How Danielle Correia Built a Booming Sugaring Franchise

Don't be afraid to. Have others around you who are good at what you're not good at. Welcome back to Super Entrepreneurs Podcast. I'm your host, Shahid Durrani, the show where we dive into the minds of high performing entrepreneurs, innovators, and world-class leaders. If you are someone who's always looking to grow push limits, think bigger, you're in the right place. Today's guest is someone who saw an opportunity in the beauty industry and built something truly special. Danielle Correia.

She is the founder of Sugaring la. Yes. A brand that's redefining hair removal with a natural approach. She's built a movement with this idea. One that's about confidence, sustainability and doing 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 beforehand and you mentioned something that I think it should be on the show that a lot of people might not realize, many of your franchisees are men. 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 were still going to get these beauty services and different treatments and they're like, okay, I'm gonna look for an opportunity in this sector. 'cause a lot of them had their careers for, about. 20, 30 years and so really it's like kind of the next opportunity for them. And it's been actually wonderful because, they have wonderful business acumen and they've been in business for a long time and are all professionals.

So it's been really neat to see, that shift for them going from. Corporate life and yeah, going into entrepreneurial in business for themselves, probably in an industry that they never thought they would be in. Yeah, bless you for bringing this to people, because we need more of these opportunities out there for people. A lot of people are just stuck in their head, they're just stuck in the compulsive thinking or the overthinking and. They lack the action taking.

And that's what we're doing here with the show. We bringing guests like yourself is to wake them up a little bit, give them a budge and push them into action, right? Yes. 'cause then to see people like you, you did it.

And you're pioneering this ancient art of sugaring, like this has been done for I believe thousands of years, but you could correct me if I'm wrong. Yeah, no, it was, yeah, CLE Cleopatra was really the first Wow. Beauty queen. Yeah. Yeah.

So what initially drew you to this method and, how do you envision it fitting into the market for the future? Yeah. Gosh, I look at it like we're the whole foods of hair removal, at some point. The goal is to break up with waxing and people will never wax again once they try shattering. Yeah. Because, there's no chemicals. It's literally a ball of sugar, lemon, and water. And when I learned about this technique years ago, I was like, this is amazing. You can't hurt anybody. How did you learn it?

Learn them. I learned. Gosh, years ago I won't date myself, but I was in esthetician school and someone came in and introduced us to a basic technique and I was like, this is amazing. And I was in school, so I had all these people to practice on. And when I got out, I was very confident in my skills and I knew this was something that, nobody was really doing. And it was a big opportunity in the market. And I moved to Charleston, South Carolina on a whim and just rented a little.

Room and put an ad in the little black book in the newspaper. And after two years I sold my little one room studio, just me and my clientele list for $50,000, in my early twenties. I was like, that was, yeah, it was great. And and then, the rest is history. It moved over to Santa Monica, started sugaring outta my apartment, and I'd have. People come in at seven o'clock in the morning, before work every 20 minutes for their Brazilians. Wow. Yeah.

And do you have any locations in Canada? We do not. We do not have any locations in Canada, 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 states for now and then, we'll, the States is huge. It's huge. It's huge, right?

Yeah. And then, once we build up the team and yeah, the opportunity arises, I definitely would because there are no sugaring franchises in Canada. Remember me though? I will, I, You built this ground up.

It obviously requires some sort of foundational passion, some mindset towards helping people and getting this out there. Can you share any moment where you realize. That this is going to be successful and you need to move on. It. Was there an internal movement about that? Yeah, I think I, I always knew it would be really successful because it 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 I wasn't looking to open more studios. I just I would, people would be like, please come open one over here in Manhattan Beach, or Please come open one east of the 4 0 5. And then, my studio that in Santa 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's a little bit of healthy fear I see now.

But I also see that paralysis of analysis in a lot of people. And that was, for me, it was like I got a feeling, I got a gut. I know I'm great at this and I know people love this and it's gonna do great. If you can keep that positive mindset 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 other day, we were doing some training and I was like, how'd you hear about it? She's oh, my friend from I drove all the way here from Temecula, which is an hour away. And it's just so neat to really see how much people. Love it and how much it's really changed their life because, they couldn't wax, they couldn't shave.

They've been scarred or burnt by laser and they have eczema or psoriasis or they have, really thick hair. And so we get all the people who 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, and I 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. And yeah. If you're thicker right, But the rest of it is still really strong and thick.

So we've definitely everywhere else. And also the beard, we typically don't do the beard depending on a man's like root system if it's crossed. 'cause we wouldn't want them to have irritation. But we do the neck area. You won't do this area. Oh, we do that like under the eye to right here, but not, yeah. This area I have here that I 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 than women because they shave their face every day, so they're getting all that exfoliation consistently. Yeah. Interesting fact. Yeah. Our dead skin cells build up and we have to like, so do you recommend start 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 there and is ingrained in us subconsciously, 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 have that lingering fear with you all the time, it only demotivates us. It keeps us back from taking action, believing in ourself. So it turns out to be a negative attribute, especially for entrepreneurs or business people.

And the more you start becoming aware of your thoughts and your emotions. You start realizing that, oh, wait a minute, these are just emotions. They're just thoughts that were with me my whole life and they don't have an effect on me anymore. So we create that gap and that's when you start realizing, wait a minute, this was I held myself back so long. Just because of these thoughts and emotions were just making me feel a certain way and they were just conditioning from my past.

It doesn't represent who I truly am or what I can do. That moment, when that shifts, oh man. Yeah, watch out world, yes. Can't listen to the mind chatter, and no. Yeah. The thing you have to look at it like when there, when you do go for something and if it doesn't work out it's educate or celebrate. It's not stop. Yes. And don't again. And I even had that when I came back from Charleston.

I took my 50 grand and I. Put my money into a little space in Solana Beach and, got the space ready, did all the things, spent all my money, but my heart wasn't in it yet. I wasn't ready 'cause of, the change that happened, but, so I. Miraculously, I had a call from someone if I wanted to come help them up in la and on the same day, someone called me and asked me if my space was available. And I'm like, you know what?

I just put all this money into it and all this time and effort, but you know what? I'm ready for the next thing and the next change. And it was the best decision I ever made was just. Walking away from that and moving up to Santa Monica and starting sugar in LA not even knowing that's what I was gonna be doing. I look at everything happens in this life, for a reason. And you just have to keep Yes. Moving through. And, I am a gut person, there's the head. Yes. Same here. I'm like the feelings.

I love it. Song and yeah.

I think now that I've had children it's oh wait, I have to take all of this into consideration too. Before I just, steamroll all my projects because it's about how do I split my time and 'cause I give so much to what I'm doing, I need to make sure I'm giving. To my children, this amount of time when I'm spending my time and I'm not distracted with the other things. Yeah. No, it's a new challenge in life of how do I, split myself up throughout the day. Yeah. No, it's great.

I think we're gonna be great friends. When you talk about gut feeling, 'cause I live by it. I don't I feeling. Massive action, feeling masses like this. That's what I've been doing and like you mentioned, effortless is basically effortless action where the action doesn't feel like action anymore like it used to. I should dread the smallest things, the bigger thing, it doesn't matter. Just work was work even it was my own business.

When I felt that I started becoming an kind of like an employee because I was. Busy. So busy. 'cause I was working in the business I just didn't know. I said, what the hell is this? I left nine to five and I'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 rock bottom 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 a unconscious competent, meaning you are.

Naturally in tune to this or you went through some mindset training, would you like to share? I would say it's definitely just in tune. I never went through any training except the, hard knocks of life. Yeah. I'm a very even if I touch and I get burned, I keep going back and trying different ways and seeing good. What's gonna, what's gonna work? And being thoughtful and methodical in that at the same time, and not letting the doubt or the fear creep in, but having a good amount of, analysis.

I think of now when I look back, I'd be like, I. Jamie, to my counterpart, I, I'd say we need to do this. Let's get this done. And she'd be like, ah, and she's very, the type A, and I love that about her because she's okay, wait, Danielle, we have the system and the process that I have to go into the backend and make sure all the IT stuff is set up, and I'm just like. Let's do this. So it's funny, it's nice to almost, to have somebody who is the opposite of you, who can Yeah.

I can be like the thought visionary. I, we need to get this done and my mind's always going, and then somebody who can also help implement that 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 new creative ideas for the brand. And then I have a team behind me that is, has everything down to the little nitty gritty, documented.

There's like a brain of sugaring LA that the franchisees get to go in and really have all the tools and resources at their disposal for how sugar LA operates. I. Yeah, it's beautiful, to create a niche product and make it successful. So kudos to you. I'm very happy for you. I wish you all the growth in what you're doing because the more franchises you. Provide to people, the better their life will become. It's all linked.

Yes. Yes. And if it's something that is niche based, and I'm sure there's gonna be other brands that are gonna come up with this, and obviously it might be even out, like your friend has a few in Canada. Yeah. And it's all about sustainability. It's all about natural green as we 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 like secondhand, they like thrifting, they like sustainability. They like zero waste. And that is sugaring. We have, gloves, we have one ball of caramel that goes on to you. And it's extremely sanitary. It's biodegradable. Our skincare line is simple. Organic ingredients, no seed oils, no one's doing that in the industry on a large scale. Yeah. High quality products, ingredients at affordable prices, offering, services like this and, we're also gender friendly.

Like you can be a man walking in and it'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. And it's comfortable and inviting for everybody. I bet you guys would be surprised if I walk in, it's six four. I'm telling small players who come in and get full bodies done in Santa Monica. Oh, wow. Wow. Okay, cool. Yeah.

You mentioned new ideas, innovation is a big part of what you do to stay ahead because remember each being is so powerful that could change the world, Having this niche product, there's gonna be other innovations that gonna come out. Do you meditate to come up with new ideas, innovations, or you just think it, I. I think about it, and I get a lot of good thinking done before I go to bed and Okay.

If I take a bath and when I don't have a device in my hand I get a lot of good thinking done when I, it's just quiet and sometimes, it's hard when you're in the thick of it and the minutiae all the things around you. If I'm too deep in all of the little things that everyone else is already taking care of and I just wanna know about them, but then I'm thinking about them too I try step away a little bit from that so I can, stay in that innovative space. Okay, good.

If you're looking back at your journey Can you share any advice to entrepreneurs or, especially women to help them if they're looking to introduce a niche service or product into a competitive market like this, you're bringing something new. Yeah. Any advice from what you have learned that could help someone? Yeah. I. Don't be afraid to. Have others around you who are good at what you're not good at. And I definitely know my strengths and my wheelhouse and be okay with it.

Yeah, what I enjoy because I wanna enjoy life, like quality of life is number one. And so there were things I didn't love doing in the business. Like the behind the desk or the it part? It just everything. I had no problem hiring somebody and getting someone who was the right person for that job who enjoyed it, so I could focus on what I enjoy and continue to drive that. I would say that is something, definitely don't be afraid of that.

Don't feel like you need to do everything okay and have control everything. How much control do we really have? I feel we can plan, like we had a plan a direction. It shifted and it happens all the time, especially in business. And we want to go one direction. But some things happen where we go somewhere else, but I feel like it's just dependent. Very much so on the energy that we hold 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 the direction might not be where you thought you were gonna end up. Absolutely. Absolutely. And it's trickled down, having that openness and just not having the fear and take the action. Sorry, go ahead. Yes. And you, your energy is the tip of the pyramid, right? And that waters down through your whole organization.

Yes. And so make sure if it's not you, if you're second in, in hand. Is, can embody you, right? And then your staff, you. And so I think that for me has been a big thing in my organization of, I treat people how I would wanna be treated, even though I'm a boss, right? I'm gonna be able to lead. I. Because I remember having those jobs where I was like, yeah, I would never wanna work for someone like that and I would never wanna be that person. And I think, it just cultivates a great culture.

And that is so important in a business and industry is having a good culture in your brand. Yeah. Having the proper emotional intelligence in the organization is super important because no one wants to go somewhere where they're unhappy. No, but it could be that they go to employment where everything is amazing, they have all the systems in place to take care of the employees. Foundationally, the employee itself 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 very important part of an organization. Yes it is. Yeah. It's everything you know, because they're also the ones servicing your clients. Yeah. And to uphold it shows. Yeah. And I love my industry because I look at it like I'm empowering These women, typically at women are our practitioners, or licensed estheticians or cosmetologists. They're learning a new skill that we're teaching them.

And they can get a job anywhere in the world with this skill. And I love how, they have opportunity to advance and grow. And feel challenged, but also have like great work hours and, I offer my employees at my studio's health benefits, 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 because you're investing in them and they care. And it shows you care. Yeah. It's true.

Yeah. So can you share that number one strategy, a strategy time? Can you share that one main strategy that helped you scale? And you could take a minute to think about it, but something that could help someone, something that was transformational. Yeah. Well, I. I don't know if I do it like a lot of people, but I am now more be careful what you wish for kind of person.

Because if I start thinking about it too much and then I just start looking for a space and then, like I'll start creating it in my mind and then it just starts to say, oh, okay, God's you want that? Okay. This is what you really want. Yeah. Maintenance, upkeep and support it to make sure, if you create all of these things which I love doing, but you do have to take care of them, right? Or you have to build 'em up and sell it.

So maybe having a plan more long term of what you wanna do with it and laying that out. And, I, but did you run

ads, Facebook ads or anything like that to scale your business quickly? Or was it just word of mouth explosion? When I did it, it was word of mouth explosion and Yelp. Beautiful. Yelp has not started, but now that is not, we can't do that in, our states where people don't know sugaring or sugaring LA yet. And so it is heavy on the digital marketing community events.

Really becoming, a staple in your community and educating people about what sugaring is and all the benefits and how much better it is than waxing and just really getting them in the door to try something, for the first time. Because if it's not a friend telling you to try it for the first time, you're like, might be a little more weird or scared. Yeah. So yeah, for us it was just that really organic growth. So we were very lucky, especially in la.

To be able to have so much success, but you also have to maintain that success, right? Yeah, of course. And so a lot of that is dependent on having excellent service making sure, the staff is educating you're rebooking appointments. 'cause every person when you are doing digital 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 be able to give a hundred percent to that client and do all the steps that they're trained to, to do which is making sure that client comes back in the door? So that is definitely a large focus for us is making sure everybody is giving, 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 be catering 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 people who've had laser, like Gwyneth Paltrow's, one of our clients, and she'll come in and 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. I just look at the art. I'm just looking at what they're doing in the moment. Yes. Oh, that's so funny. Oh, I, I know. And Rod, rod, Luke we definitely have 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 show today and giving your time and energy