Esthetician Podcast; Business tips for Beauty professionals

083: How Estheticians Can Get Featured in Skin Inc. & Build a Powerful Personal Brand

• Kari Jo

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Ever wondered what it takes to get your name and expertise featured in a major industry publication? In this enlightening conversation, Kitty Lin, the Managing Editor of Skin Inc magazine, pulls back the curtain on beauty publishing and shares exactly how estheticians can build their personal brands through media opportunities.

Kitty reveals her fascinating journey from marketing team member to editorial leadership, bringing a fresh perspective to one of esthetics' most respected publications. What stands out is her passion for transforming Skin Inc from a one-way content provider into "the living room hosting conversations" for industry professionals. This shift creates unprecedented opportunities for practitioners to share their knowledge and build their reputation.

The most valuable takeaway? You don't need to be a professional writer to be featured in a major publication. Kitty enthusiastically explains how interviews, casual conversations, and authentic storytelling often produce the most compelling content. "If you have a story, let's find a way to get it out there," she encourages, dismantling the barriers that have kept many talented estheticians from sharing their expertise more broadly.

The conversation takes a deeper turn as Kitty and Keri Jo discuss the challenging landscape facing today's estheticians – caught between increasing medical regulations on one side and unqualified social media influencers on the other. This candid discussion offers perspective on how professionals can navigate these pressures while maintaining their unique value proposition.

For anyone looking to elevate their career beyond daily treatments, this episode provides actionable steps for connecting with publications, pitching your ideas effectively, and overcoming the fears that hold many back from broader recognition. As Kitty so perfectly puts it, "Everything starts at hello" – a simple reminder that building connections is the foundation of any successful personal brand strategy.

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Jana:

Hi Jana Nantell, owner and licensed esthetician of Unalom Aesthetics in Wisconsin. I have a solo practice that was really struggling when I first started out and I reached out to Kari Jo and did some coaching with her and I cannot begin to express how grateful I am for everything that she taught me. I have a 98% rebook right now and am incredibly busy. I am so grateful for her coaching and her tips.

Kari Jo:

Welcome back to the Esthetician Podcast guys. I am excited because today's guest I have on someone really big. I have on the managing editor of Skinny Inc. How did I land that? I still have no idea how I got her on my podcast. I don't even know how I felt, but, kitty, I'm so excited to have you on my podcast today.

Kitty Lin:

I'm so excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me.

Kari Jo:

Yes, so you recently just got promoted to the managing editor of the Skin Ink magazine, right?

Kitty Lin:

Yes, that is correct.

Kari Jo:

Yeah. So how did you even get that promotion? How did you move up in that, and have you been in the beauty space for a while? Tell me, tell my audience, a little bit about you.

Kitty Lin:

Yeah absolutely so. I've been a writer for about 10 years now. You know it's always been something that I've been doing. A lot of my background is in literature and journalism. Previously, I was a staff writer reporting on global health issues and politics. I've written for a lot of nonprofits and I actually started as part of Skin Ink's marketing team. So I was on, you know, managing their social media. I was coming up with promotional materials, so I got really like acquainted with the brand. In the past year I'd been working on their marketing team and so, you know, when the opportunity to kind of step up and get even more involved with the content and with the industry arose, I couldn't have been more excited to step up to that up to that?

Kari Jo:

Yeah, Well, we had this.

Speaker 4:

I did not know that you were on the marketing team first and foremost.

Kari Jo:

Oh my gosh. Okay, like, tell me a big secret. I guess it's not a secret, but tell me one of the biggest things that you learned when you were marketing for this magazine that you feel like would help other estheticians.

Kitty Lin:

Yeah, absolutely, in being a part of the marketing team, I really had to keep my ear to the ground as far as what people in the industry were talking about, they were looking for. And one of the biggest things that I came across that I know, you know, because we have talked about it was kind of this vacuum of business and financial literacy, which I know you very specifically attend to, which I applaud you for. That's incredible. But, yeah, I was really surprised it hadn't been a facet of the industry I actually had thought about super in-depth.

Kitty Lin:

I know the industry is just full of people who are so dedicated and passionate about learning new things and continuing their education and the good work that they do for their clients and also educating their clients that it had never occurred to me that there could be a vacuum in kind of the infrastructure that set up all these really talented professionals to do what they do best. But you know, I guess that makes sense right, because everybody goes to school for the craft you know, for the ingredient science and the physiology, and then they pick up maybe treatments and protocols, you know, and alter that education according to how they want to specialize. But I guess there really is no specific business curriculum for when estheticians and spa professionals go to school, and you know it. Just it seems so obvious now that we're talking about it, but I was a little bit dumbstruck about that. That blew my mind a little bit.

Kari Jo:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely no-transcript.

Kitty Lin:

Can you tell me like is skinny ink going? Yeah, absolutely with this, as skinny moves forward, we really want more of a reciprocal relationship with our viewers I know that same or our readers, and I know that may sound a little silly initially, just because you know we think of a magazine, we pick it up, we read it feels like very kind of want to go. Everything's going in one direction. You know we create the content and our readers consume it. But really content creation, as social media has taught us in this, you know, new era, it's not one directional. Really, it is all about the relationships we're building in the industry.

Kitty Lin:

And you know, I think this industry specifically is very fortunate with that because you know it is such a relationship heavy industry. It's very intimate, vulnerable work that the professionals are doing, but that on the business side of things, that means we, as a media resource and company, we need to show up in a similar way, we need to kind of build these relationships with professionals and listen to them and involve them in conversations. We can't come up with conversations all by themselves because, number one, a conversation should be between multiple people ideally, but also because we rely on the insight of these professionals. So I guess I'm a little long-winded, I know I like to think about it as Skin Inc is like the living room we're hosting these conversations and we want to invite professionals in to really show off their expertise and insight and kind of be the pulse and the beating heart of the industry for maybe younger, newer professionals to kind of tap into and kind of help them navigate this really rapidly changing kind of environment that we're in right now.

Kari Jo:

Yeah, and I feel like and this is what I see with coaching all the time is the girls that normally sign on to come into my VIP coaching program. They have been in the industry for say, 10 years and stuff like that, and they have, like, mastered their craft, but they are feeling so burnt out, right. And I always like to say, when you start feeling that burnt out, that's when you have to switch your gear and kind of get more into mentoring because you mastered your craft. But there's like a next level and one of the things that, like I like to like I have this one client that I'm thinking of right now and she has been in the industry for 28 years. She's tired, she wants to retire, she doesn't want to do it anymore, but she loves teaching and I'm like that is where you need to go. It's like you're telling yourself that's where you're going to go.

Kari Jo:

And one of the ways that I feel like you people can start build a business, but then you also got to build this personal brand. And one of the ways to build that personal brand is, say, getting on magazines, things like that. So how do you pick out? Let's say, you have an esthetician and they're like okay, I want to start building my personal brand. I want to start giving back the knowledge that I gained. What do you look for as to whether or not they can make it in your magazine?

Kitty Lin:

Yeah, that is an excellent question. There's no cut and dry criteria, right? I mean it's not helpful to say, you know, we need stuff that people want to read or we need stuff of substance, because I mean a lot, pretty much everything. It's very rare that we come across something that I guess isn't important, right, that people wouldn't want to hear about. So I guess how we start to prioritize, we need to focus on content that's timely, that can be as simple.

Kitty Lin:

As you know, april is Environmental Awareness Month, so people who want to talk about sustainability practices this is your month come and submit to us. And you know trends, of course, as they come and go, and they come and go really fast these days, it seems. But more than that, I think I try to prioritize really human stories, really, I guess conversational, personal elements and anecdotes, and obviously in a way that you know, can then be very valuable to our audience. It doesn't help if we just have, you know, for just printing people's like memoirs again and again and again. Like a lot of these human conversations kind of like our very first conversation, I feel leans really nuanced, interesting, deep dives into broader topics. That when we don't treat these topics like conversations, you know, when we just want to cut and dry, maybe publish a really information heavy piece on business or maybe on acne, we do lose a lot of the process of how people kind of solve whatever problem or obstacle they were having. We lose a lot of the thought process, which practical advice is great, but it's kind of give a man a fish, teach a man a fish. Does someone know how to then kind of get to that point with another similar obstacle in the future?

Kitty Lin:

I know in our June issue which I'm like so, so excited for because I had a lot of great interviews and a lot of great people I got to talk to for that, a lot of their entire brands personal and like their broader like businesses were just built on the valuable relationships they've struck with clients and the intimate work that they did throughout the years and kind of what that trust meant to them. And even you know reflections upon their own maybe struggles as adolescents. You know a lot of the, for instance, acne, and it was a really big one. A lot of the professionals I talked to who work with acne. You know that is like a very humbling experience of you know people we go through when we're growing up and it's really difficult to navigate. And so I think, being the professional that maybe the younger you would have really, really wanted and needed in your life, because your face, you know, that's like the first line, that's the first thing everyone sees. That's such a crucial part to how people kind of absorb and conceptualize your identity.

Kitty Lin:

We lose a lot of the human elements when we kind of focus on reporting at people rather than hosting these personal conversations. So, all that to say, I guess I don't know if this is helpful, but I'm looking for meaningful conversations. I'm looking for someone who has a story that they really want to share. We, of course, definitely have a place for more cut and dry articles. A protocol you'd love to share, a technique definitely send those in too. We love to feature those, especially if it's very timely. If you look at our editorial calendar and it's something that we're focusing on already but past that, we're really looking for the human element to restore that within the brand, because that is where the real know-how, the less taught, lesser walked paths through navigating this industry, really come out.

Kari Jo:

Yeah, so I think how you worded it was really well when you were like what I like is the. If you were talking to the younger version of you, what did you need? You know what I mean. And if an esthetician wants to put something in a magazine, do we write the article ourselves and then submit it, and then you edit the page, or so, yeah, that depends on the estheticians or the spa professional or wellness professionals preference.

Kitty Lin:

Some of you guys are writers as well as mentors and estheticians, and that's fantastic. I definitely don't want to step on anyone's toes. I think it's a really great way to kind of keep the integrity of the original speaker's voice intact when they write it themselves. But me, I love to yap, as you can probably see by now. So if you're not as comfortable writing but you still want your story to be featured in the magazine, please, please, please, let me interview you. That is like my favorite thing to do in this new job.

Kari Jo:

Yeah, that's great. So you do offer interviewing because, like for me, I'm not a writer at all. I didn't go to school for that. So I think that there are other estheticians out there that are listening right now that they have so much stinking value, but they aren't writers, and so there still is a place for them to give you guys content, right?

Kitty Lin:

Absolutely. I definitely. One thing I don't want people to get bogged down by are like the logistics of oh I don't know if I can do that, or like I don't know if I have good pictures or imagery to attach to a story or anything like that. If you have a story, let's find a way to get it out there. That's what the brand's for we really want to be. I know I have colleagues who don't like the word resource or tools because it feels very what does that mean? Anything can be a resource, but we want to show up for the professionals the way that they need us to. I mean it doesn't serve anyone for us to say, hey, we'll show up for you guys, and then when you guys say, okay, can you help me with this? Just be like well, no, sorry. So yeah, you have a story send it in.

Kari Jo:

We'll find a way to make it work. I love that. Do we need to like? Do you think we need to be on there?

Kitty Lin:

Like, how would we say something like here's what I want to talk about but I feel like it would be better in an interview, because I'm not a writer. How do you say that? So that you're not like she sucks. Well, trust me, I listen, pitching I am a writer and pitching articles is like the single most humbling, like mortifying process on this planet, truly. So I would never. I'm like listen, I was there, I've been there, sometimes, I'm still there.

Kitty Lin:

But I will say, you know, it can be as simple as it can be as casual as even shooting the brand DM on Instagram, right, and saying, hey, you know, I have a story or I'd love to talk about this. I guess, from my side, if I'm ever asking questions like do you want to write it or would you rather be interviewed, it's not because there's a right answer, like a secret right answer that I'm waiting for you to say. It really is just because I don't want to take the wheel away from you. If you're totally competent, capable, love to drive it yourself. But to that end, I do really like interviewing people. So I guess the way you could shoot us a DM on Instagram and be like hey, I'd love to sit down for an interview if you're accepting those right now Not presumptuous, because I totally love interviewing people.

Kitty Lin:

And another way is if you want to shoot me an email personally and just say, hey, you know, I have an idea for a story, how can we make that work? Even if you just bring up the kind of that it would be an interview, not an article, that's totally fine. I'll never say like, oh my God, I totally was expecting you to write this. Yeah, just, you don't even have to say it's because I'm not a writer. Just say you know.

Kari Jo:

I was thinking this would be an interview rather than a written article and that is good enough for me. Yeah, okay, that's awesome. I love that. I'm sure my listeners do too. They're like, okay, I can do this, I can get my name in an ad. I feel, like you know, sometimes as estheticians, like it's just nice to be. I was featured in Skin Ink, so I know Skin Ink for me was like that's the big thing for estheticians. So you're like you know, and so I think that's a great option for all of our girls. So, yeah, you were talking about how scary it is to pitch yourself for things, do you? Because you obviously know how to do that. Do you have any tips for that?

Kitty Lin:

Yeah, so let's see here there's like the really boring logistic tips, and then there's the tips that I think are more. Or I'm like do we need a whole, like me talking through Chicago style versus AP style and word counts? Probably not. I will say if there's a way to make your pitches more concise without sacrificing any of the integrity of the material or the point itself, definitely do that, because people who review any type of submissions for anything ever, they're usually pouring through hundreds of them. So usually they're like okay, next, next, next. So you don't want to. You know we're not paid by. The word is a joke.

Kitty Lin:

I like to make a lot Well, except sometimes we are, but that's a different conversation. So the more concise the better, of course, without sacrificing the entirety of the material. Don't feel like you have to oversimplify your story or your narrative for the sake of meeting pitch standards or anything, unless there's a hard word count wherever you're submitting. But past that, I would say, if you're worried that your voice isn't showing up, because that is what makes these stories interesting, that is what lends it a very big part of their personal credit I would say read it out loud. It always feels a little goofy, but read it out loud to yourself. Is this how you would tell your friends and your family a valued client this story?

Kitty Lin:

Think about if everyone loves to be on a podcast obviously myself included. Is this how you know if you were being interviewed? Or if you were, you know you had a platform. How would you talk about this? How would you want people to listen to hear this if they were like on their commute and like tuned in you know? So, really reading out loud even though it'll feel a little goofy at first, kind of staging it, practicing it in the mirror and then making sure that kind of coincides with however you're submitting it into writing, will really elevate your pitch game and your general writing game in general. If you ever did want to dabble for non-writers, if they ever did want to dabble, that's a great way to get started and kind of refining your craft a bit.

Kari Jo:

I love that. Okay, how far ahead do you guys work, can you like? Do you work three months ahead, or my boss is listening.

Kitty Lin:

I'm like a year ahead. Don't worry about it, I'll say so. There's a delicate balance when it comes to reporting so broadly, actually so broad topics, broad strokes, with kind of what we topic-wise want to focus on. We actually do plan a year ahead. Yeah, we're thinking deep into 2026 already.

Kitty Lin:

But of course, something like the daily newsletter you know that content can't be evergreen Well, it can sometimes. But generally we also we want to report on the news, right, and the news cycles. They go by so fast, for an example, when the Met Gala comes up. You know that comes by once a year. So if I'm going to write a piece on skin routines for the Met Gala, that's something that I should kind of be cooking before the Met Gala comes and then ideally that goes out the day of the Met Gala or the day after.

Kitty Lin:

Things like changes to staff or advisory boards or maybe like this specific sector is leading an industry, those I would say you know, have anywhere from like a two week kind of expiration date or maybe a quarter, like a three-month kind of window in which we can loosely navigate and move through, depending on what exactly the news item is. But yeah, for the most part, I mean for the magazine. We have to work a year ahead and we want that content to be evergreen, which is why a lot of profiles go out there, right, because people are always going to have their story and it's always going to be interesting, and that human element doesn't really have an expiration date. But when it comes to product launches and industry news that we have to be a little bit more quick on our feet.

Kari Jo:

for yeah, yeah, so you're in the know of everything. Can you tell me what was the biggest trend that you're seeing in aesthetics right now that estheticians can be like, oh, that's, that's what's trending in aesthetics, you know. Or they'll be like, yeah, that's what's trending in aesthetics.

Kitty Lin:

Or they'll be like yeah, I was on trend with that. Well, a little hot in the collar for me here. But one thing that I've been hearing a lot about that I'm sure our estheticians are well aware of, just because of the very arduous regulatory landscape right now, is this massive kind of movement towards the med spa space and medical aesthetics. So it's kind of, you know, I keep my eye out for things that I think will be helpful for estheticians and spa owners in navigating this. And obviously you know that gets very complicated because every state has their own regulations. I know here in Illinois things are quite strict.

Kari Jo:

Oh, my gosh. Okay, I literally had a phone call just yesterday with an esthetician in Illinois and I had no idea about this, but she told me they took away hydro facials from us and I think she said are they giving it back? I don't even know, but she's where. I was like blown away, was like wait. She was telling me how, like in Illinois and this is something that I think is a problem in our industry and I wish there was and there is a way to solve it, but it requires money and there's no way of competing with doctors but, like in Illinois, she was telling me how, like, the doctors and the nurses are basically taking over the aesthetics industry and they have the money backing. Well, we don't have this money backing for, like, necessarily, yeah, to lobby. And so, yeah, they've taken away hydrafacial guys hydrafacial, I know that was shocking, I don't even know well right, and so I always think about it.

Kitty Lin:

It's kind of like in those like I don't know the Indiana Well, right, and so I always think about it.

Kitty Lin:

It's kind of like in those like I don't know the Indiana Jones movie or whatever, where you have the two walls kind of pushing in from both sides. I mean, I kind of feel like that's a space that estheticians and spa owners are really in right now, because on one side, you have the overregulation and, of course, right, medical devices should belong, should be within the realm of medical professionals, but also you can, I guess, metaphy all of aesthetics. I mean that's not the right balance either. These aesthetics procedures that are specifically for beautification and skin health, that aren't invasive, shouldn't be taken away from practicing professionals, who do have licenses. By the way, right, it's not, estheticians are just out there, they went to school for this, they have licenses. So there is a middle ground that is getting kind of eroded at by, you know, these larger than us institutions that are lobbying and stuff like that. And then on the other side, of course, right with social media, we have the rise of skin influencers, which is really great in exposing people. Oh, sorry.

Kitty Lin:

That's a disaster sometimes because they don't, yeah, and it's so new and things come out so fast and it's so untested and unregulated. I mean that's a huge issue with social media across all spectrums. Right, our attention spans got shorter. Content is not filtered or like kind of moderated and obviously you know there's freedom of speech and that's. You know, that was always going to need to stay intact for the integrity of any conversation we have ever. But you know, when there's a lot of skin and a lot more specialized advice going around than there are specialists or licenses, that does kind of make it, I think, a lot more complicated for estheticians to navigate that space. I mean because there's just kind of shouting from both sides of you know it's rough, I think will be okay, but also it is difficult. So that is something I try and keep in mind and why I'm kind of so I'm always looking at the med spa space because it's always right there looking back.

Kari Jo:

And I like that you're going there because there is so much just running a hydrafacial in Illinois or like running the lasers, and physicians want to do do that. Or how do you even find a medical director? Because, like the girl is talking now, she had to hire a medical director to do her hydrafacial. She's paying one thousand dollars every month, not for a laser, but just so she can do hydrafacial.

Kitty Lin:

And I think what is helpful and I love that you're going there with the magazine about things like that, because I didn't know that because I'm in Texas, but I do think that's something our whole industry should know what is going on All right and from a business literacy standpoint, you know, I think this is kind of a new thing that people really, if they want to start their own spas and businesses and they want to do procedures like that, use heavy devices like that. That is something they're going to have to potentially budget for and kind of plan ahead for, and that is probably not easy and not necessarily quite as feasible for, like a brand new baby business.

Kari Jo:

Yeah, so we are coming up to the end of my podcast, which is so sad, but I feel like it's been so valuable because we've learned how to get into the magazines, build our personal brand, which is so important. When you were just starting, do you know what I mean? That you've already learned and I think those are so valuable to send to you, and we've kind of learned a little bit about the industry, all of that. But one of the main things that I've built my personal brand on and I talk about you have to overcome a lot of fears in order to gain the prosperity that you want, and I can think of so many times I've had to, like, face my fears and getting what I ultimately wanted. I was just wondering what have you found that has helped you overcome any of your fears for getting to being the manager editor of skin ink, like right, like that's like such a huge accomplishment for you. Were there any fears that stood in your way that, like, you had to overcome? And yeah, yeah.

Kitty Lin:

Um, I think really the biggest fear when stepping into a role like this is that you know it's a very tight-knit community and who am I in this world to just show up and say hey guys.

Kitty Lin:

I want to talk to you tell me all your stories, give me all your information and your advice and your know-how. That's a little daunting because it feels like from where I'm standing, I'm just asking for things. I'm asking for you guys to pull your insight together and you guys are already so busy and you wear so many hats just to get these crumbs of conversation that, honestly, are so invaluable to me. I learned so much but everyone has been really so, I guess, to that to answer the question, to just get out there and do it, which I know it doesn't always feel like very productive advice, but really everything starts at hello and that has never worked out poorly for me. I mean, everybody in this industry has just been so incredibly welcoming and kind and so helpful. I mean our advisors on our advisory board. I can't thank, shout out to you guys. You guys are helping me so much every day, all the time, giving me quotes and materials and know-how. You as well.

Kitty Lin:

I'm just constantly in awe with all the things that people are showing me about this industry. I mean I went to an event two days ago. Lyra Clinical hosted a class just fantastic, very informative, and I got the chance to sit down at a table with other estheticians and just talk and just the things you learned, like we talked, I think, about treatment tables and chairs for a big portion of that and just you know what worked, what wasn't. You know that is another thing that I wouldn't have thought of before entering this space. So, and it turns out, my biggest fear was also the biggest perk of taking on this role, which is talking to people.

Kari Jo:

I love it and honestly, I do love that because one of the biggest fears estheticians have a lot is making the phone calls and calling their clients actually calling them, not an email but people get texts all the time, they get emails all the time, get emails all the time. They don't have personal connection anymore. So just have a calm, just do it, just go there. Yeah, that was so good. Well, okay. So tell my audience if we're going to go and we want to apply, how do we apply for skinning, like where do we go?

Kitty Lin:

Yeah, so we have a few different channels. So whatever floats your guys' boats we have on our website, we do have a submission form under editorial submissions so you can submit that way and that will just kind of auto send you know to our skinning email and I'll get to review your submission. That way you can send me an email at CLIN, at Aluradcom I think my email is also on the website.

Kitty Lin:

Don't worry, but you can send me an email, you know, especially if you're kind of unsure, if you don't have like a, a formally, like fleshed out pitch, if you're just like, hey, you know, heard about you and I have a story, can we start planning something? That's a good way to go about it? No-transcript talk to us.

Kari Jo:

Well, I love that and I'm going to add links so they can just click. Thank you.

Kari Jo:

So if you want the link, go read the show notes and click it and it will take you right there so well can you. Thank you so much for coming on. You are been so much fun and I love connecting with you personally and you definitely I would say you're. One of your greatest assets is talking to people, so that is so great. That was because you do show me. You just have to reach out, Like that's what you did with me is you just reached out and we got on a phone call and I was like I love this girl. So, anyways, I love you so much. So thanks for coming on the Esthetician Podcast and I can't wait to see where you take skinny. Thank you so much. It's been an absolute pleasure. Yes, Bye guys. We'll see you next week on the Esthetician Podcast. Thank yes, Bye, guys. We'll see you next week on the Esthetician.

Speaker 4:

Podcast. 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 fearless prosperity mastermind group, one-on-one VIP coaching opportunities and more visit Kari. And more, visit Kari. That's wwwcarrijopattersoncom. No-transcript.

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Kitty Lin

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