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

Jesse, appreciate you joining us today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

I won’t lie to you, being a business owner is the easiest and hardest job I’ve ever had. Why I say this is because doing something you love and are truly passionate about is easy when it flows to you naturally. Maintaining that passion and turning it into something bigger and more expansive than just a hobby is another journey in itself.

There has been a good handful of times where I’ve completely broken down and thought maybe this isn’t for me at all. In the roughest points in my business career I’ve absolutely had those intrusive thoughts… “Maybe I should just quit.” “Maybe I need a change of pace.” “Maybe the people around you are right and you need to just get a “normal” job with security.” I can almost guarantee just about every creative or self employed person you can think of has probably had those intrusive thoughts too. When your mind is already spiraling its very difficult to come out of these thought patterns and mindset. Regardless of those intrusive thoughts and points of weakness I truly believe I am so much happier as a business owner. Sometimes it takes a little reminder to help us remember how truly amazing it is to become a business though. I want to speak on one particular instance more recently where I had these intrusive thoughts and acted on it. In the heat of the moment I decided I was going to work for some “food and grocery delivery” services in order to help out with my income difficulties and investments. Over the course of a few weeks I began to focus on these delivery services while simultaneously working on the back end of my business. At the same time unfortunately it was taking away the focus on my business too. Now I will say with the side-gig and independent contractor industry, there is money to be made but there are some moments that come as incredibly defeating also.

One particular evening I had decided to do my rounds. I had a gig, grocery shopping, that was paying decently. I went and shopped for nearly 2 hours for this costumer, the cart piled so high, items were falling over as I checked out. The store already incredibly congested, after placing all my items on the belt, I pulled out my grocery app to pay. Immediately the cashier scans my code and the payment from the grocery app is declined. After multiple scans and trying to figure out the issue, we discover that apparently the customers payment had been redeemed already as some sort of mistake. I embarrassingly put all the groceries back into my cart at this point, call the grocery app and after nearly another 30-40 minutes of being on the phone with them they completely cancel the order and tell me to abandon the cart with no pay. After this event, I head out to my car and I call them again to tell them about my struggle with not receiving compensation for all the effort and work, thus they tell me they will reimburse me for the time wasted. I open my app and they reimbursed me a whopping $10 for a 3 hour trip. $10 barely covered the expenses of driving back and forth to that location. Working 3 hours, no tip, angry customers while simultaneously being both embarrassed and drained, after that day I cried my eyes out in the parking lot. This was not the only instance, there had been too many to count between rude customers, underpayment, waiting hours in line just for one restaurant pickup. The instances seemed not too far and few between, it was consistent. I cannot tell you that there was nothing more of a rude awakening than having to deal with such a mess of a situation and under appreciation for work. As someone who has the most wonderful clientele in the world, it truly opened my eyes to appreciating what I have even when things are at their roughest. Not everyone is lucky to have an established business and even with it being completely successful or not at the time, I had so much room to grow and focus if I really believed in it.

I love the hustle and side-gig industry but it can be absolutely defeating as well. Previously working retail alongside my business, I already knew how difficult it was to maintain a business while simultaneously dealing with the retail and customer service industry. Independent contracting gigs are no joke, if you can make it work for you then that’s incredible and I have beyond respect for that. Its no walk in the park as is running a business isn’t either. However having passion behind something truly changes it. No matter if you are a grocery store cashier, a waitress at a restaurant or a 9-5 office worker, if it brings you happiness, if it gets you what you need and want, who am I to place judgement? Not everyone wants to work their passion either, others are perfectly happy keeping their jobs separate from their passions or using it to fuel it. That’s okay too. Dealing with something I felt did not invest in me or my passions was absolutely a reminder of how much I truly love and feel the passion in what I do. My job may not always be 100 percent enjoyable, perfect or feel successful at times but it’s important to me and my happiness. I can say with complete confidence that I am much happier as a business owner and I genuinely appreciate having the ability to love what I do everyday.

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

My name is Jesse Luxe. I am the owner of Jesse Luxe LLC and Jesse Luxe Cosmetics. The main part of my business is Hair and Makeup Artistry for photographers, models, brands and other media-based clients. I am currently expanding into my cosmetics line and makeup education as well. My start in my field began with my love of all art especially drawing, painting and hair styling when I was in middle school. That continued passion for art developed into a passion and desire for specifically Hair Artistry. I had experimented with makeup as well during that time period but my focus was more SFX and conceptual makeup before more than anything. I found my love for Makeup Artistry during my time at cosmetology school working towards honing my first love, Hairstyling. Also during my time in cosmetology school I met my incredible mentor and makeup teacher Daryl Churchman. I had admired Daryl so much, not only was he an incredible artist and educator but he was such a well known figure in the local Drag community as well. Daryl completely changed everything for me when it came to makeup and my confidence. Not only did he teach me the basics of makeup but he also inspired me to go after my dreams as a hair and makeup artist and small business. His attitude and energy could light up a room, and it surely inspired my own attitude and helped me find confidence in myself as well. He unfortunately passed in early 2020 but his impact he had on myself and others has continued to live on.

Near the end of graduating from cosmetology school, I had started participating in fashion shows and events to showcase my skills. At one of these shows in particular, I had ended up working with a model that a local photographer also worked alongside as well. The photographer known as Christa Dickson of Christa Dickson Photography had contacted me based upon my work and thus started a life-long partnership in both business and friendship. After our fated meeting, Christa Dickson continued to request to collaborate and work with me specifically doing conceptual and high fashion style hair and makeup artistry for her clients. My niche and passion truly blossomed from this point on. After some time passed of us working together, I finally discovered that I wanted to begin and evolve into my own business, “Jesse Luxe LLC.” I am forever thankful for the incredible people I have met and have kept life-long, as they have inspired so much of my business and it’s success.

The most important thing I want my clients, followers and fans to know about me is that I truly believe makeup artistry isn’t just makeup, it’s form of art and expression. Sometimes I think people get this idea in their head that art and especially makeup artistry has to look or be a certain way. I’m here to tell you as a makeup artist that makeup artistry is all about freedom of expression. Don’t let anyone tell you that your way is “wrong,” you are not good enough or that you can’t do something a certain way. Like art, makeup art has no rules (outside of sanitation of course haha) and if you love it then that’s all that matters. Art is subjective to the eye and I’m standing behind you as a fellow artist 100 percent! Keep doing what you are doing, especially if you love it!

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Some of the most pivotal lessons I had to unlearn was just about everything to do with money. Specifically my lesson I needed to unlearn was about mindset. A lot of us especially if you grew up poor, were taught so many negative ideals surrounding money. Rightfully so, most of the lessons I learned were surrounding the difficulties of obtaining money or at least enough. It was incredibly common in lower to middle class households to hear phrases like, “Money is the root of all evil,” “Rich people are greedy,” or “Money doesn’t grow on trees.” Understandably it was very easy to make these assumptions especially when you’ve never had money and you had heard these phrases your entire life. I genuinely believe one of the reasons our household was and stayed generationally impoverished was because we held onto those beliefs regardless if a situation bettered over time. When you are already poor and our consistently hearing these phrases, it does not make it easy to believe that money is accessible to you and you start to believe it really is unobtainable. Bringing these mindsets and solidified ideas into my adult life and business definitely made it much harder for me to allow money in my life. It took me many years, sources and self-work to realize that a lot of my issues surrounding money itself was actually a me-thing. Where as there are many things out of our control when it comes to what we are born into and what we face daily, there is one thing you can control, and its yourself and how you react to these things. With this new ideology in hand, it was time to change some things. It required me to poke holes in these beliefs and realize that money was simply a tool, not evil, not a source of greed or some other negative meaning. Money wasn’t scarce and being rich didn’t immediately mean you were greedy or evil. However believing these things enough absolutely caused me to avoid money and self sabotage without even consciously realizing. Working away from these ideals and realizing these beliefs were false, helped myself and my business tremendously. It took and still takes a lot of patience, time and practice to truly recreate your mindset around wealth. Changing your money mindset is no easy task and doesn’t just happen overnight but it’s absolutely worth unlearning those negative thought patterns. Bottom line, everyone is deserving of money, there is enough room at the top for everyone and its not just a tool to be negatively used. People often overlook that there is also so much good we can and already do with the tool of money.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I think what helped build my reputation within my market is truly my client experiences. I strive to create a fun, comforting and professional experience for my clients. When clients are coming to myself or to one of the photographers I work with, new clients or guests often times feel nervous or anxious coming in for the first time. As someone who also deals with social anxiety, I make it my absolute goal to make sure my client feels 100 percent safe and comfortable with me. Outside of being tedious with sanitation and communication. I feel that I create that safe and comforting experience by making sure my clients requests are heard and the details are paid attention to. Specifically, I have my clients fill out a consultation so they can express exactly what they are looking for or want. Once my client has arrived I make sure to go over the consult again and express how it’s okay for them to be vocal if they want to change anything. I feel by breaking down these social barriers and creating a more lax environment for clients to express the things they want, it creates an overall unique and enjoyable experience. Additionally I make sure to keep things fun and relaxed during our session. I feel that as an artist in the service industry it’s about creating the perfect combination of professionalism, fun and comfortability to really make experiences for clients enjoyable and memorable!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jesseluxeofficial.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jesse_luxe
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jesseluxeofficial/
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/jesseluxe
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/jesseluxe
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@jesseluxe

Image Credits
Image 1: HMUA: Jesse Luxe, Photographer: Christa Dickson Photography Image 2: HMUA/Photographer: Jesse Luxe Image 3: Model: Veronica Halko, HMUA: Jesse Luxe, Photographer: Christa Dickson Photography Image 4: Model: Paris Michelle, HMUA: Jesse Luxe, Photographer: Christa Dickson Photography