyal to me, how could I do something to them that wouldn't be in their best interest?
When they [inaudible 00:45:29] coming to me over all these years, and I've given them, first, eyebrows, then their eyebrows became red eyebrows, then later I put a corrector on it, now I gave them green eyebrows. The next thing you know they've got three colors of eyebrows in their skin, I'm like, "Holy shit, what am I doing to these people?" I have to see them over and over again. I feel so bad, and they're getting made fun of too like, "Mommy, why is your eyebrows looking weird?" I'm like, "Oh, my God, come tomorrow. I am clearing out my day, you come tomorrow." You know what I mean, Sheila?
Sheila Bella:
I do.
Tina Davies:
That happens.
Sheila Bella:
I do. That's a lot of pressure. That's crazy. My next question for you is what do you think is lacking in people who give up on this trade? Who thinks it's too hard, because I see a high dropout rate actually, like they'll get their certification and then they'll not be working, or they'll give up. What is lacking?
Tina Davies:
I guess it must be grit and determination because-
Sheila Bella:
Grit and determination.
Tina Davies:
Permanent makeup, it's not a hobby or kind of like it's a side ... I mean, it's a side hustle because no one starts full-time. No one starts full-time, but you need to approach it like you're approaching any career or a job. You know you approach a job you have to show up, your A game has to be there, you get your paycheck every two weeks, people show up. But when all of a sudden when people started working for themselves [inaudible 00:47:04], "Oh, you know, well, not today. I couldn't practice today because I had so many things going on in my life." Just practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. You can't be like, "Oh, you know, I got sick." You just have to be committed to now you are your own boss, you don't get paid unless you work, so you need to take it really seriously. I know people that pay, they take a class, they're not practicing like, "What are you doing then?"
Sheila Bella:
Yeah, they waste so much money.
Tina Davies:
They waste. They waste, and it's ... just like if I sign up for an exercise program, if that exercise program cost me $3000 I'm going to be doing the diet, I'm going to be doing the exercise, but I don't know why people don't even give value in their own initial commitment. Then we tell them all the things that you need to do, "Girl, go practice. Build your portfolio. Call customers. Solicit people." If you want to do it by DM, sorry, social media, if you want to go knocking on doors, hand out your business cards. It's kind of like, "Have you passed out your business cards?" "No." "Have you contacted the top 10 spas in your neighborhood?" "No, but I have put pictures on Instagram." You've got to hit all the channels, you can't be afraid to do things. I think the biggest thing that holds people back is the fear, it is the fear of failure.
So if they dropout it's just not for them, they're not hungry enough. They have to be hungry, but if you had, literally, if you had no place, if you were getting kicked out of your house, and you weren't getting any support from your family, you'd be hungry. You'd be working. People just aren't hungry enough, so that's why I say it's grit.
Sheila Bella:
People are comfortable.
Tina Davies:
They're too comfortable. They're too comfortable.
Sheila Bella:
You got to burn the boat, as I always say.
Tina Davies:
Totally. Don't complain when you have a $1,000 phone in your hand.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah, which by the way is 90% of what you need to build a six-figure business, it's your phone. You don't need a fancy camera or anything like that, you just need your phone.
Tina Davies:
Yeah.
Sheila Bella:
I'm like, "Do what it takes," like you recommend go out there, and put your face on camera, tell people how you bring value, show them, don't tell them, show them.
Tina Davies:
Show them.
Sheila Bella:
Be there.
Tina Davies:
Yeah.
Sheila Bella:
Go networking, show up. It's funny because I think it's really easy to make it these days, in whatever you want to make it, and it's never been easier, but it's also never been harder. It's both. You know what I mean? Because with social media now you can be anything, you can promote anything, like Tina Davies, you can sell butt cream tomorrow, and it would fly off the shelves because you put in the work. You have a strong personal brand, right? That's what I mean by easy, everyone has a platform or an opportunity to build a platform, but you do have to show up now in a different capacity that ever before. You can't just buy an ad in the yellow pages, remember that?
Tina Davies:
Wait for the phone to ring, [crosstalk 00:50:23], no, no, no, no, no.
Sheila Bella:
Remember that? Oh, man, so my parents have been entrepreneurs their whole lives, and so I remember when they did that, and it was effective.
Tina Davies:
No one looks at those, maybe they're boosters for kids that are too short to sit up on the dining table.
Sheila Bella:
That's true, it's just, "Here, sit in a phone book." So what else do you think is lacking in people who give up? Do you think that maybe permanent makeup is too hard, and it takes too long? Maybe people aren't prepared for that reality that, "Yeah, you're not going to be good right away no matter how good your training was. You're not going to be as good as your trainer right away."
Tina Davies:
The thing is too, is that people have to be prepared, you have to have the right type of attitude. It's because doing a tattoo on someone's face is scary, it's really freaking scary so if you have a very timid personality this is not for you. You know what I mean? It's not for you. It's a huge responsibility. There is blood coming out, you know? It's like doing microsurgery.
Sheila Bella:
It is surgery.
Tina Davies:
Right.
Sheila Bella:
It's great to be educated.
Tina Davies:
Yeah, so, I mean, a lot of people think, and this is not their fault, they think, "Oh, look, just draw some stuff with this little pencil-looking tool, that's like drawing your eyebrows." It's not that easy, so if you're going to do it be prepared that, "You know what, I'm going to go." I'm not going to say I'm scared of blood or I'm scared of something, you have to go in there with, "I'm going to attempt this. I'm going to jump off this cliff into this deep pool." It's not that easy, but if you just keep doing it over and over again, guess what? It gets easier.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah, and it's making yourself do it over and over again. I think adulthood in general is just reparenting yourself, because nobody is going to tell you, "Hey, practice right now." Moms are tired, she's in Bali with dad, so you have to tell yourself that. I think the biggest thing that I see lacking is people don't understand that success, as cliché as this sound, is success is a habit, like if you're going to get good at microblading you have to have the habit of microblading every single day. It needs to be like brushing your teeth, doing it at the same time, at the same place, committing to doing it everyday for 30 minutes, an hour, or whatever it is. They don't understand that that's a fundamental thing. It's a repeatable process. If you have a repeatable process that you repeat everyday, that you know is going to bring about a certain type of result then you implement it into your routine. I'm a big fan of routines as you can see.
Tina Davies:
Absolutely, and if you know that this is not your strong suit, so let's say part of this key to success is, for example calling your clients, following up, for example, if you can't do it, hire someone to do that part. The stuff that you hate, you're like, "I hate sit-ups," ab workout is not for you, find something that you like so then it's not so ... it doesn't taste so bad when you do it, because it's really hard to do something that you don't enjoy.
Sheila Bella:
True. True. But in the beginning it might be a part of it if you can't afford to hire someone right away.
Tina Davies:
Yeah, so literally you have to be the jack of all trades unless you can afford to give away part of your earnings to someone else, especially if you have a lot of free time, right?
Sheila Bella:
Yeah.
Tina Davies:
You're admin assistant. You're the microblader. You are the social media person behind the scenes. You wear all of those hats.
Sheila Bella:
Now you have a whole team, but did you ever have to do that, where you were everything?
Tina Davies:
Yes, of course, every job that everyone did here I've done, so when they complain it's hard I'm like, "I've been there, girl. I've done that job."
Sheila Bella:
I do that too.
Tina Davies:
I know what that's like.
Sheila Bella:
It's true.
Tina Davies:
I know-
Sheila Bella:
I think that's ... that's a good leader.
Tina Davies:
That's the great part, is if you've done something yourself, and you've shared this with me, Sheila, is that your mom says to you, you say it.
Sheila Bella:
My mom used to tell me ... I used to ask my mom like, "Why do I have to clean up? Why do I have to learn how to clean the bathroom if," because in the Philippines we had help, right? We had househelp, and I was like, "Why do I have to learn how to clean the bathroom if Ate Annabel is just going to do it?" She said, "So you know if she's doing it right." That's what-
Tina Davies:
That's exactly it.
Sheila Bella:
That's what her answer was to me even as a child. I'm like, "Oh, okay." I didn't know she was setting me up for this job that I have now, and so now I know everybody's job.
Tina Davies:
Right, and you know what ... well, you'll know at least what the basics are.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah, I think 60%.
Tina Davies:
Yeah, and then of course they have their expertise, and take it to another level, but you know the ins and outs, and nothing gets by you.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah, so you don't get ripped off by all these social media people who say they'll handle your social for you, and then they'll charge you thousands of dollars a month, and then you ... I see all these mistakes that people make I'm like, "You paid how much for what?"
Tina Davies:
They don't know better, right?
Sheila Bella:
They don't so I think it's your responsibility to be informed in every job that your staff does, or anyone you hire, you should at least know, know it at least 60%.
Tina Davies:
Yeah, for sure, and there's so much information out there you can find out.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah, School of Google.
Tina Davies:
That's right.
Sheila Bella:
That's true. My second to last question.
Tina Davies:
Yeah.
Sheila Bella:
Okay, so you're going to be speaking at the Pretty Ambitious Summit, can you share a little bit about your topic, and what you want to leave people feeling, or knowing after you get off stage?
Tina Davies:
So my topic is how to develop products, innovative products with integrity. I want people to have a glimpse into what it's like, because maybe if they have a knack for it, it's something that they can get into, and also to show them what are the steps that it takes, or what I did. Nobody showed me how to do this, but I had a certain way that I like to do things, so then the products became successful.
Sheila Bella:
No one showed you how to do it, so you are the perfect example of somebody who started messy, not knowing anything, and then you figured it out.
Tina Davies:
That's my thing, I just figure things out, not in a boastful way, but that's what I like to do. Even if someone said, "This is how you do it," I'm like, "I'm going to go do it this way just because I want to be sure. I'm going to clean the bathroom my way so I know how to do it." It's my natural curiosity, and so that's what I think makes great products, is when you do it with passion, and purpose, and you solve for probably needs of not only yourself, but a lot of people, we have the same needs, permanent makeup artists, we have the same needs, right?
Sheila Bella:
Yeah.
Tina Davies:
So when you solve that problem with those needs, and people have those similar needs you've got a winner. You've got a winner. You don't just make something for the sake of making something. You make something that's close to your heart.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah.
Tina Davies:
Right?
Sheila Bella:
You turned your mission into your business. You don't create a business, you create a mission, and make that your business, I think that's how it goes.
Tina Davies:
Exactly. Exactly. So another thing is I want to connect with all the girls there, I love connecting with the artists. The thing is, what you were talking about, Sheila, is we're talking about how people don't see the struggles, and they see, "Oh, well, successful people. Oh, my God, look at them now. They have so many followers," and stuff like that, or they have instant credibility, it's because they showed up every time. They're working nights, and they're working weekends, and they're squeezing every last bit of juice out of themselves. The girls that I see at conferences, the girls that I see over and over again are literally the same people I rose up with.
We are there because we went away for the weekend, we didn't make any money that weekend, we prepared a presentation for six months. We didn't just say, "I don't feel like it, and I have this thing going on, and I've had my health issue." We said, "It doesn't matter what's going on, you separate your business, and your personal life. You take care of things separately." That is just the way that you just get stuff done. You can't let those things interfere with, let's say a promise, like I promised you I'm going to be there. I promised you I'm going to make a presentation. I promised my client I'm going to do their tattoo. I can't be calling in sick, not preparing. You've got to be prepared. Put your stuff aside. No one wants to hear about your problems, and then you act like a professional.
Sheila Bella:
Agree.
Tina Davies:
Right?
Sheila Bella:
100%, yeah, put your ... Don't be too ... Don't romanticize it. You know, you took me to my first permanent makeup conference, the Eyebrow Festival.
Tina Davies:
Amazing, right?
Sheila Bella:
Yeah, and you know how I always say that live events are so transformative, so I learned a lot of technique there, but I think the biggest thing that I got from that wasn't something that I implement right away. It changed me, that's why I say transformative, it changed me to think bigger like, "Oh, this is possible. This Eyebrow Festival in Rotterdam, this is possible." I think that's why I wanted to put on my event, was from that first one that you took me to years ago.
Tina Davies:
You know now you have to do that event every year, right?
Sheila Bella:
Yes, I know that.
Tina Davies:
It's a commitment now.
Sheila Bella:
It is a commitment.
Tina Davies:
People are going to be like, "Where is the next PAS? When is it happening?"
Sheila Bella:
It's happening 2021, either February or March, we're already looking at venues.
Tina Davies:
Really? Okay.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah, it's true.
Tina Davies:
Perfect. Perfect. The love, and the support, and the bonding that comes out there, it's nothing that you can replace, nothing-
Sheila Bella:
You really can't, yeah.
Tina Davies:
The girls that are going there, that are planning to, you're going to see those same girls rise up, and that's why I'm excited to see that generation. I know the generation of the predecessors that came before me, they're not as, as you say visible on social.
Sheila Bella:
Yes.
Tina Davies:
I see the girls that are in the now, but I'm looking forward at meeting the new generation. I'm really looking forward to meeting that new generation, and that's what is great about the event, and also great about your new venture into AAM because you're bringing the new gen in, where they're like they only know maybe learning online, or connecting online. They don't understand the value of the, let's say a close membership, a live event.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah, I hear you, and I was thinking about that too. There will be a new wave of industry leaders, I see them coming, and maybe it's you listening to this right now. I'm sure a lot of them will be coming to the summit too, because they're the kind of people that jump, that will invest, that want to try something new, that are passionate about this career. So yeah, I can't wait to meet them too. I see a lot of people creating things for the industry as a whole, in a more modern way, like there's more podcasts now, people are creating content, I'm really excited for our industry. I mean, it's now mainstream, yey, congratulations, everyone.
Tina Davies:
I know.
Sheila Bella:
It's so cool. Yeah, I feel like we all deserve a pat on the back for that, so pat yourself on the back. We are now mainstream, and it's going to be even more so.
Tina Davies:
Well, even more reason to literally level up. It's mainstream. It's competitive. You've got to be a professional all the way around, and that means showing your audience you go to events.
Sheila Bella:
Yes. Yes.
Tina Davies:
Okay, you're participating, next thing you know you're a speaker, you know what I mean?
Sheila Bella:
That is, that is how it is, yeah, you participate, and then you get to know the organizers, and then the following year you're a speaker, or you network with people. The networking thing in the permanent makeup world is so important. It's so important, and collaboration is the only way to grow now.
Tina Davies:
Who's going to collaborate with you if they don't see your face?
Sheila Bella:
It's true.
Tina Davies:
Face to face, the people I have [inaudible 01:03:44], the people I collaborate with them is people that I've met face to face, and I trust them, because I know that ... and I see them over and over again.
Sheila Bella:
Yes.
Tina Davies:
That's the way you do good, old networking, man, like invest.
Sheila Bella:
That does not change.
Tina Davies:
Grow up.
Sheila Bella:
That doesn't change.
Tina Davies:
No.
Sheila Bella:
I love you, Tina Davies.
Tina Davies:
Sheila, okay, I remember this, we went to Eyebrow Festival, right?
Sheila Bella:
Uh-huh (affirmative).
Tina Davies:
You came all the way. I flew because I was a speaker. Okay, fine, I'm there anyways. I was like, "Sheila, come with me." I told lots of people, "Come with me. Come with me. Come with me." Only a few people came.
Sheila Bella:
I just-
Tina Davies:
[Inaudible 01:04:26], right?
Sheila Bella:
Yeah. I think I was ... yeah, I was back in the Scadlock house in Bel-Air, and then I remember you told me, and right away I booked it within the next two days like, "Yes, yes," definitive yes. I told my family I'm like, "I'm going to this thing. I don't know what it is, but I'm going." "Oh, what? It's thousands of dollars." "Okay, I'm going." Tina [inaudible 01:04:56].
Tina Davies:
Then you brought your husband, so-
Sheila Bella:
I did.
Tina Davies:
Both of you, and then so I see you, and then you're there, and then of course we're building a connection, we're having the experience together, and then a business opportunity drops on my lap I'm like, "Sheila." Then another thing I'm like, "Sheila. Sheila for the speaking event. Sheila for this." That's how it comes up, that's how it develops. I see you over and over again so I know like, "If I recommend her she's going to show up. She's going to be there. She's not going to let me down."
Sheila Bella:
Thank you.
Tina Davies:
And make me look bad, right?
Sheila Bella:
Thank you.
Tina Davies:
I can't say, "Okay, I'm going to recommend this speaker," that who knows is going to disappear. I don't want that to happen.
Sheila Bella:
Thank you. I'm so grateful to you, and I always ... Whenever I see you I thank you for seeing me. It's a huge gift, it really is, and it-
Tina Davies:
No, it's you. It's you.
Sheila Bella:
It's one of the greatest gifts someone else can give to another human being, is just acknowledging them like, "Oh, you exist." "Oh, thank you." Just all your efforts too.
Tina Davies:
Well, a lot of people don't know this, but you were a student in my class five years ago when I taught the first microblading class. There was over the course of many days we had two sessions, we had 60 people, 60 people and you were ... I would say you're probably one of the most successful girls out of all those people. This is way back, way back before you were like-
Sheila Bella:
More like six years ago. Yeah, before this was more mainstream now, and I remember-
Tina Davies:
Pregnant.
Sheila Bella:
I was super pregnant. I remember-
Tina Davies:
Again, in my next class so pregnant. You're always pregnant.
Sheila Bella:
Why is that? Don't have another class, Tina.
Tina Davies:
Well, we know how that happened, Sheila.
Sheila Bella:
Oh, man. You know, it's so funny, every time I went to your classes or anything like that, especially early in my career, all I wanted to do was to blend in. I didn't want to stand out. I'm like, "Please, don't see me," because I was so afraid of judgment. I was afraid of getting involved in anything that mattered, because I was afraid of controversy, and then now I'm like, "Bring it. Let's do it. Go, bring it." So it's so crazy how my mindset has changed since then. I really was terrified of it, of people looking at me.
Tina Davies:
It's so funny that now that you've been through it, you've built your business, and you've gone through those challenges, literally just running through that door, that you just have to do it, and you're like now you have so much to give others, and I love that. I love that.
Sheila Bella:
Thank you. Thank you.
Tina Davies:
It's true.
Sheila Bella:
It didn't come without a price, for sure. Out of our greatest pain that's where the real wisdom is, that's where-
Tina Davies:
The hard stuff. The hard stuff.
Sheila Bella:
It really is, [crosstalk 01:08:08], why is it setup like that?
Tina Davies:
It really is, and the stuff that I'm doing now, I know from the outside it looks like it's all put together, it's the hardest thing I've ever done. This is the hardest thing. I can do permanent makeup, I could run that business in my sleep, that's on autopilot.
Sheila Bella:
True.
Tina Davies:
Your client book up, they book, they booked a year ago. I literally just go, "Okay," I look at my roster, I've got a full day, and I'm like a robot I just do the procedures, but running Tina Davies Professional, the products, making sure I give you guys the right information, I check over every little piece of everything. That's the hardest thing I've ever done because of the weight of the responsibility, and also I work with a lot of people, so we have to make sure all that relationship meshes together, teamwork. Before it's just me and the client, one to one, open the door, close the door, now it's like meetings, meetings, meetings.
Sheila Bella:
This is harder, yeah, that's for sure.
Tina Davies:
It's tons harder.
Sheila Bella:
What makes it worth it for you?
Tina Davies:
Let's see, the feedback. The feedback, absolutely, and knowing that what ... I've enabled people to earn an income, to do great services, because this business, when you do permanent makeup you make a career out of your hands. It's not like you sell something, you're selling a service, and you made that with art, I think that's amazing that somebody could do that. I love knowing that I've helped to facilitate women in their financial, hopefully financial independence.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah, I love that, and I can so relate. Okay, before we sign off, give us one, you've answered this question before so maybe it's the same, give us one piece of advice for how to live your prettiest, and richest life.
Tina Davies:
Well, at this point for me, is to really cherish the people around me. There's just a lot of noise, and distractions when you run a business, don't forget about your partner, your kids, and the people that work for you because right now, I have to admit this, I give them my leftovers. It's like everyone's busy doing du-du-du-du-du, and then at the end of night, "Okay, kiss goodnight."
Sheila Bella:
Relatable. Very relatable.
Tina Davies:
I'm trying to change that. I'm really trying to work on that, because it requires you to have appreciation, empathy, and you have to be in the moment, and it's so hard [crosstalk 01:10:54] because we're on our phones. We're on our phones all the time. We're literally doing things half-distracted 90% of the time, and I want to ... that's why ... You know what I've done? Maybe you people have noticed this, or haven't noticed this, I've come off my personal social media posting a lot, because it was eating into my personal relationships.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah, that's ... Just when I thought I couldn't love you anymore, you give me something that's challenging you that's relatable, so yes, totally agree, I'm on the same boat. Thank you for humanizing that problem, that I think a lot of people can relate to.
Tina Davies:
Everybody has it now.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah, being in the moment, but I hear you when you say building a business, and entrepreneurship, there is a lot of noise, there's noise, it's so loud, and you just need to turn it down, and shut it off. That's why I am a big fan of camping now, and now that's public. I told my husband, he's going to do it more, and just getting quiet, so thank you. I love you so much. Tell us before we sign off, what are you currently working on, and where can our listeners find you.
Tina Davies:
I'm currently working on a lip product, a really special innovative lip product, that you guys have never seen before. I know currently there's been some post, and some leaks about it, but it will make your worklife a lot easier. I have some other things that are makeup-related, because I love beauty too, so that's coming up. You'll be seeing some stuff, and learning, I know you guys want to learn, so I'm going to help you learn better. I have that in the works.
Sheila Bella:
Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much, Tina Davies, and to all of you guys, see you later. Bye.
Tina Davies:
Bye, guys.
Sheila Bella:
Grey, say, "Share with your friends."
Grey:
Share with friends.
Sheila Bella:
Please review my mommy on iTunes.
Grey:
[Inaudible 01:13:10] mommy iTunes.
Sheila Bella:
Thanks for listening.
Grey:
Thank you for listening
Sheila Bella:
Thank you so much for listening. It is an honor to be a part of your life. If you enjoyed this podcast, or you're impacted by this at all, please take a minute to leave us a five star review on iTunes, and share it with a friend, screenshot it, post it on your stories or feed, your timeline, and don't forget to tag me. I would really love to see that, my Instagram is @realsheilabella. Also, let's carry on the conversation longer, join our private Facebook Group just for pretty rich girls, just go to facebook.com/prettyrichsquad, and check out sheilabella.com for more information on how to get more support on your beauty entrepreneurship journey, and get going on your pretty rich lifestyle, until next time.
