Learning to Trust Your Gut
The Make Lemonade Community is made up of radically unique, awesome, and genuine people. Meet one of the ‘lemons’:
Stephanie Daga (she/her)
🔗 blushpretty.com + loweandsimone.com
⭐️ @ms.blushpretty + @loweandsimone
Published Feb 2022
What do you do and why do you do it?
I'm a serial small business owner. I'm not afraid to take something that I love and enjoy doing and try to turn it into a business. Plenty of my attempts have failed, but I'm now running two businesses that I love: BlushPretty; a mobile makeup and hair team that has been up and running since 2004; and Lowe+Simone, a sewing studio where students of all ages can learn how to sew and craft! Lowe+Simone is what I call my baby business. I started with private lessons in my home around 2017, and its since grown!
Tell us about a time that life handed you lemons. Did you make lemonade? *
Well, this pandemic has been filled with lemons! Let's see, well, when the pandemic hit, I was running two studios for BlushPretty - one in Toronto and one in Whitby. With makeup and hair falling under personal care services, we were closed for an extensive period of time in Toronto and Whitby. I couldn't do anything in either of the studios for the longest time. Lowe+Simone on the other hand was able to resume services when restrictions were lifted and moved into phases, around the summer of 2020. Until the pandemic, I taught sewing privately, one to one, in my home.
Come June 2020, I had made a plan to start teaching lessons again in my Whitby Studio. At the same time, parents were itching to find something OUTSIDE the home and off screens for their children to do.
I decided to prepare programming for Sewing Summer Camps for all of July and all of August. I had current students spread the word and some of the moms shared the news in their mommy groups. Almost immediately, the first two weeks of camp in July filled up. After the first two weeks of sewing camp - with all the content I was able to share on Instagram and Facebook - the rest of the summer quickly booked up! By August, parents followed up with "will you be teaching classes in the fall so my child can continue?" ... and from there, it was a no-brainer. I finessed and drafted programs for weekly classes and the rest is history. We now welcome about 25-30 new students each session! It could've been easy to just stop and close up shop ... but I made the lemonade and it was sweet!
What’s the best piece of business advice you’ve received?
I remember when I had decided I wanted to try moving to a street-level space for BlushPretty, that I was sure I wanted to do it, but had trouble determining if the space I was interested in was the RIGHT space.
My best friend, Elaine, who at the time was also assisting me with the administration had to keep dealing with me second-guessing myself. She finally set me straight and basically told me that I'd never been wrong about my decisions about the business - not when I wanted to do my Beauty Board events, nor my decisions on the previous spaces we had grown out of. I'm paraphrasing, but she basically told me to "trust my gut". It was probably the first time anyone ever told me that. Follow my gut.
Growing up Asian - parents are always second-guessing you, telling you you're making a mistake, or simply disagreeing with any move you make. It becomes an inner dialogue, and you can't knock it. Having Elaine say that to me got me thinking “yeah, I guess she's right”. It was a game-changer and I have been acting on gut instinct ever since! And here I am ... about 7 years later from that conversation, and I'm doing great!
What does success look like, feel like, taste like, and mean to you? How do YOU measure success?
I measure success by my time and calendar.
I'm a mother of three kids. I like to volunteer at the school. I like to have my sessions with my personal trainer. I like to have a block of time to binge on the show of the moment on any streaming platform. Running both businesses on my own schedule and being able to plan around my kids needs, my volunteering, and my personal fitness goals WITHOUT GUILT is success to me. I don't need to check in with anyone - a supervisor, and boss, an HR department.
Success is running on my own clock.
Do you ever have moments of self-doubt? What do you do to overcome it?
Of course. I don't think you're human without self-doubt. I let myself feel the self-doubt when it rears its ugly head because it's just fear, and I live off fear. It causes me to analyze why I'm feeling that way and then determine if I'm being rational. If something I'm about to consider scares me and I can't understand why ... it probably means I'm doing something right!
Do you have a mentor? What role have they played in your success?
I wish. I really wish I had a mentor and was never blessed with one. I think things would be operating at their optimal best if I did. That said, because I didn't have one, I've decided that when someone seeks me out for advice or help that I will always make time for them. Hopefully, it will circle back to me and I will have one eventually. I don't think you are ever too old or too "grown" in your business to have a mentor. You can always learn.
What's on your bucket list?
Not necessarily bucket list, but I hope, before my time is up, that I will have started the cycle of generational wealth for my children that will continue on for their children and so on. That ... and you know what: Paris. Who doesn't want to go to Paris!?
Do you have a book, movie, song or podcast that changed your life?
Nothing specific, but I will say I think reading every single day changes my life for the better. I usually read 2 books at a time: one business, finance or self-help book and the other fiction. Every time I read a business or self-help book, I pick up a great habit and ditch an old one.
What do you love most about yourself?
Honestly, I'm still working on learning to completely love myself ... and I'm okay with that.
How does community play a role in your success?
