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

Alright, Laura thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

I feel like my parents have always been there for me and encouraged me throughout my whole career. I am really lucky in that way. They both gave me a great example of what it takes to be successful. My mom did not have a college degree but became very successful in her career. She worked he way up from a secretary to high-level management at Arthur Andersen. When they let go of mid-management, she decided to work with my stepdad and they built a multimillion-dollar business together selling wholesale diamonds at the World Trade Center.
My dad was the same way. He worked his way from pumping gas at a gas station to joining the military and later the oil business. Today he is a VP of a huge Oil Company in Singapore. He has made millions as well.
Together they showed me through their example that there is nothing you can’t accomplish. You have to think big and just go for your dreams and they will happen. It all takes focus, determination, and putting your whole self into it and with that, you can achieve anything.

Laura, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Laura Schakosky I am a Professional Makeup Artist for tv, film, video, and print and a Soul Therapy Coach.

I started in the industry as a model and an actress. That’s when I fell in love with the entertainment industry but it wasn’t until I did a Modeling course that I became interested in makeup for camera. After going to Esthetician School, doing an internship with another makeup artist – Cathrine Hatcher to learn makeup for camera, and going to college to study Psychology, I had the skills I needed for a career of beauty inside and out. Within a year, I was able to build a successful business overnight in Dallas and I decided that this was my path and I left school to pursue my career.

After the first 5 years of working, I longed to work with successful people in the big league. I wanted to see what I was capable of, make a name for myself, and see what made celebrities tick. I wanted to see what set them apart from everyone else and I needed to determine that up close and personal. I decided to take a risk – to move to Los Angeles with 3000.00 in the bank and a big dream. After making 100 marketing calls per week for three years and a do-or-die attitude to make things happen as a makeup artist in the entertainment industry it finally paid off. When the doors opened, they all opened at once, which led me to work with all kinds of role models – from Models in major magazines, Supermodels, and Rockstars, to A list Actors in movies, International Commercials, TV Sitcoms, to becoming known for creating a famous look with the blue-eyed “Mimi Bombeck” on the Drew Carey Show. This led to my greatest achievements which was to be a Key Makeup Artist for the Olympics in Japan and to make up the President of the United States. If I played it safe and stayed in Dallas, instead of going for it in the big league, I would have never experienced the success that I ended up having.

In Hollywood the cost of living is expensive and the opportunities are all huge so that drove me to take as many jobs as I could that came my way. That meant working 18 hours days non-stop which was exhausting and led to burnout. I realized at one point that I needed to balance the scales because getting a massage and spending time in nature wasn’t enough. I started questioning if I was on the right path because I had accomplished my original intention, which was to come to Hollywood to see what celebrities were like and what characteristics they had that separated them from everyday people. I started questioning what it was that I was supposed to do next. This led me to go on a spiritual quest, which caused me to draw different well-being and spiritual mentors into my life. These sacred teachings helped me get back into balance and shifted the course of my life. I found that to maintain success ongingly you have to go as deep inwardly as you are putting energy externally. These practices helped me live a life of more meaning and purpose, they removed my blocks, transformed my life, and connected me to my soul. As a result, it transformed my career, which impacted my view of beauty and my life. Along the way, I felt more creative which led me to write a book about bringing consciousness a beauty experience, and transformative experiences that can alter your view of life. My goal was to share the original reason why ancient people wore makeup and to modernize those ideas so that we can utilize those tools to empower us today. 15 years into my career, I decided to leave Hollywood to finish my book, and go back home to Texas (which is where I am from). I took 8 years of transformational leadership training to help get me grounded in the teachings and became certified in many of the healing practices that I studied in Hollywood, so I could create experiences for others.

Today, I am finishing up my book, currently building a membership based on beauty and wellness rituals that can be incorporated into a person’s everyday life. These rituals are all based on my experiences in my spiritual journey and in my career as a makeup artist.

I have a Soul Therapy coaching practice as well that helps others remove their stress on all levels. In this private practice, I create journeys in a bottle – incorporating aromatherapy and soul healing to create a blend for people with a sacred intention to help them have a breakthrough in an area of their life. In the coaching session and throughout the month the blend is used as a tool to clear energy and to attract what a person wants in their life. In the coaching session, I practice a modality called Rapid Eye Technology which is a form of soul retrieval. It’s similar to EMDR, but on steroids. It helps to call back a person’s spirit and release trauma, stress, and anxiety in the neuro-pathways and deep down on a cellular level. What I love about it, is that it is gentle and you don’t have to relive the trauma to release it. It’s a complete rebirthing process that gently guides people to love and embrace every part of themselves. It inspires creativity, and rejuvenation and helps people get complete with the past so that they feel more present to the power of who they have become by having the experiences in their life that they have had.

I also guide groups online through my year-long program to reinvent themselves. This is a journey like no other, which includes a guided journey to support a transition into the next stage of your life. It is for already successful people who are looking to take what they have done to the next level or to shift onto a new path. It incorporates creating a Hollywood Success Story and living into it. Along the way, I guide my clients through different healing journeys each month with my chakra blends to heighten specific senses. In this journey, the storyline is broken up into segments, just like they do in a movie and they are guided through experiences that reveal their blindspots and that’s when an awakening occurs. Along the way, there’s change that inspires beauty to be expressed. I incorporate a subtle beauty change every month to practice embracing that part and what it means, so that the change is gradually seen externally to match the inner changes that are occurring. In the end, they don’t even feel like the same person because they have grown, changed and in the end their look all comes together to reveal how everything that they have experienced is connected. As they do the work on themselves internally the embodiment of the new role and inspirations around it sticks, it’s not like buying a new wardrobe and it superficially feels like change. This is an embodiment of who they are inside and out and it sets them on a new pathway to becoming an inspiration for others for example through writing books, taking on a new life path, and bringing out gifts that they didn’t even know were there before.

If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?

If I went back in time I would have probably become an architect of ultra-modern homes and companies and designed modern furniture. It’s something that I absolutely love and have a huge passion for.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I have been fortunate that I have had the same career since 1987, which is a long time to work in the tv, film, video, and print business as a Makeup Artist. I am still doing this work today, but I did pivot some when Covid hit. At the time I was doing work for a lot of live shots for Fox Business News and CNN and when Covid hit, the bureaus closed down temporarily, and overnight 50 percent of my work evaporated. This takes a lot of time to build up a clientele. It was a blessing in disguise because I had time to create an online Coaching business which took off during that time. I don’t think I would have created that business and pivoted if the pandemic had not happened because I was in a different flow. My lifestyle was based around dropping everything, we have a live shot, can you be here in 10 minutes? I never knew when those calls would come in. On one hand, it was exciting to be part of a narrative and to watch it unfold, and be in the middle of it, and ask my own questions, but I did not have control over my schedule. As a Coach, I had designated days that I coached on and I did shoots with my other clients around it so it gave me a lot of freedom and allowed me to create a rhythm in my schedule. After Covid, alot of on camera talent built studios inside of their homes, so it really changed the landscape of the news business so I am not doing as much of it as I once was. I still freelance today, have the balance of both worlds – the depth of coaching and the excitement of working with celebrities on camera.

Contact Info:

• Website: Heartfeltjourneys.com, Lauraschakosky.com
• Youtube: Lauraschakosky

Image Credits

I took all of these on my iphone so I own the images.