Katie Cournoyer bubbles with enthusiasm as she declares, “I love making people look pretty.”

It’s not a girlish daydream. Katie has spent over 10 years in the beauty industry, empowering people with customized skin care routines and makeup looks. She has experienced the transformative energy of making someone feel beautiful, and now this simple statement is her credo.

And although she calls herself an artistic free spirit, Katie also exercises her tireless ambition by devoting all of her free time to advancing the skills that help her live up to that mission statement. For years, that meant traveling to beauty conventions across the US – testing, learning and networking – and now it also includes trips to Nashville for Smart Tan’s international indoor tanning convention.

Her tanning business, known now as Perfect Tan, had been a Tanfastic location that opened in 1996. As a long-time customer, she looked to the previous owner as a mentor of sorts. Katie would scope out other tanning salons in the area, and he would give her advice from his years of experience. In a turn of events that amounts to a mix of chance and their strong relationship, the previous owner was accepted to a long-awaited nursing internship and needed to sell his business quickly. He immediately thought of Katie and sold her the business with confidence that it would be in good hands.

In March 2015, Katie got the keys to her very own tanning salon. And within less than two years, she has already made an impression in her San Francisco Bay Area market. Her hands-on approach to the salon, cross-industry wisdom and emphasis on education have created a unique beauty destination.

Click here to read the entire article in the latest issue of Smart Tan Magazine online.