Esthetician Podcast; Business tips for Beauty professionals

088: Estheticians: Simple Holiday Promos That Book You Solid and Boost Retail

• Kari Jo

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We share concrete holiday strategies for estheticians that turn December traffic into winter bookings, from build-a-gift bars and VIP tool discounts to bounce-backs timed for slower months. We also dig into mindset, marketing frequency, and why simple, in-person community beats algorithm chasing.

• vendor gift sets versus DIY curation and sampling
• treat-yourself positioning and VIP discounts on tools
• build-a-gift bar with clear price tiers and fast packaging
• corporate gifting outreach and bulk orders
• merchandising basics: clean signage, signature scent, uncluttered tables
• bounce-back offers targeted to your slowest months
• marketing cadence and repetition across email, text, and scripts
• community events that create loyalty and rebookings
• test, track redemption, and iterate without doomsday thinking
• how to contact Emily and training resources

https://www.boutiquetrainingacademy.com/black-friday-masterclass
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Racel:

Hi, my name is Rachel. I am the founder slash CEO of Ultrary A Luxury Spa. I have worked for Carrie Joe in the beginning of this year, and she has transformed my business. Everything has increased. All of her tips, all of her tricks, all of her advice has been the most helpful, and my business has transformed exponentially. I want to thank her for her honesty. I want to thank her for her help. And if you're struggling with your aesthetics business or if you need help hiring or any of the sort, Carrie Jo is the person that you should definitely work with.

KariJo:

Well, welcome back, estheticians. I'm so excited because today's episode, I have on our first returning guest. And the reason why I have her back is Emily, did you know your episode was literally one of my top three episodes of that we're listening to? I did not know this, and I feel so honored because I feel like that means I have a place with the girlies in like the beauty space. I've like cracked in and I'm loved. I love that. No, that's awesome. And you it's on my phone. I won't I snapped a picture of it. I even got this on June 26th. I got somebody that sent me an a message on Instagram and was, I'm listening to your episode with Emily. She has so many tangible ideas for spas. I love it. I'm not even kidding you. Your episode, so you guys, I that just makes me happy. I like it, just makes me feel like, hey, our time is well spent, listeners' time is well spent. We were just before we got in here, we're talking about how busy women are. And like, we just need to cut to the chase sometimes. And that's kind of my style. So I'm glad that you're the ladies loved it. Yes, they completely loved it. And so I'm so excited. So as you guys know, I have a returning guest. Her name is Emily, and she helps people build boutiques. But when I had her on the first time, I was like, oh my gosh, this could be so useful because she knows how to set up the spa. She knows how to do everything. And so it was so great. And then on that episode, we were talking about we need you to come back right before the holiday season. And so here we are, guys. We are gonna jump into all things holidays, promotions. We're gonna pick her brain because you loved her, you guys were all tuning in. I was getting DMs. And so let's jump into it. Emily, what do you have for us today? Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. No, please challenge me because I love this. I think there is so much in common with fashion and beauty and skincare. Like it's all the same. We all live in the same world. We're just in different countries a little bit. You know, we're in like adjacent areas. And so I feel honestly, a lot of your listeners probably already know the traditional model of what we do at holiday. They know your vendors will offer you gift sets. You don't know whether to take them or not. You know, I think there's already a good established, and listen, I will say all the vendors that you work with, the brands that you work with, they know what's the best, what are the best sellers. They've been doing this forever. So they're offering you most likely really good product at a nice discount, sample size, things like that, right? Gift package. I also think you can do that too. So whether you choose to do some buying from a brand that you love that does skincare, things like that, or you know what? I really want to tap into my best customers. How can I either help them treat themselves to something nice, or how can I help them almost get rewarded for getting their service done by coming back in and saying, hey, I can also save you time on some gifts for your assistant, for your mother-in-law, for those hard people. So I think about the retail space that you have, thinking about what my client wants potentially, and how can I also save her time? And listen, someone buys something from you as a gift. That's marketing, also. Oh my God, I meant I wanted to get a facial from your girl. Oh my gosh, this is a great reminder. There's so much sort of like cross-promotion, I think, that can happen too. So I want to talk about first how you can increase a person's service. So after they get their service, they come out, they're looking at all your retail. A lot of people will say, I just spent money on myself. I don't know if I should spend more money. This is where you can definitely go into the sales pitch of, hey, just because it's gift giving season doesn't mean you need to deny yourself. This is a great time also to treat yourself. So I'm doing a special promotion. That's da-da-da. So two ideas for you there would be like a gift with purchase. So if they do come in and have three treatments or something, or they add on something, do they get a gift with purchase being a blanket, a scarf, a pair of earrings, a facial roller? I even think you could take that to the next level, where maybe if someone does get a lot of services, they get a really chunky discount on some of like a tool or something that's more expensive too. Let's say you sell a tool that's over $100 and it's definitely a big purchase, but like such a good one for a home. That's where you could say, Hey, you're a VIP. I'm actually gonna offer you 40% off of this for so many reasons. A, you know they're gonna get great results, but B, you're willing to take the hit on the retail because you know that it's a long-term relationship and they're gonna keep coming back with you. So a little bit of treat yourself and a little bit of I'm gonna help you treat yourself by showing you this next step for you and like give you a great discount on it. Yeah. And that I ran my sorry, I said a lot. I said a lot. I ran my business for eight years and I never did that. But you want to, and I'm like, that's genius because I always am saying, don't reinvent the wheel, just follow the wheel. What's the wheel doing? And what you just said. So one of the brands that I carried was Dermalogica for my skincare. And when I would buy, I would buy a certain amount of products, they would give me a bunch of little tiny samples that I could choose how I wanted to give it to my clients or when I wanted to use it. I never like connected the ducks until you just said that. That makes so much sense. That is what the big companies are doing. Why aren't we doing that? Yeah, come get a facial and get a blanket. That's exactly what the product, and sometimes it wasn't even little tiny samples. Like sometimes dermalogica, like it would be like you purchase this amount and you get five bags, which is exactly what you're saying. Like, I did not, you blew my mind already. Okay, okay. Okay, listen, I love this so much because you're also proving that we're always learning, even for me, learning from you. Like, I hate to say now I'm like straight dermological lady because like I used my face was so red, and I went and got one of the serums. I mean, I went to CVS, so let's be real. Yeah. But my skin has never looked better. All my redness is gone, all the little bumps that kind of popped up from stress are gone. But that's the power. Here's the thing that's the power of not only good branding, but good products. It works and you know it. So I think that even for you, like you're saying, giving the best-selling products or the things that work best for your clients when you get to choose those things, it's really thinking through okay, who are my top 10 clients? What can I leverage from my vendor, my wholesaler, to get what they're gonna want? Or can I even work with one of my wholesale? Maybe you have some smaller people you work with to do lip gloss or I don't know, body scrubs. They're like a woman in the neighborhood. We love that. What if you came up with like a custom blend body scrub that you gave away to your top 10 clients and it has your brand on it? It has, and so every time they're in the shower, they see you. It's just how can you get that brand in their hands with a great product that works, that feels good, and just again, continuing the service that you're offering in the room and the support and the love you're giving there outside. So that I do think it is a bit of the women helping women feel good about themselves. And so there's a lot of opportunity to be creative too. And so that's where if you are a creative person by nature, give yourself some leeway to, you know, if it is a fuzzy blanket, if it is fuzzy socks or like a cool, I mean, we talked about a lot of the specific projects, products, I think on the last episode. But even taking a lot of the ideas I gave you for products and making them into gift sets, and whether you give them for free or not, I think that's my other way that I want to go is how to create gift sets and how to build them out. So to me, if you want to do in your store gift sets, awesome, you probably have them from your vendor. But what if you also went on our lovelyfair.com, our favorite place to buy things and purchased a couple slippers, a couple socks, a couple robes, a couple hair ties, and a couple hair clips. And you said, All right, I'm gonna do a build a gift bar. And again, I don't want anyone to go out and buy like a ton of inventory and get crazy, right? I think this is like a fun test, though, is okay. So for $25, you get two items from the bar. For $50, you get three items from the gift bar. But for $100, you get all the items. You get to pick your prints and match them. We put them in a basket or something, and then you can walk out, and that's a great gift for someone. Again, mother-in-law, those people that are hard to buy for. Think about it and consider the price points of the gift. So one of my notes here is price point gifting. So either they're pre-packed or they're a bar to choose from, and you really stick to that $25, $50, 100, or $25 can be really low sometimes to like get enough in there. So maybe it's 30, 60, and 80 or something, right? But like you have a clear definition of, oh, I only wanted to spend $30 for my assistant or my someone who works for me, things like that. And then listen, I would even reach out. If you have a customer that you know has a company, has a big team, and you're listening I if you want to do some corporate gifting, again, I'm getting way deep here, but I do think there is opportunity to at least send the email. Ask the question, because I do think that again, bulk orders are gonna make you more money than every individual service. So, how are we using your time to to maybe also leverage some of the relationships you've built to then say, hey, what I do is caring for women. I know you have great female employees. I'd love to put together some gifting things for you. If you give me a budget, can I propose some ideas for you and take it from there? Like it doesn't have to be the automatic thing, but just the conversation starting now, probably earlier in the season, so that you could deliver that to them by, and maybe there's even a gift card for you in it $25 off a service, something. So considering that these are also opportunities for branding, for marketing, to like get your name really organically out there, I think is also that piece of the gifting. Please do slip your card in there, please do slip some samples also, right? Yeah. Combining that together. But I think at the holiday time, it's about giving gifts to yourself, giving them to other people, and then also looking for opportunities to maybe branch out if you feel like services are slow. Like I think that there's always kind of that balance where, yeah, we can push our you're marketing yourself all the time, but sometimes days are slow. Sometimes things are slow. Sending a few emails, spending some time doing some research that could potentially be a big payoff when technically it's not your full-time business, right? But it's kind of like how real estate agents, when you buy a house, get a big package. It's just that same idea of I am a service provider, I want to make sure that my people are treated well. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Okay, I love that you can tell that you are naturally gifted in being creative at selling. And now I know why you teach people how to run boat hooks, first and foremost. That our idea of like, that's genius. It's fine. Yes, I'm like, okay, that is genius. I could have done that, and it would have been a huge hit. And also, what I would say to my girls is when I'm trying to tell my aestheticians how to grow your clientele, the quickest way that you can grow your clientele is by touching someone. It's not Instagram, it's not whatever. And so, yes, doing those model services for even free, if you touch them, you have a 50-50 chance of them rebooking. So, um, if I would have done, I think that build your own gift would have been amazing because you what you could throw in on all the different price levels is come and build your friends' gifts or whatever at different points price points. And then in addition to that, you will get an automatic, I don't know, 10 bucks to come in for a service, or you can give them a free facial on all of them if you really need to bring it. But do you know what I mean? And that way No, 100%. I mean, if your time, well, because like some of this is just your time, right? And if your time isn't being spent on booking clients, you're right. Give away a free facial every now and then. Get people in, dedicate some of your time instead of money. Yeah, yeah. I always say that I'd rather be doing a service for free than not doing anything because the chance that I have of getting them to come back is higher than me doing nothing. And so I'm like, oh my gosh, that bar idea is so genius. And in addition, is I hate trying to put together gifts. And so if I'm like, I can just go to a bar and I'm like, okay, I got my mom, my mother-in-law, my mom, whatever. And I just am like, this, this, and this for her, package it up. This, this, this, and her, and package it up, knock that all off. Who wouldn't want that? Life is too creep chaotic. Well, and listen, I have to give you some cred for this. Touching is like the best way to market, like touching someone. It sounds so funny to just say it randomly, but the concept of it, it's like that connection. Like you're so right about that. And like, I was just on the phone with someone saying, you know, I think there's just the big narrative about online this, online that, online e-commerce, blah, blah, blah. And I said to her, listen, broken mortars are doing really well. Women want to be with other women. A lot of us feel lonely, a lot of us feel busy, a lot of us are, oh, how are we getting through the day with our kids and our jobs and our, you know, and just taking care of ourselves. And so I think that you're so right in that. Get them in the door, get them in your chair, show them what's possible, and they're gonna crave that more and more. So I love that theory. I like kind of want to pass that on to boutique owners because they'll always say to me, you know, if I can get someone in the door and they're open and they're right, you know, that it's easy, you know. Just I just need to get people in the door, is kind of what you're saying, right? With the like, just give the free facial, just do it. So yeah, it's actually like, well, I don't want to give a free facial. And I'm like, why? You'll spend 50 hours making an Instagram reel, and it's not going to get you anyone. Do you know what I mean? But so literally way for free. Do you know what I mean? Your chance is so much higher. You're so, and and listen, we had a neighbor, she owns actually, she's the doctor at the med spa here in town. And I we went to the Christmas party at her house and she gave us free facials. And I'm there you go. Because once I get a facial there, I'm then getting fillers, then I'm getting right, like I'm getting microderm. It's like it's kind of like that gateway drug to let you into the rest of the services, right? Yes. And in addition, if you're getting something free, you're more than likely going to upsell. Like you could totally upsell. Like if someone came into a boutique for a shirt, do you know what I mean? More than likely. I get them to buy the necklace too, or the pair of jeans to match. Yeah. No, a hundred percent. No, I listen, I love this. And I think, you know, I'm not sure about the ups and downs of seasonalities, right? In a beauty business. But I know in retail, we do have the ups and downs of like, we know we have some slower months. They're not slower, they're just, you know, every month is not gonna be the same. If you think that in any business that's so adorable and green, you know, it's like every month, every day is different. Like, let's be real, right? And I think for me, one of the things I teach a lot of people is especially because they're gonna have a lot of people coming through the doors October to Christmas, theoretically, really Black Friday to Christmas too is like a big chunk of time. But you could apply this at any moment. And it's just like the theory of spend money now and save money later. And so most often you could relate this to Kohl's cash or old Navy has their super cash. So you buy stuff and then in a month you come back and you get like a crazy discount. I'm gonna tell you, I don't know if I've ever used super cash and I'll I definitely get it twice a year, you know what I mean? At least that said, I still shop there. So, like, but here's here's my point is is there a way that if you do see an influx over the holidays because people are doing more self-care, do you then gift them the free facial, the discount, the whatever for January and February so that you know they're gonna come back, even if it's, I mean, I know you guys have people on series and things like that, but if it's even if it's a new customer, you know, it's like someone comes in new, like, thanks for trying us this first time. We like, we hope it went so well. We'd love to give you a discount on your next booking. And it could be, we've seen as little as $5 people come in and like eat that back up, which is wild to me. But you may say $20 off your next service in January or February. And so it gets them to book, it gets them that little discount and it fills your calendar for those future dates where everyone feels uncertain. I think it's always like you want that repetitive nature. And so by offering that little discount to come back, you know, again, I don't think you have to do it all the time, but I do think that someone who feels new or feels, you know, I know when you get out of, I feel I always have these experiences with beauty professionals where I get out and I'm just like, that was amazing, da-da-da. You know, I also know that's not everybody. So if someone's not like me and they're just like, oh my God, I can't wait to re-book, if they're a little more on the hesitant side, that's when you can say, hey, this worked really well. I definitely don't want to sell you a series yet. I know like you're still kind of new to this, but I'd love to offer you 20% or 20, whatever you want off of the next time you come in so that we can start to really see those results, right? And so it's just another way of showing them the results you can get, right? Because that is a big part of beauty, is like the compliance and the follow-up. And so I do think that that spend money now, save money later, get something back, like that bounce back money is also something to think about right now. Because remember, Jan and Feb, people have kind of spent their money. They are kind of, I mean, I know here it's snowing and it's dark and it's dark at four o'clock in the afternoon, you know. And it's it is a great time to send out those text reminders, those email reminders. Hey, you feeling a little dark and dreary, come get, come feel brighter, come get freshened up. That's such a good time to then also bounce people back in because, you know, we all think about how we look when we're going to holiday parties, but then it's actually we probably need it more after the holiday parties from the whatever we did to our skin with all the makeup and right. So I agree with you, like thinking about those kind of bounce back discounts for the future. It's this is a really nice time to do it. And I know like often places will do gift card sales, things like that. I love that too. But like you said, get people in, get touch them, get them on board with what you're doing. And then in the future, as they, you know, to get them to come back, keep offering the discounts or a VAP or a punch card, all that good stuff that you talk about. Yeah, I love that idea because I'm always telling my girls, like at this, especially all of my clients that I work with, we I make them track their numbers so we can read their numbers. And yeah, there's always, I'm like, there's always a pattern. So we're gonna see where your slow months are. And so what I love is not even, and yes, you are dead on, even though you are in the side, but you're it's the same, it's like the same orbit. Yeah, yeah. So January and February are our slow months, and so I would even encourage my estheticians. For me, I for some reason, and this is not the same for every because every esthetician is different based on their state. I was always slow in October. It was my slowest month for some reason, and so what I love that idea that you just gave is the month before I should do a bunch of bounce backs with the expiration date of October. Do you know what I mean? That's right. No, that's using it for I love using it go for January and February, but that philosophy philosophy could be used all year round and making yeah, the bounce backs have a due date of your slowest season, your slowest month. No, you're totally right. And listen, like I said about the compliance on my super cash completions that never happen is you could give it out to every single person that came for a service and track how much, like, what's the percentage that used it? Yeah. So it's also just, you know, my husband and I are we love to be generous. We think like when you have the privilege at all, you give back, you try to be as generous as possible. And I think the business owners that are more generous as they can be, I'm not saying give away the house, but I do think there is a bit of generosity that you have to sort of embrace when you do something that when you're like, because I do I know there's people listening right now that are saying, I couldn't give away all that for everyone. Like, I don't, you know, and maybe you can't, maybe mentally you've got to give it away to 10 clients the first month you try it and like see how many come back, right? Like you you want to manage your expectations around it. And so you might not be at the point where you're like, I'm gonna give everyone a free facial all the time. But I do think that if you are really starting out and you're brand new, exactly what you said, it's just give it away until people are ready to be, I want to pay you so much money for this. And I think that's why you and I do. I mean, this is like it's literally all the same. It's I'm on YouTube, I come on podcasts, I give as much knowledge away as I can. And then I know, just like you do, you know, someone sitting in your chair, someone in your class is it's gonna have be a very different experience, you know? And so I think that's the other thing is as you get your word out and you offer free facials, people come in and have that experience and they're just yours, you know, and you have you and women are so loyal, especially when they feel safe and they feel comfortable and they feel that person understands them, you know. Honestly, I feel like beauty, retail, it's all therapy, just a different form of it. And women need it. Like we have stressful lives, like we have a lot of stuff going on. And so I really think that that connection, my slogan in my business is make lots of friends and make lots of money. Because I really think it is like you're saying, I don't want to go viral with a TikTok. I want to make, I want to have people in my DMs building the relationship and making those friends who then turn into clients and customers and da-da-da, because they like you. That's the other piece of it is I'm not gonna go back to someone who was like gruff with me or who I didn't click with, right? But if like I click with you, it's we've got to be out there making as many friends as we can because a certain percentage of those friends will become clients, you know? And so where are you making the friends? How are you making them in what spaces? And then you get when they come in, you get to treat them and have gift sets and gift bars and make them smell and feel beautiful. But yeah, it really, I think I think now more than ever, I don't know if you agree with this, but it just really feels like women need each other. And these are the spaces where we can like be quiet with each other, be vulnerable and be real. And I don't know if I'm taking it too far, but I don't know. I just I think there's it's such a blessing to have women in spaces where we can help other women in a safe place, you know. Yeah, I totally agree. I actually I feel that way too. Even me, I like need other women right now, to do what I do, like it's so much. And I going building a business, you feel alone, parenting, you feel alone, trying to find friends as an adult, you feel alone. Yep, so much alone. And it's like there is, I think this I do. I want like a powerful movement of women that's just supporting, and it's so yeah, I completely agree. Listen, I had friends. We I sent out a text last Thursday night. I said, Hey, tomorrow's gonna be beautiful. We're gonna just be in the backyard from this time to this time. Whoever's around, stop by. We had 10 kids, five, we had moms, we had dads, we, you know, and they were all just like, thank you for doing this. Thank you for hosting. I would have never you're all just hanging in my backyard, but thank you for, you know what I mean? Someone brought like Doritos down, and then we had a jug of apple cider. I mean, it was just so silly and and casual. And I think if you think about the space where you run your business, whether that is a smaller studio or a huge salon, having events, bringing women together, hosting, you have a local author, bring them in, have them do a talk for women, you know, then right, like all of these community connections, I think it's so hard to do. I'm not gonna say this has also has been my dream for two years to have a backyard party. We finally had it, you know, like we did it, Joe, right? Like it's like, okay. But I think that if you are in a position, you're listening right now, you're in a position to host events. They don't always have to be a party with drinking and all that. Like it can be something more like an art club or a yeah, charm. We come and make charm breathing. Like it doesn't have to be serious, it can just be fun and a place for women, like you said. Carrie, come to my backyard. We'd love to have you and the kids come and play with the neighbors, you know, because like that's really what we want. You know, I think that's the the other level of it is like we want community and we don't want it to be hard. We want to just show up. Yeah, I feel like it did get hard though for a while because you're saying like it was all the events that I planned, like it was like I gotta pick a color scheme, and then I've got to like do all this, and it has to be so whatever. I went to a party kind of just similar to yours, but you know what they did, and it was so genius. Tell me, everybody come over to our house, bring your own dinner with you.

EmilyBenson:

Oh, I like that. I didn't even know you brought like peanut butter and jelly. Like, who cares?

KariJo:

Everybody brings their own dinner, and then like what like the person had a shared dessert. I loved it, it was so fun, and it was so easy. And I just feel like that's what we want more now is just the easy. Take the heart off of our plates, you know what I mean. Yeah, the bar. Let's make it easy to get these guests. You know what I mean? Let's just it doesn't have to be and hosting an event with like all of your people. You said find someone in your community that writes a book and come and do something. And I yeah, I I love it. I love the whole building a community thing and making it simple, not bougie. Yes, it has to be easily accessible because women do not need to be in high heels and a full beat go to a party. Like, you know, like like I just feel like I want to Yeah, I want to show up as I am and be accepted for who I am. And yeah, no, I think you're so right. I think a lot of women put so I mean, I turned, I'll be 43 in a couple months. And it's I just really have reached that age in my life, and I'm sure anyone older can relate too, but it's just I really just need to take the pressure off myself. I've been putting so much pressure on myself my whole life. Like, take a breath. You've made it this far, you're doing great, everything's gonna be okay. Let's just make life easy and fun. And especially when we have little kids, like we just there's we want it to be fun for them too, you know? So, and I love having dinner because you know what? When you don't have to worry about your kids eating, you can actually talk to the other parents. So I love that. You're not like trying to feed, you're just like, here's your food, here you go, you know? That's awesome. Oh my god. Well, okay, so we're coming down to an end, but I'm gonna can I give you pop questions? Oh my god, yeah. I think I went through everything I wanted to talk about. So yeah, this is perfect. Is it? Well, do you have any other good things before I give you my pop questions? Okay, yeah. My only other good one, and please steal it. was the the idea of treat yourself to a tool so like post that post treatment idea but like use that term like treat yourself to I love alliteration so that's all yeah nothing too Jesus I love that yeah okay I am okay tell me I love it questions here we go you tell me based off of your experience what month should we be planning for our November and December specials starting to plan I would say October start to formulate what you want to do but once you are in November like solidify it like that first week that first two weeks in November you really want to be hard into whatever you're doing by like November 15th like have it set up have it ready to go even if it's not perfect get it up so you can test it and see what happens but like really to me that November 15th is the beginning of the holiday season. Okay I love that okay what small details in holiday staging like light sense music is going to make the biggest difference in ourselves would you say I think the biggest thing with staging is clear signage and clean tables. So like I find that just in general people put too much stuff out the less stuff you have out like there's that fine balance of like just have it just enough out maybe a couple examples but you're not stuffing everything. And I also think that having a signature scent having that candle burning that you're also selling no brainer like absolute no brainer. But you know the only other thing that comes up for Christmas time is a lot of people will put up extra decorations and customers will like try to buy them. So just like be so clear that like this is retail and these are decoration. Some people mix it too much and then you have them trying to buy things that you're like oh no that's like my display you know so just be keep it as clean as possible I would say still with your white space still with the beautiful you know setup but don't junk it up too much you know what is your when someone's gonna buy something last minute what is that top product that you feel like everybody like sells really well last minute that's small, cheap. Yeah I would say scarves blankets socks eye masks those things that are non-sized I think if it's non-size, if it's like what even like not one size but yeah I think anyone's willing to buy like body scrub and body lotion. I mean like I feel like Sally Spa that like video game had it right where it's like give them the body scrub give them the body lotion I think that's always going to sell best because it's it's a nice treat. Like I'm always happy to get scrub and you know so I would say too it's also like what do you want to get what are you so happy to get that someone got you even if it is last minute yeah it is so true. Okay last one. Okay. If we could only focus on one thing in order to prepare for our holiday sell, what would you say it should be marketing, promoting it. People spend so much time developing a product developing a thing, creating a business and then they're so scared to talk about it or they're so I don't want to bother people I don't want to send too many emails hey bother people I'm getting four emails a day from some companies and like do I care? No, I just delete it. Okay. Like no one's gonna hate you. They're not gonna take it personally but like give yourself 60 to 90 days to like really promote push your get your face out there get the results you're getting people talk about yourself in the highest regard possible and like because this is the time to do it because ears are open and it's noisy. It is noisy but be unique be a little bit louder than normal and don't be afraid to like ask for the sale ask for what you want because this is the season where people are yeah yeah okay I'm gonna you know they're willing to spend a little bit more. We've seen a bit of retail growth too and like a little bit of an uptick in sales since August. So you know I I think a lot of people are like doomsday about like the holiday season but I've yet to see any signs of it. So also don't psych yourself out. You know like it's not bad unless you make it bad. So just make it good and remember that you're just out there to try to make friends. The money will come yes okay well we gotta go in because I love that we gotta go five more minutes two things I hope I can remember the best thing is is I love like people feel like it like dooms and I have the phone call with my estetician like oh it's slow and I'm not saying that it's not slow but one of the there was a time in my business when I thought like like it was like the whole economy was going to crash. Of course of course yes we've had it multiple times in the past 10 years. Yeah and I went to like one of my greatest mentors and he's you know the the difference between a good man or a good entrepreneur and a bad one carry and I was like what and he's like a good one will figure it out. So like if you are feeling that you are in that doomsday you'll figure it out. That's what will set you apart from everybody else. Do you know what I mean? And then he and then he's like and just so you know I've seen the worst of times like there you're nowhere you know and I was like oh okay so I love how you're like with the doomsday like you're like you know I haven't seen it real we haven't seen it much yeah it is happening so don't get stuck in that mindset. And then the second thing that I wanted to say what oh marketing. Okay I loved what you just said I love that your tip was marketing so much because because what happens is like I teach these people like okay you know run a promotion for say the month of October you know come what do you need rebookings whatever but then the problem is is it falls flat and it's not that the special sucked it was because what was your marketing behind it in order to do it. And so it's like you just said you can spend all this time planning the perfect little gift baskets or how you're gonna run the special but if you didn't do the marketing which is you just said which I 10 out of 10 points for you not that like you know thank you. It's true though no listen I'm hosting event this weekend I did a terrible job marketing it I have people coming and I am going to I have like two people coming I could have had 30 am I beating myself up about it no because like honestly I did kind of a crappy job promoting it. I could have done a lot better but I'm gonna show up on Sunday I am going to be the I'm going to focus so hard on those two people I'm going to give them the best day of their lives and that's all I need to be like I need to be okay with that. You know right I think there is just like you're saying that balance of if it's slow, figure it out. And if it's still slow, you haven't talked about yourself enough. Like you haven't been unapologetically just out there doing your thing talking about I mean you love this go talk about what you love. If you love skincare tell me more what what about skincare do you love? Like that's really all it is is like we think marketing you said it's so smart of you to say like even if you go viral on this reel you made for four hours is it gonna turn into sales like my business has been an InStyle magazine lucky magazine in Forbes all these places never once did it make me any money okay it just doesn't what makes you the money is by making those connections with real people getting them you know kind of buy into your the way you do things and why you get great results and as you prove that over time business becomes easier but you're right people have to know about you. It's like the it isn't build it and they will come it's it's build it and talk about it every freaking day all that all day long and then people will come, you know? Give, give, give, give, give maybe receive give, give, give, give receive, receive yes, yes yes but like it's that generosity thing too, right? It is all of that giving and it's coming it's the energy exchange it's I always think of too like cash flow just like energy exchanges. The more energy I put out there the more cash will flow in and like you know I kind of like to think about it like that. And so if you're putting if you're putting energy into the worry and the doomsday you're not putting energy into getting your message out too so like I've blocked a ton of my social apps. I have tried to cleanse my brain of all this stuff because you know we're going through a weird time in our country and at the same time we have such a great opportunity to like we've been talking about build community connect with other women help us all feel like we're gonna be okay because like that is the big piece of it is like I think we're trying to be convinced that things are bad. And it's like, no but like we we're more powerful than that. You know what I mean? And I think that's the I think a big theme of this whole conversation is really just owning it and taking your power back and like being good with being a imagine yourself as a successful stylist, aesthetician whatever that person is you want to be and like I have my vision board right there but like I look at it all the time and like the house up the street that we want to buy is still on the board, you know, and every day it feels maybe a little more possible maybe a little more possible you know and I think that's the thing is a lot of us really want to be successful overnight. But I've been doing this almost 20 years. You've been doing this a long time too and it just it's a commitment you have to think gosh I don't want to do anything else and even if I quit this I probably want to come back to this and it's just like perseverance. Like it really I think the more you persevere and the more you just believe it's something you can do then you know it doesn't matter the promotions it doesn't but if you put yourself out there you believe in yourself that's why I think people like me and are messaging you it's because like I believe in myself I believe in what I say and and I have the experience and kind of the I was with people the past couple days and they're like you've lived 12 lives like I'm talking about all these things that and you know it's like that's the thing is like you still have seven more lives to live. So like let's keep going. You know what I mean? Like there's always gonna be something more it's not it's never I think your mentor's right it's like it's never linear it's never the way you expect it to work out. So just like do your best stay as high you know stay as good vibe as you can I like kind of hate that term but like you know try to be nice to yourself take the pressure off like let yourself fail let yourself succeed you know and be comfortable with both because like as an entrepreneur man every day feels we're just yeah and like and and and it gets easier the more you get beat up. You know you're you're thick your skin gets thicker you get like you kind of know how to navigate certain clients or certain situations and it just comes from experience. So just keep doing what Carrie Joe says and and you know it's it's inevitable if you don't quit. That's what I always say like your success has to be inevitable but like you can't quit you can't give up on yourself. Like you have to be your own biggest cheerleader and for some of us that is so hard but I dare you to try to do it for a week or two and see what happens you know I know it is true. It's like just there's no choice you just keep going for as long as you tell you just keep going so it's like parenting you can't get out you already you're in it there's nowhere out there's no way but like forward really business you're screwed keep going so yes they're giving you added instead of your kids giving you attitude you're like you don't have the attitude you're like looking for the attitude yeah um yeah but yeah so I love that well Emily so tell my uh listeners again like how they can work with you because you also you have such great ideas because I had so many different people that were like I don't know how do you I buy headbands? How do I like get into all of that? So like how can my audience find you to connect with you? Yeah okay the best way is always going to be through email. So I have an amazing client success manager named Nicole she will get on the phone with anyone we'll talk to whomever like we always respond to emails. So you can always email us at hello at boutique trainingacademy.com and honestly when you go to boutiquetrainingacademy.com we do have courses we have big courses we have sort of small little pieces of the courses we've pulled out that might help you um so we'd love to like get you directed in the right place based on like where you are and we do have a Black Friday masterclass that is directed towards boutiques but it would definitely give people a good perspective so we can give you guys a coupon code to use for your your people and they can get a discount on that if they're they're interested in sort of like seeing more of the methodology of how I think about buying and these promotions are all in there. So it's not perfectly applicable but we'll give you the discount because it's not you know what I mean? Yeah oh my gosh yeah I would love that and I do think that there's so much you can learn from her because like I just said there's like all these different kinds like how they're doing the sales and everything I'm like genius genius it is the same it's just not we're selling this cleanser it's we're selling the shirt yeah that's it no that's right and listen like I have a I have clients who could sell a bag of dirt and because they're good at it and they can do it. You know what I mean? It's just it it's such transferable skills. And I think at the end of the day knowing that's right. And I think at the end of the day to be so just bare bones about it is like we are women who are passionate about what we do and luckily that helps other women and so like that's we all share in that experience of like wanting the best for our peers and our colleagues and our like we want the best for them you know and so I think it's it's we have a shared mission in that of the like we see how it could be better because we know and we've we've learned and we've we've taken the hits and let let's just tell you how it goes. You know what I mean? So I love talking to you because I it's just I'm kind of I love beauty I love I mean I think I told you I got my first facial at like 15 you know so it's like I actually was like I need to book a massage soon like my shoulder you know so you know I think we all need it and you know don't don't ever think there's too many people and yeah I could talk to you for days and days. You're just so awesome. And so I'm grateful to be on your podcast because you've built such a great community too so thank you for having me. Yes well guys I'm gonna put all of Emily's email and everything in the show notes so make sure you click it and guys let me know tell me your favorite part of this episode so that I can share it with Emily because it's always great to have feedback. Wasn't that so great that email that I got like from that person that's like I'm listening right now. I was like I love that so we want to hear feedback because just like you we're in our own little echo chambers too and we're trying to not take the pressure off too. But yeah thank you to all the listeners that wrote in and and compliment like I just I want you to be successful and I'm so happy to share anything I know to help you get there. You know that's that's it. So yeah please do share and I have a podcast myself called Boost Your Boutique. So some of it's probably applicable but you know if you want to hear more of my silliness and my ideas like I do have a bunch of them over there. So yeah we'll give you all that info. All right well everything below thanks for tuning in everybody and we'll see you next week on another esthetician podcast. Bye guys thank you for listening to the Esthetician podcast with Carriejo Patterson. Each week Carrie brings you real world lessons on how to grow your empire. To learn more about Carrie's fearless prosperity mastermind group, one on one VIP coaching opportunities and more, visit www.caryjopatterson.com. That's www.kar i jopatterson dot com. See you next week for more insights and strategies on the Esthetician Podcast

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Emily Benson, CEO Boutique Training Academy

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