Well for me, this someone was Suzi Weiss-Fischmann. She is the cofounder, brand ambassador and creative visionary behind the revolutionary brand of nail products established in the early 80’s known as OPI. When I started my nail career thirty-two years ago, I found OPI’s products quickly and fell in love with them instantly. I remember being excited to see what OPI would come up with next. From their unprecedented range of polish colours to the funky names they chose for them like ‘Not Really a Waitress,’ and ‘Pedal Faster Suzi.’ It made my clients’ nail experiences more personalized and fun, which made my job as their tech more rewarding. This along with their high quality dipping powders and acrylics effortlessly rose them to the top of the industry (as well as to the top of my personal product collection!).
Fast forward to present day, when I was invited to mentor at the 2019 Beauty Envision Awards in Los Angeles, California. My role would include guiding the contestants through the competition and giving them moral support. What I didn’t know at the time was that I would also be in charge of briefing the judge of the competition on all of the contestants’ progress throughout the event. The judge of BEA this year happened to be (you may have guessed) the Suzi Weiss-Fischmann of OPI!
Now, if this was an opportunity I had gotten in my 20’s when I first began my career, I would have been incredibly nervous! However, with thirty years passed and becoming more mature and experienced in the field and in life in general, I was able to approach the opportunity from a different place. I felt excited- yet calm- realizing that I had grown up now to where Suzi was when I looked up to her back then. Being two women in the nail industry (and with the same name to boot!), I knew we must have at least a few things in common.
There was a lot I had thought to ask Suzi upon getting the chance to meet her in person. I thought about it over the years and in the months leading up to our encounter. However, I knew that I didn’t want to put pressure on either of us and peppering her with all my pressing questions felt unnatural and forced. So, I decided to simply live in the moment with her and skip what would have been my ‘interview.’
After introducing myself and internally releasing my initial ‘starstruck’ feeling, I was able to chat with Suzi like I would with a new friend or even a client that I was meeting for a first appointment. I got to know her as a person. While Suzi is certainly monumental and a legend in the nail world, she is also a mother- just like me and so many others. During our conversation, we chatted about our current events and lives, children and grandchildren and our travels. We actually didn’t end up speaking about business much at all, which I imagine might have been a nice break for her in her day. I learned what a wonderful woman Suzi is, even beyond the success of her career.
On the final night of the Beauty Envision Awards, Suzi and I were to come onstage and present the 2019 award to the winner of the competition. At this point of the event, Suzi and I were well acquainted, so we were chatting backstage while watching the onstage monitors, waiting for our cue to come out. Live stage events are not something either of us do on a frequent basis, but we were poised and positioned regardless of any nerves we may have had. I was to enter the stage first with Suzi being called after me, but as they called my name, Suzi habitually started walking out, thinking of course that they were calling her. So, we ended up walking onstage together- which was really cute! After we announced and congratulated BEA 2019’s competition winner, we walked offstage together again even though we were choreographed to leave on opposite sides.
To actually get the opportunity to meet someone like Suzi- who I have known about and have followed along their career, using their products and innovations for decades- is simply surreal. While it was an absolute honour meeting the trendsetting nail mogul that Suzi is, getting to hang out with the super cool and down-to-earth woman behind it all made it even more special.
