Influencer Ruthlyn Martina: one million dollar woman

Interview November 2021

Could you share with us some information about your family life?
I was born in Curaçao and grew up with my other 3 sisters and 2 brothers. I have a son of 29 years old that after his graduation as an engineer, decided to stay and live in Holland. My father is still alive and he is 92 years old and he lives with us at home, we take care of him. I grew up in a well-structured loving family and my father always put family first. My father used to work at ‘Landsradiodienst’ and he used to work a lot of shifts so my mother always was home and she did all that was needed to run the household including any small repairs needed. So we as her children we were taught so many things that needed to be done with our own hands. My mother was a very intelligent woman, who could do anything. I am more like my mother, I would say. My mother modeled to all of us, as her children, what it is to be multi-facetted in having multiple income sources. Because of her, I can do work as a seamstress, I make handcraft art, I play the guitar and can sing, I can be into the buying and selling of goods, like coconut oil and herbs, I am a good cook and some call me the one million dollar woman. All of this is because of my mother and the upbringing my parents gave me. So I am very grateful for that.

Could you share something about your educational background and your experience?
After primary school, I started in the health care sector as a trainee and I didn’t like that, that wasn’t my calling. So I decided to become a beautician and went to Holland in 1985. I went to Heerlen, Zuid Limburg to study and worked after graduating as one. After a while, I came back to Curaçao and started with my beauty salon “Rumaria Beauty Parlor” offering massages, manicures, and pedicures. But I also offered my services to people in their own homes, their environment and got to know a lot of people living all over the island. My clients are very satisfied with my services and based on referrals I get new clients.

We know you to be a Reiki practitioner and a massage practitioner. We know you use healing stones to treat your clients. Can you tell us more about how this all started?
I started doing Reiki in 1994. I was initiated in Reiki by a Dutch clairvoyant lady. She was impressive as she could look right through you. After I experienced Reiki myself, I helped organize some other beauticians in Curaçao to attend a course this lady would offer, so that they could add Reiki to their treatments of their clients. I didn’t make it to Reiki level 3, as this lady passed away, but I have gained enough experience after following Reiki levels 1 and level 2, to offer Reiki now to my massage clients. What I offer, enables clients to relax deeply, making to forget where they are.

Can tell us more about your massage treatment?
During my career, I have helped a lot of clients. I remember vividly my first client btw. This lady was assaulted at gunpoint in her own house and working at BioSpa close to Burger King, I treated her. After my treatment she could, after long, sleep very deep. This released the trauma and this initiated my career where I would offer treatments to clients at their own home, as these positive experiences from clients via mouth-to-mouth referrals, lead me to build up my client base, making me decide to leave BioSpa and start on my own. I had a lot of clients from the Indian community on the island for 10 to 15 years. I have also worked of late at the Hilton Hotel for 6 months, but I didn’t like that stint as there were not enough clients, tourists to give me the satisfaction that I was working enough. So I decided to quit and stay home with my father and now I am offering my services at our house and planning to see how to fit in the Golden Village network.

I am always in a mode to help people and teach…

What is your BIG WHY or driving motivation to be who you are right now?
I was born to serve and help people as much as I can, I would say. I am always in a mode to help people and teach. I am always telling people in situations what could be the solution. I am very good at finding creative solutions, people approach me and ask me: “What and how would you do this?”.

I am a client of yours too. I can testify about this unique experience as if you pass out. And I also love the treatment of the healing stones.
I bumped into the healing stones by coincidence. I tried it out on my own and liked them so I ordered these healing stones online years ago and my clients love this treatment. It activates your energy and blood flows and it is relaxing.

You offer healing stones in your treatment; you have healing hands and you are always thinking of solutions. Are you clairvoyant?
I have a gift in a way, I can sense things. Someone once told me that in my past lives, I was the leader of a tribe once and a medicine man once. Maybe that explains my interest in herbs. I offer my clients refreshing herb water. I have learned this from my mother and my grandmother. In our family, we rarely went to a doctor because we used herbs to cure whatever disease we had. 

You are a very active person and we have met at Tai Chi at Golden Village. Apart from Tai Chi what more do you do?
Apart from Tai Chi, I hike 4 times a week and I go for a swim once a week. I spend almost the whole day in our garden. I do anything necessary in the garden.

But I am also involved in handcraft arts and I will organize a bazaar before the end of this year to sell my products. I am a guitarist and now I play and sing in the church services on Sunday. In the past, I used to be a member of a cultural group and we would perform serenades during birthday parties. I don’t do that anymore. 

What are your plans for the coming years and when do you consider that you have been successful in your personal and business/professional life, let us say five years from now?  
Five years from now, I will be working in a holistic center together with Dr. Ursula Marchena. On retiring, as long as God gives me health and strength in my hands, everything else will just flow. I will still be involved in this work for sure.

What are the challenges that you are dealing with? And how are you dealing with these different challenges you confront?
I don’t feel I have challenges, I am a very happy person. I don’t need to spend a lot of money on buying clothes, going to restaurants, and not wanting a lot of material things. I feel happy when I am making my handcraft arts, that are unique with my hands.

“I love nature, I love what God has created, I love seeing birds each morning in our garden, our plants…“

I treat my body like it is a temple. I also am perfectly happy with my God-given body and I don’t crave material possessions. I don’t need to re-engineer any part of my body, neither my hair, eyebrows,..etc…I am a very down-to-earth kind of person and I love myself for who I am. I love nature, I love what God has created, I love seeing birds each morning in our garden, our plants, I love myself and I love other people.

Do you use your inner voice to evaluate when dilemmas show up? How does that work for you?
I need to listen to my inner voice otherwise things will not work out for the good of me. I listen and feel my inner voice. Like I know in advance when people are going to cancel an appointment or I would think of somehow and that person would call.

How are you trying also to keep up with your knowledge and skills levels?
YouTube, I google herbs a lot to study what effects it has. Because of YouTube, we don’t necessarily have to buy a book or attend a workshop. Just pick up your phone and there is so much out there that you can learn if you choose to do that of course, instead of watching TikTok or so.

What are your strengths?
I am a very responsible person and strive to be perfect in the things I do. I like being on time and complying with things I promised and I appreciate other people that have the same. Where ever I go, positive things happen. I look at the world always as if the glass is half full.

Do you have hobbies or interests that you are also passionate about?
I love working in the garden, I love gardening, I spend a lot of time in our garden, taking care of the plants in all its aspects that taking care of plants requires.

If you as Ruthlyn would meet a stranger on the bus (let say in New York or Bogota Columbia) and they would ask you to introduce yourself, what would you answer?
I am from Curaçao, a friendly multi-cultural island where one can find anything for any culture, like a hamburger for someone from New York, to different types of music from all over the world that you can hear. I would tell them that I am a beautician and if they would visit the island that they are most welcome to visit my beauty salon “Rumaria Beauty Parlor” and enjoy a massage.

How would you describe Ruthlyn in one word or one sentence?
One million dollar woman, I am a do-it-all.

Who are the persons that have inspired you the most in your life?
My mother taught me so many things. I became just like her, she could do anything she put her mind to.

My father is also a do-it-all. He is a musician and he had his band. He also made his musical instruments like the contrabass, tambu, maracas and he could play so many instruments. Now at 92 years old he still plays the keyboard at times.

What is a trait that is still a work in progress?
Getting better at my craft as the better I am the more I can help and share this with other people.

What was a defining moment in your life?
Well, I would say in 2013 I went back to Holland and just decided to sell everything and move back to Holland for a change in my life that I aspired to that moment in time. But that didn’t last long as within 5 months, I came to Curacao. My lesson learned yes I could visit Holland but on a vacation not to work and live there anymore. I learned that my home is here and that there is no better place than home. In Holland, I am a foreigner, and living it is not easy for foreigners.

 Where do you want to be 10 years from now with your life/career?
I would be enjoying my retirement and enjoying my garden, the birds in the morning, and all the other benefits my garden offers, making my handcraft art and selling my handcraft art to tourists. Still working occasionally offering massages.

What would you want your Loved Ones, family, friends, and others to say about you let’s say 20 years from now?
Ruthlyn is a good human being that helped a lot of people and she works hard. She gives great massages and shares great helpful tips with people. They will miss me if I am not alive anymore.

What makes you stay optimistic about the future of Curaçao as we are in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, recession, and in the middle of growing environmental challenges because of the global warming consequences?
I am optimistic about what the new government is going to offer. We should pray for the best for the country and have a positive mindset. Things will improve, I am convinced of that.

Do you believe that Curaçao is well underway to becoming a wellness island?
Yes, sure. In one of the fields, I am involved in, I am noticing an increasing interest in the plantation and the use of herbs. I am noticing that on Facebook people plant and share information and this is driven by the drive to live a healthier life and more conscious use of local herbs. This is what I am noticing.

One of the 250 Influencers of Curaçao

Ruthlyn Martina is a multi-faceted, “do it all”, down-to-earth, happy, nature-loving, caring, humble healer that uses healing stones and her healing hands to offer excellent massages to her clients. Her reputation as the “million-dollar woman”, is related to her handcraft art, her artistic part as a musician, her knowledge of herbs, her work as a healer, and her work as a beautician, to name a few. Her quiet demeanor and her role as part of the network of healers related to the Golden Village, make her stand out. For all this, we deeply love and respect Ruthlyn and we consider her one of the 250 influencers of the islands representing the wellness sector. Look at the list of the Influencers we have interviewed or reported on, up to now.