We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Veronica Fiallos. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Veronica below.

Veronica, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

It was a crazy decision for me to become a makeup artist, but my love for it landed me where I am today. When I started as a makeup artist I focused my career on Bridal hair and makeup artistry. I am a forever romantic and love the wedding space so much. From the beginning I was pretty good at both hair and makeup so I immersed myself in both. At the time this was my weekend fun job and I worked as a Financial Advisor at Morgan Stanley as my full time gig. I have a BA in Accounting and had been a financial advisor for 7 years before I stated freelancing as a makeup artist. I had always done hair and makeup on the side for friends and family but nothing too serious. After about a year into taking on weekend work as a bridal stylist I realized what a wonderful space it was. I love doing hair and makeup and I’m a believer that a look doesn’t quite feel complete until both items are done. Your hair just must be fabulous along with your flawless face!

After my first year as an artist I realized I needed much more help. Wedding parties where larger than I could handle alone so I decided to get some help. A child hood friend of mine reach out to me to see if I needed help because she was an avid makeup lover so I teamed up with her. Meli also had an amazing passion for makeup as well and so Beauty by VM was born; (hence the M). Meli was a big deal for me. She was the beginning of me being a business owner and really helped me at the beginning get outside of my comfort zone. Beauty by VM was bigger than just a fun makeup job. This was around the end of 2014. In 2015 Lina another amazing artist whom is still with us today joined us as a hair stylist. Lina is a fully licensed cosmetologist and now runs HR and our social media. Our team was growing and so was the demand for Beauty by VM. It was pretty fascinating to me to watch my hobby turn into something much larger than my initial vision allowed for. In 2016 I had a major slump with my health. I went thru a major health battle with endometrial cancer that year and realized that life is too short to not love what you do. So in the middle of 2017 once I was healthy and cancer free I decided to leave my career as a financial advisor behind and take on being an entrepreneur full time.

This was a very scary time for me. I was at the time a single mommy of 1 and sold my home to put myself thru Cosmetology school. Prior to having a certificate I was just freelancing as a makeup artist. I wanted to be fully licensed and knowledgeable as well as debt free to be able to take on school full time and fully commit myself to Beauty by VM. I must thank my parents so much as they took us in during the time I was in school and helped me so much with my daughter. It was a crazy year.

Fast forward 2018. I was now fully licensed working full time as a bridal stylist and also doing run way gigs, fashion, magazine work and more. I was able to land some amazing jobs with a few major magazines and honestly felt like I did the right thing. Towards the end of 2019 I realized what a demand there was for this industry and started really thinking outside of myself. I had 4 artist at the time that helped me but I was really the only lead. The girls would jump in as needed for weddings to assist me with the bridal party but I needed to be at everything. I was overbearing. I wanted to be at every wedding and I was the only artist to touch a bride because I wanted to ensure things where done the way I wanted. I was turning down business left and right because obviously I couldn’t be everywhere and would get booked up. This might be a good thing but it wasn’t. It became very stressful.

So I dug deep. Lina & Meli had now been with me for almost 5 years and I am grateful they stuck by me. Without a team you trust it is hard to grow. I started really focusing on the team. I wanted to help other artist too. Expanding with artist that could be leads and take on weddings without me was a goal. They too could be lead artist and grow in the industry with my help. Now we have a suite that we use as co-working space for bridal trials and individual bookings that don’t require us to be on-site. We also do training sessions with the artist. We have developmental milestones and help them grow and develop in any areas they wish to. All our artist have access to online courses as well thru a membership that the company pays for. We now have 9 artist and are continuing to grow at a pace that isn’t detrimental to our current team.

I love this industry and our goal is not only to help our clients look and feel their absolute most glamorous but also to enable other artist to have the resources to grown and a platform for full career development. I wish that I had someone to guide me in my career when I first started. So much of what I did was trial and error and it’s had many challenges. With those challenges new opportunities have risen. Our goal now is to help the artist that want to grow to have a platform to do so. We want to provide them with a team that will help them develop into whatever they see fitting for their career. Now we service all of South Florida and are expanding into world travel. We have quite a few girls that will travel out of state or country for bookings. The company has now booked weddings in Nicaragua and the Bahamas and we are working on doing more of this in the future. It can be a fascinating career for any individual that has the desire for growth and the vision to be successful and lead with a team. It is my honor to continue to find ways to grow this company and to service our staff and clients with the best we can offer.

Veronica, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Veronica Fiallos. I founded Beauty by VM in 2014; as a traveling stylist. I am married to a wonderful man and we have 3 kids. I obsess over a great cup of coffee & love reading; even though these days it’s on audible. I like to believe I’m an introverted extrovert; if that makes any sense. It always takes me a minute to warm up to people but once I do I’m very open. I received a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting but have never been an accountant. I believe in god and pray daily. Not sure what more I can say

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

For me it was important to have support with social media. One of our artist is amazing with social media and all things marketing. She now handles our account and creates our promotions and posts. I think hiring the right people for things maybe you are not so good at is important. Know your weakness and knowing your strengths is important. For me social media was a weakness. I leave that to people that are more versed.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I love reading and have many books I love. Some of my favorites include: The Slight Edge: Jeff Olson
Change your Thoughts, Change your Life: Dr. Wayne Dyer
You are a Badass: Jen Sincero
Breaking the Habit of Being Yoursself: Dr. Joe Dispenza
The Purpose Driven Life: Rick Warren
Letting Go: David R Hawking’s

Contact Info:

• Website: www.beautybyvm.com
• Instagram: @beautybyvm_
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beautybyvm1/

Image Credits
different photographer for all. Please ask me for each picture.