Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jessica Mae Koza. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Jessica Mae thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you tell us a bit about who your hero is and the influence they’ve had on you?

My hero is my sister, Cassie. She was born with a rare chromosome disorder that caused her to have severe developmental delays and physical handicaps. She wasn’t supposed to live past the age of 5 and is about to celebrate her 38th birthday!

Through the experience of growing up with a disabled person I gained a unique understanding of what true beauty is. Cassie cannot speak and requires assistance with all of her daily living activities. And still, she is one of the most joyful people I know. She loves to laugh and has the best smile. She lights up any room she’s in with her infectious laugh. Her love for animals is precious. And in some ways I envy the way she is able to look at the world for all of its goodness and beauty. She taught me that our beauty lives on the inside and our physical appearance is only a glimpse into who someone truly is.

Growing up I was super protective of her, even though I am the younger sister. Kids would point and laugh at the playground and I would march right on up to them and ask them what their problem with my sister was. As an adult I find I’m fearless when it comes to confronting people.

Cassie has taught me more about life than most people I’ve met and we’ve never had the ability to have a two way conversation.

Jessica Mae, 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?

Hi everyone! I’m Jessica Mae, Co-Founder & Creative Director for WarPaint International Beauty Agency. WPI is an onsite service that provides makeup applications and hair styling services for weddings, photoshoots, commercial/corporate work, special occasions and all kinds of events.

From a young age I knew I wanted a career in the beauty industry. Growing up I was always playing with my mom’s makeup and dreaming about working on a magazine shoot. In high school I often did my friends makeup for school dances and events. When it came time to think about going to college I really wanted to go to beauty school but that was not an option that was made available to me. In my late teens I dropped out of college and took a job working for a cosmetic brand. WPI was created in 2010 when my Co-Founder and I met and started dating. At that point I had been working as a makeup artist in a retail setting for a few years. Sam was the first person to recognize my makeup artistry talent and encouraged me to pursue artistry as a full time career. We soon realized that there was only so far I could take this career in a conventional setting and there were gaps in the industry and what it offered. Over a series of months we dreamt up the idea of creating a team of beauty artisans that delivered makeup & hair styling services at the client’s location. At the time consumer’s were getting used to and loving the idea of being able to order items they wanted or needed ” on demand ” to their doorstep- enter Amazon and Uber. So Sam and I thought it would be cool to have a company that delivers beauty services that women & men were already using and having to leave their homes for, right to their doorstep. Which made WPI an innovative company by offering in home convenience that consumers were looking for. Since 2010, other companies like WPI have been created. There is definitely a demand for what we do!

One of the things that sets us a part from other companies is our hiring process. We do all of the standard interviewing that you’d expect from any company, but one thing we do that is fairly unique is criminal background checks on every artisan. I have yet to find another company like WPI that has this in place. Safety and integrity have been at the forefront of our values since inception. Since we are sending our artisans into our client’s homes and private venues it only makes sense to us that we would background check our team. It offers peace of mind to our clients as well as anyone that works for us. WPI strives to be the best and this element is a big part of being able to confidently deliver at an elite level of service.

Since launching WPI in 2010 the company has grown and evolved over time. We remain incredibly proud of all of our awards and accomplishments we have achieved. They are a testament to the quality of work our team provides as well as our level of customer service.

We are also incredibly proud of the process and procedures we’ve developed. Building processes is something I get super geeky about and love doing. We consistently receive feedback from our team and clients on how smoothly their experience is with us are and that is something we are most proud of! In fact, in the last year we have been told numerous times by our artisans how different we are from other companies in the way we treat them, how well we pay and how organized we are. Our goal, always, is to create an exceptional experience for our clients as well as for our artisans. Our team culture is unmatched and we are grateful to work with such talented people!

The biggest thing we want our clients to know is that while our name may make us sounds like a big box brand, we are in fact a small family owned company. We foster a family culture that is built on kindness & integrity. We’re a company that believes in beauty for all no matter your age, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, body shape or size. We also strongly believe in creating a safe space for our clients to be and feel their most beautiful as well as a positive work environment for our team to grow into the best artisan and person they can be.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

When WPI was first founded it was definitely a side hustle with the goal of being full time down the road. During that time I took a full time day job in order to be available to build the business when it was most in demand – nights and weekends. We started with only me offering onsite makeup applications. In 2012 we brought on our first contractor to help me with larger wedding parties and events. By 2013 we were doing about a dozen weddings per year and decided to add hair styling to our service offerings in order to be a one stop shop for our clients. Since I didn’t have hair styling as a skillset we partnered with my personal hairstylist as she was looking for additional freelance work.

By 2014 inquiries had begun to come in more frequently and we launched our beauty membership program. This was a very unique offering at the time and so it gained media attention. A story about WPI and our new membership program was featured on a local news station in Minneapolis. Demand for our services grew and it was time to make a decision to jump in with both feet, which meant leaving my 9-5 job. In May 2014 we finally made that decision and the timing was perfect. With demand for our services growing we hired on more contractors and doubled our revenue from 2013. I began attending every networking event I could to get the company out there and build referral relationships to expand our opportunities. That same year we won our first Best of Weddings award with The Knot Wedding Network. This was a huge accomplishment and definitely set the tone for growth and expansion.

WPI continued to receive local press on TV and numerous articles. This caught the attention of artists outside of MN and through conversations with them in 2015 we decided to expand to NYC and San Diego. While those markets are no longer active for the company we learned a lot from those experiences and have since expanded to Chicago (in 2021) and Jacksonville ( in 2022). It’s amazing to look back at where it all began and where we are today!

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

During the pandemic lockdown we, like so many others, were forced to strip down to the bare minimum when it came to staff. During this time Sam and I reflected a lot on what we had built with WPI and talked about where we wanted to go with it next once we could reopen. This included restructuring my role and identifying what leadership roles we needed to create and hire on. Growth of the company became our number one goal and in order to do that we needed to get me out of the day to day operations in order to focus on business development. So, we needed to expand the leadership roles we already had within the company as well as bring on a few more.

It took a few years but in 2022 we found our perfect leadership team and structure. We work beautifully together. One major key to this magical synergy is figuring out what everyones strengths are so that you can put them in a role they will thrive in. Another key and must have is clear expectations & communication. Your team needs to know what is expected of them, when and have the necessary processes & procedures in place in order to do their job.

In addition to those key things, perhaps the most important is leading by example. When it comes to maintaining high morale you have to understand that it starts with you. If you’ve ever heard the saying. “It stems from the top” it truly does. As an owner, manager or leader my biggest piece of advice is to work on your personal development in order to become the leader that your company and team needs. Another important piece of maintaining high morale is to take good care of your people. When you take care of your people, your people take care of you. Make sure they know that you care about them and their wellbeing.

Contact Info:

• Website: warpaintinternational.com
• Instagram: @warpaintbeautyagency
• Facebook: WarPaint International
• Twitter: @warpaintmakeup