We recently connected with Mariel Lajterman and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Mariel , appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
Resilience comes from never losing sight of the end goal, the fight it took to be on your journey, and committing to the success you want for yourself. I knew from a young age that I was creative and artistic, after college is when I decided combining my marketing degree, corporate America and creativity was not what I thought it would be. So I quit. Quitting and deciding to start my own business in something brand new was scary, uncertain, and filled with fear. I forced myself to dive in with everything I’ve got, commit to myself and my craft that I wasn’t going to see failure as an option. I wanted this “thing” so badly that through all the ups and downs I kept driving forward. I set goals for myself, found myself in situations i had to work my way out of that were more difficult than I could have ever imagined. Now 11 years later as a full time business owner, although I still face issues that are challenging, I am proud of what I’ve created and the business I built for myself and have never looked back.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I initially went to college with a goal of being in a creative marketing field. From a young age I was always passionate about being creative in art, jewelry making, playing with makeup, and designing shoes and clothes on paper. It wasn’t until I got my first real job that I realized creative marketing wasn’t at all what I wanted for myself, and I needed something more tactile.
After a soul searching journey I realized that working with my hands, designing, was essential to driving the future of my career. I became obsessed with the idea of makeup artistry and hairstyling. Although this had been a passion of mine for years, I decided to find a way to make it my career. I used my college degree combined with my certificate from the Makeup Designory in NY to apply to as many potential makeup careers as I could. I landed a position with Makeup Forever in NYC. I was brought on to develop special educational events, and creative programs for professional makeup artists. That role evolved into education, teaching, training, and honing my craft of artistry. From my experience there, I would freelance in the bridal industry as much as I could while still working my full time job. Knowing that one day I wanted to be a mom and I traveled a ton for work, I told myself one day I wanted to be able to do bridal makeup full time. This would allow me to be a business owner, doing what I love, and also spend time with my kids.
My passion for artistry was really developed in my time at Makeup Forever, they hold education and training to a very high standard and that is something that I still really value today. I thrive on not having “a style” in my artistry, I prefer to be able to give my clients exactly what they want. From something very natural to more dramatic, I can create anything my clients desire. I want my clients to have the best experience on their most special day, and I work closely with them to discover what makes them feel best, and bring it to life in the best way.
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?
1. Developing skills early in your career, spend time in the uncomfortable stage of learning. In the world we live in today I think it’s easy to say you are an “expert”, but are you? I believe in experience, working hard, and learning from as many people as possible.
2. Be flexible. Being a business owner has thrown many curveballs that can be challenging to navigate. I maintain working about 75 weddings a year, that is something that takes flexibility, understanding, and patience.
3. Say yes.
If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?
With my husband and kids. I am proud of the career and life I have built, and theres times that I feel the guilt of missing soccer games on a Saturday morning. I would probably pull back on the volume of work I do and spend every minute I could with my kids.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thebridalartistryco.com
- Instagram: thebridalartistryco
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