The Lounge Q+A: Yazmin Rascon, Esthetician

How’s it going Yazmin?

Good morning. Happy to be here.

Thanks so much for taking the time. Really excited to learn more about your story. Though, the billing for this talk was how you got started. We know Ariella Beamon is someone that’s really close to you. We’re excited to hear about your journey with her too.

So I’ve been in the aesthetics skincare industry for about three years, but my beauty journey started in the industry about seven years ago. It started off with makeup and hair and slowly drifted into skincare. I just realized that I was always so into skincare, researching products, researching masks. So I decided to go back to school and focus on skincare. Here I am, and along my path, I did come across Ariella, yeah. So she’s been really good. She introduced me to you guys. I’m very happy. PocketSuite has helped me a lot with managing my business all in one place.

That’s awesome. Yazmin, can you tell me something, because we’ve talked to a lot of really awesome aestheticians who say they started in another area of beauty. They started with hair. They started with makeup and then they made their way to aesthetics. Can you share a little bit about how the different specializations of beauty work? Is it seen as you may start as a makeup artist, but you can expand into an aesthetics career? 

So in a way it is kind of more advanced, just because the skin is very complex. So just like anything, even with hair and makeup, you never stop learning, new trends, new techniques start to come, so you always have to get yourself educated. So it’s kind of the same way with skin. Some people have acne, some people have pigmentation, so it’s a lot more complex. I feel like you should continuously be getting educated since more technology and products are coming up. I think it just depends on where your passion is. For me, I still love makeup and hair, but my passion is for skincare.

I see.

I think just for myself in my teen years, I struggled with acne problems.

That’s really hard to believe. Just looking at your complexion right now. I don’t believe you.

Thank you. Thankfully, my mom, she always instilled in me to be really good about my skin care. And ever since I can remember, since I was little, I used to always love makeup, hair, everything that had to do with beauty. But then when it shifted to skin, I think after I was able to kind of fix my skin problems, it inspired me to help others, because I know a lot of people deal with it and it’s really self-care. You come to the spa room, you relax. Not only that, but you come out with even better skin and every time it’s better and better. I’m happy that this industry is being looked at more now. It’s always been there obviously, but now I feel like it’s more popular. 

Absolutely, there is much more of a focus.

A focus on your self-care. Which I’m really happy about, because it helps you with your confidence. And to just relax and feel better mentally.

Well, it’s interesting because I think there’s a whole movement around self-care that’s taking over. From fitness, health, and wellness to your own personal grooming. There is a part of me that believes that influencers and celebrities have helped because it used to be that celebrities would hide their regimen. “I just woke up like this.” Right? But now they’re much more open, “No, no, I have a whole team that helps make me look like this.”

Yes. That definitely does have a lot to do with it. Like you said, I feel like before, you’d see a big boom in the body industry too, the body contouring, which I do as well in my treatment room. Before, it would be kind of like a secret, but now more people are open to discussing it publicly. That’s why it has boomed so much within the last few years as well.

Let me ask you this. You have so many different specializations. Did you make a choice? Once you were certified and licensed as an aesthetician, did you say, “On this day, I’m going to stop doing makeup and hair. And I’m only going to do aesthetics work,” Did you phase it out overtime? Or are you still doing some makeup and hair for clients?

Yeah. So I’m actually still doing a little bit of both. I focus mainly on my aesthetics side. Thankfully, my clients keep me busy on that side. It’s actually my sister and I who started doing makeup and hair together as a team.

Oh, that’s awesome.

Yes, she actually is older than me. She actually started the journey before me. She does nails, she does eyelashes, she started the makeup and hair journey first. So we still do it together, which is cool because we still get to come together and work as a team. But I mainly focus on aesthetics. 

So you’re obviously the best advertisement for what you do. You just look fabulous.

Oh, thank you.

Do you get people coming to you saying, “How do I get to where you are with your skin and hair?” Do you set expectations about their own skin zone? Do you try to get them to the best place possible in their zone versus trying to reach for someone else’s zone?

True. So that is very important. I always try to be very honest and educate my clients on expectations and what it will take for them to basically get to their skin goals. I always like to say, nowadays we’re so used to having immediate gratification. With cell phones, the faster the internet, the better. Amazon, the faster the delivery, the better. So I’m like, “Unfortunately that’s not the way that skincare delivers results, overnight, it’s a process.” So it is just about being consistent more than anything. Be consistent at home and in the treatment room. That’s what’s really going to get you the results. I wish I could give everybody what they want overnight. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. The best way that I can put it to them is showing them the before and after effects of my clients who have stuck to the regimen and been consistent. They can see how much their skin improves within a few treatments, in a few months.

That makes sense.

That’s what amazes me so much about skin, the fact that it can repair itself is just amazing to me.

It’s really powerful. At what point do you say, “Oh, wow, this is beyond what we can do in the aesthetics field. You need to see a dermatologist.” What’s your cutoff for, “I’m happy to help you, but you’re really going to need to see a dermatologist for these aspects of what you want to work on.”

So when it comes to the point where it’s just really inflammatory acne or a lot of inflammation. When it is not just the face. It’s all over the body. If it doesn’t look that normal from what I see, getting checked by a dermatologist or sometimes it’s teamwork. As a dermatologist and an aesthetician, contributing doing the facials. Sometimes the dermatologist is contributing to the medical aspect like medicine and internal stuff that obviously I can’t give to the client. So sometimes it can be teamwork. Because a doctor can better assess their hormones. It can be what they’re eating. So we have to look at basically the whole spectrum.

The whole spectrum.

That can be triggering this reaction in a person.

You are getting so much love on this IG live. We’ve got folks saying that your Hydra facials are awesome. We’ve got a question in here: Do you do dermaplane? 

Yes. So I do dermaplane as well. So that’s a really good option if you want to have baby smooth skin or really smooth application. Going back to the medical aspect as well, it has really inspired me to keep going. So one of my plans is to continue nursing school and hopefully be able to offer more advanced treatments to my clients in the future.

Wow.

The goals that I have for the future, God willing, is to be able to offer more to my clients.

Well, that’s awesome. What advice would you give to folks who are starting out in the industry and want to get to where you are in terms of building a business? What are two or three things that you’d say, “Definitely consider this.”

So honestly, my biggest advice is just to not give up. If you know that this is what you love, absolutely love. First of all, that’s the thing, make sure you really are passionate about this and you love it because other than that, just basically keep going, keep working at it. Like everything, we all started as students so it’s just up to you how much work you put into it, how much love you put into it as well. Because I feel like that’s what’s going to really make you flourish in this industry, doing it with love and with passion. And the results are going to show. Your clients are going to see that you really love what you do. And then that’s how they’re going to stick with you and how you’ll be able to stay motivated to stay in the industry. Because obviously, success doesn’t come overnight. I’m nowhere near where I want to be yet, but I’m getting there, working, working, and it’s just a nonstop working process.

I can tell you’re reaching for the stars. You’re like, “I’m not where I want to be.” And as PocketSuite, I know you’re super successful already. I can tell you’re on track for big things.

Thank you so much.

So we have a question: What do you need specifically to start a business? 

Honestly, you just need to first of all, get your aesthetics license and from there, obviously you’re good to go. Start getting your clients. Go open yourself up to getting hands-on experience at a spa, wherever you can. From there, you go on. If your goal is to be your own boss, you pretty much set yourself up to get your own clients and get started little by little. Then before you know it, you’ll be fully booked if you keep working at it. Like I said, I’m doing it with love.

The thing that people say is hardest for them is getting those first five to 10 clients. What did you do to get your first five to 10 clients?

I had a lot of support. So my mom and my sister have always been my support. They were my first two clients, for sure. And now they get the VIP treatment forever because they’re the ones that were my models all the time when I was experimenting. But also, thankfully some of my clients from makeup and hair. But for me, honestly, getting the new clients outside of the ones that I already kind of had lined up was just from social media. It helps a lot.

Social media.

Just make sure to post a lot on social media. Honestly, people find you there. Even to this day, I have people who just randomly find me on Instagram and without a referral. I’m like, “Wow, it’s crazy how social media can help you find clients like that. All you have to do is just post. Make sure that the post is something that people are going to like to look at or can learn something from it.” I feel like that’s what’s going to make you stand out from others.

In beauty, one of the other things we’ve heard is referrals are everything. We’ve heard as much as 40 to 50% of your new clients are coming from existing clients referring you. Do you do anything proactively with your existing clients to say, “Hey, can you give me a referral?” Or is it just magically happening because you do such great work.

Honestly, I’m very grateful because my clients do refer me so I’m so eternally grateful to them for keeping me busy. I do try to give them a little incentive or an upgrade on a facial, because that means a lot to me. Just the fact that they think that my work is good and sharing with others, honestly, I appreciate it so much and I’m very grateful. So it’s not something that I’m constantly pushing, but I feel like when it does happen, I do kind of reward them a little bit and it makes them maybe refer me more. But it’s not something that I have to actively push on them, which makes me more grateful because I know that it really comes from their heart.

That’s awesome. I’m going to ask you a technical question now. So we’re really thinking about building in referral rewards into the system to make it easier for Pros like you to reward your clients for sending referrals. What are some of the kinds of rewards that you think would be really useful to have in the system to make it easy for you to keep track of who’s making referrals to you and make it easy for you to automate some of the rewards that you give?

Well, yeah, basically we can maybe think of a percentage. Because what I do now is I upgrade them to a mask, for example, that would be $20, more or $15 more. So we can maybe automate a percentage that would be equal to that discount. Which would be good to, like you said, do it automatically.

Nice.

But that would definitely be a good idea. I do like your app. It’s really great. I’ve tried other ones and I love everything that it incorporates, like the packages and all that. It just makes it so much easier for me to track everything.

That’s what we’re all about.

Oh, I’m just so OCD about tracking everything. So it helps me a lot, makes it easier.

This is a lightning round in terms of questions because we want to know what’s going on in your world and your lifestyle as an aesthetician. What is your favorite thing to do when you’re not working?

Oh, when I’m not working. I just spend time with my family. Lately, I’ve gotten back into working out. So that’s the thing that I enjoy now too. I just like taking some time for myself. Like how I have my clients come here and the beds are self-care, for me. It’s just going to the gym and focusing on myself. 

Wow, you’re my she-ro. You’re working out on your off time. I love it. Not watching movies or anything. What’s your favorite vacation spot?

My favorite vacation spot is Hawaii. So I want to go back with my husband. I went with my sister on a sister’s vacation and I fell in love with it. So now I would like to go with my husband so we can experience it.

That’s a great sister retreat. I have two sisters. I’m putting it on my list.

Oh, yay.

What’s your favorite music to play when you’re treating someone?

Oh, I play relaxing spa music and it does it for me.

What’s your favorite show to stream? Do you stream anything on Netflix, Amazon, or Hulu?

Oh my gosh. I wouldn’t say I have a specific show at the moment because I don’t watch that much TV. I do say that my husband and I, we, love to watch all mystery, suspense, or documentary, all that. Lately, we watch comedy stand-ups on Netflix.

Love it. What are your words to live by, your favorite motto or a favorite quote?

Oh, wow. I can’t think of one off the top of my head, but all I can say is that my motto is to just not give up. Go, like you said, for the stars, because anything is possible. Honestly, this year has taught me so much ever since the whole pandemic started. Because you have two choices, either go into depression and just feel like the world is shutting down or take it as a learning curve. For me, I chose to take the learning curve and it has been the most successful year for my business even during a pandemic.

That’s amazing.

So I’m so thankful to God to be able to give me that mindset, to just keep working. So now I see it as if I can do this during this pandemic then I’m sure that I’m capable of doing much more in the future. So all I can say, it’s just to keep working hard for whatever it is. Whether it’s your personal life or your business life, never give up. There’s always something better around the corner. For anything that seems like a struggle, always take it as a learning experience.

That’s awesome. Yazmin, it’s been so great talking to you. Thanks so much for taking the time. I think we have a live one with, greeneyezoneme. I’m going to encourage her to reach out to you directly. It looks like she would value mentorship. She is asking a lot of great questions and I’m sure she could learn a lot from you. We are so inspired by you, excited that you’re on PocketSuite and just rooting for you, cheerleading for you.

Thank you so much. I appreciate you inviting me and having me. That means a lot to me too. And I wish you the best as well. I really enjoyed being here today.