We recently connected with Kiara Alles-shah and have shared our conversation below.

Kiara, appreciate you joining us today. One of the most important things small businesses can do, in our view, is to serve underserved communities that are ignored by giant corporations who often are just creating mass-market, one-size-fits-all solutions. Talk to us about how you serve an underserved community.

My coaching business, sKIn Discovery was built from my personal experience as part of an underserved community. If I had known the acne community was a ‘community’ sooner, I would have started building my online space years before I did.

I struggled with severe cystic acne for 13 years. For the first part of my journey, it felt like it was only me and that’s something I know every person with acne feels at some point along their journey with their skin. It wrecks your confidence, creates beliefs like ‘I’m not good enough’ that only get stronger until you shift them and it makes you feel like you’re too ‘different’ to have an impact or even have a personality.

It wasn’t until June 2024 that I decided that if my acne was going to break me, I was going to break it first.

I didn’t even want clear skin anymore. All I wanted was the chance to rebuild my confidence and that’s where my mindset changed it all! I realised that’s where my real community was. The people who have been programmed to believe they’re unworthy because of their skin condition but still want more for themselves. The people who are overlooked because they struggle to show up with real confidence every day of their lives. The people whose first thought when they wake up in the morning is ‘How do I get through today without my skin stopping me?’ and last thought, before they go to bed, is ‘I need this pain to go away.’

People with acne don’t deserve or need special treatment, they deserve to be treated as human beings and be in control of their lives and their emotions.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

There’s a whole side of acne that no one talks about and now I’m talking about it every single day!

My most shocking realisation throughout my journey was clear skin does not fix all your problems. This was very difficult for me to accept when my skin cleared after going on Roaccutane however, it was also an interesting and controversial topic to explore when I relapsed and my acne came back. As soon as my skin was clear, I was left feeling empty and quite lifeless, to be honest. The fun of clear skin after years of acne, lasted for about one day and the next, I was literally searching for the next part of myself to start comparing and blaming.

I asked myself why having acne always resulted in immediate confidence loss and I couldn’t find an answer.

I am now an Acne Mindset and Skin Confidence Coach. After investing in my mindset coach which unveiled beliefs I had been holding onto for over 15 years, I realised that for the last 10 years of my life, I’d been blaming my acne for experiences in my life that had nothing to do with my acne. These beliefs are what held me back from stepping into my real confidence and it all stemmed from my subconscious. Just like that, I knew my purpose and sKIn Discovery was launched.

I’m now an NLP Master Practitioner and I love what I do and the impact I have with my 1:1 clients, my community and social media content. My service, ‘1:1 Acne Mindset Coaching’ is a bespoke coaching programme that allows people to finally feel free in their real skin. Through shifting their subconscious mind, my clients are able to effectively alleviate stress, build consistent routines that they actually stick to because they LOVE them and fall in love with themselves, their lives and their skin again.

The best part… I’ve been there myself and I get it. That’s where the real trust between myself and my clients stems from. One thing I always say is if you haven’t had acne, you can’t relate and I stick by that!

The work I do is powerful because it’s a lasting change that can be implemented into your daily life. It’s rediscovering and enhancing confidence you already had that had been lost. I focus on small wins with my clients because if you can’t celebrate your small wins, you’ll never be able to truly appreciate your big wins.

Launching this coaching business is one of my small wins because I know the impact I’m going to have on the world is going to be my big win!

Have you ever had to pivot?

As a Mindset Coach, I’m so grateful to be aware of my subconscious mind because it finds many ways to hold you back in business.

When I was first planning and launching sKIn Discovery which is my first ever business, I let my ego get the better of me and decided to launch two offers rather than launching and developing my main offer. Essentially, I was sprinting before I could even walk. I let the title of ‘CEO’ give my ego a boost and take over which meant the first stages of my business weren’t aligning with the initial values that I had set out for the business.

After making the necessary mindset shifts and doing a lot of reflection, I realised why things weren’t working and felt more difficult than they should have. Considering I was creating something I’m so passionate about, it was difficult to accept but I knew I had to let go of my second offer to pursue my main offer because it wasn’t creating the right message for the business or for my personal brand.

When you’re in business and you’re in it alone, reflection is crucial.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Challenging the common narrative.

I believed in my mission and message so strongly that it created an impact. Through viewing and hearing my perspective, people began to realise that their confidence stems from their beliefs, not the condition of their skin. Over time, more and more people were introduced to my concept of real skin confidence and started to believe in it too and my community grew!

From seeing and hearing my message a few times a week, people started messaging me about their skin journeys and how much just viewing my content alone had helped them to identify the barriers that were holding them back from expressing their real confidence. They wanted to see more of my content and hear more of my perspective and now I deliver skin confidence content seven days a week because I know the impact it has.

Sharing my knowledge consistently also allowed me to reflect on my journey and share that experience with my community. This was and still is a very authentic approach to content within the skin and skincare market, which massively helped in building relationships and trust with the consumers and businesses within the market.

Keep it real, trust your mission and embrace being different!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.skindiscovery.co.uk
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healing.with.ki
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kiaraallesshah
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@healingwithki
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@healingwithki

Image Credits

Kaye @fordtography – www.fordtography.co.uk

www.neotookthat.com