Should You Simplify Your Esthetician Service Menu?

Most estheticians think they need to offer more services to grow.

But in reality?
The bigger your treatment menu gets, the more confused your clients become.

In this episode, Kari Jo breaks down why clients don’t actually think in treatments — they think in problems. You’ll learn how to simplify your treatment menu, organize your services into phases, and create systems that make clients feel more confident saying yes.

This episode is for estheticians who:
- feel overwhelmed by their menu
- struggle with clients questioning pricing
- constantly overexplain treatments
- want clients to trust their recommendations more
- want a simpler system that creates more confidence

In this episode:
- Why clients question treatments and pricing
- The biggest mistake estheticians make with treatment menus
- How to organize services into client “phases”
- The difference between required services vs add-ons
- Why systems create confidence for both you and your clients
- How to stop making your business harder than it needs to be

If today’s episode hit home for you, download Kari Jo’s free Esthetician Weekly Numbers Tracker at:
karijopatterson.com/start

The Esthetician Podcast helps estheticians stop guessing, understand what’s actually happening in their business, and learn what to fix first.

If you’re booked but not making money, you need to start with your numbers.
Download my FREE  “Diagnose Your Business” tracker in the show notes and I’ll show you exactly what to track.

Are You Ready to fix this in your business?

Apply for a free Business Breakthrough Audit:

https://forms.gle/Jkr27yUb6n6PYcba7

Transcript

Welcome And The Real Goal

Kari Jo 0:02

Welcome to the Esthetician Podcast, the podcast for aestheticians who are tired of working nonstop, feeling stuck in their business. Hey, I'm Kari Jo, and I'm an esthetician of 20 years. I built and I sold my aesthetics company after learning the business side that nobody ever teaches us. And each week we are gonna figure out what is actually happening in your business and what to fix first and how to build a business that actually is gonna give you more freedom, more profit, and most importantly, more peace. So let's get into today's episode. Welcome back to the studician podcast. I'm your host, Kari Jo. What's up? Um, anyways, guys, I am gonna start off by telling you this because I went okay, back it up for a second.

Retirement Thinking For Estheticians

Kari Jo 0:55

I didn't go anywhere, but I was driving and I was listening to podcasts because if you guys know I own a bunch of Airbnbs, which is something I feel like um I did it as a retirement, which I think we need to all start thinking about our retirement sooner than we do, because I mean, what are we gonna do? It's not like we're working for the hospital and they're like matching our money, right? So, anyways, I I started to realize that when I was wearing my company, I got to this point where I was like, dude, what am I gonna do for retirement? Like, you know, my husband gets retirement, but I don't. And so, being the entrepreneur that I am, I was like, I need to get into Airbnbs. I had no idea how to do it. Anyways, that's a whole other episode, which I can do if you guys want to know how I even got into Airbnb's, how I started it, how I figured that out, which is actually really interesting. Send me a DM, let me know. But for this purpose, we're gonna skip over that. So, anyways, I still listen. I hired a mentor for my Airbnb to learn systems because just like you guys, guys, if you can get there sooner, quicker, faster, do that, right? So I know I'm a big advocate for our industry for systems, because the truth is, is like the whole entire time I was building my company, I was 100% of the time guessing what I was doing. I was making it up as I went along. And then it was like after I learned systems and number tracking and things like that. I was like, oh, this makes more sense. And then I everything in business, I once I don't know, it was like unlocking a thing in my brain that like you just need systems. And so I just started implementing systems in my business, so which is why I talk so much about systems, is because it was game-changing for me. Like I had a system for my meetings with my employees, I had a system for my races, I had a system for marketing, I had a system for finances, I had so like everything was like systematized. And so I understood how important systems are in creating value and long-term growth. And so when I went into an Airbnb, who wants to run it the entire time? I don't. So I hired a mentor who had proven systems, and he taught me all these systems. So I have all these Airbnbs, they take me less than five minutes a day, if that, to run it. Like I'm kidding, everything is hooked up and it's insane. And this is before AI, right? Like before AI, it still took me less five, it's gonna take me nothing

AI Employees And Automation Wins

Kari Jo 3:48

now. Okay, but anyways, getting back to what I was talking about is I was driving home from Florida recently, listening to I have to say up on Airbnbs and like what's going on in the Airbnb world and stuff like that. So I'm like listening. And it was this podcast where this guy that he's the owner of Boosley, which is a website company, came on and he was talking about how he is using um, you know, Claude's AI and built like employees and then for his company, and he had like this sales guy that left and he was paying him like $50,000. Because this has a purpose, I promise. But he's paying him like $50,000 and this guy left and he'd been playing around, so he's like, Well, let's see if I can build this AI employee to replace it because I'm gonna use AI if it makes me money, right? Well, he built this uh, you know, AI employee. Sure enough, like sent the AI employee out. He came out, made an email, sent it out, and got him like a massive account. So, anyways, he was kind of talking about, and I was sitting there listening to this guy that was talking about like these AI employees, and I was like, oh shit, I need that. So I was like, I can think of 150 things. Like, I mean, how nice would that be for like my podcast manager to be like, go find me a guest? And it goes out and gets me a guest. Anyways, guys, let me just tell you, I was like, I need that. And then it was so funny because I was listening to that. I was like, this is insane what this can do. So then I got off the phone and I call my friend, she is a massive marketer for this multi-million dollar company, you know, and she works a lot for Google, she runs like Google ads and all those things. I yes, I need to have her come back on, but like I was having some problems with my own Google search because for some reason AI recognizes the esthetician podcast, like Gemini and everything, they'll recommend like they know the esthetician podcast. Google, son of a gun, kill Google, you know. Anyways, they don't recognize it. So I'm like, I'm gonna kill Google. So I'm like calling her, and I was like called her to be like, okay, we we've gotta fix this. What do I gotta do? Anyways, she she we were just talking, she's like, Oh my gosh, I just went to this conference about building like these AI things. So she's like, I'm actually in the process of building one. I was like, oh my gosh, I just listened to this podcast, like this is huge, yeah, I need it, you know. So, anyways, I got off the phone, and for the last few days, guys, I've been working my little heart out making an AI employee. And I am proud to say that I have developed the brain as chat. Now, uh, most of these, like all these people that I've listened to, they're all doing it on Claude AI. I was tempted to go over to Claude for it, but like I I use chat and I got so much valuable information on chat, I don't want to start over. And chat can do it too. So I just decided to use chat anyways. And anyway, so I spent hours, I built the brain. You guys, this is crazy, and I gotta share my win with you guys because I just want to be honest and real all the time. And so what ended up happening is I built the brain. Now I can't systematize and have it doing everything without me with an like an employee yet. And the reason why is because I gotta I gotta check my SOPs to see if they're working and how so I have to like right now, I basically have an employee working for me, but I have to check to see I'm overseeing its work still, and then after I'm like, okay, this system is good, then I can move on to more automations. But so what I did is I was like, let's build me a podcast producer to help me get some of my podcast guests to come on when I am doing this. Do you guys want me to skip to the episode? All right, I know you probably do, but let's just keep going with this story for a minute. And then I promise you can skip ahead if you want to skip ahead. I for my podcast, I was like, let's build a podcast producer to go out and find those guests. And normally, um, it's to get guests to come on your podcast, guys. It's a lot of freaking networking. There are things I'm good at, things I'm not good at. Networking isn't my favorite thing in the world. And so stepping into this building a podcast and being on the world stage requires so much more networking like skills than just owning a business in a town. So it's like forced me to have to level up because you got to network with people to get these people on your podcast because not everybody wants to. It's time, whatever. Anyways, I built this little AI employee with some crazy SOPs, and it goes out and it hunts the most ideal candidates for my podcast, and then it comes on, and then it comes back and it like I have it all scheduled, so it gives me the list, and then I look and I approve them or I don't approve them. And then once I approve, I'm like, yeah, okay, these are the people that I want. Then it like goes and does this deep dive of like this person, and it finds who, who it is, how all their contact information, how I should reach out, writes me the email. Okay, so normally it's hard to get guests on, uh it's like I got it's a lot of work to do it, right? I did this, and guys, I just booked this guy, Joey Coleman. He's coming on it's how to never lose a client. You guys, I read his book. He is big, and I I implement his stuff all the time. I teach my girls to implement his thing. He's coming on my podcast, and I got him as a guest from this like employee that I made. It was incredible. So I don't know if you are looking into it yet, but you guys should look into creating a little AI employee. It's incredible what it will take off your plate. Okay, so I hope that was enjoyable for you guys.

Why Clients Question Your Menu

Kari Jo 10:32

All right, so we're gonna jump into today's actual conversation. I just I'm the type of person that when I learn something new, I love it and I want to share it because I feel like everybody needs to do it too. So let's get into today's episode. I want to ask you a question. Have you ever had a client ask, why are we doing something different? Or why is the price more today versus yesterday? We've all had that. And what normally happens is like when our clients start like questioning what it is that we're doing, you know, your body starts to tense up, and then you start like not just explaining, but you start to like overexplain. And then you feel like you kind of have to defend yourself because your clients are asking these questions, and it's not like the client is actually being rude. Well, listen, if you've ever felt that way, then this episode today is for you. I feel like I get asked so much about my treatment menu. Like, I need you to look over my treatment menu. I think it's so long. I don't know, like, I don't like my treatment menu. Will you look over it? Here's the thing. Honestly, through all my coaching experience, let me tell you about the one thing that I have learned. It comes down to your personal system. When I opened my business, I thought I needed to offer absolutely everything. I was not niche down. I thought I needed to do waxing, Brazilian waxing. I don't even like Brazilian waxing, um, lashes, microderm abrasion, chemical pills, tinting, body treatments. If there was a certification for something, I wanted it. If there was a class, I needed to sign up. If there was a new machine, I needed that new machine. And I thought that that's everything I needed to do to be a successful esthetician. So what happened is my menu of all the services that I provided got really large. It just kept getting bigger and bigger. And I thought that that was me helping everything. But what I didn't realize is by my menu getting bigger and bigger, it was making everything harder for my clients. See, most of my clients, and maybe this is true for you too, is most of my clients when they come in, they only come in for a handful of the things on my menu. I mean, think about it. You're probably doing 80% of the same thing every single day. And more importantly than that, when my clients are coming in, they weren't looking for a specific service. They always came in because they were wanting a result of something, right? And we've talked about this like when you were niching down, like maybe the result that they want is some relaxation. Maybe the result is pigmentation, maybe it's um they want a community. Like there, there's a result that your your client actually wants, but whatever that result is, they're not coming in being like, do you do dermal planing? Really? They're not asking, like, do you have a medallic chemical pill? Or I don't know, like all of those different treatments, right? What they're really ultimately coming in saying is they're saying, Hey, can you help this pigmentation? Or oh, I am so excited just to come in and relax today. None of them are coming in and being like, Do you offer LED? No, they're actually coming in saying, dude, why does my skin actually look tired? Like, why do I have these bags underneath my eyes? That is where I think we as aestheticians, we get a lot, we make things like so much harder than we need to be because what we ultimately do is we continue to build these like treatment menus around our services. These are all the services that we list or that we do. But ultimately, our clients aren't thinking of services. Think of this, they're not thinking of the services. What they are ultimately thinking of is they are thinking about their problems. None of our clients wake up being like, I need a mandelic pill today. Nobody says that. They wake up thinking, why won't this pigmentation go away? Or why am I breaking out? Why does my skin look dull? They're thinking about their problem, not treatments. That is why I feel like treatment, our treatment menus create a lot of confusion for our clients because the treatment menu, if you like print them out, put it on a piece of paper or print it or put it on your website, whatever, it's basically most of them is like when you post that, you're you're basically saying, these are the services that I offer. But clients aren't asking what service are you offering? They're instead asking, What do I need? And those are two different questions. And so that's why I want to give you a system today that you can actually sit down and work on this week. We are gonna work through this together right

Choose One Problem To Solve

Kari Jo 15:40

now. The first step is I want you to first and foremost figure out the one problem that you solve, not 10, not 20, just uno one. And that's hard. I get it, because ultimately when I talk to these aestheticians, so many people say, like, I'm a specialist in acne and aging. What one? Pick one. What one are you the specialist of, right? Pick one. Do you do sensitive skin? Are you barrier? Are you relaxation? Uh, do you just help maintain skin? Are you a little lash artist? Like, pick one. When I sit down and I have people that that you know, we're talking through and working on like what they want to be known for. They'll say, like, acne, pigmentation, dermoplaning, microneedling, all of those things, right? Those are all services, those are all conditions. But here's what I want you to write down and figure out today. And if you don't know, go into your chat GPT, your Claude, whoever you use, and say, I don't know, pull the genius out of my brain and help me figure out the answer to this question, right? But I want you, I want you to figure out this answer. What is it do you that you ultimately want to be known for? One thing. What do you want? If I sent a hundred people to your business right now, right today, what would you want them walking out of your store saying about you? The one thing. What's the one thing that lights you up? The one thing that you could talk about for hours. It's like the one thing that someone they sit in your chair and immediately you already know what to do. You know everything about it. Because that is where your authority truly lives. I was coaching this esthetician recently, and she had the most beautiful niche statement, and it sounded so amazing on paper, right? But every time we were talking, she would light up about pigmentation. Well, the pigmentation wasn't on her niche statement, but whenever she was talking about it, her energy changed, her confidence changed, and like she could actually give me a plan. She'd be like, Yeah, so first I like to do this, and then I like to move them into this, and then I kind of like to maintain them like with this. I'm like, dude, do you realize you have a system for pigmentation? You have a process, like a step one, a step two, a step three. The people who truly own a niche, guys, you actually have a real system. Like you know you can get them. You have a system for how you do it. So, step number one, what problem do you want to solve? Oh, I went to the I was listening to this podcast recently. This girl, she's huge. Um, uh, I can't think of her name off the top of my head. Anyway, she's on Instagram, she's huge, she has like, I don't know, 1.0 milliers. She went on, she's on this podcast, and she was talking about how like she did this big conference one day. And she, when she first started, and then she was like, Hey, I want to create as much value for you guys. So I want to know if I were to do this again, what is the one like what would you want? What do you want? You know, and so instead of guessing what her clients wanted, she just straight up asked them, and then she built her whole entire platform around that. The guy that was interviewing on the podcast, I need to find it. Maybe I'll link it in my stories on Instagram. The guy was like, but doesn't that make you sound like you don't know what you're doing with your clients? If you're like, you know, you tell me, and she's like, maybe, but who cares? Like, you need the information, guys. Why don't we just ask our clients? You got the clients, ask them what problem do you want them to solve? If you could solve anything for them, anything, what would it you solve? Okay, so you're gonna write it down now.

Build Phases Instead Of Services

Kari Jo 19:57

Step number two, I want you to create phases, not services. I want you to create phases, and this is where everything is going to change because clients don't think in treatments, right? They think in journeys, they want to know where am I? Where am I going next? And how long is this gonna ultimately take? So instead of you listing every treatment under the sun on your treatment menu, I want you to think about it in phases. So, example, phase one, we're gonna reset and we're gonna build up your her repair, whatever it is. What are you gonna do in phase one? Right? And then you're gonna move on to phase two. This is when we're doing gonna do all of your correction. This is when we're gonna brighten up all of your pigmentation, your skin, all of that. And then we're gonna move you to phase three. And phase three, it's about strengthening and then maintaining what it is that we've just done. So I want you to notice like what I just did. I created phases that a client is going to go through, not treatments. And see, a client can understand the client will be like, oh, I'm in the correction phase. No, no wonder why it's more money, right? You don't have to justify your prices because it makes sense you're in the correction phase. And that, and the reason why this ultimately matters is because one of the biggest complaints as statisticians, we get is like, why are we changing treatment? Why is it more expensive? Why is it different? Well, when you're working in phases, the answer becomes super easy to explain. You're moving to the next phase, you're not randomly changing treatments, you're progressing. And everyone in this world, including your employees, because I talk about this like employees don't want to be paid the same forever, or otherwise they're gonna leave. Everybody wants to grow. Your clients. They want to grow too. Now, this is the part where I feel like people get nervous because I know what you're thinking, and you're thinking, Well, Carrie, I do do all of those treatments, and so I'm gonna lose money because I'm not gonna put them on there. Girl, I'm not asking you to eliminate your services, I'm asking you to organize them for your clients. I want your clients to see categories. Right now, they see services, but a client doesn't need all that complexity. I mean, truly and honestly, a treatment menu is actually, for being honest, a treatment menu is really for us, the provider. It's not really made for the client. So instead, say under your reset and repair, you do a barrier repair, you do enzymes or hydration or whatever it is, you put all the services under the different categories. That way, nothing disappears. You didn't remove treatments, you're just organizing them and you're hiding all the complexity. That ultimately is leadership. When you are able to take someone through a system, that that is ultimately you being the guide, you're leading them through a service.

Add-Ons Without Feeling Salesy

Kari Jo 23:19

So now let's talk about my favorite part, which is what do you include? Because yes, I love add-ons, guys. I'm a big add-on person. I that's how you can like sometimes you don't need more clients, you just need your clients that you already have to spend just a little bit more. So I'm a big advocate for add-ons, right? So, how do you know to include something or not include something? One of the simplest ways that I like to decide, and if I was to do like systems, like you can even make this really easy, guys. You guys can have like in the repair journey or in step phase one, repair, you can have say two different phases. You can have the normal facial or the luxury facial, right? Like two different ones. Now, the difference between what what you choose includes, whether to include something or not, is I would say if something requires a step necessary for them to get the out to clum, I think you should include it. I don't think we need a nickel and dime, our clients by any means. However, let's say that you have an incredible scalp massage, whatever you can add on, an eye treatment, um, an extended massage, a hand massage, whatever, and those enhance the experience, not necessarily the result. Then I would sell that as an up, like an add-on. And when you do it that way, clients kind of stop feeling like they're being sold all the time because they know what's required and they know what's extra. So this is the most important thing that I want to say about treatment menus today, is basically I don't believe that treatment menus are for the client. I feel like when you make a treatment menu, that treatment menu should protect you as the aesthetician. Because if you don't actually have a system and you're not giving an actual system, then what happens is you carry all of the confusion. You you carry all of your clients' objections, all your clients' uncertainty, all of the explanation. You carry all the doubt, all of that, and it's really, really exhausting. And you just feel like you're going into battle all the time. When you have systems, systems carry the weight. A system will tell the clients where they are and what comes next, and it will explain the pricing for you so you don't have to do it. I think a lot of aestheticians think that confidence comes first, and it's hard to build when you don't feel confident. But the truth is, is when you don't feel confident, that's why you actually need a system because you need the system to ultimately carry the weight. So before, if you don't feel experienced, like you don't feel confident in charging what you're charging, you need a system because that system will carry the weight and explain the pricing. The system will tell the client what's next. The system will tell the client why things are changing. And ultimately, that system creates confidence for you. I believe systems create confidence because I've seen it in my own journey as an esthetician where I've literally gone from not feeling confident. I I'll I'll even say it with like my my um, you know, when you own a team or when you own a business and you have a team working for you, I don't want to say own a team, but have a team working for you, sometimes problems come up. And I don't want to have those hard conversations. The only reason why a boss doesn't want to have those hard conversations is because they don't have a system. But once you have a system, it gives you the confidence to have those hard conversations. Ultimately, the more things that live in a system, the calmer you are always going to feel. And that's why I always say stop guessing and start knowing. Because when you're guessing, you feel overwhelmed. When you actually know you can lead a client through a system, it's calming because you become the guide. And ultimately, that is your job. Your client wants certainty. Your client wants to know, I have this problem. What do I do next? How long is this going to take? What's going to be the cost? And if your treatment menu isn't answering any of those questions, it's leaving confusion. But when it does, everything becomes super

Homework And Weekly Number Tracker

Kari Jo 27:50

easy. So here's your homework this week. Don't redesign your entire treatment menu. Don't spend eight hours on Canva. Rebuild your website. Just do these four things. One, write down the problem you solve. Two, create three phases. Just three. Three is a great number. And then put your services in those phases and decide what's included and what's optional. And if you do that, you'll be surprised how much easier your consultations will ultimately become. Your job is not to give clients more choices. Your job is to help them know what they need to do next. Thanks for hanging out with me today. And guys, if this episode helped you, please go ahead and like and comment, subscribe. And if you are enjoying the Esthetician podcast, can you do me a favor and leave me a review? Until next time, stop guessing and start knowing. If today's episode hit home for you, the next thing I want you to do is go and download my free esthetician weekly number tracker. Most estheticians are trying to fix everything all at once. When really it's usually one number that is quietly breaking the business. One weak number creates the stress that you're going through. Low rebooks, low retail, low client retention, low average ticket. This tracker, it helps you figure out what number is actually hurting your business first. So when you know what to focus on, instead of feeling like you're all over the place, you can start changing your company. You can download it at carryjopatterson.com forward slash start. And remember, you don't need to fix everything at once. You just need to fix the number that is affecting everything else. I'll see you guys next week.