We recently connected with Brittany Martin and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Brittany , thanks for joining us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

At a young age I had traveled the world, been exposed to people from different cultures, nationalities, ages, and social classes. I knew that there was more to the world then the streets that I resided or the many communities we lived. I was immersed in music, reading, poetry, languages, activities, travel and a variety of cultures. I owe that experience and perspective to my parents.

As a young adult I quickly started to realize that a big part of what separated my perspective and overall outlook on life, and even how I treat other people was largely due to the exposure my parents provided me at such an early age. They say “You don’t know what you don’t know” and it’s so true. Teachers will tell you to dream big and never let anyone stop you from that dream but where does the dream come from? You have to see it , hear it, feel it to even be able to begin to dream it, and where there is no exposure there can be no dream.

The exposure they provided me with gave me the ability to have vision, the ability to have a dream, and over time the dream changed and evolved, but I never stopped dreaming because I was exposed to so many wonderful things that I knew my dreams were possible and even more within my reach.

Brittany , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I was working in corporate America making 6 figures living in Broward at the time, and was completely unfulfilled and uninspired with what I was doing. I had become a robot of simply waking up, pouring everything I had into my job and the company that employed me, sleep and repeat. All while managing a hostile and discriminatory work environment where no one looked like me in gender, race or age. I was stuck in a position that I worked my ass off to get to and built a lifestyle around and had completely lost “ME” in the process.

During this period M.A.C. Cosmetics was
having a hiring fair. Since college I had
always loved creating transformations and creating using makeup and thought what the hell, I should audition and see what happens. It was the first thing in a long time that felt like me, that in itself was exciting. So, I auditioned, and by my standards completely tanked lol I’m a perfectionist and was a nervous mess after the now widely known surprise switch of models at the audition, but surprisingly M.A.C cosmetics felt differently and hired me on to the team. I was only working freelance as I still had my corporate position, but It was such an accomplishment for me at the time. Working for one of the largest and most popular cosmetic brands who set the standard for artistry, I was just so excited and eager to learn any and everything I could.

As time progressed I really started putting my interest and effort into my freelance work which lead me to start researching ways to learn more, be taken seriously and be considered a legal professional in the beauty field. I found that at minimum I needed to be licensed as a skincare professional aka an Esthetician. So naturally I did what anyone in my position would do, I enrolled in the best beauty school in my area, Boca Beauty Academy. My schedule was insane, I felt insane, I would wake up at 4:30am every morning to go get a 5am workout, be at the office for my corporate job by 8am, get off work and go for another workout at 4pm, get showered and changed and be at beauty school from 6pm-10pm eating dinner on break at school, get home by 10:30pm sleep and do it all over again. That was life for roughly 4 months while I used my corporate job to fund beauty school so I could get my license. I then enrolled in additional certifications and programs through other well reputable brands, and even accepted low paying corporate beauty jobs to ensure I was learning everything that was out there to learn.

During school work life at the office had become unbearable, and after I made an HR complaint against my manager I was being retaliated against and being forcefully pushed out the door but had been sustaining a good fight, and after praying on it I finally just stopped fighting to hold onto something that made me miserable. I let the cards fall where they were meant to and I got back to what fueled me on the inside. What sparked my creativity and where I found passion and purpose, which is where BBDesire Glam sparked from.

I realized there was a joy and a light that exuded through me and out of me when I would see my clients reactions to their transformations. Being just a small part of whatever the day, or event was in their life bonded us forever and that gave me such fulfillment. I wanted to be able to create my own space and not just work on behalf of M.A.C.

I had so many ideas and concepts I wanted
to bring to fruition, but the constant underlying message was I wanted to educate, empower, and inspire a community of women by cultivating a culture of excellence and inclusivity centered around initiatives in beauty, fashion and plus size industries, which is BBDesire Glam’s mission and purpose in everything our brand is and will be involved in.

BBDesire Glam Beauty Bar and BBDesire Glam Boutique are just 2 of the avenues in which my brand is accomplishing that mission and purpose. Our Beauty Bar & boutique located at 840 Park Ave West Palm Beach, FL 33403 is a complete custom luxury one stop beauty experience that specializes in enhancing and redefining the beauty in everyone. It is a safe community where luxury is the standard, inclusivity is the goal, and convenience is the mission.

BBDesire Glam is owned and operated by Brittany “BB” Martin, a Florida licensed esthetician, internationally certified “Glam Lab” & M.A.C pro makeup artist, 4x certified lash artist, and internationally certified “Melanie Marris” brow artist.

BBDesire Glam is a complete custom luxury one stop beauty and fashion experience that specializes in enhancing and redefining the beauty in everyone. It is a safe community where luxury is the standard, inclusivity is the goal, and convenience is the mission.

Team Glam ensures clients look and feel their best with customized services from licensed professionals including but not limited to makeup applications, eyelash extensions, skincare, nails, hair removal, and fashion ranging in sizes xs-3x. We now also offer a full range skincare line including beard oil for the men, Mink Lashes, Lash Aftercare products, and coming soon Hair Extensions and Wigs.

What sets BBDesire Glam apart from others is our foundation. There are many other people who offer similar services to my business but the foundation of their business wasn’t built with the client in mind. Every aspect of my business from smell, to location, to furniture, to the people I choose to add to the team, to the way the business is run, and all the services we provide and offer, to pricing, was designed and created from a client prospective and for the the client. I have been a client my entire life and been on both ends of the spectrum from being broke to having more than enough money to buy whatever I wanted without regard to price, and from both of those viewpoints the same things have remained important to me but not always received, and that is excellent service and professionalism, excellent value, and excellent ambiance. My business and brand were designed with those 3 aspects at the forefront. How can I provide luxury and quality services and products at affordable rates that provide value to my clients while maintaining excellence throughout the client experience. Those were and are the questions I continue to ask myself when upgrading or expanding any part of the business and brand because my client has always and will always be the priority of what I do. In addition to that you won’t find many businesses that provide both the convenience and quality that BBDesire Glam provides in my part of town. I sit directly in the middle of what is known as the split between what is known as the urban area and a wealthy area, therefore my clientele reflects individuals from all walks of life, all ethnicities, all genders, all professional backgrounds, and I have the pleasure of hosting a space where all feel safe, comfortable, and welcome and included.

As a business I am most proud of the work that we do everyday and the people who we have had the pleasure to serve and work with. In this industry there is no special recognition or reward or annual review to give you praise on a job well done, but what we do have is our loyal customers, our repeat customers, and every customer who has left feeling very satisfied with their service. Those memories will last a lifetime and are the only reason we are still in business to be able to help more people create and capture more memories to come, and that privilege and vote of confidence in me and my business continues to make me prouder everyday.

As a strong second I would have to say I am extremely proud of the representation I get to offer the world as a cast member of the new reality television show Super Sized Salon on WEtv which celebrates the worlds first plus size body positive salon.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Growing up I was raised by a frugal mom who had Tom ford taste with a target budget. She would always tell me to negotiate my own terms, negotiate for the best deal, shop around for the best pricing, wait it out until it went on sale, and for many things in life these are amazing tactics. The problem is in business sometimes the best deal or the best price is not what’s best for you or your business.

I learned this lesson fresh out the gate to building my first solo salon location. I needed construction workers, electricians, painters, handymen, etc. With tunnel vision I went into the project ready to not accept anyones first offer, negotiate everything, if it wasn’t negotiable walk away, and over all was looking for the best deal and the best price. They say be careful what you ask for!

I spoke and met with many qualified and capable workers that I passed up on for a combination of the reasons listed above and I paid the ultimate price. At the end I was left with a job that was worse off than when it started, workers who took money and ran off without ever coming back to complete the work, work completed being done improperly and not up to code standards, and what was supposed to be a 3 month project taking 9 months to complete.

By the time I got it together I was 6 months over my original projected timeline, 6 months without being able to work, and ended up spending 3 times the amount of the highest original quote provided because not only did I still need the work completed, I know had to pay to have all the damage and incorrect work fixed and replaced.

Had I had not been so focused on strictly pricing and the best deal I would have done my due diligence and led with the things that are most important to me, convenience, turnaround time, quality of work, code compliance, customer experience, etc and honestly price would have been closer to the bottom of my list, because some things you simply can’t put a price on, my piece of mind is priceless.

It was an imperative lesson for me that the cheapest deal or what appears to be the best deal doesn’t always mean it serves what’s best for you and your business in any given situation. It’s fine to have a budget but when making decisions make sure your properly evaluate what’s most important to you, what you need the end result to be , and do your due diligence in researching the people you choose to do business with, don’t tunnel vision with just 1 aspect in mind and allow yourself to be flexible to not always get exactly what you want but to get what you need.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I think there are many small business owners that can probably relate to this scenario, but during the pandemic of Covid 19 my salon went through a mandatory shutdown. We were closed for almost 8 months and as you can imagine with your only source of income relying on your ability to provide in person services I had to pivot and pivot quickly.

Covid 19 really challenged me to have to review my business plan and re evaluate how I could take the business in front of me and turn it into something completely different, something that was completely virtual.

Myself and many other business owners had the same idea. Virtual classes and lessons, e-books, subscriptions all hit a huge surplus as many people in my same situation found a way to take what we do daily in person and turn it into a profitable virtual interaction.

This pivot is the biggest reason why my business made it through the pandemic without going out of business and has helped increase revenue across the business even after reopening.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.bbdesireglam.com
• Instagram: Www.Instagram.com/BBDesire
• Facebook: Www.Facebook.com/bbdesire
• Twitter: Www.Twitter.com/bbdesire
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCYL27Cthche_2bNL4733yZg
• Yelp: https://yelp.to/duKBNJdJErb
• Other: Www.Instagram.com/BBDesireGlam Www.Instagram.com/BBDesireGlamBoutique Www.Facebook.com/BBDesireGlam Www.Facebook.com/BBDesireGlamBoutique TikTok: BBDesireGlam

Image Credits
@financephotog @wetv