Hey Everyone!
As a professional makeup artist and beauty professional continuing to learn, evolve and network is a key part of your success. As someone who has been in the makeup artist business for over 10 years, maintaining this attitude has been instrumental to my growth both as a professional and as a human being. The fact of the matter is when you stop learning, you stop growing.
This was one of the key messages that was delivered by the legendary Crystal Wright in her talk “Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan”at the Makeup Designory in Burbank last Wednesday night. For those of you who don’t know who Crystal is (those of you in the beauty industry should!) she is, “a self-help author, educator, motivational speaker, and advisor to freelance styling professionals. She is an internationally recognized expert on the subject of career building and marketing for beauty professionals, and regularly appears as a guest speaker and educator at fashion and beauty trade shows and events.”
Crystal’s talk and the ensuing Q & A were very insightful- so much so that I decided to buy her book (which I highly recommend) Crystal Wright’s Hair Makeup & Fashion Styling Career Guide, 5th Edition. It is full of great insights on, “how to build a breakthrough portfolio that will get them jobs on magazines, music videos, CD covers, television, commercials and advertising campaigns.” I began reading the book as soon as I got home from MUD and have been digging into every day since. As I said before, if you are looking to break into the beauty industry this book is a must as it provides a blue print for what you need to do to break in and succeed.
Out of all of Crystal’s wonderful insights Wednesday night the one that most struck a chord with me is that in order to really succeed in the beauty industry one must specialize in certain aspects of the business. Up to this point when people ask me what aspects of makeup I specialize in I would traditionally say wedding hair and makeup, beauty hair and makeup and fashion hair and makeup. I’m very confident in my abilities in all of those areas and have had a lot of success thus far but am beginning to realize that it might be time for me to hone in on certain aspects of the business.
Crystal pointed out that to really get to the top, one must focus on mastering a specific facet of the business rather than trying to generalize and be good at everything. This makes perfect sense and since I heard her say this I have put a new plan into place to do so. You don’t want to be the proverbial “Jack of all trades, master of none.” Her advice is to figure out exactly where you want to go, put a plan into place to get there and simply work your plan.
I want to thank MUD and Crystal Wright for putting on such a great event. I learned a lot and have realized that even though I am ecstatic about where my career is at, there is still a lot more I can work on to continue to grow and get to where I want to be. Really looking forward to attending more events at MUD- hope to see y’all there!
Stay Gorgeous!
Brittany Renee
Makeup Artist and Hairstylist
Elite Makeup Designs
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