Why you're not taking advice...
At the risk of starting this post like I’m about to go on a rant, I just want to preface that there is some education squeezed in here so keep reading to get to the good stuff. I can’t help but get a little annoyed when a client tells me that they were given advice by someone else when it goes one of two ways. Either the advice is something I’ve been trying to drill in my client’s heads but they seem to only hear it from someone else. Or it’s completely conflicting with my advice but they take it instead! Maybe it’s the youngest child syndrome but I do have a really hard time with people not listening to me. If you take the time to come to see me, spend time telling me everything about your skin and health, and then decide that my advice isn’t for you - that’s one thing. However, I find that the issue lies more with people who are seeking a very specific result are not only completely shutting my advice off but look to me to blame when things aren’t getting better. This may seem harsh, but you can understand my frustration. 95% of my clientele are very compliant and benefit greatly from my feedback because it’s personally tailored to them. So why do the 5% not take the advice? I can’t answer with certainty but my impression (and personal experience with being a client myself) tells me that there is a huge block that needs to come down first.
Understanding your value and worth.
One of the hardest parts of owning a business for me is the financial side of it. As you may all know by now I’m not a business major who has had a set plan from the start of my business. I was literally left with no other option but to start my own business after leaving my last spa job when I had shingles. Everyone has an opinion when it comes to how much my services are worth but at the end of the day it came down to how much I value myself. Starting this at 27 out of fear of going broke there were many times when I undervalued myself just to get people in the door. What never dawned on me was that when I worked in other offices I was doing $300 services and my clientele never blinked on the cost. So why was it hard for me to recognize that I’m worth the industry standard (and much more).
Unsolicited advice from uber drivers
Not having a car in LA means that most of my days I have to take uber or lyft to get around. I tend to get car sick so I often sit in the front seat and this opens up an opportunity for my drivers to ask me many questions. I totally get it, most people treat these drivers like they would a taxi driver or bus driver and don’t dive into dialogue other than basic chit chat. The first questions are always related to what I do or where I’m going. Over the last few weeks I have been prepping for my upcoming wedding by taking classes at a local yoga studio (Set and Flow if you're interested! I highly recommend!) so naturally the conversation leads to why I’m doing yoga and how I like it. Throughout this dialogue I have been advised to try the “lemonade” diet (this is not a Beyonce diet either...it’s a version of the master cleanse I guess) and to download an “anorexia” app (not an actual anorexia app, but those were the words it was presented to me by). This is when I started paying attention, not because I was interested in the suggestions but because I was startled to think who else gets this kind of advice.