53
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[00:00:00] This is episode 53 of the Artist to Artist Podcast. This is the podcast for self-taught and undertrained makeup artists who are ready to stop second guessing themselves and start showing up like pros. I'm Angie, and if you're tired of feeling like you're faking it until you make it, you are in the right place.
Today we are talking about how to tell if a course is actually worth your time and money, because the reality is a lot of us are spending way too much on courses that aren't moving the needle in our careers. I see this constantly with new makeup artists. You are course shopping like it's gonna solve all of your problems.
You're buying online courses, researching makeup schools, watching every single tutorial, and somehow you still feel unprepared for real client work. If this sounds familiar, here's what I think is happening because I have been in your shoes.
You think you need more information, but what you really need is better information and there is a huge difference between those two things. I have done my research as well. I have purchased tons of online courses. I've looked at [00:01:00] extensive curriculums from schools across Canada. I can tell you that there are more bad programs than good ones,
And I think what's kind of crazy is that some of these programs and courses will leave you thinking you are prepared when you're actually not.
I think before we even get to the questions, you should ask about any course that you're interested in, we should talk about why you need to ask them in the first place. The reason you need to be selective about courses isn't just about saving money. Of course that matters,
it is because every course you take is either moving you closer to being a working professional or it's keeping you stuck in this kind of student mode. The best way for me to describe student mode is where you feel like you're learning, but you're actually not building the skills you need to book clients and do the job.
You're collecting information instead of building actual skills.
And here's what's scary, and this is something that I have noticed. Some courses actually will make this worse. They give you this false confidence, or they teach you techniques that don't actually translate to real work. Or even worse than that, they make promises about your earning potential that are completely unrealistic.
And I think [00:02:00] this is one of the things that bothers me about a lot of online education and in-person education that I have researched, whether we are talking about school, and I know some of you do need that for licensing, so you might feel stuck with limited options or we're talking about online courses, in-person workshops, trainings, whatever it is, you need to be strategic about what you invest in.
I've come up with five questions that I think you should ask yourself before buying any course. The first is, is this instructor currently working in the industry and do they have enough experience that aligns with what they're teaching? This is a big one. I don't mean, are they famous or do they have a lot of followers?
I mean, are they actively booking real clients? Are they doing the type of work they're trying to teach you? If someone is teaching you how to book bridal clients, but they haven't done weddings in five or six years, that's a red flag. If they're teaching business skills, but they've never actually run a makeup business, and I'm taking these examples from things that I have seen in real life that is also a red flag.
How do you [00:03:00] research this? It's pretty easy these days, thankfully. Look at their recent work. Check if they're posting current client jobs, see if their experience matches what they're promising to teach you. Don't just take their word for it.
I think it's important to learn from someone who is either currently dealing or has recently dealt with a lot of the same challenges you're gonna face, not someone who used to do this work or who's only done a completely different type of makeup application from what you wanna learn more about.
Question number two, what specific problem will this solve for me right now? Stop buying courses just in case I used to do this all the time. Stop collecting information you think you might need someday. What problem are you trying to solve today? Right now? Are you struggling with color matching? Client communication, pricing, building a portfolio, get specific about what you need.
Then find training that addresses that specific gap. The biggest mistake I see MUAs make is course hoarding. You buy five different courses, you complete none of them, and somehow you convince [00:04:00] yourself that you're being productive, but you're not.
You're just avoiding doing the actual work. Question number three. Do I have the time and commitment to actually complete this? This is an important one as well. You have to be honest with yourself about this. If you don't have time to complete the course that you're looking at, whether it's in person, online, don't buy it.
A half finished course is completely worthless. It's gonna make you feel worse about yourself. You're gonna waste your money, and it's better to do one course really well and commit to it than by three and barely touch any of them. And the thing is, most good courses do require you to practice what you're learning or they will encourage you to do so.
So if you don't have time to practice, you definitely don't have time for the course. I see this all the time, even with the courses that I have built. I see people buying everything as soon as it comes out, and a large percentage of the students that enroll in my courses do not complete the course.
And this is a big waste of money. Question number four, is this instructor teaching the why behind the techniques, not just the how. This is where I think you separate the good [00:05:00] training from the waste of money training. Anyone can show you how to do a smokey eye. But can they explain why you'd choose one technique over another, or why they use the products that they're using, or what situation they would use this smoky eye for?
Can they help you problem solve when something doesn't work?
I wanted to give you an example of what quality teaching sounds like, and these are things that you can pick up when you're just consuming content. If you are thinking about buying online training or doing in-person training, I hope the people that you're purchasing from are talking about. The course and the industry online, so you'll be able to pick these things up.
So here's what quality teaching sounds like I'm using this brush because the client has hooded eyes and needs more precision in this specific area. Or I'm choosing this color placement because we wanna create the illusion of larger eyes. You don't wanna hear things like. Now I'm applying eyeshadow with my favorite brush. I use this brush all the time. If you're just watching someone apply makeup without understanding the reasoning behind their choices, you're not really learning [00:06:00] transferrable skills. You're just copying. And copying doesn't prepare you for real client work, where every single face is different and every situation is unique.
I think this is especially important when you're looking at celebrity makeup artist courses, and this is what I have found 'cause I have purchased a few.
Sometimes these can be valuable and it's not because you're going to recreate those exact looks with those exact products, but because you get to see behind the curtain and you might realize, oh, you know, this is not what I thought at all, or I'm actually on the right track. I kind of do a lot of these similar things.
But if it's just showing techniques without explaining the thinking and the reasoning why. An artist is choosing a product or using a specific tool. It's really just entertainment and not education. And question number five, what support will I get when I have questions specific to my situation?
This is the biggest one. Every makeup artist's journey is different. You're gonna have questions that are specific to your market, to your clients, to your challenges, to the products you're using. [00:07:00] Can you get those specific questions answered? The proximity to a working artist is invaluable, whether that's online or in person, but only if that artist is actually available to help you problem solve your specific situation, not just deliver the same generic advice to everyone.
If the course is just prerecorded videos with no way to ask follow up questions. You're missing a lot of the value of the course, and that is the mentorship. And I have purchased tons of one-off classes like this where I've asked questions. There's been a space to ask a question. No response.
Here's what happens when you don't ask these kind of questions. You waste money. That's the obvious thing, but worse than that, you kind of stay stuck in this cycle of thinking that the next course is gonna be the magic solution.
One thing I wanted to add, if you're in a situation where you need school for licensing, we don't, here in Toronto, you might feel like you don't have that many options, but you can still ask these questions. You can still research the curriculum, the instructors, the [00:08:00] support system, and you can definitely be strategic about what additional training you invest in beyond what's required.
Because I will tell you this, to those of you that have completed. , Makeup school or extensive in-person training. There is gonna be more that you need to learn, because I've said this before, you don't know what you don't know. And jumping from in-person training to working actually with clients on set in the industry, there's a big gap between what you're gonna learn in school and some of the ins and outs, learning those things when you actually get to be a working artist.
I think the reality some of you might face is that you ask all of these questions and you realize there aren't great options in your area or in your budget. That doesn't mean you're stuck. It means you get creative. Maybe you invest in one really good online program with proper mentorship instead of settling for.
Some subpar local training in person. Maybe you wait and save up for the right program instead of jumping into the first available option. Maybe you have to [00:09:00] save up more money to travel somewhere, specifically to take some in person training or to take a masterclass. You know, there is no perfect solution for everybody.
There is no single course that you will complete that will completely fast track you to success. What works, and I have found this in my own experience, is really getting targeted training from someone who's actually doing the job, completing that training, practicing what you learn, and then applying it in real life, right to real client work.
That's how you build actual skills. That's how you go from student to pro.
The goal isn't to never take courses either. The goal is to really just take the right courses at the right time for the right reasons, and to invest in training that actually prepares you for the work, not just makes you feel like you're learning.
And with that being said, before we finish up this episode, I wanna remind you about the Artist to Artist membership. If you're kind of getting tired, of course shopping, you're ready to start building those real skills this month. In the Artist to Artist membership, we are covering exactly this, the business basics that actually matter for booking and keeping [00:10:00] clients.
I'm gonna be diving into. Systems that you need in place, client management skills that they are not gonna teach you in these courses, and how to bridge the gap between what you've learned and what you actually need to do on the job.
There is a seven day free trial and it is my aim with this membership to help you stop kind of collecting useless information and start building competence. So I'll link you to the membership in the show notes. I will see you on the next episode, and remember, the best course for you is the one that actually gets you closer to doing real work with real clients.
Thank you so much for listening, and I'll see you on the next episode.
