Author Morgan Angelique Owens: Five Things You Need To Know To Succeed In The Modern Beauty Industry

Do the work. — There isn’t much explanation needed for this one. You have to devote the time, sweat and tears into making your goals a reality. Seek out mentors that will help you stay accountable, steer towards what you need to do, and give constructive criticism (and not just a pat on the back). Wake up, get dressed and do the work, every day.

As a part of our series about “Five Things You Need To Know To Succeed In The Modern Beauty Industry”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Morgan Angelique Owens.

Morgan Angelique Owens is the author of “Finding My Sparkle” and Founder & CEO of the MAO Brand, Professional Pretty, and Curvy Cardio, LLC. An entrepreneur powerhouse — Author, Consultant, Speaker, Brand Ambassador — Morgan uses her vision and voice to coach and uplift women and young girls by sharing the knowledge and expertise she’s honed in the areas of physical and mental health, beauty, personal empowerment, and lifestyle content. She uses her passion and fashion-forward savvy to authentically bridge the gap between brands and underserved audiences through her Blog, Professional Pretty. She has been featured in national publications such as Black Enterprise. Morgan has received numerous awards such as, “Woman of Influence”, “40 under 40”, and “Black History Honoree” from the Cincinnati Chamber.

Morgan strives to empower individuals and businesses to invest in their futures and find their Sparkle. In 2021 she partnered with The Cincinnati Herald newspaper to create Herald Beauty. A beauty hub for minority women. She serves as the Chief Creative Beauty Consultant. In 2022, Morgan launched her self-titled talk show, The Morgan Angelique Show: a talk show focused on beauty, fashion and lifestyle aimed towards an often underserved and overlooked audience. The Morgan Angelique Show will not only inspire viewers but educate them in the fields of (but not limited to): beauty, fashion, health/wellness, financial literacy, and more.

Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I’ve been an entrepreneur for 11 years, 5 years full time. I started helping other women entrepreneurs with their marketing/branding because that was my corporate background. I’ve always been obsessed with beauty and when the pandemic hit, everything I was doing came to a halt. This left me with the time and opportunity to pivot and launch my beauty/travel blog.

Professional Pretty Blog was launched three years ago, time has flown. I started the Blog because, for as long as I can remember I have been obsessed with all things’ beauty, travel and lifestyle. I blame my mother. I grew up being the only girl and watching my mother in awe when she got dressed to attend a function or a meeting. She had a full walk-in closet with amazing shoes, dresses and my personal favorite, handbags. My mother is beautiful without material things, but these just enhanced her style — I envied it.

If you know my story you know I struggled with my self-esteem, I never thought I would be as glamorous and gorgeous as my mother. I played in her shoes, her jewelry, her make-up and perfume, I couldn’t wait until I could have all these wonderful things. Now that I know my self-worth is not tied into my looks; I can appreciate beauty and fashion as “add on’s” to my beauty and not substitutions.

My mission has been to help women and young girls find their sparkle, now I’m making one of my biggest goals come to life. Being able to write about all things’ beauty, fashion, and lifestyle to share my favorite tips and tricks. Just remember, you make the products glamorous — not the other way around.

Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Are there takeaways or lessons that others can learn from that?

The biggest “tipping point” in my career when I started seeing success is when I focused on being my authentic self and “staying in my own lane.” By that, I stopped comparing myself to others or being worried about what someone else was doing. The truth is you never know what that person went through to get to their point of success. My biggest lesson was focus on your own journey and own voice. I’ve never lost an opportunity I’ve wanted by simply being myself.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person to whom you are grateful who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

Absolutely. There have been so many people who have lifted me up along my journey. Too many to name. I’ve achieved the most success by having people/mentors speak my name in rooms that I never knew existed. They have held up the notion to “lift as you climb” and I try to do the same thing with other young women and young girls that I mentor.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. The global beauty industry today has grown to more than a half a trillion dollar business. Can you tell us about the innovations that you are bringing to the industry? How do you think that will help people?

What I am bringing to the industry is awareness. For many years Black women were left out of the beauty conversations, now we make up a lot of the trillion dollar industry, we no longer are an afterthought but a needed voice to the table. As a beauty writer/editor/blogger I bring awareness to young women and girls who look like that me- that they deserve a voice in the beauty world and deserve to have all the resources, tools and education around it.

Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the modern beauty industry?

-More inclusion. If you can see it you can be it.

-More women are taking time out to invest in their beauty care.

-Beauty is accessible and affordable for everyone.

Can you share 3 things that most concern you about the industry? If you had the ability to implement 3 ways to improve the industry, what would you suggest?

-There is still a lot of work to be done with diversity. If you google “beauty” you will still see just images of one demographic. There needs to be more diverse faces of what “beauty” means.

-Different diverse groups are still being left out of beauty conversations, which leads to brands making huge “marketing” mistakes. There has to be representation on higher levels in the beauty world.

-Beauty comes in all sizes, I would love to see more movement with this.

You are an expert about beauty. Can you share a few ideas that anyone can use “to feel beautiful”?

-I love affirmations. Take time every day to look yourself in the mirror and tell yourself what you love about you. That always makes me feel beautiful.

-Implementing a skincare routine. When my face looks fresh and clean that always makes me feel beautiful.

• Do something good for others. Beauty starts from the inside.

Here is the main question for our discussion. Based on your experience and success, Can you please share “Five Things You Need To Know To Succeed In The Modern Beauty Industry”. Please share a story or an example, for each.

Whether you are starting a beauty focused business or becoming a beauty writer/blogger — these apply to all:

Stop letting fear hold you back

In order to start living out your purpose, be honest with yourself! If you want to do it, you’ll do it. You have to push through the fear because how would you feel if someone with your same vision goes with it and runs with it — you’re going to be kicking yourself.”

Opportunities do not wait on anybody — you’re never going to get the same exact chance to go for it, so just do it now.

Use adversity to fuel determination

When faced with adversity such as if someone says you shouldn’t apply for that job or you shouldn’t open that business, use that for your fuel to prove them wrong. Often times the people who say these things lack confidence in themselves to go for their dreams, don’t let their shortcomings influence your decisions. Are you living for others or for yourself at the end of the day?

You will feel isolated at times

Getting support during my journey was a major challenge that I endured. A lot of times you have people that don’t pursue their dreams will tell you not to. No matter what, you have to be your biggest cheerleader. Insert yourself immediately into places and with people who are where you want to be — who have the same mindset. Doing this will be critical.

Do it with purpose.

Don’t confuse purpose with passion. Many of us lead with passion because we are ready for an end result such as a paycheck or an award. At the end of the day, purpose will prevail due to it being your calling. Many people working in corporate or as an entrepreneur lead with purpose because it’s what we truly love doing. We wouldn’t endure the sacrifices, long nights, stress if we weren’t truly doing it for purpose. I’m not saying you can’t have passion about your purpose, but make sure purpose is your number one focus.

Do the work.

There isn’t much explanation needed for this one. You have to devote the time, sweat and tears into making your goals a reality. Seek out mentors that will help you stay accountable, steer towards what you need to do, and give constructive criticism (and not just a pat on the back). Wake up, get dressed and do the work, every day.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

To give yourself grace. I think we don’t give each other and ourselves enough grace to make mistakes and take breaks. I say often I am in my “soft girl era” where I no longer subscribe to a life of “hustle” and “sleep when I die” — no. I want to get my rest, give myself grace and only stay in situations where I am celebrated and loved.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Only you can stop you.” Many times we get in our own way in being successful. We have to learn to start getting comfortable with being uncomfortable and push ourselves out of our comfort zone. I never thought I would be doing half of the things I’ve done or been offered to do. I am a firm believer if you love yourself you can push yourself in doing anything it is you want to do.

How can our readers follow you online?

www.morganaowens.com, IG @morganangeliqueowens

Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.