Kelli Anne Sewell is building a different kind of makeup artist-founded business

There is a traditional path for successful makeup artists nowadays: Build up a roster of influential clients, accrue a following on social media, and start a brand of your own. After all, makeup artist-led brands — think: Makeup by Mario, Patrick Ta, Violette Fr and Fara Homidi — have never been hotter.

But makeup artist Kelli Anne Sewell is taking a different approach.

Sewell started her career in tech and would slide into the DMs of influential people, offering free services during her time off from work and posting the results on social media — even when she had 10 followers, she recalled. Her strategy has since paid off. Sewell has now provided glam for celebs and influencers including Kelsea Ballerini, Alix Earle and Kristin Juszczyk.

Along the way, Sewell realized she also has a knack for education. So, rather than stamp her name on a product collection, she founded Makeup By Kelli Anne, a members-only app and website featuring long-form beauty tutorial content ranging up from makeup 101s, like "How to line your lips" and "How to cover dark circles," to joint features with big names like Jaclyn Hill, Sir John and Daniel Martin.

Now, Sewell herself has 331,000 Instagram followers and 159,000 TikTok followers, and her company's Instagram account has over 73,000 followers.

In this episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, Sewell talks about starting scrappy, building a community and giving back to that community.