Sometimes the Blessing Is Hidden in the Pivot

If there is one thing I’ve learned from building a business alone, it’s that the plan you start with is rarely the plan you end up with.

Sometimes you have this picture in your head of exactly how your career is going to go. You work toward it, you build it, you get comfortable in it—and then something happens that forces you to change direction.

For me, some of the biggest moments in my career came from those unexpected turns.

And looking back, I can honestly say:

Sometimes the blessing is hidden in the pivot!

When Everything Changed

For years, weddings, makeup parties, mixing lipsticks, and makeup applications were the heart of my business. I loved every part of being a makeup artist—the people, the transformations, the excitement of a wedding morning, and the creativity that came with every appointment.

Then COVID happened, and suddenly, everything stopped.

Weddings were canceled, makeup appointments erased, and the calendar that had once been filled with bookings suddenly had a lot of empty space. It was uncertain, unsettling, and just weird.

Like so many small business owners, I found myself wondering, What comes next?

But somewhere in all that uncertainty, I started looking at my business through a different lens.

I had randomly launched my e-commerce website in 2020, never realizing just how important that decision would become. What felt like something I was simply adding to my business suddenly became a lifeline when the world stopped.

It was a blessing in disguise.

I began pouring even more of myself into SMACKbyKarisa.com. I focused on creating products, making lip treatments, developing new skin care ideas, donating proceeds to hospitals, and figuring out how to grow and sell my brand online during a global pandemic.

I had always loved the creative side of beauty, but that season pushed me to embrace the business side in a completely different way.

I started asking myself bigger questions:

How could I create something that didn’t rely on having a client sitting in my chair?

How could I take the products I had been making and place them into more people’s hands—even when I couldn’t physically be there with them?

I had to pivot.

And when I did, my customers showed up for me in ways I will never forget.

The same people who had trusted me with their wedding mornings, makeup appointments, and special occasions began supporting the product side of my business. They placed orders, shared my products with their family and friends, and made the intentional choice to shop small during a time when that support meant everything.

Their encouragement carried me through one of the most uncertain seasons of my career.

What started as a scary, unexpected pause forced me to build something I may never have had the courage—or the reason—to build otherwise.

Looking back, I realize the pivot wasn’t the end of the business I had built.

It was the beginning of something more. Something new.

Sometimes, the greatest blessings are hidden inside the pivots we never planned.

Finding My Way Again

As things slowly began to open back up, I found myself doing a little bit of everything.

I was making products.

I was shipping orders.

I was doing makeup.

I was creating.

I was figuring things out.

And a lot of that was happening right out of my house…

With my husband and three children under three.

At first, I don’t think I realized what was happening.

I was just doing what I needed to do.

But eventually, I looked around and…

I was BOOKED AND BUSY.

My house had become a little beauty world of its own that my husband was not as obsessed with. LOL.

People were now wanting more makeup products.

I was creating products next to my washing machine. I was building relationships. I was growing SMACKbyKarisa.

From My House to My First Suite

I was starting to outgrow my home.

What had once worked for my business was suddenly feeling a little too small.

I knew I needed more space. I just didn’t know exactly what that next step was going to look like.

My twin girls ended up being a huge inspiration for that next chapter.

I started traveling to do DIY lip gloss birthday parties, and they were SO much fun.

One day, my girls wanted me to pay someone else to come sprinkle fairy dust at a party. And I remember thinking, Wait… why would I pay someone else to do that?

So, naturally, I decided to become the fairy dust.

It sounds silly, but that little moment sparked something for me. I realized I could take everything I loved about beauty and turn it into an entire experience—not just makeup, but creativity, fun, and something people could actually participate in and remember.

The girls would make their own lip gloss, add hair glitter, get mini makeovers, and just have the best time.

It was everything I loved about beauty—creativity, color, making something with your own hands, and making people feel special—all wrapped into a birthday party.

It became another unexpected route in my business. Another thing I never planned on doing when I first became a makeup artist.

But that’s the funny thing about a career in beauty.

Sometimes one thing leads to another.

A makeup application leads to a product.

A product leads to an event.

An event leads to a party.

And suddenly, you’re standing somewhere you never imagined—and you love it.

In 2022, I got a phone call that would change the next part of my story.

The boutique owner who had been my boss when I was in esthetics school had reached out to me.

She had known me from way back when I was just getting started, and she had watched my career evolve over the years. There was a suite available right next door to her boutique, and she thought I could use it for my parties.

I remember thinking about how crazy this opportunity was.

Another pivot!

Another door opening because of something I never originally planned.

And in 2022, I opened my first suite.

It represented growth.

It represented everything that had happened before it—the makeup career, the products, COVID, the online store, working from home, the birthday parties, and all of the little pivots that had brought me there.

Now I can look back and see that I was building something.

Every pivot was teaching me something.

Every unexpected opportunity was adding another piece to the business.

And every time I thought I was being pushed off the path, I was actually being redirected.

That’s the part of entrepreneurship nobody really tells you.

The path isn’t always straight.

Sometimes you have to take the long way.

Sometimes you have to completely change directions.

And sometimes, the thing people thought was going to be your biggest setback becomes the very thing that introduces you to your next chapter.

Because looking back, I can see it now.

The blessing is hidden in the pivot.