Introduction to Reset with Ophelia Ferrer

Speaker 1 0:01

Welcome home, friends. I'm Tanya Long, and this is Reset where purpose meets possibility. Each week, we share conversations with thought leaders, innovators and the dreamers and doers who are reshaping the future of work, technology, longevity and purpose. Whether you're navigating AI's impact, reimagining your career or searching for deeper meaning, you're in the right place. So settle in, open your mind and let's explore what happens when purpose meets possibility. All right, hello, and it's time. Welcome everyone to Reset with Tanya here at KPCR 92.9 FM. And today's guest and we were just laughing about this, so I'm going to massacre it is Ophelia Ferrer.

Speaker 2 0:55

And Ophelia is.

Speaker 1 0:58

She is apparently French because we started to roll those R's, so Ophelia is a major entrepreneur. She has such a history of resets because, of course, our show is focused on pivots and transitions and how people grow in life and you've had so many opportunities for growth. You started as an admin at a salon. That's right. Now you have your own salon and you're creating like methods of deployment in the beauty industry and it's just amazing, so I'm so happy to have you here.

Speaker 2 1:32

Thank you for having me. I'm really excited about this opportunity. It sounds like a lot of fun. Well, you're going to be a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 1:39

We've been hanging out a little before the show and the things that she has to offer are amazing, but I really want to drill in on some of your history. Yeah, now were you? Were you born in france or did?

Speaker 2 1:50

no, actually. So my french last name is because my husband is french and we live there, um, but I am not french. I love france, clearly. I might you know, growing up in the south, in paris, in the summers with my father. He was a school teacher, he went to Stanford University, so we had summers off and Paris was his favorite city. So I kind of knew a little bit about this and when I met my husband it was very natural that we would end up together. Yeah, him being.

Speaker 1 2:17

French. Yeah, that's wonderful. That's wonderful. And do you have any children? I have three children, three. I knew I saw some littles on Instagram, but I didn't know if those were nieces, and those littles are my grandchildren.

Speaker 2 2:30

Those are my grandchildren? Yes, all right. This is why she's in the beauty industry.

Speaker 1 2:35

If you're looking at her on video, you have grandchildren.

Speaker 2 2:38

That's amazing, I started young and the little one started young too. So it just worked out that way started young and the little one started young too. So it just it just worked out that way. But you know, we I think the new, you know generation clearly is we are living a little longer and we're looking younger as we're getting older and we've. You know, I come from the generation of a preventative. My mother was clearly ahead of her game at when I was little, doing facial yoga in the car, facial yoga facial yoga.

Speaker 2 3:07

I thought I've heard of goat yoga, but not facial yoga amazing we would sit at the, at the stop signs or at the, you know the car, the lights and it was like doing the funniest things. I'd be like mom stop, you're weird, because she was just so ahead of it. Sunscreen, it was all of that. So I it's been a part of my wellness and beauty. I love it. Yeah, second generation wellness and beauty for sure.

Speaker 1 3:29

Excellent, wonderful. Well, what are you working on right now? That's exciting, you what's new?

Speaker 2 3:34

What's new? Well, you know, new is definitely coming back to the Silicon Valley to redo business all over again. That's really new. Yeah, business all over again, that's really new. Um. Having a new passion behind it, that's fun, because when there's motive as to the why, I think we have a more more fun pressure. If you will, you're doing it with passion, you know, and that's that's definitely a different way of doing business. This time around right, coming back after COVID Um, but right now, business this time around right, coming back after COVID Um, but right now, right now, it's my wellness center I used to be an ambassador for med spas for many years.

Speaker 2 4:10

And this time I get to say wow, I get to be the founder of my new, you know fun thing which is um wellness and taking it into the inside like make us better on the inside.

Speaker 1 4:22

I love this because you know the inside like make us better on the inside. I love this because you know many women, myself included, have, over the years, had different experiences with with facials and all the different. I'm not going to go into the list of things that I've had done, but it was never really about wellness, it was just about better skin you know, so that I look more youthful with all the men that I work with Right.

Speaker 2 4:43

Yeah.

Speaker 1 4:44

And um, for you to be focused on. You said the inside. I think you know what created that for you.

Speaker 2 4:51

Sure, I well. I mean, I think, as we get older, we definitely want to look and feel, look as young as we feel.

Speaker 1 4:59

That's number one.

Speaker 2 5:00

Right, and so some of us are like well, I feel really young on the inside, and so how do we, how do we biohack ourselves to really, um, you know, make it so that we're also feeling that way too? And how are you going to feel that way? Well, you feel that way because you're taking care of yourself clearly. And when you take care of yourself, you know it's the non-processed foods, it's what you're putting into your body.

Speaker 2 5:23

It's um and now with these new biohacks such as Ivy cocktails where there's NAD that you can put into your own body to create more momentum to stay younger. Longevity essentially. And we want to feel as good as we think, and so some of us have it's all here in the head. So if you're savvy and you're witty and you know we see this in our great grandparents sometimes it's all here in the head. So if you're savvy and you're witty and you know we see this in our great-grandparents, sometimes it's like wow, their head is really there. They might not look it. So how do we look it? How do we feel it? How do we continue this longevity?

Speaker 2 5:54

where we're really taking care of ourselves.

Speaker 2 5:56

So when you tie it all together and you can have it all, that's where I'm at it's where beauty meets wellness and when you can really kind of collectively just get it all together so it works for you, then you're really creating something beautiful for that one individual and biohacking what essentially each individual needs. You know, maybe you have it together with your facials, but then what's missing on the inside? Maybe it's that just knowing that you're going to take that one to two hours aside to do business with someone like myself, where we just know we're giving you what you need, is it a timeout? Is it better skincare?

Speaker 2 6:34

Is it an Ivy cocktail to make you essentially feel like you need more energy. Right Give you. Give you what you need, and that's where I feel we can really tailor your needs.

Speaker 1 6:44

I love it, I am. I'm thinking about I used to be in a rhythm pre-COVID, pre-COVID. I mean, that's the way we tend to look at things this generation looks at things pre-COVID, during COVID and post-COVID and pre-COVID I was in a routine.

Speaker 1 6:58

A couple of times a month I would go to the Chinese foot massage place because it's it's kind of, it's easy, it's, you know, it's not a full, it's not a full luxury massage, but the but the massages you can get there are functional, so so I could allow myself to be on a rhythm of doing that.

Speaker 2 7:16

I feel like it's that time out it is and it would Sunday night.

Speaker 1 7:19

It would reset me. I'd go in like six o'clock or so and it would just really like set me for the week on calmness, on just breathing easier, right, Right.

Speaker 2 7:31

Then COVID Nobody was having anybody rub on anybody during COVID right, right or they were sneaking into my backyard to get their facial treatment Exactly Through the back door into my new salon spa room. During COVID we had a woman who I live.

Speaker 1 7:45

I live in a high rise condo and we had a woman who came and did pedicures for everybody, like every two weeks she'd have 10 people and we'd all be out on patios sipping wine.

Speaker 2 7:55

We had to function, yeah.

Speaker 1 7:56

But I was at a tech conference. I was at the step the step conference in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago and they had a massage table there as a just a side thing.

Speaker 2 8:08

Yes, and I was like, oh, I have missed this. What a great idea.

Speaker 1 8:13

I realized and he was, he was really calming and soothing and it made me go back to why I committed to that practice.

Speaker 2 8:23

Yes, during COVID and I, we get away from what we know works for us. Either something happened, covid happened, we get out of our rhythm, we've gotten out of our rhythm. And what I love about my new wellness center is also wellness can be very scary. For some people it's almost like what? What? What does that mean? Like we all know how to book a pedicure. You just said we know how to book a massage, we know how to book a facial. But when it comes to b12 shots and an ivy cocktail and maybe you need some assistance in weight loss I don't know. The point is it can be scary. It's a scary place to go. Well, who do I call it now? I have to call a doctor. Now I have to book an appointment, another doctor appointment. It sounds so annoying. It's another added thing to do. I'm going to add something.

Speaker 2 9:11

Yes.

Speaker 1 9:12

It's intimidating.

Speaker 2 9:13

It's intimidating.

Speaker 1 9:14

For sure. I think of this, like I've done a thousand Orange Theory classes, and I remember the first day I went in and all I could think about was all those fit, amazing women, you know, in full sprints on the treadmills. And here I was, you know, and, and I was so intimidated to even start and what I recognized a month in people are clearly paying attention to me. They're not ignoring me, but nobody was paying attention to my numbers.

Speaker 1 9:42

Nobody's watching you, nobody's saying she's walking, you know, on the treads while they're. You know, brandy Chastain, the soccer player, love her. She was next to me on a treadmill one day and said nice job, tanya. And I was like I'm going to die. That's amazing.

Speaker 2 9:57

I love that and everybody just supported everybody.

Early Beauty Influences and Entrepreneurship

Speaker 1 10:00

Nobody was saying oh you know, she barely got my orange on today, shy away from it, because they assume they're going to walk in and everyone's going to be quaffed and smoothed and and they're not, and I don't think anybody's paying attention.

Speaker 2 10:17

A million times that's my nobody's paying attention.

Speaker 1 10:19

They're just happy you're here.

Speaker 2 10:20

Yeah, the first. The first thing when you said that was you know I hear um, oh, I don't want you to see me naked. You know when we we we are, we, we, we were just named the number one lymphatic body drainage sculpting from silicon valley magazine. So because I bring on all my modalities from internationally and I'm like we're not paying attention to that honestly, we just want to get you to be where we know we can optimize your.

Speaker 2 10:45

You know levels of water and and get the draining, get the toxins out get the lymphatic system working.

Speaker 2 10:51

We, we want to help you. We're not coming from a place of looking at you know what you think we might be looking at your pudgy stomach, we could care less. We want to see how good and flat we can get it. That like that's what we were focused on. Um, and the second thing is when we were just talking about intimidating. I love that too, because that's what I've created. I've created a wellness lounge that embodies the heart of a, like a, a mocktail bar, if you will. So when you walk in, you feel like you're walking into this cool lounge and it fits it. You know, everything's compliant, it's a, we have a doctor's office, everything. But I want you to feel comfortable, like. I want you to walk in with your girlfriend, with your husband, with your dates. Come in, get you know, get checked out by the doctor and maybe you're you qualify for your IV cocktail. Maybe it's a wellness cocktail, maybe it's a reset cocktail. You know, maybe you drank too much over the weekend and we're here to get you ready for the week.

Speaker 2 11:44

It's very inviting and very casual setting, but we meet all the criteria that we'd need to in the med spa and it's just fun. I want to introduce this wellness lounge as a fun environment so that it's not intimidating. Make it fun and I bridge the gap between clinical and intimidating and make it inviting and still meet your needs in the medical industry so that we can give you what you need and not feel intimidated. Have fun, let's have fun with wellness, why not? We need to have fun with it.

Speaker 1 12:12

It is part you what you need, and not feel intimidated. Have fun. Let's have fun with wellness, why not?

Speaker 2 12:13

We need to have fun with it.

Speaker 1 12:14

It is part of what we need, yeah, and I think it's a commitment to self-care, right Self-care is? They used to call them quarter words. It's all the buzzwords we use in the office and they called them quarter words because in corporate world, every time you used one, you had to put the proverbial quarter in the jar to pay the jar. It's like a swear jar.

Speaker 2 12:34

Did you guys have those growing up in France? I had a swear jar.

Speaker 1 12:37

In the South we had swear jars, so when somebody said something that they weren't supposed to, in front of the kids you had to drop a quarter in. Well, same thing for these corporate buzzwords Self-care, self-care is one I like self care.

Speaker 2 12:49

Mine is love yourself better. I love my term. I came up with this when I first started my business because I fell off the map too. You know, I started to do the whole like well, what happens now? After COVID, you know during COVID, I closed my first business. I kind of lost my identity, if you will, what am I going?

Speaker 1 13:08

to do next.

Speaker 2 13:09

Yeah, and, and then I realized will, what am I going to do? We all go through phases of them. Yeah, and, and then I realized you know what, it's time to love myself again and love yourself so much that you put your life mask on first before anyone else is. So you know, self-care yes, is has been used a lot in the corporate world, like what do you do to take care of yourself? Mine is how about we love ourselves so much that we take care of ourselves just a little bit more? And take that like, what can I do for myself today to make myself put the life mask on first so I can save everyone else too?

Speaker 1 13:40

I see this in women so much that they won't invest in themselves to take care of themselves because they need to buy baseball cleats for little Johnny, or they're saving for Miss Susie's wedding, or they're always.

Speaker 2 13:55

They're always saving their assets for other people and not for themselves yeah, it's kind of like when's the right time to have a baby?

Speaker 1 14:02

never it's like you know.

Speaker 2 14:03

It's that too, it's you have to take care of yourself, and if you don't, you do end up being the one in the back burner, and then your kids don't get to have the best mommy, your husband doesn't get to have the best wife because you're not thriving at your you know level. It's the whole reset Like we talked about. We need to reset every single day, whether it's meditation, prayer, um, you know, taking that time out to wash your face properly, whatever it is to put on those high heels, don't save that outfit.

Speaker 1 14:32

You know, I love that too.

Speaker 2 14:33

Don't save that outfit for the special occasion. Put it on right, have fun with your life.

Speaker 1 14:39

I agree, yeah, I agree, and frankly, you model that. You model that, let's have fun, let's be vibrant, and I think it inspires other people to try.

Speaker 2 14:49

Yeah.

Speaker 1 14:50

Because people need role models out in front of them to say that looks like where I want to be yeah, thanks.

Speaker 2 14:56

Yeah, I, I like that, I like I, I love inspiring.

Speaker 2 14:59

My passion is also getting uh women to realize that they can thrive in the beauty industry and honestly, um, you know, have a, have a lifestyle, and also um, what's the word I'm looking for? Kind of like support themselves doing what they love, and it's a mindset. It is a mindset, you know. Have a, have a lifestyle and also, um, what's the word I'm looking for? Kind of like support themselves doing what they love, and it's a mindset. It is a mindset, you know the beauty industry is one where we can um you can live off of it you know, and some women don't know, that and if you have a passion for it, go for it.

Speaker 2 15:26

You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 15:28

Yeah, so I love it. I do want to. I do want to pause for a quick public service announcement. Project Sentinel I've not heard of these guys, but it's a nonprofit founded in 1976. That was also a big year for the United States. It was a 200-year anniversary I think of. Anyway, I should stop. But Project Sentinel is one of the largest Northern California agencies providing comprehensive housing services, and we all know how difficult it is to afford to live here. So Project Sentinel is dedicated to safeguarding the availability and stability of housing as it develops and promotes fairness and equality of housing for all people and advocates peaceful resolution of disputes for community welfare. So if you're interested, project sentinel is located at 1490 el camino real, santa clara. Their telephone is 800-339-6043. So you are here on pirate cat radio and on reset with tanya with ophelia I you know, I, my husband's going to kill me he is.

Speaker 1 16:33

I took college French. I don't remember anything. You've got to use it, or you definitely lose it, you do. I want to step back about 40 years. Okay, I want to step back because I read in your stuff that you said that your love of beauty started in childhood, playing with makeup and imagining fairy tales oh, tell me about that.

Speaker 2 16:54

How do you?

Speaker 1 16:55

remember your childhood, how beauty became like a focus for you.

Speaker 2 16:59

It sounds like very early on it is early on and that's why, um, my mother is one of the most influential people for me. She was a model in mexico and, um, her normal was definitely like put moisturizer on. And I was little. So when I had a sleepover and I was staying the night at someone else's you know girlfriend's house and I said where's your moisturizer? And they would go what, what's that? And I go what do you mean? You don't wear moisturizer.

Speaker 1 17:25

I mean for me. I was not older, were you, when you were having these conversations? 10 years old I?

Speaker 2 17:28

was little, I mean, I was 10 years old.

Speaker 1 17:30

I was little, I love it, you know.

Wellness-Focused Beauty Business Approach

Speaker 2 17:31

so I knew how to have a skincare regimen. You know, that was very much when Clinique was the only skincare that you could go get.

Speaker 1 17:40

We all started with Clinique.

Speaker 2 17:42

Clinique and Lancome. It was like that was the normal to be in the Macy's and know that she was picking up her moisturizer. I think she might still use the same moisturizer. Um, it's good product, it's a yeah and so. So that started on very early, you know pageants was a part of my upbringing my mother had me in pageants when I was little. It was all of that so it was always being poised to sitting upright. You know being sitting straight.

Speaker 2 18:07

I was a ballerina so it was all of these like um, very girly, yeah, you know how to eat proper with my father and and so, um, that was a part of my upbringing. It's just very, very much in tune with the, with the beauty.

Speaker 1 18:22

And then you pursued it into your adult career. I I don't know how, I don't know what age you were when you started, but you didn't start as a salon receptionist.

Speaker 2 18:32

So yes, I was, as a teenager, Teenager okay. I started answering phone calls for another salon owner here in Los Gatos and Full Circle. That is exactly where my business is now, in the same location. No, yeah, no, that's awesome. It is such a cool story.

Speaker 2 18:48

Oh, that is Full Circle. I was sitting there answering phone calls and so to just make this full circle so many years later, when I said, if I'm going to do this again, let's do it right. So I actually, you know, it's those God moments. I don't know how else to explain it, other than that's where I ended up and that's where I'm at, and I definitely feel I'll be there for a hot minute for sure. I call them God wings.

Speaker 1 19:12

Heck for a hot minute, for sure, I call them Godwinks Heck. Yeah, that's cool. Godwinks, yes, exactly. Um, so you had a mentor named Monica Yep. Was she in those early?

Speaker 2 19:19

days, absolutely. She was um definitely the one who showed me how to do business.

Speaker 1 19:24

How did she?

Speaker 2 19:25

shape your vision. You know she was, uh she. We come from the industry of hustle for it. The bus isn't going to drop off a busload of clients in front of your doorstep, for you to have a plethora of clients and all of a sudden you have an income in the beauty industry. That's not how it works.

Speaker 2 19:42

Unless you're a Sephora, unless you're a big name brand like that in which they pay you hourly. That's a different scope. In which they pay you hourly, that's a different scope. We are entrepreneurs of our kind, which means, if you're good at your talent and you're a good hairdresser, a good facialist, a good anything makeup artist, how do you do that?

Speaker 2 20:06

You create a referral system, you create a way to get them engaged to come to you, and so you do have to have an entrepreneurial brain, and she had it. You know, and it started out with you know, can you go pass out business cards for me? And I did. I helped her pass out business cards and little by slow, right that happens. One client likes their hair. They tell two more, they tell three more. And that's how a good business starts in the beauty industry.

Speaker 2 20:31

When you want to create a name for yourself and luckily I have a good business starts in the beauty industry when you want to create a name for yourself, and luckily I have a good reputation with my first business, which was Oswa Salon next to Forbes Mill. I had quite a following, which was kind of fun. So to come back from COVID, I had a little bit of that established already.

Speaker 1 20:45

Nice People that were happy you were open again. They were, they were. I love it. And talk about losing it all, even my client list was lost during covid, I had to like they, I had to like and we had a lot of people move out of the bay area oh yeah, that too, so so you, you recreated you do you start all over.

Speaker 2 21:04

You do feel like you're starting all over, and that happened love, love it.

Speaker 1 21:10

We talked about your childhood and being a ballerina and a princess and you know, asking other girls to put moisturizer on. But as you aged your view on beauty, the pressure to be, beautiful had to change. Yeah, and I read and you know, people who know me understand that I'm a plus-sized woman and I read that you were a plus-sized model and I was fascinated by that, because anybody who looks at Ophelia Ferrer wouldn't think of her as plus-sized. But you were a plus-sized model.

Speaker 2 21:51

Yeah, and everything. You know when. When doors open, they open. And I was told by my father that when opportunities come about, you know, go for them Right and and if. And then a wonderful mentor of mine as well. We all need those mentors. I love mentors because they're wise and they have years before you and it's definitely, I think, wise of us when you're growing your business, to seek wise counsel.

Breaking Barriers as a Plus-Size Model

Speaker 2 22:15

Don't try to sometimes do it alone. But this person, I asked him. I said I don't know if I'm supposed to do this. And he said well, I would say, if the door opens, walk through it, and if it's not supposed to happen, you ask God and you say shut it. Shut it if it's not supposed to happen. And so what happened was I was doing makeup. I was doing, I was a national makeup artist. In my twenties, I had just had my third daughter, so I was considered plus size. I was wearing a size, you know, 12, 14, something like that, working on my baby weight and I'm five, nine and I doing some modeling. In my teenage years I had, I had a little background, right, I was going to be a famous model when I was 18 and I was going to move to.

Speaker 2 22:56

LA and God had other plans for me. I got pregnant with my daughter. Anyway, I go to. I'm in a situation where the girl said I need a makeup artist and I don't do plus size models. It's a plus size model, Would you like to go? And I said sure. So I took the job. I showed up in this photo shoot and the photographer said have you ever thought about plus size modeling? And I said well, I used to do x, y and z. She says they need Latina plus size models and.

Speaker 2 23:22

I thought I did see something about the plus size industry was growing at the time quickly, by the way, so she snapped a few photos.

Speaker 1 23:30

the next day I was signed with Gap, levi's, macy's, nordstrom's, neiman's, I mean I could name all of them, and you were doing this at a time when plus size wasn't mainstream. It was one of only a few people who were doing this work.

Speaker 2 23:47

Yeah, I was the trailblazer. I was the only Latina plus size here in the Bay Area. Every major city had their token model. I was the token model here. So when we would get hired for these runway shows, there was a white woman, a black woman, a Latina and a petite Asian that's how they categorized us and then they would have 12 size, let's say two, fours right. Your mainstream models?

Speaker 2 24:12

Yes, and then they had the other category, which was plus size and petite so there was three of us the white girl, the black girl, the latina and the petite um, and we did this for 10 years so for 10 years I was a successful plus size model yeah, amazing.

Speaker 1 24:27

Yeah, so you talk about I call them the three B's when I kept seeing them in your, in your content beauty, boldness and bravery. Oh, I like that. And that's you and and I think that that was you when you were, when you were doing that work, where you were in only Right.

Speaker 2 24:48

Yeah, and it was. It was wild, you know, going to these go-sees where you are. We talked a little bit about intimidation and being intimidated. I would show up to these very high fashion go-sees, and go-sees are when they you go, kind of show off who you are in front of the people who are hiring you. Okay, so it's go-see as in visual go-see.

Speaker 1 25:08

It's not a, it's not a Japanese phrase Like you know. It's not a, it's not a Japanese phrase, like you know.

Speaker 2 25:13

So you would, you would go to a go see and a go see means that you're not being paid for it. They're literally. This is being judged by how you look.

Speaker 1 25:20

Yeah, yeah, yeah, because it's the modeling industry, it's so they look at you.

Speaker 2 25:24

There's no interview, they don't want to see how smart you are. That it's none of that. It's literally looking at you and so you show up, and I would show up to these go-sees with these clearly very good looking guys modeling for Calvin Klein, right, hot guys. And then the women looking like Victoria's secret models. And then I walk in and it's like I'm a 12, 14. And yes, I will say I know I'm pleasing to the eye, but back then, as a plus size, you're thick. Right, I was proportionate, I was beautiful at that size too. But you walk in going like what the heck am I doing? I heard the heckling, I heard the guys.

Speaker 1 26:04

You know what is she doing here. I want a fatty I heard the words that were spoken to me. It was not nice. There's a fundamental difference in being in a crowd of size twos and being size 12, 14.

Speaker 2 26:17

Yeah, so you have to have a tough skin, and the funny part about that, though, is these girls and guys were gunning for a runway. You know, a go-see right, One or two jobs to book for the. Levi's campaign. Now, the pickings were small for my size right, so I didn't have a lot of competition. What that meant was I was nailing a lot of the jobs and you were also freer to be yourself yeah, because the competition.

Speaker 1 26:45

You weren't forced into a standard that all the size teams, yeah, so as so as a model as a working model.

Speaker 2 26:53

I was making more money than them and they were making fun of me and that was pretty weird and funny and very, what is that called?

Speaker 1 27:00

Surreal.

Speaker 2 27:01

Surreal, yeah, you know surreal, kind of like well, okay, and people knew my name, you know, oh, ophelia is coming. Great, we're going to have a great show. Like I had a good cool reputation like that, yeah.

Speaker 1 27:11

And I think people start to get hired on reputation too. You when, when everyone has an aesthetic for lack of a better word that is pleasing and beautiful, then as a as a hiring leader, I make choices based on who I want to work with. Who's going to bring? Positive energy, because they're all beautiful and there's just, you know, there's this much difference.

Speaker 2 27:31

There's just barely any difference, and let's talk about that beauty on the outside and then you have somebody who comes with a crappy attitude guess what? You immediately look ugly. And haven't we heard that so many times?

Speaker 1 27:45

we have you can be so drop dead gorgeous.

Speaker 2 27:47

But if your soul is ugly, you just gave off ugly all over the place, I mean, and it's not pretty Right, I mean so. So, yes, I did, I did have that element to me and then then, then I got to be 34. That's the funny part. I just realized I was going to retire when the girl that I showed up to the go see at Levi's was 17 years old and the mom looked at me and she goes how old are you, sweetie?

Speaker 2 28:12

you, sweetie, and I was like, oh Lord, I could be your daughter's mom. But I remember that was when I started to realize I had more competition and it was time for me to just kind of back out gracefully. And I did. And still to this day I come in contact with some people who used to hire me in San Francisco.

Speaker 1 28:21

That's wonderful, though. That's wonderful because the communities we find out are all connected. You know, we we have to build strong, positive relationships, because those people are going to be around in your future in some way, and I think yours is a direct, if you will, generational thing to ascend to new places, of making a difference in that world.

Speaker 2 28:45

I believe that, yes, that there are relationships that we develop and somehow in the future they do come make full circles.

Speaker 1 28:53

You know that I do believe that.

Speaker 2 28:54

Yeah, never burn a bridge. That's another one. Yeah, you never know.

Speaker 1 28:58

You know, one thing is having boundaries, but another one is don't burn bridges you know, that's important to me did going through those years of being the only being the size 14 and a you know fifth with 50 size twos. Did that inform how you built your beauty business, how you built beauty bar?

Speaker 2 29:18

Oh, uh, let's think I think what it did do for me was create a self-esteem. That, um, gave me better self-esteem, right? I clearly I feeling good in your skin. Fake it till you make it. Did I do those things? I don't know. I just know that I felt good, I felt like it was where I was supposed to be, and um, and so what it did for me was make me definitely feel like I was defeating the odds maybe, or know that I'm hardworking and that I know I'm okay with being judged and maybe okay with it.

Speaker 1 29:54

But did it affect how you serve your clients? How did uh, how you set up to receive people?

Speaker 2 30:02

Yeah, how I receive people always with love. Never judge a book by its cover, right? Um, yeah, I mean to some extent. Yes, that's a. That's a little bit of a tougher one, as I'm.

Speaker 1 30:13

You're getting my brain to think about that, but that's a great question because I think you've had lots of experiences at at the far edge of success true, true success using your beauty, and that's very personal. But now you're helping others come into their beauty, and often from a position of, oh you know, I can't get this baby fat off, or oh, I've always been heavy or oh, you know whatever people's stories are, but you're serving other people to help them get to where they want to go.

Speaker 2 30:44

Well, thank you for navigating that. I think you're absolutely right. You know, when I see a woman, women will come in for sure, and I've gotten so many walks of life. You know I'm going through a divorce. I want to look good again. You know, or I don't know, what's going on with my body, Like what the heck?

Speaker 1 31:04

is going on. Hello, welcome to your 50s.

Speaker 2 31:06

What is this? Yeah, and tapping into this whole lymphatic drainage and getting your toxins, working for your toxin removal and as we get older and navigating and I can look at a woman now because I've done so many faces and worked with so many women I can look at someone and say you're suffering from this, Um, when I started to get into, we're going to have that conversation when this is over.

Speaker 2 31:30

but you said you look at women and you can tell like what's ailing them and what the crazy part, too, when I decided to lose weight after being a plus size model. Um a good friend of mine, who was also a model she said Ophelia, you're losing weight really fast. I decided to lose weight because I had a back injury and I was in chronic pain. Understood With that said, I said you know I'll do anything it takes. I was juicy.

Speaker 2 31:51

I was all kinds of stuff, so I finally got it all off in my skin In my 30s now. A friend said you need to do lymphatic drainage toxin removals. It'll help with the fascia and skin tightening. And I thought, okay, let me, let me look into this more. So I did and I just started to do it. And fascia for the skin is very important, keeping it nice and tight as we get older. Are we dealing with water imbalance in the in the hormonal system?

Speaker 2 32:18

in the body If your lymphatic system isn't working for you, and then let's not ignore it fights diseases. Hello, like the most important thing that we really want to talk about, which is it fights diseases. But talk about fashion the skin. Skin tightening calms your nervous system so many things that our own bodies do for us. We don't have to go pay a million services out there when clearly it's just one thing Get your lymphatic system working for you. You are biohacking your natural system and you would be amazed at how many issues you could probably fix just by doing that. Yeah, okay, that's. One of my biggest takeaways right now is the lymphatic system.

Speaker 1 33:01

I think that's very scientifically interesting. Yes, I want to talk more about that, but first it's the bottom of the hour and time for a not so quick station ID.

Speaker 1 33:12

You are on, you're listening to Pirate Cat Radio and we are known for being KPCRLP 92.9 FM here in beautiful, sunny Los Gatos. I usually start these shows talking about how blue the sky is, and if I miss that, well, that sky is always blue here in Los Gatos. Also, we are KMRT LP 101.9 FM out of Santa Cruz, and then I've been mentioning lately, we have a brand new station in the last month or so in Portland, oregon, and that's KVBELP 91.1 FM. So a big shout out to the people in Portland who are listening to this today and we're so happy to have you on board with the music and the conversations that we bring you here at Pirate Cat. Yes, so you're also listening to Reset with Tanya, with Ophelia Ferrer. I'm going to meet your husband one day for coffee and I'm going to be like Ferrer. Yeah, because I can't roll my R's. I'm a Tennessee tobacco farmer's daughter. I never could roll my R's.

Speaker 2 34:14

Tennessee, awesome. So yeah, that's my background. I'm born and raised in Silicon Valley. I've seen it all change.

Speaker 1 34:20

Very few people are native locals.

Speaker 2 34:22

Isn't that wild, I know.

Overcoming Addiction and Personal Struggles

Speaker 1 34:24

Everybody here is from somewhere else and that's part of what I love so much about the Bay Area. Yeah, it's great we were talking as we went into the station ID about what influenced how you think about beauty and you being a plus-size model and then going through intentional shifts in your life. And then going through intentional shifts in your life, you've been really open in public forums about overcoming trauma, addiction, self-doubt. So how did those struggles either impact or change your mission when you got ready to? Because I think you're on mission-oriented work, you're mission-driven with what you do, thank you. How did those struggles bring you into a mission of service for your clients?

Speaker 1 35:10

Yeah, I mean, these are very deep, you know heartfelt moments for me that you've not had a chance to express. No, most likely.

Speaker 2 35:20

Not right now, but you know the idea of not only overcoming a business and I don't want to say failing but you know it was taken away during COVID. Yeah, and then coming back to do business again. You know, that is one of what I believe is true entrepreneurship when not only do you do it once, but you do it again and I'm proving that I can do it again and that is, to my thoughts, very resilient.

Speaker 2 35:48

I've been told, and you know, when you go for something, there's nothing that's going to get in the way right, and you are driven and you have laser focus to make sure that you can do it again, because there's passion behind it, because there's passion behind it when it comes to addiction and alcohol. I started drinking when everything grieving it was grief. I lost my father, I lost my business, I moved to a whole new country, I had no friends, I mean the list can go on and on. I put my dogs down, I had to take care of my mother who had dementia all in a small bubble of one year and that could break anybody, you know. And after talking to people who have heard my story, they go wow, that's a lot. And if you go, you know one of those things, one of those things can set a human being back by three years to get it together again.

Speaker 2 36:44

I had to overcome all of that in one year and it did take me a couple of years, but during those couple of years I decided to let the grief take hold of me and that is a scary place to be for anybody, because you can get depressed, you can do horrible things and mine was picking up a bottle to be my best friend. I decided to drink and when I drank I real you don't realize that it's now gotten a hold of you, and getting a hold of you can take you to scary places and not. You know and that's where I'm coming from and we'll talk about it on a very surface level but it took. It took some help, you know, and I don't deny the fact that I had to get help. And I got help because once for some of us, when you're on that hamster hamster wheel, you can't get off. It's not hard to jump off that hamster wheel and for me it's a hamster wheel that um was hard to control.

Speaker 1 37:44

It was going too fast.

Speaker 2 37:46

And then I was like you know, and it and it took a village and luckily I have family and a husband and I had resources. Some people don't, and that's the part that pulls at me and even just talking about it right now, I get goosebumps because I feel without a shadow of a doubt that my job now is to help people and let them know that they have resources and that I can be one to help, and also to let women know that you're not alone. When you're not alone, and even if it's just one person listening that says how can you help me? I can direct you, I'll direct you, but I also want people to know that you might have the best husband, you might have this, you might be suffering from postpartum. You're not alone. There are other people just like you. I had it all, tanya. I had it all, and it can all go away very quickly.

Speaker 1 38:42

I think that's part of our challenge in life is that it? Does ebb and flow and it's not always up and to the right.

Speaker 2 38:48

Right.

Speaker 1 38:48

People assume, when it's not going up and to the right, something's wrong. Yeah, something's not wrong. You're just growing a different way.

Speaker 2 38:56

You're growing a different way and we have choices, that's the other thing.

Speaker 2 39:00

We have the power of choice. You know for me that, um, you know, if we want to call it that rock bottom, we can call it that on the show. It's picking up a phone, you know, and really picking up a phone and saying let me call a friend, Yep, let me call someone, and but it does take that initial. You know, God wink, maybe it's a thought in the head that says you know you should call someone and there's a choice. You can choose not to, and usually the choice to, not to means you're going to dig yourself a little deeper into a black hole.

Speaker 1 39:31

Usually.

Speaker 2 39:31

Yeah. But if that choice you make is, you know what, I'm going to pick up that phone, as heavy as it is, to call a best friend, to call someone who said they could help me. Maybe it's to call the radio station in that minute, I don't know. But all I know is there are resources and that one phone call can make the difference to getting better, whether it's depression, postpartum addiction, maybe making a better career choice. You know what do I do? You can't walk through it if you don't sometimes have help and doing it alone. I can say this most failures come because they try to do it alone, whether it's business, whether it's help, any of it Doing it alone. I honestly, you know, when I think about I'll just say it Statistically they say it's pretty close to zero doing it alone.

Speaker 2 40:25

So, it takes a village, and maybe you don't need a village, maybe you just need a friend.

Speaker 1 40:30

This is not this kind of radio program. So I'm going to be gentle, yes, but you've mentioned God three or four times.

Speaker 2 40:38

Yes, your relationship with God, you know, I was born Catholic you know I went to.

Speaker 1 40:44

I was um, born Catholic. You know my dad. I went to a private.

Speaker 2 40:45

Catholic school for my whole, you know upbringing.

Speaker 1 40:49

So it was a part of my life and I love it. Yeah, was there a defining God moment when you got that? God wink to build something bigger in service of others.

Speaker 2 41:00

Definitely I've had those moments for sure. You know, when I was a teenager. I remember toying with bad choices, as we do when you're a teenager. Yeah, you know, yeah, getting into some situations where you're like that's probably not the wisest thing. You know that you're not supposed to do it, ophelia, but you're going to. And so those little moments of the little, the eight good angel and the bad angel, right, those are God winks for sure is it your intuition? You know we all have that inside of us.

Speaker 2 41:32

I believe, mm-hmm, where you know your moral compass. That's right. And that moral compass, whether you know who God is, whether you were brought up in a Catholic school, whether you just are a human being and that human being, whether you're an atheist or not, there's always that thing inside of us that tells us it's wrong and that wrong choice is a choice. So for me that's God. You know, it lives inside of us, it's a higher power, some people call it the universe.

Speaker 1 42:00

You know there's always Buddha there. Spirit source, spirit source, and I'm less affected by the label you choose yeah some people are still. I come from tennessee, buckle of the bible, belt, right. Some people are triggered if it's anything, but yeah, god, the father, son, holy ghost, and that's as far as it goes. But spirit source all those things, I think, the fact that people pay attention to something bigger than themselves that creates a right.

Speaker 1 42:23

That creates a sense of awe. Yeah About. You know, we may be big people, but we are a tiny little speck in creation. That's how I like to look at it.

Speaker 2 42:34

I mean, you just said something that makes me want to have fun with it. We're just a bunch of big kids playing on a big playground with each other and trying to play nice you know, and when you talk about business, you know burning a bridge or you know clawing your way to the top.

Speaker 1 42:50

Yeah, that language does not appeal to me. You know, all that stuff is so scary and it's like let's just stay away from that.

Breathing and Self-Care Lightning Round

Speaker 2 42:55

You know, did I create the blueprint? Or did someone mock me or copy my business motto? Because it's now flattering to me, because I have to look at it, though there's so many ways, but at the end of the day, I know that I want to be of service to humanity, be of service to you. Know, I feel like I get one shot at life and I want to make the best of it. I didn't go through these things for no reason and I clearly didn't come back from what I just came back from for no reason.

Speaker 2 43:28

I could just say I'm any other person, but if God wants to put me on this platform to be a testimony, then let's go, yeah.

Speaker 1 43:36

Good for you. Good for you. I hate that we didn't have more time today.

Speaker 2 43:41

Ooh, are we done.

Speaker 1 43:42

We are close to done. The last thing I do is a quick segment of lightning round questions.

Speaker 2 43:47

Okay, cause.

Speaker 1 43:48

I think those are fun and that has been some of the best ways for for an audience to like hear snippets of things that reveal the real you Okay. Right so so I, so I love you know, a five minute lightning round.

Speaker 2 44:00

Okay.

Speaker 1 44:01

So we talked about you doing the fairy tales and makeup thing. Well, what was your favorite fairy tale as a little girl, oh my gosh fairy tales.

Speaker 2 44:09

I you know, cinderella, I love a pink dress all right, was it a blue? Dress. Now I'm confused good, I think.

Speaker 1 44:15

I think it was blue there was a pink one and a different one, the pink one? I don't know, it doesn't matter they were all my favorites.

Speaker 2 44:21

I mean, my kids grew up on watching too.

Speaker 1 44:23

It was just fun Good.

Speaker 2 44:25

I always dressed my little girls up like little princesses.

Speaker 1 44:28

Oh jeez, I'm sure you did.

Speaker 2 44:30

Sure, you did.

Speaker 1 44:30

So what's the one beauty product you can't live without?

Speaker 2 44:34

Oh, mascara, I need a good eyelash.

Speaker 1 44:37

That was so quick. I know she did not even take a breath.

Speaker 2 44:52

It did not even take a breath. It was just like mascara. Okay, if I had to be on a deserted island, waterproof mascara. You are so entrepreneurial. Yes, who inspires that? Who inspires that? Oh, you know, I um.

Speaker 1 44:57

I hate to say it, but I don't. Maybe I don't know. Oprah was cool, you know, I am on, I'm on the Oprah train. I completely yes. I mean she, she, yes you know, we all.

Speaker 2 45:02

We did get a little bit far-fetched from like follow your passion, because we all can follow our passion and um, but not everyone can make money in their passion. But all I'm trying to say is she kind of beat the odds in a big way, being plus size being a woman who spoke her mind. I mean there was a lot of that and then just making a lot of that and then just making a lot of money at it.

Speaker 1 45:24

Wow, Like how inspiring. You know I think you chose a great role model. Yeah, Good. What is your best self-care ritual? Self-care no, no no For a tough day.

Speaker 2 45:35

For a tough day Self-care ritual. Well, you know, honestly, sometimes it's sitting down and breathing, literally breathing Box breathing. Know, honestly, sometimes it's sitting down and breathing, literally breathing box breathing.

Speaker 2 45:46

You know I like the diaphragm breathing where it's breathe in for two seconds, minimum two seconds. Hold it for two seconds and breathe out. Guarantee you never have I ever heard someone say that they didn't take a few deep breaths and feel better. Not feel better afterwards. I do it in my facials, I do it in my lymphatic drainage, I do it for myself when it's a moment of like God, that was rough, or maybe I'm about to encounter a really crazy day, or a moment.

Speaker 2 46:18

How about you take two deep, full breaths and I will guarantee you you'll feel better. That's a self-care must-have.

Speaker 1 46:26

Okay, I love it. I love it. Who is the dream client that you would love to walk through the doors?

Speaker 2 46:33

at Beauty Bar. You know a dream client.

Speaker 1 46:36

And you've already used Oprah, so you can. Oh, Taylor Tay-Tay.

Speaker 2 46:39

You know Tay-Tay, you know who doesn't want a Beyonce walking through their door. I mean, you know that would be fun. A dream client, you know I have. I I'm not too starstruck by too many people, but I mean I would just having that recognition or somebody walking and saying, oh, what a cool destination boutique little salon spot that Los Gatos has, which is called Beauté Bar. How fun would that be to just get that recognition. And that's what I am is a destination boutique. You know I embodied what it feels like to come into the south of France and.

Speaker 2 47:14

I. Everything in there is decorated like you are, so it's really fun to walk in there.

Speaker 1 47:17

It's eye candy everywhere yeah, I've got to come. I'm sure it's like pink and sparkly it it's actually it is.

Speaker 2 47:25

You got it, yeah that you would think so it's actually pop art, tattoos, sunglasses.

Speaker 1 47:30

Like Warhol.

Speaker 2 47:31

Like it's got like cigarette smoking, wonder Woman's with like a nun in the back. It's all art. It's very cool. Bloody lips, it's like pop art. It's cool. It's edgy.

Speaker 1 47:47

It's edgy, it's edgy edgy. Very black walls, not pink princesses it's edgy.

Speaker 2 47:49

No, okay, I took a turn when I got to the dark side. No, I'm just kidding very interesting.

Speaker 1 47:53

Yeah, so we still need to talk about so much more. Yeah, I, I'm gonna suggest, and we'll play with this later yes, but maybe we change chairs next time.

Speaker 2 48:02

Ooh, absolutely.

Speaker 1 48:03

Maybe you interview me and we'll see how, what you choose to talk about, because I think I think, as hosts, we do reflect our lives and the questions we ask, the things that we focus on Definitely.

Speaker 2 48:17

So I think, it might be interesting if we swap chairs, that would be fun. I will take you up on that offer, I think that would be.

Speaker 1 48:22

I think that would be great. So we'll talk more about that Sounds good. In the meantime, how can people see you? Get in touch with you? Follow you on Instagram? Yeah, um, what are the? What are the channels where people can experience the feather hat method?

Speaker 2 48:40

My um. My personal brand is Ophelia, underscore O-F-E-E. That's O-F-E-E-F-E-E and that's my time in Southern France. O-f-e-e is my nickname, um, and that is where I created the Ophelia Ferrer method, which is um, my methods of skincare in a, you know, in a, in a nutshell, um. Also overcoming adversity and um. You know, alcohol and addiction and all the things recovering out loud. These are my per. This is my personal brand, and you can find that on Instagram. A YouTube channel is going to come soon as well. And then my business, where I have amazing women, like-minded women, who have made a career for themselves in the beauty industry that I helped to advocate and create jobs for.

Speaker 2 49:28

And I hope to franchise and all of that stuff with my beauté bar, and that's the French concept, it's um, where you come in, feel I want you, tanya, when you come in, to feel that way, from the expressos to, to the way we greet you and just enjoy what we have to serve you with. And that is Beauté Bar and that's B-E-A-U-T-E-B-A-R and that is in Los Gatos and with them I'm making it my flagship.

Speaker 1 49:55

So we're trying to dial it in right now. Yeah, we will include it in the show notes.

Speaker 2 49:59

Great.

Speaker 1 50:00

Yeah, they heard you, but they can also see and we'll put your website in there.

Speaker 2 50:04

yeah, absolutely wonderful excellent. You have been an absolute delight I look forward to swapping tears, I think good, I think there's high energy and we would have a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 50:14

Yes, so is there anything else you'd like to leave the?

Speaker 2 50:16

show with. I just want people to know that there is a place where you can have it all. Love yourself more every single day, take time out at Beauty Bar, and we would love to have you Absolutely.

Speaker 1 50:26

Wonderful. This is very exciting, and we do this thing at the end of the show. We do little hearts and send those out to our audience. So thank you for being here today. On Reset with Tanya, I have to do one more station ID before we close off. So you are listening to Reset with Tanya, with Ophelia Fehrer from beautiful Los Gatos and KPCR LP 92.9 FM, also from 101.9 FM, and that's KMRT LP, and then our newest addition to the station lineup, kvbelp 101.9. No, I'm sorry, that's 91.9 out of Portland. So delightful to have everyone. We will see you same time next week. Have a beautiful, beautiful day. Thanks for joining us on Reset. Remember, transformation is a journey, not a destination. So until next time, keep exploring what's possible. I'm Tanya Long and this is home. This is Reset.