Founder, Margaret Maldonado Agency
www.margaretmaldonado.com

Once known for her relationship with one of the most famous families in the music industry, Margaret Maldonado has now made a name for herself as founder of the Margaret Maldonado Agency, one of the top agencies in Hollywood representing celebrity stylists, make-up artists and hair care professionals.

After having two sons with Jermaine Jackson and separating from him in 1994, Margaret needed to figure out how to support her sons on her own. She began the work that would morph into the Margaret Maldonado Agency (www.margaretmaldonado.com), which now represents about 60 artists including stylists like Andrea Lieberman (with clients such as Jennifer Lopez and Gwen Stefani), Maryam Malakpour (with clients such as the Rolling Stones, Courtney Cox, Heidi Klum and Seal), and hair care professionals including Kim Kimble (with clients such as Beyonce and Mary J. Blige) and Estee Stanley and Cristina Ehrlich (Penelope Cruz, Jessica Biel, Nicole Richie).

Here Margaret talks about her journey from aspiring to be a celebrity stylist to running her own business…

Difficult Childhood

Margaret: “I grew up in Laurel Canyon, which is an area in Los Angeles where there were a lot of different entertainment influences. My family was very liberal and from an early age I was getting into a lot of trouble including a visit to juvenile detention. I was a wild teenager, but something entrepreneurial inside of me even then was driving me to figure it out. By the time I was 17, I turned everything around.”

Why She Launched Her Agency

“I had just finished publishing my book about the Jacksons and took a job as a receptionist with the same publishing company to help pay the bills. I wanted to be a stylist as I had a passion for clothes. I had a girlfriend who was a stylist, and I started assisting her on the weekends. She helped point out that I might be better on the business side of styling than on the assistant side as I was always on my cell phone. She said, ‘Why don’t you try to book a job for me and I’ll show you how to do it, because my agent’s not doing such a good job for me right now.’”

Help from Her Friends

“The first job I booked for her was a Puffy (Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs) video when he was coming out with his first project. His manager was a good friend of mine. He said, ‘I’ll let your stylist, who you’re now repping, style him. I started booking jobs for her and one thing led to another and other stylists started coming to me… before you know it, I had a full roster of stylists.”

Help from Her Best Friend, now Husband

“At the time Mikko Koskinen was my best friend, he was an economics major who saw what I was doing and able to help me a lot in terms of the structural stuff, necessary to run a business. I’m good at making deals, but I don’t know how to turn on my computer. I work off my Blackberry. We went from best friends to husband and wife.”

Secret to Her Company’s Success

“It took a lot of hard work and good people around me… I was also very lucky. I am available 24 hours a day to accommodate every glam need that needs to be addressed. I have basically worked 24 hours round the clock for the past seven years. It was me and the person who’s now my husband starting out in a little apartment with my son’s laptop.”

Working the Celebrity Social Scene

“I went out a lot. I socialized a lot; I had a lot of friends. I paid my dues in that circuit and now I don’t have to. I’m the complete opposite now. Now all I want to do is stay home. I knew that I had to do that (socialize) to figure out how I was going to survive so I could support my kids. I have a good relationship with my sons.”

Being a Mom While Building a Business

“It was a hard time. I was having to spend a lot of time going out and working… going out was my work. They’re great kids - they see now and respect me for working so hard. They see that I really didn’t want to go out.

“Thank goodness my job is not a traveling job. I spent most of my time on my cell phone… putting people together, connecting the dots. I don’t have to get on planes; I’m putting people on planes. One luxury part of my job is that I can do my job from wherever there’s a phone, so I don’t miss that time with my kids. There’s a point where you can look back… at my son’s graduation and I’m in the photo and on the cell phone, those things are kind of sad.

“I got married in the Beverly Hills courthouse on my way to work and was on the cell phone up until the part where we went into the room. There have been definite sacrifices… hopefully by the time I am 43, I’ll be able to enjoy my life a little more.”

Beyond Booking Stylists

“The business has grown tremendously and it’s still growing. It’s expanding in ways other than just an agency that books hair, wardrobe and stylist people… it’s also branching out into product lines, branding opportunities and licensing deals and turning into a full image marketing company and there’s a lot more to come. It’s a big priority launching Kim Kimble’s product line, a show in development with Style Network and a board game in development.

“And there is Frederick’s of Hollywood Premiere Line that we’re involved with… we pitched a concept to Frederick’s of Hollywood - a kit of body shapers so that everyone can, women of all shapes and sizes, can get the celebrity tricks of the trade. It was developed with a styling team, Cristina Erlich and Estee Stanley. It’s just launched and doing really well. We’re really excited about it.”

Greatest Business Success

“Working with people who started like I started, which was with just an idea and trying to figure it out, and being behind them and helping them to achieve success. Kim Kimble was a hairstylist I had met and watching her grow and become so successful and get ready to launch her own product line, is huge.

“Watching someone like Andrea Lieberman who I met because she was Puffy’s stylist, and watching her grow to a place where there aren’t enough days in the week for her, she has her own product line and is doing consulting for numerous brands, that’s good.”

Greatest Business Challenges

“I think making sure that everyone who works here is happy. In growing a business there comes a point where you can’t do everything yourself and it takes a great team of people around you that share the same passion and work ethic. When you find these people they become part of our family and we all keep growing together. We also all work in one room… so we’re not broken up. We’re not a bunch of people with separate offices. It has to be the right people, people who really care about each other and respect one another for this to work five days a week.”

Words of Advice

“If you work at what it is you want to do every day, it just gets better and better.
Every day you get closer to where you want to be. When people talk about what they want to do but they don’t show up, they get stalled. Just do it - if you want to be a painter, make sure you paint every day.”

How to Style Yourself

“Less is more and black always works. Keep it simple. Don’t all run out and buy a yellow dress…just because you saw it in Vogue.”

How She Stays Motivated

“I plan trips. I go anywhere as long as my kids and my husband are with me. We take two trips a year, one at Christmastime and one in the summer. As long as I can get those trips on the calendar… I know I have that two-week period where I don’t have to do anything except hang out with my kids, it keeps me going. They’re now 18 and 20.”

Favorite Movie at the Moment

“‘The Devil Wears Prada.’ I watch it over and over I think it’s hysterical. It’s like my office. Some days I feel like the assistant, and some days I feel like Meryl Streep.”

What Makes Her Happiest

“What makes me the happiest is the fact that I have two sons and they got to see firsthand a woman work really hard and stand on her own and be responsible and take care of everything. I know they’re going to be great husbands one day and they’re going to have such respect for what women can do and are capable of doing.

“Having the business has been a great thing because I know that I can afford to give them the life that I want them to have. They’re normal kids - they go back and forth between wanting to do music and wanting to do fashion. Jeremy finished the Musicians Institute and Jourdyn just finished his last year in high school. They’re talking about going to one of the fashion institutes together. They’re best friends. They’re creative kids. I’m trying to get them in schools where they’ll be supported. That’s the other thing that having a business has helped me with.”