As a wide eyed aesthetics school undergraduate, Jane was that lady on the waxing videos. She had an unmistakable look, rail thin and choppy short hair. I loved her accent, and I was amazed with how she made a Brazilian wax look effortless. Over the years I’d hear about her, learned more about who she was and what she had done for our industry. To many of us aestheticians, she was (and is) quite the celebrity.
Flash forward many years to tonight, and I sit on my couch pouring over notes from her lecture yesterday. Much of my week was spent in the same room as Jane. Never really thought I’d be able to say that. Speaking with her personally and listening, captivated as she addressed our group. I can feel drained or burned out, or question my choice of path- but she never fails to reignite that excitement and remind me why exactly I am where I am today. I laugh at myself for it every time, but I am three for three in getting choked up during her presentations.
I frantically scribbled notes as she addressed a room of myself and about 100 of my coworkers- just a fraction of the people who have made a living (a comfortable one, I might add) due to her vision.
I want to share a few of the gems I pulled away from her talk, while they don’t capture much more than a few highlights, I want to be able to look back on these when I’m needing a little inspiration.
Take it as a given that every line has incredible products. If your products aren’t transformational, then what are you even doing??
This was particularly profound to me. It’s so easy to get in this habit of focusing on the “MY cleanser is better than THEIR cleanser!” mentality. We live in an incredibly scientifically advanced landscape- you better believe that WE have great products and SO DOES EVERYONE ELSE. This is NOT what we should be focusing on- what do we have to offer beyond that? Why are we doing what we do every single day?
You BUILD a clientele- you don’t GET one. You BUILD them one at a time, like bricks.
She said it takes an average of five points of contact before a client begins to have a sense of loyalty. It’s not an instantaneous process, and how are professional skin therapists getting those five points? Face to face? An email? A card? A phone call? A rebooked service?
It takes 268 clients to be fully booked with just skin treatments, working 5 days a week, 8 hours a day.
It’s interesting to see that quantified, right? 268. That’s not a small number. Her next bit was where those numbers really became impactful…
If you are relying solely on services you have a flawed business model. You have capped your income. You can not add more hours in the day.
SO TRUE. I wish more people would understand the impact that retailing products can have on their business. You can only work so many hours in a day. You could do 6 skin treatments in an 8 hour day at $65 each and make $390. Conversely, you could do 3 skin treatments in about 4 hours at $65 each and sell two pieces of retail to each client. Same amount of money for half the work and half the time? Sounds awesome. Or maybe you’d still want to do 6 treatments and make around $800 a day instead? Why cap yourself? Don’t even get me started on why else you’d want to make sure your clients are on professional home care, it should be obvious. To me, it’s absurd that retail is not one of the highest priorities for more business owners. It ties into the concept of passive income- why not work smarter, not harder?
People do not buy what you do. They buy- and love- why you do it.
Why do I do what I do? I love making people feel good about themselves. I love helping people become successful. I love skincare. I love teaching, and seeing people have those “aha” moments when a piece of knowledge clicks. I love learning about ingredients and science. I love people and building relationships. I love it when people love me. For ME, this is why I do what I do. Why do you do what you do?
Our destruction or success will come from within.
That one was actually from Jane’s husband Raymond. Still spot on. I know I personally have so much support and so many tools to be successful- in LIFE, not just at work. What am I choosing to do with that? This is something I’ll be personally examining a lot closer this year. Remember, 2013 is my year. My year of making things happen 
