More than a Therapist! The wonder that is JAMES VIVIAN.

By Louise May

If anyone knows the power of good skincare, it’s James Vivian. In 2004, a facial literally changed his life, inspiring him to swap a career in music for one in dermal therapies. Determined to share the feel-good effects of amazing skincare, James launched award-winning mobile dermal therapies clinic, The Travelling Peelsman, in 2010.

Arriving at homes and offices in a Mini and armed with his bag of tricks, James quickly earned a loyal following with his holistic approach to skincare, intuitive expertise, and genuine commitment to his clients.

Word spread and as client numbers grew, The Travelling Peelsman stopped travelling and set up a clinic in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, joined by a carefully selected team of experienced therapists. Dubbed a skincare luminary, James’s dedication, care, and innate understanding of the links between skin, mind, body, and environment flow through his clinics, making each visit an experience that goes far beyond skincare.

Beauty Biz Editor Louise May chats with James Vivian about his industry Journey, his clinic in Melbourne, the exceptional client experience, and future aspirations…

Can you tell us a little about you and where you grew up?

I’m skincare weirdo, James Vivian. I was born in 1983 and grew up in the bayside suburbs of Melbourne. I am 8-years married to my husband, Ben, who as of December 2022 now works alongside us as Operations Manager at James Vivian.

Whilst I love my job as a Dermal Therapist and Director at James Vivian, I adore my time away from work, spending my time visiting art galleries, going to the theatre, singing, dancing, as well as travelling, playing bridge and my absolute favourite, being at home and doing absolutely nothing!

Can you tell us about the experience that led you to switch from a career in music to dermal therapies?

I fell into the beauty industry very much by accident. I took a part-time job at Aesop whilst studying music at university. On my first shift I received a facial treatment by my (now) mentor, Maria Vovos. When I got off the bed I said to Maria ‘I want to make people feel like you’ve just made me feel’. Perusing a career in the arts can be really tough.

Over the next few years, my time at Aesop and Maria’s treatments saw my passion for skin and customer service overtake my passion for music and upon

Maria’s advice, I enrolled in a Diploma of Beauty Therapy at Elly Lukas and was their first male student.

What inspired you to start The Travelling Peelsman and offer mobile dermal therapies?

Towards the end of my Dermal Therapies degree at Victoria University, the chemistry and chemical peeling components of the course really blew my mind. I had been having facials for many years and after my first chemical peel (Benefit Peel by Cosmedix) I was obsessed and wanted to share this with my friends and family.

Enter The Travelling Peelsman. I bought a mobile massage bed, a bag of peels, popped some stickers on my car AKA ‘The Peel Mobile’ and drove off into the sunset. What started as a hobby soon graduated into a service that was helping clients across Melbourne and Sydney and was filling a gap in the market for clients who couldn’t make it to a clinic due to geography, family commitments and work commitments.

Could you describe your journey from being a mobile dermal therapist to establishing a clinic in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs? What prompted the move, and what were the challenges and rewards of this transition?

After travelling across Melbourne and Sydney for two years, the time spent driving from home to home was impacting my ability to help more clients. Plus, as a qualified Dermal Clinician, I was only using part of my knowledge and expertise and therefore only offering my clients a subset of what their skin potentially needed.

I had a professional relationship with a plastic surgeon who had rooms on The Avenue, Windsor, so I asked if I could rent a room alongside him. I saw this an opportunity to create a space for my clients to visit whilst also offering my services to the surgeon’s patients. I purchased my first laser (Cutera Xeo) and began to grow my treatment and skincare offering.

18-months later I outgrew the single room in Windsor and moved up the road to a 2-room house that was commercially zoned in Prahran. It was here that over 7-years we slowly grew our team, treatment offering, reputation and in 2020 we moved to a 5 room clinic in Toorak.

During these years, we’ve grown very slowly and organically, moving to larger locations and hiring more staff as the need arose, never beforehand. This has seen us never over capitalising on space or manpower.

In 2023, we are a team of 11, including 8 therapists. We’re all a little mad and we love, love, love what we do and we love doing it together.

How do you define your holistic approach to skincare, and how does it set you apart from other skincare professionals?

‘Holistic’ means something so different to everyone and for us it’s always changing. For us right now, we are laser focused on the connection between a client’s skincare concerns and their ability to commit to their skin e.g., budget, in addition to doing everything we can to get on the same page about what they need from us as a clinic e.g., downtime, discomfort etc.

We also ask our clients how they want us to be e.g., passive, assertive, their ‘skincare bestie’ or provide minimal talking.

We understand that attached to every skin is a person with needs and wants and the only way of finding out what a client is needing is to ask. This helps us to build long terms relationships that promotes a safe space for some of the more uncomfortable conversations, as well as feedback.

Feedback is beyond important, both from the perspective of client and clinic. Much of the changes we make as Dermal Clinicians take place after a client gets off the treatment bed so communication during these times is so important.

Could you share a specific example of how your intuitive expertise has helped a client achieve remarkable results with their skincare?

I have a philosophy whereby the person we see in the mirror is not always a reflection of how you look, but rather how you feel. You know when clients say ‘I look horrible’ and you’re looking at them thinking how good their skin looks. This can be because the client is exhausted, overtired, stressed and aggravated, for example.

I often share this philosophy with clients who often respond by sharing ‘I am exhausted, overtired, stressed and aggravated’. The benefits here are twofold: you’ve given the client a boost of confidence by letting them know that how they feel is not how they look.

You’ve also provided them with some realistic expectations about how their skin will respond, as whilst you’re about to give them the best facial they’ve ever had, you cannot take away the exhaustion, overtiredness, stress and aggravation, but you’ll do everything you can to mask the symptoms.

What measures do you take to ensure a genuine commitment to your clients and their skincare journey?

For every new client that walks through the JV doors, they receive a personalised letter from me welcoming them, letting them know they’ve found ‘the one’ and how important communication will be as we go along the journey together. We use a system called Podium to communicate with clients post-treatment and post-skincare purchases and we have a very specific follow-up protocols.

For all returning clients, we ask our clients to take a few moments to complete a short questionnaire so that they can consider how their skin has been, what they want to focus on today and any limitations to consider moving forward e.g., budget, frequency of visits. Although we go through these in a face-to-face consultation at the start of each service, this gives clients time to consider these factors without being caught off guard and without intimidation.

How do you create an exceptional experience for your clients during their visits to your clinics? Can you give us some examples?

I used to think that fabulous customer service was a warming tea upon arrival and a luscious blanket on the bed. Whilst we’ll always have these and more at JV, the magic is made in the treatment room via intelligent, educated, experienced, passionate and inspiring Dermal Clinicians.

Whilst a client may be booked in for a specific service, we commence every appointment with a conversation around how the skin is progressing, gauge satisfaction and confirm what treatment might be best suited.

Every client at JV has a treatment and homecare plan that we use as guide for each appointment and purchase, however, we understand that these plans need to be fluid as so much happens between appointments and whilst a client might be booked in for a particular service, when they return their skin may need a different treatment or they may not be able to undertake the downtime any longer.

Being agile and responding to the skin at the beginning, middle and end of every service always put the skin and client first. We place a huge emphasis on our clinic surroundings, including music, décor, lighting, smell and a comfy, warm, delicious treatment bed (clients often don’t want to get off).

We love an environment that is warm and welcoming, rather than clinical and cold. Clients often walk in and ask ‘Do you live here?’. We love welcoming clients into our space and have always said that we’re a customer service business first and foremost, plus we know a thing or two about the skin.

As we’re a team of qualified Beauty Therapists, we also pepper our treatments with as many pampering moments as possible amongst all the pain and discomfort.

I often say a good Dermal Clinician knows what they can do, and what they cannot do. We stay in our lane, knowing what we do well and what’s not in our wheelhouse. We have a community of professionals to refer to as needed. Finally, we work collaboratively as a team and take a view that we’re more knowledgeable together than apart.

The team possess a great respect for one another’s knowledge and expertise and lean on each other immensely. We always cross check laser parameters and often use each other for second and third opinions.

What factors do you consider when selecting therapists to join your team? What qualities do you look for in a skincare professional?

As a Dermal Clinician with a Bachelor of Health Sciences (Dermal Therapies) and a Diploma of Beauty Therapy, as I grew my team, I wanted to ensure continuity between myself and my fellow colleagues, so I hired as close to my qualifications as possible.

As the team grows, and as the industry changes from an education and training perspective, I am privileged to work alongside staff with a host of backgrounds and education.

We love working alongside Dermal Clinicians with experience in different areas of our industry as they bring new ideas and abilities that we can all learn and grow from.

I love a Dermal Clinician who’s a deep thinker. One who considers each client individually and uses every treatment as an opportunity to improve on the last. Experience brings intuition and this is a skill that cannot be taught at school. Knowing when to push the skin, when to pull back, when to treat and when to refer.

I love a Dermal Clinician who isn’t afraid to make a mistake but more importantly knows when they’ve made one.

Education and experience aside, as our team grows, protecting our happy, respectful and playful culture becomes more and more important. Ensuring that new staff fit into our culture is at the forefront of hiring decisions.

On our window it states that ‘James Vivian loves skin of all colours, genders, cultures and religions’ and this also extends to our team.

How do you stay updated with the latest developments and advancements in the field of dermal therapies?

We’re so lucky to be in Australia where our industry places a huge emphasis on training and education. We love attending conferences, both specific to Dermal Therapies as well as the greater cosmetic industry.

I am honoured to be the first Dermal Clinician to sit upon the Non-Surgical Symposium committee at this years ASAPS conference on the Gold Coast in June. Working alongside Dr Ryan De Cruz we have curated a plenary session to help practitioners grow their client care and customer service skills.

We favour working with skincare brands and services that provide ongoing training and development and we close our clinic quarterly for a full day of hands-on training.

Earlier this year, we introduced a range of internal committees where staff can take an active role in decision making processes within the business, such as purchasing machinery, retail offering, training and staff and client events.

I have some dear friends that work across this industry that inspire, challenge and support me and I hope vice versa. It’s impossible to know everything and there are some amazing people in this industry doing amazing things and I love being in their orbit.

I learn a great deal from them, as well as from visiting different clinics and practitioners to receive treatments for my own vanity. I do think that, in part, I got into this industry because I loved getting treatments and being looked after and I still do!

What are your future aspirations for your clinic and the skincare industry as a whole? How do you envision making a lasting impact in the field of dermal therapies?

It really depends on what day you ask me. Some days, my entrepreneurial spirit is wheeling and dealing, looking at bigger spaces, interviewing more therapists and on other days I just want the phone to stop ringing and to not get bigger at all. In June 2022, I had the privilege of launching the cosmeceutical skincare brand, Viviology, with Adore Beauty.

It’s just the beginning for us and we’re working on new products to add to our range and doing all we can to get out products out into the world. Creating this brand has been a life-long goal and I am so proud to be part of a team that is creating skincare that is accessible, gender neutral, simple and that works!

I also have a side-hustle with Dermal Clinician, Yads Cauchi, called Dial A Dermal. Yads and I met virtually over COVID and whilst we still have never been in the same room together, we consult with clients all over the world virtually to help pair their skincare concerns with the right skincare.

We’ve grown so much over the last few years that we’re currently enjoying just being us for the moment. We’re a size that allows us to help lots of clients whilst allowing us to do all we can to ensure our best work with every visit.

I love this industry so much. There are so many people doing extraordinary things and our industry is just getting bigger and bigger. I am so inspired by our team and the incredible work that they do. I love creating opportunities for people to do their best work and for clients to be looked after inside and out. We love meeting budding Dermal Clinicians and helping them navigate their way through the industry.

Last year nearly pushed me over the edge mentally. We were busier than ever but I was constantly feeling overwhelmed and unhappy. To help me take a much-needed break, my husband Ben quit his job working in fashion to come look after the clinic. 6 months on Ben is still in-charge and I am continuing to work on this crazy concept called ‘work/life balance’. Have you heard of it?