QUITTING MY 6 FIGURE BRIDAL BUSINESS; my journey into bridal hair (dumpster fire to 6 figures)

I am no longer taking weddings, and we gotta talk about it. So let's take it back to the beginning, and I'm talking about a way back, like how I got into the hair industry and why I'm no longer taking weddings. It was something that was planned. So I just want to give you guys the full view of how I got into the bridal industry and now why I'm leaving the bridal hair industry. So at a very young age, I was always somebody who knew I wanted to do hair. I wasn't the person who. Who didn't know what I wanted to do when I got out of high school or when I got out of middle school. So way back, I vividly remember putting every single butterfly clip available in my hair and showing up to school. And I remember in seventh grade, I won best hair. And I was like, set, I'm going to cosmetology school. So I went to cosmetology school, always with the intention that I was gonna work at a salon. And I worked at a salon for five years, and I moved on to multiple different sal. And after my fourth failed salon attempt, I sat my bosses down and I put in my two weeks. And my boss at the time was like, what are you doing? And I was like, I'm gonna go work at a corporate job. I got a job down in Center City Philadelphia, and I was going to be doing medical billing, and I was going to be working the nine to five corporate girly vibes. And my boss was like, you gotta do what you love, man. You gotta do what you love. The biggest thing in the hair industry. And I was like, I remember after that conversation, sitting in my car and telling myself, replaying what she was saying to me, gotta do what you love. And I was like, the fact was, what I love wasn't bringing me in any income. So I had to leave. I had to go with something that was more safe and secure. And I went into medical billing after believing that this is who I was meant to be. I was meant to be a hairstylist. I felt so disappointed in myself that I wasn't able to make it a financial success for myself. And because I was always stuck shampooing, I was never able to level up and get the assistant role. I was never able to build a book. And it made me really sad and it made me really angry. And at the time, I had moved out of my house, and it was the very first time that I was living on my own, so I wasn't able to financially support myself. Shampooing anymore. And I didn't see myself going anywhere as a colorist. And I was 23 at the time and I thought, if I'm not making it as a colorist, I don't deserve to be a hairstylist. I don't deserve, deserve to be in this industry. So peace out, I'm gonna go into another industry. So that's when my journey at my 9 to 5 began. And I worked at behind a desk every single day. I would get on a train at 4:30 in the morning. I would go down to Center City and I would sit behind a desk for about eight hours and I want to get home until 4:35pm at night. And I did this for about five years now. That was when one of my friends had asked me a simple favor that actually changed my life. And so at the time, my salon friend knew that I wasn't working in the salon anymore. So I had my Saturdays open. She had just started working for a wedding hair and makeup team and they needed help on a wedding. So she asked me the simple favor of helping out on that wedding day. And I was like, sure, I love doing updos. I was always the one in salons that loved doing updos. Everyone else was a color girl and I love doing the updos. So, so I went and I helped her on this wedding. And it was down in Center City. We were working at the Ritz Carlton. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. It was very new at the time. This was 2013, so it wasn't a big thing to be in the bridal world, the wedding industry for hairstylists and makeup artists. You were still getting ready in salon. So I was like, wait a minute, we're going to their hotel. We're going to the Ritz Carlton. This is so cool. And I just thought it was the funnest thing in the world that you could go to different places every single day and you weren't stuck behind the chair and it wasn't coloring. And I thought, this is insane. I thought I didn't deserve to be a hairstylist anymore, but I can do hair and it's not color. And I felt so passionate about doing updos about being in the bridal world. And it was like a whole new world for me that I didn't even know about. It was like it fell on my doorstep. I had no, no idea this ever even existed. So that started my three year journey of working on a wedding hair and makeup team and getting my footprint in the wedding industry. As a bridal hair stylist and makeup artist. On the weekends I would help out with this wedding hair and makeup team. So they did wedding hair and makeup. So in order to make you more marketable and to do more jobs, you had to do both services. So I did makeup at the time, which I did like, but I wasn't obsessed with it. And then during the week I was still working my medical billing job, slacking away on the keyboard. And then weekends I was working weddings. So I was working pretty much seven days a week for about five years straight. And that's when the blizzard bride experience happened. I was working on this wedding hair and makeup team. I thought it was the best thing ever. I loved working on the team. And then it was a major blizzard, about 26 inches of snow outside. And it was the first and only time where I couldn't make it to a wedding. We're not gonna get teary eyed. I still get upset talking about it. We're not gonna get teary eyed and cry about it. But I couldn't make it to her wedding because there was 26 inches of snow outside. And my boss at the time got herself a hotel room but she wouldn't pay for anyone else. And it was another time in my life where I didn't have the finances to do something that I needed to do because I didn't have the money to buy a hotel room. So I wasn't able to show up. And I also wasn't able to get my car out. So. So I wasn't able to go to that wedding. And I cried for weeks straight and I beat myself up so much over it. Like I still get upset at myself today. I'm like, I could have. But the bride still had a stylist come. One of my friends. She's amazing. She made it to the wedding cuz she lived closer. She was able to take public transportation but everything was shut down. We're not going to beat ourself up over that again. Okay, that's done. And dust it. But after that situation, I realized I have such a passion for my brides. I have such a passion for working in this industry, but working on this team, our values are different. And I just couldn't put myself through another one of those situations. So that's when I decided to start my own company. And I was already doing bridal hair and makeup. So I started my own business and it was called Pretty on arrival. So in 2016, that's when I started my business and I stopped working for wedding Teams and through my lunch breaks, working at my 9 to 5 is when I would build out my contract. I would create my website. Every single morning. I would be posting on Instagram, on social media. When I was on the train, I would be responding to comments. Sometimes I would go into the bathroom and take long breaks and I would be responding to comments. And I would just try anything to start building my business now. I always had known in my heart that this is what I wanted to do and that I would be leaving my 9 to 5. I knew I wasn't going to stay at my 9 to 5 corporate job forever. There was an expiration date, but it was just about taking those steps to actually leave. So one of the things that I did, it was 2017 and I had just bought a house with my ex at the time. And we had this amazing basement that I was redoing and making into a little studio. It had its own private entrance and I just loved it. It was small, it was a basement. I was making it into a studio. And my whole goal was to, now that I have this, to leave my nine to five. So I'm telling my ex at the time that that's what I wanted to do. My ex had told me that we just bought a house. We have bills to pay. You can't quit your job. We like we have to pay the bills. Basically telling me, stay at your 9 to 5. You don't know if your bridal business makes money. Are you someone who's ever had someone doubt you that told you whatever your dream or your goal was, that it's not going to be possible or that you can't make it happen? That's exactly what it felt like in that moment. So full Saturn return year was in motion and we broke up and I moved out of the house. Now I was starting over and I was alone and I was angry that I was still at my 9 to 5 job and I wasn't doing what I was really passionate about. I was so mad that I would have to turn down weddings on Fridays and Sundays. And then I was just burning myself out because I was working seven days a week. And I was so angry that he had told me that I had to stay at my 9 to 5 to pay bills, that I wouldn't be able to make my bridal business into something where it could pay my bills without having my nine to five. So what that actually did was lit this major fire under me to prove everyone wrong and to prove to myself that I could do it. And this unlocked Me leaving my corporate job July of 2018. So I set a plan in motion and I set a Google Doc where I would write on it every single day. And it had in big letters up at the top. Quitting job July 2018. And July 2018, I quit my corporate job brand it from pretty on arrival to what it was today, which is Marissa Grace artistry. And I was still doing hair and makeup at the time. And I was able to from my weddings on the side. While working my nine to five, I was able to get my own apartment. I had around 8,000 to $10,000 of savings that I could live off of. And I was just living life like I was having fun for the first time without feeling like I needed to work all of the time. I was paying off my cosmetic cosmetology loan and I was working with brides who were my own versus brides who were coming from a team. So I was on this major high that, you know, I was doing it like you thought that I couldn't leave my corporate job. And I was doing it. And then I hit another rock bottom. It was a couple months into leaving my nine to five, and I go out to my car to go to the gym in the morning, and there was a boot on my car. I was like, what is happening? Like, that didn't happen to me in my life. And I was like, okay, I'm not driving anywhere. So there was a note. So I go upstairs, I open the note, and I had fourteen hundred dollars worth of unpaid parking tickets that I had zero idea about. And it was from a parking ticket that was like 10 years earlier that I just never paid. And it just accumulated all this interest. So in order to get the boot off my car, I owed $1,400. Now we're a couple months into me not working, and we're going into like slow season at this point. So my weddings, I wasn't working that many weddings, and I didn't have that many bookings in the year ahead. So I didn't have deposits coming in. And I was really just living off of my savings at that point. And if I had paid the fourteen hundred dollars, I would have basically been like at zero dollars. A full, full panic attack, is sued at my kitchen table in my own apartment. And I just remember feeling like, oh my God, I. I couldn't do it. I should go back to my nine to five. So have you ever been so down on your financial luck that you're like, I'll do anything just to, like, get ahead an idea came to me. I still had a 401k open from my 9 to 5 job, and it had about $10,000 in it. So I decided to cash out my 401k so that I could pay to get my car booted or get it unbooted. And I remember, like, oh my God, my mom would be so disappointed in me. But, like, there was no way I was going to my mom and asking her for money. That was like an option. However, like, I, I wouldn't make it an option. Like, I was like, my biggest fear is that, like, I have to ask my mom for money to help me out. So instead I was like, I'm gonna figure it out. So I cash out my 401k around like 8,000, $10,000, something like that, after the taxes came out and the money actually hit my bank account pretty quick. So because I knew that like, my. I felt this like wave of embarrassment flood over me of like, wow, you cashed out your 401k so you car unbooted. Like, I felt so embarrassed and I felt so ashamed to like, even call my mom because my mom, my parents would be like, that wasn't financially smart. So I didn't tell them. But in my mind, I knew I had to make it worth it. I knew that, like, yes, I was paying to get my car unbooted at the time. And yes, now I have more money to keep myself afloat. However, with this money, I'm going to invest it back into myself and I'm going to invest it back into my business. So it was the very first time I that I had a chunk of money that I invested into my business. And what I decided to do was like, okay, take education now. At the time, again, this is 2018, there wasn't anything online course wise. So everything I knew was in person. And it was in person hair classes. So there was like three hitters in our industry at the time who are still really big right now. And again, I was doing hair and makeup. So I wanted to take makeup classes and I wanted to take hair classes. So I signed up for a hair class in New York with Emma Chen. For makeup, I signed up for a hair class with Tanya Stylus in New York, and I also signed up for a hair class with Yolanya Aster in North Jersey. So that totaled about like 1600 ish dollars, like 16 to 2000 dollars to go and see them in person. Now when you're doing an in person class, it was, you pay for the ticket and then you're not getting any education education for like a couple months from now. But I knew that it would help me financially and help me to make big steps in my business. Even though I was giving it my all a few months in, I kept hearing the same things, like, how's your little business going? You know, slow season coming up, shouldn't you be getting more bookings in? How much money are you making with your weddings? Do you think about going back to your nine to five during the slow season in the winter months, AKA have a backup because you're betting on yourself and you don't know this is gonna work. And that's when I needed to take another bet on myself because fast forward, covet hits and all of my weddings cancel. And it was devastating. I again was in another situation where financially I didn't feel secure because weddings at that time were still not coming in. I was only making like, Profit wise, about $20,000 a year in my bridal business for the past couple years. So from 2016 to 2020, it was like 20k a year. 20k a year. 20k wasn't making money. So when Covid hit and all my weddings are canceling, I had had my year set up to work about 40 weddings, and I was jobless and incomeless for about five to six months. And it was my absolute worst fear nightmare coming true. Like, have you ever had like a financial nightmare come true where you're in it again and you're like, oh, what do I do to get out of this one? So I took myself on a hot girl walk. And on this hot girl walk, I was rehearsing in my head what I would email my old boss to take me back. Because with COVID you are allowed to work from home, but you're not allowed to work, you know, with people. Couldn't do hair on the side or anything like that. It was like, quote unquote illegal. You weren't allowed to do that. But I could work from home at a laptop. So I'm rehearsing what I could email to her and like, beg her to take my job back. As I'm doing that, halfway through my walk, I just got so angry. I was like, here I am again. Like, my job is an absolute dumpster fire. I really thought I was gonna prove everybody wrong. I really thought I was gonna prove to myself that I can make my bridal business something. And I felt like I was doing everything. I felt like I was taking the hair classes, I was taking the makeup classes. But what I didn't have Available to me was business classes. Like, I was taking all the steps that other successful people in my industry were doing. I had cashed out my 401k to do this. And here I am again with damn near $0 in my bank account and allowed to do weddings, no upcoming weddings. And here I am again feeling like a total flop, like a total failure inside of my bridal business. And I was just so angry on that walk because I realized it. It was because I didn't know business. And that made me even more angry because I had been searching high and low for resources of like, how can I learn bridal business? But not just bridal business. Like business for bridal hairstylists and bridal makeup artists. Not a wedding photographer, not a wedding planner. There was stuff out there for them, but there was nothing out there for us. Kept asking myself, why wasn't it working for me? It was working for other people. It seemed like on the outside, but like, why wasn't it working for me? I was just so desperate for answers of, like, how to get rides to find me, how to get more brides to want to work with me, how to raise my rates, how to charge properly, how to make more than $20,000 a year. Because, like, I knew it was possible, but just like, why wasn't it working for me? And that's when my anger lit another fire under me. I was like, at that moment, I had two options. I was take me back to my nine to five and I can peace out. And I can give up on my bridal business. And I can say, you know what, this was just too much for me. I don't want to handle all this risk. I would rather be at a safe and secure job and go back to my desk, right? Or I could say, you know what, I'm gonna actually give it my all and go 1000% into building my bridal business until I am so damn proud of it. And that took me on my social media journey because I chose option two. I chose to not reach back out to my boss. I chose to put everything I had, all my effort, energy that I had, work with what I had to make my bridal business something. And I knew social media was a piece of more brides finding me. So I made sure that I went and learned every single thing about Instagram. Was I posting before? Yes, But I knew I could do it so much better. I wanted to make my content better. I wanted to post specific things that would make a bride want to book with me. And there was no way with this second chance that I was failing again. So with the absolute most nervous shaking hands, I started posting content that was so out of my comfort zone and so out of my norm so I could start getting my brand more awareness, so I could start building my real brand so I could start building demand for my services. I was posting and experimenting and taking a 30 day reels challenge that led to my first 10k followers. And within those first 12 months of turning things around, I actually hit $150,000 inside of my bridal business. I went from earning $20,000 in my bridal business prior and earning only $38,000 in my corporate job to now hitting my first six figures, hitting my first 150k year where I actually was able to take home and profit more than $100,000 after expenses. I was turning away so many brides because they were dying to work with me that my books had over. Not over Books had 100 Br. 1 Singular Year Brides would come into trials and they were like so excited to work with me. Like an excitement that I never felt or heard from before. They were showing me my work instead of something on Pinterest, were showing me stuff from my Instagram. I was averaging 12k months. Four figure weekends became the absolute norm for me and stylists were wanting to take classes with me, stylists were reaching out to take one on one lessons with me. And I didn't even have a studio and this threw me into multiple six figures. Next thing I knew I wasn't fearing slow season coming up. I was like looking forward to it. And 20k months became my norm. My calendar was full with brides booking me out a year in advance. I had to start setting up wait lists because I had so many brides reaching out to me. Within one year I had 1100 brides reach out to me and inquire for services. I had 70 brides sitting on a wait list for me and on January 1st I was able to book for 15 brides in one day. And in January I was for the entire month I was able to book 30 Brides in January. Like my mind was blown. Bridal business had grown to multiple six figures. I had gone from making only $20,000 a year to making $20,000 in a month. And I was so ready to say now I do what I love. I'm able to be the sole provider. I'm able to be having my bills always paid. I'm able, I was just able to buy a half million dollar house with my little bridal business. And I finally feel like I do deserve to be here. I do deserve to be a stylist, even if I'm not a colorist. I was able to make $260,000 in one singular year solo without having a team of other artists doing weddings without me, without running paid ads, without having a wedding wire account, all just by using Instagram. I had grossed over $500,000 in sales in just three years with my bridal business just doing bridal hair, I grew my Instagram to 81,000 followers. I was able to generate over 20 million views on Instagram Reels and 23 million views on TikTok alone. And I've been able to teach hair to over 700 stylists in person and online. And I've been able to teach over 150 hairstylists and makeup artists on bridal education. And so here we are today. Here we are. But I need to take it back to that moment of 2020 when I was on that hot girl walk, when I was so angry that I didn't have any bridal business education. It set the fire under me that maybe I don't have the business worthy of teaching right now, but I'm gonna build it until I'm so damn proud of it, and then I'm gonna build the bridal business business education that I believe we all should have. Because it shouldn't feel this hard. It shouldn't be that hard. It shouldn't take someone five years like it did for me to hit their first six figures. If we had the directions, the steps in place, and the resources, it should be accessible for everybody. And so the past three, four years, that's what I've been doing. Building the bridal business that I'm so proud of and learning things about how to grow my business, how to scale my business solo without needing to have a team like I thought was the one shot of success. Like you need to have a team. It's not. And I've been able to learn so much about building a business so that way, I can finally share it with you. And it's always been my plan to step back from bridal hair. And I actually set up my year to work with less brides so that way I can go and work more on building the programs for bridal business education that I know we need. Which is why I'm finally at the point in my journey where I'm stepping away from working behind the chair and I'm moving forward with my true mission, which is making bridal Business education, so easily accessible, so simple and fun. And in order for me to that I can't juggle two things at once. Because one thing I learned about business, the more you have on your plate, the less time and effort you can give to that one thing to scale it and make it grow. And I just know that my mission is to help you and it's not to keep me behind the chair. Even though we're not going to get emotional again, it does make me sad that I won't be working behind the chair because I genuinely do love my brides. But it takes, takes me away from helping you grow your business. It's a little bit of sadness because I am a little sad to walk away from doing hair. I know that I always have that and I want you to be able to know that growing a skill, you'll always have it to fall back on. So, like, I'm low key crying because, like, I'm so nervous to like, make the jump because this is their leap that I always knew I was going to take. But like, now it's here and it's reality and I'm so grateful to be in a position where I can do this. But I'm also like low key myself because I'm walking away from a multiple six figure bridal hair business that I built and I'm starting a new business and I will miss my brides and I will miss connecting with them, but I just can't wait to help all of you. Okay, let's stop crying on camera. Marissa, something I want you to walk away with, with a piece of my story is the number one thing for me to hit my first six figures was believing that it was possible. And I remember in my journey at that same fork in the road moment, I didn't see anyone in my industry talking about money, transparency, about what they were making. So I had no idea it was possible. I saw it in other career paths, but not ours. I didn't see bridal hair stylist, bridal makeup artists talking about making six six figures and supporting themselves. So I always want to be that person, that voice that lets you know it is possible. And you need to believe in yourself because it can 100% be yours once you give yourself that belief and know that you can achieve it. Your brides are out there waiting for you to show up and I want to help you get visible and I want to help you feel so confident on Instagram that you're turning reviews into bookings. And it's effortless. So cheers to my new journey. And I can't wait to get started on it with you and work on this new journey together. Bye.