This industry is only about 25 years old. You know, it really just started popping up around 95, 2000. It's a sustainable industry because it's going nowhere. Nobody wants to age. We're starting to understand skin more. We're starting to understand the ingredients. People are starting as young as 16 years old. That is one of my missions is to educate young people in their teens because it does start then. Heidi Daly is a driven entrepreneur who reinvented her life at 40 to become a licensed esthetician. As the founder of Advanced Aesthetics Academy, she now leads a team of 17 women dedicated to empowering empaths through heart-centered wellness. What started happening around you when those light switches started going on? How did reality respond? It spans the globe like a super high-level internet. Elvis, ready. Today, Apple is going to reinvent the model. It's not over until I win. The Living Your Legacy podcast. For those who live to leave a legacy. That's extraordinary. The impossible. Oh, that is sensational. To open. Chicago with the lead. You said Paul is the fastest man on the planet. You can live your dream. Welcome back to another episode of the Living Your Legacy podcast for Inside Success. This is Ray Gutierrez. Joining me today is Heidi Daly. Did I get that right? You got it right. Right on. Cool. On my first try. She's kind of like the Professor Xavier if you're into X-Men and Marvel, but of spa and of aesthetics. Is that right to say? I love that. Yes. Do you know who Professor Xavier is? No. You're much cooler than he is. And your hair is way cooler than his. I'm just going with it. Right on. Welcome to the show, my love. Thank you. It's great to be here. Did you just finish filming your Women in Power episode? I did, and I loved it. How do you feel? Kofi was fabulous. Oh, Kofi's awesome. Yeah. Kofi's got quite the magic. What will we learn about you in your episode? What will you learn? Yes, what will we learn? What drives me, I think. What's that? What drives me. What does drive you? Empowering other people. And it's from the heart. When did you discover the superpower? How old were you? I've known it most of my life. I never had the opportunity. and it wasn't until I was older in life, I started the school at 55. Wow. And it wasn't until then that I realized this is my mission on this earth. Right on. What started happening around you when you started, when those light switches started going on? How did reality respond? Well, it's do or die. I had the opportunity to do something. I had the funding to do it and I had to do it. I couldn't fail. I had to keep moving and make it a success. so have you always been into aesthetics uh mental health or self-health self-care i've been into uh natural and holistic care my whole life um but it wasn't until i became an esthetician at 40 right on um and then i started seeing where we could take it from there and i found my passion how does one fall into estheticiany that's even a word i got old right on i turned 40 cool and i I wasn't old, just tired. You're just like, ah, it's old for this shit. I guess you're right. I started seeing the aging. Like I said, I was in the baby oil and iodine era of humans and baby boomers. And we didn't know anything about skincare. So I figured, uh-oh, we better get to figure out how to age gracefully. I hope I'm doing it well. You're doing it very, very, very well. Folks are just now discovering that you can essentially compress time or expand time, especially with the human experience. Talk about how aging gracefully has changed and evolved and what that means today. Oh, that's big. Really, I say that this industry is only about 25 years old. You know it really just started popping up around 95 2000 And it just it a sustainable industry because it going nowhere Nobody wants to age We starting to understand skin more We're starting to understand the ingredients. We're modalities. We're creating new modalities. And, you know, people are starting as young as 16 years old. Oh, for sure. And I, that is one of my missions is to educate young people in their teens because it does start then. yeah I forgot who said it but something a man asked like what's the number one tip I get asked is like I wish I would have discovered skin care earlier in my life because I would have aged gracefully or you'll look younger longer I think it was actually Brad Pitter like a celebrity that said I wish I would have discovered skin care whatever Tom Cruise uses that so where are your humble beginnings where do you start where did you grow up Connecticut rural Connecticut Actually, I grew up on an apple orchard. Oh, how beautiful. It was a great life. Then I moved on into graduating from high school, went to Johnson and Wales College in Providence, Rhode Island, thought I wanted to get into the hospitality industry, got into it. And then? And it's a hard industry. Sure. So I made a few changes in my life. I've recreated myself numerous times. Of course. And I like what I've created now. Right on. why the different evolutions the different changes is it because you're ascending descending or just want to protect yourself why the different evolutions life sometimes forces you to so you're wanted by the FBI clearly yes you're wanted by the FBI witness protection but life changes and at every turn you've got to figure out how to do it and what to do to go forward and I'm that person that is driven and I'm not just going to stay stuck. I'm going to find something different. But I've had some experiences in my life that have been life-changing. I was in an abusive marriage. It got physically abusive towards the end, a 30-year marriage, and I walked out the door. I decided I would be better off being alive and just having my purse and my life. Walked out the door. Took a while to recover from that, mentally, emotionally, physically. had a great support system, which is what everybody needs. And so found an investor to help me with my dream and my vision. Just like that. Found an investor, picked up the phone, gave a call. Took many years to do that. A couple of calls then. It was a friend of mine. Great. It was a great friend of mine, and he is an angel investor. So that is what he does. And like I said in my interview before, he bet on the jockey, not the horse. It's quite dynamic. It's actually quite divine how we're talking about this because I'm going to have a conversation on the record with an angel investor on Saturday. Oh. And he doesn't know it yet. How do I ask for money without asking for money? Do you have a business plan? Yes, I do. Is it a good one? I guess we're going to find out. Okay. How does one know if it's a good business plan or not just because it equals a lot of zeros? Talk to a banker. Talk to a banker. Now you're just getting scarier. I don't think bankers follow divine energy. No, but they do all. You can't just walk into the bank and be like, I was told I should be here by some lady in a podcast. I agree. My thing is if you believe in it and you have the passion, it'll be successful. Got it. Those are some words of wisdom. What is your day-to-day today? What gets you out of bed? What's your North Star? What's your why today? The school. It's always the school. Yeah. Yeah. I have this incredible team of women, 17 women that work under me and work with me. I treat everybody like we're equals. Oh, sure. Um, and I think that's a big part of success, but they all are like-minded. They all love being at the school. They all love empowering women. They love teaching them and giving them the ability to, to become something better Right on I already thinking about my business plan Everything you got to work on it You want me to read it Well I glad you mentioned it No I just kidding Well with my business plan when I sent it to him he came back at me and said this is brilliant Because it was multifaceted on ways to make money. Got it. So I've got spa. I've got school. I've got advanced classes. I've got product line. I've got different ways of making money. It's not just one way of making money. Got it. And the industry is sustainable. Got it. Yeah. It's also about product market fit. Is there a market that's ready for this? Trust me, that's ready. I've done my research. But yeah, you're absolutely right. It's almost like a showcase of yourself as a brand. So you're essentially, your extension of your energy is 17 strong. You've got your fleet. What happens in this academy? Oh, we change lives and we love them. So that's the other part of it. It's not just a school. We see who needs help. We can figure out who needs help and we help them in any way we can. How do you, oh, go ahead. I'm sorry. No, I just think that that's part of our success. How do you onboard students or recruit? What's your onboarding process? What are you looking for? Are you looking for pain, talent? No, I'm taking pay for it. It's almost like a last chance school. It's like, I've tried everything. I barely got my GED. Come help me. I've got a divine talent, but no one's figured me out. What happens here? We basically, there isn't a process that we go through, no applications or anything. We take them on, but I'll tell you what, we'll get rid of them as quick as we took them if they're not cutting it. Sure, sure. And how do you, what is the threshold of cutting it? Like here, it's like if you can't coil cable, you got to coil out of here. You know what I mean? No. It's like if there's principles. It's true. Yeah, you can't cut. We watch our students, and I tell them they're on a six, eight, ten-month interview with us because we're the ones that can help them get a job. So we watch their every step, their attendance, their grades, their drivenness and passion, too. So if somebody is not coming to school, if they're leaving early all the time, we'll sit them down and talk to them because we work under the government. Great. So they have their guidelines. And if they're not cutting those guidelines, then we have to let them go because we can't do anything about it. Sure, sure. And it's frustrating when I've got this incredible team of educators and women who want to help them and they're not helping themselves. So if somebody's not helping themselves, they're out. So a wellness academy per se. Talk about the aesthetics. When it comes to wellness, are we talking about sitting in a bed with lights? Is it pills? Is it light sunshine? What kind of wellness happens here? Is it journaling? I'm glad you asked me that. That makes me happy because I've lived a holistic life and natural healing and all that good stuff. And so we teach nutrition. Nutrition to me is very important. I'm actually starting a class at Cornell University to get my nutrition degree. Wow. So I can bring more to the students on nutrition. We're still understanding the body right now and what triggers different conditions, your acne, your pigmentation. We're starting to understand all that right now. And nutrition plays a huge part in that because it's going in. It's what's going in. Now, your skin, too, absorbs 67% of what goes on it. Within five seconds, it goes into the bloodstream. So this means you're showering water in water that isn't healthy. Your skin's absorbing it. chlorine, fluoride, all that good stuff. All the juicy stuff. So it's like just educating them on all aspects of it. And I always tell the students, aesthetics doesn't fit in a box because everybody's different. Every skin is different. Everybody's habits are different. So our job is to figure out how to help this individual with their skin conditions and know, understand what they're doing, what they're putting in internally, what their lifestyle is and all to help them. Everybody's different. When you're onboarding clients or helping your academy, teach them how to onboard clients, what's your ascension? Do you essentially bring them into your community and now it a lifestyle and essentially it a life commitment Or how does this work Or is it like a six plan Hey thanks I feel great Now I just going to rinse and repeat this until I need you again in a year or two Well, as I also tell the students, you can get your clients. The key is maintaining your clients. Yeah, once you get a client, you start losing them. That's exactly right. So you've got to be knowledgeable. And I tell the students also, if you've learned it, you can teach it. I said, we're teaching our clients every day. They don't know anything. And on the first day of school, orientation, I also say, remember what you don't know today, because those are your clients. Those are the people that you have to teach. And that's what you're going to be learning in the next six months, eight months, ten months in order to do that. Not everybody's serious about it. You know, there's, of course, more that are serious than others. And the people that hustle are the ones that are making the six figures right out of school. Right on. Speaking of the hustlers and the six figures, any stories that sparked your memory of folks you've transformed? Lots. I've got quite a few. Transformed financially or? Just lifestyle-wise. I've put my data in you and look at you transform. I've got a lot. Good. A lot. And most recently we had a student who we found out was homeless. And she's paying her tuition. She's hustling. She's trying. She was in the foster system her whole life. And we realized she didn't have a mentor. She had nobody to teach her about life. So we all kind of took her in and we lifted her up. One of my instructors bought her new clothes, shoes, different things. We actually keep lunch for students who don't have lunch. So we've got a bunch of food there. So if we say, if you don't have lunch today, you're not going to starve. We've got food for you. So we feed her every lunch. She'll come to us and say, I'm hungry. I don't have anything today. Okay, we got you. And she has bloomed so much in just like four or five months. And she's so strong right now. And she knows that we're all there supporting her. So I love that. I got to ask, and it's a little juvenile. How are you attracting your flock? Is it ads? Is it clever TikToks? Are you on social media? Do you have a team that does this? I have a team that does my social media. Not on TikTok. I'm just not a fan myself. Sure. That's just how it goes. But Instagram, Facebook, and that gets us a lot of business. But our biggest marketing is word of mouth. Right on. Word of mouth is almost everybody we talk to, how did you hear about the school? Oh, my sister went here, or my friend went here, or I just keep hearing how wonderful the school is and the education that you get. And to me, that's the best. Right on. If you'd like to take a moment, look into this camera and speak to folks that you're hoping to reach, this would be the moment before we wrap up our show. As far as? As in like, if you're this and you're that, you got to come on down to my academy because the door's open for you. Well, I have figured out over the years that most of the women people who join, I've had a few men join the aesthetics program, but it's mostly women. They are nurturers and lovers because we're working with energy. We're working with people. And the satisfaction that you get in making somebody not only feel good, maybe they've had a bad day. We never know what anybody's going through. And so you always treat everybody with kindness for that reason. But we have the magic powers to make them look good, feel good, and walk out of there and tell everybody how we satisfied them and made them happy and made them look and feel good. And that draws a lot of people in because that's who joins this industry is the lovers and the empaths. And I love that. A message for the lovers and the empaths. And with that, we'll conclude our episode today. I hope you had a fantastic time. It was so much fun. Yeah, right on. Well, welcome to Miami. Welcome to South Beach. Welcome to Inside Success. Thanks. Now it's time to go out there and see Miami. Right on. Enjoy it. All right. Thanks so much. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Our pleasure. And for Inside Success and Women in Power, this is Ray Gutierrez.
