“’BRING the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.’” – Malachi 3:10
“’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” – Jeremiah 29:11
Siksik. Liglig. Overflowing in Abundance.
That is how Olivia Quido-Co described her life, quite pregnant with miracles. Her face lights up speaking of God and His manifested goodness. It is as if she was describing falling in love for the first time, with her then-boyfriend, Jason, now her husband, Jason Co, with whom she has four children.
It was a cold morning as 1.9 inches of rain had fallen that one can only get warm with a down jacket, a scarf and windproof pants. A windblast gets one feeling like a refrigerator at 32°F. Streets were flooded and cars slowed down.
Yet, the rain did not dampen Ms. Quido-Co’s sunshine demeanor. She is a petite woman, made more beautiful with her big smile greeting you and an inescapable flawless, glowing skin and her signature warmth.
To start our conversation, we prayed to the Holy Spirit for guidance to achieve a collective sense of enlightenment and in turn, a story of hope and miracles to share with our Asian Journal’s readers.
It is the month of Christmas, 20 days to be exact as of this writing, before Christ is born. The First Sunday of Advent has started and most Christmas decorations are up. In the White House, a theme of patriotism is supposedly embodied in bloody red Christmas trees, but what I liked the most is the wreath of pencils to symbolize the First Lady’s theme of “be best.”
“Until I truly believed in the power of God and the power of tithing, I did not experience God’s overflowing abundance,” Olivia asserted.
“How have God’s miracles manifested in your life,” I asked?
“Siksik. Liglig. Overflowing in abundance,” she said, “My father was only 35 years old when he had a heart attack. He was a company driver then and my mother was a stay-at-home housewife. I remember going to the chapel where he was hospitalized, UST Chapel, so alone at 9 years old. I knelt down. I asked God for a complete cure for my father, who had several tubes attached to him. I asked for another opportunity to have him. God answered my prayers, as my dad is now 68 years old, alive and healthy.”
But the miracle did not stop there. She recalled her mother opening up her own business in Divisoria, selling children’s clothes and 35 years later, her retail business grew some more to now a wholesale distributor to department stores.
Imagine her mother was then a housewife who could have despaired and gone into depression, yet chose to be positive and created a business opportunity to support her family. In her challenge, she discovered she had business and people skills.
What lessons did you learn from your mother, I asked?
“Ang paghandle ng tao (how she took care of people). Laging may pagkain ang staff. Merienda, hapunan, ano mang oras. Iyong ipa pabahay pa niya ang staff. Tapos may pabahay showcase (Plenty of food for the staff. Merienda, dinner, whatever time. Others even had housing. And still housing showcase like end of the year prizes of microwave, television, radio and extra monies). She was so good with people and super generous. Those were her examples to me.”
“Siksik. Liglig. Business is overflowing in God’s unsolicited blessings.”
“Siksik. Liglig. Overflowing in grace,” she emphasized, “My pencils then were Sanrio, mechanical pencils and they were all matching up with Hello Kitty designs in my pencil box, handkerchief, notebook and notepad. At that time, I did not realize that my mother was giving me the “best of the best,” a standard that I now appreciate.”
A business thrives if three elements of people, process and products have converged with palpable excellence and moving with a unified mission of delivering the best quality product or services.
I experimented with getting my monthly facials from different aestheticians to test how rigorous the training is as well as the quality control standards.
How do you recruit, train and sustain your employees, I asked?
To which she answered, “I personally look at attitude and how they speak to me. I do not emphasize the resume. It is more of – does she smile? Her eye contact? Attitude cannot be taught, but skill can. Some get the skills in one month, some in six months. I am not bothered by how long it takes them to learn the skills because I am the ultimate customer that they will apply facials on. If I do not like the feel of their hands on my face, then I will teach them how to soap the face – sometimes it takes two eight-hour days of applying only soap to the face until they master the correct amount of pressure, the way their hands feel on my face, only then would I teach them the next skill.”
But while she might be patient in training, gruff and rough demeanor with poor attitude are non-negotiables.
“One time I had a dean’s lister with a well-rounded resume but I could not get her to smile nor connect with me, despite my efforts so I did not hire her,” she said.
I have tried six aestheticians now and all six have delivered the quality facial services with warmth, efficacy, and credible interaction, affirming the belief of Miss Quido-Co that “Attitude cannot be taught, but skill can.”
It is perhaps that quality and reliable royal treatment that ordinary folks look for, her reliable clients. One time, I talked to a casino worker, including a waitress who told me that they both saved up their month’s salary to get facials at O Skin Care.
To sustain her employees’ loyalty, “I treat them as family. I praise them publicly but I correct them privately.”
I interjected that all six of her staff speak highly of how they are treated well, how they get their pampering at an exclusive upscale hotel and their bonuses of additional income for zero absences in a whole month’s pay period, all on Ms. Quido-Co’ s expense account.
She owns two sites: O Skin Care in Eagle Rock that is a storefront to buy the skin products and O Skin MedSpa in Cerritos Mall, which employs professional nurses and aestheticians. The latter location underwent remodeling recently.
On one Saturday, I was a client having my facials. The front desk, looking like one of the storefronts in Beverly Hills with appointed chandeliers, woodblock covered walls and gold-rimmed designs on the wallpaper, was buzzing with customers. The Medspa’s Saturday appointments are filled up to May 2019.
That corner spot of Cerritos Mall was once an underachieving location and was vacant. Yet, it is now buzzing with customers who fly from all over the U.S., just to be pampered with facials and given a movie star’s royal treatment. Her online products are doing quite well, as they are now shipped to the United Arab Emirates, Japan, London, Belgium, Italy, Singapore, Hong Kong, France and all over the United States.
The power of tithing changed her
In 2003, Olivia came to the U.S. with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration (major in Computer Applications) from De La Salle University-St. Benilde. However, computer applications were not her passion.
Back then, her heart was broken by a failed romance. She sought refuge and healing, and went to the U.S. on a student visa. She enrolled in Cerritos College and pursued cosmetology, but realized that she was more interested in researching different skin problems. Her teacher suggested that she focus on skin care, which she did.
On her free days, she would clean windows and storage rooms at Son A Chaandi, a retail store in Cerritos. She would use a squeegee to clean the windows – that became her first lesson in quality – to use a ladder and reach high, in order to be able to do a thorough job. She also learned eyebrow threading.
By humbling herself and exploring all facets of the business, she told herself she too would become an entrepreneur. That who is last shall become first, as the biblical saying goes.
To conserve her meager resources, she shared a room and a car with her cousin. They took turns using the car and there were days when it was her turn to take the bus.
After she graduated, Ms. Quido-Co applied for a job in Macy’s and JC Penney. But she could not land the job for lack of local experience.
With a college degree and an aesthetician’s license, Ms. Quido-Co applied to nursing school, but was not accepted.
Hope still alive in her, she opened up her own business and applied what she learned from Cerritos College.
With only $1,500 in savings, she moved forward. She met Lody Garcia, who became her mentor, surrogate mother and guardian angel.
Initially, Olivia saw an ad for a business space at Lody’s Styling Center at the Artesia Mall. However, she decided to go to Ludy’s Salon first, where the unimproved, unfurnished space was offered at $800/month.
Olivia knew that an $800/month rent would stretch her beyond capacity and that she won’t be able to afford it in the long run.
On the first floor, she saw that Lody’s Styling Center was offering a furnished space, a bed for facial services and inventory — all for only $200/month.
“Lody Garcia was an extraordinary, generous landlord, who to this day, supplies me with trays and trays of food. Back then, I paid $200 for monthly rent, but she also cooked meals and fed me daily. I must have eaten more than the $200 rent that I paid her. She is just generous,” Ms. Quido-Co continued.
She was determined. She analyzed how the network of connections was formed and offered facials to key folks, building her clientele through trust.
Trust is an elusive intangible to acquire. It is not just given to anyone who is still new in the business. It is acquired through repeated quality service, and personal “kabaitan” — personal goodwill, where one will always treat the other in an honorable way.
“Relying on my own intelligence, relying on my own strength, [skills, reputation and experience], I distributed flyers in different supermarkets to build my client base,” Olivia recounted.
She offered facial service for $45, at times even giving $10-discounts to clients who request for it. Once she increased her clientele, she had the promise of return business.
After being a solo entrepreneur for two years at her first business location, she decided that it was not sustainable. She felt disheartened and thought of giving up.
But Jeremiah 29:11 made her realize that God is in charge of her business. “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ “
“Si God naman ang magpapasweldo (It is God who will give me the salary),” she said.
Olivia changed direction from personal power and self-reliance, and asked a Higher Being to be her Universal Partner, whom she calls Father God.
“Once I claimed that promise, I realized that the Lord was giving me a lesson through the trials I was going through. You don’t learn everything [when you’re successful], you learn more when you are down, kakailanganin mo ‘yon, ang pagbangon (You need the trials so you know how to recover),” she continued.
She kept cultivating trust, an intangible that was not easy to build. It was difficult to find the clients that it took her five years to build a reliable base. In the meantime, she was restless.
“I wanted this, I wanted that, I kept chasing worldly things, using my own strength. Then, I learned 10 percent tithing to the Church where I receive God’s word, and that if I turn my back on worldly things, and turn towards the Lord, blessing after blessing [would come.] It was truly overwhelming. Sobrang galing talaga ni Lord (God is all omnipotent).”
“For two years, I kept up my tithing, but my take-home income was still at $500 a week. So I asked the Lord – did you not promise an overflowing abundance if I do tithing?”
It turns out, as she recounted, “I was not a consistent giver, I even had a poor attitude in tithing, sometimes I would give $50 a week, other times, I would change it to $30,” she said, then “I turned to the Bible and it gave me this response – The Lord loves a cheerful giver, from then on, my income of $500 became $1000 and then $1,500. Today, I tell my accountant that 10 percent tithing is an absolute expense for my business. Only then did the tremendous blessings pour out that we are so overwhelmed.”
A client had a severe case of acne. She provided facials but the condition did not improve. “I released the problem to the Lord and prayed for this client’s acne to heal: “Lord, I want your healing power, I cannot do this anymore,” Ms. Quido-Co said.
After a month, the client called and asked: “What did you do? My acne has cleared up.”
That’s when she realized that in all aspects of her work, she could rely on God’s healing powers and merciful grace.
Relying on her Universal Partner, her personal goodwill was transformed into a business asset.
God’s overflowing grace continues
She wanted more children. Within a year of wishing it, she got pregnant. In seven weeks and six days, she experienced the beginnings of a miracle. Her ultrasound technician told her that the baby is seven weeks and six days old. She then asked, “Is there more?” Her technician said there is one empty sac, while another sac has a heartbeat and a fetus in formation.
She kept asking – “why is it like that,” to which the technician said, “In my many years of experience, that is simply called “the vanishing twin,” where the twin or multiple disappears in the uterus during pregnancy.”
“This syndrome was first recognized in 1945 and the fetal tissue is absorbed by the other twin, multiple, placenta or mother,” according to American Pregnancy Association’s website.
Ms. Quido-Co fervently prayed and asked God to give her two viable twins. A week later, she saw the technician on a Saturday. Days later, on a Wednesday, she woke up from her sleep and declared, “I am having twins, “ and slept again.
By that next Saturday, the technician examined her again and declared, “You have twins, one is eight weeks and six days, another is eight weeks and five days.” The technician wondered – how could have that happened?
Ms. Quido-Co smiled – “God gave me a miracle.”
To which I reflected back to her: God has solidly given you miracles much like a four-legged table, or in all directions of the world: east, west, north and south. God is saying to you, He is solidly in your corner, and you are favored!
The rains poured out its strength and the streets were flooded, giving us a pause, as Malachi 3:10 – bring your tithing to the storehouse and you will experience siksik, liglig, and God’s overflowing bounty!
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Prosy Abarquez-Delacruz, J.D. writes a weekly column for Asian Journal, called “Rhizomes.” She has been writing for AJ Press for 10 years. She also contributes to Balikbayan Magazine. Her training and experiences are in science, food technology, law and community volunteerism for 4 decades. She holds a B.S. degree from the University of the Philippines, a law degree from Whittier College School of Law in California and a certificate on 21st Century Leadership from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. She has been a participant in NVM Writing Workshops taught by Prof. Peter Bacho for 4 years and Prof. Russell Leong. She has travelled to France, Holland, Belgium, Japan, Costa Rica, Mexico and over 22 national parks in the US, in her pursuit of love for nature and the arts.
