We recently connected with Dayna Green and Meghan Martin and have shared our conversation below.

Dayna & Meghan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Before Gals & Ghouls was created Meghan earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Wayne State University. Strangely enough, around the same time, Dayna was also attending Wayne State for her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and then continued on to get her Masters in Social Work from the University of Michigan. However, their paths didn’t officially cross until they were both attending school for makeup years later. They both loved makeup growing up and did beauty and Halloween makeup on themselves and others but neither of them really realized they could have a career in makeup. They then met while attending a makeup school in Troy and quickly became friends. They would always joke around saying they should start a business together and as they got closer to graduating and started working together on weekends for weddings, they started to take the joke a little more seriously. When their weekend work started to ramp up into more than just a side gig, they had to decide to take the jump and quit their 9-5 careers. Anyone who has made that jump knows what a daunting and scary decision it can be to leave the comfort of consistent money and benefits and jump into being a creative entrepreneur.

In 2017 they created Gals & Ghouls to combine their unique abilities and offer versatile, passionate, and creative services. They have always aimed to provide the highest quality makeup services in the industry with personalized, on-location artistry. The name of the business, as well as the logo, had a lot of thought put into it when the company was first created as Meghan and Dayna wanted to show their love and skills for both beauty makeup but also special effects and Halloween makeup.

Dayna & Meghan, 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?

Gals & Ghouls provides you with personalized on-location makeup and hair services. Our team of expert artists offers bridal and beauty services, special effects makeup for film and costumed events (Halloween, here’s looking at you!!), body painting, and more! We travel all of Michigan & beyond to bring you a stress-free day. Gals & Ghouls has also started offering lessons and classes!

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Dayna and Meghan agree that the biggest thing they had to unlearn and relearn was setting boundaries and valuing themselves, their skills, and their business. When they first started as young female business owners they often felt like they needed to say yes to everyone to be taken seriously and to prove themselves. In a world where women are generally expected to be quiet and submissive, it was difficult for them to learn how to advocate for themselves and Gals & Ghouls. Like other creative careers, some people don’t see makeup as a real career and act like they are doing a hobby or a fun side project. They remind themselves that they’ve built a successful company that makes people feel like the best versions of themselves and that is something they are proud of.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Gals & Ghouls started in 2017 with just Meghan and Dayna and remained that way for about a year until they teamed up with a hairstylist to be able to offer more services to their clients. Now, five years later, they have a team of 10 independent contractors and are looking to expand their team more. They have found that the most important thing for managing a team is communication. Likely due to their backgrounds in psychology and social work, they feel that being open, honest, and transparent can go very far in creating a happy work environment. They always encourage constructive criticism or suggestions from their team because a company is always going to change and evolve and being open to what the people that work with you feel will make them feel like a part of the company and brand as well as valued.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.galsandghouls.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/galsandghouls
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/galsandghouls

Image Credits
Noel P Thompson, Melian Photography, Alpine + Honey Creative, Johnny Richer Photography, Brittany Carress, Dan Cox Photo