Today we’d like to introduce you to Erin Michelle Newberg.
Erin, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Well, I guess my personal success has stemmed from hard work, passion, consideration and caring. Now, pair that with a vivacious personality and the kind of woman who never accepted ‘no’ for an answer. My name is Erin Michelle Newberg and that, has thus far, has been the recipe to my success. Born in South Florida, my family was loaded with hard working and powerhouse women in fashion and art, so perhaps that was inspirational and drummed up my not-so-secret love for art, culture and travel. Ever since I was two, I was jetting over-seas to Paris, and parading around the Bal Harbour Shops trying on yellow diamonds at Neiman Marcus, so my understanding of luxury came at an early age. And, considering my parents met in the shops, and my grandmother Berenice Steiner owned the best gallery there, too, it was just part of my fabric. Truth be told, I do not have one respective career. I am multi-talented and work as an Editor for hyper-local magazines, I am the beauty editor to Miami’s best luxury magazine, Indulge, where I also write food and about various personalities in town and I occasionally write for Celebrated Living for American Airlines. I am a local correspondent for vogue.com, Fashion for Men by Milan Vukmirovic – and I am proud to say that it was not my journalism background that got me here. I do not have one, but people were so over boring styles, and I am fresh with a unique voice. So, that is that. I also work in business development alongside Ginger Harris and we execute marketing initiatives in the health, wellness and beauty sector and our clients include the biostation in Midtown, GIA.Miami, Biography a luxe skincare brand and lightly work with Lash Society, sending clients since everyone loves my beauty insider tips! I also am a board member of No More Tears Miami and over quarantine, alongside Mytyl Symancas, Mabel De Beunza, Leslie Cooper and Jessica Kassin – we launched Adopt a Family, Inc! Charity work and being hands-on has always humbled me and feeding these immigrant children during the pandemic and their families has been very healing for me.
I would also say that failure and bad choices are what led me to my personal success. Success to me, does not mean an amount of money. It means the ability to accomplish your dreams. And, stepping outside of your comfort zone and surpassing your personal expectations. Just to be clear, from the time I was 26 until I was 34 I was living all around the world. Writing a few articles here, a few there. But focusing on my boyfriends, exercising, shopping, traveling. And, one day, nearly three years ago my universe collapsed when I realized the man I thought I would marry – was a fraud, con man, was not divorced and had another relationship, too! So, two weeks before his face was splattered across the news, I got out with my 17 suitcases and made myself a promise. That was to never, ever fully depend on anyone and to do it on my own. So, I moved back to Miami, unexpectedly moved in with my parents and took a full-time job with an art and culture-based membership club. I threw my pride aside, and then, I realized full time work was not for me, so – driven by the need to have freedom, funds and flexibility, I became the Editor of GB Living and Cocoplum Magazine and took any hosting gigs for brands and even large-scale projects with the Italian Government’s Beauty Made in Italy initiative. I also used to work on television with and my producer at the time, Michael Honablue who is a personal friend, too, taught me something that changed the trajectory of my life. At the time – it applied to camera work, and that was to be a triple threat. He said ‘Erin, you need to be able to be the talent, to produce and to direct.’ That advice still resonates in my day-to-day operations in work and life.
And, here I am today. 37, living in Downtown Miami and beaming with pride.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
So, for some reason I have not had too many setbacks. The humps and bumps in the road were mentioned above, but I look at that all like a big old learning lesson! It was a gift after all and the timing of it was impeccable. Imagine had I stayed! I would have needed a crisis PR agency to handle. Ha!
We’d love to hear more about your work.
My writing career began in around 2009 when my good friend Jacquelynn Powers of Ocean Drive Magazine took over Plum Magazine which was a subsidiary of Plum TV. I had actually been hosting on the network for some time, and my life during the moment of that call from Jacquelynn was unique. I had been living on a yacht and traveling between Paris, Rome and Beirut – you know, being fabulous. Whether I was power boat racing or lunching with Nicholas Kirkwood in London, for some reason people were always interested. So, she hired me to write a column called Broken Lipstick. I had never written, but she encouraged me – alongside Eric Newill and Glenn Albin, two legends, my world would forever change. And, today, I still work with Newill at Celebrated Living. He loves my style, and my perspective on uber-luxe travel and even automotive! Yep, I became an auto-writer and worked on a story with McLaren for the launch of their GT at Goodwood Festival of Speed! Aside from Eric being a mentor, he is also a dear friend, as is my Editor of Indulge, Jenny where I serve as her Beauty Editor! One of my favorite jobs, it is truly incredible to work in an ever-evolving world with scientifical advancements left and right. Plus, the benefits are great skin and A LOT of samples! Yes, my refrigerator in my bathroom is loaded with the latest from brands like La Prairie, Babor from Germany, Natura Bisse and Laneige, and, my favorite new brand Julisis! Want to know how this happened? A few years back, at a press dinner, I was sitting next to Jenny Starr Perez who was, at the time, the Editor of Selecta. She had asked our mutual friend if she was interested in the role. And, she agreed. But the friend never submitted the work. So, she called me panicked and I said I would just do it. I had always been the go-to anyhow for botox, facials, hair. So, my non-expert self was actually appointed and, the rest is history. When Jenny became the Editor of Indulge, and the former legendary beauty Editor Jen Scruby was just over-it, she recommended me, and here we are today! I also a local correspondent for vogue.com, where I cover the Miami social scene. I met the events editor Lilah through a mutual friend, who I met on a trip to Israel, and she obviously loved moi – so, I covered Basel for her last year. Circling back to being the right place at the right time, my social existence in Miami was a result of my mother’s Hanukkah gift to me. She gave me a membership to MoCA and my grandmother and I went. This was just after I graduated college, and I met the curator Bonnie Clearwater on a private tour. She also was fascinated by me. I mean, I was cool, I was friends with really cool artists like Spencer Tunick who I had met at Cindy Sherman’s flat in NYC, and Clearwater invited me to join the young board. Together with an amazing group, we launched Mystery Dates, formerly the best evening of the year. And, then I quickly became involved in the charity circuit, like Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s annual big party. And, so on, and so on. And the magazines all took a liking in me….So, it was all meant to be! I also still work with my four-time Emmy Award winning producer, Michael Honablue on local content. I am, after all, excellent on camera!
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
My honesty. Being unfiltered and real. Laughing, making people laugh but crying, feeling the pain of others and acting upon those reactions. Having no frills and no fears when it comes to exposing my world.
Recently, Adopt a Family Miami has shown me that I am simply a big cry baby. But, that drives me to be better for others and for myself. I feel being introspective is also majorly a driving factor. To be able to look in a mirror and see the good, bad and ugly and work on it. That is bad a**
Contact Info:
- Website: mserinsita.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: mserinsita
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MsErinMichelle
Image Credit:
World Red Eye took the pic of group of us, and the one of me with the two girls!
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