Crystal Wright has transformed herself from an accountant at Xerox who was looking for something more than copiers to agent, author, teacher and motivational speaker. Her foray into fashion and beauty came from a love that was fostered by her family.

“My grandmother was a seamstress,” Wright said. “There were always European fashion magazines all over our house. I love clothes which i went and interviewed with Nordstrom, but it didn’t feel like a fit. I then went to a party one day, met a photographer and quit my job [because] he started talking to me about all of the fabulous things he was doing. It was the most interesting life I knew.”

In making these transitions, she has always tried to pass her experience and knowledge onto others.

“Anything is possible if you put your mind to it,” she said. “I think young people should not be discouraged from doing anything. They’re young; they’re resilient, and if something doesn’t wok the first time, they have plenty of time to do it over and get it right.”

She recently finished a workshop in New York City which focused on packaging a makeup artist, hair stylist or fashion stylists portfolio and carving out a career path for oneself in a frame of five years.

“People have the tendency to flounder around, and one of the things I want to teach them is to figure out where they want to be so that I can create a road map of getting there,” she explained. “That decision determines every single move they make along the way.”

While she discussed how freelancers have to be business-minded and understand how they are to budget their earnings to sustain themselves and set working conditions, she also noted the importance of having both a digital and print portfolio.

“How to choose the right images that once you do start working with photographers. It’s important for [the students] to choose the images that are going to go in their book, not the photographers picking out the images. The first image [in the portfolio] sets the tone for everything they’re going to see, and the last image is going to be the lasting impression. If you don’t have an online portfolio, you’re gonna miss a lot of work. Sometimes an art director is going to ask you for a book so they can take it to a meeting, and then what are you going to do?”

All of this stemmed from her time as an agent to hair stylists and makeup artists and lead to her writing Crystal Wright’s Hair, Makeup & Styling Career Guide  which is used as a textbook in many beauty and fashion schools and is updated every two years. In her time working as an agent and teaching others, she wrote a motivational book called 30 Days at 100%, which focuses on narrowing down the amount of changes people try to make all at once to one thing to change a month.

“We make lists all the time, we make lists, we make post-it notes; at the beginning of the year, we make resolutions,” Wright said. “We write down all of this stuff we need to fix and then try to fix it in one month. If you can just work on one thing every thirty days, how would your life be? When you try to do it all at once and you fail, which is inevitable, then you get frustrated and don’t want to do anything.”

With her experiences and success in her writing and her teaching, she feels no need to go back to managing talent but gave some advice for those looking to get into the field.

“I did it for twenty-four years; I want to play golf,” she said. “Get the best talent you can find and then find a great booker. Get talent that are willing to invest in the tools they need to provide you with so you can do your job because you cannot drag somebody kicking and screaming to success; you don’t have time as an agent.”

For those readers who are upset they missed the workshop, fear not! She plans to return June 18 and 19, 2011. For more information, please visit http://www.crystalwrightlive.com

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