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

Alicia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Is there a lesson you learned in school that’s stuck with you and has meaningfully impacted your journey?

When I look back on my college experience, I don’t think it was one particular lesson, but many lessons I learned while I earned my degree that have helped me in my career. I think the main skills/habits I gained from college would be time management, the importance of follow through, working well with all different types of people and resilience. Even though my job doesn’t require a college degree, I definitely feel like the skills I have learned give me an edge with managing my business and clients. I have gained so many clients and opportunities simply by responding to requests quickly. I am very aware that time is a valuable, finite resource, so I try to reply quickly to not waste time on either end. I have earned many private and corporate clients based not just on my makeup skills, but because of my reliability and professionalism.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have always been an extremely creative person, from the time I was a little kid. I was always drawing, coloring, creating things. I always knew I wanted to do something creative, but I didn’t really know what that looked like as a job. While in college, I decided to study fashion merchandising since it was a creative degree with a business side to it. When I graduated college, I ended up working as an account coordinator for a cosmetic brand and I realized makeup was a perfect way to utilize my creative talent. Over time, I ended up branching out into being a freelance makeup artist for several different brands which I really enjoyed. During this time, I ended up meeting several private clients who then started referring me to others and over time, my business grew so much that I decided to do my own business completely. I am proud to say that I have a successful business and I still love what I do!

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My goal has always been to make my client feel like their best self. I look at makeup as being something that should enhance one’s beauty and celebrate the person, not make the person look completely different. There is a time and place for crazy, extreme makeup too, but in general, my clients love the fact that I don’t overdo it. I am always thrilled when my clients tell me they have never looked so good, or I see their eyes light up when I hand them the mirror.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I think what helped me build my reputation within my market is my integrity and consistency. I have built my business solely on word-of-mouth referrals and self-promotion on social media. I am kind of old school in that sense, but it has paid off tremendously. When people who are happy with you, refer you to friends, you will continue to get quality clients. My work is consistent and my clients know they can count on me. I try to post my work consistently to attract new clients as well as keep me fresh in the minds of my existing clients.

Image Credits
Felicia Reed photography, Courtney Cope- photographer, Obsidian and Blush, Kayla Snell- photographer, and Rudy Arocha- photographer