Esthetician Podcast; Business tips for Beauty professionals

077: How Anianne Owens Grew Her Beauty Brand by Ditching the Rules and Owning Her Aesthetic

• Kari Jo

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What happens when you embrace your true self in business? Ani Owens' remarkable journey from 4,000 to 40,000 Instagram followers in just a few years provides a masterclass in authentic branding and social media growth.

Forget what you've heard about Instagram's algorithm working against you. Ani pulls back the curtain on what actually drives social media success: consistency, authenticity, and embracing what makes you unique. Setting up multiple tripods while working with clients, she's built a content library that ensures she never misses posting - for hundreds of days straight. The key revelation? The algorithm doesn't keep your information forever. After 30 days of inactivity, you're essentially starting over, which is why consistency (even if not daily) matters tremendously.

But the real magic happened when Ani stopped trying to fit the perfect professional mold. "I became like 'I'm Ani, I'm a human being who happens to have these businesses,'" she explains. By sharing both wins and losses, good days and struggles, she created genuine connections that fueled her growth. This philosophy extends to her Gothic-inspired branding - from her hairline "Mourning Hair" (complete with coffin packaging) to her cemetery photoshoots. Rather than trying to appeal to everyone, Ani focused on what made her happy, creating a brand that deeply resonates with her ideal audience.

For beauty professionals struggling with social media, Ani created Content Coven, a membership providing industry-specific content calendars, captions, and strategies. Her approach cuts through generic advice, offering practical solutions tailored specifically for beauty professionals. The philosophy behind everything she creates is clear: authentic branding isn't about appealing to everyone - it's about being so true to yourself that you naturally attract your perfect audience.

Ready to transform your approach to branding and social media? Connect with Ani on Instagram at @anianne.owens. She welcomes DMs and is committed to helping beauty professionals succeed, regardless of budget constraints. Your authentic brand story is waiting to be told.

To learn more about Kari Jo visit: https://www.karijopatterson.com

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Links You May Want to Check out:

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Krystal:

Working with Kari Jo Patterson over the last six months in her VIP program has been an absolute game changer for my business. She's not just a mentor, she's the real deal. Kari has helped me with hiring, building out protocols, navigating tough employee situations and even tightening up my social media strategy. She's also introduced me to tools and apps that have streamlined my workflow and saved me so much time. What makes her stand out isn't just her knowledge, which is definitely next level, it's her heart. She truly cares about her clients and it shows in everything she does.

Krystal:

She's jumped on last minute Zoom calls with me, responded to off-hour texts when I was in a pinch and offered real, honest feedback that has helped me grow both personally and professionally. She's smart, she's kind, she's funny and she's definitely fearless the kind of mentor that every business owner deserves in their corner. I truly can't recommend her enough. If you're lucky enough to work with Carrie, then you'll understand why I am shouting out her name from the rooftops. 10 out of 10,. I 100% recommend her and I will definitely be using her again and again.

Kar Jo Patterson:

So welcome on, Ani. I'm so pumped that you are here. Like I said, you are someone that I looked up to. I was listening to you on podcasts way back in the day, so you are so smart, so intelligent when it comes to business, and so I can't wait to dive in to everything you're doing. Really quick, tell us what's going on in your world and what you're doing right now.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

Girl, some days I think I've just lost my damn mind. About a year ago, I started my own hairline, so the fact that it's only been a year is wild. And it's called mourning hair, but not like good morning, but like mourning the death of someone. And I always have to tell people it's not hair from dead people, it's just gothically named. I know, I know I have my own extension method that I launched this past winter, which that's been going really great. I'm currently in the process of opening up a salon and event space and then, of course, I have content coven, which is like my membership for social media. So, girl, when I say some days I don't know how I keep my head on straight, I mean it yeah.

Kar Jo Patterson:

You know, one of the biggest things. That's funny. You say that because one of the biggest things that I find when I'm like coaching my estheticians is so many of them are like I am so overwhelmed, Like I can't get to anything. And then I hear you and I'm like she's like running like four different Ani. Really quick, what's your?

Anianne Owens Rivera :

tip. How do you manage all of that? Oh, my God, I. So I will say, first off, I am like very ADHD. So I'll be honest, some days it's really difficult, like I always say, like some days just turn into an ADHD day, which means my brain does not want to focus, and I've learned that, like forcing, it doesn't work. So some days are a very like reward based day. Like okay, I'll set a timer, work for for an hour, reward myself by going on a walk or making cookies or like doing something else.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

But I will say like so I do have an admin. It's actually my older brother and without him I couldn't function, because I was already at a like tipping point of I have too much on my plate. Like I went to the buffet, I filled up my plate and there's, I have space for nothing else. And I don't delegate easily, like I just have to be honest, I am a control freak. That's it's really hard for me to do. So I had to find someone that I trusted would have my back and be by my side 100% of the time, and that's why I know people say like don't hire family. But I did and it worked out great for me.

Kar Jo Patterson:

So it is funny, I I did hire, you know, I have hired family, I have hired friends and stuff like that. And I think as long as you keep the boundaries like it's all about boundaries and it's nice you can trust them too.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

I wanted someone and I cause I know we always say like no one will ever care as much about your business as you do, and I do believe that to an extent. But my older brother, like I, retired him from his other job and I pay him full salary so now he like gets to be home with his year old baby. Like I knew he would care as much as I did because he wanted to be home. So it really worked out great for both of us, but it is risky, I'll admit it is yeah, yeah.

Kar Jo Patterson:

Well, I am so excited because I want to dive into branding, because obviously you have put in so much effort into branding and you are the expert at, I think, growing your social media, which is why I brought you on, because I know there's so many estheticians that want to grow their business, but especially on social media, so that they can have other people see them, know about them. And I have heard so much that you can't grow on Instagram, but I literally was following you and I think one time I checked your Instagram and you were at like 15,000 followers and then the next time I checked, you're at like 40,000. And so I'm like, in a time when everybody's like you can't grow on social media, you are growing on social media and so I want to know what are you doing? What is your secret?

Anianne Owens Rivera :

teach us all divide, just like tell me everything, so I'll let you know. I've made a lot of mistakes on my account. That's why I'm to the point where I'm like I know what works because I use my account to test things, and there have been times where all of my analytics dropped heavily into the negatives and I was like I that up, that up. Okay, I messed up. That's what we're not going to be doing. So probably about two and a half years ago, like end of 2022, my account only had 4,000 followers, which I don't want to say only like that small, but comparatively it is small now and I will say I everyone's going to hate when I say this reels are still the best, easiest and fastest way to grow. I have said it. The CEO of Instagram, adam, has said it. Like everyone says, reels are the way to go, and I feel like that sometimes trips people up because it becomes a game of like well, they're like well, I don't want to do that. Well, I don't have time to record content. Like yes, you do, with respect, you do and you can make time. All you need is a tripod. If you can pay 20 for a tripod, you can record content, because right now I don't have an assistant. I have like four tripods running at all times and that takes care of all of my content while I'm still able to fully work on clients and not, like, diminish their experience. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, but reels are the fastest, best, easiest way to grow consistency.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

Consistency doesn't mean you have to post every day. It just means you have to be consistent. Like you can't ghost your account for three months because per analytics and obviously I'm so passionate about this I could talk about this for 45 days. But, like per analytics, you can take a break and it now affects your account. But by the time you are hitting a 30 day break, it's now affecting your account Because at that point the algorithm literally it does not keep all of your information forever.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

I think that's like it's like a myth, like, oh, it keeps it forever, it doesn't. It essentially cycles through and by the time you've done not shit on your account for 30 days, it has nothing. Now it's cycled through. So you're basically not starting again from scratch, but you are starting all over again to tell the algorithm what you're doing, who's watching what you're looking at. So I tell people, like, if you need to take a break two weeks max, but then you got to jump back in and that's why I say consistency is so important. But like, if you have a plan or at least a lot of content already, like filled, like B-roll content on your phone, that has saved my ass. I don't remember the last time I missed a day posting. It's been hundreds and hundreds of days at this point, because I always just have content ready, yeah.

Kar Jo Patterson:

So you just set up a bunch of tripods or like and just let it run. Is that like what you're doing?

Anianne Owens Rivera :

Hell yeah, absolutely so. Like one tripod will always have my camera. By the way, don't record videos on your camera in 4k that will eat your memory up so fast. I made the mistake of doing that two weeks ago. I was like I'm gonna have 4k content. So a week later my phone was like you have no more like storage and I have two terabytes on my phone, and I was like I messed up.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

But yeah, I always have my phone on a tripod and, at minimum, this camera on a tripod. I have a third, a camera that I use for like educational filming. It's a. It's a really nice camera. That's like very in depth. But so I don't always have that one running.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

But all I do is I set it up, I hit record, I let it run for probably like 30 minutes or so and then when I look at my phone, I'm like, oh yeah, let me change the angle.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

I hit stop, I move the tripod, I hit record, I go back to my client, like that's how I get most of my content. So that's why, like even with estheticians, it's not something that has to be in your client's face, but setting up, you should have a tripod running. Ani up, you should have a tripod running when you're actually doing the service, as long as it's not, I feel, like impeding on their time. Like, obviously, if you have a camera in front of their face and you're like that's a great angle. Yeah, that's uncomfortable, of course, but I love watching videos of estheticians when they're putting like creams on the face or hot towels and they're wiping off. There's something just so soothing about it and you can see both of their hands in the shot. So they're not stopping the service, they're just putting their phone up at a good angle and then letting it run.

Kar Jo Patterson:

Yeah, how are you telling your clients? You're like hey, is it okay if I record, or do you do it when you only have model clients? How?

Anianne Owens Rivera :

how everybody's getting recorded. So it kind of is to the point where, because they see me on social media, they know this is going to happen. It might be awkward. I feel like the first few clients, but you don't. I always tell people like, don't be weird. If you are weird, they're going to feel weird. Don't be like. Hey, would you mind if I, like, just took a couple of quick just click a video? Don't, that's so. That's makes me want to die. It's so awkward. Just say, oh, you know, I'm so excited for your service as you're setting up your phone and say, don't mind my phone, I'm just going to be recording like part of your service. It's so soothing and people love to see this. How are you feeling today? It's that quick yeah sentences and then move on the more you draw attention to it, the weirder it feels.

Kar Jo Patterson:

So just don't, just don't. Okay, I do have a question, because you do have so much, like you do make a lot of content and record it, what do you do about your phone storage? Because I feel like our storages are, like I'm always like maxed out, maxed out, buy more iCloud, like do you have a?

Anianne Owens Rivera :

solution for that? Just wondering, oh, my iCloud is heavy. I think I have like six. I pay for like six terabytes for iCloud and my phones always have two terabytes. This is the first time in my life I have ever run out of storage and it's because I was taking, I mean like hour long videos on 4K for like two weeks. So that's 100% on me.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

All I ended up doing. There's, if you're tech savvy, there's a program on that you can download to your computer called Handbrake, and so if I have really like big files, I will literally put it in Handbrake. It minimizes the file for me and then I just drop it back to my phone and the quality is still really great. But if anything, what I did the other day is I ended up just offloading some content into Google drive. I don't delete it. I'm keeping that content because, honestly, like two, three years from now, I want to be able to look back and say look at how much I've grown Like, look at the content I was taking, look at what I'm doing now.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

Look at the hair. Or like the facials, like all the things that I was doing. Look at what I'm doing now. So I ended up just making a really big Google drive and sorting all of my content by kind of like year, month and like what it is, because I have all my content stored in my phone. That way I have separate albums for everything. Because I have over 70,000 photos and videos on my phone, I'm not I'm not scrolling to find that one video to make a reel. It has to be in an album for me to be able to find in like two seconds.

Kar Jo Patterson:

Yeah, I love that. Okay, so one thing that I noticed with your social media is you're really good about doing brand shoots. So what is your thought process behind? Why do you do them? That might sound like a dumb question, but why are you doing them? So that people can understand why it's important to do them. And then, how often are you scheduling them?

Anianne Owens Rivera :

Yeah, no, I I don't think that's a weird or stupid question at all, like that's a great question. So I do brand shoots at minimum once a year, sometimes twice. So I have a girl that I use here. She's a social media manager photographer, but she's my favorite part is she's actually a model. Like that's one of her main jobs is modeling. She's like in Denver fashion week, like five or six times just this week. And so to me it helps to have someone who understands how to pose your body, because when I started doing photo shoots, girl, it was so rough, it was the most embarrassing thing, literally. This was back when I was in California and the photographer was like okay, do your stuff, and I literally did finger guns. I went okay and I was like I don't.

Kar Jo Patterson:

I think we need like a like a before and after, before I do how to pose and how I pose now. It was so bad.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

And then, of course, now I'm embarrassed. And then she kind of looked at me and she was like let's do this instead. I'm like, yeah, bitch, like you need to tell me what to do. Now I'm it's. I mean, it's been probably. When did I do my first photo shoot? My first photo shoot was probably like 2018. So it's been a long time now that I've been doing this and now I don't care.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

I'll do the weirdest things, but it is very cool that my photographer models, because then she can be like I know you're going to feel so dumb when you do this, but do it anyway. And every time I see the picture, I'm like wait, that's crazy, oh my God. I always tell her. I'm like am I a model? She's like you are. I'm like you're a liar, but I appreciate the lie, like, thank you. So, with her at minimum once a year, sometimes twice, which I feel works really great.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

The reason that I do it is because we do need photos for certain things, right? So, for example, like, if I'm sharing stuff on my Instagram stories, I don't always just want it to be random photos of my dogs, which I actually love, or just like a black screen, like sometimes I just want it to feel a little more branded and upscale. I use it a lot for the background of my carousels because I just want it to be cuter, I want it to be more put together. I use it for all of my websites, sometimes for, like, youtube covers things like that. They are always used in emails, like I'm just a firm believer of the more content you have, the easier it is to actually create like social media posts and emails and websites.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

Because I feel like that's the hardest part. When you're sitting there and you're like I don't, I don't even have anything to put here, everything sucks. I hate it. You're just going to close your phone and keep saying that social media is the problem. When it's, it's just not. Like the algorithm is not your enemy and I hear that so much and that's. That's not true.

Kar Jo Patterson:

Yeah, so I love that. I think also, I, I I always like to say I'm like I guys, I want you to remember you are in the beauty field, so you are, in a way, you're selling beauty and everybody has different definition of what beauty is and what, but that is what you're selling and so you know photos that when you look good, they're going to help, it's professional or whatnot too. So I want to know cause you? You know we get told so much like you got a niche down, you got a niche down. But when I watch your, your content, I see so much other stuff besides just you talking about niche down, like it's almost like I get this world of Ani. And so my question is is like, did you have to niche down in the beginning to like to grow it and then, now that you're at 40, you can now start posting about yourself, or what did you do? What were you posting? Were you still posting like you and about you? And that was that helping you grow? What was helping?

Anianne Owens Rivera :

you grow? No, I love this question. So in the beginning, when my account was like below the 4k, it was all business all the time because I was told this is a professional page, you keep it professional. So I was like I have a professional page. And then I had a personal page. My personal page hit 10 K way before my professional one did. Now my personal one is at 11k and my professional's at 40. So I actually found the not the more I added personal shit in.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

But once I started blending those two worlds, I didn't just become a person being like you should buy this thing from me because that's weird and people don't like that. I became like I'm Ani, I'm a human being who happens to have these businesses. Because for me I feel like social media can be so incredibly hard mentally because you only see the highlights of everything, where everybody's beautiful and they have beautiful houses and beautiful clothes and they go on cool vacations. But that's not the reality of anybody's life. Everybody has hard days and I just realized I was like I'm just fucking tired, like I was just so tired of being like everything's great all the time. I'm like everything is not great, I'm it's a bad day and I feel like once I started talking about those things, people were like wait, that's, that's you, but that's me, like we, we are the same. Like that resonates with me and I realized like that's actually what people wanted. They're so over like the perfect, perfect, perfect life, perfect care, perfect everything. They're like that's bullshit, and we know it's bullshit. We just want to know, like, what's actually happening. So I'm like yeah, let's talk about the hard stuff.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

And for me, because I know I have a spicy personality and I like it, I don't care. Like, yeah, my feelings don't get hurt easy, I don't care, but I just I wanted someone who knew me from online to meet me in person and say, oh, you're the same. That is was always my goal and the fact that that has happened so many times. When people meet me, they're like wait, you're literally the same. I'm like thank you, because that's my goal. I don't want there to be like an online version of Ani and then an offline. I have what I'm willing to show on social media and then I keep parts of my private life private and that, to me, is a kind of like that's a different dynamic. But once I feel like I started incorporating my wins, my losses, my good days, my bad days, mistakes that I've made behind the chair, mistakes I've made as an educator. Like that, I feel like started growing my brand more and more, as opposed to just pretending like everything was easy and perfect all the time, cause it fucking isn't.

Kar Jo Patterson:

Yeah, I love that and I you do always hear that like authenticity, it just shines through and I think that's what the definition of it and so, like I would say to all my listeners, I'd be like, if you want to know what that looks like, go look at her Instagram, because you are, that is like you. You go out there and you share those versions of you and I feel like that is so relatable and I think that if we did that, we would probably get gain more clients watching us, because they all know everybody does lashes, they all know you do facials. You know what I mean. Like, give them something else to watch.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

No, literally like put personality behind it. And I think that's also kind of like where branding comes into play too, because for me, having lived in California for, oh my God, seven years, california is very light, it's very bright, it's very sunny, it's very free. People made well, pinks and florals and big dresses, and I love that aesthetic. It's just not me, like I am so much more like Wednesday Adams than I am Barbie, and I didn't really feel like that was accepted so much Like you know what I mean, because it was California, and I feel like it just got to a point where I'm like I just don't care anymore. And that's when, like, my split dye came in, I got I mean, I already had a lot of tattoos, but I got more tattoos because I'm like I started wearing my favorite color, which is black, all the time. Like I feel like the more I leaned into, like this is honestly just who I am.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

I was very nervous that people would be turned off Like naming my hairline morning hair it's named after Victorian death hair so like in the Victorian era, when people would pass away, they would take some of their hair and they would make jewelry or art to literally mourn the death of that person and I heard that and I was like I love that. That resonates more with me than like pretty, like beachy hair. Do you know what I mean? So, like, everything is very like Gothic, coded and branded for me because that fits my personality. That makes me happy, that makes me excited to post, that makes me excited to go do branded shoots. That like fills me with joy. But the more that I was like oh, I don't, I don't know, maybe that will offend people, maybe I won't do that. I started I feel like veering from all the things I liked and that would like kind of fuck with me, like that would mess with my head, and so I always have to like remember to like veer back and stay in like my lane. It's okay If my brand is not for everybody and I'm gonna let you know.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

I've literally had people be like well, I would love to buy your hair but no, like because of the branding, and I'm like hey, respect, that's okay, like I'm not offended by that, but I've just learned there are people for everybody. There is literally a woman I don't know her, I've never met her, but she is an esthetician and she has her own um opened up her own place here in Denver where I live. It is very Gothic. She's just cool and she literally makes TikToks all the time where she's like like, like alt goth, like alternative goth. She's like here's your outfit from your alt goth esthetician and I'm like I don't even want to get a facial, but I kind of do from you because you're cool.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

So I think like that's what people need to remember when it comes to branding. It's not about how do I get everybody to love me. It's not about that because people are gonna hate you. I'm so sorry, like there's someone's not gonna like you, like whatever, but it's about how can I be so authentic to myself that the people it draws in like we're besties, like we were tight, like those are your people and I feel like that's why I've just caved on being like cute and like girly and I'm like, yeah, I'm more. I'm just more Wednesday Adams and I will always be that and I'm not.

Kar Jo Patterson:

That is something I'm staying like so true to at this point. Yeah, I, what I hear you saying is you branded you, you your personality, do you know what I mean? And I feel like I know exactly what you're saying, cause you've gone that whole like beauty and beach hair and like that, but that really wasn't you, that wasn't going to be authentic in any way and you're like that's not me. And then you're like branded what you are. And so I think, when people are looking into brands, I think so many times we look at what everybody else is doing, Like you know, like the town, okay, when I, when I built my business, I built my business and it was all black, white and gold and it was huge, and then I ended up selling my company, being able to retire and everything like that.

Kar Jo Patterson:

But since then, in that same town, everybody has copied like to the T black, white and gold. Do you know what I mean? And I'm like that was like me. That isn't you and that is why you are suffering. And it's not just, it's not the colors, like I know other people can have black, white and gold, but it like fit my personality. I was like into that whole luxury, like very simple, like everything you know, crisp lines, whatever, like that was like me, but like there you know, like there are people like you said, that have the goth thing and it's like that's them. They brand them.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

Yeah, I mean, here's the thing Like my salon I'm opening is black, white and gold, but I'm telling you it probably doesn't look like what you had. I have black floors, black walls, black shelves. I have an entire wall. That's like almost that's maximalism, but almost like monochromatic. Almost everything is black with like some pops of green, cause I really like these like crazy Gothic, gothic looking plants. But like you people, my friends who've already been in, they walk in and they're like yeah, yeah, yeah, no, this is you, like even my hairline. The first photo shoot we ever did before I launched, we did it at a cemetery. So I'm gonna let you know you can rent out cemeteries. I did not know that. I was also like to all my models.

Krystal:

I was like we're here.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

You need to. You need to shut up and be quiet. There are people having the worst day of their lives here, but we're also going to be on that side of the cemetery taking photos and like did I do a couple of these, being like God, please don't haunt me for this? Yeah, I was a little nervous, but like that, I was like I don't care, I'm doing it. I am having my cemetery goth photo shoot moment and it was rad. Like it ended up just working out so well and being so cool. But Like it ended up just working out so well and being so cool. But like, yeah, I was a little bit nervous at first.

Kar Jo Patterson:

Yeah, and even your hair, like it comes in a coffin and then you really branded. And so I'm like she branded her guys Like, yeah, you know, like you can use the same black, white and colors, but brand it in your personality. I mean she got like coffins for her hair. It's so cute, it's branded, Everything is branded.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

I literally those damn coffins are so expensive to make too. I'm like, how are our boxes so this expensive? But yeah, my initial PR boxes that I sent all of the initial like first orders in. They are literally a black coffin lined with green silk. When you open it up it says hair to die for, and then your hair was shipped in a coffin, which once again I thought was the funniest, most brilliant thing I'd ever done. I had some very offended people. Oh, for real.

Kar Jo Patterson:

I thought it was genius. Like I saw that as like care to die for and it's in a coffin. This is hilarious. Like this is like the best marketing thing I've ever seen.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

Thank you, I also thought it was funny. But I did have a couple of people like who are very boldly like I would buy your hair but it comes in a coffin. And I will say it was more. I don't want to say like religious. I know that's where it came from, cause they told me and I'm like that's okay, like I grew up in a Catholic family, like I know this can be low-key, offensive to some, but it's not meant to be but they were like my religion won't let me buy that, and I'm like that's okay, I can recommend you to other hairlines. It's not a big deal, but also, all of the hair doesn't come in a coffin. That was just for a short time.

Kar Jo Patterson:

It's just a deliverable. But I love how you branded every single and I guess I want people to really understand that about you. Is you branded every single and I guess I wish I want people to like really understand that about you is you branded like every little aspect to one theme like? And so even estheticians, you could brand all of your facials down if you come up with the brand. How did you figure out what you were like? Okay, I'm gonna go this goth. How did you like figure that out?

Anianne Owens Rivera :

I'm telling you, I just went straight up for my personality. I cause at first, I'll be honest, everything was going to be beachy and cute. It was going to be cute beach ways and I think at one point it was the word salt going to be in there. I don't know like, oh shit, I don't even know what it was called. It's going to be called and I I just remember sitting there looking at at it and going, yeah, a lot of other people would really like that, but I didn't love it.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

I wasn't mad and I just kept. I wasn't madly in love with it and I just kept sitting there being like there has to be something else. And then I just kind of it was a moment of like, okay, well, what would make me happy? I'm like, if everything was black coded, if everything was like monochromatic. I want black to be. That I knew that actually was like well, have you heard of Victorian death hair? And I literally own some of it. Like I have some of that sitting in my library, so like that's cool, but like that's just.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

I started going with like I kind of had to like put out of my head everything that everyone else says and what everyone else says this is the way to success, because even like the way that I sell the hair, it's sold individually by left. People told me they're like don't do that, it's not going to work, people aren't going to like it. You need to charge more. And I'm like I'm, I'm not going to listen to anything you're saying, I'm going to do this my way. Even my accountant he was like do not start a hairline, that is so risky. It came down to the point where I told him I said I am not asking you for permission anymore, I am letting you know that I'm doing this, so you now need to be on board and fucking figure it out. And he was like all right, Ani and I'm like we're all on the same page, good talk, like. That's how I started.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

Everything was really because at first none of my stuff was like. One of my main colors used to be pink girl, like it did not. I didn't nail this branding off the bat. At first it was like pinks and grays and I liked it. And then, the more I looked at it, I was just like I'm just like sick of sick of these fucking colors. I don't want to look at them anymore.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

And I started changing things little by little, so I don't want anyone to get the impression like, oh, Ani has it all together. Even my office has like Gothic branding. Okay yeah, but I started with one little thing and then I added one more little thing and then I changed one more thing to where now, two and a half years later, I'm in love with everything that I have. But bear in mind, I also just finished another rebrand because I didn't like parts of what I had. So all of that got changed. So this isn't something that you like nail right off the bat. You will like jig and adjust and change. But I think it's more dangerous to tell yourself like I'm going to wait until it's perfect before I get started than to just like start messy and just like fuck it, go for it, you can change anything along the way. Yeah.

Kar Jo Patterson:

I love that. Well, I want to know inside your program because I'm like this is what I'm like, okay, can it? Would this work? You have a program and it is for building content, coven, right, we're talking like yes.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

Content coven like wishes. Yes, Shocker.

Kar Jo Patterson:

So tell us about that and like what's inside and do you think that anyone could come in and get something from it? Tell us about it.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

Yeah, so content coven shocker, also very gothically themed. Yeah, and so it's. I really started that. So it's an. It's a membership. It's a monthly membership, where my goal was I want to do as I want to take as much weight off of beauty professionals as much as I can, because I love creating content, I like making captions, I love putting content like calendars together, and most artists, most beauty professionals, hate it Writing a caption. They would like, they would literally rather do anything other than that. So that's really where content come and came from is.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

I wanted to be the tester of all things social media and be able to come and say, all right, guys, this works. This does not do this, never do this. I know you think that this is important. It's actually a waste of your time. I wanted there to be one place where beauty professionals could come in and it's really been expanding, because it started off for just hairstylists. Now I have hairstylists and photographers of all things. So it's like it's like starting to grow more and more. There's probably about like 300 people in there already and like the more that it grows, the more that I start expanding that education. So like as an example, every single month.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

I released it like two weeks early, so already the content calendar for June is out. I literally make 30 days of content. Here's what you're going to talk about, here's the format that you're going to be creating in, here's the topic. And then here's like how you're going to start your caption. Here's like the topic, and I release one specifically for stylists who don't do extensions, stylists who do extensions and photographers. And now, if more estheticians or like estheticians are coming in as well, they'll be getting their own content calendar as well.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

Cause, like that is my goal. I want social media to be easy, because it can be. It truly can be. But I feel like beauty professionals in general are so busy and so overwhelmed with the day to day of running a business, having clients responding to messages, that by the time they sit down, they're brain dead. They're like I don't have any ideas, I have nothing to give. So I'm like, if I can create those things and create templates and captions and all of these things where they just have to go in and essentially copy paste, add in a few words, then hell yeah, like that's been my goal and they're loving it.

Kar Jo Patterson:

It's been really fun yeah, I love that, that because I am a person that's like, can I plug and play, like just give, I'll do it, just tell me what to do. I don't want to think about it. And so it sounds like. That's like what the your whole program is is like I'm going to give it to you. You don't even have to think about it. What I love is that guys I was just telling her and I said it earlier too but the thing is is like I watch these other people and I won't name, call or anything, but they are like, yeah, you can build a following, it's really easy and they already have millions of followers.

Kar Jo Patterson:

You know what I mean, which is great. They did it and they do have knowledge. I'm not saying I'm not discounting that in any way, but like when you see somebody who's actually in the like not you're not in the trenches necessarily, but like actually doing it, and you're like dude, she's actually like moving, like instead of looking at the person that's already there, but you're like watching somebody who's actually doing that, I'm like why would you not want to learn from them? They like got it, they know it. In two years you're grown like crazy. And the difference is also we talked about before we got on is when you're niched down. When you're talking to everyone, it's easy to grow, but when you're niched down.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

Yes, it's so much easier. And that's one thing like even when I started content coven because at first I was like, oh, should I make it like generic to where anybody can use it? And that would have made it easier for me to grow. That probably would have made me a lot more money. But the problem to me wasn't that.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

To me is like an issue Like we already know that, like you, there are tons of captions and there are tons of content ideas, but to then take that idea that's meant for the general public and relate it to our industry is so much more difficult.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

That, I feel, is where the brainpower people are like I don't know, man, I can't think of anything, I just don't care anymore. So that's why I wanted to make a place specifically for beauty professionals and because I've done hair for 16 years, it started with just hairstylists but like so, but beauty pros to come in and be like, oh, okay, this was made for me, this was made for my exact service, for my exact clientele, for how we speak, the vernacular that we have, the things that we would never say, because sometimes I see the shit that people are like you should write this caption. I'm like I think I'm being banned from the industry if I wrote something so crazy like that, like so, it's just. I wanted a place where people were like, oh, this was actually made for us, not just like whoever wants to come in is fine.

Kar Jo Patterson:

Yes, yeah, I love that. Well, before we jump off, I wrote a book. It's called Fearless Prosperity and it talks about how you have to be fearless in the pursuit of getting prosperity Right. But anyways, I always like to ask my guests this one question and has there ever been a time that there was a scary moment in your life but you had to face it, and because you did that, you gained prosperity? And what was it and what helped you get that prosperity?

Anianne Owens Rivera :

I will be honest Every single thing I've ever done I've been scared shitless. I lived in Missouri, I lived in the Midwest and I was recruited for a position in California. That meant leaving my clientele, where at that point I was making 20 grand a month, working three days a week. I had to leave my clientele, my family. I had just bought a home six months earlier. Like moving halfway across the country when you've only ever been right beside your family and knowing there is no safety net. Like no one. If I fuck all this up, no one can help me, it's just me. I have never been more scared in my entire life.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

Starting morning hair, I was like I told you. I was literally told this is a horrible idea, don't do it. And I was like, great, I'm doing it. Having an extension method, I always said I wasn't going to do that. I'm like it's too risky. People are mean I do that. Opening a salon, I was like there's no way I'm doing this.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

I just feel like the first scariest thing I did, I guess, really was like moving to California completely by myself. Like I lived out of a hotel for two weeks. I didn't even have a car. Like I literally rented a hotel room across the street from the salon I was working at and that's where I stayed for two weeks until my car made it Like and I found an apartment to live in. You know what I mean. So it's not to say it's always been easy and fun. I think that's like a misconception. It was very, very difficult, but I just put myself in the mindset of, like I refuse, I fucking refuse to be 70, 80, 90 years old, looking back at my life and saying I wish I'd just taken a risk. I wish that I had tried a little bit more. I wish I hadn't been so fucking afraid. Like I am not going to do that to myself. So I feel like every single step of the way where it comes, because now it's to the point where I'm obviously willing to take risks. Like my God, I literally dropped off the check to open my salon two days ago. Like the risks are happening as we speak.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

But for me, I have now proven to myself that I can do really hard things. I can do really hard things. I have proven to myself that, although I do, I do say I'm like a soft person. I've proven to myself I'm also tough as nails when it comes down to my business and that if it's sink or swim like, I'm never gonna let myself sink I've never failed. And that's not to say I haven't fucked a lot of shit up. I've messed up a lot of things, but to me, failure means you did something, went sideways, it went wrong and you quit, you gave up. And if that, to me, is the definition of failure, then I've never failed, because even with everything that's gone wrong, every mistake I've made, I've taken a deep cry, then taken a deep breath and then been like okay, how do we fix this now? How do I make sure this literally never happens again? Because I hate this feeling. So I feel like that for me.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

I'm 35 years old now and now that I'm at this age, I'm like I want, like I said, I've proven to myself that I can do really hard things. And that that moment where it shit feels the worst, where it is so difficult, and you're literally sitting there like I made a mistake. I don't want to feel this way anymore. I'm always going to feel this way. I've ruined my life. That moment doesn't last forever. If you quit, it's going to last a really long time, but if you push through it, even through tears and being drenched in sweat, you are going to come out on the other side. So that's why I tell people like I literally so I know we're wrapping up.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

I had a friend that's she's going through a hard time wrapping up. Like I had a friend that's she's going through a hard time, and I told her. I said I'm going to say this to you in the most blunt way I can, because I love you and I've known you for almost 10 years. It's time to put your big girl panties on and buck the fuck up. I go, I'm sorry that you're like emotional and shit right now, but you're about to ruin everything you've ever worked for because of this. I said buck up, bitch. And she's like you're right. I'm like yeah, I am right, I know. Like I never thought I was wrong.

Anianne Owens Rivera :

So sometimes it's just having that moment also where someone like who loves you dearly kind of gives you a little bit of a slap to be like get it together and keep going forward because you've made progress, and like I have not worked this hard, to then like backslide on everything. I'm not gonna, I'm not doing that, I don't want to redo all the work I've done. So that's why I just keep moving forward, even if that means I'm crying because I'm so stressed out. I know that won't last forever. So everything I've done, even though I feel like people online they tell me like you're so confident no, I'm not. I'm stressed and I'm worried. I just know if I keep moving forward it will work out for me, because it always works out for me, because I fucking will it to like nothing I have is by luck. So I hope that helps any someone out there that's like stressed to the nines, like it's going to be fine. Just just keep, keep moving forward, you're going to be all right.

Kar Jo Patterson:

Yes, I love that. Okay, so how can our my followers, if they're like, yeah, I want somebody to do my, just tell me what to do? You already learned what you got to do in a niche like ours. How can they work with you? How should they find you? Where can they find you? All of those things?

Anianne Owens Rivera :

Yeah, I feel like the easiest is probably just Instagram, because everybody's on there and my handle is onionowens, which is my first name and my last name and onion is spelled A-N-I-A-N-N-E. So if you just find me on Instagram and I tell everybody, dm me. I have built all of my businesses to be surrounded by community. So DM me. It's never weird, it's never uncomfortable, it's never too late at night, it's never too inappropriate. You can trauma dump, I don't care, I don't carry that on my soul, it's fine. Like I tell people, like just come talk to me, I will help you, I will work within your budget, like we will figure something out, because there's nothing worse than being like I need help but I feel like I can't ask for it because my budget might be low. We will figure something out, I got you.

Kar Jo Patterson:

Yes, and I do have to say that is the one thing that I love about you is, anytime I've personally reached out, you have always responded, and so it's just nice to have someone who's real behind the Instagram page, and so that is something that I want to be, so I definitely look up to you. My favorite thing I have to tell you that you said that just resonated with me and I hope it resonates with all my listeners is I love how you said what makes me happy and that's how you figured out what your brand is is you were like because you were looking at everybody else, but then you just were like what makes me happy? And I just like. I like kind of just makes me want to cry, but I'm like that is it, guys. It's what makes you happy.

Kar Jo Patterson:

Do you know what I mean? And that's where success comes from, and if you start asking yourself that question instead of everybody else, everything just flows into place Like look at Ani, she's killing it. So thank you, guys for tuning in, and I can't wait for you guys to hear our next episode. We will see you guys soon. Bye, guys.

Speaker 4:

Thank you for listening to the Esthetician Podcast with Kari Jo Patterson. Each week, Kari brings you real world lessons on how to grow your empire To learn more about Kari brings you real-world lessons on how to grow your empire To learn more about. Kari Fearless Prosperity Mastermind Group, one-on-one VIP coaching opportunities and more at www. karijopatterson. com See you next week for more insights and strategies on the Esthetician Podcast.

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