Education and Earning Money

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Summary

In this episode, Brittany Hagemann discusses the common misconception of investing heavily in education as a way to make more money in the aesthetics industry. She emphasizes the importance of practical experience and feedback in addition to education. Brittany shares her own experience of learning through practice and feedback, rather than solely relying on education. She also highlights the need for aligning education with personal interests and values. Ultimately, she emphasizes that success in the aesthetics business comes from marketing, selling skincare, and managing mindset, rather than just accumulating education.

Takeaways

Investing in education is important in the aesthetics industry, but it should be complemented with practical experience and feedback.
Success in the aesthetics business comes from marketing, selling skincare, and managing mindset, rather than just accumulating education.
Aligning education with personal interests and values is crucial for long-term success.
Practicing and receiving feedback from clients and peers is essential for improving skills and gaining confidence.

Transcript:

Brittany Hagemann (00:00.366)
You are listening to the S Editions Earning More podcast with Brittany Hagemann episode number 146.

Brittany Hagemann (00:10.446)
Hello, Happy Monday and welcome back. I'm so excited to be back here talking with you today. I want to talk about something that I see so often with my S -Edition clients that is really kind of hurting them, but seems like such a great idea. And that is investing a lot in education.

So don't come at me. Okay, there is for sure importance in having the education and knowing what you're talking about and not doing old things and old modalities and like really knowing how to help people, however you do, whatever you do, whether you do lashes or skin or waxing or sugaring or all of the things, it is super important to have great education and like,

I, you know, as I said before, I was looking for someone who does lashes and I found someone and I love her, but a lot of people, when I looked at their sites, their lashes weren't that great. It wasn't what I was looking for. So technique, all that stuff, it is so important. Like, if you don't know what you're doing, it's really hard to have people come back. But a lot of the times,

It's not because lack of education, where someone doesn't know what they're doing. It's lack of practice and it's lack of being.

coachable and teachable and getting feedback and learning from it.

Brittany Hagemann (01:57.39)
because that is the part that I think a lot of aestheticians miss. It's they wanna make more money, so that's why they get more education. They want to expand their menu or expand services, they get more education. It can work, it can be a great idea, but a lot of the times it's not. A lot of the times it's just a band -aid, you're just throwing money at something because you're like, I wanna make more money so I'm gonna get more education so that I can...

Say I have all this education, feel more confident.

Brittany Hagemann (02:34.19)
and feel like I know what I'm talking about because I have been educated and until I'm educated I can't really say I know what I'm talking about. But both can be true. You can be educated and still not know, not actually know how it is in real life. And I think back to when I first became an esthetician and how uncomfortable, when I was in school, how uncomfortable I was just touching people's faces. I didn't, wasn't like.

close to emotionally, like a friend or my husband who was my boyfriend at the time. And like, it was just like really awkward, like just touch people's faces and bodies that I like barely knew or whatever. I just remember that was like really hard for me. But the only way I got over that was by practicing. And I had like lots of acquaintances and friends come in for very discounted facials as I was just learning how to do it all.

And I would really ask for feedback, like what did you like, what didn't you like, and people were really honest with me and I really appreciated that. And that is how I got better. And yes, I could have spent more money going to more trainings. I probably would have learned lots of things, but it would have not been the same as me actually doing it. And when I learned how to do abstractions, we did not learn in school. It was a joke, but we learned in school. Mostly because in California, you really aren't supposed to break the skin.

cause any blood or anything like that. And so they were very hesitant about that happening because they didn't want anyone to bleed. We all know that clients bleed all the time with extractions. But the way that I was like, I have to learn how to do extractions, not only because I love doing extractions before I was an esthetician, but because I knew I wanted to eventually work with acne and I wanted to know how to do it. And I didn't want to just use a metal tool all the time because...

It could leave indents in the skin, it's really painful. And so I had learned how to do extractions with Q -tips from the woman I worked for initially. And again, I didn't pay for that education, it was just someone I worked for. And I just watched her for two weeks and then I just practiced it. And again, I could have gone out. And again, I'm not saying don't go out and buy courses if you really wanna learn something, for sure. If it's really exactly what you need for the next stage of your business.

Brittany Hagemann (04:56.75)
Do it, totally. And I will tell my clients that. This is a good investment. This is the next best thing for you. But a lot of the times, as opposed to just practicing and trying things, we're just like, I just need more education. I did this when I was trying to learn how to sugar. And as opposed to realizing, no matter what, I took three different educations, I just realized I just was very uncomfortable sugaring.

The sugar was just so unpredictable for me. I felt like I couldn't really control it. If I got hot or the person was hot, then it would get too hot. It was just like, even talking about it now, I get really overwhelmed. Oh my gosh, I need more sugar. I need to be harder. I would just start sweating. It would just feel like I could not predict how, it was just too predictable for me.

and I could not figure it out. It wasn't an education thing. And I was actually trying. I was doing, I wished anyone who would let me sugar their leg, anything. I was like, please, I just need to practice sugaring. I knew, I got to the point where I knew it was not an education thing, it was a me thing. I learned how to do it.

but I just wasn't very good at doing it because I just didn't really like doing it. And it was just very overwhelming for me. And it wasn't something that education was going to solve. I could have kept investing in it. I could still invest in it and try to learn again. But ultimately, it just wasn't that interesting to me. And like,

Like if I was doing an acne treatment and doing extractions and then like at the end of the treatment the person's like, oh, I still have a blackhead hair. I'd be like, oh my gosh, give it to me. I'm so sorry, I missed that. I have to get it. This one's like, oh, there's still a hair. I'm like, oh, there's still a hair. Like I don't have the same interest or the excitement, right? No amount of education is going to do that. But I was like, I wanted to do sugaring because I like being sugared myself. I like...

Brittany Hagemann (07:03.182)
The business plan of sugaring, it's less expensive than waxing as a statistician. It can be really successful. There was need for it where I was. From a business perspective, investing in education made so much sense, except for the fact that it wasn't for me. And I think we will use education as a, I'm not earning money.

so I just need to spend more money so I can earn more money. And that can, again, that can be helpful in certain situations. But it doesn't mean it's helpful for you. I know for sure, just being in the face reality group, there's a lot of people who invested the same education that I did, bought the same products that I did, and have not had a successful acne business.

It's for a number of reasons. Maybe they don't really like Acne, they didn't realize how hard it was coaching people. It's not that exciting to them. They really wanted to do it because they heard that you could make good money from it more than what they really want. It just means sugaring, right? Just because I wasn't successful with sugaring doesn't mean sugaring can't be super successful. It has to be a match. There's no level of education that's going to...

Move that needle.

Brittany Hagemann (08:35.534)
Cough cough cough

Brittany Hagemann (08:44.142)
And there's a lot of education that you can do that is totally free. Like David Valenzuela, who was on the podcast a few episodes ago, who is the CEO of Wish Skin Health, was talking about all the resources where you can get studies, like skincare studies and product studies and ingredients and learn and be educated on things in our industry that isn't costing hundreds of dollars, thousands of dollars.

just to say that you have this education. One of the things that my clients and I do is we talk about their values and their vision. And a lot of my clients will say one of their values is that they're educated, that education is important to them. And I always kind of wonder like when I first, because I usually do this when I first get to know people, is it like a spending thing? Is it like they're validating spending money on something?

that they think is going to make them money or help someone so it feels really good doing it. It's like, well, this is education. This is education. So even if I don't make money, my education, knowing it, is going to be so helpful for X. It's like a kind of a girl math. It's like esthetician math, right? It's like esthetician business owner math. It's like, well...

The education is just worth it because I can say I've had this education or I know I've had this education.

Brittany Hagemann (10:21.582)
But the reason that esthetician that I'm coaching, who's in my one -to -one coaching program, the reason they aren't making money never ever, ever, ever is because they are not educated enough. I have yet to meet someone who like, the reason they're not making money is because they haven't quite mastered or figured out how to do the esthetician skills, like whatever services they're doing.

That's not to say that it can't be the case, that usually is not the case. That's not been the case for what I've seen. That's not why they're making money, because they aren't good at sugaring, right? Or they aren't good at extractions or like whatever, right? Some part of what they do is like, they're so bad at it, they hate doing it. That's not the problem in their business. The problem is the business is they're not.

marketing, they are not reaching out to previous clients, they are not having compelling services that people are really interested in coming, they have way too many services and they are not really niching down on anything. There's a lot of reasons, many reasons, they're not selling skin care, oh my gosh, this is number one, number one reason people aren't making money is they're not selling skin care and of course like,

you can invest to learn how to sell skincare. I don't know about the courses or programs out there, but obviously I teach people how to sell skincare, but they have to go out and do it. Like I can teach them until I'm blue in the face, but they have to go out and talk to their clients about skincare and see how it goes and fail and say it wrong and be weird and feel really weird and cringy and then come back and be like, oh my gosh, this is what happened.

And I'm like, okay, let's regroup. Let's figure out how do we can do this a little differently next time. But they have to actually go out and do that. It isn't like, there's no education that will replace the actual application. Like you can study medicine, people can study medicine and never actually touch a human body and be like even considered a doctor. But like when it comes like surgeons.

Brittany Hagemann (12:43.406)
Like they studied it, they're technically a doctor, legally a doctor. They have their license, but they go to cut up someone and they're like, this is not at all how it was in the book. They have to practice for years and years and years and years under people who have the knowledge to guide them and give them feedback. That's why I always recommend working for someone, but if you don't work for someone, then you have to use friends and family, clients, you have to get that feedback from people to learn.

your skills.

which is not the same, not usually the reason why you're not making money in your institution business.

I hope this makes sense. I feel like...

it can be a little bit overwhelming because I think as a society, we do value education and I do value education. And I always like secretly wish I went to a school in like Arizona or in Washington where they had like master education estheticians and you can like learn how to do things that aren't legal in California. Like that would have been so fun or like even.

Brittany Hagemann (13:56.238)
I always thought about what if I went to school in England where it's like a four year big thing. You learn to do lasers. It's like a totally different thing than what we learn here. Please, yes, I value that as education is very different than my San Diego City College education, 1000%.

Brittany Hagemann (14:19.822)
But the reason I made money in my esthetician business is because I practiced a ton until I got good at my skills. And I put myself out there every day and I sold a lot of skincare. And I was very, very strict with my mindset practices so that I would overcome.

all the ups and downs of business. That is how I made money in my acid digit business. I didn't get more education and more education and more education. I learned it, I doubled down, I got really good at it. I got really good at selling skin care, I got really good at marketing, and I got really good at managing my mind. And that was what made me unstoppable. That's what made me make 100K in less than two years being a business owner. It wasn't from having course after course, program after program.

and spending my time and energy getting educated. I spend my time and energy doing stuff. I think that is the part the asceticians miss, because they feel like they're doing something by being educated, and it's not usually the case, it's not usually the thing that you need to do to make money and make actually lasting changes in your clients' lives. Okay?

That is it for today. I hope that was helpful. I'm hoping you had some lightbulb moments. I'll be back next week. Same time, same place. Have a fantastic week. Bye for now.