Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi, everyone, Welcome back to Connections. I'm Eva and Gloria,
and today we're talking about two things I guess that
are important to me. I don't know if that's the word.
They're very big in my life, being an entrepreneur and
being a working mom. And so I wanted to explore
this connection and this obvious conundrum that many moms face,
which is the connection between our work and our families.
(00:24):
And I have been such a fan of our guests
today from Afar, just seeing everything she's built and everything
that she is. We're both proud Latina's and so there's
that work that we put up on ourselves about starting
small businesses within our own community and our involvement in
supporting other women led small businesses. And so I just
(00:45):
was like, oh my gosh, you know what, I'm going
to dig into these ideas with her. Her name is
Iris Palmer. She's an entrepreneur, Latina working mom. We have
so much in common. She's a founder of star Lash Extensions,
a leading beauty company, and I go to from any celebrities,
and she also does a lot of work in supporting
Latina entrepreneurs. So I can't wait to get it started.
(01:05):
Welcome to the show. Iris. Oh my god, thank you
for having me. I'm so excited to be here. I
am so proud of you. I've been proud of you
before I even knew you through Dez. Someone who works
for me used to work for Iris. What she worked
for me then Iris and me, and she's always been
like touting you and like been so proud of everything
you're you're building. She would always say that, how are
(01:27):
you guys? Not friends? You guys are like the same person,
you know what? She told me the same thing. And
it's so funny because life really comes full circle. Like
you were on my vision board before I even started
my company forever, I swear ever since Desperate Housewife, I
was obsessed with you and I was like, that's me,
Like she is me. So it's so funny that now
(01:48):
I'm like here talking to you, connecting with you. I'm like,
look how life works. Isn't that crazy? It's wild. I
was following you and then I said, I think she's Letty.
I didn't know because your last name was Paul her. Yeah,
I'm Salvadorian and Palmer is my married name. And I
kept it because you know, I made a brand out
(02:09):
of virus Palmer. Yeah, um, wait, where did you grow
up though? I grew up in Los Angeles on Santa
Monica and Gower to be exact, in a two bedroom
apartment with it was like eight of us in there,
like real Latino household. Oh my god. I when I
moved to Hollywood, I was on Hollywood Boulevard and Gower.
What did what did your mom do? My mom she
raised me so when she met my dad. My dad's
(02:32):
a very like your typical Latino man, like he just
wanted my mom to take care of me, cook clean,
and he provided, you know, for us. My mom had
two kids when she met him, so he took care
of them too. And then, so where do you get
your work ethic from my dad? My dad worked like
Monday through Saturday, every single day. Sundays occasionally he would
(02:55):
have off, but Sundays was like the day that I
would see my dad. And then every Sunday we would
to Denny's every Sunday over there on sunset on Sunday. Yeah,
Like I looked forward to Sundays with my dad like
so much because he worked so much, and so I
was around like when I was in high school, I
never used to like asking my dad for money because
I saw how hard he worked and how he provided
(03:18):
for all of us. And I was fifteen and I
had asked him. I'm like, can I get a job?
And he was like, you want to get a job,
and I was like, yeah, I've always loved fashion. At
the time, it was like Vans, Like I wanted a
pair of Vans, a different color of Vans every day
to match my little Chance for backpack. I would do
like the purple van, the purple backpack, and then the
(03:39):
purple little brawl strap and then I would gell my hair.
That was like my go to and so I didn't
want to ask him, and so he would give me
lunch money like ten dollars a day or something right
like five or ten dollars, and I would I wouldn't eat.
I would just save it. And then every Friday I
would go buy a pair of Vans because they were
like forty dollars. So I was like, I gotta get
like a little side job something my dad always wanted
(03:59):
me to just like really focused on school, like his
dream was for me to finish college, and I failed
that dream. Let me tell you, I was a disappointment
of my family too, and I felt bad for many years.
I really did. I was like, oh my god, all
my friends went off to college, you know, and like
my path was just different. But you know, I'm so
happy that I followed my path because now I my
(04:20):
now my dad is so proud. I fully take care
of my dad um and my parents, and I'm so
blessed that I'm able to do that. So yeah, when
I was fifteen, I got my first job as a
hostess at a Mexican restaurant, and then from there I
never stopped the same thing. At fifteen. I feel like
fifteen fifteen, I got my first job, and I like,
I never looked back. It wasn't until COVID that I
(04:41):
stopped working literally because the world shut down. Yeah. Same,
and I was freaking out during COVID. I was like,
that's when I started a whole another business with my daughter,
making close because all I was doing was like dressing
her take. I spent so much time at home that
I was like, oh my god, my salon was closed
for seven months, like the beauty to law and really
got affected. But wait, let's rewind. How did that even begin?
(05:04):
How did you become an entrepreneur. So I literally fell
into it because I was like, what do I really
want to do? I really wanted to act. I really
wanted to act. So when I had said my vision board,
that's why you were on my vision board, I was like,
who do I look up to? Who's Latina? Who's a
strong you know? And it was like Eva Longoria even
Mendous Like I had, like, you know, all these people
in my vision board. And I'm a really big believer
(05:26):
of like envisioning. What what do you want? Because you're
putting it out in the universe and then you know,
one way or another it'll come to you. And everything
on my vision board came true. Not through acting though,
because I didn't even touch acting. The thing with acting
was I first enrolled in like a school where we
did Meisner technique. I wanted to learn the craft really
well before I threw myself into auditioning and stuff like that.
(05:48):
But then when I would be in these classes and
I would meet people that moved from like Montana, or
they moved from like Texas, you know, and they were
out here struggling, like living in their cars and just
trying to go like paycheck to paycheck, and I was like,
my god, I don't ever want to do this and
have to worry like I don't have no money or
like I'm like desperate to book something for money. So
then I thought, okay, let me let me start something
(06:08):
on the side that will bring me money, and then
acting will be my hobby and if I booked something, great,
but I won't be depending on that as like my money,
you know, because I just enjoyed it as a hobby
of craft. Right. So I actually was in London. I
was like, I'm gonna start auditioning in London because they
probably need American accents. I probably have a higher chance
in London because we bought need americanized. This is my
thought process. And I was like, I probably have a
(06:29):
better chance there. And so ALA's dad, my ex husband
is He's from London. Okay, so that's why I would
go a lot to London. So I'm in London and
then I noticed that everybody has eyelash extensions. This is
like two They were doing it over there first. Yeah,
they were doing over there heavy. And I was like thinking,
and I'm like, I don't know one person in l
(06:50):
a that does eyelash extensions, and then I was like,
that's gonna be me. I'm going to be that person.
Like I didn't know one specific person that did everybody.
So I literally took a class a course out there,
and then I was like, this is gonna be my business.
Is gonna be my thing? And I remember I told
my dad. I told multiple people like this is gonna
be my business. They're like, you can't make that much
money with lashes, and they were so wrong. The beauty
(07:11):
industry is insane. So then I was like, what is
my name gonna be? And then I was like, okay,
I live in l A. Everybody wants to look like
a star. So then I thought of the name star Lash.
I googled everything of like how to start your business
because I had no clue. Obviously, I can't go to
my parents. I have really nobody in business to help
me or like guide me, you know, So I did
everything through Google. I did a lot of mistakes, but
(07:33):
I'm here, you know, Like I always say that, like
you learned from experience. I just threw myself in there
and so then my business literally took off, and it
just took off from Instagram. I started the page anonymously.
I was playing multiple roles, so my acting would kicked in.
I was like my secretary. Like people thought that star
Lash was like a huge company, and it was like
me and my dad's little ghetto apartment and like I
(07:55):
was just making it work. By the grace of God.
I got my first celebrity, which was Christina Milion. She
put me on her social media, and then I got
Selena gold Miss, and then I got Kylie and this
is Kylie was like sixteen, still living in her mom's house,
and you know, all of them through social media, they
would like promote me. My business took off and then
(08:15):
I was like, holy sh it, this is gonna be
my business. So I just went full throughout. I just
focused on that for the next two years. I was
working NonStop. I saved most of my money at the
time to like I wasn't taught about like taxes, that
wasn't I was scared to even put my money in
the bank because you know, like most Latinos, like, we're
not keep it in the mattress. We keep it under
(08:36):
the carpet. And under the carpet. My dad's installed carpet
for forty five years and he literally cut a little piece.
I put it under the petting, like my money was
saved there. And then I learned as I went, and
I and then and then eventually I was like, okay,
I can't keep doing this for my dad's house. I
had all of Instagram coming to my dad's place in
Vans like I had everybody, and I was like, okay,
(08:58):
I'm going to rent a spot. And then I met
one of my business partners, now sev I love the
facials there and everything that they do, their laser everything's
amazing there. And she was literally an angel and she
was like, you you can't get doing this from your
dad's apartment. Why don't you use my spa on molrows.
(09:18):
So I started there and then we kind of like
started working together, me and her because I already had
the celebrity clients. I was like, I'll bring them here.
They can laser do lashes. It could be a one
stop shop. So then we opened something together and then
it just took off from there. Oh my god, that
is so crazy because I feel like you brought innovation
(09:38):
to Los Angeles right from like You're like, there's this
thing that's happening, and it wasn't happening here. And I
feel like every successful small business that has a product
came out of a need, like the beauty blender. I'm like,
we already had sponges, but this was a different sponge
right right right, spanks right Like, I was like, no,
I feel like I had shape where before spanks it
(10:01):
was like but not like this, you know, and You're like,
oh my gosh. And it's just so interesting to me
that if you look at all the successful small businesses,
it is about innovation. And that's why, like the thing
I always talk about in my business with diversity is
you have to diversify talent because that's where people are
going to innovate, storytelling, producing, direct, whatever it is, because
(10:22):
that's where you're going to find the gold like you
did with your lashes. You know. It's so funny because
I my foundation focuses a lot on on Latin entrepreneurs
and what you win through and starting your small businesses
is unfortunately super common, not knowing back office stuff, not
doing tax stuff. Also like getting capital, like you know,
(10:44):
normally people would have to go to the bank get
capital to start a business. And so I know, you
do give classes, right, you train women in your business
um on how to be lash technicians, and then you
try to help them grow their own businesses. Yeah. So
that's literally what I'm poke us on now is just
helping other women launched their beauty career. I'm basically giving
(11:06):
them the roadmap to all of my mistakes because I'm like,
I wish somebody would have gave me this, that's so great. Yeah.
I got sued when I opened my first shop because
I didn't know that, you know, I needed certain licenses
or I didn't have the checklist that I needed to
you know. So I'm like, now I'm gonna if somebody
wants to start their business. We're in a day I
feel like where everybody wants to be an entrepreneur and
(11:27):
some people, you know, think it's easier than it is.
And I feel like, if they want to enter the
beauty space, the last world, then you know, I've done it.
I've been there, I've made my mistakes, but now I
know how to do it right, you know. So now
I want to help them get it right, do it
and be successful in this business because the beauty business
is huge and it's not going anywhere, Like people will
spend their last dollar trying to look good, especially in
(11:50):
Los Angeles, Miami, like all those places, it's like they
want to look good. Now, correct me if I brought
But did you have your first child, your daughter, when
you were starting your business? Yeah, so I had already
(12:10):
started the business. Um when I had her is when
I opened my shop, Okay, yeah. And I was really
scared to open a shop because it was like a
five year you know, please man, five year lease. You
gotta pay the rent. Yeah, and then I was like,
I don't know how my business is going to be
doing in five years, and like look five years it
was like COVID. It was. It was everything. You know,
I always say by the grades of God, like you know,
(12:31):
I'm still here and like thriving and surviving. But I
was scared. But she was literally like the push. And
I think that's one thing I always tell other moms
because I feel like kids can either stop your goals
and stop everything because you just you just get so
into like mom mode that you forget about yourself or
your goals or like you know, everything. And I've learned
(12:51):
like everything is really a balance. And I always said
to myself, like Okay, now that I'm having a baby, Like,
I'm going to use her as my motivation. She's not
gonna limit me, She's gonna better for her. Kylie is
one of my best friends. I look at her mom
and I'm like, Wow, they have this amazing business woman
to look up to and like guide them, you know,
And I want to do that for my daughter. I
didn't have that. I couldn't go to my mom, I
(13:11):
couldn't go to my dad. And I just was like
figuring it out. And I'm like, she already has an
advantage because I've already done so much business that yeah.
And she's like, Mom, I want to start this. I'm
gonna help her. I'm gonna get the tools. It's going
to be successful, you know. And now I just had
my second baby, and I'm like, look, this little boy
almost took me out. I'm like, I like, he's eight
weeks old, and I'm like, okay, it's time to go
(13:33):
full throat. Oh, Like I don't know, Like I just
I want to make my kids super proud, you know.
And I want to reach all of my goals and
I don't want my kids to limit me. And I
want to have that balance. And I think that's when
people struggle with I don't know, mom, Gil is like
really real because you're like, oh my god, I'm working
so much, I'm not spending time with my kids. Yes,
and you're like daily questioning, yo, I got am I
(13:53):
doing everything right? And and that's just gonna be with
us forever because we care. And by the way, like
great that you're even aware of, like do I have balance?
Let me check myself because that's everything. I love your
idea of like your children should motivate you and not
limit you. You You know people who are like I just
I can't pursue my dreams because I have kids, and
(14:15):
you're like, no, you should pursue your dreams because you
have kids exactly. But also to it, sometimes it's like
the partner that limits them. You know. Men love to
say they want a successful woman until they have one.
So it's it's like you have to remember to put
yourself first because if you're not happy, if you're not fulfilled,
how are you going to fulfill your kids or your
man or anybody else? You know? And I think like
a lot of the times women like they do they
(14:37):
just put themselves laugh. It's like the husband, the kids,
and then you. But you know. So, speaking of raising
a daughter and having a son, it's so cool you
have one of each. Because everybody's always to asking me like,
what do you want to teach your son? And I
was like, I can't teach him like tell him things.
I have to show him things. I remember when I
found out I was having a boy, I was like, oh,
I wanted a feminist girl. And a friend of mine
(14:59):
was like, oh my god. Uh, we need more male
feminists in this world. And your job is even more
important raising a son to make sure he grows up
to know how much women should be valued. We need
more women like you having sons and raising them. And
so I've kind of carried that flag and torch like, yeah,
I'm gonna raise a feminist son and and show him
(15:21):
my charity work and show him how hard I work,
and show him what success looks like, and show him
what failure looks like. I'm going to fail. I have
failed many times, and I think that's all we can do.
And I think with you, you know your daughter has
a front row seat to that of what a successful
independent woman looks like. Oh she's already like she's she's
an entrepreneur already, like she is. I'm like, this is
(15:43):
literally a Mimi like she she's my little clone. One
thing about me and my daughter, like our bond is
so strong. I always tell people like she's my soulmate
because I do. I'm so connected with her and she
goes through everything with me. But how I speak to
her is like I speak to her. I never spoken
to her like a little girl, like I speak to
her very real. She's very aware, like even with her
(16:06):
body part, she knows what everything is, you know. I'm like,
I'm not like, this is your private part, like these
are your breast because if something ever happens, I want
her to be very specific with me. I don't want
her to tell me like he touched my private parts.
I need her to identify everything for me, So I
speak to her very raw. I took her to all
Softidare last year with me. I did a free class
for twenty five women, and I showed her, you know
(16:27):
how some of the world lives. She tells me all
the time, Mommy, why don't you know how to swim?
And I'm like, Ala, because I didn't grow up with
a pool. I didn't have a pool, I didn't have
someone to teach me how to swim. My life was very,
very different than yours, and I need her to be
aware of that. I need her to be humble. She's
so I tell people all the time. I'm like, if
I could come back and live her life, I would
love to do that, you know, but I need to
(16:48):
show her both sides of the world, you know, because
my parents didn't have shoes, so they were like fourteen fifteen,
like they lived a very very poor life. So you know,
when I went to a Softdare last year, I'm like,
I need to come every year because it puts things
into perspective, like it really matters, like my purpose. I
need to help so much more people, you know what
I mean. And I feel like that is like my
purpose is to help my community, especially like Latinos that
(17:08):
come from the same circumstances that come from immigrant parents
that they're like, how am I going to do this?
It's like you can't be the one to change it
in your family. Yeah, that's how I feel like. I'm
the one that has her own business. I'm the one
that I always said I wanted a house. I wanted
my kids to grow up in a house, you know,
And I'm like No, we need more Latinos own houses.
We need more Latinas to like have their own businesses.
You know. It's like, like you said, even dream about it. Yeah,
(17:31):
even college, because I have a lot of young Latinas
with scholarship programs. They're senior in high school and they've
never even heard the word college, you know what I mean.
They're like, oh, yeah, that wasn't really set in my household,
Like it's not an option for me. And so that
idea of like you're gonna own a home one day,
they're kind of like, what, girl, We can't My whole
family can't even pay rent right now. How do you
(17:53):
think I'm gonna own a home? You know? I tell
young Latina's you're gonna have a career one day. You're
not gonna have a job. You're gonna have a career
and you're gonna really focus on something and be really
good at it, and you're gonna have economic mobility that's
going to lead you to wherever you want to go. Independence.
And just me saying that, or their sisters saying that,
or their mother saying that is like life change. It's
(18:14):
a life changing moment where they go, wait, I said,
I could own a house one day. Do you think
I could? Yes, yes, yeah, And it's like that's what
we need. We need to build them up with words,
even them seeing us, it's like motivation and inspiration for them.
And that's that's really like it's beautiful to be a
part of that journey too. Like I have this girl
(18:34):
she um, she's from Puerto Rico. She took my class
before she was going to Puerto Rico. She's the star
lash of Puerto Rico. Like go you you know she
she must have. I'm doing like the girls last year
and I'm like, that's what's up. That's good for you.
You know, it's so cool to see that I was
a part of that. Yeah, but how do you balance
(18:58):
the work and the mom thing and with a newborn?
So I literally the thing with balance, People are like,
you know, you're you can't be a hundred percent and
everything and you can't. You're gonna fall short in something.
So that's that's just being human and that's being realistic.
So if I work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, then Thursday Friday
will be just for my daughter. You know, now now
(19:20):
that I have to be like for my kids, you know,
I think the age cap with them, Like I'm trying
to like figure it out because he's eight weeks so
she's going back to school now, so it's like I
love the age. She'll be in school from eight to four.
And then I have, you know, that time with him.
I read something. It was like an article on like
a mom of two because when I was having my
second when I started to have anxiety because I was like,
(19:41):
oh my god, is she gonna feel some type of way?
She was excited. She's the one that asked me to
have a baby. That's really why I had a baby,
because she asked me to have a baby, and so
I was having an anxiety. I was like, oh she
gonna feel you know left now is she gonna feel this?
And then um, I read somewhere that said, you know,
when you know your baby is a baby, he's not
gonn to remember the emotions. But when she's five, you know,
(20:02):
she she's going to remember how I made her feel.
So she wants my time or something. Then I just
give the baby to my mom or his dad and
I'm like, I go do whatever she wants me to do. Work,
I'm still aware of her emotions, you know, especially now,
with the second baby, and I make her feel a
part of it all. That's literally her baby. That's her baby.
You can't tell her anything. She changes diaper, she does everything. Um,
(20:22):
So I'm trying to balance that. But I also tell
her like right now, I'm like okay, baby, Like we're
on vacation and I'm like, I have to go do
this work. And then once I come out, I'll get
in the pool with you. And she's she's aware, she understands,
and she won't come in here. She won't bother me.
She'll let me do the work and then I'll come out.
She was like, did you finish your work? I'm like, yeah,
I'm done. You know. Yeah. I always keep my promise.
That's what I do to balance, Like my mommy has
(20:44):
to work from here to here and then we're gonna
go swimming and then we're gonna have lunch, you know.
And he's like okay, and and I I don't falter
with that. You can be late, you can be this,
but like I keep my word, like Saturday is our day. Baby,
We're gonna go do this. Okay. Make sure Saturday's her day,
you know. Yeah, that that's the thing with kids. You can't.
You can't tell them something and not not do it
(21:05):
or not come through, like if I tell her something,
like we have to do it. Yeah. Yeah. People always
asked me, how do you do it? They used to
ask me before I had a baby, you do so much,
And I would say, because I don't have children. I
did so much in my career before I even had
Suntie and I got financially stable. So I get to
be really picky now with my thing, and I know
(21:25):
that's not the case for so many women. I like,
I'm super grateful for being an old mom and we
did not the perks. You had a year young Park
and I'm an old mom and both of them have
the perks. Some people are like, oh, I should have
had children later, and they're like, oh, I should have
had children sooner. With my daughter, it was hard. I
(21:46):
was so really grinding, hustling and grinding. Yeah, so I
was tired. I was like, oh, I'm exhausted. I didn't
really have a life. It was just work, and they
work and they work. And you know, now with my son,
I have a nanny. I've never had a nanny with
my daughter, but I was like, I need extra help now.
I need, you know, because I have another kid, I
have business, I have this, you know. I'm like, I
(22:06):
need to create the right team at home for me
to still operate. If not, I'm just gonna fall short. Well,
that's the thing, is like, it's so true that it
takes a village. It takes a village. It takes a village,
and you need to have the right team, especially with
your kids for you to feel comfortable to go to work,
to go here. You know, you you want to make
sure that they're being watched by the best people you know,
or like who you feel comfortable with, you know. So
(22:28):
I have my mom, I have their dad, I have
like you know, and I'm just like, that's what I
need to continue. You have to figure out who your
village is for sure. Yeah, exactly. What's a big mistake
you made that you learned from. I think doing more
research on like, for example, like opening the salon. I
(22:49):
made a lot of mistakes there because I wasn't knowledgeable
enough and I should have done more research. So I
thought I just had to save the money and get
a you know, get a location and then open up
a spot. I didn't know that I need did a
license for my my sign and I needed to task
the city. Hey can I put this sign up here?
I didn't know I had to, you know, make sure
that my shop was okay for a disabled person. You know,
(23:11):
I didn't My register wasn't um low enough for me
to serve somebody if they came in a wheelchair. I
didn't know that my bathroom needed to be fully big
for someone to do you know, a full one a
d and their wheelchair or if not, I can only
have that for employees. Like I wasn't aware of these things.
So one day this guy was walking by and he
was in a whelchair, and this is what he does
for a living. He goes business to business and he's
(23:32):
a guy. But my story is just all glass so
you can see straight through it. So he saw my desk,
the height of my desk, and he's like, oh, she
didn't she didn't do her research, she didn't do her homework. Boom.
He put a lawsuit in and when they served me,
I literally thought this was a joke. Here I am.
I'm like, I'm not paying you twenty dollars, like you know,
I was like, I didn't even have twenty dollars. I
just opened my shop, and sure enough I had to
(23:53):
pay him because I didn't do my homework. I didn't
I didn't have my checklist in order, and that was
a big mistake. So I made a lot of mistakes
that have cost me. Yeah, yeah, I agree. Like, you know,
I just entered the web three n f T space.
And I never tell women to like, oh, go buy
an n f T, go get cryptocurrency, because I'm like,
I'm not telling you do any of that. I'm telling
you go do the research on your own and you
(24:14):
make decisions on your own about this space, because it
takes a lot of research to, you know, to jump
in the web three area. And I feel the same way.
I'm like constantly learning. I'm like, okay, what do I
how do I do this? What is it? And it's
that's a really good lesson. And so yeah, I'm the
same way. I like to research everything. And now it's easy.
You gotta use your phone. You gotta go on YouTube,
(24:37):
you go TikTok, like they will teach you. Literally, they
will teach you anything. Like if I need to put
together something, if I'm going on YouTube, I'm pulling up
a video like it will tell me step by step
how to do it? Yeah, exactly. Um, alright. My last
question I asked everybody is your favorite book. Is there
a book you recommend to people to read? The Alchemist? Oh?
(24:58):
Great one. Yeah. You know what I love about that message.
It's like, yeah, it's about like following your dreams. But
I also think it's like we give up on our
dreams so easily, and sometimes the universe is like, wait,
I'm going to help you get there if you just
stick to it, you know. And it's like, if you
(25:19):
have a dream, like really follow it, stick to it
and work hard, and you'll you'll get there. Oh my gosh,
that's such I love that book. I forgot about that book.
I used to have copies of it. I'm gonna get
it again. Thank you so much for doing this was
a great conversation. I'm so proud of everything you've felt
and really the woman you are shining through. Thank you.
(25:39):
This was this was literally a dream to be on
you and talk to you and can connect with you.
I hope we do more things, you know, especially for
a Latin community. Thank you so much for listening. I'm
happy to be connected with you. Connections with Eva Lamboria
is a production of unbelievable and entertainment in partnership with
(26:01):
I Hearts Michael Burah podcast network. For more podcasts from
my Heart, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H