Alba Mayorga

I attribute my success to my ability to brand myself effectively. When you're a makeup artist, branding is huge, and it's either something that comes naturally or something you learn to do, because it's what's going to separate yourself from everyone else. Everyone has something different to offer and everyone is so unique, no makeup artist is the same, but I think that when someone hears Albameo, if they know about makeup or they're in the beauty industry, they kind of know who I am. I'm proud of the amount of people that I've been able to have trust me through the branding that I've done, because I've worked on hundreds of brides at this point. I also took everything I learned from the business development side of agency recruiting, because it was very much a sales job at the end of the day, and that really helped me with the business side of what I do.

I think work-life balance is a big challenge, and staying organized and making time for everything. It's kind of hard when you mostly work on the weekends and you also have prior commitments, whether it's something with family or friends, making it to birthday parties and showing up for those who show up for you, but at the same time you're so tired. It's hard to keep a clean house and be organized all the time, especially with what I do. If I'm not doing brows during the week and they don't come to the salon, 8 out of 10 times I'm the one driving to them. So it's a lot of driving, it's a lot of back and forth, and keeping up with a hair kit, a makeup kit, and then my brow kit, keeping everything clean and hygienic, and that itself is a lot of work too. A lot of people think you just show up and do hair and it's fun, or they think this is like a hobby, and they don't realize how much admin work goes into this as well. It's a lot of emails, it's a lot of creating schedules, especially for the bride, sending it to their wedding planner, making sure that you have everything set so that everything runs smoothly the day of their wedding, and just a lot of communication going back and forth. And then also being your own marketing team, making sure that you're showing up on social media, that you're posting the reel, that you're posting the stories, you're reminding people of your availability. When you're an entrepreneur, essentially you're wearing many hats, and a lot of times many of us are like one-woman shows. We don't have assistance and we're doing it all by ourselves.

Education is really important to me because it's something that no one can take away from you. I went back to school as an adult and realized how much I love learning. Even though I was initially so caught up in what I was passionate about, which was hair and makeup, and thought that school wasn't really for me, when I went back I loved it. That's why I'm applying to grad school for my MBA, because not everybody can go back and get their MBA - it's a process that requires letters of recommendation, a certain GPA, and a strong sense of direction, and I feel like I have those things, so why not? Being present for my son is also extremely important to me. Any extra time that I have that I can be present in anything that has to do with his school, I'm there. I've gone on every field trip this year and I always volunteer to chaperone. If I'm not booked on a Saturday, I'm at one of his games, and sometimes even if I'm booked, I usually make it by doing makeup early in the morning and then heading over to one of his games.