We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Diamond Jewell a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Diamond Jewell, appreciate you joining us today. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?

After serving 8.5 years on Active duty my defining moment was me becoming a MOM. I didn’t want to have to choose between being a mother or a having a career. So I chose to pursue a career where I can do both. Once a woman has a baby on active duty she basically has to leave the child with caretakers or family members while she serves and deploy for weeks and or months at a time. I knew I wasn’t having that, so I decided to take a leap of faith and work my own business. I am a FULL TIME mommy, I get to raise my own baby, work doing something that I actually love doing, inspire other mothers, and make really good money while doing so. I been self employed (full time) going on two years and I can honestly say that the military did help develop my people skills and prepare me in ways I would’ve never considered to be important when working for yourself and or trying to lead other people.

Diamond Jewell, 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 am a licensed Aesthetician and Permanent Makeup Artist (PMUA). My specialty is PMU. I started off in the industry doing regular makeup (I’ve always had a passion for beauty). While I was doing makeup, a friend of mine actually encouraged me to go get licensed, so I did. While I was in school I learned about the many different facets of the beauty industry and fell in love with PMU. I love art and being creative which PMU allows me to do, so I literally LOVE WHAT I DO. I also love the fact that I help women rebuild their self confidence and boost their self esteem with my art. I get so much positive feedback from my clients that sometimes I get emotional but it proves to me that I am walking and working in my given purpose. My brand is all about empowering and uplifting women. I am an artist but I also teach and mentor other artist, I enjoy teaching other women how to level up and break away from the 9-5 life.

If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?

If I could go back in time I would still choose the same profession but I would choose to do it sooner. While I really do appreciate the time I spent in the military and the discipline, structure, organization, and resilience it helped me develop, If I had to do it all over again I would have only did my first contract (4 years). Once I completed my first contract I would’ve got out and focused on developing, perfecting my craft & starting my business. I would have been able to accomplish so much more earlier in life if I had done it that way.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start?

Unfortunately I did not have any business partners or investors to help me start my business, so I paid for everything out of my personal pockets. Which is cool because I don’t have to worry about splitting profits or deciding who gets what. All the money I make belongs to me/ the business. While I was still working my 9-5, I worked my business out of a small suite which helped a lot to create funding. Since becoming full time (almost 2 years) any capital I may need and all of my business expenses comes out of what the business makes.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.lavishbeauti.co
• Instagram: Www.instagram.com/lavishbeautico
• Youtube: Lavish Beauti Co.