Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 156. Renée Rouleau, Celebrity Esthetician & Skincare Expert

Transcript

156. Renée Rouleau, Celebrity Esthetician & Skincare Expert · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:00
Speaker 1: You don't have all the answers for the future, but
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Speaker 1: you can make answers for today.
0:18
Speaker 2: Hello.
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Speaker 3: Hello, Emily and Badi here bringing you Episode one fifty
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Speaker 3: six of Hurdle, a wellness focused podcast where I sit
0:26
Speaker 3: down with inspiring individuals to talk about their big wins,
0:29
Speaker 3: tough moments, and everything in between. On the show, you
0:33
Speaker 3: can expect vulnerability, motivation, and candid discussions with everyone from
0:38
Speaker 3: top athletes and CEOs to aspiring entrepreneurs and what it
0:42
Speaker 3: really takes to follow your passions. My mission is simple
0:45
Speaker 3: to inspire you to be your best self, move with intention,
0:50
Speaker 3: and have some fun along the way. I feel like
0:52
Speaker 3: there's a lot of new people in the Hurdle loop lately,
0:56
Speaker 3: so I want to welcome you here. I'm so happy
0:59
Speaker 3: to have you. I want to take a second to
1:03
Speaker 3: reintroduce myself.
1:04
Speaker 2: My name is Emily. I've lived in New York for
1:07
Speaker 2: the past ten years.
1:08
Speaker 3: I'm about to make the hop from Manhattan to Brooklyn
1:11
Speaker 3: this coming May, and I could not be more excited
1:15
Speaker 3: for a fresh start. I'm a career journalist. I went
1:18
Speaker 3: out on my own after being the fitness editor Itself
1:21
Speaker 3: magazine about four years ago, and it has been a
1:25
Speaker 3: wild ride.
1:27
Speaker 2: I specialize in health and wellness content.
1:29
Speaker 3: Hence what you're getting a lot of here over unhurdle,
1:32
Speaker 3: and that is because health and wellness and fitness has
1:35
Speaker 3: been a huge part of my story. Back in college,
1:40
Speaker 3: I lost a considerable amount of weight by learning how
1:44
Speaker 3: to exercise moderation, and how to exercise period. In fact,
1:49
Speaker 3: during that journey is when I discovered running and that
1:52
Speaker 3: I was capable of running more than a mile at
1:55
Speaker 3: a time. And I've talked about that at length a
1:58
Speaker 3: lot on the show, But running changed my life. And
2:01
Speaker 3: so here on the show, you are really listening to
2:05
Speaker 3: a single thirty somethingter entrepreneur who is just trying to
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Speaker 3: navigate the hurdles that come hand in hand with living
2:13
Speaker 3: a happy and healthy life, with the mission to inspire
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Speaker 3: others to do.
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Speaker 2: So in whatever way that that looks like for them.
2:21
Speaker 3: Now that you know a little bit about me, a
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Speaker 3: little bit about the show, I am excited today to
2:26
Speaker 3: bring you my conversation with esthetician and founder of Renee
2:30
Speaker 3: Rolou Skincare, Renee Rolo. Now you may recognize her name
2:34
Speaker 3: from the episode we did back together a few weeks ago.
2:37
Speaker 3: Answering your biggest skincare questions, and I was really excited
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Speaker 3: to record this with her as well, because, man, this
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Speaker 3: woman has been through her fair share of hurdles personally
2:48
Speaker 3: and professionally over the last few years. Especially in today's episode,
2:52
Speaker 3: Renee gets into how she got into the skincare industry
2:55
Speaker 3: and the hurdles that she conquered when she became a
2:57
Speaker 3: direct to consumer business and ultimately shifted her operations from.
3:01
Speaker 2: Dallas to Austin, Texas.
3:04
Speaker 3: She also talked openly today about the loss of her
3:06
Speaker 3: late husband, Florian, to cancer in twenty eighteen.
3:10
Speaker 2: She talked about what life's been like.
3:11
Speaker 3: Since then and how she's managed to move on and
3:15
Speaker 3: how grateful she is for the journey despite it being
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Speaker 3: truly truly difficult. Super grateful for Renee's time and again,
3:24
Speaker 3: as I mentioned earlier, the episode that we did Answering
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Speaker 3: Your Biggest Skincare Questions also cannot recommend it enough. I
3:31
Speaker 3: learned so much from her. A little housekeeping to do
3:34
Speaker 3: before we get into it today. Super excited for our
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Speaker 3: book club this coming Wednesday night. We are reading the
3:39
Speaker 3: Art of Gathering. The link to register for the zoom
3:42
Speaker 3: is in the show notes. Make sure also that you're
3:44
Speaker 3: following Hurdle on social media, you may notice that we're
3:47
Speaker 3: upping our social game. It's at Hurdle Podcasts on Instagram, Twitter,
3:52
Speaker 3: and Facebook. And speaking of Facebook, also get in on
3:55
Speaker 3: the action the Secret Hurdler's Group. We've been having a
3:58
Speaker 3: lot of really fun conversation lately, and the point of
4:02
Speaker 3: that is really just to provide the community a safe
4:04
Speaker 3: space to talk about whatever's on your mind.
4:07
Speaker 2: Come hang out. We love to have you with that.
4:11
Speaker 2: Let's get to Hurtling today.
4:19
Speaker 3: I am sitting down with Renee Orlo. She's an esthetician,
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Speaker 3: a skincare expert and founder of Renee Orlo Skincare.
4:28
Speaker 2: How you do it today?
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Speaker 4: I'm great? How are you, Emily?
4:31
Speaker 3: I couldn't be more amped to have you on the show,
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Speaker 3: selfishly because I'm excited for the wisdom you're about to
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Speaker 3: drop when it comes to everything I should be doing
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Speaker 3: for my skin that I'm not doing it just yet.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, but more so I'm just excited to get to
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Speaker 2: know you.
4:48
Speaker 4: Thanks.
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Speaker 3: Let's start off today. I want to tell you I
4:53
Speaker 3: did just go on the website and take the skin
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Speaker 3: type quiz. Yeah I have skin type six. Okay, Okay,
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Speaker 3: so you say that there are nine different types of skin.
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Speaker 3: H Okay, talk to me about that to get us started.
5:11
Speaker 4: Yeah.
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Speaker 1: So I've been an esthetician for a little over thirty years.
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Speaker 1: And when I went to school and got trained in aesthetics,
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Speaker 1: I was taught two different philosophies about skin types. One
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Speaker 1: was the basic skin types, which is your dry, normal oily.
5:30
Speaker 1: And then also what we learned about in school was
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Speaker 1: something called Fitzpatrick's skin types, which are five different skin
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Speaker 1: types that talk about the color or the tone of
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Speaker 1: your skin. So light, you know, medium, dark, kind of situation.
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Speaker 1: I determined early on that there were nine types of skin,
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Speaker 1: and when I started Rene Relow Skincare in nineteen ninety six,
5:50
Speaker 1: almost twenty five years ago, I started it with the
5:54
Speaker 1: basis of there's nine types of skin and ordered in
5:57
Speaker 1: an order to get the best results for your skin,
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Speaker 1: you need to use products that are based on your
6:02
Speaker 1: unique skin type. And so people, as you did Emily,
6:05
Speaker 1: you know, you take the skin type quiz, you will
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Speaker 1: be put into one of the nine skin types and
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Speaker 1: you will get a curated skincare routine based on that
6:14
Speaker 1: on that type of skin.
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Speaker 2: So helpful, I'm curious.
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Speaker 3: I mean, it's so funny because I feel like the
6:21
Speaker 3: first question I usually ease into things with my guests
6:24
Speaker 3: is talk to me about where you grew up. But
6:26
Speaker 3: I'm also kind of curious, like, talk to me about
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Speaker 3: your skin growing up.
6:32
Speaker 4: That's actually a great question. I don't get asked that
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Speaker 4: too often.
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Speaker 1: Actually, So, my how I got into the beauty business
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Speaker 1: was my grandmother was a hairstylist and she owned her
6:42
Speaker 1: own hair salon called the powder Puff Beauty Shop. And
6:45
Speaker 1: so as a child, you know, I grew up in
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Speaker 1: that environment. When she was shampoo clients. Oftentimes she would
6:52
Speaker 1: use this Queen Helene mint Julip mask, which I ended
6:55
Speaker 1: up when I became an esthetician. That was one of
6:57
Speaker 1: the mass we used in school. Super old school but
7:01
Speaker 1: super fun. But so I got a little bit of
7:03
Speaker 1: experience from skincare watching her, but just being introduced into
7:06
Speaker 1: beauty business certainly through her. So I I didn't know this,
7:12
Speaker 1: but I went to a class reunion once and somebody said,
7:15
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, you were the first girl to wear
7:17
Speaker 1: a makeup in school.
7:18
Speaker 4: And I was like I was, and she said, yeah,
7:20
Speaker 4: in fifth grade, she goes, you used to wear makeup
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Speaker 4: and you would come.
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Speaker 1: I had a slumber party once to sleepover, and you
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Speaker 1: brought all the makeup and you did everyone's makeup, and
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Speaker 1: I was like, really, So that was kind of funny
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Speaker 1: that I was kind of a beauty junkie early on.
7:35
Speaker 1: When I was in high school. That's when I really
7:38
Speaker 1: got into skincare. And most of my friends were just
7:42
Speaker 1: buying like whatever from the drug store, you know, like
7:46
Speaker 1: Sea Breeze was big, something called ten o six and
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Speaker 1: clear Asol and all this kind of stuff, and I
7:52
Speaker 1: was actually there was a company in Los Angeles. I
7:56
Speaker 1: was called Lange actually now they think about it, and
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Speaker 1: I was actually mail ordering I think I even mailed
8:03
Speaker 1: like cash in the mail or something like that, but
8:05
Speaker 1: I was mail ordering skincare products from this company that
8:09
Speaker 1: I had read about. So like, I was so into it,
8:11
Speaker 1: and I just remembered, you know, a box would be
8:14
Speaker 1: delivered to my you know, my door or whatever and
8:16
Speaker 1: it would have skincare products in it. And so I
8:19
Speaker 1: was just kind of like beyond what everyone was doing.
8:22
Speaker 1: But I didn't really have problems with my skin in
8:25
Speaker 1: high school. I did have a lot of back acne
8:28
Speaker 1: in high school, but I didn't break out that much
8:30
Speaker 1: around my skin or that much on my face. But
8:33
Speaker 1: I when I was about twenty five, I started to
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Speaker 1: get really bad systic acne on my chin and jawline,
8:40
Speaker 1: and so that was kind of more My trouble was that.
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Speaker 1: And I was an incredible picker. And I used to
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Speaker 1: always say when I found out there was a profession
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Speaker 1: called an esthetician, I you know, I was like, oh
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Speaker 1: my god, there's a profession where somebody will pay me
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Speaker 1: to pick up their skin. Sign me up. And I
9:00
Speaker 1: was definitely a chronic skin picker. And the problem with
9:03
Speaker 1: cystic acne when I was getting it is, you know,
9:06
Speaker 1: you can't pick at those are not meant to come out.
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Speaker 4: Your body reabsorbs the infection. But I was.
9:12
Speaker 1: You know, taking matters into my own hands, not listening
9:15
Speaker 1: to my own advice that I would preach to clients.
9:18
Speaker 1: And I was a really bad skin picker and I
9:21
Speaker 1: would pick at them and I remember saying, oh, my
9:24
Speaker 1: hands are licensed to pick. I know what I'm doing.
9:26
Speaker 1: And I actually, probably when I was like twenty eight,
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Speaker 1: I actually gave up skin picking on my own skin
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Speaker 1: as a New Year's resolution because it was just not
9:35
Speaker 1: good and I was scarring up my skin. So yeah,
9:39
Speaker 1: and then I ended up. My number one best selling
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Speaker 1: product in my line is called Anti Bump Solution, and
9:46
Speaker 1: it's a great solution for.
9:49
Speaker 4: CISS.
9:50
Speaker 1: So it was like my life saver. But yeah, so
9:52
Speaker 1: that's a little bit of the journey with my own skin.
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Speaker 2: Where were you? Where did you grow up?
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Speaker 4: So?
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Speaker 1: I moved every two and a half to three years
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Speaker 1: growing up, So I lived lots of different places, but
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Speaker 1: I would say I primarily grew up in the Midwest.
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Speaker 4: I grew up.
10:09
Speaker 1: I lived in Minnesota three different times. We were back
10:12
Speaker 1: and forth a lot from Boston. I lived in Boston
10:14
Speaker 1: twice and I lived in Wisconsin once. So yeah, yeah,
10:19
Speaker 1: back and forth.
10:20
Speaker 3: And then you mentioned cistic acne, something I'm sure a
10:24
Speaker 3: lot of people listening to this show struggle with. Can
10:26
Speaker 3: you talk to me about the difference between cystic acne
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Speaker 3: and like regular acne.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a huge difference. So the one commonality of
10:37
Speaker 1: acne is infection. So a true blemish is something that's
10:43
Speaker 1: sore and red, you know, painful to the touch. Now,
10:47
Speaker 1: how the life cycle and the journey of what it
10:50
Speaker 1: wants to do in the skin is very different. So
10:52
Speaker 1: in the case of cystic acne, cistic blemishes are those
10:56
Speaker 1: hards or big swollen knot that are under the skin.
11:01
Speaker 1: They develop under the skin, but they heal within the skin.
11:05
Speaker 1: Your body actually reabsorbs it, so it's not meant to
11:08
Speaker 1: come out. So if you never touch at a true
11:10
Speaker 1: cys and you know, never pick at it, you'll notice
11:14
Speaker 1: it won't ever surface to the white to a white head,
11:17
Speaker 1: and that's what a cyst is. So you need to
11:19
Speaker 1: just sit on your hands and don't touch it. Put
11:22
Speaker 1: on anti bump solution if you can, if you can
11:24
Speaker 1: get that, and then it will go back down and
11:30
Speaker 1: eventually go away. And that's basically your body saying of hey,
11:33
Speaker 1: I don't want to come to the surface, like that's
11:35
Speaker 1: you know, that's how I want to heal myself. And
11:36
Speaker 1: that's why it's important not to pick at it, because
11:39
Speaker 1: that's not how it wants to heal itself.
11:41
Speaker 4: It doesn't want to come to a white head. Now,
11:43
Speaker 4: in the.
11:43
Speaker 1: Case of a papule, a papule is also red and sore,
11:47
Speaker 1: and that's there's infection in there, and that's kind of
11:50
Speaker 1: the that's kind of what it is when it is
11:53
Speaker 1: kind of working its way to the surface but hasn't
11:55
Speaker 1: quite come into a white head. Yet that's kind of
11:57
Speaker 1: the popular stage. And then there's a push, so that's
12:00
Speaker 1: more when it comes to the surface, there's a big
12:03
Speaker 1: juicy white head on the top, it's still you know,
12:05
Speaker 1: there's infection in there, but that's more called a pustule.
12:10
Speaker 1: So yeah, they're all based on sore and infection and
12:14
Speaker 1: you have to treat it accordingly. What doesn't have infection
12:18
Speaker 1: is what are called clog pors. So a blackhead is
12:20
Speaker 1: a clog poor. What we call close comodomes are clog pors,
12:23
Speaker 1: which are those just little bumps you might get if
12:26
Speaker 1: you wear like too much you know, foundation or you know,
12:29
Speaker 1: it's just those little raised bumps that kind of sit
12:32
Speaker 1: there and don't go away. You have to get those
12:34
Speaker 1: manually cleaned out of the skin. But they are not
12:36
Speaker 1: red and sore, and they don't have infection and they
12:38
Speaker 1: need to be they need to be treated totally different.
12:41
Speaker 3: There are definitely like two types of people. There is
12:44
Speaker 3: the one type of person that is listening to this
12:46
Speaker 3: and like geeking out and super interested, and then there's
12:48
Speaker 3: like the other type of person who like gets targeted
12:52
Speaker 3: with ads for doctor Pimble Popper and like immediately projectile vomit.
12:58
Speaker 1: Well, it's funny because as much as I'm a skin picker,
13:02
Speaker 1: I really can't watch Doctor Pumple Popper Like I just don't.
13:05
Speaker 1: I mean, I maybe it's because I've been around it
13:07
Speaker 1: so much and I've seen my own things, but yeah,
13:10
Speaker 1: I don't know.
13:10
Speaker 2: I just kind of that show. Can't do it, can't
13:13
Speaker 2: do it, can't do it.
13:14
Speaker 3: Okay, So you grew up, you said, in an environment
13:18
Speaker 3: with your grandmother, going to the salon, trying all the products,
13:22
Speaker 3: and then definitely developed your own interest. Talk to me
13:26
Speaker 3: about what it was like to go through school to
13:29
Speaker 3: be an esthetician.
13:30
Speaker 1: Well, here's what the story is. I actually went to
13:32
Speaker 1: school first and become a hairstylist. I thought I was
13:36
Speaker 1: going to follow in the footsteps of my grandmother, and
13:38
Speaker 1: I didn't know that there. I didn't really know about
13:42
Speaker 1: what being an esthetician was like. I didn't really know
13:45
Speaker 1: that was a profession because it was unlike today, you know,
13:49
Speaker 1: it was very very few and far between back then.
13:52
Speaker 1: This was the late nineteen eighties. So I went to
13:55
Speaker 1: school to become an esthetician, got a job working at
13:57
Speaker 1: a full service hair salon where they actually they did
14:00
Speaker 1: skin hair and nails, so they actually had an esthetician
14:03
Speaker 1: there and there was a facial room, and most hair salons,
14:06
Speaker 1: you know, didn't have facials and skin treatments. It was
14:09
Speaker 1: again there were very few estheticians around. So as I
14:13
Speaker 1: was working at the salon, apprenticing, learning how to do hair,
14:17
Speaker 1: starting with kids cuts, blah blah blah, and kind of
14:19
Speaker 1: working my way up, I realized that from the moment
14:23
Speaker 1: I got a job working at the salon, I was
14:26
Speaker 1: always hanging out in the facial room with my esthetician coworker,
14:30
Speaker 1: and she said to me one day, she was like,
14:32
Speaker 1: you know, you seem to be more into skin than
14:35
Speaker 1: you do hair, and I was like, yeah, you're right.
14:38
Speaker 1: And so I ended up not being a cosmetologist, and
14:43
Speaker 1: I went back to school to become an esthetician. But
14:46
Speaker 1: school was super easy because my coworker was my mentor
14:50
Speaker 1: and she was actually a teacher at the school a
14:53
Speaker 1: few years back that I actually attended, and so she
14:55
Speaker 1: was thirteen years older than me. As a matter of fact,
14:58
Speaker 1: I just got off the phone with her twenty te
15:00
Speaker 1: minutes ago, and she was my mentor, and so going
15:03
Speaker 1: to school was just like, hey, just you know, give
15:05
Speaker 1: me my license, get me and get me out because
15:07
Speaker 1: I've got like the best teacher on the planet teaching me,
15:10
Speaker 1: and you know, and in school it's you know a
15:13
Speaker 1: lot of basic stuff. Your continuing education once you graduate
15:17
Speaker 1: is really where your knowledge is. And so I went
15:19
Speaker 1: to school, got my aesthetics license, went back to the salon,
15:24
Speaker 1: worked as an as an esthetician, and then about a
15:27
Speaker 1: year later, her and I got along so well we
15:30
Speaker 1: decided to leave and start our own skincare salon, which
15:34
Speaker 1: we did.
15:35
Speaker 4: This is outside of Boston.
15:36
Speaker 1: I had it from ninety one and ninety six, sold it,
15:40
Speaker 1: sold my half. It was really successful, but I really
15:43
Speaker 1: wanted a personal change in my life and move out
15:45
Speaker 1: of the East Coast.
15:46
Speaker 4: I wasn't used to. I was used to.
15:48
Speaker 1: Moving every two and a half to three years, and
15:51
Speaker 1: I had been in Boston for eleven years and I
15:53
Speaker 1: was getting antsy and wanted to change, and so so
15:56
Speaker 1: I sold my half to her and she had it
15:59
Speaker 1: up in until COVID and finally closed it down and
16:03
Speaker 1: now she's just focused on the skincare product side. But
16:06
Speaker 1: we're still super good friends. And she taught me so much.
16:11
Speaker 3: So when you leave Boston and sell your share, what's
16:16
Speaker 3: the next destination.
16:18
Speaker 4: So I moved to Dallas.
16:21
Speaker 1: I really just wanted a personal change, and not that
16:24
Speaker 1: anything bad was happening in Boston, but I just was
16:27
Speaker 1: antsy for being kind of in the driver's seat of
16:29
Speaker 1: my life. And I never like want to just settle
16:32
Speaker 1: and feel like, oh, okay, well now I'm locked in
16:34
Speaker 1: or whatever.
16:35
Speaker 4: I just I love change, and so.
16:39
Speaker 1: I looked at Atlanta, Nashville, Dallas, and Austin, and Dallas
16:46
Speaker 1: definitely spoke to me. And so I moved there all
16:48
Speaker 1: by myself and didn't know anyone and started Renebrlow's Skincare
16:52
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety six.
16:54
Speaker 4: And this August we will celebrate twenty five years.
16:57
Speaker 2: Wow, congratulations.
16:59
Speaker 4: Yeah.
17:00
Speaker 1: Actually, but now fast forward, I actually live in Austin
17:03
Speaker 1: and my corporate headquarters are here, so I actually, you know,
17:06
Speaker 1: with that need for change. I lived in Dallas for
17:09
Speaker 1: nineteen years, which was a long time, but got antsy,
17:12
Speaker 1: and yeah, relocated all of our corporate headquarters warehouse office
17:18
Speaker 1: to Austin, so we're based here.
17:20
Speaker 4: So I am here in Austin, Texas.
17:22
Speaker 3: Going from moving every two to three years to staying
17:25
Speaker 3: put in Dallas for so long. I'm interested to know
17:29
Speaker 3: a little bit about the takeaways from that, like what
17:31
Speaker 3: kept you there aside from the fact that you had
17:34
Speaker 3: started your business?
17:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, so well, I think I just felt I loved
17:39
Speaker 1: living in Dallas. But I just felt like, oh, Okay,
17:43
Speaker 1: you know, this is where I'm planning my roots and
17:46
Speaker 1: I'm going to stay because my company is here. And
17:48
Speaker 1: the what spurred the desire to move? I always I
17:54
Speaker 1: did feel antsy at times and me and me and
17:57
Speaker 1: my now late husband, we would talk about it.
17:59
Speaker 4: I'm like, do you think we'll be in Dallas forever?
18:02
Speaker 4: And he's like yeah.
18:02
Speaker 1: And I loved it, you know, there was it was
18:04
Speaker 1: kind of like, if it's not broken, don't fix it.
18:06
Speaker 1: I really didn't have any complaints, even though there was
18:08
Speaker 1: part of me that was itching for something new. Well,
18:11
Speaker 1: what happened was we came down to Austin for a
18:14
Speaker 1: weekend and this was probably six years ago, and yeah,
18:21
Speaker 1: it was six years ago, and I was looking on
18:24
Speaker 1: Facebook and a friend had posted an article called staying
18:29
Speaker 1: as settling Why you need to move five times in
18:31
Speaker 1: your life.
18:31
Speaker 4: So I opened it up and I said, ooh, what's.
18:33
Speaker 1: This And the article it was from Elite Daily dot
18:37
Speaker 1: com and it basically said that life was about change,
18:42
Speaker 1: getting out of your comfort zone, opening yourself to new things,
18:47
Speaker 1: and you do that with moving. And so I'm reading
18:51
Speaker 1: this and it's saying you have to move five times
18:53
Speaker 1: in your life. Well, I have not. I've only moved once,
18:56
Speaker 1: well now twice as an adult on my own.
18:59
Speaker 4: It really means not.
19:00
Speaker 1: Being dragged around as a kid, right, It means like
19:02
Speaker 1: your own choice. And so I've only done two times.
19:06
Speaker 1: And so I was like, oh, okay, but again I'm like, oh,
19:09
Speaker 1: I'm probably only going to do two times because I'm
19:11
Speaker 1: going to stay in Dallas. So I showed it to
19:13
Speaker 1: my husband and he looked at it and he's lived.
19:17
Speaker 1: He was French, but he's lived all over the world.
19:19
Speaker 1: And he was like, yeah, I've lived five times. But
19:22
Speaker 1: the basis of the article was just really about how
19:24
Speaker 1: change and moving is so important to you know, to
19:28
Speaker 1: inspire change and growth and learning. And so the next morning,
19:33
Speaker 1: the next morning, we wake up and he says, I've
19:35
Speaker 1: been thinking about that article. He goes, let's move, and
19:39
Speaker 1: I went, what in my heart's racing? And I said,
19:42
Speaker 1: we can't. Our company's based here. And by this time
19:44
Speaker 1: my husband had joined my company about ten years earlier
19:49
Speaker 1: as the CEO, and so he was working in my
19:51
Speaker 1: company and I said, you know, honey, we can't, like,
19:56
Speaker 1: you know, this is it And he said why not?
19:58
Speaker 1: And I was like, well, well, and again my heart's
20:01
Speaker 1: racing because the thought of it is so exciting and
20:04
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my gosh. And so six months later
20:08
Speaker 1: we uprooted everything and moved to Austin. And uh, I
20:11
Speaker 1: mean and we thought of we thought, you know, we
20:14
Speaker 1: talked about it, and we said, okay, we decide we
20:16
Speaker 1: want to move. We decide change is good. We've been
20:18
Speaker 1: in our comfort zone for too long. We need to
20:20
Speaker 1: spice things up. And so we thought of all the
20:23
Speaker 1: places in the US we could move, so but we
20:26
Speaker 1: ended up settling on Austin because that was that was
20:29
Speaker 1: just made sense for us. So yeah, So literally my
20:34
Speaker 1: friend on Facebook, Troy, I thanked him, you know, I said, hey,
20:39
Speaker 1: I need to let you know something.
20:40
Speaker 4: We're moving to Austin because of you. And he was
20:42
Speaker 4: like what. I was like, remember that article you posted.
20:45
Speaker 4: He's like yeah. I was like, that's why we're moving.
20:47
Speaker 4: Had we never had we not seen it, we wouldn't
20:49
Speaker 4: be moving.
20:50
Speaker 3: It's so funny because hearing you tell that story. There
20:52
Speaker 3: are sometimes where I hear the words that are coming
20:55
Speaker 3: out of my mouth and like, within seconds, I'm like,
20:57
Speaker 3: you're just making an excuse if you start to feel
21:01
Speaker 3: that way when you were like, well, we can't go anywhere.
21:03
Speaker 3: This is how it is, and then you have like
21:05
Speaker 3: the second when you're like, well actually.
21:08
Speaker 4: Yeah, why Yeah.
21:09
Speaker 1: I mean we had to challenge, you know, I had
21:11
Speaker 1: to challenge myself and go, okay, like if we really
21:14
Speaker 1: made this happen, what would it mean? And yeah, you
21:16
Speaker 1: had to get yeah. That's just kind of explore saying yes.
21:20
Speaker 1: You know, A big part of me is my life philosophy,
21:23
Speaker 1: certainly after seeing the movie Yes Man with Jim Jim
21:26
Speaker 1: Carrey way back when is saying yes and like when
21:30
Speaker 1: life feels scary and you want to say no, just
21:33
Speaker 1: say yes, and you know it's I mean, that's you know.
21:39
Speaker 1: One of my favorite quotes is, and someone said to
21:43
Speaker 1: this to me once, probably some of the best things
21:45
Speaker 1: that will ever happen to you in your life will
21:46
Speaker 1: happen because you say yes to something.
21:48
Speaker 4: Otherwise things will just sort of stay the same.
21:51
Speaker 3: Definitely scary, change moving. I have to ask you when
21:56
Speaker 3: it comes to starting this business from the ground up.
22:00
Speaker 3: A ton of scary things can go hand in hand
22:03
Speaker 3: with that. Reflect for me a little bit about the
22:07
Speaker 3: challenges of starting your own skincare line, because I'm sure
22:12
Speaker 3: there were many.
22:13
Speaker 4: Yeah.
22:13
Speaker 1: So I started my company in Dallas, as I said,
22:17
Speaker 1: but I started in nineteen ninety six. I actually started
22:19
Speaker 1: with having a skincare spa where we did services. So
22:22
Speaker 1: that's how I started, and then I started developing the
22:25
Speaker 1: skincare line you know, after that, and then ended up
22:29
Speaker 1: opening up second location in Dallas. Started e commerce in
22:33
Speaker 1: ninety nine because now my skincare line was pretty you know,
22:36
Speaker 1: we had enough products and things like that. And now
22:39
Speaker 1: fast forward almost twenty five years, we no longer have
22:42
Speaker 1: the services side of the business and we are strictly
22:46
Speaker 1: one hundred percent e commerce direct consumer from our website.
22:49
Speaker 4: So when I look back at, you know.
22:52
Speaker 1: Here, I was in a comfort zone, living outside of Boston,
22:56
Speaker 1: had a very successful business, doing great, loving what I
22:59
Speaker 1: was doing, and decided I want to change. So basically
23:04
Speaker 1: selling the half of the business, going to a new
23:07
Speaker 1: city where I don't know anyone, literally did not know
23:09
Speaker 1: one person, and starting all new super super scary, but
23:14
Speaker 1: I chalk it up to being twenty six years old.
23:18
Speaker 1: But basically because you're fearless when you're younger, you know,
23:21
Speaker 1: and the natural progression of life is you learn enough
23:26
Speaker 1: to learn that, hey, I have a good reason to
23:29
Speaker 1: have fear. And so the problem that you know, I
23:31
Speaker 1: see all the time, certainly with friends and whatever, is
23:34
Speaker 1: people say no to things and because of fear.
23:37
Speaker 4: Oh geez, I don't want to do that or.
23:39
Speaker 1: Whatever, And so I look back at and so I'm
23:42
Speaker 1: always challenging myself to say yes and you know, and
23:46
Speaker 1: be fearless. But I do look at, you know, when
23:49
Speaker 1: I open the business, and I think I was just
23:51
Speaker 1: young and optimistic, and I had my eye on the
23:55
Speaker 1: prize and there was no one that could tell me
23:57
Speaker 1: anything other than I was going to make it. And
24:00
Speaker 1: so I think that determination, that being slightly naive and
24:06
Speaker 1: just kind of the passion is what made it work.
24:17
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Speaker 3: pack today. Do you remember one of your first quote
27:05
Speaker 3: unquote failures that taught you an insane amount.
27:12
Speaker 1: I think let's see, so what happens is when you
27:16
Speaker 1: own your own business, you have to wear every hat
27:18
Speaker 1: right when you're starting out, you can't afford to hire
27:21
Speaker 1: people and that sort of thing. And I remember hearing
27:24
Speaker 1: once you know that, you know, people said you need
27:27
Speaker 1: to strengthen your weaknesses. And so because I was wearing
27:31
Speaker 1: a lot of hats, I was not only hands on esthetician.
27:34
Speaker 1: I was a product formulator, but I was also you know,
27:38
Speaker 1: the bookkeeper, and I was also you know kind of
27:41
Speaker 1: you know, operations and things like that. Well, my biggest
27:45
Speaker 1: weakness was finance. You know, I'm not a numbers person,
27:48
Speaker 1: never have been. But someone said, you know, you got
27:52
Speaker 1: to focus on your weakness. So I tried, as painful
27:55
Speaker 1: as it was, to be good at finance. You know,
27:58
Speaker 1: I tried to make sense when I looked at my
28:00
Speaker 1: P and L statements and my balance sheet. But it's
28:02
Speaker 1: just my eyes just you know, go backward in my head.
28:05
Speaker 1: It's just so confusing to me, still is. And I
28:09
Speaker 1: someone years later said, hey, don't try. Don't spend time
28:13
Speaker 1: trying to strengthen your weaknesses, you know, like focus on
28:16
Speaker 1: what you do best, delegate out your weaknesses. And so
28:21
Speaker 1: I finally hired a bookkeeper that could do all of
28:24
Speaker 1: that and somebody that could, you know, make sense of
28:26
Speaker 1: my finances and you know, help me understand in a
28:30
Speaker 1: way that I never could. And but but probably the
28:33
Speaker 1: biggest lesson I learned was prior to that, when I
28:38
Speaker 1: decided to no longer be a service provider. So anyone
28:42
Speaker 1: in the service business knows that, you know, if you
28:45
Speaker 1: have a business and you're being a service provider, it's
28:48
Speaker 1: very hard to juggle both. And but I really wanted
28:51
Speaker 1: to focus on e commerce. I wanted to focus more
28:53
Speaker 1: on product development, so I told my clients. At this time,
28:58
Speaker 1: I was only taking clients three days a week, so
29:00
Speaker 1: wasn't a huge deal as opposed to when I first started,
29:02
Speaker 1: I was taking clients six days a week. So I
29:05
Speaker 1: told my clients six months in advance that I was
29:08
Speaker 1: no longer going to be, you know, doing services. I
29:11
Speaker 1: was going to focus on the products and e commerce
29:13
Speaker 1: and all of that, and I was going to you know,
29:17
Speaker 1: pass them over to one of my estheticians who worked
29:20
Speaker 1: for me. But I wanted to give them six months notice,
29:24
Speaker 1: so I assumed that once I quote.
29:27
Speaker 4: Unquote retired out of the room.
29:29
Speaker 1: I later ended up going back into the treatment room
29:31
Speaker 1: years later once I opened up a second location. But
29:35
Speaker 1: I actually I am still hands on service provider pre COVID
29:38
Speaker 1: out in LA and do house calls for some celebrity clients.
29:41
Speaker 1: So I still I do work hands on a little bit.
29:44
Speaker 1: But so I retired from the room, and what I
29:49
Speaker 1: didn't realize was how much my service, the revenue I
29:56
Speaker 1: got from my services was kind of keeping the whole
29:59
Speaker 1: business afloat, you know, helping payroll whatnot. But all of
30:03
Speaker 1: a sudden, now I had to pay my estheticians instead
30:06
Speaker 1: of that money coming to the business aka me, And
30:10
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you know, two months into it
30:13
Speaker 1: or whatever, all of a sudden, I'm like, oh my god,
30:16
Speaker 1: why can't I make payroll? And basically, had I been
30:21
Speaker 1: a numbers person and been able to make sense of
30:24
Speaker 1: all of that, I wouldn't have. I would have probably realized, hey,
30:29
Speaker 1: you know, let's do this a little slower. Instead of
30:32
Speaker 1: doing three days a week, why didn't you cut down
30:34
Speaker 1: to two days? See how that goes one day by
30:36
Speaker 1: kind of pulling the plug cold turkey, and you know,
30:40
Speaker 1: doing six seven clients a day, three days a week,
30:43
Speaker 1: that was a lot of a lot of income that
30:45
Speaker 1: the company was getting that was no longer coming, and
30:47
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you know, I couldn't make payroll.
30:50
Speaker 4: So I think, you know, the biggest lesson I learned was.
30:53
Speaker 1: Just if I'm not going to be good at finances,
30:56
Speaker 1: I need to hire and delegate someone that can monitor
30:59
Speaker 1: that for me so I can see problems coming before
31:02
Speaker 1: they arise.
31:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I can totally relate on that. You want
31:06
Speaker 3: to do everything yourself because asking or having someone else
31:10
Speaker 3: do something means that you need to find the means.
31:12
Speaker 2: To pay them.
31:12
Speaker 3: But sometimes those decisions not to can cost you, as
31:17
Speaker 3: you learned, more than it would cost to bring someone
31:22
Speaker 3: on to give you a hand. The best thing I've
31:23
Speaker 3: done for myself so far as an entrepreneur. In God,
31:26
Speaker 3: there's so much more to do. But is you know,
31:29
Speaker 3: pay for the trademark attorney, pay for the accountant, like,
31:32
Speaker 3: get those people that are better than you to help
31:35
Speaker 3: you be better when you know it's within your means.
31:39
Speaker 4: Anyway, Yeah, we have a thing.
31:42
Speaker 1: So there's something that I do in my company and
31:44
Speaker 1: my team always is challenging me about this, but we
31:48
Speaker 1: do this thing called is renade working on her fives
31:51
Speaker 1: So what you do is you write down everything that
31:53
Speaker 1: you currently do for your for your job, for your business, whatever,
31:58
Speaker 1: and you write down everything that you'reible for and you
32:01
Speaker 1: rank them one to five. One is I hate it,
32:04
Speaker 1: good riddance. If I never had to do it again,
32:06
Speaker 1: I'd be so happy. And then you go up the ladder,
32:09
Speaker 1: you know, two, three, you know, Four is like.
32:11
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, I mean it's okay, I like it.
32:13
Speaker 4: I can do it.
32:14
Speaker 1: It's not, you know, not my favorite, but yeah, I
32:16
Speaker 1: don't mind doing it. And five, of course is I
32:19
Speaker 1: could do this all day.
32:20
Speaker 4: I love it. This is what makes me truly happy.
32:23
Speaker 1: And so my team is always challenging me to only
32:27
Speaker 1: do fives because that's where the company needs me. The
32:30
Speaker 1: company needs Renee to be doing the things that she
32:33
Speaker 1: is so good at and she loves because that's the
32:36
Speaker 1: biggest strength. And so whenever we're in meetings, naturally, because
32:40
Speaker 1: I'm somebody that you know, you know, bootstrapped the business,
32:44
Speaker 1: wore every hat for so long, it doesn't come easy
32:46
Speaker 1: to delegate when we're in meetings sometimes, you know, and
32:49
Speaker 1: then we are coming up with some new idea or whatever,
32:51
Speaker 1: and there's some task associated with it. I'll go, oh,
32:53
Speaker 1: I'll do it, and I'll go, is that a five
32:55
Speaker 1: for you, Renee, And I'm like no, They're like no,
32:59
Speaker 1: we don't want you doing it. And I love how
33:01
Speaker 1: they protect me that way, you know, because again they
33:03
Speaker 1: want me to shine where I want to shine. And so,
33:06
Speaker 1: you know, there's a few things on my list. There
33:08
Speaker 1: are threes and fours that I still have to do
33:10
Speaker 1: only because we haven't delegated or whatever. But for the
33:12
Speaker 1: most part, most of the things that I do are fives,
33:16
Speaker 1: and it's great.
33:18
Speaker 3: I think a lot of people strive to be in
33:21
Speaker 3: a position with their work where they are doing more fives.
33:26
Speaker 3: When I talk to clients when I'm one and a
33:29
Speaker 3: lot of these individuals may be in the middle of
33:32
Speaker 3: some sort of a job transition and they're trying to
33:34
Speaker 3: figure out, like what their next move should be. I
33:37
Speaker 3: often encourage them to separate things, kind of like what
33:40
Speaker 3: you're talking about, into three columns, like the list of
33:43
Speaker 3: things that you hate about what you're doing right now,
33:45
Speaker 3: the list of things in the middle that you do
33:48
Speaker 3: right now that are like fine, and then the list
33:50
Speaker 3: of things that you totally love that are the quote
33:52
Speaker 3: unquote five.
33:53
Speaker 2: As you refer to them. Sure, when you look at what's.
33:55
Speaker 3: In column two and column three, you can start to
33:59
Speaker 3: you know, be there creator of your next role ideally,
34:02
Speaker 3: like what is it that you want to be doing
34:03
Speaker 3: more of that can help you feel more fulfilled so
34:07
Speaker 3: that you can go on and you know, feel like
34:09
Speaker 3: you're really contributing something to your day to day and
34:12
Speaker 3: to you know, wherever company you might be a part of.
34:15
Speaker 4: Yeah. No, it's a great exercise for people to do. No,
34:18
Speaker 4: I love that.
34:19
Speaker 3: For someone who you know wants to be doing more
34:23
Speaker 3: fives and is kind of stuck in doing maybe the threes,
34:28
Speaker 3: maybe even the twos, what do you say to them?
34:32
Speaker 1: Well, I think people need to look at their life
34:35
Speaker 1: and really decide if they're.
34:36
Speaker 4: Happy doing that.
34:37
Speaker 1: People ask me a lot, they go, oh, Renee, how
34:39
Speaker 1: do you have you know, work life balance like, and
34:42
Speaker 1: I'm like, I have none, because you know, I'm just
34:45
Speaker 1: always doing what makes me happiest, and oftentimes work is
34:50
Speaker 1: what makes me happiest. And so it's not a if
34:54
Speaker 1: I'm doing all fives in my job and I'm like,
34:56
Speaker 1: I love this, I love my life. This makes me
35:00
Speaker 1: so happy. Why would I do anything less than a five?
35:03
Speaker 1: You know, it doesn't matter whether it's work or whatever.
35:05
Speaker 1: You know, like do fives in every area of your life, right,
35:08
Speaker 1: like always try to do things that just fuel you,
35:11
Speaker 1: bring you such joy. And so yeah, people need to
35:15
Speaker 1: look both professionally and personally and deciding, you know, are
35:19
Speaker 1: they living fives in their life and if they're not,
35:22
Speaker 1: they need to figure out, hey, maybe I need to
35:24
Speaker 1: change up something.
35:26
Speaker 3: Talk to me about what it was like after you
35:29
Speaker 3: moved to Austin.
35:31
Speaker 1: It was amazing because everything was new. You know, your
35:35
Speaker 1: eyes are wide open again. And I remember I was
35:38
Speaker 1: in La once and I was in an uber going
35:41
Speaker 1: to one of my clients' houses and we're on some
35:45
Speaker 1: highway I can't remember where.
35:47
Speaker 4: We were in at Tarzana actually.
35:48
Speaker 1: And I i and there was these beautiful mountains or something,
35:53
Speaker 1: and I had never been out there, and so.
35:56
Speaker 4: I said to the uber driver, I said, oh wow,
35:57
Speaker 4: you know, a look how beautiful that is.
36:00
Speaker 1: And he he looks and he went, huh yeah, and
36:03
Speaker 1: he just it was like no big deal and what
36:06
Speaker 1: And what I realized was, you know, this guy drives
36:09
Speaker 1: his highway every day. He doesn't even see the beauty
36:11
Speaker 1: in it anymore. Right, He's just like whatever. And that's
36:14
Speaker 1: what happens. When you live somewhere all the time, you
36:17
Speaker 1: don't see the beauty, the you know, the fascination in
36:20
Speaker 1: it anymore. So moving to Austin, your eyes are all
36:22
Speaker 1: of some wide open and everything is so cool, and
36:26
Speaker 1: you know, because it's all new, and so I just
36:28
Speaker 1: that's always the beauty of it is. Just when you
36:30
Speaker 1: move somewhere new, it's just it's amazing. You take it
36:34
Speaker 1: all in and I always now, you know, I've been
36:36
Speaker 1: here five and a half years, but I just try
36:38
Speaker 1: not to ever take anything for granted and always see
36:40
Speaker 1: the beauty and appreciation and every moment and everything.
36:44
Speaker 3: Were there challenges that you didn't expect that came hand
36:47
Speaker 3: in hand with you moving to Austin and moving the
36:50
Speaker 3: business to Austin as well.
36:51
Speaker 4: For sure, Well, mainly we had to hire all new people.
36:55
Speaker 1: So we still had a few office you know, kind
36:59
Speaker 1: of marketing, customer care support that stayed back in Dallas
37:03
Speaker 1: and worked remotely, and so that worked out. We kept
37:07
Speaker 1: that we had two people follow us and relocate to
37:11
Speaker 1: Austin because they wanted to stay with our company. But
37:16
Speaker 1: we basically had to hire all new people. And so
37:19
Speaker 1: when you're starting from kind of scratch and hiring all
37:21
Speaker 1: new people. You know, that creates challenges because you know,
37:25
Speaker 1: you're trying to get the right fit and that sort
37:28
Speaker 1: of thing. So there was some turnover in the beginning
37:31
Speaker 1: until we kind of got our right crew again.
37:33
Speaker 4: And now, you know, fast forward.
37:37
Speaker 1: All of our company is here and all of our
37:40
Speaker 1: team is in Austin, so we don't have anyone in
37:42
Speaker 1: Dallas anymore. And we have a team of nineteen and
37:45
Speaker 1: we just moved in a couple of months ago into
37:49
Speaker 1: all new office and warehouse and so we have eleven
37:52
Speaker 1: thousand square feet of amazing office and warehouse space for
37:57
Speaker 1: our team in nineteen Now obviously people are working from
37:59
Speaker 1: home because of the pandemic and whatnot. But anyway, but yeah,
38:02
Speaker 1: so that was the main challenge was just you know,
38:04
Speaker 1: hiring and finding great talent.
38:07
Speaker 3: You mentioned the pandemic. I know, earlier in the show
38:10
Speaker 3: you also mentioned your late husband. You've had a couple
38:14
Speaker 3: of challenging years here.
38:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, so my husband passed away a little over two
38:22
Speaker 1: years ago. He was the CEO of my company, which
38:26
Speaker 1: is basically my right hand and he was also my
38:28
Speaker 1: partner in life. We were together twenty two years before
38:32
Speaker 1: he passed away, so that's a long time. He was
38:35
Speaker 1: perfectly healthy and one day got a sharp pain in
38:39
Speaker 1: his stomach, and after about thirty six hours it became
38:45
Speaker 1: so unbearable that he went to the emergency room and
38:48
Speaker 1: a week later they determined he had stage four cancer
38:51
Speaker 1: and gave him six months to live, and he died
38:54
Speaker 1: two day shy six months. So wow, it was you know,
39:00
Speaker 1: you just you know, went a lot. You know, when
39:03
Speaker 1: people pass away, oftentimes it's suddenly, you know, car accident,
39:06
Speaker 1: heart attack, or if somebody has cancer, you know, there's
39:09
Speaker 1: a long journey and you know, usually people can kind
39:12
Speaker 1: of fight it for a few years or so, and
39:15
Speaker 1: so this was unique and that you know, it was
39:19
Speaker 1: a death sentence and there wasn't a cure, and it
39:22
Speaker 1: was really fast. So that was certainly a big challenge
39:26
Speaker 1: because again he was a leader in our company, and
39:29
Speaker 1: you know, I relied on him so much, and he
39:32
Speaker 1: was you know, he you know, I played in my strengths.
39:35
Speaker 1: He placed you know, to his drinks, but his strengths
39:38
Speaker 1: were my weaknesses, and so I relied a lot on him.
39:41
Speaker 1: And so having to navigate being a caretaker and trying
39:46
Speaker 1: to make the best of the last six months he
39:48
Speaker 1: had while still trying to run a company, while still
39:52
Speaker 1: trying to allow him to get some things, you know,
39:56
Speaker 1: checked off his bucket list. But yet we still had
39:58
Speaker 1: to have the company run. So you know, there were
40:00
Speaker 1: a lot of challenges there. And just like I learned
40:04
Speaker 1: in anything in life, you know, you don't have all
40:07
Speaker 1: the answers for the future, but you can make answers
40:09
Speaker 1: for today and just putting one foot in front of
40:12
Speaker 1: the other and navigating it the best you can.
40:14
Speaker 4: And you know that's what we did.
40:15
Speaker 2: What a hurdle. Firstly, thank you for sharing that.
40:19
Speaker 3: I think when you touched on this idea of needing
40:22
Speaker 3: to show up despite feeling so many ways and dealing,
40:25
Speaker 3: you know, with the personal challenges that come with.
40:27
Speaker 2: This, how did you show up?
40:30
Speaker 3: Because I think that's a question that so many people
40:32
Speaker 3: struggle with, in an idea that so many people struggle with,
40:35
Speaker 3: it's this idea that I.
40:37
Speaker 2: Just can't get out of bed today. I can't do this.
40:39
Speaker 3: Like where was your head at during those dark times?
40:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I think you know, talking about comfort zone,
40:46
Speaker 1: I was in a comfort zone. I was with somebody
40:48
Speaker 1: for twenty two years who adored me, loved me, I
40:50
Speaker 1: loved him. I was in a comfort zone with him
40:55
Speaker 1: being the CEO of the company, so I had delegated
40:57
Speaker 1: a lot to him. So there were a lot of
40:59
Speaker 1: areas of the business that I really didn't know anything
41:01
Speaker 1: about it anymore because it wasn't my job, and so
41:05
Speaker 1: being out of my comfort zone certainly, you know, when
41:08
Speaker 1: he did pass away, now I had to you know,
41:12
Speaker 1: stand up in front of my company and feeling super
41:15
Speaker 1: vulnerable because there were, you know, areas of the business
41:17
Speaker 1: that I had to either learn or hire someone new
41:21
Speaker 1: for or whatever, and I had to put those hats
41:25
Speaker 1: back on. But also relaying strength. You know, every you know,
41:30
Speaker 1: when when a leader passes away, everybody is worried, you know,
41:33
Speaker 1: and and so just really portraying strength, even though it
41:37
Speaker 1: didn't feel I didn't feel strong. And then personally, when
41:41
Speaker 1: I look back on it, you know, certainly when he
41:43
Speaker 1: was sick, you know, it's it's I quickly realized it's
41:48
Speaker 1: not like in the movies where it's like, oh my gosh,
41:51
Speaker 1: and you know, we had six months to live and
41:53
Speaker 1: it's going to be all wonderful and joyous, and we're
41:54
Speaker 1: going to spend all this time, you know, you know,
41:57
Speaker 1: talking about life and you know, reminiscing about all that
42:00
Speaker 1: was great and you know, and we did do some
42:03
Speaker 1: of that, but unfortunately, the type of cancer he had
42:07
Speaker 1: it created tumors on his liver, which sent ammonia to
42:10
Speaker 1: his brain, which caused anger and psychosis. And so it
42:14
Speaker 1: was not all a bet of roses, and so it
42:18
Speaker 1: was very, very challenging. And you know, he was not
42:24
Speaker 1: the greatest patient. He was ex military, super strong, super stubborn,
42:29
Speaker 1: and he wanted to go out his way and that
42:31
Speaker 1: needed to be honored. But as a caretaker and his
42:34
Speaker 1: wife that you know, there were sometimes that I most
42:38
Speaker 1: definitely said getting in a car accident, I would have
42:41
Speaker 1: taken that, you know, way over what I'm having to
42:45
Speaker 1: work with now. Now, in hindsight, I wouldn't change a thing,
42:48
Speaker 1: because the beauty of someone having advanced notice of their
42:53
Speaker 1: death is they get to share all their wishes for you.
42:56
Speaker 1: And so when he passed away, for me personally and
43:00
Speaker 1: then certainly you know, of course carried over to professionally.
43:03
Speaker 1: But the best way I could honor his life was
43:06
Speaker 1: by moving forward. And so I anytime I would you know,
43:11
Speaker 1: play victim and woe is me or whatever. I would
43:14
Speaker 1: just erase that immediately, and I'm like, you know, life
43:18
Speaker 1: is short.
43:19
Speaker 4: I learned that real.
43:19
Speaker 1: Quick and and the best way I can move forward
43:24
Speaker 1: is to keep moving forward with my life, live my
43:27
Speaker 1: best life, you know, date again. That's what he wanted
43:30
Speaker 1: for me, you know, be strong, travel, like, just keep
43:34
Speaker 1: on living and so that and that's you know, anytime
43:39
Speaker 1: I cried, you know, I let myself cry.
43:42
Speaker 4: It wasn't that I was trying.
43:43
Speaker 1: To just be tough, but but you know when I cried,
43:46
Speaker 1: trust me, I would cry. But at the same time
43:49
Speaker 1: I would get back up and just keep moving forward.
43:51
Speaker 1: And you know, I got a lot of strength from
43:54
Speaker 1: knowing that he wanted me to be strong, and that's
43:56
Speaker 1: the best way to respect and honor him.
43:59
Speaker 3: I'm sure so many lessons from that experience carrying over
44:03
Speaker 3: into the past year into positively moving your business through
44:08
Speaker 3: the COVID pandemic. I saw that you put up a
44:10
Speaker 3: post back in January talking about all the accomplishments for
44:15
Speaker 3: Renee Rolo Skincare over the last year. I mean everything
44:19
Speaker 3: from being recognized is one of the best places to
44:21
Speaker 3: work by the Austin Business journal, no layoffs or pay
44:24
Speaker 3: cuts despite the pandemic.
44:27
Speaker 2: Nine of your skincare products winning awards.
44:29
Speaker 3: I mean, this is all you consciously looking for the
44:34
Speaker 3: silver linings always.
44:36
Speaker 4: Yeah.
44:36
Speaker 1: Well, and it was interesting, Yeah, when we got recognition
44:39
Speaker 1: as the best place to work. That was actually one
44:42
Speaker 1: of my late husband's dying wishes, he said, and we'd
44:48
Speaker 1: always kind of talked about that would be cool to
44:49
Speaker 1: get that, and he said, Renee, I want you to
44:51
Speaker 1: make that happen. And we made that happen last year,
44:53
Speaker 1: and so that was a huge way to honor him
44:56
Speaker 1: because that was the goal he set out for me.
45:00
Speaker 2: Are you excited about right now?
45:04
Speaker 4: What am I excited about?
45:06
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what I'm excited about. One being on
45:10
Speaker 1: Emily's podcast. So this is super exciting.
45:13
Speaker 2: Yeah.
45:14
Speaker 1: Last year I started, you know, seeking out or people
45:17
Speaker 1: start reaching out wanting to have me be on podcasts,
45:20
Speaker 1: and it's been super fun and so I'm really excited
45:24
Speaker 1: for this opportunity.
45:25
Speaker 4: Thank you.
45:26
Speaker 1: I'm also super excited about Clubhouse. Are you familiar with that?
45:31
Speaker 3: I am, you know, I'm just getting into Clubhouse and
45:33
Speaker 3: I have a personal strategy. This is so funny that
45:36
Speaker 3: you're saying with this to me, I have a personal
45:38
Speaker 3: strategy session on my calendar for tomorrow thinking about ways
45:41
Speaker 3: that I can engage with Clubhouse. Yeah, talk to the
45:45
Speaker 3: hurdlers about what clubhouse is and why it excites you.
45:48
Speaker 1: So this is this is where my head is with it.
45:50
Speaker 1: So I am an expert, and when you're an expert,
45:53
Speaker 1: you have things to share, you know. I mean, people
45:55
Speaker 1: are using it for learning opportunities, but I happen to
45:57
Speaker 1: have the advantage that I'm an expert. So one of
46:01
Speaker 1: the things that I would, you know, do often is
46:03
Speaker 1: do like an Instagram live right where you can interact
46:06
Speaker 1: with people and you can answer rapid fire questions. But
46:10
Speaker 1: the problem with that, and I say, the problem is,
46:13
Speaker 1: you know, I got to make sure my hair looks nice, makeup,
46:16
Speaker 1: and you know, I just you know, I'm in the
46:17
Speaker 1: appearance industry, and so sometimes I'm like, I don't.
46:21
Speaker 4: Feel like it. I just worked out and blah blah
46:23
Speaker 4: blah whatever.
46:24
Speaker 1: And so the great thing about Clubhouse is I can
46:29
Speaker 1: go on there and be an expert and answer skincare questions.
46:34
Speaker 1: But I can do it and look like crap, and
46:36
Speaker 1: it's so great and I can do it at any time.
46:39
Speaker 4: It's convenient for me.
46:41
Speaker 1: But the benefit of Clubhouse, which which is even cooler,
46:47
Speaker 1: is if I do an Instagram live or something, it's
46:49
Speaker 1: just me. But if you're in a room, I'll get
46:53
Speaker 1: invited up to what's called the stage, and so there's
46:57
Speaker 1: other experts on the stage, and it's been super fun
47:00
Speaker 1: to have conversations with other experts and answering questions from
47:06
Speaker 1: the audience. So I actually hosted a room the other
47:09
Speaker 1: day and it was me, so an esthetician, a dermatologist,
47:14
Speaker 1: a cosmetic surgeon, and a pharmacist. So the four of
47:17
Speaker 1: us were the experts answering questions and it was so amazing.
47:21
Speaker 1: So I'm really loving the networking opportunity. And now through Clubhouse,
47:27
Speaker 1: I have a really popular skincare blog that I started
47:30
Speaker 1: back in two thousand and five and we have over
47:32
Speaker 1: one thousand posts, and it's like true skincare education for
47:35
Speaker 1: the skincare enthusiast.
47:37
Speaker 4: And from time to time I'll loop in.
47:39
Speaker 1: Other experts on certain posts where they have a different
47:42
Speaker 1: area of expertise than I do, and so it's so great.
47:45
Speaker 1: So now like these new people that I'm meeting, like
47:48
Speaker 1: a celebrity, you know, cosmetic surgeon or whatever he's gonna
47:53
Speaker 1: I'm going to collaborate with him on a post for
47:54
Speaker 1: my blog. And so it's great to you know, network
47:56
Speaker 1: with other experts. But yeah, clubhouse is great. But then
47:59
Speaker 1: it's also for learning, and you know, there's you know,
48:03
Speaker 1: learn about TikTok, learn about social media, learn about entrepreneurship,
48:06
Speaker 1: and so a lot of times I just sit back
48:08
Speaker 1: in the audience and I'm asking questions that I'm learning.
48:10
Speaker 1: But then there's other times I'm being the expert and
48:13
Speaker 1: I'm sharing. So it's to me, it's just such a
48:15
Speaker 1: great win win.
48:16
Speaker 2: You're making me excited to get more into clubhouse. Stay tuned.
48:20
Speaker 2: It's great. What's the skincare blog called?
48:23
Speaker 4: It doesn't have a name, it's just on my website
48:25
Speaker 4: if you click on blog.
48:26
Speaker 2: I do have a question.
48:27
Speaker 3: I mean, you mentioned being in a room with dermatologists.
48:30
Speaker 3: Did you ever think about becoming a dermatologist? No?
48:34
Speaker 1: No, I barely made it through high school. I was
48:38
Speaker 1: like the worst student, and so the thought of going
48:41
Speaker 1: to for any more college or you know, that was
48:45
Speaker 1: not even an option.
48:46
Speaker 4: I love learning, but my learning.
48:49
Speaker 1: Has to be fives right, and I know that going
48:52
Speaker 1: to college and or being a dermatologist. I'd have to
48:55
Speaker 1: learn a lot of things that just would make my
48:57
Speaker 1: brain explode.
48:58
Speaker 4: And I just been to it.
49:00
Speaker 3: When someone comes to your social media page, they see
49:04
Speaker 3: what I would say as a badass woman with paink
49:07
Speaker 3: care who is a business owner and a smart skincare CEO.
49:13
Speaker 3: When you look in the mirror, what is it that
49:16
Speaker 3: you see looking back at you?
49:17
Speaker 1: I see strength and happiness. You know, I really kind
49:21
Speaker 1: of in this new chapter of my life after you know,
49:24
Speaker 1: my husband passed away, you know, again, having I was
49:27
Speaker 1: totally out of my comfort zone, both professionally and personally,
49:30
Speaker 1: and really I'm kind of like the comeback kid and
49:35
Speaker 1: being able to pull myself up, you.
49:37
Speaker 4: Know, and move forward, but with a renewed focus. That's
49:41
Speaker 4: the whole thing.
49:42
Speaker 1: I mean, for six months, you know, I watched the
49:48
Speaker 1: demise of someone's body and their mind. But everything they
49:52
Speaker 1: do to prep for that. Right, if someone tells you
49:54
Speaker 1: you have six months to live, what are you going
49:56
Speaker 1: to do? You know, what, how are you going to
49:58
Speaker 1: make the best of those last six months? And and
50:01
Speaker 1: my husband, the way he handled his last six months
50:04
Speaker 1: was so unbelievable, and the lessons and actually, if you
50:08
Speaker 1: go back to my if you go on Instagram and
50:10
Speaker 1: kind of scroll back, I shared a lot of the
50:12
Speaker 1: lessons and a lot of the stories. I also use
50:15
Speaker 1: the hashtag this is Florian f l O r a
50:20
Speaker 1: N this is Florian. So if someone goes that the hashtag,
50:23
Speaker 1: they can read a lot about that. But the lessons
50:27
Speaker 1: and wisdom I gained from really understanding of the meaning
50:31
Speaker 1: of life is just priceless, priceless. And so I look
50:37
Speaker 1: in the mirror and I just you know, I have
50:40
Speaker 1: so much clarity about how I want to live the
50:42
Speaker 1: rest of my life, what my life's purpose is, and
50:46
Speaker 1: I'm living.
50:46
Speaker 3: In You a an opportunity right now to offer yourself
50:51
Speaker 3: one piece of advice looking back at the last two
50:56
Speaker 3: three really difficult years, What do you tell yourself?
51:03
Speaker 1: I tell myself that the clocks ticken, start living, and
51:09
Speaker 1: that means, you know, being really strategic with how to
51:13
Speaker 1: spend time. You know, I think that's certainly what I
51:16
Speaker 1: learned is time is not guaranteed. You know, we could
51:19
Speaker 1: die today and time is all you have, and where
51:23
Speaker 1: are you going to put your time and energies? And
51:24
Speaker 1: so I'm super super strategic about who I let in
51:28
Speaker 1: my life, who I give time and energy to I.
51:31
Speaker 4: You know, if there are.
51:32
Speaker 1: People that it's not bringing me value, I won't give
51:36
Speaker 1: them my time, or people with bad energy or drama
51:39
Speaker 1: or whatever. But just really valuing my time and setting
51:43
Speaker 1: a lot of boundaries about that, and so I make
51:45
Speaker 1: a lot of good choices about how I spend my
51:48
Speaker 1: time because time is a limited resource.
51:51
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for opening up today, for your
51:54
Speaker 3: honesty and for sharing with all of the hurdlers.
51:57
Speaker 2: It's so appreciated.
51:59
Speaker 4: Thanks. Thanks, I really loved it. Thanks Emily, appreciate the opportunity.
52:03
Speaker 2: How does everybody keep up with you? Give me the details?
52:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, Renee Rollo and then my company page is Rene
52:11
Speaker 1: Renee Relau Skincare. So if you're more interested in learning
52:15
Speaker 1: about me as a person, I do talk a little
52:18
Speaker 1: bit about skincare, but not a ton. But if you're
52:21
Speaker 1: a true skincare enthusiast and you want to hear all
52:24
Speaker 1: of our offerings skincare education as well as well as products,
52:28
Speaker 1: than the Renee Relow Skincare company page beautiful.
52:32
Speaker 3: I am over at Emily Body and at Hurdle Podcast.
52:34
Speaker 3: Another Hurdle conquered. Catch you guys next time.