Meet Nicoletta

Multipassionate entrepreneur and business owner with a calling and a purpose

HI! I'M Nicoletta

As a small business owner and entrepreneur, I feel so privileged that I get to work and partner with women who are doing it all. This is an industry that is passionate about women. We collaborate, connect and share on a daily basis.

I’m Greek/ South African /American. I’ve lived and worked in Europe, UK and Asia, Africa, South America, and now I live between Greece and Los Angeles with my husband Ben and our two children. I went from Investment Banking to an LA-based Makeup Artist & Hairstylist to Wedding Photographer to now owning one of the fastest-growing bridal accessories brands in the country. I’ve been on an exciting journey of taking risks, working insanely hard, and jumping into the deep end. I believe each person is here on purpose. We are born to create, share, love, and empower one another. Now especially through our businesses.

Over the past decade, I have had the opportunity to work with incredibly driven women. These are small business owners who wake up each day to grow their business. They are strong mothers and wives and live their life with purpose and meaning. I want to lead by example to show that we can empower one another on this journey of entrepreneurship, motherhood, and faith and to know that we are not doing it alone. 

Within 1 year I created a business with 10 employees and I was doing something fun and creative.

I believe in hard work, grit and fulfilling our unique purpose. I created a brand in a world that told me it was overdone. I also happened to start several businesses from the ground up and made them extremely successful. I believe we can all create something mind blowing the moment we become fearless. This is the best time to be alive, we have been given platforms of opportunity to jump on and just go for it. We need to embrace the fact that we are multi-dimensional and we can be great at many things.  This is what makes us truly successful. 

THIS WAS MY TITLE FOR SO LONG; PHOTOGRAPHER, MAKEUP ARTIST, HAIR STYLIST, WEB DEVELOPER, HTML CONSULTANT, SEO SPECIALIST, GRAPHIC DESIGNER, EMAIL MARKETER, JEWELRY DESIGNER, PHOTOSHOP PRO, CANVA EXPERT, AND SOCIAL MEDIA GURU.

I wanted to do it all. The only reason I feel confident to give you guys meaningful advice is that I have had four completely different businesses and been extremely successful in all of them but along with this came sacrifice and a massive amount of mistakes.

“There is so much cultural pressure to do the things that are shallow, quick to come and quick to have. “

The only reason I was able to start my businesses and grow them exponentially within the first year was because I was HUNGRY. I started with nothing and this gave me the drive to CREATE and EXECUTE. We can ALL do something amazing with our lives. We each have a unique and beautiful purpose.

I’m probably sipping green tea and reading books to my kiddos. I am obsessed with the ocean air and most days I am either swimming or running along the beach. My creativity comes alive at night, so I tend to work flat out once my kids are asleep until AM hours.

I don’t believe in being balanced.  The word has way too much pressure associated with it.  As a full-time mom, wife, and entrepreneur my days are constantly changing. 

Some days I need to work flat out, other days I just snuggle my kids for hours.  I have learned to live out my life with insane passion in everything I do and in every moment I am in. 

Don’t get me wrong I am pedantic over to-do-lists, but I have learned to put God in front of everything I do.  We can’t do it alone and we are not supposed to. 

We have this one life, and one chance to make an impact which we will do when we follow our calling. 

We owe it to ourselves and the people we love to absolutely love what we do. To then find the courage every single day to push through so we can then be our best possible selves with each other.

 

The How and
The Why

My story is full of adventure and taking risks.  To be honest, in every business I have had I dove headfirst without a real plan and strategy.  I believe in figuring it out along the way. 

a Look Back

2009 -2021

Becoming an overnight success took me ten years of hard work. Here's the timeline!
2009 container-type-1
  • AFTER 3 YEARS BEING LONG DISTANCE I MARRIED BEN MY BEST FRIEND.
  • MOVED TO LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.
  • WE LIVED IN A 100SF STUDIO APARTMENT IN PASADENA.
  • I CONTINUED TO WORK IN CORPORATE BANKING THIS WAS MY 4TH YEAR.
2010 container-type-2
  • I WAS DESPERATE TO BE CREATIVE, SO I GOOGLED “FUN JOBS”. ONE OF THEM WAS TO BE A MAKEUP ARTIST.
  • WORKING IN MY CORPORATE JOB BY DAY, I WENT TO MAKEUP SCHOOL IN HOLLYWOOD AT NIGHT.
  • I QUIT MY JOB AND DECIDED I WANTED TO BE A TOP MAKEUP ARTIST. I GOT A JOB AT NORDSTROM AS A MANAGER FOR GIORGIO ARMANI COSMETICS.
  • I BECAME AN ASSISTANT MAKEUP ARTIST TO TOP MAKEUP ARTISTS IN LOS ANGELES.
2011
  • WENT TO COSMOTOLOGY SCHOOL AND BECAME A HAIR STYLIST.
  • GOT MY OWN BEAUTY STUDIO IN PASADENA AND OFFERED MAKEUP AND HAIR STYLIST SERVICES.
  • I BUILT A TEAM OF 8 MAKEUP ARTISTS AND HAIRSTYLISTS.
  • RANKED PAGE 1 ON GOOGLE FOR MAKEUP ARTIST AND HAIR STYLIST.
2012 container-type-3
  • I BECAME LOS ANGELES TOP MAKEUP ARTIST AND HAIRSTYLIST GETTING OVER 30 INQUIRIES DAILY.
  • WORKED ON CELEBRITIES ON RED CARPET EVENTS, TV, AND TED TALKS.
  • I TRAVELED THE WORLD WORKING AS A MAKEUP ARTIST AND HAIRSTYLIST.
  • I BOUGHT A CANON CAMERA AND FOR FUN I SHADOWED WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHERS.
2013
  • I BECAME OBSESSED WITH PHOTOGRAPHY AND WITH MY HUSBAND WE STARTED A WEDDING BUSINESS DOING BEAUTY AND PHOTOGRAPHY.
  • WE MOVED TO ORANGE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
  • I WENT DOOR TO DOOR TO ALL THE BIGGEST HOTELS ON PCH PROMOTING MY SERVICES.
  • I CREATED A SECOND YELP ACOUNT FOR ORANGE COUNTY. MY LOS ANGELES YELP ACCOUNT HAD OVER 300 FIVE STAR REVIEWS. YELP DECIDED TO DROP ONE ACCOUNT. YOU CAN GUESS WHICH ONE.
  • DECIDED TO MAKE BRIDAL HAIR ACCESSORIES AS A SIDE HUSTLE.
2014
  • OUR LITTLE SOPHIA WAS BORN!
  • THIS WAS A LOW TIME. WE HAD NO MONEY, NO HELP, AND A BABY WHO NEVER SLEPT.
  • STRUGGLED TO REBUILD MY SERVICES BUSINESS IN ORANGE COUNTY. GOT INTO $80,000 DEBT.
  • I NEEDED TO BE HOME WITH MY BABY SO I DECIDED TO BECOME AN ACCESSORIES DESIGNER FULL TIME.
2015 container-type-1
  • SPENT EVERY WAKING MINUTE BUILDING MY ACCESSORIES BRAND. BETWEEN THE NAPS AND THE DIAPERS AND MAYBE 3 HOURS OF SLEEP A DAY, I COLD CALLED EVERY BRIDAL STORE ACROSS THE US.
  • LAUNCHED MY BIGGEST COLLECTION.
  • PUT TOGETHER OUR MOST SUCCESSFUL STYLED SHOOT AT THE TRUMP HOTEL IN PALOS VERDES.
  • SHOWCASED MY FIRST COLLECTION IN NEW YORK FOR BRIDAL FASHION WEEK. GOT INTO 10 RETAIL STORES!
2016 container-type-2
  • NORDSTROM BOUGHT OUR ENTIRE COLLECTION FOR THEIR STORES.
  • OUR LITTLE NICHOLAS WAS BORN.
  • TRAVELED THE US MEETING WITH RETAIL STORES AND SHOWCASED OUR COLLECTION IN NEW YORK, LOS ANGELES AND CHICAGO.
  • DESIGNED AN EXCLUSIVE COLLECTION FOR BHLDN (ANTHROPOLOGIE).
2017 container-type-3
  • DESIGNED MY BEST COLLECTION.
  • GOT INTO BLOOMINGDALES.
  • BECAME A SIX FIGURE BUSINESS.
2018 container-type-1
  • GOT INTO 50 MORE STORES.
  • GREW MY TEAM.
  • DECIDED TO SELL D2C AND CREATED AN E-COMMERCE SITE.
2019 container-type-3
  • SHOWCASED IN FOR NEW YORK BRIDAL FASHION WEEK. FULLY BOOKED APPOINTMENTS. WE HAD TO EVEN CANCEL SOME BUYER MEETINGS.
  • TRIPLED MY BUSINESS EARNINGS.
2020 container-type-1
  • COVID HIT. WEDDINGS WERE CANCELLED.
  • NORDSTROM SHUT DOWN THEIR BRIDAL STORES AND BLOOMINGDALES SHUT DOWN THEIR BRIDAL JEWELRY CATEGORY.
  • LEFT ORANGE COUNTY, CA AND TEMPORARILY MOVED TO GREECE TO TAKE SOME TIME OUT.
  • OUR ECOMMERCE BUSINESS GREW AND MY TEAM.

Let's connect!

Be part of this journey with me as a multipassionate entrepreneur. As we have seen from 2020, things change weekly and I would love to share my life of motherhood, business and purpose with you.