While it’s inspiring to read high level summaries of success stories, we think it’s just as important to learn about what drove the success and made it possible. We’ve asked some of the brightest folks we know to open up about what they believe was the most important factor behind their success.

Nakita Gutierrez | Medical Aesthetician & Nursing Student

My goals as an esthetician are very different from most, in the sense that for the majority of my clients it’s about giving them results so that they dont need to keep coming back to me. I know this is frowned upon by most from a business perspective but listen, in reality facials are a luxury not a necessity. There are people that have gone their entire lives without a facial and come to see me when they’re 60 years old and for most, not all, look pretty good. Read more>>

Diane Makish | Cosmetic tattoo artist

The most important factor I would contribute to my success is taking the time and practice it takes to get there. Not expecting it over night. Slow and steady wins the race. A good practitioner will be more interested in the craft than the financial gain when they embark on a creative career. Read more>>

Kathleen Pagan | CEO & Founder, Endlessly Elated

Two words – My customer. I nurtured my customers well before I ever asked them to do anything for us. I didn’t sit in a glass tower pouring over competitive landscape reports and market research data without their voice. After all, market research is a this or that conversation. It’s not an open dialogue. A subject is given something to look at and provide an opinion, but what’s often lost is that the opinion is between the choices and not necessarily indicative of their utopia. So, I went against the naysayers. Opened social media accounts, created a temporary website, and so on well before I ever had a product in mind. Read more>>

Natalia Dalton | Co-founder of Saucy Lips Foods

I believe that to have a successful brand you need to be your brand’s biggest fan and create the best version of your product. We created products our family loves and can’t live without. Our products are essential to our everyday cooking and they make our lives easier. Our sauces have not only have incredible flavor profiles, but also are made with clean ingredients and all the good stuff we would feed our own family. Read more>>