Natalie Contrera
Director of Marketing/PR, Pro- Makeup Artist
Philadelphia, PA
“I’ve always known that if I want to get anywhere, I need to present myself in the highest light.”
Natty Contrera came through like a category 5 hurricane; shattered all ceilings, brought down the walls, and left marketing debris all over the place...and that was just her first day.
Natalie is the newest member of the Bean2Bean team and sits as the Director of Marketing and Public Relations. In less than 120 days, she has created some of our most strategic marketing moves, breaking us into 6 different cities across the country, including Baltimore, DC, Las Vegas, and Southern California. In between her actual responsibilities, she oversees our Marketing Specialists, and keeps the rest of us organized, pushing us to our potential all day, every day.
Natalie takes the lead on intense strategy meetings which pull in our Director of Media, Vice President of Operations, and Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, to ensure we are presenting a cohesive brand.
This woman is a boss, and has been moving and shaking since she was 18.
Natalie left her home life in Detroit to travel the country and world. She found herself attending Temple University in Philly, landed in Baltimore for a few years, made a few pit stops in between, and came back to Philadelphia.
“Philly is the most like home. It feels like this is where life makes sense for me.”
With a background in film and a life-long passion for make-up, Natalie found herself craving a world of make-up artistry. Cosmetology is a field that requires intense training, but Natty was committed to holding herself to a higher standard and enrolled in school anyway.
“I’ve always known that if I want to get anywhere, I need to present myself in the highest light.”
The beauty industry, especially pre-social media, is a competitive place where you have to build a strong brand identity. Branding herself as a coveted make-up artist in competitive e-commerce and commercial work, Natty landed a position as the National Education Artist with world-renowned cosmetic brand, Japonesque. She worked with clients such Salon Centric, Spencer’s Worldwide, NBC, and Philadelphia Fashion District.
Natalie’s keen eye to detail continues to make her highly marketable; it’s one of the first things that attracted us to her. We first saw Natty in action at our Art Show, buzzing around, collecting boxes of clothes for Bombardment, one of our vendors.
She was determined to get things done, but still managed to hold engaging conversations with every person who crossed her path.
We slipped into small business talk (marketing clothing, coffee, make-up, etc.) and cautioned her against how many ideas she shared with us for free.
She responded:
“You could never do them as good as I could.”
...she was hired immediately.
Natty is breaking us so far out of our comfort zone, and we are now in more neighborhoods and publications than ever before. Keep an eye out; you never know where you’ll see us next.