Giovanna Minenna wanted to carve out her own recipe for success
When Giovanna Minenna returned to her hometown of 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-year-old, 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 — and grew fast. 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), studied the intricate technique and fell in love with its potential.
But as with every step this young entrepreneur takes, Minenna wanted more. “I decided if I’m going to do this, I’ll do it really well and know everything about it,” she says. That conviction brought her to Europe, where she learned from top experts in the field, returning to Winnipeg an expert in her own right.
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 the 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.”
What happened was, Brows by G exploded. Today Minenna runs her business out of two locations in Winnipeg and offers microblading seminars in 10 cities across Canada.
“I found techniques that worked for me and thought, ‘Why keep this to myself if I can offer it to others who want to quit their 9-to-5 and grow their own business?’” The seminars also help keep the practice safe. “I want to make sure no one is harming people,” she explains.
Her team of 21, which includes her partner-husband, is another 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. “It’s so great that I get to help these women complete their journey and take on the world,” she says, adding that every year her artists donate a free session to cancer patients.
Minenna is now looking to grow the business and is exploring her options. It comes down to quality control.
“We want to make sure the quality of our brand is upheld no matter where we go,” she says.
Her vision isn’t going anywhere, though. “To have clients feel more confident than when they walked in, that’s why I do what I do,” Minenna says. “It’s not just about eyebrows. It’s about your experience and how you feel.”