Okay. Good morning. Good evening. Good afternoon. Thanks everyone for joining us.
This is the premiere episode of a new podcast called the everything Durham.com podcast.
The background story of this is I wanted to create a new sort of a podcast idea
where we can talk to the people there,
talk about the places, and it's going to also include properties because of
the background that I have, which is real estate.
So there's going to be a little bit of that, but there's going to be a lot more.
And I'm going to be introducing some great guests and some co-hosts as well.
And today I actually do happen to have a co-host joining me.
So Melissa is going to tell you a little bit about herself. And then Alicia
is going to tell you about her following that.
And then we'll sort of jump into a story about what Alicia does and take it from there.
So Melissa, why don't you take it from here?
Hello. So I'm Melissa Kuchepa. My last name is not easy to say.
It's Polish. So I'm a mortgage agent. I lived in the Durham region my entire
life. I did recently move from Durham, but I'm still very well connected.
Love the people, the places, the businesses.
I know I'm connected with lots and lots of people there.
So this is right up my alley. I love helping people and connecting people.
So super excited to be doing this with you, Paul.
That's, that's good enough for me, Melissa. I really appreciate you,
you know, again, sort of helping create the idea for this.
And of course, being, you know, obviously a big part of inviting our guests along.
So now we'll have our guests sort of introduce herself and sort of start our
conversations from there.
Hi, my name's Alicia of DaCosta and I am the owner of Borla's Beauty. I live in Bowmanville.
I run, I do hair, like I'm a.
Out of the house. But my main kind of thing is where I run an agency of mobile
bridal hair and makeup in Durham and across Ontario. We have artists all over.
Right now we have 25 girls that work for us and yeah, go all over and do hair
and makeup for weddings and proms and grads and all of the above.
That sounds again, that sounds, you know, pretty amazing.
So let's, uh, I guess let's start off with the, I, you know,
sort of with the, with the discussion about obviously how, how that started.
And of course I'm going to want to know how you and Melissa connected over the
years as well, but feel free to start.
I always like to have a sort of a storytelling framework to the podcast,
just sort of like a before, you know, sort of a, you know, an early story,
a pre-story and then sort of a now, and then maybe some future stuff.
So let's start with the, I guess, the beginnings of the idea and maybe even
for you where you were born and raised and we'll take it from there.
Yeah, so I'm actually from Brampton originally, born and raised in Brampton.
And I originally actually wasn't even in hair and makeup.
I went to school for early childhood education and I worked for the Y for about
10 years. Do any of us end up where we started with schoolwork, by the way?
Because I'm totally on the other side, just like yourself. Yeah.
So I just decided it wasn't for me. So I went back to school.
I went to George Brown in Toronto for makeup. up.
I did that and I was doing quite a bit of film, television, movies,
TV shows, all of that kind of stuff.
I really enjoyed it. It was really fun. I still do it now and then when I can.
And it just so happened that to be like in the union for film and television
to do hair, you needed a license.
So I was like, okay, well, I'll go get my hair license, no problem,
whatever. And so I went and,
worked at a salon and got my hair license and then realized,
Oh, I actually like being in the salon. It's a little bit more stable. The money's good.
It's, you know, like people rely on you. So I kind of stepped back from the
film a little bit and moved into the, that.
And I, and that's when I started doing bridal and realized I love bridal.
That is my niche and my favorite thing. So yeah, I did that and worked with
like a few people along the way that I really enjoy.
One of my best friends and I have worked together for probably 11 years now
doing hair and makeup together.
So yeah, then we moved to Durham. We moved to Bowmanville in 2019,
November, like literally just before the pandemic hit.
From Brampton? Yeah. From Brampton to Bowmanville. Okay. All right. Yeah.
So we bought a house out here and loved it and loved the community.
And the whole vibe of Bowmanville was, I loved it.
And then I had my son in October of 2020 and was working at a hair salon at
the time and decided that that was just didn't work for our family anymore.
So I built a little salon in the basement and that's kind of when I met Melissa.
I think I was actually pregnant with my son when Melissa started coming to me to do hair.
And so she's been coming ever since, which is awesome.
And yeah, so I think I just kind of decided over that, that,
you know, where the business was going to go.
And I did a 12 week coaching session with a business coach.
Coach out in Vancouver. And we just decided we were going to incorporate and
start this adventure and do bridal.
And I just, after COVID, the backlog from the weddings was so astronomical that
like, I couldn't keep up with it myself.
And that's the thing you're saying you started this business when you moved,
was it 2019 that you said that?
I'm just wondering. So I started taking hair from home basically during COVID.
During COVID, okay. Yeah, so I was working at a salon before COVID.
And then with COVID and me being pregnant and everything else,
it just didn't make sense to go back with, you know, like daycare schedules and whatnot.
So we started the home salon part first.
And then I kind of realized that the bridal was not something that I could keep
up with alone and that either I needed to say no more often or which I don't like doing.
So I just kind of said
okay well I guess I need a team and I wanted to build this amazing team of independent
women who are incredible and support I wanted to really support other artists
and make sure that they are heard as well because unfortunately in this industry it can be a little,
competitive and a little people like to tear people down so I wanted to make
sure that so wait a minute, are you in hairstyling or real estate?
Because that's a very, and again, I'm just maybe jumping over the bridge here
and getting myself in trouble, but this is something that is not exclusive to what you do.
And this is sort of been an issue for me as well. Yeah.
The reason why podcasting, I sort of say that I'm really good at two things,
real estate and podcasting.
And the reason why I love podcasting is because it's the opposite.
The collaboration is just.
It's literally, it's, it's over the moon as far as how people collaborate with
each other and want to, you know, be on each other's shows and promote each
other and get the other one higher on the scale.
So the good news is you're in good company now as far as what we're doing,
because for me, the idea of not promoting other people to me,
especially small businesses, especially for what you guys went through during COVID,
a lot of them are not around because of that.
Like it literally shrunk a lot of businesses to the point where they just couldn't survive.
So the fact that you were able to adapt through that, I congratulate you.
And same with you, Melissa, because I know that in my business,
we all had to adapt to, to new, you know, to, to, to changes,
but especially small businesses.
And for me, I'm actually from before real estate, I was in the fitness world
and the fitness people as well.
They were, a lot of them were just destroyed by just because you could not be
in the same room breathing with other people.
Like that was, you know, there's, there's, there was no spin classes.
There was no working out of any kind.
So that's, that was a big deal. So the fact that you grew the way you did during
that time, that's a, that's a, that's a pretty strong,
that's a pretty strong comment on, again, on your, you know,
on your ability to do that, to, to, you know, sort of to, to take adversity
and turn it into something else. So thank you.
That's, that's, you know, that's, that's a great start to that story.
Yeah. During that time, Melissa, that's when you guys met in Bowmanville,
obviously, because you wouldn't have met in, in, in, in Brampton and nothing,
nothing wrong with Brampton.
My daughter just went to college there for a year.
So we spent a year going to Brampton, visiting her at that, uh,
at Sheridan college when she was there. So yeah, different city,
but just like Toronto, much bigger city, lots, lots more, you know.
Lots more things going on.
So, but yeah, so you guys met around that time. Yeah.
So I got licensed in 2020 and I was living in Bowmanville and I started my business in.
In the midst of COVID, like just as COVID was really starting,
I was taking the course, I was getting licensed.
And I had made a post in the Bowmanville Facebook group looking for like other
small business owners that I could connect with. And Alicia had commented.
And she was like, Oh, I'm a hairdresser. I work from home. And it turned out
that her house was like two streets over from mine.
And ever since that first hair appointment, she captured my heart.
And now No one else is allowed to touch my hair ever.
And my hair looks like this currently because she went and had another baby.
And so now I have to wait patiently for her to be able to see me and cure this madness.
But she is absolutely sick.
I'm sure you guys will work through this bump in the relationship.
But the fact is that, again, and you also made a comment there.
You know, again, you also started in 2020 and probably a lot of people that
maybe care for you probably said, what are you thinking?
Because again, it was, it was not necessarily boom times then.
It did come back a little bit after that.
And we're sort of, you know, we're, we're in wherever, whatever we're in now,
whatever world we're in now, but in 2020 itself,
I think things were a little quiet now yeah like
the bridal business was really quiet but
what i found was after that like that
so once things started opening up back up again we
had all these clients from 2020 who had to postpone their wedding yes and then
you remember hearing that a lot yes yeah and then now i'm getting all these
new inquiries plus the people from before and then you're getting all of the
and then it was like kind of a snowball effect where the people from the year
before wanted to book, but couldn't cause it was full.
So then they're pushing their weddings back so that they can get a date that they want.
And then it was just snowballing, snowballing and like just everything just exploded.
And like I said, I don't say no, I don't like saying no.
So I was like, the only other option is to hire more people.
Well, obviously, yeah. And, and of course, you know, you, you have to be in
that position where, of course, because of the fact that everything was sort
of compressed for, for such a long time, that's, that's the other thing.
And this, and this, there was a similar effect that happened in real estate
where people literally could not move or didn't want to move for a long time.
And then all of a sudden in 2022, everybody moved like a, like just a ton of
people move that just were thinking about it for two years.
I think I was in that group as well, just because we were, we felt like we were
at a point where we wanted to sort of start, start a new chapter and it just
kind of, it wasn't, you know, you really weren't sure where things were going to be going after that.
So for a lot of businesses and again, whether it's, you know,
whether it's mortgages or whether it's, you know, bridal and,
you know, salons like that kind of thing, I think obviously everybody sort of
had to adapt on some level.
So it sounds like, you know, obviously it sounds like there's a lot of lessons
that you learned through that time.
And of course, you know, the people that you added to your team along the way,
as you were growing the team from, from, from what you said,
it sounds like a lot of those people obviously got the benefit of that learning too.
Absolutely. Yeah. And it's funny because I find that recently,
like I would say last year and this year, a lot of the weddings that we're doing
are couples that kind of got together over COVID.
Like it was like they kind of got forced into, well, I guess we have to live
together because if we want to see each other, we need to live in the same house.
And they would live together. And now all of a sudden they're getting married.
So it's like kind of still, we're still seeing some of the, I guess,
benefits of COVID over here.
Yeah, I guess, I guess you could say that. Yeah. And as far as like,
you know, like I wouldn't necessarily call it like.
A marriage bootcamp, but it definitely is a good idea to be in a position where
you kind of have to be together maybe before you decide to take another step.
And of course that sort of gives you all the good, bad, and ugly,
you know, sides of, of, of, you know, living with someone.
So that's sort of a weird side effect. Again, you know, maybe not a benefit
of COVID, but definitely a, you know, an interesting side effect, we'll call it that much.
Yeah, absolutely. So as far as you're concerned, and this is,
again, part of this whole thing being called everythingdurham.com,
I kind of want to get the insight from those of you who have businesses here.
And because you've been here long enough, you've been obviously five years.
Yeah, I think we just, yeah, we just did the five year. Yeah,
because we just renewed our mortgage.
There you go. So happy fifth anniversary for that.
So what have you seen as far as growth and what have you seen as far as changes?
And either of you can speak to that. But how would you say Durham sort of has
changed since, I guess, since 2019, 2020? one.
I'm not going to speak for all of Durham, obviously, but like I know in Bowmanville here.
The I and I think I don't know if it's because I got into the right group or
whatever, but I the amount of women owned businesses in Bowmanville is insane.
And I am so happy that it is a thing.
I've become really good friends with a lot of
these women who have these just amazing businesses in all
all walks of life fitness physio chiro mortgage
real estate like literally everything and
and it's so wonderful to see these
women-owned businesses that are solely mostly solely women-owned businesses
and they are thriving and the fact that we are all kind of supporting each other
too is really wonderful like i know anytime anyone needs something to do with
mortgage i caught i'm like, Melissa, here you go.
Here's, here's her information, like right away. And she does the exact same thing for me.
So, you know, it's, it's nice to be able to have that kind of community of,
you know, anybody in general, but just as a woman, having that community of other women,
supporting each other and lifting each other up is absolutely insane.
I don't see it as much in really, like I'm in a lot of the different community
groups within Durham and even outside of Durham.
And I don't see that same level of like women-owned business,
like just consistently uplifting each other, promoting each other.
I don't see that anywhere other than the Bowmanville groups.
Like it's just consistently promoting each other.
And it's really a great community for that specifically. Durham has grown exponentially
in the last like seven to ten years before getting into mortgages.
I worked in ambulance dispatch and I think when I left the population was somewhere
around 700,000 and I know that it has completely skyrocketed since then.
Bowmanville has continued to grow at a very very rapid pace.
So it would be great to see like all of the new people migrating into Durham
region and into Bobanville, all of those female owned businesses,
seeing what a great community is and what support is out there for them.
I would love to see them become part of that and really start to thrive as well,
because you don't really see that anywhere else. It's definitely not out here where I've moved.
I can tell you that. And I tell you, it wasn't in Brampton either,
because there was a lot of female businesses.
And I mean, I saw the most of them I saw were kind of more in the hair world,
but they were very shut in, very, you know, like didn't want to see other people
succeed, only wanted to see their own growth.
And it's unfortunate because, you know, like I feel, you know,
as a woman, we're already being kind of pushed down in general.
So why would another woman want to step on another woman?
It doesn't make sense. Like it makes more sense just to keep that ball rolling
and lift everybody up and keep going because abundance is, there's no number on abundance.
Like, you know, there's, there's enough for everyone.
There's room for everyone. Yeah. No, I, again,
I, I, I can only sort of add to the conversation about just,
again, being a father of a daughter and, and, and supporting my wife and my
daughter in the best ways I can.
But as far as the whole idea of anybody being in a business and,
and somehow making it seem like,
you, you, you know, that you're, that you're going to get ahead by putting everybody
in sort of a different position.
There's, there's sort of, there's two levels of it. There's,
there's the, there's the aspect of where, you know, I don't,
I don't like it when people in my business, for example, are,
are dropping the ball and not doing their part.
So I'll, you know, I'll make comments and most of them, most of the time they'll be humorous.
And Melissa, you've probably seen a few on my Facebook page when,
when I'm the one doing all the work in a transaction and the other person literally
is just punching in and, and do adding nothing to it.
I, I, I have an issue with that, but when it comes to, again,
helping other businesses and that, that's why in my first week of doing a podcast,
and I thought it was going to be a real estate podcast,
but it was in the first week of doing it, I decided I wanted to do an interview with someone who is,
he's running it's i believe he still has the business
there but it's in downtown toronto and he
was doing a pay what you can grocery store and
pay what you can bakery for people who you know who just can't afford to go
to the grocery store and this was 2018 this was before like you know the idea
of that came you know was was you know even more important after covid but the
idea of helping someone with a business like that, to me just made perfect sense.
So the collaboration, as I said before, I'm not sure if I think I said it in
the podcast, but the whole idea of the yin and yang sort of speak with the real
estate versus podcasting.
And because I'm just like yourself, Melissa, you're probably part of how many
a thousand different real estate groups online.
I mean, I'm joking, but it's probably a lot. Same here over the years.
I signed up for all the referral groups and all the, you know,
every version of a real estate group, just because, you know,
like I, I, you know, I want to get in there. I want to collaborate with them.
And very, very often, a lot of those are old boys clubs and things like that.
And again, turn me off completely. So I just left all that stuff behind when
I started podcasting and just started wanting to do something more.
But the whole issue of collaboration, and this is why I'm so glad that you're
both on this show and the fact that I'm trying to make sure that this idea about
promoting small businesses is purely collaborative,
meaning that if you guys aren't here,
if, if people, you know, like if, if, if, if, if local business storytellers
aren't doing that, if they're not telling their stories, this won't work.
So the fact that you're both here and both, you know, again,
more than willing to share your stories and even ideas for other people, because again,
in, in networking, in, in, in, in mortgage and in other businesses as well,
networking is a big thing that we do.
But the whole issue here of having people on this podcast from all,
all walks of life, like I don't, I don't have a problem with,
you know, if someone's, you know, whether they're in beauty or they're a baker or they're, you know.
Painters or whatever they do.
Because I think there's sort of a, a given sort of understanding with collaboration
so that all these different people are literally all of these different,
you know, even like the pizza shops, like, you know, I can, I can talk about
pizza shops and, and, and great burger shops at length, all these places sort
of make the fabric of a neighborhood, like, you know, just like all that kind of stuff.
So the fact that you're, again, kind enough to join us today,
Alicia, and to share that story of that, you know, of, of how that happened
and how you guys met, that was a great start.
And again, what do you guys both see as far as how the future of,
of Durham's looking and, and, and, and, you know, specifically for your own
business, how would you say that the, the, the future is looking as far as your expansion?
Cause chances are, it looks like you've expanded quite a bit already.
Do you see much more expansion happening or, or, or divert, you know diversification
any of that kind of stuff like going different directions any of that,
yeah I definitely the expansion happened a lot faster than I think I was expecting
which is good because everything was very organic it just happened that you
know other artists were just liking the way that the business was run so they
were telling their friends and so on so on and now I have an incredible group of women,
but yeah, like I think to the word is kind of getting out and not only to brides,
but to vendors and venues,
especially like in the Durham area and Durham region.
Different, like, you know, I've become kind of like on like vendor lists too
as well, which is really nice.
So yeah, so I think that we're just going to kind of like let things just snowball
and keep going the way they're going.
And I've kind of come into a little bit of realization that there's some education
holes in the beauty industry.
And I very love educating.
I love, Melissa knows every time I, she sits in my chair, I basically tell her something new.
I love, I love that. It just, it's very interesting to me.
And I love being able to tell people knowledge that I know and sharing knowledge.
So I'm, you know, in the back end works of, you.
Education kind of to go with the
bridal business as well that's amazing thinking like
teaching other like other
hairstylists and stuff like is that kind of your idea
yeah so that's kind of how it started we had a staff meeting and some of the
girls only do hair or they only do makeup they don't do both and I had kind
of thrown it out saying like if anybody was interested in learning the other
one that I would support them in that and help them and do what I can to kind of support them.
And almost every single one of them said yes. Amazing.
Like they were like, yes, absolutely. Like I'd love to learn the other one.
I've just never had the opportunity or never had the time or didn't know where to start or wherever.
So now I'm kind of in the back. It's very, very early, but considering doing
some educating for them.
So I'm probably going to start it there just so I can kind of get my bearings
and get them kind of educated.
But then, you know, I've always had a lot of people, a lot of clients say like, can you teach me?
Can you teach me how to, you know, do a night look or like a day going to the, going to work look?
Or another one I get a lot of is, you know, like dad's teaching,
learning how to do their daughter's hair.
Right. So that they can do that. So I'm, I'm kind of leaning towards adding
some of that to it too, where you can like,
there'll be like little like virtual courses or whatever on,
you know, how to do your own makeup or your own hair or someone else's, you know, in the family.
So we'll sign up for all of them.
Yeah. Well, I mean, you had to teach me how to use a flat iron to curl my hair.
All that stuff that you said to me, I'm thinking about, uh, you know,
just how great content that would be.
So even for you to, you know, to record yourself doing that,
or to, you know, to, to somehow turn that into, you know, an idea for a podcast,
I'd love to, you know, make sure that it gets promoted here,
you know, as far as, you know, just getting the word out and just putting it on different channels.
And that's, and that's what we're doing right now. This, this conversation that
we could have had this conversation easily at a coffee shop,
and it would be three of us sitting there.
And the only person listening in would be the two old ladies sitting in the
corner, you know, you know, saying, well, you know, what are they talking about?
And, and that's fine, but that probably wouldn't help our business very much.
So the idea of turning these conversations and, and, and the things that you're
willing to teach people into a podcast, again, I'm, I'm more than happy to help on my end.
If, if, you know, if, if, if you're even, you know, if you're interested in that at all. So.
Yeah, no, that's, that's awesome. Thank you. I, I think my like biggest thing
that I'm like trying to hump, trying to get over is being in front of the camera
like it's a it's a a daunting thing to you know like.
Be in front of a camera and talk to people and it's
one thing to talk to like you said talk to someone in person and then it's
another to talk to a screen that you don't know who's looking at the other end
right so like I think getting my confidence up in like doing things like this
and you know talking to other people and doing these kind of things and social
posting a little bit more on social, is getting...
Some confidence in there is kind of what's going to be the biggest battle,
I guess. Well, you're doing wonderfully. Thank you.
Yeah, no, absolutely. And I always ask people if they've done this before,
because I want, I don't want it to be like a pressure situation if you haven't.
But the fact that you mentioned that you did something similar to this before,
again, and this is all this is when it comes to podcasting.
For me anyways, the one thing I learned, your first 10 podcasts are going to
be garbage and no one's going to listen to them because again,
you don't know what you're talking about. You're nervous.
You don't think, you know, you think your voice doesn't sound right and all that stuff.
And then by the time you get to the hundredth one, and I'm not saying that everybody
needs to do this, but for me,
it was this way where you learned eventually that it's, it's,
no one's paying attention to, or I'm not even paying attention to what my voice
sounds like. And then maybe I did in the beginning.
And then the camera stuff, I sort of, I read a stat somewhere that kind of made
me feel relaxed is that we're on, we're on cameras.
The minute you step outside your house, you're on like 400 cameras,
either people's doorbell cameras or, or, or, you know, like when you go into
a shop, you're on a camera.
So you're probably in front of 400 cameras if you just go out for, for, for groceries.
So that's easy to get over with as well. Cause again, you're on camera for all
these other reasons and none of them benefit you as far as that goes.
That's, that's not for promotion sake or for, you know, telling your stories.
So let's, let's say that this is a, yeah, this, this, this was a great start
to that, to this chapter of, of this, of this podcast idea.
So thank you so much, Melissa, for introducing, you know, Alicia to Alicia,
to the, to the podcast and any, any, any sort of parting words from,
from both of you before we call it a day?
Well, what I would like to say is, Alicia, thank you for coming.
You are the most fantastic person. I honestly could not wish success on a better person.
You deserve every bit of what you have coming.
You are so amazing at what you do. And just seeing you over the last five years,
the grit, the determination, everything that you've put into it,
you absolutely deserve it all.
So I couldn't think of a better first guest to have on here than one of my very
first female business friends that I connected with.
And you're the best. That's all.
Well, thank you so much. I feel the same way about you. Like just kind of watching
your business grow and all of your online stuff. I'm like, this is what I strive to do.
So I appreciate it. But thank you so much. I feel the same way about you.
Thank you so much for having me on this, Paul. It's really. You know what?
And I'm the same as both of you in terms of, for me, it's been...
The collaboration part of learning about what people are doing and basically
just trying to copy what the best of the best people are doing in different industries.
And I don't know if I've mentioned this, but I probably said this online at some point or Melissa,
maybe even before I met you, but I've, I've often said that I would go to a
real estate conference and then I would sneak out of the conference and go to
another conference, like some other business entirely, like a,
like a fashion conference or something completely outside of my range and just
see what they were doing there.
And I would learn more from this other conference because if you ever,
and let's say you'll know this, when you go to a mortgage conference,
there's usually like five different ones going on in those big buildings.
So I would just sneak off and just A, find out what food they have because sometimes
they have better food than the ones that I'm in.
So I just go over there, shake hands. I've got a name tag.
I look official. But I'm learning mostly. I'm learning so much from different industries.
So thank you both for, you know, adding to that learning.
And hopefully the podcast element to this sort of has, you know,
sort of given you a little bit more confidence, Alicia, with,
you know, doing this kind of stuff.
And obviously you're, you're welcome back anytime to share more stories and
talk about, you know, new incentives and new programs, new, new education,
things that you're talking about doing more than welcome to stop by and, uh, you know,
share those with everyone who's willing to listen. Well, thank you.
All right. Well, thanks everybody for tuning in to a first episode and hopefully
we'll have you back again soon.
All right. Thanks Paul. Looking forward to the next one. Thank you. Yep. Okay.