We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ruben Bermudez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Ruben, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today The first dollar your firm earns is always special. We’d love to hear about how you got your first client that wasn’t a friend or family.
Fresh into the retail market as a makeup artist and i finally got a job with MAC cosmetics in Florida. just a month into the job i got promoted from freelancer to part time, Shortly after my promotion i got my first big opportunity. I’m at work just cleaning up the makeup stations when a customer approached me after being snubbed by another employee. I asked her how may i help her and she immediately asked if I knew how to do makeup. Of course i said, what are you looking for i asked. She then goes on to tell me how her makeup artist wasn’t able to make it to her event last minute and she was desperate to have someone fill the position. I asked her the dates location and times.. and i just so happen that i was off for th weekend anyway. So i jumped at the opportunity calmly because i didn’t want to seem desperate. Her friends (who i later found out were her entourage) approached mid conversation between her and I and then it hit me on who she was. We exchanged contact info and i thanked her for stopping in and said “thank you again Mrs. Hicks” she replied “oh baby you can call me MoNique” It was MoNnique from the Parkers, Stand up Comedian and much more!!!
I get to the venue at Hard Rock Casino and she was performing her comedy show at and i set up my makeup station. She comes out in her robe and i begin my makeup application when i notice my hand was shivering!!! I was so nervous i was going to mess up and she saw it. She grabbed my hand gently and said “Are you ok baby? It’s just makeup you got this!” I took a deep breath in and said to myself “she’s right get it together and get the job done!”
Three days of working with her and omg i was so excited i didn’t even know how i got through it all. To this day i still have a copy of the check she paid me with and a few pictures and one she even autographed!
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?
Fresh out of high school i wondered the malls with no goal in mind. One Day in a mall a lady at a Kiosk stops me and asked if needed a job. I asked her what i had to do and she said let me show you. Curiosity didn’t kill this cat! I was so intrigued about how one product was able to do so many things with 1 mixing medium and there were so many colors to choose from!! From that one experience my life slowly snowballed into 24 years plus of me enhancing and learning my this field of artistry and with opportunities i went after in retail cosmetics settings the doors to the industry jus flew open. I pushed myself to learn the craft and make it my own. I learned to become professional with my talent and to be more outgoing and i learned to educate others as well. A few of my proudest moments are when i was featured on the local news station providing “How To… with makeup.” Some other proud moments were the many encounters i had with genuine people in my makeup chair. A lot of it was therapy for me and the client because we talked a lot about each other, our lives, the event the clients were attending. Some of which i have made long term friendships with.
Now a days, I have over 24+ years of experience in the cosmetic industry & artistry skills. My style of makeup is simple for all faces. My service style is professional, fun, interactive, & energetic. I continue to meet & work with many amazing diverse range people, while making each person feel & look beautiful.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
Being talented doest just stop there. I want to be successful like anyone else. My strategy with my business was to make Beauty Simple For all Faces. That meant I had to learn and be confident in doing makeup on all types of skin textures, colors, adapt to current techniques in the industry and be able to have repeat paying clients. How I accomplish this was to find retail jobs where i was able to learn and network all at the same time. Enhance my people skills and grow with the companies i worked for, I started to build such a good reputation at work that clients started to ask just for me via word of mouth from one client to another. At one point makeup brands were asking for me to work for them! Can you believe that!! With all this background i had to think what will visually set me aside from others in this industry and I established myself as a brand of my own. This is when www.BeautyByRuben.com was created around 2016 and i began to brand myself via vistaprint with business cards, social media outlets, a website, and then a logo. Money started to roll in that i was able to support myself and balance a retail job at the same time and i was loving all of it!!
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
Unfortunately, for me when i started my journey with makeup the internet was not yet as advance as it is today. I had to do research by trial and error, reading makeup books, and attending pro makeup classes hosted by well seasoned makeup artist. I saw it as a small investment with big returns! When it came to retail settings I took advantage of shadowing other artist and management and asking questions to better understand the retail setting and how to manage employees and all the good and bad that came with. I learned early in my career which is super vital, to never burn bridges and to always build them because in this industry you’re going to cross paths.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.beautybyruben.com
- Instagram: @beautybyruben
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/ruben-bermudez-06b820167
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/beauty-by-ruben-washington?utm_campaign=www_business_share_popup&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=(direct)