From Single Mom to Med Spa Mogul: Karen Martiz on Building Skin Mix & Lash Boulevard

 In this inspiring episode of The Second Degree Society Podcast, host Emily Merrell sits down with powerhouse entrepreneur Karen Martiz, founder of Skin Mix and Lash Boulevard.

What began as a chance meeting in a Denver neighborhood turned into a deep friendship — and today, Karen opens up about her remarkable journey from struggling single mom to thriving med-spa owner, product developer, educator, and beauty industry innovator.

Emily and Karen dive into:

• Scaling Lash Boulevard into a product line, online academy, and international supply chain
• Pivoting during the pandemic and finding new growth through e-commerce
• Launching Skin Mix, building luxury branding, and creating community through membership-based skincare
• What it really takes to build a business while raising kids, taking big risks, and trusting your instincts
• The chance encounter that introduced Karen to the beauty industry
• Opening her first spa with limited resources—but unlimited drive
• Becoming an early leader in lash extensions and product development
• Traveling to South Korea and China to build her supply chain
• Growing Lash Boulevard through e-commerce and online training
• Navigating pandemic shutdowns and restructuring her business
• Launching Skin Mix and creating elevated skincare experiences
• The power of community, collaboration, and neighborhood roots
• Building a recurring-revenue model with The Good Skin Club
• Advice: Start before you’re ready and solve problems as you go

Plus, Karen shares her favorite treatments, unexpected hobbies (mountain biking!), and the advice she wants every woman in business to hear.

If you’re dreaming of launching something new or are craving a dose of bold entrepreneurial energy this episode is a must-listen.

To learn more about Karen Martiz  check out her website https://skin-mix.com/  and on instagram at https://www.instagram.com/skin_mix_/ 

Sign up for The Second Degree Membership! By becoming a member, we’re getting more intimate than ever! Get the Membership now! 

Check our past episodes of The Second Degree podcast! Remember to follow us on Instagram. 

Transcript

Emily Merrell  00:00

Hey, my name is Emily Merrell. I'm a taco loving people connector, and I'm obsessed with playing the name game and all things networking. I'm the founder of second degree society, a female focused networking community, as well as a business coach for female business owners, passionate about bringing their business to the next level with the help of events, community and connections. I crave deep conversations and am continuously curious to see what makes people tick, and I'm invested in uncovering their stories with some life lessons along the way. This podcast is aimed to inspire and educate as you tackle your busy day. So join the conversation and tune in for the second degree podcast. Hello, hello. I'm your host, Emily, and today I am so excited to have Karen martiz. She is the founder of skin mix and lash Boulevard, and I am so excited to have her on this on this podcast today, and I will tell you why in a second. But Karen, welcome

Karen Martiz  01:01

to the show. Hey Emily, so glad to be here. So great to see you.

Emily Merrell  01:06

So good to see you, too. I haven't seen her this year, so that's always fun to catch up, even though we're like two blocks away from each other at the moment, I know we need to do better. We could do better. We could do better. We could co work more often. Well, Karen, I think we need to just tell our listeners how we how our meet cute, basically how we met each other. But it was about this time last year that I thrust myself into Karen's life. I was going to Chiro chiropractic care right next to her building, and I, like barged in, forced her to be my friend, got an amazing facial from her, and then forced her to meet every single person in the neighborhood and happy one year anniversary, babe.

Karen Martiz  01:52

Yeah, it was such a good surprise to see you here when you walked in with a beautiful smile of yours, and we just talk. You just, you just talk. And I told you everything about skin mix that I had just opened. It was a baby business. And yeah, we started just brainstorming, how are we gonna grow this baby? How do we bring in more people? And yeah, I really, really appreciate it that you stepped in that day.

Speaker 1  02:19

I am too. I think that sometimes chance meetings are meant to have happened because they can change the course of your life or the trajectory of life. And personally, as someone who does not have a physical product or brick and mortar business, I have immense respect for someone who's decided to open not just one but two physical locations in life. So before we dive too far into like skin mix and lash. Boulevard, Karen, can you tell us a little bit about your origin and where you where you even started on this, on this beauty journey?

Karen Martiz  02:58

Well, I have always been into beauty. That was something that I've always liked since I was very, very young and growing up here in New York and moving to Denver, it wasn't necessarily beauty something I was like, Oh, I'm going to go work as a beauty professional or get my license as an institution. My dream was to become a sales rep for a medical company, and I got the job, and that was not what I was meant to do, and I knew it from the moment I started driving and visiting my accounts. I was like, No, this is not but Emily, one thing always leads to the other, and by doing that job. That's how I met someone who was in the beauty industry. I happened to come across a dermatologist that I was supposed to go talk to on that day, and this office had also aestheticians working in there. And while I was waiting, I was talking to one of the woman that was working there, and she told me what she did, and I was like, Oh my gosh, this is something I feel like I can do. And I immediately walked out of that office, and I started doing research. How do I get license as an institution? And that's how this whole came into my world. And I did the research. Started going to school. I called my mom. I'm like, Mom, I didn't want to go back to Beauty School, and she's like, are you crazy? You just finished, you just got your business degree. Why are you going to do that? And but it was, I knew it was my calling, and I knew deep inside of me that one day I was going to own my own business. And it just happened, like everything, once I made that choice, it almost like everything in my life started to fall into place. Everything started to become easy. I was going to school, I I found the perfect location for my first store, my first spot that was actually around. In the corner from my house, so I didn't even like have to drive far. I could drop off my kids at school in the morning and then go to work and and that's pretty much how the whole, you know, getting into the beauty industry started for me. And I was just like, I need to do this and make this work for my kids. I was a single mom of two little girls, and, yeah, they were the ones who motivated me to just open up your business. Just go for it. Fresh out of school, I had no experience, and I just went for it.

Emily Merrell  05:33

Can I ask? How old were you at this time? Like, where do you think you got this confidence to be? Like, of course, I'm going to go to Beauty School, and then, of course, I'm going to open up a store. And, yeah, where do you where do you think that came from?

Karen Martiz  05:47

Well, I was 32 years old, and you know, for me, being a single mom, I was struggling a lot. I was struggling to find a job that I liked. I was struggling to get jobs that will pay me enough. I was struggling with flexibility, and so once I started going to school, I didn't know I was going to open up my business that was not necessarily in my plans, but once I started to share more with my classmates about, you know, what they were doing, how their career was evolving. I met someone who was in the lash industry, and she she made this comment. She's like, Karen, some months, I make more money than my husband. And I was like, Okay, I like that. I like how that sounds. I want to be able to do that to make, you know, very decent amounts of money and so and so. Of course, my kids were my motivation. Because, you know, sometimes it was trouble. We would go to the supermarket and we couldn't even, like, afford to buy the things that my kids wanted, and that just hurt me so much every time or just struggling, I was just like, This can't be my life. This cannot be what I am meant to be. And I think that just knowing that I wanted to have that change and, but more importantly, making all the steps to make the change, it's, it's what, you know, brought my business into life and and not being scared. Just started calling around and like, hey, you know, I'm looking for a space for rent, you know, for open up my business, and a lot of people shut me down, you know, like, No, you don't have the bonds you can do this. We need to see PNLs. We need to see money in your bank. We need it. Until finally, this, this person around the corner from where I live. The chiropractor used to live, used to be there running his business, and the place, I believe, flooded, so the chiropractor just left. I think it was like his way out of that location. And I happened to call, and I think the landlord was like, Okay, I need to bring someone in, like, fast. And that's when everything I build my first store, my brand new one, and, yeah, I had no clients. I was I didn't even have my license yet. Oh, my God, I know. But I was just like, yeah, gonna make this work. I am going to make this work. I'm gonna make it for my kids. My mom helped me. She let me borrow some money to buy supplies to be able to pay the rent and and from the first day, I did a grand opening. And on that grand opening, I attracted some friends, neighborhood friends from the neighborhood, because it was an awesome, very family oriented neighborhood. So people came supported me, and that's how my first company happened, and I was able to pay the bills, but they weren't easy. They were really hard. I wasn't able to attract as many customers to be able to keep the business going for very long, and I knew something needed to change in that business, because I started as a as just a regular spa doing facials and skincare, and so I was, I was like, Okay, I don't think I'm going to make enough to support my family, to support the business. And that's when I remember that conversation that I had with the woman at school that she said that she was running a lash business, and you know, that she was making great amounts of income. So it was like, Okay, I think this is the right. I need to go.

Emily Merrell  09:31

So, okay, so just to recap this, so you open a place, you don't have your license, you are still you have no money to your name, essentially, you borrowed money, but then you had a great out turn from the local community supporting you, and you were just doing, like, facials. Were you even doing lashes at that point?

Karen Martiz  09:50

I was not, and it was not something that I thought was going to be, where I was going to go, like my business was going to go, because. Flashes back then were kind of new. So this is like 2013 Okay, 14 people were fairly new. Yeah, not a lot of people in Colorado were doing it or training, or anything like that, and and so from from, from that struggle of you know, am I going to to be able to continue being this amount of clients every month to grow the business? I decided I needed a change, and that's when the last thing came to mind. And I, you know how social media is. It's amazing. Social media just starts showing me, like, lashes, doing lashes. And I'm like, Okay, where can I get trained? Where do where do I go now, right? Nothing in Denver, so I ended up having to travel to California. So I'm like, Mom, I need to borrow money.

Emily Merrell  10:59

Your mom's like, oh my god, what is my daughter

Karen Martiz  11:01

doing? Oh, my gosh. You know, you're so in debt with me. She was always being a huge supporter. And so that's when I went to California. I met this woman, and from the moment I met her, I just only got the chill. She was like, 20. She was 828. Years old. Back then, young, successful. I mean, we walked into her shop, her spa, and she had all these beds for eyelash extensions. She was running a whole like training facility, training people how to do eyelash extensions. And she had a line of eyelash extension products. That's insane. And and when I saw that, I took the training, I just, I was so motivated by her. I was like, how is she doing all of this? And if she can do it, why can't I do it? Totally, yeah, you just need, like, you know, to be around people who are doing the thing and, and I was just like, Yeah, this is, this is, this is the route I'm going to go. So I learned how to do lashes. I came to back to Denver, to Colorado, and I listed on Craigslist. So Craigslist back then was the thing, and I listed, I'm doing free lashes because I needed to get the training. Yeah, right. And I will go lash for 10 hours a day, and I'm like, I'm going to become the best lash artist here in Colorado. So did you

Emily Merrell  12:27

at this moment? You still have your shop and you're like, facials, we're not going to facial. We're just going to focus on lashes at this

Karen Martiz  12:32

moment. Well, I was kind of like focusing on both, okay, because I still had some clients, and it was really easy to also keep the client for the lashes, for the facials, for all the things one stop kind of shop, yeah. And so that's, that's, you know, what I started to do when, and I became good, and the business started to grow really fast, like I started to get booked. Month three, I was, I had already hired someone to help me do lashes. I trained her. Then I took a trip to South Korea, to China, and I'm like, I am going to become a supplier. And so I made all this contacts. I came back.

Emily Merrell  13:16

How did you even find these people like you're like, South Korea lash person or and reach out to them.

Karen Martiz  13:22

No, so well. So the only, I mean, South Korea, it's great with, like the products we we have for, like, the liquids we use in eyelash extensions. So the ADC is primers, like, all the stuff that is needed in order to make this beautiful work happen. And then China has the material of the lashes, right? And so this is how they don't do them here in the United States. Like it doesn't matter where you go, they're not here, right? And so I went out there. There was a conference. It's called cosmoprof, and it's like worldwide from companies from all over the world. And I went there, and I met a lot of people, and I kind of like, you know, started to get the idea and the connections, and started to talk, and what would it What? What is it required to bring this to life? And, yeah, one thing led to the other, the business doing the eyelash extensions was doing awesome that supported developing the product, bringing it to live, bringing it to the United States, and then the product line was doing amazing. Then I'm like, I'm going to open up a school for eyelash extensions. And everything was just happening at the same time, all these amazing things. And so from there was like, Okay, I need to change the name of the company to be just a lash company. And that's how the name of lash Boulevard was born. Because I was like, branding everything for lashes. And then I opened up my second location, which was lash Boulevard here in low high. And yeah,

Emily Merrell  15:03

and so then, okay, what was it called? Before lash Boulevard, skin cleaners. Skin cleaners. I love that kind of full circle. So you have two locations. You're now a lash expert basically, like, I'm thinking of you as, like, like a kingpin and lashes in a way. So you're supplying them. People can order them from you. Where are they ordering them from you? On Amazon.

Karen Martiz  15:31

So no. So I sent an E commerce shop, and I put all my products there. And then I started to realize, like, how many people from out of state were buying the products, and how many people wanted to take the trainings? So I put, like, a really nice training in person, training for teaching beauty professionals how to do eyelash extensions. And I was getting a lot of referrals and all and just people from all over, right? And so I'm like, what if I start teaching online? Yeah. And so I put a course together to start teaching also online, and that took off like wildfire, that, and that became, yeah, that became, like, the main thing, and everything just happened through the website. Like, that's, that's how it happened. Like, I put it for the products, I announced the trainings. Then people are like, Hey, can you train me through back then with Skype, we used to do a lot of Skype training, and so I'll spend time, like, one on one with my students, and have like, little cameras so they will know what they were doing. Until, you know, I was able to really get a training that will teach them, like, step by step, and they had a place where they can log in and watch the trainings and all of that,

Emily Merrell  16:51

you're so amazing. Like, just everything is just so wildly impressive. So this is all started 2013 ish, and then there's a small global pandemic that happened. If you remember 2020 what happened to the eyelash business in 2020

Karen Martiz  17:09

so well, definitely we we had to stop doing lashes. But the e commerce Store continued, and the product part also became almost a full stop, because we were suppliers to salons, and all the salons stopped working. Everybody was closed. And I remember one day being in bed, and I'm like, What are we supposed to do? Like, just be in bed all day. I mean, I have a company, like, what do I do? But I couldn't pant, you know, it was closed. That was really hard. And it was really hard for my team, because obviously they, you know, they wanted to protect their family when it was time to come back, not everybody came back to work, and it was almost like we were starting from scratch with that part of the business. But what really took off was my online training. So the teaching on the programs was what took off more than my brick and mortal store, and more than my my last product. And so that one just was like this, the lash along was kind of like the the barrier to entry of the lash industry, just like was super easy. So everything was changing. Like a lot of things were changing in the industry, where people were running their own businesses from home, where people were starting their own businesses. So it just grew so much within those years. And I mean, that's what I did. I trained women to open up businesses, to do the thing, so I was very happy for them, right? However, we had a business that had a huge overhead, like a beautiful facility and employees and things like that. So I just saw, kind of like, what was coming. And I'm like, I don't know if having the store with, you know, being just a lash company, doing extensions, the application, the treatments, is going to be where I want to be, because it's really hard. It was getting harder and harder to grow and scale it. And so I decided to dedicate all my time on the online programs, the product line, and that was what I did for the rest of the time. And so I pretty much sold that part of my business for, you know, to another spa. And I'm like, you can, you know, just do whatever you want in this beautiful space. And I'm gonna do moving to doing my E commerce and and I did that for a few years, and I loved it, and I still love it, and I still have flash Boulevard and the products, you know, still going out there. We're still supplying salons, and I'm not doing as much trainings anymore. I. Um, just because I'm focused mostly here at Skin mix, but yeah, I mean, that was like a beautiful, I mean, one of the most beautiful parts of my life, when I think back on all the things that happened in my life and my business, how much growth, how was able to provide for my kids. Yeah, it was beautiful.

Emily Merrell  20:18

And I love, I hope you went back to that gal that you met, and you're like, I've made more money than you've made selling lashes, too, as a supplier. Like, what a what a great expander, to say those things. And then also for you to find and seek out mentorship beyond the state, and to take it to the next step and go overseas and to really meet the suppliers and understand where the product comes from, and like all the different logistics of it. And for those that haven't, if you haven't been on our website yet, and we'll drop all that info at the end, but Karen is a branding genius, like, you go in and you hold products in your hand, and you're like, Wow, where did you get this? And she's like, No, I made this product and then, yeah, I found the bottle and put it together. And it's not like a chintzy, you know, farmers market type kind of product. It's so professional and so sophisticated. So everything you touch has a high level of luxury and sophistication to it.

Karen Martiz  21:22

Oh, thank you. Yeah, that I think that I love beautiful things, like bringing beautiful things to life and experiences for my clients and everybody who walks through the door of my spouse, what I have done in the past and what I continue to do, it's bad is I want to just create that experience. And when I was getting into skin makes, and building the skincare line, developing the products and all of that, I make sure that, you know, from the moment I was creating the brand and designing everything that was very special and that was the best that we could possibly do. And because this, I was like, This is my my baby, my last baby, and make sure that is all right. And so with my last company, with lash pullover, what I learned is I had to change the branding three times. And of course, it makes sense, because at the beginning, I couldn't afford, you know, to just bring so many things at the same time, pay for the branding for an agency to help me, like all of those things. But with when I launched skin mix, I was in different place, and I was just like, I'm going to do this right from the beginning, because I don't want to keep changing the branding. And that was a lesson I learned, and I applied it on my new company. And so, yeah, I love everything that we have created, and we want, I want to make sure that the packaging on the products, when you open it, the boxes, like when you get your orders, that it's something special, something different, and I think we have been able to accomplish that this, this time, from the very beginning, 100% concur.

Emily Merrell  23:10

Did you invest in an agency, or did you create the branding yourself?

Karen Martiz  23:14

No, so I created the branding and I had an agency help me design the boxes, because mine can only go so far. But having a team, it's super important, right? Because as business owners, we do have the ideas, and we kind of like have the direction, but sometimes we just need that extra create, creative person, creative mind that can help us bring something even better. And I've learned that, and I work great with with other branding companies, and I'm like, hey, here is the vision. Here's what we're doing. Here is what we want to feel and, yeah, and some people will help you bring together, you know, the like the logos and the colors and the fonts, right? That's one part of it. And then you have to reach out to someone else that can help you bring what do you want? You know, the sign for the brick and mortar store. Like, how does that go together? Right? Having the store, the colors, everything to match together, the feeling when people walk in here, and so that's a whole other, you know, group of people that needs to help you bring all of that together. So I had the vision, I knew what I wanted, and then just getting the right people to be part of of the project was crucial. Yeah,

Emily Merrell  24:43

no, I think, I mean, you've done a great job of like, bringing all the pieces together well. So let's, let's fast forward to skin mix. Because skin mix launched in 2024

24:53

2023 October of 2023 was

Speaker 1  24:56

it? 2023 Oh, I guess I met you at the start of 2024 so. So for those that aren't in Denver, I live in like a tiny little neighborhood, that's what. How would you describe this? Like, like an outskirts of downtown Denver, but very close to downtown Denver and and then you, of course, like capitalized on being on this charming, charming little neighborhood. And I'm so curious, like, why did you pick this neighborhood? And what were your thought processes of being like, oh, yeah, of course, I've opened to businesses. The pandemic's over. Let's do this again, and let's leave lashes behind.

Karen Martiz  25:40

So me for the location. I love this area. This is where my previous company was. Last floor we had the store. And you know, it's not like in downtown. It's not far. It's convenient located. You can get on the highway, get up the highway, get in there. And so when I was looking for this, this new place. I was driving around, and I kept just doing my search, and I would drive, and I was just like, when I found it, and I saw what we have here, like all the shops, and how cute it is. And, you know, small businesses cozy, right? I was like, Okay, this is, like, perfect. And you know, the neighborhood is for families. And that's exactly what it was looking for. It was like, I just want the families that want to, you know, be part of this. Want to be the moms that want to be taken care of the facial they'll, you know, just be pampered in in the neighborhood has been great. Like, yeah, everybody walking their dog. They see skin makes, and then they call the book appointment. So, you know, it's not like, super high, like, traffic area where we get a lot of people the time, but it's more like, you know, go book online. We'll, we'll, you know, when, when it's my birthday, or, you know, a Christmas present, and so that that's been amazing. And we have a membership here called the good skin club. And so I find that people just love it to be on a schedule every month, and we rotate within different treatments. They have a lot of options, and that has worked great for skin mix like, that's really the model we want to do now, is the membership. It's giving the accessibility to all of this treatments that are high performance, that actually really help, that bring results. And the good skin club has been able to achieve that. I think it is so

Emily Merrell  27:37

extraordinary. What you like, yeah, what you've built, and I love that you've made it like a recurring type of thing where you know people, it's not a facial when you go on vacation. This is a part of yourself or self care routine that you can come in monthly or BI monthly to continue cleansing. And I don't know, healthifying your skin, which I think we deploy, prioritize. Your mental health. We do physical health, and then skin health is

Karen Martiz  28:06

still the thing. I know it's like always like, is the last thing people do. People pay a lot of money for lashes or do, yeah, but for some reason, the facials, it takes it, it takes a little bit more convincing, or someone that really is into taking care of their skin and anti aging. So most people do it for anti aging, right? And so, like, that's, that's the woman that we see here is women who are past 35 years old and who care for their skin. So, so we started to see more of that kind of trend. Instead of trying to convince people to come and just get a facial This is more like for those women that are really to Aging Gracefully and just, you know, you don't need to go and do one super strong take your face off treatment every two years. Instead, let's just do it steadily, and you're not even going to need those type of treatments,

Emily Merrell  29:01

yeah, you want it's like preventative care. It's like going to the doctor, going and removing all the cancer from your body, yeah, once a quarter. I think it's great to also see the evolution of skin, skin mix. Like when I first came in, it was just you. And if I remember correctly? I think you have a team, or you have other people that you've rented the offices out to, or the rooms out

Karen Martiz  29:26

to, yeah, so we do right now with we have four rooms here, and I, you know, I found that it was great to collaborate with other beauty professionals who are not doing the same things as I do, but one focuses on brows, like, like, more like permanent makeup type of thing, and I have a waxer, so I do more like the laser hair removal, the more the intense treatments for anti aging. And so it's a great compliment. It's kind of like a little market for beauty in here. Yeah. Yeah, you come in and then you do different things. Yeah, I think it's and we help each other a lot, and it has helped grow the business as a whole. And also,

Emily Merrell  30:12

for those that aren't familiar with Med Spa, can you give them a little bit of understanding, like, what is a med spa, versus, like a typical spa?

Karen Martiz  30:21

So Well, my understanding is what we what we can do as a med spa. So the Med Spa, usually you would have a medical director that oversees the company and go over your charts when you're treating someone with medical equipment, right? So the lasers are considered to be medical equipment. The RF micro needling are when we do injectables. That is so having a medical director allow us to do this treatment. Of course, we have to have our training certifications, all of that, or my practice malpractice insurance, and so that, that's what differentiates them at Spa, right? Whereas the spa, you're getting treatments that don't require, they're not as as, how do you say, not even like, like, aggressive, maybe are not you know, you can go they're more relaxing. Maybe treatments that are more relaxing, chemical peels, that might not be as deep. And there's a lot of people looking for that right, like people who just want the gentle, just want to be pumpered. And that's it's another different model for for those spots. And then with skin mix, we're more like the medical side, where we really want to prevent, we want to correct. We want to just continue to help people age lower. And that's all possible when you do this type of treatment.

Emily Merrell  31:52

And then also Med Spa is inclusive of like Botox and all the micro needling and all the exactly those words, yeah, those, those words that you've been hearing for a while. Well, so Karen, for those, those that you know can't, maybe experience you in person, like can shop your products, check out your lashes. What are the best ways that they can be in touch with you and find you?

Karen Martiz  32:19

Yeah? So Well, definitely. On Instagram, we have skin, underscore, mix underscore, and that's where we update everybody on every day, what we're doing, how we you know, how we run the company, the treatments we do. And then, of course, the website, skin, dash, mix.com, and those are the best ways for people to reach out. Of course, if you go to the website, you're able to see the memberships we have. You're able to book appointments if you if you want to come in. So there's no need for you to call me, wait for me to reply, just look like a general consultation. And then we can figure it out here, once we're here and we talk, that's usually how I do it, because everything's so personalized that, you know, like, people are like, well, I don't even know where to start. Well, let's just talk.

Emily Merrell  33:10

And we're like, that's a great place to to start, yeah, well, before, before we let you go, and again, I'll take a facial for the team, just to let everyone know how that's my favorite thing to do is to go and have her slosh, sloth off all my dirty, dead cells. But I've got some fast questions for you. Okay, okay, so my first question is, tell us an unknown fun fact about Karen.

Karen Martiz  33:40

Oh, man, I am up. I love mountain biking. And a lot of people look at me and they're like, oh, I don't believe you mountain biking. For me, it's like my life, it's everything, and I can't wait for the season to start.

Emily Merrell  33:54

That one surprised me so much when I found that out, because did you see her? She looks like she should be a supermodel. And you're like, wait, mount, that just didn't that wouldn't be what I would put you doing when I love it. Okay? Who would be a dream person, a to be connected with, or you, or to, like, do their lashes or do their skincare?

Karen Martiz  34:19

Oh, my goodness. I don't know. I don't think I have one.

Karen Martiz  34:27

I don't think I have anyone in mind that I'm like, Oh, I'm gonna, I want to do their dinner. I just want to do everyone.

Speaker 1  34:35

I'm like, I want to fix it. Okay, who is, what is a TV show that you're currently watching?

Karen Martiz  34:46

You know, I Emily, I am not a TV person. However, I maybe, because I am single, maybe out on love is blind, because I'm like, one day that's gonna come to me. So I just. And watch on that. But, yeah, you're never finding watching TV. I don't watch TV. I don't watch news. I you know if any, if I do, I do it. I do shows to help me fall asleep at night.

Emily Merrell  35:13

Okay? And easy shows on your brain, like love is fly

Karen Martiz  35:17

my brain exactly. I love it. Okay.

Emily Merrell  35:20

What about books? What book are you currently reading?

Karen Martiz  35:23

All right, so right now, I am very, very serious about growing my business and taking it to the next level. So I am getting into traction, and it's been recommended by so many people, and it's all about putting the systems in place for your business to scale it, to build it, to make it sellable. And so that's, that's where I'm headed, and that's my focus right now. It's like, okay, how do I keep this, build this beautiful company, this beautiful brand, and and set up the system so that later down the road, in 10 years, 15 years, it's ready for a good exit. And as a business woman, that's, that's where, like, where my focus is right now. It's, like, it's due to just build a business, you know, just it's too much work to, like, not be able to have another plan later on. So that's, that's where I'm diving into right now, traction.

Emily Merrell  36:19

I love it. I think it's on my bookshelf, so I need to check it out. What is your favorite or most used emoji?

Karen Martiz  36:28

Ah, well, now is the magic one? Yeah. Abracadabra, like magic? Yeah, will transform your skin. Will make you beautiful. We'll do all the things that's

Emily Merrell  36:40

a good one. I need to play with that one. And then my final question for you today is, what permission or advice do you want to give our listeners today?

Karen Martiz  36:52

Advice? I mean, I would say, you know, a lot of the times when we are thinking about starting a business, moving forward with a business, or we have the ideas or your dreams, we're so held back because we feel like everything needs to be ready and so perfect before we go. What I have found that has worked great for me, and, you know, granted, I take more risk than a lot of people, is to do the things, and even if it feels like, oh my god, this is going to be so hard and so difficult, you figure it out as as you go, like you solve the problems as they go, because it's never going to be perfect. No, you're, it's never going to be the right time. You're never going to have enough money. You're, it's just, you know, you just figure out as you go, Oh, of course, you know, just, you know, don't go doing things that you know absolutely out of your range. But, but, yeah, if it's a dream that is there and it's lingering, there's a reason why take the step, take the first step, and see how it feels.

Emily Merrell  37:57

I completely agree. I build the plane while you're flying it. Yeah, you will, you will either crash and burn or you will, you will have a very fruitful plane,

Karen Martiz  38:09

yeah. And then, if not, you know, you learn, and you learn from all those mistakes, but at least you're not regretting, what if i Exactly, exactly?

Emily Merrell  38:20

Oh, well, Karen, thank you so much for sharing your story. I am I feel expanded just listening to it and just being in your presence. So thank you for sharing your wisdom and just again, like the fact that you what you've accomplished with us, I'm so grateful to have you here today.

Karen Martiz  38:37

Thank you so much. So great to see and listeners,

Emily Merrell  38:42

make sure you like, share, subscribe, go, follow Karen, and we'll see you the next time on the second degree. Have a great day, everyone. You.