We were lucky to catch up with Alani Davidson recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alani, so great to have you with us and thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts with the community. So, let’s jump into something that stops so many people from going after their dreams – haters, nay-sayers, etc. We’d love to hear about how you dealt with that and persisted on your path.
The way I persist despite the haters is honestly not caring about what people have to say about me. What I mean by that is everyone has their own opinions and views and they might not align with mine. But that doesn’t mean I should let their opinions affect what I have going on in my life, or even with my business. Because with me starting up my business I learned that not everyone is always going to agree with how I run things and that they’ll always think their way is the better way for me to do things. and since I was barely getting used to running a business I used to let what people said affect what I had going on but I started to see that me taking their advice got me absolutely nowhere. So I decided to switch gears and started doing things the way I felt worked best for me which was not following all the trends, and starting things off slow with caution instead of just diving right into things. And honestly with me doing these things started working out way better for me business-wise and in my personal life as well when I just stopped letting what people said affect what I had going on.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I started my nail journey during Covid 2020 while I was in quarantine. I remember I was pretty bored and just wanted something new to do, so my mom asked me if I would be interested in doing nails. I took the offer because I am always interested in learning a new hobby, and I liked getting my nails done so I was like why not. So my mom got me all the materials I needed to start and I started for a while and wasn’t as consistent as I should’ve been mostly because I wasn’t seeing progress, and got uninterested so I stopped for almost 2 years and would only practice here and there. But in 2022 I started to get interested once again in doing nails, and started practicing consistently and saw so much improvement that i was confident enough to practice on my step-mom in January 2023. She was the very first person I was able to practice on other than myself, so I was extremely nervous and excited. After that I started practicing more and more and started buying all the materials that would help make me better at nails. The most special thing about doing nails to me are the people I get to meet, because everyone’s nails I’ve done have been so nice, and understanding and I love that because it makes me want to keep going. The most exciting thing about being a nails artist is me being able to show my creativity and get out of my comfort zone. Something new I am adding to my business are pedicures, both acrylic and regular i’m really excited that I am expanding because I get to keep pushing myself to be better.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
One Skill that was impactful on my journey was definitely having the patience to paint and draw small designs on nails, which when you think about it, it is a really small canvas to work on. A quality that was most meaningful for me was my determination and always having a positive mindset because when it came to me first starting out I knew I wasn’t the best but I knew that if I kept going things would get ten times better, and I would start to feel more confident in my work, in which I did. One area of knowledge that was most effective for me was being able to give myself positive constructive criticism, because I saw that being hard on myself because I didn’t naturally start off good was not helping me it was only hurting me. Some advice I have for anyone starting off their nail journey is don’t ever give, and don’t compare your accomplishments to anyone else’s. I say this because if you give up you’ll never know what you were capable of accomplishing, and you’ll always look back and think “what if?”. The not comparing your accomplishments to others is one piece of advice I got told when first starting and it’s simply because a lot of people are in different stages of their journey, and you’ll get there it just takes time, and patience!
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
The most impactful thing my parents did for me was simply supporting my dreams and creative goals. At first I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do so I was always popping up with new ideas and different hobbies for me to do, and my parents just let my ideas flow. Them doing that helped me feel really supported and let me know that they definitely cared and wanted me to keep expressing my creativity.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: laniis.nailgallery
- Facebook: Alani Davidson
- Youtube: laniis.nailgallery
- Other: tik tok: laniis.nailgallery
Image Credits
Alani Davidson
