The business I built started with an account I hid from everyone.

I’ve been a middle school band teacher, a makeup artist I kept hidden from almost everyone I knew, and now I’m the person women pay to fix their business. If all of it disappeared tomorrow, I know exactly how I’d rebuild. And I’d skip about three years of it.

Those years taught me SO MUCH, but I still think I’d be further along if someone had told me a few things up front.

Hindsight, right?

But everything happens for a reason or whatever 🤣

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So let’s start at the beginning…

Well, not the BEGINNING beginning, because we would be here forever, but beginning enough for you to get the point.

It all started in 2014 when I started teaching middle school band and orchestra. It was the era of the OG YouTubers (my faves were the UK vloggers).

I wanted to be just like them. Not influencers (those didn’t exist at the time… well, they did, but not in the way we know them today). I guess I just wanted to document my life. It was kind of hard to do that when I wanted to keep it hush-hush (+ the immediate people in my life are VERY private people).

So I started a makeup account on both Instagram and YouTube, and I hid it from EVERYONE in my life.

It wasn’t my intention to hide it. It just kinda… happened.

I recorded my first makeup tutorial and immediately tore down the setup before anyone got home. At the time, I was a bit embarrassed.

It took me a long time to even post what I had created. I was afraid people I knew would find it.

I remember my stomach would knot every time I would post. It was just a matter of time before people would find out.

I guess I was afraid to fail in front of everyone.

Or that they’d think I sucked at makeup lol (makeup is SO subjective).

Then one day, I caught my nieces watching one of my videos.

THE EMBARRASSMENT!

And let’s not even talk about when MY STUDENTS found my accounts and would watch my videos in the hallway of the school 😳

But guess what?! My nieces (and my students, eventually) actually thought what I was doing was SO cool.

I didn’t really tell anyone else. Everyone just eventually… found out.

I decided to make it a real thing.

I started practicing makeup on other people. I got certified. I started doing makeup for brides at weddings and even branched into special effects makeup during Halloween (which is now my faveeee!).

I really took growing my account seriously. And it DID!

Not only did I grow my account to 15,000 followers in a year, I got fully booked, taking clients in every spare moment. Weddings, special events, Halloween parties. It was SO MUCH FUN!

When life took me to California, I stayed fully booked. When life took me to Virginia, I stayed fully booked. Even now back in my hometown of Miami, I still take on the occasional client when I WANT to.

So how did this turn into a business?

Throughout the journey, I had people in my DMs asking me how on earth I stayed fully booked. I didn’t think much of it because it just kinda… happened.

Then I realized there was a real strategy to all of this.

A food blogger reached out, wanting help growing her social media to bring more viewers to her website (and $$$). And it really happened for her!

One food blogger turned into two, turned into three, and then I started working with other niches.

Before I knew it, this business was fully booked too! Eventually, I brought on a team to help with some of the work. I stay focused on strategy, and my team executes.

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3 things I would do differently if I had to start over again.

#1 Just go for it.

The first thing that I would do if I could go back in time is literally just go for it! Don’t hold back! Don’t allow fear of judgment, fear of being seen, fear of anything to hold you back.

I honestly would be way further along had I not held back. Had I just gone for it from the beginning. Had I not been afraid to show up AUTHENTICALLY.

#2 Charge what YOU want to charge.

I started charging $15/hour because that’s what everyone said I should charge. After all, I was new, didn’t know what I was doing, and didn’t have experience in the niche I was working in.

I DID have experience. It was valuable experience that I should have charged way more for, and not just listened to whoever I saw as a “guru” at the time.

Even if you don’t have experience in working with clients, you have expertise that merits charging whatever YOU want to charge.

I left real money on the table for longer than I want to admit…

Undercharging is literally something I STILL struggle with to this day, and I truly believe it’s because I started that way, so do yourself a favor and STOP UNDERCHARGING.

#3 Hire before you’re ready.

I was genuinely scared when I hired my first assistant. Hell, I still freak tf out when I invest with my business coach every single month!

Investing can be scary, but trust me, NOT investing is scarier because that’s what will keep you stuck in the same place you are now… and who wants that?

My advice is to hire the person who’s going to give you your time back so that you can focus on what you’re really good at. If I could go back, I’d actually hire a project manager who could keep me accountable to make sure all projects get done and all clients are happy. THEN, I’d build the team.

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The account I hid in my bedroom turned into the whole life I have now.

I spent years afraid to be seen. The second I stopped hiding is the second any of this actually started.

Funny how the thing you’re most afraid to be seen doing is usually the thing. Take that for whatever it’s worth.

I’m showing you exactly what this looks like in real time this year… The business, the brand, the entire thing. I’m showing you EVERYTHING (wins, setbacks, the ugly middle… EVERYTHING).

So stick around if this is something you’re interested in and subscribe so you get the real version as it happens.

What’s something you hid at first that turned into a real thing? Or something you’re hiding right now?