Life and Work with Claudia Cordova Rucker

Today we’d like to introduce you to Claudia Cordova Rucker.

Claudia, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Who am I?  I wasn’t able to answer that question for many years; not before I was 40, for sure.  As I became involved in my own evolution, though, the answer became pretty clear. I am a Latina who is all about purpose, business and polish.  My purpose is to to create peaceful and harmonious business cultures that allow teams to unite in a shared mission.

My personal evolution as an entrepreneur and that of the company I founded started 14 years ago. Our family opened Aqua – a radically different type of nail care salon – in 2005. The business was created for my sister so that she could provide for her daughter.  At the time she was a an unwed mother who had not finished high school and both her financial resources and choices were limited. My mom challenged the family to help her. At the time her passions were polish and helping people feel beautiful. Aqua was founded out of a need to fulfill a passion and a purpose.

In 2006, we opened a second location that was more convenient for Santa Barbara residents. Just three years later, the recession forced us to close our first salon. I was operating our business as many small-business owners do: day-to-day survival and lots of prayers. Although we were growing quickly, I was frustrated on a daily basis because I felt Aqua was missing a strong company culture.  My instincts were right, but I didn’t have the knowledge to identify exactly what we needed.

Aqua stayed open through the recession only to suffer a major leak in our main pedicure area – a costly repair I couldn’t afford. I approached my local bank to apply for a loan to help pay for the repair, but my application was denied. Even though Aqua was part of an elite group of the only 2 percent of women-owned businesses in the U.S. whose companies generate over $1million in annual revenue, we weren’t making a substantial profit for the bank to lend us the capital we needed.

Enter The Women’s Economic Venture (WEV). My banker referred me to WEV, which provides loans to low to moderate-income men and women, minorities, and others who do not have the collateral or business experience banks often require. WEV changed the trajectory of our business forever, just as I was close to giving up.

Thanks to the work I did with the amazing business consultants at WEV, I was able to secure the capital I needed to get Aqua back up and running. More importantly, I gained crucial foundational business skills  – like financial literacy – and began the transformation of my business from day-to-day survival to long-term, fruitful success.

One of the biggest shifts I made as I gained more business acumen was the importance of coaching.  After WEV taught me foundational skills, I started coaching with Strategies, a salon coaching company, that teaches open book management, a profit-sharing business model that requires complete financial transparency across the company. While the transition was not an easy one, this new model empowered our team to act like owners, stay motivated, and work together to create an incredible company culture built on trust through collaborative communication, leadership and growth.

Now that Aqua is stable and has a strong vision, mission and company culture, I’m focused on paying it forward: while we will continue to enhance our busy clients’ lives by offering timely luxury skin and nail care experiences in a health-conscious environment, our higher vision is to elevate the way skin and nail professionals are seen, treated, and paid in an industry notorious for abuse. Aqua is proud to be radically different by offering extensive wholistic training, living wages, paid sick days, health insurance benefits, and continual career growth opportunities and we hope to inspire other beauty establishments to do the same.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Aqua has overcome so many challenges to get to where we are today. In addition to surviving the recession and the many challenges that come to me as a minority woman and first-time business owner, I’ve also faced personal obstacles like my father’s traumatic brain injury in 2016. While caring for him, I realized that life is too short to live without purpose — a major event that transformed how I lead my business and inspire my employees.

In addition, Aqua has survived two, back-to-back natural disasters — in December of 2017, a massive wildfire blazed across Santa Barbara and its surrounding areas, completely destroying homes and businesses in its path. One month later, a deadly mudslide devastated the very same area. This double disaster could have easily marked the end of Aqua, but instead I used the sense of urgency that was part of the experience to lead our team on a mission to save our company. This was when we collaboratively refined our systems and whole-heartedly implemented open book management. The result was a reinvigorated team that created the company culture I always wanted: one rooted in collaboration, leadership, and growth.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Aqua skin and nail care – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
At Aqua, we provide sublime beauty experiences in a clean and relaxing environment. Our team understands that time is our clients’ most precious commodity and we are committed to delivering timely, results-oriented beauty experiences that leave our clients feeling restored and beautiful. We are also the first spa in Santa Barbara to establish toxic-free product standards in order to protect the health and wellness of our team and clients.

However, what truly sets us apart from other beauty establishments is our amazing spa professional in training program (ITP). ITP allows spa professionals new to the industry an opportunity to learn and master their skills in a positive, team-based culture environment. We spend six months with new spa professionals teaching them a working knowledge of their craft, collaborative communication, and open book business acumen. The second half of their training program is on-the-ground training to master their craft — all while offering a living wage, enabling them to focus on learning rather than making ends meet.

ITP trainees are supported by two coaches: a career coach (to help them master collaborative communication skills, financial literacy skills, and identify their career path) and a technical coach (to help them master their craft). Not only does this create an incredible team that is united through passion and purpose, but it also helps new beauty professionals launch a professional career, not just a job or a hobby.  Our team’s vision for our ITP program is to elevate standards for the beauty industry as a whole by creating a business that showcases better ways to work together, where each employee’s talents are nurtured, and our deepest aspirations are honored all while our company remains profitable.

What are the important advice you can give to someone just starting out?
I have three pieces of advice that I share when I mentor: be curious about your passions, practice self-empathy, and embrace what makes you different in order to be involved in your own evolution.  

I strongly believe that curiosity helps us identify how our passions and purpose are connected. Too often, people are paralyzed when choosing a vocation or life goal because so much seems at stake. I encourage my mentees to always be curious so they can continually discover new passions and purpose. The excitement of being human is that we’re always evolving and changing!

I also advise young women to practice self-empathy. You need to love yourself in order to feel connected to a community and be a part of greater things. At Aqua, we have an Aqua Harmony Pledge. If a team member is feeling emotions like sadness, anger, or disconnect, we encourage her or him to take ten minutes and reflect on what might be causing those feeling and what is needed from others to be in a more positive headspace. Remember to always be kind and take care of yourself — it enables you to do great things in your career and in life.

Lastly, honor what makes you different. Growing up in Texas I would walk home from school with my friends. We bonded over being Mexican and we often spoke Spanish. We did this because at home we lived differently. We lived in a typical Mexican environment. Our food was Mexican, we spoke Spanish, and we were expected to live with our parent’s Mexican values.  At school we were expected to speak English and adhere to different rules. Many kids were threatened by us because we spoke another language.

I remember being teased and spit on. I also remember feeling ashamed and trying very hard not be be Latina. That disconnection from my heritage really stunted my personal growth and made me live an inauthentic life. However, what I realized through much personal growth is that being Latina is what makes me who I am and helped me develop the creativity to see different types of solutions to challenges. I am extremely grateful for my mom who always taught me to embrace being Latina and who told me that one day it would help me be a better person and make an impact.   

I also had the privilege of seeing the world through the lens of more than two cultures because of my experiences after high school. As a Latina who studied in Switzerland and worked in Europe for a decade I had the privilege of seeing a variety of cultures and understanding the value of being different. Today, we live in a more inclusive world than the one I grew up in and I can apply my international experiences more readily.

I have a deep appreciation for my mom and the many multi-cultural mentors that I had along the path that led me where I am today. They showed me that by being different and thinking differently, we can change what we don’t like in our world.

Are there any apps, books, podcasts or other resources that you’ve benefited from using?
I love to read, however, my favorite books at the moment are Non-Violent Communication by Marshal Rosenberg, 7 habits by Covey, Measure what matters by John Doerr and Los Cuatro Acuerdos by Don Miguel Ruiz. I love Fareed Zacharia’s Global public square, lashcast and NPR’s This American life Postcast. I belong to a mastermind group of women entrepreneurs that are the wind behind my sail. They keep me motivated to live my best life at work. At home and in my personal life, I love living with my husband and parents. We are very supportive of each other. Our house is the Cordova hub so there is always someone coming and going. It makes staying connected really easy. I love it.

Contact Info:

• Address: 3455 State Street
• Website: www.aquaskinandnailcare.com
• Phone: (805)687-8483
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: aquaskinnail
• Facebook: @aquanail

Image Credit:
Jen Santos Anthology Studios

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