Aug. 3, 2025
Mentorship Over Competition: How Kate Sprouse is Changing the Beauty Game
Send us a text Kate Sprouse stumbled upon sugaring while teaching at a holistic aesthetics school, and something about this ancient hair removal technique captivated her completely. "Once you touch sugar," she explains, "once I held it, once I got certified, I started playing around with it at home. I sugared any friend or family member that would come around, and I was like this is it? This is the ticket?" Fifteen years later, Kate's intuition has proven remarkably accurate. Her Portland-ba...
Kate Sprouse stumbled upon sugaring while teaching at a holistic aesthetics school, and something about this ancient hair removal technique captivated her completely. "Once you touch sugar," she explains, "once I held it, once I got certified, I started playing around with it at home. I sugared any friend or family member that would come around, and I was like this is it? This is the ticket?"
Fifteen years later, Kate's intuition has proven remarkably accurate. Her Portland-based business, Sugar Me, now boasts two thriving locations and recently claimed the coveted "Best Hair Removal" title across all techniques in Portland's 2024 citywide competition. This recognition feels especially meaningful as it signifies sugaring's emergence from relative obscurity into mainstream awareness.
What truly distinguishes Kate's business model isn't just her singular focus on perfecting the sugaring craft, but her revolutionary approach to team building. Rather than viewing employee departures as failures, she's created an ecosystem where team members can flourish under her guidance and eventually open their own studios—with her full blessing and continued support. "I've kind of created a business model where they come, they work, and if they wish to, then they can go out and do their own business as well. And that cycle has kept rolling through," Kate explains. This philosophy of abundance—believing there are always more than enough clients for everyone who does quality work—challenges conventional business wisdom but has created a tight-knit community of sugar professionals in Portland.
For those considering entering the sugar world, Kate offers simple wisdom gained from her journey: recognize that success is "a marathon, not a sprint," appreciate each chapter of your professional development, and understand that business ownership requires entirely different skills than being an excellent practitioner. Want to experience this unique approach firsthand? Visit Sugar Me in Portland, where Kate and her team continue redefining what professional mentorship looks like in the beauty industry.
If you’ve connected with or been inspired by this episode in any way, leave us a review and let us know your biggest takeaway - I’d love to hear how you embrace Sugaring For All!! And while you've got your phone out, make sure to follow us on Instagram @Love2Sugar.
If you are interested in our business planner you can find the SugarBoss Planner here --->https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/love2sugar
The link to our Monthly SugarBiz Blueprint: https://www.love2sugar.com/offers/cMhp76LA/checkout
Cheers to your Sweet Success!
00:00 - Meeting Kate at SugarCon
09:07 - Kate's Journey Into Sugaring
17:20 - Growing a Sugar-Only Business
28:51 - A Different Approach to Employee Growth
35:33 - The Business Side of Sugaring
40:33 - SugarCon Experience and Industry Evolution
WEBVTT
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Oh, my friends, I was able to go to SugarCon this year, as most of you know, because you saw our socials like crazy and how much fun we had, and one of the most wonderful things that happened was meeting new people at the show.
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So I'll tell you a little story.
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I very first day we roll up in our Uber and it was a couple of educators and myself.
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We roll up in the Uber and I just started introducing myself to people in line because you know I'm not shy.
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And so I roll up and I walk up to this beautiful woman, so classy, pretty blonde Bob.
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I'm like, hi, I'm Shannon.
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She says, hi, I'm Kate.
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And this is Kate.
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And this is Kate because she had brought some of her fellow sugar pros in Portland.
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So we get to talking and, I kid you not, I feel like I've known her my whole life.
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I feel like we were sisters in another lifetime.
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And I just connected with her in line before SugarCon, so fast forward to.
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I was so impressed by the way that she runs her business.
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When I spoke in the afternoon I actually surprised her and called her up onto the stage and just had her share her journey, because she really does some really different things in her practice and she is just really a special, special woman.
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So Kate Sprouse with Sugar Me in Portland.
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She has two locations.
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She is our guest today and she's like once you finish listening to the episode, you want to go to Portland and hang out with her, and in Portland she has two locations.
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She is our guest today and she's like, once you finish listening to the episode, you want to go to Portland and hang out with her and have coffee.
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So I hope you enjoy this episode as much as we enjoyed filming it.
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And so, ladies and gentlemen, Kate Sprouse Sugar Me in Portland.
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Hey girl, welcome to the Sugar Show.
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Hi, thank you so much for having me.
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Oh my gosh, okay.
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So first of all we were like how are we not sisters in another life, I swear to God.
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But also just we have.
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We had to push record because we just couldn't stop talking about all the cool things in our industry.
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So I put pause on you and we need to have the microphones on so we can share this passion, because it's infectious.
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Yeah so we're just going to jump right into it.
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And why don't you?
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start with the story you were going to tell me, and then we'll backtrack to, like your, your, how you got here.
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So yeah, so OK, You're going to tell me the story about?
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was it about sugar con?
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No, it was just about our industry in general, about sugaring and just something that is something that I'm proud of within my Portland market, where I am from, portland, oregon, um, but last year we do this big thing through Portland, where it's the best of it's like the best of you know, you name it Portland.
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Where it's the best of it's like the best of you know you name it noodle house, the best of massage therapy, the best of anything, and it's done every single year and this last year it's you know it's under the realm of best hair removal, right?
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So this could be any form of hair removal and last year, in 2024 it hasn't started for 2025 yet, but last year in 2024, the best of't started for 2025 yet, but it last year in 2024, the best of hair removal in all of Portland, oregon was Sugar Me, which is huge to me because it was sugaring, was noticed and brought to the forefront versus we have ample waxing salons that are here and salons as well, but I don't know.
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It was just really cool to have that experience last year, where I'm like they were seen, I'm seen, we're seen, my team is seen, sugar Me's seen, the sugaring community is seen.
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It was, it was a big deal.
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So yeah, it was pretty cool, I just wanted it yeah.
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Changing are the days of what is it that you do?
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to oh you sugar.
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Oh you, sugar, Cool, right, okay, so let's back up and talk about how you got here.
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Yeah, what?
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Oh my gosh, cause it feels like a lifetime ago and yesterday all at the same time, right, when you think back on the last 15 years, cause it's been 15 for you, right?
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15 for me, yeah, 15, 20.
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And that's when I opened up my first flagship store yeah Over in Northeast Portland.
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And then, in 2014, I did Southeast Portland.
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Okay, so let's talk about.
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What were you doing before?
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What was Kate's life pre-sugar?
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Yeah for sure.
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So before getting into solely sugaring, I had the opportunity to teach.
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I taught for several years at a holistic school for aesthetics it's the Euro Institute of Skincare.
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We had a Portland chapter here at the time, and so I had the ability to teach and that was honestly one of my favorite jobs, and I think really the two me owning a business and also being an educator kind of go hand in hand, because it was the fact that I got to just kind of impart, like teach people how to take on this trade, and so that was something that was super inspiring to me to be able to have all aged women walk through our door, be able to teach the education of aesthetics, and have them walk out the door with something that they could make money at you know, help their families with, do for themselves, and so that part was super inspiring to me.
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Plus, that is where I got to theory sugaring along with threading and different modalities.
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But sugaring really caught my eye and it was before anyone was really sugaring here in Portland, and so I wanted to be able to demo it as an educator.
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So I went up to Seattle and got certified this is like a million years ago and so got certified in it, and so I was able to bring it back down and be able to teach it at that time, demo it, and then we ultimately started to certify the students at Euro.
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And then from there, I just once you touch sugar, at least for myself, once I held it, once I got certified, I started playing around with it at home.
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I sugared any friend or family member that would come around, and so I was like this is it?
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This is the ticket?
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Why am I not doing this all the time?
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And so that's what sparked the interest.
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And then, once I got that idea, there was kind of no stopping me and, yeah, I just kind of ran with it.
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I do feel like my friends and family were pretty supportive, but I think kind of like, what are you doing?
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But that's okay, we're here now.
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So, yeah, so that was being able to teach who came up with the name Sugar.
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Bean Uh, it was me and two of my girlfriends actually.
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Um, yeah, that we were just kind of no-transcript.
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So really, at the beginning, when I first set my lease, it was basically just girlfriends of mine coming up with that, coming up with branding.
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They knew a little bit more about branding than I did, and so we kind of worked on that together.
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And then, yeah, honestly, friends and family doing the build out and painting and, yeah, just opening the doors and just hoping that it would work, and I don't know, I went around the neighborhoods, my first location going door to door.
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You know this was 2010.
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There wasn't internet, there was nothing at all you know this was 2010.
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There wasn't.
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There wasn't internet, there was nothing at all.
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So we talked about that at SugarCon.
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So, okay, so you open the doors, you're handing out flyers, you're hoping people will like, want to try sugar.
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Did you wax at all in your sugar?
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Me space.
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No, no, no, waxing.
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And I also knew that, opening this business, I wanted to be sugaring.
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Only I didn't have we don't do facials, we don't do anything.
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I just wanted to be really proficient at this one technique.
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So I knew that myself, and then eventually, my staff members could really people could walk in the door and be like this is the place to go.
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They do this all day, every day.
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Just feel well, taken care of in that manner.
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So, no, I just sugared.
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But I will say I opened my doors.
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It was summertime of 2010.
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So there were a lot of moments where I had to breathe and not cry, because I was like, oh my gosh, what have I done?
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Because I would definitely have moments of melting down.
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I was not a pro by any means at this point.
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I was just going off faith and just kind of faking it till I made it and just knowing that I believed in the product so much and knowing that I believed in what could be, and I just you know, I don't know I just jumped and then figured it out.
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So yeah, and it worked.
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A lot of us did in the beginning and now we're like we should have had a better business plan.
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Yeah, for sure, for sure.
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It just was very like, yeah, done very much on a small budget.
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I did not go big at the beginning, but you can do that, you know there's not a lot of pre and post, no A warmer and some pace and some knowledge and and knowing how to do it the right way.
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Now I highly recommend if we were to go back 15 years and redo it, I would highly recommend you know a business plan and oh, 1 million percent.
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I did have a business, I did have a business plan.
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I did have, like, my financials like in order.
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I just didn't, it didn't take a lot of money to get it started.
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It was yeah, it just yeah, definitely.
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And yeah, yeah it was.
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It was definitely still a leap of faith, that's for sure, Cause I had three treatment rooms in my.
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I still have three treatment rooms, and it was just myself just in hopes that it would build so so what point did you decide?
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okay, it's time to bring on employees.
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It was pretty fresh off the gate, there was one of my employees came on with me pretty early and that was the two of us for the longest time, um, working for pretty much nothing.
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Right For that beginning part, um, and then from there we started to build clientele.
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I did run a special, like a coupon to special, and so that got people in the door as well, and then for that we just kept rebooking, you know, getting them back in the door, and then, yeah, it just started to grow, I think because also it was such a niche at the time I got featured.
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Our news channel came.
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I got to you know, the local like morning show.
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We had a spot on that, which was always fun.
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Also, always kind of awkward when you're like doing hair removal on a news anchor and we did his back and you know it was like like there's no need to yell, come on now.
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So you know, but come on, come on.
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But yeah, it was great.
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We had some good publicity at the beginning and and it started to roll through within that first year I was out of the red, so that was great.
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And from there we just did incremental growth, little by little and then by 2014, you know, I had my second locations.
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What?
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made you decide to open a second location.
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The need, so many people yeah.
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There was a definite demand and it's funny, portland, we're such niche neighborhoods and so we were in a Northeast pocket and even though we're just a few short miles away, in Southeast Portland, we definitely was a different clientele, different need, different market.
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So, yeah, it worked out well.
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They both are doing great.
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Okay, so you do something a little different and I explained in the intro about how I met you, which was at SugarCon.
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I walk up the first day, everyone's in line and I'm like hey, I'm Shannon, you're like hey and I think two of the I'm Shannon, you're like hey and I think two of the girls that were with.
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You're like hey and I'm Kate was like yeah, right, and so we know each other and what I came to learn about your business is you do things a little differently with your staff.
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It's just not a turn and burn.
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You work here for 15 years.
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I grind away at you as an owner, Talk about your culture a little bit and what you do a little bit differently and how your employees kind of cycle through your business, that model.
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Yeah, it honestly kind of happened organically.
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I think the core root of who I am as a human is education and really being able to gift upon.
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I'm no gatekeeper of anything and I also come from the place of there's always more right.
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I've never come from a place of holding onto.
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I'm always trying to breathe life into just having faith that there's always more, there's always plenty.
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So with those two things in mind, I think ultimately what has been brought to my footsteps is that I have a business model that a lot of women come and they stay for a couple years and they get comfortable and on their own feet and feel well cared for.
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I'm really proud of the work-life balance and kind of how I treat my employees.
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They're well taken care of because they are everything to me.
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But, once they feel comfortable and if they choose to, they end up ultimately, a lot of them go out to start their own Chagrin Studios, and this has just kind of happened organically.
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But I've also curated a place that they know that they have a safe space with me and then there's open communication.
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When they want to go off and do their own thing, there's no, it's all love, all support.
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They go out, they do their own thing, yeah.
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So basically I've kind of created a business model where they come, they work and if they wish to, then they can go out and do their own business as well.
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And that that cycle has kept rolling through.
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And that's funny because when I did meet you at SugarCon, I was there with three of my teammates that used to work for me that now have their own places.
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But if that I mean we went together as a team.
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That's incredible and that's all done with love and understanding about what this world is all about is is not gatekeep, and to not hold everything to yourself and to empower other women to do amazing things, and I love that you do that with love.
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So how does that work, like with your clients?
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Do you end up losing clients when they leave?
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How do you work that?
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Totally when they leave.
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How do you work that Totally?
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Yeah, it is.
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It is scary, right.
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When I say this out loud and I'm not going to lie, sometimes you do Through the 15 years, I won't say that I haven't been slighted, you know, and things do happen, but it's it's not.
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It's not every time, but with our clients.
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The clients are sugar me's clients and that's done to where I feel like they feel very comfortable at my space and they know different technicians because I do run an employee format so they're not Commission based, so it is an employee format business that I run Hourly to do that in Oregon.
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Mm-hmm you have to do that in Oregon right hourly.
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You have to do that in Oregon, right?
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You don't have to do that.
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You can either do hourly.
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You can do lease to spaces, you can do commission-based.
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Yeah, I think you can do lots of different formats.
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It's different here in California and other states, like in California, you have to be an employee or you have to rent a room.
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That's completely separate business.
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Oh yeah, okay, yeah, well, I've got I special to Oregon, you know, which is fine.
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It's fine.
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It's just people all over the world that listen.
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So yeah, and countries like in Canada you don't even need to get licensed Like you can just sugar open your.
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I know it's crazy, All the differences, but so you have an employee model which is very clear.
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Yeah, An employee model, and so I think what that does is lets people know they come in and they can get sugared by any of the employees and get a very proficient job done, and people do fall in love with people right.
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So at the end of the day, some clients do travel with their other technician, but some of them stay.
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So I would say I haven't been burned so much to where I'm losing a lot of clients, to where it's going to make a difference to my bottom line, because there's more clients walking in the door and there's another esthetician that's going to come in and people are going to fall in love with, and then they're going to build their clientele and it just is a cycle that has just worked out for us for sure.
00:16:25.441 --> 00:16:28.296
So let's talk about the employee mentality on that, right.
00:16:28.296 --> 00:16:38.047
So, because I get a lot of people that kind of ask like how can you be an employee and not take clients from your boss but also build a clientele?
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It's like a sticky little spot, right, because you want to do well for Sugar Me as an employee, and so the idea is okay, let's come on as an employee with a model like yours.
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Let's do as much as we can to represent that business, as we should with any business.
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And then, okay, I've learned some skills.
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I'm going to be very transparent with my boss, which is you, and what my goals are, what my dreams are, what I want to do.
00:17:03.926 --> 00:17:05.169
You know that's it's.
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It's huge to be really open and talking to you about that, and then you can help guide them to the next level.
00:17:12.333 --> 00:17:46.093
The idea of the whole time and I want to make sure the audience is hearing this is that you don't go from school to three locations killing it, you know, without doing the work in the meantime, right, and so the it's the work, the dedication to the work, and it's also the love and the transparency and the respect for the space, and I think that's really critical If you're a student that's listening to this, or if you are new or you're just signing on with a spa, is to say, okay, this is part of my journey.
00:17:46.840 --> 00:17:48.105
I have a boss like Kate.
00:17:48.105 --> 00:17:52.253
So any of her staff right now, if they're listening, you have a badass boss.
00:17:52.253 --> 00:17:54.824
But I have a boss like Kate who's going to nurture me through this.
00:17:54.824 --> 00:18:00.445
But I'm not going to stab her in the back because that's not good karma and I'm not going to.
00:18:00.445 --> 00:18:08.721
I'm going to practice my craft and get good enough that I can move on, but I'm going to communicate the whole time.
00:18:08.721 --> 00:18:13.391
So what's kind of your message to that newbie that is coming on board?
00:18:13.391 --> 00:18:15.521
What is your message to them?
00:18:15.521 --> 00:18:18.469
Kind of an addition on that kind of scope, right?
00:18:18.469 --> 00:18:27.105
Like what is your message to them on on how to be, you know, obviously, a good employee, but yeah, I think you nailed it.
00:18:27.244 --> 00:18:54.106
I mean coming out of school just really knowing that it's kind of a marathon, not a sprint, you know that it's going to take a gift and so really, if you hone in on those building blocks or those chapters that you're in and really do the best that you can in those chapters, you know eventually that page is going to turn and you're going to have your next chapter.
00:18:54.848 --> 00:19:04.550
What that looks like you don't know in the moment, but it's like really taking in all the knowledge and all the expertise of those around you in that moment and just really settling in.
00:19:04.550 --> 00:19:15.765
I feel like that's a lot of what I've learned through life and then also what I see what happens with my team members and I will say not all of them choose to leave.
00:19:15.765 --> 00:19:19.092
I have some great core team members that stay.
00:19:19.092 --> 00:19:22.124
It's not just let's get in, let's work, let's go.
00:19:22.124 --> 00:19:26.172
I mean, my team stays with me for five, six years.
00:19:26.172 --> 00:19:29.984
You know they stay for a long time, especially before they go.
00:19:29.984 --> 00:19:33.821
So they, yeah, it's a really great work environment, so a lot of them don't leave.
00:19:33.942 --> 00:19:36.027
But why would you yeah?
00:19:36.227 --> 00:19:43.301
yeah, yeah, the employees, I mean honestly my teammates, I don't even call them employees, I mean they are like teammates, my team members.
00:19:43.301 --> 00:19:47.369
They, yeah, they work really, really hard.
00:19:47.369 --> 00:20:09.743
But yeah, I think, for the newbie coming in, I think, just really recognizing that, to do the best that you can in this chapter, that you are and know that there's always you know the next chapter and what that looks like we don't have to know in the moment, but just really be present and take in what you can in the knowledge and learn what you can and experience what you can at that moment and, yeah, be open to the changes when they happen.
00:20:09.743 --> 00:20:15.001
But yeah, it's definitely, it's a definite, it's a slow, it's a slow build.
00:20:15.723 --> 00:20:22.671
Yeah, yeah, you know, I think for those of you that are listening, that are new, there's there's two, there's kind of a tandem.
00:20:22.671 --> 00:20:29.183
Things that are happening right Is is you're a good practitioner, practitioner, you're getting building your skills there.
00:20:29.183 --> 00:20:35.986
It is not easy to sugar and to know how to troubleshoot and what to do in sticky, wink wink situation.
00:20:35.986 --> 00:20:43.425
I haven't said that in a long time, um, and but then also the whole business piece of this that goes hand in hand.
00:20:43.425 --> 00:20:45.510
That is a whole different set of skills.
00:20:45.510 --> 00:20:53.809
Yeah, I think what happens is a lot of people say, oh, I'm going to go out on my own, but they've done zero research on what it takes to have this.
00:20:53.809 --> 00:20:56.604
When we talked about business plan in the beginning, they're like a business what?
00:20:56.604 --> 00:20:57.567
Um?
00:20:57.567 --> 00:21:03.605
I mean, how many students have talked to you that don't even have a business bank account or you know?
00:21:03.605 --> 00:21:09.317
I mean you have to understand payroll and one percent.
00:21:09.678 --> 00:21:12.692
I don't mean to downplay when I said I did it on a budget, because I did do it on a budget.
00:21:12.692 --> 00:21:16.223
However, I did definitely utilize all my resources here.
00:21:16.223 --> 00:21:17.907
I had a definite business plan.
00:21:17.907 --> 00:21:24.667
I had my capital to last me for quite a I mean for quite a while because I knew I was not going to be taking any money home for my family.
00:21:24.667 --> 00:21:28.662
I also, um, I set my family up.
00:21:28.662 --> 00:21:38.682
They knew, I mean, my husband knew I didn't have kids at the time Um, but we definitely pre-planned for our own personal finances on the back end too, not knowing that I wasn't going to be running like, bring money home.
00:21:39.403 --> 00:21:43.332
Um, yeah, there was a lot of financial planning and a lot of business planning that came into play.
00:21:43.332 --> 00:21:49.586
Um, yeah, yeah, I met with my like, I had mentors through the small business association that we have here locally.
00:21:49.586 --> 00:21:50.167
I went downtown.
00:21:50.167 --> 00:21:52.904
Yeah, I definitely you have to have your ducks in a row before starting.
00:21:52.904 --> 00:21:56.381
I just, you know I didn't have like millions of dollars.
00:21:56.381 --> 00:22:03.787
It was like you know it can be done on a budget, but you definitely need to have your T's crossed and your I's dotted, and that doesn't stop right.
00:22:03.787 --> 00:22:17.053
I'm 15 years in and there's things that are always changing always, and I definitely organization and hard work, because it doesn't shut off, you know, it's constant.
00:22:17.334 --> 00:22:19.980
So yeah, yes, your brain is swimming on the regular.
00:22:20.681 --> 00:22:42.806
You know, I would like for staff members, team members, to think about what it goes into to be a boss you know some and for bosses to listen, because there's a lot that goes into that on our side, on our responsibility, that we have to have kind hearts and open minds for our staff, and they have us.
00:22:42.806 --> 00:22:47.085
It's this reciprocity thing right, because we're all doing the best with what we've got right.
00:22:47.085 --> 00:22:51.554
So the owner is laying awake at night wondering how you're going to keep the lights on.
00:22:51.554 --> 00:22:54.367
You know, like, please, honor that.
00:22:54.367 --> 00:22:56.233
You know honor those owners.
00:22:56.233 --> 00:22:57.819
Like this isn't easy for owners.
00:22:57.819 --> 00:23:02.131
Like, just because you become an owner doesn't mean you've hit the finish line.
00:23:02.131 --> 00:23:06.469
It's like it's a whole nother race, right, it's a whole nother race, right, it's a whole nother ball game.
00:23:06.990 --> 00:23:16.527
And then I think that owners have to respect the staff members who are coming in are being, you know, um, as amazing as they can be in a representation of you.
00:23:16.527 --> 00:23:30.035
So it really is this nice reciprocity if you can do it right, like you have, um, and you know asking yourself am I doing the best in my role to benefit the other side and the other side of the fence?
00:23:30.035 --> 00:23:38.047
Because then ultimately, the fence comes down and you're all in it together, right, and that's what I felt from you and your team was really.
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