We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Bree Solomon. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Bree below.
Bree, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
I think resilience is something you either have or don’t, I don’t think it’s something that grows it’s just part of who you are. You can teach someone how to adapt or to be somewhat flexible but the kind of resilience required to be in business is a different kind of beast altogether. You take some major punches and you have to roll with it or get out, because it doesn’t stop. What makes the difference is what you make of what happens, not what actually happens. My resilience is embedded in every strand of DNA in my being, I will never quit, I will never back down and I will always give my best to everything I do because it allows me to endure, to survive events that may be catastrophic to others.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I own Black Diamond Tattoo in Venice, CA and in addition to that I am also a business consultant – I help people start, grow, or reorganize their businesses.
I think the most exciting part of what I do comes from the team I get to work with, the comradery and the genuine love for what we do. You can’t fake that or make it up, and it’s really special getting to work with such an amazing and talented group of artists. We do Flash Friday every week, it’s a book we’ve curated custom designs into each week of things we all want to tattoo and they’re priced specially for that day. These are really great fun designs that aren’t specific to a holiday or theme but things you’d want any day.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I think the 3 skills that were the most impact on my journey were managing finances, negotiating terms and contract interpretation, and marketing. Being able to read an agreement and understand it’s contents is crucial because you don’t always have time to call your attorney. Knowing how to manage your business affairs and finances is so important I can’t stress it enough, that may be number one on the list. Marketing is that other key component, if you can’t read your audience, as in understand who your demographic is so what you put out appeals to them, you’re wasting energy and effort as it’s going to fall on deaf ears. You have to know how to market your business to the right audience or there is no business to manage.
Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?
The economy has slowed down quite and we’re seeing it across the board, restaurants that used to be packed every night are half full, and in turn tattoo shops have seen a huge slow down. It’s something we’ve endured before and will again, but it’s definitely a challenge.
Contact Info:
- Website: blackdiamondtattoo.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/blackdiamondbree
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briannesolomon/
