Interviews

I first met Teodorica “Cheody” Fortunato when I volunteered for a local high school drama production.  I visited her nearby office to sell ad space in the printed program.  I was welcomed to her office and she immediately supported the high school.  More than a year later, I visited her office a second time.  Again, she was welcoming and supportive.  As I found out about her background, it was easy to see her success as an entrepreneur.

Cheody and her seven siblings were born and raised in the Philippines.  Her family was balanced by a strict, disciplinarian father in the military and a nurturing mother who was a homemaker.  All eight children have college degrees; Cheody’s degree is in business.  According to Cheody, education was emphasized in her family, “That belongs to you, nobody can take that away from you.”  From her parents, she learned the value of working hard and never taking anything for granted.

After she and her family moved to the United States, she owned a restaurant and also became a real estate agent.  She still has her real estate license but works on referrals only.

In 2014, Cheody was a recruiting manager at Farmers Insurance.  As she highlighted the benefits of operating a Farmers Insurance office to candidates, she was convinced it was right for her too: “This is a really good platform.”  She would be able to grow with the company, make a difference and really help others.  She studied for and passed all required tests and received the four prerequisite licenses.  Then, she took over a small book of business, about 150 “orphan” accounts that needed a qualified agent for servicing.  After one year as a recruiter, she opened her office in December 2015.

It seems like operating a Farmers office is the best of both worlds because you’re a business owner but you’re also affiliated with Farmers.

The thing about Farmers, what I like the most, is that we’re not captive, we’re exclusive…big difference.  We give Farmers the first opportunity to write a particular risk.  They analyze it; if they say it’s risky and it’s not good for our business, then, I’m appointed to many different carriers, so I will send it to a different carrier outside of Farmers.  It gives me a chance to go outside and still fill the need of the prospect and I don’t have to send anybody away.  And that’s a wonderful thing. 

Just like everything else, you have to take care of your own.  If I need some help, it’s up to me to reach out to them, but that’s how I learn and how I train myself.  And there are seminars like University of Farmers which I went to for a week.  It’s all terms and information, but the biggest thing is the actual hands-on experience.  Because there’s nobody there to help me, I’m forced to survive and learn.  And insurance is very interesting; every step of the way you can learn.  There are so many different types of insurance and I have the opportunity to write commercial, general liability, employee practices liability, I can write life, I can write health, medical, dental.

Are your clients mostly individuals or do you also work with employers?

We can work with employers; in fact, we welcome the opportunity to work with employers if they have group insurance.

So you’ve been in this office for two years.  What has it been like working in Lakewood?

I’m right in the corner of Lakewood, near Cerritos.  So far, so good.  I know my neighbors here.  The first thing I did was to get to know the people around me.  I keep the place clean because I can’t stand a lot of litter around.  One person’s action contributes to the whole group.  If I don’t take the initiative of picking up trash, you’ll see this place full of papers and stuff like that. 

What differentiates your office from other Farmers offices?

This office is a “Smart Office” meaning it’s fully equipped to run the business and there are two full-time licensed agents, myself and my business partner, Jack Castorena.  Jack is a business owner himself, an independent contractor for FedEx and manages trucks in the Ground Division.  He started with one truck and now he’s got 20 trucks.  He’s a family man, he’s got three kids, best person ever, just a class act.

Both of you are business owners outside of Farmers.  That must keep you busy.

More than enough.  I love to multi-task, thinking I’m Super Woman.  But, being a business owner is a double-ended sword because you have to do everything and sometimes it’s very challenging.  Because if you’re dealing with clients, they all have different personalities, they all have different attitudes.

When you became a business owner did you face negativity or did you get positive feedback?

In fact, I was pushed, “Hey, you can do this.  If anybody can do this, you’ll be the best person to do this.”  They look at me as being so sociable and personable, but I’m a very shy person.  But sometimes I just become so passionate.  It could be a negative because I get emotionally involved and invested in it.  Sometimes you just can’t do that.  Especially when you’re dealing with clients who complain that their premium is too high or, “I’ve been paying this and I don’t get anything back.”  But, what if?  The question is, “What IF something happened to you?”  Would you have $20,000 laying around to help your family?  If you have money to take care of yourself and your family, then you don’t have to buy insurance.  And, if you are sued by somebody, if you have enough money to defend yourself and pay all the legal fees, then don’t get insurance.  Self-insure yourself.

Insurance is a very interesting career and business all in one.  But you have to share your knowledge.  My bottom line is sharing because I was on the other end; I used to think insurance is all the same.  It’s not all the same and it depends on who is the agent and who has your back.  You want to think that this person is somebody who would really care about you if something happened to you and you’re protected.  So you need to go line by line and explain it to them.  I don’t want to have that feeling…you know, if they call me and I say, “I’m sorry you don’t have that coverage.”  It’s going to break my heart.

We have the Farmers Friendly Review Service where we look at your different policies and, on top of that, we also want to consider what you have planned for your future.  A lot of people don’t have life insurance.  You know, we insure cars, we insure homes, we insure even cell phones, but we fail to insure the most important part which is life…YOU.  You know, some people look at it very negatively.  Even my culture, back home, we’re not allowed to talk about life insurance because they see it as planning for their death.  So when I became an agent, it just opened up a whole different world for me.  The moment you have life insurance, it doesn’t matter if it’s term or what, you create an instant estate and it protects you at the same time.  If you get permanent, it has an investment to it.  And there’s so many different types so we can find you something; it depends on your budget, it depends on your situation.  Your situation will be different 20 years from now, let’s say you already paid your home, so you don’t need as much insurance anymore.  Or the kids are grown and they’re done with college.  We can help you with that and design a plan commensurate to your current situation.

I try to explain to them that there’s a lot of options where you don’t have to sacrifice the coverage.  I want you to be insured the way I am insured because I care about you.  Obviously, the price is an issue.  I’m not trying to sell you the policy, I’m trying to sell you coverage.

When you’re a realtor, we start with affinity, you get a discount.  You’re a senior, you get another discount.  You bundle, you get another discount.  You have more than one car, you get another discount.  You have a home, another discount.  We stack all this up; we raise your coverage so, at the end, it’s to your advantage.  You just communicate to me who you are and it’s up to me to ask you all those questions so that we can arrive to something favorable to you. 

A lot of the agents are retail, and that’s the other thing that’s interesting about this agency, we’re personalized.  So if you become my client, you call this office, you get either one of us here.  You don’t have to go through a series of recordings and voicemail.  And the other thing too is you can call me anytime.  I’ve got insureds who call me on the weekends or at 5 in the morning.  I help them if they’re in an accident, I’m helping them get their insurance policy.  What I’m saying is it’s all personalized, we do care and we want to help you.  You become our family.  We want to see where you’re at and help you.

It’s rewarding when you helped somebody and then they refer others to you.  I helped someone get their home 20-some years ago and yesterday she called me and said, “I have this friend whose got a son, he’s thinking of buying a home.  When they asked me, I said I have a real good friend and she’s the best, she’ll take care of you.  She’s not only about the commission.  She will make sure that you’re happy.  And she doesn’t compromise.”  And so I’m getting a referral for that.  And they’re my insured too.  They insured their boat, their home, their cars and everything.  And we became friends and stay connected.  So, that warms my heart and that, really, to me, is my best reward for doing what I do.  It’s the biggest compliment ever.  And all these material things…you’re not going to take any of this when you leave this place to the next.  What you take with you are the warmth of the friends, the family, the love, what you’ve created around you, and what difference did you contribute to the community and to the people around you.

Cheody saw an opportunity to help people and went for it.  She builds her business by strengthening relationships; she shares her knowledge to help her clients find the best coverage.  Cheody is not just an awesome agent and entrepreneur; she’s a wonderful person.

When I decided to include interviews on my blog, the first person I thought of was Cynthia Angelina.  She left her corporate job to become a successful makeup artist and hairstylist.  Her most recent assignment was the Emmy Awards Red Carpet on Sunday (we’ll get to her comments on the event later).  She traded in a structured occupation and steady income for entrepreneurship and creativity.  She is truly an inspiration.

Cynthia was born and raised in Los Angeles.  Her love of makeup began when she was a child.  She would open up her mom’s brand new eye shadow palette and she just had to touch each and every color.  Her creativity was nurtured by her mom through makeup, hairstyling, and arts and crafts.

Fast forward to adulthood: After a few years at her corporate job, her employer started downsizing.  As she wondered about her own job security, she knew she wanted something more.  She debated whether to take classes to get certification in makeup and hairstyling.  It was her boyfriend (now husband), Aldo, who encouraged her, “How many people get to say that they do what they love?  You just need to go ahead and do it.”  Cynthia’s decision was made.  “Not that I needed someone’s approval,” she says, “but it was like that extra validation which was so amazing.  He’s awesome!”

Cynthia worked at her job by day while her nights and weekends were busy with makeup and hair classes.  When training was complete, nights and weekends were then filled with freelancing to build her portfolio.  This hectic schedule went on for about three years.  “It was insane,” she confirms.  “People said, ‘I don’t know how you do it,’ and I thought, ‘Me neither.’  I just don’t think about it.  You have to keep your head in the game and don’t even stop to think about it.”

She started to see more opportunities from her freelance work.  “The longer I stayed, the more jobs I had to turn down doing makeup…really good jobs, good paying jobs,” she explains.  She gave herself a target date to leave, but stayed longer to help them find a replacement.  She booked a lot of makeup jobs ahead of time and she notified her contacts that she would soon be available full-time.  “I also saved up before I left and gave myself a good cushion for a few months just to be okay,” she adds.

Then, in 2014, after eight years at the job, she left to become a full-time makeup artist and hairstylist.  She remembers her initial feelings about branching out on her own: “It’s scary.  You know, I’ve got everything in order, but who knows what’s going to happen next month?  That uncertainty can be scary.  But I did it and I haven’t looked back.”

Even with your preparation, did you ever question your decision, like “Did I do the right thing?”

Oh, yeah, I did.  With my work, I could be busy for two months straight, no days off, and then, all of a sudden, I’ll be off for two weeks.  And so, for me, if I’m not doing something, I feel like I’m wasting time.  Definitely for the first year, I wondered, “What did I do?”  It was never, “I should go back.”  That was never an option.  I decided that when I left, I was gone.  In my mind, I destroyed that safety net on purpose.  Not burning my bridges, but there was never an option to turn back.  I worked this hard and made a lot of sacrifices…and Aldo’s made a lot of sacrifices, my family too.  There were times when they never saw me.  I thought I’ll just get a job as a bartender, or walk dogs, whatever it took, but I would keep going.  And eventually I started trusting myself more.

Did your family support your decision? 

My parents are both entrepreneurs so it was easy for them to support me.  We also know how hard it is to go through that.  But they said, “We know you’re a hard worker.  Whatever it is you want to do, you’re going to succeed.”  My whole family has been really supportive.

Did you face negativity?  Did anyone make any comments?

Oh, yeah, comments for sure.  It wasn’t from my family, but people I know.  At first when they found out I was going back to school, they asked, “So is this a new hobby of yours?”  It wasn’t until they started seeing me doing work on the Red Carpet or on TV shows that they got it, “Ohhh…so you weren’t kidding about this not being a hobby.”  People don’t know.  You get a good job which, by most people’s standards, is what I had, and then that’s it, you stick with it.  You stay there until you retire and that’s it.  I’m not very conventional, apparently.

Knowing now what you didn’t know then, is there anything you would’ve done differently as far as leaving the corporate job and starting your own business?

I would’ve still been there through the early years because I was able to buy my house; I wouldn’t have been able to do that if I didn’t have the steady income.  I knew nothing about saving—for a home or for life—so I did learn a lot.  But I would’ve done it sooner and I would’ve just believed in myself a little bit more.  You have to be a trailblazer for yourself. 

The fashion and entertainment industries are often depicted as cut-throat.  Did you experience this when you started working professionally as a makeup artist/hair stylist?

I did and I didn’t.  I’ve been really lucky and have been surrounded by really good people.  I have seen it and it really is cut-throat as far as there’s no room for errors.  There’s always someone better, faster, etc., so you just have to be on it consistently.  But I feel like that has shifted.  I work with a lot of really amazing artists that have been doing this for a lot longer, some of them longer than I’ve been alive.  I’ve had them as mentors and they’ve told me that the industry isn’t the way it was back then.  People were a lot nastier and it’s shifted to where you don’t have to be so aggressive or mean to move up.  It’s almost like if you’re that way, you’re considered difficult now.  And unless you’re some big-time makeup artist, people aren’t going to put up with that. 

I’ve been really lucky; I feel you surround yourself with what you want to be perceived as so I’ve been very fortunate to work with really great artists and not just makeup artists and hair stylists, but also the production companies, the talent, and everything.  The feeling is always like we’re here together, we’re here to support each other and boost us up versus bringing people down.  That’s always been my mindset because when I started, people weren’t always the nicest or they were treating you like crap because you’re a newbie.  I thought when I go through this journey, I’m not going to be that way.  I firmly believe that you can be a good person and still succeed.  So that’s what I’ve surrounded myself with.

What are some of the pros and cons of working with other creative people?

Some of the pros, obviously, are you get to see such amazing things come out of people and the art is just insane…from creative directors, photographers, etc.  The downside is sometimes this job is like being a mind reader.  You sometimes have certain artists who can’t communicate what they want and you have to figure out what they’re saying. 

From working in corporate America, I was used to having everything planned, so I’ve had to learn to let go a little.  At 10:00 tonight, I could get an e-mail saying, “Hey, Cynthia, we need you for this 12-hour shoot tomorrow.”  And I have to be ready to go.  That’s part of working with creative people.  You never know your schedule until the day before.  Being able to just go with the flow and let it go sometimes, that’s kind of the hard part.

My previous job was to organize people’s lives and then now I don’t know what I’m doing tomorrow.  For me to make plans with someone is so hard.  It’s not that I’m trying to be a flake or that I don’t care about them, but things happen.  If I got called for Vogue today, I’d have to turn down plans with friends.  That part kinda sucks but it’s part of the life I’ve chosen.  You have to take the good with the bad.

What are some important qualities of a successful makeup artist?

Being diligent, following through with work, not being flakey.  And, if you’re 10 minutes early, you’re already late.  Being on time, being organized, and remember you’re your own brand.  In this life of social media, you’re always in the public eye.  Just remember that those potential clients are always watching and you never know what they’ll find browsing through the internet looking for your name.  So just make sure that you’re aware of that and represent yourself the way that you want brands, companies or potential employers to see you.

I read that you’re involved with an organization, Beauty Bus Foundation.

Beauty Bus is a foundation that works with men, women and children who are either fighting cancer or are terminally ill.  What we do as volunteers is we go to their homes and provide services like makeup and hair, manicures, pedicures, massages, facials, things that you and I might take for granted, but it’s something to make them feel better.

If I’m doing makeup for someone or a haircut, there’s also a buddy that comes with me who talks with the client.  We call them clients, not patients.  They deserve to be treated and spoiled so that’s what we do.  We also do pop-up salons and we do a lot of work with City of Hope, Children’s Hospital, and Ronald McDonald Home.  Some of those kids can’t leave the hospital so we go to them.  And we also take care of the caregivers, the moms, the dads, the wife, the husband.  They do so much and their focus is the person who is going through this, but they’re also going through it so we come and offer our services.

Sometimes I feel the beauty industry can be considered shallow, and I understand it, but there’s something to be said for having a hard day and saying, “I’m just going to throw this red lipstick on and that’s going to make me feel better inside and, in turn, I’ll be able to transmit that to everybody else.”

That’s one of the things I do; I get to do makeup and hair, but I also give back to the community and brighten up someone’s day a little.

I heard about them through the school I was at.  It’s such a beautiful thing that they do, I just continued on.  I’ve been with them for a long time, I guess almost as long as I’ve been doing makeup and hair.  I love it.

What advice would you give someone who is trying to find their own path?

I feel like everyone has their own way of doing it and it’s never wrong.  Like I said, I wish I would’ve done it sooner, but that was what was right for me at the time and no one could push me or pull me back because ultimately, it’s my choice.  I think that you really have to stop and think of what you want to do with your life and know that it’s never too late.  When I decided to do makeup, I was already 27 or 28; I was still older than when some people start their careers.  But it’s never too late and trust yourself.  If it’s something you really want to do, you’re going to do it and you’re going to work through the blood, sweat, and tears.  That would be my advice.  I’m still growing so I’ll let you know in a few years.

What are your other passions?

Aside from doing volunteer work, I like to do a lot of arts and crafts.  For my wedding, I basically made everything like the centerpieces, our invitations, all that stuff, and it was so much fun.  It was a lot of work, but I had help.  My sisters are amazing so they came in and did the set up and everyone had one job.  I also love to bake, but I haven’t done it in a while.

What projects have you worked on recently?

I did a shoot for the Glamour España July issue; it was so much fun. I also worked on an ad for Murad which is on Sephora’s website.

And…what was it like to work the Emmy Awards on Sunday?

I‘ve done the event directly with the Television Academy for about three to four years now.  I worked on private clients for the event before that.  It’s an amazing event; behind the scenes is so fast-paced and beautiful.

I get a chance to work on the actual Red Carpet, along with my fellow Beauty Bus volunteers.  The Television Academy is a sponsor of Beauty Bus and we artists volunteer our time in order to contribute to the efforts to help spread the Beauty Bus word.

We did touch-ups for Mandy Patinkin, Carrie Con, Rosie Abernethy and so many more.  I also worked on one of the amazing executives for the Television Academy, Barrie Nedler, who brings Beauty Bus on every year, before and after the event.  And I got to glam up DJ Smiles Davis (http://instagram.com/djsmilesdavis) for Fox’s Emmys After-Party.  It was a lot of fun!

Didn’t I tell you?  Cynthia is an inspiration.  She knew what she wanted and she went after it like a boss…to become her own boss!  Thank you, Cynthia, for sharing your story!

Cynthia Angelina Website:  www.CynthiaAngelina.com

Cynthia’s Social Media:  Instagram & Facebook: CynthiaAngelinaMUA Beauty Bus Foundation Website:  www.beautybus.org

[Interview originally published at myclarityjournal.com.]