What is your passion?

What is your passion? The secret to living a fulfilled life and never having to work another day is taking what you love doing, the thing that makes you happy and making a career out of it. You need to get honest and ask yourself "what is my passion"? From here you can cultivate your given talents and share them with the world and make a good living from it as well.

For myself it happens to be teaching other beauty professionals around the globe the art of airbrush makeup and being in service to others to bring forth their inner beauty with the use of makeup. You see as a makeup artist it's important to understand that without makeup everyone is already beautiful. Someones smile, their eyes, even more so is the beauty they possess inside. I am a firm believer that makeup is just a catalyst to bring for that inner beauty that is already in someone plus who doesn't love a good shimmer lip stain and false lashes? LOL.

I want you to know that with a positive attitude, willingness to always say yes, working hard, taking risks and being dedicated that anything you dream up you can accomplish and achieve.

Is it easy? No. But is anything easy worth having? Is it worth it?YES! You see if success is just handed to you then you really never appreciate it. Appreciation comes with hard work and dedication towards your goals. If you stay the course I promise you one day you will look back and remember your dreams and realize "I made it".

The first step is to create a game plan.

Write down what your ultimate goal is then write down smaller goals that you need to do each day to reach that goal.

Some days you will work more than others. Some days you will hardly do any work at all, but as long as you make steps each day no matter how large or small then you are going in the right direction and a step closer to your ultimate goal. Be patient, sometimes it can take months or even years to reach your ultimate goal. Enjoy the ride and the lessons you have along the way and always wake up with a positive outlook.

In the next section I want to share a little bit more about myself and my own journey. I grew up pretty poor in the hills of West Virginia. I used to dream of being a makeup artist in Hollywood. During most of my adult life I felt as if my life was already written out for me. I would live in WV and work a mundane 9-5 the rest of my life and have a vacation once a year. This didn't appeal to me. For an artist this type of life is torture. I wanted a life I didn't have to have a vacation from. I lived this life until I was 30 when I decided to take charge of my life and create my own destiny. I sold my house in WV and moved to Virginia Beach where I attended cosmetology school at Paul Mitchell. The culture there was amazing. The whole concept of Paul Mitchell is to make your dreams a reality. With a formula of DREAMING+DOING=SUCCESS!! I got a wonderful education in hair and makeup but more importantly learned lessons on how to make my passion a lifelong career. Paul Mitchell put me on a dreamers path. I am very grateful to Winn Claybaugh dean of Paul Mitchell schools to always being there for me and always asking "what can I do for you"? Thank you Winn.

After Paul Mitchell I was ready for another new adventure. I sold

everything I had once again and moved to Los Angeles. I had never been here before, landed with 2 suitcases, hair/makeup kit and a dream. I was blessed to already have a job when I got here with Wella Top Artist Aubrey Loots who I interviewed with while he was teaching in Virginia Beach. He and his team took me under their wing and only 2 weeks after landing in Los Angeles I was working backstage at LA Fashion Week.

I worked with Aubrey for about 6 months before I met the founder and inventor of Airbrush Makeup. Very quickly I found my passion for makeup. The colors, the textures, creating art on a human canvas. I very reluctantly left my position with Aubrey and decided to tackle a makeup career. Soon, I was full time in a corporate position in beauty with a known airbrush makeup brand and in only a year worked my way up as lead global educator. I was with them for 3 years.

Since being in LA I have had some amazing opportunities. This city is truly the city of dreams. My work has been seen in People, Vogue, and on major networks and on some celebrities. Also, thru my friend and host of TLC's "Say Yes to the Dress" Monte Durham (fellow West Virginian by the way) I was the head of makeup for "Say Yes to the Prom" 2016 which aired on TLC. I was able to travel all over the country with TLC and lead a team of artists giving back to deserving young adults.

Sometimes I take a step back and remember the young boy who had all of these dreams and think to myself "I made it" and just smile.

I am still on my journey myself and enjoying the ride.

If you are thinking of taking one of our courses or hosting us in your salon I cannot wait to meet you.

Carpe Diem

"Sieze the Day"