Dionne Holley

The best career advice that I have ever received is, do your own thing and stay in your own lane. We are in the times of social media, where everyone tends to see the same thing. That was one of the things that really was brought to my attention, that I had so many ideas. This mind is always working of mine. And so, if I don't see something, I need to be the change that I see in the industry. Being the change that you want to see in your industry. If you don't see it, then be it. If you don't see certain things being implemented, if you don't see beauty professionals that are talking about how to take care of ourselves so that we can sustain success, then I need to be that voice. We have a lot of beauty professionals and entrepreneurs, but we're always pushing for how to make six figures and how to scale and keep customers coming back, but we never truly talk about how to take care of ourselves so that we can sustain that. We have that booked and busy culture, but we don't hear enough beauty professionals talking about us as service providers in the beauty industry. If we are taking care of other people, how are we taking care of ourselves? Are we practicing what we are preaching? That was a change that I am implementing more so now in my industry, because I don't see it enough, and I don't hear it enough. Because that's what's going to lead to the money. That's what's going to lead to more success and more money is if I am showing up as my best, and that means taking time off, that means exercising more, that means eating better. Pouring into ourselves and really taking care of ourselves, because our clients can feel it and they can see it.

In the beauty industry, you have to first like people. You have to want to help people. You're going to have people from all walks of life coming to you. I've had women that have experienced abuse, and I've been able to not only work with them medically but also give them makeup tips to help them as they heal. You have to be able to have that care in you for people, first and foremost. You have to have a passion for it, and you have to love people and want to be able to help people. Once you have that, you can be trained to do anything, but having a passion to want to help people with their concerns and skin treatments, having that patience and that love of people, that's where you're going to go far. People can feel that, instead of feeling like they're just a number. Make sure that you are doing what you love and that you're passionate about.

I would say the biggest challenges are clients wanting a quick fix, and also so many unethical practices that will be done to achieve that, not thinking long-term. I can say that whenever you go to Dionne Holley Skincare, I am skin health driven. We are driven by ethics over here. I'm not money hungry. I'm not going to recommend something for you just because it is one of my high-ticket treatments. It's because your skin needs it. In this industry, we have so many malpractice concerns, which is why we are seeing so many practices going viral because they are looking at the money. Let's just be honest, everyone wants to look good, and no matter how the economy is, everybody is willing to do whatever it takes to pay top dollar to look good. In the beauty industry, there's a lot of people that tend to take advantage of that. They will move in a way that is unethical, and they will take advantage of the fact that this person is willing to risk it all and pay whatever to be able to get this chemical peel or treatment. As a result of that, the next thing you know, that company's going viral because they were talked into receiving something that they should not have received. That's why I focus on skin health and barrier first, skin barrier first. There are some people I've had to turn away. They will come to me and they want a chemical peel, and I tell them, your skin is not ready, your skin is too sensitive, your skin is too inflamed. And they say, well, someone else told me I can get it. Well, I apologize, I can't do that. And that's a large part of why my reputation has been so great in the industry. And that's why I named everything after me.