There’s an old sentiment when comes to business relationships and how it predicates your success…

“It’s all about who you know.”

While this is true to a degree, because knowing who influences various areas of your community is essential in knowing how to leverage your relationships to be mutually beneficial, what’s more important is how well you’re getting to know people. 

How much effort are you putting into nurturing your relationships?

What are you doing to invest in your existing relationships to make them stronger as well as develop new relationships?

Now, if you’ve listened to even a few episodes of Spa Marketing Made Easy that feature guest interviews, you’ve probably noticed a pattern: all my guests are people I’ve personally connected with or met and developed a relationship with before having them on the show. 

Whether it’s meeting them through my coaching or mastermind groups, business events, or working relationships, our connections are what drive our conversation forward. 

And in this week’s episode, I’m talking with another one of my connections made through my coach, Rachel Perry, who is also a coach herself, as well as one of the sweetest and funniest people I’ve had the opportunity to chat with. 

Today we’re exploring the benefits of business relationships both with clients and with other business owners, and how the power of relationships isn’t so much about the who, but rather the how in how you approach developing relationships with everyone within the sphere of your business. 

Whether you’re brand new in business, you don’t own a business but are working to grow your clientele, or you’re well-established, but looking for new opportunities to expand in your career, this is an episode you won’t want to miss. 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why investing in finding and nurturing entrepreneurial relationships is important and necessary 
• How to create stronger client relationships that make a client feel valued and how that benefits your business in the short- and long-term
• Simple ways to keep track of your relationships and why you should be keeping track
• The differences in approach to developing relationships with clients vs. fellow business owners 

References Mentioned in Episode #083: Exploring the Benefits of Business Relationships with Rachel Perry 

• To learn more about Rachel, click here to visit her website and connect with her on Facebook and Instagram 
• Tune into Rachel’s podcast, Making the Leap 
• Listen to Episode #008 of Spa Marketing Made Easy: Grow Your Clientele With Gift Card Marketing

To keep the conversation going, ask questions, and connect with other like-minded aestheticians building thriving careers, click here to join the free Spa Marketing Made Easy Podcast community.

When I speak with aesthetic experts who have recently taken the leap to start their own aesthetic business whether it’s as a solo practitioner or a spa with a team of aestheticians, one of the most common questions I get asked is, “how do I build a business that lasts?”

We’ve all heard the stats: 20 percent of small business businesses fail in their first year and 50 percent within five years. 

It’s not exactly a hopeful statistic when it comes to longevity, and that’s why I love to share stories like those of my guest on this episode of Spa Marketing Made Easy, Shannon O’Brien. 


Shannon is an industry vet with over 17 years of experience where she has started and grown not only a successful day spa in Tahoe but has also moved on to a new area, launched again as a solo practice and built it up with a team and a boutique to boot. 

She knows what it takes to build a business from the ground up, scaling her team and services, and building a brand that will be successful for the long haul, but this journey didn’t come without its bumps in the road.

In this episode, Shannon and I are getting vulnerable on what it looks like to navigate the entrepreneurial journey through tough seasons of life and how you can find beauty in the breakdown to help you build your business to the vision of success you hold, and even beyond your wildest dreams.

Today, Shannon is the founder of iSugarUniversity where she is bringing sugaring education and community to the online space, and I’m so excited for you to hear her inspiring story of how she arrived to where she is today.

I know her story will give you hope, especially if you’re in the midst of a rough patch of life or business, but even if you’re not, her story is a case study in the grit and perseverance needed to succeed, and is chock full of takeaways that will help fuel your growth personally and professionally.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Shannon’s evolution as an aesthetician who owned a successful day spa and moved to a whole new city to start over 
• How Shannon discovered sugaring, how it compares to waxing, and why it’s a beneficial treatment to be able to offer your clientele 
• Shannon’s top tips and mindset shifts for navigating difficult seasons of life and business-ownership to build the dream you envision for your life
• Why finding your focus is one of the most critical entrepreneurial skills you should develop 

References Mentioned in Episode #082: Finding Beauty in The Breakdown with Shannon O’Brien of iSugarUniversity 

• Learn more about Shannon’s iSugarUniversity and Sugar Tribe by visiting her website
• Connect with Shannon and iSugarUniversity on Instagram and Facebook 
• To keep the conversation going, ask questions, and connect with other like-minded aestheticians building thriving careers, click here to join the free Spa Marketing Made Easy Podcast community. 

Silver linings, looking on the bright side, glass-half-full…however you coin the idea of optimism, what you’re actually doing is choosing to be positive. And yes, positivity is a choice.

While being positive isn’t a marketing strategy per se, when embraced and embodied, the power of positive thinking has true, scientific evidence of improving not just our day-to-day lives, but long-term happiness and sustainable business success.

Tune into this episode to hear:

• Why mindset is a critical piece of success and happiness in life and business
• My personal story of how positive thinking has directed my entrepreneurial journey and my approach to taking on challenges and struggle for beneficial outcomes
• The science behind positive thinking and the tangible numbers to prove how impactful it can be in your business
• A simple practice you can begin doing now to immediately begin shifting your mindset into a place of positivity and possibility

To join the Spa Marketing Made Easy community on Facebook and receive more marketing insights, support, and feedback, click here.

Today’s guest is a little different than my usual interviewee in the sense that, yes, she is a successful business owner, but the topic of her business isn’t what we’re discussing.

Instead, we’re diving into the money mindset that helped her achieve her success in life and business.

Meet Tamiko Kelly; she’s the founder of Sleep Well, Wake Happy, where she helps mamas feel like themselves again and improve their baby’s sleep through the night, which is actually how I began working with her when my daughter struggled with sleeping (not anymore!).

Tamiko has been instrumental in helping me create the business and baby balance that works for our life and my work, and as I got to know her, I found her attitude and reflections toward money to be profound in a way that I know many aestheticians need to hear.

Now let me address what could be the elephant in the room for you…

I know being in such a caring profession can make the idea of money feel sticky or out of alignment. After all, you’re here to serve and heal, right?

Before we go any further, you have to know this: you can help heal people and still be financially successful (whatever that means for you). Those two things are not mutually exclusive.

You can do both, and based on personal experience I can also confirm that is only the case if you have done the work to develop a money mindset that acknowledges your value and reframes your money outlook from one of scarcity to abundance.

And that’s what Tamiko is going to shed light on today you hear her money mindset journey along with her top insights for developing the mindset that will help you win big in business.

So, we may not be talking about sleep in this episode, but I think by the end of listening you’ll sleep better knowing that the success you desire to achieve lies within your control and reach.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• Why just “charging more” isn’t the fix for earning more and how there’s more profound work to be done
• How you can prepare yourself to be ready to receive and be resilient in breaking new blocks through your evolving money mindset journey
• What it takes to create boundaries that allow you to unblock the things that could be holding you back from receiving new energy around earnings

References Mentioned in Episode #054: Developing Your Winning Money Mindset with Tamiko Kelly

• Learn more about Tamiko’s work at Sleep Well, Wake Happy and sign up for her free (game-changing) online workshop: The 3 Step Process For Teaching Your Baby To Sleep All Night
• Connect with Tamiko on Facebook and Instagram
• Learn more about “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne
• Read “E-Squared: Nine Do-It-Yourself Energy Experiments That Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality” by Pam Grout

Vulnerability, fear, self-compassion, judgement…these are all things we tend to face, especially as women, but even more so as entrepreneurs and aestheticians carving out our own definitions and pathways to success. But just because we face them doesn’t mean we’re doing the crucial work of moving through or with them, and that’s why I’ve brought on today’s guest, Julia Kristina.

Julia is a registered clinical counselor and the founder of Julia Kristina & Associates where she and her team help their clients process and breakthrough their emotional barriers brought on by anxiety and depression, stress and overwhelm as well as self-esteem issues, and grief and trauma.

Julia believes that we need to stop shying away from looking at and talking about the deep things that make us tick (and tock) as human beings, and doing so doesn’t have to be awkward or uncomfortable. In this episode, we discuss how we can begin bringing down our emotional and mental barriers to allow ourselves to be happy, healthy, and prosperous entrepreneurs.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• How the core of your entrepreneurial success is tied to your willingness to be vulnerable
• Why you might be subconsciously sabotaging yourself and how to unblock the emotional restrictions holding you back
• Why you need to get curious and questions for reflection to help you transform fear into confidence
• What it means to be self-compassionate and how that ties into practicing self-care

We all know that it’s good to be grateful.

But are you really, truly feeling that gratitude?

The truth is, having an attitude of gratitude requires practice, consistency, and specificity, which isn’t always easy, especially if we feel like we’re in a tough season of life or business.

Of course, we’re grateful for all the blessings we have, but when you desire something different, it can leave you feeling lost on how to feel thankful and using that gratitude to propel you forward.

And that’s exactly why I’m bringing you the message I have in this episode, which is all about how you can cultivate a deep sense of gratitude, put it in action, and how by doing so; you have the opportunity to see significant growth in your life and business.

See, gratitude isn’t a byproduct of success; it’s the activator of it.

So click play and dial into all you have to be grateful for, I promise you’ll immediately feel uplifted and see the benefits of building a gratitude practice with time.

In this episode I discuss:

• What gratitude helps do for our mindset, perspective, and actions, and in turn, how that affects our lives and businesses
• The 30-Day Gratitude Challenge
• A story of one of my students and how gratitude can affect the outcome of your goals
• Why it’s important to get specific when reflecting on your gratitudes

References Mentioned in Episode #037: The Attitude of Gratitude

• Download the Gratitude Journal and join me for the 30-day Gratitude Challenge
• Leave us a review on iTunes and help us reach our goal of impacting the lives and careers of 500 aestheticians
• Join the free Spa Marketing Made Easy community on Facebook for exclusive monthly marketing trainings, insights and tips

It’s only been a couple of years since I began to dip my toe into the world of “woo-woo.”

See, I’m a spreadsheet type of girl, I like my neatly aligned cells with clear-cut numbers and results that can be tied to tried-and-true data.

While I still love (and always will) the “science behind success,” I’ve also learned that some of that science lies in the areas that aren’t as clearly defined as a number but are certainly shown to work.

What am I talking about? Mindset.

And in this episode, I’m joined by my friend Melanie Bundock, who knows more than a thing or two about the power of a positive mindset and how you can use techniques such as visualization to manifest the desires you have for your life.

Melanie is a mindset coach, the host of Big Vision TV, and the creator of Tapping Into Abundance, her signature program where she helps her students shift their own state into one that allows their desires and goals to manifest faster and more effortlessly in their lives, no matter what their current circumstances or beliefs.


Still with me here?


Good! Because Melanie’s personal experience is one you have to hear…


Whether you’re 100% on board with trying visualization or if you’re slightly skeptical, you will be awestruck after listening to her stories about being able to make the leap from her quitting her job to start her business (with the help of her winnings on a pretty big-time game show you’ve probably heard of) and how she took her family on the vacation of a lifetime.

In addition to sharing her personal journey with visualization, she’s also cluing us in on her techniques on getting started with manifesting your dreams right after you’re through listening to this episode.

Now I only have one more question for you…

What do you have to lose by giving visualization a try? The answer is absolutely nothing.

So sit back and listen in, this episode could be the start of the shift of everything.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• Melanie’s journey to becoming a visualization and manifestation expert including the incredible stories of how these practices have worked in her and her family’s lives

• Recognizing your unique desires and goals, and the keys to making visualization work for you
• How vision boarding can act as a valuable tool in manifesting your dreams
• The consistent practices you need to embrace to attract the results required to achieve your goals

References Mentioned in Episode #036: How to Visualize Your Goals and Manifest the Life You Desire with Melanie Bundock

• Learn more about Melanie and her work by visiting her website.
• Tune to watch Melanie’s show, Big Vision TV.
• Connect with Melanie on Facebook and Instagram.
• Read “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne.
• Join the Aestheticians Connect community to discuss all things treatments, skincare, and beauty.
• Join the Spa Marketing Made Easy Community to receive more marketing insights, free trainings, and tips around growing your aesthetic business.

Nothing irks me more than someone who views careers in the beauty industry as pure vanity, because as any aesthetician knows, beauty is so much more than skin deep.

In our experience working with our client’s skin, brows and lashes, makeup, or any other aesthetic avenue, the core of what we do is building confidence and bolstering the feeling of being beautiful from the inside out.

Our work may treat a surface issue of acne scarring or hiding hyperpigmentation, but the real thing we’re addressing is that voice inside that makes our client’s feel like they’re not enough.

Of course, we know that they are already beautiful and more than enough, but if our gifts in aesthetic artistry can help them see that in themselves, well, that’s why we do what we do.

If you’re anything like me, when I think of that deeper why behind our work as aesthetic experts, it really fires me up and gets my passion pumping for our industry even stronger than it already does.

So can you imagine how we can make our clients feel when in addition to treating the surface we can help them with discovering their inner beauty?

In this episode of Spa Marketing Made Easy, I’m talking with makeup artist, beauty expert, and self-love activist, Sara Drury, to discuss the role of inner beauty in our work as aesthetic experts and how her shift in helping her clients discover their inner beauty has grown her business and how it can change yours, too.

If you’ve been thinking of ways to go deeper with your work, expand your earning potential and revenue streams by leveraging your passion in a new way, you’ll want to give this episode a listen!

In this episode you’ll learn:

• Why Sara began her entrepreneurial journey, and she’s gotten to where she is now
• What she did to transition her focus from purely aesthetics to also encompassing inner beauty and how that has impacted her work
• The opportunities Sara identified in her business and how she adjusted her business model for greater scalability
• How to own your aesthetic expertise and incorporate it into new revenue streams

References Mentioned in Episode #034: Discovering Your Inner Beauty with Sara Drury

• Learn more about Sara’s work on her website.
• Steal a makeup artist’s secrets and sign up for Sara’s free video training, “Top 10 Makeup Mistakes and How to Fix Them”
• Connect with Sara on Facebook and Instagram.
• Join the Spa Marketing Made Easy community on Facebook for more marketing conversation, insights and tips.

If you’ve been connected to AddoAesthetics for a while or been a listener of Spa Marketing Made Easy for even just a couple of episodes, you know I’m passionate about spa retail sales.

I consider it my zone of genius, which is why much of my work has centered around consulting with physician-dispensed skincare brands as well as working with solo aestheticians and spa owners to bolster their retail efforts.

But like most things we’re passionate about, retail sales wasn’t something I just magically became good at one day.

It took a lot of self-education and practice, but once I saw the results I was helping my clients achieve as well as the potential for growth that retail sales afforded me in my career (and later in building AddoAesthetics), I drilled down and refined my strategy and skills ’til I saw the results I sought out.

In this episode of Spa Marketing Made Easy, I’m going to walk you through that journey and show you how if you develop your retail skills, you have the potential to drastically grow your business (with plenty of my insider tips and insights included, of course!).

If you’ve been sitting on the fence with bringing a skincare line into your spa or feeling uncertain in your ability to sell retail, I urge you to give this episode a listen.

If it’s something you desire, it’s something you can acquire.

Key takeaways from this episode:

• My journey into retail sales and how it started from the perspective of the client
• How I came to love physician-dispensed skincare brands and my approach to creating custom regimens for my clients
• Why retail sales isn’t actually about sales
• How I looked at retail sales as an opportunity for the consulting arm of my business and educational component for my work with estheticians

References Mentioned in Episode #031: How Retail Changed My Life and Business

• Learn more about the medical science of skin and skincare in The Lancet.
• Connect with me over on Instagram.
• Join the free Spa Marketing Made Easy community on Facebook.

Have you ever heard of the Pareto principle?

You might know it as it’s more common name, the 80/20 rule, which states that, for many events and scenarios, 80 percent of the effects come from 20 percent of the causes.

When it comes to the earning potential that solo aestheticians and spas possess, retail sales can absolutely be that 20 percent activity that contributes to a considerable proportion of your bottom line.

According to a career profile by the U.S. News and World Report, it’s stated that, “estheticians and skin care specialists made a median salary of $30,270 in 2016. The highest-paid 10 percent in the profession earned $59,780, while the lowest-paid earned $18,640 that year.”

You may be looking at those numbers and thinking that you’re happy hitting $30K per year, but almost $60K? That would be amazing!

Whatever is your version of success, by all means, celebrate it, but if you’re looking at $30K and want more, know that you don’t have to stop at $59,780 as your higher-earning cap.

We can do better.

In fact, with retail sales and the opportunities of the very lucrative skincare market in the U.S., we can do an extra figure better.

In this episode of Spa Marketing Made Easy, I’m breaking down dollar-for-dollar how retail sales can massively grow your business and expand your take-home pay as well as dispel the common objections and hang-ups I hear around retail sales.

Yes, retail sales requires selling, but it doesn’t need to be slimy or pushy.

Listen in, and I’ll help give you a mindset shift that can help you grow your business by leaps and bounds (and maybe a couple of zeros, too).

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why retail is the quickest and easiest way to boost income as an aesthetician
• How selling retail can increase your businesses bottom line (I’m pulling out the numbers and math skills)
• The entrepreneurial mindset shift you need to see the power that retail holds
• How the U.S. market presents one of the best opportunities in the world to sell retail, and my top tips for leveraging those opportunities

References Mentioned in Episode #030: Smashing The Most Common Spa Retail Sales Hang-Ups

• Learn more industry-specific statistical information on esthetician earnings on Statista
• Join the free Spa Marketing Made Easy community on Facebook
• Unlock my free trainings and business-building resources including my retail sales masterclass