We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shelea Daily a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Shelea , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the story behind how you got your first job in field that you currently practice in.
I love this question! When I was 18 years old, I had no idea what I wanted to do, and I did not come from a family or background where women were educated or made money. I used to see people walk into my job (at Larry’s Giant Subs) wearing scrubs, and I thought, “I wonder if I could ever do something I would be proud of, like become a nurse and wear those cool scrubs.” That was 25 years ago! I got a low-paying job in HR at the local hospital and joined a community college to start working toward my nursing degree. My background is in critical care and trauma, so I did not start out to be an anesthetic nurse. That developed much later in my career when I was feeling the burnout and unhappiness of working for someone else and knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur.
Shelea , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My path to owning an aesthetic practice was anything but traditional! When I left bedside nursing, I started an online coaching business. That was my first introduction to the world of entrepreneurship… I was hooked! My online coaching business did very well. HOWEVER, my nurse’s heart was missing my patient care. I missed patients telling me their problems, and knowing how to help them feel better. My first question to myself was, “What can I do with my nursing degree that will not require me to work for anyone else?” I knew that I would never work for anyone else ever again. That led me to opening 11 North Aesthetics.
What I quickly realized is that in the aesthetic industry, patients felt very rushed, pushed in and out of their treatments quickly so the next patient could come in. Because treatments like Botox, or even IV infusions, are not medically necessary, patients didn’t get a detailed assessment or the ability to express fears or concerns. I kept hearing patients express they didn’t feel like anyone genuinely wanted to understand what procedure they wanted or even the results they were looking for. There wasn’t a plan for how together provider and patient would accomplish the goal, together. So I changed that!
My goal was to give my patients professional, high-quality treatments while listening to their needs and creating a detailed plan for how we could achieve those results. At 11 North Aesthetics, we offer beauty services such as Botox, Teeth Whitening, and body sculpting to help you feel beautiful on the outside. But we also treat the body on the inside with treatments such as IV hydration infusions and vitamin injections. The culture we have built at 11 North has our patients coming back to a place they feel seen, heard, loved, and have absolute faith they will get results from a trusted provider.
Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?
This might get an eye roll, but the answer is mindset! You can have all the skills in the world, but if you are not committed to your vision and ready to relentlessly pursue that vision, you will not be successful. Unfortunately, social media paints a different picture. People brag about starting a business and making $2 million in a month like that is easy and takes no grit or even time. That is not realistic and it makes you feel like you failed before you even begin, so remove it from your life… remove yourself from any person, place, or content that doesn’t feed a positive belief and mindset about who you are and what you can do. Only ingest things that feed your vision and feed your mind in a positive way.
Becoming an entrepreneur means you have to stay in your lane. Don’t measure yourself against other people’s success. Stay in your race, just run yours. The mindset of a winner is one that stays focused on the goal and is disciplined in ways to support the vision. Habits like eating well, staying consistent with your marketing, etc. What are they doing that’s successful? Study that, and then from there, see what areas you can apply to your own life and have the mindset and heart of a winner. Success is not linear. The reality is that you win, fail, fail, win, fail, win and so on. During those dips, when it’s not working, your mindset has to be so strong and resilient so you stay the course. The only way that you will fail is if you quit. Actually, that’s the only way to fail. So if you don’t quit, you’ll be successful.
If you look around you, you see people successfully running these businesses. They are no different than you. You can be successful and run your own business too, but you have to do the work to get there just like they did. If someone else can do it, you most definitely can! That belief has helped me through hard times in business.
The second piece of advice would be to have a passion and a fire so strong for what you want to do that nobody or nothing can put it out. If you do that, you will be successful.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
With so many people screaming in your ear about how it all works, this can be very confusing, but honestly, it’s quite simple. Let me share with you my top two strategies for client acquisition and retention.
Create something unique in your business model. What is something that only you provide at your business? This can be a way that you do something differently than everyone else, but it sets you apart. In your industry, there will be a problem that you see, and maybe you can solve that! A great example of this is Uber to the yellow taxi. They did not have to reinvent a service that transports you to your destinations; they simply took the problems, like lack of safety or tracking for the driver, etc., and they made a convenient, reliable, and safe option. What can you do in your business to stand out so big and bold that you attract clients to you? And yes, attracting versus chasing is very real in marketing.
The second strategy would be to create some really fun and juicy rewards for your customers. Customers love feeling appreciated or special, especially when they’re spending a lot of money with you. For example, my customers get a beauty point for every dollar they spend. When that dollar amount accrues, they can either put it toward one of their next services, or they can get something for free based on the point amount. This feels really fun, and they get excited about using their points. This also creates customer retention because they’re going to come back and use their points and purchase more services. You also want to focus on new clients, and an example of that would be my referral program. If a client shares me with a friend and that friend buys a service, my client gets a beauty point for every dollar that new customer spends. This strategy allows your happy customers to spread the word for you and quickly build your clientele.
I promise, it is the best and cheapest marketing you will ever do! Incentivize your current happy customers to share their results with others.
Contact Info:
- Website: 11northaesthetics.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/11_north_aesthetics
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NurseShelea