Guest: Salina Beasley, Founder of About Face

Episode Introduction

But her story goes far deeper than beauty. From childhood fame and public family scandal to sudden hearing loss and the rebirth of her creative purpose, Salina’s journey is a masterclass in reinvention.

Every once in a while, a conversation leaves you feeling both grounded and inspired. Like you’ve just witnessed transformation in motion. In this episode of The Hook, I talk with Salina Beasley, founder of About Face and former touring musician, who helps entrepreneurs look and feel confident on camera by teaching them to do their own makeup with authenticity and heart.

We talk about identity, grief, motherhood, humor, and learning to see yourself clearly inside and out.

Sarah: Hey friends. Welcome to the Hook with Sarah Larsen. I’m your host, Sarah Larsen, and I have a very special guest today. Someone that I am getting to know, and I have really enjoyed the conversations that we’ve had so far. I’m very excited to have her as a guest today. Salina Beasley with About Face is here to join us for today’s conversation.

Welcome, Salina. 

Salina: Hey, Sarah, 

Sarah: Thank you so much for being here. I am excited because I know a lot of your story, but I’m sure I don’t know everything, and I know that we’re gonna have a great conversation today. But if you will, tell us what it is that you do now. What’s About Face? What do you have going on at at this time? Where are you today? 

Salina: Sure. Well today I live right outside of Atlanta, Georgia, and I teach entrepreneurs how to do their own makeup, like a professional, so they can show up as the face of their brand looking the part of their success. So I am a makeup coach, and the about face came about in 2020 when we were all just sort of in lockdown and wondering, “What do we do with ourselves?”

Though the work that I do is really about your physical face, uh, About Face was really a point in my life where I had to be intentional about pivoting and going a different direction. And so it sort of has a little bit of a double meaning there.

Sarah: I love that. That is exactly what I was thinking as you were describing what was going on. You did an about face.

Salina: I did an about face, and it’s all about your face. 

The Roots of Performance

Sarah: Tell us a little bit about your history. Did you grow up in Atlanta?

Salina: No, I grew up in Central Florida. I was in Disney World’s backyard. As a child, my passion was acting and singing and modeling.

I had the opportunity to work with Nickelodeon Studios, and I was a child actress and model. Being in central Florida was actually pretty ideal setting to be able to explore those passions. So I’ve been wearing makeup since I was very young, but if an artist did not do it for the camera, I didn’t really know how to do it for myself.

And when I became an adult, my first career was as a touring singer. So once again, other people are doing my makeup. When 2020 came around, I thought, you know what, now’s the time to learn how to do this. How to look presentable on camera, how to look presentable on stage without someone else putting the look together for me.

Sarah: So did you have siblings growing up? 

Salina: Yes, I have one sister, adopted sister. My favorite childhood memory was going and picking her up from Honolulu, Hawaii when I was six. So I have one sister and I said I was never going to have children. Children were never in the picture.

And now, the girl who was not gonna have children has four children ranging ages five to 14 this week. 

Sarah: Congratulations. That’s a lot. With all of the kids and running a career…that’s gotta be a handful.

Salina: Got a few things going on.

Sarah: What did your parents do? You said that you started out as a touring singer. Did that come from your parents or was that just your natural talent that you were cultivating as you were growing up 

Salina: Well, my, my mother was a homemaker and she was really good at it. She was so creative but she was a stay-at-home mom and just embodied the domestic CEO. She played that role beautifully. The performer in me definitely comes from my father. From the time I was very young, my dad had me up on a platform. I mean, if it was a park bench, or just some elevated surface, he would say, “Sing for daddy” or “Tell a joke.” I mean, he was always throwing me up on the platform.

My family makes fun of me for this mercilessly, if there was a window display, you know, like the mannequins with their poses. And he would say “Go pose for daddy.” And he would stick me in the window with the mannequins. And I’m like five years old, doing this bit, and people would walk by, and they would laugh, but this was so normal to me.

It was very normal to be vocal and visible and hosting an audience. When I transitioned into acting and modeling, I never had stage fright, I never had angst about the camera being on me. This is just like a part of my DNA . 

Sarah: I love that story. One of the things that really interests me are the disruptions that we experience in our lives that create the person that we are today, whether that’s a career disruption, doing something you didn’t plan to do, or, “I had a child at a time that I didn’t really plan to have a child.” I’ve had a number of career disruptions through my life. Two of those were combined with divorce, so those situations definitely shape where we are today. Tell me about your career, how you got into becoming a touring singer.

Salina: When you said disruption, I can pinpoint the first disruption. It happened in my childhood, at 12 years old.

One day my, father left for work. He was an entrepreneur, very successful, financial planner. He did estate planning. He dealt with insurance and investments in Orlando, the town that we were in, rather small town, and he was on the radio. Everybody knew his name in our town. He left for work one day, and we saw him on the five o’clock news that night being hauled off by the authorities because while he was running a very lucrative business, he was doing it dishonestly,

He was charged with fraud and racketeering, and it triggered something in me in that moment walking through that very public shame. It was his shame, but I was on the fringe, you know, as his child. There were cameras and news footage over our house, our home. My childhood home was on the news.

And it’s being back dropped against this crime. “Look how this family’s been living.” I went from this girl who was posing at the mannequins and who was not afraid of a stage or a camera to… I just shrunk.

I don’t wanna be seen, I don’t wanna be heard. I am fine to fade in the background. I never wanna be in front of another camera. I just went, from this carefree, fearless sort of child with dreams of being a triple threat to how can I fade into the back? I just kind of faded away, honestly.

Finding Her Voice Through Songwriting

Sarah: You said you shrunk into yourself and sort of closed off from that spotlight. I remember you saying in one of your Instagram lives that you were referred to as the loud family. I love that description and, but I can’t even imagine how what you describe of being here, your home is on the news, news outlets hanging outside your home and, disrupting your life even further. How did that affect your teen years? I mean, you were at that transitional age of the tween years heading into the teens and that can really be a tough time.

Salina: Well, the gifts are inside of us and the passions and the drives, even though we have these disruptions. Those gifts never really die, and those passions, they may be buried so deep that you think it must be dead, but those things never really go away.

I took all of that passion and that energy and that desire to tell a story in the spotlight, and I channeled it into songwriting. Writing sort of became my creative outlet, and that was a very behind the scenes role. I really started to develop that craft as I was in my teenage years.

As a teenager, seeing my mother go from this like… She was just built to be a wife and a mom and a homemaker, and to see her go from that to a single mom. We were on food stamps. She was working 60 hours a week just to try to take care of us, and we were going to visit my father in prison on the weekends.

I didn’t wanna cause her any more trouble than she was already experiencing. So I just sort of became very introspective. Writing was my passion and my outlet. When I went to college, I knew that I wanted to serve.

I was like, you know what? I wanna serve people. I wanna help people. I declared my major as psychology. I lasted one semester of general psych and I thought, I cannot. If I have to listen to people… no. If I have to listen to people’s problems the rest of my life, I’m gonna be in a hole in the fetal position somewhere.

So I changed my major. I’m gonna go into music composition. I needed to make that choice at the time. But looking back, maybe this wasn’t the most… You know, they’re not lining up at your door when you graduate with a degree in music literature to hire you.

So it wasn’t the most lucrative earning power with my music literature degree. I knew that I loved music and I would’ve been content forever writing music, writing for other people who are out front, people who are the front of stage and put me in the background.

I will write your songs all day long. But I could sing, I was able to sing, and I kept getting invitations to be a background singer. And I was like, okay, if I don’t have to be in the front, if I can just be in the background, I’ll do that. That’s totally fine.

But even as a background singer, I would get off the stage afterward and I would just cry. I would just wanna hide. I didn’t wanna go to any afterparties. I didn’t wanna sign anything. I didn’t wanna see anybody. I just wanted to just shrink away and hide. Cause I so much would’ve rather been the girl in the background. 

But like I said, those things never really quite died. They never completely fade away. And I kept getting drawn out and drawn out, “Will you sing for this? Will you come record for this?”

And I’m like, well, I’m in a booth. Nobody’s really seeing me. Sure, why not? So by the time I was in my early twenties, I had sung for a few bands, and I’d sung on a few records. It was either work an administrative job – I was in a cubicle the first year and a half, two years after I graduated ,and I was like, I’m gonna lose my mind. I’m creative.

As a creative personality a cubicle felt so confining. And I was like, well, I don’t like sitting in a cubicle more than I don’t like being on stage. So let’s be on stage. Let’s do this. Honestly, Sarah, I had to really dig back into my early childhood actress days. 

I was like, okay, I am just acting. I am playing a role. I am playing a part. This is not me. Cuz inside, I was dying. I was like, I do not wanna be visible here. But I really didn’t wanna be working in an office. That was sort of the deciding factor for me. I’m gonna do this. I’m gonna put myself out there as a touring singer.

And I sang, whoever hired me to sing, if it was picking up a tour or doing a wedding or doing a jingle. I was like, sure, I’m your girl. I will sing because I don’t wanna be in an office. 

Love, Partnership, and Life on the road

Sarah: How did you meet your husband? 

Salina: We just celebrated 17 years of marriage yesterday, by the way. 

Sarah: Oh, congratulations. 

Salina: Thank you. And I still, we still really, really like each other. We met because he’s a guitarist. He was touring with a couple bands in Nashville. I was living in Atlanta, and he kept getting called to play.

We kept getting booked for the same events. I would get booked to sing and he would get booked to play. And after about three or four of these, like, “Oh, hey, it’s you again,” we just hit it off. We got married three months after our first date. It’s pretty intense. We look at each other now, we’re like, I’m glad that worked out. The timing, again, looking back, we were not smart enough to plan that knowing what was coming up. 

So after we got married, we put ourselves out there as a package deal. I was the singer. He was the guitarist. For the first three, four years of our marriage, We were on the road together and he was in the back line. I was the background singer. It just worked cuz we got to travel together. And so we sort of did things backwards. We got married, and then we got to know each other, and we thought, “This is the life. We’re together. We’re making a living, doing something that we love. We’re working together. This is awesome. Let’s never stop.” Meaning let’s never have children, or at least implying that. 

This segues into the second sort of major career disruption. We were invited to go on an Asian tour, with the biggest headliner we’ve been invited to partner with. Super exciting. This is the biggest opportunity we have ever had.

The first night of the tour, we were in Seoul, Korea, at the Olympic Stadium. Thousands of people coming out for this show. Super exciting. I’m in rehearsal and as a singer, you wear in-ear monitors so you can hear the band over the crowd so that you can hear your own voice. Otherwise, it’s very difficult to hear it over the noise of the instruments. 

I put my in-ear monitors in. I’ve done that a thousand times. This is nothing new. Took them out at the end of rehearsal, and my hearing in my left ear was gone. I mean, it was like a light switch – there at the beginning of the rehearsal, gone after the rehearsal.

I had never traveled that far, so I thought, maybe it was the flight. Maybe I just have a cold, or maybe I have to… Next thing I know I find myself in a university hospital in Seoul, Korea. I have been diagnosed with sudden deafness.

Did not know that this was a thing. Literally your hearing can be there one moment and gone the next. And they are treating me. I spent two weeks in a Korean hospital. My husband and I had only been married less than two years at the time, and they did everything they could to try to restore my hearing, because as a singer , not only do you need to be able to sing, but you have got to be able to hear.

And I had lost all tonal direction. I couldn’t tell where tones were coming from. I actually was very, very blessed because, in studying about this, people who experience sudden deafness can lose the ability to match pitch. That would’ve ended my career right there if I was not able to do that.

However, when you are sitting in a hospital room and the only English speaker is your significant other, and all the television channels are in Korean. And I mean, it was two weeks of us kind of looking at each other going, okay, we didn’t expect this. We did not see this coming.

We thought that this was going to catapult our career, giving us platforms that we had yet to grace. And, instead it was a very real possibility that this ends here. So over the course of those two weeks, we really started to grieve. I grieved.

I didn’t realize that over the course of my first career, how much my identity had been integrated into what I do, and I did not internalize that I am not what I do. I am not the sum of what I can produce. I really had to face, “If I cannot sing anymore, what else do I do? What else can I contribute? How can I qualify my worth on this planet if I cannot sing?”

This hearing is still gone. They were not able to recover it. 

Rediscovering Identity Through Motherhood

Salina: And there’s been, you know, talk of “Maybe there are technologies advanced, or maybe there’s a surgery,” but can I tell you, this is a reminder for me when I have to compensate with where I’m sitting in a room, or I have to lean in to really listen to somebody. This is a reminder to me of that season and a point in my life where I could have let my inability to do what I knew how to do, define me and I could have let it, just throw me into just complete disregulation.

And instead it’s a reminder of, no, you’re gonna get through this. There is more than you can imagine on the other side of this. You are capable, you have gifts and talents you don’t even know cuz you have yet to access them. It’s a reminder that no matter what I put my hands to, that does not define who I am.

So we started having these conversations about “What if we don’t do this forever? What if we came off the road? What would we do?”And it was the first time we flirted with the idea of having children and raising a family. Playing music locally or teaching. We just kind of started to brainstorm. 

And that seed, then became a desire as oftentimes that happens. We officially came off the road when I had my first child. That marked the end of that career. I was so grateful that I had sort of had that opportunity to do some of that internal work before I had my first child.

I think having a child and going from touring and travel and, and the lights and the stage to, I’m a mom, a stay-at-home mom raising a small human. I’m grateful that I had this sort of segue window for going, let’s sort of look outside of what we think the rest of our life is gonna look like and consider the possibilities. And out of that came my four beautiful children.

Sarah: Wow. So here’s what comes to mind. You had this major identity shift after losing that hearing, had to consider some other options. What is it? Because I think that a lot of people face disruption and have a different reaction. A different response that sends them to the depths of despair, perhaps, or at the very least, their self-confidence is truly shaken. You had that time and obviously a supportive husband. That’s tremendous in and of itself. 

When you say like, thankfully you had that ramp up time to go, rather than going straight from “I’m a performer” to “I’m a mom and this is my life now.” What would you say was the key thing that you did? Was it just simply having those conversations with your husband to talk through what the future could look like?

What would you say was the thing that got you through that? 

Salina: That is a great question. Once that seed of possibility is planted. I do not know what the outcome of this thing is going to be. This could be a total flop, like this could just totally backfire on us. Once the seed of that idea was planted and we came home from Korea, we actually ended up treasuring that time.

It expanded our awareness. I think then we have a responsibility, once that seed is planted, to nurture it and to see what sort of life it is to produce. And not every seed that is planted in our awareness or in conversation is meant to come to fruition and fulfillment.

I think that there is a point where you have to do the work of introspection. You have to do the work of, really internalizing the idea, getting a vision for the idea. This does not have to happen immediately when you’re grieving. 

You have to allow yourself a season of an undetermined amount of time to grieve, to really feel that thing fully. I wanna make sure that we don’t gloss over that to get to, “How do we nurture the seed of possibility?” You kind of wanna put that on the shelf and know, okay, there is life after disruption. 

Walking through the shame and the humiliation and the abrupt shift of my childhood, I told myself the story, “You made it through that, you’ll make it through this.” Somewhere along the line, there was “You are gonna get through this. You need to grieve this, you need to feel this.” 

Because if you don’t do the work of processing that disruption, it doesn’t just dissipate, it doesn’t just disappear. It will come back and it will impact your trajectory. It’ll impact your relationships. So grieve, go through that grieving process. Go through it with people who you can trust. Wise counselors. I think there’s a way to grieve well, but you have to grieve.

And then eventually, and there’s no set amount of time for any one person to just, “Okay, now your grieving is over. It’s time to move on.” I think that part of that will always linger. You know, just like my hearing loss, It’s not gone anywhere. It’s still there. I still have to contend with that every single day, but I’ve made it through it, and now what are the possibilities? 

Then we get to sort of nurture that seed. And I think with that comes a lot of self-awareness of knowing, of doing the work, of self-awareness. “What am I passionate about? What, what lights me up? What gets me, you know, excited? Where am I strong? Where am I weak?” Beginning to do that work, and I think eventually accepting that the trajectory in our minds that was a straight line path to success is actually in fact, very twisty and gritty.

But those gifts and those passions and those desires that maybe it looked like, “I guess that’s dead. I guess that’s done.” They keep on, they keep on showing up in that next season. After I became a mom, I went through very severe postpartum depression, which is another layer to that onion.

Navigating Grief and Change

Sarah: Is that with all of them?

Salina: So I have three boys and one girl. Okay. It’s interesting because there are studies being done about the, the sex of the baby, how it impacts mom in terms of depression. Very interesting. So no, just with my boys and it got worse with each pregnancy.

And so, having to go, okay, this is part of my story now. I was not planning this. I did not ask for this. I do not see how this can be helpful, or how I’m going to emerge from this with desires, passion, sanity intact. But, I think too, having conversations like this, and having people in your life that remind you or that bring that story out of you, and go, “Look what you’ve been through. Look how you made it through.” The passions and desires that… When I made it through the depression, I started writing, I started a blog. I started songwriting again. I just started to work those muscles that sort of just laid dormant. 

I do encourage anyone who is walking through grief or walking through transition or disruption to ask, “What are those things that are innate in you that you love, that you enjoy, that bring you joy?” And let’s get back in touch with those things. That’s part of your healing process, but it’s also part of the discovery process to get to the “What’s next? What’s the possibility on the other side of this?”

Sarah: You’ve obviously done a fair amount of internal work here with all of these things that you’ve been through to be able to  speak so clearly to those steps.

I made some notes to myself because I really do enjoy this. “What is the possibility?” And taking the time to grieve. There’s absolutely a grief. When you lose an identity. I mean, that’s a death, it’s a death to you. So taking the time to grieve is really, really important. There is life after the disruption and through the transition, all of that. 

Salina: There is. And I think, just to hopefully kind of tie bow on the idea , I think the people that we choose to surround ourselves with are our family or what I like to call our chosen family.

You know, people that you invite into your inner circle and it’s a small space. I mean, if we’re doing good, we have like one or two people in that space, holding tight to those relationships and allowing those people, giving them license to speak into your life, is important.

Keeping your sense of humor is really, really, really important. My husband and I both, we’ve walked through seasons, whether it was my depression or loss or transition, and we would go to a therapist. I highly recommend therapy, but our self-medication was comedy.

We would listen to comedians or turn on SNL reruns or something. And I gotta tell you, laughter is good for the soul. It is not good to do around somebody who is grieving and not in the mood to laugh. But even if you can kind of force yourself to just bring some levity to this. He and I say to each other all the time, we laugh to keep from crying. 

Sarah: Right. And sometimes you just have to do that. I know, my husband and I throughout the Pandemic revisited old comfort shows. We started watching Big Bang Theory because I’d seen the first couple of seasons, and then had not seen the rest. I didn’t even realize how many seasons there were. It took us almost two years, but we just finished it. And during that time, I just could not watch serious, depressing stuff. We had serious, depressing stuff going on in the world. I needed an escape from that. That was a somewhat healthy escape to laugh together. 

Salina: It’s a healthy escape. We can think of a lot of unhealthy escapes.

Sarah: Yes, and I’ve done those too. So it’s, it’s good to find the ones that are healthy and that’s really, really important. I love that you brought that up, just because we laugh together, being able to have that sense of humor.

Salina: Oh my goodness. Yes. Never lose your sense of humor. I think that’s one of the bridges to getting to the other side of a life disruption. I’ve used that term actually a few times since you and I talked. 

Disruption is Everywhere

Sarah: Sometimes a disruption can still be a disruption, but be a good thing, like a good disruption. Like a, a pregnancy is exciting. That’s a new thing that’s coming into your life, but still disrupts your life. And you still may have a difficult transition moving into that. 

Salina: Yes. And we have to have grace for ourselves and grace for each other as we are. Making that transition cuz nobody nails it. I think having grace for people’s capacity to deal with change, and your own capacity to deal with change is pretty important. 

Sarah: It is, it is. And it actually just reminds me that, you know, my husband is going through a job transition right now. He just moved into a new role that is a good thing for him. And me, the transition that I’m going through by launching a new business, launching a new podcast is a big transition for him too, because it’s a disruption for him. I’m doing something completely different and not what he was anticipating that I was going to do.

And so, it’s a reminder that we need to have grace for the people in our lives that are also experiencing that disruption. I caused a disruption for him. Hmm. That’s something I need to think on and give him a little more grace.

Salina: Oh, absolutely. Sarah, I feel like we could talk like another hour and a half on that topic alone, like how to help the people that are closest to you navigate the disruptions of your life.

Sarah: Yes. I mean, it’s why I ended up, I’m sure, in two divorces in combination with a job disruption. With a career disruption because the person that I was with was not prepared for that, and my reaction did not allow me the time to grieve. And my second husband went through a career disruption shortly after my big one that did not help us any, because when he did not support me through mine, I couldn’t support him through his.

And so yeah, it was just a train wreck. That one sent me way off the rails. Something that we need to teach and talk about is how to help navigate somebody else’s disruption. 

Salina: Oh, absolutely. The wheels are turning.

Sarah: I have been thinking of disruption in terms of what it does to me. Right? A little self-absorbed in that sense because it’s happening to you. It’s all about me. 

There have been times when I’ve thought about where I have friends whose family member is going through cancer or something like that, where you’re very concerned about the family member, asking, “How is so-and-so doing?” Sometimes you forget that that person, your friend, is also going through a massive disruption and needs the support. So asking “How are you doing with all of this is?” is something that I have actually started asking friends that are going through that. “What do you need?”

Salina: “What do you need?” That is such a gift that you can give to somebody. Not trying to counsel them out of wherever they are on their point of grief, on the journey or not, but just to listen and ask “What do you need?”

I think it’s a little easier when it’s a friend, because there’s still that degree of separation of this is happening in their life. When it’s a partner…

Sarah: That’s a completely different situation. 

Salina: This is happening in our life, and you’re gonna have reactions to whatever’s going on. If it’s a job loss, for example, that impacts the emotions of both. 

I feel like, it’s nice when you’re walking through something, I picture a seesaw. He’s going through something. I’m going through something. I’m up. He’s down, I’m up. But when you’re both on the rock bottom, you can try to get what you need from the other, and they’re an empty cup. What do you do in that situation?

It’s easier said than done. It’s easier to talk about, you know, when you’re not both at the bottom looking up. It kind of goes back to those bridges. If all we could do is connect on the level of humor, if all we can do to be in the same room with each other is sit and watch Big Bang, fine. There’s this survival mode, so finding those healthy life vests. You gotta do that.

Sarah: Oh my gosh. Look at us just exploring all kinds of deep topics today. It’s one of the things I love about you that we’ve been able to have those conversations, having only known each other for a month or so. In the few times that we’ve spoken before this, I knew we had a good connection. Certainly understanding of those challenging times in our lives that affect where we are today.

Salina: It made us who we are and making us into who we’re becoming. That’s a beautiful thing. 

Creating About Face: Confidence with Authenticity

Sarah: Let’s depart from the very, very serious discussion before I let you go. Tell us what you are doing in your new business. Before the pandemic you decided to do about face. You were a blogger, still writing songs, stories. Let’s talk about that transition. 

Salina: Sure. The job that I got paid to do was band coordination, music coordination. I was working part-time because I inherited this from my mother.

I love being at home with my kids. I am the biggest kid when they’re outta school for the summer. I love it. So I was just taking whatever contract job. I was editing, I was doing some ghost writing. Whatever, it didn’t matter as long as I could stay home with my babies. 

What I was doing the most was coordinating, music and bands, and then there were no live performances. Like so much of the world was like, I guess this is why people have hobbies. Let’s take up a hobby. So I literally started like baking my feelings. Like I was in the kitchen every day, baking. 

Sarah: I was just gonna ask you, how many loaves of bread did you bake? 

Salina: Oh my gosh. I baked a new loaf of bread every single day. My husband begged me, he’s like, Salina, they’re gonna have to grease the doors to get us out of here if you do not stop baking.

But I’m a creative. I gotta have my hands in something. “What do I do with myself, my life?” I’ve never told anybody this. 

Sarah: Oh, I love it. The secrets are coming out. 

Salina: It’s total secret. I have an entrepreneurial mind like my dad.

And so for a split second, I thought, I’m gonna start my own cooking show called Cooking with COVID, and it’ll just be me in my kitchen cooking. I gave it some thought. Um, but my husband was like, Salina, we gotta stop doing this. 

Being a performing artist for so many years, if somebody else didn’t do my makeup for me, I didn’t wear it. If I wasn’t underneath stage lights and camera, I did not wear it. Maybe you can get away with that in your early twenties. Not so much in your late thirties, early forties and beyond. You really can’t get away with that. I either didn’t wear it or I just didn’t wear it well. So I was like, it’s either learn how to do this or take up adult coloring.

So I started learning how to apply my makeup like a professional would. And so my kids would laugh at me because I went from wearing no makeup, to like, I’d come outta my room with these red lips. And they’re like, “Mom, nobody’s going anywhere. What are you doing?”

I started to teach myself, and then I started to ask my girlfriends if they would come on a Zoom call because all of us are zooming our life away at this point. They would come on a call and I would practice my technique. They’d be on the other side of the camera doing their makeup, and I would be giving lessons. 

They were awful in the beginning. I mean, totally backwards. I had no idea what I was talking about. But, it was fun and it was an outlet. Did I ever think I would make a career out of this? No. But what one thing I began to really notice cuz I had the opportunity to be in front of more and more women and kind of guiding them through the technique and the process and how to match their color and how to create symmetry with their face. And it was all verynuanced and fun.

But I began to see, as I was connecting with more and more women, especially through the camera, yes, we were in the middle of a pandemic, but I really was observing a chronic lack of confidence in the women that I was connecting with. 

When you are looking someone in, in the face, and especially through a camera, we were not equipped to process this type of relating to one another before the pandemic. I read an article, when the pandemic first started, and everybody was zooming and video chatting, about the impact that it was having on our brain. It was almost the same as if we walked into an elevator and instead of facing the elevator door, we faced everybody else in the elevator.

There was something awkward, like, this is backwards. Something’s not right about this. Because we’ve never been in a place where we’ve had, I’m looking at you, but I’m finding that I’m looking at my own face as well, which is so not intuitive to the art of conversation as we have known it.

I have no idea what it’s gonna make of the next generation coming up where this is so normal. But for us, this did not become something our brains had to process until the pandemic, so I began to see this crisis of confidence. I think I wrote something about it. 

I started to notice this crisis of confidence in seeing, especially women who, maybe they had successful careers or they had realized, they were on an upward trajectory in their career path, and then all of a sudden they have to work virtually, and that elevator impact on our brain. I don’t think that’s what it’s called, but that’s what I’m calling it. 

That impact on our brain just puts another layer of self consciousness on us. We have to make certain concessions when we are on camera that we don’t have to do when we’re face to face. We have to contend with the lighting, the angle, lens distortion. It’s the nature of being on camera. We have to contend with it. I began to really think about my business in terms of how can I give people the tools, specifically women, because our skin is more translucent.

The more that we age, we look more washed out than our male counterpart. We just simply do. Their skin is 25% thicker than ours is. And so as we age and as, as we begin to lose collagen, we are gonna look like the corpse before they do. 

Sarah: I did not know that. Why do men have 25% thicker skin? 

Salina: Because of their testosterone levels. And men tend to age gradually, whereas our bodies start to lose collagen in our twenties, and collagen is,what gives your appearance that bounce back ability. 

We stop naturally producing collagen in our twenties. So that’s why it becomes important for us to supplement with collagen boosting products like vitamin C. But then we experience a rush of rapid aging once we’re perimenopausal and we experience menopause. Whereas they experience it gradually, we are blessed to experience it virtually all once. 

Sarah: Yay. We have it so good.

Salina: Yeah. And, here’s the thing. Now that we are living in a virtual world and we are virtual girls, this is not going anywhere, okay? We have to get smart. We have to learn how to guide the eye of our viewer to our advantage.

We wanna draw the eye away from the tired, pale, washed out, dull looking self. And this is not because we wanna be something that we’re not. It’s not because we’re trying to give this airbrushed impression that we are perfect, in fact, the exact opposite. I think that as creative entrepreneurs, being authentic is key to your marketing. Do not be anything else other than authentic. 

But part of looking professional, looking like the authority, looking like the expert in your field looking excited about what you’re talking about, is contending with a camera and lighting and angles and distortion that makes us look tired, dull, and washed out.

I really started to focus on this woman. She wants to feel confident as a professional and as an entrepreneur. And she wants to attract people to her message. How can we guide the eye of our viewers to our advantage to draw attention to that message and to our brand movement and to the difference we’re trying to make in the world.

I realized very quickly there’s a much deeper need for this in terms of our own personal confidence, but in terms of how we’re representing ourselves, our businesses, the sort of platform we are creating for our messages, that’s what gets me really excited. I love sitting with women who are brand builders and who have ideas and passions and energies and going, okay, how do we get that? To translate through all of your visual branding and all of your visual imagery. That’s why I love what I do. 

The Power of Visibility and Consistency

Sarah: I love that message. And your reason for doing it. Before we started recording, I was telling you about my experience just a couple of days ago with a branding photo session for my new website and my social media, and although I have done a lot of personal growth work to accept that I don’t have the standard, or what we have been taught is the standard body type or shape, although I have done a lot of work on that, I had a meltdown essentially as I got in front of the camera.

I had seen the makeup and it was way heavier than anything I typically wear. I really freaked out when I put on my clothes. Between the face and the clothing wasn’t fitting quite how I wanted it to fit. I ended up having a breakdown, before we even got started. 

My photographer, who is a good friend, said, “What just happened here? This is not how you arrived this morning. You were so energetic and bubbly and now you are just zero energy. What happened?”

And that point of yours, about how we look on camera definitely affects how we feel, how we look in general affects how we feel. The confidence that we feel. So going into that, maybe I did myself a disservice of having somebody do my makeup who had never done my makeup before. So I didn’t know what to expect. Salina had just taught me how to do makeup for camera . So I perhaps should have done my own makeup that day, but then I don’t know if it would’ve been strong enough for camera, for the photos.

Seeing what I saw after. In some of the photographs I was like, oh, okay. It doesn’t look like I’m overly made up, and I asked my photographer like, please tell me I am not gonna look like this in my photos because this is not me. And she assured me. “No, it’s fine. I’m shooting you from over there. You need the color, the pop.” I’ve seen some of the photos that we took, and so I know it’s not that bad. 

Salina: But still, you had this moment of feeling like, this is not me, and Sarah, I’m really glad that it was a still a good experience, because think about if you had felt that way and you had to go do a virtual interview, or you had to be a keynote speaker, and you felt that way. “This is not me,” and that would have impeded the delivery of your message. And what we’re trying to do is attract people to your message of transformation. What can your brand, your product, your service do for them? I would love to see your pictures. I’m sure that they’re beautiful and your makeup.

Sarah: Yes. I’m sure I will be happy to share them with you. I should hopefully have them sometime this week or next. 

Salina: And I love makeup artists, but I see this happen all the time. A person will get their makeup done and they will either love it, love how they look but in the back of their mind thinking, “How am I ever gonna recreate this again when I have to go to a video spot or a promo ad, or do my social media live this week. I’m never gonna be able to recreate this.”

So it’s either that, or they feel the way that you felt, and they think, “This is not me.” And then all of a sudden their, their confidence shrinks, therefore their authority submerges. And then they’re self-conscious more than they’re conscious of their audience and how they’re going to deliver their message of transformation to their audience.

I love makeup artists. They are gifted at what they do, but if you’re in a position of authority where you are the face of your brand, you almost have to put it in the job description. Let’s just be objective about this. There are certain skills we need to be able to do our jobs well. Being able to recreate your look so that it consistently draws people to your message across all your media platforms is just a skill that you have to learn how to do for yourself. Because consistency breeds trust. 

If someone looks at me and I’ve been completely done up airbrushed in an ad, and then they see me on social media, even though they would probably not admit it, cuz we’re taught you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. The way the brain processes it is not consistent with that. It’s suspicious, and we’re working so hard with our marketing to grow that know, like, and trust. We want to, as much as we can, provide a consistent experience across our platforms. And we can do that by using our makeup as a vehicle to build that trust and draw that attention to our message. 

Sarah: Absolutely love that message, Salina. It’s, it’s exactly what we need to hear.

Salina: I’m excited about it too. 

Sarah: Oh my gosh. I am so happy to have you here today this has been a really tremendous conversation. I’ve really enjoyed it. We could definitely keep going, but I know, we both have other things to do today. Tell my, audience where they can find you on the internet so they, too, can find out how to create their look in an authentic way? 

Salina: Yes. Listen, if you can’t tell, I love conversation. I am very people-y. So my favorite hangout is Instagram. So if you go to Instagram, @Salina_aboutface.

Sarah: Thank you so much. I really enjoyed what we did here.

Salina: Me too. Thank you so much for inviting me to do this. 

Key Takeaways

I’m sure you could tell, but I loved this conversation with Salina. We met a few months ago through Instagram, and it felt like we became instant friends. She has such radiant energy, and I could talk to her for hours. Her story is full of major life disruptions yet each became a turning point for growth. Even joyous changes like motherhood required her to redefine who she was.

I had no idea I was going to share the story of my own photo shoot meltdown, but it really just goes to show that no matter how confident you think you are, when you are faced with an identity that doesn’t match what’s in your head, it can be really devastating.

Apparently, I still have a lot of work to do when it comes to my own journey with being visible in a world where the ideal that has surrounded so many of us since we were young is unrealistic for all women. We each have value regardless of our outward appearance, and that goes for men too. I hope you’ve found a way to love yourself unconditionally and know that you are worthy of what you desire, or that you’re at least working on it. I believe it’s a lifelong endeavor. 

• Disruption is a sacred turning point. Every major challenge in Salina’s story — from her father’s public scandal to hearing loss — became an invitation to reclaim identity and purpose.
• Visibility begins within. Authentic confidence comes from inner healing, not from perfection. Learning to see yourself clearly allows you to show up powerfully for others.
• Grief is part of reinvention. Each identity shift deserves to be honored, not rushed through. Healing allows creativity to bloom again.
• Consistency builds trust. Salina reminds us that showing up authentically and consistently, even in our visual presence, is a form of leadership.

About Salina

Salina Beasley is a makeup coach and founder of About Face, where she teaches entrepreneurs how to create camera-ready confidence from the inside out.

A former touring musician turned beauty educator, Salina combines her love of artistry and authenticity to help women show up as the face of their brand without losing themselves in the process. Her work goes far beyond technique; it’s about helping women reconnect with who they are, one brushstroke at a time.

Connect with Salina: Instagram

Energetic Reflection

Salina’s story is a reminder that transformation is rarely glamorous. It’s gritty, honest, and deeply human. As you walk through your own seasons of change, remember that every disruption carries the frequency of renewal. Your power isn’t in perfection; it’s in presence. Each time you choose to show up — with compassion, humor, and self-awareness — you raise the vibration for everyone watching.

If this conversation moved you, I invite you to join my Reiki-infused newsletter, where I share stories and energetic insights for creative entrepreneurs at every stage of growth.