From Hesitation to Transformation: My Personal Growth Journey with Younique

What if a complete stranger could inspire you to change your life? This is the story of my journey with Younique, an opportunity that propelled me from a place of hesitation to a world of transformation and growth. I met Emilee in 2015, a time when makeup and the world of beauty were uncomfortable concepts to me. Her confidence and success in the business intrigued me, but it wasn’t until 2019 that I took a leap of faith and embarked on a journey that I could never have predicted.

Within the vibrant community of Younique, I faced challenges and celebrated victories, all while discovering a creative side I hadn’t known before. The most profound moment was going live on video post-miscarriage, a raw and painful experience that turned into a source of strength and confidence with the support of my community. This journey has shown me that success is not only about selling products; it’s about personal growth, building relationships, and uplifting others. The messages of gratitude I receive from others who say my posts have lifted their spirits are a reminder of the impact we can make. I invite you to listen in, be inspired, and consider if this path might be the one for you too.

Interested in this path for you? E-mail me at confidentlybeautifulwithciera@gmail.com or visit my website.

Visit saprea.org to learn more about hope and healing from child sexual abuse

Visit Defend Innocence for resources on child sexual abuse prevention

Buy makeup, skin care and collagen here and help survivors of child sexual abuse

Connect with Ciera on Instagram @confidentlybeautifulpodcast

Visit saprea.org to learn more about hope and healing from child sexual abuse

Visit Defend Innocence for resources on child sexual abuse prevention

Buy makeup, skin care and collagen here and help survivors of child sexual abuse

Connect with Ciera on Instagram @confidentlybeautifulpodcast

Transcript

Ciera Lancaster: 0:03

You're listening to Confidently Beautiful with Ciera, a podcast to help you stay confidently beautiful, because we all have confidence inside us. We just need to bring it out and I'm here to show you how Body image, dreams, parenting, style, personality and more Here we cover it all. Get ready to stay confidently beautiful Today's episode. I couldn't have this podcast episode about confidence without talking about an extremely important part of my confidence journey. This is my decision to join Younique.

Ciera Lancaster: 0:38

Younique is an incredible company. If you don't know what it is, we have makeup, skincare and collagen products and we have a mission to uplift, empower and validate women and they truly live this mission. Corporate is incredible. They live this and I have really tried to live this in my business, in my Younique business. So I dug through my Facebook archives and I found when I very first met my friend and my we call them sponsors, so the person who brought me into this business. Her name is Emilee And when I very first met her, i went all the way back in my messages and I found that I first started talking to her when 2015.

Ciera Lancaster: 1:21

I met her through a mutual friend and I bought makeup from her for about four years. I loved the Younique products and but I never really thought it was something for me. I was kind of doing some other things. I was working a real estate brokerage and I wasn't it wasn't really on my mind to have a makeup or skincare business. I am not a makeup girl, naturally, and so I mean I like makeup, but I it's not something that I'm naturally really really good at, and so it never crossed my mind. She did ask me. I think the first time she asked me was probably shortly after we started talking in 2015. If I had ever thought about it, i told her no. Then in 2019, she asked me again and I think I I'd have to like really go back and look at the messages, but I'm pretty sure I said no. But then I came to her a couple months later and was like, actually, you know what I think that I do want to do this And I remember it for me was watching her confidence journey. I would love to have her on this podcast so that you guys could hear her story, because her story really is incredible. But I watched her change in 2015 and then in 2019 when I joined. That was four years of just seeing this transformation in her And I was so impressed And so I decided why not join this? I already used the makeup products anyways, so why not join and see if maybe I can get a little bit of Emily's confidence and rub it off onto me? And so I decided to join, and then I quickly got a couple promotions within just a few months and I had some team members on my team and my business was growing, and it was something that I very, very quickly found an extreme passion for. I had kind of I don't want to say lived in the shadows of other people in my life, but that's kind of how I felt, and I was very, very brand new.

Ciera Lancaster: 3:17

Out of high school I started to work for my mom. She was a realtor and she still is a realtor, and I was her assistant and it was so fun, I loved it. And then I was able to help her open her real estate brokerage and then I helped bring on more realtors to the brokerage and it was really, really fun. I was able to work for all of the realtors in the office and be their kind of their own little assistant. I was the office manager and I would just work for a bunch of the realtors and doing whatever they needed done to help support them in their transactions, and it was really fun.

Ciera Lancaster: 3:49

But I did always kind of feel like I was just. You know, i was just doing the real estate thing like my mom did, and it wasn't anything that was necessarily mine, that I had come to on my own, even though I really did love it. And so I quickly found with unique that this gave me the confidence to feel like this was something that was just for me. My mom doesn't do makeup. My dad doesn't do makeup or skincare They are business owners but this was like a business, the only I really was learning. I was able to learn it for myself and to grow that confidence that I was finding something that I was good at. And it wasn't even necessarily that I was good at the makeup or, you know, doing demos, because I really wasn't. I still am not the most incredible person at it. I've learned to be a lot better as I have played with the makeup and the products But it was more just the feeling of finding something that was creatively fun for me And it brought this side of this different confidence out of me that I didn't have before through my other work opportunities. So I really loved it. I loved this business right away. It was so fun. It was fun to use that side of my brain that was a little bit more creative, to play with the makeup and come up with fun ways to show the products off, and I loved.

Ciera Lancaster: 5:11

Ever since the beginning of doing this, i have loved getting to know other women, people that I some of them I've never met in person, but I have a lot of friendships online that I have met through this business And I've loved watching them and helping, answer their questions and just helping them feel confident in themselves and knowing that they're just beautiful just the way they are. But sometimes a little makeup can be fun to help us just make feel a little bit better about ourselves, and it's just been something that I really loved. I've had a lot of peaks and valleys in this business. I have, you can imagine, i joined in September of 2019. And so you can imagine, during those all those years it's been almost three years that I have had a lot of life. Things happen. I've had pregnancies, i've had miscarriages, i've had newborns, i've had toddlers, i've ran a half marathon, i've traveled, i decided to get my real estate license. So I have had a lot of things happen in my life and in the past three years And so there have been a lot of peaks and valleys in my business.

Ciera Lancaster: 6:13

Times when I have been focusing a lot on this business And I've had a lot of peaks and things have been climbing and I've had momentum and it's been so fun with my team. And then some other times where things just kind of went along and you know I wasn't doing much to try and improve the business but I was just still doing it. And then I've had some times where it would dip, where I would have my attention somewhere else or my confidence wasn't where it normally is And I had to work to get it back up, to get my business going again. So it's definitely been a rollercoaster of a journey with this business, but I think that that's that's pretty normal for businesses And I think that that's really helped me with my confidence is to recognize that it's okay to have peaks and valleys in your business and in your life, because that's normal and that's natural. And there will be times when you feel way more confident than others.

Ciera Lancaster: 7:04

When I think back to when I joined Younique, I was a completely different person than who I am now, and I really really do contribute a lot of that to Younique. Something that this business has brought me is not only a purpose and feeling like I have a business and a work that I am doing that is just for me, but it has taught me a lot about myself. It's taught me that I can do hard things. During those valleys or during those low moments, i can pull myself up and I can get myself going again. Unique has given me the motivation to continue to improve.

Ciera Lancaster: 7:44

I remember when I had one of my miscarriages it was a really, really low time for me And it was really hard to just get up and just have the energy and the motivation to just do life. I just didn't want to. And Younique has given me a purpose to try and build something. It's given me a feeling that I'm actually helping other people, Like, yeah, it's just makeup, yeah, it's just skincare and collagen, but I'm actually helping people feel incredible about themselves and feel that they are worthy and beautiful and seen.

Ciera Lancaster: 8:20

And when I was in my really low moments after my miscarriage, then I was able to wake up. I remember really distinctly I was sick of just feeling like I was stuck and like I couldn't move forward. And I remember sitting down and I was like I just need to plan. I just need to plan the month and just the rest of the month, what I want to do for my life and also for my business, and have something to focus on. And so I planned it. I planned some content that I wanted to create, some things that I wanted to do.

Ciera Lancaster: 8:50

I remember when I then did my next live video, i was so scared to do live because it had been a while and after the miscarriage I was so feeling, so broken inside. It didn't feel natural to get on a live video and do makeup when I was hurting so much inside. But I did it. And the love that I feel from the community of people who have watched me grow this business people that I don't even know, that I haven't met in person it is something that I can't even describe, and so what that has done for my confidence is something that I will always be grateful for. And I remember doing that first live, feeling a little awkward because I was still so sad inside, and I'm just there doing my makeup and talking about why I love the products and just life and being a little life update on me And it was really uncomfortable. But when I got off the live and I pushed end, i just sat there for a second. I still remember this and I just sat there and I thought about like just the feelings that I felt during it. But I just had this incredible feeling of like you can do this and you can move forward and things will get better, and it just gave me.

Ciera Lancaster: 10:09

I think that one of the things that this business has given me is it gives me this creative outlet to allow myself to heal and have purpose and move forward from really, really hard things And not only like, yes, i am building a business, but I'm also building myself. This is a lot of self improvement and mindset with this business And also talking to other girls on my team that I have the opportunity to help mentor and the people who mentor me, then it's a lot of it really is. It's just a lot of internal, making you a better person and focusing on others. This is a business of others. If I focus on the success of the people on my team, then that is what gets me outside myself and helps me with my healing after hard things, so like after this miscarriage and I did that live and I focused on the people that I could help and I could help them to be uplifted then that has really helped me to heal and to be more confident in myself.

Ciera Lancaster: 11:16

I can think of a lot of messages that I have received over the past three years people saying how much that my posts have helped them or how much my videos have helped them, even when they're just silly, like 20 second reels on Instagram about how to do eye makeup or anything. I think about the messages that I've gotten over the past three years. I've had a lot of people point out the confidence change that they've seen in me and I'm really glad that that can be seen just through my posts and through my videos and pictures, because I really have felt it on the inside, and I also have gotten a lot of messages of people just thanking me for posts and for videos and that has helped me want to keep going too, because sometimes I don't feel like I'm making a difference, but that those messages that tell people like, thank you for brightening my day, thank you for being open to share your story that has been incredible and I've loved that part of the business to help other people. I will forever be grateful for Younique and that I took the time and made the decision to push, join and meet all of the incredible people that I have met and be able to help people grow their own businesses when those who have wanted to have come to me, and so I am always looking to grow my team.

Ciera Lancaster: 12:33

If this sounds like something that might be for you and you have a passion for helping other women feel confident, or you just want to start something for yourself and maybe help you on your own confidence journey, maybe this is something for you. Maybe it's not, and that's okay. If it isn't, we can chat about it and see if this Younique business would be a good fit for you and what you are trying to accomplish with your life and your goals. I love this business because it can be as big or as small as you want it to be. It doesn't have to be this grand influencer I'm making lots of money every year doing this empire business. It doesn't have to be that. It can be that, if you want it to be that, or it can just be something really small where you just help your friends and family members close to you, feel confident about themselves and be able to learn how to apply some makeup.

Ciera Lancaster: 13:25

I think that's one of the really fun things about this business is I have tried things that I never would have tried before. I never would have tried a liquid eyeshadow before, and now that's one of my very favorite products. I love the liquid eyeshadow, but it sounded terrifying before, and now it's my go-to eyeshadow and in fact, i'm wearing it today. I just love it so much, and so I think that that has been a really fun part about this business too. It's just being able to try products and things that I normally wouldn't have tried. So that is my Younique journey, and it's been a wild one, and I don't plan on going anywhere. I love it so much. I am glad that this podcast can be a little bit of a part of it.

Ciera Lancaster: 14:08

The reason I started this podcast wasn't because of Younique. It's something that I have just become passionate about through doing Unique, as I have learned a lot about confidence and helping women and girls feel really good about themselves, and it's just a happy coincidence. I guess that Unique's mission is to uplift, empower and validate women, and these two things just go hand in hand. That is my journey with Unique and how I have gained a really big part of my confidence. I hope that you can find something in your life that brings you as much confidence and helps you to grow as much as Younique has helped me to grow, and I hope you have a fabulous week. Stay confidently beautiful. Bye guys. Thanks for listening. Connect with me on Instagram @confidentlybeautifulpodcast and share this episode with someone in your life who could use a little reminder of just how amazing they already are. Stay confidently beautiful.