Talk Skin Academy Podcast

Empowering Your Business With Objectivity, Emotional Intelligence, and Self-Care!

• Katie Howell • Season 1 • Episode 5

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Are you feeling the relentless push to plan for 2024, but forgetting to appreciate your present achievements? Let’s press pause together. In episode 5  we take a look at the vital role of objectivity in business and its influence on your success. We'll tackle the crucial balance between desired income and time commitment, shed light on the burnout phenomenon, and emphasize the necessity of prioritizing well-being over continuous growth. We remind you that appreciating the present achievements is as essential as planning for future success.

We then navigate the compelling world of emotional intelligence and its significant impact on business prosperity. Therapist burnout, a real issue often swept under the rug, will be our focal point as we underline meeting both client and therapist needs. Mentoring, realistic financial goal setting, and crafting the perfect service menu for your dream customer are hot topics in our discussion. Crucially, we'll underline the importance of self-care, setting boundaries, and maintaining energy levels for optimum service delivery. Don’t miss out as we wrap up the conversation on a high note, setting the stage for our future dialogue on customer experience checkpoints. Join us for this enriching chat as we journey through the essence of objectivity, emotional intelligence, and self-care in business.

Remember, you're part of the conversation - we welcome your thoughts and questions on our YouTube channel. So, turn up the volume and prepare for an enlightening chat on retail sales and skincare education, paving your path to success in the beauty industry.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the fifth podcast of the Talk Skin Academy with me, kate. So far, the response to the podcast has been phenomenal and I can only thank you for taking the time to listen to it, and I hope it's getting you ideas on how you can build and create a successful skincare and facial business and, if you are a therapist working within spa settings or clinics, how to be able to conduct yourself so that you are the ultimate professional. So let's get started with today's podcast. Be objective, be objective. So I actually go and look at this up in the dictionary because I didn't actually know myself. So be objective. What does that mean? It's to pretty much don't be guided by what is going on on social media.

Speaker 1:

Currently. We are currently at the beginning of December of 2023. And already I see so many people talking about building business for 2024. You know, be the boss for 2024. You know, get off to a great start in 2024. And that can put so much pressure on you as a business and on you as a person. It can be emotionally triggering, because I know that it was starting to happen to me. It's like, oh my God, I got to get ready for 2024. Like my brain is going crazy. But I got to get you know. December still still. We're still in 2023.

Speaker 1:

And I just wanted to jump on the podcast and, first and foremost, just say be objective with your business. Please just don't get that, don't, don't be pressured into. You know changing your menu, bring on our new products. You know dwelling on everything you did wrong. How about you just dwell on everything you've done right and the fact that you're still in business? I mean that's a huge achievement in itself and I just don't think many people actually just take the time to appreciate what they've been through, what they've gone through and currently where you guys are at. And we all know that in the industry of facials and in beauty, it's not just a physically demanding job, it's also an emotionally demanding job. You know you're everyone's best friend, auntie, uncle, like literally your psychologist, like you're everything that you never knew that you were going to be, and that takes a toll on you. The fact that you're still in this industry with you know and how crazy is it at the moment and everybody jumping in trying to get their two pence worth, and all that kind of stuff like fact, if it, you're still going and you're still in business, like that's a huge achievement. So please just take five seconds to appreciate that and to say you know, well done, and have a glass of whatever your your fancy is. Mine would be a glass of red or white, or maybe a glass of champagne, if I'm feeling frivolous, but yeah, so I just wanted to jump on and say be objective, don't you know 2024,? You know, yes, it is coming, but as a, as your business, it's just another day. Right, it's just another day, it's just another month.

Speaker 1:

It doesn't matter when you start or when you start to look at changing things within your business that have been objectively thought out. You know, the fact of the matter is that it's just another day and I just want you to take that away with you from this podcast and take that pressure off you and your team, especially, because if you do run a team and you are stressing about 2024, then, hey, guess what it's going to stress your team out, and you might find that the you know that I'm going to leave you let letters start to come through, and that's normally when people will start to leave, because management the boss, yona starts to get stressed about everything that they didn't do right or we didn't do right, this you know this year and everything we need to do right and change and all that next year, and even just saying that actually actually makes me feel anxious. So if you are in that situation, if you do have a team, just actually all you want to do for December is just say thank you and well done. And if you're an entrepreneurial individual currently, just do that to yourself, say thank you and well done for sticking it out and still going, because it's really hard being in a business. It really is hard. So, moving on I've said that now and hopefully that's helped you just calm your nerves down, calm the thought processes that are probably flying through your brain, and if you see someone bang on about 2024 and getting your business ready, just tell them to sod off because you just don't need that right now. You just need to get through Christmas and then January comes. It's just another day, it's just another month and hey, nothing's changed. And then you can start to sit down, get yourself a nice glass of wine, nice cup of tea, nice coffee, go to a coffee shop, whatever it is, and sit down and think about how your business has been Okay, and that's what we're gonna go into next.

Speaker 1:

So, as a spa consultant, working with spas and individual therapists that are entrepreneurial and wanting to set out on their own and create the ultimate experience for their customers and whatever set in they deem that's gonna work for them, when we look at building a business, the first thing that I always say is your menu, right? So when you're thinking about 2024, and if you do want to sit down and start to analyze what's happened in 2023, focus on the good. First, focus on where maybe those potential gaps could be within the business. You always wanna think about. The two things that I say to anyone that I work with is how much do you wanna make and how much time do you wanna spend in your business? Right, because those two things are detrimental to the outcome of how you like and wanna work in your business.

Speaker 1:

The word burnout is heard an awful lot. I was working with a therapist who has done phenomenally well, but she's been only in this industry and only owned her own business for three months and she was already saying the word burnout to me and I said that's pretty worrying that after three months of being in a business, she already started talking about burnout, and it's because her menu because she was working hard she's working three and a half days a week and her menu just wasn't fulfilling her needs financially. And so we sat down and had to think about what it is that she wanted to make and we put together and I put together what I create for every person that I work with and we figured out that to make 80K, all she had to do was increase her prices and make sure that the value that she was increasing it to was going to basically match, because that's right, I know perceived value is everything. And so after the call, she then knew what she needed to raise her prices to she. Then we had to think about where she could elevate the experience. The experience inside her treatment room was phenomenal, but there was little things that outside that could have been better. So we worked on those and by the end of that, one to one, she had a clear goal. She's got a clear goal now for 2024. We know that in January she's going to increase her menu, she's launching her website, and so everything that I just talked about you know, procrastination, stress, anxiety over 2024 was not a thing for her, but you know, the key was is to figure out what she wanted from her business, and that's always down to time and it was always down to money, because she was basically, you know, she was the mum and it was always only ever meant to be like a part-time project that, you know, allowed her to get a little bit of like relief from the kids because she enjoyed doing these treatments and that was it. But because she did so well, so quickly, it turned into something so much more than what she ever expects it to be, which is phenomenal. But the fact of the matter is because it wasn't serving, it wasn't meeting her needs in the financial sense and it was taking actually more time away from her children than she wanted to. She was starting to talk about the burnout scenario, and so this is what I get dealt with.

Speaker 1:

An awful lot my therapist are burnt out, I'm burnt out, I'm tired, I don't want to go to work anymore, and the reason why that normally happens is not because of the clients. It's only because you haven't set your business up for success. You haven't allowed your business to fulfill your needs, because, at the end of the day, yes, you're there to fulfill your customers' needs, but your needs also have to be met. It's an equal relationship. If you're happy, you're going to create a great experience for your customers and so everyone's happy.

Speaker 1:

If you're not happy and you're feeling burnt out and you're feeling, you know you're feeling just, you just don't want to be in your business anymore. You're feeling, you know a bit, a little bit of like I don't know resentment towards your customers, then it's normally because you feel like you're worth not being met and this is a big thing in the industry. Like, you go into the industry where you want to build a business, you know you create a menu based on what everyone else is charging, not so much what your worth is. And so we know, a couple of months in, if you are doing really well, you start to resent your customers because you think, well, I should be being paid more than this, and that's not your customers fault, that's actually your fault. But then you're like well, how do you deal with that? And this is one thing you know if you're feeling resentment, you're feeling tired, feeling burnt out, then these are the issues that you need to address first and figure out what it is in your business that's causing those issues to occur or those emotions to rise. That's what I would say, for 2024. Don't even think about your product lines. You know any of that kind of stuff right now in your equipment, your complete menu retryange.

Speaker 1:

What you've got to think about is how you're feeling in your business, whether you are an individual or you are a manager or owner and you have people that work for you. You know you want to deal with those emotions first, because I always talk about emotional intelligence and when you run a business, you have to have emotional intelligence, especially when you're dealing with people, and that's your customers as well as if you have a team, your staff, because if your emotions are getting the better of you and I've been there, you know I've been the best manager and I've also been the worst manager and it's always based on my emotions. It's never based on factual information. You know when the factual information is given to me and I take my emotions out of it, I see with a clear head. But unfortunately I find so many businesses that I deal with, especially from spas to, say, individuals or salons or miniature spas. They're always this, always based on emotions, and that's what causes, you know, like I said, the issues of you know, staff morale, staff turnover, high client turnover, because how you feel impacts your business.

Speaker 1:

And that's where I always say start with your business. Don't think about the military value, because the military value always comes when you are happy in your business. You know it always takes off when you are passionate. Right when you first start off, you've got all this energy, you've got all of this enthusiasm, like I'm going to do this, I'm going to knock out the park, I'm giving you the best. You're PIA.

Speaker 1:

And then you know, a couple of months in, you're doing well, but it's hard. You know you're you're, especially when you're a brand new business. You know you're everything in anything that your business needs it to be. You're the marketer, you're the financee, you're the worker, you're the cleaner, you're the laundrette. You know you're everything right and it gets to you. And this is where emotional intelligence can either make or break your business, and having someone to be there, maybe to support you like a mentor, is always maybe a good thing to think about. So that's maybe something that you know.

Speaker 1:

If you don't have a mentor currently and you do run your own business, then I'd say definitely think about getting yourself a mentor where they can be there as a kind of like a sound wall to allow you to bounce ideas off and go OK, where's your goals? What would you like to make? Does your menu support that? Does the list on your menu support that? Is it actually attracting the ideal customer to be able to, caught to financially afford what you want?

Speaker 1:

So, for instance I don't know, you wanna make 100K. It seems an awful lot, but actually when you break it down based on a certain amount of hours, it's actually highly achievable. But if you wanna make 100K but you're charging 45 to 50 pounds an hour, it's going to be bloody hard, unless you wanna work 60 to 70 hours a week, which nobody wants to do. That, like nobody wants to do that. Work smart, not hard, right? So when I say you know, don't get stressed and you know, don't think about 2024, I mean it Like enjoy December, enjoy what you've done so far, enjoy the fact that you're still in business.

Speaker 1:

But also, then, what you wanna start to think about is how can I keep positive, how can I keep mentally not drained, how do I avoid the burnout scenario when it's your own business? Because when you're feeling burnt out, then guess what? Hey, there's nobody here to kind of like look after you. You've got no HR you've got. No, you know, your family don't really ever understand what it is to run a business and they certainly do not understand what it's like to be a therapist and be everything to everyone and have to listen to everyone's woes and highs and lows. And the grandma you know the grandma that talks about their grandchildren and you've gotta sound like you're interested because you know you're a nice person and that's what your job's to do and whilst doing you know their facial or whatever, like. All of these things are happening. All these things are happening.

Speaker 1:

And then I would also say as well and I did a reel on this a couple of weeks ago and it's about hormones. We know, as women, especially women we are governed by our hormones. Now what I would say if you're gonna think of anything for 2024, if you are going through, if you still have your menstrual cycle and you still have those hormones fluctuating throughout the month, then I would highly recommend, if you are affected by your hormones a certain time of month and it happens every single month then those are the days you take off work, those are the days you book yourself out and you go and do something that's really like that, you know, gets you inspired or gets you motivated or just allows you to just switch off and relax. Because, again, everybody that I meet goes into the beauty business, into the facial business. I'm gonna work all the hours God sends. I need to build up my business, I need to do X, y, z and, like I say, the burnout kicks in and actually that's not how you build a successful business. You build it with an honesty to yourself how much do you wanna make, how much time you wanna spend, and when are the times of the month that you know that you can't give 100%, because there's no point in you working in an environment where it's based on how you feel and how you make other people feel, when you're feeling like utter shit. So you know.

Speaker 1:

So think about you know. Think about all of the things that you've gone through, I think, in the times you thought, oh, I wish I was off today. Is that a common occurrence throughout, you know, throughout the months of 2023? And this is a good place to start. Think about you, be selfish, think about who you are and what you want and how your business impacts you, and then it impacts in your personal life and it impacts in your friends and your family and are you missing out on occasions because you're just completely drained?

Speaker 1:

If you are feeling this way, then guess what 2024 is gonna be another shit show if you don't deal with these emotions now. So I would say, think about those. If you're gonna go into 2024, don't think about. You know. You know all the stuff that these men, you know people online, talk about. You know, get your business ready, do this, do this, do this, do this. They don't get that stress. Don't let that stress you out, because that's the last thing that you need. You need to take a seat back, relax, enjoy December, whether it's busy or not, and then go into 2024.

Speaker 1:

Just think about yourself, your wellness, your mental health, your ability to be the best and to perform the best for your customers, as well as your team if you have a team and how you can make everyone enjoy being in your environment. Because guess what, when people enjoy being in your environment, they don't wanna leave, and that's when it then goes into the finances. There's a reason why people, when they get off my bed, basically turn around to me and say, every single time get your diary out, I need to book another one, because that was just insane. There's a reason why because I've put boundaries in how many facials I can do and how much energy I can give to each person, and that's why my prices are high, because then I can. Then I can afford to not do four to five facials a day. I can do one to two and eat that one to two. I know for a fact they're gonna guarantee that kind of come back to me time and time again because it's the best facial I've ever experienced and the energy that I give to them is 110%.

Speaker 1:

Another thing to think about is how much energy are you able to give to each customer. Is it 100%? Is it 90%? Is it 80%? Have a think about this over December. How much, how much actual energy are you given to eat individual client? If you're given 60 70%, then you need to reduce the amount of people you see, because you want to be able to give your client between 90 100% of your energy, because guess what they feed off that energy. If you're full of positivity and they're in a place where they're quite net you're not negative, but they they need that lift then they're going to come back to you, maybe just based on your energy. If your energy is lacking, then guess what? They're probably not going to come back. So these are all the things that I would be thinking about for your business.

Speaker 1:

Before you start thinking about the business stuff, like you know, do I change product brands, do I look at changing my towels, do I get a new bed?

Speaker 1:

Like all the big stuff that costs you money and again is going to put more pressure on you. You don't want that pressure until you resolve the pressures and the stressors that you dealt with in 2023. So I'm going to leave it there, because I went through an awful lot of things to think about, but what I really want to say is is enjoy December, congratulate your team if you have one, and just have fun. And when 2024 comes, remember it's just another day, it's just another month and as long as you keep going and keep that consistency, then you have got this. And if you haven't, just keep coming back to this podcast and let me be a reminder that you have come so so far and that you are doing extremely well. So, on that note, guys, happy December, happy first week of December for 2023 for those who you, who watch this in the future and look forward to the next, next week's one, where we will be talking all about your customers experience checkpoints. So see you next week.