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This episode is brought to you by Amazon. Sometimes the most painful part of getting sick is the getting better part. Waiting on hold for an appointment, sitting in crowded waiting rooms, standing in line at the pharmacy. That's painful. Amazon One Medical and Amazon Pharmacy remove those painful parts of getting better with things like 24. 7 virtual visits and prescriptions delivered to your door. Thanks to Amazon Pharmacy and Amazon One Medical Healthcare just got less painful.
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Foreign Hi guys. Welcome back to the Treatment Room podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in. I'm so happy to have you here. So if you do not know me, my name is Tess. I am a licensed esthetician. I'm also a acne specialist certified through Face Reality and the Preston Method. I'm also a nutritional nutrition coach and in my business I specialize in a virtual approach to clearing acne and correcting chronic skin conditions through topical skin care and lifestyle and nutrition programming. So that's a little bit about me. I also have a skincare brand, Free Skin by Tessa. I just, I love all things that make us feel good on the inside and glow on the outside. I am just really interested in nutrition, wellness, skin care, all the best things in life. So today I'm going to do a little solo Q and A and answer some of your questions. Thank you so much for submitting them over on Instagram at my sdtessa. Let's just dive right in. The first one is from Caitlin and she wants to know what did the startup process look like for your transfer to virtual aesthetics? What was the timeframe from the idea of it to taking your first client virtually cost to start up, legal advice, et cetera? I'll go easy on the legal advice. Cause I'm obviously not a lawyer, but I'll give you, I'll give you the, you know, the most important information. So let me take you back a little bit to how and when I started virtually supporting clients through aesthetics. So if you don't know, I started my business in the pandemic and I had previously done facials. I loved giving facials. And I'll never forget the night that, you know, word of COVID started getting out. I was driving home from my job. I worked at a medical spa at the time, which I kind of thought was my dream job. I always just envisioned myself as like a really good employee. I never thought I'm going to be a business owner and have this virtual practice. I never thought, oh, you know, I'm just going to switch from giving facials to virtual care. It was kind of, I mean, that did happen, but it was also in large part due to the pandemic. And it's just funny at the time how something might seem like the end of the world, but it can actually turn out to be the biggest blast blessing, because had that not happened, I don't think I would have had the courage to walk away from my job and start this. But it was just a really helpful push in this direction and it happened very organically. So when the pandemic happened, I will say prior to that, I think treating your skin at home was just. It was not the phenomenon it is now. I think at the time, a lot of people really banked on facials as the monthly treatment to kind of save their skin. And they might have a little routine at home, but I don't think it was super consistent for a lot of people. And I think now there's so much education and support for estheticians about how to support your clients virtually, what they need to do to stay clear at home. But that just really wasn't a thing at the time. Um, virtual consultations, they were starting to happen. Like, I remember hearing about more like celebrity estheticians doing them to a certain extent to support their clients through the pandemic. But I do believe I was the first esthetician to really make this my whole business and really emphasize how much I believe in getting people results from home. I still think facials and treatments are incredible, but I think most of us estheticians agree the home care is really, if you have to choose, it's the most important. It's really hard to correct skin if you're just seeing somebody, you know, once a month or once every six or eight weeks. So when Covid broke out, I think a lot of people really had a rough time because of how much they depended on facials to treat their skin. So especially acne prone people who weren't getting that intensive treatment, who weren't maintaining their skin at home. It's like, here you go, here's this huge stressful event where the future is uncertain. Nobody knows what's going on. You can't get in for your monthly, you know, deep cleaning. You might not be using what you should be at home. So for a lot of people with skin concerns and chronic conditions, this was kind of a nightmare. On top of that, people are at home more inspecting their skin with a lot of time on their hands, more stressed out than ever. So a lot of people started freaking out about their skin. And I had a pretty small social media audience at the time. I had a YouTube channel. I was really consistent with it. I, I had an Instagram. It was pretty small. I think maybe I had a thousand followers at the time. And it was definitely, I had a small audience, but people were pretty engaged and I feel like there was just a lot of momentum there. And I started getting some requests to help people with their skin because they really had no other option. They couldn't get in for in person treatment. So a handful of people kind of started reaching out, asking, you know, can I pay you for a phone call and you can just tell me what to do with my skin, because I don't know what to do. So I started doing some calls and my pricing was very, very low in the beginning. And I think this can be a good idea for an esthetician who wants to get familiar with the product process of doing virtual consultations. It, it can benefit you to just get some practice, get in the swing of things and develop your own process that you really trust and you know, to work. So I started doing some of these consultations and it's so funny looking back because again, now we have so many resources and ways to drop ship products to our clients. But at the time that was not a thing. Like brands hadn't had to do that before. So I would literally make treatment plans for my clients and I would link them out to dermstore or various other websites and I would, I wouldn't see any of that profit. So, you know, I just, I basically just got experience with the process of treating somebody virtually, monitoring them, learning how to guide them through the process. And I kind of just realized, like, this can actually work. Like, people were really happy and a lot of them started telling me my skin is actually even better than, you know, when I was just getting facials and I wasn't maintaining my skin at home. So I would share some before and afters and I think slowly the momentum just picked up. And I've always been very detail oriented and just very invested in each and every client. So from day one, I was very involved with my treatment plans. And I remember one night I was working on a client treatment plan and this is like pages and pages of information and personal advice I'm giving somebody about how to take care of their skin at home. And, and my boyfriend at the time came home and he was like, oh my gosh, this is so impressive how much you give to each person. Like, I bet they've never really felt cared for like this. Like, this is really amazing that you do this for people like this could really, really be something someday. And like he'd seen the pictures, he'd seen the transformations. It was just something that was so new at the time and I didn't know how long it was going to last. I, I knew it worked, but that vote of confidence really encouraged me. And sometimes you need that little encouragement from somebody outside of your process. And I remember things were starting to pick up and just getting a lot busier and I almost felt, I felt great about everything, but a little bit frazzled. And he's like, I think you need to raise your prices. Like I think my consultations were around $50 at the time. He was like, I think they need to be $250. And I remember thinking at the time like, whoa, that's a lot of money. I don't think people are going to pay that. I remember raising my prices and being really, really nervous that it would deter people. But what surprised me in a good way was actually that I just kept getting more and more clients who are, who were really serious about the process and who valued my time in working with me. So this goes out to anyone who feels like they have more demand than they can supply, who's just hesitant about raising prices because it might be a self worth thing. It might be you're just nervous about the economy and if people will pay that, you know, we're in an interesting economic time. So I'm not telling everybody to raise your prices across the board, but just in general, when you really have that strong demand, it can be a good sign that it is time to raise your prices. And I haven't personally experienced fallout from doing that. I think it's only brought in more and more people who not only appreciate you, but they take the program seriously because they know it's a substantial investment. So that's kind of how things got started. And since then the process has just gotten more and more refined and really down to an art. But as far as startup costs, it's very low. You don't have a lot of startup costs if you want to treat clients virtually. At the time I had a phone, a computer, I took notes and that was really it. You know, you can invest in more expensive software. You know, there's, there's ways you can spend money on it. But I don't think it is about the equipment or spending a lot of money. I think honestly it's about the connection with the client, the conversation, making them feel like you're listening, you're engaged, you care, you understand their concerns and you're validating what you see and just providing a result that sets you apart. So I think a lot of people, if they're thinking about getting into the virtual aesthetics side of things, they can get overwhelmed. Like, what do I need? You know, what do I have to buy? And I would just say it's really not about that. Like I am proof. You could literally start this with a computer or just a phone. It is, I think, really about you. And I will say I think just in this career in general, everyone needs to be very honest with themselves about their talents, their gifts, their limitations. I think I'm really glad I had the self awareness at the time to let go of facials because although I was good at them, my favorite part about doing them was connecting with the client skin analysis, providing a result and a transformation and making a strategy for them. Like, I love the creative process behind that and I think I realized those were my strengths and I, I could do that without doing facials. But I think everyone has a different skill set and you just have to be real with yourself about what you're good at and what you like doing. Sometimes we can, we can become really skilled at something because we're passionate and we're super just driven and interested in it. But sometimes I think just letting go of the things you are like a 7 out of 10 at and just really narrowing in on what is your skill and expertise. I think that is what has made my business successful. And then with that, I would say don't be afraid to be a little bit different or you know, be doing something that's a little bit against the grain. I think at the time, I'm so glad I didn't listen to, you know, the insecurity I could have let get in the way of growing my business because I kept getting questions like, when are you going to get back to the treatment room? When are you going to go back to giving facials? And it's not that I think people had any mal intent with that. It's just like they were confused as to why I was talking with clients virtually because we were just really used to the idea of a hands on experience. I think people really like traditional ways sometimes. And if you're doing something outside that or that seems almost like it could be a shortcut, I think people can question it. But I think I just, I had the foresight that this could be something people were interested in. I think there is a huge audience that was underserved before estheticians started doing virtual acne care because there are a lot of people who maybe don't have time to get in for regular facials, or they don't like, you know, laying down, or they don't like being touched, would rather understand the process of maintaining their skin themselves. So I think I saw the opportunity with that because people really liked the service and they felt like it improved the quality of their life by being able to do a skincare routine they liked, understand why they're doing all the steps, and to see a result from their own two hands. I think it's really satisfying and gratifying for our clients. So, yeah, I just say that because I think sometimes we want to wait until something is the norm or the trend to implement it. But I think if you can get ahead of those trends and not be afraid to be a little bit different, I think that's where you can have success. Because if you wait for everyone else to be doing it, then you really have to be the absolute best and you have to work smart, super hard to get your name out there and stand out from the crowd. So I would just take advantage of those opportunities. When you see something that could set your business apart as far as legal advice, I think one of the best things you can do is incorporate your business. So you'd want to talk to an attorney about becoming an LLC or an S corp. And that way your personal assets, like your home, your car, your savings account, those cannot be touched if somebody is trying to sue you. And you can also add on policies, insurance policies. If you're practicing and giving facials, you can add on a virtual protection with your liability insurance. I know ASCP now offers that obviously was not a thing like five years ago, but it's become more mainstream. Caitlin also asked, what would you recommend for skin that is always red? Okay, so there's, you know, quite a few, quite a few things that can come into play with skin redness. Is the barrier over sensitized? Are you protecting your skin enough from UV to do you naturally just have more vascularity to your skin? I remember like 10 years ago going in to see a dermatologist for facial redness. And it's amazing what skincare can actually do. I wish I had more pictures of my skin at that time, but I don't. But just through proper care and antioxidants, anti inflammatories, protecting my skin, skin from the sun every single day, not using intense heat or abrasive scrubs on it, or using products that were too strong for me too quickly, I was able to get my skin to a much healthier place. But in terms of one product I would recommend for redness, it would be my complex anti inflammatory antioxidant serum. It has a really special ingredient called helichrysum italicum extract. And this is an extract that comes from a beautiful like yellow flower. It's really, really cute. But this extract has been used in medicine for therapeutic benefits for years. It has anti allergic, antimicrobial and anti inflammatory properties. So it's incredible. For redness you can use it a.m. and p.m. in your morning and evening skincare routine. You can use it with any actives like a retinoid, glycolic acid, mandelic acid. It's not going to compete or conflict with any actives. You can use it with your vitamin C if you want. But it's a really nice product to have in your routine for general skin health to reduce redness. And that just plays well with other active ingredients. And you can also use this product in, in the treatment room. It feels incredibly cooling and calming and hydrating on the skin. Should you have any irritation, inflammation or reaction arise from something in your environment or something topically complex is great to use to combat that. So you can apply it throughout the day if you need to. Or say you got a sunburn, you can just continue reapplying it throughout the day to help bring down that inflammation. But that is one of my all time favorites for redness prone skin. I think vitamin C, if you can tolerate it, is also a great way to strengthen the skin, strengthen the barrier, strengthen those little capillaries. You can also take vitamin C internally. I love the symbiotic of vitamin C, but that is a great ingredient to implement as well. And then if, if you can afford to, if you're redness prone. I am a big believer in the V beam laser. I have been getting V beam laser treatments pretty regularly for the past five years. I really credit it to helping my rosacea. So I did kind of like a series, four to six treatments and now I'll get it maybe once or twice a year for maintenance. But it can really help with those visible blood vessels. Basically how the V beam laser works is it emits a burst of light that targets the red pigment in blood cells and the light is then absorbed by the blood vessels which coagulate and are slowly absorbed by the body. So this is a pulse dye laser. You can use it on all skin types and tones. They even use it on Instagram infants with really obvious port wine stains. So I think it is the gold standard for redness prone skin. So if you are using good skin care, but your blood vessels are just really dilated, really obvious and close to the surface, that is something that can be addressed pretty effectively with V beam. And a question from Gabriella. She says, how many times a week should an acne client be exfoliating? Yeah, it's a great question and I'm so grateful we know more about acne and how to care for it. Nowadays we understand that it is a disease of the pore. So you basically have a malfunctioning pore. If you have acne, you're producing too many skin cells and that mixes with oil and bacteria and that is the start of the acne process. We know acne prone skin is shedding about five times the normal amount of skin cells. So. So because of that, people who are acne prone need more exfoliation. And this is where I think seeking professional help can be really, really huge. Because there is no across the board rule for how much every person should be exfoliating. There's not even one rule for every acne prone person. One person might find their acne is managed with one to two to three actives. Whereas I have some clients, you guys, where they just have really thick, resilient skin, meaning they can tolerate a lot. And I've had, you know, a couple clients like that tell me both parents had really oily skin. So as a byproduct of that, they produce a lot of oil. I think they might also produce excess keratin. And they just need a lot of exfoliation to keep their skin clear and maintained. And it doesn't necessarily mean you're breaking down their barrier. Like they can feel totally normal using peels, retinoids, benzoyl, peroxide, acids weekly or on a regular basis. It's really just about what the individual client needs. And that is something that I work on with my client in my acne care program. We want to find out how many skin cells you're producing and what your skin requires to maintain a clear follicle. So it's really different for everyone. There's no general rule. And I feel like we did a lot of people a disservice in. I don't know if you guys remember, like back in the day, we used to say everyone should exfoliate three times a week. And you know, it's kind of just a general rule putting a general number out there, but because everyone's skin is so individual, I'm just not a fan of big blanket advice like that, because it may work for one person, but it may be too much for another person or might not be enough for another. And another important component of acne care is accelerating the plan or over time. You don't want somebody to get stagnant from time to time. You want to be bumping things up, you want to be checking in with them and adding exfoliation if needed if the client's still breaking out and you haven't really reached that threshold where you found how much exfoliation their skin requires. But I will say this, with acne clients, I do think it's important for them to have a resurfacing treatment they work up to doing at least every single night. It might be AM and pm, but you don't want to skip any nights with treating acne once the client is acclimated because that gives opportunity for acne to form in the pore. So we don't want it to give. We don't want to give it that opportunity. We want to prevent it. And good acne care and real transformations actually happen in the prevention stage. So you want to get somebody clear and then you want to prevent the new breakouts as well. And that's where the daily acne care comes into play. For the last one, I won't say the name, it's a little bit personal, but she says I am stuck in a toxic job that pushes me to make product sales, even if it's not what the client needs for their skin concern, typically acne. And often this puts me in a hard situation where I have to choose between my ethics as an esthetician and my job livelihood. I have been an esthetician for a year and I don't think going out on my own is smart as the economy isn't in a great position. I'm in a small town where esthetician jobs are slim pickings. I've tried multiple times to advocate for my clients and educate my boss, but it is never received well. So I hear this often from you guys. It's a bummer. And it, I think it illustrates, you know, pros and cons of working for somebody else. The pros are you don't have to take the financial risk. You have a consistent paycheck as long as you're working there. Cons are you don't have as much freedom. You don't get to choose the lines you want to carry. And that can make you feel limited, can make you feel stagnant, can make you feel like you aren't reaching your potential and like, you're not able to be the best esthetician you could possibly be because you're limited in what you can recommend. So for one, I think as far as talking to your boss, there's definitely a way to do it that is respectful and you, you know, acknowledging it's their business and you, you respect them, making the decisions that they're comfortable with that are best for them. It is a big deal to bring on a new line. It can be very expensive. You have to go through product trainings. There's a little bit of a period of clients adjusting, your employees getting adjusted to recommending the new line. So I can see the hesitation there. It's also disappointing that as a boss, they aren't listening to you as the employee, especially when you have the client's best interests at heart. But unfortunately for some of these med spas, it is more of a cash cow and it's not so much about a passion for skin care and the client's best interest. So it is a shame. I think one option you could discuss with your boss is possibly integrating a way to do more online sales that would be low cost to no cost for them that they could be profitable in without having to invest in a bunch of retail products that sit on their shelves. So there are a lot of brands nowadays that do drop shipping, like Face Reality. Glymed Pomp is an amazing company that I have worked with for years. They offer Jan Marini, Color Science, Hydrinity, Jane Iredale, lots of amazing lines and they're very open to hearing about new lines that you would want to bring on in retail. So there are options if your boss was open to, to some kind of virtual process, which I think is honestly really smart because we need to meet the customer where they're at. Sometimes they prefer to shop online versus come into the spa so it can make product pickup more accessible and just easier overall. So that would be one option and then two. You know, sometimes I think these experiences and these frustrations, they can be great ammo to give us the encouragement to start our own thing. And I, I know it might not be the time for you now. Sometimes you have to have multiple experiences like this. You have to get annoyed enough, you have to feel limited enough where you say, I'm done. I can't be told what to do anymore. I need the independence and I need to have my own business. I hear you when you say the economy is in a shaky spot right now. So I don't think you have to make any decisions at this exact moment. But if this is a recurring theme for you and you continue to feel this way, I think there is a way to start a business even when the economy isn't in the ideal place and even if you're in a small town. I think being in a small town is not always a curse. Sometimes we can think of small town as small opportunity. But think of it this way, if you are the big fish in a small pond, you can really stand out. Like, if you are noticing there aren't any places that you would personally want to go for, for aesthetics treatments in your town, you could be, you could be that. So it's just something, something to think about. And maybe you could do it in a way where you had a small suite or you shared a room. I know lots of estheticians across the country do do it and you can be successful and surprise yourself. But you would want to keep in mind how can you keep the overhead low so you can start small and not risk too much and kind of see how it goes and continue with the business if it is successful. The thing about small towns is you can have great word of mouth, great referrals, and again, if the standard is lower and you can provide an exceptional experience and results for your clients, or you can offer and expose them to brands they have you haven't seen before that are more cutting edge, you can really, really stand out. And your boss will be kicking himself later when clients are happy going to you. So sometimes I think these experiences working for people where you don't feel heard or you just think, wow, I would do things so differently. It's all part of the learning process. Nothing is a waste. I think a lot of the experiences I had where I felt like, oh, I would just do this differently, I think it's helped me to become a better business owner. But yeah, I hope that helps. Please let me know if you implement any of those tips. Let me know what you think of that advice. I would just love to hear from you. And in the meantime, I hope things get better. It always will, it always does. So I think just allow the things that are frustrating to fuel your fire. Don't let them discourage you or get you down because you know, you, you can make your own way and you have no idea what you are fully capable of. And I want everyone listening to reach their full potential. We all go through hard moments in our career. We can all doubt ourselves, we can all feel limited by our circumstances. But those things I think can really be what eventually pushes us to find better, do better and be better. So I hope you guys like this episode. Thank you so much for tuning in. I love your questions, so please send me more. You can send me a DM on Instagram or leave a comment on my latest post. I love you guys so much. I want you to thrive in this crazy career. Thrive with your skin. I am sending you all the good thoughts and a big hug for a successful week ahead. I love you and I will talk to you in the next episode.