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This is episode 17 of the Artist to Artist podcast. My name is Angie. I'm a freelance makeup artist and makeup artist educator. And today's episode is for those of you who are thinking about going full time as a makeup artist at some point, whether it's in the near future or this is your long term plan.
Even if you're a makeup artist that isn't thinking about going full time, you're happy as a part time freelancer or maybe you're doing work seasonally you are still going to be able to find value in this episode for sure because working as a pro in any capacity takes so much work.
There isn't a lot of information out there about how to do this properly and my transition from working part time as a makeup artist to full time Was one of the most jarring things that has ever happened to me in my life. It's something I still remember to this day It's the reason artist artists exist.
So we're going to talk all about that in today's episode The other great thing about this episode, this will be a great way for you to get to know me. Maybe you're considering buying a [00:01:00] course from me. Maybe you're thinking about following me on Instagram. Maybe you're thinking about subscribing to this podcast. This episode is going to give you more information about my background, about why artist to artist exists.
In the first place my approach to makeup artist education and training So there's gonna be a lot of helpful stuff in this episode today The other reason I wanted to do this episode for you is because every Monday on Instagram I do a makeup artist Q& A 9 a. m. Eastern Standard Time.
I do this in Instagram stories and the questions I always get asked are About what it takes to transition to being a makeup artist full time So I'm gonna go through a lot in today's episode and at the end of the episode I did put out a call for questions about transitioning to working full time as an artist So I'm gonna do a quick Q& A at the end of this episode in terms of what you can expect from today's episode I'll talk a little bit about my background.
We'll talk about training makeup artists Building a portfolio. Networking is something I want to touch on as well. We'll talk about the business aspects of going full time as a makeup artist, mindset, [00:02:00] motivation, and there's some stuff that I just want to talk about that I see that is trending right now in the industry that you may want to avoid.
And then we'll finish up with that Q& A section.
When I first decided to take the leap, quit my full time job, and do makeup artistry full time, this, looking back, was probably one of the riskiest things I've ever done in my life. I'm not somebody that likes to take big risks. I'm very much a risk adverse person. I'm more comfortable with calculated risk, and I thought I knew what I was getting into working full time, but it turns out I really had no clue what I'm doing
when you transition from being an amateur makeup artist, or I won't even say amateur, maybe just a part time makeup artist to a pro, I think one of the biggest shocks and one of the most shocking realizations for me, something I hadn't thought through when I was thinking about going full time, when you enter into your market, into this arena, you're immediately in competition with seasoned full time makeup artists.
So imagine stepping into a [00:03:00] room where everybody else who's in that room with you has years of experience, very polished portfolios. There's no sign on your back that says, I'm newer, just give me this one shot. I promise I can do this job. Clients and other industry professionals, they can't tell you're starting out just based on your appearance alone.
They're going to judge you by your work and your portfolio, of course. So this can work for you or against you. It works against you, because if you come into this industry full time, you're, in direct competition with other very seasoned artists.
So in this way, it could be hard for you to get work. If you come to Toronto and you say you want to work and do commercial work, you're immediately in competition with me, the friends I have, you're in competition with agency represented artists.
So this is where it can work against you because if your work doesn't look good, if you don't have the skills to really cut it on set, you're going to maybe get an opportunity, but you probably won't get called [00:04:00] back, or you're not going to get that opportunity at all because you just can't compete with people who are more experienced.
So that is where it works against you. It can work for you if well trained in the fundamentals, your work looks good, you present yourself as professionally as possible from the beginning. You have to think of it like you need to blend in with professionals in order to stand out to clients. So it's important to remember again, you know the basics inside and out, like your color theory, working hygienically, and you're, baseline good at doing makeup, that work is going to speak for itself. You're going to have to take time and build your portfolio. But if you show up to the opportunities that you do have with all of your stuff together, professional demeanor your work ethic is strong.
You're going to have more of a chance versus just showing up deciding you want to be a full time makeup artist with no formal training Not a lot of experience. You're going to be really behind the eight ball if you do that So That's really the double edged sword of [00:05:00] working as a makeup artist.
This example is the best way for me to explain how it feels when you eventually decide to go full time. And I'm sure some of you who are working as part time freelancers right now, you're feeling this. You're just immediately in competition with everyone in your market. you're essentially competing for jobs against makeup artists that have years and years of this is why you hear me talk about especially for newer makeup artists You've got to get around people who are more senior than you so you can learn how to present professionally You've got to see every opportunity to do makeup as a chance to build your reputation showing up as a professional at the end of the day if your makeup Does not look good All of this other stuff isn't going to matter because people aren't going to book you sometimes just solely based on that.
You have to get your work to a level where you can blend in with other professionals in your industry. the biggest wake up call to me, I had so many years of experience when I was working part time as a makeup artist, since I was a teenager I was doing makeup.
In my 30s I [00:06:00] decided to quit and go full time. The minute I was around makeup artists who had been doing this full time, because it's a different thing, when I saw their work and I saw how they were Handling things on set. I just wasn't at that level. So that was a big reality check for me And I think this is something that you're probably going to experience no matter how much preparation you've put in into your decision To work full time There's so much about this industry and about this job that you have to learn all of the ins and outs It takes years of really immersing yourself in the industry to be able to learn all this So when you do decide to go full time You're not going to know everything right away and you have to be okay with that And you have to understand that it's likely you're going to be a little bit behind the eight ball no matter how Great you think your work is no matter how many clients you had when you were part time the full time Makeup game is a little bit different.
So I think for me that was the biggest shock And that's why I had to [00:07:00] double down on making sure I presented myself professionally making sure just my fundamental skills my application skills were top notch and I could get my makeup to look like The other artists I was seeing when I saw their work.
It's like, okay That's a full time makeup artist work What I was doing was just not quite there because I just simply didn't have as many hours invested I hadn't practiced as much I wasn't working as much This for me was the biggest shock and I think you will also feel something similar when you spend more time in the industry and you start to make that transition from working part time to full time. Before you decide to go full time, or before you Take your career to the next level. Just make sure you're trained up in those fundamentals This is one of the reasons why I offer the courses that I offer Everything that we do starts with color theory if you don't know color theory and you don't know how to implement it in your work It's gonna be very difficult to do anything else and you might make it for a while.
[00:08:00] Just following the YouTube tutorials kind of going by instinct, but eventually that is definitely going to catch up to you So make sure you have good training in the fundamentals color theory hygiene is also very important This is something i've talked about for years if you cannot work hygienically That's the first sign of a makeup artist.
That is not a true professional Part of working hygienically means your kit is clean and you're presenting your kit Well, and this is something that people notice
Since the pandemic more people have asked me questions about how I'm working how I'm cleaning and disinfecting Things so this is another fundamental skill in makeup artistry you want to be trained in also in terms of your education and training and I don't want to get into this too much right now But it's really important that any education and training that you're doing to prepare yourself For working full time or just to become a better makeup artist There is a need for really strong mentorship, and I think you will find your career will be better if [00:09:00] you have and can find a good mentor.
And when I say the word mentor, I mean someone that is doing the work that you want to be doing that you can connect with that's either in your market or somewhere else. But the type of work and style that you work in is aligned with this person. I don't mean a person that just simply has a million followers and is offering up a course.
You need to find someone that Has already walked the path that you want to walk part of educating yourself properly to be able to do this job as a professional Does mean? you need to have good quality education, however you find that. You do have to have mentorship. you do need someone to look at and assess your work because you're not going to know what you're doing wrong until you have someone else's eyes on your work.
And when you go out there and work on a set. There's 10 people's eyes on your work. There's a lot of people really critiquing what you're doing and how it looks on camera So part of your education there has to be that opportunity to have feedback on your work we all work in this bubble.
We're not often [00:10:00] working with other makeup artists and the only time we really get our work critiqued is when we're on the job and sometimes it's too late. To help improve the look of your work to make sure you're doing things that are gonna look great on camera and still photography So this should all be part of your education and training just generally as a makeup artist But it's very important that you Do all this before you decide to go full time if you haven't done this already And you need to find someone that Can give you support someone that you can go to and ask questions because There's a million different ways to build a career as a makeup artist and a lot of the ins and outs You're not even going to realize you have questions about things until you're there and you need to talk to somebody, and this is a really important part of developing a career.
You need to have other people in the industry that are doing the job that you're doing that are willing to pull the curtain back, be more open and honest about their experience, and really answer questions that come up. Because a lot of the things that come up, you're not going to be able to find an answer for on TikTok, on Instagram, you're not going to be able to [00:11:00] Google something.
Everybody's career is so unique and that's what makes this whole thing so difficult because there is no standard blueprint that you can follow. So you need someone that you can talk to as things come up. So that's all an important part of your training and education, whether you want to do this full time or you want to go from amateur to pro in whatever capacity that is for you.
. Next thing we have to touch on is your portfolio. This is a big piece of the puzzle. So there is a common misconception, and I find this when I talk to newer artists who are thinking about taking things more seriously or going full time, that they have to have a certain number of pictures In their portfolio, it has to check off certain boxes, like showing diverse models, it has to show certain makeup styles.
And once you have this portfolio set, you can take it with you and show it to clients and that's all you have to do. Building a portfolio is something you're going to be doing for the entirety of your career. It never really ends. It's something that is going to evolve [00:12:00] with you. It's something that you should be consistently updating. And just to be clear, when I say portfolio, I am talking about any images you have on your website.
Mostly I'm talking about social media because that's where people go now to look at portfolios. When you are creating a presentation of your work. Whatever capacity it's in whether you have social website or both It's constantly going to need updating and you're going to have to update it as your career Changes and as you pivot in this job because there's going to be a lot of times where you're going to have to probably change direction, that's Definitely something you need to be prepared for And you're going to need to think about Does this portfolio show what I can do?
Is it attractive to clients? Is it going to convince clients to hire me? It's not just a checklist of things that you have to knock off. And when the checklist is done, your portfolio is done and it's ready for the world. It's an ongoing process and with makeup artistry and building a career, whatever that career looks like for you, we're always doing things for the long term [00:13:00] approach.
I always say you're in this for the long game. So that's something that you have to wrap your head around. Even if you've just started working as a makeup artist last week, everything we do, think about it long term. When you do things for short term gratification, it's probably not going to work out the way you think it's going to work out.
We are building a business here, so you have to look way into the future.
What is important for you to do in any capacity at any time in your career is understand your market
you may want to do more editorial work, and it could be that type of work that got you into this job in the first place. But if you live in a market where people are only hiring for commercial work, you're going to have a really hard time building a career as an editorial makeup artist when there's no editorial work Toronto, where I work, is a very commercial market.
If I was a makeup artist that wanted to focus on doing celebrity work, I probably am not going to have a very long or profitable career in Toronto. [00:14:00] I'm going to have to relocate to somewhere like LA or New York if that's truly what I wanted to do. So it's important that when you're making these decisions about your career, like the type of work that you want to have in your portfolio.
Maybe quitting a part time job to work full time as a makeup artist Maybe starting makeup artistry just as a profession on the side. Whatever is that you want to do Make sure you are doing market research look at the type of work that is happening in your market You can use linkedin you can use instagram.
You can use tiktok You can use Google, figure out what companies are hiring. If you have a network of people that you're already getting to know in the industry, ask around. What type of jobs are you doing? Even people that you're working with on set, they could be assistants, they could be lighting people, ask them the type of work that they're doing.
Be a little bit nosy about what people are doing so you can get the picture of what's happening in your area because I think sometimes what we think is going on in reality is not actually what is happening.
I'm trying to think [00:15:00] of the best way to say this, but if you're using what you see on social as an accurate reflection of what's happening in our industry or in your market, I think you're going to find you're going to be very shocked and disappointed once you really get into the real world. So don't use instagram as any kind of measurement for what's going on in your industry because everybody is always going to show that They're busy.
Everybody's going to show their work with their most glamorous clients and believe me most of us are not working with glamorous clients every day I certainly am not so it's important that you talk to people about what's actually going on in your industry So you understand what you need to do When you need to kick things into high gear to work as a full time makeup artist Or even if you're just thinking about working as a makeup artist in general
It's about figuring out what's going on so you can tailor your work and your portfolio To clients that are going to be hiring because the main thing at the end of the day Doesn't matter how bad you want to work as a [00:16:00] makeup artist you need to be in a situation where it's actually financially possible for you to do this full time and targeting your portfolio to paying clients is going to be very important.
Now, I know there's probably a lot of you listening saying, how do I even build my portfolio if I've been working part time or not at all, and I want to go full time and I don't have a lot of connections with, other photographers, other people in the industry., It's not as hard as you think, and remember that we're playing the long game.
There's. Very few shortcuts to get from point A to point B. If you don't hear anything else I'm saying to you in this episode, just remember if someone's selling you a shortcut, I promise you It's probably not going to be true.
Everyone has to start somewhere. We all start in a place that's Not glamorous at all. We all start doing makeup on our friends and family and you build slowly to build your portfolio if you're starting from zero from the ground up it starts with that market research You figure out the clients that are hiring in [00:17:00] your area you figure out what type of looks are people paying for in my market based on the work that I want to do.
You then create those looks on your friends and family. , you take really simple photos with great lighting with your phone, and you start to post so you have evidence that you're doing makeup. And that's where everybody starts no matter what anyone tells you that's where we start And I think if you're being a makeup artist now It's actually so much easier because so much can be done on social media.
You can make content look super professional with a good phone and some good lighting when I was starting the only way to build a portfolio was to actually go and work with a photographer and get some sort of Retouched professional photo to put on your social and on your website. There wasn't all of this content that is User created or content that you just create with your phone wasn't a thing for many years at the beginning of my career for you guys listening now It's as simple as calling [00:18:00] your friend over to your a Haley Bieber makeup Look taking a nice photo in front of a window, posting that on your social, that starts to become your aesthetic.
So it's quite simple. From there, you're gonna get as many people as you can get doing that. If you're in a situation where it's all natural beauty looks, in Toronto, market is commercial, natural's my specialty because that's what gets me paid, that's what I love to do, so I post natural makeup looks. When people are referred to my social, whether it's a bride, whether it's a commercial client, they see that I can do natural makeup looks.
And I have a mix of things on my feed, I'm definitely posting more stuff from my phone because a lot of the times too you may collaborate and go on a shoot with somebody and you'll get photos that Are not usable you may do a wedding and you won't find one good photo of your makeup so you've always got to get your own content start with your own stuff But just make sure you're doing makeup looks that are going to lead to some sort of payment in the future If you're doing all these crazy I don't even want to say editorial, but just like really weird makeup looks, and there's no market for that where you live.[00:19:00]
You're just kind of wasting your time and your effort. It's about building a business here, and people are not going to hire you if they can't see that you can do the job, so you start there. From there, you're going to take that pre existing portfolio you have of just the photos of your friends and whoever, And you're going to start networking with photographers who are at your level in the industry.
If you're new to the industry, it doesn't matter how old you are, and this is not a situation where age matters. It's your experience level. So if you're newer to the industry, you look for photographers that are aligned with your level of experience and you start your networking there.
And when you talk to these people, you want to make sure that you have a goal in mind for what you want to get out of any TFP or collaborative or creative shoots. It's not wise to just mess around and see what happens. You need a plan, you need a mood board, and you want to make sure you're doing work that is eventually going to catch the eye of someone who needs to be paying.
So when you're networking with photographers, you want to make sure that you are both aligned. So that's a [00:20:00] really important part. And this is how you're going to build your portfolio. And you're going to continue practicing on your friends and family or whoever you can get. Put a call out on your social in your emails Whatever you need to do to get people in your chair You're going to take photos you're going to flood your instagram or your social with that Then you're going to reach out to photographers as you get professional photos from photographers.
You're going to remove your older work That's not as good you're going to keep your best Professional photos, you're going to make sure you're getting content from every shoot that you do behind the scenes all of that And you're just going to continue to do that and as you improve your skills You're going to get access to better photographers the photographers that you're working with.
They're also going to improve So your work eventually evolves if you're thinking about working full time as a makeup artist This is something you need to start on right away If you wait until you're done You kind of cross that line from being employed maybe full time somewhere else to working full time as a makeup artist Building your portfolio takes years to do Getting good at [00:21:00] makeup application like really good takes years.
So this is a very slow process if you're someone that's kind of in the early to middle phases of your part time career as a makeup artist and Full time is where you want to be you really have to go hard on your Skills your actual makeup skills making sure you can capture content and your networking When I was working full time I used every single weekend vacation day day off that I could get to shoot to practice.
That's what I was doing When I started working full time, I was getting jobs Here and there it's not going to be full on But then every other weekend day off I could find I was trying people For creatives didn't matter what if we were somewhat aligned and I felt like I was getting along with them I would try working with photographers, even if they were completely unknown.
I just kept chipping away and that's how I ended up building my book. So building your portfolio is a big step. It's something doing right from the beginning, but you really have to focus in if you [00:22:00] think you're going to be doing this full time on a portfolio that is going to convince clients to want to pay you to do work. Of course we have to speak to networking. When you eventually go full time, networking is something to do weekly, if not daily, and it's something you also need to keep up with. It's not a situation where you become a full time artist, you send out 30 emails, and then you don't do anything else, and things just magically happen, and you get to know people, and people email you back.
No, it's again, Momentum, you have to keep working away at this. And there's usually two types of networking that you need to be aware of, active networking and passive networking. So active networking is the networking we know as networking where you're reaching out to people, you're meeting new people on set, you're connecting with people on social media, you're making an effort to stay connected with people in your industry.
Not just people that can get you jobs, anybody that you work well with you want to get to know. wardrobe stylists, hair stylists, other makeup artists, [00:23:00] photographers, producers, you need to really get to know who the players are in your industry and you need to continue to work at this.
Passive networking is what happens in your referral network. When you show up to a job, you do really great work, you're super professional, easy to work with, everything goes well, You've started to build your reputation and it's your reputation that does a lot of the passive networking for you. When you show up 100%, no matter what it is, whether it's freebie, you're doing a wedding prom makeup, you show up 100 percent as a professional, that's going to help you with your passive networking and that's going to help you with your reputation.
Your social media presence, even just running into people that you maybe recognize from the industry. when you're getting a coffee, leaving a good impression with those people so that your reputation starts to build and people start to kind of talk about you, pass your information around. That's what I mean by passive networking.
So these are things that you need to be conscious of. Of course, you're doing this when [00:24:00] you're part time, but when you're full time, it should be full on. You should be working at this every week and you should, Be making an effort whereby you're putting time in your calendar to do all this and you want to keep up with people Check in on people.
This is how you're going to build your network because your network is so important, especially when you're full time You need to keep creating Connections for yourself, which will hopefully lead to employment
Another suggestion for you when you're thinking about building a business as a full time makeup artist You have to really consider this career choice as starting a business and building a business. Money management is going to be a big one. Like any other business anybody is starting, you need a very large initial investment.
This is going to be money to cover off your living expenses when it's slow, because it's going to be slow for a very long time. the cost to actually do the job. And it's things not only makeup, your cases, any extra things that you need. You may need to purchase, I don't know, something for your website.
You may need [00:25:00] to purchase something to help you with your social media apps, things like that. These are all costs that are going to come up. And this is all part of growing and running a business. And I think if you can shift away from the more emotional aspects of the job, because I think when I ask people, why do you want to become a makeup artist?
Yes, there's this great emotional aspect. You get to be creative. You get to make people feel good. You get to interact with people, new things all the time. But really, if you can prioritize thinking about this as a business, yes, emotionally we need to be connected to what we're doing, but sometimes our emotions can make aspects of this industry very hard, and when you think about it as a business, a lot of the emotional stuff is going to go away.
Things like following up on late payments, dealing with difficult clients, setting your boundaries. All of this is much easier when you really see this as a business and you see yourself, of course, as an artist, but primarily as a business owner.
If you are thinking about going full time, you are going to need a ton of savings before you go full time. And I would say if you have any [00:26:00] outstanding credit card debt, make sure that is down to pretty much zero before you start working. Even if you have regular clients as a part time artist, To lose a full time salary, especially if that salary includes benefits from your full time job, it's a huge chunk of money and money does not appear out of thin air in this industry.
No matter how bad you want to work as a makeup artist, it takes a ton of work. And regardless of when you're making this transition to full time, you still have years of work ahead of you to build a regular clientele. None of this happens overnight. If it did, we would all have a huge client list. We wouldn't all be complaining about slow periods.
This is a very hard business. Having a small business, being an entrepreneur is very difficult. You can ask anyone in any industry how challenging it is. We are no different. So you have to make sure financially you're going to be okay Because it is so easy to go broke doing this job and you [00:27:00] don't want to make financial decisions based on Things you're seeing on Instagram land or things that people are selling you about the job that are so far from the truth I am telling you as someone that has been through this.
I thought I was prepared financially. I had no credit card debt I had some money savings. I blew through that very quickly because I was basically making less than minimum wage in my first couple of years and I left a job that a full time job that I was at for I think five years. So I was making a really good salary that all vanishes as soon as you leave.
There's a big financial component to seeing this through and making sure that when you leave your full time job, you are okay financially. And if you have the help of a partner or your family, that is great. Here's a great example that I give people. Think about it this way. If you're thinking about quitting a full time job and let's say you want to get into bridal and special events. There's only so many weekends in a year where you can book [00:28:00] weddings. When you first start as I mentioned right off the top in this episode You're going against people who have been running full time bridal businesses for years So it's going to be very hard for you to get your foot in the door Especially if your work isn't there you don't have a strong social media presence And you don't really know how to do this job full time yet It's going to be challenging to get to that level quickly And it's going to take you a while to replace that full time income because you're not going to be able to charge the same income As a makeup artist that's been doing bridal for many many years and running a full time bridal business with that being said It's going to be quite some time before you replace your full time income.
It's also very hard depending on the market that you're in to get into things like commercials the union It takes time to do this and our job is not a nine to five monday to friday job Our job goes in season. Some months are busy. Some months are slow So if you're not aware of your finances how much it costs you to live every month if you have outstanding debt You Money does [00:29:00] not come out of thin air, even if you already have a pre existing client base. It's just truly a different ballgame, and I can't stress that enough. And if you're feeling nervous or scared about going full time, you definitely should be feeling this way. It's normal. It's a huge risk for any of us. And I think Even the most prepared people are still gonna feel like they're a little bit in shock Even if you have support from a partner or you have support from your family Or you're in a situation where maybe you're just coming out of high school and you're going into this full time There's a lot of learning that has to be done.
It's still a very slow process to build a career you have to expect that that is going to be a reality and i'm not just being negative nancy here That's not true This is how it goes for all of us. It's slow. We all have to be smart with our money we all can't buy every new eyeshadow palette it's just not the right thing to do because when money's tight believe me, it's very tight and Sometimes and i've said this talking to a lot of friends of mine It's just sometimes success comes when you can just outlast everybody else and you can be smart with your money And you [00:30:00] can make it through slow periods Your career opportunities sometimes come when other people have tapped out can't afford to do it They'll leave the industry and more opportunities will come to you.
These are all things that you have to consider
One thing that I really want to mention here, and I'm going to use my courses as an example, talking about money management. As a course creator, am actually shocked at how many people purchase courses and trainings from me and never log in. And I'll tell you why that's surprising to me. I'm not trying to call anybody out, but I just wanted you to understand the value and the whole money management thing.
So my color theory course is just under 500. that cost is going to be probably a day of work for some of you, two to three days of work for some of you, and to just spend that money and then not actually get any learning from it, it's not a good investment. You want to make sure that whatever you invest in, whether it's products, courses in education, and especially courses in education, See things through because that [00:31:00] money you're working very hard for and you won't realize until you're full time as a makeup artist how much work you have to do to get full day jobs, to get jobs that are paying a decent amount.
It takes a lot of hustle and a lot of work. So when I see people buying my courses and not even logging in or not even seeing them through, that is so much work for such a waste of money and you're not learning what you paid to learn. Even courses that you purchase that are maybe you see are not great.
You're still learning something from that course. You might be learning, Oh, hey, you know what? I'm doing a lot of the stuff that this pro artist is doing already. That's learning something that's going to make you feel more confident when you go to your next job. For my color theory course, for example, I'm giving you fundamental training that everybody needs.
And on top of that, there's bonuses in my course where I'm giving you stuff to help you build your business. So to pay. One day two day or three days of work as a makeup artist And not even take advantage of the training and education that you're paying for if you do this More than once which [00:32:00] we have all made this mistake.
We've all bought things We didn't need we've all bought trainings and courses. We never at the more you do this though I need you to understand like how much work you're doing to pay for things like that Please keep this in mind when you're making buying decisions. If you're investing in education, see it through, take advantage of things. If you're buying a course with me, get in there, finish the course, tap into my knowledge.
I'm giving you the tools to do that. An opportunity to learn from every mistake i've ever made which is basically all of them three times over I'm letting you come into my world and take information from me that you can use to build the business that you want to build and if you're paying for anything where you have access to a makeup artist That's doing what you want to do Take advantage of that access because in some markets it's going to be Very hard to find a makeup artist to help you and train you in some of the ways that myself and other makeup artist Educators are training.
That's just a side note. I wanted to mention because I know Buying into training and education is a big thing when there's any kind of shift in our careers And I want to [00:33:00] just make sure you're making smart financial decisions. You're going to the right people and you're actually making use of The training that you're paying for
We've got to talk about mindset and motivation because it's a big Factor when it comes to working as a makeup artist in any capacity when you decide to work full time It's a different level of stress when you're running your own business starting your own business you've got to take care of your mind and body I say this Over and over again, a healthy makeup artist is a successful makeup artist.
If you have problems with your mental health, if you're not taking care of your body, you're going to have a short career and you're not going to be as successful. You're also not going to be able to do as much work as somebody who is taking care of these things. And that's just getting your mind right, getting your body right, it's going to give you a huge advantage to other people in the industry because you're going to be able to be more resilient.
and if there's one characteristic you have to have, you have to be resilient. This industry is relentless. It changes on a dime. People are challenging to work with, so you need to have [00:34:00] resilience.
The other thing that's important to know, you are not going to be able to even come close to predicting the mistakes and failures that are going to be happening to you, regardless of how much time you spend on social. How many videos you watch, things are going to happen, failures are going to happen, mistakes are going to happen, you're not even going to see them coming, believe me, this week.
So I'm going to talk to you today about the things that I've screwed up on, the things that have happened to me I could have never predicted, and I like to think of myself as a very prepared person, but I can promise you, the failures you're going to have to overcome, the mistakes that you're going to have to make, you've got to see these as learning opportunities, and you have to be thankful And I am thankful for them because they're just going to keep coming no matter how long you've been doing things in this industry.
I still make mistakes on jobs. I still screw up. I still miss out on opportunities sometimes because of,, my own faults and things that I haven't done correctly. I'm still learning all the time. If you can go into this industry, not afraid of screwing up, of failing, of making a mistake, you're going to be so much better prepared than everybody else.
While [00:35:00] everyone else is crying in their car after a shoot, you're going to be like, you know what? I screwed up today. But. Thankfully, I made this mistake. I learned this. I'm not going to make this mistake again. And now I'm ready for my next challenge That's how you have to approach working in this industry And you also just need to check your ego at the door because another thing that is so surprising when you get into this I think social paints this job as we are so important and We're just this big part of the crew and a lot of the shoot revolves around our makeup looks and what we're doing And I don't know For me that has never been the case when you show up to a job.
You're an employee like everybody else You're not special the world does not revolve around you on a set So your ego really has to be checked at the door And it also helps to check your ego at the door because you're going to be humbled time and time again Especially in those first few years when you're working full time Let me tell you for myself.
This is a time in my career. I will never forget I was so humbled once I started working around full time artists. It was [00:36:00] just like someone cleaned my glasses and I had a clear view of everything and I couldn't believe what I was seeing and I couldn't believe I thought what I thought about the industry we all have that point, especially when you become Really part of the industry when you get to work full time in this.
It's just you see things in a completely different light check the ego at the door have some humility, be humble on sets, just be nice to people, make sure you are open to learning new things because you'll learn something new on every single job that you work on, no matter the job, you're gonna pick something up. I think That's important, and just being comfortable with a certain level of risk is also going to get you far.
If you are somebody that is more tightly wound, which I can be like this at certain points, you do have to let go of some of your need for control. And I think a lot of us in this job do have that side of our personality, because a lot of things are going to be out of your control, and you'll realize this quickly.
Being comfortable with taking risks, taking big swings, , getting over [00:37:00] some of your fears, maybe networking is something you're uncomfortable with, maybe putting yourself out there, maybe pitching yourself to clients is something you're scared of, you've got to push through that, you've got to put it on the line sometimes, because a lot of the times it's putting yourself through those riskier behaviors or those uncomfortable things
is what is going to reward you in your career. Just know this is hard stuff It's not an easy career by any means it still surprises me to this day how difficult things Have been ups and downs for sure and you can just expect that things are not always going to be smooth sailing But it's fun to be challenged anytime.
I lose a client something happens. I just like okay What can I do now, like how do I Pick myself up. How do I pivot? How do I continue doing what I love to do? It challenges me in a way that keeps me motivated. So if you can wrap your head around that, you'll be good., I have to talk about social and how this job is portrayed on social. I can't leave this episode without doing this. I see a lot of content because my content is designed for [00:38:00] aspiring makeup artists that want to be pro. I see a lot of how other makeup artists are targeting newer artists to the industry and selling their products.
And I see the sales pitch. many times as something that's broken down into a very simple equation or that's broken down into a series of shortcuts that this makeup artist or instructor can provide to you if you're looking to become a full time makeup artist or you're looking to work as a makeup artist.
And I really, truly need you to understand that these are all marketing tactics. And I think if you've listened to me long enough, you know, the time it takes, the effort it takes. When it comes to building a business and that's what you're doing here Yes, you can make over six figures a year if you book a certain amount of weddings and a certain amount of commercial clients, but I don't think what people are seeing is how Many years it takes to get to that point to get to where every weekend that you want is booked with a [00:39:00] wedding anyone that's selling you this They're doing you a real disservice and I just need you to come out of Instagram land and come into the real world and I know how These things will grab your attention.
A lot of the ads on social are designed for that They're designed to speak to your pain points. They're designed to make you feel like This person or artist has the solution to your problem and there's gonna be some things that you will learn from programs like this but I just need you to have one toe in the real world and Sometimes if you see I don't know a program that's 1, 000 You might be just better off approaching a makeup artist in your city or where you live who's working full time approaching them and saying hey , I have 500.
Will you sit with me for a couple hours answer my questions? Tell me how you got to where you were you may get more value in that I just see these trends when it comes to courses trainings content that is telling you how to build a successful [00:40:00] business and anything that is Simplifying it into five steps or make six figures after this program, which is three months long For I promise you if these things actually worked, we would all be doing it.
I would own my own house by now I would probably be driving a better car than the Mazda that i'm driving. I would look a lot better I would have more than three outfits that I wear all the time Trust me when I say this if it was that easy And it was a checklist of just bookings that you needed to get on a list for a year We'd all be doing it and we're not all doing it And the other thing I need you to really hear me and understand is that a successful career in makeup artistry You It happens in so many different ways and in different forms, and you don't have to be a celebrity artist, you don't have to have 8 million followers to be profitable, you can do this career, and it can be amazing, and I think you will find your dream job is going to look nothing like it does on social
I guess what I'm trying to tell you is don't use social as the tool that you use to gauge what success is, what this career looks like. Try not to do that. Try to [00:41:00] focus on what's in front of you, what's in your market, what other artists in your industry are doing. That's more real than what you're seeing on social.
We all know it's the highlight reel. You're never going to see anybody make a million mistakes on social. You're never going to see all the times people ate mr Noodles because they couldn't afford groceries.
You're not going to see the low points of people's careers on social. It doesn't get views. It doesn't engage people. It doesn't sell courses and trainings. It doesn't sell products.
That's for sure Everyone's career is going to be different what all of us want out of this career is different What success is to me is going to be different to somebody else People may look at my career and think I'm not successful because I don't Work with celebrities, but for me if I can support myself full time and do the job that I love I see that as being successful.
I don't have a fancy car. I don't travel crazy all over the world I'm not working with celebrities, but that doesn't mean that i'm not fulfilled in my job these are things that I need you to just always come back to
last thing now for this episode is to get to some of the questions that I received from you on Instagram. [00:42:00] And you know what? If you're following my Artist to Artist Instagram, please turn on alerts so you don't miss anything. my content is going to be ramping up, and I post a lot on stories.
For example, I asked what do you want to know about working full time? I will answer your questions when I do my Monday Q& As. I answer everyone's questions if I can. If there's something I completely can't answer, I won't, but 90 percent of the time I'm answering every question.
I'm giving you an opportunity to connect with me directly, to tap into my experience. So take advantage of this. Turn on alerts on the Artist to Artist Instagram. So let's look at some of the questions I received. The first question is what are some general signs to look for that tell you you are ready to move to full time, whether it's financial, whether it's skill based? And I think the most honest answer I can give you, you probably aren't going to have a clear cut checklist of things that you have done or that you have prepared for and you're not going to have that clear sign.
You'll have an intuition and then you can combine that intuition with some just more [00:43:00] practical things like making sure you're out of debt, making sure you have as much saved as possible, making sure you're making good financial decisions when you go full time. Skill wise, you're going to need some improvement, but your learning kind of speeds up once you go full time because you're more immersed in the industry, you have more opportunities to practice, you will get better probably at a faster rate than when you're working part time.
There's going to be no clear cut sign, but some of the things I talked about in this episode will hopefully help You prioritize what you need to work on and also what you need to look out for. and my next piece of advice is just don't go broke doing this. Just make sure you have as much money saved as possible and you're good with your finances.
The next question is, what's the biggest piece of advice you could give to someone wanting to go full time? I feel like this whole episode was just advice that I can share with you. , the answer to this question really depends on the day, really, and how I'm feeling about the industry, I don't even know where to start There's just so many things but I think maybe the best thing to say was that this is a really hard [00:44:00] career choice Expect to be challenged expect to work harder than you've ever worked before expect to sacrifice a lot expect to be humbled I think that's the main overriding thing.
Is that it's just harder than it looks like truly You know Social just chops everything up into easy steps to do this, and if you do this, this will happen. If you book these things, you'll earn this much. It's just not like that at all. Expect to work really hard, if you're going to be working as a full time freelancer, that's for sure.
This is a good question. How is it that others who go full time seem to get their big break at once and land big jobs? And that is just simply because once you are able to commit all of your time and energy, which is what it takes to build a career as a makeup artist, things are going to progress faster because you're immersed in the industry you'll make more of an effort networking. Your work is going to get better It's going to look better. People are going to notice you you're going to post more on social as you work more You're going to be more confident. You'll be more confident talking to be more confident posting on social this is when things kind of happen faster [00:45:00] and when you create this momentum for yourself And I know if you've seen my videos Follow me on social for any length of time. I'm all about momentum and just chipping away. The more momentum you create, the more things are going to happen for you.
That passive and active networking that we talked about earlier in the episode, this all happens when you're posting more on social, you feel more confident about who you are as an artist, going into jobs, you're pleasant to deal with, you handle yourself as a professional. When you have more opportunities to prove yourself, Things are going to happen, word is going to get out, people are going to refer you, and just things seem to speed up.
So you're noticing that because that is what happens, that's what happened to me when I went full time. It's just I was working on makeup all the time. I was getting better with my application I was relearning things that I needed to relearn. I was meeting more people my book got better My skills got better.
My confidence got higher. That's how things happen And this is why I tell you take every opportunity whether you're full time just starting Part time whatever to present as professionally as possible and make sure your [00:46:00] work looks good And that can't happen without your fundamental training So if you're processing all this and you're thinking that you want to do this full time Keep in mind all of these things but at the end of the day if your work doesn't look good hard to do all of the other things that need to fall into place To make this career an option for The next question is, is it possible to become a successful makeup artist by working mostly during the week?
And I think the answer is yes, but I think this is something that comes over time and it's really gonna depend on your market because you have to see the flow of work. you don't want to be bridal, you'll have to make sure that your market is more commercial it is, you're going to have shoots more or less between Monday and Friday.
All of my corporate clients, more commercial clients, we don't shoot on weekend. However, you may find that people who you want to collaborate with will want to do shoots on the weekend. TFPs, creatives, because not going to cause them to lose any other work during the week. all of the of skills development stuff happens on weekend.
You do have to be open to doing [00:47:00] some weekend dates for sure. But that's beauty of this job. You can really make it anything you need it be provided the industry or the market that you're in supports what you want to do. If you work in a small town and all is is bridal, there's no chance you're going to be doing this.
During the week, if you work in a bigger city and it's more commercial and access to different types of jobs, a lot of the time those are going to be happening during the weekdays. and that's it for all of the questions. I really hope this podcast was helpful for you. If you'd like me to do any follow up on anything I've talked about in this episode, you know where to find me on Artist2Artist on Instagram.
Make sure you turn on alerts in the show notes. There will be some more resources for you if you feel like you want to join me in one of my courses, if you want to learn more from me, all of that information will be there. If you like what I'm doing on this podcast, please share it with another makeup artist.
Make sure you subscribe. And that's it for this week. I will talk to you next week. Bye everyone.
