We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Meghan Wyscaver. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Meghan below.

Meghan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Innovation comes in all shapes, sizes and across all industries, so we’d love to hear about something you’ve done that you feel was particularly innovative.

I started my nursing career as a nurse in the Children’s Emergency department at Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor. While I was working there I started training to become a nurse injector. Once I started working Aesthetic Nurse Injector I quickly realized the need for an aftercare product to help my patients recover from lip filler. At the time there was really nothing on the market that was specific to the lips and healing from lip injections. my first degree was in product development and design and I think that gave me some idea of how to source products and find manufacturers, so I had some idea how to get started. The really innovative part was coming up with the product itself and realizing that this could really be something. I began researching healing products and started trialing different combinations in my own kitchen. That is how my business ELLE & EVIE -which is named after my two beautiful daughters and Calme de Lèvre, calming salve for lips post injection was created. It was just an idea that I couldn’t get out of my head and decided I just had to do this. Once I started I just couldn’t stop and now we are in multiple medical spas all over the country and growing.

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

I got into the aesthetic business after being super interested in anti-aging and fell in love with injecting after my first training course. I started my injecting career when I was still working night shift in the hospital. Most injectors don’t just start off full time right away, you have to build up your skill set and your clientele. As I started injecting more I realized how much I hated sending my patients home without anything to care for them while they were in the healing phase after injections. As a nurse I always felt like it was my duty to help eliminate some of the pains of my patients, whether it be with medication, holistic intervention or soothing self care rituals. Injecting is an art in itself and making sure your patients heal the fastest and have the best outcomes is really important too. I am most proud of starting my business ELLE & EVIE. I started it in 2021 I had 3 very young kids, worked 2 jobs when I started it and just shows that if you have an idea and really work hard, anything is possible. I started my business with very little money. I’m also incredibly proud that we donate a portion of our sales to Save A Heart Foundation. This is an incredibly important foundation that is important to me because of my work in the children’s Emergency Department, and my families work in congenital heart disease which impacts so many infants, children and families. I know with the right research and financial support we can make huge changes for these babies, kids and families as they navigate this scary and life changing diagnosis.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Being a business owner is extremely challenging at times, and the second you think things are going great, something hits the fan. We have had to pivot our plan multiple times because the minute we started sending samples to other injectors because they are our main market we started seeing multiple copy cat products. People that had requested samples from us or tried our product literally just changing 1 or two ingredients and promoting it as their own idea. Luckily we have a patent pending but that process also can be brutal and long. We decided to start custom labeling to help offset some of those people, we thought well if they want their logo on it we will let them have it. We really just want our sales to grow, so that was a good move that we made this past year but also working out all the details of that can be a little more challenging that just having our own logo on our products. We also have been navigating getting our trademarks and that has been tricky as well. I highly recommend that new business owners put the money into a good Trademark/patent attorney that can help guide you. Because mistakes made early can cost you a lot later on. We are still navigating many of those challenges daily and rely on our attorneys to help us make smart business decisions.

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

I have 2 podcasts that really inspired me when I first. started my business and continue to listen to them and continue to take little nuggets of inspiration or guidance when I listen. The first one which is a personal friend, someone Ive known for many years is Krissy Chin and her podcast Badass is the New Black. She really inspired me to actually make it happen from the very beginning so I highly recommend that entrepreneurs listen to her! She also just came out with a book called Sell while you sleep. I know she has so much to teach and I still have so much I could learn from her. Another great women’s podcast is Female Startup club. She always interviews really incredible women who founded their own businesses and every episode I listen to I take a little something from it that helps me navigate my own challenges. So I highly recommend both of those. Being an entrepreneur can be a lonely road and hard to know what to do a lot of the time so hearing others talk about their journeys is incredibly valuable and important to keeping your head in the game.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.elleandevie.com
• Instagram: @elle.and.evie and @megrn_annarborplastics
• Facebook: @elle.and.evie
• Linkedin: Meghan Wyscaver

Image Credits
Images by Love Lundi