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Michelle Emmick: Bold Mind, Bold Beauty · The Bold Lounge

0:08
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Bold Lounge Podcast.
0:10
SPEAKER_01: My name is Lee Burgett and I will be your host.
0:13
SPEAKER_01: If you're anything like me, you love hearing inspiring stories of people who have gone on bold journeys and made a positive impact in their life.
0:21
SPEAKER_01: This podcast is all about those kinds of stories.
0:24
SPEAKER_01: Every week we'll hear from someone who has taken the lead or embarked on an extraordinary journey.
0:29
SPEAKER_01: In addition to hearing their stories, we'll also learn about their bold-grown mindset that they used to make things happen.
0:35
SPEAKER_01: Whether they faced challenges or doubts along the way, they persisted and ultimately achieved their goals.
0:42
SPEAKER_01: These impactful stories will leave you both motivated and inspired to pursue your own goal.
0:47
SPEAKER_01: I believe everyone has a bold story waiting to be free.
0:51
SPEAKER_01: Tune in and get ready to be inspired.
0:58
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the bold lounge.
1:00
SPEAKER_01: Today I have Michelle Emick, who is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Ask Us Beauty.
1:05
SPEAKER_01: Welcome, Michelle.
1:06
SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for having me.
1:08
SPEAKER_01: So I'd love for you to give just a brief intro of yourself to the audience so they can get to know you before we get started.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
1:14
SPEAKER_00: I had spent about 20 years in the field of aesthetics working in sales and operations leadership roles and saw a need in the market for transparency.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: So what I did was I took all of my knowledge and I started a company in 2018 called My CoachMD, where we would educate and inform consumers that were interested in having aesthetic procedures.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: We would set them up for success.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: And I always say we would essentially vet them for the doctors so that when they walked into an office, they had an, they came in with the knowledge so that they could have a great patient experience.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: I did that for several years and had a chance to write a book called Blue Collar Beauty, Confessions of a Plastic Surgery Coach, where I shared a lot of that knowledge and some fun stories of my 20-year career and had such a great response from not only the readers, but the women in the community that that supported this book that I thought, how can we do this on a bigger level?
2:18
SPEAKER_00: How can we create a bigger platform?
2:20
SPEAKER_00: And I have my experience, but there's so many others out there that can do the same thing.
2:26
SPEAKER_00: And which then led to creating Ask Us Beauty magazine.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: And we bring in the experts in all different types of fields, and we have our three pillars, which are to educate, empower, and inspire.
2:40
SPEAKER_00: And so we do that through the stories that we share inside the magazine.
2:44
SPEAKER_01: Excellent.
2:44
SPEAKER_01: So you've had some bold moves along the way, it sounds like we'll we'll get into those.
2:49
SPEAKER_01: And I wondered what is your definition of bold?
2:52
SPEAKER_01: What does bold look like for you?
2:54
SPEAKER_00: The first thing that comes to mind is the word confidence.
2:57
SPEAKER_00: And obviously it's it's having that confidence to take the leap, take the step, go for it, any of those things.
3:06
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
3:07
SPEAKER_01: And then for you, when's the first time you went for it, took the leap, the go for it that you can remember?
3:13
SPEAKER_00: Well, I've been doing that my entire life.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: You know, I always say I was set up for this mindset.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: My father was a coach, and so from as long as I can remember, I've been told, you know, to go for it early on, but I think professionally I had spent years at a company, had a great job, and moved my way up the ladder.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: And I had a moment where I said, you know what, I'm gonna take the leap, take that step.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: And I left to go out on my own and started my own consulting business.
3:44
SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, so you've been taking the leap.
3:46
SPEAKER_01: So when you first started out at My Coach MD, is that where you like said, I'm gonna do this when you were younger, I'm gonna go into this industry or kind of what brought you into the aesthetic industry, plastic surgery, and then now the magazine industry?
4:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the great, great question.
4:02
SPEAKER_00: I spent several years in the weight loss industry that was very big back in the day.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: And I was still is right, yeah, it still is.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: Yes, absolutely.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: Um, these used to be where you go into the locations and you'd meet with a counselor you know, three times a week.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: I've always struggled with my weight, and so I felt very connected to the clients that would come in and we would share stories, and I I always had I moved up the ladder very quickly because I always had the highest, you know, rings and the highest numbers.
4:31
SPEAKER_00: They'd be like, Wow, how did you do that?
4:33
SPEAKER_00: And I would say, Well, I think because I connect.
4:35
SPEAKER_00: And now knowing years later, that is my superpower, but and so I would move up the ladder and then, oh, can you be a trainer?
4:42
SPEAKER_00: Can you be a director and teach them how you do it?
4:44
SPEAKER_00: So I was I spent several years and I was just ready for a change.
4:50
SPEAKER_00: And I happened to look at indeed back in the this, I think it was indeed back in the day.
4:54
SPEAKER_00: I don't remember it still exists, I think.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: Okay, it was years ago, and it said, Are you looking this?
5:00
SPEAKER_00: I always think this is funny.
5:01
SPEAKER_00: I wrote about this in my book.
5:02
SPEAKER_00: I said, Do you are you looking for a six-figure income?
5:06
SPEAKER_00: If you come from the weight loss industry or health or any of those things, apply.
5:10
SPEAKER_00: And I thought, oh, that's me.
5:11
SPEAKER_00: I want to make six figures.
5:13
SPEAKER_00: Why not?
5:13
SPEAKER_00: And um, so I went and I got an interview and I went down to the interview, and they hired me before I got to the parking lot.
5:21
SPEAKER_00: They offered me the job and I flew to Michigan and I ended up spending uh a little over six years working at the time, it was the largest national aesthetic chain, a company that's no longer in business, but it was such an incredible training ground.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: I had no experience, but what I did have was I had experience with people and I knew that we were helping transform them.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: They came in wanting to look and feel better about themselves, no different than the weight loss industry.
5:49
SPEAKER_00: And so I took that experience and I trans, I transferred it over.
5:53
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then through the years, obviously I really did a deep dive into uh learning as much as I could about plastic surgery.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: I worked hand in hand with the doctors.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: I would, you know, any chance I could get, I was like a sponge.
6:07
SPEAKER_00: But I fell in love with it because I would see women, primarily women, coming in at a point in their life.
6:13
SPEAKER_00: Most of the women were 50 and older, and they were, you know, looking, they didn't want to look different.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: They just wanted to look better.
6:22
SPEAKER_00: And they would look in the mirror and say, you know, I look like I'm my mom and I just want to look refreshed.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: And we were able to do that.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: And it was the stories and the thank yous and everything that came along with it.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: I was like, this is so empowering.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: Um, it was beautiful.
6:38
SPEAKER_00: And so I I used that and I spent years there, and then I went on and had several other positions along the way throughout my career and just immersed myself into that industry and loved it.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: But where I found the need was there was a few things.
6:53
SPEAKER_00: When I worked for those national chains, I said, you know, there's about a 30% show rate.
6:59
SPEAKER_00: What happened to the other 70% that never made it in?
7:02
SPEAKER_00: And I knew why they didn't make it in because they were afraid.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: There was a fear factor.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to talk to those people because I knew that if I had a chance to talk to them and they had someone, a trusted advisor, they would then be able to make a good decision for themselves, whether it was, you know, hey, I'm gonna go for it or no, it's not for me.
7:22
SPEAKER_00: So I decided to start my coach MD, which was a virtual consultation.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: It was just to sit to get a chance to get in front of someone and ask them because people were, you know, they didn't know how much it cost, they didn't know what they needed done.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a lot of questions there.
7:38
SPEAKER_00: And if you're not informed, you could have a poor patient experience.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: And I saw that over my 20 years.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: I saw people spending more than they should, I saw people getting more than they should, people that maybe weren't in the right mindset that were getting something done.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: There was a lot of things in there that I thought this we can do better, I can do better.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to be that person that's gonna do that.
8:03
SPEAKER_01: Lots to dig into there.
8:05
SPEAKER_01: So, in the sense of something you said, yeah, I want to look better, but I don't want to look different, right?
8:11
SPEAKER_01: You know, I just want to, I want to still be me, but I want to be the better version of me.
8:16
SPEAKER_01: And that can be extrapolated to like so many things.
8:19
SPEAKER_01: Uh as you were saying, and I was just thinking, you know, as we go throughout our lives as women, like we're always wanting to be the next better version of ourselves.
8:27
SPEAKER_01: And you know, from your perspective, obviously it's the appearance, and and and that's very important.
8:33
SPEAKER_01: And but there's also internal pieces to that that you just hit on at the end of it, like your mindset and being able to kind of understand why you're doing things that you're doing and educating yourself.
8:43
SPEAKER_01: So as you think about, you know, from whether it's weight loss or plastic surgery, there's a psychology to wanting to be better, right?
8:51
SPEAKER_01: So, what are some of the things that also go deeper than that about internally that you need to understand before you do something like that?
8:59
SPEAKER_01: Like being in the right space to to make some of those moves.
9:03
SPEAKER_00: A hundred percent.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: And it and in I had, you know, I it's interesting because I think years ago in the plastic surgery field, they used to do, you know, they used to have to go and get uh like uh, I think it's like a psychic psych psychological evaluation.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: I this was years ago.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: They don't do any of that now, I don't believe.
9:22
SPEAKER_00: But you know, I've spent a lot of time counseling and coaching.
9:26
SPEAKER_00: That was not my my undergraduate degree was in social work, but I wasn't a therapist by any means.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: But through the years, I would see so much of that where I would say, This, you know, you I would try to do the best I could from my level of expertise just to say, you know, ask yourself the questions, make sure you're in that right mindset.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: And I talked about it in my book because that was there's such a disconnect.
9:49
SPEAKER_00: People don't take the time, they their visual, like, oh, I want to look like that, but they're not thinking about everything else that goes with it.
9:56
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, through my my journey, I talk a lot about the mindset in my book.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: And then again, in the magazine, when I started Ask Us Beauty, we really wanted to focus on, you know, beauty inside out.
10:11
SPEAKER_00: So it's great to do the things on the outside, but you have to really make sure that you're in the right, right frame of mind and you've you've ask yourself the questions.
10:19
SPEAKER_00: You know, a big one that I saw was women doing things to whether it's, you know, I'm going through a divorce or, you know, I wanna, they were trying to hold on to something or like, oh, I'm applying for a job and it's a tough market and all those things.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: So there was a lot of that.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: And I really tried to preach the message of, you know, make sure you're doing it for you and no one else.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: And knowing that just because you're gonna get that done isn't gonna bring those things back or bring those things to you.
10:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I think thinking that it's gonna solve a problem, right?
10:54
SPEAKER_01: So whether it's some of the things you talked about, or whether it's I'm gonna change my job or I'm going to, you know, maybe move to a different part of the world, or I'm going, you know, but like you can't run from what's inside you, right?
11:07
SPEAKER_00: No, and you can't.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: And the other thing we would I saw in my 20 years was that it once you get one thing done, then they would, then people would come back obsessing about something else.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: You get this now.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: What's next?
11:19
SPEAKER_00: It's like, what's next?
11:20
SPEAKER_00: What's next?
11:20
SPEAKER_00: What's next?
11:21
SPEAKER_01: I've heard it can be addicted.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: It is, it is, and I saw it firsthand, and so I really thought, you know, what can I do?
11:27
SPEAKER_00: Because I do love there were so many beautiful stories, and I share some of them in my book, but I really wanted the message to be please do this for you and make sure that you, you know, have done the work inside so that you know, and you feel good about hey, if you want to get a facelift, great.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: If you want to get, you know, a tummy tuck, do whatever you want, just make sure you're doing it for you and doing it for the right reasons.
11:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
11:52
SPEAKER_01: Because I think sometimes, you know, I'll just speak from my own experience.
11:55
SPEAKER_01: Like, I have definitely talked negatively to myself.
11:59
SPEAKER_01: I struggle with my weight.
12:00
SPEAKER_01: I've been very open about this.
12:02
SPEAKER_01: I gained 60 pounds back after losing it, and now I'm in this process of trying to lose it again, which is really hard, harder at 50 than it was at 40.
12:12
SPEAKER_01: I'll just say that.
12:12
SPEAKER_01: But it doesn't mean that that's an excuse, it just means it's it's gonna take a different tactic.
12:17
SPEAKER_01: I definitely talk to myself in a way about that.
12:20
SPEAKER_01: If I take that, that's probably the most negative I am to myself.
12:24
SPEAKER_01: And I think when you're thinking about whether you're, you know, you're doing any type of surgery or whether you're trying to look better, feel better, be healthy, like it has to serve a purpose other than this surface, right?
12:35
SPEAKER_01: Right.
12:36
SPEAKER_01: But I think when we think about just making ourselves better, sometimes we're our worst enemy in our own head between our ears.
12:42
SPEAKER_01: Like we can really talk to ourselves pretty negatively.
12:45
SPEAKER_01: Oh, a hundred percent.
12:47
SPEAKER_01: As you have talked to different people and done interviews at Ask Us Beauty.
12:51
SPEAKER_01: So I think you know, as we kind of transition from what you did to what you're doing now, one of the things you talked about, you know, your three pillars are educate, empower, and inspire.
13:00
SPEAKER_01: So tell tell me a little bit about what the magazine is about and how it's different from your typical magazine that you might see on the shelf.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thank you for asking that.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: I think one of the things is that I, you know, I've always loved to sit down with a magazine when I was younger, but now that I've, you know, over the years, you get older, the stuff that you're interested in changes, right?
13:20
SPEAKER_00: And for me, I wanted to be around, I want things that are gonna make me feel good, that are gonna be impactful.
13:27
SPEAKER_00: And I said, you know, I love, I love to, I'm a storyteller, I love to connect, I really enjoy this part of it.
13:34
SPEAKER_00: How can we create a platform different?
13:36
SPEAKER_00: So the magazine is very content heavy.
13:38
SPEAKER_00: Um, we said right away that we weren't just gonna throw a bunch of ads.
13:42
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you look at magazines now, they're no offense, but I mean, they're 40, 50% are just ads.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: You won't see that in ours.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: We're very thoughtful with the brands that we work with.
13:52
SPEAKER_00: Really love to work with small brands because you know, small business brands, that's us.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: So it's content heavy and it's all the messaging is positive.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: So when we look at educate, empower, inspire, that's that's what we want those stories to bring.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: We want people to walk away feeling good and feeling like, wow, I really got something out of this and looking forward to the next one.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: So I hope that answers the question.
14:18
SPEAKER_00: But I but I, you know, I just I wanted to be different and I wanted something that when you walked away, like I said, just like if you read a good book, it's the same way.
14:27
SPEAKER_00: We we and I look for, you know, I want to interview people that I'm interested in talking to.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: And like we ask all of our interviews, you know, how do you define beauty?
14:36
SPEAKER_00: Because when people think beauty, they immediately think hair and makeup and stuff.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, no, I mean, those things are great, don't get me wrong.
14:44
SPEAKER_00: But if you really, if you look at our our magazine, that's not the majority of what you'll find in there.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: It's really more about internal, and we have look, we have a psychologist and we have a wellness coach and we have life coaches.
14:59
SPEAKER_00: So we really focus a lot about mental wellness more than anything.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: And the other stuff is great too, but it's not the it's not the typical beauty magazine that most people think they're opening up and and reading.
15:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, you're different right away with just being content heavy.
15:15
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
15:15
SPEAKER_01: Any magazine I picked up recently, it's like it's so like 20 ads to like one page of copy.
15:22
SPEAKER_00: And that would drive me crazy because I would get on a plane and I'd love to sit down with a magazine.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: I always have, and I'd open it up.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, well, that was 15 minutes.
15:29
SPEAKER_00: Thanks.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: Whereas ours, you're really getting, like I said, content rich, you're getting stories, interesting stories.
15:36
SPEAKER_00: And and I know for me, when I do interviews, I really like to get to know the person and find we like to share the why, whether it's with working with small brands and them as our partners, because we want authenticity, we want connection.
15:50
SPEAKER_00: I want to know if I'm buying a product, I love to know the backstory.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh, that's fascinating.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: I do need that, or I want that.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: I want to, I want to support that business.
16:00
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, just throwing up a static ad, you know, that doesn't really, that doesn't really do much.
16:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
16:07
SPEAKER_01: So when we're thinking about, you know, the things that I talked about before about our own voices sometimes and why people are doing some of the things they're doing in the beauty, you know, industry and some of the things that they can do to themselves, whether it's getting healthier or, you know, it doesn't always involve a surgery, like it can just be changing your habits.
16:25
SPEAKER_01: What are some of the things, either from your experience or from the magazine, there are there's some tips for people, like where to start to unpack it or even where to start to understand where to start?
16:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think I I I could just use myself, for example, and we've talked about weight, and I've always myself included, you had mentioned it.
16:43
SPEAKER_00: I've always struggled with my weight.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: Um, I talk about it in my book that I wrote.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: You know, I used to say when I was younger, I was gonna open a store called two to twelve because you never knew what size that was gonna be.
16:55
SPEAKER_00: And then COVID hit and then they'll side, then I went into plus sizes.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: So, which nothing wrong with it, but I just laugh because I'm like, my sizes opened up.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: But I think for myself, I I tend to get you know laser focused on an area in my life and I neglect other ones.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: And so what I do is I always try to visualize a pie and why it's a pie, probably because I love food, but each piece is that slice.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: And so I really I try to structure my day and make sure that I'm like, okay, this much time is, you know, designated to myself, whether it's working out, you know, going to the gym, that type of thing.
17:32
SPEAKER_00: This much is, you know, I've got to focus on mom time and time with my husband, you know, work.
17:37
SPEAKER_00: So I would say to anyone when it comes to beauty, because my definition is, you know, I think every I think there's beauty in all forms, right?
17:45
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we want to show is making sure that you carve time out for each area of your life and try to be as balanced as you can.
17:52
SPEAKER_00: It's not easy.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: I think people are, you know, nobody has it all down.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: But really looking at each area of your life and making sure that you're giving attention to it because, you know, when that when it's unbalanced, that's when that's when the issues come up.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: I know they have for me.
18:07
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, I've I've been on a weight loss journey now for the last six months.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: And um, but I've had to really, I had to, I've had to really discipline myself because I could sit down at the computer as soon as I wake up.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: I could be like, all right, I'm gonna sit down at my desk.
18:22
SPEAKER_00: And then next thing you know, I gotta go to Carline and do pickup and then things go.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: So now it's like, nope, that first hour in the morning, that's mine, and I'm using that to exercise.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: So that would mean my advice to anyone is is try to really look at your life in in all areas and try to find some balance.
18:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
18:40
SPEAKER_01: I think for some people, I think balance is elusive.
18:44
SPEAKER_01: You know, for me it's alignment, like that's the word I use, and knowing when you're out of alignment and knowing, you know, when you need to stop.
18:51
SPEAKER_01: And there's many, you there's usually many indicators of that.
18:54
SPEAKER_01: But you know, just like your car, you know, caution light of a little light, they'll come on, we ignore them, or we like start our car again, like oh, the light went off.
19:02
SPEAKER_01: Okay, good.
19:04
SPEAKER_01: Don't have to worry about that.
19:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, my low time have low air pressure.
19:08
SPEAKER_00: It's been on my car now for two weeks.
19:09
SPEAKER_00: And my husband got out of the car the other day for some reason.
19:11
SPEAKER_00: He's like, How long's that been on?
19:13
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, eh, don't worry about it.
19:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, just I don't know, it's a it's a light up there, yeah.
19:17
SPEAKER_01: But we ignore them, right?
19:18
SPEAKER_01: You know, so I think as you were talking, I could just imagine some people saying, Well, it's just not that simple, but actually it is, and I think that's the hard part sometimes for very, very busy women, especially with all the different hats.
19:31
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not saying men don't have the challenges as well, but I think women have different challenges, is trying to figure out how to carve the time or how to get the time, and you just have to decide you're going to take it.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: You are, you do, yeah.
19:44
SPEAKER_01: So, like, oh, well, okay, balance or alignment, whatever word you want to use, like, oh, it's just not that easy.
19:50
SPEAKER_01: Well, no, like things that are worth it usually are easy, hard.
19:55
SPEAKER_00: Right, they're not easy.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: Nothing that we do, but let's be honest, the women that, especially women, we'll say we're talking to women, the people that are are living a bold life, they didn't get that.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: This wasn't easy.
20:06
SPEAKER_00: What you're doing, I mean, we've all taken a lot of steps to get where we are, but where are we putting our attention?
20:10
SPEAKER_00: Because if we're not putting our attention on ourselves as well, you know, then then we're doing a disservice.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: We need to give ourselves that time.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I'm by no means preaching.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying I'm perfect, but I will say that just again, I've coached thousands of women.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: I've spent I my message is always make sure you're taking care of you.
20:30
SPEAKER_00: And I needed that message for myself.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, like I said, even with the last like six months, I've I've just from doing that, I've seen a significant change in my weight journey because I've given myself that.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: And and it hasn't made anything else in my life suffer.
20:47
SPEAKER_00: If anything, it's improved it.
20:49
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
20:49
SPEAKER_01: And everyone has a good day and everyone has a bad day.
20:52
SPEAKER_01: And I think the good thing is that you get to start over, you know, if you went off whatever your regimen is or whatever you're trying to do, whether it's meditate or move or exercise or lose weight or eat better, you know, I tell all my clients during the holiday time, like, just your goal during this time, you know, because all of my clients that I have have a wellness goal, and some of them around their house, like just maintain.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: What I told myself, I said the same thing.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, listen, if I can get out of this holiday season and maintain that that number and that's where I want to be, then it's it's all.
21:25
SPEAKER_01: Just be kind to yourself.
21:26
SPEAKER_01: And I think sometimes when it comes to beauty or when it comes to wellness, I think we again think going back to what I said earlier, we can be our harshest critics, which doesn't help us, doesn't help us get better, doesn't inspire us.
21:39
SPEAKER_01: You know, it it's almost that internal noise that you need to mute or figure out how to even, you know, have it go away if you can.
21:47
SPEAKER_01: So I think as your magazine with the the empowering and the inspiring piece, is there anything that jumps out of you with starting a magazine from the empower perspective?
21:57
SPEAKER_01: Because I I don't think that's an easy thing to do.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: Do to start a magazine.
22:01
SPEAKER_01: Like, what was the most empowering thing about doing that?
22:04
SPEAKER_00: You know, I knew was a big feat.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I have no experience in the magazine space.
22:09
SPEAKER_00: None.
22:09
SPEAKER_00: I don't come from the industry.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: I don't have connections.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: You know, but what I do know is that I know people and I and I really love I love this, I love the story, I love people's journeys.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: I've played sports my whole life and I love that feeling of, you know, winning and even losing because we we learn so much from losing, we learn more.
22:29
SPEAKER_00: So I wanted to share that.
22:31
SPEAKER_00: And I thought, you know what?
22:32
SPEAKER_00: I've written a book, you know, I wasn't winning a Pulitzer, but it's a good book.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: It is a good book.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: And um, I have no problem saying that.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: And I felt like, what do I have to lose?
22:42
SPEAKER_00: Like, why not try it?
22:44
SPEAKER_00: Anything I do, I'm gonna go in 100%.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: I do live my life bold because to me, there's no other way to live it.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I did some research and we brought some people together, some people that we thought would be great contributors.
22:57
SPEAKER_00: We just said, let's go for it.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, I'm 49 years old.
23:01
SPEAKER_00: I've done things in my career, I've I feel success.
23:04
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm I'm healthy, I'm happy, I have a lot of lot of love in my life.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: What's why not try something new and challenging?
23:13
SPEAKER_00: I like putting a challenge out there.
23:14
SPEAKER_00: And and so far, it's been 17, 18 months and it's been amazing.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: And I wouldn't, I'm so glad I took that, took that jump to do it.
23:22
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
23:23
SPEAKER_01: Any guests that inspired you?
23:25
SPEAKER_00: Oh my God, everyone, everyone I talked to.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: I think probably, you know, a few that come to mind.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, um getting a chance to interview Robin Roberts was a dream come true.
23:35
SPEAKER_00: She was on our cover of um our moments that matter issue.
23:39
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things I love that I use regularly is, you know, she writes this about in her book as well is you know, are you surrounding yourself with the basement people or the balcony people?
23:49
SPEAKER_00: The people that are cheering you on or the people that are bringing you down.
23:52
SPEAKER_00: Like who do you surrounding yourself with?
23:53
SPEAKER_00: And I think it's so true.
23:54
SPEAKER_00: It's so quick to have people that are in our lives that, you know, are always, you know, talking about all the things that are wrong or maybe what you're not doing, and this and that.
24:04
SPEAKER_00: And so I always say that surround yourself with those balcony people, the people that are gonna be your biggest fans and are gonna say keep going, even when it's hard.
24:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's great advice.
24:14
SPEAKER_01: I want to end with your book and talk a little bit about your book.
24:17
SPEAKER_01: So, what is a blue-collar beauty and where did that title come from?
24:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
24:22
SPEAKER_00: That's a great question.
24:24
SPEAKER_00: I felt like um, I'm from upstate New York.
24:27
SPEAKER_00: I grew up in upstate New York in a small town.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: Nobody in my town back then had plastic surgery.
24:32
SPEAKER_00: That wasn't something that was even.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: And so here I was this, you know, at the time I was in my early 20s, and I moved to Florida and I had this job, and I was, I moved up the ladder very quickly.
24:44
SPEAKER_00: And so I kind of always saw myself as that small town girl.
24:49
SPEAKER_00: I didn't have, you know, I was surrounded around doctors and all these people.
24:53
SPEAKER_00: And I just felt like I, and I I did so well because I feel like I related.
24:58
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't the Barbie doll that was sitting across from the patient that normally, when you think plastic surgery, I always heard like, oh, you're so down to earth.
25:05
SPEAKER_00: You're like the girl next door.
25:06
SPEAKER_00: And so I always kind of in my mind felt like I was that everyday, I was that everyday woman, girl, woman, you know, that could talk to people and I didn't have an air about me.
25:19
SPEAKER_00: And I wasn't, um, I didn't come from a some type of elite background.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: And even now looking at it in the magazine, like it's a tough industry, you know, people are it's the who's who, and I'm not, I'm not the who's who.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: I like being an outsider.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: I like that I'm not part of that.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: So I think the blue-collar beauty just really came from being that everyday.
25:37
SPEAKER_00: I talk about in the back of my book, like I, you know, make a box of macaroni and cheese and run to throw an alert load of laundry in and rush into the store.
25:45
SPEAKER_00: Rush to get, you know, I don't have this like fabulous life.
25:49
SPEAKER_00: When you see, there's a few other plastic surgery coaches out there, and there's different people, but I think again, people have an image of plastic surgery.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: Not everybody's in the, you know, going to fancy dinners every night.
26:01
SPEAKER_00: And that wasn't me.
26:02
SPEAKER_00: I was just, I'm just uh, you know, I'm every day, and I thought blue collar kind of fit the title and and it stuck, and I and I love it.
26:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
26:10
SPEAKER_01: So it's really you.
26:11
SPEAKER_01: So you're the blue-collar beauty.
26:13
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
26:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
26:14
SPEAKER_01: So in that sense, like, you know, I think it's it's good for people to realize.
26:18
SPEAKER_01: I think you know the message that you have is beauty comes in all forms, and and in many ways, like we we all have our own definition of what that is, but it should be a very broad definition in the sense of what beauty is.
26:30
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
26:31
SPEAKER_00: Uh our whole mission is showcasing it in all its forms because we do believe it comes in our professional lives and our personal passions and our health and our wellness and our loved ones.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's so many things that encompass that, and you can define it on your own terms, and that's what our magazine is about.
26:48
SPEAKER_00: There is no right or wrong.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: We want people to we want to showcase it, celebrate the beauty and everything around us.
26:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I love that.
26:55
SPEAKER_01: So your best advice is define beauty on your own terms.
26:58
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
27:00
SPEAKER_01: Excellent, excellent.
27:01
SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you so much for being on the bold lounge.
27:03
SPEAKER_01: Information on Michelle, her book, and also her business and Ask Us Beauty is below for anyone who would like to learn more in the episode notes.
27:10
SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for being on the lounge.
27:12
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
27:16
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening to the Bold Lounge podcast.
27:19
SPEAKER_01: Through the continuum of bold stories, vulnerability to taking the leap, you will meet more extraordinary people making a positive impact for others through their unique and important story.
27:29
SPEAKER_01: By highlighting these stories, we hope to inspire others to share the journey of those with bold.
27:34
SPEAKER_01: We hope you've enjoyed this podcast and look forward to sharing the next bold journey with others.