Beauty Therapy with Flavia Leal

foreign [Music] welcome to Super entrepreneurs podcast today we have with us Flavia Leal how are you Flavia good Good Very thank you for participating in our show today thank you yeah glad to have you here if you don't mind kind of providing an introduction in your own words what you do I own beauty schools we opened the first school 13 years ago I mean it will be 13 years ago next year and we are now four schools in two Estates we have grown a lot we have formed over 10 000 students to the Beauty World and we are very happy to see them succeed and I want to keep helping people to succeed and I want to share um my challenges and everything that I went through with people so they can succeed so this is me now that's great Flavia I I share your passion you know I I absolutely love um helping others as well and the work that kind of the work that you do it just doesn't help the individual but it has a ripple effect right so if when you help that one person you're indirectly helping you know the the spouse the kids the family like it's it it continues into a series of of positive um benefits to people so I'm grateful that what you do and what you're doing out there for people can you share more about the difficulties that people face and how you help them yes uh the hardest difficulty that people face is the one that I faced when I went to when I was um going through a very hard time in my life through bankruptcy divorce um foreclosure I lost both of my parents uh within months it was a nightmare it was a time of my life when it felt like everything was being thrown at me and I did not know what to do and how to restart how to go back on track and so I uh I always liked it to study to read to learn always as I was a very little kid in a very uh chaotic reality when I was a kid I always thought that if I had the right education if I met the right people and if I was in the right place I could succeed so when I was at that time of my life when I did not know what to do I decided to go back to some of the classes that I had started and I had to stop because of course everything that I was going through so I went back to a beauty school and I got my license and so I was always that person that when I find something good and I like something I am that person that tells everyone so lots of people wanted to go to that school but it was very hard to be accepted by the school so many of these people uh was already in a field they worked without a license and that happens a lot believe it or not so many of them wanted to get the right education wanted to do the right thing but they were not accepted by the schools so I was there I was already teaching them how to do makeup I I was doing makeup here and there to survive through that situation to put food on the table for my two kids and I was actually under the risk of losing my older child to to the state because I was not able to take care of them oh wow yes it was a very very very hard time and so I went back to school I had all these people that wanted to come and take the classes as well especially because since they were learning makeup from me they could not actually offer that service without a license so I went to speak with the director of the school and I offered to teach a class in another language so they would be accepted by the school and I also offered them to be more flexible accepting students that would not have a high school diploma or maybe they could I actually offered them to make a test to see how much these people were willing to commit but they did not want to be flexible and that was when my first school was born actually at that moment actually I at that moment I got pregnant off that school of that desired help all these people to have their lives changed and so I started to look into how I could get a school open I was that person who always I was not afraid of doing things that seemed to be very difficult I was actually always that person that would look into it to see how difficult and how impossible that could be so I went to look into the lot and I found the way that I could do it um and these people could actually become licensed that was not a state requirement that they had actual diploma or that they would speak a fluent English or anything of that that was a requirement from the schools so I opened a school for the minority minority and I needed to have 12 students and I remember when I went to the state meeting they asked me how do you think you'll be able to get 12 students the school you went to just closed the doors and that was like oh a couple months after I graduated my class was the last class and they had to close the doors that was 2008 2008 2009 so they said are you aware of what's happening in this country and they said yes I am and this is the right time people want to learn how to succeed and I know what they have to do and of course they didn't believe me but I did and I'm very glad that after many many many months they stayed gave me the license and I was able to start the first class with 38 students wow yes it was I did not accept that to be honest I thought I was going to teach that small class of people that want that told me that they wanted to go to the same school as I was going and those people who had taken makeup classes from me I thought it was going to be that class and that's it I was gonna call write a book and be you know a writer and it was fine so I that's what I thought to be honest I did not think that I it was gonna you know it was gonna grow that much and that so many people would actually search for us and come now from other countries because we are now approved by the immigration to um yeah for the I-20 so we not only help people in this country but we are able to help families to come up and study so it's not and it's not just that it's not just a profession you know working with beauty is I I usually say that it's a plus from life because it's it's it doesn't feel like work working with beauty feels like a therapy for The Beautician so uh it's it's good in many ways it's good because we make money out of it it's good because we help people to look and feel the best the best we help people to um raise up the sales team you know they go back home and they get compliments they get they boyfriends and husbands and you know people back because you know and wives too many men are now looking into that to you taking more care of themselves you know they come for eyebrow acts they come for other types of waxing they come for artificial bronzing they come for massages they come for many many treatments and so when they go back and they start you know people that didn't even notice them they you know they they felt like they didn't exist and all of a sudden they start getting compliments so these makes um The Beautician fulfill the best so we get money we get you know to help people we get to have people have their lives changed while we have our lives changed too because everything that we do we get back so it's a win-win profession and that's so good but not just that what happened was when I was going through everything that I was going through back then in 2010 I had I was in debt I I was I used it to make fun of it saying that I was almost I always wanted to be a millionaire since I was very poor in a very very as I said very chaotic situation since I was a little kid and I is it to make fun of it and say that I was almost at that time a Millionaire on the opposite side [Music] I was in so much debts that I had to file bankruptcy on the chapter 13 so I could keep the house that I purchased when I was in my early 20s and I put so much work into the house with my own hands I use it to go to Home Depot learn how to do questions since you know since then I know so many codes from you know and construction and I am able to most of the times correct work that contractors sometimes don't do the right way before we get inspections from the building department so it it was a very important lesson that I learned when I was in my early 20s and I put so much work into the house I used it to go to Home Depot take classes with so many men and Ranch heavy machines and go to the house to do the work myself because I couldn't pay anybody to do it and I worked two full-time jobs I had a little kid and I had my mother home taking care of my daughter and my mother got pancreas cancer and she passed away and it was a it was a that was the time I I was it was a very hard time of course but I learned so much from that situation from those very tough moments that I went through and I am sure that if my mother somehow Could See Me Now she would be very uh proud she would yeah think you know why it was all worth it and so even the bad times that we go through they are for something so when I first started school I that happened in 2008 2009 so I opened the school in June 2010 and I what I did I went to the class and I was like listen girls you know life is tough don't give up you know you were here for a reason and just keep going don't matter what no matter what people tell you so since the day one I was being a life coach to all of them throughout all these years I have done this I I did that in the beginning just because I needed to get that out of me you know to start telling people not to jump out of the window you know it was a light at the end of the tunnel and I I was full of it inside of me I had to express myself I had to tell them do not you do not think of giving up so after 12 years almost 13 years what happened was I started seeing results of these um I did not plan on any of this it was not you know it was um there is an expression in Portuguese that says you know come with me I will tell you about it on a way you know we'll talk about in a way so it was that type of make a decision make a decision get going and then we'll figure it out yeah figure it out you know so I did not especially because I was the contractor at the first school I was able to purchase the equipment and everything from the school that I went to for two thousand dollars and when I first started I had no credit of course I was filing bankruptcy and I don't know how come they did not see that maybe because it was just filed with the court and I was praying to God that they did not see that because if they did I was not going to be able to rent the place and I remember they said you have to have a liability otherwise you can't get we can't you can't sign the lead so it was 500 I did not have 500 and I did not have credit I did not have a credit card I did not have any friend that I could ask put the 500 and I remember I called I would say almost 100 people that I know that was interested in taking my makeup classes and people that had taken it and I asked them to come to see the school I had the keys from the leasing office they they lent it to me so I could go see the place one more time and take measurements so when I was there I had this idea I called them I scheduled time for them to come and take a look at the school and in my vision it was already a school I I could almost and that's so important walking through it with a few of them I just got two of them at the school on that day and as I walked through it with them I was almost seeing it with my physical eyes I was telling them that's the computer room that's the product lab there is the waxing area this is this that's that so I got the two of them to register and so I could make the 500 to go back and rent this space and that was how I with no credit no money no parents no family being an immigrant is most of the time is very difficult because we have no place to go back to you know and no one that we can ask for you know for hand when we go situation like yeah how many friends will trusted you know because you look like a crazy person when you do that so as time was going by I started to see results of that craziness and people started to come back to me and say thank you I was going to commit suicide and I heard about you someone was talking about you in a bakery I heard and I researched and I said you know what I'll give it a bit I bet and I I'm here and I graduated I opened this Clinic I am happy sorry I am happy and thank you so I started to get back from so many people that I I was like you know why this is my mission this is really my mission and very good I was very happy and I started to get people to invite me like your show to to that's good I don't know what we have been doing I'm very glad to share it with everyone yeah no it's excellent Amazing Story five yeah it's uh these kind of stories is what makes me so passionate about the story of this show because if we can spread this kind of message out there because there's so many people that are dealing with things right and they never feel that anyone else is dealing with anything you know they they see it on social media everybody's ah you know everybody's like yeah everybody's like smiling everybody's you know having a great time of their life but at the end of the day they don't realize that you know there is bad like you said um you know and then there's good in every bad and there's bad and every good right so it's great that you share this and you're you're going on shows to spread this message because if anybody can hear this and they see that Flavia done it and if something that they're dealing with they can get that hope who knows maybe you can lend them that hand right now can you tell me what's the name of the the school it's my name beauty school and yeah we are now investing it's and flooded up and so okay um and are what does it look like to program for someone that's new to the country or someone that is not happy in their job and they want to shift careers what does that look like for them if they come to you we want to have a life change that's all we need to have that's all they desire that's the desire it's based once you have the lives changed we can help them beautiful amazing oh they have to be 16 yes of course but no I I know what you mean yeah it's not just yeah you know yeah like um they can go for their licenses after they complete the class or some of them just go back to their job to the club and you know they will learn so much not just um on the beauty professional profession but for the uh entrepreneur life yeah yeah around our lives all around yes yeah and what do you feel your innermost superpower is that got you to this point oh I love it love it yes I I is what movie that's great that's what makes that resonates with me very much and that's my fuel you know that there is the energy that makes me to keep moving forward of course when people see me on social media and I love my Instagram friends I love them I share my life with them every day everything that I do I tell them I'll tell them today um about the show and I will um screenshot us if you don't mind yeah sure go ahead everything that I do and I share with them things that don't go right there are so many things you know so many there are things that I have an idea I work on it and it it comes out so good I mean but sometimes when I tried something for so long and it doesn't work and people sometimes get you know get the wrong idea that successful people have success on everything that they do and that's not no no no no no that's not true true so many things that I do don't go right I lose one but I always learn and yeah you know it's so smart to learn from other people's mistakes so I keep telling that learn from me and but don't be stopped by what what happened to me you know don't think that because it didn't work for me it's not gonna work for you you know the more that you try the more chances you have to yes exactly persistence beautiful Flavia love it love love interviewing you love meeting you the information that you shared I hope it gets to certain people that are looking for that help right they're looking for that skill they're looking for someone to hold their hand and direct them in the right direction but also care for them they're not just a number so I see that passage in you and I see that what you're trying to do any time that we can help if anything else that you're launching let us know we would love to help you and I I appreciate you taking the time to come on our show um yeah it's much appreciated and audience that thank you once again for joining us you heard Flavia she's passionate about helping people so if there's someone you know that needs a hand or someone that is looking to make a change or someone just needs to be guided in a certain direction just check out the show notes below get in touch with Flavia get in touch with our social media she's definitely putting in her heart and Instagram as well as she mentioned and again you know love the shares love the comments the reviews and hopefully we continue to have you in our audience and grow with you because we can't grow alone we have to grow with you so I appreciate you all and uh Flavia appreciate you very much thank you [Music]