By Jennifer Rock
Being a “Skin Nerd” morphed into my DNA after hopping into a facialist’s chair for the first time ever when I was thirteen. This was a defining moment when my passion for skin was realised – undeniably, my teenage self wouldn’t have dreamed it’d take me to where I am now! Since then, I have been lucky enough to be surrounded by a network of wonderful “hoomans” (aka humans) that truly believed in me and my brands from ideation. To this day, I value every piece of advice I've been given – a gift I would love to pay forward.
A key piece of advice I would share is to write your mission statement: know your goals and be target-driven, so you have something to aim for. Bear in mind that targets don’t always need to be monetary. And do be sure to celebrate your targets when you reach them. I think many tend to forget that part as we lose ourselves in the next “to do” – I can be guilty of that myself.
I would encourage you to write a business plan and think about the aspects that might not be part of your typical train of thought (perhaps education, finance, ecommerce). It’ll force you to think of the months and years ahead and form behaviours that’ll steer you. It’s inevitable that, once you start, you’ll become consumed by ‘the doing’, so having a plan to follow is essential. Otherwise, daily activities can take over and you’ll work hard but, potentially, not as smart.
They say you can’t pour from an empty glass – a sentiment that really rings true to me. I used to suffer from perfectionism and martyrdom, whereby I felt like I had to work all hours of the day (and night!) to be a success. Naturally, this was an unsustainable way of working and a life-changing realisation to make. Thankfully, the lesson of instilling balance came at no great expense to my business but perhaps more on my personal life, which is a problem that I continue to address. From this, I learnt that working on self is such an underrated part of owning a brand, because if I can’t properly lead myself, I can’t lead others.
For me, it was easy delegating the tasks I least enjoyed, but the real challenge came from handing over responsibilities that I adore, such as managing the education of the brands. I recommend you to be clear and stand firm on your brand’s values so that you can pass the DNA of all you do to your team. Naturally, it’s still important to create a bandwidth and space for them to be creative within the parameters of the brand’s identity. A tip that I’ve learnt is to talk 20% in a meeting and listen for 80% – if you know me, you’d know this is torture.
Finally, I would also say to be true to ‘you’. It’s easier said than done, but if you are confident in your own skin, skills and capabilities – own it. Know that perfection doesn’t always exist and enjoy yourself! Never make life-changing decisions on a bad day and complete the jobs that you don’t enjoy first to free up the rest of your time and let your creativity and productivity shine.
