The Esthetician Podcast

Laser Licensing, Leadership: How to Grow a Profitable Medspa with Marti Hutchinson

• Kari Jo

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Marti, Medspa Mentor

www.instagram.com/marti_medspamentor

https://msha.ke/aestheticsacademy.com

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Announcer:

Welcome to the Esthetician Podcast, where passion meets prosperity. Your host, Kari Jo Patterson, transformed from a solo esthetician into a successful business owner, achieving ultimate time and financial freedom by the age of 38. Kari is the author of Fearless Prosperity, empowering estheticians to build their empire and achieve financial freedom, and the creator of the Empire Growth System for Estheticians. Get ready for some empire-building wisdom Now. Welcome your host, Kari Jo Patterson.

Kari Jo:

All right, welcome back to the Esthetician Podcast, guys. I am so excited because if you're sitting behind the chair and you're wondering how you're going to grow your business without burning out, then this episode is going to feel like a breath of fresh air for you. Today, I'm going to sit down with someone who took her own med spa from burnout to freedom. Now she's helping other people do the exact same. Marty is the business brain behind so many successful med spas that you are seeing. She mentors other owners, other injectors, anyone who's ready to step into real leadership and build systems and create businesses that aren't relying on themselves. So I'm so excited, marty, thank you for coming on. The Esthetician.

Marti:

Podcast. Thank you for having me. It's truly an honor, yeah.

Kari Jo:

So, just so my listeners, anyone who doesn't necessarily know you yet, but they're going to by the end of this episode, give us a little background on you and who you are, and all of that.

Marti:

Well, I started in this industry about 20 years ago and it was a second career for me. I started out doing interior design, and so my love for being creative and free flowing always have been an entrepreneur. But when I turned 30, I thought I want to do something else and I want to do something that is only you know, mainly with women, something that helps women, and I was led to aesthetics. So I went to aesthetic school and, and there you have it, I've been like just obsessed with it ever since. I started immediately, just knowing that I wanted to help train other people, because I was having such a hard time finding that training. So I found a mentor and that changed my life. Oh my gosh, I love that yeah.

Kari Jo:

So what tell us? Exactly like what you are doing right now in the in this industry that like could really help my listeners today.

Marti:

Well, right now. What my focus is is community, so building communities where we can uplift one another. I feel like you go onto those Facebook groups, you go onto these things, and it's a bunch of people with different opinions tearing one another down, saying why would you do it this way? For me, there's no place for that, and so I really wanted to build a community where people could come together and they could ask these questions without fear of someone saying oh, you're doing it wrong or you're stupid. Why don't you know that? Your school didn't teach you that?

Marti:

And when you look across the country at all of the different you know education programs out there. It's it's varies from the hours that are required to what those schools like. There's really no regulation over what those schools are teaching, and in my state I've been very active with the board to talk about those things, because estheticians are feeling lost, so they're turning to Facebook groups for advice. It's not working for most people, and so that's what I wanna create, and what I'm doing right now is focusing on building communities where people can come and ask questions. Whether it's myself answering those questions or other people who have been in the industry, you know, a little bit longer than they have answering questions for them as well, so without the fear of judgment.

Kari Jo:

Yes, yeah, I love. Actually, what you said that I didn't even think about is because I know exactly what you're talking about. Like there's all these Facebook groups and then, yeah, they are, they're mean, so we're so mean and they do these S decisions, go to the group and they look for help and then people tear them down one way or another. But what I didn't think about that you just said is, it is true, all the different states have different hours. So like, like I, I graduated with mine in Utah and it required 1200 hours, but I also lived in the state of Iowa and they require like 600. And it's like, so the knowledge that you're going to get, even though it's only an extra 600 hours, is going to be different than maybe an esthetician with. It's huge.

Marti:

And not only the. It's that time in the skin, it's that time with actual people that you're learning from. So the more time you have you know, the better you're going to be and you'll be learning from one another. And you're learning because through trial and error, when you've got 1200 hours to practice, it's very different. There are some states that are 400 hours. If you can believe that, oh my gosh that's crazy.

Marti:

This is crazy. I know I teach a laser training and my laser training itself is like 40 hours, so I can't even imagine what a 400 hour. And you're ready to go out and be certified to do all aesthetics?

Kari Jo:

Yeah, speaking of your laser course cause I am super interested in that and I'm sure my listeners are going to be super interested in that. Now Can cause you teach it in certain states, right? Could any esthetician come to the states like the state you're teaching it get a license Do you know about?

Marti:

like that, yep, so anybody could come and do that. I like to interview each and every student I have for the laser course because I don't just want to sell you training, because I can train anybody, but that doesn't mean you can use it in your state. So the first thing we do, if you're interested in that, is we look up your state laws I don't know them all off the top of my head so we see if it's even something you can do, because most states require a medical director to if you're an esthetician and you want to do it, but some states, you know, you have to be a nurse or greater, even with a medical director, to do that. And then there are states like I have a friend in Alabama where you have to be like a doctor to do laser so, which is wild or to inject, and so that's the first thing we do. But yes, I can certify anybody if anybody wants to learn more about it.

Marti:

I have had people come from other states just because they were interested. They knew they weren't going to be able to practice laser, but they wanted to know more about it. So when they are referring their clients out for laser, when is it time? And so my only requirement is that you are an esthetician or in the medical professional field before you take that class. And when I say medical professional, it can't be like a CNA or something like. We're kind of picky because we want you to understand what we're talking about. It's intense.

Kari Jo:

Yeah, yeah. It is crazy that every state like I have a client right now who is is in new york and there's like no whatever. But then I have this other client that is in arkansas or something and it's like you were saying there's like nothing, like you can't do it, and like doctors and some of the most, the states that you think would be the most progressive and forward, like new york, yeah.

Marti:

And then you've got alabama.

Kari Jo:

You know not that you would just, you just didn't, I wouldn't have thought that you know like, yeah, you think new york would be more like california regulations yeah, I was blown away because she she was talking to me about how she wanted to bring on a laser, and that's part of the reason she reached out to me about how she wanted to bring on a laser, and that's part of the reason she reached out to me. But I was like, can you even run it? Because I didn't know. She's like, yeah, new York, you can. And I was like, can you? And then I had to go research and I was like, oh my gosh, new York is like I know we have the a running joke that New York the pizza man can.

Marti:

he's a pizza man at night and laser tech during the day. Oh my gosh that is so crazy.

Kari Jo:

Well, speaking about lasers, like, can I pick your brain on some lasers stuff a little bit? So, with lasers, is there a certain type of laser that you like to recommend for I know, like, maybe different. So like maybe like hair removal if an esthetician is looking into hair removal for a laser, is there one that you see works?

Marti:

well, yes, you know, when I decided to start my med spa and bring on laser, it was really important to me to have a workhorse laser, because every laser rep is trying to sell you their laser and telling you how amazing it is. And I had ran. Before I opened my own company, I had worked at a place and ran a few lasers and I knew that they weren't what I wanted to offer. So I started interviewing doctors. I started calling laser hair clinics and talking to people that would like answer my questions and said, hey, here's what I'm doing, I need some help. And it was amazing how many people wanted to help me. It was so nice, but the answer I kept getting was light shear. So the light shear diode laser for hair removal, hands down workhorse laser I personally own two of them.

Marti:

I love it, and so for me, that's that's one of my favorites. And they've and you know they've got own two of them. I love it, and so for me, that's that's one of my favorites. And they've and you know they've got different types of technology. Some, you know, they've got the older models, and then they've got the newer models that do things a little bit different, so they make it a little bit faster and then a little less painful. So you know, they're always kind of improving, except for it's kind of like that tried and true. It's like you know the Camaro if you're relating it to cars the light shear is something that they can go in. It will last you for years and years because they can go in and fix it. It's not. It's not like you know, the new computers where it's dead you got to throw it away. Or the new cars right, you can go back in and you can replace something and get it running again.

Kari Jo:

Oh my gosh. Yeah, I love that. What I also love is how you literally like called people. I don't think I would have ever thought to do that, but that was like genius to be like. Yeah, I'm just going to go call those.

Marti:

Did you get anyone who was like like you know most, I did get some like receptionists that were like, uh, yeah, uh, we'll have them call you back. And I didn't get a call back, but I was just like, hey, here's my story, here's what I'm doing. I need some advice and I see you have an incredibly successful laser business. What, what should I do? And people were more than willing to share with me, which was awesome willing to share with me, which was awesome.

Kari Jo:

Yeah, that is so awesome. I love that. Okay, so jumping into the business side of like growing your business so I know a lot of estheticians that they are trying to grow but they're still doing everything themselves and, you know, maybe they have a dream one day of getting their own med spa. Like, how, how do you start doing that and what does that shift really?

Marti:

look like. So this is a hard one, it's a complicated one because our feelings are tied so much to this and this letting go of control. It's something I still struggle with. It's something I still struggle with. So, even though I've scaled multiple times and we've done well, the times that I tightened up and didn't let other people help me and take for me, that's what it is like as a single esthetician who's doing everything. You know you've got it, you. You know how to do this and do that and and make this happen and do the marketing and be the face of it. And you know what. If you're giving away little gifts, you know what you want those little packets to look like or the aftercare, and you know where you want the stickers. And you have to let go of some of that.

Marti:

It happened to me just this morning. I walked in and I had these cute little bags printed up, these silk bags to give client gifts in, and I went to get the client gifts. Which are these candles and these cute little custom matches? And there weren't any. There was one candle left and I said which are these candles and these cute little custom matches? And there weren't any. There was one candle left and I said where are all the client gifts?

Marti:

And she said, well, we, we've been handing them out. And I said, but we didn't have them in the cute bags, you know. And she said, well, I made a decision that cause we just moved to a new location. We weren't waiting for the bags, we were handing out the gifts. They did their job, Our clients loved them and there was that moment of like. It wasn't exactly how I wanted it done, but I had empowered my manager to take charge of that. So that's the best advice I can give you is to get out of your own way and find the things that you can delegate to other people, and they are not going to be done exactly the way you would do them, and that actually okay and it's probably better. So, yeah, I feel like what they what?

Kari Jo:

what pushback I feel like when you, when we get to that point, we're like, well, you know, they're like I don't want. Well, what they end up saying is but they don't do it good. Do you know what I mean? Like they're, like nobody can do it as good as that. Yes, so what do you say to those, like those estheticians that are like no, like you know, I don't, I don't like the way that she does this, I don't like the way that she does that she doesn't do it like this, like it really is letting go of control, but like, how do you get somebody to be okay with letting go?

Marti:

So you focus, you get them to focus on their leadership skills. So you know, the problem that happens is there's not clear enough communication so that you can convey exactly what you want done, knowing that it might be tweaked a little bit, but you have a vision and so your job up here is to be the visionary. So make yourself the visionary. But then you have to learn as a leader to share that vision and people will buy in and do it the way you want it done if you share your vision completely. And this gatekeeping that can sometimes feel like you need to do, like, oh, I can't share that with my staff, that's, they're kind of on a need to know basis. That's the old school of management and that has to completely go out the window. You have to have people buy in to what you are doing in order to see your vision and once they see your vision, they want to make it. You know they want to make it.

Kari Jo:

So yeah, I love that you said the gatekeeping, because I think that is, ultimately, that's the key to everyone's success. That they don't even realize is that they're holding. By holding back all of that information, they're not going to get success. The moment that you start giving, no matter the consequences that you receive. That's when you really start I don't know bringing in success.

Marti:

Focus on really educating them, and that's paying for classes for them, you know, helping them with their leadership skills and building their brand, which is really scary. My, I have a mentor that she's been in the business a long time and you know her the old school mentality was they should never have access to any client records. Like that should only be the front desk. No, and we're just not in that world. Like people need to have their own social media accounts that their clients follow that are tied to your spa. But it, you know, it's like you know Marty at M spa and Jessica at M spa, and so people know that they're. You know they're, it's M spa, except for they are the brand. And so people know that it's MSPA except for they are the brand. And so, as owners realizing the people that work for you become the brand it's not just you and you build them and you keep them happy and you educate them and lead them. They will want to build that and stay with you.

Kari Jo:

Yeah. So I love that because I'm all about building. You got to build up. You're not in direct competition Like the more successful you can make your employees, the ultimately is the more successful you're going to make yourself. I want to jump into a little bit of the business side of things and I I'm wondering what is one system? If you because we got kind of two groups that are listening right, we got like a solo esthetician that's working by themselves and then trying to grow, and then you have like the solo or then you have like the business owner that's trying to grow what is one system that you think that each of those category yes, solo esthetician needs and what do you think a business?

Marti:

owner needs. I think in today's you know market, it is really important to understand email marketing. You know we focus a lot on social media, which you know it all ties in together and it all has its place. But understanding email marketing and that call to action and how you actually bring people into your business no matter what business it is like how do you put an offer out but you need to understand, like funnels, you need to understand how to get people to your website. We focus so much on these beautiful websites. You know photo shoots and making everything look great and we go over and we go over, but nobody's visiting them, and so you need to understand how to get people to visit them.

Marti:

So, whether you're a solo SD and you're filling your own books that way so that you can then grow, maybe hire a person or two to work in your room, or if you're a med spa, like understanding that piece of the marketing for me is key and for you know, I'm almost 50 years old, so that is not I didn't grow up with this. This is not something that was normal to me. We didn't have, we didn't have internet Right, and so it's like I had to learn that. But what I realized is I didn't really want to learn that, I wanted to understand it, but I wanted to put someone in place that knew how to do all of that really well, and so I wish I would have hired her. She's been with me about a year and a half, and I wish I would have hired her five years ago. I wish I would have understood the importance of that.

Kari Jo:

Yeah, so what does your system look like with the email Like, how do you guys do? You guys do it like weekly.

Marti:

So there's yep, there's week, there's depending on you know who we're talking to, whether it's my med spa mentor app, whether it's the M spa, whether it's aesthetics Academy. You know, if they show interest, there's something that follows them so that it's reminding them like hey, you were on the MSPA website. Do you still want to come back and book that treatment? Or is there questions we can answer? Or you know, you're always looking for ways to build databases of people that showed interest and then actually reach back out to them the people that showed interest, and then actually reach back out to them. So that's kind of what my, my admin assistant does is. She is building in a newsletter or in a you know, when you put your name in into the form. So she's building different databases and then they go into. We use MailChimp. There's several different ones, then they go into MailChimp under different headings and then there's this whole sales funnel that goes out and she's the expert on it. I just get them and I go, wow, that's beautiful, I love that.

Kari Jo:

Yeah. So when you found her, how did you find? Did you know that that was like her gift? Or did you, like, really put an ad for, like, I need someone who knows how to write emails? Or did you send her to a course?

Marti:

Well, I hired a business coach so I'm really big into hiring mentors for myself. Um, and I hired a business coach and she was specifically a scaling coach and she said you don't have this. And I said I don't even know what that is. And she said you don't have this and I said I don't even know what that is. And she said, yeah, here's someone you need to call. And so she sent me that person and this person, you know, does it virtually and there's a ton of people like that, and it sounds expensive, like I pay her $50 an hour to do this, but she gets done in one hour, what would take anybody else like four hours, because this is what she does all day long and so it pays for itself. You know, I mean over and over and over with the amount of clients she brings in yeah, yeah, I like that.

Kari Jo:

I like hiring out those tiny little things. I think a lot of times, like we think that it's going to be more expensive to bring someone on, like payroll for example. For me when I was doing my company, when I was running my company, I never did gusto or besto or paypal or try to run my own payroll. Like I didn't want to mess it up, I was just like I'm gonna hire someone for payroll. I thought I was gonna have to pay out the butt for it. Yeah, be honest, but I'm not even kidding you. My payroll cost me like like 10-15 dollars a month when I started out. I mean, as I got more music group and I was like for 15 bucks and I don't have to do anything and it's right, why would you not? And she did all my sales tax. Like I think sometimes we gotta just hire these little tiny things out that you do, you know, and you can always think outside the box.

Marti:

So I have a bookkeeper. She's been with me now 12 years and I trade with her. So she comes in and gets facials her and her family and she, like, handles everything I don't you know. She takes care of all the credit cards and downloading them into QuickBooks and she does payroll. And I don't I mean I do pay because I'm paying people to work on her, but it's nothing compared to what I would pay, you know, regularly. So it works great, it's. It's it's a client for someone in my organization and then I get my bookkeeping done.

Kari Jo:

Yeah, yeah. So one thing that I just like popped into my head is I'm like okay, well, you have all these different businesses. How do you I want to know, like you personally how do you manage all of them, being like the owner of the med spa, having this training program and everything like that? You know, how do you do you like set up like, okay, on Mondays I'm focusing on my med spa, on Tuesdays I'm focusing. How do you do?

Marti:

that, yes, so I have. I really try to set my weeks up. Another thing I learned from a, from a business coach, was what was happening is I was completely burnt out trying to do this, and so they had me go in and it felt counterintuitive. But I scheduled all my personal things first. So I scheduled my workouts. I scheduled, you know, my hair, I scheduled whatever it was. My facials, I scheduled those first in my day in one color, and then I cause I still take clients in the treatment room because I love doing that and I only do that a couple of days a week, but it's, it's my favorite, so I don't, I didn't want to give that up, and so I had to really plan in order to keep doing that, and so I do.

Marti:

I say this is, this is an admin day, but my admin day is is really planned out Like Like. Here's what I'm going to accomplish. But the other thing I don't do is overwhelm myself anymore. So I learned from a book, the Gap and the Gain, which I love same writers that 10X is better than 2X. I learned to three things I love.

Marti:

At the end of the night, I write down three wins for the day, whatever that was whether it's business, personal, whatever and then the next day, three things I need to accomplish, instead of giving myself this giant list, and what I found was I get more things done when I only have these three things on my plate. If I can get more done, great. But these are the three main things, and so that's kind of how I set it up for myself. I just kind of I kind of plan and I have I'm a single mom with two kids and we have a five acre farm, and so there are times when my whole week is just completely obliterated with kids stuff. All of the planning I had just doesn't come to fruition and I just I take a deep breath and I doesn't come to fruition and I just I take a deep breath and I, I tackle what I can and the rest of it. I have amazing people on my team to help me.

Kari Jo:

Oh, my gosh, okay, I, I like for a second. I'm like blown away Cause. I'm like, oh, and you're a single mom Now you just like level up and I'm like I don't know what's wrong with me, like why aren't I accomplishing?

Marti:

all this, oh my gosh, you do, I watch you, you do oh my gosh.

Kari Jo:

Yeah, that's impressive. I'm so impressed by you. Well, I we're coming up to the end and I want to ask you, because I built my brand on overcoming fears and I think one of the only ways to get the true success is by just doing things in spite of fear. So I'm wondering if you can tell me what you feel like you see is the greatest fear that's holding people back, and how you would suggest them overcoming that.

Marti:

I think the fear it's trust. So first there's two parts to it. It's trusting yourself that this risk you're going to take is going to be worth it, no matter what happens. Like it is the journey, it is important, it doesn't. You don't focus always on the outcome. You focus on that present and trust that your own guiding light. And then you trust your team, and that might be. You might not have people working for you, so you might have just outsourced a virtual assistant, you might have a bookkeeper, those things, but trust them. You start with that and that fear that you cannot trust other people, is it? Just it needs to go out the window. Like there are a lot of amazing people and not everybody wants to take advantage, and people really do want to help you. They really do.

Kari Jo:

Yeah, that is actually. I love you so much for saying that you can tell you coach people, because I have yet to have anybody say trust and honestly, that is truly what I see. So much of myself is that fear of trusting, and I always like to say that you trust somebody by how much you trust yourself to deal with the consequence. Like so, if you don't trust someone, it's you, it's not them, it's you don't trust yourself to deal with it. And so I love that you are like, yeah, it's, you've got to trust your team. Like, can you handle what if that employee goes and takes like some clients or whatever? Can you trust yourself to deal with the consequences? Yes, so don't take it out on your employee.

Kari Jo:

Yes, you're going to make her leave. You're projecting her Right Before it even happens. Yes, oh, my gosh, I like I just got goosebumps. I was like, yes, you're, that's it, that is the thing. So I am so grateful for you bringing that up and I love what you're doing. I feel like so many estheticians and you guys she teaches not just laser like tell us all the things that you teach really quickly.

Marti:

I teach business classes like from beginners, how to set up your business, like how to even get an LLC and EIN number, and then next level business classes like how do you scale and it's really always about we. We usually cry in these classes because it's about overcoming limiting beliefs. That's all it is Like. You know, we can give you the systems, but you have to overcome these limiting beliefs. But and then there's you. There's chemical peel classes, microneedling, nanoneedling, epidermal needling I mean those types of things Like anything clinical aesthetics we are teaching.

Marti:

And then, in addition to that, I have the MedSpa Mentor app and that's my passion project, because not everybody can come and take a class from me, but they can sign on to an app. It's $39 a month and there are hundreds of lessons in there and it's podcast style. You can listen to it and then you can also just download the notes. They're already done for you. So I tried to make it like how do I learn? I learn while I'm in the car, like I'm listening to my books, and just things that especially newbies might have questions about. Yes, yeah.

Kari Jo:

I love that. I love that you have that whole education piece, which is so important because you're not going to draw or build your grow your business unless you have that knowledge and so like you've put that together where you can get training on lasers, on microneedling, on all of that, because once you know that, that's what's going to grow your business when you're really knowledgeable. So I love that. Well, I just want to say thank you so much for coming on my podcast. I follow you on Instagram. How would you tell people to follow you? Where do you want them to follow?

Marti:

you. I would love for you to follow me on Instagram at Marty underscore, med spa mentor. Okay, awesome. Well, thank you.

Kari Jo:

Marty for coming on and I hope it's such an honor.

Marti:

You are an inspiration to so many.

Kari Jo:

Oh well, thank you so much. You are the best too. So thanks for tuning in, guys, and make sure to go and follow her and tune in for our next episode. See ya, bye-bye, thank you.

Announcer:

Thank you for listening to the Esthetician Podcast with Kari Jo Patterson. Each week, Kari brings you real-world lessons on how to grow your empire. To learn more about Kari's Fearless Prosperity Mastermind Group, one-on-one VIP coaching opportunities and more visit wwwkarijopattersoncom. That's wwwkarijopattersoncom. See you next week for more insights and strategies on the Esthetician Podcast.

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Marti Hutchinson

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