Sisters' varied interests lead to related beauty-focused businesses
“You work, and you will see a return on whatever you put in. You put in this much, you'll get back this much.”
Erica Giacalone says that wisdom from her father guides her life and that of her sister, Brandi Giacalone Browning.
Each owns their own business, GiacMicro & Aesthetics and Browning Studio, respectively. Both say they are dedicated to helping people feel beautiful. But that’s just the start.
Women in Business profiles:Erica Giacalone
Giacalone’s background is in biology. Though she is an artist who started painting as a preteen, she intended to become a physician assistant.
“I have this extreme fascination with all things physiology and histology, study of the skin and all that,” she says.
She wasn’t admitted to the PA program the first year she applied, so she worked for a plastic surgeon. Giacalone was paying her own way, so not working was never an option, but her path changed when a skincare representative noticed her skill with brows. Bone structure and symmetry are part of her canvas. It made perfect sense that art and science combined in cosmetic tattooing.
“It just feels like everything since then fell in place,” Giacolone says. “I put med school on hold while creating this newfound love of my life and never looked back. I wake up every day and pinch myself – I'm living my dream job. It's hard because when the business is you, you never clock out, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.”
Giacalone opened her own business in 2018 and now has a team of artists. She says her craft is the perfect combination of art and technical execution.
For clients with cancer, alopecia or trichotillomania (hair pulling), Giacalone’s work is far more than cosmetic. Those clients often arrive physically and emotionally exhausted. Some cry when they see the sketch of what they will look like, even before the process starts.
Women in Business profiles:Brandi Giacalone Browning
“It never stops taking my breath away, because I get to fix just that one little part of them. That is one little thing I can help rebuild and give them a little hope towards, ‘I'm getting closer to being me again. And I can do this.’ It never will get old to me, ever,” she says.
The sisters say their parents gave them a foundation of hard work, optimism and gratitude. It’s an authentic knack for seeing the positive in life, while not discounting the role of perseverance in achieving their goals.
“Our dad immigrated to the United States when he was 25,” Giacalone says. “He really did come here with nothing.”
Giacalone says family members opened a restaurant. One uncle summed up the family’s philosophy of work, that has stuck with the sisters.
“He would work front of the house in the restaurant, and he came back and told my dad, ‘I'm just serving them food and drinks, and look how much money they gave me,’ referencing the tips,” Giacalone says. “It's a whole perspective and a mindset switch. It minimizes the strain and the hard parts of work, and it shows the fruits. Our mom? Same way. Our mom has always been a laborer. She's always worked really, really hard for everything that she has. We saw that in them. We learned from a very early age that there's no sitting back and waiting for things to come to you. You're not entitled to anything, no one owes you anything. But whatever you want, you can get just what you want to get out of it.”
Browning agrees, saying the pair grew up seeing the example of hard work, and knowing they could work, do well and also do good. Browning Studio now has two locations. Services include airbrush tanning, hair, makeup and more.
“She and I put ourselves through school,” Browning says. “I knew one day I would own my own business, but also had no idea what I would offer, what I would do. I ran other people's businesses from 19 on. I had my son when I was 18, and I put myself through school with him while working.”
Tanning was a side hustle at first.
“I saw what it did for people,” Browning said. “It made people happy. Truly a little bit of color, a little bit of life, a little bit of healthy glow, you feel upbeat, you feel better.”
Browning says her son was her driving force when she provided tanning services during her lunch break and late at night. She was a mom first, but her business grew organically. After running other people’s businesses for years, it was time to take the leap. Her first brick and mortar studio location opened in 2014, followed by the second in 2018.
Her focus is a people-centered philosophy of business – and life.
“I truly I speak about that almost daily with clients because I love people. I think that's the building block of life – people, relationships and community,” Browning says. “And with our dad, we grew up seeing community in his restaurant. It was family, it really was. He ran the business like family. You could see the camaraderie. And in this one life we get, we're at work the majority of our lifetimes, so [whether] choosing our jobs or doing our work, enjoy it.”
College included minors in psychology and sociology for the sisters.
“We study people, which also goes into what we do for people and understanding them and what they're going through and how you give back, physically, emotionally and mentally,” Browning says. “It's an opportunity for us to alter a perspective in the most positive way. Yes, we're both in the cosmetic industry, but we really, truly get to shift a perspective for people every day.”
Visit thebrowningstudio.net and giacmicro.com.