Ashlee: Welcome to episode one of Get Glazed, a new podcast hosted by me, Ashley Glazer. I'm a celebrity makeup artist and beauty expert, and now I am a stay at home mom, amateur interior designer, wannabe cook, wannabe gardener, wannabe laundress, and terrible housekeeper. So I just turned forty years old. I'm buried my entire life because I fell in love with my middle school boyfriend six years ago and I left Manhattan, my career, my friends, my family, and I moved To a Midwestern suburb where I no longer work. I'm on hiatus and I have two kids under the ages of three. I'm recording this live from my laundry room in Columbus, Ohio, but I used to live in New York City for 14 years, running around like a crazy person, picking up a 49-pound makeup bag and shoving it into a taxi cab on Park Avenue, racing from job to job, having a complete panic attack, going in a TV studio, going down to set. grabbing lashes and now I'm grabbing diapers. I'm starting this podcast because I genuinely miss communicating with people. My life used to be absolutely insane running around the streets of New York. I was so self-absorbed. I didn't realize how self-absorbed I was until I left that lifestyle and I saw so much going on around me. And I realized was I missing this? Like look at this whole other side of life that I've just unlocked and Sometimes I think if I didn't meet my husband, if I didn't move, if I didn't pause my career and completely uproot my entire life, would I ever have known all these things about me? Would I ever have learned to cook or owned a home or had kids had I just kept going the way that I was going, so obsessed with my career and getting the next big client, getting the next big job, getting the next TV segment. Like what was I really getting out of that? Being a makeup artist is something that comes from your gut. It's not something that you can just wake up and decide, I think I'm gonna be a makeup artist, because you're never gonna survive. You have to want it, you have to be hungry for it, you have to work incredibly hard, you have to see things that other people can't see, especially beauty amidst chaos. And I think a lot of those skills that I use as being a makeup artist has come into being a mom. But being a creative and being a mom is something that I found incredibly challenging. The song Be My Guest from Beauty and the Beast. And there's a line that says, Life is so unnerving for a server who's not serving. And that that line really resonates with me as somebody who worked in not only customer service, but as a creative. I kind of sub in the lines as life is so unnerving for a creative who's not creating, because I find it incredibly challenging to have all this tent of energy and nowhere for it to go. So I put it into my cooking, I put it into my home decorating, I put it into playing arts and crafts with my kids. I'm gonna put it right here into this podcast because I genuinely miss having creative conversations with people and talking about beauty, talking about other creative things. So if you want to listen to a podcast where we talk about bronzer and what kind of barata to buy and what kind of basil to plant and how to clean your couch cushions. This is the podcast for you. I recently did power wash my white sunbrella cushions because I saw this okay, they were absolutely filthy with mildew I was on a walk and I saw this other woman in her driveway in my neighborhood power washing her cushions, and I went over to her I said, Hey, how are you doing that? And she was like hey, this is how I'm doing it. We exchange phone numbers. We are now friends. now my couch cushions are as white as Hollywood teeth and I want to show them off to everyone. I got like this high off of connecting with her and talking to her and exchanging information. And it was a feeling that I realized I missed so much, which was talking to other people besides my children and connecting and learning information and collaborating and exchanging ideas. And something that she said was, I didn't realize leaving my job I would become obsessed with redecorating my backyard, repaving the stone, power washing my cushions. I said, I didn't realize all these things too, leaving my job. And being a self-employed, career long makeup artist, you know, stepping away is a major risk because like it's like a carousel. It keeps going. The world of beauty is going on without me. And that was something I had a really hard time with. As a makeup artist and someone who's really connected to their work, it's an emotional job. It was incredibly challenging for me to watch the world go by without me in it. Something that I gave my all to. Everything that I was. It was about being a makeup artist. My core identity was my career. And during the pandemic, I was terrified because you know, I touch people to go to events, so there nobody wanted to be touched and nobody was going to any events. So I was out of work, out of commission. And during that time, I was like, my gosh, what am I gonna do? Who am I without my career? And it was d during that kind of moment of loss and moment of reflection that I met my husband. That changed the course of my life. And the theme of this podcast is a life pivot 'cause you can think one thing, you could be one thing, and something happens and it totally changes the direction that you're going in. you might lose signal and you might not have a map, but you're gonna get to where you're supposed to be. Because I'm sure I'm not the only creative person out there who uses their skills in another aspect of life, especially as a mom. And I'm really curious how so many other people manage it. Do they have a stronger system? Do they have more discipline? What gets prioritized? How do they make their career work? How do they make their home life work? What falls to the side? What rises to the top? And then how do you still make time for fun and beauty? You know, I find I do my eyebrows before I change the diapers. If I don't get them on then, they're never getting on. I made my career by talking to people. And something that I read in my book, The Power Pause, which is by Neha Rook, which has been really helpful to get me through postpartum and all these changes is to stay connected to your skills. Your skills from work that make you strong, stay connected to them. Being good at makeup is like 90% of your success rate. You can teach a monkey to do eyeliner. My two year old can do my lipstick perfectly, actually. He does a really great job. different walks of life coming into my chair daily. when I used to work retail cosmetics, I worked in many different stores from Hamal in Long Island to Times Square to Flatiron. And then I was a freelancer, going in corporate offices, penthouse suites, fabulous hotels, sitting with corporate CEOs, activists, supermodels, celebrities, socialites, highly educated and intellectual academic people, So one of the things I miss since stepping away from my career is really just the conversation. Of course I talk to my husband when he comes home from work, but it's not the same. It's not the same as connecting with somebody on a different level, especially when you're working and you're out there. I used say things like Kettle One dirty martinis, straight up ice cold, blue cheese awes, if you got with such confidence. And the other day I whispered to a barista I was ordering a lemonade for my two and a half year old And the barista whispered back and he said, Why are we whispering? And then in whisper I said because he That is that is my life and that is why I'm doing this podcast. Because whispering to a barista instead of ordering a cocktail at a bar is the norm and the majority of the conversation of my day. And I really need this. And if I need this, then you might need this too. And we're going to talk to some really great people during this season of Get Glazed. We're going to talk to farmers, stylists, manicurists, florists, party planners, business owners, lawyers, doctors, you name it, I'm going to find them to talk to. Because as makeup artists, the gift of gab is a gift that I have. And I'm looking forward to connecting with you and learning more about you as well. So subscribe to get glazed. Leave a comment, leave a review, follow me on Instagram at Ashley Glazer, and tune in weekly wherever you get your podcast. We'll see you next week. Bye.