Meet Michaela Cleveland

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

Hi Michaela, thank you so much for opening up with us about some important, but sometimes personal topics. One that really matters to us is overcoming Imposter Syndrome because we’ve seen how so many people are held back in life because of this and so we’d really appreciate hearing about how you overcame Imposter Syndrome.

If you’re lucky enough – you don’t. I know we’re always trying to solve the riddle of how to banish that pesky feeling of imposter syndrome, but I’d like to offer a different perspective. I’d rather think that the human experience is meant for growing and stretching your knowledge and abilities, so you’re constantly teetering the line of comfort and “fake it ‘til you make it”.

I come to this conclusion after years of feeling like I had outgrown my position, but I was not yet ready to make the leap necessary to reach my goals and was left feeling stuck in life. Last year I got married and left my stable job as a real estate assistant to become an entrepreneur as a real estate agent and makeup artist and have felt imposter syndrome every day since. I have also felt more confident and secure in myself after going full send on those life-changing decisions, so I welcome imposter syndrome like a cuddle on the couch binge-watching Real Housewives of New York, because that sensation is far superior to me than feeling like I’ve hit the glass ceiling in my career so early in life.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

Hats don’t really suit me, but the saying is true as an entrepreneur – you do tend to wear a lot of hats. For years I felt I had to be pigeon-holed into a full-time real estate agent or a full-time makeup artist to be successful at either, which just led to analysis paralysis and inaction. Somewhere along the line (perhaps in my anarchy year of 2024) I decided that people are allowed to be multi-faceted, so why aren’t our careers?

My main focus as a professional is real estate. It fulfills the more analytical side of my personality, bringing in my background in economics to interpret market data to clients, whereas my ‘side hustle’ in makeup artistry taps into my creative side, crafting art on a different canvas every time.

What I love most about makeup artistry is the instant satisfaction of seeing a client smile when looking into the mirror after I’ve completed their makeup. Knowing I’ve made the vision for their look come to life through my work is extremely rewarding.

Real estate on the other hand is more of a slow burn when it comes to the reward, but the stakes are much higher, and the longer timeline allows for more opportunities to best serve your client to reach their goals. When you help a couple purchase their first home together to grow their family in, or help an owner sell their most expensive real estate asset to move on in life and have some financial security, that’s a satisfaction you just can’t get as an assistant.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I believe the three qualities that have gotten me to where I am today and continue to move the needle in the direction I’m trying to go are as follows: 1. Become a lifelong learner. This can be as simple as finding a relevant podcast or audiobook to listen to on your way to work. 2. Be humble enough to recognize you don’t know everything. When you don’t know the answer, my dad’s advice is to say, “I don’t know, but I’ll find out for you” and then follow up with an answer. 3. Do it when you don’t want to/ don’t have the motivation to. I’ve learned this one in the last year since working for myself and I think it may be the most important skill to master, especially as an entrepreneur. I used to think learning more would give me the motivation to do the things I was learning about. Surprisingly enough, I just kept learning… a lot. Motivation is a fallacy; action itself begets the motivation to continue taking action.

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

When I feel overwhelmed, I always turn to a ‘to-do’ list, either in the Notes app or on a physical notepad, and I simply begin crossing things off the list. Sometimes by level of easiest-to hardest, sometimes by level convenience (writing a blog post on my computer that’s already open in front of me vs driving to the post office to drop off a package), pick your poison. It’s not so dissimilar to the action-motivation loop described above; where ticking off items that are stressing you out when you have so much to do will encourage you to tick off more items. I like a list because putting it on paper or on my phone gets the mess out of my head, so I’m not stressing about missing or forgetting something, and it’s now just a set of tasks to complete.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: goldbloodedbeauty
• Youtube: goldbloodedbeauty

Image Credits

@ardentphoto
@roguefilmco
@pangaea