Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 213. Cyndi Ramirez-Fulton, Founder of Chillhouse

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213. Cyndi Ramirez-Fulton, Founder of Chillhouse · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:00
Speaker 1: Always take the risks. There's no reward without the risk. Zero.
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Speaker 1: That is the statement. And I always look for science too, right,
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Speaker 1: So like when is the right moment? It's like, is
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Speaker 1: there something really easy universe kind of taking me in
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Speaker 1: that direction? And a lot of times that is exactly
0:17
Speaker 1: what happened in those sort of critical decisions for myself
0:20
Speaker 1: my life.
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Speaker 2: Hey everyone, Emily a body here.
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Speaker 3: You are listening to episode two hundred and thirteen of Hurdle,
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Speaker 3: a wellness focused podcast where I connected with everyone from
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Speaker 3: your favorite athletes to top experts and industry CEOs about
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Speaker 3: their highest hies, toughest moments, and everything in between.
0:54
Speaker 2: We all go through hurdles in life, and my goal.
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Speaker 3: Through these discussions is to empower you to better now
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Speaker 3: yours and move with intention so that you can stride
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Speaker 3: towards your own big potential and of course have some
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Speaker 3: fun along the way. For today's episode two hundred and thirteen,
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Speaker 3: I am chatting with Cindy Ramirez Fulton that she is
1:17
Speaker 3: the founder of Chill House. Now, if you've never heard
1:21
Speaker 3: of chill House before, let me give you the deats.
1:25
Speaker 3: Chill House is. Let's call it a New Age spa.
1:28
Speaker 3: They offer everything from facials, massages, nail and pedicure services,
1:33
Speaker 3: alongside a wellness cafe. They started here in New York City.
1:38
Speaker 3: Recently they opened an outpost over in Paris. Chill House
1:43
Speaker 3: also has their own line of products, ranging from their
1:47
Speaker 3: chill Tips, which are press on nails with loads of
1:50
Speaker 3: different fund designs on them, to merch to goodness everything
1:54
Speaker 3: from facial oil and massage tools, tote bags, you name it.
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Speaker 3: Lots of fun up on their website that's over at
2:01
Speaker 3: chillhouse dot com. I'm chatting with Cindy today, the self
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Speaker 3: proclaimed Queen of chill about all things self care and
2:11
Speaker 3: of course, how she built the chill House brand. She
2:14
Speaker 3: talks to me about being actually super lost in her
2:18
Speaker 3: career path, not very sure what she wanted to do
2:20
Speaker 3: after working for years in hospitality, then coming up with
2:25
Speaker 3: the concept the idea for chill House, What went into
2:28
Speaker 3: opening their first.
2:29
Speaker 2: Location on Essex Street in New York, the.
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Speaker 3: Challenges that went hand in hand with that location, and
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Speaker 3: how the business pivoted, changed and evolved during the pandemic.
2:41
Speaker 3: We also talk about how she makes time for self
2:44
Speaker 3: care as a relatively new mom, having her baby Hendrix
2:48
Speaker 3: over the pandemic as well, and Cindy shares a lot
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Speaker 3: of really great advice for women who are in any
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Speaker 3: sort of a transition, especially anyone who is looking to
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Speaker 3: build something up their own from the ground up. Really
3:02
Speaker 3: loved this conversation. In it, we also talk about the
3:05
Speaker 3: new Chill House collaboration with Sons. I am obsessed, obsessed,
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Speaker 3: obsessed with my so nos rome. It perfectly accents the
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Speaker 3: Sonos system I have in my apartment and I bring
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Speaker 3: it with me everywhere, like to the beach to the park.
3:19
Speaker 3: I'm going to leave the details for that collab in
3:22
Speaker 3: the show notes as well as all of the links
3:24
Speaker 3: so that you can check out all things chill. Make
3:28
Speaker 3: sure you're following along with Hurdle over on social media.
3:30
Speaker 3: It's at Hurdle podcast, I am over at Emily a Body.
3:33
Speaker 2: And if you are not yet subscribed to.
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Speaker 3: The Weekly Hurdle newsletter, which brings you all of the
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Speaker 3: things you love about hurdle, inspiration, motivation, stories, gear picks,
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Speaker 3: and so much more regularly, make sure to do that
3:46
Speaker 3: by clicking on over to the show notes, click subscribe
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Speaker 3: to the Weekly Hurdle and that land in your inbox
3:53
Speaker 3: every Friday morning. Our beautiful little newsletter. With that, let's
3:59
Speaker 3: get to hurdling.
4:14
Speaker 2: Today.
4:15
Speaker 3: I am sitting down with Cindy Ramirez Fulton. She is
4:19
Speaker 3: the founder of Chillhouse.
4:21
Speaker 2: How are you doing today, Cindy.
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Speaker 1: I'm pretty good. It feels like a Friday, which is nice.
4:27
Speaker 1: A yeah, like my inbox isn't like exploding. It's been
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Speaker 1: It's actually been like a pretty mellow week, given everything
4:35
Speaker 1: that you know has been happening in the past two weeks.
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Speaker 2: So I was going to.
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Speaker 3: Say, uh, mellow week coming off of just so much
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Speaker 3: happening for chill House. First of all, small round of
4:46
Speaker 3: applause for Paris Chillhouse.
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Speaker 2: How does it feel that they're your baby is live?
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Speaker 1: It's live. It's like a soft launch technically, but she's
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Speaker 1: out there. She's live. People are getting services. We've had
4:57
Speaker 1: we had a really busy Thursday. Yes, was best deal day.
5:01
Speaker 1: So I don't know, I feel like I feel like settling.
5:05
Speaker 1: We're settling in, you know, but it's definitely been quite
5:09
Speaker 1: the undertaking, like a whole new you know, entering a
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Speaker 1: whole new country. It's just like, oh my god.
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Speaker 3: I feel like entrepreneurship is hard enough as it is,
5:20
Speaker 3: like figuring things out on your own here in the
5:22
Speaker 3: United States. But then to translate all of those learnings
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Speaker 3: and like take it international. It must have been such
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Speaker 3: a beast and such a learning curve for you.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, not knowing the language, feeling just pretty lost when
5:34
Speaker 1: it comes to like how you know, businesses operate out there.
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Speaker 1: So I had a consultant though, that you know, speaks
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Speaker 1: English perfectly. She's actually American, but she lives out in
5:46
Speaker 1: Paris now and like has is raising her family there.
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Speaker 1: Her husband's French. So you know, I had the I
5:53
Speaker 1: had the person to really guide me through it, which
5:56
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have. I wouldn't recommend doing it like kind
5:59
Speaker 1: of cult turkey, like knowing nothing. We had enough people
6:03
Speaker 1: sort of in our corner to guide us along the way.
6:06
Speaker 1: So that definitely took a little bit of the weight off,
6:09
Speaker 1: because otherwise, Yeah, it's it's very confusing.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's kind of special that you recognize how
6:16
Speaker 3: lucky you are to have been able to kind of
6:19
Speaker 3: compile and lean on that team. Does that inspire you
6:22
Speaker 3: to want to show up for people who may come
6:25
Speaker 3: to you with a lot of the same kind of
6:27
Speaker 3: questions that you had from the get go.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you know, I don't do the best
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Speaker 1: job at like remembering the process, like or like writing
6:36
Speaker 1: things down or journaling the process. But like one day
6:39
Speaker 1: I hope to write a book with all of my learnings,
6:42
Speaker 1: with everything, just kind of like reflecting on the journey,
6:45
Speaker 1: which would then hopefully allow me to you know, pass
6:48
Speaker 1: off any sort of you know, intel I have on
6:50
Speaker 1: either opening up you know, in a foreign country or
6:53
Speaker 1: like starting products or whatever it is. Of course, like
6:55
Speaker 1: I would love to pass that on one day, you know.
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Speaker 1: For now, though, it's really hard to be a mentor
7:01
Speaker 1: or to be you know, available to my community in
7:04
Speaker 1: that capacity, just because I have I'm indebted to building
7:07
Speaker 1: this team and this team, this business, this brand, and
7:10
Speaker 1: like that is my priority, right Like it's more I
7:13
Speaker 1: have to prioritize the people that are working for me
7:16
Speaker 1: and like the people that have invested in me, you know,
7:20
Speaker 1: all those individuals have to come first right now. And
7:24
Speaker 1: then I think at some point I'll flip the switch,
7:26
Speaker 1: of course, like you know, if things mellow out, if
7:29
Speaker 1: like you know, whatever happens in the future, I see
7:34
Speaker 1: myself for sure being in some capacity like an investor, advisor,
7:38
Speaker 1: whatever it. Maybe I feel like that's like the next
7:41
Speaker 1: transition usually for someone who's been in my position, but
7:44
Speaker 1: like maybe ten twenty years from now, they're ambitious if
7:48
Speaker 1: they can do both. It's really hard.
7:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, totally, it is hard.
7:52
Speaker 3: It's hard just to make time for everything, and again,
7:54
Speaker 3: you have a lot going on. I need to also
7:57
Speaker 3: say from the get go here, I use my son's
8:01
Speaker 3: room like every single day. So when I heard that
8:04
Speaker 3: Chill House and Sonas we're going in on a partnership,
8:07
Speaker 3: I was like, this is just perfect for me.
8:10
Speaker 1: I mean, I love sons. I love anything that's portable
8:13
Speaker 1: that I can put in a bag to the beach,
8:15
Speaker 1: Like we're always on the go. So it was such
8:17
Speaker 1: a it was such a fun partnership to get in
8:20
Speaker 1: our inbox. I immediately was like, oh my god, I have
8:22
Speaker 1: to curate playlists for this partnership because I'm such a
8:25
Speaker 1: playlist junkie. Like something that people may not realize about
8:28
Speaker 1: me is that I'm just like a big music girl
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Speaker 1: in general, Like I'm not necessarily like up on the
8:34
Speaker 1: latest like artists and trends, but I have such a
8:38
Speaker 1: passion for music growing up. It's just like it was
8:41
Speaker 1: always playing in my house my apartment. So and I
8:46
Speaker 1: just love curating music. It's kind of like that one
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Speaker 1: little like creative piece that stays with me no matter what,
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Speaker 1: Like it's like a non negotiable. I'm like, I have
8:56
Speaker 1: to work on the playlist. I'm sorry, I can't get
8:58
Speaker 1: to your email. Like this is more important. But it
9:00
Speaker 1: also kind of brings me happiness and joy and it's
9:05
Speaker 1: like a time for me to sit on my on
9:07
Speaker 1: my own and like work on something that makes me happy,
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Speaker 1: you know, and like that doesn't happen every day anymore,
9:13
Speaker 1: which is so sad.
9:14
Speaker 2: You know.
9:15
Speaker 1: The creativity is really hard to keep up as you
9:17
Speaker 1: grow a business, and like it's like my one little
9:19
Speaker 1: creative piece that I just wanted to hang on to.
9:23
Speaker 1: So I worked on the playlist for this partnership. So
9:26
Speaker 1: that was so fun being able to kind of take
9:28
Speaker 1: inspiration from the three different sonos, the Olive, the Wave,
9:33
Speaker 1: and the sunset colors, like those are very Mediterranean colors
9:36
Speaker 1: and like you know, inspired by nature and earth and
9:39
Speaker 1: like kind of differentiating this different like vibes for those
9:43
Speaker 1: was really fun. So like the Sunset, I think that
9:46
Speaker 1: was like very like you know, like pool side, like
9:49
Speaker 1: you know, it's like that it's just starting to turn up,
9:52
Speaker 1: but like it's still kind of like you're you're getting
9:55
Speaker 1: feeling the buzz a little bit from that second glass
9:57
Speaker 1: a rose kind of thing where like and then Olive
10:02
Speaker 1: is kind of like that dinner party, like we're just
10:04
Speaker 1: easing into our apps that sort of vibe, and then
10:08
Speaker 1: Wave is like just chilling, kicking back, like you know,
10:12
Speaker 1: catching the waves, you know, surfer vibes. So that was
10:15
Speaker 1: just I don't know, it was really fun and like
10:17
Speaker 1: of course, you know, coming up with cool designs and
10:21
Speaker 1: like taking color in spo and like making something really
10:23
Speaker 1: fun for our chill tips devotees was super fun.
10:27
Speaker 2: Too, super fun too.
10:29
Speaker 3: So are you saying that you have a hand on
10:31
Speaker 3: the music that's going on in the salon spaces as
10:35
Speaker 3: well or all.
10:36
Speaker 1: That is curated by me? I wouldn't have it any
10:38
Speaker 1: other way. And I also help my husband owns bars,
10:41
Speaker 1: and I help curate all those playlists too. It's a
10:44
Speaker 1: little complicated with bars curating playlists because you just never
10:48
Speaker 1: know like at what point, like the room could be
10:51
Speaker 1: really really full and then the music doesn't really line up,
10:54
Speaker 1: so they've had to kind of bring on like an
10:56
Speaker 1: expert for it, but it's usually like we open up
10:59
Speaker 1: a new bar, I'm like, it's my I'm I'm doing
11:01
Speaker 1: the playlist.
11:04
Speaker 2: Siddy, don't downplay your expertise here than.
11:06
Speaker 1: Bringing Yeah, technically, but I think I have good taste.
11:10
Speaker 2: Good taste, good taste.
11:12
Speaker 3: Well, so excited and new reference in that explanation music
11:15
Speaker 3: always being in your household growing up. Also something that
11:19
Speaker 3: not many people may know that our listening to this
11:22
Speaker 3: is that you grew up with a mother that was
11:26
Speaker 3: also involved in the beauty space and self care space.
11:29
Speaker 3: So why don't you talk to us a little bit
11:31
Speaker 3: about what it was like for you to grow up
11:34
Speaker 3: kind of witnessing that.
11:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was interesting. I mean she was such a boss,
11:39
Speaker 1: and I think I immediately knew what kind of like,
11:43
Speaker 1: you know, time and commitment it took to really run
11:46
Speaker 1: a business. And I think I was always like perplexed
11:48
Speaker 1: by it. I wasn't really sure if it was for
11:50
Speaker 1: me or not, but I think I, you know, obviously
11:53
Speaker 1: growing up in beauty industry, I was always very like
11:55
Speaker 1: fascinated by it. My mom had a very different business
11:59
Speaker 1: than what I have been, like a business that I
12:01
Speaker 1: actually really loved because it's more cosmetic focus, of course,
12:05
Speaker 1: but at the time, like in my teen teenage years,
12:08
Speaker 1: in my twenties, I was like, I don't need some
12:11
Speaker 1: of the stuff that she offered. So I kind of
12:13
Speaker 1: had this perception of the SPA as being for like
12:15
Speaker 1: an older woman or someone that you know, could kind
12:19
Speaker 1: of afford these services, and I really didn't feel like
12:22
Speaker 1: it spoke to me or my generation or even like yeah,
12:26
Speaker 1: like my age, my age range. Right, it just didn't
12:30
Speaker 1: really like self care wasn't really advertised us in anyway.
12:34
Speaker 1: But I took a lot of what my mom did
12:36
Speaker 1: and kind of like reverse engineered it and like made
12:40
Speaker 1: it so that it felt like fresh and new for
12:42
Speaker 1: me and like my you know, my friends and you know,
12:46
Speaker 1: the people that I grew up with. And I think
12:47
Speaker 1: that's kind of where I ended up with Chill House.
12:49
Speaker 1: Was kind of like, you know, taking everything I wish
12:53
Speaker 1: my mom would have done when it comes to like
12:55
Speaker 1: the ambiance and like the branding, all of those elements
12:59
Speaker 1: that I think really would have enhanced her company, her brand,
13:03
Speaker 1: and kind of immediately like kind of leaned into that
13:07
Speaker 1: being a very important part of our brand ethos, right,
13:11
Speaker 1: not just saying hey, we do X, Y and Z services,
13:14
Speaker 1: but also being like, no, we evoke something bigger than
13:17
Speaker 1: just what we do, right, we have we have meeting
13:20
Speaker 1: behind the brand, we have like just a larger mission,
13:23
Speaker 1: more of an ethos, And I think that's something that
13:26
Speaker 1: a lot of spas back in the day just didn't have.
13:29
Speaker 1: Like they were very like, you know, let's just come
13:32
Speaker 1: up with a weird, like kind of woo woo name
13:36
Speaker 1: and like that's it, you know, and like it's kind
13:38
Speaker 1: of just like bells and whistles in the massage rooms
13:41
Speaker 1: and that was kind of all there was to it.
13:44
Speaker 1: Of course, like the services were always stellar and that's
13:48
Speaker 1: the number one goal, but the rest of it just
13:51
Speaker 1: didn't really add up or at least like inspired me
13:54
Speaker 1: to really like look into the industry in a serious way.
13:58
Speaker 1: I think one day it just kind of hit me
13:59
Speaker 1: and I was like, I was like, no one in
14:01
Speaker 1: the spa industry making the spa feel cool and like
14:04
Speaker 1: fresh and young and modern, and like it's kind of
14:07
Speaker 1: what happened. But yeah, so really it was like, in
14:10
Speaker 1: a weird way, I was just trying to upgrade what
14:13
Speaker 1: I felt what I wanted for my mother growing up,
14:15
Speaker 1: and like we were just like, she's very hot headed.
14:18
Speaker 1: I'm very hot headed. We tried working together. It never
14:21
Speaker 1: really worked. You know. We did about a year of
14:24
Speaker 1: me working for her and it just like it never took.
14:27
Speaker 1: And now it's okay. You know, I think it's fine
14:29
Speaker 1: to be like, listen, we have very different ways of
14:32
Speaker 1: working and operating, and like, you know, we'll just kind
14:34
Speaker 1: of let this be. Like I'm I was inspired by
14:38
Speaker 1: her and her business and I, you know, took it
14:41
Speaker 1: and made it my own.
14:42
Speaker 3: Were you cognizant of I guess I'll deem them to
14:46
Speaker 3: be the sacrifices that she was making, or a lot
14:50
Speaker 3: of the grit that went into building that business.
14:53
Speaker 2: As you were coming of age.
14:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I was, for sure. I think I
14:57
Speaker 1: was very aware of how much my mom worked, to
15:00
Speaker 1: the point where I resented it.
15:02
Speaker 2: You know.
15:02
Speaker 1: I would see, like so many other parents having like
15:05
Speaker 1: normal night nine to five, and I was like, why
15:07
Speaker 1: am I not with you? I'm always with my nanny
15:09
Speaker 1: and things like that. And I definitely am cognizant of
15:12
Speaker 1: that now with Hendrix, like the fact that we're able
15:15
Speaker 1: to semi work from home, like I'm around Mondays and
15:18
Speaker 1: Fridays and like I'm always visible to Hennie, like that's
15:21
Speaker 1: so important, Whereas like my mom was out of the house,
15:25
Speaker 1: you know, from nine am to nine pm, like it was,
15:29
Speaker 1: it was hours without seeing her. Sometimes I'd go to
15:31
Speaker 1: sleep and not even get to see her, Right, So yeah,
15:35
Speaker 1: I think I always of course, now reflecting back, like
15:39
Speaker 1: everything she sacrificed to, you know, make a life for us,
15:42
Speaker 1: and basically everything that she has worked for is kind
15:46
Speaker 1: of bottled up into one sort of piece of real
15:49
Speaker 1: estate that she owns now. But she you know, saved
15:53
Speaker 1: up her entire life for this like one, her dream
15:55
Speaker 1: apartment in Midtown, and then we eventually sold it and
15:57
Speaker 1: now she has another one, and it's like all wrapped
16:00
Speaker 1: up in this like immigrant story where she worked her
16:04
Speaker 1: ass off, you know, six days a week, twelve hour
16:07
Speaker 1: days to own one little thing that she can pass
16:10
Speaker 1: off to me or Hendrix, you know. And so of
16:12
Speaker 1: course it's like I had like indebted to that, to
16:16
Speaker 1: my mom's s grit and her story and her commitment
16:20
Speaker 1: to seeing that through, Like she was determined to make
16:23
Speaker 1: sure she had something that she could pass off, you know,
16:27
Speaker 1: And that's so admirable.
16:29
Speaker 3: So admirable, and you talk about kind of realizing that
16:33
Speaker 3: there was this hole, so to speak, in the market.
16:37
Speaker 3: But we haven't covered that you yourself didn't just stumble
16:42
Speaker 3: into this place where you were like from the get go,
16:46
Speaker 3: a no brainer entrepreneur like you kind of had to
16:50
Speaker 3: find your way a little bit when it came to business.
16:53
Speaker 2: So tell us a little bit about how you got
16:56
Speaker 2: to the.
16:56
Speaker 3: Point, even right before you really started to put pen
17:00
Speaker 3: to paper on what chill House would be.
17:02
Speaker 1: My entrepreneurship journey was very nonlinear. It was very just weirdly.
17:10
Speaker 1: I ended up in this little zigzaggy road that ended,
17:13
Speaker 1: you know, put me in this lane. I want to say,
17:16
Speaker 1: so a little bit of my background. I guess when
17:18
Speaker 1: I came to the city, I immediately like, I'm from Queens.
17:21
Speaker 1: I came to the city when I was seventeen years old,
17:22
Speaker 1: and I immediately fell into hospitality. I also went to
17:26
Speaker 1: college for I went to fashion school, fashion college for marketing.
17:31
Speaker 1: And because I was also working in hospitality and like
17:34
Speaker 1: making like a really good living in hospitality and working
17:37
Speaker 1: crazy hours, I just wasn't like really committed to my education,
17:40
Speaker 1: and so I knew I wanted to maybe end up
17:43
Speaker 1: in fashion or beauty or something some sort of lifestyle
17:46
Speaker 1: industry that I really loved and like you know, was
17:48
Speaker 1: passionate about. But I also had was tempted by this
17:52
Speaker 1: like nightlife world that I, you know, was really gravitating towards.
17:57
Speaker 1: Whether it be because I was making a really good
17:59
Speaker 1: living or because I was having a really good time partying.
18:01
Speaker 1: Like in my twenties, you know, I was actually doing
18:05
Speaker 1: really well in the hospitality space, and I think because
18:08
Speaker 1: of that, I just sort of just stopped going to school,
18:13
Speaker 1: to classes. We didn't make it in time. I was
18:16
Speaker 1: you know, working till like two am some days even three,
18:20
Speaker 1: and then like trying to get what three hours of
18:22
Speaker 1: sleep and then going to class at like seven or
18:24
Speaker 1: eight am. It was exhausting, and it was very very
18:27
Speaker 1: hard on my body, and also like a lot of
18:29
Speaker 1: my twenties was really hard on my body. We can
18:30
Speaker 1: get to that later, But working in night life for
18:33
Speaker 1: so long, I think eventually, of course, there's like a
18:37
Speaker 1: burnout period, right. Your body can only handle so many
18:40
Speaker 1: years of it. Physically, you're just like always on your feet,
18:43
Speaker 1: you're always moving, literally shaking. I was a bartender at
18:47
Speaker 1: one point for many years, and you know, just the
18:49
Speaker 1: physical aspect of it is not necessarily like healthy on
18:54
Speaker 1: your body, at least not mine. And I yeah, by
18:56
Speaker 1: the time I was like twenty five twenty six, I
18:58
Speaker 1: was like, I can't. This is like I'm not going anywhere.
19:01
Speaker 1: I didn't know what. I didn't know where I was
19:03
Speaker 1: going in life, like truly was like at this roadblock
19:06
Speaker 1: where I was like, where do I go from here?
19:09
Speaker 1: I have nothing to show for my Like I did
19:12
Speaker 1: nothing in my twenties. I maybe I did one internship
19:15
Speaker 1: with Stuart Wizman, I didn't graduate, and I have all
19:20
Speaker 1: these like random, you know, bartending and like wateressing jobs
19:24
Speaker 1: that employers don't give a shit about. Right, So I
19:29
Speaker 1: felt very, very stuck. And I was also a little proud,
19:33
Speaker 1: like too proud to start from the bottom, because I
19:35
Speaker 1: was like, I feel like I don't like, I don't
19:38
Speaker 1: feel like I should start from the bottom, right. I
19:39
Speaker 1: was like, no, like, I know people, I should be
19:41
Speaker 1: able to get some sort of job, but like literally
19:43
Speaker 1: it was crickets trying to get anyone to like respond
19:48
Speaker 1: to my job applications, like absolute crickets. So I was like,
19:53
Speaker 1: I think I should just, I don't know, just start
19:56
Speaker 1: over and get an internship, and even internships were hard
19:59
Speaker 1: to get, and finally I got like a really good
20:01
Speaker 1: response from this one internship that I was really excited about.
20:05
Speaker 1: And that's usually when I tell my story, that's kind
20:07
Speaker 1: of like my turning point in my career was like
20:10
Speaker 1: landing this internship that then became this full time job,
20:13
Speaker 1: and to date, it's been my only full time career
20:17
Speaker 1: job that I've ever had. Now I employ myself, but
20:21
Speaker 1: it was the only time I've ever had like an
20:23
Speaker 1: actual corporate employer. And even then it was just it
20:27
Speaker 1: was me her and like a couple of other people.
20:29
Speaker 1: Like the company never was any bigger than five six people,
20:33
Speaker 1: but I was at the top and I learned everything.
20:35
Speaker 1: I was literally her right hand, and it was a
20:37
Speaker 1: really interesting company that I really was able to dive
20:40
Speaker 1: into both business developments, so understanding how to grow business financially,
20:46
Speaker 1: you know, acquiring clients all that, and then at the
20:50
Speaker 1: same time helping with brand and social and event planning,
20:55
Speaker 1: and so it was super hands on when it came
20:58
Speaker 1: to both sides of really running a company, and I learned,
21:02
Speaker 1: like so much of what I know now was from
21:05
Speaker 1: that experience, and I think two years in it was
21:09
Speaker 1: another sort of crossroads moment where I was like, Okay,
21:11
Speaker 1: she had to let me go, Like the company just
21:13
Speaker 1: wasn't where it was financially and we just like had
21:16
Speaker 1: to part ways, and we my husband and I was
21:20
Speaker 1: like I don't know where to go from here, like
21:22
Speaker 1: what should I do? And I think we just kind
21:24
Speaker 1: of like I took a step back and realized what
21:28
Speaker 1: I wanted to be and where I wanted to take
21:30
Speaker 1: my career, and I think I landed on I wanted
21:33
Speaker 1: to be my own you know, my own boss and
21:37
Speaker 1: run my own company. And we started this like random
21:41
Speaker 1: sort of like influencer agency that was kind of like
21:44
Speaker 1: my first job. And then simultaneously I had a blog
21:47
Speaker 1: called Taste of Style, and that blog was sort of
21:50
Speaker 1: this like I revived it from like what I had
21:56
Speaker 1: when I was twenty two years old, like pre like Infatuation,
21:59
Speaker 1: pre eater, read all those sites. I had like a
22:01
Speaker 1: tiny little blog called Taste of Style. My husband's like
22:04
Speaker 1: I used to read it all the time. I was
22:05
Speaker 1: like I had like five readers like a month. It
22:09
Speaker 1: was good though, you like give good restaurant recommendations and
22:12
Speaker 1: you should really tie in your personal style and I
22:15
Speaker 1: was like, all right, let's try it. So I was
22:16
Speaker 1: doing both of those at one point, and they were fine.
22:20
Speaker 1: You know, they were like very like lifestyle business y
22:23
Speaker 1: type companies that they weren't really bringing in much money
22:26
Speaker 1: at all. So I think at one point my husband
22:29
Speaker 1: was like starting to open up all these bars and
22:31
Speaker 1: I was very much involved as well, and I was
22:34
Speaker 1: kind of getting the itch of like having either a
22:37
Speaker 1: physical space or just something else. Like I felt like
22:40
Speaker 1: I hit another wall with taste of style and like
22:44
Speaker 1: these more like small businesses and I wasn't growing. I
22:47
Speaker 1: wasn't growing with them. And it all kind of like
22:51
Speaker 1: the pieces started falling together, basically with chill House, you know,
22:55
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, this plus this plus this, this
22:59
Speaker 1: is my this is my calling, you know. Just so
23:03
Speaker 1: it was like a culmination of things that just kind
23:05
Speaker 1: of like came together.
23:07
Speaker 3: Can we double click quickly before we keep moving on,
23:11
Speaker 3: because you said and we can talk a little bit
23:13
Speaker 3: about this the perhaps manifestation of all of the stress
23:18
Speaker 3: and uncertainty and hard work on your body and how
23:23
Speaker 3: that was detrimental.
23:24
Speaker 2: For you in your twenties.
23:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think there is like a burnout period, Like
23:29
Speaker 1: I said, with hospitality, and like my husband and I
23:32
Speaker 1: like a munch of my friends like to joke that
23:34
Speaker 1: like anyone that worked in hospitality and like the heyday,
23:37
Speaker 1: and like you know, the early two thousands and like
23:40
Speaker 1: the twenty tens are now in like the wellness space.
23:44
Speaker 1: Like I can like rattle off like a bunch of
23:47
Speaker 1: big influencers that you know that like used to work
23:50
Speaker 1: as bottle waitresses or bartenders, and like now they're full
23:54
Speaker 1: blown like wellness junkies or like they don't drink or
23:56
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. So that is such a thing because
24:00
Speaker 1: it just your body takes such a toll and you
24:03
Speaker 1: have to like revert in the complete opposite direction. I'm
24:07
Speaker 1: not like a hardcore wellness junkie. I think I just
24:11
Speaker 1: really wanted to step away from you know, my husband
24:16
Speaker 1: still owns bars, so we're still in the nightlife business.
24:18
Speaker 1: But I think I needed personally to step away from
24:21
Speaker 1: like the grind a little bit, even not knowing that
24:25
Speaker 1: Chuelhouse would be one of the you know, the most
24:27
Speaker 1: chaotic businesses for me. But I think I wanted to
24:31
Speaker 1: create a space that I can escape while I was
24:34
Speaker 1: inside too, you know, I could really like close my
24:38
Speaker 1: eyes and soak in the experience. And you know, I
24:41
Speaker 1: still to this day when I get a service, I
24:44
Speaker 1: really try to act like the customer, like and I
24:47
Speaker 1: always tell everyone like please don't like treat me like
24:50
Speaker 1: the customer, and like, don't ask me questions afterwards, Like
24:53
Speaker 1: I want to feel the full experience because it is,
24:55
Speaker 1: you know, the perk of the job, or at least
24:57
Speaker 1: I try to get it to be the perk of
24:59
Speaker 1: the job. But yeah, I think and also like another
25:02
Speaker 1: part of one of the reasons that I think it
25:05
Speaker 1: all hit us is, you know, because we were going
25:07
Speaker 1: to brunches and like, I feel like New Yorkers, like
25:13
Speaker 1: our life is centered around food and drinking, like eating
25:16
Speaker 1: and drinking, eating and drinking, and I just wish there
25:19
Speaker 1: was I wanted there to be a place that you
25:22
Speaker 1: can also kind of like easily kind of like work
25:26
Speaker 1: into your routine. You weren't going to drink, and you
25:28
Speaker 1: were probably going to detox and you were probably going
25:30
Speaker 1: to do something good for yourself. And that's what chill
25:32
Speaker 1: house is like essentially, like down to the tea.
25:35
Speaker 3: And you say, you realize that this was the intersection
25:41
Speaker 3: of different things that you felt passionate about this was.
25:45
Speaker 2: Your big idea.
25:46
Speaker 3: Someone listening to this, here's that, and they're like cool,
25:49
Speaker 3: but like, how did you just make it happen? Like
25:52
Speaker 3: where did you get the know how to just create
25:54
Speaker 3: this thing? So where did you get to know how?
25:57
Speaker 3: And how did you make it happen?
25:59
Speaker 1: I'm I'm lucky that I had, you know, my husband
26:01
Speaker 1: at my disposal and his partners, and we basically used
26:05
Speaker 1: a little bit of that blueprint. He had the know
26:10
Speaker 1: all on like of course, building out spaces and permitting
26:15
Speaker 1: and negotiating leases and all of that. And then on
26:19
Speaker 1: the other side on fundraising, we already had you know,
26:23
Speaker 1: two successful venues to kind of show for what we
26:27
Speaker 1: were capable of. And obviously this is a very different business.
26:29
Speaker 1: We thought we were gonna, like, you know, be able
26:32
Speaker 1: to sort of fundraise in a similar capacity, and turned
26:35
Speaker 1: out it wasn't. They're not very similar businesses at all,
26:38
Speaker 1: But we had a little bit of that credibility I think,
26:42
Speaker 1: you know, fortunately, having had a couple of successful bars,
26:45
Speaker 1: that we can then kind of go out to some
26:47
Speaker 1: of our angel investors from those bars and ask if
26:50
Speaker 1: they were be interested in Chill House, and you know
26:54
Speaker 1: it wasn't. We were learning as we go as we
26:57
Speaker 1: went though with everything, even like down to the industry,
27:00
Speaker 1: because we didn't really come from a nail background, and
27:03
Speaker 1: the nail industry is very like that's its own industry, right,
27:07
Speaker 1: massage world, it's its own world, even like the cafe world,
27:10
Speaker 1: that's its own beast. So we brought in a lot
27:14
Speaker 1: of experts in all the different areas of Chill House.
27:18
Speaker 1: We had someone help us with the cafe and the
27:20
Speaker 1: beverage program. We had someone help us build out the
27:24
Speaker 1: massage program and help us hire and staff. And then
27:28
Speaker 1: eventually I identified that every department needs leads and I think
27:31
Speaker 1: that was very helpful as well, because I can't possibly
27:35
Speaker 1: pretend to be, you know, understand how to do the
27:39
Speaker 1: perfect manicure, like I'm learning as I go, especially in
27:42
Speaker 1: the beginning years. So it wasn't It was ambitious, I'd say,
27:47
Speaker 1: but it was like we were really like researching as
27:51
Speaker 1: we were building this company, As we were building this
27:54
Speaker 1: business plan. It was very much like looking at other
27:57
Speaker 1: businesses and how did they do it? What are their prices?
28:00
Speaker 1: Is you know, what do they pay their staff?
28:02
Speaker 2: Like?
28:02
Speaker 1: What are all these you know, the answers to all
28:05
Speaker 1: these questions, and it was very much like googling asking
28:09
Speaker 1: our friends.
28:10
Speaker 3: It's interesting, right, because it's one thing to pull inspiration
28:14
Speaker 3: in the categories that you just threw down, like pricing
28:17
Speaker 3: and like what are their offerings and stuff like that,
28:20
Speaker 3: but then you were able to come into the picture
28:23
Speaker 3: and bring your own spin on everything from a branding
28:27
Speaker 3: and execution pov. They say that imitation is a zerous
28:32
Speaker 3: form of flattery, but I know for a fact that
28:34
Speaker 3: early on, once you started pioneering this quote unquote more
28:37
Speaker 3: modern spa, that people saw what you were doing and
28:40
Speaker 3: they were like, well, we should be doing something like this.
28:44
Speaker 1: Yes, it's funny. People like love to think of us
28:49
Speaker 1: as innovators, and I do think we are in pioneers,
28:52
Speaker 1: like but you know, essentially we just put like a
28:55
Speaker 1: modern spin on like something that felt tired and true,
28:57
Speaker 1: and I guess that is what innovation is. But it
29:00
Speaker 1: wasn't like we weren't necessarily like changing like technology or
29:06
Speaker 1: anything like that. But so it was always really interesting
29:09
Speaker 1: when yeah, we had like a couple of copy cats
29:13
Speaker 1: pop up and that that's not fun, But you know,
29:16
Speaker 1: you try to just kind of go it's okay, like
29:18
Speaker 1: when you're there first, It's kind of like why even
29:21
Speaker 1: get worked up over people that come after? Right, And like,
29:24
Speaker 1: I genuinely come from a place of like I don't
29:28
Speaker 1: believe in like true competition. I believe in like maybe
29:32
Speaker 1: healthy competition. I really don't like to be like Caddy
29:36
Speaker 1: when it comes to people you know, doing similar products
29:39
Speaker 1: or doing similar things, Like I think we're all in it,
29:42
Speaker 1: hopefully in it to win it. We can share resources,
29:45
Speaker 1: we can share information, and I think that's that's the
29:49
Speaker 1: way to hopefully, you know, get get to the top
29:52
Speaker 1: is by not withholding information from each other and really
29:56
Speaker 1: helping each other out.
30:03
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Speaker 3: off your order today. So what would you say were
31:27
Speaker 3: your biggest takeaways from the first location that you opened
31:32
Speaker 3: on Essex.
31:34
Speaker 1: I'd say again more I don't know. I don't know
31:37
Speaker 1: if this is gonna translate to everyone and anyone that's listening,
31:41
Speaker 1: But like for us, our biggest issue there was that
31:44
Speaker 1: we didn't have enough space. I think we got really
31:47
Speaker 1: ambitious with the size of the space and sort of
31:50
Speaker 1: this like innovating how how uh these services should be
31:57
Speaker 1: laid out. Just like the footprint of the space itself
32:03
Speaker 1: was like more open format, and of course it was
32:05
Speaker 1: like way too loud, to have massage back there. But
32:09
Speaker 1: then you know, the cafe in the front, we had
32:11
Speaker 1: to build a wall, and then it was the health
32:13
Speaker 1: department came and they're like, you can't have like polishes
32:18
Speaker 1: right by the cafe. And we're like, well, there's nothing
32:20
Speaker 1: that says we can. They're like, you just can't, like
32:22
Speaker 1: we're saying it. So, you know, there are things that
32:26
Speaker 1: sometimes rules aren't written yet a lot of times for
32:30
Speaker 1: certain businesses right to kind of follow and adhere to,
32:35
Speaker 1: and like, we did something that was kind of ballsy
32:38
Speaker 1: and like without asking anyone's permission, and then of course
32:41
Speaker 1: it like backfired on us. You know, it's kind of
32:43
Speaker 1: like people say, what you like, don't ask, don't ask
32:48
Speaker 1: ontel kind of thing right where if you don't ask,
32:52
Speaker 1: like to see what happens, don't.
32:53
Speaker 2: Ask for permission, ask for forgiveness.
32:55
Speaker 1: But sometimes you know, you can't even ask for forgiveness
33:00
Speaker 1: and then it bites you in the ass. And I
33:02
Speaker 1: think that's what happened with us a little bit in
33:04
Speaker 1: that space. It was just a tough space in general
33:07
Speaker 1: from the get go. I'm really happy where we are now.
33:09
Speaker 1: We ended up in a thirty two hundred square foot
33:12
Speaker 1: more lofty space in Soho West. It's a little off
33:15
Speaker 1: the beaten path, which is kind of nice because we're
33:17
Speaker 1: a destination business anyway, so we don't really need like
33:19
Speaker 1: the foot traffic per se be nice for the cafe,
33:22
Speaker 1: but it's not. It wasn't necessary where I thought it,
33:26
Speaker 1: Like I thought it was more important back when we opened.
33:29
Speaker 1: And yeah, it's like we're actually able to breathe a
33:32
Speaker 1: little bit. Like we have you know, sometimes very cluttered,
33:36
Speaker 1: but you know, we have like a back of house
33:39
Speaker 1: where we can store a ton of stuff and like
33:41
Speaker 1: our team can actually sit down on like a nice
33:44
Speaker 1: plush couch and like have to take a break. Like
33:46
Speaker 1: those things were not things that we prioritize with the
33:50
Speaker 1: first spase that of course we had to make sure
33:54
Speaker 1: we did goodbye the next timmer run.
33:56
Speaker 3: I would also say that this is like a prime
33:58
Speaker 3: example of just doing the best you can with what
34:01
Speaker 3: you have. Like you didn't know all of the things
34:04
Speaker 3: that you might eventually have to ask for forgiveness for,
34:08
Speaker 3: you didn't know how the layout would play out, but again,
34:11
Speaker 3: you just did the best you could with the scenario
34:14
Speaker 3: and the pieces that were in front of you.
34:16
Speaker 1: And the resources we raised a very very small amount
34:20
Speaker 1: of money considering what the project was, and it was
34:24
Speaker 1: a small concept really that kind of like was well
34:27
Speaker 1: received and sort of exploded, like I think digitally, like
34:32
Speaker 1: people thought it was like a much bigger space and
34:34
Speaker 1: they would show up, they'd be like, that's it, like
34:36
Speaker 1: it's so tiny, or like it just didn't live up
34:39
Speaker 1: to expectations, I think, And I was like always so
34:41
Speaker 1: embarrassed because I think when you first walked, when you
34:44
Speaker 1: first got to Chill House, like pre walls, pre anything,
34:48
Speaker 1: pre like clutter and like all this stuff, it just
34:50
Speaker 1: felt very open and like like airy and light and
34:53
Speaker 1: felt like, I don't know, it felt like a little
34:55
Speaker 1: like respite meets like California venice vibes in the dead
35:00
Speaker 1: smack in the middle of like the concrete jungle, and
35:03
Speaker 1: then it just felt chaotic. At one point I was like,
35:07
Speaker 1: I don't this is not this is not what we
35:09
Speaker 1: originally built. And I was like, we gotta go, like
35:12
Speaker 1: you know, and so we It was just it was
35:14
Speaker 1: the right decision. We ended up turning the space into
35:17
Speaker 1: like a face and body studio to kind of just
35:19
Speaker 1: down downsize the amount of things that we had going
35:22
Speaker 1: on in the space while we had the flagship location,
35:26
Speaker 1: and then of course COVID happened, and then we decided
35:30
Speaker 1: to just save flagship, get rid of face and body,
35:33
Speaker 1: and it was the best decision we ever made.
35:36
Speaker 3: Talk to me about the best part of COVID for
35:39
Speaker 3: your business.
35:41
Speaker 1: Ooh, having a little bit of downtime to focus on products,
35:45
Speaker 1: I'd say, you know, it was. It was kind of
35:49
Speaker 1: this weird blessing in disguise where having a brick and
35:53
Speaker 1: mortar space just requires a lot of time and energy
35:58
Speaker 1: for a founder, and of course, like as it should,
36:01
Speaker 1: but it was really hard for me and my husband
36:03
Speaker 1: to be able to get past get to that next
36:06
Speaker 1: level of growing the brand, which was like you know,
36:09
Speaker 1: launching these products. So we actually were able to put
36:14
Speaker 1: our heads down, get things done and finalize like our
36:18
Speaker 1: first sort of like hero products which are Tips and
36:20
Speaker 1: they have now they're like you know, to this day.
36:24
Speaker 1: I think it was one of those sort of blessings in.
36:26
Speaker 4: Disguise for us where like, wow, I I don't know,
36:31
Speaker 4: like we've been, we've been in a very different place
36:34
Speaker 4: had we have not launched Tips, I'd say, you know,
36:37
Speaker 4: I don't know what the future would have held.
36:38
Speaker 1: For us, so they kind of saved us.
36:40
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm sure you hear this all the time.
36:43
Speaker 3: I have never been successful with any sort of other
36:46
Speaker 3: press on ever. Ever, ever accept chill tips and they
36:50
Speaker 3: stay for like a while.
36:52
Speaker 1: Yes they do. I know. I have people that are like,
36:55
Speaker 1: oh my god, I have to get my nailteck to
36:57
Speaker 1: soak them off. I'm like, wait, hold on, we got
36:58
Speaker 1: to discuss that. Maybe you're putting out to much glue.
37:00
Speaker 1: But like a lot of people, they last like up
37:03
Speaker 1: to three weeks on some people. Me, I know how
37:06
Speaker 1: to like get them to come off easily. But yeah,
37:08
Speaker 1: they're They've changed my life. Like, and I'm not in
37:11
Speaker 1: the business of like telling people to not go to
37:13
Speaker 1: the nail salon. Obviously I own one, and I want
37:15
Speaker 1: people to go to their nail text souse. I think
37:17
Speaker 1: nail texts are like therapists. But like for me, it's
37:21
Speaker 1: been a game changer because I personally am always like
37:24
Speaker 1: I have no time, blah blah blah, and like I know,
37:26
Speaker 1: I can always spread my box. It takes me ten minutes,
37:29
Speaker 1: that's it, and it's like part of my like getting
37:31
Speaker 1: ready routine.
37:32
Speaker 3: Now for you building this business, talk to me about
37:36
Speaker 3: maybe what your self care routine or just like sporadic
37:40
Speaker 3: self care used to look like versus now again. At
37:45
Speaker 3: the top of this podcast, we talked about a chill
37:47
Speaker 3: house in a different country. You've got product, You've got
37:51
Speaker 3: a flagship, you are just expanding rapidly, You've got the
37:54
Speaker 3: Sona's partnership. Like what does self care look like for
37:57
Speaker 3: Cindy today?
38:01
Speaker 1: God, you know, I'm not like incredible at routine other
38:08
Speaker 1: than just like my like the critical stuff, right because
38:12
Speaker 1: it's always I have to be available to the business,
38:16
Speaker 1: you know, at any given moment. So it's really hard
38:19
Speaker 1: for me to be like I'm going to do like
38:21
Speaker 1: three hours of a SPA day today and it's a Tuesday,
38:24
Speaker 1: or I'm going to like, yes, I pencil those in,
38:27
Speaker 1: Like I get my monthly messages. I'll get like my
38:29
Speaker 1: bi monthly facials, I get you know, petticare every three weeks.
38:34
Speaker 1: I'll sometimes get those like sporadic sort of services like
38:38
Speaker 1: lymphatic drainage or you know, whatever makes me feel a
38:41
Speaker 1: little bit less like anxious is really what I try
38:44
Speaker 1: to prioritize, and like sometimes a lot of it for
38:46
Speaker 1: me is like gut and like you know, feeling unbalanced,
38:49
Speaker 1: and like I think, so whatever it takes for me
38:52
Speaker 1: to kind of offset that anxiousness, I do prioritize. But
38:56
Speaker 1: it's not necessarily like an everyday ritual. I think for me,
39:00
Speaker 1: it's very important to like wake up and show up
39:03
Speaker 1: and be with my son, like that's number one, and
39:05
Speaker 1: like have that moment with him and breakfast and like
39:09
Speaker 1: that hour of family time and then kind of like
39:11
Speaker 1: dive right into work or go to the gym or
39:14
Speaker 1: you know whatever it is that my day looks like
39:16
Speaker 1: I've been trying to work out with a trainer a
39:19
Speaker 1: little bit more and like do more pilates. Like, but
39:21
Speaker 1: I'm not like hardcore committed, because you know, I think
39:26
Speaker 1: the nature of the game is right now to always
39:29
Speaker 1: be a little bit available to the business and just
39:32
Speaker 1: like at such a critical time in our life, in
39:34
Speaker 1: our you know, in our journey. But I try. I like,
39:39
Speaker 1: I think it's really important to add things to your
39:41
Speaker 1: calendar and just like make it like official. You know.
39:43
Speaker 1: I don't just like kind of like float through the day.
39:47
Speaker 1: I like have like very committed plans and how I
39:51
Speaker 1: like schedule in my self care.
39:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, that word committed is interesting because you're saying like,
39:58
Speaker 3: I'm not hardcore commit to always integrating pilates or you know,
40:02
Speaker 3: I'm trying to work with a trainer, but you are
40:05
Speaker 3: committed to something else which takes priority over these other things.
40:09
Speaker 3: And I think so often when it comes to different
40:13
Speaker 3: aspects of our overall well being, whether it's movement or meditation,
40:16
Speaker 3: or self care or like making time for a therapist,
40:19
Speaker 3: like we feel as though we should literally be doing
40:23
Speaker 3: everything every week, all of the time, and you've got
40:27
Speaker 3: to find the things that work for you.
40:30
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, you can literally fill up your day
40:33
Speaker 1: on just taking care of yourself if you really wanted to, right.
40:37
Speaker 1: I think I saw this TikTok one time that I laughed,
40:39
Speaker 1: really laugh loud at it, and it was like a model.
40:42
Speaker 1: She was like what I do in a day, and
40:43
Speaker 1: it was just like her taking care of herself all day,
40:46
Speaker 1: And I was like, wow, that must be nice. It's
40:49
Speaker 1: a full time job if you really wanted to practice
40:52
Speaker 1: self care in like a way that's very holistic, right.
40:57
Speaker 1: It's it's mind, it's body, it's beauty, it's it's physical,
41:02
Speaker 1: all of those different elements, which is also like kind
41:06
Speaker 1: of bringing it back to Paris a little bit. What
41:08
Speaker 1: I really love about the Galleries Lafayette Partner partnership is
41:12
Speaker 1: that they are thinking about all of those different elements
41:15
Speaker 1: of self care and you could spend a day there,
41:18
Speaker 1: which is kind of back to the point. It's like
41:20
Speaker 1: you could just be like, this is my life, I'm
41:23
Speaker 1: going to do this every day, and that's nice, but
41:26
Speaker 1: that's not realistic. And so it is very much about
41:29
Speaker 1: doing what works for you in that moment. If your
41:33
Speaker 1: body is what's really like yearning help, like that's more important.
41:38
Speaker 1: If it's your mind, seek out a therapist, seek out
41:41
Speaker 1: some alone time, read a book, whatever it is to
41:43
Speaker 1: kind of take you away from the hardships that you
41:46
Speaker 1: may be going through. And so for me, it like
41:49
Speaker 1: it ebbs and flows like some some weeks, my mind
41:54
Speaker 1: is racing my anxieties through the roof my you know,
41:58
Speaker 1: my personal life is a little like shook up, you know,
42:03
Speaker 1: and so that I prioritize time with my family, time
42:08
Speaker 1: with my friends, like you know. And then other times
42:10
Speaker 1: it's my body and my like have to go to
42:12
Speaker 1: like I don't know, acupuncture because like my back is
42:14
Speaker 1: fucked up, so like I literally pulled my back like
42:18
Speaker 1: three months ago, and I had like a whole month
42:20
Speaker 1: of trying to rehabit. So yeah, it's you know, every
42:25
Speaker 1: month is different and that's okay, you know. But also
42:27
Speaker 1: like finding those little pockets of like this is a
42:29
Speaker 1: routine and this is like a non negotiable part of
42:32
Speaker 1: my day.
42:33
Speaker 3: And why do you think setting the non negotiables is important?
42:37
Speaker 3: I guess the broader question is why would you the
42:40
Speaker 3: quote unquote queen of Chill tell someone to prioritize their
42:46
Speaker 3: own self care.
42:48
Speaker 1: I think the non negotiable routine part is so important
42:51
Speaker 1: to not entering the day chaotically, you know, and and
42:56
Speaker 1: it is to me so much about how you start
42:58
Speaker 1: your day, like make your bed, drink that glass of water,
43:01
Speaker 1: take your supplements. You know, those little moments that set
43:05
Speaker 1: you up for success are super super important in how
43:08
Speaker 1: you actually like your day goes. If you don't show
43:12
Speaker 1: up like feeling good, then how do you expect the
43:16
Speaker 1: data go well?
43:17
Speaker 2: Right?
43:17
Speaker 1: So that is like if you can write, not every
43:22
Speaker 1: day is going to go off. Like you know, sometimes
43:25
Speaker 1: I wake up to like chaos in my inbox and
43:28
Speaker 1: I have to handle it right away. But I always
43:30
Speaker 1: make sure I kind of go back to settling in
43:32
Speaker 1: and like, you know, not feeling like that's how I'm
43:36
Speaker 1: going to take I want the day to go.
43:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, chaotic inbox plus like chaotic baby equals just yeah.
43:43
Speaker 1: Well I absolutely Now I wake up at seven and
43:46
Speaker 1: you know Paris is by seven o'clock. They're at one pm. Yeah,
43:53
Speaker 1: well they've already had their whole day. I'm like, what's happening?
43:58
Speaker 2: One other child to take care of another child, to
44:00
Speaker 2: take care of it? How does it feel for you?
44:02
Speaker 3: I mean going back, I just like reference you know,
44:04
Speaker 3: the nickname the Queen of Chill. How does it feel
44:07
Speaker 3: for you to somewhat be a little bit at like
44:10
Speaker 3: the center of your business? Like people think of Chill
44:13
Speaker 3: House and they think of Sydney Ramiro's Fulton, Like.
44:16
Speaker 2: Do you feel any extra pressure being that center figure?
44:22
Speaker 1: A little bit? And I don't always want to be Yeah,
44:25
Speaker 1: I don't know that I love the attention as much
44:27
Speaker 1: as it may seem. Like I think at one point
44:30
Speaker 1: I love the attention, and then now I don't love
44:32
Speaker 1: the attention, and I'm trying to figure out what's best
44:36
Speaker 1: for my business. And then I just kind of you know,
44:39
Speaker 1: refocus and like then say all right, I guess I
44:43
Speaker 1: have to like go out and do more press or
44:45
Speaker 1: like I have to, you know, whatever it is that
44:47
Speaker 1: really helps the business. I think is kindt kind of
44:49
Speaker 1: where I where I land. But I would love for
44:52
Speaker 1: one day for the business to not even like for
44:56
Speaker 1: my name or my face to not even be associated
44:58
Speaker 1: to it. I think that would be really cool. I
45:00
Speaker 1: don't know, like Nike, I don't think about you know,
45:02
Speaker 1: Phil Knight, Like there are so many brands that you
45:05
Speaker 1: don't necessarily like they become so much bigger than the founder, right,
45:09
Speaker 1: Like That's what my hope is for chill House is
45:11
Speaker 1: like I kind of like evaporate into the to the ether, to.
45:15
Speaker 2: The back space, to the backspace.
45:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, and like other people can come forward and like
45:19
Speaker 1: you know, showing my team off more as they become
45:22
Speaker 1: more comfortable with that. And like, I don't know, I
45:24
Speaker 1: think that would be that would be really fun.
45:27
Speaker 3: But I also feel like I mean to kind of
45:29
Speaker 3: get even deeper with this. There have probably been stuff
45:32
Speaker 3: for events within your personal life that have made being
45:36
Speaker 3: a quote unquote public facing human a little bit more difficult.
45:39
Speaker 2: I remember just last year.
45:41
Speaker 3: And here like even me saying this to you as
45:43
Speaker 3: someone where this is technically like the first time that
45:46
Speaker 3: you and I have sat down and had a conversation.
45:48
Speaker 2: I remember last year or I'm like, what year are
45:51
Speaker 2: we in? What's going on?
45:52
Speaker 3: After you had Hendrix and you were like trying to
45:55
Speaker 3: get back into feeling good in your body, like you're
45:57
Speaker 3: forward facing person and you're feeling if you in your body,
46:00
Speaker 3: but you still have.
46:01
Speaker 2: To show up on social media and it's just like sticky.
46:05
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it took me a long time to actually
46:07
Speaker 1: feel like myself again. I think postpartum is real and
46:12
Speaker 1: your body goes through literally you're like a punching bag
46:16
Speaker 1: for this child, and it's fine. You do it out
46:19
Speaker 1: of love because you know it's what you have to do,
46:22
Speaker 1: and you kind of suck it up, and but it yeah,
46:26
Speaker 1: like comparing yourself to other people that maybe are like
46:29
Speaker 1: five years into postpartum and they're so skinny, or like
46:32
Speaker 1: even like people that just came out of postpartum, I
46:34
Speaker 1: know they are like a couple of people I'm friends
46:37
Speaker 1: with even that like looked amazing after they had their child,
46:40
Speaker 1: and I'm like, what the fuck, Like why did why
46:42
Speaker 1: what happened to me? Why is my experience different? And
46:44
Speaker 1: it just really really sucks, and like, yeah, exactly to
46:47
Speaker 1: your point, like having to show up and put your
46:49
Speaker 1: face out there, being on social media, like doing I
46:52
Speaker 1: don't know, having to go to events and like not
46:54
Speaker 1: feeling like you are dressed well enough or or like
46:59
Speaker 1: you know, you didn't get a minute to get your
47:01
Speaker 1: hair blown out because you're too swamped with work. Like
47:03
Speaker 1: that's always my biggest thing. I'm always like, oh my god,
47:06
Speaker 1: like I want to be out there socializing, putting my
47:11
Speaker 1: face out there for the sake of chill House, of course,
47:14
Speaker 1: but it's also like a lot of work to being
47:19
Speaker 1: like a proper public figure, like looking like a movie start,
47:22
Speaker 1: like doing all this stuff. I'm like, I don't have
47:25
Speaker 1: the energy to do all that. I literally complained about
47:27
Speaker 1: it the other day on my on my stories because
47:31
Speaker 1: I realized it was like two days I was two
47:33
Speaker 1: days away from flying out to Paris, and I had
47:36
Speaker 1: like no outfit for my photo shoot for like my sotor.
47:40
Speaker 1: I'm like, what the fuck am I gonna do? I
47:41
Speaker 1: have like nothing to wear, I don't know where I'm
47:44
Speaker 1: gonna get my hair done, like all those things, Right,
47:48
Speaker 1: I guess that's why people have assistance.
47:50
Speaker 2: I guess that. I guess this all makes sense now.
47:52
Speaker 3: I remember when I sat down with Jacqueline Johnson and
47:55
Speaker 3: she was telling me about like the early days of
47:56
Speaker 3: creating Cultivate, and she would be like, I'm running around
47:59
Speaker 3: like try to put on this like six hundred person convention,
48:02
Speaker 3: and someone like holding me to the side and was like,
48:05
Speaker 3: maybe you should try to like make yourself look a
48:07
Speaker 3: little better than you do right now.
48:09
Speaker 2: And she's like, oh, okay, like I see how, I
48:13
Speaker 2: see how this works out. It's stressful, exactly.
48:17
Speaker 1: Well, she's amazing, she always looks incredible at her conferences,
48:20
Speaker 1: but yeah, exactly, she's like focused on the bigger picture here.
48:25
Speaker 1: But then you're exactly, you're the host. You have to
48:27
Speaker 1: look presentable, you have to look you have to look
48:29
Speaker 1: like you're the star of the show, and that in
48:32
Speaker 1: itself is stressful. Yeah, and like we always have to
48:35
Speaker 1: look fabulous even though we're fucking grinding and like in
48:38
Speaker 1: our computers all day. Like, no, thank you, I'm sorry,
48:41
Speaker 1: thank you. I hate that culture. It's so annoying, but
48:44
Speaker 1: I have to play the role sometimes for sure.
48:47
Speaker 2: Now everyone really knows how you feel.
48:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, they yes, I don't love it. I look
48:52
Speaker 1: kind of cute today because I was like, whatever, I'm
48:55
Speaker 1: on camera, but you do look cute.
48:57
Speaker 2: You do look cute. Okay, so tell us.
48:59
Speaker 3: I mean again, I won't list off the laundry list
49:01
Speaker 3: of amazing things that are going on, but what really,
49:04
Speaker 3: like has you excited right now?
49:09
Speaker 1: Obviously like just making sure Paris like looks its best
49:12
Speaker 1: for still finalizing some things, and I'm going to go
49:14
Speaker 1: back there in September, so I'm really excited to maybe
49:17
Speaker 1: host like a little influencer gathering. But we also just
49:20
Speaker 1: have so many exciting products in our pipeline, which I'm like,
49:25
Speaker 1: I'm like obsessed with these products and they've been my
49:27
Speaker 1: like little brain child for brain children for like over
49:32
Speaker 1: a year now, and so you know, these things take
49:35
Speaker 1: a lot of time and effort, so it's it's kind
49:38
Speaker 1: of like a little nerve wrecking to kind of put
49:42
Speaker 1: them out there. So we're getting there, though, I'd say,
49:45
Speaker 1: like in August, we're really gonna finalize a couple of
49:49
Speaker 1: like campaigns for these products and put them out into
49:51
Speaker 1: the universe.
49:52
Speaker 3: And for someone who may be unfamiliar outside of the
49:55
Speaker 3: chill tips, what other kinds of products do you guys?
49:58
Speaker 2: Currently sell.
49:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, our whole thing is being able to now sort
50:02
Speaker 1: of bring the spot experience to your home. So it's
50:06
Speaker 1: kind of like these at home self care treatments. So
50:10
Speaker 1: we say, like we're available in New York, Paris and
50:13
Speaker 1: in your home. We really want to be to somehow
50:16
Speaker 1: recreate what we do at Chill House and like put
50:19
Speaker 1: it in a package and like be like here you go,
50:21
Speaker 1: like now kind of you know, take care of yourself, right,
50:25
Speaker 1: whether that's in your bathroom or like you know, we
50:30
Speaker 1: may sit on your vanity, maybe in your pantry one day,
50:33
Speaker 1: or on your coffee table like with a candle. You know,
50:36
Speaker 1: we really want to be available to you anywhere in
50:41
Speaker 1: your home and within your routine. I'd say so. But
50:45
Speaker 1: I think the next big category for us as body.
50:49
Speaker 1: So you'll be seeing a lot more from the body
50:52
Speaker 1: from Chill House Body and then as well as different
50:55
Speaker 1: nail products as well, really fun things that you like
50:59
Speaker 1: definitely will want it to use every day.
51:02
Speaker 3: And I know you're probably inundated in your DMS all
51:04
Speaker 3: the time about places that people want to see brick
51:07
Speaker 3: and mortar Chill House properties.
51:10
Speaker 2: How do you feel about that?
51:12
Speaker 3: Is something that is that something that will actually happen
51:14
Speaker 3: in the future.
51:15
Speaker 2: What can you say?
51:17
Speaker 1: I like to say never, say never for sure. I
51:19
Speaker 1: am a big brick and mortar girl. I love retail,
51:23
Speaker 1: I love physical space and experience. I love experience. I
51:27
Speaker 1: think chill house is a very complex business. I think
51:30
Speaker 1: people probably are like, oh, just like open up here.
51:32
Speaker 1: It's like, ahh, it hurts the stuff, like you want
51:36
Speaker 1: to make sure everyone's properly trained, and it's you know,
51:40
Speaker 1: it's not like as easy as like snapping your fingers.
51:42
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying product is easy too. I think
51:44
Speaker 1: it's like they're all very, very complicated in their own way.
51:47
Speaker 1: But I want to be mindful of where reopen, where
51:51
Speaker 1: customer is, our fan bases, and definitely I can see
51:56
Speaker 1: a few more in the future, but I don't We're
52:00
Speaker 1: not necessarily trying to be like a dry bar where
52:02
Speaker 1: we're like, you.
52:03
Speaker 2: Know, in every major city.
52:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I would. I would say maybe, who knows,
52:09
Speaker 1: maybe every major city one day, and that's you know,
52:11
Speaker 1: limiting us to just a couple more locations, you never know.
52:15
Speaker 1: I feel like for me, opening up multiple in one
52:19
Speaker 1: city is not like in my cards personal.
52:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I do.
52:24
Speaker 3: Before I let you go want to rewind a little
52:27
Speaker 3: bit and double click on that time in your life
52:30
Speaker 3: where you did feel a little bit like you were
52:32
Speaker 3: trying to find your footing after getting out of working
52:35
Speaker 3: in hospitality and trying to figure out where you were
52:37
Speaker 3: going to go in your career. I'm sure many women
52:40
Speaker 3: listening to this right now can certainly relate to this feeling,
52:44
Speaker 3: especially the you know, hesitancy and.
52:48
Speaker 2: You know nerves that go hand in hand with being like,
52:51
Speaker 2: am I actually going to start over right now?
52:53
Speaker 3: So for someone who that really resonates with, what advice
52:57
Speaker 3: do you have for them about moving forward?
53:00
Speaker 1: I always like to say, if you don't try, then
53:02
Speaker 1: how we'll you even know? Kind of thing?
53:04
Speaker 2: You know?
53:04
Speaker 1: It's I think so many people have this fear of
53:10
Speaker 1: the unknown, of course, as they should, but at the
53:14
Speaker 1: same time, they also have experience in whatever it is
53:17
Speaker 1: that they're trying to leave, clearly because they have comfort.
53:19
Speaker 1: They find comfort in that that experience or whatever that
53:23
Speaker 1: job was that they had for so long, And so
53:25
Speaker 1: I always say, like, go for it, and like if
53:28
Speaker 1: it doesn't work out, you always have a safety net
53:30
Speaker 1: because you have come from a place of you know,
53:33
Speaker 1: some sort of level of expertise enough that you're very
53:37
Speaker 1: scared to leave that job to start something else, right,
53:39
Speaker 1: because you obviously have some sort of comfort in that.
53:43
Speaker 1: So always take the risks. There's no reward without the risk. Zero,
53:47
Speaker 1: That is the statement. And I always look for science too, right,
53:52
Speaker 1: So like when is the right moment? It's like, is
53:55
Speaker 1: there something?
53:56
Speaker 2: Really?
53:56
Speaker 1: Is the universe kind of taking me in that direction?
53:58
Speaker 1: And a lot of times that is exactly what happened
54:01
Speaker 1: in those sort of critical decisions for myself, my life.
54:05
Speaker 2: For yourself and your life. All right, Sindy.
54:09
Speaker 3: Right now, if someone's to go to your Instagram, they
54:12
Speaker 3: see again that quote the Queen of Chill, a founder
54:16
Speaker 3: with over sixty five thousand followers. When you look in
54:19
Speaker 3: the mirror, what is it that you see looking back
54:21
Speaker 3: at you?
54:22
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that's such a hard question. I don't know.
54:25
Speaker 1: I see someone like very different than like the young
54:29
Speaker 1: girl I used to be. I think I finally see
54:32
Speaker 1: a woman that's confident in like in what she's doing
54:36
Speaker 1: in the life she's created for herself. And I'm very
54:39
Speaker 1: proud of that woman. But it's really funny to look
54:42
Speaker 1: at myself in the mirror now and like think about
54:44
Speaker 1: who I was in my twenties, like you know, had
54:47
Speaker 1: no direction, had no had no experience really and kind
54:53
Speaker 1: of like floated through life. And I'm, you know, very
54:56
Speaker 1: proud of the life I've built and where I now.
55:00
Speaker 1: I have an amazing husband, amazing son, in a business
55:04
Speaker 1: that people really love and enjoy. So what else can
55:08
Speaker 1: I ask for? Just hope that our health and everything
55:12
Speaker 1: else is aligns with.
55:13
Speaker 3: That health, wealth and time to enjoy. That's what my
55:17
Speaker 3: grandfather used to say to me when I was little.
55:19
Speaker 1: Definitely would love more wealth and more time to enjoy.
55:21
Speaker 2: And more time to enjoy. All right, final question?
55:25
Speaker 3: Right now, you have an opportunity to offer yourself one
55:28
Speaker 3: piece of advice. I feel like you just hinted at
55:30
Speaker 3: some of it, but one piece of advice, looking back
55:33
Speaker 3: on the.
55:33
Speaker 2: Very beginning of your business, a.
55:36
Speaker 3: Time that was of such flux and a lot of
55:40
Speaker 3: many hurdle moments, what do you tell yourself?
55:44
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think I can answer that in
55:46
Speaker 1: two different ways. I think I'm going to keep it
55:48
Speaker 1: really simple and just say like it'll all work out,
55:52
Speaker 1: like take a breath, take a beat, follow your gut,
55:54
Speaker 1: like don't worry, this time will pass. I kind of
55:59
Speaker 1: want to think about, like my mind is going to
56:02
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, just because you know, that was just obviously
56:06
Speaker 1: the most insane time in any of our lives, but
56:11
Speaker 1: especially given the fact that I was, like, you know,
56:14
Speaker 1: having a baby that year. There was just so much
56:16
Speaker 1: up in the air, and like the only thing I
56:18
Speaker 1: can do is like stress out because I didn't know
56:21
Speaker 1: what our future looked like. And I think now, if
56:24
Speaker 1: I were to give myself any advice, it'd be like,
56:27
Speaker 1: don't worry. Things come out on the other side. It's not,
56:31
Speaker 1: as you know, detrimental, as you know, society may make
56:36
Speaker 1: it feel in this moment. I think everything will cool
56:39
Speaker 1: off and level out and the playing field will like
56:42
Speaker 1: sort itself out. I would probably say that to myself
56:47
Speaker 1: so that I'd avoid a lot of tears and excity.
56:52
Speaker 3: What will be will be, Cindy, I'm so grateful that
56:55
Speaker 3: we were able to make this happen. How do the
56:57
Speaker 3: hurdlers follow along with you? If they don't yet, how
56:59
Speaker 3: do they keep up with chill House? Give us all
57:01
Speaker 3: the information.
57:03
Speaker 1: Pretty simple we have at chill House, at chill house
57:05
Speaker 1: dot com, at Sidi Ramirez.
57:08
Speaker 2: That's it. That's it.
57:09
Speaker 3: I'm over at Emily a Body and at Hurdle Podcast,
57:12
Speaker 3: another hurdle conquered.
57:14
Speaker 2: Catch you guys next time.