Conversations with Daisy Jacobson

Today we’d like to introduce you to Daisy Jacobson.

Daisy, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Well, the very beginning of me starts with my grandparents who migrated from Cuba to the United States in the early 70s.

After the challenges they had to endure in Cuba, they saw their opportunity to come to America as a chance to build out their legacy and provide their children and grandchildren with a better future.

My grandfather became a business owner and my grandmother loved the community, being a homemaker, and beauty care.

Before wearing SPF was popular, she drilled the importance of wearing sunscreen and protecting yourself against the sun into my mother’s head, even if it meant using an umbrella while outdoors (cool in the 1600s, not so cool in the 80s). I think my mother, and my aunt, learned to love skincare and self-care because of my grandmother and they passed it on to my cousins and me.

My mother later went on to own her own business in the retail industry, in a sense combining a little bit of what both her parents taught her, so I grew up around a very stylish and strong business-owning mother who taught me that the only limitation one truly has is their own mind and I could do anything I set myself out to do, so long as I work toward my goals with a love for the work I do and with all my strength and mind. So, that’s sort of always been my mentality.

From a very young age, I knew I loved music, storytelling, and beauty. When I say beauty, I want to say design, because I don’t just mean the “I want to look pretty” type of beauty — although who doesn’t want to look and feel pretty all the time? When I say beauty, I mean aesthetically pleasing to the mind and senses on a personal level. Does my house look beautiful to me? Does it represent me and who I am well? Do my clothes represent me well and make me feel comfortable in my own skin? How about my makeup?

Is the eyeliner I’m wearing today feel like what I feel like on the inside? Is today a sun-kissed bronzer kind of day? Or is it more of a flirty pink cheek kind of day? Does the perfume I’m wearing remind me of what I want to feel like today? Does the food I’m eating make me feel light but full at the same time? And is my plate of food colorful? How about where I’m dining? If it’s at home, does sitting at my dining table make me feel like I’m out at a restaurant? Or is it just a table with forks, knives, and a plate?

If I go out to eat, is there a story to this place? Something that makes it cool or special? Is my energy high today or is it low? Does that mean I need an energetic run or night out with my girlfriends? Or maybe a bath and a glass of wine to soothe my soul?

Everything, for me, is either a story or contributing to a story that’s being built out and we have say over what our life feels like to us. Even if it’s as simple as laying in bed all day, is it a cozy bed that has all the right vibes even when it’s not made up? Then being in bed all day is as much of an experience as going to The Optimist.

For a time I pursued the three things I love — music, storytelling, and beauty — separately. But I’ve come to realize how deeply intertwined they are. They encompass all of the things that make up a life — a narrative. Music affects the soul, storytelling affects the mind, and beauty (design) makes up one’s tangible reality.

I decided to let all of those things work together synergistically and instead of compartmentalizing the part of myself that’s a singer/songwriter, the part that’s a storyteller, and the part that loves making everything beautiful, I’ve begun a blog that incorporates all of those things to share about “Beauty from my POV”, cultivated for myself in hopes that others get the chance to cultivate the lives they want too and also get to enjoy watching beautiful things come together.

Right now, I’m just on Instagram and Twitter, but soon I’ll have my own website where I get to take a little more time talking and writing about the things I love and will utilize more SM platforms.

On my blog (wherever I may be blogging from) you’ll see my life — how I’m designing my home, the skincare products I swear by (I’ll only ever talk about brands that truly worked for me, I know everyone says that but you have to follow me to understand how true this is), the makeup brands I love, the clothing lines I’m into, how I designed the wedding of my dreams — your usual beauty stuff, right?

But you’ll also see when I start releasing original songs of my own and my favorite cover songs, personal life hacks I’ve learned along the way as a first-gen everything (first-gen college student, first-gen American, first-gen married someone from another culture and ethnicity, first-gen made friends with people from other cultures and ethnicities…) and all of it will be in the form of a blog, which appeases my need to be a storyteller (the songwriting does that too).

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Doing what I love definitely hasn’t been smooth sailing. I’m also not the kind of person that gets super bogged down by challenges, so I end up netting out at “even the worst things can be the best things.”

As I said, I’ve always loved music and storytelling. So I began pursuing music as a singer at a very young age. It sort of defined me and was all I focused on outside of school, being in artist development academies being led by mentors who worked in the music industry, songwriting classes, acting classes, voice lessons, dance classes, and anything that allowed me to become the singer and performer I wanted to be.

Once I graduated high school, I dove head first into recording my first album. I’d gotten a music scholarship to a university, but I dropped out my first year because I honestly thought I knew better. Looking back, I think I should have given myself those four years to develop my composition skills and grow into being an adult. Because let me tell you, the real world is not easy.

People are competitive, misguided, and have their own prejudices or experiences that they’ll project onto you and if you’re a trusting person, you’ll allow those projections to define you. And if you don’t feel as experienced or informed enough in your line of work, you’re more likely to believe another misguided person instead of leaning on the truth.

I went through all of that while I was working on my album and to make a long story short, feel like I let a lot of other people define who I was and dictate my future for me, and even rewrite my past. It was frustrating and took me a long time to disconnect from them and figure out who I was on my own.

I guess you can say that I was in people-pleasing mode and as an artist, there really isn’t any room at all for people-pleasing. The whole point of creating art is to create something authentic and true to who you are. Whoever likes it and whoever your work speaks to is who it was meant for. Being commercial just isn’t me, unless the thing I’m being commercial about is what I actually love ha.

So, I’d say my biggest struggle was getting away from people who didn’t get me and wanted me to meet a need they had for themselves and getting to a place where I felt confident and comfortable to just do me. I’d also say that’s one of my biggest victories.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I specialize in writing, singing, and making things beautiful. I’ll section it out, cause that’s a lot, but it works for me.

Beauty: I’ve been a makeup artist for a few years now, working on commercials, TV shows, live events, and special occasions. I also blog about all my personal experiences with various beauty brands from skincare to makeup lines. I struggled with acne for a few years, after having basically perfect skin, and had no clue where it came from. It took me years to get my skin back to a good place and I’m happier with my skin now than before it got bad.

All I want to do is help others feel as confident and satisfied with their skin. It drives me crazy when someone is having a very curable skincare issue and though they’ve gone to so many experts and “tried everything”, I realize after listening to them talk about how they approach treating their skin, that no one ever really took the time to break it down and TEACH them how to address their skin’s needs.

This is what motivates me to blog about skincare and makeup. I’m also beginning to share more about fashion, home decor, and personal care. That’s more for me, because like I said before, I love designing a life I love and sharing about it. It’s a part of the storyteller in me.

Singing: I’ve been singing for almost my whole life. On a professional level, I began my career as a recording artist, recording a Christmas compilation album and then my own album. I then went on to sing for an animated series, sang on a few other collaborative projects and the most recent musical work I’ve done is be a part of a Latin Jazz band called Buena Onda as the lead female singer.

That is probably the thing I’m most proud of. I learned so much about myself as an artist, performer, and singer in that band. All of the musicians were so talented and we had a really special bond. It’s probably one of my favorite times in life. Now that I’m in Nashville, I really want to focus on songwriting, so that’s what I’m doing next musically.

Writer: I actually went back to school after 4 years of pursuing music and acting — I was a commercial and theatrical actor for a while, you might have seen me in the Vallarta commercials out on the west coast and on the web series called “March Moms”. I went back because I’d put a pause on my music and acting careers to become a screenplay writer, hoping to create work for myself, and realized if I wanted to be a good storyteller, I needed to learn how to write.

So, I became an English major with a focus on creative writing. This is the other area of my life I’m most proud of. I loooooove being a writer, I love literature (I’m not a lit buff by any means, but I love it) and I love how hard I worked at developing this side of myself. I did a bit of literary journalism for a while, so I’m sure if you plug my [maiden] name into google you’ll find some of my amateur work.

Since graduating, I’ve started working on a couple of screenplays, a TV show, and a book series — all independently and still being written. And of course, everything I learned about writing has only strengthened my songwriting skills. This is my true passion. I’d love to write music for other artists.

And if I get to sing and perform my own songs, and you hear it on the radio, that’d be an (incredibly awesome) added bonus for me. Hopefully someday soon you’ll all get to see or hear my written work. For now, you can enjoy my written work on my lifestyle blog.

What was your favorite childhood memory?
Oh my goodness, there are so many. My mom created so many wonderful memories for my brothers and me it’s hard to choose. I’ll share this one — There was one summer when I was 10.

My mom flew my three cousins over from Florida, where her sister lived, (we lived in California), and my brothers, cousins, and I spent the whole summer hanging out and having fun. We did everything from playing street hockey to going on the slip and slide to having crushes on our neighbors. It was the best haha.

The coolest thing we would do though was play hide and go seek in the dark. Sometimes we would play in the house and sometimes we’d play on the whole property. The house was the best because it was truly dark. We would turn off every single light in the house, everyone would go hide and of course, one person would count to 60 and go find everyone else.

It wasn’t just tagged your it. You had to find every single person who was hiding before moving on. The first person who was caught would be the next to seek. There were a lot of fun finds and a lot of crazy hiding spots and a lot of screaming and laughing. We loved it. The “favorite memory” part though was when my mom played with us! She’d just gotten back from work.

As a small business owner, she always worked late, and we knew she was tired from a long day of work, so usually, her getting back meant we had to stop playing and quiet down (not go to sleep cause it’s summertime, but quiet down). That day, we asked her to play with us and she did! These little 8-12-year-olds were elated. The screams got louder and there was way more laughter.

She picked the best hiding spots. Hiding with her was enthralling. It was just so exciting to be able to show her how ‘we’ did fun. I don’t know what it is about your parents joining in on your silly games as kids that amplifies the memory so much, but that’s probably one of the best childhood memories I have.

I’m definitely recreating that with my kids when I have them.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hellodaisyjake/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100075284000595
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/hellodaisyjake