Student, Athlete, Entrepreneur

Meet Daniela Maldonado, owner and founder of Hello Bath & Body Company. In case running a successful business wasn’t enough, Daniela is also majoring in Physics at Rutgers University and captains her collegiate fencing club! If you’ve ever thought you were too busy to accomplish everything, one look at Daniela’s schedule will have you thinking again. Below Daniela shares a day in the life of a student, athlete, and entrepreneur.

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Hi, I’m Daniela Maldonado, owner and founder of Hello Bath & Body Company based in Oakland, NJ. I am touted for being a full-time everything; in addition to my business, I …am a full-time student at Rutgers University working towards my physics degree, am President of the Rutgers Fencing Club, serve on the Tournament Committee for the New Jersey Division of the United States Fencing Association, and am expected to fence competitively for the New York Athletic Club this season. Whew! That was a mouthful. So, want to see what my typical day is like? Let’s go!

Today is a Tuesday and my morning starts at 6 AM. At this time, I’m feeding my pets, checking emails, and cutting soap made the previous day. By 7, I’ve walked to the bus and am on my way to the train station in nearby Ridgewood. Tuesdays are good, because I catch the express trains in the morning. My usual commute lasts anywhere from 1.5-2.5 hours depending on whether or not the trains are running on schedule.

A little bit after 9, I make it to campus. By this point, I’ve done plenty of work and phone calls while on the train. I look at my schedule nearly 50 times a day:

The definition of how I get through my days. I have a personal planner for school and fencing and a notebook just for business notes and to-do’s. I leave space in my personal planner “free” – this usually means I’m free to make product or purchase supplies depending on where I am.

Tuesday mornings this semester, I have my last lab course – Computer Based Experimentation and Physics Computing. It’s as fun as it sounds. What you see here is a Geiger tube and counter, counting the nuclear decay of 137Cs. It’s more or less a practice in Gaussian and Poisson distributions, and took way too long. I have one more class today at 1:40 and that runs until 3.

After class today, I am looking at an office space in downtown New Brunswick. I spend a lot of time in New Brunswick, and I’ve considered moving some of my workload down here – distribution and whatnot. The building was nice, but the space itself was a bit unkempt and depressing. Next up is a meeting with our program director for the fencing club at the University. If you’re not familiar with Rutgers New Brunswick, it is comprised of five different campuses, with an inter-campus bus system. The short ride from New Brunswick to Piscataway looks like this:

This actually isn’t too bad, but you can imagine how bad it gets right before and after classes on any given campus. Being in charge of the fencing club is not what I wanted to be at this point in my college career. I was looking for something more along the lines of Varsity Team Captain – but our athletic department controversially cut six Olympic sports right after my freshman year. I think about this plenty, but it just gives me more incentive to create a great experience for the club members.

After 8 hours on campus, I’m off to New York for fencing practice. Mondays and Thursdays I have practice at school, while Tuesdays and Fridays I practice at the New York Athletic Club near Central Park South. Dinner tonight? More like a late lunch – veggie delight sub! I get the foot-long for a mere $5 and save the other half for after practice. I try and use my commuting time wisely. Today, I’m reading a few journals on clinical trials of Arnica montana for a research project in my Herbals and Neutraceuticals class:

Joining me on my journey is my fencing bag, which I swear weighs 100 lbs. It doesn’t, it’s more like 30. Maybe 25. This bag holds more than $600 in equipment and you can imagine I hold onto it tightly everywhere I go:

The New York Athletic Club is responsible for bringing fencing to the U.S. and is a host to both Olympic fencers and coaches over the years. I would certainly say I am lucky to be able to fence amidst the amazing athletes there. They inspire me and keep me going – and some of them are just great friends. During the week, time at the club is essentially the only time I get with my boyfriend, but he is one of my biggest supporters and is always understanding. I get home around 11 later that evening, tired out and ready to go to sleep. Friday through Sunday is not as jam-packed, and that’s when I get my production time and I do my Farmers’ Market on Saturdays as well.

My advice to other ambitious individuals? Time management is key! I promise you, you can do it all, just prioritize. Prioritize, write everything down, and schedule accordingly. And when I say schedule, I mean schedule everything – not just appointments. Whether it’s answering emails, picking up lunch, or that bath you’ve been dying to take – write it in. I’ll admit, I don’t schedule in my lunches or dinners, but my stomach will tell you I should. Some might think I try to do too much, but I just remind myself that I am doing everything I want to do – and that keeps me happy and successful.

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About the business: Hello Bath & Body Co. was founded in 2008 and has locally been a success since its beginning. A perfect blend of science and art, soapmaking became a passion of mine and there was no turning back. I strive for Hello Bath & Body Co. to be a business with a conscience: part of profits are donated to reforestation projects in Indonesia (http://orangutans-sos.org/) and organic or sustainably-harvested oils and ingredients are used where possible. Follow Hello as it grows at www.hellobathandbody.com or keep up with Daniela at http://hellosoap.blogspot.com