We were lucky to catch up with Nancy Leon recently and have shared our conversation below.
Nancy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love for you to start by sharing your thoughts about the pros and cons of family businesses.
This is a great question for me! Fun fact: I come from a line of business owners! My grandparents, my parents, and now all but one of my (6) siblings are a business owner. When I was about 8 years old, my parents opened the very first Mexican/Latino grocery store in the valley that we lived in. Therefore, I instantly became an employee, along with the rest of my family. This first hand experience, showed me that running a family business flows relatively nicely. Everyone in my family played an important role, and together, we grew the business and became very well known in our community for it. At one point, we had 3 locations, as well as a warehouse!! I think that all of us coming together as a team is what worked well for us. It’s a little difficult when you spend practically 24/7 with your parents and siblings, but I feel that that is why we were such a united and strong family. I definitely would want my children to join my business, and in fact, they already have!! My daughter assists me with setting up/cleaning up, as well as other duties I might delegate to her. She will be taking a nail tech program soon, and will became Damoza Beauty’s nail tech! My middle son is a self taught graphic designer. He actually is the one who created my logo, he makes my decals for my business, flyers, ads, etc. He plans to formally attend a graphic design school and grow his own business as well. My little one is still very young, but he also helps me around at the studio with tasks that he is able to fulfill at his young age. I’m trying to instill, if not feed this hustle mindset that runs in our DNA. If I can set them up to have their own businesses even before graduating high school, I’ll be fulfilled!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Of course! Well, I’m a certified medical assistant turned licensed esthetician! I got into this industry when I felt it was time for a career change after 14 years of working in medicine. I couldn’t/didn’t want to pursue nursing anymore, as math is one of the main subjects you have to be pretty good at, and math and I just don’t get along. Not only that, the medical field has changed so much over the years, in a negative way. The workplaces have become so toxic and drama filled. I got sick of worrying about my job security, and knew I needed to go into business for myself, I just wasn’t sure what field I wanted to go into. I considered real estate, psychology, criminal justice, and other options before I revisited the beauty industry. I say “revisited”, because I had contemplated this idea years prior, when my sister became an esthetician. She encouraged me, at the beginning of her career, to pursue permanent makeup (eyeliner to be exact). I was hesitant, but always kept that option in the back of my mind. In 2021, I finally went for it and enrolled in esthetician school! I worked my full time clinic job, while attending school 5 hours in the evening right after work, for 7 months so that I could continue to support my family while working on our future. Let me tell you, there were so many days I wanted to give up, that was so exhausting! I hardly saw my children during those 7 months! I’m now a little over a year into my business and am absolutely loving it!!! I provide so many services, from permanent makeup, to lash extensions, to teeth whitening, waxing, and facials. I’m almost your one stop shop! I believe that what sets me apart from others is the quality of my work, the products that I use, and my personality! This is the feedback that I’ve received several times from different clients, so it’s not just me guessing, and I take so much pride in this! I’m 5 star rated, and work hard to maintain that rating and most of all, to satisfy my clients! It’s so rewarding when they take that first look in the mirror after their services and the next words out of their mouth are, “This is exactly what I wanted!” I really listen to what the client’s desires/goals are, and try to deliver that every time! I encourage honest feedback, I never want anyone leaving my studio unhappy or feeling like they didn’t get what they wanted. Because of this, my clients know they can confide in me, they know I won’t take it to heart, and I’m going to give them what they want to the best of my ability and within reason, of course!
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
This takes us back to esthetician school. Remember I said I worked a full time clinic job (high stress), and right at 4:45pm, I had to leave so I could make it to class at 5:00pm, and stay there til about 9:45pm. By the time I got home I was exhausted! Physically, mentally, emotionally drained! I only saw my children in the mornings, when we were all getting ready for the day, and induced a lot of mom guilt. I felt bad for not being a very present mother for those 7 months. I had to remind myself that time flies, and 7 months would go by so fast. That this was only temporary and going to benefit my kids in the end. This mindset is what helped me push through and graduate school. It was the motivation to give my kids a better, more stable future with a mom who has more time to do things with/for them that kept me going. Once I graduated, it was such a relief and weight off my shoulders, I DID IT!!!
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Currently! I’ve recently incorporated a facial menu to my services due to popular demand. I’ve been asked so many times about doing facials, that I got to a point where I felt I should offer them, as I was turning away clients for no reason! So far, I have had amazing results with my facials, and I believe this will help my business grow substantially!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @damozabeauty
- Facebook: @damozabeauty
- TikTok: @damozabeauty