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Spa Marketing Made Easy | Spa Business Growth
SMME #418 Assembling Your Unicorn Team with Jen Kem
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Assembling Your Unicorn Team with Jen Kem
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- [00:00]
Daniela Warner
If you're ready to streamline your operations, free up your time and maximize productivity in your spa, then you do not want to miss our upcoming masterclass on Maximizing Efficiency with Virtual assistants. Happening on February 10th, we'll dive into the exact strategies that you need to onboard, manage and optimize your VA team so that you can focus on what you do best. From the 4T system for task delegation to essential tools for seamless collaboration, we are covering everything you need to scale smarter, not harder. Mark your calendars for February 10th and get ready to reclaim your time, increase efficiency and build a business that works for you. Just go to the events tab on addoesthetics.com for all the details and how to get registered and we'll see you there. Welcome to Spa Marketing Made Easy, a podcast for spa owners who want to step up their leadership and business skills and step into the role as Spa CEO. I'm your host, Daniela Warner, C CEO of ADO Aesthetics and founder of the Growth Factor Framework program where we teach, coach and guide spa owners in scaling their spas to the next level of growth and unlocking freedom in their life and their business. I'm so glad you're here. Now let's dive into the show hello my dears. Daniela here and welcome to the Spa Marketing Made Easy podcast. I know this episode is going to speak to so many of you out there because the two main problems that I have found myself helping Spa CEO solve over the past 10 years are number one, I need more money, which we solve through a solid marketing strategy through client retention strategy. Not to oversimplify it, but those are two big areas that we can solve the I need more money problem. Problem number two is I need more time and I need more time is solved through delegation, hiring things out, AKA having a. Well, my guess is that when I said team, there is a group of you out there that got the chills and said no thank you ma'am. I have been burned too many times before. I've overpaid, I've been walked out on, I've been stolen from, I've been disrespected and a whole slew of other things. And I am so sorry that that has been your experience. I hope that with today's episode you can start to believe that unicorns are out there. And I know I have been blessed with some of the most incredible unicorns on my team and today I've got the incredible Jen Kim on the show and I actually invited her to talk about her new book, Unicorn Teams. We got into so much more than that. It was just kind of a really fun, really dynamic conversation that took its own path. And I'm really excited to share this conversation with you. I'm really excited about the book also because it can help you understand so much more about how to find the right team members for you. And that is the trick. So to celebrate Jen and this incredible book that she has put out into the world, we're going to do a giveaway every single day this week of her incredible book, Unicorn Teams. So all you have to do is take a screenshot of yourself listening to this episode and share it in your stories. Two seconds. You can screenshot, you can share a story that we have just tagged us at attoesthetics. Tag Jen. She's at JenniferKEM. J e n n I f e r dot k e m and that's it. Simple. We're gonna pick a winner every single day. We will send you a message. We're selecting the winner randomly and we'll send you a message on insta if you won. So make sure that you checked your messages and the message request if we're not coming through for whatever reason because we need to get your address of where you want us to mail the book to. Okay. So I love doing giveaways. Be sure to tag us. Be sure to share. It's so much fun. Okay, so let me do a quick read of Jen's bio and then we will get right into the interview. So Jen Kem helps thought leaders create personal brands that reach and help millions. Named Forbes top brand strategist, her company, Master Brand Media, represents influencers, celebrities, CEOs, experts, specialists, authors and speakers to get seen, heard and paid more through brand management, team optimization and corporate brand collaborations with a focus on the four essential areas for brand success called brand time, team identity, messaging and experiences. Jen and her team of strategizers and mobilizers have advised over 400,000 leaders to grow their brand, expand their business and lead teams who get their mission and follow through on their vision. Her upcoming book, Unicorn Team how to Rally the Right People around the Next Big Winning Idea that Changes the World, outlines frameworks for everyone to leverage the concept of brand time so that they can make their next level impact they know possible. Jen lives in the San Francisco Bay area with her family. She's originally from Hawaii. As you'll hear in the interview. And we had some fun around that, that it's a really great interview. Keep an open mind. If you are kind of one of those hesitant People around team and enjoy the interview.
- [05:34]
Jen Kim
All right, Jen, welcome to the Spa Marketing Made Easy podcast. I'm so, so thrilled to have you, the expert on teams. Oh my gosh. There's so much that comes up with spas and hiring. I think that's probably like the number one thing that people are like, nope, I just want to go back to being solo. I don't want to. And I just. There's so much that we can get into. Let me have people, let me have you introduce yourself first because I know I'm just going to start going and throwing questions at you, but tell everybody a little bit about your background. I already did your bio in the intro. Just the real meat of who you are and how you got into this work.
- [06:17]
Yeah. Well, Daniela, thanks for having me. I love having these conversations because, I mean, at the end of the day, I'm just like everyone else here as a business owner. And although I don't own a spa based business, I did own a retail, a retail concept and a bunch of stores. And I would say that probably the same or similar issues came up in terms of the ability to get people really committed to the level of brand experience and excellence and all the things that any business owner wants. And so that kind of is a little peek into my background. You know, today I am one of Forbes top brand strategists. But really what I do is at our brand strategy firm called Master Brand Institute, what we really do is we help personal brands turn and monetize their product brands so that they can create company brands that people know, like, trust, refer. And so it's interesting when I talk about brands and then team, a lot of people think of team as just operations or it's just like a structural thing that all of us have to deal with. And my premise is that your team is the brand experience because your team are the people that your clients, your customers, the audience that is thinking about working with you. They're all a reflection of their decision. And so to me, understanding how leadership and team, even if you're a solopreneur and, and or you are a tiny business with a few fractional or even even like would you think in spas and studios, a lot of times sometimes what people are doing is they're renting even space for you potentially. There's a lot of different types of business models, but even if they are those people, they are still representative of your brand and your team. And I think what has always been frustrating for me in my first, I spent the first decade and half of my career in really branding and marketing of some of the most exciting product launches ever. Like, early in my career I was in advertising and I was a junior copywriter at one of the biggest advertising agencies in the world called Ogilvy. And like, so I worked on the Coca Cola account and Nestle account. Beverages was kind of the domain we had, the accounts we had. And then I realized that as much as I loved copywriting and advertising and campaigns, I wanted to become this full on generalist. I really was like, I really want to understand, go to market and the machinations behind what makes a product special to anybody. And again, if you're listening, like, how.
- [09:23]
Do you evoke emotion about a thing?
- [09:24]
Right. All of that. And then also, what are the, like, who are the people that actually lift that rocket into space? Because it doesn't matter. Again, if you're like a small business or you're a big business. Actually, what I realized is the process is the same.
- [09:41]
And so you were talking yesterday too, and you said something about you have your household team, you have your relationship team, you have your work team. And so I thought that was a really interesting way to explain it because we do get a lot of objections of people that maybe have been burnt by teams and said, this person doesn't care about my business or this person doesn't want to support me, or these are not my people, or never again will I pass this off. And they're like, I'm just being solo. But you're highlighting that just being human means that you need people and you need teams and you need to understand, like saying it takes a village is essentially a team. Right. So understanding these dynamics, you can't just escape it because you don't want to deal with other humans.
- [10:36]
Oh, and I. And again. And boy, do I resonate like with not wanting to deal with humans. Sometimes I'm like, books and dogs are so much better than us because we could depend.
- [10:45]
I love my team. I'm like, I feel like I wouldn't want to be an entrepreneur without them. But, you know, I also, I feel very blessed with the people that I have. But it's. I have heard some horror stories of, you know, not the right humans coming together and just really causing a lot of trauma.
- [11:07]
Yeah. And that's. You said the key words, the right humans. Right. Because again, if anybody's listening and having or had any issues or friction or tension around a team breakdown and everybody's going to have something that breaks down communication or whatever and just, I just want to Reemphasize. I actually love having a team. I don't like doing things solo. And so even when there is a breakdown, because I feel like I figured out for me the code to help move through those breakdowns faster, where then it doesn't completely take me out or burn me out or make me resent my business. That's the key, right? Because you're going to get disappointed with the other humans no matter what. Even if you love your team, even if you love your business, even if you love your clients, even your clients, I'm sure, have disappointed you or frustrated you in some kind of way. And it's really important as a leader, and when I say leader, you're a leader. If you have a business, you're a leader, right? That you protect your confidence, that you protect the asset which is you, because the business needs you to help it thrive. It's just that it doesn't need you to do all the things, because if you do all the things, then you can't lead either. So it is this interesting dynamic that we're all dealing with. And the main thing is, I hope the main takeaway as we continue this conversation is don't give up on other people. Because actually, if you look at it the way that we're going to talk about it and lay it out, I really believe you'll start to see that it's more, it's better to have a team working with you when you know how to your place in it, how to communicate what that looks like.
- [12:53]
So talk to me about finding unicorns.
- [12:57]
So I call, I call like the right person or the right people on your team unicorns. And the reason I call them unicorns is actually, I didn't actually make that term up. Not just because it's like a mystical creature or a rare creature, but actually in the corporate world, in the HR departments, when they are attracting or retaining rare talent, the internal language for those people are called unicorns. They're like, oh, I'm looking for a unicorn in the marketing department or I'm looking for a unicorn in customer service, right? And so this term unicorn also is. Some people have probably heard like it's used to talk about venture capital or like a billion dollar valuation for a company. So I just wanted to kind of like level set those definitions for everyone listening in that when I'm referring to a unicorn, I'm really speaking about the person that is this rare talent. And each one of us has rare talents, skills, gifts and genius zones, right? Some of us are better at the skills. So, like, let's say in a salon or spa, it's about. They're actually the most amazing facialist ever. Like, they have this, like, magic touch with their fingers, right. Some are the best at front office support. They are so good with rapport and talking to people. And the key about being a unicorn is that you really want to hire unicorns, not donkeys. And there's nothing wrong with donkeys, FYI. Donkeys are a very useful animal. Right. They are a beast of burden. And you have to watch out because you might be the biggest donkey in your business currently only because you're treating yourself like that, meaning you're seeing yourself as being this beast of burden. I have to put all these things on my back, right, in order to move this business forward. And I'm saying you're actually not a donkey, you're actually a unicorn. But we've got to take all those heavy things on your back, take it off, so that your little unicorn horn could pop up and be seen again. And you have to encourage the other people on your team to behave like unicorns, too, instead of donkeys.
- [15:12]
I think that it becomes almost a natural tendency to as. As women, specifically. And in the spa space, we are predominantly women. We have. We have some guys in there. We love you, but the majority of us are women. And women tend to be people pleasers. They tend to have control issues around. If I can, I can do it faster myself. There's trust issues of. So there's all these layers of really personal development and for sure, stories that it takes to understand, like, am I a donkey or am I a unicorn? Like, how am I going? Because I agree with you. I think every single human has some incredible gift that they can contribute to the world. Our brains are incredible. And what humans are capable of, I think is incredible. But my light always turns off here. Sorry for anybody watching that part there. But I think that getting to this space where we can actually allow ourselves to be seen as unicorns and uncover our gift and be proud of those gifts in our own uniqueness.
- [16:31]
Yeah. Own it.
- [16:32]
That's the work.
- [16:33]
That's the work.
- [16:34]
And so how do we. I know you have a quiz or a framework, like, how you're identifying these different pieces, and I think that's amazing. But, like, how do I get there if I'm still carrying all of this weight?
- [16:51]
Yeah. And so I do want to even say, like, sometimes an easier way to look at it, I think that I've seen with other people is, like, think of it. As behaviors, not the people. Meaning, like, there's donkey behavior and there's unicorn behavior. Because back to the mindset piece. Even as the owner, if you're listening, you will sometimes exhibit this Donkey behavior. Doesn't mean you're a donkey, but you are exhibiting it. Things like, oh, gosh, it's faster if I do it myself, right? I'm so frustrated with, you know, how this thing went. Oh, my gosh. You know, they didn't follow the sop at close of the salon at the night. And the next day, when I walked in, it was. There was things that were a mess or out of place, and I had to do some extra work when that should have been handled the night before. So what that means is that's not donkey thinking, that's unicorn thinking. But you're noticing donkey behavior. Like, say somebody was supposed to make sure last person out of the spa is supposed to have this checklist, right? And there's a thing to do. And in the morning when you go in, you go, oh, my gosh, that was donkey behavior. They didn't follow the checklist. They didn't do the things that make sure that when we open that there's an ease and flow instead of a rush to, like, clean things up. And so I like to say, like, it's. Instead of even thinking, oh, gosh, I like this big aspirational goal to be a unicorn all the time. It's more like, actually what we are is human beings who are operating between those two behaviors, if you will. It's like, you know, and so I think that first you got to know what your gifts, talents, and skills are. And if you don't know, like, I do have an assessment where it will help see, like, where your strengths are. And I want to also be clear that, like, you want to hire people that even if they have gifts, talents, and skills in a lot of things, the main thing that they need to have a gift, talent, or skill in is the thing that you've hired them for. Right? Because people can have other interests. And if they. If you're telling people all of us are unicorns. And sometimes entitlement comes with that because they don't understand the definition. Right.
- [19:00]
What's coming up for me right now actually circles back to this whole concept of brand that you started with. Because the feedback that we get in spa oftentimes is there when, especially for the gals that are just getting out of school, it's an hourly job. And there's this definition of, is this a career or is this an hourly job and how do you motivate people that are getting a lower hourly rate? Well, then you look at the military and the military has this brand that they've created. The people that are just joining the military are not making a lot of money.
- [19:40]
Right.
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And they are working extremely hard. They're focused and committed to the values of the brand that they believe in.
- [19:47]
Exactly.
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So the, the government has done a great job of creating the brand of the military. What does that mean to serve? What does that mean to have duty? So I always like to look at other industries and say, how can we take that concept and bring it back to what it is that we are trying to evoke? What are our core values? What are our sense of duties? And how can we bring that in to make the people that are on our team be more of they feel that they belong? There's like an identity piece that ties in there. Right. Is that, am I going down the right track?
- [20:31]
You really are. And one of the things in my book that I talk about is values. And you're so bang on with that. Most companies of every size has some kind of set of values. And then further, they have a set of operating principles even. Right. But what's missing, and this is where you can start to really get a team that's a high performing team that behaves most of the time like unicorns. Right. Is knowing what the individual values of each one of your team members is. And in my book, there's an entire framework of how to do that. And why is this important? Because the way that I define values is values are a verb, they're not nouns. So they are how you are truly operating in the present. They're not how you want to operate. They're not. They're like, what are we actually doing? And so if how you imagine your business to run does not fit with the values you think you have, there is a present moment discrepancy.
- [21:47]
I mean, basically every business is like, integrity is our core value. But then if you're not like doing what you say you're gonna do, you're out of alignment. So it's not actually a core value.
- [21:57]
And so here's the cool thing. So number one, that's. You just already scratched on it, Daniella, Whatever your values are, take a look and say, how are we out of alignment with any of the things we say are our values? That's the first exercise. And just get honest with it. Don't make anyone bad, don't make yourself bad. Just look at it. Very objectively. And go. Because it's just a sign that you probably have a team issue. Because it's like, because the people who are mobilizing or producing the work, like, especially in a spa, right. You have a lot of skilled technicians. You have possibly like registered nurses. You've got. I mean, you've got a variety of different types of.
- [22:36]
Depending on the type of operation. Yeah. There's providers, there's administrative staff, there's marketing staff. There's, you know, there's all of those pieces.
- [22:47]
Exactly. And so first is like, where are we living our values and where are we not? That's the first question the business. Then it's like, okay, if there are five of you in the business in some kind of way, and remember, this should apply to. It doesn't matter if they're part time, if they're fractional, if they're buying you buying a seat in your spa as a technician, they're all part of the brand. So there's a. There's. You want to know what their individual values are, what's what moves them as work as people, as people on a team. Because I call it linking values. So this is how you. It works. So let's say the company values are integrity. One is integrity, like you said. And I'm Jen Kim. I am the marketing manager for the spa. Right. My five top values are autonomy, justice, generosity, leadership, and legacy. And each one of them has a very specific definition because that's very important. Like you said, you can like throw words out there, but unless they're defined, of how I define autonomy, which for me is autonomy means to me is that I need some semblance of control over my future and how I operate my life. And I want to make sure that I'm in environments where that is true too. Okay. So I. Let's say I'm Jenkam, marketing manager. My top value individually is autonomy. The company or the spa. First value is integrity. The question is for Gen Chem, how does my value of autonomy meet integrity? Right. And we actually define it for each person on the team. And you will be so blown away that if just people saw how, oh, by working here, I have a lot of autonomy because actually I'm a fractional cmo and so I can work with a lot of different companies. And therefore I begin to appreciate my role at that spa. And it's actually done every quarter order to like, look at how do your personal values line up with the company values. Just that alone starts to get people planting the seed in their Head. Oh, I know. I'm here. It also helps plant the seed of thinking. Actually, we have a values misalignment. You know, when we.
- [25:06]
As I've grown in business, a lot of the exercises that we were told to do, like when you're very first starting, you know, it's like, who's your ideal client avatar? Who's your. These kind of business 101 things that in oftentimes, in the way that they're being done, can just be like, this is a waste of time. As you get older in business or more established, it's like, no, I actually do need to know who that person is. But I'm. I'm taking it from. I almost think you can't do those exercises before you actually develop who you are as a company. You know what I mean? And so the core values, I think, is one of those things that people, like, start out, and they're like, these are what I think my core values are. And then as my company develops, these are what I say they are, what they actually are by how we're working.
- [25:58]
Right.
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But what I see in spa, and I'm sure that you've seen this over the years in your experience, is that when people oftentimes they're overworked, they're overwhelmed, and they just want to hire somebody as a band aid.
- [26:12]
Yeah.
- [26:13]
And they're like, I just need someone to come in and do this because I can't. And then it becomes this, like, domino effect of catastrophe after catastrophe because they didn't hire the right person. So if I'm one of those people and I grab your book and I'm like, okay, this makes sense. But how do I actually do that? Because, you know, I don't have time to sit with someone and be like.
- [26:39]
Daniela Warner
What'S my core value? Or what's your core value?
- [26:41]
Jen Kim
And have this. You know what I mean? Even though it's like, such an important thing that would prevent all of those dominoes, like, how do you break through that?
- [26:51]
Yeah, well, I think there's a way. I mean, obviously, like, there's actually an easy way to do it. And here's how I would do it. What I would do is, like, even if you have to, unfortunately, at times throw that band aid resource in, they should still. They're still applying for the job, right? In general, they're applying for the job in some kind of way. So you got to just add that information into your intake and application process. So it's like, how would you name your core values? Watch this Video before you apply. Right. To. So that you know how to like name your core values. It doesn't have to be perfect. And you as the owner can know if you see something like, for example, let's go back to autonomy being my highest value. That actually might throw off an owner immediately. And I would, if I were it would throw me off. I'd be like, oh, she like really wants to be independent. But.
- [27:45]
And if you're a micromanager or controller, then that's going to be hard for someone that their high value is autonomy.
- [27:50]
Right? Correct. So, so what I'm saying too is like that allows you to quickly go. We already can smell things could happen bad. Right.
- [28:01]
Without even looking at the other skills solution. That is a really great and really simple solution. That's not gonna add a massive amount of time.
- [28:09]
Yeah. Trust your gut too. Cause like, if you just know that little bit of data, add it, you know, just a little bit more information, you'll go like, for example, you talked about the military. Right. That's why I could never be in the military. Because autonomy being my highest value, there's no way I could take orders. I want to be the. I would want to be the commander right after basic training, I'd be like, just promote me all the way to general right now. That would have been like my thing. But do you see what I'm saying? So it's like me knowing myself too. That's why I know like a job in the government. Although that would have been my mom and dad's greatest dream for me because my mom, both my parents retired from the US civil service in their own prospective agencies after 30 years. So I grew up in a very. And then every single one of my family was either a nurse and a doctor or they all worked for the government, like in military or in civil service. So I really, I was like, mom, I'm not built for that. It doesn't fit that. And so my point is, as you listening, you've probably, if you've become a spa owner, there's a reason you're a spa owner. I bet that in some kind of way probably like freedom was probably one of your things. That's why you wanted to have your own business. And then you go and have a business, a spa, and you're like, I don't have any more freedom. Oh my God, what did I do here? You know. And it's mainly. That doesn't mean that your values are different. It means that that's why you need, let's say a Daniella, to help you with the making sure to have that operational humming going on, you need these types of firms and consultants where that's their specialty area. They are a unicorn to you. Because the reason you started this spa business might not be because you were good at business. You just loved, let's say skin or hair or aesthetics or whatever. The reason of your own skill set. And a lot of, I'm sure, most.
- [29:58]
Honestly, that's how most people start. They go to aesthetic school because they love helping people solve problems with their skin or they had problems with their skin to begin with.
- [30:06]
Exactly.
- [30:07]
And they end up starting their own business. And like, we didn't learn any of this in aesthetic school, but it's like the aesthetic school's job is to teach you how to become an esthetician.
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Right. It's not to make you a business. Yeah, exactly. And so you know, and guess what, you're not alone. Because they don't teach that to doctors, they don't teach that to lawyers. Most specialty professions. And you owning a spot is a profession. It's. Even though you're an owner, it's a discipline. Right. It's a discipline and it's a high skilled area. But none of those schools teach you. They teach you the skill, they don't teach you the business part. That's why Daniela is a unicorn, possibly for what you need. And these employees or these fractional people who help or even somebody, for example, let's say you really just got to fill because you get rental income, let's say in your spa from somebody who rents.
- [31:03]
If you're renting out some other rooms.
- [31:05]
Yeah, right. And really you don't want your cash flow to hurt next month. So you're like, we'll take anyone. Instead of that, though, that person still represents your brand if you just add in the values. Now, if it said autonomy was their highest value, that might be okay because they're renting from you right there. They see themselves as, I want to be an independent worker. And then they may pass the first muster, if you will, of the application process. But then you can ask them even further questions. Hey, you know, like, we do have a set of standards and principles because this is an overall brand we've built. So do you feel like you can adhere or comply or be in alignment with our SOPs, really? Like, what are our standard operating principles and procedures that's different than your values? So it's kind of like using values as a application editor. And it's a really easy yet powerful way to Clean out some of the people so that you don't throw. I call it, like, when you don't do stuff like that, you're throwing a grenade on your business. And that grenade is that person who is not a fit. Right. And people hate when people who are leaders or owners become the grenade throwers. And the rest of the team then suffers too. And that's that domino effect you were talking about earlier. Like, Daniela, that's the. And. And so I'm always like, we should not throw grenades. Let's create. Let's add in a few key things that could really smooth it out. It may still not be perfect.
- [32:34]
I like how you said ease. How do we run? That's my, you know, everybody does their words of the year. Like, that is. My word is ease.
- [32:41]
Oh, I love that.
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And, yeah, so I want to pivot here a little bit and dive a little bit more into the book and kind of understand, like, how did this, how was this book born? When did it start that you were like, hey, I'm doing this brand work. I'm working with these corporate clients. I'm working with these small businesses. But really, this is a separate. Like, there had to be some inception story that it was like, hey, this is the piece. I want to know that and kind of your journey to, you know, the creation of this book.
- [33:20]
Well, I don't know. You know, when I was a young girl, I always dreamed of being an author. And I used to. Yeah, I did. And I grew up in this tiny little town in Hawaii on Oahu, this sugar plantation town. Daniela knows because she's originally from Maui too. And we had a little library. It was the tiniest little library, so we didn't have a ton of books. And I used to just live in there. And I remember, like, I really felt like my best friends were Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary. And one day I thought, when I'm older, one day I'm going to write a book. And, you know, I fell into the corporate world and got in front of all these campaigns and launches that I mentioned earlier. And I never really. I still wanted to write a book, but I was like, you know, I don't want to write anything until I'm ready to share things that I really not just believe in, but believe work. Because I'm a big, like, I call it, like, I'm the biggest dog food eater and test dummy of my own thoughts. So I go first, which sometimes sucks. Like, when you're somebody who's like, well, is willing to go first. So That I can learn what not to do and then teach it to others. I found that I got motivated and inspired and energized by that. And so I spent most of my 20s, my 30s and up to my mid-40s really establishing this body of work and this collection of case studies and accolades, if you will, of things that I was able to achieve. But I also had a horrible, horrible crash in the recession of 2008 because I had left my corporate job and started my own retail business. And as I mentioned earlier, it's very similar to the spa business. You know, I love to shop, but I didn't know how to run a store. I was a corporate executive. And though, yes, we had really good corporate foundational practices like working for the government. There are SOPs, there are structures, there's a lot of resources available, there are budgets, you know, and something happens when you go from the corporate world to your own small business, whatever small business is it, it is. And you start to think, I don't need all that stuff in corporate because it's going to weigh me down. And after my. I lost my business in 2008, which by the way, I started in 2006 and I had grown it to over $10 million in sales, five stores, three commercial real estate properties. And I had this dream of like expanding outside of Hawaii. And I started this in Hawaii. And I think you'll appreciate this because I was in a very niche specialty business and it was women's underwear. And if you had asked me why. Why underwear? Well, I'll tell you the story. It's kind of interesting. And this is what makes me probably one of the top brand strategists because I see things very differently than other people. Like I'm always observing the world. You know, brand and marketing and strategy are just psychology for commercial use. That's really what they are. So what would happen is I was working for a big high tech company and every month I would fly to Dallas from Honolulu because the company headquarters, all the telecommunications companies were in, in Texas and mainly in Dallas. So AT&T, Verizon, MCI back then, like, you know, and anyway I was, I was like, I'm leaving my corporate job because I wanted to because my autonomy was being totally impacted. Because I was, you know, I had two young daughters at the time. I had a three year old and a son, seven year old. And my corporate job was not, it wasn't easy. I was under some delusion that having a retail business was going to be easier, but you know, whatever. So because we have these dreams of entrepreneurial dreams, like we want to have our own thing, but actually they come with the same problems, just different ways to manage them. So anyway, this is how I came up with the underwear business is I'm flying back on a trip and when we touched down at the airport, I noticed that all the women in business class are getting off the plane with an extra piece of hand carried luggage or a bag. And this bag is pink and white and black and it's a Victoria's Secret bag. And I also have one too, because in Hawaii at the time, this was in 2006, we didn't have a Macy's yet. We didn't.
- [37:41]
We basically had, oh, yes, I know.
- [37:44]
You bought your underwear. Now I got a Target.
- [37:47]
It was like there was like lines out the door.
- [37:49]
Such a big deal, right? Yeah. I started to realize, wait a minute, I'm going to Dallas to get underwear every month and so is everyone else.
- [38:00]
Yeah.
- [38:00]
Or they go to Vegas or they're going to California. Oh, yeah, you see that? And I was like, and this is what I'm known for, friends, if you're listening, I see.
- [38:09]
By the way, the Maui people would go to Oahu to get Krispy Kremes.
- [38:13]
And for sure, right? Like, because we, you know, being in Hawaii, Hawaii is. And here's another fun, weird trivia fact that you can use on Jeopardy one day is like, Hawaii is the most populated yet most isolated place in the entire world. Like, so from California to Hawaii on a plane is the same distance as California to New York City. And people don't realize it. It's like a miracle that Hawaii was discovered when it was discovered by the Polynesians. So my point is, is that if you were in a business of any kind where you were the first, you are going to crush it in Hawaii. And I was like, so, for example, McDonald's number one. McDonald's in Hawaii, Costco, number one. Costco in the entire nation. All these companies, Walmart, number one, Walmart. Okay. Because we're a isolated location and technically considered international by a lot of commercial standards. So when I got off that plane, I started doing what I do, which is I smelled the money. I was like, there's money here and no one is doing it. And even though I didn't know retail, I was like, how hard is it? I mean, I can figure it out, you know, and that's how it came to be. And so then I started getting crazy. I started going like, I'm going to research the heck out of this, because that's how I am. So I start pouring through the SEC filings of Victoria's Secret, which was owned by Limited Brands, and they literally put in their expansion plans for the upcoming year, which was 2006, that they have to their shareholders. We have no intentions of expanding outside of the continental, contiguous United States. Meaning they had no plans to go to Hawaii, Alaska, Guam, Puerto Rico, or international. And I was like, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to brand over there, and then when Victoria's Secret is ready to scale, they're going to buy me. That was my whole strategy. Okay, so then I got to work. Was like, okay, what do I have to do for a second third? Now, since we're talking to sponsors, I want to be clear. Like, obviously, I have this background in sales and marketing in the corporate world, but I got to tell you, I didn't use that as an advantage. I actually forgot how you grew it to 10 million.
- [40:32]
That's.
- [40:33]
Well, because I'm good at sales and marketing. And when you're good at sales and marketing, you can grow anything. The problem is, is that if the operations and the back end sucks, you're in big trouble. And when it comes to retail, and I'm sure all of you resonate with this in general, you have additional overhead, right? Oh, yeah, we're talking about the rentals. That's why I started buying commercial real estate, so I could own the property that it was in. But I hated being in the malls. Oh, my God. Like, because there's all these. Their rules. It really violated my value of autonomy. I was like, I don't want to keep my doors open if I want to close on Sundays. Like, you look at companies like Chick Fil A who, like, they're like, we don't care if we make billions of dollars. We're closed on Sundays. That's a values commitment, right? Like, even though their audience are like, please open. They won't do it even for the money, because they're so clear on their values. It's like, for me, I started to realize, like, I knew I could make it work. And Oprah helped a little bit. And what I mean by that is, if you look back, Sarah Blakely started spanx in about 2005. The way she got big is Oprah called Spanx one of her favorite things. Then Oprah did an entire special on her daytime TV show of bra fitting across the Nordstrom's in the mainland. And I was the only store that did bra fitting. I carried Every size up to. Hmm. We did custom corsetting. We did like. I mean, I was the first to have hanky panky, Spanx, all those brands in a store in Hawaii. So I was the first. And I knew that's how I made so much money. The issue was logistics, because I used all my sales and marketing prowess to really get good. But what was stressing me out, and this is, this comes back to this story I hope is helping you understand, like, where I was sucking, but where I was playing Donkey behavior was around team operations and logistics. I forgot because I had forgotten how important it was in my job as an executive, how my team was the reason we were so successful, not because I didn't appreciate them. Then. I forgot that I needed that now in my own business. But I was like, I gotta be the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, the janitor, and the CEO. And I got to preserve my cash flow as much as possible. So I started taking on what I call donkey behavior. As I said at the top of the show, instead of thinking like a unicorn, instead of being like, you know what? I think I can't afford it. But I need better unicorns who are better suited to business operations than I am, who can help me manage all these, you know, I mean, in retail, right, you're dealing with a lot of people who are making 15 to 20 bucks an hour, and they don't care as much. Even if you try to, like, here's where we're going, and trying to motivate them to, like, go with the vision with you.
- [43:31]
Well, that's exactly what we were talking about, right? Is like, how do you build your brand to make that? Because, like, Starbucks does it, right? There's people that has rotating. But that's the. That's the magical formula. I feel like that's the part.
- [43:45]
So when people ask me, why did I write a book about team first? Because that's the part people don't think about when it's sales and branding and strategy. They think it's separate. And I'm saying that the brand is the entire ecosystem. And if your team is out is considered separated from your sales and marketing activity, it's going to break. So Starbucks being, you know, that they're hiring college students, right? People who we know are going to be transient, they're not there for the long haul.
- [44:17]
Yeah. It's not a career for them.
- [44:19]
Right. It's like. Or. Whereas in spa, sometimes people do come work for you and then they start their own thing. They open up a shop that competes with you. Right. The key is, is, like, I started to realize, like, that's the core of brand, actually, and marketing, that you can do all the marketing in the world, but if your team's a hot mess, it'll always neutralize your success. You'll never grow beyond what's right in front of your face. And for me, I was like, this is it. So I started to really go, what are the four? I'm very geeky, y'all. Like, I'm a geeky. I love sports. I love everything. Because I am a. I'm a student of the world, and I'm an action taker when I really smell the opportunity. If anybody's into human design, you'll really understand, like, I really am my design. It's crazy.
- [45:06]
I'm a manifesting generator.
- [45:08]
Well, I'm a projector, and people are projectors. Yeah. And I'm a hermit opportunist, which is perfect because the hermit part of me is study, study, study. And the opportunity is like, go for the thing that's going to win. And so that's kind of how I operate. And anyway, what happened was once I figured that out, it was too late because it was 2008 and I made all this money, but world ended in. The world ended, and Nobody was buying $25 underwear.
- [45:36]
Right.
- [45:36]
And nobody was, you know, and I did not have the operational and financial foundation to live through that storm. And most people didn't. Every single entrepreneur that I know at that time is literally not doing it anymore. But that's when I was like. When I. And then I started my firm, Master Brand Institute, and I started to realize, like, what is the models by which. What are the models by which this thinking and leading really work? And so I kind of put it into four categories. So it's. I call it brand time. T I M E. So it T stands for team, I stands for identity, M stands for messaging, and E stands for experiences. And those four pillars are what make a brand great, no matter what size it is. And so when I was pursuing a book, I gave you my whole long backstory to help you understand that when I decided in my mid-40s that I was finally ready to move from not just highly referred expert consultant, advisor to actually really wanting to create thought, leadership and be seen like that and solve real problems, because I felt like I had finally seen the magic I really was. These are the four things that great brands do, no matter what size. And people call me all the time, Daniella, and they're like, jen can you help me with my brand? Can you help me with my messaging? Can you help me like through a issue? And my first question always is, tell me more about your team. And they all, so many times people say, oh, that's not my problem. I just want more people to know about us. I want visibility, I want this, I want that. And I go, yeah, but in order to tell you if you can actually achieve it, I need to know who's currently in your life. So I actually even ask about your home team because usually these are people who are your personal brand. These are personal brands who come to me and say, I want to build this new thing. I want to be seen a different way. I want to, I have a current working business model and I want to, I want to either scale it or I want to create a new division of it or whatever. Okay. So I'm always like, let's first architect who is on your unicorn team, personal and professional. I know right now if you're hiring me, I'm your unicorn for this scope of work right now is to kind of like react, define, reimagine and innovate what you want to be seen as going forward. That's why you hire a unicorn like me. And I know that's not going to be a long term thing. For most people, it's a year or two usually because they need help navigating all the timings, the team, identity messaging and experiences, stuff that you build to create this brand. So anyway, because that was always my first question and people start to finally realize why it was so important. Instead of trying to talk me out of, I was like, I get why you think that's not what you need to know. I'm telling you for me to be an effective advisor to you, I need to know what it is so that I can also spot where I already know you're gonna neutralize or sabotage your success. Because maybe you have trauma from this person who's on your team that you're in a frankly unhealthy entanglement with meaning. Like, you know, sometimes you hold on to somebody on your team because maybe they're a cousin or like, well, and we together a long time a lot.
- [49:05]
In spa and they're, you know, I, I want this person to succeed, but am I paying them too much or am I giving them too much flexibility? Because I like them as a human right? And I'm not using the kind of objective right side of my brain that is so much an issue.
- [49:25]
And I get it because I was, I Used to be like that too. And I can be like that still because. But what's great about the Unicorn Team model, which is what I wrote my first book on and why it was so important for me, for them. This book got rejected 70 times, Daniela, by the publishers. They didn't understand it. They were putting team in this bucket of operations only. And they were like, well, it's a niche book. I go, no, no, no. This is a book about brand and how a team plays a significant part in either making or breaking a brand ultimately. Like it really does anything. Whenever I hear somebody wants to scale, I'm like, who's your team? Whenever I hear I want to.
- [50:01]
I mean, that shows a lot of grit. Like, I love when people get told no a million times and keep going. For me, it's like, okay, then this is a book that I'm going to read because there is, you know, it's like there's clearly determination and drive behind it.
- [50:19]
I fought for it because what they wanted, Danielle and I totally understood because the publishing industry too, is a. And since you have mainly women listening here, here's something you all need to know about people who teach you things or if you reach for books or manuals to do anything. Most of those books and manuals are written by men. And in a. In an industry where it serves mainly women or it's run and. Or run by women, that was a big void too, because I thought about. Oh my gosh, my top 10 business books that I even refer are all written by men. And that's not. That's good because that means they were good books. Because I don't refer unless.
- [50:56]
Can you share? You had like a percentage or something. When we were talking before, that was like the amount of women that have been in the New York Times bestseller or something along like that for me hit home.
- [51:10]
So much of it's kind of devastating, actually. If you put into ChatGPT or Google right now and ask who is a nonfiction business author, that is a woman that has been on the New York Times bestsellers list in the last 10 years. They bring up Brene Brown, which technically, Brene Brown's books are not business books. They are professional or personal development books.
- [51:35]
Social. Social psychology. Right?
- [51:37]
Yeah, right.
- [51:38]
Dare to leave. Yeah.
- [51:40]
And that's it really. Like, so think about it. When you think about the books you refer, they're probably all written by men. And again, part of, you know what that is is because women in society, in general, we are seen as little men. Okay, Meaning like, oh, if it Works for men, then it's gonna work for women, number one. So even in health we know that like they haven't even studied menopause. Really. That's why we're all in a crisis. Because elder millennials and Gen Xers are like, f that, like, how dare you? Like, we're not going to live like this. Right? But they only started studying you in menopause like 15 years ago.
- [52:19]
Well, I mean they used to think that women were weaker studies in car crashes because they used male sized crash test dummies and they just weren't using female size to do the safety for the cars. I mean, there's an. It's.
- [52:34]
Why do you think women die of heart disease more than men? Because they don't study women and heart disease. They only say men. So our indications of heart disease are actually different than men. And we have so many hormonal changes during the cycles that sometimes things that don't look like heart attack symptoms to men are heart attack symptoms for women. But because it wasn't studied, I mean there's so many examples. So publishing is another example of, there's this default thinking that a man's take on brand, anything, any category is more.
- [53:13]
Business, operations, all of the things because they've, they've had more seats, right?
- [53:18]
Well, because women too, let's face it, we're busy man. Writing a book is a lot of work and so it's like it. So a man has generally a lot more space to make that decision. So there's all of these reasons, right, that for me, Daniela, it was like. And then I go and fight with them about this is the first book I have to write and they wanted me to write the book on messaging first. And they understood the Timmy thing. They understood that I actually have a vision this decade to write four books on the four areas that I feel deeply. If you can, you can really understand and master these four areas, no matter what size business you are or if you are thinking about creating something that these could be your early text. And they're also really good for advanced, like it doesn't matter. They wanted the messaging book because I have an email list of 400,000 emails of entrepreneurs because I have a assessment, a brand archetype assessment that I've collected over the past 15 years that many email addresses. So of course they're like really interested in that. They're like, you know, And I said, I know why you want me to write this book for first, but you need to understand that the reason I need to write this first is because this is actually the biggest problem people have.
- [54:31]
Well, and without messaging doesn't work, right?
- [54:34]
You can't put, you can, you know, you could put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. You know what I'm saying? And I'm like, and I'm not going to be one of those people that. Or you can put lipstick on a donkey and call it a unicorn, but it's still a donkey, right? And so, you know, I was like, no, if you don't let me do this book first, I will just self publish. And I didn't want to do that, Daniela, because back to the New York Times, some of you may not know, but in order to get on the New York Times bestsellers list, you actually have to be traditionally published. You can't self publish. So that's a way that they regulate to make sure that there's an editor, that people are fact checking you. So in a way, it is actually fair because of that reason. But what isn't fair is that again, oh, there's books on leadership, there's books on brand, there's books on team. You know, we want to book on messaging. That's really sexy right now because of social media and blah, blah, blah. And I said, I want to get to the root of why we start and create things to begin with, right? And society teaches us that when we're met with friction, especially from other people, to avoid it. And it's hard and we don't want to deal with it. But actually if we do deal with that first, then actually that's where the ease comes. You know, with friction comes flow. The key is, is that you want to be engaged in healthy friction, not unhealthy friction. And a lot of times in business, especially small business, when you're the butcher, baker, candlestick maker, janitor, and CEO, you're met with so much unhealthy friction, you don't even know what the healthy friction is worth doing. And I will say that my premise of the book is the healthy friction of getting your team information by linking individual values with business values, by operating your business with this unicorn mindset and quickly identifying unicorn behavior versus donkey behavior, not just in your team, but you too, because guess what? You are part of the team, right? You are. Yeah, you're the leader, but you are also part of the team. And so you can't be exempted from donkey behavior all the time, too. That's also creates a bad culture and creates a bad brand experience ultimately, right? Look at we talked About Starbucks earlier, you know, they've gotten in trouble a lot because there have been some. The racism things that have come up for Starbucks. And yet how do they bounce back as a brand? They bounce back because they quickly go, that's not our ethos, that's not our brand. We need to retrain the managers because usually it's the managers who are the problem. It's like the leaders in the stores, not the comes.
- [57:23]
It does come down, right? It's like is leading the space.
- [57:28]
So again, people listening. And I love, Daniela, that you approach the way that you teach spa owners in the same way that I do in that, like the reason we talk about, like Starbucks, we talk about Apple, and you're like, well, we're not that. We're like this one ship, you know, one. One retail or spa place, period. Trust me, it's not different, right. In terms of the way you've got to set it up, they just decided to go bigger than what you desire. And after what happened to me in 2008, I realized actually, I don't want to become a Victoria's Secret type of brand. I want to actually like, infiltrate from the inside out. And that's my biggest contribution. Like, great brands are built by people and today with a. What's great about spa too is like, I feel like it's pretty AI proof because women are always going to like to get their nails did, their face did, their hair did.
- [58:25]
They do have robots that do eyelashes, which I think is bizarre. But yeah, the, the real, like no.
- [58:31]
Damn robot near my eyes, FYI. I mean, I'm serious.
- [58:35]
Like the, the touch on the face and the, the energy that's shared and shifted is. Yeah, we're safe there. So, Jen, this was just such a massive wealth of information. I am so grateful to have you here and sharing all of this. As we're wrapping up, can you please let everyone know where they can get the book, all of your links, any way to connect, find, follow you all the things.
- [59:00]
Thank you so much again, Daniela. It's been so fun. So first, if you want to pick up the book that we've been talking about and what actually ended up becoming the end product, if you will, of all the stories I shared with you Today, go to unicornteambook.com unicornteambook.Com and it'll show you all the places you can get the book. You can buy it on Amazon, obviously you can go straight there. You can buy it at Barnes and Noble, but at a bunch of independent retailers. But that page will tell you where you can buy it and there will be some juicy bonuses for you if you pick up the book. And then where I love to engage the Most is on LinkedIn where you can find me Enferkem and also on Ignifer chem. I love DMing with people on IG because it's just easier. So if you're like hey, hey, this inspired me, feel free to it's really me who is going to be messaging you back. So yeah. And then you can follow me@jenniferkem.com that's my website.
- [60:02]
Wonderful. We'll get all of that linked up below. And thank you so so much. I so appreciate it and just I'm so excited for this book to be into the world.
- [60:12]
Thanks Danielle. I'm so grateful for your support and for the work you do in the world.
- [60:19]
Hey Salt Lake City, I am coming.
- [60:21]
Daniela Warner
To you on February 17th and 18th for two incredible workshops and I'd love for you to join me there on the 17th. We are doing a deep dive into your sales process. Start to finish. How are we attracting leads? How are we retaining leads? We're looking at the entire client journey including where to incorporate AI and automation and where human touch points points are essential. On the 18th it's all about team how to develop leaders that are aligned with your company culture, how to motivate them through compensation plans, how to know who to hire next and when is all covered for both short term and long term goals of your company. Simply head over to the in Person events tab on attoesthetics.com to get more information and to register. Hope to see you there.