Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Heather Goodchild. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Heather, appreciate you joining us today. How’s you first get into your field – what was your first job in this field?

After struggling through organic chemistry, this kid who was on the pre-med track concluded that was not what her future would hold. With some helpful advice from mom to follow my natural interest, not just what I think I should be (mom has always known how to help guide and direct me) I changed my major and enrolled in aesthetics school taking my college classes during the day and attending aesthetics school in the evening. As result I earned my aestheticians’ license.

So here I am a 19 year old kid with her Aestheticians’ License, no practical experience yet, who is still working on earning her undergraduate degree in business while minoring in health science and I just can’t wait to go put my license to work….but where? I knew I did not want to work in a day spa, for my 19-year-old heart and brain it had to be working with a Dermatologist, if I wasn’t going to be one, I wanted to at least work alongside one.

My first interview, “Dr. C”.  I remember sitting in his office charts stacked on one side of his desk and a beautiful piece of pottery that his wife Gail had recently made and a picture of his family when his girls were younger. Alaine and Andrea, and he named the aesthetics portion of the Dermatology practice Alandrea for Skincare after his girls. His daughters were about my age, so perhaps that is why he ultimately gave this college kid who could only work part time and needed accommodation around her classes a shot.

Dr. C insisted all his new staff members shadow him for at least 2 weeks before he let them lose seeing patients. I remember Dr. C just had a way about him, everyone had a nickname or a special way he would annunciate your name. For those patients who had been with him for years, he would walk in the room and their face would light up, they loved Dr. C. They would talk about the latest travel adventure Dr. C and Gail had been on, or what was new with their families or the latest movie to hit the box office. I will never forget my first day, it was patient 5 or 6 of the morning, Dr. C prepared me, 88-year-old male in for a rash check.   I was not prepared to see this very sweet and funny man’s full nether regions. Aesthetician school had not prepared me for that!  Day one we saw it all, acne, skin cancer, rashes, rosacea, moles, eczema, more acne, more skin cancer, nail fungus, dandruff, more acne, sun damage and more skin cancer.

It only took me the first few hours to realize how little I knew and how much more I needed to study. Lucky for me my mom had gotten me several books on skin and skin diseases while I was in high school and I also had her old nursing books so I would spend the next several months continuing myself study as I learned from Dr. C. He taught me so much about skin and what an important organ it is. The emotional and psychological impact it can have, just ask anyone who has acne, eczema or rosacea, the defense and protection it provides us from our external environment just ask anyone trying to repair a scar or a skin cancer survivor, and its important role in our perception of health and beauty as evidence by the multi-billion-dollar aesthetics market.

In the 6 years I worked for Dr. C he taught me so much, not just about skin, but also about leadership and taking risks. Hiring me was not the only bet he made on me, time and time again I would bring him an idea and he would let me run with it. Mind you none of these ideas had any proof source behind them and yet he would sign off. Lucky for me 95% of the time they were actually good ideas that helped grow the business and provide an enhanced experience for the patients. He also taught me to bet on myself as my role was a commission only role, no booked services, no pay, but it also meant I was in charge of how much I made. Dr. C provided a place for me to grow up professionally and personally.
I am forever grateful to Dr. C.

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?

Absolutely! It is my time with Dr. C that became the springboard for what has become my career. Here I am over 2 decades later in the medical aesthetics industry having had the opportunity to help launch game changing products, bring new program innovations to market, create content and design educational platforms while helping companies and Dermatology practices across the country. One of my career highlights was getting to introduce Mary Fisher, CEO of Colorescience, my boss and friend who has become family, a woman who has also bet on me more than once to Dr. C. It was a meeting of my mentors and a special moment for me.

I am celebrating 9 years of proudly being team Colorescience, serving as Vice President of Professional Business and I could go on and on about how fantastic our products are. Most people discover Colorescience through referral, by their doctor, their aesthetician, their friend or while at their kid’s game by another parent who uses it on themselves and their family. But the reason our products are so good is because of the team behind them. So, I need to tell you about them.

Mary has instilled a culture of doing good, having fun, and making a difference at Colorescience. It is something that each team member holds as personal core values.

For team members like Alisha Merlo, our Executive Director of Professional Business, it is more than just a core value, it is simply who they are at their core. She exemplifies it in the work she does at Colorescience by taking time to teach others how they can have their voice heard from podium or creating space to bring them alongside her in opportunities. She also is champion for doing good and making a difference in her community as she leads initiatives to put an end to Human Trafficking and works to develop programs like New Beginning Tattoo Removal program in collaboration with American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery.

Whether kicking them in herself or working alongside others, Mary has broken more glass ceilings than I can probably ever truly understand. It is women like her who have paved the way for others like me to know that we can stand on our own two feet, make money for ourselves and our families and be the “breadwinner”. She has also modeled what it looks to not be timid in leading with heart. I see it reflected every day in the women I get to work alongside. Christina Balesteri our Vice President of Human Resources and Connection is one, she will fix your crown without letting the rest of the world know it was crooked. It is a heart to serve her team and see each member succeed that has Christina often rolling up her sleeves to pitch in, in ways that you would not expect a Vice President to do. She shows us all what it looks like to go the extra mile.

We challenge ourselves at Colorescience to raise the bar in all aspects of our business from product development and quality to operations and human resources to ecommerce and marketing to customer relations, sales and education each of these departments is not only female led they are led by experts in their field. Patricia Boland is our Vice President of Research and Development and Quality, deemed an “A-Lister” by Dermscope Magazine who named her “The Beauty Architect”. Trish is a very dear friend, and we often talk about what it is like to be all things, wife, mom, daughter, sister, leader, while not losing sight of ourselves in the process. There are days that I just look at her in awe as she makes it all look seamless, and yet Trish keeps it real and will share just because it looked that way, doesn’t mean it was. I admire this in her leadership. While we may not be able to do all the things flawlessly, we do expect our products to. This is another area in which I deeply admire Trish, she will not compromise when it comes to quality, efficacy, or cosmetic elegance of our products. This refusal means that sometimes it may take us a little longer than planned to bring a product to market, or we may scrap it all together, but when we do bring it to market, we know it will be a game changer.

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

Other than training/knowledge, for me last year the lesson was learning when to take a step back. There are times when life will make it obvious to you and other times you may try to talk yourself into just getting through it. Sometimes that step back is only for a few days or a week and other times it may be that life will require more. My daughter was diagnosed with Anorexia, Anxiety, and Depression. Her disorder advanced to the point where she required hospitalization. I stepped away from my role at Colorescience for over 3 months to focus on my daughter’s recovery. Life made it obvious a step back was necessary and that it was going to require more than just a few days or a few weeks.

If you are a business owner or lead an area of business, you can imagine some of the thoughts you might grapple with. “Can I afford to do this?”, “Can the business afford to do this?”, “Am I putting too much strain on the team?” “What will this mean for my family?” I had all those thoughts and many more.  Had I tried to do both out of fear, it is likely that my fears would have come true. Had I not stepped back, others would not have been able to step up in the way they did. We are a stronger team today because of it.

Thankfully today my daughter is with us on her recovery journey. We have a saying in our family, Ohana over everything. I am grateful for a company and team who share those same values.

Are there any books, videos, essays, or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I am a big fan of both podcasts and books. John Maxwell and Craig Groeschel have influenced me the most through those mediums. However, I find those I get to work alongside every day to have the greatest influence. They will drop profound, “write that down” truths. Our Area Directors lead market expansion and growth for our domestic wholesale business. Here are four truths they have shared with me:

“Celebrate when you master the basics” – Ashley Lehr, Area Director, Midlands Market

“don’t tell them, show them”- Jane Collins, Sr. Area Director, Atlantic Market
We have a saying, “our job is not done until product is on skin” and that goes right along with Jane’s coaching you can talk about what’s in the bottle, or you could get it on their skin and show them what’s in the bottle, the latter is always more effective.

“Show up ready to play to win, not to play not to lose.” – Kelly Cesa, Sr. Area Director, Pacific Market.  It’s about using your strengths vs. trying to compensate for your weaknesses.

At Colorescience we refer to the wholesale businesses we partner with as “partners” rather than “accounts” or “customers”. Holly Mazza, Area Director, Great Lakes Market recently said to me, “everything we do, we do in priority to meet the needs of our partners”. I am not sure there is better business advice than that.

Contact Info:

• Website: colorescience.com
• Instagram: heather.goodchild
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heathergoodchild/

Image Credits
ella arantz photography – family picture