How Do You Build a Skincare Business That Lasts 20 Years? with Rachel Lee Lozina

Speaker 1: Welcome to She Built It. I'm your host, Melanie Bar. Building a lasting skincare business takes more than just great treatments. It takes trust, clear positioning, operational discipline, and the ability to grow without chasing every trend. Rachel Lee Lazena is the founder of Blue Water Spa, a resultsdriven skincare business with locations on Long Island and in the Hamptons. Over more than two decades, she's turned clinical expertise into a trusted brand and expanded while keeping science and client results at the center. Rachel, thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. What is the moment, belief, or frustration that made you think that Blue Water Spa needed to exist? As somebody that has worked in the industry for 23 years, when I started out, I was young. I didn't know anything. I started out working for other people. I had multiple jobs across multiple facets of aesthetics. So, I worked in a plastic surgery office. office. I worked in a dermatology office and I also worked in a day spa setting. And after a while, of course, I had to get my feet wet and I had to learn all different aspects of aesthetics. I always felt like maybe we should bring this on, maybe we should do this, maybe we can add that. And have you ever thought about doing this? And I just started really coming into my entrepreneurial sense and I kept having this sensation that I can do this better and they don't really know what they're doing and I'm the one that knows what they're doing and therefore I should be doing it. So it kind of happened naturally. I never really considered myself as an entrepreneur but I ended up having a knack for it which is amazing. And some of the best businesses start that way when you when you think I can do this better or there's a need for this. you know, the best businesses come from a need. So, I think that that's another thing, too, is there's two sides of the spectrum in aesthetics. You have your medical where you get all of your lasers, your dermatology, your your medical aesthetics, your injectables, the painful stuff, I like to say, right? The needles and the lasers and the expensive stuff. And then at the other end of the spectrum, you have the resort spa, right? the day spa, the resort spa, where it's a very fluffy style facial, there's lots of massage, it's a glorified lotion application. And I was like, where's the middle? And that's what I've set out to do is create something in the middle, result driven, non-invasive facials where there's no downtime, no pain, but you're actually changing the skin, physiologically changing the skin. And that's really one of the things that I'm super passionate about. Also, one of the things that I'm determined to do in my lifetime is change the way people think about what a facial can do. A lot of people think that facials are just relaxing. Like, oh, I loved the massage part. And I'm like, well, maybe just get a massage next time because here I am. I want to change your skin. I want I want you to walk out and be like, wow, look at my like, oh my gosh, look at my face. And then the progression of actually changing someone's skin. That's really my focus. That's so true. So, as a busy entrepreneur, a busy mom, we want everything done at the same time. We don't want to have to go and do two different things. So, the thought of going in and having all of that done is really appealing. As a mom, I have three kids. You have two kids. I have two businesses. And then I have my other children, which are like my 15 to 25 employees that I have. To me, that is something that I'm juggling all of these things. And it's hard to go run, run, run, run, run, stop, relax, enjoy, run, run, run, run, run, stop, relax, enjoy. And I know we're always telling ourselves that we need to ease into things, but it's really hard to kind of start and stop. A lot of my clients are there to Yes. It's very, you're laying down. Somebody's working on you. You're getting self-care, but at the same token, it's not a dark room and very quiet voices, which a lot of spas are like. We're here to connect, which is really the other aspect that I think a lot of women are missing is the the emotional connection part. So, it's part therapy, part skin therapy, part results, part transformation, and 100% fun for sure. I love that you took all of the knees and brought them together. And I don't know about you, but I have to schedule in time for myself. And the thought of putting something on my calendar and knowing what I'm going to expect when I show up and that I'm going to leave in such a good headsp space and with a mindset is so appealing. Right. So, it's a little bit of therapy and a little bit of a skin rejuvenation allin one. So, I think that that's also extremely appealing as well. What part of the business lights you up the most? What could you talk about all day? Of course, there's the aspect of the skin science and the wise. I'm very big on analogies and I can sit there and give you 25 different explanations of why vitamin A or retinols, retinolides, what, however, whatever version you're looking at is beneficial for you. That lights me up. That's very exciting in explaining to somebody why they need to do X, Y, and Z in order to achieve results. I could talk about it all day. For instance, everyone loves micro needling, but if you're not using the proper home care and you just get micro needling and you're using something over the counter just like and you don't have a real routine, you're not going to get the results you're looking for. So, it's also like eating cheeseburgers and lifting weights. What do you you're kind of not really getting where you need to go. I could talk about that all day long, but honestly, the thing that lights me up is the emotional connection that I have with my clients and the the love that we share and the stories that we share. I started out in this industry when I was 22 and I feel as though I've learned so much from my clients. They're so smart and they're so they're so wise and I've learned so much and I feel like that's for me and of course it's reciprocal too because then now I have younger clients and it's the same thing. I'm the wise one but when I first started out I learned so much from my clients and it was just such a like a like I hate to say sisterhood but kind of it's kind of like this connection. You're working with each other. I they bring something to the table, I bring something to the table and we connect. And it's also very unique because it's a oneon-one and it's in a quiet room. Whereas like everyone's like, "Oh, the hairdressers know everything." I'm like, "No, no, the estheticians know everything." Cuz the estheticians are the ones that they talk about what's happening in their lives, their kids, their husbands, their marriages. And we really do have all the secrets. So to me, that's really the most happy part of what I do is, of course, making people look good and feel good, but also the love we share. It's like going to get your hair done. They know all everything, too. It's great. You're building that sense of community. And going back to the knowledge, when I go in, my life is so busy with travel and kids and growing multiple businesses. When I go in, I want someone to give me that information. And it's great when you leave knowing because then you don't go home thinking, well, I also want to look good and how do I achieve that, right? And also making it palatable for you to understand. And you may not understand the hows and the wise, but if I can explain it to you in a simplistic way that makes sense to you. I think that that's okay. I get I understand that. And so when I talk about antioxidants, people everyone uses this word antioxidants. They throw it around all the time. And antioxidants prohibit oxidative damage. Well, what's oxidation? That's rust. That's when you open up an avocado, it turns brown. That's oxidation in our skin. It turns into wrinkles and brown spots. and using things. If you took an apple and you opened it up and if you squeeze some lemon juice on it, like a vitamin C, it prohibits it from turning brown. So, that makes sense to somebody that isn't a technical person in aesthetics. And so, they're like, "Okay, I'm going to I'm going to put this vitamin C on so I don't oxidize my face and I don't have wrinkles and brown spots." So, that makes sense to most people. And that's that's educating them in a palatable, easy to understand way that isn't overwhelming or like 25 steps. Yeah. And just like going to a business expert, I want to go to someone who's an expert in skincare. Right. Right. And I'm kind of an old school esthetician because I've been doing this for so long, but aesthetics is wildly popular now. Everybody's an aesthetician. Everyone's going to aesthetic schools. Aesthetic schools are almost more popular than hairdressing schools now or cosmetology schools. We're seeing like 230 girls a a year graduating just in our county with degrees looking for jobs. And so it's hard to find jobs. So they all end up going out on their own and they don't get that real world experience of working for somebody and the mentorship that goes along with it. So you have a lot of these young girls that think they know everything and they really don't. They don't have the real world experience of understanding the hows and the wise. Yes, I'm seeing that in tech a lot, you know, in all the social platforms. It's go start this business, but is there that foundation to really go do that? Right. It's kind of like the life coach of skincare. Anyone could be a life coach these days. And I I feel like skincare is takes time to really understand the hows and the wise. Years of touching and whoops, that burns. Let me take that off. That's kind of the way it goes. Let me see. And if you don't understand the skin, you can really, really, really mess up the skin. And even very professional estheticians still can make big mistakes cuz you're using acids. Sometimes you these girls are using scalpels close to the face, lasers. I've seen some terrible burns with lasers. You really have to know what you're doing because you can create permanent scarring on somebody if you don't do it right. How are you using AI in your business today? And where do you see the biggest opportunity to support a service based a service- based business like Blue? I love AI. I think everyone I think everyone that is an entrepreneur is really leaning into AI. And I feel like if you're not leaning into AI, you're going to be left behind. I look at AI and I feel like that's like our boomer parents that were like, I don't care about cell phones. I don't care about computers. You do that for me. I'm not it's they're not interested. I'm like, you guys are going to be left in the dust if you can't figure out how to use a cell phone and even a computer. If you're not getting with the technology, because the whole world is being built around AI, whether we like it or not, so we better get on board. But I use AI often. I try not to do too much artwork with AI because it's so obvious. Like you can see these liars that they make and it's it's got the bullet points and the little like lotus flower. It's it's a little too you can tell right away. Everything looks the same. And everything looks the same, right? I use AI oh god so much more than I'd like to admit because it's a little embarrassing. Sometimes I will use AI to of course the standards, rewrite emails, but I've even done some major things where I've taken estimates for reworking websites. I've taken statistics for my ad spend for Meta and Google and I've pumped that into AI. I've taken some of the metrics and the reports that I have from my business to really collaborate and give a clear digestible view of what's the biggest needle mover, where the girls could improve that work for me, where most of our money is going because having some financial fluency is really important. Understanding the hows and the wise AI is incredible, but again for art, I I don't really want to use it for art. I want to use it for the accounting stuff, the bookkeeping stuff, the stuff that that doesn't require any sort of creativity. Yeah, it's great that you can use it for the service piece, but in your business, the in real life will will not be replaced. So, um I don't think this is sounds a little morbid, but like I've I've I've spent a lot of time looking into the what the future of the world looks like with AI, and I think that no one's going to replace my job. No one's going to replace a hairdresser. Nobody wants a robot cutting your hair, dying your hair, braiding your hair, doing facials, doing extractions, doing laser, even I know the robotic nails in the mall airport that they have, that's like a little weird. You're sticking your hand in a box and it's, you know, and massages, too. Yeah. Yeah. But that that's a little You can understand you sit in a chair or that that big machine that comes down and rolls on your back, but it's not so much that AI is going to take my job. It's just that AI is going to take every other job and maybe people won't have the money to even get facials. That's like a kind of a crazy thing that I've thought of. Any computer-based job might might be gone eventually. Yeah. It's so interesting to think that far ahead. I'm always saying we're, you know, we're not robots yet. Not yet. Not yet. Until you have like a robot that does cleans your house and does your laundry and folds your clothes. That's what I want my robots to do. Fold my clothes, do my laundry, make my bed. I'm all for that. Yes. How are you thinking about visibility and positioning in a world where so much beauty content is trend driven or algorithm dependent? The big joke in my industry is the girls will have to be funny or sexy or dance in order to get the views and all of that definitely gets views. But where's the value in the view? If you a million eyes are driving past a billboard that doesn't relate to them, what's the point? I know we live in this world where views are everything, but I would rather have 10,000 people that actually follow me than a 100,000 that don't care what I have to say and keep scrolling. The value that you bring and the education that you bring, that means saying some things that are a little controversial, some things that maybe people don't want to hear. And really kind of sticking to your views. I mean, we all have views. You're just talking about cleansing and moisturizing and wearing your sunscreen. that's not interesting to somebody. Sticking to your guns, talking about what you think is important and and holds value and just staying the course is the most value. And you know, the people that are your people are going to find you. I'm a firm believer in that. I've been in aesthetics since before social media was even a thing. I remember when social media came out first and I was like, "This is like a shrine to yourself." Like that's what I said to my girlfriend. She's like, "Yeah, I mean it's a page with you and your pictures." And I was like, hm. But now it's absolutely necessary in this world. You have to have social media. You have to post. You have to chronically make content. But it's it's it's exhausting. Staying relevant, sticking to your guns, talking about what you know, and rinse repeat in different variations is really the most important thing. And talking about what's upcoming and new. In my industry, everything keeps changing. So having an opinion about the latest machine or, hey, I tried this new treatment called Zurf. That's the things that people want to hear. They don't want to hear the same old boring thing. And listen, we can all laugh about the girls that are with the machines that are dancing and they're doing funny things in the treatment room, but there's educational content and then there's brain rock. Entertainment, right? I don't want to do the I don't want to do the entertainment really. I mean, maybe a little I have, but I I'd rather just talk about what I know, which I do know a lot. So, talk about what I know. And it seems your community would much rather have the education. That's my whole platform is I'm not here to make you relax. I'm here to change your skin. If you want to relax, go to go to the resort. Go to the hotel spot. Yeah. It's like you don't want to go to the doctor that's going to give you a hug. You want to go to the doctor that's going to actually help you. What is your biggest growth challenge right now as you run two locations? And how are you thinking about solving it? The biggest growth challenge I find is it's hard to say because there's so much competition in my community. Nail salons. It's like I don't know about you in your town, but there's I have a very very small town and there's three nail salons within a block of each other, right? Staying relevant, recapturing clients cuz clients have the shiny ball syndrome. Let's be honest. As a woman, you're like, "Ooh, wait, there's another eye cream. I want to try that." And it's there's no magic eye cream. We get bored, though. We have the shiny ball syndrome. We're looking for something new. We're chronically looking for something new. reinventing yourself isn't necessarily my strategy, but it's making things that we do exciting and bringing on new treatments, but also reincorporating the old and trying to stay relevant in a world where every year there's six or seven new fancy machines that are like in like I just I joke around I say like in a Ferrari with a big touch screen and they're $350,000. And unfortunately, the doctors feel very compelled to buy these machines to stay relevant. They look like they're cutting edge. And that's not my game at all because I don't think that a lot of those machines are really what's best for your skin. They're very aggressive. And when we're trying to improve your skin, it's slow and low in consistency. It's not wham bam remove the skin down crazy downtime. And every once in a while, sure, but as a rule, as a as the only thing you do, that's not the problem I find is telling clients, "Stop doing that. Stop doing that stuff." They go into the city and, "Oh, Mr. Laser Guy, he's showing he's got the latest thing." I was like, "You don't want the latest laser on your face. You want the old and the gold. You don't want the new and the aggressive because we don't know." For instance, have you ever heard of the treatment called Morpheus 8? It's a radio frequency micro needling treatment where these needles are very aggressive and they go very deep into the skin and they use radio frequency heat in the needles and now there's an FDA blackbox warning on it that it causes subcutaneous fat loss. I could have told you that 5 years ago when it came out everyone's chasing the the shiny ball but it's like getting clients to understand that that's not that's not the be all end all. That's not what we're looking for. It's it's just consistency with products and facials truly. And when you think about it, you talked about vitamin C. That's from nature. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Because what does your skin know about? So, right now there's a really big popular um thing called PDRN, which is like salmon sperm. And I think salmon is good internally when you eat it with the omegas and all of the nutrients inside of it. But when you topically put salmon sperm on your face, what does your skin know about salmon sperm? That's like I'm gonna take this salmon water that the salmon's been sitting in and I'm gonna start watering my plants with it. You're like, "So, but we have this like, do you know what I mean?" Like, I'm smiling when you say that. I do not want to put it on my face. But, you know, it's it's like we keep finding this new hot ingredient because at the end of the day, it's a marketing ploy. We have to remarket something new. Let's take something old and let's make it new. Right. But when you say that, I think I do not want to go put salmon sperm on my face. You'd be surprised. Some people do. I mean, I understand I understand the thought of it, but when it's put like that, no, thank you. Right. What has changed most in your leadership over 20 plus years? And what has scaling from one location to two asked of you personally? Leadership. I think that as you get older, I think once you hit 40, you stop caring so much about what people think. And also, you start realizing that you're not part of the it's not that you're not part of the team, but you're not part of the the friend group that works for you. When you have a team, I love the girls that work for me. They're going out and they're doing things. They don't want to hang out with their boss. Once I kind of realized I'm not part of the the fun crew and I'm the boss, I was like, "Oh, yeah. I'm not cool. I'm their boss. They don't they don't want to hang out with me, you know?" But I think that once you get to 40, you stop giving a [ __ ] about many, many things. You got kids or things that have happened. The the es and flows of entrepreneurship can really, I don't want to say, harden you, but it can really make you feel, I can't let this happen anymore. I need to sit these girls down and talk about X, Y, and Z. Also, when you realize that sometimes some of the behaviors and some of the things that are happening are actually harming your business. That's my child. That's like yelling at another parent because they mistreated your kid. This is my child. I have three actual children and then I have two two spas and those are my other kids, too. So, don't mess with my kid. You guys are messing with my kids. So, not being afraid to actually bring up things that are uncomfortable because either you're uncomfortable or they're uncomfortable. What What do you want to be and who's the boss here? So, there's that. And then you said something about the second the second location. I will say that opening up a second location is absolutely one of the hardest things I ever did. It's lonely. It's hard. It's also for me it's an hour and a half away from where I live. It's about 70 mi away from where I live. And there's absolutely no room for failure. So you have to do whatever it takes. You have to get up really early in the morning. You have to start hitting the pavement. You have to start calling people. You have to walk into places. You have to really, really, really work it. It's a really interesting kind of humbling experience. because I've been in business for 18 years at my Oyster Bay location and then I opened up Southampton and suddenly I'm the new kid on the block and nobody knows who I am and I have zero street cred and I have to be like no no I'm I'm I'm really good. Trust me. Like I've had 18 years to have market share in my other location and everybody knows who I am and now I'm the new kid on the block and I have zero reputation. But it's relentless marketing, connecting, talking to this person, calling that person up, cold calling, not being afraid to be rejected because there's a lot of rejection that happens. Reaching out to other businesses, inviting them in, working for free, working for free. There's a lot of working for free. There's a lot of me giving people facials for free, which I joke around is a lot like me taking somebody out to lunch. I want an hour of their time. I want to connect with them. I want to build a relationship, right? There was times where I would be out there 4 days a week and I'd be away from my family and my husband's like, "Go, go do it. Like, do it now while you're young. You're not going to be able to do it when you're 50, 60." He's always been a huge promoter and encourager. So, for me, it's lonely and it's hard, but now that I'm kind of at the other end of it and I've been in business two years now and things are starting to really the momentum starting to start rolling down the hill, I'm like, "Thank God I did that." But it was it was incredibly difficult. I'm not saying I don't recommend it, but it's it's it's increased my capacity for stress in a way that I can't I can't explain. It's great that you had that family support. And thank you for talking about the struggles of entrepreneurship because it is a roller coaster. Some days you wake up thinking what am I doing and the next day you could have the best day you've ever had and sometimes it's on the same day. You know, sometimes sometimes on the same day sometimes that's on the same day. You wake up in a great mood and then you're like, "What did I do?" Or vice versa, right? And it's it's wild because you can have one person completely change your day. That's really you remember why you're doing what you're doing. Back to your original thing. What's the point of the soul? The point is to connect. The point is to to it's love. Full-blown, full stop. It's it's love. It's connecting and loving clients and making them happy and being like, I'm doing good in the world. That's it. Yeah. I'm sure when a client leaves happy, that's the best feeling. You hope, right? You hope. But you never know. Some clients are just determined to be unhappy and that really that really takes over, too. Yeah. That's when I go back to letting go of the things we can't control. That's right. It's hard to do. And that's what I'm saying. It's it's the pressure changes you as a person and you become this resilient diamond. It's like that pressure. My capacity for stress and then it's like it makes my children look like a cakewalk. I'm not even kidding. Really does. True, you know, because you love them unconditionally and you do anything and drop it drop the world for them. Businesses, you have to rely on other people and that's the other thing too is trusting other people to help carry you along. We're all rowing this boat together. trusting other people that they're going to be doing their share and helping them out and the delegation that goes along with that. That's incredibly hard, too. What is one lesson about owning and operating a service-based business that you wish more founders talked about openly? In my industry, in the beauty industry, a lot of people are paid commission. That's just always the way it's been. And it's a horrible, horrible, horrible way to run a business. I talked to some girls and they're getting paid minimum wage and then they're getting paid 40% of whatever they do. I don't know how businesses survive doing that. That's a beauty industry. I don't want to say it's a standard, but it's it's starting. It's slowly deteriorating because how can you survive when you're paying minimum wage and then you're giving away almost half of your income, plus you got overhead, plus you have taxes, plus you have liability insurance, overhead insurance, the IRS taxes. I mean, it's it's a lot more difficult than you think. That's why a lot of businesses fail. It's like it's like restaurant businesses. It's like one of the most difficult businesses to to take off. Aesthetics is difficult because you train somebody, you teach them, and then they go off and do their own thing because they think they know everything. And if they have the ability to get to the level at which I am, which is two locations, multiple employees, it takes a lot to get there. And it takes a lot of um slow growth, consistent growth. But what I would say is that don't pay people commission. pay them hourly and as they grow within your company, then keep giving them raises as they deserve, as they prove to you that they're worthy. That would be one of my biggest takeaways to anybody that's in my industry. We have talked a lot about business today. What is one way that you make sure to protect and cultivate your own joy? That's a really funny question because I don't really think about that. But I've always I guess from when having children when they were very young, I used to have this habit where I would come home after working on people all day long and taking care of them. I would go home and I would need to decompress and I would take a bath and I would read whatever book I'm reading. And that was my little quiet decompression time. I take daily baths almost every single day with my Epsom salts and my I do a face mask on my face and that's like something I do for myself and I've built it into my life that this is this is what I do. Everyone knows that every Mother's Day they'd be like, "What's mommy's favorite thing? Taking a tubby. That would be that would be on the list." I have a scheduled I own a spa, but I have a a a person that doesn't work for me come to my house and give me a massage once a month. That's standard. Unfortunately, beauty for me is it's necessary for my self. I have to look good. So, I need to um regularly get my hair dyed, regularly get my nails done, and it's just you built it into your life. And it's just like any other appointment, you have to do it. And I was smiling when you said baths. Like, Epsom salt is so great for recovery. I'm always talking to my kids are so athletic. Like, there's a lot of Epsom salt baths going on in our house cuz it's just so good for recovery and for that relaxation. So good for you for taking that time for yourself, right? Thank you for helping us have better skin and educating us on how to take care of ourselves. Please share with us how and where we can find you. You can find me on Instagram. It's blue_water_spa as well as I believe on Facebook we're bluewaterpa New York and also we're bluewaterpany.com on our on the worldwide