Ramona Ferreyra: The Latina entrepreneur promoting Hispanic heritage and culture through micro-fashion

For Ramona Ferreyra, showing pride in your heritage and community starts at an early age.

A Dominican-American born and raised in the New York City borough of Manhattan, Ferreyra said her family had a strong commitment to making sure she and her siblings connected with and upheld their Dominican culture. For example, as a child, Ferreyra would often participate in heritage festivals and parades, perform in front of crowds, and take dance classes at the request of her mother.

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Laura Perez > www.bylaurapr.com

Laura Perez, Founder, By Laura PR 

Being Hispanic…Does it have any influence on your business?
Yes, it does influence my business. It sets me apart from many fashion publicists. Due to the fact that I'm a Mexican American fashion publicist, I'm bilingual, I'm fluent in both English and Spanish, nothing will be lost in translation when communicating with mainstream media in the U.S., Hispanic media and the media in Mexico.

In the face of adversity, how do you decide to keep going?
Of course having a business is difficult, but I work hard everyday to provide a unique service to my clients. I've always visualized myself being a business owner and now that I am one, I continue being persistent and consistent to reach my goals as a business owner and as a publicist.

What is the biggest challenge you have faced?
I'm sure just like any other PR agency, I also struggle to find great clients to collaborate with.

If you could change one thing about your life, what would it be?
I wouldn't change anything because the challenges and the success I've had so far, have gotten me to where I am today.

What was your childhood ambition?
My childhood ambition was to encourage others to follow their dreams, I thought about being a teacher. This childhood ambition translated to wanting to be apart of the fashion PR industry and assist brands obtain exposure and achieve their goals.

Tell us about three people that you admire?
My adoring twin sister Lourdes, founder of My Coordinates My Compass, she always finds humor in the most difficult situations and encourages me to keep going. 
Crosby Noricks, founder of PR Couture. Crosby has been there since the beginning of my career, she has given me many opportunities to grow as a publicist. 
Jennifer Berson, founder and owner of Jeneration PR. Jen has been the most amazing mentor, she has been extremely supportive and encouraging, I have truly learned a lot about the industry because of her!

For meetings: breakfast, lunch, or dinner?
Lunch, because it not too early, not too late and you can really carry on a conversation.

What sacrifices on your personal life did you have to make in order to become a business success?
Having to go from having a full time job with a steady income, to taking the leap to the unknown. In the end, it was worth taking the leap, because if you never try, you will never know.

What is your favorite quote?
"She was unstoppable, not because she did not have failures or doubts, but because she continued on despite them." -Beau Taplin 

Is it difficult to be unconventional?
Somewhat, being that my agency is Hispanic, digital and focused on fashion. It seems as if potential clients question how I can possibly complete my work and obtain results due to not being located in a big city and all my work is completed online.

Biggest mistake made?
Not taking the leap to start my own agency sooner.

Do you consider yourself an innovator? Why?
Yes, I consider myself an innovator. I've always considered myself a leader, not a follower. I knew I wanted to have my own business and once I was drawn into the fashion PR industry, I knew I wanted to provide a service unlike any other. I wanted to use my Hispanic background to set me apart from my competition, and I wanted to provide my PR services to both national and international brands, being digital allows me to travel and work remotely at a moments notice.

About the Company:
By Laura PR is a Hispanic digital PR agency. We specialize in the growth of Fashion, Accessories and Jewelry brands. Being a digital agency means, "Instant PR at your fingertips."

Website: bylaurapr.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/bylaurapr

Twitter: twitter.com/bylaurapr

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bylaurapr

Instagram: instagram.com/bylaurapr

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/bylaurapr/

Luis Escobar > Editor in Chief of LatinVision Media

Luis Escobar, Managing Editor at LatinVision Media Inc. See here: www.latinvision.com/magazine

Being Hispanic…Does it have any influence on your business?

Yes, absolutely. It helps to assimilate the best of both cultures and be more receptive to other cultures as well.

In the face of adversity, how do you decide to keep going?

I just try to learn as much as I can from that experience, forget it and move on.

What is the biggest challenge you have faced?

It hasn't come yet.

If you could change one thing about your life, what would it be?

I should have paid more attention to my physics teacher in high school.

What was your childhood ambition?

I did not really have any. I was having too much fun that there was not time for being ambitious.

Tell us about three people that you admire.

Saint John Perse, Adam Smith,  Nelson Mandela.

For meetings: breakfast, lunch, or dinner?

Breakfast. Then I feel free.

What is your favorite quote?

"Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate"

Is it difficult to be unconventional?

Being conventional is difficult.

Biggest mistake made?

The next one.

Do you consider yourself an innovator? Why?

More than and innovator, I’m a curious guy.

About Luis Escobar

Luis Escobar got his masters in Philosophy in La Habana, Cuba and taught at several institutes of higher education. After relocating to the United States, Luis Escobar worked as a translator and business analyst for Moody’s Investors Services. Luis then started his journalism career working for a short time at el diario/La Prensa then moved quickly to The Associated Press as a journalist and copy editor. Gaining 10 years plus experience moved to The Wall Street Journal Interactivo and Dow Jones Newswires. While at WSJ and Dow Jones he continued to study behavioral finance, behavioral economics and international markets at New York University.  He also worked doing research and consulting for Fortune 500 companies.

Follow Luis on www.magazine.latinvision.com

Britta Aragon > www.cvskinlabs.com

Britta Aragon, Natural Beauty Expert, Author, Cancer Survivor and Creator and Founder of CV Skinlabs

What do you need to be an entrepreneur?
Passion. I think if you’re going to pursue your own business, this is the most important thing to have. Passion will give you the energy and stamina to get the business off the ground, and will also help you sustain through the ups and downs that are bound to come along. As for where that passion comes from, I think it needs to be from a strong sense of purpose. For me, my business was a way to honor my father’s legacy, and to give back to the cancer community—two things that mean a lot to me. 

What did inspire you to start your business?
Seeing people like my father struggle with skin conditions like rashes, dryness, dullness, acne, burning, itching—all these things can be not only irritating and painful, but they can completely wreck a person’s self-confidence.

I watched my father, who was a strong, self-assured, extremely capable person, become concerned about showing his face when he suffered from an awful rash caused by chemotherapy. It affects people a lot more than we realize, and I think it’s an outrage that many people are suffering these problems because of the questionable ingredients used in standard personal care products. I wanted to increase awareness about the toxins we’re exposed to every day, and offer people a better solution. 

How did you finance it?
We are self-funded right now, and have just launched our first crowdfunding campaign. (http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/toxins-harm-skin-we-need-you-to-fight-back-with-cv-skinlabs-safe-skin-care)  
Our goal is to raise $65,000 to create a sampling program in hospitals across the nation, where we can help those with sensitive skin and conditions like eczema, redness, and chronic dryness. Our products are free of irritating and toxic chemicals, and people with sensitive, fragile skin can use them to repair and recover with complete peace of mind. 

Being Hispanic…Does it have any influence on your business?
In positive ways, yes. First of all, the name of my business, Cinco Vidas, of course means “five lives” in Spanish. That is a tribute to the five times my father renewed his commitment to life while going through cancer. He was initially diagnosed with colon cancer, but then he went through five recurrences of the disease in different parts of his body. His enduring courage in facing each of those occurrences was so inspiring to me. I also feel that because of my Hispanic heritage, I have a connection with others who share that heritage, and I understand the benefits and the challenges of that.

In the face of adversity, how do you decide to keep going?
It comes back to purpose. After I went through cancer and later lost my father to the disease, I knew that my purpose was to make a difference for other people going through similar challenges—whether from cancer or from battling a variety of skin conditions. I wanted to teach people how to reduce their toxic load by making better choices about their personal care products, home care products, and environment—how to live healthier lives all around. So really, this is about my purpose in life.

It’s just not something that I can stop doing or quit doing. It’s about my life path, and my reason for being here, so even though I may go through difficulties, which of course I do, there’s just no quitting for me.

What is the biggest challenge your business has faced?
We are a small business, so we face the same challenge that all small businesses face, and that is to find the funding and the distribution needed to really expand and reach our target market. We have accomplished a lot already, but I want to go further. I want to get our non-toxic products out globally, and I want to continue to educate people about the toxins in their products and their environment. So until our reach grows broad enough to sustain us, we face the challenge of funding our endeavors.

If you could change one thing about your business, what would it be?
I would make it bigger and more well-known at a global level. We have amazing products that work and are helping so many but we need to get the word out to the masses.  I would like every person with sensitive skin, a difficult skin condition, reactive skin—or who just wants non-toxic skincare—to know about CV Skinlabs.  

What was your childhood ambition?
I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma at 16. After I went into remission, I wanted to be an oncologist, because I wanted to save everyone from this horrible disease. As I grew older, my passion changed. Instead of curing the skin, I became obsessed with making it look fantastic. Both my grandma and mother took very good care of themselves, and both had beautiful, even skin. My mom still does. So that was a big influence on me. Growing up, my grandmother insisted I wear sunscreen every day and that I take proper care of my skin. She even bought me my sunblock product and eye cream at the age of 15.

I guess all of these experiences lead me to the beauty industry. I became a makeup artist and skincare therapist to help people look their best—which usually made them feel their best, too. It’s poetic, really, that through beauty, I am helping people feel good during their cancer journey, or through other difficulties in life that affect their skin.

Tell us about three entrepreneurs that you admire?
Richard Branson is an entrepreneur that  I admire. He has a huge empire, is committed to making a difference, and has done so at a global level.

I’m a huge admirer of Louise Hay. Not only is she a cancer survivor, but she overcame incredible life challenges to make a success of herself, eventually becoming founder of Hay House publishing, which produces so many helpful books for people. Whatever one might think of her beliefs, she has been a strong and powerful woman in our culture, reaching out to help people living with cancer and AIDS, and helping us realize that our health depends just as much on the condition of our minds and spirits as on our physical bodies.

Lastly, Shanda Sumpter is an amazing coach and entrepreneur who teaches women how to find their passion and make money. What is most inspiring is that she is successful, makes a difference in people’s lives, and still lives a life filled with joy and passion, herself. It seems this is a hard balance to keep for most entrepreneurs and she has got what most of us want.

For business meetings: breakfast, lunch, or dinner?
Lunch definitely! Breakfast is my time to nourish myself and set my attitude for the day, so I cherish that morning time as private time—and I always have the same thing for breakfast: a green smoothie! It’s really my sacred time. Dinner is usually spent with friends, and I use that time to de-stress and to reconnect to who I am, outside of work. So lunch is my time to really focus on my business and my business connections, a time when I’m all in and pumped up about what we’re accomplishing—but that’s only because I had my private morning breakfast and my fun, stress-relieving dinner! (ha)

What sacrifices on your personal life did you have to make in order to become a business success?
I think the biggest sacrifice is time, and a side effect of that can be my health, if I’m not careful. Running a business is all-consuming, and you can really start to neglect your body and your spirit. I preach safe self-care to my blog readers and my customers, so I have to walk the walk, you know? I regularly remind myself that my life is multi-faceted, and includes my work, but also my health and my spiritual well being.

I have had to learn to fully trust that all will work out—even if I don’t quite see how at the time—and to delegate tasks that I don’t absolutely have to do myself. Time is my biggest commodity, and while at first I had to put in most of that time myself, I know that it’s critical to delegate to be able to grow the business the way I want to.

What is your favorite quote?
Feel the fear and do it anyway! This was the title of one of my dad’s favorite books by Susan Jeffers. He passed it on to me, and I have shared it with so many of my friends. I have yet to ever regret doing something that I was a little afraid of doing. Like they say, you usually regret the things you don’t do more than those you do, so I try to make a point to continually challenge myself, as that’s the way we grow. 

Is it difficult to be unconventional?
It can be, at times, but anything worth doing is usually difficult. Going against the grain can put you out there, and you have to be willing to withstand some criticism at times, but if that’s what it takes to accomplish your goals, then it’s much better to do that than to sit back and stay safe and then regret it later on.

Biggest mistake made?
My biggest mistakes invariably occur when I ignore my own instincts. If I listen too much to the “experts,” I can sometimes ignore the “inner expert” that guides me. I find that though it’s important to listen to others, in the end, you must go with your gut.

Do you consider yourself an innovator? Why?
I do, and not because I’m smarter or more talented than anyone else, but because the work I’ve chosen to do is something that needs to be done, and no one else is really focusing on in quite the same way that I am. I have a unique background to draw on, since I experienced cancer as both a fighter and a caregiver. I also saw first-hand the effect that today’s conventional ingredients can have on fragile skin, when I bought a supposedly “sensitive” high-end cream that actually burned my father’s irritated skin even more.

I felt so awful about that I was compelled to do the research, discover the problem, and set out to fix it, with the goal of making sensitive skin care much more nourishing and soothing than it has been up until now. Other companies are talking about natural and organic products, but no one’s really focusing on fragile, damaged, medically treated skin and how many standard ingredients can actually make it worse.

About the Company
I started CInco Vidas with The Cinco Vidas blog, a robust information source for people struggling with sensitive and damaged skin, and for those going through the difficult side effects of cancer treatments. Next, I wrote my book, When Cancer Hits, which is a guide for the newly diagnosed, and includes information on how to manage side effects, how to avoid harmful toxins, how to use skin care and makeup to look your best, and how to increase your odds of avoiding recurrence. Actres and President of Cancer Schmancer Fran Drescher said of the book, “There are lots of experts in the field, but advice from one who went through it herself is invaluable. I wish this book had existed during my own battle.”

Last year, I created my new skin care line, CV Skinlabs. This is a natural and organic collection of luxuriously soothing and clinically proven formulas that nurture and repair skin. Each product delivers outstanding beauty benefits and proven results, with an unprecedented, new standard of safety, every step of the way. The range of carefully formulated products can be used with peace of mind by all—particularly by those with sensitive or compromised skin, chemical sensitivities, or conditions such as eczema and chronic dryness, to name a few.

• We help restore skin to its healthy, radiant best, with renewed softness, suppleness and a youthful glow.

• We insist on the utmost in safety, by toxicologically examining and screening all ingredients for any link to irritation, cancer or hormone disruption, and by conducting results-driven, rigorous clinical testing.

• We adhere to strict formula safety guidelines and standards, making sure not to use any ingredients from an extensive list of potentially harmful thickeners, preservatives and aesthetic enhancers, often found in conventional skin care products.

Our goal is to always deliver beauty and safety, without compromise.

CV Skinlabs was created by safe cosmetic expert and author, Britta Aragon, who after failing to find safe, nourishing skin care products to soothe her own and her father’s troubled skin during cancer treatments, developed a skincare line for anyone seeking safe solutions to repair and restore radiance and luminosity to sensitive skin.

Websites: www.cincovidas.com and www.cvskinlabs.com
Twitter: @Britta_Aragon and @CVskinlabs

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CVskinlabs

Linked in: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/britta-aragon/12/b56/411