Are You Getting Enough Education By Robyn McAlpine

Unless there’s something that really shakes us up, we can finish our careers exactly the same way we started.

So how do we make sure that we are continually inspired and growing in ourselves as therapists? How do we continue to evolve and keep the fire of passion for what we do continually burning and lighting us up?

Sure we could float in and out of the industry, we could change jobs as often as we change our underwear but until you find the thing that anchors you, none of those things are going to satisfy!

Let me introduce you to my best friend, EDUCATION.

Now in the past, that word got me about as excited as the thought of grinding back Aunt betty’s gnarly thickened toenails. Eww!

To me the word education just screamed failure, because that’s exactly what I was in the traditional school education system. I wasn’t great at it. I didn’t give my parents brag worthy grades, I was average, below average even.

It wasn’t until I discovered the beauty industry and more specifically the skin therapy side to our industry that the wheels started turning and my brain began to wake up and smell the bath salts. I hear it often when therapist come to the ‘skin side’ that they have a kind of ‘reawakening’ that nothing else in the industry has been able to give them. It’s like fall-ing in love all over again. You feel energised and once again excited to go to work.

Education is how we grow, how we stoke the fire, how we continue to stay engaged and excel beyond average.

Above all it’s the key part to feeling confident in your craft. It’s what can set you apart and it where you hold your power, as a therapist and as an employee. It’s something you can carry with you and it never gets too heavy. It can’t be left behind if you move and no matter what happens in your journey, it will always be there right with you.

My DM”s are often over loaded with questions asking how I know so much about skin and what courses do I suggest.

I recently did some market research for a project I am working on and I discovered that most participants weren’t self-learning or enrolling in courses because they didn’t know where to begin, what courses were going to be worthwhile and they were hesitant to invest because courses can appear expensive. (Spoiler alert! You want to build your knowledge, you’re going to have to bite the bullet and pay for quality courses!)

As someone who has spent over $100,000.00 on my education over the last 16 years, I can assure you that even the not so great courses I did taught me something. Each of them opened up a door, an idea, a thought and a pathway to bring me to where I am today. But I hand on heart know I wouldn’t be where I am today had I put off learning because I was nervous to pay for courses.

If you’ve heard me speak or been following me for a while you’ll know I’m very open in admitting I’m rarely the smartest person in the room. I have left classes almost in tears feeling like a total failure, not grasping a lot of what was said in the room and feeling like the person up the front was speaking a foreign language. Some of my education invest-ment has been in repeating the same courses multiple times. Repetition has been my friend.

With all the education I have consumed, I had a few false starts and it’s taken me a little longer than expected to get to ‘expert level’ but you don’t become the best overnight. You become the best by sometimes learning from the worst and by investing in your growth. Education and courses have come a long way since I started 15 years ago. There’s many great industry leaders creating incredible courses, there really is no excuse! Time to get your education on!

Think of me as your education fairy godmother. I’m here to help you avoid kissing toads hoping to find your prince. I am giving you a three step pathway to courses and educa-tion that will catapult you into being the best therapist you can possibly be, no amphibi-an kisses required!

STEP ONE, START WITH YOUR DISTRIBUTORS AND SUPPLIERS.

This level of education is low cost and a great place to start but will have an instant measurable impact in your day to day interaction with your clients.

Now more than ever, distributors are stepping up to become educators first, product wholesalers second.

They’ve realised that simply convincing you their products are the best and giving you a sales script is no longer cutting it. It may have worked when we were in college, wowing us all with their special lotions and potions but now, we are a far more curios and like a 4 year old child we are constantly asking ‘but whyyyyyy?’ Consumers are savvier, asking us more in-depth questions. It’s no longer just about features and benefits and a bunch of salesy words! Distributors need to be more accountable than ever in giving us honest, deep answers. No more surface knowledge.

A great distributor should be bringing you education on introductory cosmetic chemistry and their product formulation but also introductory biology 101. If they are helping you understand skin and how it works combined with how their product supports skin, you can better implement their product to create exceptional results for our clients.

STEP TWO. NON- PRODUCT ALIGNED EDUCATION.

It’s one thing to have a distributor sing its own praises about a product and how it’s the best thing since sliced bread, but it’s also really important to be building your own, non-biased understanding of skin and how it works. Not only does it keep distributor driven education honest (because you can’t take every word as gospel!), this is where you get to be the master of your own destiny.

Non-product aligned education will focus on skin itself, outside of products and brands. This level of education is usually something you will need to invest in as a personal ex-pense, time to put your money where your mouth is! Skin specific education also means you’re bullet proofing the knowledge you will carry with you forever.

No matter where you work or what product lines you work with in the future, having a solid base of skin specific education means you can adapt and understand everything based on that foundational knowledge. This is the kind of education that really grows you as a therapist and takes you from good therapist to great therapist. This kind of education gives you credibility as an expert in your own right. You can take this knowledge and step into your own strength and confidence and know that no matter where your career goes, all of this knowledge goes with you!

STEP THREE - COMPLIMENTARY GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

Yes, skin is our ‘thing’ right? But it’s connected to everything else inside our bodies. Every organ and system will impact how our skin looks, feels and behaves.

Having a general understanding of topics like gut health, nutrition, hormonal health, stress factors and so on, gives us a well-rounded knowledge of all the contributing factors to a client’s skin health.

It helps us to see the limitations of our scope and when to introduce complimentary practitioners to support our clients skin journey. I am no expert in gut function or dietetics but I have undertaken a plethora short courses that help me to see the direct impacts of these things in a client’s skin. Not everything can be treated with a moisturiser and a se-rum. Our bodies are complex and having a general knowledge of these things helps me to better serve my clients. Investing in courses that help you understand this will only em-power you as a skin therapist to serve your clients at a higher level.

If you’ve lost your drive for what you do, before you throw the towel in thinking you’ve just lost interest, let me ask you, when was the last time you got the brain cranking over by learning a new skill or technique or even the theory behind some of the treatments you do day to day?

Whilst in the past it felt like a dirty word, education has become the foundation on which I stand strong. It’s what helps me be the best skin therapist I can be and it’s time to make sure you are getting enough!

Robyn’s passion is to help women understand their skin so that they can feel empowered making skin care choices. Find out more about Robyn and her work at www. robynmcalpine.com @expert_skin_therapist