We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jordan Briones-Schmitz. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jordan below.
Hi Jordan, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
Taking a risk is quite honestly the most exhilarating and most nerve wracking thing most people will encounter. Whether that’s taking a career risk or a risk in any business/personal relationship, the unknown is also really scary.
I am a person that is consistently ten steps ahead in everything I do. If I don’t have a plan A, B or C of what the possible next step is and their associated outcomes, it’s a downward spiral of anxiety for me. Taking a risk is quite literally a huge step for me professionally and personally because of the emotional/mental toll it brings too. Although the toll can be exhausting when I take risks, they usually always turn out just fine or as I intended.
I have taken a few risks in my life. Some small and some huge that have impacted business operations for myself or how things are handled. I am a Makeup Artist and I have a full time job on top of that. I decided to take the risk to open my own cosmetic line and it was really successful. I had lashes, lip glosses, blush and highlight. The products had their appropriate cases with my business label and everything was personally selected by me. I had a website, a great following and orders were flowing. I took a huge risk opening BlessTheBlend into something greater and it was a huge success.
After a while, I started to grow into my art more. I took on more clients and lost track of ordering more product and slowly but surely, the cosmetic side of my business quietly closed. I realized, although the risk brought success, it wasn’t truly where my heart was. To this day, I use the products on current clients and have extra to give out to loyal clients who continue to love that side of my business. Maybe, I’ll take the risk again in the future but for now, I’m going to stick with doing makeup only.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
For those who don’t know me, my name is Jordan and I own my own business called BlessTheBlend, BTB for short. This business truly started in church when I was discussing some life plans/goals with my pastor. We were throwing around ideas and he stated “You could lead a Bible study and somehow incorporate makeup.” I then said, “Yeah, and I’ll call it BlessTheBlend!” Then from there, and with Gods help, BTB was born May of 2019.
I have personally been published in 10+ magazines working with other creatives in my area, been a part of multiple styled shoots, a lot of weddings, and fundraisers. My clients are my absolute favorite and learning about everyone’s life story when they sit in my chair, is one of my favorite aspects of being a Makeup Artist. Aside from getting to create of course.
I’m most proud of my business because it was built on the last $100 in my account at the time. Although I was living at home, I spent my savings I had on my new car so I was quite literally living paycheck to paycheck. I was able to build back up with taking on clients immediately after obtaining all licensing needed but for a minute there, I was SCARED. I built BTB from the literal ground up and I feel like that is something a lot of business owners can understand and relate to.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Share everything from your local creative! Word of mouth is still the biggest advertisement people can do for their local small business owners and it’s the best support. Plus aside from that, sharing their work is free to do! There are so many positive and negatives to social media but the outreach can be multipled to reach so many new potential clients.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
For me as a makeup artist, the absolute most rewarding part of this is making the client feel incredible. You don’t know anyone’s story, where they come from, how their day started and they are trusting you to make them feel good. Especially my bridal clients, that amount of trust to execute THE look for one of the biggest days for them ever, that’s rewarding within itself.
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Image Credits
Audrey Heffner