WHERE BRAINS MEET BEAUTY

When Makeup Artist and On-Air Beauty Expert Neil Scibelli says that he feels like he has already lived several lifetimes, we can understand why: from hosting a radio show in 3rd grade, auditioning for Tony Bennett in junior high school, to talking his way into a job at Fresh Skin Care- he has clearly shown persistence and a passion for the entertainment and makeup industries.

We loved chatting with Neil about his journey to becoming a well-respected on-air personality, often seen on Good Morning America- where one of his earliest gigs was doing makeup for Beyoncé’s dancers and band! But every day is different in the entertainment industry and Neil makes a great point when he talks about always showing up for yourself because as a freelancer, you don’t know where the job will take you next.

To hear our chat with Neil (which we think needs a Part 2!) listen up wherever you get your podcasts!

Ndeye Peinda didn’t start her career journey with “digital creator” in mind. In fact, after majoring in political science, she got a teaching job in the South Bronx. Hearing her reminisce about her time teaching, it’s easy to see how she easily bridged the gap between teaching and Influencing. Knowing that each of her students were unique individuals with differing opinions and emotions, Ndeye welcomed hard conversations in the classroom.

We can see why she is able to make such a connection with her audience- she even still personally responds to her DMs! Ndeye was actually still teaching when she received her first big brand offer from The Lip Bar - she literally dropped her phone when she got the news! 

Nowadays, Ndeye has more than a few offers to sift through and more than a few thoughts on where the fashion and beauty industry can still improve; namely, accessibility and tokenism.

To hear Ndeye speak on how the industry has progressed, but still has work to do, listen up wherever you get your podcasts!

One of the things we’re learning throughout our Influencer Journey Quarter is the focus Influencers place on education. All of the Influencers we’ve spoken with have been so passionate about educating their audiences and that brings us to none other than Monae Everett: Celebrity Hairstylist, Author, & Diversity, Equity Inclusion Consultant. 

Monae’s career journey has led her from newcomer to the world of cosmetology to becoming an industry leader. Not only does Monae have over 20 years of experience, she is the founder of the Monae Life Academy; an online academy teaching how to style for all hair textures and The Texture Style Awards; a competition for hair stylists centered around diversity and inclusion helping hair stylists and their clients see the beauty in all hair textures.

To learn about Monae’s career journey from cosmetology school to starting her own online school, listen to this episode wherever you get your podcasts! 

We were so thrilled to welcome skin and hair obsessed influencer Amy Chang to the podcast to discuss her career journey. As Amy’s 1.6 million TikTok followers know, Amy is refreshingly candid about everything from her skincare routine, motherhood, to her own adoption journey - she’s even an ambassador for the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption!

WBMB listeners at all stages of their careers will appreciate hearing Amy’s path from being in her 20’s, from not knowing what she wanted to do with her life to getting on social media, teaching herself photography, editing, lighting and slowly but surely connecting the dots: “I needed to go out there and make a lot of mistakes…piece together what I like and don’t to shape my future.” 

To hear more of Amy’s career journey, including her thoughts on what it means to “find yourself” listen wherever you get your podcasts!

Here at Where Brains Meet Beauty, we’re always fascinated by multi-hyphenates; those who do it all. So we couldn't have been more excited to speak with Madison Headrick, Model, Influencer, Founder & CEO of care.e.on. Discovered at a Walmart in her hometown of Charleston, South Carolina by a talent scout, Madison has been working as a model since she was 14 years old. She even had to put college on hold for fashion week! But after years of jet-setting around the globe, Madison noticed something was missing: clean, travel-sized skincare. 

“I pack the night before a flight and skincare is always the last thing going into the suitcase. The travel-size stuff wasn’t the greatest quality. My skin wasn’t good when I was on the road.” Madison took things into her own hands and created care.e.on; eco-friendly, travel-sized beauty kits.

To hear more about Care.e.on and Madison’s journey from model to mogul, listen to this episode wherever you get your podcasts!

We couldn’t imagine a better guest for Mental Health Awareness Month than Amy Keller Laird: Founder & CEO of Mental. We sat down with Amy to ask about her career journey from Editor in Chief of Women's Health Magazine to founder of the first digital mental health & lifestyle brand for women.

As someone who had worked in the beauty and wellness space as Beauty Director of Allure, Amy had seen the world of mental health talked about, but not in the way she had personally experienced. Amy has lived with OCD, anxiety and postpartum depression and found that she wasn’t seeing her lived experience being reflected. We really admire how Amy married her experience in magazines and her journey with mental health to create something truly authentic: “I wanted to say, "Where's the publication that would speak to me?”

To hear more of Amy’s career journey and her thoughts on how we can break the stigma of talking about mental health in the workplace, listen to this episode wherever you get your podcasts!

As a career journey podcast with a passion for all things skincare, Dr. Dustin Portela is pretty much our dream guest. Dr. Portela is a dermatologist, skincare Influencer with over 2.4 million followers on TikTok, and we were thrilled to speak with him about how he balances his social media platform with day to day life as a father of three.

Dr. Portela has a love for education which he credits to his father, a teacher, who distilled in him a love of science early on. While Dr. Portela maintains a successful dermatology practice in Idaho, he got into social media to combat misinformation during the pandemic, and his audience has grown like wildfire - it seems that smart skincare is more than just a trend.

“If I had been a garbage man, I would be on TikTok as a garbage man, showing people the crazy things that are thrown away.” Clearly no matter the subject matter, Dr. Portela aims to empower people with knowledge. He tells us that his vision with social media is to be an educator, to “take social media to under-served people.”

For more of our chat with Dr. Dustin Portela - including a story about a fortune cookie that will seriously give you chills - tune into this episode wherever you get your podcasts!

I was so excited to kick off our Influencer Journey Quarter by speaking with Teni Panosian, content creator and Co-Founder of skincare line Monday Born. 

Teni and I kicked off our convo chatting about her first job working in a theater box office, where she learned an important lesson that she carries with her to this day: “Early is on time, On time is late.” Is it just us or do most successful people tend to be early birds? 

We asked Teni what advice she would give to aspiring influencers and her answer was just as real as the woman her followers have grown accustomed to seeing on her feed: “bring forth your authentic self and don’t try to replicate what you’re seeing out there”. 

For more wise words from Teni including the latest on her very own podcast, listen to this episode wherever you get your podcasts!

Making the jump from a childhood spent working on a farm dreaming of being a paleontologist to founding a vegan hair care line might sound out there at first, but for Vegamour Founder & CEO Dan Hodgdon, it all comes down to a passion for our planet. “How do we create something that’s not going to hurt the earth?”

During our chat, Dan explained to us how growing up on a farm inspired him to create products using only clean, natural ingredients in addition to “eco-friendly sustainable jobs, creating a fair living wage, and letting people participate in the businesses success.”

A true environmentalist, Dan knows that we’re all sharing this one planet and notes that  “We reinvest profits back into communities.”

To hear more of how Dan and Vegamour are keeping hair care holistic, listen to this episode wherever you get your podcasts! 

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Sneha Narahalli Head of Product at Sephora who shared her thoughts on effectively managing her time as well as her thoughts on the biases women face on their career journeys.

Sneha revealed to us that she has trained her brain to think in the currency of time: “Why do we need to do this? Why now? And is it more important than other things that we're doing?”

Sneha and I also dug into what more can be done to move the needle forward for women entering the tech world: “We should look at personalizing our own individual journeys, knowing that ‘I have done this, how can I share this with others so that people don't have to go through the same things that I have.’”

To hear more of my chat with Sneha, including her advice for someone getting into the tech space, listen wherever you get your podcasts!