Dee wants to make people feel good about themselves

Dee Ruddy has come up with a very interesting concept and has thrown herself headfirst into it.

The Belmullet native is a hairdresser and makeup artist by profession and ran a successful business in Bangor Erris for 15 years. When she decided she wanted to change direction, she opted to combine her makeup artistry skills with her new-found qualification and passion in life coaching, yielding her new business – The Trendee Coach.

Dee is now on a path to help people with various life skills, all while doing it in a fun and relaxed environment. I caught up with Dee to find out more about her interesting career path.

Angelina: Dee, thank you for talking to me. Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Dee: I am from a small village, just outside Belmullet, called Lakefield. I was born and raised there. I went to school in Straigh National School, and when I finished there, I went to St Brendan's College. 

I wasn't the most academic. I didn't want to go to college or do anything like that. I actually probably didn't really know what I wanted at the time. 

When I left school I went to Northampton in England. I went for two years, over to my uncle and my aunt, and I worked there in pubs, and then came back and did more pub work. Then I met my now ex-husband, and I fell pregnant very young. I had my oldest child, Dylan at 20, having fell pregnant at 19. So he's just gone 21 now. 

I really didn't know what I was going to do with my life at that stage. So I went into a bit of the hairdressing. I did some other bits and pieces of work but I kept coming back to hair. So I trained in hairdressing in Galway. I worked in a few salons and then ended up opening my own business when I was 25 in Bangor Erris - that was back in 2008.

Angelina: That was huge, Dee, opening your own business at 25.

Dee: I was lucky that a unit became available in Bangor. I was always driven to be my own boss. I always liked working for myself and doing my own thing. We did the unit up and I moved in there and opened for Christmas 2008. And then two years later, I had another baby, James, who is now turning 18. 

I worked so hard for 15 years in Bangor. The name of the salon was Trendees. I had great girls working for me. It got really busy and I then went to qualify as a makeup artist. I think it was five years doing the hair and I thought, we need another service in Bangor, where we have so many weddings. So I thought that if I trained as a makeup artist, I could bring that in with the hair. And that's what I did. 

It was a thriving business. We were booked up every weekend. It was really good. But three years ago, I had another baby, Harry. And I just felt I can't do this again. I missed out on so much with the boys growing up. James is a big athlete - he's a Mayo footballer and played for the Mayo minors. So I began thinking that I would give up the salon and stick with makeup and do that on a freelance basis.

Angelina: So tell us a little bit about this latest chapter?

Dee: To be honest, the love of hair just went. I wanted to do makeup and maybe do something else. The rent went up, the product started going up, everything started increasing and it was all going against me. So I thought, this is the right time to go. I finished up last May. 

It was hard. I loved being in Bangor, I loved the clients. I loved the girls that I worked with, but I just knew it was the right thing to do. And so I left there and I thought I'm going to take a year out and just not do anything and enjoy Harry and the older lads and just do me for a few months, with a bit of makeup on the side. 

But that didn't last too long because Dee had to do something else! So I think I was only a few months off and a course came up. I used to follow Marie Sweeney, who is a life coach from Bangor and I also followed The Navigation Coach. I found that area really interesting. 

When you're in hair and makeup, you're so up close to somebody and they tell you so much personal stuff. And you're in that space where you want to be able to answer them properly. And that bothered me sometimes when people would tell me stuff and I wouldn't be able to answer it correctly. So I knew I wanted to do something in being able to help people. 

I love helping people and obviously making people feel good. But helping people mentally as well was a big thing for me. So this life coaching course came up and it was starting in October. And I decided to just do it! 

It was the best thing I have ever done. I did it with the ILI, the Irish Life Coach Institute. And I learned so much, not even just about the coaching, but also about myself. I was able to do it online. I met 11 amazing people and I just had the best eight months. I qualified in May this year and set up The Trendee Coach.

Angelina: It's a very interesting concept Dee.

Dee: I had said it to people and they thought it was a great idea. Since doing a workshop with two other ladies in Belmullet where we gave someone a makeover, I've had schools onto me. For example, if I have a teenager in with me who is lacking confidence starting secondary school perhaps, we start off with a blank canvas on the face. How do you feel with no makeup? Then how do you feel with makeup? 

And then we always go deeper. I'll coach her to build her confidence, but we're doing it in a fun way. So it's not very serious sitting down one on one - she's enjoying doing the makeup, but I'm actually trying to build her confidence as I'm doing the makeup with her. And then she writes down some stuff, like how you felt when you had no makeup on, how do you feel when you have the makeup on? Does it make you feel any better? And then say we go on to the eyes and I talk about doing the eyes and how do you feel now with the eye shadow and does that make a difference? And then she might just say a few different words and I'll pick on them and then we go deeper. So it's not just straight in, but doing it in a fun way.

Angelina: What keeps you driven Dee?

Dee: I think the boys, you have to keep going for them. And for myself, for my head, I absolutely love helping people. I love making people feel good about themselves, through the makeup and the hair and the coaching. Just genuinely helping people, seeing the boys thrive is what keeps me going. Dylan's older now, he's doing farming and construction, James with the football. He's starting college hopefully in September. I think I've done so well with them and I've still worked. And they can see that I'm a worker and this is what life is. And then for Harry to go through the same thing as well. I think I'm just driven by them. And I just love doing what I do. It doesn't feel like work because I absolutely love doing it.

Angelina: Where would you like to see the business going?

Dee: My goal is to set up workshops all around Ireland because I'm the first ever Trendee Coach in the way I approach it. I want to inspire and empower women to give them that feel good feeling. As long as I can help people feel that feel good and make them confident, empower them, that's enough for me. I want to put workshops on all over Ireland - get into women's sheds, schools - that type of thing. I love working with teenagers. So that is the goal. It's just to go all over with this.

Angelina: What advice would you give to someone who wants to set out on their own path with business?

Dee: If I can set up my own business at 25 with two kids and not a clue, then anyone can! It was a most successful business. Anyone who has any ideas out there, what do you have to lose? If it doesn't work, so what? The biggest thing for me is people care what people think. Do what you have to do yourself. If it's the smallest thing, you just want to set up your own little corner in your house, do it and get out there and just keep at it. It took me a few years to build a business. It'll take me a few years to build the Trendee Coach as well. But I'm going to enjoy that journey, and people should enjoy the journey, getting to where they want to get and just not care what people think. Get up, just do it.