What Does Running a Lash Business Actually Look Like?
In one of their most personal episodes yet, Danielle and Ashtyn put themselves in the hot seat. No guests, no product breakdowns. Just two lash entrepreneurs talking honestly about how they got here, what success means to them now versus when they started, and the work behind the work that most clients never see.
This is also the first episode in a new interview format for Behind the Brilliance. Worth tuning in from the beginning.
How They Got Started
Ashtyn always knew she was built for entrepreneurship. "I always knew that I wanted to be like my own business. I knew that I didn't want to work under anybody." Starting young gave her the room to figure things out without the weight of a fully developed career she'd have to walk away from.
Danielle's path looked different. She was on a biology track in college before she found lashing. What she discovered in the process was that she already had what she had been chasing: flexibility, creative work, the ability to show up as herself every day. "I realized I literally already have that. And I can wear whatever I want."
Redefining Success
Both of them talked about how their definition of success has shifted. For Ashtyn, early success looked simple: "Before I was doing lashes, my idea of success was like being rich." It's a straightforward answer, and it's probably the most honest one most people give when they're just starting out.
What replaced it for both of them is harder to define: alignment, freedom, doing work that doesn't drain you. The idea of flowing through life without rigid plans came up more than once.
Danielle: "I think that that's actually the key to life: flowing and just not having high expectations."
The Mindset Behind the Business
One of the most quoted lines from this episode comes from Ashtyn at the 10:41 mark: "Be delusional. Everybody's delusional. Choose your delusion."
It sounds like a joke. It's not. The point is that building a business requires a kind of irrational belief in yourself and your future that logic alone can't always justify. You choose the story you tell yourself about where you're going. Might as well make it a good one.
Danielle goes in a similar direction on financial alignment: "That is literally such a spiritual hack, is to like not worry about it and just believe that you'll be taken care of." For anyone who has white-knuckled their way through a slow booking month, this reframe is worth sitting with.
Specializing vs. Doing Multiple Things
The conversation about specialization is one of the more practical parts of this episode. Ashtyn made a point that doesn't get talked about enough: "Now that I'm focusing on multiple things, I don't get burnt out doing one thing."
The conventional wisdom says specialize. Go deep on one service, become known for it, dominate your niche. And that absolutely works. But for some artists, spreading across multiple services keeps the work interesting and prevents the fatigue that can come from doing the exact same thing every single day. There is not one right answer here, and this episode gives both sides a fair look.
The Invisible Hours
The part of this episode that will hit hardest for working lash artists comes near the end. Danielle puts into words something that often goes unspoken: "When you think about the time you spend on your business, it's so much more than the hour that you provided the service."
The marketing. The DMs. The consultation calls. The education you do to stay current. The content you create so that clients can find you. The emotional labor of holding space for clients' personal conversations during appointments. None of it shows up on an invoice. All of it shows up in your results.
If you have ever felt like you were undercharging for your work, this conversation is worth listening to. Not because it tells you what to charge. But because it helps you see the full picture of what you are actually selling.
Watch the Full Episode
Catch this episode of Behind the Brilliance on YouTube and all podcast platforms.
https://youtu.be/tdN6d-fodH0?si=JBWrBosrohn0PJ7C
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