Why I went solo (The Real Story)

This solo episode is all about the job that pushed me to do bigger and better things! Buckle up. It’s rocky. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Hi everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Spay Podcast. Today we're doing a solo episode. I want to tell you today the story of how I became a solo aesthetician because I wasn't always solo. I actually did have two other aesthetics jobs. So a lot of people have heard me tell this story before, but I don't really get too far into it just because it still bothers me. But I think for me to be able to like move past and kind of release I hate saying trauma because it really wasn't traumatic, but it was like it was rough going there for a while for me. And so let's just let's just like unpack it, let's talk about it. So I graduated beauty school in 2019, and I've told the story before. I got licensed like a month before COVID hit, and once COVID hit, you know, obviously everything shut down. So I did not work as an esthetician for at least two months. Um, I did work as an Ulta skin therapist for about two weeks, like right before the pandemic hit. That wasn't my first job, which I literally hated it, so I feel like that was kind of a blessing in disguise because I probably would have stayed there because there wasn't a lot of job opportunity for estheticians, and there really still isn't, but um anyway, so when COVID hit, I didn't work for two months, which was horrible for me because I love to work. I'm definitely not one to I don't know, I'm just like a working girl, you know. Well, whenever I got word that there was gonna be a medis spa opening up um near me in my hometown, I lived about well, literally five minutes away from Knoxville, where I was in Seymour. There was like, you know, a mile down the road, you were in South Knoxville. So I lived in Seymour, but was definitely more of a South Knoxville in. That's where I was, you know, born and whatever. But anyway, so when I got where there was gonna be a Medi Spall opening, I was like jumping on that because there was nothing like that around at the time, and I was really trying to just work. And I got hired on as their opening day aesthetician, and this to me at this time I was like a dream come true because I had no idea what I was gonna do. I had no, you know, just no hope at this point, honestly, because there was no one hiring. And when they hired me, I was like, I've made it, like this is it, and you know, I really planned on being there long term, and I feel like it's important for me to say that when I get further into this story. But so I worked there for about nine months. The beginning was very slow, but I did enjoy it. Um, I didn't do very many facials in the beginning, mostly because like COVID and everything, we weren't technically allowed to. So I was waxing brows and armpits, and that's what I was doing because people could wear a mask during that. I think I waxed some legs, but I wasn't doing facials. Well, when State Board finally came out and said, Okay, y'all, you can do facials now, immediately jumped on that. And I had started my skincare with Morgan Page on Facebook and Instagram in beauty school, so it was already there. I didn't post like I post now, but I was posting quite a bit, and it wasn't like facial ASMR because this was kind of before that trend was going. And I was just posting, you know, like informational videos about the stuff that I was offering. I was doing like before and after photos of derma planing, brows, just kind of showing my treatment room at the spa. And I started to get a little bit of traction, but you know, like I felt like I needed more. So I started doing the Facebook ads that you can do. You can like boost a post on Facebook, and I would spend like five dollars an ad or whatever, maybe ten dollars if I was feeling frisky. Because let me remind you, I literally had no money. I had no money because I was making thirteen dollars an hour at a family-owned business and I was not getting paid commission. And when I asked to be paid commission, basically they said no. And that was further on down the line because they had told me that you know well, also I wasn't I didn't have very many facials during the day. I was just kind of going and doing, you know, the Facebook page, like the the spa's Facebook page. I was cleaning and just kind of making myself busy because I wanted to be there just in case there was a walk-in. Well, there was never any walk-ins, there was literally never any walk-ins. Well, it at a point they told me I couldn't do that anymore. So I would go in for a facial, you know, like a $200-something dollar pill, and I would be making $13, and I would have to leave right after. So I was like, yeah, I've had I've had enough of that. So I was doing everything I could to make sure I could work because I wanted to get paid, y'all. I wanted to get paid. I did not want to live with my parents forever. I had to grow up, and I was 21, 22 at the time, and I like literally had just quit my retail jobs to do this and was making nothing. Making nothing. So I was doing the Facebook ads, and I can rem I can still see it like in the back of my mind, this ad. It was just like a photo of my treatment room with the table set, and I had like a relaxing, royalty-free, commercial use, like spa song, like in the back, and the caption was like, Hey everybody, I'm Morgan. You can find me at blank spa, fill my book up, and that was literally all it was, and that's all it took because that next week I had a full book. There was one day that I had eight clients, and to me at that time, I was like, Oh my gosh, I've done it. All the while, I think that everyone else that worked there there, and specifically the owner, thought that I was doing this in order to build my own business and leave with all of these clients. That was not a thought in the back of my mind, genuinely, and I am honestly saying that I was not trying to poach these clients. And I kept posting, I kept showing, you know, treatment results, I was showing videos of my facials, um, nothing like I do now. It was very low quality because, you know, like the facial ASMR on TikTok really was not happening at this time. And I remember, and this is probably my fault, but I remember back before things started to get really dark for me there. Me and one of the girls that worked there, and she was technically like my boss, but I really liked her, like I felt like we got along really well, and I really did like her. We were sitting there and talking about like our futures or whatever, and I said, one day it really is my dream to have my own spa. To me, in that moment when I told her that, I was just speaking that, and I knew at that time that it wasn't tangible for me, or I thought at that time it wasn't the least bit tangible, you know. And looking back at it now, it all makes sense because I think that when I said that, she immediately texted the owner and told her that. And I think that they thought that I was transpiring this like huge like client poaching business thing, and I wasn't. Now, later on down the line, I did want to talk to the owner because there was some stuff going on that I really didn't appreciate, and I felt uncomfortable going to work, and I wanted to make sure that I talked to her about it because I didn't want to feel stress at work. Like, I don't want to feel uncomfortable going to do the job that I love, you know? And I sent her a text message, it's probably like a freaking book of a text message telling her, you know, like I feel like I'm being tr treated unfairly. They had hired an esthetician while I was out. I got COVID in December, and when I came back to work, they had hired another esthetician, and I felt like they were really blindsiding me. And this is all obviously this is no hate to the esthetician because she was just being hired at a job that she really needed, you know. It was the same situation I was in, so I never held this against her, and I hope she's doing well. Like, I really like she's not there anymore, but and honestly, I don't even know if she's doing aesthetics anymore, but I think about her from time to time. Um anyway, so they had hired her on to do just lash extensions, and I was okay with that because I wasn't doing just that. I was still doing facials, pills, waxing, all of the other things. And they had wanted to get me trained on lashes, and they had offered to pay for my training, and I was like, okay, that's great. Like, but I wanted to make sure that I was doing it through like a school or something that was going to be like a legitimate training because I I mean, with lashes at that time, you just had to be certified with an aesthetics or cosmetology license. Now it's a little bit different, I think. But at that time, like I just I was young, I wanted to make sure that I wasn't gonna be doing anything to risk my license, and they took that as, oh, well, we're paying, so she's gonna try to go to you know, something just crazy expensive or whatever, and that's like again, that's not what I was doing. They thought all of my intentions were so malicious, and they just weren't. They came from a place of just like wishfulness and anxiety because I just wanted to to work. That's all I wanted, and I was getting so worried that it wasn't gonna work out, but anyway, so after I sent her this book of a text message, I schedule meeting that afternoon, and I had clients up until I think 6 30. And I can remember my my last client this day. It was this girl that I went to high school with, and um we used to dance together, and I think I've told her actually that like she was my last facial there before the blow up. Anyway, so we I go back to this meeting thinking it's just gonna be me and the owner, and I walk back there to like the lunch table, and every single person involved in the spa, including the owner's son, which why he was there, I'm not really sure. They were all sitting there with notepads, mind you. Notepads, and I'm like, what? They were trying to intimidate me, okay? And I'm going in this with the assumption that I was just gonna be telling her how I felt, and then they were gonna be like, Oh, I'm so sorry about that. Like, let's figure out what we can do to change it. Because I had no intention of leaving, I literally had no intention of leaving, and so I immediately like my stomach was just in knots because I'm like, they're going to interrogate me, and I genuinely just was doing everything I could not to just cry. Mind you, I was literally 21, 22 at this time, so I was just so scared, which what they were doing was scaring me, and they that's what they were trying to do. And so instead of busting out in tears, everything I was saying was coming off super aggressive, and I I know this now, and I know that that was not good, and it probably would have been better if I started to cry, but I did not want to let them see me cry. I didn't because you know, I just anyway, so I was posting regularly on my skincare page so I could work. I was doing everything I could to work. Mind you, I was also posting on the Spa's Facebook page in order to work, and I was also promoting other people's services as well. We had just like added on teeth whitening or something, so I was promoting that. And the son asks me, so what's your overhead? Y'all, I didn't even know what he meant. And I literally asked him, I was like, What's that? Because I I genuinely did not know what overhead was. That's when I realized, after they explained it to me, they were like, Oh, it's money that you have saved for your own business or something. Something to that effect. And I was like, Oh, so they actually think that I'm trying to poach all of their clients and leave. The rest of that conversation was me getting into it with the owner, and the whole thing was so unnecessary, and I just they hurt me deeply. Like they really, they really hurt me deep, deeply. And before this, I again feel like it's necessary to state that I had no intention of leaving that job. I wanted to make it better. And after I left that meeting, I and you know what, I'm not really gonna get too deep into that because it's just not necessary or worth it because everything worked out how it should have. And sometimes I think now, like, if I would have stayed there and they would have worked with me a little bit more and tried to understand where I was coming from when it came to all of my concerns, all of my success on social media would have been their success. And, you know, I don't even know if they know what I'm doing now. I'm not really sure. And I really don't hold any ill will towards them because you know they're they're also just people, but I know that they definitely hold ill will towards me, and I I don't really understand. I think they were just making something up in their head and pinning it on me. Mind you, I was literally a child, basically. So it just it's crazy to think about now. Anyway, I felt very alienated at that time, and I I left the meeting just like sobbing all the way home. And at this time, my parents had sold their house in Seymour, and I was living in West Knoxville, so it was already a shift for me in that moment. I knew that driving to Seymour every day wasn't something that I was enjoying, especially if I was just working for an hour, because they were really trying to split my calls at that point with the other esthetician, which really ticked me off because I was the one doing all the advertising. Anyway, so I just felt like it wasn't right. There was just something in my gut, and I cried the entire way home. I walk into my house, and my mom is sitting at the kitchen table, and I just break down. I mean, I have never felt that upset in my entire life. So I immediately just like run into my room and like throw myself onto my bed and sob like a princess because I had just been completely torn apart. And I'm not saying that me being aggressive back wasn't, you know, a bad idea because I was being aggressive back, and I definitely said some things that sounded differently in my head, but when they came out, they were much more like I don't know, almost like demanding, I think. And that's not what I was trying to do. So I'm like not, you know, placing all the blame on the situation on these people, like because I mean I was definitely feeding into it, you know. Anyway, I I understood the point I was trying to get across, and maybe I didn't explain it well enough. However, what they were doing to me was wrong, and the fact that they didn't see that was actually incredible, but so anyway, I told my mom I was like, I cannot work there anymore. It took me 30 minutes to get home, and in that 30 minutes, I was like, I cannot go back. Like I I don't know what to do. And this was like after my advertisements, like my Facebook ads had like really blown up, and I had like a full book of clients the next week, and they were clients that had gotten on my own, and I was like, you know, if I quit right now, all of that, all those clients are gonna go to that new esthetician. And as much as I wanted her to succeed, I was like, I got those, they're mine, I want to work, you know. And I go in to work the next day, and they had given me a key so I could come in on Saturdays because I was the only person that ever wanted to work on Saturdays, which um hello, if you're if you're an esthetician, especially starting out, literally a brand new esthetician in a town that not a lot of things happen. Saturdays I I felt like were a non-negotiable for me at that time. And I still work Saturdays, and I'll probably work Saturdays forever because I know that so many of my clients have to come in on Saturdays, like, and you know what? No, no shade, no tea to anybody that doesn't work Saturdays. Like that that's just how I run my business. But anyway, so I wanted to work Saturdays, so they gave me a key because nobody else wanted to, so I would be there by myself, and let me tell you guys like I loved my Saturdays at the spa. I would only be there for like the morning, and I would leave maybe a little bit after lunch, and it was so it felt right. I was by myself doing what I love, nobody was there critiquing me, nobody was there telling me um to go home. And I did my best facials on Saturday. I always felt like I really just like connected with my clients like on a different level on Saturdays. And when I came in the next day after this huge blowout, I think this was when this happened, this was a weekend, and I didn't work that weekend, and then I came back on that Monday. The sun was there for whatever reason and asked me for my key. And at this time I had already like decided that I wasn't gonna go back, but I was gonna finish out the week because I had tons of clients on my book and I wanted to get paid to give myself a week to decide what I was doing when I left, and I made a promise to the clients that I booked and I wanted to see them, so I worked for another week and it was very uncomfortable. Like I could just tell they did not want me there. The whole the whole point of that meeting that we had was basically to shove me out, essentially. They were pushing me out, and that's why they hired that other estatician. I I feel, I feel that's why. It may not have been, I don't know. Now, something that sticks with me even to this day, that lady, the owner of the spa, told me in that meeting when we were fighting, she told me, like, I don't doubt that you'll be successful. And I really did appreciate that from her, and I still appreciate that because she wasn't wrong. Like, I I pushed really hard for what I wanted, and I knew that you know I would be successful regardless of what happened because I literally had to, like, I I wanted I wanted it so badly, like I just wanted it so badly, and no matter what happened, I knew that I was gonna do everything I could to be successful, like really in any capacity. And so that sticks with me. But that week, me and my mom, she did help me because I was young and naive and didn't know what to say, we wrote a letter of resignation, and I basically just like it was very just professional and respectful as I intended the meeting to be, but kind of my emotions got the best of me and asked it theirs because they also blew up on me. And um I just told them that I wanted to make the spa a success, and it, you know, it really bothers me that how everything turned out, and that wasn't my intentions, and I don't know what their intentions were. And then I attached print I printed out every single advertisement that I ran for the spa and spent my own money on, and I stapled it to that thing and put it in an envelope, and I told them I was like, listen, you I feel as if you should pay me. Oh, and I left this out after that meeting that next day, they printed out a non-solicitation form and wanted me to sign it. And at that time, I was like, I don't know if they're gonna let me continue to work if I don't sign this. They probably would have because I was only gonna stay for like four more days after that anyway. They didn't know this. But basically the non solicitation form said that I could not contact any of the clients that I had made. while I was there. And I signed it because I was a being a good little girl. And I just I didn't know what they would do if I didn't. Turns out they probably would have done nothing because I'm pretty sure that the esthetician, the esthetician after me did not sign it and she was there for like almost two years. But that was a whole thing. And um anyway so I signed that and I was unable to contact any of my clients from my time there. And I actually did have some of them, a couple, follow me to my new place without me even telling them I was leaving. And I loved that. And it does break my heart a little bit to think about just mostly these two specific clients that I made while I was at this other place that I didn't get to continue working with because I really liked them. And that those were the first like client esthetician relationships that I had like made at that point and I think about them like regularly. I really do think about them a lot. And I wonder if they still go there for their services. I don't know. But anyway I attached all of those Facebook ad like receipts into this letter folded it up Saturday came I worked that Saturday but I was not there alone literally everyone was there probably because they didn't trust me to be there by myself which is literally insanity and I walk up to the girl who was my friend. I felt like she was my friend even though I'm pretty sure she's the one that was texting the owner about some of the things that I was saying which literally were just things that I was saying. You know like it wasn't anyway so I gave it to her and I was like this is my letter of resignation I'm going to pack all my stuff up and I'm going to leave and I'm not coming back. And during this week I would go to work and then I would go do the necessary things to do to open up my own business because I never had the idea to open up my business when I did until they gave me that idea. And I thank them you know like I didn't think that it was possible but since I was put in a position where that was my only option I did it and everything I have in my life is because of that decision. And I'm so like grateful for those scary and dark moments that I had at that place because if I didn't have those my life would be completely different. And you know like it's just crazy to think like what would have I I probably never would have been able to do the whole social media thing like actually because they probably wouldn't have let me but anyway so the whole thing was just dumb and I left and of course they they did not pay me for the Facebook ads because it they said it was my decision to run the ads and I was like okay that's typical I wasn't expecting them to pay me back because it just completely made sense as to who they were is because they they just wouldn't and I packed all my stuff up and left and when I made like I packed up all my stuff I literally took it almost it seemed like I took almost everything out of that room because they when I first started they did not supply me with towels they did not supply me with a bowl like fan brushes all that I was using my own stuff that I got from beauty school like they eventually started to buy me sheets and stuff and like the back bar and everything they did buy that. But I was still using stuff that was mine which that's wrong especially if I wasn't getting paid but $13 an hour I shouldn't be using my product anyway so I left I packed up my car and I left and I never looked back I literally never looked back and it was that drive home the relief that I felt I have never ever ever felt that feeling and I probably will never feel it again because I just felt like I had shed a new layer of skin and I was like this snake or something. Like I don't know it was so crazy like not not like a snake not that I was being shady you know what I mean like I was like shedding my snake skin that's what I meant and I was like okay what can I do to make my business work I opened my business with one of my friends from beauty school and we were splitting days in a little tiny salon suite in Farragut and we had gotten you know all of our licenses the the business license all the certificates and everything that we needed to open it and I took my first client on February 9th and I left my other job I think on January 30th. So there was like a week where I didn't work because I was getting everything prepped the room was getting decorated all the things and I had no money. I had no savings. My grandmother loaned me some money and I did just want to go back really quick the whole son of the owner asking me what overhead I had is freaking hilarious because they paid me $13 an hour and when I quit I had $400 in my bank account because I worked just enough to make $400 in like a two week span and that included tips. I just I don't even know why they would ask me that thinking that I actually had money saved. It's freaking hilarious like y'all were paying me nothing. Anyway I literally had nothing me and Alyssa we both left our jobs at the time and we just were using the back bar products that we had from school left over and then we eventually I think we did order some stuff from Cinitas just so we would have product but it was just so crazy like I I literally nothing I had nothing and I had no clients and I had no idea where to start because I'm not from the West Knoxville area originally I'm from South Knoxville Seymour like I said so I had I had no idea how to meet people down there. I had no idea. So I started just continuing doing the Facebook ads and there were months where I literally could not pay the rent for the suite so I was having my parents help me out and now the money that my grandmother loaned me I had to start using that for my rent payments because I couldn't do it every month. Like there are some months where like I literally just couldn't do it. And I was paying $120 a week for this place. So really technically that's only like one facial but there were definitely weeks where I just did not and I could not because I also had other bills I had to pay and I refused to go back and get another job. Like I literally refused. I was like no I'm gonna make it work so I downloaded TikTok probably in October well I had TikTok but I I meant like a like a skincare TikTok and I started posting like low quality videos and there was facial videos with music behind them nothing too exciting. But I remember like there was one night I had a video hit a thousand views and I started like getting people booking and I was getting text messages when people were booking and I was like oh my gosh like something's actually happening and it was like three months that I was working so much in this tiny little salon suite and Alyssa at that time had already we've parted ways and she um started working out of relative where she was from and was doing her own thing so I had the suite to myself so I was just like working literally whenever I had a client booking. And it was such like a rush like that feeling of like having people like come in and trust me because they saw me on TikTok. And then everything happened instant like it was like an instantaneous like crazy awakening I posted a video of my brother's ex-girlfriend and I think it got like two million views and literally ever since that day I have had you know like a steady book a steady book. And I kept posting and you know like videos went from two million to eight million ten twenty you know and it just kept elevating and elevating and now I have this huge following and you know I never did that to have you know almost a million followers across each platform that was never my goal. My goal was to just get more clients and I think that everything worked out how it was supposed to and I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful thankful and I feel lucky but I also know that I really put in the work and I posted you know like Jenna everybody knows Jenna on my page she like I don't know her face is just beautiful and I don't know if it's just because of that or what but Jenna has quite literally helped me boost my business and there is not a lot of people that get free services from me other than my mom and then Jenna does because like I cannot charge her because she has literally given me like almost everything that I have in a sense and something else that I think a lot of aestheticians, cosmetologists um lash girls literally anybody who is in what we call the pink collar industry probably deals with a lot of like underestimation just like side eyes you know in quotations beauty school is the easy way out I feel like that's something that we're slowly overcoming as a society because I feel like anybody that knows somebody that's in that industry knows that that's not even a little bit true. It's very lucrative it's very very just like it's a great business to be in you know and I know that there's people in my life that look down on it because they don't quite understand and you know like without being hey look here's my bank account like I it they can't understand and you know like just the older generation doesn't quite understand social media how I've been able to completely monetize every single thing that I do online and coming to terms with and being okay with like the fact that not everybody is going to understand why you do what you do and you know like the outcome of that for me it is frustrating because I have this horrible toxic trait of having to prove myself to everybody. I've always been that way that's why my personality is the way that it is I think a lot of the reason for my success is because that's the way that I am but I just feel the need to prove myself constantly and it gets very frustrating for me when people don't quite understand. So I love sharing you know details about my work about what I do every day at work what I do when I go home when I'm still working but I think that um we get extremely overlooked and just underestimated all the time people don't realize the work we put in the money we get out of it and everything we do to like keep upscaling and keep making things better and if you're struggling with that y'all I'm with you. Girl I am with you because it like really bothers me. I I just wish that people could stop assuming that college is the only way and I know that has nothing to do with literally what we're talking about right now. Anyway this is why I went solo this is like literally the story of why I became a solo aesthetician. It happened on accident with no planning it was on a whim social media completely changed the traject trajectory of my life that was also on accident um not to negate my hard work but it totally was an accident and I'm so happy and proud to be an esthetician and I love the community that I've made with other estheticians online in other places and my local girlies my local beauty girls Destiny Des A Des A smar Spa I have my Zenheads I have Gorgeous by Alyssa Beauty by Lexi Taylor I have all of my friends that are doing the same things that I do and have social medias that are friends and we talk and we can relate on a different level so I love you guys and I love everyone listening and I hope that this wasn't too boring for you. I love to talk and just yap and I feel like this was a very fun well not a fun story but girl is a story. I don't know but I hope you guys have a good rest of your day and thanks for listening to me and I will see you guys on the next episode. Bye