We recently connected with Maya Ergas and have shared our conversation below.
Maya, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?
It may sound cliché, but I think there are many factors that come into play when someone is trying to be successful but some of the most important factors is remembering why you’re doing whatever it is you’re doing and being sure of yourself. I see a lot of people pick up hobbies because of a momentary serotonin or dopamine boost rather than knowing the purpose behind their passion(s). Knowing why you’re doing something makes you move with intention and which then may prompt to taking calculated risks. I also think being sure of your self — or confident — helps enable success in someone’s life. Not arrogance but genuine authentic confidence, Not all the time are we going to get the results that we’re looking for as entrepreneurs nor are we always going to get the support that we want or feel that we rightfully deserve. Continuing with confidence through all the obstacles shows that the individual working is being resilient to get what they want regardless of how hard it may be to get it.
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 Maya. I am a 23 year old entrepreneur that hand makes natural skin and hair care products. All of the products that I make are made with ingredients that the are naturally growing from the Earth to heal us. Being Caribbean and growing up with my dad and mom prompting me to use holistic ways of living it was easy for me to get drawn to something like what I’m doing as a child. My earliest memory of me making any type of skin and hair product was at the age of 9 — and I can be honest in saying I had no idea what I was doing but I knew I loved it. As I got older and my skin and hair type would change, I realized quickly that a lot of store bought products at the time were breaking me out and not making me feel confident in my natural skin so I went to making my own concoctions and by the time I got to closer to the end of high school and throughout college people started asking me for advice, tips, remedies for what they can do for their skin and hair type. Think about all the times someone described what their skin or hair regimen is and it literally goes in one ear and out the next, So, once we all had to quarantine, I had so much time and I started expanding what I knew how to make and created an entire line of products and decided to sell it and I birthed the brand Celestial Hair + Skin. I’m proud that I am able to create things that help others outside of me. The beauty world does not cater to brown and black people the way it should and I feel like I’m a part of the change — thats what I’m most proud of.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I’ve had to unlearn being so hard on myself and find the balance with being disciplined and learning from my mistakes in a productive way rather than feeling like I messed something up. Im a bit of a perfectionist and sometimes its just not needed. My parents always told me to be the best I can be in whatever I’m doing and thats definitely something I take pride in but because I’m doing everything on my own I have to be confident in it and not beat myself up about every little detail. Especially since there’s lessons in mistakes and if I’m not beating myself up I can learn the lesson with a much more open mind and take it to do things different the next go around.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.celestialhairskin.com
- Instagram: @celestialhairskin
Image Credits
@maya.celeste – photographer @gunterthe13th – model @kaia.imani – model @lindseyyshantel – model