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Sunless Legacy | Spray Tan Business Mentorship

@sunlesslegacy

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✨ Strategy • Marketing • Leadership
✨ Mentoring + Community for Spray Tan Artists
✨ Created by @shonna.dexter Founder of @recreatingrays
✨ Join us👇🏼

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Before you join Sunless Legacy, here’s what you should know about me.

I’m @shonna.dexter and I’m an owner/operator these days but I started as a side gig artist in my basement. I worked 45-50
hours per week in a corporate job while growing my clientele from zero…to over 10,000 tans annually today.

I’ve methodically built and scaled my business @recreatingrays to become a multi-location sunless studio over the last 15 years. I’ve hired, trained and lead a team of 25+. I’ve navigated seasonality. I’ve made many mistakes. I’ve cleaned up my messes. I’ve worked with my team to build systems because that’s the only way you can scale beyond just yourself.

I didn’t originally become a mentor because I liked the idea of coaching. In fact, I hate the word “coach” because it has such a gross connotation to me these days.

✨ Anyone can call themselves a coach…but only someone with actual real world experience doing what you want to do can be a mentor. ✨

I became a mentor because artists kept asking how I built what I built…and I know that most of the industry conversations happening in Facebook groups are missing the depth, nuance, strategy and experience that actually matter when building a sunless business.

I don’t teach hacks and I don’t chase trends.

I’m not interested in quick wins.

I care about sustainable revenue, strong margins, clear capacity, leadership and longevity.

I will encourage you.
I will challenge you.
I will expect you to execute.
I will also be your biggest cheerleader.

And I will always speak from my lived experience…not theory.

Sunless Legacy isn’t about quick wins or viral trends…it’s about building a strong foundation for something that lasts.

If that resonates, you’ll probably feel at home here. The link in the bio will tell you more. 🤎 by @sunlesslegacy

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7 months ago

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13 days ago

Last week our manager left after nearly seven years with us.

It was emotional. 🥹 How do you ever adequately say “thank you” to someone who helped you build your dream and stewarded the ship through your biggest growth period?

But when she walked out the door on Wednesday, the business didn’t skip a beat…and that wasn’t luck. It was an internal knowing that nothing lasts forever and quietly forming a plan “just in case”.

The biggest lesson I learned? Culture creates the kind of place where the person walking out the door wants to leave it better than she found it. 🧡

Swipe for how it all played out… by @sunlesslegacy

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a month ago

You didn’t start a spray tan business to be broke and busy. Here’s what I would gladly spend money on after 15 years in business…

1. A knowledgeable business coach/mentor
You can white-knuckle it and learn everything the hard way on your own or you can pay someone who’s already made the mistakes to shortcut your timeline. I’ve watched SL members skip years of trial and error because they have someone who actually knows this industry in their corner…ME! 😉

And yes…even I have a business coach.

2. A ticket to @slaythespraytour
This isn’t just a fun few days away from the studio…it’s the room. The connections, the ideas, the “wait, you do it THAT way?” conversations. I always say there is absolutely nothing like being in a room full of people who do what you do and love what you love…and we get that at STS.

3. Staff to help you build a business instead of a job
If you’re doing every single spray yourself, you don’t own a business…you own a job. Paying for staff as your demand grows (even when it feels scary) is what actually buys you your life back.

4. Anything that helps you know & understand your numbers — a bookkeeper, a CPA, a quality booking system
You cannot make good decisions off vibes. Guessing your margins, your labor cost, your revenue per service…that’s how artists quietly drown as they scale. Pay for the clarity. It’s worth every penny.

5. Interest on a loan to build your business strategically
Debt gets a bad rap, but strategic business debt that lets you open the second room, hire ahead of busy season, or build out a brick and mortar? That’s not a cost…it’s leverage. Fear of strategic debt keeps WAY too many people small.

I’m curious…what have you spent money on in your spray tan biz that was 100% worth the investment? by @sunlesslegacy

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2 months ago

A Sunless Legacy member asked ChatGPT how to work herself out of the business. It told her to pay staff 50% commission.

Respectfully? Hell no.

That number is incredibly common in the beauty industry. But in the sunless industry? It’s a margin killer…and it’ll trap you deeper into your business, not free you from it.

I spend a lot of my time helping sunless owners work themselves out of compensation plans they went into with the best of intentions — plans that make it nearly impossible for them to scale. Their artists are making more than they are…many times MUCH more…and unlike the owner, artists have zero skin in the game.

It’s a fast track to burnout and, even worse, walking away.

Knowing the actual number that works (and why) is 15 years of industry-specific insider knowledge. Not something an algorithm can hand you…only real world experience gets you there. The kind I’ve gained building and scaling my sunless business from a solo side gig in my basement to two brick and mortars and 25 staff members.

That’s exactly what Sunless Legacy members get. 🤎

Raise your hand if you’ve been personally victimized by bad biz advice from AI or a compensation plan that had your artists making more than you. 🙋🏼‍♀️ by @sunlesslegacy

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2 months ago

This weekend, i opened the doors to both Recreating Rays studios for our Sunless Legacy members…inviting them to Kansas City for a weekend with no planned agenda…just being together.

Something I heard a few times?

“This is the dream.”

And every time I hear that from someone I know that this wasn’t built because I’m smarter or more talented or because I had some secret no one else has.

It was built one client at a time. One appointment, one referral one hard conversation with a staff member, one scary big investment, one system, one artist…one year after another after another.

Fifteen years ago when I picked up a spray tan gun for the first time…I couldn’t even fathom this.

It was a tiny room in my basement with makeshift walls and peel and stick linoleum tile and me merely hoping someone would book an appointment.

If you’re in the middle of building your own version of “the dream,” PLEASE don’t compare your Day 327 to someone else’s year 15.

The beautiful studios, the incredible team, the full books and the business that runs without you behind the spray gun?

Those things aren’t the starting line. They’re the result of thousands of small decisions made consistently over time…in my case MANY years.

What these ladies saw this weekend wasn’t magic. It was years of momentum.

But the best part?

There’s nothing uniquely special about me.

The same opportunity exists for you if you’re willing to stay in the game long enough to build it.

Keep showing up. Keep getting better. Keep serving people well.

I’m so incredibly grateful and honored that these women and about 70 more have chosen me to help guide them through the ups and downs of the industry.

I’m even more grateful they spent their time, money and energy…and chose to be here with me in my hometown this weekend.

I love these women and feel deeply connected to them in a way I cannot describe. Being their mentor is honor and not something I take lightly. Thank you, girls, for your trust and for showing up for each other everyday. I may be the vehicle that brought you together…but I’m simply one tiny part of this journey we are making together.

Now let’s go chase more dreams…together! 🤍 by @sunlesslegacy

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2 months ago

Kinda chic to fly across the country to sharpen your craft.
Kinda chic to learn from the industry’s best.
Kinda chic to be in a room full of women who just get it.
Kinda chic to invest in yourself instead of making excuses.
Kinda chic to come home with a notebook full of ideas and a heart full of inspiration.
Kinda chic to never stop leveling up.

See you soon… I’ve got big things coming. by @sunlesslegacy

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2 months ago

Kinda chic…sunless BUSINESS edition 🧡 What did I miss? by @sunlesslegacy

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2 months ago

If you can’t sell your business someday, you don’t own a business. You own a job.

Most spray tan artists will work for 10, 15, 20 years and walk away with nothing. No buyout. No asset. Just the money they made along the way.

That was the wake-up call for me.

The goal isn’t doing spray tans forever. The goal is to build something that runs without you…something with real value that someone else would actually pay for.

That shift in thinking changes everything. How you hire. How you train. Whether your name needs to be on the schedule. Whether the business survives if you don’t show up.

Are you building a business or a job? Be honest with yourself. 🤎

Doors to Sunless Legacy close June 30 and won’t reopen until October. This is what we talk about inside. Link in bio. by @sunlesslegacy

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3 months ago

If your pricing model is built for fast cash instead of consistent cash…this is for you! 🔥

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Packages feel like a win.

Big charge. Big dopamine. Big bank deposit.

But here’s the truth most artists don’t want to look at: Packages discount the wrong client.

They’re not built to create loyal, lifestyle tanners.

They’re built on outdated UV tanning salon pricing models for your 1–3 x per year special-event tanner…who would have paid full price.

So what happens?

• You just gave a discount to the least consistent client.
• You pulled future revenue into today (and robbed tomorrow).
• Your artists often get no tip because “they already paid”.
• And mentally…it feels terrible when they come in and pay nothing.

That last part matters more than you think. It quietly trains your nervous system to resent your own pricing model.

But the biggest issue?

Packages do not create predictable revenue.

They give you cash spikes…followed by financial whiplash.

Memberships do the opposite:

• They stabilize your income.
• They reward true loyalty.
• They support slow seasons.
• They create lifestyle tanners - something we all want.
• They protect your peace and your payroll.

If your goal is quick cash, packages will always be tempting.

If your goal is a scalable, stable, long-term business…there’s a better way.

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Inside Sunless Legacy, memberships are a core pillar for a reason. Predictable revenue changes everything.

Link in bio to join us.

Or grab my Membership Guide and learn how to build a scalable and profitable membership program for your spray tanning business for just $97! by @sunlesslegacy

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