This week’s WCW (Woman Crush Wednesday) Motives Beauty Advisor feature is dedicated to Jacqueline Menconi! Jacqueline has known about Motives Cosmetics since 2010, but it wasn’t until 2012 that she decided to quit her retail job and join the business. She wanted to make a name for herself in luxury brands and Motives has allowed her to retail completely customized makeup that she creates for her clients. Read on to learn more about Jacqueline’s story and how she’s continued to grow her Motives business.
1. How were you introduced to Motives?
I was introduced to Motives by a complete stranger while I was working at a Sephora and simultaneously building up my production and personal clientele back in 2010. Needless to say, we are no longer strangers. Thank you for seeing something in me, Rick and Lydia!
2. What made you want to learn more and eventually partner?
I grew up in a very entrepreneurial-minded family and not only went to college for TV Broadcasting, but minored in General Business. Being a Video Producer after college, I worked heavily in the professional/corporate world. I had to be business savvy & needed to network efficiently to be good at my job. Once I decided to switch careers to makeup artistry, I carried those same values and skill sets I had learned with me. If you are a freelance anything, whether you realize it or not, you own a business and you need to treat it as such.
As a Makeup Artist, having a PROFESSIONAL QUALITY product line to retail to my clients was a no brainer. Clients always asked me what I was using on them and before Motives, I would instruct them to go to the appropriate stores where they would buy $50-$300+ worth of cosmetics. I was making the stores richer and totally missing the boat as a business woman! Also, the fact that Motives allows me to retail completely customized makeup that I create for my clients was an INSANELY BRILLIANT concept to me! I had wanted to make a name for myself as a luxury on-location Makeup Artist and being able to blend a high end custom foundation and/or powder was the exclusivity I was looking for. Even more, it’s exactly what my CLIENTS were looking for! So many have trouble finding the right foundation. The color could be ok, but the formula is too drying. The formula is good but the color is way too yellow or pink, so they buy 2 different shades to mix at home. That’s expensive and time consuming, especially if you’re not a makeup artist!
The only thing that I had reservations about before partnering was whether Motives/Market America was considered “one of those things.” I did my due diligence, truly studying the Motives/MA business model and compensation plan, and then comparing it to other direct sales companies out there. This was when I finally appreciated the immense difference between MLM direct sales companies and Market America (MA, the parent company of Motives). MA was so clearly not MLM and that fact coupled with the quality of the products had me chomping at the bit to register my business. MA is the real deal and unlike any other company I’ve ever researched.
3. How have you leveraged NMTSS events to build your belief/propel your success?
The GMTSS is priceless! I have business partners all over the country (soon to be world) and the GMTSS means that I don’t need to physically be there in order for them to get educated & be successful. The GMTSS is a standardized education & training system conducted (in person) in major cities and small towns all over the globe! I live in New Jersey, but my partners in California are covered! The fact that we have access to online trainings is pretty incredible, too. For those partners who may live in more isolated areas, they are still able to plug in and learn how to grow their business!
4. In what way have you maximized your existing business as a Pro-Artist by incorporating Motives into your kit?
I partnered with Motives in 2012 when I had recently quit my job as the Laura Mercier counter manager in Saks 5th Avenue. I was still in the slow beginning stages of building my freelance business and finally getting some traction. When I partnered with Motives and started retailing their ready-made products and mixing up custom blends, that was when I noticed a HUGE burst in how busy I was getting. Word started to spread and I kept getting referral after referral from all industries- bridal, tv, commercial, independent film, corporate shoots, fashion photo shoots, etc.
Looking back, I can be certain that not only was it my hustling, “go get ‘em” nature, but it was my entrepreneurialism and posture as a business owner that made this boost in business possible. Motives helped me with that because of the exclusive luxury services I had added to my repertoire as well as the personal & professional development I gained by attending all of the company trainings and big corporate conventions.
Over the next few years my business grew in every aspect. Today, I am busier than I can handle with commercial, tv, and corporate video shoots. I recently tallied up the amount of jobs I had given away to other Makeup Artists (around the world) within a 6 month period… it was about $20,000 worth. That was money I did not make because I was ALREADY booked on other jobs and I attribute a good portion of this success to what I have with & what I have learned from, Motives.
When I am already booked and asked my availability to work for another production, I refer fellow qualified artists to fill in for me. The artists who partner with me in my Motives business are the ones that will always get first dibs on a job. I am becoming much more strict with this ordinance because I want to build a team with cohesive branding. When one of “my artists” fills in for me, I want the producer or photographer to notice the same branding throughout our kits. I want to know that artist is using quality products on my excellent clients and that whatever they are using will translate seamlessly on camera.
And can I mention the discount we get as distributors on all of these products? Jeez! That alone should be reason enough to look into partnering with the company.
5. What do you feel is the best way to expand your Motives team?
The best way for me to expand my Motives team is to simply keep spreading the word and leading by example. I started two pro-centric campaigns in 2016 involving beauty professionals who have already partnered with our great company.
The first campaign started back in February with 7 Makeup Artists coming together and creating monthly looks for every day women on my blog. The looks are created with all Motives and are achievable to the average makeup wearer, as opposed to the majority of what we see promoted on social media platforms, such as Instagram. That stuff is intimidating to replicate and down right impossible because of all of the filter and Photoshop use. The goal of our collaborative blog posts are to give people fun and easy makeup inspiration. The first series of collaborations were such a hit that we decided to open the group up again to add more Makeup Artists! We now have 12 in total and I couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve accomplished. Love all of you, ladies! I’m so grateful for your efforts!
The second campaign I started with the ever so talented and beautiful, Master Cosmetologist, Leigh Raeder. Leigh and I have a webinar series called The Business Savvy Makeup Artist. We interview beauty pro’s varying in not only years of experience, but also in beauty specialties (ie commercial, salon, bridal, etc). These webinars are FREE and LIVE on most Wednesday evenings at 9pm EST. I urge you to check them out! We have finished 13 as of last week. The recordings can be found at my youtube channel http://bit.ly/2fQWSHZ.
I would also like to mention that I train aspiring Makeup Artists in the NY Metro area, as well as offer business consulting video conferences globally.
6. What are you most excited about in regard to long term goals leveraging Motives & Market America?
I’m most excited about having a Plan B. As a freelance Makeup Artist, you are only as good as your last job. Sure you can have a busy spell, but sooner or later you will have a couple weeks off and will be sweating bullets not knowing when your next paycheck is coming. If you don’t have a Plan B in place to supplement your income during the slow periods, you’re not going to be successful. You’ll never be able to catch up on your bills and SURELY will never be able to save money for the future. Plain and simple!
I’ll add that as a freelancer, you do not get a pension or retirement plan that is being matched by an employer. If you can’t save money now doing what you’ve been doing, how do you expect to retire comfortably (or at all)? Do you want to be working this hard when you’re 60 years old? At what point will your pattern of having no time and no money change? What happens if you get in an accident, fall ill, or have to take care of a relative for a span of time? Can you still work with a broken arm or ankle? Can you still work when you’re taking a relative to five doctor’s visits a week for 4 months straight? This is all real life! It happens every day to someone new!
We all like to hope that none of that bad stuff could happen to us, but I invite you to take a look at the people in your life. Have any of them been through a hardship? How would you navigate through their hardship with your freelance career & income? Stop trading your time for money. Start thinking about working smarter and not harder. Do you research, study, ask questions, and get it moving. Only you can change your life! You can do it!
