Today we’d like to introduce you to Allison Drake.
Allison, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
At a young age, I realized that I always felt my best-making others feel their best. This to me is a huge gift I received as a woman because typically woman are competitive with each other. I feel lucky to know my worth, and I hope that I can show clients theirs as well.
As a professional model and pageant titleholder, I know the importance of looking and feeling my best, knowing that comes with maintenance! I wanted Kissed to be an affordable luxury one-stop-shop. Being a skincare fanatic I became obsessed with finding the best quality products to offer people, it is so important to me to put natural pure ingredients on others. My vision is to bring popular services side by side, creating a uniquely synergistic space to prepare for any vacation, wedding, red carpet event, or to simply feel Kissed.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There have been many “Jesus take the Wheel” moments, although there have been many “This is going to be huge” moments. I choose to hold on to the good. I have had hard days, I chose to take those days and use them as opportunities to troubleshoot problems and put my self in a client mindset, I ask my self daily “How could Kissed be better”, this always gives me more ideas and lets my mind create more solutions.
The biggest struggle that I have seen since the beginning is finding people to work with you that put in 100% effort. I quickly realized NO one was going to work harder then I was, or appreciate the brand. Since I have seen Kissed grow from the ground up, the business has become my newborn! When you add more and more people it is difficult to instill your work method and dedication. I strive to make Kissed Studio a pleasant workplace and hopefully, a franchise one day, with that comes a great team.
Kissed Studio – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
One thing I admire about Kissed Studio is that is a one-stop place. We provide custom airbrush tanning, which is customized to your skin tone. Most people have had a bad experience with tanning because they turned orange, couldn’t get it off, or smelled terrible! Kissed Studio customizes to your undertones, veins in your arm, and your hair and eye color. Our studio offers more than 12 different shades, every person is different. I have worked extremely hard to find products that are vegan and organic, I have even added different oils to the solutions to make it not smell, believe it not, people have told me they love the way it smells.
What I am most proud of is our unique space, when you walk in you feel like you would be paying five hundred dollars, not fifty. From the aesthetics of the front waiting room to our private bridal lounge, you get a feeling of luxury.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
The other day I walked into Kissed and started cleaning the bathrooms and floors, a client walked passed me not knowing who I was, for all she knew I was apart of the cleaning crew, I saw her face light up walking through, she said: “I love this place!”. In that very moment, I knew that we made it. I felt proud that no one knew who I was, I felt complete knowing that as a fly on the wall, people loved it.
Seeing my employees’ book appointments and doing great services has been a huge honor for me to take a step back and do the work I need to do to make it even bigger. In the five years, I have done this, has given me the experience that I needed to overcome these big moves here. I learn something new every single day, and will always ask a million questions so I know all the answers. At 23 years old, I can say I am proud of my self for taking a risk opening Kissed Studio and that I am optimistic for the future.
Pricing:
- $25 for your fist tan
- $85 for a Classic Lash Set
Contact Info:
- Address: 2320 N Houston St. Suite 100
- Website: www.kissedstudio.com
- Phone: 972-685-4772
- Email: kissedstudio.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=2HS7tOTF_HxGJRJTtLxRfQ
Image Credit:
Jose Luis
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