You Won't Believe the Hidden Gaps!

✨ Hello, I'm Fran, your NLP Coach. In this episode, I'm interviewing Lesley to discuss how ongoing training elevates every beauty therapist - you won't believe the hidden gaps she has discovered!

Meet Lesley 🎊 
Lesley is a passionate, seasoned beauty therapist, industry educator, and assessor who knows the value of ongoing training for graduates. Her love for the industry inspired The Informed Therapist, through which she addresses industry gaps and supports beauty therapists entering the profession or re-entering later in life.

You can connect to Lesley in the following ways ⬇️
https://www.instagram.com/theinformedtherapistuk/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61578199212125

Find me @ www.melancholymentor.com

* As a coach, I listen without judgment, understanding that others’ views may differ from my own.

#nlpcoach #nlpcoaching #creativity #inspiration #transformation

Chapters

• 0:00 Introducing Leslie: 30 Years in Beauty
• 7:20 Evolution of Beauty Therapy Education
• 17:30 Researching Before Entering the Industry
• 25:45 Beauty Therapy vs Aesthetics Explained
• 32:00 The Informed Therapist Launch Details
• 38:20 Gut Health and Holistic Beauty Approaches
• 42:40 Passion for Elevating the Industry

Transcript

Fran: 0:07

With me as I interviewing business owners, self-improvement speakers and their experiences of helping into personal development, motivation, and strategies for overcoming challenges. Let's ignite our creative potential together. Hello and welcome to the Melancholy Coaching Podcast. I'm Fran, your NLP coach, and I'm intrigued to introduce a seasoned beauty therapist with over 30 years in the industry. She's a passionate industry teacher and assessor who understands the importance of ongoing training and knowledge for students after they graduate. Her love for the industry inspired her to create the informed therapist. Leslie, welcome to the show.

Lesley: 0:58

Hi, Fran. Thanks for the invite. Great to be here. Really doing my first podcast.

Fran: 1:04

You're very, very welcome. So for complete transparency for anybody listening, Leslie and I actually met online and we met in a VIP group which is run by a business coach called Kaylee Greenacre. Her business is actually ICANN. So for complete transparency there. So we don't actually know each other in person yet, do we? No. We know each other. Yeah, we know each other. Yeah, I like the word yet. So we know each other from online. So the way this is gonna go is I'm gonna ask you a couple of questions that I've pre-prepared, and we'll just have a little chat around it just to find out a little bit more about you and what you do, if that's okay with you. Yeah, of course, no worries. Um I'm a curious little being, so I like to ask questions.

Lesley: 1:47

The nature of women, I think, Fran.

Fran: 1:49

Oh, absolutely, absolutely. I'd like to think that it's the nature of of mankind, and one of my visions can be to bring curiosity to to the world. All right, question one. What sounds like a game show, doesn't it? What do I win? Um, you win time with me. Thank you. So what gap did you identify in the beauty therapy in beauty therapy that inspired you to create the informed therapist?

Lesley: 2:21

So the gap has been getting bigger and bigger over the years. So when I went to college in back in the day in the 90s, I had to give up work and go to college for two years. Now you go to college once a week for six months.

Fran: 2:41

Right. So just for clarification on this, you went to college and it was beauty therapy or was it called something else?

Lesley: 2:47

Beauty therapy, yes.

Fran: 2:49

Beauty therapy, and it was a two-year course.

Lesley: 2:51

Two-year course, Monday to Friday. I gave up work, worked for Estee Lauder at weekends in London to keep my money coming. I lived at home then, so obviously it was a lot easier because I didn't have bills to pay. I was 25, so I was what they call a mature student. Yeah, I gave up work for two years. Mum and dad supported me, went with Estee Lauder during that time at weekend work. But the actual exams and everything were very, very tough. Very tough.

Fran: 3:20

Okay. So by that, so if if now it's remind me of what you said, is it six-week course now? It's six months once a week. Six months, sorry, yeah, once a week. Is that with the same qualification or have they changed the qualification process?

Lesley: 3:36

Yeah, they've they've changed the qualification process because when I was at college it was City and Guild, Cedesco, and now it's generally VTCT, which in theory is the same, but ask a therapist like me. We would we would differ.

Fran: 3:57

So do you gonna test your belief on this actually? Do you not believe then that it's it's uh the same but it's a fast track?

Lesley: 4:10

Yeah, yeah.

Fran: 4:11

So it's so it's not but it's not the same, it doesn't give you the same in-depth knowledge.

Lesley: 4:17

Yeah, but that's not the college's fault or the tutor's fault, because I was at a college today, as uh we discussed earlier, and I'm trying to get the informed therapist as my business into colleges, academies. Yeah, and the reason that I'm trying to do that, and the teachers agree with me, who I had the conversation with, once they've qualified after six months and they've got that bit of paper, they're sort of walking out the door, and that's it, they've gone. But fundamentally, they don't really have enough knowledge, enough experience if they've not done any training in a salon in between time, confidence, skills, any of that.

unknown: 5:05

Okay.

Fran: 5:06

So that's yes. So that's what they can gain by your business, which is the informed therapist, that's what they're gonna gain from that.

Lesley: 5:13

Yes. So when I go back to this particular college in December, I'm gonna go to have a chat with the students that are due to qualify in February.

unknown: 5:25

Yeah.

Lesley: 5:26

Because if I go in December, it doesn't interfere with their exams because obviously their time is quite taken up a lot by revising and tests and stuff. Whereas if I go in December, it means I can have a chat with them, talk about their CVs, talk about their interview skills, how they need to conduct themselves, and just try and find out where they intend on going once qualified.

Speaker 02: 5:52

Okay.

Lesley: 5:53

Because a lot of them don't have a clue what to do, there's no guidance.

Fran: 5:57

Yeah. Yeah. So the certificate itself or what they get in the training at the college, which we have established, is through no thought of the tutors or the or the colleges, or anybody like doing the courses as well. Um, it's just that you've identified that there's gaps there. So by them doing that, do they all say if it was different areas? So we're based in the UK, for anybody listening, we're based in the UK. So different areas or different council districts, different kinds of colleges, is it the same standard training that is offered within beauty therapy?

Lesley: 6:32

Generally, if they're doing a VTCT course across the country, obviously Scotland could be different because it's it's different, it's a hands up there, but generally they're all across the board the same. If they go and do any fast tracks, one-day courses, again, it's a bit of paper, it qualifies you for what you're doing as in treatment, but it doesn't qualify you for much else. Okay.

Fran: 7:01

So by your your business, by going in, speaking to students, speaking to colleges. Can you just clarify just a little bit deeper what it is that you offer that they don't yet have?

Lesley: 7:19

So they don't have. See, in my um informed therapists, I've written quite a lot of modules.

Fran: 7:24

Yeah. Oh, okay. So it's like a it's a course.

Lesley: 7:27

It's course, yeah. So you go through the course, yeah. So there's bits bits you're gonna have done already, but I'm just going over it, reinforcing it. There's bits you may not have even touched on, like I've purchased my own salon before, twice actually. And one of my modules is going through how to buy a business. Okay. One of the modules is the licensing you need, because a lot of people don't know about licensing, which varies depending on what council you belong to. I'm in Kent and my council is Bromley, but you could be in Islington or you could be in well, Wales or anywhere. So your councils are all reflective wherever you are, and they all differ. Until you've got an understanding of that, you wouldn't think about it.

Fran: 8:11

It's the little So the So the Enthor therapist and the course that you offer, is that then a self-study, like a kind of an evergreen model, or is it interactive?

Lesley: 8:21

No, it's interactive, so it's 12 weeks. So I'm doing mentoring with you for 12 weeks. Oh, amazing. Yeah, so we catch up once a week. I've got a few people that are going to come on a Zoom and give you advice because obviously I don't know everything. I'm still learning lots with regards to social media and how to do accounts and where I've picked people through my career who are coming in to help me.

Fran: 8:45

Oh, so you have like experts as such, like guest experts.

Lesley: 8:48

Yeah, because I know everything. Yeah, I mean, I only a lot of we were just saying earlier about how much social media wasn't around when I was at school. So, you know, a lot of it I've picked off, picked up from people that I've just generally met through Kaylee and um yeah, and other memberships, you know, that I've belonged to through the time. And it's having the guidance and people you can trust as well, isn't it?

Fran: 9:11

Yeah, very much so.

Lesley: 9:13

Yeah, very much so. Yeah, and I think you get to know people that you have you can you get a feel with that you can trust that you want to bring into your business. And there's a lot of people out there that just want to take your money and not do a lot. So, you know, you've got to be quite mindful, haven't you, Fran?

Fran: 9:30

Yeah, very mindful. And it's it's very easy when you are not sure where to start or how to start. It's it's very easy to because you're in a vulnerable position.

Lesley: 9:40

I've got just cutting in, sorry, I've also got a couple of women that are waiting to come on my course already, because it doesn't launch till the 21st of October, who are mums and they're qualified, but they've had family gap, bringing up family. So they haven't actually done beauty therapy for 10, 15 years.

Speaker 02: 9:59

Right, okay. So yeah.

Fran: 10:01

So the sounds like me and an office work.

Lesley: 10:04

Well, is that yeah, yeah. So to come to me is great because they stay with me for 12 weeks. I sort of go over the industry and how it's changed. If they're not qualified in certain aspects, I can point them in the direction where they would need to go and get qualified, or come to me because I am a teacher as well. They can come and do a one-to-one in my clinic if they want to. So it just gets them back into industry as well.

Fran: 10:29

Right, so this leads nicely on to my next question, my next main question that I've got for you, which is how can listeners who are entering the field of beauty therapy or who are starting later in life, how can they prepare themselves today?

Lesley: 10:46

So the biggest thing is research, research, research. I cannot accentuate how much you need to sit down and research what you're doing, where you're going. Because when you go onto a lot of the Facebook forums, which I belong to a lot of them, the amount of people that have lost thousands of pounds of money because they've that's really upsetting. They've gone to these academies which are fast-tracked, and we can do it for you in six months if you pay us five or ten thousand. They've paid it all up front, then they've gone overnight, the academies don't see them again. So it's really important that you do your research before you actually part with any money or do any courses.

Fran: 11:35

So is beauty therapy, is it an unregulated industry?

Lesley: 11:40

Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's becoming much more regulated now. But what happens is because of all the fast track, I don't know if you remember a few months back, there was that poor woman that died from having a bum lift. Did she go abroad? No, she was in the UK. In the UK, oh well, yeah, okay. Manchester way somewhere.

Fran: 11:59

But was the surgery done here?

unknown: 12:01

Yeah.

Lesley: 12:03

Yeah.

unknown: 12:04

Yeah.

Fran: 12:05

Now I did know about that, and I obviously didn't read the article properly because I assumed that it wasn't in this country that she had her surgery.

Lesley: 12:13

Yeah, yeah. So she went and I think it was maybe the second time she'd had it done, only from what I'm reading in the newspapers, obviously. And I think she had about four children as well. So she was a mum.

Fran: 12:25

That was very awful.

Lesley: 12:26

It was just horrific. And since that they've really started getting their act together with the licensing. Because what's happening is, I mean, I'm a traditional therapist, I don't do toxins and things like that. That's just obviously my choice. But people are coming into the industry doing fast track courses, they could have come from selling car insurance. Right, okay. Come into the industry, do a five, five-day, four-day, three-day fast track track course, and by the end of that week, they're injecting people's faces and bodies.

Fran: 13:02

Yeah. Now, see, I'm I'm all one for learning, you know, and whether that be like a little CPD course or or you know, learning off YouTube or something like that, I'm all one for that. However, you've you've got to do your due diligence, haven't you, in what you're actually offering people and the services that you're providing to make sure that you're doing a complete service for them. It sounds in a way similar to the coaching and the coaching industry is an unregulated industry as well. And so is a counselling.

unknown: 13:36

Yeah.

Fran: 13:36

Yeah. So unless you, to my current knowledge, anyway, so unless you actually work for an establishment that's more of a corporate establishment like the National Health Service or something like that, you don't necessarily need psychotherapy or therapy or anything like that. You can get a counselling certificate. And coaching is a completely unregulated industry.

Lesley: 13:58

Yeah, it's not till you actually start talking to people you realize how much and what people charge as well.

Fran: 14:06

Yeah, it's astronomical. So, for example, as a as I'm a coach, so I trained with you know, actual trainers, I've got my certificates, I do business strategy as well. I trained with that and got, you know, my certifications in it. So I'm um a certified master coach and I'm a certified business strategist. I didn't go to college, so this stuff's kind of you know, it's it was it was online, it was one-to-one, but it was online learning. I've then backed that up with the fact that I'm insured, so I'm insured as a coach. I've got contracts and everything, so I've sorted out all my legalities as well. But it sounds similar in a way to how you're saying about the beauty therapy industry. Would people just qualifying know how to get insurance, know where to go for their legal um provisions, you know, their disclaimers and anything like that? They wouldn't necessarily know, would they?

Lesley: 14:59

Wouldn't necessarily know, no. And you don't mean to put a dampener on it, but it's and don't forget, don't get me wrong, it's an amazing industry to be in. And obviously, at the age I am, after doing it for 30 whatever years, I would never do anything else. But the industry is very different to when I qualified. And I want to try and teach the people, the youngsters, yes, and even some of the more mature students, that it's not all about just shoving a needle in someone's face or body.

Fran: 15:32

It's more unless unless that's what you maybe specialise in and that's what your target market wants. So there's no judgment for any of this as such, is there, the services that people provide. But that isn't what beauty therapy is.

Lesley: 15:46

Beauty therapy is not the underpinning knowledge of beauty therapy, is not that end of it.

Fran: 15:52

Right, okay. This this just out of curiosity now. Yeah, I do not come from a beauty therapy background. Yeah. I kind of know a little bit about it. I've seen salons and things like that. Now I'm I'm a woman who will literally get up, wash my, you know, wash my face with soap and water, or might bung on a bit of moisturizer, and that's about it, really. And I've done horrific things like shaved my eyebrows so they grow back in peculiar places and all sorts of horrible things I've done to myself. You're not the only one fancy being. I don't know. I don't know a lot about beauty therapy. Yeah. So for potentially people just coming into the industry, they might just base it on, I don't know, maybe injectables or fillers, or they they wouldn't necessarily know, would they?

Lesley: 16:37

No, no, they we would class that mainly as aesthetics, that end of it.

Fran: 16:42

Okay. So can you can you just put in a little bit of clarification in there then? Yes. Uh about what comes under the heading of beauty therapy?

Lesley: 16:49

So people don't, if people want to wind me up, they'll call me a beautician. Okay, why would that wind you up? Because I'm not a beautician, I'm a beauty therapist. So when I used to work for Estee Lauder, I've worked for Clinique, I've worked for Yves Saleron when I was younger, behind the counter in the stores. I was a beautician.

unknown: 17:11

Okay.

Lesley: 17:12

I stood behind the counter, obviously, got trained on how to apply makeup, sold it, obviously, loved it at the time, but wanted to do more. Which is why at 25 I went to go and do my exams. So at 25, I went to become a beauty therapist and did obviously my two years of training to get my City and Guilds qualifications or my CESCOs, all then. Then I'm actually a beauty therapist.

unknown: 17:42

Okay.

Lesley: 17:42

So with aesthetics, a lot of aesthetics people are not beauty therapists. They've gone in to the industry purely to do injectables.

Fran: 17:53

Right, okay. So it's like that that can be a specialization in its own right.

Lesley: 17:59

Yes.

Fran: 18:01

Okay. So potentially there's a lot of misconceptions around what beauty therapy actually is.

Lesley: 18:08

Yeah, you could have, I mean, most aesthetics people now generally come from a nursing background. Because they used to that makes sense. Yeah, it does because they they they know the skin, the anatomy, they're used to injecting. So a majority of the ones which are doing very well, very qualified, come from that type of background. So of course, they haven't done the beauty therapy path, they've done nursing, etc., and then got into it for nursing. Yeah. Yeah. And that's, you know, and that's okay as well. Like, you know, they're they're the people that are are highly qualified. But obviously, at the other end of the scale, you've also got beauty therapists like me that have been doing it for years and years and years, that have gone on to do aesthetics after years and years of experience. And equally they have become great at doing aesthetics as well. Because again, they've got the underpinning knowledge and the training, but that's the avenue they've chosen to go down. The them the whole I've found is coming, is rewinding the industry back to the very beginning.

Fran: 19:19

Okay, yeah. Yeah. Now now I get it. So you the the so you've identified gaps there, yeah, and then decided that the solution is actually back at the beginning.

Lesley: 19:30

It is the beginning. There isn't anything at the beginning anymore. They're going from this to this without learning the bits in between.

Speaker 02: 19:39

Okay.

Lesley: 19:40

Yeah. And they don't, when they go to college, obviously one day a week for six months, they nowhere near went through the anatomy and physiology that I had to learn of the body. There's a huge gap there. And unless you've got an understanding of the functions of the body, how it works, how are you going to know what the end result's going to be? Or you're taught to do a treatment and you just do it like a robot, but you really don't really understand why you're doing it like that. You just know the end result's going to be you've got firmer skin, but you don't know why you've got firmer skin.

Fran: 20:17

So it's the deeper understanding as well of the procedures that can be used.

Lesley: 20:21

Yes.

Fran: 20:22

And I've used the word procedures. So are they called procedures?

Lesley: 20:25

Yeah, yeah, they are. Yeah, no, we do. I mean, everyone's got different ways of doing things, but procedures, yeah, because in the informed therapist, I've also written my own facial actually as well. Because through the years, you're taught at college a basic facial, but a basic facial is nowhere near as good as a facial that someone's been doing for 10 or 20 years. Because you do so much training and you develop so much, you learn different techniques. So it's things like that. I like to teach people different ways of doing things, not that the way they do them is incorrect because it's not, it's just someone sometimes you need to build your own personality into your treatments because my clients come for me as much as they come for my treatment.

Fran: 21:11

So you're about encouraging new therapists or therapists, beauty therapists coming back into the industry to almost layer up their knowledge and deepen their understanding about procedures that they can offer.

Lesley: 21:26

Yeah, and don't worry about looking at everybody else all the time. Let everybody else do what they want to do. You are an individual. Stay in your lane. Stay in your lane, friend. You're like, I share with my room, I share it with another therapist who's lovely. She's not been in it quite as long as me. And she was a bit, oh my god, Leslie, you know, what if we overlap clients? We won't, because my clients come for me. Like your clients come for you. They come for not only your treatments, but your personality because they trust you, they know you know what you're doing. So it's the whole thing that they come to you for. And not a lot of therapists really understand that it's not just do about doing a leg wax, it's about the talking in between that leg wax, getting to know them as a client.

Fran: 22:16

It's an important thing, it's an important learning, isn't it? That yeah, it may appear like it's a flooded industry, as such, you know, that there are many thousands of beauty therapists. However, the training can vary as you've identified, because you've already identified gaps there, but the actual specialization or the offerings, you know, or the kind of the bespoke nature of somebody's business is really, really variable.

Lesley: 22:45

Very I mean, people always go, Oh, you know, there's so many people doing that, and don't you don't yeah, there may be, but what makes you unique about you?

Fran: 22:54

Ah, see, that's your your USP, your unique selling point or your unique superpower.

Lesley: 23:00

Yeah, and it is you, it's your personality and it's the whole you. I mean, don't get me wrong, there's going to be some clients you're not gonna gel with. I've had clients I've not geled with. That's fine. You can't gel with everybody because you are what you are, aren't you?

Fran: 23:14

Yeah, but if they come in for a certain procedure, you can provide that procedure and they just want the job done, and then that's okay.

Lesley: 23:22

Yeah. You even get, I mean, I've got clients I've known for so long now, they've actually become friends, so you go out socially with them.

Fran: 23:29

But you find that in beauty, you often find you meet you meet your friends through your work, which is now there must be a certain amount of confidentiality though, involved in beauty therapy. Do you think that that's currently being highlighted within any courses that people are doing?

Lesley: 23:46

Yeah, I mean, I think generally people are very they do adhere to that really well.

Fran: 23:51

Okay, that's good.

Lesley: 23:52

I I don't, from my own experience, ever hear about discussions outside the room. I mean, as a therapist, you become a therapist and a beauty therapist, because obviously, you know, people can tell you quite confidential things.

Fran: 24:07

Yes.

Lesley: 24:07

Yeah.

Fran: 24:08

So um yeah, and there could be confidential things about their bodies and things like that as well.

Lesley: 24:12

And you know, women when they're older are you know, we're not as confident as uh when we were younger.

Fran: 24:17

So sometimes potentially, I suppose in the context of our bodies or faces, that's very true.

unknown: 24:24

Yeah.

Lesley: 24:25

And that's the plus point of being an older therapist because I'm older, I've not only been doing it a long time, but you know, I've had my daughter usual the usual thing start to sag where they shouldn't have said they didn't sag maps 20 years ago, but we're all human, aren't we? Yeah, absolutely. And women often feel more at ease with someone that's older, and this is where it's hard for the youngsters to come in.

Fran: 24:52

Yeah. Okay. And then and then to actually understand themselves and their own identity within their business and to attract their own clients as well. So that whole client attraction when they're when they're younger people. Oh, I love this. So it's fascinating.

Lesley: 25:10

It is interesting, and I found the main thing with a lot of younger people now is they're not as organized as when I was their age, and I can speak, I can say that because I've got a daughter of 22. And yeah, you can see they're very different when we were young.

Fran: 25:29

Yeah. But they've been raised in a different era of technology and things like that.

Lesley: 25:33

Definitely. There's always good inside of every yeah, absolutely.

Fran: 25:37

I was thinking earlier actually, when you said about, you know, when you started, you know, social media wasn't really around. I had my own version of social media from back kind of more in 1980 because I was on CB radio. So I'm actually an old ham from CB radio. So uh yeah, so that's what I I kind of grew up with, and I was on there for a numerous amount of years. So I was one of the first kind of to skip across to you know, social media and stuff like that. Because there's there are thousands of social media platforms out there, by the way, thousands, whole minefield. Going back to beauty therapy, yeah. Can you just for the purpose of any any listeners, can you just clarify? Do you work only with women, predominantly with women? And is the course that you're offering with the informed therapist, is that for ladies?

Lesley: 26:27

No, no. I mean, obviously, when I was when I was at college, we didn't have any guys at college for obvious reasons. I mean, when you're doing intimate waxing and things like that, you're hardly gonna have a male therapist. But you know, going forward that a few years now, or 20 odd years, you're gonna have male masseuses, aren't you? You're gonna have male men, males that go and wax men. So it's it's very different now.

Fran: 26:52

Well, I was just thinking that a lot of, you know, to be binary about it, a lot of men may be thinking differently about their appearance with, you know, with things changing and stuff like that. Um because I mean, even footballers wax their legs, don't they?

Lesley: 27:05

Oh god, yeah. People that are athletics and runners and athletes athletes.

Fran: 27:10

So it's not just necessarily about beauty, but it comes under beauty therapy.

Lesley: 27:13

Yeah, yeah. I mean, obviously, where where I sort of work the moment, I have to be a little bit careful because I'm a little bit hidden where I am. So if I do do male clients, it's generally husbands of the wives that I do, or it's boyfriends and things like that. But I think if you're in if you're in like a bigger salon environment from a safety aspect, which obviously you have to think about, we where I've worked in previous previous salons before, we used to do a lot of men's waxing, massaging. Yeah, because there's obviously obviously a lot more people around you for security.

Fran: 27:50

But then some of that is also going to speak to the the client base that you aim your actual business at. So for anybody coming back into the industry or anybody starting, you might focus on athletes, you might focus on actors. So depending on whereabouts you are in the country, maybe you're near theatres and things like that. And you know, so you could have kind of a niche within it, couldn't you?

Lesley: 28:11

You could, you could. I mean, obviously in London they have a lot of wax bars, don't they? Male waxing bars, you can just literally walk in without appointments and just get your intimate waxing done. Yeah, it's very right.

Fran: 28:25

So so before we go on too much about that, which is a whole nother conversation. It is another day. Yeah, a whole nother conversation. Can I just ask you what's next for you? Like what's coming up next?

Lesley: 28:39

What's coming up? So my launch is on the 21st of October.

Fran: 28:43

Okay, so depending on when anybody's listening to this podcast, this podcast goes out October 2025. So depending on when you're listening to it. Um so yeah, so you're you're going live.

Lesley: 28:57

Going live on the 21st of October 25. And my landing page, so that's where you can join my masterclass, got finished last night, funnily enough. So that thank you. That's a lot, yeah. So that's that's gonna be going out today when I finished with you, Fran. That's my project for tonight. So my three-day masterclass is the 21st, 22nd, 23rd, and it's eight o'clock for them three days, them three nights. Yeah, and we're gonna go through what the course is about, what I'm gonna offer you. You get a bit of homework on them on the first night and the second night, and on the third night, we just come together and establish what you've learned from the first night to the third night.

Fran: 29:45

Okay, couple of questions in my mind again, curious being here. So, firstly, yeah, going forward, because obviously this is time based now that we're talking about things that are coming up for you. Would you then look to run? That maybe annually, a few times a year, so that anybody that misses that or that listens to this later, they can find you and find out when you'll be running more masterclasses.

Lesley: 30:11

Because I'm on my own as well. And obviously, the mentoring that I'm doing, I don't want to take on a lot of people at once because I have to be because I still run my clinic, obviously, I'm still doing my treatments. So I have to be sure that I'm able to give 110% to the people that sign up with me. Yeah. So the I'll I'll probably end up taking on about three to four people for the first 12 weeks. And once the 12 weeks is up, I'll then introduce them onto my membership if they want to keep coming with me on a membership. They were where they pay monthly, but they'll still get information from me on a monthly basis. We'll still do still do QAs every week to catch up and things like that. But primarily the informed therapist will be for the 12 weeks, and then after that 12 weeks, I'll probably do another masterclass again.

Fran: 31:00

Yeah. So I just want to check something else. Yeah. As well. So for doing your course and then to theunture membership, what is the entry level for people? Would it be that they've already done a beauty therapy qualification?

Lesley: 31:16

Yes. So they've they've generally got their VTCT qualification in level two, some may have level three. If but which whichever one they've got, they can come into the informed therapist. However, if they've got a certain subject or treatment that they haven't learned and they wanted to learn, and I offer it, they're more than welcome to come to my clinic physically and do a one-to-one training in the clinic with me. But obviously, if they've got everything they need and they're quite happy with that, they just want help with reinforcing their skills, their knowledge, confidence, going over maybe CVs and interviews and all that type of thing. That's where the informed therapist will come in. And lots more. There's lots, about 10 modules that I've written so far. Amazing. So um it's I could add that. I'm just gonna add that. Like at the moment, a real big thing, I've collaborated with a company in Newcastle upon Tyne. A lot of a big thing at the minute is gut health. Yeah. Yeah. And people can come to you with acne, problematic skin, but you've got to take it back to the basics. You can do a treatment on them, but having an understanding of it, generally it's your gut that's imbalanced.

Fran: 32:34

And the gut like a additional training, isn't it?

Lesley: 32:38

Yeah. And with the companies in Xeno that I'm going to be working with, we do blood tests. So we do a little blood prick on your finger, and then we send it off to uh Switzerland, I think it is, and it goes, takes about a week turnaround, and they can determine from that the imbalance of your whole your hormones, your gut, what you're lacking in, what you need to balance out the gut, because that's connected straight to your brain, don't forget. It helps to balance out the body functions of your hormones, enzymes, that type of thing. So it's all very interesting.

unknown: 33:13

Yeah.

Fran: 33:14

I love that. Thank you.

Lesley: 33:15

Yeah, and it's a healthy way of looking at it as well.

Fran: 33:17

It's just yeah, of course it is. It's it's kind of what you're offering. I feel it's kind of like a very holistic approach to beauty therapy. As well.

Lesley: 33:26

Yeah.

Fran: 33:27

Yeah.

Lesley: 33:27

So um, but I'm really, I've not done all the training yet on the gut health. I'm doing that at the moment. So, but that's really interesting, and it's a real big thing that's begin to become big in the industry. But not a lot of them do the blood testing.

Fran: 33:42

Right, amazing. So that's yet another thing that's coming up next for you then. Yeah, you know. Yeah, yeah.

Lesley: 33:51

Yeah, yeah. And all the amino acids and the vitamins that we're not getting because, you know, a lot of our foods, they just are not as organic as they used to be, are they? Or we're living on fast food.

Fran: 34:03

Um, there's a lot of processed foods, yeah. And there's a lot of additives. I mean, you know, additives have been around for a for a long time, haven't they? But I feel that the fast food market and the the processed food market has has definitely increased.

Lesley: 34:17

Yes, definitely. Yeah, because life is just so busy, isn't it?

Fran: 34:23

It is an you know, this this is going to be a whole nother conversation. But there's the thing about within supermarkets that that companies pay for the shelf space. So a lot of the companies that or the the food-based companies that are offering something that's maybe a bit more organic or a bit more like they're smaller companies, they can't afford that shelf space. So we we go into supermarkets and things like that thinking that we're having an informed choice and that we're making choices. We're actually making controlled choices because it's what's presented in front of us.

Lesley: 34:56

You don't get looked down, do you?

Fran: 34:58

Yeah, and then obviously there's a lot of companies that literally cannot feature in in main chains and things like that at all because they can't afford the shelf space. Yeah. So it's about those, the the other information about you know what you can do to help support your gut and support your body, because that then, as you say, feeds your brain and uh shows on your skin, doesn't it?

Lesley: 35:19

And they they're saying some of the training I've done, they were saying a lot of this ADHD, etc., that the children and the younger generation are having is because of the lack of the vitamins, amino acids, etc., from when they're younger for the brain to develop.

Fran: 35:34

Right now, interestingly enough, I've actually interviewed a gentleman with ADHD. So that's kind of one of my podcast episodes. And we did have a very brief discussion about when did kind of because he was more just more recently aware of ADHD. Yes, but in the early 90s, I was actually a childminder for a little while, and I looked after a little child that was diagnosed, it was very, very young, he was preschool, diagnosed with ADHD. And a lot of the studies at that time supported the fact that it could be to do with e-numbers in drinks. So it was yeah, it was to do with e-numbers and things like that in drinks, and there was there was some sort of studies done on it. And initially it wasn't really a recognized condition. No, it was more prevalent in in America, and then I started to hear about it in the early 90s. So that's a whole nother can of worms, isn't it? Because this comes down to what people believe or what they're resistant to, and yeah, you know, so we're just saying what current information is, yeah, and it's for people to make their own informed decisions and their own due diligence over things. We're not necessarily claiming that ADHD doesn't exist or that it's only food-based. There's there needs to be a lot more research, doesn't there?

Lesley: 36:57

There does a lot more research, definitely. But yeah, but you never say never stop learning, do you, friend? Whatever you're in. No, never stop learning.

Fran: 37:06

Oh, well see, that was a revelation that I went through in my life because I didn't actually realize that I had a fixed mindset because I didn't realise there were different types of mindset. So this was like more of a revelation of mine later in life, is the fact that you can have a growth mindset and you can continue learning, growing for as long as you want to.

Lesley: 37:26

Yeah, and obviously what your beliefs are, what they are, but that's the the great thing about having free speech, isn't it? Really? Well, beliefs can change as you get older.

Fran: 37:36

No, but they they can quite often we we center our beliefs around our values and our values are formed, you know, they can be formed at various times in our lives and they can be environmentally affected and stuff like that as well.

Lesley: 37:48

Yeah, and experiences of life, isn't it, as well?

Fran: 37:51

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Because do not quote me on this being true, but apparently they're we're born with um, if we're a hearing person, we're born with a couple of things, and one of them is fear of loud noises and the fear of falling. So everything else is either done to us or by us. So therefore, your beliefs and things like that, they they form. We're not necessarily we're not born with that. No, they develop as you go through the experiences of yeah, and it leads itself into emotional um intelligence and emotional awareness and things like that as well. Um fascinating. See, I like brains, so brains are fascinating.

Lesley: 38:34

Is where the body is just amazing, yeah.

Fran: 38:37

What a what incredible beings we are.

Lesley: 38:39

We are, we are, and what we we take for granted as well, and how we abuse our bodies and what we do to them, and yet they still carry on.

Fran: 38:48

They do still carry on, and a growth mindset, and something you know, if you've if you've gained, you know, you're you dig into your emotional awareness and stuff like that would be taking responsibility for those things that we we do to our to ourselves, but without judgment as well, you know, yeah because these things happen at various times in our lives and and it has to be without judgment.

Lesley: 39:10

Yeah, definitely. You have a coping mechanism, which people deal with definitely, don't they?

Fran: 39:15

So yeah, yeah, absolutely. We've all got our different ways of dealing with things. So this comes with no judgment as well. Absolutely fascinating. So thank you. Sorry about that. I know there's there's a lot of other conversations to be had in there, but today we're highlighting the informed therapist and and just I'm getting some information about beauty therapy because it's not a background that I come from at all, it's not anything that I know much about. And as I say, anybody that cut that comes near me would be horrified by my eyebrows. So well, that looks even like because what would that come under? That's more beautician work, is it, rather than beauty therapy?

Lesley: 39:54

Therapy would be, yeah. Anything could be waxed, yeah. Maybe with that's probably one of your beginner things you learn at the very, very beginning.

Fran: 40:03

Right, okay. Yeah. So if there's anybody else out there listen listening that's similar to me, got annoyed by your eyebrows and shaved them off. You're not on your own. You're not on your own. No, you're not on your own, and there there are things that you can do about it. Um, other than badly draw them on, which is what I do if I ever go near any makeup, which is generally why I don't wear it. So thank you, Leslie, for sharing your experience and your passion.

Lesley: 40:29

Yes.

Fran: 40:30

This is a passion for elevating the beauty therapy industry, isn't it?

Lesley: 40:33

Oh my god, we were saying to the I was saying to the tutor today, actually, I think hair and beauty, you don't go in to for the money, not in the beginning. It's a real passion that you have, which then develops into something else. But in the very, very beginning, it's a very hard job, long hours, mentally draining, on your feet all day, dealing with people, not a lot of money, weekends, work every weekend, late nights.

Fran: 41:05

So it's a passion.

Lesley: 41:07

Oh my god, without a doubt, without a doubt, yeah, it's something you really, really want to want to do. But it's also a great industry for when you have a family. Because when I was a single mum for two years, and when my daughter Terry was growing up, I sold my salon and I worked from home. I went to every sports day, I went to every play, I took her on every trip. It's very hard to, as a mum, to be able to say you've worked full-time and done that.

Fran: 41:39

So you're able to build a flexible business around your your life needs. Yeah, and now you're looking to elevate the industry. Love it. I know that I'm gonna make a big claim here. So I know that your insights will inspire ongoing learning for anybody listening that's interested in this, and a thriving career for the next generation of therapist beauty therapists as well.

Lesley: 42:03

That's what I intend. Not everything is always about money, fan. It's about passing on your knowledge and your expertise to the next generation coming through, and I have a real passion for that. Yeah.

Fran: 42:15

Okay, thank you. So, for anyone listening, which I know you all will be curious to find out about Leslie and what she gets up to, you can find her on Instagram. So on Instagram, it's the Informed Therapistuk, and on Facebook it's the Informed Therapist.

Lesley: 42:34

Yeah.

Fran: 42:35

Um, and that's ways that people can actually contact, make contact with you and look at what you're doing. And as we've already said, you've got masterclasses coming up, you've got membership and things like that. So there are other ways of accessing.

Lesley: 42:48

Oh, there are. My website should be up and running in the next couple of weeks.

Fran: 42:52

So okay. Well, what I'd like you to do, because obviously this is this is of a time as well. So if this goes live before your website is ready, then just let me know when your website is ready because I'd love to kind of share that out as well. Yes. If you're interested in more content like this, this is where I promote myself. Yeah. If you're interested in more content like this, be sure to visit www.melancolymentor.com and follow us for the latest updates. So on my website, I've kind of got the podcast links and some other things that I do. You can also find me on YouTube, which I love. Love a bit of YouTube. I know. So until next time, stay curious, keep igniting your creative potential, and go and look for the informed therapist.

Lesley: 43:41

Amazing. Thank you, Fran. Really enjoy.

Fran: 43:43

Leslie will hold you safe and nurture you.

Lesley: 43:46

Way all the way.

Fran: 43:47

With her with a beauty therapy knowledge. So thank you very much for joining me today.

Lesley: 43:52

Thank you. Thanks, Fran. Bye.

Fran: 43:55

Bye. Thank you for joining me on the Melancholy Coaching Podcast. I'd love you to subscribe for queries or to connect. Email info at melancholymentor.com. Until next time, keep igniting your creative potential.