Episode 296: How to Build a Business While Managing Chronic Illness | Amber Johnson | Facial Lounge
Amber Johnson is the founder of Facial Lounge, a clean skincare brand and spa with two locations in Orange County, California. She joins Kara to talk about the emotional and entrepreneurial journey behind her business, from battling severe acne and studying under Dr. Fulton to building a skincare line that bridges science and self-love. They dive into skincare myths, gut health, scaling a business with soul, and why the best relationship is the one you have with yourself. This episode explores skincare, self-talk, and women-led entrepreneurship.
“The best relationship you can have is with yourself. The best conversation you can have is with yourself. Your self-talk matters so much. You can’t depend on others to fill you up. You need to learn how to fill yourself up. ”
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Follow along using the Transcript
Chapters:
(00:00:00) - Introduction to Amber Johnson and Facial Lounge
(00:01:11) - Amber's Journey: From Acne to Entrepreneurship
(00:02:39) - The Importance of Quality Ingredients in Skincare
(00:04:01) - Navigating the Balance Between Natural and Effective Products
(00:06:00) - The Role of Strong Women in Amber's Life
(00:07:40) - Customer Service and Building Relationships
(00:09:40) - Amber's Vision for a Skincare School
(00:11:20) - The Importance of Self-Love and Positive Self-Talk
(00:13:00) - Closing Thoughts and Future Aspirations
When I became a single mom, that wasn't a plan. I was married with kids and I didn't think this was going to happen. When I did, I remember thinking I saw my aunt do it. If I didn't have someone to go, I knew she was okay. I'm sure she had her moments, but she never showed me. So seeing strong women helps women.
That's Amber Johnson. I'm Kara Duffy, and this is the Powerful Ladies Podcast.
Welcome to the Powerful Ladies Podcast.
I'm excited to be here.
Let's tell everyone who you are, where you are in the world, and what you're up to.
My name is Amber Johnson. I'm the owner of Facial Lounge in Orange County, California. I have two locations working on my third and right now I'm actually at Sherman Gardens doing my 24th anniversary event.
So we are making 500 goodie bags for tonight and this was so important to me. I told everyone I will take one hour to be on this podcast. Because I think this is amazing. So thank you for having me.
Of course. Well, you have such a unique story in building the most successful spa in Orange County on your own, essentially.
So let's start at the beginning. Where did, how did you get into this? And when did you start Facial Lounge? So I started Facial
Lounge in September of 2000, I suffered from severe acne. So in the late 90s, I was part of some of the acne studies, which is kind of what launched me into where I'm at today.
I worked for Dr. Fulton, he was my dermatologist, he was the famous doctor for acne. There's a book on him called, Those for thousands of dollars on eBay. It's like a big deal. They don't print them anymore. And I own a couple of copies. I was a client of his, I was part of some of his acne studies. I found it fascinating.
Acne is such an interesting thing. Dr. Fulton passed away, but he would be so geeked out on all the stuff that we're finding out from gut biome health and epigenetic. Some really neat stuff about acne. So my, my, my passion was acne. And then my father, who's an epigenetics passion for epigenetics kind of scientist, he owns health hubs, and really into anti aging.
So my whole life I got to hear all about acne. anti aging. My dad's always been into the gut health and I was always into acne. So I was one of the first skincare lines to ever launch. It was anti aging, anti acne and I made skincare because I couldn't find it. So I've been doing facials and I've been in care for over 30 years.
And as I couldn't find things, I would find labs to curate it. It's kind of how my journey started.
And I heard, and you can correct me if this is incorrect, but I heard that all of your products are made in Southern California.
They are a couple labs we have are in other states, but everything is curated locally.
And then I have a few labs are in other states, but everything's made in America. And all of our like, even our packaging is all be pay free and also stability testing. So I tell people, whoever. You have people who make skincare. This is something that's not very talked about is I found beautiful packaging.
I found a few years ago. I found this beautiful packaging from Italy and we did stability testing and the glass had lead and it got into the products. So a lot of times we could find things people might make something you actually have to test it in those packaging. If there's not enough especially for us, we don't use strong preservatives or anything.
There can be mold and bacteria. So you want to make sure. We use as much airless as we can because that's the most it preserves a product without any ingredients, but then it's plastic. So people get matches all BPA free and the cleanest version of things that we can have. So, you know, it's, it's a full time job, always trying to make it right.
And it will always change. And glass was so important. I still think glass packaging is great. But there are some things that are scary about glass too so.
That's the hardest part. I think what, no matter what area you are working in trying to optimize, you mentioned gut biome. So if it's food, if it's makeup, if it's skincare, There's so much pressure today to make it this unicorn product that is effective and does the results and takes care of your skin and doesn't have these chemicals.
And like, there's so many factors now, and I don't think it's possible to have the unicorn product. Version yet, like we don't, we're missing technology. We're missing some other things that it'll take decades potentially to figure out how to get to that unicorn version. But so often I feel people are choosing between the all natural, organic, blah, blah, blah version, or the one that works.
How would you describe where your products fit on that spectrum of giving as much to the customers as you can, and still making sure that it is super effective at the same time?
That is such a great question because for so long it was medical products worked and natural products didn't. And we are a vegan company.
I've never had meat in my life and this was really exciting for me. And I've been in business a long time and I used to have the word there or natural and organic and all the words and people get upset saying I want things that worked. And I couldn't believe how many people thought that if they were clean, if they were natural, they weren't effective.
You'd be surprised how much of the natural products are doing, like I said, the epigenetic studies and we're real life. What's a different time that natural products really have an amazing ability to help heal your gut to eat. I have I think a lot of skincare reminds me of have like the box foods, right?
Like and veggie, like someone can say, but it's carrots. Well, are the carrots from the ground that you picked? Are the carrots from a farmer's market? Are the carrots from Matt? used at Costco are the carrots a can, right? So a lot of skincare reminds me, they could say all the words, but it could be like a vegetable that doesn't have all the nutrients.
So it is really hard. Even me who's in this world has a hard time. So I, and I even have those apps where sometimes I'll go, Oh, it's clean. But But that doesn't mean, it's like soup. It's like, was it a canned soup or was it a homemade soup with real, you know, kale and real ingredients that are healthy for our gut?
Same with skin care. They could both say kale, but which one, where is it coming from? So, It's really hard to know the sourcing, but there are some amazing studies out there and we know the things that are working. And if someone's using the right one, so like our tea tree is a very specific tea tree for acne and rosacea and redness.
It's called Pore Clarifying Cleanser. And it has a very specific tea tree. It's one of our best sellers. But this tea tree is a tea tree that was actually The tea tree that helps. There's lots of different tea trees. It's almost like saying flower, right? That is actually good for redness acne, but it's not the same tea tree.
I used to work for a lot of different tea essential oil companies. There's such a, it's, it's a whole different world than where they are sourced. So it's not the same as like Trader Joe's. So someone's like, I used Trader Joe's cleanser and it was drying or what, and I, it hurts me because I'm like, there's such good products out there.
Well, even, I think people forget that the core components of all of these products, frankincense as an example, or tea tree as an example, They're like wines, the ground they were in, the location, the water they had, like, they're a product of agriculture, and it's going to have different components and different chemistries because of how it's taken care of and where and what the year was and etc.
And I think as we think about products, to your point, as what is kind of their vintage, what kind of a year was it, and we know so much more about some wines that we drink, then we do about everything else we put on and in our body. And part of me wishes that it was, I wish that the labeling in the U. S.
would have more of that transparency to it. So we could know where it is. I don't need the kind where they're like, this chicken was named Bill. I don't, I don't need to know that. But like, where, where's the farm? Can I go visit the farm? Like, where did these carrots come from? Like, Because there's so many layers that we care about today that it's not just are we we're privileged in that it's not just are we eating, it's what and how do they take care of their people and like there's so many layers to it today.
It's so true. And it's, it's hard because with the right marketing, I've even fallen for it. It's amazing. And there's some amazing little companies that you're never going to hear about who are doing it right. There's a line I love out of Deadwood, Oregon that makes the probably the best herbs in the world and they're 12.
And no one's going to, she'll never scale. She makes it. So it's like the blue heron herbs. I just love them. They're like very elite and special. If you ever want the best herbs. And there's all these little companies. Well, they can't even us. We can't scale with some of our products because when we're out of these ingredients, there's nothing I can do.
So hard for me as a business to scale, like how do I grow this and keep this amazing. And we don't sell in stores. We only sell online in, in stores. And sometimes I even have to tell influencers don't talk about the work on stock, really. I bet I know you love it, but let's wait until I get some more in stock because I sell out, which is a really fun product problem to have, but It's it's not fair to my regular clients when we're sold out of it, but you know, you brought up wine earlier and I will tell you, I have a funny, cute story.
So during COVID when everything was shut down and I was really scared, I was working on my business and I just decided I kind of was like, I'm going to refocus on wine. What my business looks like I have an amazing at the time. He wasn't a business partner He was a consultant and we became business partners and it was really amazing and he's kind of the secret sauce on He knows I dream big and he understands my passion But he has or part of it that I don't have so he was like, what would you want your you know?
How you would not two phones answered? How do you want people brought back? So we just every day for hours worked on the business, a business plan finding a new booking system, all the things. And we couldn't get any more products and I know nothing's changed in our formula and we're selling. I had a lot of inventory, thank goodness, because I was able to stay afloat with this and people are still buying skincare, which is so nice and supportive.
But I had a lot of calls and emails. Most of my clients had my phone number at this time we're saying, I'm getting red. My, my cheeks are red. I'm getting red. I'm getting red. What did you do with the formula? And nothing's changed. Mm-hmm . And I, and I couldn't get ahold of people and I was, I was like kind of freaking out and it was all my kind of rosacea clients and I have a cream mm-hmm
And all these people are calling for Lex and I want something's going on. But it hit me because I knew that there was a sulfate study on rosacea. So I called back the first one, I go, have you been drinking more wine? They're like, yes. And, and she goes, and my husband bought a cheaper wine and they used to have wine that was sulfate free.
I said, switch back, don't drink that. So, and her redness went away. So then. As the calls came in, everyone was drinking wine during COVID. And the sulfates in the wine and the cheaper wine was affecting everyone's skin. And they were trying to get, and so I told everyone, drink the better sulfate free wine.
It's worth the 10 or 20 bucks that you're spending. And I told everyone to buy a sulfate strainer. You can be using this, the best skincare, but what you're eating and what you're doing does affect you, you know? So it's just cool. So drink sulfate free wine. It's great for your skin.
No, we were also talking about how we care about the people and You are the first time that I, like, I went into facial lounge for the first time.
I was recommended by a friend of mine and she's like, yeah, they probably have some openings today. Like just do it. And they did. I got in and I had an amazing facial. And The woman who is giving me the facial, she's asked Tony, asking what I do, I'm telling her, she was the one who said, you have to call my boss.
And I think it speaks volumes to how you have set up your teams and your people and how you're taking care of them, that she was going bananas about you and what you've done and how inspiring you are. She's like, here, this is her number, call her. It'll be okay that I gave you her phone number. Yeah.
It's really sweet because these girls know me and when they send me someone, I have, it's like I actually accidentally have this amazing PR team and I know you had Emily.
Yeah. Oh, you didn't have Emily, you had Ellen. Yes. Ellen. Yeah. Ellen. Is I, I make a joke. She needs to go into PR. She really, when the girls know it's the right fit and they know, so she knows that you're helping what you're doing for women, businesses and, and people is such an amazing fit. But I was trained so much on, on working on customer service, like that's kind of how my parents were.
I wasn't really understanding culture. Yeah. So. This partner I have he owns a company called driven leadership, which I took these leadership classes and I was like, wow, the culture is so amazing. And so I've learned so much, but it wasn't intuitively in me. I am all about customer service, customer service, and this group of women and really understanding culture and having this space with them is so amazing and interesting.
Like I want to scale this and still have these relationships and still grow. They'll keep heart in big companies because as companies grow, I see not why they shouldn't, but I can see how easily they don't have those relationships, but the girls there, and that's not me. I don't hire. We have a girl who hires and I told her, you have this secret, get her name's Amber too.
So they always think they confuse us, but she has this amazing gift of just finding the most amazing humans. And It is so neat to me to watch even me. I sit back and I'm in awe of this group of people last night I had to come there late. No, I was no no one knew I was coming and I saw all the girls kind of laughing and having fun and I was kind of outside the window watching they were closing and listening to music and I went this is so like I wouldn't work here Because when I come in i'm a little different but it's so cute So thank you for noticing that because it's a really good feeling.
Well, and I i've often been called into You Help a company get its soul back and get reconnected to it actually matters.
And if you can scale and have those things stay, but you have to be present to it. It can't just be a scaling for revenue concepts. And you said something that I think a lot of people in their hiring don't think about. She's picking people who understand the why they, they understand your values.
They're shared. They understand how. how vulnerable it is for a client to come in and they're trusting you to not just like they have to be really honest about how they feel about themselves and what they're dealing with and all these issues that like our faces like where we can get so easily embarrassed and ashamed and the vulnerability that your clients have to have so you can actually help them like that's such a unique space that and trust that you have to be able to create very quickly Otherwise, like, you wouldn't, like, you wouldn't have the raving, repeating clients that you have.
True. And, and, and that is not me. I mean, I, I, I find the good in everyone. So we make a joke. I got fired from hiring unique. And when, when, and when I'm watching it actually come together, it's so magical. And these are just really, and the girls I hired are amazing too. Cause I, I've been in business so long and they're, they're all, but it's, but I had this culture.
We wanted to match it. It's like, who are we? I'm really getting clear on what we are. And, and that vision was so important. And. And I think so big and I wiggle around so It's nice to have a team that really gets it and is like so true to those And I learned, you know, I make a joke i'm going to write a book what not to do in business chapter one is You know hire friends or hire people who need a job because i'm always like, oh All right.
That was what I used to do. And now we want to find people like, how do they fit in? How do they make this better? Chapter two will be don't have an event after an election and a time change. Just kidding. That's what I'm doing today. I'm like, what was I thinking? But the good news is that everyone's RSVP and we have a big group of people coming.
So it's so nice. Cause I'm like, the elections are a hard time to throw an event. And people checked out. So the fact that we have 500 people showing up tonight Whether they're happy or sad, it makes me feel so good, whatever, however they feel. It's a nice thing that people still want to come out and support my company, which is neat.
Well, I want to go back to 8 year old you. Yeah. So, you mentioned that you've always kind of been in this human optimization space with your dad. But if, would 8 year old you have imagined that this is the life you have today?
Eight year old me remember, that you said at the time, is probably the worst time of my life.
I never talk about you. It's interesting that you picked that time in my life. Eight year old me is probably the most painful thing that I, I, my kids don't even know about eight year old me. I mean, it's, I probably need counseling. I, but eight year old me, my grandfather was my best friend. He was the most amazing, Funniest, silliest man in the world, and he loved me more than life itself, and it was my, my mother's father, and he picked me up from school every day.
I mean, I just was so close to him, and he got colon cancer, and I remember the doctor saying, you got colon cancer because you ate too many hot dogs and soda. And I was raised vegetarian. My mom says she's sure he snuck me hot dogs. And I and I also was my family was pretty healthy. My mom and dad were health conscious and I never drank soda again.
And I never really had raised vegetarian, but I thought like, I will never eat meat. I never want to see what my grandfather went through, but watching my mom have to take over her father's business and just getting so checked out that we had an upholstery. My grandfather had upholstery businesses and my father had health health clubs.
So just both my parents running around. I was abandoned. I remember at that, after that time, I made my own lunches. I walked myself to school. I was very young and I was very on my own. So but it's probably what made me stronger. I mean, I didn't have anyone there. My mom was so busy and just so busy.
And my dad was, my dad owned health clubs. He had to be there. five in the morning and he worked till late at night. So it was, it was a hard time and I didn't have a lot of friends. I didn't know how to, I remember we had to move after my grandfather died and mom goes, you can kind of reinvent yourself.
You know, I was kind of an ADD talkative annoyed everyone kid and she goes this school you can be different no one knows you you can and I kind of gave myself I mean didn't last long but I did but I did get myself this little my mom kind of helped me with my confidence and I'm going to go to this new school and be a little cooler And I made friends that I'm with, that I'm, was with, dinner with one of them last night from from that time.
I actually found a card that I wrote that friend. Her name's Christina. And I wrote, will you be my friend? Yes, no, maybe. And she checked maybe. And I saved it because I was so excited she said that. And I text her the picture and she goes, I'm still deciding.
Well, that's a great transition to asking you, how have other powerful women in your life inspired you and guided you along your journey?
Well, my mother was a very powerful woman. My mother owned Oh, not owned. She was a producer of The Funniest Housewives. She was a comedian. She worked for Joan Rivers.
And they're honoring my mom tomorrow night at the Improv in Brea, if you'd like to come. Yeah, they're doing a documentary on my mom. But she was all about women comics and how to support women comics for the last 35 years when women comedy was not a thing. supported. It still isn't. But seeing my mom struggle and really try to have a name for herself and having a hard time booking shows and her friends, she started producing a show.
And a lot of her comics to this day that she worked with Rita Rudner and Vicki Barbalak. She was a finalist on America's Got Talent and a million other amazing comedians really, really. Help me with confidence because I saw my mom up against something that was a hard place to be and my mom, no matter what happened, she found the best.
It could be the worst situation and she goes, well, at least it got written in the paper or, you know, she got a no. And she's like, at least, you know, Jay Leno met me. I mean, whatever it was happening that she did that never happened. I mean, she ended up on Oprah. She did get on Jay Leno, but there was all these Hollywoods.
You get all these like hopes and dreams that don't come up. And even when it didn't work, she go, how neat that I was even picked for that opportunity. She just found like the half full. And That really rubbed off on me. I just, I just know and my aunt who was a single mom and She's she's she's a comedian She's producing the show tomorrow and she writes books and she does all these things and as when I became a single mom that wasn't A plan I was married with kids and I had I didn't think this was gonna happen When I did I remember thinking I saw my aunt do it.
I was her babysitter If I didn't have someone to go, I knew she was okay. I'm sure she had her moments, but she never showed me. So seeing strong women helps women. I mean, or we have girls coming in. I have to have young girls. I mean, their confidence and they're beautiful. And I'm like, who is, and it's their self talk and and it's their mom's self talk sometimes too.
I say, you got to be careful what you say, because my mom's self talk was very high. My mom. My mom felt very good about herself and I'm, I'm glad because that rubbed off on me. So I try to tell as many people the best relationship you have is with yourself. The most important person you can have a conversation with is yourself.
And I sometimes as a single mom have to get in the Mirror, you know, there's a really fun song that was going viral years ago when my kids were little and it's a girl driving And our kids were crying and she goes bitch. You're doing a good job bitch driving bitch And then it would be another situation and she's cleaning and cooking and everything's falling apart.
She'll bitch you're doing a good job I was like i'm stealing this I'm like, bitch, you're doing it. And I would sometimes get right in the mirror and go, you got this. I heard giving high fives were good during COVID when there's no touch. I gave myself a high five in the mirror. You got this. I wake up and just had to do it because if no one's going to fill you up and a lot of people expect other people to fill us up.
You don't have anyone. My whole family's in heaven. I'm divorced. I don't have anyone to fill me up. I had people, so I know how it feels, but I had to learn how to fill myself up. And some days I'm, I'm, I'm not good. And when I'm not that, when I'm not good, I can go, okay, behind my pity pot, stay here for a second and then get up and give yourself a high five.
So.
How do you define a powerful lady?
Confidence. And to me, a powerful push person is making sure everyone in the room is good. Sometimes people want to come in these power suits in there. It's like all this self and the powerful one is sometimes the one helping everyone, making sure that everyone has their things or their water, or a hug or a moment or eye contact.
I think the most powerful person doesn't necessarily mean status or money. It's the person who makes you feel good in a room. I mean, that is an art and I, and I sometimes walk in places and I'm busy and I go, God, there's so many people that they can help me and I can help them. But there's moments where I just know I need to slow down and check in with people and or I need it.
I, there's that person who just checks in with me and I'm like, thank you for asking. I don't get asked how am I very often. You know, I don't think I, I don't. So sometimes I go, people are hard. And the real ones where they're like, how are you? I'm like, wow. Well, I had a really rough day yesterday. That feels good.
So I think a powerful person is someone who cares.
We asked everybody on the podcast where you put yourself on the powerful lady scale, if zero is average everyday human, and 10 is the most powerful lady you can imagine. Where would you score yourself today and on an average day?
I know I'm a powerful person.
And not, this is such a weird thing to say for myself, but powerful because I can handle a lot. Powerful because I find, I try to find the good. But I would give myself like an 8. I mean, I, I definitely know that and there's days I'm a 5. But I know if I really wake up and I'm in the right mindset and I want to make a difference, I I I give myself an 8.
I can be, I can be pretty powerful. Hey, listen, there's days I'm 10. Like, like tonight, I want to be present for every person who's showing up for me, and it feels really good, and I will be, that's a powerful place. But, powerful is such a hard word for me, and it's such a positive word. Because I can also be a little bit of a bulldozer.
And that's powerful. And that's not good. And I work hard, you know, like even, oh, yeah, trust me, when I'm done with this, I'm gonna be a little bulldozed with my kids, but they, they're behind on these. But but yeah, how powerful such a, that's a great word, because I don't think of it as positive as you're making it seem.
But I am a powerful person. And I, That's a good, that's a good thing.
Well and so often, like, part of why I ask this question is that everyone defines it so differently and everyone has a different story about it or a trigger and some people think power is only good when it's next to the word ladies because they trust that women with power do good things with it.
Where, where power is only good. They have experiences where men with power don't. So it's so nuanced for everyone I've talked to, but I do think that we all have power and just like any of our other. attributes in our personalities, they, they can have a light and a dark side. Like, there's always that yin and the yang of being like being driven has pros and cons, being empathetic has pros and cons, right?
So there's always the two sides to it. But how lucky that Women like you and I get to use our power to create something that empowers us and empowers others. And we get to throw parties about when we celebrate anniversaries.
Yeah. Yeah. No, it is interesting. I just, that word is like, gosh, I don't, why am I like, Trying to dodge that word, but it's such a positive thing or you think of it as such a evil thing, right?
But if you think of like the truest word for power is like someone that can actually make a difference It can be really positive
Yeah. Yeah. You know, you have had like all other entrepreneurs, the roller coaster of what it means to have your own business and to not just make a product or a service.
You're jumped in and have done both. And I imagine that you have a long list of other things that you want to do as well. If someone was starting out in business today, what advice would you give them?
Get clear on your goals. Get really clear. Get really excited. If you're doing it for money, find something else. Do what you love and money will follow. There's a book called Zark by Zark. It's my favorite. I read it when I was a little girl. And she writes in all colorful papers. And she does all these positive little things, like mom as well, upside down.
But one of them said, do what you love and money will follow. And my mom framed that. And I thought that was so neat. I love money. And I love skincare. Always. I loved it. So I was so passionate. I'm so passionate about people with acne or confidence. That is fun. And so if you have a business plan, get really clear, get excited.
You just want to wake up and really enjoy it and learn culture. That's something I didn't learn until later. And. The customer is always right. The more you can say yes, and we're losing we're losing that that what's the word for once when you're shopping and you're when you're shopping.
What's the word I'm trying to think of?
Like customer service?
Or appreciating? I think that's really going away. And the customer always right doesn't mean you lay down like a wet mop. It's not that it's if someone's upset with something, hear them out. They might be right. And you're just, you're good. So it's like if we are running behind her, we mess up.
And I go, yes, and that wasn't our intention. It's called yes, ands. Agree with them and go, I'm so sorry you were cut short on your service. How can I make it right? Listen to a customer, hearing customer. If you have a business that you're able to do that if you get a bad Yelp review, reaching out and hearing them out.
The bad Yelp reviews are the best thing that ever happened to me. I could have been. Defensive and mad, or I could go, wow, that is such an interesting thing to say. And it could be my breath stunk. You know what I mean? When we had served oranges in our spa for a long time and I use orange essential oil.
And someone said, my hands smell like I was eating the oranges that was serving. And it wasn't that I had, I was putting orange stuff on the towels to make it smell good. But that Yelp review hurt my feelings. But I was like, I wasn't eating oranges. My hands smell like oranges. Cause I thought it smelled good, but she thought I ate an orange and then did her facial and that grossed her out.
And I went, we're going to serve oranges. I didn't understand these little silly things. So sometimes your worst Yelp review is the best thing to fix your business if you listen to it. So always be open to feedback. No, you're not going to do it right. Be open to messing up and learning. And finding leadership classes are so important.
So I get excited when people want to start a business. They think big, but it's like, get, get get, get into your heart to make sure that you want to follow that. So
I couldn't agree more. That's part of my coaching practice. It's, there's a level of alignment for you and your specific role in the business, but also.
The alignment that lights you up, that's going to keep you going because every day you have a business, there's more reasons to stop doing it than to keep doing it. So you have to have that deep connection to know that even if today is a hard day, of course, we're going to keep going because this is what we're supposed to be doing.
Yeah.
And I, I also really love what you were talking about in regards to customer service, because you're so right. The customer being right doesn't mean that they always get what they want, but it does mean that they have a valuable piece of information to give you. One of my favorite quotes is we have to listen underneath the critique or criticism for the commitment.
And that's really important. It takes a lot of effort to give someone feedback, especially when you aren't, you don't have a personal relationship with somebody. And so if they had, if they got so inspired to tell you something, like they really do want you to succeed.
It's hard. It's hard. It's hard. Are you higher?
I know that our girls. Which I love. We have a Slack channel for our business. And if anything goes wrong, they have different channels. And my job is to get in there. Oh, such a full time job. But I make a joke. Sometimes I'm a slack, slack in at Slack. But they put in things and it could be silly. Like we're low on bags or whatever, and it really, and we do inventory and stuff, but it really helps like everyone.
And it's just one big team. And we're really not out of, or someone came in, was upset they didn't get a water. We serve the best well water. And did you get a water when you came in?
I did.. Thank you. Yes.
Once in a while, a friend got one and the other one didn't. We, you know, we just assumed they both had one and they were hurt feelings.
Like, why did she get one? I didn't, you know. But, and once I cleared up where the manager calls, it's like, Oh my gosh, we didn't realize, you know, we'll, we'll make it right next time. And we give them something next time they come or whatever, but it's that they had to be heard. And if not, they're going to be leaving and mad and walking around all day.
And they'll tell people like, Oh, I don't really like that place that happened the other day. I have a Friend who owns a shoe store and he was like the girl came in. She didn't like it She had a breakout from her facial and didn't like it and that hurt my foot and I go Can you tell her I mean sometimes you can purge and that's our job to go She already had some acne, but if she came a couple more times I promised her it won't like for free have her come back and I asked she goes no She well, but it's like art.
So that helped me go. We should send a text message saying we do now A follow up text. I don't know if you got one. Things like that. That's actually from that one complaint when I found out. I'm like, I'm not letting them know if she would ice her face and her extractions. She probably wouldn't have had a breakout.
I asked him to ask her, did she ice? She said, no, no one told her. So now it's like these systems in place. So when I upset a customer, I'm like, what can I do to fix it? Moving forward that we never have that. And there's people who walked around and probably go, eh, not so good. But if they actually gave us a chance, oh, we're so good.
But. But you're I really hear that there's an underlying commitment to transforming that person's skin and their relationship to their skin. And that's different than like just giving someone a facial or just selling someone a product like you, everyone that walks in the door, it sounds like you are committed to making sure that It's a whole new experience and relationship for them, and it does go, that's a lot of before, during, and after that a lot of other spas aren't offering.
And I also hear such an invitation for people to remember to speak up about what they need or don't need because if we don't tell people, we can't help them. And. There's so many businesses, yours included, that would love to help and love to clarify whatever wasn't because you're on their team and, you know, it speaks to, I think, that people feel like they're kind of on an island a lot lately and It's just not true.
And, and even I said Finish Lounge, if someone doesn't love something, we have an exchange program, and I tell you, we don't do returns, we do exchanges, and it's just because of our systems. I mean, our returns, sometimes the credit card, it's a long story. There's so many reasons why it's been a disaster that we're like, we just exchange.
Over the time I found if I could find them that thing because I know we have it and they might the cream might be Too Heavy we have lighter that cleanser was too strong. We have gentler. It wasn't strong enough We've they can exchange it. Our whole goal is to help them find what they love So we had someone that the featherlight moisturizer, which is an amazing product was too light So we got her Luxe had I just returned it.
She came back. She was this has changed my skin She wrote us the up review She did a blog about like it was like a whole thing came and so I, I know that like if I can find you that thing that you love I know we make it, we don't, might not nail it the first time, but if I can sit down and find out what you need, and sometimes the esthetician will call me.
I'm like, okay, definitely do this or ask if they're allergic to that. We totally customize it. But once I know you found your thing you don't really want to leave us because it's good. I mean, it's really good. So there's, there's so many times that. Some of these rules are made from heart that people don't realize that it's not like.
Yes.
Also systems it helps, but yeah.
Well for our final question today We've been asking everyone.
What do you need? What is on your to do list? What's on your to manifest list? How can we help and support you?
That's a great question. What do I need? Need or the business need?
Either. You could say you need more people to go to dinner with and that would totally apply.
Well my, God, I never think about my needs.
You have great questions. Thank you. My need like for me is I want to open a school. I want to help find men and women But it's a very prominent women business, but anybody Tip this is their passion to be the best version themselves and have a school that not only teaches skin and education and gut health And the whole but also like leadership and and and and and also also as we scale and grow our business How neat to have a school that I can teach?
Find these, really get to know these people to hopefully bring along with me or if they want to start their own business. So my biggest, like, need for myself is to open a school and then, like, personally to, for people to go to facial and if someone's looking for a place to go and, and have a safe place to be, I mean, there's not very many places that you can go that you're really in a really welcoming, safe place.
And I have two sons who play basketball. And my whole goal is to spend these next few years or middle school and set them up for success for high school. And so it's hard to wear a lot of hats, but I need more time. No, I need three. Yeah, 40 hours in a day. Yeah, I guess my, my biggest, my, I don't know if, was I answered right?
Yeah. Yeah. You want more people to go to facial lounge. You want to open your school and you want more time so you can set your boys up for success.
Yeah. And that's. A really interesting place because I want to scale. We're gonna, we're making, we're opening more locations. I want to grow and it's this little soft place where i'm like my boys are my life And so after three o'clock, they're mine I'm before three from nine to three is when and once they go off to college and go off I can really watch out world Watch out.
I'm probably Watch out world. It's just getting started 24 years. I'm just getting started
I love it. Well, for everybody who wants to get a facial, find your product, support, and follow you, where can they do all of those things?
So our Instagram is Facial Lounge, our TikTok is Facial Lounge, and our website is at Facial Lounge. We have two locations, one across the street from Five Crowns in Corona Del Mar, and one next to Coffee Dose in Costa Mesa, which is like the coolest place. Anyone who hasn't been to Coffee Dose, just go there. It's like, did you go to Coffee Dose when you went?
I have been. It's very and I brought people in from out of town to go there just to to see it. Like, it's such a visually merchandise spectacular.
It's amazing. And not one more thing. Verde opening above us this week, and a speakeasy bar that they own. And that's Farm House at Rogers Gardens. They macked. So they're opening tomorrow above us. So Wow, yeah, now people know that we're next to one of the first night.
It's the very first Nike gym. And so that whole shopping center is the first Nike gym, coffee does. facial lounge and Verde restaurant and then a new speakeasy bar that they just opened. So it's a really fun shopping center. So people need something to do in Costa Mesa. We have the hot spot.
Well, thank you so much for being a yes to be on this podcast for being so generous with your time, especially today when you have so much going on.
But also just thank you for being so passionate. You know, there's, we need more people in the world doing things they love because it. It just, it's such an echo effect. So thank you for holding your space in that and being the ripple effect that you are.
Thank you. And thank you for doing what you do.
I mean, what an amazing gift to give to business owners. And if there's any women or men, anybody who needs help in the, in this world, in this industry that they need from, from makeup to skincare, I'm one text away. I would love to help support and, or whatever you need from me, because There's so many faces I make a joke.
I can only handle so many I want to have people out there Especially if they love doing this or any type of business I'm i'm here for you too, because I think you're doing an amazing job and I appreciate you for doing this So thank you for having me
All the links to connect with amber and facial lounge are in our show notes at the powerfulladies. com Please subscribe to this podcast wherever you're listening and share it with a friend Join us on Instagram at powerful ladies, and you can connect directly with me at Kara Duffy. com. I'll be back next week with a brand new episode.
Until then, I hope you're taking on being powerful in your life. Go be awesome and up to something you love.
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Instagram: @faciallounge
Website: faciallounge.com
Created and hosted by Kara Duffy
Audio Engineering & Editing by Jordan Duffy
Production by Amanda Kass
Graphic design by Anna Olinova
Music by Joakim Karud
