SHAPING SUCCESS: BMO HONOUREE GIOVANNA MINENNA
When Giovanna Minenna returned to hometown Winnipeg after three years in Toronto studying and working in makeup design, she took some time off to reflect on where to focus her skills next. It didn’t take her long to recognize that what she loved most about makeup sat right above the eye.
“Eyebrows frame the face, help us recognize facial expressions, make us look younger, thinner,” she says. “They make people feel great – you can’t go wrong with that.”
She was clear about something else, too: “I didn’t want to work for anyone else.”
With some business training under her belt, Minenna took a leap in 2015, launching Brows by G from her Winnipeg condo. Entrepreneurship would prove a smart move for the 20-something-yearold, one that would find Minenna one of three women honoured at BMO Celebrating Women in Winnipeg this May, an annual event recognizing local contributions to business and community.
With few people specializing in eyebrows at the time, Minenna’s business caught a rising trend. But the artist would soon stake her success on another differentiator, too. When clients with minimal or no eyebrows (due to aging or chemo treatments, for example) came to her studio, Minenna felt stymied by the limited options available. She then fell upon microblading (a process of manually implanting colour pigment to produce the appearance of hair) and studied the intricate technique – including from top experts in Europe. Before long, Minenna was inundated with requests from clients and practitioners wanting to learn alongside her.
“Everything was coming into my life,” she recalls of that time. “I said, ‘This is what I’m meant to be doing right now,’ and I just allowed myself to let what was supposed to happen, happen.”
Brows by G exploded. Today Minenna runs her business out of two locations in Winnipeg and offers microblading seminars in 10 cities across Canada. And her team of 21, which includes her partner-husband, is a focus of pride for Minenna. “It’s such an amazing thing to have people work for you who are really passionate but thought they didn’t have much of a career choice because they were creative and liked makeup,” she says. “I’m grateful that I can create that environment for other people.”
That positive environment is essential to her clients, too, particularly cancer survivors, Minenna says. “It’s so great that I get to help these women complete their journey and take on the world.”
THEY MAKE PEOPLE FEEL GREAT – YOU CAN’T GO WRONG WITH THAT.