IAM982- Makeup Artist Helps People Find Their Confidence

Natalie Setareh is an award-winning makeup artist, author of the internationally recognize book, “Be Your Own Makeup Artist”, and business educator. She’s passionate about helping people find their confidence, whether she’s teaching them how to apply makeup or run their small business in a saturated market. Natalie is a former military officer and also holds a Master’s Degree in International Relations.

• CEO Hack: i) Writing things down ii) Just doing it
• CEO Nugget: Believing in the word of the year
• CEO Defined: Knowing all aspects of the business and managing them

Website: https://nataliesetareh.com/

The official website for my book is https://beyourownmakeupartist.com

To book a coaching call -> https://calendly.com/nataliesetareh/coaching
To book a virtual 1 hour private lesson -> https://calendly.com/nataliesetareh/virtualglam
To get on my email list -> https://nataliesetareh.com/vip

Full Interview:

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Transcription

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[00:00:13.40] – Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

[00:00:40.70] – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Natalie Setareh. Natalie, it's awesome to have you on the show.

[00:00:49.60] – Natalie Setareh

So glad to be here. Thanks for having me.

[00:00:52.00] – Gresham Harkless

Excited to have you on. And before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Natalie so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Natalie is an award-winning makeup artist, the author of the internationally recognized book, Be Your Makeup Artist, and a Business Educator. She's passionate about helping people find their confidence, whether she's teaching them how to apply makeup or run their biz their small business in a saturated market. Natalie is a former military officer and holds a master's degree in international relations. Natalie, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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[00:01:21.90] – Natalie Setareh

Yes. I am.

[00:01:23.20] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, to kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit and hear a little bit more about how you got started. Could you take us through what I call your CEO story? Well, let's get started with all the awesome work you're doing.

[00:01:33.09] – Natalie Setareh

Yeah. I mean, I was doing the whole check the boxes, go to college, do all that stuff and I wound up in the military because they paid for my college and I had a promise from my parents that they'd give me a car if I got a scholarship not knowing that military was Anyways did the military, grew some thick skin, learned all about grit, and then left the military, was just no longer fit, and went to grad school because I thought that was the next tick on the box that you do. And, well, that wasn't really what I wanted to do.

There wasn't, you know, there wasn't enough flexibility in my personal life and also my professional life and with my husband as well. We wanted to stay together so I dabbled into entrepreneurship. Had a couple I had this, the business that I have today, and I started a trade and consulting business, an international strategy, and that kind of failed. Nobody cared about the academic and career that I had. They wanted me to do their makeup. And so I just was like, hey, I love doing makeup. I didn't know I could have just skipped all the other stuff.

However, the other stuff is really what afforded me the discipline and the resilience to run a business and to scale it. So now I'm here and I am teaching people how to wear makeup because I found that there was a really big gap in the market. Lots of people selling makeup, you have lots of people applying makeup, but you know there's a lot of people who just want to learn. Men, women, the trans community, the marginalized communities, they have never really been taught and they've been underserved. So this is where my passion is and that's why I wrote my book and kind of where I'm at today.

[00:03:20.19] – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I appreciate that, and I love that in true entrepreneurial form, you find that gap. And I heard you say that word grit, which I think that I've read and I've heard so many people saying that that's a true indicator, you know, of success if you're able to kind of tap into that. And I love how you mentioned that those things contributed to the success that you have today because you've been able to kinda learn those lessons. And it sounds like it's contributed to what you're doing now.

[00:03:45.80] – Natalie Setareh

For sure. Nice. The military is good for that.

[00:03:50.19] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely.

[00:03:52.19] – Natalie SetarehY

You can buy it now. You can just go do those, warrior challenges or do those obstacle races. You could go buy your grit and train for it. You don't have to go through the military.

[00:04:01.30] – Gresham Harkless

Okay. There's an alternative to that. Well well, thank you for your service, and thank you for doing that anyway. And I appreciate hearing how you've been able to leverage that into your business and all the awesome things that you're doing. So I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper. I know you touched on it a little bit. Could you take us through, like, how you work with your clients? And I wanna hear more about your podcast and all the awesome stuff that you're doing there as well.

[00:04:22.30] – Natalie Setareh

Yeah. I mean, so with my clients, one of the things that I have prided I'm very proud of, since day one was keeping my copy very inclusive and very accessible and I was feeling weird especially I guess probably coming from the military where you have to be very careful and make sure that you're sensitive. You never know what people are going through or how they feel. And so when I started my business, I was very intentional about not saying ladies or assuming, you know, the gender or the race or the beliefs of anybody on the other side. And that doing that from day one allowed me to grow authentically and scale into my book, which has been, so well received in the whole community, because it is inclusive.

Any age can read it. Any gender can read it. Any and I'd say that a lot because there's a void of this. You know? The marketing is always too very nodding. If you're listening, you're just you're nodding. You know what I mean? There's marketing to a very specific demographic and a lot of people are left out of that picture I just felt this was not fair and this isn't right. And in the pro-artist community, this doesn't exist. You know, pro makeup artists, we are prepared all the time to serve every single person.

But for some reason in the consumer market, this just doesn't sell. And so that's kind of where I saw them, I don't know if you know, the blue ocean and the red ocean. Yep. I kinda found my niche there and realized, yeah, I love showing people how to hold a brush. You know? I don't know how many men have come to me and been like, hey. Can you can you help me with concealer? Yes. I can. And it's it's not weird. You're not, you know, your masculinity is still solid. You don't have to worry about that. But yeah. So I don't know if that answered your question.

[00:06:28.10] – Gresham Harkless

I appreciate you for sharing. I appreciate you for doing that even more because I think so many times, and I think even probably this past year, some people have felt, a lot more kind of I guess, you feel lonely, I think, during certain times. And I think when you are trying to figure out, you know, whether it's makeup or any other aspect of your life and you feel like everything doesn't fit you or you don't fit in, you feel like you don't belong, you feel like it doesn't speak to you, that's why I love that inclusivity piece that you just spoke so well of and how you incorporated that into your business because I think that's all of what we're all trying to do is have that human connection and that relationship and to build that.

And I think that when you feel like you're alone, so many times that's, you know, not for the good of society and the good of the world. So I appreciate you for doing that and how that's manifested itself in your business, in your book, in your podcast, and everything.

[00:07:20.50] – Natalie Setareh

Yeah. I mean, it's it I'm glad to see now, I'm glad to see more inclusivity when stick to your morals and you stick to your values as a human and you grow something around that, you're gonna have success. And it's always gonna feel right, you know, but it's really hard to reverse. It's really hard when you make that mistake to be like, we're making mistakes, but it's hard if you go against your core to reach x y z. You know? So that's the core of my business making people feel beautiful and confident and loved so much more than makeup.

[00:08:16.39] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. It goes so much deeper than that. And I love how you, you know, you talked about that blue ocean strategy as well too because I think so many times I often say if you run your race, you can never lose. And I think that's almost where a lot of these blue ocean ideas and the implementation of them come from is because so many times, everybody's or so many people, I should say, are trying to be what everybody else is trying to be or build what everybody else is trying to build. But that's where if you are intentional, if you're in alignment and you build and see that there's a gap and you stay true to who you are, that's where a lot of those opportunities sometimes come from.

[00:08:50.60] – Natalie Setareh

Absolutely.

[00:08:52.89] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. So I wanted to, drill a little bit deeper and hear about what I call your secret sauce. So this could be for yourself or your business or a combination of both, but what do you feel kinda sets you apart and makes you unique?

[00:09:05.10] – Natalie Setareh

I'm intuitive. I think I've always been like that since a kid, and I guess I'm also very empathetic. I was never the popular kid. I was always made fun of and never I mean fit in, you know, like so many And I always knew what it was like to be on the other side. I always knew what it was like to be, you know, not picked first or picked last. And when I have clients come to me, a lot of times they come to me because they don't know how to do their makeup and they're they're insecure about something. Right? This this something that they have, I used quotes here, they have they have they think that there's something wrong with with them. A scar or birthmark, maybe pigmentation, abuse. You know, I've had clients that had abusive pasts in childhood.

And so, I mean, I'm not a therapist, but I think that because I'm able to just, in those moments when I'm with a client, understand and say, no. I'm kind of making them look at themselves. I'm like, look. Sometimes I have let this be kind of a general sometimes I'll have, like, an Asian client. Right? And they'll come to me and say they want this eye makeup that would be more for a Western eye. You know?

And I'm like, I can do that, but look at your cheekbones. Right? Look at your jawline. I mean, why can't we work? This is beautiful. Like, this is and, you know, sometimes people don't get it. They don't ever have anybody tell them what is beautiful about themselves. You know, you're just like you go your whole life and you never looked so I think that that's my secret sauce is that I'm good at tapping into the energy of my clients genuinely.

[00:10:59.29] – Gresham Harkless

I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:11:09.10] – Natalie Setareh

I don't know if it's a hack, but I do think that I'm impatient. And if I wanna do something, I just do it. And I figure it out, like, on the fly. I'll DIY it. Right? And it might not be so good, but I'll do it and I'll learn a lot from it. And then I can then I can outsource it if I need it. But I'm always like, if I have an idea, I always write them down. I have books of ideas, and I believe in the power of writing things down. Even if you even if you think it's silly, you write it down. It's crazy when you look back at your notes. The things that you write down, you end up normally doing, you know, even if they're not goals, even they're just ideas.

[00:11:54.50] – Gresham Harkless

So, I wanted to ask you now my absolute one of my favorite questions, which is the CEO nuggets. So that could be, like, a word of wisdom or piece of advice, or it might be something if you were to hop into a time machine, you would tell your younger business self.

[00:12:06.70] – Natalie Setareh

So funny you should say that. I haven't admitted this publicly to anyone. It's nothing that crazy. But I do believe in the word of the year. I do believe in that, and I kinda thought it was kooky at first. You know? There are so many cliche words, but my word this year was unapologetic.

And I'm not gonna be sorry or I'm not gonna feel bad for who I am because I know who I am to the core with my per I'm not perfect in any way, but I know the core is okay. Like, I know I'm a good human. I have a good family that raised me. So all those little things, I don't need to worry about.

[00:12:53.70] – Gresham Harkless

I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping our different quote, unquote CEOs on the show. So, Natalie, what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:13:02.10] – Natalie Setareh

CEO knows all the different aspects of business and manages them at a high level with strategy.

[00:13:14.60] – Gresham Harkless

Truly appreciate that definition, Natalie, and I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is just pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know and, of course, how best they can get a hold of you. Get a copy of the book subscribe to the podcast and find out about all the awesome things that you're working on.

[00:13:29.60] – Natalie Setareh

Oh, you're so nice. You're so kind. Yeah. I mean, I believe in doing what you are called to do, and sometimes you won't know what that is. And, you know, I didn't know I was a makeup artist. It wasn't until after I graduated from grad school that my girlfriends were like, hey, why don't you just do makeup artistry for, like, brides on the side? You love doing makeup. You always have done it for everyone. As I was in the military, I can't know. Yeah. You can. You don't need to fit into a little perfect box. Like, you can be, you know, a pastry chef and a bodybuilder or, like, a military officer in makeup.

I mean, you could be there's no and so I think I would my advice would be to quit worrying about what people think and to just do it and try it, and it could feel. Like, I  didn't talk about my failed business, but I had a failed business. I thought that one was gonna be the key to my success, and it wasn't. And I would have never known that had I not done it. And who knows? Maybe down the road, that will that avenue will open up. But one thing I see a lot of is people just giving up before they even try.

So don't give up. Just keep trying and find your niche, and it could take a while. I'm not gonna lie. It doesn't just happen overnight. You know? Sometimes just you dig deep and you have to do everything before you find the niche. But I'm a rambler, so I'm gonna stop. You can find me, on Instagram at natalie satare, and Facebook under the same Clubhouse. Oh, I think I'm Natalie Satorre everywhere except on YouTube. I'm Satorre Beauty, and my book is your makeup artist. The podcast is under the same name. You can get the book at, you know, Amazon, Target, Walmart, all the big retailers, and it's also available in German If you randomly just fun fact. So it is circulating shelves here in Germany. So thanks so much for having me.

[00:15:44.50] – Gresham Harkless

Appreciate having you on too. That's exciting to be everywhere internationally. We will have the links and information in the show notes to make it even easier for everybody to get ahold of you, but I love the final piece that you kinda left us with. I think it's something that, we need to remind ourselves of regularly to take that imperfect action, so to speak.

And it doesn't necessarily happen overnight. It doesn't always turn into a success. But I think the the worst pain is sometimes, I think, not in failing, but in not trying at all. So I appreciate you for reminding us of that and tapping into that yourself as well too, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

[00:16:19.10] – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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