For the January/February issue of Professional Beauty, we ran a feature on The Educators: industry game-changers who have forged ahead with innovative education programs designed to help beauty business owners raise standards. Keeping reading to discover key thoughts from our featured leaders.
Tell us what education strategies you have in place for 2022?
“2022 is going to be a year of collaboration and co-creation. I’d like to see our classes evolving further to break away from the ‘teacher standing up in front of the class’ model to something a bit more interactive where the environments and activities are ones that push our learners to collaborate as a team, uncovering real-life scenarios and in-salon challenges, and utilising more online methods and modules for theory-based learning. I’d like to see more abstraction and creativity linked together with real beauty community interaction where learners can follow curiosity and evolve in the ever-growing world of digital media.” – Otto Mitter, Ex-Imports.
During lockdown did you alter the way you delivered education to your staff and clients?
“Yes, like most other businesses, we began working remotely and offering as much education and training support as we could online.
Our BDMs supported their clients with one-on-one education and training sessions via Zoom while the Venus Concept marketing team organised a wide range of webinars and roundtables with industry experts (including business strategists, digital marketing consultants, legal professionals, clinical trainers and motivational coaches) to educate and inspire our partner clinics all around the country.
However, undoubtedly one of the biggest changes we made during the lockdown, was the launch of our first online training course – the Ignite onboarding program.
Although Venus provides extensive marketing support (including social media campaigns, print media advertising and POS materials) to help drive clients into our partner clinics, we have always been aware that clinic owners and their staff ultimately determine their own sales and profits.
We have therefore always provided one-on-one marketing support to individual clinics and run small group masterclasses in our Sydney and Melbourne offices, but we wanted to offer something more – particularly for new device owners as we know that despite their excitement about the devices and the results they can deliver many struggle to maximise their ROI.
Fortunately, the lockdown gave us the perfect opportunity to create a program that could help such clinicians by teaching them two key skills:
- how to attract more clients to their clinics with social media and marketing strategies
- how to convert those clients, and their existing clients, to loyal higher-spending clients
We are proud of the finished program – Ignite
We believe the simple but effective selling tips, strategies and tools covered in the program have the potential to make a huge difference to clinic sales and profits by ensuring their devices work as hard as they do.” – Whitney Stronach, Venus Concept.
What is one of your main priorities as an educator going forward?
“With the lack of face-to-face connection in the last 18 months, we need to make sure our professional treatment protocols for new and existing clinics are always up-to-date.
This will not only provide better protection for the clinic and therapist but also the consumer and brand, which inherently maintains the integrity of the company.
There are many clinics playing catch up on the months lost and we also have states that have been open the entire time – so it’s important to ensure each and everyone have all our support.
It’s also vital that our entire Advanced Cosmeceuticals education team maintain our own self development in the latest trends/technology coming through, keeping our own knowledge up to date so that it flows through to those we are educating and inspiring.” – Fiona Dosen, Advanced Cosmeceuticals.
Is there any particular area of education you are focused on for 2022?
“We want to focus and drive our professional services, what we call Dermalogica Pro Services. We have some amazing new services and professional use only product innovations lined up to launch throughout the year, which we are all extremely excited about. We know this will elevate our Dermalogica customer service offerings and make our Dermalogica salons highly competitive and extremely successful in this area.
We also have plans to extend and elevate our Dermalogica Experts and 2022 Expert program. Training our PST’s to be the best of the best, sharpening their knowledge and skills to cut through a crowded marketplace. Our goal will be to showcase our experts to a customer base who seek out the best in class businesses and therapists, providing them access to the top industry professionals in Australia.
Also in late August 2022, we think it’s time to bring the Tribe back together. Therefore, will be hosting a two-day content-rich Dermalogica Symposium, in Port Douglas, QLD. Over two hundred of our customers will be in attendance, providing a great opportunity to reconnect with our piers, network and learn from other likeminded business owners and therapist. We’ll have an incredible line up of guest speakers sharing their insights and knowledge, and very important have some additional fun time spent recharging and renewing our minds and bodies.” – Emma Hobson, Dermalogica.
Tell us what education strategies you have in place for 2022?
“As beauty therapists we are very much hands-on when it comes to training, which is why we look forward to returning to face-to-face training in 2022 as much as possible. We believe the greatest way to provide training in this industry is still in a hands-on, in-person environment. To be able to show techniques and learn by seeing and practicing in real life is the fastest, best way to increase skills as a beauty therapist. However, for the best part of the last two years we have adapted to the pandemic by providing most of our education online, which has been highly successful and rewarding in lots of ways. We plan on continuing with virtual trainings for those we cannot reach in a face-to-face situation. This means our much sought-after education can continue without being disrupted by any unforeseen circumstances that may come our way!” – Lydia Jordane, LYCON Cosmetics.
What is one of your main priorities as an educator going forward?
“I will never again take networking and socialising for granted! Reconnecting with my colleagues as well as my students face to face as well as other educators will be hugely important as we start to attend events again.
Maintaining the accessibility of our current training programme will also be a priority for me in 2022 – this means staying up to date with the latest digital platforms and being aware of the opportunities in the online learning space.
We’ve spent a lot of time this year working with head office to calculate the profitability of our products. After 18 years in the industry I personally find this extremely motivating and important for salon success. This information is definitely something I’ll be passing onto my students.” – Hayley Sultana, RefectoCil.
Any top tips as an educator to help make sure businesses stay ahead of the game in 2022?
“I’ve always said that ‘knowledge is power’ and this saying rings true time and time again. I cannot tell you how many times over the years I have had conversations with aestheticians who have ‘nailed it’ after attending education and heading back into their clinic.
Whether ‘nailing it’ was understanding how to perform an effective consultation, understanding more about a particular skin condition or having a client rebook for a service, education has been proven to motivate and empower aestheticians to be the best that they can be – for your business, this is fundamentally important!
When it comes to education – plan for it! Make education a priority for your team and make room for it in your calendar. Monthly in-clinic education sessions with your dermaviduals Business Development Manager are a perfect opportunity to check in with your team and ensure that they are on the right track. Select a topic to focus on and stick to that topic! Make education fun so it will motivate your team to participate fully.
Finally, always remember that a well educated aesthetician will educate and motivate your clients resulting in client retention and business success – investing time and money into any form of education will always yield positive results.” – Lisa Paone, demaviduals.
This is a cut-down version of an article that appeared in the January/February 2022 issue of Professional Beauty.
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