We recently connected with Shalisha Marie and have shared our conversation below.

Shalisha , appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Growing up I was always different from the way I carry myself, to how I dress, to the mindset I always had that followed me as a young woman. Growing up I always had an entrepreneur mindset it was always in me to have a hustle. I fell in love with the idea of being my own boss as a kid and told myself I didn’t want to work for anyone. I’m mainly known from my YouTube channel “iamshalishamarie” aka better know by “makeupbyshalisha22”. Coming from a small town no one was really starting businesses or on YouTube so I honestly started it down here to put myself out there doing makeup tutorials & sneakers videos which BLEW UP ! Being a YouTuber comes with a lot of amazing opportunities like working with tons of major brands and receiving free products. I had worked with so many makeup brands and would buy so much makeup I had such a huge passion for makeup when I first started my channel. I told myself “I’m supporting all these brands and companies.. I want to have my own cosmetic line and offer my own products”. Senior year of highschool the dream I had all these years came true. Leading up to me graduating I was up late nights talking to vendors, orders samples, really blueprinting my entire vision out. August 9th was my launch date and after I graduated I was really getting excited about my launch. I had finally finalized my lipgloss manufacture, I had my logo made, I designed my website, everything was falling into place. I built the hype up for my cosmetic line all summer posting sneak peeks and behind the scenes footage. I officially launched my biggest dream since I was 14 at 19 fresh out of highschool and I couldn’t believe I did it. Another talent came about with me still having my cosmetic business, becoming a hairstylist. I currently specialize in lace wig installs. I had no knowledge of hair and hair companies were sending me free wigs and I kept working at the skill just to come and actually really love it. I self taught myself everything I know to this day. I was so dedicated to perfecting this passion of mine that I took a whole year researching & practicing before I took my first client may 2022. The sacrifices I made, all the research I did, countless videos I watched to better educate myself on business, all the sleepless nights truly paid off. I’m so blessed to have such a driven mindset because at young ages it’s so easy to go down the wrong road, success is in my path and I’m so ready for all the future opportunities to come my way.

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?

My name is Shalisha Marie aka better known as “MISS MARIE”. I am a 23 year old entrepreneur, hairstylist, YouTuber & influencer born & raised in Pottstown Pennsylvania. As for the YouTube portion, I started at the age of 14 posting makeup tutorials and sneakers videos that really started to gain me an audience. The type of content i produce on my channel is beauty, fashion & lifestyle videos. I work with so many different major companies and also promote brands products throughout all my social media platforms. My newest craft that I have such a passion for is hair. I am a hairstylist and specialize in lace wig installations. How I got into hair caught me off guard it wasn’t really something I was planning on perusing. Hair companies would send me free wigs and I was getting a lot of feedback from my followers on Instagram, friends/family on Facebook, Snapchat etc about how good I am getting with the installs and would I ever take clients. I finally took my first client may 2022 and ever since then it was been such an amazing journey. What separates me from everyone is my personality. I get the most compliments on how I carry myself, how far my personality is going to take me because of how real & down to earth I truly am. I will always make sure your hair and how you feel is my top priority when i am servicing you. Recently I have added snacks, drinks & enjoyable movies or shows within every appointment and I have gotten so many compliments on how people they use to go to never gave them these types of amenities and it makes me so happy to provide the best service. What I am most proud of is my unconditional drive & faith I have in myself. I never give up on anything ! No matter what I go through I grow through so I will always keep going and never throw in the towel when things get hard. Always make a positive out of any negative situation that may come about.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

HASHTAGS HASHTAGS HASH TAGSSS ! Everytime a new clients books with me and I ask them how did they find me they ALWAYS say hashtags, or by tiktok. Those tools are so useful when your trying to build your clientele. Use hashtags of surrounding areas also is another gem !

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I had an unbelievable experience when I was just starting to plan on taking a few starter clients to practice my work. A girl I knew all my childhood had reached out saying she needed her hair done for her birthday before her trip the next day and how she would pay me $100 in exchange for putting the wig on for her. Keep in mind I was not taking clients yet so I wasn’t really comfortable doing hair on someone else since I haven’t done it before but I slay them on myself so I do know what I’m doing it’s just doing it on someone else is totally different. So I wasn’t even looking for income I was more so wanting the experience & practice. She came I bleached, plucked & installed the wig for her & finished. When I got done I could admit it wasn’t like how I install wigs now but it was my first time so it’s not going to be the best just starting. It was definitely on but I could have done a few things better looking back on it a year later. She makes up an excuse about how the connection was not working for the cashapp & how she would send it to me as soon as she leaves in better connection. A few hours go by and she still has not paid me yet when she offered to from the beginning before I even started. The girl ended up never paying me and she is in Miami on her trip the whole situation really made me super upset and I posted to my social media about how I will no longer be doing wigs on anyone until further notice etc. If I would of let that small situation dictate my passion for something I would not be doing as well as I am today ! I said you know what no I will not let someone just stop my passion I did my first official client on a REAL childhood friend of mine and slayed the final look ! After that day my dms were BLOWING up on how good I did, how they wanna know how to book, keep going your doing so good etc. My resilience and non stop drive I have pushed me to not let something small get in the way of the bigger vision.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://meltedbymissmarie.as.me
• Instagram: www.Instagram.com/meltedbymissmarie
• Youtube: www.YouTube.com/iamshalishamarie
• Other: www.smariecosmetics.com www.tiktok.com/therealshalishamarie