YouTube Star Dominique Sachse: “You Are Your Most Valuable Investment”

You’ll never know how much you can amplify your voice in midlife until you boldly embrace it. Dominque Sachse, influencer and former evening news anchor for KPRC 2 for 28 years, knows that so well.

Her journey through a more purposeful and intentional life has been shared in her latest book “Life Make Over“, along with her tips and inspirations on how to embrace a bold, beautiful and blessed version of ourselves.

Her ultimate goal? To motivate and encourage women in their prime to speak up and find their place in this world. If that means starting with enhancing their beauty and style, then why not?

CrunchyTales has met the YouTube star with millions of fans who are eagerly awaiting her next piece of advice on makeup, fashion, lifestyle and wellbeing.

Dominque, you always encourage women to achieve confidence and spiritual balance through self-care and bold risk-taking. What does being bold mean to you and how can we practise boldness in our daily life?

To me being bold means getting outside of our comfort zones, running towards and not away from what we fear the most. In midlife, we are often caught in a crunch, but in order not to get lost and buried in other people’s needs, we have to prioritise ourselves. Self-prioritisation can mean taking bold leaps of faith and risks but that doesn’t have to happen all at once. Baby steps can help build up our confidence, too. You can start with improving your physical appearance and then move on to something deeper, making changes that are really speaking to you.

The age pride movement invites women in their prime to be more focused on their inner beauty appreciating their ageing bodies and celebrating their wrinkles, while you on the other hand invite them to flip the script on beauty considering it from the outside in. Can you explain this concept better?

My approach has always been “be you – do you“. If you prefer leaving your hair grey and not wearing make-up, that’s your thing and if that speaks to you and brings you joy, I celebrate that. My way is a little bit different and I think it’s because of what I have done my whole life. Being a broadcast journalist means that presentation plays a big part. I know how I personally feel when I take the time to invest in my hair, make-up, and wardrobe. You see, looking at yourself differently leads to doing things differently. For me, the visual is a kickstart to that deeper internal work that needs to take place; it can be like the pistol at the start of a track race. I believe that by changing your make-up or just putting some effort into a new hairstyle or a new wardrobe, you can feel much better about yourself and that’s the most important thing. In midlife, we go through incredible hormonal changes that can lead us to such depletion in terms of how we feel and how we look. For many women, ageing can be frustrating; we cannot only see it on the outside but we can feel it on the inside, too. My belief is to do everything in your power to make yourself feel good. What I’m doing here is laying out the line for you.

In your book, you highlight the importance of having hobbies in this stage of life. Why are they as necessary today as they were yesterday and how can the sandwich generation carve out the free time they deserve?

I think by firstly deciding what is a priority. It’s making that conscious choice to do something to finally benefit and enhance you, just like when you want to eat healthier and feel better you prioritise wellness and healthy food choices. What I talk about in my book is that sometimes you’ve got to do vision boards, passion boards, and story boards, to really examine what it is that brings you joy outside of what it is that you’re usually doing. Sometimes it’s casting that reel back into our childhood to reflect upon those hobbies that brought us joy but also it can mean trying new things in later adulthood. For instance, gardening is something that I discovered later on in my life when I became a homeowner and I decided not to spend thousands of dollars on a landscaper. Choosing the flowers, planting them, arranging them, and nurturing them was such a joy and pleasure that it became a new hobby of mine. I think it’s important to cultivate this side of your life and feeling good about something is important to you. We are all creative, we were designed to be creative each of us in different ways.

You said that class is becoming a lost art these days and you believe it’s one worth cultivating. How? Can you give us some examples we can easily follow to elevate our game?

Class can be interpreted individually and defined in so many different ways, however, I think we know it when we see it. To me, it’s a level of appreciation of not only yourself but also of how you project yourself in this world. I think that how you present yourself will determine how you are received in our society. I do believe that it’s important in terms of opening doors in your life in areas that matter to you the most. Have you ever heard that old saying: “If you’re not attracting the right men, maybe look at what you’re putting out there?” Well, for me, the same applies to work and friendships. If you’re struggling to find doors open for you, then look at what it is you’re putting out there. It’s how you dress and present yourself, it’s a certain level of elegance and sophistication and, by the way, does not have to cost a lot of money: it’s just knowing a nice way to look so that you are taken seriously right. However, there are so many ways to do it, and I listed a bunch of them in my book. We also should mind our language and our manners and don’t overtalk people. The infusion of vulgarity in the language is so common these days. It’s sad to me today that people can’t talk without throwing in curse words.

As a make-up expert, you often remind us that less makeup works better as we age. In your opinion, what are the products every woman in her prime should have in her make-up purse and why?

What I love about make-up is that it’s not one size that fits all. We are all different, we have different skin tones and types, hair colours, and shaped eyes. For me, it’s about knowing what your features are and what it is you want to enhance. For instance, if your skin starts to get much drier opt for hydrating and moisturising foundations. Maybe you need a little less coverage or maybe you need a little bit more. It can vary. What frustrates me is when you read advice like “as you get older you need less foundation maybe just a BB cream“. Well, that’s not true for all women. A lot of them may develop hyperpigmentation sun spots and so maybe they need a little bit more coverage. You know, when I talk about less is more, it’s not so much about the steps that you take but it’s dialling down certain things that can be very trendy like shimmery highlighters, over contouring. Those things can age because anything with shimmer or sparkle is only going to highlight the lines that are settling in your skin. I think a great foundation and concealer that covers any areas that you want to cover without setting into the lines are very important at our age. Figuring out your skin tone and colour, and what eye shadows compliment your eye colour are crucial, too. Also, as we age, it’s important to know how to apply mascara and place our eyeshadow correctly over the lids to avoid a droopy look. You see, it’s really learning and understanding make-up techniques and I love helping women who follow me on my YouTube channel how to do it. You can redesign your face with make-up if you want. It’s just so powerful.

In your book, you also mentioned the importance of considering ourselves as the most valuable investment. What are the main assets in which a woman in her prime should invest? What would you suggest to those women who want to reboot their life? 

I think the first thing is to actually make that declaration over yourself – and a lot of women have a hard time saying out loud: “I am my most valuable investment“. Then, start to look after yourself. A cup has to be full in order to be good for others. If you are running with the pot empty and your car tank is on fumes, how can you be great in anything and for anything? So, that first declaration needs to be set and truly believed that it is important and has to happen in your heart and your mind. What does that mean, “I am my most valuable investment“? It could be taking better care of your health, starting exercising more or doing things differently. Maybe carve out 10 – 15 minutes a day for meditation or prayer, maybe a 20-minute soak in the tub at night to allow you to decompress or read a good book. Perhaps it means speaking your truth, maybe you’ve been repressing what your needs are and it’s time to articulate those to the people in your life and see how they’re received. It just comes in so many forms but it’s especially that declaration that says: “I’m putting down my stakes and I’m determined to do things differently now“.

You are also very popular because of your different hairstyles. Have you ever thought of leaving your hair to grow grey?

It’s a funny question and I get asked that all the time. Actually, I’m 55 and for some reason, I only have a few straggly greys around the front of my face. I don’t have enough grey to go grey, so I’m not there yet and this is ironic. For the first time since my childhood, this is my natural colour. I didn’t realise I was this dark until I went to a blond pixie and I saw the back of my hair. I kept cutting and cutting and the root was coming out, so I was curious to see what it would look like with my natural colour. At the moment, I’ll just paint where those grey hairs are. Isn’t that funny?

Faith plays an important role in your life, especially against fear. What is your relationship with fear and how does praying help you shape your life?

I think praying to me is the answer to fear. It helps me to find the blessing in the dark moments. You can easily get trapped by the hardest of fear and that will cripple you and stop you from moving forward. When I pray to God I don’t say: “Lord, please help me with this situation“. It’s more like: “Lord, I know you’re going to get me through this. I know you’re going to bring me out better than I was before. I know that this moment is serving a purpose in my life and the clarity of it will be revealed later. I have trust and I have belief in now and Lord I am grateful for my health. I am grateful for the ability to produce and provide“. You see, when you start giving thanks for what it is that you have and what it is that you can do in those moments of fear, it’s amazing how your feelings can shift: the good starts to rise and the bad starts to get pushed down. That’s the beauty to me of faith in times of fear.

Last but not least. How are you experiencing this stage of life? 

This is a great question to dovetail with the fear one because I’ve been through so much personal change in my life in the past year. I walked away from a very solid lucrative news career in Broadcast Television after 28 years, planning to retire, moving full-time into YouTube content creator and writing my book. Letting go of that solid steady salary was a big fear. At the same time, my marriage was falling apart and having to deal with that. However, I’m really grateful for all of the things that I wrote about in the book. Some days, I laughed because I thought: did I write this for the readers or did I write this for me? You know at this stage of my life, I’m truly going through a life makeover. You see, I embrace transition with open arms. I took leaps off the high dive and I have seen the benefits and fruitful rewards of those big scary leaps. Sometimes that can leave a pit in your stomach and you don’t know where it takes you but there is a stirring and a calling that has to be answered. And if one’s not acknowledged that and not moved forward in areas where God is calling you, I believe you could miss out on some of the greatest blessings.

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