Paradise Perspectives
Welcome to "Paradise Perspectives," where island vibes meet personal transformation! 🌴
I’m Riselle, the Traveling Island Girl, and I’m thrilled to have you here. This podcast is all about helping you live your best life—whether that means traveling the Caribbean. starting a new business, shifting your mindset, embracing change, or simply finding the courage to chase your dreams.
Drawing from the beauty and inspiration of my Caribbean home, St. Maarten, I bring you real stories, practical tips, and a whole lot of motivation to help you step into your power. Every episode is designed to empower you to create the life you truly want, with a little bit of island sunshine and a lot of heart.
We’ll dive into topics like career pivots, entrepreneurship, personal growth, and travel—all from the perspective of an island girl who believes that every day is a chance to start something amazing.
Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a stay-at-home mom, or someone who’s just feeling stuck, this podcast is for you.
Join me on this incredible journey as we explore how to make bold moves, live authentically, and enjoy the ride. Let’s turn those dreams into reality, one sunny day at a time.
Ready to live your best life? Subscribe now and let’s get started! 🌟
Paradise Perspectives
The Resilience and Reinvention of Tricia Demas-Rogers
What happens when life throws curveballs that challenge your very essence?
Meet Tricia Demas-Rogers, who transitioned from a spa therapist to spa owner to now well-known St. Maarten caterer, delighting her clients with the taste of the Caribbean.
This episode continues on YouTube so don't forget to watch the video after you've listened to Tricia's story. Click here to go to the channel and please subscribe, if you haven't already.
Book Tricia's Cousoumeh Experience here.
Lastly, make sure you sign up for the Fearless New Year Virtual Party happening on December 18th. Register here, Space is limited.
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Get over your fears and start creating the life you want with Riselle's Fearless Transformation 1:1 Coaching Program.
Visit the website for travel and life stories that will inspire, empower, and motivate you to step into your greatness.
Follow Riselle on Instagram and watch her YouTube channel for more travel and transformation tips.
Get in touch with Riselle at hello@thetravelingislandgirl.com. Send in your questions and topics, and be featured on the show.
For those looking to visit Saint Martin, get your copy of the Ultimate Local's Guide to Saint Martin here.
Welcome to Paradise Perspectives. I'm Rizal, the Traveling Island Girl, and I'm here to help you start living your best life, no matter where you're at, whether you're dreaming of traveling to exotic destinations, starting, we'll explore how to shift your mindset, find your purpose and take bold steps towards the life you deserve. So grab your favorite drink and let's dive into some real talk about living your best life, one sunny day at a time. Well, hello sunshine. And thank you so much for tuning in to another inspirational episode of Paradise Perspectives. This is a long one, so I'm going to keep this intro very short. All right Now.
Speaker 1:Today's episode is a bit different than what you're used to, because it was recorded on location. It is something that I think I'm going to start doing a little bit more of. I visited my good friend Tricia DeMaz recently to shoot a video for my YouTube channel, and I decided, kind of like on a whim, to record our conversation for the podcast as well, because Trisha's story is just so inspiring. But because this was recorded on location, you can now expect to hear all of the usual Caribbean background noises, like barking dogs and cars driving by. It just doesn't get more island-y than this, believe me. Another way, this is a special episode is that it also ties into the video on my YouTube channel. So when you are done listening to this episode, head on over to my YouTube channel and see the rest of it. Believe me, it is worth watching. Okay, now we're going to get into some Christmas cooking, so you can expect to see us cook together and also get the recipe for what we're making. It's a traditional Caribbean Christmas dish I know I have to remember how which word comes before which. So it's and it's a traditional Caribbean Christmas dish, and you will see us cook together and have a little bit more conversation as we go. So it's definitely a video that you need to see. So head on over after December 8th, because this video if you're listening right now, as I'm recording this, it is Thursday, december 4th, or actually December 5th, so the video is not up yet. But if you go after December 8th, then you'll be able to see the video which ties into this interview that I had with Tricia.
Speaker 1:Now let's get into my conversation with Tricia Dimas. Here she is. Take a listen, tricia, I'm so happy that you opened your house to me again. I mean, this is the second time that we're having coffee at your kitchen table and I'm so happy to be here. Thank you so much, thank you so much. Thank you so much for agreeing to do this as well, because I want people to know about your story. I think your story is so inspiring and it's so. You know, you've gone through your set of shit Literally, literally, you know, and it is so beautiful to see where you started and where you are right now. So we met. How many years ago.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for being here. I've known you for quite a while. Proud of you. I feel as if we are like spirit sisters.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, maybe not blood, but just us as women, you know.
Speaker 1:So I think honestly, this flow belongs to you literally, because I can't think of another person to sit and have this conversation we've done it before for the blog, you remember yeah, that was quite a while ago, so you and I met and I can't even remember the year when that was. Do you remember?
Speaker 2:I can remember how old I was, though oh my the year I might be able to come back, but I was definitely around 23 years, or 23 or 24 years old.
Speaker 1:This is crazy. So we met at the spa and then, when I met you, you were a spa therapist and you were amazing in everything. You were like my favorite person to get my hands and feet done. And then you went to open your own spa and now you're doing something so completely different. Yes, you made a big pivot and I want, I want to go into that as well, but before we go into that, I want to first introduce you, and who better to do that than yourself?
Speaker 2:okay. So my name, of course, is trisha demas rogers, and I had rogers there because you would have known me from when I was trisha demas hodge. That's all far back. But now I'm trisha demas rogers, and this is just part of my journey. And I was born on the beautiful island of Trinidad, islands of Trinidad and Tobago, twin Republic. 47 years old, I gave birth to two beautiful girls. I am a divorcee. I am a second time married. I'm going into a little bit of depth because I want people to understand that I am no different from some of the other women and some of the other things that they would go through in life, and I really want this. I really want them to see me in this light. So I am Trisha, who some days I'm very, very happy and other days I'm very, very reserved. It doesn't mean that something is wrong. I am Trisha who had to fight depression, who had to fight anxiety. I am just a woman trying to survive through the years and I think I'm doing a pretty good job at it.
Speaker 1:You are doing amazing thank you so many and, like I know, I like what you said because you have your days when you're going through your stuff and then your days when you're going through your stuff and then other days when you're like super happy.
Speaker 1:But one thing that is super consistent with you is your depth of professionalism. It doesn't matter what you're doing or what you are involved in. Your professionalism is always there, whether you're feeling down or you're feeling happy, and that is one thing that I always admired about you. So can we go a little bit into what you were doing before you started doing what you're doing?
Speaker 2:now. So I was a cosmetologist very young in life. Two things I wanted to do I wanted to be a mortician and which is like, wow, like.
Speaker 1:But I will tell you why I wanted to be a mortician.
Speaker 2:You'll see why I became a cosmetologist. I wanted to be a mortician, literally because I didn't like how dead people looked. I thought that they looked really gray and very ugly, I mean this was back then. Nowadays they look much better, you know. So I wanted to make a difference with how dead people look. So that's why I wanted to be a mortician. I didn't know.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure about environment and seeing them there. I'm not sure about all of that, but that's what I wanted to do. So I was for a certain time in my younger days I really wanted to do that. But I also wanted to do cosmetology. I always wanted to become a beautician. In those days they would call you a beautician. So I remember when I passed my common entrance exams, the school that I passed for they offered it.
Speaker 2:Eventually I came up in a small village, poor people. My mother couldn't afford, so she had to get me a transfer from that school to a school that was closer. Now the school I passed for that I was quite happy with, friesabad Composite. They offered beauty culture. So I couldn't wait until I would enter the third form so that I could start beauty, because I just want to be in beauty, you know. So my mom took me out and sent me to a school that was all academic, where you had to do CXC and you wasn't even given the, the choice to choose. Everything was general and it was. It was awful, it was horrible, horrible.
Speaker 1:That's for a creative. That is like where you send your kid to just their souls to die, because, especially for us creatives, you know you need to be able to create and do things. I like this.
Speaker 2:I like my house so very early on in that school what I did, I did my know, all the business stuff and the chemistry and I don't know a lot of that stuff, mathematics and stuff like that. I did it. Yes, in the third form I went into agriculture, integrated science. I used to live at the home economic center with Miss Bailey.
Speaker 2:When I say live, I used to go to classes and just go there, or break classes and go to my garden and just stay there. Or even to the art, because I did the arts also, like compositions and painting. You know, you know some textile, so I, I was just so happy doing things with my hands.
Speaker 1:But you know, sometimes parents will say or we believe, especially us poor people, sometimes you have to be a teacher, a lawyer, a doctor yes, and that that was, that was actually the only, actually the only careers that were presented to us at the time. Right it's. Either my father was like hongo or me becoming a doctor of some kind. I had to have that DRS in front of my name, Right? You know which DRS is in Dutch. Dr Anders, right, I don't know how it is in Dutch. I know that much research, I know right.
Speaker 2:But for the persons who are listening and don't know what a.
Speaker 1:DRS is I'm just explaining it there. You've been here long enough to know what a DRS is. Girl, I speak Dutch. Hey, listen, I am so proud of you.
Speaker 2:Don't try it, don't try it. So I was a cosmetologist. I became oh, that's a story, because there is, there is a part leading to me being a cosmetologist. I was a teenage mom, as you know. I came to St Martin when I was 16. So I came from high school into St Martin for me do cosmetology. There is no cosmetology school here.
Speaker 2:Back in those days I had no documents for here, so I had to go back to my country to do it and I was only able to do that when I was around 21 years old and I went back with two kids, one sick and my Tia that I have now and I entered cosmetology school. So while we were there and we found out that one had cancer, she then, you know she passed away at the age of four. But I went to cosmetology school like so take off a chemotherapy, take off a radiation, carry her back to my mom and then go to cosmetology school. And I was able to graduate in cosmetology school with flying colors in my class. You know, I couldn't even go to my graduation because I had to just go back to my daughter. She was ill, dying right. Well, she passed.
Speaker 2:So that now is. It brings me to the year 2000. I know that year for sure. And I come back to St Martin and I started, you know, doing my hair at my friend's place, at Cathy's um Cheddar Hair Salon on Back Street, and I will go there and I will start doing here and then I will do something in my home in belvedere. I lived in belvedere. In those days you couldn't do business in your home, so the den person for belvedere came wait.
Speaker 1:Let me just explain belvedere.
Speaker 2:By the way, it's a neighborhood in st martin, so yeah it's a, yeah, yeah, it's a like government, one kind of neighborhood it's government housing yeah. So, um, I came out of cosmetology school very broken, trying to juggle a failing marriage. Um, trying to juggle the death of my first born and also having a young child. How old was Tia then? Tia was three years old. Three, yeah, they're three years apart. And how old are you Now or then? Then this will give me around 22.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, at 22, you'm a daughter that just passed on. Another daughter is three years old and you marriage is literally going into.
Speaker 2:I could go even further at 16 I met this guy. He's a reason I stayed on st Martin. 17, I was pregnant. I gave birth when I'm 18. I got married at 20. What craziness is that? When I look back, that is total chaos.
Speaker 1:Well, we know that now, but it made sense then, I guess, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, at 21, I am enrolled into cosmetology school with a sick child dying from cancer and another baby back in Trinidad and then coming back at 22 to a feeling marriage. I just total chaos and having to readjust everything. So I open up this is a business in my house, you know.
Speaker 1:Entrepreneur from the start? Yeah, I like working for myself. I have a problem with working for people.
Speaker 2:Yes, we sell I prefer to have five dollars that I work for, that I have ten dollars from someone and they stress living their life out of me or they bad handle me or bad manage me. I prefer that, you know. Yeah, so, um, I don't. I want to really get, get you to understand how we got here and what you're seeing now. So I went through by 25, I am separated from my first husband as a foreigner.
Speaker 1:Yes, Because you didn't have that much experience on the island here yet.
Speaker 2:Right Him being the one who signed my documents To him saying I am not signing any documents for you anymore, but his kids, right?
Speaker 1:I mean, well, by now it's Tia, but Right.
Speaker 2:To me, trying to figure out how in the world am I going to survive all this time? This is within this period that I met you, because I was working at Good Life Spa and those were some fun.
Speaker 1:We had fun. But wait a second. You mean to tell me that through all of the smiles that I saw you going, you were smiling, yeah. You were treating your, your clients and us with respect and professional. You and I didn't like each other at the beginning.
Speaker 2:We had a time, but do you understand why?
Speaker 1:I understand, because we were so much alike, completely we're so much alike, but through all of that, in the background, this was going on. Mm-hmm, oh my God.
Speaker 2:My job, what I did. I never took what I was going through in my life. I never took it into my workplace, not one day. It had times nobody knew I would go to the bathroom and cry, yeah no one possible.
Speaker 2:No one knew and I would come out. You know I was like makeup on and I will come out. You know I always had makeup, so my makeup on and I will come out and I will go into with a client and listen to that client's problem and help them with their problem, speak positivity into them. I don't know how I did it, but it's something I still do up until this day. No one will know when I have a dollar. No one will know when I have $20. And even if I have a dollar, I am still giving at my $1 and still giving at my $20.
Speaker 2:I never make it. I never made it about me. I always try to see the possibilities in helping others because I know what it is to go through pain. I know what it is as a woman, to feel neglected. I know what it is as a woman to go through all the changes that we go through psychologically. I know what it is to sit on my psychologist chair and bawl my eyes out. I also know what it is to give my psychologist advice, because I would be there and she would start telling me you become good friends. So she would start telling me what's going on with her.
Speaker 1:So now you're doing her psychoanalysis, so we're just there.
Speaker 2:you know just you know, and that's fine, it's okay, because I realize it's part of who I am and I can't run from that.
Speaker 1:No, I really can't but I have to say, I have to ask you this where do you get the strength from? Because that is the one thing I know I've been through, we've both been through hot waters, we've come on, we've come out on top. You know, we know how to survive anything. But I just I was sitting with this question just the other day, like where does this strength come from? And I think all of us have it on the inside of us. We have that strength, but it isn't until we're like in boiling water that our strength comes out yes, but you have that strength.
Speaker 1:You never missed out on that positivity, and you and I are very much alike when it comes to that, because both of us are very positive persons. At the same time, when we're going through our shit, we're still smiling on the outside, we're still giving yes and we're still nurturing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, nurturing, that's the word. You got the word, that's the word you, you got the word, that's the word nurturing. Um, through my life, I, you know, I believe in god, jesus christ. So I was baptized very young, at the age of 14. So I came up in a home that was always god-fearing. So, you know you, I, I went to Catholic schools. I was Christian Catholic. I was baptized, a spiritual Baptist. I went to Pentecostal church Somewhere along the line, don't matter what I was going through. I could have just had a hangover because I partied the night before and I would be lying in my bed feeling like rot, and it didn't matter what was taking place in my life. I always looked towards God. For some people I realized it will mean something else, and I'm not here to push any religious.
Speaker 2:I'm just giving you my thing. It kept me my prayers, staying adhering to. It's all written in the Bible so I'm hearing. It's like the biggest and the best storybook ever.
Speaker 2:Everything that we go through in life, everything is in that book and it is a reference that we can go back to to know that everything is going to be okay. So, whatever I was fighting and struggling with, I always, always went back to my spirituality and my relationship that I have with God and I really do believe, or have, because it's even stronger now, because I've given my life a hundred percent over to him now. So I'm not drinking anymore in church, I am, I'm do. I've become know. If Trisha was good before, I feel as if I have more meaning.
Speaker 1:No, trisha 2.0, yeah, it's still attitude, because I know your attitude will never go away.
Speaker 2:My friend, that would never change, you know, um, but that helped me through the the times. I always stayed focused and I always felt when things were added worse with me, like worse meaning almost homeless, or if not homeless because I slept in that spa.
Speaker 1:You'll get to that but I slept in that spot you're kidding.
Speaker 2:For close to a month no one knew and I got you are kidding me.
Speaker 1:No, you mean we are coming there to work and you were early and we're thinking oh well, she's so punctual.
Speaker 2:She's so punctual because I slept in that relaxation room. You did not. Yeah, yeah, yeah I couldn't afford rent. I had a spa and couldn't afford rent. But I have. I'm a dreamer. What do you do with what you have in here? How do you? I will keep dreaming. I have to like I have dreams. I just see things, that just vision, just pop up and it feels good and I want to execute them and I want to keep going. I don't care if it feel I get up and I push, I will cry.
Speaker 1:It feel for me it's not a right to have it, you know.
Speaker 2:And then the next day I get up and then you see me making some roti or doing something, because I believe we have to have some sort of spiritual connection that keeps us grounded. It has to have something that keeps us grounded.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that got me through and I'll tell you one thing. It's like your story had to happen the way it happened for you to be where you are today and I think a lot of us forget that you know when, especially when things are hard, or like why me, why me?
Speaker 1:It is why you is because you have to go through this in order for you to get to that end destination, your chosen, your chosen path. You have to. That is your path, yeah, um, so I'm? I'm still baffled by the way that you were sleeping in this bath.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I slept in that spa. That was beautiful. It was a gorgeous spa.
Speaker 1:I would have loved to stay with you in the other room, by the way. Yeah, because it was a good spa and there was water. But what do? We need to survive Risa Water you had a shower, I had a shower.
Speaker 2:Everything you need. I will go sandwich like bread sandwich. We had a kitchenette in the spa. I can cook in the spa, but if I wanted like hot food, I will go and I will buy it, but I could not afford rent. That's incredible and no one knew. And I would put on that white uniform with a smile, my lipstick, it's important and I would give people advice. I would have women that came in there on the ground rolling, crying because you know what a spy is all about you know and I would be able to lift their spirits, I would still.
Speaker 2:You know, if it's my last five dollar and it's their birthday make sure they had a cupcake with a something make sure I gave them a gift. I just always, and still up until today, I like to see smiles on people's face, and that is geared to or it's a result of me suffering and going through it and feeling as if I have nobody to speak to.
Speaker 2:So while and you know why you feel it you don't have people to speak to. That's another thing. It's false pride because I had people I could have spoken to, but I chose to keep certain things to myself because I didn't want we live in a small community, I didn't want anybody to to speak dumb on an already dumb situation. Yeah, I just knew that my God will get me out of it if I just do right.
Speaker 1:See, I wish I had known or felt that earlier, because I'll talk to anybody who would listen about the struggles that I was going through. But it wasn't until this past big thing in my life, like what I call my mini-crises, right, this big challenge that I went through two years ago.
Speaker 1:That is when I realized that you, there's nobody that can give you better advice than yourself no you know that, through your God, through the universe, through whatever it is that you believe in, and especially when you take a moment and step back from all of the chatter, is when you're gonna hear the voice that you need to hear, and usually that is your voice, together with the one who, the divine, or whoever it is that you believe in so absolutely.
Speaker 1:I am so glad that you said that because I think a lot of people forget that you know, especially when we're in situations when it's like, oh my god, what am I gonna do, that is the person that comes up for you is your, what I call your 80 year old self that will come to you and tell you. This is how you're gonna do it, my darling.
Speaker 2:Yes, this is how you're gonna survive and and if only we will get rid of the clutter, and not just clutter as far as our your internal just internal clutter and just focus on what we need to focus on when that day comes. So there are many days I wake up, thank God, I pray, I come down in the kitchen. Well, you know, I have my dogs.
Speaker 1:They keep dogs hey, you're preaching to the choir here, dogs and cats.
Speaker 2:Are you kidding me? And I know what you mean with cats, but animals. Animals can keep you sane going through things, because Leroy will walk along the yard with me he will do funny stuff. Leroy is my favorite he tried to get inside right now and all I could do is just come and grab a coffee and just go back to my bed.
Speaker 1:But he'll know.
Speaker 2:Leroy and all the other dogs they know, whatever you're going through.
Speaker 1:They know it, they feel it.
Speaker 2:But if this is all I can do today I have learned over the years that's all I can do. I am NOT going to get too worried about the noise, because if we pay so much attention to the noise, not only the noise, but the other people as well around us expectations the comparing to, because if my friend who has two children and can do this and she's still working so hard, why can't I?
Speaker 1:my limit is different than your limit and like you, said sometimes, this is all I can do. A cup of coffee that's all I can matter. That's all the matter not enough.
Speaker 2:I cook. Some days I can't cook, no, and I, I learn now this one if I wake, I push myself to do what I have to do. I like a clean environment and I can't do too much that day. I find things that can soothe my mind, my mental. Yeah, so I will color, I like to read, I like to garden, you know. So I'll go and I will start a garden, and if that's what you can do today, you do that.
Speaker 2:That is what you do that's, and forgive yourself if you cannot do more and don't listen to the noise and the expectations of everybody else and how they think you're supposed to live your life and all what you can do to make your life better. Yeah, but they don't know how to meet the is better oh my god, so I always tell people in our intuition, our spirit of discernment, our gut feeling guides us. We just don't pay attention now and it becomes so close to you know, on mine, you know. So that's how I got through it, that's how I do it.
Speaker 1:So let's talk a little bit about your professional. It's pretty right. Yeah, I'm married to the ocean.
Speaker 1:That's pretty much what I say all the time you know it's on my, you're safe. At the end I know that's probably why, yeah, my ring has a wave on it and it's yeah, I'm married to the ocean. I want to go to your professional career for a little bit, because you've done and now I understand a little bit more about the big pivots you've done in your life Because you love gardening, you love to color, you love to be creative in a lot of different ways. You love to be creative. So, and that's what that is another thing that, especially from our generation, we were taught all the time we gotta stick to one thing. We always got to stick to that one thing and I realized that no budget, we don't have to know, we can pivot whenever it is like I'm now going from promoting St Martin and doing only travel to going more into the wellness, spiritual journeys, personal development. Welcome, welcome, oh my.
Speaker 2:God Isn't that great. Oh, can you imagine the you back in this party?
Speaker 1:Oh, are you kidding me? How much different we would have seen it we would have been, we would have seen it with completely different eyes and what we're seeing everything right now and I'm so happy for this era in my life right now because of all that I've learned, but again I'm going back to that journey.
Speaker 1:We have to go through all of that, yeah, bs to get to where we are today. So let's talk about your career, because you went from working at a spa for someone to then opening your own. Yeah, dreaming again what's that dreaming?
Speaker 2:very thank you thank you dreaming.
Speaker 1:You're such a nice husband. By the the way, he just brought us water. I'm happy, I love it, he is.
Speaker 2:He is oh, don't do this one too much.
Speaker 1:Oh, my Again dreams Were you during those days were you, in those days when you were sleeping at the spa, you were singing you were dreaming. Your dreams were keeping. In those days, when you were sleeping at the spa, you were singing. You were dreaming your dreams were keeping you alive. Was this one of the dreams?
Speaker 2:yeah, no, no, no. This is part of the dream. This is how I was able. Can you bring me out to soup, please, because this is deep? Oh, why would you ask a question like that, though?
Speaker 1:I thought it was just a normal question.
Speaker 2:I didn't think it was gonna bring all of this up me being a cosmetologist and an esthetician is very dear to my heart. You know, very, very dear to my heart still is very dear to my heart. Beauty is dear to my heart. What I did, what I did in my professional life, is when I was blocked and I couldn't do certain things. I feel it into something else that looks like it. So I still got to practice beauty. That makes any sense. It makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1:Well, to me. To me it does.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so for me.
Speaker 1:I still practice beauty yeah, but you are doing that every single day. It's not. Maybe you're not applying, you know, lotions and things to do a massage or to do a facial, but now you're doing it in a different way.
Speaker 2:So my dreams. My dream it's big, it still is very big. I believe if you don't know where you came from, you don't recognize what you have been through. I believe you're not going anywhere. I'm a big believer in that. You have to be real with yourself. Me going to work and working for people didn't make much sense to me because when I would work for 40 hours, 45 hours a week, and they gave me just enough for me to come back and I am exhausted and I have you know pains from massaging, I felt as if I could do it for myself.
Speaker 2:So very early on you didn't know this, but very early on in my spa, at Good Life Spa, I went looking to see how to go about getting my business license and I remember when I went to the economics department a young lady said to me. She said you can never have a business on St Martin because you're not from here. I don't know who the young lady is.
Speaker 1:I never saw her again, or maybe if I saw her I wouldn't recognize her and I'm feeling what's coming right now because you and I again are so similar. Because if you tell us no, it's when.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna show you that it's really yes. Yes, I came down that time those days. It was across, close to the police station, upstairs, and I came down and I came back to work and I said, well, hold on my managers, they're not from here. So if they're not from here, they maybe got somebody to open it. Now you have to be careful. This is why you have to be careful what you're taking from people. So maybe they got somebody to open this business, which I know it was not the case, because sometimes I would have discussions with them and they told me their story. You know, remember we had Philip who was all that you know so we had great people around us also.
Speaker 2:I was always inquisitive, so when she said no to me, I took it as a yes right and I never stopped pressing forward and I went and I applied, I got through. I knew how to do everything. I know to go to the chamber. I knew all the runnings, because if people want to block you, the first thing they will do is to keep information away from you. I learned that for their own selfish, insecure reasons, so I don't listen to people and dreaming about opening this spa.
Speaker 2:This spa that I opened on St Martin was not supposed to be the first spa. So my thing with the spas is that I had to have a destination spa. I had to have a resort spa and a day spa. I chose to open the spa because I didn't want to break my daughter away from her father. St Martin became my home, so I said, okay, I'll open a day spa first in St Martin. I looked for the best spot possible for a day spa where there is water, because spa is water, and I built out this whole thing. I saved. I didn't party, I didn't travel, I wore the same clothes over and over and I saved. If I saw something online, I contacted the company.
Speaker 1:I knew from Good Life Spa that we could have gone to Spa Essentials, and I knew exactly where we would order from, so I had a book.
Speaker 2:I would keep track of everything because I couldn't go to business school. So I entered the spa from a cosmetologist perspective, just knowing that. I wanted to make a place where I would feel comfortable and use products that I know will be good for people. So that's why I went into slow beauty and organic products Right for people. So that's why I went into slow beauty and organic products right. So my professional life, what you all saw, as far as the spa and me being professional, it was just part of a dream. I did not see this. This came up. This came after after. This came up after. I am happy I went through owning that spa. I birthed that spa.
Speaker 1:I remember sitting on your the pedestal we call it the pedestal right for the, for the pedicure and you told me that you built it yes yourself with your then boyfriend, right? I remember that and I was so in awe of that because that spa to this day.
Speaker 2:I designed it.
Speaker 1:The whole thing was designed by you, every little thing, everything you poured into that.
Speaker 2:I remember that and it was a great experience, yeah it was an amazing experience.
Speaker 1:So what happened to the spa? So the spa.
Speaker 2:I had financial issues because the spa we have a problem where we don't like to support our own please say it louder it is true. It is true. Um, people on the island who I knew would go to to come come to me when I worked for the colonizers, literally and they came there and they spent their money. I'm not being racist, I'm just saying as it is Would not come to my spa. I used.
Speaker 1:They weren't coming to you at all, but you were the one that they asked for when they came to that spa.
Speaker 2:Wow, they don't support you. I have gathered why people don't support you. I have gathered why people don't do that. People don't want you to be better. No, it's that crab mentality again. Envy, jealousy in Trini language. Bad mind. If I support Trisha, Trisha is going to be at her best I see something in Risa, that the best I see something in me, so that like that, I see shining and we saw I don't want that like no, I gotta dim.
Speaker 2:How can I dim that line? Exactly, okay. So I had to take on a business partner. I'm not gonna call any names. I'm happy that they contacted me and asked me to be part of that business, because it also was part of my growth Not knowing that I was signing up with people who I had no business being in business with. It's part of my growth, so I don't regret it. So there came a time when they tried to take my spot from me.
Speaker 2:Wow, especially when it started in a time this was 2017, so you know our business needs about five years to kind of kick itself so this is in the 40 of the spot.
Speaker 2:Um, my blood, my sweat, my tears, all my savings, went in to this spa. I was not even able to insure this spa because financially, I just wasn't there yet. I had to pay employees and not get paid. And I did most of the work because, when people came which I had great clients We'll talk about them, because I still have them as clients today. That's amazing. I have people who have, like you, have been on my journey with me up until today and I'm really grateful for them. So I pay attention to them and forget the others and the one that, yeah, you know. So 2017, my daughter had to go to the Netherlands for school, so I went to take her.
Speaker 2:There are a few things that I wanted to do in my life, and that was one Because I never got to go to college or to university. So I said, when my tear comes to age, I want to walk her through the gates. Oh and oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:And, by the way, I need to tell you this, that girl. When I see her today, such an amazing young lady, I knew she did that she did, given the circumstances, very respectable.
Speaker 2:I never had a problem with her. If she was anything like me growing up, I don't know. But when I took my daughter I counted coins. I had this plan. I counted coins recently to take my daughter to university.
Speaker 2:so I could buy my ticket to go to the Netherlands. I remember walking through the university and going like wow, is this what it's like, you know, and wishing her well. You know, leaving her husband also went with. He came up after and leaving her in this whole big Europe to go to school and just pray and, you know, help hope that what I taught her along the years would be able to sustain her as an adult. You know, and I came back, my mom fell sick. My mom was unconscious, so I'm on St Martin. She's in my daughter's in.
Speaker 2:Holland. I come back from the Netherlands. I came back here a business that is striving. My partners wanted to take my company from me. You know that was crazy and me having to know go to Trinidad because my mother is unconscious could have died while I'm in.
Speaker 2:Trinidad. My business partners bought a letter for me to sign, to sign off my business. No, right here, and I would not sign it off. I sorry I didn't sign it off because while I was in Trinidad we had Irma. I landed Trinidad on the Saturday. Irma came the Wednesday and destroyed the living daylight out of that spa, the spa was gutted.
Speaker 2:Yes on top of it being destroyed. I was not insured and people looted it. You weren't here, I wasn't here. I ain't gonna call no names, because my husband is a detective. I never put anybody in jail, I never spoke certain things, but I'm just touching. I forgave everybody and I moved on, because forgiving is part of it. It's part of the journey for yourself, for yourself, you have to it's not for them to.
Speaker 2:I have seen what forgiving people have done for me and I've also seen what's going on with some of these people. We have to be be very, very careful in life, what we do in this life, because what miss us, it will miss our children. We have to be very, very careful and if we think that we can get away with something, so I can do you something and I get away with it here, spiritually, you ain't really getting away with it. It's going to come back at you. Oh yeah, absolutely Always get away with it here.
Speaker 2:Spiritually, you ain't really getting away with it. They're gonna come back at you. Oh yeah, absolutely. You know always. So I forgive. And the spa was destroyed. I never missed the spa. I missed practicing beauty. That's what I missed. That's amazing, practicing but that's amazing.
Speaker 1:And I'm going back to that time because I remember I was one of those who was constantly asking you when are you rebuilding the spa, when are you rebuilding the spa? And I think at that time, just like everybody else, we are constantly seeing everything from our own perspective. So I was, for my own selfish reasons, constantly on you about starting the spa again, because that was my favorite spot to go to. It was my personal reason.
Speaker 1:You were wanting you to yes, but well, my toes look great. But you know, there was. That was my own selfish reason why I wanted you to come back, and I remember you were a step past no you were like a full body.
Speaker 1:No, I'm not doing this again and it wasn't until when I did my little pivot right now that I stopped doing island tours. That was not giving me the joy that I wanted in my life and I said no more to that and people were. It's the same thing when I stopped my event planning business, when I decided I'm not doing this anymore and people were like but why you?
Speaker 2:I was one of. You are so good at it, right, yeah?
Speaker 1:but it's just. You feel it in your heart that this is no longer part of your journey.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have to listen, we have to be aware. Yeah, um, being aware of our surroundings, which I know know more, being aware, being awakened on the inside. This is not my first try at a spa. That was my third try at a spa.
Speaker 1:That is true because you had the one where we met in my home. Then you had, oh, the home, so in my home, so in my home that is true. I forgot about that one.
Speaker 2:I started doing hair washing, washing people's hair. I had a little salon.
Speaker 1:I couldn't keep it up.
Speaker 2:The head of the Belvedere thing back then closed me down. No problem, I went to work for someone. While I was working I got an opportunity to go into a little business with a girl, she passed away S-S-S-Sper away as Esperanza, as me. She was really good and that felt true. That was a course atrium. There was a building across atrium we were already building, so I lost that money there and then I was successful in 2013 when I got love it about Bella Day Spa. I was very successful, but it was not overnight success.
Speaker 1:No, there was a lot of, like you said, a lot of tears went into that when that spa was destroyed, I said to myself.
Speaker 2:I said, no, I think this is not where I'm supposed to be. So as much as I like to practice beauty and I really did enjoy waxing and facials and manicures and pedicures and I enjoyed my clients. It wasn't it was a joy with clients, but it was not joy with with other things within that. So that's how we ended up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow which beautiful home, by the way. I have to give you kudos for this. So I can't do it without my husband no, your husband has been instrumental in all of this.
Speaker 1:He is a big part of what you see now, a big part of what you see now so before we go into how you got to be here now, yeah, we are going to make something together today. Yes, I just want you to tell us what that is, because I'm a little familiar with the concept, but not from exactly what it is the Trini perspective.
Speaker 2:Yes, the Trini perspective. Let me get you from the Trini perspective.
Speaker 1:What are we making?
Speaker 2:today and we maybe make 40 of them. It's a joke, you know. Yes, say 40. 40. 40. No, but it's seven. Seven does it for me? Seven, and 20.
Speaker 1:20. You say 20. 20. You said 20. 20. I love it. And picture, picture, picture, I love it. I can listen to the training accent every day, all day. But yeah, what are we making today?
Speaker 2:So today we're going to be making. So actually you have and would be getting a little bit of what the Kusume experience is so the Kusume experience has two sides. Because I like to teach, I have classes and because I like to cook and bake and feed people, I turned it into something where I can entertain people at my home.
Speaker 2:So it's in the early stages and it's just part of that big dream You're still saying this is only the early stages, Because this is amazing, by the way Because of thank you, because I dream big, I don't dumb down my dreams and money never comes in my way of my dreams. You know, I dream, I get up and I dream. If I can only put one plan per day, that I think is going to be the plan, but in the next 10 years I put it, I go one day at a time and I try my best One day at a time, being a woman.
Speaker 1:So one day at a time being a woman.
Speaker 2:So one day at a time being confused someday, one day at a time, being a little bit shaken up one day at a time, being very happy one day at a time like oh.
Speaker 1:I don't want to get up. I ain't doing this, no more.
Speaker 2:This ain't me this I going back to my country. I can't yes. This is madness, you know to Still being in that tree. It's all part of it, and I'm learning to be even more positive. So today we're gonna make pastels.
Speaker 1:I love the name.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you all call it Ayaka.
Speaker 1:We call it Ayaka because that's what we well, because we're so close to Venezuela, so in Venezuela they call it Ayaka, but I think, think, yeah, the Trini version is a little different, isn't it?
Speaker 2:It's quite similar, maybe different with a little bit of taste, but it's really quite similar because I enjoy also the Curriculian version. I enjoy the Puerto Rican, the Dominican Republic and the Venezuelan version. So it's just a matter of a cultural difference, depending on the ingredients that are available to us, and I make things my way. I like to do things my way because it's part of me practicing beauty.
Speaker 1:It still is beauty.
Speaker 2:It still is beauty, you know. So when I cook, when I take a picture of my food, it has to look beautiful when I set the table here for the Kusume experience it has to look beautiful. With the resources I have, would I like to have something else? Yes, but I'm not quite there yet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I think you go by dream, by dream.
Speaker 2:Every time you reach one of your dreams, you start.
Speaker 1:You dare to dream bigger than that you don't. You never stop dreaming. I never stop growing because of it either. So how, how are you? This is one interesting question before we start. You know making the pastel. I want to know what. How are you getting over your fears, and what kind of fears that you have, that were initially holding you back from getting to where you are today?
Speaker 2:That people wouldn't support me, that me being Trinidadian sounding like this, living on St Martin, st Martin, never being able to feel as if I belong, because people they, they have a problem sometimes with foreign people.
Speaker 1:Well, I know I'm foreign too.
Speaker 2:I don't know so you're still curiously not well.
Speaker 2:You'll be surprised, though, because Curacao also is not always accepted, it's right well, or at least it feels like we're not right you know, but within that, I want to really keep focus on the positive because, yeah, that is one of my fears that people won't support that. You're not from here, why you think you could do that, we don't support you. And then I have a group of people who are from here, who keep me going. Those people, oh my goodness, tricia, tricia, they keep me going, I see it on your Facebook page.
Speaker 1:Every time you post a little something, you have so many comments of people that are like so behind you, yes, you know, supporting you, your biggest cheerleaders are there on that platform and that's beautiful to see, but for some reason, you're still thinking you're not getting the support.
Speaker 2:So that was one of the fears that I had to get over and I'm not sure if I quite got it over, because we are human beings and we always have fear.
Speaker 1:Well, experience has taught you also in the past that that wasn't the case, so you keep going back to that instead of actually the new belief you should have Trauma. Yes, exactly Trauma. That is about my only fear.
Speaker 2:It's really my only fear. Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, I don't have fear about doing what I wanted to, because this home is going to be a restaurant.
Speaker 1:This home is going to be a restaurant you're putting your big dream right out there right now yeah, I know, I see it, I'm already making provisions for it and they say, yeah, don't talk things, people stop it.
Speaker 2:Nobody could stop it. I know nobody could stop it. I used to have that same mentality, don't?
Speaker 1:talk like but that's what how we grew up to. Our mothers were always telling us don't put your business out there on the street because somebody's gonna take your idea and then do it. But nobody can do it the way you do it. Even if I take your idea tomorrow and I start this business, I'm gonna open a restaurant in my house it's fine, because it's not you, exactly it's not you.
Speaker 1:It doesn't have the Trisha in it so it's not gonna be the same, it's not gonna be authentic and I wish more people in business, especially women, could see that, because I think it comes from a lot of feeling unworthy, not feeling good enough, that then we copy, we do and we fail because we are constantly looking over our shoulders if somebody's gonna take the idea, idea or the business or something from us and part of that.
Speaker 2:Part of that also is that did I get a mind fog? It happens with age.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh. Oh, finally, age, it goes. Well, let's do this, let's start making the pastel. It will come back to you, it will come back. So, at this point, what I want to do, is I want to.
Speaker 2:Oh, you remember, go on, I can say it. Yes, yes, I share my recipes. I show people how I cook. I have no fear, none whatsoever. No secret ingredients At this point where I'm at, I have no fear, except that one where I feel as if people won't support, and I have this dream where I would travel and I would go into other people's kitchen through the.
Speaker 2:Caribbean and it's not going to be, yeah, it's not going to be for st Martin, because the people who told me you can't do it, it's not for you, you're not from here, they're not part of that 8 billion but they are part of the 8 billion, but they're really like point 1% of the eight billion exactly so.
Speaker 2:I just keep going and I push forward. So that's that kind of tells, tells you more or less why I just have that one fear that people won't support. But you can't stop it. No, not for this, not with the man I have behind me who is like my biggest cheerleader you just showed me your notepad just now with all of the orders and you have actually cancelled.
Speaker 1:We are now on the 28th of November as we're filming this, and you have a full schedule already for Christmas and you closed off your Christmas orders. So you tell me again how you're not getting the support. Yeah, it's not only support, and I and this is one thing that I had when I had my event planning business and this is the same thing that I'm hearing sometimes from local people here that would tell me oh, I'm, I'm here because I want to support you, don't be here because you want to support me, be here, because you enjoy what I have to offer exactly.
Speaker 1:It almost feels that sometimes, you know, I said that's a testament right there on that notepad is your testament right there this year.
Speaker 2:This, this, what happened this year, never happened before. This is the first year I've never seen it where I was able to put up my flyer In 24 hours. My phone was going like crazy and then in the other 24 hours I had to let them know.
Speaker 1:I have to close off orders because I'm going for quality over quantity, I could be still taking orders. I would have way more than I could even do.
Speaker 2:And I want to be able to touch every tab, to touch every cake, to touch every pastel. I want what I'm giving this Christmas to my customers. I just want it to be from a place of love, yeah, and beauty. Beautiful, exactly.
Speaker 1:There's the beauty. I love it. Beautiful, exactly, there's a beauty. Yeah, I love it. So, for those who are listening on the podcast right now, this is where we're going to end this particular episode. I'm so glad that you were able to listen to this conversation with Tricia. For those of you who are only listening, please go to the YouTube page, because this conversation is going to continue on YouTube via this video that we're shooting right now, because I want you to be able to see what we're going to continue on youtube via this video that we're shooting right now, because I want you to be able to see what we're going to be making and we're going to dive a little bit deeper into what kusume really is and what it is that you're offering today.
Speaker 1:Yes, okay, I get chills every single time I hear trisha's story. What an amazing woman, right? Her story serves as a reminder for us women that we are strong and, no matter what happens in our lives, we know how to get up, dust ourselves off and keep going. So, to you who is listening to this right right now, remember the importance of finding your uniqueness and exploit it in the service of others. I just wanted to bring up this quote because Trisha's story inspired me to share this with you.
Speaker 1:Trisha's catering business is taking off and it's doing so because she has put her customers first. Her clients' experiences are first, just as well as it is important to her the quality that she serves them with and also the beauty that she creates with every single dish and the whole kusume experience. So I have been a friend and a customer of Tricia for a while and I can tell you her meals are incredible. The whole Kusume experience itself sitting in her kitchen and savoring all of these delicious flavors that she brings up and cooks up is just an incredible and unique experience that you can have while you're in Saint Martin experience that you can have while you're in St Martin. So if you are interested in booking this Kusume experience at Trisha's house, then all you have to do is go to the show notes. I have left the link there to her Facebook page, all right, and please again, do yourself a favor and check out the video that I mentioned. It's going to be on my YouTube channel from December 8th, so you do not want to miss that. We're going to cook together and you're going to see a little bit of her kitchen, and I'm probably going to put up a couple of posters not posters, but photos of my previous experience having the Kusume experience there with customers that I brought in so that you can see what it looks like when she has it all decorated and fancy. All right, we are nearing the end of the year, but before you go, I want to remind you of my Fearless New Year virtual party. It is taking place on December 18th. It is free, it is fun, it is eye-opening and did I mention it's free? So come create your best 2025 with us. I will see you online very, very soon. Oh, and obviously I have left the link to register in the yeah, you guessed it the show notes. Okay, so hurry to go to the show notes after you listen to this full episode and click on the link register and I'll see you online on this full episode. And click on the link Register and I'll see you online on December 18th.
Speaker 1:As for me, what I'm going to do right now Is heat up another one of those pastels, because I am seriously addicted. This is one of the best Ayakas or pastel that I have ever, ever had In my 49 years of existence, and I have no idea how I'm'm gonna save the rest of these pastels that I still have left. I don't know how I'm gonna save them from myself not eating them before Christmas. This is gonna be like really, really hard, because I really wanted to keep them there for Christmas day and be able to share at least one of them with my family, right? So this is gonna be hard. Wish me luck, okay. So we only have a couple of more episodes to go before we take a break, um, or before paradise perspectives takes a break for the holidays, but I will be back next week, and I hope you will too. My name is risal, the traveling island girl on social media. This has been another inspirational episode of the paradise perspectives podcast. Adios, goodbye, ciao and hasta luego. Thank you again for listening. Thank you.
