It’s official. Half of 2016 has already gone by. What a blur! So far we’ve met six amazing women who have been part of our Woman of the Month series. From a soul and R&B recording artist to an AdvoCare distributor to an inspiring author and cancer survivor, we’ve met such a wide range of talent and heart. For July, our Woman of the Month is Joanna Hathcock—makeup artist extraordinaire and Bliss Goddess cofounder!
Bliss Goddess? What’s that, I’m sure you’re all thinking. But, I won’t ruin the surprise tucked in this spectacular interview. What I will say is that the name never surprised me. Those are two words that I’d use to describe Joanna (Jo or JoJo, as I lovingly call her). The first time I met Jo, she absolutely took my breath away, and not because we were all standing around in our underwear. That’s often how models meet each other—backstage, at a fitting, on set. It’s so commonplace that it’s easy to become immune to beauty. But, I’ve been around it for so long that I don’t get wrapped up in it. Beauty is relative. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What’s indescribable and undeniable is pure inner beauty—a soft smile, a tender touch, a soulful gaze, an attentive ear—all wrapped up in a melodic golden hue.
From the moment our client positioned us next to each other at our fitting, I was overwhelmed by her presence. I couldn’t help but watch her as she made a twirl for the client’s wardrobe approval. After the fitting, the angelic blonde put on a mousy pair of glasses, a comfy t-shirt, overalls, and some Doc Martin-ish boots. Hmmm…I wasn’t expecting that…and sixteen years later she still has me transfixed. Maybe another word that I’d use to describe Joanna is goofy. As breathtakingly beautiful as she is, this gentle soul is as silly as all hell, and not to mention (as you’ll soon find out), one of the most talented Renaissance women that I’ve ever encountered.
Please give a warm MB welcome to Joanna, and enjoy Courtney’s interview with her below!
MB: We’ll keep things nice and simple to start out. Would you tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do?
JH: First of all, I’m most definitely a woman who’s feeling incredibly blessed to be honored as Woman of the Month! That said…
By trade I’m a makeup artist, and I occasionally still model. I’m passionate about empowering women to recognize, embrace, and express (what can be called ) their “divine feminine” selves. Perhaps what that means and what it looks like is the subject of a whole other conversation, but I feel it’s an important part of who I am and what I’ve been put on this earth to do.
MB: I definitely want to get into “divine feminine selves” at least a little bit! That phrase feels like it could encompass a lot, especially for each individual woman. What does it mean for you, in particular? And how do you perceive it in other women?
JH: For me, it means first waking up to the fact that the qualities of the feminine (which emerge predominantly, but by no means exclusively, through women) are sorely needed for the healing of this world. Things like compassion, receptivity, flow, intuition, nurturing, sensuality, beauty, inclusiveness, and the capacity to powerfully hold space (like a vessel or a womb), to deeply feel—these are just a few of the qualities I’m talking about. If I allow myself to accept that my femininity, however it shows up in and through me, is actually divine—meaning coming from Source (or whatever one calls what set this whole “existence” thing in motion)—there is no personal work more important than allowing my “Goddess-given” feminine essence to reshape how I see myself, how I relate to others, and how I show up in the world. I think that for all women, this means learning to really love themselves, live without shame, and shed the negative conditioning they may have received, such as that the feminine is weak, subservient, and not to be trusted. Knowing that I have so, SO much work still to do in this area helps me recognize how other women struggle and also helps me see the radiance wanting to shine through!
MB: I love this idea so much. Something that stood out to me in your response was one quality of a divine feminine self is “to deeply feel.” This is something I’ve been working through a lot this past year, especially because I’d trained myself not to show emotions. Growing up, I was taught that showing strong emotions was a sign of weakness and that women use their emotions to manipulate people. It’s hard to get rid of those deeply ingrained beliefs once they’ve set in. Could you share a little bit about your own “awakening”? What did that journey look like for you?
JH: I like that you used the word “awakening” because although many can report some kind of catalyst or epiphany that totally shifted their perspective and radically changed their priorities, the practice of being more conscious, loving, and authentic is an ongoing thing. It’s never truly perfected. In fact, that word “perfect” can be so damaging because we end up constantly comparing ourselves to some ideal that doesn’t exist! Suzuki Roshi, a great Zen teacher, used to say to his students, “You are all completely perfect, and you can all use a little work.” I like to keep this in mind when I’m not accepting myself as I am (which is often!) because I see so much I want to improve.
Your example of emotional vulnerability hasn’t been something I myself have struggled with as much as other things. I’ve always just been the type that can’t hide her feelings (even if I button my lip, you can see it on my face!). But I certainly know that fear of risking sharing my feelings when they may not be received favorably. My biggest issues are harsh self-criticism, needing to be liked and approved of, and a habit of defaulting to negative thinking. We all have our stuff, right? So, I guess what I’m getting at, is that I really haven’t figured it all out, and I still struggle every day with my old conditioning and beliefs. I’m aware of a lot of them now, and that’s huge. Also forgiving those who took part in teaching me those things, knowing that they were doing the best they could with what they had and were aware of, has given me a lot of peace and kept me from slipping into a “victim” mindset.
MB: That last part is huge. It hits me right in the gut. Forgiveness (or lack thereof) can be such a difficult obstacle to overcome. What do you think are some the most common obstacles for anyone—woman, man, or otherwise—trying to get in touch with their divine feminine self? Do you have advice for working through those obstacles?
JH: I really think it’s our culture that’s the biggest obstacle. People aren’t rewarded for expressing their feminine sides in environments that champion trash-talking, tough-walking ego fests. It seems like the current definition of success is when you’ve “beat” everyone else. That zero-sum game mentality breeds mistrust, competition, and generally feelings of not being “enough.” What has been most helpful for me is surrounding myself with people who have their egos in check, are actively participating in their own evolution, and will relate to me (and call me out when needed) from that place, authentically and with loving intentions.
MB: Man, I feel like I could talk to you about this stuff for hours! On the other hand, I do want to know more about your life as a makeup artist because eighteen-year-old Courtney really wanted to be a makeup artist, too. I know we got to chat a little bit about this at the last MB photo shoot while I was in the hot seat, but how did you first get into your current career?
JH: Believe it or not, it was the temporary economic slowdown following the 9/11 attacks that gave me a lot of free time to think about what could be next for me, career-wise. I’d been modeling steadily for many years and making a good living, but I knew I couldn’t—nor did I want to—do that forever. So I asked myself, What do I enjoy? What am I good at? What skills and experience do I have? I quickly realized that between making art all my life, being a licensed esthetician, and all my practice trying to recreate what makeup artists had done on me as a model, I’d actually been in training to be a makeup artist! Of course, all of that wasn’t enough to be considered a “pro,” so I got to work practicing on all types of faces, building my portfolio and kit, and generally “paying my dues.”
MB: What’s your favorite thing about being a makeup artist? And what have been some of your biggest successes and challenges in your profession so far?
JH: Gosh, there are so many things I love about it! I just feel so proud and blessed to get to use my eyes, my hands, my sensibilities, and my creative mind to help make women feel beautiful. I also love being part of a crew where we’re all working together to manifest the client’s vision. And then there’s the opportunity to meet and connect with all kinds of people in the process!
Anytime I have a satisfied client, especially when they rehire me or refer me to others because they love my work and the kind of energy I bring, I feel that’s a big success. I’ve worked on lots of big projects and my work has been published and shown on TV, but something recently that made me feel like I’d “arrived” was being hired by Dillard’s to do hair and makeup on the models for their ads and online shots. It felt like a completion of my shift from model to makeup artist.
My greatest challenges have been getting people who have known me only as a model to take me seriously as a makeup artist and know that I do good work, and also consistently marketing myself. Being self-employed as a freelancer gives you a lot of freedom and flexibility, but there’s not much stability, so the hustle really never ends!
MB: I love how you talk about doing makeup. Using your eyes, your hands, your sensibilities, and your creative mind. That last part really sticks out to me because I think I’d go a bit mad if I didn’t get to use my creativity on a daily basis with the work that I do. I’m always so fascinated to talk to fellow creatives about their process. So when you’re getting ready to do makeup, whether it’s a natural look or something more dramatic and artistic, what sort of process do you have for preparing and executing?
JH: My process always begins with gathering information about where and how the makeup will be seen. My choice of approach and what products I use—and how much of them—will vary based on if it’s for print, TV, a live event (up close on stage, day or night), and other various factors. Photos of what the client has in mind always help since this is visual communication we’re doing!
Once I have the person in my chair, I study their face shape; their skin tone, type, and texture; and their individual features. I decide how to achieve my three main objectives—balance overall, enhancement of what I want to stand out, and minimization of what I want to see less of. Then I prep the skin with the appropriate products. I usually start with foundation and use a color-corrective concealer around the eyes. This is essential. I mean, who doesn’t want to look awake and fresh?
I wait to apply concealer to the under-eye area until after eye shadow (it’s easier to clean up “fallout” that way). From there I conceal any blemishes or discolorations, set with powder if needed, and proceed to blush, bronzer, extra contour, and highlight. Brows, mascara, false lashes if desired, and lips wrap it all up. After I’m done, I look at my subject from every angle and make sure they feel good about their look. Even if the person in my chair isn’t the one paying me, I still want them to feel like they look great!
MB: I definitely felt great at our photo shoot! Anne-Marie and I were oohing and ahhing over our looks because we both rarely wear much makeup on a daily basis. I was so impressed how each Behaviorist had a distinct look but we all fit the fresh, chic style of the shoot. Basically, you’re awesome.
Another creative outlet you have that I’m super excited to talk about is Bliss Goddess. Could you tell us what this is and how you got started with it?
JH: Sure! Bliss Goddess is a performance group that my partner, Brett, and I started about 4 years ago. We use elements drawn from our spiritual leanings and “transformational” culture—goddess rituals, dance, electronic bass music, world fusion, live instruments and vocals. Our purpose for this project is to create an experience of sacred space that promotes Divine Feminine values in an immersive, yummy, entertaining, and (yes) blissful way. This project has been an amazing outlet for so many of the things I love to do—dancing, creating entire looks for myself that bring out my own radiant goddess self (and helping my fellow Bliss Goddesses with theirs), collaborating with like-minded people, and empowering women by showing them that their own “light” is welcome, too.
MB: At the end of June, I had the amazing experience of attending a Bliss Goddess show. In it, y’all were celebrating fire and the sun days of high summer. The costumes were EPIC. The music was beautiful. And the decorations, the crowd, the whole venue just put off a very positive, open energy. How does a show of that scale come together? How far in advance do you start planning? How often do you, the other dancers, and the band rehearse?
JH: I’m so glad that you got to experience the energy that we work so hard to create! We’ve produced most of our own events since the beginning, and we always want to evoke the feeling of a sacred, blissful space, like an ancient goddess temple, transposed onto a modern entertainment setting. This particular show that you witnessed actually marked an evolutionary leap for our group. With more live musicians, much more rehearsal and planning on the performance end, and definitely the bonding we’ve experienced in the process, with each member sharing their gifts and ideas—just really inspiring and supporting one another—we’re ecstatic to have brought our offering to the level we have now and are still brimming with ideas for how to grow it. Whoever’s available to do so will get together to practice and tease out ideas at least once a week, and of course there’s a lot of communication virtually. Then we pull it all together in final rehearsals. Meanwhile, the women get busy putting together their costumes, often by hand, based on a theme chosen at the start for a given performance, while a couple of us (historically including myself, though my exact role is flexible) craft the opening ritual. I’m just so moved by how much sisterhood, ego drama beautifully nonexistent, flows among us through all of this!
MB: I totally get this side of it. For me, band rehearsals are one of the most fun parts of the process. Getting to hang out with people I love while creating beautiful art together is, quite simply, one of my absolute favorite ways to spend time.
I must admit…being at the Bliss Goddess show put me outside of my comfort zone. Usually at any sort of show or performance, I hide in the back and watch from a safe distance. But you and the other girls came out into the crowd and got into people’s faces (in a nice, encouraging way). One of the girls stood in front of me, maybe six inches from my face, and practiced her fire breaths. I was like, “Peer pressure! Okay! I’ll do the fire breaths!” I even saw you grab someone’s hand and twirl him, enticing him to dance with you. All the while, I was thinking, “How is Joanna doing this?! She’s so brave and confident!” I’m always searching for that feeling of absolute confidence onstage, but I rarely find it. Do you feel that you become a different person onstage? Or maybe…a truer person?
JH: I don’t become a different person onstage—I’m still myself for sure. I present the aspect of myself that is confident, outgoing, disarming, and genuine, and I consciously choose to put the parts of me that are fearful, overly self-conscious, and doubtful in the backseat. The nervousness and all that is still there, but what’s becoming stronger and stronger is my trust in the power of authenticity to connect to people. Our purpose as a group tends to attract a lot of loving people, so the truth is that most of our audience are already on my side. They want to see me succeed!
And if anyone’s out there judging me and hoping I fumble rather than listening for what can serve their experience, that’s really not my stuff to take on. Exactly what I say or how beautifully I dance doesn’t matter nearly as much as the quality of my presence. If I’m struggling with remembering my lines as I wrote them, I’ve learned that the quickest way back is to drop the script, get out of my head and back into my body, and let my intention resurface. That may require pausing for a moment to take a deeper breath, look out at the compassionate faces, and allow myself to feel the support.
MB: I’m keeping all of this in mind for future shows. This is such a great way to look at it. So how do you mentally and physically prepare for your shows?
JH: I’ll assume you’re asking about my role as a Bliss Goddess rather than my role as a producer of the events themselves. When I’m preparing for a show, my inner perfectionist can get really loud. So honestly my preparation can be sort of a tug-of-war between that and trusting that it will all work out as long as I’ve thought it through, practiced adequately (alone and with my fellow goddesses), and gathered the material items I need for the performance. It helps to return again and again to the reason I’m doing all this—to empower and inspire others while challenging myself to grow—as well as to the more specific intention that’s been set for that performance. I get (and need) a lot of reminding from my amazing group-mates that “I got this.”
MB: It’s interesting to me that you have two major creative outlets—your work as a makeup artist and your shows with Bliss Goddess. How do these two balance each other out? Do you ever feel pulled more toward one than the other?
JH: Well, they certainly influence each other a great deal, even when they often feel like two different worlds. Makeup is a world of appearances and it’s also currently my source of income. Though I love the art of it and all the other things I mentioned earlier, I’ve often wondered if so much emphasis on the exterior is healthy and if I’m actually promoting “lookism” by working in the industry. Bliss Goddess, a project that has never been about making money, has an outward aesthetic component and we always want our shows to be beautiful, but our primary focus is on what’s happening internally for everyone involved. I have to check myself sometimes and remind myself of this because I can get really obsessed with the costumes and all the rest. (Hey, perfectionist! It’s good enough, so put it down and get some rest!).
Radiance is a divine feminine quality, and that’s the idea I use to balance these two aspects of my life. I believe that one of my main callings is to create beauty in the world, but what does that actually mean? If to be radiant is to shine outward from within, I can say that for now I’m just trying to polish my inner jewel, if you will, and show others that they can do it, too, as perfectly imperfect as they are. And I trust that over time my vocation will evolve…an ever-unfolding journey, destination unknown!
MB: I absolutely love that! So to close this awesome interview out, what advice do you have for other women, both performers and non-performers, for getting in touch with that divine feminine self that you embody while onstage?
JH: Learn to feel at home in your body. Move it. Listen to it. Honor it. The feminine aspect of your being is fluid, constantly changing…so check in often with yourself and give yourself permission to feel and ride the rhythms, the waves, the chaos of whatever is moving through you. This takes practice because through our lives we often try to cope with difficult or even traumatic feelings by going numb or retreating into our heads. Sometimes dissociation is needed just to survive, but when we lock away the pain, we also lock away the joy and freedom that it’s our divine right to experience as women.
So be gentle and patient with yourself. Offer yourself the love that you would a little girl. You are her mother, and she needs your care to feel safe to come out and play. When I’m onstage and I’m embodying my divine feminine, it’s that little girl dancing with the grown woman who loves her.
Thank you so much to Joanna for sharing her vulnerability and her radiant light. Be sure to stay tuned. Later this month we’ll have her Day in the Life feature and of course, a new giveaway!
