“I Just Go and Do it”
Life, Inspiration, and Creativity with Michele Baratta
(aka @BellaBranchDIY)
Michele is something of a social media sensation. A Southern California native, her Instagram account now has around 138,000 loyal followers who look to her for daily style inspiration, life tips, and her messages of empowerment and motivation. But Michele lived a whole other life before this one, and she recently sat down with Amevida to tell us her story.———
Bring us into the world of Michele Baratta…
A couple of years back, I was searching for a new passion. I had enjoyed a very successful career as a high-end jewelry designer, but felt I had lost a sense of myself somewhere along the way. One day, I was in my living room with my daughter and her best friend, and they suggested I start a creative outlet on social media. They said I was a “cool mom”, which was flattering, but more than anything it made me laugh. Shortly after that, I decided to try it and recorded my first video. There was no voiceover, and I didn’t say anything to the camera, it was just me showing an outfit that I liked. I posted it to Instagram with a comment about my age - I was 57 at the time - and how we are as cool and stylish as ever. That comment resonated with a lot of other women and I got a ton of messages of support and encouragement. I like to say I found my tribe with that first post, and @BellaBranchDIY was born.
The notion that people in their 50s, 60s, and beyond have so much to offer and so much life to live is very real. As time went my channel grew because more and more women saw themselves in what I was posting. I think of what I’m doing today as my second act, and I love sharing all the wonderful things that come with being this age.
Your creative roots run deep and go back to your school years and your first start in jewelry design. Can you talk us through those early days and how you got started?
I grew up in Calabasas Park, California and went to school for clothing design. In the summers I would work at the Malibu Country Mart, and when I was about 21 I started making jewelry for myself out of handblown glass, sterling silver, and other cool materials. Customers would come in and see the pieces I was wearing and ask to buy them, assuming they were for sale in the store.
This happened so frequently that the owner of the store said that we should try selling them and see how they did. I made sets of matching earrings and bracelets and they sold out really quickly. Then I made some more and they sold out again. About a month after that, my mom was talking to a neighbor who happened to run the Los Angeles Gift Show at the LA Convention Center, and he said that I should take a booth at the show that year. He gave me some unsold space, and I spent the following two months putting together an entire line of jewelry and accessories. The show went better than I could have dreamed, and by the end of it I had landed my first 40 accounts which included retailers like Nordstrom, Macy’s, J.Jill, and a bunch of others. They all placed big purchase orders of $20,000 and $30,000 and, suddenly, I’m 21, still in college, and sitting in front of hundreds of thousands of dollars in orders.
I have always had this view that whatever you want to do, you just have to get to it. So, I did. I made every piece and before I knew it I had a fully-fledged company and things really took off. I was making jewelry for TV shows, my pieces were worn by members of the casts of Friends and Beverly Hills 90210, and one year I was one of Oprah’s favorite things. It’s crazy to think about now, how fast it all happened. But it was an incredibly exciting time in my life.
How did you develop your creative philosophy and your approach to design?
It’s not so much a philosophy as a mindset - I just go and do it. I’ve never been much of a planner in terms of writing out my intentions or developing detailed business plans, I just start with true belief in myself and my abilities. In my mind, I am convinced I’m going to be successful, and thoughts of failure don’t occur to me.
That’s one of the things I try to get across through my Instagram account - that you are limited only by what’s going on in your mind. Everyone has a talk track in their head, but is it one that tells you that you’re competent and capable and that you’ll succeed, or that you’re incompetent and incapable and going to fail? Everyone has moments in life that don’t turn out the way they want, but doubt stops so many people before they even start. And even if you do fail, you can process that failure and see it as an opportunity to learn and pivot to something new.
I have two children and I’m so happy to see the same habits in them. They are both in creative industries, entertainment and fashion, and those are incredibly competitive fields. But they are both successful because they just do the things they need to do. They don’t limit themselves by agonizing about how they are going to get to where they want to be; they act first and figure it out as they go.
Where do you find your inspiration, professionally and personally?
It’s perhaps a bit of a cliche, but I really do find inspiration everywhere. I do have some habits and rituals that I always stick to like making time every day to sit in my garden and reserve a few moments for creative thought, but honestly I feel like everywhere I look I see things that inspire and motivate me.
It’s actually one of my challenges, too. My brain is very active and I have so many ideas for things I want to do, so I have to consciously sort through them and make sure I’m focusing on the right ones. Inspiration is really wherever you find it, but more than anything you have to be open to finding it.
So much of the content you create is about empowerment. Why is that an important message?
I think a lot of people, and certainly women, need to be reminded that they are amazing. Sometimes you have to shift your way of thinking, but that’s hard if you’ve been stuck doing things one way for a long time. I get a lot of messages from women telling me that they just needed to hear someone say that they can do what they want to do. It sounds simple, but it can be extremely powerful.
And I believe that what you’re thinking manifests itself in your physical bearing. The process of aging doesn’t stop, but I feel young because I have a youthful mindset. If you look in the mirror and judge yourself negatively, that is going to come out in the way you move through the world. And if you’re waiting for someone else to be your cheerleader, you could be waiting a long time. One of the great truths of life is that you are with yourself all day every day, and that means you have to be your own best friend.
When I started on Instagram, I was really just showing clothes that I liked and outfits that I thought worked well, but it became apparent very quickly that there was an opportunity to do much more. I’ve heard from people that putting out those empowering messages inspired them to do all sorts of things that they never imagined they could do…one person went back to school to get their degree, another took an epic bike ride through Italy, and there was a woman in her sixties that just learned to surf! All of that is a result of how people feel about themselves, it all comes from within.
People often say that as they get older, they start to care less about what others think. Do you think it’s as simple as that, or is it more nuanced in that we care in different ways about different things?
I think there’s something to that. I’ve always been fairly secure in who I am, but at this age I feel that more than ever. Taking the way I dress; I have established my own style based solely on what I like, not whatever the current trends are. It’s not so much that I don’t care about anyone else’s opinion, it’s that I have built confidence in who I am and what I do. Similar to what we just talked about with regards to empowerment, it all comes from within. I do this for myself, and I’m not asking for permission.
When I was young I may have tried harder to fit in, or perhaps not spoken my mind in order to make someone else comfortable, but not anymore. It’s not that I don’t care, it’s that my confidence and self-belief come first, and because of that I can be authentically me.
People in their 50s, 60s, and 70s have immense economic power, and frequently more time to pursue leisure and personal interests. Why do you think brands continue to overlook this demographic?
It’s still an issue, but I do think they’re starting to catch up. A lot of brands have neglected our age group, particularly in verticals like fashion and skincare, but increasingly I am working with brands on multiple campaigns because they are realizing that our demographic has money and is willing to spend it on things they want.
But I will say that authenticity is the key to everything. I don’t follow trends; I like what I like and that’s what I share on my social channel. I get lots of offers from lots of different brands, but I’d never promote something that I wouldn’t actually wear or use. Similarly, I always try to communicate in the way I actually speak…if it’s too canned or scripted, people pick up on it right away.
You have a really impressive and engaging social media presence. How has that channel evolved for you?
I think the thing I’m most proud of is that my follower base is made up of the exact people with whom I always wanted to connect. Given the type of content I create it naturally skews heavily female, but the age range is precisely what I was looking for…people in their 50s, 60s, and 70s with an energetic, passionate, vibrant outlook on life.
I think I’ve become much more confident through it, too. At the beginning, I was just showing outfits but not really speaking to the camera at all. Once I started speaking it really took off, and that was an amazing thing to experience. I think it’s because it became more personal in that way, and that brings you closer to the people that follow you.
And for anyone who is reading this who wants to try their hand on social media, or for that matter anything else in this crazy world, it comes down to what we said at the start of this interview…just go and do it!
For more, follow Michele on Instagram: @BellaBranchDIY
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