We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jossy Maness . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jossy below.
Jossy , appreciate you joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
My journey started with an apprenticeship, learning about color, cut and styling under some of the best stylists in nashville at a salon called Trim. After graduating from their program, I spent a year on the floor, building my own clientele. But felt like I still had a lot more to learn, so I decided to move to New York City and complete another apprentice program, strictly focusing on color. Once I was done with that, I came back to Nashville and assisted under a mentor named Melanie Shelley, who put me on the path to work with artists on music videos, photo shoots, red carpets, etc.. I knew from day one working with Melanie that that was the path I wanted to take. Which is where I am now officially a full-time freelance artist, living my dreams and getting paid to do just that!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I would say, being a creative, takes some of the most discipline in my opinion. Most of the time no one just hands you clients or jobs you have to net work and show up for yourself, as well as build those relationships and trust within your community of creatives as well as your clientele. There’s so many moving parts it’s not just one individual making the vision happen. Getting into the industry for me, was knowing who I wanted to assist under, and find out exactly how she got on that path. I was determined to get her to notice me and luckily she did. I assisted Melanie Shelley, for 5+ years and still am her right hand whenever she needs me. I think it’s important to find someone that’s doing what you want to do and seek out how it is they got there and how to maintain it. Once I felt like I was ready to go out on my own, I had a meeting with an agency called AMAX That represents hair and make up artist as well as models. This is what changed my life and connected me with the clientele I’ve always wanted. I’m most proud of the artists I’ve curated and been able to keep. To name just a few Keith Urban, Joss Stone, Brett Eldredge. Natalie Grant, and MaRynn Taylor. Having my name behind these artists that I’ve looked up to is something that will always make me smile and be proud of how hard I worked to get here. I’m just as proud to say that no matter how crazy of a dream you think that it is, you can’ do it and that is a super surreal feeling once you finally are in it. To summarize what I want my clients and artists to get from me, is my individual style, my fun, loving personality, and that I always will show up for them.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
The first story that’s gonna come to mind when I asked this question is when I was 20 years old. I tried to get signed to the agency that I’m now signed with. When I met with the head agent, they told me that I was not ready and I was devastated. I thought for sure that I had it because I had been assisting Melanie, so I thought this is it I’m in I’m going to be signed with an agency. I was wrong. Fast forward 3 to 4 years later I started building my own book by doing test shoots with local photographers models and really anyone that needed any sort of hair and make up that I could compile into what was my style. I decided to shoot my shot and was officially signed in 2019 so if anyone out there is reading this sometimes you fail, sometimes you don’t get the answer you’re wanting to hear, keep pushing and never give up on your dreams.
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
I’m going to answer this in a little bit of a different way what I think is important for new creatives that are trying to build an audience or get into the creative Network here in Nashville reach out to people on Instagram find artists that you admire or who are also trying to come up and build a name for themselves I’m gonna speak for strictly hair and make up creative’s right now and say those photographers/videographers are also going to be the ones that come up at the same time and it’s so important to build those relationships and to create images that not only you’re proud of, but to also help your friends that are around you create the images they want to see as well It truly is a small community in a way I feel like we’re all connected so if I could say to anybody starting out build those relationships nurture them, and it will lead to bigger things in the future.
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