Inspiring Conversations with Tanny Diep of Sway Brows

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tanny Diep.

Tanny, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I never thought I’d be my own boss, let alone own my own business. My journey into Permanent Makeup, specifically Microblading started four years ago when I decided to quit my full-time job in the Fashion Industry. I always had a knack for sales & marketing and worked retail throughout high school and college. Retail can only serve you for so long so I decided to pursue my passion for fashion and went to FIDM for Fashion Design. I started in the Fashion Industry as an assistant designer but somehow found my way into managing the sales & marketing and working in product development. Fashion is not as glamorous as one would imagine when you’re working behind the scenes. Nonetheless, I was most driven by the creative aspects of the role.

After almost 10 years in the industry and learning the ins and outs of the business from Design, Manufacturing, Production, Wholesale & Retail Sales, Photography, and Web Development, I decided that I needed a change. I wanted to break free from a conventional 9-5 job and have more flexibility with my time. I felt like I reached my capacity there and was seeking something where I had more creative freedom and control of my time.

I didn’t know what that was going to be until I discovered Microblading. Microblading is a permanent makeup treatment for the eyebrows where hair-like strokes are created to emulate realistic hairs. My sister-in-law was doing it at the time and I reached out to her for advice on how to get started. It was incredibly intimidating as I had no experience in the beauty industry but I knew I had artistic talent. I also had experience managing a business so I decided to take the leap and invest in a training course.

After 4 months of working full-time while trying to transition into this new career (I obviously couldn’t quit right away because I didn’t know if I was even going to be good at tattooing people’s faces Full-Time), I finally left my previous job. Was it Scary? YES. Was I afraid of failing? YES. But I had to overcome that fear and doubt and believe in myself. If I could work 10-12 hours a day for someone else and help grow their business, I could definitely do this for myself.

Fast forward to today, I’ve built a hugely successful Permanent Makeup Business called Sway Brows. I have two studio locations in Artesia, and I am a Grand Master Trainer with Beauty Angels Academy, one of the world’s largest Permanent Makeup Academies. I have worked on over 1000+ clients and trained over 500+ students with over 140K followers on Instagram. We are fully staffed with 5 artists who do treatments in Microblading, Microshading, Eyeliner, Lip Blush, Scalp Micropigmentation and Tattoo Removal. I continue to take clients as well as teach all over the US and internationally.

This career has changed my life in the best way possible and we are changing lives every day through permanent makeup. Helping women feel beautiful boost their self-esteem as well as empower them to reach the same level of success we’ve experienced through permanent makeup. We are also consistently giving back to the community through complimentary services for cancer survivors and clients with Alopecia. I am extremely proud of our progress but I know we still have so much more work to do.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The biggest challenge we faced as an entrepreneur is managing every aspect of the business to the best of our ability until we could afford to outsource. You’re not only the artist, but you’re the salesperson, marketing manager, accountant, customer service, and even the janitor. We had to have a lot of discipline to practice our craft as well as be consistent with marketing. Technically considered a tattoo artist, I would work on 2-3 clients a day, feel exhausted after that but had to still make time to work ON our business, and not just in it.

Marketing is a whole other beast and if you don’t feed the beast daily, your business will go hungry. I made a promise to myself that I would never let myself wonder where my next client was coming from, meaning If I had time to wonder why it was slow, I had time to work on my business. If there was time to complain about being slow, that meant I had time to take more photos, create a promotion, make new content, record videos, etc. Clients do not fall from the sky, and If I wasn’t actively working to generate more leads daily, I’d see a decline in engagement. I made a non-negotiable pact with myself to post high-quality content on my social media daily and kept it up for the first two years of the business.

I can’t say the road was completely smooth as we did hit a few speedbumps along the way. Covid happened which resulted in our studio getting shut down and reopened 3 times over the course of 10 months. If we didn’t have online educational training, we probably would not have survived. However, after we were able to re-open, business was busier than ever. People were now wearing masks and the eyes and brows have become a highlighted feature. Lucky for us, we were able to bounce back quickly with an influx of new clients.

Shortly after we gained our momentum back from Covid, a government agency called the Bureau of Post Secondary Education slapped us with a 25K fine and threatened to shut down our business because one of our training courses exceeded the $2500 threshold for CA educational institutions. In order to teach a course over $2500, we had to get prior approval from them. This was unknown to us as we have all of our permits and licenses from the Health Department and was given their blessing to have an educational program. We couldn’t reach a settlement so we fought the case and requested an administrative hearing which had to be scheduled for the following year.

For a whole year, I quietly stressed about the thought of everything I built being ripped away from me. They wanted to disconnect my phone, social media, website, hand over records of all my students and shut down any part of my business that had to do with the training courses. I continued business as usual because I didn’t have to comply until after results of the hearing. A year later, I sat through 8 hours of legal deposition and thinking I’d walk out of this hearing knowing the fate of my business. The hearing ended and they concluded that both legal teams needed to submit their final statements and I had to wait another 2 months to know the verdict. I prayed for a reduced fine, I was prepared to do anything they asked as long as I didn’t have to shut down my business. Two months later, I received the verdict in the mail, and my case was completely dismissed.

From tattooing faces and dealing with different clientele daily to being shut down, reopened, and threatened to be shut down again permanently, I’d say we can handle anything at this point. When you pray for strength, it shows up in the form of challenges, and we are just grateful that we’ve prevailed.

As you know, we’re big fans of Sway Brows. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
When I got into this business, I thought I was just making people more beautiful with defined and realistic brow tattoos. Little did I know that was only the tip of the iceberg. A pivotal point in this career was when I worked on my first client who had absolutely no hair (she was my 11th client in total). She had a condition called trichotillomania where she habitually pulled out all of her brow hairs and was left with nothing. She struggled for over 15 years with this condition and had a 30-minute routine each day to draw on her eyebrows.

When we finished her service, she looked into the mirror, then looked at me and started crying. She hugged me tight for a good 30 seconds and told me I changed her life. She could now wake up without being afraid of seeing her family without her brows, and she felt self-confidence she hadn’t felt in years. I started crying and felt overwhelmed with emotions, so happy that I was able to change someone’s life through permanent makeup. I realized that this treatment was not just a superficial thing, it wcould help so many people with insecurities and low self-esteem. It could also help people who struggle from surviving cancer, or alopecia. In that moment, I decided that wanted to be the best PMU Artist I could be, so I could help as many people as possible. I wanted to be able to work on anyone’s brows with confidence and help them feel whole again.

Today we are one of the leading artists and educators in the Permanent Makeup Industry for eyebrow tattoo techniques. We specialize in Microblading, Microshading, and Feather Nano Brows. These are all different styles of permanent eyebrow makeup to either create realistic hairlike brows, a soft powdery makeup look or a combination of both. What sets us apart from others is our dedication to the craft and to taking care of our clients. We have mastered the most realistic eyebrow designs and our work heals natural without causing excessive trauma to the skin.

We also specialize in educational training for these techniques and have helped our students become six-figure earning artists in their first year of business. We are empowering women to feel beautiful, confident, and have financial freedom.

We are proud of the footprint we’ve created in this industry in making Microblading more mainstream and not so taboo. This is not your mom’s tattooed brows of the 90s. We’re also proud of how many lives we’ve positively impacted through services and education. As the industry continues to grow and evolve, we are staying current with new techniques so that we can provide the best services and education for our clients and students.

We now offer services and training for Microblading, Microshading, Ombre Powder Brows, Feather Nano Brows (hairstrokes with machine), Tattoo Removal and Scalp Micropigmentation. We are located in South Los Angeles in the city of Artesia and have plans for expansion to the Norcal area next year.

Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
Social Media, particularly Instagram is a great place to connect and network with other artists, students, and masters. The PMU world is a photo-driven industry and social media allows us to connect with others all over the world. When choosing a mentor, it’s best to choose someone not only for their knowledge and talent but for the success rate in their mentees.

It’s always best to find a mentor in any field because it’ll help you grow faster. Learn from their experiences and mistakes instead of going at it alone with trial and error. When I was seeking a mentor in this business, I found someone who helped many others succeed in the same path. That’s how I knew that she would be able to help me grow and quickly.

The PMU Community is all about support and empowering each other to succeed. Social engagement is a great way to start, just by supporting their content, liking, and commenting. It’s great to find someone who is on the same level as you wherever you are in your journey to have a support system and accountability buddy. I have some colleagues who I’ve grown with over the years as students to now masters, and it’s always great to share our challenges as well as growth strategies to help each other.

Pricing:

• Microblading $500-1000 Depending on artist
• Microshading Combo $500-1000 depending on artist
• Feather Nano Brows $950
• Tattoo Removal $150-350
• Scalp Micropigmentation $2500-3500

Contact Info:

• Website: swaybrows.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/swaybrows
• Facebook: facebook.com/swaybrows