Hello to my Beautiful Friends. I know it has been a hot minute since I last wrote in this category. I will not apologize, sometimes I need a break to fill my own cup, run my spoons through the dishwasher, and just be with myself. I plan to be writing here every other week for a while so that I can get back into the habit of blogging and sharing my Adventures With Makeup.
Like so many people on social media, I am a direct marketer. I still have a lot to learn, and I am happy to say that 2020 provided me with some new opportunities. I gained a part-time job in the beauty industry. I can continue to grow and challenge myself there while serving the local community of stylists in a retail store. Physically, I wasn’t sure that I could ever work on my feet again, but this job has allowed me to build up my stamina. I still have moments when my nerve pain bothers me, however, my doctor has been able to prescribe something to help manage it. I am gaining confidence in my ability to work on my feet, and in my expanding knowledge of the beauty industry as well.
My business offered some wonderful bundles of makeup throughout the holiday season. In 2019, I was only able to purchase one of them. In 2020, I made it a mission to get them all. I have received all but the last holiday bundle to date, and I am eagerly checking the tracking information for updates. I had mini celebrations here as bundles one through nine arrived in my mailbox. I have not tried out all of the products, yet. I have tried a few, and I am impressed with all of them so far.
You see, I had a plan when I decided to get the holiday bundles for myself. I wanted to have my own products to use, so that I can give them my honest reviews. I am honest to a fault, and I value my integrity immensely. I am an optimist and I do my best to find the bright side of everything I can. So even when I review products, I will be honest if I am not happy with them, explain what I do not like, and then spin it to aim towards people who like the things I do not. I am not in the business of destroying anything or anyone, I look for something good in everything and everyone.
Today I wanted to set the stage for the next entries. I will be scheduling time to use the products I received in the bundles, to help me to grow my business. It is hard to tell people why you love something if you have not tried it yourself, and I now have more to work with. It is one reason for the title of this blog, and why I decided to invest in my business.
The other reason is personal. I have found that I really enjoy playing with makeup! I do not wear it every day. For me, it is something I have worn in the past for special occasions only. I sometimes share eyes only posts, because we have to wear masks due to the pandemic to minimize the spread of Covid-19. I wish I could have written this blog without referring to the pandemic, but it is here, and we are adapting as much as we can to be able to survive it. So many people have died from it, and many are suffering, either from fighting the illness or from the loss of loved ones. Others are struggling with mental health issues. If you missed the connection above, filling your cup and running out of spoons are references to mental health and wellness.
Eyes Only. Looking toward the future with hope.
One thing you can do to make yourself feel better is to do makeup on your eyes only if you have to wear a mask. When you have a day off and do not plan to leave the house, it is a great excuse to do a full face of makeup to make yourself feel better and to snap a new profile pic for your social media. Show people your blank canvas, and then enhance your natural beauty with makeup. There are lots of tutorials on Youtube for different makeup trends, and if you are going to play, why not learn something new at the same time? It could be a technique, a new style of makeup brush to use, or if you splurge, you can try new makeup and learn from makeup artists online.
I am working towards a collection of my own makeup, from my own company, so that I can show people how to use it and what the benefits are for the products. There is a skincare line, and it is something I am working towards earning more of in 2021.
I have slowly been growing my makeup biz, and I am constantly looking for new ideas of how to make it more successful. I am sharing my first official ‘look’ photo above, and two more here. When I do a full face of makeup, I like to take numerous selfies, including some with my glasses on, and some without. Then I can show how the makeup looks whether you wear glasses or you don’t.
I shared these photos as Facebook Stories in December 2020.
I feel like I am improving my skills, and that will translate to more customers in the future. It is the ultimate goal of any entrepreneur to grow their business. As I work on this, I always want to remind myself that we are all Always Beautiful and that applying makeup is a skill we can use to enhance our own natural beauty. I believe this is something that I am learning myself, and I am happy to share the journey with all who are interested in following me on this path. I know I am beautiful on the inside, but for years, I would only want to be the person behind the camera taking the pictures, not being in them. I have come a long way in five years, personally, and I am looking forward to the future with hope. I share the good selfies, and the bad ones, to show that I am learning and that it is okay to share the not so perfect pics because they aren’t all the best pictures of me. They are pictures of me, though, and I do not use filters. Whether or not I am wearing makeup, I have gained so much confidence in myself that I don’t think twice about sharing the silly selfies. They make me human, and that is something we all have in common.
It has been too long since I have written in this category. It is Tuesday, right? With everything that is happening in the world right now, I felt the need to write a new blog post. The Tishspiration posts will be on my new website when it is ready.
I was a little disgruntled this morning while I listened to the local radio station. It seems that while I decided not to listen to Prime Minister Trudeau’s daily news briefing (it is a little surreal to even write that bit) he talked about trying to help more people who were falling through the cracks of the current emergency benefits program the Canadian Government is putting into place.
Great, man. Way to steal my thunder. I had this title since last week, thank you very much.
As I contemplated the idea of choosing another title, I decided to keep it. It is timely and relevant. More than I thought it was when I first began working on the concept for this post.
The Canadian Government is helping people.
They are working hard to help Canadians maneuver through the world which is very different than it was only three weeks ago. Three weeks. Has it only been three weeks since we were all told to stay home? It seems like longer to me. Maybe that is because I have spent more than a year at home, working on building my own businesses.
I had unemployment insurance until November of 2019. The government, because of many years of being a part of the workforce in Canada, offers this while people are in between jobs. I was an employee, of several different companies for most of my adult life. I am not lazy, but I have been selective in which jobs I have applied for since the pogey (unemployment insurance) ran out. When things started happening three weeks ago, our Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, started holding daily press conferences on his front lawn. He said we would all be okay, and that the government was working on emergency benefits to help Canadians weather this storm called COVID-19.
I had hope. He said people who were self employed would be able to apply for this benefit, to help cover the bills while our businesses were unable to run normally at this time. I thought things were going to get better for me, at least for a short period of time.
I do not qualify for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit.
In my business, in the last 12 months, I did not earn the minimum of $5,000, needed to qualify. While I do not expect a free ride through this crisis, I was led to believe that there was hope for me. Although I am not surprised that the Representatives of The House Of Commons added stipulations to what the Prime Minister was offering to help Canadians, I am disappointed.
I am not alone. There are people in this country who also do not qualify for what is being offered. Thankfully, my husband is still able to work at his full-time job from home, and able to continue working at his part-time job, outside of our home. I am not able to look for employment outside of our home at this time. I am a person with a chronic disease and therefore considered immunocompromised. To stay healthy, I need to stay home, and to be honest, I haven’t gotten any calls for interviews in the last month.
We made the decision to take advantage of the offers available to us while we weather this out. Deferrals do not help us in the long term, but they do help us right now, and like many other Canadians, we will take all the help we can get.
Where is the Tishspiration in this article?
It is here. With me. I am also writing to tell people to not sit quietly in anticipation of the worst possible outcome. I am my own best advocate, and you are your own best advocate. Speak up. Do so with intelligence. If you whine and complain, nobody will listen. If you look for one thing to be grateful for every day, share it. Give others hope.
Follow the guidelines, but if you, like me do not qualify, don’t apply for the benefit. It wastes your time, and it takes time and energy away from people who qualify for it. Tying up the system for no good reason doesn’t help you or anyone else.
Be considerate.
I know things are wild out there. People are yelling at people about the safe distance and who should or should not be out and about. Remember that they are not intending to be ignorant, they, like you, are scared of what is happening, because they, like you, have no control over things they normally would have control over. Like going to work and getting a paycheck. Going to the mall. Seeing their friends and family.
Get creative. I know, a lot of people do not think that they have any creativity in them. We all do, to varying degrees. Ask for help if you need it, but don’t just give up when technology decides to be uncooperative. I haven’t told my husband, yet, but I am considering painting the link for this website on my living room window, to see if I can generate more followers, but even more importantly, more book sales. I wanted to paint a picture, and I think I will incorporate it into a white, fluffy cloud, so it can be easily read from the street, and snapped in a picture on a cellphone by the people in my neighbourhood who, like me, are walking more as it is something we can still do.
If you have ever considered working from home, the time is now!
Stick with me for a moment. People are at home. They need things. Network Marketing has the answer for the needs of many people, worldwide, right now. You can support someone you know by purchasing the products they sell, and they will be delivered to your door, to avoid leaving the house to get the things you need. I am currently offering makeup and books for sale, and I do make jewellery. Jewellery designing has taken a back seat for now. It is more of a hobby than a business, and I am okay with it as it is. My supplies will be there when I am ready to play with beads again, or if there is an order I need to create.
The only way I have available to me right now to earn an income is through my online businesses. I am working very hard to grow my entrepreneurial dreams, and it is a way for me to lay a plank across the path to hold myself up, to keep me from falling through the cracks. What I do isn’t going to be what everyone else should do, but I want to encourage you to be open to what your friends and family are offering, and even a stranger might have the opportunity that will help you stay on top of the path. Do your own research, like I did, before taking the leap, and jump in with both feet when you find something that you could see yourself promoting as something you love. Whatever that is for you!
To the Extroverts and to people who suffer with mental illness:
This is not an ideal situation for anyone who falls into these two categories. If you are a people person, call a friend, every day. Schedule a video chat with your family. Write a letter to someone you love. When is the last time you got a letter in the mail? It is something that ALWAYS puts a smile on my face, to open the mailbox to find something there that is from someone I know, and someone I want to get mail from.
To anyone who is suffering from mental illness, my heart goes out to you. Things were hard before COVID-19, and they are likely to get worse before they will get better. I want you to know that someone out there cares about you, even if that someone is only me, a stranger trying to spread a little hope into the world. Please reach out if you need help to get through the next second, minute, hour or day. You are not alone, the world is struggling with you. The world may not have the same struggles that you do, but we are all struggling in our own way right now.
One last thing.
Things will get better. It can and it will. It has to because every roller coaster has its ups and downs. We are in a down right now, but we will be going up, maybe even stronger than we ever have before, if we just keep on working on the things we can control, and not getting lost in the fear of what might be. Focus on what will be, and make it a reality.
Please don’t ever give up hope. It is all we have to hold on to in times like this. I am going to grab on and pull myself up out of the cracks I am falling into, and when I am on solid ground, I will reach out to see who I can help up to stand beside me.
When we support each other, we rise together. I believe this with my whole heart and soul.
Last time, I started to introduce you all to more makeup adventures with Tish. For me, makeup is a thing. I was buying it anyway, and I am working hard to build a business based on something I am already involved with. I am not limiting my options to where my next source of income comes from.
You see, I am currently looking for work. I am trying to only choose jobs to apply for which I can see myself doing, and in the meantime I am putting in some time with this makeup business side hustle. I want it to work, but I do have other things on the go.
Currently, I want to share some more information with you regarding the hashtag in the title. It is one I thought up for this makeup business, and I hope it does well. I am working on graphics to start sharing on my social media platforms, and getting help from people inside my Tish MacWebber Always Beautiful Facebook Group before I launch them into the internet at large. You get in by my invitation, only. I am not limiting the number of members. If you want to join, there is no purchase required.
To join this group I have created, to watch the many adventures of Tish with makeup, you may send a message to request an invite through my Always Beautiful with Tish MacWebber Facebook business page. It is set up to encourage more people to join my group. I want to see it thrive and grow, just like I want to see the makeup business do the same.
I am neither shallow, nor conceited nor vain.
I do not obsess about how I look every day. When I wear my new makeup, I feel more confident and professional. I like how I feel when I wear it, and I am trying to wear it more frequently to promote the business. As you saw last time, I am not shy of being a little silly or sharing selfies of myself with no makeup on. This is being done on purpose, because we are truly Always Beautiful and I want to help people learn this first.
It all started about two years ago, when a friend had an online Facebook party for makeup. I was offered the opportunity at that time. I took two years, and I thought about it. When I was ready, I reached out to the person who initially made the offer to me.
It goes deeper for me, though. I am working on myself, and this means I am also learning to be kind to myself. I am beautiful with or without makeup, just like a homemade cake is wonderful with or without icing. We all have our preferences and I love the extras. I know this analogy is not diabetic friendly, but just go with it, okay?
You can have cake. You can have cake with icing. You can have birthday cake. You can have cake with ice cream. You can have cake with whipped cream, sprinkles and a cherry on top if you want to. It all starts with cake, and don’t get me started on all of the flavours cake comes in. My point is, that we are all beautiful, and we can enhance our beauty, just like we can enhance a wonderful cake however we want to.
Back to the hashtag.
#makeuphappens is the hashtag for my business adventure. I was in my washroom, just looking at the makeup I have in my possession. It adds up, quickly, when you start trying new brands and colours. I can say I do have a decent collection of brushes and makeup. I have tried to organize it on my bathroom counter in my master suite. My makeup has outgrown this space, and I need to reorganize my storage options to make it more accessible and easy to use.
Here are a few before pics of the current makeup organization situation :
Makeup is taking over
It is hard to use makeup when it is stored like this
I have a plan. In the next Makeup Monday, I will share pics of how I reorganized my makeup to free up some room on my counter, and make it easier to get to all of my makeup.
