2025 was a year. This is what we're doing differently in 2026.
In Episode 11 of Behind the Brilliance, Danielle and Ashtyn share the business strategies they're bringing into the new year: not from a place of more hustle, but from a place of more intention. If you're a lash artist or beauty service provider ready to stop running on fumes and start building something sustainable, this one is for you.
Revenue and Capacity: Know Your Numbers Before You Set Your Goals
Most lash artists set income goals based on what they want to make, not on what their schedule can actually support. Before you set a revenue target, calculate how many hours per week you're truly available to work, multiply by your average service ticket, and work backward from there. If the math doesn't add up, something has to change: your rate, your services, or your hours.
Raise Your Price. Raise Your Standards.
As Danielle put it: "If you're going to raise your price, raise your standards as a service provider." A price increase without a corresponding increase in experience, consistency, or professionalism is just a price increase. When clients feel the difference in how they're treated and what they receive, the new rate becomes easy to justify. The goal is to be so good at what you do that the price is the last thing anyone thinks about.
Consistency Is Your Most Underrated Asset
"Everybody can be kind. Not everybody can be consistent." Your skill gets clients in the door. Your consistency keeps them coming back. Consistency in quality, in communication, in how clients feel every single time they sit in your chair. That's what builds a waitlist. Nobody wants to eat at an empty restaurant.
Set Boundaries Before You Need Them
Client boundaries work best when they're established before a problem occurs, not after. Clear policies on cancellations, late arrivals, fill windows, and communication expectations should be part of your onboarding from the first appointment. Teach clients how you work, and the right ones will respect it. The ones who don't will self-select out, which is exactly what you want.
Post with Intention, Not Obligation
Ashtyn's take on social media is simple and worth repeating: don't post just to post. Every piece of content should have a reason behind it: to educate, inspire, sell, or connect. Posting for the sake of having something up dilutes your feed and trains your audience to scroll past you. Fewer, better posts will always outperform more posts with no purpose.
Protect Your Energy. All Year.
Burnout doesn't announce itself. It builds slowly, schedule by schedule, difficult client by difficult client, until one day you don't want to do any of it anymore. Protect your capacity before it collapses. Build rest into your schedule like it's a booking. Detach your emotions from reviews, from difficult clients, from the bad days. "We live on a floating rock," as Ashtyn said. Not everything deserves your energy.
Define What You Want. Then Build Toward It.
"You literally have to be brave enough to define what you want." Not what the industry expects. Not what looks good on paper. What actually works for your life and your goals. Write it down. Make it specific. Then build a business that serves that vision, not the other way around.
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