Meet Veronica Smith | Licensed Vocational Nurse/Chief Executive Officer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Veronica Smith and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Veronica, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
My dreams of being an entrepreneur started as a young girl in small country town in East Texas that didn’t quite provide a space for me to “fit in.” I’ve listened to my mother & father tell stories over the years of a 3 year old walking around with an Encyclopedia spelling “Quebec” to anyone that would listen. That 3 year old was me. I was super inquisitive and always wanted to read from the young age of 2.

I remember the first time I realized that I was not the average student in class. My parents received a letter in the mail addressed to me and the C/O them. Now if you know anything about growing up in the 80’s, if a letter came home, something was going on and it wasn’t good news, LOL. But lucky for me, this particular time it was. The school district was inviting me to a brand new program for students who were “advanced” called R2D2. Oh the teasing that came upon this very special group of 3rd graders! We were pulled from schools across the small city and placed in one school at Carver Academy. We were challenged every day in every class. We even wrote books in the 5th grade! I will never forget it. “Rah Rah Rampage” was the title and of the 4 people in our group, I wrote the majority of that horror story. I loved to write just as much as I loved to read. I always wanted to be an author, pediatric surgeon with my own practice, a singer, & the CEO of a successful business. I wrote stories every year in my advanced writing classes of just how my life would be. I would run multiple successful businesses in those stories.

Well, life happened, and not exactly as I planned it. I had 2 children by the age of 22 and was a single mother for 5 years before I met my husband. I struggled and did what I needed to do to take care of my children. I didn’t do everything right and I made many mistakes along the way. But when I look back on them, I am so glad I did. I’ve learned so much about others and more importantly, me.

I’ve worked in healthcare for over 22 years and the last 10 I’ve spent in nursing. I never became a pediatric surgeon but I got my piece of the medical field. I’ve worked with children and adults as patients. And I wouldn’t trade the experiences with those patients for anything. Many of them taught me more than I could ever teach them about life, humility, and gratefulness.

These last couple of years living in a pandemic, & working as a nurse in a pandemic brought me back to where I first started. The outcast. The one who has never fit in. The black sheep of my family and amongst my friends. The feeling of wanting to walk away from healthcare for the last 6 years really hit me hard. It solidified what I had learned only 6 months into my nursing career. And that is healthcare is no longer about helping others and saving lives. It’s about the almighty dollar. I did not become a nurse for the pay. Honestly the salary isn’t enough. Nurses are just as underpaid as teachers. Now, some will read this and recount the many nurses who worked during the pandemic making salaries never seen in our time. I was one of them. What I will say to that is all money ain’t good money. Yes, I said ain’t. It’s not about the pay when you are risking your life for companies that will post your job the same day if you died. I’ve seen it happen. The money didn’t stop the disrespect, degradation, humiliation, & condescending attitudes from fellow nurses that look down on LVN’s. The money wasn’t enough for me to continue to be treated just the way I was on every other job I have ever worked in healthcare.

For 22 years I have had to go to work and play down my knowledge and intelligence so that my managers, supervisors, and even some coworkers, could feel better about themselves. My urge to walk away and just start a business, any business, started strong again in 2016. But I fought it off.

Fast forward to 2018, along came the straw that broke the camel’s back. My job at the time had gone through an “integration” with another large corporation and the managers were all replaced. The new manager of my team had barley graduated nursing school and had little to no experience. She couldn’t stand me knowing anything more than what she thought I should know. So she constantly picked on me. She made comments about my hair, clothing, and makeup daily.

One particular day I went to work and my hair was colored black a reddish burgundy color. The manager told me that my hair color was not acceptable because it was not a naturally occurring color from my scalp. I had worn this hair color many times before the integration and there was never an issue and there was never any discussion with staff that our company policies were changing over to theirs. So instead of giving me a chance to change my hairstyle in an acceptable amount of time, I was forced to work alone in a closet so that patients could not see me. I was humiliated. I was furious. I was hurt. And I was done. I took my case to the EOE officer with proof that women of other races had hair color that was not naturally occurring from the scalp. Nothing was done, so I resigned. I began my research that day into starting my own business. Starting a business is not for the weak or faint of heart. And certainly not for those with no money to put into it. So I stopped again.

After the pandemic hit hard in 2020 I had finally decided on an industry outside of nursing to start a business that could still use nurses. I decided on Beauty & Personal Care. DIF Me Beauty Bar was born on 03/02/21. I was working on another business venture at the same time and a mentor told me that I needed to be prepared for the fight of my life. I asked why and she told me said “the moment you start to walk in your purpose, you will be attacked by the enemy like never before.”

April 2021, my grandmother passed away. Not long after my mother was diagnosed with a terminal illness. In August 2021, my sister became ill with COVID. September 2021, my sister lost her battle with COVID and my husband lost his grandmother the next week. September 2021, I lost my corporate nursing job 4 days after my sister’s funeral.

My whole life seemed to be falling apart. The day my sister died is the same day I went live on social media for DIF Me. She was being weened off of the paralytic and about to be taken off of the ventilator when I left her and drove 2 hours back home. I was so excited for her to get off and start rehabilitation so that we could cut up and laugh about the beauty bar. Less than 30 minutes after I created the FB Page, I got the call that something went wrong with removing the ventilator and my sister was gone.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
For 22 years I have worked in healthcare. I have spent the last 10 as a nurse and my last 6 years have been in case coordination, case management, & utilization management.

The one thing that sets me apart from others is my ability to reach any patient, just where they are. I’ve seen patients in million dollar homes and patients that didn’t have a home. If you had to pick which was which by the way I treated them, you would never know the difference. I am most proud of the lives I know I saved due to barriers and miseducation. I never met a non-compliant patient as they are sometime addressed. They had barriers to care and needed someone to listen. And that’s exactly what I did.

I am most excited about my transition into the beauty and personal care industry. We are putting education into skin care and putting skin care into holistic care and that is super exciting!

Professionally, I got to this point by knowing when to hold ’em, when to fold ’em, and when to walk away. We are no longer living in times of staying on jobs for 30 years and settling for disrespect while working ourselves to death for companies that won’t even remember your name.

It wasn’t easy to make the decision to leave any job when I have a family to feed. I was judged and talked about many times. I was called lazy and and told I needed to bow down and correct my attitude. Why are we okay with teaching people that they have to put up with disrespect and hostile work environments that promote mental health issues.? Its a no for me. I was so stressed at my last 3 jobs, my hair was falling out, I gained a ton of weight and I was depressed.

I overcame the challenges by taking ME back, putting me before the job, and giving myself more love. grace, and self care. We are always our own worst critics so when things are not good in the workplace, we carry it from job to job. It’s a form of PTSD that isn’t talked about. I learned that I am no good to any job if I am constantly at war with the job itself, my coworkers, and myself. Therapists, counselors, psychiatrists, get those.

I want the world to know that DIF Me (Do It For Me) has a double meaning. When you think of personal care, self care, and relaxation, you usually want to be pampered by someone else. You want them to do it for you so you can relax. That’s what we are here to do, provide our customers with an individualized stellar customer service experience. That’s our vision. On the other side of that, my husband and I have dreams of a country home and a farm for him to run. I love to entertain and our boys need separate rooms, now, LOL. DIF Me, is going to DIF Me (Do It For Me)! Somebody will get that on the way home.

DIF Me Beauty Bar and the DIF Me Brand will change lives.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Gosh, I need to get out more. I have been in the DFW for 7 years and I can’t begin to tell you where to go. Check back with me by December. That’s all about to change.

I can say Gloria’s, Pappadeaux’s, and Kooly’s are 3 of my favorite places to eat.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
A special shoutout to my husband and my children for believing in me even when I couldn’t believe in myself and for forcing me not to quit, my parents for encouraging me to keep going, and my siblings for being supportive of this adventure. A big thanks to my friends who believe in me and encourage me daily. And most of all, a thank you to the Most High for keeping me through it all.

Website: www.difmebeautybar.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/difmeceo

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/veronica-smith-difmeceo

Twitter: @difmebeautybar

Facebook: www.facebook.com/difmebeautybar

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEq2suheHr5hs4uUy-rBW_w

Other: www.instagram.com/difmebeautybar.com

Image Credits
Nariah Jones