The woman, the myth, the legend. These are the words that come to mind when I think of Isabel Varela, a visionary entrepreneur who inspires women all over the world to pursue their passions and align with their purpose, just as she has done for herself.
With fashion designer, small business owner, artist, master tailor, filmmaker, life coach, and Airbnb owner as just a few of the many titles she’s tucked under her belt over the years, Varela has a wide variety of experience when it comes to starting a business and brand from scratch. She’s also one of the only business mentors who truly closes the circle for her clients by bringing the elements that matter most into the business-building equation: self-love, acceptance, and spirituality.
I had the privilege of sitting down with Varela to learn more about her incredible, inspirational journey: a practice in burning it all down and starting over, only to build herself back up better than ever.
The inception of Isabel Varela
Varela’s professional journey started when she was 16 and working at a retail store. It was there that she began dreaming of starting her own fashion brand one day.
“One of the reasons I fell in love with the industry was actually because of the movie Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead,” Varela said. “She had a fashion show at the end of the movie, and I thought to myself, ‘I want to do that, too!’ I also grew up devouring fashion magazines, telenovelas, and watching New York, Paris, and Italian fashion weeks. Finally, I realized I wanted to make this my business. That was my dream.”
Beyond a deep love for fashion, Varela was surrounded by a wealth of inspiration when it came to entrepreneurship; her father, mother, grandmothers, and brothers had each built their own businesses, so she had the privilege of seeing how possible it was from a very young age.
“I jumped right in at 23 and started my first fashion brand,” Varela said. “I invested $200 in a competition in Dallas, and the rest is history. I got some orders from that show, and realized…oh my god! I know how to create these things, and how to start building this. So I did.”
As a twenty-something, Varela quickly became one of the youngest Designers to Watch in the South: she opened her own studio in Dallas, and before she knew it, she’d scaled to a robust team of 13 people.
“I had three salespeople helping me; I was working with a manufacturing company, a cutter, three sewers, and four interns,” Varela said. “But that led me to having a major breakdown—personally, financially, emotionally, and spiritually—because I was $100,000 in debt.”
A dangerous love affair with fashion—and Carrie Bradshaw
Externally, Varela was the “it” girl in Dallas’s fashion scene: she was featured on TV and in magazines and dressing celebrities and VIPs. But internally, she felt lost, confused, and far away from her truth, whatever that was.
“That’s when my rock bottom came. I was trying so hard to be the Latina version of Carrie Bradshaw. I loved Sex and the City, and my dream was to move to New York City to be just like her, with all the shoes,” Varela laughed.
“That show made that world seem so easy to get into, and I pictured myself just like her. But at that moment, faced with all of that debt, I was forced to wake up. I enrolled myself in a debt management program, connected with a therapist who eventually became my life coach and mentor, and started paying off my debt little by little.”
This wasn’t without sacrifice on her part: Varela was forced to close her business and start working full time. She eventually followed her dreams and moved to New York City, but her debt was still hanging over her head. As a result, she had to get very creative and resourceful.
“I’d gotten a job in Dallas as a tailor, and that’s what got me to NYC. My first job in New York, I went from tailor to manager in three months. I started running a group of 12 tailors, and I was able to rebuild my brand in a new way while I was there,” Varela said. “I started building my business on the side, and I got to the point where I was working full-time, freelancing on the side, and also bringing in some clients for my own budding brand.”
To fulfill her growing brand’s demands, Varela transformed her apartment into a sewing space. Equipped with a sewing machine, pattern-making table, and more, she hired a pattern maker and a sewer, who would come to her house and work while she was at her tailoring job.
“I was managing my own business while also managing tailors at work. After that, I moved jobs to Saks Fifth Avenue, and this is where I was able to scale my business tenfold,” Varela said.
One of her first big clients was Ryan Seacrest, who she connected with through her Saks network of trusted and happy customers. From there, she started getting more celebrities and VIP clients wanting to work with her because of her reputation: she was working on film and photography sets, connecting with more people and scaling even more.
“I was making more than enough money with that. But then, I built an Airbnb business out of my apartment because I wanted to pay off my debt even faster. So at this point, I’m handling alterations, running Airbnb, working full time, and scaling my business, because now I’m working at Balmain as a master tailor, and I’m getting more celebrities wanting to work with me on the side,” Varela said.
By 2018—and with a lot of blood, sweat, and tears—Varela had paid off all of her debt. She’d also learned a lot more about the fashion industry from the inside, and uncovered its undeniable darkness in the process.
“I decided I wanted to do everything better, both from an environmental perspective and to address the fashion/consumerism addiction that had landed me in so much debt. So, I created a documentary—with no film experience! Fashion Addict won two awards, and that pretty much started the beginning of my whole path changing once again: this time, to be more sustainable,” Varela said.
“I found the right community and started sharing my story of addiction. This landed me more speaking engagements, and I started getting paid. That inspired me to want to start building more awareness so I could share my story everywhere.”
The path to full-time entrepreneurship
By the time 2020 rolled around, Varela’s mission was to become a full-time entrepreneur so she could work entirely on her own terms, sharing her gifts and her story with the audience that needed it most. At this point, she’d been helping build other businesses, so she knew she had it in her to scale something incredible. However, it didn’t fully click until 2022, when she started getting more life coaching students.
“I had so many different people I was helping, and I realized I just wanted to build my own thing. So in 2022, I got a spiritual message; it actually came through at 4:44 a.m. while I was in LA sharing my story,” Varela said. “I had started picking up some clients for closet decluttering, which had become a whole new business unto itself, and at 4:44, I got the message to combine everything. And this resulted in me building Repurpose Your Life.”
The Repurpose Your Life course is Varela’s latest and most passionate venture yet: an intensive service that helps other women build their own business. Varela realized that everything she’d created came from her own gifts and talents as a way to service others, and Repurpose Your Life was the key to keep evolving and helping women along the way.
“This is the first time in my life I’ve ever focused on one thing. It’s actually really uncomfortable, and I still go through highs and lows, because I’ve had to give up my other ventures to focus on this. But it’s so worth it,” Varela said.
Repurpose Your Life is a 16-week mentorship helping women entrepreneurs build a life and business with purpose. But what exactly does that mean?
“The mentorship covers mindset, time management, building a business, and grounding in sustainability and impact—in that order,” Varela said. “The reason I formatted the course in that order is because when I was going through my debt recovery, I didn’t have the right mindset. I was down on myself and my self worth, but if I’d had more of a growth mindset in the beginning, I probably would have paid my debt off a lot quicker.”
Varela helps women entrepreneurs get their mindset right before going any further, because a healthy and positive mindset is the foundational and most necessary building block for creating a bright and impactful future.
One-track…but still wearing a few different hats
Although Varela is fully focused on growing Repurpose Your Life as her main source of income, that hasn’t stopped her from pursuing her other passions on the side.
“My heart is still in making the fashion industry better—just from the outside. So, I’m doing more policy work, advocating for sustainability and getting people paid fairer wages,” Varela said. “I’m also still deeply connected to my spiritual side, and I’ve been initiated through a shamanic apprenticeship as a practitioner. I also do sound healing, which speaks to a lot of people and has really helped with transformation.”
Want to connect with Isabel? Save this FREE date!
Speaking of spirituality and transformation: Varela is hosting a free Mastermind event from November 18-19—a two-day webinar where you can connect with like-minded women entrepreneurs from 5-8 p.m. EST.
“In those two days, I’ll teach you frameworks and playbooks to improve time management. We’ll also talk about turning pain into purpose, tapping into a growth mindset, and the transformation and decluttering method,” Varela said. “This session has helped over 40 people to really see decluttering in a new way; when we declutter our things, we declutter our mind and energy too.”
This Mastermind event will also feature other successful women entrepreneurs sharing their gifts, knowledge, tips and tricks on how to take sustainable, attainable action steps to turn challenges into opportunities—and it comes with a special surprise at the end.
“My favorite thing about this event is how safe everyone feels. Everyone gets really vulnerable; it’s happened at every single one, and it’s so powerful,” Varela said.
Varela will also be launching a course on decluttering on Black Friday: an online community that will meet once a month to talk about decluttering and best practices for organizational success.
“And if people aren’t ready for the Mastermind, don’t worry! You can still sign up for the Mindful Founders Toolkit newsletter for entrepreneurs, which gives you a free toolkit to get started on your journey,” Varela said. “You’ll gain access to sound healing frequencies for relaxation, a list of 20 books and movies to help get you started, and some tips for business and personal development.”
To sign up for Varela’s unmissable Mastermind event, click here. You can also subscribe to the newsletter here, and follow her on Instagram for regular updates on all things Varela and Repurpose Your Life.
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