The Hidden Pressure Young Girls Face Today | Dr. Karen Diaz Meaike

In this episode of the Gold Coast Podcast, host Eric Winegard sits down with Dr. Karen Diaz Meaike, owner of Blushington Boca, to discuss entrepreneurship, motherhood, beauty, confidence, and building a luxury business rooted in community.

Dr. Karen shares her inspiring journey from working over 22 years in child welfare and social work to becoming a successful entrepreneur and opening the first Blushington franchise location in Boca Raton. The conversation dives deep into balancing career and family, raising confident children, women in business, beauty culture in South Florida, and what it truly means to reinvent yourself later in life.

This episode also covers:
• The transition from government work to entrepreneurship
• Why motherhood shaped her leadership style
• Building a luxury beauty experience for busy women
• Grassroots marketing vs digital marketing
• Confidence, skincare, and self-care culture
• Social media’s impact on young girls
• The reality of modern entrepreneurship

If you enjoy authentic conversations about business, personal growth, entrepreneurship, and success, make sure to like, subscribe, and follow the Gold Coast Podcast.

Guest:
Dr. Karen Diaz Meaike
Owner of Blushington Boca

Follow Blushington Boca:
Instagram: @blushington_boca
TikTok: @blushington_boca

Hosted by Eric Winegard
Gold Coast Podcast

Thank you all for listening in on today's episode of The Gold Coast Podcast!

Transcript

0:00

So I um uh uh culturally I'm I'm of Puerto Rican descent. Um I was ex-wife is Puerto Rican though, I figured. I um I was born in New York City, um raised there till I was about six or seven, and then we moved to um Hartford, Connecticut. Okay. So insurance capital. Yes, insurance capital. Well still is. Yes, yes, yes. And um so then went to school there, um, actually uh even went to college there as well, and um and uh raised my kids in West Hartford, and now I'm I I go back and forth between Connecticut and Florida. Oh you do? Okay. So I'm in um in the central part of Connecticut. I live there in East Hampton and then here in Boca. Yeah, no, I think I know God, what are those towns? South Windsor, did I get there? South Windsor. I my best friends live in South Windsor. Okay, East Windsor, is that another one? Yeah, I know that area, isn't that south of Hartford? Did I get that right? That is uh a little north. Yeah, north. I just never been there a few times for work for business. Cool. Yeah. Um, I know I know Fairfield County pretty well. Okay. You know, I just cause I did a lot of business in Stanford. And I'll I'll tell you what, one of the most outrageously beautiful communities I've ever seen is New Canaan, Connecticut. Gorgeous. Still is. Obscene. And Darien, Connecticut. Darien, yeah. Gorgeous, gorgeous. Yeah, all Fairfield County is. I mean, but the the state itself is you appreciate it more, I think, with the coming back and forth. While I love the weather in Florida, but when you go back, especially during the seasons, um, I'm in autumn. Like I I love autumn and and the fall. Um, just seeing the beauty of New England is pretty amazing. I was just talking about that with uh some of my friends the time before. They were like, We've never been to that part of the country, and I'm like, you gotta get there. Yeah, for sure. But at the right time of the year. Right time of the year. Yeah, caveat. Yeah, it's yeah, right time of the year. You know what's funny too? What's your what's your take on this? Uh New Englanders, like, okay, let me back up so you can understand why I'm phrasing this question this way. Okay. If you uh run a cold calling business, let's say in Omaha, Nebraska, and you're cold calling all across the country, if you call someone in Alabama, the perception is they're nice and friendly. If you call someone in the Northeast, Connecticut, the perception is they're unfriendly. How do how would you answer that? I don't agree with that. I I I don't agree with that. I think, I mean, I think those perceptions are really old perceptions. I think that we have evolved so much, there has been so much change, um, and we have all been proven wrong with assumptions. For sure. You know, so many times over. So I I think that um people need to go into it, you know, uh even coming down here, like coming down here to Florida, I'll be very honest with you for me coming from the north, there are some things that are just so frustrating. It's like a different world down here to a certain degree. And I mean, I do I do real estate as well, so in addition to these other things, so even that, and I'm active in real estate in both Connecticut and Florida, so that the dichotomy between the two is crazy that we're in the same uh country. So I think anything these days, you just there are no assumptions to be made. Yeah. Um, because you're gonna be proven wrong. Yeah, no. I think my perception is they're just more um kind of get to the point. That's all. Just like hey, let's go. That's what it is. It's not just get to the point. Exactly. Don't BS me. Let's go. What do you got? I don't because we don't have time. Yeah, yeah. We just don't have the the the time for the you know, but there is a certain sense of I think there should be a sense of professionalism and courtesy that we've lost as a nation. So I I don't think it's regional at all. And good point. Yeah. Yeah. Um not to get political on you, but I actually personally can't wait until Trump is not in office because I want to see if that's if that's the thing that's like the divide, if it is, right? Because if it is Or if he just brought it out. Yeah, like right. It's like, man, and and I am a conservative, right? But but you know, I come from a very um, you know, left-leaning community. Most of my most of my friends from upstate New York are are Democratic. So I don't, you know, so I have close people on both sides, right? So I um I'm actually really curious to see, like, is this polarizing country gonna stay polarized, or is there somebody that comes in from one of the other sides that's more of like a like a unifier? Um, but I'm hopeful. We'll see. I'm hopeful as well, because I don't know how much longer this can be sustained. I agree, I agree. Other countries are probably laughing at us. Like they're supposed to be. Right, superpower. Super knuckleheads. Um but we're all guilty, you know. We're all we're all guilty in our own way. Um it's frustrating. Um, you know, do you know one of the reasons I started this, if you don't mind, this podcast, is I really like let me give you an example. I grew up with a single mom in welfare. She never, you know, she always used to say, I never kind of caught my break, you know, and and and there there's an element to that, you know. You know, she she had a rough upbringing, and you know, she had me at a young age, just trying to make it, you know, and she was on welfare. She eventually became a nurse, and she never had uh, you know, any other, she never had any other supplemental income from, you know, she never told my father about me. So she was just a single mom, just trying to raise a crazy little boy. Trust me, I was crazy, on her own. Um, but I do kind of wish someone had inspired her to, you know, maybe start uh, you know, her own business, right? And maybe start a side hustle, and maybe she could have been more financially free earlier. I wish I had better mentors growing up because I didn't become an entrepreneur until I was 40 years old. I'll be 46 uh here in a month. So part of the reason I started this is I really because I think there's a point where you know you become an entrepreneur and and you and you go into business for yourself, and there's a lot of chaos around that. Right? And then and then people see, you know, Dr. Karen Diaz, how do I say this last one? Mike, M-E-A-I-K-E-S. Mike. Yeah, it's uh it's just got a lot of vowels in there. All right. Okay, oh, that's vowel heavy. Skipped a few there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dr. Karen Diaz Mike, right? So now they see you, this obviously very classy, intelligent, successful woman. And what's missed is oh, wait a minute. This wasn't always the version of myself, right? Kind of take me back to was there a period where you were working for somebody and and and then you began working for yourself? Take me back to that time. Oh yeah. So, you know, I I totally fell into entrepreneurship completely, um, unbeknownst to me as I was doing it. But basically, I was um uh I worked for child welfare. Um, I was a social worker um up in management as well um for 22 plus years. Um so that was that was my other life. Um and I absolutely it it was such a learning lesson for me um about how to um manage expectations, manage people. Um, you know, I saw the worst of the worst. Um but at the same time I loved every minute of my job. And what I hated was uh about it was the fact that there was a need for it because that meant that children and families were being harmed in some way. Um and so that's where I started, and I think that I had such a passion for that because of the way that I grew up, um, and because of uh what was missing um in my life uh growing up, and so I kind of uh threw everything into um into that. It also afforded me um actually the blessing and the benefit of being able to start a family during that time as well, because of the flexibility of that position. You would think that working for uh a government entity would not provide you that flexibility, but maybe that's kind of where my entrepreneurial spirit started because I I found a way. Like I found a way to balance it all and figure it out and be there. The the motherhood helped in that I knew I was very that is the one area of my life with all of the uncertainty and chaos that I grew up with, but that is the the decision to be a mom and w my intention, because I was very intentional about how uh about my children, period. I think that allowed me um to think about things differently. Think about things of how um they can be not just managed, but achieved um and have really a holistic uh look at it all. So you're a strong woman, I can tell. I oh well I can see it. You're all nice and smiley, but you're strong. I love a strong woman, I do. I do. My m my mom is my wife is strong, don't get me wrong. She lets me lead, don't get me wrong. She it helps to have a man in her life, but she's strong. My my mom was strong as hell. I mean, she had her she had her faults for sure, but she was she was strong. And I think I'm just being selfish right now, being so fascinated about this because um I feel like I've yet to see the best version of my wife. You know, she's gonna be a mother here soon. And I can see those mama bear instincts already kicking in. Yeah. And it sounds like that happened to you, but then it had a professional slingshot for you too, which is really cool. Yeah, absolutely. And it's been, you know, and and it's with that, uh, they're my North Star in everything that I do in my life. And so, um, and I get emotional talking about it because I and they're young adults, so they're not little ones running around. And um while although sometimes I gotta put them in their place and remind them who mama is, but but um you know, but it's just a blessing, and they, you know, having them and having uh that that's been my purpose in life is to really guide them and provide them the tools um to be successful and whatever that means to them. It's not my definition of success, it's their definition of success and happiness, and um and really that has guided it's uh it's been a force for me in kind of my push to be the best version of myself that I can be. What uh how old are your kids and what gender, sex, etc.? So my eldest is uh uh Kaylee, my daughter. She is 24 years old. Okay. Um, and and she is actually in her, we're getting ready to go back up to New York City. She lives in Miami right now, but uh we're going back up to New York because she's graduating graduate school from Columbia in just two weeks. So super proud of her. Good job, Mom. Super proud of her. That's really cool. Yeah, absolutely. And my son is 21. He's a senior here at FAU in Boca. Okay. Yeah. So he got his head on straight or is he a party animal? He no, he is. You can kind of do both. Yeah, exactly. I I mean, I know Mama knows. He thinks I don't know, but I know. But he I'm so proud of him. You know, he's uh he's working full time along with um finishing school up as well. Um and he is he's he's very successful in what he's been doing. And I, you know, he's he's a he's a little sniper, you know. You know, you don't see him coming, but he's he's he's gonna be a rock star. I have no doubt. Yeah. I didn't really start putting it together. You know, 25 like 25 was a big year for me where I really started taking things very seriously. Um 32, and then like I totally reinvented myself at age 40. I thought there was no more reinventing, and then I realized how qu how often you actually need to do it. You need to continue to be a better version of yourself. What's your take on this? Um, and I'll and I'll get into your business in a second. I really just like to learn about what makes you tick, and I and I'm shooting to get some tears out of you and stuff. Oh my gosh, you almost did a minute ago. That's the goal every time. Um, but you know, because I I want to talk about things that matter to you. That's that's why, right? And and I think when people see the podcast, they'll they'll connect with you even more, right? But what um, you know, what's your take on this? You know, there's kind of a it's interesting. Where I'm from in upstate New York, a lot of the women g go to work, right? And and and they want and they try to achieve a professional career. Okay, and that's how I grew up. And I saw my mom bust her butt her whole life. A lot of the people that I meet in South Florida that are very conservative, that are in my circle, a lot of them, their opinion is women should it's better for the family if women don't work, right? I'm of and I don't want to lead you. How should a young woman handle that? How should a young woman handle that decision from you know relying too much on a man or being a provider herself? My opinion. Absolutely. So what part of upstate New York are you from? Rochester. Okay. So my uh I have family in Newburgh. Okay. So yeah, so very familiar with that. And so I mean I have ra I I'll use my daughter, for example, right? So I have a young adult daughter, and uh but I I I think I have expressed to both um with regard to and I've been very I actually have been very blessed in that I've had both instances, right? So I had my career, um, and then I I got married a second time and I had the opportunity to stay home, which I did. Um and so I made the decision to leave my I I was very happy in my career. I was very happy um working in child welfare. And um, but again, um the North Star were my kids. And um and having this opportunity, I knew that it was a blessing and an opportunity. It wasn't a mandate, right, coming from my then husband. Um and so you take that on. And so, you know, when I speak with um my daughter and or when I speak with either one of the kids about it, you know, it's about having something for yourself and having that ability. But being a stay-at-home mom doesn't mean that you're sitting home and you know, doing laundry all day or you know, watching soap operas. Um, you know, the hats that a stay-at-home mom wears, she is the CEO of that family. You know, she is the CEO, you know, she's uh you actually utilize and fine-tune your skills, business skills, so much more as a stay-at-home mom. And then if you're balancing both with a career outside of the home, um that that's where powerhouses are built. Yeah, you know, and that's where and and being able to participate in that, and I've even seen some you know from some of my friends and and and things as well that they've gone from having their own careers, staying at home, and then building businesses with their husbands. Yeah. You know, so it's an evolution. Um, it's not an either-or. Um in this stigma that people have had about stay-at-home moms, I think, I think that's being um i it's it's it's being um what am I trying to say? Debunked. Yeah, I'm just gonna be able to debunked almost, yeah. Yeah. Or challenged. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Well, I I I'll give you my opinion. I I do think a young woman, like if I'm a 22-year-old single woman or 24-year-old, I'm thinking of your daughter. Yeah. I think she I don't know if she does she have a boyfriend right now or no, she wants one. Okay. All right. Well, I think she should go head down into her professional career. Yeah. Right? And and advance herself as far as she can until that day comes. Exactly. But at least put yourself in position to be autonomous if you have to. You know, exactly. Um, I see relationships that don't work out, you know. The the common the biggest common denominator I see with relationships that don't work out, and I'm not like a therapist or anything, but is youth. You know, the relationships when people get married or have kids too young. Yep. You know, and you don't know that when you're 23 or whatever. You you don't even think like that, right? You think you're old and wise, right? You think you know everything. You know, and I'm sure uh a 70-year-old looks at me at 45 and goes, You young whippersnapper, what do you know? Right? So where you stand is based on where you sit. But I but I do think women should come out of the gates and try to accomplish as much as they can, and then yes, it's a family decision, right? But at least if it doesn't work out, you know, she does have um some opportunities. And what you said is really interesting. So my wife and I are in business together, and we we love it. We we think it helps us. Don't get me wrong, there's times where I'm frustrated about business or work, and and she's like, relax, chill, you're really annoying me right now. Everything's fine, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, we have those conversations, but usually the conversations are very positive. It's a success, a successful day or a successful week, or challenges were presented to us and we're able to overcome them together, and we're talking through them together. We're actually growing as uh business people together. So I do encourage uh men and women to I I do think if they can join forces professionally, I I think it's a good idea. Um but so okay, so what was your what was your first what was your first entrepreneurial jump? What was like the first time you were making money on your own outside of an employer? So I um so I actually I I was in uh I got my doctorate degree um right when I f I finished it during COVID, actually. Oh wow, but I had started it before COVID. Um and and I was trying to uh to be very honest, I was like, so what what is my next step? You know, the kids were going off to college. Um I had uh Dylan, my son, was still, he had one more year, he was gonna be going off to college. And so I was just trying to figure it out because while I was um to their their chagrin, I was a very overly involved volunteer at their school. On the board, all the pigs, all the I no, I do not, I do not have that at all. But have a different opinion. Oh my gosh, let's get my daughter started. But you know, I I would I would come home and I would say, Oh, you I would pick them up from school and I'd be like, Oh, I was on campus today, and they're like, Yes, we know everyone told us, oh, your mom was here. Um but um to answer your question, the what was the question? Repeated. No, no, no, just um, you know, like your first uh for into entrepreneurship. Working for yourself, yeah. Okay, so I I was trying to figure out kind of what do I want to be, what's my next chapter? I think what do I want to do? Um and so I honestly I thought I was gonna go back into social work. I'll be really honest. Um I even you know, I I left there uh in a very positive light. And so I even explored the possibility of going back there. But then, you know, I think I thought to myself too, or you know, it uh may, you know, maybe the Lord was the one, uh and I think he was the one giving me all of the messages. But um basically I thought to myself, I even went through with an interview, but I was like, do I really want to do this grind? It wasn't the work, it wasn't the people that I would be serving, it was the the bureaucracy of it all. I was like, do I like I guess I I grew up a little bit, right? Yeah. And I didn't want to go back to that, to be honest. And I wanted to do something where it utilized A portion of my creative side because I feel like I hadn't really explored that outside of within my home or or with my friends. And so I actually went and got certified as a home stager and started a home staging business. Wow. And in and at that point we were still coming out of COVID. It was digital, all those types of things. But then I wanted to expand that a little bit more and really help people still serve people. And so I I kind of transitioned into real estate. Okay. And so I got my license in Connecticut, along with the certification for the home staging, kind of worked that. At that point, we had started we had really been going back and forth uh to Florida. Um so then I got like my license here in Florida and kind of just explored that. Um and then and really Blushington just kind of popped out of me actually getting services done at Blushington. I call myself a professional client. So we can go into that story too. Yeah, definitely. Good, good. Now I want to talk. I'm I'm fascinated by, you know, and just this industry is growing, booming. Yeah. So I'm excited to hear about Blushington. Yeah, uh unpack Blushington, Boca. So um I my first introduction, Blushington is um 15 years old this year, actually. The brand's been um around that long. And when they started out, they started out really focusing on uh beauty on the makeup side of it, makeup having makeup lounges. Um they had locations in Los Angeles, Dallas, and um New York uh prior to COVID. And so my first introduction actually, I was in Dallas uh for a convention, and um I was like, I you know, we're having a gala, I want to get my makeup done, where do I go? What do I do? Um and I found them, uh I guess online. Um and so I went there, it was the cutest little location, and I had my services done. Fast forward a little bit. Um in uh I realized that they had a location in New York. And now I um my mom, she's like a second mom, she's actually my aunt, but she's a second mom to me. So I we would have um girls' weekends, and I would take her to the opera. So we'd make a whole weekend of it, and I realized that Blushington was in New York, and so she and I would go there and get our hair and makeup done to go to the opera. And so, you know, I had been there several times, so I've been a customer for quite a few years. And during one of those instances, um my artist was basically, I don't know what we were talking about, um, probably all the real estate and all that stuff, and then she said, you know, um we're gonna be expanding into franchising. Oh, wow. And I said, interesting, okay. Um, because then I always I always wanted to own different businesses, but I wanted it to be businesses that were kind of, I guess, fun. Like I wanted this chapter of my life to be fun and to a degree, understanding there's work involved, right? Like not everything's a party. Um, I'm not a party person, but and so um, and then on this specific time frame that I this specific date that I was receiving services, while we were talking about that possibility, I was looking it up online, and the CEO happened to be on site that day. Um, so then we struck up a conversation. Um, I put my interest in, kind of just wanting to know more information. A few months later, a few months passed. Uh, then we reconnected again and then actually started the vetting process. And so they vetted me and they um they awarded me their very first franchise, which is the one that I just opened in Boca. God bless. Amen. Good for you. Thank you. Boca's a good place to do it, right? Yeah. Yeah. Um my hump my marketing opinion, are you running meta ads at all? Facebook ads, Instagram ads. No. It's kind of I I would I would say that that's a low hanging fruit for you. I would definitely, yeah. Okay. Whether you did it with us or someone else, just look into it because it's gonna be uh, you know, it's like awareness. And that's what we're trying to build. And I'm trying to like I'm really not good about all of that. Like that's why you know there are people that do that, right? Yep. And so um, as a franchisee, there's certain model, there's certain things that I have to follow. Yeah. Being so it's something to discuss. I don't think that they do the franchise itself, franchise or um does that, but it's something to talk about. I know that we have been pushing the grassroots and pushing kind of FaceTime, you know, one-on-one, yeah. Um and really getting out into the community. I'm really, really myself, I'm very community focused and um because I I I really want us to be known as really serving the community. I even created my own uh saying that I have even up in my office where you know, I I just don't want us to be another business in the community. The community is our business, and I want people to feel that when they walk in. But to your point, we people gotta know that we exist. Yeah, yeah. Right? So I always let me give you, can I give you my whole scaling a business thing? Absolutely. I always joke around with people because there's a lot of truth to this. I know how to grow a business, I don't know how to run a business. All right, so I'm very good at the marketing sales, business development, but then actually running the operations, don't hire me to do that, it'll burn up. The the business will burn up in flames. A lot of businesses I see have an either-or mentality, and I'm not I don't mean this to minimize what you're doing, yeah, or your franchise or is telling you what to do, but it doesn't have to be exclusive, it can be in addition to. So I believe that grassroots, shaking people's hands, networking, getting on podcasts. I would argue this is pretty grassroots, right? And um I would try to get on a bunch of podcasts, right? I m that's grassroots, but then you add kind of the digital on top of it, and it all works like an ecosystem, you know. So um the amount of people that hear about my company through the chamber, and then my salespeople will go out and do a meeting to sell somebody a website and they go, wait a minute, uh you work for Blue Moon Marketing. Wait, is that this the big guy with the beard? And it's because they see my Facebook and Instagram ads everywhere, right? Um so I believe a great way to scale a business is is like you want to combine old school grassroots and new school together, not one or the other. You got to combine them together, and that's when you have truly accelerated growth. I meet, I meet so many young businesses. If a 22-year-old came up to me today and he runs a um, I don't know, he's a plumbing business, and all he knows is digital marketing, digital marketing, digital marketing, digital marketing, I'd say, dude, you want to be seen like it's not just digital marketing. You need to go join the chamber, you need to go join the B and I, you need to go join this, you need to be part of this association, you need to be a part of this non-for-profit, you need to be visible, you need to be out there as well. So it's like usually someone older than me, 45, just thinks grassroots and then they ignore the digital. And then usually people younger than me just think, oh, it's all digital and they ignore the grassroots. I'm like, do both, right? You know, within reason financially, right? So I think um that's just my little scaling two sense. Yeah, for sure. No, because I you know, I I'm learning more and more and more, and and I want to do things that make sense, you know, because uh a part of this too is kind of you're throwing money away, literally throwing money away, you know, and so um you know, and I while I know that mistakes will be made, I'm uh you know, but I rather have the recovery time be far shorter, for sure, right? And lessen the amount of mistakes to be made, or learning lessons, I should say, not mistakes. Yeah, you know, something that I would recommend to any business is a lot of businesses don't understand digital marketing. And it's very like they kind of understand Google, they kind of understand Facebook a little bit, but they don't understand the whole ecosystem that takes someone from awareness, which would be top of funnel, to middle of funnel, being more educated, and then to bottom of funnel, them taking action, filling out a form or scheduling a meeting, whatever it may be. And that that customer journey is way more technical than you than you realize. The average business owner doesn't understand it. What I would encourage any business owner listening to this is don't just listen to what a digital marketing company tells you. And I'm shooting my own self in the foot for this, right? I run a digital marketing company, spend some time on YouTube, you know, try to learn Facebook ads, try to learn Google ads, try to learn website design, try to learn SEO, try to understand YouTube ads, TikTok ads. And rather than watching Netflix, you know, for two hours a night, spend one hour a night for 30 straight days and consume that type of content, and you'll be equipped enough to at least be able to ask intelligent questions when you do go into that marketing meeting. But I like to be a little bit educated before I get into any buying decision. I would encourage any business owner to do that too. Thank you. Yeah, for sure, for sure. Um, so what would I experience? Um, you know, what would my wife experience at Bushington? Um, so we pride ourselves on providing um basically a luxury experience that meets the busy time frame and schedule uh, you know, of a uh of the modern woman, no matter what age she is. We're all busy different and different for different reasons. Um and while we would all love to spend four or five hours as if we were at the spa, we don't have time for that, right? We don't have time for that. And so um we the services that we do provide, we we're blow up blow-dry bar component. Um we have styling, we don't do cuts or colors or any of that. Um and and we have full makeup services. And so, and we also have skincare in that there are peels and um eye patches, really prepping the skin, revitalizing revitalizing the skin, but also prepping it to receive the makeup services. And so it's in it's in a very elegant environment, so you do feel like you're walking into a spa. Um, however, it's also again meeting your time frames and and it's very individual services, and where we just really focus on bringing out your inner beauty um in that time frame and building a relationship with you as well. Would you say your business is more for my wife, who's a busy soon-to-be mom and entrepreneur, and she doesn't feel like both she wants to have it done in two hours versus four and a half hours herself, or is it more for wedding parties, et cetera? We do it all. We do it all. So we do focus um on event preparedness, right? Getting ready for events, weddings. Um we're a partner with um uh the knot and wedding wire though to let them know that what services we provide. Um we do on-location services as well. Um and so we'll come to you. And we also actually do wig services. And what we're finding is that um, you know, uh wigs and the utilization of wigs is become more of a fashion statement, right? Just like the right color shoes or the right color jacket or the right purse um to really kind of bring out uh the personality you want for that day. And so, you know, and and we um we're very inclusive. Uh we work with all textures of hair, skin tones, um, so we're well versed in all of those areas. Yeah, very cool. I didn't realize how important skin tone is for like laser treatment and stuff, and it's like so different. Absolutely, especially down here where you're you know constantly in the sun or not, or constantly in air conditioning, and I mean all of that affects your your your skin, yeah. Yeah, no, you're in a great industry. Um the just my observation, the what's the word I'm looking for? Uh being beautiful is almost less taboo. I don't want to call it taboo, but it's almost more encouraged than it's ever been. Does does that kind of right? It's and especially down here in South Florida. Right. You know, um where where I'm from, a lot of the women just kind of let themselves go. That's just what they do. And then my uh, you know, my my wife started, I never heard of uh these skin creams and stuff. I don't even I forget what they're called, that I but I started putting them on my face a few years ago, and I I just noticed better care of my skin. Yeah, you know, because I did have terrible terrible acne when I was a kid, I had the worst acne ever. So I have noticed that a lot of the friends my age are now I'm really starting to notice it because they're looking super rickety and old, and you know, I'm maintaining a little bit. So I'm I'm a big proponent of well, I mean the skin is the biggest organ on your body. Yeah, right. Yeah. And and we have to take care of it. I think I I think we don't realize that, you know. I um I, you know, I never understood. I I would watch my grandmother, you know, with the every single night with the cold cream and the, you know, all her pr her getting ready for bed preparedness, right? And like, oh my goodness. And like, you know, now mine's is like a 10 to 15 minute routine, you know, in the morning, at night, all things, and yeah, I'm fighting it all the way. That's what I say. Oh, me too. I'm all in now. I started doing Botox. I don't know if you do Botox. Guys laugh at me when I do it, but hey man, listen, um I I got I need a face for camera, clearly, right? They're only laughing at you because they wish they had the So uh you know what I'll do? I'm gonna have uh I'm gonna surprise some of the girls in my uh company. I don't, I'll I'll get them like um, I'll do some business with you. Like if we have like an event or something that's coming up, I'll just say, hey, I'm gonna I got you a gift card or something or whatever, I'll just pay for their bill at Blushington. So I'm always trying to find with the guys, it's easy to find like team building things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? Um, but I like I try to include the females too in certain specific things for them. So I think that would be a cool thank you. I appreciate that. We also, yeah, they we also, you know, we have events at our location as well. So, you know, if you wanted them all to come in at the same time or yeah, absolutely. That's what I'm thinking. Yeah. Uh I think you know, I could probably be wonderful. Thank you for that. Yeah, no, for sure, for sure, for sure. And uh, and I think let me ask you another question. This is before we wrap up. I have a daughter on the way. Congratulations, that's so exciting. Thank you. But be careful. The minute she puts a sentence together, you're in trouble. Oh boy. Why is that? Because you're never gonna be able to say no. Oh my gosh. I have a frickin' nine-pound dog named Gigi that is my little wife, my little girl. I can't even imagine what it's gonna be like having a human. It's gonna be fun. So, Sophia Genevieve Weingard is what we're gonna name her. Blessing. God blessing. At what age is it appropriate for a young girl to start testing makeup? Are you asking me or are you asking society? Because you mean and I'm trying to get a viral clip out of you. That's why no, you're gonna get me in trouble. You're gonna get all these haters. Oh my goodness. Because I I I want to hear your opinion. So I I'm only gonna say from what have I imposed it on my daughter, and then I have a I have a 12-year-old, she's now 12, a 12-year-old niece, and uh, we're experiencing this because um, yeah, so with when when I was raising Kaylee, and I I I you know the the it gets younger and younger when they start getting the the interest in this, right? Um, just because of what they're exposed to. Um and so it was really important for me that she first understand how to take care of her skin. So when when she started to get some interest, it was like for I think it was like 13, 14. Um, I actually and I knew eventually she's gonna start asking me for makeup, I you know, because that for me, 12, 13, middle school, absolutely not. There's absolutely no need for it. Absolutely not. You that that would again, you asked me. This is how I were I'm sure. I aligned with you, so keep going. Middle school, why do you need makeup? You don't need makeup, you know. Um why you're you're going through puberty, your your skin is so why are you adding things that are gonna that are not gonna help your skin? So anyway, so that's how I and um and so this is flustering you a little. Yeah. It's getting because I'm like, oh my god, people are gonna but No, but I was very adamant with her. And so I actually took her to um a a makeup artist that I had used for um for things, and so they did a skincare class with her. Um and then, but they also did a makeup class, but I would only allow like uh just teach her about like lip gloss and that's it. Like and so she actually didn't start wearing makeup maybe 15 for a dance and then actually on her own maybe seven, sixteen, seventeen, actually doing her own. I I never had an opinion on this, so uh in my prior marriage, I had a stepdaughter and as the stepfather, you kind of have less say. Yeah. Right? Yeah. And and there's and there's a what's the word I'm looking for? Kind of a boundary you always have to keep. Yeah. Especially the other father is still in her life, you know. Yeah, yeah. And uh, but I was always very respectful of it, you know, like it sounds cringe, but there's just certain ways you can't cuddle with her. You just have to be very mindful of that. No, absolutely. And I remember she had on she used to cheerlead, and I remember I felt very emotional about this because she's probably eight years old, all decked up in makeup. And I remember my instinct was I I wanted to say so bad, take your ass upstairs and take that shit off right now. That's what that's what I felt. Because here's why. Let me give you what men think. Like when my wife doesn't wear makeup and then she wears makeup, there's a sexual component to it. There's a oh, babe, okay, it's one of those kinds, like, let's go. So I think it's weird to I think there's like a sexualization of these young girls with makeup too young. There is. I really do believe that. So I think it's kind of cringe. And I and I'm I'm thinking like this now because I'm having a daughter soon, and I know there's gonna be a time I have to make a decision at middle school where it's like, oh, the other girls are doing it, and it's like, well, I don't care. Because then you're teaching, you know, and again, my personal opinion, guys, my disclaimer, um, but then you're you know, you're you're teaching them that they need all of that to be pretty or to be accepted or to be wanted. An eight-year-old shouldn't want to be wanted, you know what I mean? No, especially if she's secure and feeling and and feeling the love of of her parents. And so, you know, uh we have to, it's a fine line, and it's a really scary line, especially in today's times. And, you know, and I um, you know, I I dealt with a lot of insecurity, unworthy feelings growing up. Um, and and I never wanted Kaylee to feel that way. Um and and she she's a gorgeous, gorgeous woman. She's not a girl anymore. She's a, you know, but 24 is a woman. Yeah. But we, you know, but we all go through that awkward stage. I mean, my awkward stage lasted quite some time to my 20s. But hers did not. But we all go through that. But that's that's what builds us, that's what makes us grow. And we, if we're taught to always try to hide who we are, um, that just continues on into adulthood and then it manifests into other bigger and worse things. So not trying to put you in a hot spot there. No, but I can get on a soapbox, so you know it's okay. No, it's good though, because uh a lot of those clips do really good too. Um but anyway, so well, do me a small favor. This was fun. You're awesome. Thank you. You're a rock star, obviously, and I think you have uh a bright future with uh Blushington. Uh do me a small favor, take a look in that camera and do a 15 to 20 second elevator pitch about Blushington, and then if if uh someone is interested in learning more about Blushington or reaching out to you to do business, where's the best place for them to find you? Who should look for you? Where should they find you? Blushington Boca, we are all things beauty. So if you want to come in and have an amazing blowout, have a amazing makeup application, um, come find us. We are in the Greens Plaza at 19635 State Road 7, which is 441 for our West Boca people in West Boca. Um, and we can be found at uh on Instagram at blushington underscore boca, on TikTok at the same at blushington underscore boca. Um, and we hope to see you soon. Guys, thanks again for tuning in to the Gold Coast podcast. Make sure to like and subscribe. We will see you again.