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Get Good at Being Bad
15 Plays2 months ago
In this episode of Beauty in the Business, Renee and Damon dive deep into a reality every beauty pro faces but few talk about — the messy middle. 😅 From four-hour lash sets to shaky client consultations, we’re breaking down the exact process of how to strengthen your skills, fight fear, and build true confidence in your beauty business. 💪✨
In this episode, you’ll learn:
🔹 Why perfection isn’t the goal — progress is
🔹 How to leverage model calls the right way
🔹 The power of pricing strategies to fill your books
🔹 How to push through fear and build confidence faster
🔹 The mindset shift successful beauty pros embrace
🔹 Practical marketing ideas you can use TODAY
If you’re in beauty school, fresh out, or feeling stuck in your current level — this episode will reignite your fire and give you tactical ways to move forward.
👩🎓 Ready to stop waiting until you're “ready” and start taking messy action? Hit play and let’s grow together.
🔗 Don’t forget to download our free Beauty in the Business Master Course → Use code BBMCFREE at checkout!
www.beautyinthebusiness.vip
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Transcript
Introduction to Renee Leone and Her Beauty Empire
00:00:04
Speaker
Welcome to Beauty and the Business Podcast. I'm Renee Leone, a beauty entrepreneur, coach, and single mom who built a six-figure beauty business straight out of school. Now, I'm here to help you do the same.
00:00:17
Speaker
If you're ready to stop struggling and start scaling, you're in the right place. Let's turn your passion into profit. Hit play and let's build your beauty empire.
Embracing Discomfort for Skill Improvement
00:00:30
Speaker
I remember doing my first set of lash extensions and it was painful. I didn't know what I was doing. the process took me about four hours.
00:00:41
Speaker
And I remember sitting there thinking in class, like, what did I just get myself into? And i had no other choice. I had to just get good at being bad.
00:00:53
Speaker
So that's what we're going to talk about today. And really just, you know, going through the process of strengthening your skills and fighting through that. And that's the only way that you will for sure increase your skills is just getting comfortable being uncomfortable.
Breaking Routines for Growth
00:01:10
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's one of the most, it's one of the most interesting things to me about being a professional, like being an adult and getting older. You try so many new things when you're a kid, like everything's new, right? Like you do new sports, you do new activities and you suck.
00:01:25
Speaker
Like you are bad when you first start, but you're just used to it. You're like cool. It's something new. I'm just doing it. And probably everybody around you realize everybody else is bad as well. Right? And then we get into adulthood and at some point we just, I think we get primed or used to just not doing new stuff. You know, like you just, you just don't have new habits that you pick up or new skill sets.
00:01:47
Speaker
You know what i mean? Yeah. Like hobbies and things like that. You kind of just, especially if you're someone with young kids, like your activity is the kids activities. Yeah. Not really so much your own. So you just fall into routine. Yeah.
00:02:00
Speaker
Even your job, like you you get a job, you essentially have the same job. Like I know a lot of people, I'm sure you do too, but like they, they didn't plan on getting the job that they have out of college. Like they, they just got stuck with a company or got in with the company and then they just stayed in that job.
00:02:19
Speaker
And then they do have kids. you know you You have kids, you get married, you start a life, your your time gets smaller and smaller and smaller and and you don't grow. And then you look back 20, 30 years and you're just in that job that you never planned on having in the first place. You'd be grateful for it and the employment and all that.
00:02:37
Speaker
But at some point you just stop doing new things. And so I think it builds this habit of not doing new things. And then you develop this habit of getting really good at what you're doing.
00:02:50
Speaker
Safety. Yeah, safety. Yes. safety yes Your safety iss zone. Yep. Right? Your comfort zone, your safety zone. You're familiar with it. It's safe. Your brain tells you it's safe. Right? Your brain tells you that anything different. Like we talked about in the course, like anything different.
00:03:04
Speaker
is dangerous. um When we were a long time ago, a long time ago when our brains were developing and you're on the Savannah, there's a certain path you take to a certain watering hole and that has safe water.
00:03:16
Speaker
Why do you take that path? Because two days ago, Peter was walking down the other path and he got eaten by a lion. And so, you know, if you go this path, you don't get eaten by a lion and you drink out of this watering hole. Why?
00:03:28
Speaker
Because Brenda was last week was drinking out of that watering hole and she died. And so now you drink out of the watering hole that doesn't kill you.
Social Media's Hidden Pitfalls
00:03:37
Speaker
And so your brain tells you like, this is a good thing, but you know you take that to modern times. Like we don't have to worry about fresh water. We don't have to worry about where our food's coming from.
00:03:46
Speaker
ah And so our brain finds new things to worry about. And it just it just tells us that anything different is bad. Yeah, exactly. And I think even with the comparison thing, we talk about that, like ah we're always taking inventory of what other people are doing and playing that comparison game.
00:04:01
Speaker
And so sometimes that just kind of increases the anxiety that we have because we're looking at other people's you know social media highlights or best work and you never see what they went through to get them there.
00:04:14
Speaker
ah The messy, the bad haircuts, the bad sets of lash extensions, like Nobody posts that.
Learning from Failure: Edison's Approach
00:04:21
Speaker
One of my most popular reels actually was showing the transition between my first set of brows I ever did to a recent set of brows. And it was, not gonna lie, I thought it was hot shit back then.
00:04:34
Speaker
And it was not good. But it's really cool to see your progress over time. And it just took consistent effort of me showing up in my business, even when I didn't know all the answers, even when I didn't know the right technique. But I went back and I re-evaluated and I'd figure it out and then adjust and adapt.
00:04:54
Speaker
And so that's how you grow. yeah And we talk about that a lot in the course about how to become a master of your skill set and why that's so important. We shouldn't just be collecting a paycheck. We should always be continuing education, always be striving to in you know get better at something and take those risks. And I think having the community to be your cheerleader, to be able to do that so it doesn't feel quite as scary yeah is really important.
The Role of Community in Skill Development
00:05:20
Speaker
Yeah, i agree. I mean, i think that's what we're built for. Like, I really think it's what God made us for is to grow, like is to develop, is to grow, is to go out there. And and when you think about making mistakes, um making mistakes is just advancing.
00:05:34
Speaker
Like it really is just developing. It's about finding things that don't work. Was it, ah who discovered the light bulb? Edison? Mm-hmm. ah Thomas Edison has a quote that he says, it's you know he he didn't discover how to how to create the light bulb.
00:05:49
Speaker
He discovered 12,000 ways not to. Right. And 12,001 is when it worked. right in twelve thousand one is when it worked Yeah, I love that. I actually have never heard that. Oh, really? Yeah. I actually get the actual number down because it's a direct quote from him.
00:06:01
Speaker
But it's like he just made so many mistakes and he made mistake after mistake after mistake after mistake. but the way you But that's every expert ever. If you really want to become an expert in your field, if you want to become a professional in your field, you're going to have to do that. And it doesn't matter.
00:06:15
Speaker
well was going to say it doesn't matter when you start,
Model Calls as a Learning Tool
00:06:19
Speaker
um but it does matter when you start because the longer that you're in the habit of not doing something new, the more aware you have to be that this is going to be uncomfortable.
00:06:29
Speaker
like You're going to make mistakes. You're not going to like it because you've been doing the same thing and and maybe you've even been the expert in something and you're doing something new now. Yeah. And I think in our previous episode, when we interviewed Madison, if you haven't listened to that, go back and listen to it. It's really great. In my opinion, she hit it out of the park.
00:06:48
Speaker
But she talks about trying new things and she talked about kind of the failing forward and keeping a good attitude through all of that. And it really is half the game is just continuing to fail forward. Yeah.
00:07:03
Speaker
And never giving up. And, um you know, we talked about model calls and that last episode. And so what that is, is a technique that I teach the new girls that come into the salon like, hey, let's it might be.
00:07:17
Speaker
Cheaper than your target price. Let's set your target price in your books. Let's just use lash extensions, for example. And so we'll say your target lash fill price is $75 for a fill.
00:07:29
Speaker
Well, let's set your model call price for $25 just to get your practice in. Or if your full set price, your target, your goal is $175, let's do a model call for the price of a fill.
00:07:42
Speaker
for a full set. And so by letting the client know that, hey, this is gonna be heavily discounted, but that's because I'm new. yeah And so what comes with that is it's gonna be a slower service.
00:07:56
Speaker
There might be some imperfections. Usually they're fine with that and they're happy to help. And so that communicating to them like, hey, I'm new here. i want to get some model photos or content filmed.
00:08:09
Speaker
um Just communicating that to them ahead of time. So then it takes kind of the scared mentality away from it because the client's already expecting that from you. Right. That you were there to practice and to learn and to grow.
00:08:23
Speaker
And then something I do with my coaching students is then tell them, if you have someone like that who is a referral machine and is naturally giving you people, say, hey, I got to move my prices up now, but I'm going to keep you in a lower price if you continue to promote me.
00:08:41
Speaker
And then you just have a funnel of income coming from somebody else. It's a walking marketing for you in your business. Yeah. And they kind of love it too. They love being with you from the beginning. i have clients that have been in this building since I was fresh out of school. They follow me everywhere.
00:08:55
Speaker
They love seeing your growth. yeah People love that. they They feel included and they want to be a part of it. So where you might be shying away from it or scared to admit you're new. It's actually a very desirable thing, I think, to other people that are willing to help.
00:09:11
Speaker
so And that's how you build.
Building Trust and Community in Business
00:09:13
Speaker
Yeah, I think it also goes back to you know one thing that you've done really, really well here, in my opinion, is you built community, right? You built this long-term community to where um you've you ah not asserted yourself, but yeah I guess asserted yourself as part of the community, like your your local community um here in Dallas-Fort Worth, here in Flower Mound, like you've really asserted yourself as a part of the community, right? As as a business partner to so many different people.
00:09:39
Speaker
Whether you're giving you know consulting advice on social media or marketing campaigns or beauty, of course, like being that beauty professional. But you know it's through through establishing that community, people want community. like People want to do business with people that they know, like, and trust.
00:09:57
Speaker
And as you're doing that, all all of this to me adds up to playing the long game. Yeah. Right. If you're if you're doing a model call and you're discounting your prices, you're kind of setting that expectation. You're having clear communication that that this is what you're going to get with the expectation that eventually I'm not going to need models.
00:10:16
Speaker
Right. I'll have referral partners and I can still do it for for like I'll do it for cheaper. You're sending me a lot of business like, of course. But it's it's playing that long game where I think a lot of people wouldn't do that. They wouldn't do that. They wouldn't actively pursue those people that are well-networked or the people that are passing them referrals already and just say, thank you.
00:10:34
Speaker
Like, thank you so much for everything you've given me. But it really goes back to playing that long game. Yeah, playing the long game. And like I said in the beginning, when your books are empty, would you rather have one client at full price or would you rather have 12 clients who are 12 active sources of referral income for your business at, you know, a fourth of the price to get you going, get you busy, get your technique down.
00:11:00
Speaker
That's the whole point of pricing yourself that way. Yeah. So it's where it feels scary in the beginning. It actually can work to your best advantage. Yeah, it's what you really want to lean into
Growth Beyond Comfort Zones
00:11:11
Speaker
that. And one thing that I noticed a ah while ago was that the most successful people that I know, they're not the smartest.
00:11:20
Speaker
They don't even necessarily work the hardest. right But they are very comfortable being uncomfortable. like They recognize where they're going to be uncomfortable. They recognize where they can push that comfort zone because that's that's their growth opportunity. right That's where they can take their business to the next level.
00:11:35
Speaker
It's uncomfortable to raise the prices for your regular clients. like It's uncomfortable to um get a referral from for from somebody and charge them a higher price than the person that referred them. But if you're going uplevel your clients, if you do want to uplevel your income, if you want to be worth more per hour,
00:11:51
Speaker
That's what you have to do. mean, you have to do it. It's uncomfortable, but you have to do it. If you've never done social media before, especially for a business or promoted a business, it's uncomfortable, but you have to lean into that and get comfortable being uncomfortable.
00:12:05
Speaker
Yeah, I agree with all of that. and Absolutely.
00:12:11
Speaker
But I think from here, so the the big takeaway that we're trying to get to is get uncomfortable, right? Identify what you don't want to do and ask yourself, do I not want to do this because I don't believe in it?
00:12:21
Speaker
Or do I not want to do this just because it's something different? You guys lean into that, push your comfort zone and you're going to have success with
Goal Setting and Feedback in Beauty Business
00:12:29
Speaker
it. And at the very least, you're going to have an understanding more of what you don't want to do, right? What you don't want to do, what you're very uncomfortable doing.
00:12:39
Speaker
Another tip I have for you is set a goal for the number of model clients that you're going to have ah per week. Like set a goal for that. Do the model goal. And when you're posting on your Facebook groups and your Instagram and all of those things and going in person to person or meeting other people in your salon space, you know, make it a goal so you can keep moving towards that goal. If I want to get, you know, five practice people in this week and then offer the discounted, you know, friends and family or model pricing to them.
00:13:09
Speaker
But also do not let them leave until they give you feedback of the experience and then ask for maybe your mentors or people are surrounding you for their feedback also and be open to that feedback. Otherwise, it's just a nervous wreck of a two hour lash appointment that you heavily discounted. yeah The point is to learn from it and get that feedback.
00:13:32
Speaker
And then you want to record and track your progress. So maybe it took you three and a half hours to do a full set of lash extensions your first client out of school. And I used to set little 15 minute timers.
00:13:44
Speaker
It was a vibrating timer, so it wouldn't startle the client. And I would go 15 minutes one eye, 15 minutes the other. And I would try to to really hyper focus and time myself and speed myself to get faster.
00:13:55
Speaker
And so maybe it's hair, maybe you're trying to really focus and beat a certain time, compete against yourself. That's what these model prices are for. It's not just to get money from them. It's to really train yourself on how to get faster, get better, because being slow is just part of any of it.
00:14:13
Speaker
In the beginning, it used to take me, yeah, I think my first set of last extensions on a human was four hours. and want I wanted to die. So long for two eyeballs. I wanted to die. i was like, what did I sign myself up for?
00:14:24
Speaker
But then it got to three and a half hours and three and then two. And then I could do a full set an hour in hour and 20 minutes. So that's just what you have to do. That's that is why the model prices are there. It's not to get money.
00:14:36
Speaker
It's to strengthen your skills. And that's how you're going to do it.
Creating Urgency and Value in Promotions
00:14:39
Speaker
And I would encourage people, Renee, I'm interested in your opinion on this. um So don't devalue, I'm a huge believer in don't devalue yourself.
00:14:48
Speaker
You went to school, you first of all, you had a passion, you went to school, um you have training, right? Like you have training, even if you're fresh out of school, like you have training, just cause you're doing a a model call doesn't mean that there's no value in it.
00:15:03
Speaker
right Right. Just cause you have a discount doesn't mean that there's no value in it. And so this is what i wanted your, ah just you your thoughts on. So kid Would you publish and be like, hey, I only have five spots available this week?
00:15:17
Speaker
Yes, I would create that sense of urgency. yeah But also I mentioned earlier, you want to set your goal price. So when in your ad or what however you're communicating it, put what you want when you are you know up and running.
00:15:33
Speaker
Maybe it's $150 full set. Okay. I don't know what your demographic is around your area. So post, normally $150, model price $45, whatever it is, $50.
00:15:50
Speaker
So that they visually know that's going to go up and eventually that's going to go up. This is like a one-time deal. ah And that way they you've already communicated that to them in the beginning.
00:16:02
Speaker
You communicated at their consultation. um And now ah if you want to keep their fill prices low, that's okay. But... uh yeah that's just communicating all of that yeah advance that your expectation is eventually the better you get it's going to go up and i wonder so i go into the sales side right like i like i love the marketing with when you say a sense of urgency what if you did have a pdf and say let's say your goal price is 50 right like you would take if five people were like yeah i'll do it for 50 bucks you're like yes i'll do it for 50 bucks what if you create a pdf to where spot one is 50 spot two
00:16:35
Speaker
is 52 spot. Three is 57 spot. Four is 65 spot. Five is 70. Right. And so those progressively up, um, the good thing here, you can fill those up that could follow that or.
00:16:52
Speaker
everybody that reaches out thinks they're getting the $50 spot. right It just creates that sense of urgency. yes And you can even do spot one filled, show it filled when you fill it. ah But it creates that sense of urgency. so Because you can mess around with this, like this is your business.
Marketing Strategies and Community Engagement
00:17:08
Speaker
This is stuff that you can do. This is stuff that that businesses do. um you can You can create that sense of urgency through marketing and through this this free advertising that you have on social media.
00:17:19
Speaker
Yeah, no, I love that idea. Look at you. Amber'd be so proud. Yep. Incredible. Give me my lash license. You guys, thank you so much. Go out there and push your comfort zone.
00:17:31
Speaker
ah Be smart. This is your business. that This is absolutely your business. You can do whatever you want to do with it, but treat it like a business. Don't devalue yourself. We will see you on the next episode.
00:17:44
Speaker
everybody. If you like what you heard today, join us over at beautyinthebusiness.vip. Again, that's www.beautyinthebusiness.vip. That's where we have our courses. That's where we have our community group.
00:17:57
Speaker
And we look forward to interacting with you over there. beautyinthebusiness.vip. We will see you on the next episode.