The beauty businesswoman who has been talked about the most lately, Paz Torralba (Salamanca, 1974), meets me at the Mandarin Oriental Ritz spa, the official headquarters of her new ‘office’ for more than seven months now, although she has been working in this magical enclave that has earned the nickname of ‘Madrid Hot-Spot’ many more. She comes prepared with two changes of ‘look’ and brimming with vitality. After the photo session, in which she moves like a fish in water, we began the interview. We talked, not without several interruptions typical of a beauty guru who manages five of the best valued beauty, health and well-being centers in our country, about her beginnings, her achievements and her life lessons.
“It all started at home. My parents, hoteliers with their own business, always spoke passionately about their work at family meals. I was the only one in the family who worked for someone else. At that time I was an investment banking advisor, a position that I kept for 16 years, and I was itching to have something of my own. At first I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, what I did know was that I wanted to work on something that would make people happy, something related to beauty and well-being Working with statistics as I did, it was clear to me that one of the sectors that best survives in times of crisis is luxury and beauty, and in March 2005, after several months of training and taking courses on skin care , I opened The Beauty Concept on Calle Chile (Madrid). I combined both jobs for six years struggling a lot, the beginnings were very hard”.
Her long career in banking was a fundamental pillar in becoming the successful businesswoman that she is. “I started in the sector in January 1996 and I spent 16 years in the business banking unit. There I was in different areas of the capital market. In a first stage I had a part of the retail distribution area, my clients were the offices themselves of Caja Madrid, where the work of presentation and follow-up of the fixed and variable income issues managed by the entity was carried out.Then I moved to the loan origination and syndication area, where I was in charge of the fixed and variable income issues (issuances of bonds, IPOs, etc.) After 13 years I went to corporate banking with my own portfolio of large accounts in which I worked for the next three years”.
The decision to abandon finances to give himself fully to his dream was imminent. “At home it was always said: ‘If you have a business of your own, you have to be there, because if you’re not there it will never work’. And it’s true. So I decided that I couldn’t be in two places at the same time, it was incompatible, and I decided to quit my job in a bank. I jumped into the pool. TBC was beginning to grow and, either I got involved with all the consequences, or I delegated it to someone. Today I am very happy to have taken that step, although I work infinitely more, it has a great reward that I feel every day and encourages me to continue working with effort and passion”.
Paz is an example of female leadership and her discretion is a rare bird in this sector. Among her various professional achievements, in 2019 she was recognized as one of the 500 most influential women in Spain by Yo Dona magazine. In my curiosity to know how she came to run the spa of one of the best luxury establishments in the world that, in fact, never outsources this type of service, she proudly states that: “It’s the first time they’ve done it. It all started a two years ago, when I was surprised by the call from the manager of the Ritz Hotel asking for me. I thought it was a mistake because I knew the hotel was closed, but it was true and they wanted to meet us. They told us that we had been selected among other centers by several reasons: public image, protocol with clients, results in a single session (several clients had been sent to us incognito, as in the Michelin Guide), line of haute cosmetics firms and attention to detail. Today, I can only say that it has been a wonderful project, a dream come true”.
Paz’s day-to-day life is exhausting, although he carries it with astonishing sportsmanship. “I get up very early. The hotel spa is open every day and I like to be there. I am very demanding and meticulous with everything and working with the level of demand of our clients requires absolute perseverance and dedication. Everything must be perfect, from the towels, the placement of the products, the cleanliness, the music, the atmosphere… Absolutely everything must be ready to satisfy our public. It’s a matter of organizing. Although it may seem hard to believe, I never come home tired and I always find time to be with my family, call my parents and siblings, walk my dog Kira or go out for a drink”.
The secret of success
Is there the secret of success? “It’s perseverance. Not believing that you know everything. Every day you have to learn new things (in fact, I still have a lot to learn). A mixture of humility, work, perseverance, many hours and knowledge, always knowledge I study in detail all the signatures, all the active principles and protocols, before making the decision to incorporate it.In fact, we have a laboratory of ideas where the medical and aesthetic team meet every month to evaluate each signature that comes to us. We have a rule, and that is that we never do free collaborations in order to be absolutely honest and have the freedom to choose what really works and thus be able to guarantee results.They offer us free equipment and product simply to use us as a showcase and thus be able to sell to other centers, but we have never accepted it, it is against our business ethics”.
“For a business to work, it is essential to be and have a highly qualified team, which is in permanent training. Our employees are up to the task of a client who, on many occasions, knows almost as much as you do. They have continuous training from each firm and we hired them four months before starting so that they are very clear about the respective philosophies of The Beauty Concept and Mandarin Oriental.In the case of the hotel, a spa manager came from Milan to do all the rentrée for us, the protocol to follow to treat the client , from how to address him to how to fold a towel, the hand and foot washing protocol prior to any treatment (seal of the hotel group) or the tea ritual”.
Head to toe service
When I ask him how his centers differ from the rest, he affirms without hesitation: “TBC offers a comprehensive beauty, aesthetics and wellness service from head to toe, literally, with added value. From manual aesthetic treatments to state-of-the-art appliances. generation; 360 aesthetic medicine; hairdressing and hair care; manicures and pedicures; eyebrow design; nutrition; personal training; coaching; And all this while enjoying a signature cocktail, a healthy snack or quietly teleworking. You can even take the opportunity to do some last-minute purchases and of course take your care home with the best personalized cosmetics”.
“On the other hand, we differ in the knowledge and technique of our team, perfectly prepared to be able to make a good personalized diagnosis and execute the treatments guaranteeing results. In the hands of our professionals, highly qualified both in aesthetics and aesthetic medicine, nutrition, personal training, hairdressing or physiotherapy lies in success”.
The Beauty Concept (thebeautyconcept.com) has four centers in Madrid (three of them on Ortega y Gasset street), and manages the spa at the Mandarin Oriental Ritz Hotel. After the pandemic, they have recovered 20% of their turnover compared to previous years. In November 2020, he opened TBC Hair, a hair salon-boutique-art gallery; in April 2021 the Mandarin Oriental Ritz spa and in September of this year the TBC Store, a comprehensive diagnostic center with the latest in equipment and product sales, right next to its other two centers in the Salamanca neighborhood. “We are working on new projects. The future is the present.”
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