Ep. 170: IS A BUSINESS COACH EVEN NECESSARY IN THE BEAUTY BUSINESS WHEN YOU’RE ALREADY SUCCESSFUL IN YOUR PMU, BROW OR LASH SERVICES?
If you're already successful - how much can a business coach really help you?
This is a question I get a lot! It's funny - I get the question from new artists and experienced artists alike - can coaching really help me where I'm at in my career? The answer in short? YES.
The long answer? Well, listen to the episode to find out just how helpful it could be!
Listen, I can only tell you what I know, and what I know is this: I experienced massive growth in my business when I finally invested $$$$ in coaching, and that we've had over 500 students in Pretty Rich Bosses since we started and have had success stories that brought us to tears.
That's not to say coaching or more program specifically is for everyone - it's not. But it very well could be for you!
If you're not sold on coaching, this episode is for you. I brought on my friend and fellow coach Carla Ricciardone to dive into this topic with me! We're talking the good and bad on coaching, how you know when you're ready, and how to get started!
Here are the episode highlights:
‣‣ [04:48] As someone who went to college and someone who didn't, Carla and I discuss the differences in learning how to run a business through a college degree vs through experience.
‣‣ [09:41] What are the benefits of a coaching program like Pretty Rich Bosses?
‣‣ [12:41] What is the ultimate form of accountability?
‣‣ [14:14] What IS a collaboration? How do we define it?
‣‣ [15:55] How do you know when you need a business coach?
‣‣ [19:34] What are some things that people don't like about coaching?
‣‣ [21:27] My business has really blown up over the last year. Here I talk about what caused that shift in my business.
‣‣ [37:05] Answering the question: paid ads. When and how?
‣‣ [47:06] Where do you start?
I'M READY! (Listen Here)
I love Carla and I'm so glad that I get to work with such a badass beauty boss every day! Follow her on Instagram @sculptedstudios
You can follow me, Sheila Bella, on Instagram @realsheilabella!
Here are the links that were mentioned in the podcast!
Pretty Rich Bosses
Pretty Ambitious Summit
Text me! (310) 388-4588
FOR MY LISTENER BOSS BABES
You can enjoy this podcast by downloading it on iTunes here.
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FOR MY READER BOSS BABES
You can enjoy a transcript of the podcast here.
Sheila Bella:
Welcome to Pretty Rich Podcast, where you're totally the heroine of your own story. I'm your host, Sheila Bella, and I built a seven-figure PMU beauty biz and a seven-figure online biz without a degree, without a fancy website, or a sugar daddy. And if you and I hang out on here long enough, you're going to start to believe that you can do it, too. How about that for a side effect of listening to this podcast? Because you really can. I know you think I don't know you, I have no idea who you are, but I do. I really, really do, because I am you. I was you. And I believe we are all on the same journey together. My perfect job didn't exist, so I created it. The job I wanted wasn't hiring me, wanted nothing to do with me, so I skipped the line and hired myself as CEO, just like you can. Consider me your secret beauty biz BFF in case you need to be reminded on a weekly basis that power is never just handed to you. You have to take it. Are you ready, beauty boss? Let's jump in.
Okay, awesome. First of all, guys, I just want to give you just a really heartfelt compliment, Carla, because you're just one of those people that I instantly bonded with.
Carla Ricciardone:
Thank you, mama.
Sheila Bella:
I don't know what it is about you. You're so magnetic, and you're just one of those boss bitches that just gets shit done, that I like to roll with. When I'm around you, I'm actually relaxed. It's relaxing.
Carla Ricciardone:
Well, thank you.
Sheila Bella:
It's relaxing.
Carla Ricciardone:
I really appreciate that. I love that.
Sheila Bella:
You know why? Because if there's an earthquake or something like that or we run out of money, I feel like you and I are going to be okay.
Carla Ricciardone:
Yeah. You know what? There are a few people that I would invite to my secret island full of you just you and me, and we would be totally fine. Absolutely, 100%.
Sheila Bella:
I like to think that, if you and I got dropped off in a foreign country with $0, you're one of those girls that I feel like we'd be rich in six months.
Carla Ricciardone:
Yeah. No problem. Absolutely. Mm-hmm (affirmative). Depends on the country maybe, but yeah, no, I could totally do that. With you-
Sheila Bella:
Well, we'd figure it out.
Carla Ricciardone:
... I could do anything in the world. Yeah, we would totally figure it out. 100%. I always say you're one of those people who can take a letter to Garcia. And for those of you who don't know what I mean, it's an essay. Feel free to Google it.
Sheila Bella:
You told me that. You told me that.
Carla Ricciardone:
It's amazing. I give it to everybody that I hire. It was given to me a very long time ago, one of my very first jobs. And this gentleman is given a task, and he's told to take this letter to Garcia. He doesn't know what's in the letter, he doesn't know who Garcia is, doesn't know where Garcia is, doesn't know anything, and he figures it all out and gets the job done. Being held accountable and actually doing the things that you're being held accountable for, I feel the same way about you. I could literally call you up and be like, "What do we do? How do we do this?" And you'd be like, "Done. Done." And if worse comes to worst, we can always be Laura and Amelia on it.
Sheila Bella:
Oh my gosh. That would be amazing. For you guys who don't know, Laura and Amelia are our work wives.
Carla Ricciardone:
Yeah. 100%. 100%. They're amazing. And the team that you built around yourself. You say it all the time. Your tribe is your vibe, I cannot agree with that any more. It's just so powerful. So powerful.
Sheila Bella:
Oh, thank you. Yeah. I was just talking to... I had a meeting this morning with my team, and the way I see our team is basically we're an engine, we're a car, and everybody's a wheel. I might be driving, but if we lose a wheel, we're fucked. Everyone's job is super important. I always remind them, especially when we get these testimonials from students, the impact that they're having on these people's lives, and not just a singular life. The impact of one successful business is infinite. Just one successful business.
Carla Ricciardone:
Yeah. 100%. Really powerful.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah. I'm really all about that, because I know what it's like to feel incompetent. I know what it's like to not know what I'm doing and to not feel like I have life skills. I think success and making money, that's a life skill that I want my kids to have.
Carla Ricciardone:
Right? Exactly.
Sheila Bella:
I want my kids to have that. I didn't go to school, I didn't go to college, so my credentials are from the streets.
Carla Ricciardone:
West Side. Well, I can attest. Listen. I went through all the college stuff, and I use none of the stuff I learned in school. Absolutely none. I couldn't be further off of my college education right now. Could not be further off.
Sheila Bella:
There is something, though, Carla, to the fact that you did it.
Carla Ricciardone:
Yes. There is.
Sheila Bella:
Yes. I feel like I could go to college now.
Carla Ricciardone:
Parental pressure, Mom.
Sheila Bella:
My mom was so... I don't know. She didn't want to rock the boat with me. Had a rocking boat as it is.
Carla Ricciardone:
When I was in school, you went for a thing. You went to become a lawyer or a doctor or an accountant. You went for a thing. It changed in the last 20 years, where now it's a little less like that's a thing. I don't know. The collegiate experience feels a little bit different than it used to, but I don't use any of it anyway. You are the dean at Pretty Rich Boss University. I love that. That's so true. Chief cook, bottle washer, the dean. I love it. We can just rename you the dean.
Now, not coming from the college route and having your own business as an entrepreneur, it's really different. Owning your own business is really different than working for someone. I think maybe that's a good place to start, right?
Sheila Bella:
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
Carla Ricciardone:
Having to possess all of the facets of knowledge of a business is different than working for a business where you're only responsible maybe for a piece of that business, like sales or the finance or the growth. Whereas when you're an entrepreneur, you're responsible for all of this stuff.
Sheila Bella:
That's why it's hard.
Carla Ricciardone:
Every little bit. That's why it's so hard. If you don't do it, you don't get a paycheck. It's not like this salary just shows up every two weeks in your bank account for showing up and doing your tasks for the day that someone else may see the larger picture of, but you only are doing or are responsible for a piece. Here, not only do you have to see the bigger picture as an entrepreneur, especially in the beauty business, but you have to execute that bigger picture on the business side as well as having the skills and possessing the skills to sell, right? It's like a two-
Sheila Bella:
Yeah. It's a lot of things. These days, you have to be media-heavy. Look what we're doing. We go to permanent makeup training. Did they teach us how to interview people?
Carla Ricciardone:
No.
Sheila Bella:
Did they teach us how to [inaudible 00:08:15]?
Carla Ricciardone:
None.
Sheila Bella:
Not only are you the artist, but now, you also need to be the trainer, you need to be the video editor, you need to be the interviewee and interviewer, you need to be the podcaster, you need to be the photo editor, the social media manager.
Carla Ricciardone:
The presenter.
Sheila Bella:
The finance director. What else? The cheerleader, the therapist to your clients.
Carla Ricciardone:
Everything.
Sheila Bella:
HR.
Carla Ricciardone:
Bookkeeper, you need to be HR, you need to be an assistant.
Sheila Bella:
You need a lawyer.
Carla Ricciardone:
You need to call your clients back, you need to be a salesperson. There are so many hats. It's insane. I think people get into the business and they think, "Okay, now I have a skill, and I'm just going to perform this skill." You can stop there. 100%. You can just stop there. But if you really want to see good growth and higher income, you need to start to evolve and formulate a company, and that company has all of these rules and responsibilities and tasks that need to be on a daily. I know you start your day super early, like 5:30 in the morning. I don't start that early, but my days are 18, 20 hours, easy. It's 7:21 right now, and I haven't had a glass of water or a snack all day. I just stopped. This is the first time I'm in a seated position.
It's a lot, and I have to say, coming on as a coach at Pretty Rich has also given me access to the entire program and the vault. What I've learned from it has just been staggering. And I've been doing this for a while. Some of it, I was already doing, and you put a name on it for me, and I was like, "Oh, wow. Look at that. There it is."
Sheila Bella:
I was doing that. I was doing that thing.
Carla Ricciardone:
Yeah. That. I was doing that. And then there was other things. I was like, "Oh my God. If I incorporate that, what a difference it'll make." Just a small one. Look up at Instagram bubble, and you'll see the little colorful circle around my Instagram story that just prompts people to tap that. It works like crazy. It's amazing. I know that's just a little trick, but this program is chock full of tips and tricks, too, not just how to run your business, which is magnificent.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah. What I love about Pretty Rich Bosses is, now, it's a machine. Now, it's just a machine for creating impact, because it's not just me. It used to be just me. But oh my gosh, the fact that it's not just me now, that you're on there. You taught how to have apprenticeships last month, right?
Carla Ricciardone:
That's right.
Sheila Bella:
We teach team-building. Emily Joy teaches team-building. We have an online course workshop. We have sales clinics every week. We talk about DM sales as well as on-the-phone sales. We have a workshop on landing pages. All the other things, too. Mindsets and wellness. And then we have this monthly thing called Connection Clinic, where you actually talk to each other.
Carla Ricciardone:
Yeah. And you also have the website area now and the AI.
Sheila Bella:
[crosstalk 00:11:34].
Carla Ricciardone:
Laura just messaged one of my mentees. She's looking to create an Instagram filter, and you guys have that, too.
Sheila Bella:
Oh, yeah. We do filters now, too. Yeah. It's really a one-stop shop. We have a lot of people join the program and re-sign easily, because it's a resource that they can't let go of. Although it's not created for you to have to need it all the time, re-signing is easy, because it's all of the stuff that you didn't learn in cosmetology or your permanent makeup training. It continues to evolve, it continues to be updated. Victoria and I have a Reels course coming out, and that continues to be updated, because we had to create a video on Remix, which is the new feature on Instagram. My goal for it is to just be the ultimate resource for every beauty entrepreneur who wants to scale their business, because it's not just about learning the service, as you say. It's about wearing all those hats. And the biggest part of it is having a community that supports you throughout that journey.
Carla Ricciardone:
There's nothing like community-
Sheila Bella:
No.
Carla Ricciardone:
... of like-minded individuals. It's so powerful. It's your motivation. I know a lot of people, myself included, when you're looking into a coaching, sometimes it's just feedback. Are you on the right path? Are you on the right track? Are you missing something? Somebody to help you with your accountability. That's the one thing that people lose touch with. They let a few days go by or a few hours go by, and the tasks aren't done. But if you have someone that's holding your accountability, you're more apt to do it. If I ever really want to get something done, I tell a friend. Always.
Sheila Bella:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah, to meet you at the gym.
Carla Ricciardone:
Exactly. "Meet me at the gym," or to check in on my bad snacking habits. No. But it's really important to have that community, and that's what that community does. You can have access to all the coaches through some of the programs. It's an incredible platform.
Sheila Bella:
I know this episode is just getting to the good part, but hold on a second. I wanted to stop and ask you if you ever feel like a brow or lash robot. Are you constantly grinding, but you're never, ever free, like you're the slave girl to your own business? Listen. You and I both know that the reason why you got into the beauty business to begin with is so that you can be your own boss. But if you're slaving away as a solo-preneur, you're basically a slave to clients. Maybe you know that you need to scale, maybe you know you need to grow and expand, but you just don't know where to begin. The three things that every business owner needs in order to grow are strategy, systems, and support. You can't grow without all three. Strategy, systems, and support.
Enter Pretty Rich Bosses, my one-on-one coaching program that helps beauty entrepreneurs just like you scale their businesses. If you feel like a factory worker, brows, lash, brows, lash, brows, lash, and you know you're just surviving but not really living, I can help get you there with just a little bit of guidance. We are offering complimentary 60-minute strategy calls. All you need to do is go to sheilabella.com/apply. That's sheilabella.com/apply. Do something the others aren't doing. Invest in yourself, invest in your business. Stop asking for advice from people who haven't done it themselves. Super easy. Type in your information, and someone from my team will get back to you and set up that free call right away. Mentorship is the closest thing to a shortcut. You can't Google your way to success. You could, but it's going to take a while. Take a leap of faith. Go to sheilabella.com/apply.
Carla Ricciardone:
How do you know you need a business coach?
Sheila Bella:
How you know you need a business coach. Couple of things. If you're going to Google now, you can't build a high six-figure, seven-figure, eight-figure business on Google. The thing that got you to six figures is not going to get you to seven and so on and so forth. You need something different. I'm a product of business coaching. I am. I'm not a product of college.
Carla Ricciardone:
You are a product of divinity, my love.
Sheila Bella:
You're so sweet. Yeah. I think that's how you know that it's time for a coach.
Carla Ricciardone:
Yeah. 100%. I say it all the time. How many hats can I wear? I just have someone who keeps me on track and sees things even the way that I don't see them. If you happen to be running a successful business and you're doing good and you're looking to level up or scale up, as Sheila was saying, and grow your business, it's really hard. I can tell you from personal experience to say to yourself, "You know what? I need help." And to let someone else's eyes take over your A-type personality, like me. It's not easy thing for me to say, "I need coaching." It's not an easy thing for me to say. Built this all by myself.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah. It's hard for us.
Carla Ricciardone:
Now, I'm going to trust somebody else with that baby and taking that next step. But it's the right thing to do. There are so many different ways to grow what I currently have, and that outside look in is what's going to put you on that next step and give you perhaps the pathway to get you there, which is invaluable, 100%.
Sheila Bella:
If you really want it. I really wanted it. I think it's just all about want. Do you want it more than the next guy? Because there's going to be lots of hard days.
Carla Ricciardone:
Sacrifices.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah. It's full of discouraging things. Building a business, it can be very discouraging. If you're not getting discouraged, you're not trying.
Carla Ricciardone:
Yeah. You're not failing, you're not growing. I always say to people, change is always violent. Name one type of change that exists in the universe that doesn't happen under violent circumstances.
Sheila Bella:
Oh, that's so true. Oh my gosh.
Carla Ricciardone:
Just name one.
Sheila Bella:
We can go down the rabbit hole with just that one statement.
Carla Ricciardone:
With that one statement. Exactly.
Sheila Bella:
Change is always violent.
Carla Ricciardone:
Yeah. Always violent.
Sheila Bella:
I'll write that down. Change is always violent.
Carla Ricciardone:
My little quips. But I think that that's something that is a reality check for a lot of people, too. You're not going to start tomorrow and have a seven-figure business on Friday. Let's just call it reality. But you can put yourself in a position for success and for that success to grow, and you're hitting those milestones, and you're growing your business on the rocks and not the sand, is going to make all the difference in the world, because the bigger you get, the bigger the problems, and more of them. You have to have those tools in line to get through every single step. That's what this coaching is all about. What are some of the things that people don't like about it?
Sheila Bella:
I think what people don't like about coaching is, well, the reputation that it has, that it might have to some people. A lot of people think that you can't truly learn anything online. I heard that this morning from somebody. Very old-school mentality, if you ask me. Another thing is, I think, if you had a negative experience with an online coach, or even a marketer or something like that, that promised you the moon and the stars but you didn't get the results or you didn't get the attention, I think that's difficult. Obviously, not every coach is the same, and you can't just base your decisions off of one experience.
Carla Ricciardone:
100%.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah. I've paid [crosstalk 00:20:41] coaches.
Carla Ricciardone:
If I did that, I would never have done PMU in my life, because-
Sheila Bella:
There you go.
Carla Ricciardone:
... my first couple experiences weren't very good. I think that people get the wrong flavor. It's business coaching, which implies that you actually have to show up and play.
Sheila Bella:
Be an active participant.
Carla Ricciardone:
An active participant. Yeah. Put me in, coach. You're off the bench. I've seen a lot of people sign up for programs and say, "Oh, I didn't work for me." Well, did you actually come to the table and do something? Because it's business coaching. It's not business, "You send me your stuff and I do all the work, and your business grows." You have to be able to put in the work and the time and do what you're-
Sheila Bella:
It's hard.
Carla Ricciardone:
That's hard. It's really hard.
Sheila Bella:
It's hard. Listen. When I was beginning-
Carla Ricciardone:
Self discipline.
Sheila Bella:
... both my businesses... Yes, Michelle. Requires self discipline. Both my businesses, but let's just about the most recent one. Even learning how to build an online business, I had all the motivation and the time. I wish somebody would just tell me what to do. And I just kept guessing. And it wasn't until the pandemic when I really took it seriously and I paid three people. I paid for masterminds, I paid for coaches. My business really blew up, and it scaled, because I was guessing this whole time. I thought listening to podcasts was enough, because after a podcast, guess what? You feel so smart. I felt so smart. "I'm going to try that thing Amy Porterfield told me to do. Oh, I'm going to try that thing Jenna Kutcher told me to do. I'm going to try that thing GaryVee told me to do."
But how do you know that's really for you? It wasn't until I paid somebody to look at my business internally and tell me, "Well, these are the parts that we're missing." I had another seven-figure business within three months. But it wasn't three months, okay? Because I built my audience. It took me years to build an audience, which is a big deal. Of course, you have to build an audience. And I've been failing and trying again, failing and trying again over and over again for several years. And then I'm like, "What am I doing?" It's really about you wanting it even through those hard times. It's you wanting it so much that you're willing to invest what the next guy is not willing to invest and lose that money. You need to be willing to lose that money if you-
Carla Ricciardone:
Yeah. 100%.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah. It means you don't want it. It means you don't want it.
Carla Ricciardone:
Yeah. No, you're 100% right. Yeah. You're 100% right. I'm never at a loss for words. I think you touched on some really good key points there. You have something that you want to grow, right? You want to add water to it and see this baby thrive. And what you're willing to give up to get there is what's going to put you apart from someone else, hands down, 100%. But your foundation also needs to be... You need to know at least the direction in which you're going. You want to start a permanent makeup business, learn how to do that.
But also, simultaneously, you need to be learning how to build that business so two of your babies grow. You don't have to be an established permanent makeup artist. You don't have to have a huge following. You don't need all of this to start business coaching. You can start simultaneously. I know that's a question I get a lot. "Well, I just learned how to do this yesterday." But this is the plan that puts you on track so you don't have to waste time, like Sheila and I did, guessing forever. Sheila reached out to business coaches, and it's been on my list of things to do like crazy. The value in it, I cannot believe the value that these girls and guys are getting from the program. I can see it from the inside out. Everyone gets where they want to be. It's really amazing to see. It really is.
Sheila Bella:
I'm so proud. I'm so proud of the students. I'm so proud of our team and what we've built.
Carla Ricciardone:
They put in the work, and they are enjoying it, too. Yes, there are stressful moments and they're like, "Oh my gosh," and things like that, I'm sure, all across the board. But the end result seems to just be everything that they wanted it to be and then some. It's really incredible. It really is. I know I keep saying that over and over again.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah. People ask me, "Does this work?" And you know what? I don't blame them. You don't know. We just met. I'm this blonde Asian bimbo on your phone. But you don't know. Yeah, of course. But here's the thing. Don't just listen to me. We post a new testimonial every Thursday. It's hard to pick.
Carla Ricciardone:
I was going to say.
Sheila Bella:
Wins in PRB are an everyday thing. I have a page full of testimonials of people saying that they tripled their income, they quadrupled their income, they built a team, they scaled and built an online business or a second business that they didn't know existed. What are these people? Actors? You know what I mean? I'm in L.A. I know, because I just put up something on [crosstalk 00:26:25] dotcom.
But here's the thing. For the people who are wasting time trying to figure out whether or not this works, there are people who have just said, "Enough is enough. This is my future." They just don't even care. You need to want it more than you want the money. You just need to want it more than you care about it. It just comes back down to want and desire. You need to want it. It's not a strategy thing. I really believe that the people at the top just wanted it more.
Carla Ricciardone:
Yeah. I don't disagree with that. It's what you put in.
Sheila Bella:
The girls with abs. The girls with abs just wanted it more, okay, Sheila? Okay?
Carla Ricciardone:
Yep. Okay. Technically speaking, you are [inaudible 00:27:24] human, so you don't get to have abs.
Sheila Bella:
Even before that. They're just like, "Well, all of it's a choice."
Carla Ricciardone:
It is.
Sheila Bella:
All of it's a choice.
Carla Ricciardone:
I'm glad that you feel like you were literally talking about you, because I swear we were literally talking about me, too. Feel free to chime in with questions, guys, if you want, because Sheila and I can talk all night long about everything. But if there's a specific question you guys have, please don't hesitate to just throw it in there, and we'll make sure it gets answered. What else about business coaching should people really be aware of? We kind of talked on the hot parts. You got to really want it. It definitely hits-
Sheila Bella:
Yeah. I think a lot of people use their circumstances as the excuse, not the reason. When I invested five figures in a coach, I was the most uncertain in my business I'd ever been. My brick-and-mortar that was doing well was shut down, all of my girls were out of work because of COVID, and I didn't know what was going to happen. The world was ending, to my knowledge. I feel like all of us [crosstalk 00:28:41].
Carla Ricciardone:
We all scrambled. Yeah.
Sheila Bella:
Instead of using that as an excuse to tighten the reins and just hoard the money, that uncertainty was the reason for spending the most money I have ever spent on business coaching. The most money I've ever spent. You know what I mean? People say, "Oh, I don't want to do this right now, because I got kids, and they need this. And I don't know if I can play with her." I understand that. And isn't that also the reason?
Carla Ricciardone:
Yeah, no, I get that. 100%. Yeah, right. Here you are, feeling a little hand-in-mouth and a little strapped, but what if you took on a business coach and you learned, and instead of doing all the guessing, like you were saying, that time became time that was actually creating income, and your income could grow exponentially? Wouldn't that be the best value? It's a hard thing to choose. I did something similar in COVID, too. Again, I have rents to pay and studios to run, and I just decided to spend a ton of money and put a production studio in so I could go online. It was this crazy thing, and I was like, "I don't even know if this is going to work." And it ended up really working out. The times where you feel like you shouldn't take a risk are the times you should probably take the biggest one you've got.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah, because what else? I think people also don't realize that if you are just looking to Google for the solutions, it's not a real solution. What you end up doing is you just wake up to the same problem of not having clients, of not having students, of not having a pandemic-proof business. Every day, you're sitting in your shit. Every day.
Carla Ricciardone:
And stressing.
Sheila Bella:
Unless something changes, unless you do something different that's out of the box, unless you get someone... You think you're so good at driving your car? Really? Are you that good if you're in pain? That's another thing, too. I think most people are comfortable.
Carla Ricciardone:
Yeah. Comfortable in their pain. You said that the other day, and my mind was blown. People are comfortable with their pain. They feel like suffering to find their success. "The more I suffer and the harder I'm suffering, that must mean I'm successful." It doesn't have to be that way.
Sheila Bella:
That's true. Yes. Yes. There's a few things here. Number one, I think people say that they're uncomfortable, but they're actually very comfortable, and that's why they're not willing to change. But they don't realize the potential in their business. A successful permanent makeup business with an artist or two is easily a seven-figure business. We don't talk about that. No one will talk about that, so what ends up happening is the newbies expect less. They don't realize the potential. And a lot of people who are booked out for several months, they're booked out for several months, and they're like, "I've made it. I don't make my kids dinner, I don't see my family a lot, but I've made it."
Carla Ricciardone:
They're addicted to being busy.
Sheila Bella:
Have you? They're just addicted to making money. The thing that's keeping you down typically is disguised as making money. Well, before you congratulate yourself on being booked out, honey, you are losing scalability. You're losing scalability. What you need to learn is how to put a team together, like I have, and delegate it. Once you have the demand, great. But now, are you just going to continue to rent your time for money? You're dying one eyebrow at a time.
Carla Ricciardone:
It's true.
Sheila Bella:
That's it. And you're just waiting for the Grim Reaper to come, one eyebrow at a time. Life is more than just about eyebrows.
Carla Ricciardone:
Yep. It is. When I explained this to one of my... I was like, "Okay, you max out between four and five clients a day. You only can work so many days a week. The income caps. What are you going to do? What's your next plan? Where do you want to grow to? Where do you want to evolve into? Do you want to miss breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day and get home at 10:00 at night? Yeah, you're making money, but at what cost? And what if there was another way to get to that money without having to not have a life at all?"
Now, that doesn't mean there aren't going to be periods of time where you need to sacrifice and really buckle up and get in the long, hard hours. Making an online course, for example, took me six weeks to write this massive course. I don't know if Shay's still on, but she can chuckle at me later about that was supposed to be a mini course. Look what happened. It came out maxi. You have to realize that there are going to be those moments, still. It's not all just sitting back and just watching it all roll in. But you don't have to kill yourself all the time. There are other ways to get to that success, for sure.
Sheila Bella:
There are. There's smarter ways. It's not just about working hard. It's about working smarter. It is a win-win situation when you give somebody a job. I think a lot of people don't want to hire because they're afraid nobody else can do it better than them. That's number one.
Carla Ricciardone:
Or the other way around.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah. Oh, that's true. Or that. Okay. Or they're afraid to let go. Sometimes, there's, I think, a little bit of... People villainize making money, and people look at bosses like this big man on the top floor of a building who's all grumpy and smokes a cigar. That's what they think it is. If you're a boss, you have to mean.
Carla Ricciardone:
Yeah.
Sheila Bella:
Right? But I just know that employment is a blessing for both parties. When you have a job that you really love that provides stability for you, and not just stability, but community, friends, it can really help somebody out. Somebody needs your job. Why are you hoarding all the brow clients when there's a single mom out there that's honest and hardworking, and she needs an opportunity, and you are here holding that from her?
Carla Ricciardone:
Share. Listen.
Sheila Bella:
Share.
Carla Ricciardone:
It's just basic principles. "Do unto others as you want done unto yourself." The more you give in this world, the more you get back. People are always so nervous to put themselves out there. Yeah, okay. You might get stepped on once in a while, but it's okay. You just dust it off and get up and try it again. It's okay. We do have some questions, so let's see.
Sheila Bella:
Okay.
Carla Ricciardone:
First of all, "What is your ethnicity?"
Sheila Bella:
I am Filipino, but if we are really to break down my mix, my father is British and Spanish, and my mother is Malay and Chinese. But Filipino. I was born there. I came here when I was eight years old. And I'm not a blonde.
Carla Ricciardone:
"Paid ads. When and how?"
Sheila Bella:
Good question.
Carla Ricciardone:
Yeah. It says, "Paid ad, when and how we have to do?"
Sheila Bella:
Paid ad.
Carla Ricciardone:
Paid ads.
Sheila Bella:
Okay. Paid ad. When and how we have to do. Got it. Understood perfectly. Okay. Paid ads. Don't you dare run paid ads until you've learned how to sell organically.
Carla Ricciardone:
I was going to say that.
Sheila Bella:
Why would you... Here's how ads work. I look at marketing like dating. Ads. Ads, yes. Ads are like the ask or tapping a hot guy on the shoulder at a bar or whatever. I don't know. Whatever.
Carla Ricciardone:
Swiping right or whatever on one of those dating apps. Right.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah. Let's say we're in downtown Miami, you and I are both single. Oh my gosh. That would be crazy, first of all.
Carla Ricciardone:
Amazing.
Sheila Bella:
And then we're like, "All right, let's do this." Ads are the ask where you tap someone on the shoulder and you're like, "Hey!" And then when they turn around, your branding and your website, that's your face and your personality.
Carla Ricciardone:
Personality and your outfit.
Sheila Bella:
And your outfit. Right. That gets them to decide whether or not to buy you a drink or not. But ads, all that is is just asking guys out, just like, "Hey, I'm here. I'm here." But unless you yourself can convert a sale or-
Carla Ricciardone:
Right. If you can't close the opportunity, you're going to the bar by yourself.
Sheila Bella:
Okay. Don't you dare run ads until you get this good.
Carla Ricciardone:
Situated. Yes. And you know what to say when he's like, "What?"
Sheila Bella:
Right. Right. That would mean your branding and your website, your landing page, are sales skills. That's before you pay for it. Before you pay for it. Yeah. I think that's like going on Tinder. Yeah, that's kind of like going on Tinder, because if you can... Oh, gosh. Forget it. I'm going down the rabbit hole of metaphors for dating and marketing, and I don't think it's [crosstalk 00:39:28].
Carla Ricciardone:
It works. It works. I'm following along really well.
Sheila Bella:
Okay. Okay, okay. Good. Okay. But you guys get it, right?
Carla Ricciardone:
Another thing, too, is volume. You're going to pay for something, you also have to expect, if it's done properly, your ad copy is generated correctly and things like that, that you are going to generate a lot of people's interest. You have to be prepared to either take those calls yourself and close them and sell them, or that you have a team in place that is going to be able to do that for you, because otherwise, you're just collecting email addresses, and you have basically just taken your investment in those paid ads and set it on fire, because you haven't been able to turn around and get on the phone or answer those emails or those calls. You want to make sure you have that structure in place before you go and put money in that bucket.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah. It is volume. Yeah. Good point. Good point.
Carla Ricciardone:
Let's see. "Being booked up. How do we get there?" Yeah. It's a road.
Sheila Bella:
It's a road. It's a road.
Carla Ricciardone:
It's a road. It's a road. It takes some time to get there, and that's okay. I don't know where you are in that situation. If you're a very new artist, you may be still in that model phase of your artistry. Doesn't mean they all have to be free clients. You can exchange it for other things, like social media exposure or a little bit of a shout-out or a testimonial or some pictures that you need, things like that. Make sure you know you are exchanging something for your value.
And if you're past that point and you're looking to get your clients in the door and booked out, that has to do with being consistent, getting your face out there on whatever your marketing platforms are, whether it's Facebook or Instagram or Google, Twitter, whatever, blobbity-blah nowadays. There's so many of these things now. But you want to make sure that you're constantly being consistent and you're showing your face. Even if you don't have work yet, per se, to show, you can show working on practice skins. People need to know you. They want to form a relationship with who they are going to be getting their services from. The more that you can showcase yourself, the more you end up being able to get those clients in the door. And there are other avenues to go down, but that's definitely one of the ones that you want to be able to check off your list. Did I miss anything?
Sheila Bella:
I think being booked out is starting with... If your problem is getting clients, it's probably because maybe you think you don't have a large enough audience. I think you have to start with who you know.
Carla Ricciardone:
Yeah, that network. That small, current network is priceless.
Sheila Bella:
Just who you know. It's who you know.
Carla Ricciardone:
That's how I started.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah, that's how we all started.
Carla Ricciardone:
This was going to be a hobby.
Sheila Bella:
Oh, yeah.
Carla Ricciardone:
This was going to be a hobby, and I was just going to do my friends and my family members. Well, I did my friends and my family members. For every person, you don't know who's in their network. That organic growth, there's nothing like it. That word of mouth, there's nothing like it. Don't be afraid of that. At all.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah. You can't be afraid to ask for the business. What do they say? "A closed mouth doesn't get fed."
Carla Ricciardone:
Yeah. Squeaky wheels don't get greased.
Sheila Bella:
No. You can't be afraid to ask for the business from your friends. Ask for the referral from your family members. I ask people at church all the time. I even went and visited my old church, and I was like, "Hey, [inaudible 00:43:15] eyebrows now." And I passed out my business card and stuff. Do you want it bad enough to-
Carla Ricciardone:
To do it.
Sheila Bella:
... to do that-
Carla Ricciardone:
To do the work. And this goes back to what we were saying before.
Sheila Bella:
... and look crazy? Yeah.
Carla Ricciardone:
You have to do the work. Clients didn't just show up. I didn't just open my door and have clients on my table. I went and got every last one. I still do. Every client that I get, I got. Every last one of them. I still talk to people who have questions, people who come into my classes. I talk to every single person that wants to come to a training with me. I call them on the phone, every single one of them. I take smaller classes. I don't have 300 people in my classes, but that's a choice. And the choice to form that connection with them before they take a class or choose me as their trainer, I want to choose them, too. We're going to be working together. Get your booties out there. Talk. Go to the coffee shop, go to the local bars, go to the-
Sheila Bella:
True. It's true.
Carla Ricciardone:
... businesses next door and be that squeaky wheel. You'll get greased.
Sheila Bella:
We have a course that's in PRB. Listen. Shameless plug. Listen.
Carla Ricciardone:
No, totally shameless.
Sheila Bella:
Shameless plug. It's called NCC, called New Clients Consistently.
Carla Ricciardone:
I love this one.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah. I love it, too. I recommend it to anybody that wants to get booked out. It's a low-priced course, very affordable. What it does is it gets you a revolving door of clients, never-ending clients, if you follow each and every step. It's five steps. That's it.
Carla Ricciardone:
Yeah. It's what I love about the PRB program in so many ways. There's a lot of really in-depth informational stuff in there that you can dig and chew on all day long. A plan of action. Do this, do this, get this, do this. And it works. It works until you can sit down and divulge all of the intellectual property that went into formulating those five steps. She says it so easily. It's just five steps. But those five steps took a lot of honing in and took a lot of skill-building and trial and error on your part. It was a big thing that got scaled down into something chewable and bite-sized that functions beautifully.
And if you want all the how and the why behind all of those individual pieces, that vault is chock full of all of that information, and you have your coach to feed off of. And I will plug this all day long, because it's fantastic how it's broken down, and it really is effective, and it works. But you have to be willing to work it. It's not going to do it for you. The vault's not going to get up, jump off your laptop, go next door, and invite somebody over for eyebrows. That's not going to happen. Not yet. Give it another year, and Sheila will have holograms or something.
Sheila Bella:
Figure it out. Oh my gosh, that'd be amazing.
Carla Ricciardone:
"Is it a skill that you need to learn from a small scale first?" Tilly, are you talking about business, or are you talking about... Yeah. I don't know which skill, babe. Yes. We will be saving the live. Hey, Zeke.
Sheila Bella:
It'll live on Carla's page. And you know what? I'm going to make this a podcast. I'm going to do that, too.
Carla Ricciardone:
Oh, I love that idea. I love that idea. Tilly, I don't know if you can hear me, honey. Oh, wait. Hold on. "If you can't handle your inner circle, then the universe will not hand you a bigger opportunity." Yes, that is entirely true. That was the same human, but not the same question.
I'm going to assume that you're talking about PMU, because that's more of a skill. I would say that it's something that you need to learn in stages. You're not going to learn everything overnight. That's just not possible. It takes years to develop your craft and your feeling for it and things like that. As you have more experience, you get more bigger questions, more relevant questions. You can go to medical school, become a doctor, and then you can specialize in heart surgery. You didn't learn all those little tiny minor details of being a heart surgeon in the broad strokes of becoming a medical practitioner. I would say it's a skill that you start small and then you scale. If you're talking about from a business perspective, Sheila, what do you think? Small to scale?
Sheila Bella:
Something that I've been thinking about the past couple of days is that you have to be a good steward of the 40 before you can get to 4,000 or 40,000. If you can't sell to your small... And serve. Selling is helping. Selling is helping. Selling is an act of love, okay? If you can hand out good eyebrows to people, why are you not helping them? If you can't serve the four or the 40, how do you expect to get to 400? It's the same. It's the same.
Carla Ricciardone:
It really is the same. It really is the same. It does scale. It scales itself. If you can perform an incredible service, run your business successfully for two, you can do it for 22 or 200. "Wise man builds his house on the rocks." That's a Bible school song I used to love. It stuck with me all these years. I must've been seven when I heard it.
Sheila Bella:
Same thing with having a small following, right? Having a small following. Yeah. I don't know. Think about your numbers. If all of those people showed up at your door, you'd be freaking out.
Carla Ricciardone:
And you wouldn't know really what to do. Another thing, too. Don't be fooled by followings and things like that on Instagram. Some of it can be also fabricated. Having a genuine community of 200 is better than having a fabricated community of 200,000.
Sheila Bella:
True. Absolutely. That's 200 customers. Come on, you guys. 200 customers. That's crazy. You could retire. 200 customers who buy everything that you put out, and who are your lifers, I would prefer that over 200,000 passive followers.
Carla Ricciardone:
Yeah. It makes such a big difference to have your ducks in a row. Wow, it got really dark in here all of a sudden. I think we're about to get a storm. It just got pitch black. Really, crazy dark. Walk you guys over here and hit my lights. But if you guys have any other questions for Sheila, I promised her an hour. "My call is scheduled for tomorrow with PRB. I can't wait."
Sheila Bella:
Oh, awesome, Melissa.
Carla Ricciardone:
Oh my God, you're going to love it. You're going to love it.
Sheila Bella:
I'm so happy for you, Melissa. Can't wait.
Carla Ricciardone:
Is there anything that we need to throw out there really quick before we say?
Sheila Bella:
If you guys are interested in joining Pretty Rich Bosses, I guess the kind thing to do is to give you a step two since we've been talking about it-
Carla Ricciardone:
Yeah. We have.
Sheila Bella:
... for an hour. You can just send us a DM. DM myself. You can DM me at this account right now, which is Pretty Rich Bosses, which is the program. Or Carla at Sculpted Studios.
Carla Ricciardone:
I will put in this live as well, I will put in a link for you guys to use. There's amazing people on Sheila's team who are ready and willing to answer every single question you have about the program and what's involved and what you can expect and go over things like your goals and what's bugging you and what you want to see fixed. All these beautiful things that are more on the business side of what we do from industry professionals. And this is great for any entrepreneur. You do not need to be a PMU artist. You can be a lash artist, a cosmetologist, an esthetician, a mechanic. This program will work. It really will work. Just work the program.
Sheila Bella:
Work the program. Absolutely.
Carla Ricciardone:
Yeah.
Sheila Bella:
Thank you so much, Carla, for having me.
Carla Ricciardone:
Oh my God, you're so welcome. Thank you for being here. Please say hello to Will and the kids for me.
Sheila Bella:
Yeah. Those pictures you sent of Marlowe are so cute.
Carla Ricciardone:
She's the funniest thing. She's so sassy. I have to send you a video of her the other day in taekwondo doing side kick against the big giant kicking...
Sheila Bella:
Oh, please do.
Carla Ricciardone:
I don't even know what they call that. It's a thing that they kick, and it is so funny. I'm going to send it to you.
Sheila Bella:
Please do. That'll make my day.
Carla Ricciardone:
Thank you all so much for joining us tonight. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Again, this'll be up on the feed. Have the most amazing evening. And thank you again, my love, for being here with me. I love seeing your face and being part of anything with you. I appreciate you so, so much.
Sheila Bella:
Oh, feeling's mutual, Carla. Thanks for being awesome.
Carla Ricciardone:
You're welcome.
Sheila Bella:
Okay, you guys.
Carla Ricciardone:
Take the compliment. You're welcome.
Sheila Bella:
Next time.
Carla Ricciardone:
Bye. Goodnight.
Sheila Bella:
Bye.
Sheila Bella:
Hey! Thanks so much for listening to today's episode of Pretty Rich Podcast. If you want to continue the conversation longer, check me out on Instagram. It's my favorite place to connect with you guys, @realsheilabella. I'm happy to answer any of your questions or simply to chat and get to know you better. And if you end up doing something super awesome like screenshotting this episode and reposting it on your stories, that would put the biggest smile on my face. Don't forget to tag me. I appreciate every share and love feedback from my listeners.
Also, do you have my number? Do you have my number? Because if we're going to keep hanging out, you should probably have my number. You can actually text me. That's right. You can text me at 310-388-4588. And if you're sick and tired of doing business alone and you're interested in accelerating your success by hiring a business coach or joining our mentorship program called Pretty Rich Bosses, go ahead and just apply. Why not? Check it out. Go to sheilabella.com/apply, and we'll schedule a free strategy session with either myself or one of my advisors.
And of course, I got to include my kids, so here to send us off are Beau and Grey. Grey, say, "Share with your friends."
Grey:
Share with friends.
Sheila Bella:
"Please review my mommy on iTunes."
Grey:
[inaudible 00:54:16] mama iTunes.
Sheila Bella:
"Thanks for listening."
Grey:
[inaudible 00:54:20] for listening.
Sheila Bella:
Hey, Beau, can you tell everybody what our family motto is?
Beau:
Yeah. I can do hard things.
Sheila Bella:
I can do hard things. Good job, buddy.
