Xoxo - E2 Revise - 3:27:24, 2.54 PM

In this episode of the XOXO Amy podcast, the host, Amy, talks about her plans to create a platform where people can share their stories and support each other, especially women. She wants to interview different small business owners and create a community where everyone encourages each other. Amy also shares her own story of being a hair and makeup artist and how she initially put her passion for beauty on the back burner. She eventually pursued it and now wants to help others do the same. She also mentions her neglected YouTube channel and her experiences working at Life Alert. Overall, she emphasizes the importance of community and supporting one another. Y'all, it's episode two of the XOXO Amy podcast. I'm your host, Amy, and this is Zero, our very special guest. He was feeling a little left out, so I had to pick him up. All right, episode two. Yesterday, I recorded episode one, and I haven't put it on a platform just yet, but I am gonna be putting it up on Spotify once I figure out how to do it. Listen, it took three hours yesterday to get the microphones to work. Bear with me, we're getting there. All right, today, what I would love to talk to you about is an idea that I have, and I think it's gonna be a pretty solid way to introduce people into the community, to grow community, and to really help each other out, specifically women. It's not that I'm a raging feminist or anything like that, on the contrary. I just, I wanna give people a fair platform to talk about what it is that they do, talk about their story. Look at him, he's falling asleep. I can't with him. He's 13, my little boy, my little boy. I wanna get people talking about what it is that they do, why it is that they do it, how they got started. We are working on a few things right now that are gonna help small entrepreneurs start their businesses, and how we can come together to create an atmosphere and to create a setting and a place where you not only feel like you're being supported, that you're gonna get your content, that your image is gonna be consistent, and that you're gonna have the support that you need. Listen, when you get started in business, it's hard. It's hard, and whether you like to put flowers together, whether you're a photographer, whether you're a hair and makeup artist like myself, you'll be a dog groomer. Business is business, and at the end of the day, how we put ourselves out, with whom we put ourselves out, and when we put ourselves out is everything. I really like an interview format. I keep coming into the camera. Listen, listen, let me live, let me live. Fair warning, I do random things. Ugh, total brain fart. My plan, on Fridays, I will be airing Friends or Fridays. My goal is to interview different friends of mine or different people within the community that maybe I haven't met, or different recommendations of small business owners that offer services, bounce houses, photography. There's different types of photography. I work with quinceañera photographers. I work with lifestyle photographers. I work with branding photographers. I really work well with branding photographers. I work with wedding photographers. There's a photography genre for everyone, whether you're a private chef or you do different types of meals, and that's what you put out into the community. I wanna know the people that are in my community. I want a platform where everyone comes together and encourages others. Listen, it doesn't have to be perfect. The reality is, you don't have to have it perfect. I don't have it perfect. There are days where I'm like, I could've done that a million times better. There are days that we gaslight ourselves. Like, why am I even doing this? What was I thinking? You're horrible, you're terrible at this. Like, please, go back to teaching. No! That's what I want a community for. And I think it's important for us to have a space where we can have these open conversations. Like, how did you get started? Why? What is the hardest part? What do you love about it? Community is everything. Community is everything. So, oh my goodness, look at him. I can't with him. He's the cutest little thing. I have the other two directly underneath me, and Kylo is growling at his brother Joey because he's not paying attention to him, and he doesn't wanna share his toy. Whatever. Fun fact about me, I have been neglecting my YouTube channel for the better part of 11 years. Not even gonna lie. On my YouTube channel, right now, aside from this video, there are like two dated videos. One from 11 years ago that my mom was helping me make empanadas, and it was like a DIY, or like a how-to. And then I did another one where I was doing my mom's, no, I was doing my makeup, and that one was like four or five years ago. And then I posted one a couple days ago where I was doing an honest review on Nitoral, or Nizoral. I don't even know how to say it in English. Nitoral. It's the dandruff shampoo. Side note. Bees, they're beautiful, they're adorable, they're so uncomfortable. My ear is in pain right now. But, all right, so the first vendor is me. Listen, let me do this. I have been a hair and makeup artist for the better part of 15 years, on and off, and I say on and off because at the very beginning of my career, I didn't think it was a career. I started beauty school in 2006. I finished in 2008. I took a four-year break. I went back to school in 2011, August of 2011, to get my bachelor's. I graduated with my bachelor's in English with a minor in psychology slash journalism. I didn't like the direction journalism was taking, so I swapped. I really love psychology, and I had this idea that I was gonna go and get my master's, and then eventually my PhD, and I was gonna practice. I really wanted to practice and be a counselor. I always liked it. But I kept putting beauty on the back burner. And when I tell you on the back burner, like it sat there on the stove top, just sizzling, sizzling, and sizzling, until I just, I went for it. And that's gonna be a different episode because I am gonna interview the person that got me into it, or rather the person that really pushed me. I didn't think I was good enough. I didn't think that it was a career. I essentially lied to myself in every way possible that I could lie to myself to delay doing what I wanted to do. In the timeframe from when I started beauty school to when, last June, really, last June, I was an office manager for Life Alert for two months shy of eight years. So for seven years, 10 months, I was an office manager for Life Alert. I don't regret that time at all. I loved working there. I'm still very close with a lot of the people that work there. It taught me so much about life. Pun intended. It taught me, listen, I spent, from the age of 23 to 31 at Life Alert. And I regret nothing. A good portion of the people that worked with me were at my wedding. I grew as an individual and as a professional. Had I not worked for Life Alert as long as I did in the capacity that I did with the people that I worked with, I don't think I would have nearly an ounce of the work ethics that I have now. Because when you're young and dumb, you're just that, you're young and dumb. And I thought in my 20s that I knew it all. I know now at 37 that I don't know shit about shit. I don't know anything, sorry baby, I don't know anything, I don't know, I don't know enough about the things that I should know. And that is okay, because for me now, the unknown is kind of exciting. So I got married in 2016 and in 2017, the person that I'm gonna be interviewing had a makeup class and I was like, you know what, why not, I'll go to the class. She saw potential in me and was like, would you like to assist me? And I said, oh my God, absolutely. Not only that, but I was obsessed with her in a way like, when I grow up, I wanna be like her and to this day, I still wanna be like her. And you know exactly who you are and I love you forever. So I took the class and I started assisting. That was roughly like September, maybe October, no, October, maybe November. That same year, my best friend hired me to do her makeup for Family Pictures and I was like, wow, I'm pretty good, I can do this. I built a kit. And by built a kit, I mean I had like a tiny little suitcase with whatever makeup I had. I went and I ordered brushes off of Sigma when Sigma was like really big. I was like, okay, I'm gonna do it. I had originally started my YouTube channel years ago, maybe like 12 years ago with my first Sigma brush set and I reviewed them and let me tell you that to this day, there's only two Sigma brushes that I stand by and it is the synthetic one that has like a pointed, a tapered tip and the one that looks like a 217. It just happens to be longer, that's it. The rest of them, pillaged. Oh my God, they shed like crazy. I don't know, Sigma, maybe you wanna reach out to me and sponsor me, whatever you want. I'm happy to review products again. I have never to this day ordered from Sigma again, ever. Ever, ever, ever. I did order their palette, their, I ordered their Paris palette years ago. I liked it, it was a little flaky. Like the payoff wasn't enough. Like it was so much kickoff, the kickback on the palette and the way that it translates on the skin, it just wasn't, whatever. You live and you learn. I moved on, I built my kit. I started off with Maybelline Fit Me foundations and to this day, those are still my favorite foundations of all time. I love them, they're very lightweight, they're buildable. Like weight, like weight. Listen, I have random outbursts and if I hear something that sounds quirky, I'm gonna repeat it because that's just what I do. Whatever, so I built a very basic kit and I started assisting Issa. Started with curls. My curls then are not my curls now. I look back and I'm like, holy shit, someone hired me. Okay, what were you thinking? But that's okay because if you can look back at yourself and criticize yourself constructively, you're gonna grow. You're going to grow and that's what this is for. We all make mistakes in the beginning because it's the beginning. So fast forward like maybe two or three years now, I was no longer assisting. I was a secondary artist or a tertiary artist and it's like, okay, you have three curls, half up, half down, you have this and it was like constant. Okay, I can do this. I can do my makeup style changed. I took a class with Beauty by Renata and I love it. Love to this day because everyone has their own style. My style is very natural. Your skin is going to look like skin but what's the harm in learning how someone else incorporates their technique? You don't know how you can mesh what you learn from them and what you mesh with what you know and how your hand works and make something even better. That's my perspective. If you don't like learning from other people, by all means, stay in your lane. That's not me. I'm always gonna wanna learn from others. My technique progressed. I also took a class, a hair class with Hair by Didi. That was an incredible investment to this day. I still ask myself like, what would Didi do? Like how much volume? What did Didi say? I'm still working with Issa. I am the kind of person that will stand back and observe you work. I will watch you work. Because I admired her work so much and I loved watching her work, I honed in on my own craft with my own twist on things. So now I book my own weddings, obviously. I'm incredibly fortunate with what I'm able to do. I love every single aspect of what I can do. Man, the morning of a wedding, yes, it's chaotic. I'm not gonna tell you it's not. It is absolutely chaotic. But knowing that you chose me to do your hair and makeup on the most important day, one of the most important days of your life, like you're gonna look back at those pictures 10, five, 10, 15, 20, 30 years from now and you're gonna think back like Amy did that. For me, oh my God, are you kidding me? It's like I was a part of your day, like you chose me. It is humbling every single time. I can be confident. I do consider myself a very confident person, but it is not above me. It does not go over my head that it is an absolute honor and privilege to be a part of your day. There's a thousand artists that you could choose and you chose me, bro. Let me tell you that when a bride reaches out to me and I feel like my little heart just like, like it starts fluttering. It's the cutest thing, I know I'm a dork, but I love it. I get to pee, I get to pee. I do get to pee sometimes, most of the time. Actually, I pee every day. I get to be a part of someone's special day, whether it's a quinceanera, your branding shoot. I didn't know just how much I was going to love branding shoots because I'm not just a part of a special day, no, no, no, no, no. I'm a part of something that you're building for yourself. This is your image, your company, something that you're producing, something that you're putting together. And I'm bringing up, sorry, Bobby, did you want me to tickle you? Thank you. And I get to bring out the look that is going to be indicative and representative of your company. So I do work with MSP Photography fairly often. I love their work, it's very light and airy. But it's the methodology and attention to detail that goes in behind the scenes, in preparation leading up to the shoot, that just sends me into another dimension with joy. Because I know that when I get there, not only am I going to know what I need to do, I have concepts, I have ideas, I have a lot of background information about the person. And then at that point, it's just like, okay, let me get to know you a little bit better so that I know how to better, how to best, oh my God, I can't, how to best create an image for you. Or how best to bring out your features for what it is that you do. This podcast has been in the making for the past three years. Yes, I procrastinate, I am top tier ADHD procrastinator. I didn't know what I was going to talk about. I knew that I just wanted to talk shit. I knew that I wanted to talk about makeup, I knew that I wanted to talk hair, but I didn't know what purpose was going to be behind it. And along the way, I threw up a lot of things and I let the universe do its thing. And that led me to a very big come to Jesus moment last year. And I am very proud to say that I am a born again Christian. I was baptized on December 3rd of last year, and I regret nothing. God has put every single person in my path that needed to be in my path. Everybody that needed to play a role in why I was in the position that I was in, everybody that came into my path was another beacon of light on my path to finding Jesus and accepting Christ and my come to Jesus moment. So it was very big. And I can honestly say that if it wouldn't have been for hair and makeup and me ignoring the commentary that hair is not a career, I wouldn't be where I am today. So I can honestly say that God gave me the gift of hair and makeup and I was saved because I listened and I let go and I let the hair and makeup take me to where it needed to take me, and that was to Christ. So if you are anti-Christian, if you are anti-faith, this may not be the podcast for you, but if you're open to listening to other people's experiences, if you're open to listening to how someone might come to Christ over time and talk about makeup at the same time and hair and hair color, then yes, this is absolutely the podcast for you. A little bit about me and my little family. Again, this is my little zero. I will not bring up Kylo today because if I do, then he's going to go bananas. And then I also have Joey. He's our middle dog. They kind of look like the printer ran out of ink. It's so cute. My little boy zero here, he's all gray on the back. He's the initial toners running out of ink type thing. Kylo is the youngest. He is the spawn of Voldemort. You hear him growling? Yeah, he's special. And then I have my amazing husband, Abraham. We have been together for 13 and a half years, the same age as zero. And that's it. We are, this is our first home. This is our first home right now. So I'm going to cut this short and I'm going to come back for episode three. Bye! I'm going to come back for episode three.