We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jessica Burner a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jessica thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you share an important lesson you learned in a prior job that’s helped you in your career afterwards?

An important lesson I learned is if you want to be sure your standards for sanitation and disinfection are up to par, you need to go out on your own so you can be in control. I worked at a spa that was filthy. I explained how cross-contamination worked to them many times and they just didn’t get it. They didn’t wash their sheets properly – they’d overload the washer and didn’t use hot water as dictated by state board regulations. One day I mentioned how the floor was visibly dirty and the mgr said “Oh, I didn’t mop it this week, actually I didn’t mop it last week either” Gross! So if I wanted to ensure the standards of my practice were in line with state board regulations and met my own personal standards, I was going to have to go out on my own.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I grew up in a military family so I have lived in a few place – Texas, Mississippi, Germany, Washington DC. As an adult I’ve lived in SE Missouri, Los Angeles, NYC, and now St Louis. One of my favorite things to do, especially when I travel, is to go to the spa. When I was deciding what I wanted my career to be in the next stage of my life, I thought going to spas is such a great experience, working in a spa and being in that environment all the time would be great. So I went to school and became an esthetician. My first job out of school was doing eyelash extensions. I put a lot of effort into learning lashes but I never felt that I was that great at it, even though I had regular clients who raved about me. I didn’t like doing something I wasn’t confident that I was better at than just ok.

So I got a job at a spa doing facials, which I loved. My favorite parts of the facial were the facial massage and the neck and shoulders massage. In Missouri estheticians are also licensed to do Swedish massage. Our spa needed more people to do massage so I started doing them. I discovered I really enjoyed doing massage, so I went back to school and got my massage therapist license so I could learn more techniques and do more modalities.

When I decided to go on my own I thought about what things I liked when getting spa treatments and what things I definitely did not like. I like to feel pampered. I don’t want someone to nickel and dime me and charge for every little thing. I’d rather pay extra and have it be included. I wanted to do something more upscale and have touches like hot towels and heated lotion even for the basic no frills massages. My signature massage also includes an LED mask, foot scrub, body butter on the hands and feet and heated booties and mitts that help the body butter really soak in for super soft hands and feet. Those kinds of details make a big difference in the customer’s experience. In my time working at spas the thing I heard the most was “I wish I could just stay here and take a nap, I don’t want to leave”. Since I go to people’s homes, I leave when it’s done and they get to relax and bask in the glow. Because I’m also an esthetician I can offer services other Massage Therapists can’t such as microdermabrasion, dermaplaning, and facials.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

For me the most beneficial thing has been going to networking and personal development groups. I’ve met so many wonderful people while also learning things that help my business like SEO and social media. I also go to events with speakers, especially with female business owners, whenever I can. It helps to hear other people’s stories.

If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?

If I could go back, I definitely would choose the same profession. There is something so incredibly rewarding about giving people massage and facials. You can literally feel the tension leaving their body. A totally different person leaves than the one that came in. Their posture is different, you can see a glow in their face and a light in their eyes that wasn’t there before.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.pampermestl.com
• Instagram: @pampermestl_massage
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=pamper%20me%20stl (Pamper Me Stl)

Image Credits

Randy Cash, Ashley Pfister