Everyone has a Covid story.. In Jan 2020, I moved to LA to open my first US location in West Hollywood with my dearest friend @sev_petrosian Founder of @sevlaseraesthetics 🙏🏼🤍 With our right hand girl @marissawhitney_ we worked to bring the force of two strong female founded brands together, launching Sev Brows by Melanie Marris in the US!! It was one of the most magical, surreal experiences, with the greatest people. The late night house-calls, 12 hour days! Each time you build a new store in a new place, it’s like a new baby, you get to go back to scratch and experience the beautiful and challenging moments all over. It’s like the hustle is reborn. New clients, new excitement. I love that part of the journey. I manifested taking the Melanie Marris experience to LA for over a decade, it was something I had worked toward for as long as I could remember. It was my first post on Facebook in 2012, before I even had a single client in Australia.. We had just finished renovating our stunning space on La Cienega and were planning the press release and grand opening, when they announced the Covid lock down.. Everyone thought it wasn’t real to begin with, as I’m sure so many of you can relate to.. so we kept forward planning.. It was months and months of lock downs.. so I decided to put all of my energy into @browcode & @browcodepro intensely. Having other global businesses, I’d never had the dedicated time to focus on it singularly. .. By November 2020, devastatingly, it was time to put my US dream on the side lines and head back home to Australia to wait it out. My heart was broken as we had to make the hard decision to close the location.. before it even got to open but I knew I would be given another opportunity to take my brands to the US and kept faith 🙏🏼 I am sharing a small part of this story for anyone who EVER feels like giving up.. NOTHING WORTH HAVING COMES EASY! Keep jumping over those road blocks, keep running through those barriers, keep pushing past anything that tries to stop you. Keep believing, keep striving and NEVER GIVE UP! Forever grateful for Sev & every single person who supported my dream in LA, I love you 🫶🏼🫶🏼