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Dezi Burtenshaw is a Wyoming based western lifestyle influencer and a business owner. She compares her lifestyle to a military kid because of how much her family moved around to different ranches when she was growing up. Dezi grew up in the cowboy lifestyle and says that it had a huge impact on her overall work ethic as a person. And has helped her immensely as she has stepped into the world of entrepreneurship.

When Dezi was in college at the University of Wyoming, she really started to dive into what she wanted to do with her life and where her career was going to land. The influencer thing was starting to take off at that point and it peaked her interested. In college she went to school for business and after graduation she decided to dive in head first into being a business owner.

Balancing Multiple Passions

Burtenshaw is a busy gal. Between working as an influencer and a makeup artist her days are often full of to do’s. She first got into the beauty and fashion industry because of her mom who instilled in her to always look your best. In her own words “you look good, you feel good”. So from a young age, Dezi says she always tended to lean towards fashion and style. And because of that, when she was in college, she really leaned into the next step which was makeup. Many days were spent watching tutorials and practicing makeup on her sisters and friends.

Just after college ended, Dezi started a spray tanning business that took off and eventually she was able to incorporate makeup into the mix. Her business is called Barefoot Pretty where she offers spray tanning, makeup services, and she also works in the haircare/skincare industry as well.

Burtenshaw is your self proclaimed “confidence bff”. She loves getting to hype women up and make them feel their most beautiful. Being the successful business owner she is, she saw a niche to help other women grow their own careers doing the things they are passionate about as well.

She keeps a journal at hand to brain dump ideas and thoughts as a way to organize everything she needs to keep track of. Dezi also has 2 different instagram accounts to separate her business from her personal and influencer content.

Finding Her Confidence

Confidence is not something that happens over night. And Dezi says for her it took a lot of time and personal development to truly find herself and be happy with where she was at in life. She goes on to say how sometimes she wishes she could go back to college with the mindset she has now because everything would be so different. Her grades would be better. She would have more friends, better experiences, and so on.

But seeing how far she has come over the years has really been a good motivator for her moving forward. A lot of Dezi’s confidence has come from networking with other people and working with brands. Making those connections can help give you a mood boost and solid support system.

Something that has also made confidence more challenging is the new advances in social media such as Reels and Tik Tok. Dezi says the video content people put out reaches such a vast audience which can be great, but also scary territory. Lots of bitter people hiding behind their screens waiting to comment attack on their next victim. But she put’s it so beautify by saying that the world full of love and hate are both at your fingertips and you don’t always know which one is going to find you. And the best thing you can do is block and delete whenever those negative people do find their way onto your page.

Stepping Into The World Of Influencing

In college, Dezi really started to notice the western fashion and lifestyle industries were taking off. She started following some of the people who are now industry top leaders and getting inspired by them. And head first, Dezi dove in and worked it. But she does say that it was a lot different back then vs. how she runs her accounts now, going back to the confidence thing. It takes someone who is really secure within themselves to be able to show up on the internet regularly.

Now that she has an established page, she says her biggest advice to people wanting to get started is to just do it. Not worrying about being perfect and being willing to have trials and errors. Ignorance on fire is a beautiful thing in an industry like this. Dezi says that because of this ever changing industry it can feel overwhelming to keep up. So one of the most important things to do is to just be yourself and show up in ways that feel like you.

What Is Something You Would Change Within The Industry

This past year was the first year that Dezi attended the National Finals Rodeo as “Instagram Dezi Burtenshaw”. She said the experience was really eye opening. It made her realize how small the western fashion industry really is. And it really shocked her at how competitive the industry really is. A lot of people are scared to get into this world because they are nervous about the competition and what people might say about them.

While from the outside it looks like the industry is large and growing, in reality the market is so much smaller than most people think. A huge reason a lot of people never dive into the things they are passionate about is because of that fear. When in reality there is space for everyone and everything they have to offer.

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