Key Networking Skills Every Entrepreneur Needs

0:00You're never really fully prepared for a business because everything, everyone's different. But I think just researching and being as ready as you possibly can will then prevent a lot of problems in the future. Hey, how's it going? I'm your host, Shuang Esther Shan, back with a new episode of Shopify Masters, your companion for starting and building your brand. In business, we often hear it's all about who you know. But how do you go about finding the right people to create a network that fuels your growth? Well, Etienne Ortega is my guest today. He'll share how he went from living out of his car to creating iconic makeup looks for celebrities like Christina Aguilera, Lana Del Rey, and Callie Uchi.

0:47Now, after years of trial and error, Etienne has launched his own direct-to-consumer beauty brand, Ortega. He's proven to the world that where you come from does not dictate where you are going. Etienne, welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. It's such an honor to have you on. We are huge fans. And also, we understand beauty has been a huge part of your life ever since you were a kid. You loved watching your mom apply her makeup. You loved experimenting with looks, putting on makeup for friends. How did you find yourself in that moment where you were deciding to pursue this professionally?

1:30Yeah. Yeah, I mean, my love for beauty really started when my sister was born. You know, I was 11 and I have two younger brothers. So I always kind of begged my mom for like a little sister. You know, it's like all I ever wanted at the time. And then, you know, she was born and me having to take care of my siblings growing up and getting them to school. You know, by the time my sister started preschool or kindergarten, I had to walk her to school every day. So I would have to do her hair and dress her and same with my two younger brothers. So I think that's where it started. Not even thinking of anything, to be honest.

2:08It was just like, oh, I like this. I like doing her hair and stuff. And, you know, by the time I got to high school, I was going to the barbershop to get a haircut like once a week. So this lady, Hilda, she was so busy. it would be like okay I could cut your hair but it's gonna take it's gonna be about three hour wait and I would be like no problem like and I would sit there and just watch her do her job you know her work and I was so fascinated by it that that further led into my interest in beauty to then you know having my friends for prom and um starting to mess around with makeup and both hair both hair and makeup and um I was like I could do your guys's hair and makeup and I would you know I'd have like a line of girls outside my house like on on a Saturday morning for prom and I'd charge them you know ten dollars a person and that was like my little spending money that I had yeah it sounds like it was very organic you were drawn to this interest and you find yourself getting more and more involved in beauty.

3:15And in the early days, you were managing a lot with school, your work, and also trying to start up this career in makeup. How did you manage to be scrappy and make sure that you were making ends meet to balance all those responsibilities at the same time? I feel like having so many responsibilities at such a young age, you know, just in regards to like taking care of three kids for my parents because, you know, they were out working. They used to leave the house at four or five in the morning. So I feel like it's kind of like all I've ever known, you know, and I think as as the oldest child, that's kind of like what just happens to the oldest child, I find in most cases.

3:56So I think it taught me to just not necessarily balance, but just know how to work under pressure and know how to, you know, multitask between I mean, taking care of them, then taking care of myself, walking myself to school, then, you know, getting good grades, blah, blah. So I think it just prepared me to like basically what I'm doing now. And obviously I don't take care of them anymore. They're old enough to take care of themselves. So thank God for that. Yeah. And I think you were also very responsible for the fact that you immigrated. You were in the States. You were balancing jobs while you're trying to build up a clientele list.

4:38How were you managing that? Yeah, I mean, you know, fast forward to me graduating high school, and I didn't really know what I was going to do because my dad, like a traditional, you know, parent just wanted me to go to college and get an education. And I just knew that early on that I just it wasn't for me. Like I love and respect school, but I wanted to do something that I wanted to do. By the time I graduated high school, I was so kind of not experienced, but I was doing it so much. Like people were actually hiring me, like my friends' moms and stuff. So it was just kind of like a no-brainer for me to go to L.A.

5:18So then once I came to L.A. and went to beauty school, I was just dying to get out of school because I wanted to work so much. And I just wanted to make my own money and be independent. but that was a lot yeah it was a lot to balance just because I mean at the time you know no money sometimes I'd definitely sleep in my car because I didn't want to commute back to Ventura County for like gas purpose or you know just not enough funds I think just loving what I do just has always been like the fuel to my fire I wasn't gonna let anything really stop me or feel bad for myself. I was a young kid. I was just like so hungry that I was like, okay, this is what I got to do.

6:03Let's do it. And then we'll figure it out tomorrow. And then, you know, that's just been how I rolled with it. Yeah. And I think oftentimes as artists, whether in beauty or in other mediums, there's such a heavy investment on your end where you have to invest in a kit, you have to invest time, and you're still trying to support yourself to get into this industry. So what advice do you have for those people who are in the early stages where they have to invest into this career to be able to build up a clientele list and to stay kind of financially responsible, motivated, and also optimistic all at the same time?

6:45Yeah, I mean, I would say everything you just said, but definitely invest in yourself and your kit because you know at the time it just feels like like I remember going to our beauty supply store here in North Hollywood called Nigel's and I remember a friend was like you have to try this Makeup Forever foundation and I was like oh my god it's like amazing but it's like I can't afford it so I went and like got I think I got a credit card or something for like$200 like at the time and I bought three foundations you know fast forward you know to like 10 years plus later Makeup Forever hired me to do like a bunch of campaigns for them I got to travel to London and Paris and work with the brand and I remember just walking into that set that day just remembering like you know I bought three foundations look how like full circle that was for me that at the time I was so scared to invest in something, but, you know, it ultimately comes back to you, you know, and anything you do invest yourself in, whether it's your kid, your education, your well-being, you know, doing good things will always come back, I feel.

8:03Yeah. Throughout your career, it's not just the amazing brand, but also the A-list celebrities that are a part of your clientele. What is your advice for networking, building up a great network of advocates who are telling their friends to also seek out your services? I think like anything in life, you have to build a strong foundation. And for me, I always found myself to be disciplined in my workspace. Like I, you know, like the importance of just simply being on time, you know, obviously doing, giving it 150%. At the time when I had no celebrities or, you know, not even like a full clientele, that was my patterns.

8:50You know, I was showing up on time, being responsible, being respectful. And I feel like, you know, just applying those things that actually just cost nothing take you so far in life, you know, because I'm still the same exact way. And I mean, I have clients 10 plus years and, you know, some of the most iconic women in the world that I'm so grateful and lucky to get to work with. So I think that's my foundation to success. Like, I just don't have any secret sauce for you. You know, there's no shortcuts or cheating. I've just done the work. You know, I used to stay at the salon when I used to work there at 18 and stay two extra hours and take walk-ins and just say yes to everything, you know, versus some other people.

9:39It's like, oh, it's six o 'clock. I'm just going to go. There's like nothing. And I just wait around and like, you know, people would come in the salon and I'd take them, I'd do a blowout or makeup. And I think that just, I don't know, the universe responds to that. You know, I really, really do believe that the universe sees everything and gives back. Very, very practical advice. And I think our listeners will love to also hear one of your first big breaks was working with Eva Longoria and how that really opened the doors for you. Yeah. Talk to us about that meeting and also the growth of your career after that as well.

10:18Yeah, that was definitely a very special time in my life because I had worked at the salon for maybe a year and a half. And while being there, actually saying yes to people, like I said, you know, and not settling, led me to meeting a beautiful, great woman named Birgit. Birgit was very loyal. She loved my work. And eventually, you know, she started to refer me, like, let me refer you to my friend and, you know, non-famous people. And then eventually she introduced me to somebody that was best friends with Eva. Her name is Maria Bravo. I love her. She went to dinner with her the night I got to do her hair and makeup.

11:04And Eva asked her, who did your hair and makeup? And it was me. And basically, I think in the next few days, I was at Eva Longoria's house at five o 'clock in the morning, ready to do a morning show. And I was 21 years old. So it was like, looking back, I was like, maybe I wasn't ready to be like doing celebrities. But I mean, I got there for some reason and the opportunity, you know, was there and I took it and, you know, she loved me. And I'm always going to be grateful for Eva because she really opened a lot of doors for me. And then, you know, at the time I started Instagram and social media kind of blew up.

11:48So through my work with Eva, a lot of other women started to notice me. You know, so then it went up from there. Yeah. And I think a lot of people would feel like, well, how do you build those relationships where people want to be advocates for you and they return, bring in more clientele for you. And they're really out there acting as this word of mouth for your services. again I know that previously you said there's no secret sauce but I guess like what do you feel like has attributed to your success for all those years that the network keeps on expanding itself you know I think everything I mentioned earlier but I continue to exercise my craft all the time I never feel like I'm the best makeup changes often and new trends and as you get older I feel like it's very easy to get stuck and like the way you did makeup 10 years ago or something.

12:49But for me, it's like a constant, like, okay, I got to try this. I want to do that. And always kind of feeling myself, my inspiration to then serve my clients, like new vibes, you know, like, let's try this. Like, I mean, Christina is a great example of like, I look back 10 years ago when we started. And to now I'm like, wow, we both have grown, you know, she looked beautiful back then. But also my work has gotten better. Therefore, I could make them look better and feel better, you know, because it's not just like an art, but like, it's a feeling that you get to transmit to these people to these women.

13:29Yeah. And for our listeners, that's certainly Christina Aguilera. Very cool to see how she's involved and how your artistry have evolved as well. And I think that's advice applicable to any industry because you constantly do have to stay curious in order to just keep growing and learning. Very, very excited to chat about this new chapter within your career, which is launching your own brand Ortega. But right now, I would love to take a moment to thank you, our listeners, for tuning into the show. Wherever you're listening or getting your podcast, make sure you are following Shopify Masters. If you haven't already, write us a review.

14:11It really helps others to discover the show as well. And we love hearing from you. So thank you so much. Of course, there's a lot of makeup artists in the space that would collaborate with beauty brands, work together to create products or limited edition drops, but you did want to create your own brand and your own products. What was behind that decision? I think as a dreamer, I've always thought of the idea of a brand someday. And my first initial idea was back in like 2015. I was like, I, you know, I'm doing well, like I should really look into it. And, you know, there was a few people that were like, Maybe not now, maybe wait, which I kind of regret listening to, by the way.

15:04Just times have changed. But, you know, ultimately, I guess timing is everything. But in 2019, I just revisited the idea of starting my own brand. And for me, I've been in this industry for 17 years. So it's kind of like, what's the next chapter of Etienne Ortega look like? You know, because as much as I love what I do, there's also a part of me that's like, well, I'm getting older and I'm going to get older. And I got to think like about my life and like, do I want to have kids? Do I want to get married? You know, so I think for me, a brand was like a no brainer in the sense of, you know, it's it's it's getting into business.

15:50It's it's not only artistry. now it's like I got to put on my businessman hat on yeah think further about life you know I'd love to be successful and make money so I don't have to worry and then have more time for myself or my family you know so there's a lot of things I thought of prior to launching the brand it's it wasn't really just like about like I want a brand you know like everything I do in my life and my career is very like thought out and I put a lot of intention into what I do. Obviously, as an artist, it's just the most fun thing to get to build some products and create your own visuals, you know, versus, you know, when I get hired to work for other brands and companies, I'm working for them.

16:36Now I work for myself and I get to see a lot of my ideas come to life. And I just really wanted to put that out because it's like an extension of me. It's like me launching a brand is just sharing another part of who I am as a person, as an artist. Yeah. I mean, it sounds like you had both sides of the coin when you were deciding this is a great extension of your expression. And also there's that practical side where you do want to extend your career, build a business, and build a brand. Talk to us about conceptualizing the brand identity, finding the iconic blue color, and also finding that kind of hero ingredient in blue agave and how everything kind of perfectly tied in within itself as well.

17:28You know, everything has rolled out so organically for me. To give you a little backstory on the brand, it's just, I know people think it just came out of nowhere. But, you know, I started this project in 2019 and I had a few partnerships that just didn't work out for all the right reasons, to be completely honest. So I actually started over about three to four times prior to launching. So it's a, you know, on the business side of it, It's just a different animal that I've had to learn kind of the hard way. But I'm grateful for all the lessons because I feel like now I'm more prepared and I'm more aware of a lot of things.

18:15But yeah, it didn't come easy. The color blue, to me, it reminds me, you know, of the sky. It reminds me of water. It reminds me of purity. My brother's favorite color has always been baby blue. And I also thought about him a lot for some reason throughout the process. And I also thought like, you know, what's going to make me stand out and look different? Because there's so many gorgeous brands out there. And I'm such a fan of so many founders and brands. But I was just like, what am I going to do? So I think the blue color just, I didn't see it out there in any brands. Like I haven't still. But I was like, this is not something I've seen in the beauty space.

18:58So I'm going to do blue and stick to it. and then the you know the development process like I said I kind of started over three or four different times and from each experience I just kind of took what I needed to you know all the positive things and so the brand you know was by the second round I was like you know I had more of a good idea then that experience added more than the third round just added much more so it's It just kind of kept growing as like, you know, what I really wanted. Different players came in and gave me perspectives and things that I, you know, that I'll take with me to then finally now launching, you know.

19:44And while I was in product development, my product development person just, you know, she had a lot of insight and brought to my attention a lot of cool ingredients. and the blue agave came around and I was like, oh my God, I love that because it ties into where I was born, which is Jalisco, which is where agave is from. And then the packaging blue, I was like, oh my God, blue agave, like it's all just so organic. I mean, I just love the ingredient in general. It just has so many amazing benefits that it was like a no brainer. And of course, just creatively, it just ended up being amazing to work with because then, you know, our sets and And in all the videos I've created, you'll see, you know, the water and the hints of blue and the agaves and all that.

20:31Well, for sure, because as an outsider, we only see the beautiful baby blue packaging. We can hear the story of the blue agave, but they probably would never know that you went through three, four iterations of finding the right partners and redoing this concept over and over again. And again, we chatted with your business partner, Eric, as well. Talk to us about finding the right people to work with. And yeah, the process of knowing this is the right person for me to actually build a business together. And he possesses those qualities that I look for, for people who I trust with my brand. yeah I think having all those experiences you know with the past partners just further like allowed me to to think about what I really want and what really means a lot to me and what means a lot to me and everything I do is being authentic and just always being myself and being honest and not just like trying to sell you something you know like everything I do just has a deeper meaning for myself.

21:43And a lot of people could see that and it translates. But, you know, business isn't friendly. And that's like a hard lesson that I've had to learn. It's not friendly. And there's going to be people who are out for themselves, which is fine, by the way, like more power to you. But for me, it's important to have people around me that I could trust, that I could share my vision and they see the vision and want to work alongside myself to like make this happen, you know. And with Eric, he's been a friend of mine for 15 years. So after, you know, going through a lot of different partners and stuff, I reached out to him, you know, and just because he's a good guy and he's a hard worker and he was, you know, interested in this opportunity with me, you know, we make a great team because he's, he likes to work and he likes to learn.

22:38And because this is also like a new world for him, you know, he doesn't come from beauty. So we're having to figure a lot of things out. But you know, it's, it's, it's fun because we're babies. And I know that we're going to do great things together. And it's just important for me to have someone like him who I could trust and who gets me and we get each other and we work, you know, in a positive manner. So that's a good foundation for me to have. Then I could feel like I could take over, you know, the world if I have good support. Through that experience, what have you learned to know that maybe certain proposals or certain partnerships might not be the right ones?

23:22And what do you actually look for for the right partnership to sign up on? yeah I mean I think for me like outside of just feeling protected by you know a higher power a lot of these partnerships I had they kind of dissolved by themselves like they just organically didn't work out and and I now that I look back at it I'm so grateful that they did because it led me I think to the right place but some advice is just you know pay attention like read read your contracts, read anything you sign, just read it before you sign it. Make sure you do your research on who, you know, you're getting in bed with because yeah, ultimately, you know, I'm the founder.

24:09It's my name. It's my 17 plus years of hard work. So, you know, you have to value yourself and pay attention to what other people's intentions or wants are, and then just make smart choices to make sure that you don't end up in a bad place. Definitely. Yeah. That mutual trust and also that shared curiosity and dedication. Well, being babies together, I know that you had to go through formulation, sourcing, issuing a production run. What's your advice for doing all of those things for the first time? Oh my God. It's, you never know what you're getting into. it's I I didn't know what I was getting myself into I was like yeah we'll produce we'll put packaging but there's so much more it's just it's such a process it is fun but there's so many things that I didn't realize that went into it and a lot of money as well you know so it's even just for the shipping it's like so expensive to get these pallets flown from country to country It's wild.

25:20But yeah, I would say do as much homework as you can. Do as much research as you can. If you know other founders, if you have friends with businesses, pick their brain, ask them. Because you're never really fully prepared for a business because everything, everyone's different. Everyone, you know, has, sells different things or has different followings or, you know, platforms. But I think just researching and being as ready as you possibly can will then prevent a lot of problems in the future. Has there been a big hurdle for you that caught you off guard? But for Eric and yourself, you were able to find a solution?

26:06I mean, yeah, it's a lot of I don't want to say hurdles, but like I think it's in business. it's a continuous problem solving, you know, like we, how are we going to do this? How are we going to like, what PR boxes are we sending? Now we need a list. Now we need labels. Now we, you know, it's just kind of like, it never ends really in business I find, but I think, you know, keeping your eye on the price and like, there's a lot of reward into it as well. Like when you know you work so hard on packaging and formulas and stuff and then you see people like once it's out to the world it's like they respond to it with you know well at least for me it's been so positive and and people will often come up to me like wow like you've done so amazing and in the back of my head I'm like oh if you only knew if you only knew what you know so I'll take it.

27:04I'll take that love and support because it makes me feel like I'm doing the right thing. Yeah, definitely sounds like you got to get comfortable with problem solving. And of course, Ortega is in its early days. You have to get the word out. You spoke about PR boxes. What are some marketing or PR campaigns or moves you've done that has really helped the brand? Yeah, I mean, going back into what I was saying earlier, just about the work ethic and the respect and professionalism, I've just been so lucky and blessed to build relationships as I've gotten bigger in my career. but I've also have a community of artists that I could call my friends who are very successful as well.

27:55We've all came up together and just having their support and stuff, it's really helped me. And it wasn't like I planned, because a lot of people reach out to these big influencers and big artists, but they all happen to just be my natural friends. So it was very easy for me to just be like, hey, guys, can I have your address? Like, I'm creating my PR list. And then, you know, I did all that myself. So yeah, I get to have that organically, which is really amazing. Yeah, that's a testament to your years of building up the fact that you were dedicated to your craft and that reputation is not built overnight.

28:34The network is not built overnight. It's truly a reflection of how you work and how you interact with people for all those years. The other side of it, which might be surprising to people, is Ortega is also self-funded. And this was a decision that you and Eric have made. Why was that important for you at this stage? I mean, it's kind of like the way it all just worked out. All the past partnerships were like, you know, multi-million dollar deals and stuff. But, you know, it just didn't work out. And I think for this, you know, I don't know, for this round, it just felt like, OK, like, let's just invest our money.

29:17Like, I mean, thankfully, you know, I'm in a place where I was able to do that. And so was Eric. So, you know, and at the end of the day, like we're babies like this brand is like a newborn child. So we don't have to try to get, you know, from A to Z in a day or in a month or in a year. You know, it's like I think there's we left the room to grow, you know, and that's why starting off just by ourselves. I think it was the best thing for us. Also, we don't have a full range line. You know, it's just small collections. So, you know, we're learning the whole process. So I think by the time, you know, we explore investors or retail or a lot of things, like we might be in a much better place, you know, and we own 100 % of our company.

30:12Yeah, I was going to ask about that because, you know, these previous deals that did come with a pretty investment, which might sound great on paper, but it probably also comes with restrictions and limitations on your creative freedom and things like that. So yeah, like, was there some of that in that decision making to stay completely free and independent? I mean, as a creative, it's not the most ideal thing because if I could have a$100 ,000 photo shoot budget, I would love that. But we don't. And I mean, we can, but that's not very smart. You know, so this is where the that resourceful person that I am of just like that's also, you know, learned so much about lighting and cameras and angles and concepts like throughout my career.

31:11It really came in handy, you know, because we did like I didn't spend tons of money on everything you see. Like, you know what I mean? I had to budget to such a small teams. teams yet we made it look like we had big budgets and people will say that all the time they're like wow that looks like you spend so much money on that and you know this and I'm like well we did spend money but we made a little bit you know we made something look really big when it was like a small little team being financially responsible but maxing out on the impact of your work I love that. And I'm sure you're thinking about retail partnerships, maybe different ways to grow.

31:58What's your philosophy when you're thinking about that right now? You know, it's very overwhelming because we've had such a great response and we've had a lot of people that are interested, you know, in like a lot of different things. But I think for me right now it's it's again I'm still learning a lot so I just want to keep learning and explore each avenue you know so when we get to retail like what what do I want like where do I want to be where do I see myself um and how will we get there so right now I don't I couldn't tell you the answer because I I still want to learn and do my research you know now it's like a different level It was like before it was like prior to the launch.