April 23, 2025 • 24 mins
FREE TRAINING: https://start.shahiddurrani.com/
What do a ball of sugar, lemon, and water have to do with entrepreneurship? Everything—if you ask Danielle Correia.
In this episode of the Super Entrepreneurs Podcast, host Shahid Durrani sits down with Danielle Correia, founder of Sugaring LA, a fast-growing beauty brand that's redefining hair removal through a natural, sustainable method that dates back to Cleopatra. Danielle shares how she scaled her business from a solo studio to a sought-after franchise network—drawing in many male franchisees from the tech world who were displaced by AI.
You'll hear how gut instinct, mindset, and an unwavering belief in her vision helped Danielle build a thriving business. She opens up about overcoming fear, following intuitive nudges, empowering employees, and what it really takes to scale a niche product in a competitive industry.
Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur or simply looking for a spark of inspiration—this episode will move you into action.
Chapter Stamps
01:21 The Rise of Sugaring LA
02:59 The Ancient Art of Sugaring
03:16 Starting the Business
04:52 Expansion and Growth
05:32 Challenges and Successes
06:38 Mindset and Fear
11:05 Balancing Work and Family
15:46 Innovation and New Ideas
16:45 Advice for Entrepreneurs
20:34 Scaling the Business
21:40 Marketing Strategies
23:12 Celebrity Clients
Pullout Quotes
"We're like the Whole Foods of hair removal. Once you try sugaring, you'll never wax again."
"Most of our franchisees are men who were in tech—displaced by AI—and looking for their next chapter."
"It’s educate or celebrate. There’s no such thing as failure if you're learning."
"I never had a plan—I had a gut feeling. And I always trusted it."
"Your energy is the tip of the pyramid. It filters down into every corner of your organization."
Social:
Website: https://www.sugaringla.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-sugaringla/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sugaringla/
Disclaimer:
Please be aware that the opinions and perspectives conveyed in this podcast are solely those of our guests and do not necessarily represent the views, ideologies, or principles of Super Entrepreneurs Podcast, its associated entities, or any organizations they represent or are affiliated with. We provide a platform for discussion and exploration, and the content of each episode is understood to be independent expressions from our guests, rather than a reflection of the beliefs held by the podcast or its hosts.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Don't be afraid to.
Have others around you who aregood at what you're not good at.
(00:25):
Welcome back to SuperEntrepreneurs Podcast.
I'm your host, Shahid Durrani, theshow where we dive into the minds
of high performing entrepreneurs,innovators, and world-class leaders.
If you are someone who's alwayslooking to grow push limits, think
bigger, you're in the right place.
Today's guest is someone who saw anopportunity in the beauty industry
(00:49):
and built something truly special.
Danielle Correia.
She is the founder of Sugaring la.
Yes.
A brand that's redefining hairremoval with a natural approach.
She's built a movement with this idea.
One that's about confidence,sustainability and doing
(01:12):
things differently.
And we love that here.
So welcome to our show, Danielle.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for having me.
My pleasure.
My pleasure.
So I know we were chitchatting beforehandand you mentioned something that I
think it should be on the show thata lot of people might not realize,
many of your franchisees are men.
(01:35):
Yes.
Yes, they are.
We definitely.
And what was the
reason why they became,can you share that as well?
I. We
about?
I can.
Yeah.
They were men in tech.
And they, their jobs were replaced by ai.
They saw that their wives werestill going to get these beauty
services and different treatments andthey're like, okay, I'm gonna look
(01:59):
for an opportunity in this sector.
'cause a lot of them hadtheir careers for, about.
20, 30 years and so really it's likekind of the next opportunity for them.
And it's been actually wonderfulbecause, they have wonderful business
acumen and they've been in business fora long time and are all professionals.
So it's been really neat to see,that shift for them going from.
(02:22):
Corporate life and yeah, going intoentrepreneurial in business for
themselves, probably in an industry thatthey never thought they would be in.
Yeah, bless you for bringing this topeople, because we need more of these
opportunities out there for people.
A lot of people are just stuck in theirhead, they're just stuck in the compulsive
(02:43):
thinking or the overthinking and.
They lack the action taking.
And that's what we'redoing here with the show.
We bringing guests like yourself is towake them up a little bit, give them a
budge and push them into action, right?
Yes.
'cause then to see peoplelike you, you did it.
And you're pioneering this ancient artof sugaring, like this has been done
(03:04):
for I believe thousands of years, butyou could correct me if I'm wrong.
Yeah,
no, it was, yeah, CLECleopatra was really the first
Wow.
Beauty queen.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So what initially drew you to thismethod and, how do you envision it
fitting into the market for the future?
(03:26):
Yeah.
Gosh, I look at it like we're the wholefoods of hair removal, at some point.
The goal is to break up withwaxing and people will never wax
again once they try shattering.
Yeah.
Because, there's no chemicals.
It's literally a ball ofsugar, lemon, and water.
And when I learned about this techniqueyears ago, I was like, this is amazing.
(03:48):
You can't hurt anybody.
How did you
learn it?
Learn them.
I learned.
Gosh, years ago I won't date myself, butI was in esthetician school and someone
came in and introduced us to a basictechnique and I was like, this is amazing.
And I was in school, so I hadall these people to practice on.
And when I got out, I was very confidentin my skills and I knew this was
(04:13):
something that, nobody was really doing.
And it was a bigopportunity in the market.
And I moved to Charleston, South Carolinaon a whim and just rented a little.
Room and put an ad in the littleblack book in the newspaper.
And after two years I sold my little oneroom studio, just me and my clientele
list for $50,000, in my early twenties.
(04:35):
I was like, that was, yeah, it was great.
And and then, the rest is history.
It moved over to Santa Monica, startedsugaring outta my apartment, and I'd have.
People come in at seven o'clockin the morning, before work every
20 minutes for their Brazilians.
Wow.
Yeah.
And do you have any locations in Canada?
(04:55):
We do not.
We do not have any locations inCanada, but I do have a friend
who has a few locations in Canada.
Oh, but they're not your brand?
They're not my brand, no.
But she has her own sugaring business.
Are you gonna expand here?
I have not thought about it.
I think we'll probably focus on the statesfor now and then, we'll, the States is
(05:17):
huge.
It's huge.
It's huge, right?
Yeah.
And then, once we build up the teamand yeah, the opportunity arises, I
definitely would because there areno sugaring franchises in Canada.
Remember me though?
I will, I,
You built this ground up.
It obviously requires some sort offoundational passion, some mindset towards
(05:39):
helping people and getting this out there.
Can you share any moment where
you realize.
That this is going to besuccessful and you need to move on.
It.
Was there an internal movement about that?
Yeah, I think I, I always knew itwould be really successful because it
(06:02):
was effortless for me to build this.
Yeah.
And maybe because I am
you always work out good, right?
Effortless.
No, I
give 110% when I do stuff.
And of
course.
And it, it just kept building and Iwasn't looking to open more studios.
I just I would, people would belike, please come open one over
here in Manhattan Beach, or Pleasecome open one east of the 4 0 5.
(06:23):
And then, my studio that inSanta Monica was so busy.
And then I would just,okay, let me do that.
And so I just don't laugh.
I don't have any.
Fear and I would Nice.
Usually it's a great thing, right?
But sometimes I'm like, okay, there'sa little bit of healthy fear I see now.
But I also see that paralysisof analysis in a lot of people.
And that was, for me, it was likeI got a feeling, I got a gut.
(06:44):
I know I'm great at this and I knowpeople love this and it's gonna do great.
If you can keep that positivemindset and keep putting the
work into it, it's gonna happen.
And yes.
Love it.
People, it's, it was word of mouth too,like we were all built on word of mouth
and I was even in Carlsbad the otherday, we were doing some training and
(07:05):
I was like, how'd you hear about it?
She's oh, my friend from Idrove all the way here from
Temecula, which is an hour away.
And it's just so neat toreally see how much people.
Love it and how much it's reallychanged their life because, they
couldn't wax, they couldn't shave.
They've been scarred or burnt by laserand they have eczema or psoriasis
or they have, really thick hair.
(07:26):
And so we get all the peoplewho are just like, ah, finally
I found something for me.
Yeah.
Can you do heads, men heads?
So I have done a man's head before, andI have to say after that, no, we say from
browse to toes, we do the forehead too,but the head hair is a whole nother beast.
(07:46):
And yeah.
If you're thicker
right,
But the rest of it is stillreally strong and thick.
So we've definitely everywhere else.
And also the beard, we typically don'tdo the beard depending on a man's
like root system if it's crossed.
'cause we wouldn't wantthem to have irritation.
But we do the neck
area.
You won't do this area.
Oh, we do that like under theeye to right here, but not, yeah.
(08:08):
This area I have here thatI shave and they say, you're
not supposed to shave here.
You're supposed to wax by.
I've been doing it for years.
I don't know.
I don't see any problem with that.
Yeah, you can do, whatever you want.
Men age, 10 years slower thanwomen because they shave their
face every day, so they're gettingall that exfoliation consistently.
Yeah.
Interesting fact.
Yeah.
(08:28):
Our dead skin cellsbuild up and we have to
like, so do you recommendstart shaving everywhere?
Start hitting the forehead.
I thought that was very close here.
No,
that's great.
All right.
That's great.
You mentioned about fear, fear is thereand is ingrained in us subconsciously,
(08:49):
but it was very important back in the day,because at any point we could get eaten
by a big monster in the jungle, right?
That doesn't exist anymore.
So to day-to-day life to havethat lingering fear with you all
the time, it only demotivates us.
It keeps us back from takingaction, believing in ourself.
(09:09):
So it turns out to be a negativeattribute, especially for
entrepreneurs or business people.
And the more you start becoming awareof your thoughts and your emotions.
You start realizing that, oh, waita minute, these are just emotions.
They're just thoughts that werewith me my whole life and they
(09:30):
don't have an effect on me anymore.
So we create that gap and that's whenyou start realizing, wait a minute,
this was I held myself back so long.
Just because of these thoughtsand emotions were just making me
feel a certain way and they werejust conditioning from my past.
It doesn't represent who Itruly am or what I can do.
That moment, when that shifts, oh man.
(09:53):
Yeah, watch out world,
yes.
Can't listen to the mind chatter, and no.
Yeah.
The thing you have to look at itlike when there, when you do go
for something and if it doesn'twork out it's educate or celebrate.
It's not stop.
Yes.
And don't again.
And I even had that when Icame back from Charleston.
I took my 50 grand and I. Put mymoney into a little space in Solana
(10:15):
Beach and, got the space ready, didall the things, spent all my money,
but my heart wasn't in it yet.
I wasn't ready 'cause of, the changethat happened, but, so I. Miraculously,
I had a call from someone if I wantedto come help them up in la and on
the same day, someone called me andasked me if my space was available.
And I'm like, you know what?
I just put all this money into it and allthis time and effort, but you know what?
(10:38):
I'm ready for the nextthing and the next change.
And it was the best decisionI ever made was just.
Walking away from that and movingup to Santa Monica and starting
sugar in LA not even knowingthat's what I was gonna be doing.
I look at everything happensin this life, for a reason.
And you just have to keep Yes.
Moving through.
And, I am a gut person, there's the head.
(11:00):
Yes.
Same here.
I'm like the feelings.
I love it.
Song and yeah.
I think now that I've had childrenit's oh wait, I have to take all
of this into consideration too.
Before I just, steamroll all my projectsbecause it's about how do I split my time
and 'cause I give so much to what I'mdoing, I need to make sure I'm giving.
(11:21):
To my children, this amount of timewhen I'm spending my time and I'm
not distracted with the other things.
Yeah.
No, it's a new challenge in life of howdo I, split myself up throughout the day.
Yeah.
No, it's great.
I think we're gonna be great friends.
When you talk about gutfeeling, 'cause I live by it.
I don't I feeling.
Massive action, feeling masses like this.
(11:42):
That's what
I've been doing and like you mentioned,effortless is basically effortless
action where the action doesn't feellike action anymore like it used to.
I should dread the smallest things,the bigger thing, it doesn't matter.
Just work was work evenit was my own business.
When I felt that I started becoming ankind of like an employee because I was.
Busy.
So busy.
(12:03):
'cause I was working in thebusiness I just didn't know.
I said, what the hell is this?
I left nine to five andI'm way more busier.
I don't need to see my kids.
What's going on?
I didn't know.
It's just when you hit rockbottom in my situation, then you
start realizing, wait a minute,there's something not right here.
And it looks like you are what we call aunconscious competent, meaning you are.
(12:24):
Naturally in tune to this oryou went through some mindset
training, would you like to share?
I would say it's definitely just in tune.
I never went through any trainingexcept the, hard knocks of life.
Yeah.
I'm a very even if I touch and I getburned, I keep going back and trying
(12:44):
different ways and seeing good.
What's gonna, what's gonna work?
And being thoughtful and methodical inthat at the same time, and not letting
the doubt or the fear creep in, buthaving a good amount of, analysis.
I think of now when I look back, I'dbe like, I. Jamie, to my counterpart,
I, I'd say we need to do this.
(13:05):
Let's get this done.
And she'd be like, ah, and she's very, thetype A, and I love that about her because
she's okay, wait, Danielle, we have thesystem and the process that I have to go
into the backend and make sure all theIT stuff is set up, and I'm just like.
Let's do this.
So it's funny, it's nice toalmost, to have somebody who is
the opposite of you, who can Yeah.
I can be like the thought visionary.
(13:25):
I, we need to get this done andmy mind's always going, and then
somebody who can also help implementthat and the system that might need
to be in place to support that.
And which is, I love franchising, right?
I can now continue to.
Advance and think of newcreative ideas for the brand.
And then I have a team behind methat is, has everything down to the
(13:47):
little nitty gritty, documented.
There's like a brain of sugaring LA thatthe franchisees get to go in and really
have all the tools and resources attheir disposal for how sugar LA operates.
I.
Yeah, it's beautiful, to create aniche product and make it successful.
So kudos to you.
I'm very happy for you.
(14:09):
I wish you all the growth in what you'redoing because the more franchises you.
Provide to people, the bettertheir life will become.
It's all linked.
Yes.
Yes.
And if it's something that is nichebased, and I'm sure there's gonna be
other brands that are gonna come up withthis, and obviously it might be even out,
like your friend has a few in Canada.
(14:29):
Yeah.
And it's all about sustainability.
It's all about natural green aswe progress, especially the newer
generations like Generation Z, is that
Yes.
Yeah.
They're very strict.
Yeah, very strict about policies and like
where are
they?
Yes.
They're very, they li they likesecondhand, they like thrifting,
(14:50):
they like sustainability.
They like zero waste.
And that is sugaring.
We have, gloves, we have one ballof caramel that goes on to you.
And it's extremely sanitary.
It's biodegradable.
Our skincare line is simple.
Organic ingredients, no seedoils, no one's doing that in
the industry on a large scale.
(15:11):
Yeah.
High quality products, ingredients ataffordable prices, offering, services
like this and, we're also gender friendly.
Like you can be a man walking in andit's not pink and red and everyone looks
at you weird what are you doing here?
You're not
gonna be doing one of these.
You don't.
Exactly.
You are welcome judging.
Exactly.
(15:31):
And it's comfortable andinviting for everybody.
I bet you guys would be surprisedif I walk in, it's six four.
I'm telling small players who come inand get full bodies done in Santa Monica.
Oh, wow.
Wow.
Okay, cool.
Yeah.
You mentioned new ideas, innovationis a big part of what you do to stay
(15:51):
ahead because remember each being is sopowerful that could change the world,
Having this niche product, there's gonnabe other innovations that gonna come out.
Do you meditate to come up with newideas, innovations, or you just think it,
I. I think about it, and I geta lot of good thinking done
(16:13):
before I go to bed and Okay.
If I take a bath and when I don'thave a device in my hand I get a lot
of good thinking done when I, it'sjust quiet and sometimes, it's hard
when you're in the thick of it and theminutiae all the things around you.
If I'm too deep in all of the littlethings that everyone else is already
taking care of and I just wanna know aboutthem, but then I'm thinking about them
(16:36):
too I try step away a little bit from thatso I can, stay in that innovative space.
Okay, good.
If you're looking back at your journey
Can you share any advice toentrepreneurs or, especially women
to help them if they're looking tointroduce a niche service or product
(16:58):
into a competitive market likethis, you're bringing something new.
Yeah.
Any advice from what you havelearned that could help someone?
Yeah.
I. Don't be afraid to.
Have others around you who aregood at what you're not good at.
And I definitely know my strengthsand my wheelhouse and be okay with
(17:20):
it.
Yeah, what I enjoy because I wanna enjoylife, like quality of life is number one.
And so there were things I didn'tlove doing in the business.
Like the behind the desk or the it part?
It just everything.
I had no problem hiring somebody andgetting someone who was the right
person for that job who enjoyedit, so I could focus on what I
enjoy and continue to drive that.
(17:42):
I would say that is something,definitely don't be afraid of that.
Don't feel like you need to do everythingokay and have control everything.
How much control do we really have?
I feel we can plan, likewe had a plan a direction.
It shifted and it happens allthe time, especially in business.
And we want to go one direction.
But some things happen wherewe go somewhere else, but I
(18:03):
feel like it's just dependent.
Very much so on the energy that wehold because everything is energy.
So if we're optimistic, enthusiastic,grateful, joyful, happy fulfilled in the
present moment, yes, we'll start seeing.
Better things happen, but thedirection might not be where you
(18:25):
thought you were gonna end up.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And it's trickled down, having that
openness and just not havingthe fear and take the action.
Sorry, go ahead.
Yes.
And you, your energy is thetip of the pyramid, right?
And that waters down throughyour whole organization.
Yes.
And so make sure if it's not you,if you're second in, in hand.
Is, can embody you, right?
(18:46):
And then your staff, you.
And so I think that for me has beena big thing in my organization of,
I treat people how I would wanna betreated, even though I'm a boss, right?
I'm gonna be able to lead.
I. Because I remember having those jobswhere I was like, yeah, I would never
wanna work for someone like that andI would never wanna be that person.
And I think, it justcultivates a great culture.
(19:07):
And that is so important in abusiness and industry is having
a good culture in your brand.
Yeah.
Having the proper emotionalintelligence in the organization is
super important because no one wantsto go somewhere where they're unhappy.
No, but it could be that they goto employment where everything is
(19:28):
amazing, they have all the systems inplace to take care of the employees.
Foundationally, the employeeitself could just not be happy.
That happens a lot too.
Absolutely.
You can do whatever you can.
Yes.
You're just not gonna be content.
So
I think mindset should be veryimportant part of an organization.
(19:48):
Yes it is.
Yeah.
It's everything you know, because they'realso the ones servicing your clients.
Yeah.
And to uphold it shows.
Yeah.
And I love my industry becauseI look at it like I'm empowering
These women, typically at womenare our practitioners, or licensed
estheticians or cosmetologists.
They're learning a new skillthat we're teaching them.
And they can get a job anywherein the world with this skill.
(20:10):
And I love how, they haveopportunity to advance and grow.
And feel challenged, but also havelike great work hours and, I offer
my employees at my studio's healthbenefits, like things that aren't
typical in our industry that really,give them the leg up and and they're
gonna be with you a lot longer becauseyou're investing in them and they care.
(20:31):
And it shows you care.
Yeah.
It's true.
Yeah.
So can you share that numberone strategy, a strategy time?
Can you share that one mainstrategy that helped you scale?
And you could take a minute to think aboutit, but something that could help someone,
something that was transformational.
(20:53):
Yeah.
Well, I. I don't know if I do it likea lot of people, but I am now more be
careful what you wish for kind of person.
Because if I start thinking about it toomuch and then I just start looking for a
space and then, like I'll start creatingit in my mind and then it just starts
(21:14):
to say, oh, okay, God's you want that?
Okay.
This is what you really want.
Yeah.
Maintenance, upkeep and support it tomake sure, if you create all of these
things which I love doing, but youdo have to take care of them, right?
Or you have to build 'em up and sell it.
So maybe having a plan morelong term of what you wanna do
(21:36):
with it and laying that out.
And, I, but did you run
ads, Facebook ads or anything likethat to scale your business quickly?
Or was it just word of mouth explosion?
When I did it, it was wordof mouth explosion and Yelp.
Beautiful.
Yelp has not started, but nowthat is not, we can't do that
in, our states where people don'tknow sugaring or sugaring LA yet.
(21:57):
And so it is heavy on the digitalmarketing community events.
Really becoming, a staple in yourcommunity and educating people about
what sugaring is and all the benefitsand how much better it is than waxing
and just really getting them in the doorto try something, for the first time.
Because if it's not a friend telling youto try it for the first time, you're like,
might be a little more weird or scared.
(22:19):
Yeah.
So yeah, for us it was justthat really organic growth.
So we were very lucky, especially in la.
To be able to have so muchsuccess, but you also have to
maintain that success, right?
Yeah, of course.
And so a lot of that is dependenton having excellent service making
sure, the staff is educatingyou're rebooking appointments.
(22:40):
'cause every person when you are doingdigital ads, they cost you, anywhere
from probably nine to $23 a click, right?
So what is your staff doing?
Are they trained really well to beable to give a hundred percent to that
client and do all the steps that they'retrained to, to do which is making sure
that client comes back in the door?
So that is definitely a large focus forus is making sure everybody is giving,
(23:06):
just excellent service from A to z.
No, it's wonderful.
Yeah,
Danielle, it was great talking to you.
Being at in LA you must becatering to Hollywood as well.
We do, yes, we definitely do.
Yeah.
Because natural
right.
Is healthy too, what you do.
Yeah.
And we'd also, sugaring, even for peoplewho've had laser, like Gwyneth Paltrow's,
(23:31):
one of our clients, and she'll come inand see anybody who is Gwyneth Paltrow.
Iron Nail.
I don't actually
know her, so I'm sorry,
but she's lovely and she, I'm bad with
names, by the way.
It's not her.
It's just my,
oh, it's fine.
I can't
remember the actors.
I watched them and my kids laugh.
I know
that's the name I go,I don't focus on that.
(23:52):
I just look at the art.
I'm just looking at whatthey're doing in the moment.
Yes.
Oh, that's so funny.
Oh, I, I know.
And Rod, rod, Luke we definitelyhave some clients who just love
sugary and love supporting our brand.
And it's really we do love to,keep most of their privacies
love it.
Love it.
Danielle thank you.
Thank you so much for coming on our showtoday and giving your time and energy
Don't be afraid to.
Have others around you who aregood at what you're not good at.
(00:25):
Welcome back to SuperEntrepreneurs Podcast.
I'm your host, Shahid Durrani, theshow where we dive into the minds
of high performing entrepreneurs,innovators, and world-class leaders.
If you are someone who's alwayslooking to grow push limits, think
bigger, you're in the right place.
Today's guest is someone who saw anopportunity in the beauty industry
(00:49):
and built something truly special.
Danielle Correia.
She is the founder of Sugaring la.
Yes.
A brand that's redefining hairremoval with a natural approach.
She's built a movement with this idea.
One that's about confidence,sustainability and doing
(01:12):
things differently.
And we love that here.
So welcome to our show, Danielle.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for having me.
My pleasure.
My pleasure.
So I know we were chitchatting beforehandand you mentioned something that I
think it should be on the show thata lot of people might not realize,
many of your franchisees are men.
(01:35):
Yes.
Yes, they are.
We definitely.
And what was the
reason why they became,can you share that as well?
I. We
about?
I can.
Yeah.
They were men in tech.
And they, their jobs were replaced by ai.
They saw that their wives werestill going to get these beauty
services and different treatments andthey're like, okay, I'm gonna look
(01:59):
for an opportunity in this sector.
'cause a lot of them hadtheir careers for, about.
20, 30 years and so really it's likekind of the next opportunity for them.
And it's been actually wonderfulbecause, they have wonderful business
acumen and they've been in business fora long time and are all professionals.
So it's been really neat to see,that shift for them going from.
(02:22):
Corporate life and yeah, going intoentrepreneurial in business for
themselves, probably in an industry thatthey never thought they would be in.
Yeah, bless you for bringing this topeople, because we need more of these
opportunities out there for people.
A lot of people are just stuck in theirhead, they're just stuck in the compulsive
(02:43):
thinking or the overthinking and.
They lack the action taking.
And that's what we'redoing here with the show.
We bringing guests like yourself is towake them up a little bit, give them a
budge and push them into action, right?
Yes.
'cause then to see peoplelike you, you did it.
And you're pioneering this ancient artof sugaring, like this has been done
(03:04):
for I believe thousands of years, butyou could correct me if I'm wrong.
Yeah,
no, it was, yeah, CLECleopatra was really the first
Wow.
Beauty queen.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So what initially drew you to thismethod and, how do you envision it
fitting into the market for the future?
(03:26):
Yeah.
Gosh, I look at it like we're the wholefoods of hair removal, at some point.
The goal is to break up withwaxing and people will never wax
again once they try shattering.
Yeah.
Because, there's no chemicals.
It's literally a ball ofsugar, lemon, and water.
And when I learned about this techniqueyears ago, I was like, this is amazing.
(03:48):
You can't hurt anybody.
How did you
learn it?
Learn them.
I learned.
Gosh, years ago I won't date myself, butI was in esthetician school and someone
came in and introduced us to a basictechnique and I was like, this is amazing.
And I was in school, so I hadall these people to practice on.
And when I got out, I was very confidentin my skills and I knew this was
(04:13):
something that, nobody was really doing.
And it was a bigopportunity in the market.
And I moved to Charleston, South Carolinaon a whim and just rented a little.
Room and put an ad in the littleblack book in the newspaper.
And after two years I sold my little oneroom studio, just me and my clientele
list for $50,000, in my early twenties.
(04:35):
I was like, that was, yeah, it was great.
And and then, the rest is history.
It moved over to Santa Monica, startedsugaring outta my apartment, and I'd have.
People come in at seven o'clockin the morning, before work every
20 minutes for their Brazilians.
Wow.
Yeah.
And do you have any locations in Canada?
(04:55):
We do not.
We do not have any locations inCanada, but I do have a friend
who has a few locations in Canada.
Oh, but they're not your brand?
They're not my brand, no.
But she has her own sugaring business.
Are you gonna expand here?
I have not thought about it.
I think we'll probably focus on the statesfor now and then, we'll, the States is
(05:17):
huge.
It's huge.
It's huge, right?
Yeah.
And then, once we build up the teamand yeah, the opportunity arises, I
definitely would because there areno sugaring franchises in Canada.
Remember me though?
I will, I,
You built this ground up.
It obviously requires some sort offoundational passion, some mindset towards
(05:39):
helping people and getting this out there.
Can you share any moment where
you realize.
That this is going to besuccessful and you need to move on.
It.
Was there an internal movement about that?
Yeah, I think I, I always knew itwould be really successful because it
(06:02):
was effortless for me to build this.
Yeah.
And maybe because I am
you always work out good, right?
Effortless.
No, I
give 110% when I do stuff.
And of
course.
And it, it just kept building and Iwasn't looking to open more studios.
I just I would, people would belike, please come open one over
here in Manhattan Beach, or Pleasecome open one east of the 4 0 5.
(06:23):
And then, my studio that inSanta Monica was so busy.
And then I would just,okay, let me do that.
And so I just don't laugh.
I don't have any.
Fear and I would Nice.
Usually it's a great thing, right?
But sometimes I'm like, okay, there'sa little bit of healthy fear I see now.
But I also see that paralysisof analysis in a lot of people.
And that was, for me, it was likeI got a feeling, I got a gut.
(06:44):
I know I'm great at this and I knowpeople love this and it's gonna do great.
If you can keep that positivemindset and keep putting the
work into it, it's gonna happen.
And yes.
Love it.
People, it's, it was word of mouth too,like we were all built on word of mouth
and I was even in Carlsbad the otherday, we were doing some training and
(07:05):
I was like, how'd you hear about it?
She's oh, my friend from Idrove all the way here from
Temecula, which is an hour away.
And it's just so neat toreally see how much people.
Love it and how much it's reallychanged their life because, they
couldn't wax, they couldn't shave.
They've been scarred or burnt by laserand they have eczema or psoriasis
or they have, really thick hair.
(07:26):
And so we get all the peoplewho are just like, ah, finally
I found something for me.
Yeah.
Can you do heads, men heads?
So I have done a man's head before, andI have to say after that, no, we say from
browse to toes, we do the forehead too,but the head hair is a whole nother beast.
(07:46):
And yeah.
If you're thicker
right,
But the rest of it is stillreally strong and thick.
So we've definitely everywhere else.
And also the beard, we typically don'tdo the beard depending on a man's
like root system if it's crossed.
'cause we wouldn't wantthem to have irritation.
But we do the neck
area.
You won't do this area.
Oh, we do that like under theeye to right here, but not, yeah.
(08:08):
This area I have here thatI shave and they say, you're
not supposed to shave here.
You're supposed to wax by.
I've been doing it for years.
I don't know.
I don't see any problem with that.
Yeah, you can do, whatever you want.
Men age, 10 years slower thanwomen because they shave their
face every day, so they're gettingall that exfoliation consistently.
Yeah.
Interesting fact.
Yeah.
(08:28):
Our dead skin cellsbuild up and we have to
like, so do you recommendstart shaving everywhere?
Start hitting the forehead.
I thought that was very close here.
No,
that's great.
All right.
That's great.
You mentioned about fear, fear is thereand is ingrained in us subconsciously,
(08:49):
but it was very important back in the day,because at any point we could get eaten
by a big monster in the jungle, right?
That doesn't exist anymore.
So to day-to-day life to havethat lingering fear with you all
the time, it only demotivates us.
It keeps us back from takingaction, believing in ourself.
(09:09):
So it turns out to be a negativeattribute, especially for
entrepreneurs or business people.
And the more you start becoming awareof your thoughts and your emotions.
You start realizing that, oh, waita minute, these are just emotions.
They're just thoughts that werewith me my whole life and they
(09:30):
don't have an effect on me anymore.
So we create that gap and that's whenyou start realizing, wait a minute,
this was I held myself back so long.
Just because of these thoughtsand emotions were just making me
feel a certain way and they werejust conditioning from my past.
It doesn't represent who Itruly am or what I can do.
That moment, when that shifts, oh man.
(09:53):
Yeah, watch out world,
yes.
Can't listen to the mind chatter, and no.
Yeah.
The thing you have to look at itlike when there, when you do go
for something and if it doesn'twork out it's educate or celebrate.
It's not stop.
Yes.
And don't again.
And I even had that when Icame back from Charleston.
I took my 50 grand and I. Put mymoney into a little space in Solana
(10:15):
Beach and, got the space ready, didall the things, spent all my money,
but my heart wasn't in it yet.
I wasn't ready 'cause of, the changethat happened, but, so I. Miraculously,
I had a call from someone if I wantedto come help them up in la and on
the same day, someone called me andasked me if my space was available.
And I'm like, you know what?
I just put all this money into it and allthis time and effort, but you know what?
(10:38):
I'm ready for the nextthing and the next change.
And it was the best decisionI ever made was just.
Walking away from that and movingup to Santa Monica and starting
sugar in LA not even knowingthat's what I was gonna be doing.
I look at everything happensin this life, for a reason.
And you just have to keep Yes.
Moving through.
And, I am a gut person, there's the head.
(11:00):
Yes.
Same here.
I'm like the feelings.
I love it.
Song and yeah.
I think now that I've had childrenit's oh wait, I have to take all
of this into consideration too.
Before I just, steamroll all my projectsbecause it's about how do I split my time
and 'cause I give so much to what I'mdoing, I need to make sure I'm giving.
(11:21):
To my children, this amount of timewhen I'm spending my time and I'm
not distracted with the other things.
Yeah.
No, it's a new challenge in life of howdo I, split myself up throughout the day.
Yeah.
No, it's great.
I think we're gonna be great friends.
When you talk about gutfeeling, 'cause I live by it.
I don't I feeling.
Massive action, feeling masses like this.
(11:42):
That's what
I've been doing and like you mentioned,effortless is basically effortless
action where the action doesn't feellike action anymore like it used to.
I should dread the smallest things,the bigger thing, it doesn't matter.
Just work was work evenit was my own business.
When I felt that I started becoming ankind of like an employee because I was.
Busy.
So busy.
(12:03):
'cause I was working in thebusiness I just didn't know.
I said, what the hell is this?
I left nine to five andI'm way more busier.
I don't need to see my kids.
What's going on?
I didn't know.
It's just when you hit rockbottom in my situation, then you
start realizing, wait a minute,there's something not right here.
And it looks like you are what we call aunconscious competent, meaning you are.
(12:24):
Naturally in tune to this oryou went through some mindset
training, would you like to share?
I would say it's definitely just in tune.
I never went through any trainingexcept the, hard knocks of life.
Yeah.
I'm a very even if I touch and I getburned, I keep going back and trying
(12:44):
different ways and seeing good.
What's gonna, what's gonna work?
And being thoughtful and methodical inthat at the same time, and not letting
the doubt or the fear creep in, buthaving a good amount of, analysis.
I think of now when I look back, I'dbe like, I. Jamie, to my counterpart,
I, I'd say we need to do this.
(13:05):
Let's get this done.
And she'd be like, ah, and she's very, thetype A, and I love that about her because
she's okay, wait, Danielle, we have thesystem and the process that I have to go
into the backend and make sure all theIT stuff is set up, and I'm just like.
Let's do this.
So it's funny, it's nice toalmost, to have somebody who is
the opposite of you, who can Yeah.
I can be like the thought visionary.
(13:25):
I, we need to get this done andmy mind's always going, and then
somebody who can also help implementthat and the system that might need
to be in place to support that.
And which is, I love franchising, right?
I can now continue to.
Advance and think of newcreative ideas for the brand.
And then I have a team behind methat is, has everything down to the
(13:47):
little nitty gritty, documented.
There's like a brain of sugaring LA thatthe franchisees get to go in and really
have all the tools and resources attheir disposal for how sugar LA operates.
I.
Yeah, it's beautiful, to create aniche product and make it successful.
So kudos to you.
I'm very happy for you.
(14:09):
I wish you all the growth in what you'redoing because the more franchises you.
Provide to people, the bettertheir life will become.
It's all linked.
Yes.
Yes.
And if it's something that is nichebased, and I'm sure there's gonna be
other brands that are gonna come up withthis, and obviously it might be even out,
like your friend has a few in Canada.
(14:29):
Yeah.
And it's all about sustainability.
It's all about natural green aswe progress, especially the newer
generations like Generation Z, is that
Yes.
Yeah.
They're very strict.
Yeah, very strict about policies and like
where are
they?
Yes.
They're very, they li they likesecondhand, they like thrifting,
(14:50):
they like sustainability.
They like zero waste.
And that is sugaring.
We have, gloves, we have one ballof caramel that goes on to you.
And it's extremely sanitary.
It's biodegradable.
Our skincare line is simple.
Organic ingredients, no seedoils, no one's doing that in
the industry on a large scale.
(15:11):
Yeah.
High quality products, ingredients ataffordable prices, offering, services
like this and, we're also gender friendly.
Like you can be a man walking in andit's not pink and red and everyone looks
at you weird what are you doing here?
You're not
gonna be doing one of these.
You don't.
Exactly.
You are welcome judging.
Exactly.
(15:31):
And it's comfortable andinviting for everybody.
I bet you guys would be surprisedif I walk in, it's six four.
I'm telling small players who come inand get full bodies done in Santa Monica.
Oh, wow.
Wow.
Okay, cool.
Yeah.
You mentioned new ideas, innovationis a big part of what you do to stay
(15:51):
ahead because remember each being is sopowerful that could change the world,
Having this niche product, there's gonnabe other innovations that gonna come out.
Do you meditate to come up with newideas, innovations, or you just think it,
I. I think about it, and I geta lot of good thinking done
(16:13):
before I go to bed and Okay.
If I take a bath and when I don'thave a device in my hand I get a lot
of good thinking done when I, it'sjust quiet and sometimes, it's hard
when you're in the thick of it and theminutiae all the things around you.
If I'm too deep in all of the littlethings that everyone else is already
taking care of and I just wanna know aboutthem, but then I'm thinking about them
(16:36):
too I try step away a little bit from thatso I can, stay in that innovative space.
Okay, good.
If you're looking back at your journey
Can you share any advice toentrepreneurs or, especially women
to help them if they're looking tointroduce a niche service or product
(16:58):
into a competitive market likethis, you're bringing something new.
Yeah.
Any advice from what you havelearned that could help someone?
Yeah.
I. Don't be afraid to.
Have others around you who aregood at what you're not good at.
And I definitely know my strengthsand my wheelhouse and be okay with
(17:20):
it.
Yeah, what I enjoy because I wanna enjoylife, like quality of life is number one.
And so there were things I didn'tlove doing in the business.
Like the behind the desk or the it part?
It just everything.
I had no problem hiring somebody andgetting someone who was the right
person for that job who enjoyedit, so I could focus on what I
enjoy and continue to drive that.
(17:42):
I would say that is something,definitely don't be afraid of that.
Don't feel like you need to do everythingokay and have control everything.
How much control do we really have?
I feel we can plan, likewe had a plan a direction.
It shifted and it happens allthe time, especially in business.
And we want to go one direction.
But some things happen wherewe go somewhere else, but I
(18:03):
feel like it's just dependent.
Very much so on the energy that wehold because everything is energy.
So if we're optimistic, enthusiastic,grateful, joyful, happy fulfilled in the
present moment, yes, we'll start seeing.
Better things happen, but thedirection might not be where you
(18:25):
thought you were gonna end up.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And it's trickled down, having that
openness and just not havingthe fear and take the action.
Sorry, go ahead.
Yes.
And you, your energy is thetip of the pyramid, right?
And that waters down throughyour whole organization.
Yes.
And so make sure if it's not you,if you're second in, in hand.
Is, can embody you, right?
(18:46):
And then your staff, you.
And so I think that for me has beena big thing in my organization of,
I treat people how I would wanna betreated, even though I'm a boss, right?
I'm gonna be able to lead.
I. Because I remember having those jobswhere I was like, yeah, I would never
wanna work for someone like that andI would never wanna be that person.
And I think, it justcultivates a great culture.
(19:07):
And that is so important in abusiness and industry is having
a good culture in your brand.
Yeah.
Having the proper emotionalintelligence in the organization is
super important because no one wantsto go somewhere where they're unhappy.
No, but it could be that they goto employment where everything is
(19:28):
amazing, they have all the systems inplace to take care of the employees.
Foundationally, the employeeitself could just not be happy.
That happens a lot too.
Absolutely.
You can do whatever you can.
Yes.
You're just not gonna be content.
So
I think mindset should be veryimportant part of an organization.
(19:48):
Yes it is.
Yeah.
It's everything you know, because they'realso the ones servicing your clients.
Yeah.
And to uphold it shows.
Yeah.
And I love my industry becauseI look at it like I'm empowering
These women, typically at womenare our practitioners, or licensed
estheticians or cosmetologists.
They're learning a new skillthat we're teaching them.
And they can get a job anywherein the world with this skill.
(20:10):
And I love how, they haveopportunity to advance and grow.
And feel challenged, but also havelike great work hours and, I offer
my employees at my studio's healthbenefits, like things that aren't
typical in our industry that really,give them the leg up and and they're
gonna be with you a lot longer becauseyou're investing in them and they care.
(20:31):
And it shows you care.
Yeah.
It's true.
Yeah.
So can you share that numberone strategy, a strategy time?
Can you share that one mainstrategy that helped you scale?
And you could take a minute to think aboutit, but something that could help someone,
something that was transformational.
(20:53):
Yeah.
Well, I. I don't know if I do it likea lot of people, but I am now more be
careful what you wish for kind of person.
Because if I start thinking about it toomuch and then I just start looking for a
space and then, like I'll start creatingit in my mind and then it just starts
(21:14):
to say, oh, okay, God's you want that?
Okay.
This is what you really want.
Yeah.
Maintenance, upkeep and support it tomake sure, if you create all of these
things which I love doing, but youdo have to take care of them, right?
Or you have to build 'em up and sell it.
So maybe having a plan morelong term of what you wanna do
(21:36):
with it and laying that out.
And, I, but did you run
ads, Facebook ads or anything likethat to scale your business quickly?
Or was it just word of mouth explosion?
When I did it, it was wordof mouth explosion and Yelp.
Beautiful.
Yelp has not started, but nowthat is not, we can't do that
in, our states where people don'tknow sugaring or sugaring LA yet.
(21:57):
And so it is heavy on the digitalmarketing community events.
Really becoming, a staple in yourcommunity and educating people about
what sugaring is and all the benefitsand how much better it is than waxing
and just really getting them in the doorto try something, for the first time.
Because if it's not a friend telling youto try it for the first time, you're like,
might be a little more weird or scared.
(22:19):
Yeah.
So yeah, for us it was justthat really organic growth.
So we were very lucky, especially in la.
To be able to have so muchsuccess, but you also have to
maintain that success, right?
Yeah, of course.
And so a lot of that is dependenton having excellent service making
sure, the staff is educatingyou're rebooking appointments.
(22:40):
'cause every person when you are doingdigital ads, they cost you, anywhere
from probably nine to $23 a click, right?
So what is your staff doing?
Are they trained really well to beable to give a hundred percent to that
client and do all the steps that they'retrained to, to do which is making sure
that client comes back in the door?
So that is definitely a large focus forus is making sure everybody is giving,
(23:06):
just excellent service from A to z.
No, it's wonderful.
Yeah,
Danielle, it was great talking to you.
Being at in LA you must becatering to Hollywood as well.
We do, yes, we definitely do.
Yeah.
Because natural
right.
Is healthy too, what you do.
Yeah.
And we'd also, sugaring, even for peoplewho've had laser, like Gwyneth Paltrow's,
(23:31):
one of our clients, and she'll come inand see anybody who is Gwyneth Paltrow.
Iron Nail.
I don't actually
know her, so I'm sorry,
but she's lovely and she, I'm bad with
names, by the way.
It's not her.
It's just my,
oh, it's fine.
I can't
remember the actors.
I watched them and my kids laugh.
I know
that's the name I go,I don't focus on that.
(23:52):
I just look at the art.
I'm just looking at whatthey're doing in the moment.
Yes.
Oh, that's so funny.
Oh, I, I know.
And Rod, rod, Luke we definitelyhave some clients who just love
sugary and love supporting our brand.
And it's really we do love to,keep most of their privacies
love it.
Love it.
Danielle thank you.
Thank you so much for coming on our showtoday and giving your time and energy
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