Don’t Get Caught Up In The Noise

By Robyn McAlpine

It’s no secret that we are all seeing massive drops in numbers, days full of last-minute cancellations and clients extending appointments further apart resulting in less visits per year, we’re all just quietly puckering our sphincters hoping the clench can outlast whatever ‘this’ is, so we can all get back to business!

I think the thing that’s got us all quietly sweating under the collar is the longevity of this season compared to previous patterns. We’ve all experienced downturns and quiet months and I don’t know about you, but my ‘quiet month’ is feeling like a lot like a quiet year and my clenched butt muscles are starting to cramp!

I’m not one to ever cry doom and gloom, but I see your anonymous posts in the Facebook groups, getting a read on how others are doing, “anyone else quiet, asking for a friend”, and the comments are pointing to a team stacking up for the affirmative.

But instead of taking solace in the consensus that everyone else is quiet, and letting that be the reality we resign ourselves to, what if we tried something different, just to see what happens. Now I’m not saying this will work, however I’m not one to just wallow in waiting whilst crossing my fingers and toes that things will go back to how they were.

Like you, my business is not immune to the cancellations and the quite books. I still have days where my team are left clientless, and the morale hits a low as there’s nothing like a quiet day to make you feel like you’ve lost your purpose.

At first, we thought it was just a slow week, but overtime this has become quite the norm to have a full book one day, and an empty one the next.

So how do we not go into panic mode and tighten the purse strings in a knee jerk reaction?

Before you start googling how to sell your feet pics on the internet, let me share with you some of the things I am trying.

I’m no expert. I don’t have a magic pill and my crystal ball has a crack in it, so the future isn’t quite clear, however I’ve made some shifts in my business and more importantly my mindset, that I’m sharing here in the hope that maybe they spark an idea in you and give a little boost of energy to have another crack and see if it works!

First of all, there is no ‘one thing” that is going to turn this around. No matter what the loud people on the internet are spruiking. They might tell you social media is the answer and shame you for not showing up with a strategy, but that sh*t gets exhausting when you dance your little heart out and still the phone doesn’t ring.

Here are the things I am trying as I batten down the hatches and reevaluate the things I do have control over.

1: I’m taking my eyes off what’s happening “out there” and turning my focus to what’s “in here”. And by in here, I mean my own business.

I’m looking into MY business, into MY clients, to rediscover who and what they need!

When we are looking ‘out there’, we’ve taken the focus off our clients, their needs and what our businesses can do to be what they need. If we are not delivering what they need, they’re naturally going to look for somewhere that does.

When I realised that my energy was out there, where I thought, I was going to find the answers, I realised that I had lost sight of why I am even in this industry! At the heart of it, it’s ALL about the clients and until we turn every effort towards them, it doesn’t matter if we make it the out this fought patch or not.

I’m looking at what my clients want right now, what they need and how my business can be the one to deliver that for them. And I’m discovering their needs have changed and this is why we’re feeling this pinch, because we are not listening, instead we are trying to make them fit into our old rules... but like it or not, the rules are changing.

2: I channelled baby business owner Robyn.

The chances I took, the energy I had, the passion before boss life challenges got me a little jaded. But there was once upon a time that I started with no clients, and I’ve forgotten about all the things I did back then to attract, gain and built a client list. Not only when I started solo, but when I brought on new team members and had to build up their bookings too. Back then we were eager to earn it, but now, in a Climate where we are all needing to attract more clients, we’ve forgotten that we’ve all been here before when it comes to quiet books.

Except now we are wiser and can create more balanced promotions (at times we’ve all cut ourselves short in the name of marketing) now, we have social proof that we’re amazing therapists, when we first started out clients were taking a gamble on a newbie. I’m looking at how I can tap into baby business Robyn’s eagerness and mixing it with older and wiser Robyn’s experience to attract new life into my business.

3: I’m talking to my clients, not my colleagues.

Social media can feel performative, and we unknowingly begin to censor ourselves for fear of judgement from others in the industry, (what if we say it wrong?). We tailor our messages to be appeasing to other therapists, instead of only caring what our clients think. Our industry has been a whirlpool of therapists selling to therapists and those with louder voices tend to drown out the others for simply having a go. I know what it’s like to feel like the industry is watching and feeling like I have to confirm to my colleagues, but it’s time we all got our freak on and let our individual personalities shine. Your clients want to hear your voice, your take on skin. If we all just regurgitate the same content in the same styles, were all going to lose.

4: I’m listening to the numbers, not my feelings.

It’s easy to feel like the sky is falling when we let our fears and emotions rule our decisions. Nothing like a knee-jerk reaction in the face of a cancelled day. But that leads to more ups and downs than a rollercoaster on fair day and frankly my adrenals can’t take that kind of torture.

But when I make a cup of chai, put my big girl pants on and take a proper look at my numbers, I’m often met with a calm and clear picture that is far less volatile than my emotions had me believing. Here, I can make rational decisions and see where I need to make some changes.

I also remind myself that my numbers are relevant to me. Comparing mine to another business or seeing someone on Instagram bragging about 6 figure months has absolutely zero bearing on the numbers within my four walls. What I’m looking at are my numbers coming in and my numbers going out and making sure that I am doing my best to keep the incoming higher than the outgoing.

Is any of this helping me?

First and foremost, it’s helping my mindset. Instead of spiralling and assuming the worst, unable to see a positive future, when I focus within, my energy is contained and I then have enough reserve in the tank to give my business, my clients and my team.

I’m definitely thinking outside the box and realising the problems I’m seeing are not actually new. I’ve been here before, quiet books, few clients and look at how far I’ve come. I’ve a built a business from scratch, now I’m building again but with a tool kit full of wisdom that will mean this time around I am working a little smarter.

But the most important thing, when we separate fact from feelings, we’re not relying on the false feelings. At a time when looking at the numbers feels like it might just be the straw that breaks the camel’s back, forget the saying that ignorance is bliss. The truth can be a tough pill to swallow BUT it’s actually the only solid ground we have in this shaky season.

If you’ve been glued to the global rhetoric that the industry out there is suffering, take a moment to feel the vibe that brings into your life. Notice that feeling of your energy being drained away??? For just a moment, step away from the window, close the curtains and take a look inside.

Allow your energy to be focused on what your business needs and how you can keep your energy contained and focused on what YOUR business needs, what will serve YOUR clients and will give you the answers to create a healthy future for your business.

Starting out in business, we’re eager to please, will bend over backwards to win a client and have them call us their own. But as time goes on, we tend to lose that naive willingness to do whatever it takes. I’m not talking about letting go of all our boundaries, but I am talking about all those promotions we would do, and the letterbox drops, the networking events... when was the last time you did something to wow your clients, to attract new clients?

It’s noisy out there. But when I’m looking around out there, I’m not looking at my own business and the things that are true to ME! Just because I’m not fully booked, doesn’t mean I’m not still doing ok financially.

It takes energy to be constantly looking at what everyone else is doing, That’s energy we could be looking at our own stuff.

When we are focusing on what’s out there, what others in our industry are doing, our energy leaks. We become less potent in the treatment room and our client connection weakens over time. When we turn our energy to our clients, and spend all of our effort into becoming the therapists and businesses they need us to be, (and truly being it) this is transformative for both our clients and our businesses.

Never one to back down from a challenge, I’ve really had to dig deep in the face of social media influencers screaming superficial success stories and people offering to show their blueprints to a six-figure month. Or People just preaching social media presence is the answer.

Well, I’ve got the viral presence and on occasion had a 6-figure month but trust me, that’s not the miracle pill that’s going to help you claw your way out of a rough season. So, if you’re falling trap to the noise out there, It time to stop the scrolling and tune into your little voice inside that might surprise you with some answers.

Are we showing up or showing off?

Open for the mamma bear energy our industry needs today. There’s a vibe brewing in our industry and like all seasons that blow through, I was hoping this would pass... but like that glaringly obvious pimple that’s been brewing under the surface, it’s time to give it a squeeze and get it moving right along out of here!

I’m dusting off my corneotherapist cap and throwing it into the ring to have an open and honest discussion about this ugly era of “one-upManship” that’s plaguing the industry I love with all my heart.

I’ve been keeping a low profile lately. Our industry has felt noisy, with everyone trying to “make a name for themselves”. It seems the louder or more controversial one can be, the more influence can be had.... But for what? For why? And for WHOM???

We seem to have found ourselves in an era of trying to outdo each other. We brag about our conquests of how many clients we see, how much money we make, how viral we can go, how few hours we work yet still make more money than the rest... all in a pitch to sell to each other, in an era of “everyone’s a course creator” (because that’s where this started, in trying to sell to each other and blurring the lines between therapist and teacher)

There’s a fine line between using controversy to bring attention to much needed education, and raise the bar vs shaming an entire industry and putting others down for personal gain, all to get likes.

It’s a line I walk daily in sharing my passion for corneotherapy and skin knowledge, wanting to stir our industry into passionately advancing our education, so we ALL can win. If you’ve been in my circle at any point over the last two decades, you know my heart is to inspire your growth and confidence through knowledge.

Right now, though, we’re in a season of stepping on each other for our personal gain and we’ve lost sight of why we’re really here.

Our 16-year-old selves would be giving us a punch in the twat if they could see what we’ve become. It’s not what our former aspiring beauty therapist selves signed up for and not why ANY of us worked so hard to get into this industry!

But you know the real losers are here? The ones copping the fallout out? Our clients.

THEY are the reason we get out of bed every morning, they’re the real reason we have a job (even if you’re on the teaching/B2B side of our industry... if you aren’t supporting therapists with the greater intention of them helping even more clients... it’s time to step out of the ring and pick another industry to peddle your wares)

When we blur the lines on our social media and start performing to the industry and stir controversy, to get a reaction (or as fuel for viral content) we’re no longer talking to our clients or focused on their experience with our industry.

But guess who has a front-row seat? Our clients. And they’re watching us. Right now, our industry’s true skin is showing and it’s not looking pretty.

I truly don’t believe that this is who we are. It’s certainly not the heartbeat of the industry I have dedicated my life to enhancing and so I’m dropping into inboxes around the world this very minute to instigate a much needed change before we end up too far down this slippery slope that we can’t go back.

It’s time to put our clients back in focus.

We wonder why they’re flocking to TikTok for skin care advice, because who would trust an industry that’s more focused on performing to each other than being what their clients need?

(I know we’re all feeling the global shift in our client's booking behaviours right now...but what if it’s all our fault? And what if we can fix it?)

I’m drawing a line in the sand. Are you ready to step across with me and be the revolution our industry so desperately needs?

It’s time to change our focus. Because where our focus goes, energy flows. And it needs to start TODAY.

Robyn x @expert_skin_therapist